YOGA FOR HEALTH: We should not restrict yoga to just de-stress, or to lose weight or lower the blood pressure. It’s very unfortunate if it is limited to that. But the common people first want health. Otherwise it’s just pravachan, talk. So health is the doorway to the higher spiritual plane. Exceptions are those who’ve already gone there. Once you have a taste of the spirit nothing in the planet can distract you. However, one can be spiritual in spite of sickness. Spirit engulfs everything in creation. Spirit is like space. You can’t say something is outside space. Good health is just one of the benefits you can derive from yoga.

YOGA AS A PASSION OF THE RICH: This conception that only rich people come to Art of Living is not true. We have millions of people in villages coming to us. We have adopted 25,300 villages. India doesn’t have nearly three million rich people. We had our silver jubilee and not many rich people were there. It was all organised by the common masses. The common people have more spirituality than the rich—definitely. Spirituality gives one self-confidence. Dare dare aadmi to kuch nahi kar sakta (Someone’s who’s plagued with fear cannot do anything.)

KARMA: You only believe what you don’t know, right? A little bit of guilt will stop you from making the same mistake. But too much of guilt is like cancer, it eats you. That is why we have in our tradition the concept of praayashchit (penitence). It renews your soul. To serve someone, to do good to someone, is praayashchit. Spirituality encompasses people of all faiths, it is beyond belief systems. Religion is bound by belief systems, the way you get cremated, the way you get married. That inner experience of being part of the universe, that’s spirituality.

... contd.