so does skin color
impact my spirituality as i said that is
a very racist question
the idea is
to be always conscious
that your physical self is just an
outcrop
of the land that you walk upon
your mind is
so the important thing is your body and
your mind should not become an
impediment
[Applause]
[Music]
this question is from isabel
sudgru
i heard you speaking about the impact of
wearing clothes with the different
colors
also
the monks in isha
and india wear orange as it helps in
their spiritual journey
i want to ask a question
if wearing certain colors can impact our
spiritual growth
what is the impact of the color of the
skin on our spiritual journey
this is a racist question
[Laughter]
oh
well the monks in india don't wear
orange clothes they
largely
color their clothes
with the soil
with red earth
because
we want to exist here
as
understanding always
existentially understanding
experientially understanding
that
what my body is is just an outcrop
so there is a tradition in india
of uh
going and
meditating
near
ant hills
oh in this part of the world i have not
seen
ant hills growing like this do you have
i have not seen any in this region
but in southern india everywhere in the
country generally in the tropical
country the anthills grow like that and
people believe
or for a long time believe that
this is a snake house
because snakes go inside for in search
of some protein
because the termites are
super rich in protein
because
this whole thing that they build they
are mixing with their saliva
which is a very high quality protein
very very high quality protein they're
mixing with the soil and they're
building it that it withstands any kinds
of monsoon
any kind of weather
architecturally it's fantastic
and uh
in a way
our buildings are also in the east
harbor center in india designed
like a termite hill
i learnt engineering from them
because i did go into the termite hills
for various reasons myself
[Music]
but it is said
some of the
tunnels
going
up to 700 kilometers
a termite can locate water
700 kilometers away and go there digging
up a tunnel
uh
a lot of people
who don't have
any water divining capabilities
have this tendency to believe where
there is a termite hill there will be
water and they dig wells near a termite
hill
but it could be 700 kilometers away
it's happened to quite a few people that
they did not find any water
sometimes it is true
so
the idea is
to be always conscious
that your physical self is just an
outcrop
of the land that you walk upon
that's not of great significance keeping
it well is important
keeping it well is important not too
flaunt to other people
but keeping it well is important so that
it doesn't come in your way
it doesn't come in your way means
if your body becomes troublesome
because of
let's say some health issue
then 100 of your attention will be only
on that body
taking care of the body will be 100
of your time and life
so keeping the body in such a way if you
sit here
you're not even aware that it's here
otherwise
you know
the various compulsive cycles in the
body
will keep you busy
all the time
you should have seen the the initial
arguments when i came to this country
and i said uh
the sessions are three hours long
they said no way our bladder capacity is
only 1.5 hours
we have we need a break otherwise we
can't do it
well after the second day nobody asks
for a break that's a different matter
but first day when they come
they say no
this looks tyrannical three hours
no toilet
why did they build so many if you cannot
go and use it
toilets are not built for you to use it
by choice
when the body's compulsions demand
we use it
but when the compulsive cycles are too
short
then this keeps you busy all the time
eating
toilet relieving yourself endlessly this
will keep you busy but once a certain
ailment of pain or something manifests
in the body
it will keep you hundred percent busy so
keeping it well is not about
showing it off to somebody how my body
is keeping it well is
it's not in your way it's not an
impediment it's a platform
upon which you can stand
the same goes for the mental structure
and
mental structures which i know
[Music]
many people will start an argument on
this
but your mental structure and your
physical structures are very connected
if you keep your physical structure
and the cycles in the body at a certain
level of stability
psychological stability is a kind of a
consequence
well people will argue because they
think mind is a separate world by itself
yes their mind is
because it's a separate mind it's not
it's a separate world it's not here
but
your brain is also body isn't it
and today you know
if you have psychological problems
you don't inject something into your
head you put a pill in your stomach
and it
works so obviously
physiological stability
the chemical stability in the body is
vital for how your mind is
so the important thing is your body and
your mind should not become an
impediment
especially for one who is focused on
something beyond that
he doesn't want his body to come in the
way so sannyasis
are wearing clothes which are washed in
soil
because
the best way to make the body stable is
to be connected to the earth
today various quasi sciences are coming
up and they say people are sleeping with
the copper wire attached to their big
toe and earth it in the ground and all
kinds of things
all you have to do is
maybe in this country
in this kind of weather
you cannot really walk barefoot all over
the place but at least indoors you walk
barefoot
at least indoors that's not really earth
so much is in between you and earth
but at least there because still there
is a benefit
so this is like earth covering yourself
because your clothing has the quality of
the earth
and it connects you in so many ways
keeps your body aside and you're always
conscious
that your body is a part of this earth
so even when death comes
you don't have a great amount of
struggle
because you know anyway it was a part of
this always
[Applause]
but in your head you can imagine things
just to stop that imagination
so does skin color
impact my spirituality as i said that is
a very racist question
but now anyway you ask so why should i
miss the opportunity
this is the best skin color
[Applause]
if you want to be spiritual
you must burn yourself to this
otherwise you're not going to make it
so based on skin color
will you get there or not
it's like this
i was uh i know the other day two days
ago i was driving out near fall creek
fall
and two guys
a little soaked up in
mud
and they suddenly came out of the forest
they had parked their truck
somewhere close by
and they came towards the truck then i
saw they were carrying
crossbow
you know they had arrows and a crossbow
so they're hunters
when i looked at them the first thing
the way they were soaked in earth
because they've been lying there
somewhere
and
previous night there has been rains in
the area so they're all kind of a little
damp with that
it reminded me of my days in the forest
well i never took a crossbow
because i had no intention of hunting
but
just being in the forest
after a week these guys were out just
for a couple of hours or maybe a few
hours
i was out there for weeks when i came
back
soil was everywhere you know you had to
come and clean your ears your nostrils
and everything because
earth will soak into you
[Music]
but they had crossbars let's say if
these two guys
next time they went hunting in the month
of december
they got lost
the
game warden had told them
when you get lost don't worry
if you get lost in the mountains
don't worry just fire three shots in the
air
i will come and find you
so they got lost
and they fired three shots
nothing happened
they left another 15 minutes fired three
more
nothing happened
another 15 minutes they fired three more
nothing happened
then they got desperate
then one guy said
i have only three arrows left
so
if you're looking at your skin color and
thinking whether you will get
enlightened or not
[Laughter]
well uh
you're really not even going skin deep
you know
this is the color of the skin is not
even skin deep you know it's too much
surface don't stay there you need to get
a little deeper than that
[Music]