I am very excited, and delighted that Prime Minister Modi’s Government in India has
been doing a lot to revive the Ancient Yoga Tradition, including Ayurveda. Yoga, unfortunately,
is a Tradition that has not only been under-understood, but misunderstood. Yoga is not simply a physical
exercise, and that is the understanding, the common understanding of people. So when you
say that I am doing yoga, it means you are doing some physical exercise. Yoga is a very
involved subject, it’s a practice. For instance, go to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.
Whom, I consider Patanjali as the Father of Yoga. This is divine intelligence and that
is the easiest way. But we like the hard way of doing things. “Yogas chitta vritti nirodha.”
Yoga is stopping the mind. And how many people understand Yoga as a practice to stop the
mind? And why do you have to stop the mind? Patanjali answers by saying, because then
only can you see your real self. Your real Self, you know, is something that can give
you Omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. So the Yogis were into acquiring the highest
knowledge that is possible, not linear, scientific, technological understanding. They are not
satisfied with that. They just wanted to understand the ultimate wisdom behind, or embedded, in
human existence. How about the scriptural evidence for Yoga
being The Highest Intelligence? Look at the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita says Yoga
is “Karmasu Kaushalam.” Skill in action is Yoga. It is not physical exercise. And
it also says, “Dukkha samyoga yogam” It can also put an end to your pain. And you
see the Vaisheshika also talking about “Dukkha abhava”. So, it can stop pain.
So there is a different understanding of Yoga, and that is what is going to give India a
very, very prestigious position because Yoga is the study of the highest wisdom and through
this highest wisdom, you can understand what life is and live life to the maximum possible
level. And this is what the Yogis were trying to understand. And Krishna says, “It is
skill in action.” Whatever you do, it should be, you know, a very fruitful, skillful action.
“Karmasu Kaushalam” and Yoga will help you.
If you do physical exercises, will it help? No. It will help for the body, but will it
help in understanding skillful action; or will it stop pain? Then primarily Yoga is
as Patanjali says, “Chitta Vritti Nirodha.” It is a matter of understanding the technology
of stopping the mind. It’s a great understanding about this because the mind is giving you
limited access to reality. As long as you have the mind, you will never
be able to see reality in totality. Patanjali used the word “Swaroopa”, your real Self
is omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. And nobody is living that life because they
don’t practice Yoga. Having said that, I have to add that I don’t
want to present Yoga in a traditional way. Yoga should be presented as a brain science.
It is a science that even modern neuro-science is not anywhere near to the understanding
that the Yogis had about the brain. Many years ago in 1985, I presented a paper
in a conference, while I was at the University of Pittsburgh, and it was about the understanding
of the brain by the Yogi’s and the Indian Tradition as represented in the 5 Heads of
Siva, the 4 Heads of Brahma and 6 Heads of Kartikeya. These all represented different
parts of the brain. And it was a conference I was very proud to be a part of the head
table where a Nobel laureate from Princeton was chairing the session, Eugene Wigner. He
passed away now. He was an associate of Einstein, but he was very much into studying human consciousness.
So how am I going to teach Yoga now? As a brain science that helps you to stop the mind,
that helps you to stop stupid thoughts. Yoga, to me, is a ‘stupid thoughts inhibitor.’
Yoga will inhibit stupid thoughts coming into the brain. And they had great understanding.
For instance all of our intellectual apparatus, like “Manas”, which is the minding, thinking
thoughts, “Budhi”, intellection and discrimination, and “Chitta” which helps you to decide
the right thing. They are all here, according to Yoga, situated here [ points to throat
area]. That’s why they put some Rudraksha hitting this area because this area is connected
to the Reticular Formation, the Pons, and the Basil Ganglia. And your respiration is
associated with here because basically your respiration, or your breath, breathing, has
to change in order for you to move from a human-based intelligence to a Divine Consciousness
which is available in the Pituitary and the Pineal Gland.
So, if you are going to teach Yoga in the traditional way following Patanjali, for whom
I have great respect for, it is not going to be relevant for the 21st Century. So, if
you want Yoga to be understood by the entire world, it has to be understood in terms of
neuro-science, and it can contribute a lot to the neuro-science.
And the neuro-scientists will be so amazed to know how these people were able to know
about, for instance, the 3rd Eye, what they call now. Now they know that this Pineal Gland
exactly looks like an eye. It has a cornea. It has a retina. And how did they know about
the cornea and the retina? Did the ycut open the brain and find out if there is a cornea
and then a retina? No. They had an understanding which came to them through a non-physical
means; and that is Yoga. So Yoga helps you to understand things in a different way than
a linear, scientific, technological, understanding relates us to. So Yoga has a great, great
future. So going forward, I would like the next, you
know, Yoga Day, National Yoga Day, should focus on Yoga as understood by Patanjali,
who said: ”it is “Chitta Vritti Nirodha.” Again, you know, Patanjali has to be understood,
not, you know, speaking certain words, because Patanjali was a realized saint.
Chit, Vrit — these are sounds, phonemes, that can create specific states of mind. And
this is the research that I have started doing the research with some scientists. And there
is a scientist, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, he has been working with me.
And [he] is going to test the signature of these phonemes on the brain through FMRI Studies.
Now the Carnegie-Melon University in Pittsburgh, for instance, has come up with devices, again
using FMRI Studies, that the computer can even understand what you are thinking about.
Of course they are at the very early state, but you know, there is proof that computers
can tell what you are thinking about. But what Patanjali is saying is as long as
you are thinking then you will have the known knowledge. If you want knowledge that is unknown,
which is wisdom, what the Japanese Zen Buddhism would say is, ”When you know, you don’t
know. When you don’t know, then you know.” Or as Siva says, ”Jnanam Bhandhaha.” When
you have knowledge it gives you bondage. In other words, knowledge is the beginning
of ignorance. So Western science still is groping in darkness. They are still lost in
the linear understanding. We cannot give it up because we are stuck in this model, but
Yoga can play a major role. You know, if you study the literature on Yoga and the psychic
abilities, you can spend at least 10 to 20 lifetimes or even more to understand what
they are taking about. So the next Yoga Day should be one in which
Yoga is not presented as a physical exercise, but as one that can enhance your brain. That’s
why I am very keen on looking for the research at Harvard to be completed, where I can show
how these phonemes can enhance the brain in a dramatic way.
We have already done that. You know, I have about 100 Centers in India where I use these
sounds. And with the children from very humble backgrounds, poor people. And within a few
weeks of using these sounds, their brains change dramatically, as represented by, you
know, the results that have come from all of the schools. And now I am very happy that
the US Schools, Public Schools, Government Schools have also introduced this Phonemic
Intelligence which dramatically improves the functionalities of the brain within 3 to 4
weeks of training. I look forward to collaborate with people,
in advancing Yoga as a neuro-science, and brain science. Thank you.