Original subtitles

Without self-knowing, life has no meaning at all. We always live in the

dead past. And we speak from the dead past. We listen from the dead past.

Image is created by judgment, criticism, like, dislike.

And when image is heard, that unresolved hurt develops crystals.

And the crystals accumulate into the body. If it is deep sorrow, it will be

in the heart. Liver is a seat of anger. Kidney is a seat of fear. And through

Ayurveda, those...

Emotions, they start liquefying. They literally crawl.

My guru blessed me. He said, you will teach Ayurveda to the Western world.

Ayurveda is a science of light. Body, mind, and consciousness become one.

You want to go a little witchy on me? I'm done.

So, every person's deep nature of his

consciousness

can be felt through the pulse.

Expiration is the death.

Inspiration is reborn again. When you practice, it is dying.

You are reborn every moment.

In that gap between two breaths is the ocean of awareness.

And that awareness is freedom.

You will be reincarnated, not next life, but next breath.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Know Thyself podcast.

We are at SOHAM in Asheville, North Carolina, a bit of a deviation from the

normal studio shootings, and it feels great to be in nature with our guest

today, who is the founder of the Ayurvedic Institute, the man who really

has pioneered and brought Ayurveda to the West, which is a beautiful over 5

,000-year-old lineage.

And he's trained thousands of practitioners, authored several books,

and he's the man to dive deep into all things Ayurveda with. Dr. Vasant Lad,

thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Quite the pad.

I want to set a bit of the context and the stage for our audience, for

everybody who's listening in, who may or may not have known about Ayurveda or

don't know it at much depth.

What does Ayurveda actually mean? What does that word mean?

Oh, very beautiful question.

The very word Ayuhu, Veda. Ayuhu is the life.

And Veda is the knowledge.

And that systematized knowledge became science.

So Ayurveda is a science of life, in a simpler word.

And it is so unifying. It is so totally one with the

universal law.

So, according to Ayurveda,

The spiritual energy is pure awareness.

And awareness is expressing itself is the etheric space, air, fire, water,

earth. These are called five great elements.

And they are present in every tree, every flower, every human being.

There is a Sanskrit quotation that Sarvani Dravyani Pancha Bhautikani

All organic and inorganic matter is made up of five great elements.

These are very important.

So in the body, there are smaller and bigger spaces, abdominal space, thoracic

space, cranial space. So that is etheric space.

At cellular level, every cell has a space.

And through the cellular space, there is a communication going on.

If I want to communicate with you, first I have to create space in my heart and

then listen.

Then I have direct communication.

So space is very important. Space is freedom. Space is love. And space is

communication.

Then second important principle is air. Air is a principle of movement.

In our body, the lungs are breathing, diaphragm is moving, heart is beating.

All these movements, afferent, efferent, sensory, motor, all these movements are

governed by air element.

Air is the principle of movement.

Then where there is a movement, there is a friction. Where there is a friction,

there is a heat, the fire.

And the fire in the body is digestive fire.

Liver generates large amount of heat. So liver is also seat of fire. That is

called bhuta agni.

Agni is the fire. And this fire, agni, maintain hunger, appetite,

digestion, absorption, assimilation, and transformation of food into

consciousness. All these are governed by fire.

Then comes water.

Water is the plasma, the serum, the cytoplasm.

All that biological substance, plasma, the serum, is water. And without water,

cell cannot survive.

Water is a universal chemical solvent.

It is there. Then come earth. Earth is solid ground like calcium, magnesium,

zinc, iron, copper.

So all these five elements are present in our body.

So this is a structural aspect of the body.

But biological combination of ether, air, fire, water, earth split into three

dosha.

Ether and air create vata. Vata is a principle of movement.

Fire and water become pitta.

pitta is the biochemical activities and kapha is earth and water the building

block material so all these vata pitta kapha they are present in every rna dna

as our genetic code as our blueprint and we carry that blueprint in our body

so these three doshas they were governing this biological structure

of the body and psychosomatic expression of the body. These are called three

dosha, and every individual has a unique expression of consciousness.

In the true sense of the word, individual is indivisible, undivided,

total, unique expression of awareness.

So, we all are individual.

Now, based on our individual prakriti, which is your constitution, and because

of change in the season, change in the time, change in the age, change in the

environment, our Prakruti ratio, Vata, Pitta, Kapha, undergoes

change. And that change alter status of Vata, Pitta, Kapha is called Vikruti.

Vikruti is present alter status.

And Prakruti is your genetic code.

And Ayurveda is a science of Prakruti-Vikruti paradigm.

So if I have it right, the way that you just described it, the Prakruti is what

you come into genetically.

That's what you're set with. You have a constitution of these different elements

in different levels.

Vata, Pitta, Kapha.

And we're all born with a set amount of each. And then we have Vikruti, which is

the variation, the difference, the delta between that as we live and eat and move

in society.

It changes.

Correct. But this vikruti is the potential womb in which disorder may

happen. If we don't balance vikruti back to the prakriti, then there is a ill

health. So vikruti is the root cause of all disease, psychosomatic disorder.

It's a very different conception from the Western allopathic model, which I

want to get into with you. But so if that is...

the source of disease, the vikruti, then what is the premise of what Ayurveda is

trying to understand and bring to everyone's understanding?

And as I have it, it's part one of six different core yogic or Indian

philosophies.

So Sankhya is a very profound philosophy that Ayurveda is based upon.

Sat means truth and kya means to realize.

To realize the truth behind the creation of universe is Sankhya.

And there are 24 evolutes.

The first expression is Purusha.

Purusha is awareness.

Pura means city, like Pandharpur, Kanpur, Nagpur.

And our body is a city of senses.

And within this sensory...

mechanism, the city of senses, there is a pure awareness.

That awareness is called Purusha. And Prakruti is creative potential.

And this whole universe is a divine dance of Prakruti in presence of

Purusha. So, Purusha and Prakruti both are eternal, timeless existence.

They were one.

Because of Sattva, Raja, Tamas, these three gunas were absolutely in

equilibrium. But when their equilibrium is disturbed, the big bang happens.

And during that big bang, Prakruti is separated from Purusha.

And first expression is Mahat, which is cosmic intelligence.

And intelligence means to put everything in its right place.

That's the glory of intelligence.

So, Purusha, Prakruti, Mahat.

Ahamkar, I am.

That I am-ness is there.

Every creature, every bird has a feeling of I am, I am.

And that eternal I am is existential.

And that I am-ness is called Ahamkar.

And because of that Ahamkar, in our body, every single cell has a definite

form, definite shape.

RNA, DNA, they have definite shape.

The shape of that RNA-DNA is coming from ahamka.

Which is ego. Is that right?

Then we call it ego. We call it ego. But separate sense of self. Ahamka means I

-former.

And I-former, you know, I am, is not ego. It is existential.

But I am doctor, I am engineer, I am carpenter. Then ego comes.

In pure existence, there is I-ness.

It is not ahamka.

It is just existential pulsation, which is called spandha.

Spandha karika.

Spandha is Shiva Shakti vibration.

And that Shiva Shakti vibration is constantly creating the feeling of who I

am. My who. So that my who is existential.

And because of ahankar, the fertilized egg underwent to the different mitotic

division.

And in that division, millions of cells, they come to create a brain. Other

millions came to create cardiovascular system, the lungs, the skeletal system.

All this is an expression of ahamkara. If there is no ahamkara, no creation is

possible.

Then it becomes ego.

Then I, this is my life, this is me.

And then we always do all egotistical activity. That is ahamkara.

But in Sankhya, the model of creation, ahankar is biological need.

That is absolutely necessary to create your self-identity, self-existence.

Then ahankar has three gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas. Sattva is clarity,

purity. Rajas is movement, agitation, temptation.

And tamas is the darkness, the material thing.

You are observing, so you are sattva. My body is tamas.

It is material.

And your sattva is coming through your sensory perception to meet with this

tamas. So meeting point of sattva-raja-tamas gives us experience.

So there is no experience without this equilibrium between sattva, the

observer, rajas, the observation, and tamas, the thing to be observed.

So this is a wonderful thing. And Samkhya philosophy talks a great deal

about that. From the Sattva, the whole sensory world is created.

And from the Tamas, the whole objective world is created.

And Rajas is the bridge between Sattva and Tamas. This is briefly Samkhya's

philosophy. I like that philosophy.

How old is the philosophy?

For a Westerner, we say 5000.

because they don't like to go back, then it is more than fine. It is 10,000 years

old philosophy.

But, you know, for Westerners, they don't like anything which is very old.

They say it is prehistoric.

I mean, yeah, it's tough to recount anything past last week. I'm trying to

think of what the original intention was.

discovering and formalizing words to this philosophy five, ten thousand years

ago and the relevance it has today.

So what is the goal of Ayurveda and this understanding from the Tridosha and the

five elements and the three gunas?

What is it all aiming to serve?

Ayurveda is the medicine of individual.

Individual medicine.

Sattva is the mind.

Atma is the conscious principle and Shari is the physical body.

So Ayurveda helps us to understand the Shari is the physical body, your

Prakruti, your Vikruti. Then we have physical Prakruti. Then we have mental

Prakruti. And then we go into the pure consciousness.

So the Ayurveda aims at to create balance of Satoraja Tamas and to

heal the body.

The mind and consciousness.

When we heal the body, mind and consciousness, then person's life become

happy, peaceful, blissful.

And Ayurveda is a science of longevity.

Let us see each other for hundred years.

That's a beautiful thing.

So why to live long? Just to enjoy the life.

So Ayurveda is a science of longevity of life.

It is understanding what the individual's Prakruti is and what is the

present alter status of Prakruti, which is Vikruti. And Prakruti-Vikruti

paradigm is the basic paradigm in Ayurveda.

So you were sort of, if I have it right, from a guru who said that you,

from a young age, would go on to teach Ayurveda to the West.

You were a quiet young boy. How did this path first kind of...

come into your vision for, before you came out to the West and everything, you

were teaching back in India, what was it like as a young kid who was quiet, who

was told that you were going to do big things with Ayurveda?

In India, we have guru-shishya tradition.

Yeah. So, my guru is my father's guru.

And my father took me to his guru.

And I saw him, his simplicity, his clarity.

His love, His compassion.

I was totally thrilled.

Then He initiated me.

And during initiation, He gave me mantra. He taught me how to sit and how

to meditate.

And then He blessed me.

He said, you will become Ayurvedic physician.

You will teach Ayurveda to the Western world.

And through Ayurveda, you will bring this beautiful spiritual foundation for

education.

Because without self-knowing, life has no meaning at all.

If you do not know yourself, your education, your degree has no value

whatsoever.

So self-knowing is very important.

And Ayurveda is the science of self-knowing.

To know you are, so that's why we are, this is education.

We teach the people, hey, you are vata, you are pitta, you are kapha, then this

is a proper diet for you and that is not a proper diet for you. And that's why

the whole base of Panchakarma is like understanding what is Prakruti, what is

Vikruti. Based upon that, we give individualistic PK, Panchakarma program,

which is detoxification.

Because we have, We have toxified our brain.

Too many judgment, criticism, like, dislike, all that.

And there are in our day-to-day life relationship, Ayurveda says, our life is

relationship.

Relationship between husband and wife, girlfriend, boyfriend.

But also my relationship with my body, my relationship with my mind, and my

relationship with my consciousness must be absolutely clear.

And clarity in relationship breeds compassion.

And compassion is love. Therefore, love and clarity go together.

So in Panchakarma, based upon Prakriti-Vikriti paradigm, we use

Shirodhara, which is oil is running. You have experienced that oil is running

through the scalp. It's been a very oily week for me.

Because the baby, which was in the mother's womb, it was surrounded by

amniotic fluid. And that was the oily surrounding.

oily environment, and the baby was moving. Oil is very important for the

cell to live long.

I've regressed back to my fetus origins.

So, I mean, I felt so amazing this week, and I know how powerful Ayurveda is in

my own personal life.

Right now, when we look out into the world, roughly 7 in 10 people in

American society are overweight or obese, 6 of 10 some sort of chronic

disease or illness.

roughly 20 plus percent of people on some sort of psychiatric medication.

I think Krishnamurti has quoted, it's no measure of success to be well adjusted

to a profoundly sick society.

Wow. And I'm curious your thoughts on where the Western allopathic model is

fundamentally getting it wrong when it comes to treating chronic disease and

illness.

No, Western model is wonderful because during acute emergency,

We have to go to the Western model during severe heart attack or fracture

or stroke paralysis.

Then we need that.

But once the emergency is over, then there is no way.

Then they have to come to Ayurveda. Then Ayurveda gives them proper diet, proper

lifestyle, detox program, cleansing program, rejuvenation program, cholera

sire. So this is very good that Ayurveda, we are teaching Ayurveda.

concurrently and inherently, together with, based upon modern medicine.

Because modern medicine says, there is no fever without infection.

But there is fever without infection.

Then they say, oh, this is a fever of non-specific origin.

Non-specific origin. There, I always say, when your pitta is high, fever is

there. And when your pitta is low, you will be under hypothermia. So Ayurveda,

look at every disease as certain imbalance between body, mind and

consciousness. Imbalance between vata, pitta, kapha. And there are dhatu, the

seven dhatus.

So,

dosha dhatu malamulam hi shariram.

This constitution, the foundation of constitution is three dosha, seven dhatu

and three mala. Within this structure, they have built their whole system of

medicine. And when they are out of balance, they need to create illness.

So the very beautiful definition of disease is dosha, dosha, sammurshana

janito.

Aggravated dosha entering into the tissue. They attack the tissue and they

alter the tissues.

function and tissue structure, and then it will create a disease.

This is wonderful.

And what we are doing in Panchakarma, we are separating this complex network of

mixture of dosha and dhatu.

Because in that, we build ama. Ama is a toxic, morbid, metabolic waste.

And if our agni, the digestive fire, is not at par, then undigested food becomes

toxic. So, amma is a toxic, morbid metabolic waste. And that amma is

accumulating in the brain, in the lungs, in the liver, in the heart, in the

cardiovascular system.

And that causes the disease.

So, this is a very long lingering.

During acute attack, we have to go to the modern medicine.

But in Ayurveda, when heart attack is over, we can give proper diet, proper

Rudbhasti. We create a dough.

of whole wheat dough and put on the heart and put flaxseed on. Amazing. I

did that. Yeah, that will improve to dilate the coronary artery and it can

prevent the future coming at us.

For people that aren't as familiar with the vernacular and vocabulary, how would

you, would you say inflammation is similar to ama? How would you, from the

Western perspective, what's the closest thing to ama?

You know, ama is a toxic, morbid, metabolic waste.

And ama changes our biochemistry.

Ama is the root cause of inflammatory marker.

But inflammation is produced by pitta.

When pitta is high, it will create inflammation.

When kapha is high, it will create congestion.

And vata increase, vata will create degeneration, deterioration, destruction

of the tissue.

So, there are certain diseases.

They are due to catabolic changes.

They are called degenerative diseases.

Some certain diseases are over nourishment, anabolic disorder, obesity,

hypertension, hyperlipidemia. These are anabolic disorder.

And the catabolic disorder is arthritis, rheumatism, sciatica, old age. And in

between them, inflammatory diseases, they come under pitta. Again, vata,

pitta, kapha is there.

Let's say maybe we have a couple hundred thousand people listening to this

podcast right now. I would love to bring it directly into their experience. When

you say pitta, kapha, vata, and we can put some images on screen. Can you

describe what the constitution looks like for each of those persons?

The physical appearance also denotes the type of the dosha.

Generally, Vata people, they are tall, skinny-mini, teeny-tiny.

They are hyper. Even they feel parallel with the finger. They will put finger in

the ear.

Whenever there is space, they will put finger. So this is weird, but this is a

fact. Because Vata has affinity to the space.

So Vata individual, their skin is dry, dry joint, cracking, poking.

And they are hyper.

And they are restless, anguish.

They love jogging, jumping.

And they are hyper.

So this is the typical picture of Vata. Pitta people are medium body frame, but

they wear glasses, very bright, brilliant, intellectual people, always

study. They sleep with the book on their chest. It's weird because they are the

bookworms. They like that reading, studying, knowledge, investigation.

And Kapha people, they enjoy the life. They love to eat.

And they have little robust body frame.

And they are very calm, quiet, blissful. So just by looking at the individual, we

understand what type of the person's prakriti is.

Prakriti is your personality, is your body type.

So for somebody who's listening right now and maybe sees themselves more pitta

or more vata, how would that correspond? You'd mentioned a bit of their

temperament and their physical makeup.

What proclivities would they have towards certain diseases, illnesses?

So they can see like what are, how do they easily each come out of balance?

So they can come into it? Actually in Ayurveda, the mono type are three, vata

type, pitta type, kapha type, mono.

Dual, vata, pitta, pitta, kapha, kapha, vata. And triple, there are many.

So there is what we decided through the pulse examination, we find out what is

the major dosha. When I read my own pulse and there is a part of listening

to the pulse, my prakriti, is vata two, pitta three, kapha one. One

is low, two is moderate, three is more. So I'm pitta predominant, vata

secondary. But because of diet, lifestyle changes, the dosha go out of

balance. And that can be detected to the superficial pulse.

Would you read mine?

Oh yeah, that's great.

You want both?

Yeah. Okay.

Wow. Can I see your tongue?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You are traveling a lot. So your Prakriti is pretty balanced. Two, three,

two. Vata, two. Pitta, three.

Kapha, two.

But because of traveling, your Vata is high.

And that Vata is pushing Pitta. I'm glad that you come here to receive

Panchakarma and that Shirodhara and all that technique.

So, this is, you are pretty...

Tridoshi pretty close.

Two, three, two. Vata, two. Pitta, three. Kapha, two. These people are very

spiritual, very loving, compassionate. They do wonderful work.

But because of traveling stress, the Vata is high.

So Pitta predominant, Vata, Kapha, pretty similar.

Identical.

That's interesting.

Very good.

And you're Pitta predominant? Yeah, I'm Pitta predominant, Vata secondary.

Okay. But my water gets aggravated. That's why I bundle up my clothes and

keep myself warm.

I hate cold. I love warm.

So for people that don't know what that is, what is pulse reading? So the

primary tools for diagnosis, as far as I can understand, is like the face, the

tongue, the pulse.

How are you able to detect?

someone's constitution through the pulse. Especially for the Westerners,

that's like very... Another example, whenever I read the pulse, this is

index finger, middle finger, ring finger. This is radial artery.

I'm feeling and going deep, deep, deep.

So if the spike comes here, it is kapha. This is proximal.

Proximal, kapha 1, kapha 2, kapha 3.

middle, middle spike is pitta, pitta one, pitta two, pitta three.

And distal spike is vata, vata one, vata two, vata three. So when I go down, deep

down, under all three fingers, I get pitta, pitta, pitta, pitta is three.

But under index and middle finger, I get vata two.

And under ring and middle finger, I get kapha. So your prakriti, vata two, pitta

three, kapha two. Two, three, two. That is your constitution to the default.

Then I come to the superficial level. The present altered status of the dosha.

Definitely your vata is high. And the vata is high under middle finger and it

is pushing pitta.

So vata pushing pitta is the present status.

This is amazing. All our students learn that. And we teach through webinar,

through seminar, on these different heart of Ashtavidha Pariksha.

Wonderful.

Nadi, the pulse, tongue. Tongue examination is very important.

Because tongue is the mirror of viscera.

So in this Ayurvedic clinical assessment, Ayurveda is a very clinical

medicine. Plus it has philosophy.

Plus it has detoxification.

So from Ayurvedic point of view, these are the methods to understand about the

individual's prakriti vikruti.

So let's say somebody had a higher vata. What's something they could do in their

life to help bring back into balance to more of their prakriti?

Yeah, when the vata is high, we pin down what symptoms a person gets. Gas,

constipation, bloating, lumbago or stiffness in the back or cracking and

popping of the joint and insomnia. So this is the high vata. Then we can give

some diet to calm down the vata. The warm, freshly cooked, warm food with

little ghee in it. Ghee is oily, which will again help the person to calm down

vata dosha.

then we will tell them don't eat nightshade, potato, tomato, eggplant.

He can eat avocado or okra, broccoli, all those things. And then in that, they

should not drink cold water because water is cold. They should drink warm

water. So this way we can give dietary health. And there are certain herbal...

we give ashwagandha, bala, vidari, so calm down vata dosha. And because of gas

bloating, we can give gandharva haritaki, haritaki, which is one of the

trifala, one of the ingredients of trifala, and that is roasted with cast

iron in the castor oil. And that gandharva haritaki is so beautiful, half

a teaspoon with warm water, it will calm down the gases, it will evacuate the

bowel. And person suddenly feels grounded, That's the glory of it.

So this way, in case of water person, we can do this.

What else do you pick up from the face or the tongue? What are you looking for?

And we'll throw some images up on screen. But I think, especially from the

Western perspective, we don't have the same conception of our tongue being a

map into what's happening inside of us.

So how is the tongue a representation of our internal organs?

Whenever I look at the tongue, The tip of the tongue is related to the thyroid

gland. Tongue is divided into three parts. Anterior one-third, middle one

-third, posterior one-third. For example, can I stick out here?

So you have armor in the colon. There is tightness in the mid-back, neck and

shoulder blade area.

And you know, you have kurmi.

What? Kurmi is a parasite.

You have some giardia, the parasite.

Wow. There are patches of depapulation.

Depopulation? Depatulation.

Depopulation.

Depopulation. Okay, what is... These papillae are peeled off because of that

chromine, the parasite. That's why it may create little bloating, discomfort.

Is that like gut dysbiosis? Correct, correct, correct. Okay. The tongue is

the mirror of gut.

And just by looking at the size and the shape and the surface of the tongue, the

margins of the tongue, when person get indentation marks of teeth along the

margins of the tongue, that is a sign of malabsorption. When there is a line at

the central part of the tongue, that means person is holding emotions along

the spine, the neck, the shoulder. Is that what you saw with my tongue?

I mean, I'm holding tension.

I have tension there for sure.

That's why.

When the white coating is, that is the armor.

When the armor has patches of depopulation, that's a sign of some

parasites are there. We all get parasites. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm curious

because I went to Bali like a few months back and we got Bali belly. So we were

all puking and it was pretty bad for a week. People who travel a lot and there

are different waters, sometimes these parasites, they can come through the

food or through the water.

So that is quite possible.

So this is one of the wonderful Ayurvedic diagnostic tools is the

examination of tongue.

The pulse, the tongue.

And through that, just by observing this thing, we build up, find out which

dosha is affected, which dhatu, the tissue is involved.

And then we can create a unique individualistic protocol.

Dosha pratyenik specific to the dosha.

Dhatu pratyenik specific to the tissue.

Then organ pratyani, which is specific to the organ, the vital organ, the

brain, the heart, the lungs.

And then that formula really hit the head of the nail and it really works.

So again, I like to think about the differences in how the Western and the

Eastern conceive these different things. I feel like we treat the mind and the

body as two separate phenomena, largely in the West. And the way you're

describing...

what you're observing through the pulse and the tongue and Ayurvedic as a system

is very mind-body connected as one system and the mental and emotional

effect, the physical and vice versa.

So I'm curious what outside of just the physical, maybe if you, I'm happy to be

your guinea pig.

And I know that through the pulse readings and just being in someone's

presence after doing this for so many years, you start to pick up other

things, which some would say you have like no business in knowing because How

could you possibly know these things about someone's mind or body just by a

simple pulse read?

So if you want to go a little witchy on me, I'm down.

Generally, these are the seventh level pulse is prakriti. First level is

vikruti. Then sixth level is manas prakriti.

That is your psychological makeup.

So, whenever I go to that level, sixth level, I'm just explaining how we come

to this conclusion.

Then we imagine there is an eight petal lotus under my finger.

This is petal one, petal two, and each petal represents the Prakruti,

the constitution.

So, when I was feeling your Manas Prakruti, these are the words, you are

Indra, Agni and Varuna. Indra,

Agni, Varuna. Means you are a very spiritual person. Very loving and highly

knowledgeable. There is a great compassion in you.

And these are the Manas Prakriti. Every individual has this

different type. And they explain because Agni is knowledgeable.

Then Yama is introspective.

Then Nairata is related to some depressive

personality. And other is Varuna, which is compassion, which is your very

compassion. So every person's deep nature of his

consciousness can be felt through the pulse. As example, I have given this.

Body, mind, and consciousness.

This trinity is the unity of life.

And Ayurveda has specific protocol for the body or the mind and for building up

the consciousness through meditation, through mudra, through marma. We can

help. So this is a very totally different approach to the individual.

And people love that.

Because that changes their life. Even students who come to learn Ayurveda,

ASP1, ASP2, ASP3, their life is changing.

They say that our life is changing because it brings clarity, compassion,

and self-respect also.

So this is very profound science.

What are the other five lotus petals? What else could you pick up on someone's

mental level?

You know, there are some, sometimes you can get the,

Then petal number three, which is Yama. And they may be introspective, but they

have a tendency towards self-judgmental, self-hatred, and that will lead to the

depression.

Then the next petal is the fourth number petal, which is Nairuta.

Nairuta could be bipolar disorder, or it could be...

some spiritual possession. People get possessed by some evil spirit, and they

act weird, like a schizophrenia.

So the schizophrenia personality can be seen through that.

Then compassion, which is wonderful.

Then other is a very bipolar disorder, and that is

very connected to the depressive.

obsessive, compulsive behavior, that kind of thing.

And then come the north side of that is

Kubera, which is very royal, rich person.

And then come Ishan. Ishan is very spiritual. So all these eight

personalities are connected to the eight directions.

East, west, north, south.

Northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest.

This is the

energy field, geomagnetic energy field, shaping the consciousness.

Wow.

This is very, very interesting.

What else we got?

Yeah.

You are amazing, very profound.

You are spiritual.

You do yoga, practice pranayama, practice meditation, practice.

There is a great deal of compassion.

Do you love mysticism?

I tend to lean that way, yeah.

Mysticism.

Ayurveda talks a great deal about mysticism.

There is a great mystery around us.

Even our heart is beating, it's a mystery.

The lungs are breathing, it is a mystery.

And mysticism can be unfolded when we watch the breath.

There is a gap between inhalation and exhalation.

Stay in that gap in the beginning. Then slowly carry your attention.

There is a silent gap between two thoughts.

Then stay in that gap.

And then bring to the perception.

In between two perceptions, there is a gap.

In that gap between two perceptions, between two thoughts, between two

breath, is a great awareness. It's an ocean of awareness.

And that awareness is freedom.

That awareness is unconditional love.

And in that awareness, the mysteries happen.

So you like that mysticism.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm just very drawn to it. And I think through this podcast, it's called Know

Thyself. And so the whole premise is to be exploring all these deeper aspects.

And that is the whole foundation of Ayurveda, Know Thyself.

So Know Thyself is only possible

when we are having moment-to-moment awareness.

of our perception, our thought, our feelings, our emotion.

And in that, the miracle happened.

Suddenly glimpses, you can see beyond.

So these are the, in that thing, you will get spike at the

center and I have spike at the center.

So you love that mysticism. That's what I was sharing with you.

Thank you. You're welcome, sir.

So you, are those typically three levels that you go in? Is that like body, mind,

consciousness? Correct.

Amazing. Actually, there are seven levels.

Really? But these are very subtle.

The seventh level is the Prakriti. Second level is Manas Prakriti. Then

fifth level is your Dhatu condition.

Like Vata, Pitta, Kapha.

And your seventh, Dhatu, Rasarata, Mamsa, Medha, Shiva, Jasukara.

And then we can come to the

Ojas, Tejas, Pran, then Subtacle, the Dosha, and then Manas, Vigruti. So there

are seven layers of the pulse to know. And when you change the level,

it can change the spike.

When you get different spike, you are at a different level. And it demands a

great deal of awareness to read that. And it is a technique, and it is a

method. And once they learn the technique and method, And then they

bring the awareness to their tip of the finger, they can read that.

Amazing. Well, before we move on, is there anything else in that regard,

either through my pulse or through my face?

I just, it's a great opportunity to be with you. So is there anything else you

pick up in me?

No, we also have face reading, looking at the person's face, the bra face, the

tapering heart-shaped face.

And the flat cheeks, sunken cheeks, everything has a significant value.

So when we look at the person's forehead, and there is a prominent line

to the medial side, that is liver line.

Left side is spleen line. So person's liver and spleen, they are working under

stress. When there are horizontal line, there are a couple of worries.

Then when the lower eyelids are bulge, that is aging, plus it is connected to

the kidney and bladder.

So this is interesting.

And we can read the face.

Facial line has a significant importance.

Then there is a double chin, which is sluggish thyroid.

And the nasolabial line is prominent. That means person has malabsorption. All

these things are there. And we use that in our clinical assessment.

Are there any imbalances you see from my face alone?

No, you have beautiful, no imbalance.

You have bossing forehead here.

tall, bossing forehead, that means you are very spiritual.

Or it is balding, one of the two.

Balding is different.

There is a forehead which is from the forehead.

When a person has a tall forehead, that means the frontal lobe is very tall and

great. And frontal lobe, when it is well developed, it is a spirituality.

So that's interesting.

I'm curious if you could elaborate a bit more on the link between the

psychosomatic element, like how repressed emotions affect organs, which

affect our physical health, and vice versa. And then that manifests through

our tongue, through our face, through our pulse. We can see these things.

Yeah, Ayurveda talks a great bit about what is emotion.

Emotion is the reaction of past memory to the present challenge.

In our day-to-day life relationship, I build my own image.

And if my wife has her image, and when these two images are there,

then communication is filtered.

Because image is created by judgment, criticism, like, dislike,

experience, and conclusion.

These are the factors that build the image.

And therefore, in our day-to-day life sharing, we

go into the dead past.

We always live in the dead past. And we speak from the dead past. We listen from

the dead past. And through that, the image gets hurt.

And when the image is hurt, then that unresolved hurt is accumulated

into the...

depending upon nature and structure of the emotion.

If it is a lot of grief and sadness, it will go to the love.

If it is deep sorrow, it will be in the heart.

Liver is a seat of anger.

Gallbladder is a seat of hate.

Spleen is a seat of attachment.

Kidney is a seat of fear, anxiety.

And stomach become nervous.

And colon is also connected to these emotions of fear.

So all these...

When we do not understand the emotion completely, right from beginning till

the ending, then unresolved emotion, unprocessed emotion, they develop

crystals. And this is called crystallization of emotion.

And the crystals of grief, sadness, they accumulate into the respective organ.

So in Panchakarma, when we do abhyanga, sneha, swedha, holiation, sudation,

then those, Emotions, they start liquefying.

There is a decrystallization of emotion.

And all water emotion, they come to the colon. Pitta emotion, they come to the

intestine. And kapha emotion come to the stomach.

And we remove them by woman. Woman is a hematic therapy to remove the emotions

from the stomach.

Then purging, which is a variation, remove the pitogenic emotion from liver.

gallbladder, and intestine.

And that really feels good.

And then Basti, the enema therapy, removes the emotions associated with

colon and kidney.

And that way, Ayurveda brings all these emotional crystals to

the gut. And by bringing them to the gut, then these are the big passages.

Woman vomiting, therapeutic vomiting is very important.

allow the grief to come out.

Variation will remove the anger, fear, and bhasti will help to remove

the ungroundedness, insecurity, all these emotional factors.

So Ayurvedic's perspective is very important.

Panchakarma has that much depth to go to the emotional level.

Therefore, people come here for one week, two weeks, then there is quite a

deeper and deeper cleansing.

What is the link between the physical cleansing and then coming to emotional

clarity and then spiritual connection? What do you see as the link between

physical vitality and spiritual vitality? Correct, correct.

You know, on an average, people come here for one week.

Within one week, when they are going through the abhyanga, snehan, swedan,

oleation, and sudation, and we give internally.

with ghee.

Within three days, they become very emotional.

All these emotions come. And when they are working, our practitioners are

working on them, like Rudbasti or Yakrudbasti, then whatever their anger,

their fear, it comes out. And finally, on the last day, we put them in a dark

room and there is a different light spectrum.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and indigo.

This light therapy, which is called chromotherapy, they literally cry.

So within one week, we can do physical cleansing, emotional cleansing, and also

spiritual cleansing.

Hey fam, a quick break to share two things that I think will genuinely serve

you. If you're listening to this episode, you care about going deeper

into your health than the typical system allows.

So these felt right to share together.

The first is I just did this Panchakarma at Soham Mountain Healing Resort, which

you're seeing me do that podcast in. The program Dr. Ladd himself designed, and

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expertly chefed ayurvedic meals four-handed massages shirodhara they

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is personalized for you from the pre-screening on it's probably the most

premium pachakarma experience available and they were kind enough to offer you

guys a discount if you want to check them out the link is in the description

and you can use code andre pk 2026 for 500 bucks off your stay.

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They're answering different questions.

And personally, I love using them both when it comes to diagnostics,

particularly. The Western lens gives you data, hard numbers on your inflammation,

hormones, nutrient levels. And the Eastern lens gives you context what

those numbers mean for you, your constitution, your patterns. I like to

gather data from both. And then more often than not, I lean Eastern when it

comes to actually treating things, foods, herbs, lifestyle, breath, water.

But you can't course correct what you can't see. That's where function health

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description below i hope you enjoy be healthy be happy back to so home

could you explain a bit of the refinement from the bodily tissues

arriving at shakra and and ojas so how does from the food we eat

transmute and alchemize deeper deeper into these more potent forms

And then I want to ask you about Ojas.

Wonderful, yeah.

In our day-to-day life, whatever meal we eat, within 12

hours, the end product of digested food becomes Ahara Rasal, which is called

microkyle. And that microkyle is circulated in the body.

So the whole Ayurvedic concept of nutrition,

the plasma, which is rasadhatu.

Within five days, the unprocessed plasma cell becomes processed.

So this is a very beautiful nutritional five days for rasa, ten days for rakta.

It goes up to 35 days. And after the end of the 35 days, the superfine product

of shukra and artha will become ojas.

And ojas is your body's immune mechanism.

The ojas is forming.

Every day, every moment. But that ojas is the pure essence of all bodily

tissue. And that comes to the heart. And then it becomes par-ojas, super-ojas,

which nourishes consciousness.

And then inferior ojas, which is circulating throughout the body, it

maintains psychoneuroimmunological response.

So this is very important.

Ojas is maintaining cellular immunity.

Tejas is cellular intelligence, and Prana is a flow of communication, the

flow of intelligence.

So, Ojas, Tejas, Prana, they are operating at the level of RNA DNA,

according to Ayurveda, Pilupak and Pindarapak.

But Ojas, on physical level, but in spiritual level, Ojas become

Aura, your body's neuroelectrical energy field. And that Ojas goes to each

Chakra, Muladhara,

Swadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, and Ajna.

In all Chakra systems, the Ojas become color spectrum.

That's why Root Chakra has a red color.

Second Chakra has an orange color.

Third Chakra has a yellow color.

Heart Chakra has a green color, blue, indigo, and violet.

So this Chakra, the Ojas, Tejas, Pranas, with their frequency, they become color

spectrum of the chakra system and then root chakra has a grounding feeling

second chakra has a wonderful feeling of procreation third chakra is a power

and digestion is a power but leadership come from the manipura anahata is a

meeting point of lover meet with the beloved and throat chakra is a

communication inner person meet with the outer person And third eye, alpha meet

with the omega, language is finished.

And then crown chakra, jiva meet with shiva. But this is on the meeting point

of the chakra system.

So chakra system is very profound and we can do chakra healing through Ayurvedic

marma therapy and color therapy.

There is this quote from your book I actually want to pull.

a person with strong ojas is attractive with lustrous eyes and a spontaneous and

calming smile such an individual is full of spiritual energy and power spiritual

practices and celibacy enhance these qualities in the individual i think

anybody who's checking in and listening right now and know people in their life

that have this calming a sharing powerful you know presence about them

and

The last sentence there was referring to the sexual energy and how to come into

right relationship with that. And so what is the link between ojas, what

people call semen retention now on the men's side of things, and how

does one properly relate to that aspect of themselves so that it doesn't rule

them, so that they can continue to cultivate more ojas?

That's very good.

When a person observes celibacy, then shukra in the man and in the woman,

they build ojas.

And ojas can be depleted because of too much sexual activity.

Ojas can be displaced by too much emotional reaction, fear, anger,

anxiety. So one should protect the ojas they just brought.

And for protection of Ojas Tejas Prana, there are specific Pranayama. They do

Pranayama, Anulom Nulom, Kapalabhati, Brahmari, Ujjayi, Udgeet,

Shidali, Shidkari. All these are wonderful Pranayama. And then while

doing Pranayama, you can do Moolabandha, the sucking the anus in, make a female

horse. Then Uddiyanabandha, which is called Chimla.

and Jalan Dharmanda is cheek lock, and this diaphragmatic bandha is Uddiyana

bandha. And that will help the awakening of Kundalini Shakti. So, Kundalini

Shakti is Anala Anilatmika. Anala is Agni, and Anila means Prana.

Agni and Prana create intense Kundalini Shakti. Therefore, your ojas nourish

Kundalini. Tejas make the Kundalini to rise up.

And prana creates meeting of lower self with the higher self. So finally, the

end product of Ojas Tejas Prana is serpentine energy kundalini. And that

passes along the chakra system from Muladhara to Sahasrara.

So we should protect our Ojas Tejas Prana by eating proper diet.

Ashwagandha, Bala Vidari, Chavan Pras, they promote Ojas.

Even almond drink, almond milk, very important.

And taking certain herbal ghee, like ashwagandha ghee, bala ghee, they

promote ojas. But tejas can be improved by concentration, by meditation, by

mantra. And there is a certain agni sar kriya, which is very important for

tejas.

And ojas, tejas, and prana. Prana can be

supported with the sahita kumbha pranayama.

But most important to nourish the prana is kevali kumbhaka.

Kevali kumbhaka is natural suspension of breath. So when you pay attention to the

breath, and after inhalation, but before exhalation, there is a stop.

And stay in the stop at belly button.

And when you exhale, and after exhalation, dvada shanta, 12-digit prana

comes out, and there is a second gap.

In that gap, if you stay there, this will amazingly strengthen the prana.

So, vajas, tejas, prana, these are the vital essence of

vajas, the essence of kapha, tejas, the essence of pitta, and prana is the

essence of vata. So, vata, pitta, kapha, at higher level become vajas, tejas,

prana. And that is a very interesting, because Ayurveda and yoga go together.

They are concurrent and inherent sister sciences. They help together.

And that is one of the beautiful things about this.

And then Ayurveda says that dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Dharma, the

righteous duty.

Artha, the monetary success.

Kama, the fulfillment of positive desire. And moksha is enlightenment.

It's possible through Ayurveda and yoga.

Through the cultivation of ojas? Is that what you say? Yeah, cultivation of ojas.

And then what happens when somebody cultivates it for years or decades and

they have experiences, you know, like these awakening experiences?

What do you make of those moments?

And what like the purpose of this rising energy is like leading us to? When Ujas,

Tejas, Prana are balanced, then you are in meditation.

The whole life becomes meditation.

The way you look, the way you walk, the way you listen becomes meditation.

Look at the beautiful bird, the lovely blue sky, the tree, the mountain,

everything.

In that looking, there is no looker.

In that listening, there is no listener.

In that experiencing, there is no experiencer.

This state is a choiceless passive awareness as J. Krishnamurti talks a

great deal about that. That happens through pancha karma, through

meditation.

Would you say that person would then exude like a sattvic energy?

That is a very pure sattvic shuddha sattva, pure sattva.

So you can look at through anyone's behaviors and mental actions and say

whether it's rajas or sattvic or tamas.

Just by looking at the person, you can understand.

Even Ojas Tejas prana can be evaluated like prakruti. This is very important.

And person with rajasic clarity,

rajasic quality has a hyper prana tamasic gravity is very dull ojas

so our behavior are also intimately connected to the ratio of ojas stages

prana and that's why when this ojas stages prana are in balance then

observer observation and the thing to be observed become one this is the unified

field of consciousness in that oneness There is a great deal of joy, great deal

of beauty.

Then you become universal existence.

Then you are no more individual.

Individual become indivisible, totally undivided, one with the cosmos.

For people that want to cultivate more of like a sattvic lifestyle to be able

to cultivate that energy within themselves, what do you see as American

society, Western culture, the most predominant?

activities that are not in alignment with that, that are causing more rajas

and how would you support people and recommend people more implement these

sattvic lifestyle and behaviors?

You know, I travel all over the world. I go to India,

then go to England, Germany.

There is nothing like America.

People are very open, very spiritual.

And day by day, American people

In general, they are following spiritual path.

Interesting. Many people are doing meditation, contemplation. They are

doing satsang, kirtan. So this is a very good positive thing.

And this is a practical country. They want to do everything boiled down to the

practical level, which is very important.

And Ayurveda is also practical.

Ayurveda wants to bring spirituality into daily clinical observation.

And we are doing the same thing. So I think anything which happens here in

America, it influences the whole world. You know, since last 40 years, I'm here.

And when Ayurveda become popular in America, it become popular in India.

This is very interesting. That's why my guru told, you should go to America,

teach these people Ayurveda, and then Ayurveda will be accepted in India.

This is sad part, but it is the fact.

Because anything happens here, it influences the whole world. Because in

the true sense, America is the nucleus of creativity.

This country has a great potential, great spirituality, great materialism,

and everything is great. Even nuclear power is great.

So you came here almost 40 years ago.

And that was...

That was a big move for you.

Correct.

So you moved and you guys eventually created the Ayurvedic Institute.

Correct. And then over the past many decades, you've been building, writing

your books, training practitioners.

Writing books, doing seminars, doing teaching.

Yeah. And now this is your home.

The whole world is my home.

I feel homely in India also. I feel homely in England also. And when I'm

coming here, I feel like a home.

It is the love, the friend, who are very loving, compassionate.

They make the whole environment like a home.

And I have many good friends, both in East and West, as well as in India,

England, America here.

And it is the praying who, they are very loving, compassionate.

So it is like a home here.

The Ayurvedic way of understanding life, of like the science of living and also

death, I think is very fascinating in how it is different from how I

personally understood life growing up.

There is this increasingly popular conception of longevity escape

velocity. As you've heard, people think with the advent of AI and what's coming

with the technologies to be able to basically keep living longer beyond our

natural death point.

And I'm curious what an Ayurvedic perspective says on death and this idea

that we might actually beat aging.

Wonderful, beautiful.

This is really the cream, the core of Ayurveda.

Living and dying should go together.

There is no life without death.

And there is no death without life.

Life and death, these are the two sides of the same coin.

And we have to learn the art of dying.

That's why we teach the people how to die.

Just do Soham meditation.

Inhale with soul.

Exhale with hum.

So there are two stops. When you inhale, so it goes to the belly button.

Stay there for a while.

And when you exhale, hum comes out.

And Dvada Shanta, 12 digits.

When you stay in the stop, in the beginning, that stop is only for a

fraction of second.

But slowly, slowly, when you watch the breath and inhale with soul,

then gap enhances.

Easily, when you practice like 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in

the afternoon, 10 minutes in the evening, and 10 minutes on the bed

before you go to sleep, and a stage will come. You can easily stay in the gap

up to 30 seconds.

Half a minute.

In that half a minute, you live without breath.

There is no breath.

You live without thought.

There is no thought in that gap.

There is no mind.

No time.

So there is no mind, no time, no thought, no feeling, no emotion.

It is just empty. We call this an empty boat. You become like an empty boat.

And death is emptiness, complete emptiness.

So when you practice this dying, you're reborn.

You will be reincarnated, not next life, but next breath.

You'll be reincarnated. Every breath is a new breath.

Every thought is a new thought.

Every inspiration is a new inspiration.

That's why in India, if somebody is dead, we say he is expired.

So expiration is the death.

Inspiration is reborn again.

So death and dying should go together.

This is on physical level. On psychological level, I have to die to

the unwanted, unhappy, sad past.

Past is dead.

We should live in the eternal present.

not to live in the dead past, not to live in the future.

Our future is modified past.

So, dying and living go together. You can live now.

My grandpa, he lived for 105.

But his bhajan, he was chanting, Vidthala, Vidthala, Vidthala. And one

stage will come, he will just say Vidthala, and he will enter into

complete suspension of breath.

Through that holy name of Lord Krishna, He was practicing dying.

And death is a friend.

In the death, there is a rejuvenation, a renewal.

And you are reborn again.

So, Ayurveda talks a great deal about bring the death pretty close.

Don't push death.

Bring the death.

Die to the yesterday.

Die to the morning. Live eternally with this moment during afternoon.

So moment-to-moment awareness is moment-to-moment dying to the past and

reborn again to the present.

And this is a very profound thing that Ayurveda teaches us

through the Soham.

And the name of this foundation is Soham. Yeah, it's very fitting. Very,

very pretty.

Because Soham is not a mantra, it is a cosmic vibration.

Every living creature, every living being, they are chanting this Soham,

Soham through breath. But they don't know. But if you pay attention to the

Soham, then you are bringing death close to you. When you exhale Ham, you are

dying to the Ham.

And when you inhale Soham, you are reborn again.

With a new, fresh, eternal breath.

If somebody lives an extremely healthy life, what is the natural age one?

What's like the natural human lifespan if it's really healthy throughout?

Actually, it should be beyond 9500.

Even you can live for 110, 120.

Yeah. That's quite possible.

Then death becomes your habit.

And then you can postpone the death.

My guru postponed the death two times.

We thought he's there, we carry him to the cremation and there he wake up. He

said, I was in blissful state and you think that I'm dead.

So this is very interesting. You can go into the samadhi. Samadhi is dying

while living.

Yeah. This is very profound.

I think that for a lot of those folks that maybe don't have a spiritual

conception or...

thought, experience, belief, and something coming after this physical

life ends, then it's like, okay, I want to extend it as much as possible. And

with the advent of all the technologies that are going to be coming out to

extend life, some people think that we'll actually be able to live forever.

Beautiful.

But you think, is that a silly, immature perspective on life?

Everything has a right place, you know.

And you can live as long as you want, but live just to

help, just to serve, just to existence.

Because we have to serve the existence.

And existence is everywhere.

That eternal present is very beautiful. And in that sense, whatever we

learn, we should share.

Sharing and caring.

is the glory of life.

I agree. I agree. What do you make of the wellness industry, which has become

over, you know, it's going to be a $10 trillion industry by 2029. And what a

lot of these practices and diet and lifestyle interventions that are simple

and have profound effects have been in largely like co-opted with yoga pants

and smoothies.

And I'm curious what you think of all these health fads that come and go when

there's this timeless wisdom of how to live in proper relationship with our own

body and constitution.

What do you make of that industry?

That's a very wonderful sharing.

In America, everything is business.

Even meditation becomes business. Giving mantra becomes business.

Even spirituality is quite a business.

Because there's nothing wrong in that.

making business.

But what is important, as you are making business, give the core, the crux,

the cream of reality to the people and make them stand on their own feet. They

will not carry anybody's crutches.

They are totally independent.

They stand on their feet. They take care of their health to the proper diet,

lifestyle.

and rejuvenation program.

Then that's why we teach domestic Panchakarma. People can do this

Panchakarma at home.

That's a very good glory.

Sometimes their life is so busy, they have no time to come here, stay here for

a week or two. So they can carry Panchakarma at home.

And we have special detox program, just detox your liver, detox your brain,

detox your heart. So this way, we are detoxifying those toxic organs.

And that is the first step to the reality, first step to the spirituality.

And spirituality is cleansing, cleansing the body, cleansing the mind, cleansing

the organ, and doing domestic panchakarma through diet. Just do

khichdi fast. And amazing, that khichdi fast will, again, it will unfold the

clarity of perception.

For those that are householders, which almost certainly everyone who's tuning

in right now is in my own life, and we have this inner yearning for realization

of self.

How important is, is it Dhanacharya?

How important is a daily practice?

Dhanacharya is very important.

Because if we wake up at a particular time, like say about five o'clock in the

morning, then brush your teeth, scrape your tongue, drink warm water, sit in a

cross-legged posture, facing the east.

Amazing.

I'm enjoying that. My whole family is doing that. And then they are taking

shower, they do their yogic practice, then shower, then have a little

breakfast. So this way, if we do everything like a dinner charia, then it

will bring the saccadic rhythm of the hormones.

In my brain, serotonin, melatonin, acetylene, choline, dopamine, they will

secrete at a proper time. And your brain will become a dynamo of energy.

You never lose your energy.

That's why dinner charia is a discipline.

Discipline of biochemistry.

At a proper time, you secrete your hydrochloric acid, pepsin, renin,

gastric intensive factor, and you are greatly hungry.

and you enjoy the food. So if we bring rhythm in that, if our day-to-day life

is erratic, then it will create depression, sadness, and all those

things. So to increase the biorhythm, we need dinacharya, rutucharya,

and daily regime, seasonal regime.

and also dietary changes.

So this is a very beautiful rhythm to bring biorhythm into the body, mind, and

consciousness. We need Dhinacharya, the daily routine.

And that daily routine is wonderful self-discipline.

So what would be a great example of what that would be in someone's

life? So wake up before sunrise, scrape the tongue, do your practices.

What else throughout the day do you think is really important to maintain

consistency on bedtime?

Yeah, yeah.

Just as we just shared with you in the morning, that we should wake up early

morning and go to the sunlight.

And when sunlight falls on the forehead, on the retina, it will stimulate pineal

gland to release serotonin. And serotonin is very important for clarity

of perception. It's a pleasure hormone.

So likewise, we have proper time for lunch, proper time for dinner.

And also, we have certain routine at night. Before you go to the bed, just

rub oil to the soles of the feet and scalp.

Oil is very important.

If you just rub oil to the bottom of the feet and the scalp, then put on your old

song that you will not fall into the bathroom. That's an important disclaimer

we have to take. And if we do this routine at night, then sit.

Before you go to the bed, sit.

And I always say, drink a cup of warm milk with ashwagandha or warm milk

with turmeric.

Turmeric is becoming popular.

Turmeric and neem can control the blood sugar. Turmeric is wonderful medicine.

And if you drink turmeric with milk, oh, it will balance, it will release

melatonin, you will sleep like a baby. And these are also routine given at the

bedtime. Lunchtime is different routine. So our life is totally surrendered

to the Almighty.

We talked about the doshas earlier, but likewise, the day has certain times that

correspond to different elements.

Could you share a bit of that?

Yeah, you know, the whole biological clock and chronological clock, they are

connected. Chronology is time, sun rising, sun setting. So dawn and dusk is

Vata dosha, early morning.

Then early morning and early evening is Kapha dosha.

Midday, midnight is pitta dosha. So this is a biological clock in relation to the

chronological time.

And that's why Ayurveda talks a great deal about this, that it is good to do

exercise in the morning during kapha time.

People do exercise at midday, jogging, jumping. That's wrong. Ayurveda says if

you do run at midday time, you will disturb your pitta.

So this is a very interesting thing that we should work in harmony with the

biological time and chronological time.

Yeah, it seems like with everything that you're sharing in the Ayurvedic system,

there's a cycle and a rhythm to life that we're honoring that we normally

have not been.

If you zoom out further, you know, from the microchism of our biology and the

cycles we have to the cycles around us within light and the 24-hour clock with

the sun, if you zoom out further,

Do you see these larger cycles within humanity?

Of course, that's very true.

The larger time we call Yuga. Yuga.

This is a Kali Yuga.

About 10,000 years the Yuga changes.

The Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga, Kali Yuga. This is a very cosmic time.

But also, the time is a movement.

Time is becoming.

And time is change.

So, within living in this time, we should enter into the timeless zone.

While living in the time, you can enjoy the timeless zone. And that timeless

zone is very important, as I shared with you, the gap between the two, the gap

between the two thoughts.

Then you enjoy the time and you are resting in that gap so that time...

Enter into the timeless zone of bliss and peace.

Sign me up.

So would you say that the Kali Yuga is ending now? They say that Kali Yuga is

ending. Maybe next century Kali Yuga is gone and you will have wonderful

Satya Yuga again. That is what they are saying.

What do you make of the time we find ourselves in? Like humanity in this time

entering the 24th century.

with these add of technology and AI and all of this. I'm curious, what is your

perspective on what's happening?

This is very beautiful.

I learned from my Guru Maharaj.

He said, all four yugas are within me.

Meaning everyone.

Krita, Trita, Dwapar and Kali Yuga.

Kali Yuga is a time of Kala. Kala means art, music, even

computer. It's a great thing.

Kali Yuga is not bad.

So, when you do certain Pranayama, when you inhale with Soom

and hold the breath, then belly button

is very important.

That belly button is Kali Yuga.

Then when you hold the breath into the heart,

That is Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and Satya Yuga.

So Crown Chakra is Satya Yuga.

Then Krishna Dwapara Yuga come here.

So Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali. So in Chakra

system, when you hold your breath at a different level of Chakra,

You are surpassing those Kali or Yuga.

The 10,000 years approximately we said, but there is a mathematical calculation

and that varies according to the time zone. So, we can

raise our consciousness from belly button

to the Sahasrara.

And Sri Aurobindo says, Go above the physical brain, 4, 4, 8, 2,

10, here.

Purusha Subhita says, So

that thousand-headed Purusha is everywhere.

Above the physical brain, 4, 4, 8, and 2, 10.

If you bring your consciousness here,

You are in beyond yuga.

And that yuga, it is a supra-satya yuga. He calls supra

-mental state.

Above the physical brain, that which is true on spiritual level, in

spiritual term, must be equally true on physical level, in physical term.

So, this is another concept.

And through meditation, you can go from Kali Yuga to the Satya Yuga,

which is the breath. And breath meditation is very important.

Even I'm sitting here, I'm doing Soham meditation.

Inhale with So, exhale with Ha.

And in gap, I listen to you. And in gap, I give the answer to this. Therefore,

our communication...

Though it is physical, but it is moving to the different dimension of spiritual

awakening. So this is wonderful.

So time is a movement of prana.

And Kali Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, Satya Yuga, this is a cosmic

time. And cosmic time is happening at every moment in our

breath cycle.

It feels like it keeps coming back to relationship.

relationship between mind, body, breath, life, and of course, the humans around

us and our friends and family.

It seems like right now, because we do live in a time that is very

individualistic and very divisive, that proper relationships are needed now more

than ever.

So I'm curious, as you spent your past 40 years coming out to the West and

building these relationships, just in your own words, what is the power of

relationship been for you in your life?

That's very important.

First, I have to improve my own relationship with my body, with my mind,

with my thought, and with my daily perception.

Because in relationship, there is a need of communication.

When two individuals are speaking together at the same level of

consciousness, there is a wonderful communication.

So, in order to improve the clarity of communication,

we have to learn the art of listening, art of looking.

Look at your partner with fresh eyes, not yesterday's eyes, not

what last two weeks ago what she said to me.

I have to live in the eternal present.

And in this eternal present, there is a wonderful flow of communication.

And we should forgive whatever has happened in the dead past.

Because I always give this example to my students.

If your wife said, you are a nut last week, and that nut is hurting like a

bolt. And today she says, honey, I love you.

So suddenly that nut comes there.

They say, oh, I know you love me. Sometimes you love me, but sometimes you

call me nut. And their quarrel started.

So we should not bring the dead past in our present relationship.

We should live in the eternal present.

Then the relationship is definitely going to heal.

Relationships are helping. And at the same time, we can use the relationship

as the mirror.

And in the mirror of relationship, we can watch our thought, watch our

feeling, watch our emotion.

That's great.

And that's exactly what I'm doing in my day-to-day relationship with everyone.

And it works.

It's a beautiful thing. But relationships are not for judging the

person.

Relationships are for self-knowing, self-learning.

And for that, we should have very healthy, happy, clear relationship so

that we can understand one another.

And in that understanding, there is a sharing and caring and loving.

So beautifully said. I feel like definitely in my past, I've become aware

the times I'm viewing relationship through my own prejudice and color

-tinted glasses, not actually being effectively in communication and

relationship with other individuals.

If you had a last message for individuals to develop that clarity

within themselves, like you mentioned, building that relationship with yourself

is the most important. That way you can really be in relationship with other

people and not just through a tinted glass.

So much of the world right now is teaching self-knowledge through just the

intellect.

And I'm curious, what does self-knowledge truly mean to you? If you

had 60 seconds for one last message to everybody who's listening right now.

When I am looking at you, I feel I am you and you are me.

That who is looking through my eyes, same thing is looking through your eyes.

In reality, though we are two individuals, it is the same awareness,

same perception is operating.

And that's the beauty of it.

When I look at the tree, I feel I am the tree.

When I look at the cloud, I feel I am the cloud. I am that mountain.

And suddenly, the distance between me and the mountain disappears.

Me and the tree disappear. Me and you disappear. I am you. You are me.

This is a very serious thing that if we put into our day-to-day life, our day-to

-day living, then there is no conflict at all.

Conflict begins when there is a separation.

When I become the observer and you become the object, then there is

judgment, criticism, like, dislike, all these things happen.

We have to bring unified field in our daily perception.

Look so closely that I am you, you are.

That's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, the rain came in.

That was a great close to it, though. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. And for everybody that's tuning into this episode, thank

you so much. Let us know in which ways this was impactful for you. And until

next time, be well.