Your thoughts are not your enemy. Let them come and go like waves on the ocean. Spiritual teacher Swami Jyothirmayah tells Agnieszka Rostkowska how to keep peace of mind.
Swami Jyothirmayah is difficult to get hold of. He travels the world teaching yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques. He lectures at universities and international conferences and oversees humanitarian aid projects. He personally conducts programs for prison inmates and rebels in conflict areas. He treats them with the same respect as the world leaders who seek his support in peace and interfaith initiatives. Swami exudes calm and kindness, and his distinctive feature is a radiant smile. Wherever he goes, crowds come to meet him.
Agnieszka Rostkowska: Probably everyone who has participated in your meditations or lectures asks themselves: how is it possible that his smile does not leave his face?
Swami Jyothirmayah: Smile doesn’t mean you always have to expand your lips and show your teeth. When I say “smile,” I mean the state of being genuine, including with ourselves. And it is also the result of looking at the world from a broader perspective, with the understanding that, as Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji, the founder of the Art of Living Foundation often emphasizes, life is a play of energy called prana. If your level of prana is high, you appreciate everything around you and start loving and respecting your life. However, when your energy level goes down, then even trivial things start disturbing and irritating you. You get frustrated, you argue with people and doubt yourself; your capabilities.
So how does one keep their energy levels high?
There are four main sources of prana. The first one is easily digestible food. Whatever you eat—and this applies to thoughts as well as food—is what you become. The second source of energy is sound, good sleep—I guess we all experienced how a disturbed sleep in the night makes us tired and unable to focus the next day. The third source of energy is breathing. The first thing we do in our life is breathe in; the last thing we do is breathe out. Our life is between those two breaths. We don’t know how long it may take, but without breath, there is no life.
Before we move on to the fourth source of prana, let us stop at the breath. Day to day, we rarely pay attention to it.
And even more than that, we are not breathing properly and deeply enough. Look at how the child does it: deeply, freely. This is best seen when it sleeps: its tummy expands and contracts. As adults we don’t use our lung capacity optimally. You can go for a medical test and see that the capacity of your lungs shrinks! And this has multiple consequences, because breathing plays a huge role in cleansing our body.
We don’t know how to breathe? Why?
We are in a hurry. That makes us forget about our own life, our own self, which is the most important thing on this planet. From birth, our life is a gift. It is a very precious, powerful gift. Just like the body—we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves first, then our dears and near ones, our environment, and all that. The hurry is accompanied by expectations: we want more money, more love, more attention—this is how we lose our peace of mind, otherwise known as the meditative state, which is the fourth main source of energy.
Peace of mind is the modern Holy Grail. How do we get it and keep it?
Through meditation, which is deep relaxation for our mental hygiene. Every day we take a shower for our body; we brush our teeth for dental hygiene. Do you take care of your mental condition in a similar way? Do you clear your mind of negative thoughts and the excess of emotions such as anger every day? Many people confuse meditation with concentration. They say “I am getting lots of thoughts; I don’t think I’m doing it right.” I would say meditation is deconcentration! While meditating, we are not engaging in our thoughts; we are not entertaining with our thoughts—we let them come and go. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who has been teaching meditation around the world for more than forty years, says: “Thoughts are not our enemies, but a part of our life, just as the waves are part of the ocean. Can you stop the waves in the ocean?”
They can certainly be calmed down so that they don’t toss us around like a storm.
Definitely. A flurry of thoughts turns life into a struggle. One wave after another, they steal our attention and take it away from what’s within. At the same time, they direct us towards the negative. For example, if someone yells at you, you never ask if this person is really mad at you. You never doubt their honesty. But when somebody comes to you with lots of love and caring, then you have doubts: what do they want from me? Do they want something? That’s the nature of the mind.
And thoughts can take us to unwanted things: mostly, we think about the future—what is going to happen to us; how are we going to face a situation? The more you think about your future, the more you feel insecure. Other times we get caught up in the past, not able to let go of whatever happened, be it good or bad. We cannot grow because the mind is oscillating between the past and the future, very seldom coming to the present moment.
And it is only when you live in the present moment that you can experience peace of mind: a state of silence and stillness that changes your approach to the world and people. The art of living is nothing more than bringing your mind to the present and expanding your awareness. Whatever you do, do it with full focus on the activity.
You often begin your lectures at universities by asking your students, “Are your minds also present here, or just your bodies?”
Attention deficiency among students is one of the biggest challenges facing universities. To a large extent, this is the result of the overuse of smartphones, computers, tablets, and other gadgets. All electronic and scientific innovations are good for humanity, but we have to use them in a sensible manner. Most of the students are not able to focus; not able to listen. And if your mind is not present, the words don’t have any meaning—they are just noise. We need to talk, work, and spend our energy throughout the day, but we also need to refuel our energy. Meditation, for even fifteen or twenty minutes a day, helps gather our energy back and connects us with ourselves.
How are we to understand this connection?
Imagine that you see a mountain, a beautiful snow-capped peak, at, say, 60 km away. You know that covering such a distance (and thus reaching even the foot of the mountain) would cost you a lot of physical effort, because your body has its limits. That’s why you don’t set out to get there, but you use your eyes to admire the mountain from afar. Your senses are therefore more powerful than your body. But even they have limitations: your vision doesn’t reach beyond the mountain; you can’t see what’s behind it. Investigating it is made possible with your mind, which is more powerful than the senses; the mind can go beyond the mountain; it knows what city lies beyond it.
So the mind is more powerful than the senses, but the mind also has limitations. The intellect is above the mind. It’s the intellect that allows you to know when you watch the sunrise or sunset; that it’s just an illusion; that the sun isn’t hiding behind a mountain or emerging from behind it.
The highest form of understanding, however, is our soul, essence, being—whatever we want to call it. It is the part of us that is eternal, unchanging, and just as alive despite the passage of time.
In a word, the body, the senses, the mind, and the intellect are limited, but your spirit is infinite. You can understand this by using various techniques such as meditation, yoga, and pranayama. People who feel connected to their deepest being exude peace and joy, as well as the confidence with which they care for other people and their own environment.
So meditation isn’t associated with the loss of interest in the world—on the contrary, it can bring about greater engagement?
Meditation and service have to go hand in hand. Meditation is for you, for your growth, for your comfort, for your joy—and service is the expression of your love. As the Art of Living Foundation, we teach meditation in 183 countries, and more than half a billion people have benefited from our programs. And everywhere we see how meditation brings you to inclusiveness, without prejudice; without bias. You feel that everyone is part of you. When the war in Ukraine broke out, I spent a lot of time on the Polish-Ukrainian border, helping the refugees. At that time, we suspended meditation workshops organized by the foundation not only in Poland but also in Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Netherlands, and we began to accommodate the refugees from Ukraine in our centers. Actually we don’t want to call them refugees; it is like our own family members crossing the border… Remember that your happiness is linked to other people’s happiness. Can you be happy when you see them suffer? Spiritual life is not about announcing to everyone how much time you devote to the practice of yoga each day but about serving others. This service to others is the expression of supreme love.
And how can a person reconcile helping others, especially in such dramatic circumstances, with caring for one’s own well-being?
Look at the doctors who go to the hospital every day to fight for the lives of their patients in the face of great suffering. These doctors don’t quit, overwhelmed by the circumstances. They know that, to be more active; more loving; more compassionate, they have to be healthy and strong within. They need to first take care of their energy levels to be able to help others. Only then they can make a difference in their environment.
It’s the same with us. War is part of human history; there have been only a few decades in the history of Europe when no battle has been fought in any of its regions. This is one of the challenges we have to face. If, instead of taking active action, you focus on the enormity of the world’s problems and your personal struggles in life, you will lose heart, become sick, and will need help yourself. So show your compassion and do your best, fully recognizing that your commitment is just a drop in the ocean of what is needed.
Doctors have been gaining competence for years to effectively provide help. We, the ordinary people, were never prepared or equipped for this.
You should realize that nobody is ordinary—everybody is extraordinary! And you can choose two paths in your life: the first way is to be part of the solution; the other is to be part of the problem. Unfortunately, most people focus on the problem, talk about it, and complain about it without taking action to solve it, and then they become part of the problem.
Think about whether you are able to lift the spirits of your loved ones while facing a challenge, or; on the contrary, whether you are burdening them. Do you come back from a meeting with a friend smiling and aware that you are bigger than your problems, or do you feel depressed by their worries as well? Life is short. Ask yourself how you want to use this time.
Seems like we are all afraid that we will not use the time we have properly; that we will make mistakes which we will later regret.
Only courageous people make mistakes because they take the chance; the challenge; the responsibility in their life. They want to know more; they want to grow more; they want to understand more. They make mistakes, but they learn from the mistakes and they grow. The problem arises when you repeat the same mistake and don’t draw any conclusions: that’s ignorance.
There are also mistakes that are considered unforgivable. And you work with people who have committed them.
For more than twenty-three years, I have personally led the Art of Living Foundation’s transformation program for inmates around the world. I visit at least twenty-five countries every year for this purpose. I can say with certainty: most prisoners do not deserve to be called criminals. They did not plan or intend to commit a crime. For some of them, it was a consequence of childhood traumas that determined their path in life. Alcohol, drugs, and then subsequent offenses were their personal, often subconscious revenge on their abusive parents. Each culprit had a big cry for help.
Some prisoners committed the act due to emotions, anger and rage, and, after the fact, they could not believe or accept what they had done. Nobody taught us how to handle our emotions or our minds—neither at school nor at home. Yes, they give us advice like “calm down” or “control yourself,” but they don’t give us the tools to do that. Such tools are meditation and pranayama, and they are the basis of this program.
Each of us could use a whole set of such tools, preferably with a user guide.
I will give you seven points—seven ways to maintain happiness in your life and to maintain peace within.
Before making any decision; signing a contract or a document, stop for a moment and close your eyes to gain clarity about the situation. At least for fifteen seconds—you’ll always find that much time.
Remember impermanence. Weather is not permanent; your thoughts are not permanent—you are not holding the same thought for years. Your feelings change, your mood; your body changes. Everything is impermanent.
Take part in some social service projects—I have already spoken about the importance of this.
Meditate for a minimum of fifteen to twenty minutes a day, and do some pranayama breathing techniques to keep your energy levels high.
Start smiling! A child smiles more than four hundred times a day. An adult, on some days, won’t smile at all. So stop valuing your smile so highly; start giving it to the people around you.
Do random acts of kindness. Give something to someone without expecting anything back from them, not even a smile. This can be a symbolic amount or a gesture, such as donating a pair of winter shoes to someone in need. Remember that there are children in this world who dream of eating a hot meal or getting a notebook and going to school. We live in luxury and we are not able to appreciate it or share it.
Feel gratitude. Even when things are not going your way, when you are unemployed, or your health is deteriorating. Trust that Mother Earth, the Divine Consciousness, or whatever you want to call this energy knows best where to lead you.
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