Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev ji
(Abridged version)
How should the country deal with this situation?
The number of daily cases are a guidance for the administration, but should not scare us too much. It is time to shift to a place of educating people. What are the sensible things to do? Panic, frustration, fear, anger, none of these things are going to help us because this is not a time for grandstanding and is not a time to point fingers at each other. This is a time to stand up. Not even as one nation, as one humanity. We need to stand up because right now I'm here in the United States. Well, everything seems to be normal. But it is not. It is just probably a question a week or maybe a couple of months before this virus, this particular variant that we are suffering in in India could be all over the world in no time because you cannot contain it like that within a country. National borders are not a limitation for this. So this is a time to really understand this is a generational challenge. How are we going to come out of this? What are the simple things everybody should know? What are the few simple things that they must do rather than pointing fingers at each other because it's an invisible enemy? It doesn't matter what the administration does, it doesn't matter what people do, and it will spread because you cannot really stop it. Lockdowns are partially effective because only a certain number of people actually follow these recommendations. We are calling it curfew in some other places. So curfew means it has to be forcefully enforced. However much you enforce. It's not going to be absolute unless everyone gets it.
This is a war like situation and the enemy is invisible. So let us back each other. Let's be realistic. India as a nation definitely does not have necessary infrastructure to service one point four billion people either in terms of hospitals, our toilets, our temples, our streets, our roads, airports, we don't have enough infrastructure. That's a reality. But we are trying to change, which is an onerous task. It's not a simple thing. It's not going to happen overnight.
One fundamental responsibility all of us have is that we stay healthy as individuals. We stay healthy and we stay alive. More and more people should be healthy. That's the only solution. It is time we pull up our sleeves and get to work in terms of what is needed, what is needed. We need to behave responsibly. The responsibility means that we must retain our ability to respond in a sensible and intelligent manner. This is not a time to react. Your anger, your frustration, your timidity, everything is because you are reacting to the situation. This is a time as a human being, you and me have to show what sort of human beings are we? What kind of generation are we? I'm saying compared to what the previous generations have faced, this is a softball. Believe me. If you look at the time of World War Two, World War One and various other things, you would know what I'm talking about. As a generation of people, we have enjoyed the highest level of comfort and conveniences. But right now there is a challenge and this challenge has many ramifications and many aspects of our life that need to change. See, the problem with us is we are more dedicated to our lifestyle than our life. This is the problem. If I travel in the United States like two years ago, I would be flying over the world, staying in hotels, staying in the best homes, because that's how things would be organized. Today, I'm driving a truck myself. I'm sleeping in the truck. I'm driving. This is a complete change of lifestyle, but don't be committed to your lifestyle. Lifestyle is a consequence of the times in which we live. It is a life that matters. So we have to ensure there's no loss of life. If this needs to happen, all of us should retain our ability to respond in the most sensible manner, not react in wild ways. And by grandstanding and pointing fingers at each other, you will only become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
How can we be a part of solution?
Communicate what are the best practices, because that's all that is. It's important that you manage yourself without making the symptoms very severe, severe. There's a whole lot of things to do right now. I'm asking young people to go near the hospital and take out all the nonmedical aspects which the medical people were doing and wasting their time. Supporting the medical staff is most important, if they collapse, fatalities will jump to at least 10, 20, times more. First thing is not to go to the hospital. What to do? We have a simple concoction, you can put it out. We are putting it out on all of our social media to see this thing. And coming out in the rural Tamilnadu, we've contained it significantly. This is not a cure for the virus. This is not a vaccination, but it boosts your immunity. There is a concoction of a few herbs that you drink, which definitely enhances our immune system. I would not say you will prevent it. You will still maybe get infected, but you can keep them, keep the symptoms so low that you don't have to end up in ICU or something because the percentage of people entering ICU and coming out of it is unfortunately very low. Because once you go there, the fear of it just being there alone by yourself, that itself will lower your immune system if you are lowering the defence mechanism in the body and becoming far more susceptible. So the best thing is to stay outdoors. When I say outdoors, people are walking on the Daily Street. No outdoors means going to the village, going to open fields, go somewhere, go into the mountains. I know people have to do their work, but there are many ways like I'm doing my work instead of staying in a hotel, staying in people's homes, I'm sleeping in a truck. I'm saying something you have to do, something you have to do. And it's very important to all of us continue our work to the extent possible because crippling the whole activity in the country or in the world is not the answer, because that's going to take a much bigger toll on us. So it's very important to what extent, whatever the nature of work we are doing, to what extent we can keep it on without coming close to people without getting infected is a fundamental responsibility.
What can we do to maintain our mental balance during this times?
See there is a saying युद्ध कला क्षेत्रे अभ्यास. That means when the battle starts, then you'll start practicing how to use your arms. That is not the way to be.
Can you not in less than 30 minutes to ensure your health and well-being to do something about yourself? It is that simple. You don't have to go anywhere to learn. It's just on your phone. For all these three things, we provided three aspects. One is called साष्टांग, which is so simple that you can do it in seven, eight minutes, 12 minutes. There's another one called सिम्हाक्रिया, which just takes a few minutes. And these ईशा क्रिया, which takes 12 minutes. I'm saying if you invest the time, minutes a day or if you do it two, three times a day, believe me, your immune system will be higher, your oxygen levels will be higher. Prominent doctors are saying this is working like a miracle.
How do we deal with the social changes like isolation and disruption of education brought about by the pandemic?
When there is a war, you don't think of your career, you don't think of your lifestyle, you don't think of other things. The most important thing is your life. If this waves continue one after another, the kind of population we have, we must be ready for that. If it does happen, what is it that will happen to all of us? Maybe our lives in terms of our lifestyle will be set back by 15 or 20 years. Think of life. Nobody in this country should die of hunger. We have to take care of that. We are doing a whole lot of work to ensure wherever people have lost their livelihoods, we are seeing how to provide food at that level. Government is doing it.
Our history is full of sages and sayings and yogis always expounding the well-being as the most important aspect. Why are we not making use of it? What is our problem? Our problem is we are looking for Western psychiatry. Please, there is a way within a few weeks you can change the fundamental chemistry of who you are that simple ways. Practice freely available to everybody, इशाक्रिया, just start doing that in less 15 minutes a day. It will change the way you are if you do not learn how to keep your mind and body for yourself to. We will come out of it successfully. This is something we need to demonstrate to the world. In many ways, the world is looking towards India for this
As a nation. It's my blessing that we must come out of this successfully stronger and better and also the whole humanity. This is a time for us to display what sort of human beings we are.
नमस्कार.
