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What is the Importance of Karma Yoga? · Inspiration and Transformation

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Welcome to inspiration and transformation from the banks of the Ganga with Sadvi Bagwadi Saraswati,
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an American Sanyasi living at the parmarth Nikotan Ashram in Rishikesh, India.
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Sadvi is President of the Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education,
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vocational training, upliftment and empowerment programs to women and children. Sadvi is also
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Secretary General of the Global Interfaith Wash Alliance and director of the world famous International
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Yoga Festival. Joined the musings of an American Sanyasi as Sadvi shares the wisdom
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and teachings of her Guru, His Holiness Kujiaswami Chidnant Saraswatiji, welcome everyone to
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inspiration and transformation from the holy banks of the Sacred Gunga River in the land
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of Rishikesh, India. You cannot change the destiny of this moment. When
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I was growing up, when I was very young, much younger even than
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you, there was a TV show called Bewitched, And in Bewitched there was
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a little girl about this age named Tabitha, and Tabitha would rub her nose
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and she could make things happen, And I remember that, I and all
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of my friends we always used to wish that we could be Tabitha, and
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we'd pretend that we would rub our nose and make things happen. Now you
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cannot rub your nose and suddenly be somewhere else in this moment. You can't
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be in Paris, or be in Italy, or even be in deli or
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be in a pizza rest. Thanks, you're right here right now. You
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can't look different, you can't rewind history. There's no do over button in
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life. In this moment, this is your destiny unchangeable. However, where
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you're gonna be ten minutes from now, an hour from now, a week
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from now, a year from now, ten years from now, next life,
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well that's all in your hands. There is some impact, of course
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upon it from the past things you've already done. But those things combine with
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what you do right now to create your future destiny. If you want to
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write your destiny for tomorrow, you can right now. If you want to
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write your destiny for next year, you can. You have all the power,
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all the power to be able to do that. You've just got to
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exercise that. You've got to know I've got the power. The problem with
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most of us is we we live very robotically. What I do today is
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exactly what I did yesterday. What I do today and tomorrow is exactly what
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I've been doing for many years. It's exactly what my parents did, It's
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exactly what everybody I know does, and we just move on like robots.
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So if you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to keep getting
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what you've always got. But if you change what you do, or even
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if you just change how you think, then everything starts to change. And
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this is the great power that you have. The reason a lot of us
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don't change is we feel we feel stuck. We've got self identities. We
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think these are my skills, these are my abilities, these are my opportunities.
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I'm not rich enough, or smart enough, or beautiful enough, or
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successful enough, or popular enough, or capable enough to do these things that
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I envision, that I dream of, and so we don't even try.
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But if you're going to make something happen, you've got to take the first
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step. If I want to get to the banks of Gonga, I've got
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to get off my rear end. I've got to stand up I've got to
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put one foot in front of the other. Right, I might have a
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dream of a bath in Gunga, But if I don't get off my rear
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end, if I don't stand up, if I don't put one foot in
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front of the other, it's never going to happen. And maybe I tell
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myself, well, I'm not blessed enough, I'm not good enough. Nobody
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I know has ever had a bath in Gunga. Only people who are much
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more blessed, much better, much different, more different than I am.
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It's for them. And so then we don't even stand up. Then we
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just keep sitting here. You are the one to make the change. You
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are the one to be able to make things different in your life. But
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along with that, what you've got to also realize is that our destiny is
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just as much about how we think about what we are doing and what we
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have as actually what we have and what we're doing. So, for example,
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let's say you want to create the destiny of being really happy. Okay,
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that's a good destiny to create, right, does anybody not want to
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be really happy? Obviously we all want to be So if I say I'm
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going to create a destiny of happiness. What am I going to do well?
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In order to be happy? I better have a lot of money.
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So okay, starting tonight, I'm going to figure out how to make a
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lot of money. And I'm going to stop meditating, and I'm going to
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stop doing yoga, and I'm going to stop doing the things that I enjoy
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so that I can focus on figuring out how to make money. Time is
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money, and I'm just going to focus only on making money. Well,
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there's a very good chance that you will make money, because that which you
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put your mind to and your attention and your intention on, usually you can
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manifest it. Usually you can make it happen. But is that money really
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going to bring you happiness? It's actually much more likely that you would manifest
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your destiny of happiness not by changing what you do to make more money so
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that you can buy that happiness, but rather simply to change how you think
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about what you already have and to realize that even without having more, you
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actually can be happy. That it's not that you have to change what you
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wear, what you own, what you do, who you do it with,
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but that you actually just have to change the way you think about it.
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That was One of the things that impressed and touched me so much in
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India compared to America was how people think about what they have. So many
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people I met who have significantly less than Western standards of poverty. We would
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say they are poor. But if you said to them, you're poor,
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they would say no, no, no, no, no no no.
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How good eve me, we are not poor. Maybe those people are poor,
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but we are not poor. We have enough. Their felt sense experience
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is not of poverty, and they're actually much happier than a lot of people
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who's felt sense experience is of lack, even though they have more. So,
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as you are creating your destiny, figure out what's the shortest line,
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because a lot of us go in what we call a big chuckert. What
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do you want? You want to be happy? Okay, well, how
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am I going to be happy? I'm going to make a lot of money.
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In order to make a lot of money, I've got to do this.
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And it's that great story of the businessman who goes on holiday to this
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sweet little town on the banks of the ocean, and one day he's sitting
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under a tree looking out at the ocean and he notices a local man also
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sitting under the tree next to him, and he says to the local man,
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what are you doing. The man says, ah, I'm having a
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nap under the tree. And the business man says, what do you do?
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And the guy says, I'm a fisherman. Business man says, then
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why aren't you fishing? And the fisherman says, well, I already did
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my fishing in the morning. Go out in the morning, get as much
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fish as I need for the day, bring it home, feed the family,
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take a little bit into the market and exchange it for you some fruits
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and vegetables and whatnot, and have a nap under the tree in the afternoons.
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And the businessman says, oh my god, you are doing this all
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wrong. Tello. I will explain to you what to do. You need
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to start fishing all day long, catch a lot more fish. Then you
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can sell all of those fish in the marketplace, make a bunch of money,
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and with that money you can buy more fishing boats, and with those
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fishing boats you can get even more fish, make more money, hire people
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to do the fishing for you. And the fisherman says, chocol day,
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it's a very bigheadache. What's and then once I have a fleet of fishing
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boats and hundreds of people running my fishing boats, then what And the businessman
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says, Ah, that's the key. Then then you will be able to
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have your lunch every day with your family, nap under the tree in the
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afternoon, sit on the banks of the ocean, watch the sunset, and
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live a relaxed life. The fisherman said to maybe they cut it on.
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That's what I'm doing right now. So I love that story because most of
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us think like the businessman thinks, Oh, you want to be happy,
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Tello. Here is the way that it works. First you do this,
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and then this, and then this and then this, and you do the
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whole Chuckert and at the end you will be happy. But as you are
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creating your destiny, ask yourself, what's the shortest distance between these two points?
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Right? They always say in mathematics the shortest distance between two points is
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a straight line, not a circle, from where I am right now to
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where I want to be. And I'm not going to tell you that your
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destiny of choice has to be happiness. That's up to you. I'm not
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the destiny police. You decide what destiny you want. But once you've decided
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what it is, ask yourself, what is the shortest distance. Do you
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want to be one with the divine? Do you want to experience milkshy enlightenment,
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Samadi, that divine bliss, that self realization or God realization? Do
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you want to have a mansion? Do you want to have five cars?
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Do you want to have the neighbors jealous of you? Do you want to
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have the most number of followers on TikTok of anybody? You know? Right?
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I mean, you get to decide what you want, but spend some
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time really figuring out what is that ultimate destiny I want? And what is
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the sh the sordest distance from where I am to there? So that you
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don't end up going through this whole chuckerd to finally get there, and then
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from right now just start creating that, putting one foot in front of the
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other, getting closer and closer and closer, doing that which brings you closer,
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shedding the layers of that which you are not offering yourself, surrendering yourself
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fully because here's the other beautiful aspect. In many cases, the shortest line
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is just full surrender to God. God knows where your destiny is. God
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knows what you need, that's why you're here. God knows everything. So
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that's also if you are a devotee of God. In many cases that's the
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shortest and easiest line is just fully surrender to the divine at your feet,
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use me, guide my path, show me the way thy will be done,
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the new surrender. Whatever happens, you know, it's prashad. So
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that's another way to do it if you are if you are a devotee of
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in the shoes, Welcome back to inspiration and transformation. I'm so glad to
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have you all back here with me. So how can we stay spiritual and
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also get ahead professionally? Right? If other people are using cheating methods or
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dishonest methods to get ahead, how can we stay spiritual and still be successful
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professionally. Well, you've got to ask yourself what you mean by professional.
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You've got to ask yourself what do you mean by that? What does professional
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mean to you? Are you prepared to give up your values, your ethics,
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your spiritual connection just for more money, just for more clients, just
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for more exposure, just for more business. You shouldn't be. And the
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truth is, in many cases, not all by any means, but in
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many of them, you're absolutely right. If we did an in depth investigation
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into a hundred people who were very, very successful in business, I think
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you're right that we would find a lot of them who were doing things that
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were not necessarily honest or dharmaic. But you're also going to find a lot
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who are honest and who are dharmick. But your question to me needs to
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actually be different. The purpose of our life is not how successful in business
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can I become? Yes, there needs to be enough money to eat,
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There needs to be enough money to have a roof over our heads, there
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needs to be enough money to have sweaters in the winter time. But beyond
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that, the question is how much is enough? At what point am I
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going to feel satisfied. How much more than my basic needs do I really
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need? Feel enough? Is it ever enough? Right? I mean,
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there's always more to go. There's always someone who's going to be richer than
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you are or more successful than you are. When you don't have anything.
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You want to make a thousand rupees, You make a thousand rupees. Then
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you want to make ten thousand rupees. You make ten thousand rupees. You
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want to make a lack of rupees, make a lack of rupees. You
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want to be someone who makes ten lacks of rupees, Make ten lacks of
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rupees. Well, I want to make a coura rupees. That guy's making
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a coura rupees? Why there's nowhere it ends? And so you need to
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ask yourself when is enough? And don't let yourself get brainwashed by a society
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that tells you it's never enough. Really ask yourself. Have you know an
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annual self check in, an annual family check in. I'm not saying you
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have to do it every day, but once a year, maybe twice a
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year, just check in, like are we on track? Are we on
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track? Is our balance between number of hours spent working a number of hours
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spent not working in our spiritual practices, in save a, giving back,
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being with the family. Is that balance going right for me? Am I
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still so young and struggling that I have to work one hundred hour a week
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to put food on the table to send my kids to school? Or am
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I now? Am I okay? And I can actually start thinking about spending
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some time every day in sava, spending some time every day meditating, doing
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yoga, more time with the family, time and nature, whatever it may
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be. Make sure that you decide that not the culture that's constantly saying you
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don't have enough. You'll never have enough. It's never enough. But the
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other question you also need to ask yourself is how much of my values,
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ethics, priorities, spiritual beliefs am I prepared to sacrifice to get ahead?
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Ideally, I would say the question should be as close to zero as possible.
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But you know, I've had people. I've had people who were really
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not doing well financially at all say things like, well, what if the
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only job I can get, the only way I can feed my family is
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to work in some non veg restaurant, Like what if I don't work in
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that non veg restaurant and so I can't feed my family. Well, in
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the scheme of things, feeding your family is a higher dharma, a higher
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duty than having, by no choice of your own, temporarily to be part
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of an industry that you don't believe in. Obviously, I would say,
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find any other job if you can. But if your choice really is my
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family starves or I work at McDonald's, i'd say work at McDonald's. Feed
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your family, But be looking for another job and all your spare time.
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Make up for it by seeing how many people who aren't vegetarians you can convert
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to being vegetarian because you don't want to. You don't want to spend the
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time of your day the energy of your life, your sacred ogius, that
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energy of you, and something that is out of line with your own beliefs,
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because that SAPs your energy alive. So find a way to make a
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living that's in alignment with your belief in alignment with your values, that gives
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you time for a spiritual life, that enables you to live with honesty,
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with truthfulness, with compassion, with dharma, with integrity. You're going to
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be much happier at the end of the day and the end of your life.
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I've never ever heard of anybody who, at the end of their life
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says, God, I wish I had prayed less and worked more. God,
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I wish I had done less yogan meditation and more work so I had
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made more money. You never hear that. You never hear people say,
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God, I wish I had compromised my values more. I wish I had
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been less true to myself. No one says that. They always say the
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opposite. God, I wish that I had lived in truth. I wish
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I had had the courage to stand up for what I know is write what
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I believe in. I wish I hadn't been so swept up in a culture,
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in a society that says make money at all costs, So live according
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to your highest truth. Not only are you going to feel happier, but
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it's actually the best teaching you can give your kids, because otherwise our kids
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grow up thinking that, yeah, that's the way to do it. Have
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a set of beliefs, have a set of priorities, have a set of
26:38
values, and then throw them all in the trash in order to make some
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money. What are we teaching our kids? And what you'll find is that
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the systems of your body, your digestion, your ability to sleep, your
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nerve system, your blood pressure, you're cholesterol. Everything starts functioning much better
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when you live in alignment with what you believe, and when you're out of
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alignment, then we end up as I think it was the Dalai Lama who
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said, we give up all of our health in order to make money,
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and then we try to spend all of our money regaining our health. But
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you can't actually do that. So stay in alignment, because no amount of
27:40
money can buy your peace or buy your joy or buy your health. You've
27:48
got to create that, and that's worth more than all of the financial success
27:55
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to recognize. Learn why and I am Hunger in America dot Org brought to
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you by Feeding America and the AD Council. Welcome back. This is Sadvi
29:36
Bagoviti Saraswati with inspiration and transformation. I hit the greatest inspiration from my Guru,
29:47
from fujaswamij To witness a being who literally dedicates devotes every single minute of
30:02
his life, every breath, in the service of others is the most incredibly
30:08
inspirational thing that I could ever imagine. If you simply told me about him,
30:18
I would say, Eh, not true. You must not actually see
30:22
everything. Impossible. Yeah, maybe for a week on end, maybe for
30:30
a couple weeks on end, but impossible that anybody actually is like that.
30:37
And if I hadn't had the blessing of being here for more than twenty six
30:45
years watching him every day, I wouldn't believe it. But here's what's even
30:56
more inspiring about it. He loves it. It's not something he does because
31:03
there's a sense of, oh, I've got to do it. The earth
31:11
is my child, my child is in trouble, I've got to do it.
31:18
But he doesn't actually with joy and with love, not only because he
31:22
loves those he serves, but because he actually loves the very act of service.
31:29
And those are two different things. Parents serve their children at all hours
31:36
of the day and night because they love their children. But when they're awake
31:41
at two in the morning because one of the children has had a nightmare or
31:48
an upset stomach, they're awake because they love the child, but they're not
31:53
necessarily loving being awake doing whatever they're doing at two o'clock in the morning.
32:00
He not only loves those he serves, which means everyone, not even only
32:08
the humans, I mean every species mother Earth, everything, But he actually
32:15
loves the act of service. And that is incredible to me to see the
32:23
joy, the absolute unchanging commitment and dedication of every minute, every moment.
32:39
There's a story that I tell in my memoir Hollywood to the Himalias, but
32:47
I will I'll tell it now under the assumption that most of you haven't read
32:52
it yet. You can get copies by the way on your way out.
32:55
But there's a chapter in it in which I shared the story of how back
33:05
in twenty twelve, we had just celebrated his sixtieth birthday, which was a
33:13
big, huge event. We had done. I had just written, actually
33:17
his biography. It had just been published. The Encyclopedia of Hinduism, which
33:23
I was the managing editor of, was just finally published, done, and
33:30
we were shifting from the Indian publishers to the international publishers. Work was done.
33:39
It had been between that, between so much else that's always going on,
33:45
all of the schools and the women's programs and the ongoing work. It
33:51
had been a very, very very overfull in my eyes, last several years.
33:58
We were flying, we had to go to Tokyo. There was an
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event in Tokyo, and about five six days later, there was an event
34:07
in California. And I said to him, I said, you know,
34:13
we've got these few days in between Japan and California. You've got these devotees
34:20
who live on the Big Island of Hawaii who have been telling you for years
34:25
to please come and visit. I said, what do you think about stopping
34:31
over in Hawaii for a few days in between Japan and California for a little
34:38
I couldn't say vacation, because vacation's like, you know, a four letter
34:43
word around here, but just a few days. I needed a break.
34:49
I was I was tired, I was feeling burned out, and I felt
34:57
like a few days in Hawaii was just going to be exactly what the doctor
35:00
ordered. And so I said, what do you think? And he said,
35:06
okay. Amazingly. I mean, I was shocked that he said okay,
35:08
but he must have known I was struggling, so he says, okay.
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So we get there in the evening. We've got three four days that
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we're going to be there. We get there in the evening, go to
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sleep. Next morning, I wake up early and then I go back to
35:27
sleep because it's holiday, right, So I turn around, I go back
35:31
to sleep, and I wake up sometime a few hours later. It's mid
35:37
morning, and I go outside and these people were staying with have this beautiful
35:44
home. It's overlooking the Pacific Ocean, beautiful back deck with a swimming pool,
35:51
literally right overlooking the ocean. Phujaswantaje's had his breakfast and he's sitting at
35:57
their table overlooking the and he's writing. And I bow and I say,
36:04
how are you? He says, oh, wonderful, And I said what
36:08
are you writing? Like, why are you working? And he says,
36:15
I'm just almost done planning where all of the toilets are going to go in
36:22
the upcoming Kumbamela. Now, the Kumbomela is this huge, massive, biggest,
36:30
spiritual, biggest gathering of any kind on Earth. Hundreds of millions of
36:36
people. In January of twenty thirteen, there was going to be a Maha
36:42
Komb in pray Agraj. We were doing this huge clean Komb green coomb program
36:51
there with cleanliness and sanitation. And I said, you're doing what and he
37:00
says yes. He says, before breakfast, I planned all of the toilets
37:04
for the whole char dam Yatra, the whole pilgrimage area into the Himalias.
37:08
He said, So now I'm already working on the ones for the Kumomela.
37:15
Now picture the scene Hawaii, beautiful backyard balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean, And
37:25
what's he doing planning where he's going to put toilets so that the hundreds of
37:36
millions of people who come to have a bath in the confluence of Gangha Yeam
37:43
Nasaraswati are going to be able to do so in a place that is clean
37:52
without there being you know, poop everywhere, and so that there isn't open
37:59
defecational along the banks of these sacred rivers that pollute the rivers. And I
38:07
share that story because it goes into a longer teaching afterwards in which he makes
38:15
it really clear this isn't work for him, This is life, this is
38:21
love. And so for me that's the inspiration is how to actually live in
38:30
such a way that planning toilets is your vacation, that doing for others,
38:39
whatever it may be, that that is your holiday, that that is your
38:51
joy. And lastly, on a completely separate subject, but also an answer
38:59
to your question, the other place I take inspiration, aside from the scriptures,
39:05
of course, is from nature. I take a lot of inspiration from
39:09
nature a lot of the times. If I'm looking for answers or ways to
39:15
be, and if the way that my guru is sometimes feels like well maybe
39:22
next life, maybe next life I'll be able to attain that, I then
39:29
I look to nature because I feel like nature really gives us such beautiful lessons.
39:42
Everything that we look for, how to do, how to understand,
39:46
Nature's got an answer, an answer about how to live. So frequently in
39:53
Setsung, I'll draw upon inspiration from nature. Look at how nature does this,
39:59
look, how Nature does that. So for me, that's my other
40:04
very great source of inspiration. I feel that Mother Nature is the place to
40:08
look to understand how to be when we're not affected, impacted, blinded,
40:21
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This is Kathy Biele, host of Celestial Compass featuring astrology. You can use
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Celestial Compass points you to what's going on in the sky and what you can
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do with it down here on Earth. We also explore fun, effective and
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cosmic tools for navigating this adventure we call life. Join me the first and
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It's enlightening, entertaining, and empowering. Every two minutes an American is sexually
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assaulted. The majority of victims know their attacker. It could be your friend,
41:37
your neighbor, or someone you met at a party. If you said
41:39
no, it's rape and it's a crime. This is Christina Ricci with RAIN
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called the National Sexual Assault Hotline today at one eight hundred sixty five six Hope
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or visit RAIN dot org. That's r AI n N dot org. I'm
41:55
brought to you by RAIN and this station Welcome back. This is Sadvi Bogoviti
42:04
Saraswati with Inspiration and Transformation. I'm so glad that your husband went back a
42:10
vegan. That's fantastic news. You'd have to ask him exactly which argument I
42:22
gave him that after you'd been trying to convince him and it didn't work,
42:27
that that one argument did. First of all, you have to realize that
42:30
a lot of times we tend, sadly not to take what our family members
42:37
say very seriously anyway. So there's a lot of times where what I say
42:45
to children, for example, might be very similar to what their mother or
42:51
father have been saying, but somehow they're going to take it not from their
42:59
mother or father, but they'll take it from me. Similar thing with husbands
43:04
and wives. So it's possible that I gave some fantastic, very unusual argument
43:13
that made him vegan. And it's possible also just that he heard it from
43:16
me rather than from his wife. But for me, the most powerful arguments
43:24
for a vegan diet for those who are not already vegan. See, what
43:32
you have to realize is anyone who deeply believes that the cow is holy and
43:39
should not be eaten should not be harmed already, at least as a vegetarian.
43:47
So beginning with arguments about the holiness of the cow don't make a lot
43:52
of sense because clearly, if they're eating meat, they don't think the cow
43:58
is holy to begin with, so you're not going to get very far with
44:01
that argument. Similarly, giving arguments like the animals are our sisters and brothers,
44:10
or they're all God's creatures. Again, these are very true and I
44:15
believe them, but they're also very obvious. Meaning if someone believes that they're
44:23
already not eating animals, and if they don't already believe that, you,
44:29
simply telling them that the animals are our sisters and brothers is not going to
44:34
make them believe that. The arguments that I find work the best are the
44:42
ones that people haven't thought of and the ones that tap into what most of
44:49
us do believe. So let's say I don't think the cow is holy.
44:54
Let's say, I do not believe that animals are our sisters and brothers.
45:00
I do not believe that they are God's creatures in the same way we are.
45:06
Let's say I believe that God has put the animals on earth for us
45:09
to eat them. Okay, it's not true, but just for argument's sake,
45:14
let's say that's where I'm coming from. Well, then you're not going
45:17
to get anywhere with me talking about holiness and one family and whatnot. So
45:25
instead I ask things like, what do you think about climate change? You're
45:34
worried about climate change? Are you worried about water shortages? I mean,
45:40
the United Nations says that by twenty forty, the world is only going to
45:45
have half the water it needs. In India, it'll be twenty thirty.
45:52
What do you think about children dying of starvation in Africa and other countries?
45:55
Like do you think that's okay? Tens of thousands of children die every day
46:01
of starvation. You're going to be hard pressed to find someone who says,
46:07
oh, I think that's okay. Almost everyone you ask would say, oh
46:13
my god, yeah, that's really wrong. Most people don't know that tens
46:17
of thousands of children every day die of starvation. And what most people will
46:23
say is that's a tragedy. We should make more food, we should grow
46:30
more food, we should feed that. And then you get to say,
46:35
well, actually, did you know that we actually produce enough food, enough
46:43
grain, rice, wheat, corn, soy to feed ten billion people a
46:52
day. There's only eight billion ish on the planet. Not one person has
47:00
to sleep hungry today. Almost one billion people go to sleep hungry every night,
47:07
and we produce enough food for ten billion more. The problem is all
47:13
of that grain is not being used to feed people. It's being used to
47:17
feed cows and pigs and chickens who become hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken McNuggets.
47:25
And by cycling our grain through livestock, we end up with a food
47:31
shortage because it takes sixteen times as much grain to get beef as it does
47:40
to get vegetarian food. So let's say I have sixteen pounds of wheat.
47:46
Okay, Well, out of those sixteen pounds of wheat, I can make
47:52
sixteen pounds of bread, sixteen pounds of pasta, or one pound of meat.
48:06
See to get one pound of meat, I've got to feed that cow
48:08
sixteen pounds of grain. So the question becomes, do you really think that
48:15
you deserve the food for fifteen other people? Like exactly what religion are you
48:22
that tells you that you deserve the food for fifteen other people they should starve
48:28
so you can eat meat. So things like that are really really hard to
48:34
argue with. Similarly, water, the amount of water, I mean,
48:40
if you talk to people about water. Our government is doing this fantastic Mission
48:46
Life program right to teach not only Indians but people all over the world how
48:53
to help abate climate change, how to help protect the environment, how to
48:59
say of water. Turn off the tap while you're brushing your teeth, turn
49:05
off the tap while you're lathering up for your twenty seconds with soap. Bathe
49:10
from a bucket rather than a shower that just keeps pouring down on you.
49:15
And that's great, But the amount of water that you use in the production
49:22
of meat is the same amount of water. One meal of hamburgers is the
49:30
same amount of water that goes into your bath. For six months. If
49:37
you bathe every day not from a bucket but from a shower, the amount
49:45
of water that you use in six months is the same amount of water that
49:49
goes into one meal of hamburgers. And if you bathe from a bucket,
49:54
then it's more like the amount of water that you would use, you know,
49:59
in a year, So you'd have to literally not bathe for between six
50:07
months to a year depending on your bathing habits, in order to offset the
50:13
amount of water wasted in that production of hamburgers. So these sorts of statistics
50:20
are really powerful, and they're the ones that I use with people who are
50:28
not already vegetarian or vegan, because I feel like the spiritual arguments everybody,
50:35
they're there, they're obvious, and if I haven't yet changed my eating habits,
50:40
it means that I don't believe that or that doesn't touch me. Lastly,
50:46
the vegan aspect. You know, in India, when we talk about
50:51
vegetarian, it includes not eating eggs. In the West, the gap between
50:59
vegetarian and vegan because eggs and dairy. But in India the gap is only
51:04
dairy because as vegetarians we already don't eat eggs. And there are people and
51:12
places like this. Ostroum is one of them. Some people I stayed with
51:15
and I'm the bad day before yesterday, and other ones who actually have their
51:20
own cows and the cows are treated like members of the family, fed with
51:27
the rest of the families, the babies live with them. It's literally like
51:32
you know, the in law annex, call it a ghoshala, call it
51:39
the guesthouse, call it the in law annex. But they're really treated like
51:45
that, loved cared for. Nobody ever gets killed or harmed, nothing like
51:50
that. And in cases like that, assuming that the cows are fed organically,
51:57
that you never give them antibiotics or steroids or anything like that, well
52:00
then the milk is nectar and it's taken like prashad. But if that milk
52:09
is coming from a commercial dairy, then it's violence because of the way that
52:15
the cows are being treated. And anyone who doesn't know this just go to
52:20
YouTube. Pull out your phone, go to YouTube. Search for videos on
52:25
the way that dairy cows are treated. There's hundreds of them, and you
52:31
will see the treatment of the being we call go mata in these dairies,
52:42
being beaten, the baby's stolen away the minute she gives them, being literally
52:52
raped. If you see the way these these guys who work in the dairies,
53:00
because all these cows are artificially inseminated and if you see the way that
53:05
these men, and this is all on video, are artificially inseminating them,
53:10
literally sticking their entire arms. I'm sorry to be vulgar, but it's the
53:16
current truth of the situation, literally sticking their entire arms inside of her with
53:22
a needle to artificially impregnate her, calling her the sorts of names that you
53:29
would call a prostitute. All of this is on video. She's literally being
53:37
raped, and so it's violence. She may not being killed today, but
53:45
the menu at her milk production lessons, then she's killed. Then she sold
53:50
off to the beef farmers, so we stop drinking milk because we love mother
54:00
cow. And that's another great thing, is there's so many, so many
54:06
people, the vast majority of people in this country are vegetarians, because we
54:10
do love mother cow, because we do believe that she's holy and sacred.
54:16
And if you can help people understand the way that most of the commercial dairies
54:21
are treating her, they'll realize it's just as violent as eating meat. And
54:29
so frequently the dairies and the meat industries are together, because if I've got
54:32
a dairy cow that no longer gives me milk. I'm selling her off to
54:38
the beef people. When she gives birth to babies, I'm selling them off
54:44
to the beef people. So they're working as one team. So that should
54:54
give you enough gentle and life but strong ammunition in this this battle of love,
55:10
nonviolent battle of love and nonviolence. Yeah, thank you. This brings
55:19
to a close, this hour of inspiration and transformation. Thank you so much
55:27
for joining me. I'm so glad to be together with you all each week,
55:34
and I look forward to being together again next Thursday, same time on
55:40
Home Times Radio