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Why Do We Crave What’s Bad for Us? · Inspiration and Transformation

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Welcome to inspiration and transformation from the banks of the Gunga with Sadvi Bagwati Saraswati,
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an American Sanyasi living at the parmarth Nikitan 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 Wasash 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 Pujiaswami Chintenant 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. How can I teach myself to listen to Mother Gunga?
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Is there a way to receive her message? So I was speaking the
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other night about just sitting on the banks of Gunga and listening to her.
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Now, when we think about a message from the Divine, whether we say
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a message from God, a message from Gunga, a message from the divine
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in any way. We've got these really kind of preset ideas of how we
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think it's going to come, you know, like some shining neon flashing light
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as you're driving down the freeway and you can't miss it, and it's very
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bright, and it's going to shine in all capital letters, very very easy
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to read. And they don't always come like that. The messages come in
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so many different ways. So when we listen, we don't listen only with
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our ears that speak language, that understand language and words. We listen also
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with our hearts. We listen with our inner being, because you could hear
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that message in so many different ways. I know, throughout my life I've
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I've gotten so many messages. I hear so much. But it's it's not
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always verbal. It's not like I'm walking on the banks of Gunga and she
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says, hates, I've got a secret. It's not like that. It's
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it's a knowing that comes from within. Now again, sometimes people hear actual
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voices. I heard one once when I was walking through this ashram at the
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very beginning, and it said you must stay here. But that was the
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only the only time that I've ever heard it quite like that in terms of
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this really external voice speaking to me. The rest of times, the different
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messages seem to come in different ways within Sometimes they come slowly. Sometimes it's
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that in one moment, Oh my God, you can see it, understand
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it clearly. Gunga is the giver of liberation. That's why she's here on
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earth. The story of Mother Ganga is a story of the goddess who was
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living in heaven and came on to earth actually to give liberation to the fallen
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sons, the piles of ashes that were the sons of a king named King
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Sagar. Long story, but essentially, his army worth of sons had managed
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to insult a great sage while he was meditating, and when the sage opened
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his eyes, the power in his eyes literally turned all of these young men
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into ash. Now, in the Hindu tradition, there's a huge emphasis on
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final rights of a loved one when they die, to make sure that their
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souls become one with God, that they're not stuck in what we call the
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wheel of some Sada, this constant cycle of birth and death and birth and
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death and birth and death borne out of ignorance and attachment and illusion. So
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there's this huge emphasis on that. So naturally King Sagar was breft because what
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are you going to do with all of these ashes that were actually in the
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underworld. And so he was told, well, if Gunga comes on the
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earth, and if she flows as a river over the piles of ashes of
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your sons, they will attain liberation. Even though they died this death by
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insulting a sage. Still, if Gunga flows over them, they will get
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ultimate liberation. So he prayed, then his son prayed, Then his grandson,
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King bug it Up did incredible amounts of sadna, incredible and finally Gunga
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came on earth. Now I mentioned this because Gunga's essence is too free us
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to grant us that freedom from ignorance, from attachments. It's not just when
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you die your ashes are immersed in Gana and you attain liberation. It's while
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you're living, freedom from that which is keeping you stuck, freedom from that
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which makes us feel dead, even though our heart is still beating and we're
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still in a body. So if you were to say what's the message of
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Gunga, Well, Gunga is gonna bless you in your own individual way,
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in your own individual relationship with her, in a way that's going to give
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you some freedom, some spaciousness inside of you to understand the divinity of you.
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Gunga is not going to give you a message and say this university versus
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that one, or this job over that one, or yeah, take him
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back. He's a good catch. You know. She's not making those sorts
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of decisions for you. She's going to speak to you in a way in
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which you're going to find freedom from things that are making you stuck grudges.
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You'll find that Gunga eases you into forgiveness, that she eases you into letting
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go, that she eases you into ease, that she creates in you some
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space between your true self and all of this ignorance, all of the stuff
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that's keeping you stock. So don't expect a particular voice, a particular way
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that she's going to speak, but just sit on her banks and allow that
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flow to flow not only in front of you but through you. One of
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my favorite meditations, and it's very powerful this time of year, where the
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flow of Gana is still very high, and you can hear her very easily
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is to sit on the banks of Gunga and as you meditate, as you
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hear her waters, as you feel even the mist from her waters, feel
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them flowing through you, not just in front of you. And as you
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feel that, feel like she's literally resting from within you. Junk. I
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think of myself sometimes. You know one of those pots after you've cooked,
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and there's gunk stuck on the inside of the pot. But if you soak
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it for a while in water, and then you run it under really strong
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water, it helps get all of the gunk out from in the pot.
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And when I feel Gunga flowing through me, for me, the visualization is
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always that of flow through me, and get this gunk out of me.
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All of these vestiges of past grudges or past angers, or past attachments or
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false identification or jealousies or anger or competition, or all of these things that
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are blocking our channel from feeling that flow of the divine. You can think
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of it as like plaque on your arteries and getting some kind of very special
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treatment of just this high powered, high pressure flow through that artery, also
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pulling out all of the plaque gunk from the sides of the blood vessel,
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and just feel that water flowing through you, freeing you. And don't worry
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if you hear her message in words, or you just feel the presence of
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this mother river freeing you from whatever it is that's making you stock and you'll
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feel her. I promise. I can't say you'll definitely hear her in words,
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but don't worry. It doesn't matter. Sometimes the mother speaks to us
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in words. Sometimes mom just pulls us into her lap and holds us.
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And if you're a child pulled into the lap of the mother, you never
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think, well, why is she not speaking to me? You know she
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is speaking to me. You feel her. You're in the lap of the
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mother, So just let yourself feel that. And if words arise, beautiful.
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Welcome back to inspiration and transformation. I'm so glad to have you all
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back here with me. How do we take care of our mind? How
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do we keep our mind fit? By clearing the baggage, by clearing out
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the junk. We are looking for peace, We're looking for joy, We're
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looking for that divine experience. But there's so much chaos happening inside of us.
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That mind is constantly clamoring. It wants more, it wants different,
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it wants better, it wants so the nature of our being is actually exactly
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what we want, that piece, that joy, that is our nature,
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our divine nature. But then we've got this mind playing its games, and
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so then we go out in search of peace and joy, when really it's
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all about just removing the nonsense. I'll show you that. We'll do it
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a fun participatory experience, and we'll take this as our last question. But
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so I'm raising my hand, Karen, Can you just raise your hand?
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Okay? Can y'all see Karen, see me, see Karen. So we're
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going to call this the center. There's also an aisle back there, so
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we'll call this the center. Now, those of you you can put it
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down. Those of you on this side, on my right side, Karen's
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my left side, Karen's right side. You're a group one. Okay.
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If you're group one, raise your hand. Great. This side is group
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two. If you're group two, raise your hand. Okay. Great.
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Now, Group one, your job whenever I raise my hand on this side,
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your job is to chant ome okay, So let's just practice that.
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Okay, seriously, that's all you got. Come on, we've got all
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of you in the back this side. If you're group one, we're chanting
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ome good. Group two your job is to do something that you're not actually
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going to believe I've told you to do, but I really have, which
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is to make as much noise, just nonsense noise, what we call rucus
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as you possibly can, and I really mean it. Shout, stamp your
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feet, clap your hands, whatever it is. But when my hand goes
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up on this side, and then of course when I bring my hand down,
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it means stop. Is to make as much noise as you possibly can.
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Okay, one, two, three, Great, Now that was just
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to test you. Make sure everybody understood what their role was. Now pay
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attention to my arms, because if my arm is up on your side,
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you need to be doing your thing. Ome over here, ruckus over here.
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But if my hand comes down on your side, it means that side
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needs to become quiet. Now, okay, both sides now, Group one,
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the omer's did you start chanting home at the beginning or did you only
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start when these guys stopped making noise? Huh? Beginning? Everyone? Could
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anyone over here hear them? Sounded like they started only when you say stopped
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right? H For sure you were doing it from the beginning, yes,
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exactly. Now. I love this demonstration because this is the state of our
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mind. This overhears what we're going to call our true self, our true
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nature. Oom is the sound of the universe. We are of the universe.
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This oom is a symbol. I don't mean just the exact sound of
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home, but it is also a symbol of that piece, that divine connection.
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We're looking for, that calmness that in light and experience, and it's
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there, It's always there. The problem is this is also going on simultaneously,
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and as long as this is going on, we have no ability to
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access that. But the problem is what most of us do is we've got
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all this going on, and then we go out in search of home.
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How can I find peace? Well, you've got it. You just need
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to quiet the rucas. So making our minds fit is all about quieting the
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rucas. The home is there. We just have to get this to calm
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down. And this over here, this is our ego, this is our
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desires, this is competition, is jealousy, this is stories, this is
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drama. And so if we can develop a practice of letting this go into
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a jugna ceremony, into the fire, when you perform the fire ceremony with
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every handful of the what we call a hootie. The seeds and the geek,
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the herbs offer this. Ruckus offer the ego offer the games of the
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mind. Offer what's holding you back. Some grudge you have, some unfulfilled
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expectation, some competition, some jealousy, aspect of the ego. Offer it.
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Offer it into the waters of Mother Ganga. Stand there, hold her
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water in your hands, and just offer take my ego, take my anger.
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I'm done, I'm ready to be free. Just offer it. And
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when you meditate, those of you have been coming a satsung for a while,
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are watching for a while, you'll you'll know that very very frequently,
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when I leave meditation, I say, on the exhalations, just let go.
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Let go of another story, Let go of another desire, Let go
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of another grudge, Let go of another aspect of that story, that false
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identity. Just exhale into the universe. Let it go. But as long
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as we are attached to this, it doesn't matter how much ome you have,
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you'll never hear it. I purposely, by the way, if you
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look, you'll see this side has got a lot more people. It's not
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actually an even split slaw. More people over here. But I purposely did
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that, because even when you've got more people oming, it doesn't matter.
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The ruckiss will always drown it out. So if you really want this,
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you've got to be prepared to let go of your attachment to this. It's
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the only way. They say mun evamanushianam kut inambuda mukshayo. The mind is
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the key, the key to r bondage or the key to our freedom.
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It's up to us and this over here are the chains that keep us bound.
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This is Sadvi Bagavati Saraswati with inspiration and transformation. Why do we always crave
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things that are bad for us? Even with all of the really good for
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us options out there? Why do we crave that which is bad for us?
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Well, there's a lot of reasons. Actually it seems so counterintuitive.
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Why wouldn't we want that which is good for us? Well, when we
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are in alignment, we do. I remember my yoga teacher back in America.
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I used to say, people every once in a while would ask about
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overcoming things like smoking cigarettes, for example, and he always used to say,
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don't worry, don't push yourself to quit, just do more yoga,
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because the more yoga you do, you're going to get to a point where,
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automatically you just can't stand the idea of a cigarette, that it's going
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to become so incongruous with who you are that automatically all quit. When we
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are really living in full alignment, we do actually want what's best for us.
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You may have noticed when you're meditating, well, you're doing your yoga,
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you're living in alignment with your spiritual practices, with how you're serving in
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the world. You're much less likely to find range yourself, you know,
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scarfing down entire pints of ice cream or whole bags of chocolate chip cookies,
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or six packs of beer or things like that. We tend to find ourselves
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doing things like that. When we're out of alignment. We're depressed, we're
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jealous, we're bored, we're angry, We're living in a way that isn't
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an alignment. We've been staying away tonight, too late at night, therefore
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sleeping in in the morning, skipping our meditation, skipping our yoga. So
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if you bring yourself into alignment, if instead of beating yourself up about the
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ice cream or the cookies and giving yourself yet another thing to feel miserable about,
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instead of that, just recommit yourself to the practice that bring you in
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alignment. So that's one of the major reasons, is when we are not
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living in alignment with who we are and what's good for us on the deepest
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level, we're going to not crave that which is good for us on the
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outer level. When you are in great alignment, those are the times that
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you want those veggies. Like you're craving the veggies, you're craving salad,
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you're craving fresh fruit, You're craving things that are healthy because you're living a
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healthy life. You're living a life that isn't healthy. Is when you're craving
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the junk. But another reason is really very simple, which is I think
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of it as the insidious world of advertising, and it's this massive in industry,
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billions of dollars that is really focused on only one thing, which is
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getting us to buy their product. Now, if I'm the producer of organic
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salad leaves, I'm going to spend advertising money on trying to get you to
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buy organic salad leaves. But the organic salad leaf growers tend not to have
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the budgets that the makers of Big Max have, for example, And so
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what you're going to get is a lot of advertising that associates. And this
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is really the key. It's not going to advertise and say eat this thing,
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you'll feel sick. It's not going to say, you know, eat
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this and I promise you're not going to want to get out of bed tomorrow
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morning. It's not going to advertise it like that. It's going to be
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an advertisement of a bunch of friends and they're out together and they're loving each
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other's company. They're having a wonderful time and oh yeah, those are Big
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Max on the table. Or it's a happy family, a husband, a
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wife, some good looking kids and everybody's loving each other. They're all getting
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along and they're sitting down for Big Max. Now, what ends up happening
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is that subconsciously in our minds when we're feeling lonely, but we're feeling disconnected,
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we're feeling ungrounded, that unconscious association of oh big Max are the things
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that you know, bring friends together and they bring families together, and then
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suddenly you find yourself craving something that has nothing to do with actual food.
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I mean, you couldn't actually consider that really food anyway, but it doesn't
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actually have anything to do with what you're feeding your body, and it has
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everything to do with actually what you're looking for in your life. And this
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is how everything is sold. Shoes, handbags, mobile phones, food items,
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cars, whatever we're trying to sell, we sell them through selling happiness.
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You know, you take car commercials. These are some of my favorite
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examples. So car commercials tend to be one of two types. Either they're
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selling you freedom. So it's the convertible and you're driving off into the sunset,
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not a care in the world. Your hair is blowing in the wind,
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beautiful, full of vast vista. Now we're not selling a car,
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we're selling freedom. And people who are feeling stuck trapped in their lives unhappy
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see this. It's like, yeah, I want to drive off into the
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sunset with my hair flowing in the wind, and they identify that with the
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car, or we sell them as more of like your family vehicles. And
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so again it's a happy couple and the happy kids in the backseat, and
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you think, my god, my kids try to kill each other in the
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backseat. My husband and I scream at each other in the front seat,
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and subconsciously the mind goes, we need that car. Now, your logical
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mind knows that changing the brand of your car is not going to make your
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kids get along or you and your spouse get along, but subconsciously that's what
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happened. So the same thing is true with food, with alcohol, with
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all of these things that are not good for us. So don't worry about
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it, don't feel badly about it. But just if you do find yourself
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in the midst of cravings for things that you know aren't good for you,
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ask yourself, how have I gotten out of alignment? Why is it the
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things that I know aren't good are things that are calling to me? Where
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have I gotten out of alignment? And do what you can do to get
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back into alignment. Get back into your meditation, get back into your yoga,
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get back into your service, reconnect with loved ones, reconnect with your
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values. Read things that inspire you watch things that inspire you. And if
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you find that it's just, you know, something in your consciousness calling it
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to you, again, don't worry about it, and also don't overanalyze it,
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because it really could simply be nothing more than a billboard you saw on
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your way home that happened to hit you at a time when you were feeling
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frustrated or stock or upset, and it grabbed you at a time when you
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were vulnerable. And so now you're craving for that thing. But always ask
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yourself, what do I really want in this moment? What do I think
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I'm going to get through this ice cream, through the Big Mac, through
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the pizza, through the six pack, through whatever it is that I'm craving?
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Actually, what am I looking for? Certainly not a stomach ache,
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certainly not a hangover? What am I really looking for that I've misidentified as
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coming from that thing? And then of course the last piece being that you
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know, sometimes you're just in the mood for piece of pizza or bowl of
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hopefully vegan ice cream, And again, don't over analyze it. It's okay,
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nothing wrong with it if that's really all it is. For whatever reason
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you have a bowl of the ice cream, have a piece of pizza.
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There's nothing wrong with it or you as long as that's all it was.
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It was just a one time, quick thing. It came habit. It's
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okay, try to avoid the six pack in the big Mac. But if
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it's just you know, if it's just some pizza, some chocolate, whatever
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it may be, don't be too hard on yourself. It may just be
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a simple, you know, unconscious association. When you were young, Mom
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gave you this, Dad gave you that. Maybe it's the only way you
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know how to self nourish. You know, a lot of us, tragically,
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we're actually raised unconsciously to believe that. Guess what food is love?
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It's how a lot of us were parented in different ways, and so a
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lot of us associated with that. You know, so many parents all over
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the world, in doing their best in loving their family, what do they
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do They feed them? Oh, I love you so much. I baked
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two cupcakes. I love you so much. Here's some gulab jamuns. I
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love you so much, Or you have to have just one more because I
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made it for you and I love you. And so we grow up associating
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a really overfull, stuffed stomach with knowing that we're loved, and that's a
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hard pattern to break as we get older. See whether there's a way that
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you can find the real love you're looking for, the real nourishing nurturing that
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you're looking for, rather than just the stuffed stomach. But through it all,
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don't feel badly, don't judge yourself. There's so much that we're already
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feeling like we don't do quite right, and food becomes one of them.
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So go lightly on yourself, go easily on yourself, do that which is
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healthy for you. But what's most important, honestly, and I'm a I'm
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a big, a big payer of attention to food and to what's healthy and
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to research on what's healthy, And what all of the research shows is that
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actually more important than what goes in your body is how you feel about it.
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As big of a fan of green shakes as I am, the truth
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of the actual research is that in terms of the long term health benefits on
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your body, you are much worse off drinking a green shake while you're angry
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then you are eating a piece of pizza while you're happy. And so if
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depriving yourself in some way is making you feel angry and deprived and miserable,
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you're not actually benefiting yourself even on a physical level. What's important is that
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our mind is peaceful and joyful, and ideally, yes, we find joy
40:44
feeding ourselves things that are healthy for us. But if that's making you angry,
40:52
you're much better off eating something that's actually going to make you feel happy
40:57
about it, because that happiness is doing a lot more for your body than
41:08
all of the green shakes ever would. So get an alignment and then you'll
41:17
find that what's good for you is what makes you happy. But at other
41:21
times it's okay. We all have different ways of nourishing and nurturing ourselves,
41:30
and so just make sure that you are taking care of not just your waistline,
41:37
but your heart. This is OTRFM, part of the IOM Radio Network.
41:45
Home Times Magazine is one of the leading online content providers of positivity,
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Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle. Do you have time to read
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seven five seven six two two pet A Welcome back. This is Sadvi Bagavati
43:19
Saraswati with inspiration and transformation. Introspection and contemplation are the best ways to choose
43:29
your goals, and I would begin any goal setting activity with one very simple
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question. Let's say I'm setting a goal a month from now, or I'm
43:44
setting a goal for a year from now. Before you even think about the
43:49
goal, ask yourself one very simple question, how do I want to be
43:55
one month from now? How do I want to be one year from now?
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If I had a magic wand and I could compress time in such a
44:07
way that I didn't even have to do the work, didn't have to set
44:09
the goal, didn't have to do the work, I could just magic wand
44:14
that, what would it be? So we were just talking about, you
44:20
know, food, Well, so a goal might be I would like to
44:25
be healthy, or if you say six months from now, I would like
44:31
to have a healthy body. Okay, well, then the goals are clear.
44:36
What is it in your body that's currently unhealthy and you've set goals accordingly,
44:40
I'd like my cholesterol to come down to normal. I'd like to lose
44:45
some weight if I'm overweight. But on other levels, you know, it's
44:52
so easy to set goals based on what society says we should want, as
44:59
if some how the highest goal that we should all strive for is more money,
45:05
more success on that level, more power, and so people run after
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that. But if you're really honest with yourself, ask yourself, what do
45:16
I really want? And if you don't know, a good way to check
45:22
in is to say, well, over all the years of my life,
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what have been my happiest moments. What have been the moments that have felt
45:37
the most satisfying, the most deeply enriching, the most full and fulfilled moments
45:45
of my life? Chances are they weren't shopping trips. Chances are they weren't
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new purchases or deposits into your bank account. They're going to be times that
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you made a difference in someone else's life, Times that you deeply shared and
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connected with another being, times that you connected with the divine, times that
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you experientially understood your true self that you felt it, times that you felt
46:31
at one oneness with others, with the universe, with nature, with God.
46:42
And so, using just a purely scientific way, find out from yourself
46:53
what actually gives me deep fulfillment, what gives me deep joy? And then
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I ask yourself, how can I have more of that? So, for
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example, if you're like most people in the world, you are running after
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making more money, which means that you are spending lots of long hours in
47:28
the office. Maybe you've got a long commute also. But when you ask
47:35
yourself what the most meaningful times of your life are, they're going to be,
47:39
for example, playing with your kids. And yet you've made a decision
47:46
to have a job that's two hours away because you make an extra a few
47:52
hundred or few thousand dollars a month at that job. But now you leave
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home while the kids are still this sleep when you come home after they're a
48:00
sleep, so you've made a decision in alignment with a goal that isn't even
48:10
in alignment with actually what you want in your life. And so when you
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go to set goals, before you do that, really ask yourself what brings
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me deep meaning? And when I say joy, I don't mean well,
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you know, I like to go to parties. Not the type of joy
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that wears off right away, not the oh I like comedy movies, but
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the deep joy, the lasting joy, the joy on a soul level.
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That's not I was enjoying the movie till my cokes building my lap. Now
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I'm no longer enjoying the movie. But really deep parts soul level, and
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then set goals that are in alignment with having more of that and along with
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that. So that's one list you should make before you set your goals.
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And the other list you should make is what are my values? So what
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brings me joy, meaning fulfillment, and what are my personal values? What
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do I believe makes for a right life what we would call a dharmaic life
49:45
or a yogic life. What are those things? What are my values?
49:55
For example, do I value generosity? Do I value service? Do I
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value protection of the environment? Do I value honesty and integrity? I mean,
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there's so many things we value. But really ask yourself, what are
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your core values? If somebody said to you, what are the ten values
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or five values or seven values that if you had to align your life along
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a set of values so that at the end of your life you could look
50:44
back and say, yeah, yeah, I did it, whether you die
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tomorrow or seventy years from now, in such a way, what would be
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those values so that you would look back on your life and say, yeah,
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I did it. And then you look at those two lists, what
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brings you the greatest joy, the greatest deepest meaning fulfillment and what are your
51:19
values, and then set goals accordingly. If generosity, for example, is
51:27
one of my values, and I know that I love service, will set
51:30
a goal around that. By six months from now, I want to have
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fed blank number of people. I want to have taught blank number of kids
51:43
how to read. I want to have planted blank number of trees. I
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want to have donated blank number of dollars euros, rupees to charities I believe
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in. However, your way of service may be set a goal like that.
52:02
If you value honesty and integrity, then set a goal that says six
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months from now, I want to be sure, or one year from now.
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It may take you a little while. I want to make sure that
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every aspect of my life, from how I make my money to how I
52:22
spend my money, is in alignment with honesty, with integrity, that for
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example, I'm not buying brands of things that are using slave labor or polluting
52:39
the environment. I'm going to divest my money from stocks that are polluting the
52:47
environment, or working women in children in sweatshops, or whatever they made be
52:53
doing. I'm going to really become conscious how I earn and how I spend.
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If integrity and honesty are core values of mine. So if you make
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those two lists, the goals are going to become really clear. And then
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of course you may some people I know set personal goals, then they set
53:23
relationship goals. They may set family goals. So you may have a personal
53:29
goal and then you may have a relationship goal. What is our collective goal
53:35
for six months from now? Spending time with each other was on both of
53:42
our lists of the things that fill us with the greatest joy. Can we
53:47
set a goal that six months from now we're going to be spending blank number
53:52
of hours a day or a week together? Set family goals? Said,
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however, many goals you want that are all according to what brings you the
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deepest, deepest meaning and fulfillment in your life, and it's in alignment with
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your values. So that if you know, as we say, the Lord
54:25
of death, if Lord Yum came to you in the night, you would
54:30
be sad that you know you've got to go, but that at least you'd
54:34
be able to look back and say, yeah, yeah, I lived really
54:38
in alignment, in alignment with what I believe, in alignment with my values,
54:45
because that's the stuff that actually makes us feel fulfilled when we go to
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sleep every night knowing, yeah, all those things I believe in, That's
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how I live today. I was honest, I was caring. I was
55:00
generous. I made people smile, I helped people. I spread love,
55:06
I spread peace. I didn't harm anyone or anything. Set your goals like
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that. This brings to a close, this hour of inspiration and transformation.
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Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so glad to be together with
55:31
you all each week, and I look forward to being together again next Thursday,
55:38
same time on Home Time's Radio. But it can't be because bek go
56:44
Look but we can't. Oh the kind of get with I couldn't be any
57:00
hole in the