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Part 1: The Path of Renunciation and the Science of Yoga Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī Devīśvara Mahādeva kī Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān kī Satya Sanātana Dharma kī Nāma Karatā, Prabhu Nīpā Karatā, Mātā Karata Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Welcome to all. This weekend is dedicated to the name of our beloved Satguru Dev, Swāmī Mādhāvananda, to spread his divine message of non-violence and peace to the world. Yesterday was Non-Violence Day, declared by the United Nations in honor of Mahātma Gāndhī. We had a large program at the United Nations in Vienna. A question arose there: why did Mahatma Gandhi not receive the Nobel Prize? The answer was personally explained, though I did not hear it. Hundreds of great personalities have received the Nobel Prize, yet we often do not even know their names. Mahatma Gandhījī did not get, nor did he want, the Nobel Prize. Yet the whole world knows Gandhiji. For him, that prize was nothing. He said, "There are many great people, please give it to them." This was renunciation. Certainly, there were people who wanted Gandhijī to receive the prize, but his thought was renunciation. On this subject, our Gurujī said: enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice. These worldly titles and awards have no meaning. For social life, perhaps, but the purpose of human life is to achieve something different. To renounce is also an act of non-violence. Someone said, "Health is not everything." But without health, everything is nothing. The first happiness is a healthy body—the Mahāvākya of Āyurveda. And discipline. Patañjali said yoga begins with discipline. It begins now, not tomorrow. Do not think you will go home and then practice yoga, that you will buy a yoga mat. No, just now. Therefore, anuśāsana (discipline) is very important. We have among us our dear brothers and sisters from different parts of the world. One of them is a very famous, well-known scientist who was a director at NASA and still consults for them. He is Dr. Nāgendra. One can imagine the salary of the head of a NASA center. The average annual income of a Czech person is less than what such a director earns. And yes, he earned it. Money is not bad; that is why everyone loves it. You should earn money honestly, as much as you can. But how you use the money is the question. If you use it for humanitarian causes, for the environment, for many purposes, then you have done great work. To renounce money and position and just go sit in the forest under a tree—that is tyāga (renunciation). In the city of Bangalore—now spread over hundreds of kilometers—about 25 or 30 years ago, Dr. Nagendraji renounced everything. He came to Bangalore and founded a university, the Swami Vivekananda Yoga University. To build a university with all its buildings... if we want to make our bathroom bigger, it costs so much money we cannot finish it; we plan to put tiles after five years. But for the sake of people's health and environmental protection, Nāgendraji has given all his effort, his income, and his knowledge to create such a beautiful university and center for training in yoga and Āyurveda. Nineteen years ago, I was also there. He invited me many times every year, then he gave up because I never came. But we have remained in touch. Now he has a very large project, which they will speak about later. You see, God said, "Without giving, even I will not give you. Serve many lives, then I will give you." Without his asking, money flows there like the holy Gaṅgā. You know our respected Prime Minister Modijī, a great personality. He is a disciple of our Nāgendrajī; he learned to practice yoga with him. Therefore, there are no problems or difficulties. The government has given hundreds of hectares of land, now nearly in the middle of the city. His vision is worldwide: that yoga and Ayurveda, now working on a scientific level, can cure many, many diseases. People do not know this. In Europe, they do not want to write in books that you can cure disease through yoga; it is considered only supplementary. Now Nagendrajī is writing, and has already written a lot, about curing disease through yoga. Yoga cures disease. But you have to be an example. A doctor says, "Don't drink alcohol, drink water," and in the evening, the doctor himself drinks. After a certain time, do not go to a doctor for an injection; you do not know what kind of injection might be given. He was traveling yesterday by aeroplane from Vienna to India, or India to Vienna, and got an infection in his eye. Our dear doctor, Sital, wanted to run to the chemist and brought eye drops. He said, "I will put in some drops; it will be okay." Dr. Nagendra asked, "Is this medicine?" The doctor said, "Yes." He replied, "No, no, I do not use any medicine." He did not even take an eye drop. He is completely, through and through, organic. Today his eyes are okay. He cleaned his eyes with neem and put honey inside, and it is very good. But we must have confidence. His assistant, disciple—you can say his son, his disciple, his assistant, everything—is Manjunath, Dr. Manjunath. Dr. Manjunath is actually his son, assistant, and teacher. Now you can open your book or any papers where you want to write something, a block for writing. Because Manjunath will talk about yoga and therapy. I think this is very useful knowledge for all of us. "Yoga in Daily Life" is declared as a scientific system. There are doctors sitting here who were also researching. Yoga in their life is a system; it is not like practicing this and that randomly. Have you received our yoga book? I began to practice yoga with my Gurujī and with my father in 1962 or '61, and with my Gurujī in 1965, and then I began to travel. Of course, yoga is a wealth of science given by Lord Śiva. The copyright of yoga is God Śiva. Yoga is as old as Śiva when he manifests himself, Swayambhu. Yoga is as old as when Lord Śiva manifested. He appeared in meditation. So yoga and yugas (ages)—yoga is that old, for ages and ages. But now people want clarity, limiting it to Patañjali. Patañjali merely modified or compiled some Rāja Yoga into one book, the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra. How did Patañjali know about this? Because yoga existed before Patañjali. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa also gives 18 kinds of yoga. Before that, Bhagavān Rāma—there is a book from Bhagavān Rāma's time with Vasiṣṭha Muni. Vāśiṣṭha Muni was the guru of Rāma. There is a book where Vasiṣṭha Muni gives the knowledge of yoga to Rāma, called Yoga Vāsiṣṭha. So it existed. Now look: the Gaṅgā flows in the other direction. God, Rāma, and his Gurujī is teaching God about yoga. That is why: Guru Brahmā, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt Para Brahma, Tasmai Śrī Guru Ve Namaḥ. Rāma, Kṛṣṇa say... So there are four tattvas (principles): Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and Guru tattva. That is the highest element. In any act, any action, if you do something wrong—in words, feelings towards your Guru—you will definitely not get anything; you will not be perfect; you will fall down. Mānasā, vācā, kāraṇena—through mind, speech, and body. Never humiliate your guru. So what? Can God do something wrong? Gurudev can make a correction. But if Gurudev has done something, even God cannot correct it. Am I right? So do not take it lightly. And it does not matter which guru; not only your guru. Guru is only one; bodies are different. In Kali Yuga, people are falling down and down. Our dear Manjunath, Dr. Manjunath, is going to give a talk about therapy, treatment, and all values of yoga, with disciplines and nourishment. More important news is that respected Dr. Nagendraji is thinking of starting that kind of therapy and training here in our center, for yoga and Ayurveda. So we say, garbhete gaṅgāyī—the Gaṅgā has come to our house; we do not need to go to the Himālaya only to have a darśana of Gaṅgā there. Examinations will be at our university in Bangalore, Prasthāntī Gurukul. We will talk about that later. You will say, "We are waiting for him," and Swāmījī is giving a lecture. But when we explain, it is better. So, Nāgārjuna jī, please give him your blessing. Your disciple, Dr. Sava, please. The floor is yours. Hari Om. I am highly delighted; it is a great pleasure. First of all, I came here to listen. This is what happens when you are with your gurus. When they give you a task, you will never know. Now two gurus have given me the āgra (command) to talk. So, with my humble prostrations to both gurus and Bhagavān Anjimahārāj, I am going to share some details related to the science of yoga. I know most of you have been practicing yoga for a long time. I am also sure some questions might have come to your mind: when you do a particular practice, what may be happening inside your body? To understand this, at our university we started doing typical scientific research on yoga. When I was studying medicine, I had a lot of interest in yoga. But when I started practicing, many questions arose. As simple as this: there is one practice where you adopt a mudrā, close one nostril, and inhale and exhale from the other. It is called uni-nostril breathing, or in yoga, Sūrya Anuloma Viloma Prāṇāyāma or Candra Anuloma Viloma Prāṇāyāma. I was thinking, how does it matter? Because just two and a half inches behind, the air goes to the same passage. In yoga, we say close the left nostril, inhale and exhale through the right nostril—Sūrya Anuloma Viloma Prāṇāyāma—which is good for many things. We truly wanted to see if it is really possible. We have one of the best physiology and neuroscience laboratories at our university. We connected some students doing yoga and measured their heart function, brain function, and metabolic activity during right nostril breathing. To our surprise, we found that right nostril breathing causes intense stimulation in the body. The sympathetic nervous system, part of the autonomic nervous system, gets activated. Metabolic activity increases significantly. We do not rely solely on a scientific approach; we also look into ancient texts. There is a text called Svara Yoga which describes that in ancient times, when people's right nostril was active, they would perform certain activities; or, to perform aggressive actions, they would make the right nostril active. For example, if you want to go hunting, do an aggressive job, or become emotionally angry, make your right nostril active. Observe yourself when angry: you breathe very fast. Have you seen anyone showing anger while breathing very relaxed? If you do that, the other person will not think you are angry. There is a fantastic relationship between your breathing, your brain, your emotions, and all actions of your mind. That is why in yoga we use prāṇāyāma and meditation to regulate the mind. How nice it would be for all obese people. Today we cannot control our weight; we become obese quickly. You put on weight for 15 years and suddenly come to Swāmījī asking, "I have put on so much weight; I will come for 15 days of yoga therapy, please reduce 25 kilos." Is it possible? Many fitness centers can do that, but the body has its own physiology. You might lose weight but regain it quickly. Now imagine you do not need to go to any fitness center, run, or do strenuous exercises. Just sit peacefully at home, hold your left nostril, inhale and exhale through the right nostril for 27 rounds, 4 times a day. If your body weight can reduce drastically, though slowly, what a wonderful science it is. I am just talking about the tip of the iceberg. If you understand the effects of yoga scientifically, you can apply them in several areas. At our university, every student first does basic research to understand the effects of yoga practices. Then we use these techniques in disease management. Initially, there were many questions and objections from medical professionals. We were saying yoga was practiced 5,000 years ago, so it works. But today, for the medical community or anyone to accept what we say about yoga, it must be evidence-based. There are at least 8 to 10 diseases called stress and lifestyle disorders. Is anyone here not stressed at all? Except those living on this side, all of you are stressed sometimes. And we know how our lifestyle has changed. There are four components of lifestyle. First is our activity, including physical activity. It is nice to see a rural population where people still do a lot of physical activity. But how many of us have stopped and just sit on a chair all day? Second is your diet. We all know what we ate earlier and what we eat now. I am happy not to see any McDonald's here, though there are other brands. Diet plays a major role, along with physical activity; these two entities have a big impact. The third is your habits. When stressed, how do you relieve it? You do something nonsensical. We think getting addicted to something—alcohol, smoking, etc.—gives relief for some time. For example, under stress, I might start drinking alcohol, creating dependency. The last, but most important, is your mind. If you can control these four things, major present-day non-communicable or lifestyle disorders can be managed without medication. But we do not jump and say, "Stop all medicines, start yoga, and your diseases will disappear." For everything, there is a process. That is why we want to bring yoga onto the platform of integrative medicine. If you are a diabetic patient taking medication, and you start doing yoga along with your pills, then gradually, as advised by your doctor, you can modify the medicine usage. Subsequently, you may be able to manage without medicine, as prescribed. For example, with diabetes, you continue your drugs, start practicing yoga, and the doctor may reduce the doses thanks to yoga's effects. Eventually, you may reach a state where you can discontinue the drugs completely. We have seen excellent results using yoga in at least eight major conditions. The first is respiratory disorders, like bronchial asthma. Some people, due to allergies to external agents, get breathing difficulty. In most conditions, the problem is more inside than outside. Yoga makes that inside much stronger. I am talking about the immune system. If your immune system is stronger, outside agents cannot easily affect you. Nagendra Guruji and Dr. R. Nagaratna conducted the first-ever clinical research on bronchial asthma from 1978 to 1985. It was done like a typical drug trial, with two groups: one given yoga, another only medication, studied over 54 weeks. It was very important to see that regular yoga over a long duration can reverse a condition like bronchial asthma. This study was first published in the British Medical Journal. Until then, yoga was not used as therapy worldwide on a scientific platform. Some great yoga practitioners in India gave yoga as therapy, but scientifically, yoga was brought as therapy after this study. As we said, these four lifestyle factors play a major role. Many other diseases can be managed by regulating these four factors. This is an example of how our lifestyle components influence us, and conditions related to them can be addressed by repairing these components. One major disease today is diabetes. China is the diabetic capital of the world. India and China compete for many things, including becoming the diabetic capital, because India is fighting very well with China for this title, likely due to the large populations in both countries. Many people ask, "Yoga comes from India—how come diabetes is increasing in India?" The major culprit is lifestyle. Part 2: The Science of Yoga: A Bridge Between Ancient Wisdom and Modern Health Whether in India, Europe, America, or any other country, we have all moved away from our old lifestyles to an adopted, artificial way of living. Some of the fruits I see here are available in India today. The breakfast I had is available in India, and many activities we start here will reveal the commonalities we share. Diet and lifestyle have been traditionally well-designed based on regions, countries, and seasons. Many factors are crucial for aligning our diet and lifestyle with our environment. We have begun activities in China, establishing a large center in Shanghai. Our aim is not merely to replicate what is said in Āyurveda, but to find the best alternatives for the same principles within Traditional Chinese Medicine. Āyurvedic texts advise using regionally grown herbs. We can use such knowledge from Āyurveda to develop more localized treatments and therapies. Diabetes is increasing globally. The best way to manage and prevent it worldwide is by introducing yoga-based lifestyle modifications. How many of you here have already been diagnosed with diabetes? You can raise your hand. Good. So, there are... You see the whole mahalā, sumeru. The whole disciples have one master, who has the devilish. In fact, I also heard that whatever your problems are, your gurus will take them. Therefore, it is very important for us to understand this as early as possible. "Prevention is better than cure" was said long ago. How many of us give importance to prevention? I spoke about doing one hour of yoga daily, following a proper vegetarian diet, managing habits, avoiding smoking and alcohol, and keeping the mind relaxed. If we can do this, and there are special practices for diabetes, if we start practicing them—if you have any doubt that you might get diabetes—100% you will never become a full-blown diabetic. If you manage to do this and have any doubts about the possibility of having diabetes, you will not have it for sure; it will not develop fully. Dr. Kaśināth is from Manchester, one of the world's greatest experts on diabetes, so I say this in front of him. Today, yoga attracts not only medical practitioners but specialists like Dr. Kaśināth because they have seen the scientifically demonstrable benefits of yoga. We have the president of the Diabetes Association, Dr. Bolton—the boss of Dr. Kāśīnāth—who is so taken with the idea of preventive diabetology through yoga that he has become an advisor to a diabetes prevention program movement. These are just a few examples, whether in bronchial asthma or diabetes. But what is most important is to understand the philosophy behind this. When I attend and have the great opportunity to be with my Gurujī, Dr. Nagendrajī, and listen to his lectures, one thing I always remember is that we all have a special character, a special nature. We do what we are not supposed to do, and we won't do what we are supposed to do. Giving the example of diabetes: though we should not eat too many sweets, we are drawn to eat more. At the same time, we know we should get up early and do some yoga, which we never do. So there's... Yes? I was very clear; I never said you will never do. Only two hands came up when I asked, "How many of you are suffering from diabetes?" So I took it for granted that stress and lifestyle are taken care of. Perhaps I should have asked, "Who doesn't have diabetes?" Having said that, there are two aspects here: philosophy and science. The philosophy part says it is very easy to manage your stress. If you understand yoga philosophy, you probably don't need to worry too much about the scientific part. In the Patañjali Yoga Sūtras, there is one sūtra that talks about five stress-producing factors, called Kleśas: Avidyā, Asmitā, Rāga, Dveṣa, Abhiniveśa. A proper understanding of these five kleśas takes care of most of your problems. First, avidyā: if you have the knowledge about any given thing, you have no stress. Our stress stems from not having the knowledge required to handle a situation. For example, we were all supposed to come here. You had to make arrangements and collect all necessary information to make your trip pleasant. Some of you prepared well and are thoroughly enjoying it. A few, perhaps in a hurry, might not have taken care of certain things and may be suffering because of that. As simply as this: I come and sit here the whole day; my dress is important. If I forgot about my dress and came to the workshop, it pulls at my attention all through. Though I am attending Swamiji’s lecture, my attention is diverted. I go back getting 30, 40, 50% of the benefits, where I was supposed to get 100%. It is most important to have complete knowledge about any activity we do. Second is asmitā. I don't need to talk much about it; it's all about your ego. If you have no ego, no question arises for discussion. Forget not having ego; if you at least have a softened ego, life becomes very easy. Do I need to give examples of ego causing stress? No, right? Ego develops from as young an age as childhood. The minute you start understanding, your ego starts developing. When a father tells his son not to do something, the question arises: "Why am I not supposed to do it?" Starting from such simple inquiry, ego becomes strong. Gradually, you start making things such that whatever you do is correct, and whatever others do probably has mistakes. You gradually start losing the special quality of acceptance, and a series of changes happen because of this. This leads to the next two components: rāga and dveṣa (attachment and aversion). In the Bhagavad Gītā, there is one śloka most of you might have heard: > Dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaha saṅgas teṣu upajāyate, saṅgās sañjāyate kāmaha, kāmāt krodho vijāyate, krodho dbhavati sammoha, sammoha smṛti vibhramaha, smṛti brahmashāt buddhi nāshāt, buddhi nāshāt pranaśyate. This śloka explains the whole circle of events. We were talking about stress. It starts from repeated thinking. You have either liking or dislike; you start thinking about it again and again and become attached. Once attached, you want to possess it. If you possess it, it's okay. If you cannot possess it, you get anger. Anger leads to a series of activities that cause you to lose discrimination. Once your discriminative power is lost, you lose that special nature you have as a human being. We should be very happy today. God has given us this life as human beings. If you look at animals and humans, particularly the brain, one part is highly evolved in humans: the frontal lobe. In animals, this part is very small. This part of the brain has great capacity, helping with all activities related to discrimination. It is also called the character cortex. Why am I talking about this? In our research, this is the part of the brain shown to be most active during meditation. When we looked at functional MRI changes in meditators, it is interesting to see two areas consistently active. One regulates your attentional processes—the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The other regulates your emotions—the limbic cortex. We have looked at a series of meditation techniques, including OM meditation, dhāraṇā type, dhyāna type, and many others from across the world. Consistently, meditation influences these two parts of the brain. You should have clarity that you can use meditation and prāṇāyāma to influence different parts of the brain to get desired benefits. There are a series of conditions, like psychiatric ones, where there are imbalances in brain hormones. If you practice yoga in a particular series, you can influence the nervous system, the brain, the chemicals secreted, and actually modify any health condition. We have looked at depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety. It is very conclusive to say that if you practice one particular style or series of yoga, you can modify an individual suffering from depression and get them out of it. You might ask: Is yoga the same for all diseases? Definitely, it is not. For every disease, you have to give different yoga practices. Hence, we call them disease-specific yoga modules. Gurujī always says, "Can you make one medicine for all diseases?" Similarly, in yoga, there cannot be just one technique for managing all diseases. You need to understand an individual’s personality, design yoga therapy modules, and then get the best benefits. Apart from this, a range of conditions like heart disease, digestive disorders, metabolic syndrome, and a range of women’s health problems—particularly many young women suffering from polycystic ovarian disease, which affects their reproductive system, causing problems with menstrual cycles and reproduction—can be addressed. Many publications demonstrate yoga can reverse this condition. Lastly, one chronic condition many fear is cancer. Though we say in many conditions you can reverse the disease, we generally don't use the word "cure," particularly for cancer or many chronic conditions. Probably, you can use yoga to manage many problems related to cancer. We have a major research study at MD Anderson Cancer Center in America, giving yoga to breast cancer patients. Breast cancer incidence is increasing worldwide. There are two questions: First, conventional medical treatments like radiation therapy have many side effects. Can we reduce these side effects? Second, how can we improve the quality of life? We completed five years of this study, and the results are excellent. During radiation, side effects include hair loss, skin darkening, vomiting, and nausea. The yoga group, practicing for five years, showed significantly lower side effects, while the control group continued with common problems. This shows yoga can be used not only in breast cancer but in multiple other varieties of cancer. We have not just studied psychological measures but also looked at markers of inflammation in cancer patients, which show whether cancer is progressing or reversing. Today, we have a laboratory in Bangalore where we can look at the complete gene expression of an individual. Open the windows. So the big question is asked: Many diseases come from our genes. Can you modify your genes through yoga? It is now said many illnesses are caused by genes. Can we modify our genes by practicing yoga? Probably it is possible, because yoga philosophy says it is simple. Scientifically, we can demonstrate it. Activating or deactivating a particular gene can be demonstrated after yoga practice. All together, the science of yoga is very much available for us to use in its applications. Having said that, I’ll close with a small story that has attracted people to yoga research. As a researcher, when I see many Swamijis, the first thing I ask is, "Please volunteer for a research study," because to understand yoga's effects, you don't get many advanced practitioners. There was one yogī in South India who said, "When I do yoga, nothing happens in my body." Physiologically, everything would... He could stop everything. Imagine his heart coming to a straight line on an ECG, which physiologically means you are dead. An experiment was conducted on this yogī at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Doctors asked him, "You say you will stop your heart beating, but for how long?" Swamījī said, "As long as I am in Mahāsamādhi, my heart won't beat." They asked, "How long will you go into Mahāsamādhi? Can you remain for five or ten seconds?" He said, "Generally, I go for 7 days." Seven days without a heartbeat? He said precisely. Přesně tak. They conducted an experiment. He usually goes into an underground pit, sealed, and sits for seven days. For researchers, experimenting on him in an underground pit is difficult. They created an underground pit, placed electrodes inside, made it air-proof and all-proof. Swamiji went inside. Before closing, they kept a candle inside—not for light, but to see if oxygen was coming from elsewhere. The candle went out within 15 minutes, suggesting no more oxygen inside. The ECG, initially perfect and normal, started becoming thinner. Within two hours, the ECG became a straight line. It remained so for seven days. There was a fixed time in the afternoon to open the pit, as Swamiji said he would come out of Mahāsamādhi. Half an hour before that time, the ECG started reappearing. Swamiji said on the seventh day, in the afternoon, he would leave the pit. Half an hour before opening, the ECG started again. By the time they opened the pit, his ECG was as normal as before he entered. Physiologically, even today, we cannot explain this. I am not telling a story; this is published in the American Heart Journal and Circulation. For those interested, I will give you the references. I am sure many are curious to know if such a study was possible. As I started by saying, what I talked about is a drop on the tip of the iceberg. If you want to understand the scientific benefits of yoga, there is so much to know. It is our privilege to come here and offer our services to Swamiji, to say that so much scientific knowledge is available in India. Why can't we make it available to the whole world? The best way to bring yoga to the common man is by using a scientific approach. You can maintain health, prevent diseases, and manage any condition by practicing yoga regularly. This is just an overview. If you want to understand, there are more than 4,000 research papers published on yoga. I am happy to share that out of these, more than 400 publications come from our university alone. This has become possible because we have a scientist, a philosopher, a spiritual master to guide us. Swamiji rightly said, "Just be with your guru, and everything else will unfold to you." That is what I am witnessing. As rightly said, someone left the most lucrative job at NASA, was a consultant at Harvard, worked at Imperial College London—you name such big universities, he was there. Suddenly, to leave all that, come back to India, and work for a small voluntary organization in Kanyakumari called Vivekananda Kendra is a big sacrifice for us, but for him, it is something driven by a cause. His simplicity is an example for all of us to follow. The scientific rigor with which Gurujī guides us makes us do more research and explain yoga more scientifically. We will be happy to bring that evidence-based approach in yoga to this land. I conclude, offering my praṇāms to Swāmījī and my Gurujī, and thanking all of you for your patient hearing. Praṇām Swāmījī, praṇām Dr. Nagendrajī. Allow me to take this opportunity to ensure this speech of Dr. Manjunata is not seen in a few years as a tale, but as scientific proof, as I deliver this Certificate of Appreciation of the Śrī Svayamānanda Vāraṇḍa World Peace Council to Honorable Dr. Manjunata for attending the World Peace Council Conference on yoga, non-violence, and world peace.