TV Channel

Now, what happened was that through meditation, those monks, priests, yogīs, swāmīs, sādhus, fakirs, and so on, attained long life and immense spiritual energy. They became a uniting instrument for society, able to bring people together and give them harmony and understanding. Their preaching was that God is one and we are all children of God. There is only one creator who has created all creatures. Why do we fight against each other? We should love, support, respect, recognize, and help each other. That was the idea and the work of the monks within that spirituality in religious form. Then the worldly people asked, "Wait, how did they realize these abilities that they could bring us all together? We are not able to keep one family together. It is very hard to keep your wife together. Suddenly your wife will say one day, 'Mister,'—she will not say 'darling'—'I'm sorry, but we don't understand each other, and I think it is better we separate.' Or the children don't follow your advice, your husband doesn't follow your advice, and your parents don't follow your advice. The family splits. What do these monks have in them that they are able to inspire people, bless people, and bring peace among them?" That is the power of prayer, the power of meditation, and the power of mantra. Then they said, "Why should we not meditate also? Is meditation and prayer a subject only for monks, swāmīs, and yogīs? Or can a worldly person also meditate and have mantras and prayers?" Yes, why not? There is no prohibition, and so the people began to meditate. What they realized is they cannot meditate; they cannot pray. Why? Because their consciousness is filled with so many worldly problems. A monk sitting in a monastery somewhere in the forest or in the mountains, hardly any people come there. Or if they see them, when they come, they only greet them nicely and say, "Hello, sir, how are you?" and so on, and then they go. They get good things; they don't look at television, they don't look at newspapers, they don't listen to radios, they have no problems. They have withdrawn from the world, so they don't know what is going on. They don't know how their mother is, they don't know how their father is, they don't know how their neighbors are, and so on. So they are relaxed, and they have no tensions. They have no stress. But the worldly person has many tensions, many, many problems: family problems, job problems, position problems, social problems, political problems, economical problems, emotional problems, and health problems. How many problems do we have? So they said, "But how can we get rid of this?" You can get rid of this every day. You put yourself in the position of the monk, if not the whole day, just for half an hour or one hour. Sit down, relax, don't think too much, just relax and feel your body and your breath. Repeat the name of God, the mantra. After half an hour, you will get up and you will say, "Oh, I feel so relaxed." And so meditation has become a powerful tool in the world. And you will be surprised that almost all the world leaders, what you call at the present time world leaders, they are meditating every day. They practice headstand, many of them. They practice yoga exercises, many of them. They pray. Do not think that all politicians are terrible people. No, they are not terrible. They are forced to do certain things which even they would not like to do. They have to keep the feelings of the public, their people, their country, and they need such energy. They also pray, and, of course, their meditation and their prayer is a very personal thing. They do not appear in public, otherwise the public will make big things out of this. Recording location: Australia, Perth, Swamiji's World Tour