At the World Culture Film Festival, acclaimed actor Jeremy Piven engaged with Gurudev on creativity, meditation, and cinema’s power to transform society.
On Meditation and Storytelling
Jeremy Piven: I went to India and started in Kerala and ended up in the Himalayas in search of the roots of yoga. What I found was that they told me yoga has become gymnastics, which is interesting. What we do is gymnastics.
It was so interesting to take this journey because there were a lot of people that were very honest with me about where we’re at in our spiritual lives. So it was a great honor to be there. And I’m still doing gymnastics though, unfortunately.
But why do people say that you can have a meditative practice, but it’s not good to tell other people to get a meditative practice—to let them find it on their own. Do you believe that?
Gurudev: Joy has not left anyone’s life untouched. Whenever people are ecstatic, happy, joyful, they get a glimpse of the transcendence where the mind—the chattering in the mind—stops. But they don’t know how to have a repeated experience of it, and learning meditation techniques help them to have that experience of peace and tranquility and serenity at will, which everyone wants.
So I would say we need to learn this technique—how to calm the mind down.
If you observe a baby, I always say babies are the best teachers of yoga. If you observe a baby anywhere in the world, from three months to three years old, babies do all yoga exercises, all breathing exercises. So yoga is developed by watching nature. It has developed from consciousness and it is universal.
Meditation helps you to be more sharp in your observation. Your perception becomes better. And the good thing is that science has also done abundant research work on this, so they have come to the same conclusion.
Jeremy Piven: Meditation has helped me to be a better storyteller, to go inward and be present. Because that’s when you’re working your best—when you’re present and you’re not a slave to your thoughts and doubts and fears. So meditation can help you to become a better artist. We need art, it’s what separates us and we need to tell stories. That’s how we communicate with each other and how we learn lessons.
On the Nature of Art
Gurudev: Art is just appreciation of what is.
The way flowers are arranged—if you appreciate that, that’s art. You have heard about the Japanese stone arrangement, and even thorns can become art when you start appreciating nature the way it is, the way the universe has created it.
That appreciation makes it art.
Existence is an art. If you see from that angle, the whole universe, the whole existence is nothing but art. And when we start appreciating that—but to even appreciate that, we need to have a certain amount of calmness within us, isn’t it?
Whenever you want to write something or create something new, you always say, “Okay, leave me alone. I want to do some work.” In the Christian tradition, contemplative silence and studies is very much honored. Same in the Buddhist tradition—in all traditions all over the world, this quietness is honored. You have to have a little space for yourself, a quiet space.
In this quietness, what happens is all the hustle and bustle of life and the stress that we are having just ease away, giving you access to your inner core. And I feel that is the source of all creativity, whether it is art or science or literature.
The source of creativity is within us, and the password for it is a little bit of relaxation.
On Creativity and Upbringing
Moderator: You were talking about creativity. We were created and so we have this creative thing that is inside of us and finding that thing that we can create, whether it’s writing a story or poetry or putting art together. Jeremy, why was acting and movie production your expression? Was it just natural, did you learn it, you grew up in it? Why was that your expression?
Jeremy Piven: I grew up in it with my sister who directed this film, and we grew up in the work and we were very lucky. I crawled up on stage at eight years old and just started performing, and it was just a place where our parents taught us that we are enough—to not doubt ourselves and to honor the space that we occupy when we perform. And that’s what we do.
I had assumed that every kid had the same upbringing and that wasn’t necessarily the case. And then at a certain point, you keep going and then you get to tell stories to a handful of people and then it just grows and grows. And if you get lucky, you make a film and that’s kind of what happens. But you’re looking for an audience, and we’re lucky to have one.
On Art of Living and the Festival’s Mission
Moderator: Would you like to share some last thoughts and just communicate to us about the importance of Art of Living and you being here for this film festival and why this film festival is so important for Art of Living.
Gurudev: The very purpose of Art of Living is to make life a celebration. And in celebration you have entertainment, you have wisdom, you have service, and everything is part of our life. So appreciating different forms of art has been our passion for a long time.
We have been doing the World Culture Festival wherein our main goal in Art of Living is to bring the idea of one world family—that the whole human race is one family. So we started in 2006 a World Culture Festival wherein we brought artists from around the world to perform on the same stage.
Arts, sports, philosophy, meditation—these are the things which can unite hearts and minds, which can help people move away from rage and differences. Instead of making differences a contentious issue, art can make that a unifying factor of humanity. We had one in Berlin, then in India in 2016, and in 2023 we had in Washington DC where 1.1 million people attended. We had 17,000 artists on the stage.
This is uplifting the human spirit. Basically art is there to uplift the human spirit. And then the idea came, why not do something about films as well? Because films make a big impact on the minds of our population. Children are really impacted by films worldwide—children and youth also.
So we said, let’s do a film festival and award the best films which are uplifting and which support human evolution rather than creating more rage and anger.
Unfortunately, violence or aggression is associated with heroism. If you see a boy or girl who wants to be a hero, they want to be aggressive. But there is another side also:
Serenity and happiness can also be very heroic in nature. Being masculine is not just being aggressive.
When I heard that we have 2.9 mass shootings per day in this country, I said we need to do something where people move away from violence, and movies could be the best way to wean them out of the tendency to be aggressive and violent.Jeremy Piven: Well, Sri Sri, it’s a true honor to be on the stage with you. We’re thankful for your hospitality and allowing us to be here today and your heart behind bringing people together.
The World Culture Film Festival awards ceremony honored, filmmakers and artists from various countries for their significant contribution in bringing positivity. pic.twitter.com/gm38qe79E9
— Art of Living USA (@artoflivingusa) July 4, 2025
