“The mind swings between past and future, creating stress, but peace is always found in the present moment.”
– Gurudev
We have seven layers of existence: body, breath, mind, memory, intellect, ego, and the self.
We know very little about our bodies. The body constantly renews itself—cells are born and die every day. Inside us are trillions of bacteria. Each one of us is like a moving city.
Then the breath holds many secrets. Just as we balance nutrition in our diet, we need to understand our mind and breath. We keep breathing, but understanding the breath and how each emotion has a specific rhythm in the breath and how we can work with these rhythms, this knowledge gives us strength.
And understanding our mind, which keeps oscillating between past and future. It gets angry about the past and anxious about the future. This creates toxicity in the body and disturbs our energy.
Our memory tends to cling to the negative. Even if we receive many compliments and one insult, we remember the insult. Our intellect is filled with prejudices—about age, gender, religion, and nationality. These create barriers.
From Inner Peace to Peace in Society
Art of Living is about bringing peace and harmony in society: a conflict-free society, a disease-free body, a quiver-free breath, a confusion-free mind, an inhibition-free intellect, a trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul. This is the birthright of every individual.
When a person is depressed, they cannot even take care of their own space. If we want to care for the environment, we must first uplift our own energy.
Happiness
Create happiness. A child smiles hundreds of times a day, while an adult sometimes does not smile at all. Make your smile cheaper and your anger expensive. Today, we are doing the opposite.
When you are hungry, there are restaurants. When you are sick, there are hospitals. When you want to exercise, there are gyms. But when you are unhappy, there is no place where you can go, drop your unhappiness, and come out happy. That is where Art of Living plays a role.
Diversity
We need to embrace diversity. Everyone is unique, and that uniqueness should be celebrated. The diversity in religions and cultures should not be a cause of conflict but a source of pride and cooperation. We are all part of one universal consciousness.
