There are three major dimensions to all of us.  There is a physical personality.  This is a level of action in which we are living our life.  Then there is a psychological personality in us, which is your thought and feelings and then there is a spiritual aspect to us which is the energy that manifests through our thoughts and feelings, culminating in action.      The way we are living our life to a very large extent – all of us, every time when we need to do some correction in our life, we try to work on it, at the level of action. So our questions itself is that what should I do? So we somehow feel, life is all about ‘what I do and what I don’t do!’ Because action is in the most tangible level… So we feel by bringing about a change in our actions… that we will be able to change our life.

But action is only an effect. The cause behind this action is the quality of your thoughts and feelings… the way you think and feel just manifest in the action.  So if I don’t correct the cause – I cannot correct the effect.  Correct your thoughts and feelings – the manifestation of it will automatically correct itself at the level of the action.  So some of us, every time we need to bring about a transformation in our life or bring about a correction in our life, we immediately start working at the thoughts.  So we ask ourselves –  ‘How is my thinking?  What is my pattern of thinking right now?  Am I thinking right?’

Whenever I discuss about getting thoughts and feelings right, one question everybody ask me is, ‘Mahatria, just because I get my thoughts and feelings right, can you guarantee everything will go right at the level of action always?’ No guarantees.

Just because you exercise daily it doesn’t mean you won’t get any ailment in life…, you will.  Just because I have extraordinary strategies, doesn’t mean every product will necessarily sell well.  Just because every marriage starts at an auspicious time doesn’t mean every marriage is going to turn out too right… but understand this – Just because I am there in a race in the starting block and there are seven other athletes with which I am going run and I am telling myself ‘I am going to win and I promised my son, I am going to do it for him and I am going do it and I have full of confidence and I am ready to run this race’…, there is no guarantee because others are also thinking positive. You are not the only one who is thinking positive. Positive thinking – it doesn’t guarantee success but one thing, guarantee is there…

I am there in the starting block; I look at this side – he is there in the race… is it?  Bapreh! Yeh bhi hai! Gaya… I don’t think I am going to win!  You don’t have to run the race, go…  Come let’s go the other way, reverse mey jaaa… because anyhow you are not going to win, it’s not going to happen.

Positive thinking doesn’t guarantee success, negative thinking guarantees failure – so might as well think positive at least you increase the probabilities of success. So you work at the psychological level of trying to get your thoughts and feelings right. And there is a superseding level to all these things, the energy level.

When one of this bulb is not working, the first thing I am going to come and check is, whether the bulb is okay, or the fuse gone… That is the first thing I am going to check, that’s the physical level. In case the bulb looks right, then naturally I am going to think, whether the wiring is right or wrong, or somewhere is there… the wiring is cuts, maybe some rats, in India rats can come from any direction, maybe the wire is cut somewhere…  I am going to check – that’s the psychological level.  I find the bulb is right, I find the wiring is right… still it’s not burning… then there is no power supply to it. Then the problem is at the energy level. When power supply is not there even if everything is right, when my energy is not right, then doesn’t matter how much I get my life psychologically right, how much I get my life physically right… still things don’t go right in my life.

So his question is that whenever I am going through a purple patch in life I know my energy is right and it’s manifesting itself in all the dimensions, whenever I am going through… somewhere my energy is not right, so how do I get my energy right?

Because we are all exchanging energy, energy by itself doesn’t have a character. Energy is only energy… Depending on how it manifest… through what medium it manifest… it takes different character. Energy is energy but when it flows through you, through all those layers of accumulated karma, vasanas, tendencies within you, – it accumulates certain nature in the way it manifest. So we are always exchanging energies. It’s not difficult for anyone of you, even the most scientific intelligence that is sitting here, will understand what I am speaking.  You cannot explain ‘why’… just in the presence of somebody, you feel so comfortable… In fact, there is more differences between you and the other person than similarities and still you feel comfortable. And some people are repulsive… when they come itself something within… your BP goes up; nothing has happened… they are only coming… and your BP goes up…, you don’t know why… some people are repulsive. At the energy level there is no compatibility. You are just sitting next to somebody and you feeling so peaceful, you don’t even know the person… we are exchanging energy, that person is peaceful, and we exchange. Sometimes you don’t even know… you are just sitting somewhere, and you are going through such agitation, you cannot even explain, you have never been like this… Why you are feeling so agitated?

So we have to get our life at the spiritual level right, by getting the energy level right. So how do I get my energy level right? Already a prescription has been given to us 2500 years ago – Buddham Charanam Gacchami; Dhammam Charanam Gacchami; Sangam Charanam Gacchami. Buddha said you want your energy levels to be right, you want the manifestation of this energy to be right, if you want to get your life right at the spiritual, psychological and the physical level, one, you need to share a dynamic relationship with a spiritually evolved soul. Or you need to share yourself in a place which is high on energy levels.

Traditionally the reason places of worship was created is, that when I go to a place of worship because the collective congregation there is one of devotion and faith, I am able to inherit those vibration… so you go to a mosque, so you do namaz five times a day, so you go on a Sunday morning church, so you go on a Thursday afternoon to a Ragavendra temple, so you go on a annual pilgrimage to Palitana, so you go to Manasarovar, and Badrinath and Amaranth and all these people so the reason you always… okay, let’s not miss out… so you go to Chamundeswari temple, so you go to all these places just to inherit the right vibrations from there.

Where better to explain than in Bangalore where Bangalore is full of rose gardens. So when you go to a rose garden and stand there long enough… and when you come out, what are you smelling?  Roses!  For that what you have to do… go and rub yourself on the rose… Ok… Try… you will become red rose. What you have to do? Go and rub yourself everywhere on the bush, take some flowers smear it all over… Nothing.  Just go inside a rose garden and be there long enough… when you come out you will be smelling roses. Somewhere when you are at the feet of a spiritually evolved soul their energy rubs into you… Buddham Charanam Gacchami. Take refuge at the feet of a spiritual evolved soul… Their energy does not come from their dynamics… Their energy flows from existence… That’s why they are called spiritually evolved soul.

The energy of existence that runs this entire existence has somehow chosen to flow through them. Their energy is no more out of them… Universal energy is expressing itself through them.  It’s like… Ganges is running as a perennial river and these spiritually evolved souls have found a way to somehow dig a canal from there… into their home, so the water you see in their house is not their water, its the perennial river’s water… Somehow, they found a way to merge into this universal source of energy and that energy is expressing through them. Somehow create a dynamic relationship with a spiritually evolved soul, find a way by which you can draw that energy, you just have to be in that space, so either in the right place or with the right person. But Buddha was a very practical man. So he realized it’s not possible for everybody to all the time, even if they have found a Buddha in their life, to live with the Buddha all the time, internally yes,but physically it’s not possible.

So Buddha gave you a second option. He said ‘Dhammam Charanam Gacchami’. Even if you cannot be  with the teacher all the time be with the teachings all the time, even if you cannot be with the messenger all the time be with the message all the time. Mahatria, just by being with the message…The energy of a teacher is present in his teachings. The energy of a messenger is present in his message. At various stages books have come, they have been the best sellers, everybody keeps talking about it, the next book comes, and the previous book is forgotten… The next takes over. Yet, thousands of years later the Bhagavat Gita or the Quran or the Bible or the Jain Dharma, or the Dhammapada is not outdated! It is still current, it continues… Why?  All your best-selling books have only words…  All the scriptures has the energy of that messenger, energy of that messiah still in it.  So they are all living books, they are not just full of printed words, they are something more than that. You cannot even explain – how can a piece of literature survive 2500 years… How can something which Mahaveera said or Buddha said 2500 years later still is relevant, still is truthful, still has application in our life, and even today if you are apply that in your life… How can what was told to one Arjuna continues to apply 6000 years later to every Arjuna and every Arjuni, its still relevant.

So when I hold on to the teachings of a teacher, when I hold on to the message of a messenger the energy of the teacher, the energy of this – first it gets you psychologically right because your thoughts are coming from the teacher, and you still feel that energy inside you. Sangam Charanam Gacchami… Some of us are highly self-motivated people… we don’t need help. One day you decided to exercise and ever since you have been… one day you decided to sit in silence ever since you have been… one day you decided that you will cultivate good habits and ever since… But let’s be practical! All of us are not highly self-motivated people… Most of us need external motivation. Some people can continue without help, some people need help and there is nothing wrong… There is absolutely nothing wrong in recognizing that we need help.

A man came in a Mercedes Benz to a traffic signal and right there in the traffic signal a beggar walked towards him. The man in the Mercedes Benz just lowered his window, looked at the beggar and asked him ‘Do you need help?’ and the beggar smiled in return to the guy who was driving the Mercedes Benz and asked him in return ‘Don’t we all need help? At my level I am begging in the street, I am sure you are driving to the bank to beg them for funding. We all beg… only thing… I beg for one rupee, you beg for two crores, but we all beg, we all need help. Everybody needed help.

We all need help at different aspects of life. Some of you on health is very self-motivated, but when it comes to relationship you need help. Some of you are extraordinary in relationship but when it comes to spiritual practices you need help. Some of you are extraordinary human beings but you have a few weaknesses of habits and you need help to come out of those habits. We all need help.

So Buddha said Sangam Charanam Gacchami, surround yourself with, the literal meaning of Sangam Charanam Gacchami is surround yourself with like-minded people, but I want to change that… Like-minded to right minded people So he said surround yourself with right minded people, sometimes I will be slow, he will pull me, sometimes he will be slow I will pull him up, and sometime together we both of us will have momentum… we need help… Surround yourself with right minded people.

A research was done by Kellogg Business School, of people who graduated from their school 20 years later to find out what sort of life they are living and they found out the net worth of every individual is the average of the 10 people they relate most with.  They found out though everybody graduated from the same B school, those who became billionaires became billionaires because they are surrounded by people who thought in billions. And those who were still millionaires were millionaires because they were surrounded by people who are thinking in millions and those who are asking where is million and billion… were surrounded by people who always found excuses in life, always found something to complain in life.  So Kellogg did a scientific research to tell you that your net worth 10 years from now, 20 years from now will depend on what are the dynamic circle of people with whom… You are surrounded by employees you are thinking career growth, you are surrounded by entrepreneurs, you are thinking an entrepreneurship venture. Somewhere whether you like it or not, a stage will come in your life when your character will be passed on to your environment… Till you reach that stage where your character will be passed on to your environment… the truth is for a lot of us our environment passes it’s character to us without our knowledge. So choose your environment.

In fact all the children I tell them, even if you don’t get anything right in your life – you are not great in academics, I am okay with it. You are not the best in sports, I am okay with that, even if you don’t get anything right… in your life in your student life, get one thing right! Surround yourself with the right group of friends.  Shun the company of wrong friends. it’s okay! They will destroy you eventually. When you keep thinking your friends are asking you to make wrong choices… repeatedly telling you… ‘Mahatria, but I like them a lot!’ you will eventually be destroyed whether you realize it or not… Your environment passes its character to you… Till you reach a stage where you can pass your character to your environment… Choose the company of people.

You used to be a happy person and you are no more happy… I will tell you why… You are surrounded by people who believe happiness is not practical. And you have also become one like that. There used to be a time the sound of your laughter was divine, reverberating… People around you used to talk about your laughter and you have become one moron because you are surrounded by capital morons. There was a time when your belief in yourself was so strong and right now you don’t believe in yourself the way you used to believe in yourself, you feel because now your star position is not okay, vasthu is not right, your name has to be changed, the thread will change your life… Because you are surrounded by people who don’t have belief in themselves, they believe all this external system and you also become a victim of this. The other way around… You never used to think about mediation… You got into that group and slowly that group started talking about it, and then you got drawn and today you cannot think of a life without mediation, Sangam Charanam Gacchami, somehow drew you into spiritual practices. You never thought you can even run 100 meters, and you are running 10 km, 20 km right now because you are surrounded by health-conscious people… You used to be an athlete in school and right now, if they put you ultaa you can be a see-saw… because Madhya Pradesh has grown so much now, you cannot see your own toe anymore. In mirror only you can see… Because equator is so big… northern hemisphere cannot see southern hemisphere… But how did it happen? Surrounded by people who are so abusive of their bodies. Sangam Charanam Gacchami.

So Buddham Charanam Gacchami; Dhammam Charanam Gacchami; Sangam Charanam Gacchami is required to keep your energy levels right. To get yourself psychologically right and the manifestation of it at the physical domain you will ever be in a purple patch of your life.