Ancient Spiritual Wisdom for Humanity's Great Awakening with Keshava Swami

0:00 Welcome to Next Level Soul, the place where we deep dive into the mysteries of existence, uncover hidden layers of consciousness, and explore the journey of the soul. I'm your host, Alex Ferrari, and every week we sit down with the world's leading spiritual teachers, mystics, scientists, and truth seekers to illuminate the path towards awakening. Here we ask questions that truly matter. Why are we here, where are we going?

0:27 And how do we elevate our lives, our purpose, and our consciousness to the next level. This is a space for transformation, a space for expansion, a space to remember who you really are. So take a deep breath, open your mind, and prepare to step into your next level soul. Now. If you're ready to take your spiritual journey to the next level, explore Next Level Soul TV, our streaming platform filled with exclusive movies, docs, original shows, transformative series, guided meditations, channel sessions, audiobooks, and deep spiritual teachings you won't find anywhere else. New content drops every week, helping you expand your consciousness and live from your highest potential. Start your journey today at Next Levelsoul dot TV. The views opinions

1:17 and statements expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or positions of Next Level Soul, its host, or any of the companies they represent. Now let's dive in to today's episode. I like to welcome to the show. Okayshavaswami.

1:32 How you doing, Swammi, Hey Alex, thanks so much for having us on.

1:35 This and Honor, I appreciate you for coming on, my friend. I'm really really looking forward to this conversation. I absolutely adore the work that you're doing in the world. I know you are trying to help awaken humanity with your teachings and bringing your teachings from the East over to the West, very much like the gentleman sitting around my corner and many of the other many of the other gurus and saying that came over from the East with these profound wisdom, and you're doing it now. You're right now close to Harvard. You're doing some work with Harvard now as well, which is so It's wonderful, man, It's wonderful to have these kind of teachings becoming more and more mainstream, as opposed to in the back of a

2:18 bookstore somewhere in No Hope.

2:23 Yeah, yeah, No, it's great to be here with like kindred spirits, you know, Alex, I feel like there's so many beautiful things in the world. Like I don't see technology as a bad thing. I don't see like our social kind of changes in infrastructure as necessarily a bad thing. But what I do see is that if you don't accompany all of those advances with spiritual wisdom, then it becomes an imbalance.

2:52 Absolutely. Absolutely. A tool is a tool regardless. It's just a tool. A hammer could build or it can kill. It really depends on how you use it. So that's where that spiritual consciousness comes in, you know, that can maybe I should build with this tool as opposed to destroy with this tool. And I think I agree with you one hundred percent. So I'm going to go. I plan to go into the deep waters with you, my friend.

3:16 So my first question is when what breaks first in a spiritual awakening, the ego or the illusion.

3:24 Oh that's amazing, what a beautiful question. You went straight into the deep end there.

3:28 Oh No, I don't play around here. That's what we do here. We don't dast around the top end. We don't play in the kiddi pool. We go deep, let's go yeah.

3:36 So, in Eastern philosophy, actually there's a concept of maya, and maya means illusion. And it's interesting that maya is not just something external, but maya is also something which takes root within our own consciousness. And therefore maya or illusion has different strategic kind of places in which we creates an aberration of reality. And so I think in a sense, like there's illusion which is outside which is then projected onto us, I think there's an illusion within us by which that illusion. When we see through that illusion that's within us and we look outside, we see something that's not there. And so I think illusion actually works in both ways. And therefore a lot of our spiritual practice is about refining the ego, purifying the ego.

4:40 In the particular Buckti tradition I'm in we're not trying to annihilate the ego. Ego is a sense of who I am. But there's a false ego and there's a true ego. So the false ego is I'm Indian and I'm from London. I'm six ft five tall years old, and those are all just temporary egos. When time takes away all of that, who what's left that's the real ego?

5:11 And so I would say that we break the illusion within by removing the false ego, and we simultaneously when we then see the world, we don't see illusiony things because we're seeing through the true ego. And so I would I guess my answer through I'm just thinking it through with you. My answer would probably be that when we've purified our own ego of any sense of illusion, then when we look around, we can't be tricked by illusion anymore.

5:48 I finally, fascinating part of your answer was I hadn't heard it presented that way, which is beautiful, that the ego or not the ego, but the illusion is projected onto us, which I found very interesting. Which and the way I'm interpreting that is the programming of who were born into the country, were born into the parents, were born into, the religion, were born into you know, all of the societal stuff that that is. It's an illusion.

6:11 This whole thing is an illusion. So why wouldn't our construct of how the world works also be an illusion? Because you know you obviously you know you were born Indian, you were born into your environment and to your religion, and you know, discovered your own path along the way. But that also at a certain point you said, no, no, no, this makes sense to me. I'm gonna keep going because there's many many people who are born in one Like I was born Catholic, you know, I was born Roman Catholic, hardcore nuns and all. And that didn't for me. On my path, it was beautiful because it explored, It introduced me to Christ. Christ consciousness, introduced me to a higher power.

6:52 But it didn't the dogma didn't make sense to me. Where then I started to go much more towards the East and start following Eastern not following, but studying philosophies, all of them, from Confucism to Hinduism to Yogic philosophies, all of that, because it's made more sense to me. So we're born into a construct and an illusion, but then we start to if you start to seek, you start to find the path that works for you. Does that make sense?

7:18 Yeah, one hundred percent.

7:19 You know, like I tell people, if someone tells lie loud enough and long enough, that lie becomes a soul called truth. But you know what, Alex, what's even more scary is if enough people accept that so called truth, it becomes a so called culture. But you know what's even more scary if that culture perpetuates from one generation to the next, it becomes a so called tradition. And what's even more scary is then people are born into that so called tradition and they decide their goals, their aspirations, their desires, their what success is based on a tradition, based on the culture, based on a soul called truth that's actually a lie? Can I think for me like, the spiritual journey is about interrogating those lives or those

8:15 so called truths.

8:16 And if I was.

8:18 Like, like, sometimes people say what are you, I'm like, I'm a monk, and then I tell them and I'm also a spiritual disruptor, because the idea is that we have to disrupt the narrative and and and and interrogate everything that we've accepted without questioning and say is this really true or is it an illusion?

8:40 But isn't it true that a lot of the great, the great masters who have walked at least that I've studied, the majority of them, always say, don't believe what I say, question me, challenge me, push me. Don't just accept it because I said it, is it ring true to you? And question the teachings, question the wisdom to see if it really works. That's a true teacher in my eye.

9:06 Someone is like, he's not afraid to be challenged. He's not afraid to be pushed into into because that's how we grow. Even the teacher is still growing. If you're here, you're growing, right.

9:17 Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because as you're speaking, I'm thinking about the Bug of the Guitar. Like I'm hearing Boston right now, so not far from here is Worden where like you know, through and all those like you know, and then at Harvidy and Emerson and all of them were reading The Bug of the Guitar. Now, the Bug of the Guitar is a fascinating book because Krishna speaks the whole bug of a guitar. And then right at the end, he looks at our Juna who's listening, after giving him all this knowledge, and he basically says, can I say it in Sanskrit? It's just beautiful? Yeah, you know, you get a bit of the vibe. So he says this right at the end, it maya Tata guru. So the English is, he says to arguing, now I've given

10:15 you all this knowledge. I want you to think about it, reflect on it, challenge it, question it, and then do what you want to do.

10:28 We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.

10:37 And that's and and as you said, I think that's what a real teacher is. A real teacher is not telling you what to think. A real teacher is telling you how to think.

10:48 You're absolutely right, my friend, it's it's it's amazing. You know you were saying about challenging the truths you know, or the lies, or the or the illusions, you know, the great illusion. In the Catholic traditions, we're born with original sin, that we're not good enough, that we have no power, and please correct me if we're wrong. In I'm not sure if it's in the Hindu but I know in the Indian the cast system, that that whole cast system is absolute byes. It's a it's a it was a form of control of things. So it's throughout all the cultures. Not one culture is perfect. Everyone has their own little things, but it's to challenge that. So from my understanding, and I'm not sure how verse you

11:31 are in this, but the cast system that is not something that has really looked upon the same way in India as it was before. And can you for anybody who doesn't know what the cast system is, can you quickly explain what the cast system is?

11:42 Yeah?

11:43 No, thank you. Yeah.

11:44 So the coast system, there's an idea that And what I would say is that there's a true version of stratification in the world and then there's a kind of deviated version, which is.

11:57 What we have the cost system.

11:58 So I'll just do some ground work and then we'll talk about those two alex. Everyone's different, right. Some of us are podcasters. Some of us are you know, practical like do some plumbing, or some of us are computer programmers. You have academics. Everyone's of a different nature and everyone is needed, right. So the idea is that in a society there are different people who have different personalities, who are all meant to bring something unique to the table and work together in a mood of respect and cooperation.

12:36 Then society is beautiful. So they were said to be four basic personality types what we call Brahmana, which is the teaching type Shatria, which is the managerial and the leadership type, Weisha which is like an entrepreneurial mercantile type, and then Sudra, which basically means someone who's assisting and who's happy to assist the other three. What happened over time is that people started getting stratified into one of these based on which family.

13:12 They were born in.

13:15 We didn't look at like, what their personality is, what they want to do, what they have qualification for.

13:24 We just looked at what is their birth.

13:26 And then what happened is the system became more and more degraded with the teachers, the higher cost so called higher costs, were exploiting the lower costs. So you don't become a doctor just because your dad was a doctor. You've got to go to school, you've got to learn the thing, and then you've got to then you're a doctor.

13:48 So the idea of the cast system is everything became based on birth, exploitation and trying to basically, yeah, just subjugate certain in individuals. Whereas the original system was we're all different, let's respect each other, Let's let people go wherever their most you know, natural and and and let's do something amazing together, so that that's basically where it came from.

14:17 So those were the two. So those were I've never heard it explain like that. Thank you so much for that, because I've known of the other cases, like the cast system, like that was it the un untouchables and then the.

14:28 Cast Yeah, that's another aspect. There's that there's like the untouchables who are like no cost and then they're like extricated from society. So yeah, all of that is a.

14:38 Just right by being by being born into the family that you're in, you know, which is the opposite you know here in the States where like it doesn't really truly I mean, yeah, it does help. It helps when you're born into a rich family or something like that, but anyone really can come out of any any castes or any level of society. If you're born poor, you could become rich, and if you're this, you could be that.

15:02 So there's an opening to the openness to that that is very very different. But so but India doesn't look at the cast system. It's not taken as seriously as it was.

15:11 Yeah, now thankfully you know, there's greater knowledge awareness and it's not it's but to be honest, Alex. You know still even in places it's there and it's unfortunate.

15:25 You know, well it's here too. I'm in the elitism of things like you know, I have this house or I have this car, and you're nothing, and this and that kind of it's just it's ego, it's all of that. But it needs to be broken down, which which brings me brings me to my next question at twenty one. What did you see that made an ordinary life impossible to return to?

15:48 Yeah? No, And I'm just going to interrogate your question a little bit before I leave into that. I would say, you know, when I think you say when I when I hear you say ordinary, I'm not sure what you mean by that. But sometimes people think if you get a job, if you have a family, if you go along the kind of normal path in the world, then that's in one sense ordinary, And I.

16:15 Don't think that's true. I think someone.

16:17 Can like have the family, have the job, even being in the corporate world, and be deeply spiritual and have a deeply dynamic life. And therefore I don't think being a monk is walking in itself. Is going to say, like, now you're walking away from ordinary. You could be an ordinary monk, not a very spiritual monk. So it's all about consciousness, right.

16:40 Can I jump in for a second. I actually went to a monastery and the monk that was giving me a tour had a tremendous attitude, not very spiritual at all in this beautifully spiritual place, and I remember I was like, this is And then of course, you know, if you go into the into the Catholic religion, priests and nuns, some of them could be really nasty. Some of them could be very beautiful. So it doesn't really matter.

17:06 I agree with you. And when I said ordinary, the way I meant it is more of the illusion as opposed to a normal order, because there is no ordinary path. I'm talking about the illusion of this that you're like, oh wait a minute, I can't. I can't go back into playing that part that I was playing in that avatar that I was playing in the video game. I understand the game. Now, what did you see what happened?

17:28 Yeah that's great?

17:30 Yeah, I think see, like Alex, I grew up in a family. I don't think like I was lacking anything.

17:37 I was fortunate.

17:38 I was surrounded by yeah, success and you know, two cars, two houses, two phones, too much. And I saw people who had it all, and I was kind of like, it's the classic thing. You see people who have everything and are so empty, you know, Like they say, they say we should we should love people and use things, and nowadays we use people and we love things. And so from a young age, I had a doubt, you know, the doubt was there. And I was twenty one and I just come out of university and I was like, I need time to Yeah, it's cliche as it sounds, find yourself, find myself, you know.

18:28 And so.

18:30 Someone told me a word. They said, you've got to deprovincialize yourself. I was like, what's deprovincialize yourself? And he said, You've got to get out of the province. You got to get out of your normal environment. You got to get out of all these narratives and expectations. You need to get into a different space and then you'll be able to hear something deeper in your heart. So that's why I did. I deprovincialized myself. I went to India and I stayed there for six months, twenty one years old, straight out university. And what I found alex in India was the beauty of simplicity. You know, sometimes they say less is more, and I found that, you know, simple living high thinking that that really started resonating with me.

19:24 And I think I had a tendency towards simplicity and minimalism from a young age. So so I lived with the monks and like I was saying when we were talking about the car system, that I think each one of us have a unique personality. And then I realized that I think my path is to try and share wisdom with people, and by sharing with others and teaching, I think I'm going to learn quite a lot as well.

19:58 And so that's what I begun doing. And but yeah, for me, just the fact that so much but so little in the heart in terms of love and satisfaction. When I saw that in the world, I was like, I can't sign up to this. I just can't do it.

20:20 We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.

20:30 So it was a challenge.

20:31 You know, you come back as a twenty one year old and knock on my home and I'm like, mom, I'm going to become a monk. It's like, what are you talking about you know, so there was a lot of tears, a lot of arguments, and you know, every parent wants you to be successful, married and all that stuff, and I was just like, I can't.

20:53 I have to be authentic.

20:55 So yeah, God bless you for being brave enough to do that a young man like that. You were wise beyond your years as a twenty one year old to really understand who you want it to be and then go after it is pretty profound most I mean, at twenty one, I was just.

21:13 I was still bumping around trying to figure it out myself. And not that you had it all figured out at twenty one, but at least you knew the direction you wanted to walk, which is a scary thing because you went out completely outside the norm of the world that you came from. But I agree with you one hundred percent.

21:29 I think that if people more people traveled outside of their bubbles. You know, when you go abroad, go to different countries, different cultures, you start seeing it. You start to realize that everyone is just everybody wants the same thing. It doesn't matter what language you speak. We all want love, we all want to take care of our families, we all want to have a roof over our head. We all want it to be happy, to be loved. Every human being has to go through that. Every from a tribesman in the Africa somewhere or in the Amazon somewhere, to a giant CEO of a giant company, everyone wants the same thing. It's it's beautiful, that's very, very beautiful.

22:07 But let me ask you, then, why do you feel that we are right now more connected than we've ever been, But yet we seem to be more spiritually empty because we're being not indoctrinated, but enticed by bombarded that's the word, bombarded by the material. But I and listen, I mean I'm a little bit we're similar vintage, you and I.

22:35 I'm a little bit older than you, but similar vintage. So I remember the the gluttony of the eighties. You were younger, but the eighties was just like so much excess, so much excess. And now it seems like we're being bombarded with so much, like you have to have this, can't you have to have this thing? You have to have It's all stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff constantly, and you're not good enough if you don't look like this, you're not good enough. If you don't own this, if you can't afford this, you're not good enough. Why do you think that we are in a grander macro sense?

23:07 Why are we being bombarded at this time of humanity being bombarded with this? Because it seems like to be ramping up the chaos of the bombardment of the materialism, and I think it might be the This is my feeling, and please tell me what you think. I feel it's the last, the death grip of it. In many ways, across all industries, across all areas of society, the old systems are trying to hold on and they're trying to get more intense for us to go, wait a minute, this isn't we need to pull back. I think that's what's going on with humanity right now. What's your thoughts?

23:43 Yeah, that's the great And just from that pulling back, let me well, I think it's like I think technology, let's begin there. I think technology is a massive thing. Like we are now bombarded by all these messages, all these demands, communication demands, and there's no space to breathe, there's no space to think.

24:12 I share with you.

24:14 Decades ago, they talked about something called the theory of boredom. So like people, what would happen decades ago is people would get bored, right, and when they were bored there was nothing to do, right, and when there was nothing to do, they were forced to stop and think about life, think about themselves, think about things, and they realized that boredom actually played a really important part in life because it's from boredom that thinking was actually activated. But if you notice, now, Alex, we don't get bored. What happens is as soon as you're bored, get one of these and you start scrolling. And therefore, what I think one of the major things in the world today is that people don't pull back because there's just something to constantly

25:10 stimulate them. And when they constantly stimulated, I think that capacity to question, the capacity to think, the capacity to interrogate, is basically annihilated. And then what you have in the world is basically complicity and just complete Like yeah, people just follow along. So like for example, when I was in India, I was traveling and you know, you kind of go to these idyllic places. So I was traveling by these mountains and there was this yogi sitting in a cave I was like, my god, this guy.

25:52 Is the real deal, you know.

25:54 So I went up to him and it was like he didn't He clearly didn't want to speak much. But I thought, I can't miss out on this opportunity, so I asked him. I said, can you give me one advice for my spiritual journey? And he said something that I try to follow to this day. Wow, it really helped me, he said. He looked at me, he said, every single year, disconnect for one month. Every single month, disconnect for one day, and every single day, disconnect for one hour. And then he looked at me and it was like disconnect to connect. I looked at him. I was like, Yo, you should be on TEDx brother.

26:43 That's the quickest x TK I've ever heard. But it's just awesome.

26:47 So this point he was making of disconnecting, like when you disconnect and you go inside, then you emerge in the world as a different person. But I think people just don't disconnect anymore because they're constantly connected.

27:05 And that's what the power of meditation comes in. That's the power of any spiritual practice, if it's even prayer, if it's meditation, if it's yoga, if it's even working out if whatever it might be, but specifically meditation or prayer. When you are quiet speaking with prayer, you're speaking meditation, you're quieting. And I feel that when you meditate, that is that hour of quiet that you're looking for to disconnect.

27:33 That's where a lot of my greatest ideas and downloads and everything that come in come in through that time. But you're right right now, we are. My kids talk to me like, how was it growing up with only three channels on television? And I like, it's a horror story. And I'm like, you know what happened if you weren't there on Saturday morning at six o'clock to start watching your cartoons. Guess what? There were no cartoons until next Saturday.

27:58 They're like, oh, you know, it's it's it was a very different time. But I agree. I remember being bored, and when you were bored, you just go out and play. You would go do something, you would go you would. Your brain is forced to do other things because your brain needs stimulation in one way, shape or form. So if it can't find stimulation, it will create its own internal looking in questioning, thinking about life. Like you said, you know, to really think and analyze things. It's it's fascinating.

28:31 I want to get into the Gita for a second. Now, Gita is a very uh thea is a powerful, powerful scripture essentially story that has survived thousands of years. Can you explain to people why something like that has that kind of this book? This, these stories survived for thousands of years, when most wisdom expires in months, it's not days.

29:04 You know, this has held the test of time, test of generations, test of so much. Why do you believe it is held so long and it's still talked about with such great foundness to this day?

29:18 Yeah?

29:18 Great question.

29:19 Yeah, what about avid Gita is said to contain something called tatva. That's the Sanskrit word tatva, and literally what it means is a truth, but not just any kind of truth, a truth that stands in all times, places, circumstances, cultures. You know, it's just what we call an absolute truth. And I think we find a lot of relative truth in the world that's useful but for a certain time, for a certain person, from a certain perspective. But when you find tatva, I think that is very very special.

30:00 So what I believe the Bugavigjita does, is it gives you a blueprint of reality.

30:08 Right, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.

30:20 You may have read Victor Frankel's book Man Search for Meaning, So I don't know how many of our viewers maybe they've read that book, but he basically explained that his survival in the concentration camps and later on when he came out he developed something called logo therapy, and his main thing was everyone is looking for meaning. He said, we don't even look for pleasure or to avoid pain.

30:48 He said, if you have pleasure but there's no meaning in the pleasure, that pleasure will depress you.

30:55 And he said, if you can encounter.

30:57 Pain but there is meaning to it, you'll not just accept the pain, you'll embrace it as part of your development. Since a very profound point that actually, beyond pleasure and pain, what we're really interested in is meaning. So the bug of it, Gita, what I say, is it gives you the blueprint of reality, which then helps you to decipher meaning.

31:26 And just to say it like super quick, and we could do a whole podcast on this, But the bug of it guitar basically contains what we call five dot verse or five truths. The first one in Sanskrit is called Jieva, which is the soul. The second one is called Procriti, which means the world. The third one is karma, action and reaction, the fourth one is color or time, and the fifth one is ish Fara the supreme. So these are like the five points right. The first one, Jieva, answers the question who am i? The second one, Procriti world, answers the question where am i? The third one Karma, answers the question what am I meant to be doing here?

32:24 The fourth one color time, represents the question how long am I here for? And the fifth one, Ishuvara the Supreme, answers the question what's beyond this material realm. If you can answer those five questions, you can basically understand and decode any other question in the world.

32:51 Who am I?

32:53 Where am I? What am I meant to be doing here? How long am I here for? What's beyond this world? And that's why The Bug of Aage is such a powerful book, because it confronts the most fundamental questions that most people nowadays just kind of ignore and I'm just like, well, whatever it is, I need some money, you know, so let me just get along with it. But they don't ask the big questions first.

33:22 But for me, if the big questions that we're looking for, And Socrates was Socrates example of Socrates about the big questions when we are basically programmed or lied to about what we need in life, what we have to chase, worrying about our basic necessities, it's really difficult to find in her peace when you can't pay the bill and you're going to be evicted, or I have no food and I'm super hungry and I can't you know, some people go into fast but that's a conversation. But if you're not used to it, I can't think about the big questions when I can't answer the little ones. So and I think a lot of I think this illusion that people have been sold over the years is that you need to do this, you need to do that,

34:14 you need to do this, you have to chase that, you have to chase this, you have to chase that. It kind of just muddy is up the water so much that you can't ask those big questions. And Socrates said it well, and because the Greeks in that time, well, they had essentially they had slaves, and the slaves did all of that for them, so then they can know they had the time. I'm like, let me just sit and think deep thoughts, you know, like this colossifies about the nature of reality, while the Spartans are like, great, I could just become the greatest worrier of all time because I have a slave system. So there's there is that.

34:52 But I think there's something bigger here that I'm curious to hear your thoughts about. I think we're heading into a world and it people happen in our lifetime where a lot of our basic needs will be covered by technology. AI. I see it. I see it's so clear in the water. You could see it in the tea leaves if you will that AI. If done properly and consciously, which is the scary part for me, Like, but if it's done right, it can take a lot of our basic needs away to the point where we're like, oh, I have time now to ask these big questions, to seek for these answers.

35:29 What do you think about that?

35:31 Yeah, well, Alex, when you speak, I get like, it's too many thoughts, you know, that's that's bad thing about your speaking, you know.

35:39 Back then, well, let me just go back and then I'll come back to a on. I think you made a brilliant point.

35:47 There's the spiritual questioning and then there are the day to day necessities. And I think there's two misconceptions. One is that you need to ask the questions first, get that down, and then do your material necessities.

36:02 I'm not suggesting that.

36:04 I think the other one is I need to get all my material necessities and once I'm secure, then I'm going to ask the questions. I think that's an illusion as well. I don't think these two things are sequential. I think they're meant to be an ongoing, synergistic endeavor throughout one's life. Like I don't think these questions you you completely answer them at any point. You're you're continually unfolding and discovering them in deeper ways.

36:36 So I would.

36:37 Say, you know, we're not suggesting retire and be a philosopher and get it all down and then get back.

36:44 Into the world.

36:45 I think you can be in the world and be thinking about the world at the same time, and that's what I would propose. And then coming to your question of AI. I love your framing, you know, because I I think AI doesn't have to be a replacement for our intelligence, which I think it's big, fast becoming for many people. I think AI is actually an incredible tool which can free you up to actually exercise other parts of your intelligence that can lead you to like very beautiful places. So as long as AI doesn't, AI is actually, if we use it properly, is meant to actually increase our intelligence because it frees us up from having to spend intelligence in otherwise monotonous things that don't require our attention.

37:40 Right, it's something as simple as a thing. That example that comes to my mind is automatic payments. I'm old enough and I think you are too. That writing a check because the bill would come in the mail, You write a check, you put it in, and then you would send it out. That was time cognitive load all of that stuff. We're now technology just click a box like automatically pay the bill every month, and now I don't have to think about that, and that has freed me to do something else. It's just a small example, but that's a small example of technology taking something away from us that would have taken time, energy, and thought.

38:13 Yeah, no, I think it's a great point.

38:15 And as long as we just don't say, well, now I don't need to utilize that time energy and thought, I'll just can't play a computer game or something instead, you know, like then we say, like what am I going to use my intelligence for?

38:30 Like, let me ask you, in the Gita, is the battlefield in the Gita actually happening inside of us?

38:37 Yeah? The battlefield beautiful.

38:40 It's the Geita is literal and it's metaphorical as well, and that's the beauty of this literature. It's a battle it happened. I've been to the battlefield where it happened. Like it's a profound place. But you're right, there's a battlefield within us. There's our Dona within us. There's a there's a Krishna within us, a super consciousness kind of like the Chariotya guiding us, telling us.

39:08 What, you know.

39:10 Some people call it intuition or whatever, but there's a voice that's guiding us, you know. And so yeah, the battlefield is within. The battlefield is in the in the world today. It's a battlefield. And and just to say one reason why I think the battlefield is a profound place, because it's not the first place you think of to have like a real deep conversation about life, like on a battlefield. But what occurred to me is that on a battlefield it's a very unique place because the ultimate and the immedia simultaneously comeing to focus. Alex plain what I mean. On a battlefield, you could die any moment.

40:02 We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.

40:11 So that means the ultimate what happens beyond, what's beyond that immediately starts playing on your mind on the battlefield. But on a battlefield, in one moment, everyone's going to start fighting and you need to.

40:26 Know what to do.

40:28 Therefore, the immedia is really really important as well. And that's what I think the genius of the bugavid Gita is and the genius of the battlefield. It's a place which teaches you how to function right now and how to at the same time, while you're functioning right now, to always bear in mind what's the ultimate thing here, So the ultima and the immedia, the battlefield brings both into focus, and I think when one lives a life in which we're focusing on the immedia and we're consciously aware of the ultimate that is a powerful.

41:10 Life, beautifully said, beautifully said. One thing I want to ask, do are human beings suffering more from ignorance or from forgetness forgetfulness?

41:23 Wow?

41:25 Yeah, yeah, you're getting into like the real Yeah, I would say the ignorance is the forgetfulness, like.

41:38 Who are we?

41:39 You know? And that's the way the bug of the Gita begins because our Jun's like, I'm going to die, Everyone's going to die, and Christian is the first thing Christians says to our gin, But do you know who you are? You're not the body, You're not the mind. You are a spark of conscience business animating this frame.

42:04 And you've forgotten. And because you've forgotten, you're in ignorance of your identity.

42:11 And so.

42:15 Yeah, it's beautiful the way you've asked that question. Because sometimes people think spirituality means like I need to learn all these new things now, but actually all it is is remembering what you've known since nity.

42:33 And to cut through all the mud, to cut through all the bs and all the stuff that you've been I think someone says this, but I say it all the time. It is like you in the first seven years. You learn everything that they're programming with your program in the first seven years of your life, basically to who you are, and then you spend the rest of your life trying to deprogram yourself from all the stuff you've learned those for seven years. And there's a very deep truth to that. It is a very deep truth because it by the time you're seven, you're you are who you are. A lot, a lot of the basic programming is in, but then you've tried to try to release it all, try to program yourself. It's crazy, isn't it.

43:14 It's like one writer, he says, I can't remember who it is. He says, I'm not who I think I am. I'm not who you think I am. I'm who I think you think I am.

43:28 It's like that our.

43:30 Vision of ourselves is a projection of a projection. We've become so distanced from who we actually are because of all this word programming, as you mentioned.

43:42 So it's like a it's an allegory of the cave with another allegory. Plantos gave another, Platos gave another Planets cave.

43:48 It's like a mirror within a mirror within a mirror, like kind of you know that.

43:52 So when consciousness or when these labels leave us, all this stuff, the label of you being who you are, may being who I am, and all the all these illusions go away, what's left? What's left when you strip all this away? And this is a deep scary question for people because it's essentially who am I when I look in the mirror? Everything's gone? Who am I when I look in the mirror when all of it's gone?

44:20 That's it's kind of terrifying for a lot of people. What do you think?

44:24 Yeah, yeah, I mean the Eastern teachers, they constantly remind us we are an indestructible spark of consciousness.

44:36 And it's like it's.

44:38 Hard, Like when you tell someone that, it's like.

44:40 What does that mean? Like? Like what do I look? Like? What do I do all day? Like?

44:44 People want to know something more tangible. But I think the Bubble with Guitar in the fifteenth chapter uses a beautiful analogy of a Banyan tree and says, imagine Christiana says, imagine there's a bunyan tree, and then there's a water a waterbed, and then there's a reflection of the Bunyan tree. Christiana says, basically, this material world is like the reflection, and everything that you see in this world exists in its true form in the spiritual, in the spiritual dimension.

45:33 So basically, who are we? In one sense, you could say we're pure consciousness, And if someone wanted to get a little more specific, we could say that just as you see this world, we have relationships, we have bodies, we have personalities, we have that actually goes on in the spiritual abode, but in a pure and perfect and beautiful way, devoid of any Yeah, imperfection. So I'm kind of like you're, I'm kind of like trying to give a little bit of a picture of it. But basically, yeah, when we strip away at all the material with spiritual beings and as spiritual beings, we function in a beautiful spiritual world where there is everything that you see here but in its pure original form.

46:25 So there must be some amazing concerts going on or on the other side, you know, the lineup must be amazing.

46:34 I mean, Alex, if there was no music, if there was no dancing, if there was no laughter, if there was no love in the spiritual world, what would the spiritual world be?

46:47 Avoid avoid essentially avoid.

46:49 Yeah, So there are different philosophies. And what we find is there are philosophies which are what we call impersonal, which basically try to reduce reality to like an all pervading consciousness, but it's we're all one and we're Whereas there are philosophies what we call is dualistic or Buckti philosophies, philosophies of love where the spiritual perfection is not just an impersonal blob of oneness, but it's a beautiful world of dynamic exchange and activity, but in which everything is done in a purely spiritual and perfect way.

47:33 So, I mean, I feel that I've said this often, but I feel like that this is an insane thing. Life. Life is insane. You're thrown in, no one's telling you anything, you just show up. I got these parents, you know, like sometimes they're there. Sometimes I've been abandoned. And there's a thousand different scenarios. Right, We're throwing it and then we start to try to figure it out, trying to figure this whole just our our consciousness, or we're just trying to figure out what we are, who those five questions, what we are, who we are, why we're here all of that stuff, and then we're taught by caretakers who have tried to do the same thing but really don't have a complete clear picture either. So then we're taught

48:21 their misunderstandings or they're whatever their understandings might be, and then we try to go figure it out for ourselves. This is an insane thing. All of us are trying to grab onto a story for us to make sense of this. All right, It's like we're just trying to just trying to figure this thing out. Everyone everyone, and we're just taking stimulation from everywhere. But if you're born in the Amazon right now into a tribe who doesn't see any of this, who doesn't understand any of this, who lives in that tribe, and they do the same thing, but their reality is very different than reality you and I live in, but there's still the exact same thing.

49:00 They're trying to figure out. What is this jungle? Those are the animals that can kill me. These people seem to love me. This is how I get food. They're just trying to figure it out. And the story, you're like, you know, the story I'm gonna hold on to is the sun God, is the sun comes up there it's my god, I am going to Okay, it's just a story.

49:19 We're all just trying to grab onto stories to make sense of this all. Does that make any sense?

49:26 Yeah, we look at it's a beautiful point, like we're all looking for answers, and sometimes we're going to people who don't have the answers, who are grappling with it themselves.

49:38 And I think this is.

49:39 The point where we might want to introduce the concept of guru.

49:46 Please, because that is a very charged word nowadays.

49:49 Yeah, that's the charge. That's why.

49:52 Please, I wait fifteen minutes before I drop the guru word.

49:56 You know, just let's drive.

49:57 Let's let's so guru. So the guru coming from your point, your your lineage, the gurus of is a completely different thing than what it's kind of been bastardized here.

50:08 In the West.

50:09 Yeah, and there have been Indian gurus who've come over who have bastardized it, taken advantage, created cults, all that kind of stuff.

50:17 Yeah.

50:17 So, but that happens in every every culture, every religion. There's always you know, the outsiders. But yes, let's I'd love to hear your point of view on the the the today's guru. What is the purpose of the guru in today? Job will be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.

50:44 Yeah, So, like I talked to you about the bug of the jtah and this concept of tatva that there are truths and then the guru in Sanskrit is literally known as tatva darshi and tatva darshi darshan means to see. So tatvadarashi means one who's basically seeing those truths, not just intellectually, but they have a have a vision of a spiritual vision of the world. So, yeah, the bug of the Gita and in many traditions is explain that to get the answers, we need to find someone who's found those answers. And so what you'll find through the spiritual literatures is that characteristics are given, like how do you know someone is a guru? Like how would like if you came across a guru today, how would you

51:43 what would you do to be able to verify it? Like what's there? How do they walk, how do they talk? What are their characters? What are their qualities? Like, So a significant part of the bug of the guitar talks about the character of a self realized person m.

52:00 Okay.

52:02 And so there are all these beautiful descriptions about a self realized person.

52:09 And Christ conscious like Christ consciousness.

52:11 Or Christ conscious exactly, like or.

52:13 Like Yogananda or like you know, many of the gurus, not gurus, but the masters have walked in all of do.

52:20 They exhibit They exhibit compassion, they exhibit you know, tolerance, humility, all these things. So, yeah, that the the spiritual journey really begins when we number one begin questioning, right, But then number two the next thing that needs to happen is you need to find someone who has some answers.

52:47 Otherwise just questioning can lead you into an endless spiral of frustration.

52:54 You know. So we need questions, but then we need.

52:59 Answers and two and I'll just add one thing here and then I'll let you come in. I think people when they think of a guru, they think of someone who you unquestioningly follow and who you just invest your faith in and leave your intelligence behind. And I don't think that's how it's actually meant to be framed. I think a guru is someone who gives you answers in such a way that it stimulates your intelligence to ask more questions. Right when you're around someone who gives you answers, but then who helps you to ask higher grade questions.

53:40 I think that's that's a guru. And so yeah, ask questions. Find someone who has answers, but connect with someone who continues to stimulate you to ask more questions.

53:57 The I would love you to talk about because it is a very underappreciated idea when it comes to the spiritual path, because so many people are lost in the world and they grab on to anyone who goes I know, I follow me, I got the answers, and then they're like he mus he dresses the part, or she's dressing the part, she sounds right, she's saying the right things.

54:26 Let me go over there, and then they just give away their power. Where I think the discernment, I think you've touched upon it in the last answer. We really need to make you really have to think about it about why am I following this person or what am I getting out of this relationship with this person in one way, shape or form. I'd love to hear your thoughts on discernment and in what place it has in today's spiritual path.

54:52 Yeah, he is one definition of a guru. Someone who knows the way, someone who goes the way, and someone who can show the way. Right, that's one way to see it very simply. So I think discernment comes in asking those questions does this person know the way? That means ask questions. If a guru doesn't want you to ask them questions, I would be very suspicious.

55:28 Or question you at all, or question yeah yeah, yeah.

55:31 If there's no if there's no exploration, I think that relationship is very.

55:38 I think it's a yeah.

55:40 So the first thing is, yeah, do they know the way? Discern that through asking questions do they go the way? It's not just about knowing the answers. Is this person living it? Are they showing up in the world in a way that reflects everything that's coming out of you know, their health? And I think that's where someone has to observe and not jumping, but observe someone. How did they how does this person interact, how do they face challenges?

56:10 How do they interact with others? And then show the way, like what are they able to give me that practically changes my life? So like with a guru, you don't have to be like all in from day one. You can say, like, let me take a few of the things that the Guru has given me, saying that this will be good.

56:34 For my life.

56:35 Let me try it out and let me see if it's helping me. And I think like when you approach it like that, alex is much more balanced and you're you're much more likely to connect with an authentic teacher.

56:52 Beautiful because there is and maybe I'm a little bit more sensitive to it because I get pitched all the time and I see all of these teachers, some quote unquote teachers and some who are true teachers. And we have a big filter on who we let on the show for that specific reason, because we know that people who come on the show, we try, We do the We might not be batting a thousand, but we do the best we can, you know, with it. And but it is something that's very on our mind to make sure we bring on people who are walking the walk, talking to talk and can possibly help people.

57:26 Is the and especially in the age we're living in, Alex because like anyone can start a YouTube channel, which is beautiful.

57:35 But also dangerous at the same time. Exactly exactly it's it's also dangerous the same time. Now, I wanted to kind of go into another area, and I love to hear your thoughts about this. The world right now is going through such major changes, such upheaval, such chaos in many areas. A lot of these institutions, a lot of our systems are being challenged, are being are starting to crack, are starting to fall apart. People are not putting up with what they did put up with before, but it seems to be being ramped up from the political, from the religious institutions, from healthcare, from Hollywood, from all these different education all of these places. You're starting to see the crack. Their college is shutting down because people aren't

58:20 signing up anymore and they can't stay afloat, you know, because they just feel like that this doesn't make any sense for me to do. So there's a lot of this going on. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why humanity is going through this currently right now. There's always been chaos throughout humanity's history, There's no doubt about that, but there seems to be an intense intensification on all fronts right now, and we can see it. We could just feel it, we can see it, and there's more need for the spiritual teachings. The more spiritual awakenings are happening more and more every day. Our conversation right now wouldn't have happened thirty forty years ago in a public place that possibly millions of people could watch, or even

59:03 people millions of people would be interested in, not just the twenty people on the back of occult bookstore somewhere you know, you know what I mean.

59:12 So it's fast.

59:13 So I'd love to hear your thoughts of why you believe this is happening to humanity at this time. And do you agree that what I've said is all this stuff?

59:21 Yeah, that the structures are kind of being dismantled somewhat right.

59:27 Well.

59:28 In the Vedict when I say Vedic means Eastern the science Cicic tradition, time is cyclical. It's not linear, so like you know, like in the year you have spring and then summer and then autumn and winter and it comes back round. So in the Vedic concept of time, the cosmos also has seasons.

59:55 You guys, you know about this right to you guys?

59:58 Yes, yeah, exactly, exactly, Yeah, so we're right now we're in calor yoga, as you know, So that's the it's almost like the winter of the Cosmos, the dark season, And it's amazing because of all the qualities that could be used to describe Cali yoga, one of the ones that comes up all the time is hypocrisy. It's the age of hypocrisy. Which is an interesting that that that one comes up so prominently. Yah, And one of the reasons that I think people are rebelling against the structures is because they're seeing too much hypocrisy.

1:00:46 We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show.

1:00:55 You know, like politicians in all these policies, but then what are they doing in their private life? And then hospitals which say that, you know, we're doing it for your good, but then what are all their finance policies to make it profitable for them? Or like the justice system which says like we're going to make the right decision, but then what are all the connections going on in the background between the people to make sure the decisions come out right. So I think people are like, there's a lot of hypocrisy out there. I don't know who I trust anymore. Do I trust the hospital, Do I trust the you know, the government? Do I trust political systems.

1:01:35 A church, any of them?

1:01:37 A church, even religion, Yeah, Like we have to be honest. Even religious people have abused the trust because of hipocrisy, like majorly, right, So I think the systems are coming down because systems only work where there is trust. But trust is being annihilated in the world, you know. Therefore, therefore people who walk the talk are so important for the world because they they reinstate trust, you know, Like like you just talked about Catholicism, And I'm just writing a paper right now, a comparative paper between Hinduism and Christianity, and I'm comparing Saint Francis with Shri Chaitanya, who's another kind of figure within the Eastern tradition. And so yesterday I was just watching there's this old video on the YouTube.

1:02:35 Is called it a Reluctant Saint, and it's all about Saint Francis, and it was just so beautiful to hear about Saint Francis. And he has this beautiful saying. He says, I preach every day. I preach seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year and now and again I say something.

1:03:01 That's beautiful.

1:03:03 Isn't that beautiful, Alex, isn't that beautiful? Like your life is your message? Like even before you said anything, people know like because of the way you live. And I think that's what the world needs, not just people who are good orators, but people who share their philosophy and their way of life without even saying a word, just from the purity of how they act.

1:03:31 Is that why people with authenticity is or getting much more attention than the fake people? I mean, I come from Hollywood, so I understand that. And then I've also been in the YouTube game now for quite some time, so I've met a lot of the biggest YouTubers out there as well. And when I meet them, I sometimes I'm like, Oh, that's who they are. I mean, that's why they're so popular, because they're just being who they are.

1:03:59 And then you see other or that You're just like, Oh, they're playing a part, they're they're they're not coming at it from an authentic and we can smell it. Now. Are our authenticity meters are you know, the sensors are going through the roof right now. So is that why authenticity is the number one. Even in brands, even in companies we're trying to do marketing, they're just like, look, you know, the authentic brands, the people behind the brands are what people are being drawn to, not the old Madison Avenue mad Men marketing. That doesn't work anymore, not for everybody. It works for some, but not for everybody.

1:04:38 Yeah, people want they want something real, you know, you know, in a world which is becoming increasingly artificial on all fronts. So yeah, people are looking for a real story, a real, real human being, a real hot Actually people want a hot.

1:04:57 Is that It's it's also interesting that a lot of people are looking back at, you know, past decades with nostalgia, of course, but but there was a level of authenticity back then that in the movies and the storytelling and the music, in the literature. It was just different. It was just so different than today. And even my kids I watched them and they they tend to go back towards the stuff in the eighties, the nineties, the two thousands, because that was they're like, oh that, you know, the people the posters on their wall of one of my daughters, the posters on the wall are posters of heart throbs from the eighties, and I'm like, you know that guy sixty right, and she's like, I know, I don't. Don't

1:05:43 break the illusion for me. I just like these are today. I can't find these guys today. I can't. I can't. These guys were like like, Wow, I found that so fascinating.

1:05:52 Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, I mean yeah, without getting nostalgic about it, you know, there was there was a beauty, isn't it so that those older generations who weren't utilizing all these extra technologies or supports, and they were just when they sang, they wrote the lyrics, when they when they showed up, it wasn't choreographed.

1:06:16 It was like they were just being who they were.

1:06:18 And yeah, something very beautiful in that human creativity.

1:06:23 Stainly, do you believe that we are going through the greatest spiritual awakening humanity has ever seen in all of the cycles that we've gone through.

1:06:32 Yeah, it's I talked about the calorie Yuga, and it's interesting because one of the Vedic scriptures explains that within the calor uga there's a golden age almost like within this darkness, you know, like you can imagine like there's this cold winter day and then for like three hours in the middle of the day there's just this amazing sun which comes out and bathes them thing in like beauty.

1:07:02 So it said.

1:07:03 Actually that we're we're we're we're beginning that mini golden Age within a very dark time actually, And so I think the signs are that there are there are people are looking, people are questioning. Even if you look at what goes viral on the Internet, a lot of it is very it's it's related to deep spiritual searching actually.

1:07:31 Or kindness, deep kindness, beauty. I've seen that start to grit. So the other day there was a marathon, I think it was in the Boston Marathon actually that there was a guy who literally just his legs collapsed. He just could not physically go anymore. It's just cramped up, and he was just done. But he was close to the finish line and you just see these runners running by him while he's like flailing on the on the and then one guy stopped care and grab them, and then another guy can stop I get chills thinking about and grabbed them and started to walk him towards the finish line so he would finish. That went viral because people are searching for that humanity again.

1:08:14 Yeah, yeah, we went that humanity. Yeah, that kindness, that closeness, and we are social beings at the end of the day, right like we Whatever you have, you can have success, you can have you know, whatever it may be.

1:08:35 But you need love, right and love.

1:08:39 Me as the Beetle says, as the Beatles said, Oh you need Yeah. Now, one of one of your great influences is the Swami who came over in the sixties. If I'm not mistaken, but and please I never get his name right.

1:08:56 Yeah, and he.

1:09:00 And he came over right here in Boston. Actually he arrived in nineteen sixty five.

1:09:06 Yeah, he yeah.

1:09:07 And he was the originator of the Hrry Krishna movement, which if you were growing up in the seventies and the eighties, I mean, I mean it became a punch first time, mean you believe it or not. The first time I was exposed to the Harry Christna's was an airplane on a movie airplane chanting chanting or non chanting section chanting piece. And because they became they were in the fabric of pop culture and the zeitgeist. Can you really quickly tell the story of him and what an amazing story it is, and for everybody who's interested to go more on next level sol TV. We actually have the documentary about his life, which I saw. I've seen that movie probably ten times because I just it's just such a beautiful, spiritual story about a man who just

1:09:57 decided that, like, you know what, I think it's time. And he didn't do it when he was twenty one.

1:10:03 Yeah, no, thanks for asking that. I mean, probab Pad. He grew up in India and Calcutta. You know, Calcutta was an interesting time British colonialism. It was the meeting of the East and West.

1:10:19 Will be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.

1:10:30 And when he was twenty two, he wasn't you know, he wasn't particularly thinking of being like a spiritual teacher or anything. But when he was twenty two, he met his spiritual teacher, and his spiritual teacher told him that the greatest need of the day is spiritual wisdom and you need to learn it and share it. And so he took that order, that inspiration, but he couldn't do much because he was a family man. He was a pharmacist.

1:11:07 So he was he had you know, he had children. But finally, once his children grew up, it was nineteen sixty five, he was already sixty nine years old. He thought, maybe I should do it now. It's better late than ever, let me now or ever. So it's an incredible story. At sixty nine, he boarded a ship. He had forty rupees in his pocket and a few books, and he said, I'm going to go to America. He didn't really know anybody there, didn't know what he was going to do, but he.

1:11:44 Thought, let me try.

1:11:46 So he steps on this ship and in those days to get from America, to get from India to America by ship took two months. So he's on this ship. It's a cargo ship, so there's no other passengers really, and on the ship he has two heart attacks, but somehow he survives. So it's nineteen sixty five. The Swami arrives in New York right here, Boston, just twenty minutes from here, Commonwealth peer and he says, I got off the ship. I didn't know whether I should turn left or right. This is a swami. He's never been outside of India. He's sixty nine years old, he's just had two heart attacks, and he lands in America in the middle of the sixties.

1:12:45 Literally in the middle of the.

1:12:47 Sixties, literally literally the Summer of Love, you know. And what he does is he basically goes to a New York park and you can go to that park today, Tomkins Square Park. He sits underneath a tree and he starts chanting Harry Krishna, the Harry Krishna mantra, and people are just walking by, like which planet the this guy arrived from? Like dilike, and people stop and they chant, they meditate with him, and then he gives a little speech about the bug of the guitar. People get interested.

1:13:28 In nineteen sixty six, he starts a temple in New York. The next year some of his students say, why don't we try this in South San Francisco. It's all happening in hey Ashbury. So then they start a temple in San Francisco, and then one in Montreal, and then in nineteen sixty nine they say, well, why don't we go to London. The Beatles are there, So then they go to London and George Harrison presses My Sweet Lord with them, and then within the next decade, Harry Krishna basically goes to every single city in the world, one hundred temples, thousands of followers, books, and a worldwide movement. All started from a sixty nine year old man who had two heart attacks and shows up in New York and starts

1:14:24 chanting underneath the tree with the belief that everyone's looking for the same thing as you mentioned.

1:14:34 Yeah, it's it's it's such a beautiful story and everyone watching you should definitely check out that movie because it is such a beautiful, beautiful movie. It's it's shocking because during that time there were a lot of Indian gurus coming over. It was like the heyday of that. I mean, Yogananda obviously came in the early part of the century, and before then there was another swami who came and left.

1:15:01 Yoregna was the first to stay then, yes, yeah, yeah, he came as well and start So there was already the information, the wisdom was starting to make its way to the to the west and needed to. And now the West is becoming I'm not sure if we're we're a little bit, hopefully a little bit wiser than we work before. But it's it's It's fascinating, my friend, It really is fascinating. Where can people find out more about you and the amazing work you're doing in the world.

1:15:32 Oh, thank you so much.

1:15:34 Yeah, Well, Keshavaswami dot com is kind of just a little bit of a website.

1:15:39 It just tell us a little bit about how I, how I arrived where I am now.

1:15:45 And then obviously on social media, we have all the channels on Instagram, YouTube, Keshavaswami. Yeah, and then we have an initiative call Wisdom that greaths dot com where we're trying to you, Yeah, just do a lot of conscious change making and and amplify voices which are yeah, putting the goodness out there and and and encouraging people to unlock their innate potential spiritual potential. So yeah, a few things there, and would love to connect and and thank you, thank you for everything you're doing. And you're just such a yeah, a blessing for the world and uh and and a great hope And just in conversing with you, although you've been humble enough to just ask the questions mainly today, I'm sure we could equally do this podcast

1:16:43 and I could ask you a lot of questions.

1:16:44 And I'm sure you have.

1:16:47 Appreciate that is humbling, my friend. I appreciate it very very much. I want to ask you before we go, what do you what is your hope for your work in this lifetime for the world.

1:17:00 My spiritual teacher told me the goal of life is to touch as many hearts as you can. And when I wake up in the morning, that's what I think about, Like, I don't want to just educate people. I don't want to just empower people, but I want to try and conduct myself in a way that it touches people's hearts.

1:17:25 And maybe if their heart is touched, it will awaken more of their goodness and they'll.

1:17:30 Touch someone else's heart. And so that's what I think about.

1:17:35 And i'd say the last thing that you know, sometimes we can become overwhelmed, as you said, by the world and the direction in which it's going, and sometimes we can think like how am I going to change the world. But when I wake up, what I think to myself is maybe I can't change the world, but maybe today I could change change one person's world. And maybe if one person's world would be changed, it would mean the world to them, and maybe that will go on to mean something more. So, Yeah, that's what I tried to do, and I hope I can continue doing it.

1:18:18 You said something real quick. I wanted to ask you people you know trying to figure out this is this kind of crazy world that we're in right now. What advice do you have for people right now who are living in fear of the unknown of what's happening around them Because what they've known, the stories that they've indoctrinated in themselves about the nature of this reality, the nature of the world are things foundations are starting to crack around them and they see it and they're terrified. What advice do you have for them?

1:18:48 I think we have to develop the capacity to always zoom out and then zoom back in. Zooming in and out, I think is a great of life. And I think fear failure, whatever it may be, becomes overwhelming when we don't have the capacity to zoom out and then zoom back in again. And that's what I actually see your podcast and all the spiritual content in the world, and all these scriptures and all these sages, what they're basically doing is they're not necessarily providing you a solution to change everything, But what they are doing is equipping you with the capacity to zoom out. And then when you zoom back in and you look at everything, everything begins to look very different, not because it's changed, but because

1:19:46 you now have perspective.

1:19:48 Beautifully, beautifully said my friend. Thank you again so much for being here on the show. It's been a real, truly pleasure and honor. I hope that we can get you down to aston you do another conversation in person, my friend. I appreciate you and everything you're doing to awaken this planet, my friend, so thank you, Thank you, Alex' best, thank you for spending this sacred time with us today. If you feel called to explore this conversation further, you'll find the show notes for this episode at Next levelsoul dot com Forward slash six nine to one, and if your soul is craving an even deeper journey, step into Next Level Soul TV our streaming sanctuary for spiritual films, documentaries, original shows, guided meditations, channeling sessions, audiobooks, and transformative teachings.

1:20:34 It's a space created to support your awakening. You're healing and your return to the truth of who you really are. Begin your journey at next levelsoul dot tv until next time, Keep expanding, keep seeking, and keep walking your path towards the next level of your soul.