MMP Talks (23) : "Vedic Mind Power" - Raj Nandha (Student's Edition)

[00:00:01] 2. A lot of people are in this world. I have a confession to make and before I share that, I just want to ask something in the audience. So how many of you in the last one year have experienced a low level of anxiety, doubt and stress?

[00:00:24] How many of you in the audience in the last one year have experienced a medium level of anxiety, stress and doubt? How many of you in the audience have experienced a high level of anxiety, stress and doubt? Okay, quite a lot of you.

[00:00:42] Now working in the NHS, I work as a GP pharmacist, I mean working for them, working in that role for about 10 years. Now in these 10 years, I'm responsible for patients, for the mental health, for their anxiety and I'm also on a board for strategic well-being of healthcare professionals.

[00:01:06] And what I have discovered, or what I've understood, and this is the confession, being in this role, is no amount of medicine, no amount of temporary fixes, no amount of plastering can really help our mental health, our anxiety, or our doubts.

[00:01:28] These things have to be looked at on the deeper level. And they say that saying, if you want to fix an old and common problem, you have to turn to an old and common book. So I'm going to share with you a little bit on that topic.

[00:01:47] Now when I was 25 and I qualified as in my role as a chief of my degree, and actually I was just working really hard towards that. I did so many exams, everything material that I could have wanted for my chief.

[00:02:02] I managed to get a nice house, a nice car and a relationship. And when I finally got there, I was like, whoa, is this what it was about? Like, was I working really hard for this? Like internally, I felt like, wow, this isn't satisfactory.

[00:02:25] This isn't fulfilling at all. I just reached a bit of a crisis point. Actually my blood pressure went through the roof. I was working as many days as I could and I took my blood pressure, I was like, oh my god, I need to see a doctor.

[00:02:39] And I did and I had a short burst and I was like, wow, it's time to reset. It's time to look at what else is out there. And then I started my journey of discovery. I started looking out there and seeing actually there's more to life.

[00:02:54] And what can I do? What is the essence of happiness? I started questioning all these things. And there was a point, it was actually on my 30th birthday. And I had a terrible time. It was meant to be the best because we went to a nightclub, rooftop bar,

[00:03:11] oh my friends were there. Oh my friends, friends were there, but it was terrible. And then I had a reflection. And I did something different the following year. But I shared that with you in a sec. What I wanted to share with you also,

[00:03:27] I guess we're talking about martial arts. And when I was growing up as a kid, I would love this two things I would love. If I looked back, one is martial arts. So Karate Kid, Bruce Lee, all these things,

[00:03:41] I used to also think I was Bruce Lee and I was the Karate Kid. So how do these things? And the second thing I used to also love, a book in a story called The Mahabharat. And the central character was Ojuna.

[00:03:57] And I loved Ojuna because he was a warrior. He was the central character. He was fierce. Yeah, he was soft as well at the same time. And this character really resonated with me. What I decided to do as a kid is kind of learn about him.

[00:04:17] And I'm just going to share a bit about his history. Now he was someone that actually was the best warrior of his time. So the best fighter you could get. Nobody else was better than this guy. And a lot of bad things happened to him.

[00:04:33] His family were almost killed by cheat. They said, it's house on fire. They tried to kill him. He, his wife was disrobed in front of everyone who was actually the queen. Through gambling, match he was cheated. He was sent to the forest.

[00:04:50] So any material situation, difficulty, this guy faced. But he didn't give up. He continued. The calamities continued but he never gave up. And I wanted to talk to you about a conversation of really world famous conversation that he's a part of.

[00:05:11] And this conversation, it's quoted by many famous people, Martin Luther King, Tupac, Gandhi. And this conversation is called the Bhagavad Gita. You can see it. It's actually one of the world's most famous conversations. And this conversation happens between Arjuna and his best friend, Krishna.

[00:05:34] Now, this conversation, and I'm just going to share with you how this conversation changed my life. And actually it's changed the life of millions. On this battlefield, Arjuna is about to fight a massive war. The war of his life have you ever been in a situation

[00:05:52] where you're like about to fight your family, your friends, your relatives, maybe about to kill them. It's very difficult to imagine. But actually, we are in a battle every day. We're constantly fighting the material things, the calamities coming to us.

[00:06:10] Arjuna is about to fight the war of his life and just before the war is about to start, he has an existential crisis. He has a doubt. Should I fight this war or should I not? Like, what should I do? I'm confused.

[00:06:28] My boy is slipping from my hand. Everything I've learned so far is coming away from me. I don't know what to do, but please help me. Now, I'm going to share some principles from this book, this conversation that we can learn and it also connects to Marsha Latsaswell.

[00:06:47] The first thing Arjuna does in this conversation is he surrenders to his best friend, his guide. He's actually the reason why he's his charioteer. They're both on this chariot, and he surrenders to him and it says, please guide me. Please help me. I don't know what to do.

[00:07:12] And just like that in Marsha Latsaswell, we have guides. We have Goos. We have masters that teach us the way. And it's only when we accept that we need to be taught is when the real magic happens. So Bruce Lee, a lot of people

[00:07:32] have taken inspiration from him. He's a guide, he's a master. And in the same way, just like from Marsha Latsas you need a master for the soul. You also need a spiritual master to guide the soul. And this is the first principle I wanted to share

[00:07:50] is actually we have to be able to be humble enough to take that guidance if we're going to have that journey of the self. We make 33,000 decisions every single day. Now I have no idea how they worked that out. But the point is you're always making a decision.

[00:08:13] And even in Marsha Latsas like what to defend, what not to defend, what to punch, what to kick, you're constantly at split seconds, you're making decisions. Now the question is what's a right decision? How do you know what right decisions to make?

[00:08:30] How do you know to get to that point? And therefore, that's why we turn to these Vedic texts. That's why we turn to these spiritual masters that guide us because they have seen the truth. They have been on that journey. They've been on that discovery themselves.

[00:08:49] So therefore, we kind of take to that. So the first principle is we have to surrender to somebody that has seen the truth. Somebody that is elevated in that process. And whatever is that you take. And I guess there's different forms of Marsha Latsas as well.

[00:09:09] So whichever process you want to take, you take that process. But the first step is you surrender to help somebody to help you. Now once you've done that, once you've surrendered to somebody to help you, what happens next? Well, Krishna then in this book,

[00:09:28] the first thing he says to Arjuna is your not this body. The first principle, he gives him the identity. Now in Marsha Latsas we learn self defense, right? Like this like one of the core reasons for Marsha Latsas or core principles, self defense.

[00:09:49] Now my question to you is what are you defending? What is this self? Who is this self? Now are you defending your body? Are you the body? The body is helping in that defense. Are you the mind? Are you defending your mind? What is it that you're defending?

[00:10:11] Actually if you turn it back and look into it, you're defending the soul, you're defending your life force. Right? So the first principle is first for you to identify what is it that you're defending when you're doing self defense?

[00:10:27] Now when you find out that, okay, I'm not this body. Then you can actually begin to really defend who you really are. How do you identify with the self? How do you connect with this journey of the soul? Because you're not your kick, you're not your punch.

[00:10:51] You're not these things. These things are helping you defend but you're not actually any of these things. And how do you connect with that? How do you connect with the soul? What's the process? Okay. I actually spent some time with some monks for two, three months

[00:11:07] in monastery, Nindia. It was amazing. We used to wake up really early in the morning and we used to sleep pretty early and it was just a incredible journey on the floor. One of the key principles I learned from there is the idea of waking up early

[00:11:22] and connecting with yourself. This morning routine, this morning meditation and that's the first thing that the monks taught me. I used to wake up at 4am and we used to do deep meditation. We used to feel our actual soul. And again, everybody is equal in that place.

[00:11:43] And when you connect with that soul in the morning I actually set you up for the whole day because you understand who you really are. I remember speaking to one of the monks and I said, why do we meditate in the morning?

[00:11:56] Like, I can't just wake up whenever I want and how does it impact my day in any way? And he told me a very nice story, a very nice analogy. He said, imagine an archer. Like if you look at a bow and an arrow,

[00:12:12] if you look at the arrow when the archer is about to shoot, the arrow is going backwards. Which seems kind of productive, right? Because the arrow needs to go forward but actually he's drawing his bow back and the arrow is going backwards so how does that make sense?

[00:12:27] If you think about it, it's not so logical. And he described to me that meditation is just like the archer drawing his bow back. Because when you take that time away from the hustle and bustle of life, when you start by taking time to yourself,

[00:12:47] when you start with identifying yourself, what happens by drawing backwards? Just like when the archer draws backwards, when he releases that arrow, that arrow grows with so much more force, so much more piercing, so much more penetration. And that's the same way when we meditate,

[00:13:07] when we identify the self, when we connect with that inward, where, especially in the morning times, we go with more force in the day. We go with more purpose. We go with more determination and that lines up us for the rest of the day.

[00:13:25] So that was the importance of doing that practice in the morning, identifying with the self. The other thing I learned, and when I was there in the monastery, they have monk schools to little kids training to be monks. And asked him, what do you teach?

[00:13:42] The kids, like, what's the first thing you teach them? And I was thinking, they would say, sounds great, or ABC, or whatever. They're like, it's like, no, no, no, no, we don't teach any of that first. The first thing we teach are kids is how to breathe.

[00:13:57] Because breathing is what they do from the start, when they're born, to the last breath. And we don't breathe correctly. So we teach them how to breathe, which I thought was absolutely amazing. Now, once you've identified yourself, you've connected with your internal identity, you've done the self discovery.

[00:14:20] Now it's about self mastery. Because one of the amazing things I've heard from these talks is everybody has a purpose. Everybody has their flow. Now, the next thing that Christian tells Ojuna is find your purpose. Ojuna's purpose was to be a warrior.

[00:14:39] He whose purpose was to fight at that point. Now we all have a purpose. We all have an identity to fulfill. Somebody might be an actor. Somebody might be a dancer. Somebody might be a chef. Somebody might be an investment banker. Ultimately, you have your unique superpower.

[00:15:01] And it's for you to find that superpower, hone in on that superpower and give it to the world. Only when you can find that superpower, then you'll be making a difference. Then you feel happier. Then you feel fulfilled. It's like writing with your left hand,

[00:15:17] if you're left handed. So if you're right handed and writing with your left hand, how do you feel? If you feel frustrated, you feel it doesn't feel right, doesn't come right. It's a difference between existing and living. When you're existing, you're going with the flow.

[00:15:32] When you're living, you're finding your own flow. When you're existing, time goes slowly. When you're living, time is your best friend. You love every second. When you're existing, you're seeking security, but when you're living, you're seeking self-discovery. So the second point that Christiana tells our Juno

[00:15:55] is, it's about self-mastery. Find out what your craft is, find out what your purpose is and make that your reality and give that superpower to the world. What's the last thing that Christiana emphasizes to our Juno about this discovery of the self? So the last thing Christiana says

[00:16:19] is you have to be self-realized. Once you achieve and once you discover yourself, we have yourself identity, self-discovery. Once you then achieve self-mastery of your purpose, what happens is when you perfect that, you get self-realization. And self-realization is when you reach a point

[00:16:43] where you're completely in your flow. When you're connected with the divine, when you're in a state of in a bliss and in a fulfillment. And in a happiness, which I guess everybody's aiming for in life, everybody's aiming for that internal, in a happiness and that internal,

[00:17:00] in a fulfillment. So only when you achieve done the previous two, then you can move towards self-realization. So I'm gonna leave you with that thought about self-realization. And there's a book by AC Buctive and Antisoyomy Pro part called the Science of Self-realization.

[00:17:21] Because this is a science, if you think about it, the spiritual master or the master has given you our path to disease, is given you a manual to try it. Then you do the experiment, you identify with yourself and you find your purpose.

[00:17:37] And what happens when you do the experiment? You get a result. When you get the result, you actually feel the result. So I mentioned to you at the beginning, my journey and how did that evolve. So after my 30th birthday, following year I decided,

[00:17:56] I'm not gonna have a party, I'm not gonna have any my friends. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna serve. I'm gonna serve. So I found a charity called Food for Life. And I went there on my birthday and I served the homeless,

[00:18:10] I served them cake, I served them food. And I kid you know it was a best experience I had because I was giving, I was acting in service. And just like that, my life had changed. And I realized that life is about service. Life is about giving.

[00:18:30] So whatever skill you have, whatever purpose you have, everything we're doing in our life is about service and giving. So for me, that was my self-realization. And I encourage you all to try these things first, identify the self-discovery in you. Connect with your soul, connect with yourself,

[00:18:54] then find yourself mastery. And once you find yourself mastery, utilizing these two things for self-realization give your time and service. And that way, you can also become self-realized. Thank you so much.