The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 20th October, 2013 was ‘Goals in Life.‘
Following is the transcript of the Q & A between the audience and Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.
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Listen to the audio:
Q. How do we judge ourselves?
Smt. H: If you don’t know what you are, then who else will know? So there is no question of judging; observe yourself, how much you can do in a day, how much you feel comfortable with, make a diary. This has to be done in various areas – how much can you eat, what time would be more comfortable, how much sleep you need, how much activity your body can take, etc. So know thyself thoroughly well, then only can you move ahead in life. You are going to progress slowly, slowly, no doubt about it.
Q. What are the parameters to know that progress is occuring?
Smt. H: The world is going to tell you, and all the people around you. And you yourself will come to know whether you are progressing or not. Be true to yourself, learn to watch yourself. Learn to have reflection in life. Before sleeping you must go through how you spent your day – how many times you lost your cool, how many times you got angry or anxious, start watching and see whether those numbers reduce or not.
Q. At times it takes people almost 15 years to stop drinking tea. What are your views?
Smt. H: I know. I have seen many – tea, smoking, drinking. As long as you are enjoying these things, subconsciously you don’t want to leave them. You like it. But unless you find out something else which you should love to take, then only will this habit go. So, forget about leaving it; find out what you can take which is more healthy and useful. So instead of tea in the morning, if you can have a glass of herbal tea and plan your day well, you start loving that herbal tea, you will start loving morning walk…then tea will be gone. So in the 7 Days Camp it happens that the rest of the things you should plan, not that ‘I want to leave tea.’ Instead of what I should not do, see what I should do. Once you start planning that way, tea and all that will be left.
Q. How to stop procrastinating?
Smt. H: Learn to see good, don’t feel bad about the mistakes that are occuring, either by you or by others. What good others did, or what good happened in life, should be seen. Then, it would be different.
Q. Goal in life – to please wife. It seems impossible. Is that so?
Smt. H: Never keep such goals. You can’t please anybody in life because everybody is happy or unhappy because of their own personality. Don’t do any action in your life to please others. That’s why we always say, do your duty. If somebody is pleased, thank God that today he is in a good state and if somebody is not pleased, thank God for that too.
Q. Half the life has passed. Can we still have goals and achieve the same? How?
Smt. H: Why not? It has nothing to do with life and how old you are. In any case, at a young age, your time table is made by others. School, college, your studies, everything has its own system and you don’t have to think about everything. You have to think later on only. So if half the life is passed, no problem, now start from today itself – how you are going to spend the day, keeping in mind first, health of body, health of mind and keeping it balanced and doing your duty. Keep these things in mind and plan, then it would be beautiful.
Q. Sometimes the goal appears difficult and there creeps in a fear whether I would be able to achieve it. How to develop confidence at such times?
Smt. H: See, confidence building is something where you have to keep such goals which you can achieve and you are sure that you can achieve. Don’t plan big things. Plan something very small. If I have to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning, first I have to see that I sleep at some time. Somehow, it is very difficult even to get up 15 minutes early. Your body clock is set in such a way that everything in your system will revolt. It will not co-operate with you. You should do these small things. I once gave an example of a 82 or 88 year old lady who didn’t know English at all. All her grandchildren were in America and would talk on the phone ‘Grandma, what are you doing?’ and she didn’t know how to reply and so would reply in Gujarati. I told her she must learn English, so everyday, mug up two sentences in English. Somehow she started doing that and went to America and called me from there and talked to me in English. It is as simple as that. We have to do small things, like these two sentences everyday, but do it. It works wonders.
Q. While working on an action plan for achieving a goal, we face severe adversities. How to not get affected by them?
Smt. H: You have to accept. This is very true, you plan something and from all sides it happens that something wont allow you to achieve what you want to achieve. This is life. One step ahead and people will be there to pull you down. This is life’s game and Nature’s doing. If you couldn’t achieve, accept. Try again tomorrow. For example, one lady decided that she would do Asanas for half an hour daily, no matter what. But adverse situations prevented her from doing so. So then she decided that if she didn’t get half an hour then she could try for 5 or even 1 minute, even if it would mean doing it in the bathroom while bathing. And she achieved it. It is just a question of a determined mind.
Q. Are small spiritual goals enough rather than professional goals? Can these be given less importance?
Smt. H: In profession also, whatever work you are given to do, you should do it systematically with full sincerity. That’s it. That is what is wanted even in profession. Learn how much you can from your profession. Our body is matter as well as consciousness. In both these areas you have to work hard. So you can’t separate spirituality from materialism.
Satsang is an open meeting held every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 am at The Yoga Institute, Santacruz East, Mumbai. It involves an interesting presentation to the public, made by the students of the Teacher Training Course. Each week, a new presentation of a Yogic concept is made in a simple way through skits and decoration for the general public, followed by a short speech from our Gurus, Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.