Transcription
My name is Mamita Subermanium. I have been practicing heartfulness meditation for the last 15 years, and I've been a heartfulness meditation trainer for the last 10 years. Dr. Chopra's books sat on my family's bookshelves right next to our heartfulness literature. So, it's an honor to be your moderator for today's event.
Before we get started, there are a few other points of gratitude that I'd like to share. There are a lot of people without whom this event would not be possible. First, to Anil Aggerwal and the team at Riverside Studios, thank you for allowing us to use this beautiful space today. Our AV team, who is hanging out at the top—London filmed—they've been here much longer than we have been today, and this would not be possible without them. All of our Heartfulness volunteers, both the ones that are here in this room and the ones that are supporting media from India, thank you. We can't do anything without you. And finally, I'd personally like to say thank you to our friends and collaborators, Mina and Jean Paul. Their efforts, their support, and their creativity have made this event what it is. Thank you to both of you.
We have a very full, very special program for all of you today. And if I could ask for that program to be put on the screen, I'll give you guys a sneak peek of what to expect for this morning. While we're waiting for that, once again, we did start with such a beautiful sound healing with Amy Russell Taylor, focused on restoring presence. We'll be joined in just a few minutes by our keynote speaker, Dr. Deepak Chopra. Afterwards, we want to show you that the intuition of the heart starts very, very young. And we've got a few of our young heartfulness volunteers here with us today to showcase our award-winning program, Brighter Minds. Afterwards, we're delighted that Daji, the global guide of heartfulness, will be joining us from Kanha Shanti Vanam, the global headquarters of heartfulness in Hyderabad, India, where he and Dr. Chopra will be having a special conversation about the intelligence of the heart. And afterwards, Daji will guide us through a special experience with heartfulness meditation. Meditation. I'm certain I will have questions after that, and I'm sure all of you will too. So we've left some space at the end to ensure that you can ask those questions to both Dr. Chopra and to Daji.
There are so many forms of meditation that are accessible to all of us these days. The one that I'm most familiar with, of course, is heartfulness. Heartfulness. Founded in 1945, Heartfulness is wholeheartedly committed to sharing the unique, simple, and secular practices of the Heartfulness Way: relaxation, meditation, rejuvenation, and interconnect with any interested practitioner all around the world free of charge. Of charge. Our goal is, of course, to help individuals who are interested in practicing find a sense of inner peace and stillness, especially amidst everything that's going on in the world right now. And what differentiates heartfulness from other practices is its unique use of an energy called transmission or pranuti, which just means life force. Pranahuti is a subtle yet profound energy that aids a practitioner in their spiritual development and growth. It's very subtle. It's almost hard to explain, but it's something that all of you will experience when we walk through the meditation experience in just a little bit. Bit.
At present, Heartfulness has 10 million practitioners in 160 countries, supported by 16,000 heartfulness meditation trainers, with 5,000 heartspots or unique local heartfulness centers and 280 retreat centers. Retreat centers. And it's been a principle of the practice since its founding in 1945 that all meditation is available and accessible free of charge to anybody interested in practicing, regardless of background.
I know the world feels quite chaotic right now. It feels like everything is happening all at once. War seems to be breaking out everywhere. Mother nature is crying out to us, asking us to help her heal. Social media and misinformation is causing so much divide amongst all of us that, as a people, we feel very disconnected. And with everything that is going on right now, it almost feels hopeless or impossible to solution forward, to find a place of peace and positivity. Positivity. But what if we could solution for the roots of the problems that caused those crises? The anger, the hatred, the ego, the vile behavior, the racism, the discrimination, the thought pollution, as Daji likes to say, all through the simple yet profound experience of meditation on the heart. And if we could solution for these problems through meditation on the heart, how and why would that make a difference? That's what we're going to talk about and learn about today.
Today we're going to better understand the emotional intelligence, the intuition, and the consciousness of the heart. And how deepening that consciousness of the heart through a regular heart-centered meditation practice can not only help us on an individual level with personal and self-growth, but can also help to create a world that is less chaotic, less divisive, more harmonious, and yes, more heartful. Heartful. And who better to talk us through the intelligence of the heart than two of the world's foremost thought leaders on the subject, Dr. Chopra and Daji. The two of them may come from different lineages of meditation, but their commonalities all converge at the exact same place. Both really believe in the science and spirituality of understanding consciousness, and both believe that through meditation we can create a more compassionate and unified humanity.
So with that, our first keynote speaker does not need an introduction, but I'm going to go ahead and give him one anyway. From the front lines of science to the stillness of the soul, Dr. Deepak Chopra has spent a lifetime guiding the world toward healing, wholeness, and awakening. A physician of the body and a teacher of the spiritual sciences, he has helped millions rediscover their inner light through meditation, story, and the timeless quest of meaning. Meaning. With over 95 books to his name, his newest, *Awakening the Path to Freedom and Enlightenment*, is a call to move beyond ego and into a life of deep peace, purpose, and boundless possibility. At a time when the world is searching for balance, meaning, and hope, his voice reminds us that each of us carries the seed of transformation within us. We are truly honored for him being with us today. Please join me in welcoming a very heartfelt welcome to a visionary, a leader, and a consciousness explorer of our time, Dr. Deepak Chopra.
Well, thanks everyone for being here, and I especially want to thank Daji for facilitating this morning and Mr. Agarwal, if he's here, for giving us this beautiful facility to speak to all of you. You. So I'm going to do my best to talk about heart intelligence, but I want to do it in the context of a bigger understanding about what we call our existence and our awareness of existence. There's two things here: There's existence, which is this presumably, and then there is the awareness of all this. The two are intimately connected, and this quest of trying to understand who we are and the meaning of existence is a human quest. It's not that of any other species. And if you look at deep history, and we—how much time do I have? Just give me a hint.
Got about 20 minutes.
Huh? 20 minutes. 20 minutes. So, going to help solve the mystery of existence in 20 minutes. Um, I'll be very careful that I stick to the time, even though it's an illusion. Um, so it's about 11:20. I'll go for 20 minutes to 11:40. So if you, you know, look at deep history, you'll recognize something that deep historians talk about. It's called the cognitive revolution. About 40,000 years ago, plus minus a few years, humans departed from other hominids, as they're called—other human species—Neanderthals, fluoroances, homo erectus, homo habilis, etc. We call ourselves homo sapiens, which means the wise ones, and we were humble enough to give ourselves that name, along with names for other species. And the reason we departed was we created a language for stories. All species have language for survival. All species. It's mating calls, danger calls, and food calls. Without that, we don't survive. But then this species—all of us—created a language for stories. We created a story called money. We created a story called colonialism. We created a story called Greenwich meantime. Not, mind you, Botswana meantime or Bangladesh meantime. Greenwich meantime, because that's a colonial story. Okay. And we created, as you know, latitude, longitude; the human experience of the world would not be there had we not been storytellers. Humans, to be human, is to have a story. But then we created other stories—all language models. So we created a story called philosophy. We created a story called religion. We created a story called God. We created a story called technology. We created a story called the AI. These are all actually evolutions of stories. What we call scientific models, philosophical models, and religious models. And so one thing to remember right in the beginning is these are models. These are stories of what we think reality is. And before I go into the science of the heart, I just need to share this with you that no story, no model—scientific, scientific, philosophical, philosophical, religious, or any other AI—no model, no story can give you access to truth. Okay? So we should just start with that. No science, no philosophy, no philosophy, no religion, no AI, no model can give you access to truth. Because truth. Because truth is not a story. Truth is where we derive the stories from. Truth is direct experience of who we are and how we relate to the universe.
Nevertheless, the scientific model has been very successful. All our technology today is based on the scientific models. So, it's closer to truth. It's not truth, but it's closer to truth. The philosophical models, given that there's been lineages of philosophers and spiritual readers, teachers, is closer to truth. Science is closer to truth, and therefore it becomes a very good map for navigating our experience of reality, but it is nevertheless a map. Okay, as you know the phrase, the map is not the territory. Okay, and the menu is not the meal. You can't go to a restaurant and eat the menu. But the menu can help you decide what you want to eat. So too, these models—scientific models, religious models, and spiritual models—can give us the menu, and then you can choose the menu to see what you want to eat or enjoy as an experience.
Given that right now the current scientific model says that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with something called the big bang—started with the size of a dot, which is not even the size of a period at the end of a sentence. And now the cosmic horizon, which is the farthest you can see through all these radio telescopes, is about 50 billion light years away from us. And galaxies are tumbling across the cosmic horizon faster than the speed of light due to an unknown entity called dark energy, which is 70% of the universe. And this dark energy, according to current scientific models, is not regular energy. It's not E is equal to MC², as in Einstein's equations. It's the opposite of gravity, and we don't know what it is because it's not made of atoms. All energy is otherwise atomic. So that leaves 30% of the universe that remains, and of that 27% is another mysterious entity called dark matter, which is invisible, and the reason we call it matter is it's responsible for most of the gravity in the universe. It. If it wasn't for dark matter, you wouldn't be sitting on this chair, and planets would spiral off into intergalactic space. You and I wouldn't exist. But dark matter is also nonatomic. It doesn't interact with light. No interaction with light whatsoever. You and I are made of light and atoms. So, we can't interact with it. It's not only unknown, it's probably unknowable, as is dark energy, because it's not made of atoms. So that leaves 3% of the universe which is atomic, of which 99.999% is invisible interstellar dust which we can't see. So the visible universe, which according to the current scientific model—and don't have to believe me, check this out on Google or chat GPT or whatever other ways you have to do your research—the visible universe, which is 2 trillion galaxies, 76 stars—I don't know how to write that, but it's a lot—and trillions, trillions, trillions of planets, dust, is less than 0.01%. In fact, according to the current model, James—the James Webb telescope—there are 60 billion habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Habitable in the way we are inhabiting the United Kingdom right now. Habitable. And this is based on something called a biosphere. So a planet has to be within the Goldilocks zone, which means, you know, not too close, not too far, right temperature, but also right amount of gravity, right amount of electromagnetic activity to be habitable, is called the Goldilocks zone, and according to that, there are 60 billion of these planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Multiply that by two trillion, and it boggles the mind. If this model is true, then the universe is teeming with life. Life also means consciousness. Okay? You can't have life without consciousness. So the universe is teeming with life as we know it. And as I said, this is based on the current cosmological models, including the grand theory of relativity, black holes, all of that which we don't have time to go into right now. The visible universe is 0.01%. And it's all of that which I mentioned: two trillion galaxies, uncountable planets. Uncountable planets.
The problem with that is atoms are made of particles, and when particles are not being observed, they disappear into what we call waves, and sound waves are made of the vibration of air molecules. Um, apparently the waves that you're seeing me with are photons, etc., etc. But what are the waves that create the universe? What are they made of? And the best answer that science can give you is that they're made of possibilities. And then you say, where are these possibilities? And the best answer science can give you: They exist in something called Hilbert space. And then you ask, what is Hilbert space? It's a space in the imagination of a mathematician called Hilbert. So, Hilbert space is a mathematical space in imagination that gives rise to this universe. Bottom line, if you ask scientists really, spell it in one sentence, what's the universe made of? They'll say it's made of nothing. So, that leads to the second problem in science today. If it's made of nothing, why does it look like this? You, me, rocks, stars, animals, plants, microbes, anything you can name, anything that has a form. How does that come out of something that's called that's formless, that has no form? That's called the hard problem of consciousness. And what I'm willing to share with you today is that these are wrong questions. And as long as you have wrong questions, you will never have the answer. There's no biological basis for consciousness, number one, and there is no basis—material basis—for what we call the universe. The universe comes out of nothing and appears as everything because of a deeper reason that we want to go into, and that's where heartfulness and meditation and all these techniques come into play. So our current cosmological models also current biological models are based on very fundamental equations in mathematics. The universe right now is supposed to be pervaded with an electromagnetic field which I'm using right now. For those of you who are watching on YouTube, most of our technology is based on the fact that there's an electromagnetic field. But the electromagnetic field, in turn, is the expression of something even deeper, which is called the quantum field, which is spelled out very beautifully in the equations of quantum physics. The same way as the electromagnetic field is spelled out very beautifully in Maxwell's equations. But how do we know that these fields exist? How do we know that these fields exist? Because we have consciousness which creates these models, and consciousness therefore has to be more fundamental than the quantum field and the electromagnetic field. What does this have to do with your heart, with your brain, and with what we call the biofield? So your heart beats about 72 times a minute as a result of electromagnetic activity. Electromagnetic activity. Okay. And it generates a field about 6 to 8 feet around you. It's called the biofield. The biofield. And it's also connected to the brain field. So the brain is a much weaker field. The heart field is a thousand times more stronger. You can detect it with instruments up to 8 feet. 8 feet. But as you know, your heart is influenced by emotions. If you're disconnected from the world, then you feel anger, you feel hostility, you feel jealousy, you feel guilt, you feel shame, you feel depression, and the field gets disordered. And on the other hand, if you're experiencing empathy, which is you feel what others feel, compassion, which means you have the desire to alleviate the suffering of another. If you feel joy, if you feel equanimity, what the Buddhist traditions and the Vedanta traditions have called divine emotions—empathy, compassion, joy, kindness, love, love and action, karma yoga, bhakti yoga—then actually your biofield becomes very coherent, and it affects the field of others. So right now, whatever your biofield is generating—a coherent or incoherent field—it's affecting everyone in this room; we are entangled. This is the new word—entanglement also means non-local correlation. Non-local correlation. Every thought, every feeling, every image that you have, every sensation, every perception is connected to your biofield and brain field, which extends 8 feet outside you. But because we're all interacting with each other, ultimately this field affects everyone, and it affects the whole universe. It affects the whole universe. In fact, the universe is nothing other than the consciousness field. Consciousness field. So they say if religion is the—what is it called—the opiate of the masses, then the Indians have the dope on it. We have to do it because in Vedanta this universe is called Brahmand, and the source field is called Brahman, and you are Atman, and Atman-Brahman is the source field manifesting this universe, and the more aligned you are in the interconnectedness—in the interess—Buddhist phrase—we are inter-beings that inter-arise in the inter-isness, and all our suffering comes from the socially induced hallucination of the separate self that does not exist. The separate self does not exist. All our anxiety comes from the separate self. And what I'm sharing with you is nothing new. It's there in the Upanishads—Brahman, Atman—Schrödinger, who described the—Schrödinger's wave—that predicts every atom in the universe; in his book, 1980—1947, he compared his equation as the map for Atman, and it's surprising to me that today's quantum physicists don't even talk about that—the father of quantum mechanics described the most famous equation in science that predicts every atom in the universe as a map for Atman connected to Brahman. So we have the map, and every time you bring awareness to your heart and you feel these emotions of empathy, which are natural if we are connected in the biofield, then not only do you heal yourself, you heal the world. The word healing, the word wholeness, the word health, and the word holy are the same word. Healing is the return of the memory of wholeness. It is sacred. It's holy. And when you return home, you already are healed. You already are healed. It's the beginning of the journey and the end of the journey. As T.S. Eliot said, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." So now it's time to resurrect the place that we came from. As I said, this is part of the great teachings of the Upanishads. It's there in the Guru Granth Sahib. It's there in Sufism. And this—what I'm sharing with you—is very beautifully articulated in the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, where Lord Krishna says, "I am the field, and I am the knower of the field." The field is the field of consciousness, is called Kṣetra, and the knower of the field is Kṣetrajña, and in the—in chapter 13—Lord Krishna, as Brahman, is explaining to Arjuna, who's not quite there yet, he's still struggling with the ego mind, and Lord Krishna explains, "I am the field, I'm the knower of the field, I modify myself into innumerable modes of knowing—species-specific—innumerable knowers and innumerable entities known—curving back—svam-bhyah vishra jami puna puna—curving back within myself, I create again and again—I create the mind, I create the intellect, I create the ego identity, I create the five senses, I create the five motor organs, I create the five subtle senses, you know, tanmātras, I create the five subtle motor organs, I create the energy, I create the appearance of the world, and I create the universe. And they are all a unified expression of consciousness modifying itself into innumerable jīva modes of knowing." Jīvas are already conditioned minds. They're not the truth. Okay. So I—but I modulate myself into innumerable modes of knowing. And if you can comprehend me, you will...
Not be able to do it through a scientific model, or a philosophical model, or a religious model. You have to have direct access to reality. Which means you have to transcend all models. No system of thought will give you.
You have to go trace back every experience to its source. And when you trace back every experience to its source, what do you end up with? You end up with a field of infinite possibilities, a field of infinite correlation, a field of entanglement, a field that has no borders, a field that is formless, a field that is infinite, a field that is spaceless, a field that is timeless, a field that cannot be imagined, and a field that is incomprehensible.
And that's why the last nyamas—you know yoga begins with yamas and nyamas—is called ishwar pranidhana. You surrender in humility because all your models are closer to truth, but they're not truth. And this is where meditation comes in. Anchoring your identity with the heart connects you to the source field; connects you to the electric magnetic field, the quantum field, which are models created in the consciousness field.
So I think that is—yeah, we did it 20 minutes. Thank you. I think all of us were willing to let you continue to speak, but uh, could we give Dr. Chopra another round of applause? Dr. Chopra, you're welcome to stay seated there or to take your seat. We have a very special Brighter Minds demonstration next. Say it again. We've got a special Brighter Minds demonstration that we're going to share next. Yeah.
But before we introduce the Brighter Minds experience, I would like to share that Daji, the global guide of heartfulness, is joining us now virtually. I believe, uh, Dr. Chopra, you'll be able to see him on the screen, uh, at some point, but he is here. So if we could please give him, uh, a warm round of applause as well. There he is. Hello Daji. Hello everyone, and my—my salutations to Baya. Baya. Thank you. Thank you. Great to be with you again after my last visit—at amazing visit with you. So thank you Daji for facilitating this conversation as well.
You know, I feel a little awkward speaking up to you. I've been listening to you for the last few minutes and minutes, and it's—I think you ended with the heart, and I will begin with the heart. Uh, we'll practically meditate and see where it leads us. Perfect. But we want to see the demonstration, right? Yes. Okay. Daji, it is a delight to have you joining us virtually. Virtually. Prior to the conversation between the two of you, we'd like to showcase our very special Brighter Minds program, if that's okay with you. Please, please go ahead. I would love it.
I'll give a brief introduction so we can quickly bring out our very special Brighter Minds volunteers. The goal of the Brighter Minds program is to nurture the whole child: their memory, focus, emotional intelligence, intuition, and inner clarity. We believe the most effective way to unlock a child's highest potential is through joy. By creating a learning environment that is joyful, engaging, and heart-centered. The Brighter Minds program begins by helping children reach a calm and balanced state through physical activities like dance and movement; through mental stimulation through motivational videos, quotes, memory games, and brain exercises. And then once they are relaxed, we introduce them to a patented musical technique designed to guide them into an alpha brainwave state, a deeply relaxed yet alert state of mind. And it's in this remarkable state that the remarkable begins. Over time, children develop the capacity to substitute one sense for another, like sensing colors without seeing them or feeling shapes without touching them. And right now, we'd like to do a demonstration of that Brighter Minds experience. So, if I could please ask our Brighter Minds volunteers, Sakit, Shahed, and Sema, to please join us on stage. Could we please give them a warm round of applause?
Good morning everybody. Good morning Dr. Chopra. It's a pleasure to be here with you. Um, just a very warm welcome to everybody again. I would like to—my name is Sema, and I would like to introduce you—Okay, I'll start again. Can everybody hear me? Yes. My name is Sema. I'm a facilitator with Brighter Minds. I would like to introduce Sake and Shahed here. Maybe they can introduce themselves. Hi, my name is Sake, and I'm 14 years old. Old. Hi, my name is Shahed, and I'm 13 years old. Old. Good morning, boys. Um, Brighter Minds consists of some brain exercises as Manta mentioned, and some relaxation and then the special music that they listen to, uh, which hones their intuitive abilities. So I would like them to demonstrate some brain exercises today. I would invite you all to please join in. Would you like to—what are you going to show us, Sake? So, first I want everyone to make a fist with their hands and hold it away from you. Now, I want on your left hand your thumb to stick out and on your right hand your pinky to stick out. Now, I want you to swap it around. So, on your right hand, your thumb sticking out, your left hand, your pinky sticking out. Now, swap. Just keep swapping. Give it a try. It looks very simple. Uh, kids pick up really quickly, but this is one of the brain exercises that they learn to do. What are you going to show us, Sake? Oh, sorry, Shahed. Um, so first make a normal two on your left hand and make a deer—is what I call it—um, on your right hand like this. Then the actual exercise is when you swap. So now the D is on your left hand and the two is on your right hand. You can start off slow, but you can get faster. Thank you. Shahed. Was anybody able to do it as fast as these boys? That's—Thank you so much for trying along. Along. So these are the few brain exercises they do. After that, once they have gone through the Brighter Minds program, they are able to do something spectacular which they're going to demonstrate here. For that, I would like a volunteer on stage. Stage. Can we have maybe someone from the front row join us? Yes, please. I know. Thank you. Rageshwari. Oh, hello. Nice to see you here. So, we have this um blindfold. We're going to ask you to test it. Okay. So, can I have—is it okay if Sake ties it around you, or you can? So, could you tell me if you can see anything? No, not at all. Okay. Now, could you—Right. Okay. Could you just hold on your hand? Hold out your hand. I'm going to give you—Okay. Yeah, that's it. Could you tell me what you have in your hand? A ball. Say that again. A ball. Okay. Now, could you tell me what color the ball is? It seems—Do I have to give an answer? No. But yeah, that's—that's what I—seems white to me. Thank you so much. I'm taking it back. We'll take off the blindfolds. Thank you so much. Take it off, please. Thank you so much. Could you just wait here for a few more minutes? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't mind, right? Yeah. Okay. So, this is what the boys are going to do. They're going to blindfold themselves, and I'm going to hand them a few things, and we'll see what they do. Okay. Are you ready? So, I'll give you something. Once you're ready, you can raise your hand, and I'll come to you. So we usually use our eyes to, uh, see what the colors are. But after going through the Brighter Minds program, they are able to hone their other senses and are able to do it with that. Yes. Shahed, it's blue. Yes, it is. Well done. Thank you. I'll take the ball. Yes, Sake. It's red. Yes. Thank you, Sake. Now, how many of you can solve a Rubik's Cube? Well done. That's a good number. So, what I'm going to have Rageshwari here is to shuffle this one for me. Until the meantime, I'm going to give the boys something else. Okay. Oops. Okay. Shahed, I have a card for you. Can you please tell me what is on it? You can tell me the color and whatever you feel. And for you as well, Sake. While they're doing that, Rageshwari, could I ask you to write something on this piece of paper for me? Thank you. Just one word or a sentence, anything you feel like. Yes, Sake. Is it a crescent with a purple background? Purple background? Yes, it is. Thank you, Sake. Yes, Shahed. Is it the number three with a purple background? A purple background? Yes, it is. Thank you, Shahed. Thank you so much. Now, Shahed, I'm going to give you the Rubik's Cube to solve blindfolded. Here you go. And Sake, Rageshwari has written something for you. He's going to try to read it. Here you go. So if you would notice the boys, they try to use their other skills—as in the sense of touch, smell, and hearing—to, uh, practice what they're trying to do right now. Right now. Yes. Yes. Yes. And when I say touch, it's everywhere on your head or on your—the skin of your arms, everywhere. Yes, Shahed. Thank you so much. You can take off your blindfold, Shahed. You ready, Sake? All right. All right. Daji and Dr. Chopra are for love. Is that—Yeah, that's what she's written. Thank you so much. Sake, you can take off your [Applause] [Applause] blindfolds. Um, this program is available for everybody, all children from the age of 5 to 15. And thank you so much. You did really well, both of you. Do you thank—Thank you so much Rageshwari for being the volunteer. Do you want to say how Brighter Minds has helped you in your own words? Own words? So for me, I think Brighter Minds has helped me academically. So I had my first ever GCSE examination a few weeks ago, RA, and I think practicing Brighter Minds helped ingrain the quotes, um, in my long-term memory, and I think it helps me also pick up the details of the question and answer them in a good way. So yeah, uh, Brighter Minds has helped me in many ways. One such way is when I play for my school team and I'm captain, I have to set the field, and sometimes I can feel—feel where the batsman might hit the ball and therefore place my fielder there. Thank you so much. Thank you Prai for this opportunity. This opportunity. Let's go boys. Thank you. Could we give them one more round of applause, please? Too.
So, of course, Daji has been waiting in the wings, eager to talk to us. But first, we'd like to share a very short video of Dr. Chopra's time at Ghana Shanti Vanam, the global headquarters of heartfulness. Could we please play that video? [Music] I think if there is—there are enough people who are having an authentic experience of—experience of reality that could hopefully create a critical mass of consciousness over the planet for a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier, and joyful [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] world. Dr. Deepak Chopra, welcome to Ghana, and such an honor to have you. There's nothing that happens anywhere that doesn't affect the whole planet. Planet. So if one can create a conscious community—community here, replicate it everywhere else—which I believe Daji is doing—is the key for collective trans. Meditation on a daily basis keeps our thinking in the right order. In that meditative state of mind, you're entering the world. You'll see it as a playground. Then see, 'cause your mind has changed. Now your attitude has [Music] changed. In general, I have stayed away from the institutionalized guru kingdoms of—of India. But Daji is an exception. And he doesn't even call himself a guru. He's very, very humble, and he is very devoted to service, which is very [Music] [Music] extraordinary. What a tragedy of this modern world that people are looking for peace because it's our nature. Not just peace is our nature. And bliss is our nature.
Word on your own whether you would like to have a conversation or go straight into meditation, but I know both of us—or all of us—would love to hear from both of you your thoughts on the intelligence of the heart together. I'll just say a few words about this experience; it's a demonstration that consciousness is a field of entanglement. You know that Chapter 13 I mentioned—all the senses are entangled with each other. So right now, if you close your eyes and you think of your mother, you see an image; okay, that image is in consciousness. Now, do you feel an emotion about your mother? Where is that emotion in consciousness? Now if you think about your mother and, uh, maybe she cooked some delicious food for you. Can you taste that food? Can you smell it? Okay. Can you feel the texture of it? So everything that we call a sensation, an image, a feeling, an emotion, and a thought is modified consciousness. And they're entangled. And what you saw in this extraordinary demonstration—demonstration—demonstration is a substitution of sensory—sensory experience. The boys were blindfolded, but they substituted tactile information, auditory information in the consciousness field, and they were able to see the entanglement with the visual perceptual field. So we have perceptual field, which is where we are right now. Then we have a field of—mental field where we experience these entanglements too. And then in the background is the fundamental field of consciousness. And these are all part of what is called the Akashic field. So the physical field that you're experiencing around—the space between you and me—this is called bhakash—physical akash—physical space. If you close your eyes and think of your mother—that's—that's chittakash. And then if you go totally into—into formlessness—that's formlessness—that's mahadakash. And mahadakash—and that's Brahman ultimately. So this was a beautiful example, and I was there—when I was there with Daji and Kha—I saw other kids with the same talents, and this opens up a new window for education, which is contextual, relational, relational, holistic—kind of eavesdropping. What we call intuition is eavesdropping on the cosmic mind. Daji, what do you have to say? Thank you. I don't have to say anything. We have lost the opportunity of learning the same art, and I regret—if—if you noticed between these two boys, the younger one was faster than the elder one. Did you notice that? So sooner we start, the better it is. The younger a child, the faster he picked up. We are already too late in this game. But it will—you know, the mental gym exercises they have just taught you, there are just two of them, but if we keep doing it every day, it will slow down our mental. Definitely you can all try it. Just keep on—you know, keep moving your pinkies left and right, left and right. And you know this exercise, uh, that will balance the right and—not balance, but it will activate both the right brain and left brain's coordination, but as we age, this left and right brain coordination is lost. Such—lost. Such exercises they bring this coordination in a—in a very systematic way. Something that we have lost, it brings it back. As we age—is—as they say, the part between left and right brain—or postome, they say—um, it somehow gets aged or—um, it loses its actual connection. So such exercises will activate that connection. So—so I do highly recommend—though we are too old to try this—but such exercises will slow down our—aging process at the brain level, and I think that's also a great application. So it's not only for the youngsters to develop their intuition, but for us, the elderly folks who are—who are soon or slowly losing it. But I—I have noticed Deepak—Baya is not losing it at all. See, he's able to cap the words from the cosmic field just like that. See, I struggle a lot with you. I know we'd all love to continue to hear from both of you. Hear from both of you. We can also step into meditation, Daji, if you would like to—on how to meditate on the heart—before we get started. Would that be okay? I didn't hear you guys. [Music] [Music] Are you able to hear us now? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Would you like for us to provide a little bit of context to the audience on how to meditate on the heart, or I can—I can finish that. I don't have to repeat it. Okay. We'll—we can start—First of all, let's try and understand what meditation is all about. Generally understood meditation as a brain gym, brain exercise to focus your mind. But when we refer to this Sanskrit word—dhyan—and split this word—dhy + yan—the dhy means—means wisdom—ultimate wisdom—not just ordinary wisdom—and yan means a vehicle—a vehicle that transports us into ultimate wisdom—is dhyan—that is the actual definition of meditation. Here we use the mind to transcend the mind—mind itself. And as we meditate, somehow our attention transcends from the mind base into the heart. Now whenever any vehicle is utilized—it requires—utilized—it requires energy inflow is required to support that transport of consciousness from the lower level to the higher level. Level. In kenopin, the second sloka mentions this—that as—just as we need food to sustain our anamaya kosha, likewise we need contemplative faculty to develop our manomaya and vigyan maya kosha—means our mental energy—mental energy—mental seat. Now the rishi beautifully asks what will support this prana—your soul. Then he himself answers—he says it is—is pranuti. Uh, sage of caliber is able to tap into that source or the cosmic field—as Baya was mentioning—tapping it into and harvesting it and through a mental channel transmitted to the heart. So there is an exchange of energy—of pranuti—between the giver and the recipient. Recipient. So here we will be undergoing that experience—experiential meditation. Today I'll be transmitting you this pranuti. We are in India at the moment. You are now in London. You'll be connected via this quantum field—or as Baya calls it—as a cosmic—or a consciousness field—or a cosmic—cosmic field. Words do not matter. What matters is we—as scientists—explore that experiment in our heart—that becomes our—becomes our laboratory—and we experience that, and we are the product of that experience—or the experiment. So you don't have to verify with anybody—not with any books—no context is required—you—you feel it and you say yes, I have changed because of this. This is how my consciousness changes increasingly day by day as I meditate more and more. As my field of consciousness becomes thinner and thinner and thinner—what I mean by thinner is by removing the burden of consciousness that bends my consciousness and let—and doesn't allow me to see the things as they are. They are. The—the layers of burden of impressions that we gather during our lifetime is enormous. Suppose if you are born in a certain family and you are dogmatically, uh, trained to believe only in certain worship, you will love only that, but at the same time you'll start hating somebody else's philosophy. This is how we are conditioned, and this conditioned—conditioned mind cannot see things with the right vision. Vision. Heartfulness talks about this meditation where little by little these layers of ignorance they are removed, and slowly our heart—our consciousness—has exposed—or rather it sees the real thing as it should be. So without any further ado, I would recommend that let's gently relax—relax ourselves and, uh, turn our attention inward. Please close your eyes very gently and have your attention heart and just simply think that the divine presence is already there in my heart—that is attracting my attention inward. Inward. That—that divinity is pulling my attention inward and be receptive to this inflow of pranuti—or the transmission—respectfully invite it—reverentially invite it—and be one with it. We will maintain this idea for almost 10–15 minutes. When it's over, I'll announce—that's all. That's when you gently would open your eyes. And I mind you, if your mind is diverted here or there, not to worry. Just gently remind yourself that at the moment I am meditating on the presence of divinity in my heart and settle down there. So let's begin with meditation.
Daji, as always, thank you for such a beautiful and profound meditation. The room is quite still. Uh, I think everybody is still absorbing the meditation, and I'd request all of you, as you are in that state of silence, to perhaps reflect on a couple of questions if you have them for Dr. Chopra and Pradi. But one question that I think a lot of people have been wanting an answer to is based on so much of what both of you have shared today and, of course, based on the experience with heartfulness meditation that we just had, which is—what can the heart grasp that the mind is not able to? I think it's a question that everyone is searching for an answer for. If either of you would like to share, Daji, if you have a response to that, definitely this situation where heart says something and the mind says something, it's a bad marriage. There's a discord—that's not an ideal situation. In a very natural situation, heart will sing the same song which mind is provoking, and mind will also agree to what heart is suggesting. So this yoga that
We, the world, has been talking about, is not only the union between the smaller self and the higher self, or the Atman with Paramatman, but it is also a lot, lot to do with our consciousness. It is this field of consciousness, a refined field, that unites the mind and the heart. That is the union as well. That's what we call the eclipse of conscience in spirituality, where they both merge. Whatsoever heart thinks—I mean, whatsoever heart feels—mind also agrees with its logical process. So logic and emotions, they are not at crossroads. They can be at crossroads if you allow them. But we can evolve to such levels where both are in sync, both are in resonance, synchronized.
You know, if two physical objects, like, uh, a tuning fork is struck here, and there's another tuning fork which is just a, a physical organ, physical things—if they can resonate, why not my heart with my mind which are within me? They are so far apart at the moment. But they need not be. If within my heart, within myself, heart and mind are divorced and so far apart, imagine how can such an individual merge with God? If you can't find that integration between your mind and your heart, how are you ever going to get, to get integrated with the cosmic mind? Just forget about it. So the practice of yoga, the, is only this: no conflicts, perfect synchronization throughout the universe. No waves. Your presence or absence does not create any waves anywhere, either by your presence or your, by your speech or your actions. They are in, they are in tune with the universe. Thank you.
Dr. Chopra, anything to add to that?
Not much. But um, from a biological perspective, we have three brains. So you have the reptilian brain which lives on instinct. You have the limbic brain which is emotions, and then you have the cortical brain which is mind and intellect. So what we call the brain when we refer to the brain, usually it's the cortical brain, uh, which is the neural correlate of the separate mind, so to speak, conditioned mind, as Daji was saying, conditioned mind; and the heart is actually directly connected to our emotions, and the limbic brain is the neural correlate of the heart—emotions, as you know. Anytime you have an emotion, your heart rate changes, your heart rate variability changes, the electromagnetic field changes, everything changes. And that electromagnetic field is also connected to the electrochemistry of the brain, which is also connected to the endocrine system. So your immune system, endocrine system, your heart, your brain—when they are in, uh, in a unified experience, experience of integration, then you feel, as was mentioned, Anandakosha, or joy, SatChitAnanda, which is the most primordial experience we have. The problem is the disconnect between the brain and the heart as organs, because the brain is still evolving. The brain is 4 million years old. The emotional brain is 100 million years old. So the emotional brain, which is the seat of the heart here, which has about 5,000 neurons and an perfectly organized pacemaker, coherent system which responds to your emotions, it's much more primordial than the intellectual brain, which is said only 4 million years old in evolution, and it rapidly evolved when we learned language. So written language is only 15,000 years at the most, and uh, the oral language maybe goes back 30,000 years or 40,000 years, but the heart's language is millions of years older, and it's connected, uh, to basically the source field which we call the consciousness field. It is directly connected through the process that I mentioned. But you have to transcend the mind in order to do that. And the practice you just experienced is, it ignores the mind. It goes directly to the heart, the heart. Thank you, Dr. Chopra.
There's so much to learn from both of them. So we'd like to open up the floor to you, the audience, to see if you have any questions for both Dr. Chopra and Daji. See, we've got here. If you're connected to the heart, then you have no questions. It's on. I think it's on. I think it's on already. Thank you.
Namaskar, Daji. Namaskar, Dr. Chopra. Um, uh, my question is really that the Rishis gave us thousands of years ago already that we are pure consciousness. We are essentially consciousness. They already told us that, which stands between us and becoming one with, uh, or rather experiencing our, our innate state, is the Maya Jala, and the fact that we can, we are, uh, trapped in Leela. Why, when we know that everything exists in, um, the experiential realm, are we so mesmerized, mesmerized by, it's mesmerized by Maya and the matrix of illusion? Why are we so trapped in this? You used two words, Maya and matrix, and they're connected. So Maya, matrix, mother, Mata, Matria, music, measurement, meter, are the same word. Okay. So it's the superposition of consciousness having this, this experience, and you call it Maya Jala, which is great because it's the distraction, but actually if you know how the distraction occurs, then it's also Leela, the play of cosmic consciousness. So I would not say that you have to dissociate yourself with Maya. You have to see it for what it really is, and that it's, it's, it's the way we measure our experiences. Measurement and matrix and Mata and Matria go together. And, uh, if we transcend language, then we experience pure consciousness. But you say why do we do it? Well, if consciousness is what it is, then its business is to be conscious, and it becomes conscious by creating this entertainment for you. And all experiences by contrast. You can't have an up without a down. You can't have it hot without a cold. You can't have pleasure without pain. But transcending all that is joy, SatChitAnanda, or Tat Tvam Asi, Aham Brahmasmi—all these wonderful words that indicate what your true essence is. But if you never moved away from that and never had this experience, you wouldn't have the longing to return to it. It's a kind of hide-and-seek. You know, when you were kids, we all played hide-and-seek. I, I'm sure there's one part of you that wants to be found out. There's another part of you that doesn't want to be found out. So you're there biting your nails. And that's what we're doing here. Biting our nails till we get found out. Thank you, Dr. Chopra, Daji.
Would you like to add anything to that?
Well, unnecessarily we have created problems by considering problems, by considering Maya as a problem. The way we consider mind as a problem. Many people say mind is your enemy. Also the same people who say ego is bad. But can you become progressive without, progressive without ego? If you are a flutist or an artist or a, or a scientist, if you keep repeating the same track, then you are not progressing. It is the same ego that will make you do extraordinary, extraordinary things. When it is in tune with that field, it will make you do extraordinary things. If you are not in tune with that, then you are going away from that field, and you cannot take the benefit of it. So, ego also teaches us a lot. Once I was attending such, um, assembly of many scholastic people, and one of the gentlemen, he quoted some Vanta, and you know, I am not a Sanskrit scholar, but he asked a question: Are we all Maya? Are we all illusion? Then I didn't have any answer, so I asked him in return, as a response, who is asking this question. So are you unreal? Are you an illusion? I don't think so. You are reality as well. Illusion is when you think it's an illusion; otherwise, you are so real, so real. SatChitAnanda is also an overrated thing, and people who say Aham Brahmasmi, as she was saying that, oh, knowledge, of course, but does that make you wiser by just reciting Aham Brahmasmi or Tat Tvam Asi or SatChitAnanda? You can recite SatChitAnanda million times, but will you be able to arrive at such a state? These are all, I would say, passwords, transferred word verbally, age after age. It only says that when you attain that, your Chit changes, and because of this arrival, you somehow enjoy your home. It's a process. Now we have to think over this password, SatChitAnanda. How do I arrive at a state where my Chit, my consciousness, is, consciousness is refined? So now when you look at this just simple three words, it has, it tells us our goal in life: then refine your Chit, refine your consciousness; that is the goal of our life, because body cannot evolve, your soul cannot evolve. The only thing left out is the Chit, your consciousness, to evolve. And how would consciousness, that is made up of Manas, Buddhi, and Ahamkara, Ahamkara evolve? Manas, at its best, when its function changes from thinking to feeling, meaning from mind to the heart, it has, it has evolved. Likewise, evolved. Likewise, Buddhi, your intellect, to intelligence, to intuition, to wisdom, and it continues; and same thing, your ego, Ahamkara, from I to thee to the Lord—when all my actions are attributed as an offerings, then ego does not play tricks with you. You. Now we can go on and on and on with these dialogues, but I would like you all to, to contemplate. One simple thing I would say: you know, as children we played with toys, girls with barbies and boys with cars, perhaps. Cars, perhaps. As we grew, became teenagers, and our, you know, lifestyle changed. You wanted to impress—boys would like to impress girls, and girls would like to impress boys. That was marrynt, and entertainment kind of things. See, as you grow a little more, and suppose you try to become like Yogis. Yogis. Yogis also have toys to play with: SatChitAnanda consciousness. They play with such consciousness? Meditate over it. Think over it. No answers are needed, but it will make us better. It will make us think in some directions, and we'll become something in return, out of this, you.
I'm sure that there are more questions, especially after hearing from both of them. Could we have the microphone? Maybe we can go on this side. There are a few people here.
Namaste, ji. Namaskar, Dr. Deepak. Ji, in fact, I have an inherent belief in the power of manifestations and, vi, uh, and, uh, conveying the vibrations to one's loved one. My simple question would be, and I'm trying through various sources, like, how does one convey effectively positive thoughts and vibrations to one's loved one, for instance, a parent conveying to one's child, one's child remotely? That would be—Would you like to take that question? Okay, okay. Your very, okay, okay. Your very intention will transfer your love even before you say, go. It's already there. Your intention matters, and it will not only transcend these earthly vibrations. But if you think, I would like to transmit to my mother who is no more on this planet, you can just close your eyes very, very lovingly. Imagine you are seated in her lap and transmit your love to her. Your very intention will take over and transmit whatsoever you are doing or whatsoever you want it to manifest. As many things happen naturally. For example, uh, when I am meditating, and at that time in my orbit of consciousness, someone's feeling arises or someone's presence arises in my heart, and say, "Oh, why am I thinking of this person during meditation?" But I would soon see that person after two or three days in front of me. Of me. When I used to meditate in my business days as a pharmacist in New York City, often in the morning meditation I would see some patients coming to the pharmacy, pharmacy, and precisely the same person will show up in the drugstore. So this manifestation—now, was it the intention of the patient that I'm going to go to this drugstore, or was it because of my thinking? Sometimes we, we say, okay, let me send my vibrations, my love to my daughter. Is it you who is triggering this, or is it the request of your daughter which you have perceived in your, your heart? It really doesn't matter who triggers this. But intentions matter from our side. As soon as we remember that, I need to transmit this—even before you have transmitted, it has reached there because of your intention. See, but if you consciously sit properly, like an offering to God, and literally offer it, and you see the change. Dr. Chopra, anything to add to that?
Just that what Daji said: intention organizes its own fulfillment, especially if you have presence. So presence, so presence, presence, sulp, sulp, and having presence—that's it. Now, on a daily basis we can cultivate attention, which is deep listening; affection, which is deep caring; love, appreciation, noticing everyone's unique, and acceptance, radical acceptance; but those are superficial things. What Daji said: intention, salp, and awareness, presence—that's it, which is codified in the Yoga Sutras also as Dhyana, Dhyana Samadhi, that leads to non-local dormant abilities called Siddhis. In a way, you saw the Siddhis actually when you saw these kids—these are the Siddhis, perfect example, example. Thank you, Dr. Chopra. Let's take maybe one more question; there's, there—
Namaste, uh, pranam, Daji. Pranam, Dr. Chopra. Um, Dr. Chopra, you, uh, talked a lot about, um, our philosophy, Vanta. You took us around the universe and brought us back, uh, over here, uh, and the lady here also alluded to, uh, our scriptures, etc., with so much, so many tools at our hands, and so much depth in heritage and culture and scriptures and, and the things that you mentioned, and scientific knowledge, and what Montaji alluded to at this, talked about conflict in the world. Will we ever see Vishva Shanti, and what will it take for us to ensure that one day, in one generation, there will be Vishva Shanti, prayer?
Well, you know, everything I shared with you earlier in the earlier part of my discussion is basically colonial science, which has been very effective in giving us technology, us technology. It hasn't led us to the truth. And there is Vedic science, which is all these Shastras and all the six systems of philosophy in India. There's Vedic mathematics. There's Vedic astronomy. There's Vedic Ayurveda. There's the Gandharva, the science of music, Natyashastra, all the martial arts. So there is a Vedic science which is based on consciousness and not on matter as the ontological primitive. But we got bamboozled by the colonialists, and we left our own heritage. Right now it's a time for us to embrace our heritage, because this is a superior science. I say it's superior because it's based on consciousness. Having said that, the science itself is still a map. Okay, we have to go beyond that. And what will it take us, according to the scriptures? You know, you need a critical mass of conscious people. You need a critical mass of people who are experiencing loving awareness. And you start with the heart. And if there is a critical mass of that, then if consciousness is a field that transcends space and time, then the world shifts because what we experience. London is not a location in spacetime. London is a state of mind that you see as soon as you step out of here. You see this experience from Piccadilly to the theater to everything else, the gambling, whatever is going on. That's a collective mind, and so is everything else in the universe. It's a collective conditioned mind. But beyond that is the infinite mind. And even to experience anything finite, you need the infinite mind. Because what you experience—you see these flowers over here, these are vibrations in consciousness. These are finite fluctuations of consciousness. Call them Shakti or Shiva's vibration, doesn't matter; they are vibrations, and they are conditioned vibrations based on our conditioning, economic, religious, scientific, whatever. So what it takes ultimately is, uh, what is attempting, you know, a critical mass of all these people all over the world who are connecting with the heart and connecting to the source field. Whether this will happen or not is God's will. Everything ultimately is. Thank you, Dr. Chopra, Daji.
Is there anything you would like to add to that?
Well, it's a simple question, but very difficult, difficult, difficult one to achieve. Um, Vishva Shanti means every living, every living being, whether it's an insect or a colony of virus or bacteria or fungus, human, the trees, the animals, birds, they are at peace. Is it ever going to happen? Disturbed. In a family also, when you are at peace, you are enjoying that tranquility after meditation, and suppose your spouse is not meditating, and her frequency is at a different level. Your frequency is at a different level. Generally we are always at a different level anyway, and that has benefits, benefits also to some extent, but resonating, having that similar rhythm or tendency, it's a rare phenomenon. So unless and until each individual is at peace, you will never have Vishva Shanti. That's why this aggregator, for this collect, um, what they call, what was calling it as a, it's a critical mass. Aggregator is a critical mass. Unless and until so many individuals have arrived at that level of inner, of inner peace, with that critical mass, as the science of epigenetics says that when we reach a certain level of external environment, it triggers the genetic mutation, and because of this genetic mutation, the human race will also change. But for that, critical mass is required. And for that, each individual will have to sincerely come together and vibrate at a similar frequency, frequency of peace. For that, only thing that can help us is, is meditation and meditation and meditation. Nothing else.
Add something to what Daji said, and that is—he said it—but peace will never be created by peace activists. They're all very angry, and it's a contradiction to be an angry peace activist. It might get you the Nobel Prize, but most of them are not at peace with themselves, and the only way is meditation, meditation. [Applause] [Applause] That's lovely. That's lovely. Angry.
I know all of us are eager to ask so many more questions to both Daji and Dr. Chopra, and we're grateful to both of them for their time. Unfortunately, we have hit the end of our program, but to see so many hands raised still shows that we've definitely done our job here today. There is more eagerness and a want to learn and understand more about the intelligence of the heart and how meditation can support that. So, Daji, because you've joined us all the way from India, thank you for taking the time to be with us today. Could we give him a round of applause? If they have any question, [Music] [Music] they can, can write to Daji or Chopra or both of us. We'll answer you back via email. My address is simple: Daji, D-A-J-I, daji.com, and I'll get back to you. Thank you, Daji. And of course, to our keynote speaker, Dr. Chopra, thank you for taking the time to join us today as well. Could we also give him a round of applause? For anyone interested in learning more, uh, you've directly heard from both Daji and Dr. Chopra about how to get in touch with them. So that takes care of part of my job. We do have several Heartfulness volunteers that are stationed outside in the lobby in case you're interested in learning more about our practice. We also have several pieces of our literature available for you outside to take a look at. If you have any questions about Heartfulness and the Heartfulness practice, you are more than welcome to connect with our volunteers outside. And once again, we want to express our gratitude to Anil Agarwal, Riverside Studios, and the team, London Filmed, for the AV support, and Mina Cara, Jean Paul, and Compassionate Films for making today such a success. Thank you again to Dr. Chopra and Daji, and thank you to all of you for joining us on this very lovely Sunday morning. We hope to see you soon. Thank you.