The Importance Of Renewal, Growth & Change

Namaste.

So I understand that tonight is the,

Or this afternoon was the spring solstice.

And Iveshwar has asked me to speak about that particular topic in relation to renewal,

Growth and change.

You know since ancient times,

People have been very much interested in and been tracking these events like spring solstice and the autumn solstice.

They were considered really significant things for thousands of years.

People have possessed an incredible ability in many cultures around the world to track and know when certain events were going to take place like major comets,

Eclipses,

Solar and lunar eclipses.

It was quite extraordinary that they had this capability,

No computers,

No GPS,

But they had this very intense concern.

And the concern that they had was most often linked to things that are innately spiritual.

We're like so disconnected from the earth upon which we live and depend.

I mean like utterly disconnected.

We rarely observe sunrises.

We rarely observe a sunset.

But in older times,

These were daily events.

People marked the passage of time and their duties and responsibilities very much by this passing of time.

And there was this intense awareness in doing that that my time in this body on this earth is very finite.

It's limited.

There was often a preoccupation with utilizing astrological knowledge to determine one's death.

That was often done at birth.

There was this desire to know when that would occur.

Today people don't even want to talk about death.

That's like the last thing anybody wants to.

.

.

You bring that up at a party and see what happens.

You're a disaster in the making.

But people wanted to know these things.

They wanted to know these things because they did understand that my life in this body is going to be.

.

.

It's finite.

It's very limited.

And what I do with that time therefore is really important.

So they actually thought about these things.

They discussed them.

They wrote about them.

The amount of knowledge existing in the Vedic scripture,

For instance,

Is phenomenal on this particular subject.

What we have today is an incredibly artificial lifestyle,

A lifestyle where we are utterly disconnected from each other.

And social media,

Of course,

Contributes to that disconnection.

We are disconnected from the earth that we live upon.

We are lost to ourself.

You see,

In these ancient cultures,

There was this very firm understanding that I am a spiritual being residing within a temporary body.

And the amount of time I'm going to spend here in this body is limited.

What I do with that time is really important.

And it's going to really affect things for me,

Not just now,

But into the future.

We have descended into this hellhole of consumerism and instant gratification,

Where it's all become simply about me and what I can suck out of other people and this world and everything around me.

And we become so alienated from life.

We don't even know what life is.

See,

There's two ways to understand life.

Most people define their life as the period of time in between their birth and their death.

That's my life.

The spiritual understanding was,

No,

That's not your life.

That's the time that you spend in that body.

The body is not inherently alive.

The body is by nature dead.

It is made of matter.

I,

The living being,

I'm the one that brings life into this equation.

I'm the one that brings life to my body.

I'm the one that brings life to my mind.

Understanding that,

It was really important that I seek what is truly my best interest,

That I seek what is truly in my welfare.

And that means my spiritual welfare.

When you live a life disconnected from this world,

Disconnected from the reality of time,

Disconnected from my spiritual identity,

You are going to live a life of unhappiness.

I'm sorry.

There is no other possible outcome.

It's impossible.

Yeah,

You might have massive amounts of sensual stimulation.

You may be stuffing drugs up your nose or in your arm or inhaling things or popping pills or drinking massive amounts of alcohol or even in a very refined way with your little pinky up,

But it's still basically the same thing.

The world has become overly preoccupied with mood-altering substances.

Everybody has become so dependent upon mood-altering substances because without them,

Their life is simply quite hellish.

Is this a bit harsh or what?

We're okay?

Okay.

So,

Can I take out the baseball bat?

No,

No,

I'm joking.

No,

We need to look at the reality of things.

I mean,

My friend,

Paramahamsa,

He sent me a link in the New Zealand Herald just the other day,

An unfortunate guy that looked like he had so much going for him and committed suicide.

He was a television personality and everything.

We refuse to identify the turmoil that is going on in most of our hearts and the minds of most people.

But it doesn't take very much to push people over that edge of becoming filled with despair.

I mean,

The amount of depression that's permeating society,

Even down to young children,

Is astonishing and incredibly sad.

And we do not connect that with the way we are choosing to live.

We have become so accustomed to buying into all of the messaging of advertisers,

Which are amazing manipulation.

People spend vast amounts of money studying how to push your button,

How to get you to react a certain way.

It astonished me,

There's this guy in Silicon Valley.

We're talking about buttons,

We're talking about literal buttons now.

He is the world authority on designing buttons for social media and apps.

He has got it down to such a science that if it is presented in a certain way,

They know a certain percentage of people,

A large percentage of people are going to push that thing.

They're going to push it.

Facebook was designed to do this with their so-called likes.

I mean,

Do you really think anybody just likes you?

You have all these terrible stories of people committing suicide or running away or going missing and the parents can't understand what happened.

I think there's a movie about that coming out about,

You know,

They've got like hundreds of friends on Facebook,

But actually their life is filled with loneliness.

They actually live in a bubble.

They are all alone.

So these guys are really good at designing these things.

If you want to attend a seminar,

A one day,

Five hour seminar on the design of these buttons,

It's going to cost you $15,

000 per head.

And the auditorium is of course full of people paying that money because they want to exploit you just like that guy's exploiting you.

They want to monetize that,

You know,

And it just becomes like,

Well,

What are we doing?

Yes,

We're grabbing the money.

We're getting the money,

But at what price?

What is the cost to us?

What is the effect on us?

So in more ancient times,

Because of this intimate connection that they had within the world that they live and the way in which things were functioning,

And there was this underlying knowledge that I am a transient in this life,

In this body.

It has a beginning and it's coming to an end.

And they look to these times,

Of course,

For practical reasons.

This was a time to begin planting.

Many of the things that were planted were planted early in the spring.

But there was this other thing.

There was this remembrance.

When these events would come around,

They remind me of the passing of time.

They remind me of my infallibility or the infallibility of my body,

The period that I will spend in it.

It's temporary.

It's not going to last forever.

And they look to these seasons as seasons to renew life,

To rethink things,

To become more focused on not just the growth of plants,

Which people were dependent upon,

But my own growth and development as well.

So it's rather unfortunate when these periods are just reduced to some sort of event that people talk about or mention in some flippant or light sort of way.

No,

These are very profound moments in time that should serve to remind us of the importance of renewal in our life,

Of growth in our life,

Of change.

The need for change should be apparent if my life is filled with unhappiness.

Of course,

There is a need for change.

Even if it's not filled with unhappiness,

If there is more of it than I desire,

Then I should be seeking change.

And that change will always start from within.

So that's about what I wanted to share with you tonight.

But before closing out,

I will just read a verse from a very ancient text,

The Bhagavad Purana.

And it states that both by the rising and the setting,

The sun decreases the duration of life of everyone,

Except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all good absolute spiritual truth.

So it's quite far out because it is a very clear message that you can either accept your life as I mentioned before,

We define our life as being the period in between our birth and our death.

No,

That's one way of looking at life.

That does decrease with the rising of the sun and with the setting of the sun.

I should be aware it is decreasing the time available to me in this body.

But for one who understands that I am actually the life force within the body,

Then even though my body may age,

The rising and the setting of the sun does not diminish me or does not diminish my life.

That is eternal.

My life is eternal.

You are eternal.

I am eternal.

The world is temporary.

The body is temporary.

And we should be seeking that which is our eternal good.

When we focus our life on chasing temporary sense flashes,

We are not actually doing what is in our true interest.

So this is a wonderful occasion to reflect on these truths and to consider them in relation to our life.

The nature of material life,

I will use this term rather broadly,

The nature of material life is it's kind of downhill.

We start and we may endeavor in so many ways.

We may get excited about things and then over time it just,

You know,

It's like the difference between a seven-year-old child and a 70-year-old person.

The seven-year-old child is bouncing off the walls filled with enthusiasm and optimism.

The world is just like,

Yeah!

Everything is cool,

Spinning in circles,

Doing flips on the ground.

It's all terribly exciting.

And then you get to about 70 years of age and you've turned into a grump.

Shut up,

Bloody kids!

It's like,

What happened?

You know,

That's the nature of things.

When your focus is very narrow and limited and material in nature,

The process of aging is a very painful,

Even distressful,

Unpleasant thing.

But for one who is transcendentally situated,

Who has become actually enlightened,

Self-realized,

The aging of the body is utterly irrelevant.

It's just another thing to deal with.

Okay?

Thank you very much.