Question:Can I do yoga if I eat non-veg and drink?

Answer:Yoga isn’t a restriction, it’s a deeper understanding of life. If you knew how to become absolutely ecstatic just by your own chemistry, you wouldn’t smoke or take a drink in your life. I’ve never touched a substance but if you look at my eyes, I’m always stoned. Yogis look at alcohol, drugs and these things as kindergarten stuff because we can get intoxicated a thousand times over just with our aliveness. Why simply wine? You can get drunk with the di-vine!

Question:How can yoga help in overall development?

Answer:Yoga is not about self-development; it is about self-dissolution. It is the method or the process which allows an individual piece of life to yoke itself to the cosmic. When your experience of life shifts from being a limited entity to universality, this is yoga. When there is a kind of oneness or wholeness within ourselves, this is yoga. Then you have a certain freedom to play with your life whichever way you want, but at the same time life cannot leave a scratch upon you.

Question:Does yoga require the help of an instructor or can it be self-taught?

Answer:Let us say you are seeking to go to a distant city. If you are alone and there are no proper directions, definitely you would wish for a map. It is not that you cannot do it yourself, but we do not know how long it will take. On an uncharted path, if you go without a map, you may take lifetimes to get there. If you go with a map, you will cross easily. If you go with a good bus driver, you will cross very easily; that is the difference. When you want to walk uncharted terrain, it is intelligent to choose a person who has already walked the terrain.

Question:What can spirituality give to youngsters?

Answer:Youth means lots of energy. But unbridled energy without stability and direction is always dangerous and destructive. Only those who are stable can use whatever quality and talent they have to the fullest extent. So the most important thing for youth is, they need to become meditative. If they are a little more stable, this energy which you call as youth, could be put to better use for their own and for everyone’s wellbeing.Before youth manages the country, the world and business, it is extremely important that they learn to manage themselves. The whole process of yoga is the science of inner management. You create an inner possibility where being blissful, joyful and peaceful is of your own nature, and not because of something that happens around you.

Question:What is the first step to increase awareness?

Answer:Every hour, remind yourself, “Wow! I’m still alive”. You may think this is silly, but over a hundred thousand people will not wake up tomorrow morning. So, if you are still alive tomorrow morning, smile because the fact that you woke up is not a small thing. Then check whether the few people who matter to you are alive – great! At least a million people lost someone dear to them, but if none of those dear to you are gone today, fantastic!Only when you are conscious about your mortality, you will want to truly know the nature of this life. You will have no time to do nonsense that doesn’t mean anything to you. You will only do what really matters to your life. Becoming aware will naturally happen because the significance of being alive will blossom.