Thailand, hmmmm…a long way from my Electric Soul Yoga L.A. home.

For  three weeks, my travels have taken me to India, where my guru held Yajna lectures that captivated thousands of people with his supreme teachings from the Bhagavad Gita.  But still, the heat, congestion and filth of India have wedged deep into my skin.

Next stop was Malaysia, where Swamiji’s daughter offered a different set of Yajna lectures and again revealed ancient truths of Life against a backdrop of beautiful buildings, mosques, and malls! The eternal and the mortal.

Final stop led me to Thailand – beaches, shops, massage and time. Time to digest the intensity of the lessons I have  listened to with rapt attention.

What I have learned during these three weeks is what I already knew: that  there is one thing for certain in life and that is death.

When we die, we cannot take our families or friends with us.  We cannot take fame or fortune, toys or joys.  All we take with us when we go is our ignorance or our knowledge.

If we practice bhoga, our mind is on the world and we spend our time chasing happiness/peace as if it were a prize one receives for winning a race or solving a puzzle. The happiness/peace that we feel is always dependent upon a person, place or thing and therefore, not only is it not lasting, it is never really peaceful.

If this is the life we lead, at best we will live it again and again like a dog chasing its tail. At worst, we slide back like a car in a ditch losing traction, never freeing itself from the mud.

If we live a life of yoga, our mind leaves the terrestrial and aims for the transcendental.

We rise above life’s pitfalls. Fame, fortune, pleasure, pain, honor and dishonor, remain at our feet. We chase just like the bhogi.   But the yogi chases the truth, the ultimate in the human experience, growing.

Rather than an endless cycle of emptiness, we reach a state of total fulfillment. Instead of temporary relief from misery, there is permanent bliss.

Indeed we are all going to leave this earth someday.   But today, we are here and the only thing that truly matters, the only thing worth living for, is the peace we are searching for.

For years, I have said: “The only way out is in.”

Dig in!  Any achievement in this world cannot be taken out. No trophy, no award, no plaque, no building.

May we all reach for the supreme every day and let our actions and our thoughts direct us toward the peak of creation. The knowledge that comes from living that life can take us out of this world!

Peace,

EP