These celebrations are not limited to the city of Munger. Globally, people are watching our sessions at Polo Ground. In fact, many people travelling to Munger yesterday, were watching the proceedings on their mobiles phones and iPads in trains and cars. We have been receiving phone calls from places like Singapore, Australia, America, South America, Europe, saying, “We wish we could be there! Everything looks superb, gorgeous, beautiful and inspirational, and we wish we were there physically.” The eyes of the world are on Munger for these five days.
Everyone is awaiting a message to be transmitted from this World Yoga Convention. Everyone is waiting to hear what the message of yoga will be, and they should. For, yoga is a science, a process, an experience of unity; a unity not only of body, mind and spirit, but a unity of the creative faculties of the head, heart and hands, as stated by our paramguru, Sri Swami Sivananda. This is what we are experiencing here: the multidimensional aspect of yoga. Despite its multidimensional aspect, yoga is a science of consciousness.
Consciousness is the main factor for the development, growth and evolution of every individual, not the senses, or the body, but the mind and consciousness. Therefore, yoga becomes the science of mind and consciousness to cultivate the creative and positive faculties, and to cultivate spiritual awareness while living in the material dimension. Just as a bird needs two wings to fly, materialism and spirituality are the two aspects which allow the growth of an individual in life.
Spirituality is not religion. I wish to make it clear that spiritual experiences and religious experiences are two different things. Here I am talking about spiritual experience. A spiritual experience means to bring out the creative within you, to bring out that which is virtuous, true and beautiful within you. It helps you to express the qualities of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram, truth, auspiciousness and beauty. These are the three aspects of the human mind which have to be nurtured and cared for, and this is the attempt of yoga.
October 2013, Ganga Darshan