In the modern structure of society man has been moving at great speed like a motorcar racing along the road. As long as the car is all right it is not dangerous, but if something goes wrong with the car then the speed will create a disaster. Man has been thinking very fast, and the environment, the atmosphere and the general trend of world civilization exerts a compelling force on us. Our minds are totally under their influence. Therefore, it has become necessary to teach man how to conduct the affairs of the mind.
In affluent countries there are an amazing number of health problems. Why? In affluent countries where there is no poverty, where everything is comfortable, people are not able to sleep without sleeping drugs. When there is a comfortable bed, centrally-heated rooms or air-conditioned rooms, why should there be a problem with sleep? Why should there be insomnia?
We can very well understand that in countries where people are beneath the poverty line, there should be anxiety, but why should there be anxiety in affluent countries? If one has nothing to eat and one has no social security, and one has no medical facilities, then there is some reason behind anxiety. But when everything is available: social security, established social system, a well-organized government and highly sophisticated technical and medical facilities, where is the reason for anxiety? Still, statistics suggest that more cases of anxiety are reported in affluent countries, and not in those which are below the general poverty line.
This means that the nucleus of the problem is the human mind. A mind which can think properly, which has a philosophy of its own and which is able to create a balance in different situations of life can cope with anxieties, tensions and pressures. The purpose of initiating the project of a yoga ashram is to create a base and to provide such facilities where man may know a little more about the mind, body and himself.
Within the last three hundred years we have undergone the industrial revolution. It seems that in his hectic activities man has forgotten himself. The tragedy is, the centre has been forgotten and the circumference has remained. Man is the centre of civilization; civilization cannot be the centre of man. Culture is not the centre, it is the circumference; society is not the centre, it is the circumference. Man is the centre because he has created the circumference. I am the centre and I am the nucleus, you are the nucleus. During these past centuries, man has neglected the laws that rule the body and the mind. He has not been able to create a situation which is congenial for the body-mind complex.
There was a time when the science of yoga was popular and well known all over the world. History has it that in Latin American countries, in the south of France, in Italy and Greece, in the Middle East and Afghanistan, in India and further East of India to Japan, there were many that followed the science of yoga.
Sometimes people are confused as to how yoga can fit into the materialistic structure of modern western society. Then there are people who ask how yoga can fit into the structure of occidental society. You may be occidental or oriental, materialistic or spiritual, a Hindu or a Muslim, a Christian or a Buddhist, but you are a human being first and everything else next. You have a body and you have a mind, and the laws of the body and mind are similar. A Christian does not have Christian anger and a Hindu does not experience Hindu anger. Passion is not a Christian passion, a Hindu passion or a Muslim passion. Worry is the same. Anxiety is the same and depression is the same, neurosis is the same. The causes are the same and the symptoms are the same.
If an oriental or an occidental, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian were to lose his livelihood would they react differently? No. Loss of wealth, loss of children, loss of husband or wife, loss of friend, or the achievements of these people and circumstances creates unhappiness and happiness respectively. No matter where you come from, you may be a Greek, I may be an Indian, and if I get one million dollars I won’t be unhappy and if you get one million dollars you will not be unhappy. It is the natural reaction of the mind towards pain and pleasure, towards attraction and repulsion, towards desires and frustrations, towards neurosis and psychosis.
Therefore, yoga has nothing to do with oriental or occidental culture, nor with Hindu, Christian and Muslim culture, with Indian, Greek or European, with rich or poor, or with men or women. It basically has to do with the natural human being, who has a mind and a spirit. Yoga is the culture of the totality of humankind.
When I was in Russia two years ago, one of the passengers travelling with me asked, “Do I need yoga?” I said, “Do you ever feel unhappy?” He said, “Yes, often.” I said, “Definitely, you do then.” He didn’t ask, “Do I need Hinduism?” If he had I would have said, “No.” He could have asked, “Swami Satyananda, should I become a Hindu?” I would have said, “No.” But he asked, “Do I need yoga?” Yoga transcends the barriers of religion, culture, sex and political ideologies. So I said, “Yes.”
19 August 1979, Yoga Centre, Drosopoulou Street, Greece