We are at a very critical period of man’s history. It is not only the difference between the orient and the occident, the crisis is universal. Whether it is a religious crisis or a social crisis, what new mission do we have to take up? Just through destruction of the body, to have a little more oxygen in the system or a constipation free body, a slim waist or a mind which can change the philosophy of the world? No the crisis in the world can be averted unless minds are prepared. All that we have seen in the past was an expression of the total mind.
If thousands and millions of people are initiated into yoga by all of you, and if the greater part of humanity practises thoughtlessness, one pointedness for a period of time every day, it will definitely influence world events. World events are our own manifestations. The number of yoga teachers all over the world is the largest today. No religion has as many workers as yoga has today. There are seventy to eighty thousand regular yoga teachers in Europe. You can just imagine what they can do. But the purpose and the methods have to be streamlined.
There is only one thing and that is meditation in the life of a yoga teacher and meditation in his teaching curriculum. Do not confuse meditation with mysticism, occultism or religion. Meditation is the reformer of the human mind. Meditation is the controller and educator of the human mind. It will develop correct values. Finally, everybody today is concerned about the world and its future and everybody seems to be panicky about things going on around us. Every thinking individual has a question before him: What next?
Yoga has an answer to that. Educate and re-educate the mind. Subdue the turbulent and violent senses and communicate with the source of inner peace. Think deeply and not just superficially. Let knowledge come from the depths and not merely from the intellect. Let yourself control the mind and let the mind control the body and let thousands of minds think alike. Let millions of minds think alike. Let millions of minds sit down for 10 minutes in total peace and bliss and that will start a new movement altogether.
Yoga teachers have a special responsibility to shoulder now. As I have already indicated, you are not a minority. You do not merely belong to one religion. You don’t only belong to one nation. You do not just believe one philosophy. You represent the universality of man’s existence. So now, you must give a special place to dhyana yoga. Before you teach your people hatha yoga, let them practise one pointedness. And when you close your class, close it with meditation. Have occasional seminars where people meditate every hour for the whole day, three day seminars or two day seminars. Spend the whole day not speaking – mouna. Practise your mantra one thousand times, two thousand times, three thousand times, four thousand times, half an hour at a stretch. And you will see what a great revelation takes place within you. If the revelation takes place in you, it can take place outside also.
21 March 1982, Gwatt, Switzerland, talk given to the Swiss Yoga Federation