Does the awakening of kundalini enable one to heal or predict things?
If there is this special awakening in prana shakti, in pingala, one becomes a healer. When there is special awakening in ida, one can predict things. Many people predict things but that does not at all indicate the awakening of kundalini. Healing the sick is definitely a very important thing, and for that purpose simple pranayama will do.
In religion they say healing is God’s power?
I am completely ignorant about religion. I know very little about it and I don’t believe in religion. I think that God is not a person. God lives at different levels of the universe. God is all-pervading and lives in different realms of the universe. As such any shakti, any energy, represents God. This is my concept but I have not thought about it, because I know there is no use thinking about God within the mind.
God is infinite and this mind is finite. How can the finite mind think about the infinite God? If I am blind you might put me before the sun, and say, “Look, the sun.” What can I see? I have no eyes. God is beyond the mind; God is beyond the senses. This is what is written in the books which say the same thing, ‘God is beyond the mind, beyond the senses. It is a transcendental state.’
So what is the use of thinking about it? Let Him think about us because we are very poor creatures. We are very humble souls, and we are very powerless. We are suffering mentally, physically, morally, spiritually, ethically, emotionally. Why should He not think about us? Why should we think about Him? If we think about Him is it not egocentricity? Is it not a psychological problem in us? Is this thinking about God a mental problem in us? I have been thinking along these lines for the last 55 years. Finally, I have come to the conclusion that we talk about the little things rather than the things that are beyond the mind.
I think a healer is utilizing his prana shakti. I also did healing for about ten years. I was a hypnotist. Even now I am a hypnotist but I don’t do it. I did this healing for full ten years, with my hand, with water, plants, herbs, mantra or with a slap. I used many methods. I know what it was. I left it because I did not have time. I left it because the crowds grew too intense. I left it because once myself I fell seriously ill. I took over the illness of a few people, it became so difficult for me to throw it out so I said, “Nothing doing now,” so I stopped it.
Do you think we can all develop those powers like healing?
There are certain types of people who can develop the power of healing more than others. There are some people who find it very difficult to become healers. In some people the pingala nadi is very powerful and predominant. Whilst in others ida nadi is more powerful and predominant. Therefore, people with predominant pingala nadi can be healers. It is also true that people born under certain zodiac signs can become healers very easily. Not everybody.
For physical and spiritual healing there are different types of people required. Spiritual healing can be done but that needs a greater amount of practice and a lot of dedication to the purpose. It is not merely the awakening of the pingala nadi. It is awakening the inner force in man that is responsible for spiritual healing.
Do you think that the American Indians have the same scientific ideas and religion as the yoga in India?
There is a big history about it. It will be too long a discussion on this point. When I have gone to the South American countries, to Mexico and many other places, I have seen great similarities between the Hindus and the people there, like the architecture, the symbols. In one temple I have seen Tamil script, I know Tamil script which is from the South of India. The Ganesha of the Hindu pantheon, the elephant God, and Garuda, the eagle God, and the style of the stupa and the type of the pillars is the same.
In English it is called Mexico, but the correct pronunciation by the Spanish people is Mehico. Mehico is from the Sanskrit word, mayaiko. The civilization of Mexico according to history is called the Maya civilization. The word Mayaiko has become Mahico, Mehico and in English people say Mexico.
This Maya civilization has a reference in Hindu mythology. The people who built the temples in Mexico, let us say, were the same people who built the old Delhi, Hastinapur. These are some of the comparative references we can find.
When we study the different tribes, like the Aztecs, Incas, Chibchas and many other people, we find a great similarity in their worship. For instance, among the Incas there were women, young girls consecrated to the sun. They used to live in a big temple in a monastery and follow exactly the same rules and regulations which they follow in India today. Since their society was completely destroyed and disrupted by massacres and wars, they could not manage to continue that organization. In India we could manage to organize it. There is definitely a little difference.
I have extensively toured the Caribbean Islands and I have met people there. I teach them yoga and initiate them into mantra. Many consider me their guru and they are my disciples. The way they behave is just like a Hindu. On the very first day, it seems my way of thinking and their way of thinking is not two, it is just one. I asked them, “How are you able to communicate with me on an emotional and mental plane, an intellectual or philosophical plane?” They say, “Our forefathers were Indians. But we came here, we lived here and although we follow Christianity as a religion, as a race we are Hindus.” Their religion is Christianity, but their race is Hindu. There has been a link of yoga throughout the world, and sometimes in a few centuries it was lost.
Would you say we have lost something since those times when they could concentrate and now we can’t? Have we gained anything through time?
Materially we have, spiritually we have not. Materially we have gained a lot: beautiful house, nice roads, cars, nice systems, lots of guns and fighting arsenal. We have got much better. Our forefathers used bow and arrows. They were not advanced in that sense, but they were very close to the spiritual reality of life. They were much closer to the inner mind and inner soul. They were much closer to the reality of the entire universe; and we are far from it.
14 May 1980, Stockholm, Sweden