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Speaker 1: Good morning.

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Speaker 2: How are you doing today, sir?

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Speaker 1: I'm doing very well and how are you. Oh.

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Speaker 2: Very excited to share a conversation with you, because I

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think that you're transparent and real enough to say, yeah,

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you know what, I think we all need to be

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having conversations like this around the entire planet.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much, as kind of yes, it hopes

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to be that.

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Speaker 2: Person locating that place a piece. We are in a

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time now where, in fact, I was just reading this

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morning that because of technology and because of our demand

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to live in the past, we have a hard time

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dealing with the present, and we need to have conversations

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with people like yourself who have invested in the present,

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and there is a payoff in so many different ways.

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Speaker 1: That's you know, I love to I love how you

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phrased it.

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Speaker 2: How do you get to that place? Though, because it's

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more than just opening up a book.

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Speaker 3: You're right, it's a series of choices. It's a series

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of commitments to understanding the root of why it is

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that we feel the way we do, why we feel

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and complete and that leads you to understanding the futility

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of living in the parstling for the future and being

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more president than that, and there's a series of practices

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and questions that take you to that place.

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Speaker 2: I love that you say questions because that's one of

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my favorite things to do. I do a thing called

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defragging and where I invite listeners on iHeartRadio. You've got

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to ask yourself the questions and then question the answers,

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because if you keep asking everybody else, well, then give

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them your shoes so they can walk a mile in

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your shoes.

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Speaker 3: It's an excellent point, and I think part of the

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questioning process has to be married to observation. Sure, you

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can definitely observe other people's choices and the people's lives.

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I mean, we don't live in isolation, so it's definitely

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good to learn from others in that respect. But I think,

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of course, as you said, our experiences unique and should

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be treated that way.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting that you say we don't live in isolation,

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but there are certain leaders in this world right now

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that would prefer that we have just us, only us,

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And it's like, I think we just step backwards there.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think there's often a lot of people that

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don't want to accept reality as it is, and they

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want to live in their own fantasy.

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Speaker 2: Yoga is so important to you. Now, there's one question

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that I've always had because my meditation is nidra, and

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when you really take the time to study what nidra is,

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it is a journey unto itself.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean ya, Yoga as a whole I think

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fits that moniker or journey onto itself. And I think

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it's one of those things. I mean, there are many

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forms of it. To come in all of them now

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would be too much, But I think it's one of

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those things where people think it's one thing, but at

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the depth, it's an entirely different thing. It needs to

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be approached with a different perspective than most people have

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learned to approach it with.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it the communication with your mind, body, and soul?

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Speaker 3: It is, absolutely, It's about creating a harmony between all

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of them because I think one of the big I

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would say tragedies of human existence at the moment is

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how fragmented we are. Our mind wants one thing, our

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heart wants another thing, the body wants another thing, and

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we live in an internal turmoil where everything is pulling

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in different directions, and it leads to poor decision making.

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It leads to a lot of limitation on what we

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could be living and what we could be experiencing.

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Speaker 2: I just recently read a story where people are not

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so strong when it comes to religion, but yet they

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call themselves spiritual. What do you see from your own beliefs?

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Speaker 3: I think one two are are the same in it's

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an arrow of category. So I look at it this way.

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Spirituality is the domain. So let's say spirituality is the NBA,

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religion is the LA Lakers. So what I mean by

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that is there's a domain of spirituality, and of course

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religion is just one brand of it. And I think

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a lot of people are getting frustrated with religion in

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that sense because it might be a little more limiting,

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it might be a little more restrictive. But spirituality as

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a whole is a project that has never been abandoned

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and continues to be practiced even by the religious.

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Speaker 2: Please do not move. There's more with Swami coming up next.

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He thanks for coming back to my conversation DC podcasting

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as being that one thing that you know reached beyond

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the four walls of the church, because I was heavily

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inspired when I heard that you have a podcast.

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Speaker 3: It's a way of reading people. In the modern world,

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I think that's all it is. I mean, the church, spirituality,

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human conversation. It's just been a way of transmitting wisdom, knowledge,

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trying to listen to people, learn from people, share with people.

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And I think nowadays podcast it's just another way of

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doing it. It's a way that is more effective, reaches

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more people. And that's what it's really all about.

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Speaker 2: Your philosophy, what is that based on? Because I mean

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it's you know, you have philosophy versus human psychology. Those

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are two completely different things, but don't we have to

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have both of them in order to work, you know,

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for growing forward.

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Speaker 3: I wouldn't say they are completely different things. Is I

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think there's a tremendous amount of overlap. I mean, if

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the true philosophy is trying to explain the world around

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us as we see it, it's a love of wisdom

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in the original Greek. And so I think human psychology

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is one understood properly, is centered around understanding our mechanisms

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and how we function and what we're naturally, let's say,

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in pursuit of and I think knowledge is one of

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those things, the philosophy that we have in our tradition

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is more centered around a God centric philosophy. It's a

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and learning to love God, live in devotion to God.

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But it's not a God that is very hyper defined.

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It's a God that is present in all things. And

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in that sense, we learned to be in relationship with

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all things, to learn how to navigate all things with

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a sense of divinity.

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Speaker 2: And how do you handle it personally when someone because

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I know how I react when people say this, I

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don't know where God is, which God was here? I

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can't find God, And I'm going, wow, like you just said,

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God is in each and every one of us at

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all times.

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Speaker 1: Correct.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's an era of method more and

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more often than not, in an error of perspective when

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people think that God isn't here and they don't even

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look for him.

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Speaker 1: If I'm told.

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Speaker 3: That something is not in my house, I'm not going

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to spend time looking for it in my house. I'm

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going to go look elsewhere. And so I think it's

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a question of wrong information to the beginning of the

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journey and therefore consequently a poor journey, because we haven't

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been fed the right information in order to find that

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which is so near and dear.

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Speaker 2: So many preachers, including my own, which is Stephen Ferdy

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from Elevation Church, they always say that the greatest lessons

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are found in the darkness. So when I'm challenged, I

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will go looking for the lessons. Do you do the same.

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Speaker 3: I don't think that any conception of spiritual life or

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love is complete if we just take it to mean positive,

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sweet experiences. I mean, a parent that chastises their child

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is doing it out of love, and yet the manifestation

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of that love is chastisement. And so I think that

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it's very important for us to be able to navigate

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the tough moments in life and to start to see

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the divine lessons that are being given there, because to

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ignore them is to invite them back into your life repeatedly,

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and if you can extract the wisdom from it, you're

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going to invite a negative experience to repeat itself time

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and time again. And for the record, I've met Stephen Fridick,

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and he's a great man.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, thank you so much for saying that. Yeah,

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because he absolutely is. One of the things that we've

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learned is we continue to age in life, and that

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is is that we think that age is wisdom. I

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don't buy into that because I think that you can

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be an old person and still make the same bad mistakes.

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Speaker 3: I fully agree age goodv it to do with it.

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It's all to do with how you've navigated your mind

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and how your relationship you have towards your mind, Because

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all your habits and your reactions are part of your mind,

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part of your understanding of mind, part of your understanding

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of yourself, your nature. How you navigate all of that,

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and all of this can't be rectified. The one thing

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I see people struggling with so much, and I like

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to correct it is when people say it is how

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it is, I am how I am. I can't change.

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I think that's a terrible thing to say to yourself,

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and it's absolutely untrue. Everybody can change, given the right

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tools and the right time.

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Speaker 2: Where do you go in order to receive? Because I

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mean I live in a forest here in South Charlotte.

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I go into the forest, I take my walk through

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the forest. I'm here inside the home. But where do

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you go to receive?

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Speaker 3: Well, I live in a monastery type of environment. It's

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an austroam in an upstate New York, and so for me,

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It's about being with my community, being with like minded individuals.

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Speaker 1: And this isn't our myrap state of New York, and.

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Speaker 3: That's where I spend my time when I want to,

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in a sense recharge spiritually.

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Speaker 2: Wow, you write, you're so out there in the community.

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Where can people go to find out more about you?

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Speaker 1: I would say two things.

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Speaker 3: They can go on Buckti Marga dot us so b

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h A k t I m A r g A

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dot us, Or they can go on my personal Instagram

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profile where I have links to my podcast where I

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do a lot of announcements about what I'm doing. Personally,

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I do a lot of programs in New York City,

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That's where I'm primarily active and elsewhere in the world

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as well. So my personal profile swam me Revity Conta

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on Instagram.

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Speaker 2: How about your writing? What are you doing with your writing?

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Because I know I can tell that you're a writer

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and you're a thinker.

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Speaker 3: True my thinking tends to take the podcast as a

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platform right now, writing we just finished. I co authored

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a book recently with a couple of my fellow colleagues

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on Vedic philosophy, so Eastern philosophy from the Hindu tradition,

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and that book is caoled to do me Vedante. It's

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been launched only a couple of months ago and will

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be soon available on all the digital platforms. But it's

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really an attempt to summarize Eastern philosophy into a modern context.

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What is it that we are trying to resolve? Solve

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however you wish to put it, and a very concrete

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sort of presentation of the three fundamental topics of Eastern spirituality,

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which is who am I?

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Speaker 1: Who is God? And what is our relationship to this world?

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Speaker 2: Oh that's poetry. That's beautiful. I could tell that you

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really are very much committed to that.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've been a monk for sixteen years now and

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it is something that I have absolutely chosen to dedicate

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my life to. I looked at the world, looked at life,

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and I felt like I can do many things, there

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are many doors open to me, but nothing will be

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as rewarding and as fruitful to dedicating my time twenty

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four hours a day to aid the pursuit of God

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and be sharing that with other people in whatever way

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I can serve them, whatever way I can help them.

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And I felt like there are many other worthy pursuits

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in life, but nothing seems to captivate me as much

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as that, And so if I can dedicate all of

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my waking hours to that, then that's what I'd like

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to do.

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Speaker 2: You've got to come back to this show anytime in

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the future. The world needs to hear your story, your journey,

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and your vision.

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Speaker 1: It would be my pleasure.

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Speaker 2: Will you be brilliant today?

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Speaker 1: Okay, you too, Thank you so much.