The final part of the question and answer session from the South Asia Centre, Bengaluru, given by Swami Nishchalananda in 2002.
Consider Yoga, or any system which can draw us back to a more sensible, reasonable, natural relationship with Life. Wouldn’t it be fine to have more access to such a system as a natural part of growing up, of developing and maturing? Instead of the constant message given out to compete, to create separation.
Competitiveness is actually a natural part of our makeup; the problem maybe is competitiveness becomes institutionalised and channelled in negative ways.
This leads into a wider context exploration of how we might move on from what some call ‘Kaliyuga’, the age when society as a whole is the furthest away from innate wisdom. And there are people who are exploring the issues. Can this influence grow fast enough?
There’s a question then which raises the issue of people teaching the skills that ‘New Age explorers’ try to learn, but charging their students a lot of money. Swamiji’s reply; don’t go to them, find someone else! It happens even in India, where people are more familiar with spirituality as part of everyday life. So in the West where people are not so familiar, we have to learn how to discriminate between a teacher who cares most about imparting knowledge of their subject, and a teacher for whom it’s a way of making lots of money.
The session ends in a lighthearted way with an exchange between Swamiji and the American visitors about to embark on a spiritual tour of India.
(editor note: I’ve left in some questions and comments from the audience even though sometimes they can be difficult to hear. This is because the question usually becomes clear from Swamiji’s response, also it gives context to the response and continuity to the recording.)
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Swami Nishchalananda 
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