Bulletin No: 2018.52 - Monday, 22 October 2018

Conferring of an Honorary Doctorate on Daaji

21 October 2018, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

The prestigious Sri Venkateswara University of Tirupati today bestowed an honorary Doctorate of Science on Daaji as part of the 56th & 57th Convocation Day ceremony at the university campus, recognizing his research in the field of the science of spirituality and consciousness, and the positive impact his findings and teachings have had on millions of people around the world.

The ceremony started at 10:45 a.m., at which Daaji was also the special guest of honour. He presented the degrees, medals and prizes to the PhD, MPhil and other postgraduate students, and then addressed the assembly.

In his address, Daaji said:

“Namaste, dear friends.

“Respected Vice-Chancellor, respected Minister, Executive Council and Deans, the many parents who are proud of their children’s graduation, and students,

“Three weeks back, when I was invited for this occasion, I was wondering what I would share with you all and one idea kept coming to me. You see this flower. If you try to see it from the sky, when you are flying between Tirupati and Bombay at 35,000 feet high, can you see the flower? You can’t. If you are driving by, will you see the flower? Maybe it will appear as a dot of colour. If you are running, maybe you will notice the flower. If you stand in front of it, you will definitely see it. And if you hold it in your hand and admire it, you will also smell its fragrance.

“Such is the flower blooming in our hearts. How many of us are paying attention to it? The soul, the life giver, the life force, is residing within us. How many of us are able to say, ‘Thank you’? How many of us are able to take a moment and be grateful for this life force, for which we are indebted? Are we able to close our eyes, as we all close our eyes and go to sleep, but with appreciation? This is what our Yoga Shastras call meditation: appreciating the life-giving factor.

“If our flight is moving at 500 kilometres per hour, we cannot notice the flower. If we were to move at the speed of sound, or at the speed of light, we also could not notice it. There are tachyon particles, which move faster than the speed of light. What happens when an object moves faster than the speed of light? Imagine if your mother is in the kitchen, and she is moving at the speed of light in a small house. You may be in the living room watching TV, but she would be in all the rooms at the same time as she moves around. When we are moving faster than light, or the speed of tachyon particles, we will be like God, everywhere at the same time.

“What I am trying to convey to you is that at a very fast speed, we appear to be occupying every nook and corner, as if we are steady. As children, when we played with a spinning top, as long as the top was spinning very fast it looked very steady. The moment it slowed down we noticed it was moving.

“So what about our minds – when our minds, our intentions are moving really fast? How to arrive at such steadiness, such stillness, and yet keep moving faster than tachyons, because the mind moves faster than tachyons, faster than anything that exists in this universe? God has given us this brilliant mind; so let’s make use of it. Let us make a friend out of this mind. Most Yoga people say, ‘Your mind is your enemy,’ but I don’t consider the mind to be our enemy; our mind is our best friend. It can turn into an enemy only when we don’t know how to handle it.

“Everybody is looking forward to a happy life. The problem remains that we want to achieve that happy state in the ‘now’, fast, by any means, and we don’t understand what happiness truly means. Can you be happy when disturbance and turmoil is there in the family? It is not possible to feel joy and happiness in a restless environment.

“Some of you will be getting married; perhaps some of you are already married. It will be a testing time. Do you think that passing your matriculation and graduating was so difficult? Not at all. What you just did was just a game for you. What is coming ahead – I don’t say it’s a big challenge, but if you know how to handle it, if you know how to remain still within and move around fast, then you can circumvent and transcend any sort of problem. So, how to arrive at that?

“Coming back to this factor of happiness: how to arrive there? I offer the thought to you that restlessness will not allow happiness to prevail. So the idea is to get out of this restlessness and come to the state of having a contemplative mind. Without contemplation, there cannot be harmony. In order to remain in a state of harmony within, I will have to think many times, I’ll have to contemplate. I will need a contemplative mind while I interact with others in the family as well as in the work environment. Harmony is not possible without contemplation, and contemplation is not possible without a focused mind. And I cannot arrive at a focused mind without regulating the mind. And regulation of the mind is possible only through meditation. So now you can connect the dots: happiness can be achieved through rightful meditation.

“Now what is the next purpose of meditation? You must have all heard of Swami Vivekananda. Who has not? He said that the main goal of any practice, especially spiritual practice, is to expand the present consciousness that we have and allow it to soar higher into a superconscious state, and also, through the same practice, to dive deeper into the subconscious. Spiritual practice has only this purpose: to broaden the mind, the present-day consciousness, which is like a thin film of water between two vast oceans – one of superconsciousness and one of subconsciousness.

“Through Heartfulness we have developed a very refined mechanism where you don’t have to go to the jungle or the Himalayas. Wherever you are, whenever you would like to plunge into a deeper state of meditation you can download and use the HeartsApp, and simply follow the steps.

“With this meditation technique, you will be able to plunge very deep, because a very special method is used called Transmission. Without Transmission, Heartfulness is like any other meditation. You must have heard about the use of a placebo. What is a placebo? It is nothing but inert medicine. Similarly, you can meditate without this active thing called Transmission – meditate with a placebo - and then compare it with meditation with Transmission, and see the result for yourself..

“So going forward, when life lures you into so many things, crave for stillness in the heart when disturbance, turmoil and things in life somehow discourage you. I think we can take shelter in this peaceful moment, dive deeper and be close to Divinity. This is the message I would like to share with you: the only way to bring about permanent happiness is through meditation.

“I wish you all luck, and thank you for letting me be a part of this very important day in your life. I appreciate the invitation you have given me with so much generosity. Thank you all.”