That is an incredible period I think when you have a near-death experience. You are really understanding that there is a greater self than the physical body, and the cosmic anatomy as I call it is suspended and physical, is almost attached to it but not quite, and you're living in that in-between sphere of apparent reality around you and then the real reality of the infiniteness of it all.

Before we understand how not to hurt, we must contribute to the peacefulness of it all, in that if we participate in any way, in anything that hurts, anything that involves killing and hurting, then we're hurting ourselves because we're not islands, we're all connected regardless of tradition, and because of that we're all connected.

I think path in spirituality chooses us. I doubt seriously that we really have much choice in the matter.

The more we are cleansed of conflicts, all sorts of conflicts, the easier it is for us to use our energy in a way that attracts the immutable healing of it all.

A traditionalist can sometimes be looked at as someone who is a fundamentalist, or they can be looked at as someone with a very strict set of understandings of human nature. But a traditionalist in the Vedic tradition, is one who is open-hearted, who does not judge, there's nothing to judge whatsoever, who understands the basic understanding and karma of all of it, and who basically helps when help is called for.

I always suggest to women to take time away from the norm. And that takes a lot of courage. Most people can't do that, they can't loose and run, and say, 'Look, I'm going to just have an entirely new environment, devoid of all the habitual concerns of the day.'

Suffering is there because there's something we're not understanding about our full divinity, and there are so many ways we could go into understanding.