At times, it appears easy to sermonise on morality and ethics. But morality and ethics appear good only when applied to others, never on oneself.

When you stop people from doing certain things, there is a good chance that they will do exactly what they have been told to abjure. That is how human nature is.

If you impose morality on people, they will find ways to circumvent their guilt. They will make offerings to temples - or other places of worship - but also continue doing things that make them feel guilty.

A sense of morality makes a person repetitive in thought and action. Such a person will obviously not get anywhere.

In India, nothing is accomplished by policy changes alone. Unless people can relate emotionally to something, nothing happens on the ground.

Yoga means union. Union means the boundaries of the individual self-dissolve, and you experience existence as yourself.

In terms of the quality of food entering you, vegetarian food is definitely far better for the system than non vegetarian.

If you listen to your body, your body will clearly tell you what kind of food it is happy with.

Many philosophies have evolved based on the choice of food. But one must remember there is nothing religious, philosophical, spiritual, or moral about the food we eat. It is only a question of whether the food is compatible with the kind of body we have.

At my ashram, people work long hours joyfully because they are inspired. When people are involved and joyfully doing something, they usually turn out ten times more and do more than what they would normally do as a duty.

Leadership is neither about you or me; it is about something that needs to be done. Leaders figure out how it can be made to happen and get ten or a million people to see that this is the way to do it.

What people think is their individual nature is just a bundle of thoughts, emotions, ideas, opinions, and prejudices. The world can do without this individuality.

I'm comfortable with anything that fits me well. Bad tailoring is what I am uncomfortable with.

I'm not modern or ancient: I'm just contemporary. I'm sure every guru of his time was contemporary.

Integrity is about pursuing bigger goals that are beyond your personal success. If people see you only for yourself, they will not trust you. And, without trust, no growth and success are possible.

Children never seek happiness: they are happy.

Most creatures in nature die consciously. Cobras, for instance, choose a particular place on a particular branch of the tree. Many a times, I would try to force-feed them out of my misplaced compassion, but they would just puke and go back to sit on the same branch.

For me, health, education, and spirituality should never be commercialised.

If your idea of a guru is from a calendar, who has candy-floss beard and a constipated look on the face, then definitely I am not that.

When we step into a new terrain, we experience vast uncertainty. Uncertainty is just a situation that you do not know how to handle.

It is important that global business leaders understand that they need to think beyond their quarterly balance sheets and see what it is that they are creating.

No yogic practice is performed without cleansing the body first.

The process of wanting to clean India is not an overnight job. At the same time, if we can inspire all citizens, it would happen much more quickly.

The reason why the entire world sits up and watches World Cup football is the intensity of involvement with which people are playing a game: just kicking a ball around, but with such skill and involvement that it is like the last thing they are going to do in their life.