Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Bigger. And each week, we will explore powerful practices, inspiring stories, and expert insights to guide you on your path to holistic health.
Speaker: By blending spirituality and physical wellness, we support you in strengthening your body and soul. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or just beginning your journey, the Spiritual Fitness Podcast is here to help you unlock your inner potential and live your most vibrant, purposeful life.
Speaker: It's miracle season.
Speaker: Spiritual fitness, spiritual fitness podcast. I'm back again. And we have an incredible, incredible spiritual fitness and episode that's really going to take us, dive us deep into our higher consciousness, our super consciousness. And I have spiritual monk, spiritual leader, healer, we're over now. He's everywhere. I mean, this guy has over 80,000 YouTube subscribers. He's traveling the world. He's on a world tour as we speak.
Speaker: I'm going to introduce Swami Aniruda to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. Swami, how are you? Fine, thank you. My pleasure being here. Thank you for having me. Yes. So tell me, what's the history on your knowledge and expertise when it comes to spirituality? How did you get into that space and how did you cultivate such a magnetic presence online to be who you are today?
Speaker: Where did it start? I think it it is inborn in all of us. ah my Since so in small, the questions arose. Who am I? Why am I here? What's the purpose? like Those questions, they're just...
Speaker: kept on bugging me and I asked people and I never got real satisfactory answers. So we go on a quest, we we try different things, we try different experiences to get the answers.
Speaker: And yeah, only when I got in touch more more with with the yoga signs and the great sages of India and their teachings, the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, that started to kind of, when trip in India, we're living in an ashram and doing certain meditations, learning about those things.
Speaker: I noticed that that speaks about my, my inner quest. And it was a, It was a beautiful experience because I finally stopped feeling completely lost because there's at least something which resonates with me. And then, yeah, I start to dive deeper through different teachers, different paths. And then in 2008, I met my my Satguru, my spiritual master.
Speaker: who then awoke something inside of me, which was actually more than just knowledge, experiencing what I knew. And from there, the quest has finished there. And then the journey really started.
Speaker: yeah And the last 17 years, I lived basically under the wings of my spiritual master, mainly in the, in Germany, in the ashram. And um yeah, just diving deeper into this path. And then obviously, I've,
Speaker: This knowledge and this yeah this wisdom is not for me. It is for everybody. So I obviously started to to share it. And social media today is a no-brainer that you should... If you want to share something, you have to go to social media. So I started to just...
Speaker: Send it out and whoever wants connects with. And I think it's beautiful because when you speak, you're so present. He's like, well, because something about the alphabet and prayer, he was talking to God.
Speaker: And you said, does it matter what no one gives us in life if love is not behind that frequency? And I was like, whoa. So just to get into the love frequency of this episode, for what you're just what you're bringing in, how does love shake us into the identity that we carry out in life every day? And why is love the most important thing for us to live from and not to be in fear from your perspective?
Speaker: Well, love is the essence of everything. so in essence, creating a love relationship with yourself. If you love and accept yourself fully, when you more and more realize that divine spark which you are, more you see it inside yourself, more you can see it in others, the more you can see it in life.
Speaker: And once you see that, then you know that everything has ah deeper purpose behind everything, can be seen as a blessing, yeah be it the most beautiful or the most...
Speaker: ah challenging situation. ah When there's love, you can do anything. Absolutely. That's beautifully said. ah Yeah, love is everything. And I realize when I'm making decisions from love, when I'm praying in the acts of love and not fear, things manifest, things come to fruition. I feel better. I feel lighter. I'm more fulfilled. I'm more joyous. I'm not thinking about Life in the same terms versus when I'm in a fear vibrational frequency or anxious or overwhelmed or worried.
Speaker: But when I have love, it's not even the the acts of it, just the energy of You know, you can be in someone's presence. Like, wow, like you just like my girlfriend, she has so much love in her presence so much. she's so lighthearted. You just feel like.
Speaker: I can relax and I can be free. and I let go and I can surrender. So in your ah essence with your spiritual master, what allows someone to be a spiritual master? And is it the spiritual master's presence or wisdom that's changed your life?
Speaker: And then you said something about ashram. What is that? So I can understand that in that term as well. Okay, so but spiritual masters ah or the word guru, which is is being sometimes has a negative connotation, sometimes it's used in all kinds of contexts.
Speaker: ah The word guru in essence means has two syllables, guru meaning darkness, ru meaning light. So a guru is somebody who brings light into darkness and he removes ignorance.
Speaker: So in the Hindu tradition, in the in the Oriental traditions, you have You learn mathematics, you have a mathematics guru. You learn about music, you have a music guru. So in every part of our life, we have teachers. now Our first teachers our parents.
Speaker: Nature, life is one of the greatest gurus in itself, right? And like we have on the material level, we have many teachers. So also on the spiritual quest, we have many gurus, many teachers.
Speaker: And obviously everybody can just teach you what they themselves have realized, achieved. um And so there is different levels. You, like I said, I met many spiritual guides, many masters, many people who helped me. I'm grateful for my whole lifelong.
Speaker: And then there's the concept of a Sadhguru, a Sadhguru, which is Sadhguru, means truth. So a true master or somebody who has realized the ultimate truth. And It is said that the relationship between an individual and that teacher is not something which comes from this life. It is not something which you choose. It is just, it is a sort of belonging.
Speaker: and If you read about different saints, you you will see this concept over and over again. And the beauty of such a teacher is that he, like I said, doesn't just give... information or teachings but he can give you direct experience of that higher truth because he is in that platform he he has he they come here basically to remind us to awaken us to guide us to who we truly are and to make us more aware what really matters so that is what the presence of a master does and as we know
Speaker: The company we keep is is so important because if, again, just look at life when you're in a good space and you meet somebody who is complaining all the time, how long does it take that you are actually feel like drained?
Speaker: ah If you are down and you are with people who are uplifting, it will either uplift you also or you get angry and leave because everybody's happy, just me not. But it does influence you also.
Speaker: Similarly, if you are with people who are in that space, in that union, in that yoke, in that love relationship, in this awareness, in this consciousness, then just being in their presence is obviously uplifting us. It makes sense, right? Yeah.
Speaker: So that's about the teacher in short. We are the energy we keep. We are the energy we cultivate and we constantly surround ourselves in. And I believe that life is energy.
Speaker: Everything is energy. Everything vibrates. You can't destroy You can't get rid of It just is like love. In the world of politics, in the world of religion, why do you think...
Speaker: when it comes to us being whole and being complete as one, we have so many different compartments of religion to separate ourselves even from each other or from ourselves.
Speaker: and I also saw a video where you talked about um Judaism, Christianity, um and how Muslim and like how a lot of those religions, you have to do something to become it.
Speaker: And I think you said in Hindu, you just, everyone's born Hindu. I forgot how dead and I was like that's so interesting I'm curious to know what's his thoughts on that and how do you feel because I believe no matter what religion color race creed class demographic money it doesn't matter at the end of day we all want love I don't when I see a person not looking at where they come from what they have I'm looking at what do I feel when I walk into their presence are they open they're Are they receptive? Are they a little standoff? But it doesn't matter.
Speaker: Everybody wants to love. So when you think about all that ah that video, can you kind of elaborate more on that um that that insight for the people? Absolutely.
Speaker: In Hinduism or Sanat and Dharma, there's eternal principles, which means... There's one power which pervades everything from which everything comes. You call it God, call it God, energy, whatever you want to call it. yeah ah That there's a spiritual animator in each material body which keeps it a alive.
Speaker: Soul, atma, spirit, however you want to call it. Again, it's something eternal. That there's the law of karma, action, reaction. That there's the law of... reincarnation that this soul goes through different lifetimes to the evolve or like unwrap itself again to its true essence and finally by living in certain in a certain lifestyle attain moksha or liberation enlightenment however you want to call it say that said I say that everybody is born a Hindu in a sense of who are we truly?
Speaker: We are all spirit soul. Yeah. Then however you want to call it. that That spirit soul is part of a whole organism and that we are here to realize our true essence and our union with everything.
Speaker: That is what essentially is in Sanat and Dharma the idea. Yeah. The way you get to it, the techniques, the culture, etc. might differ. And there's so many.
Speaker: But that as an original ah idea fits to every human being. And you don't need really to to do anything to be that. Because you are. You are spirit soul. yeah it's but And that's it. like You believe it, you don't believe it doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything.
Speaker: The truth is the truth. Yeah. So the Vedas say, a kamat virahu abaanti means so much as the truth, the absolute truth is one and the wise speak of it in so many ways.
Speaker: So on this problem of religions, for example, there's my my teacher, that's beautiful story of four blind people who meet an elephant.
Speaker: Yeah. So the first one goes on his tail, touches his tail and says, oh, this is like a big brush. The second one goes to his legs and says, no, this is like a pillar. The third one goes to his body, touches body, says, this is a big stone.
Speaker: And the fourth one goes to his trunk and says, no, this is like a horse. Now they start to fight who is right. But they all perceive just a part from the elephant. Nobody sees the elephant.
Speaker: And in Sanat and Dharma slash Hinduism, they say God is like that. He is beyond our perception. He is the sum total of everything. And therefore, don't judge, don't like respect each another. And yeah, there's different approaches, different perceptions, but is beyond all of it. That story is an incredible story because I do believe that is life.
Speaker: And whatever you believe is true. Right. And everybody truth is at the level of their perception, experience, trauma, how they came into the world. And yeah I believe God is omnipresent. He is. it It is everything and everywhere and all the time.
Speaker: It all depends on if you hold on the trunk, the leg, the stone or the hose, right? Exactly. It's all about where you are. And I think that's the beautiful part that I love about life is that even though it's complex, we're all one in the same.
Speaker: We're all here trying to figure out our path to get where we want to go for our highest good or some of us for our worst, but to come us back into alignment. Yeah. And I know in your world, there is a lot of space where there's peacefulness, silence, meditation, prayer.
Speaker: But I really want to know what is the practical action items? Because, you know, you have it on your YouTube, which is a beautiful video. I think it's like one minute and 17 seconds or 22 seconds. And it goes, the answer is within.
Speaker: we're all I mean, look, I've read so many books. I went on so many retreats, seminars, you know plant medicine, deep breath work, you name it. And then when I think about life, everything comes from the inside.
Speaker: you know Our body holds an intelligence. The body keeps the score. So how do we as a collective or as an individual watching and listening, someone who's out there going through a rough time, a challenging, how do I find the answer that I'm looking for within? What is the process of that?
Speaker: The most simplest way is the chanting of mantras. The chanting of mantra is something which anybody can do, which is so basically mantra is a word vibration.
Speaker: As you said before, everything is energy. Energy can't be... destroyed or created, it can only be transformed. The ancient sages have, through transcendental stages of consciousness, received those mantras and have given it to what mantra itself means, that which protects you from your mind, where all those problems mainly arise, right?
Speaker: And which opens your heart. So it calms the mind, it opens the heart. So by chanting a mantra, by chanting, which is often the name of God, um it this a short prayer, like Michael, will we do one right now, just in case it's true. Yeah, sure.
Speaker: I'll listen if anybody wants to. why My spiritual master is given has received, just during COVID time, he had a divine vision and he received the mantra, I know it's a bit difficult for the beginning, but you can put it in description.
Speaker: save it da la getri dari but bra money nama
Speaker: Wow, that was good. yeah and see i know it's it's not the easiest one. No, but it's the thing. so just Yeah, it's beautiful. I can also, on on online there is where my but my master is chanting it, so you can just have it run in the background or it's even mixed with music sometimes.
Speaker: ah It's a vibration which will help you obviously to... connect deeper and it's it's ah it's a general practice which everybody can do at any time there's no contraindication there's no overdose you can take the more you do the better the better it is and it's for free Yeah, and I think what's needed in the world, but more importantly, you see how you helped me say the words?
Speaker: Yes. Even you helped me because you made me feel safe. So when people get into spirituality, you see how I was struggling when I'm doing it by myself? It feels uncomfortable for most people, you know?
Speaker: And so they don't have a space. and Maybe they do in their church or their religion or their beliefs. They don't have enough safety safety in their nervous system to continue it over time when it becomes an embodiment of their life.
Speaker: Exactly. So what I provide with the podcast, the life I get to live and the privileges I have, I want to provide tools and insights that people can use that are so simple and relatable that they can do this at home.
Speaker: yeah so When they're feeling off, they're feeling lost, there's no one to talk to, they're afraid to be vulnerable and be honest about where they are, they can come to your YouTube, they can come to this podcast. But they have these little tools to kind of drop them into that deeper depth of ah of their souls to connect to their heart.
Speaker: and say, I'm okay, I'm well, I'm safe, I'm love, I am free. And i but that's what most people want. It's not even about money or fame. People want to be felt, they want to be heard, they want to be seen.
Speaker: But if they don't feel safe to be that, they don't know where to go. If you're not in touch with yourself, all you have to say, that the money, the fame, all of those things, that's the wrong idea of...
Speaker: where we find happiness happiness is not found in those places they might support it they might be nice but if you like i have met filthy rich people and they were depressed like it's not mine and we know that material wealth is not what makes you happy it can support but yeah if you don't have inner peace if you don't have a certain well-being within then there's you have nothing basically so as you said you you mentioned um All those auto-suggestions, the self-talk, I'm safe, I'm healthy, I'm loved, all those things, they are obviously ah um other form of mantra, ah which which people should... What is your self-talk? You see, in in the whole yoga science...
Speaker: I think when somebody who is listening to this is not well, it is we get caught up by our drama. and But a part of of the whole spiritual path is become more and more a witness, become an observer, see...
Speaker: like take distance from yourself. Like when you see somebody being in a drama, you can see that it's maybe auto-imposed. But when you're self in the drama, then you're just consumed by it. And the more you consume, the more the world looks like as if it's are the apocalypse but it's not the apocalypse like that there's always both sides and every my teacher always says in every bad thing in every bad situation there's something good and everything good there's something bad it is really where you put your focus on and that is
Speaker: something to practice, it becomes a habit. Where do I put my focus on? So what you said, this self-talk, positive self-talk, gratitude, practicing gratitude as a basic thing, like wake up in the morning.
Speaker: And even if you don't feel it, thank you for being alive. You have to start to love and accept yourself the way you are. Dive deeper. And that just starts with positive thinking about yourself, loving yourself.
Speaker: and And that all yeah starts up here. It's a discipline. And it's so beautiful, the story you told. You said something prior to telling the story about Andrew, which I love. I'm going to use that.
Speaker: Because I do forgive the sex needs. Eric, I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. If I'm feeling like overwhelmed or I feel like I made a mistake, I'll say that over time. I feel lighter in my body. You said something about spirituality and you said spirituality is more of being a witness, being aware of what's the awareness that you're in within yourself.
Speaker: And recently for the last eight days, I've been getting up at 4 a.m. And I usually get up at 5. I'm up early. I'm praying. I'm meditating. I'm doing the things before my my first climb might be 6 or 7.
Speaker: But it's something about 4 a.m. for my spirit. where I'm able to drop deeper into my body to get more spiritually grounded, to be more aware. So when I go out in the world, I can see the peace and the chaos of everybody moving, trying to get over, people in the home, everyone's in the rough.
Speaker: And I'm just like, it's all right. Okay. And I have an ascended master, you know, she likes to say, ah if you can live your life like a ceremony, like sacred, like every moment before you get on a podcast, just say thank you.
Speaker: Be thankful for this opportunity to speak to a great person like you. Be thankful that you woke up and you can use the bathroom. You can work out. Be thankful that you can speak. You can hear. You can smell. You can listen. All these things.
Speaker: that we overlook because we're looking at the wrong things because the world has us focused on the external environment so much that we forget the inner being, the inner wealth, the inner thing.
Speaker: And this is why I love spirituality and I love people like you because you are bringing awareness to the thing that's not so common for the average person. You know, we go to church.
Speaker: You know, some of us might go and pray at the temple and things, but I want to make spirituality in this new age, this new earth, so common like brushing your teeth. Or taking a shower, like...
Speaker: I say a quick prayer. I do a meditation. I walk with intentions. I feel the universe. I feel the nature. And that takes me 20 minutes a day. But it's part of my everyday life. It's not something like, oh, got to pray again.
Speaker: got to. It's like, no, this is amplifying my presence. This is amplifying my voice, my choice, my investment of energy. And I get to use this energy to change someone else just because I exist.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. What is the routine of getting people to drop into their authentic truth without having so much resistance in their body? As practices, we have different practices. On the yogic part, there is Atma Kriya Yoga, which is a form of yoga. Kriya Yoga is ah is a very powerful meditation practice ah given by Mahavatar Babaji, the teacher of our teacher and yeah my teacher.
Speaker: Yeah. And obviously, like I just said, the mantra, the chanting of the repetition of the mantra is something which is the baseline, which should be pervading everything because there's positive thinking, which will bring positivity into your life. Divine thinking will bring divinity in your life, right? That is on the on the practical part. Then there's obviously having the right knowledge, like... um studying and scriptures and and the divine knowledge, which is revealed knowledge, etc., and service. like
Speaker: yeah Service is an expression of love. So ah when you love somebody, when you love somebody, or if you have a child or if you're in love with somebody, if you bring out your beloved for rendezvous and you cook for her for him,
Speaker: What do you cook? You cook your favorite meal or their favorite meal? Obviously theirs, right? yeah and Because even if you don't like it, just their joy is going to make you happy.
Speaker: it's It's fulfilling to to make somebody else happy. And service is an expression of love. And therefore, if we are stuck in our ego, if we are stuck in our problems, it's it's just another form of...
Speaker: egoism Yeah, like arrogance and victimism. They're just two signs of the same coin. Yeah. Because everything, when I'm arrogant, then everything turns around me and I think I'm the greatest.
Speaker: When I'm a victim, then also everything turns around me. Then it's just poor me all the time. It's just egoism with a different approach.
Speaker: So thinking positive, doing the japan, there is meditation, there is obviously association. Like I said, if you can be in good environment, if you can choose it, then go for that knowledge and service.
Speaker: that that is It's very simple. It's basically very, very simple. Keep your mind focused on those things. That is the main thing. Like if God is number one, and say now the word God, love, however you want to take it. If you have a higher spiritual thing, if that becomes number one, everything in your life will increase in value.
Speaker: Yes. If you have good health, health is like a zero. One in zero makes ten. If you have a beautiful food partner, it's another zero. One zero zero makes hundred. If I was nice car, it's thousand.
Speaker: Nice house. Like enjoy everything. Everything increases in value. But only if you have the principle clear, what is life about? Where do i have to look? What is the main thing? You say i invest 20 minutes in it, but those 20 minutes, they make the number one to increase the value from anything else.
Speaker: You remove that number one in front, you can add infinite zeros. Infinite zeros is still zero. It doesn't have any value. And it's so true because that's what I experienced this past weekend because I get to host and warm up the crowd for suicide prevention, Dee Dee Hirsch.
Speaker: I woke up at 4, you know, i had to host with my co-host Sarah Gilman. But that day, Swami, that day. It was like magic. Like I just had a great and I've always had a great time when I go there, but it was different.
Speaker: It was like I was more dropped into my body. I was more in my grounded in my body and it like everything else amplified because I took that morning at 415, 430 to 530 to really get into the presence of my spiritual self.
Speaker: to be in spirit, to be inspired. When I got on stage, to amplify the own audience, to give them the affirmations, to make them feel safe, to make them feel well in love.
Speaker: And we use that energy to walk and run in the remembrance of those we lost. So with that, I know, because I used to question a lot of the spiritual stuff i already knew because I didn't have experience in it.
Speaker: But I had deep knowledge that wasn't lived. It just was like ingrained in my soul. Like I came here with this in my vessel and the more I open, it it opens up to me. I'm like, oh, I need to do this. Like spiritual fitness.
Speaker: It came to me when I was in chaos. Yeah. But now it's giving me peace in the world. So when you think of spiritual fitness, what does that mean to you when you think about it?
Speaker: Spiritual fitness, but and what comes immediately is like something which needs care. You need to care for it. Like if you want to be fit physically, yeah it's not something which just happens by itself.
Speaker: If people do work out, there is a certain element of a word which people normally don't like too much, discipline. There needs to be a certain discipline, a certain...
Speaker: I take ah certain time, I do the effort, i even there's small sacrifice or a small suffering maybe if you want to build muscles there if you run, there's there's this moment when you're tired, but you keep on going, that's where you build up fitness.
Speaker: ah Similarly, on the spiritual part, if you want spiritual fitness it's similar you have to practice it's not that it's gonna happen in one day you lift one weight and then you go in front from the mirror you're like rat like no but be aware that it does work it is a proven science which from the ages has been spoken about.
Speaker: ah We overestimate what we can do in one day and we underestimate what will happen with small efforts over a long time period. And that is what i see spiritual fitness is. Just starting somewhere, putting the excuses aside and just start somewhere.
Speaker: Become spiritual. I think before when you spoke, a basic problem or basic issue of everything what you mentioned is this constant comparison what we have in the world.
Speaker: Comparison and thinking we need to be or to have X to be better, to be more important, whatever. comparison is a poison the only comparison which you should have the only competition you should have is with yourself from yesterday am i a better version today than i was yesterday that's the only one every day step by step and be grateful because like my guru always says you only know what you have once you lose it
Speaker: Guru, shout out to the Guru. We have so many blessings. We have so much. I remember so much time back. I had a friend. He was badly drunk and he jumped from a table and he broke both his hips.
Speaker: He was in the hospital for over months every day. the The nurse had to bring him to the toilet, etc. One day I walked into the into his room and he was like beaming, so happily beaming. And I said, what happened to you? And said, today after month, I went alone to toilet.
Speaker: And I looked at him and said, like, you are so happy because you went alone to toilet. I went already three times today. I didn't have one such a smile because I went to toilet because I just take it for granted. Right? Yes. Yes.
Speaker: right yes So be happy about what you have. Work spiritual fitness. Work on yourself. Absolutely. Step by step.
Speaker: And... Keep good company and just trust in yourself, trust in life, trust that you're not alone, trust that you are guided. And um there's a whole world to discover and everything is part of it. But the good news is we all sooner or later get there.
Speaker: That's the way we don't get there. If you're interested in this path, you're all absolutely interested. with all my heart you're most welcome i would recommend you meet my spiritual master here we come also next year to the united states again Because for me, he was just, he is the source of all that what I have yeah experienced and and keep experiencing. So he is that love incarnated, I would say almost, and and just gives, gives, gives. And I see how much he helps people.
Speaker: So if you have a chance to meet a living master, please do so. And yeah, if you want to reach out, be my guest. I'm more than happy to support you wherever I can.
Speaker: Thank you, Swami. Thank you for your time, your energy, your essence. And then one day you will be a living master and people can meet you, you know? So thank you for your work and all your sacrifice and offerings you give to the world and and universe to this podcast you gave your energy today.
Speaker: And if there's anything I can do for you Just let me know I'm here as a friend, as a spiritual brother. I'm really thankful and I'm grateful for who you are. But people, download the podcast, subscribe to YouTube, follow him on all his channels. Everything will be in the show notes.
Speaker: This was another incredible spiritual fitness podcast. and Until we meet again, people will be great. Remember to pray, take care yourself, love yourself, and just be in good energy, as Swami would say.
Speaker: So it is. Thank you. Thank you very much, Harry. Yes, sir.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us on the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you and provided valuable insights for your holistic health journey. By blended spirituality and physical wellness, you can strengthen your body, mind, and soul.
Speaker: If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired, and remember, it's miracle season.
