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In his successor, Paramahamsa Niranjanananda, I don't think we can find a better organizer, a more efficient leader of the mission. So, I wish Paramahamsa Niranjanananda and his great institution, in its three aspects of Bihar School of Yoga, Yoga Research Foundation and Sivananda Math, all glory, all success in the decades to come, all through the ages.
Now, I want to share with you a personal feeling. In my childhood I knew a different kind of India, there was definitely more discipline, relatively speaking, more honesty. However, every time I have come back to India over the past 33 years, I find more and more indiscipline, and less and less honesty, responsibility, and cleanliness. Yoga has a great deal to teach in this regard and this should be the primary mission of this institution. Through courses in the Bihar School of Yoga, and through volunteers moving out all over India, it will be possible to teach the people how to live a life which is more hygienic, more responsible and which is filled with a greater sense of duty.
The soul of religion is ethics, although religion is understood to be an emotional thing. Of course, it is a question of faith, but faith is not something which is blind. Faith means commitment, dedication, and spiritual aspiration. If there is no dedication, no commitment to the practice of spiritual ideals, it is merely emotionalism which you cannot call real faith or real belief.
The basis of yoga is Yogah aachaarasukaushalam, which means the highest sense of duty. The real meaning of dharma is not rituals. Rituals are necessary as they form a cohesive bond for society, for the sake of group identity, but that is not necessarily religion. Religion is dharma and dharma is integrity, righteousness and duty. These are the three meanings of dharma. The word dharma comes from the root dri, which means 'to hold'; it is understood as the foundation on which everything is built. This is the meaning of dharma as it is explained in the Bhagavad Gita. The highest sense of duty is religion. If you do not have a very high sense of duty, you may do all kinds of rituals and sing all kinds of kirtans, but these won't help if they are merely a mechanical form of devotion or emotionalism. So the highest form of religion is integrity and
duty.
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