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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome back to our Purpose, the number one

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Speaker 1: health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every

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Speaker 1: one of you that come back every week to listen,

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Speaker 1: learn and grow. Now. I know that a lot of

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Speaker 1: you love and respect deep at Chopra, and this conversation

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Speaker 1: that you're about to hear is one of the first

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Speaker 1: ones I ever had with him. He's always been someone

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Speaker 1: that I think has presented wisdom in a really fascinating

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Speaker 1: and interesting way, and the questions he asked me in

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Speaker 1: this conversation are truly unique. I think you're going to

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Speaker 1: hear a lot of new perspectives and ideas from me,

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Speaker 1: and I am so grateful that you made time to

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Speaker 1: listen to this episode. So thank you for being here.

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Speaker 1: And I hope you've been loving it. I mean, we

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Speaker 1: have been spoiled in the past few weeks, everyone from

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Speaker 1: doctor Gabel Mattey to doctor Daniel aman Selena Gomez, Kendall Jenner,

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Speaker 1: Alex Cooper. I hope you've gone back and listen to

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Speaker 1: those episodes. If you haven't, do that right after this one.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about your background growing up. Absolutely. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So I was born and raised in London as a

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Speaker 1: normal Indian kid, the highest values of success were work

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Speaker 1: hard at school, get good grades. Life is all about performance.

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Speaker 1: My parents were wonderful, very supportive, and more liberal than

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of Indian parents, but still it

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Speaker 1: was always about how well you did at school. And

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Speaker 1: that kind of lasted for me until I was fourteen

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Speaker 1: when I started to rebel. And I think I started

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Speaker 1: to rebel because I saw that despite myself doing well

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Speaker 1: at school, I was still bullied for being overweight and

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Speaker 1: obese at the time. I was still a victim of

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Speaker 1: racism at the time in the area I grew up

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Speaker 1: in London, but a lot of that was I was

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Speaker 1: still experiencing these things and I was thinking, well, getting

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Speaker 1: good grades in school obviously is not solving life for me.

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Speaker 1: And that took me to the other extreme of rebelling.

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Speaker 1: So I got involved in petty violence crime. I got

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Speaker 1: involved with experimenting with drugs. I just started going totally

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Speaker 1: the opposite way, just as a desire to experiment and

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Speaker 1: test because I wasn't feeling satisfied and happy with the

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Speaker 1: life that had been paved for me. Well, that's very interesting.

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Speaker 1: I never knew that part of your Yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: completely went off the rails, and that was my way

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Speaker 1: of trying to look for something more meaningful. I was

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Speaker 1: always seeking a thrill in life. I wanted to feel

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Speaker 1: deeply passionate about something. And you know, one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite thoughts is for Martin Luther King, where he said

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Speaker 1: that if you have nothing to die for, then you

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Speaker 1: have nothing to live for. And for me, I was

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Speaker 1: looking for that, but I was looking for it in

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Speaker 1: all the wrong places. Tell me about that period with

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Speaker 1: the drugs and the violence and all that. You know,

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Speaker 1: at the time, it was that tough ego facade that

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Speaker 1: I had, so I would portray myself as being very tough.

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Speaker 1: I was doing all these things, and I would have

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Speaker 1: this ego, but inside I was actually really scared. I

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Speaker 1: was actually really insecure. I was worried sometimes about going

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Speaker 1: to parties or events because of who I'd run into

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Speaker 1: any time I was experimenting with anything. I wasn't actually

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Speaker 1: as confident as I'd make out to be. But I

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Speaker 1: remember at that time, you would just put on this

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Speaker 1: face to appear as if you had it all going right.

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Speaker 1: How many years did that phase last. I'd say lasted

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Speaker 1: for four years, from fourteen to eighteen. Then what happened. Well,

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Speaker 1: what happened was that when I was around sixteen, I

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Speaker 1: lost two of my best friends. So one of them

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Speaker 1: died due to gang violence and one of them died

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Speaker 1: in a car accident. Like I look back, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, you know, all of us that were involved

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Speaker 1: in all these things, we could all go back home

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Speaker 1: and our mums would cook us dinner. Right. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: like we actually had to be part of gangs. It

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Speaker 1: just became a part of culture, which I think is

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Speaker 1: very interesting. So for me, that was one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest challenges. And when I lost two of my friends,

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Speaker 1: that made one as a result of correct correct because

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Speaker 1: of life crime, and one because of a car accident.

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Speaker 1: And when I lost both of them, that really made

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Speaker 1: me reflect because to me, they were good people. They

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Speaker 1: were people who were very kind and loving, and I

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Speaker 1: lost both of them at an early age, and that

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Speaker 1: really made me start to question what's life all about?

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Speaker 1: Because if these are good people, they're beautiful people, and

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Speaker 1: I've lost them, I'm spending my life in this field

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Speaker 1: which doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere. And that

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Speaker 1: really made me start to pause and reflect on how

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Speaker 1: I was using my time because all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: time became very valuable. I started to recognize how little

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Speaker 1: time we could have if it was used unwisely. So

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Speaker 1: would happened after that? So at that time, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're a curious sixteen year old, And maybe people who

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Speaker 1: are listening right now can feel like a curious twenty

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Speaker 1: six year old or thirty six year old. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: matter what age you are. For me, I was a

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Speaker 1: curious sixteen year old, but I was still doing everything

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Speaker 1: every sixteen year old. Does you know you just carry on?

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Speaker 1: You think deeply, but you act UNDEPLI that yeah, exactly right,

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Speaker 1: like you? You think deeply, And I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of us have this challenge today where we our mind

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Speaker 1: wants to think higher, but we're still acting on our

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Speaker 1: lower nature, and so we see that contradiction. So I

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Speaker 1: was a walking, talking contradiction. I would think deeply, think highly,

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Speaker 1: but live lowly and be completely a servant to my

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Speaker 1: mind and my lower nature. And then I met a

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Speaker 1: monk when I was eighteen. So every week I would

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Speaker 1: be at university and we would have different speakers, influencers, celebrities, authors,

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Speaker 1: CEOs come and speak, and I didn't want to go

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Speaker 1: because I was just like, what am I going to

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Speaker 1: learn from a monk? You know, what does a monk

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Speaker 1: even have? And so I literally said to my friends,

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Speaker 1: who are getting into spirituality at that time, who told

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Speaker 1: me to come, they said, no, you have to come,

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Speaker 1: and I said, okay, I'm only coming if we go

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Speaker 1: to a bar. And that was literally my land. I

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm only coming if we go to a

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Speaker 1: bar afterwards, and that's how that's how degraded I was.

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Speaker 1: And they were like, okay, great, so they confirmed, and

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Speaker 1: so I went and I went in there with zero expectations,

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Speaker 1: and I was completely mesmerized. I'd never heard someone who

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Speaker 1: spoke with such eloquence, who spoke with such grace, who

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Speaker 1: really had an aura of contentment around them. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you have this too. The first time I met you,

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Speaker 1: you have that too, And I think when you meet

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Speaker 1: someone like that, For me, it was really interesting because

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Speaker 1: at that time, I'd met people who were rich, I'd

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Speaker 1: met people who are famous, I'd met people who were

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Speaker 1: stunningly attractive, But I don't think i'd ever met anyone

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Speaker 1: who was satisfied or content or happy or at equanimity exactly.

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Speaker 1: I don't think i'd met someone yet at eighteen who

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Speaker 1: had that Which tradition was you from? So he's from

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Speaker 1: the Vedic tradition. Yeah, from the Vedic tradition, the Vedic

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Speaker 1: Hindu tradition. And for me, it was just you know

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Speaker 1: when you meet someone and you just inspired them and

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Speaker 1: you want to learn everything about them. So I just

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Speaker 1: went up to him and I said, look, I love

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Speaker 1: what you stand for. And he was standing for service,

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Speaker 1: he was standing for helping humanity. And I said, I

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Speaker 1: want to have more of you in my life. I

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Speaker 1: just feel like I want to experience more of this.

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Speaker 1: And so he said to me, you now need to

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Speaker 1: spend your summer holidays or summer vacations as you say here.

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Speaker 1: He said, you need to spend all of them with

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Speaker 1: me in India. And so I started spending every one

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Speaker 1: of my summer holidays vacations in India before that. Did

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Speaker 1: you go to the bar that night? Did we did?

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Speaker 1: We did go to the bar that night? Yes? No, no,

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Speaker 1: no, no no, the monkey doesn't drink. We did go to

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Speaker 1: the bar that night. I stack to my promises. I'm

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Speaker 1: very committed. I spent the whole night thinking about what

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Speaker 1: I'd just heard and the biggest thing that stayed with

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Speaker 1: me was he spoke about sacrifice, like giving up your

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Speaker 1: own needs to serve others and going out of your

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Speaker 1: way to make a difference in the life of others,

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Speaker 1: and that really resonated with me at eighteen. It almost

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Speaker 1: gave me that thing to die for that made me

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Speaker 1: want to live. So then you did actually have a

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Speaker 1: stint as a monkey yourself. So every summer holidays, I

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Speaker 1: spent half of my summer living with him as a monk,

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Speaker 1: as a trainee monk, just visiting, and then I spent

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Speaker 1: the other half of that summer working internships in the

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Speaker 1: city of London. So I would literally go from steakhouses, bars,

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Speaker 1: cars and the world of finance in London in the

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Speaker 1: City of London to then going off and trying to

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Speaker 1: emulate the life of a monk. And then when I

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Speaker 1: graduated twenty two, I went and lived as an official

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Speaker 1: monk for three years. So there was a lot, there

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Speaker 1: were a lot of month breaks every year, and during

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Speaker 1: that time I was just going back and forth. So

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Speaker 1: I meet a lot of people today, and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you do in your whole fast few decades that you've

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Speaker 1: been serving people through your knowledge I'm sure you've met

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Speaker 1: so many people who say, you know, I'm stuck between

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Speaker 1: the two worlds, and I'm kind of I can't shake

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Speaker 1: it off. I've done that. I literally did that for

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Speaker 1: four years where I lived two polar opposite worlds in

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Speaker 1: one sense. The phrase to be in the world and

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Speaker 1: not of it exactly exactly, and I didn't know that then.

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Speaker 1: I was still learning that. And so when then when

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Speaker 1: I got to go and live as a monk for

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Speaker 1: three years, that really gave me that experience. So what

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Speaker 1: did you oh so much? One of the best things

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Speaker 1: I learned, which I think is just really practical, is discipline.

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Speaker 1: And I think discipline is so I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on this, but I think discipline is so

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Speaker 1: underestimated today. I think we talk a lot about creativity

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Speaker 1: and spontaneity, and I love all that. I'm very creative,

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Speaker 1: I'm very spontaneous. But I think discipline is just so underestimated.

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Speaker 1: I think anyone in any field, in any practice, whether

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Speaker 1: it's finance or business or singing or art, discipline is

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Speaker 1: such a key trait. So the discipline to wake up

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Speaker 1: at the same time every day, at four am, every

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Speaker 1: single day, the discipline to sit and meditate for multiple

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Speaker 1: hours a day, the discipline to do something even when

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Speaker 1: you don't feel the benefit, the discipline to do something

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Speaker 1: even when you don't have taste for it yet, but

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Speaker 1: to recognize that with patience and practice, that taste will come,

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Speaker 1: and that meaning and fulfillment will come. That discipline is

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Speaker 1: just so powerful, And disciplines is a hard thing to

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Speaker 1: talk about because it's not attractive or sexy, So you

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Speaker 1: tell someone to do something with discipline, they'll just be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that doesn't sound inspirational. But it's like, that's such a

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Speaker 1: core part of life transformation in my opinion anyways, discipline.

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Speaker 1: So I learned discipline. I didn't wake up discipline. I

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Speaker 1: used to always try get off school if I could,

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Speaker 1: and all the rest of it. So to be able

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Speaker 1: to take that on at twenty two in my life,

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Speaker 1: to really value discipline and to break the mental limits

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Speaker 1: of what I believe discipline was. I never believed I

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Speaker 1: could wake up at four am. But then when you

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Speaker 1: have people who are doing it around you, when you

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Speaker 1: build up a practice, everything becomes possible, which is which

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Speaker 1: is quite fascinating. When you start breaking your limits. Now

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Speaker 1: as you start to reflect. When people go into meditation,

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Speaker 1: and if they're honest with themselves, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: inner demons that wake up too. The shadows accompany the

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Speaker 1: light that comes. Yes. I made a video called why

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Speaker 1: Meditation made Me a Bad Person, and it was exactly

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Speaker 1: a line with this, So I talk about how you

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Speaker 1: know when you see people meditate today, it's like everyone

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Speaker 1: looks really serene and tranquil and wearing yoga pants and

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Speaker 1: these beautiful sunsets, and it's like, well, when you start meditating,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like that for me. A beautiful analogy that's

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Speaker 1: given in the very literatures is of cleansing a mirror

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Speaker 1: of the mind. So a mirror that's not been cleansed,

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Speaker 1: or an attic or a loft that's not been cleansed

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Speaker 1: for years and decades and lifetimes is covered in dust.

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Speaker 1: So when one first starts to clean it through the

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Speaker 1: mechanism of meditation, the first thing that happens is the

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Speaker 1: dust comes in your face, and that dust is those

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Speaker 1: inner demons. Your ego. You start noticing it more. Your pride,

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Speaker 1: you start noticing it more. You're lost, your anger, you're greed,

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Speaker 1: you're envy, all of these demons. You start to notice them,

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Speaker 1: all the things you don't want other people to find

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Speaker 1: out exactly, all the things that have just been sitting

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Speaker 1: there and you haven't focused on and you don't want

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Speaker 1: people to know you have them exactly, and you start

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Speaker 1: seeing them more so. First, when I started meditating, I

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Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I'm such a bad person.

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Speaker 1: And really, the way I broke through that was recognizing

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Speaker 1: that again, I am not those things. They are not me.

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Speaker 1: I am not envious. I'm pure consciousness. Envyous something that

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Speaker 1: I've taken on as a garment that needs to be

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Speaker 1: taken off. A lot of people say, I don't have

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Speaker 1: time to meditate, to have all this work to do.

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Speaker 1: I have to take care of the kids, my job,

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Speaker 1: I have all this stress. Aren't those the people who

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Speaker 1: need it most? Yeah, we all need it most. I

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Speaker 1: feel like we'll excuses are always going to be there.

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Speaker 1: This is why I say to people that I think

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Speaker 1: it's good that we start five minutes a day, ten

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Speaker 1: minutes a day, But if you can take a day,

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Speaker 1: take half a day, whatever's practical for you. If you

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Speaker 1: can take a week or a weekend, go on a

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Speaker 1: retreat and have a real deep experience of how powerful

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Speaker 1: meditation can be. When you have a deeply profound experience,

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Speaker 1: you want to do five minutes every day even if

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Speaker 1: you don't have time. Right, we all make time for

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Speaker 1: the things that we're in love with or that we

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Speaker 1: really really need in our lives, and we also forget

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Speaker 1: that it's the pause that helps everything else. And I

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Speaker 1: think we think, and I know, you've got your daily

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Speaker 1: every day, which I think is so beautiful, and it's

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Speaker 1: like we forget that, Wait a minute, if you don't

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Speaker 1: breathe properly, none of this is going to last for

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Speaker 1: very long. Then you left after three years? Yes, what

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Speaker 1: was going on in your mind? Yeah, so this one's

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Speaker 1: easier to answer. In hindsight, it wasn't as easier to

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Speaker 1: answer then At that time I was conflicted. The first

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Speaker 1: thing meditation does is that it gives you a really

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Speaker 1: raw mirror reflection of who you are to yourself. And

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Speaker 1: for me, at least for my psychophysical nature, my meditation

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Speaker 1: was giving me the self awareness that I wasn't a monk,

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Speaker 1: that I enjoyed rebellion. I enjoyed my independence, and monk

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Speaker 1: life isn't about rebellion and independence. In one sense, it's

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Speaker 1: it's a lot about surrender exactly. One of my teachers

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Speaker 1: said to me. He said that he felt it was

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Speaker 1: my time to leave so that I could share what

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Speaker 1: I'd learned. And when I actually left at that time,

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Speaker 1: it was really heartbreaking because I was still conflicted whether

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Speaker 1: I was doing the right thing or not. So I

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Speaker 1: always describe it was like a divorce. I really felt

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Speaker 1: like I got divorced from the love of my life

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Speaker 1: after three years, because I'd given up my corporate jobs,

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Speaker 1: I'd given up a girlfriend I was dating, I'd given

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Speaker 1: up my family, I'd given up everything to make this step,

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Speaker 1: and now I was going back into a world that

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Speaker 1: now was judging me as well, because when I left,

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Speaker 1: my extended Indian family was like, You're really going to

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Speaker 1: become a monk after all that education, after working so hard,

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Speaker 1: all your family's doctors and lawyers where they relieved. When

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Speaker 1: I came back, they were like, you failed at being

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Speaker 1: a monk, like really like they were like they were

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Speaker 1: more mortified. They were just like what they sent you back,

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Speaker 1: it weren't good enough to be a monk. So it

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Speaker 1: was actually harder to come back to some time, did

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Speaker 1: you re enter into I re entered into moving back

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Speaker 1: in my parents physically and mentally feeling like, wow, this

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Speaker 1: is going to be really challenging because now I have

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Speaker 1: to think about normal stuff, like maybe I have to

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Speaker 1: think about a career, maybe I have to think about money,

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Speaker 1: maybe I have to think about paying rent, and then

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Speaker 1: all of these, you know, all of these thoughts start

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Speaker 1: bringing up. So I started every day. I would wake

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Speaker 1: up at the same time every day, and I would

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Speaker 1: meditate every day, and I was trying to stick to

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Speaker 1: as much as I could. And there were a few

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Speaker 1: months in between where I did the opposite. Like I

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Speaker 1: remember the day I left being among, the first thing

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Speaker 1: I did was buy lots of chocolate. The second thing

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Speaker 1: I did was go and catch up on every single

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Speaker 1: movie and TV show i'd missed out one. And so

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Speaker 1: I completely went the opposite way. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: very natural that when you've been in one extreme, you

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Speaker 1: can fall back into your old habits very quickly. And

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Speaker 1: I think some of us feel this after holidays or retreats,

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Speaker 1: or you go on a meditation retreat with deep back

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Speaker 1: and you go really deep for two days and three days,

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Speaker 1: and then you come back and then after a couple

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Speaker 1: of months then I started to kind of come back

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Speaker 1: in the middle. So, other than discipline, you learned, of course,

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Speaker 1: reflective self inquiry, right, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, the bigger questions

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Speaker 1: of existence one hundred percent. And this is what I

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Speaker 1: talk about that I think today we're we're so enamored

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Speaker 1: with circumstantial solutions, but what we're trying to do is

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Speaker 1: solve our existential challenges with circumstantial volutions. So my point being, existentially,

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Speaker 1: we don't feel connected to ourselves existentially, we don't feel

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Speaker 1: like we're serving. Existentially, we don't know our purpose, and

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Speaker 1: we try and solve that with the bottle of wine.

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Speaker 1: We try and solve that with a late night out

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Speaker 1: with friends, and again we feel that same thing every week.

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Speaker 1: So circumstantial solutions don't solve the existential problem. So for me,

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Speaker 1: this reflective self inquiry that you're speaking about was me

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Speaker 1: really asking myself, what is my life about? What is

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Speaker 1: the purpose of my life? What do I want to

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Speaker 1: do with this incredible time and human form that I've

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Speaker 1: been given, this unique blessing of being a human with

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Speaker 1: a human mind and human consciousness. It's such a gift

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Speaker 1: and such a blessing, how can I make the most

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Speaker 1: of it? And so I used to spend every day,

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Speaker 1: after meditating for two hours a day, I would go

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Speaker 1: and sit in a library and just read, and I

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Speaker 1: would read and study everything I could to try and

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Speaker 1: find more answers and the particularly the commonalities between what

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Speaker 1: I'd studied in Vedic texts and what I was seeing

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Speaker 1: in modern knowledge. Share some insights, yeah, absolutely, great question.

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Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest insights I saw was

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Speaker 1: that all ancient texts tell us that we're not the

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Speaker 1: mind and we're not the body, and all of our

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Speaker 1: problems come from our belief that we're the mind and

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Speaker 1: we're the body, which are transient, femoral, ungraspable movements and consciousness.

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Speaker 1: Exactly exactly what you explain, far more articulate and beautifully

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Speaker 1: than I ever will. So I'm going to leave that

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Speaker 1: to you. But that's the truth that we are completely

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Speaker 1: in the belief that we are this mind and body.

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Speaker 1: The mind and body are an experience. Exactly, you're the

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Speaker 1: one who's having the experience, right Exactly. We are simply witnessing,

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Speaker 1: we're observing, we're within that where the energy that sees

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Speaker 1: through the eyes through the years and functions through the

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Speaker 1: mind and body. And so for me, one of the

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Speaker 1: first things was, how can I remind myself of that

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis now that I'm in a world

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Speaker 1: where I'm back believing that I'm the mind and body.

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Speaker 1: When I was a monk, you forget you're the mind

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Speaker 1: and body. We didn't even look in the mirror to

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Speaker 1: leave for three years, because you're removing that aspect of yourself.

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Speaker 1: And so I started to put up like a small

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Speaker 1: sticky note next to where I brush my teeth every

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Speaker 1: morning saying, remember you're not your mind and not your body.

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Speaker 1: So every morning and I'd be brushing my teeth, I'd

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Speaker 1: look at that, and that would help me and remind

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Speaker 1: me that I wasn't. So how did that lead to

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Speaker 1: you know, pure now well known in the world as

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Speaker 1: an expert on success a purpose driven life. But tell

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Speaker 1: me a little bit about your initial kind of foray

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Speaker 1: into the world of business and the world of commerce

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Speaker 1: and the world that in a sense, everybody wants that right,

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Speaker 1: everybody wants success in one way or another. So one

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Speaker 1: of the first things that happened when I came back

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Speaker 1: is a lot of my friends now worked at large

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Speaker 1: corporate companies and they'd been working for a number of years,

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Speaker 1: three to five years, and they were all experiencing stress

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Speaker 1: and burnout. So they heard that I'd come back and

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Speaker 1: they reached out to me and said, Jay, you're a monk.

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Speaker 1: Right this is twenty thirteen. They were like, you're a

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Speaker 1: monk cri. I said yes, and they said, well, you

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Speaker 1: must have learned something about like mindfulness and meditation. These

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Speaker 1: words were just kind of coming up into the mainstream

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Speaker 1: world at that time. And I said, yeah, I learned

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Speaker 1: how to meditate, and I learned these principles of leadership

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Speaker 1: and these values and how to work from a deeper

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Speaker 1: place and intention setting. And they said, well, do you

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Speaker 1: mind coming in and speaking at our companies? And so

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Speaker 1: I started to get invited into corporates and a lot

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Speaker 1: of the executives then would ask me to coach them

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Speaker 1: one on one. So this was almost like a natural

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Speaker 1: default coaching world that was created in my life out

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Speaker 1: of demand rather than me. But the monk could actually

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Speaker 1: helped you exactly. I would not be where I'm at

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Speaker 1: today without living as a monk. And I laugh about

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Speaker 1: that now because so many people when I was about

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Speaker 1: to become a monk. Said yeah, you realize no one

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Speaker 1: will ever hire you ever again, who wants to have

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Speaker 1: a monk on their resume? Right? Like? What job do

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Speaker 1: you get with that? And so I was speaking at

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Speaker 1: these companies, I was coaching executives, I was working one

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Speaker 1: on one with incredible people in England mainly, and then

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Speaker 1: I went through again this reflective self inquiry. I said,

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Speaker 1: I'm serving a certain type of person right now. But

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Speaker 1: having lived in India and wanting to serve absolutely everyone,

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Speaker 1: and having lived in England and seeing that not everyone

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Speaker 1: has access to money, and not everyone has access to

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Speaker 1: invest and not everyone has access to coaches, I was like,

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Speaker 1: how do we scale this to every person in the world? Like,

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Speaker 1: how do we really touch every person who has a phone,

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Speaker 1: every child, every young person? How do you just spread

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Speaker 1: this everywhere? Right? Like how do we get it out

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Speaker 1: of the corporate boardrooms and beyond? And so one of

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Speaker 1: the reflections I had at that time was maybe this

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Speaker 1: is going to happen through video and content. And so

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Speaker 1: what I did was I had a video series idea

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Speaker 1: before I ever made a video, and I pitched it

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Speaker 1: to every single major media company in England and I

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Speaker 1: was rejected by forty media companies for my video idea

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Speaker 1: because I had no background in medio communications. And so

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Speaker 1: I went and chased some well known executives and directors

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Speaker 1: in the media space in London. One of them I

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Speaker 1: called up, who was a family friends family member, and

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Speaker 1: I said, hey, I would love to have a break

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Speaker 1: into the media. Here's my video idea. And he said

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Speaker 1: to me, said how old are you? I said twenty

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Speaker 1: eight and he said, you realize everyone who wants this

431
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 1: job is twenty one years old. And I said, yeah,

432
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: that's fine, I'll work as hard as them. And he said,

433
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: aren't you getting married this year? I said yeah, I'm

434
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 1: getting married this year. And he said, well, dude, you

435
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,680
Speaker 1: make more money right now. Don't worry about it, just

436
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:24,800
Speaker 1: you know, just forget about it. Just start a blog.

437
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,720
Speaker 1: And so then I chased another TV broadcaster, very well

438
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,640
Speaker 1: known in London. I chased him while he was riding

439
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 1: his bike around in London. I saw him, I literally

440
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:35,520
Speaker 1: chased after me. It was polite enough to stop and

441
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,679
Speaker 1: I said, hey, I want to come and shadow you.

442
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:39,480
Speaker 1: I want to learn from you. I worked for free.

443
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,000
Speaker 1: I don't want anything. I just need to learn how

444
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,159
Speaker 1: to make content that helps people. And he gave me

445
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: his card and he said, go and get a master's

446
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,680
Speaker 1: and come back in a year. And I thought, God,

447
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:50,200
Speaker 1: I I don't know if I can go and get

448
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: a master's. And then I applied to four masters programs

449
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 1: in London. I was rejected from all of them because

450
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:57,760
Speaker 1: I didn't have the background for it. And so then

451
00:21:57,800 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 1: I was really feeling like I was running out of ideas.

452
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:02,479
Speaker 1: And I had this video series idea for mindfulness and wellness,

453
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, how do I do this? And

454
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: so I ended up at an ethnic minority TV training

455
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 1: day run by the BBC. And I'm at this TV

456
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 1: training day. I walk in and everyone's brown in the

457
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 1: room and I'm like, oh, you're a brown unbrown, We're

458
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:15,800
Speaker 1: all brown. Like it's just like literally, it's just six

459
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:19,879
Speaker 1: ethnic minority yeah. Literally. And so then we're all trained

460
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: that day and they were like, Jay, you're great, you

461
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:25,560
Speaker 1: can present you you know, you understand how to how

462
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:27,880
Speaker 1: to work with etc. They were very encouraging. I said, Okay,

463
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: where's my job in the media, and they said, well,

464
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,200
Speaker 1: there are no jobs in the media, and so I said, okay,

465
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:33,480
Speaker 1: what do I do? And they said, we'll start a

466
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,120
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, And at that time I had the biggest

467
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 1: mentor block in my mind that you know, starting a

468
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 1: YouTube channel only works for Justin Bieber Right, It's like

469
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 1: a one in a million, one in a billion chance

470
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: that YouTube could do anything for you. One thing that

471
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 1: I love now is Thomas Edison said that when you

472
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: believe you've exhausted all options, remember this you haven't. And

473
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: that's really become a big montra in my life because

474
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: every time I've tried to take a traditional route to something,

475
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: it's never worked, and I've always exhausted all options. And

476
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: at that time, the only option I had left was

477
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 1: to start a channel. I started my own video channel,

478
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,199
Speaker 1: put up my first video, launched it and it did

479
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 1: about a thousand views in twenty four hours, which wasn't great,

480
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:19,800
Speaker 1: and it wasn't bad. It was okay. And then within

481
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:24,680
Speaker 1: three months someone showed my video to Arianna Huffington at Davos,

482
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,919
Speaker 1: and so I got a call from Arianna Huffington and

483
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: she said, I love your content. We'd love to test

484
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: it out on the Huffington Post channel. And so then

485
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,120
Speaker 1: they posted four of my videos which I made for them,

486
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:36,000
Speaker 1: produced in London. I sent to them, they posted in

487
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: the US and those four videos did one hundred million

488
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,840
Speaker 1: views in mid twenty sixteen. I didn't expect that they

489
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 1: were totally mind blown because they didn't expect that. And

490
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 1: then I moved to New York in twenty sixteen, which

491
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: is when we met, and I took a big risk

492
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen March where I left that role, which

493
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,679
Speaker 1: was an incredible company to be a part of. But

494
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,199
Speaker 1: I really felt that I had to grow what I

495
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:59,760
Speaker 1: believed in and spread it further. I started investing in

496
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,960
Speaker 1: my own video channel. I'm just blessed and very grateful

497
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,119
Speaker 1: to everyone who's ever watch, liked, or shared a video.

498
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: And my real focus with all of these videos is

499
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 1: how do we make wisdom go viral? How do we

500
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: take all of these knowledge and insights that have not

501
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: been consumed by a lot of people, and how do

502
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,440
Speaker 1: we spread them all over the world to give everyone access.

503
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: People listening to you right now probably be saying to themselves,

504
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,359
Speaker 1: how can I be like Jay? How can I be

505
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: like Jay Shtty? What advice would you give them? How

506
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,959
Speaker 1: would you define success and purpose and the connection between

507
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: those two. Sure so for me, Happiness and success are

508
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 1: two different things. Happiness is how you feel about yourself

509
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 1: when you're by yourself. That, to me is happiness is

510
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: how you understand yourself without a reflection or mirror of

511
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 1: how anyone is viewing you. To me, success is our

512
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: external achievements, whether that's monetary, whether it's awards, whether it's status.

513
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: Success doesn't make you happy and happiness doesn't guarantee success.

514
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: One is deeply internal and an inward journey, and one

515
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: is an outward journey. And I think commonly we confuse

516
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,879
Speaker 1: both of them as one of the others. So we

517
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:14,399
Speaker 1: think if we get an award, will be happy, and

518
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: everyone who's won an Oscar Award or an Emmy award

519
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 1: will tell you that doesn't work. Or we have the

520
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 1: other option where it's like, oh, yeah, if I become

521
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 1: really happy, then I'll naturally be successful and attract awards, money,

522
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 1: and well, then that's not true either. And so for me,

523
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: my monk life taught me how to be happy. It

524
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: gave me the deeper connection with myself. It helped me

525
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: declutter the noise. It helped me stop living with reference

526
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 1: to wanting to be anyone or anything apart from deeply

527
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,919
Speaker 1: being myself and deeply connected with my consciousness. So for me,

528
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: that gave me access to all happiness. What I had

529
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: to do was I to infuse that into my search

530
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,680
Speaker 1: for spreading this in a successful way. So my first

531
00:25:55,680 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: thing is refining intentions. I every day will refine my

532
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 1: intentions as if it's a seed that I'm planting every

533
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,280
Speaker 1: single day. And I feel that every day we are

534
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 1: challenged with working for lower intentions I money, fame, power,

535
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: and control, whereas to me, higher intentions are love, compassion, empathy, service, connection, community,

536
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 1: and unity. Those to me are higher powers to work for.

537
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 1: And so for me, every day I'm literally refining my intention,

538
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: taking out the weeds of desire for ego and pride

539
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: and fame and trying to replant the seeds of doing

540
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 1: this for love, compassion, and empathy. That to me is

541
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 1: the core of a happy life, first of all, because

542
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: without that, you end up building something that you may

543
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,880
Speaker 1: not even want to build, and you then look back

544
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 1: down from your tower and go, wow, I wasted a

545
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:51,640
Speaker 1: lot of time building a tower I didn't really want

546
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: to be on the top of. And so for me,

547
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: that's step one. The second step for me is recognize

548
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 1: that you have genius, you have unique potential. We're on

549
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,920
Speaker 1: infinite potential right now. You have unique potential inside of you,

550
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: and it's your role to uncover that. You don't need

551
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,120
Speaker 1: to be me, you don't need to be deep actor,

552
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 1: you don't need to be anywhere. You need to be you,

553
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: and you have that genius, then it's about strategy, and

554
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,879
Speaker 1: I do think strategy is important when you're building a business,

555
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,440
Speaker 1: when you're building an institution, when you're building a company,

556
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: and I think the most effective leaders. There's a beautiful

557
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: statement by Martin Luther King again where he said that

558
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,640
Speaker 1: those who love peace need to learn to organize themselves

559
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: as well as those who love war. And to me,

560
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: that's been such a driving force in my life that

561
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: if we truly love peace and love, we have to

562
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,199
Speaker 1: be really organized, we have to be really effective, we

563
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,959
Speaker 1: have to be productive because that's what people need. So

564
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 1: for me, becoming strategic about your endeavors is important if

565
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: you want success. Success won't come from just having good

566
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: intentions and being a nice person. You have to become

567
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: strategic and deeply focus on your strengths in that space

568
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,679
Speaker 1: so you know all the wisdom traditions tell us seek

569
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: the highest first, and everything else comes right. And in short,

570
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 1: the formulas pursue excellence, ignore success, and it comes. I

571
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,360
Speaker 1: couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. And I think

572
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 1: that's the problem that we get attached to the result,

573
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: not the process. So I love waking up every day

574
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: and making content, writing, making videos, speaking, being on a

575
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: podcast with you. I love this. I'm not looking towards

576
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,880
Speaker 1: an external form of success. I'm in love with the process,

577
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: in love with excellence. A little while ago, you use

578
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: the word self awareness. I think that's the best definition

579
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: of spirituality one can have. The self is what spirit is. Right,

580
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: But our world right now is sacrifice the self for

581
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: their selfies. Yes, which is again going back to the

582
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 1: wisdom traditions. You sacrifice your soul for your ego. Yes.

583
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 1: And that's the downfall, so well said, and that's the

584
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: biggest challenge today, that we are completely captive of our

585
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: mind and bodies rather than living beyond them. The mind

586
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: body is the selfie, correct, correct? Exactly, that's what a

587
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: selfie is, right, exactly, That's exactly it. You know, there's

588
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: again I'm going back to young people who are inspired

589
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: by you who are looking at their life ahead, give

590
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: them a few tips right now. Yeah. Absolutely. One of

591
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 1: the first things I'd say is genuinely take time to

592
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: be with people who are growing yourself, not your mind

593
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: and body, like be around those people, whether it's listening

594
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: to deep back, whether it's reading specific books, whether it's

595
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: going on retreats, whether it's have those experiences in your

596
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: life that they're helping you go beyond your mind and

597
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: body and right now. If that doesn't make sense, what

598
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: I mean by that is go to places where you

599
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: forget to think about how you look, who you are,

600
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: and what your status is like. That's a very practical

601
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: way of doing it. Go somewhere no one knows you,

602
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: Go somewhere where you get to explore yourself beyond the

603
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: self you think you are right now. When I started,

604
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:04,360
Speaker 1: I never thought this would happen. The strategy for social

605
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 1: media is deeply serving your audience. It still starts with service.

606
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: It's like, do you really understand people's needs, dreams and worries?

607
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,479
Speaker 1: Do you really understand what people are challenged by? And

608
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: do you really want to make a difference in their life?

609
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: If you do, your content will naturally get views and

610
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: likes and shares, And if you don't take the time

611
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 1: to care for your audience by understanding them, then your

612
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: content won't. So if you're just trying to get likes, views,

613
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: and shares, yes, you may get one viral video and

614
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: you may get one little hits and it may make

615
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: you feel better, but when you're taking time so I'm

616
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: deeply having conversations with the audience I create for. I

617
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,840
Speaker 1: spend so much time in personal meetings with people who

618
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: are aged between eighteen to thirty five because that's the

619
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 1: majority of my audience. Just talking to people to learn

620
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: about what their challenges are, what can be helped with them.

621
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 1: I've been coaching people for the last ten years of

622
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 1: my life younger than me and just observing their challenges

623
00:30:57,600 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: and helping them. When it made no money, when I

624
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: was a monk, I and told so many people when

625
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: it made no money and got no views. So I've

626
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: done this for the last thirteen years of my life,

627
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,240
Speaker 1: when it made zero money, when it had zero views

628
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: and had zero followers. If you don't know who you are,

629
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: you don't know the world. If you don't know yourself,

630
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 1: you can't actually relate to anybody else. Peace can only

631
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: be created by those who are peaceful, just like love

632
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 1: can only be shown by those who have experienced love.

633
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 1: So this is a very important work that you're doing,

634
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 1: and I must congratulate you for doing this at such

635
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 1: an early stage in your life and being such an

636
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 1: inspiration to so many millions of people, now billions, I

637
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,360
Speaker 1: would say, and I have to thank you for doing

638
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: this because you're really doing it so effectively,