It's that time of year when the children begin their exams, and the outcome depends on the child's ability to retain whatever they've studied. One simple technique of retaining what you study is called meditation. Through meditation you can retain everything you have studied and write your exams successfully. Meditation sounds like a very difficult process, and you're right, it is very difficult. But it is only difficult if you carry garbage in your mind: greed, lust, brutality and violence. Because we are so committed to the cellphone, our minds are only looking down, and not up. We're looking down at the cellphone for a message, whether we're driving, walking, in a meeting, or with friends. We always have the cellphone ready to reply, to answer. Yet, if you meditate there are greater messages. First of all, with meditation you can retain whatever you studied. All that we do in life is breathe – that's the only thing that keeps the body going. Pranayama is a technique of how to breathe, and if we breathe correctly, train our body to breathe correctly, then we will be able to retain whatever we study.
What does it mean to breathe correctly? You think you are living, so you must be breathing correctly. Prana is required to maintain the body. We should be taking fifteen breaths each minute, that is 900 breaths in an hour, 21600 in 24 hours. But we are not breathing like that because we have such an active life. We are racing our breath. For example, when you have an accident, you are in shock and breathing heavily, so you give wrong information to the policeman because you are not thinking properly. If you slow your breath, you'll think properly and speak sense. So breath is a very important. We are supposed to breathe 15 times a minute. If you breathe like that from the time you are born, you are guaranteed to live 100 years.
So, if you breathe properly then you can retain more information. This is very important. I don't understand why they don't teach yoga in schools. They should have it as a subject in school where they teach you how to do asanas, breathe, meditate and study. Yoga is the best technique to study. And yoga is very important in our lives. We don't know that, yet the westerners know that. You go to America – every third shop in San Francisco is a yoga studio. The whole of America is doing yoga. We are Indian. We don't do yoga. Do you know why? We think it's our birthright, that we are yogis at birth? It doesn't work like that. We need to do yoga. Take one aspect of yoga – pranayama – and master it. It's difficult if you don't breathe properly. Slowing your breath slows your thoughts, which slows your actions – and results in greater retention.
Just now a student came to me and said he doesn't like maths so he didn't do well. It doesn't work like that. No such thing. You are not doing what you are supposed to do. In grade nine I failed mathematics. I didn't like it. But when I finished matric I had an A for mathematics. I realised I had the ability but just wasn't doing the right things. Once you start doing the right things you'll get As. He's studying with his friends and got a C. He was studying and he got a C ... imagine if he wasn't studying. Or maybe his friends weren't studying – they were jolling. A university student said maths was difficult. But if they were studying properly it wouldn't be so tough.
Instead of waiting for your cellphone message, get a message from the Bhagavad Gita. This is a bad topic for me. We gave our kids the cellphone and with that we lost our children. You might not realise it but you'll know it later. Because they have so many other activities on the cellphone, do you think they're interested in studying? They lock their bedroom door and you think they're studying. They're BBMing. Not good.
So this is what we are giving you at the Gayathri Peedam: all the children who get an A aggregate for their end-of-year exams, the temple will give you R750 in cash. I think that's a good challenge. What do you think? I'm giving you a challenge. It doesn't matter what grade you're in. From standard three to standard twelve, university students and part-time students. We'll give you cash. You can go and buy yourself another cellphone. For an A aggregate, not a single symbol. What is an A in grade 12? 80 to 100%. Now, there's a second part to this challenge: if you don't get an A aggregate, all of you must give me R750. I think that's a fair deal. Speak nicely to your parents. The money doesn't go to the temple. It goes to me. Deal?
