You know, suicide is really, really a very big sin. This is a big, big mistake in every way. Suicide is on the increase and do you know among which age group is the biggest increase? Youth, between ages of 14 and 22, these are the greatest suicide victims. You would think it would be old people whose bodies are old, they have pain and some disease, might as well just end it now. It is not that group of people. It is the young people in the prime of life, in the bodies that are in their strongest period, the senses are awake completely, the energy is there. They have got a whole life ahead of them; they are not old and not going to die the next week. Theoretically they have years to go and they commit suicide. Why? Because they have already done everything. In the modern world there are no restrictions on anything, you can enjoy anything and everything to the fullest: all the drugs, all the sex, whatever. So by the time they are just 14, 15, 16, they have done everything. If they have rich parents, and many do, this is one of the biggest groups of people – the rich ones, they’ve had the cars, the phones, the computers, the cool clothes, the girlfriends/boyfriends, everything. And yet they are empty.
Their conclusion is: what is there to live for? For what? I’ve already done everything to make myself happy. I’m not happy, I’m miserable. The only thing I haven’t tried is suicide. So he tells his girlfriend, “Hey, we have done everything else together, let’s do that.” And she is just as depressed as he is and she says, “Yes, let’s try that one.” So they jump off a bridge together. This is the reality. This is not fabricated. People are really, really depressed, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know who they are, “I am the body, I have done everything this body can do, stimulated it in every way.”
What we need to learn is: I am not the body, I am not the mind. I can marry the most beautiful girl and have the most fantastic sex life – it’s not going to make me happy. I can get the greatest job and have all kinds of money – it’s not going to make me happy. If I were the body, all of this would work, it would. The philosophy would be correct, the more I bring pleasure to my senses, the happier I will be. But it’s not the truth. I am not the body; it has the exact opposite effect: confusion, emptiness, loneliness and depression.
So… what to do? Actually live a lifestyle that is focused on our spiritual health, and that is where yoga comes in. That is the teaching of yoga: how to live a spiritual life. And I’m not talking about joining some organization that is spiritual: now I’m on this team, so I will be happy. That is another illusion. This is about connecting with the Supreme Person. Yoga means union between the individual soul, our self, and the Supreme Soul, our relationship, our cooperation, working together. This is the real and only solution.
Is the body important? Yes, it is, this is our facility; this is our vehicle in the material world. Don’t neglect the body. This is the yoga philosophy. The yoga philosophy says to take care of the body. It is very unique: those who think that they are the body are the ones who destroy their body the most. They are the ones who overeat to satisfy that emptiness and get bigger and bigger. They have cholesterol problems, heart problems, diabetes, cancer, all kinds of problems while trying to be happy.
The greatest sportsmen thinking they are the body keep their body so fit, but they are still depressed. About a year ago the number one soccer player in Germany, famous guy, obviously very physically fit, who had a beautiful wife, couple of kids, stepped in front of a train. How happy was he? He didn’t step in front of the train by accident; he committed suicide in this way.
So again, there is a problem, and the problem is a spiritual problem. The psychiatrists and all these mental analysts are trying to find out, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do with our young people? We have to do something.” They don’t know what to do. They don’t know who they are either, “I am a psychiatrists, I know everything. I have got my credentials, my documents, I have graduated from all these universities, I have got my degrees…” But they don’t even know who they are. The one profession that has more suicides than any other one is the psychiatrist. They are trying to help us, but they commit the same thing that others do. Only those who know the truth, the great purveyors of the truth, can help us.