Asha Nayaswami: Self-Realization, Karma & Finding True Success Through Inner Alignment | Ep64

Christian
What is up beautiful people? This is Christian from the Successful Spiritualpreneur Podcast. And today I’m very honored to have Asha Nayaswami on the podcast. And she is a special gem on this podcast. And she has been practicing and teaching the principles of self-realization for over 50 years. And for those of you who are not familiar with the self-realization principles, they stem from Paramhansa Yogananda.

And in 1969, at the age of 22, Asha met her spiritual teacher, which was Swami Kriyananda. And he was a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. And if you haven’t heard from Paramhansa Yogananda, better look him up, because he is the author of the autobiography of a yogi. very interesting fun fact, that was the book that Steve Jobs wrote in his will.

to give to every single employee of his company, which you certainly know because it’s called Apple. ⁓ Yeah, from that time on, has dedicated her life to create yoga, meditation, devotion to God, and service to others. Welcome to the show, Asha.

Asha Nayaswami
it’s a great joy to be with you. I’m very happy to be here.

Christian
I love it. It’s fantastic. It’s so

nice to have people on the show that it’s just a joy to be, you know? Nothing needs to happen. We don’t need to talk about checklists and, you know, how we can manipulate the next move on social media. just are. And that’s what I really appreciate about, you know, you as having you as a guest. yeah, tell us a little bit, I would say.

I don’t know, imagine the person listening is in their late 20s, early 30s. are ⁓ creators, social media people, entrepreneurs. ⁓ Yeah. What would you say to them when you just meet them on the street?

Asha Nayaswami
You know, everything in life really comes down to personal integrity and what your inner world is like. It’s very easy to think that our happiness and our sense of well-being and our self-worth comes from this huge universe that’s all around us, all the people, all the people around you who are accomplishing what your face looks like, all that stuff. And it definitely has an effect on us but all you’re ever experiencing is your inner world.

And when the day is done, you’re inside your own head. And when the life is done, you’re inside your own head. And who you are is the only thing that you take with you, not what you’ve accomplished. So pay attention. Don’t waste a lot of time running in circles for things that aren’t really going to matter. And I’m not suggesting, as some people do in my position or imagine,

that therefore do nothing, accomplish nothing, just the opposite, give yourself wholeheartedly to whatever it is that you’re trying to make happen, but keep your reality always from your point of origin so that everything you do really springs from the lasting part of yourself instead of just the superficial part of yourself.

Christian
Hmm, I love that. That’s a great summary.

Asha Nayaswami
It also allows you to be very bold. I mean, just because you always have yourself, so on a certain level you have nothing to lose. So if you’re building inner wealth, so to speak, through character and right behavior and a clear conscience and a loving heart, then the ups and downs of this world won’t, you’ll have to relate to them, but they won’t define you. And so you can have much more courage and much more fun along the way too.

Christian
Yeah, yeah, that’s one thing that I drew out of my learnings from the Course of Miracles as well. It’s like, don’t make the world so real, you know? I feel like when you’re young, everything is just like, that’s how the world is and everything’s real. And yes, you can change it with a lot of work and blah, blah, blah. You know, it’s like, at end of the day, I feel it’s very much up to our own interpretation of what life is about.

Asha Nayaswami
Well, I would add to that we don’t exist in a vacuum, self-evidently. I mean, the very body that you have, you took the intercession of a man and a woman for even to have it. And it has a reality of its own. And we are also subject to group karma and cultural karma and all those different things. So we…

we can’t separate ourselves from the tapestry of life that we part of. And so one of the ways… I there two ways ⁓ to think about life either because my body is individual and I appear to have limited self-definitions and live separately than other sentient beings we can think, Well, I am alone, it’s up to me…

maybe I’ll get a few allies but I really have to constantly be trying to make my life happen. The other way to understand it is it took a lot of energy, a lot of forces outside my control to get me to this point and I am part of this tapestry. Tapestry is the best word because you have a tapestry and all the threads go in both directions a great distance, you can’t take a scissor and just cut your little piece out, you’re connected in all ways.

And so if we think instead of this great tapestry, this greater reality that we’re part of, and we try to attune ourselves to where it’s come from and where it’s going, because the tapestry is actually already woven, so if we attune ourselves to where it’s come from and where it’s going and then cooperate with that greater reality, we still get to have all the fun of being ourselves

but it’s a much more integrated, ⁓ a much ⁓ more powerful, and also a much more secure way to live. It’s not so scary as it is if you’re just all by yourself.

Christian
Mmm, I love that.

Asha Nayaswami
And of course

you can add God into it, which is a really good idea if you can go there. Just, you know, it gets much better when you have an infinite loving power somewhere around you.

Christian
Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah, I love that. And what if somebody’s thinking, well, that sounds a little bit too predeterministic. What if I just want to change the thread on that tapestry? What if I want to change? Well, how would you respond to that?

Asha Nayaswami
You

know, it’s a little complex because what you’re asking about really is karma. ⁓ And what you have to think about is karma is not some mysterious power. Karma is momentum. Now, of course, you have to throw reincarnation into this because it really doesn’t make any sense if you just popped out of nowhere and then go nowhere. So let’s assume for the sake of the discussion that there’s a before and an after of whoever you are right now.

so that when you are born you are already in motion. mean, think about your own childhood. Certain things interested you, you had certain inclinations right off the bat, you had certain conditions that you were born into that other people were not born into, thousands of things, if you think about it, are already in place when you start and even from the beginning you show a certain inclination in certain ways emotionally in terms of your talents, your interests, everything like that. So…

⁓ So it’s not predetermined but it’s an object in motion. And if you’re going down the freeway and you’re going 80 and you’re in the left lane, you can see the exit you want. It’s right there. But you’ve got momentum and if you don’t see it soon enough, then you can get back to it but you have to get, you know, you have to go ahead, you have to find another exit, you have to get off to the right, you have to turn around, you have to hope that there’s no detour, you know, all these different things happen.

which are all under your control to influence, but momentum has to be taken into account. And your karma is the momentum that you yourself have built. It wasn’t done by anybody else. Every decision, every action, every thought, every feeling you have creates a vibration of energy and that vibration of energy is stored in your chakras, that’s what your chakras are, they’re little buckets of your karma.

But that karma was created by you, but that karma creates a momentum that now you have to deal with. And so to a very large extent, you know, someone who has the sensitivity can sort of predict the consequences of that momentum. It’s going to take you 25 minutes to get off the freeway and get back to the exit because there’s also building and then you’re going to miss the exit again and blah, blah like that. And it’s not

that anybody’s forcing you to. It’s that you have already set it in motion. So if you don’t like what the momentum you have is, then you have to start creating new momentum. But you can’t just erase it because it’s energy that you yourself have planted. So you have to match it with energy that’s moving in another direction. So that’s how you feel like on some side it’s predetermined and the other side it’s all up to you. In theory,

Christian
Hmm.

Asha Nayaswami
You could change your karma in an instant if you could generate as much energy in a new direction as you have already generated in the direction you’re going. But if you’re in that car and it’s going 80 miles an hour, you’re not usually capable of just picking up the car by cosmic force and getting it off at the right exit because you’ve been speeding along the highway. So you have to put out commensurate energy to turn it around.

Christian
and

Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
And that leads us to all kinds of other interesting questions such as how do you generate energy? How do you get the mastery to do it? Leads you in lots of very interesting directions then.

Christian
Yeah.

Beautiful. ⁓ I want to talk about that in a second. Before we go there, just want to draw the bridge to an analogy in my life that kind of illustrates that momentum, I feel. And so I ⁓ have an agency and have a tea brand. OK. Like, looking at this conversation from an entrepreneur perspective, the agency I’ve had for eight years, right? So there’s a certain type of momentum behind the agency.

Asha Nayaswami
Thank you.

Okay.

Christian
Um, and I have a team of three people. The T brand is two years old. Um, however, because I was able to create such emotional momentum for myself, the T brand was, was able to catch up quite quickly to the agency. Um, and it, it not, it hasn’t surpassed the agency and talking about.

Asha Nayaswami
Okay.

Here.

Christian
of revenue now just because that’s easily measurable at the moment. It hasn’t surpassed the agency, but it’s interesting to see that the tea brand, because I come from a merchant’s family, I feel there’s just some subconscious, ah, it’s a product, I’m a merchant, I can sell something if it’s a great quality, it’s at a good price. I feel like this is me, it’s my path. You know what I mean? And not that the agency wasn’t my path.

Asha Nayaswami
Yeah, sure.

huh.

Christian
It’s actually called Love Pixel Agency, right? So it’s everything is about love. It’s about making love tangible in the digital space. It’s a very spiritual agency by itself, right? So it was interesting to see, you know, like that’s how I started out my entrepreneurship journey with the spiritual agency business, which is more digital. It’s a little bit more. I don’t want to say it’s more spiritual because both brands are very spiritual.

Asha Nayaswami
Uh-huh.

Christian
But it’s it’s my self-projected into those brands, right? One is the agency where I help people and brands to, you know, hey, we’re gonna distill the essence of your brand and create a wonderful brand experience and website for whoever visits your brand, right? That’s the agency. And then the tea brand is called the One with Tea. And the goal there is to bring people into oneness, into an experience of oneness with themselves while having tea.

Asha Nayaswami
All

Uh-huh.

Christian
Now, I’m not sure how many people who buy my tea get them experience, right? ⁓ But hopefully, I think in a couple of years, people are going to understand more and more about tea because tea is also every substance, every person has an energy, right? And tea is a quiet, it’s a quiet master. It’s a quiet teacher for me, you know? And it allows for so much

Asha Nayaswami
and

huh. Huh.

Christian
presence and exploration and beingness to tea. You know, that is something that I said, I want to take this spiritual concept that tea has and make it a brand that people can consume, can buy, can interact with, can enjoy. So, yeah, again, this is like, I would say a very deep underlying ethos of the two brands, but you know, to

Asha Nayaswami
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian
Wind back to the conversation we had about momentum. So interesting how easy it was for me to get momentum, the tea brand, because it felt such a, like it felt not, not destined, but it felt like it was meant to be in a way. I know my ancestors were merchants, you know, it’s like, you know,

Asha Nayaswami
you know, you were born into a stream of energy. When you were in the astral world, before you took this incarnation, you had certain energies in your chakras, which was your karma, certain anticipated possibilities, certain necessary lessons that were coming up to the top of the pile to be acted upon, and with your own intuition and with the…

help of whatever guardian angels or gurus you have in that world, you surveyed and you saw a vibration that would match your vibration and in this case, as it happens, because your karma was for success, you chose a vibration that would move you towards success. Sometimes the karma we have is failure because that’s the lesson that we need to learn, is failure, not success.

So we choose a vibration that will facilitate that karma. So this whole question about destined or not destined, it’s a hard question to answer because it’s a kind of yes or no question. Yeah, but that’s why I use the word momentum instead because momentum can be redirected by the conscious use of the will, but even the ability to use the conscious will, you’ve got to have the…

Christian
Yes, tooky.

Asha Nayaswami
momentum to be able to want to do that. So ⁓ it all, it never answers satisfactorily that question. But what you’re describing is exactly what I’m talking about. And you’re, you practiced with the agency. got, you got certain because as an entrepreneur, you understand, which I have those same abilities. So I understand there’s a certain genericness to being an entrepreneur. That’s why the word exists. A person who can

Christian
Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
see nothing, who can look at nothing and see something and then basically recognize what the pattern is that it is of manifestation, which is very obvious to some of us and not obvious to everyone, but it’s a generic skill. And once you manage to kind of understand how you make something from nothing, you can make multiple somethings from nothing, you know, at a certain point it becomes related to the specific skill.

Christian
Hmm.

Asha Nayaswami
But up to a certain point, it’s the same no matter what you’re starting, no matter what you’re doing. I was involved here in my Ananda community helping to start a school. I’m not, I work with children sometimes, but I’m not a children’s teacher and I’m not a trained educator, but I understood how to start things. And I was able to play a central role in that school until it really became a school. And then all of sudden I was way beyond myself and I had to.

in other friends, you know, who knew how to, who were professional educators of children, but this, but, I’m not sure they could have started it.

Christian
Exactly. Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
because that

was my part and then their part was to make it what it’s supposed to be. It’s fun. It’s great fun.

Christian
Yeah, I know it’s great.

you know, once things grow into a size of where they take their own, its own momentum, like the right people will find themselves. You know, I also see that within myself, for example, like I’m more the person who plants the seeds. I’m not watering it constantly, you know, like more like a catalyst type person. Because I enjoy that part. I enjoy the,

Asha Nayaswami
Mm-hmm.

Christian
the succinct distillation of something into like, this is what we should do, this is how approximately how we should do it, let’s do it.

Asha Nayaswami
Mm-hmm. And that’s

someone has to have the confidence. You know, there’s a there’s a few people in my life, one man in particular. He’s absolutely brilliant as long as he’s not at the front of the line. He can be second in the line and then he’s fearless. But if he’s number one, he just freezes. So it’s it’s like everybody has a part to play. And I like being at the front of the line because I just enjoy that position to a certain extent.

Christian
Yeah.

Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
Anyway, we’re all different because we all have different karma. Everybody is trying to get to the center. I mean, really, literally, we’re trying to get to the center of ourselves. But it depends on where you are on the rim of the wheel, which way is into the center, because if you’re on the west and on the east side you will literally go in opposite directions to get to the same point. And even if you become

Christian
Yeah.

Hmm.

Asha Nayaswami
dogmatic about it, when you’re heading east and you meet the people that going west, then you have a war over whether you’re supposed to go west or east. But it was because we’re all supposed to come to the center. Because once you’re in the center, you’re equidistant from everything.

Christian
love that. a great analogy. That is wonderful. How do people find out where they are?

Asha Nayaswami
usually by horrible

suffering. Usually, how do you get good judgment from experience? How do you get experience from bad judgment? I mean, that’s why when I was speaking at the beginning, when you asked for general advice, really make your sense of self, who you are becoming inwardly. And then that gives you tremendous courage to experiment outwardly.

Because whether you succeed or fail in the moment, so to speak, or in measurable terms, and of course money is an extremely measurable way of telling whether the energy is working or not, ⁓ you can always take what happens to you and use it creatively to understand yourself on a deeper level. And

If you just sit there and wait till everything is certain, you don’t create any flow of energy that will bring you new experiences that will teach you. So sometimes people don’t have a clear intuition about what they should do, so they don’t do anything. But by doing nothing, you’re not developing your consciousness and therefore there’s no power that’s going to give you clear intuition.

Christian
Mm.

Asha Nayaswami
And this is why we have to find a way to experiment with less fear. I mean, of course, one is often a little unsure. You’re moving forward, you hope it’s right. But if your ideas… Swami Kriyananda, my teacher, one of the things he said, it’s really interesting. The secret of prosperity is creativity, is what he said, which is fundamentally…

If this didn’t work, I’ll try something else. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll try something else. And I’ll just keep trying something else until finally I figure out, you know, I correct all the misunderstandings and then all of a sudden it’s working. You know, a lack of creativity often leads to a lack of prosperity because there’s no ability to respond with a new idea.

And you know, that is why some people are more inclined toward creating new things, obviously, because it occurs to them to do so. But all of us have, all of us are unique expression of the divine. I mean, you and I are, you know, both of our faces are on the screen and quite clearly we’re two different people. You you had a whole different idea in the astral world of what a body should be, quite clearly different than mine.

And nobody’s going to mistake me for you because it’s just obvious we had a different idea. We’re both an original creation. And there will never be another exactly like you, even though same nose, same eyes, same mouth, same basic equipment. originality is not just doing something different. It’s doing something that comes from your own point of origin.

Christian
Hmm.

Asha Nayaswami
And that’s really where the power comes from, from my own point of origin, which leads us back, of course, into the spiritual realm, because we have no conscious capacity to create ourselves. We find ourselves created because there is this font of originality, this constantly renewing itself within us, just our physical bodies. Start with that, but, you know, five minutes from now you’re somebody different than you were before.

you and I are talking, people will listen, and energy will shift. And how magically it shifts, how powerfully it shifts, how effective those shifts are, that’s where our free will comes in. How we make use of that which our karma brings us.

Christian
Hmm.

I love it. Using time wisely while you’re here.

Asha Nayaswami
What?

Yeah, using your time wisely while you’re here. And, you know, when we pass, when I was about eighteen, which is when I really… which was quite young, when I really discovered the… well, self-realization, inner spirituality, I was raised in an extremely ethical family with very high principles. And we weren’t atheistic but we weren’t really religious either.

I had… ⁓ God was a neutral for me. But spirituality… I knew that… I knew because of past lives. I knew that there was something truer than anybody was telling me. And I managed to find it when I was eighteen. I found books by Swami Vivekananda who was a disciple of this Indian master Sri Ramakrishna from the late eighteen hundreds. And somewhere in all of that… I mean this was many years ago now so I just have…

vivid images rather than details. Somewhere in there I had a very… What in memory is I stayed up all night thinking about this but I don’t know if that’s really what it was but that’s what it felt like. At that time in my life I didn’t even know anybody who had died, what to speak of having any personal relationship with death. I had a very protected privileged beginning.

But I had this picture in my mind of dying, of myself dying. And it wasn’t fearful in any way. And what was very interesting is it was a very vivid picture of being on a deathbed and having lived a good life and having all these people who loved me being around me, you know, just sort of as I gradually exited this body. Subsequently in my life, I’ve actually been at

at that scene. I’ve never been the one dying yet, obviously, but I’ve been there when other people were dying. And the scene that I projected when I was eighteen is very similar to places I’ve been since then in this life, in this world. But the point when I was younger was that I realized no matter how many people loved me, and I’ve always had an optimistic attitude and relationship, so I assumed my life would be successful.

and that I would have lots of people who loved me and would be sorry to see me go. No matter how many people loved me or how much I had loved them, the process of death would be the absolute necessity to withdraw from every single outer relationship. The only thing I would have was my own consciousness. I didn’t even know I had just learned the word consciousness at that point. All I would have was my own consciousness.

And everything that I had done would matter. It wouldn’t be a waste of time on any level. But it would matter because of who I had become from doing it. Because when I left this world that’s what I would take with me. And just really at that point, and I’ve never wavered, consciousness. That’s basically changing my own consciousness. Everything is a means to an end.

and a delightful adventure and sometimes an awful experience, you know, because we all suffer. But the only purpose of it has been who I become because, you know, I’m of an age now. I was twenty-two and when I was twenty-two I did not imagine that I would, that the same I would be as old as I am now. That’s the only way I can put it.

that I would still be here in exactly the same way I was when I was 22, except my costume would have changed a bit. And a lot that was in front of me when I was 22 is now behind me. But what I have become through it is still with me, with a tremendous power. And now I’m closer to the end than the beginning, so.

that deathbed scene or whatever is going to happen. don’t care, it’s in God’s hands. But it matters. And if we can run that dual track all the way through, that’s what makes a successful life. Whether you die rich or poor, success or failure, if you’re running the inner track at the same time, you’ll have done what you came to do.

Christian
Yeah, beautiful. like this.

How do I say this in English? know the German word. Let me look it up real quick.

Asha Nayaswami
The Germans always have magnificent

words, so.

Christian
It says in German, it’s called rückbesinnung. So it’s a boring word, of course. So in English, it’s a re-centering, a recollection. Yeah, but recent research says it fits better. So re-centering to that not forgetting to cultivate your inner path. ⁓ Because when you grow up and when you’re younger, you think everything’s outside, right?

Asha Nayaswami
you

There you have it.

Christian
but not to forget about that spiritual path. And that’s why I called the podcast to the successful spiritualpreneur. ⁓ Because everybody wants to be successful. We don’t want to listen to a failure podcast. ⁓ We want to give them positive, successful, encouraging information.

Asha Nayaswami
Yeah, right.

Hahaha

Christian
So that successful side is more, I would say, the materialistic side of our experience, of our human experience, right? And the spiritual, spiritualpreneur is like this, the person doing something, right? But spiritually, right? That inner path. And for me, that intersection of those two worlds is where everything is at.

Asha Nayaswami
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly correct.

Christian
I can live, like that’s why also, for example, tea for me is the alignment of mind, body and spirit. That’s what tea is for me. It always brings me back to a little bit closer to my center. Right?

Asha Nayaswami
⁓ huh,

Christian
Yeah, so I think in general, finding that balance point in one’s life is that is your task, whoever you are listening. Where is that balance point? Because it might be that you want to have a super fast life with 500 sports cars and five boats and two airplanes, right? Or you want to have a little bit slower life. Anything is possible.

Asha Nayaswami
Anything is possible. And also in the midst of what you’re doing to keep a sense of priorities. And of course times are different. When you’re raising young babies one reality is in place. When you’re birthing a business one reality is in place. But it isn’t, you know, we can’t abandon our primary, the primary important things for a temporary. And that’s…

And then you come to the word temporary. Everything is temporary except that which is eternal. I think…

Christian
I love that. Just to

interject that the thread of thought of everything, abandoning the primary for the secondary for a while, right? Just to draw an analogy in my life, in the past few months, I’ve been very active, informed with the tea brand trying to find new suppliers for matcha because it’s such a high

Asha Nayaswami
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Christian
an in-demand item, like everybody talks about the matcha shortage and blah, blah, right? So this finding new suppliers and like finding these things in form has kind of taken over my mind in the last few months. It’s very interesting. After I would say the eclipse season in September, end of September was done, ⁓ it all started to shift. So now, since I would say 10 days, it’s like a completely different energy. It’s incredible. So…

I’m also starting to feel and going with the flow and the tides of like, ooh, now is the time to like really dive and analyze and be informative. But I was also noticing that, ⁓ I forgot my family a little bit. know? like, ⁓ I have a wife, I have a child, I didn’t know. ⁓ So it’s interesting that you say that. I literally forgot the primary a little bit for the secondary there for a month or two. So I’m happy you said that.

Asha Nayaswami
Thank

All right.

And everything is always shifting. mean, in this realm time is real and it’s just… This is why you build an inner kingdom that you never actually vacate. And this is your point of origin. There’s a constancy, of course, know, meditation practices, being in nature, whatever it is that feeds…

a sense of a more lasting reality than the day or a point of rest within yourself that you can access, which is also a point of intuition which helps you to be more efficient and effective in what you do. If we always just moving from one outward focus to another ⁓ without a resting point. Before I discovered… Before I met Swami Kriyananda and got on the spiritual path…

everything was very dynamic because I was always a very active person. But my picture of myself was that I never knew, I felt like I was the, like my life was a big ice hockey game, but I was the puck. And so it’s just like the blow would come and I would sail across the ice and people would cheer or boo, but I never had any sense of where anything was coming from.

or I couldn’t even tell what was winning and losing, but it was interesting, it was entertaining, kept me distracted, but when I met Swami Kriyananda, he himself was a pole star for me, like a fixed point of reference, but then everything I learned from him also became a fixed point of reference. I had a transcendent sense of values, which are not hard to imagine.

but really rooted. And so I could always measure things against something that was fixed. But not dogmatic fixed, but fixed because it related to the source of happiness, really. Because that’s what everybody is seeking. Every single thing that anybody does is because you think it’s going to increase your happiness and decrease your suffering.

even if your judgment is terrible and your decisions are really stupid. And I often say this to myself, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Or else I wouldn’t have done it.

Christian
I love that. I love that. I’m gonna take it up in my vocabulary. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Asha Nayaswami
⁓ And then you just forgive yourself because yeah, it did seem like a good idea at the time. I applied my best and even if my best was incredibly misguided, if I hadn’t thought it was a good idea, I wouldn’t have done it.

Christian
Hmm. Very true. Yeah. Reminds me of my current life situation. love it. We just go, you say something. I like, I fill it in with like my life. so right now I’m in the midst of putting the tea brand on TikTok shop. And for people who don’t know, TikTok shop is kind of like Amazon, but a little bit more like the wild west. Why is

Asha Nayaswami
It is very true.

Okay.

⁓ okay.

Okay.

Christian
Why is it like the Wild West? Well, because in comparison to Amazon, Amazon is like a marketplace. Like here’s the product, here’s the price, here’s how much is in it. Do you want it? And who basically has the best at the cheapest price? That’s kind of like Amazon, right? With TikTok, it’s different because with TikTok, you see a lot of people that have the product in their hands like this. Look, this is my matchup, I’m to make it for you. This is how you do it. Like it’s basically…

⁓ yeah, you just see people that have the product and use it. So for us humans, it’s a lot more like, wow, this must be great. Right. And you see it’s being used. It’s great. sounds healthy or great or whatever it is they sell. ⁓ so from that stance, the sales on TikTok a lot more subjective than they are on Amazon. You understand? So it’s more impulsive buying on TikTok. ⁓

And the reason why we want to be on TikTok because we have a great product and we want to get into the hands of more people. Right? So really there’s more of an opportunity on TikTok. And you were saying, I was saying that because, why was I saying that? I don’t know. I got a lot of explaining what TikTok versus Amazon is.

Asha Nayaswami
I know sometimes that is what we were… But

actually, I’m really going to finish your thought, but I’m very interested to hear what you’re saying. Did you…

Christian
Yeah.

So the reason why, oh yeah, the idea, it seemed like good idea at that time. Okay. So I’m in the midst of getting the brand on TikTok Shop. But it’s like an operation, like it’s a whole thing. think you need to order a big quantity because you need to send a bunch of samples to people who can make videos with your product, right? Without buying it because you’re basically giving it to them for free so they can make a video. Yeah. So I’m just like in the middle of like ordering a lot of units, printing a lot of, you know,

Asha Nayaswami
I think right.

Yeah.

Christian
match our hands and like the whole thing. I can feel how I’m like starting this whole engine and machinery building a lot of momentum with this. ⁓ And then I hope it’s not going to be an idea that seemed good at the time, but actually an idea that still seems good at the time when the time comes.

Asha Nayaswami
Thank

Well, I hope so too. It’s very interesting what you’re saying because you know the the whole social media, the whole fact that you and I are talking to each other, all this, all this that’s happened, which I know some of you guys have just grown up with it, but I’ve come, you know, I was long, I was well past the midpoint of my life before all this began to happen. And on one side, it has so depersonalized things.

you know, I just… I seldom go into a store anymore. You know, there’s some poor stores around me that I want to keep in business so I go in sometimes but I seldom go in because it’s just so much easier, which is depersonalizing, which is terrible from the point of view of human nature. No relationships anymore. And then simultaneously you and I are talking to each other and we’re talking directly to, you know, all the people who are listening. So we’re also…

This same technological phenomenon has created an enormous potential for personal contact. Not quite the same and really not the same as being with someone in person, but nonetheless, and all that personal contact is also really changing our relationship to the whole planet. Not necessarily, it’s not really turned to the best, but still it’s a factor, literally.

At one point when America was at war with somebody, I happened to be in India at the time whenever that war was that started, America started bombing somebody, my Indian friend said to me, ⁓ you Americans, you’re always at war with someone. having only lived in this country, I thought, my gosh, she’s right, know, just seeing yourself from the outside. But then I read a story literally that whatever country the bombers were attacking, there were two…

two girls who had become friends over the email. And while one father was in the air dropping bombs, the woman in that country, the girl in that country was talking to her friend. And you can keep doing that for a while, but at a certain point you’re going to have to stop because it’s become personal. And no matter what the whole big

story is around it, it’s become personal. So even just just the little thing you’re talking about, here’s my tea bag and I’m drinking the tea, is so different than when I go on Amazon and I just just exactly as I say I find just the right brand but just the right thing. But now I know the guy who makes it and I’m so much more interested in helping him than I am in helping the picture on my screen. It’s perfect.

Christian
Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
It’s absolutely perfect. It’s amazing to see the seeds before you really know what the plant looks like. You’re using the phrase Wild West, but particular seeds are being planted and there will be a time when we say, yeah, this is the inevitable fruit of that positive or negative, but here it is. Very interesting.

Christian
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s

very exciting and people now more than ever they crave that connection.

Asha Nayaswami
Yes, exactly. Because we become isolated at the same time that we become connected.

Christian
You know, it’s so funny.

And that’s part of the reason why I this podcast too, because I want to hang out with cool people, you know? Like, I want to hang out with people who are thought leaders in a way that have cultivated their consciousness to sharpen their edge and their sword for however many years in a certain discipline or area, because it’s just more interesting to talk to those type of people, form B, right?

⁓ But yeah, as you said, think, yeah, and overall, like ⁓ when you look at it, it’s like we’ve gotten more time for things we actually want to have time for. Like we don’t need to go to the store. I’m just going to buy my dog food on Amazon, right? But I now have time to like talk to you or talk to people who I actually want to talk to. And then, yes, it’d be really nice to meet person one day, right?

Asha Nayaswami
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Christian
I would have never known about you without the internet or social media. At least now I know you. Now there’s a potential that we can meet in the future in person. Who knows? ⁓

Asha Nayaswami
Exactly, exactly. And even without that there’s still, you know, in a more subtle way. I mean, I don’t mean subtle by technology, but I mean just really people find each other. It’s fascinating times.

Christian
Yeah, it’s really cool to

see the feedback loop also because know, internet educates, internet allows access to information, finding the right people, reaching out to those people, talking to those people, right? We’re basically reprogramming ourselves, choosing which podcast do I want to create? I’m a creator, other people just listen, like which podcast do I want to listen to? So basically, they’re programming themselves with information. I want to be a successful spiritual entrepreneur.

Asha Nayaswami
Right, exactly.

Christian
I would like to listen to the Ananda podcast if there is one, right? And they just, it’s just more geared towards spiritual information.

Asha Nayaswami
And you and your generation are creating this universe. I’m enjoying it from the other side. mean, before we started this recording, as you know, and I’m just saying it for the listeners, I was not capable of getting myself into the right place. And I had to get my, what I call my young friend to come over and just make it work for me. And it was so natural to her and it’s just not natural to me. So I created, was,

Christian
Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
at the forefront of a really big movement when I was 22. It was meditation and Eastern teaching and self-realization and community, a whole lot of things that were vegetarianism, which is like nobody even thinks of that as a revolution anymore. Now you have to be vegan and beyond. But I was at the forefront of all of that. And then I watched it become mainstream. And so now you guys…

Christian
Yeah.

It’s incredible.

Asha Nayaswami
I mean I’m very much enjoying watching you guys because you were born for the next wave. ⁓

Christian
Yeah, it’s so cool to watch just life. know, like

I’m grateful for what came before and what comes after because I know that the before generation maybe wasn’t that easy either, right? There’s their own set of challenges, right? Today, you know, I as a parent think a lot freer than my parents, right? There’s other stuff that they had to deal with that didn’t allow them to be as free thinkers, right? ⁓

Asha Nayaswami
Yeah.

Yeah.

Christian
But yeah, now different challenges, know, kids nowadays, they spend a lot of time with electronics, so I need to control that for my little child, to have a seven year old. ⁓ So yeah, it’s always the same. You know, their consciousness rises, but also the challenge rises, right? So it’s always…

Asha Nayaswami
Karma is karma. has a complete story. I find it just so amazing just being out, seeing somebody walk on the sidewalk. I think that I just drive right past them, but they have a whole enormous story. And they’re right in the middle of it and they will always be in the middle of it. They will always be themselves. They will always be

Christian
Yeah.

Asha Nayaswami
and they have friends and family and heartaches and successes and every single one of us. This is what softens the heart. This is what will, not yet, but will eventually bring a much more harmonious and loving world than the one we’re in right now. Right now everybody’s trying to find ways to be murderous with one another virtually to just find all these different ways to be separated. But we’re all exactly the same.

Christian
Yeah,

Asha Nayaswami
He wants the same thing.

Christian
I think like my generation, we’re just like, come on guys, you’re so not wars and then come on. Like, yeah, it’s, don’t really feel that we have the power yet to stop it. But as soon as all these old people die away that think that wars and greed and that all that stuff is the way. You’re just going to die. You know?

Asha Nayaswami
Yeah.

Well, this is, you know, this, yeah.

Christian
No matter how powerful you are, will extend your life however many thousand years you want. We will take over as a new generation.

Asha Nayaswami
I’m so glad. This is what Yogananda predicted. Yogananda predicted that there would be a turbulent time, which is really… that there would be some real turbulence on the whole planet. You can see it building. You know, the earth itself is annoyed with us and is not cooperating. And many people are selfishly doing all kinds of…

horrible things. And that energy, he said, would break up a lot of what is established now. But on the other side of it is you guys who are just like, come on, enough already, what is the point? And all of this technology is uniting us. You can fly across the world in a half a day. You can talk to anybody in real time. You can see their face. And it just, all of that

Fighting just makes no sense anymore.

Christian
Makes no sense and when I look at my child…

You know, the world is upside down, always has been, you know what mean? Like, just give my child a billion dollars, see what happens then? You know? It’s like, they’re so wise. They’re incredible. He has told me things and I don’t know, it’s just, I’m not worried at all. You know, like for me, a friend once said, what darkness is just a worthy opponent.

Asha Nayaswami
You ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Christian
I like that, because that means we’re already one, which we have. You know what I mean? The light’s never gonna die, the dark’s never gonna… It’s just… I think…

Asha Nayaswami
Yes, you know, I tend to think, I use the word shadow. I like the word shadow because shadow is simply exists. First of all, it takes light to create shadow. And shadow is created because something has blocked the light. But as soon as you remove that block, the light is completely unchanged. So we’re dealing with a lot of shadow on the planet right now. But that doesn’t in any way diminish light.

Christian
Hmm.

Asha Nayaswami
I’ve also in the last few years had the opportunity to travel a great deal. Really, I went to 50 cities in 23 countries in the last few years. So, you know, it’s been fun. And I started out pessimistic and I’ve ended up very optimistic because there just is an enormous amount of commitment to light. And people acting on it, not just sort of ⁓ a superficial dreamer, but just people.

Christian
Yes.

Asha Nayaswami
quietly, steadily, powerfully creating alternatives that are much more harmonious.

Christian
I ⁓ like the word silent majority.

Asha Nayaswami
Yeah, yes, exactly. The media, the news itself is oriented toward the shadow. So we don’t, we’re not really getting a clear picture. That’s why traveling a lot and just really feeling and meeting. Of course, I meet uplifted people because other people don’t come and see me. But nonetheless, it just showed on what you saw on the street even, you know, just even a simple thing like the number of vegan restaurants.

Christian
I like that word.

Asha Nayaswami
in countries all over the world. How did veganism become financially viable for so many people? It just really tells you. I when I became a vegetarian, my relatives insisted I give my whole dietary plan to my doctor because they thought I was going to die. He pronounced me healthier than, with a healthier possibility than anyone else and that I would outlive them all. But they really thought you’ll die if you’re a vegetarian.

Christian
Yeah, yeah, it’s the conscious.

Asha Nayaswami
But now no one even thinks about it.

Christian
Yeah, it’s beautiful to see how life evolves, you know?

Asha Nayaswami
Exactly.

Christian
Yeah. Well, it’s been wonderful having you on the show. Is there anything else you would like to share with the audience?

Asha Nayaswami
Well, I think we’ve covered it. Keep on keeping on, have courage, find your point of origin, act from that. And maybe you should sell your products on TikTok market. And maybe your tea brand is a good brand. How about that? ⁓

Christian
That’s right. And especially if comes from a great center point.

Asha Nayaswami
Exactly, that’s what we want. But I very much enjoyed talking to you also because you open up worlds I don’t know about. You give me hope for the future. And I’m sure that the people who listen to this podcast are all doing what they can to move things upward and ever expanded. So always just don’t quit. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other with a joyous and a happy heart.

and everything else will follow from that.

Christian
Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, coming on the show. Thanks for sharing all your wisdom, all your heart. It’s been a true pleasure.

Asha Nayaswami
Well, for me also, my friend. Very nice to meet you. Good luck with everything that you do.

Christian
Thank you, Asha. I’ll let you know and who knows, maybe I’ll send you one of my marchas one day.

Asha Nayaswami
Okay, I’ll take it.

I’ll drink it. Okay, very good. Looks beautiful. All right.

Christian
Thank you. All right. Well, you have a wonderful week. Thank you so much.

Asha Nayaswami
You too. Okay, God bless. Bye bye.