Questions Answered by Swami Satchidananda

• During life transition, how can I find direction?
• How can we practice Yoga in an unsupported environment?
• How do thoughts, prayers, and wishes influence reality?
• What is the purpose of doing Yoga practices I don’t believe in?
• Should smokers practice yogic breathing?
• Why Bow to the Guru?
• How do I know what my purpose is?
• How can I move beyond negative and unloving thoughts?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Please talk to us about raising and disciplining children.
• Can you recommend specific yogic practices that may lead to a longing for a much simpler and less material-oriented existence?
• Is it possible to do time travel?
• Is it possible to change our karma in this life or are we destined to suffer?
• How can I live in the present and yet have goals?
• What is the benefit of committing myself to one Guru?
• Years ago, I had an abortion. Now I understand my big mistake. The suffering is still with me. Please help.
• I have great difficulty in controlling my senses. I always want to do things that are not wholesome or healthy. What can I do?
• How can I overcome a feeling of being powerless to change my life?
• Can pranayama really help one’s physical and mental health?
• Could you please talk a little on which is more powerful: God or His name?
• After one leaves the body, can one interact with those left behind?
• Does the yogi pursue a legal course of action or accept the insult and injury and do nothing?
• Please could you talk about what led you to become a monk?
• What should one look for in a person in order to have a successful marriage?
• How can I see who is virtuous?
• Why are we humans so obsessed by the body?
• How do you know when it is right to surrender or when to take action?
• Until I can move from a negative living environment, what can I do to improve the situation and to improve my peace?
• In a traditional Indian Ashram, what is the normal relationship of nearby householders to the Ashram?
• How important is it for an Integral Yoga Hatha teacher to meditate?
• How can we integrate Yoga into a high school curriculum?
• How is the best way to deal with anger?
• How can I live a spiritual life in a world filled with chaos?
• If you write off a person you are in conflict with, stopping all relations, will you have to face that person in another life?
• How does one develop compassion and deal with the world?
• How do I keep the peace I have found here at the ashram, when going back to the outside world?
• How can I be less judgemental?
• How does mantra initiation work on me?
• What is the essence of letting go of a negative experience and to be free then?
• How does one motivate practice?
• If you go through a period of suffering, is it always because of something you did in your past?
• How to decide the path one chooses?
• How does one motivate practice?
• How can I keep my serenity when I witness ignorance, racism, and violence in my community?
• Having chosen a parentage, is one obliged to give happiness to that chosen parentage?
• Fear and self-doubt are robbing me of all my strength. Please help me. Thank you.
• Can guru can temporarily raise the kundalini of someone else?
• How can I integrate meditation and work?
• What can one do to have an unwavering faith in you as guru?
• How should one hold the hands and eyes during meditation?
• How can I have faith in God when so many terrible things happen to living beings?
• Do you believe that each of us came into a body with a mission to achieve, a task other than our own spiritual growth?
• What do you think of organizations that are always aggressively going after new recruits?
• Can you explain why vibrations do not come out in the laundry, or do they?
• How can I cure myself of impatience?
• What is the best way to pray for someone else who is sick?
• What is the best way to find a marriage partner?
• What is the function of the archangels and the Elohim?
• When daily life is tough, how can I have more harmony with the woman I love?
• At a certain point during meditation I feel a presence, maybe God. But then I get afraid. What to do?
• How can one face one’s fears?
• What is a failure?
• How does one overcome depression and grief from the death of a loved one?
• What is the cosmic Guru?