In this segment of the podcast, a former monk explains the challenges he faced after leaving monastic life and entering the mental‑health field. He observes that many clients know exactly which lifestyle habits are unhealthy—poor sleep, excessive drinking, bad diet—but lack the motivation to change. He critiques the monastic mindset of blind obedience to a guru and the expectation that prayer alone can heal, arguing that effort and personal agency are essential. To bridge this gap, he stresses the need to capture the public’s imagination, apply public‑health principles, and use data‑driven protocols to measure the long‑term impact of yoga and meditation. He invokes ancient Indian scholars such as Sushruta and Patanjali as early scientists of mental, physical, and social health, and positions his work as a modern re‑application of their methods. Ultimately, his goal is to foster enlightened, self‑motivated individuals rather than passive followers, emphasizing humility and continual refinement of interventions.
Chapters
What other challenges did you face when you first stepped out of the monastery, and what made you make this change and enter the mental health industry? So motivations of people are different, and generally in the monastery, as I said, people have this thought, you know, there's a saying in the monastery, when the guru says something, you don't ask, you just do. So if the guru says run— you, guru means teacher— you don't ask how far, you just start running. And, and that's the thought process, you know, that, that we have, that if somebody is saying something and that's good for them, then, then they should listen and they should practice. And I found out that when I came out of the monastery, people would come and they will have these problems with obvious solutions. So somebody is unhealthy, they are having unhealthy lifestyle habits, and they know— the worst part is they know what they're— exactly they know what their unhealthy lifestyle habits are, but they are just unwilling to change. So if they know they are not sleeping, if they know they are drinking too much, if they know they are eating unhealthy, Then they'll come with me and they say, oh, I have these problems. And then, you know, for me the solution was obvious. Just change, upgrade your lifestyle. And then they'll be like, yes, yes, okay, okay, for you it's simple, you are a monk, but you know, everybody can't do that. And then they won't listen. They'll come and they won't listen. And then I'll ask them that, what do you want from me? They said, oh, I want you to pray for me. And I told them, prayer without effort is useless. You think we are just sitting in the monastery praying all day? Praying is a big part, you know, faith is a big part, but there is also an effort that you need to do, and they don't want that effort. And then I would find that that motivation is lacking, and I realized that just having that path of yoga and meditation was not enough. I had to capture the— capture the people's imagination as well, motivate them to want to do good, not just telling them to do good, because apparently the whole world knows what is good, they just don't do it. So the greatness of a teacher, I used to think, was knowing good and telling good. But then I realized the greatness of a teacher would be how if they can capture the popular imagination and influence people in such a way that now they want to do that good, you have to understand public health, you have to understand the public mindset. So that is when I realized that I have to do the mental health research, I have to have data analysis, I have to have points of references, because in my head I am thinking that, okay, this yoga, this meditation is very good for a population group. But how do I know it is good? Because when people will come to me, they will act very good. Have you seen people when they are in a setting of faith? Even the most aggressive person acts very nicely, but the moment they go out, they start acting like monkeys. So the first thing was procure that data, then implement the protocol that I wanted to teach and then study them again. Was there a long-term impact of implementing that protocol in their lives? So then I realized there has to be a scientific research. And the best part is, Ria, that's how my ancestors did it. They were the first scientists in the world If we read today Sushrut, if we read Patanjali, they were way, way beyond even some of the philosophers today. They had developed these sciences of mental health, of physical health, of, of social health, and they were using these standards, these protocols. So I just, I just started to reapply the same. Because I wanted— I actually wanted to do good. I wanted people to be happier, and I thought that this was the best way forward because I did not want followers, but I wanted enlightened beings. So you have to make an extra effort. You have to share with them what you have. You have to implement it in their lives, and you have to study if it works. And you have to have the humility to understand if it's not working, then find a better way to help them.
