Today Gurudeva describes his morning meditation on computers, on spending too much time in front of them at the expense of interaction with real people and experience of nature. Don't let the computer dominate all of your time, and don't let your kids spend endless hours learning the skills of killing in violent video games.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. April 19th.

There are no questions today. But, early this morning, we were walking around our beautiful lakes and ponds, lotus gardens and water-lilies, fragrant flowers and started to think. You know, in today's world, everybody is in cyberspace. And I know that you know what I mean because you are looking at the computer and your computer is talking to you and I am talking to you through the computer. Maybe we are spending too much time looking at a computer. Not enjoying the air, not enjoying the mountains, the flowers and rivers. Just walking on the street and seeing people, smiling at people. You smile, another smiles and pretty soon, the whole world smiles because you smiled. That might be a little difficult to understand with a war going on, that there can be smiles. But in your local area, those that you love and those that you know and people that know you, you can pass on a smile and everybody can do that. It is not expensive and it does not cost anything. Find a friend or a group or the entire family and walk in the park, talk to the trees, listen to the flowers. Don't let the computer dominate all of your time.

There is more to life than a computer screen. Why am I saying this? Because, I know that some people, especially young people, are spending eight to ten hours a day at the computer. It is not just their school work. They are learning to be killers. How? By learning techniques of killing in video games on the computer. That is going more strongly into their minds than growing vegetables and growing fruits and doing things that used to be done when we had a lot of good citizens to encourage young people to be good citizens by being close to nature.

I was very inspired to talk this way because walking out, looking at the river this morning, walking on the 'Path of the Nayanars', Tamil saints, looking at the lotus flowers and the water-lilies and the fish swimming in the lakes and ponds, I could see what many, many of our cyberspace congregation is missing. Take a chance. Try to be one with nature. It is God's energy that is flowing through nature, coming right from God Siva.

Aum Namah Sivaya!