[Intro: Caroline McHugh]
In India you're raised with this feeling that you're a spiritual being who happens to be in a physical body, whereas we in the West are much more into our physical bodies, and then if we get old enough, and long in the tooth enough, we kind of get interested in spirit.
But, if you've ever been to the Gandhi museum in Delhi, you'll know that this is the line that is above the door, and it was actually a response by Gandhi to a question from a journalist. So Gandhi was getting on a train and the journalist called after him, “Gandhiji, Gandhiji, what's your message to the world?”
And Gandhi turned around and said, “My life. My life is my message.” And your life is your message too. It might not be as big a message as Gandhi's — mine certainly isn't — but your life has to be your message. Otherwise, why are you here? It's not like you've got a spare.
So when you think about your identity, when you think about what it means to be alive, when you think about why you deserve to exist. You're not your thoughts because you think them. And you can't be your feelings, because otherwise who's the you that feels them? You're not what you have; you're not what you do; you're not even who you love, or who loves you. There has to be something underneath all that, and when you look at people who have managed to transcend all these judgements that we put upon them — You know, this man here, he couldn't be judged as a man, or a black man, or young, or old, or Democrat, or Republican, nor a gay, or straight. It really, really wouldn't have mattered, because he knew why he was here. Yes, we can.
So you see, he seemed to be a verb. And even when you're born without many of the attributes that some of your peers may have, even when you're born in a way that may lead you to feel impotent. If you can tap into that voice, if you can tap into that inner voice that I've been talking about, you might just end up being, at 12 years old, the youngest person ever called to the National World Champion Swim Team. You might even end up at the age of 13 being the youngest Olympian gold medal winner, ever. You might even end up at 14 being the youngest person ever to get an MBE. That's what happens when you dial in to the personal pronoun.
So if you can do this, not only will the speed of your life get quicker, not only will the substance of your life get richer, but you will never feel superfluous again.