Interview for the magazine “Business course”
Today’s guest of the “Business course” is a well-known Vedic astrologist, psychologist, writer, publisher of the magazine “Gratitude with Love” – Rami Bleckt, who has recently visited Omsk. Rami, first of all let me thank you for all your work and especially for the books. Mainly for the fact that my daughter reads them. Recently I’ve been categorizing all books like that – those I would recommend to my daughter and those I wouldn’t want her to read.
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JOURNALIST: By the way, what do you think is the primary thing we should teach our children?
RAMI: Unselfishness, willingness to give. That is the foundation of happiness and success in any sphere of life. Only a selfless person can truly love and be loved. The egoists will always suffer themselves and make others suffer.
JOURNALIST: You have an outstanding biography. First — military academy, paratroopers’ service, and then five years spent as a monk in Indian ashrams. What moved you into this direction?
RAMI: It was my dissatisfaction with the understanding of the meaning of existence. In the military I have seen people achieve the highest ranks, get a lot of money, but they were still unhappy.
My mother’s death has also affected me greatly, that’s when I was strongly feeling how quickly we can lose everything, including life.
JOURNALIST: How come you have returned to the world 5 years later?
RAMI: There are two types of monks in India: ‘brahmacharya’ are those who are celibate for 3-5-8 years, and ‘swami’, who become monks for their whole life. I was originally a brahmacharya, so when my education was finished my teachers told me that I should go back, marry, have children and spread my knowledge to the people.
JOURNALIST: Speaking of knowledge, did you manage to figure out the meaning of life during those 5 years? You formulate it in your books quite vaguely — that it is in unconditional, Divine Love.
RAMI: How is that vague? It is actually a very concrete concept. Imagine, you are very wealthy and successful: you have everything one could ever dream of, but at the same time no one loves you and you love nobody. I have never met a person who would agree to such terms. Modern psychologists actually state that behind the efforts to become successful in business lies a simple desire to earn love and respect. We are souls and as much as our bodies can’t live without air, our souls can’t live without love. Even in love of course there are many different levels, and explaining the concept of Divine Love is very hard, one has to live through it.
JOURNALIST: So is the purpose of life to love everybody?
RAMI: Yes, to love and accept all living beings, all situations, to just be a loving presence. Here and now and not in the realm of mind and thoughts. I highly recommend all your readers to read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power Of Now.
JOURNALIST: So how can you, for example, accept something like death of a child?
RAMI: I agree that it is a very tough situation. And on the external level it is, of course, a tragedy. But internally we have to accept even such horrible things, as lessons. As you know in this world there are no siblings, colleagues, friends, or enemies, there are only Teachers.
JOURNALIST: Rami, you came to Omsk today. Where else have you been recently with your lectures?
RAMI: Moscow, Kaliningrad, Hungary, Vietnam, Canada. After Omsk I am going to Novosibirsk. To be honest, I do not travel that much these days, I spend more time writing books and articles.
JOURNALIST: Have you visited Omsk before?
RAMI: Yes, in 1996. I have been invited here many times by those who read my books and when I had a window in my schedule I used it immediately. Omsk is a very special place. In Vedic scriptures Eastern Siberia is the place where the ‘center of the world’ is going to be, it will not suffer as much in the upcoming global cataclysms
JOURNALIST: In the list of radical changes you’ve made to your life is also a change of the name. I understand that you often get asked this question, however, why did you change your name from Pavel to Rami?
RAMI: The understanding of this necessity came to me as a result of my intuition. I chose my new name on the basis of numerology and I was not wrong: practically in a few days after the name change, radical positive changes took place in my life in quite a few different aspects. I also have never actually rejected the name Pavel, my siblings still call me that sometimes, even though my dad does start to call me Rami. That’s actually one of the signs that the name is chosen well – others are also comfortable using it. A fitting name is very important for a person, as well as for business. I met one Chinese professional in Seattle, who was inventing slogans and names for companies and all his clients would progress very fast after his work has been finished.
JOURNALIST: Rami, could you please name 5 common mistakes that modern people make, in your opinion?
RAMI: The main one is the absolutely false perception of how the world functions, how life functions. I have travelled a lot and I have asked thousands of people what the meaning in their life is. 99% are struck by such questions. The second mistake is the restless rhythm of life they lead, which is so far from the rhythm of nature. And everyone knows that on your death bed it is not the hours you could have spent at the office that you regret, but rather the times you could have spent with your family, or serving others, loving others.
Generally speaking, those are two of our biggest misconceptions. Is there any point in continuing?
JOURNALIST: Well, I am curious to hear the others
RAMI: Modern people are easily prepared to betray love for external material or spiritual values
JOURNALIST: But aren’t love and spirituality alike?
RAMI: Definitely not. Especially love is not like what some of us understand as spirituality: religious organizations, sects, dogmas, principles. Sometimes the people who go into such ‘spirituality’ become very angry, aggressive and are prepared to be violent for their beliefs and ideas. Where is love in that?
JOURNALIST: Lastly, mistakes number 4 and 5
RAMI: The inability to live here and now and selfish thinking and behavior.
JOURNALIST: Often people theoretically know how to live properly, but very few achieve it in practice.
RAMI: Yes, that is because truly knowing and possessing information are very different things. Knowledge is the unrealized information. If someone claims that they know smoking is bad, but they still smoke that means they don’t actually know anything. They just have that information. Everyone is filled with useless knowledge like this, which just drags you down and clutters the mind. There is only one solution – to put all your knowledge to practice.
JOURNALIST: In your lectures you use a phrase ‘to live in the stream’. What do you mean by that?
RAMI: That is a term from Eastern psychology, which means to feel yourself as a part of the universe, to live with its rhythms, supported by your intuition. That gives you a lot of energy.
JOURNALIST: I was asked to ask you this: why do bad things happen to good people?
RAMI: I have a whole lecture on that subject; you can actually find it on youtube. In short, I’ll say this: there is no absolute good or absolute bad in this world. For example, one became successful and then ruined their relationships with others close to them, became greedy and jealous – it would be better if all the money they made just burst in flames. Or, on the contrary, someone gets in a car accident and spends a year in the hospital in pain. Is that good or bad? If that helped them understand things, rethink their life, then maybe that accident could be a gift and a time of happiness.
JOURNALIST: Two of very influential people in Omsk are presently going through hard times: vice-governor Yuri Gamburg and entrepreneur Oleg Shishov are both in jail at the moment.
RAMI: I do not know anything about them so all I can say is in philosophical terms. This can be seen as a good lesson for all of us about the impermanent nature of the world – everything can change in a moment. That is why it is so important to always live selflessly. All religions teach that pride is the most destructive quality of a person. Besides, many spiritual teachers insist that the main objective of any entrepreneur should be freedom of fear and greed.
JOURNALIST: I am unsure how you look at the diagnosis that the doctors once gave you – cancer. But you have written that you managed to fight off the disease.
RAMI: Nothing original, they have done research in Harvard (on 3000 participants) to identify the potential cancer treatments and have established that there are 2 main factors in beating it: the change of diet and the change of world-view, meaning your character. All I did was take that path.
JOURNALIST: We have spoken a lot about world-view today, but in what way exactly have you changed your diet? I am sure you have been a vegetarian for a while now.
RAMI: I have been eating exclusively raw food for 2 years. I eat fruits, vegetables, green buckwheat, and drink freshly squeezed juices. The only thing is, when it’s winter, I do steam the vegetables.
JOURNALIST: What about dairy products? Ayurveda treats them as beneficial, healthy for the thinner brain tissues.
RAMI: That is the case, with a minor adjustment – Ayurveda would refer to natural, organic produce and not the things sold in stores. Anything pasteurized or processed is absolutely unhealthy. In general, the industrial approach to food production is toxic for humanity. I was actually promised a jar of homemade sour cream from one old lady in Omsk – I’m looking forward to that! -, smiles. I eat dairy products occasionally, once in a few months.
JOURNALIST: What does a standard day of Rami Bleckt look like?
RAMI: Well, differently, life is not Groundhog Day for me. Generally I try to pay a lot of attention to self-development, meditation, working on myself. I try to do physical exercise – yoga, cycling, swimming. Today, for example, I was planning to go skiing.
JOURNALIST: Rami, last question. In the East it is common to dedicate a part of your life to spiritual endeavors, but in the West and in today’s Russia the trend is much different; people work practically until deathbed. Where is the truth?
RAMI: Everyone has their own path: you should always look for their motif. If a person has selfish objectives, any external spirituality won’t bring them or others any good. But if one works selflessly and serves others, then even dying on the job would bring him the happiness that others aim to find in spiritual endeavors.
JOURNALIST: Thank you so much for this conversation.
