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A beautiful day once more. I believe today they are celebrating Rakṣā Bandhan. There are holidays in India this week. So, you can congratulate any brothers and sisters you have. Now, prāṇa. There is a beautiful bhajan about prāṇa, but I have forgotten it. You will have to come again next time to listen to that bhajan. Each prāṇa is nicely described in Hidden Powers in Humans. You should know where the seat of the different prāṇas is. We spoke yesterday about the nāḍīs and prāṇa. If we translate 'nāḍī', it is not exactly 'nerves'. Or if we translate 'nerves' to 'nāḍī', it is not the full meaning of nāḍīs. But we don't have another option, so let's say it is like that. Prāṇa flows through the whole body, but mostly through the nāḍīs with the blood circulation. Now, Udāna Prāṇa. This is something very interesting. For Dr. Martin, who is a cardiologist, and for those who have problems with the heart or too much fat in the body, it can be regulated if we do a particular prāṇāyāma and concentrate on this special prāṇa called udāna prāṇa. These are all subtle functions in the body. If you have studied medicine, and perhaps also studied prāṇa, then of course you know. In Āyurveda, it is well known. In Āyurveda, it is called the Nāḍī Veda. 'Nāḍī' is again the nerve. A Vaidya is an Āyurvedic doctor, and still there are many who say the best time to read the nāḍī is in the morning on an empty stomach, even with no water. Then they can feel the vibration. Even our Sadguru's mook can tell what you were eating yesterday—not exactly pohaṅka or what, but whether the food was more sāttvic, rājasic, or tāmasic. They feel this nāḍī. Now, the government of India is offering a study and research work for doctors and scientists, and I think they are giving a scholarship. For more information, you should ask at the Indian embassy. There you also get what is called Nāḍī Vidyā, the science of the nerves. It is very interesting. Only with this, they can diagnose many, many things: what is missing, what is not missing, the minerals, the metals, the functions of the intestine, kidneys, liver. And if we make a blood diagnosis at the same time, the result is exactly what the Nāḍī Vaidya said. It is a beautiful, beautiful experience. So, Udāna Prāṇa is ascending energy—ascending and descending. It flows from the heart... the best qualities, what the heart is pumping with the blood, the best vibrations, which nourish our brain centers. So here it is: Udāna is the ascending energy flow from heart to brain. This is the prāṇa. Also, udāna prāṇa accompanies the awakening of the kuṇḍalinī śakti. Therefore, in Kriyā, in Kriyā Yoga—especially what we are doing—we are working with the prāṇa, and it is a perfect balance. We bring this energy from ascending to descending and descending to ascending. So, according to this, Udāna Prāṇa is very supportive for the awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī. If we do it wrong, or we don't do the proper, exact rounds while giving Kriyā—you know, the stance and initiation—it is exactly explained. In that case, when Kuṇḍalinī awakens, you hardly feel anything pleasant. It is the awakening of happiness, the awakening of joy, the awakening of freedom, the feeling of freedom like liberation. If there is a wrong technique, then you feel sensations, spasms, and you are dizzy; there are unpleasant experiences. People think, "Oh, my kuṇḍalinī is going up now, what should I do?" I say, close the door. This is the science of the prāṇa. It is known in yoga as well as in Āyurveda. And Āyurveda decides the nourishment according to the nature of the person: Vāta, Pitta, or Kapha. Vāta, Pitta, Kapha go parallel to the sāttvic, tāmasic, and rājasic. But still, these prāṇas are protecting, even if we sometimes take wrong food. So prāṇāyāma is very important, but systematically. Prāṇāyāma is a kind of mathematics: how long you should inhale and how long you should exhale (what we call the ratios), and how long we should make the kumbhaka—bāhya kumbhaka or antara kumbhaka. Every technique of prāṇāyāma supports a particular prāṇa. These are the ten prāṇas. It takes time. Practice every day. Don't hurry. Whoever hurries will have a lot of worries. There is a little poem in the folk language: "Dekha dekhi sajye yog"—you just imitate someone in practicing, including from a book. "Dekha dekhi sajye yoga"—you are imitating and practicing that yoga. "Ghaṭe kāyā, baḍhe rog"—your body will cease, will become ill or thin or obese. "Ghathe kāyā, baḍhe rog"—and disease will increase. So don't think that all postures and everything are very healthy. Those who are just going to one seminar and then to other seminars, or one master's techniques, other master's techniques... And you say, "Why not? All are good, all are the same master." One ill person went to the chemist's shop. The person taking care of the shop was in the bathroom and said, "Wait, I will come soon." The person, who had many diseases, saw there was a lot of medicine. He said, "I think all medicine is good." So quickly, he opened all and took a lot of it in his mouth and swallowed. When the man came, the person was lying on the floor. So every medicine is a good medicine, but for whom? For which disease? So every technique of yoga is good, every master is good, but for whom is which one? And which sādhanā? It is good that we come together at least six times a year for a seminar: two to three online and two to three or four here in Střílka. What we learn here is that we should practice. Don't read too many books. As many books as you will read, that much you will be confused. That is like taking all the medicine at once. So, read what you need. Then you will remain on your path. If you read too much, you will lose the path. You read a book: "Oh, Swami Vivekānandajī said like this." Yeah, but Ramāṇa Maharṣi said something different. Anand Mahima, she was completely, completely of a different opinion. And Swamiji said, "Don't worry." So, Swamiji, I don't know. But why did Vivekananda say this? These different books confuse you. You cannot drive two cars at once. That's it. Or you cannot occupy two lanes for driving; you drive in the middle. Therefore, when we have found our path and we have practiced for so many years, of course you have the freedom to change everything, but you will not achieve, because your life is not so long left. It is again beginning, and the end is not easy to find. So remain with the techniques. Therefore, regarding the kuṇḍalinī: a very interesting thing is that the Western mind needs something like adventures. So one said or wrote somewhere that kuṇḍalinī can only awaken when you sit in or practice śīrṣāsana. Someone just wrote it, and now you are fixed on it. And you ask me a question: "Swamiji, is it true that through śīrṣāsana, kuṇḍalinī awakens? And why do you put us in the padmāsana or the siddhāsana?" That is immediately splitting. So you are neither in śīrṣāsana nor in padmāsana. You are there where you are. Every sādhanā should be done simply, comfortably, slowly. Take your time. What you have, it will remain with you, and it will increase day by day. So, the udāna prāṇa accompanies the awakening of the kuṇḍalinī śakti. And it comes about in a dream. The astral body separates from the physical body with udāna prāṇa. When you go to the astral body, okay, easily, maybe you go. But if you do something in a hurry, then you can't come back to the physical body. But the physical body is still alive. That is called a coma. You are completely in a coma. There was one master, a siddha. He had all siddhis. One disciple of that master was on a boat sinking in the ocean. He was calling his Gurujī, Gurudeva: "You said that the Guru will let you cross the ocean, so now please come and rescue me, save me, bring my boat to the shore." He was really praying and calling from the heart. The master, who lived in an ashram near our Kailash ashram, Devpurījī's, had two or three rooms. The master said to his disciple, "Some bhakta is in trouble. I'm going to help him. So don't open the door, and nobody should come in. I'm going to help him." He sat in meditation, and through Udāna Prāṇa, in a great hurry, he just left the body and rescued the devotee. Now the Master came back, and he was traveling in the space around the ashram with his astral body. The Master forgot the technique and which part of the body he left. It's like a combination lock. If you have forgotten the number, you can make the finger good for Sarvaitāsana. So the Master is wandering about the ashram trying to come into the body, and the disciple closed his eyes and said, "Oh, Gurujī is flying here, searching how to come into the physical body." So the disciple said, "Guru Devo, nābhi, nābhi..." 'Nābhi' means the navel. He went from the navel and wished Gurujī was in the body. And suddenly Gurujī was back in his body. The combination lock opened. So Gurujī gave him the name Nābhā, Nābhājī. So Nābhājī was a great Siddha, and his Gurujī was also a great Siddha. There is one book written—the name of the book I've forgotten—but it's about hundreds of the siddhas. It is described in that book. I don't know the name, I will tell you sometimes. It is about a thousand pages, and on one or one and a half pages is written the story of these great Siddhas. Maybe it is called Bhaktamālā, the book. Something is good. So, what is easier and comfortable? That which doesn't create fear, doesn't create pain; it creates peace, harmony, and freedom. That leads to the ātmajñāna. And this is how the prāṇa takes care of us, how the prāṇa guides our life. The astral body separates from the physical body with udāna prāṇa. Generally, it is said that when we dream, then our astral body separates from here—the neck, shoulders, or from here. If you are lying on the back, then it's from here. If you are sleeping sideways, then the astral body goes from the shoulders, the cervical. That's every night you are doing. When you dream, where are you with the astral body? Maybe you are in Brno, Prague, New York, New Delhi, or Novo Mesto. We see the reality, but we can't leave any signature there. We can't do anything. We witness, and we remember in the memory. So when the physical body dies, we are in the astral body. Then we can't do anything, but we feel happiness, unhappiness, pain, pleasure. All the karmas, what you have done bad to others, that attacks you back, and you have no place to run away. You may scream, but no one is hearing you. They see us and tell us, "Please help," but we can't hear. So, the dream is already in the astral form. So, jagratā, suṣupta, and svapna—awake, sleeping, and dream. It is said this saṃsāra, this world, is a dream. When we close our eyes and leave this body, we are somewhere in another loka. And this life was for us a dream. Dreams can be beautiful, very pleasant, happy, or they can be a horror dream. It means how life was here. So it is said, Gurujī used to say often, "Four Vedas and six philosophies." Four Vedas and six philosophies. The essence is only two words. All essence of the Vedas and all the essence of the six philosophies is only two words: "Kar bhalā, to hoī bhalā." Do good, will get good. "Kar bura, to hoi bura." Do bad, it will come bad back. So, whatever you think, you are happy that you make someone trouble, and this and that. But a wise person is thinking, "How foolish is this person? He thinks that he does good and enjoys, but this karma will come back to you." So even God is bound to the karma. All are bound to karma, so it means karma is the highest. And it is that karma which makes us fear, and it makes us pray. So if you believe in the individual God or impersonal God, physical or astral, nirguṇa or saguṇa, this too is making us, by karma, to pray. Therefore, it is said, if you don't think that you are afraid—oh, policeman—at least you should know that you should be afraid of karma. That's it. So karma influences our prāṇas, the energy in the body. So, karma, we have fear. We know, all of us, in our inner self. Nobody knows, but we know ourself or God, and we feel guilty. We have fear, and that leads us to prayer or to do good things. So we are awakened, that we do good. Of course, God is perfect and we are imperfect. Something that we do is for many good, but for someone, it may not be. So we can't do good to all, but we try to do good. So, karma. Yes, so the astral body separates from the physical body with udāna prāṇa, and udāna prāṇa is activated by the ujjāyī prāṇāyāma, brahmārī prāṇāyāma, and viparīta karaṇī mudrā. There are many others, but the major ones are these three techniques: Ujjāyī Prāṇāyāma, Brahmadrī Prāṇāyāma, and Viparīta Karaṇī Mudrā. And all of this is written and given as a practice in our book called Yoga and Deadlifes. The Saman Prāṇa—so not the shamanism, don't understand this—the Saman Prāṇa connects two main chakras, Anāhata and Maṇipūra chakra. And this you have in your anuṣṭhāna. When you come to the seminar, and what you do in the anuṣṭhāna, all these kriyās in anuṣṭhāna, it has been very carefully and nicely balanced. Too much is also not good. In the soup, we can enjoy, or we can resist, salt. One plate or one cup of whole soup. And we take a little, like this finger, two fingers, salt. Yes, that we can endure. So salt in the soup is okay. But soup in the salt is not okay. So little, but it balances. In every aeroplane, on the top, there is one like an antenna, or a little like a fish has a back tail. Such a big aeroplane is balanced with this little tail. The Moon is smaller than our Earth, but it is said the Moon is a balancing principle for the Earth. And also, from full moon to the dark moon, to new moon. So it is like an antenna, balancing our earth. Otherwise, Earth will have big earthquakes. So all that Īśvara has made, God has made, that creator, he balanced the whole universe very nicely. But now, we try to disbalance our earth. How many mountains are destroyed for building the highways, the gravel? You know what gravel is? Little stones for the road. Cement is missing. How much coal are we taking out, and just pumping? When there is no more coal, they pump in the water. How much oil we take away. And how much we dig the earth because of the diamonds, or the gold, or different metals. So we are slowly, slowly making our earth weaker. This tree's enemy is the termites or worms. For our body, diabetes is a termite or some different disease. So, taking sources out of the earth means we are the termites for the earth. Don't be surprised one day by how many earthquakes and how many... the Earth will just fall apart. Such a science, what should we do with that science? Such a richness and money for this, what should we do with it? We don't think; we think only about money. So why did we come here? We say Mother Earth; we don't say Mother Moon or Mother Mars. This is our mother, and we are harming her. So the balance which you do in your Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna, you have a certain number or time concentration between navel and heart: Maṇipūra to the Anāhata, from Anāhata to Maṇipūra, Maṇipūra through Anāhata to Viśuddhi. But very few exactly concentrate there. You just sit like this and make your mantra. It will not go automatically. You have to have a very proper position. So, posture is very important for this certain practice. To get liberation of the dead is not necessary. We will die in any position, but we will survive in certain positions. So Saman connects two main chakras, Anāhata and Maṇipūra, distributing the energy of nutrition through the body, which influences the Maṇipūra Cakra. The corresponding element is fire. In the heart we have fire, and in the Maṇipūra we have fire. When the heart will not produce the heat, will not warm the blood, will not pass the blood through... So it is the central heating. The central heating is an imitation from the maṇipūra to the heart, and then the heart sends warm blood into the whole body. That's why we said you have a warm heart. Where the warm heart is, everything is nice: warm heart and cool brain. Cool heart and hot brain—then the toast is burned. So this Anuṣṭhāna Kriyā, exactly if you do it, it is about 18 to 20 hours. Hardly one or two will survive, because we are not prepared. We are bhakti yogīs. Yes, we are comfortable. We are experts in eating, perfect in lying and talking. There are some movements they call meditation. Very popular. Visa is easy to get, but to get into that meditation group is hard. Nearly one year before, you have to apply and give your entire bio-data, and also your health condition, and still, you are not sure they will accept you. What have you been practicing? What have you been doing? What experiences have you had? So many, many questions. And when they accept you, first you have to send the money. Then you get the notice that you are accepted. If you are not accepted, they will not ask you for the money. But when you send the money and the founders see that you are not suitable, they will reject you. Money you cannot have back. When you pay money to the embassy to get a visa, maybe they will say your visa is rejected. But money is accepted. They will not pay you back. Then they will send you an invitation: where you will sleep, what number of the bed, how many square meters, where will your eating place be, and where will be your practicing place. And you are not allowed to touch each other or talk to each other. And you cannot go and sit in another place for eating. If you do, then very soon we can see you out of the door. And you can't imagine how many people go and they meditate. They're serious. I asked Mahāprabhujī. He said to me, "No. Let them enjoy." When the highest authority said, "Okay, no," then we have no power, but it means we should not neglect. Therefore, next time when you come, don't come for three days in Anuṣṭhāna; the minimum is eight days. Best would be at least three months. Then you will just begin to experience. In two weeks, you still didn't get rid of pain in your legs, sore muscles, hot buttocks, stiff back, empty stomachs. Practice, practice. So distributing the energy through the body influences the Maṇipūra cakra, which corresponds with the element of fire in the whole body, where there is a radiant aura around those who have purified samāna prāṇa. So you can see your aura, or someone can see your aura. It's very interesting. So in self-inquiry meditation, the fourth point is to feel or see your aura outside of the body, from 10 cm to 1 m. Be aware of your being here. Relax the whole body. And the kāya-sthairya, motionlessness of the body. And the fourth point is to see and feel the energy outside of the body—the self-inquiry meditation. So in our every technique, which is done very carefully—in the Garuḍa Saṁhitā it is described, some yoga book—strength through Agniṣār Kriyā and Nauli, which is a very effective technique for the Samāna Prāṇa, is practiced in Kriyā Yoga. This we will also do this afternoon, and let's see what's happening. And we will continue the prāṇa in those next days.