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Good morning. How are you? How was your morning? There are certain principles for teaching yoga—our way of teaching, learning, and applying this principle of yoga in daily life. Our first and foremost motto is: physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Harmony. Harmony of body, mind, and soul. This is our motto. So, always keep in your mind the system of yoga and life. Our motto, our principle: physical, mental, social, and spiritual health—harmony of body, mind, and soul. To achieve this through yoga in daily life. And… getting silent. Yoga in Daily Life is not just like bubbles. It’s not like a flood that comes and goes back again. It’s not like an emotional fire. We should always concentrate and give the best instructions to our students. We have to go from the beginning, from the nursery school. You should be able to practice and demonstrate. You may have been practicing in some other schools, but now you are in a proper school—from nursery until the university. It takes time to train yourself. Many students have physical problems, but practice makes perfect. By chance or by accident, I saw on Facebook one lady; I don’t know from which country she is. She had double or triple the weight, yet she could twist and do all postures like rubber. So why cannot we? Her husband said that even in the night, she gets up and does these movements. To practice, to practice, to practice. There is a little story in the Mahābhārata. The Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas went to a school for royal people. Among these five brothers, the Pāṇḍavas, one is called Bhīma, and he was always hungry. He used to eat about 15 people’s food, or maybe 40. He was always hungry, and he used to go at midnight to the kitchen to look if there was anything to eat. There was no light in the kitchen; otherwise, people would know that somebody was there. He felt around to see if a chapati or rice was left, found it, and ate it. His brother Arjuna woke up one day and wondered, "Where is my brother always going?" So one day he followed him and found him in the kitchen. He said, "What are you doing here, Bhīma?" Bhīma said, "Silent. Arjuna, come and eat also." But Arjuna said, "How can you eat in the dark?" He said, "Brother, this is a training. Even in the dark or with closed eyes, the hand goes automatically there." Arjuna asked, "How is it possible?" The answer: "Practice." So Arjuna got a lesson—aha, practice. Consequently, Arjuna used to go in the night and practice his archery. So it is said: Abhyāsa, Abhyāsa, O Kuntī Putra, Abhyāsa, Abhyāsa. Practice, practice, O son of Kuntī, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect. This is our second mantra. Write in your room, on your bathroom door, and on your mirror: "Practice, practice, practice. Practice, O Kuntī Putra, O son of Kuntī, practice, practice." Practice makes perfect, so you have to take this saṅkalpa now: Abhyāsa, abhyāsa, abhyāsa. After your class, you should go anywhere under the trees and practice. When we say good night, go in the garden if it’s not raining and practice in the dark. Try in very deep darkness if you can practice the butterfly. Begin with that so that you know where your knee is and if you can hold your toes. Practice this for one week. You have to make yourself very soft, like making bread dough or chapati dough—the chapati flour, water, a little salt, and you squeeze and squeeze. One saint, Kabīr Dās, was walking through the street and saw a person making pots out of clay. The potter goes to the forest or to some lake or pond where there is black soil. He brings this black clay, dries it, filters it if it is wet, then makes it with water like a doll, squishing, throwing up and down, rolling, twisting—torturing it. Kabīr Dās was looking, and suddenly he was looking and looking, concentrated. When you concentrate, even this pot will speak to you. You will hear the trees, the forest, the earth, the water. So Kabīr Dās was listening to what this clay tells the potter. (Now, I have to make a correction; I don’t know if it’s a Kabīrdās poem or somebody else’s.) He’s listening as the poet analyzes the process, what’s happening. He’s listening; the clay said to the potter: "Oh potter, though you can torture me, one day will come when I will torture you." What does it mean? That now you are torturing me, but one day when you will die and you will be buried in the earth—and that is I am the clay—then I will torture you under the earth. All your bones and your muscles and everything, I will turn into the earth. Wait. Time will come. Likewise, one has to learn. Your practice will make you perfect, but you are not torturing your body; you are training your body. So in this one week, you should know—it’s called, what it means—you will realize, you will learn, you will feel what it means to have the soul… muscles. That’s it. So I want to see tomorrow how you are walking on the staircase with your sore muscles. That’s it. So practice abhyāsa. We have to make perfect āsana training. The water in our body is very important, but it has to be balanced. If water comes in your lungs or in your knees or in different parts of the body, it can kill you, disturb you, and hurt you. And if you take all the water out of the body, you die. So that is what we should know: the balance. We should know how to keep all in balance in the body. The same thing with the prāṇa. Let’s say, the air, the oxygen. We have these elements in our body. Prāṇa needs space. Prāṇa needs space, and that space is known as the space of tolerance. Sometimes we say the tolerance should not be flexible, meaning no forgiveness. If you have a tolerance, then you have a tolerance one hundred percent. But in mechanism, you must have tolerance, and therefore there is ākāśa, the space. So for the water, for the muscles, and for the air, or for nourishment, we need space. If everything is compact—what you call concrete—you can’t move, you can’t talk. Even the small finger needs tolerance; otherwise, you can’t move. So our prāṇa, our oxygen, needs clean air. And through prāṇāyāma, we shall reduce all the toxins. So the earth, the water, the air, and fire—our body is full of fire. Constantly, fire is burning. Within you, you have a chimney, and that chimney is constantly burning your body. The smoke comes out as a toxin through the prāṇāyāma. But this must also be very nicely regulated. Like in winter, we have a heater, and you are tuning it to only 20 degrees. Or when you go on holiday, you put it to seven degrees so it doesn’t freeze the water and the plant doesn’t die. When we are inside, we can have 20 degrees, 25 degrees, as you like. So the earth, the prāṇa, the water, the space, and fire—this is within our body, and how to balance that, we don’t know. But only one thing we can know: that we practice yoga. Then we balance this. If you do too much, then this can harm your body. These young kids—20 years, 25 years, 30 years, 18 years—they are like a gumichka. But ask somebody who is here 80 years, and they want to be healthy. So for them, what does yoga mean? And what they do, that is the real yoga. Therefore, our system of Yoga in Daily Life is so systematic. It looks simple, but it is not. You know, as gentle, that’s more effective. Sometimes, one who likes to speak to you is just very sweet, but said no. And again you said no, and after again your wife asked, "But why not?" And he said, "No, okay." And when they begin to drive the car, "But why can’t you do it?" He said, "No, it’s okay," and then they stopped the car and went somewhere. But I think it’s good that you should do it. Then the man said, "You are, don’t go on my nerves, you are the saw of the nerves." Nerve and sega, that’s it. So that kills you innerly. Therefore, you have to pay attention. But yoga and the life exercises are very slow and very gentle. Those who don’t know and are looking feel it is like a saw for the nerves. I had a visitor just one hour ago; he is a doctor, a doctor of rehabilitation, and also gives lectures at the university. He is from Czeskie Toplice. He just told me—every time he comes, he gives me very nice examples—they made research on Bhujaṅgāsana, and the best result was from Yoga in Daily Life. How it affects our muscles, nerves, our spines, etc. It came in a scientific magazine in Slovakia. This scientific magazine is controlled by PISOV of Slovakia. PISOV was very against Yoga in Daily Life (I don’t want to tell more what it is; when Swamiji comes, it’s like a red carpet). But the research work of Yoga in Daily Life he appreciated very much, and it was published in that scientific magazine. That doctor, Dr. Chelko, said about Bhujaṅgāsana: if you go maximum, twisting your spine and leaning backside, then it has little physical effect and more harm to the spine. In their research, a few doctors—they did not know each other—made research on our Bhujaṅgāsana, which we said: we go slowly up, not too long, not too bending. So while going, it’s five seconds, then hold for fifteen seconds. After fifteen seconds, the muscles will not accept any more blood circulation. Then ten seconds to come back. Going up five, holding fifteen, and coming back ten seconds. So the muscles react quickly, blood goes out, and the muscles remain 15 seconds without that much blood in the muscles which are affected. You are blocking the blood now. Then, for ten seconds, you go slowly and release the muscle. How does the blood come again? Relax for five seconds. If you want to get rid of your back pain, if you want to have strong back muscles, then the best way is to do Bhujaṅgāsana on a certain level. In the old days, if you wanted to destroy your spine, then twist as much as you like. This was the example. We often do the example that we close the fist. We look at the hand and slowly close the fist tight and tight and tight. We stop the blood now. But if we open, the blood will run, so we block. Now we can see the experiment. Count 15 seconds, and then release. What happens? Once more we do it, okay? Though you know, do it again. Look at your palm and slowly thumb in and close your fist very strong, tight. To open and see, for the demonstration, to know. Now we hold our wrist, tie strong, and slowly open the palm and look to your palm. Just look at it. Fifteen seconds: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Now, slowly release the wrist, but look to your palm. The same reaction or effect has on our back muscles. Then your back muscles will be very strong, and there will be no problem—except if your ribs are replaced. Likewise, we have to learn again the Yoga in Daily Life. You should explain to your students, and definitely for the young kids, you can give them a little other exercise for Yoga in Daily Life. But you can keep them in these postures for a while. You will know how hard it is. These young children have no feeling to stay longer. Today the chelā said to me, "This is a very simple exercise." It is very simple. We have in our book an exercise called Mṛgaśayana, the deer. So he lies down on his stomach, relaxed on his bed or yoga mat, holding like this, chin. It’s very relaxed. And now, very slowly, he’s bending his knees. You can demonstrate. This is comfortable, and now one after the other leg. Try to bring it as close as you can. And you can look in your iPad to read what you want to read. Or you can read the Mahābhārata or the Mahāśivapurāṇa for 30 minutes, half an hour. You will see tomorrow that your thigh muscles have a soreness, and the muscles become strong. Because he said that when you bend the knee and then again slowly you stretch the knee, then thigh muscles become like a blocking gear, so it keeps your leg to support to go slowly. So your thigh muscles will be very strong without running, and the calf muscles. Thank you. Try, if not half an hour, then five minutes. Then you will like it very much. He will do ten minutes. What I want to tell you is: simple is more effective, especially for old people. And then the prāṇāyāma. We should be very careful with prāṇāyāma. If you want to get benefit, then learn from the beginning: Chandra Bhedana, Sūrya Bhedana—long, one month. Then Chandra Śodhana and Sūrya Śodhana. Inhale through the left, exhale through the right. Inhale through the right, exhale through the left. Oh, it’s great. This is how Yoga in Daily Life affects, and after a certain level, you come to the more advanced. We already have our curriculum, and you will get this to work. Then you will have a proper yoga teaching certificate, or what you call a diploma. Yoga teaching means you are doing some good karma. It’s called puṇya, and puṇya means good against the bad. So that’s very, very good. Then the human awareness will always be alert. So prāṇāyāma is more important and more helpful than the āsanas. Like this, our physical part of Yoga in Daily Life you have to learn by heart, and it will be good. Now, in the afternoon, we will form the groups. It doesn’t matter from which country you are. And it will give you immense peace. After that, we’ll come to how to lead the meditation in Yoga Nidrā. Today, the session is finished.