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Hari Om. Let us begin. Did you practice this morning? Very good. First of all, congratulations to all of you for successfully practicing your Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. There are different kinds of kriyās: inner kriyā, external kriyā, many different kriyās. Yogic kriyā is like when a machine is out of order and an engineer comes to repair something inside. Similarly, when we practice Kriyā Yoga Anuṣṭhāna according to Yoga in Daily Life, it makes a correction in our energy chakras. When we try to bring the chakras back into the right alignment and function, the other chakras in our body also begin to function correctly. In modern times, people have different theories, and it is similar. People go for a retreat nowadays due to too much stress at home. What a Kali Yuga! Even children say the parents are a burden: "I want to go for some days for a retreat." Or the parents say, "We want to go for some days on holiday, a retreat from the children." Or someone goes on holiday alone, without a husband. She tells about her husband, he tells about her: "I want to have peace from you. I love you, you are the best, everything is okay, but it’s too much." But in past times, it was not like that. Without your parents or your partner going on holiday, it’s stressful for one person. It’s good to have both together, the stress. As we spoke last time about the subject of the mind: where is that mind? We don’t know where the mind is living. Now, in modern technology, they call it the server. Our server is somewhere in Hong Kong, or Honolulu, or London. Who knows where our server is? This server is monitoring everything in our computer. It doesn’t matter if the server is somewhere in darkness or in the light, in a closed room or an open room. Everything is functioning. If that server is out of order, then all our instruments don’t function. So that mind is somewhere functioning, and we don’t know. We think it doesn’t matter, but for a yogī it does matter. The mind is like a reflection in a mirror, or in water, or it is within you. The mind is a stress for us. It is like having good air, and then someone puts an umbrella over you, and you start sweating. Sometimes a retreat will come, someone will remove the umbrella. If you were doing your sādhanā, that inner function, that anuṣṭhāna, it would be very good if we could do it for one month. But we have work responsibilities. Even our server is waiting for us, and we have to open our computer and work. In Yoga in Daily Life, after long years of research, I came to Holy Gurujī on July 13, 1963, at 8 o’clock p.m. I remember everything. I don’t even remember my father so much. After one month, the server is functioning. Gurujī, at 3:30 in the morning, begins his sādhanā. He woke me up and was asking that I should also meditate and do āsanas. Gurujī likes śīrṣāsana very much. He would do it for some minutes, and then change. Do not make the mistake of doing headstand continuously for 20 or 15 minutes; it is not healthy. In Slovakia, there is one village called Džiar. There I had one disciple. At that time, he was about 70 years old and practiced yoga a lot. I met him in 1974 and became his disciple. He was already practicing before. He liked śīrṣāsana, the headstand, and wanted to experiment with how much more oxygen and blood his brain would get, and how nice it would be. So he set a clock and was in śīrṣāsana for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes and 18 seconds, he fell down and became unconscious. His wife was very strict, but he was more strict. He would follow everything, but one thing he would not follow: no interference in his practice. He once said, "I gave a mokṣa, and I will take you with me to Mokṣa, to Brahmaloka." She said, "You can do everything, but don’t do this to me. I am happy in my house here." So, she called the ambulance. In the time of the Soviet Union and social politics, they had very quick ambulance service. After two days, he became normal. The doctor asked him, "What have you done?" He said, "I was doing a headstand, and I was making an experiment: how quickly can I get mokṣa? So I was in headstand." The doctor said, "I see, but now you should know, God gave us two legs to stand, not to stand on the head." So it is, as the saying goes, "Ati sarvatra varjayet"—too much of anything is not good anywhere. In our Yoga in Daily Life, we have very safe exercises and techniques. Gurujī used to do headstand for three minutes, five minutes, like this, repeating three or four times. That is good. Sometimes it can begin bleeding in the brain, heighten eye pressure very high, or damage your hearing system. So it’s good that our server is far away from this other part of the body. This server is doing everything. Gurujī used to do a few exercises, then his mālā. For about one and a half hours, he had a practice—not a name, but he always knew how many mālās he would do a day, and that is a kind of anuṣṭhāna. You should know: anuṣṭhāna means doing some sādhanā to attain perfection. It is like a doctor telling you to take medicine systematically every day at a particular time. When they give you medicine, you take it every six hours. Similarly, making our mālā, our sādhanā, every day, if we remain at that time and for that duration, it changes our biorhythm in the body. At that time, all the organs or systems in the body concentrate on that activity which you are doing. All day you work, but then the time comes, automatically you go to sleep. The dawn rises, and we are awakened. It is like this: if you go to another country and there is a difference in time, your inner rhythm is different. At an unusual time you are sleepy. What we call jet lag. Jet lag is a little bit unpleasant. If you are young, it’s okay, but sometimes even young people are confused. I said to Mahāprabhujī very clearly, "Mahāprabhujī, don’t put me in jet lag." He said, "I will put you in the jet, I will not let you go through lag." So it is already 46 years I am in jet lag. It doesn’t disturb me that much. Like a pilot, or the hostess in the aeroplane who is working, they get used to it. When we do mālā at a particular time, then after a certain period, it happens automatically that you go deep in meditation. You get particular experiences at that time. Therefore, fix a time, maybe only once a day, but remain on that time. Most of you are householders, working in some company. Many companies don’t allow reading the newspaper. We are not in a Soviet or socialist system. In the socialist system, people used to come to the office and read the newspaper first, though they didn’t have a newspaper—the newspapers were one week old. Then colleagues would make coffee. After, they had the telephones. Then one said, "I have to go to the doctor." Okay. Because it is no one’s property; it is everyone’s property. So they were more relaxed, so they had good anuṣṭhān. Without drinking coffee, they would not begin to practice. Well, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes good times are over. Now we are old, or now we are good, and that time was not good. It was torturing when we were young: "Go to school, go to school." In my life, in this school, I said, "Mahāprabhujī." That time I did not know Mahāprabhujī, but I am not going to tell. Now, in many companies and offices, they don’t want to have newspapers. They have to give telephones away. Wherever you go, you can get it, and you are on a computer that has Skype or whatever. They don’t allow it. Why? Because they say, "We pay you. We don’t pay you for reading the newspaper." If you do it two or three times, they will dismiss you. You will lose your job. So, don’t make this mistake. You sit and do your Mālā Anuṣṭhān, then your boss will come, and if it’s a Gurudev, you go now to the yoga seminar. Therefore, for us, it’s good to practice morning and evening. Before going to sleep, don’t take time away from your children, your partners, or family. At that time, you should be with your family. Don’t say, "I’m doing my meditation," while six members of the family don’t understand that you are doing meditation. You should give time for them too. So, there are certain times when we can do our mālā, but the exact time... Then you will understand what stress management meditation means. If you do it once in the afternoon, then before noon, then in the evening, and midday, after this, then it’s not your sādhanā. Our anuṣṭhāna, see what we did: Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna seminar. For those who could endure long sitting, this was the best that you could have. Be sure you can’t get everything, or mostly that spirituality, what you think. You remember, I told a story day before yesterday, or yesterday morning I think, about that king Bāṛṭhārī. When King Bāṛṭhārī became a sādhu, there was one āśrama. He was doing a four-week, four-month stay there at any time. He had a great personality. He became a sannyāsī, and there were about ten to fifteen sādhus. There was one merchant who did a seva. Every day, he used to bring good food for them. For different sādhus, different kinds of food. For King Bāṛṭhārī, he always used to bring special food, though he did not know it was the king. But his radiance, his meditation, his sādhanā, and vairāgya—he had control over his five senses, indriyas. That merchant used to bring him good food. One day, a farmer came. The farmer was standing and looking. "Oh, this sādhu is getting food for nothing. This sādhu, every day I see, he is getting such good food, like the dādā serving good food." That farmer decided to become a sannyāsī and got a little vairāgya. He went to his wife and said, "I will become a sannyāsī." She said, "Have you lost your consciousness? You know how hard it is to become a sannyāsī?" He said, "I have vairāgya." She said, okay. "Sit in the garden," and she locked the door all night. It was cold. He said, "Give me a blanket." She said, "This is vairāgya, you don’t need it." But he decided, "I want to become a sādhu." What happened? He had one turban. He made three pieces of his turban; he tore it. One as a lungi (orange), one cloth for the body, and one on the head. He applied a lot of bhasma (ash), and from his farmhouse, he brought a lot of wood and made a dhūnī (sacred fire). He sat in padmāsana, leg up and down. Now he is sitting and made a fire, a big fire. "Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya." But he was very hungry, looking for when that man would come and bring the food. His vairāgya was already at the end. The businessman, the merchant, came. Making praṇām first to every sādhu: praṇām, praṇām. He was testing who is the real vairāgī and who is a sādhu. He saw this man. He immediately sat like this, "Namaḥ Śivāya," putting on the fire. This merchant said, "It’s a new guy." A new guy needs training. Beside him was King Bāṛṭhārī. He was in his meditation, and this merchant greeted him and went. Now he brings food. The helper or the employee of the merchant was carrying food, deciding to which sādhu what to give. When they came to this farmer, who had a little vairāgya, the merchant told his servants, "Give him one half chapati, very thick, half through and half not through, and half burned. Put half an onion, not a whole onion, and half a green chili, nothing else. Serve it on the leaves of the trees." "Mahārāj Jī, Oṃ Namo Nārāyaṇa, please accept prasād, Mahā Prasād, your food here." He opened his eyes. Then they went away. He was disappointed. "Compared to this, my wife was cooking better chapati, properly fried. And this is an onion from my field, and only half." He was so confused. His vairāgya was getting down. Yes, temptation. About five meters away, that king was sitting there, a sādhu. A big plate came, and you can’t imagine how many varieties were inside. The man said, "Mahātmājī, please take this food, it’s for you." So Bāṛṭhārī opened his eyes and said, "Bless you. Please, take this food, accept this, and bless me." He gave some prasāda to him. There was something sweet, and this, and that. Now, the other one’s stomach is preparing. There is a sound. When you are very hungry and you see even only a picture of food, the stomach makes preparation inside. Someone is moving here and there. The businessman went away, and this man, the farmer, is waiting, thinking, "I think I should become his disciple. I can eat only if I become a disciple." So when the businessman went away, he came near Bāṛṭhārī and said, "Gurudev, praṇām." He said, "Yes, bless you." Now he is waiting. The bhakta is sitting like this, and Bāṛṭhārī is eating. He said it will come. It will come. He said, "Gurudev, is this enough, or should I bring something more?" He said, "No, no, it is too much for me, but I will manage." Somehow, Bāṛṭhārī realized this sādhu got vairāgya only to become like that: "I am great, I will be great." But he gave him food. This sādhu was waiting till it would be dark. He was thinking, "Pity, I destroyed my whole turban. My work in the field, no one has done. Other dress, I threw it away. I can’t go completely naked at home. If I go with this, my orange lungi, what will my wife say? Oh God!" His vairāgya and his ambition to become a sādhu were lost. The wife was sitting with a stick at home. "Where have you been?" Such an ambition to become, "I want to have vairāgya, I want to have siddhi, my Kuṇḍalinī will be awake so quickly," and this. Don’t do this. Did anyone see normal persons who go to the seminars and got a samādhi? God, do you see this? Have you anyone there? No. Yes, there is. All like you. So you are that one. You have good practice, you have your sādhanā, and you don’t expect to levitate and sit on the branches up. Therefore, Yoga in Daily Life, sādhanā, practice, techniques, and our guru paramparā are so humble, so kind, and never said, "I will give you liberation." So this anuṣṭhāna, what you had, was great. Now you see the power of the mantras, different mantras from the śāstras. There are no śāstras, no scriptures in the world, which can compare with the Vedas, Upaniṣads, etc. They are the most oldest. When you read the Bible, then exactly only 14 miracles are there. The rest all is coming from what you call the Grantha, the Old... not Old Testament, but the Vedas, Upaniṣads, and Purāṇas. There are 108 Purāṇas, but the main Purāṇas are 18. If you read, then it is very similar, connected to the Purāṇas. Ceremonies, names, mantras, many, many things turned it. It’s okay, that’s not wrong. But that is how many thousands of years? And now, this is only some years, a few thousand years, but it doesn’t matter. It is preserved. The knowledge is preserved there, but now it is getting lost, yeah. Now it is getting very much lost. In the Purāṇas, for example, there is one called Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam has 18,000 ślokas, 18,000, and not one word is repeated back again. Who was that ṛṣi who could write 18,000 ślokas? How many pages is that? Hardly one can read this ourselves and understand. Similarly, those granthas came from that vairāgya, that sādhanā, those anuṣṭhānas; those great saints became. And for us, it takes time to read one letter, and we lost our memory now. So that’s why someone said, "My son, if you have nothing in your brain, don’t worry, you have everything in your hand. But if this is lost, then who will take care of it?" What I want to tell is that this sādhanā, what you are doing, people, is very great and very sāttvic, no complications. Such a retreat, harmonious—none of them here fighting each other, none of them jealous. Sometimes, but that is different, jealous, and that’s it. What a beautiful place where we are here. So I wish you all the best and a good journey home. Mahāprabhujī bless you, and have a good journey. Come good at home, and many blessings to your family. So, vairāgya, that’s it. How many times people came to me that I want... to become a sannyāsī, I want to become, and they become many. And where are they now? They have such good sannyāsīs, you cannot imagine. Now they think that they are my guru. They say, "Swāmījī is my disciple." I say, that’s very good. To be a disciple is easier than to be a master. A master has to endure, digest, and swallow many things. That’s all. Dīpānāra Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Deva Puruṣa Mahādeva Kī Jaya. Satguru Swāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai. Oṃ Śānti. Hari Kī Jai.