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Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devādhi Deva, Deveśvara, Mahādeva Kī Jai, Satguru Svāmī Madhvānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Haradī Bhagavān Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī Kī Jai. Good evening, all dear sisters and brothers, all yogīs, yoga teachers, yoga practitioners, and to all people around the whole world. I wish that you are all healthy and doing good things on your chosen path. As I have said, as long as we are in a physical body, we are in different places with different feelings, longings, and practices. But in the end, we are all, sooner or later, going to go into God. And which God is that? There is only one God. Yet, as long as we are in a physical body here, we all like different forms of God. That is why we have different religions, different feelings, and different ways of worshipping. That is very good; everybody should follow their path. However, we should lead all towards harmony, peace, understanding, and brotherhood. The ultimate result will be known when we leave our body and our jīvātmā, our individual soul, comes forth. Then it will be clear what is right or not. Therefore, the science of yoga and all its various practices exist: to keep our body healthy, to improve our concentration, and to guide us further on the highest path. But again, this applies as long as there is life in the body. Life exists in humans, animals, vegetation—in everyone. And all are progressing further; this process is eternal. The physical human body possesses more knowledge and contains the prāṇas. Within these prāṇas and the many organs of the body lies the potential to bring us to the highest consciousness. Yet, there is also a negative consciousness that can manifest, as we see with much war, fighting, and killing. That is not the higher consciousness. So, let us proceed with yoga. Now, in this time of Corona, we all need good health, harmony, and peace. We should all strive to live healthily. Yoga is one, but within it are many different parts—physical, mental, and so on. Today we have a very simple practice, which I always call Sarvahitāsana. We also had a program yesterday and the day before on Barīkhāṭu Praṇām. More will be given about Barīkhāṭu Praṇām and what this yoga entails. We have had this program three times, but today is for Sarvahitāsana. Sarvahitāsana means something very relaxed and very good, yet it is very powerful. We will begin with Sarvahitā Āsana. What does this mean? It is called Sarva Hita Yoga. This is very important. We will do it so the practitioner can experience what is called the Ānanda Āsana. In Ānanda Āsana, our practitioner will relax and lie down. You can remove any extra layers. Relax yourself now. I will guide our yogī, our Swāmī Umapurījī, who is practicing in front of you. Our student, his name is Vidyā. Hari Om. Kumbhapurī Jī, Hari Om. Hari Om. A very good evening or good morning to everybody who is with us via Swamijī TV and webcast. You are welcome to practice with us again. We continue with our Sarvahitā Āsana, Level One, Part One, from the Yoga in Daily Life system. First, as our Gurudev explained, we always start with Ānanda Āsana. Ānanda means bliss. Completely relax. Withdraw yourself from the outer world, relax your mind and your whole body. Make yourself comfortable. Position your legs a little apart, arms beside your body, and your head in a good, comfortable, middle position. Then close your eyes. Take one deep breath in, and exhale. Relax. Breathe and come to yourself with your thoughts and body awareness. Know in which room you are, feel the space around you. Feel your whole body and relax it: your shoulders, your back muscles. Relax the middle of your back, the spinal column, your buttocks. Relax your hip joints, your right thigh muscles, your knee. Relax your shin and shin muscle, your calf muscles, the ankle joint, your foot, your toes. Feel your foot so your whole right leg relaxes. Bring your awareness to your left foot. Relax your toes, the whole foot, your ankle joints, your calf muscles, shin and shin muscle. Feel your knee and relax it, your thigh muscles. With both legs relaxed, relax your belly and stomach muscles. Feel the left side muscles up to your armpits, the left side of your chest and chest muscle, the shoulder, your upper arm, elbow, lower arm, the wrist, your whole hands and fingers. Relax your whole left arm and bring awareness to your right hand. Relax your fingers, especially the thumb, your wrist, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, your shoulder. Relax and feel your chest muscles and the right side of your chest. Relax your armpits. Feel the right side muscles. Now both arms are comfortable and relaxed. Bring your awareness to your neck. Imagine that your neck becomes longer. Let your chin move slightly toward your collar bones. Do not shorten your neck. Relax your neck muscles, also the chewing muscles. Do not clench your teeth. Relax your lower jaw, your ears, the whole skin of your head, your forehead, the eyebrow center. Your eyebrows and eyelids are gently closed. Your eyeballs look down, toward your nostrils or the tip of your nose. In this way, you relax your eye muscles. Relax the back of your nose, nostrils, cheeks, your lips, your tongue, your throat muscles. If needed, swallow or make a sound. Relax your chin, your throat, and the middle of your chest, your heart center. Relax. Be aware of your breath, your inhalation and exhalation. After exhalation, there is a short break. Wait until the inhalation comes by itself. Relax your thoughts. In this way, we get ready and prepare ourselves for our practice, for Sarvahitāsana. Take one deep breath, a deep inhale, and exhale spontaneously. Feel your whole body from head to toe and from your toes to the top of your head. Also, be aware of the room you are in, the space around you. Begin to move gently your fingers, your hands, your toes and feet, your ankle joints. Bring your arms beside your shoulders, palms facing upwards. Turn your head to the left and right side without lifting your head—only movement left and right. Then bend and stretch your elbows one after the other. Bend and stretch your knees. Stretch your whole right side of your body with a deep inhalation, and come back. Inhale according to your capacity, and with exhalation, release the stretching. Bring your arm back. Move from the center of your body to the periphery with your stretching, and then come back. For those with high blood pressure, do not hold your breath for long. Inhale and exhale, relax. Once more, stretch your whole body, both arms above the head. Bring your lower back down with the help of your belly and come back. This strengthens our whole blood circulation and nervous system. With exhalation, relax. Bend both knees and hold them. Slowly roll to the left and right side. You can initiate the movement with your head and let your body follow. This relaxes our neck muscles. Turn your head first and let your body follow a little dynamically. We can do this movement after relaxing, after resting. It gives our back a massage, warms our back, and then slowly from the side position we sit up. Make yourself comfortable in either Sīt Āsana, Sukhāsana, Vajrāsana, or Padmāsana—any meditation posture. For half a minute, close your eyes. Prepare yourself for the coming spiritual practice of Sarvahitā Āsana. Mentally offer your praṇām to your Gurudev before you start to practice. Deep inhale and exhale. Hari Om. Slowly look down and open your eyes. Slowly sit in Vajrāsana, please. From Vajrāsana, get up. Look down. Those with low blood pressure, please look down at your mat and slowly get up. Stand straight, legs a little apart—a little more than hip-width. Our next āsana is very good for our elbows. First bring your elbows, then stretch your arms in front, palms facing upwards at shoulder height. The arms remain at shoulder height. If you tend to bend your lower back too much, keep your knees slightly bent. Then slowly, with your inhalation, bring your fingers to your shoulders, all five fingers touching the shoulders. Elbows remain at shoulder height. Exhale and stretch your arms. Continue in this way: inhale to the shoulders, exhale to stretching. This is a very good exercise for the movement of our elbows without weight on them. The movement brings more circulation to the joint, more prāṇa, and better blood circulation. The slight pressure and stretching of the joint produces more nourishment, which is important for the cartilage, but only through movement without weight. Now, in this position, bring your arms to the side. Ensure the elbows are at shoulder height and stretch your arms to the side, palms facing upwards. To check your alignment, you can stand near a wall with your heels and arms touching it, then bend to the shoulder and stretch completely. Do not bring your arms too far forward or too far back. Continue for three more rounds. Every movement we do with our joints without weight is very helpful to nourish our cartilage, which covers our bones. Very good. Thank you. Arms down, relax. The next āsana is in a sitting position with legs stretched—Daṇḍāsana. In this position, we sit with the upper part of the body straight. Your hands can be beside your hips, fingers facing backwards. Try to stretch the backside of your leg, the leg muscles. Very good. And relax. The coming āsana is the butterfly, the half butterfly—a very good exercise for our hips, keeping them flexible. This āsana is needed for our meditation postures. First, bring your leg into your armpits and move your leg inside and outside. Be careful if you have knee pain; you can stretch the knee a little to avoid too much pain. You can try, but do not go beyond your pain threshold. In the beginning, some discomfort is normal, but everyone is responsible for their own body. Slowly try to bring your foot closer to the inner part of your hip. Hold your toes and gently make a whipping movement. Those with knee pain can place the foot beside the thigh, as shown in our video. Do not torture yourself. Now, bring your foot up again and make the movement until your knee touches the ground. This takes time; we are in Level One, Part One, but the butterfly will be with us lifelong in our yoga practice. Now stretch your left arm up completely. Bend forward and hold your toes. Please avoid the mistake of dropping your head down while your back is bent. Lift your head and keep your shoulders down, moving the knee. Very good. On one side, we stretch the back of our leg, and on the other, we stretch the muscles of our foot and move the hip. Very good. Now stretch again, bring your arm up, and with your right hand, hold your right toes. Your left arm can go down as you stretch your right leg forward. Very good. Bring your leg down. Now we do the other leg. First, hold and gently rock it like a baby, moving inside and outside, being careful with your knee. Check if you can do it. All practitioners of Yoga in Daily Life practice this butterfly and half butterfly, bringing the foot to the inner part of the hip and gently whipping. As said, if you have knee problems, you can place the foot beside your thigh. Be gentle with your body. Stretch your whole right arm up and exhale. Bend forward, hold your toes, try to keep the leg straight, head upright. Keep your back straight and move. Again, bring your right arm up, stretch, and hold your left foot with your left hand. Stretch your foot forward and bring it down. Very good. Now hold the butterfly position with both feet together, soles touching. Hold them. You can move your whole pelvis left and right. Very good. This is helpful for sciatic problems, massaging the sciatic nerve. Then, in the middle, gently whip your legs. There is one more exercise in this butterfly: bring your elbows apart from each other, hold your toes, and with exhalation, slowly bend forward, elbows moving, until you bring your nose to your feet. This is for advanced practitioners who have practiced for years. Young, flexible people may do it immediately, but at our age, we practice Sarvahitā Āsana. With inhalation, come up again slowly, moving forward. Very good. Stretch your legs again. Very good. Butterfly and half butterfly are complete. Shake your thighs and legs a little. We come to our next posture, again in a standing position. Stand with legs about half a meter apart—at least half a meter, the length of your lower leg. A little more is fine. This coming movement builds strength in our knees and trains the balance of the whole body, but the legs must be a little more apart. Take care: one foot faces outward. Let’s start with the right foot facing outward—only the foot, not the upper body. Ensure that when you bend your knee and bring your whole body weight onto the right leg, you do not create an inward kink or an X-position with the knee. Bring the weight completely onto the whole foot sole, not just the toes or heel. That is why the legs must be a bit apart. Of course, the distance varies with size. Now start: knee and foot are in one line. With exhalation, bend your knee and bring your body weight onto that leg. Keep all parts of the body straight; do not bend forward. Inhale and come back. Once more, exhale. Balance and bring the body weight onto your right knee. Pay attention to your knee position. Inhale and come back. Once more. This is very good for our balance, strengthens our foot muscles, knee, and leg muscles. This āsana is done for five rounds. Very good. Now bring your foot back to the middle. Change to the other leg. You can adjust your stance if the legs feel too far apart. Check yourself. The main point is that the foot soles have equal weight on toes and heels, and the knee is in line with the foot. Exhale, bend only a little. Inhale back. It need not be extreme; a little is enough. Very good. And back. Once more. Very good. This is helpful for the knees. If you have knee problems, this is not extreme acrobatics; we are in Sarvahitā Āsana. Everybody can do it. It is good for our whole body. Sarva means all, so it is for everyone and for the whole body. Good. Very good. Bring your legs together. Next is strengthening for our foot muscles, very good for our toes. Bring your right leg a little in front—not too soft, not too hard. Very good. Bring the weight of your whole body onto your toes and the various joints of your foot. This is very good for those with hallux or hematoma. Only bend your right knee. Lift your heel and bring weight onto your toes. Lift the heel more. Very good. Do not bend forward; keep your body straight. Keep the weight on your toes. Yes, give a little weight, but do not bend forward. A little more. Let the whole body weight go there. Yes, very good. This also trains our balance. You can place your hands on your hips. Hold the position a little. Very good. One can feel better blood circulation in the foot. We feel life returning; more prāṇa is there. Now change feet. Check your position. Lift your heel and bring weight onto your toes. We have so many points on our foot soles—acupressure points, so many chakras. Each chakra symbolizes an organ. So this āsana, this movement, works on our whole body, affecting all our organs up to the top of our head. It is like an acupressure massage. Those who always have cold feet in winter will have warm feet, better blood circulation. Very good. Thank you, dear Vidyā. Now we come into Vajrāsana. Vajra means iron, meaning strong. It makes our immunity strong. Those with knee problems, please use a meditation seat or cushion. Get ready for Marjari. One of the best movements in our Yoga in Daily Life program, it keeps our spinal column flexible, the discs between the vertebrae well-nourished and elastic, like a cat. That is why Marjari, when translated, is the cat movement, or Biliāsana for the male cat. For Marjari, start with legs a little apart, like your hips are not completely together. With a straight upper body and inhalation, come up into a kneeling stance. Place your palms down, also at shoulder distance. Stretch your fingers well. Ensure your fingers are not bent. Exhale, bend your whole back, and look toward your stomach—your neck also moves. Use your stomach a little to press up your lower back. Slowly, with inhalation, relax your back, especially between your shoulder blades, and lift your neck a little. Again, make a round back. Exhale completely. Use your belly and stomach muscles to stretch the lower part of your back, and relax. Relax your back. Keep elbows straight. If you have neck problems, keep your neck straight; you need not look up. Continue. As you follow this movement, you can see how nicely the back muscles stretch, how deeply you exhale, and how it works on your thoracic area, ribs, and lungs. It massages our whole inner organs. Those with wrist problems can bend their elbows until the lower arms touch the ground. You can do Marjari in this position. Some people, especially in advanced age, have wrist problems. This variation of Marjari has more effect on the thoracic spine because the lumbar part does not move as much. It is a very good exercise for stiffness between the shoulder blades. After exhalation, please come up into a kneeling position. With a straight upper body, sit down with the help of your thigh muscles and relax your arms. We practice Marjari for three rounds. Now we come to our next movement. Stretch your legs in Daṇḍāsana. Here we are only learning and teaching; practicing must be done at home according to our system, Yoga in Daily Life, with book or online guidance, and best with a yoga teacher. Next is Pavanamuktāsana, which is very helpful for hip movement, digestion, and relieving tension in the neck and shoulders from too much sitting, computer work, or writing. We start with the right leg because digestion, the large intestine, goes from right to left. Therefore, pressure first from the right leg, right thigh muscles, and right side of the belly helps our digestion when it is slow. Please interlock your fingers under the right knee. If you cannot due to finger pain, hold from the front after bending your knee. But now, we do it like this. One thing I would like to say: when practicing yoga, try to remove watches, jewels, rings, necklaces. It is not helpful and makes practice easier. Now, slowly bend your knee first and bring it to your belly. The foot is relaxed. Make your neck long and shoulders down. With exhalation, bring your head, your forehead, toward the knee. Try to pull your shoulders down, not up. The video shows how not to do it—not like this. So pull shoulders down and bring your forehead to your knee. Bend your back, of course, otherwise you cannot come forward. Very good. Then, inhale, lift your head straight, and stretch your leg forward. Do not put it down; keep holding. Again, exhale, bring it to your belly. Relax your foot and bring your forehead as far as you can to your knee. Shoulders down. Inhale, stretch your leg. Third round. Exhale. Make your back round a little. Very good. Relax your foot and inhale, stretch your leg down to the ground. Interlock your fingers under the left knee. Start with exhalation, bringing the knee toward your belly. Exhale, forehead to knee. Inhale, stretch your leg. Two rounds more. Pavanamuktāsana is very helpful for our whole back, hips, and digestion. Very good. Stretch both legs. Hands beside your hips. Breathe in deeply and exhale. Sit in a meditation posture—Sukhāsana, Siddhāsana, or Vajrāsana. For half a minute, close your eyes. Bring your hands into Jñāna Mudrā or Chin Mudrā. The main thing is to relax your elbows and shoulders. Feel your whole body after practicing Sarvahitāsana. Take a deep breath. Mentally offer praṇām to your Gurudev, your Master, who is your guidance. Deep inhale. We will sing Om once. Deep inhale. Oṁ nāhaṁ kartāḥ prabhu, dīpa kartāḥ Mahāprabhujī, dīpa kartāḥ hī kevalam. Om śānti śānti... Release your Jñāna Mudrā. Bring your palms together. Place your palms on your eyes and forehead. Open your eyes and look at your palms first. Hari Om. You can bend forward, relaxing legs, neck, shoulders. Hari Om. Thank you very much, our dear Swāmī Umāpurī Jī. Very nice. It is powerful. Bless you all the best. Thank you.