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Nāma karatam prabhudīpa karatam, mahāṁ prabhudīpa kartāhi kevalam, oṁ śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ hi. Śrī Alak Purī, Jīsīdā, Pitā, Paramparā, Kī, Jaya. Hari Oṁ, dear brothers and sisters here in Strelky and those watching Swāmījī TV. I am very happy to be here in Strelky. It was a small surprise for me to come, as I did not think I would be here on Thursday. Yesterday's conference in Brno was truly beautiful, and it is amazing that everything was organized in such a short time—a real training for the organizers, and everything was perfectly arranged. In the previous bhajan, we heard that sādhanā is very important, and there are many kinds of sādhanā. Viśvagurujī also practices this regarding time and place. To organize such a large event in a short time is one such sādhanā. Yesterday's topic was the health benefits of yoga for physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. The current situation with COVID is not the first pandemic in human history; there have been many far worse. What is most important for all of us is to attain peace of mind. If we live in fear, constantly amidst waves of emotion and negative thoughts, we live in hell. When we live in hell, we see hell all around us, because the entire world around us is a manifestation of our thoughts. I am not a fan of the "New Age." When I say that our thoughts manifest and shape the world around us, I do not mean it in a New Age way. Rather, as we say in art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you have a broken leg and walk with a limp through the city, you will see many others with the same problem. In that moment, because you are focused on your own problem, you see it everywhere. That is the issue. With Gurujī, in recent days and in almost all seminars here, there has been talk about chakras—the hidden power within humans: cakra and kuṇḍalinī. For me, one of the most important points in that teaching is when you begin to read about the Maṇipūra Cakra. You see that the level of consciousness of Maṇipūra Cakra is like being in heaven. In one bhajan, it is said that a thousand miles above heaven sits Lord Rāma. Heaven is where Lord Rāma sits, and that relates to Maṇipūra Cakra and Sahasrāra Cakra. It is a long journey. But when you ask someone how they are, and they reply, "Not good, I have problems," and constantly speak of negativity, it means we are not yet established in the Maṇipūra Cakra, yet we try to speak to others about the spiritual experience of Sahasrāra. The main thing is to truly feel happy inside. Many years ago, I heard from someone that people always tell children, "Be good, be good." If you only try to be good, you may end up with psychological problems. The most important thing is to feel good. When you feel good inside, you will naturally be a good person. This is one aspect of yoga: to feel good in our own skin, in our body. It is not merely physical stretching. I joke that if we did not have modern yoga pants and attire for ladies, many of the new āsanas we see on the internet would not exist, as they are based on the body and its pleasing shape. But that is not yoga. One thing I learned from Viśvagurujī many years ago is this: if your material life is not going well, your spiritual life should be beautiful. We are not meant to suffer in our spirituality or spiritual life, unlike some other systems that say you must suffer to attain something. Our spiritual life should be full of joy. We should feel that joy inside, and when we do, we will radiate it like the sun. This is very important. Look at pictures of the great masters, the great incarnations. Look at pictures of Gurujī, Swāmījī, Mahāprabhujī. Look into their eyes. It is easy because we have many pictures of Gurujī. If you look into Gurujī's eyes, you will see that joy, that sparkle—not suffering, but joy. The bhajan also says this yogī is full of joy, intoxicated with love, without fear. That is the most important thing. Fear creates darkness. Fear causes us to close up completely. Because of fear, we do many negative things. But without fear, that joy, that expansion of the heart, makes us truly like a sun. For me, we may choose two ways: to be like a black hole or to be like a sun. A black hole sucks everything inside, even light, and is never filled. It always takes more and more. Our life can also be like that: more material things, more food, more resources, more partners in relationships. Yet we always feel inside that something is missing; we have an inner emptiness. That is hell. The other way is to not live in the fear of losing something. As Viśvagurujī often says in meditation: just give. Give understanding, give love, give energy. We always learn from Swāmījī about something like a water wheel: the more you take, the more fresh water comes in. That is the life of the sun. This is also our decision—not only a decision but also sādhanā, practice. We must constantly be aware of these things, aware that in this life we are not here just to collect more stuff, but to give. Yesterday, I mentioned meditation briefly. When you look at our meditation, the first three levels of Ātmā Cintan, you will see that almost everything found in modern mindfulness practices is contained within them. Not only what we need, but when you read about these new techniques, you realize, "Yes, I know this—it's in the first, second, or third level of this meditation." But what Viśvagurujī has given us is not only this; it is much, much more. It is about going within, not just feeling good, but going beyond saṁsāra. In physics—I do not know modern physics, I am from an older generation—we learned about atoms, with electrons orbiting. I had a professor who taught that an electron's aim is to go up, to reach a free state, no longer bound to a shell. That is electricity. At that time, I was already practicing yoga, and I thought, "Yes, Swāmījī also says this about saṁsāra and becoming free." But there is a problem with this electron: sometimes, if it has energy but not enough to jump to a higher shell, it loses energy and falls to a lower shell. That is what we heard about yesterday. That is like the ego. In spirituality, the biggest problem is often the ego. The moment we think, "Oh, I am great, I managed something," the ego makes us lose a lot of energy, and we fall down. Yesterday we heard a story about two brothers and a mango, which also illustrates that fear, that black-hole mentality of "mine, my child." To attain a state of mind where everyone is the same to us, without fear of loss, is not easy. We can understand a human being on three levels. From the toes to the hip joints, up to the Mūlādhāra, is the animal level. From Mūlādhāra to Viśuddhi is the human level, and above that is Divine Consciousness. We constantly dwell between the animal and the human. Sometimes we are happy in the Mūlādhāra Cakra. It is said that fear is not a human quality; fear is an animal quality. Consider how much fear we all have. To be free of fear, I remember a seminar at VEP where Swāmījī said, "If you want to accomplish something, you must first become free of fear and complexes. Try to do this by the next seminar." In that moment, the whole hall laughed. I often think about this first step we must complete: fear and complexes. You hear on YouTube and read in books that small minds talk about other people, average minds talk about events, and great minds talk about ideas. When we have fear and complexes, we are always involved in talking about other people because our ego and complexes are constantly chattering inside. Now is the start of a new school year. A few days ago was the Jewish New Year. In yoga, we also start a new school year. The summer seminars with Viśvagurujī are finished. Now is the time to integrate, practice, and utilize what we have learned. Gurujī has placed this in our lives: "Okay, now is the new school year." Every day is a new year, but now summer holidays and seminars are over; we must work again. This does not mean an end to our practice, but we should try to utilize more of what we learn from Swāmījī. It is easier to be a good disciple at a seminar. But when we are at home, with family, paying bills, thinking about what to cook—that is also a big problem. I remember when I was young, I did not think about this. Swāmījī said, "On Anuṣṭhān, you are happy here. You don't need to clean, cook, or work. Just sit and meditate." At that time, I had big problems with my spine and knees. We joked that I did not have chakras, only knees. I wondered, "What is Swāmījī talking about?" But Swāmījī is always right; sometimes it takes 20 or 30 years to understand. Now I know that on Anuṣṭhān we are the happiest people. We don't need to do anything; just sit, relax, and enjoy. But when we return home, our usual problems begin. I think that is the moment when real sādhanā becomes very important. Yesterday, on the way from Zagreb to Brno, we discussed sleepiness. We talked about coffee, guarana, and other supplements. I have tried everything, and nothing works. The only thing that works is practicing yoga, specifically prāṇāyāma. If we practice sincerely, we will see we have more energy and can manage life's problems more easily. For the last year and a half, almost two years, we have had COVID. Many people stopped practicing because there were no in-person yoga classes. But I met these people on the street, and 90% said, "Yoga really helped me." Many said they did not even realize they had COVID; only when their spouse tested positive did they discover they were positive too, but asymptomatic. In that moment, they became a yoga teacher for their partner, teaching breathing techniques learned from Swāmījī, usually with great results. Many years ago, a lady who practiced yoga was in a car accident. Months later, I met her on the street, and she said everything she learned in yoga was truly functional. That is the beauty. Usually, when you practice daily, you do not see a big difference, just as you do not notice the grass growing if you look at the garden every day. But if you do not look for a week, you see it has grown tall. It is the same with hair. The beauty of yoga is that it is gentle, nice, and growing. Our problem is that we do not see a big difference and think it is not functional. But in times of trouble, like injury or illness, you realize the great benefit of complete yoga breathing. If we want to survive this life—though ultimately no one does; I read a headline: "No one gets out of here alive"—if we want to go through life without major problems, it is very important to have regular sādhanā. If we do not see a big difference or rapid development in our sādhanā, that is good. Grass grows slowly. When you plant a seed, it grows slowly, and that is how it survives. If you plant a seed and it grows half a meter in three days, you know what will happen on the fifth day: it will fall over and die. Therefore, it is very important that our sādhanā, our practice, is not overly visible. Not a dramatic change in two days, but slowly, slowly. Practice every day. What we gained from the summer seminar, we should try to retain, not lose in a few days, and continue further. That is very important for us. When we meditate, practice, and live our lives, we should try to be with inner joy and happiness. One thing I learned from Viśvagurujī here in Strelky was during a meditation. You know that moment when you remember exactly where you sat and how the hall looked—a vivid memory that is very important to you. I remember Swāmījī leading a meditation and saying, "A little smile," speaking about Madhurī Mudrā. In that moment, he said, "If I saw your face first in the morning, I would be afraid of you," because people often look so serious during meditation. "A little smile." Then he joked, "I will take a stick." In that moment, everyone smiled. From then on, I started to practice and talk about this Madhurī Mudrā. It is so important. Try an experiment. Even when you read Gandhi's autobiography, you see it is subtitled as the diary of an experiment. Yoga is a science because you are working on an experiment. In science, if you get the same result many times, it is considered true. You have friends around you, and you will see they also have experiences—not necessarily spiritual visions, which are usually not for discussion—but in yoga class you can make an experiment. Try to make a nice, smiling face, not just a superficial smile, and try to feel your inner self. Feel your body; you will feel expansion. If you frown, you will feel contraction. This is important. When you want to relax your whole body, you will not relax enough by force, but with a nice, honey-sweet (madhurī) expression on your face, you will feel a melting, pleasant, expanding feeling. I remember a sentence from Swāmī Vivekānanda: if you see a yogī without a pleasant face, but with worry, you can be 100% sure he or she has a digestive problem. When you have intestinal or digestive issues, you are not smiling; if you do smile, it is a bitter smile. When you read the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā and the explanation of Śaṅkaprakṣālana Kriyā, you will see it is very important to practice in good company. If you practice Śaṅkaprakṣālana Kriyā while worried or fearful, it is as if a ghost is sitting on you; nothing will move. But if you practice with joy—the first time may not be joyful, as you wonder what will happen—but afterwards, when you practice with joy and relaxation, I always joke with people during Śaṅkaprakṣālana that we will tell jokes if needed. When you release tension, worry, and fear, everything goes smoothly. That is important. If you read about "flow," not the flow of āsanas, but the state of flow often discussed by coaches, you will find one key thing: be relaxed and enjoy the moment. Everything flows. You know when you try to hammer a nail into a wall: if someone is standing behind you watching, you become fearful, and soon you will hit your thumb and not do it properly. It is the same with our sādhanā. Relax, enjoy. It is also very important that we love our sādhanā, our practice. Only by loving the path and the aim will we reach the goal. I always talk about my experience learning piano. I hated practicing; it was torture. Because of that, I spent three years in the first class and never progressed. In yoga class, I have met many piano teachers, and I know they all enjoy practicing—not just performing in concerts, but they enjoy five, six, or eight hours of playing. That is the secret: enjoy your practice, enjoy your sādhanā, enjoy being at home. I will see you this evening with Viśvagurujī. Śrīdīpana, Bhagavān, thank you. Jaya.