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It is not easy to gain his time, and this evening we are very happy that we can welcome him in this hall. On the placards was written "The Path to Freedom," and no one wrote that there isn't any. I think you came because your view about freedom and the path towards freedom is different. I wish you a very nice lecture. Swamiji, welcome to Prague. We are looking forward to your words. Děkuji. We always begin with a mantra. In Sanskrit, I will chant first: Asato mā sadgamaya. (Lead us from unreality to reality.) Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. (Lead us from darkness to light.) Mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya. (Lead us from mortality to immortality.) Harmony and happiness should be everywhere. May we all achieve fulfillment. Lokaḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu. (May the whole world be happy.) Nāhaṁ kartā. (I am not the doer.) Prabhudī pakartā. (The Lord is the doer.) Only Mahāprabhujī is the doer. Only Mahāprabhujī, the Lord, is the doer. Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. (May there be peace, peace, peace.) Salutation to the cosmic light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. In His holy presence, good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome. I am very happy to see you. I am a blessed one, that God gave me the opportunity to serve you. Our dear brother Roman said that it is very hard for Swamiji to find the time to come here. But I must tell you, I always have time for Prague. I am very happy whenever I can come. Thank you. The subject is given: Path to Freedom. I know that you people love freedom. Who doesn’t love freedom? In the months of July and August, the organizers were asking me to come here this evening. "Swamiji, will you speak about chakras, kuṇḍalinī, or some other subject?" I closed my eyes for some seconds, and Mahāprabhujī appeared in my vision and said, "Mokṣa"—the path to freedom. We in India used to say, "Parāya adhīna svapnasukha nahī." If you are depending on someone, you will not be happy even in your dreams. So if we depend on someone, we are not free. Each and every creature is struggling to be free. Sometimes we know the path to freedom, but we don’t know how to go. I remember one beautiful poster printed by Amnesty International, I think about 30 years ago. There was a prisoner in a basement, a dark room, in the form of a pigeon, a bird. There was a small window where light was coming in, so that anytime the pigeon could fly in or out. The window was open, but on one of the legs of the pigeon was tied a chain, and the chain was hooked to a big iron ball, maybe 400 times heavier than the pigeon. The pigeon sees the way, the path. It is open. The light is coming, and inside there is a feeling to fly out into freedom. But the weight which is hung on its leg is too heavy for it to fly. That poster went very deep into my consciousness, and at that time I began to think, "What does freedom mean?" I came to Czechoslovakia in 1973, and a few times I told about this poster. Twice someone interviewed me. Well, dear brothers and sisters, there is a bird, and someone has cut off its wings. The bird is sitting on the ground and would like to fly away. It sees a cat coming. The muscles of the bird are moving, trying to fly, but the wings are cut off. What is the situation? You are sitting in the free sky. Would you like to fly? But the wings are chipped off. And the death—the cat—is approaching you. And you would like to be free, but you can’t. These two wings mean emotional attachment on both sides, and there is a lot of jealousy, misunderstanding, and conflict, but you cannot free yourself, and the death of old age is approaching slowly, slowly. So there are many different kinds of prison: the emotional prison, the intellectual prison, the social prison, the political prison, and the most terrible is the prison of ignorance. That’s why this mantra, which I chanted from the Upaniṣad: "Asato mā sadgamaya." Lead us from unreality to reality. Unreality is that which is caused by ignorance. "Jeho saṁsāra svapnavaté." This world is like a dream. You will wake up and it will disappear. And therefore it is said, "Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya." Lead us from the darkness of ignorance to the light of wisdom. You cannot buy wisdom. You cannot borrow wisdom. There is no medicine to swallow to have wisdom. You have to realize the wisdom. You have to gain the wisdom. I must say we cannot be thankful enough to the holy land of India. Those great saints who had such divine, golden thoughts; numbers of the incarnations incarnated on that holy soil. They researched the cause, the action, and the result. Cause, action, and result. The body, the entire creation, the 8.4 million different creatures, the emotion, the intellect, the memory, the levels of consciousness, and the soul—these are the few philosophies of the world that declared the soul. About 15 years ago, or more than 15 years—time goes so quickly, you know. When I look in the mirror, I also see I have gray hair. Once I spoke in Czechoslovakia, "We are yogīs, we will not get old, we will always have black, good hair. We practice yoga, we will not be old." Now, when I look in the mirror, I say, "That was my ego." No one can stop this process. Dharma of the body is to be born, to grow, and to die. In the spring, the leaves come; in summer, they grow; and now, in this fall season, they will fall down. We are a tree, which is a mobile tree. This environment, atmosphere, and seasons influence the vegetation as well as the humans. I think it was longer than 15 years ago. I was sitting in Vienna with some disciples, and we heard the evening news. In the news, it was said that scientists in Germany discovered animals also have a soul. I didn’t understand, and then I asked the person, the Mātajī, Katerina. She said, "They say the animals also have a soul." I said, "Thank you." At least after certain centuries, they realized animals also have a soul. They said, "The beauty of these flowers is there in the garden where they begin to blossom." But we want to carry the beauty everywhere. So, soul, my dear. The soul is individual, and the soul has its destiny. The destiny is created out of those actions, and the result of the action, the reaction, is the destiny. The desires which awaken out of ignorance. We say, "Vāsanā hi duḥkhāṅka kāreṅhe." The desires are the result of the troubles, or a cause of the troubles: the desires. So there are two kinds of vāsanās. One is natural, and one is out of greed. And greed is out of ignorance, that we do not know the limitation. And that’s what Gandhījī said: Mother Earth has enough for everyone’s needs, but not for greed. Greed has no limitation, and this greed has imprisoned humanity. This greed has caused these climate changes and global warming. And you cannot run away from this. So, the ignorance. Therefore, the ṛṣis, through their meditation—there were no other instruments—the yogīs were able to travel with the astral body through the two thousand one hundred different planets. This means the sun systems, two thousand one hundred. "Ikiso brahmāṇḍa." Brahmāṇḍa is one sun system. And then they got further information: there are still many, many millions of Brahmāṇḍas existing. To come back from there is not easy, like you come from a dream back to your conscious life. Buddha is writing about the time of his enlightenment. Prince Siddhartha was a Hindu. He got vairāgya, meaning detachment from the world. He would like to know what is the reality, how to come out of this prison of birth and death. This is one cycle of birth and death: 8.4 million different kinds of creatures, and one is the human. Through human life, you can do something to liberate thyself, to come to freedom. If you miss this chance, we are not sure if we will be born again as a human. Yours and my karmas will decide. No one can decide for us. Even God cannot decide. If you come to God—doesn’t matter which one, Brahma, Viṣṇu, Śiva, or incarnations like Kṛṣṇa, Buddha, Jesus, or Muḥammad—and you said, "Please, can you liberate me now?" They will say, it’s not in our law. The cosmic law is different, and we cannot break that law, though we have created this law. There was a king, and he made a law in his kingdom. He had a meeting, an audience, and he announced the new constitution. Then he said, "My citizens, but this law does not apply to me. No one can punish me," he said. When the king said this, we couldn’t say anything against. Whoever speaks will die. Then the master came with one stick, and three times he beat with the stick on the head of the king. King Dharmadaṇḍ... the dharmas will punish you. So whatever you do, either king or a normal citizen, karmas will not let you free. Since that time, the holy persons were carrying a stick with them. You have in Christianity the priest; they have a separate stick, not for you, but for the sheep. So this stick means the dharma daṇḍ. Daṇḍ means the stick, and daṇḍ also means punishment. So Buddha said, "I would like to know in his divine consciousness, where is my beginning?" He said that he went from the higher consciousness back to the stone consciousness. The more deeply he couldn’t go, then he came back again. While coming back, he didn’t find any differences. One is. There was nothing. Even he couldn’t find himself. And therefore, Buddha said there are no forms, nothing. This is a teaching of the Vedānta, that I am the ātmā: nitya (everlasting), nirañjan (pure, spotless), nirākār (without any form). "Nirākār niranjan nitya chidānanda bodhaya." That is the ātmā. From that point, Buddha couldn’t do anything else, and he called that enlightenment. Buddha means buddhi. Buddhi means intellect. And that buddhi, intellect, was enlightened—not like this, but the light of wisdom. So, enlightened one, automatically you can say Buddha. Buddha led a very pure vegetarian life. After that, those who follow the teaching of that Siddhārtha declare themselves that they are Buddhists, meaning following of Siddhartha’s intellect or consciousness: Bodhisattva. There are three guṇas: rajas, tamas, and sattva. Bodhi means the intellect, that your intellect became pure, above the three guṇas: bodhi. But there will be again the incarnation, not completely liberated. And therefore many monks declare that they are the incarnation of the Buddha. If Buddha is completely become one with the Brahman, he cannot incarnate. But that level of consciousness will again manifest, of course, with higher levels. So still there is no freedom. So the soul is bound by karmas. So we have to come above this level of consciousness. Therefore, as individuals, we are many. The individual soul is traveling. I always used to say the soul is wandering through the endless universe. Fluttering are the times of the waves, the yugas, the manvantaras. It is the time for experiencing light and darkness, pain and pleasure. This individual is not anymore free. Again, he tries to go and comes back. One great saint, his name was Sūradāsa, a great bhakta of Krishna, and he was blind. But his devotion and his poetry were so beautiful, hardly you will find any Indian who doesn’t know who Sūrdāsa was. When Sūradāsa begins to sing, full of devotion, the song to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa used to come and sit and listen like a little baby to him, like this. Your love can melt the rock; your confidence and love can manifest the entire universe in front of you. But you have to be that love. So, does it, Lord, come to me? If you don’t come, I am unhappy. I am disappointed. I would like to go away from you, but, Lord, I am that bird which is sitting on a big ferry, and the ferry is in the middle of the ocean, thousands of kilometers distance. I would like to leave you and fly away. But Lord, nowhere I see the shelter. Again I have to fly to rest to this very place. So our soul should find a shelter at the holy feet of the Divine. Above that, it was the yogīs. They found there is a self: Ātmā. Ātmā is universal. As ātmā, you and me, we are one, like space is a space. No different. So that ātmā jñāna means self-realization. So complete freedom, or you may call it liberation, means the ātmā jñāna. When you get ātmā jñāna, then everything for you is like toys of children. Everything is a toy. There is no death. There is no birth. There is no world existing. It is just your imagination. "Jise śastra kāṭe na, agni jalaave." No weapons can kill that ātmā. No elements can destroy; fire cannot burn. "Jise śastra kāṭe na, agni jalaave, bujhāve na, pānī na, mṛti na mitāve." Even death cannot take it away, because death, there is no more death. Death is individual; ātmā is universal. This space you cannot destroy, but what is created, that you can destroy. So what is created one day will be destroyed. Who came will go, and who is born will die, but you are unborn. The manifestation is the individual soul, and the soul is a bundle of karmas. And karmas are caused by desires, and desires make us dependent. We are imprisoned by our desires. If someone is in prison, why did one come to prison? That was his or her ignorance and desires. Why did you do it? Because you did not know, or you were forced by some desires. Therefore, the first path to freedom: limit your desires, reduce your needs, then you will see the light of hope. Yes, the window is open for you. And now, these hundreds of kilos that are hanging on your foot, this burden of karma, you can slowly, slowly reduce through your prayers, meditations, and mantras. If you don’t believe in these three—mantra, meditation, and prayer—okay, you need not do them. But still, you can realize the freedom. Means, develop. Develop your way of life positively. Develop the love. If we see a small baby, let’s say a two- or three-year-old boy or girl, a child, comes to me and hugs me. You all will be very happy. Not that child hugged me, and you will not be happy because of me. But how gentle this child is. Did this child say, "Be happy"? Did this child introduce itself to you? Or did he or she speak to you? If this is your child, the answer is to all, no. Then how did love awake in your heart? It made you happy. Someone said to me, "Nowadays, people have no smile on their face. In the market, supermarket, coming, going, I’m going like this." Goes in the bus, looking. So I asked the person, "How do you make them smile?" She was from Germany, Hamburg. She said, "Swamiji, there are two ways to make them smile." First, bring a dog. When the dog is sitting there, they will say, "Oh, what a nice dog he is." Now, when he has stood, my dear dog, to whom do you belong, my sweet one? Thanks to God that he brings the people smiling, or a small child. Now, what I want to tell you is, to develop that love of freedom, we have to become pure, innocent, without any trick, without ego, like that little boy or that girl. Then you need not pray to God. You need not meditate. You need not make mantras. But God will come to you, my dear. And he will smile at you. "What can I do for you?" And you don’t even notice that God is here. You play with your toys. God will think, "Toys are more than me," the child said. That’s it. So develop that kind of love. Be helpful, be kind. Understand the pain of others, the need of others. Have compassion towards every creature. In front of you, there is a one-way street. There is a highway. Off you go towards the light of God. So, dear brothers and sisters, the dependence—emotional, intellectual, social, political—and all this is caused by our inner self. Ignorance causes the ignorance. You know, all very good. But I must tell you, there are some people, and it comes nearly ten to fifteen times a month to me. Telephone, emails, direct consultation, and one man came. He was about 38 years old, had many kilos, and I knew him before. Now he came to me, and he lost about 30 kilos. He was looking beautiful, young, of course. Even if you are very fat, you are also very beautiful, but poor heart. And he was crying, that man. I said, "What happened? You lost the kilos." And he begins to cry. "What happened? My girlfriend left me." I said, "And? Now you are free. And she is happy? Is she happy?" He said, "Yes, but I’m not." I said, of course, he found the freedom. But you are still imprisoned by emotion, so you should know there is a time that will come and go. If there is no other way, then death will take you away one day. Therefore, the way to freedom is knowledge, the light of knowledge. And so, you should be that light. Like a torchlight shows you the path, you should be that guiding light for all. And that person will keep you in their hand as long as there is darkness, and when the sun rises, they will put you somewhere else. Don’t suffer. That, when it was dark, he had me all the time in the hand. And now there’s a light, he doesn’t care about me. There’s no reason to carry you in the hand. Can you imagine? Bright sunny day in Prague, and you walk with the torchlight. A person like me will look and will say, "Look." No, that’s it. So that is again not a light, that’s ignorance. So when you get the enlightenment, then you don’t need other light. So freedom depends on you. Liberation depends on you. Spirituality is a kind of technique, that’s all. Religion is only a guideline. Every religion believes in helping, and Holy Gurujī, my master, used to say, the best religion is to help and to serve. And so I used to say, the helping hands have more value than just folded hands. You know, someone needs help, and you say, "Sorry." Now, what is the value of these hands? Or they will say, "Help me, please." Sorry. These hands have no value. But these hands go to help. That has a value. So for me, meditation or prayers or mantra is this: Be aware about others who are suffering. That’s your meditation. Inspire all to help them. That’s your mantra. And call the people to help in your prayers. "Mera jevan terī pūjā." Oh Lord, my life is a ceremony to you. So, our being in this world, we are devotees of God. That creator, we don’t know how he looks. He has no form. Only we will realize him and see him when we become like him. Otherwise, we cannot. When he was here, I was not here. Now he’s here, I am not here. And now I’m here, but he’s not here, because the street of love is so narrow, two cannot walk together. Two has to become one. When two becomes one, all the band-aids will fall. So freedom requires some effort, and that effort means to practice good things and renounce negative things, and understand and renounce your desires. We know the desires are sometimes very nasty. There is one little story. I know I am getting late now. Why is God incarnating? When the situation becomes unbearable, then he will come. So Krishna was incarnated. There was an unbearable situation which his uncle and many others created, but mainly his uncle Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa, someone told him—he was just completing his sister’s marriage, and he was saying goodbye to her, sending her with her husband to their home—and someone came and said, "Kaṁsa, your enemy, your destroyer, your death will be born through your sister, the sixth child, and he will be the cause of your death." So he took his sister and brother-in-law and imprisoned them. And she gave birth to children in the prison. And Kṛṣṇa was born in prison. And they had to take away Krishna. And the prison was guarded with high, tight security. But when Krishna came, he made such a miracle: the doors of the prison opened, and the guards fell asleep. And the father of Kṛṣṇa carried Kṛṣṇa to the other side of the river Yamunā. And he came back, and the guards woke up, and the doors were closed. The story is long. Krishna’s uncle Kaṁsa wanted to kill Krishna in any case. And he did all that he could do, through magic, through the soldiers. But who can kill God? One day, Kṛṣṇa was about ten or eight years old, and Kṛṣṇa said, "I must go to Mathurā." They said, "Why?" To see my uncle, he said. "No, please. He will kill you. He is a devil. Why do you go to him?" Krishna said, "Because he is thinking of me very much. Day and night, he can’t sleep. He is thinking, 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.' So, it doesn’t matter who calls me, friend or enemy, I will go." And so he went. Similarly, that was a positive way. But sometimes we have such jealousy or such desire, we can’t sleep. All the times you are enemies in your consciousness, you have sleepless nights because you are imprisoned by your jealousy. And jealousy is a sign of an undeveloped personality, and not free. So realize the freedom. So change yourself. Do good things as much as you can. Practice your yoga and daily life, your mantra, your prayers, and be ready to give your hands for helping. Become that small child without your calling, that everyone will love you. That depends on us. The last poem I will translate: "Kabīra jab ham paidā huī, jag hāse ham roī, esī karnī kar calo, ham hāse jag roī." Understand? That’s it. A great saint Kabīrdās said, "When I was born, people were happy, but I was crying. Do certain things in your life, good things. When you die, you smile and others cry." Make them happy, or make them cry, crying out of love. And that love is within you. Open that heart, and the fragrance of your love will spread around the whole world. Then you will be free. Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntir Bhavatu. Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. Bless you all. Organizers, thank you for organizing this meeting. And wish you all the best, and good night. See you next time. Thank you. Thank you. You see, it came. Very good. Chocolate on it? Thank you. Thank you. You see, these little two children, they make us clapping for so long. It was a realization. Thank you. Yes, please. I also thank you, Swamiji, the translator, and all of you for coming. Have a nice time.