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Part 1: The Path of Experience: From Belief to Inner Strength Oṁ Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥa Hari Oṁ. Oṁ Gaṇānāṁ Tvaṁ Gaṇapati Guṁkha Vāmahe Kavīn Kavinām Upamāśra Vastamām. Jai Starājam Brāhmaṇa Brāhmaṇas Pata Ananta Śrūvanuti Viśī Daśadānam Oṁ Mahāgaṇapataye Namaḥa Hari Oṁ. Hari Oṁ. Nice to see you all on this nice sunny day. It is not too warm, and I hear the climate for the Anuṣṭhān was excellent. When it is hot weather, you are just basking. But you know, some sādhus sit between five fires. And exactly, you have five fires within you. For all that we talked about yesterday, it is very important to have joy. If we want to manage anything in our life, we need joy. If you want to learn something and you start to learn, but you do not have joy in it—if you do not have the desire to learn it, if you are not curious about it—it will be torturous. If you play a musical instrument and you do not enjoy the process of playing and learning, then you will not learn to play it. This applies to meditation and everything. Also, if you want to have a good business, you need to enjoy your job. Through yoga, you are able to accomplish everything you want in your life. If you want a good job and to be very rich, you may achieve it. If you want to enjoy life, you will manage this. But from the view of yoga, this is the losing of time. Yet, you know, the soul must pass through all experience. You know how many times you say to a child, "No, no, it is warm, don't touch this." Only when the child touches it will they know that it is hot. They gain experience, and that is the problem of age. In the beginning, we do not trust and do not believe. Mostly, we pass through our own experience, which is not usually pleasant, and you lose a lot of time. Because of that, they say that a wise one learns from others' mistakes, and the not-so-wise learns from his own mistakes. In yoga, we have teachings of great sense, great words, and that great wisdom. The scriptures also give us a lot of knowledge and experience. All we need is to have confidence in the teachings and confidence in the scriptures. For me, there is a big difference between belief and confidence. Yoga is not a religion. In yoga, we always say it is the science of body, mind, and soul. When we say that, it is a science completely different from religion. In religion, you believe. In religion, you have dogma, and if you ask a question, you make a sin. In spirituality, you do not believe. You have trust in your Gurudev, trust in the scriptures. You practice, and you have experience. When you have experience, you have a stable ground. A few days ago, I talked about the three piglets. Do you remember? If in life comes any big black wolf—what does it mean? A big problem, a big earthquake, a shaking of the ground. If you have stable ground, nothing will happen. Will it shake you? You will stay. But if you have belief but not experience, in that moment the problem starts. Because somebody will come to you—we also talk about Nārada Vṛtti—and just put one virus program in your mind. For me, there was one experience during my first summer seminar with Viśwa Gurujī. I think Viśwa Gurujī was talking about the topic of reincarnation. After that, I came to Viśwa Gurujī and said, "Yes, Swāmījī, everything is okay, but I don't believe in all this. On the physical level, okay, energy passing from one form to another, but all this story, I don't believe." You know how it is here in the West. If you come upon some priest and you say that you don't believe in something, you will not finish in the fire, but almost. I was a little hesitant to tell this to Swamījī. But, you know, there is one joke: Police come to the house of a man and say, "You stole the metal for what? The truck on which the train is going?" The rails, yes. They said, "You stole the rails." And he said, "A child took this." The police said, "How did a child take this? That is 500 kilos." That man said, "What child knows what is 500 kilos?" Also, what child knows? I said this to Swamiji: "I don't believe." And Viśwa Gurujī told me, "Excellent. Only in that way will you grow." For me, it was a little shock in that moment, but after that, I realized it is not about belief. You need to think, overthink, and you need to have trust. Through that trust, you will have experience, and you will know. We need to practice, and we need to practice with joy, with curiosity. Through that, we will grow and we will have knowledge. When you have knowledge, you do not put your finger in the electricity. I also did not believe in this. Like a child, I put my finger in the electricity; now I know that is the shaking. Thank God I survived. It is better to learn from the experience of the wise. The same thing is when you go to the dentist. You need to have trust in your dentist. Only if you have trust will you open your mouth. If you do not have trust, you will not go to that dentist. That is important in our first contact with Gurudev: to have that trust, to have that love, that confidence. Through that, we will grow. Today, Swami Anandi and I talked about all this, and somehow we also talked about the evolution of our conscience. You know, in yoga, it is one of the main things: Nārasenārāyaṇa, from human to God. Because of that, we are sitting in this hot oven during the Anuṣṭhāna, repeating your mantra and doing kriyās. That is our way, and that is what we need to accomplish: from human to God. But how to explain all this and to understand in which situation we are? Without offending anybody, imagine when you have your dog. How will the dog understand what you tell him or her to do? "No, that is not clean. You should go up." The life of a dog in the house with the owner is mostly confusing because he does not understand any language. The behavior of the dog is completely different from the behavior we want him to have at home as a pet. The only way that dog lives with us is through great love and confidence, but mostly he does not understand at all. After some years, he starts to behave a little differently. Some dogs, when you look on the internet, you will see are even better behaved than humans. That is the situation of the disciple. How can one mostly understand the self-realized person who is in a completely different dimension? When you want to explain what God is, how will you explain it? It is impossible. The only way to explain God is to explain what God is not. Because of that, we have one joke. Two friends were talking seventy years ago in Europe. One friend asked the other, "Do you know what is the banana?" Now, everybody knows what a banana is, but seventy years ago, who knew? That man said, "Yes, yes, I know what the banana is." He was asked, "Please explain to me, what is the banana?" This one starts, you know, "What is the apple? Yes, nice and round, and you know when you bite, juice comes out." He slowly explained everything about the apple, and in the end said, "But the banana is nothing at all like the apple." How to explain something which is for us completely unknown? That is religion. You try to explain something, especially to people who do not have experience about this, and they try to explain to you about God. That is the picture of the blind man leading the blind people. In yoga, you have a real experience. You have a guru who has knowledge, and not just knowledge, but experience and real knowing of what self-realization is, what is that cosmic light, God—however you will call this. You know how hard the job of the Gurudev is: to explain what the banana is. Slowly, slowly, he brings to us a banana to taste. But you know how children are. Even adults, they do not want to try anything that is new. That is also a problem because they are afraid of tasting anything new, because we have this thinking like in a box. Gurudev tries to remove this border of our thinking, to make us have trust, and also to make us want to try that banana. But before that, we have a lot of problems. We have a lot of garbage, and first we need to clean all this garbage, to purify our conscience a little. What is now one of the biggest problems? I think that on the way to Střílek, almost everybody, especially drivers, has the same experience. How many arrogant people are on the street? That is the problem of our present time: so much egoism, so many arrogant people, so many narcissists. All the time it is "I, I," nobody else, just my needs, "I," and that arrogant way of behavior. This festival, Navarātri—there are two main Navarātri, in the spring and in the autumn, but we also have the Gupta Navarātri. Three more, but this one is also nice, representing the Divine Mother Durgā fighting nine knights with one great demon, Mahiṣāsura. He is represented mostly like a buffalo. He was so strong he ruled almost the whole world, and all gods and goddesses came to him to ask for help. But what was his main negative thing? This arrogance, only egoism, and this narcissism, thinking about "I," "mine." That way of thinking almost destroyed the whole universe. That was what I told a few days ago. The problem is that we think everything is only for us. We think all nature is only for us—animals, everything. We think God made everything only for us, and we are not preserving; we are using, and mostly misusing. All this modern civilization is misusing the whole nature. We are destroyers. You know what Viśvagurujī always said: What does a human mean? Human means protector. Human means that you know we are here for a limited time, and everything that is here we got as a present. When we leave this planet, our duty is to leave this planet and all this stuff in the same, or even better, way than we found it. That way of thinking, when we destroy this egoism, arrogance, and narcissism, we are able to start in spirituality. I always mention that once, on the web after a summer seminar, Swamījī said, "The last day of the summer seminar, and your duty for the next seminar this year is to purify your ego and complexes." When you purify your ego and complexes, you are able to start in spirituality. Of course, we started to laugh because he also mentioned fear: fear, ego, and complexes. You know how fear is deep-rooted in our body. Because of that fear, mostly, we are aggressive. You know, like all animals: when fear starts, when a little complexity starts—that "I am weak"—but also there is fear, in that moment aggressivity starts. Because of that, you will see the difference between some dogs. Usually, a dog who is aware of his strength, some 50-60 kilo dog, is mostly relaxed. But when you find a little dog, they are nervous, aggressive. That is the problem. Because of that, Viśvagurujī said that we should be like an elephant: be aware of your strength. When you are an elephant, you do not care about the little dog which is barking around. Once, I also heard from Swamījī—and it is in our tradition—when a dog bites you, will you bite the dog? No, you will not bite the dog. You will take distance, but you will not bite it. It means that the elephant will walk; he will not go to every dog which is barking. That is important: to find this inner strength in us. That is not so easy. First, we need... You know, it is nice to listen to some life coaches. Maybe some of you are life coaches. But when you listen to a life coach, it is only blah, blah, blah. They are talking nice talk. When you finish, okay, everything is nice. But what to do? Yes? Mostly, when you look on YouTube and all these channels with great thousands, millions of views, it is only nice talk. Okay, but what to do? That is missing. When you listen to Viśvagurujī, you will find the problem through some story, through some jokes, an explanation of that problem: what is the root of that problem? And what is the most important thing? How to solve that problem. Without knowing how to solve the problem, all this is what Swamiji said: blim-blam, nice talk. Everything is like when you are looking at a nice cookbook; everything is nice, but I want to eat. Yes, and we know that, and we learned this from Viśvagurujī: that we need to be an elephant, we need that strength. But how to manage this threat? For that, we also get a solution. First is because we have five bodies, and everything that we do, we always observe through the five bodies. They are interconnected. It is a pity that today yoga is mostly connected with the Annamaya Kośa. Mostly, when you look at yoga, you will see nice girls in a yoga class in trousers practicing something. What would not exist? Yoga trousers would not exist? Because of that, Swamiji once said to me, "Yes, and you should advertise yoga. We are practicing yoga in the decent suit." In that moment, I thought, "Look, what does that mean?" I started to think: when you have a decent suit, that means a kurta pyjama. That is a decent suit. You will practice real āsanas. If you practice in yoga trousers, mostly you will show your buttocks and something else, and you will make such a big lordosis. Mostly when I look at such an asana, I have pain in the lower back immediately. Because of that, in America now, there exist therapists after yoga class. Yes. And mostly, yoga is now connected with such things. Our duty is to preserve yoga, to keep that purity. It is not that after practicing three months of asanas, you will be able to invent your own asanas, make a movie with a nice background, in your nice, expensive yoga dress, on an expensive yoga mat—something that is without sense. We will practice something that has sense and the experience of thousands and thousands of years, and like that, we also got it from our paramparā. But first, we start with Annamaya Kośa. If we want to become like an elephant, we need strength, physical strength. That is the first level of yoga in daily life: Sarva Hita Āsana practice, bicycle practice, all these āsanas, so that you have strong muscles—but not strong muscles from bodybuilding. Those muscles, which are nice for showing, like ladies in their trousers, like guys in this, it is also narcissism. We joke in Croatia about one part; we call them Zagorci. How is "go"? Comparison: nice, nicer. "Look at me, yes, not this." That is completely losing sense. But you need strong muscles, core muscles, all muscles in the body. We need strong muscles for breathing, and all this will change the position of our body. When you change the position of your body, immediately you change the conscience. I always joke, even yesterday: when you sit in this position, "Poor me, when will they finish all this?" Or when you sit like this... Because of that, you sit in front of your guru in a good position. How will you explain this in ancient times? Like respect, that is important. But also sitting in this position when you are relaxed... For me, Kumbh Melā is the best example. I love Kumbh Melā. You see some sādhus on the street sitting in this position, and when the camera comes, you know everything: nose, chest, this, "look at me." We do not want such comparison, "Look at me." No, we want another way of strength: such strength that we do not need "Look at me." We are completely self-aware of our strength. We are an elephant. Yes? Second thing: for this, you need a voice. Yes, because I always talk about this. It is very important: non-verbal communication, the position of your body for business—not for yoga. You come to a business talk, and you are, I don't know... You will not get the job. Who will work with you? Nothing. I always mention Gurujī: he was such a great actor when he was giving a satsaṅg and telling some story. I did not understand anything, but you exactly know which character is inside: who is the yogī, who is the beggar, who is the king. You know everything because of the voice. When you do not have enough strength, when you are not sure—"I don't know, maybe"—your voice is shaking. But when you are sure, your voice is coming from your Maṇipūra Cakra. For voice, you need Maṇipūra Cakra. What does that mean? Diaphragm breathing with the diaphragm, enough air. If somebody here is studying singing, you know how important your diaphragm is, and the position, and how you will put air out. Also, for the position of your body, it is also almost the same muscles. But without the position of the body, you do not have a voice. Yes? You have here your professional "yes." Also, voice is important. We have so many nice āsanas from the first level. For me, great āsanas are in the eighth level. If you are able to practice the eighth level, do not be afraid about Padmāsana. You can practice the eighth level without Padmāsana. How? You do not need to sit in Padmāsana. Just Sukhāsana and go out. Same. All these āsanas are possible to do. And you need these muscles. After that, after the eighth level, you feel like you are walking two centimeters above the ground. You have such strength. With that strength, we are able to further practice prānāyāma. Also, when we have such strength, we are able to purify our mind, the manomaya kośa, and we are able to meditate. If our body is weak, we have a problem with sitting very soon, because for sitting and practicing Anuṣṭhāna, you need endurance. It is not so easy to keep focus on one point. How will we keep this focus on the one point? Now we talk about mindfulness. That is Ekapāda Uttānāsana. Just practice every day. Practice tratak every day. Through all this, we will have this inner strength—not only physical strength, but inner strength. They said we need this physical strength, and we need what is most important. But also, without this strength—physical and focus, and this mental, I will say, strength—with these two, a third thing is also very important: that is our confidence in the divine, confidence in our Gurudev, and all this. Try to practice with joy. I know it is not easy to practice asanas, but try. You will feel that is the heart. But after that, try to realize what is the benefit of this. They said in psychology, when you want to release from some bad habits—drinking, or something like this—be aware of how hard it is not to drink. But also, be aware of what is joy, because you have enough strength to beat this problem. Avatar Purījī mentioned the relaxation of muscles. Yes, be aware that you have pain in the thigh muscle, but it is a pleasant feeling. After a few days, you will feel the benefit. We will slowly get more inspiration for our sādhanā. And it is always very important not only to listen, but to have personal experience. Listening is only temporal inspiration. You are like one shoot, and you are high. But after two or three hours—I don't know, I don't have such experience—but after some time, you go down, even deeper. You need the next "shoot," and that is going only down and down. That is listening only for inspiration. "Oh, I need inspiration." Yes, you need inspiration, and when you have inspiration, continue. When you say, "I need some inspiration, I need to listen to something," then that is good. Part 2: The Gradual Path and the Nature of the Mind Swāmījī explained that he does not give Śaktipāt. What does this mean? Śaktipāt is when a guru transmits spiritual energy to a disciple. You receive more energy; you feel elevated, very good, and strong. But the problem is that we are not practicing regularly. It is like wanting to hold water in your palms. Sometimes, within a few minutes, everything subsides. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, but everything subsides. After that, you fall into a deep depression. They say there is one curse: let God give to you, and then take away. What does that mean? When you have enough so that you lose it, that is truly difficult. Mostly, people, after such an experience, if they lack the discipline to maintain a real practice—one that is even more diligent than before—simply quit everything. Swāmījī explained that Yoga in Daily Life is a step-by-step process. Step by step, slowly, but every day, every day, every day. We may not even be aware of our own development. On that path, we have a very secure foundation. That is the essence of Yoga in Daily Life—not only talk, but mostly work, work, practice, understanding, having your own experience, being stable, staying on the ground with both feet, and slowly, slowly, day by day, proceeding step by step. Namah, namah Kamalanābhāya, namaste Jalashāyine, namaste Keśavānanta Vāsudeva, namah, namah. Vāsudevasya vāsitāṁ bhuvanātrayaṁ, sarvabhūtāni vāso’si Vāsudeva, namo’stu te. Śruti, smṛti, purāṇānāṁ ālayaṁ, karuṇālayaṁ. Namami bhagavat padam śaṅkaram loka śaṅkaram śaṅkaram śaṅkarācāryam keśavam bādārāyaṇam keśavam bādārāyaṇam keśavam bādārāyaṇam keśavam bādārāyaṇam keśavaṁ bādārāyaṇaṁ sutrabhāṣya sutrabhāṣya. Krato Vandey, Krato Vandey,... Krato Vandey,... Krato Vandey. Sūtra-bhāṣyā-kṛtau vande, sūtra-bhāṣyā-kṛtau vande, sūtra-bhāṣyā-kṛtau vande, sūtra-bhāṣyā-kṛtau vande, ... bhagavantau punaḥ punaḥ... puna,... bhagavantau punapunā, bhagavantau punapunā, bhagavantau punapunā, bhagavantau punapunā, śaṅkaraṁ śaṅkarācāryaṁ, keśavaṁ bādharāyaṇaṁ. Sūtra-bhāṣya-kṛtau vande bhagavantaupunāpunā śaṅkaraṁ śaṅkarācāryaṁ keśavaṁ bādharāyaṇaṁ. Sūtra-bhāṣya-kṛtau vande bhagavantaupunāpunā śaṅkaraṁ śaṅkarācāryaṁ keśavaṁ bādharāyaṇaṁ. Sūtra-bhāṣya-kṛtau vande bhagavantaupunāpunā. So, for those who are writing, please write "Śaṅkaram Śaṅkarācāryam." "Śaṅkara" means Lord Śiva, and "Śaṅkarācārya" is Bhagavad Pāda Śrī Śaṅkarācārya, who established the Sannyāsa Paramparā and who expounded Advaita Vedānta. So, we bow to Śaṅkara and to the Śaṅkarācārya. "Keśavam Bhadrāyaṇam." "Keśava" means Lord Viṣṇu, and "Bhadrāyaṇa" is the Ṛṣi who composed the excellent commentaries, which are called Sūtra Bhāṣya, meaning the commentaries on the Veda and Vedānta. "I bow again and again to the revered ones. To Śaṅkara, and to the Śaṅkarācārya, to Keśava, and to the Ṛṣi Bhadrāyaṇa, who composed the excellent commentaries, I bow again and again to the revered ones." Someone would be able to translate it into English. Because what happens is, yes, sūtra, sūtra, bhāṣya. It’s sūtra and bhāṣya. So half T and R becomes tra, so sūtra and bhāṣya, half Ṣ and Y, bhāṣya. Krato, krato,... basically you write a K in Hindi or Sanskrit and under the K comes this type of R, so that’s kra. That’s krī, and the one if you have k and the straight line under it, that’s kra. So, kṛto. So, basically, it was... This śloka I couldn’t find. Basically, all different āśrams and different paramparās sing in a different order. So the one which I learned was: "Namo sunantāya sahasra mūrtaye, sahasra pādākṣiśiro ruhave, sahasra nāmne puruṣāya śāśvate, sahasra koṭi yuga dhārine namaha. Namaha kamala nābhāya, namaste jala śāyine, namaste keśava, ānanda vāsudeva. Namo sute vasanād vāsudevasya vāsatambho nātryaṁ sarvabhūtāni vāsoṣi vāsudevo namo sute śruti smṛti purāṇaṁ ālayaṁ karuṇālayaṁ namāmi bhagavat pādaṁ śaṅkaraṁ loka śaṅkaraṁ śaṅkaraṁ śaṅkarācāryaṁ keśavaṁ bādarāyaṇaṁ sūtra. Bhaṣakṛta vande bhagavantau puna puna, īśvaro gururājmeti mūrti, veda vibhāginai vyoma vātvyaṁtadehāya dakṣiṇāmūrtaye namaḥ. Gurur brahma, gurur viṣṇu, gurur devo maheśvarāḥ, gurur sākṣāt para brahma, tasmai śrī guruve. Namah dhyāna mūlam guru mūrti, pūjā mūlam guru padam, mantra mūlam guru vākyam, mokṣa mūlam Guru Kṛpā. Akhaṇḍa maṇḍala kāram vyāptam yena cāra cāram, tat padam darśitam yena, tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha, madguru Śrī Jagadguru, māmātmā. sarvabhūtātmā tasmai." And then after this one, when we are finished with this, then comes Puṣpāñjali, where you offer the flowers to the master. And when we finish singing these words, then the offering of flowers comes to the master. So that comes for the puṣpāñjali after the mantra ārati. So after the mantra ārati comes the offering of flowers. Puṣpa is a flower. And then, "Yāni kāni ca pāpāni, janmānta kṛtāni ca, tāni sarvāni naśyantu, pradakṣināṃ pade." Pradakṣināṃ means parikramā. So when we do parikramā for Lord Śiva, you stand in one place, you do half parikramā, like standing, turn half, then you turn back. You’re just standing, you rotate halfway, and then you turn back. And for any other deity, for the guru, you make a full parikramā. If you meet Lord Śiva himself, then you can do the full parikramā, no problem. But of the Śiva Liṅgam, you don’t cross the Jalaherī. Jalaherī is the down part. You don’t cross that. And when you have a Śiva Liṅgam, the Jalaherī should always be facing the north. And the Nandi should always be placed wherever the Jalaherī is; the Nandi will go there. And if you’re keeping a Śiva Liṅga and a Nandi, then also you need who? Pārvatī Jī, Gaṇeśa Jī, and Kārttikeya. So when you keep a Śiva Liṅga in your house or wherever, try to have this whole package. And it doesn’t matter how much time you have or not, at least one lodha a day in the morning, all for him. It shouldn’t be sitting idle. If it’s there just for design, well and good. But if you started even once to do the abhiṣek, doesn’t matter if it’s one hour abhiṣek or one minute abhiṣek, try to continue it. Like, while traveling in India, I carry my Śivjī with me. But if I’m here, then I have my friend, my paṇḍitjī, who goes to my room and does the abhiṣek. So if you can’t do abhiṣek, then you give dakṣiṇā always when you have a paṇḍit. It doesn’t matter what type of pūjā you are getting him to do. Even if you give symbolically, even one rupee or one euro, that’s also fine, but the paṇḍita or the brāhmaṇa should always be given dakṣiṇā for the work he does. And you know why Lord Gaṇeśjī is always worshipped first? I know, I think we know the whole story, no? Yes, no, something. No, no, not that one. Lord Śiva had a competition of all the devatās. They said, "OK, they were all bored, you know, sitting there." And Lord Śiva said, "Okay, let’s have a competition. Whoever finishes the first parikramā around the world will be worshipped first out of all of you." And then, everyone, you know, Viṣṇujī went on his Garuḍa, flying quickly around. Kārttikejī on his peacock. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention in between. You know how interesting this Śiva family is, no? Śiva has a snake, right? Gaṇeśjī has what? Mouse. He has a mouse. No. Kārttikejī has what? Kārttikejī has what animal? And Pārvatījī has? Pavā and Pārvatījī? No, Pārvatījī is a form of mouse, so tiger. And Pārvatījī has a tiger. So the tiger is one who eats peacocks. Peacocks are those who eat snakes. Snakes are those who eat mice. But if they all in one family can live together, then why can’t we stay together in peace? Why do you have so much jealousy and anger in the world? It’s all in here. God, you can’t blame God. God is very grateful, and he created this beautiful universe for us. But whatever happens in this world, it is who is doing? We human beings, and not our body, but this what’s between our two ears, in our mind, we manifest good things. We make good things. The beautiful houses are also created by humans, and guns and atom bombs are also created by humans. God didn’t create this, did he? If we can have this mind in control, and all four parts of the physical body—the mind, the emotions, and the energies—then we can always create something great and focused. Our mind is like a Kalpavṛkṣa. You know what’s a Kalpavṛkṣa? We have one in Jādan. We had it for many, many years since Swāmījī got that land. But Swāmījī told us about it, I think, two, two and a half years back, maybe two years. And now, Swāmijī made a beautiful corridor so that we can go and make praṇām. Kalpavṛkṣa means, Kalpavṛkṣa is a tree which can fulfill your wishes. So there was one man who was wandering around. Are you all tired, or can I take 15 minutes, 10 minutes? No, means you’re tired from walking or not? Slightly, yes. So there was one man wandering around. And guess where he ended up wandering around? In paradise. That would be nice, no? So when he was there, he had a wish: "I’m tired of walking. My thighs, my legs, everything hurts, you know, from walking so much." So he saw one tree over there, and he went down under the tree. It was beautiful, soft grass, and he lay down. And he had a nice, beautiful sleep. And when he woke up, he was a little bit hungry. So he thought, "I’m in paradise, I’m under this tree. I wish I could have some food," and he was thinking of all the things which he wanted to eat in his life. And suddenly, all the food that he was thinking about appeared in front of him. A person who is hungry doesn’t think why it came; he just eats. You’re sitting the whole day in anuṣṭhāna, breakfast, you’re not, I mean, you are, you may, but you have light breakfast, light lunch, then when you see dinner, you want finally to eat, no? So his brain didn’t function. He said, "Never mind, food came, let’s eat." Then he said, "Okay, now the stomach is full, why don’t we get something to drink?" And whatever he was thinking, whatever he wanted to drink, that also appears. A person who drinks, he doesn’t think also why it came, he drank everything. And one famous man, I forgot his name, he said, I think Charles Darwin or something, he said that all human beings were monkeys who had tails and their tails fell off, and we slowly, slowly became humans. Charles Darwin said that people are basically apes that came from us and gradually evolved into humans. So why are people connected to apes? Because we have an ape-like brain. How is the monkey? Very restless. Jumping always from one place to another. Same is our mind. Our thoughts are jumping from one thought to another thought to another thought. Imagine you’re walking, and you take two steps to one side, then another side, then another side. You will never reach your destination. Umí napodobovat. What is going on? Whatever I think of is appearing; there must be some ghosts, surely. And guess what happened? Ghosts appeared. Then he said, "Now this ghost will torture me." And the ghost started torturing him. And then he thought, "I will die from this." And he died from it. So whatever humankind can do, it’s all in the mind. If you decide something in your life, you will do it. But having faith is also important. We think in our minds that we want a house. But then we think, "Okay, we need money, and we don’t have money, so no chance." So in our minds, we are manifesting that we want a house. But the monkey mind says, "No chance," so that wish is deleted already. And our hard work and our focused mind, we will achieve whatever we want. Holi, Gurujī said, "Kṛpā." So you need dedication from yourself. You need the icchā śakti from yourself, that you want to do something without any negative thoughts in between coming. If I now ask you, while sitting, can you get up and fly? The answer would be no, right? But can you get up and start walking? Yes, no? Because this is in our past. Whatever we have done in our past, our mind is conditioned in that way, and that’s how we are going to function. Before we needed this big machine to check our blood pressure. Now we have this. I tried it, it works. It was exactly accurate to the one which was binded here. But God didn’t create this, did he? Humans, so if we humans want to do something, we can. That’s proven by history. You just need to make up your mind and let the monkey relax for a while. And how does the monkey relax? By giving it a banana, right? And what’s the banana for our mind? Mala, mantra, meditation, yoga. That’s all the treats for the monkey to calm down. So that’s what we need now. So, coming back to Gaṇeśjī. OK, we started with the family having all different animals, and if they all can live together, then we humans can also live together. So all the devatās, they went on their respective modes of transport. But Gaṇeśjī has a slight stomach, you know. And his mode of transport is a mouse. So what did he use? Brain. And he decided, "Why will it take me, I don’t know, how long to go around the whole globe with this mouse?" And for me, Lord Śiva and Pārvatī are my parents, my guru, my everything; all this is in him. So that’s why he did the parikramā of his parents and sat down. And after that, all the devatās slowly, slowly started coming back. Lord Viṣṇu said, "Garuḍa was all tired, and everyone came back." And Lord Śiva said, "Gaṇeśa is the winner because he won." And they asked, "How can he be so fast, faster than all of us? We have faster modes of transport." So for us, Gaṇeśa said, "For me, Lord Śiva and Pārvatī, my parents, are everything in the whole world for me, and I did their parikramā, so I was the quickest." So since that day onwards, Gaṇeśjī is worshipped first, always. And that’s why Vivek Purījī was also today singing the Gaṇeśa stuti before he started his lecture. Recited the mantras to Gaṇeśa before the beginning of the lecture. Like this, and then this. We have Gaṇeśa Tārāvaśiṣ, which we can also learn. That’s slightly long, it’s like four pages, but you’ll manage now. So there are many mantras for Gaṇeśjī, so before starting any pūjā, we always pray to Lord Gaṇeśa first. But for us, Gaṇeśjī is also Swāmījī. So when we are, Swāmījī, we have all the gods residing in him. And that’s why we say, "Śrī Gaurabhyo Namaḥa Hari Om." That’s why we say this: "Śrī Gaurabhyo Namaḥa Hari Om. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ..." Would you like a good news? Tomorrow for evening satsaṅg, Gurudev will be with us. And I am not guilty. Avatār Purījī is the guilty one. Why are you doing only half parikramā around? Yes. Because I told you in the beginning, I don’t believe. I must know why, and because you are on anuṣṭhān, it’s very important. You have Nandi. You have Nandi. And Nandi is sitting in front of the Śiva Liṅgam. Where is the nose? This. And there is the jaw. Easy to understand this. And you never cross between Nandi and this jalaharī, and you never cross between Nandi and this jalaharī, and you never cross between Nandi and this jalaharī. Why? Śiva will be angry, and the curse will come on you. No, no, we are yogīs. We need to understand: Śiva is the conscience, divine conscience, and Nandi is Jīvātmā, whole time concentrating on the Paramātmā. Nothing is. Crossing between your conscience and the divine conscience. And you are Nandi. You are Nandi, you are sitting and waiting. But how are you sitting and waiting? Completely relaxed, but aware. Your ears are up, and you are listening to what will come from Śivjī Paramātmā. You are not expecting anything. You are completely relaxed and waiting, expecting nothing, but only focus on Śiva. And when you see Nandi, Śiva Liṅgam, that is the recipe for how our meditation is. Just, you must observe how Nandi is looking, not in position. No, but madhurī mudrā. And that is our meditation. You are Nandī on Anuṣṭhān. Not expecting anything, just relax and wait. Completely be aware, not sleepy. And if calm, let calm. That is. And you respect this, and you never cross between Nandi and the Śiva Liṅgam. Because this is showing nothing is in front of you, ātmā and Paramātmā. You always have this concentration on the Supreme One. Gaṇeśjī started first. Why? Yes, this story, but symbolically. Gaṇeśjī is your brain. Big ears, left and right part of the brain. Face is this middle part of the brain. Trunk is your spinal column. On which side will it go? Left, right, middle, it means either piṅgalā or suṣumṇā. Work from your intellect, not from your emotion. If you work through your emotion instinctively, like an animal, who knows what will happen? Every symbol has a deep explanation, and we are yogīs; we always go deep inside. We always need to understand why. That is the difference between religion and spirituality. We are spiritual, we are through yoga, we are going to the divine consciousness. People always joke with me that I am, "Let force be with you," you know this, but that is that divine without form, that is divine conscience, that is Śiva. Do not be in the fear of Śivajī; He will not curse you. I remember once what Swāmījī said: if you make a mistake, you are not the guilty one; God is guilty. And I said yes. I remember immediately. Why? Because He didn’t give us knowledge. And also, how we sing bhajans. It is so nice to listen when we start bhajan. Avatār Purī asks, "What is this bhajan?" Yes. I know when I am also with some other Indians, professors of Sanskrit or something like this. It’s such nice bhajans, but I don’t understand anything. Who knows what we are singing during the prayer? But you know what also Viśvagurujī said? Mother and father are so happy when the child starts to talk. And nobody understands what, but they say, "Oh, they said ’mommy’." And we are like this. Śivjī will not be angry with the child, because we have good intention. We like to put a lot of water or no water, but we are children. And really, always, I pray. I don’t know. Really, I don’t know. Please accept my mistakes and purify me. If I do anything good, let life flower. But we have good intention, yes, yes. This exact last, this exact last paragraph, which he said in English, is actually a mantra: "All the sins which I have done, please forgive me for that. All the good things which I have done, please bless me for that. And if I did anything unknowingly..." And said something wrong unknowingly, please forgive me for that. For example, when we make Daṇḍavat Praṇām, we both are stretching the time today. So when we make praṇām, why do we cross our hands? When you might have seen when I make daṇḍavat praṇām to Gurudev, I always cross my hands. There are a few reasons because Vivek Purījī needs research work and reasons for the thing why we do it. So, crossing our limbs also symbolizes surrendering. First point. Second, we are crossing because his right leg is here and our right hand is here, left leg and left hand. It’s also our alignment to the earth and touching the earth. Connecting with earth, and also it’s some type of protection. And also, it’s a tradition of respect. It’s passed down by generations. So that also we follow the traditions. Sometimes we don’t try to find logic. But maybe you’ll find a better explanation and read about it, and enlighten us about it. Please dig and let us know. The reason why I do it is because of the part where I’m touching his right leg and I’m touching his left leg with my right hand and right leg. Other logics he will explain to us. I do it for the legs and hands both, because it is said somewhere that when you cross your limbs, your legs, it’s also protection from negative energies. So, hands for the respective legs of Gurudev, and crossing the legs for crossing out all negative energies, so only positive energies come through his legs. And more knowledge will get from him whenever he manages to dig. So let’s have prayer now. I think it’s getting a little bit late.