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Part 1: Yoga's Superior Effect on Brain and Mental Health Praṇām Swāmījī, praṇām Gurudev, dear praṇām Avatār Purī and Vivek Purī, Sannyāsīns, dear yoga brothers and sisters, and the Swāmījī webcast listeners. Praṇām Swāmījī, praṇām Gurudev, praṇām all Swāmīs, dear brothers and sisters, and you who are listening via webcast. I am a physician working in Sweden. Today’s topic will be yoga’s superior effect on brain and mental health. For you watching Svāmījī TV, the title will be projected. The title is as follows: "Mind-body exercise improves cognitive function more than aerobic and resistance exercises in healthy adults aged 55 years and older." For the age group of 55 plus, yoga exercise has a greater effect on mental health than aerobic exercise or strengthening exercise. This study was published on September 23, so 10 months earlier. When it was published, more than 50 worldwide broadcasts published it, like CNN and The Times. The study is based on more than 300 worldwide studies. It consists of more than 20,000 healthy humans. The study was done at Jönköping’s health university together with Jönköping’s county in Sweden. And it’s published in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activities. It’s open access, and everybody can see it. You can also see a short review in Swedish on Facebook on the Swedish branch of Yoga in Daily Life. Before I continue, I would like to say thank you from me and my wife, Ida. Thank you, Uma Purī, who came to us for a four-day yoga retreat one month ago. Thank you very much. Dear yoga brothers and sisters, why is this study so important? Since we are doing, you are doing yoga every day, and you are healthy. Aging is a process, and it starts when we are born. By the age of 40, we are losing approximately 30% of our flexibility. Now, a question to you: how long do we need to regain flexibility? Can you give me a figure? OK, let me tell you: 20 minutes of exercises, three times per week, for 12 weeks. So, just one hour per week, we regain flexibility. And even the general health, of course, is coming better. So I think the doctors should be happy, since with so little effort, people are not doing this. If they would do that, then many doctors would lose their jobs. Do you know that yoga prevents death? Yes, yes, yes. Proti smrti? Yes, it’s true. Yoga prevents death and promotes a healthy life with your beloved ones. I wouldn’t say this if there were no proof for it. Now, this study is scientific, and I have to talk about some scientific words, but I will try to explain also in normal language. Aerobic exercises enhance BDNF. Which by it, it enhances the giving birth to new brain cells, neurons in the hippocampus. So if we run, or we make, of course, yoga exercises, we are—new cells in our brain are born. And now many, maybe many people ask, "How can you prove this?" We know that right now, what kind of, how much radioactivity is in the air, and by an algorithm, when an autopsy is done, then we... Can see the half-time of the radioactivity, and then we know that the cell, the new cell, was born that day because of the half-time of the radioactivity. And my, actually, we can, when autopsies are performed, we can examine those Moscow cells according to half-life decay, and depending on how we know how old the cells still are and how they occur. Another factor, catapresin B, is affecting the third factor, which is GLPD-1, and this enhances back to an increased BDNF factor, which enhances production of newborn brain cells. Everybody heard about Alzheimer’s, right? Do you know that Alzheimer’s can be decreased and prevented by increasing the Leukotriene 6 factor? This makes the amyloid process lesser and thereby prevents dementia of Alzheimer’s. I promised you that I would explain this more easily and precisely: what is the effect of yoga in this? Everybody knows that brain capacity and work is a process which we use information, we get information to our brain, it’s processed, and then we give it back. Like I’m talking now, or like we are sitting listening, something is happening. Or, in other words, the cognitive function or executive function: memory, attention, and processing speed. And so, among these cognitive and executive functions, we include memory, thinking, and the speed at which we think. And listen carefully now. Yoga has a superior effect on our brain, on our cognitive capacity. Yoga has a superior effect on this process. A teď ta studie dokazuje, I have to mention that beside yoga, even Tai Chi, Pilates, and Qigong have also good effect. I have to say that in that study, it is said that Pilates, Tai Chi, and Qigong also have a good effect. So there is also a little danger when you are making yoga. And it’s also a bit dangerous when you’re doing yoga. Ānand Purī will show us. When you lift like this, it can injure your back, since prolonged strain is finishing here just in the lower back, so it can hurt and give you pain and even paralyze you if you are unlucky. But do again, but like this. The pressure on the lumbar region is lessened, and you can do it without any injury. Another exercise, Dayāl Purī will show. So, making this, if you are not a user of making exercises, it can hurt your knee. You can do this, but just so much, because then you are not pushing too much pressure on your body. The other thing, the other thing is the neck. Be careful when you are making neck exercises. It is a fragile region, and it can affect and even stop the blood to the brain, which is very dangerous. It is a very fragile area, and when you practice it poorly, it can stop the flow of blood to the brain. Please listen to your yoga instructors because they know. And they teach how to do exercises correctly, because they will tell you, they will teach you how to do those exercises properly. I think all of you are waiting, but how is this affecting our brain? Simply explained, the combination of breathing and exercises affects our sympathetic nervous system. Yoga breathing slows down the sympathetic nervous system. This simple action has an effect on stress. When we are not stressed, when we are not under stress, our emotional control, our emotional regulation, physical body control, and well-being are enhanced. So, dear yoga brothers and sisters, just go home and tell everybody. That superior effect of yoga, just continue to do yoga. Are there any questions? So once again, this study is now projected on Swamiji TV, and it’s an open access. Please read it. It’s about 20 to 30 pages. It is about 30 pages. Read it and show that this is not any yoga founder who made this study. It’s done by a university. Neutral, thank you. A neutral university. Thank you, Pranam Gurudev. Thank you that you listened. I would also like to say my deepest thank you to all the yoga community, and especially to those who are working and making the yoga camp become true. And I would like to thank you all, and thank the entire yoga community and all of you who work and help so that these yoga programs can be carried out. I think Tyāg Purī, it would be good if he tells something later on when there is time about the psychological effect of yoga. And it would be interesting if Ityagpurī would tell us something about the psychological impact of yoga on psychology. Thank you very much. And I already long for the next yoga camp next summer. Thank you. Thank you. Gurudev, dear friends, dear friends, Pranam. Gurudev Vivek Purī Mahārāj, Avatār Purī Mahārāj, and I was not prepared for this. I will do some bluffing here now, and it is the trap of my brother-in-law and also Avatār Purī. He called me that he come, and it’s a kind of belt, my brother, and also Avatār Purījī. So, some facts about how yoga improves mental health as well. Facts about how yoga works and improves not only physical but also mental health. That is very much connected also with the brain and the hormonal endocrine system. On one hand, this type of exercise, what we have, is very complex. And we can take whatever we wish to improve in our life and in our phenomena, and it is not only the body, but it is our phenomena, let’s say. And for our body, we heard that it can regenerate, it can create new cells, it can regenerate even the brain, even the damaged part of the brain. But we see the effects for mental health as well. For example, people with depression have a very low level of energy, basically. Or at least we think about this. But it seems that with certain yoga techniques, we can improve their condition very, very quickly. Yes, it includes also some āsanas, that’s nice and okay. But for example, the leading type of meditation, especially yoga nidrā, it has really superior effects on this subject and topic. And I had one patient who had this type of depression, a medium level of depression. It started when he lost his alcoholic mother a few years back. And since that time, he was not able to recover from this trauma. Make the story short. That he came to me, and we were doing some kind of, let’s say, intense session, including meditation. A kind of meditation, let’s say. Yeah, and it included... So I was also somehow inside, but guiding was also this type of process of meditation. And after the three-hour session, it was on one Sunday. Because I was in a hurry, I wanted to come to the yoga seminar next week, so we have to be quick. So, because of the darśan of Gurudev, I was just pushing that it is quick. So it happened that after this session, an intense session, and including, and mostly it was with this guided meditation. He came again on Tuesday, so it was Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. And Tuesday, he told it was approximately 11 o’clock. And he told that he feels much better, good, not bad. And he told that even his girlfriend told that he is much more energetic. And he told the real fact because he feels something. Who knows what is behind, but he told some facts also. And it was like this, that it was one day, Tuesday. So the previous day, Monday, he woke up at eight o’clock, and he, I mean, he woke up earlier, and from eight o’clock he was working. He says that already on Monday, actually, he woke up early and was already working by eight o’clock. And, you know, for people with depression, two hours of work and then they just collapse. And you know, for people with depression, two hours of work, and then they just collapse. But he was a businessman, and he started working at eight o’clock in the morning. And he was working till two o’clock, after midnight. And at 11 o’clock, he was there with me consulting, and quite fresh and quite relaxed. I mean, no pills, no cocaine, no nothing like this, and he was good. That is yoga. I mean, I didn’t do anything. It was Mahāprabhujī’s grace and that deep meditation that we did, quite deep meditation, let’s say. So it seems that that type of approach, from the body side, is okay, nice. But it seems that depression is not a lack of energy; otherwise, in the body, there is energy, it seems. But it is switching to some higher cognitive functions. It means that that depression is putting us in some reserved mode, let’s say, some survival mode only. And with our techniques, we just switch on again. And all of a sudden, we are good. That is about depression. With certain studies, it shows that it is in brackets only, shortly. Those people who meditate have the gray matter of the brain. It is thicker than normal people, than the average population. It means it is preventing your cognitive functions. It is preventing aging. As my brother-in-law told, Narsing Purī told that it is preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia. That’s not so nice anyway. And we are at that point that, yes, we are prolonging our life, and somehow we are getting in this healthy way; we can do it. And coming together with this, IQ is higher with the people with deep, or regular and quite deep enough, meditation. Their IQ is not declining as much as the normal population. It also shows that the IQ of people who meditate does not decrease as quickly as that of the general population. Including energy exercises like prāṇāyāma, different levels of prāṇāyāma, and that’s already a huge topic. Meditation, Haṭha yoga kriyās, all this knowledge that is being established, I think it is for our daily life; it is the most important. The ethical values in us. So it is such a complex system, and we can just... it is really like a gold mine. We have to just take and take. So last year I was talking about panic and its effects. How to come out from panic? How to get rid of panic attacks? We have everything. We have breathing exercises, we have consciousness, we have everything for this, all the tools. And I could continue all these examples. And really, this type of mixture of science and our spiritual path, and the technology of our spiritual path, is giving such a value and such a bright future through yoga for humanity that is really exceptional. And yeah, we have to go to the mine and let’s collect that gold, yes. It means practice. It means coming for recharging and increasing our potential. And it also means, I think, it is one of the most important thresholds for us, that we dare to use and utilize all these things, so we dare to go further always from where we are at that point. And I am really, I cannot explain it properly, but I am really so grateful and thankful for Gurudev, for this system, and for this blessing for us. I can’t even describe it in words, but I am really very grateful to Gurudev for this system and for everything he gives us. In the last 50 plus years here all over the world. You just heard psychologist Tsiagpuri. He explained more about the effect of yoga exercises. Sometimes, patients come to me and say that they have different troubles. Both mentally and physically. Thank God, in Sweden there is medical yoga. And I see, really, I see the difference between people who practice yoga and people who do not. I became so happy that even a kindergarten in the town I am living in started with yoga. Imagine that small kids, three years old, learn to balance. Yeah, because just these small things are enhancing a better life. Yoga has been existing for thousands of years. And it’s improved all the time. Pranam, Gurudev brought this here, and we are lucky to have this system. This system is for us, for me, because it’s enhancing my health so I can live longer with my kids, with my wife, and so for everybody else. And so this system is for us, for all of us, but for each one of us, even for me, because thanks to the fact that I am exercising, I actually improve my health, and so I will be able to live much longer with my children, with my wife. Everybody knows what I will say now. Gurudev, let us make more yoga. Any questions for me? Please write or send an SMS or email. I will gladly reply. If you have any questions, write me an e-mail or an SMS, or contact me. I will be happy to answer. Hari Om, thank you very much. Hari Om and thank you. Praṇām Gurudev. Hari Om, dear brothers and sisters. Praṇām Gurudev, Hari Om, dear brothers and sisters. Now we hear a very interesting lecture. We have heard an interesting lecture about how yoga will help our body. And also, we hear nicely about the sympathetic and parasympathetic, and many years ago, Vishwagurujī was talking, I think for a few years constantly, about Vajranāḍī. You remember this? Yes, because you immediately remember Vīrāsana, and being in the Vīrāsana was also very hard for us. And also, when Viśvagurujī started with some kriyās, it was from Vajrāsana and Vīrāsana. And I must say that for me, it was... It is very hard to sit in this position, that position, and also it was some kind of torturing. And because of that, I started to think a little more about this. When you listen and when you realize why Virasana is so important, because it’s functioning on the Vajranāḍī, and Vajranāḍī is that nāḍī which we hear and learn from Viśva Gurujī. It’s the nāḍī which is balancing Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. And when we talk about nāḍīs, we know there are 72,000 nāḍīs. And always we talk about three main, Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumnā. But also they said that there are ten, the most important nāḍīs. And one of them is Vajranāḍī. And when we have function, when we try to work on the Vajranāḍī, we will immediately see the difference in our body. There is always a little confusion because sometimes people translate nāḍīs like a nerve. Part 2: The Nāḍīs as Currents in the Ocean of the Body Sometimes the term nāḍī is translated as "river." When I contemplate the nāḍīs, I envision them as currents within the ocean. Our entire body is that ocean of energy, yet within it, there are main currents, like the Gulf Stream. If you look at the ocean from an airplane, you see the vast water, but you can also discern distinct streams within it—different waves, another kind of movement, even a slight variation in color. That is what the nāḍīs are within the ocean of the body. You cannot dissect the body to see them, just as you cannot see a pipe in the ocean, yet the stream flows inside. We spoke recently about practicing yoga while maintaining awareness of the five kośas, or sheaths. These five bodies are not separate. It is like a construction blueprint: you have a drawing of the walls, and then you overlay it with a nearly transparent paper showing the installations. When you place one on top of the other, you immediately see the walls and the installations together, forming a complete picture. Yet, you can also perceive each layer individually. Most often, we hear about the Annamaya Kośa, the physical body—the nerves, neurons, and brain. Next is the Prāṇamaya Kośa. When we discuss the Vajranāḍī, we can say that in one dimension, it is the Vajranāḍī. In other dimensions, what is its counterpart in the physical body? It is not exactly the same, but something analogous. Is it the vagus nerve? For our health, this nerve is critically important on the physical level. The vagus nerve functions like a switch from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system. By practicing āsanas, we engage this switch, moving into the parasympathetic state, where the body rejuvenates, renews, and regenerates itself. We have excellent exercises for this, such as Vīrāsana and Gomukhāsana, and many other āsanas that help switch off the sympathetic system. There is a joke that the "sympathicus" is not at all sympathetic. When you are under stress, with an abundance of stress hormones in your body, numerous inflammatory problems begin. Aging is largely caused by this inflammatory process. In Croatian, we refer to body fat as "speck"—I know it's not a Croatian word, but we use it. They say that after the age of 50, about 70% of this "speck" consists of inflammatory cells. This inflammation is why it can be difficult to lose weight; it's not solely an issue of diet but of systemic inflammation. To rejuvenate the body and become younger, you must first decrease inflammation in your body. All medicine and practices aimed at longevity essentially work to reduce inflammation; they are anti-inflammatory. This is not achieved with corticosteroids but through other means. It always begins with anti-inflammatory food. What is the best anti-inflammatory diet? A phalāhārī diet, but not the common understanding of it. During the last Kumbh Melā, I thought I would indulge in sweets and might be called "Mitha Harababa." Soon after, however, Swāmījī placed me on a phalāhārī diet. In the Akhāṛā, this often meant many bananas and potatoes. I wondered about that, but Swāmījī clarified that this was not the true phalāhārī diet as given by the Guru. A "Guru diet" is what the Guru provides. What have we learned from Viśva Gurujī about phalāhārī? It excludes wheat, milk, and similar items. I will not elaborate on the diet now, but that authentic phalāhārī diet is an excellent anti-inflammatory regimen, avoiding sugars and other problematic foods. We have wonderful āsanas that support this. I mention not only Gomukhāsana, Vajrāsana, and Vīrāsana but all our āsanas, especially those that work on our Vajranāḍī. Such postures help lower stress hormones by switching the nervous system from sympathetic to parasympathetic dominance. These āsanas also influence cortisone production. Furthermore, our body needs ample oxygen, but prāṇāyāma is not merely about increasing oxygen. A very small part of it brings more oxygen into the system. Its greater purpose is to purify our nāḍīs, strengthening the currents of these inner rivers. Consider water: if it does not flow, it becomes stagnant, loses oxygen, begins to smell, and becomes unfit for drinking, even disease-ridden. Therefore, flow is essential—the flow of blood is vital. I always picture a sponge used for cleaning. When it becomes dirty, how do you clean it? Not just superficially, but by immersing it in water, squeezing and releasing it repeatedly until it is clean. This is what we do during āsana practice: our muscles and internal organs are squeezed. Stale blood deep within the tissues is expelled, and fresh blood enters. What happens to that "dirty" blood? We flush it out. We do not eliminate blood directly, but we know that breathing purifies 70% of our blood. The blood is first purified through respiration; the remaining 30% is handled by the kidneys and liver. Thus, 70% of purification occurs through breathing, and only 30% through elimination and sweating. Yet, most people speak only of purification via the toilet and sweat. In yoga, we understand that one of the most important actions is to breathe—to breathe beautifully. This purifies our body and also our mind. When you have constant, repetitive thoughts—chewing the same thoughts like gum—the best way to release this mental "chewing gum" is to begin breathing and exhaling all that garbage. Through breathing, we purify our blood. Our internal organs will be in much better condition because, through āsanas and breath, we purify the deep tissues of the organs. Fresh prāṇic energy enters our body through prāṇāyāma, and our mind changes as well. Moving from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic state calms us, preparing us for meditation. This is how to live, and yoga provides this knowledge. We know all this through yoga, yet we often do not believe it is sufficient. That is why scientific research is valuable—it gives us a little push. However, what is interesting is that all this scientific research represents, I dare say, only one percent of the truth. Researchers have so much more to explore because yoga contains profound depths. Currently, they speak only of the Annamaya Kośa, the physical body, a little about breathing, and are just beginning with meditation. For us, this is akin to only the first level of Ātmacintana meditation. If you read the research, you will see it is quite basic. Understanding the Prāṇamaya Kośa is a frontier they have not even begun to consider. Therefore, thank you, Viśvagurujī, for teaching us about all five bodies. Now, it is crucial that we begin to practice, for yoga is a personal experience, and through that experience, we will progress further. Śrī Dīpna Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Śrī Ālok Purī Jī Siddha Pīṭpa Ampara Kī Jaya. Shri Dharam Madhavam Gopika Vallabham Janaki Naayakam Vasudevam Hari Om. Shalakpur Ji Mahadeva Ki Jai. Devadhe Dev Devashwar Mahadeva Ki Jai. Shri Dharam Madhavam Gopika Vallabham Janaki Naayakam Vasudevam Hari. Pozdrav śrī Alak Purījī Siddhā Pītparampara. Mē dhanvat praṇām Svāmījī Gurudev, His Holiness Vishwaguru Mahāmandaleśvara Maheśvarānanda Purījī. Mē dhanvat praṇām Jeho Svatosti Gurudevo Viśvaguru Dīmu Svabimu Maheśvarānand Dīmu. Om Namo Nārāyaṇa to Mahāmudāliśvara Vivek Purījī and all the sannyāsīs present here. Hari Om and good morning to all of you who are present here and who are watching through Swamijī TV. It is a beautiful, nice, cool, warm morning. I heard that from today onwards, it will start getting warmer and warmer. This is the perfect temperature for me, and I like it so. How can just a single word or a single sentence from the guru’s mouth or from a satsaṅg change someone’s life? Can it guide someone and alter their path? Continuing our Ānandamurtī stories by Holī Gurujī: Once, there was a family of thieves. The father, the head thief, was dying. Before his passing, he wished to impart some final advice to his two children. It was difficult for him to speak, but he was determined. He called his children to him and said, "My dear children, I am dying, and I have two wishes for you." They replied, "Sure, father, we will surely fulfill your wishes. We will listen to whatever you have to say." They sat for this final satsaṅg. The father said, "My first order is: never go to any Mahātma’s satsaṅg. If you are passing by where a satsaṅg is being held, change your route. If there is no other way, then take your shoes in your bag, close your ears with your fingers, and run." The children agreed, "OK, as you wish." "Secondly," he continued, "the king’s son is very cruel. He always tortures our family. Go, cut the throat of that prince, burn his head, and then I will be at peace and can die." They agreed, "Okay, as you wish." That night, they jumped the castle wall, sneaked into the prince’s room, successfully completed their task, and brought the head back to their father. However, on their return journey, they encountered a problem: a satsaṅg was taking place along their path. Remembering their father’s order not to listen, they looked for another route but found none. So, as instructed, they put their shoes in their bag, closed their ears with their fingers, and began to run. As they ran, a thorn pierced one brother’s foot. He was in a dilemma: should he remove his hand from his ear to pull out the thorn, or should he keep running in pain? He decided to be quick. He removed his hand, extracted the thorn, and in those few seconds, he heard the Gurujī speaking: "The gods and goddesses never cast a shadow. We sit in the sun, and the trees cast shadows on the ground, but deities have no shadow." The brother quickly put his finger back in his ear, and they continued on their way. They presented the head to their father, who then died. The next day, the prince was found dead. The kingdom was in turmoil; everyone was upset, and the king was furious. He demanded, "Find who killed my son, or I will cut off your heads!" At that time, a lady—a caretaker for the queen—spoke up. She said, "Your Highness, I will find the killer, but give me 50 euros." (You can add zeros; zero was invented by the Indian Bhaṭṭācārya. As Vivek Purījī mentioned yesterday regarding the great mathematician Rāmānuja, we Indians understand the value of zeros.) With the money, she bought a bull. She then went to a woodcarver and commissioned two extra wooden arms for herself. She knew the thief family were great devotees of Mājāk Dambā. Mounted on the bull, with four arms—one holding a sword, one holding a sickle, one holding a lamp (dīpak), and one giving blessings—she approached their house. She called out the children and said, "Your father was a great devotee of mine. Whenever he undertook any task, he always made an offering to me. Have you perhaps forgotten something? Did you do something recently that you failed to offer?" They replied, "Oh, you mean what we did last night?" She said, "Yes, yes." They apologized, "Oh, Matajī, we did not know we had to offer you something. Our father did it, so we will continue the legacy. What would you like?" She said, "Today, I desire neither money nor food. Just give me that head you cut." They offered her the head, and she began to leave. But as she departed, the lamp in her hand cast her shadow on the ground. The brother remembered what he had heard in the satsaṅg: "Gods and goddesses do not cast any shadows." He realized, "She is here to trap us!" So they killed her as well. Then they wondered what to do. Indian families are large—a wedding in Europe might have 100 guests, but in India, you have 200-300 direct relatives plus extended family. They were 40 people. They decided, "We will eat the bull for dinner." So the bull was also consumed. Later, the brothers discussed how they knew the woman was deceitful. One recalled, "That day when we cut the head, we passed a satsaṅg. A thorn went into my foot, and when I removed my finger, I heard the Gurujī say that gods and goddesses have no shadow." That single sentence saved their lives. They reflected, "If one sentence from a satsaṅg can save our lives, what could a lifetime of satsaṅg do?" From that day on, they abandoned their evil ways, became disciples of a guru, and embarked on the spiritual path. That is why we are blessed not to be elsewhere in ku-saṅga (bad company), but here, enjoying time with our beloved. If one sentence could change the brothers' lives forever and save them, consider that we have three weeks in the presence of Gurū Dev and his blessings. He is always with us; we have his darśan, we are in his presence, we are in satsaṅg. Our lives are already good. It is already 12 o’clock, so I will keep it short. In the evening, we will begin with the new mantras. Śrīdeva Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Madhavānanda Purījī Sadgurudeva Bhagavān Kī Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purījī Gurudeva Kī Satsanātana Dharma Kī Haraṇāmav Pārvatī Pataye Harahara Mahādeva Śambhu.