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Hari Om, dear brothers and sisters, here and at your home, watching Swamijī TV. On the way here, I was thinking about what would be good to talk about today. My mind was completely empty, which is excellent for meditation. But when I arrived, three different ideas immediately came to me. Now they are fighting inside, as there is only a small door; they are fighting over who will go out first. When we consider the teachings of Viśva Gurujī, sometimes we receive instructions that are not immediately understandable. For example, many, many years ago, there was a tradition: after a yoga class, people would go with the teacher to drink coffee or chai. This was okay, as it allowed for discussion of topics not possible in a mixed-interest class. But then a directive came from Viśva Gurujī, almost like a law: never go with your practitioners for coffee or similar. For many teachers, this was hard to explain, and some were a little angry. I did not have a problem, as I taught several classes in a row without interruption. It was good to observe this when not personally involved, and I saw many people had difficulty. I wondered why Swamijī had changed this. He explained it beautifully, as he often does, through stories. When you give a story, people immediately have a picture, an emotion, and they remember it. Theory alone is boring for most; it goes in one ear and out the other. I also learned from others—not from Viśva Gurujī—about how to help someone who is drowning. You should never jump directly into the water to help without first creating a little distance between yourself and that person. Why? Swamījī explains this with a story. After the monsoon, two friends were walking around collecting things. One friend saw what looked like a blanket far out in the water. He said, "I will go and get that blanket. We can wash it, dry it in the sun, and have a good blanket." The other friend said, "No, it is too far. Leave it. We will find something nearer." But the first friend insisted: "I am a good swimmer. I am strong, young. I know how to swim. I will take it." He jumped into the water and swam to the blanket. The moment he caught hold of it, he realized it was not a blanket but a half-drowned bear. As the saying goes, a drowning person will clutch at a straw. In that moment, the bear clutched the man. Even though the man was strong, young, and knew how to swim, a bear is a bear. The man started to sink and screamed, "Help! Help! I am sinking!" The friend shouted from a distance, "Leave it! Leave it!" The man cried back, "I can't! It holds me!" That is the problem. We think we are able, that we have knowledge, strength, spirituality—we know how to swim. But from a distance, it may look like a blanket; when you come near, it is a bear. Therefore, always maintain distance. Lifeguards on the beach always have that orange or saffron buoy. They always put it between the person who is sinking and themselves. It is always important to have that little distance. If you do not, you are no longer in a position to help. The relationship changes, and you may not be able to save them, or you might go down too. This principle exists in many areas. Remember your previous life—not a past life in another body, but your life before yoga. Some of you may not have such a past, but some of us do. Remember going to parties. There was always one or two persons sitting in a certain way. A book nicely explains that such a person is like having a hook above their head; they are fishing with this position. They are showing, "I am not good," and they really mean it. It is similar with dogs. When a dog is emotionally injured or hurt, it lifts a leg and shows it cannot stand properly. What does that dog expect from you? Attention and reassurance that everything is okay. Afterwards, it jumps and runs again. The same principles apply everywhere. We are not so different. The difference is only in our clothing. They have hair; some of us do too, but we hide it. That is the difference. When we start spiritual life, we start with this human life. As we heard in stories in previous days, everybody has the same tendencies. Those people at the party, like the dog with its leg up, are seeking attention. They are catching your energy, sucking it. It is okay. We are yogīs; we are not afraid of losing energy because when you give, you get more. It is no problem. But be aware that it is a form of sucking, and you will not help such people by being caught on their hook. Helping means making them understand they need attention. Sometimes they need a very long time to learn this. Mostly, everybody tries to catch attention—through dress, behavior, strange hair color. It is normal to want to be visible. Therefore, never judge people with the hook, but it is important to understand. This is a great lesson for us. When I walk through the city, I have a kind of professional deformation. I observe people. I observe knees, the position of the pelvis, kyphosis. Because of that, I understand how a golden chain can disappear in the neck area. After summer, they talk about "white line syndrome" because a white line remains on the skin. Why? Because the neck is forward. How should you observe people? Not through judgment. Look at the position of the body and everything you know about that position. How would you, in a yoga class, suggest a change? Or, when you see on public transport that someone's chain has completely disappeared, try to be aware: how is my mālā? Maybe my whole mālā disappears into my neck area. Immediately, you correct your posture. They say the world around us is a mirror. In that mirror, try not to judge "this stupid monkey jumping here and there," because that monkey is us. Through that reflection in the mirror—which is what this world means—we are able to correct ourselves. Therefore, there is a nice saying: never judge other people, because you will learn from that and correct your own behavior. They also say when you see a beggar, the beggar is here for us—to practice giving, to practice compassion. What does this mean for us? All of this is practice. What is the most important thing? Everybody says the same. From the Indian tradition, Satsaṅgatana Dharma, to the Western tradition—like the very nice book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a 2000-year-old book from the Roman Empire. If you have not read it, try to read "Meditations." He had a notebook near his bed and wrote so beautifully. Everybody says that your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Whether you are in heaven or hell depends only on the quality of your thoughts. If you have the idea that somebody is always observing you, always working against you, it will become your reality, and your whole life will be like that. You will be in hell. If you break your leg or hand, or if you are pregnant, you will suddenly see so many pregnant women around you, or so many people in plaster casts. You have had such an experience, yes. You observe it because you are in that state; you have such thoughts. If you live in the Kali Yuga, and if you think this world is hell, that everywhere is disaster, and your mind is full of disaster, you will be in that world. I remember once Viśva Gurujī said that whether you live in the Kali Yuga or the Satya Yuga depends on your thoughts. Here, I hope you have completely different thoughts. We are here in nice nature. Your thoughts make everything beautiful, and you are in heaven. I will share something from my experience. Before we established the ashram outside the city on thirteen hectares of land, I really loved green grass. But now, after a few years, green grass means a big problem. A few years ago in Zagreb, there was a mayor we joked about because he put asphalt everywhere. Now he is my idol: no grass, no problem! When the grass-growing season starts, I have one problem: how to cut it? When we first came to the ashram, everything was nice, green, and natural. But now I think it would be good to put stones here, no mud, no cutting grass. You could sit in a nice place. It is excellent because you are in that mindset. If I do not think about it, I say, "Oh, what a nice green meadow." I come here and think, "Oh my God, it is nice, but it needs cutting. Who will cut this grass?" I think about it, and I know those who take care of the ashram have the same problem. Again rain, again the grass grows. That is how it is with our thoughts; in that way, we see the world around us. How do we change this? Only by changing our thoughts. It is not easy, because negative thoughts are much stronger than positive thoughts. We know this is not because we are bad people, but due to evolution. Through evolution, those individuals who were constantly thinking about problems—not having bad thoughts, but being vigilant—were the ones who survived. If you were observing a nice sunset and enjoying food, you might soon become food yourself. But that time has passed, thank God. We have evolved. Now we are human, protected, and we do not need such constant vigilance. Okay, when you are driving a car, you have similar thinking. When you see or hear children, you immediately think of possible problems. You think somebody will cheat you. You hear laughter and think, "He is laughing at me." Our life becomes hell. To change our life, we need discipline. We need to change our thoughts. First, we need to be aware. Be in the present moment and be aware of your thoughts. If a negative thought comes, just say to yourself, "Delete, delete," and replace it with a positive thought. Hold the positive thought longer—they say approximately three times longer. Slowly, we will change the patterns in our brain, our synapses. We will slowly change our brain from a sad brain to a happy brain. Nowadays they call this neuroplasticity. But we know this through yoga, and not only yoga; as I said about the Western tradition, everybody knows this. This is the way to change our life. For that, we also need a master, a self-realized Guru, who will put us in situations where we are able to see and recognize. For beginners, we see problems in others, but we must be aware that this world is a mirror. Through that mirror, we are able to see. For men shaving, you need a mirror. In ancient times, a man was shaving not with a nice razor but with a knife, looking at his reflection in a lake. At that moment, his friend passed by. The friend said, "Hello, I am going to the city. Do you need anything?" The man said, "I need a mirror. I heard there are mirrors. Please bring me one from the village." You know, it took two weeks to go and return. Finally, the friend brought the mirror, nicely wrapped in cloth—a big package. The man said, "Oh, thank you, but I was thinking of something small." The friend said, "No, no, this is for you." The man opened it and saw inside the stand of the mirror; he saw a book. He said, "You gave me a book." The friend said, "No, that book is the mirror." Which book was it? The Rāmāyaṇa. We talked about the Rāmāyaṇa yesterday. Swāmījī said that in the Rāmāyaṇa, you will see every situation in your life. They are very old books, but the problems are the same. If you are wise, you will find your exact problem in the Rāmāyaṇa. But it is not like a modern coach who only shows you the problem and laughs about it. Laughing is okay, but you need a solution. Inside the Rāmāyaṇa, you will find the problem and also the medicine. Therefore, all scriptures are very important. All literature is important. Do not think only of Sanskrit texts. You can also find this in Shakespeare, or the Iliad and Odyssey. All such books are excellent. They explain the problem, allow you to see it, and if the book is good, it contains the medicine: how to cure the disease, how to solve the problem. This is important for reading. It is important to observe. The world around us is not for judging but for learning about ourselves—not only our mistakes in behavior but also the position of our body. This is the knowledge we received from Viśva Gurujī. This is the beauty. This is yoga in daily life. Siddhīpāda Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Thank you. Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ... Viśva Guru Mahādeva, Kī Jai! Śrīdīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jai! Hindu Dharma Samrāṭa Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Mādhavānanda Purījī Satguru Deva Bhagavān, Kī Jai! Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purījī Gurudeva, Kī Jai! Salutations to the Cosmic Self! Pozdrav Kosmickému Já! Salutations to Śrī Alagpurījī Siddhāpīṭa Paramparā! Pozdrav Śrī Alagpurījī Siddhāpīṭa Paramparā! Nand Pūrṇam to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī! Jeho Svatosti Svámímu Māheśvarānand Jīmu! Om Namoḥa Nareṇdra Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Viveka Purījī and all the Sannyāsīs! Good morning, and Hari Om to all of you present here and watching through Swamiji TV. The lecture will be in the evening, but today we will start with a new sūtra, the first mantra. Who has it? Maybe they are distributing it. Who does not, it is here. So whoever does not have it, please raise your hands or come here. It is the Guru Pādukā Sūtra. I have one lecture about the Guru’s feet and the importance of the Guru’s feet. Pādukā means the shoes he wears. In olden times, we used to have klompen, wooden shoes. This is a stotra of the Guru’s pādukās. Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥ. Harihyo Ananta Saṁsāra Samudra Tāra Nauka Itabhyam. Guru Bhakti Dabhyam. Vairāgya Samrājada Pūjanābhyam. Namo Namaḥ Śrī Gurupādukābhyam. This is the first mantra. Ananta-saṁsāra-samudra-tāra-naukāyitābhyām. Guru-bhakti-dābhyām. Vairāgya-sāmrājya-pūjanābhyām. Namo namaḥ śrī-gurupādukābhyām. For those of you who are writing, please write: Salutations to the sandals of my Guru, which are a boat that helps me to cross the endless ocean of life (Ananta Saṁsāra Samudra Tāra Naukāyitābhyām), which endow me with devotion to my Guru (Guru Bhakti Dābhyām), and by whose worship I attain the kingdom of renunciation (Vairāgya Sāmrājya Pūjanābhyām). Salutations, salutations to the holy sandals of my Guru. We will continue this in the evening. We have today: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We will do two ślokas a day, and on the last day we will do three. We will manage. If not, then you will manage without me. Maheśa, Gaurā, Manebhyo, Śubham, Astu, Nityam, Loka, Samasta, Sukhino, Bhavantu. Om, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ... Oṁ, Śrīdīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī, Jai, Hindu, Dharma, Samrāṭ, Parama, Svāmī Śrī Mādhavānanda Purījī, Satguru Deva, Bhagavān, Kī, Jai, Devādeva, Deveśvara, Mahādeva, Kī, Jai, Śrīdīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī, Jai, Viśvaguru, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, Parama, Svāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purījī, Gurudeva, Kī, Jai, Haraṇamah Pārvati Pādaye Harahara Mahādeva Śambhu.