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Nahaṁ kartāraṁ prabudhipa karatāṁ, mahaṁ prabudhipa kartāhi, krīvalaṁ śānti, śānti, śāntihi. Śrī Yālakorīḍhī Siddha Pīṭha Empire, Kījeṭ. Hari Om, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters. It is always a little hard to start a seminar when you expect Viśvagurujī here, and Viśvagurujī is not here. There is always a disappointment. But you know how it is said in life: if you have an appointment, you will have a disappointment. Yet it is good to expect and to consider it normal that Viśva Gurujī is with us. It is somehow normal, for Swāmījī is in India, and tomorrow is Devapurījī’s Mahāsamādhi, which is always a great festival in Kailash. And, of course, the day after that is Viśva Gurujī’s birthday according to the lunar calendar. If you have journeyed to India during this period, you know that on the day of Devapurījī’s Mahāsamādhi, Viśvagurujī visits the Kailash Ashram, and the whole night is a beautiful satsaṅg. Perhaps tomorrow we will have darśan through the webcast. People are always complaining, "Oh, Kali Yuga is not good, Kali Yuga is a terrible time." But if you know how to utilize it, Kali Yuga is also excellent. In Kali Yuga, you can fly without much practice; in six or eight hours, you are in India. Also, without much practice, you can have darśan from a great distance through a webcast. Other things that are not so good in Kali Yuga depend solely on us. We need to be like a Paramahaṁsa. Do you know the story of the haṁsa, the swan? It lives in the Manasarovar Lake beneath Kailāśa. They say the Paramahaṁsa eats only pearls, or that it drinks only milk. If you put a glass of milk into that huge lake—the lake of our mind—the Haṁsa, which symbolizes our soul, drinks only the milk and leaves the water. We should be like that. In this world, and especially in Kali Yuga, we have so many opportunities, so much information and knowledge, but also so much garbage and wrong knowledge, more than positive things. That is normal, and we should be like the Haṁsa: take the pearls, take the milk, and leave the water. We are living in the Kali Yuga, but whether we experience Kali Yuga or Satya Yuga depends on the qualities inside us. It depends on our thoughts. We are here in Vape for the seminar. Swāmījī is not here physically, but the energy, everything, is here. Not just to please you, but truly, if you try to think and not be disappointed first, if you try to be calm and relaxed, you may feel Viśva Gurujī’s presence even more strongly than in physical form. Just try to relax. Try to utilize this time in the best way possible. This means we have time here for our practice. Today is the first day with our friends; perhaps we haven't seen them for a while, and we need to socialize. That is important, for in this way we strengthen the connection within our family. We need this strong connection because they say that in Kali Yuga, strength lies in unity. Through this, we will feel that connection and feel much more protected in our sādhanā. It is not easy to practice. As said in one bhajan, it is not easy to practice yoga. When you start, your family and friends often do not give you a positive push. Mostly they will tell you, "Oh, you are stupid," when you say you are vegetarian. Oh, I remember when I said I was vegetarian, that was somehow okay, but when I said I do not drink alcohol, my father was completely beside himself. And if you don't go to late-night parties, you are considered completely crazy. Everything we do seems abnormal to others. Rare are those among us who had support from their family. This new generation has parents who support and cook vegetarian food. I remember once Krishnānand talked about the beginnings of vegetarianism in Hungary. From a lecture on vegetarian food, people went directly to the police—yes, to the police! Talking about vegetarianism. Practicing yoga at that time was not easy either. But we survived, and we continue our practice. Now it is much easier, but also harder because other sweet distractions are around us. To stay and remain on the path, we need the support of our family—our spiritual family—and we are that spiritual family here. I remember a time when Viśva Gurujī tried so hard to direct our behavior and thoughts to be like a family, to help each other. Not only in practice but also when you have work at home, like painting walls, your family comes to help. You prepare some food and all that is needed, and afterward you eat and have a good feast. This is not just karma yoga for the ashram; it is about having a way of behavior and thinking where we help each other, like in villages hundreds of years ago. Such big work is impossible for one family alone. During harvest, one day the whole village would come to one family, another day to another, and in two weeks everything was harvested. We need this. In Kali Yuga, a time has come when we think only of ourselves. The behavior we see on the streets shows that everyone is thinking only of "me, my needs, and only I." In this way, we are very weak, for we are not able to survive. In ancient times, a single person or family could not survive. The same is true for spirituality: we need our spiritual family. It is okay; we need this talk and socializing; it is very important. But we are also here to do something for ourselves. We often hear from Viśva Gurujī that in ancient India, there were also holidays, but they were for recharging our battery. That was Ekānta Vās. "Eka" means one, and "vās" in our languages means place or village. It means going somewhere to be alone with oneself. Usually, during such holiday free time, people observed mauna, silence, because mauna is so important. I know that Mahāprabhujī said that for people, two things are very hard: to forget and to forgive, yes, and to eat a little. What we have seen over the years that Anusthān Swāmījī has led is the practice of Mauna. It is not necessary to be completely silent like a pantomime; a little talk is okay, but try to be in silence. It is important to stop the inner dialogue. If you are not speaking but inside you have three, four, five people chattering in your head, that is not silence; that is a psychiatric clinic. Try to have a little peace inside your head. When you have this inner peace, we can slowly bring our whole year to the right place. We will understand what is happening to us and see how to go forward. You know how it is now with the Olympic Games. In basketball, when players make many mistakes, the coach calls a timeout so the players can regroup. It is not so much about giving information but about calming down. Also, in football, when the ball is going everywhere, it is easy to score an own goal. You need to stop the ball, to stand on it. Try to understand this summer seminar in that light. We are playing football, basketball, or some other game, and we need to stand on the ball, to call a timeout—not to run away from the problem or from life. People often say, "You are practicing yoga; that is running away from life." No, we are not running away. We are taking time for ourselves to calm down and understand what is happening around us. When you have a problem, you step out from it and look at it. If you can, for a few minutes, detach emotionally, not be so subjective, but try to see it from the side without emotion... Take a deep inhale and exhale, relax, and look at the problem objectively, with rational thinking. After two or three minutes, come back into the game. You will see the problem is not so hard, and you can solve it easily. Therefore, our meditation and practice are not about running away but about taking a timeout before returning to the game. Now we have one week for ourselves. We have time for practice during Kṛyānāsthan. You can do something you are unable to do during the year. I know it is hard, but everything is hard. Try to practice. In other programs, we have time for āsanas and prāṇāyāma; many of you are yoga teachers. When you are a teacher, you usually lead the class, but now it is time to inhale, exhale, and not have to think. We also have time for practicing. Prāṇāyāma is very important, for it benefits everything: our physical health, mental health. Without prāṇāyāma, how can we practice kriyānusthān? When you try to calm the mind, you know what happens—more and more vṛttis arise inside. There is a story of a disciple who goes to the Guru and asks, "Gurujī, I want to meditate; please advise me how." The Guru says, "Oh, that is easy. Sit, relax, breathe, repeat your mantra. And don’t think about a monkey." "Okay, I’m not thinking about a monkey." "It’s very easy. Just sit down, relax, breathe your mantra. One thing is important: don’t think about me." And that poor śiṣya sits, relaxes the body, kayā-sthairyam, no movement, breathing, repeating the mantra excellently. "Oh yes, and never think about a monkey." In that moment, the monkey was jumping everywhere in his head. I remember something from about 30–35 years ago in Zagreb. A very wise person came and said we must be without any movement during meditation. That is okay, but during meditation, you might swallow saliva two or three times. You know what happened? All these people with that idea, like at the dentist where you produce so much saliva—the whole meditation became about swallowing. Thank God it was a short time, but so many such ideas arise. We need to have Viveka, common sense, to see what is right and what is wrong, what is completely foolish and what is reality. That is important for our practice. No fanaticism, but common sense. We talked about this in Strylki. Always ask, "Why?" It does not mean you are a sinner if you ask why; you need to understand. When you have understanding, not dogma—"because it’s in this book, this chapter, this verse"—that is religion. But when you have real understanding, you no longer just believe something; you know it. And when you know, you are like a mountain. When we are sure, not merely believing, we are on the highway. Now we have time. Truly try to utilize it for practice. Try to be with yourself. Try to calm the waves, for when the waves are high, we cannot see what is at the bottom of the sea. We need to calm the waves to go deep inside. How do we calm the waves? Through prāṇāyāma. It is very hard to calm thoughts directly. When the prāṇa is agitated, creating waves, our thoughts are also in big waves, for prāṇa and mind are connected. Therefore, try to practice prāṇāyāma. Through it, you will see your prāṇa settling, and your mind will follow. Try a little more practice, a little more calming of thoughts. Also, through āsanas we calm our movements. You know, when someone has many thoughts inside, they cannot sit still; there are so many movements. You can immediately see when someone has unnecessary movements, like a monkey, or constantly fidgeting as if spraying against bugs. Our mind is so disturbed. We have nice āsana practice with very slow movements; this will calm our mind. Also, you know when people practice āsanas, they often have many unnecessary movements. First, they have so many things around—a water bottle and other stuff. You don’t need to drink so much water all the time; that is a psychic problem. Today I was watching the Olympic Games. When someone is a little stressed or nervous, what do they do? They suck on the bottle, not drinking the water, for the bottle is no longer just a water bottle. That is an oral obsession. I have read and studied this. Look, we drink water from a glass. But in modern times, we have these bottles for sucking. It is fine if you are riding a bike, but why do we need to suck on it? Research, look, read, and you will see what happens and why people suck their thumbs. Why do children suck their thumbs? It is a problem, and we do not need this. Also, when you practice āsanas, you try to build agni, the fire. If you immediately pour a bucket of water on the fire, you must start again and again. Therefore, it is said not to drink water until two or two-and-a-half hours after eating. Why? Because food remains in your stomach. You need acid to digest it. After one to one-and-a-half hours, especially if you sit in Vajrāsana, it will be quicker. The acid will do its work nicely on your food, for you need strong acid to extract the essence for your body. After that intense time finishes, you can drink. But if you constantly drink water while eating or right after, you dilute the acid concentration. It is like constantly putting water on a fire; you will have digestion problems. The same applies when practicing āsanas. Do not drink; you do not need a bottle near you. You have one-and-a-half to two hours of āsana practice; you do not need it. I remember last year in Strylki, Svāmī Umāpurī was always saying, "No drinking so much; you will always go to the toilet during practice. If you are thirsty, drink two glasses of water and finish." But constantly drinking, and especially sucking the bottle, is a problem. That movement creates a problem in your head. Usually, I do not drink, but thank you. This is also important. When you practice, try not to have so much stuff around, not just for a nice picture. Swāmījī has said many times, you know so many things, like you are a Cherga, a Gypsy Cherga? There is so much stuff around us. You know these posters in front of the door, this stuff around. Why? Not for a nice picture so we look good on the webcast, no. But when we are constantly doing this stuff, it is a distraction. It means our mind is disturbed, and our mind reflects in our breathing and movements. Therefore, if we want to calm our mind, we should not have so much stuff around us. No sucking the thumb. Be nice, relax, and try to have focus. It is very important to have this—I will not say concentration, but focus. When you watch sports, observe people before they start to run. They need this focus, and you can easily recognize it. What is important? Nothing else around exists; only the line. If we practice in that way, we will have good results.