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Guru Brahma, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Satsaparabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ, Tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ, Śrī Alakpujī Sītāpī Paramparā. Salutations to our Guru Dev. At his lotus feet, we bow to His lotus feet. Hari Om, my dear Guru, brothers and sisters. My family. In 2022, during the COVID time, it was my first time coming back to Sloky after two years. When Viśvagurujī asked me to speak, the first words that came from my heart were, "We are in heaven on earth," meaning this ashram. Now I have come back. There is a lot of rain, not so much sunshine, but I still feel the same. Nothing is more beautiful than this ashram. Are you all in agreement? That is why all of you are here. Also, when we close our eyes, we feel this enormous energy. Although Viśvagurujī is not here, he is always here. He is not here in his physical form, but he is always here in his nirguṇa form. We had a beautiful Guru Pūrṇimā. I think all of you were here, either here or in India. I was going to India for Guru Pūrṇimā. I had my ticket booked, but when I came to pay, I could not pay. The computer kept telling me there was no seat. What does that mean? It means my destiny was to come here. Then I changed my flight. This is Guru Dev. He did not want me to go to India because I was in India from December, January, February. Is it strange? No, it is not. It is meant to be. I am here with you all because you are my family. Although I come from another part of the world, and there are many of you while I am one, I recognize all of you even though I do not know the names of some of you. I feel so close to all of you because you are my family, and Guru Dev has created this family worldwide. Then Gurudev sent me to China. I realized he sent me there to learn about myself. There is always so much to learn. I went there with Yoga in Daily Life, but at the same time, he sent me there to learn about my culture and myself. In the last ten years, or more than ten years now, at my age, I still have to start to learn from the beginning. I did not really know my culture; I did not really know the language that much. But in these ten years, I not only learned to speak the language, I learned how to write it. Is that not wonderful? At every stage, we are still learning. There is no end to learning, but the most important thing is that with our yoga in daily life, it is not just āsana. It is a way to learn about ourselves and to look at ourselves. There is so much to learn at every moment. Who am I? And Viśvagurujī’s system and his directing are a way to learn who I am—how to learn to find out who I am. Thank you. Thank you. I love to see the shock on the people. Hari Om. Praṇām to our beloved Gurudev and our paramparā. Praṇām to our beloved Gurudev and our paramparā. Praṇām to Avatār Purījī. Praṇām Avatār Purījī. To all the sannyāsīs and everybody who is present here. Well, surprise, surprise. What should I talk about? Maybe I would say the same words or similar words as Swamī Mātājī was saying, because I think each one of us has our own story. But our life story is changed and guided by Gurudev since the moment we met him, and so is my story. Shortly after, I came to Yoga in Daily Life and became a disciple of Viśvagurujī. I started leading classes and courses in Romania. It is a bit of a humorous story because I am originally from Romania, but I have lived in Slovakia for many years. When I came to Střílek during a satsaṅg, Swāmījī was saying, "Sadvīmātā should go to China and Gajananjī should go to Romania." Since I speak Romanian, I approached Gajananjī and told him that if there was any help I could offer, I would be very glad to do it. I went to him, and he was surprised and said, "Why do you want to invite me? Why should I go to Romania?" So I just gave him my contact and let it be. Some time passed, a few months, and I returned to Strilky for another seminar in the summer. During the satsaṅg, Swāmījī repeated again: "Mataji should go to China, Gajananji should go to Romania." This time, I did not go to Gajananji; I went to Swamiji directly and told him, "I am originally from Romania, so if there is any help, I will be glad to help." Not long after, I started getting messages from Swamiji, which came either in my dreams or during my meditations. The situation in Romania was slowly developing, but we came to a point where we had no ashram and no place to practice, so we were practicing at my house. Since people were interested, I invited Swāmī Gajānanda. He spent almost a week there. During lunch one day, he asked me, "How come you came with this idea about Romania?" I told him I had simply reacted to Swamiji’s words and had approached him a few times about it. He was surprised because he did not know anything about it. He told me, "Well, most probably Swamiji was speaking to you, not to me." This is how the story of Romania unfolded. Since we had, at one point, no place to practice, I started looking for a place. I found a nice plot of land and approached Swamiji to see if he agreed. Within a year, we built an ashram. It was not us; it was actually Swamiji building it. He was guiding along the way, and his guidance was inner guidance. We never spoke about it, except once when he approved it. I just followed his instructions. So in Romania we have a nice ashram. It is a small group of bhaktas, but it has a beautiful energy. Seven years ago, Swāmījī came to bless it. Since then, we have been trying to keep Mahāprabhujī’s life alive and the light of our paramparā. His presence is always felt, even until today. One more story: before Swamiji came, just right before his visit, I was attending a satsaṅg in Vienna. After the satsaṅg with Śiv Purī, with our guru brother, we were traveling to Romania to prepare for the seminar. We arrived in front of the ashram. In front of the gate, in the courtyard, there is a small building, and I just saw "Śrī Alakpurījī Ashram" written on the wall. When Swamiji came, he blessed the ashram and named it Śrī Alakpurījī Ashram. It was a beautiful, beautiful, and strong moment. I will continue a little bit more, going away from Romania. We will take a small trip to India regarding Śrī Alakpurījī. I had the blessing to be at his gufā three times with our Gurū Dev. For those who were there, you definitely have these beautiful memories of the place. For those who were not, I strongly recommend it. The last time was in 2019 before COVID. When we were there, Swamiji mentioned that next time we come, we should actually visit the four holy places, the Chārdhām—Yamunā, Tri Gaṅgā, Kedārnāth and Badrīnāth—and then end our trip in Alakpurījī Gufā. After the COVID period, things started flowing again. With Dattātreya, my partner, we had this inner wish and calling to visit these places. We asked Viśvagurujī to bless our trip, and we went to visit these places. It is not about the actual experience of trekking or going to places high in the Himalayas. Our journey, once again guided by Gurudev, followed a familiar path, yet it was not without its obstacles. It was late in the monsoon season, and landslides were frequent. Miraculously, however, our path kept clearing just for us. We had a beautiful darśan of the Yamunā tree and returned to our starting point. The following day, we visited Gaṅgotrī. Despite the prognosis from "Guru Google Baba" predicting rain all day, we were met with a beautifully clear and sunny sky—Swāmījī is famous for controlling the weather, so even Google is not enough for him. When we returned to the hotel after the darśan at Gaṅgotrī, a huge rainfall began, and the road was immediately closed again. From there, we continued to Kedārnāth, and it was the same story. Upon arriving at the hotel, other pilgrims mentioned they had not managed to go up to Kedārnāth for one or two days. Yet, in the morning, the road was clear. We began our journey, a ten-hour walk that was beautiful, and we reached Kedārnāth in the evening. We planned to stay two nights. Right after we arrived, they closed the road again. Due to the bad weather and the closure, there were very few people in Kedārnāth. We were thus blessed not only with one darśan of Kedārnāth but, because there were no crowds, we managed to perform a pūjā for Swāmījī’s health right inside the mandir. The first time, we waited only about 10 minutes. After our first darśan, we visited the Mahāsamādhi place of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya Jī. When we returned, we realized there was nobody in front of the temple. We looked at each other and said, "Are we going?" We went inside. There were only maybe five to ten people, and the attendants were very friendly. We asked them, showing a picture, if it would be possible to perform a pūjā for Viśvagurujī’s health. We performed the pūjā, which took about 20 minutes. That was our experience with Kedārnāth. On the way back, the road was again closed, so people were not coming up, making our descent very easy. After that, we proceeded to Badrināth, with a stopover in Joshīmath—the same route we used to travel every year with Viśvagurujī. We had darśan at Badrināth, and the next day we walked to Alagapurījī Gufā. Again, it was a beautiful day. We started in the morning around 7:30. After crossing Mana and having darśan of Gaṇeśa and Vedavyāsa Guphā, and darśan of Sarasvatī Mātā, we walked up towards Vasudharā Fall and Śailak Pṛtchī Guphā. It was an easy walk. Although Dattātreya was half-limping and his shoes were almost falling apart, we managed to arrive at Śrī Lakṣmīpurījī Gufā. It was so beautiful as we came closer to the Gufā. When we reached the point where you can have the darśan and see the place, it felt definitively like our spiritual home. That is why I would encourage all of you: if you have a chance, please do visit. Spend some time there and soak in the energy and atmosphere. We performed pūjā and then walked back. We stayed for some time but not too long, as we needed to be back in the village before sunset. This is how we were traveling with Gurudev through the Chārdhām to Śrī Alagapurījī Gufā. After completing all this, we went to have his darśan in Jhaḍan. For, as it is said, all pilgrimages finish at the lotus feet of our Gurudev. Not guaranteeing anything, I just got a brilliant idea after listening to her. It takes a lot of planning; I don’t know how it works. But I will talk to people, and we’ll figure it out. Maybe not this year, but perhaps we can plan a trip with Gurudev. I would go with that, and we can do something. Let’s see. Greetings to Aparāmpārā and to Swāmī Avatāra Purī Jī. I would like to talk about how one sentence from Gurudev can change and influence so many things. The culmination of this occurred this summer. In the year 2018, we were in the Himalayas, at 3,650 meters in the Alagapurījī Gufā. Following Rāmādevī in 2018, we were with Viśvagurujī in the Himalayas at a height of more than 3,000 meters at Alakpurījī’s Gufā. In one moment, Swāmījī said, "Let’s practice prāṇāyāma." I don’t remember exactly how many, but there were about 120 people, and we all started to practice prāṇāyāma. He modified the Bhujangīnī prāṇāyāma to improve oxygen flow at that high altitude. When we finished, he simply said, "It would be good to research this." Together with Vierka Špatenková, we caught the idea. During that stay, we conducted an observational, comparative study, comparing the state before and after. We selected more than 30 participants, edited the results, and they were published in respected scientific journals. When we returned in 2019, we were better prepared. We worked with a randomized comparison group and had more machines to measure. At that time, we borrowed a measuring machine from a person in our university—it was just the Department of Physical Education at Banská University then. He was very open and friendly, lending us the machine without any problem, and since then we became friends with him. A year ago, this Department of Physical Culture changed into the Faculty of Physical Education, and he became the dean. When we were talking, he mentioned he would like to include yoga there. So, together with my wife, when the faculty started its first academic semester, we taught a full semester of yoga in sports. The students were very happy, he was very happy, and we kept working together. In May, we began planning how to celebrate the International Day of Yoga. Hansa Davy, my wife, suggested doing it differently this year by collaborating with the university, which has a beautiful new sports stadium. We asked the faculty, they agreed, and we organized it there. More than 100 people came; it was a beautiful celebration. More than half were completely new people who hadn’t heard about yoga in daily life before. I think, not only for the Banská Bystrica society but for the whole of Slovakia, this year's event was the most successful for International Yoga Day. The cherry on top was the weather. It was quite sunny, and we practiced for three hours. By the end, people were starting to feel the heat from being in the sun. All of a sudden, in the final 20 minutes of the program, a little cloud appeared. It created a beautiful shadow exactly over the place where we were practicing. It was a sign for us that Gurudev is protecting us, that Gurudev knows about us. Thank you very much.