Continue Your sadhana
The continuity of spiritual practice requires unwavering motivation and love, which are easily lost. Many begin practices but fail to maintain them, like teachers who instruct yet do not practice themselves. Starting is easy, like building a house, but continuation demands inner effort. Your aim provides motivation; losing it means losing your path. Sādhanā is the bucket to draw water from the well, and motivation is the rope. If the rope of willpower breaks near the top, all progress is lost. Negative thinking rots this rope. Doubt is a bacterium that can kill mighty motivation. A story tells of a yogi ready to quit after forty fruitless years. Watching an ant persistently carry a grain up a tree, falling and trying again, taught him never to give up. Life has problems and noise, like a water pump; to have water, you must accept the noise. Problems are the school of life and will never be fully solved. Therefore, you must find time for sādhanā. When love is lost, everything is lost. Water your practice with love, care, and wisdom, as a dry plant revives with water, light, and fertilizer. This harmony for body, mind, and soul is possible only if you do it.
"Your negative thinking towards your aim is very bad. You should not have this thinking."
"Love is lost; everything is lost. Then you have no motivation."
Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic
DVD 311
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Around the world - Opening of new YIDL center in Ptuj, Slovenia
We mark 25 years of teaching Yoga in Daily Life here, a voluntary mission from an authentic Indian school. We secured our own space, now becoming a blessed ashram. We have brought yoga to schools, libraries, and communities for all ages through dedicated effort. Yoga is ancient, a science of body, mind, and soul, intertwined with Āyurveda as natural knowledge for health. It is not passive meditation but active practice for concentration and peace. Its universal message is recognized internationally. We must return to natural living, embracing yoga and Āyurveda for well-being, seeing all cultures and people as one family under God.
"Yoga is the science of body, mind, and soul."
"Vasudhaiva Kuṭumbakam,' which means the whole world is one family."
Filming location: Slovenia
Hanumanji
The divine play between God and devotee involves tests to purify ego.
God and devotee are ultimately one, appearing in two forms to enact a divine play. Hanuman, an incarnation of Shiva, is the perfect devotee of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu. After Rama's victory, he tasked Hanuman with remaining on Earth to protect devotees. One day, while Hanuman chanted Rama's name, he reflected on his own indispensable deeds in Rama's mission. Sensing this rising ego, Rama devised a lesson. He praised Hanuman extensively and then gave him a simple duty: to deliver a ring to a sage in the Himalayas. Hanuman journeyed there and found the sage, who instructed him to throw the ring into a water pond. When Hanuman hesitated, the sage told him to retrieve it. Hanuman found the pond filled with identical rings. The sage explained that each ring represented a past divine incarnation, and Vishnu performed similar heroic deeds through each. Hanuman's great feats were not unique but part of the eternal divine play, accomplished through divine grace. The lesson was to dissolve the devotee's ego.
"Hanuman, whenever Vishnu incarnates on this earth, he has to pay the tax."
"Go and say to Rāma that... 'Your duty is finished, now you can go back.'"
Filming location: Wellington, New Zealand
Prayer for peace
A silent prayer for global peace was offered. This practice is Mauna Yoga, an inner prayer conducted in mental silence. Governments have advised quiet in places of gathering. The prayer is directed inwardly to the divine for all beings worldwide. This is a time for universal brotherhood and collective prayer for peace. Practitioners should maintain personal care and positive thought. The global community of practitioners continues through online connection. Service is provided selflessly, as all sustenance comes from the divine. Therefore, one should act without fear or anger, sustained by faith.
"All religions should join together. We all should pray to God that all humans, all animals, and this whole globe remain in a very clear, peaceful atmosphere."
"Yoga is for harmony, peace, and understanding. One should not think negatively of a person."
Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic
The Foundation of Family and Dharma
The foundation of dharma is the family, beginning with reverence for mother and father. Fulfilling this duty is the path to God. Children must emulate their parents, continuing the lineage through righteous marriage. To abandon this unity, to allow children to fall into vice, is to forsake our humanity. Even animals demonstrate loyalty, perishing when separated from their kin. If humans fail in this basic duty, they fall short of that natural standard. Upholding the family is the essence of being human.
"From the first time and at the end, first comes mother and father."
"If we humans cannot be there for our children, mothers and fathers, then it is great, very good."
