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I would like to begin with a bhajan that relates a little to what I will speak about later. It is the bhajan "Ahiṃsā Dharma" by Holy Gurujī. I feel a personal connection to this bhajan because I asked Holy Gurujī to write it, and he fulfilled my wish—a point of pride for me. I think everyone knows about ahiṃsā. Swāmījī has spoken about it often enough: do not hurt, do not kill, do not be cruel. Respect each and every living being. The common saying in India is "Ahiṃsā paramo dharma"—Ahiṃsā is the highest duty. And Holy Gurujī says the same, just the other way around: there is no higher duty than Ahiṃsā. "Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃." That says exactly that. He states that Mahāprabhujī said it, and that all religions, all different teachings, all holy scriptures, and all saints are saying it. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarī Svāmī Maheśvara Nānājī Gurudeva kī cāe, Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃. Se dīpā dayālo batāyā, Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃. Se dīpā dayālo batāyā. Sapa hī dharm grantha santoṅ, sapa hī dharma-grantha-santoṅ, vidāṅ kasara samajāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃, Siddipā dayālo batāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃, Siddipā dayālo batāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm he ādi anādi, Sapa dharmome pāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm he ādi anādi, Sapa dharmome avāyā. Insā unsā koī jñāna dhyān nahī̃, Insā unsā koī jñāna dhyān nahī̃. Bhakti yod nahī̃ pāyā, Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃. Dīpa-dayālo pātāyā, Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃. Dīpa-dayālo pātāyā, Sapa hī dharmakranta-santoṅne. Sāpahī dharmakrānta-saṅtoṅ, Vīdaṅkāśāra-saṅmajhāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃, Siddhipā dayālo batāyā. Ahiṃsā dharm se koī unsā dharm nahī̃, Siddhipā dayālo batāyā. Sapsī ūñcī gharunayeh Ahiṃsā dharam appanāyah. Ahiṃsā pāl se dīvā kehyā, Ahiṃsā pāl se dīvā kehyā. Ahiṃsā dharam se koī unsā dharam nahī̃, Siddipā dayālo paḍhāyā. Sapa hī dharam granth santoṅ ne, Sapa hī dharam granth santoṅ ne. Siddhāṅkhasāra samajhāyā, ahiṃsā dharm se koī aṃśadhārā nahī̃, siddhipā dayālo pāṭhayā, ahiṃsā dharm se koī aṃśadhārā nahī̃, siddhipā dayālo pāṭhayā. Ahiṃsā sī sūtamīlī saptokhame, mahāpuṇyāyā. Ahiṃsā sī sukhamīlī sabhalobhaṁ, mahāpuṇyakamāyā. Hiṃsakaprāṇī to narakame jāvā, hiṃsakaprāṇī to narakame jāvā. Janam-janam-dukha-pāyā, Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃, Dīpa-dayālu patāyā. Śrī Dīpa Dayālu-pat, apne saṃsāra kī ātmā jāna, Sapa me prabhu samaya. Apne saṃsāra kī ātmā jāna, Sapa me prabhu samaya. Śrīdhipadayāla ahiṃsā kepāla, Śrīdhipadayāla ahiṃsā kepāla, Śrīmādhava-nanda-sattagāyā. Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃, Śrīdhipadayāla patāyā. Sāpahī-dharmā-grānta-santoṅ ne, Sāpahī-dharmā-grānta-santoṅ ne. Nītaṅ khasāra-samma-jhāyā, Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃, Siddhipa-dayālo-pattāyā. Ahiṃsā-dharm se koī unsā-dharm nahī̃, Siddhipa-dayālo-pattāyā. So, good evening. Dobrý večer. How are you? How was the eating? Very good. Look, they were doing like this, you did not. I was clapping. Okay, very good. Anyhow, today our Swāmī Gajananjī is here. Many of you know him; some may not. So those who don’t know will know now. Gajananjī lived many years in India, originally coming from Germany and living in Hamburg. He has been here with us many times. Now he is taking care of Yoga in Daily Life in Canada, and the head office is in Vancouver. So we welcome him again, and this evening is Gajananjī’s evening. Forty-five minutes. As Swāmījī said, now I’m in Canada, and there is quite a difference between the life and feeling in India, in the ashram, and in Canada. In India, one is in a very spiritual atmosphere while struggling with many, many practical problems of daily life. In a country like Canada—and I think most probably most Western countries—you are not really in a spiritual atmosphere. I would say everything is so quick, incredible, and quick-changing. People are never really settling down; they are already on the go. Practically, people are coming from other countries, from other cities, but also going. So, to build up a group is a real task. And everyone is struggling with many, many different things. Previously, I always thought stress was a problem. But in Canada, I learned something new: stress is a lifestyle. To give a practical example, in June I had a workshop, "Stress Management Through Yoga," and I nearly had to cancel it because all the people said, "Oh, it’s very good, but I have no time for it." Through the economic crisis situation, which somehow directly or indirectly affects everyone, everyone is struggling to survive, getting here and there, busy with a double job or with many different activities. One seeming way is that many think, "Why not make my money with yoga?" So now the big yoga centers there actually don’t make their main money anymore with yoga courses, but with giving yoga teacher training. Of course, it’s not the real yoga; it’s all this Westernized yoga, more physical. So now the market is already over-satisfied with a flood of newborn yoga teachers who want to earn their money. In the end, no one can earn anything anymore, and the whole yoga is suffering from that. I do believe that the real, original, spiritual yoga, as Swāmījī and our lineage are representing it, will in the end succeed, but it’s really not easy. So, in this way, actually indirectly, stress as a lifestyle is even afflicting our own people. But I must say, there are also many people in Canada and in Vancouver who really try to do good work from the heart, selfless work. There is, for example, one yoga organization, I think located in Canada or near Vancouver, called Yoga Outreach. They are organizing opportunities for yoga teachers to serve the community where it is most needed—for example, in houses for women, in prisons, for drug addicts, and really in these social groups at the border of society, to help them through yoga. All this work is humanitarian work; no one is earning money with that. I have been in touch with this lady, evaluating if we can somehow join or cooperate, but I think we are not yet at that point. I know that other yoga centers, for example in Australia, are already doing such work. It’s really great, and I think it’s good for us to go in this direction, also to help where help is needed. I came in touch with this lady from Yoga Outreach through a radio station, Co-op Radio, where I was for an interview. She was actually there for the same interview, so we were somehow joined together, but we didn’t know each other before. One lady has founded, within this co-op radio—which has many different activities—a yoga talk show, one hour once per week. This is called the Dṛṣṭi Point. Dṛṣṭi is Hindi; it means the point, the view. So, the point of view. She had interviewed me when I first came to Canada. Later, she became a disciple of Swāmījī, so somehow it’s a little bit a Yoga in Daily Life radio station. I mention it clearly because they are not only broadcast in Vancouver, which you cannot get, of course, but they have a website where all the interviews are posted as a podcast, so you can later listen to or download them. Sarita, whose original name was Farah, is Swāmījī’s disciple. She is the founder of this yoga talk show. She has made, and is still doing with Swāmījī, a series of interviews. So, aside from our international website, you have here another website where you can listen to many radio interviews which Swāmījī gave, mostly based on questions from disciples. The name of this website is drishti.ca, drstipoint.ca, and the web pages are drstipoint.ca (like Canada) and thepointofyou.ca. So, that’s a website where you can listen to Swāmījī’s interviews. It was Saritā’s idea, not only to conduct interviews with Swāmījī, but also to make interviews with me. As Swāmījī agreed, what could I say? So, she had the idea to make an interview series with me about the yamas and niyamas, the ten basic principles of the classical yoga philosophy of Ṛṣi Patañjali. That’s why we sang this bhajan, "Ahiṃsā dharm, śikhoi unsā dharm nahī̃." Ahiṃsā is the very first principle. So, I thought when Swāmījī gives me one hour of time, I would like to speak a little bit about these principles, these yamas and niyamas. I think everyone of you knows, or at least should know, you find it in the Yoga Sūtras of Ṛṣi Patañjali in the second chapter, somewhere in the middle, starting from number 30. It is when he starts to lay down the eight levels of the Aṣṭāṅga Yoga or Rāja Yoga. So, yama and niyama are the first two steps, the first two limbs. I think the word Aṣṭāṅga Yoga is actually very good because the word "aṅga" means limb, like our arms and feet. So now, which would be the first and which would be the second? You need them all together at the same time, actually. They are not very much known and not very much respected because everyone thinks that is just the beginning. We start straight away with the third: āsanas. And then they get stuck on the third, and that’s it. I am actually very thankful to Sarita that she invited me for this interview series because it forced me to really go deeply into it and to think about that, and I found such a depth which I didn’t expect. The first step, the first aṅga, these are the yamas, which you could say are what not to do. The second step, the niyamas, are positive rules, what to do. I will just shortly give an overview to remind you, and then I chose maybe to speak about two or three of them a little bit more. The first is Ahiṃsā. Our bhajan was about that, which means non-violence. Don’t hurt, don’t kill. Respect each and every living being, or in positive words, simply love. Hiṃsā means cruelty, so don’t be cruel. It is so basic, so elementary, and when we don’t follow it, we create so much bad karma. I think it’s very clear. We all gave a vow to Swāmījī to follow it when we got mantra initiation, to become vegetarian. That’s not about health; it is simply about love, respect for life, respect for God’s creation. When someone is a vegetarian for health reasons, I don’t respect him as a real vegetarian, because just one good article in some newspaper and he will change his mind. The second is satya, truthfulness. This is the name of God himself: Sat-Cit-Ānanda. So, when we are in quest of the truth, definitely we have to follow the principle of truthfulness. The third is asteya: don’t steal. I think you hear already some resonance to the Ten Commandments of the Bible. Don’t kill, don’t steal—it’s also said there. These are quite universal principles which you find more or less everywhere. We are simply giving guidance on how we can avoid creating negative karma. It’s not yet really the yoga path to purify the karmas, but at least to stop creating more bad karmas. We have already done so much. Because we have to go deeper: from where comes the idea to steal? Some feeling of dissatisfaction must be there. We come to this point, and in the niyamas, santoṣa means to be content, satisfied. The fourth principle of yama is brahmacarya, which is mostly translated as celibacy. But we could simply say, don’t waste your energy, and direct your energy in the right direction. This is Brahmā. Brahmā means God. So, think in which direction you guide your energy, you guide your life. Aparigraha means basically not to hoard, not to take more than you actually really need—not to be greedy. Then in the niyamas we have the principle of śauca, purity. Here, Patañjali explains clearly that it has a physical aspect and a mental aspect. So, cleanliness, living a clean and pure life on the physical level, but also a struggle for mental purity. That’s already something higher; it’s not so easy. Basically, every selfish thought is already some kind of impurity, which may result then in some action that again creates negative karma. Santoṣa means contentment, and Patañjali says this is actually the root for happiness. As a result of santoṣa, one gains supreme happiness. This is what Patañjali says, and that’s already a quite demanding principle because, in the real understanding, when can we be really content? When we have no desires. It is desires that make us active. It is desires that make us unhappy—desires directed in a worldly direction, of course. If we have the desire to serve, to help, to do guru-sevā, that is not counted here. Then come the last three principles from these ten: tapas, svādhyāya, and īśvara-praṇidhāna. Tapas means self-discipline, or to go through some demanding situations. Svādhyāya means self-study, and īśvara-praṇidhāna means devotion to God. These last three are actually very interesting when we look through the Yoga Sūtras. They are mentioned together already earlier. Here we are in the middle of the second chapter, following all eight principles of the Aṣṭāṅga Yoga as the first and second principle. But these three were taken out already and appear right in the beginning of the second chapter, and it is said these three are the basics of the Kriyā Yoga. Now, there is a lot of discussion. What does it mean? Kriyā is basically the same as karma. It means to do, to act. Therefore, one can understand it as practical yoga, like preparatory practices, and also that they come actually before the Aṣṭāṅga Yoga. It is introduced, which speaks for this interpretation. But on the other hand, the word Kriyā Yoga indicates also some advanced techniques. So, definitely, these three have a very special importance. There is always, for every one of these ten principles of the yamas and niyamas, one sūtra afterwards where Patañjali says, "If you are perfect in this point, then you will achieve that aim." For example, for the principle of satya, he said when someone becomes steadfast in satya, truthfulness, then whatever such a person says will come true. So now let us look at what Patañjali says about these last three principles. Where do they lead us? I bet you will be surprised when I read now from the Yoga Sūtras. Tapas. Tapas comes from the root tap, which means fire, burning, heat. So, fire is the principle of purification. Whatever you put on the fire and it burns is purified, and the ashes which remain are absolutely pure and cannot be purified anymore. Therefore, many put it here for the tilak on the forehead. So, Patañjali says, as a result of tapas, self-discipline, the impurities are removed, bringing about perfection of the body and the sense organs. Patañjali says that when we fulfill the principle of tapas, the self-purification, we achieve inner purity and purify the sense organs. We should not understand the body as a physical body only, I guess. We should purify the body, but by that we should not understand only the physical body. And sense organs—not just the ear or the nose, the physical aspect of that. We know in yoga that we have more than one body, the subtle body, and I guess it means really the purification of our existence on all these finer levels also. The next one, svādhyāya. Sva is the self, and adhyāya means study, so self-study. Now, which self? There are two aspects: to study our self, and to study our self. I think this sounds familiar to us. What I’m speaking about is what we have in Yoga in Daily Life. What is our svādhyāya in Yoga in Daily Life? Self-inquiry, meditation. That’s it. And what Swāmījī says are the two main questions in self-inquiry meditation: "How am I?" and "Who am I?" So, I think Patañjali is sitting here beside us. Swāmījī made his yoga system exactly based on the classical principles of Ṛṣi Patañjali. But now, another point is interesting. I read now what is written here about svādhyāya. As a result of svādhyāya, self-study, one comes in contact with the divine, with the iṣṭadeva. So, the word iṣṭadeva comes here in the Yoga Sūtras. What is iṣṭadeva? Swāmījī speaks so often about that. It is my personally chosen God. Swāmījī always says, "God has no form, but God can take any form." And to a bhakta, a devotee, He will appear in that form in which the devotee believes. But now the interesting point is: through svādhyāya, through self-inquiry, we get in touch with the iṣṭadeva. But how? What is now the connection between that? So, svādhyāya for our self-inquiry meditation means meditation. But what is the essence of meditation? How do we meditate? It’s not just any meditation, but self-inquiry meditation, the real meditation. So, what is now the essence of the real meditation? One word: mantra. Exactly. So, self-inquiry meditation, or svādhyāya in the classical sense of Ṛṣi Patañjali, it means meditation with mantra. Next step: what is mantra? In our bhajans, we usually don’t find the word "mantra," but we find the mantra very often through another word: nāma. Sometimes, also, Rāmnām. "Nām" means name, the name of God, the name of the Divine. This has two aspects again: saguṇa and nirguṇa, the formless and that direct personification. So, a real mantra usually has the name of God in these two forms. The formless is Auṃ. Every mantra that Swāmījī gives starts with Auṃ. Swāmījī used to say a real mantra cannot be without Auṃ. But the second aspect is the personal God. For us, mostly, Mahāprabhujī is also Devapurījī’s name. So, the mantra has the power to reveal, actually, the divine to whom we are praying through the mantra. When you repeat a Rāma mantra, not Viṣṇu or Śiva will appear, but Rāma will appear. The mantra has the power, actually, if we do it really, really from the heart and really approach the Ajapa-Jāpa state, that we get the darśana of the Divine through the iṣṭadeva. And that is said here in the Yoga Sūtras. Mantra has the ability to reveal our iṣṭadeva if we do it in the form of Ajapa-Jāpa, if we do it from the heart. And that is written in the Yoga Sūtras. But Patañjali says, as a result of svādhyāya, self-study—or we could say self-inquiry meditation practice with a mantra—one comes in contact with the divine, with the iṣṭadeva, or one might get the darśana of the iṣṭadeva. And how many bhajans do we have now, especially from Holy Gurujī and Mahāprabhujī, about darśan? This darśan exists from Mahāprabhujī and Holy Gurujī, precisely about this darśan. The last principle is called īśvara-praṇidhāna. Īśvara is God. And now, praṇidhāna. Swāmījī is speaking the whole time about prāṇa. A living being is called a prāṇī. It’s living because it has prāṇa. That means to surrender my prāṇa, to surrender my life completely, to surrender to God. When we sing our prayer every day, "I surrender to thee, O Lord, my body, my mind, my everything. I surrender myself," there is no second thought anymore. My whole life is now really in the sense of brahmacarya. We are directed to Brahma, to God. And now comes the very astonishing twist here. I think many people who study the Yoga Sūtras never think about that. Now I will read what is the result of īśvara-praṇidhāna. As a result of īśvara-praṇidhāna, devotion to God, one achieves samādhi—that means self-realization or God-realization. I think now is the time to be confused. Where are we? In which context are we talking? We speak about Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, which has eight levels, and what is the number eight? The highest aim is samādhi. Where are we? On level 2, it says if you practice this one principle perfectly, then you are already on number 8. So, to be very clear, we have here a shortcut. What is īśvara-praṇidhāna? What does it mean to surrender to God? To surrender to the Master? It means bhakti, devotion. So here, īśvara-praṇidhāna is standing in place of the whole of bhakti yoga. How often Swāmījī emphasizes that Ṛṣi Patañjali actually is teaching all the yoga paths. Here we are essentially on bhakti yoga, and Patañjali says nothing else: if you are perfect in bhakti, in devotion, and really surrender your whole life practically, that is a shortcut to reach the aim. I may remember, that might be maybe 20 years ago, or maybe more, when Swāmījī, one single time, I heard him speaking about one Indian game. This game is called Līlā. It’s available, I guess. I have a German version; there might also be an English version available. It’s actually like a children’s game where you throw the dice and then you go forward. On some fields where you come, you will get a ladder, and you can go suddenly up. On other fields where you come, a snake is biting you, and you have to go down. As a children’s game, it exists, but it’s a spiritual game because in the original version, every field has its name and its explanation, its meaning: why you go up and why you go down. I remember very clearly that about 20 years ago, Swāmījī took time during a summer seminar, a whole evening, to speak about that. You have to go up and up and up and are challenged again. When you pass everywhere, then you can maybe come to the aim, self-realization. But there’s one field where, when you come on that, you go straight away to the aim. Only one. And what is this one? Bhakti. So here we are. Here we have exactly the same shortcut in Ṛṣi Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras. I just want to make you aware of that. I don’t want to go more into detail because the whole thing would be really a big subject and would take several hours. I’m actually giving a workshop in Hamburg in August about that, but in German. But bhakti is something very personal. Therefore, I would like to finish my satsaṅg with you by very personally singing a bhakti bhajan which I made. O Swāmījī, you live within me. And that is why I would like to end my today’s satsaṅg by singing a very personal bhajan, which is about the fact that you, Swāmījī, live within me. And it is a bhajan that I composed. Svādīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Mahāmandir Svāsīh Svāmīmāī Svārindrānjī Gurudeva Kī Jai. O Swāmījī, you live within me. You live in my heart. My soul, Ādi, you are guiding me. You are protecting me. Swāmījī, you live within me, Swāmījī, just I sing of thee, and I receive your wisdom free. I write to you, but to write that is thee, you, Swāmījī, who live within me. Oh, Swāmījī, you live within me. You live in my heart, my soul. You are guiding me, are protecting me. Swāmījī, you live within me. Sometimes it seems hard to follow thee, but that which is hard is my heart, it’s not thee. Sometimes I thought, maybe I will leave thee, but how to leave you when you live within me? Eiji, live within me. My soul is protecting Eiji. Your Ījī is in me. But who lives in you? Mahāprabhujī. You think that is three. But three become one, since you live within me. Swāmījī, I saw this joy, which is respectable to me. Swāmījī, you live, I saw, Swāmījī, sings within me. The sound, this sound, is nothing but the singing within me. So, today is the birthday of Pūrṇimā Marta, Pūrṇimā Marta Nováková from Prague. Kriyānanda Pāvala Sīlā, Lujāsa Kōvīca, all the best. You know, this is your oṃ. Look, this is your oṃ. Nearly. Something on the right side is missing. No, you cut this here and place it here. The dot is already there. Yeah. Okay. All the best.