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Hari Om. In this afternoon practice at the Śrīyukteśvara āśram, we will continue the advanced practice from two days ago. Greetings to friends via the internet. It is truly beautiful here. Yesterday we were in another building and it was very hot, but now it is much more pleasant with lovely air. A single car passed, reminding us of the difference between this natural setting and an urban area. This is a beautiful place. Let us begin our practice by chanting Oṁ three times. Please sit in a steady yoga posture. Feel your body a little. Keep your back straight. Relax your hands. Relax your face, jaw, and neck. Observe your inhalation and exhalation. We will chant OM after an inhalation. Join your palms. Refresh your face slightly. We will start with a short relaxation. Please lie down on your mat in a relaxed position, hands toward the altar, relaxed beside your body. Legs are also relaxed, slightly apart. Once you have found your position, take a deep inhalation and a long, long exhalation. Repeat this two or three times. Inhale deeply and exhale slowly. We do not move during the relaxation. The body is motionless, which is a great opportunity to work with mental forces. We move our focus and attention, touching different parts of the body with our awareness. This relaxed attention also relaxes the body. First, feel the point where your heels touch the ground. Feel the pressure. From this point, feel your feet, soles, toes, and ankle joints. Just feel them; do not do anything. Let them be relaxed, without expectations, stress, or hurry. Enjoy the present moment and feel your body. Feel the point where your calf muscles touch the ground. From there, relax your calf muscles. Relax your knees. Then feel the point where your buttocks touch the ground, and relax your buttock muscles and hip joints. Feel and relax your thigh muscles. Both legs are relaxed comfortably. Feel your back, especially where it touches the ground around the shoulder blade area. Starting from this point, relax your shoulder blades and the muscles in this area. Also relax your spinal column and the muscles beside it. Feel your arms where they touch the ground, especially the lower arms and hands. Relax your hands, palms, fingers, and lower arms. Feel and relax your upper arms and shoulders. Finally, feel the back of your head where it touches the ground. From this point, relax your head, the scalp, and your face—eyes, eyelids, forehead, and temples. Relax your jaws, chin, and lips. Feel the face; all muscles are relaxed. The whole body is relaxed. Now, observe your natural breathing: inhalation and expansion, exhalation and contraction. Feel the rhythm of this breathing. It is very pleasant and harmonious. Feel how your body is recharged in this beautiful nature. Slowly, we will come back from relaxation. It is always step by step, like awakening, before we resume action. To do this, take a couple of deeper breaths—inhalation and exhalation. Then move your fingers, hands, and legs. Roll your hands on the ground. Do some stretching with the help of your hands. Inhale deeply, stretch well, keep your back straight (especially the lower part), exhale, and relax. Again, inhale deeply, stretch well, feel the side muscles of your trunk, and exhale. Now, some torsion for the back and spine. Place your hands at shoulder height on the ground. We have space, so arrange yourself. Bend your knees, soles on the ground. Press your lower back down and then let it come up a couple of times to get the feeling. Then we will move the legs, and consequently the spine. Start with legs slightly apart. Fix your hands at shoulder height as before. If your shoulders are good and flexible, it is better to have your palms facing down; otherwise, it is more relaxed with palms up. Inhale in this position. Exhale, moving your legs to the right and your head to the left. Slowly move your pelvis. Inhale in the middle and continue to the other side. Continue in your own rhythm. Feel your back and how the spine changes its position, vertebra by vertebra. Feel your neck as well. Keep your eyes and jaw relaxed. The whole movement should be very relaxed and pleasant, especially after relaxation. Slowly, stop in the middle. Next movement: close your legs. This is a little more demanding, giving more torsion. Continue: legs to the right, head to the left. Slowly, feel your back and spine. Relax your face, jaw, and neck. Once to each side, one more time, and then stop in the middle. Afterward, stretch your legs. Come to a standing position slowly. We will warm up with Trikoṇāsana. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Find a good position, not slouched, so the chest and lungs have space. Also, take care not to overstress your neck. Do not lean to the side. Inhale, then move to the right on an exhalation. Look up toward your fingers. Inhale in the middle, exhale to the other side. Inhale. Exhale. Normal breathing will allow you to hold this position for a while; just stay in it. Check that your back is open. We should not turn too much at the hip joint in the front. Slowly come to the middle, then to the other side. Breathe normally, inhaling and exhaling, and try to relax a little. Take deep breaths, relax your face and forehead. Holding the position can be demanding, but it will not be easier if you wrinkle your forehead. Keep all foreheads smooth. Come to the middle on an exhalation. Perhaps take a slightly wider stance. Inhale. Catch your wrist behind your back. Again, create good space for the lungs. Turn to the left (your left, my right), exhale, and look toward the knee. Inhale in the middle, other side, exhale. Keep your back straight and pelvis down. Inhale, other side. Exhale, hold this position a little, pelvis down, normal breathing. Feel the stretching in the leg muscles, at the thighs. The right knee is stretched now. Come to the middle, then to the other side. Body weight is more down, pelvis is down. The left knee is straight; feel the stretch. Slowly come to the middle. Give the legs a little time to relax, as the next āsana is Pādaprasārapūrṇottānāsana—legs wide apart, bending forward. We know this āsana. Inhale, stretch the arms up. Exhale, bend forward with a straight back, hands down, then head down, and catch your ankles. The weight is more on the legs, not on the head, giving less pressure to the cervical spine. Slowly come back up and stretch. Starting position. This is not practiced if blood pressure is very high or if there is pressure in the eyes. Let’s try once more. Inhale, hands up. Exhale forward, straight back, hands down. Then head down and hold the legs. Try to keep your back as straight as possible. Feel the good stretch at the back of the knees. If there is pressure in the eyes or head, come up slowly. Hands down, legs together, and we will sit down. Are you warm enough for Kūrmāsana? Otherwise, we can do some Paścimottānāsana first. Paścimottānāsana, okay. That’s democracy. Inhale, hands up, and exhale forward with a straight back. Hold this position a little. The back should be as straight as possible, and the knees straight. Then, inhale and come up. Hands down. Another variation with legs apart: bend toward the right and left leg a couple of times as you wish, and also in the middle. You can hold this position a little. Slowly come up. Now it is time for Kūrmāsana. Bend your knees a bit, tuck your legs under, hands under the legs with palms up. Bend forward a little and hold this position. A short relaxation after this exercise in Ānandāsana, just for a few breaths. We can perform Cakrāsana, the wheel—a very good stretch for the spine and the front of the body, stretching the pectoral muscles. Place your hands under your shoulders, legs very close to the body. If you have long hair, be careful not to be on your hair; your head should not rest on your hair in the starting position. Slowly inhale and come up. Exhale and come back down. Inhale, exhale. Once more, holding the position a little. Inhale, come up. Make good, big wheels, nicely bent. If it is too hard, you can be on your toes; otherwise, be on the soles of your feet, and come back. Slowly and carefully. Inhale, exhale, Ānandāsana. Deep inhalation, long exhalation. Recharge your body with the breathing process; this gives oxygen to each cell for its functions. Slowly come back. We will practice Mayūrāsana, the peacock. If you cannot practice it, then Bakāsana is also acceptable, or Mayūrāsana with bent knees, which is less weight and easier to balance. For the starting position, try to find your place. Your hands are quite close in front. Do not kick the translator, especially on this slope; it is very good. It’s your turn now: fingers backward, palms on the ground, knees at the navel or abdominal area. If it is too hard with straight knees, you can bend them a little. The elbows should be at the navel. There is one peacock almost flying. Okay, let’s try once more. Hands in front, fingers backward, elbows by the head. Good. In India, I saw one Swami over 80 years old practicing āsanas every day, such as this one. He could hold Mayūrāsana for one minute. He was in very good health and condition. We can continue with Nauli, which comes after Agniṣāra Kriyā, one of the Haṭha Yoga Kriyās. We can learn it. It is not a very complicated exercise. The problem is that we use our muscles more automatically and are not so aware of how to use them separately. There are the straight abdominal muscles and the diagonal abdominal muscles. We want to separate this part from that part. We know how to suck up the abdomen in Uḍḍīyāna Bandha during Agni Sākṣīkriyā. It is something like this: we want to exhale but stop it somehow, and that bends up the abdominal part. Inhale—no, exhale. If I let it go, then… if not, then it comes up. This is the first step in learning these exercises. The next step is separating the straight from the diagonal muscles. There is a little trick for this step. If you lie on your back—best if I sit and we are in a position like this—try to exhale and suck up the abdomen, and then try to sit up. This is the trick: they will come to the front. You can try; otherwise, it is just theoretical. Suck it inside and then try to lift your head, trying to sit up. You can feel, somehow in the middle, that they are coming up. Could you? Was it going? Partly? Okay. This is the second step. For me, it was not so problematic; since childhood I could do both. Perhaps I was a yogī before. The third step is to come down and hold this position. Now, how to separate the right and left sides of the straight abdominal muscles? If you shift a little weight to the right or left, they will automatically follow. We already know all the positions: they can come up, go back completely, to the right, to the left. Just connect them. That is the recipe for Nauli. Let’s try. On an exhalation, try to put it on one side and then the other. Try to move these muscles from one side to the other, then inhale. Once more. While we do these exercises, I will say a few things. Agni Sākṣīkriyā and this are all for Samāna Prāṇa, for the digestive fire. All the blood in this area is moved a little. Sorry to the webcast. This area is a reservoir for blood because the bowels and gastrointestinal tract hold so much blood. If they are not moved—especially in an urban lifestyle with too much time in cars and offices, sitting—they become stagnant. We rarely have a nicely stretched or completely pressed state of this area. When we perform Agniṣāra Kriyā or Nauli a couple of hours after a meal, we will be hungry again because it aids digestion. You will feel active and the day will go nicely. So, Agni Sākṣīkriyā is a blessing for urban lifestyle. We only have to practice. I don’t know how many times, but Agni Sākṣīkriyā becomes good after over 200 repetitions—200 up and down, not in one kumbhaka, but according to capacity. Of course, start slowly and gradually build to over 100 and 200; it can even be more. One more thing: do not do it quickly, but focus on quality—really suck up and let go, thoroughly in and down. With Nauli, it is really brought to the back, and you feel this sucking up. Another point: we do Agni Sākṣīkriyā in Kumbhaka. This means there is already some search for oxygen, for fresh air, but the inhalation should be very slow. Feel the whole body taking this energy, this prāṇa, this oxygen. The cells are ready to receive it. The breath should be slow so all cells can absorb the energy. One more round, the last round of Nauli. Of course, if you have problems in the abdominal area, navel hernia, or high blood pressure, kumbhaka is not good; do not do this practice. After such exercises, an inverted pose is good. The last one from this series, from level 6, is Śīrṣāsana. You can do Vṛkṣāsana if it is more comfortable and safe. The difference is that Śīrṣāsana is in a position with interlocked fingers behind the head, and Vṛkṣāsana (the tree) has variations but is more of a triangle with hands down and head down. Fix your mala and shirt, then you can perform. It is very good for the brain, neurons, concentration, and memory. It is also good for releasing stress, as the glands in the brain—the pituitary gland, hypophysis, hypothalamus, epiphysis—can be relaxed. Come back slowly. Before coming up completely, do a little Yoga Mudrā or Śaśāṅkāsana, a bending forward position, then slowly come up. Before returning to standing or sitting, stay for a moment in Yoga Mudrā or Śaśāṅkāsana, then slowly come back up. Śīrṣāsana has another variation where we open the legs apart. Another variation stretches the legs away from each other, which is more for balance and a little for the hips. Please, for the next round. Slowly, we will finish and sit for Prāṇāyāma. Sit straight, back straight, hands relaxed. Close your eyes and, with each breath, move once. Inhale. Feel your whole body. Relax your face, forehead, and eyes. Feel the breathing: inhalation and expansion, exhalation and contraction. Follow this fine movement in the trunk and upper body. Feel your abdominal breathing. We will do Bāstrīka Prāṇāyāma at this level, with Jālandhara Bandha, the chin lock. Do not force it too much. The main thing is that inhalation and exhalation are approximately even in length. The breath is mostly abdominal. Slowly bring up your right hand. Close your right nostril. Take a deep inhalation and exhalation with some rhythm through the left nostril twenty times. Then deep inhalation and exhalation, changing nostrils, twenty times through the other side. When ready, put your hands down and sit with both nostrils open. Do not move your arms, shoulders, or head; keep them stable. After twenty breaths, place your hands on your knees. Knees very slightly… we are between the front with the trunk, and chin lock, closing the throat area—no breathing, Kumbhaka in this position. It can be Antara Kumbhaka (after inhalation) or Bāhya Kumbhaka (after exhalation), whichever is comfortable. When you need to breathe, come up, straighten your back, and slowly inhale and exhale. Breathe normally. Next round: bring up your right hand. We will start with an exhalation through the right nostril, twenty times. Then change nostrils, twenty times through the left. When ready, breathe through both, then Jālandhara Bandha. In your own rhythm, Jālandhara Bandha, elbows straight, back straight. Chin toward the chest bone. Then come back with a very slow, deep inhalation. Feel this prāṇa spreading all over the body, especially the head. Third round, Prāṇāyāma Mudrā: 20 times with one nostril, 20 times with the other nostril, and 20 times with both nostrils. The breathing should be quite deep and abdominal. When the separate nostrils are done, then both nostrils. Finally, Chalanda Rabandu, it is ready. Divers also use this technique before diving. It is a method of over-oxygenating the body and cells so they can stay underwater longer. When you are ready, sit in a relaxed and comfortable position. Feel your whole body. We will chant OM three times. Inhale. Hold your palms together. Refresh your face. Lean forward. We will continue our webcast at 5:30 with "The Psychology of Crisis." Hari Om.