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Good afternoon. We welcome all of you viewers to the broadcast of the children’s program from the Ashram in Střílky, part of the system Yoga in Daily Life. In the first half, you will see exercises for children aged 6 to 14, focused on deepening the balance and harmony of body, mind, and spirit. The first part of the work will be focused on children between 8 and 14 years old and will concentrate on the relationships among children, their bodies, and their thinking. In the second half, you will see the singing of the youngest and older children. This excerpt is only a part of the children’s program, which runs throughout the entire week. We hope you enjoy it. Begin by aligning your back three times. Sit with your back straight, knees grounded firmly. Join your thumbs and index fingers, and close your eyes. Close your eyes and turn your back. Close your eyes. Lie down on your back. Assume the position of Ānanda Āsana. This posture is called Ānanda Āsana, the position of bliss. It’s a posture of bliss, and you will try to attain this bliss by deepening your breath. The legs are stretched slightly apart. Arms alongside the body, palms facing upward. The head is aligned with the spine, and we slightly adjust the chin. The chin does not jut upward, but we gently draw it toward the chest. Let us focus on the breath and observe that with the inhalation your belly rises upward, and with the exhalation it falls back down. To realize this better, we place the right hand on the abdomen and focus on the breath; with the inhalation, the hand rises, and with the exhalation, it falls. We know that this is only the first part of the breath. Therefore, we place the left hand on the chest. We will focus on the fact that with the inhalation, the right hand rises, the left hand rises. And with the exhale, our hands lower down. With the next inhale, you can focus even more on the third part of the breath, the one you will feel in the area above the chest; that area is called the subclavian. You feel how with the inhalation the abdomen, chest, and the area beneath the clavicles rise. And with the exhale, the belly, chest, and subclavicular area descend. You may return your hands alongside your body. Slowly prepare yourselves for the first exercise. You can move your toes, your fingers. Slightly move your head from side to side. And when you are ready, you can draw your knees toward your body. Hug your knees. First, we will practice the rocking motion, from front to back. We will massage the muscles along the spine on the back, the spinal muscles. Now you can also rock from side to side. Those who have had a massage, lie down on your back once more. Keep your legs bent, knees apart, and we will do rotational exercises for the spine. First, we inhale; with the exhale the legs go to the left side, the head to the right. With the inhale we return to the center position. With the exhale the legs go to the right side, the head to the left. And with the inhale, we return to the central position. We will wink once more to each side. So inhale, and as you exhale, the legs go to the left side. The legs are not together; the right knee touches the sole of the left foot. We return to the center position and, with the exhale, move to the other side, bringing the head to the left. We return to the central position, stretch our legs, and feel the effects of the practice. You can feel the area of your spine where the stretch has occurred. Slowly, you can move from lying on your back to sitting with your legs extended. Let us remind ourselves that yoga is a very demanding practice, which appears very simple. So we stretch out the legs, straighten the knees, pull the toes back, lengthen the spine, align the head and shoulders, and keep focusing on the extended knees. Let us raise our hands and gently curl the fingers, then release. We focus on the knees, keep the back straight, the head aligned with the spine, and then slowly release and allow ourselves to hang, because that was a demanding practice. So, for those who are thinking, let’s try once more. Once again, take the position with extended knees, pull the toes back, and straighten the spine. Place your hands on the shoulders and make circles. Try to make the circles as large as possible. You feel the stretch between your shoulder blades. Let’s hold on just a little longer, and those who can no longer continue may relax and exhale. Let’s slowly move into standing, the exercise in standing. Let’s take a slightly wider stance. Arms alongside the body, and we will cross our arms above the head and try to synchronize the practice with the breath. With the inhale, we go about halfway into the pose; with the exhale, upward, cross. With the inhale, we move to the central position, and with the exhale, downward. We will focus on making the circles as large as possible. With the inhale, return to the central position. With the exhale, cross over. With the inhale, we return to the center. And with the exhale... So you multiply the effect of the practice by ten. Let’s try once more. Who else can feel it between the shoulder blades? Inhale, exhale upwards, cross in front, inhale back to the center position. And beautifully, we have aligned ourselves in standing with this practice. Slowly we prepare for the main practice of today, which will be the balancing postures. Before that, let us try to concentrate so that we succeed, and we will practice the bow and arrow. With the right foot, the right big toe, we follow the toe with our eyes, looking beyond it, and with the left hand we stretch the bowstring; that bowstring is firm. With the left hand, we take hold of great strength and release. Once again. We catch the Titivu, stretch it, and release. And lastly. We draw the bowstring tight; it is firm, very firm. It is difficult for us, but we can do it, and then we relax. So let us align ourselves in the center position, and we will practice the exercise on the other side as well. So the left foot, left big toe, we follow with the eyes. And we draw the bowstring with the cow hand. And even here it doesn’t come easily; we stretch with great force and then release. And once again, we follow the thumb with our eyes, relax, and for the last time, we follow the thumb with our eyes. For the last time we succeeded, and we relax. So, for a moment, lie down in Ānanda Āsana, just feel the effect of the practice, and slowly prepare for the next exercise of balance, which will be standing on one leg. A deep inhale and exhale, and when it feels comfortable for you, we will return to standing. We will stand in Tāḍāsana, feet slightly apart, and first focus on our balance. We stood upright to be steady in our stance. We can sway from front to back, from side to side. Become aware of your center of gravity, and once you know it, slowly shift your weight onto your left foot. The moment you feel stable, we place the right foot on the thigh—no matter to whom—and try to fixate on a steady point. Once we succeed, we extend the arms to the sides. We clasp our hands and bow forward, then slowly return back. Excellent, you did that beautifully. Let’s try to break down the movement a little more. So we will focus on the left foot, shift the weight, knowing it is stable, and with our gaze, anchor our position in a firm movement. We find it somewhere nearby in front of us, and when we feel it steady, we slowly lift the right leg, place it on the thigh, extend the arms to the sides, clasp the hands, and stretch ourselves. And we will try our other half of the body, so we will switch legs. Try to transfer the weight to the other leg, again anchor our gaze, place the left foot on the thigh, raise the hands. We lean back and return to the starting position. For those of you who are not yet able to do the full posture, try just standing on one leg, on the right leg. So for those who can, shift your weight onto the right foot, lift the other, and some of you may remain just in this position. We will place, extend our arms to the sides, clasp, and return. So, that was excellent. Let’s lie down once again for a moment in Ānanda Āsana. Keep your arms extended. And now we will feel the effect of the practice. You may sit down. And we will conclude our practice by chanting OM three times when we sit in a cross-legged position. Hari Om. I thank you for today’s practice, and before we completely conclude, let us try to reflect on what you think balance is important for. Why do we practice these exercises? Matyáš, excellent, so that we have inner balance also within our body. And what good is it to you in life? So that we are healthy, so that we have strength, health, so that we are not ill. It still helps you somewhere. May your schooling go well, so that you learn effectively, remember everything, and get along well with your friends. I wish you success in all of this. Now we will invite the second group of our children and proceed with the second part of the program. And one more maṅgala, and we sing "Bolo Bolo, Sab Mila Bolo." Let us all come together and sing. I would like to listen to stories... I will place something in your hand, and you pass it along, trying to discover what it is. Do not consume it, do not lose it, and they pass it on before us. That was a small pea. Who did not recognize it? It was no longer hard, so it was kind of heavy, that’s true. At the end, we will read about the pea from Līlā Amṛta, such a beautiful book, one we all know, full of stories and full of teachings. Do we know who wrote it? Līlā Amṛta? Mahāprabhujī? No, it is about Mahāprabhujī and it was written by Holigurujī. The story is called "The Fate of the Pea." Once upon a time, a merchant ate roasted peas. As he ate quickly, slurping, a pea went up his nose. He tried to blow it out, but the little ball got stuck inside his nose. It became inflamed, remained there, and began to swell. We can imagine the pain, that stinging sensation, when something remains there and it hurts and becomes inflamed. The merchant tried to blow his nose, but the pea was stuck very firmly and did not want to come out. The merchant could no longer endure the pain. He was having difficulty breathing and eventually had no choice but to see a doctor. He went home hoping that somehow he would manage to get the pea out after all. It didn’t work. And so on the way he met an acquaintance who told him what had happened to him, and he said, "Come, I will take you to my master and he will surely help you. He had already helped many, many others." The merchant got into the car and drove to the master. When Mahāprabhujī heard what had happened, he sighed softly. "People come to me when they need something. But such is the world." Then he advised the merchant: "In your town, there lives a Christian family. They have chickens in their yard. One of those hens is white. When you come to that family and see the white hen, you will receive relief." The merchant was completely stunned. A white hen? How can a white hen help me with my nose? But since he was barely breathing and in pain, he had no other choice. And so he went. He found a Christian family, saw a white hen, sneezed sharply, and as he sneezed, a pea fell right in front of that white hen. And how did the hen see it? What does a hen do when it sees a pea? It quickly pecks it up. When the morsel was swallowed, the merchant felt relieved. He was happy, content; finally, the pain was behind him. But he wondered how it was possible that the white hen helped me. And so he went to the master, because he was interested. Why a white hen? Does anyone know why? That is why we have a master; he always explains everything to us. And Master Mahāprabhujī thought for a moment and said, "Because that pea of yours was not meant for you. That pea of yours was meant for this white hen. How could your nose claim any right over him? The pea belonged to the white hen." He laughed, and finally said, "Nothing belongs to us. Let us hold on to the truth and keep God in mind." And so the merchant learned something very important. What did the merchant learn? To endure it, but it was very difficult for him to endure. He certainly must have been patient for some time, lively, and to avoid slurping next time. Food should not be gulped down, dear one, so as not to take what belongs to someone else. Anetka, Aneško, when it belonged to someone else, and that pea belonged to the hen and not to the merchant, from that time on the merchant was careful about what belonged to someone else, so he left it alone, whether it was a pea or whether it was something else. So today we will conclude with a song. Let there be still some gratitude on the earth. The merchant felt relieved. When we feel relief and have no pain, we experience great joy. When we give preference to someone, we also feel joy from that. He felt relieved, and moreover, he received a teaching which he understood. And just as he sang to himself when he was leaving home, "I am joyful, I am joyful." Thank you for the beautiful practice, the beautiful singing, and thank you all who were watching for your attention.