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The month of Śrāvaṇa, dedicated to Lord Śiva, is over. Now a beautiful new month begins. It should bring ample rain to nourish the crops, but not so much that they drown. It is the final season for the fruit trees to receive water for a good yield. In any case, this coming Thursday is Janmāṣṭamī, the Incarnation Day of God Kṛṣṇa. It will be remembered and celebrated worldwide, and I hope you will also have prayers in your center. Soon after, following the birthdays of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Gaṇeśajī, there will be large ceremonies, for Gaṇeśa is the first to be worshipped. But here we are, and you are welcome. Today is the final lecture of this summer seminar in Vapi. Over the past fourteen days, many came for practice. Since the day before yesterday, all groups have been very disciplined. Of course, you are all beginners, so you do not yet know what yoga discipline means. I can imagine, and I understand. I ask Mahāprabhujī to forgive your mistakes—walking around until 11 or 12 at night when we said goodnight at 9:30. From this, you can begin to understand what discipline is. But I know you are all very new and will learn in due time. The great Patañjali, who wrote extensively on yoga, researched it thoroughly. He is the most recent or latest authority, from about 3000 years ago or more. He researched human nature, qualities, behaviors, problems—the body, mind, psyche, buddhi (intellect), viveka (discrimination), and the soul, ātmā. He identified the causes of problems: vikṣepa (distractions) and kleśas (afflictions) from the outer world. Patañjali spoke of two kinds of vṛttis (mental modifications) that create vikṣepa and kleśa, or that create happiness. All this is what you read in modern psychology today; you could say Patañjali is the father of psychology. He researched in immense detail. Also, Ahiṃsā, Yama, and Niyama—these ten principles declared by Patañjali were later written in the Bible as the Ten Commandments. Similarly, human rights according to the Earth Charter or United Nations are, 80%, derived from the Upaniṣads, Vedānta, and Yoga. Patañjali was the first. He used to tell his disciples, "Your yoga sādhanā can only be successful if you have practiced anuśāsan." Anuśāsan means discipline. The word 'disciple' comes from 'discipline'. Patañjali was very famous. All who sought higher siddhis (powers), techniques, meditation, and even the research into samādhi—sabīja samādhi, nirbīja samādhi, saṅkalpa samādhi, vikalpa samādhi, turīya samādhi, bhāva samādhi—all these levels of consciousness were truly researched by him. People like you, who have read or heard about yoga and the great Patañjali, would go to him. The population was not large then. Disciples had harder work, living in the forest. There was no electricity, cars, ventilation, air conditioning, mosquito spray, or nets. The Śrī Tapas, Ādhibhautik, Ādhidaivik, and Ādhyātmik kleśas troubled humans more than before. But Patañjali had a very hard test to accept disciples. It took several years. People like us, or you beginners who arrived the day before yesterday, would be told at the gate of Patañjali’s āśram, "No, thank you. We don’t need disciples like these." Such a disciple can spoil the ashram atmosphere, create laziness in others, and disturb those who follow discipline. So, 85% of you have to learn discipline, and 15% are a factor of conflict, creating conflict within the group. 85% must learn discipline, and 15% are gossiping and talking. Patañjali would immediately say, "No, you are not fit for yoga. Go, do whatever you want. It’s your problem." "Master, help, please." There is no help. "In the next life, bye-bye." "Help, please." Then follow discipline. So, "Atha yogānuśāsanam" was first. That’s all. "Can you teach us anything?" Then he would say, "You don’t understand. Go." To learn discipline takes ten or twelve years. Twelve years to learn discipline. So what should I expect? You might say, "Swāmījī, what do you think? That in twelve hours we learn discipline?" You were new people yesterday. When I asked a question, no one had to say anything because you did not know. You are new and beginners. In twelve hours, you cannot learn the discipline that takes twelve years. Without it, you cannot be successful. It doesn’t matter. Even for health purposes, if you came to yoga, you cannot gain good health without discipline. Simply, it was a waste of time what you did here. Anuṣṭhān (practice) was done, but it was not disciplined. Many were sleeping, looking at their watches, sitting restlessly with their mālās, going out and coming in. I can understand: a person who has never properly practiced āsanas and prāṇāyāma in life cannot sit still. Kāyā is the medium. If you cannot keep your body steady and motionless, how can you achieve citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ (cessation of mental modifications)? For twelve years, Patañjali taught only discipline. What kind? When to eat and when not to eat. If eating time was morning breakfast at 8 o’clock and lunch at 12 or 1, then between 8 and 1 you were to put nothing in your mouth except water—no milk, no yogurt. And we all here were doing nice things to boost the economy. Everyone was buying cakes, samosas, chocolates; everyone had something all the time. When they had nothing, they took chewing gum. That was not discipline. So Patañjali would say, "Twelve years: learn discipline—how to walk, where to sit, where not to sit, what to talk, what not to talk, when to meditate, when to clean your room, how to clean your room." You boys who have been in military service—thanks to God that in Europe you have it—learn some discipline. Not very much, but as soon as they come home, they are out of discipline training. The military is not bad; it is good for you. It makes you aware and disciplined, a protector, a hero protecting your family, society, country, and the world. So, whatever you learned in these two days—yesterday and half a day today—I advise you as beginners, all here, X, Y, Z, please practice. Talk less. Kuśaṅga means distraction. Kuśaṅga means conflict. Kuśaṅga means jumping into darkness. Your own thinking is a kuśaṅga too. So think discipline. That takes years. Patañjali would not immediately give you āsanas and prāṇāyāmas. He said, "Lord, first Yama and Niyama, my God." From only the first principle of Yama, Ahiṃsā, we cannot. So Yama, Niyama, then comes Āsana. These are ten principles, and they take more than twenty years. Now, if you want to practice yoga in daily life at home, try to create discipline within yourself. Don’t tell your wife when you come home, "Have discipline." She will say, "What? What do you mean? Don’t tell." Here, I can tell you, but you don’t tell her, okay? Who are you to tell your wife to be disciplined? If you say that, you will sleep in the kitchen. To be disciplined means you need not tell others; automatically, they learn from you. That’s it. So practice, but limit it. Don’t practice too much; don’t neglect your family duties, office work, or social duties. Dedicate some time to your yoga exercises—āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, svādhyāya (self-study), and satsaṅg (holy company). You are not born to destroy your human life again. You are not born to lie on the beach and laze about. You are not born to sit in the park and speak ill of someone. Yes, it is very easy to speak badly about someone, but look within yourself. How are you? Who are you to judge someone? Do you know that person? If you say someone is very bad, do you see within him or herself that it is very bad? When this person did bad things, were you there? And were those things bad? How do you define 'bad'? What you think is bad may not be bad for others. So, do you know the truth? Do you know the reality? Don’t you think that when you say someone is bad, you don’t receive that person's bad quality? Bad karma and bad qualities can be transferred to others, just as good qualities can. If you speak well of a person, good qualities will reflect on you. If you speak ill, bad qualities will reflect on you. So it takes years and years to learn discipline and to clean the mind. Our biggest problem is that we would like to be. We want to have. Why do you want to have? It is said: Ātmā has no desires. Ātmā is not hungry, not thirsty, not cold. Ātmā does not seek victory nor lose anything. Then who says, "I want to be this"? Not your Ātmā, but your ignorance. Therefore, discipline. That’s it. Think of yourself first. Who are you, and how are you? Very easily we make mistakes. Very, very easily. And those mistakes are terrible. A simple accident can happen. There are physical accidents, but mental accidents also happen through our thinking. Physical accidents are less frequent; we try to protect ourselves. But mental accidents happen very often. Do you know how wounded you are? Very much. And when you want insurance for your mental accidents, no company will sponsor you because you are completely wounded mentally, emotionally, intellectually. By whom? By yourself, not by anyone. So, discipline. Yoga begins with discipline. "Atha yogānuśāsanam." Every one of us has a problem with this and that. Why? Because we have lost discipline. We lost control over our feelings, our senses—our sight, hearing, everything. We become selfish. When you want to be selfish, you are lost. You cross the border of discipline. If the whole world accepted this one principle—discipline—the world would become heaven on earth. But we humans do not want heaven on earth, nor somewhere else. Humans are those frustrated creatures rejected from heaven, sent out again. We are here on this planet, sent away. In old times, two centuries ago in England, when they wanted to punish someone, they sent them by boat to Australia to live on the coast. Returning to England was a dream for them, but they learned much discipline. That is why Australians are more disciplined and perhaps good yogīs—maybe they are listening via webcast. At present, it seems humans are those creatures, those souls, rejected from the divine world, from heaven, Brahmaloka. The door was closed. "Please, we knock and open the door." "Yes, the door will open." So they opened the door and went to Kuśaṅga. Directed to Kuśaṅga, you are rejected and fall down again. Hari Om. A cosmic recycling process. We are constantly in this. Only saints and yogīs can escape. Even as a householder—with a husband, wife, children, grandparents, parents, animals, and normal work—you can still be a saint. Do not think you must renounce everything and sit alone in the forest. That means you run away from duties and problems. So fix your time and practice. Try to understand others. If you cannot understand, pray to God for understanding. Pray to God that you never think negatively about anyone. That will help you. Perhaps you will see the little door, the window of heaven sometimes, and they will say, "You see that? That is the window of heaven." You would like to go in, but there is a big mosquito net; you cannot enter. But you see some going in. "Yes, that was family XYZ; they are inside." "Wow! A family inside?" "Yes." "What about that family?" "Because they were such good people—whole, children, husband, wife, mother, father—they were so good. Spiritual souls, their children are very good and have no bad habits." "And what about children nowadays?" "They are waiting to go and have bad habits." "And what about the parents?" "They say, 'Yes, young children, they can do it.'" Huh. Young children, they can do it. That was the first push for your child into the dark hole, rejecting the child from that heaven. What is that heaven? That heaven is inner and outer happiness. No money makes us happy; no comfort will make us happy. The happiness of spirituality and love is free for all creatures. So, discipline: practice āsanas every day and prāṇāyāmas. If you have a mantra—and those who have one, if you have not forgotten—repeat it. There is one mālā, like this I have. If you have broken, thrown away, or lost it... But mostly you are very, very beginners here, so you will get a mantra and mālā next time. Practice the name, the mantra of the name of God. And make one saṅkalpa (resolve): every day, spend at least half an hour or one hour doing something good for others. In 24 hours, spend one hour doing good for others. How? You need not go to someone’s house; you can do it mentally. Think positively for your neighbors, friends, people you know, even those you don’t know. "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ"—all should be happy. How do you imagine all should be happy? For one hour, send your love to the entire world. "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ" means not only humans but also animals, birds, fish, rabbits, cats, deer, dogs, cows, buffaloes, horses—all should be happy. Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ. Let love flow from your heart like the Gaṅgā. River Gaṅgā is flowing—Mother Gaṅgā, that’s it. Those of you here named Gaṅgā, girls—otherwise every girl can call herself Gaṅgā—but still, you are not Gaṅgā. Yet at least you have a drop of Gaṅgā water inside. So while saying "Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā..." you will become Gaṅgā. How do you think? "Rām, Rām..." You will become Rāma. Any name of God—Jesus, Jesus... The whole body vibrates. The name, mantra of the gods, divine name of the horizon. Conflict and difference are in people’s minds, not in the mind itself. They are all colleagues from the same office. And that one presence is Brahman, the Supreme: Śiva, Brahmā, and Viṣṇu. These are the three trinities who manage, and the rest are all the same. The President, Prime Minister, and Secretary have the same human soul. Do not think one has a different soul. No, they are all the same. Similarly, there is no difference between all God incarnations and God’s ages. They are all divine. All saints are the same. Doubt, duality, and conflict exist where ignorance is, where one does not understand. So you can pray your whole life, but without that knowledge, the love of "Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ"—all are mine, and I am from all—you cannot attain liberation. Mahāprabhujī said, "The spoon can be in the pudding or honey for many years, but the iron spoon cannot taste the honey." So there are people praying day and night in temple, church, or mosque, but when they see someone from another religion, oh God, it is like a red color before a bull. Why? Because they are still in ignorance and fear. So, a saint, a holy saint, can be in a family. Your grandfather or grandmother can be one. Someone said, "Swāmījī, my whole family is very bad, but my cat is very divine. She is so wise, so holy. When she enters the room, everyone becomes silent. Automatically, the husband, wife, and children stop quarreling and fighting. Everyone finds a peaceful place; they begin to talk normally. When that cat is there, she presents beautiful divine energy. Is it possible, Swāmījī, that a cat can be holy?" My word stuck in my throat. Should I say yes or no? So I said yes. Then I asked, "If your cat kills a mouse?" She said, "No, she doesn’t kill; she just brings it inside and tells us, 'Don’t kill them.'" I said, "That’s a good idea, a very good cat." So yes, there are divine creatures. Through some mistakes, they have taken an animal body, but they are divine. Kagbhūṣaṇḍī, a great saint incarnated as a crow, spoke and wrote many holy books and gave satsaṅg. When Kagbhūṣaṇḍī spoke, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva would come to listen. So it is said: it does not matter how the box is made—of paper or wood. What is important is what is inside. We do not buy chocolate for the paper or box; we buy it for the chocolate inside. Similarly, it does not matter if it is an animal soul or a human soul. Ātmā is the same. That is equal vision, samadṛṣṭi. That is why Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya said the first step of self-realization or God-realization is to see yourself in everyone. When you see yourself in everyone, you will not do anything bad to others. If you break someone’s leg, you feel pain in your own leg. That means you see yourself in everyone one day. Not just saying, "Okay, Swāmījī, I see myself in everyone; they are my friends." That is too little. Let me put a needle in your friend’s shoulder, anyone here. When I put a needle, everyone must feel, "Oh, I didn’t put a needle on yours." That means to develop that feeling—to fill yourself in all. Otherwise, we say, "Oh, painful, poor one," but you do not feel the pain in your body. So develop to the extent that you feel others’ pain in yourself. Then you become universal; you multiply yourself in everyone. But for that, you must learn discipline. So when it is said, "Good night," from 9:30 to 10, be pressing and sleeping. I came here at 11:35, 11:45, 12 o’clock, 12:15 outside. Yesterday I was on guard duty. Many of you know I said, "What are you doing here?" "Oh, I was just here; I am going to sleep now." I do not want to name them or ask who it was, but many. So I said, "What are you doing?" That was not a yoga seminar’s discipline. You new people—my last week, fortnight, advanced disciples—were very correct. They were Czech disciples, very, very good: Slovak, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian. There were no Austrians last time; they are now in the beginner group with Austrians, so I cannot say anything. Discipline—anything you want to do in life, you must develop discipline. Americans have a company training for business success. They took the first sentence of Patañjali: "Anuśāsanam, Atha Yogānuśāsanam." They took the words: self-discipline is key to success. This is Patañjali’s first mantra or śloka in the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra: "Atha yogānuśāsanam." When this is achieved, the second step—which takes twelve years to learn—is called "chitta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ": control your thoughts. Without learning discipline, you cannot control your thoughts. After that comes "indriya-nigraha"—control of the senses. After twelve years, you see what is happening with your senses, how wild they are. So 36 years pass, and you still have not begun practicing yoga. The Master still has not accepted you as a disciple. Likewise, years and years pass—75 years or so—then the Master may say, "Okay, you can come and sit inside." So, my dear, it is not easy to obtain the nectar of immortality. For all of us, that nectar is like grapes that are very sour. You run around all night because you cannot get those juicy grapes—they are too sour. You try to find other sweets, but they are not available late at night. Yoga will make your life happy, healthy, comfortable, and divine. I am sure, I tell you, it is the way that one day this individual consciousness will merge into God consciousness. If you trust this, if you believe this, and if you trust the Guru Vākya (the Guru’s word)—otherwise, go into Kuśaṅgas, have bad habits, and that’s it. It is your choice. It has nothing to do with whether you are young or old. Ātmā is never young and never old. The soul is also not young or old; it is many, many years old. You have had many lives behind you. Sometimes you were a fish, a buffalo, an elephant, a little ant, a giraffe ant, a camel, or that fox sitting on the camel. Who knows? You cannot tell, and you have no certificate that your next life will be human. I have no certificate. No certificate will help you. Only one thing will help: how disciplined you lead your spiritual life. Spiritual life is not some remedy we can mix with milk or water, drink, and say, "Oh, now I am spiritual." So next time, if you want to come to the Yoga and Daily Life seminar, please register on time and state that you are beginners. Then we can give you other quarters where there may be more smells from college students. Or state that you are advanced, so we can give you a nice tent or good accommodation with a mosquito net. After my words, there is a story. Maybe some do not know: when a master announced a self-realization seminar—in six months you attain self-realization—the cost was not very much: 5.6 million dollars. What is 5.6 million for those seeking self-realization? Oh God! So there were people like Vivek Purī from London (he is sitting in front of me). He was the first to come for self-realization. Everyone was happy, but discipline was very strict. You were not allowed to speak to anyone about anything. In one week, you could say only two words—and only to the Master, to nobody else. Siddhānanda told me a few days or weeks ago that he was in some country about 40 years ago, traveling through the desert in a car with Yogananda, Siddhānanda, and two other friends. They suddenly came to a village—a few villages together. What were their rules? Do not talk, and notice no foreigners. So when you walk and they walk, they do not see you. When you go into a shop to buy something, they do not see you. They do not talk to you. It is as if you do not exist. If you ask for an address, it is as if they are blind; they do not hear. Such things still exist. So that Master said, "Do not talk to anyone. Nobody exists here." The Master said, "One secretary." And he said, "Every Thursday morning at 10 o’clock, the Master will come. Anyone with problems or anything to say—only in two words, that’s all." They were given a carpet made of grass—Kuśāsana. Brahmachārīs and yogīs always slept on Kuśāsana. Kuśāsana was very secure; even if you sat meditating in the forest and lightning struck from the clouds, it would not hit you. It was protection. Kuśāsana should be used in meditation here too. Now we do not have Kuśāsana; we have cushions. So, when the Kuśāsana was very thin—less than half a centimeter—and very raw, on sandy ground... After ten days, the Master came. A few disciples who had paid 5.6 million dollars were sitting there. They all sat as if half self-realized, and one sat counting his five million, five and six million dollars. "My God, already one week is gone." The secretary said, "Does anyone have questions or problems to tell the Master?" The Master should not talk too long. The Master should also say only two words. You tell only two words, and the Master answers everything in two words. Everything must be very clear. Of course, Vivek Purī was the first. He raised his hand. The secretary stood with a daṇḍa (bamboo stick). "Only two words, no more." "Yes, please," he said. "Eating cold." Two words only: "Eating cold." He had been thinking there would be spaghetti, pizza, soup, something nice, cake—but there was nothing. "Eating cold," the Master said. "No." The secretary said, "Go to your room, hurry home, meditate." After ten days, another meeting. The Master came and said, "Bless you, how are you? Any problems? Everything okay?" But no one should say yes or no; they sat in Mauna (silence), disciplined. The secretary said, "Any questions?" Vivek Purī waited eagerly to speak. On behalf of all, he raised his hand. The secretary said, "Stand up." Only two words: "Bed hard." The bed is very hard, you know? "Bed hard," the Master said, "Very healthy." The disciple thought, "You go where he used to sleep? On such a thick, soft mattress and soft bed, and you..." Know. Again, ten days passed—ten and ten, twenty. The next ten days came; one month was over. The Master came and said, "Bless you. You look disciplined, but little. Any problems, any questions?" The disciple said, "Anyone want to tell the Master, please? But only two words." Vivek Purī stood up and said, "I go." The Master said, "Bye bye." That’s it. So we must learn to endure. Jīvātmā, ātmā, do not seek comfort. They do not look lost or for anything; they are just there. As soon as we concentrate and become selfish, more and more pain, problems, and suffering will come. So please, spend one hour for the entire world—for the forest, water, lakes, rivers, humans, animals, agriculture, mountains, fields, trees. "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ." If we send this beautiful divine energy and thoughts—all should be beautiful, in harmony, happy. At the right time, there should be good rain, no floods. People and animals should have enough to drink and eat. Let us think as if we can do; if not, at least pray and think for one hour daily for others. That is beautiful sādhanā. During this one hour, if anyone comes to you—even someone you dislike—you should generate such nice feelings and thoughts that the person is like yourself. If someone criticizes you negatively, how would you feel? Similarly, if you criticize others, how do they feel? That’s it. So we should always put ourselves in the worst position. Then we will understand what pain means, what humiliation means, what insult means, what it means to be lost—many things. So develop your heart with that discipline and make yourself clean. Do not become a garbage bin for all the dirt from different worlds, thoughts, and people’s makings. Clean your vessel so that divine blessings, energy, and light can fill your pot with divinity. When you are divine, you become pūrṇa (complete), and everything remains pūrṇa. We trust and believe we can achieve this. We do not need extra external help, for God has given us everything. Be sure that with money you cannot do everything, but with your love and kindness you will be able to do everything. One day you will attain that for which we are born human. With this, I wish you all the best. You are traveling home, so have a good journey. Drive carefully. Take time. If traffic rules allow 100 kilometers per hour, drive at 90. Always be on the safe side. You may not cause an accident, but someone else might. Therefore, be aware and notice things ahead. If you go 10 kilometers per hour slower, arriving home will differ by at most 5 minutes. You drive very quickly, park somewhere, and the truck you overtook half an hour ago is there. You open your car door, sit, and take an apple to bite. Oh, the truck passes. It was going at that speed level, but you were going over and over. You were tired, used more petrol, faced more dangers and risks, and the difference was only three minutes. At the same time, I thank Kṛṣṇānanda and the company, all our Hungarian friends and ex-Yugoslavian friends who were kind enough to come. They always come here and prepare for the seminar. I thank, on behalf of all participants from different countries in Europe and other continents, Kṛṣṇānandajī for your blessings. And I bless you all once more and pray to Mahāprabhujī to bless you. I ask you to remember one word: Ātma-yoga-anuśāsanam—discipline. Now I will see how disciplined you will be when we go out. If you forget all words in this hall, take them outside too. Do not rush behind other cars. Keep a half-kilometer or one-kilometer safety distance, because when friends drive together, they stay very close. If something happens, it is difficult to control and brake. So, take safety distances. All the best. Bless you.