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Part 1: The Path to Liberation: Overcoming Habits and Cultivating Willpower Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī, Dev Puruṣa Mahādevakī, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavānakī, Sanātana Dharmakī. Good evening, and blessings of Gurudev to everybody. Also, to our dear brothers and sisters around the world who are with us through the webcast, many blessings are coming to you from the beautiful Adriatic coast of Croatia. Today is the 1st of October, which definitely means the hard autumn is coming, at least for Europe. That’s very good, so that new leaves will come again. I wish you all the best for this month. You are the lucky ones, you are the blessed ones, that this day has begun, a new month has begun, with such a beautiful atmosphere. So, welcome. The last eight days we have been here, and time is passing very quickly. We have discussed many subjects: how to develop our physical, mental, social, and spiritual health and spirituality. One thing is sure: every day we are getting one day older. So do not expect that tomorrow you will be one day younger. That is nature, and we cannot stop it. Yes, we can slow down the process. We can do that through practicing Yoga in Daily Life, proper diet, and a very good daily schedule. Through that, we can protect ourselves. And protection is in protection. If you can protect, then you will be protected also. Our health depends on the way we live our life. From what can we give up? Consider an alcoholic. Now you are in the hands of alcohol. Alcohol is dominating, governing your life. So even if you would like to give up, sometimes it’s hard because you are imprisoned by alcohol. Like this, there are many habits, and those habits are not healthy for us. Our Satguru Dev Swāmī Madhavānandajī used to say, "It’s easy to become free or escape from the enemy, but not from bad habits." The bad habits which you learned from your childhood will torture you lifelong. Lucky are they who can change their thoughts and overcome those bad habits. It is only a matter of changing the way of thinking. You say to yourself, "No, finished." Suddenly, something is changed in you, so that even in the dream you do not think about that. Similarly, in our life, we have many different habits. Some habits damage our health. Some habits are not healthy for your economy, some are not good for your social health, and some are not good for your spirituality. Now, on whom does it depend? Only on you. You are the only one who can free yourself from all these negative or bad habits. Blessed are those who can overcome their weaknesses. And unfortunately, it is the unhealthy things that we like more. You know, we like an unhealthy atmosphere, and we know that the result will be wrong, but we do it. That is called the weakness of the human, human weakness. And that is not good. The question is, what can help us? What can we do? Yes, you yourself can help you. Only you can help yourself to change any situation. And for that, you have to change yourself. Tomorrow we are going to observe or celebrate the day of non-violence. I am very happy that even the United Nations, the world government, has come to know that we have to awaken the consciousness of non-violence. Because the problem in the world is violence. And this has to be awakened in the consciousness of every human. You know how many creatures on this planet are tortured? How many humans are tortured? More of the human population is tortured than those who are just living happily. Out of 100 families, 85 families have torture in the home—physically, or emotionally, or intellectually, or socially, or financially, and so on. The great saint Guru Nānak said, "Nānaka dukhya sabh sansār." He said to himself, "The whole world is troublesome." It is said that in his home, in his family, there were some quarrels every day. So one afternoon, he just went on the roof of his house to be alone and not to fight this and that—it was all arguments. He went to be alone, to breathe fresh air, without conflict and fighting. He was walking on the roof terrace. And he saw, on the left side, the neighbor. Her husband was beating his wife. He went to the right side. The wife was beating her husband; she was throwing hot dāl soup on him. Oh God. He went from the back side. The parents were very cruel to the children. So he went to the front side of the terrace, and the children were shouting at the parents. The parents were old, so he said, "Not only me or my family, O Nānaka, dukhyā sār sansār. The whole world is troublesome. Nobody is happy." Very rarely do you find loving, harmonious, mutual understanding in the family—that the husband cares for and protects his wife. In every aspect, he tries to keep her dignity high. Never does a negative word or thought come into his mind towards his wife. And also in her mind, never comes a negative thought or bad words; she is always thinking best for her husband. Ladies are praying every day, first for their husband. They are fasting for the good health of their husband. There are many, many festivals that ladies are doing for the men. That is why all men are healthy, thanks to the ladies. So, this is a mutual understanding on both sides. And their children are so beautiful, wise, and gentle. We used to say in India, in the egg of the peacock bird, you need not feel color inside. The baby which will come out of the peacock egg will automatically be colorful. Similarly, when the family, parents, husband and wife—these two are very important for the world. We do not need education for children, but education for the parents. Parents need to be educated; then children automatically learn. If the husband is angry, he drinks alcohol, and then he is so angry. Poor children, they are scared. Sometimes they think, "God, father will not do something wrong to mother, that he will not throw life on her." What kind of father are you? Your appearance towards your children should give them security, should give them love, should awaken happiness and harmony. And what kind of mother are you? That you awaken negative thoughts and shout at your husband in the minds of the children. Therefore, this world nowadays is 85% troublesome, but I think it is already 95% within these 5 or 10 minutes that I am analyzing while sitting. So, put your hand on your heart and ask yourself; you need not raise your hand up. In your family, if there is a kind of torture or not—from the children’s side or the father’s side or the mother’s side, the grandparents’ sides, ordered towards the neighbors—and therefore it is needed to save the humans to save this planet, and such events to remember are a most important thing, and it has to be. Monday has to begin, so developing self-confidence. Ātambal. Ātambal is called willpower. Ātambal is one of the strongest powers. Now, this Ātambal you can develop through one Haṭha Yoga technique, Haṭha Yoga. Not only are you always talking about āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, relaxation, and meditation, but also Haṭha Yoga. Haṭha Yoga will make you happy. Haṭha Yoga will give you such a happy life that you will be the person who can enjoy life. And you will become an example for all. But we have to give up a little bit of our laziness and a little comfortableness. The problem is to get up in the morning. And when we get up in the morning, we are searching, "Where is the coffee cup?" Certain things, if you try to change yourself, will take you ten days. And in ten days, your happy life begins. You know, you will be like a newly married one. How long will you enjoy? A few months. So, opposite. Newly divorced one. That I wanted to say, but I did not want to disappoint you. If you do not marry, I have no children, and then when I have no children, I do not have a future worker for our Yoga in Daily Life. So, you know how many children I have here, and I am coming, so beautiful children are standing. And the parents are happy, and these little children are happy, and they get nice prasāda. I know chocolate is not so healthy, but love is also this candy’s point. Though we should not spoil, but now we have some healthy chocolate. When they get prasāda from me, this small piece, lifelong they will remember this happy atmosphere. Lifelong it will remind them, and we need such a generation. Tomorrow they will also learn something. What was it? Tomorrow we will, everyone will express their thoughts. About non-violence also towards children—many, many children are living in fear, you know. Every woman is a mother, but a real mother is different. And so when the parents are divorced, and the child has to live with another stepmother—okay, she loves the child also, but still, subconsciously, the child is not happy. And the same thing with the father. When you take your child and live with another man, and that man is very kind, very nice, gives everything to you, brings toys, chocolates, ice cream, clothes, okay. But still, the inner self is searching for that father. And that is, day by day, in the world, multiplying. And this, the human should stop one day. That kind of movement we should create: a happy family. But why does it happen? We have to search for the cause. You chip the tree from the trunk, but it grows again because the roots are in the soil. So, what is the cause of that? Search for the cause. And the cause, everybody, you know, every mother knows, every girl knows that her beloved husband or the friend, which habits he had—drugs, alcohol, and some different things. Or, every man knows what problem that girl or the lady had, with whom you were. It brought you to that decision to separate. But, you know, you could separate; you are different blood. But how are you going to separate this one child, which has become one blood? That is the problem in the world, torturing. Hiṃsā. Not only that, you put a knife in someone’s stomach, or you kill someone. But there are many ways to kill you. There was, in the last minute of the life of God Rāma—the story is very long, but it came that his own brother Lakṣmaṇa should get a life sentence, and Rāma said he could not do this. So Hanumānjī is a symbol of the buddhi, the intellect, and so on. So Hanumānjī said, "You renounce your brother, send him away." That punishment is nearly like a death sentence. So that should not happen. And how many are experiencing this every day? And that is a problem in human society. Now, one who experienced this, and when they grow up in that, in their subconsciousness, there is aggression to take revenge towards those who did this to him or her. This means to act unconsciously, to do with others like that. Because one thinks, "Why did my parents separate? To be happy and to solve the problems, now I am unhappy and I have problems. I will do the same thing," and that is chain work. Therefore, we have to think over a lot, so develop willpower. And that willpower—this Haṭha Yoga technique we call Trāṭak. Trāṭak means gazing on one point. Of course, we are gazing every day on one point, two points. What does that mean? When you drive a car from your home to the office, all the time you are gazing on the road. When you are on the highway, all the time you are gazing on the highway. Okay, and you should, that is good. On the highway, the car’s speed is 130 kilometers. Do not gaze in the fields like that. You can just have a side look, but straight on the highway. But after all these busy days, you have to empty unnecessary thoughts, tensions, or impressions. Just you keep the quality, and the rest, reduce it. You take a carrot out of the garden, from your garden, and now the carrots come with the earth. So what will you do? You will clean it nicely so there is no earth, and the same where your earth came from, it is better to leave it there. Similarly, when you come out of the day—it means the day began when you went out of your door or out of your bed, and it ends when you come to your bedroom. Now, between these hours, how many impressions did you have? How many things have you seen? How many things have happened? What kind of people have you met? Where have you been? Gardens, parks, forests, meadows, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, birds, other different creatures, humans, machines—many things. Now all is filled in your memory. So you come home with a full bag on your shoulders, a heavy weight. Do not take this heavy weight bag into your bedroom. Try to reduce it so that you can have a good sound sleep, and you can be happy, and in the morning you wake up with happiness. Number one. Number two, through these techniques you can give self-suggestion to yourself. Now, what they call here in Europe is called self-suggestion, autogenic training. So, this autogenic training is a form of Yoga Nidrā. The person who developed this autogenic training was a disciple of Swami Śivānandajī of Ṛṣikeśa. And when Śivānandajī told about Yoga Nidrā, this person was a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and he developed this technique. So, auto-suggestion. And now it is also very, very normal. Also, in this technique, what they call, go into your past. So, going into the past to solve your psychic problem. So, when I came to Austria, the Austrians asked me, "Swāmījī, do you know or can you teach us rückführung?" I said, "Well, my master has said, ’Keine Rückführung, nur Vorführung.’" So do not take them back, but forward. So many times now, in which way they are doing, that they put some person in deep sleep or something, or let you sit in front of you and talk and say, "Yeah, that was it, like in your time, and this and this was," how to say, "It’s your past life or something like this," answer. That creates more fear. What you have forgotten is good. What you remember now is torturing. And to awake that again, sleeping, tormented by these problems, to awake again is also torturing, so that is also violence. Therefore, mostly in yoga and also in the Vedic Sanātana Dharma or Hindu Dharma, and I would also say Christianity also, I never heard, or in any Dharma, we do not go back. It was. Now, how to do that? How do we get free? And so we are praying for the future, not for the past. Only there is one prayer for the past, for our past ancestors. That is prayer for the past, one for the future. Life again it becomes future, so that is called, but you give a suggestion to yourself, and you are doing every day. You get up in the morning and, friends, maybe you are drinking tea or water or milk or coffee or whatever, or making your yoga, or in the bathroom, brushing your teeth, and you are thinking, imagining, what you will do tomorrow, or what you will do today after, what is your day program. So now this is your own suggestion. And that is very important. So when you go and practice trāṭak, at that time, you give a suggestion to yourself, what you want. Part 2: The Cup of the Mind and the Light of the Mantra Now, one cup is full with water. If you want to put more water inside, what will happen? It will overflow. Why? Because there is no space anymore; it is full. So, what do you have to do? You must wait until it is empty. Similarly, when you come home in the evening, your head is full of all the day-long impressions. Now, sit down and tell yourself to relax. When your practice comes, what happens? Immediately, the unnecessary impressions and thoughts begin to reduce. Mentally repeat to yourself, or become aware of, what you would like to do, to have, to realize, or to achieve. Then you sit in meditation. The mantra should always be with you at all times, with or without a mālā. The mantra is your torchlight to walk in darkness through this worldly jungle—a jungle of thorny bushes and dangerous creatures. The torchlight is your guide. That’s why I always have a torchlight. Though I’m sitting with you and there is light, who knows if the light goes off from a power failure? How would I come out of this jungle? Therefore, meditation or spiritual sādhanā without a mantra is like a body without a soul. So take your mantra, with a mālā or without a mālā. Then, light a nice, beautiful candle or a ghee or oil lamp. If the oil is clean, there is no smoke in the flame. If the ghee is properly prepared, there is no smoke. When you make ghee from butter, the butter must be melted very nicely. What people mostly do is heat the butter, and when it begins to froth like foam, they stop. It is not purified. That ghee is not so pure; the old foam must settle completely. You will see the clear ghee. Then let it cool a little and filter it with a good filter. That ghee is the best. Other ghee, which is not properly prepared, melted, and heated, begins to smell bad after some time. It spoils; fungus develops. When people hear about ghee and Āyurveda, everyone wants to use only ghee. But you should know how to make it. Many people give me a jar of ghee they made themselves, but when I see it, it’s not proper ghee. That ghee is healthy only when the cow does not get any kind of chemical or artificial feed and does not receive everyday injections for milking. They say they give injections to cows so the milk comes, and they connect them to a machine. The normal way is that when the calf comes to drink, then the milk comes. That happens only for the mother. If another cow comes, she will not let it, and the milk will not come. There was a fight between two ladies. One said, "This is my child," because she was a babysitter. The other said, "It is mine." They went to court. The real mother said, "It’s my child, and I love them." In court, they said, "Okay, the child is still eight months old, so give milk." Only the real mother’s breast gave the milk. That is real milk. That is real love. Similarly, when a calf drinks, it is not nice of us to take the calf’s milk away. But we are greedy, and we know the milk is healthy for us, too, not only for the calf. When the cow begins to eat grass, you can take 40% of the milk from the mother, so that when the calf comes to drink, the milk comes from the mother’s body. That is the real milk, and that milk has the love of a mother—not from cows artificially fed and given injections. In the dairy, you know how much the milk is manipulated, and also yogurts and so on. In Āyurveda, it is said there are certain comforts and happinesses in life, about eight points describing who is happy, who is lucky. Prathama sukha nirāmayā: The first happiness is good health. Dvitīya sukha gṛhe māyā: The second is that you have wealth, meaning you can welcome friends. You have food for yourself and for others to eat. Similarly, one point is called gṛhe gauḥ, that you have your own cow, your own cow's milk. Who is lucky to have their own cow’s milk? We do not know where our milk comes from, from which cow. Now, people are even producing artificial plastic milk. You are all innocent. I will tell you next time, but it exists. Jebrakash can tell you yes or no; he experienced the plastic milk and plastic sweets made from pesticides. Yes, my dear, you do not know what is going into your stomach. Our tongues are spoiled with different tastes. Nowadays, we should use dairy products very carefully. So, ghee and real butter—only the blessed ones can have them. Lucky ones can have it, and for that, you have to come to Jadān Āśrama. The milk, tea, yogurt, or butter you drink at Jadān Āśrama, you will not forget it your whole life. It is good. That’s it. There were many who were in Jadān. Hands up, please. Oh my God, so many. Please tell if it’s true or not. Yes. That ghee is a remedy. That ghee has an aroma. Take a little on your finger and apply it to your nostril like this. Apply it on your nose; the whole day you will have a good aroma, and it will protect you from dust allergy. These are things, okay? Let’s go in another direction. You are most welcome, and you can have one cow for you. Adopt one cow. Whenever you come, she will greet you, and you will greet her. If you are lucky, she has just given birth and you can have milk. But it is good to at least adopt one. One cow needs half a euro cent per day. When you telephone, in five minutes you are already paying one euro. In this way, you protect those cattle. You can adopt one, give it a name, and with henna you can write your name and her name on it. We also have a henna field, a lot of henna. You can have kilos of it. Jadān Āśrama is a pollution-free, beautiful spot. Thank you. Let’s come this way, the other way. So, make a tratak on the flame. Now I don’t have a candle, so let’s see here—this is a candle. If you do the right technique, it will help you. If you can’t do the right technique, it will not help you. You see, my battery has two kinds of light. That’s called a miracle. Now this one, and very soon you can see the flame here. So I have to do some mantras, hocus pocus. Look at the sky very nicely, okay? So you see the flame, Dīpa Nanda Bhagavān. When you do tratak, it is mostly done before going to bed. There are some children, only three, four, or five years old, who still wet the bed at night. If they do tratak one evening, it is finished; they will not wet the bed anymore. Or, before sleep, make a matchstick fire and tell the child to look into it. That’s all. Try it. Your child’s bed will be nice and dry. It is a very effective thing, like a miracle, but it is not a miracle. Now, there are two things. In modern technology, there are three: number one, you don’t need eyeglasses; number two, you need eyeglasses; and number three, you have a lens. For example, if your eyes are healthy, you don’t need reading glasses. The normal position for your candle or flame is at the level of your Anāhata Cakra, which means your eyes are relaxed. The distance is when you sit straight and stretch your hands in front with your thumbs up. This is the right distance for normal, healthy eyes. Others should adjust according to your glasses, where you can see a better, clear flame. You should keep that better distance; otherwise, you will see double flames, which is not good. Or, take your glasses away and keep the flame where you can see clearly, near or far—your individual distance. If you have lenses, you should take them out because when you do tratak, tears can come and you may feel a burning sensation. This is the distance. Once you fix the distance, you must sit straight in the same position. This was the distance. After one minute or half a minute, if you sit like this, the candle must go there; you see, you have lost it. Therefore, all of you are going like this. Again, it’s too far. This is a common mistake, and it is not good for your eyesight. You have to sit at the same distance. Mentally, with or without a mālā, repeat your mantra. Then, gaze at the tip of the flame. In this flame, there are three different lights. At the bottom, you see a little fire where the wick is, and it is dark. In the middle, you see a very clear flame. At the top, you see something like smoke. You should gaze at the tip of the middle flame—the upper part of the middle of the flame. If you use air conditioning, you must turn it off. If you have a ventilator, turn it off. If windows or doors are open, close them. There should be no air draft. If there is a draft, the flame is unsteady, which is not good for your concentration. Look, the flame here is very steady because there is no draft. Also, if there is a little draft, after a few months of practice, with your look you can make the flame steady; it will not move. So, gaze at the flame with open eyes. This is called tratak. After one minute, close your eyes. Now you will see in the Cidākāśa, in the center of the eyebrows behind the forehead wall inside, a beautiful tiny flame. Sometimes a flame comes and disappears. As soon as you try to catch it and look properly, it will disappear. It will come, it will go, or it will remain. It may have different colors and shapes; it is individual. But you will see it in the first, second, or third round. What you see inside is not a miracle. Do not think your third eye is open now. This is a reflection, like when someone takes a photo with a camera and a little light comes. Then you close your eyes and see a beautiful light. Similarly, this is also the outer reflection inside, but it is pleasant. It illuminates your inner space, and sometimes it appears as beautiful mosaics with beautiful colors. It is beautiful. For about two to three minutes, remain with closed eyes and meditate. Then again, open your eyes and gaze at the flame for one minute. During the time you are looking at the flame with open eyes for one minute, remain with closed eyes. Do not move your eyelids or eyeballs; do not look right and left. Tears may come; let them fall. But if you wipe with your hand like this, you see your own hand and it will disturb your practice. It also cleans the tear channels. After three rounds, meditate for ten minutes to half an hour, and then finish your meditation. The closing ceremony is more important than any other; do not forget to blow out the candle. Sometimes it can multiply. That is a CD—a tiny flame. You wake up, and everything is in flames. The best is to blow out the flame, and then you sleep. This develops concentration, willpower, self-confidence, and purifies our subconsciousness. It is the best technique to get rid of stress. Tratak is a Haṭha Yoga technique. It gives you strength to endure certain situations in life. This was today about tratak. Next time, and the next time. I wish you all the best and a nice evening. Tomorrow at 10 o’clock our European time, Croatian time, we will have a day event here. There will be some thoughts about non-violence, and many experts will talk. From 10 to 12, then you are all invited to the city center of Umag. There, in a beautiful place in the city center, we will plant a nice olive tree called the Tree of World Peace. After that, you have a little free time. Then, in the evening at 6:30, you are all welcome there on the beach. You will know where it is. Sunset is about a quarter to seven. We hope there will be fewer clouds and we will see the sunset. Everyone, please organize your candles. It can be windy, so bring candles that are a little strong to protect them. Then we will talk a little about peace and chant the peace mantra. Our peace prayers began ten years ago here on the Adriatic coast in Umag. Since that time, we continue around the world making peace prayers and planting peace trees. They are very, very important and successful. Now these peace trees have become visible, awakening consciousness in people. It is a grassroots project, slowly but sure. That is very important, day by stone, stone by stone. Holy Francis from Assisi said how he built the church. Similarly, we also continue. Our generation should continue this tradition: peace trees, peace forest, peace family, peace society, and peace world. It will be, and we need your help. You should teach your children this, and your friends, awakening their consciousness that this is for our own sake. Do not think of some religion, culture, or tradition. It is the highest time to stand above all this because we need peace. That will be something great. You all are already members of the Śrīsvāmī Mādhava­nandajī World Peace Council. All family members should be members. Ask your neighbors, colleagues, and friends. Please announce this to our fellowship or to the Śrīsvāmī Mādhāvānandajī World Peace Council, so that it grows and inspires through the United Nations and other NGOs—to show how many good-hearted people are doing this work for our beautiful planet. It is high time, so we need your help. That’s right. Thank you. That is tomorrow’s program. The webcast continues tomorrow. Meditation, and until breakfast, āsanas and everything will be done. Āsanas will be done in a different way; the teacher knows how. After that, 10 o’clock is here for the talk about non-violence. The afternoon is free, and the next webcast will begin at 6 o’clock. Commentary will be given on who is here and what is going to be done. The commentary will inspire people, showing that thousands are praying here for world peace and peace of mind, so they observe with us through the webcast. Several times you should announce this: nice pictures and nice things, Bhagavad Gītā. Bhagavad Gītā. Bhagavad Gītā. Sanātana Dharma Gītā.