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Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. We are here again in this beautiful hall, beautiful city, among beautiful people and beautiful nature. What more do we need? You are blessed to be here. Thank you for inviting me. The aim of my coming is always to help humans with Yoga in Daily Life. We know we are all happy, yet we are not as healthy as we should be. No one is to blame for this; it is a life situation. We did not invite any illness or unpleasant situations—be they political, social, or economic. But they happen, and we must learn to accept them. That is life. However, there is something we can do to help ourselves maintain our health—physical, mental, social, and spiritual. There are some things we cannot avoid, though we wish we could. For these, we must understand and accept them. If we accept our life situation, it becomes easier to go through. Accepting circumstances, whether health-related or social, is a plus point for us. In reality, the problem lies in our thinking. Thinking problems can quickly become unpleasant and change a person's entire attitude. We know we should not discriminate against humans. Let me give an example of how we often act. Perhaps some of you will accept it and act positively, but the majority will not. Our attitude or inner feelings change immediately. In one family, there is a young lady. She finished her studies and is now 27. She found a partner, married him without her parents' knowledge as she was in another country, and then telephoned them. She said, "Well, I found a very good partner and we married." The parents were happy. Then she said, "But... he’s an African black man." The father stopped talking for a minute. The mother stopped. She said, "What happened?" "Oh, it’s nothing. Okay, wish you all the best." You see, as long as we didn’t know he was a black man, we were happy. As soon as we got that information, we began to think and became unhappy. Or it can be different. Imagine good friends sitting together—they became friends just half an hour ago. One says, "Well, I’m Muslim." Another says, "I’m Jewish." There were three other persons who were Catholic. Immediately, they try to create distance. Just hearing the words "Muslim" or "Jewish," they change their thinking. This is a problem in the world; it creates conflict. Culture, color, and religion change humans, but this should not happen. We are human, and we should not change in this way. Therefore, our mental attitude and thinking are our biggest problems. If we can change our thinking, we will be happy. Consider that nearly two decades have passed since you heard of the communist system. Many of you felt pressure and wanted to go to America, Austria, or Japan, but thought you couldn’t. That was a heavy pressure. Now the system is gone; you have no pressure. Yet, you don’t want to go to America or Japan. The place is the same for you. So, thinking makes us unhappy. Change your way of thinking, and your life will become very happy and comfortable. This also applies to young children; they should now have clear thoughts about what they would like to become. When students have a clear vision, they will study. But they need motivation from someone; someone has to be an example. Consider swimming lessons: a child continues the activity, and one day may become an Olympic champion. It doesn’t happen overnight; it is long, sustained work. Or consider sports like gymnastics in the Olympic Games. Young girls of 16, 17, or 18 dance and jump on the wooden springboard. Their bodies are like rubber. Now all young girls would like to become like that, but if they jump, they might break their bones. Ask those girls who win the Olympic gold medal how many hours a day they practiced, throughout whole years, even on holidays. They became champions because they first had a model, an example. The thought "I would like to be like that" must enter the mind. Then nothing is impossible. Everything is possible, but you have to work for it. In my personal case, when I was about nine or ten years old, I saw my master for the first time. When he came to the village, all people ran to see him. Within no time, about a thousand people were around him. We children had no possibility to go near, but I saw him from far away and said to myself, "You should become like that." That was my aim. I am still not like him, but I think I am on the right way. Now, let’s come to another point. It doesn’t matter what your physical condition is. Can we change it for the better? Yes, we can. Phala sukha nirogikāya—the first happiness is good health. If the body feels good, then automatically our entire being feels happy. What is very important is continuity. That’s why I gave the name Yoga in Daily Life. Yoga should become, in your everyday practice, like your daily food. It is a special nourishment for your body, mind, and soul. If you don’t practice, all day you will be like a hungry person. As soon as you begin to practice, your body is sucking the cosmic energy. After four days of practicing, automatically your body will ask you to do it. When you don’t practice, your body will ask, "Why didn’t you practice?" It’s like an addiction, but a healthy and good one—doing something good for your physical well-being. Yoga in Daily Life is for everyone. When you see some yoga book—and many, like ours, show beautiful exercises—and suddenly it shows an advanced posture, you might say, "Hmm?" and put it away. That’s it. This is not the only yoga, and this must not be. Don’t compare yourself with that. That is good, perhaps, in a few years. But what can we do now? I will show you what you have to do. This is my favorite posture. I have been practicing it for the last 45 years. I can’t leave it. I am attached to this one. I would like to do other ones, but every day I postpone them. So, in your Yoga in Daily Life book, you have your personal teacher. This book is so carefully designed that you can practice at home without any discomfort. But only from reading a book, you cannot become a doctor or a surgeon; you have to practice and go to the professor. Similarly, you need an experienced yoga teacher. Yoga in Daily Life teachers are not teachers from one week or ten days. Unfortunately, many people go to India or somewhere for 15 days on holiday and come back with a yoga certificate. That’s dangerous. They then begin to teach in many different places. A yoga teacher in our life has to practice for a minimum of three years before they can apply to become a teacher. Then, a minimum two-year course follows. It is a five-year course to become a good Yoga in Daily Life teacher. And then, lifelong practice to gain experience. Therefore, you are lucky ones to have here many, many Yoga in Daily Life teachers. As Alan said in the introduction, for the last 37 years I’ve been teaching Yoga in Daily Life here in Slovakia. Whenever I come several times a year, the halls are overfilled. They are all teachers; they teach their classes, and the halls are overfilled. More than a million people in Slovakia have gone through Yoga in Daily Life, and they are teaching further. We cannot say exactly how many, but definitely over two million people are practicing at home individually. Some people come only for certain exercises and then do them at home, while others continue on the spiritual path. Yoga in Daily Life in Slovakia has become a part of many Slovaks' lives. Your health, your happiness, your spirituality is in your hands. You can do it. There is one beautiful slogan from Mahātmā Gandhi: "Be the change you want to be." If you want to see yourself very healthy, then begin. First, change your way of thinking. I know there are many yoga practitioners and teachers here, but maybe some are very beginners who haven’t practiced at all or have practiced for just one month. Is there someone? Please raise your hand. Thank you. I love when they raise their hand, but I like it if they can raise it a little higher so I can see. Once more, please. Dobre. Thank you. Therefore, love to all my friends here who are beginners, and to those who have practiced many years but are still beginners like me. We will have a little demonstration of exercises today, prepared by today’s yoga teacher. If the demonstrator can come up here, please. What do you need for practicing yoga? A space as big as this carpet—that’s all. It is two meters long, or one and a half meters long, and half a meter wide. That much space you can have anywhere. That’s what you need, nothing else. Secondly, you need inner motivation. Third, you need discipline to practice every day. Now, there’s a little problem: the demonstrators are sitting a little too low, and many are sitting behind, so you have to look like this. I always like everyone to feel comfortable. That’s why my seat is always higher—not that the master should be higher, but so the audience can see easily. The people in the front seats have a problem; they have to look up all the time. Now, a very simple exercise that everyone can see. Please stand up. Thank you. It is said every third person has a problem with neck and shoulder tension, mostly because we sit and work at a table, or our pillow is not proper. There are many reasons. Certain family problems can create neck tension. Different problems attack different parts of the body individually. When the parents heard their daughter married a black man, the father got diarrhea and the mother got pain in the knees; she couldn’t get up. The father loves the daughter more and is more jealous, so he was so angry he lost control over his intestines. I will not talk further. It can attack your stomach, upset your entire digestive system, cause back pain, heart problems, teeth problems, or make you tremble. Many different problems attack individually. Therefore, to diagnose why you have neck pain is difficult; there can be a hundred reasons. Thanks to God, nowadays we have diagnosis, x-rays, good doctors, and good yoga exercises. Let’s talk about how we can release tension in this part of the body, which mostly comes from sitting. You can sit on a chair or on the ground. In standing, sometimes those with low blood pressure can become dizzy and fall. They are standing only because their friends are behind them. Do it with open eyes; we don’t want you to fall. The ambulance has holidays today. First, we will do looking down and then looking up to the ceiling. Exhale and look down to your navel. Inhale and look up to the ceiling. Exhale down. Inhale in the middle. Now, normal breath. Bend your head to the right side as if trying to touch your ear to your shoulder, but don’t raise your shoulders. You should feel a stretch here, opening your ear more, feeling the eardrum. This improves circulation to the head. Now left side slowly. Right side. Left side. Do each side five times. After one week of doing this exercise every day—not the next day—you can rotate your neck slowly clockwise and anticlockwise. Keep your eyes open, otherwise you may become dizzy. Very good. That was not very hard. Now, put the tips of your fingers on the top of your shoulders. Take care of your neighbors. Whoever does not do it will miss out today. You can come tomorrow, but I’m not here. It’s a master practice; don’t miss it. You go to visit heaven and don’t say hello to God; that’s not good. Touch your elbows. Now, one—I did not do this today. I like to do it. Very good. Elbows in the front, and now the other direction. I’m sure everyone feels some lightness here. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you believe in some religion or not, this is the best for you. It does not depend on culture, religion, traditions, or anything. Now, there is one very secret exercise that affects mostly your neck and shoulders to release tension. You have to sit on the ground. You can be levitated in the air. Sit down. It’s called boat rolling. Very good. Hold as if to roll the boat. Go down and as far as you can, always looking at your hands. Go ahead. This is actually the best for our stomach and back muscles, thigh muscles, and entire calf muscles. It is so good you can’t imagine. Many top sportsmen do this exercise before and after playing. I used to give lessons at Bratislava University to top sportsmen with Professor Jarmila Motajová. I don’t know if they won the gold medal, but they were using it. Now, the other direction. The secret in this is that automatically your neck muscles are exercised, though you are doing it for the back, legs, and stomach. It mostly affects your neck. What happens is mental tension is released, more blood circulation comes towards the head, and concentration develops. Every winner wins not only because of physical power, but mental power. That is very, very important in yoga. Through this Yoga in Daily Life practice, you can develop your willpower. Thank you. Everyone can do this. I think there is a place called Patria Lake and Patria Hotel. You can go there perhaps if allowed. In ’87 I stayed there. Anyhow, this will release tension in the hamstrings, the thigh strings, beneath the knee, and the calf muscles. Many problems arise because muscles shorten due to tension. Now, paścimottānāsana. You see, there are two demonstrators. She has very good breath, so her hamstrings are more relaxed and flexible, while he is not because he is a yoga teacher but does not practice every day. This is always a dangerous point for a yoga teacher. Thank you. Hands up and down. This also releases another problem of the back, aids good digestion, massages the stomach muscles, removes unnecessary fat from the stomach, and protects against many diseases and cramps in the abdominal part. For ladies during menstruation with cramps, this exercise is like a blessing. Within 52 seconds, you can release the tension. If you do it every day, you will not be a victim of that problem. Also, prostate problems will not occur if practiced daily. Hemorrhoids will not appear at all. Neck, shoulder, and back problems can be solved with one thing. Should I show this good exercise? Normally I charge $25,000 per head, but today it’s free. It is said that the most beautiful, flexible back is fine as a cat. 98% of yoga postures are taken from nature. When a cat sits in one place for an hour or two and gets up, she stretches her back up first, then stretches completely. So, men also try to do this. It was very good. We gave the name Marjari, the cat pose. The basic posture is like this. But if someone has a problem with the knee or ankle joints and cannot sit like that, you can stand on your knees and begin from there. You can stand like that and then practice. Sitting like that might cause knee problems, so you have an option to go on your knees. Some go quickly like that; it’s not good. We have to train our abdominal muscles. Many ladies wrote to me saying, "I had problems, I practiced, but it didn’t help." I asked how she did it, and it was completely wrong. Therefore, her spasms didn’t help; you have to correct it. Stand straight, and also sit straight now. One, two, three. Remain there, normal breath. What is his name? Josef Miro. Little hands. More. More.... What was number four? Five, six, seven. Go ahead, practice. When you look up and press back down, you inhale. When you look down to your navel and stretch the back up, you exhale. Coordinate your movements with the breath. On nine, inhale and come up. Nine and ten. You see, it is a very pleasant feeling and not difficult at all. It is always said that yoga practices should be done at least four hours after eating. Therefore, the best is to do it in the morning before breakfast. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale... inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. If you have pain in the hip joints or lower back, now inhale, exhale, and put your elbows on the ground. That’s very good. Now look to the stomach. Inhale, look up. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Normal breath. After doing a few rounds like this, the cat is happy and begins to play with her tail. Put your feet up, both. Exhale and look left side, and your legs also left side. Look to your socks, how clean they are. Inhale in the middle. Exhale, right side. You see anatomically what happens to the back and also to the intestines. For a healthy person, it’s nothing, but for someone with a problem, it is a challenge. This is a very, very good and beneficial exercise for the breath and side muscles. In the middle, feet down. Nine, come up. And ten. One. And Marjari, two. Three, look up. Now the cat is hungry and will drink milk. Go down, exhale, and go down. Touch the ground with your lips. Inhale, come up. Exhale down. Enjoy milk. Go ahead, up and down. Now the cat is drinking milk, very good. Go quickly; you drink too slow. Our cat is a vegetarian, so she drinks milk only, eats nice cheese and butter bread, and likes carrot pie. Our cat is very healthy. If you put a meat piece, she turns back and goes away. Number nine, come up. And ten. Only for the cat, we have whole-day programs, but I will not tell you today. Then, there is one exercise you should do after that for training your thigh muscles. Begin slowly. Stand up. Utthāna āsana. More of the eye. So, one. Yes. A little more down. I will look at the watch. Yes, very good. And up. In the beginning, that much is enough. Again, go down for 10-20 seconds, then come up. If you have knee problems, keep your feet a little more apart; you will have no problems. Develop this so you can stand like that for five minutes. You will feel very light, relaxed, and it is very good for your muscles, circulation, and concentration. When you have to pass the yoga teacher’s examination, you have to stand for 15 minutes—until the master drinks tea and then says, "Oh, you’re still standing? Relax." This is for your thighs, strength, and back muscles. Thank you. Lie down on your stomach and relax for a while. Why do we have back problems? It is not easy to tell. It could be bad digestion, a bad bed, a mattress too soft—many reasons. But mostly, the reason is that your back muscles are not strong enough. Our spine is the pillar of the building. We have an arch here. If we break one pillar, it will collapse. So it is with our spine. But the spine cannot do it alone; it needs support from certain back muscles. The best way to keep our back muscles strong is two postures: Bhujaṅgāsana (Cobra) and Śalabhāsana. We will do the light one. Stretch your hands in front. Your feet should not raise from the ground; only the front part of the body raises up. Hands also. Mr. Franz, your feet down. Three times: one, and two. An easier way is hands parallel to your back, palms touching the ground. Raise the front part of your body. That will strengthen your back muscles. Thank you. Now, hands in front. Chin should remain on the ground, and raise both legs up with knees stretched. Chin on the ground, and come down. Relax. Lie down on your back. These exercises from your Yoga in Daily Life book are taken from various places. There are entire lessons prepared in this exercise book. If you practice very systematically, it’s a three-year course. To have this book in your hands means you have your happiness, health, and spirituality in your hands. That’s why it’s called Yoga Vedenom Jīvote. That’s very good. After that, breath is very important. Breath creates strength in the body. When you hold the breath, you create 80% more strength. For example, in weight lifting, they first inhale, then come up. If they exhale, they cannot. Whenever you lift anything at home, inhale and retain the breath. Retention of the breath inside creates immense strength. You should know where to hold the breath, where to concentrate: on your knees, thigh muscles, back, hands, shoulders, neck, stomach, chest. We have to learn where to breathe in the body. Of course, we breathe into our lungs and diaphragm, but where to send this strength? That is a special technique called Kumbhaka, retaining the breath. It comes from prāṇāyāma exercises. Much mental tension is released with simple breathing techniques. So, breathe every day in a controlled way. Not only do we get more oxygen, but we train our respiratory system. In this way, Yoga in Daily Life is for your health, and it is something great. Without any doubt or delay, you should begin your health program. Practice every day, and also consider what you eat. Try to look at what you are eating. Don’t eat fast food or junk food. Eat very good, Slovakian-grown organic food. Thanks to God, Slovakia still has good food quality. Every one of you has good fruits without chemicals. In some countries, you eat an apple with no apple taste, or big tomatoes that are like water inside with artificial flavor. When I come to Slovakia, believe me—and it’s not only because I’m in Slovakia—I enjoy your vegetables very much: fruit, salad. Of course, I’m vegetarian; I don’t even eat eggs because eggs don’t grow on the tomato plant. Health, the food: whatever you eat, eat healthy. I suggest you, and you should tell your government also, to protect your ecology from pesticides and genetic manipulation. Your health is first, and then everything. Yoga in Daily Life is for physical, mental, social, and spiritual health, happiness, and a healthy, long life. I wish you this.