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I am honored to welcome a respected guest from India. He comes from the state of Rajasthan and has worked in Europe and Slovakia for more than 37 years. Around the whole world, he is respected as one of the greatest masters of yoga. He created a holistic system of physical, mental, and breathing exercises, which he named by the very special name, Yoga in Daily Life. Yoga in Daily Life is practiced around the whole world, from India, Australia, and America to Western Europe and also in Africa. I do not personally know another person who would work 24 hours for humankind so intensively, with such quality, and without expectation. He does not require anything for his work. This is a quality which is missing in our world, a quality that opens the way to calmness and is together with wisdom, love, and great effort. All these qualities are represented in our guest. With these qualities, he has organized many peace summits and multi-religion dialogues and runs many humanitarian activities around the world. One of the largest is the water harvesting project in Rajasthan. This project harvests rainwater and supplies it to the surrounding areas. For us, this may not seem so important, as we have a lot of water, and our dearest ones do not die from a lack of it. But in the country where this is happening, it is an enormous, great thing. I believe the words you will hear from Swāmījī today will inspire you to practice yoga in daily life. His Holiness Paramahaṁsa Maheśvarānanda. Thank you. Thank you, Peter, for your beautiful flowers. I try my best to give service to this planet as long as God gives me a little energy. Very good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome. I am very blessed to be here with you this evening, and I thank the organizers for the invitation. Yoga is always my subject, and it is a little different than what people generally think around the world. It is the science of body, mind, consciousness, and soul. We are the citizens of the entire universe. This is just a rest place for us. Ourself as an individual is a part of the Universal One. The liquid does not matter in which form that liquid is; it originated from the ocean. Similarly, it does not matter which kind of creature exists on this planet or in different parts of the universe; they are all part of the Universal One, the Cosmic Consciousness. The difference between the Cosmic Self and our self is like the ocean and waves. We as individuals are floating on the waves of time throughout the universe, sometimes through darkness and light, experiencing happiness, unhappiness, pain, and pleasure. We create many relations and again separate from them, which also causes us pain for a while. But there is always separation and always coming together. So our aim is to come back to our origin, where we belong. In your country also, you used to say, "Evening time, at sunset, birds fly back to the nest." Like this, traveling around the entire universe, we are aimed to become one with our origin. The great Śaṅkarācārya said: "Who am I? I am not this body. I am not this mind. Nor emotion nor intellect. I am not this soul. But who am I?" Constantly we are saying, "It’s my body, my intellect, my mind, my feelings," but who am I? And from where do I come? Yes, now in this life, maybe you are from Slovakia, from different cities, or some other countries. But from where did you come to your mother’s body? How long have you been traveling? And for what did you come here? To eat, to drink, to sleep, work, and create children? That is not the aim of life; animals are also active in this. Where are we going? From where did I come? Who am I? And where am I going? And what am I doing? These questions need a practical answer, not theory. Tons of theory is nothing compared with a gram of practice, as some philosophers say. So knowledge is that which has no ignorance. Light is that where there is no darkness existing at all. Where the light is, there is love. And where there’s darkness, there’s hate. There’s a duality. There’s a conflict between cultures, between nations. Languages, mine, yours, theirs, ours—these are all forms of dualism. So human life is given to realize oneness. When this all disappears, then there will be no fighting and no suffering. The water which departed from the ocean in the form of fog, steam, and clouds now begins to rain, and it will finally enter into the ocean again. So it doesn’t matter through which path we go or what we believe; our target is one, our aim is one. That is the Cosmic Self that we may call God, that we may call love or truth. It is only one; truth is only one. All holy saints and incarnations represent only one truth. There are no two truths. So it is ignorance to say that my belief is the only truth. Yes, every child says, "My mother is the best mother." But which mother is not a good mother? Mother is the mother. Father is the Father. This is the aim of human life. Well, but it is not that we are born as a human and automatically we will become one with God. That would be great, but then it would be discrimination and injustice with other creatures, and God cannot do this. He gave us the chance, but not just for nothing. He gave us everything, but now we have to utilize that. Therefore, human life is that life through which a human can consciously realize what God is and complete this journey in the endless universe—the end of all sufferings. No more birth means no more death, but also not existing as individuals somewhere forever. So, if we believe or not, belief doesn’t help only. In this glass I have water. So, whether you believe it or not, it is water. Somebody will say, "No, I don’t believe. It is just Slovakian vodka, or it is spirit." Okay, you may say, "You believe that." But I say it’s water. When will it be alcohol? As soon as I take a little sip in my mouth, the center of the eyebrows will make some movement like this. That’s it, automatically. And water? Thank you. That’s it. So we come to different points now. It is not given to us for nothing. We have to work it out. We have to realize in this life. Now, this life means we have to live long. This one evening lecture is not enough for us. When the elephant is very hungry and you give him one biscuit, for an elephant, just one biscuit is nothing. Similarly, this one evening lecture is like one small piece of biscuit for the elephant. You have to practice. You have to listen. You have to give yourself motivation. We have to change our thought, to give up the wrong ideas and bring some concrete thoughts. And for that, we need good health. It doesn’t matter what you want to do; you need good health: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. These four pillars of your being healthy allow you to do good social service. And there it is said you have to renounce. Let’s say there is someone who is going to be a candidate for president or for the mayor of the city. You have elections very soon. Now, nobody will come to your house and knock on your door and say, "Okay, I will elect you, vote for you." No. Nowadays it’s different. So you have to surrender. What? Your comfort, your personal interest. You have to become one with your people, to feel them, their situation, their pain, their needs, their sorrows. And even if you work day and night, they don’t care how you feel, but they have only one selfish wish: that you will do for them this and this and that. Now, what to do? You have to divide yourself into a thousand pieces? No. It is said in the Mahābhārata... Mahātmā Gāndhī, in his theory—somehow, I think he was successful on his way; some don’t accept, but mostly in the world they do—and he said, "Be the change you want to see." So you have to change yourself to become the mayor of the city. And for what? Not to earn money, not a position, but to help our friends, to do something for them with your knowledge, your experiences, your heart, your intellect. And that means now you belong to all. And you know that mostly the wife of the mayor is suffering because he has no time for her. Now he is for all. Very rarely does he have time to come home. So it means that we have to divide ourselves. I heard that in the Bible it’s written you have to die to live. Now, similarly, we have to work to get that realization and offer the things. So, good health. We need good health, and health we cannot buy; we can only realize it. So yoga is a scientific system. Especially the Yoga in Daily Life system in your country, as the president of Yoga in Daily Life of Poprad, Peter, said that in the last nearly four decades, people in your country are practicing yoga in their life. In so many years, we have hundreds, or thousands, of yoga teachers. It is practiced in many, many locations. So I would say more than a million or 1.5 million people in Slovakia have gone through the training of yoga in their life, and they still teach and practice at home because this system allows you to do it comfortably at home. Then, breath technique. Our life is breath, and breath is life. When we were born, first we inhaled. And when the last breath will be, that is the time of death; we exhale and can’t inhale anymore. So we have a long breath from birth till death. Like an ocean, from one shore to another shore, between them only waves. So inhalation and exhalation are like waves on the ocean. The breathing system is a miracle in our body, and the cosmic energy which we receive as life energy is through breath. You know that without solid food, we can exist only a few weeks. Without water, some days. But without breath, maybe some minutes or one minute. So, the most secret thing of our life is the breath. Through the breath, we can develop energy in the body and inner strength to work and concentrate. And finally, meditation. Until the beginning of the last century, during the First World War until the Second World War, people were thinking yoga and meditation is only for the monks, to go to the ashram, the monastery, and meditate. But they realize now what kind of strength the meditation has. For this modern civilization, how many new diseases have come? The way out, the best remedy, is meditation. Any kind of difficulties you can overcome through meditation. Meditation is the best remedy to remove stress. It is ancient wisdom for modern times. And now, if you believe me or not, every fifth person in the world is meditating. It must not be Yoga in Daily Life; there are many, many meditation techniques—Tibetan techniques, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Indians. Meditation is meditation. Now, the best way of meditation, how to meditate, what to do. For us, it means I am a swāmī, I am a Hindu monk. Now, it doesn’t matter if I’m a Hindu monk or a Christian monk or a Muslim; it doesn’t matter. How do we meditate? This is very secret but very open to all. Generally, people like complication, but we don’t want that. The main techniques are three. First, silence. Silence is the most powerful. The strength is in the silence. Even if someone is quarreling and one keeps silent, the other one has to become silent. Otherwise, others tell you, "Stupid one." Then you say, "Bloody one." Then he says, "Criminal one." Then you say something more negative. Fighting with the words, but that one begins to say, "Stupid." You keep silent. "Crazy one. Mad one. Mad. Also crazy." You are silent. This is the technique that you read in the Bible: turn the other cheek. You know when someone hits you on one cheek and you keep silent, and so the second part, what happens? You are a winner, and that one will feel ashamed for oneself. That is a technique to create the strength to create peace. Both sides are silent. When we come to the ashram or the temple—here you call it the church—automatically, we are silent. And the guide was telling very nicely, slowly. And she never said to be silent. All automatically were silent. That’s God’s energy. So, the first technique of meditation is the best: silence. Find a silent corner in your house, in the park, in the mountains. Today I was in your High Tatra, 2,634 meters high. My God. I used to be at 13,000 meters in height. I have already been at a higher altitude of 13,000 meters—13,000, yeah, 13,000 meters—nearly every week. But today I was not with an aeroplane. And today? We had a silent meditation. And even the other tourists, when they saw us, all became silent, and the mountains were speaking. Silent. Beautiful. So, the first technique of meditation is silence. The second is the name of God. We call it mantra. So repeat the name of God. Very beautiful. And the third step is surrendering. That’s all. There’s no fourth step. Three steps will unite you with the Trinity: the Holy Spirit, the Holy Son, and the Holy Father. Yourself, your jīvātmā, your ātmā, and Paramātmā. So meditate: come home, sit down, relax, and be silent, and repeat your mantra. Now, let’s say you don’t believe in God or in mantra. No problem. God doesn’t demand anything from us. It’s a human emotion, a weakness, it’s human love. So maybe some don’t believe. And who doesn’t believe? He’s the greatest believer because he or she doesn’t believe what we believe. They believe in the universe, and finally, we have to come there. Now, what to do? So, at least believe one thing: that you are relaxed and silent, and feel your breath. I know I inhale and exhale. Immediately, all the tensions will release. Now we can do this meditation. How to release the tension? Now, I have to come to one point because I see there are many people. This light doesn’t show me anything. I don’t know if you are smiling or you are sleeping, I don’t know. Yes. Beautiful faces. So, one thing more we have. I know that we are all not monks here. We do have worldly desires, ambitions: good or bad. So, let’s say I want to go now to Levoča. So mentally I will know where the road is and which direction it is. There are many roads going in different directions. I will not take them. So change your way of thinking and become your guide, your mentor, a guiding power, a model. You feel yourself put in the situation that you are that one, and you will be successful. See the power of meditation, and of course, because mantra is like a soul in the body, but breath is also. So if you like to do a little meditation, I will guide a little meditation. Out of these three points, I will put some points more, because some people like to do more. The essence will be only these three points. Before that, I show you, I have some nice toy with me. And maybe you would have, too, like this. And this toy has got a red button here, and I press it a little longer. And something happens. What about you? Please, courtesy to your neighbor. If you don’t feel cold, and if it is not too much work, then take off your shoes, so that you feel more energy through your foot soles. Immediately, you will feel relaxed. Now, try to sit comfortably. This index finger and thumb are touching together. Here is the energy point. The effects influence to tranquilize our brain waves. These three fingers represent the three guṇas. Next time, I will speak about what it is. These other three fingers represent the three guṇas, and I will talk about this in the future. This index finger is like the individual one. Thumb universal one. So the aim of the yogī is to become one with the universal one. Now, there are three different positions for your hands. You can put them like this on your thighs, on the knees, or like this. Third, like this, on the lap. Your choice. Make yourself comfortable, and whatever you want to see in this beautiful hall, you can look now. After, we will close the eyes; there will be nothing new to see, so no need to open them again. Of course, I will remain with open eyes to see if you are not sleeping. Make yourself comfortable. And gently close your eyes. Withdraw yourself from the external world. And be aware of your being here in this hall, physically and mentally. Once, deep inhale and exhale. And relax. No concentration. No imagination. Just feel the silence in this hall. Relax the whole body. Feel your whole body from the toes to the top of the head. And from the top of the head to the toes, the body is relaxed and comfortable. Observe the silence. Mentally say to yourself: Relax, my friend. Relax for the time being. Just let me be one with myself. Relax your body. And let your thoughts be free. I am relaxed, and I am comfortable. I am happy. And now, bring your awareness to the breath process. Do not change the breath rhythm. Just let it flow as it is. Only become aware that you know you are comfortably inhaling and exhaling. Silentness, as silent as powerful. At the time of inhalation, the body is recharging cosmic energy, life force, the vitality. And at the time of exhalation, the whole body exhales all kinds of toxins, and it releases the tensions. During the exhalation, your whole body is relieved of toxins and relaxes itself. Relax. I know that I am inhaling, and I know that I am exhaling. I am comfortable. I am relaxed. I know that I am inhaling, I am receiving cosmic energy, like white light is entering the body. And when you exhale, all the tiredness, all the stress is released. You feel light, you feel comfortable, you are relaxed. And those who have a mantra... Mentally, you may repeat, but the main thing is to observe your silentness, inner silence, and breath relaxation. Let your thoughts be free. Do not concentrate on any particular thought. Just feel the strength of your silence. Relax. Now feel your breath more deeply. It means, at the time of inhalation, your stomach is slightly expanding, and at the time of exhalation, it is slightly contracting. The breath is very natural. This technique means perceiving the breath in the area of the stomach or feeling the contracting and expanding of the stomach. It releases the stress. And silence. Feel the breath. With inhalation, you are recharging the vitality. With exhalation, you are exhaling all kinds of toxins, and you feel relaxed. And now, if you believe in any way, in anything, spiritually, feel close to your heart. Oneness. Oneness. Just oneness. For a time being, withdraw yourself from all kinds of duties. It doesn’t matter which kind of tensions you had. For a time being, separate yourself from everything. And pray to have more strength to render your service. Relax. The whole body. Relax the breath, and let your thoughts be free. Just the thickness, silent now, slowly begins to deep inhale and exhale. A little deeper inhalation and exhalation, and with that, try to become extrovert and feel your whole body, your being here in this hall. Inhale and exhale deep, deep inhale. And we will chant three times OM. If you know, or if you want, you can chant with us. While chanting Aum, feel a positive vibration in the whole body and concentrate on the resonance of the Aum which is sung by all. Deep inhale, three times peace: śānti, śānti, śānti. And rub your palms and place the hands on the face. Open your eyes. You can put on your shoes. So, meditation is the way to our Self. It is the way to God. Meditation is a way to the source of the energy. Meditation is the best remedy to come out of stress. All your wishes you can fulfill. Just observe the silence. When we have some problems, psychic problems because of families and so on, job... We are existing in this modern civilization, which is man-made. It is funny, but what to do? We are in it. But meditation is that which will heal everything. And you are your own master. So do this wherever you are. Of course, there are many different techniques of meditation for different problems, and that you have in Yoga in Daily Life, self-inquiring meditation. Your teachers know, Yoga in Daily Life teachers. Dear brothers and sisters, it was a blessed evening for me to be with you, and I am thankful to God. Whatever message He gave to you through me, I hope that I didn’t say something that you didn’t like. First of all, I wish you good health, happiness, and a long life. God bless you. Om śānti, śānti, śānti. Thank you.