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Praṇām Gurudev. Dear friends, life is hunger—a means of meeting someone who is poor. You don’t know who is more hungry: the rich or the poor, the educated or uneducated, the sick or healthy. Tonight, it is a great honor to be in the presence of a realized yogī, a Paramahaṁsa who is not hungry. I spoke that life is hunger, and everybody is hungry. We don’t know who is more hungry: the poor one or the rich one, the educated or the non-educated. It is so rare to meet someone who is not hungry anymore. But a realized yogī, Van Paramāhaṁsa, as your greatness, dear Gurudev, is not hungry anymore. Through the achievement of yoga, through the wisdom of yoga, through self-realization, you are saturated, you are sat for yourself, and you share that with all of us. For that, we welcome you. Śānti, Śānti. Lead us from darkness to the light, lead us from unreality to reality, lead us from mortality to immortality. Peace, peace, peace. Salutation to the cosmic light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. In the divine presence, a very good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome, all of you, today. I am very happy to see you here in this beautiful, historical city of Novi Sad, where I have been a few times in the past too, and I am happy to be here again. Yoga in Daily Life is a worldwide practiced system. But yoga is yoga. The subject this evening is given: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Men. And that is yoga. Let’s go into the past. You may also imagine your country from a few hundred years ago. How people used to live here. How did farmers coordinate with each other? Similarly, in different parts of the world. Unfortunately, all the times there has been conflict between the societies. It is said that in the very beginning of the creation of the universe, two forces developed: Devī Śakti and Āsurī Śakti. Devī Śakti means divine powers or positive energy. Devī Śakti are positive energies, or divine power. And Āsurī Śakti means devils or negative energies. From the very beginning onwards, there was a fight between both. For what? To be the ruler, to govern, to have power. And both, not only the negative one, but the positive one too. Above these two forces, there is another quality. That’s called knowledge. When that knowledge appears, then both qualities are purified and harmonized. They communicate. They understand each other. But that knowledge is not easy to have. Because there are many different qualities and temptations, which lead us toward distractions—meaning negative thoughts, those thoughts full of selfishness. And so, from time to time, there were wars. From the very beginning, from the ages, Satya Yuga, Dvāpar Yuga, Kali Yuga. And before that, all these yugas, millions of years, begin the new yugas. So for trillions of years, this individual had been experiencing the changes. This individual soul is fluttering on the waves of time. Throughout endless universes, we come to this planet. And we see how many humans were here, how many playing as the strong one. The rulers, the kings, and how many innocent people died. How much bloodshed was on this mother earth? Why? Because the knowledge is missing, that wisdom that nothing is yours. You are only a guest on this planet, temporary. A wise person says, "You know where I’m sitting? Here? This podium? This stays. Many theaters were played here and finished." They went away, but the stage remains. No one can play forever. There is change. Realize the change. We were in the mother’s body. Embryo. You don’t know what you experienced there. We were born. We were growing, and now we are here. Constantly changing, and it will change again. Someone is gone. Someone is going. And someone is packing to go. No one can forever govern this planet. Therefore, the wisdom says, as long as you stay in this world, enjoy your holidays. Be friendly to all. Tolerance, respect, love, and forgiveness. These are the points which, if we can realize in our life, we can be happy. Siddhartha told a few words, hungry. We don’t know who is hungry. Hunger, that is a major point in the life of every creature. Hunger, not material food. But that hunger to be happy, to get love and give love, but without changing forever as it is, is not possible. It’s changing, but there is one thing: when you or we get that wisdom, always, that means no more desires, no more longing. Contentment. That’s what we call no more hunger. This physical hunger will always be. This small stomach we have, but it’s never full. We put in, and after again, hungry. We put in and put in. How many tons did you eat? If you eat every day two kilos, including the liquid nourishment, two kilos liquid, two kilos solid, one kilo between, five kilos per day, now you can count how many days, weeks, months, and years. How many tons you have, it is never still. The stomach is empty, that will be. That’s the nature of the body. But contentment in the knowledge, it is said, "Whatever I got, that’s the blessing of God. What is in my destiny, Ay, Santosh, Dhan, Shab, Dhan, Dhul, Shaman." You can have a big property. You can have thousands of elephants. That time, old time, you know. The recent one had so much land, and then so many elephants. Now we can’t feed even one goat. And if we have one goat, the neighbors will complain. No pets allowed, but there were people, the richest ones, richer than the elephants. They had vast wealth, even the golden birds they had. Or Ratan Dhan Khan, the mines of the precious stones. You can be so rich. Jab āye santosh dhan, but when you get contentment, all other wealth is like dust. Nothing can be compared with contentment. So, all the time, people had very little. There was no telephone, only telepathy. Now you lost telepathy, and you have telephone to get a message from a village 20-30 kilometers away. It took the whole day to come to Novi Sad, give the message, and go back. Now we have trucks, buses, trains, cars, bikes. That time it was only horses or oxen, no electricity. People were sleeping earlier, no discos, no nightclubs. At that time they had discos and nightclubs in the dreams. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. They didn’t have all these facilities. They had no frieze. They had no televisions, but they were happy. Happy family, joint family. Can you imagine five generations living under one roof? Great-grandparents, great-parents, parents, couples, and children. How happy, very happy. And now we don’t know who is where. So they had little, but they were more happy. Now we have everything and more, but we are unhappy. So, again, we have to go back to the ancient system. Yes, thanks to God. We have all these facilities. It’s very good. I’m not against it, but we said use it, not abuse it. We should use it; we should not become dependent. This is the one thing which we learned from ancient times. Old time, there was only one fashion. You know, which was the costume of the Novi Sad districts. And you knew who is Belgrade. Serbian costume, Croatian costumes, and Hungarians, you know all. And when you saw somewhere, you said, "Oh, this is a Hungarian." And this costume was all the times. Proudly, people had this. And now, every half year, the costume is changing. Two years ago, orange color was a fashion color. I went to the airplane. I was flying from New York to Atlanta. And one lady came, completely in orange. Orange nail colors. Orange lipsticks. Orange earrings, orange shoes, orange handbag, everything orange. From far, I thought some Swamījī is coming. And I should say, hurry home, no more Nala. But when she walked, and you know what happened? It’s not a joke. Coincidentally. We both have seats, each other. I am looking at her, she is looking at me. Now she is thinking, "I am a fashionable man, like she is," and I was thinking, "She is a Swami." So we are changing too much, and still we are not content. Therefore, all the time they had. A beauty, very beautiful. Every costume was perfectly thought out, and you know, this plant here, its beauty is these flowers. No leaves and no flowers, a naked plant has not so much beauty. So our ancestors said, "The beauty of the human body is a proper dress," which was designed, and that was our old costumes. And now, today, you don’t know if it’s some Hungarian city or some Indian city. Croatian or Serbian. We can’t check anything. Okay, very good. Oneness. But they are not happy, and every year they change the fashion. So this changing is not a cloth and color, but changing in the mind, and that causes a lot of energy and changes in humans. To get addressed to this system is not easy. Now, the last 20 years, or 25 years, perhaps, we manipulate the time, winter time and summer time. It’s only one hour different, but this one hour means a lot for the animals, for the birds. For the fish, for the children who are going to school, especially the kindergarten children, and for people who are working, it is completely changed, very hard. It’s like jet lag. Therefore, all the time, they did not manipulate anything. They just adjust themselves with the rhythm of nature. And they ate according to the season. So there was nourishment for all four seasons. Now, winter is coming, and we have different winter food. No, we buy the strawberries coming from Australia. Mother Nature says, now is not the season for you to eat strawberries. For your health is not good, but we don’t think of the health. We think only about our taste, and that’s why we lost the relationship. With our diet, we lost the harmony with nature, and we lost the harmony with our way of life. And that’s why now we will see that more humans are ill. New illnesses are developing, a lot of depressions and suiciding. And youth is without direction. Now is the time that youth need proper guidance and direction. Unfortunately, very few people in the society will guide our children in a better way. Our children are abused. Very few people think, "Oh, these are children, and we should be nice and take care of them." It’s a hard life, a hard future in front of the children. It is not only the duty of parents, but the entire society’s duty to protect our children so that they go on the right path. This was the ancient time. Everyone did care about children. So, yoga. You thought that I would teach you some āsanas, prāṇāyāmas. That I will do also. I have been thinking for the last few years about how they led a long life, how they enjoyed a long life, and how much wisdom they had. And we are living from that wisdom, but we don’t utilize it properly. So, my dear brothers and sisters, the knowledge of the ancient sages was great, and they guide our society till now. That it will guide forever. If we do not utilize that knowledge, that wisdom, then these two qualities, Āsurī Śaktis and Devīk Śaktis, they are within us. And they will create within us a battlefield. What we call life is a struggle. Life is a battlefield. It’s a battle. Every individual is fighting day and night. Struggling to survive, and what a pity. That we don’t trust each other. Humans don’t trust humans. On the border, paper has rights, not a person. When I go without a passport, they will not let me cross the border. I can say I am Indian. I was born there. I was here, now I am going there. No. This living being has no more values, but black and white. That is a Kali Yuga. Why can’t we trust ourselves? Because we experienced, and we do experience still, continuously. That in the world, people are not doing good things for themselves and for society. So, develop the trust. Slowly, slowly, we shall develop a society full of trust. Second part is a healthy way of life. They were eating, and we are also eating. But they were eating quality food. And we don’t have any more of that quality. What we call junk food, fast food, everything is pesticide. Very hard to find organic food 30 years before. When I came to Novi Sad, no one asked me a question. What do you think, Swamiji, about organic food? Because before 30 years it was good, but imagine in the last three decades, how must we have polluted our fields and our meadows? Everything is genetically manipulated, and that affects our health. I know, you know, they know, and we know. Then why can’t we stop? This is the question. If all in Novi Sad will say, "We will not buy anything which is not organic," the supermarket will be locked tomorrow. Ask, I want organic food. I want to be healthy. I would like to be healthy. Because you buy, they do supply. So it is a time that we unite for our good health, for the sake of our good health and our children’s health, that we eat something pure, organic. Food has an effect on the mind, not only on the body. How you eat and what you drink will change your mind and behavior. And now we see how the humans are behaving to other humans. We come, is there any way to maintain our good health? We know we are in the clouds of the pollution, we inhale the pollution, we drink the pollution, we eat the pollution, we sleep in the pollution, and we move in the pollution. We are that fish in the ocean of pollution, water. First thing is, I told you already, that try to utilize only organic food. Now, second is yoga. Now, yoga is a worldwide known. Every fifth person in the world is practicing yoga in different ways. And some are practicing yoga in daily life. But it doesn’t matter if you practice yoga in daily life or you practice some different kind of yoga. There are techniques from China, from Japan, from Africa, from South America. There are many, many good techniques to maintain health: physical, mental, social, and spiritual yoga. How old is yoga? Yoga is very, very old. My research in this field, which I could do through my meditations, through my knowledge, which I got from my spiritual lineage. The best time to get good knowledge is to meditate between 3:30 and 4:30. Then you can go to sleep again. But it’s very hard at 3:30 to get up and meditate. When at 3:30 you get up and you close your eyes to meditate, then you are doing like this. Master your sleep. My master said, my teacher said, "This soul slept in many, many, many lives." Now it’s human life. Wake up. Who are you? From where do you come? For what did you come here? And what are you doing? And where will you go? Know this. It is the duty of humans, and the answer to all your questions, and the door opens to liberation. Who am I? I am not the body. I am not mind. I am not intellect. I am not this whole. But I am the Ātmā, the Supreme, and that can be realized. Don’t think only monks who are sitting in the ashrams in Himalayan caves can get realization. No. All we can do is live in a big city like this one. But discipline, self-discipline is key to success. If you would like to be successful, then discipline. Those who have no discipline cannot get anything. So, yoga. It is Ananta Brahmāṇḍa. Endless universe. We don’t know where the beginning is, where the end is. Ānanda, Brahmāṇḍa, Śāstra, Sūrya—thousands of sun systems, say the Vedas. Vedas are the first scriptures written by humans. Before, knowledge was given from master to disciple. It’s called Śruti and Smṛti. Heard from the master, spoken through the memories. Through you, death. But slowly, slowly, humans lost the memory. And so, the great Vedavyāsa dictated the Vedas. Veda means knowledge. It is said, endless universe, Śāstra Sūrya, the thousands, the millions of the sun systems. And now, modern scientists also tell us. To this day, nothing new is told by scientists which is not written in the Vedas. Then why should we try to fly to Mars and Jupiter? Read the Vedas, and you will know everything that is there. But humans are complicated people. Then go, please. Spending billions of dollars, put it here in our education system, Vedas in the schools. Everybody will know endless space, and that space is known as the cosmic mother, the body of the mother, the womb of the mother. So when we say... Cosmic mother, not a person, but the space. Endless space. We don’t know where the beginning is. And within the space, there is what is called cetanā. Consciousness. Living. Life. Consciousness is within the space, not a space within the consciousness. So nowhere is empty; everywhere is that cosmic consciousness. So, space and consciousness—between these two, there is energy called Śakti, that principle which is keeping them together, space and consciousness. So nowhere in the universe is a dead corner, which is balancing, harmonizing, keeping together. That principle is called yoga. Not exercises, not pranayamas, not meditations. This is a way to yoga, but yoga means balancing the entire universe. And these are only three: space, consciousness, and balance. In this universal consciousness, which is known as Hiraṇya Garbha, the golden embryo, this golden embryo is like a golden egg. Within this golden egg embryo, in that divine consciousness, there is a tendency, which, as the Vedas say, Eko’ham bahusyāmi, I am one, and now I will multiply within myself. And that is how the entire creation begins. Millions of sun systems, planets, stars, and we too. Our planet. Now that creation, those feelings, are not like human feelings. That’s not the wish like a human wish. There is no other word. And that’s why we are saying it’s a wish. You know, we say, "God, thy will be done." Does God have a will? If yes, then for what? What does he need? He has everything, but there are no words to express this. There is a beautiful fruit, and now I eat. I know the taste, but I can’t explain it to you. I can only say sweet, sour, bitter, hot. But the exact taste I cannot explain. You eat everyday butter, or your nice kajmak, but exactly what is taste? You can’t explain. Only one knows who is eating. Similarly, when you go in meditation, then you know what it is: "I am one, and I will now multiply within myself." And that is awakening. That is cosmic awakening, and that is called sound. In the Vedas, it is said, if you want to know the form of the cosmic self, how he looks like, sound, resonance. Everything is created out of resonance, which I chanted in the beginning. O-A-U-M. Beginning. So, the creator, sustainer, and liberator. These are three in one: created, protected, and again merged into it. This is the process in the entire universe. So, through the sound, creation began. And with that, this quality, what we call yoga, came. You are yoga. Not a yogī. If you are not yoga, you can’t survive anymore. All the five elements are balanced in your body. By which power? Yoga. If one of the elements is weak, the body will die. So, practicing yoga means to support our five elements, to be healthy, functioning properly. Automatically, the health is there, and so, but the aim was not health only. On our planet, through that sound, what we call maybe now a creator, the creator has created 8.4 million different kinds of creatures on the planet. Divided into three categories. Jelchar, thalchar, nabchar: in the water, on the earth, and in the space. All are 8.4 million. Of course, some don’t believe. It’s okay. If you don’t believe, then begin counting tomorrow. You have one year’s time with all your computers, and next year I will come and tell me how many are less or how many are more. So sometimes we have to accept the words of sages. 8.5 million different creatures make one cycle, what you call birth and death. If you believe in birth and death, or you don’t believe, that’s not a problem. You don’t believe that you will be born again. No problem. We will see when you are born. And I will say, "Hello, how are you?" And baby will say, "I didn’t believe you." Or you may think you will not die. I wish you, but one day you won’t. So, this is the eternal cosmic law of the cycle of birth and death. And believe or not, believe does not change. No science, no religion, no philosophy, no culture can change the truth. From this, in modern life, we use one word, and that is proof that we use the ancient wisdom in modern life. In the last few decades, we have been utilizing one sentence or one word very much, and that’s called recycling. Anything you produce in your factory should be environment-friendly production, which has a name: recycling. And do you believe in recycling? Yes. So if you believe in recycling, where is the problem in believing in reincarnation? Now, recycling, let’s say a paper, is recycled. Maybe next time it will not be a paper. But it will be a grass, or a tomato, or a pumpkin, or nice, novice watermelons. Similarly, thanks to God, it’s not sure that a human will be born again as a human. Forget it. Who will decide? Your karma, destiny, you have in your hands. You have in your hands. Your karma, but you cannot decide as long as you live. You can decide, so in my hand is a stone. I can throw it, or I can keep it in my hands. But when I have thrown it, it means gone. I can’t run behind to catch it again. So what is done is gone out of your hands. Gone out of your capacities, that is karma, and that creates or builds, constructs your destiny. And destiny will be who will decide where you go, what will be with you. Therefore, now we should be careful and do something so that our destiny will decide good for us. So, yogīs were thinking, out of 8.4 million different creatures, they are all suffering. Birth and death. Is there an end at all? Yes. That’s called liberation. Self-realization, but where is the door? And the door is human life. Now, through the human body, you can go out of this cycle of birth and death or repeat it again. It means to do something good. Do good to others. Be nice to all creatures. Be good to your families, and be good to thyself. Meditate. Pray. Now, how to reach this? We are born as human. It means that we are not already liberated now. And don’t think that you can do anything that you want because you are human. No, no,... no. So much freedom God has not given us. Animals, they are just going through, but humans are stuck there. And what they are doing, that will be the decision. So the yogīs decided to do good things for a long lifetime. So we should live long, but how? Good health. So a healthy way of life is a long life. We have enough time to do good things to come to our destination. But there is a destiny; accidents can happen. Our life is cut in between, then again human life will be given. But finally, we have to work through the human body and the human mind. And that is for the well-being of humans. He created the system of yoga and the proper diet. And spiritual injections, philosophical injections. That, yes, there is some supernatural power, whether you believe in God or not. God doesn’t tell us to believe in me. And he has no time to come and tell us, "Please believe in me." Maybe God is different than we think. Did you see that? Did your parents see that? Does God look like a human? The birds think God is like a bird. So other birds say, but humans tell differently. The third bird says, "Oh, humans. They have a different bird inside." So everyone is thinking differently, and God is maybe different. We think sometimes, atheist. Atheist doesn’t believe in God. My God, I must be a terrible person. No, no, no. No, no, no. Those people, they are very correct. These people are very kind, very helpful, protective for the nature. So it must not be that you believe what I believe, or it must not be that I believe what you believe. Who am I to judge? Who am I to judge someone? Those who don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in the way which we would like that they believe. So neither is he God, nor is that one a God. But that God is sitting within you, and that tells you what to do. And if you meditate and pray, you draw your consciousness to yourself; then God will speak in you. And that is not—God is not a physical form. Love, light, wisdom, and bliss. This is the definition of God. So when you have a love for every creature, the light of the joy, wisdom of knowing, and super bliss, Ānanda, you are very close to self-realization. So, ancient wisdom for a modern man to lead a life healthy, happy, and balanced, to protect others. And this is what I put all together in the system called Yoga in Daily Life. So yoga in daily life is not only physical exercises or prāṇāyāma, breath techniques, but I used to say, the helping hands have more value than just folded hands. And with this, I am traveling around the world, organizing many, many conferences to balance and create love in society. It’s called world peace, and also working to protect the environment. Planting the peace trees, we should remind ourselves of peace. Yesterday we planted a peace tree in Belgrade, and tomorrow we will plant a tree in Novi Sad that’s called Children’s Village. The children will be happy if you join us. So as long as we live, let us do something good. This is what my thoughts were to tell you. About the ancient way of life and how we can utilize it in this life. So yoga in life, in your country, has been practiced for the last 30 years. And I know many, many of you are practitioners. And if not, then I’m sure you will begin now. You have already begun. And continue it. Think positive. One word can create love, or one word can create war. How to put our energy out? Think over. And with feelings. I would like to be happy. Similarly, others also would like to be happy. I don’t want pain, but others also don’t want pain. Oneness with all. Thank you, and thank you all, yoga, and the daily life of Novi Sad for organizing this program. I’m very happy that you invited me. Me and dear meditators here also. Thank you very much for your coming. Now is time of the meditation. Media can do a lot in the world, and to tell the truth, to save the world is in the hands of the media. Because media can bring the message to every human, door to door and soul to soul. Thank you very much, and I wish you a very pleasant evening. Healthy, happy, long life, and harmony at home. God bless you. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.