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The Worship of the Elements

A discourse on the worship of the five elements and Vedic ecology.

"The sun is the most important in our solar system. Sun is life. Life is God. God is life. In this way, every element should be adored."

"If you want to see God, then see Him in these elements. Without this Tattva, we are nothing."

The speaker explains the sacredness of the five elements—sun (fire), water, air, earth, and space—as manifestations of the divine, detailing traditional pūjās and practices for each. He emphasizes humanity's dependence on and disrespect for nature, arguing that ecological pollution is a spiritual failure. The talk includes anecdotes about fire ceremonies, the miraculous multiplication of blessed food (halvā), and a call to return to a Vedic cultural reverence for the natural world to ensure planetary survival.

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

The pūjā to the sun, the sun god, existed in Europe as well. Not long ago, and even now, we call it the sun festival. This is still celebrated in Europe, in many countries, in the high mountains. They make a wheel, put some cloth around it with oil or a little petrol, and let the wheel run down the hill. Thankfully, it is only in winter, so there is nothing to be burned. Otherwise, they could burn the whole forest. Due to the fire danger, this was prohibited in many countries. Many people put ghee oil, or a ghee lamp, or an oil lamp. They make a very nice ball from big leaves from some trees and put this lamp inside. The lamp is made out of chapati dough or bread dough, and then you put it in the water, in the river. The lamp flies, swimming. It looks beautiful in the evening, and it is environmentally friendly. Or they put it in the lake. The sun is the most important in our solar system. Sun is life. Life is God. God is life. In this way, every element should be adored. So, there is a pūjā for the water. It’s called Jal Devatā. Jal is water, and Devatā is God. So, water, God. It means this water element. Our life cannot exist without water. If we pollute the water, indirectly we are polluting ourselves. We do not respect this water principle, and that’s why the whole planet is suffering. Mostly, humans will suffer. The karma will come back to the humans very soon. Mostly, humans are the most guilty ones. So Jal Devatā, Varuṇa Devatā, the Varuṇa Devatā is the Jal Devatā, Varuṇa. Similarly, there is Agnidev. Agni is the fire, so God of the fire, Fire God. Without Agni we cannot exist; we would die immediately. This Agni Tattva in our body, the body’s warmth or body heat, is very important. We must maintain our body temperature between 35 and 37, or 36. Whether you take care or not, your body will do it by itself. What a wonder that God has done such a central heating. It is automatic, so it is automatically regulated temperature. When you go in the sauna, your body temperature also doesn’t rise very high. Of course, a little bit, a few degrees, yes, but we are sweating. When we sweat, it means our body’s nature makes a film over the skin, a weight from the sweat, so that this water doesn’t let the heat go to the body too much. So everything is automatically regulated. Agni is very important. If Agni is out of order, out of control, then either we have a high fever. You know, when we have a fever up to 41, we have to die. We have to try everything to put the temperature down. And if it goes down, we have to sit near the fire and put our feet in the hot water again to get the temperature. So without this fire, our life is nothing. We will die. Therefore, there is Agni Dev. And Agni Dev is very pure. Fire purifies everything. Therefore, it is said that you should not step on the fire with your shoes, barefoot also not. Do not spit in the fire, do not throw impure things in the fire. Keep your fire as a holy place, as a yajña. So that’s what also, in India when we make a yajña, or Havan, it means that God, the fire God, is presented there. And the presence of the fire God is very important. So, who has seen God? Now we are all trying to see God, but where, how? We always think very complicated. But there is nothing that we say there is something. In that way, there is no God. Now, if you think that now somebody will come down and he will say, "Hello." Oh, coming. Viṣṇu is coming with four hands and Sudarśana Cakra, and he comes down and then he says, "You cannot be happy." Again, you are not satisfied. So God says, "How do you want me?" In which form? It doesn’t matter how he comes to us; we are not satisfied. Therefore, God is in every element, in everything. So what can be more than the fire? The God, because that’s our life. We live from this, we agree from this, so fire has to be respected. And the ash which is coming out of fire remains. That’s called Lakṣmī. So fire is Viṣṇu and the ash is Lakṣmī. And so when the holy person has the holy fireplace, that’s called Vibhūti. And Vibhūti means some holy qualities. Holy scent, or vibhūti, means also blessing. And so, when you have this Vibhūti, you are blessed. In this Vibhūti, there are Hṛddhi and Siddhi both. Hṛddhi and Siddhi mean prosperity and perfection. So prosperity and wisdom in the Lakṣmī. So the ṛṣi culture said, or Vedic culture or Hinduism, that in your house, fire should remain always. Fire should not go out because that is God. Viṣṇu. And your fireplace, what remains there as Vibhūti is Lakṣmī. And the pure ash of the fire, from any material, it doesn’t matter which, completely burned, that you can put even on an open wound. There are the best antiseptics. Because there is no bacteria, there is nothing; it is very pure. So you should have a fireplace. So it is good that in Europe it is cold and they have a chimney system. But now in big cities, chimneys are prohibited because every house has a coal fire, and there is a lot of pollution in the place. But the fire was used mostly for cooking, and when you begin to cook, that first chapati flour, you take it, one half spoon, and put it in the fire. Or some first chapati, some part of the first chapati, all varieties that you have cooked. And take it little by little, and put it in the fire first. That means bhog lagānā. Bhog lagānā means that you offer to the fire god, and the fire god now will bless you, and you will have enough. Your food will be delicious. And all guests or your family members who will eat are blessed. So that is really scientific. You see, many of you were in Jordan. They saw that, on occasion, when we had to make halvā for 10,000 people, it was one big pot. So when we make a fireplace, it has to be done in the right constellation. The first, when you first time are breaking. So that the earth’s breaking ceremony, and first, the tools have to be celebrated and purified. Purified. And then the person who will do the ceremony also gets tilak, the gourd sweet, this holy thread around the arm or around the wrist, and then, before making the earth-breaking ceremony, the earth will be purified also, and then, facing the northeast corner, the first heat will be on the earth. Earth-breaking ceremony, it has in it something. It’s not only blind belief. It is great. And then, the first fire when you put on the inside, after making this fireplace, you must again look at the constellation when you should put the first fire in. And then they begin to cook the big pot of halvā, and when it’s finished, the cook who is preparing it immediately takes something and puts it in the fireplace. Before that, no one was allowed to lick their finger. Finger-licking is impossible. It is already in the mind, in the culture. It is first to be offered to God. If you do not do so, it is a sin. And what we are doing, a hundred times we will finish with licking the fingers. So this is not allowed. Also, in your home, when you cook, it doesn’t matter even if it’s for yourself, you are not allowed to lick. First offer it to God. And then you eat, so that food becomes blessed food. That will give you an immense feeling of goodness and energy, and help to reduce your illnesses. So you respect the God, and then they put one lamp, a ghee lamp, and they go with the lamp around this big pot, and then they pray to Annapūrṇā. The goddess of food, nourishment. Annapūrṇe sadāpūrṇe prāṇavalabhi. You know this mantra? It means Annapūrṇe sadāpūrṇe. When the goddess, her presence is here, then it’s forever; it’s completeness here. So it is the source of our prāṇa. And the Lord Śiva, so then they put this lamp beside that pot, nicely protected, and then they begin to serve. You cook for five thousand people; you will not believe that it can feed fifteen thousand people. And the bandār of Gurujī, when Gurujī went to samādhi, we made halvā, one big pot, and then one minister came and he told the people, "Please tell Swāmījī, these people are coming. It’s not people. It’s not people. It’s a flood." And he prepared just a little halvā. So they said, "Yes, a Swāmījī must know." And we will tell, and you will not believe. I don’t know how many thousands, but it was thousands and thousands of people who ate. It was not even half empty. So that’s called Hṛddhi. Hṛddhi means prosperity or something that has no end. Increasing, increasing,... and Siddhi is that miracle. So now I’m telling this: many of you have been there, and you saw this. I say it, and I know that many of you were there and saw it. So we sent halvā, kilos and kilos, to every ashram. And people who came, they wanted to take this bandharā prasād. This is very, very precious. And people who came there wanted to take the prasāda from Bandhara. It’s a very meaningful thing, but still, about 300–400 kilos remained. So we dried it on the roof, on the iron plates, or tin, iron tins. And then we filled the little pockets and we sent it to people who couldn’t come. And time to time, we again re-boiled it and we ate. So that is this Tattva, fire god, water god. The food is God, and that’s our life. That’s exactly it. You are purifying yourself, and when this everything is polluted, it’s a death for us. When the fire breaks, no one can control it. This fire will burn everything. So there is always a mantra that fire will not break. So, Vāstu Śāstra, you know, Vāstu Śāstra is about buildings, but this is not only the building, but how the humans should live and how to balance the nature, then it will not happen. The fire will not break like this and burn everything, and then the wind god, and this pavana devatā, wind god, is also something. The water god is Varuṇa, and you know, the air, without air, without wind, without this we can’t exist. If there were no air at all, even the vibrations wouldn’t penetrate. So this vibration, the sound, from me to you, is some other energy in Ākāśa Tattva, which brings this energy from one object to another object. And that is in the wind devatā. And that’s very important, that we understand the wind. And so, according to the Vāstu Śāstra, it’s very important, the direction, in heaven’s direction or the earth’s direction, and then making the buildings. So there is harmony, there is good health, there is good happiness, and it makes everything balanced. Otherwise, hurricanes come, storms come. Now, it is expected, the experts are saying, that the wind will be strong, like 500 km speed. When a 500 km speed wind will come, the trees will fly, but Germans say, Altweibersommer. You don’t know this expression, thanks to God. Yeah, altweibersommer, Indian summer. Not Indian summer. Alt with old ladies’ hair, you know. Aha, I see. So in the German language, there was no word "frau", only "weiba", "weiblich", "männlich und weiblich". Slowly, slowly, language developed, and the word "weib" is a little bit not so polite. And now the old word is not very popular anymore. So now it’s called a woman. Yes, so a woman is also not so good. Someone thinks like a fowl, the fowl-vogel, no? So when the summer is old and there are some flowers dry, the seeds are flying. They think that old ladies, they are so old, and hair is flying out. Why don’t men fly? Why doesn’t the hair of the men fly? Because they lost it already before. So nothing remained, so they couldn’t say anything. So it is, no? So this is like this, everything is flying, is connecting, and that is very important. So the air god, that is very important, but when it takes Rudra form, Rudra means destructive, angry. Nāṭarāja, when he was angry, then he danced. Oh my God, everything was, the whole Himalaya was shaking. And out of his hair, so much snow is flying, and that’s why in the winter it’s snowing. Because in winter, when the snow is falling, it is nothing but the dust of Śiva’s hair. So when there is little snow, then you must tell Śiva, please dance. You must sing ta ta... Because when the sand rises up, then these hurricanes become stronger, because that makes a kind of wall, the sand, and the vacuum pressure is very strong, and that vacuum is so strong that the trees are coming out of the roots. If you will do such a ceremony with respect, then that will not destroy you. That will not harm you. So it is time to again come to the culture, Vedic culture. This modern way of thinking, this modern civilization, and this modern intellect have destroyed the human roots. The human roots are rotten, and nothing remains. This is the way humanity will be destroyed. So we must come back to the nature. And then, how do you call the mother earth? If there is no earth, then everything is finished. Earth also has meaning. So when there is no earth, then all four other elements have no meaning. We can’t exist without this planet. We are nourished by this Mother Earth. Water also, she preserves and gives us clean water. It is filtered by her. Like milk, mother’s milk that the baby gets. So this waterfall, the deep fountains, all flowing waters, groundwater, should be as pure as a mother’s milk. But we put so much pesticide, so many chemicals, now this mother has cancer. And from breast cancer, when the child will drink, my child will get cancer also. So we are guilty that the Earth is so in now. So there are many fountains of healing water where they have these spas; this is all thanks to Mother Earth. If you drink water directly from the rain, it’s not healthy; there are no minerals, nothing. But water which flows through the earth, and you drink that, everything is contained in it. So without Mother Earth, we cannot exist. And therefore, it is also pūjā for Mother Earth. A prayer for Mother Earth. Walking carefully on Mother Earth, she is giving us all that we drink. What we eat is not just falling from the hammer. Our bread does not fall down, our fruits do not fall down, our potatoes are not raining down. Everything, Mother Earth is preparing, and we are eating. So whatever you throw into the earth, that comes to you. Therefore, it is not a blind belief. It’s not some sect. This word, what you used in the last century in Europe, Sect and sect, this is nonsense. Every religion is a sect, because sect means sector. The word "sect" came from "sectors." And this word begins to exist when, in belief of Christianity, they didn’t want to support or be as a Catholic, so they separated from Catholics. They were still believers of Jesus and Christianity, but not under Rome, so they gave them a name. Okay, you have your sector. Your branch, so that branch is called a sect. But when you listen, "Oh my God, sect," even without knowing the definition, you begin to blame someone without knowing the meaning of vajba. Now you made her fow fagel, fogel, frau, fow fogel. Frau, no? So fraun is that fraun is fow. So, so beautiful name destroyed in the frau. And when you read the testament in the Bible, the old word is mentioned. In Vienna, there is an old saying: "We women want to know where the hot water is, we know where the hot water is." So there are still women who give that wine. Thank God, thank God we still have this wine. We still have, we still have, the old saying is also used in the proverb. So they said, "We and the ladies want to wash the laundry if we know where warm water is, no?" Anyhow, so these five elements, as well as the Ākāśa Tattva. And Ākāśa Tattva is something very neutral. And it’s so neutral, so it’s neutralizing everything. It divides into millions of parts. So that you are not affected directly very much. If there is no space, you can’t breathe. Therefore, in the body, there is also space. Our nāḍī system is the ākāśa system. Our intestine is the ākāśa system. Our nostrils are empty; they are the ākāśa system. Our mouth, the entire volume of the mouth, is ākāśa. Empty parts in the bones are the ākāśa element. Between the joints. If there is no ākāśa element, then the joints can’t move anymore. And when someone dies, ākāśa becomes less and less in that body. And then even the joints become so hard, you can’t bend the hand. Because Ākāśa Tattva lived, therefore, these five elements are compared with God itself. So if you want to see God, then see Him in these elements. Without this Tattva, we are nothing. We are only composed of the five elements, and what is holding us together is prāṇa. And that prāṇa is again, the source of that prāṇa is from these five elements. Where also, then, out of this, God consciousness is realized or produced. Realize means, also, you can say to gain. Gain means, also, to produce. So, if not, if we don’t have this body, there is no God. And there is no question of God. We have this body, then we have the God, but this body is nothing. Then these elements manifest in front of us as a God, and therefore there should be prayers. Ceremonies, mantras for Sūrya Devatā, for Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, for Jal Devatā, Agni Devatā, Vāyu Devatā, and Pṛthvīmātā, the Śakti, the Pṛthvī. And in this, we are one with this all. So, like an onion, onion... so all these layers, one after the other layer, are taken away, then where is the onion? So, without this, there is nothing. So if we are here, then east, west, north, south, above, below, front, beyond. Therefore, all these kinds of ceremonies and rituals are very important because the human has forgotten; the human didn’t take them seriously. Therefore, this is connected with spirituality, and a spiritual person is more... or less is the one who believes in God, and who believes in God is a religious person. But again, because of the conflict about religion, people didn’t want to perform those ceremonies. They didn’t perform ceremonies. It means they damaged human life, and now the human roots are destroyed. So we have to come back again to nature; that’s very, very important. So when these elements are destroyed, then you are also gone, and you can’t eat your money, nothing. You can’t buy anything pure. From where will you buy the pure? There is no pure water on the Moon, unfortunately. Otherwise, we can make a pipe so the water comes still here, so also there is no water anywhere. No water there, we can’t import the food from there, and we can’t import the air from there. Everything is here. We are involved in this. You can’t run away. And we cannot run away. Therefore, I think, we shall again turn towards nature and the Vedic culture. You have to think, and you are all normal people. Normal people, academic people, you could think what it means. Don’t be manipulated. So see the reality. What is the reality? So we are doing this for the entire planet, for all creatures, including ourselves, our children. And if you don’t love anyone, at least you love your children. And don’t leave the world poisoned for your children. At least leave behind this world as pure as you got it in your hands.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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