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Lead us from unreality to reality. Lead us from the darkness to the light, Mṛtyuṁ Rama Amṛtaṁ Gamaya. Lead us from mortality to immortality. Om Śānti Śānti... Salutations to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, Omniscient and Omnipresent. His divine presence. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. It’s a blessing to be here with you in Auckland, and very happy to see this Yoga in Delhi Life Centre, the new one. Congratulations. Ashram is for all of us. The subject is beautiful today: How to be happy? Very simple. Be happy. Who forces you to be unhappy? But there is a "but," and somehow we have to remove this "but" word. Happiness is a universal principle: happiness, contentment, love, freedom, and peace. This is given by God, our Mother Nature, to every creature, free of charge. It doesn’t cost money. Like all the five elements—water, air, space, a beautiful planet, sunlight—it is for every creature and for every entity, for every blade of the grass is given by God free. Just take it. Every creature, day and night, struggling or running here and there, including we humans, we are on the search for happiness. Whatever we humans, as well as other creatures, try to do, we do because we feel it will make us happy. And no one does things consciously, at least humans, to be unhappy. Even we think, and after, we realize it was a mistake. But in the beginning, we thought it is happiness. We have a definition for happiness, and these are two different kinds of happiness. One is the material happiness, sorry. Connected with the physical world, that is what we call ānanda. Ānanda means happiness. It means that you feel pleasant, you feel free, and you like it. But I used to say, the joy of the joy which you try to enjoy has a little joy than the suffering of that enjoyment. The second step of happiness we call param-ānanda, and that’s called bliss, supreme bliss, param-ānanda. And that paramānanda is above this material world or this material body. This world is not everlasting. Everything in this world is changeable. We are living in a world of changes. We do not keep long. For example, now in this modern situation, in this modern world, we humans think it is for our best convenience, but in reality, it is not. What we call "use and throw." We take a paper tissue. It is very nice, very clean. We are happy to have this paper tissue. And how long did it take to produce this paper tissue? Out of which material? Wood, or grass, or cotton? How many days? Nicely colored, nicely done, everything is very nice and beautiful. And we are happy to have this. We take it, and we do it, and that is the only temporary happiness. That’s only temporary. So the world of changes, we are living in it. This happiness is not permanent. It’s not permanent. Mahatma Gandhi said something for it: renounce and enjoy. In the testament, it is also said, "Do not collect, or do not carry with you." But who follows this? Holy Gurujī, my master said, "Enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of the sacrifice." If you can sacrifice something, that will give you happiness. There was one bird, a big bird, what you call a hawk, and the hawk caught some piece of meat and flew away. The other two hawks followed him to hunt and take the piece of meat away. One who had this piece of meat was flying up and down and left and right, and he was thinking, "My God, what have I done to them? Why are they running behind me? Why are they my enemies? What should I do? How to get rid of them?" And a voice came, "My dear, they are not running behind you. If you want to have peace free from them, what you have, drop it." And he dropped the piece of meat. And the other two birds, they flew behind that piece of meat to the tree. And he was free, sitting on the tree, relaxed and happy. Oh, thank you, God. So people are behind us only because we have something. And we know very well that nothing will go with us when we die. Not even this body will go with you. When you were born, your mother gave you birth, and you know, you didn’t even have a ten-centimeter piece of cloth on your body when you were born. Thanks to your mother, your brother, sisters, father, or the nurse who took you, cleaned you, and wrapped you in beautiful, soft, gentle, nice cloth. That was the first step, that you got something. Now you like it, and you begin to collect. And mother gave you a nice pillow and a nice cradle, and this and that, and, oh, it is soft and this. Our body was spoiled. You grow, we grow, and we collect these, what you call, toys. And then we get a taste of the money. Then we get a test of the friends, then the house, and this and that. Collection, collection, collection. And some people, they have so much that they are afraid someone will take it away. They cannot sleep; therefore, they have to take a sleeping tablet, and they have to put... a camera and alarm, and they have to have a Doberman and whatnot. Why? Because you are afraid that somebody will take it away. It means, in reality, you are the slave of that to which your entire being belongs. You are only God, who is guarding all this. On the day when the last breath will be, everything will remain here. You can’t take with you even one credit card somewhere in the astral world. And in case the credit card goes with you, there is no bank that will accept this card. Tyāgah. Therefore, in yoga, we have certain principles, which are also given by Maharishi Patañjali, who wrote the Patañjali Yogashūtra. Patañjali is known as the father of psychology. He lived 1,500 years before Christ. And what Patañjali researched—the human body, mind, emotion, intellect, the level of consciousness, and so on—is unbelievable. So if you would like to become a real yogī, number one. Number two, if you would like to be happy, then there are certain principles which you should adopt. First, tyāga, renunciation. Take as much as you need. Even the wild animal, when it finds something to eat, eats as much as it can. When the stomach is full, they will go away; they will not carry with them. But we humans go somewhere in the forest and we find a very good cherry tree. We will eat and we will take with us. So it is said, what you have to carry in the stomach, don’t carry on your back. But our condition is like that. So one thing I like it in New Zealand on the border, don’t take apples, don’t take fruits. One apple costs $100 as a punishment. Yeah, because they said, "We have everything. Why do you carry with you?" Good. Listen, of the Bible, at least one. Maybe there are many, but I have noticed till now one. So I always think of Jesus’s words, "Thou shalt not carry." Tyāga. Tyāga means renounce. Now, renouncing what? There are two kinds of renunciation. One is a material renouncement. And second, our bad habits. My master, Holy Gurujī, Swāmī Madhavānandjī, said, "It is easy to become free from the enemy, but not from the bad habits." Habit is the second nature of man. Therefore, from childhood, if people get bad habits like drugs, alcohol, and many other things, their whole life will torture them. It’s not easy to get addiction. Addiction means you have to add more and more. Let’s say you are drinking half a glass of alcohol, but slowly, slowly, in one year... you will have a half bottle already; you are adding thereby addiction. So especially when in young age, when you come to such a company where you learn bad habits, those habits will torture you lifelong. So it is said that there are two kinds of self-murder or suicide: one is to jump in water or what, I don’t know how they are doing. I don’t want to jump in the water to die, but some people are doing certain... And the second, self-murdering or murdering, or the suicide, is a kind of bad habit: drugs, which will kill you slowly, slowly, lifelong. So renounce those bad habits, renounce your negative behaviors, renounce your greed, renounce your ego, renounce your conflicts, and renounce those words which disrupt other people. That is renunciation, tyāga. Therefore, giving, we got it, we shall give it. Second is tapa. Tapa means austerity. Try to learn to endure the situations in life. Try to learn to live with little things. And that’s what we said: simple living and higher thinking. Now, in this modern world, there are so many things developed and made accessible for humans, that even if you don’t want to spoil yourself, you are spoiled already. When this tissue, if this would be made out of fabric, I will not throw it away, I will clean it, wash it, and use it again. This all is based on commercial things, but it is not sustainable. The United Nations’ advice and slogan is to create sustainable development, and this is not sustainable. Tapa means sādhanā, practicing, enduring, tyāga, tapa, svādhyāya. Svadhyāya means study. Study those ancient literatures which are written by great persons or spiritual persons, like holy books. In every religion, there are wonderful holy books, and if we follow them, we will be happy. But we don’t read them. We don’t look into it. You may have a holy book, Bhagavad Gītā or Rāmāyaṇa or Qur’ān or the Bible, and so it’s all in the library. But not every day to read. You are happy to read the newspaper every day. You get up in the morning, and you want coffee and a newspaper. Why don’t you first read the Rāmāyaṇa or Bible and then have your newspaper? Make a principle to read something that will give you inner peace. Newspapers will tell you who was killed, where, what happened, and this and that. But I’m not against newspapers, please, anybody here, owner of a newspaper, don’t be angry with me. Read, it’s also good. Tyāga, tapa, svādhyāya. Second svādhyāya, real svādhyāya means, "sva" means the self, yourself. And adhyāya means the chapter. Sit with closed eyes and meditate on your life, on your past time till today. Adhyāya means chapter. How many chapters have you begun in your life? How many chapters have you finished? And how many chapters are still open? And how many chapters of your life have you just closed without completing? Means, what happened to our life? What were we thinking would be the best? And why has it gone out of our hands? Or so on and so forth. We all know that every individual has different situations in life. So svādhyāya, study thyself. Then, through the meditation, now analyze, analyze. Why couldn’t you fulfill this chapter? It was not in your hands. It was not in your power. It was meant to be like that. For example, you love cats very much, you like cats, but your parents say no and no and no, and now you are independent, grown, and you got a cat. You are happy. And after, unfortunately or fortunately, after half a year you got in, you fell in love, and you got married. And your husband says, "I am allergic to cats, so please decide, my darling: me or the cat." It is a very hard thing now in life. Again, close the chapter. When you drive a car and you see a cat going there, and the red light is on the traffic light, you look at the cat, and inside you, you suffer that you would like to have this cat. So these are the circumstances. This was an example only. So many situations are in our hands; many situations are not in our hands. So meditation will give you the answer, a very clear answer, that you will not suffer. So, tyāga, svādhyāya, tapasyā, and then call giving, renunciation. On the birthday, when you bring some flowers or something to someone, how happy is that person? Give. Giving makes happy, but also don’t learn to take. Also, you should give also further. So these are the principles to be happy: tyāga, svādhyāya, tapa, and renunciation. This leads to happiness. The final happiness is this; in yoga, we call it Ātmā Jñāna. Ātmā is your real self. Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya said, "Who am I?" From where do I come? For what did I come here into this world? What was the purpose or will of God to send me into this world, especially as a human? And where will I go? If you know these answers, the worldly problems will not touch you. We don’t know from where we come. All we know in this life is that we were born there and there. And who am I? I am not this body. I am not this emotion. I am not this intellect. And even I am not this soul. Your soul is only a bundle of karmas, actions. But I am the Ātmā, and that Ātmā is eternal. The soul is individual. My soul is an individual soul. My soul is following my destiny, my karma. You have your soul. Whatever you did, you have your destiny. So, good luck or bad luck, individually. But the ātmā, the Self, is universal and one. So, as Ātmā, we are all one. There is no difference. We are like the sky. No difference. But in the sky, we are all those stars. They are individual. Those planets, they are individual. So real happiness, paramānanda, supreme bliss is there when we get ātmā-jñāna. And for the sake of the ātmā-jñāna, we may have to renounce many things. We have to endure many situations. And we have to come to those holy teachings, the wise teachings, where we can get self-realization that will lead us to happiness. Ānandoham, Ānandoham, Ānandam, Brahmanandam. I am bliss, I am bliss,... I am supreme bliss. That is the reality of our self and the rest. I am unhappy, I am lonely, I am this. This all is unreality. It is not a reality. It is changeable. From birth till today, how much have we changed? Our body is changing, our mind is changing, our emotions are changing, our ideas are changing, our profession is changing. How many things are we changing? This is the get, use it, and throw it. That’s it. Body, use it and then it’s gone. Hari Om. So use this body for the divine things. Therefore, humans are here as protectors, not as destroyers. Humans should protect others, and humans should do something to be happy. If we feel the sisterhood and brotherhood in the world, then there will be no wars and no fighting. And wars and this fighting are created only by humans because humans do not accept others as our brothers and sisters. This is the main problem. So we in yoga said, "Viśva prāṇī merī ātmā hai." All the entities in this world are my ātmā, myself. Ātmā, sohī, pramātmā. And this pramātmā, which is in me, is the Supreme One. We are the essence or the light of the Supreme One. So this is what can lead us to heaven. Whatever regard, be satisfied, be content. It is said, you will never get more than what is in your destiny. And you will never get anything before the time comes. To wait for the time and accept whatever you’ve got. That one will always be here, always here. So in this material world, we can be happy. In this hectic world, we can be happy. Just relax in there. When you are in a hurry to the office, the first traffic light is red. Second traffic light is red. The third one is also red. And then you want to go a little quickly before it becomes yellow. Another one came between, again you are angry. These are the everyday circumstances; don’t be angry. Say to yourself, "Relax, my dear, just a minute." If your boss asks why you came late, then open the curtain and see, sir, how much traffic there is. I’m late because of the traffic. Don’t come tomorrow late. I will try, but best would be that you tell the police to keep a green light. So many things are not in our hands, but why should we unnecessarily become unhappy? So be happy means content. What happens, it will happen. It will happen. So don’t let it happen in such a way that you are also unhappy. Of course, when something negative happens, we are sad, but we generally accept it. What we call in English, "Take it easy." Though it is not so easy, you are very busy, you can’t take it easy, but still you take it. This is how we yogīs meditate, and in yoga, daily life, self-inquiry meditation, that will give you immense happiness and contentment. Only you have to give happiness to yourself, no one else. No one can give you happiness, because happiness is not a tablet. It’s not a piece of chocolate. It’s not a piece of fruit. This is also happiness, but temporarily. Real happiness, real peace, real love, real contentment, real joy is in thy heart. You are the best friend of thyself. You make yourself happy. Don’t listen to these outer words. Gush up as a black belly, this side and that side. One word can make you unhappy. And one word can make you very happy. Only one word. Going on in the lift, you are in the lift, and when the lift door opens, one person goes. When the door opens, a man, one person goes out, but looks at you and says, "Stupid one," and then goes. Only one word: "stupid." How unhappy you are. Whole day, why did he say I am stupid? Why? Why? If I see him in the lift again, I will ask him. That was blackmail to destroy your whole day. You come home, you tell your wife, your wife will say, "How are you?" You know the crazy man on the inside, what? Just say, "Be stupid for them." That’s better. This doesn’t go out of your mind, blackmailing. This is like a needle inside. Or when you go, while going, that man will tell you, "You are a nice person, lovely." You go and you will say, "It was nice of him. Thank you, sir." Next time when he comes in, he will say, "Thank you, sir. How are you?" One word can change our mood. Another can destroy it. Therefore, take each word as it is. Nothing should touch us. Try in your heart to accept and forgive it. Dhyāna, renunciation, austerity, and svādhyāya, and be happy. Ātmā Dhyāna. This is what I can tell you today, how to be happy. And if you want to be a sunny, happy nation, then come to this Yoga Indra Life Center and practice. Okay? So your teacher will tell you every day, be happy. Thank you very much for listening. God bless you. Oh. Merciful Lord, may all be happy and no one fights. May I also be happy and have peace and contentment. Peace, peace.