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Dharma means duty. Dharma means principles. In everyday language, one also understands Dharma to mean religion. This is correct, because a religion has its principles. Whoever follows them attains what that religion speaks of. He who follows nothing attains nothing. In this way, one can also say that Dharma means religion. For example, the Dharma of fire is warmth, heat. Dharma is to be seen by our eyes; Dharma is to be heard by our ears. There are many Dharmas: the Dharma of a man towards his wife, the Dharma of a woman towards her husband, the Dharma of parents towards children, and the Dharma of children towards parents. Throughout the entire world, in everything—whether water, fire, air, earth, space, nature, trees, flowers, animals, and so forth—all have Dharma. Thus it is said: Dharma Rakṣita Rakṣitaḥ. If you uphold your Dharma, then Dharma will also uphold you. If you do not uphold your Dharma, if you cannot uphold your Dharma, then your Dharma will not uphold you either. Clearly, as we spoke earlier about children: if you do not give your children the proper upbringing, do not explain the right things, or do not feel responsible, then the children will not be respectful either and will do anything. Because you have not fulfilled your Dharma, the children will not fulfill theirs either. Dharma is special for humans because nature follows feeling, but humans should not follow feeling alone. God has given something special to humans between their two ears, and one should use it properly. To understand Dharma and to practice Dharma, we need our reason. We need our intellect. We need reflection to do what is right. Although it is sometimes difficult, even painful, it is still important that we uphold our Dharma. If we cannot embody our Dharma or do not act according to it, then this karma becomes negative. Karma means action. No matter what we do—eating is karma, cooking is karma, showering is karma, bathing is karma, walking is karma, speaking is karma, thinking is karma. Karma means Kriyā, and Kriyā here means an action, movement, work. Even the Earth works. As we spoke earlier, the Earth is also working, nature is also working. Everything is Kriyā. This planet is called Karmabhūmi, the field of karma, where you can plant your karmas. So everything we do is karma: sleeping is karma, doing nothing is karma, thinking is karma, not thinking is karma, breathing is karma. This is a Kriyā, a process, a natural process. This is karma. But these actions, especially when done deliberately with feelings and thoughts or intellect, are counted as karma which have a real effect on us. Other karmas also have an effect. Breathing is a karma. Good, try to stop breathing. What effect do we then have? So, breathing is an effect. Every karma has its effect. Karmas are divided into two parts: Sakāma-Karma and Niṣkāma-Karma—selfish actions and selfless actions. Selfish karma binds us, and selfless karma liberates us. We can fight against negative karma with positive karma. Sevā is very, very important. Sevā means to help. Helping, and through which power you help, that will become purer and stronger for you. Physical Sevā will liberate you from many illnesses and pains. Intellectual Sevā will illuminate your knowledge even more; your knowledge will become even stronger. Material Sevā will liberate you again from the karmas, through whatever or however you have accumulated your material possessions, and there will be even more for you. Money—when you give a donation, when you give a one-euro donation, no matter where, for good causes, you will get five euros back. If you give five euros, then you receive fifteen, even more, greater. This is what is called a spiritual bank, a spiritual bank that you will receive back in your next life or in this life. Perhaps you have luck; you gain something in that luck. But why? Because you have always given something. The best feelings for this Sevā come from a single community all over the world. This community in India is called the Sikh religion, the Sikhs with the turban. They are Sevā; they understand what Sevā means. Sometimes, there are many Sikhs, and they have an ashram, a temple, called Gurudwārā. The entire monthly salary that comes, he goes there, bows his head before the sacred book, Guru Granth Sāhib, and gives the entire income of the month into the donation box. Now I wonder, how will they live from the following next month? Yes, he does not say that he gave it on Thursday. He does not have this feeling of, "What will I live on further?" but rather he feels grateful to Gurū Nānak Sāhib or Guru Granth Sāhib—Guru Granth Sāhib or the Guru—that he is allowed to give, which becomes a great fortune or an exalted advantage. In the Guru Granth Sāhib, it is written: The Guru Granth is the revered treasure of the Gurus, understands the Holy Book as the form of the Master. "He whose Hirade Sudhe"—in his heart, where purity resides—"Kos Sabadmele"—will understand the meaning in the words that are written within. And you will see, nowhere will you find a Sikh family arm. In India and even here, you hardly ever see a Sikh who is a beggar. This is a blessing. When someone says we need to open a Gurudwārā, we only need a list, a piece of paper, sit down, and then it will come—you can’t imagine how much money will come. The donation in the golden temples in Amritsar, in Punjab—so much donation comes that those who only weigh cannot count it. He is sitting, he is from Punjab, Amritsar, his birthplace. And I was not there yet. Only that it packs together as much as garbage bins—what is it called, the sack, garbage sack. And it is just that they rock and say, yes, it is roughly gone like this. When you go to a Gurudwārā there, it is a beautiful staircase, where before you walk through water. And you shall take off your shoes. And what happens to your shoes? Someone sits there and cleans your shoes nicely, polishes and arranges them beautifully, dusts your socks, and so on, and places them there. This person will not be paid, and they are on the waiting list. Who is allowed to perform this Sevā? Then Sevā. Who is allowed to do this? When will my number come? Maybe in five years. And the day is the greatest, happiest day for this person or family when they can cleanse these shoes from all the Bhaktas, the devotees, who come to God’s temple to cleanse their shoes. Next step, you walk through water, and then you walk up the stairs. I have not been there myself; I have only shared what I hear, but he is from there, he can speak. As soon as you come onto the dry steps, people are standing there with a towel, and they wash your entire feet beautifully dry. And then you proceed further into the temple. You receive food freely. You will be granted sleep. And the entire temple roof is made of gold. At the Ritzal Temple, when you arrive there, you feel what the Sevā is. And for us, it’s like this: sometimes people say, "Well, I’ll pay half for the seminar because I didn’t attend on Friday." So for me, one word is enough to show that they do not yet understand Sevā. Or some say, "We do Karma-Yoga, or we do not give donations, we only come to the Satsaṅg, we do not pay for the seminar." So it is, the word comes, the theme comes, the theme encompasses. I did not want to mention that. Some sit, people like me, who pay nothing. But not holding on to the Sevā. And so, how can you be free from Karmas? Whoever comes to your āśrama, how do you greet them? How do you speak to them? What do you bring to them? Food, water, this, please, and so on. "Well, why do you come here? Where do you come from? Please leave your shoe down there first, and then come up." He says, "God is will." Well, if you have Sevā Bhāva, the state, the feeling in your heart, then you take their shoes and place them in the right spot. That would be correct. So, Karma. There are a thousand ways to free ourselves from the burden of karma. But there are millions of ways in which we can accumulate our karma. This is it. So, Karma and Dharma. Good karma leads us to enlightenment, to health, bliss, joy, fearlessness, security. And bad deeds never let us sleep peacefully, always disturb us, and their fruits will always be negative as well. So, karma is in our hands. I now have a stone here in my hand. And if I wish, I can throw the stone away. And if I want, I will keep and not discard anything. It is still in my hand. But hardly have I thrown away this stone, and in that very moment I say, "No, I want nothing"—too late. You cannot outsmart your stone to catch it. Norrland, can you do that? And so it is. That means, what is done is already done. Now, every action has a reaction. And every reaction will have its corresponding action. And every action will have a reaction again. And every reaction will in turn generate action. And every action will have a reaction again. So now this is like a cycle—a bicycle, a gear wheel, continuously moving in a circle. And so liṅga, re-liṅga, liṅga, re-liṅga. Now, we do not know whether we are here in this life as liṅga or if we are here as re-liṅga. Good deeds have good results, and bad deeds have bad results. Now here, we can understand liṅga as fruits, as results. Now, we have certain problems. A person understands a great deal about problems: health problems, psychological problems, mental problems, emotional problems, family problems, financial problems, many things. And when people have money problems, birds sit on the tree in the garden and they laugh. They laugh, you know why? They laugh at the errors of humans. "Why did they manage to get this money?" The birds say, "We have no money at all. Not at all." And the birds say, "We do not know what to do with money. Free." No living being in this world has money, except humans. And people, money is what kills them. It is a long story; the Kali-Yuga began, and then money came. The Satya-Yuga was nothing. And Kali-Yuga wanted to enter Rāja Parīkṣit and asked, "May I also come into your kingdom?" He said, "Who are you?" "I am Kali-Yuga." "What are your qualities or what?" He has spoken the truth. Then he said, "No, you are not allowed to do anything." He said, "But King, please give me a little space, just a very, very little space in your kingdom. I do not want to take on everything." He said, "Then tell me, what is less. For example, gold, metal is too little. You can hardly find it anywhere. Please give me space in gold." So Rāja Parīkṣit, King Parīkṣit said, "Okay, I will give you space in my kingdom in the metal, gold." And so he exercised his power through gold. And now, we know that everything is as much as we struggle for money. Gold, that is the Kali-Yuga. I said, the Kali-Yuga is hidden within the gold. So, every action has its effect; that is Karma. So, as long as you have a stone in your hand, you can keep it. And when is a path cast aside? It is gone. Now we know nothing that returns. So, the effect of our actions through thoughts, through feelings, through words, through our body, and through our social power, position, or money—everything we have done is accounted for as karma. And once something is done, afterwards, it immediately becomes your destiny, your fate, as soon as it has left your hands. So what now returns is our destiny. And this entire destiny lies in the Mūlādhāra. It does not have to be that we have done something wrong. Everyone sitting here, I believe, is enlightened or illuminated. But we know what we have done. We cannot lie to two: to God and to ourselves. The self always knows. And so, now we know what we have done. And now, we have planted a thorn tree seed in the earth and we expect a beautiful mango tree or apple tree. How can you imagine or think that from a thorn tree you will get an apple tree? A thorn will come forth. Or you planted the mango tree or apple tree and now you might fear God’s will, thinking it was a thorn tree. No, you need not fear anything. You will receive what you have done. And that is fate. And destiny lies far away in the past and very, very close to us. How? Like a backpack with a radiant body. We carry our backpack like Bīṇī Māyā. It goes everywhere. That is that. And so we first come to the Mūlādhāra and then the Svādhiṣṭhāna Cakra. Maybe tomorrow and also today. So please. And now we have a concrete image of the Mūlādhāra Cakra. Mūlādhāra. Mūlādhāra. And it was truly written by a German. Mül. There it is above. What am I to do? That is how it is. This is how one reads Mūl. Mūl. Dara. The. Mūlādhāra. Mūl means origin, Mūl means root, Mūl means foundation, Mūl means base. What is the cause of our existence or of our suffering or of our pain, illness, and so on? The answer lies here, here in the center, where the Kuṇḍalinī is. The lotus is a beautiful flower. In Indian methodology, the lotus holds great significance. Firstly, the lotus cannot exist without water. Water here means temptation. Water signifies Māyā, ignorance. Water signifies confusion. Water means life. Life is water, and water is life. And now, this water also signifies Saṃsāra, this world. That means ocean, ignorance, or the worldly ocean. To cross over. We are here to cross this ocean. Very few have reached the other shore, but many have been taken by the sharks; it is over. The lotus signifies that there is solace in this water, and the water is dirty water. This saṃsāra is impure, good and bad, good and bad, as we know. But take comfort: this flower, the plant is in the water, yet the blossom is always above. Now the scientists have begun. Why? What is the special quality that, on lotus flowers, even stagnant water can tremble, yet no impurity remains on them, everything simply washes away? They want to examine that down to the last detail, to research it, so many things. For example, the gecko can run so fast on the platforms. So, what special thing do they have on their feet? Which adhesives prevent sticking there? So, there is quite a bit. Now, although he stands in the water, he remains untouched by it, even the stalk down to the root. This stalk has so many hairs, the stalk has so many hairs, and it does not let water pass through. This way, the oxygen reaches from top to bottom, all the way to the root. And so, for us, an indication means that even though one must live in this world, remain untouched, stand above things, be above everything. Then you can get through; otherwise you have no chance. So the lotus means the color, the red, is the color, the power, Śakti. Śakti is always biblical. The Śakti, power. Power is concentrated force, dormant force, hidden force within human consciousness. So, in our yoga book, we have hidden powers within people. And so, these are the forces that encompass everything. This flower has four petals: one, two, three, and four. And human life can only be successful and fulfill its purpose and dharma in human life. Dharma. What is my dharma and what is your dharma? Our dharma comes first. Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa—these come before Puruṣārtha. Strive, work for these four things. And these are the Dharma, as I explained earlier, the duty; Artha, money, prosperity. So, human beings are civilized creatures, and they need many things in their lives to exist and to sustain human society. We need something. If you think that you do not need too much, a cushion, a blanket, enough. But what do you do when two or three guests arrive? The three guests cannot come together under one blanket or cushion. Such a saint says that my family can live comfortably, that we will not starve, and that those who come to our door will not leave empty-handed or hungry. And that is what we work for. But not to take from everyone and gather and gather and gather. Then you cannot digest anything. Then you cannot digest anything at all. As Gandhijī said, "There is enough in the world for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed." So for our beloved Mother, she has enough, but for our greed, she never has enough. Kāma, perform a proper task, be active, do not be lazy. Do not be dependent on your parents, always asking, "Please give me money, give me money, and... give me money." But don’t depend solely on your wife, you know. She is working while you are at home all the time, sleeping and being lazy, sleeping and being lazy. The poor woman, she has to work, then she comes home and she has to cook and then wash and iron and this and that. There are such lazy men, or vice versa. So, because everything you take from another, you must repay karmically. This is it. Mokṣa is liberation—liberation from rebirth and death. An elephant is the vehicle of our Mūlādhāra Cakra, and that is the seat of Gaṇeśa. Lord Gaṇeśa is here. He guards our happiness and misfortune. He tries to push all misfortune far away from us. Gaṇeśa is a protector. Here, Gaṇeśa, the elephant, is an ancient being and he has seven trunks, which here represent seven minerals, and these seven minerals are very, very important for our entire constitution, for our physical constitution. It is very valuable, and an elephant is an auspicious animal. If you dream of an elephant, be sure that your good days are coming now. And if you dream of a brain, be certain that bad days are about to come. Predators, including dogs, if you dream of them, be prepared that you will face complications with the court. A snake is a long face. And so color, four leaves, and triangle. Inverted Triangle. Inverted Triangle here means that all our energy is lost. All the energy descends into Mūlādhāra. We are supposed to turn the triangle around, but the apex is at the bottom and all the energy flows downward. When the cakra is awakened, this point becomes intense and the energy rises high. So it is like a horizontal dimension. The light rises all the way up. Now it draws in like a funnel, but when the energy reverses, it becomes like a flashlight. The light shines forth from a small lightbulb. And thus the light of the future, the light of actions, of karma. The Śiva Liṅga is here, and the Liṅga means the Universal Body, formless, the Supreme Puruṣa. Sometimes people compare male and female symbols, but that is nothing. That is a false explanation by people. That means Universal Consciousness. The Śvetaṁbara Śaḍaśiva. And Śiva is a consciousness. And so, our consciousness is here. And this is the starting point, the first milestone, from which we begin our journey on the higher planes. But the cakras from the base of our big toes to our ankles belong to the earth element, to the planet, to the earth planet. And from the ankles up to our knees are the vegetation cakras. And from the knee to the hip joint are the Paśu-cakra animals. And from the beginning of the spine, from bottom to top, the end of the spine, you are the cakra; it is the human cakra. And these five cakras are connected with five elements. So these are Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ākāśa. These five elements are very important for our health. Everything that is seen happens in these cakras. We need to be completely healthy up to this point here; then the rest will automatically fall into place. From the Ājñā Cakra to Bindu and Sahasrāra, these three Cakras: Bindu-Ājñā, Bindu, and Sahasrāra. Three cakras are spiritual, divine cakras. Our main task should be to get through from here. But we get stuck here somewhere. Either we are too much in Mūlādhāra or in Svādhiṣṭhāna or in Maṇipūra or in Anāhata or in Viśuddhi. The people who have psychological problems, who cannot interrupt everything, who suffer—this is all that one wanted to suppress, but unfortunately nothing progressed further. Everything is contained here. There are many people who constantly feel like they are stuck, suffocating. Many have problems here in the Anāhata-Cakra, emotional problems. But this should not be only in the form of emotion, as one understands it. Illness can also be. Many, many things. Fear, fear, fear. Indescribable fear. This is an inexplicable fear. Or one enters the Maṇipūra cakra, constantly having digestive problems, constantly some kind of inflammation, stomach flu. I do not know what stomach flu means, but they say there is an intestinal, stomach flu. Blockages, congestion, illnesses, confusion, but so many, cystitis, oh my God, so many. That means the Maṇipūra-Cakra is neither pure nor controlled. Maṇipūra-Cakra, awakening and controlling it, is a fire, Harasakti; perhaps next time we will come to that. And this is the Agnisāra Kriyā and Nauli Kriyā. We need a strong, healthy gut. Then comes the Svādhiṣṭhāna-Cakra. There is also so much passion, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy. So all these wonderful, beautiful, diamond-worthy feelings that we have are present. They reveal our reality, our truth. And the Mūlādhāra is, of course, totally the garbage dump. And so here is the Mūla, all the Mūla is there in the Mūlādhāra. Now, this cakra, where we, please thank, Maṇipūra, Mūlādhāra. And here you see a serpent coiled three and a half times around the Mūlādhāra, around the Śiva-Liṅga, as they say, coiled, coiled. And why three and a half? Three nāḍīs: Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumnā. And three means the three Guṇas: the Rajas-Guṇa, Tamas-Guṇa, and Sattva-Guṇa. And the half means that we are only half awake. Sometimes we rise, and sometimes we set again. So the snake, the head of the snake is pointing downward. He must finally awaken and ascend. And then, it goes upward, rises upward. That does not mean that we are climbing a snake. That means bliss, health; it is moving upward. And so, the contemplation of this Kuṇḍalinī here, first of all, means bliss, wisdom, balance, and clarity. So if we have this—balance, clarity, wisdom, and bliss—we are truly abundantly gifted. And so, the Mūlādhāra Cakra has its mantra, the vibration there, Laṃ, Nāda. Last night we spoke about the Nāda, sound, the origin. And this sound is still everywhere, still with us, everywhere with us, this sound, close above. And the Nāda is here. Laṃ, Laṃ. In meditation, when one truly enters meditation, deeply, then one hears nothing else. As long as you do not enter deep meditation, you hear Laṃ, your own song. You can sing Laṃ and hear Laṃ. But it is still too far away because there is so much sludge lying there. This Mūla, what lies there, are three: Māla, Vikṣepa, and Āvaraṇa. Māla means impurity, Vikṣepa means disturbances, and Āvaraṇa means a veil, a dense veil, so that we cannot see through or perceive anything clearly. Our task is to remove all three of these: the impurity, the disturbances of the Vikṣepa, and the veil of ignorance. Then we will be able to see through what has happened. But when this ignorance goes away, knowledge comes. And knowledge means the light. And when the light is there, the darkness automatically disappears. So. When you illuminate a cakra, the whole problem is already over. This is it. And so this mantra is like a cup lamp. The mantra is the vibration. This is the Bīja-Mantra on the Mūlādhāra-Cakra. And the other mantra is your own mantra, that you have received from your master.