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Salutation to the cosmic light, God of our heart, omniscient and omnipresent. Dear brothers and sisters, good evening. I am very pleased to be in Hamburg again. We have chosen a beautiful topic: consciousness. Everything is a play of consciousness. When we reflect, what is consciousness? Its existence—always existence—is consciousness, where it will always exist. At every stage or in every phase of the process of development, consciousness is always consciousness. We will see what is actually at play in our consciousness. What is happening? Simultaneously, our topic, as always, is Yoga. Many of you already know what Yoga is. Many perhaps know Yoga only up to Haṭha-Yoga: physical exercise, breath control, concentration, relaxation, meditation, and so on. First, I will say something about Yoga, because consciousness has a very close relationship with Yoga, or Yoga with consciousness. Yoga is as old as our universe. Yoga is the very first awakening power or force in the awakening of consciousness, or the power through which consciousness acts, moves, and develops. Yoga means balance—balance in the entire universe. All visible and invisible elements and principles are in harmony and balance through one power. All stars, planets, all solar systems—it is said in the sacred Vedas: Ananta Brahmāṇḍa Sahasra Sūryas. Ananta Brahmāṇḍa is the endless universe. Sahasra Sūrya, thousands of suns. Yathā Brahmāṇḍe, Tathā Piṇḍe: as in the cosmos, so in the body. The Brahmāṇḍa is the cosmos. Everything that exists in the cosmos is present within the body. Our body is a microcosm. Yoga is that which maintains balance. As far as I remember, sometimes the language is spoken scientifically. The word Yoga comes from the yoke. If I am not mistaken, the yoke is that which two horses, or two oxen or bulls, use to pull or carry a cart, a carriage. The yoke is placed on the necks of both animals, and then they pull the entire chariot. If one goes faster and the other goes slowly, then both animals suffer, the charioteer or the driver suffers as well. There must be a balance. Those who run fast must be slowed down, and those who walk slowly should walk a little faster. The word Yoga, I think, comes from the yoke. And here we come back to the same point: balance. When there is no balance, everything is in disorder. On our planet, earthquakes come, natural disasters come. Everything we see, even terrible things happening, has its meaning. Primarily, it means there is no balance. Where there is balance, there is harmony. If there is no balance, then a disease arises in the body—no matter what kind of disease, whether physical or mental. Where there is harmony, there is a good, healthy state—a healthy state in both the body and the mind. Sometimes a person overdoes it and then falls into danger, because sometimes a person is not able to keep their mind and state in balance. Our thoughts run faster. We must each be careful that one day our thoughts do not wander into words. As long as we think, perhaps we think that no one knows what we are thinking. But when our thoughts become louder in the form of words, then it is beyond our control. A state without the mind is a dangerous state. For example, when a new leader has his possessions—a beautiful, fast car—and believes, "I can now drive faster, as I wish," and he nags at the others about how slowly they are driving. He drives faster, accelerates, 150 kilometers per hour or even more, and he overlooks a traffic sign. Suddenly, there is a curve, a sharp curve. What happens, we know. Before, his feelings, his thoughts were that he wanted to drive faster, and he could drive. That was his bite. And he placed his bite in such a way that he lost his boundaries. The mind was involved: "I can drive a car, I can be a leader and everything." When the curve was there, the mind—the greedy mind—took away its responsibility. "Please hand over the phone, I’m sorry, I can no longer control anything." Only the body remains, and the body cannot manage to bring the car safely out of the curve again. Where the intellect no longer takes responsibility, then the state without intellect is a dangerous matter. Therefore, balance and harmony must remain together. When there is harmony, it is said to be a unity. When there is harmony within families between partners and children, with neighbors and society, then life is beautiful. If there is no harmony there, then it is not a beautiful life, because they have not united. And so Yoga, literally, means union. But union can only exist when there is balance, understanding, and harmony. Here, union with the thoughts—the very thoughts through which Yoga philosophy was transmitted—is that which unites the individual self with the cosmic Self. There is a poem: > When I was here, my Beloved was not present. > And now my Beloved is here, but I am not here. Because the path of love, the road of love, is so narrow, so tight. Two cannot go together. Two must become one. This is our Self and God. Either God exists or we do. As long as we both exist, it is dualism. It is not union. Individual Consciousness must merge into the Cosmic Consciousness, what we call the Meri. Meri means to merge into oneness. In German, it is called Hochzeit. Yes, the wedding—that is a good word. The highest point of life. It should be the time, the highest point should be. It should always be hot, but unfortunately it cools down again. Our Self exists within five bodies. Our Self exists within the five elements. These five bodies, Annamaya Kośa and so on, they are called Kośas: the body of food, the body of energy, the mental body, the astral body, the causal body. Or the elements come: all five elements—fire, air, water, earth, and ether. As long as an individual exists, they are not one with God. As long as we want to hold on to our identity, "I am," then you will always be "you are." There is God, perhaps He helps you, He is there, but you are not one with God. Here is a small example, which I often give and have given several times in Hamburg. The example is this: we have a glass of water. In this glass is very clear water, nothing at all in it. So we see it is pure water. Now I will take a sip and say there is salt in this water. It is salty water, but we do not see any salt. Those who brought the glass of water have put 10 grams of salt in it, or a spoonful of salt. Now this salt has dissolved, changed its form. We do not see salt inside, but the form, because the solid form has transformed into liquid form. But in reality, it has relinquished nothing of its qualities. The salt has always remained salt. Therefore, water and salt have not united, because my taste senses say there is salt inside. Water and salt—water is salty. And so it is. Our body—this physical body—is not the only body. We usually believe that after death we will become one with God or be with God. No, it is wrong, and it is also correct. Some who work spiritually strive greatly; they will certainly become one with God, but all is nothing. Because the qualities always remain in consciousness. Consciousness embraces everything. The subtle body always carries its backpack, the harmless backpack, along with it. It drifts asleep, from room to room, from will to will, from time to time. It wanders and carries its backpack with it through several lifetimes. It gathers fruit from each tree into its backpack and continues on. Therefore, it is important that we transform our qualities, the human qualities, into divine qualities. For example, the human quality is the quality of salt, and the divine quality is water. So the taste, the dharma of qualities like salt or the human, we should overcome it and let it pass, developing the divine quality in divine consciousness. Then water into water. Then it is about quality. There are several pieces of jewelry: an earring, a nose ring, a necklace, a ring, an armlet. These are different types of jewelry, but all are made of gold. Forms are not important; what matters is the gold of what has been made. So all living beings, including humans, are made of various forms. The true Self, Ātman, is only one. The breath from us, from animals, from birds, from fish, from mosquitoes, ants—everything that lives contains within itself an Ātman, a light, which is the divine light. And the same, exactly the same, is also in God, nothing else. The soul is different from the Ātmā. The soul has individual qualities. As long as individual qualities exist, a soul will exist. And it wanders, it wanders. It is like a snowball. We make a snowball and roll it. More and more snow. It grows bigger and bigger. So the soul is a bundle of karmas, vāsanās, or of experiences, of actions, which one always accumulates on the astral planes, on the mental planes. But what is inside, with what power this bundle turns—the soul wanders—there inside is the reality, the breath. If we free ourselves from all five bodies, then only breathing remains. We melt all the jewels into one; then it is no longer a chain or a ring, but only gold. This is the process in consciousness. And so Yoga means union: the union of individual consciousness with divine consciousness. It takes a long time, perhaps several lifetimes. The oldest scriptures we know to exist are the Vedas, and the Vedas speak of Yoga. All incarnations of God speak of Yoga. All 24 incarnations of God according to Indian methodology speak of Yoga. As well, you have heard it, the Bhagavad Gītā is one of the best yoga books. There are 18 paths of yoga according to Krishna’s teaching. This is Krishna, God Krishna. He speaks, He says: > From time to time, I incarnate or manifest my Self through my Yoga-Śakti. Suddenly, it became clear to me once again. Even God Himself, who says He is God, cannot incarnate or manifest here on this physical plane without the help or power of Yoga. And so all the elements have been created by this power of Yoga. My experiences over 45 years through my yoga practice and exercises, and so on, have led me to what we call God, or a force in the universe, or consciousness, the highest consciousness, or the light, or the Self, or the highest truth—all is power as Yoga. Here I do not mean anything that once stands on the head, once on one leg, and once on the other hand. That I understand that you are somehow standing there. This is a therapeutic system developed to keep this body healthy, flexible, through nourishment, movement, and breath—although it is also very important scientifically. But the very first thing is that we can realize the consciousness within us, the yoga-consciousness. And there, because the name Yoga-Śakti comes—a power, the Śakti. Wherever the word Śakti appears, it means Mother, the divine Mother. Divine Mother is not the mother that we speak of in the physical body. She is the mother of all holy incarnations, of all saints. Not only this divine Mother, but the divine Mother as the power in the universe. It is said: Mātṛ Devo Bhava—Mother is God. Here, consciousness has two qualities, one could say. One as power, Mother, and the other as consciousness, Father: Śiva. Śiva means consciousness. Śiva means liberation. Śiva means bliss. Śiva means beauty. And Śiva means truth: Satyam Śiva Sundaram. Satyam: truth. Śiva: the consciousness. Sundaram: the beauty or purity, clarity. So consciousness, pure consciousness, has no desires. It moves nothing; it is immovable: Acala, Akhaṇḍa, Nitya. Acala is the one who moves nothing. The entire universe moves nothing. What moves are the matter, the objects. Space is always space. The universe is universe. It does not move. Therefore, it is a-cala. A-khaṇḍa means unbreakable and indestructible. Nothing can destroy it. Scripture, weapons—no weapons can cut or kill Him. Fire cannot burn Him, air cannot dry Him. Even death can neither destroy nor take anything away from Him. It is like a space. This space cannot be cut away; nothing can burn it, not at all. Space is space. Everything that moves is within space. Space itself is immovable. Therefore, our consciousness is always a pure consciousness. Development and the gradual stages are our experiences in our mind, in the soul, and so forth. This is the Śiva-Śakti: Śiva and Śakti. It is said in Tantra-Yoga: Śiva and Śakti, masculine and feminine. Many commercial books are published about that, Tantra Yoga and this Yoga, and then one returns again to the small points, the emotional life. Aerobics or eroticism? Eroticism? Living eroticism. How one misunderstands, slowly, slowly, how one loses all purity and then returns again to material things. Śiva is consciousness—consciousness that is unchanging. No desires, no movement. Immovable, unwavering, undivided, eternal, pure, formless, speechless, eyeless: nirañjana—spotless, pure and without blemish; nityam—everlasting. He exists in all three times: past, present, and future. This is your Ātman. Śivo'ham, Śivo'ham: I am the eternal blissful Self, the imperishable, immortal Self. "I am the Śiva" means consciousness, the pure consciousness: Sat Cit Ānanda, Satyam Śivam Sundaram. Sat is the truth, Cit is consciousness, and Ānanda is bliss—always joyful, never sorrowful, never, never, always joyful. And then the Śakti, the Mother, who moves through these planes and throughout the entire universe. It brings progress. It is a divine mother power. When we say Mother, then our inner Self relaxes. For some, nothing, because the mother was stricter. In India, I did not know this, but here often, when I speak of mother and parents, some people become very aggressive and say, "Please, you have no idea how my mother and my father treated me." But that is again an individual form. Generally speaking, mother is mother. If you are sad or nervous or have fears or feel restless, dissatisfied, full of stress, confused, lost, lonely—do a short meditation. This is truly a beautiful, a very simple meditation. Close your eyes, close your eyes and surrender to Mother. And imagine, or feel yourself in the mother sauce, suddenly relaxing.