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Salutation to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, Omniscient and Omnipresent, Source of our life and Light of the Universe, Adoration to the Almighty One. May His divine presence enable us all to live together in harmony, with mutual understanding, love, and tolerance. Brothers and sisters, good evening. It is my pleasure to be here in your town and to see you again. This is my third visit to your city. This evening, our subject is again yoga, something more on an advanced level. But I will speak about yoga and how to utilize it in our everyday life. That is called yoga in daily life. We all have some problems. Some have physical problems, some have emotional problems, some have mental problems, some have family problems, and we are searching for a way to solve them. But how? Perhaps we do not find a better way. And what is the cause of the problems? That also we often do not know. But mostly, the cause of the problems is in our self. It depends on how you understand that problem and how you interpret it. Then it will be easier for you to solve it. Of course, sometimes there are problems which are not possible or easy to solve. Personal problems can be easier to solve, but impersonal problems are more difficult. Let us see what yoga can offer us and in which way yoga can help us. Yoga is a science of the body, mind, consciousness, and soul. Yoga is a balancing principle which balances the entire universe. All visible and invisible elements are balanced by some cosmic power. That cosmic power is known as yoga. Where there is balance, there is harmony. And we are all searching for harmony in our life. Why do you marry? To find harmony in life, to balance your emotional and intellectual life. If you have no harmony, then you are suffering. And why is there no harmony? Because there is no balance. There are different opinions. One wants to go south, and the other wants to go north. How will they walk together? Different interests, different habits, and different qualities of nature make family life, as well as social life, difficult. If we can make some kind of compromise—and one has to do it—if you live with someone, then you have to practice some compromise and tolerance. Then things will change. Where there is harmony, there is oneness. And that is called yoga, which means union. Union means harmony again, and harmony means balance, so all three work together. The original union, which yoga means, is meant for the union of the individual consciousness with the cosmic consciousness. Everyone comes from the Cosmic One. You may call it God. You may call it the Cosmic Self. You may call it the Ultimate Truth. You may call it the Divine Law. You may call it the Divine Consciousness. You may call it some principles. Everyone has different opinions and experiences about God, and that is good, that you have found somehow a relation to the Supreme, the Cosmic One. That is very important. So, that union: we all are coming from the Cosmic One. The source or origin of us is that Cosmic One. But as soon as we departed, or separated, or divided, we created our own phenomenon. And now, this phenomenon consists of many, many principles and powers within it. That is individual. You have an individual identity. The cosmic one is only one, but there are many individuals. Now the individual consciousness should merge or become one again with the cosmic consciousness. How is this possible again? Because the individual, which has been traveling millions of years separately and individually, has adopted other qualities or developed other qualities. For example, some people move from far countries and immigrate to Croatia. After a few generations, they will adopt completely the Croatian language, culture, traditions, everything. For instance, I have been living in Europe for thirty years now, and when I go to India, I do have certain difficulties adapting to that culture and their way of thinking. When I try to tell them, explain to them, then they are angry. They say, "Swamiji, you are spoiled in Europe." For example, the ladies have hair on the face. And I tell them, "It is a time for emancipation. You should not do this." Oh my God! You know what the reaction can be? It can be a very negative reaction. It can be so strong a reaction that from the small villages, people will throw stones at me. I understand why you don’t have a layer on your face. And I understand them, but they have a layer over them. So things are changing in your mind, in your intellect, in many things. So, do you understand me? For millions of years, it is said nicely, on the waves of time, the individual soul is fluttering in this universe, from space to space, through light and darkness, through happiness and suffering. When the individual stops for a while, the waves become a little calm; there he adopts that environment, those qualities, and one manifests in physical form. On our earth is a different law, what we call natural law. We have a physical body, we have our abilities, and on other planets they have a different system of life. And in the astral world is a different system of life when you talk about heaven. Now, who is going to heaven? This body doesn’t go to heaven. Then who is going to heaven? So who will enjoy heaven? Or someone is going to the hill? The body doesn’t go to the hill. Now, who is suffering in hell? That is very important to know. So someone is going with some body, some forms. Similarly, that individual one is fluttering on the waves of time, space to space. It manifests for a while somewhere. As soon as you manifest yourself somewhere, you create relations: mother, father, brothers, sisters, children, and friends, colleagues. Then again, your inner self decides to go again. And what about these relations? These relations will follow you for a certain time, for a certain distance. On the day when your grandmother died and when you buried her, you were very, very sad. But now, after 50 years, you are not so sad because that relation has become thinner and thinner. So the development of the individual consciousness takes millions of years, and we don’t know where we have been. Everywhere, maybe. Sorry to say, if you know, then you know how many million years you were traveling. Somewhere now, this individual conscious self has developed such qualities which are completely opposite to the cosmic quality, completely different from God’s quality. Your child, your genetical qualities in your child, are changing in every generation. Twenty-seven lives follow this similarity. Fourteen generations you can recognize, and after that, fourteen days is different. These are the moon nights and dark nights. The moon from the first day, the new moon, grows until fourteen days. And from, again, the first day of the full moon—sorry—it goes back till the 14 days of the dark moon. And one day is a dark night, a dark moon night, and one day is a full moon night. Now we have other qualities according to our karmas, our deeds. I will give you now one very practical example. Prepared here is one glass of water. And I see only water inside, and you see only water. No miracle will happen, don’t worry. As an example. Now I will drink this water. It’s cold, but it doesn’t matter. This water is sweet. What does it mean? There’s sugar inside, but I don’t see the sugar, and you don’t see the sugar. Only my senses, the senses of taste, tell there is sugar. Someone put one spoon of sugar inside before they brought the water. The solid form of the sugar is changed into the liquid form. But the sugar and water didn’t unite; they didn’t become one. Do you understand me? Sugar didn’t give up its quality. Sugar didn’t give up its nature. Though the form is changed, the sweetness is there. So even the physical body dies, but your individuality, all your individual qualities, will exist. If sugar gives up its sweetness, its quality, then you can’t recognize if there is sugar inside or not. It’s only water. I will request the organizer to bring me warm water. Thank you. Similarly, now, unless we change our qualities, we cannot become one with God. Here, God has given us human qualities. And human qualities have more value. And which are the human qualities? You know. You are a human. It is said, "Please be human. Don’t be so cruel. Oh my God. Don’t beat this poor child. Kill this poor animal. Have you a heart or no? Be human." What does it mean to be human? Human means that human qualities are love, understanding, kindness, mercifulness, helping, spiritual, and so on. And which are not human qualities? Anger, hate, jealousy, greediness, taking revenge, cruel things, criminal things—this is not a human quality. Unfortunately, some of us have adopted other qualities, and these qualities we have to change, purify, again we have to filter our consciousness. And for that, God gave us human life. Humans are protectors. Humans should not be destructors. And humans are the liberators. Humans should always be the liberator. Liberate yourself and liberate others. Help yourself and help others. Show your understanding in this way. So yoga means the union. The inner peace, satisfaction, and joy, the blissfulness for which we are always longing, that can only be fully realized when we unite again, one with Cosmic Consciousness. Otherwise, there is a repetition of birth and death, birth, day, coming, going, suffering. Therefore, it is said, "Know thyself." Know thyself is the answer to all your questions. Know thyself means salvation from all problems. Who am I? I am not this body, I am not this mind, I am not this emotion, I am not this intellect, but I am. I am not the soul. It is my soul. Also, you are not a soul. The soul is only a ball of qualities. As long as ego will exist, as long as ego will exist, the astral body will exist, and as long as the astral body will exist, the soul will exist. As long as all exist, the individuality will exist, but when the soul will dissolve into the God consciousness, and that is your Self then, that light within you. So here, union means union of the individual with the Cosmic Self. Yoga has many ways, many techniques. Yoga is a practical way, not a theoretical way. And the philosopher said, tons of theory is just nothing compared to a gram of practice. There are two horses. One horse is in your field, and the second horse is in the picture. Both are horses, but if you want to ride a horse, you can ride only the real horse on the field, not the one in the picture. So theory cannot help us; it can only inspire us. Practical knowledge is the best; therefore, yoga is practical. Many health problems can be solved through the practice of yoga. Through the practice of yoga, you can make the prevention, and prevention is better than the treatment. So yoga practices, in the first place, are good for our physical health. Health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health. The first wealth, the first happiness in your life, is health. And we all need help to get healthy, and that can give you the well... There are some sports, but you know, those who are doing heavy sports, after few years their body... condition is very bad. Many, many top sportsmen, after the age of 30, 40 years, they come to yoga. They are the best disciples, practitioners, because they have a discipline, but yoga helps them again to regenerate their body. Of course, all kind of sport is good also for your health: walking, little running, swimming, riding, biking. But yoga exercises, they are such a balanced movement. They are psychosomatic movements. It helps your body, it calms down your nervous system, it calms down your thoughts, and creates within you a feeling of happiness. Your whole psyche is changed. Breath exercise. Breath is life, and life is breath. The first minutes when we came on this earth, where we were born, what we did? We inhaled, and the last what we will do? Exhale, and will not be able to inhale again. So the long breath we have from the birth till the death, between what? You are breathing the other waves from one soul to another soul. Now, if these waves are stormy or calm, it depends on that. So, you are the sea, you are the ocean, and breath is the waves. Practicing prāṇāyāma increases the capacity of the lungs, supplies a greater quantity of oxygen, and calms your thoughts. The best technique against stress is a breath technique, and I can tell you a very easy one. You lie down on the floor. Take five minutes only and observe your breath. Or you sit in the chair and observe the breath. Close your eyes and say, "I know I inhale, I know I exhale." Five minutes, observe the breath. Don’t change the breath process rhythm; it is such. A powerful technique, it seems very simple, but if you will try one day, you will feel so good. That’s meditation, that’s concentration, that’s a very, very good technique. I’m telling you all practical techniques, then meditation, and then comes the mental techniques: meditations, and mantras, and prayers. First, you must be... Your body, you understand your body, you understand your whole physical being. Then you touch your inner being, or your astral being. Who am I? From where do I come? What’s the purpose of my coming? And where will I go, and who am I? This answer will give the yoga practice. Then, when the individual self from the astral world enters into the physical world, that is all. It is descending from the astral world and accompanied by the thousands of the... millions of different functions. There is one Sun, and all the stars, all systems in this part of the universe are due to the Sun. In the Vedas, it is said, "Ānanda brahman śāstra sūryas." The endless universe has thousands of sons, that’s thousands of Sun systems. It is said in the Vedas several thousand years before. And now, modern science is discovering the same thing. Yogīs knew this all. When the soul is descending and comes to the physical form, that time many, many functions come with it, like a president of the country’s company, by many different functions. There are some forces which direct and guide and control and balance our emotion, our intellect, our mind, our memory, our feelings, and so on. These energies which accompany us, they are like sparkling lights, all concentrated in one form: the mother bee, the queen bee. When she flies away, all bees fly behind, and where she sits, they all come and sit there. This sparkling light... In your body, there are energy centers that are called chakras. Chakras, "chakra" means a circle which is turning. Part 2: The Awakening of Consciousness: From Mūlādhāra to Svādhiṣṭhāna What is moving? There is energy. And what is energy? There is a movement. Where there is movement, there is life, and where there is life, there is development. So, chakras are constantly turning in our body. We have chakras in every part of the body. Some are dormant, some are awakened, some are damaged. These chakras represent the cosmic energy and are divided into different categories. It is said, "Yat pinde tat brahmāṇḍe"—what is in the universe is in your body. You are the cosmos yourself; you are the phenomenon. But we have forgotten. There is a group of chakras which belong to the earth element: vegetation, animals, humans, and the Divine. Yogīs advise us not to develop and awaken the earth, vegetation, and animal chakras, but to awaken the human and divine chakras. In this body, there are 72,000 nāḍīs. These 72,000 nerves, the nāḍīs, are the channels through which the cosmic energy flows. From these, three nāḍīs are important: we call them the central nerve systems Iḍā and Piṅgalā. Śuṣumnā is the central one. The left one, Iḍā, controls our emotion, and the right one, Piṅgalā, controls our intellect. The center one, Śuṣumnā, controls our consciousness. These three nāḍīs control the entire body and everything. The suṣumṇā, the center nerve, is the main channel through which the cosmic energy flows, and from it, the energy supplies the other channels. These nāḍīs cross from time to time. They go from the base of the brain down through the spinal column and are spread throughout the whole body. Where they cross, that becomes an energy center or chakra. So, there are eight chakras which are very important out of many. The first is Mūlādhāra, located at the base of the spinal column. Mūlādhāra cakra: Mūl means the roots, ādhāra means the base. That is the seat of the human consciousness. From there, human consciousness begins to develop, and the entire personality of the individual depends on the energy you have in Mūlādhāra. Mūlādhāra is the seat of the unconscious, where our past deeds, good or bad—what we call destiny—lie dormant. It is your destiny which leads your life now. It is your deeds; whatever happens to you is your deeds. So we try to accept and work to correct something. That is the earth element, the earth chakra. Today I will talk about the second chakra, Svādhiṣṭhāna. For the last three or four days, I have been talking only about the Mūlādhāra cakra. When consciousness begins to awake, or the energy begins to flow, development begins to take place from your Mūlādhāra, which is the border of animal consciousness and human consciousness. The first milestone we make is the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra. Svādhiṣṭhāna means the self, and sthāna means the place. Self-development begins from Svādhiṣṭhāna. Now, it depends if you are developing going forward or backward. The Svādhiṣṭhāna is about five centimeters above the Mūlādhāra cakra. At the bottom of your spinal column, you can count a few centimeters; there is Svādhiṣṭhāna. The Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra’s color is orange. The Mūlādhāra cakra’s color is red. Red means dormant, concentrated energy. It symbolizes the color of the earth and the cosmic mother. When energy begins to awake, the red color changes into orange. Svādhiṣṭhāna has an orange color. What does the orange color mean? You must be wondering, as I am sitting here with orange color every time. When I come, I am completely orange. Orange color is the color of the dawn. When the dawn rises, it has an orange color. What does that mean? When the dawn rises, all nature wakes up; consciousness wakes up. All birds, animals, flowers, all wake up. And when the evening sunset comes again, the orange color consciousness goes to sleep. So this is a changing, a developing of consciousness. Second, it is the color of renunciation. Now you have autumn, and you will see the whole nature will become orange. What does it mean? You have fulfilled your duty, and whatever you had, you give all. Nature gives into our hands, and nature is withdrawing itself again. This is the color of renunciation. That is why all yogīs, monks, sādhus, and swāmīs who have taken renunciation wear this color. This color is also the color of the awakening of energy. In modern times, in the modern system, it is a very safe color for the road. Every driver will see that something is going on. So, every aspect of the orange color is very good. Orange color means activity, energy, joy, hope, and self-awareness. It protects from negative energy. No magic or negative energy can go through your orange dress. Before the negative energy comes near to you, it is filtered and changed. There is darkness, but darkness cannot come near the light. You cannot remove the darkness. There is only one way to remove the darkness: to bring in the light. So if someone believes in black magic, it will not affect you. Tomorrow, go and buy orange cloth. The element of this Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra: Mūlādhāra was earth, and Svādhiṣṭhāna is water. Water means emotion. Water is māyā, but water is life. Water means flowing, and water means purification. Water is emotion. Now, when this dormant consciousness from the Mūlādhāra cakra awakes, the first thing that happens to us is we fall into emotion. The word "emotion" means, in English—I don’t know how it is in your language—"in motion." Motion means movements. You are now in motion. When a strong emotion is there, you are in strong waves. Don’t search for the pearls. Don’t dive to get the pearls. When the waves are too high, don’t make any decision in your life. When your emotion is too high… Emotions have many forms: anger, hate, jealousy, sadness, doubts, many. Mr. Einstein once got a letter from someone and had to answer. Einstein wrote an answer in ten pages. And at the end he said, "P.S. Sorry to write you such a long letter. The reason is this: I had very short time." It means he didn’t take enough time to overthink. So wait some time: one day, two days, one month, one year, two years. To answer something or decide something, don’t dive where the waves are too high. Emotion—the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra is the seat of emotion. All our emotional problems, like anger, hate, and greediness, are all seated there. That is the Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra. Water is soft, very gentle and soft. Though it is gentle and soft, it is very difficult to overcome. The gland where this Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra is located is the adrenal glands. The plexus is the hypogastric plexus. This chakra has a mantra. Mantra means resonance. All 72,000 nāḍīs have their resonance, and those chakras have very strong resonance and mantra. If you can create that resonance or repeat that mantra, you can regulate your chakra. The resonance that belongs to the Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra is V-A-M: Vaṃ. That is the chakra’s mantra. It has six petals. You know the music of India, and perhaps in your Western music too, we call tāl, or rhythms, the keys. So it is six tāl. The resonance you create with the six tāl awakens your Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra and guides it. Like the Mūlādhāra cakra has an elephant, the Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra has a crocodile. Do you know something about crocodiles? You have them in Croatia? Not many. Crocodiles are very ancient animals belonging to the reptile family. Crocodile means a most dangerous animal, and it represents karma. It represents laziness, the most lazy. Those who don’t work in life, all are sitting and meditating while sleeping—I call it crocodile yogī. A yogī must work. A yogī must be creative and active. Don’t waste time. Puruṣa comes from Puruṣārtha. Puruṣa means the human, and Puruṣārtha means creative work; be creative. But the crocodile is the opposite. So as soon as your Kuṇḍalinī Śakti comes up from Mūlādhāra to Svādhiṣṭhāna, you can become very lazy. You don’t want to do anything. You act only when you are hungry, and hungry of desires. There is not only stomach hunger, but desires: ambitions. Ambition is the biggest problem for us. Emotion and ambition, when they become friends with each other, they destroy the whole city—the city of your body. Therefore, beware of the crocodile. But at the same time, the divinity in the Svādhiṣṭhāna… This is Indian mythology, and this mythology has its meaning. You know, Western philosophy and mythology originated from the Greeks, and when you see the old symbols of Greece, they are related to Egypt’s. And when you see the Egyptian old symbols, they are connected with Indian symbols. For example, in Greek mythology, you will see half-fish and half-man, half-horse and half-man. The fish have some meaning, the horse has some meaning. When you see Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s gopīs in the water, they are half fish and half humans. Every symbol, according to their mythology, has some meaning. That is very important. Now, in Indian mythology, there are three very important principles. That is called the trinity: Brahmā, the creator; Viṣṇu, the protector; Śiva, the liberator. Śiva is the liberator or the destroyer. He destroys the negative and liberates the positive. So Śiva and Śakti are there in the Mūlādhāra Cakra, from where it begins. Now manifestation takes place from the Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra. Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra is a protecting cakra. There is also the sexual energy, and without that energy, you cannot create; you cannot continue the world. That is in the vegetation, in animals, in all creatures. The gland is very important. When you see any plant, if you analyze it, you will see a knot, and where there is a knot, there the branch or the roots come. Similarly, the glands which are producing the hormones, different kinds of hormones—this is a creative gland. Because Brahmā is the creator, this chakra represents Brahmā. The deity Brahmā is in the Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra, which is very important. Brahmā represents the consciousness, the creator. At the same time, his partner: Śiva has Śakti, and Brahmā has Sarasvatī. Sarasvatī is the goddess of wisdom. Whatever you learn and whatever you know is coming from that divine mother, Sarasvatī. Sarasvatī is his partner as well as his daughter, and then people are confused. How is it possible that Brahmā’s daughter is his wife, and his wife is his daughter? What is that? It is a symbol. Knowledge is created by Sarasvatī, and that knowledge is the daughter. That wisdom is the daughter. So your knowledge is created by Sarasvatī and Brahmā, and therefore knowledge means Sarasvatī, and Sarasvatī means knowledge. Because you may read in some chakra book and send me letters, "Swāmījī, what does this mean now?" So, better I explain to you. Sarasvatī is knowledge, intellect, Viveka. Now finally, I will tell you the qualities of the Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra, the properties, the treasure of the Svādhiṣṭhāna. You have to recognize this and purify them. Unless you have not purified these qualities, your Kuṇḍalinī cannot proceed, your knowledge cannot develop. You will be stuck only in material knowledge; spiritual knowledge cannot develop. Though you pray, you will still have problems: no tolerance, no understanding, no kindness, because you are stuck in the svādhiṣṭhāna cakra. The svādhiṣṭhāna cakra has its qualities. First of all, passion. It is very hard for us to cross this river. When passion awakes, you forget everything, and if someone interrupts, one can become very angry; one can even kill others. In nature also, passion is a boiling fire and boiling water, and you have to cross through it. Second, anger. If someone hinders your passion, then you become angry. Not only humans, but animals too. So passionate, so angry. How nice. Then comes hatred. If you are not successful through your anger, you can’t do something against it, then hatred awakes in your heart. When love changes into hatred, partnership becomes very unpleasant. Husband and wife can’t bear each other. So hatred. And because you cannot show hatred, therefore jealousy comes alive. Passion, anger, hatred, jealousy, pride, cruelty, arrogance, doubt, laziness, the subconsciousness, and pralabdha of the development of knowledge, Hiraṇyagarbha—the golden womb, the first development, the state of human consciousness. This is in the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra. If you are struggling between passion, anger, hatred, jealousy, and these things, then you are still stuck in your Svādhiṣṭhāna. How to overcome? You can overcome through developing tolerance, through developing kindness, understanding, forgiveness, love. This kind of practice will let you come up to the third chakra, that is called Maṇipūra. When you come out of the fire of vātaśarī, you will fall into the fire. But today I will not go further on Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra. Śalabhāsana, Bhujaṅgāsana, Mūlabandha, Aśvinī Mudrā, and Vajrolī Mudrā—these can awaken and control your svādhiṣṭhāna cakra. Of course, mantra and prayer are the first thing. These are the psychic illnesses, these qualities. It is an undeveloped personality. So if we would like to be happy, then we should develop these chakras. You shall work with this. So take today this example: tolerance, understanding, kindness, helpfulness towards all. It will help you.