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Our Life is the message

A personal experience illustrates the power of devotion and ceremony on the spiritual path. A disciple's son received blessings for a Vedic wedding. The multi-day ceremony, filled with mantras and community, became a pivotal moment of grace and spiritual awakening for the family. True spiritual progress requires complete faith in the guru's guidance and regular practice. The real test begins when one leaves the seminar environment and applies the teachings in daily life. One's lived example, a life of peace and happiness, becomes the most powerful message to others. A story of a Zen master demonstrates that a saint's conduct, beyond praise or blame, is the true teaching.

"The real sādhanā starts when you open the door and start your daily life."

"Our life is the message."

Filming locations: Strilky, To be determined, Czech Republic.

Hari Om, my dear yoga brothers and sisters. Praṇām Tugurā Dev and Śrī Holī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānī Kī Jai, Śrī Viśvarūpa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrī Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavānī Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Satguru Deva Kī Jai, Sat Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai. Praṇām to all, to Swāmījī, Sādhvījī, Pārvatījī. Thank you for a beautiful weekend here in Strilky. This is really something beautiful, a so beautiful environment with singing birds and everything that we need. I should introduce myself. I am Mukti from Slovenia. I would like to share a personal experience with yoga in daily life and Swāmījī, of course. We have heard in the past few days Sādhvī Pārvatījī’s nice lectures about the Vedas, inspired by her recent visit to India, where our dear Gurudev organized Yajñas, Vedic ceremonies, for the well-being of the whole planet and all of us. This reminds me of my personal experience in India, where Swāmījī ordered a yajña for peace in the world. This reminds me of my personal experience with Vedic ceremonies, which also involved my family. I have a son who is also Swāmījī’s disciple, and a few years ago, he wanted to get married. Once, I don’t know if it was in Strilky or Web, Swāmījī had a seminar, and he spoke about Vedic culture and about ceremonies, and particularly about Vedic marriage. They got the wish to have a real Vedic wedding ceremony. They asked Swāmījī about it, and they got his blessing. Half a year later, it happened. In January 2008, my son’s Vedic wedding took place in Om Āśram in Jadan, exactly on that particular occasion. The ceremony took several days. There were many pūjās and yajñas performed by a few paṇḍits, and Vedic mantras were chanted all evening and into the night. There were many Swāmījī’s disciples and Swāmīs present, and also over a thousand Indian guests. Purījī, Śrī Prakāś Purījī... We all got a lot of Guru Kṛpā and love at this occasion. This was also my happiest day, and my first in India also. This was really a great day for me and for my spiritual life and progress, because I have had my guru mantra for only seven years, but from that time, my spiritual part really began to go towards a realization of my yoga name. I hope one day, maybe in this life. This was a very wonderful experience, and although I have only been a teacher for seven years, this experience greatly helped my spiritual development, also in the fact that I was able to realize the meaning of my name in yoga. I have been doing mantras for seven years, but this experience was a big step for me on my spiritual journey. I feel that I am trying to focus more on fulfilling my aim in yoga, and I hope to do so in this life. The most important thing I want to tell you is that I, like a mother, am very happy for the young couple because they live a successful and happy life. They are really, really, really happy, and as I know, they are very devoted to Swāmījī. And what is important for me is that the young couple started a very happy life together, and as far as I know, they are very happy about giving up Swāmījī. It can also be seen from this experience what Gurū Dev does for his disciples when they are devoted to him. I want to say also from my experience, our spiritual path will bear fruit, but only when we have complete faith and follow Guru Vākya, then we have a chance to gain Guru Kṛpā and be successful. He Kevalam, He Kevalam... He. What he said before is that he can bring us toward our aim. Swāmījī constantly showering on all of us blessings and his mercy really can’t be compared with anything in our material world. But, of course, we must work, work on us, on our spiritual sādhanā, and be happy, because Swāmījī always said, if you are happy, I am a thousand times more happy than you. And of course we have to work on ourselves and on our spiritual yoga bed, but what is most important is that we have to be happy, because as Swāmījī said, if you are happy, I am even a thousand times happier than you. But of course we have to work on ourselves and exercise, and we have to be happy, because as Swāmījī says, when you are happy, I am a thousand times happier. And continue to all of us, all the time, and to this planet and everything. Thank you, Gurudeva, for your love and your mercy. Śrī Holī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānī Kī Jaya, Śrī Śrī Satā Gurudeva, Maheśvarānandajī Gurudeva Kī Jaya, Satsaṅga Dharma Kī Jaya. Thank you for your love and your blessing. Thank you for listening to me. Switch bhajan, now we have bhajan quiz. Which bhajan would be a good commentary on that? About an unmarried girl who always found the wrong husband, only a man, but now finally in this life found the right husband, the Guru. Finally, he found the perfect man for himself, even though in the eyes of the guru. And then we will be midnight here. No, don’t do it. Another seminar. Now I will not repeat it, maybe another time. It is a strong and joyful bhajan. Do not be afraid. I will not translate it now. We will be here until midnight, maybe at the next seminar. We need good rhythm to be heard. We need a good rhythm, someone who plays the ḍholak? Siddhī Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī Se Ghanadina Bhatṭakīrīme Kanyakāvarī. I think I can feel the joy in this bhajan. I think you can feel the joy in this bhajan. Someone made a very nice compliment to me this week. I just came out of my room after concentrated work on bhajan, and the person said, "Oh, you look like you just did yoga nidrā." Someone told me a very nice joke when I was working in the room. It was a good time at a bhajan when I got out, and someone told me, "You look exactly like you just came out of yoga nidrā." Swāmījī said in his Skype interview just now, "This is so beautiful, the surrounding here, immediately one relaxes." Swāmījī said in his Skype interview, "This is so beautiful, the environment here, you can relax right away." Śrī Śrī... Where one can come also in between, just for some days, for a seminar, for some karma yoga, or just a little bit to enjoy the surroundings. Strilky is a place where you can come for a few days, do karma yoga, practice, or simply enjoy the beautiful environment and be here. So Strilky is really such a place where you can come to a seminar, to karma yoga, or just spend a pleasant time here? But the problem is, now tomorrow you are going, and how can you keep it with you? Then comes the māyā, then come the duties, then comes the stress. Jön a māyā, a kötelességek, és a stressz. And then comes the real importance of what Swāmījī is teaching: yoga in daily life. Let’s learn the daily life again. Now we had yoga as daily life. It was our life here. We have nothing else, but then you have your life. So have your śṛṅkhalā somewhere at home, mini śṛṅkhalās everywhere. Means your place and your time. To say, now is my strike time. This is our sādhanā. This is what Swāmījī teaches us. To keep our sādhanā constant, and just now he emphasizes it again. Because the real peace is inside, and this we can, in fact, find everywhere. But now comes the difference between the sādhanā time and the rest of the day. Like we have to find the balance between the seminar time here for one week, two weeks, and the rest of the year. In the same way, we have to find the balance between the sādhanā time, the one, two, three hours at home, and the rest of the day. And similarly, we have to find the balance between these two or three weeks here at the seminar and the rest of the year. Similarly, we have to find the balance between this hour, these two or three hours of our sādhanā, and the rest of the day. So we have, on one hand, to try to bring a little bit of this joy and discipline which we had here into our year. And in the same way, the sādhanā continues into the rest of the day. I always say, the real sādhanā is not when you practice; this is the preparation. The real sādhanā starts when you open the door and start the day. Then, to apply it practically. There was only one preparation. Sādhanā means when you open the door and you enter the world. I would say that the real sādhanā is not when you practice. Practicing is like preparation. Your sādhanā starts when you open the door and start your daily life. So that you can use it. To try to get the most out of ourselves, to make our relationship harmonious, in our relationship with our partner, with the other part of our family, with the whole society. And after a seminar like this, we have a much better chance. Here we were like at the filling station, you know? I don’t know if everyone can feel it, but Swāmījī expressed it sometimes like this. The most important things are invisible. But they happen in our aura. Maybe some karma is purified. Maybe in this moment, just now, we don’t realize it, but when the karma comes, then we will know. So, we try to keep our sādhanā, and as Swāmījī also mentioned clearly, the regularity with the satsaṅga. So, we need to have a regular satsaṅga as well as a regular satsaṅga. And as Swāmījī also mentioned, we try to maintain regularity, not only in our satsaṅgas, but also in our sādhanā. That means not only that we go to the satsaṅg as it is organized, but also that when we have communication with someone, it becomes a satsaṅg. It is in our hands. This not only means that we go to satsaṅg, but also that we communicate with others, and this is how a kind of satsaṅg can be created. Not only that we go to satsaṅgs that are organized somewhere, but when we talk to someone, when we communicate with someone, we approach it as a satsaṅg. It depends on us. And sometimes I was asked this week, "Should I now discuss?" I found one, or actually, I remembered one story which I have known for a long time. It’s about one very famous Zen master with the name Hakuin. He lived about 300 years ago. He was well known for his very, how to say, pure conduct, lifestyle. This happened in Japan, and there lived a very beautiful Japanese girl in the neighborhood. The daughter of a merchant. And one day, the parents discovered that she was pregnant. But she was young and not married. So now the parents, of course, wanted to know who the father was. But she didn’t want to tell, so for days she kept silence. But the parents made more and more pressure, so under this pressure, finally, she said, "Hakuin is the father." But the parents pushed more and more, so she just said, "Hakuin is the father." Naturally, the parents were very upset and immediately went to him. They got married and immediately went to Hakuin. And the parents were, of course, divorced and immediately ran to him? Sorry, I made a mistake. First, the child had to be born, so some months later, it actually happened. Then, finally, when the child was born, they went to him. So here he corrects, so first the baby was born, and only after that they went to the father. So the story was like this: when the baby was born, they followed him. And they confronted him. And his only commentary was, "Is it like that?" They handed the child over to him, and he took it. Full of love, he cared for the child, for the baby. Time was passing. Time was flowing. After about one year, this girl realized that what she did was not right. So she repented, and with tears, she confessed the truth to her parents. That the real father was a young man from the fish market. And he found out that the real father was the boy from the fish market. Now again, the parents were upset. Why did Hakuin take the child? And they went to him and demanded the child back. And his only commentary was, "Is it like that?" And he gave the child back. That is also a way to deal with problems. A real saint is above fame and blame. The message of a saint is his life. A message of a saint is his personality. The message of the saint is so subtle, but it touches something in us. The message of the saint is a kind of holiness that affects us. The message of the saint is so subtle, but it touches something in us. And the more we open to this, the more we can receive it. And the more we open it, the more we will get it. And arguments are nothing, and I realized that this is even valid for us. And I realized that this is even valid for us. We don’t need to make much advertisement or give many arguments. We must be aware that we are observing each other very carefully. Everyone is observing you. I became aware of this already nearly 20 years ago, before I became a Swami. I was working in a company as a computer programmer, but it was a company selling clothes, so there were many salespersons employed. At lunchtime, we all ate together in the canteen. But usually the computer people would not sit together with the other people. And I usually really had a peaceful lunch. I ate, afterwards I remained seated for some time. Most of all, my lunch was very peaceful. I consumed it comfortably. After that, I stayed seated for a while. Before the meal, I always closed my eyes and said my eating mantra mentally. And I did it like this for some years, until one lady from the salesperson came to me. I never ever had spoken to her. And she said, "I am always observing you, how you are eating. You are so concentrated, so relaxed, it’s like a meditation. Tell me, what are you practicing?" And I said, "Yoga." And if you believe it or not, now she wanted to know everything about yoga. This is how it works. If I had said Buddhism, she wanted that. If I had said Tai Chi, she wanted that. She gave it credit because she observed me. I could have said that I am a Buddhist or that I practice Tai Chi. She would have believed me, because what I live in everyday life has given her faith. If I would say Buddhism, I would like to know about Buddhism. If I would say Tai Chi, I would like to know about Tai Chi. I was interested in it because I added weight to it. The thought is very simple. If the result is that, it must be good. Then I want it also. And we are happy, then the others say, "Oh, how can I also become happy?" When we are happy, then others say, "Oh, how can I also become happy?" Our life is the message. Our life is the message. Our yoga seminars and our daily yoga practice, this is a preparation for that. But the real test is life. And then it is really yoga in daily life. So let us try a little bit to take with us here from this seminar and to realize it in our daily life. And I guess this is the best way also to help those who are now in doubt. Light radiates. Let us be the light. So let us maybe sing for the end. And maybe at the end of this evening, let’s sing a beautiful song about light. Let’s sing a beautiful song about light. Who would like to sing? I think Purāṇ Devī sings it always so beautifully. Who would like to sing it, or does someone else like to sing it? Who would like to sing it? Would someone like to sing it? Purāṇ Devī.

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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