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Discipline requires significant energy. Let me offer an example. It is often said that for discipline, one should rise early to practice yoga—āsanas, prāṇāyāma, meditation. But what if your body is exhausted? Perhaps you went to bed late, or your small child woke you twice during the night. Should you force yourself to keep the discipline and practice, or should you sleep? I would advise you to sleep. In such cases, sleep may grant you more relaxation and rest than practicing would. Otherwise, you may spend the entire day tired, lacking concentration and relaxation. Therefore, in this instance, you may break your discipline. We say, "Listen to your body." However, if the body is merely lazy and the mind says, "I don’t want to practice; I will do it tomorrow," and you think, "Samijī said I can sleep," that is laziness. It is said your best friend is your knowledge, and your great enemy is laziness. We must overcome laziness. If you wake in the morning feeling very tired from laziness, then brush your body. Get up, brush your body, go to the bathroom—this will awaken you. Or alternate between warm and cold water. We should listen to our body, listen to our mind, listen to our soul, and then decide. Nothing should be unpleasant or disturbing, for we undertake yoga practice to gain pleasure. That is important. If you are not happy but feel you must do it, then do not do it. Consider this: you may not wish to study a particular subject, but your parents insist you must. I know of a man, nearly 35 or 40 years old, who for almost ten years could not pass his examination. He decided to study again but said, "I feel so much pressure. I can’t study, but my parents expect it from me." I told him that when you cannot do it, when you feel unhappy and stressed, then do not do it. Go and sell potatoes. Why not? You do not have to be a doctor or an engineer. There was a time when people would proudly say, "Oh, my child is a doctor." Today they still say it. But that is also a profession. You should do what makes you happy, what allows you to feel relaxed, for that is your nature. In yoga, you should feel happy and relaxed. If you do not, then do not do it. First, you have human rights. You are a human being with free will. We should not allow ourselves to be pressured by anything. Therefore, we must discern: am I disciplined due to external pressure, or am I undisciplined due to my own laziness and carelessness? We should not succumb to laziness or carelessness. Conversely, if you have a small child, you must discipline yourself to feed and clean the child, even when tired—that is a strict necessity. We must decide for ourselves what our life situation demands, what is absolutely necessary, what we should do, and what we should not. In this way, discipline is important. Following discipline, we spoke yesterday about citta vṛtti nirodha. The vṛttis are our thoughts. Thoughts are like waves on the surface of water. When the waves are restless, we cannot see what lies at the bottom. Patañjali says that mental restlessness, stress, and all these entanglements prevent you from seeing your reality. If you wish to see what lies at the bottom, you must calm the waves. I often give this example. Take a wooden frame with glass, like a window pane, and place it on the water. This frame breaks the waves; they do not enter the frame. The glass also makes the water’s surface still and even. Now you can see what is at the bottom. Do you understand? Similarly, when you concentrate, meditate, or engage in important work, you create a kind of frame. You tell yourself, "I will now do this work, and I will leave other things aside." Now I am meditating, so for a while I withdraw from the external world. Or you repeat your mantra, a prayer, or even numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 1, 2. This means you have placed your mind within the frame of these numbers. Then other thoughts recede. Or you concentrate on your breath: "I know I am inhaling. I know I am exhaling." Feel the movements of your stomach as you breathe—expanding, contracting, the slow movement of the muscles. Feel the subtle movements of the spine expanding with the inhale and contracting with the exhale. Automatically, you create a frame, and other thoughts and restlessness diminish. So, citta vṛtti nirodha. If you wish to reach a solution, a result, or make a concrete decision, you must control the vṛttis—those restless thoughts that prevent concentration and cause disruption physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and socially in many ways. We shall analyze them. This is what we call mastering your life. A master is one who has mastered life. You learn it. After that, Patañjali says, "tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe ’vasthānam." At that time, the seer abides in his own true nature. He becomes one with his Self, or with the state of his mind. Water and waves appear as two. But when the waves are calm, there are no more waves. What happened to them? Waves and water are not two; they are the same. It is the movement that creates a division. When the movement ceases, the waves become one with their origin. It is like a beautiful bhajan by Gurujī: "Kao ulepam Gurujī om bhajana. Abhaṁ Guru Caraṇa Sukhāpāya. Abhaṃ Sukhapāya. Sagar leh sama... Bhagavān kī je. Ābhām Guru Caraṇ Sukhapāya." Now I have found my happiness. I have gained happiness through my Master, who explained it to me. Similarly, my doubts and problems disappeared because I received the explanation. Just as waves become one with the ocean, you become one with yourself. But the waves of problems, stress, and our constant thinking make us feel we have troubles and are unhappy. Your mind is one with you. Your consciousness is one with you. Your soul is one with you. We are divided by dualities, divided by the vṛttis, the restlessness. When we are calm, peaceful, and happy, then we see our reality. When we are unhappy and greedy, we act only for selfish satisfaction. It is said, "Aham Brahmāsmi"—I am this Ātmā; I am not this body, not this mind, not this thought. It is my body, my thoughts. I am the reality. But between that reality and our present state of being, there are so many waves, disturbances, and doubts that divide us. When we gain clarity, we become happy. Then the waves and the ocean are one again. They were always one, but we speak of waves and ocean. When the waves calm, we are again one in the ocean. So, tadā draṣṭu—at that time, the seer, the observer. Who is it that sees you are restless? That sees you have so many thoughts? That says, "I can’t concentrate," or "I am unhappy"? Who says this within you? There must be someone sitting and observing inside. It is not a second person, not a ghost. It is said by cosmic law that two spirits cannot reside in one body. Some may argue, "No, that is not true. It is possible." Dear God, check once more before you speak. God has work to do too. Okay, I will check. God said, "You are right. I was wrong; I didn’t think of that." In one body there can be two, but only as twins in the mother’s womb. However, in one consciousness, in one mind, there cannot be two spirits. Sometimes people think, "My grandfather died, and now he enters my body," or that he comes as a ghost to disturb the house. Why would he come? He will not come. He cannot come. Even if he wished to, it is against the law. He may come to you in your memory because you love your grandfather, you love your mother. We love them, so we remember them, and we have such a deep connection that we may even dream of them. But they will never come to disturb you or enter your body. There are not two. This is a kind of fear and wrong thinking. We should give up this wrong thinking. Therefore, in this body, your Self is the king. Your Self is the governor who governs this body. Your Self is the master and the Lord of this body. Only one. One body and one Self. So never fear such things. So, tadā draṣṭu—at that time, that seer. Who is that seer? Our Self. You tell someone, "I saw it, I heard it, I spoke it, I felt it, I thought it, I read it." I, I. You never say, "My grandfather in me saw it." It is quite logical. You know, many people may have mental problems and fears due to wrong thinking, wrong analysis, and doing wrong to others. Some people cannot manage their lives and become jealous of those who can. They then seek some chance, some opportunity to disturb them. This is a problem. There was a widow lady—anyone can be a widow; I apologize if any widows are present, please do not take it negatively. There was a young, freshly married couple. The young bride went to the widow lady, greeted her, and sought her blessing. The widow lady said, "I bless you that very soon you will be like me." She may not have said it purposely, or perhaps she was jealous. You know how people can act. We must think carefully about what we wish for others. What we wish for others, what we do for others, that counts as our karma. Therefore, your Self will be happy only when you do good for others and for yourself. So, Patañjali says that when you are disciplined, when you practice and control your vṛttis, then the practitioner, the seer, can realize the one Self. Then he can recognize his Self. But if one cannot control the vṛttis, then his state of being is identical to his vṛttis. At other times, the sādhaka, the practitioner, becomes like what he thinks. If you think you are unhappy, you are unhappy. If you think you are ill, you are ill, and you feel ill. Thinking is a very strong power. Thinking can destroy all your beautiful works. Miski mogu razure, razoriti sa vaš divni rad. Thinking can destroy your beautiful relationships, whether with father, mother, parents, partners, friends, master, or God. It is just your vṛttis. God protect us from such vṛttis. According to our vṛttis, we begin to behave. According to our behavior, our desires develop. After some time, those desires can become like our nature. They become your habit. There are tigers and lions in the forest. Generally, they do not attack human beings. But if they attack a human and once taste human blood, they will always do it. They become human-eaters, and hunters must kill them. Even if you cage these animals, they will not forget; it becomes their nature. Therefore, you will become like that which you think. When I was little, I always thought of becoming a Swami and helping people. My only thought was this: to help people without any discrimination. My thinking brought me onto this path. You know, obstacles often come when you dedicate yourself to good things. Beautiful roses also have thorns. When you dedicate yourself to doing good, some will not like it and will create obstacles. What I wish to say is: how you think is how you will be. If one thinks like a thief, he will begin to steal. If one thinks a certain way, he will try to act accordingly. So, you will be as you think. "Vṛtti sāra rūpayam itaratra." At other times, the sādhaka will be like his thought. He will not discover reality because he is stuck in his thoughts. God gave humans this thinking process, very close to the intellect, to the buddhi, but when it goes wrong, problems arise. Therefore, we say: observe your thoughts, as in yoga and daily self-inquiry meditation. We always ask, "What did I think? What do I think? Why did I think? What should I think? Why should I think?" This will give you answers to certain questions and problems. Otherwise, you will make a big elephant from a little insect, or a big mountain from a little bean. That is your thinking, and that thinking can change your whole world. It is also said that the knowledge of truth is not easy to digest. As long as you do not know, perhaps you are happy. But when you come to know, you may become unhappy. So before you seek to know, you should ask yourself, "Do I truly want to know this? Will I be able to digest it?" Otherwise, that knowledge may bring many sorrows and sufferings. Are you able to digest your reality? Are you able to master your thoughts? Then you can proceed on your spiritual path. So, Patañjali says, observe your thoughts and observe your vṛttis. There are five kinds of vṛtti: vṛttayaḥ, pañcatayaḥ, kliṣṭa, akliṣṭa. There are five kinds: good vṛttis and bad vṛttis. Patañjali said that when you clean your field, you should only remove the weeds. Do not pull out the crops as well. It is said, "no more vṛttis," but you should not remove the good with the bad. Do you have good vṛttis, good thoughts? Yes. Good things you should cultivate; leave them. Only negative thoughts and doubts should be cleaned from your mind, filtered out. So, there are good vṛttis and bad vṛttis. When you think of God, world peace, tolerance, love, forgiveness, support, the well-being of the whole world, your good health, happiness in your family, good business for all your colleagues—these are noble thoughts. There is a mantra from the Upaniṣad: "Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ"—may all be happy. May the whole world be happy. May all become free from suffering and misery. May all become healthy, happy, and prosperous. What are noble thoughts? Why do we call people noble? Because they have noble thoughts. And what are noble thoughts? Wishing good for others. We repeat these words again. How many thousands of years have passed? More than eight thousand. It was written in the Upaniṣad by some ṛṣi. We do not know who he was or where he is now. We have no relation to him, but we remember his words: "Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ." An enlightened master expressed his wish. Does an enlightened master have a wish? Does an incarnated God have a wish? Yes, like this: "May they all be happy." Do parents have a wish? They have a child. What more do they wish? That their children are healthy and happy. We admire these noble thoughts and repeat them again and again. Billions of times, these mantras are repeated, not only by people in India or Hindus, but by all of wise mankind. All say, "May all be happy." Who first placed this thought in the human mind? Some wise one, some enlightened being, some positive force. If we work against this principle, we make a great mistake. It is like trying to throw a stone at the sun. If you throw a handful of dust at the sun, the dust will fall back on your own head. Therefore, truth is truth. No one can change it. We should hold this feeling in our heart: "Lord, through my being, may no one suffer or be unhappy. If I cannot dry the tears of others, Lord, please protect me so that I do not become the cause of tears." This makes your heart holy. It is better to let ourselves suffer for others than to let others suffer because of us. As I understand, Jesus said on the cross, "I suffer for you." He did not say, "You suffer because of me." A normal worldly man might say, "Now you will see; you will suffer as I do." That is called revenge. But he said, "No, you should be happy. I will carry your burden." You should have that kind of heart. So, filter out all negative qualities and negative thoughts. If you have them, ask God for forgiveness. Ask yourself for pardon. We will talk more about the five kinds of vṛttis—the good and the bad—next week. But for now, develop and cultivate the good. Once more, I pray to Almighty God to bless you with good vṛttis, that your life will develop as you think, so always think happily.