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The Inexhaustible Treasure of Indian Wisdom

The inexhaustible treasure of Indian wisdom is found in its ancient scriptures. All modern scientific research is already declared within the Śāstras. The libraries of India contain a vast, ancient treasure of wisdom unmatched elsewhere. Yoga is the space, Ākāśa, containing consciousness; both are invisible and indestructible. From the cosmic sound, Oṁ, everything manifested. This science of yoga reveals the jīva as a drop and Śiva as the ocean. The human intellect requires proper education, which has two aspects: theoretical knowledge and practical application. A gram of practice surpasses tons of theory. Education begins with the family, then social management, and finally spiritual education through satsaṅg and self-study. True yoga is a perfect, systematic technique requiring correct practice under guidance, not the fragmented or commercialized versions popular today. The aim of human life is self-realization.

"To this day, nothing has been researched by so-called modern scientists that was not already spoken or declared in the Śāstras, Vedas, Upaniṣads."

"Tons of theory are nothing compared to a gram of practice."

Filming location: Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

If you study Vedānta, why invest so many thousands, millions, or billions of dollars in other studies? Ultimately, you must come to Vedānta. To this day, nothing has been researched by so-called modern scientists that was not already spoken or declared in the Śāstras, Vedas, Upaniṣads, and many other scriptures. All the libraries of India are filled with so many literatures! To study even one literature might take your whole life. You look into it and say, "Wow, I did not think like that." It is like someone opens a treasure of jewelry before you—all diamonds and gold. Such rich wisdom is available in India. I doubt you will find this anywhere else in the world, in any library, for these are ancient, thousands upon thousands of years old—the work of many poets, writers, and wise persons. Yoga is that space, Ākāśa. That space is like the body of the mother, the cosmic mother. Within that space is consciousness. Both are not visible. Ākāśa bhi āpko nahī̃ dikhegā, aur vohī ātmā kā svarūp hai jise na śāstra kāṭe, na agni jalāve, bujhāve, na pānī, na mṛtyu miṭāve. Woh ākāś ke andar aap kitne bhi golī chhor do, seedh nahīn hogā, kitnī bār chakko ko ghumā do, kahīn bhī usme liṅgit nahīn miṭhegī. Ākāśa ko na jala sakte ho, na kāṭ sakte ho, na seḍh sakte ho, na mita sakte ho, kuch bhī nahīṁ. That is the ātmākār definition. But without that consciousness, that is nothing. Yet consciousness, too, you cannot see or touch. You can only think about what is there. Between these two—consciousness and space—the consciousness is known as Hiraṇya Garbha, the golden embryo. The womb is the space, the universe, and the consciousness is that golden essence. Between this, the Śakti is working. That Śakti begins to awake with the Nāda. Nāda Rūpa Parabrahma. That Nāda, the cosmic sound, is the embodiment of Brahman, the Supreme. That is why that nāda is Oṁ: Akāra, Ukāra, Makāra—Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, Maheś. Oṁ Kār Vindu Sayuktam Nityadhyāti Yogīna. Kāmaṃ mokṣaṃ caiva. Oṃ kārāya namo namaḥ. Oṁ kī racanā sārī. Everything came out of that sound, exists in the sound, and will merge into the sound. That is yoga. This science of yoga was given by the Swayambhū. Out of that nāda manifested light, called Śivajyoti, Jīvanjyoti, Paramjyoti, Brahmajyoti. After that light, the tattvas begin to develop in what we call the Śiva tattva. Thus, sound was created out of that nothingness, just as when the sun rises, its rays spread over the whole earth. Similarly, through that sound, what we call the endless jīva manifested. We individuals are like a drop of water; that is called jīva. We are in the hand as a drop—that is jīva—and infinity is the vast, endless ocean below. When this jīva drop falls into the ocean, the ocean is Śiva. Jīva and Śiva kā mel tab hogā when this drop, this soul... The soul is not ātmā. The soul is a bundle of karmic destinies. But the soul has that light, like an aura. That is Ātmā. That is why Ātmā and ātmā are called Jīvātmā. Among the 8.4 million different creatures, one is the human. Humans possess a very powerful tool: the intellect. But the intellect needs the right education. In this, there are two kinds of knowledge again in śikṣā. One is called theory, and one is practice. Lakṣārthī ya vācārthī? Vācārthī is one who reads the scriptures and books and gives talks. Lakṣārthī is one who will set the aim: What is the purpose of my life? Who am I? Ko’ham? Katam nidam? Jatam? Ko’va kartasya vidyate? Who am I? From where do I come? Why did I come? What am I doing? And where will I go? Lakṣārthī jo hatā hai will do the sādhanā; the other will not. There is a gentleman sitting who has an asthma problem. Beside him sits his master, the yoga teacher Pushpājī, who is very expert in yoga. She gives perfect treatment for asthma. He meets her many times and is a member of her center, but he does not practice; that is why he has asthma. You have food with you, but you do not eat; you remain hungry. That is why tons of theory are nothing compared to a gram of practice. Abhyāsyā, abhyāsyā kunte, abhyāsyā. If you had practiced for the last ten years, you would be fifteen years younger than you are now, and asthma, phasthma, kahī chalā jātā. But the quality is not there. You need willpower. You are not a Lakṣārthī; you are only a Vācārthī, sitting on a treasure. Human consciousness needs the right training, the right education. This education is of three kinds. First is education with the parents. The child is like raw material, and the parents are artists who can model that raw material as they wish. But if the parents lack that knowledge, they cannot do it. That means your child is a point; that model is a point. You gave birth to such a beautiful child. With which vision? Which feeling? What to do, father? Mother, father, why don't you believe? What else is needed? You should automatically believe because saṁskāras make saṁskāras. Saṁskāras cannot be given by your children. They do not need your money; they need your wisdom. Children do not need your toys; they need your love. Nowadays, there is a computer, a laptop. Laptop means our lap. The laptop is there, but the rights of your lap belong to your child, not to that computer. Yet you remove the child and put the computer there. So where did the laptop go, son? The laptop went away; the top tip-top became the top tip-top. So first, education is the education of the mother and father, brother, sister—family education. In the family, you have education of culture, spirituality, way of life, relations, traditions, and relatives—what relations you have with which place. Then comes social management and secondary school education, so you can get your bread and butter to survive. But nowadays, the stomach is so big; no matter how much you earn, it remains empty. Many people receive good salaries, but that is just like spices, salt on the vegetable. They want corruption, the riṣpat. They want that. They say the three things a servant gets are salt in the flour. The flour is the same you give to Ṛṣipat, but salt in the flour works, and flour does not work in the salt. The third education then begins: satsaṅg, spiritual education, reading ancient literature and wisdom. When you read any holy book or ancient philosophical literature... In Rāja Yoga, there is one called Svādhyāya. Svādhyāya means two things: you read the book, Bārcī, and then svayaṁ kā adhyayan. Svayam is svayam, adhyayan. Not "who am I," but "how am I." During meditation, while practicing dhyāna, do not think, "That is bad, this is bad." Guru Nanak said when you think the other is bad, no—others are in second place; you are in first place. Because first you were thinking that is bad. Because you were thinking bad, that's bad. I went to see the bad things, but I didn't find them anywhere, Nānak Sāhib said. But when I searched myself and looked within me, no one is worse than me. That kind of education and thought is why it is said, "Sabhi prāṇī merī ātmā"—each and every entity is myself. And ātmā soi paramātmā, that is the paramātmā, the supreme, which has no name, no form, no color, nothing—Brahma-tattva. For that purpose, spiritual education begins your practice, which is also yoga. Actually, what we call haṭha yoga—āsana, prāṇāyāma—is part of haṭha yoga and jñāna yoga. People misunderstand this in the Western world as well as in the Eastern world. In the Indian mind, there was always only the Western mind; you have forgotten the Eastern mind. But it is said in the Bible that the sun rises from the east to go to the west. It means the knowledge, the wisdom of the sun, or the sun of wisdom, always rises from the east. Do you know the wisdom and philosophy of China? Great, great philosophers and wise people. Do you know the Japanese? Do you know Nepal? Do you know Tibet? Tibet is now in China, India, and so on. People are always directed purposely. That was blackmailing, which I spoke of before. You always said, "Western culture." But ask the West from where God led his culture. That's it. Indians are very clever people sometimes. They say India is the cradle of culture and the mother of all cultures. Then, alright, why do you blame Western culture? It is your brother's sister culture, isn't it? But though it is a culture coming out of Indian culture, that culture has created a wrong environment and wrong education. Due to this wrong education, if you had received a good education, you would have become a great saint. But you got the education of a pickpocket, so now you are like that. Though you are both children of one parent—children of one mother and one father—one son became a self-realized saint, the second became a king, the third became a beggar, and the fourth became a hunter, killing animals and sinning. Maa ek hiye—one mother and one father—but kismat and education. Everyone has that destiny. After birth, you go in different directions. Still, eating is not completed. They think it is a one-part portion. The first course has come now, the second will come, the third will come. The first course was rotī, the second course was dāl bāṭī, the third course was some sweet, but the main menu, rice, is not here. Northern Indians, when they go to South India, they get idli, dosa, this and that, but they think, "When will come the chapati? Roti kab āyegī?" So we should not force that you should practice only this kind of yoga. Some practice Haṭha Yoga. Now, in the modern world, people call Haṭha Yoga only āsanas and prāṇāyāma, which is not Haṭha Yoga; it is a part of Rāja Yoga. Haṭha yoga is called ṣaṭ karma: netī, dhautī, bastī, naulī, and tratāka. Netī is cleaning of the nose; dhautī is cleaning of the alimentary channel. We have eight-meter-long intestines. The creatures which are non-vegetarian, the animals that eat meat, have small intestines. The green animals that God created have very long intestines because they take time to digest the meat. That is why cancer and many diseases occur. That is why Mṛśa Hari and Śaka Hari, two types of beings, have been created. But humans are left in the middle. Once someone came to Gurujī and said, "Gurujī, should we eat meat or not?" Gurujī said, "No, we should not eat." "What do you know, Mahārāj? A lion eats meat." Yes, he asked Gurujī, "One man came and asked Gurujī, 'Should one eat meat or not?'" Gurujī said, "No." And he said, "What do you know? How do you know? The tiger eats meat, the lion eats meat, and they have strength. And who eats just grass? They are like goats and rabbits." Babaji said, "There is a dog. Does it eat meat? Yes. Does it eat rice? Yes. Does it eat bread? Yes. Does it eat curd? Yes. Does it eat milk? Yes. Does it eat everything? Yes. And a lion? Does it eat bread? No. Does it eat vegetables? No. Does it eat only meat? Yes. Then where do you eat? Do you eat only meat? Do you eat bread, vegetables, spices? The one who eats everything is a dog." So these are the things: non-vegetarian creatures mostly or 100% eat only non-vegetarian food. Those creatures created for vegetarianism eat only vegetarian food. But humans have changed their habit; they are very clever, eating everything. And when one eats everything, then... I do not want to tell the world, for you will be angry when I tell. So, let's have a break here. In this way, haṭha yoga: neti, cleaning of the nose; dhauti, cleaning of the food channel; nauli, churning of the stomach and muscle strengthening; basti, cleaning of the intestines; tratāka, concentration practice on a flame, a spot, or a blade of grass; and kapālbhāti, a prāṇāyāma technique. There is a difference between kapālbhāti and bhastrikā. Your yoga teacher will tell you the difference. Sometimes people are doing bhastrikā and say, "I am doing kapālbhāti," and somebody is doing kapālbhāti and says, "I am doing bhastrikā." It is a very slight difference, but there is a difference, just as there is a difference between petrol, diesel, and kerosene. So there is a difference between bhastrikā, kapālbhāti, and also ujjāyī. Many are doing it differently. Yoga is such a perfect and balanced technique; you must know exactly. Otherwise, doing something is better than nothing. But if you want to achieve this, your master has to be strict with you, and you have to keep to it. That is why in the world, Yoga in Daily Life is so much appreciated and accepted. How many thousands of people are teaching Yoga in Daily Life further? Because it is a system, like going from kindergarten and nursery school to higher education and university, very systematically. Otherwise, what will happen? Sorry to say, it is like Āyurveda. Āyurveda still has not gotten its place in the world as a recognized medicine because in India, everyone is an Āyurvedic practitioner, everyone gives some medicine. Everyone says, "Eat neem, eat karela, eat this." But in allopathic medicine, no one can do like this; you cannot sell injections, give injections, or sell medicine freely. It is a strictly controlled system. So Āyurveda needs the Government of India to control it completely, authorizing only qualified persons to prescribe and give Āyurvedic treatment. Otherwise, nowadays in the world, Āyurveda has become a kind of side business. In Western countries, Āyurvedic medicine can only be brought as a food supplement. Why? Because it has no control. Similarly, around the world, yoga has also become like that. Everyone is calling this kind of yoga, that kind of yoga. Someone is calling it "wine yoga." When you come to the yoga class, someone comes with a tray, a glass of wine; you just drink and then are told, "Lie down and relax." Yes, and after practices, you all sit together. It must not be a big glass, just a little, but they offer you wine. They said, "Yes, wine yoga." I said, "Why do you drink the wine?" He said, "The wine during practice makes us divine." You see? So, everybody, "jiski lāṭhī, jiski bhains." But Yoga in Daily Life is a system; you cannot miss anything. If you do something out of it, you are doing wrong and will have no success. Those who only utilize Yoga in Daily Life but do not practice themselves are lost in nothingness. They have doubt in themselves and in others, and they are mentally completely in other phenomena. Therefore, you have to practice the technique, the perfect technique. Everyone can pull a handcart or a cycle here and there. But, my dear, when you have to take a jumbo jet with 300 passengers, with so much luggage, and they tell you, "Please, pilot, come into the cockpit and take off the flight," only that pilot can take off comfortably and bring you exactly centimeter-to-centimeter to the landing place again. That is a pilot. Am I wrong? Otherwise, we will sit and they will say, "Swāmījī, you are our Gurujī, please sit in the cockpit. We are singing bhajan, Guru Dev, take off." Chalo, Sagona antar jami mein chalu sa dhar ke vairagan be. Sa guruvara meṅ ca lūsa yun de antara jamī meṅ ca lūsa un uniyo deśa meṅ janma marnā karma kalaṅka nahīṅ le. Uniyo deśa meṅ harāma kalaṅka nahīṅ le. Jīvanamukti prāpta hamako. Jeevanamukti brahmānandahame, Brahmānanda Hame, Sagguru Vara Me, Chalun Sa Unade Antar Jami Me, Chalun Uniyo Desh Me, Akhand Ujala Chandra Sūrajanai Le, Uniyo Desame Yakanda Uja Chandra Sūrajanai Ses. Rangan ropayanu payanadi... I forgot. śaguru varame ca saun desa yantar jami swami deepa. Aage kya va? Dayāsa man bhave phira nahī janma dare, Prabhudeepa kahepada yasa man phira nai janama dhare. Sadarasiṅghāsana yāpa je sadarasiṅghāsana. Satguru Dev is the pilot of the satsaṅg, not a pilot of the aeroplane. If I come and sit in the cockpit and say, "Yes, relax, I will take off," he will say, "Swāmījī, can we stay tonight here?" So that's it: practice and knowledge. Yoga in Daily Life is that technique, that kind of system, designed according to modern psychology, physiology, and yogic science. So practice Yoga in Daily Life. Now, abhyāsa, abhyāsa, adhyāya, svādhyāya, svādhyāya—look within thyself. Haṭha Yoga is also not just the Ṣaṭkarma. Classically, Haṭha Yoga has a different definition. Here is the moon and that is the sun—Iḍā and Piṅgalā. Haṭha, when both are balanced by Anulom Vilom after Nāḍī Śodhana Prāṇāyāma, that time when the balance is on both Iḍā and Piṅgalā, then the Suṣumnā awakens; that is called Yoga. So, through the practice of haṭha yoga—the purification of body, mind, and consciousness—you can achieve the level where individual consciousness flows into cosmic consciousness, where prāṇa and apāna unite in the Maṇipūra Chakra, in the navel, and from there the consciousness begins to flow out. We will talk about this tomorrow. Today, it is already time. The aim of human life, the purpose of human life, is self-realization. Be the protector, not the destructor. Therefore, the great ṛṣi said in the Upaniṣad: Śānti, Śānti, Śāntir Bhavatu, Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Ekī.

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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