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Part 1: The Many Fires Within and the Human Journey Humans have given the gods many forms—names and forms—yet reality is only one. If your first glance at something is pleasant, that image enters your chidākāśa, your inner mental space, and you carry beautiful feelings the whole day. Look at a picture of your mother, father, or child. What makes you happy? That connection revives you. Conversely, if you look at someone with hate, that feeling will burn inside you all day. This is the first point. Second, if you are somewhere with no pictures, simply open your eyes and look at your hands. Your destiny is written completely in your hands. Hence, we always try to see a picture of God. Most Indians educated in the cultural way—not those who say, "I don't believe in God," though there are many like that too—will automatically, upon switching on a light, say, "God gives this light." This is the light of our eyes, the protective mudrā. You will also see in Islam, during prayer, that they look toward the head. When you wake up, say to yourself, "I am human." You must become aware: "I am human." Then go about your morning routine. Hold one thought: What makes me human? A dog is a dog. What makes a dog? What makes a snake? How do we develop human qualities? Because you come to know: "I am human." And what are human qualities now? How to awaken, activate, and utilize them in my life? During the day, situations arise. When you are unsure whether to do something, ask yourself: "I am human. Should I do this?" Your inner self will answer yes or no; it will come. Human qualities, first of all: humans are here to protect. It is said, jīva-jīva-bhakṣate—life eats life. In the cosmic parliament, it is said there was a strike. That's not correct. Or it is correct, because otherwise the planet would be completely overfilled with creatures, one upon another. Then enters Viśvakarmā, comes the fire, hunger. "Oh God, hunger, what is this? Fire." How many different kinds of fire are there? The flame you see is physical fire. There are many kinds. Let's talk two minutes about fire. That fire is our Jīvātmā, the Viṣṇu Śakti which resides in the water. The strongest fire is in the water. Very cold water or ice, when you hold it, burns the hand. When the cold winter wind blows, many plants look burnt. That’s called dava-agni. Then comes lava-agni, the volcano. Then comes havan-agni, the fire of the yajña that everyone adores. Then comes Chitāgni. Chitāgni is the fire used in the final ceremony, Anteṣṭi, to burn the body at the crematorium. There are different beliefs about what to do with the body. The Parsi religion, whose people come from Saurashtra, also believes in fire; they always keep a light. When someone dies, they place the body in a forest or on a protected roof so birds and animals can consume it. Some give Jala Samādhi, letting the body flow into water—Americans do this now too. Others bury the body in the earth. Mostly Hindus, and some others, burn the body. This fire, Citāgni, everyone salutes. It is the final ceremonial act of my life, where I merge again into fire. One day, all elements will be cleansed. Chitāgni, Havanāgni, Dīpak—the flame on the altar—everyone greets and prays to this because it is the symbol of our ātmā, our self. Where this fire is depends on the saṅgha—the company or place. According to that, it will be respected and a ceremony given. When this fire comes to worldly thoughts, to a cigarette, that is a relation of the world, of māyā. The person will take this fire, give it a kiss, and when finished, put it down under their shoe. There is no respect for that fire. This is the physical fire. Now comes the most dangerous fire, which can destroy and torture us lifelong, constantly provoking our negative qualities, compared to a crocodile's insides or the devil's insides. You want to know this? Oh God, when I tell it, I'm afraid. You may not sleep all night, but it is good to know. It is called krodha-agni. Krodha is anger. When you are angry, it burns you. Krodha-agni is very painful. Irsā Agni. Irsā means jealousy. When you are jealous of someone, you are constantly burning yourself. If you are jealous, even before sleep, all the time you are thinking of that person instead of God. Jalas, jalan means the heat of the fire. Krodhagni, the jalasagni. Then comes kāmagni, the fire of passion. Then comes jāṭharāgni, the digestive fire. If jāṭharāgni is not there, we are not alive. This fire is given so we may eat something and the world will continue. Jīva jīva bhakṣate. You must calm your hunger, which sits at the solar plexus, and that Agni should be pure inside. We offer with a mantra from the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā: Oṁ brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma haviḥ brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahma-karma-samādhinā. This fire is the fire of Brahman, Brahmāgno, Brahmanāhutam. The one giving the offering, the āhuti, into this fire is also Brahman, and we have to go there, Brahma karma samādhinah. If you respect this and sing your mantras, you will again become one with Brahman. Lobhagni. Lobha is greed, a subtle fire that can destroy us. Then comes yoga agni. Yoga karmasu kauśalam. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said that through good karmas, your yoga sādhanā will be successful. This yoga agni will awaken. Karma dagdhaṅi: through the fire of this yoga agni, all your karmas will be finished. That is why we practice yoga, offering mudrās, symbols. We will talk of mudras later, but it came to this point so I must tell you. If someone comes and you make a praṇāma mudrā, namaskār—namān means "I bow down to you"—it signifies: you and I are one. Ātmā. Where? Here in the heart. In my heart, we are both. There is no duality. My hands are free; don't worry. Otherwise, you could shake hands while the other hand holds a knife. So it is safe to give hands like this, the praṇāma mudrā. But at the same time, I used to say helping hands have more value than just folded hands. But we are talking of mudrās. Instead of making like this, if someone comes and you show your tongue, how would it be? Not very nice. That is also a mudra. When you go to the doctor for the throat, he says, "Please put your tongue out." That's okay; it's treatment. But purposely showing someone your tongue will make them very angry. You are not having a good day. So, mudrās can create energy and atmosphere, negative or positive. These are the different kinds of agni. Then comes the yoga agni, karma dagdhaṇi. Through yoga practice, all karmas are purified. But not only this kind of yoga where you do exercises, go down and come up. I doubt your karmas will be finished. You will get good health, become calm, awaken positive thoughts, and begin to do good—that is the benefit. But these mudrās, practices, meditations, and prayers utilize the human qualities, which we will come to. Then comes jñāna-agni, jñānajyoti—the light of wisdom, knowledge. This jñāna-agni will liberate you, bring you to self-realization, what you call enlightenment. All these kinds of fire—anger, hate, jealousy, revenge, even jñāna-agni—are not visible, but they are very strong. We must calm them through mudrās. Āyurveda tells us: sattvic food. Sattvic food calms your subtle fire quality, and you will always have positive thinking. Constantly, your thoughts connect to the heart, where human quality resides, to awaken it. Humans are born to protect. The human quality is to understand, forgive, give love, give kindness, give rights, give way, have mercy in the heart, have equal vision, create harmony, and create peace. For this, God created the human. What we humans are doing, we know. Many times, it is not according to human quality. So when we do mudrās and practices, this fire within and outside us becomes calm. Therefore we pray for peace. Peace is to calm the fire. You must have a fire brigade with you wherever you go. This fire brigade is very powerful and quick. It is called: Oṁ dhyauḥ śāntiḥ antarikṣaṁ śāntiḥ pṛthivī śāntiḥ śāntiḥ oṣadhayaḥ śāntiḥ vanaspatayaḥ. This mantra is a fire brigade. Oṁ śānti: peace in the universe, in space. Śānti in vanaspati, in vegetation, in water, in the elements, and even in God, and in me. Peace, peace, peace. This calms the fire. Sarveśāṃ svastir bhavatu. Everywhere should be health. Sarve santu śāntimayaḥ. Everywhere should be peace. Oṁ śānti śānti. Pūrṇauti. Oṁ śānti. Peace, peace, peace. Peace on earth, below the earth, and above the earth. Everywhere, peace. All three times: past, present, and future. Peace in my physical body, peace in my mental body, and peace in my subtle body. Peace, peace. All these mantras were experienced by the ṛṣis, the ancient yogīs, and then given to humans. The ṛṣis say: you have it, use it or lose it. You can lose it, and we are losing it every day. How many mantras do we know? How many prayers? How do we lead our life? These qualities make the human, and then make the human divine. Consciousness is uplifting. Now, the levels of consciousness. Generally, we call them unconscious, subconscious, and conscious. Then comes higher consciousness, then super consciousness, and then cosmic consciousness. That is the final samādhi: Savikalpa samādhi and Nirvikalpa samādhi. Or Sabīja samādhi and Nirvīja samādhi. Sabīja samādhi means there is still karma, a seed. Nirvīja Samādhi means your existence remains, but there are no more seeds of karma. That will come because the body does karma, but it automatically disappears from you. You finally become one with Brahman, that level of samādhi. Buddha said when he got enlightenment—self-realization—there was nothing; he was disappointed. So many years of hard practice to see something, and suddenly there was nothing. You have an onion in your hand. You peel the skin, piece by piece, but where is the onion? Till the end, there is no onion. So Buddha, through the power of his enlightenment, went back through stone consciousness, coals, metals, water life, vegetation life, animals, humans—all the journey he had made. He observed that, and finally came above. There was only oneness, only that space, universe, nothing else. That is why I said there is no incarnation again. This is nothing. Buddha means enlightened intellect, buddhi. Otherwise, his name was Siddhārtha. We reach this through practice. Now we come to the second point: the human body. It seems we are the best creature in the world. But if you go to crocodiles and say, "We are the best ones," the crocodiles say, "Who said this?" We say we are the best. Don't self-judge. Go to a snake; they say, "No, crocodile, we are the best one." No creature will say they are the bad one. So how can we say we are the best one? Mostly we are unhappy, jealous, angry, suffering, ill. We are mostly creating pollution in the world, sound pollution, and are very unhealthy. We are mostly fighting. But we are also wise, practicing yoga, trying our best, protecting. So we have both qualities, good and bad. The best human qualities will be on the day the Almighty Lord says, "My son, you fulfilled my wish. You did according to what I do. I work in you." God said you are only an instrument. So the holy friends from Assisi said, "Lord, make me the instrument of your love. Where there is hate, I bring love. Where there is asaṁti, I bring asaṁti. Where there is suffering, I bring happiness." Feel that instrument of God. In the human body, all qualities exist. From the foot soles till the ankle joint, we have the earth quality, the consciousness of earth. From the ankle joints till the knees, we have the vegetation quality. From the knees till the hip joints is animal quality. And from the beginning, down from the spinal column till here, the Viśuddhi Cakra, we have the human qualities. Earth quality takes qualities from vegetation. Vegetative qualities merge into animal qualities. Animal qualities also influence human qualities. That's why we are human, but we have some other qualities too. From the Ājñā Chakra here begin the divine qualities. Here are the divine chakras in our head. After the bindu chakra, we come to the sahasrāra chakra, called the supreme consciousness, brahmarandhra—the door to the supreme. So, in one human, everything is there. Yathā brahmāṇḍe, tathā piṇḍe: what exists in the universe exists in the human body. Use it or lose it. Utilize the energy; we must awaken it. So, energy is in different chakras. Last time I came, I spoke three times about chakras, but the problem is there are always new friends coming. Those who listened have gone, and new ones come. If I continue, they don't know where I begin. But in your book, Hidden Powers in Humans, read about that. Now, the mudras. Mudras are first of all a language, an indication. For what? If someone asks, "Which side is the office?" you can say, "That side." But if someone is very angry, you show the door: "Go that side." Now, it's with feeling. Which feeling are you showing the door? Part 2: The Language of Gestures: Mudrās, Bandhas, and a Glimpse of Yoga This one mudrā can have many, many meanings. In India, we might say "one" with this gesture, while here you mostly say "one" differently. In India, if you show this to someone, it can mean showing the tongue. On an aeroplane, they give this signal for "okay". Are all Indians angry? We are just flying, is that so? How you understand it depends on your knowledge. This is different. We call this Buddha's gesture Chin Mudrā, used in meditation. The thumb is known as the supreme, Paramātmā. The index finger is known as Jīvātmā, which means you or me; we are this individual, and the thumb is the universal. The aim of yoga practice and of yogīs is that Jīvā and Śiva, Jīvātmā and Paramātmā, would like to merge into oneness, unity. Yoga means union. So, this mudrā again brings the unity inside. I was once in a country called Slovakia. There was a rehabilitation center, and they invited me. I was there for three weeks. They said, "Swamiji, you relax. It’s very nice, with nature and walking, because you are traveling so much." But when I came there, people came to know that I was there, so every day was crowded. Many people came, no problem. They put me, or they sent me, to the gym for cycling and some other exercises. The rehabilitation sister came and said, "Now you go and cycle." I said, "Okay, cycling." Afterwards, she said, "Now we do the exercise." All these exercises she showed were from Yoga and Daily Life, your book. All of them. I didn’t say anything. After this, she said to me, "Now, Mr. Swamiji." I said, "Yes." She said, "Now lie down and relax." I said, "Okay." And she said, "Put this finger and thumb together like this." I said, "Why?" I asked why. What does it mean to put this finger and thumb together? She said, "You see, there are energy centers that connect the energy, so it will be... all the restless thoughts will go away, and you will feel tranquilized and relaxed. More energy will come." I said, "Oh, that’s very nice." After that, she came to me and said, "Can I ask you something, sir?" I said, "Yes, please." She had seen the book. "Can you sign the book for me, please?" It was the "Yoga and Daily Life" book. This was printed in 1977 or ’78. That time was the communist government. There were many books. So they practice yoga in daily life, in rehabilitation centers, and everywhere. Now we are talking about mudrās. So you see, really, this mudrā here is energy, and that’s why in meditation we are doing it to get peace of mind. Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." Through practicing yoga, all your restless thoughts will disappear. So we sit and try now: move these two like this, fingers and thumb together, now. After a while, very gentle, not like that, okay? Very gentle. You will feel like you have some ball, a little ball inside, like a corn. It creates the energy. Or, take this finger or another finger and move it slowly on your palm. After a while, you will feel there is some small ball inside, and when you touch this point, the center of the palm or anywhere—the palm is the most sensitive part—you go like this, very slowly like that. Not like that, but very slowly. You feel it? How do you feel? It goes through the whole body. Mr. Nanda Gopal, you are doing it too quickly, like cooking, making chapati flour. You have to have control. Don’t give weight to it. Just a surface touch. Now, if you are angry or nervous, take a deep breath and do this mudrā. This awakens the touch of the mother, like when a mother touches the head or body when a small child is born. So it means it will take you again into the cradle of the mother’s love. Immediately, jealousy and this negative energy will disappear. So this mudra we call Chin Mudrā or Jñāna Mudrā. Like this, mostly you saw the holy pictures of Buddha sitting like this. Giving blessings like this is a blessing mudrā. But who is doing it? If you do like this, it can mean someone is coming inside, like that, please wait. So depending on which situation, with which feelings, the mudrā is done, it has an effect like that. So first of all, mudrā is indication. Mudrā is a language. Now you see the dance, Indian dance, Bhārat Nāṭyam or some other dances. Each movement is a mudra, and mudra is showing you that Kṛṣṇa is happy, or Śiva is happy or not, and so on. So that’s the body language, and with body language you can make harmony, or you can create disharmony, even with the animals: your dogs, your cats, your birds, your cow, your horse. All they have mudrā knowledge, knowledge, mudrā, mudrā, mudrā. That is called Khecharī Mudrā in yoga. Khecharī mudra is according to the Guru Goraknāth and in the Śiva Saṁhitā book. A big book is written like this, a big book about Khecharī mudrā. And one yogī made a bhajan, and he said, "Khecarī mudrā is the mother of the yogīs. Yogīs drink the milk through the Khecarī mudrā." Now, this is that. In these chakras, which you have here—pictures are all not there. You have this book, Hidden Powers in Humans, and the seventh chakra in this book, I don’t know where the pages are hidden. I should know at least the pages, this is there. This chakra here is the Bindu Chakra. Every chakra has petals, but the Bindu Chakra is a dot; all is a dot. You remember? No, you don’t remember. You see, I have here one dot, yes? This is a Bindu. So, especially, I made for you to explain today, okay, a dot. And this dot is exactly here on the top of the head, in this point. You or your child, who has short hair, not long like mine, or anyone who has hair of one or two centimeters, you will see here, what do you call it, a whorl, yes, like a spiral. Some have two. Some have two. So it is good when one doesn’t function, at least the second will function. This Bindu Chakra is producing the nectar of immortality, and from this Chakra, something they call ambrosia is flowing, very fine, like a drop of fog, not one spoon or two spoons, okay, that comes down and it comes to the palate, and there is a small hole, if you will look in. From that, this ambrosia comes out, and it connects to our tongue, then goes down to the Maṇipūra Chakra, which means to the stomach, and it burns because there is a digestive fire. Now, what the yogīs tell: this ambrosia which is here, you have to catch it on the tip of the tongue. The tip of the tongue connects to the Bindu Chakra and creates the sensation in the whole body. Like your palms are very sensitive if you do like this, similarly with the taste, your tongue is very sensitive. When you want to know if it is bitter or salty or what kind of taste it is, you just touch the tip of the tongue, and you will get the taste immediately. So, yogīs say that Khecharī mudrā—Khecharī means to pull. So it’s a long year’s practice. Your tongue, you should roll it back and press it to the palate behind this, what you call this hanging thing, the tonsil, yeah. So you have to go behind the tonsil, but how? That I will not tell you. Some people are doing without feeling, and that I don’t want to tell you. But try every day, morning when you clean your tongue—do you have a tongue cleaner or not? So you clean your tongue, and then gently hold it with both your fingers, and every day, try to pull it a little, not strongly. If you do a different technique, then you will have a problem with eating because you will bite your tongue. Be careful. You bring the tongue, you roll it, and the tip of the tongue to the palate, where the nectar is coming. It is not done that you try to make your tongue longer, but it is a kind of exercise to withdraw your vocal cords, the muscles, so that the tongue can come there. It is a long years’ practice, okay? If suddenly you swallow your tongue, then again the problem. So therefore we must have mastered exact practices; that’s called Khecharī mudrā. After this mudra, then you have to do one bandha. Which bandha? Jālandhara Bandha. You close your chin, and then automatically here the muscles will go back, and your tongue will pull inside automatically. You roll the tongue. And then inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. This purifies all the toxins from the body. That’s called Ujjāyī Prāṇāyāma. Do you know Ujjāyī Prāṇāyāma? Yes. And those who don’t know will know, and those who know already know now. This Khecharī mudra is very, very good for our health. We don’t know when we will get ambrosia and when we will become immortal. We are immortal, but physically I doubt that we will be immortal. One day we will go; the body is mortal. But those yogīs who are really practicing with whole heart and dedicated their life only for these practices, they are somewhere in the caves or in the forest, and they say that they come through this Khecharī Mudra and ambrosia from the Bindu Chakra; their body is trained so that slowly, slowly you don’t need solid or liquid nourishment. Your body begins to get the food, energy food, the sunlight and prāṇas from the body. I tried, and really, I could stay three weeks without eating. But then, you know what happened? It was boring. Nothing to eat. Everybody is eating pasta, goods, a lot of pizza, chapati, pakoras, samosas. They said, "Don’t you want to eat so much?" I said, "No." Then one day I said to myself, "Eat it." So it is life, even God was eating. Kṛṣṇa was eating. Shiva was eating. Everybody is eating, no? Rāma was, you think. "Gaṇeśa’s laddū. Pān chade, phool chade, aur chade mewa, laddūan kā bhog lage. Seva." So this is also part of life, but eat vegetarian, sāttvic balance. So this is the mudrā: Khecharī mudrā, Jñāna mudrā, Chin mudrā, and then there is called Aśvinī mudrā. That I will tell you tomorrow. Otherwise, you don’t know where I began and where I end. This was about mudrās, bandhas, and a little glimpse of yoga. How old is yoga? So, definitely, I can tell you yoga is older than us, okay? Yoga is not a kind of religion, and if then, all religions are part of the yoga because yoga is which brought the spirituality. Mantras, yantras, tantras, mantras, chakras, all came through the Śivas. So, this practice of the Khecharī mudrā. Now I must complete it a little bit, Khecharī mudrā. Now, when you see some Indians here—more Indians—they are not following all these things, but most Indians or Hare Kṛṣṇa people do. They have this; we call it Śikhā. You know this? Śikhā. Śikhā means flame. Śikhā means the top of the mountain, the highest point. This is the antenna. It receives the cosmic energy quickly, and we jump out of it. Then we are always full of stress because it cannot send the energy away. A good antenna, and this is exactly there where you have this, like a spiral. Now they have this śikhā, and then they turn it like this. Many ladies have good long hair, and they are also doing this every day. But then it’s too much, only a particular point. And then it’s called the Brahma Granthi, a knot, the Brahman knot. Now, with the mantra, that is the śikhā mantra also, but if you don’t know, then you can say... Now, what is happening? The whole day you have a little tension, a little pulling, and that keeps your Bindu Chakra active. Now, someone may be here who has no hair here. It can happen, why not? Especially men, you know. It means they will—no, I will not say. Now, what to do for that? Should we bring a perruque? Cap, hair cap, perruque? Very good technique. Do you know the sandalwood? You buy very nice sandalwood from some Indian shop. In this way, we keep the Indian economy a little higher. And morning after you are bathing, everything, you take a little sandalwood on the tip of this finger. Tilak, always with this finger. And then you put it there, a little sandalwood oil. Whole day there will be a very fine sensation like this, and it smells good. Don’t put too much till it runs here, everywhere, okay? Just a little, like a perfume, that will keep your Bindu Chakra active. Many mornings, when they go to bathe, first they take water and they put a few drops on the Bindu Chakra to calm down the anger, the heat which we have inside. So we should cool down. In Europe they say you should have warm feet and a cool head. When the head is hot, my God, then something is happening. So, Bindu Chakra, this Śikhā, Choṭī or Śikhā, this is the completeness of the human’s life and receiving the energy. So, this is a Jyoti, the flame. So, when the Indians bring a coconut to the temple or for Pūjā, they peel all the coconut skin, or what you call it, away. But on the top, they leave the śikhā. Is that true? There are many South Indians, you know, their favorite dish is with coconut, you know. Very good. Coconut is very good. So coconut is a symbol and the king of all nuts, and it is a hard nut to be opened. So it is a hard Bindu Chakra to be opened, but this is good for our health, good for our relaxation, good for our meditation, good to relax and find peace inside. And that’s why they put this śikhā or, here, a little oil or something. Ladies have anyhow long hair, so they are always... now ladies have very short and men have long hair. This is modern life now. Ladies have short pants, and men have long pants. Have so long, so they are all bringing all dust from the street into the house. So tomorrow we will come to another mudrā, Ājñā Chakra, and also the Aśvinī mudrā, and then we will come to the Mahāmudrā, Bandha, Uḍḍīyāna Bandha. Now, how does a bandha work in our body? This is a simple experiment today; we did it last time also, nearly every time we are doing. So, those who have not done it and those who did but can do it again, no problem. So, please take your left hand and look at your left hand. Yes. Your hand is beautiful. Clean, you feel the sensation from the tip of the finger. Keep relaxed. This is not a miracle, okay? It is only circulation. Blood is flowing down. That’s all, but we should feel more stronger now. Close your fist, thumb inside, tight, strong. And with your right hand, hold your wrist tight, very tight, okay? And slowly open your left palm and look to your palm. Different color tip. Of the fingers, thumb, fingers, now you will feel it. Concentrate on your palm. What will happen now? And now, look to the palm. Release the right hand, okay? You feel it. I think we should do it with the right hand also, otherwise the right hand will be offended. And we feel the difference. This is lighter, and this is heavier. Again, you place, close your fist. This is also mudra, you know. If you tell someone like this, he will be angry. So, hold your wrist tight, and now open the palm and release. So, bandha means to tighten. So, as the yogas, Rajendra has told, when your tire has a puncture, then you repair it with something. So the flow of the energy is blocked somewhere, something of this kind. Now, if you have someone expert in acupuncture, then test all your energy centers, they will function one hundred percent best, before not. Because the blood stopped it, blocked it, and we opened it, and it was like a flood, opened everything. This is this bandha. So tomorrow, and today actually, Gopāl Purī, I made him ready to make today Uḍḍīyana bandha, Jālandhara bandha, and more bandha, Mahā bandha. Okay? So you can come here in the front. There was a time I was thinner than you. Yeah. What are you doing? Explain it to them. But you have to do it today in standing, don’t bend, because you have to see. Keep on till I finish talking, okay? Okay, good, thank you. That’s all. Then it will come: Jālandhara Bandha, Mūla Bandha, and Uḍḍīyāna Bandha. That’s called then Mahābandha. So tomorrow we will come to this subject, today’s, if you have time. Is tomorrow the program? Hey Ganga, Gita, is there a program tomorrow also? Thank you. For today, that is enough.