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Part 1: The Essence of Satsaṅg and Overcoming Disturbances How was the evening? No problem, you can go behind Mummy and eat. It’s for her. So, bhajan—beautiful bhajans, thank you. Bhajan is the best way of learning and teaching. Actually, if we think more deeply towards this spirituality, then the real practicing of yoga, the real yoga sādhanā, is satsaṅg and the bhajans. Of course, the physical exercises, āsanas, prāṇāyāms, and relaxations are also very important. But these are the preliminary steps of yoga. Yoga āsana is very important, but there is something that Maharṣi Patañjali speaks about as āsanas. Yoga was designed to be as comfortable as possible, as simple as possible, and as effective and beneficial as possible, for prevention as well as for treatment. Maharṣi Patañjali was a great, very great yogī, and I would say that he is the father of psychology. Patañjali researched the human phenomenon, human body, human mind, human thoughts, human consciousness, human emotion, intellect, the soul and ātmā, antaḥkaraṇa, the indriyas. The function of each indriya is how it influences our body, mind, thoughts, and every organ. So it’s amazing how Ṛṣi Patañjali worked on this human’s life. And he understood that all problems which a human is facing are in their thinking, their way of thinking. And he speaks in the Patañjali Sūtras: kleśa, kleśa, and there are different kinds of kleśas and vikṣepas and kleśas. Vikṣepa means the disturbances, and disturbances cause the kleśas. Kleśa means the troubles or inner struggling, inner fighting. So, the vikṣepa—let us say, for example, that you are meditating now, and the neighbor is working on something, drilling. Then he stops, and then he makes the screwdriver and the screw to fix the screw, and then he drops something, and then again he takes the screwdriver or the drilling machine, and then again back, and then again nothing. You are meditating. Now, actually, you are not meditating now. You are constantly connected to that person who is working and what he is doing. And you are thinking, again he will do something. And then again he is going, and again. So now, this work, of course, has to be done. It is very good, not bad at all. Something has to be fixed, but your meditation is also very good. But how should he know that you are meditating? If you go and tell, "Please, can you stop for one hour?" then he will say, "Yes, I will do it, but one hour costs my professional work four hundred dollars, including the taxes and the way." So, who knows how one thinks of this? That sound is disturbing us. It means vikṣepa. I always see it in a different way. When I am somewhere—and you know, nearly ten months, nearly a whole year, you can say that I am traveling all the time—and you know, in one year, even I don’t know in how many beds I slept, and in how many rooms. Often, when you are tired and you sleep, and then you have to go to the bathroom, you get up, everything is dark, and now you don’t know which direction the bathroom is. It happens. But though I would be very tired in this, I know that someone is working and making noise. I don’t feel disturbed because I tell myself that this work has to be done. So this is a working sound; it’s not a disturbing sound for me. But you are resting or meditating, and somebody is sitting in the other room and talking all the time. That disturbs because they are not working; they are gāśāping. So it’s different between work and gṛhastha. If you have very important meetings or talking, then again I see a different angle, because this has to be spoken, organized. So this is not for me, the vikṣepa, disturbances. So Patañjali, he recessed all the feelings, and then he gives the exact instruction for that. And so in our self-inquiry meditation, like Patañjali said, and that we put it: What am I thinking? In meditation we put a question: What am I thinking? Why did I think? What should I think and why should I think? What did I think? What am I thinking? Why am I thinking and what should I think? This question. Now, you put this question that, in the same way, there is in self-inquiry meditation. There is something that disrupts you. So you analyze what kind of sound it is, and from where the sound is coming, or from which direction. And now, what is that? The cause of the sound is that someone is repairing his car. Now, why should I feel disturbed? Because of my selfishness. I want to have my peace. But that person who is repairing his car also needs it done very urgently. So what will I think between these two: my selfishness, that I want to have peace and meditation? And I will think about fixing a car. So I will first put my positive thinking to that. How? If I don’t find positive words for that or thoughts, then I will come back to myself and ask: Boy, suppose you have to travel to some village or somewhere urgently, and there is no other transportation, but your car is a little bit out of order. So you gave it to the mechanic, and we asked the mechanic, "Please, can you do it as quickly as possible?" So now he’s making noise, and I’m meditating here, but I’m happy. Now, in this case, I’m happy. My selfishness is gone. How? There, and came again back to me, it is in my favor. So that doesn’t disturb me. I am happy that he’s working and fixing my car. So it doesn’t disturb me. I meditate. That noise becomes a pleasurable noise for me, because my car is repaired. But if it’s somebody else and I’m selfish, then I say, "Oh God, there’s always noise in this workshop." So, vikṣepa—this is one example. So there are many, many, many vikṣepas in the world. And this vikṣepa causes kleśa in our mind. Kleśa means disharmony. Kleśa means the troubles. When in one family there is some kind of fighting or some kind of argument, and they are talking, "No, you did this and that, this and this," this is disharmony in the family. Children don’t follow, parents don’t like, parents are fighting, wife doesn’t like this, husband doesn’t like this. Then they come and say, "Gurudev, can you help, or can you pray for us, or send your blessing, and that kind of mantra, that from our house, vikṣepa goes away? We have vikṣepa in our house." So there is mantra, there is sādhanā, and now you have to find the cause of the vikṣepa. Maybe there is a vikṣepa, if you remember, before five days we spoke about ancestors. One day before Holi, we spoke that we should follow the roots of our creation. From where we come, our ancestors, and this and that. So maybe from that side, vikṣyāpa is coming. Then Patañjali put there a very nice answer, and he said, "Tritāpa." Tāpa means heat, and now here heat also means problems, disturbances, sufferings, again vikṣepa: ādhibhautik, ādhidaivik, and ādhyātmik. This Tritāpa is very clearly and very nicely, precisely written in the Hidden Powers in Humans book, the Chakras and Kuṇḍalinī. Actually, this book is a great help for all spiritual seekers, all practitioners. And even they don’t practice, but this book has a very great help to the people in their life to understand the life situation. Hidden Powers in Humans is very, very much appreciated. And you can say, in some countries, a best-selling book. You have, I think, 12 languages translations, you can get this book. So, Ādhibhautik, Ādhidaivik, and Ādhyātmik, these are the three levels. Disturbances from the creatures, even the mosquito, that belong to that point. And the social problems, and the psychic problems, mental problems, emotional problems, intellectual problems, many, many problems on the other level, in the astral level, from the astral energy, what in Christianity they call the holy spirit. How do you understand the holy spirit? We just said holy spirit, but what is that holy spirit? And then they said angels, so what are the angels? We call angels apsarās, and mostly angels are the female power. Angels are mostly, and then devas. So, angel is nothing else than, you can translate, devas. If you believe in angels, they are our patron, our protector, or our iṣṭa devatā of the family property. One is called Kṣetrapāl, and Kṣetrapāl is that which is guarding your property. Nowadays, you have a living Kṣetrapāl, and that’s your dog. You ride sometime on the road; be aware of the dog. Some ride, the dog is on guard. This is your Kṣetrapāl. And then we have another guard that’s called sensor light. If you come near, the light goes on. Yeah, these are to remove the negative energy away, and then more. We have first our Chhatrapal dog, then we have a sensor light, and then we have a third one more, and that’s the alarm. And now, still, you don’t care about all three. Then we have the fourth one, which comes with the blue light. Blue light, you know, the police. And so, this is nowadays, this and that means that now this vikṣepas, these kleśas which are in your three tapas, therefore the mantra to remove this, Holy Gurujī wrote very nicely in one bhajan: "Tinoī tāp pāp miṭāve, avichal sukha pāve. Paramānandan deep niranjan śabduk bhanjan." When you repeat this mantra, your three tapas will be purified. The sins through which sin, these three tapas are giving us the troubles. That troubles the sin is deleted. Avichal Sukhpave. Avichal means unmovable happiness. Unmovable. In our case, we are happy for a little time, and then again we are sad. And again we are happy, and again. So, up and down, up and down. But when we practice disciplined and concentrated, then, with niyama and śīla, discipline regularly, then these kleśas and vikṣepas are purified. Avichala is unmovable, sukha pavaya. Sukha means, there is no translation in English for this word, so we can only say happiness. Though happiness is a different word in Hindi, so sukha and duḥkha. Duḥkha is trouble, suffering. Permanent happiness enters in your heart, but at the same time, Mahāprabhujī said differently. Mahāprabhujī said, in this one beautiful bhajan, what Patañjali said. You try to get clarity in your mind, but Gurujī said that all these tapas will remove. Now you came under your best highway, comfortable, but you got it again, troubles. Why? Mana sab khoyore kushang yo keshang. Oh, my mind. But you lost everything with the kuṣaṅga, negative society. The blackmailing, how does it function? It’s very interesting, very interesting. There’s a small story. Should I tell a story? Gyananand, you like these stories? Really, you love stories? Okay. So there is one story: there was one man, and every day he used to go to one street lady, a prostitute. And his wife was very, very sad and jealous. She was very sad, what to do? And he didn’t care. In that village, one day when Swāmījī came and gave the satsaṅg, he spoke about all these kleśas, vikṣepas, and all this. That lady asked, "Can I talk to you, please, Swamiji, in person, a few words?" He said, "Yes, my daughter, come, sit. What can I do for you?" Sit on this problem. Guruji, if you can solve this problem of mine, that would be one of the best blessings in my life, because I am suffering. Human feelings. He said, "Well, I can’t promise you, but I will try." I have to go to her. He said, "No, no,..." Don’t go there. People will throw stones at you. He said, "It doesn’t matter. I’m going for good things, and still they throw the stones." They will get the stone in their life back. So he went into the neighboring village. So Swamiji went there and he asked, "There’s this and this kind of name of one prostitute living in Kenya." He said, "What? Always looking." He said, "No, no, I want to go there." So they said, "Oh, there." Now he’s going, walking there, and he asked if he could come in. She said, "Yes, come." She had a nice big glass window on the second floor. She could see who was coming. They could see inside who was sitting there, and he went in. He said, "Can I sit near the window?" She said, "Yes, sit here." He said, "Well, I just came to bless you." She said, "How nice. I don’t know what a blessing is, but I heard the sādhu will give you something, whatever gives something good, so thank you." He said, "I want to tell you one thing." She said, "Yes." So, can you come near? I will tell you near your ear. So she said, "Yes." And he said only one word, "Don’t tell anyone." And he said, "Hari Om, can I go? Bless you, my daughter, all the best." When he was telling her in the ear like this, that man who used to come was standing there somewhere. And Swamiji left. He was so angry about what he did. Now he went to her and he said, "Why was the sadhu here?" Well, he came to bless me and this and that. What did he tell you? Well, I cannot tell you anything. He said, "Why?" Because he told me only, "Don’t tell anyone." But he said, "You can tell me." She said, "No, what should I tell you? I cannot, because he said, 'Don’t tell anyone.'" He said, "Here you are. I will never come back to you." He went home, hurry home. And he went home, and he said to his wife, "I’m so sorry, darling. I’m so sorry. Excuse me, please. But I give you a promise that everything I finished, I changed my life." And in the evening, Swāmījī was in satsaṅg in the other village, and she came with, she made nice laḍḍus, sweet laḍḍus and prasāda. And she was so smiling. Swamiji said, "Yes, my daughter." She said, "Swamiji, it seems your blessing was functioning." He said it was God’s willpower. So one sentence changed, and even that lady was also released from this person who was all the time jealous and troubling her. But Swamījī took the risk on him to go there. One day, he went there and taught this. So the blackmailing negative worlds also act exactly like this. When you are sitting there and meditating, but now you don’t have meditation. All the time, these thoughts are in you. When you sleep, you can’t sleep because all the time these thoughts are in you. Part 2: The Power of a Single Thought: Vikṣepa, Vṛtti, and Inner Harmony Patañjali explains how the human intellect, mind, and emotions can become fixated on a single thought. Long ago, someone told me that in modern advertising, the most effective method is to use just one word or sentence. You might see a large billboard with ample space, yet it bears only one phrase: "Yoga and daily life." That is all. We could write more: yoga and daily life is good for harmony, for body and mind, for āsanas and prāṇāyāma. But this is unnecessary. No one has time to read lengthy text on the highway. A single sentence—"yoga and daily life"—is enough. Whoever is interested will understand. Similarly, Mahāprabhujī said, "Your hard work is lost in the company of negative persons who blackmail without knowing." A person, while returning home, kept thinking, "How terrible she is. I trusted her, and she followed only him." She even told me that he said, "Don’t tell anyone." Am I "anyone"? But she could not say anything different. Thus, vikṣepa (distraction, agitation) creates kleśa (afflictions), and kleśa can destroy an entire family. This agitation causes the vṛttis (mental modifications), and the vṛttis are like this: I always give this example. Imagine a peaceful, beautiful pond or small lake. You go there, take a small stone, and throw it into the middle of the water. What do you see? Waves. Not just one wave, but one after another, radiating outward like a disc. Decades ago, we had disc players, gramophones with records. You may recall "His Master's Voice." There is a story: a friend was a great artist, singer, and musician, but he was very poor—great people are often poor. He would play, and his dog would sit and listen to him, as there was no one else. Therefore, on the best quality gramophone records, there is a picture of "His Master's Voice" with a sitting dog. It is now a masterpiece, an antique. But let us not digress. This vikṣepa creates the vṛttis. You throw a stone of interest born from vikṣepa, and then wave after wave appears—that is a vṛtti. From one thought, you multiply many, many thoughts. You argue with yourself, pose questions to yourself, answer yourself, and always return to that central point. What was its quality? Was it negative or positive? Patañjali speaks very clearly of kliṣṭa vṛtti. There are some vṛttis which are akliṣṭa, meaning they do not cause affliction; they create positive thoughts, not disturbances or conflict. Kliṣṭa is kleśa. It will create kleśa. It begins first within you, then with your spouse, your children, people in traffic, your colleagues, and so on. It is like a fire that spreads. A bushfire is very hard to extinguish. The people of New Zealand are very clever. In the forest, they create a clear space of about 20 or 30 meters. If a fire starts, there is no grass or fuel in that gap, so it cannot easily reach the other side. Gyānānand, you explained this to me, as I did not know. I always wondered why there are so many gravel roads on the hills. Is it for walking or biking? They told me the thinking is for fire protection. They dig a little trench, then make a gravel road, then another trench. The idea is that embers fly and fall into the deep part. I adopted this idea during our desert tour. Do you remember, Gyānānand, when we made a dhūni (fire pit)? I told you to build it with a wall, a hill, then a deeper area, then the fire. This is how we must find protection for ourselves. For a spiritual sādhaka, this is very important. Therefore, I return to Patañjali. Āsanas and prāṇāyāmas are very classical and gentle. In yoga, there is no competition and no challenge. The system "Yoga in Daily Life" is designed according to ancient literature and has been considered by modern psychologists, doctors, and ancient psychologists like Patañjali and Garen Sumitra, among many others. What is important and interesting is that if you insert one different exercise into the sequence, it will create an imbalance in your system, and there will be no success. Some people take this system and, because they do not wish to use the name "yoga" in their teaching, they try to insert a few different exercises. I feel sorry for the practitioners, for what kind of physical vikṣepa will then appear in their organs. When vikṣepa is not only in your mind, it appears in your organs, your glandular systems, your circulation, and your digestion. Then vikṣepa attacks your joints. You become like a car that is completely ruined. Therefore, follow the system. Follow very balanced, harmonious postures and exercises. Then you will feel safe and very good, and your spirituality will grow. Otherwise, spirituality cannot be given to you like prasāda (blessed offering). You cannot buy spirituality in the market, nor can you obtain it by force from somewhere. It is a practice. When waves begin in the lake or pond, Patañjali tells us what to do. Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." Through the practice of yoga, you self-neutralize all the vṛttis. Vṛttis are the thoughts in our mind which we cannot stop. Even if you do not want them, thoughts are there. You meditate, and thoughts are there. You are angry with your neighbors. I know a neighbor who does not like that I practice yoga, and he knows when I am meditating. At that time, he makes noise. For one week he went on holiday, and you think, "Thanks to God." But you know in one week he will return. "That nasty man, he was always disturbing me." So, he is not here, but he is there in your mind. There is a story I often tell about two monks who were traveling. They were called the White Brothers. Their master said, "After twelve years, come to me, not before." After about two years, they were sitting by the bank of a river under a beautiful tree, eating some fruits. A lady came and said, "Brothers, can you help me?" They said, "Yes, what?" She said, "Can you help me cross the river? I cannot swim, and my father sent me to bring something from the other side." They said, "Okay, no problem. We will do it. Come and share some fruits with us if you wish. We are also going to the other side, so we will help you." She said, "I cannot swim." They said, "No problem." After 10-15 minutes, they said, "Let's go." One of them said to the lady, "You should hold my shoulders, and I will swim." He carried her on his back, swam across the river, and the other brother swam beside them. He reached the other bank, dropped her off, and said, "Bye-bye, all the best." She asked, "Thank you very much. What can I do for you?" They said, "No, everything is okay. Thank you, be happy." She insisted, "But I would like to ask if I can do anything for you at any time." The man who carried her said, "Yes, then do one thing: learn swimming." And they went on their way. After ten years, they were approaching the place where their Master lived. It was a beautiful night, Guru Pūrṇimā was the next day, and the moonlight was splendid. They could not sleep because they were so happy. "We will see our Gurudev tomorrow!" The whole night they were happy, waiting for the next day, for Gurujī had said, "Come under Guru Pūrṇimā after 12 years." They were sitting together, reminiscing about the hard times and good times. It was very hard to be away from Gurujī for twelve years. They wondered what Gurujī would ask them and what they would tell him. One brother said to the other, "What will you answer when Gurujī asks you one thing?" He said, "What?" The first brother said, "Gurujī told us, 'Don’t touch any woman.' But you didn’t just touch her; you carried her on your back." He replied, "Yes, that’s very interesting. But what will you answer?" The first brother said, "Why? I didn’t even hold her hand." "No, no," said the second, "I didn’t say this. Not only her hand. What do you mean?" The first brother explained, "Well, I carried her on my back just to cross the river, and I dropped her there. But I am surprised that still, after ten years, you are carrying her within you. For ten years she has existed in your mind. What will you answer to that?" These are the vikṣepas and vṛttis that you cannot get rid of. Unless you clean such vṛttis—negatives about anything: your job, your friends, your family, your horse, your dog, your car, your business—you will not find peace. How to clean them? It means to establish a harmonious relationship with your inner problems. Patañjali speaks of "yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ"—through yoga practice you can harmonize or neutralize your citta vṛtti. For example, you can place a window frame or a glass pane in the middle of the water where the waves are created, as a wave breaker. Very soon the waves will subside. Similarly, make a protective frame around yourself so that all vṛttis and vikṣepas are blocked. In that, sudhāra-kriyā, which I explained yesterday, is important. There are different śaktis within us: āsurī-śaktis, daivī-śaktis, and others. We guard our physical property, our body. We must also guard our emotional properties and learn to deny harmful influences. You have to respect yourself. Yoga exercises are good. You can run, you can do stretching, many things. Some yogīs say, "Why do you talk to your body?" Patañjali said Sukhāsana. Sukhāsana is a comfortable posture, comfortable exercises. That will harmonize your body, mind, and your soul. That is why "Yoga in Daily Life" is harmony of body, mind, and spirit. But if you insert something foreign into the practice, this harmony is disturbed. When harmony is disturbed, the body suffers and the soul suffers. Everything becomes individualistic, and when the individual is isolated, it is a problem. So, practice and vṛttis. I wanted to translate today’s bhajan, but now the time is gone. You were in the presence of your Sadgurudev, and you listened to his words, his bachan (words of wisdom). But through kuśaṅgas (bad company or influences), in your spiritual practices (bhajans), a stone has been thrown by someone into the beautiful lake of your being. Bhang means split, destroyed, dissolved, changed. What result came out of that? First, you lost your jñāna (knowledge). You lost your dhyāna (meditation); you cannot meditate, as the vṛtti is always there. And you lost your bhakti (devotion). When bhakti is lost, it is like a bird that has lost its wings. Now death, like a cat, is coming. The bird is moving its muscles, but there are no wings to take off. Why? Because these three are lost: jñāna, dhyāna, and bhakti. Everything is lost. Gyāna, dhyāna, bhakti, sab khoī. Chhut gayī satsaṅg. And what was the most important thing? You lost—or rather, you gave up—satsaṅg (holy company). Chhut gayī satsaṅg. Sat paramārta sukhārita bhūlo. And now what happened? You forgot to do good things. You forgot to perform seva (selfless service). All that you now deny. Chal rayo kudhang. And now you are walking, moving in a different direction. You see, when an angry person says, "Ah, I don’t want this," and walks away, you know how they walk. We will translate the bhajan tomorrow. So, my dear brothers and sisters, all the listeners on our webcast, I wish you a beautiful day and a beautiful time. God bless you. Take care that the vikṣepa and kleśa of saṃsāra do not approach your inner self. Kliṣṭa or akliṣṭa vṛttis—only you can cleanse them. Negative thoughts and positive thoughts: only you have to put them in order within your inner self. Positive thoughts will lead you to the positive, and negative thoughts will lead you to the negative. Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpan Hamsabhādās Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Hamsabhādās Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpanārāya. Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpanārāya. Śrī Dīpanārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī, Śrī Śrī Devpurījī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Satguru Swāmī Madhavān Jī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ.