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The Imperative of Daily Practice

A call to serious, daily yoga practice is essential for health and purification.

Many appear as practitioners but do not practice consistently at home, leading to physical problems. The body naturally produces vikāras (illnesses) and is dominated by the tamas and rajas guṇas. A sāttvic body, free from vikāra, must be cultivated through disciplined effort. When the body is impure, the mind and intellect become clouded with negative thoughts and dullness. This obscures one's reality. Therefore, consistent practice of āsana, prāṇāyāma, and cleansing techniques is the only means of thorough purification. Daily discipline, along with seasonal Śaṅkha Prakṣālana and weekly Kuñjalakriyā, prevents health issues. Diet must also become sāttvic, avoiding meat and eggs, while learning how and when to eat properly. The foundation is purifying āhāra (diet), vihāra (recreation), ācāra (behavior), and vicāra (thought).

"Practicing means at home, not just here. Here, you are only learning."

"When the body is not healthy, when it is full of vikāras, then the thoughts are also full of vikāras."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

I return to a very useful point in our life, one that I believe requires serious rethinking. This serious rethinking means we must not merely look like yoga practitioners. Around the world, a great deal of yoga practice is happening, and many are practicing seriously. Yet, perhaps 30% of you are regular practitioners, while 70% are not. We are the ones who become victims of various physical problems and illnesses. We possess a wonderful, complete scientific system where nothing is missing. So why do we have problems? The answer is simple: you do not practice. Practicing means at home, not just here. Here, you are only learning. Practicing for only one week does not help; it must be a continuous, daily process. I can point to many people. Look at his body—that person is a practitioner. Then I can bring another person here, perhaps even a yoga teacher, and you can see the difference if he or she is not a practitioner. We must change entirely. Everyone who comes to Yoga in Daily Life must seriously practice at home for the sake of their health. Spirituality comes afterward; it is automatically there if you feel physically well. Our body is full of vikāra and tamas guṇa. When vikāra and tamas guṇa are present, you are not a yogī. Vikāra means illnesses. Vikāra means dead energy—those energies in the body that cause illness. It is the nature of the body to create vikāras. It is the nature of the body to produce the three guṇas: tāmasika, rājasika, and sāttvika. For the tāmasika guṇa, you don't have to support anything; it is inertia. For the rajas guṇa, you must support it with activity. But for the sattva guṇa, you have to work a lot. We must be sāttvic. Where there is a sāttvic body, there is no vikāra. Vikāra exists in the mind as well. When the body is not healthy, when it is full of vikāras, then the thoughts are also full of vikāras. When thoughts are full of vikāra, then the activities of the indriyas (senses) are full of vikāras—negative activities. When the mind is full of vikāras and thoughts, then buddhi (the intellect) becomes dull. This means vikāra is now in the buddhi as well. When the intellect is afflicted by vikāra, your pure knowledge is affected. It becomes covered, like a cloud or fog covers the sun. Your reality is obscured by those vikāras and negative qualities. Therefore, nothing else can be done but to practice yoga. There is no other way to purify the body so thoroughly. Do not think this is only about having extra kilos or not; that is a different matter. You must continue practicing every day and seasonally practice Śaṅkha Prakṣālana, Kuñjalakriyā, Netikriyā, and Prāṇāyāma. You will have no health problems. So why not begin this year again? Let us enter the new year with full discipline and a healthy program. The food we eat is also full of tāmas guṇa and rajas guṇa. The same food can be prepared in a different way to become sāttvic food. Of course, we should avoid all kinds of eggs, meat, alcohol, and so on. But you also have to learn how to cook. I estimate 85% of the people sitting here in front of me do not know how to cook. You have lost the knowledge of cooking and developed a wrong taste in your mouth. This means 95% of us do not know how to eat, and 100% do not know when to eat. This is our problem. I see two sides here. Should I think commercially, or should I think in a healthy way? We have healthy food cooked here, yet there is a shorter queue. At the bakery, where there are sugary things, there is a crowd. I know it is good for them to earn money, but I can tell you it is not healthy for you. I am in the middle. I am for you, and I am for others too. Whom should I support? I will support both. Supporting you means you should avoid such eating. Supporting them means they should make some healthy things—healthy salads, homegrown or sprouted seeds, methī seeds, things like that. Both sides are important. Therefore, why don't we think of our health today? Let me ask: those who have not done Śaṅkha Prakṣālana this year, before this winter comes, please raise your hands. Thank you. And who here is not a practitioner of Yoga in Daily Life? Please raise your hand. Okay. How can you be a practitioner if you have not completed the fourth Śaṅkha Prakṣālana this year? There are still 35 days left. Those who have not practiced it should do so before the year ends. Instead of eating Christmas bakery, eat nice Śaṅkha Prakṣālana kichṛī. Hurry up and do it before Christmas Day comes. You can eat Christmas bakery; there is nothing wrong. But can you keep the limitation? And may I kindly ask the parents: during lectures, if possible, could you remove three- or four-year-old children from the lecture hall? I should not have to repeat this every time. Thank you very much. Now, regarding the question of Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. A complication occurred once due to a person's mistake, not the leader's. That person was hospitalized for just a few hours. The case was this: the person used to take hormonal tablets for the thyroid gland and forgot to take them. You know, many Europeans think, "Don't eat salt." But I tell you, avoiding salt completely is not good. You should eat salt. Many people are so fanatic they don't eat salt, and then there is a lack of potassium. So don't be fanatic. Salt is good. You need a little salt—of course, not 100 grams every day, but perhaps 10 grams if you are active. For those doing Śaṅkha Prakṣālana and taking medicine—for hormones, blood pressure, diabetes, or other conditions—you must take your medicine two hours before the Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. Then complications will not arise. Please, always do Śaṅkha Prakṣālana with an expert teacher nominated by me or Yoga in Daily Life. If you do it two or three times with a teacher and then think, "Now I know how to do it at home," that is not advisable. Four times a year, every third month, you should do Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. Every week, on Saturday or Monday morning, you should do Kuñjalakriyā. Because on weekends we tend to eat a little more, and with eating come difficulties. Mahāprabhujī said that to eat little and to forgive little is difficult for many people. Therefore, Monday Kuñjalakriyā is very good. Neti you should do almost every day, only in the morning. Agniśāra Kriyā you should do every day. Uḍḍīyāna Bandha you should do every day. And for five minutes, you should do Kapālabhāti or Bhasṭrikā Prāṇāyāma every day. This program must be followed, along with your regular āsanas and prāṇāyāma. So, five minutes of Bhasṭrikā should be done every day. About two or three minutes of Agniśāra Kriyā must be done every day. Neti should be done every day. Every Monday, Kuñjalakriyā; every third month, Śaṅkha Prakṣālana; and āsana and prāṇāyāma should be done for a minimum of half an hour to one and a half hours every day. I am waiting until next year, at the end of November or beginning of December, to see faces in this hall that have immense energy—active, positive, and sāttvic energy. Eat whatever you like, except meat, eggs, fish, and so on, but make sure you can digest it 100%. Digesting does not mean you are hungry again after a few hours. It means your body takes all the nutrition it needs from your nourishment. I suggest you begin again, seriously practicing Yoga in Daily Life. You people have to become an example. Most of those sitting here are teachers. What is the condition of the teachers? I do not want to offend anyone, but if I asked the teachers to stand up, the picture might not be so good. So it is better you remain seated. Yoga teachers, you must become an example again. Think back: all of you who came to yoga, you did not come because of Swāmījī. When you first saw me, you likely thought, "Who is this?" But then, slowly, you thought, "Oh, not bad." So ask yourself: what was your motivation the first time you came to yoga? How much do you feel the fulfillment of that initial motivation? The first happiness is a healthy body. We are not immortal; we know that sooner or later we will die. Thanks to God we do not know when, where, or how. We hope our death will be quick and without suffering. But you know, those who are lazy, full of tamas guṇa and illnesses... it is like living in a coffin. A lazy body, an undisciplined body, an angry body—it is a dead body, and you are inside it. Therefore, wash out tamas guṇa. Wash out vikāra. We do not want vikāra; we want ācāra and vicāra. Ācāra means behavior. If you remember, I have given you four points constantly over the last four years. Are you thinking about what I am telling you? Do you change your life accordingly? No. If you had changed, you would look different. You would not have so many long letters of complaint—three or four pages written. I am used to listening to complaints. One day, if I do not get a complaint letter, I feel bored and wonder what happened. But no, the sun never sets without receiving some complaints—towards themselves, towards others, and even towards me. Do not think I sit here thinking all is holy and no one does wrong. They may behave well in front of Swāmī, but when they are alone... yes. This is a vikāra, a mental vikāra. Jesus was crucified by this. Krishna was also affected by this. Rama also suffered from this. Why? Because of people's mental vikāras. Do you think for all who are sitting here, everything is okay? No. How many times do you change your vicāras (thoughts)? "Why is Swāmījī doing this? Why doesn't he do that? Why does he speak like that? Why can he not speak like this? Why does he support this person and not me? Why does he eat like that? Why does he go like that? Why can't I sit near him, like Arjuna Purī?" Of course, there was only one Arjuna for Krishna. You can also try. Learn languages, sit here and try. I will be happy; you can sit here, but you have to become worthy of it. Every day: complain, complain, complain. And for every answer I give, I have to think fifty-one times over whether to say yes or no. Even if I would like to say no, I sometimes say yes as a form of self-protection. Can you imagine? I am not lying. Christmas time and Dīvālī time are holy times, yet this is the condition. So I have told you constantly over the last few years: four things. Āhāra, Vihāra, Ācāra, and Vicāra. Āhāra is diet. Vihāra is where to go and where not to go. Vicāra is what to think. And Ācāra is behavior. It is a hard life. To be a human is beautiful, but it is also hard. We are in this school to become perfect, in the school of perfection. Therefore, you have to purify yourself. Begin to practice again, and finally wake up. We are stuck in tamas guṇa: coffee, jam, biscuit, chocolate... You keep putting it in, putting it in. The body becomes an endless garbage box. In the morning, when you wash and dress, you say, "My God, I have so much." Do not blame the scale machine; do not blame your dress. Blame this: the overweight problem. You are not forced to have extra kilos. Check what you are eating per day and what kind of food it is. Please eat healthy. Bread is good. Butter is good. Cheese is good. Cake is good. Chocolate is good. But with limitation. Eat fruits. Make a point at home to have salad and healthy things. I suggest you should do Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. Exceptions exist for individual problems; those should consult a doctor—preferably a yoga doctor. For example, we can ask our Dr. Martin to advise who should absolutely not do Śaṅkha Prakṣālana and what the alternative is. Yes, there are many things. In Āyurveda, there is something called Sonāmukhī. Every fourth night, you take Sonāmukhī; it functions like a Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. Or in allopathic medicine in Europe, they use bitter salt (Epsom salt). Every fourth night, you take half a teaspoon or a teaspoon (ask a doctor). Take it in the evening, and in the morning you have a cleansing effect like Śaṅkha Prakṣālana. But these are only if you cannot do Śaṅkha Prakṣālana due to certain physical complications. Then we will not have problems with the nose, sneezing, or flu. You are a yogī. How do you look now? I am surprised that you do not look like a yogī. After 33 years in Czechoslovakia, I saw one good yogī. I have been coming here for two years. Do you know why he is a good yogī? Thanks to his wife, yes. If Hanka would not be a very good and careful cook... if Hanka would not cook pohanka (buckwheat)... if Hanumān (perhaps meaning the man) would not make a lot of compromises, he would not be like that. So I wish all you men such a wife—full of tolerance, compromise, and understanding. It is not easy for her, but like Hanka. Look now: many of you are sitting inside with a cap and a jacket. And look at him—he has nothing on, and he is nearly 75... or how old are you? 65. Because he is seriously practicing, he is an example. His body does not have those vikāras, and when the body does not have vikāra, the mind does not have it either. You can sit thinking, "I am the Supreme," but what to do with your "Supreme"? Go home and sit? Tell your wife, "I am Supreme." She will say, "Okay, go and work." So what is my main concern? That your health condition should be perfect. You know, especially in the Czech Republic, there are insurance companies that will support you. You will have life insurance and pay less if you practice every day. What good news. In America, there are insurance companies where you pay only half if you are a yoga practitioner. In America, when a man is very rude to his wife or a wife to her husband, the court can order one year of attending yoga classes. They must bring one year of attendance records from a yoga teacher. This is not a joke; it was in Austrian newspapers three times. That is why I am talking according to the newspapers. In Germany, if you practice yoga under trained teachers, insurance covers certain costs. So you have a double benefit: financial and good health. Then why not begin to practice yourself before teaching others? So, again, let us make a saṅkalpa (resolve) that in six months, by summer, my body will have a yogic appearance and I will be perfectly healthy. You can do it. It depends on you. You should throw away the copy of your dead body—that laziness, that tāmasa guṇa.

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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