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Human Life Is A Great Blessing

Human life is the singular opportunity to end the cycle of birth and death. We are bound by time and karma, creating it through thought, word, and deed. Our human intellect and qualities are given to attain self-realization and merge with pure consciousness. Yet, we remain entangled in the material world, influenced by culture and environment. The practice of mercy and renunciation is essential; renounce negative qualities completely, as one spits something out. Our physical health, through correct diet and authentic yoga, supports this spiritual aim. Without disciplined practice, this precious chance is wasted.

"Human life is a great blessing. There must be some reason why the Creator gave this soul a human body, human intellect, and human talents."

"Refrain from offensive, harsh words. If you are injured by a knife, the wound will heal... But when we are injured by words from the heart, that will not heal."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Good morning to everyone. Welcome. It is a truly beautiful day. It is Sunday, and Sunday should always be sun-shining. So, welcome. I have received many greetings and very positive feedback. Congratulations to the technician on the camera; the picture and sound quality are very, very good. People from overseas have called and sent messages that they were so happy with the excellent quality of yesterday's and the day before yesterday's satsaṅg. Many people from Zámoria also called and wrote. So, welcome and blessings to all the dear ones. Time does not wait for anyone, and karma does not leave anyone free. These two things are the same. The weekend is going to end; that is why it is called the weekend. But where the end begins again, and where the beginning ends again. We are tired of it—to begin and end, and begin and end. For many lives we are born, we die, and we are born again. There is one story, a real one. I will not finish the whole story; I will tell you only the beginning. It is about Bhagavān Śiva. Śiva is the first one in the entire universe, known as Svayambhū. The residence of Lord Śiva is Mount Kailāśa; that is his seat, his āsana. Pārvatī, whose name means the princess of the Himalayas, is the daughter of the king of the Himālaya. 'Parvat' means mountains. There is also a story about the great Ṛṣi Nārada. Nārada has a talent: to travel physically in all the three worlds. His duty is to bring the message of God, Viṣṇu. Nārada is also known as a bit of a troublemaker, but there is some sense in it. He brings people to overthink. One day, Śiva went for a walk, as usual, through the hills. Pārvatī said, "I am tired, I will not go today." Bhagavān Śiva said, "As you like." So Śiva was far in the hills, walking. Nārada found the chance to speak to Pārvatī. He saw that Śiva and Pārvatī were very much in harmony and everything was very good. So he thought, "I should bring little movements." He came to Pārvatī and said, "My adoration to you, Mother." She was happy and blessed him. She asked Nārada, "What brought you here?" He replied, "No, Divine Mother, I was just going to another place. Suddenly I looked down and saw you sitting here. How could I ignore you and just continue my journey? How fortunate I am to have your darśan and blessings." She blessed him, and he began to go. After a few seconds, he said, "Yes, Mother, but I have one question." First, he had said, "I came only for darśan, nothing else." Then he said, "I have some questions." "Yes," she said. "Do you know, Mother, why Lord Śiva has a big garland, a big necklace of human skulls?" She said, "I do not know. It is his choice, his ornament. I do not ask him, and he does not ask me. That is our mutual understanding." He said, "Yes, but I am interested. Can you ask him and sometime please tell me why? But do not tell Śiva, otherwise I will have a hard time." Later, Śiva came back from his walk, and Pārvatījī asked him, "Lord, why do you have this mālā, this garland of skulls?" Śiva said, "Divine one, Pārvatī, do not ask such questions." "Why not? I want to know." "This is a long story," he said. "It is a very long story." "But you can tell me, from whom are all these skulls? They look very similar." Śiva said, "Pārvatī, leave it. Let us talk differently." She said, "No, I want to know, please. Because people are asking me, 'Why are the skulls hanging?'" He said, "Pārvatī, this story is very long." She said, "No problem, we have time in the Himalayas, nothing to do." Śiva said, "Pārvatī, you know how much I love you. You are my part, you are half of me. And this is your skull, my skull. Yes, dear one, so many times you died, and out of love for you, I carry your skull with me. This is your skull. It is love for you, respect for you, faithfulness to you." Pārvatī said, "It is very sad. It is terrible." He said, "I told you, do not ask me. And now you put the question." She said, "Of course. So what? This is not justice. You are still alive, and so many times I had to die. Why do you not make me also so that I will never die? Then you do not have to carry such a heavy load." He said, "Pārvatī, I am immortal." "But you are immortal. Then teach me immortality; do not keep it secret," she said. "It is not so easy." "It does not matter, I want to learn so that I will not die." So Śiva said, "Time will come, I will teach you. I will teach you the science of immortality." And there, the Guru Gītā was spoken by Śiva himself. Now, what is happening? Next time I will tell you. So, welcome to you all. It is said that human life is a great blessing. There must be some reason why the Creator gave this soul a human body, human intellect, and human talents. This is to attain realization, self-realization, to step out of the cycle of birth and death. Śiva is that pure consciousness. There is what is called Jīva and Śiva, Māyā and Brahmā. We are in the Māyā. We are the jīva, and we are bound by time and karma. We would like to merge into the Śiva consciousness, or merge into the Brahman. You may call it Śiva, you may call it Viṣṇu, you may call it Parameśvara, Īśvara, or Holy Father. Holy Father is the creator, Brahmā. Brahmā is the Holy Father, and Śiva and Viṣṇu are different. Human life is where we have better intellect and better qualities, and this is given to us to get out of this circle. Through karma: with our thinking we create karma, with our words we create karma, and physically we also create karma. With our social position or our wealth, we also create karma. When you misuse your power, that is also not good; it is karma. A director of some company, when he speaks hard words to the employees or misuses employees' time, that is also karma. So, good or bad karma. It is not easy for humans to master certain feelings: maybe anger, maybe greed, maybe ego, or maybe emotion. There are many things. Steering the human energy is very hard, but that is our only chance. Otherwise, we just live our life like other creatures: eating, sleeping, creating children. The animals are also experts in that. If a human does only that much, it is a pity. We humans, for the sake of self-protection, do things and speak things which reflect on us more negatively. So we are too much involved again in this material world. It is hard because our intellect is influenced by culture, by environment, climate, the companies, the people, religions, philosophies—many, many things. It is very interesting: we think only according to that. No matter how much you explain, Indians will always go back to Indian things and begin to answer and explain. Europeans will again bring the way of European thoughts and living. Because it is imprinted on our consciousness from birth. It is very hard to know what the truth is. There is a truth in everything, but the final truth is God knows. Brahman is the truth. And this world is changeable; it is not truth. But still, the great saints tell us to use one of the best weapons, and that is called mercy. Mercy can destroy all the negative weapons: ego, hate, jealousy, anger, greed. I told you yesterday a story about Tulsīdās. And Tulsīdās said there is one mantra, and it will make everyone your best friend. And that mantra is: refrain from offensive, harsh words. Touch the cuttle button. Do not speak hard words to anyone. If you are injured by a knife, the wound will heal, and it will grow again. But when we are injured by words from the heart, that will not heal in the heart. We may forgive, but we will not forget. So Tulsīdās said, touch the renounce, renounce the hard words, talking, telling to anyone. Tell something, but with love. What is renunciation? When you renounce, what connection should you have to what you have renounced? What you have renounced, you have no rights to it. What you donated, you have no rights over it. So you renounce anything: anger, hate, jealousy, greed, and many things. Do not accept that quality again. It is very hard. So we in India used to say: when you spit, it is in your mouth like this, and you spit it out. If you say that you will never again become angry at anyone, and you have thought, "I will not be angry," you spit it out. And now if you become angry, you have licked it again. Ask yourself which quality you have. That is renunciation. And you are not suffering; you are happy that you spit it out, and you miss nothing. So, such a simple saying has a very great meaning. Also, if someone is nasty to you, very not nice to you, and you say, "What should I do now?" We say, "When a dog bites you, you cannot run and bite the dog." True. So there are many dogs barking, and they try to bite. So we say, be careful of this dog, so you cannot bite the dog back. You cannot, or you should not, lick what is spit out. So, Śaṅkarācārya said in Aparokṣānubhūti: "Vairāgya, the pure vairāgya, is that from the earth till Brahmaloka, all bhogas you should renounce like the dirt of the birds." And pure faith means that everything, from the earth to Brahmaloka, you see as a rat that is released by the birds—like this rat, the crow. Gurujī said in his bhajana: The first technique is viveka. Satya, asatya, kāraṇa, yāra, dyāra. Divide the truth, reality, and unreality: Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā. Dujhā sādhanā, vairāgya kahi je. The second is the vairāgya. From here to Brahman, all the desires are senseless. All the desires are senseless, but still we are in a physical body. Maybe the body is not a reality, but its presence is more than reality. If the body is here, we are here. Let us say that you come here mentally only, and you are at home. "Yes, Swāmījī, we are in Strelka with you, and I come and give a lecture here." Nobody is sitting. There is nobody here. Nobody. Somebody. Anybody could have come. Nobody is here because somebody said that there is no need to go, so everybody stayed home. Nobody, somebody, and anybody. Then this body said, "I will go in my room and give you a lecture." So the body does not matter, no matter how much we say, because God's creation has a great sense in it. And therefore, the body is not everything, but without the body, everything is nothing. Now, we have the body, but we are ill. We cannot move. We are lying in the hospital. Now, though we have a body, we cannot do anything. The body became a burden. The person would like to leave this body, but you cannot. So, life means healthy. Healthy life, and this health is nature. All these trees and plants and everything look so healthy. And some have some kind of virus. The chestnuts, the castanias, for the last seven years they have been ill. An expert said that after a few years it will be fine. Predvčerom. Trees are healthy, but these chestnut trees are ill. And she is telling, "Please, can you make some treatment? We are suffering." That is it. So it is both our health and illness. But the ṛṣis said, first, happiness is a healthy body. And so they designed two things: yoga exercises and nourishment. Nourishment as Ayurveda: herbs. So we are eating for living; we are not living for eating. So our weakest point is our diet. We read, we listen; it is all very nice. But when the food comes there, we forget all discipline. We read, it is all very good, but when the food comes, we will forget about our entire discipline. So the great Achala Rāmjī said: "Tu manindriyoka rājā"—you are the king of your mind and your senses. "Tu kaya nagarka raja"—you are the king of this body. "Mat kar iskī gulāmī"—do not be the slave of it. There are ten senses in this body. Very rare yogīs can control them, but two you cannot trust: one is your taste, and one is your passions. And these two, you never know when they will cheat you. And this can create many karmic obstacles. I know that 90% of our physical problems are because of our desires and wrong way of eating, and 10% are your psychic problems. When someone is angry, they put the pressure toward the head and get a headache. Someone, when they are angry, puts it on the maṇipūra chakra and has digestive problems: constipation, or diarrhea, no appetite—many, many problems. And somebody is angry and puts it on the backside, causing constant back problems. So many, many different parts of the body where we push our anger. So again, we are our own guilty selves. So food is very, very important, and then exercise. And that is why yoga was designed: prāṇāyāma and exercises. Now, around the world, yoga is so much manipulated into different kinds of yogas. When I was in San Francisco, one of our disciples said, "Swāmījī, do you know what is Vinyāsa Yoga?" I said, "I know only divine yoga; I do not know what is divine yoga." And now, there are people who have called it wine yoga. And all the winemakers, companies, they support that. When you come to their center, they come with a tray of different kinds of wine. So you just take some, then you relax. And then they have exercises, then they have intervals. Again comes the praise, and they drink a little bit. Then they do the prāṇāyāma. So the whole room has terrible alcohol gases. So after the prāṇāyāma, they make an interval, prepare for meditation, and they take again a sip, and they say relax, and then they practice this one exercise, it is called laughing yoga. So when they begin to laugh, you cannot stop. So now, many people think this is yoga. Or many are doing only stretching, only stretching. These people will have problems when they are above 60. Their ligaments are so much stretched that they will now have no control. So it became commercial. Therefore, we would like to present the ancient way of yoga. And that is why yoga was designed for the well-being of the human body, mind, and soul. So yoga in life means harmony of body, mind, and soul. But if you do not practice, then you do not have harmony. You have only a harmonium. That harmonium tries to harmonize your voice. So, do not deny physical exercises. That is why when you are here, you have many classes, and I am happy that you have many good yoga teachers, and you are practicing in good air here. And then I come and tell you nice stories to inspire you to continue. But we have to be an example for ourselves. So we should not deny our physical āsanas and prāṇāyāmas. Many listen carefully, they are teaching, but they do not practice. That is not an example. So I am observing from my window how many people are sitting here on the meadow, this side, that side, doing āsanas and meditations, and I was surprised. Who is there? Some individuals. Who is individualistic? Because there is a time for yoga class. The teacher is teaching, and someone is just going and doing their own things. Next time, these people we will not allow to come. You have to go to class. If not, then we, as karma yogīs, go in the kitchen. So we have the picture of who was sitting all the times here, and yes, we will display it on the information board. And automatically, it means next seminar they are not allowed. So we are coming here to practice, to learn. And if you do not want to learn and you do not want to practice with a group, then why did you come now? After the seminar, you can come and practice alone; nobody will disturb you. That is it. So our nourishment and our exercises are very important. So let us have a new saṅkalpa that you will practice every day, or let us say five days in a year. We will have five days in a year. We will compromise that you did not practice. That is it. And all yoga teachers and all center managers should give a correct report on who is daily practicing. They should come. Others can come to my birthday to see me. So, I see that you are not seriously practicing. And if you seriously practice, then it will be different. So, please practice, and take care of your good diet. And more, take it from nature, as I told you yesterday about the herbs. And if you do not know, we can have someone who knows about the herbs. Is there someone who has good knowledge about the herbs? Yes, Chandra Devī has good knowledge, and she can tell us what is good here. So you do not take everything away; leave something. Like Australian Aboriginals, they take many things from nature, but they leave some things. And the only chance we have is this human life. Afterward, it is too late. The aeroplane has already taken off, and you say, "But I have my ticket." Yes, but the flight is gone. So every day, one day is lost. You can, when you go in a swimming pool, you can put hands down and legs up, but the first five, till five steps, is very good for all. So practice, practice... I wish you all the best and a good, good journey. God bless you. God bless you, and I am looking forward to seeing you here or there. Definitely somewhere. Hari Om. Satsaṅg.

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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