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Be Humble Like A Fruit Tree

The path of purification requires prayer, mantra, and self-love. Mental modifications, both painful and non-painful, cannot be purified through ordinary means. Saints discovered a system of prayer, meditation, and mantra. Prayer builds faith and personal consultation with the divine, leading to contentment. Mantra is the essence of prayer, a seed containing all prayers. One must progress from meditation with seed to meditation without seed, where duality dissolves. This process purifies the layers of mental modifications. Merely practicing physical postures is insufficient without ethical disciplines. The body must be cared for with love, as it is the temple of the soul, yet it is temporary. Love for the body means healthy eating, exercise, and yoga practice. True practice calms destructive tendencies and fosters divine qualities. Humility is essential; spiritual pride is a sign of ignorance. The final instruction is to break attachment to materialism and join oneself to the Divine.

"Break the attachment towards materialism, including this body and all desires. Join thyself to the Divine."

"The more humbleness and spirituality you have, the more communicative you become."

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

There are personal and impersonal aspects of existence. Both these personal and impersonal aspects create the vṛttis—the mental modifications—which Patañjali described as kliṣṭa and akliṣṭa vṛttis. There is no ordinary way to purify these. Therefore, as it was in the past, great and holy persons—from every religion—discovered a system. That system is called prayers, meditations, and mantras. First is prayer, which develops confidence, faith, and nearness to God. Prayer means personal consultation with God. In prayer, we express all our feelings and wishes. We believe God is listening. Even if we think He might not be, we still believe He is, and through that belief we attain a certain contentment, allowing us to breathe peacefully. Then we take the essence of the prayers, akin to sabīja samādhi and nirbīja samādhi. Bīja is the seed, and the seed of a tree contains the tree's entire essence in a dormant state. Similarly, within our mantras, all prayers are present and included. But it is said we should progress from Sabīja Samādhi to Nirbīja Samādhi. Sabīja Samādhi means the Jīvātmā (individual soul) still exists, so separation and duality remain. Through meditation, we come to Nirbīja Samādhi, which is nirbīja samādhi or nirvikalpa samādhi. So, after prayer, we take up our mantra. Then we hold the key to open the door to release tensions and pollution, and purification begins. Layer after layer of the vṛttis—kliṣṭa and akliṣṭa—begins to dissolve and release. This is the reason great saints in every belief, culture, and religion accepted or created prayers, the name of God, and meditation. Merely practicing āsanas and prāṇāyāmas will not help that much. They have an influence and are definitely good for the body—we should not avoid them. Recently, I was in Ukraine. During an evening lecture at a yoga studio, I saw written on the inside of a toilet door: "Without yama and niyama, yoga is only āsanas." If you do not follow the yamas and niyamas, then it is just a sport, simply movement. Of course, that is also meaningful. The body is not everything, but without the body, the soul is not here, the mind is not here, the intellect is not here, consciousness is not here. Therefore, it is very important to take care of the body. If you remember, in our āśram in Strelky, I mentioned that first you should create devotion to thyself, to your body. We are proud of our body, and we should take care of it. Without the body, there is nothing, and we should be thankful to God, the creator, or whatever you believe. Mother Nature gave us such a beautiful human body. But this body is just like a water bubble; it doesn't take long for it to burst. Similarly, even if the body is very good and strong like a bodybuilder's, it doesn't take long to destroy it. How long will you keep the body? None of us would like to die; we wish to live healthy, happy, and long. But whether we want to or not does not depend on us. It is like when you or someone has a particular disease and the doctor gives medicine. We ask the doctor, "Will it cure my disease?" The doctor will say, "Well, I hope. But it will slow down the progress." So it is a kind of prevention, not a treatment. And prevention, if we do it from the beginning, is better than treatment. That prevention means we should love our body. If you love your body, then take care of your eating. If you eat and have a weakness for food, it means you don't love your body. One saint said there are ten senses in this body, but you can't trust two: gender and taste. These two senses make you forget your body, meaning you become a slave. And when you are a slave, you cannot take care of the body. In the German language, they say, "Eating keeps the body and soul together." And at the same time, they say, "self-murdered with a knife and fork"—meaning one commits suicide with a knife and fork. So, learn to love your body. The body is the temple of our ātmā, the temple of our soul, and the body is divine. Therefore, the right way of eating and the right way of exercising are very important. Again, I can tell you that Yoga in Daily Life has again been proven as a scientific system. Recently, there was a large conference with different yoga schools—it was beautiful, very good. But finally, it was declared that the best was Yoga in Daily Life. It is gentle, very easy, very comfortable. Everyone can perform it and get benefit. If we had to do certain stretching and hard postures, I am sure 99% of you would not be able to do them. If only 1% can do it, it is not a benefit to all. So, practicing Yoga in Daily Life means you love your body. You care about your body, you protect your body, and you value your body because your body means a lot to you. But still, it is a body. The body is just matter, made of five elements. It is not forever. Vedānta will say this body is mortal, because the immortal is: nityam nirākār nirābhāsa nirañjanam nitya bodhāya chidānandāya satgurutam namāmiyam. Immortal means everlasting, unbreakable, nirañjan (spotless). That is the ātmā. But still, we cannot exit to the ātmā without this body. So there is duality, but within this duality, reality is reflecting. That is a reflection, the light of the ātmā. Therefore, meditation, prayers, and mantras delete the kliṣṭa vṛttis and then also calm down the akliṣṭa vṛttis, like waves slowly, slowly calming down. Then we can see through to the bottom of the sea. So we calm down the waves of anger, hate, and jealousy. When anger, hate, jealousy, revenge, and greed are there, it is called asura vṛtti (demonic tendency), and we should keep away from such asura vṛtti. Where understanding, love, harmony, peace, kindness, and welcoming exist, that is devī vṛtti (divine tendency). Also, there are some people who call it satsaṅg, but they are giving kuṣaṅga (bad company). So, it is very important to know thyself physically, mentally, emotionally—all pañca kośas (five sheaths): annamayakośa, prāṇamayakośa, manomayakośa, vijñānamayakośa, ānandamayakośa. Within that is the Ātmā, the divine. So what should we do? We should purify all these five layers. And don't be proud of it. Don't celebrate the day too early. It will be in the last minutes. We will say, "Pity, it should have happened before. I could have enjoyed my self-realization, so that I am self-realized." So if someone says, "I am self-realized," then you should say, "Yes, I believe. How far are you with self-realization?" Therefore, don't say, "I have been practicing yoga for so long, I am a yogī, I am this." As much as you heat metal, it becomes softer. When you let it lie, it becomes hard again. The melting softness represents humbleness, and the hardness represents ignorance, darkness, and stupidity. So it is said: "Be like an apple tree, be like a cherry tree, be like a plum tree, and be like a mango tree." What does this mean? When the fruits come, the tree bends down and is respectfully covered with leaves. These leaves are your respect, your discipline, your humbleness, and your offering of going down. There are some trees where, when the fruit comes, all the leaves fall down and completely naked branches go up—you cannot reach. There is a beautiful poem: "Baṛā huā to kyā huā, jaise per khajūr, panthī ko chhāyā nahīṁ, phala lage ati dūr." (What is the use of being a great tree if, like a date palm, it offers no shade to the traveler and its fruit hangs very far away?) If a tree is great but not helpful and humble to others, what is the use? It is just like a tall palm tree; if you want to sit on the path in its shadow, the shadow is about 20 meters away in the thorny bushes. So, the more humbleness and spirituality you have, the more communicative you become. Otherwise, you are missing what in English is called "social communication." Where there is arrogance, ego is there. That is the sign of ignorance. It is said that the ego of a foolish person and the anger of a foolish person and a wise person may look the same, but there is a difference. The anger of a wise person is like beating water with a stick: the water will part, but very soon it will come together again. That anger is temporary; again, love covers everything. The anger of a foolish, stupid person is like a line carved in stone; it will remain in the caves for millions of years. So humbleness is required. But first you have to become humble with thyself. Therefore, self-inquiry meditation says: "Research thyself." Not "who are you," but "how are you?" What kind of vṛttis and waves are in the heart? Destructive or uniting? There are some who destroy people—that's called destructive energy. And there are some who bring people together—that's called unity. There was one sādhu living in the Himalayas. Anyone who came to him and asked, "Please, can you give a satsaṅg or some instructions to us?" he said only two words: "Toro" or "Joro." Only these two words: Toro or Joro. Toro means "break it," and Joro means "join it." People would say, "What is this satsaṅg? What is yours? Break it, and again join it?" So someone asked, "Please kindly, Swamiji, can you explain what you mean, Joro or Joro?" He said, "Break the attachment towards materialism, including this body and all desires. Join thyself to the Divine." The material will disappoint us, but the Divine—that love of wisdom—will not disappoint us. So when we love our body, I do not mean in the kind of way: "Oh, I have big muscles," or as some sādhu said, "I have a big stomach," and another said, "I have bigger than you"—a competition. Some people say, "If you have no big stomach, you are not a guru. Then you are a kangaroo, because they don't have a big stomach." Well, not this kind of ego. Loving your body means practicing yoga, prāṇāyāmas, exercises, meditations, healthy food, and healthy exercise. You know Āyurveda. Āyurveda is nothing but supplementary food, nourishment. Either you eat an Āyurvedic diet, or you eat a chemical diet. Āyurvedic tablets have fewer side effects, and allopathic medicine has more side effects. So, when sometimes you go to India to some chemist shop, they say, "Do you want more or less for five rupees? You need more or less?" What do you mean? Āyurveda is little (side effects) and allopathic is more. Then Prem Purī said, "Please, allopathic is more." Allopathic, a chemical, adding more. And come and read: more side effects; Āyurveda, little side effects. That's it. So it is nourishment for life, quality for life. So, who understands and loves their body? They say, "We are eating for living," and others say, "I'm living for eating." So, that depends on us. The best time for meditation is in the morning. When you come to your breakfast table, forget it. If you think today you will meditate, forget it. Then, better do meditation called active meditation, creative meditation. That meditation means seva, karma yoga, working. Work honestly so that your boss will be happy and the company will be in a good financial position. If you are employed in some company or shop, don't work as an employee. Work as if it is yours. Then it is a joy. "Now I must work"—otherwise it is always on your mind. "Na már megint dolgoznom kell till six o’clock." But you close everything 20 minutes before and begin to close. So it is self-discipline. It is success. The owner of the company will not look at the watch and work, but the employee will look many times. That's why this financial crisis is in the world. Come to any city in your country—maybe Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, all these beautiful European cities, Barcelona—so beautiful. Why? And there are also these other new buildings. People are always taking photos of old buildings. No one is making pictures of these big new buildings. Because in the last centuries, people were building and working with love. They were creating outside beauty from what they had inside. And now it is only cardboard boxes. Nothing to photograph. So what is inside comes outside. So, for divine development, we have to hold on to something. And not just symbolically. Try for 24 hours; let your heart be connected to that. Not only symbolically, but try to connect from the heart for twenty-four hours. Then there is a feedback. When a generator is turning, energy is there. When the generator stops, energy is not there. Our heart is that generator. Our vṛttis are that generator which keeps us on that beautiful level without fluctuation between you and your divine, where your love goes. So, welcome. We will still have two days. Tomorrow again at 10 o'clock, you should be here, and then we will have nice satsaṅgs and nice bhajans. There are many great people sitting here; maybe they will speak something much better. We will invite them to speak. That's it. So, welcome to you. And much love to all dear ones here and in other parts of the world. Hari Om. Dīp Nand Bhagavān. Nekī. Devīs Parmahadeva. Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān. Nekī. Satya Sanātana.

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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