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Morning Satsang From Salzburg

A satsang session on overcoming fear through the Yoga in Daily Life system.

"Yoga in Daily Life is the scientific system for hormonal imbalance in the body."

"When the willpower is strong, our decisions, our saṅkalpa and vikalpa, are strong. Then the anxiety goes away."

Swami Avatarpuri (Swāmījī) opens the session by summarizing a prior talk on hormonal health and introduces the Yoga in Daily Life system as a holistic tool for physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, particularly for overcoming modern fears like economic anxiety. He then invites his long-time student, Kṛiyānand, to share his experience. Kṛiyānand, a senior practitioner, recounts his decades of disciplined practice, emphasizing the importance of prāṇāyāma and mental strength over mere physical āsanas, and credits the system for his resilience through illness and accident. Swāmījī concludes with teachings on fear, self-discipline, and dharma, using a parable about a boy and a ghost to illustrate how inner certainty dispels fear.

Filming location: Salzburg, Austria

Good morning to everybody. It was a nice program. This morning, our dear Dr. Ārati from the Czech Republic spoke. Yesterday she spoke about hormonal problems, and this morning she gave the exercises according to Yoga in Daily Life. Yoga in Daily Life is now 43 years in Europe, and many, many books are written on it. Our books are available in 15 languages. Yoga in Daily Life is the scientific system for hormonal imbalance in the body. This is our yoga. Yoga in Daily Life is targeted on this subject, especially the third and fourth chapter of the Yoga in Daily Life book, dealing with the glandular systems, hormones, and the digestive system. So that's something great. And it has eight levels of exercises, and it is not only physical movements. We need mental power; we need strength in our mind. So the exercises are designed in such a way that you get physical benefit, and at the same time, you get willpower and mental power. And when the willpower is strong, our decisions, our saṅkalpa and vikalpa, are strong. Then the anxiety goes away. Many people have fear of something, and many don't know why they have fear. Now, in this Kali Yuga time, people have so much fear. And beside this, unfortunately, again, there is one new system coming, or what you call the cause of the fear, that mankind is threatened by what we call the economic crisis around the world. Those who have, have a problem. Those who don't have, have a problem. So, those who don't have are thinking how they will live. And those who have are thinking now, "What will we do with this because it will be lost or gone? This is the last one and a half year." It is a big question for any country, and especially countries like Austria and Germany, and like this. They do have a lot of fear to lose what they have. So if you don't use, you will lose. So use it for good things; you will not lose this for anything. So this is a particular existential fear. And if you come to the inner peace, into harmony, and your mental willpower will be stronger, then you will say, "For me, money doesn't matter because I am a human. God gave me a healthy body, and we will survive. We will live." And still now, we are not there at that point. Why are we afraid now? Already, wait and see. Time will bring everything in good order. So, in Yoga in Daily Life, this is what we call physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. These are the main four pillars of the well-being of a human. When one of them is imbalanced, then you have hormonal problems, then you have some kind of psychic problems, then you have fear, you can't sleep. You consume a lot of tranquilizers, medicine, and that and that. So if we practice systematically and inside we are sure, then you will survive in a good way. You will live happily in a good way. So we have one today, one young man sitting right next to me. He is about nearly reaching ninety, and we have known each other for about thirty-nine years. This is quite good, years 39 or 38. And many of you may have seen just now in our yoga class that he was performing the āsanas, as everyone was doing, the young kids here, and in some way he was much better than others. Kṛiyānand, you got a compliment from some of the viewers who saw you in the webcast, and they said, "Oh, that is yes." And one of your best friends called me and said she must tell me, and you know who can be, oh. Yes, the Ekta was giving you a compliment, thank you, on through the webcast. Yes, so I would like to ask him to tell his life experiences with Yoga in Daily Life, how he overcame certain tensions, stress, anxiety. Even twice he was very ill, and people thought now he can't survive anymore, but he was never scared. He was never sad and angry. He said, "No, I will manage." And even in that situation, he was in the intensive care in the hospital, he was doing mental kriyā and mental programs. So, Kṛiyānandajī, the floor is yours, and please be so kind as to speak in English today, okay? Kṛiyānand's Address Yes, yes. Thank you. Your many brothers and sisters are watching you outside of Salzburg also. Oh, sure. That's me now. Okay. I'm very glad to see you all, the people around me here in Salzburg, and this is not an unknown place. I've been here, as Swāmījī said, about 35 or some years more. I finished counting the years, you know. This is not so important anymore, but the things happened. I have been working until 60, and since this time, I will try to follow up. Many of your helpers and strategies, advice and help have been very suitable, and for me, it's really a pleasure to be 20, 80, 80 years now for some days ago. So I can only tell you my thing from, remember back what we started about 35, 38 years ago in Vienna with Yoga in Daily Life. But this time, no daily life had been yet for most, but everybody was just saying, "Yoga, you go yoga, yes," or, "Why do you do this?" and so on. But I say, I have been in a situation in the company where I've been working about 43 years, and I had to do a lot of things and had the opportunity, together with Swāmījī, to see many countries and to see people in these countries. And the very big interest in listening to what news had been on, and a lot of those people never heard about besides the word yoga. There was nothing behind them. So I tell you, you just listen to what you have been told, and Swāmījī will have just given you some hints and advice on what to do best and how to do it best. I tell you by my experience, I started with yoga just for the sake of better conditions in life, to sit in a better position and have a better position in the company and so on. And so I can tell you, as you see, that about this time of my living, I have no problems besides small body problems that had been, as Swāmījī said, to be overcome two years, three years ago. And so, I can only give you my advice. Don't be afraid of anything besides what you've been told from Swāmījī. He knows. He has experience of the whole world. And he has been able to give you the best advice. And many, many people wanted to come to Swāmījī and be given the information they wanted to have. So I can tell you my own experience. I started with āsanas. Āsanas, you know, many of you, all of you, so these are body conditions, and this is, of course, very, very important. Otherwise, you cannot sit in a place, you cannot stand in a place. So if you are able to follow the words of your master, of Swāmījī, then nothing can be wrong. So I started anyway with the first easy method of Yoga in Daily Life. Some years later, it was a very splendid idea, I think, not only for Austria, but all over the world has been known now by Swāmījī's Yoga in Daily Life. And I can tell you that I have been able to again for about four weeks. I have been in a heavy accident. I have been running, and a car was running toward me. So that's just the difference, but that's the way I need it now for having the possibility again to sit with all of you. And I can tell you, besides the ability of sitting, thinking is very important. And I try to do my best because I not only have head problems, and the neurologist helped me again to do the way up, besides just sitting and thinking. I can tell you that prāṇāyāma, everybody, or many of you know what prāṇāyāma means. I personally, I may tell you, I find that prāṇāyāma is more important than āsanas. Āsanas can, in one way or the other, help you. But āsanas are very important for your body and inside of your body. Every part of your mind and everything will need some help from your āsanas. As you know, āsanas, that's really giving the body the substance, giving you the need for being able to stay in this situation. And not only once a week or twice a week, I think Swāmījī says every day and each time it is necessary to be very constructive, to be most respectful to your own body and give it what it needs. And if you listen to Swāmījī, you will be informed that the whole body is built up on praise to have good conditions. And therefore, every morning, the first thing in the morning is not having something to eat or to drink. First of all, have at least your positive thinking, your positive situation in a certain place, on a carpet or somewhere else, and do your own prāṇāyāma. And then this prāṇāyāma gives you—there is a very nice book existing that, with the help of this book, you can easily follow the way it is necessary. I do personally, I don't ask myself what I have to do. The body tells me, and the mind tells me exactly what I have to do. And this goes on all the way, and without looking at the watch or something else, I have to follow my program. I do this program every morning, and then the whole day is far easier, to not think about what else to do, what I have to do, or what I do not have to do. These things go on by themselves. So if you are not cruel to your body, but you help the body to stay in good condition, that is the best thing I can advise you. And so, since my pension time now, this is but nearly 30 years, I have opportunity, of course, because most people have a profession and are not so easy, like a pensioner. A pensioner, it says, they have nothing to do anyway for the whole day. But don't forget that after this time, after 30 years, you need double time or three times the normal daily thing. You have to consider, and it goes on without problem, I tell you. And do not let yourself be interrupted by anybody, aside from the advice of Swāmījī. And this way, I hope for the next some years—one year, two years, whatever will come, will come. So I think I'm very glad that I can sit here and tell you my thinking from the last 35 or nearly 40 years, and I try to see each time when I have that question, to see Swāmījī. We have very good connections for all this time. And I ask you to not lose the respect, and don't lose the thinking that something may be wrong. You go on the way you should go and don't ask anybody else. Swāmījī will tell you what will be best for you. And I thank you very much for this information I can give you. And I hope to see you again sometime and give you very good advice. How not body? Body is body, and thinking is thinking. So that's the way Swāmījī gives me further on the possibility to do my prāṇāyāma and my āsanas as the best. Thank you, Swāmījī. Swāmījī's Response and Further Teachings And your kriyā too. Do you practice kriyā? Yes, my kriyā is quite substantial. Actually, every morning it takes me about one hour, sometimes in the morning, sometimes late in the evening. It's not only up to looking at the clock, but the body tells you anyway what time it is, what to go on and to do. So in this way, I thank you again, Swāmījī. And be one of your little assistants, the information you give away. Thank you. You don't eat any more chocolates, or do you? No more. I have not only the problem with the body, you know, perhaps it's not so important, but I have some other problems with chocolate, perhaps. So I can look at these things as when I had been 50 years ago. So thank you, Swāmījī. That's good, that's the best. That's, yes, I like it very much. Thank you. Sometimes you can read the thoughts, no? Yeah. Okay, thank you. So that was our dear Kṛiyānand Hans Herzlager from Austria, Upper Austria, living in Vienna, and now for a while, for some days, visiting friends in Salzburg. Our Kṛiyānand is a very junior yogī in Yoga in Daily Life, a practitioner candidate many times he was. President of our society, and he's an example of discipline. So, wherever he is, anywhere he has been in the world, any programs, he never left his exercises. So, thank you, Kṛiyānanda, and we wish you good health and a long, long life. Okay? We are happy to have you always with us. Thank you. So, Kāman Vyāvida Chorok, Chonsren Program, Lida Chait Vāta Tvini Man. They write on the last wagons in India, often a few words from which you can learn a lot. Beautiful wise words. And in many last wagons it says, more than in your six śāl. And earlier in time, you get nothing. You don't get more than your destiny, and not earlier than that time. So, time brings everything, and you get what you say in your sign or destiny, or what is in there. It is difficult for many people to keep something going continuously. The problem is that we often compare our inner development, spiritual development, and health development with the outer world. If something happens, then suddenly you lose strength, trust. Even if you lose trust in God—for example, someone dies quickly or has a disease, regardless of whether it is the parents' side, the children's side, or the relatives' side—then you are so disappointed and do not even say that God has helped. Why does God do such a thing? God did not do anything according to our deeds. It is we who say that he did it, and I do it. So, we have said to ourselves, we demand of ourselves, because of our ideas and fears that come from outside. Denke in dein inneres Selbst, geh tief hinein, und wirst du finden, dass Frieden und Liebe und die Spiritualität anders sind. Es gibt ein Gedicht von meinem Heiligen, Kabīr Dāsch. Kabīr ghar chokte gal kaṭiyā ke pās, jo karegā so bharegā, tūṅkyo phirat udās. But you can take this table. Anleinen. Dijay. Yeah. Aber ich is ekab. Ich kann so drehen, ne? Aber wir möchten ein Video sehen. Oh God. Das ist auch noch. Kabīr Dās had his house opposite a butcher. And he always killed the animals, goats and sheep, and so on. And Kabīr saw this, and he was so sad, so sad, very sad. Then, in his meditation, a voice came to him. Oh Kabīra, those who will do or who do, they will get this karma. Why are you sad? So, what you can do is go away. Go to another street, or to another street, or to another village. You don't have to go there. But you get a different karma. Why are you suffering? Why did you give up your meditation? Why did you give up your exercises? We should not develop fear in our thoughts and feelings about the situation that is out there. Yes, we know, and we should master it with our wisdom, with love. And what we cannot do, we will not avoid. It is a story about Mahātma Gāndhī. The Mahātma Gāndhī sits in a train, and a few people sit with him, and one of his secretaries sits next to him in this car, and the train drives in East India somewhere through the mountains. And what happens? The car, in which Gandhi and his people were, is somehow turned off. So it rolls back and forth. And his secretary said, "What happened?" He said, you know, our wagon rolls back. Aha. Yes, but I wanted to dictate something to you. Can you bring paper? Come on, I have to tell you something. And he said, "Save time in this situation. What will be, will be." And that's how it is. Such a situation. That was a threat to life, but he was very calm and determined. He said and thought that what is good for this world in his thoughts, and if he can't say anything, it will be forever sad. Our thoughts are like pearls, pearls of wisdom, which we should pass on. And there are also thoughts that are poisonous, and we should not pass them on to anyone. We should pray to Śiva, the inner Śiva, that he neutralizes our poison in us. Poison from hatred, jealousy, fear, suffering, greed, and so on. We have two qualities in us: āsurī śakti and daivī śakti, devil forces and divine forces. Both run in parallel with us. Death follows us like our shadow from our body. And we cannot run away from Satan. You can sit in your fastest plane and say, "I fly fast, so satsaṅg will not come with me." You go to another airport, and you are surprised that it works with you. So death, negative and positive, both always accompany us. And when we make mistakes, then death takes over. But as long as we are positive, happy, and continue to give the beautiful, then it has us. So death means nothing physically. Tod und Leben bedeuten nichts körperlich, sondern geistig. Plötzlich bekommen wir Angst. Das bedeutet, wir haben Selbstvertrauen verloren. Warum? Weil wir Vertrauen in Gott oder den Meister oder in die Heilige Lehre haben. Haben wir nichts verstanden oder nichts geglaubt? Oder haben wir eine Verzweiflung gehabt. So don't compare yourself to others, but go on, and your heart should be like a mother's. The mother's heart, or the father's too, please, there are many fathers. No matter what the children do, the mother and the father forgive the children, understand. The upbringing by the parents is full of love. And so is the upbringing of the teacher. It is full of love, and the trust of the students is also full of love, as a little child trusts his father and mother. We play around, but suddenly something happens. The child runs quickly to the father, the father and mother. Das ist unser Anhalt, und darum Angst. Angst ist eine schreckliche Waffe. Das ist ein mächtiger Elefant, der fällt um. Deine mächtige Kraft, alles fällt zusammen, wenn du Angst hast. Die ganze Welt leidet nur wegen Angst. And why do we pray? Why do we try to be good at everything? Because we are afraid, and the fear is maybe from a pain or experience from an earlier life or earlier times. So we do something so that we will no longer be afraid. Of course, we are cautious. We don't want to jump into the fire on purpose or jump off the mountain on purpose, because you can see on television, when they drive, especially the Austrians, how do you say that? They jump, right? They jump and roll their bodies in the air, and then they land again like this, and everyone believes that it is so easy. They stand there and push me there. You can push me twice, first time and... Last time, it's easier, but it's not that easy. And therefore, inner self-confidence and self-discipline are the keys to success. Overcoming fear is the greatest thing you can achieve or realize in this life. A fearful person is like someone who can't swim in deep water. And the other, kind-hearted, jumps in to save the person who can't swim. And out of fear, of course, he tries to save him, to embrace him and say, "Please, please help me." But when he holds it like this, the other can't swim either. And then he takes it with him, and they die together. The swimmer can swim, and the one who can't swim, both will die. And so is the fear. Fear makes everyone crazy and broken. So Nirbhay, Holi Gurujī sings in a bhajan, He said, "Don't worry about your Satguru Rakela. Be fearless forever." Never be afraid. Sai Īmā. Which means tough. Muttik is, out of fear, comfort. Spring. Sai Muttik. That is, that is a bit of violence, right? Be brave, Sai Muttik. Go and feed the tiger and come back soon. That is brave, as far as I understand the word. Okay? But fruitless. Fruit, yes. Fearless. Again, fearless. So, continue. How many years have we practiced what we have realized in ourselves? It would be sad that now, because of our laziness and because of a little illness, or because we are old, or because we have other things to do and we give up our exercises, it would be eternal sadness, eternal sadness. But Dharma, our Dharma, our duty, we must not forget. Dharma, many people compare with religion. No. Religion is a dogma. And Dharma is the principle. Dharma is the reality. Dharma from the winter season. What is cold? In mid-January, mid-December here in Salzburg, it will be 35 degrees. What does that say? It's crazy. And in July, in the beginning of June and July, there will be 2 meters of snow and minus 15 degrees. It's crazy. We will say the times have changed. The season has changed. That means the dharma of the season is gone. So we can't declare minus 15 degrees as summer, and plus 35 degrees we can't declare as winter. So, the dharma of the mother. Yesterday, I thought a lot before going to sleep, as our dear Dr. Ārati spoke. And then I realized once again that women are actually poor. The physical and mental pain is too much. And so, yoga helps. And I am happy that the doctors and scientists are declaring that the system of Yoga in Daily Life is such a scientific one. So don't think that I want to have this exercise where I can jump up and down, stand on one hand or two hands. I can also stand with one leg, and then stand with the second leg, with both legs, yes. Because God has... and I can stand on one leg longer than you can stand on one hand. Right? And therefore, Yoga in Daily Life is a system. And whoever practices will certainly have an advantage or gain: body, mind, soul, social, and spiritual development, and to achieve the goal in this life. Yoga in Daily Life system is nothing, just āsanas. But prāṇāyāma too. And what do we do here? Many prāṇāyāmas, five minutes or ten minutes. That's enough, I can't sit. But from long years of experience, what Kṛiyānanda said, he emphasized that prāṇāyāma is more important than the āsanas. Did you say that? Yes, it is established. Established, with the temple. So also, satsaṅg. Man denkt, die Satsaṅg ist nicht so wichtig, aber Satsaṅg ist einer der wichtigsten Teile von Yoga und spiritueller Entwicklung, das Lebensziel zu verwirklichen. And a special specialty of Yoga in Daily Life is that we have satsaṅg. Und noch dazu, ein perfektes Entspannungssystem. And there are two: one is relaxation or yoga nidrā, and the second is meditation. It is a whole system. You say, "No, I don't want to have my kidneys anymore, I just want to have a liver." Well, you can take your liver with you to the grave. Or you say, "No, I don't like my heart; it always makes me nervous." So, all organs, even the little toes in our body, have a lot of meaning for our body. This is a holistic system, and so yoga is nothing, and should not be compared to a dogma or a religion, but it is a system for the body, mind, soul, health, happiness, tranquility, everything. And we have to practice a holistic system. We have to do everything, then we reach everything. And if you don't do everything, then you lose everything. And after everything, only one thing is important: that you practice every day, discipline. If you do one exercise, then all exercises will be replaced automatically. And which one? A firm determination of trust. So it was good, and I was happy. Once again, a seminar, 70% in German. I have to practice again. Please do more seminars in Salzburg and Linz so that I can prove again that I live in Austria. Thank you to all the organizers who organized this. The Hṛdaya and the Bhakti Sāgara and Prema Sāgara and Amṛta Sāgara. And our Ambā Devī and Rāmā Devī and many Devīs and one or two Devas were also with us. Thank you very much. And to all the others who came from the neighboring countries, all the best. And thank you for coming. And see you next week somewhere far from this. Part of the countries. Thank you. God bless you. The Story of the Boy and the Ghost There was a small village, and nearby, about seven kilometers far, another village, a little bigger. And between them were some hills, mountains, small hills like in Salzburg. And children have to go to school to that village, which was seven kilometers far. And parents used to say to children, "Come home on the right time, come quickly." When the school is closed, immediately come home. Don't go somewhere here and there. As usual, we tell the children, "On the way, there was a cave." And people were talking about ghosts. And when the children listen about ghosts, they make a big story out of it. So they said, "Here is living one ghost, and here is living one ghost. He comes in the night out where the sunset is." Let's run. We go home, and we go home. So, that was always one excuse for children to run away from there and quickly come home. That was good. One boy one day went to buy ice cream, and he was a little bit, 15 minutes late. All the other children went away. Now he's going, running, running, and it was already sunset. And he came near that cave, and a ghost came. And hold his hand. Come, go with me. The small child was screaming, crying, but there was no chance. He took him into the cave. And then there was a big rock. He pulled the rock towards the gate of the cave and closed it. Normally, 50 people need to move that. Ghost has extraordinary powers. Now, a small boy, how should he open the door? Inside was burning fire, and that's, glaube ihr sagt in Österreich immer, Teufelsküche. Now, the boy was very scared. The ghost said, "Well, actually, I want to cook here and eat, but you are a nice boy. I will not do this." Let's be good friends, and you work for me, I will not kill you. The ghost used to go out, he closed the door, he used to come. One day the boy asked the ghost, "Where are you going always?" He said, "I have to go every day to the meeting between the devils." And bodies where the god comes and speaks. Everything can you speak to god? He said, "Of course we can talk. We are two parties, like political parties. One is this, and one is this. Everyone has a right to speak to the president, so..." The boy said, "Can you do one thing for me? Ask God how long of a life I have. There's no problem, I will do it for you." In the evening, he came back, and the boy asked, "How long of a life do I have?" He said, "Oh, you will live long, you..." Still have 95 years more or more. Boy was sad. I said, "Why are you sad?" He said, "95, it's too long. Please tell God to make it a little short, 20 years or five years short." I said, "I will ask." You can go to God. Next day, I came back. Boy asked, "Did God say?" Something, yes. What God said impossible, he cannot change. Then ask him, "I don't like the number 95." He should ask, "Make me not 97." So the third day, he asked again the God. The boy is very naughty. He wanted to live till not 95, he wanted to live till 97. God said, "No, no... impossible." It is just on that day. Then I asked him, "Can someone kill him, me?" So he asked again. God said, "No one can kill you till 95." There was a big log burning in the fire. The boy took the log to hit the devil. Open the door. The devil said, "I will kill you." He said, "95 years, no one can kill you." Open. The devil was an old man, you know. So he opened the door, and the boy went away. So he had no more fear. He got the certainty inside that he will live 95 years; no one can kill me. So sometimes we have certain fears, and we can't overcome them. But when we use inner knowledge, inner vivekā, we ask our inner God, then fear disappears. When you go along walking somewhere and someone says, "Here's a ghost." And in the night, this whoo-hoo suddenly says, "Whoo-hoo," and then flies. The hairs are standing. As much as you have fear, your willpower becomes weaker. As soon as you become stronger, your willpower goes up and fear disappears. So, ghost is our fear, and God is our braveness. Many things happen in life. Let it happen. Many speak something. Let it speak. You just do your duty. Do your mala, mantras, meditations. So where there is fear, there are all kinds of problems. And when the fear is gone, you are happy. There also, are you good? Good journey, good appetite. And please accept the invitation to have a nice lunch, because they prepared it with great love.

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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