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We now come to the last of the ten principles, which is also the essence of them all: Īśvara Praṇidhāna. Īśvara means God, and Praṇidhāna means devotion or surrender. Thus, it is complete devotion and surrender to God. It is placed at the end, yet what is at the beginning and the end always carries a special emphasis. We began with Ahiṃsā and are now finishing with Īśvara Praṇidhāna. I have repeatedly referred to the Ten Commandments of the Holy Bible. There, too, we find a form of Īśvara Praṇidhāna, but it is the first commandment: "I am the Lord, your God. You shall not have any other gods before me." And the second: "You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain." For us, the name of God means the mantra; you could say one should not misuse the mantra. This is not complicated to understand, but not easy to realize. These three principles—tapas, svādhyāya, and Īśvara Praṇidhāna—have been mentioned before as part of Kriyā Yoga, or we can say the preparatory Karma Yoga techniques. The special emphasis on Īśvara Praṇidhāna is clear from the fact it is mentioned even earlier. This is not actually the third time it appears in the Yoga Sūtras. You find Īśvara Praṇidhāna in the first chapter, which speaks about the aim of yoga: the highest state of consciousness, samādhi. Very shortly, several different yoga techniques leading to samādhi are mentioned. In sūtra 1.23, it says, "Or [by] Īśvara Praṇidhāna." Already there, it is stated clearly that Īśvara Praṇidhāna is one technique which can lead straight away to samādhi. This is the striking point of this principle. We see it as part of the Yamas and Niyamas, preparatory steps for the real Rāja Yoga path, which aims for samādhi through āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, concentration, and meditation. Here we are just in step two, before even practicing the right sitting position, āsana, and yet it is said this principle can already lead to samādhi. Let us look at the result stated in sūtra 2.45. It says clearly that as a result of Īśvara Praṇidhāna, one achieves samādhi, which means self-realization or God-realization. This is why, in the announcement for this workshop, I mentioned it is not so easy to understand the real importance of these yamas and niyamas. When you understand and practice these principles with serious, 100% dedication, you may achieve the aim of samādhi already here. The perfect practice of the yama and niyama principles itself can be a shortcut, a yoga path leading straight to the goal. Swāmījī has emphasized this. More than twenty years ago, at a summer seminar, he spoke about an Indian game titled Līlā (like Līlā Amṛt). Līlā means the divine game. On the surface, it is like a children's game where you throw dice and move forward. The board starts at the bottom and goes in serpentines up to the goal, labeled cosmic consciousness—samādhi. There are ladders that direct you upwards and snakes that bite you, sending you down. Every field represents a quality you develop. Developing certain uplifting qualities makes you jump up; developing vices makes you slide down. In this game, our aim is samādhi. Some ladders bring you quite close. One field is "mercy" (Barmherzigkeit); when you truly open your heart with mercy, you suddenly go very high. Another is "right knowledge" (Rechtes Wissen, Jñāna), which also brings you close. But there is one ladder that goes straight to the aim, a true shortcut. This field is written as "spiritual devotion." In our terminology, this is bhakti—the shortcut to liberation. This is exactly what Swāmījī emphasized: the importance and power of bhakti yoga. We see the same here in the last principle, Īśvara Praṇidhāna. But note, the shortcut does not start from the very bottom. In other words, it is not possible to develop this complete bhakti straight away when starting yoga. One must reach a certain medium state. The different horizontal groups on the board can be understood like chakras; you must develop to a certain level for real bhakti to become possible. We should not misunderstand bhakti as just an emotion. Emotional bhakti is unripe bhakti; it has to be purified. It is like in a partnership: to fall in love is a pure emotion, but it is not yet real love. That first stage must be tested and become firm and reliable. In Western culture, we often marry on that emotional stage, and life afterwards tests that love. The Indian system, where marriage partners are chosen with astrological analysis and love is allowed to grow slowly, seems to work better. Real love is proven through sharing many life experiences over decades. In the same way, our relation to the master and to God, our bhakti, has to grow and be purified. Our spiritual life consists of these tests. The master tests our devotion quite often by giving us instructions we don't like or understand. Every test has two possible results: we either fail or grow through it. To understand who the guru is, to come closer to the guru, is the result of our spiritual path. In the end, it is to become one with the Guru—not on the physical level, but with the guru tattva, the divine consciousness, which is the same in us. This inner attitude of love and devotion is the shortcut to achieve this oneness. What is in the beginning and the end has emphasis. What was in the beginning? Ahiṃsā. And what does Ahiṃsā mean in positive words? It means love. Remember what Swāmījī says: love unites and hate divides. Right at the beginning, we had it as a starting point: don't be cruel, don't hurt; open your heart, understand, protect, serve, love. Here at the end, we see that if love is real love for the Divine, it leads us to samādhi. When we understand Ahiṃsā rightly, it is already the starting point of our Bhakti Yoga path. Bhakti yoga goes in a secret, sometimes hidden, sometimes more obvious way through all these principles of the yamas and niyamas. Here, in the last principle, it is spoken openly. If you are not prepared for this, you might say, "I cannot understand how this is possible." What does Īśvara Praṇidhāna mean practically? It means we accept our life situation as divine will. This is the principle of Santoṣa. As it is said, "Not my will, but your will be done." It is surrender to God’s will. Which mantra expresses this attitude? Swāmījī gave us the beautiful mantra: "Nāhaṁ Karatā, Prabodip Karatā." I am not the doer, God is the doer. We can understand and practice this in different ways. At the beginning of our path, it is like a prayer: "Oh Lord, I know I am ignorant and my ego is strong. When I act for myself, it becomes a mess. Only when you guide me is it possible. Please let me be a humble instrument in your hands." This is the bhakti attitude. As we grow inwardly through this bhakti, more and more we truly become this instrument. More and more, the divine flows through us and in us. One day, this prayer becomes a statement of what is: "I am not acting, but He is acting." That is samādhi. That is when oneness is achieved; there is no duality anymore. The bhakti path is essentially a path of duality: here is me, the devotee, and there is you, God or the guru. But through bhakti, through love and devotion, the two become one. When this state of oneness is achieved, it is samādhi. Swāmījī used to say our path is through duality to oneness. Bhakti yoga is a gentle path possible for everyone, leading to the aim. Exploring further what Īśvara Praṇidhāna means practically, we can say it is the guiding principle for karma yoga. In the Bhagavad Gītā (chapters 3, 4, 5, etc.), Kṛṣṇa always says you have the duty to work but not to enjoy the fruits. You fulfill your dharma and leave the result to God. In a wider sense, you dedicate your whole life to God. Whatever you do, you do it for Him, and you give your worries up. Karma yoga, when combined with this bhakti, becomes real seva. Seva is the practical aspect of bhakti. For example, in a partnership, if you always say "I love you" but never care for your partner when they are ill, what will they think of your love? On the other hand, if you care for them, bring medicine and food, you don't even need to say "I love you"—they know. In the same way, our bhakti to the guru and God is not only about feelings or sitting before an altar with deep emotions and tears. That might be just emotional bhakti. It has to show in reality, through service and doing something useful. Swāmījī often warns of this emotional bhakti. He says a new disciple may come with deep emotion, but half a year later, they are gone. Bhakti is not a wave of emotion; it is something we have to live in our real life. How? Exactly through what we have discussed these past days. All these yamas and niyamas and their connected techniques are the way to achieve and develop this bhakti. One could say, a little sarcastically, if you practice all ten principles and are now at Īśvara Praṇidhāna but cannot achieve this bhakti, then there is also help: go on and start with āsana, prāṇāyāma, and pratyāhāra. Consider the life of Milarepa, the Buddhist yogi. He had created much bad karma early in life. When he came to his guru, the guru saw the heavy karma and undertook to train him. The guru did not give him spiritual instruction or sādhanā initially. The whole sādhanā he got was karma yoga—hard work, seva—always aiming at his ego. The training was a test of his bhakti. Repeatedly, Milarepa reached a point where he couldn't go on and left, but his inner longing brought him back. This continued until, due to a complication (the guru's wife interfered), the plan was interrupted. The guru explained that Milarepa had such heavy karma that he had to lead him through purification via karma yoga and seva. He knew the disciple would leave and return. The guru said if Milarepa had left and returned one more time, he would have attained samādhi. The whole process was a training of his bhakti. Since it was interrupted, Milarepa then received initiation into meditation sādhanā, went into the Himalayas, performed hard tapasyā, and became a great enlightened yogī. The original plan of the guru to bring the disciple to enlightenment was about purifying karma and testing bhakti. If he had passed the last test, that would have been enough; he would have gone straight into samādhi. Mokṣa Mūlaṁ Guru Kṛpā—liberation is rooted in the guru's grace. When our bhakti is complete, we are fit to receive this mercy. Since it was not complete, the sādhanā started. We can come back to our principles. If we finish nine but do not manage the tenth, then we go on with the traditional way of Rāja Yoga. To express it in the categories of the Līlā game: we are on a field, but we throw a five and miss the chance to go straight into samādhi, so we continue moving forward in serpentines. The perfect practice of the yamas and niyamas is already a possible way directly to liberation. If we fail to go straight to the aim, the path is still there to continue with normal sādhanā. Though, again, this is not entirely accurate. Aṣṭāṅga means eight limbs, not eight sequential steps. As we discussed regarding the different yamas and niyamas, we realized that in several points we cannot really practice a yama or niyama perfectly without, for example, meditation. How can I live my life in perfect ahiṃsā? How can I practice satya perfectly? It requires deep understanding and meditation on life situations. Especially in svādhyāya, self-inquiry, we are already in meditation. We can also turn it around: in the proper practice of the yamas and niyamas, the rest is already included. This is the way Swāmījī is actually teaching us. He teaches all of it simultaneously, not as a sequence. In different satsaṅgs and seminars, he brings a bit of this and a bit of that. Our sādhanā is always included; it goes hand in hand. You make progress in one point and see a result in another. They influence, help, and support each other.