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We Have To Do It By Ourselves

A morning satsang on the personal nature of spiritual practice and the science of prāṇāyāma.

"If you want a good life and good crops from your farming, you must look after it personally. You cannot sit on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii and telephone someone, saying, 'Please put seeds in my farm.'"

"Khetī, pṛthī, prathānā, put tane khujal, jo suk chahe prāṇī, hato hat sambhal. (Farming, love, prayer, an itch on the back—if a being desires happiness, one must attend to these things personally.)"

On the incarnation day of Sadgurudev Swami Mādhavānandajī, The lecturer begins with prāṇāyāma and shares personal memories of his Guruji's disciplined life. He explains the core teaching that sādhanā (spiritual practice) cannot be delegated, using practical analogies of farming, love, and prayer. The discourse then delves into the importance and mechanics of prāṇāyāma, describing its physiological benefits, various techniques, and its role within the broader science of Svara Yoga and Prāṇavidyā. He emphasizes that theoretical knowledge is insufficient without personal, consistent practice.

Filming locations: To be determined.

Good morning to everyone. Please sit in your meditation posture and prepare for prāṇāyāma. It is good to be here together on this beautiful coast. You have had a very nice program, guided especially by Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar Gyāneśwar Purījī. I hope it was good. Did he guide you in the Indian way or the European way? A good answer should be: neither the European way nor the Indian way, but according to Yoga in Daily Life, which is international. We have been doing many programs, discussing theories and sharing nice stories from ancient literature. The sādhanā we practice must be done properly and by oneself. Today is the incarnation day of our Sadgurudev, Swami Mādhavānandajī. Gurujī's way of teaching was great. All my training and teachings are his blessings. Gurujī was a very practical and disciplined person. I have seen many, but none like him. Whenever you saw him, he was repeating his mantra. He rose early at three o'clock in the morning. Always, there were a few devotees with him in his room, and they also had to rise at that time. Sometimes, when Gurujī sent me somewhere or went somewhere without me, I was in one way sad not to accompany him, but in another way happy that I could sleep longer. That is the truth. In the evening, before sleep, he would do mantra and meditation. He told me, "Then you can sleep." Whenever I woke, I would see Gurujī sitting in meditation. Gurujī shared a very nice poem from the folk languages. Every country has its own sayings. I once asked Gurujī why sādhanā is not successful for many people. Gurujī said: "Khetī, pṛthī, prathānā, put tane khujal, jo suk chahe prāṇī, hato hat sambhal." Is it clear? Let me repeat: "Khetī, pṛthī, prathānā, put tane khujal, jo suk chahe prāṇī, hato hat sambhal." Khetī means farming. If you want a good life and good crops from your farming, you must look after it personally. You cannot sit on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii and telephone someone, saying, "Please put seeds in my farm," and expect them to use the tractor and plough. It will not be done as you wish, and you will not harvest what you desire or deserve. You must personally look after your orchard, garden, or crops. That is khetī. Pṛthī means love. Imagine you are sitting on Bondi Beach in Sydney and forget that today is your wedding day. The bride is here, but you are there. You send an SMS to a friend: "Go to the church and marry her for me; I will take it later." That does not function. If you want love, you must do it personally. Prathānā means prayer. If you want your own benefit, you must pray, practice, recite your mantras, and perform your kriyā yourself. You cannot be on the Adriatic coast having parties and ask someone, "Please, can you pray for me? Can you practice Mālā for me?" They may do it, but you will not receive what you should gain from doing it yourself. You must do your sādhanā personally. You cannot say, "I have too many kilos but cannot practice āsanas. Can you do them so I lose weight?" It will not work. "Put tane khujal" – if you have an itch on your back, you tell someone, "Please scratch here a little. A little left, a little right, a little down." How should they know exactly where? Your own hand goes directly there. This was Gurujī's teaching: it was very practical. You must do it yourself. Do not depend on others. Do not say, "I will pay you a daily wage to work, and I will get the salary." It will not happen. Similarly, the sādhanā you are doing is very important. Look, a paṇḍit sits before us. Ask him how hard he had to study, with the support of his parents and guru. He had to sit straight and read many, many times, repeatedly, to gain experience before he could speak. It is not easy. You decide to study at university and then realize how hard it is. You cannot just say, "Swamiji, can I change my subject?" Everything requires concentration, attention, and love to succeed. Similarly, you must do prāṇāyāma, āsanas, meditation, and kriyās with no compromise. Prāṇāyāma involves ten prāṇas, the major ones being prāṇa and apāna. Prāṇāyāma is more helpful and important than āsanas, yet people often pay more attention to physical exercises. Prāṇāyāma is a science proven to be very effective for our physical, mental, and emotional health. Nearly 60% of us here may suffer from high blood pressure. Proper prāṇāyāma can resolve this. We have problems with concentration; prāṇāyāma improves it by supplying more oxygen to the body and brain, enriching the blood, and keeping the respiratory system healthy and strong. Now we will do prāṇāyāma. This is a prāṇāyāma mudrā. It balances Iḍā and Piṅgalā and supports the head so you do not bend forward. When we cannot sit straight, our lungs suffer. The diaphragm should be relaxed and straight. The breath is taken in and out with support from the abdominal muscles. There are three levels: abdominal breath, lung breath, and chest breath. The best is abdominal breath. When you have sorrow, nervousness, or anxiety, practice this prāṇāyāma. It helps greatly. This prāṇāyāma cleanses negative vṛttis from the mind. It supports the nervous system, and when we consider the chakras and kuṇḍalinī, it is accomplished mostly with the help of prāṇāyāma. There are three aspects to prāṇāyāma: pūrak (inhalation), recak (exhalation), and kumbhaka (retention). There are two kinds of kumbhaka: antar kumbhaka (inner retention) and bāhir kumbhaka (outer retention). We must know which technique to use for which purpose. There are many techniques: Brahmārī prāṇāyāma (like the sound of a wasp, listening inside), Sītkārī, Śītalī, Ujjāyī, Bastrika, Kapālabhātī, Nāḍī Śodhana, Anuloma, Viloma, etc. You cannot do all at once, nor should you do them without knowing their purpose. If you have a stomach ache, you do not take medicine for a brain problem. If you need to replace your left knee, you do not replace the right one. For everything, there is a decision made by yogīs who have researched the body, mind, consciousness, and soul. This science and knowledge were given by great ṛṣis. You have been listening about astrology. The ṛṣis researched for ages the effects of planets on different persons and constellations. It is research and mathematics. Jyotiṣa is known as the third eye of God, but you cannot master it without sādhanā and study. There is Prāṇavidyā, just as there is Brahmavidyā. Prāṇavidyā is called Śvara Vidyā. There are two kinds of śvaras. One refers to the key notes in music, the ṣaḍ-ja: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa. The other refers to our Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. This is Svara Yoga. In it, you must know what to do and what not to do when the Iḍā nāḍī or Piṅgalā nāḍī is active. A real yogī seeking to achieve life's goal through yoga must practice Svara Yoga. You must know by which svara you should drink liquids and by which you should not, and when to eat solid food. We often put everything in one pot: salad, vegetables, bread, ice cream, yogurt. Only God knows what will happen, but God said, "I gave you something here; you should utilize it." By which energy, by which Svara Yoga, should we go to sleep? And when you wake up, which svara should become active? In Svara Sādhanā, there is Śāmbhavī Mudrā (gazing at the tip of the nose), Ākāśī Mudrā, Chin Mudrā, and others. Everything changes. Mudrās have physical, social, and energetic effects and influences. If you smile at someone, even if they do not like it, they will likely smile back. If you say "Hello," the other will say "Hello." That is a mudrā. If, instead, you show your tongue, that is also a mudrā, but what will happen? It is an indication. With hands, fingers, and the whole body, it is a language that indicates certain things, creating good or bad energy. That is why all the rules are written. Now, if you practice a 15-day yoga course and get a paper saying you are a yoga teacher, it is like spending a week at an airplane museum, looking at everything, and then declaring, "I am a pilot." Yes, you are a pilot. Put him in the cockpit of a jumbo jet with 300 passengers and say, "Please take off today." "I am not feeling well." My dear, theory is nothing. Tons of theory are nothing compared to a gram of practice. O Kuntī Putra (Arjuna, son of Kuntī): Abhyāsa, abhyāsa – practice, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect. You must have experiences. You should also conduct research according to your knowledge. Do not take it too easily, thinking you are a yogī and now you will teach. Yoga Gurujī Mahāprabhujī said, "Half knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge." All this – prāṇa, mudrās, nāḍīs, svara – belongs to yoga sādhanā. We will now do some prāṇāyāma. It will influence your blood pressure very nicely. If it is high, it will lower; if low, it will raise slightly. It regulates. This technique of Svara Sādhanā belongs to Siddha Yogīs. Siddha Yogīs can see the color of their prāṇa. They know after how many days a person may become ill and, according to the quality and quantity of one's prāṇa, can know after how many days, months, or years one will leave the body – accidents excepted, though accidents are also karmic, a topic for later. I wish you all the best in doing this sādhanā, Īśvara sādhanā, within the Brahmavidyā. Let us practice now. To all our dear brothers and sisters joining via webcast, we wish them all the best and good sādhanā. What you have is theory; if you practice, it will turn into experience. Looking at food will not fill your stomach. If you are very hungry with no time and tell your wife, "You eat," she will eat, but your hunger will not be satisfied. Do it yourself. "Khetī Pṛthī Prathānā Put Tane Khujal." This satsaṅg is in honor of our dear holy Gurujīs. According to Indian time, he was born in 1923 at 7:30 in the morning, with a good constitution.

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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