TV Channel

Mahāṃ karatāṃ prabhudīpa karatāṃ. Mahāṃ prabhudīpa kartārhi kevalam. Oṃ śānti, śānti, śāntihi. Good morning, Hari Om from the Stříleckého āśrama. Yesterday, we said that this place is truly a retreat and a sādhanā camp for practice and for re-accumulating energy for the coming year. It is a new camp, our meeting, to exercise and gain energy for the next year. For those who work in schools, like professors, and also for yoga teachers, we always have the feeling that the new year starts in September. Not from the first of January, but we begin in September. A seminar like this, one month in the Střílecký āśrama, is truly a retreat for a new beginning. What must we do for ourselves to regenerate body and mind? The first thing is food. It is important to take care of what we eat. We are vegetarian not only for that reason, but because in spirituality the main principle is Ahiṃsā. Also, if we want to be healthy—not only physically, but also mentally, spiritually, and socially healthy—we need vegetarian food. But we must also be aware not to become fanatics. We must understand why we are vegetarian: because of Ahiṃsā. Another kind of nourishment is our physical movement. We have heard many times from Swāmījī, and if you know people in depression, you will see it is completely true. If you are without movement—even if you are a completely healthy person physically—and you are just sitting in a chair watching TV, or in bed and you do not want to move, in a few days you will be completely ill. Nowadays, many people are constantly tired and without energy. After work, they come home and immediately go to a chair or bed. They say, "I have no energy, I can't move." First, we see such a person is eating junk food. Second, their work is mostly sitting. There is a different kind of tiredness. When you work hard at your job, you are tired. But if you sit all day in front of a computer without movement, you are not just tired; you are exhausted. You have no energy for anything. Therefore, we say that movement is another kind of nourishment. Because of that, we need āsanas. Today, there is a trend of practicing āsanas in a more dynamic way. But originally, in old times, āsana meant the position of your body, staying in a position for a longer time—not only moving from one position to another. You have some dynamic movements: Sūrya Namaskāra, Kaṭha Praṇāma, some āsanas from the first level, Sarva-Hitā āsanas. But mostly, when you practice āsanas, try to remain in the position for a longer time, without so much movement within the position. Today, it is usual to see on YouTube or in other exercises people constantly moving during Marjari, Chatuṣpādāsana, or other movements, moving their heels all the time like a snake. Maybe it is okay for some muscles, but you lose other dimensions of āsanas. When you are in a position, first observe: a person who has a lot of tension in the body, with many vṛttis in the mind, or a person addicted to drugs, will show a lot of restlessness in the body. They are all the time in some movement. It is very hard for them to be without movement. I always have a picture: when you have a pot of boiling water on the fire, and the water starts to boil, you see many bubbles. Those bubbles make the pot move and make noise. It is the same with our body: chewing gum, restless legs, restlessness in the body. Now we start to practice āsanas and try to have different feelings: to become calm, but not in tamas and sleep. As Swāmījī said yesterday about Chetan, to be aware with a lot of energy but without movement. That is also an attribute of a self-realized person: without movements, but constantly aware. In that way, we must also practice āsanas. Not only for physical benefit—to lose a few kilos, to be healthy, young, and nice-looking. All of this is good, but if we have inside a lot of restlessness, what will we do with it? When I started to practice yoga, I read one sentence: a banyan tree may live a thousand years, but it remains a banyan tree. It remains. The same thing: if we practice āsana, prāṇāyāma, and yoga only for good health and long life and nothing else, we are just using the resources of this planet. What Swāmījī said yesterday is also very important: to do something good for others. But how will we do something good for others if we have a disaster inside? If you want to save somebody from drowning, you must know how to swim. Not only that, you must be very strong and professional. The same situation is in our life. If we want to do something good for others, we must be good inside. We must feel good inside, in our body, in our skin. For that, it is really important to practice āsanas. Also, if you want to stay mentally healthy—we say, normal—we must all the time be able to stand with both legs on the earth, without fantasy or fanaticism, but with common sense. If you want to preserve your common sense, you also need to practice with your body. That is the āsanas. Not only āsanas, but also Haṭha Yoga kriyās. All of this will give us a lot of energy and self-discipline, and we will be good inside. Not always happy, but we will feel good. If we are happy all the time, it will be boring. Because of that, we will feel good. Also, how to practice āsanas? Not by torturing our body, as we have heard many times from Swāmījī. When I started practicing āsanas thirty-two or thirty-five years ago, I tortured my body a lot because I thought at that time that was the best way. I thought every position, every āsana, must be perfect, and some strange āsanas were even better. But after a long time—you know, for everything you need time for understanding; I needed a little more—in the end, you must ask yourself what you will gain with such practice. Maybe you will build up your ego more: "Look at me." But do you feel healthier, happier? And most importantly, are you a better person if you practice Śalabhāsana? What will you get with an excellent Śalabhāsana if you are a terrible person? Nothing. You are maybe a Chinese circus. On that way, it is very important to practice āsanas. Also, it is very important not to understand what I said now in a different way: "Okay, I will not practice anything, just Marjari and nothing else." Yes, try to practice Śalabhāsana. Why not? It is very important, and it is important to do it perfectly and to know why and how you practice the āsana. But that is not the main aim of practicing āsanas. Also, when you start to practice āsanas every day, you become very flexible. It is no problem to practice any āsana, Padmāsana. We joke in the morning that āsanas from the 8th level are no problem for us. But it is very important to start slowly. Not only when you start practicing āsanas do you begin from the first level; when we begin, we begin from the first step. After that, finish with some āsanas that are not hard for us, but a little advanced. Also, it is good if your āsana practice includes almost all kinds of movements: left, right, bend, forward, backward, twist. Some, not handstand, maybe Sarvāṅgāsana, depending on your health and level. But try to have all kinds of movements. When we practice āsanas, try to be strict with yourself. It does not mean that because the left side is much easier than the right side, I will stay longer on the left side. No. We know that time is relative. When you are drinking tea—když pijete čaj—it is a different time than when you are at the dentist. At the dentist, five minutes is almost two hours, and during chai, two hours is five minutes. The same thing is true when you practice āsanas. When you are on the better side, it is easy to stay a few minutes. But on the other side, 30 seconds feels too long. Because of that, it is a good technique to try to relax yourself and repeat your mantra. You will know that it is also a measurement of time. Also, it is many times visible in a yoga class, especially when we practice Marjari or Vyagrāsana. If we are not counting, somebody continues to practice Marjari maybe 20 times, and if you ask that person, "Do you know where you were?" they say, "Oh yes, I was on the beach," or "I was planning something." That is another segment of why we practice āsanas. When we practice āsanas, we have this body, which is an excellent tool. This tool is a big help to remain in the present time because if we are without this body—in the dream state or a really relaxed state—it is very easy for our mind to flow from one side to another, and we are completely lost. Without the body, it is very hard to remain pointed at one point. During the practice of āsanas, through this tool, we have more chance to be in the present moment, which means we are at one point. Our practice of āsana is also a very big help for meditation—not only for sitting in meditation, but for concentration and for the practice of remaining at one point in the present time. Plus, when we practice āsanas with a mantra, we have more benefit. We can say that is also meditation in movement. Not only that, we talk about common sense all the time. During the practice of āsanas, we also practice the breathing process, and that is also preparation for prāṇāyāma. First, because through āsanas we purify our body on the basic level of muscles, tissues, and organs. Second, we also purify our nāḍīs. We gain awareness of our body. Also, we practice how to be focused in the present time. When we try, during āsanas, to feel some part of the body, there are also many levels. First, we will have more benefit for that part of the body. Second, we will learn about anatomy on another level because we will feel our organs inside. But also, it is an excellent technique of concentration. You know, maybe from school, if you were learning an instrument, one exercise was and is, when you hear a whole orchestra, to try to listen to only one instrument. You hear the whole orchestra, but you are focused on the one instrument. Try every time another instrument. In the beginning, it is impossible. But when you listen with concentration, you will hear only this instrument. And when you lose concentration, immediately you will lose this instrument and hear the entire orchestra. Our body is the entire orchestra. When we practice āsanas in such a way that we feel one part of our body, it is the same exercise—excellent for concentration, to feel and to be in the present time. When we read Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras, we see inside that the biggest problem is that we identify ourselves with the vṛttis. When we identify ourselves with our vṛttis, we lose knowledge of who I am. This exercise is good to be focused on in this moment because when we have a problem or many vṛttis, we are in the future or in the past. In the present time, in this peace time, we have inner peace. Also, during the practice of āsanas, we are aware of our breathing process. The breathing process is also a strong tool for our body and mind, but first for the body. If you practice some āsanas and remain in the āsana with full lungs—because we practice some āsanas with kumbhaka—in that moment we have a stronger influence to push blood out from some organs. When we practice with emptiness, in that moment more blood comes into that organ. It is not only through movements that we have pumping, but also through breathing we may have more influence on better circulation. Also, if we have complete yoga breathing, especially with the diaphragm, in that moment we will have more vacuum here in the abdomen. Because the main artery passes here, all the blood from the legs will go up more easily, and it will be more beneficial for our heart—a little relaxation for our heart. The same when we are in stress: you know we breathe only with the clavicle. Also, one of the problems is when we are in stress, we forget to relax, and our body, even after the stress has passed, stays in a state of stress. If we practice āsanas synchronized with the breathing, we will much more easily release ourselves from the stress and its influence. But what does it mean to synchronize movements and breathing? It does not mean that when we practice, we force the inhale and force the exhale. Yes, that is synchronized movement and breath. But try to understand it in another way. In a situation like Marjari, try to imagine you completely forget to breathe. Do not try to inhale and exhale. Just try to do the movements. You will feel that through movements, air is just entering without forcing, and also through movements, air will go out—like a sponge when you press and relax. Same principle. You will see that in that moment, our breathing process becomes longer and slower. Movement becomes slower, and immediately after one round of Marjari in that way, we will be calm in the head. You will feel really strong circulation in the body, and inhalation and exhalation will be deeper. That is excellent against stress. After practicing āsanas in such a way—with awareness of the body, with awareness of the breathing, but not too much influence, just being aware, like in meditation, being the observer—after that, it will be really easier and more beneficial when we start to practice prāṇāyāma. Prāṇāyāma is not a breathing exercise. We exercise our inhalation and exhalation during the āsanas, with the movements. But prāṇāyāma is the controlling of prāṇa, the vital energy. When we sit after such practice of āsanas and start prāṇāyāma, we will see that we have very slow breathing. Also, try not to force your prāṇāyāma. Everybody knows the Guru Gītā. Inside, you will hear: if you force your prāṇāyāma, you will not gain anything, only illness. But if you are in that nice, calm state of mind, in a state of love, your prāṇa and apāna are immediately in balance. Do not force your prāṇāyāma. Not a strong inhale with such a kind of sound. There is one secret: this nostril is not blocked, but it is not 100% open. If I try to force inhalation, I will have this kind of sound and pain here. But if I am completely relaxed, without forcing, I will not have a sound, I will not have pain here, and more air will come in. The same thing is also with the āsanas. If you use too much force—I learned that from martial arts—if you go force against force, you will have really blue hair and pain. But if you go without force, but with a little knowledge of physics and using other forces, you will not even be tired. Same thing with practicing āsanas: do not force too much. The second thing, also important with āsanas, now comes to my mind: I think the biggest obstacle in āsanas is too much thinking. If you are too much in the mental and thinking too much, you will be completely blocked. I know when I start with Śalabhāsana: if I, in the moment, start to think about Śalabhāsana, in the first second when I start to put my leg up, I will be blocked. I must say to myself, "Vivek Purī, do not think." In that moment, it is easy. If you see models, and if a model thinks too much about walking, you will see that it is awful, and they may even fall down. But if she practices every day—that is only walking—and without thinking, she will do it perfectly. The same thing is with martial arts. They say, "When you start to think, you are on the floor." Same thing with āsanas. Be aware. Be Chetan. Observe your body, but do not think too much. And prāṇāyāma also: just relax without forcing. After practicing āsanas, you will see that you are breathing much more slowly and deeply. You will not have a question: "How is it possible, only 20 inhalations from one side, a little interval, and 20 times on the other side? It's only 2 minutes." No, no. If you practice āsanas in the right way and do not force your prāṇāyāma, just relax and let the inhalation happen, you will see that it is not two minutes; it is 15 to 20 minutes. If we want to practice prāṇāyāma in a good way, it is always important and necessary to begin with several āsanas. If we work all day, we are mostly in a sitting position, and stress causes our breathing to be superficial, not deep. With āsanas, we will make inhalation and exhalation deeper and slower, and after that we start with prāṇāyāma. Also, prāṇāyāma with a mantra is fantastic. After that, you have meditation. It may look like, "Oh, I don't have such a long time to practice āsanas, prāṇāyāma, meditation; it's a whole day." But if you organize your time, you will see that you need maybe 15 or 20 minutes of āsanas. But if you practice in this way, you will have a real effect on your body. After that, your prāṇāyāma will have more benefit. And after such prāṇāyāma, it is so hard to just run away; you must continue with meditation. The only problem is if you practice in such a way and try to sleep a little longer in the morning, not waking up at the right time but sleeping half an hour longer, your practice will create more stress. So it is very important that our practice does not create stress in our life. The best time for practice is the morning. Everybody who has Kriyā knows how it is when you do Kriyā in the morning, or when you don't do it and wait until evening. All day you are thinking, "I will do it later," and you have not stress, but a little tension. Because of all this, take a few minutes longer in the morning to practice in peace and to start the day without stress. The whole day will be much, much nicer. Why? Because we will be a little better person during the day. We know that is the main aim of our life: to do something good for others, and not to be a troublemaker, but to try to make it so that others have a better life without problems. As Swāmījī said two days ago or yesterday, Hinduism is the religion of joy. Also, yoga must be a way of joy. Really try to enjoy your spiritual way and enjoy your practice. If you do not enjoy your practice, and if we suffer during the practice the whole time, we will not accomplish anything. Many times I said, when I was a child, my grandma forced me to practice piano, and I felt like I was being tortured. Because of that, today I don't play piano. But if you find anybody who is good in their profession or good at an instrument, he or she enjoys the practice. Because they enjoy the practice, they are good. The same thing: if we enjoy our āsanas, if we enjoy our prāṇāyāma, we will be good in yoga.