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Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai! Dev Puruṣa Mahādev Kī Jai! Satguru Swami Madhvānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai! Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai! Good evening and good morning to all here. Good evening in Australia and in Canada. So we are omnipresent. We receive the blessing of Sūrya Nārāyaṇa—the sun, Bhāskara, Sūrya, Uṣṇāy, Āditya—who has many, many good names. His light blesses the entire globe. We come to our practice again. Today's subject is Trāṭaka. Trāṭaka is one of the techniques of Haṭha Yoga. But it is like this: you people do not have good memory, you do not remember many things, and you do not practice. At least you should put something into practice, yet sometimes you do too much. I once heard a story that spinach contains a lot of iron and is very good for children, especially those weaned from the mother's breast after one or two years. So every parent used to give them spinach, and the children did not like it. They spat it back out. The parents would take a spoon and put it back in. The baby's life was also not good. There is a book called Yoga Vāśiṣṭha, where Ṛṣi Vāśiṣṭha Muni, the guru of Bhagavān Śrī Rāma, gives instruction and teaching to Bhagavān Rāma. Similarly, the guru of Kṛṣṇa was Sandīpani Ṛṣi. What Sandīpani Ṛṣi taught Kṛṣṇa is little published, because sometimes people think God does not need to learn or go to school. If they do not go, then nobody will go. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa, "Why are you working? Why are you doing this?" Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "Nothing is impossible for me to have from the entire universe. Whatever I wish, I can have. But for social life and for future generations, I have to act. They will do what I do. Therefore, O Arjuna, it is better to do karma than to do nothing." Similarly, it does not matter which incarnation; certain education is required. For us, therefore, the highest element is called Guru-tattva. It is He who can lead us from darkness to light. What kind of darkness? And how can Gurudev lead you from this darkness? A very simple example: suppose someone cannot swim. For that person, the subject of swimming is darkness. That person cannot swim; this knowledge is not there. Now the swimming guru comes. Do you know what guru means? Teacher. Anyone who teaches you how to make a screw is your guru. Do you have this screw guru? That is why screws are loose. So we must have some strong guru who can tighten these screws. Guru is a Sanskrit word which means from darkness to light. Gu is darkness, and ru is the light. So now comes the swimming teacher, or you can say instructor, or master. The difference is in the language. One says mother, another says sister, another says daughter, another says grandmother, but finally they all refer to this person. So from the very beginning of our life, descending on this planet is guided by that Guru Tattva. Even in the stomach, you are in the mother's body, and the mother is talking. Until you die again after 2,000 years—this means how many days, hours, or years? They are always there. So the swimming master, swimming guru, swimming instructor comes, and in a few days you can swim. What changed in your body? He did not give you extra legs or extra hands. Nothing changed physically, except the muscles are trained. But now you can swim. Now your life is safe. So this is light. You could not swim before; it was darkness. So, a Master means to lead us from darkness to light. Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. That means the guru. So we need a guru in every field. Especially in the Western world, they call it high technology. They depend 1000% on the guru principle. In India, anyone can repair electric cables, but here, if you have not learned and have no certificate, you cannot touch them. So, every field, every education you are getting is guru training. Then why do people have an allergy to the word guru? They are the most stupid ones, because there is a conflict of language and a lack of knowledge. That is it. So the problem in the world is language. That language changes the culture, and that culture begins the fighting, etc. That all is ignorance. So the children were fed with spinach. Many children did not like it. I got this news in 1981. I remember very well. Then it came in the newspaper, saying that actually the research showed that spinach does not have as much iron as one believes. And these fresh young leaves are actually not healthy for children. All mothers threw them out of the kitchen and froze the spinach. So the Matajī, Katharina in Vienna with whom I was living, stood up and said, "The poor children, they were so much forced." Out of ignorance. So my dears, we have waves, certain waves, and we think, "Aha, this is the best." One boy who was acting in a film was poor, so his jeans were torn on the knees and on the buttocks, but he was looking beautiful. Now, every man and even woman, they want to have holes in new jeans, holes on the knees and holes on the buttocks. And the same boy, he lost kilos but had no money to buy new trousers, and he was working on a cow stall. So his trousers were hanging until half buttocks, and under his heels, trousers were coming. And because he was a film star, every boy started wearing such trousers. You only hold it a little bit and it falls down—so unpleasant. You know, I had a problem. My stomach, thanks to God, has grown a little more. But I was pulling my pants up always, and they were always sliding down. And can you imagine the age of the buttocks? I have no trousers. So, for the lungi, you know, like this, four steps more and trousers are between both my ankle joints. So these boys, I do not know what they have in their brain. And they are wiping all ground, bacteria, and dirt with this long cloth. And now, then he cut it off, and now he had only two calf muscles. And now, a new generation is making all these clothes here. Some like to cut their mustaches and see how they look. I do not want to say anything more. So we should think more logically, healthily, and, how to say, economically. Sometimes fashion becomes a mental illness or physical illness. Someone told me recently that they counted how many kilos of lipstick are swallowed by women per year. Really? Because how much you put on your lipstick, you know? And then with coffee, yeah, it goes in your body. So I have to write them. Why only women? The men, too. Therefore, for your safety, when you give a kiss to your woman, your wife, they tell, "Please first clean your lips." So, at least you do not get so much in your stomach. So, God gave us such beautiful lips. They are so beautiful and so natural. You may put some ghee, a little bit, if you have a problem. You see, every man's lips are so beautiful. I never have lipsticks, and I never hide my lips. I thank my mother always that still on my lips the mother's milk is shining. And if you use lipsticks, your skin becomes dry and always asks for more and more. The subject is Trāṭaka. So in 1970, when I came for the first time to Europe, at that time something very "in" was the so-called healthy way of living, healthy nourishment. And at that time it was called the macrobiotic diet. Everywhere: miso, soy, tofu, and what they call umeboshi, but not. A lot of salt in the salad, and the macrobiotic diet was good. Even if you are standing two hundred meters away, you can say that they are macrobiotic. Their skin looks like a yellow man's. Lost kilos, but healthy. They said healthy. Now, you hardly hear the name macrobiotic. This was the waves. But the person who introduced the macrobiotic diet and the soya was Japanese. I hope he is still living. He meant well. He researched, and he also supported the vegetarian diet very much. But I heard that same person now refuses to eat soy. Because he feels guilty that he introduced the soya, and millions of tons of soya are sold now, but therefore it is genetically manipulated and has chemicals inside. And his philosophy is that whatever grows about 40 kilometers around where you are living, that is best for you to cook any kind of grains, vegetables, fruits. But you know, we have no tapasyā, no tyāga, no vairāgya. From Střílky to New Delhi: 5,536 kilometers. New Delhi, not 40 kilometers. But 5,500 and something kilometers, the mango came. And water came in my mouth. Now I will eat that, but it means if I follow the principle of what is grown here, 40 kilometers round, then I should not eat it. So now, thanks to God, transportation became easier, and this mango seed I spent 40 hours around Střílky, therefore all energy is here. So, my dear, when a human realizes this, it is consumed more. Then they try to manufacture that more. And then, of course, they are not so much material, so they produce unhealthy things, pesticides and that and that. The corn flakes. So what? The corn we are eating. When you see certain research works, you will not eat anymore, except what is grown in your gardens, organic. So it is something like the war, a star war, that the Kauravas want to destroy the Pāṇḍavas. Only that they remain there. Asuras want only asuras. Vampires want to have so many vampires. And so, money—always want to have more money. So we know, my dear, only we trust in God, and we do consciously, and consciously God supports us. But one thing, you should all, country-wise, support more and more organic, bio-organic, then your government will help you. Your government does not want you to be ill. Your government does not want to damage your health. Your government is here to protect you. Because if they buy nothing, then they will not supply. Similarly, it is with your practice. After the seminars, many will go, read other books, try other techniques, this, that, and you are in trouble. Our Yoga in Daily Life is a complete system. You have all the fields of that. The question is there: discipline. Śraddhā and viśvāsa are missing, because śraddhā and viśvāsa are not there, because we do not have tyāga, vairāgya, and tapasyā. So you will see what you will be able to renounce when you go. Eat someone? Yesterday, I made a saṅkalpa: until next year, during the anuṣṭhāna, I will not eat chocolate. Yeah, one raises his hands up because he is a diabetic. Okay, you see, even diabetic, but when mango comes, we say, okay, we will take a little more, Jackson. Trāṭaka. So trāṭaka means it is a practicing of dhāraṇā. Now, dhāraṇā has many meanings. Dhāraṇā means to decide. Dhāraṇā means to accept, and dhāraṇā means concentration. And from dhāraṇā comes dheirya. Dheirya means peaceful, impassioned. Wait. Dheriya, dhāraṇā, and from dhāraṇā comes dhyāna. But before dhāraṇā is practiced and mastered, you cannot have dhyāna. But you cannot practice dhāraṇā if you do not have niyama. And you cannot be successful in niyama if you do not have the yama. Then you break your saṅkalpa. So when I talk about yama, then children always say, "Yeah, yam, yam, yam." That is it. Or yama means death. Or, yama means discipline. So, my dear, language is always something. Concentration. What is concentration? We tie a rope from this pillar to that pillar, about three meters high. And now you walk from this pillar to that pillar on the rope. The rope is also swinging like this. The rope is going up and down, and we are looking at you, and we are laughing. We are clapping, and the person who is walking on the rope smiles and looks at us like this, everything, but his concentration, his awareness, is on that balance. That is dhāraṇā. Then you can be successful, otherwise not. So dhāraṇā abilities can be developed through the practicing of trāṭaka. Trāṭaka means gazing on one point. And with that point, you are also directing your attention to that point. The balance is created by our eyesight. So the practicing of Trāṭaka supports our eye vision. That can be done on a black spot, a white spot, green, or a candle. Never do trāṭaka on your own face in the mirror, because then you will see, if you do it on your own face in trāṭaka, suddenly your face is coming out of the mirror to you. You scream and run to the bedroom. And your wife will say, "Darling, calm down, what happened?" And you say, you know, he came out of the mirror. She says, "No one came. Relax." Midnight, he gets up and goes again to the mirror, and again it is coming. He is making like this, and he is making like that. She says, "Tomorrow we will go to our friend; he is a good psychologist." So many times, our imagination for different energies, if we cannot master, we should not touch. So Yoga in Daily Life is a sāttvic technique, a nirmal technique; nirmal is pure. It is not for the fakīr, and it is not for the magicians. But it is for spiritual energy. Therefore, fakīr means many. Fakīr is like a holy saint. Fakīr is an Urdu word. But some sit on the needle bed. We all are bhakti yogīs. We are comfortable. We do not have a little bed. We have a very thick foam bed. It is okay. Torturing the body is not a sādhanā inside. Inside, you should be humble and calm. So Trāṭaka will help you to remove many negative thoughts, develop concentration, and give you inner harmony. You will see light with closed eyes. In the beginning, you will see only the reflection. Like when someone takes a photo with a flashlight, you close your eyes and you see many, many points. But after some time, other light comes. So that inner light is not this physical light. That is coming from inner light, inner visions. So, practice trāṭaka under your teacher's guidance. And that teacher should not be greedy to give you too many imaginations. You should know how much dose you have to give. That is it. That is why Yoga in Daily Life teachers have three, four years of training. And they are very cautious, and those who give overdoses are lost, including their practitioners. So Yoga in Daily Life is safe, sure, and sāttvic. There is no tamas guṇa, no rajas guṇa. It is sattva guṇa. And that is why, yes, this is above the three guṇas. So your good teacher, your good Yoga in Daily Life teacher, should teach you trāṭaka. Because if I tell you the technique now, you will do it. But I know that you have no willpower. It is very good, and you will do more, and you will do more, and you will do more. The best is to do it before going to sleep. But if you do not follow the principle and the limitation, you cannot sleep then. Wish you all the best. Many are leaving now. And many will still stay. The final satsaṅg we will have this evening. Many blessings to your family and your friends. Take care. See you somewhere soon. Deep Nanda Bhagavān, Nekhī Devī Svarmā Devī, Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān Kī Sanātana Dharma. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ...