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This morning, I would like to speak about prāṇāyāma and practice prāṇāyāma. It is very difficult, or not so easy, to understand what is prāṇa. Generally, we understand good air, fresh air, oxygen, and we think, "Oh, that is good prāṇa." Definitely, it is something. This is the source of our life, this prāṇa also. When we walk through the forest, or through the park, or we sit under the trees, we feel a refreshment, the prāṇa. And this is life. But this life is not only this clean air, fresh air. Within this freshness, clean air in the forest, there is divine life. And life is always life, and life never dies. Life is transferred to a different level of the universe. After the prāṇa comes jīvā, the soul. Prāṇa is invisible, and jīva is invisible. We all are existing as individual souls here. Though the soul is within us, we cannot see it. It doesn’t matter how deep we sleep or how much we concentrate within ourselves, we will not see the soul. Oxygen can be measured, but the prāṇa cannot be measured. Similarly, the soul which is within us, we cannot measure, and we can’t describe how it is. What we think and we know is that we have a life, we have our soul. After the soul comes the ātmā, and that is a light. Light of life, light of soul, and light of prāṇa. So, prāṇa, the soul, and ātmā. Ātmā is also not visible. Ātmā is universal. Prāṇa is universal. But the soul is individual. The soul is also our life. The soul and prāṇa are not influenced by our destiny or karma. What we call good luck or bad luck. Happiness, unhappiness, pain, or pleasure. This is not affected by these things, the prāṇa and the ātmā, but the soul is affected. The soul is a victim of all our deeds. Whatever deeds, whatever we did in the past, maybe many other lives, this life, and present, what we are doing, everything is recorded as the history of our destiny, karma. So, constantly, when we speak of our self, my self, I am, my life, and so on, is that the soul? But the soul is a bundle of our actions. Soul is like a snowball. Every life collects karma, like a snowball rolling and catching more snow, but when the sun rises, the snowball will melt. Similarly, the sun of knowledge, the warmness of our spiritual light, and spiritual development can melt or purify our old karmas. What does the melting of the sun mean? Sorry, there was no. There is no difference between water and snow. Hey, stay there, sit down. Water, snow, ice, clouds, fog. It is a different form, but in reality, it is water. Leda, magle, oblaka, kiše, to sve voda, al samo drugi oblici. That’s why it’s different, like God, ātmā, God, soul, and prāṇa. In reality, they are one. But there is something in between which changes the conditions. When the steam, the prāṇa, rises up from the ocean, and we see clearly, like smoke, that we don’t call ocean, immediately the identity is changing from ocean to fog. And when the fog rises up, it changes name; it becomes cloud. Normally, we don’t see a lot of fog. And when it begins to rain, we don’t call the cloud, we say it is raining. Similarly, when many drops come together and begin to flow, we call it a creek, and it joins the river and becomes a river, and flows to the ocean and again comes to oneness. So this is the cycle of birth and death, and our aim is to come back to our origin, to God. There is no picture of Him, there is no name of Him, we don’t see anything, we can’t touch, we can’t smell, but still we believe there is a God. So only through human life can we achieve this. So life is a journey, not a destination. But maybe it’s the last milestone to become one with God. If we follow and lead the human qualities, the human nature, the human love, the kindness, mercy, etc. So we do believe, or we do hope, that we will one day become one with that Supreme. The second part of this is, first, coming to our thoughts. And they originate or transfer through our mind. The mind connects to our senses, and that comes to our intellect. And in the intellect, there are two qualities, two parts, positive and negative. So, the senses, the desires, the mind, and the intellect. So, this is another part of our life. If they are not controlled and not balanced, then the other part is suffering. The other part is there and is okay, but this part is suffering. Like we have a car and everything is okay in the car, but one belt, which is turning the generator or the fan for cooling the car, and that belt is broken, we feel a big difference. Or the brake failed. So here for us, "break fail" means that now we think a lot of negative thoughts and do negative things, searching for the negatives, and we are falling into the problems. So what we call the screws are loose, we have to tighten these screws. Now, in these two parts of our life, the prāṇa is very important. And this prāṇa is something like the cement between two bricks. Prāṇa unites, Prāṇa balances, Prāṇa keeps everything in order, healthiness, and therefore it is said harmony. Our yoga and daily life slogan is harmony of the body, mind, and soul. Achieve health, physical, mental, social, and spiritual. And for this, we have to practice authentic yogic techniques. Now, generally, the prāṇa or prāṇāyāma is four different prāṇāyāmas. Inhalation, exhalation, retention breath outside, or retention breath inside, that’s all. These are the four. Even without practicing, we follow these four principles. You can now judge for yourself that when we inhale, a normal inhale, it doesn’t matter what we are doing, we inhale and we hold the breath for a second or two seconds until the ventile opens for exhaling. And then we exhale. After exhaling, again, we stop the breath outside. So before inhaling, automatically there is an interval of the breath. The ventile opens, ready to get breath in. So this is called inhalation pūrak, exhalation recak, and antar kumbhak, and bāhar kumbhak. These are four breath techniques. So through the prāṇāyāma we can keep our lungs and our diaphragm healthy. It means we have more capacity to inhale more oxygen, to supply the oxygen to our lungs, which immediately distributes it throughout the whole body. And at the same time, all kinds of toxins from the body are exhaled through exhalation. In such a way that we have enough oxygen in our blood, in our different systems, organs, glands, glands everywhere. So this oxygen or this prāṇa is our life. Now we are these creatures which are connected on this earth. When we go to a higher altitude, then what we call the oxygen becomes thinner and thinner. But prāṇa is there, not this quality of the prāṇa or oxygen which we get here. Prāṇāyāma is very, very important, more important than physical exercises. Then there are some techniques. Nāḍī Śodhana, purification of the nerve systems. What does it mean? It’s impossible, and it’s not good if we pump the air in our nāḍīs. Even the doctors have to be very careful before giving the injection that there is no air in the needle. So, what do we mean by purification of the nāḍīs? That means that we supply more oxygen, which purifies our blood, and the nāḍīs are purified. Then we have this problem with high cholesterol or low cholesterol, and this and that. Our problem is now the way of food which we get. The food which we eat has no prāṇa inside. We try to fill our belly, that’s all, but not with good prāṇa. So, you see that the bees know very well where the prāṇa is. The honey bee is still a miracle on our planet. They can produce the nectar from these flowers. And the bees, the butterflies, they will always fly where there is more prāṇa. You can put one fruit, cut fruit, or a flower, and put a piece of meat beside it. No bee, no butterfly will sit on that piece of meat. But they will go to that life where the prāṇa is. Similarly, we should be that kind of bee which always searches for healthy food, which has life inside. Life means prāṇa. The oxygen in the body is enough. It will never be taken out at any time. But God made this system that through our breath, through sweating, etc., we can purify. Therefore, prāṇāyāma should not be practiced only occasionally, but should be done systematically and with discipline every day. When you are cycling, you are doing prāṇāyāma. When you are running, you do prāṇāyāma. Or when you are walking in the forest, you are doing prāṇāyāma. If you do swimming, you are doing prāṇāyāma. But where you do the prāṇāyāma, it should be healthy air, good, clean air. If you do prāṇāyāma where there is a lot of pollution and factories, then it is better not to do it. So whenever you have time, go to the park. Parks in the cities are the lungs of the city. And we shall try to reduce the pollution in our cities and everywhere. Different kinds of pollution: physical pollution, mental pollution, emotional pollution, intellectual pollution, and sound pollution. All these kinds of pollution disturb our health. Every change takes a lot of energy from your life. Every emotional change in your life has occurred or been accompanied by a few years. Every anger has taken away your prāṇa, burned your prāṇa. It took you one or two years away from your life. So, an angry person dies quickly. So, if you want to die quickly, then always be angry. You know, then somebody will come and finish it. Quickly, so my dear, we are responsible for our own life. We others can only give suggestions, but you must do. We can’t solve your health problem, but we can advise something. Do you? Should? Always, the doctor says, "If you help me, I will help you." Means follow the instructions. So prāṇa is the life. So there are different, ten different kinds of prāṇa generally we talk about. That is called prāṇa and prāṇa. So prāṇas are five kinds of prāṇas. Up-prāṇas, sub-prāṇas, there are other kinds of prāṇas. So what we inhale, air, what we inhale, this is divided into ten different qualities. And what we exhale takes away all the pollution from these ten different parts of the body. So many times, we don’t think about what it means for us to breathe. So, about these other prāṇas, maybe we will speak in the evening. Now is a good chance to practice. Finally, we still have the sun sign. In Vienna, it’s heavy rain. When I was in Vienna, it was sunny. When I came, the sun came here, so Vienna is happy that finally they have water. So if you do the prāṇāyāma, make sure that your diaphragm is not pressed, therefore we have to keep the spine straight. Mostly the belly, the stomach grows more for those directors and managers who are sitting at the table and working. Or some person, also for the yogīs. Because the stomach muscles are responsible for keeping the diaphragm straight, the pulling through the ribs keeps us straight. But the stomach is not bad. A man without a stomach means a sky without stars. So, let’s change the subject. So, try to sit straight. So, you close your eyes. If you have a mantra, you practice with or without a mālā. Try to sit comfortably and straight. Feel your whole body from the toes to the top of the head and from the top of the head to the toes. Keep the body relaxed but straight upright. Now, observe your breath. While inhaling and exhaling, is there an interval between or not? But don’t change your breath rhythm; let it flow as naturally as it is. And also find out in which part of the trunk of the body you are filling the breath more. Just observe your breath, inhalation and exhalation, and find out how many, sorry, how many seconds are between inhalation and exhalation when your breath is stopped. If you have good lungs and you are practitioners of prāṇāyāma according to yoga and daily life techniques, and practicing the kriyā according to yoga and daily life, then the interval of the breath will be longer. It means your lungs are healthy. And you have a very good capacity for storing oxygen in the body. When we walk up the staircase, we try to breathe quickly because we utilize more oxygen. So, prāṇāyāma is that which will keep our system, the lungs, and the respiratory system healthy. Relax. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Elbows completely relaxed. And make sure that your body is straight, but with no tension, and don’t feel pain. I know that I am inhaling, exhaling. It means a little bit deeper and longer than a normal breath. Time of inhalation, relax your abdominal muscles and your navel. It means relax the stomach. And try to expand the stomach while inhaling, and then slowly exhale, first from the lungs, then from the stomach. It is like when we put water in a pot or a bottle; the first water goes to the bottom, and the water level rises up. When we suck water out from the bottle, the level goes down from top to bottom. Similarly, when we inhale, the level rises from the bottom of the diaphragm and fills the upper part, the lungs. So we exhale; first we empty the upper part, and then down. Of course, without interval during the inhaling or exhaling. The interval naturally takes place between inhalation and exhalation, or between exhalation and inhalation, that will automatically continue. I know that I am inhaling, and I know that I am exhaling. Now, try to inhale more deeply and longer, but not very long. It means to increase the capacity of your inhalation and exhalation. Observe the breath between the abdomen and the nose. How do you feel when you are inhaling? And how do you feel when you are exhaling? For us, both have very important value: to inhale and also to exhale. This prāṇa which you are receiving is the source of our life. Slowly deepen your breath more and more, longer, with both nostrils, but make sure that you are breathing through the help of the abdominal muscles. For a while, try to deepen your breath more, deep, more inhale. Now, hold the breath normally, but purposely hold the breath without the support of the fingers, and then exhale. Try to exhale completely, and then hold the breath for a while. Keep the body straight and try to inhale deeply, but into the stomach, not into the chest. And slowly exhale, empty the whole lungs. Press the stomach inside. Hold your palms, grab your palms, and place the palms on the face. Form your face muscles and eyelids, and open your eyes. Hari Om. Bend forward so that more prāṇa flows towards the head. Hari Om.