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Om Śrī Satguru Swamījī Mahādvānī Bhagavānkī Satya Sanātan Dharmakī. Salutations to the cosmic light, adoration to our holy lineage. Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. It is beautiful to be here again in this beautiful hall, and we have found the time for this weekend. Yoga in Daily Life has been in this country for exactly 42 years. Many of you were not yet born. Numerous seminars, conferences, and classes have taken place. But knowledge has no end. This knowledge, which we call Kāmadhenu—dhenu is a cow—that cow gives you everything you wish. That cow gives nectar all the time; there is no end. We know we cannot measure knowledge in kilograms or centimetres. Life is a learning process, a journey to walk on the path of light. It is not the destination. The destination will come at the end of life. One destination we have is called self-realization. Some call it Mokṣa, some liberation. Some call it becoming free from the cycle of birth and death; some say to become one with God, or one with Brahman. The names are different. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said it does not matter which path you take; finally, I will be there. All paths lead to me. So it does not matter which kind of spiritual practice or healthy way of life we follow; the result will be given in the last minutes of life. Why the last minutes? Because we cannot trust our indriyas, our mind, and our intellect. We have different qualities within ourselves: the best, good, spiritual, divine, or āsurī-śakti, devilish qualities—anger, hate, jealousy, greed, etc. So it can happen in life that we make a mistake, and then the door to Brahman is closed. Therefore, it is said: do not celebrate the day too early. Do not think that because you have practiced for so many years you have gained nothing. You have gained a lot, but it is good that you do not know it. If you know, ego will come, and that ego is Māyā, the biggest obstacle. Therefore, every day is a new day, a learning day, and we should study all the time. If you read the Bhagavad Gītā, Rāmāyaṇa, Bible, or Quran, you may read the same chapter every day, but every day you will gain new knowledge from it. That is called Kāmadhenu. It is like eating the best vegetarian, organic, healthy, well-cooked food: as long as you chew it, it develops more taste in the mouth. But if you eat junk food—what is common nowadays—if you chew it long, you will feel like vomiting. People eat so quickly, swallowing it down, and that is why we are victims of various diseases. Our health is in our hands, within certain limits. Of course, infections, viruses, accidents—such things are not in our hands. Healthy food gives healthy vṛttis, healthy thoughts. There is little risk in life. Just before yesterday, I gave a lecture at a university in Hungary. We planted a peace tree, opened a new Yogandhi Life Center, and all the deans and members of the university were there. I spoke for about half an hour. I told them the same thing I told you in Strelka: belief does not change reality. If you do not believe in God, it does not mean there is no God. And if you believe in God, it may be that there is no God. Do you know that reality? That is very important. So many things we just follow in this modern way of life. We are running behind technology and "quality"—the quality to grow your business. Many people have good jobs as computer designers, in graphics. They study long and hard to learn what can attract people, and there is a marathon in this pursuit. When I first came here in 1973, and several times a year thereafter, we had yoga scriptures that were just cyclostyled or photocopied from some offices. That was the communist time. You could copy as much as you wanted in the office; no problem. When there was no paper, they bought it. Everything was government. Now it is private. If you go to your office and photocopy an entire book, your boss will not be happy. In a way, the theory of communism developed from ancient wisdom: nothing belongs to you; it belongs to everyone. Even your body does not belong to you; you will die. Back then, when driving, if you saw a good field with apples, people stopped their car, took the apples, and filled the whole boot. Or with corn, kukurutsa. Nobody said, "Why are you taking?" They were not thinking of profit, but of proper comfort and feeling happiness. At that time, our yoga scripture was just photocopies—sometimes too much ink, sometimes less, no graphic design. When they produced 200 scriptures, they sold out in one lecture. People were waiting. Now you see everything is "quality, quality." But this quality is not the quality that leads us to spirituality. We speak about simple living and higher thinking, but not now. We now have a new Yoga in Daily Life book for children. I tell you, it took four years to choose the cover piece. In four years, at that time, we could have sold about 400,000 books. But this quality we think we need is damaging our environment. Our food is also manipulated. We want to buy an apple that is big and shiny, with wax over it—not beeswax, but plastic. We want these "good" apples. Yet here in our field, the organic, best, old-quality, real-quality apples are lying in the field; no one collects them. Similarly, human consciousness has gone down towards a temporary reflection, a temporary joy. Real gold always shines, but artificial gold shines double—though not for long. Therefore, we should never change the ancient wisdom, the ancient literatures. Many books are changed. Some say now that young people do not want to come to satsaṅg, or to the temple, or to the church. So they are changing things now, adding dancing and, I do not know, pop music. I was surprised to see that in church, where people go for prayers and the Holy Bible is read, now they are dancing. "Yes, Jesus said it like this: 'Come on, get them.' Oh God." And people are dancing, so now young people are coming. This is not good; it is not serious. Either you come or you do not come. We cannot change the words and ways of the gods. In prayers, in satsaṅg, you should be silent because every word is like a drop of nectar. Therefore, many people are changing yoga too. Oh my God, so many different names. We have an ashram in San Francisco. The director, she is from Beskidy, and she is singing "Beskidy, Beskidy"—wait, sit down—it is a joke. But she told me—she is here, I am not—she will say yes, but do not say yes because I say you will say yes. They asked me a question: "Swāmījī, what do you think about wine yoga, alcohol yoga?" They call it wine yoga. You come to the yoga center like in first-class airplane service: they come with a tray of wine, you drink, then you go change your clothes. When you enter the practice room, you get a glass of wine. You talk to friends, then before relaxing, you get another kind of wine, then you relax. Then they practice āsanas, have an interval, and get a little wine. They call it wine yoga. So many people said, "You see, the Indian yogīs, they are not good. They say, 'Don't drink alcohol,' but look, we are having wine yoga." Amritsar, is it true? You can tell something about it. Yes, it is true. So much of the quality of yoga is lost because it has become commercial. It is a pity. India has given immense knowledge and culture to the world. All the Vedas, intellectual and philosophical knowledge, are rooted in the Vedas. But two things India still cannot control—I always tell the ministers, the government, they should control, but they cannot. First is yoga. Yoga should have a proper diploma, and according to this, one should teach, not do whatever one likes. But everyone does what they like; there is no control. How to control? Second is Āyurveda. Still, Āyurveda is not controlled. The Government of India supports Āyurveda and yoga very much, but there is no control. Anyone who knows nothing about Āyurveda goes to India, buys one or two Āyurveda books—what is good for the stomach, what is good for the ears—buys medicine, comes here, reads the book, and says, "Well, I give you Āyurveda consultation and medicine." It is called "I am Āyurveda" certified. Thanks to God, Āyurveda does not have so many side effects; otherwise, everyone would die taking medicine from the wrong person. My dear, the same thing happens with spirituality. Bubbles, water bubbles, do not last long. Your Yoga in Daily Life signifies the system that is constantly giving us that knowledge. We have no competition and no challenges. Competition and challenge belong to worldly life and business. In yoga, there is no competition and no challenge. The more highly developed one is, the more humble one must be. Those who are not will try to sow "blim-blam." So, my dear, we must come back to this point again. Why did I tell you this? Because I spoke at the university. What? They were thinking Swamiji lost the subject. Some radiance was coming from some people, thinking to me. So the subject is this: we all in the world face very critical situations, and one day one of the biggest problems will be physical and mental health problems. Spirituality is lost. Of course, dancing and such—why not? That is okay. Sometimes they say Kṛṣṇa was also dancing. Who has seen? Did you make a video? No. This kind of dancing was developed by one swāmī from India because he knew Americans like to dance. So he made a kīrtan and began to dance, and they began to dance, so many people came. Now everyone is trying to learn dance because many come. You learned to dance. Let your ātmā, your jīvātmā, dance within thyself in happiness. So the biggest problem is and will be that 80% or 85% of humanity has lost the knowledge of cooking. Many of you were lucky that your mother and father gave you instruction on how to cook. Please, come and watch and look. The children had an interest. How many of you sitting here were not taught anything about cooking by your parents? Cooking does not mean just putting potatoes and beans in water, boiling them, peeling, cutting, adding salt and butter, and saying, "Oh, very nice eating." In the future, this knowledge of how to cook will be lost even more. The same person I spoke about regarding wine yoga told me two weeks ago that people are now building "Skype crepes"—apartments with three or four bedrooms, but no kitchen inside. Directly or indirectly, they are forcing you to go to a restaurant to eat because if every flat cooked, the air would be very bad. Why didn't you design proper exhaust and windows? Because such engineers were allergic to their wives, so they didn't design a kitchen so he wouldn't have to eat his wife's cooking. What other reason could there be? This is manipulation, forcing people to eat in restaurants. There is one philosophy called Pakṣāstra, like Vedānta, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, etc. It is called Pakṣāstrā, and Pakṣāstrā is the subject of Āyurveda. Āyurveda can heal many things by preparing particular food in a particular way. It is said that Āyurveda can cook iron beans—solid metal iron—and you enjoy it. How did they do it? That is the knowledge, the science. It was the Āyurvedic practitioners who could put this para into solid form—what we call mercury—into solid form. That is the science of cooking. So, the bright future for humans—a healthy, long life and a comfortable feeling in this body—will be to learn cooking. Have a little garden and cook. Do not worry about money; you have everything. So I told the University of Hungary, "Mr. Dean, you should open one faculty for good health, nourishment, and cooking." This is a study for six years, not three or four. You have to research and learn each spice, what kind of effect it has on the body, mind, and spirit. If you do not believe in herbs and spices, then you know some people smoke hashish. How do you feel? Sometimes you see a double staircase. That is an effect. Every spice is for particular glands, particular organs, blood circulation, etc. How many can cook, and how many know which spices to use? So, come tomorrow with a cooking pot, and later we will cook. My dear, our life is accompanied by certain qualities. The one reality of our being here is called prāṇa, jīva, jīvātmā, ātmā, and paramātmā. This is our path. It is very difficult to distinguish between the soul and prāṇa. We say in our language in India, prāṇa chhod gayā—the prāṇa is gone. Or jīva chala gayā—the jīva, the soul, went away. So jīva and prāṇa have a very close relation, like fish and water. The fish cannot live without water, so the soul cannot live without prāṇa. Prāṇa is not oxygen. Prāṇa is not what we inhale and exhale. Of course, our breath and oxygen are very important, but when we come to the subject of prāṇa, it is very different. You cannot see or touch prāṇa, but it is with you. The soul you cannot see. Within our body is our soul, but where is the living soul? It is very difficult to say because we are aware, conscious of ourselves being the whole body. So it is very hard to know where the soul is. Where are you? Where is your ātmā? We will make an experiment today. Yes, thank you. Everyone, close your eyes, because we are very expert at imitation. This is a very interesting test that will help you a lot. But if you keep your eyes open, it will not help. Yes. Do not lose this chance. Of course, if you do not want to, okay? You can remain with open eyes; nobody prohibits you. And do not open your eyes again until I instruct you to. Did you understand? Who did not understand, raise your hand. Very good. Do you know what eyes are and what it means to close them? Good, but still someone's eyes are open and moving the ideals. Maybe that is a blind one, so I do not know. Now listen. Raise your right hand index finger above your head. Above your head, hand straight up. Of course, if you do not have a right hand, you can use the left. Great. Great. But it is still not finished. Now I will ask you: Where are you? Where is your ātmā or your soul? Do not open your eyes. Touch your index finger on your body anywhere where you think, "Here I am." Do not move your finger again. Touch your body and leave it there. Do not open your eyes. Touch the index finger where you want to know that here is my ātmā. Do not move the finger. Be honest. And do not change anymore. Now look, open your eyes and look at your neighbor. Where is their hand? And look, where is your finger? The answer is there. I need not explain. So that seed of the Ātmā, Paramātmā, Jīvātmā, Prāṇātmā, is in this part of the body. There. You say, "I taught this." You do not say, "I taught this," or to your wife, "You, I." My dear, the indication given by nature is correct. So one part of our life is called prāṇa, jīva, jīvātmā, ātmā, and paramātmā. We should never neglect this. That is our reality and our path. Then there is the call of the indriyas, the senses; then desires; then the mind; then the thoughts, vṛttis; and what we call the intellect. This is the second part of our being. Remember: senses, emotions or feelings, desires, the mind, the thoughts, the intellect—this is one part of our life. Above the intellect is the cream, the cream of your intellect, called intelligence: positive, pure thought, consciousness. We say, "Buddhi bhraṣṭa ho jātā hai"—your buddhi can be spoiled. But your viveka cannot be spoiled. Either we say viveka-hīna, meaning you have no viveka. If you have viveka, then there is no doubt your thoughts are very pure and clean. That viveka possesses knowledge, because the subject of the mind, vṛtti, and intellect is knowledge. We need them very much. We need each and every sense, indriya: the five Karmendriyas and five Jñānendriyas. Their boss, their master, is the mind. In a certain way, we call the mind also an indriya; some people count it as the eleventh, not ten. Whatever God gave us has meaning. We have a beautiful rose flower, a rose plant. But the plant also has needles, thorns. Why God gave these thorns must have a reason. Some reptilians like to go and eat the blossom bud of the rose, and the rose has thorns like a hook so these certain reptilians cannot climb it. There are many, many reasons. So God gave this body many, many things. We have liberative spiritual power and destructive power. So we have the third part of our life: desires, anger, greed, hate, jealousy, cruelties, etc. This is the third part of our being. And then we have the body system, our entire physical body. About the physical body, you know through medicine, anatomy, etc.—maybe a doctor knows. We do not know. If we knew our body, we would... never put such nourishment of food in it. Never. If you know what the brain means, and what healthy thoughts and a balanced life mean, if you know, then you will not touch any drug. Afterward, you are sorry. Everybody will say, "Oh, it looks like he's a drunkard," or, "Oh my God, this must be abusing drugs." Life is gone. Something flew away. It is your choice, please. Do what you want. God gave you free will. But I would tell you, never try, not even once. That will spoil your life more than 50%. We shall pray and educate our children. God protect our children. This is very important. This is called a social disease. Yoga in Daily Life: physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Whatever influences us from the outside is called social disease. Some do things only because it is tradition. Now, mostly men have shoes so long their toes are squished inside, but they have such long feet, like a reptile or a lagoon, and suffer with their foot. What a fashion! On a very hot day, sweating, but they wear a tie. Why? Just open up, let in air. And the poor ladies, in minus ten degrees, go to the office in high heels and clothes only till above the knee. They are so poor they cannot buy proper clothes—only a half-meter piece of cloth. I said, "I am sorry for them." So suffering, torturing the body—what a vessel. So your life is in your hands. World peace is in your hands. Your health is in your hands. And your spiritual development is in your decision. But social health means good life, good company, good eating, and so on. People said, "Oh, long beard, people do not like now." So one day somebody came to me while I was relaxing like this, took scissors, and cut my beard. Now I usually have less beard. It will grow. You know, to have a beard is not easy, but I am not touching the subject. So there are certain parts of our life; how we should master them is important. That means to live a successful life and realize your Ātmā. There are certain points still. I did not touch karma. I did not touch kuṇḍalinī and cakras. That comes tomorrow. Oh, that kuṇḍalinī is amazing. Beautiful. Yes, every day I am looking at my window, and Kuṇḍalinī is walking—the window of my Ājñā Cakra. Some people were pointing here. Yes, there is intellect. More intellectual persons are touching here, somewhere touching like this—Sahasrāra Cakra. So let us come tomorrow to a beautiful subject. This evening we have finished. I wish you all the best, and a very good evening. God bless you, and I am very happy to see you.