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Om Śrī Satguru Swāmījī 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 born then. Numerous seminars, conferences, and classes have taken place. But knowledge has no end. This knowledge is, in a way, what we call a kāmadhenu. Dhenu is a cow, and 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 call it 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 through which path you go; finally, I will be there. All will lead to me. So it does not matter which kind of spiritual practice or healthy way of life we do; 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, devils—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 been practicing for so many years you have got nothing. You have got a lot, but it is good that you do not know. If you know, ego will come, and that ego is a 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 get 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 different 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. Even 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, then 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 gain or grow your business. Many people have good jobs as computer designers and graphics artists. 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. If 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 is 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 would stop their car, take the apples, and fill the whole boot of the car with corn (kukurutsa). Nobody said, "Why are you taking?" They were not thinking of profit. They were thinking of proper comfort and feeling happiness. At that time, our yoga scripture was made from photocopies—sometimes with too much ink, sometimes with less, no graphic design. When they produced 200 scriptures, they were sold 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, what we think, 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 to buy 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 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. That is not serious. Either you come or you do not come. We cannot change the words and way of the gods. Messengers, be silent in the prayers, in the 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 of that ashram is from Beskidy, and she is also singing "Beskidy, Beskidy." She is like, "Wait, wait, sit down"—a joke. But she told me—she is here, I am not—she will say yes, but do not. Say yes, because I say that you will say yes. They asked me a question: "Swāmījī, what do you think about wine yoga, alcohol yoga?" They call it wine yoga. When you come to the yoga center, like in first-class airplane service, they come with a tray of wine. You drink, then you go to change your dress. When you enter the practice room, you get a glass of wine. Then you talk to friends. Then before relaxing, you get another, different kind of wine. Then you relax. And then they practice āsanas, then they 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.' Look, we are having wine yoga." Amritsar, is it true? You can tell something about it. Yes, it is true. So much, the quality of yoga is lost because it became commercial. It is a pity. India has given immense knowledge and culture to the world. All the Vedas, intellectual and philosophical knowledge, are all rooted in the Vedas. But two things India still cannot control. I always tell my ministers, the government: you should control, but they cannot. The first is yoga. Yoga should have a certain kind of diploma, and according to this you should teach, and not do whatever you like. But everyone does what they like. There is no control. How to control? The second is Ayurveda. Still, Ayurveda is not controlled. The Government of India is supporting Ayurveda and yoga very much, but there is no control. Anyone who does not know anything about Ayurveda goes to India, buys one or two Āyurveda books—yes, 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 Ayurveda consultation and medicine." It is called "I am Ayurveda" certified. Thanks to God, Ayurveda does not have so many side effects. Otherwise, everyone would die taking medicine from the wrong person. So, my dear, the same thing is happening with spirituality. Bubbles, water bubbles, they do not last long. Your Yoga in Daily Life signifies the system which is constantly giving us that knowledge. We have no competition and no challenges. Competition and challenge are in worldly life and in business. In yoga, there is no competition and no challenge. The more highly developed one is, the more humble one must be. And who is not? Then they will try to sow the blim-blam. So, my dear, we have to come back to this point again. Why did I tell you? Because I spoke to the university. What? They were thinking Swamiji lost the subject. So, some radiance was coming from some people, thinking to me. So the subject is this: we all in the world have very critical situations, and one day it will be one of the biggest problems: physical and mental health problems. Spirituality is lost. Of course, dancing and this—why not? That is okay. Sometimes they say that Krishna was also dancing. Who has seen? Did you make a video? No. This dancing has been developed by one swāmī from India because he knew that Americans like to dance. So he made a kīrtan and began to dance, and they began to dance. So many people were coming. Now, everyone is trying to learn dance because many are coming. 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 enough 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 are here sitting whose parents did not teach you anything about cooking? Cooking means not just putting potatoes in water and beans, then peeling them, cutting them, putting salt and butter on them and saying, "Oh, very nice eating." The same person about whom I was talking, regarding wine yoga, told me two weeks ago that now people are building skyscraper apartments but do not make a kitchen inside. So you have three bedrooms, four bedrooms, but no kitchen inside. So, directly or indirectly, they are forcing you to go to a restaurant to eat, because if every flat begins to cook, the air will be very bad. Why did you not design the exhaust and windows? Because such engineers were allergic to their wives. So they did not design the kitchen so that he does not have to eat from his wife's cooking. What other reason could there be? This is manipulating, forcing people to eat in the restaurant. 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 through 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? That is the knowledge, the science. It was the Āyurvedic practitioners who could put pārada (mercury) into solid form. That is the science of cooking. So, the bright future of humans—meaning a healthy, long life and a comfortable feeling in this body—will be to learn cooking: a little garden and cooking. 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." And this is a study for six years, not for 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 the herbs and spices, then you know there are some people who smoke hashish. How do you feel? Sometimes you see the 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 you should use? So, come tomorrow with the cooking pot, and later on we will cook. So, 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 make a distinction between the soul and prāṇa. We say in our language in India, "prāṇa chhodhyā"—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 our oxygen are very important. But when we come to the subject of prāṇa, it is very different. Prāṇa you cannot see, you cannot touch, 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 about 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. So everyone, close your eyes, because we are very expert in imitation. It is a very interesting test. This experiment will help you a lot. But if you keep your eyes open, it will not help you. 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 open. Did you understand? Who did not understand, hand up. Very good. Do you know what eyes are and what it means to close the eyes? 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. Your right hand, index finger, raise up above the 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, and 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, Pranātmā, it is in this part of the body. There. You say, "I taught this." You do not say, "I taught this." Or you do not say to your wife, "You, I." My dear, the indication which is 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 realm of the indriyas, the senses; then desires; then the mind; then the thoughts, vṛttis; and what we call the intellect. So this is the second part of our being. Remember: senses, emotions or feelings, or desires, the mind, the thoughts, the intellect—this is one part of our life. Above the intellect is what I said: the cream of your intellect, that is called intelligence—positive, pure thought, consciousness. We say, "Buddhi bhraṣṭo jāti hai"—your buddhi can be spoiled. But your viveka cannot be spoiled. Either we say viveka-hīna, meaning you have no viveka. And if you have viveka, then there is no doubt that your thoughts are very pure and clean. That viveka has that knowledge, because the subject of the mind, vṛtti, and the 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. So, in a certain way, we call the mind also an indriya—not ten, but eleven. Whatever God gave us has some meaning. We have a beautiful rose flower, a rose plant. Beautiful flower. But the plant also has needles, thorns. Why God gave these thorns must have some reason. Because 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 on it. Many, many reasons are there. So God gave in 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, which is 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 our body. 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 is a drunkard." Oh my God, this must be abusing the 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, even never try. That will spoil your life more than 50%. And we shall pray and educate our children. God protect our children. This is very important. So this is called a social disease. Yoga in daily life: physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. So whatever influences us from the outside is called the social disease. Some are doing it only because it is a tradition. Now, mostly the men, they have shoes so long. Their toes are squished inside, but they have such long feet, like a reptile, or what you call a lagoon, and suffering their foot. What a fashion! And on a very hot day, sweating, but they have a tie. So why? Just open, let us have air. And the poor ladies, minus degrees, minus ten, and they go into the office in high heels and cloth only till above the knee. They are so poor, they cannot buy proper clothes. Only a half-meter piece of cloth was there. 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, and I was relaxing like this, and took the 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 this is important. That means to live a life successfully and realize your Ātmā. So, 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 Kundalinī is walking—the window of my Ājñā Cakra. So some people were saying, they were pointing here. Yes, there is intellect. So more intellectual persons are touching here, somewhere touching like this—Sahasrāra Cakra. So let us come tomorrow to a beautiful subject. This evening we are finished. I wish you all the best, and a very good evening. God bless you, and I am very happy to see you.