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Regain Self- Confidence

An evening satsang on love, health, and spiritual confidence.

"When two eyes and your two eyes—eyes to eyes—when one meets loving friends, that is four meeting."

"Where there is love, where there is respect, where there is welcoming, then when four meet together, sixty-four blessings open."

Swami Satyanarayana Dasa gives a discourse at the ashram, weaving together themes of authentic welcome, the physiological and spiritual effects of love versus hatred, and the importance of self-confidence. He uses metaphors from nature, stories of animals and soldiers, and teachings from saints like Mirabai to illustrate how love nurtures health and spiritual connection, while separation and negative emotions cause disease and despair.

Filming location: Strilky Ashram, Czech Republic

Oṁ Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī, Śrī Śrī Dev Purīṣa Mahādeva Kī, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānajī Bhagavān Kī, Satya Sanātana Kī. Good evening. Welcome. It is a beautiful day. As soon as we came here to Strilky, to our ashram, the welcoming songs began. All the birds were singing. The most beautiful thing is when Mother Nature gives us love or welcome. That is something beautiful. Animals do this from their heart, while humans mostly do it only from the brain. When someone wants a photo with a VIP, they shake hands or, in India, fold their hands towards the VIP but look at the camera. It is indirect. That photo is not to have with just any person; it is only to show that one was with that person. If we look eye to eye, face to face, that is a completely different picture. That is personal, heart to heart, eyes to eyes. It is said: where there is love, where there is respect, where there is welcoming, then when four meet together, sixty-four blessings open. And when the sixty-four blessings open, then seventy-two thousand streams of love begin to flow. And when the 72,000 streams begin to flow, then the whole universe is vibrating with love. Now, what does this mean? When two eyes and your two eyes—eyes to eyes—when one meets loving friends, that is four meeting. We say, "Please, under four eyes." One person says, "Can we speak under four eyes?" The other might say, "No, we can speak only under three eyes, because I am blind in one eye." So when the four eyes of friends meet, then a smile comes. Lips open, and we each have thirty-two teeth, so sixty-four teeth are shining like blessings are opened because we meet our loving person, our best friend. At that time, the 72,000 nerves, the channels in the body, begin to flow. All blockages are gone. The hormones, the blood, everything is filled with love. And at that time, the whole universe—meaning the whole body, all the cells—is full of the vibration of happiness, joy, trust, peace, and harmony. That should be human to human. When you don't love someone, or an enemy comes and you see the four eyes of each other, that's it. Lips close, so no teeth are visible. All the 72,000 nerves are in spasms and cramps, and the healthy cells in the body begin to suffer and die. In particular parts of the body, a kind of pressure builds. When this often happens, that particular part gets ill, leading to different kinds of illness. These are mostly certain organs which are attacked. These are called blood cancers, leukemia, because constantly there is fear, jealousy, and inward cramps, so the healthy blood cells die and the red cells get less and less. When you block your relationship—whether with your partner, parents, children, friends, or colleagues—all these nerve systems vibrate with fear. Sometimes people begin to tremble; the whole body trembles, meaning all nerve systems are blocked. This can cause brain hemorrhage and many other diseases. Memory dies. When this often happens, always with a particular subject or relation, it attacks particular organs: the lungs, respiratory system, liver, kidneys, pancreas, glands, even the brain. This is where we find cancers or different kinds of disharmony in the gland systems. When these things happen, one loses self-confidence. When self-confidence is lost, everything is lost. In your business, relations, work, and many things, you will not be successful. But if we have self-confidence, then self-discipline is automatically maintained in one's thoughts. Discipline is the key to success. When self-confidence is lost, discipline is gone. Then, psychologically, one sees a blockage in front of oneself: dark clouds. There is no more way out; hope is lost. You lost your game because self-confidence is not there. If self-confidence and discipline are there, you will be successful. Obstacles are there to be removed. Problems are there to be removed. The best school is problems and obstacles; then you are inwardly awakened. Extra hidden powers come to fight against those obstacles. But if you lose confidence, then there is no more hope. It is like a dead body: "The world is nothing for me. I am alone. I am lost. No one loves me, no one helps me." One by one, friends go away. Day by day, willpower decreases and self-confidence is broken. Then negative thoughts come; that is called disappointment. Disappointment kills our healthy cells in the body. So don't be disappointed. Yes, we know the world is disappointing. Even God Himself is disappointed. Brahmā, the creator, was the first one who was disappointed. He was the creator, and Śiva said to Brahmā, "You are the creator." So Brahmā creates humans out of the prāṇas—through the nostrils, mouth, eyes, and ears—and every ṛṣi. There were seven ṛṣis, and these seven ṛṣis are still in the sky; they have their place. These seven stars, what you call a car or a wagon, are the seven ṛṣis. When needed, they will come. Brahmā is the father of the ṛṣis. So Brahmā tells them, "Go and multiply human life." They said, "Father, we have no interest. We would like to go to the forest and meditate. Thank you, Father. Praṇām." And they go. The father was disappointed. But one remained: Manu. You know all about Manu; he was the first father. And so it began. These are the prāṇas. The seven sons mean the prāṇas, and these prāṇas work differently with different organs and senses. The eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears—all these are the jñānendriyas, the senses of knowledge. Then come the senses of action, the karmendriyas. When the knowledge senses refuse, then the karma senses cannot function. The engine has to start, then the wheels and the whole car can move. Disappointment breaks the whole coach. Self-confidence is lost; there is no more willpower. You can imagine the condition of that person. So when in a beautiful castle nobody is living, then bhūtātmā, prītātmā goes to live there. It is said in Vāstu Śāstra, the philosophy of architecture, that if you build a house, within a certain time you must move into it. There are constellations for when you should move in, meaning when should be the first day you cook something. We call it entry into the house. Here, in the English language at least, they say housewarming. What does housewarming mean? That first time you cook there, you bake, perform yajña ceremonies, pūjās. Doṣa means if there is any kind of negative energy that was there or came into that house or flat, then through yajña, through certain ceremonies, and the first time lighting the fire—the dīpak—in that house, cooking some good food, sweets, prasād, inviting your friends to a housewarming party... We call the entry into the house; the guest is God, so you give something to those guests. People say, "Wow, so beautiful. Oh, nice view. Oh, it's so peaceful. Oh, kitchen, so good." Generally, ladies go first into the kitchen. How nice. Because ladies have mother love, and mother love means to feed. When they go, they say, "Thank you, and we wish you a happy time." That's a blessing. As far as it's possible, don't sell your ancestors' house. One of the family members should live in that house, if possible, so it is known whose house it is, which dynasty, which lineage. In other houses where you enter, you don't know what happened before. Therefore, we should do pūjā, ceremonies, and then satsaṅg—singing beautiful bhajans, inviting some wise person who can give satsaṅg, good lectures, or some sādhus. That cleans up all the negative energy. All dirty atmosphere, impurities, will be cleaned into purity. This is what we call spiritual science. Clean everything. Rarely does a bird lay eggs again in an old nest because it's not pure, but we are not birds, so we should keep that nest. Here, during the First and Second World Wars, many young men were suffering. On Christmas Day, they couldn't go home. They were in the forest somewhere, deep snow, cold air, dark nights, without proper warm clothes. Some were putting newspapers under their shirts or tying them in their shoes. One soldier, wounded and sitting in the forest leaning on a tree trunk—sorry, a little snow falling—and it was Christmas. This young man remembered, "This was the day or evening when I should be with my family in my home, nice and warm, with my family, grandmothers, grandfathers, eating good sweets, singing together." Can you imagine? That is called memory. Not only humans; animals have the same memory and homesickness. You can't imagine how much animals remember. If you do something wrong to an elephant, even after 30 years, that elephant will see you somewhere. Generally, an elephant's eyes are a little closed, peaceful. But when that elephant sees you, he opens one eye big and goes to that side to take revenge. Cows, goats, sheep, buffalo, dogs, cats—all animals are very intelligent. Yes. So don't think only humans have feelings. Humans also have feelings of homesickness. There is one story I told many times, somewhere in Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains. In Mexico, somewhere in the mountains, cowboys had cows. Once, a man was riding on horseback through the mountains and saw a little cow baby. The mother cow was killed by wolves, and that man saw the young cow, maybe a few hours old, so he took it on his horseback, brought it home, and his wife—they didn't have children—he told her, "Maria, I brought you one son for you." She was so happy. For two or three weeks she kept him in her bedroom and in the garden; he was completely spoiled. She gave him tortillas, chapati, many things. Summer came, it was hot, and there was nothing for the cows to eat, so they took the cows into the mountains. That cow went also with them. Maria was so sad because her son was not there, and she was always angry with her husband: "Why did you send him away? He's too young." You know how a mother loves her son. In the mountains, it was very cold. Christmas came. One night, the bull—he was no longer a calf—was dreaming. He sees his mother, Maria. He sees the house, a nice cornfield, chickens, and he gets up at midnight. He begins to smell and leaves. He was running in the direction of that village, running, running, running. He's imagining that Maria is calling him, "Come home, come home." You see, where there is love, there is homesickness. Then you hear the voice of your friend, mother, wife, husband, brothers, children. So that man, injured and wounded in the forest on Christmas night, was sad. I think he made a song, and I think that song is part of the national hymn of the Czechs: "Gde domo moje?" Lying wounded in the cold snow, where is my home? Such feelings—if there is love, and if it's hate, you try to escape and not go into that house. So there are two kinds of love. One is material love: human to human, animals to animals. The second love is called love for God. In the heart, there is a fire, and that fire is the fire of love. When that love is awakened, and one of your friends, the lover, doesn't want you and goes away or dies, you feel burning in the heart. You don't have appetite; you lose kilos. That is called the warmth of love. It can be for the mother, father, brother, wife, husband—that's burning love. The second is called viraha, the fire of separation. On that subject, Mahāprabhujī has written a complete book with bhajans: Padaviraṇī. In this Padaviraṇī is that feeling which Mahāprabhujī expresses for his Gurujī, Devapurījī, for God. The bhajans are beautiful. To feel that word, language, is a little obstacle for us. So, viraha kī agnī, the fire of separation. Mīrābāī said in her bhajan, in beautiful words: "Viraha kī mārī bandh badh dolu"—I am suffering, I am killed by that viraha, that longing, that love. "Ban ban do lung"—I am wandering from forest to forest, desert to desert. "Ved milā ne koī"—I didn't find any Vaidya, any Āyurvedic doctor. That time was not this medicine, what we have, allopathic medicine. This is chemical medicine, and that time was only herbals. This chemical medicine is based on, or imitated from, naturopathy or Āyurveda. The difference is this: Āyurveda has no side effects, and this allopathic medicine has nearly 98% side effects. When you try to take care of your head, your trousers are falling. You take the trousers, your shirt is blowing. You hold your trousers, shirt, and hat; your handbag is gone. So that is that. At that time, there were only Vedas. There was surgery too. You know, in the Charaka grand book, there was brain surgery at that time, eye surgery, retina surgery. Well, so Mīrābāī said, "I am wounded, I am tired, desperate from this viraha, and searching from one forest to another forest. I can't find any doctor, any vaidya. No one can cure my illness. Day by day, I am getting pale like a leaf in the autumn. Now beautiful new leaves are coming. Very soon, they will be big leaves, dark green, but the time will come. Seasons will come, age will come, my dear, that beautiful leaf will become yellow and it will fall down. The leaf, broken, separated from the branch, and the wind of destiny took me away. This separation which has now taken place, when will we see again? Dur paṅge jai far"—far distance will fall down this leaf. Will it come back to that branch? It is a temporary relation to this world. Only you will experience three seasons: spring, summer, autumn. Winter, grey in grey, into the earth. My, my, your, thy, thy is all for my. Nothing is thine. I didn't find any doctor. I became like a yellow leaf, like with yellow fever. "O Lord, O Kṛṣṇa, O Pāṇe, O Kṛṣṇa, my illness can only be cured when you come as the Vaidya, the doctor, to me. Then I will be healed. Lord, you are my medicine." So when a friend meets us, the loved one meets us suddenly, healthy new cells begin to multiply like a storm, like a snowstorm. That's love. You don't generally see cows or animals have tears. We have in Jadan a beautiful bull. His name is Sūryanārāyaṇa. I think he is already 15 or 16 years old, but he is still like a baby. When he comes, he is like an elephant, a very special one. We have many cows, many young girls from him, so we don't want to cross with him. We brought him to the Kailash ashram, and he was so sad. For a few days, he did not eat, and of course, people did not take care of him. He lost half of his body weight. After three months, when I came, I sent my driver to see how he was doing. When he saw my driver 100 meters away, he was running to our driver because he knew him. The driver described to me his feelings about our bull. Immediately, I ordered a truck, and off he goes to Jadam. He came to Jadam and was so happy. I think for two days he did not close his eyes; he was looking at the whole ashram. When you go somewhere and your cat, when you come back home, how your cat is happy, meowing. Or when you go to work and come home in the evening, how your dog is happy. Similarly, every creature has love and has feelings of belonging. Even a pig. If you have a pig, a baby is born. The baby feels as if it belongs to this house. And you kill that? It's like killing your own child. So, this is the difference between love and no love. Therefore, it is said: "Ahiṃsā paramodharma"—do not kill. That is why sin comes and humans are suffering. Well, the dear bull, his name was Sanju. He was running one day, he came to some old house which was ruined, and a few wolves attacked him. He tried to go into one room and another room, and like this, he managed to escape. The way was long, maybe from here to Venice or from here to Hamburg through the hills. He comes to a small village with beautiful winter snow. Small villas, and children are playing with snow. He likes the children, so he went there. Children were holding his tail, and they were sliding on the snow. They brought him home. People were happy. Parents were happy. They put him in some place, and at dinner time they were talking: "Day after tomorrow is Christmas. So after midnight we will slaughter him, and our whole community will have something." One son listened and was so sad. He went to that stall where the bull was. He freed him and, beating him, said, "Go away, go away." It was cold; the bull wanted to stay inside, but the boy managed to beat him so much that he went away. So, about a 10- or 12-year-old boy managed to save the life of that bull. Well, finally, one day, around eleven o'clock, Maria was cooking tortillas and looking, "Where is my son, my Sanjo?" And Sanjo was standing on the border of the cornfield. She was cooking and looking through the window, and this strong, big bull through the cornfield, he was running like a marathon and came to the window. Maria had tears, and Sanjo too, and she gave him so many tortillas. So confidence is something, the greatest thing. And disappointing someone, breaking this confidence, is like hiṁsā, not ahiṁsā. So never lose your confidence—self-confidence. The whole world can be against you, but be sure the Gurudeva will not be against you. God will not be against you. It is said that whom God wants to protect, no one can kill him or her. Not even one hair they can damage. Even if the whole world is against you, if God protects you, no one can do anything. But you should have that faith, that love, and not go here and there, this and that, and forget. That is not human nature, that is not human culture; that is other animal culture. So, motivate your self-confidence, strengthen your will, and keep your eyes on your discipline. Success is yours. It is said the chipped trunk of the tree will again grow. So even lost love, or your business, or anything, will again begin to blossom. This is the best way to come through and to achievement; it's called spiritual economy. Yes, spiritual economy now. So the time has come to work with self-confidence. Today was the best day, and the birds were making a concert nearly till 8 o'clock. Then finally, they went to their nest because they said nobody was congratulating them. So tomorrow we will do—let them sleep now. So it's beautiful. Kavīmā Taṇḍā.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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