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Recharging spiritual energy

A spiritual discourse on the importance of lifestyle and thought for spiritual seekers.

"Āhāra means a balanced diet... whatever we eat, because every kind of food has its speciality... The condition of our mind depends on what kind of nourishment we have."

"Vihāra means where to go and where not to go... go somewhere where you are alone... where there is little pollution. The most dangerous pollution now is sound pollution."

Swami Krishnananda introduces and welcomes Dayāram Jī Mahārāj to a European retreat. He then delivers a talk, explaining the four pillars of a spiritual life: Āhāra (conscious diet), Vihāra (restful recreation in pure environments), Ācāra (virtuous conduct), and Vicāra (right thinking). He details how food and environment influence the mind and hinder meditation, warns against being enslaved by taste and passion, and emphasizes the need for a living spiritual tradition through the master-disciple lineage.

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Oṁ tya dhyanti yogina, kaṁdaṁ mokṣa daṁce, oṁ kārayaṇa monama, gurur brahma, gurur viṣṇu, gurur deva maheśvara, gurur sākṣāt para brahma, tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ. Dhyānamūlaṁ Gurū Mūrtiḥ, Pūjāmūlaṁ Gurū Padam, Mantramūlaṁ Gurū Vākyaṁ, Mokṣamūlaṁ Gurū Kṛpā. Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Śāntiḥ. Siddhiṁ Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān. Śrī Deveśvar Mahādev, Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Madhavān Jī Bhagavān, Kī Jai, Satya Sanātana Dharma, Kī Jai.... Dayārām Jī Mahārāj Kī Jai, welcome him. Good evening, all dear ones. And blessings to all the spiritual seekers. As Krishnanandaji has been introducing our dear Dayāramjī, he belongs to a spiritual paramparā, a spiritual lineage. The founder of this lineage was a great Siddha Puruṣa, a Siddha incarnation like Mahāprabhujī. In India, this lineage has millions of devotees. I knew the master of Dayā Rāmjī, whose name was Kṛṣṇa Rāmjī. Unfortunately, he passed away about ten years ago, and Dayā Rāmjī is a successor. We have known each other for a long time and have very nice relations. I asked him to come to Europe. He kept saying, "Yes, next year," and a few years passed. But this year, I managed for him to come. Bharat mein inki sevak hai, inki Gurujī kā mere sāth bahut acchā sambandh thā, aur Dehram jī kā bhī. Mene Dehram ji ko kaha ki ek baar Europe aaye, to kehte reka agli saal, agli saal, to is saal to mene ka chalna hi padega, to sab kaare chod ke yaha aay hui hai, to hum aap sabi ka yaha shwagat karte hai. So we all welcome you here, Dayāramjī. It is a beautiful, harmonious, and peaceful divine atmosphere here. When one comes to this place, one has many divine memories. It is a place where we come together and collectively recharge our energy. It is very important that we take time in our life to come and recharge. This needs a peaceful environment. So-called holiday places nowadays are very restless; there is no harmony, but people often have no other choice. I would like to go to a holiday place to relax, meditate, have nice food, and walk to recharge my energy. But some places do not let you be peaceful. Psychologically, people analyze which tourist places attract which kinds of people and try to create more activities they would like—eating, music, dancing. So you come back home having lost your energy and all your money, which you earned with hard work. It is said: āhāra and vihāra, ācāra and vicāra. This is very important for humans nowadays. Āhāra means a balanced diet. Many diseases are connected with an unacceptable diet. It not only harms the body but also influences the mind. Jeśā kā ann, veśā rahe man—what kind of food you eat, that will be your thinking, your mind. Why the mind? Why not the body? The body is only a cover. Whatever we put in the body, whatever we supply to it, changes into energy, and that energy guides and influences our mind. So, the condition of our mind depends on what kind of nourishment we have. Āhāra means the diet, whatever we eat, because every kind of food has its speciality. Even poison has its speciality. The poison mushroom, if you eat it, has its specialities; it puts you in a long yoga nidrā. So eat consciously. But the tongue is very complicated, and taste is an edict. If we get food without salt, we ask again and again, "Can I have a little salt?" because the tongue says salt is missing. It is said in one bhajan that you are the king of this body. The body is your castle. Mind and senses are your slaves. Don’t be the slave of your senses and mind. In this body, there are ten senses, but a rare yogī has control over them. Still, even a yogī who has control cannot trust two: ek upastha, and second svādhiṣṭhāna, svāda. One is passion, and the second is taste. Iskā nahīṁ itbārā—you should not trust these. Hāth kīna jagat in sārā—these two have destroyed the whole world. Rājā Ātmāntaryāmī O Ātmā, you are the king of this. Mat kārīskī gulāmī. Don’t be its slave. Don’t forget. Don’t be unaware. Otherwise, they will kill you. So, the food. Many times, because of our taste, we say, "Oh, it doesn’t matter, okay, I will do this." Some nice cold drink. Some don’t like to drink, but when they say, "Oh, a little ice, cold drink with ice, it’s very hot, come on," they say, "Okay." You see, it is not right to say, "Okay." So the mind is a mighty force that influences our intellect, and it influences our decisions and our awareness. The consciousness is an empty space, but the awareness inside is manifested by those desires. So, our vihāra—vihāra means where to go and where not to go. That’s why it is said, ekānta nivāsa, ekānta vāsa. If you go for holidays, then go somewhere where you are alone with your family or friends. It takes a few days to relax and adjust to your environment. Then your body works to regenerate again. Meditation is a powerful technique. So walking through the forest, a desert, or a beach is peaceful, where there is little pollution. The most dangerous pollution now is sound pollution, which is created by humans—human songs, words, and instruments. Through that sound and vision, we are manipulated. Jeśī draṣṭi, jeśī dṛṣṭi—what you see, what you look inside with feeling, like that the world appears to us. Therefore, there should be no pollution, sound pollution, and many other distractions like televisions, etc., because it creates many vṛttis, and vṛtti is what we call vikṣepa. That vṛtti will always disturb us. Therefore, Maharishi Patañjali said, citta vṛtti nirodha. Citta is just a space, empty, the space of our consciousness. But what kind of vṛttis are inside? Those vṛttis develop in us. As long as we do not purify these vṛttis, we cannot proceed further. So go where your vṛtti is not influenced, where your desire is not growing, where calmness and purity remain. That’s why it is said to go on "holidays," so that you again gain the energy. So, whatever we eat and drink influences our senses, and therefore, whatever we eat will influence our mind. Just as you drink water, what kind of liquid you drink, like that you will speak. If you drink a glass of milk or juice—a very calm, peaceful, sāttvic drink—you will speak peacefully. But if you drink something like vodka or whisky, then how will you speak? Also, through alcohol, the tongue becomes thicker and not so flexible, and that’s why one speaks differently. So when your wife telephones, "Where are you, darling?" you might say, "I am in a restaurant. I will come. Don’t worry." Because the tongue is swollen and heavy. Human language is madhura—sweet, like honey. So the world should be very clean and sweet: madhura, prītā. Love. Desires, passion, and prītā are different. Prem is God. Prem is bhakti. And passion is a desire. Desire itself is a suffering, a disease. Your desire will create a disease, physical or mental. Therefore, Gurujī said: The bowl of love, and that is the heart. I am a beggar, and I am standing in front of your house. Again and again, I am longing for that. O Lord, just fill my heart with Thy love. That is bhakti, devotion. So when the heart is full of devotion, then vṛtti is automatically changing. There is no space for nonsense thoughts. Therefore, āhāra and vihāra: where we should go and where we should not go. Our vihāra should be in a peaceful place, and that peaceful... that mind. Āhāra will influence our mind. Then ācāra—our behavior, our social education. Behavior should be full of respect, kindness, humbleness, and helpfulness. Have tolerance, respect, etc. That’s very important. So ācāra, behavior. And vicāra is a way of thinking. So, what you think, that you speak. Therefore, those who have no proper social education become individualistic. That person says, "I don’t care." That person has more ego and tries to deny everyone, thinking, "I am the wise one, I am the clever one, I am intelligent, I am so and so." "I" is the problem. Therefore, to come to some retreat—they call it a retreat in English, and we call it a seminar—is like this: We were treating our body poorly with junk food, and now we go on holiday and treat our body with positive nourishment. Here we call it a seminar. We come together, connect, and have a connection with positive people, with positive thinking, with positive energy. So, where we learn more is that each and every minute is very valuable. Whenever we come here, it’s beautiful. I know many are listening to our webcast and are longing to come and be here, because they know only looking through the television doesn’t give us everything. To be there physically is something else. So here we are to do sādhana, meditation. When you have no more programs, then go to your room or go to the garden. Say hello to your friends, and then meditate. But when we have an interval for lunch or the afternoon, then everyone is hanging at the buffet because the buffet has a very strong energy. It’s like a magnet, and we are just iron. We don’t want to go, we look at the trees, but our feet go towards the buffet because the tongue is a small part of the body, but it has the power to pull your whole body there. A big python is very heavy and has a small head, but this small head pulls the whole body. Similarly, our head is smaller than the body, but the power is here, the strength is here, so the decision should be here. So when you have an interval, of course, do your necessary things, and then meditate. Meditation will give you immense energy, clarity, and freedom from stress. Of course, you should go and visit the buffet, buy, and eat—no problem. Otherwise, what is the buffet for? But then sit and meditate. Don’t talk too much. I’m not asking for Mauna, but meditate. You are all advanced disciples, and I do believe you also practice at home. This will change your way of thinking. Our awareness will be different. Our concentration will be different. And then we will realize what we have and what we don’t have. Therefore, the Kriyā—what we do—and now in this weekend we will give Kriyās to people who are going to learn Kriyā and mantra initiation. But Kriyā and everything has its principle. Many people learn Kriyā and then go away and teach Kriyā. Neither are they successful, nor are others successful. You have to remain in that discipline. I introduced you to Dayā Rāmjī, and in his Guru Gadī there are millions of devotees. But everyone cannot be a successor. Someone who has that quality is not elected; they are selected. Elected is a politician, and selected are the disciples. So everyone has this quality, and we all select the successor also. The master is selecting, and even the master will say, "Only the stone on the chair, this should be worshipped. That is the successor." Everyone has to accept this. In Sanātana Dharma, there is the principle of the disciple and master, the teacher and the student. When the teacher and the students are there, education will continue. And in education, there is always more and more knowledge being developed. Those who came from Vienna, Budapest, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, etc., everyone has their own experiences according to which path, from which side they came. Similarly, everyone has different experiences and teachings, but the result is the same. Therefore, the student and master-teacher system is very important. Certain religions have written a holy book and said, "No more." No more reincarnation, or no more any master. In Kali-yuga, they like it, but there is no continuity. Therefore, Sanātana Dharma is a living Dharma, a living principle. That one which says only this, no more, is a limitation; it is the deadline. Therefore, Sanātana Dharma is a living Dharma. Master to disciple is called the saritā. Saritā means a river. That saritā means flowing. When it’s flowing, water remains clean, and the source of the water continues. But when we block the saritā, then the srot, the source of the water, will slowly, slowly stop, and that water will become stinky. Similarly, knowledge has to be practiced. If you speak a certain language and then do not speak it for about 20 to 30 years, your memory is lost. Therefore, Sanātana Dharma—that’s very important. Therefore, there is a bhajan from Mahāprabhujī about Sanātana that we will sing tomorrow. So here we are to charge the spiritual positive energy, and that’s why we are here. So welcome you here, and let us enjoy a few days to charge our energy. So there is one bhajan, which is as follows: "Śrī Dharm Sanātan Pālaṅkāran, the Satguru has come." Guru Nārāyaṇa has come. Śrī Dharma Sanātana Pālaṅkarana... Guru Nārāyaṇa Śrī Guru Nārāyaṇa Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Guru Sanat Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Guru Dharma Sanat Dīpanārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī. Tomorrow we will practice. So, we will have lectures, practices, meditations, āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, kriyās, mantras, everything. And nice to see you. Tomorrow we will tell about how the International Day of Yoga was in New Delhi. It was great, simply great. You can’t believe what kind of beauty there was, the visions were in India. In every village, in every school, every police station, every government office, in every street, and in the aeroplane, in the navy boat, in the army tent, in border force, the farmers were doing what was a light of yoga. Beautiful. Beautiful. We will talk tomorrow. Hold up my nail, will you? Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān. Nāma Karatā Prabhu Dīpa Karatā Mahā Prabhu Dīpa Karatā Om Śānti, Śānti,... Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Śrī Śrī Dev Puruṣa Mahādeva, Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Mādhāvanājī Bhāgavā, Satya Sanātana.

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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