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Yoga for a Healthier and Happier Life

Yoga is the science for achieving health and peace through the balance of body, mind, and soul. The universe originated from Śiva, the self-manifesting source of all resonance and light, who bestowed the principles of creation and sustenance upon Brahmā and Viṣṇu. True yoga is an ancient practice from India, a land of holy vibration, and is not a competitive exercise but a personal worship that harmonizes the individual with the universal consciousness. Modern commercial variations like wine yoga distort this essence. Authentic practice, performed step-by-step without force, burns away impurities and fosters good health, which leads to good thoughts and ultimately world peace. The core of all religion is humanity, seeing the divine in everyone.

"Yoga practice is balancing, harmonizing, and keeping health. The practice of āsanas is not a competition."

"Yoga gives us good health, and good health brings good thoughts, and good thoughts make a good society, and a good society brings peace in the world."

Filming location: Zagreb, Croatia

Praṇām to the cosmic light, the Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. In his divine presence, Your Excellency, the Ambassador of India to the European Union, the President of the city of Zagreb, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Svāmī Vivek Purījī, Svāmī Gyāneśwar Purījī (who is with us via webcast), Svāmī Yogeś Purījī, and all my dear brothers and sisters, I am very happy to see you. Today is a most beautiful day with a good constellation. We are here to know something about health and peace through yoga, and our subject has always been yoga. It is said and believed that in the very beginning, Svayambhū Śiva, who manifests himself, created the endless universe, the endless space—śūnyākāśa. Within that, resonance appears. The Vedas say that if you want to know what is Parabrahma, what is God, it is that resonance, that energy. The universe and consciousness are both kept together by one energy through nāda, sound. Consciousness is within the space, not space within consciousness. Therefore, the universe is known as the mother, the mother's body. The consciousness within that is known as Hiraṇya Garbha, the golden embryo. Out of that resonance comes light, jyoti—Agni, fire. And from that jyoti, Śiva manifests. Every holy incarnation and goddess had a mother and father, but only Śiva has no mother, no father. He himself manifests. When he appeared, he came in a meditation posture. It is written that all the science of yoga—yantra, tantra, mantra, and languages—everything is given by Śiva. Shiva comes twice. First, he is known as Sarjan Hara, which means the creator who begins this creation. With Sarjan Hara, it is he who again deletes; he destroys the negative and protects the positive. This is the dharma of Viṣṇu. So, the world goes on. But complete destruction is a negative word: deleting everything so it again becomes śūnyākāśa, and this too is the act of Śiva. Between that, Śiva should not come in. He will come, give us blessings and many things, but there is no interference in the creation. Therefore, there are Brahmā and Viṣṇu. Brahmā is the creator because Śiva gave him this principle of creation, and the protector, the sustainer, is Bhagavān Viṣṇu. These are the trinities, and this trinity has created all the visions and lives on this earth and on other planets. It is said in the Śāstras: Chaudah Loka and Kṣīra Brahman—the fourteen different worlds within our sun system. There are 2100 sun systems which a yogī can achieve and bring knowledge from there back to our mortal world, Vṛthi Loka. But very rare yogīs do this; we are not so disciplined, so we enjoy life as it is. What will happen, will happen. But those yogīs, they are living still in the Himalayas. I was once having lunch with the President of India. In his lobby, there was a beautiful picture of one yogī; you could count every bone. I asked him, "From whom is this picture?" He said, "Swamijī, you must know, I don't know." I said, yes, he must be the uncle of my guru's guru. I was not born at that time, so I cannot tell you the story of that picture. Some person from England liked to take pictures of the Himalayas. One day he took a few photos and developed them (that time there was no camera in the telephone). When he developed them, he saw one yogī sitting. He was 100% sure he did not see anyone when he took the photo, so he researched it. In Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri—the holy mountains—Bhārat is the real holy. If you want to know what is holy, it is Bhārat, India. I am not telling about people; they are also holy, you are also holy, but the vibration, the radiance, the atmosphere—the Ābhā which comes from that land, India—is unbelievable. To be born there is fortunate. Go there and inhale the vibration of that earth. We are the luckiest ones. The President was explaining that in Satyuga, there was one ṛṣi who very much wanted a son, as he had no children. For long years, he wanted to bring Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva came—Śiva, who can bless us with a little prayer. Śiva is a Bholenāth, very innocent; the heart of Śiva is like the heart of a grandfather. Parents will say no, but grandparents will say okay. So in India, when we need something, we really go to our grandfather or grandmother. Śiva is a grandfather. Well, the ṛṣi got a son, and he had knowledge of Jyotiṣa, astrology. This is not a made-up story; you can read it in the Purāṇas. I do not want to tell you too long, otherwise His Excellency will say, "I came to listen about yoga, and now he is telling stories of ṛṣis." But the ṛṣis are the fathers of yoga. He read in the horoscope: "This child will have only seven years of life." The ṛṣi became so sad and was angry with Śiva. If we do not have, we are unhappy, and when we have, we are unhappy. So the ṛṣi was so unhappy. Maharṣi Nārada came and asked him, "Why are you so sad? You got a son now." He said, "That is why I am crying, because soon, in a few years, he will die." Nārada said there is one solution: put this child in such a way of education that he should touch the feet of everyone, no matter who is who, to get a blessing. That is why in India, when young people come, or when you go to your grandfather, you go down and they will bless you. Blessing is the highest power. All sin can be removed through blessings, and we all have the ability to give blessings. Good words are a blessing, and bad words are a curse. So now this child, the whole day, went and touched the feet of people. And what do we say automatically when someone goes down? We say, "Āyuṣmān bhava"—live long, live long, live long. And so that child received those blessings: live long, live long. Every day, thousands and millions of blessings he received in that way. Then Nārada said that on the last day of his life according to the horoscope, he should go to the Śiva temple, hold the Śiva liṅgam, and chant, "Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya..." Yamarāj, the god of the dead, sends letters to his workers stating which soul should come. Dharmarāj gives the order. Yamarāj is coming, but they cannot take him, so they are waiting. No one is coming; they have no power to go into the Śiva temple. Any negative energy waits. As soon as he comes out, they will take him. The boy looked at them, and they gave an indication: "Come." He said, "Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi"—he became that. Finally, Yamarāja himself came to take him, but he did not come out, so Dharmarāja had to write his life again. Now, Dharmarāja did not know how to write. What to write? When you write once your statement, but you leave, I write. Because that place lived the Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi, so yogīs—and still he is dwelling in many lokas. Only bones are left, like a fairy tale, Excellency, and he is ready to help the Croatian people. Organize more activities for yoga and Āyurveda, as he said that we are above this narrow thinking: my religion and your religion, and this and that. This is a problem in the world. There is only one religion, and that is called humanity. We belong to that religion. We are human; if we see this in everyone, we see God—a different God, why not? Now, both brothers got one child. This time it was both girls. The children were about four to five years old. The younger brother was sitting on the balcony in his room on the second floor. This is a story which gives us a very clear picture. The elder brother went to the market to buy some vegetables. He had a bag hanging on his shoulder. On the way back, he saw beautiful mangoes, so he bought two mangoes. He just took the mangoes like this and was coming back home. The younger brother was sitting on the balcony and looking: "Oh, brother came already." These two little girls, four or five years old, were running: "Father, father, I want to have a mango, I want to have a mango!" One mango was a little smaller, the other a little bigger. The elderly brother's daughter was coming running to the side where the mango was a little smaller. The younger brother's daughter was on the side where the mango was a little bigger. The children were running: "I want to have a mango, I want to have a mango!" So he said, "Yes, come." His daughter was on the side with the little mango. What he said was, "Yes, children, take it." The youngest brother, sitting there, was surprised: "Why did father treat these two children differently?" This means separation. He spoke to his brother when the children were gone. He said, "Father, now brother, now is time to separate. You have children, I have children." The elderly brother was angry: "What do you think? Why should we separate?" He said, "Brother, I tell you, it is better." "Why? Any reason?" He said, "Yes, brother. You had two mangoes in your hands. One was a small mango; that side was your daughter. Where the bigger mango was, that side was my daughter coming. Why did your hands turn like that?" That created a distance. So when such a thing happens, then doubt comes. Then separation takes place—maybe of the body or relations. When we have to eat something which is bitter, we eat little, but when we get ice cream or something, even though we ate until our stomach was full, we say, "Okay, a big bowl of ice cream." But this "okay" is not okay for our health. That will create a conflict in our health. So, yoga practice is balancing, harmonizing, and keeping health. The practice of āsanas is not a competition. Competition is there where there is greed or ego. So there is no competition, and there is no challenge. Where there is a challenge, there is no unity. The practice of yoga has no challenge and no competition. Just practice. At that time, you are worshipping yourself, your ātmā—that I am that Supreme One. I adore that Supreme One, who is that Supreme One, is myself, a Supreme One. My prayers should go to me, and who is me? Viśvaprāṇī, merī ātmā—all creatures in this world are myself. Then there will be no war, there will be no fighting, there will be peace. So yoga practice automatically leads us to peace. Yoga is a science of body, mind, consciousness, and soul. Yoga, Agni, Karma, Dagdhani: through the fire of yoga, all our sins will be burned out because there is a blessing of Śiva. Now, I would like to make one explanation. Maharṣi Patañjali modified yoga in four parts, and then some other branches: what he made were bhakti yoga, karma yoga, rāja yoga, and jñāna yoga. Now yoga has become commercial. There is now yoga called wine yoga. Your Excellency, did you hear that? Did you hear, sir? Yes, wine yoga? I was in San Francisco, and in my center, some people came and said, "Swamijī, do you know, and how good is wine yoga?" I thought he was making a joke. Then the other one said, "No, no, there is a center called wine yoga. You do not know, Swamijī?" Wine makes divine. I asked Mahāprabhujī; he closed his eyes. When you go to the center, they bring in a tray with a glass of wine; you drink. They said, "One more, everything is free." "Yes, please." And then you go and relax. So, my God. There are so many names of yoga that are not real yoga. So all our Indian masters coming to the West bring real yoga techniques, and our respected Prime Minister of India, his aim is this: to bring real yoga and also Āyurveda, the real Āyurveda. So what Modiji has done, the work is great. Some people said it is a Hindu religion. So, Modiji said, okay, we will not give any, neither OM inside. Even they did not want to accept Sūrya Namaskār. So, the next day in the newspaper came, Kāṭupra Nām—supplementary to Sūrya Namaskār. So, my dear, people have many conflicts. Be sure, with torturing the body, you will not get liberation. But you will get good health, or you will break the bones. If you do it immediately, it is not good. So if you imitate and begin quickly, you will become ill. Sorry to say, but Your Excellency, please do not mind. You see, he is so beautiful and so fit. I think tonight I will do so many exercises, then he will not see me here. So, how many months, years, or days, step by step, has he been doing work on his health? This summer, in yoga teacher seminars where we are about 600 or how many, they begin to do all this now. So please, do not take yoga as a commercial and buy those yoga things—what you need: a yoga mat (we call āsana), netī, sūtra netī, etc., which are made in India. They are making two kinds: some are making only plastic things, others are making real, natural ones, and that is good for our health. Or you can do it here, no problem. I have no differences between India and Croatia, but I use natural materials. So yoga gives us good health, and good health brings good thoughts, and good thoughts make a good society, and a good society brings peace in the world. So yoga—now yoga is yoga, but I have to give a name also: Yoga in Daily Life, because yoga in daily life means practice every day. The system I developed in the time of the Soviet Union there. So they asked me, "What kind of system do you have?" So I said, "Yoga in daily life." And so it remained like that. Now, the two persons who know this Kāṭupraṇām, come up please. Boys or girls—oh yeah, there are many. Run, come. Do not fly. Hey, do not worry, the dress is okay. Do not care about dress. They have also one, Your Excellency—there is one yoga movement called Naked Yoga. And when the Naked Yoga article comes, two complete full pages. And they write, "In India, yogīs practice like this." In which direction does the yoga practitioner take the world? So, Kāṭupraṇām, okay? So you will count the numbers, okay? Okay. The new version, okay? Yes. One, two, three, four. Hands on the back now. Six, seven, eight. Hands on the back. No problem. One more is good. Thank you. So, wish you all the best. Now you know the Kāṭupraṇām verse number two. The other one is also, you did? He can do the first one? Yes. Thank you. So, I wish you all the best: good health, happiness, and a long life. Practice makes perfect, and other practice makes a master. It is our body, our healthy life, and our comfortable life. Thank you, and thank you, Your Excellency, and the whole staff of our mission. Thank you for coming. Adiós.

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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