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Part 1: The Story of Prāṇa and the Stolen Statue Today we will speak about prāṇa. We have already spoken about the five kośas and about prāṇāyāma—the prāṇas which also guide our awareness, intellect, and mind. Prāṇa comes mostly from nourishment and from society. There is a story about how thoughts can change, how behavior can change, how greed can arise, and how one can lose the path. I have told you this story before; Gurujī told it. It is a very interesting story about food. There was a yogī, a sādhu, or a swāmī—it does not matter—who was doing very strict sādhanā. He was very careful about what he should not do, especially concerning with whom he sat, what he talked about, and what he ate. He used to live outside the village or city. In those times, life was a little easier. There were many fruits; the seasons were always blessed. This yogī did not want to be in the crowd. He was always sitting outside somewhere, a few kilometers away from civilization. Good and bad people were everywhere. It was, it is, and it will be. There are Āsurī Śaktis and Drāvīk Śaktis. Our thinking, our thoughts, and bacteria have the same frequency. You could say bacteria are viruses. A virus is so intelligent that it arrives before you arrive in Tokyo. You are in London, there is a certain kind of virus, and you put on a mask thinking, "I am going to Tokyo, it will be safe." You take the airplane and fly. When you land at the airport, that virus says, "Hi, welcome." It was there before you. How? Because another flight, half an hour before, flew there. With that flight, the virus came. Similarly, nowadays your computer also has a virus. They call it a virus. So there are two kinds of viruses: our mental ones, which can spread very quickly. Therefore, yogīs try to remain separate. There was a man who was a bandit, a criminal. Nowadays, they hide and escape quickly on a motorbike, car, or jeep. Previously, they had camels or horses. This very kind, very humble sādhu was sitting under a tree doing his sādhanā. A bandit came riding a horse. He saw the sādhu, got off his horse, and approached. The sādhu was like a saint, sitting there without any thoughts, only God. The bandit mostly did bad things. If there was an opportunity, he would just go and kick someone and then go away. He was well known; no one wanted to see him. If he came to your shop, your house, or your restaurant, something very bad would happen. I don't know what mafias are, but people talk about mafias. Even when mafias make a telephone call, the president or the director of the biggest company gets frightened. He got off and said, "Who is this man sitting here under the tree every day?" But as he saw him, he came closer and closer from 300 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters, and his thoughts changed to something positive, at least. When there is a light, a lamp, and we come closer and closer, more light is there. So his thoughts changed from being a bandit, and he thought, "Well, everyone says there are good things if you feed a sādhu or give something and do something." So he decided, "Today I will give him food. I will provide food for him." He came there and said, "Hello, praṇām." He said, "Bless you." The sādhu said, "What can I do for you?" He said, "Thank you. I would like to do something. Say yes, but what? I would like to provide your meal today. Did you eat or not today?" The sādhu said, "Yes, I didn’t eat for the last 38 hours. But sometimes, when God wills, He will bring me the food." The bandit said, "Then please, can I invite you, and I give you the food today?" The sādhu said, "But I want to know, what are you doing? What is your profession? How are you earning your money? How will your food come?" The bandit said, "That doesn’t matter, you just get good food." The sādhu said, "Sorry, but for me it does, because in every food, how it comes has some energy inside." The bandit said, "Well, I know that in front of a sādhu one should not lie. So, I am a robber." The sādhu said, "Then, sorry, but I will not take food from you." The bandit said, "What?" The sādhu said, "Yes, I am sorry. Because your food is full of fear, full of hate, and full of negativity. Well, sorry, I will not take it." The bandit said, "Okay," and went away. He thought, "In my life, no one has behaved like that, like he is doing. And for the first time, I was humble. But he has his principles also, I am happy about that. But I have my will. I will give him food from me today, and I will see what happens." So he went, jumped on his horse, and rode about ten kilometers. There was a nice vegetarian restaurant. At that time, most were only vegetarians. When he got off the horse, the owner of the restaurant was nearly having diarrhea from fear, because the bandit was really coming with pistols and knives. Before he came in, the owner said, "Please welcome, welcome. Everything is yours. What can I do?" If he asked for money, he would give everything. The bandit said, "No, no, my friend, today I am doing nothing. I have changed somehow in my mind. I don’t know what happened to me. But I think I have felt so comfortable for the last two hours. I will do nothing, don’t worry. I don’t want your money today. I don’t want this or that. But only one thing." The owner said, "Yes, yes, everything. My life is for you." The bandit said, "Make a nice, delicious food." The owner said, "Of course. What would you like to eat?" The bandit said, "No, no, I am not eating. There is a sādhu sitting ten kilometers away in the forest under a tree. Make a nice, delicious, good meal and provide it to him. Go and bring the food there. I am sitting here. When he has eaten, then you come back and tell me that he ate." Immediately, the owner walked, took two people with him, and brought a lot of food. They came to the sādhu and brought him the food. The sādhu knew these people, so he said, "Thank you, God bless you." He ate something, and the rest he gave back. They went back to their restaurant. The bandit was sitting there. He asked, "Did he eat?" "Yes, sir." "Enough?" "Yes, sir." "Did he drink water also?" "Yes, sir." The bandit said, "Thank you. I am very happy. I give you the money for that food." The owner said, "No, no, we don’t need anything. You don’t need to give money." The bandit said, "No, no, today I will give you money. This money will be for me. I will keep it forever, specially." He said that he would think tomorrow, but today, he gave the money. How are things changing? He went away. After three hours of eating the food, that sādhu began to think something. "I have been sitting under this tree for so many days, changing from one tree to another. I think today I should go to some village and give satsaṅg." So he walked towards the civilization, the village. He asked a person he met on the way, "Is there anywhere a temple? Because I would like to stay in the temple." The person said, "Yes, we have a beautiful Kṛṣṇa temple." So he went there. He asked the priest, the paṇḍit, "Is there any room?" The paṇḍit said, "Yes, there is one room behind the temple for some sādhus or some person who comes." The sādhu said, "I am very happy." So he went there. It was already six hours later; the time of the prayer had come. The sādhu got up and went to the prayer hall. The priest, the Brahmin, was doing āratī pūjā for Kṛṣṇa, for Bhagavān, for God. There were about 30-40 people from the village, and the Paṇḍit was doing āratī. "Jaya Jagadīśare, Swāmī Jaya Jagadīśare, Bhakta Janake Kāraṇa." A nice prayer. There was this light, flames, āratī, and the sādhu was also praying and looking at the āratī. There was a statue so big, one and a half feet tall, a statue of Kṛṣṇa, all made of gold. It must have been about five kilos or eight kilos of gold, maybe ten kilos. Now, this food that he ate from that bandit was acting in his energy. It’s like blackmailing. It takes time to digest and think over. This whole virus goes around the entire body, intellect, thinking, and thoughts. And he is now... For so many years he had sādhanā, but when he saw the gold and that energy of someone else, now he is thinking, "Oh, that statue is out of gold. I would like to take it. I will sell it. I will have a nice ashram. Then I don’t need to beg food from anyone." The Paṇḍit is doing prayer, and the sādhu is thinking. What is he thinking now? How to take this statue? How to steal? Nobody will give it to him. The prayer finished at 8 o’clock. Satsaṅg finished at 9 o’clock. The Paṇḍit closed the temple and told the Paṇḍitjī, "Hari Om, good night." The Paṇḍit had a house about 500 meters away. Night, 3 o’clock in the night. The sādhu thought, "All are sleeping." Thieves look for the chance when, at what time, people are mostly sleeping. All, including the alcoholics. The deep sleep is at 2:30, 3 o’clock. So he went, he broke the door. Somehow he went in and he said, "Kṛṣṇa, let’s go. It is boring for you all the time." He hauled Kṛṣṇa, and he was moving this statue, so big. So somehow he managed to pull it out. He had energy, greed, and fear, greed and fear. So he managed to take the statue out, and he wrapped it in his cloth, and he ran away. At four o’clock, Paṇḍitjī came for pūjā because he always wakes up God in the morning, Brahmamuhūrta. He opens the temple, and Kṛṣṇa is not there. So he rang the bell loudly. Village people came. "What happened?" He said, "Kṛṣṇa is not here." Young boys, young men like all of you here, our boys are very quick, and the girls were also running behind. "Where to go? Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is Kṛṣṇa?" They asked the paṇḍit, "Was there anybody?" He said, "No, there is only one Swamijī staying here in the room outside." Then they said, "Let’s go and ask him." They went, but Bābājī was not there. They said, "There must be something with him." They saw he was running on foot. Then they said, "Yes, now all the signs are there." You know, you saw the film, The Commissioner? What is his name? Colombo. Yes. So let’s run, go there. So, Inspector Colombo, he did very, very nicely. I like that he’s acting. He can find exactly the evidence. One day, he found evidence only that someone had eaten the cheese. A little piece was left, and he found a cheese that was bitten. He searched for the person who was doubtful and asked some people who his dentist was. He goes to the dentist and wants to have the repairing for his own, and then he said, "Have you..." All this, what you call impression, is from everything. I said, "Have you this person’s data coming?" "Yes." "Have you some impression of him?" "Why do you ask this?" He said, "I’m Inspector Columbus." Then they make exactly 100% sure that impression was from his teeth. And then he finds it. So people were running, and it was getting morning dawn light. And they saw that, in fact, Bābājī was running, and then young boys were running with a stick, and so on. Today he will have Mahāsamādhi. When people are really emotional in religion, then they don’t see anything, they can’t do anything, unfortunately. Now he sees behind, the whole army is running. Now, his food, what he ate, that food was doing stealing and this and that. But that food is now digested, running and running. That food is not remaining in the body anymore. Prāṇa is purified. Now he got a fear, but how to save himself? So the buddhi, good buddhi, good thoughts came. Now, even if you have to tell a lie to save a life, so people came. Part 2: The Sādhu, the Meal, and the Nature of Prāṇa What was Swāmījī doing? He saw a beautiful lake. People were coming, and he called out, "Stop, stop!" He said, "No, don’t scream. Run, come quickly, help me, please come." They took Kṛṣṇa, and he went to the water. "You stay," he said, "no." Kṛṣṇa tells me that for so many years he had no bath. He likes to swim in the lake. Silent, silent. Come and help. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Govindare, Murāri, He Nāthā, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Everybody was putting water on Kṛṣṇa. All were happy. So he tells, "Yes, boys and girls, come, make good karma today. Blessing, come, you are helped to wash Kṛṣṇa, bathing." Look how Kṛṣṇa is happy. He likes this all. And then we have to go quickly before prayer time. It will be the second prayer, the breakfast prayer. So they cleaned this, and he brought Krishna and put him there and said, "Krishna, I’m sorry, it took me a long time." The lake was too far. And always, whenever you need something like this, come to me. Krishna, I will come every month. Tell me what you need. I will fulfill your wish, but please bless us and feel very fresh and clean. Unfortunately, I had no Gaṅgā water, but all water is Gaṅgā water, and I had no shampoo, so I couldn’t wash it with shampoo. Krishna, you know, Krishna had curly hair like this. Everybody said, "This Mahārāj is, Swāmījī is great." They were worshipping him more than Kṛṣṇa. Now, that sādhu, he tells God, Lord, why did I have these stupid thoughts? From where did this energy come in my thoughts? But at the same time, I adore you for removing that energy and quickly giving me good thoughts. I could have thrown Kṛṣṇa somewhere and run away. They would have caught me and killed me or something. But you gave me such a good one. So the things which were going wrong came right again, but why? Then he thought, "It must be with that man who came with the horse to eat." But I didn’t eat. He went to that restaurant, and the restaurant people were there. And he asked, "You brought nice food?" He said, "Yes." Who inspired you? Did you? He said, "No, no. There was that person." And he asked me to bring nice food. You didn’t like that food? He said, "Yes, I liked that food." But that food was not so good, because it made a lot of theater inside. So, jaisā khāī anveṣa rahe man. What kind of food you are using, and from whom, that will change the mind and energy, the prāṇa. Everything is a play of the prāṇa. This energy is playing within us. Our senses, our thoughts, our actions, our feelings, everything is controlled by that energy. Therefore, sattvic energy, sattvic food, sattvic people, and sattvic thoughts. So, be the light. Be the light means as long as this light is here, darkness will not come here. When the light of spiritual thoughts and positivity is gone, then negative thoughts will come and darkness will return. And there we are in danger. So he said, "Thank you very much, but next time don’t bring me food like that." And if you bring that someone sends, then tell me, who is who and what is the profession. What is the profession? And therefore, in sannyāsa dīkṣā, when you become a sannyāsī, strictly, then, before becoming a sannyāsī, you should cook yourself. Not even from your mother or from anybody. After that, when you become a sannyāsī, then you should go for bhikṣā, like a begging monk. And they are not from one house, but from different ones. And then you bring in prayer, give it to your master. And if the Master gives you that food, you should eat. Maybe he will not give the master. Then don’t think, "I am hungry, I brought food, and my master didn’t give it to me, and I am so hungry." And he gave it to somebody else, Master. He has dualities, and so I will not eat. That is not only created by not eating, so much energy, and the next day we want to go away. So the master said, "Why?" He said, "I am hungry." The master said, "That’s okay. The food which you brought yesterday was not for you. It would have caused you a mental disease, but for others it was okay." He said, "Why? The food was clean and good." He said, "No argument. Go and bring new food now. I will give you that." So, sannyās, becoming that, we have to go through a lot and lot. In 1965, when I came to Gurujī, after half a year, I was cooking for myself and for Gurujī all the time. And when I became a sannyāsī, I stayed in Ahmedabad Ashram, and for one and a half years, I was going every day to bring food as a battle monk, or what they call the... So, this all is a sādhanā to turn everything into energy. So, different kinds of food create different kinds of desires. And that desires can turn you from the right path to the negative path. Doesn’t matter who is who. Do you know the story of the Mahābhārata? Now I will tell you that story. When the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas were fighting, and Kṛṣṇa tried very much—he tried very much—that there should be no war, and peace. It is said that Kṛṣṇa said, "Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the war will begin." So Kṛṣṇa again went as an ambassador of peace to Hastināpur, which was a Delhi, New Delhi, to the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas to bring peace. So, negotiation. So Duryodhana, the prince, he said, "Today Krishna is coming. I will do such good things, he will forget the Pandavas. They have nothing to eat." And he prepared a lot of food, a lot of food, a big buffet, all kinds of sweet and sour and everything. That time, there were no cakes, you know, so it was different. And Duryodhana said, "I don’t want to give to the Pāṇḍava the land in my kingdom, even like a tip of the needle, earth, not even that much. I don’t want to see them, but Krishna, you are great, and this all is for you. Come and enjoy." Krishna said, "This food, I didn’t come to eat. I came to have peace. So if you negotiate, just give them one hectare of land somewhere. That’s all." He said, "No." So Kṛṣṇa said, "Okay, this is your last message." So they said, "No." Duryodhana said, "No, I don’t want any kind of friendship back to this one." So Kṛṣṇa went. He was hungry; the whole day he was trying to change them. So he was hungry, so he went to, what was his name, Vidura, Vidur, because he was also the brother of the father of Arjuna and the father of the uncle. They are three brothers. Well, Vidura was born from another wife. And Kṛṣṇa went to Vidura’s house. Vidura was a very correct man, very wise. And any problem that was there, he could solve. And his wife was so humble and so kind. She was like a light. So Kṛṣṇa went there, and he was sitting on the swing. And he said to Vidura’s wife, "Sister, I am hungry, so please feed me something." So she said, "Okay, I will do it. I have cooked already; I knew you would come." So she made food for him, but he said, "But I am so hungry, I will wait until you make warm chapatis." So she said, "No, no, I will give you something before." Siddhāra Siddhāra... Krishna, please, please, mistakenly, Krishna said, "Vidur, I have never eaten any fruit or any food as tasty as what I have today from the hands of your wife, my sister." That is a love of food. And then she asked, "Krishna, what would you like to have?" So he said, "I want to have corn chapati, like totila." Yeah, so it means that, at that time, corn was in India according to this story. And the mustard seeds, the leaves of the mustard, this is a very good combination, and butter on it. That was a favorite food of Krishna. So, that is a simple food. That was a, or that is, now it is very difficult. That was mostly for farmers and poor people’s food. So, Holi Gurujī is writing a beautiful bhajan on this. God doesn’t come without love. When there is unconditional love, pure love, then God comes. Prabhu means God. Prem is love. Bina, without. Nahi, not. Ave is coming, so God doesn’t come without love. You can try and make thousands of things, but He will not come. Only He needs one, that love. Kṛṣṇa could manifest it everywhere. And then they asked once, when Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa was there, and someone asked Kṛṣṇa, "What are you doing? So many gopīs and gopas and your disciples." He says, "Where are you?" He said, "I am in front of you." But they said, "You are with another one." He said, "Then okay, go and ask them." Krishna is sitting there and eating. He goes into the other room, and what he is doing there is brushing his teeth. Just immediately next door, he goes to the fifth door. What is he doing there? He is dressing. He goes to the other room. Now he is eating. So he said, "What are you doing everywhere? When I go, in half a minute you are there." He said that I don’t know, just ask them. So, what did he say, Gurujī? Duryodhana kā mevā tyāgyā. Duryodhana made such delicious food, but he just rejected it. Sāk Vidurā Garakhāī. And just this leaves, vegetable, he ate at Vidura’s house. So God doesn’t see that, what you call beauty or taste. Test is the love which one prepares for us with greatness. That changes the prāṇa. That changes the prāṇa. So, prāṇa, when we inhale and exhale, don’t think that we are also in that room where we practice the prāṇāyāma. And if someone has very negative thoughts, be careful that her or his prāṇa can enter you. But if you awaken the light of your heart, the flame of the heart, and positivity, then you will send the prāṇa back as a light. So that when the light is there, darkness has no power to come closer. And so prāṇāyām, prāṇāyām, yam, that is prāṇa, the exercise of the prāṇāyām. So let’s do. Left is the moon, and right is the sun. These are two balancing forces. The closest planet to our earth is the moon. I think, how much? 200,000, or how many? A million? Yes, yeah, how many thousand? 250,000 kilometers, 2 lakh. Anyhow, we are not going today, so no problem. We need a ticket to go there. So, our prāṇa. Now we make the prāṇa and don’t do anything. Just inhale and exhale, and ask yourself, what does my breath mean for me? Can you imagine when you can’t breathe? You are in, or we are in, such a situation. We know now we will die. When the aeroplane disappeared, definitely it was in the water. There was still oxygen for a while, but people knew this was death for us. They were screaming; they didn’t know what to do. Children and parents and everyone, all were lying, running, searching to survive. Is this prāṇa not more than our soul, our life, or a god? So, what does it mean for us to have a fresh, healthy, good breath? Do we know the value of our inhalation and exhalation? So let’s feel our breath and take this stick, yes? There was one more utility of this stick, you know. Like this, like that, many things, like this, like that. Like this, like this, but one more, maybe put like this, and this candle here, and do the tratak. Or if you have no candle, you put here one coin, something that is reflecting, or a black stone. This is a very nice tratak, but today is a pradāya. So get ready, please. Two fingers in the eyebrow center, and the thumb from the right hand is closing the left nostril from the side. Just press a little bit in the nostril. The right nostril is open. Inhale and exhale a little more deeply than a normal breath. Try to inhale into the stomach, and while inhaling, try to take in all the positive energy; while exhaling, purify and exhale all the negative energy or thoughts. My prāṇa, my life, my thoughts, my strength, my intellect, my memory, and my liberation all depend on my life, on prāṇa.