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Om sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ, sarve santu nirāmayāḥ, sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu, mā kaścid duḥkha bhāgbhavet, om śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ. Hari Om. A very good evening. A warm welcome. I am very pleased to be in Salzburg again. Salzburg is always beautiful. My first visit to Salzburg was in early '72. It was lovely. It is lovely. Since then, many Salzburgers have practiced yoga, perfected it, moved to other places or countries, and continue to teach yoga in their daily lives. But they have little patience here. That is the truth; one must always say it. They want self-realization immediately. Ātmā-jñāna. But Ātmā-jñāna is not that easy. We all have Ātmā-jñāna. Ātmā-jñāna means—many of you already know, and many may not—Ātmā is the Self, our Self. Ātmā is one with God, and as ātmā, we are all one. There is Paramātmā, the highest Self. Ātmā, sohī Paramātmā. Ātmā is the highest Self. Paramātmā, so'ham ātmā. So'ham. I am this, that is me. After the Ātmā comes Jīvātmā. Jīva, the soul. And the soul is not Ātmā. Ātmā, Anātmā is the soul. Therefore, the soul is individual. And seen as such, the soul wanders, it comes back again. The soul is always bound by Karma. What is Karma? Karma is nothing other than our deeds. What we do is Karma. Hearing, speaking, feeling, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, cooking, thoughts. Everything that happens through our existence is our activity, our actions. And every action has a reaction. And every reaction has another reaction. Action and reaction. And so it is like a wheel, and the Ātmā is in between action and reaction. Our deeds, and what do we get back? The soul is affected, or the soul is the victim of our karma. That is our deeds, and the fruits, or what will happen to them, are called śikṣā, bhāgya, our destiny. And so karma is in our hands. Each of us does karma, and the karma is in our hands, in our power. We can decide whether to do something or not to do something. Karma is with us. But when we have done something, then nothing is in our hands anymore. Like a bullet in a rifle: as long as it is in our hands and we do not use it, it is in our hands. But when the bullet goes out, then it is gone from us. So, what will happen? We have done this. This is the fruit of Bhāgyakarma. And so, the action has the reaction, which we can call my śikṣā. So śikṣā is our deeds. For example, we see a bicycle, a wheel, and the middle is connected with the mechanic. The wheel turns, and the middle is the soul. So the whole universe, the wheel goes, turns, but the middle is always there, and that is the soul. Many people translate the soul as the Self. The soul is not the Self. The soul is not Ātmā. Ātmā has no Karma. Ātmā performs no Karma. Ātmā is untouchable. It has no birth and no death. It has no form. It is like light, like space. This room is unity. Only the walls, the dualism, separate. Once there was a forest here. Then someone took the property and built these walls. But they couldn't separate space. One day it will all be taken away again. It will be demolished. Space will always be space. Here in this space, we can try to sit with a gun, but we don't see a hole. We can say that the fire is burning, but the space cannot burn anything. And so, Ātmā is the Self. And this Self is us. All living beings have this Ātmā. Even the plants have the Ātmā. Then comes the Jīvātmā, which means life. And such life is a change, a changing, death and birth. So the body does not die. It will reunite all the elements into other elements again. Water in water, fire in fire, air in air, space in space, earth in earth. All five elements separate again. What brings them together is an energy. And the energy is what we can call yoga. So two bricks are held together with cement. And so the prāṇa energy, life energy, holds our body together for a while. Then it will be old again. The cement will not last that long. Or the bricks will not last long anymore. And so the soul wanders again. The soul from that time wanders, floats, on the waves of time in space. Through light or darkness, beautiful feelings, unpleasant feelings, happiness, sadness, pain, alone. No one is there. No one. No one has to do with the others. It is separate. Father, mother, children, wife, friends—everything is separate only until here. The soul goes alone into infinite space. There is no ground, no direction, left or right, up or down. It is only a space, and in that space, it is itself there. But feelings, memory, and a wish to be free again from this infinity. That is our śikṣā, our destiny. With the principles, it is said, Dharmarāja. Dharmarāja is the king. Dharamrāj is the God of justice. He gives the judgment. And so, the souls are as many as clouds, and everyone has his own soul, everyone. And according to this, the soul comes back to this earth. This is called Mṛtyuloka, the world of strife. Comes, goes, comes, goes, and the soul comes back. Now, it is 8.4 million different kinds of living beings that exist on this Earth, and all come through karma. All living beings, all animals, birds, fish, and so on, go through this karma. They can no longer create karma, but they suffer or are happy. They have to go through this karma. Only a human being, the soul, when it comes to the human body, gets such an intellect, spirit, and feelings in the heart as grace. And that's why humans now have the freedom to do good or bad. But they can't be free from karma. They had to live the former karma from the former life. To live just as far as the animals. But through certain exercises, prayers, and believing—whether you believe or not, the reality is there—so through positive things, positive thoughts, positive actions, and positive energies, we can overcome or cleanse our karma. Or create even more complications. When we think negatively and do bad things, then we have karma again, and then we go back. Now, Dharamrāj says, "You have so little karma to go back as a human being." And the rest is all animal life. "Do you want this, or do you want to try again?" He says, "Now I want to try again." Fortunately, you meet Swamiji. And then he says something and says, "Well, the Indians always have thoughts like that." Well, nicely said, but it's not like that. That means that a blind person goes through such a large hall, and only a door is to be opened. And blind people have their own technique of how to get out. So he puts his hand on the wall and goes on slowly. But when the door comes, he goes on, but starts scratching here and there. But he goes on and gives his hand back to the wall. The door stays behind. He goes on and on, comes there and scratches here on the axle, and goes back. He says, "Lord God, how big is this hall!" Someone stands there and has watched, and says, "You have missed the door several times." And the blind man says: "Friend, we blind people are not dumb. You are stupid. We have our own technique. Do you see my hand? Constantly I have my hand on the wall. How can you say that I missed the door?" He said, "Yes, my brother. When the door came, you started scratching somewhere." "Yes, I did that." And so, we have a door. Once again, God has given us a chance, given human life. But we have so many longings and blackmailings and this and that, thoughts. We always find faults in others. We do exactly what others do, but we don't see our own thoughts and deeds. We hide them, but we blame the others, so we get double karma again. Then it goes back to the animals. It can go back to the reptiles or even further back. The soul remains the soul. The soul is always the same, but the form is different. And the ability is different. So, 8.4 million different living beings. One is a human being who can free himself through good deeds. Then the soul. It happens when you do spiritual exercises. There are many spiritual exercises. It doesn't just have to be yoga. It doesn't just have to be Indian. Everywhere in the whole world, there were many saints. There are still many saints. There are many people. So it is like this. A snowball lies on the field. And now the sun is strong, and because of the heat of the sun, slowly, slowly, the snowball melts and is no longer there. Because this snow has melted, and now there is water in the ocean. And so our soul, when it is freed from karma, then it becomes one with Ātmā. This is called self-realization. We know that it exists. Theoretically, we know. Someone said, "The tones of theory cannot be compared to a gram of practice." And so, practice is important. Only thinking does not help us so much. So, ātmā jñāna, but as I said before, the people have no patience. They want to be holy right the next morning. So, holy. They are holy, not holy. And that is the goal of human birth. Whether we believe or not, we believe. For example, we believe today that tomorrow the sun will no longer rise. We can believe, but tomorrow at 7:40 the sun will rise here. What? Yet the sun has risen. Incredible. So, the truth, the Brahmasatyam Jagatmithyā, the truth, the Truth, it is only one, Brahman. And this world is temporary. It is temporary, and so, yoga, yoga. Now, many people know what yoga is. And my God, the Prime Minister of India, Modi, has brought such a storm. Yoga, yoga, all, everywhere. Within a week, 170 or 200 nations said, "Yes, we are pro-yoga, we are pro-yoga, we are pro-yoga." And now everyone is trying to do yoga, but what? What most people are practicing as yoga now is not yoga. Turning a body like this is not yoga. Yoga, thoughts, and certain exercises, it must be holistic, not just practice. And that is now like in a circus. Everyone says, "I practice Haṭha Yoga." And no one practices Haṭha Yoga. That is a miracle. For 45 years here in Austria, I have explained to them that this is not Haṭha Yoga, and still they say, "No, I practice Haṭha Yoga." And they don't practice Hatha Yoga. I don't know how fixed in Austria and in Europe they wanted to do Hatha Yoga. It is not Haṭha Yoga. They call us and say, "In the Yoga Center, we want to practice Haṭha Yoga, do you have a Haṭha Yoga class?" We also say then, "Yes, please come." Although it is not Haṭha Yoga, Haṭha Yoga is another technique. Only six techniques: Netī, Dhautī, Bastī, Naulī, Trāṭaka, Kapālabhāti, and Bastī. That is the Haṭha Yoga, six techniques. What we practice here, āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, relaxation, concentration, is not Haṭha Yoga. But no, everyone says we practice Haṭha Yoga. Okay, we practice Haṭha Yoga. Yoga comes from God Śiva, and Śiva is his own being. He has no mother, no father. He is the first God or human. Śiva manifested from the whole universe. And when Śiva manifested, he was in meditation. For several centuries, he was in meditation. The stories of Śiva are infinite. Later, all of them came. And so knowledge, the science of yoga, has been brought by God Śiva. And that is for our health, for our well-being, for our self-realization, etc., etc., etc. And so, the name has different exercises. Yoga is yoga. These are two words, and Shiva is also two words. So, the words don't have very long names. All saints, all gods, they didn't write anything. Dr. Jesus, Professor Rama, and Director Krishna. No one has this title, only very short names, like Jesus, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Śiva, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, short names. This whole title that we have is our ego, our position. No matter what position we have, one day our final position will be on the ground. Beautiful, flat, straight on the back, and the hands will be given so that you can no longer have anything. Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu. So, beginning with Haṭha Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, Rāja Yoga, Sahaja Yoga, Nāḍī Yoga, Kriyā Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Yantra Yoga. Feel it, feel it, feel the techniques. All this. All lead to the same goal, but have a different kind of practice. So, yoga, two words are yoga union. So the whole universe between space and consciousness, these are the two, infinite space. And space is the same. Goethe said, to see a blue sky, you don't need to travel anywhere. And so is space. Space is like the cup of a mother's life, endless. So the sky is the Divine Mother. And Vibhūti, Consciousness, is the Self, the Ātmā. And in between, this Consciousness is the golden embryo. That means the golden embryo is the consciousness that wanders as a human being. Between space and consciousness, there is a universal consciousness, not conscious-universal. So within the space is the consciousness. And between the two is an energy that is called yoga. Then everything works slowly, so consciousness, then comes the ātmā, is anyhow there, then comes jīvātmā, then comes awareness, concentration, mind, again energy, then body. And so, in yoga, all these subjects, all the themes are spoken and searched through, and practiced. So comes the body. So, the body is nothing, everything. But everything is nothing without the body, so what can we achieve? Only through this body. As long as our body is there, we can do everything. After that, gone, finished. And so the body should be healthy. And the two are very important: food and yoga. Movement and food. The two are very important for our lives. Food, sattvic food. Rajas and Tamas. These are the three Guṇas in the Bhagavad Gītā. It is written very clearly. And Ayurveda is also used. Now Ayurveda is also very famous in the West. So this is the quality of Āyurveda or the Guṇas. Sattva guṇa is a positive, pure, sattvic quality. This water is very pure, very clear. You don't need any other type of water. In Austria, the water is very good. In Salzburg, it is particularly good. And then comes the second quality, which is called Rajas guṇa. Calm, aggressive, temperament, many things: anger, hatred, envy, greed. My God, something else, a lot. Yes, we need that, yes. And last, third, Tamas guṇa. In Austria, there is also the name Thomas. So please, I don't mean that. So tamas guṇa is laziness, so an enemy of people is laziness. You lose everything through laziness. And so the food makes us lazy. The energy wanders and says, "Well, I don't care, I don't want to, I'm tired, I'll leave it." That is laziness. Time waits for no one. And karma will not free anyone. But both are in our hands. We can win, and we can become free from karma and one with time. Then, as said, without time and space. And so, Nāḍī. Nāḍī has a different quality or a different kind of Nāḍī. Our body has five layers. And these are called the five kośas. Annamaya kośa, Prāṇamaya kośa, Manomaya kośa, Vijñānamaya kośa, and Ānandamaya kośa. Five kośas: the body of nourishment, annamaya, this is the physical body; the prāṇa body; the mental body; the intellectual body; and the causal body. Causal body means ānandamaya kośa, means the body of desire, not the highest supreme ānanda. This is our longing. We come back again. We try to get out, but our longing for feelings brings us back again. Like an addicted person who takes some kind of drug and says, "I don't want it anymore." But tomorrow it starts again, and that's how it is. These five kośas, they need different types of food. So physical food is also food. Thought is food. Social food is food, not social food. Silence is food. Moving is food, and not moving is food. Everything we do in every direction is an energy for us. So, for yoga practitioners, you should have āhār, vihār, ācār, and vicār. These are four principles, very important. Very important. Whether you believe in God or not, let God sit on one side. God is what you manifest yourself. Your deeds, your thoughts, your thoughts are God. It is nothing else. So, what we do is the energy in our body. Everything we do. And so, a movement, a posture, is an energy. And it is cleaned away. The energy used and the energy used by others, everything is cleaned. Āsanas are very important. The tāmas guṇas go away. So, annamaya kośa, prāṇamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, vijñānamaya kośa, and ānandamaya kośa. The food we eat affects our body, our mind, our consciousness, and our soul. No matter what we eat, āhār, vihār. Vihar means where we go, in which society, in which place we go. We go hiking in the mountains, in the forest. How beautiful, how good the prāṇa is. Or you go to a place where there are many different types of smoke, and movement, and dance, and the light. Black, white, black, red, green, blue, I don't know how many. And then in the morning, it's all soaked in tamoguṇas. So where do we go when you get up in the morning and go into the church? It's a completely different thought, or you get up and go to a local and sit there with vodka right in the morning. You sit in a church or in a local, but the quality is different, the effect is different. So go to a temple, or a yoga center, or a church, or go to your mother or grandmother and sit with your grandmother for a while. It gives you a lot of love, a lot of feelings, and a lot of things: āhār, vihār, ācār. Behavior. Conduct. Āhār, vihār, āchār. And vichār. What we think, each of our thoughts has an effect on our body, mind, soul, and consciousness. What we think: a thought can save us, and a thought can destroy us. The speech, what you speak, should be so that it makes you happy and others happy. Whoever has negative tamas guṇa in his inner self, this person has only negative words against someone or has done something. But when he has done it for himself, there is a golden thought for himself. And there, the effect is back on our consciousness. Look, yoga in daily life is the harmony of body, mind, and soul. And how do we bring harmony when we have achieved or realized harmony? Through yoga exercises, meaning āsanas and prāṇāyāma, which are very important. Breathing exercises and body exercises, harmony of the body. Harmony of the mind is meditation. Meditation is very, very important. Meditation is one of the best healing methods, and the soul. Pray. Practice mantra. Breathe. The soul becomes relaxed and happy. But you go to the church and sit there and say, "Lord God, let my business... Besides my business, these are so bad, people, they should give away their business." And we go from here. So there are people who pray against someone and sit in the church. God says, "Leave at least one place where you can think positively." Therefore, the church and nothing for the negative thoughts. Everything attacks us internally and influences our next life. This life is already ruined. And now, in the future, we are also preparing complications. So think positively, pray, repeat the mantra. No matter which language, which god. We in India, the Hindus and Śāntadharma, we worship all gods. All of them. It doesn't matter if it is Jesus, Muhammad, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, all, all. Good things are good for everyone, and bad things are not good at all. So tolerance is very important. If you have tolerance, then you don't think negatively. And because no one has tolerance, the thought is very bad. Once I was in a church in Gartenkamp, in the Ballviertel. And there the priest was, my good friend. And we practiced together, and he practiced mantra and many things. And once he brought me to the church. And at the mass, he said, "Swami, you should speak a little bit." And he invited me and introduced me, and I spoke a little bit. Five minutes or so, ten minutes. They see me and say, "I see, I see what the people have seen," and come and say, "So negative." Now I sit in the church, in front of the statue of Jesus, at the mass, and I have such negative thoughts. More often, when I walked around here in orange clothes, people saw me. It becomes much more often. From here, it's different, because they don't know that. Now, television, through the electronic media, television and this and this... and this. So negative thoughts are very bad, very bad. It destroys the whole atmosphere of the country, the village, the city. Positive thoughts. I made an experience once. Should I say it was a bit negative? I didn't ask him what he was saying; he told me he was going to talk about harmony. It was a long time ago, I think it was 1981. 1981 or so. A lake called Chiemsee. Yes. After the Austrian-German lake. A Hungarian came there as a refugee. And he was my student there, the whole family. So I went there. But in a small village next door, I wanted to know where the next village would be, and so on. Now, there is a navigator, so I don't need to ask anyone. So I had a VW car, a VW van. I parked it and wanted to ask someone. So I went into the business center and asked, and came back. And two older ladies came. Maybe they were 80 or 90-year-old women. And one of them saw me. And they both turned around and said, "Who is that?" And I heard. And they stood there, they were standing there and looked at me. I go to my car. He has a car. The other woman said, but I ask myself, where did he get a car from? Then I also made a joke. I said loudly, "He stole it." Such experiences are not always made. So, positive thoughts in yoga are very important. If you didn't like anything, okay. But you should not put negative thoughts in your head. Positive, positive, positive. So where do you go? Which friend do you have? Your best friend will never put something negative, like blackmailing, in your thoughts. In another land, another religion, or a different person, and so on. So, friend, is that when you speak negatively, the friend will say, "No, no, listen to me. Why do you speak like that?" Come, let's talk about God, or health, or nature, and so on. So harmony, mantra practice, and positive thinking are the liberation and harmony in the soul. The soul breathes, now I have a chance to be freed from so many births and deaths, wandering in the whole universe. Many people do not believe in rebirth. Yes, that can be, because they are eternal. Fire of fire, how do you say it? Fiery fire. Because they have such karma, they are forever hanging somewhere. Rebirth is there. Return and go and be free. Rebirth is called rebirth. Many do not believe. Belief does not end. So, I have a paper napkin, and it's a nice color. And it has another color too. This side, this color, is not so environmentally friendly. And this side is very natural. But this paper is recycling and environmentally friendly. And we say recycling. So now the question is, do you all believe in the recycling process or not? Recycling. But this paper goes into the recycling process. It doesn't come back as a paper. It can wander into something else. It becomes a fertilizer in our garden. And we plant potatoes. And it wanders into potatoes, so this recycling energy has come into the potato, and we eat it. And that wanders with another energy. So, recycling, we believe in recycling. So if you believe in recycling, there is a problem to believe in rebirth. Because rebirth is exactly the same, but this is more on other levels, and so far we have not come. But those who meditate can find it. So, short and good. Body exercises, breathing exercises, and relaxation. This is one block, every day, minimum one hour, minimum. Āsanas, prānāyāmas, and relaxation. Two hours would be good. One and a half hours is okay. One hour is okay. Half an hour is a joke. That is very good for our health: one and a half hours of body exercise, breathing exercise, and relaxation. This is the harmony of the body. For the mind, a minimum of 45 minutes of meditation. Then the mind is totally in harmony. And the harmony of the soul, both go together, meditation and mantra. And because of that, the soul feels very in harmony, and a lot of karma goes away. So, during the meditation, we try not to bring any thoughts into our thoughts. Don't think, in meditation, "I hope today I will get more customers in my business." Wait, meditate. "I hope my exam will be good today." Please don't think about the exam. Tomorrow I fly to Tokyo. I have to take everything with me. So many people meditate, but many thoughts. This is not meditation. A man goes to meditate in his room, and he says to his son, "Son, someone is coming." I met a girl and said, "Oh, someone is coming." Appointment. So he said to his son, his son was somewhere else and came home after a few years. Our father was very happy and said, "I talked to someone." So when he comes, please say, "I will meditate here and come back." And give him water, or tea, or coffee. And he meditated in the other room, closed his door, and rang the bell. My husband comes, greetings to God. He says, "Yes, hello." He says, "Your father is here, yes." But my father went shopping and bought a shoe. Father hears, I meditate here, sit here, and now he lies, that my father is in the market and buys soup. Okay, please come and sit. He gave him tea, something, so, guest friendship. After half an hour, the father comes from the other door again. "Hello, good morning," he says, and then he spoke. Okay, after half an hour, the man left. They had already made the soup. And then the father said to his son, "My son, I told you I was meditating. You said I was in the market. Why did you lie?" No, father, you were in the market, but I wasn't. Yes, father, you thought which soup has the best suey. And you tried to sell suey, this or that. Was that not true? The father said, "Yes, son. Yes, my son." But how do you know that? He said, "Yes, I meditated yesterday." How did you meditate? What did you practice? He said, very relaxed, "I practice yoga in my daily life." And so, practice the whole system correctly. Yoga in your daily life means practicing yoga every day. Body exercise, breathing exercise, relaxation is one block. Then, the second is meditation with mantra. Without mantra, meditation is like a body without a soul. So, the spirit and the soul come together in harmony through meditation and mantra practice. Then comes the other level, which we will maybe talk about tomorrow. So thank you very much for listening. I was afraid that one or the other would get up and look at Salzburg. Many people came from other places. Salzburg is very beautiful. Yes, thank you. I wish you all the best. After a long, long time, I held a German-language lecture again. You did it. Thank you. You have succeeded, because the webcam and the TV are going live all over the world. So they always say, please English because of the other people in other countries. But today it succeeded, for you, that I have started to speak in the German language again. Will I practice more in two days? Thank you, all the best, have a nice evening. If you don't come tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, I wish you all the best, Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy New Year. Hari Om. Om Śānti Śānti...