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Welcome! It is wonderful to be together again. As always, we have organized a beautiful hall. Please feel comfortable—if you need to open or close the windows, feel free. Blessings to all. We were celebrating Guru Pūrṇimā yesterday. We had been celebrating for some days prior, and it was a very great day with many bhaktas here. We receive blessings from the Ālagpurījī Siddhapīṭha Paramparā. Whenever we meet, we learn something new and move forward. It is like eating food every day. If you miss one day or one meal, you feel something is missing. Some people even become angry. Someone once said very nicely: do we eat for living, or do we live for eating? Today, some people live for eating. When such a person begins to get angry, it is evidence of how far they are on the spiritual path and how much they have learned to endure. You should read the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā again and again. The yogīs, the bhakti yogīs, do not care about hunger and thirst. They are equal in name and fame, friend and enemy. "Sarvatra samabuddhayaḥ, te prāpnuvanti mām eva," O Arjuna—that state of being is dear to Me. God said, "That is dear to Me." Our subject in these seminars is prāṇa, and we demonstrate prāṇa very well. Consider the difference between tribal people and city people—the civilized and the tribes in the forest. They can survive for days without eating and drinking, yet they do not lie down under the trees like a dead body. They are active and can run at any time, even if they have not eaten anything for ten days or drunk proper water. What about us? This is just an example; do not be angry. Yesterday it was announced that we would not have lunch today. A message spread among some people: "Next time we will not come here anymore." What does that mean? It is your loss. Others will come. The rooms are overfilled, and people are waiting on a list. I am not talking about any particular person or group, nor about those who were yelling just for half a piece of bread. How much strength of prāṇa do you have? You live in this city. How much strength do they have? They hardly have a complete meal. How much do you eat and drink per day? In one month, how much do you eat? It is said that a human eats 80 to 90 tons in a lifetime—90 tons! And you are not even 100 kilos. How do you manage? That is a miracle. Those tribal people living in forests, compared to us, may eat only 30, 25, or maybe 20 tons in a lifetime. They eat to live, and whatever they eat turns into energy. It is consumed completely and is more natural—organic food, good prāṇa, good air. This already gives us a very clear picture of how much prāṇa we have. Now, not only humans in civilized areas, but even their dogs are very weak, tired, and ill. Dogs and cats exhibit all the symptoms. Your cows, buffaloes, and horses—compare them to the deer in the forest. They hardly have anything to eat. In winter or summer, in certain countries, there is nothing to eat—no green leaves. Sometimes they have nothing for 10 days, yet you see how the deer can run even through half a meter or one meter of snow. They have the strength; they have the prāṇa. Consider the wild cat and how she survives and runs. We have lost the natural way of living, and that is why we are ill. And if we are not ill, we become ill from taking tablets. When you have no illness and you meet one doctor, be sure you will not be free from some tablets. If not for diabetes, blood pressure, or the heart, they will prescribe some vitamin. When you take these artificial vitamins in tablets, be sure your inner system will reject everything. Slowly, slowly, our inner organs, systems, and functions will reduce and will not adapt to what you take from outside in the form of capsules, tablets, or liquid. Vitamins are more than enough in your natural eating. If you can eat just one handful of rice, a few leaves or some vegetables, a little green, and drink water from springs or deep groundwater, all minerals and everything are there. But as soon as you begin to take something extra, then forget it. You are introducing illness inside, and now we cannot survive without supplements. We have to take iron; it is missing. Vitamin B is missing, potassium is missing, sodium is missing—what is not missing? Only one thing is missing, and very soon it will come: death. So, prāṇa… This artificial food does not have that prāṇa. There is one prāṇa which is blocked or closed in a bottle—maybe oxygen—but it is in a bottle. The second is this oxygen-free prāṇa. It is different. That is the difference. We are talking about and researching prāṇa and prāṇāyāma in this seminar. We do not call it a retreat, because "retreat" means we were treated already but now we have forgotten and are retreating again. You are healthy enough, so where was the necessity to retreat? From whom are you retreating? Your ill body. But why are you ill? Because we lost the natural way of living. It is better to eat only one apple than to eat junk food. Do not just think of feeding your stomach with anything. On an airplane, more or less, it is junk food. You do not know how many days old the food is. They just put it in the microwave and serve it as hot food. If someone does not eat it and says, "No, I will not eat," it goes back. You do not know how many times it goes through the microwaves. Of course, every airline has strict controls, but for how long? They will control, but in this world, nothing is truly controlled. We cannot even control our breath. We try to follow those natural ways of living involving prāṇa, but we know how weak we are. We are psychically not fit; it is a psychological issue. You fly on an airplane and order vegetarian food, but unfortunately they did not load your meal. The drink you wanted is also not there. You say, "But I ordered it. How is this possible?" Just for five or six hours, you will not die. Yet see how much tension you create. On such an airplane, I will not fly with that airline again. I fly so much, and I see the reaction and shouting at these poor girls, the hostesses. They say, "Sorry, sir. Sorry, ma’am. Sorry, madam." It is not their duty; they are not guilty. Still, they try their best to do something for you. Junk food is not good. If we, including myself, are clever enough, we should take some fresh fruits with us. That would be best. Eating two or three apples will help you. To adjust your jet lag, drink more water. But instead of good water, people ask for alcohol. Drinking alcohol on an airplane is poisoning yourself. There is no prāṇa in it. Do you think alcohol has prāṇa? I have not tried it. Do you people know? Does alcohol have prāṇa? Yes, that prāṇa which makes you imbalanced—so it means there is no real prāṇa. The brain begins to give an alarm. You know, like when diabetic sugar goes down—I experienced that. I said, "Oh God! Bring sugar quickly." So alcohol is not good. There is no prāṇa. It is not that prāṇa. It is a dead energy—dead and dead and dead—so it turns in the other direction. It is for killing bacteria, but we are very big bacteria, so it will not kill us immediately but slowly, slowly. Therefore, contemplate prāṇa. There are many people who think a lot about their health. They do not eat junk food or food cooked hours before. You have 24 hours for your good health, for being healthy and happy. Can you not spend half an hour to cook fresh food and eat it? But no, you cook today, or on Sunday and Saturday for the whole week, put it in the freezer, then warm it up in the microwave. This is not good. When I came to Austria and people saw we had leftover spinach vegetables and I said we would warm it again, the Austrians said, "No, no, no, don’t make this mistake. Never, never re-warm spinach and potatoes." So, health-aware people were in Austria. There is very, very good health awareness in many ways, except regarding alcohol, meat, and eggs. At that time, people were nourishing themselves with very good, healthy food and were not consuming so much meat. But now they are forcing people to eat meat. In some countries, the government’s law does not allow parents to feed children vegetarian food because they do not have proper doctors and have meat industries. A person honoring the meat industry has a girlfriend or boyfriend as a minister, and that person from the meat industry will say, "Please bring this law." If the minister says no, the girlfriend will not come anymore, so he says, "Yes, I’m working on it." You see, the letter is already there. So many things are forced by some money play. What they changed in Austria, in Europe, in the European Union—all these bulbs they changed. And what is inside? All poisons. They changed the fever thermometer; when you have a fever, they use this digital one, no? It has poison. It is not good. All the good, healthy things our ancestors brought are not here anymore. There is no mercury blood pressure device available at all. They destroyed it, calling it poison. And what is now in the bulbs? Many poisonous things. This research is not healthy. There is a system in the world now: they neither let you die nor let you live. We have become a business for them. Buy medicines, buy medicines—all money goes there. And give us a vote, give us a vote in an election. So we are all looking for bank votes. Regarding prāṇa, you have to decide for yourself what you will eat and what you will not eat. If you do not eat for one day or two days, you will definitely not die. In two days, if you do not eat—except in the case of diabetes where you might go into a coma—you will stay long; you will not die. If you die in two days from not eating, I personally will come to your funeral, I promise you. But if you do not eat for two days, you will become fresh and healthy. Your body itself will consume everything which is unnecessary. Day by day, your immunity will become strong. So the principle of fasting is to regenerate your body, develop immunity, and build strength. If you fast and avoid or lessen your food, you will look ten years younger. Yes, I was fasting for two days—of course, I was taking something for my sugar—and people said, "Oh, Swamiji, you look so fresh, like two years younger." I said, because it was only two days, so per day you become one year younger. What a miracle! This is the miracle of prāṇa. Then prāṇa enters your body. If junk food and old habits remain, prāṇa cannot even enter, and there is no immunity. So prāṇa is our life. Here where we are sitting, there is so much prāṇa. Even the birds say, "Yes, yes, Swami." Oh, yes, say something. Yes, she said, "Listen to Swamiji. What he said is correct." Yes, say something more. We will practice prāṇāyāma. In prāṇāyāma and āsanas, I would suggest you try to reduce your diet. Eat 25% or 50%, with 25% liquid and 25% for air. That is it. But we eat 100%, 120%, and then drink water. There is no space, so how will the body function? The body will make space go sideways; it does not go up. So it expands sideways, and some of it adds two centimeters more, and then you can roll yourself. Let us develop prāṇa. Lord Krishnānanda said that you will have enough to eat, but I would suggest you consciously avoid at least 25% less. You will meditate better, relax, and regenerate the energy, the prāṇa. In reality, four days ago we decided that next time we would have only breakfast and dinner. In summer it is very hot, and the kitchen people were so sad. They were just sitting here, and 55% of people did not go to eat. I kept announcing, "Please go and eat and come back." True? Yes. So then we decided, "Do you all agree that we do not have lunch?" and everyone said, "Yes." And then there was no lunch today. Ah, the washing, and so on. So, do we live for eating, or do we eat for living? Here, your meditation will be good. According to yoga principles, do not avoid your lunch. Have breakfast, have lunch, but no dinner? You will die. "Krishna lunch"—I need five bodyguards. But if we do not take dinner, you will get up at four o’clock in the morning, not five, and you will look for something. So the best technique, if you want to get up earlier and practice āsanas and meditation—and in the meditation you are not talking to your neighbors, yes, what do you say? Yes, I say. Everyone is sleeping because of Tamas Guṇa. So quit your dinner. The Americans are now making research: quit your dinner, and you will be very healthy. Without trying anything else, your kilos will come back into balance. But our life and routine are like this: after doing so much work, peacefully in the evening you eat with the family and then just lie down. If we eat and then walk two kilometers afterwards, then it is okay. Anyhow, we shall reduce something and take in more prāṇa. We will talk about Prāṇa, and not only Prāṇa, but also Apāna, Samāna, Udāna, Vyāna, etc. But the Prāṇa that develops our spirituality is the Prāṇa, and that is called Prāṇa, the Lord of our prāṇas. So prāṇa is life. Tomorrow morning, everyone should come to the big hall at five o’clock. Get up, go to the bathroom, make yourself fresh, and perform Agni Sakriyā. Then come out and greet the sunrise. Sunrise is about 7 minutes after 5, so you can get up 5 minutes earlier. You need 15 minutes to make yourself fresh—at least wash your hands and mouth. Then, filled with prāṇa, walk through this park so you come between 5 and 5:30 for a nice prayer. After the prayer, the Master has changed the program. We will serve you something—not coffee and tea. Some were thinking, "Oh, coffee comes," but we can serve it. Coffee or tea will be available from 10 to 6 in the morning for five minutes, but nobody wants to drink it earlier. The program is changed: after prayer, there will be āsanas—straight and proper āsanas. All who came for prayer will have āsanas for one hour—proper āsanas, not only sarvāṅgāsana. Okay, that’s it. After that, half an hour or 25 minutes of prāṇāyāma. After prāṇāyāma, a little meditation. Contemplate, then go to your room and get ready for breakfast. After breakfast, the program will continue: meditation, prāṇāyāma, or lectures. Early morning prāṇāyāma or meditation can make you lazy if you are fasting and have had no dinner at all. Then you can meditate in your room, getting up an hour earlier. That is it. We are changing programs to bring more vitality into the body. Prāṇa, prāṇa, okay? Do you know what prāṇa means? Prāṇa is something great. That is why every Indian says praṇām. "Praṇa," you know, praṇām. Yes, so my salutation to your divine energy—praṇām. Prāṇāyāma is very little different. I wish you a very nice day, and I have many good techniques for you. But do not fight for the food, and please be on time. Everything on time. Then we will all be happy. And how happy we will be—very happy. No, John. Aisa kaiye, śītal sāgar nir vivanā, satastanā hely śaṅkan mā samān patrahi. Rāmjī jatāpat śaṅkan mane samān patrahi dinlokī icchanāī. Shankama kya raja Rangkawaji Ramji nahi kisi. Shankamane kya ārajarangavajī pyās parva nairake pravatamke ragambī divāna satguru nāmaka mastānaheli parkīr divāna satguru nāmaka mastānaheli. Samare nai siddh nai pī. Rāmjī jīvatāī muradasam Siddh nāī pī Amī dīpā avadūtā avalīyah Aha vīrānā kavī Dīvānā sattva gurū namah Mastāhelī. For one week, eight days, experience being in the divine world, divine loka—not heaven. Heaven is closed; you cannot go out anymore. Someone said, "Let’s go to heaven. I will bring you without any problem." I said yes, and when should we go out again? They said no, you stay there permanently. So I said no. I want to be in freedom, freedom in the whole universe. Heaven is a closed space because if there is a hell, then there is definitely a heaven. It is also limited because then there is a hill, and after that, what is there? Something more. Therefore, it is said, "Beyond"—beyond everything. This year, the subject for Yoga Day was: "Yoga for body and beyond." That was good. The subject was given by Prime Minister Modi, and look, it was great. One day the workers, the organizers, asked me, "Is this a good name, Swamiji?" I said, "Yes." It means we are not limited—not limited only to the body, or only to my culture, religion, or country. We are beyond, in oneness. Ānandoham ānandam, brahma ānandam—beyond everything. So this seminar, whether for a few days, one week, ten days, or whatever, is divine. Enjoy. No jealousy, no hate, no conflict, no blaming. You know, sometimes a mosquito comes—why not? You are very generous; you get a double meal. Then at least let the mosquito once suck something from you—international blood. So, mosquito, that is great luck. That mosquito has done some good karma sometime, so he or she enjoys international blood: one day Croatian, the next day in the room Slovenian, then Austrian, then Indian. My God, they have a choice—what a menu buffet. So, my dear, enjoy, and I wish you all the best.