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Knowledge is given to give further

True knowledge must be shared, or it is lost. There is only one knowledge with many branches. The best knowledge supports God's original creation, not manipulations that damage the planet. Man-made techniques create dependency, unlike God's perfect gifts given freely. Scriptures preserve knowledge, though some texts, like the Bhagavad Gītā, resist manipulation. The original knowledge is transmitted verbally from master to disciple; if unused, it is forgotten. True dharma is the eternal principle, sanātana dharma, which is harmony with nature. This knowledge is Ātmā Jñāna, knowledge of the Self. It requires slow practice and discipline, not quick attainment. One must give good knowledge further; this is a pious act. Do not spread what you do not truly know. The disciple is nourished by the master's word as by milk. Retain and share correct knowledge patiently.

"Knowledge is meant to be shared. If you do not give it, it will be lost."

"True dharma is sanātana dharma, the eternal principle... live in harmony with nature. If you go against nature, nature will go against you."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Knowledge is meant to be shared. If you do not give it, it will be lost. Knowledge exists to be passed on; otherwise, it perishes with you. There is only one knowledge, but it has many branches. Consider the knowledge of gardening, of agriculture. Every culture is a good culture, it is said, but the best culture is agriculture. If we care for agriculture without manipulating it, it flourishes. Yet today, much development in agriculture is negative. Everything is manipulated; many things are made seedless. And that which is seedless produces no seed. This is a technique to decrease future generations. Often, when a child is born under such conditions, it is born abnormal. What is the use of knowledge that damages this planet, including humanity? Such knowledge is not good knowledge. The best knowledge is that which supports the original creation of God. We have become greedy, wanting only to make more and more business. As some wise men said, when the last tree is cut down and the last fish dies, you will know you cannot eat your money. To a small child, money and newspaper are the same. To fire, they are the same—it will burn both newspaper and paper money. True knowledge is that which has perfection. Too much intellect is harmful; it becomes one-sided and creates negative qualities. The tendency to think "What I say is best, what others say is nonsense" awakens in those who are one-sided. Of course, many modern technological techniques are good, but they have made us dependent. Take air conditioning: it is comfortable, but it costs much money, is not good for the environment or our health, and creates dependency. For one convenience, we damage many things. God-made techniques are perfect; man-made ones are not. God gave us happiness, freedom to think, knowledge, and joy—all without charging any money. He never said, "First pay me, then you can be happy." But if you act wrongly, the joy you experience is lesser. Many scriptures were written to preserve that knowledge, but humans have manipulated even those. However, some texts cannot be manipulated. What is written in Sanskrit, like the Bhagavad Gītā—if you change something, it is immediately apparent it is not the right sentence. It is like a code for your telephone; you cannot open it, but you can destroy it. This destructive tendency exists in people's minds. The best, original knowledge is given verbally, from person to person, from master to disciple. What the Master gives us resides within, but if we do not use it, we lose it even while alive. How? Through forgetfulness. We know, yet we do not know. It is like a song you once sang but have not sung or heard for 20 or 30 years—it is lost. It is like a water well: when we draw water from it, more fresh water comes. If we do not, the water becomes stinky and bacteria develop. These bacteria are like our intellect when not used for true knowledge; we begin to read many things, and it becomes like the bacteria of blackmailing. Therefore, whatever good knowledge you have, give it further. This is what we call puṇya, the pious act. This relates to dharma and adharma. Dharma means piety, not religion. In modern times, religion is a kind of philosophy established by someone, and we call it "my religion," though many aspects may be unacceptable. Dharma is often mistaken for a kind of dogma—some accept it, some do not. But true dharma is sanātana dharma, the eternal principle. We call it the sanātana value. Sanātana means without beginning or end (ādi and anādi); we do not know where it begins or ends. It is the eternal value. What is the sanātana value? For example, a seed is sanātana; it multiplies. This is the sanātana value. Within this, we regain the eternal. But today, we manipulate plants and trees. We graft different fruits onto one tree. Now these fruits lose their seed. There may be a stone, but the inner life that sprouts is gone; this cannot be called sanātana. Your senses, your knowledge—this is a sanātana value. The sun rising and setting, the moon, the seasons—these are sanātana values. Therefore, the Vedas say: live in harmony with nature. If you go against nature, nature will go against you. This value, this knowledge, is Ātmā Jñāna, the knowledge of the Self. It is the best knowledge. But if you think meditating for two or three hours means sitting in darkness, in nothingness, going nowhere, that is not it. True meditation is active; it means developing. There is a master’s knowledge within you. That is sanātana. You will become the master and give the knowledge further, but slowly, slowly. Otherwise, as the saying goes, "The pumpkin is too big for the mouth of the goat." A goat would like to eat a pumpkin, but it is too big. For the camel, the pumpkin is too big. So it is with intellect: if it is too big, you cannot digest or enjoy it. Practice slowly, slowly. It takes time to grow. The Upaniṣads say it takes time for a seed to sprout and become a large tree. If you think you can quickly become a large tree and overtake your master, what is your master? That master is the sanātana value—that is nature. And nature takes time to grow. We plant a seed today and want fruit tomorrow; it is impossible. There is a man living who is 185 years old. He says, "Death has forgotten me." There is another sādhu said to be over 300 years old. To live long in the physical body, you must hold to your origin, the trunk of your tree. Keep to that seed, and though you become a large tree, you remain connected to it. They pray and adore their master. Similarly, you all sitting here, the majority of you would like to give this wisdom. Do not always use the word "love." Nowadays, love has become a little bit sensitive. That is the difference—that value, that wisdom, that blessing, that kindness, that mercy, that divinity. That is the Vākya, the Guru Vākya. As long as you do not realize that you can give the blessing, and you only use the word "love," you are still at a lower level of consciousness. The wisdom you have, the mercy, the kindness, the humbleness, the knowledge you give freely—that is the love of God. That is the cosmic value, the divinity, the everlasting. It takes time to achieve. If you think, "I became a Sannyāsī today, and in one month I will be the best holy person in the world," you are mistaken. A uniform does not change you. For a long and hard time, you must undergo tapasyā. You must withdraw all ambitions and desires. Do not think, "Now I am free," or you become a wild bush. A bush is also good, but it is a thorny bush. When you walk by, the thorns are like hooks that stick to your dress or skin. There is a beautiful poem, the meaning of which I remember. It is called lālī, meaning redness. When a cherry is ripe, it is a beautiful dark red—that is lālī. The whole tree becomes red. Most berries, except blueberries, turn red when ripe. There is a beautiful bush that grows wild, with different hooks and thorns. When you go in, it holds you; when you come out, it holds you on the other side because it loves you. In the very middle of that bush, there is a beautiful red fruit. The bird thinks, "This is a ripe fruit." The early bird finds the first ripe cherry. I correct myself: do not say "finds the first worm," as that is hiṁsā (violence). To say "flies to the cherry" is ahiṁsā (non-violence), even in poetry. That fruit is so beautiful it tempts you. You must also be ripe to understand that knowledge. Explore that knowledge. Explore your abilities. But remember how hard it was in the mother’s lap and in the mother’s womb. Children always think, "When I am grown up, I will know better than my parents. When I am 18, I will have my driving license and do what I want." The child does not want to sleep, but the mother puts him to bed. And when we get old? Oh, my dear, you begin to grow old in your mother’s womb. This Jīvātmā, which enters the mother’s womb, begins to age from that day. When you are born, you are nine months old. Would you want to be born in one month? This is to understand, disciple. Do not think you will be immediately free, possessing all knowledge and abilities. "I can do it, don’t worry," but not now. You can think and explore with your intellect your whole life, but you will not gain anything. You can work with the intellect, but you will not attain. Aṣṭāṅga yoga requires anuśāsana, discipline. Listen, listen. Follow, follow, follow your master. One day it will come. These days will pass, but they will become a legend for you, a part of your knowledge to give as an example to others. Therefore, guru vākya. Guru kṛpā hi kevalam—only the guru’s grace. Śiṣye ke ānanda maṅgalam—for the disciple, there is divine happiness. Therefore, mokṣa mūlaṁ guru vākya. Mantra mūlam guru ākhyā—the words of the Gurudev are for you the highest mantra. In that wild bush, the beautiful little fruit is a temptation for the birds, but the bush has such thick branches and thorns they cannot enter. One bird tried to enter—that is temptation, full of expectation and joy. "I will enjoy that nice, red, beautiful berry." The bird tries to go in and touches the fruit with its beak. The fruit breaks open. Inside is only, as they say in German, altweiber sommer—a kind of flower. When the hot summer sun comes, it just flies away. A very tiny seed is inside, surrounded by little feathers. As the bird tried to catch the fruit, the skin opened and the seeds flew away. Sour and sweet, but I enjoyed nothing. Everything in the mouth wanted to go back, stuck in the thorns. What kind of bush is useful for the bird? When you go too far too quickly with expectation and ambition—"I will," "I can," "I will enjoy"—expectation leads to disappointment. So, check your knowledge. Are you now perfect? Then give it further. Do not keep it. When a baby is born, the mother’s love immediately produces milk. The father does not. This is a speciality, so the mother is one level higher than the father. But the father is okay. If the mother does not breastfeed the child, the milk will go away. Many women have no milk because that mother’s love was missing. When the baby is hungry, the mother takes it in her lap, and immediately she has milk in her breast—whether human or animal. How does this produce milk? Which glands are there? The mother gives everything—all proteins, minerals, nutrition. That child grows healthy and happy. That mother’s milk is guruvākya. The student is nourished by this guruvākya. That is called knowledge. There is one milk from the mother: mātr̥kā. The second milk is from the cow: gavīkā. "Cow" means all milky animals—rabbit, goat, any animal that gives birth. The third milk is vanrajīkā. Vanraj means nature—coconut milk, any fruit milk, all nature’s milk. And what is the fourth milk? We have taken three: mother’s milk, animal’s milk, and vegetation milk. The fourth one is that knowledge itself. And that is Guruvakya. Through that, the disciple is nourished and grows spiritually. You know how much I try. I am not struggling, but I do my best because I have a lot of milk. My dairy is so big it can nourish millions of disciples, and still there is more than enough. If I did not give lectures, if I were just proud of my intellect, my milk would dry up. The baby would come to the breast and be disappointed. So, you are that one. You should give your knowledge further. You gain that knowledge through Yoga in Daily Life. That is what I always say in our yoga teacher training. Physically, we may not be able to do everything, but the knowledge is here. I know of a good family in England, London. They are an Indian family who immigrated from India to Africa, then to England. They had a grandmother who passed away. Her grandchildren and children are all educated. She could not even write one alphabet, but whenever they needed to know a telephone number or a friend’s number, they asked her, "Grandmother, do you remember the number?" This lady was over 90, and she would say, "Yes, five, six, eight..." and so on. Her memory was brilliant because she did not write numbers down. Today, our situation is different. Someone joked: if you do not have anything in your brain, it does not matter—you have a telephone in your hand. But if it is stolen, then what? Try to retain as much as you can. The best knowledge of your yoga āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, and our system is very simple and very effective. You should be proud of it. How much knowledge do you receive every day? Spread this knowledge further. But if you do not know, do not spread wrong knowledge. Think over what you write, what you speak, and what you teach. Otherwise, you close your eyes and think according to your own thoughts, which may guide you somewhere else. That is why we have these lectures—they are training for you, a giving of knowledge. With such examples, do not think I am always sitting in my room with a few people. They have a hard time because they think I am only seeing and listening to them. But my Śruti (hearing) is somewhere else; it is not here. Therefore, you should all begin to teach Yoga in Daily Life, wherever you are. Correctly. Even if you have five students, by the end of the year they may become 25, 15, or 10. Slowly, slowly. Therefore, phirma milenge... So tomorrow again, at the same time, webcast blessings to all bhaktas around the world.

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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