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Praṇām Swāmījī. I have heard you say before that when we have a Guru Mantra, we should always use the Guru Mantra. Sometimes I find my mantra actually makes me more agitated rather than relaxed, and when I use So’haṁ, then it relaxes me. Could you speak a little more about when it’s appropriate, or should I just keep going with the other one, the Guru Mantra? Thank you. Well, the question is very good, and many people ask me such a question: should we always use our guru mantra? My question is back: why did you take a guru mantra? And why did Gurudev give you such a beautiful mantra? So, if you feel that you are more intense when you repeat the mantra in meditation, it means you have not practiced enough. Let’s say there is one song, and the song is longer than the mantra. When the person is singing a nice, beautiful melody with instruments, then it makes the person very happy who is singing him or herself. Because that is a practice. You should know the meaning of your Guru Mantra. And when you know what it means, then you will always repeat only that movement. It must not be that you have to repeat 20 times in one minute or 50 times in one minute. It can be one time in one minute, but it should flow very gently. And your heart and your brain are harmonized together and united because you know what it means. For example, you are in a very critical situation and you make a phone call to the emergency, fire brigade, or whatever it is, doctor or ambulance. Then you tell them, "I am here in such and such situation at this and this place, please immediately come and help me." If you tell, "I am here, immediately come," what does it do? It’s half. "I am here, this and this place, this happened, please immediately come." Okay? Therefore, if your mantra is longer, it means a clearer meaning is there. And this meaning should give an alarm to your heart, that yes, this is a savior for my life’s secret. It doesn’t matter when and where. When there are troubles, everyone remembers God. And when it is a very happy time, eating, drinking, dancing, nobody thinks of God. But it is said, when you remember God even in very happy times, then troubles will not happen. Therefore, especially when you meditate and you are in such a Kriyānushṭhān retreat, then you should utilize your mantra. There is a time for the mantra So’haṁ, for prāṇāyāma. Or if the master gives you only the mantra "So’haṁ," then you will not be satisfied. So’haṁ means, "I am that, that I am. I am here." Now, how should they know where you are? "I am here, here I am." Excuse me, what? So this is the situation. In the morning also, people should repeat the Gāyatrī Mantra five times or ten times. Some people are repeating the Gāyatrī Mantra 108 times because their master gave them the Gāyatrī Mantra. Now, the Gāyatrī Mantra is long. Beginners will take the book... It takes time in the whole, but it has deep meanings, and your Master gave this, and it is a completeness. Or someone repeats, "Oh, the life, where the life, there is change." Now, first of all, we should follow the cycle of nature according to the season. We should harmonize our life with nature; we should not go against nature. Since this modern technology, equipment, facilities, transportation, and so on, humanity has lost 80% of its natural rhythm. We eat what we should eat in the winter, and we eat what we should eat in the summer. The fruits and vegetables and things which are available in a particular season, but now humans try to preserve them in a cool room, a cool store. And eat them in a different season, which is not good for the body. Sometimes, certain vegetables and fruits we can preserve. So, what we do, this is also a kriyā. So creation means the Kriyā, and we are created by that one creator. So similarly, you, as one human, create positive or negative creation in your body, in your mind, in your consciousness. According to the Kriyā, the word, for example, breathing in and out, is also Kriyā. Ascending, descending breath, what’s happening, something through your being is a Kriyā. Going into the bathroom and washing yourself is a kriyā. Even going to the toilet, passing stool and urine, that’s also a kriyā happening in your body. And if this will not happen, you will die. Suppose you can’t pass urine. You drank a lot of liquid, no hospitals near, what are you going to do? The best thing is to go and sit in a sauna, yeah? So you are sweating and sweating. So every Kriyā, God has thought very nicely about what to do and how to do it. Blood circulation in the body is Rakta Sañcār Kriyā. The circulation of the blood is Kriyā happening in your body. Digestion, pachanakriyā, it’s called pachanakriyā, the digestion. So the digestive system, digestion is called a kriyā. The function of the kidneys, function of the liver, gallbladder, heart, and so on is also a kriyā. The motoric movements in the body that are happening are also a kriyā. So, cooking is a kriyā, offering to God after cooking, that’s also a kriyā, a beautiful kriyā. Om Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahmāvi Brahmāgno Brahmaṇahutaṁ Brahmaivate Nigantavya Brahma Karma Samādhinah. I offer to the Brahman, the Supreme. I give the havi in this fire of the Brahman, that’s called digestive fire. Brahmāgno, Brahmanahutam, in this fire of the Brahman, I offer this. Brahma eva tena gantavyam, and that should lead us there. Brahma karma samādhinah, and these all karmas that I do, kriyās, should lead me to the samādhi. Samādhi means complete self-realization, where the knowledge, knower, and object, the three merge into oneness. Eating is kriyā, cooking is kriyā, walking is kriyā, hearing is a kriyā, talking is a kriyā, smelling is a kriyā, thinking is kriyā, and not thinking is also a control over the kriyā. So, we are a bundle of the Kriyā, and when these Kriyās will stop, then we call in India, "Rāmnām Sath Hai," or "Khet Giyo Gāth Hai." All truth is God’s name. The body is mortal, Hari Om. Put it in the fire or under the earth, burning. Then, these Chetan Kriyās are not there. Then the different kriyās begin in the body. Yamunā, I am talking this side. If you want to look and talk to them there, then you can go there. Then, different kriyās begin in the body. Still, there is a kind of prāṇa inside, and it helps to dissolve and separate all the different elements into their origins. That is also kriyā. So after what is so-called death, or when we go out of the body, the kriyā also happens. The flow of the energy in the body, the turning of our chakras, or the activity of our chakras, the hidden energy there to awaken, that’s also a Kriyā. Some kriyās are good, which we do in our life, and some kriyās are not good. So here you can say Kriyā means karma. Good karma has a very good result. Negative karma has a negative result. If we put the seeds of a thorny bush, and then we expect cherries from that, they will not come. Don’t be disappointed. You say, "Why?" Three is three. It doesn’t matter which seed I put. I want to have cherries out of it. He said, "No, you can have thorns, not cherries." So, jaisā karegā, vaisā bharegā. What you are doing, that you will get back. And so there is kriyā, practicing āsanas, prāṇāyāms, and then one special department or branch of yoga is called haṭha yoga. And haṭha yoga has got six kriyās. That’s called ṣaṭ-kriyā. Āsanas, prāṇāyāms, what you are doing is not a haṭha yoga, but in the West people call it haṭha yoga. Okay, new name created. But if you are a yogī and you know the yoga philosophy and everything, then haṭha yoga is completely different than what you are doing here. So haṭha yoga is known as the ṣaṭ kriyās, six different kriyās for the benefit of our good health, for purification of the body, and for developing concentration and preparing the body for the higher study of yoga or achievement in life. In Ayurveda, they call it pañca-karma, five kriyās. So the word kriyā means that you are doing something. Fruits will be given to you accordingly. Because every action has a reaction, and every reaction has an action. And every action will have a reaction. Now, we don’t know how to put this motoric process, but it’s happening. Then there are spiritual kriyās. Practicing mantra is also a kriyā. Now, when we practice kriyā, then there is the body. Without the body, we cannot do it. Kriyā happening from the first day when mother and father came together. From that time, your kriyās begin. Then the process: nine months in the mother’s body, then the birth, and six saṃskāras. The human should have six different kinds of initiation saṃskāras, that’s called the kriyās, to liberate the human consciousness from this worldly saṃsāra and bandhan from the attachment, moha, and so on. There are sixteen, sixteen kriyās. Did I say six or sixteen? Sorry, sixteen. Ṣoḍaśa saṃskāra. And the last saṃskāra is called antyeṣṭi kriyā, the funeral. And marriage is a kriyā. Birth, marriage, and funeral: three things people celebrate now. Rest is gone. Janam, paran, maraṇ. Birth, marriage, death. Hari Om. Between very beautiful difference which liberates the human consciousness, that we have forgotten. So, the birth of this human body is very special, very divine. Then the breath, not only the humans are breathing, but the entire planet is breathing, all creatures. After the breath, there are some mudrās. Mudras, bandhas, yantras, mandalas, and mantras. Yantra, mantra, maṇḍalas, mudrās, bandhas. So mudrās means the particular posture or controlling of particular parts of the body, stomach muscles, jālandhara bandha, mūla bandha, uḍḍīyāna bandha, and so on. So now we come to the body, then we come to the breath, and now we come to the mudrās. And mudrās have a very beautiful effect on our body, mind, and consciousness. Mudras also function like a mantra. Mudras can create a divine atmosphere within no time. Like this morning, I told you that mantras can create a divine atmosphere or a negative, bad atmosphere. You remember? Forgotten. Who doesn’t remember, so I can repeat quickly. Hand up, at least someone. That’s good, always, you know. Thanks to them, that they help others. The many have forgotten, but they don’t dare to raise a hand up. The kind words, saying, "Dear sir," create a good atmosphere, and saying, "Stupid one," creates a negative atmosphere. Similarly, there are mudrās which create a good atmosphere. You say, "Good morning, sir." You know, this is a mudrā, prayer mudrā, and humbleness. "Good morning, sir," instead of saying, "Ah, bloody, bloody one, my God, no?" Good? Though in the Maori culture, the tangi has some different meanings, but don’t tell so everywhere, and don’t show them in different situations. You see how it creates? Within no time, good feeling, friendship, love, harmony, divine, or it makes you an enemy, puts you in trouble, and whatnot. Maybe sometimes they will hold your tongue and pull a little more out; that happens. So don’t show the tongue except to the doctor, and when the doctor asks you, that’s that. So mudrās, different mudrās. And mudra of the eyes, mudra of the eyebrows, mudra of the face, smiling, everything, indication. Mudras were used as a language, and so the ancient dances, like Bharata Nāṭya dance and many Indian classical dances, they are not a dance. This is a mudra, a language, how the dancer is dancing, and about Gaṇeśa, no? The gajas like this, the trunk of the Gaṇeśas. Once I saw a documentary film from Africa, and how the Africans are telling children stories, only with the showing the mudras, how the giraffe goes, and how that bird goes, and how the cobra is, you know? So when we do like this, you know, it’s a cobra, no? And when you do like this, what is that? The king’s room. So, again, the mudras are the language. Movement is a language or indication. When we say yes, we move the head like this. And we say no, we move like this. And there are some countries where they say yes, they say no, like this. And when they say no, they say it like this. I think it’s in Romania, Bulgaria, these countries. Yes? And to say yes or no is not easy. The man is the head. Man is the head, deciding the intellect, the brain. And women are below the man, is the neck. Man decides, but to say yes or no, if the neck allows, you can say. So, women are the greater. They have complete control over the man’s functions. If Nāik allows, you can say yes. And if naïka doesn’t allow you to say no, you cannot say no or yes. And when nature doesn’t allow, then you say yes. So, thanks to the women that we are flexible. Thank you. Again, they are great ones, well, kriyās, the mudrās. So, body, first of the body. Then comes the posture. In which posture should we sit? That is śayānāsana. Śayānāsana means sleeping posture. How beautiful. Chāyana āsana. So walking, sitting. Every Kriyā has a different posture, maybe. Body, the breath, then mudrās, then bandha to tighten, hold energy, and then release. And mantra, now comes the mantra, and then concentration on that. This all together makes one spiritual kriyā. And when you do these kriyās every day, according to the Master who gives them to you, surely you will have enlightenment, you will have self-realization. But not before the last minutes of life. Don’t celebrate the day too early. Yes? Because you can have a feeling, you will be sure that you have the realization, you are liberated, you have guru-kṛpā. But who knows how your destiny in this life will change completely in another direction. Everything that you have collected is lost. The negative way of life loses everything. It is said, O my mind, you did not guard your field. The birds have eaten all the crops. So you did not guard your spiritual field. The negative qualities are the gushing-up societies; birds took all your harvesting, what you wanted to harvest, all the grains. You went for harvesting there, there is nothing, again empty. So, plant a spiritual garden, guard your garden, take care, then the time will come you can harvest. And that is a beautiful time of the last months, years, days, and minutes of life. Then we will all remember forever and pray to that master or that divine one. And that one will become a person for us, which is called an inspirator or a guide, a path, an indication. So we put a shield or a sign on the road: Dungong, Yoga and Real Life Ashram, Sydney, Anandal, Yoga and Ashram. And there is another road, Brisbane, Yoga and Real Life Ashram. All the four corners, roads, there is a signboard: Sydney, Brisbane, Dungong, and so on. So now this person became a leading power for us, an indication showing the path, but how to go? That we have to take a journey, walking, riding on horseback, donkeyback, car, biking, Hawaii, aeroplane, and so on. So, when you have these kriyās given by a Satguru, otherwise the chakras will not open, that energy will not function. You must have that touch of the living master; that’s why the living, living. Āsanas, prāṇāyāma, it doesn’t matter, boys and girls do it. You can jump in the water, you can jump from the tree, okay. Twist your body to the right side and pull your leg to the left side, okay. That is a, but also for that you need a master to train you how to do it. Otherwise, very soon, you will end up at the orthopedic hospital. But when you come to the point of the kriyā anuṣṭhān, then we need the presence of that master in our heart and physically too. That master has personally blessed us and gave. Then it is with you. One touch, the Master has done, lifelong this energy will circulate in your body. Like once, there are, for example, not like this, but there is a certain vaccination. You take a small needle vaccination, and for five years, you are protected from something. So, some people are pro-vaccination, some are not. I am not talking about this as an example. So, when once the Master physically, with the blessed hand, touches, then that energy is multiplying in you, spirituality is there. When the negative energy attacks you, and negative energy comes nearer, it sees that you are the person doing this and that. And when the negative comes nearer, then the Master is sitting inside, right? Energy goes away again, negative. How? Outside is completely darkness. Windows, doors, and curtains are closed; outside, there is darkness. And inside, both lights are on. You are opening your door, and darkness would like to come in. Darkness comes near the door. There is light. Darkness cannot enter in. Darkness remains outside. Similarly, Guru Kṛpā, Gurudev’s energy, mantra energy, with you, then your Kriyā is successful. Otherwise, go ahead, do Aum, Aum,... and then Aum, Aum,... and then Hum, Hum, Hum. So, that is without life inside. So, Kriyānushṭhān, different Kriyās, what you are doing here, is a preparation. Our Śukadeva Purī, our ashram’s great karma yogī, has been doing in Jadan Ashram for many, many years. He did hard work in Karmayoga, in Khattu, in Kailash, in Nepal, in Bola Guda. And now he came to Australia and is taking care of the Dangog Ashram. He looks really like a bushman, you know. So the people will not recognize who is smiling now with the nice long hair, because now he follows Ahiṃsā. Even he doesn’t cut hair. He doesn’t save the hair, so this is how we can do something, surrender something, preparation. So he is preparing this all, beautiful this ground, and taking care of the trees and plants and grass and vegetables and everything. And now we came here for the kriyānuṣṭhān, and we feel beautiful. Wow, such a beautiful nature, untouched nature. Beautiful view. Oh, so beautiful snakes, they are going in the grass, forest inside. In cut grass, the snake said, "Yogīs, you should be there." So this kriyā, what are you doing? Preparing your inner field, then one day you will get another beautiful kriyā that should be practiced lifelong. Ānanda ho jāyegā. There will be bliss and bliss. Ānandoham, ānandoham, ānandam brahmānandam. I am bliss, I am bliss. Bliss am I, I am bliss. That’s it. So, that will come. So, thank you for nicely asking the question. It’s exactly...