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You know what is Śambhu? Come, tell me. But you know what is Śambhu? Svayaṁbhū. The word Śambhu is a slight dialect. Svayaṁbhū. Svayaṁbhū means? Self-made. That could also be. He who manifested himself, who has no mother, no father—he is the first one. He is that Oṁkāra. The Vedas say it: Nādarūpa Parabrahma. If you want to know what Parabrahma is, it is that resonance: Akāra, Ukāra, Makāra—these three, A, U, M—Oṁ. That Nādabindu, that Bindu means a dot. It begins, or it resonates from the center of the universe. There, out of that sound, comes the light: Jīvana Jyoti, Jīvana Jyoti. The light of life, the flame of life, then appears: Śiva, Śreyā, Bhū, bhajans—whatever we sing. It is the essence of the Vedas and Upaniṣads and the knowledge, the wisdom of the Ṛṣis. Yoga is good, but what we do—āsanas and prāṇāyāmas, concentration—this is more on the physical level. It keeps the body healthy, the mind concentrated and relaxed. They are anti-stress techniques. But finally, we have to go through that science of spirituality in which we can learn something. We have to surrender, and we have to achieve that level of our conscious awareness. What Sūradāsa said: "Prabhujī, mere avaguṇa chitnā dharo. O God, please do not notice my mistakes, because you are the equal-visioned one." Gandhiji said, "We hate the sin, but not the sinner." This is coming from Sūradāsa. "Oh Lord, if it is your will, you will let me cross the ocean of ignorance." Moment. First he sings, then you. Or he will be silent, and you sing. So he will always repeat twice. First he will chant alone, and then we will chant together. Then he will sing again alone, and then we will sing. We will follow him. So be a follower, okay? Don’t fall over. Now, the Soviets will not be able to hear it. I’m sorry. Bādhika pāryo, Sgūna bhagūna nāhi, citta vāta Kancha nākārata karo. Nācitta nādharo, Sama darshiye nama ti haro. Elohi nirabharo, Javamil ga ek bara nabaye, Surshari nama paryo. God bless you. Mere bhava guṇa cittana dhāro Samadarśīye nāma ti hāro, Samadarśīye nāma ti hāro, Jahe to para karo. Mere bhava guṇa cittana dhāro, Cittana dhāro. So, the practice of the āsanas, the practice of prāṇāyāma, the practice of relaxation—this is balancing our body, mind, and our concentration. It is true. It is said, health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health. So if we want to achieve mokṣa, then this jīvātmā, the soul, has to be in the human body. There is no difference in the jīva between humans or other creatures, but fortunate, blessed is that jīva which manifests in a human body. Though this body is also mortal, the mortal body. But still, the jīva could achieve that mokṣa through the qualities of the humans, to work on their past karmas. It is not easy to complete or purify the karmas in one life. Janam janam, anek janam dhoye man ko chittai ho to aisi ho, Amar ho jisko khane se mithāī ho, to aisī ho. Phatade man visyon se khatai ho to aisi ho. Anek janam dhoye man ko chittai ho to aisi ho, the spot of the impurities. Impurities of what we call the negative activities, karma. And it is on the level of the consciousness that affects the jīva. It’s one after another, layer upon layer of action, the karmas. Where there is action, there is a reaction. And reactions have actions. So we take both kinds of karma upon us: our action and our reaction. How long will we work to purify our karma? In just these few decades, our life is not enough. And now, in this modern world, in this kind of culture, which is developing as a Kali Yuga, day by day we take more pollution, different kinds of pollution. But the pollution of the desires, many different kinds of desires, many, many desires, which are physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, etc. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and other social desires. Therefore, the ṛṣi surrenders: "Śūdra-jī, now I can’t manage myself. Only if by Thy mercy, O Lord, You can liberate me." But in this human body, we have to come and do something. So, āsanas and prāṇāyāmas balance our body and balance the five tattvas. But there we need again the discipline. That’s why Patañjali puts it right first in the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra: "Atha yoga anuśāsanam." Yoga begins with discipline, anuśāsanam. Why didn’t he say yoga begins with anuśāsanam? Why did he say "atha"? And "atha" means just now. So don’t think, "Tomorrow I will begin my yoga exercise. Tomorrow I will do my sādhanā." Who has seen tomorrow? In India, sometimes people write in a small village shop, "Today, pay cash. Tomorrow, you can borrow." So, what comes the next day? Again, say today. So there are only two days of life, only two days. One day was yesterday, and the second is today. No one can and have seen tomorrow. Tomorrow is like a horizon: the closer you go, the farther the horizon moves. Therefore, this mortal body and human thoughts cannot achieve that level of the higher consciousness. So, spirituality means purity, crystal clear: physical, mental, social, spiritual purity. So the second point comes: the nourishment, sāttvic nourishment according to Āyurveda. Every word which is given in the Vedas or in Sanskrit is very scientific. And so Veda, what is Veda? Just that knowledge, Āyurveda. So the knowledge of life. What means the knowledge of life? To balance and keep a healthy life, there are three principles: nourishment, movement, and discipline. These three can balance our life, keep our body healthy, and prolong our life. But it doesn’t matter how long your life will be. Have you worked spiritually, something inside? So, Patañjali said first, "Atha yogānuśāsanam"—not tomorrow, just now. But further, he said, "But though you will have a discipline in everything, you have to have the control of the mind and thoughts: Citta vṛtti nirodha." The vṛtti, the vṛtti is something that makes us happy or unhappy. Now we are sitting, and everyone has a different vṛtti. Maybe someone is talking mentally with someone, imagining someone, remembering someone, or thinking about the business, the families, etc., etc., or many other vṛttis. So vṛtti is a mighty energy in our body. That vṛtti can change our entire way of life. So, "citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ." Therefore, citta is the consciousness. In our awareness, in our consciousness, which kind of waves of thoughts are moving? That will be effective in our life. Therefore, śuddha vṛtti, sāttvic vṛtti. So in Āyurveda this is the sāttvic nourishment. So yoga and Āyurveda, these are the two wings to fly for this Jīvātmā to the Brahmaloka. So our great ancestors, the ṛṣis and saints, they put the essence of knowledge and sādhanā in the form of poems, or what we call bhajans. And the poem we call Doha. Doha means two. Where there’s a question and answer, both. And sometimes the answer is in yogic language. Often we don’t understand. But for that we need a brahmajñānī, one who understands, who sits near the master. What we call the Upaniṣad. "Up" means near, and "ṣad" means a disciple. Those disciples who are sitting near the holy feet of the Master and then learning that Brahmajñāna, then it is said that vairāgya comes. So God, it is said, Abuhamma have got that test. Those experiences, so the worldly things have no appetite for this. So these bhajans that we sing, they give us inspiration and clarity, and we begin to do our sādhanā. But again, without yoga. But yoga is not āsanas and prāṇāyāmas. Yoga is divine. Therefore, it is said, "Yoga karmasu kauśalam," the Bhagavad Gītā said. So your yoga sādhanā will be successful while doing seva, niṣkāma, the selfless service. If you give something to someone, if you give your friend a present, that is a selfless gift. But after a few years, that friend is not your friend, and you will say, "Remember, I gave you something, and you were not thankful at all." That means your gift was not selfless. When you give, you have no more right to take back. And if you ask to take back, that karma will be very hard for you. So, renunciation: enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice. So we shall learn to sacrifice. Gurujī said, "Enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice." So then peace and bliss result from the satsaṅg. This is holy Gurujī’s words. Peace and bliss that we can only get through the satsaṅg. There are two paths, two directions in human life: Utthāna and Pātana. Utthāna means achievement, development, progress. And pātana is disaster, destruction. If someone begins to have the company of people who are abusing a lot of drugs, then you see, maybe that person has a good heart, there is nothing to do, but life is destroyed. And Pātana and Utthāna, these are two leaves of one seed, when the seed is sprouting. So the root is in one, and that is called Saṅgha. With whom are you living? Society. With which kind of people are you living? So that Saṅgha, it is a... what kind of community you will have, that kind of habit, a color you will take. Which kind of food you eat, like that your thinking will be. And what kind of liquid you drink, like that you will speak. So Āyurveda says sāttvik. Now, the saṅgha, there is only one point, one place. So if we put one word before the Saṅgha, we write "Ku." Ku Saṅgha. Bad society. That will destroy your whole life. Or we write before Saṅgha a "Sat." Sat means the truth. So it becomes Satsaṅg. So through the satsaṅg we achieve our highest level of consciousness. And maybe this is the last life. We will come to the Brahmaloka. So, yoga is the essence, is the knowledge in the words and teachings of the masters. So today is Śivarātri, we are celebrating. We will have an evening talk again, something, bhajans of Alakpurījī and Śiva’s bhajan and āratī. But as Kṛṣṇānandajī said to us, we will have a very dear guest. He’s representing India, you know. According to modern politics now, when someone comes from the embassy, it means the whole of India is here today. So may our Excellency the Ambassador and our whole embassy family come. Today we have here with us our very dear friend and brother, Vijaya Khanduja, and we welcome him. Also, our dear ambassador was here, the culture attaché was here last time, and this time our first secretary is here. He took his precious time and came, so I think the floor is his now. He will give us some good ideas, a good message about India and everything, and yoga and yoga in their life. So, Vijayjī, the floor is yours. Namaskāra. How are you? Good morning, I wish you a good day. Thank you very much, Swamījī. It’s a pleasure for me to be here to represent the embassy. Ambassador Mr. Rahul Chhabra sends his greetings. He personally could not be here. He had been with you last year, I believe. But it’s a pleasure to be amongst all these divine souls, and on a day which is being celebrated, which is an auspicious day according to India, the Mahāśivarātri. You know, Lord Śiva is also known as Lord Maheśvara. So for me to be personally here amongst these celebrations is like celebrating with the divinity himself. Guru Maheśvarānandajī, to be honest, I am in a quandary. I don’t know what to speak to you. You are all so divine. You have all been following. You have been close to Gurujī. It’s the first time I am meeting him. You have the encyclopedia of knowledge actually in front of you, and I am impressed you are making good use of it. Frankly, I should have come and sat there and taken knowledge, but now that I am representing the Embassy, the Honorable Ambassador, and the Government of India, it is my duty to have some musings, some thoughts, and exchanges with you. So let me begin with something mundane, what we do in our everyday life. You, of course, are more elevated; you are doing much more. The job of the embassy is to have good exchanges at all political levels and to ensure that there is no friction in the relationship, so the relationship stays friendly. Those of you who have been following the developments know that last year was a very important year. We had a very high-level visit. The honorable Vice President of India visited Hungary. We, of course, had the visit of a culture minister from India, and the foreign minister from here also went to India. In the economic and commercial field, we have a lot of investments here; we have a lot of trading relationships. We have good educational exchanges. The government of India gives scholarships to Hungarian nationals, and Hungary gives scholarships to Indian nationals. But I think one of the most important aspects of the relationship is the people-to-people contact, the cultural part. As Kṛṣṇānandajī mentioned, we celebrated International Day of Yoga in the last two years. We celebrated, in fact, in ten cities, not just the International Day of Yoga but also the cultural festival. We named it the Ganga Danube Cultural Festival. And we hope to continue celebrating it in many more cities. But these are not the ones of organizations or events which make the difference. They provide an idea to the people who have not come in touch with Indian culture as to what Indian culture is. It’s like the organizations that, you know, like Yoga in Daily Life and other organizations which are present, which work day in and day out to represent Indian culture, which make the difference. So, to that extent, Parampūjya Gurujī, all of you, you represent Indian culture. You are the ambassadors of India more than what we represent in the Indian embassy. In India, in the ancient days, the knowledge used to be imparted in the same way in which it is being imparted here. It used to be called Guru-Śiṣya Paramparā. As a small child, the child would be sent to the Guru. And he would attain, or she would attain, knowledge not just in spiritual matters but also in worldly matters. All the subjects, whether mathematics, sciences, or chemistry, they would also be taught. It would begin with, "What is this? What is external?" but would also include... Who am I? The journey inside. So it was a very holistic arrangement. It was not just education devoid of morality. And no wonder India was at its glory at that time. Gradually, of course, we had the Middle Ages when the civilization declined a little. We had governments represented by different religions who did not respect and value what traditional knowledge we had, so the prestigious universities that had come into being in India, Takshila University, Nalanda University, they all faced decline. Our holy books were destroyed. Knowledge declined. We also had the period when the British ruled us. This also didn’t help because the focus was only on the education about the outside world, so while we produced engineers and doctors, this education has been continuing since that time. The disastrous effects were also visible. Education divides morality, the basis, the values; it leads to corruption and all sorts of negative tendencies. However, this knowledge could never be destroyed completely. There were many religious and spiritual organizations which kept working. And this was centuries-old knowledge which had come down to us, so it was ingrained in our psyche. After independence, it came out in the open again. And gradually, there has been more and more awareness about it. The present government is doing a lot to revive all this traditional, ancient knowledge. You are aware that the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in his very first address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, proposed that there should be an international day of yoga. So, that’s how, and this was very enthusiastically adopted by the world community. I think it was one resolution which was adopted in a record number of days and supported by a record number of countries. So, this means the world itself had been seeking to have this. There has been awareness all over the world about Indian knowledge and culture. And again, thanks to the effort of organizations such as Yoga in Daily Life and Swamījī, Hungary itself has something like 200 yoga schools. So that makes our task much easier. It’s because of the awareness about Indian culture that we have a good friendship with Hungary. We are working with the government of Hungary to have recognition of Āyurveda done at an early date. During the visit of the Vice President of India, the matter was taken up at the highest level. And there was an immediate positive response from the government, from the Prime Minister of Hungary himself. I am also glad to announce that just about a month ago, the University of Miskolc announced that they are starting a two-year program in Āyurveda for doctors and other medical practitioners. We have created a chair of Āyurveda at the University of Debrecen. And there is a proposal to have a European Institute of Ayurvedic Sciences established, very much in Hungary. So, all these, as far as we in the government are concerned, are little efforts that we can make. Some of you may have been aware that in India we have created a separate ministry called the Ministry of Āyush. AYUSH stands for Āyurveda, Yoga, Yūnānī, Siddha, and Homeopathy. So, all those traditional systems that we had in India are sought to be revived. There is a lot of support for all these programs, not just in India but all over the world. The government of Switzerland has also recognized Āyurveda, in fact, in its complete entirety in Europe. And we hope that this would be an example for other countries in Europe to also recognize it. So the effort has to be both ways. One is the worldly effort, and one is the internal spiritual effort—the message that Gurujī is propagating. The message has to reach everybody. People are waiting for it. They want to get rid of negative tendencies, but they don’t know how. You would be aware that the word guru itself consists of two basic root words of Sanskrit. "Gu" means darkness, and "ru" means light. So guru is the one who brings you from darkness to light. You know, the sun is shining beautifully today. Shutanap. The sun is not shining. But suppose if there were walls all around us. Would we know whether there is sun or not? We won’t know. It’s only through glass, through a window, through a door, that the light comes in. That is the role the Guru plays. The Guru makes us aware of the innate unity, the divinity that exists all around us. Otherwise, we don’t treat anybody as a human being. Not just others, we don’t have respect even for ourselves. But when the divinity dawns, when the awareness comes, then we elevate even a stone to the level of God. This is what all of you have to do. You have to become a guru to somebody, bring somebody to the path so that this awareness dawns and the negativity goes. We develop respect for each other and for each country. Unless everybody is happy in society, we cannot be happy. It’s one individual who does not have peace inside; he creates violence in the entire society. You know, we think we are different. We take care of only those things which we consider our own, personal. If we think, you know, we have one family, one child, we think he is my child. We take care of him. We take care of our brothers and sisters because we add that "my" to it: my brother, my sister. My parents, my organization. When we expand that "my" to include the whole world, then we take care of the whole world. In India, there was in ancient days a beautiful saying called Vasudhaiva Kuṭumbakam. India always treated the whole world as one family. And it was not just a concept; it’s not something which is, you know, a concept devoid of reality. This is the reality. When we wake up, we know this is the reality. A disturbance in one part of the world creates a disturbance in the other part of the world. If there is an economic downturn in one part, there is an economic downturn in the other part. So we cannot just seal our borders, lock our houses, and think that we are secure. If we really want to be secure and happy, we have to spread this peace and happiness to everybody around us. In fact, the Śiva Tattva—today we are celebrating Mahāśivarātri. The Śiva Tattva itself means the eternal energy that has been present, or that is present, in all of us. So we just have to make others become aware of this Śiva Tattva, so that we all treat each other as one family and there is no duality, no two. With once again my greetings to all of you and obeisance on this happy occasion of the celebration of Mahāśivarātri. Thank you very much, Gurujī, for giving me this opportunity. Thank you very much. I’m honored to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to have short, really brief reactions. One is our dear sister, her name is Odile, and she is a wish for Gurujī’s disciple. She is an Āyurveda student with the backup of the Indian government in India, and she might follow us through the webcast in Gujarat. Bantam on a Mashik hold on the Cadavis Guru Vishwa Guru G Swamījī mega later a host of a big Kavala Tanachot a May Mark Tanachado a status Boncine Tenis and sell a good mechanic. And the other thing I would like to mention is that Vishwa Guru G, our dearest Guru G, has established a Sri Swami Madhavananda World Peace Council, which is in special consultative status for the UN ECOSOC. In the name of all living beings, in the name of humanity, I thank Guru Devan, Swamījī, for this wonderful opportunity that yoga and peace can really reach humanity. And we should like to thank Swamījī that yoga can go through to humanity and the human through the means of the World Peace Council. I would like to thank our dear guest, and I would like to convey the chocolates to his wife and the children of the family. Oṁ tryambhakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭivardhanam, urvārukamiva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt. Oṁ tryambhakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭivardhanam, urvārukamiva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt.