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Yoga Nidra: theory and practice

An evening satsang exploring the essence of true greatness and the profound practice of Yoga Nidrā.

"A great one will never glorify himself by saying, 'I am very great.'"

"Sleep for everyone is as valuable as gold. That is why it is called sonā (which means both sleep and gold)."

Swami Ji addresses a global audience via webcast, first reflecting on the humility of great souls like Mahatma Gandhi. He then delves into the teachings on Yoga Nidrā from his master, Gurujī, and Mahāprabhujī, distinguishing common relaxation from the yogic state of conscious psychic sleep. He explains the three states of consciousness (waking, sleeping, dreaming) and how advanced practice leads to a fourth state, offering practical advice for sleep and emphasizing self-effort in spiritual practice.

Filming location: Wellington, New Zealand

Good evening and good night to all dear friends and dear ones here on this continent, as well as in India and Europe, who are with us through the webcast. Welcome, everyone. Our subject last day was a very nice one: Ayurveda, Yoga and Ayurveda. There was also a beautiful dialogue about the thoughts and way of life of a great personality from the last century, Mahātmā Gāndhījī. Do we say "Mr."? Nobody called him "Mr. Mahatma Gandhi." You see how one removes titles. "Mr." is different from Mahātmā Gandhi. They would say respectful, adorable terms, but nobody said "Mr. Mahatma Gandhi." Did you ever hear this? Did he ask not to be called "Mr."? There is a poet who writes beautiful poetry about a subject we discussed yesterday, and that subject is stated very clearly. I have been coming here for 40 years, 24 years I have been coming. A great one will never glorify himself by saying, "I am very great." A president will not say, "I am the president; you must call me 'Your Excellency.'" No one does that, but we will say it. So, baḍā baḍā nahī̃ kare. God never said, "Call me God." That is it. But who is not a God when playing like that? Someone says, "I am the holy God." Then we say, "Yes, now we understand who you are." So, baḍā baḍā nahī̃ kare. The great one never says, "I am great." Sometimes some people write, "One of the best yoga teachers, or the yogīs, or the great one, and this and that." It means now we know very clearly what he or she is speaking. If others tell you, then you say, "No, no, please. It's okay, enough. Just call me like this, that's all." Does Jesus have titles? Professor, doctor, scientist, or hairdresser? No. Just Jesus, that's all. Or Krishna, does he have some titles? We say "Lord." He doesn't say it. "Lord" is little for God. Do not ever write "Lord" for the name of God. "Lord" is a title; everyone can be a lord—the house lord, property lord. Yes, the lord. It is used in the Bible, "Jesus as Lord" or something. But in reality, "Lord" is a very low-level title for God. There is no word for which we can say, "O my Lord," or "my God." So, the great one never says, "I am a great one." The poet Rahim Das said that in window shopping, when you look through the window at a beautiful diamond, will the diamond tell you, "Come in, my value is five million dollars; I am a diamond"? It will not state its value. It is just there. We value it. We value that, and therefore we shall tell others, "Yes, this is a great person. This is this and that." So, that was yesterday regarding Mahātmā Gandhījī. And you know, everyone must not accept titles. But for one who is above this, the diamond and the stone are all equal. As long as you have inside the feeling that "I am great, I am a diamond, I have this," then no. So be simple. That is why it is simple living and higher thinking. The subject was Ayurveda and yoga, and yesterday there were very nice dialogues. Today is about Yoga Nidrā. You know, since you know me, we have Yoga Nidrā all the time. Many people from different yoga schools or yoga teachers are teaching yoga and Yoga Nidrā. One day I will have such a good assistant who will type all the time while I am talking. But there is no sound at all nowadays; the keyboard is so silent. But now I hear there's a mouse running here and there. It should go in the other room, or don't type now. Okay, thank you, Kiran. Yoga Nidrā. I came to my master in 1965. Our Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, who is also an incarnation—Devpurījī is a Śiva incarnation, and Mahāprabhujī is like Viṣṇu. Gurujī is also like Viṣṇu, Śiva. Mahāprabhujī left this body in 1963, and Gurujī made an āśram in his birthplace. The village people were asking again and again, "Gurujī, make an ashram here as a memory." You know the Nepal ashram on the bank of the river; it is beautiful. For the inauguration of that ashram, some people came—the minister, the chief minister of Rajasthan, and many other dignitaries. So Gurujī sent a postcard. At that time there were no telephones. Look, in 1963 there were no telephones in villages. Maybe only in the district office, that's all. Now everyone has a telephone, not only one but two or three telephones in our technology house, quickly. I came to Austria and Europe in 1970, '71, '72, '73. In Austria, I wanted to call India. I had to call the exchange office, and they said, "Yes, please wait." We gave the number, and after 10 minutes they called back: "Your call will be going through day after tomorrow between 12 and 12:30 noon." Because the call goes from Austria to England, and from England it goes through cables under the oceans to India. Then it will come to India, either Mumbai, Delhi, or Calcutta. From there, they transfer to Jaipur, and then Jaipur transfers to Pali district, and then they dial the number you gave. So, there were few telephones in the whole village. Gurujī was waiting three days there for me because we sent a telegram. I was waiting. The bell was ringing on the telephone, and I said, "Hello." They said, "Your call is going through, so please wait." I was holding, saying "hello" for three or four minutes. They said, "We are sorry, you're in Pali district and the telephone line is out of order." But people were waiting, and now it's so far, and this. So Gurujī wrote a postcard: "I came to the Nepal Ashram. He invited my mother, but I didn't see him, so I want to see the holy Gurujī." I said to my mother, "I want to go." We were three brothers; my sisters were married and were in other houses. I was fighting with my brothers. I was the youngest one, so I said, "I want to go," and I came to Gurujī. Okay, so the story—you will read it in the little notice I write there. Gurujī began to practice yoga. He would get up at three o'clock in the morning, and we are going to sleep at three o'clock. This is the problem, or the difference, between these two. Gurujī got up and was singing nice bhajans, or prayers. Then he was meditating, making mālās. Then he was making his āsanās, prāṇāyāmas, and he was teaching me āsanās and all of this. And so Gurujī taught Yoga Nidrā. This Yoga Nidrā bhajan was written by Mahāprabhujī in 1935. Gurujī came to Mahāprabhujī around 1941. Though all the bhajans written by Gurujī or Mahāprabhujī were written by hand, and some pamphlets were written. After that, books were printed and bhajans were printed. So this is a bhajan written by Mahāprabhujī, and that Yoga Nidrā which Mahāprabhujī taught and spoke about—this is not that kind of Yoga Nidrā. What we are doing now is just relaxing and lying down. All my practitioners around the world love to have the practice of Yoga Nidrā. Why? Because you just lie down, the teacher says to relax, and you can't imagine. Can you imagine when there are 1,500 people at once doing Yoga Nidrā in the Strelka āśram? From that, at least 25% of the time they sleep. So immediately they are relaxed and sleep. And the other who is sleeping beside is pulling their shirt. So, this is a kind of just relaxing; it is good. But when you go to the higher level, a yogic Yoga Nidrā, that is something great. Otherwise, it is a meditation. It is the awakening of the kuṇḍalinī. It is the awakening of the consciousness within our unconscious, subconscious, and conscious, onto the fourth level. Then it goes further. Anyhow, this is it. If I translate that, we will need five days. But I think we must not practice today; we can listen more. Every day you are lying down, and I will teach you the same thing: relax the whole body. Yes? Feel the whole body from the toes to the top. It is like a mother. It is a mother's technique. The mother, when she gives milk—breastfeeding—the child is drinking, and the mother is touching the baby a little. While drinking, the baby's mouth is open, and then she takes him and puts him in the cradle to sleep. So, this is why we call it sleeping. The mother is the best technique, the best Yoga Nidrā. A mother knows how to bring her child into sleeping. Similarly, the best Yoga Nidrā is your yoga teacher who can bring you into sleep. But there is something more than this. This Yoga Nidrā sleeping is not normal sleep. It is called psychic sleep. You are between your subconscious and conscious level; you are in between. It is said there are three levels. One is called jāgrataḥ, awakened. Now we are awakened. The second is called suṣupti. Suṣupta means sleeping. The third is called svapna, the dream. So, it is called jāgrata, suṣupta, and svapna. In 24 hours, we are traveling or pedaling in these three levels of the state of our consciousness. Jagrata: we are awakened, alert, aware. Then comes sleep; we are relaxing. Sleep is very, very important. Now, in Hindi language, in Sanskrit language, Sushruta Āyurveda—except in normal language—sleep is called sonā. What? Sonā. Sonā means so jāo, sleep. But at the same time, sonā means gold. So Gurujī said, "Sleep for everyone is as valuable as gold." That is why it is called sonā. If you sleep, then it is like nowadays in this modern language with telephones—we have hand telephones—we call it updating. You put it on the updating button, and then everything comes again to a normal state. Similarly, the whole mechanism, the brain mechanism of digestion—if you can't sleep properly, digestion will also be disturbed. So those who have problems with digestion should sleep longer. Then the entire intense times, works, and digestion settle. When digestion is good, our health is the best. The first attack of illness is psychic. The second attack is on the stomach and digestion. The third then appears in different parts of the body as different problems. After sleep comes the dream. Now, Yoga Nidrā teaches—this is Mahāprabhujī's teaching—he said, learn from the jagratā, the awakened state. How do you bring your awareness from the awakened level to sleep? Watch that. How are you crossing that border? When you come from Australia to New Zealand, you land here in Wellington, then you go through customs, and you will say, "How was that?" Similarly, from the alert, awakened state, how did you give all problems away and softly, gently, just have—we call it—fallen asleep? So what does "fallen asleep" mean? Did you fall down? This is a healthy person. A healthy person has such a level of sleep coming. He said within seconds you are there. So tonight, before you go to sleep, say, "Okay, I will go to sleep," and observe. Now, how am I going already into sleep? See that second. It is even one without a second. The border is so quick, but it is so clear that it is like a wall there. You can't see this side and that side. That is the border to enter into your deep consciousness, into sleep. Then your heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, digestive system, as well as your brain centers, eyes, ears, respiratory system—everything is checked automatically by a mechanism within our body. That is why sleep is very good. But there is a problem. The problem is this: you sleep for half an hour or two hours, and then you can't sleep. You are awakened, or you can't sleep. Okay? You go to the doctor, and the doctor gives you a beautiful little small white tablet made from calcium, lime, chalk. You take it, and then you sleep. Maybe there's nothing inside; it's only calcium, lime only. But psychologically you say, "Oh, I have taken a sleeping tablet now, so I will sleep," and really, you sleep. One day, if you don't take that one, even though there's nothing inside, you won't be able to sleep. So there are many psychological things, but this is the limit. Now you can't sleep, and you try to sleep. You turn to the right side, then to the left side. You put the blanket away, then put the blanket again. You get up to drink water, then come and lie down. A little sleep comes, but you can't sleep. There is one treatment in Yoga Nidrā. When you can't sleep, okay, get up. Go to the bathroom, take a shower, do everything, dress nicely, and sit and take a nice book and read, or go for a walk. Tell your body, if you can't sleep, then hurry home. You come back; you can't sleep. Okay? Clean your windows, clean this and that. Work, be active. The next day, without a tablet and without anything, from evening till morning, get some sleep. That is a treatment. So in yoga it is said that when your body is restless and you can't concentrate, you have sorrows, this and that, then don't lie down in the bed. That will create more and more problems. Just get up and do something. How many days will you not sleep? My God! Go for a walk. Go jogging on the beach here. At night, nobody is there. That's good. And in the cold sea, just dip in. Nobody sees if your dress is here or there. Come out, then again make a little bit of jogging, and then get dressed. Many, many therapies. So it is said, "Don't remain in this lazy bed. Open the windows." All this is therapy. But if you take some chemical things, then it becomes addictive; you become dependent. So try to solve this problem yourself while being alert, aware, and using certain techniques. Don't remain stuck in this mud of a lazy bed. Try. It will be very good. So now, it is Yoga Nidrā. We come to bed. We relax, we have a nice window, we are tired and have a pillow, and we lie down. Now, if you say, "I will sleep. Now I will sleep. Today I want to sleep, lie long, and sleep well. I worked very hard." These kinds of vṛtti—that's called vṛtti, the thoughts—are coming, and you can't sleep. You turn left, then you turn right, then you turn left. "And in the morning I have to get up very early because I have to go to the airport. I should sleep quickly." You can't sleep. So the best is just to go and lie down, that's all. Sleep will come. Now you enjoy the sleep, but there is something happening. You know, but you don't know you are at such a level. It is like when you have an operation; the doctor gives you anesthetics, and then you are sleeping until the operation is finished. You see the same thing: the doctor gives me an injection. We will have an operation. In your awareness, consciousness, there is only this picture: there is a doctor cutting this and cutting that, taking away something and putting in, and then you put something, spray something so the blood should not come out. And the doctor goes to drink coffee, and the nurse is also drinking coffee, but the nurse looks like this and like this and again closes. Half an hour later, the other doctor goes to another operation, and you are still lying on the operation table. Some operations take 10 hours. So you think the doctor is not a machine? He's also human, or he was. But you are lying, and still you are thinking, "I've got an injection, and now the wheel bed is pulling me." You see, like this, you like this, and the whole belly is open. So we are detached; we are detached from this pain. So we are now getting detached from sleep, the third level. It is called svapna, dream. Very interesting, very interesting. How did you come from awakened to sleep, and now how did you go out from this physical body as a sleep, a dream? Suddenly, you are in crutches, and we have little feelings that we are dreaming. "I'm dreaming now." If you are not aware that you are dreaming, then you cannot remember after sleep that, "Oh, I had a nice... I had a dream, and I was in Christchurch with our dear Peter. He invited me for a nice cup of juice, orange juice, and we had it. And we went for..." Who told you? How did you drink? Where have you been, Peter? How are these memories? This means that still you are awakened, alert. Your self is there, body is there, and you are there in the dream when you come. But how did you go? Maybe in the dream you went to the airport, you took the flight, you were dead. Everything is there. But how did you separate from the body? How is this? This is our astral body, separating from the Viśuddhi cakra, from here. It is going from the side of the chest; it wakes up, or from here, the neck. Now, another thing about this dream. Sometimes you have a dream. Definitely, you had sometimes. Everyone has many different kinds. You went to the airplane, and you have to run because the gate—they will close the gate, and they close it. The gate, but you are running. You see, you only get two meters near, and they say, "Please wait," and you want to run, but your legs are so heavy. The two meters is so difficult to reach the gate of the aeroplane, the door of the aeroplane. Or you are running behind the train to catch the train, and it is so heavy that you can't. Another thing: there is something like a horror dream, and you can't escape. There's a heaviness on you, etc. You want to run away, but you cannot. This has been researched many times, and you can check for yourself. Never sleep with both hands on the chest. If both hands or one hand is on the chest, you have difficulties separating the astral body from the physical body. It's difficult because the body can't go. And never sleep with interlocked fingers on the chest. Then it is a horror dream. A tiger is coming near, and you cannot go because you are locked in. Someone comes to do something bad, but you never sleep like this. Heaviness—again you are creating heaviness, again creating heaviness. And you are crying, and this is in your dreams. Maybe there is physical action also sometimes, and this is because we are not aware of that. So before going to sleep, it is not good to sleep straight like this. Mostly when you sleep like that, straight, then you begin to snore. So sleep on the left side. Chandra Nāḍī—this is the night. If you sleep on the right side, it's Sūrya Nāḍī. Now, you are with Peter in Christchurch. He brought two very nice glasses full of orange juice. Good drinking, and suddenly something happened: a mouse went in your kitchen and knocked some glass down. Suddenly, you woke up. You are in the sleeping room—no Peter, nothing, no juice, nothing. You can even test your mouth; there's nothing. So now the question is this: with which speed and how deep a connection do we have to our physical body? Anything happens, we are immediately there within no time. And so, this is the jāgrata (awakened), suṣupta (sleeping), and svapna (the dream). After this, that Yoga Nidrā, as Mahāprabhujī declares or explains, then you can come to the fourth level. That's called Trikarādaśī, above the three levels: past, present, and future. So at that time, in your Yoga Nidrā, you can see your past, like we replay a film—the technology has given us that—to see our past, but unfortunately not in that way. It is a technology. You play the film of your wedding. How was it? So you see your wedding film after 20 days or 20 years, and then your husband divorced, and you divorced, and cruel everything, and the court, and this and that, fighting. And then you see the film—film—how was my wedding, how happy, and he said... Film it, throw it in the fire. That happens. Sab din hotan ek samān. Gurū Nānakjī said, "Every day is not an equal day." Sab din hotan ek samān. But they said, "Why? How?" Then he said, "Every day is a golden day." First he said, "Every day is not an equal day," and second he said, "Every day is a golden day." So, a golden day is for the saint. A saint means not a uniform. A saint is one who has achieved this level of consciousness and Yoga Nidrā. How many times did you change? Yesterday I was speaking about how many chapters, unfulfilled chapters, you have. How many chapters, without completing, you close again. Good morning, my dear. Come for a nice breakfast. Do you want coffee? Finished. So that love—love does not mean passion, no. Love means respect, understanding, liking. That's it. So what happened then? When it's changing, your chapter is open, not fulfilled, but you begin another chapter. That is only a quarter full. The whole book's pages are still empty. Then you take another chapter. So, how many chapters are incomplete, lying in your life, within thyself? That's called svādhyāya in Rāja Yoga, yama and niyama, and in this niyama comes svādhyāya. Svādhyāya means study, but in reality, svādhyāya's meaning: sva means the self, and adhyāya means the chapter. How many chapters have you completed in your life, from entering your mother's body till today? It doesn't matter which subject—many, many subjects. And so, before you come to the highest level of mokṣa, somewhere, liberation... Will you please fill out your papers when you come to New Zealand for customs, you know? And then Mr. Swami, Paramahaṁsa Swāmī, yes sir, yes, please can you fill this out? This is not correctly filled. And the second, you did not fill it at all. Please, can you answer this question? Then they will let me come into the country. So even this small country, Ireland, here makes such a great storage to cross the border. How are you going to cross the border from the dream to the Trilokākhi Jñānānand? Do you agree with me? So how will we cross that border? Therefore, Mahāprabhujī said, Manavā, dheere dheere chala, gagana gharachadnare. Oh my mind, slowly, slowly, step by step, slowly. How should the steps be? Slow steps have two meanings. When you are going to marriage, you hold your husband's arm or wife's arm, and you are entering the church, and slowly steps are going. What means the slowly steps? Uncertainty. Uncertainty. Should I go or not? Another thing is how lucky I am that in the church or in the temple, in God's kingdom, as slowly I will enter. What am I? Luck and joy. This will never come in my life again. Merging is... Only once. The second time is distraction. The second time is that car which is not anymore functional. This metal is in some works; you can sell some parts, that's all. So is that also that Guru Bhakti, Ruṣādana, Yoga Nidrā, etc.? That fulfills your life. Think of all this, and now, how can I complete my chapter? The question is given, but it's unclear. Either I can't understand it, or they didn't make it clear. But, and this is that time, is called meditation. Guru Nanak Sahib said, "Till now, your life is gone." But what remains? Utilize. At least now utilize, not too late. Śmirana karle, meditate, mantra, good thinking. Try to put in your mind all, whatever it is, your enemy or the enemy. Can you turn it into the positive? Immediately, your brain will be so bright and clear, and you will sleep peacefully. Who can't sleep is a fear. Billionaires or millionaires, or all these presidents of big countries and this and that, Americans or the others, when they have, how many guards are standing? And when the American president comes to Wellington here, you will have five helicopters on every side, 24 hours. And still he can't sleep. Yes? But we have our helicopters, the blessings. So fear? Why do you have fear? You have fear if you are guilty, and if you are not guilty, you have no fear. So fear is for those who are doing bad things and who want to destroy or disturb others. They have fear. We don't have fear because we are... How to say very clear, transparent: my consciousness, my heart, and my actions are all crystal clear. And so we are all bhaktas, we are all clear. Now, what remained in the past? What was it? Let's clear up, let's clear up through our sādhanā, our mantra, and this. Don't go to complication in this world. So, this fourth level, past, that's called Kāla, Bhūta Kāla, past. Kāla means time. Kāla means that which is gone. Kāla means the date. Kāla means bad luck. So it depends on which Kaal you connect to, which is the next word. Kaal is gone, oh good. So Kaal is gone, passed away. So time passed away, but time is past, but still we have all the karmas there. So, past, present, and future. So kāl, vartamān and bhaviṣya. These are the three words in Sanskrit or Hindi. Kāla is the past, vartamāna is the present, and bhaviṣya is the future. Or next time, next day. So we have to clear up these two. So Bhagavān Śrī Jīpna and Mahāprabhujī's Līlā Amṛta was written in His divine words, and in that, He said, "Past is gone, present is now." Future will be like your present now. Past is past, you have done it. But now, in the present time, whatever you will do, that will be your future. Understand? So if I make a mistake now, then tomorrow it will come to me. So if we are doing everything now clearly, then our future is very clear. So in yoga and in Hindu philosophies, we don't think about the past. Don't cry. The past is past, it is gone. But at present, you do your sādhanā, your mantras. That will clear up your future. So, do as much social work as you can. Try to do sevā. Try to help everyone, this and that. Don't withdraw from your seva, from your work. Don't withdraw back. That's very important. So, let's say, for example, should I give you an example? But don't be offended, okay? So then I will leave it. Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya. Om Namaḥ Śivāya. Om Har Har Bol. Namaḥ Śivāya. Om Har Har Bol. Namaḥ Śivāy. Om Har Har Gaṅgā. Namaḥ Śivāy. Om Hara Hara Gaṅgā Namaḥ. Om Hara Hara Gaṅgā Namaḥ. Śivāya Om Namaḥ Śivāya. Om Namaḥ Śivāya... So no one can help you, because help cannot help you. But everyone will give you suggestions. That is helpful. Everyone will try to take away the thorns from your path. Look how much we can do for someone. We can clear up these thorns, but still you have to walk. So don't say, "My Gurudev has done nothing." He did everything, but now you are lying down there, saying, "Gurudev, come and..." Lift your four? How long will we carry with the fork, carrying two legs and two hands? Again, we will fall down. So you have to, we have to learn to stand up and walk. Practice, practice, practice. Every friend will help you mentally or by giving suggestions. Even somebody will help you by giving you money. That is also not to help you, okay? For some days, so finally, we have to do it ourselves. Don't depend on others. And that, what does that mean? Practice. Prayer. You pray. So there is a very nice, Holy Gurujī used to say one very nice poem, and it is said, the word, the poem, I have to bring it together. But it is a very nice one; I have to pull it out. It is said when you have itching somewhere on your back, and you tell someone, "Please, can you scratch a little bit?" So when he says, "Yes," then you say, "A little left, please, a little up, a little down, a little left, yeah." So how does he know exactly where it is? So now I know, I found kheṭī prīti prathana put trāne khujal jo suk chahe prāṇī. Haṭho haṭh śambhal! Is it memory? Maa Parvati ji, thank you. Sometimes Holi Guru ji was telling how you can forget. I am still the disciple. You are the Gurudev. Khetī prīti prathānā pūt tane khojār jo suk chahe prāṇī hatho hath śambhal. This is instruction, suggestion, help. So this one can help you like this. Kheti. Kheti means harvesting. Your field, your crops. So when you have your crops and fruits, or whatever it is, you should look after that. You tell five kangaroos, please go and take care. Oh, kangaroos will be very happy. They will take care completely. Nothing will be there. So, kheti, this means we have to look after our garden, our field, our forest, farm, etc., etc. Kheti. Prīti. Prīti means love. Prīti means love. Love means, like, mother love, sister love, husband love, father love, the great one. So, prīti. Now, the man... The man said, "I am still on my duty, I can't come, but tomorrow is the wedding, so please, you go and marry my wife, and the day after tomorrow I will take it." It doesn't function. You have to be personally there. Prīti. Khetī, prīti, prathānā. And prathānā is prayer. You can say to Swamījī, "I will give you this, please pray for me to Mahāprabhujī." Okay, I will pray, but the real prayer is when you yourself will pray. So whatever we want to ask God for, we have to do ourselves. Others will support us. I can pray to Mahāprabhujī, I can request him, but who am I to be between the judge and you? You have to talk directly to the... I am only a transmitter, a lawyer. And a lawyer could be a liar. Then the lawyer, there is a story, a big story, you know. Yeah. Yes. So they are two lawyers. They are both good friends. But in the court, they are fighting each other, and one said, "This time, let me win. Next time, I will give you the chance." Yes. Sometimes it goes on for years and years. It is a calm dhanu. It continues the milk. That's it. Khetī, prīti, if you want contentment, happiness, then do it yourself. Understand me? So, therefore, we make day by day. That is like a big truck that comes, and there are some goods inside. And you are throwing out one, two, and three. And we are doing every day so many mistakes like this. So, think one day, what are your deeds? So, did you do it? Okay. But now, at least go and slowly take care, put it back. Otherwise, time is gone. Time doesn't wait for anyone, and karma will not lead anyone out. Two things are the truth. Shrave, if you want to know what is the mighty power, the mighty power in the world is time. Time doesn't wait for anyone. Even the incarnation of God comes, itself time will say, "Sir, please move on." Time will not say so. The result, truth is that the time, and therefore we have to come beyond the time and the space. That is your meditation, your mantra. Your all sādhanās, whatever you are doing, kriyā, this, that, but we can't. Kya takat hai jīv kī? Kya takat hai jīv kī? Rām nām le, karm de thap kī, mū phir de. What is it? This soul has no strength. Kya takat hai jīv kī Rām nām? That soul doesn't have that strength to repeat the name of God, because karma is so strong. When you want to do a good thing, karma will come and give you a slap. You turn your face in that direction. So, samaya, the time is mighty, and karma. Karma will not let you free, and time will not wait for you. Do it, so it is, though you have so many bad karmas, okay. An example: you are standing in the field, in the, what you call, wild safari. Where the tigers and lions are, and now you landed with a helicopter there. You got out of the helicopter, and you want to see a photograph or something, and from every side the tigers or the lions attack. Now you think what to do. You are lucky enough to jump into the helicopter and go up. All the lions are jumping, but how long will they jump? You can say, "Bye bye." That's it. So many of these, but yesterday we said vikāras: kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha, ahaṅkāra, etc., etc. But when the Sadguru's blessing is the helicopter, then remain. Yes, what is the helicopter? Blessing. And who is inside? The pilot. And you are, we are the aspirants. So we have inspiration, nice, then quickly go in. Otherwise, be sure, within no time, they will put all their parts of the body in different places. And so, remain under the shelter of the Gurudev and avoid all these worldly visions, and in time, come and say there is one bhajan: "Gurudev Śaraṇ Tumhārī Cintā Merī Miṭā, Gurudev Śaraṇ Tumhārī Cintā." Meri O Gurudev, I came and I seek thy shelter. Please remove all my worries and bless me to cross this ocean of ignorance and these worldly problems. So, at the end, definitely, if you have Guru Bhakti, that helicopter is waiting for you. All the karmas, they will fall into the ocean. Hari Om Tarsat. You take off. The shark will come and eat only your bad karmas. That's it. But we don't do it; we have no strength. You were doing all this kriyā, no? Before four days, five years already. And we went and we bought all kinds of equipment and this and that. A beautiful Kriyā. How many have they just left? You promised, you did this, you made the saṅkalpas, everything, and where is that? But there are still, they are very disciplined, doing every week once on Guru Reiṣ. Yes, there is. So, yoga nidrā. Now I shall speak about yoga nidrā. So, Mahāprabhujī said about yoga nidrā, but he wrote this yoga nidrā, and it's a beautiful version. So, sometimes Gurujī was singing, so beautiful. Only the first two lines I can sing in that melody of Gurujī, then I cannot follow. Beautiful. It is like Brahmāmūrta's melody. When you wake up, you go to sleep deep, and in Brahmāmūrta you get up. That was the Yoga Nidrā for the last sleep. Yogī Janakī, Yoga Nidrā, Birla, Sant Jan Janī Re, Gurujī was there. I was about 11, 12 years old, 15 years old. And you know, as a young boy, a child sleeping, Gurujī said my name, he called, "Bring a glass of water." So I brought water. Sit down and repeat mantra, oh God. I will close my eyes and fall asleep again. That was a beautiful time, and it was a hard time, and it was a good time. And it was a time of ignorance where I lived, but Gurujī was great, great. He gave me so many experiences and so many things. So I was doing mālā, this mālā Gurujī gave me in 1966, and I was there, so he didn't say. Anything, are you awake? Yes, you will be very angry. Nowadays, nobody can digest this, so... and it was so beautiful. Sometimes I slept, not every day. So go to sleep earlier, yes, that was 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, sleep, 9 to 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 6 hours sleeping is okay. Yogī-jano kī yoga-nidrā, birlā-santa-jana-jānī-re, yogī-jano kī yoga-nidrā, birlā-santa-jana-jānī-re. The yoga-nidrā of the yogīs, only rare santa, sādhus, or yogīs understood what is a yoga-nidrā. The rare practitioners realized what the Yoga Nidrā means. And that's all the Prabhatī, the morning rāga. And this rāga, this melody is so sweet, you can sleep quickly. So once, I have said that we will practice like Gurujī was doing. Teaching me? So we shall do 330 yoga nidra. So in, we woke, everyone had to wake up. It's summer, and in meadow in Strelky, everybody brought nice. They are sleeping back because it will cool, and I was giving instructions, and I can tell you. 99% all sleep within no time, and what I did, I got up, went to my room, and I said, "I want chai." I drank, I was drinking chai these days, I went to the bathroom and all this, and then I came and sat there and I said, "Now relax, become extra word." So, it is not easy, the sādhanā. Sādhana, that's called tapasya. In yoga, a word is called tapasya. Tapasya means austerity. It's not easy. Tapasyā, you have to endure. You have to endure your laziness, because sleep is a laziness. So, what they were doing was getting up, and then they would run a little bit, 20 minutes or 15 minutes, and come and have a cold shower, and again nicely, and then they came, and then they could remain awakened. So tamas guṇa, tamas guṇa, sattva, rajasya, tamasya, these are three guṇas. Tamas guṇa is laziness, drowsiness, a nice warm sleeping bag, and the master is talking, "Relax the whole body." If sleep comes, let it come. And if it goes, then yes. So, here Mahāprabhujī said, "Yogī jana kī yog nidrā virala santa jana jānī." Virala means the rare. The rare sadhus, the saints, understood what is a yog nidrā. It means that in that sleep, you wake up within thy cetanā, in your consciousness, the day the sun rises. For others who are sleeping in their ignorance and laziness, tamas guṇa is a darkness. But that one whose consciousness is awakened, though you sleep, you have bright light and the sun, everything. Not like this sun, not like this light, but the light of the knowledge, a beautiful golden ray. Us nidrā mein jagrat jāne, in that nidrā, though it is sleeping, but you are in the awakened level. Your body, everything is sleeping, but our awareness, the cetanā, that is like you are just sitting here, awakened here. Chetan kā chilkā svāmīne dikalādhiyā Devpurījī. So, chetan means aware, conscious. That is a glimpse of that light of that consciousness which is awakened. I have seen it, said Devpurījī, Mahāprabhujī. And so, Mahāprabhujī, according to this bhajan of the Devapurījī, Mahāprabhujī gave the science of the yoga nidrā through this. In the night, he makes a day. And therefore, it is said that a yogī doesn't sleep. In the night, they are awakened, and in the day, they are aware. But, of course, you need the rest for your body. So, through Yoga Nidrā, we get more energy in our body. You will not feel tired when you get up. You will be very fresh, because there is little tamo guṇa. And this tamo guṇa is like, you know, in Australia, they have this called Vesimai. That is one of the highest, highest tāmasik qualities. So then, of course, if you eat five grams of the Vajimai, in fifteen days you can't get it out of your body. Similarly, we have in India also something. But that I don't want to introduce you. Yeah, tamagoyis also. In Korea, they have something similar, which they call kimchi. You know that? And this is the onions. They cut the onions, put the acid inside, and they keep it. And it is so, smells only Koreans can digest. Others have no power. So there was one. How do I know? Because I was in, I had one disciple, and he was married to a Korean girl, and she used to make, in Vienna, in her fridge, there was a lot of kimchi, and whenever her husband opened the fridge, he was so angry, he said, "Now, either kimchi or me," because her... My whole body was smelling from this, and then I went to Korea. He invited me, and he was teaching at the University of Korea, so yeah. There again, they introduced me to this, so I said, "Okay, but give..." More chili inside, so in every country, I can tell you one more. I was traveling through the border of the Soviet Union and Austria, and like this. So in the Czech Republic, there is one city called Olomouc. And there is a very famous cheese, a very famous cheese. When you go to the Czech Republic, you must go to Olomouc. And if you have been in Olomouc, you must taste this cheese. And this is a very nice cheese, very, very tasteful, made out of garlic. So I liked it a little bit. So someone told me in Vienna, there's an Olomos cheese. Can you bring a little? So I took one kilo. And I put it in my suitcase, and on the border, they were always checking. So the police came and they checked, and they said, "Open your suitcase, please." So I opened it like this. He said, "Close it." I said, "Wow, what happened?" "No, no, it's almost cheese," I said. "Yeah," he said, "don't open it, otherwise the whole wagon will be angry with you, mister." So whenever I crossed that border, they all knew me because I was traveling so many times. They say, "Have you almost cheese, Tamash Guna?" And people like the tamash. Guṇa, so that was in Āyurveda. Sāttvik food, whatever food you cook, within a few hours or two, three hours, you should eat it. After that, no. Now you think, "In the fridge we shall put it," but still it spoils. It spoils. Therefore, Āyurveda said, and Yoga said, "Fresh cook and eat it." Same within same hour, don't cook for tomorrow. Guest will come, and now you cook and everything, put it, and guest will come evening late. So it is nearly 35 hours before you cooked. The poor guest, you are feeding them with the tāmas guṇa. Yeah. It is better that you drink fresh milk or eat fresh fruits, and that's all. And that's why, sorry, the bread is also tamas. Bread is also tamas. Therefore, make fresh chapatis. Rotis, fresh rotis, fresh, something kind of bread, but not so long, horny, and more of tamas. Is that also? You have something from, made from the soya, no, no, not of tempeh, that is the highest tamas quality inside, and That liked Australian very, very much, very much, and there is one Sunshine course. There is one making which is the best quality, and they like it, and Śivjotī said, "Oh, Swāmī says he's the best." He's not available. Within half an hour, everything is sold. And I ate, and I was nearly giving out back again. Now it comes very nice and very pleasant. All was very pleasant. I didn't take anything negative. But now it's very good, so we will do that in the evening. Otherwise, you will not digest everything. I wish you all the best. So our Yoga Nidrā is that Yoga Nidrā which Mahāprabhujī has given to Holy Gurujī. Holy Gurujī said he found text written by Mahāprabhujī in 1935.

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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