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Question: Dear Swamiji, we would like to take the first steps towards a self-sufficient lifestyle. Please advise us on how we could operate a farm in Hungary where we could lead a yogic lifestyle and provide for our financial needs. Answer: No problem, do it. Hungary has enough land. But only one crop will not solve your purpose. You should be able to produce two kinds of crops. One is like a glass house, and the other is like an organic garden. The land is yours if you have the land. Or make a community, a society. In the beginning, just begin as a hobby. Afterwards, you will see how it develops. Make some farmhouse. In summer, make a retreat, a yoga retreat. Anusthānas, mantras, prāṇāyāmas. People will be very happy to be in nature. This is how you can begin. On Stress and Spiritual Qualities We have so many different kinds of vṛttis in this world. If you want to come to the spiritual qualities, then the first step is to control your diet. Have a limited diet. Do not consume too much sweet. No junk food, no restaurant food. Prepare yourself at home, limited, so nothing remains over. Another point: between two meals, you should not eat anything. No nuts, no apples, no fruits, no coffees, no teas. At least four or five hours should remain without anything except water. This is a training for that yogī who would like to be disciplined and get towards the Brahmajñāna. Your age will prolong. Diseases will also disappear, or will be very little. Mostly you might get what we call the flu. It’s cold, that’s all. You will have no more problems with allergies. Your immunity will become stronger in the body. That is just from controlling the diet. If you have diabetes or some other disease and the doctor tells you you have to eat at a certain time, that is, of course, a different thing. If you really want to do your yoga sādhanā, then first gain control over your tongue, the taste. You will see that 90% of all difficulties in your body will disappear: joint problems, livers, kidneys, glands, all. You will lose a lot of weight and become more happy and healthy. This is the main point to achieve yoga, the aim of your practice. After that comes practicing. Practice discipline as much as you can; the best is every day at the same time. You know, because you are staying in the same place. A person like me finds it difficult to keep time. So write in your diary what you should do. You have to have time for your social relations, meaning with friends, free time for walking, going, swimming, etc. Meditation must be every day. And meditation without a mantra is a body without a soul. In this way, you will see that you will heal yourself without medicines. If someone has a doubt of cancer, this is the best prevention: the diet. Then the body will eat itself. What we call the foreign symptoms in our body, our immunity will destroy everything. This is a yoga training. Over diet, over fat, and yoga exercise do not go together. You shall train your muscles, not like a bodybuilder, but according to yoga in your life. Our inner self will be very happy. It is said that happiness will come out of you, and then you can lead others like that. That’s very important. On Āyurveda and Addictions There came something from Āyurveda and different diseases. According to Āyurveda, there are many physiological imbalances contributing to depression, anxiety, and related conditions, a type of psychological disorder. These many things they call vikāras: substance abuse and addictions. That’s also very bad. I can feel that many of you sitting here abuse alcohol. When you abuse alcohol, then you have problems with family and partner. The money you spend on alcohol, you can use to buy some dry fruits for you and your family, and they will be healthier than alcohol. You have your engine, a diesel engine. If you put petrol inside, what will happen? Similarly, the engine God has made in our body is not for alcohol, but for water. Water is the water. Other healthy liquids are milk and juice. That’s it: fruit juice, milk, and water. These are healthier. But addiction and drugs, alcohol, even beer—alcohol, beer is not good. It is the tamas guṇa and rajas guṇa. Alcohol has rajas guṇa as well as tamas guṇa. One day you should think, we should think: what is the purpose of my being as a human? You should not destroy human life with such things. The first step to initiate thyself in yoga, to get the mokṣa liberation, begins with controlling the diet. Very good are sprouted seeds and salad. Less white flour, more lentils. And fresh-made chapatis. No bread is good, but it is old. Āyurveda will say one-day-old bread is already tamas guṇa. All these kinds of restaurants which are offering different kinds of food are days old, weeks old. There is no more life. It’s dead energy. The Second Point: Satsaṅg and Prāṇāyāma The second point to become a yogī, a spiritual soul, a liberated one, is satsaṅg. Do not miss the satsaṅg. Have good friends who are not abusing drugs and certain things. Prāṇāyāma is very, very important. It is the prāṇāyāma which can clean out even physical diseases. When prāṇāyāma goes into the body and there are some tumors or something like this, prāṇāyāma will tell them, "Get out of this body! What are you doing here?" Prāṇāyāma is watching your body and taking away the devil of illness. Therefore, self-discipline is very important. That’s why Patañjali said, "Atha yoga anuśāsana." Yoga begins with discipline. On Attendance and Organization You have to have more children so that we would have many, many people. But the announcement was only five days before, or one week. Many people have different kinds of programs: schools, examinations, and preparing for summer seminars. That’s why many people could not come. Generally, they are announcing a minimum of six months in advance. They plan their program six months before because of old parents, children, school, office work. There are many reasons one cannot just come. Next time, organize three months before. Put up posters and information. You will see the hall will be full. It’s the quality of organization. On Soy and Diet When I came to Europe in the beginning, in 1970, it was very much in fashion to eat what is called macrobiotic food. There was one Chinese, I think Chinese or Japanese, who was in America and researched a lot about soybeans. People were consuming a lot of soybeans. The mung dāl, green mung, and some other lentils and soya beans have higher, more proteins than in meat. Nations like India and many others were consuming little meat; they survived and were strong and very healthy because of the lentils. That macrobiotic diet used to say: eat what is growing within a 40-kilometer range of where you are living. A macrobiotic diet says that you eat foods that were produced within a maximum of 40 kilometers from your living area. Then the energy changes. But now, within one night, we can get fruits and vegetables and everything from China here, from Africa, from America, from Mexico, from India. Transport is now very, very strong. Of course, they want to have business, and we want to have some fruits from foreign countries. Here, cherries don’t blossom in this part of Europe when it is snowing and very cold. Our cherry trees do not even have leaves on them. But in the market, you can buy cherries because they come from other countries like New Zealand or Australia, where it is summer. But according to the climate here, we should not eat cherries in the wintertime. We do not follow nature, and that’s why we are mostly ill. We should know which season we should eat what. Soy was declared as having the highest protein in the soybean. But unfortunately, slowly, because it was growing, there was more need for soy. They put in all different fertilizers, pesticides, hybrids, etc. They manipulated the soy. It’s about 25 years already, I think. The first time the soybean was imported to Europe, many countries did not let this soy come in from America. You may remember: Germany did not want to let it come in, Austria didn’t let it come, Italy didn’t let it come. But unfortunately, Switzerland let it in. You people may know this story. That is how they manipulated all the seeds and everything. So now they say soy is not good to eat. Here in Europe, a lot of soy is grown. When the time comes that the crops are ripe—it takes time, as all seeds don’t ripen at once—they spray a chemical so all the soybean plants look burned dark, and they harvest it all. That has a lot of poison in it. Also the sunflowers. You see the big farm, and then they spread some kind of chemical; it looks like everything is burned because for them, it’s easier to harvest at once. Hungary has very good soil, very much land for agriculture. You can find some field which is organic, or virgin field, where there has been no agriculture and no pesticides. People are longing for organic crops, organic vegetables, etc. So now some people think soy is not good because of the pesticides. Otherwise, soy milk, soy tofu, soy oil, etc., is plentiful. That’s it. So if you find organic, it’s good. The green mung dāl has a lot of protein. If you make a soup and eat mung dāl soup every day, which has the best proteins, you need not consume meat at all. On Community and Raw Milk Some people find others who have the same aim, the same interest, and make a society for organic farming. Then, a few people together research more about it—how to do it. Also, the cows can supply milk directly. In some countries, you cannot give even your own child your own cow’s milk. In Australia, it’s a punishment if you give direct milk to children or to anybody. In Australia and New Zealand, milk is forgotten, chemical. But people want to have direct milk, raw milk, without pesticides. So they sell the milk for bathing, for washing yourself. If you want to buy the original milk, it is not for drinking; it’s for bath. I was in Australia at Sunshine Coast, and they supplied me this bottled milk. It was directly from cows, and there was a warning. We were making chai, me and I think Mānsā Devī or Umā Purī was there. It was written, "This milk is not for drinking or eating; it is for bathing." I was so angry. Why did they give me such milk? I telephoned Yamunā. Then she explained to me. I said, "Okay." But people found out why this milk is sold a lot, because Australians are also very health-conscious. What they do is mix some kind of chemical in that milk, and that’s all for bathing in milk. So if you drink or use it for tea or coffee, you get strong diarrhea. It’s not a joke. There is a lady from Australia sitting here; she can say yes or no. Stand up and say, is it true what I told about milk? That’s right. So stay in Hungary. Thank you. All the best.