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Protecting Nature

The International Day of Yoga celebrates a universal science for harmony. Yoga is the union of body and spirit, a path to health and awareness beyond any single religion. It awakens us to live in peace with nature and all living beings. The practice is for everyone, not only saints, to cultivate a healthy, happy life. Human beings must correct their inner nature to stop creating pollution and destruction. True spirituality is purity and love for all.

"Yoga means union. Union of body and spirit. Yoga means balance. Yoga means harmony."

"Life is the one. It does not matter if it is a human, an animal, or a tree. Life is life."

Filming locations: Voderady, Trnava Region, Slovakia.

Dear Swāmījī, dear guests, dear friends of Yoga in Daily Life, in the name of our family and in the name of the Mayor of Voderady, I welcome you on this occasion. I wish you a wonderful day. Please enjoy it. Thank you. Good morning. I welcome you here in this beautiful environment. First, I would like to welcome our master, the Vishwagurū, the mayor of this village, and all the participants. You can believe me, I was trying to prepare a speech, many versions of it. And in the morning, while meditating, I could see Mahāprabhujī in this mudrā. In that moment, I realized it is enough to be quiet and to worship, because every single moment of this life is beautiful. The miracle is that we have gathered here today in this constellation, in this group. The miracle is also all the moments that preceded this moment, the days that led us here. The only thing we can do is to be here in this moment, in the presence. I welcome you all with my heart. In the presence of our Master, in the presence of our guests. Thank you, dear teacher of yoga, dear ladies, gentlemen, and children. In the year 12,043, in the first note about this village, there is a legend that three monks came here. They were very thirsty, and there was no water. They searched for water but could not find it. Finally, they found water and were very happy because of that. That is how the name of the village Voderady came to be: "water," as in being happy for water. Dear ladies and gentlemen, you are in the village of Voderady. It is south of the town Trnava. You can all see it is completely flat. But even on this flat area, we could make an impression. We tried to create two main dominant elements in this village: the castle and the church of Saint André. The village has 1,500 citizens, and its character is mostly agricultural, though slowly some industrial companies are coming, the biggest being Samsung and the French company Lear. They have started to add to this agricultural production. We have a little literature about our village, but I would be delaying this beautiful event too much. So please, let me wish you good health, a lot of satisfaction, and beautiful moments in a beautiful village: Vodērāḍī. Thank you, organizers, for inviting me. I wish you a beautiful day. Organizers, dear friends, dear guests, dear Master, Professor, Professor, please let me welcome you all here. That you have come from such a distance is a sign of the great values we can find in this place. It is the value of yoga, which we have been appreciating for many years thanks to our Master. In recent years, the UN also joined this appreciation and declared the 21st of June as the International Day of Yoga. It is appreciated that the values of yoga are the same in the whole world. It does not matter who we are, how we are, if we are small or big, which nation, culture, or religion we belong to. The values of yoga can be used by every single one of us. It is the same as the International Day of Women. There are many women, but there is one day that celebrates them. And there are many, many yogas, but the principle is only one. That is why we have only one International Day of Yoga. Among us, there is a true master of yoga, and he is the real reason why we are traveling here. So please, let me give him the floor. But before, I would like to welcome among us one truly precious person. If we say Swāmījī is a master in yoga, then our respected guest is the representative of the country where yoga started. The International Day of Yoga is not only the celebration of yoga, but also the celebration of the mother of yoga, which was and always will be India. So please, let us welcome the Ambassador of India here, dear Viśva Gurujī. And now, dear Viśva Gurujī, I would like to give you the speech and wish all of us good sound. Hold it. Okay. Good. Sarveṣāṁ gamaya, sarveṣāṁ svastir bhavatu, sarveṣāṁ śāntir bhavatu, sarveṣāṁ maṅgalam bhavatu, sarveṣāṁ pūrṇam bhavatu. Nāhaṁ kartā, Prabhu dīpa kartā. Mahāprabhujī deep karta hi keval loka samasta śukino bhavantu. Om tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭivardhanam. Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ,... Bhagavatu. Dear sisters and brothers, His Excellency the Ambassador of India, the mayor of this village, and our dear host. This is a very historical village, just as we heard. And the historical castle was waiting for you since, after the Soviet Union gave you again your freedom. Many people came wanting to have this castle, but it was waiting. It was waiting for the opening ceremony of this castle on the International Day of Yoga. It took time. We thank the respected Prime Minister of India, Shri Modi. It was the light of his heart and his thoughts to bring this science of yoga back again to human consciousness, and to awaken in our awareness the realization of that ancient science. Yoga is not designed only for sādhus, saints, and yogīs. The yogīs and saints are already yogīs. But nowadays, yoga is needed more for the households, for all general people. Yoga is a science of body, mind, and soul. This yoga science was given to us by God Śiva. It is called Swayambhū. When he appeared, he appeared in a meditation posture. So, the author of yoga is Śiva. Yoga means union. Union of body and spirit. Yoga means balance. Yoga means harmony. For those who believe in liberation and the supreme, it is the merging of the individual self into the cosmic self. That is union. But at present, it is the harmony of the body: a healthy body, a healthy mind, a healthy society, a healthy world. What we call religion came after a long, long time. Yoga is above religion. And if some glimpses of different religions came, they are out of yoga. In yoga, there is no individual path only. It is the path you have to go through by your inner inspiration. The awareness we awaken in each and every person is to make them aware of our own self, to live a healthy, happy, harmonious, and loving life. To awaken our awareness that we should live in harmony with nature. We should not destroy nature. Without nature, we cannot imagine how our life will be. We are sitting here today, and you see so much beautiful park. These are living beings. These trees are living beings too. How beautiful, and how we feel ourselves in harmony and peace. So, yoga is this tree. Look how this tree is maintaining itself. Each and every branch will find its own way to create more beauty and harmony in this world. Unfortunately, we create a lot of pollution. It is said there are 8.4 million different creatures created by one creator. In the Vedas, it is said: "I am one, and I will multiply." For example, there is a cherry tree and one seed. We put the seed in the earth; it will sprout, become a tree, and give thousands of cherries. They will grow, and again there will be thousands of seeds. So, billions of seeds will be multiplied. Eko hambau syāmī – I am one and I will multiply. Life is the one. It does not matter if it is a human, an animal, or a tree. Life is life. Now, out of 8.4 million different creatures—which we call Jalchar, Thalchar, and Nabchar, creatures in the water, on the earth, and in the space—out of them, one is the human. And we say the human is the best creature who declares. In God’s creation, there is also justice. You should ask all the creatures who is the best. Other creatures do not choose us. We ourselves say that we are the best. Well, I am also a member of humanity, and I also say we are the best. The best should never create anything negative. Who is creating the pollution on this beautiful earth of ours? Which creature is creating the most pollution, please? Who is destroying nature? For that we are born? No. We know that we create the pollution. We are suffering from this, and now we are fighting against this pollution. Billions and billions and billions of dollars we are spending, again, for the environment. But still, we do the same mistake: use and throw. But where to throw? In past times, people did not have that much facility, but they were happy. Now we have all kinds of facilities, yet we are still not happy. So we have to go back to the natural way of life. And that is again, I think, our dear Prime Minister Narendra Modi Jī, trying to bring in the awareness again for humans to come to nature. Which nature? Our inner nature. If we make corrections in our nature, everything will be okay. There are different kinds of culture. Every country has a beautiful culture. Where there are humans, there is culture. And where humans go, they bring their culture. Now, there are two Indians sitting: His Excellency and myself. Yes, we always say we are all one, but still we bring the touch of Indian culture. There is Slovakia and the Czech Republic, neighboring countries. They have their own culture. The Hungarians, the Austrians, etc. Yes, someone said, "Every culture is a good culture, but the best culture is agriculture." And we destroy agriculture, we pollute agriculture, and that is why we are suffering. Protect agriculture. Pesticides. Again, come to organic food. Sometimes people think that without eating meat, humans will be ill. I don’t want to talk too much, but I must tell you something. It was in 1989. I had a seminar retreat in Yugoslavia (now different countries) on the Adriatic coast. Many people, hundreds. Some people didn’t like that yogīs are vegetarians, so they wrote a very negative article when I was there. The article was written by a doctor who said, "Vegetarian life is not good. You will be ill," and many things. Finally, he wrote that vegetarians cannot get children. Well, the next day the newspaper came into my hand. I wrote a telegram (at that time there was no SMS), saying: "I admire you, dear doctor, for your knowledge that you said vegetarians cannot get children. That’s why Indians have overpopulation." The doctor came to my seminar in the evening, said sorry, and became a good disciple. He is still living and teaching Yoga in Daily Life. So it is said: life will eat life, but not the human. Well, I’m not going to tell you more. Today is the celebration of the International Day of Yoga, which was announced by the United Nations on the 21st of June. Due to holidays, we make compromises, one or two days earlier or one day later. Worldwide, you can’t imagine how many millions of people are celebrating. His Excellency has come. We are very happy. Thank you, Sir. His Excellency has also organized another program for Yoga Day in the capital city of Bratislava, and I think you should also go and join. In numerous cities of Slovakia, there will be practitioners coming into the open air to celebrate and practice yoga. So, Your Excellency, you should know that Slovakians are more yoga practitioners than in India, so 24 cities have already agreed and are coming. But, Your Excellency, if you know or you will know, you should know how many villages are left where there is no yoga in their life in Slovakia. So there are many, many villages spread, and so many cities will come together to practice. Also, some members will come to your organization and for your seminars. Slovakians have in their heart that kind of love towards nature, towards people, towards other creatures, and towards spirituality. Religion and spirituality are two different things. Spirituality means purity, clarity in your heart. That’s it. Love thyself means to love all. Well, there are always some little conflicts. A very dear couple, husband and wife, love each other very much. Love means harmony. But after some time, they also have conflicts. So, when the whole world agreed that yes, we should celebrate the International Day of Yoga, some narrow-minded people said, "We don’t want two things." One, we don’t want the Aum. Modījī said, no problem, he took it out. But my students and many other practitioners around the world, the Westerners, sent letters: "What a great pity. Without Aum, there is no yoga." So, Modījī said, it’s your choice, you should do it. No one is stopped; everyone is doing it. Second, Sūrya Namaskāra. They said, "We don’t believe the sun is a god," so they said we should take it out. Modi said, "No problem." But people are doing it, and no one prohibits it. But we have made another series of exercises, about 25 years ago or more, called Khatuprāṇām. Today, we will do the Khatuprāṇām. And Modījī doesn’t like those kinds of postures which are torturing, like acrobatic, because he said each and everyone can easily practice, old or young, or even ill or disabled people. Finally, he stuck to our Yoga in Daily Life, Sarvitasana, the simple postures. Anyhow, let’s come to the Kathopaniṣad before Indra will not lose his nerves. Okay, so you will instruct, okay? Straight up, yeah? So, Kathupāraṇam, everybody, Vajrāsana. We will slowly start. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. We will plant a tree. Can you tell them to the mayor? 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. I think one round more, because you are cold. Slowly, okay? So, one. Three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-three. Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Thank you. Děkuji. Now you have a little interval.

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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