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Good evening. Blessings of our Gurudevs, our spiritual and Siddha Pīṭha, Alagpurījīs. We had a very nice talk this morning about Anuṣṭhāna, and I believe you had a very nice sādhanā at noon. There are certain techniques in our Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. One technique of prāṇāyāma is called Prāṇa Vyāyāma. Vyāyama means exercise, and prāṇa is prāṇa. This prāṇa we inhale—the very clean, pure, neutral prāṇa—covers our whole body. It is like ozone. Similarly, the prāṇa here on our earth, mostly that healthy prāṇa for us in the form of oxygen, comes from the ocean. We know how vast the ocean is. When we put a lid on a cooking pot, there is a button in the middle to hold, so we can lift the lid and put it back. Our ancestors used to say that the button on the pot’s lid is the earth, and the rest of the lid is the water. We have seven oceans and many lakes, so water is more abundant than earth. More creatures live in the water. They are called jālacara. Cara means creatures—movable beings. Cara and acara: acara is unmovable. Also, when you write a testament about your properties, you write about two types: movable property and immovable property. Your land is immovable; you cannot take it away. Your house is immovable. All other things—furniture, money, jewelry—everything can be transferred. The ocean is its own world and has a soul, a life. The ocean inhales and exhales. It takes twelve hours to inhale and twelve hours to exhale. The ocean comes to the shore and then, after a long time, goes back—like our stomach. When exhaling, the stomach goes in; when inhaling, it expands. So the ocean is inhaling and giving that much oxygen. We are cutting down forests and trees, yet the earth gives us oxygen. Our trees give us oxygen, which we all know well. One category is called jālacara. In the life of the ocean, there are different creatures. They move but live in water and cannot survive without it. In some ages past, this earth was under water. One incarnation, Varāha, like a boar, brought the earth out of the water with his two tusks. That is also known as an Avatāra, the Varāha-Avatāra. He brought this globe out, left it, and the globe began to move. The Earth is still rotating. Then the Earth came out, and different creatures began to develop over time. Sthala means earth, so those are called sthalacara. On this earth, the movable creatures are known as sthalacara. Then there are others who are born in the air and die in the air. They are the ones who fly. That is called nābhacara, living in space. There are different opinions, but generally we call them flying creatures—and there are many, many. You know when birds hunt other birds or creatures. So these are the three groups of living beings: jālacara, sthalacara, and nābhacara. The jālacara have their enemies; they fight in the water, kill each other, and survive this way. We sthalacara hunt each other, kill each other, eat each other. The nābhacara of the sky also have enemies. In our modern life, we also have three forces: navy, ground force, and air force. There is no fourth force. All these are living and functioning from that prāṇa—we can say air—and that prāṇa which gives us life has gravities. In our Anuṣṭhāna technique, you have a seven-minute program. Whoever is doing an Anuṣṭhāna course in a group is also learning breathing. But there is one technique you are now trained in or training for: prāṇāyāma without holding the nostrils with the thumb or ring finger. The real mudrā of prāṇāyāma… I thought I was talking into the air! Our camera was stuck on the trees only. It loved the trees; it was trying to catch the prāṇa. But I am sthalacara. It could show me too, but it’s okay—it’s a joke. So, the real, our best mudrā for how to hold the hand: these two fingers, the index finger and middle finger, we place at the Ājñā Cakra. There are two petals, left and right. There is the mantra SO HAM. So it becomes Haṭha, or together it becomes Yoga, Iḍā, Piṅgalā, etc. First, we place these two fingers exactly where the Ājñā Cakra is. Second, with these two fingers we support our head. Because some people, you can see when you open your eyes and look, when they do prāṇāyāma they have a wrong mudrā. They only breathe like this. It is not right, because then they go like this or like this. This supports our head so it does not fall back or forward. The prāṇāyāma practitioner should use what is called the prāṇāyāma stick—yes, that’s called by some other name, Yoga Daṇḍa. Then we have support. Otherwise, our shoulders become sore. You are holding like this, and you are going like this. So when you don’t have a stick, you have to support your stomach. That’s why many people have a big stomach—a stomach for supporting this. This is the mudrā. When we have this, our prāṇāyāma stick, Yoga Daṇḍa, it supports so our shoulders are relaxed, our neck is relaxed, our back is relaxed, our abdominal muscles are relaxed, and we can practice prāṇāyāma with relish. This is the mudrā: the thumb is for closing the right nostril, and the left ring finger is for closing the left nostril. If you are using the left hand, then with the left thumb you close the left nostril, and the left ring finger closes the right nostril. It does not matter if you use the left hand or right hand. If someone has no left hand or right hand, or your left hand is broken or right hand is broken… Left and right are a little different. Mostly, those who write with the left hand are said to be more intelligent. I cannot write with my left hand, so I am not so intelligent. Now, taking prāṇa. In our Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna, there are many, many kriyās, techniques. You are learning to inhale and exhale, for example, with the left nostril but without the help of the hands. If you master that, then you are on a higher level of prāṇa. So: inhale through the left nostril and exhale through the right nostril. It is not easy. Inhale through the right nostril and exhale through the left nostril. This is practiced in yoga science. There is one subject of yoga, like Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, etc., but for Siddha Yogīs it is called Svara Yoga. If we can learn Svara Yoga, you can definitely control many things in your body. Then you can consciously enter the astral body and consciously come back. It is like one bird flying with two wings. Similarly, that Anuloma-Viloma without supporting the nostrils means we are at a higher level of yoga practice. What we normally call yoga practice—āsanas and some prāṇāyāmas with them—is okay, but still we are not there. The gravities are too high. So we try for a few years, then we say it is sour and try something else. But in this normal yoga technique, in the subject of prāṇāyāma, there are two techniques we can do without the help of the hands: one is Kapālabhāti, and the second is Bhastrikā. We can do those without holding the nostrils. But to master these signs in the beginning—Bhastrikā or Kapālabhāti with the left nostril, then with the right nostril—that is it. For Bhastrikā we also need to support the nostrils initially. The third technique is without holding the nostrils at all. This technique is taught first by holding the nostrils with the hand, but then we continue without the hand. Then comes Kapālabhāti. It looks almost the same, but there is a little difference. It was a diesel locomotive, and now it is an electric locomotive. Kapālabhāti is like starting a coal locomotive—sorry, not diesel. Yes, Bhastrikā is with the diesel engine. The coal or diesel engine—maybe somewhere in a museum they are using it, otherwise not anymore. Kapālabhāti is like a coal locomotive. Also, all the time we had to start the engine with what they call the key. Now the diesel—that is Kapālabhāti, no, Bhastrikā—goes soft. So now, that technique you are learning in the morning session after breakfast, where you are breathing and trying, learning without hands—inhaling through the left nostril, exhaling through the right; inhaling through the right, exhaling through the left—that will help you progress and learn Svara Yoga. A master who has mastered Svara Yoga knows when he or she will become ill, what kind of illness will come, and it can be avoided also. But what is in nature, you cannot always avoid. That person knows when they will die and how long they will live, and how to avoid death for a certain time. All the time, even now, but by the law of the Government of India, they do not allow it—that is called Jīvita Samādhi. Samādhi has many, many types. I was telling Divya yesterday, I think, about different Samādhis. So jīvan samādhi: while being alive, you attain Samādhi. That one Samādhi is the highest Samādhi, and this Samādhi I am talking about is the final Samādhi. It means the yogī says, “Now few hours are left according to Svara Yoga.” They prepare his grave, and he tells his disciples, “I will sit now in that grave, which we call Samādhi, and please do not open it again.” They cover it with a stone, and that gives life; it gives prāṇa out. In some cases, people say, “No, definitely Gurujī is suffering inside for oxygen,” and they take the stone away. Gurujī was not there; it was an empty hole. That is the miracle of that yogī, of that Svara Yoga sādhanā. But our government does not allow it; they think it is like suicide. So when there is a rumor that a yogī is going to have a Jīvan Samādhi, immediately the government sends a powerful police force. They will not let this person sit and be covered in the earth. But I am sure you will not try, and if you try, I will not let you go. And then, you know, you will… Ah, the sound—please, can you open the lid? But it is soundproof. Many, many… you will see that living Samādhis, they were… we have an āśram we often go to, and there is a bhajan from Maṅgal Girijīmaras. There are four generations who attained this Jīvan Samādhi. So prāṇa, which is our whole life, is prāṇa. In our bones we have prāṇa; otherwise, bones would not be alive. Our organs, our muscles, etc., everything works with prāṇa, also through nourishment. The prāṇāyāma you are learning has two or three other different techniques in your Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. You should concentrate and learn, and you have time. That is why we gave you the time. You have nothing to do with other things. We clean your rooms after you go to your techniques. At the right time, ready-made food is there. Whether you make the chai or the tilak coffee, everything is there. You have nothing to do yourself except these techniques. This kind of prāṇāyāma you can try at home too. That is why prāṇa, prāṇāyāma, and these techniques which you have… but you know, in every technique there is some prāṇa, some force, some power behind it. That is called Guru-kṛpā. As Gurudev gave you these techniques, if you learn further, you could become ill, mentally ill, or lose your memory. Therefore, this is a Vidyā, a science, a knowledge. To whom it is given is very important. First become perfect, then you should teach further. But you do not have these experiences yet. So learn, learn, and learn. Do not hurry. Do not think that in ten years you will be levitating. I will not let you levitate. But do you know what levitate means? We will carry you on our shoulders to the graveyard. I will not let you go, so do not hurry. Practice. In any case, who knows when we will die? That is clearly stated in the Bhagavad Gītā. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, in the chapter on yoga… Arjuna tells—because Kṛṣṇa always says again and again to Arjuna, “Practice yoga”—and Arjuna… Kṛṣṇa is known as a Yogendra, also a practicing yogī. So Arjuna puts the question: “Kṛṣṇa, you are asking me, ‘Practice yoga, practice yoga; you will get Mokṣa, liberation, Samādhi, etc.’ But if I have not attained perfection, Jīvanmukta, and I die, then what is the good of practicing yoga? My whole life I practiced yoga, but still I did not achieve my goal, and I died.” Kṛṣṇa said, “Yes, you are right. But your Jīvātmā, your soul—meaning you, O Arjuna—you will be born again as a human. From childhood, you will have this interest in yoga and spirituality. When you begin your yoga sādhanā, your past life’s karma and the fruits of yoga practice will connect with that, like you get interest from your bank. When you retire, everything will be counted and given to you. Therefore, O Arjuna, practice, practice, practice. Abhyāsa, abhyāsa. O Kaunteya, abhyāsa. O son of Kuntī, practice, practice, practice.” Therefore, yoga is the science of body, mind, and soul. It is an ancient science given to us, and that is Sanātana. It is passed on further, master to disciple, son to father, father to son; we give it further to the generations. That is the Sanātana, and that Sanātana Dharma—even one day when the world will not be here, when it will be under water—still Sanātana will remain. So your sādhanā, your kriyā, you should practice with great love, devotion, interest, etc.