TV Channel

We are on the most beautiful island called Fiji. Everything here is very pure; there is no pollution. There is enough humidity. It is winter in Europe, but summer here. In yoga, we call this Ekānta Vāsa—spending time in a silent place. Where we are, there is no sound of cars, except when our friends arrive from the airport by taxi. That is all. This is the Pacific Ocean, and in the śāstras, in the scriptures, Fiji is mentioned as one of the very pure, peaceful, harmonious, and divine islands. Looking at history, the different creatures and people here had a hard life because, while there was a lot of vegetation, there were no fruits, no grains, no rice, etc. They did not know what to eat or how to eat. The population was small. As on every island, people took animals from the water, so-called fish, etc. But it is said that if humans do something, they will definitely create food: vegetation, vegetables, and the roots of different plants. These islands are full of herbs, and people used them when they were ill. There was no other medicine. The air, water, soil, and herbs—this was their treatment, the healing of illnesses. Now, in this civilized world, of course, the island is not completely lonely. There are airplanes and airports. But coming here for a retreat, you have all the possibilities for swimming. When it is winter here, it is summer in Europe, but that time... The water here is warm. You can swim and sit outside, so it is like Europe in the middle of June or July. This is not a winter; it is very good. I myself have realized this, and as many people here have, there is healing for asthma—such a nice air environment, the air, water, etc. So, making a retreat here, no one needs to try to meditate; it just comes by itself. Two, already three days, are gone, and we are sorry that three years, or three months, or three days pass so quickly. We will go very soon, but if you practice prāṇāyāma, if you are walking, sitting, sleeping, or swimming, all the time we are breathing such good air. It is good for our lungs, good for our memory, and a retreat for anti-stress. As soon as you come into this environment, automatically the stress is gone. And you see, the people here are without stress. They don't have many of what we call motors, machines, or cars. People are in the mountains, in the hills. They have a small piece of land where they grow vegetables, and they have cattle for milk. There are small schools where the children go. It is a very natural way of living here. Of course, they cannot easily visit Europe. They have to work ten or twenty years to save the money to come to Europe. But if we come here, we should not produce pollution or bring plastic, etc. When we come here as tourists, it helps this country, this island of Fiji. So there are two things: if we come, we help, and people learn many good things from us, and we learn from the people. Meditation and sādhanā here are very good. It has a beautiful culture, and we will see what we can find nearby. One day we will go. These Fijians, the original Fijians—we call them Aborigines? Not Aborigines; they are also Maori, no? Something. Anyhow, they are native people. They have such beautiful dances and songs, many beautiful songs and dances, and they make many souvenirs with their hands—very, very nice. There is one beautiful ceremony called Kāvā drinking. If you come to Fiji and you did not drink the kava, you didn't drink anything. The people meet together every day, or at least every Sunday or so, and drink kava. When they have any kind of festival, event, or meeting, you have to offer them the kava. The kava is a beautiful ceremonial drink. So, I think we will make it here one day. You see this spot; we will have the kava, and I will offer it to you, and you will drink it, okay? It has a very nice... it is not like alcohol, not at all. It is not a drug, not at all. But it is something that makes you relaxed without alcohol. And, of course, you can buy it in Australia, in New Zealand, everywhere. You can take it from here to any country. The kava is okay now. The kava calms you down. You take the kava and meditate, yes. Now, kava is a root, one root of some nice herbs. It is a root, and then they make powder. They take it in a cloth, tie it, and soak it in water. It has a special part of the kava. You may have seen somewhere, maybe on the way, a picture of the part of the kava that was in Jordan. Okay, was someone in my room in Jordan? Did you see on my big dining table the part of the kava? Yes, so we will bring it. It is a beautiful, beautiful ceremony. We all sit around, and two or three of these friends, real Fijian people, will come. They will bring the big pot and the coconut pots made from coconut, and they will come and offer it like this, with the ceremony. Then you take it, drink, and give it back, and do this three times. That's it. Bula. Okay, bula. And everyone will do so. Drink, and then it comes to someone else, and so on, slowly, slowly. And sometimes they sing a nice song. I think you would like it, no? Yes, good. And in this way, we also bring economy to them, no? Okay. So if you go from Fiji, you should not take your money pocket full; all emptied, so it will come... something more to you. That was a joke, anyhow. There are cultural people. We will find out. I have one disciple in Nadi, and we will ask her where she can bring the cultural people. I think one of the resorts here or there, so we can bring them one day, okay? Because we are not the kava people; we are the prāṇāyāma people. So here we will have it. This morning we had prāṇāyāma, and this retreat is concentrated on prāṇa and apāna: Prāṇa, Samāna, Udāna, Vyāna. These prāṇas are described in your "Hidden Powers in Humans" book as well as in the "Yoga and Daily Life" book. Please study these prāṇas and how they function, especially for pregnant women—it is very powerful and very useful to have the prāṇāyāmas and understand both prāṇa and apāna breathing. The breathing is most important. Today we did Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Suṣumṇā. First, it is called Candra Śodhana—Chandra Śodhan, Surya Śodhan. Candra is the moon, the left nostril, and Sūrya is the sun, the right nostril. So, inhaling and exhaling through the left nostril is called Chandra Śodhan. You can say Nāḍī Śodhana or Chandra Śodhana, Sūrya Śodhana—only inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale with the left or with the right. We have to practice these two or three techniques for one or two months only; then you will see what is with your lungs, how good it is, how your concentration is, and the stress will go away. Breath, breath... After that is called Candra Vedanā. It means we inhale through the left and exhale through the right, inhale through the left, exhale through the right. This is called Chandra. So first we did Chandra purification. Bhedana means going through, cleaning. After that comes the Nāḍī Śodhana. So this is Nāḍī Śodhana: inhale through left, exhale through right; inhale through left, exhale through right. Or inhale through right, exhale through left; inhale right, exhale left. So, Chandra cleaning, purification of the left nostril and right nostril. Vedan means to penetrate, to clean, to go through. So, from one nostril to the other side, to the other nāḍī, and from this nāḍī to that nāḍī. This is called Chandra Vedan, then Surya Vedan. After that, the third technique, which we are doing and will do, is different than the normal one you do everywhere, and that's called anulom vilom. Then comes the prāṇāyāma, anulom vilom. This is working with both nāḍīs, the Chandra Nāḍī and Sūrya Nāḍī, at the same time. We are purifying. So the water from this ocean comes to that ocean, and that water comes to the other. Our left side river water comes into this river, and other water comes over that river. So it is flowing together, purifying, and that means purifying both hemispheres of our brain. It gives a lot of energy, and our living is through the brain. The brain can change anything. The brain can give us any healthy path, or when we neglect it, then it can become a disease and so on. Digestion, lungs, all organs, the heart—this all depends on our brain centers. From there, everything is coming. So, it will come now: Anulom Vilom. And then we will come to different kinds of prāṇāyāmas, which you can write down and practice, or next year when we come, we will learn more about prāṇa. This air that we are inhaling, even when we are talking from the mouth—inhaling also, exhaling also—has a kind of purification of our vocal cords, which is very good here, very, very good. And the stones are like lava stones. They are black, dark, beautiful, beautiful. So we are lucky, and unfortunately, we don't have enough space. The whole retreat is occupied. More people wanted to come, but we had no space. For next year, perhaps we will ask if we can come with tents. In the rain, it is beautiful with a tent. Oh, when it is raining, a tent is perfect, but when all is sun shining, then the tent is a little... it's a bit too hot. So perhaps we can do like this tent, you know, double and make it something. Yeah, this is a retreat. We were treating it, and now we again retreat it. Such a beautiful... It's not that we should have that comfort of this and that. Try to live a natural life. And you see, on this island, there are no harmful animals like scorpions, snakes, or wild jungle animals. Anywhere, you can just put your sleeping bag and lie down. Nothing will happen, yeah. Little ants come sometimes, no problem. So, thank you, and I'm very happy that you are here. We shall practice, and we will organize nice programs. Okay, do you want to go shopping? Okay, shopping means some cloth or something like this, not eating and drinking and like this. Okay? No, very good. All right, what? Who wants to go? Hands up, okay. We will give you duty every day: go for shopping and come back. Good. So we will organize; we will tell them about the dancing, music, singing, cultural program. Okay, we will organize it here. If we can organize that somewhere in the mountains, hills—there are few people there only—and, of course, there are tourists who go there. But, of course, you must have some money in your pocket. We have to have a bus, we have to have a guide, we have to go there. When they make a program, we have to give donations. Then they have handmade things. Immediately they put a bag, their things, handmade, and the ladies sitting there doing something with their hands tell you, "Buy this or buy that." Everything, souvenirs, beautiful souvenirs, good. That's all. I wish you a very nice little refreshment with the coconut, okay, or chai, water, anything. Relax. Hari Om. Dīp Nayan Bhagavān Kī Jai.