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Our self. The self has many definitions. Who am I? Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya said: "Ko’haṁ katham idaṁ jātaṁ ko’vā kathasya vidyate?" Who am I? From where do I come? For what did I come? And what am I doing? And where am I going? This should be the first knowledge. We do not know from where we came in our past life. In one way, it is good that God placed a curtain there, so we do not know. Many times, people say, "I want to know my past life." Many people perform different kinds of hypnosis, putting you into a kind of trance and then saying, "I was there, and I was there." There was one student of mine, a yoga student. She was very sad and unhappy and wanted to know her past. She went to a psychologist, and he put her to sleep and said, "Yes," and there was like this and like that, giving suggestions. Suddenly, that person said, "Yes, and then I was in Egypt, and there was my lover or husband, and then he died, and they took him into the grave. I was looking, but no one let me come near to him," and so on. The hypnotizer said, "Yes, this is your problem." She replied, "Yes, that is my problem." How do you know? Because he came again in life, in the next life. He was such a beautiful man, and he came back from Egypt. Yes. And I fell in love with that man because I knew exactly who he was, and he knew exactly, but he left me. And I think he died again. He said, "Yes, it was right. This is only fantasy." So your dream is your reality. But in some way, you have your emotion, and with this emotion, you can melt a mountain. Therefore, do not trust in these things. Hypnosis is for people who are very emotional and confused. If you knew who you were in the past and where you were, you would know everything, but you cannot know your past. How was your life? There is another story. A farmer was working in the field. After lunchtime, he was taking a rest. What I want to tell you now is how our soul makes the eternal journey, going and coming, and how our death will be. I am not talking about animals; they also have a different death situation. But as we are human, with human intellect, human knowledge, and a human heart that has some awakening, humans try everything to heal our illness. It is said, "Save thy life." As long as the soul is in your body, be happy to do some good karma, because with which karma you came back... But I have a third story now. I am not confusing you. There was the story of the hypnotizer and that girl. She is still suffering, and often she goes to Egypt for summer holidays and looks around. All that looks the same: Indian is Indian, Egypt is Egypt, African is African, Slovakia is Slovakia. And again, she finds someone, and again she is confused. That is a story, but there is another story which is the reality, a real story, and you know this one. It lasted about 100 years before. There was a great saint in Calcutta, and he was known as Paramahaṁsa Rām... what is that... Vivekānanda Gurujī? He performed a sādhanā to Divine Mother, and Divine Mother... He was day and night making worship and crying, "Mother, come! Mother, come!" His wife was also very divine. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa—his name was Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa, a great, self-realized being. One day, truly, Mother Kālī from the temple appeared to him, and many of his experiences were written there. He said, "Mother, I am your child. I want my liberation, mokṣa." She said, "I give you everything, my child. I know what you want, but to have mokṣa—Mokṣa mūlaṁ guru kṛpā, you know this mantra—only your Gurudev blesses, then you will have mokṣa. Therefore, Rāmakṛṣṇa, my child, go to your guru, Tathāpurījī." So Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa’s guru was Tathāpurījī. He went there, and his guru blessed him, saying, "I will liberate you, I will give you mokṣa." Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa was a great, great... great. From that time on, the Paramahaṁsa title became more powerful. But only getting a title does not do anything. Now, Vivekananda’s story you know. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa put his foot on the head of Vivekananda, and Vivekananda attained self-realization or the knowledge. But Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa did not put only one hand or foot on the head of the bhaktas. Vivekananda was one who was already, from past life, performing sādhanā practice. Anyhow, Vivekananda became very famous. He traveled all around India. After that, he was also in America. After traveling around India, the king of Rajasthan gave him the name Vivekananda. Vivekananda was given another name by Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa, so that is okay, no problem. Vivekananda gave lectures and always thought that, "I am the great." Ego pushes you down. It is a dangerous, dangerous situation for the spiritual practitioner—the ego. Everything is like deleted. Now we have a computer. You type everything nicely inside, and instead of pressing the button to save, you press delete. Ten days or ten years, all work in your computer is gone. All your ten years’ spiritual work is gone. My dear, it is not easy. Otherwise, every day we would have self-realized beings coming up like mushrooms. Hate, jealousy, conflict, anger, greed—all this is poison for the spiritual seeker. The soul is gone; only the body remains. Anyhow, Vivekānanda came to have darśana of his Gurujī in Calcutta after a long journey. It was winter, a little cool, so Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa was lying in the garden, in the park, in the sunlight. His bhaktas were there, here, everywhere. Swami Vivekananda came from far. He saw him—a young man proud of everything. Everyone said, "Viveka, Viveka." Many bhaktas were behind Vivekananda. Vivekananda saw his Gurujī lying there with cancer in his neck, in his throat. The peak was coming out. Vivekananda, from five or ten meters away, thought: My Gurudev? I worship and I see and I believe my Gurudev as my God. And now, what is happening with him? Is it that he is really my Guru, as my God? How he suffers. He was thinking all this, but he had his strength and viveka. He gathered himself again not to fall down. He came near Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa and said, "Gurudeva," making praṇām. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa, who was sitting there, said one word: "Vivek" (not Vivekananda). "Vivek, I thought you know who I am." Vivekananda said, "If I want, I will just put my hand here and I will take the cancer away. I will heal it. But Vivek, everyone has karma. So many karmas are gone. This one remained in the form of this cancer. If I take it out through my power, my spiritual power, I will heal it. But for this, I have to come again to this life to suffer this pain of this cancer. I do not feel pain, and I know it will go with me, only till my samādhi, the grave. Therefore, I do not want to come again in life. If I kill myself, then my soul will suffer. In the astral world, neither am I here nor there, and the pain will be with me." Vivekānanda got tears and fell down at the lotus feet of Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa. Such a great saint had to go through this also. What a situation of Jesus. If he wanted, he could do everything. He could make the war, but no. He knows that this is my karma, my duty. I have to go through this. I will not refuse. If I refuse, then I will suffer again, so I know it is my destiny in front of me. And so Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa said, "I welcome my destiny. What comes to me, I will accept with joy and happiness." Accept the destiny, good or bad, because I know I have to fulfill this desire or this pain or such situations. So when someone commits suicide, according to the śāstras, the soul who tried to kill itself—suicide—unfortunately, that soul will suffer or remain a long, long, long time in this space. It will be long aligned somewhere. Therefore, pain or pleasantness, happiness or unhappiness, joy or suffering, we should finish here. Not with hate, not with anger. It is painful, but how long? And now, thanks to God, we have many doctors and many painkillers. But some kind of pain cannot be helped by painkillers, like in Mīrābāī’s story—this is a fourth story, but I will come back—and Mīrābāī’s bhajan, you know: "My pain. Nobody knows, neither the doctor understands, nor the lawyer understands, nor others understand. O my beloved, my pain, my disease only can be healed when you come as my doctor. O Kṛṣṇa, you come as a doctor to me many, many lives and lives. My pain will be solved, healed." So, in one way, to live in this life, we have to face everything, even if you are in prison. We are in two prisons. The first prison is our body. We are inside, we cannot go out, we do not want to go out, and we are suffering, painful. Second, you are imprisoned by some emotion or by some situations, but we have to go through this life. My dear, so we face the situation with a smile. Gurudev will do. Therefore, there are many, many bhajans. There is one bhajan, "Itnā to karnā Gurujī. Darśan jalad." And these all bhajans, we will not sing. So, one farmer in his farmhouse was working in the field. Lunchtime, he got lunch, and he worked from 7 o’clock till 12. At that time people were less ill. We have no physical work; that is one of the reasons for many, many illnesses. He was having rest for half an hour. What happened? He sleeps, and now he is dreaming that he died. Then he became a very good merchant and had much, much money. And again he died, and he was born again in the king’s family, and he was the eldest prince. He became the king, and he married and had many children, enjoying the life of a king. Someone came and said, "Friend, wake up." The dream is gone. He is a farmer, lying under the tree for a rest, and hardly was it 10-15 minutes. Two lives he had. A third life he was enjoying now, and the fourth, which he has now already. So that one man said, "Friend, please come home." He said, "Why, what happened?" He said, "It is okay, please come home." So he came home. He only had one son, and the child died. His wife, his mother, his father, his brothers—all are crying. Only the son died. But this farmer, he is thinking, and people thought he got a shock from his son’s death. He had no sorrow, no happiness; he is thinking. So one person came and said, "What? You know what happened?" "Yes, I know that." "Then, at least some sorrow, sadness." He said, "I will do. But I, as a king, left my children there. Should I cry first for them or for this child? So this is my problem: I left two wives and my queen, so beautiful, and three or four children, and I left them. I just woke up. Is this a reality, or is that a reality?" Similarly, this is an example: this soul, when it will go from this body, it will come to some other body, and it is the destiny. So destiny is greater than anything, and we are mortal beings. But our soul is within us, and therefore: From where do I come, and who am I? For what did I come, and what am I doing? And where will I go? Therefore, know thyself, your Ātmā. So, it is called the eternal journey of the soul. From dream to dream, to dream, to dream. And every dream is your reality. I cannot put in your brain that tonight you should dream about this. Now tonight you should dream like that. It cannot be. So we have the level of our consciousness, and there are three levels: Jāgrata, Suṣupti, and Svapna. Jagrata: we are awakened now. We are conscious. Everything we know; this is called awakened. Suṣupti: nidrā, sleep. We do not know. Our border, that from the awakened state, how we come to sleep, is a second thing. But that second, we do not know. We are tired, we are very sleepy, we want to sleep, lie down, "I will sleep." But when? How did you sleep? How did you cross this border? And when the deep sleep is there, it can only be that state of consciousness. There is no attachment, neither to your wealth, your house, your partners, your friends, nor your children. In deep sleep, it is all away, thanks to God, because that is the level of sleep. We get rid of much stress from our brain. But too long sleeping, too much sleeping brings again the laziness, the tamas guṇas. So sleep is that sleep which needs only a certain time and is finished. And if you think that today I will sleep consciously—for example, tomorrow morning, five o’clock, my flight is, my flight, two hours’ way to the airport. At least one and a half hours earlier, I should be there. I am tired. I should sleep quickly. I will sleep. You lie down. I hope I put the alarm. So you should look to the bathroom. It is okay. I hope I put all my documents. It is okay. Did I put off the light? The flame or the oil lamp? Oh God, I have forgotten. To whom should I give responsibility for my dog? Oh yes, neighbor said, "I will do it." So what happens? You cannot sleep. Sleep is gone. Therefore, sleep means sleep. Just lie down. Hurry home. Therefore, this is Yoga Nidra, Virāla Śānt Janjani Mahāprabhujī’s bhajan. So, Yoga Nidra—that is, we are practicing every day, but still you did not get that level to come over, and until that, you cannot enter into the sleeping state consciously. You cannot achieve that ātmā jñāna. Okay. The third state is the sleep, svapna, the dream. Dream is your reality. Now we are sleeping tonight here in Martin, but you will dream in the night about a different place, maybe in Japan or China or Mexico or here at your home. This sūtraḥ, this consciousness, that awakening to that desire, which is your reality, your attachment? You may dream about your horse, your dog, your cat, your great-grandmother, or your cherry tree. Anything. But do you know how you went from Martin to the Poprad, to your cherry garden? You know, I am dreaming. Sometimes dream is reality completely. You feel, you enjoy, you eat, you take the cherry. There, oh, how nice. In my mouth, it is already water. Good cherries. So, how did you, or your consciousness, or your soul, go to the dream? With the dream goes the astral body. The physical body is here. It is like a doctor, surgeons make an operation, and they give an injection. Suddenly, you are somewhere, and the knives are moving in your stomach. You do not feel anything. So, is that astral body going now? But something happens to the body immediately. The soul will come back suddenly. You wake up, "Oh, I was in my garden in the Kupo Pradana. I ate good cherries, so good dream." How did you go there, and how? Did you come back? So, these are the three levels of consciousness: jāgrat, suṣupti, and svapna—the awakened, the sleep, and the dream. And then comes the higher consciousness. So we have to purify, understand, and master these three levels. My dear, it is not so easy to become a master guru. Taking an orange dress, or a white dress, or a black dress. With the uniform, you have to become real training to get a uniform. The general of the army, you know how many medals he has, but ask how long training he had that he achieved that. Similarly, our sādhanā, our yoga, our spirituality—what we need, what we do—this soul is working for you. Ātmā is covered by, or the Jīvātmā is covered by Ātmā. It is going to, so we will do further. The eternal journey of the soul, and we have to realize it; otherwise we do not know where we will go again. Therefore, Mahāprabhujī said, "Do not hurry slowly, but remain on the path. The path is very slippery. There is a deep hole, dark night, and narrow street, very slippery. And when you will slip down, you will fall deep in the hole." So, dark night means our ignorance. The deep hole means our mistake, and the slippery road is our temptation. Bhajan, many times we were singing, and I also gave the explanation. But what I want to tell you, what I give you the example, and there are many other examples. There is one book which I often tell, "Life After Life," or "Life After Death." That book you should read. The person who wrote this book, the scientist, the professor, is in America, in Washington DC. He interviewed people from all different parts of the world, from every religion, non-believers, atheists, and cultural, etc. He interviewed those people who died—after what you call medical death, clinical death, yeah?—and again awoke. So he interviewed those people: "What have you seen?" And then what the people told, he wrote in his book. And many, many people have the same experiences. One of our disciples had twice this clinical death. He is nearby where it is, in the Czech Republic, what is called Zlín or Zlína? So he is nearby that one little village, and he told me his experiences, and the same things are in that book. So, it is the Jilin, no? The village. It will come. Alright, so we shall work on ourselves. It does not matter what happens. We do not take our soul out of the body. Gotvaldova. Yeah. You know the Gotvaldova, yeah? Yes. I had many, many seminars there, you know? So, and now this Gotvaldova is another village. Okay, good. So, tomorrow morning we will make some further steps, but you have to take that in your heart, one saṅkalpa: now I have seen all the troubles of this world, I tried everything, nothing can make me happy, and nothing can make me unhappy. Pain or pleasure, illness or health, I have my saṅkalpa: I will get my ātmajñāna. I do not want to come again in this way, in this life. That is it. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.