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Hatha Yoga is in every kind of Yoga

A satsang discourse on the integral and demanding path of Haṭha Yoga.

"If you practice Bhakti Yoga, that is also Haṭha Yoga inside, because you must maintain your devotion continuously; it should not decrease but increase."

"So, bhakti yoga cannot be successful without haṭha yoga. And then it must be what we call the real devotion. That is a test. The heart has to be very pure."

The speaker explains that true spiritual devotion (bhakti) requires the steadfastness and discipline of Haṭha Yoga, using analogies of an airplane's smooth ascent and the steady flight of a swan contrasted with a noisy crow. He illustrates this with a story of a young girl, Karmabai, whose forceful and pure devotion compelled Lord Krishna to accept her offering, demonstrating that genuine love demands unwavering resolve. The talk concludes that all yoga paths are included within this disciplined approach.

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Haṭha Yoga is one of the finest and most excellent paths. You cannot proceed further without Haṭha Yoga. If you practice Bhakti Yoga, that is also Haṭha Yoga inside, because you must maintain your devotion continuously; it should not decrease but increase. And that is not easy. Sometimes we have emotions that go up and down, like high waves in the ocean. In the ocean, these high waves are called emotion. So we are moving; we are in motion. The direction this motion takes depends on you. Sometimes you are very happy, high, and sometimes you fall down. This means it is not stable. Therefore, bhakti yoga is not easy. We are mostly selfish. We always ask and ask and ask from God. If your wish is not fulfilled, you give up. But that was a task from God: to see how far this person will have devotion—for one year, two years, ten years, twenty years, sixty years, eighty years. It doesn’t matter what happens, day and night; our devotion should grow and grow. That which is hidden… our dear Dr. Shanti likes to sing that bhajan very much, and many of you like it. How does that bhajan begin? Sometimes in emotion you are singing, and sometimes one day Swamiji didn’t give you a blessing when everybody else got one. Or Swamiji gave a chocolate to one child, but your child didn’t get it. This is a test. How is something going up and down? Then this is a bhakti which is only like up and down. Continuously, constantly, it should go up and up. When you take off from the runway in an aeroplane, the pilot lets the plane run on the runway, but this runway is not enough. No matter how far or how quickly you can run, then it takes off. Then there is no run; it is just flow, flying, going higher and higher and higher smoothly. If you look from outside, a flight is going like that, but we are sitting just like that, smoothly going higher and higher and higher. Then it's going very fine and smooth in the space to our destination. And when the destination comes, that bhakta is coming into the lap of God. On the centimeters, the flight will land on that ground where it should be. Is it technology? The human brain? Humans did it, but what they did was imitation—the imitation of the birds. Yes, that is like a swan. The birds, like a crow, get very tired. One man had a very beautiful crow, and he said, "My crow is so nice. It can fly long, up and down, and like this. Long it can fly." They saw how it was doing up and down. The other one had a swan, and he said, "Yes, my swan also can fly very nicely." He doesn't make noise. So they had a competition. The crow was making noise, and the swan took off and was flying that Paramahaṁsa to the Kailāśa mountain, meaning to Śiva. Some people there, yes, Gurujī, Gurujī, they are like… next week, you don't know, going somewhere else. This Gurujī, that Gurujī, that Gurujī. Then they criticize this Gurujī, and criticize that Gurujī. That is a crow. That's why the crows are mostly black. But the swan—that swan takes off just a little, and then it's going very far. Or a very beautiful eagle, he goes higher and higher and is just enjoying. That is that, and that's it. He said, "Guruvaraṁe chalusa." In that Brahmaloka, therefore, this sādhanā, when you are becoming a Haṭha Yogī… so emotional devotion, and they are only expertise of having a prasāda—making laḍḍū, making this prasāda, prasāda. Of course, prasāda is a blessing. But the best prasāda, the biggest prasāda, is the blessing from the hand of the Gurudev, our holy saints. It doesn't matter if it's a male or female, the blessing of the parents, the blessing of your elderly brothers and sisters, the blessing of your neighbors, the blessing of your school teacher—all who can give you a blessing that is in your favor, so that is the prasāda. Prasāda means God's grace itself. So, bhakti yoga cannot be successful without haṭha yoga. And then it must be what we call the real devotion. That is a test. The heart has to be very pure. And when the order is given, then we give our life. So, how much confidence? There was one small temple of the God Kṛṣṇa—a very nice temple with a very nice, beautiful little statue of Kṛṣṇa. And one priest, or we call Pujārī. A Pujārī is one who is worshipping. Every day, God has to be worshipped. That's the Pujārī. In the morning, if you do it properly, then you get a Brahma Muhūrta. Wash yourself, then make a clock, and tell God, "Please wake up, or sit up." He opens the curtain. The altar should not always be open, and then he opens it and then he makes pūjā, āratī, then makes the prasāda for eating. So nice prasāda you get always from Hare Kṛṣṇa. In every temple they have prasāda. But our Krishna doesn't eat too much ghee and sugar. Krishna gets diabetes now. So we give the nuts. That's good. And so on, then comes with a plate cover, and then put it in the altar, close the curtain, or have a nice cloth like this, and holding it in the front of Kṛṣṇa and pray. Make the prayer means, please do like anāpūraṇe, sādhapūraṇe, any prayer. One day, that Paṇḍitjī had to go somewhere, something urgent. It was in a little village, and all farmers come to the temple, they come for prasāda, but they don't know how to worship and how to do mantra. So, Paṇḍitjī was asking, "Who can do the pūjā, please? For two days, I will not be here." There was a girl about 10 or 15 years old, and she said, "Paṇḍitjī, I will do it." She saw every day that Paṇḍitjī makes prasāda—halavā, yes, and some sweet, and like this, and covers it. And then gives to Krishna, and Paṇḍitji is waiting until Krishna eats. And then he takes and gives everyone prasād. Well, Paṇḍitjī went. In the morning, she may cook prasad at home from bajra, the millet, cooked nicely like dahlia, and she puts in the middle a lot of ghee, a full cup. And she covered it, and she came to the temple, opened the temple, lit the clock, dīpak, agarbatī, and now she said, "Eat." But when Kṛṣṇa ate… "I have to go with my cows. The statue is a statue." And she said, "Eat. Paṇḍitjī will be angry with me." No answer. She said, "Okay, I know that you always eat behind the curtain." She had no shawl, but she had a very nice rock. So she took her rock like this and held it like this to Kṛṣṇa in this way. And she said, "Now eat." And now Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "This is my real bhakti." And I will not eat? I will hurt her heart and her devotion? And really, Kṛṣṇa came. He ate. She said quickly. It was a half plate empty. She said, "No, no, you have to eat all. You can have a little bunny spoon for me, but you have to eat it." She's talking with Kṛṣṇa. Again, with her rock, she put it like this, and she did it. So, what was she singing? Jīmo jīmo mā rāk… What is it? Yes. There is a prayer. There is a jīmo. Jīmo jīmo mā rāk… Kṛṣṇa or something. Thāli barne lai vātaki upar ghi kī. Thāli barne lai kīcharo upar ghī kī vātaki. Jīmo mā rāk syāma giri. Jīmāve betī jātakī. Yeah, they are living a good life there. I've forgotten about my childhood. So it's a very nice prayer. She said, "I brought you the khichḍā full on the plate, and with a big bowl with ghee, oh my Lord, please eat. The daughter of the farmer brought you this, please accept and eat." And this is a very, very… So that her name was Karmabai, that girl, her name was Karmabai. Now we call her Karmabai sister. And we have a temple of the Sahajā. So God needs that kind of love, and not that, "Sometime, no, I will not do this, and I will not do this." This is at your time. My Paṇḍitjī said, and it has to be done, and it has to be done. Eat, otherwise I will not go. Yes, he was sitting and said, "Do it." My goats and my cows, they are going. My mother will be angry, my father will be angry. Eat, eat, eat. Let's not eat. And he only stood, but appears the supreme from the prayer. It is not a stone, it is the love that is the oneness, and therefore, so that was Karma Bhai was doing haṭha. I will not move, and I have a lot of work. You will be guilty, and he gave me the duty. Yeah, so that's it. But with a heart, so she said, "Otherwise, I will give you my love." Hurry home, come on, inside. So also, when we do the karma yoga, then it's also not so easy, so all is included in the haṭha yoga. And so, we will continue. Continue for a few days or a few weeks. We will have an interval, or if I will have time, then I will further make the webcast. Wish you all the best and devotion. Bhakti. Guru vākyahi kevalam, guru vākyahi kevalam śiṣyaki ānandamaṅgalam. Gurudev's words are the final. Śiṣyakī ānanda bāṅgālam, and disciples will always be in ānanda, and bāṅgālam is the best condition. And so this bhajan was very good. What was it? We will sing only two minutes because I have to go in five minutes.

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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