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A Humble Address at the Ashram

A spiritual address at an ashram on culture, yoga, and compassion.

"The ashram is for those people who are searching for peace, harmony, understanding, and liberation."

"Compassion is the root of Dharma."

Swami Ji, a yogi with decades of teaching experience in Europe, delivers a talk expressing gratitude for the ashram and concern for the loss of Indian culture. He discusses the true meaning of ashram life, shares a parable about infinite spiritual knowledge, and explains the importance of proper pranayama and Kundalini awakening. He concludes with a strong emphasis on ahimsa (non-violence) and compassion towards all living beings.

Filming location: USA

First, my salutations to the Cosmic, adoration to the Satguru Dev, His Holiness Swāmījī Mahārāj Gaṇapatī Jī. I have known him for about 26 or 27 years. I came to Europe in 1970 and have lived in Austria since 1971. In that time, I received invitations from the United Nations and also from Soviet Union countries, communist nations, where I was teaching and giving yoga. So from that time, I know Satguru Dev, and it is a great privilege for me to be here in this Amara, Mera, Apna—our ashram. All holy places are for the sādhus. It does not matter if it is in Hindu temples, or Christian, or Jewish, or any. That is it. The ashram, the spiritual center, is for a sādhu; it is our house. So I feel—and not just feel, I can tell—it is my ashram. "Ashram" has many meanings, but the simple meaning is: "ā" means come, and "śram" means work. So in the ashram, everyone who comes here comes with devotion, with the heart, and works for all creatures, not only for humans, but for all creatures. The ashram is for those people who are searching for peace, harmony, understanding, and liberation. We should not go to the ashrams or come for selfishness. But when we enter through the door of our ashrams, we are entering the house of the Supreme. We are here in the ashram; it is like being in the mother’s, father’s hands. I was very happy to hear about this ashram. And Amṛt Sāgar, she is also originally from what is called the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia. In his country, since March 1973, I began to teach there. You can think that every third village has some yoga and daily life activities there. And she is also from there, and she told me, and she introduced me to Swāmījī. And I knew before that also, many, many ashrams, and he is a great, great soul. We pray to the Almighty that his physical body remains for a long, long, long time for us. Definitely, he will come again sometimes to bless you here. He has given you an ashram here. Our duty is to come and do the sādhanā. So this is for you, not for Swāmījī. It is for us and for our children. Our culture, Indian culture, is completely different. And it is known that all culture is coming from the cradle of India. The cradle of India, which gave—and of course we should never think that only from India, but we should see all, all, does not matter from which country, which place, with other countries—all people are same, equal for us, no dualities. But still, the 24 incarnations came on that Vashundhara, the divine earth, what we call Bhārata, India. All the incarnations were there, and now it is Kali Yuga, so the Kali Yuga, Kali Avatāra will also come first in India. We are forgetting our culture. Many of you, I think of my very, of my brothers and sisters of India, those who are in the different age, about more than 60 years, 40 years, when they go back to India, they think they are not in India. My disciples around the... When they go first time with me to India, after one week they tell me, "Swāmījī, when will we go to Bhārat or India?" I said, "We are here." They say, "Swāmījī, what do you talk about here in the Western countries? You talk about India, and now India is like that." It is not truth we lost it. We lost our culture, and it is a pity. But thanks to God, thanks to Gurudev, thanks to such great holy saints, they came to Western countries, to different countries. And do not tell me something that, Swāmījī, what you tell like this, but I tell you, Indian culture has gone to Europe or the Western countries. And their lost culture, not real culture, is gone to India. But thanks to those great ones, that they will bring these people, they will bring the culture, which is Indian culture, they will bring back to India. Yes? Not even in India, there is no place for you in India, and not even here. Our Indian Hindu religion, these people have come from there. But even in India today, they are not accepting you; they call you a relative. And religion is their religion; it is a Christian religion, a Buddhist religion, a yogī religion, a Sindhi religion, a Sikh religion. Jainism is also a religion, but it is not a Hindu religion. Whatever I am saying, I do not want to say it too much. Whenever there is a fight in our country, there is a fight in the market between different religions. I have seen it. I have lived in Gujarat and Ahmedabad. So when there was a fight between us and other religions, we took the Hindus with us, beat them, and punished them. But we had to punish them. We did not take them with us. Even now, why not you? Because you do not have any religion. It is not written in your constitution either. It is only written that we are Hindus, and Hindus mean the community. And the community is the one that is harming India. We can still say this. So where did that culture go? We have become slaves of everyone. Today you cannot write. And when our great Mahātmājī, great Chinmayānandjī Mahārāj, you must have heard him. They have written that the world belongs to Hindus. But they could not write that Hinduism, the world belongs to Hindus. They had removed that too. They are fighting. We are fighting a lot because I have come to you now. I feel sad, and you must also feel sad. You are from my home. You have skin on skin. How can we come together in this ashram and make this ashram so beautiful that it can be seen in the city that this is an Indian deity, and what can this Devlok make? But you do not have this power. We even forgot our language. I should have told you about yoga, but you do yoga. But I am telling you this because I did not want to tell you. This is the thing. So, yoga. Modiji was a strong man. He is a strong man. About three years ago, he took permission from the United Nations to do international yoga. Otherwise, you know what it is? The Christians and other people said, "Yoga is a work of the Rākṣasas." Rākṣasas. Vatican wale. Pope kī bahase. Once a year, in their letters coming, yoga is the work of the devils. And no one, no ambassador can say anything. We are lost. We are lost. If we have to practice yoga, then everyone’s mind will be fine. So, anyhow, the Amṛt Sāgar. The name Amṛt Sāgar is a good name, is it not? It is written in the names of all my followers. There are millions of followers of mine, but I do not know their names. I only know this name, so, Amṛt Sāgar. She was telling too much about me, or I was feeling, I became less and became smaller. Why do they worship me so much? So there is one person who came to my Gurujī, Satguru. One thing is that the Satguru should be called the one who has taken samādhi. That Mahātmā, that Guru, that became Gaḍipati, and from that, he, from paramparā, when he went into the samādhi, then, another one’s successor will come and sit on this. So that one who sits on the Gāḍīpatī, he will give the blessings, but Gaḍipati and all the others, he does not have the right to say that he is the Satguru. After renouncing this body in God, we say, "My Satguru." Like in my picture or photo, you should not give the mālā. Mālā or garland, we can only give to the person who has left the body. But if you do it in real life, you will get the garland, but not on the photo. Similarly, we should not tell everyone as a Sadguru. Sadguru is only one who is not anymore in the body. And that should be, when we get a paramparā guru, that our paramparā should be, our paramparā should be in the form of Alak Purījī, whose name is from Satyug, his name is Alak Nanda, river, you know that? Alak Nanda, in my Himalaya, near Badrinath, about 8 kilometers further, about 8 to 30 kilometers, known as Alakpuri Glaciers, from Purshma. And where a mountain was given to them, Kubera, who was Kubera, Rāvaṇa’s brother. And Kubera, Rāvaṇa’s brother, took Rāvaṇa’s crown and went away. So at that time, Alak Purījī gave him this place, which is now called Kūber Pahāḍ. And during Satyug, Nār and Nārāyaṇ were also Bhagavān Viṣṇu’s time. That time was my paramparā, that Gurujī is there. So Alak Nanda, whose name was Alak Puri, was a different river, but Devī was his sister or disciple, and her name is called Nanda Devī. Did you hear about Nanda Devī? You must have heard about Nanda Devī. When Nandadevī worshipped Lord Śiva, Pārvatī took the avatar, and Pārvatī wanted to marry Śiva, but it was impossible. So Pārvatī went to Nandādevī for meditation. So he said, "Where is Pārvatī? Where is Pārvatī?" So then he said, "She went to make an Anuṣṭhāna. Where?" In Nanda Devī’s temple or Śiva’s time. So from that, it is a paramparā that we follow. It is a paramparā of such great men, so it follows from there. Okay. So now, what he said that I wanted to tell you is that I was thinking, "She tells so many things about me, and what will I tell you now?" She tells so many things now, nothing? What can I tell? So someone came to my Gurujī and said, "Gurujī, I have a question." What? Gurujī, I want to write many poems and books, and like this. So Gurujī said, "Why not?" He said, "No, Gurujī. Makhan makhan khā gaye." Bade bade mahā puruṣ, many great saints like Abhīrdās, Śūridās, Mīrā Bāī, and all these great saints, they wrote bhajans, they wrote poems, etc., Gurujī. They all ate butter. What remained? What do you call it? Butter? Sāj? Buttermilk. So, Gurujī, what should we do? They have taken everything. And we have only buttermilk? That’s not sāj puyur? Gurujī said, "Yes, what you are telling is true." But Gurujī says, what happened when you ate butter? What happened when you ate butter? Dainu is with us. What happened when you ate butter? Dainu is with us. Put the churn of love, and in two days and nights, you will get butter. You did not eat butter, you did not eat cow, right? So she was telling this story. So there was one person who said, "Gurujī, there are great poets, and they have written everything." What can we write? They took all the butter, butter, and we have the butter water remaining. Gurujī said, "It is okay. But why are you worried about that?" They ate only the butter. They did not eat the cow. So feed the cow and milk it. You will have more fresh butter, more. So knowledge, knowledge is endless. And that is why our Bhagavān Gaṇeśa jī Viraj, Lakṣmī jī and Sarasvatī jī, in our Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, my subject is Kuṇḍalinī, Cakra, Kuṇḍalinī, Cakra and all this. In some chakras, there is a Saraswati there, Brahma and Saraswati. So even in the Mūlādhāra Cakra, there is a sitting Gaṇeśjī. In our body, there are 8.4 million different creatures. Out of them, one is a human, and I am talking only about this one. So, 8.4 million different creatures, one is the human. And in our human body, there are 7,200 nerve systems. In our human body, kuṇḍalinī awakening means wisdom. Awakening of kuṇḍalinī means the higher consciousness. The awakening of the kuṇḍalinī is peace in the heart and peace everywhere. So, yeah, yes. So, there is no serpent going up. That is only these three nāḍīs, Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Suṣumṇā. So, the Suṣumnā nāḍī goes from up, and Iḍā, Piṅgalā, let us say, Sūrya, Candra. And so this one from the left goes to the right, and the right goes to the left. From there begins Viśuddhi Cakra. Then, turning again, so it is like changing. So that is why it is called the serpent, like the snake is moving. Otherwise, there is no snake, there is nothing. Another thing left unsaid is the Sūrya. And Maṅka Devtā, the god of the mind, is the moon. And the moon principle is water, and the water principle is emotion. And so, that is the motion moving into the water. So, the fourth night is black, and the light day. So, movements of the water are according to the moon’s effect. Similarly, the sun is different. And then comes the Suṣumnā. But even these three nāḍīs are balanced with one nāḍī, that is called Vajrako nāḍī. And Vajra nāḍī is like the roots of the tree to hold. These are our physical, mental, emotional, whatever we call them, balancing on this. And so many nerve systems, this is only a few of what we can see. Seventy-two thousand is not a little, many, many. And in that also, the chakras, the centers, are in this. So prāṇāyāma is very important, but also do not do prāṇāyāma just looking in a book or on television. Agar aapko prāṇāyāma karnā hai, toh you should do one month only. This is called the nāḍī śodhana. Nāḍī śodhana, purification of these nerves, iḍā and piṅgalā. Only inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale only for these twenty times. Then, with the ring finger, block your left nostril and inhale and exhale with the right only. It is one round, so five rounds every day. After, if you have time, you can do ten rounds. But only inhale, exhale through the left; inhale, exhale through the left. Second, these two fingers you must hold here so that it remains balanced. Not like this. Many are doing like this, in this way. Then the breath which is coming down is also overridden, kartā hai. But these two, Ha and Tha, left is a Tha, this is a Tha, and this is Ha-Tha, is Haṭha Yoga. So, yoga, this is a long, long way. Someday I will do, tell you something more. But the Vajra Nāḍī, Vajra Nāḍī is balancing even these three Nāḍīs. This Vajra Nāḍī, if you do yoga, then Vajra Nāḍī is Vajrāsana, is it not? So Vajra Nāḍī goes from there, from the big toe and small toe, between that, both hands, legs, feet. So, ṛṣis were using the chappal, or what we call the padega. So that is here. So it is called the Gurudev kī Caraṇapādukā. That is it. So this is a… In the science of this, I did not want to bring this book, but they always bring it. So this is the Kuṇḍalinī. And it is here written, the hidden powers in humans. And there are many other chakras. This book is a… If you read this, then I think you will see. This is the Manipūra chakra. So there are many, many of all these chakras inside. Read and see. It is something great, but I have not come here to give it to you. I have written it down and told you. I will tell you that Bābājī has come to do business. But you have this book, if you want it. So, these nāḍīs. Water is like the moon, emotion. So, in motion. Emotion means you are in motion. Now, in this motion, you go lower or you go up. That is in our body. So, there are different... And prāṇāyāma, which comes... So, he wanted to say prāṇāyāma. So, ek maine ek takh. Nāḍī śodhana. Purification of the nerves. Then, after beginning, first do the nāḍī śodhana, one round only. And then it is called the nāḍī bhedan. Nāḍī bhedan means inhale through left, exhale through right. Inhale through the left, exhale through the right. And then this. Also, five times: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And then from this side, inhale, exhale. So, inhale only through the left nostril, and exhale through the right. Inhale through the left, exhale through the right. Five rounds, one round is ten, ten times. Then comes Nāḍī Bhedan. Nāḍī Bhedan bhi hotā na? So Nāḍī Bhedan, so first was Nāḍī Śodhan, Aur uske baad, Nāḍī Śodhan ke baad, mein iskā Anulom Vilom hogā āegā. So, inhale through the left, exhale through the right. Inhale through right, exhale through left. It is called Anuloma Viloma. Then, your health condition, everything. After that, of course, there are many prāṇāyāms. What happens is ujjāyī prāṇāyām. Now, if I go into the chakras more, then many, many people have problems of the thyroid gland. I am not a doctor, not at all. But I am a yogī. And I can tell you that I will not say it is 100%. It is. But mostly, the problem is why we have emotion. And in that emotion, you are in such emotion. Then there is a gland, the thyroid gland. And the thyroid gland is in our Viśuddhi Chakra. Just let us say an example. Your husband is always angry with you, telling you this and that. You have not done this; you have done this. But the wife is so soft, and she said, "Okay," and she is swallowing everything. Or, husband is very humble, but wife, inside the gate, door, she comes, then she says, but husband is trembling. Why do you not do this? So, but the husband is so humble, he is swallowing. So this, both, either he or she, does not matter, it will attack the thyroid gland. There are many, many other reasons and causes why the thyroid doctor will tell different things. But yoga can do it. Again, this problem can be solved. This problem will not stop you because the doctor may have done something else. Similarly, the emotion between a woman and a man is different, which is a very subtle point in the body. That is emotional in the body of the male or the female. And that will attack your negative thinking from your boss, from your company, from your teachers, etc., or your husband or your wife, etc. Etc. There are many. So how will you release all this? Yoga is one of the best parts. So then you have to have the Ujjāyī Prāṇāyāma. 100% you will get released. A lot, a lot will come. But for this, if God gives me some time, if He gives me a 3-4 day program, 2-3 days here, then we can do some exercises and some lessons about this. But Kundalini, do not tell or do not believe that Kundalini will awake, energy will awake, body will move. This is a focus, focus, focus. Either we will remain dumb, or we will be able to do a good deed. But there will be no loss through yoga. But yoga is only seen and seen. It decreases the body and increases the disease. So, by seeing, we get inspiration. But then we need a Guru and a teacher. So, you had to say this much, you had to say a little, you had to say more. So, I am a subject of yoga, and along with this, I do the same work to awaken the culture of my country through these people. They are sitting next to me, and they do not even eat eggs. And if there is a biscuit or something, they will not eat it. This little girl is also watching. If there is an egg in it, they will not eat it. They will not eat it. They will cry when they see their father. How can I eat it? This much is our Indian culture. There are many of us. So, there are many people who are following me. They are suffering a loss, right? But our people do not do any of this. There are a lot of people, and it is good. It is a sin. Just let us say, at one point, okay, you are eating meat, but you are a very humble person, a very spiritual person, you are a very religious person, you are a very kind person, but you do not see when a living being, even the fish, you are holding. And you know how this animal is suffering, and you cut. If someone cuts your throat, what will you say? If a doctor sits here, please do not be angry with me. Is there a doctor here? Dentist. My dentist comes and says, "Mahārājjī, Gurujī, you are going to meet my guru." I was sitting in the room. I opened my mouth and said, "Gurujī, now I have a fever." Even though I know that everything will be fine. Even then, the heartbeat increases a lot. And then the doctor also looks at me like this. The doctor sees the needle. The nurse comes and says, "What can I do?" I will close the fire and say, "Guru Dev, whatever will happen, I will do it." He goes there. So see, just for a needle, we have so much fear. What do you think about other innocent animals? So when you will take this, that who has sold it, how many people will have this, what we call the sin? If you feel bad, then leave it. Food is good. Do not eat an animal. Maybe you eat it in India, but we do not eat it in our scriptures. We do not eat it in our Upaniṣads. We do not eat vegetables made of green leaves. So compassion is the root of Dharma. Pāpa mūla, tulasī dayānā, jabalāghāta mein prāṇa. So that is all for now. Hari Om. Blessings be upon you.

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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