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Kapalabhati pranayama

Yoga in daily life transforms existence on this earth. The Gurudeva's protection and the divine personal mantra are essential; all other practices are empty without this connection. The path requires endurance and a guide, for it is narrow and filled with temptations. Progress is made slowly, through small, consistent practices integrated into daily routine. Techniques like Kapālabhāti purify and awaken consciousness, serving as tools to change one's individual frequency toward the Divine. This is a heroic journey of gradual awakening, placing stone by stone until the picture is complete.

"Gurū Sabinā, Gurudeva Binā—you can pray the whole day... but without the name of the Gurudeva, everything is without sense."

"My prayer to Thee is that our duty in this life is to perform seva, to keep this body healthy and functioning as much as possible."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

When we observe our daily life—our entire existence here on this earth, on this planet, this Karmabhūmi—we see how yoga, and especially yoga in daily life, transforms our life and our daily routine. There are things we cannot explain or touch, yet we feel, experience, and observe them. As in the bhajan we just heard, "Darī Sattva Gurū Rākhe Lāja," a bhajan from our holy Gurujī, he explains that your Gurudeva will always protect you. Gurudeva is always with you. And he also says that to the one whom he is protecting, nothing can happen. Here, Mahāprabhujī also says in another bhajan, "Gurū Sabinā, Gurudeva Binā"—you can pray the whole day, you can read holy texts, you can think of God, but without the name of the Gurudeva, everything is without sense. This means the divine mantra, our personal mantra which we received from Gurudeva. For within it lies the blessing, the protection, and the guidance. Mahāprabhujī says it is like a box of sweets, but with no sweets inside; it is empty. And Swamiji always says it is like oil in sand; it just disappears. There is also another bhajan—Swamiji may not like that I mention it—it is "Mīletāhe." We do not know the author or composer; it was written by a holy saint. I may not have the translation, but it is said in this bhajan: "My God, my Gurudeva. I never saw the face of God. I never saw God. But I know the face of my Gurudeva. I know his kind smile, his eyes, his whole being. This I know. I can see. I can feel. I can, with all the indriyas, if I want, touch and smell. And that is why I believe in Thee. It does not matter if I must leave my country, or if I have to walk through torrents with a hard life. Even if I have to go into the fire of Tṛtapas, I will never leave Thee. May your divine name always be on my lips. May I always repeat your divine name." Śrī Mātājī is reciting the Bhagavad Gītā. And here, this bhakta who wrote this bhajan, this prayer, says: "The real happiness, my Gurudeva, is only in Thy presence. This is my prayer to Thee: may my concentration, all my riddance, in every second, friends, be at Thy lotus feet." My prayer to Thee is that our duty in this life is to perform seva, to keep this body healthy and functioning as much as possible. And for this, we try very, very hard to practice yoga in daily life. Today in Group A, we had our dear Vijay. He began with the Haṭha Yoga Kriyās, performing Agnisāra Kriyā and Kapālabhāti. Our physical body, our phenomenon, is so vast and great. Our entire existence—one life is not enough to study it. Hopefully not; we shall see. One life is not enough. To begin, it is our whole phenomenon, with all these five kośas, the five elements, the indriyas, the karma and jñāna indriyas, the mind, citta, ahaṅkāra, ego—all these things, all these functions, are done so perfectly. And now we try slowly, slowly to bring this whole phenomenon very carefully (otherwise the mind will make trouble) more towards a different frequency. With the help of all tools, we will attain what we attain. With the help of Gurudeva—his techniques, his sādhanās, his divine name—we change our individual frequency to the One Divine Frequency, to bring this individual to Oneness. It is not an easy task. Only heroes can walk this path. One needs to be a hero, one needs strength and, how to say, endurance. Endurance. It does not happen from one day to the next. As we know from the bhajan "Manavādhīra-dhīra"—Manava, dear one—here the consciousness, the inner self, speaks to the mind: "My dear friends, my brother, go slowly, slowly, as we go on Śrī Alaka Purī." I experienced this when we went to Śrī Devpurījī. I am always doing things quickly, quickly... Everything is too slow; it has to be done quickly. And then suddenly I had to go slowly because there was no air and the conditions were difficult. It was truly step by step, and I remembered this bhajan so much. The teacher was there, dear Gopāl was there, Dr. Chitra was there with Kīrti, and our dear brothers, the guides, and the emperors. And slowly, slowly... in that way, slowly, we have to go. There is no rush. It is not possible. Swamiji always says: this fire, when we have dry grass and we light it, it is like a straw fire. It goes so quickly and is finished. But if we want to prepare a good meal on the fire, we have to do it slowly and slowly. If you want to reach this high peak, you need a guide who binds you to the rope so that if you fall, he will hold you. And that one who has already gone on this same path, who knows the way—not the one from a map or GPS; they do not stand a chance. It is not possible, because the mountain peak is so high. Imagine, we know Viveka Purījī was there. This path is so narrow and dark. You do not have a torch. You have to go with your... and stones are rolling. When one stone rolls down, the whole thing will roll down. And the inner self tells the mind: "On this way, you have to cross many rivers. Many, many rivers." Seventy-two thousand rivers you must cross, and every river has a different current, different depths, rocks, and different water. You do not know what is inside or how to cross it. And on the way, there will come so many temptations, different paths here or there. We do not know where, and there are so many nice melodies coming, so many nice smells, so many nice feelings, so many nice tastes, that you will forget the way. You will get lost. "My friend, my dear brother, take your time, go slowly, slowly. Do not hurry. You will reach your aim. Go with your guide, with your Gurudeva." God, God... God. God, God... A ha ha... Ha ha... God bless you. God bless you. Chant, chant. Mohani rāga sunāī, rāga sunāī atero mannā mohe rastode yā bulāī mannā. Ghar chāḍnā re bāī, ghar ghan ghar chāḍnā re bāī, śikhar par chaḍnā re bāī. Śikhar par chaḍnā re bāī, man vāī dīre dīre. Gagan garachar nare vayi, Gagan jane koi. Unchachar si Pare dharan parayi, Kina jane koi unchachar si. God bless you. And here Śrī Mahāprabhujī said: "Śrī Devpurījī, my Gurudeva, he showed me the way." And this is his blessing, his Guru Kṛpā, that I could reach this aim. We, too, do our things; we try, we do it slowly, slowly. Sometimes we do not know if it is right or not. Difficulties come; kleśas are here from the outer world—different kinds of disturbances. And here Swamiji says: do it with your small, slow sādhanā. It is called Anu Upāsanā. "Anu" means the small, small atom, and "upāsanā" means practice. That is why he created the system of yoga in daily life, so that in our daily life we can integrate our daily routine, the small, small things inside. One week, two weeks, with sādhanā only twice. And we have, once a week or once every two weeks, an opportunity to intensify our sādhanā. It is like a mosaic picture. We place stone by stone, always like a puzzle, a little bit. Then suddenly, the picture is complete, because we are continuously progressing. It is very easy and very simple, and a great help on our way—a big light, like a torchlight in front of us, and a support. I cannot praise the Haṭha Yoga Kriyās enough. I cannot praise them enough. What they do is very simple, but it must be done. It requires a little willpower, a little determination. You have to do it, and for this we truly need a very good teacher who shows us, helps us, guides us, so that we can do it alone. Some we do every day, and some we do from time to time. For example, today we did Kapālabhāti. Kapālabhāti is when we clean our nose; it is nothing else. This is Kapāla Bhāti, but the yogī performs it as a practice to purify this entire bhāti. The whole Bhāti is enlightening, and "Kapāla" means forehead. It is not only enlightening but also purifying. Kapālabhāti is done after Neti, after Jala Neti, of course. But we also do it before our meditation, when we want to calm our vṛttis, our thoughts. We want to calm our daily stress; we are nervous, or we have tension in our head. Kapālabhāti is very, very helpful for those who have sinus issues, those who have tinnitus. I did not know and have not experienced it, but it is also written to be helpful for those with depression and, I would say, slightly for epilepsy. I do not want to make promises, but it is written. Together with Jala Neti, with water, we perform Kapālabhāti in air that is not too cold, because we inhale through the mouth and exhale shortly and strongly through the nose, keeping the mouth slightly open. Otherwise, pressure goes to the ears, to the Eustachian tube, which is not pleasant. Kapālabhāti should not be done when the nose is blocked; then it is not pleasant. When we do Kapālabhāti, we experience a kind of awakening sensation. That is why it is called enlightening, and it truly wakes you up. It makes us conscious because it slightly massages our brain. The entire brain floats in liquid, in the cerebrospinal fluid within the spine and skull. It is slightly protected, swimming, and with this strong exhalation, it receives a gentle massage. That is why, if we do it too long, we may feel a little dizzy at first. Our blood circulation also improves. It means your consciousness, your brain functions better and better, and your brain works better and better. Our brain centers have so much capacity. I am not a doctor, but I think we use 8–9% of our brain's 100% capacity. I am not a doctor, but we have a lot of capacity in the brain. My God, so little! So where are the remaining 93 percent? Where is this? Hidden within the human being are hidden powers. Where are these hidden powers hidden? So we must awaken them. We must awaken our inner self. And here, Gurudeva gives us the techniques to attain Brahmajñāna. And here, Haṭha Yoga is a great, great help. This is Kapālabhāti. So we can do it. Sit straight, please, either in Vajrāsana or in Sukhāsana or Siddhāsana. Please do not do it if you have a cold, or hold a tissue in front of you. If you have a cold, please do not do it. We do three rounds of ten repetitions. If you cannot do it, then you can make your nose like this; it is easier in the beginning. The tension comes from the diaphragm, not from the lips. Keep your mouth slightly open. Inhale through the mouth and exhale strongly and shortly through the nose, ten times. Please start. Right. Keep in and exhale through... Close your mouth. You can also close your eyes. Second round: inhale through the mouth, exhale through the nose, keep your mouth slightly open, inhale and exhale through the nose. Close your eyes. Are you dizzy? If you feel dizzy, look a little toward the ground, to the floor. And third round. If you feel dizzy, do only gentle Kapālabhāti, not too strong. Please start. Deep inhale and exhale through the nose. Bend forward, head to the ground. You can come to Vajrāsana if you have space. Bend forward, head to the ground. You can support your head if you have high blood pressure. You need not bring your head completely down; you can support your head like this. If you have high blood pressure, you do not have to put your head on the ground; you can just put your elbows on the ground and lower your head like this. You can keep your eyes closed. Slowly sit up with your eyes closed. Keep your eyes closed, looking in the direction of your nostrils or the tip of the nose. Relax your neck and relax your shoulders. Relax your eyebrow center. Look in the direction of your nostrils or the tip of the nose with closed eyes. Once deep inhale, and exhale. Then we will chant OM three times, deep inhale.

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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