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Foundations of Yoga in Daily Life

An evening satsang on integrating yoga into daily existence.

"Yoga in Daily Life is not only these two or three exercises; there is the flow of the nectar of the Gaṅgā."

"Don't depend on anyone. Depend on thyself. And thyself means that which gives us our life."

Swamiji welcomes attendees to the third seminar at the ashram, reflecting on the history of Střekov Castle. He shares personal stories of dietary experiments and spiritual tests to illustrate the practical application of yoga, emphasizing self-reliance, non-violence (ahiṃsā), and the unity of all spiritual paths. The talk blends personal anecdotes, philosophical points from Patañjali, and encouragement for consistent daily practice.

Filming locations: Střekov Castle, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic.

Devadhī Deva, Deveśvara Mahādeva kī, Āradhī Bhagavān Siddha Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī kī, Āradhī Satgurudeva Svāmī Madhvānandajī Bhagavān kī, Alaka Purījī Mahādeva kī. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. Welcome. This is our third seminar, and we have all experienced such a divine atmosphere here in our ashram, which was founded by Mahāprabhujī—the Satsaṅga Foundation. This castle was donated to us by our dear Sādhvī, or Svāmī, Pārvatī. For all of us, this is the place. It is like a forest, with very, very old trees. This castle was designed many, many years ago. It is beautiful. It is said that in all of Europe, there are two castles like this. One is here in Střekov, our ashram, this castle. The other is in France. It has seen many, many kings; it was the time of kings. This castle also witnessed the First and Second World Wars. Many people with various ideas have lived here—representatives of different religions and philosophies. This castle was designed by the person who initially created it, according to the missionaries—not messiahs, but missionaries. These are those who work with their hands, carving. Like in America, there is one temple called the Missionaries' Temple. Yes, Freemasons. So, there are many symbols in the rooms, and we can still find their symbols today in various places. It is a beautiful atmosphere, and I think those who have come for the first time or have not seen everything should see the castle above. In our two offices, there is beauty on the ceiling and also in the yard, etc. Our beloved Satguru Deva Svāmī Madhvānandajī was here twice, and Gurujī was here once for Guru Pūrṇimā. So have many, many hundreds, thousands of our Yoga in Daily Life practitioners, our disciples, from around the whole world—not only from nearby Europe, but from Mexico, America, Canada, New Zealand, and many, many countries: Chinese, Japanese, Africans, and Indians as well. So, my dear, many of our brothers and sisters from around the whole world. Immediately when you enter the door of this ashram, we are relaxed. And after all, one very important and very good thing is that we meet here our brothers and sisters of Yoga in Daily Life. Now it is international—from America, New Zealand, Fiji, China, and many, many places. How beautiful it is. And all have one aim: spirituality, Yoga in Daily Life. For harmony of body, mind, and soul, and the realization of the Ātmā. Yoga in Daily Life is not only these two or three exercises; there is the flow of the nectar of the Gaṅgā. Now, the Gaṅgā River, the Yamunā River, the Sarasvatī River, or the Alakanandā River—Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, or Alakanandā. Not only these three rivers; there are so many rivers here in the Czech Republic. And Prague is known as mystic, not mystery. Mysterious. But Slovakia is not little; it is great. The Slovaks give to everyone. They said we are all kings; we don’t have one king. Many others had kings, but we sit in every other house. Každém našem domě je otec králem, nebo matka královnou. Slovaks are great. And we concentrate here on Yoga in Daily Life. That means to practice every day. It is said we have every day: eating, water, and air. These three are very important. There is solid food, liquid food, and our oxygen. All three are so beautiful here. We practice yoga for our body. I want to tell you one practical example. I did many experiments. Long ago, I think about 20 years, I made one experiment: for one month I did not eat, only water, and some little vegetables, and garlic and garlic. I don’t know why I became a garlic person. So one day someone came to the Vienna airport, one of my friends, a very famous and important person; he has newspapers. I went to greet him, and from far away he said, "Svāmījī, you eat too much garlic." When I was standing there waiting for him, the people near me were just moving away. So I said, "OK, from today on, no more." But that was body purification. So many things—only milk, many things. Then I said, "I’ll eat all of it. Life is short. Life is not long. Enjoy. Eat as much as possible." I’ll eat as much as possible, and the body was saying, "It doesn’t matter, we will also expand." Well, there are many facts which I don’t want to tell. So again, I came to my thoughts again, because I’m doing experiments. And with my body, experiment is sometimes good, and sometimes it’s not good. So the inner techniques in the body were not in order. All different organs, like when the car is only run and run and not a little toilet, that are not under the oil—petrol, fuel, etc. So the car was going like this. So it is my body. I said, "Now it’s only five months." It’s going so quickly, so it’s an experiment. It is yoga. It is said, first you make an experiment and then give it to others. How did I learn? This is also very important. So, how did I experiment? There’s one little child, about a few months or one year, and now the mother or father—they are both, but mostly mother, because the father is working very hard to bring the money. You see, the husband, the man, should know: "Darling, we are together, we enjoy it, but I gave you now one child. So now my duty is only working and bringing money, that’s all. And your duty is to take care of the child." Everything is finished. Okay, but what I want to tell is what to learn: that mother takes some kind of liquid for the child—milk or some yogurt or anything. Then mother takes the spoon from the bowl, and she takes out from the spoon, and she first flows. And still, mother is not satisfied. She will do a test. Yeah, and then she gives it to the child. We learn always from someone’s good things. So many times I saw—you saw also—the child is little on the lap, and the mother is moving one knee, and the other hand is on the head, and the second side is a spoon, and the child is moving his hands, legs, and then you give the mother. How much does the mother take? So you must have the work. But doesn’t she feel tired? She’s not angry? And what happens? Sometimes the mother is doing this, and the little child quickly, sometimes with both legs, and the mother is taking a spoon, and the child is kicking her leg. This is a training for the mother and child. Similarly, I make tests myself, and then I gave my yoga people, my disciples. So, four months, I think. It was from March, April—so April, May, June, July, August. Yes, five months. And I made so many experiments. What happened to me that I don’t know? But my body said, "Oh, Master. Thank you. You are taking care of me." To whom? The body said. So similarly, I’m making a test on me: meditation, meditations, prāṇāyāmas, kriyās, anuṣṭhānas, philosophy teaching, bhajanas, everything. It’s not only āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, and finished. Unfortunately, there are some people who, after giving programs, go to restaurants and eat. You know what they are eating. So, doing exercise has no value, and the body also doesn’t like that. But our body and mind, which we have to coordinate, is the body-mind. So our body-mind is very important to practice. One day I made a lecture in Australia, and I told them that Yoga in Daily Life is the first hand, and the body-mind. And in three days, in some other yoga school, there was a "yoga of body and mind." So the Australians are very expert at taking things from others. Or China. China will immediately make everything. They don’t care about copyright. They said, "We made a good copy. Don’t think of the copyright." But it’s right, you take it. So China, you know, how many Śivas, Viṣṇus, Kṛṣṇas, Rāmas, and all these great saints, Gaṇeśas—all this they make Chinese. Now, Kṛṣṇa’s incarnation—tomorrow is Kṛṣṇa’s incarnation. They have already made so many toys. You can’t imagine. It’s plastic, and this is it. Plastic is good. If it is a stone or something, it will fall down and break. So this is, as long as it lives, it’s good. So, Chinese are good brain. So, the good brain and good brand. Similarly, when we come to our Yoga in Daily Life practice, we have our yoga book, Beautiful Yoga and Daily Life: Hidden Powers in Humans, the many bhajanas of our Gurudevas and many other saints, and so we are learning completely as a human science. So that’s called the human science. And we can repair ourselves. I thought, "Eat and eat and eat." It’s good, but it doesn’t repair. So, alcohol—how many people will die? I have a problem of the liver and the kidneys. Many things, other many drugs, but we are depending on that. Is there interest in what they want to do? But it’s not good. Life of the human is very valuable, because humans are protectors of every creature. You can protect, and they love us. So we shall love them; we should not eat them. Do not kill them. That is because when they have this vṛtti—the vṛttis, which are in Patañjali written very good—and so, ahiṃsā paramodharma—ahiṃsā means non-violence. And Ṛṣi Patañjali, I asked two, three other scholars, Sanskrit scholars, the philosophies, everything. So I said, please tell me exactly when was Patañjali. And some people said, "Now they said yoga is only 5,000 years old." And they were written by the government of India. They said yoga is 5,000 years old. What we call Āyurveda is 5,000 years old. It’s stupid. I was telling in my lecture in New Delhi. And I told everyone, all ministers: "Please write things, don’t write wrong things." But they are thinking of only this, like 500 years. Āyurveda, the, what we call it, philosophy—not the, our, sometimes I forget my—Āyuṣ, not Āyuṣ, Āyurveda. Āyurveda is as old as the time of the Brahmaloka, from the Satyayuga when Śiva was present. That was when the Devas and Rākṣasas were fighting, and they are still fighting today. Don’t think that the Rākṣasas are gone, and also the Devas have not gone. We are all sitting, we are Devas, sāttvic vṛttis. Sattvic vṛtti means eating, drinking, and living: humbleness, kindness, help everyone—that’s called goddess, gods. There is no god to look in the sky somewhere. You were sitting also many times in airplanes, and myself is also 50 times around the world, 50 times. So, around and within. And all my airplanes, tickets, the seat numbers, everything is typed in my computer. And you can’t imagine how many flights—some even we’ve forgotten, we didn’t write. And Mānasā Devī mixed it, and I said, "Did you write?" She said, "Yes." Because she knows that Svāmījī will not count, but 99.9% Mānasā Devī doesn’t forget. It means how many flights, the names of the flights, and how many kilometers. Well, this is also a very nice collection. Perhaps at Om Āśrama I will write it all completely. So people will look, counting, counting, counting. They will only count my flight and not Om Āśrama. And also, the flight was lower, about 2,000 meters, or a little higher. These small flights from Hungary to Yugoslavia, or to the city Košice. The Slovaks say Košice, and they say Kasa. Hungarians say Kasa. That was a very great experience. We flew from different cities and we were coming to Košice. About 50 kilometers away, heavy clouds came. Oh God! So the pilot first went to try to go down, he lost. So he went up above the clouds, and luckily I said, "Mahāprabhujī, light, please, light." And really, suddenly the cloud went away, and we landed. And then came the cloud again, and very heavy rain. This is the life, but I’m telling you, and I will tell it to you, because it is also your life. You have many experiences like this. This is also yoga: to know how to save our life. This life is very, very precious. Sometimes some people are taking—how to call it—suicide. That’s not good. God doesn’t accept. God said, "I gave you still the life. Why are you doing this?" But someone who is doing must, you will know why. Dear, it is not easy to get life. Therefore, we have to come to inner yoga in their life. Don’t depend on anyone. Depend on thyself. And thyself means that which gives us our life. So don’t worry if your husband is not good to you anymore, or your wife is not good to you. Our money problem is good to them. Anything. But your life is more precious, even if we sit in prison. We have this life with us, and prison is very safe. They will not let you kill yourself. They will give you food also. Okay. They will tell you to do work. We will do it. And we have more mala: Dīpa Nīrañjana, Śabdakabandhana, Dīpa Nīrañjana, Śabdakabandhana, Dīpa Nīrañjana, Śabdakabandhana. Oh my God, Mahāprabhujī will say, "Come out, come out." So, each and every cell of our body is very precious, and the flight is very high, which is about nearly 11,000 meters, sometimes even comes not to 12, but nearly there. And I came back to Europe, to India. And Gurudeva asked me, holy Gurujī, "Where is in such height of the airplane, did you see God?" I said, "Gurudeva, God was somewhere busy, so you are my God." Gurujī smiled. So, my dear, really, sometimes I’m looking. There’s no God. No Brahmins, no Devas. What you call the angels. So, some of them I saw, Gurujī. Again, are there some angels there? I said, "No, Gurujī, because they are afraid of airplanes." Gurujī said, "You are very clever." So, these are all stories. Angels, angels, bingles, bingles, or God, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma—it is not that. If then God is in the human body and also in animals, in each and every tiny creature is the God. And some who do good things have immense energy and some siddhis; we call them as gods. But finally, it is Brahman. And Brahman means there is only space. What do Muslims eat? Allāh. That’s all. You don’t say anything. And the Christians say the Holy Father, and we say Brahman. Only the name is different. The material is the same. This is all we are, the same yoga. So, with these experiences, with the nourishment—so one day I was sitting, I’m eating now the salad a lot, but there are some nuts, some seeds of the sunflowers. About from the one pumpkin, everything is from seeds, little, little. And I eat chapati, half chapati, or makes very thin, only one chapati. So I said, "I will eat only one chapati." So, Umāpurī has a little bit of a feeling that Svāmījī is really hungry. So, she makes one chapati from the four chapatis. I saw the chapati, so very nicely fried. Good popped up. Very good. I said, okay, I ate only one quarter of the chapati. Rest back as a prasāda. Anyhow, it has happened in the body, something. Something happened; this is one of the best treatments, which is neither in a hospital nor in some spa, because in a spa, once they are doing everything for three weeks, that is not good for the body. Slowly, slowly, that is very important, but every day. And so, I also begin with again practicing Yoga in Daily Life. And the habit began. That time, morning, I am awakened. I say I’m tired. I will sleep a little. After five minutes, again, the body turns to the other side. Okay. After five minutes, he said, "Why don’t you practice?" Really, my inner self is telling me, "Why don’t you practice?" I get up. And I begin to practice. So, really, one and a quarter hour. I am doing our Yoga in Daily Life Sarvahitāsana. Sarva means all. It means each and every cell of the body, each and every nerve, each and every gland, each and every muscle, each and every joint, and each and every part of the skin. It is the whole body that is the complete Sarvahitāsana, so you need not, of course, we shall do Śīrṣāsana and that āsana, everything. When we were young, here also when I was in Europe, I jumped on hands. I was rolling like this with the body, and today, I can do the same thing. Not only once, twice. That’s all. This is the first and last. Therefore, we should also understand yoga: when and how we do it. So, come to Sarvabhūtāsanā after the age of 45. Our latest 60 years come slowly back to Sarvahitāsanam. It is such a good feeling in the body. And prāṇāyāma? I am missing every day, missing. Because there is someone waiting at the door. And he says, "Svāmījī, please, it is very important, and I have to go." And when I’m coming to eating, there are also a few there waiting. But that is my yoga: to help everyone. Listen to everyone. Same thing at home, your family: your partners, your children, your neighbors. This is also practice as Yoga in Daily Life. So one day, if you can’t practice, the body is still doing it itself. It is automotor. Yes, automotor. Automotor. You know how? I can tell you. I can tell you that even if you don’t eat, the stomach is already functioning. Really, the stomach doesn’t stop. So if you don’t eat for one day or two days, the stomach will not be empty. It will eat you. It will eat you. So, therefore, better we should give something here in the body. So the yoga, what we do here, it’s more on the higher level. And you know, one of the best philosophies is the bhajana singing. Writing some book. We can write some pages or many books, but what bhajana is, one line of the bhajana, one word in the bhajana, it is eternal, immortal words, and that’s for the humans. I don’t know, because sometimes my cows are also looking at me. And when we are talking bhajanas, my horses are also making bhajanas. Yeah, in Jardin, my horses, we sing the bhajanas, and they make bhajanas. So I said, "No, no, I will not give you anything now." And in Patañjali, when Ṛṣi Patañjali was talking like I’m talking to you now—that really, they’re in pictures I have not seen. But in one book from the Gorak Pariṣ, Górek París, and they saw Patañjali. He’s like you are sitting. Disciples were little less, but a tiger, lions, peacock, cows—so many animals were around, and when he was talking. They were sitting, and there was a pond and a cow, and tigers were drinking on the beach of the lake. That must be what Patañjali gave them: nature in the lecture, blessings, and news, messages that even the animals became humble and good friends to each other. Is there ghee for the light? So that’s it. So we are here. Anyhow, I want to welcome you. Hello. I always forget, and I can see you even if it’s very dark there, but I feel that you are here. Thank you, thank you. You came, and bless you, and welcome you. This one week, we will have beautiful programs. So talk less and practice more.

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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