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Dear friends, brothers, sisters, devotees, and practitioners around the world. This blessing comes to you from the Śrī Mahāprabhudīp Satsaṅg Foundation Ashram in Strelky, Czech Republic. We have been here for ten days now. My constant, daily observation is of people's behavior. Physically, they look very fit. Everyone's complexion has changed; their facial muscles are more relaxed. Why? You know why? They practice yoga in daily life. One day we were sitting with Holī Gurujī and talking about draṣṭi, draṣṭā, and dṛśya. This is also from Patañjali. Draṣṭā—you are the seer. Right now, you see me; you are the draṣṭā. Draṣṭi is your eyes looking. If your eyes are covered or you are blind, then you cannot be a draṣṭā in that way; you can only hear. But if you have no dṛṣṭi—no vision, no eyesight—then you cannot see the dṛśya. Dṛśya means the object, the view, the panorama. This is what samādhi is. When we achieve higher consciousness, which is called samādhi, then jñāna, jñātā, and jñeya—the three become one. Jñāna means knowledge, jñātā means yourself—the knower. You would like to know what you want to know: the knowledge about the object. So Jñāna (knowledge), Jñātā (the knower), and Jñeya (the object of knowledge)—these three have to become one. Now, Ātmā—our Ātmā is our aim, our destination, our lakṣya (goal). Ātmā Jñāna—self-realization or knowledge about the self: "Who am I?" Here, theory will not help. Theory can only inspire us, give motivation, give indication. But theory alone cannot bring us there. We need something more: that is practice. Ātmā Jñāna. Now, who has Ātmā Jñāna? There are different levels. First, our mind or our Jīvātmā, our intellect. Sometimes it is funny that the self is searching for the self. Suppose you are lost in a forest. You say, "I am searching for myself." They will ask, "What are you doing in the forest?" You reply, "I went to find myself." You can wander around the forest, desert, and fields lifelong; you will not find yourself. And yourself is you. You are, but you are searching for yourself somewhere else. Your self can only be you. There is a long story I will not tell, but one of the disciples of Paramahaṃsa Vivekānanda, named Rāma Tīratha, was in America. It is a long story. There was a very famous artist, and it happened that Swāmījī got accommodation in her house. She was very much inspired and liked him very much. After five days, she wanted a consultation. He said, "Okay, what do you want?" She said, "I would like to have a son like you." It means she would like to have a son from him. He said, "Yes, mother. 'Like me' can only be me. So I am your son, and you are my mother. Now you have it. So 'like you'—only you are that." But what a funny thing, that you are searching for yourself. How to find? Similarly, this subject, ātmā jñāna, is nowhere. It is only within thyself. Because you are the self. But we have separated our self: the Ātmā, the individual soul (Jīvātmā), and intellect, and mind, then emotions, then body, and so on. So there you cannot find yourself anywhere but within yourself. So, Jñātā—you are the knower. You know you are in Strelka Ashram. You know you are sitting here in satsaṅg. And what you know is the knowledge. And what is that? You would like to know what is Ātmā. What is Ātmā? Yes, I am the Ātmā. This knowledge we need through books, through different books, through telling, through many lectures, and through your own thoughts. You have heard many times ātmā, ātma-jñāna, but that is only on the surface. All it is is a theory. That's called viparīta vṛtti. In one shell, you see the silver. When you walk on the beach, it's nice, shining, a reflection. You see a pool of silver inside, but there's no silver. Bharama—that is called bharama, a confusion, a disappointment. In the rope, you see a snake, but there is no snake; it is a rope. Similarly, for us, that which we are searching for is very near but very far. One bhajan said: "Mokṣa kahāṁ toḥ dūṇḍe bandhe?" "Where are you searching for me, my dear? I am with you. My heart is out of this metropolitan city, not in this civilized world which is full of noise, dirt—many kinds of dirt—but the forest. So I am not. Not in this world is what you are searching. I am somewhere else, but my residence is in your breath. If you search properly, you will find me immediately." It means just that you close your eyes and open them. Within that much time, you will find me. But search for me in the proper way. And that Ajapa—Mahāprabhujī said in his bhajan: "Ajapa jisko kya jāpe bin japyā jāi hoī, oṭ jībā hale nahīṁ"—neither moves the lips nor the tongue. And you need not repeat. Without repetition, your victory is there. That means the Ajapa Japa. As long as you will not come to the Ajapa level, then be sure that you will not realize what you would like to realize. So, draṣṭā—you are the seer; dṛśya—the object (I am the dṛśya for you now); and draṣṭi—through which vision, eyes, you are looking at me. Jaisī draṣṭi, vaisī rashti. Now, with which feeling are you looking at me? Like that, I will appear to you. If you are looking full of anger, yes, then this anger will awaken in you more and more. So, with which feeling are you looking? There are certain dresses here that make you frightened when you see them, and certain dresses here that make us happy. So Gurujī said: the dṛṣṭi, the look of a yogī, the panorama for a yogī should be so far without obstacles. Yes, now in this modern civilization, in these big cities, we have skyscrapers. From your kitchen window, you can give coffee, or tea, or bread to your neighbor's kitchen window. You stretch your hand, and the other one can also exchange through these windows. So you always look only to the next wall, and you are blocked. That also influences your psyche, so that very often a person gets depressions, tensions. Here, it is all nature, and nature never causes tension. Relaxed, all these beautiful trees—it is never boring if you look at one tree. When you look at the forest and nature, there's never a high pressure on your eyes. But if you look at the computer six hours a day, then you come home and sit with your husband and drink tea together, and you are looking at him suddenly... He says, "What are you doing?" "Oh, sorry, I was thinking you are a computer." That's it; it happens. Three days ago, we saw Nārada, no? He was sitting there, and suddenly he said, "No kartāla in his hands, no?" He wanted to say Nārāyaṇa, no? So that was ajapa. And so, looking at this man-made world causes tensions, and looking at the God-made world gives us happiness and relaxation. And so we can see in one week: everyone's facial muscles are so relaxed. I was looking today also at myself—how I looked before ten days and now it looks different. I thought I had some mask here, you know, some... but not. We are happy, we are relaxed. The weather is so perfect: a lot of fresh air, oxygen, yoga exercises, beautiful atmosphere. That is a remedy—that's the remedy for our soul, Jīvātmā. And when the Jīvātmā is relaxed and happy, then the entire function is good. So, Draṣṭā, Dṛṣṭi, and Dṛśya. On these three, Patañjali is constantly telling the disciples what to do. After all this, we know that in the world we have many different kinds of dṛśya. What is a dṛśya? Visions, projects, pictures. How many different visions do you have per day? Many, many... many. Thousands. And all these thousands of visions have a very fine layer on your subconscious, very fine. And that's why in meditation it is said to relax, close your eyes. And God, or our Mother Nature, made a system, an automatic system. And that is: when there are so many layers, then you need to reduce them to clear up. Nowadays they say, you know, SMS, but your box is full; it doesn't receive any more SMS. So you have to empty it. So our mind, our brain is so filled with so many rubbish things. So Mother Nature said, "Okay, I will help you." And so when you are tired, then the eyelids go down. "How are you?" "Good, thank you." Yes, that means now your body, nature, is forcing you to relax. That's too much. So in yoga practice, especially when we do prāṇāyāma, with prāṇāyāma when we use our ajapa mantra, then this whole pollution—which is in our mind or our subconscious, our conscious—can be deleted, can be finished, cleaned up. And so in our Kriyānushṭhāna, you have different techniques with concentration, purification of certain chakras, one after the other chakras, and then you have Chakra Śhodhanam—all the eight chakras—and there it helps you to get relaxed. But again, if you have too many vṛttis or you did not prepare yourself for this kriyānushṭhāna, then you are constantly occupied with your ankle joints, the knees, and hip joints. That's all. What do I mean by this? It's painful. Every five minutes, you move your leg. Again, sit like this. Again, you make like this. Again, sitting like that. So that is not a meditation, neither chakra śodhanam; there is no śodhanam at all. There is only you torturing yourself. Kāyā kleśa. Many, many times I gave you an example. There is a glass full of water; about 3 centimeters is empty. The glass is here on this table, which is very stable, not moving. Now, the liquid which is in the glass is also motionless. As soon as I take the glass in my hand, the glass is moving. It means the liquid is also moving. Symbolically, this glass is our body, and our mind is that liquid. So if you feel discomfort, then your mind is not steady. Constantly, you think to move your body. And when you move your body, before you move the body, the mind is already the vṛttis. There are so many vṛttis that you cannot see through. We have a good example: a glass of water. You have a television, and you put on the television, but there is no signal. Then you see many, many stars on the screen because you cannot sit comfortably, you cannot relax, you cannot be motionless, and you do not have a very clear, very clear aim. And therefore, it was asked, "What? How to meditate?" So you must have some object, you must have some aim, you must have some destination, and then remain on that. And so, dhyāna-mūlaṁ gurumūrti—the roots, the essence or the success of your meditation is gurumūrti, or the divine form of your Gurudev. Now, it is not easy. It is not easy. Try half a minute. Can you manage to imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute? If you can imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute without any other thoughts, I can tell you, you have a very big success or progress. None of you is capable of remaining on one object for half a minute. Suddenly, there are some other thoughts that come. "I want to see only Mahāprabhujī, nothing else." When you said nothing else, what do you mean, nothing else? What is nothing else? That's it. So, dhyāna mūlam guru mūrti, pūjā mūlam guru padam—but to worship the holy lotus feet of the master; mantra mūlam guru vākyam—the best mantra follow the guru vākya; mokṣa mūlam guru kṛpā—then the mokṣa, the liberation, the realization, only follows through the grace of the Gurudev. The blessings don't come through some kind of protection. Say, "Gurudev, I am so busy, and this—I give 20 million Hungarian forints, please give me mokṣa. I just have..." To go, it's here 24, okay. "You will give me the mokṣa." The Master will know there is something wrong, but okay, put your millions, go. That's not, no. Or you come with someone, a close disciple of Swāmījī, with the Hṛdayakamal. "Be it, please, can you tell Swāmījī to give kṛpā that I have mokṣa?" She will come, and Śrīdekaramān will say, "Swāmījī, this is my best student. Please, can you give blessing for mokṣa?" As a courtesy towards Śrīdekaramān, I say, "Okay, I bless you that sometimes you will get mokṣa." What to do? So mokṣa, liberation, ātmā jñāna is not with some exchange. Practice. Therefore Patañjali said: "Abhyāsa vairāgya abhyāsam tanirodha." Abhyāsa—practice, practice, practice. Vairāgya—you have to practice the vairāgya. Two things he is telling. Abhyāsa means practice, everyday practice. And our practice will be only successful if you have Vairāgya. Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya speaks about Vairāgya. From this planet until the Brahmaloka, all these things which you think you can enjoy, all these material things should be for you like dirt. That time is pure vairāgya. And without pure vairāgya you cannot have this ātmā jñāna, pure divine dṛśya. Now, it also means not that you deny or hate, no. One who has pure vairāgya has a lot of love. Such a love awakens; this you cannot awaken through anything. At the same time, Brahma Satya Jagat Mithyā. Only the truth everlasting is that Brahman. What is created will be destroyed. Who came will go. Who appears will disappear sooner or later. Therefore, Jagat Mithyā means not in this way. Some philosophers do not accept this sentence, "Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā." Jagat is not Mithyā? Yes, it is not Mithyā. It is true that I am here and you are also here, right? But after half an hour... neither I will be here, nor you will be here. Yes, at midnight, get up at midnight and come. There is neither webcast, nor broadcast, no one. So constantly changing is unreality, and unchangeable, everlasting is the reality. So in the entire universe, all the stars, suns, all the planets, elements, energy, incarnations—everything is changing. But one doesn't change: Brahman. That's like the sky. How many things changed in this place where we are sitting? When was this castle built? How many hundred years old? Who planted this nice tree? Is that person alive or not? We don't know. Who planted, and who is enjoying, sitting under, wondering? Who planted the tree? Who is enjoying the fruits? Why not? But it is changing. You go ahead, every step, plant something beautiful. There is one old film song from India; it's called Mother India, and it's a very nice song, and there it said: "Jyot se jyot jagāte chalo." You have a candle burning in your hand, and there are so many candles on the way. So, through this jyoti, the light which you have in your hand—the candle—go ahead, walking and light all the other candles. Nice. "Jyoti se jyoti jagāte chalo aur prem kī Gaṅgā bahāte chalo." And the river of love, let it flow with you. No? If someone you meet on your path, who is helpless, who has troubles, and so on, needs your help, and so on. Hug everyone as your brothers and sisters, help them. Hugging means to the heart, like yourself. So, jyoti se jyoti jagāte chalo, prema kī gaṅgā bahāte chalo, rāha me jo āye dīn dukhī, sab ko gale lagāte chalo. That Vairāgya, which had a pure Vairāgya, tells Ahiṃsā Paramo Dharma. Non-violence is the highest religion. No creature should be disturbed because of you. No creature should have pain because of you. And see all this beautiful creation of the Lord. But though it is like this, it is not permanent. This saṁsāra, this world, is like a dream. This saṁsāra, this world, is like a dream. But we see now, what you hear from me, after some minutes, it will just be like a dream. It's gone. Yes, it was a beautiful dream. "It was not a dream. I was sitting there. The vast north, yes, I was here, I am here, and I am speaking." You are right, it is gone. So this saṁsāra is svapnavatā. This entire planet, our globe, has been created, and one day it will be again dissolved or destroyed, finished. But this sky, which we look at and see, is ever and ever there. So Brahma Satya Jagat Mithyā. Mithyā means not that this is not true and this is not this house. Of course, the house is here, a few hundred years old. Yes, it is here. But be sure, there is already destiny written when this house will be destroyed, and a new building will be demolished, and a new building will be built up. That means Jagat Mithyā, Brahma Satya Jagat Mithyā. So, Vairāgī, your Vairāgya, Tīvra Vairāgya, pure Vairāgya can only be when you take this world as unreality. But it is there, and the aim should be the aim of your life: to have this knowledge of Brahman, the Supreme. That is our aim. So, constantly remind yourself about your vairāgya, your detachment. Vairāgya means detachment above everything. So long as there is no detachment, you are stuck inside. There is honey on one plate, and a fly came to enjoy the honey. And what happened? The fly was flying and landed on the honey. Oh, honey is sweet. Māyā is sweet. There is one sweet company which makes Indian sweets in Australia. This company's name is... it is called māyā, sweet, very successful, very big catering. So a fly came, but slowly, slowly, the legs of the fly are sucking in, and she tried to put her back legs out and would like to clean it, and she tried to put it on her wings, and slowly, slowly, wings are also stuck. Now she cannot fly. So this fly, which came to enjoy the honey, after a while, it was very funny, they couldn't go out. Everything is stuck in. And this is our situation. Suddenly, you are attached to something, and your vairāgya has gone out of your vṛttis. Then he said, "Ah, the Vairāgya." Swamiji talks about Vairagya. The sun is so good. This is the nectar, immortality. But it is said this sweetness is a poison. "Vairāgya konī hove lāl, bīnā satsaṅg. Bīnā satsaṅg naī lāge hari ko raṅg. Vairāgya konī hove lāl, bīnā satsaṅg." Mahāprabhujī's bhajan; he said you cannot have vairāgya without satsaṅg—good society. Lucky are they who can go to the satsaṅg, and unlucky are they who know there is a satsaṅg but don't go. Though they can go, but that Swāmījī is not there, there are only four or five people. "I stay home, I will see television today." You don't know, but you have missed it. Though every day speaking the same thing, still for you it is upliftment. Keep your vairāgya tīvra. "Vairāgya konī hove lāl, binā satsaṅg." Without satsaṅg, you cannot have that vairāgya. "Binā satsaṅg nahīṁ lāge harī ko raṅg." Without satsaṅg, you cannot get the color of God. It is said, Lord, color me not red, not green, not black, not yellow, but color me in your color. That's it. So color me in your love. That love means the Brahmajñāna. And such a color you should color, that the person who is cleaning the laundry, many, many lives he tried to clean and clean, but the color will not go out. Such a color. So many, many lives you are incarnated and coming and going, but this divine feeling, Vairāgya, remains in you. And that's—without that Vairāgya, there's no way to proceed further. Otherwise, like yesterday, day before yesterday, I told about one farmer. When he died, the goddess came from the Swargaloka, heaven. "Come, mister, you have very good karma. You are a very royal and nice person to your wife and children, and neighbors, and everyone. You have now opportunity to enjoy the heaven." He said, "Okay." Came to the door of the heaven, the farmer he said, "What is a specialty of the heaven?" "Oh, as soon as you enter in the heaven, you will be again like 20 years young, huh? And what? Is eating, you know? There's no hunger, there's no thirst, there's only joy, beautiful, that's all. No boring, no, there's no boring, okay?" Well, the farmer said, "I forgot my water pipe. Will I find a water pipe there? Can you buy there? What in heaven? There is no tobacco, and..." "No water pipe," he said. "No water pipe in heaven? Then what kind of heaven is that? No, I don't want to go. My water pipe is down. Please bring me back home." So he quit his heaven because of the water pipe. And so it is. Sometimes our attachment is so strong that we quit everything; we stop practicing, and then, in the end, you will be sorry for that. So be that clever fly, like a honey bee, that will not sit directly on it. It will sit on one side and take its honey and then fly up. Are you so? This saṃsāra is for your surviving, for your existence, and to do something good on the way. So, abhyāsa, vairāgya—day by day, remember what you are doing. I tell you two things which I followed all the time, and I am following still all the time. I am following many things, but something I compromise, in a good sense. But two things I follow all the time. When I come out of India, across the Indian border, then I don't think that I am coming from Rajasthan, but India. Anything I will, I am asking myself: anything you do wrong, the people from other countries, they will not say Swami from Pali district Rajasthan, but they will say Indian Swami. True? It means I will blame the entire India. What kind of citizen of India am I? Similarly, you too should keep the name of your country with great dignity. That nobody tells, "Oh, this is from that country." This was all the time in my mind, because India, which has such a divine culture, such a divine wisdom, a holy land, where so many incarnations incarnated there. And second, always in my mind, even now, if I do anything wrong, people will not say that Māheśvarānand did wrong, but it is, "Oh, Madhavānand's disciple." It means it will reflect on my Gurudev—what kind of disciple I am, that I make a mistake and the reflection goes to my Gurudev. These two things are constantly in my awareness: what Holy Gurujī will say, "Mahesh, what are you doing?" Where will I hide myself? Where will I run? Nowhere. Similarly, you should also be aware of your Vairāgya. And so I told Holy Gurujī, and Holy Gurujī said, "Yes, this is your biggest protection, and you are... What kind of disciple is that who puts the name of Gurudev down? And what kind of citizen are you, that you keep the name of your country down?" It has nothing to do with discrimination, but still, you should be proud and happy. Then we will all be happy together and live in such a nice way. Similarly, whatever you eat, wherever you are going, whatever you are doing, keep abhyāsa, practice. It should become your practice. First, think of your vairāgya. If I do this, will I be attached to it? Will I become dependent? Attachment means suffering. Attachment means suffering. Sooner or later, you will cry. Sooner or later, you will be very sad. Sooner or later, you will be angry, jealous, and hateful because of one attachment. With detachment, you are happy, relaxed, peaceful, and joyful. But detachment means not that you hate someone or you don't like someone. No, it's the opposite. You love all. So when you do the Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna here in Strelka Ashram, and you work with your chakras, these beautiful Kriyās which you are doing, from morning to evening you have different techniques. And that now reflects beautiful light, good aura, good light on your face and everywhere. So abhyāsa, abhyāsa vairāgya, abhyāśamta nirodha. So, abhyāsa of the vairāgya, abhyāsa gives the nirodha. That vṛtti which pulls you to the saṃsāra, pulls you to the ignorance, to the darkness, will protect you. It will be sealed. It will be like bulletproof glass. No vṛttis will enter in because you are thinking about vairāgya, abhyāsa. Brahma satya, jagat mithyā. I know this is unreality. Therefore, I would like to achieve, realize the reality. And that is Ātmā jñāna, Brahma jñāna. Rest tomorrow. Patañjali's 14 mantras from the Samādhipāda begin tomorrow. PRABHU SARAN PARAYANAM. HAM SABDAS PRABHU SARAN PARAYANAM. OM NAMOS SIRI PRABHU DI PANARAS. SIRI PRABHU DI NARAN BAGHWAN KI JAI.