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Today is again the 15th of August, and just yesterday—or actually, it was yesterday—we celebrated Janmāṣṭamī, the incarnation day of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The night was beautiful. And now, in ten days, we will celebrate Holy Gurujī’s incarnation. As every year, we hold a very beautiful retreat or seminar in this blessed forest of the Czech Republic, in our village near the Mahāprabhudīp Satsaṅg Foundation Ashram. The village is Strilky, and the ashram lies just one kilometer and 250 meters from here. The spot where we are sitting is two kilometers and 150 meters away. The government of the Czech Republic and the previous government of Czechoslovakia worked to preserve this forest, making it accessible to every tourist and citizen—a forest beautifully designed with various kinds of trees. It is even said that for asthma and breath problems, the air here, with its needle trees, is more effective than the seaside. Every year we come here and walk for an hour or two, practicing āsanas and prāṇāyāma. Being in the forest is a blessing; going to the big city is a challenge. Holidays should be holy days, spent in peace and silence. It is always said: ekāntavāsa—withdraw to a remote area. Traveling through the forest is something great. Think of the holy incarnations: Kṛṣṇa used to go into the forest with the cows, for cows do not make noise like humans. Rāma also spent much time in the forest. Buddha attained enlightenment and journeyed through the forest. The forest is our life; the trees listen to what we say. The trees are happy. Sarvar tarvar sant jan chautha barsay may. The trees, the lakes, the sand, and the rain are incarnated for the sake of all, for the well-being of the whole world. Trees have the title of a saint; trees have the title of a mother—always giving, giving, giving, never taking. No trees, no life. So we are happy to be here. Welcome you all. And now we will walk to Aranya Vihar. Araṇya means forest, and also gold. In Hungarian, too, aranya means gold, does it not? And vihar means walking: so a golden forest walk, with bhāvanā, mantra practice, inhaling. We shall practice our Kriyānusthāna technique—without holding hands, simply imagining that I inhale through Iḍā nāḍī, the left hand through Iḍā, and so on. One hour of mental practices while walking. Good idea? Yes, very good. I wish you all the best. Thank you for singing, for the first time, my birthday song in the forest. I have had many birthdays in Czechoslovakia, often in the forest—the most beautiful forest, where one can feel free. In some countries, tourists are scolded for making garbage, but here, there is a big heart for us. Enjoy. Kālī Kī Jāī. So, today is again the 15th of August, and just yesterday was Janmāṣṭamī. In ten days, Holy Gurujī’s incarnation. Thank you, Madhuram, for singing such a beautiful bhajan: “Aaj Sākī Satguru Gharāye Kālī Kālī Harṣhavat Hai.” Very soon we are coming to the point where Patañjali speaks about śraddhā and bhāva—devotion. After a certain period of practicing different yoga kriyās and trying to gain control over the senses, the development of spirituality toward samādhi or toward Brahma Jñāna is devotion. If one wishes to accelerate spiritual growth, one must turn to devotion, to bhāva. In his bhajan, Lalananji expresses the feelings of a bhakta, a disciple, when Gurudev comes to their door. Satguru has come. Kālī Kālī Harṣavat Hai. Kalī means the bud—the bludgeon that opens into a lotus or a rose. Similarly, our body is filled with buds, with blemishes. Every tissue is like a blessing. And when Satgurudev, Mahāprabhujī, arrived at his door, he proclaimed: “Suno Sajan Satguru Gharaya—O my friends, listen! My Gurudev has come to my house.” And what happens? Kālī Kālī Harṣavat Hai—the buds rejoice. Harṣa and śoka: śoka is unhappiness—death, tragedy, quarrels. But meeting the Satgurudev, meeting holy saints, or when God suddenly manifests, some say, “Oh, how wonderful!” others say, “Oh, Śiva, har har, Mahādeva.” Now Patañjali leads us to this point. Vitarka, vicāra, ānanda, asmitā, anumati, prajñātā. Doing sādhanā, we come to this concrete stage: Samprajñāta Samādhi. Samprajñāta is the state of our being. Some of you who practice Kriyānusthāna and can sit motionless for thirty-five minutes may experience this. But today, during the Anuṣṭhāna, many were still adjusting, doing mantras. Practice makes perfect. Yesterday we walked through the mountains; those who had been here a week felt no fatigue, but newcomers struggled—training and conditioning were missing. Similarly, those who have systematically prepared for a year according to Yoga in Daily Life—practising prāṇāyāma, āsanas, training joints and muscles—they enjoy inner happiness in Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. The influence of Prakṛti on the indriyas slowly dims. The indriyas become antarmukha, withdrawn, introverted. If you move your body, open your eyes, feel warmth or draft, the indriyas are bahirmukha, extroverted and restless, and they will not allow you to enter samprajñāta samādhi. In this, Patañjali explains three things. Grahya: that which, through Prakṛti and the physical senses, influences your concentration. Through practice, a yogī makes this calm, more and more calm—you become introverted. Introverted here does not mean the psychological illness of deep sorrow, confusion, or fear, where one can hardly smile. No, it means you withdraw inwardly so that outer disturbances no longer irritate. When a train passes near a house, longtime residents no longer notice; their senses have rejected the sound. That is grahya. The second is graṇa: the act of noticing, which then goes to the mind and the Antaḥkaraṇa. Antakaraṇa is not a physical sense; it is the inner functions. How many Antaḥkaraṇas are there? Four—very good. Manas, Buddhi, Citta, and Ahaṁkāra: mind, intellect, consciousness, and ego. These four profoundly influence our spiritual development. Until the Antaḥkaraṇa is purified and attains steadiness like the senses, progress does not come. And the third is gṛhīta: the one through which our buddhi, our intellect, realizes oneness, ekatā. At that moment the intellect is awake: “Yes, I am experiencing that happiness.” This is a kind of samādhi, but one where the seeds still remain—I know I am very calm, I am above all this, and I am aware of it. This Samprajñāta Samādhi you achieve, but it is not final. For that, again he says: “Vīraṁ pratyayābhyāsa pūrva saṁskāra śeṣo yaḥ.” Practice your abhyāsa continuously, without interrupting your sādhanā, without breaking discipline. Even if you think you are at a high level of consciousness and need nothing, you are mistaken and can fall back. A very sensitive point: either you progress, or you fall. There you must observe and control yourself. There remains only saṁskāra śeṣa—what remains after all the pluses and minuses. After all this counting, what remains is only one, and that is called Satya—truth, the reality which finally manifests. Like Śeṣanāga: it is said the earth rests on the head of the thousand-headed snake coiled in the ocean, upon which Viṣṇu resides. When Śeṣanāga moves his neck a little, an earthquake takes place. We should not give him tensions. When Mother Earth suffers from our side, the effect reaches Śeṣanāga. Imagine balancing an object on your head; if the object itself moves, your neck must adjust. So when this planet is unbalanced—what we now call climate change—Śeṣanāga is disturbed, and earthquakes, hurricanes, floods come. Symbolically: truth suffers. We suffer because we have lost truth, lost our self, the ātmā. Without clarity, without knowing our Svarūpa, the Ātmā, we are imbalanced. Rāga and dveṣa fill us: attachment and duality, ignorance and jealousy. These are so strong that a sādhaka cannot find inner balance in the steadiness of the Svarūpa, where samprajñāta samādhi cannot be successfully practiced further in that realm. Therefore: Vīraṁ pratyayābhyāsa pūrvaḥ. Without breaking your abhyāsa, continue what you did in the past; in the future you must go on. Saṁskāra śeṣa anyaḥ—other saṁskāras remain. Saṁskāras are experiences—through vision, sound, smell, taste, touch, fear, happiness, spiritual or non-spiritual, satsaṅga, kusaṅga—collected by our indriyas from the outer world. These saṁskāras abide, and with them we must practice, continuing our sādhanā. Ego is the bundle of saṁskāras; according to that bundle we lead our life, according to the education we had. When we penetrate deep into the mind, saṁskāras surface, bringing vāsanās. If these vāsanās are not purified, we cannot proceed; attempting might cause damage. Therefore, it is vitally important to develop śraddhā, viśvāsa—confidence. About this we will speak tomorrow. There, Guru Bhakti comes in. When you practice śraddhā, then progress toward samādhi or deep meditation and higher consciousness becomes rapid. But many practitioners make a mistake: they think, “Now I know how to meditate, I know all the books, I can do āsanas and prāṇāyāms, I sit comfortably. I need nothing. Why more mantra?” This is the first obstacle, the first rock on the path of a sādhaka. Therefore, we must constantly observe our inner feelings. Suno Sajjan Satguru Gharaya Aaya Kali Kali Harshavat He. When this knowledge appears, when you reach that higher consciousness, then Ātmā Prakāśa, Ātmā Anubhūti begins. Anubhūti means experience, a reflection: something is near. Just as when digging a tube well, the soil grows weak, and you know water is near. Similarly, the reflection comes that the Ātmā is near now. And that Ātmā is your Satguru, your inner Gurudev. When that Gurudev appears in your ātmā, immense joy arises. But first you must accept from outside, experience, develop devotion and love, and then it will transform into the second form. Without devotion, no matter what sādhanā you do, it is lost. Of course, there are different kinds of devotion—even black magic practitioners may have devotion, but a true guru cannot be a black magic guru. Our aim is pure consciousness and the ātmā. So: Vīraṁ pratyayābhyāsa pūrvaḥ saṁskāra śeṣo anyaḥ. There is no anyaḥ—nothing else, yet some saṁskāras may remain inside. We must trace them out: cultivate the good, ignore the negative and remove it from our attention. Tomorrow we will proceed. What is Patañjali going to say? Bhāva pratyayo videha prakṛti laya manaḥ. Bhāva and prakṛti, and videha: the father of Sītā, King Janaka, was called Vaidehī or Janaka Videha. It is said he lived as a Jīvanmukta, liberated while in the body—a rare state. One of Mahāprabhujī’s disciples, Maṅgīlālji, became a Jīvanmukta while living as a householder. Read about him in Līlāmṛta. Tomorrow we will discuss Videha: even before complete fulfillment, the body may die while the journey remains unfinished. Then that one is known as a Yogī Bhraṣṭa, one who could not complete the yogic life in that incarnation. This is for tomorrow. Today, I wish you all the best, a good evening, a good appetite, and to those going to sleep in different countries, a good night. Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavānkī, Deveśvar Mahādevkī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandjī Bhagavānkī, Sanātana Dharma Kī. Tomorrow we will have a demonstration by some yoga practitioners here who are near to Samprajñāta Samādhi, though they may not even know it. We will show the posture, the mudrā, how one sits when approaching Samprajñāta Samādhi. Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī, Devīśvara Mahādevakī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavānakī, Sanātana Dharma Kī. Oṁ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, Paramahaṁsarī, Svāmijī Maheśvarānanda, Satguru Jī.