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Today we will engage in meditation on prāṇāyāma. Yesterday we explored prāṇāyāma in depth. This practice, when pursued toward perfection, allows prāṇa and prāṇāyāma to elevate our consciousness. Yet it is not easy, because there are specific times and durations of practice that can clash with the demands of worldly life. Different sādhanās exist, and the path of pure work is also a very different one. Karma is highly important and beneficial, but even the kind of karma we perform requires discipline. The karma yoga practiced in an office, in government service, or in companies, for instance, differs from the yoga of those immersed solely in spiritual practice. Both are good, yet the path is not simple; it is a matter of one in all and all in one. The essential quality is to be peaceful, humble, kind, and ever ready to help everyone. It does not matter whether you are on a farm or in a factory. There are countless honest people who work with integrity and remain genuinely humble. If we all went to the Himalayas and only sat in meditation, who would provide for us? However, here in European countries, at least after retirement one receives a pension. If you then simply do your sādhanā somewhere and live quietly, that money is more than enough. This is a great blessing, because people in this stage can attain the highest consciousness or go even further. Otherwise, circumstances vary, and the world is very different now. About forty years ago—or thirty-eight—we held a seminar. We reserved a large hotel, and they had a few rooms for other guests. After morning meditation we would go to breakfast, then have an hour for our own chores. The air was quite cold. There was an elderly gentleman, perhaps eighty or eighty-five, and a person who assisted him. After breakfast, as I came out of the hall, this gentleman would see me regularly. He could not walk, so his carers would bring him outside to sit in the sun and then take him back inside. One day he was sitting there in his chair, and I greeted him, “How are you, sir? Cheer.” He replied, “Yes, my friend. I am not good, so I cannot go away.” When someone says, “I am not good, I do not feel well, I am not happy,” and so on, and has no one, I stayed to listen. He said, “Young man, I am happy to see you. I think you are some sādhu or something from India.” Then he asked, “Please, my friend, can you sit beside me?” Of course, I said yes. He continued, “I was very good, but now I am not.” I asked what he had been doing. He explained, “There were two thousand people working under me in my factories. I had no time to sleep because everyone said, ‘Please come to my program, my this, that…’ I owned three houses, each in a different country. In each I had two cars, like Mercedes, and drivers, everything. During Christmas and other festivals they would all invite me. I had my wife and my daughter. She married in Germany. My wife died. I am retired. Now, from those factories, no one comes to me and says, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Maybe someone meets me somewhere and says, ‘Oh, sir, how are you?’ But many do not even look. Life is wrong. They took my houses, my cars are gone; I do not know where my house is. My daughter telephones once or twice a year—for Christmas or my birthday—and says, ‘How are you, Daddy?’ I tell her, ‘I am not good. Nobody is here.’ She says, ‘Don’t worry, it’s okay. All is good now. Do you need anything? I am sorry, I have to go to work. Father, all right, I will see you again, okay?’ and hangs up.” He asked me, “Who are you?” I said, “I am a yogī.” He responded, “Oh, I know that yogīs are very good, but now I am too little, I have no money, everything has been taken.” I gave him a mantra—this will bring you some peace and harmony—and he said, “My dear boy, I am at the end. My river’s flow is gone.” I replied that it would be good, and every time he needed me I would come and bring him coffee. Then he reflected, “I had so many cars, so many servants, so much money. Always someone was inviting me to a festival. And now, no one. What is the aim of this life?” I said that life could become better again. So I sat with him every day for the two weeks I was there. This is the situation, not just for that one person. Many have nothing. Many have many telephones, but no one telephones them. And if someone rings, they know who it is and simply switch it off. This is human nature. It is said that even animals, when one of them falls down, the other animal comes near. So, try to enter into that practice where at least we feel inner satsaṅg, prārthanā, prayers, and meditation, and abide within happiness. There are many dimensions here. In meditation, many people meditate but their attention goes outward; the inner connection is missing. If you sit quietly and then walk in the forest, or in a farmhouse or a park—for example, this very park here—I tell you, only this park and these trees are our friends. Life. Animals cannot ask anyone how they are, yet we are human. But in this world, for many, many years, how many are truly happy? And how many have a lot of money? Can you tell them how happy they are? It is not like that. So, let us come to our inner self. We have, and we do not have. People are often very aware that they torture and create problems for others. They themselves have problems, yet they cause more problems for others. Then in this life, and in the next life too, that will return to us. Thus it is said, one should not backbite. In this big bag of life, people are like this: in the mouth is a good word, and in the hand is a knife, and that knife is in the eyes. And the eyes say, go ahead. So as humans, we should be very protected and good, but now we do not know. Therefore, do something: make mantra, mālā, pūjā, and blessings will come to us. Then in your body, in your thoughts, in your feelings, you are happy. You are very happy now, and I wish that you will have happiness forever. As long as we are with you, our old bhaktas, anyone will run to help you. That is very, very important. We have our bhaktas, our friends. These friends are much better for us than our relatives. So let us reflect a little today, and then we will do the meditation. Make yourself comfortable—and comfortable means comfortable. I could tell you to sit in this posture or that posture, but that is not good. Good is when you feel comfortable. So, make yourself comfortable. Feel your whole body. Withdraw thyself from the external world and become one with thyself. Relax. Relax. Just relax. And from the top of the head to the toes. Now feel your breath, the ascending and descending breath. Do not force the breath; just be thyself. You are the prāṇa. Feel your breath, feel your ascending and descending breath. Be yourself; you are the prāṇa. Feel your whole body, each and every limb, that they are comfortable, relaxed, and you hear our mantra. Feel your whole body, each and every limb, as it is released, and feel your mantra. Inhale from both nostrils, Anāhata. From there, come to the navel. Know that your cloth is divine, not what you have earned. Now, concentrate all your energy, your feelings, your happiness, your joy, like a tiny, tiny seed of an apple. Keep your mantra within thyself, no withdrawing outside. You are thyself. The mantra is our Gurudev with us. Your prāṇa, your energy, your feelings, your body, yourself. Be aware of that which is you. The earth is yours. Nothing will come from outside; you may send some energy, that is all. Once again, just become aware of your body. I am relaxed, comfortable, healthy, happy, and my body is well. Yourself, everything yourself, your being. Now, feel in your stomach. Feel your stomach. How good a feeling do you have? What did you eat? What did you drink? Are you hungry? How is the energy? Just understand and feel your belly, your stomach. Now, feel your stomach, the feelings you have there. Are you hungry? Do you feel good after eating and drinking? Try to understand those feelings in your stomach. Feel comfortable and relaxed. Feel your spinal column, your back. It is yours. Relax, comfortable. Relax, comfortable. Relax, relax. Feel the strength of your back, your shoulders. Make yourself relax, your heart, and be thyself into the cosmic self, your heart, feeling of the heart, your mantras, your prāṇas. I know that I am peaceful, harmonious, and full of joy. My mantra, my ātmā, peace, peace, my heart, feel relaxed in your heart. Peace, peace, peace. My divine self, myself, within myself, let me feel that kind of happiness which will be forever and ever. Relax, comfortable, peace, harmony, and guru kṛpā. Feel that Gurudev, Mahāprabhujī, Devpurījī, Holī Gurujī will lead us to oneness. And remain in your heart, in unity. Now bring to your forehead Trikāl Darśī, Trikāl Darśī—past, present, and future, past, present, and future, within thyself, it is thyself. And now, from the navel, nābhi, eleven times, Oṃ mantra, from the navel to sahasrāra. There are seven centers, from the navel to sahasrāra. Relax your body a little bit, move your fingers, palms, and rub your palms, place your hands on your thighs, face, Hari Om.