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Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devadhī Deva, Deveśvara Mahādeva Kī Jai, Satguru Svāmī Madhavān Jī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Alak Purījī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Devadhī Deva Śaṅkara Bhagavān Kī Jai. My dear brothers, sisters, all yoga students, yoga teachers, and also other yogīs and people listening through Swāmījī television. I am very happy that every day people are coming and asking when the session will be and how it is. They are very concentrated, listening to these lectures. I am very happy that I can give something to you from the source of yoga. Yoga is not only āsana and prāṇāyāma; it is many, many things more beyond, like the Bhagavad Gītā. So, blessings to all of you. In the last few days, we have been talking about Haṭha Yoga. When we think of Haṭha Yoga, and this is true for most in the Western world and now also in India, many people follow this idea. When someone wants to practice yoga, they ask the yoga teacher or at yoga centers, "I would like to practice Haṭha Yoga. In your school, are you teaching Haṭha Yoga?" I say, "Yes, of course, but we will also teach you yoga." They reply, "No, we want Haṭha Yoga." It means someone long ago implanted the word 'Haṭha Yoga' in their brain, and they think it is just āsanas and prāṇāyāmas. When we tell them that Haṭha yoga is different, they say, "No, no, we want only Haṭha yoga." They are very fixed, but yoga is very wide to know. There are only two words for yoga, for example... When we are doing these Haṭha yogas, we call Iḍā and Piṅgalā "Ha" and "Ṭha". The word "Ha" and "Ṭha" together is called Haṭha. Then the third one is the Hṛt. These two words come near the forehead: Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. So this is Haṭha, Tantra, and Yoga. In that way, still many people don't understand. The problem is that many people are teaching others for only a few weeks, two weeks, and giving a yoga certificate. Or perhaps they get a certificate in a year. Haṭha yoga, or any kind of yoga, requires a minimum of about six, seven, or eight years. Then you come to know yoga. Then you can become yoga teachers and yoga masters. There are two kinds of teaching. One is going through the university: from primary school, before kindergarten, then primary school until university. That is a complete system, yet it is not finished. You complete it, but then you must decide which path you will go on, and for that you again have to learn—Haṭha Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, etc. Furthermore, it is not just about doing your exercises and prāṇāyāmas, taking your yoga mat, and leaving. Many people are giving teacher trainings now, and they themselves do not know properly. I know that teaching someone from a distance is only half. It is said: when a child is crying, the father says, "Yes, now you will get milk," and the mother comes. The mother is here, the mother is coming, the mother will give you the milk. So, my dear, in this sense, distant teaching is not that exact. People sitting in a room at home, eating and looking at some book—yes, it is good, they are learning many things, but is it dry? It is dry. The baby needs the mother to drink milk from the mother's breast. Then the child is completely happy. Therefore, coming to university, schools, ashrams, or to a yoga guru, we have to be with them. Otherwise, it is not enough. It is like seeing the clouds, the sky, the moon, the sun, the dark night, but we cannot catch them. Yoga is very great for humans to learn and to become that yogī. And that yogī means everything. I don't know how Muslim people are learning in that way. Even if you have not seen your master, you have not seen your professor or your guru, or yogī guru—maybe now in a picture or on the telephone—it is still not that one. We have to see and be with them. From a far distance, you have not seen the person. You know their qualities, but you have not seen each other, and yet you marry. What is that marriage? So, my dear, yoga is a very great, highest class of bringing our consciousness, our soul, our jīva to the Brahmaloka. We read books; it's okay, but we cannot have practical experience through a book. It remains only on paper. Yes, there is knowledge. We can see everything, but we have to come near. And there is Haṭha Yoga. There is our Gurudev's beautiful bhajan about Haṭha Yoga: Soḍā mana saṅga mere, toye ātama beda paṭāvatā hai. Ātmā beda paṭavatā hai, ātmā beda paṭavatā hai. Ātmā pheda paṭavatahe Ātmā pheda paṭavatahe... Ātmā pheda paṭavatahe. Ātā joḍha mana jala saṅga mere toye, ātmā beda na pāvata he. Ātā joḍha mana jala saṅga mere toye, ātmā beda pāvata he, he he ... he. He Aata Jodha Maa Naachal Sanga Mere Toye Aatam Na Peetha Patavatahe Ame bhūta chetan rūpa dikāvatahe Jo yogī janadhyāna dāratahe Vārā pār nāhiye pāvatahe Jho yogī jhana dhyana dharatahe Varparanai pavatahe Atta jhoda manachal sangha mere Toye aatma bedana tavatahe Aṭṭā Joḍhā Mana Cāla Saṅga Merī To'e Ātamā Beḍā Paṭāvaṭahī To'e Ātamā Beḍā Paṭāvaṭahī Aṭṭā Joḍhā Mana Cāla Saṅga Merī Ātā jūḍa mana cala saṅga mere to ye ātmā na pīṭha paṭāvatahe, ātā jūḍa mana cala saṅga mere to ye ātmā na pīṭha paṭāvatahe. To ye ātmā na pīṭha paṭāvatahe, dayā ātmā pīḍā paṭāvatahe. Hātha joḍa mana cala saṅga merī, dayā ātmā pīḍā paṭāvatahe. ...Bhagavad Gītā, Devadhī Deva, Devī Svarmā, Deva Gītā, Svāhā Guru Svāmī Madhavānanda, Nandjīvā Madhavānanda, Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, Viśva Guru Mahāmaleśvara Svāmeśvara, Nandjīvā Gurudeva Gītā. So, our Gurudev Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī wrote this bhajan, and it gives a lesson to the disciples or practitioners. We come, let us say, from the beginning of school: middle school, college, university. And after that, it is not finished. I am now finished with university? So, Gurudev said—and Gurudev means there are many Gurudevs who are teaching you, like your master for cycling. First is your mother, your father, then your friends. When you are going to learn to drive a car, you must also have a teacher. Similarly, we train tigers, lions, etc. We cannot teach them from pictures. We have to give them training. So similarly, for yoga, any kind of technique you do, it has to be completed completely with that master. Otherwise, we are doing half, or not even half. Maybe they will give you the lecture once and go away, and then you will be looking for where this is, where that is. Similarly, there is also a person who will teach you how to cook. It's not easy to cook, so you always go to the restaurant. You think, "Oh, it's very good," but we have to learn cooking at home. Not only your mother, but your father should also do it. So there are many things for which we need practical experience. Nowadays, in this time, in the whole world, they are just putting, like, dust in the whole countries: yoga, yoga, yoga. That is like practicing bodybuilding—some kind of exercises, but that also we have to learn. Okay, some books are there, and we see the books, and we see the postures inside, pictures on it, and we can learn from this. But still, it is not completed. To complete it, we have to come there. So people say, "No, I will do it from here while sitting in another country. I will do it." That means we are making a haṭha. Haṭha means, "I can do and I will do. I will teach you there." Then the disciple and the master are both half. That's why you know that Sanātana Dharma is from Ādi and Ādi, from the beginning till now. And therefore there is a Guru. There are two Gods. One is the God who comes from time to time, in Satyuga, Dvāparayuga, Tretāyuga, etc. And the second is called the guru; that God is the teacher, giving us all, and that will give you proper training. So when there are no professors and nobody there, then we are lost. That guru, that master, that professor gives the knowledge face to face, and then they go and give it further. So, Haṭha Yoga, which I was giving a talk about... Mahāprabhujī said there, when the bhajan was being sung by Swami Umapuri—and she sings very nicely in Austrian dialect, why not? When I will sing an Austrian song, my God, I don't know, but that doesn't matter; the melody, the words exactly should be in that. Therefore, Gurudev said, "Hāt chod, manā chal saṅg mere." So, "hāt chod, manā"—"hāt" means, "Don't say, 'I will not do, I will not do.'" But "I will do, I will do"—that is that, hut. So, "hut" means we are saying, "No, no," or "Yes, yes, this is that." But your teacher said, "No, this is not this." You said, "No, I have seen it in the book. It was like that." So this is a confusion together. It is a hut. Give up your hut. Chal, saṅg mere—come with me. There are many things in the whole book that I cannot tell you now. In that way, I pray to all, and I pray to my Gurudeva, my Grand Gurumā, Grand Grand Gurumā, and Alak Purījī, and to all. They are giving me still that yoga teacher training. Everything is yoga. And so it is still not perfect, and when we will be perfect, then you will see, "Oh, now I know everything." Then the Master will say, "Now you have to learn more. Learn by yourself with what?" On that path, work, go on that path, and we have to go like that. Like nowadays, you go by car, and you have a navigation machine that tells you, "Go left and right," and you take your car in that direction. It says, "Please now go left," and one says, "No, I will not go to the left. I go that side." Okay, again, the machine will say, "Please go left to right, and right to back, and back to come again there." This is a navigation which the guru is giving us. Good masters made this all, but still we have to follow it. Without that, we cannot come to our place. We want to come to that house, but we are still not in the house. So we have yoga, learned many, many Sanskrit also. Even if you read Sanskrit or many other holy books, still it is only on the book; it is not practical. For example, you are hungry and you go to a restaurant. In the restaurant, there is a very nice poster with all many different kinds of fruits and vegetables. You look at the wall at this, and you are very hungry. You see only the picture. You become more hungry, but nobody is coming to bring the food. Again, hungry. Everything is food there on the wall, but that will not give you food in your body. That's only a picture. Similarly, if someone says, "I am the master, and I know everything," you are not. You have seen from a distance. So that practical thing is very important. And therefore, Haṭha Yoga, which I am giving you now already for four days, five days... In this Haṭha Yoga, now it is what we call Trāṭak. Trāṭak, which I spoke about yesterday, is also very important. How many techniques are there to bring our concentration to both eyes? Trāṭak is a powerful, very good practice, but my dear, where you are looking depends. If you are looking all the time at the bust, at some two words, or at some person... There's one lady sitting there, a very nice person, and one is on the other side sitting, and all the time she's making trāṭak. At the next station, she tells the driver, "Please call someone. There is one person all the time gazing at me." This Trāṭak should not be done. Please don't do this Trāṭak. And not only with humans. If you see a monkey, even in the zoo where the animals are, and you look at that... Thanks to God, it is behind glass. But if you look into the monkey's eyes, you can see like this, and the ears and like that, it's okay. But if you gaze, he will attack you. Know that tratāk. You go to see the tiger, etc. If you see a dog from the street and you look and look, you know what the dog will do. All these trataks—don't do them. Or a cobra comes, and you go and see, like, the tratak. He will immediately say, "Don't do that tratak." Or you talk to your professor, and you are only looking and looking. The professor will say, "Are you not normal?" So there are many kinds of tratak. What we are practicing, in which way and how? Therefore, trāṭak. In that trāṭak, which I told yesterday, it is said about children when they make in the bed. Then we give one training, but it should also be very careful. A teacher should teach us everything; then we should do it in that way. Similarly, gazing on that path, we can take, for example, a white paper. We put it there in front of us, and we make one circle. If it is black, gaze on that. When you close your eyes, it will be a white light circle. The black will come into the white. So there are many techniques. But there are some things with a flame. When you want to do tratak, many people say, "Oh, your eyes will be okay; concentrate on one flame." Very easy to tell, my dear. And people are looking into the flame. They may lose their eyes. Out of 100,000 people, one may become blind. And of all thousand people, nobody will talk to them. But they will all talk about this one person, that yoga was not good, this person was not good, don't do this, it makes people blind, and so on. We have the irises, the glasses, and this is our eye, which is kind of a mirror. This mirror we have, one is little and one is more. The doctor has given us control in one way. Now you take away your glasses and you look. Many people, I have heard from a distance, say, "Take your glasses away and do this." It will not be good. Therefore, for practicing yoga, a teacher, a master, with you close, is very important. So in this trāṭak, with white paper and a black circle or one point, or on the wall, there are many ways you can do it. But do not concentrate on the sun. If you want to gaze on the sun for your eyes, then go many, many steps, slowly, slowly. Some people look at the moon or the sun with open eyes. You will lose your eyes. Five days ago, I saw one person—maybe a yogī, it doesn't matter—and he had no dress. Maybe it's cold or the heat in the Himalayas or somewhere, I don't know. He was sitting in the lotus position, and I think he was sitting like this. I did not concentrate on his hands. He was a very nice person, a beautiful man, about nearly 60 or 70 years old, or maybe more, and the sunrise. He was gazing at the sun. I saw that his gazing was perfect; he knows how to gaze at the sun. His eyes were open, but when he was looking up, he put his pupils up. So you are looking like this. So it's not very hard, the rays of the sun in your eyes. I don't know how long he's doing it, but it's just sun rising, and maybe one minute, or I don't know how much they are doing, or maybe they do it during the daytime, but that's the master training. So that is the tratak. There are many, many techniques for this, and that is the sixth point of haṭha yoga. So, my dear, in Haṭha Yoga, your master should be with you. It is important that your master should be with you. It must not be about an orange dress, or a black dress, or a yellow, white, or green one—that doesn't matter. But it is that one who is properly teaching and is with you all the time. Haṭha Yoga is one of the best yogas, and it will lead us to proceed further. All the best, and tomorrow we will come back again. My dear, if you did not understand me, you can send a message to these Swāmījī televisions, and they will send me what you did not understand. But, my dear, what I am teaching is only at a distance; you have to come to me. This year, coronavirus is not coming, but we will do so many, many—my disciples around the world, in your country, you can talk to our yoga center, Yoga in Daily Life. There are very good teachers, yogīs in their life, and they will give you your answer. If not, then that teacher will send me, and I will give it to my Gurudev. So please, do yoga in that way, like from primary school till the universities, and then how far further. Similarly, we should give yoga to people like this, and not only somewhere in some countries. With this, if I made something or mistakes, I am sorry. I did it with my love, my respect, etc. See you tomorrow. Alak Purījī Mahādeva, Satya Sanātanadharma, Om Śānti, Śānti,... Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam, Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam.