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Try to be innocent

A spiritual discourse on the path of yoga and meditation.

"Similarly, we all, in different ways, are returning to oneness. That is yoga. That is the path of our Self merging into the One."

"In your meditation, how do we meditate? We guide energy up through the cakras. If energy goes down, you are lost."

A spiritual teacher addresses a global audience, explaining yoga as the journey from individuality to universal oneness. Using metaphors like rivers merging into the ocean and a bird returning to its boat, he emphasizes staying on the spiritual path and returning to the guidance of the guru. He discusses meditation practice, advocating for physical comfort while focusing on raising inner energy through the subtle body channels and cakras to reach higher consciousness.

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Oṁ Guru Brahma, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Dhyāna Mūlaṁ Guru Mūrtiḥ, Pūjā Mūlaṁ Guru Pādam, Mantra Mūlaṁ Guru Vākyaṁ, Mokṣa Mūlaṁ Guru Kṛpā. Oṁ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Good evening, all dear sisters, brothers, and yoga practitioners around the whole world. I extend my prayers to all humans, that they may be healthy, happy, and harmonious within themselves. I pray for all countries around the world to remain happy, peaceful, and friendly. We know the corona problem continues, and we all need help to keep clean and protect ourselves and others. I pray for all. Our subject is always yoga. How many years is my age? My life in yoga began in my mother's womb. Being held in my father's hands, embraced by brothers and friends—I feel I was born a yogī, I work as a yogī, and I am in service to you as a yogī. If I make a mistake, please forgive me. If you are happy and like it, good. I surrender with humbleness. This feeling must come from within ourselves, and from it, we gain immense energy, peace, harmony, and happiness. We human beings, according to our capacity, can be great. In ancient times, there were many great humans—yogīs or spiritual people. In this way, we are always moving forward on our globe. I pray for all humans and animals to live in harmony and peace. We have scriptures and teachings given to us in writing, through voice and thought, and they continue to help us. It can happen that one person likes something and another does not, but in the end, we are all connected as one. Like clouds bring rain, water flows on the earth, collecting into creeks, then rivers, and many rivers merge into one great river. The power of that river finds its path and returns to the ocean. Similarly, we all, in different ways, are returning to oneness. That is yoga. That is the path of our Self merging into the One—whether we call it Brahma, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Brahmātmā, or Allah. We are all merging into one. We know the wind carries moisture from the ocean into the sky, it forms clouds, and the rain falls. I mentioned before how water drops on the highest mountains. One might think from that peak, "I am very high up. How will I return to my ocean?" But don't worry. The water will come together, gain power, carve valleys, break stones, and find its way to the ocean. Similarly, my dear, we are now at the highest point of human potential, and we know our path. We will make our path, come all together, and reach the highest consciousness, and from there to the cosmic consciousness. That is the path of yoga. We learn through lectures, books, and alphabets. Why? Because we want to reach that goal. That is also yoga. Even the Brahmā self knows it wants to write, speak, and teach further. In every part of the world—even on a big rock in the middle of the ocean—people receive the name of God. We yogīs say each cell in our body is like we are in a vast ocean. Sometimes we think our path is good; other times we think, "I don't like where I am. This path is not good." There is a beautiful bhajan by a great holy man—a blind saint, if I'm not wrong. It tells of a big boat on the ocean. A bird was on the boat, with ocean and water for a hundred kilometers on all sides. The bird said, "I am just sitting on this boat, but I don't like it. Even though there is food, this boat is not mine. I will go somewhere else, back to my place on earth." The bird flew one, two, five kilometers. There was nowhere to land, and it grew very tired. The bird turned back and sat again on the same boat. Tired again, it tried to fly in another direction, but there was also no land. If the bird tried to sit on the water, a fish might eat it. So it returned. The lesson is: we try to go here and there, but we must return to our true path—our guru, teacher, master, or saint. Sometimes we say, "I don't like this, I will search elsewhere." You will not find it. You may think you are good somewhere else, but sooner or later you must turn back. If you fly tired and fall into the ocean, you will not reach the goal. Likewise, we humans try this way and that. Slowly, we grow tired and are lost. It is said your guru is not only a formal teacher. Your father is your guru, your mother is your guru. That is the nest where babies are born. There are many gurus in the world. What does this mean? A guru is anyone who guides us on the path to the Supreme. But how? How should we practice? What is yoga? My dear, your mother gave you a lot of yoga. When your child is little—one month, a few days, one year—the mother takes the child in her lap, massages the baby, stretches them, puts them on their stomach, massages the spine, palms, and fingers. The mother brings warm water and bathes the child. Sometimes the baby cries, but then becomes happy and moves nicely. They cannot walk yet, but this massage is the yoga practice of a mother for her child. How to give food? After a month, a year, the father comes, and the child holds the father's finger. Have you not seen in the Rāmāyaṇa how Bhagavān Rāma walked holding his father's finger? That is yoga. Slowly, all our brothers and sisters also help the child move. Then comes talking, speaking, learning how to get up and sit. Then come neighbor's friends and other friends. It is said a little child is like a god because they have no negative thinking; they are pure, and everyone loves that purity. Even when we see baby animals—dogs, cats, cows, rabbits, deer, tigers, elephants—we say, "Oh, nice baby," because in everything there is the divine. They are pure. They do not know if they are an animal or a snake, but they are pure. We work very hard, do good things, and help others, but we should return to meditation. Remain innocent. Remember the happiness in the lap of your mother and father, or your guru. You do not know how much the Guru loves you. It is said the Guru is greater than mother and father, holding your whole life in the palm of their hand. Therefore, when you come to meditation—whether you close your eyes or open them, sit leaning or straight—make yourself comfortable, like a little baby wants to be comfortable. When we come home after playing football, swimming, running, working hard, or driving, we should first feel as if we are in the womb of the mother. On the other hand, we do not know how hard it was in the mother's womb—like workers making clothes, building the body. But when we come out, we see happiness. When we come home—in different countries, with different people and philosophies—feel positive thinking according to your culture. Everyone does things for God. Come to meditation. You do not have to sit perfectly straight. Yes, many sit with hands on knees, but after five or ten minutes, they slump. Why? Make yourself comfortable. Perhaps lie down, stretch out a leg, lean on a chair, a wooden pillar, or a wall. Just ensure it is not too cold, or you may have problems. When you want to meditate, try one day to make yourself as comfortable as possible. Then you will come within yourself. Consider how to sit and breathe, but do not let your mind run here and there. Meditate for as long as you can—10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, two hours. Sometimes people sit on a riverbank, relaxed, watching the beautiful flowing water with eyes open. That is also meditation. It is not necessary to close your eyes and sit very straight. That is for people who think, "Oh, this is yoga, this is very good, we will do it." Why? Be comfortable. If during meditation you need to go to the bathroom, please go. Do everything that makes you happy. If you cannot make yourself comfortable, who will? It is you, my dear, and that is your inner guru. Your inner guru does everything. But when you sit in meditation and think about money, friends, desires—"I want to be," "I miss something," "I am young, it is difficult for me," "I want to be old"—you will become old. So, while you are young, use that energy to reach the highest. Do not go down. In our yoga, we speak of hidden powers in humans, the cakras and kuṇḍalinī. We have a technique called yoga in daily life, where we must move energy up the spinal column through the cakras. The power must always go up. If it goes down to the lower cakras, the roots will be gone. In prāṇāyāma, we work with the left nostril (Iḍā), right nostril (Piṅgalā), and central channel (Suṣumṇā), which pull energy up. There is also another energy channel called Vajranāḍī. The Vajranāḍī becomes strong like iron, immovable, beyond feelings. Iḍā and Piṅgalā move left and right, but Vajranāḍī is strength. If you let energy go down, something will be wrong. You lose your life force. The highest power in our body is meant to rise; if we put it down, it creates different kinds of troublesome feelings. How many "horses" or energies are in the body? There are ten. We must guide them upward. Weakness is like a branch of a tree breaking. Do not be like a single branch, but like the whole trunk of the tree—the Vajranāḍī. Through the Vajranāḍī, drawing energy from Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā from the root cakra (Mūlādhāra), we will go further and further. So, in your meditation, how do we meditate? We guide energy up through the cakras. If energy goes down, you are lost. But also, let it flow naturally—whether up or down—while keeping your consciousness in harmony and always oriented upward. Always look up, not emotionally down. Otherwise, there is no meditation, and you will not be spiritual. You will not reach the cosmic Self. Otherwise, you only say, "This is a good book, I pray, I say praṇām," but inside there is so much emotion. And what is negative emotion? The roots become rotten, and we are reduced to nothing. Therefore, try to control. Very few people can control 100%, but we must try very hard. The meditation I speak of is about how meditation should be. I will speak of "nothing," but not in the sense of the whole body being empty—no, that is another thing, my dear. Let us continue. What is real meditation? Who has spoken the great sense? Not many people are like that. Often, where one speaks a lot, many people gather. Where one does not want to talk, only a few sit. So it is said. Let us come further for our meditation. It is perfect, but I must bring you on the right way, as my Master, my Holy Gurujī, did. You will know how Mahāprabhujī meditated—with mantra and meditation for all 18 hours. Even while resting, his mālā was in his fingers, moving. All people in Kathu, Nagara, Gujarat, everywhere, who know Mahāprabhujī Swāmī Madhvanājī Bhagavān, say he was always engaged in bhajan, mantra, and meditation. That is how his meditation was. It will come. Hari Oṁ. I wish you all the best. Oṁ Śānti. Oṁ Śānti. Oṁ.

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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