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Without Gurudev we cannot be successful

An evening satsang and yoga practice session on the necessity of the guru.

"Yoga has existed since the beginning of the Satya Yuga. It accompanies us through all ages and is present in every era."

"Gurū sa bina kārya na jaisā... Without Gurudeva, whatever we want to achieve cannot be done without Gurudeva."

A spiritual teacher addresses a global audience, explaining the eternal nature of yoga and the essential role of a true guru (Gurudeva) for spiritual success, emphasizing that self-effort alone cannot cross the ocean of worldly existence. He references a bhajan by Mahāprabhujī and discusses the soul's journey. The session transitions into a guided yoga practice led by Swami Umapuri, beginning with deep relaxation (Ānanda āsana) and proceeding through gentle stretches and torsion exercises for the spine and joints, concluding with a collective "Om" and peace chants.

Filming location: Bari Khatu, Rajasthan, India

Good evening to all sisters, brothers, and all yoga practitioners in their lives. I also extend my respectful welcome to all other yoga centers, yoga teachers, and practitioners. I welcome you all. Yoga has existed since the beginning of the Satya Yuga. It accompanies us through all ages and is present in every era. Therefore, it is very important that we know and understand it. It is said that those who understand what a guru is—it is a language. It can be a teacher, it can be your friend, through whom you learn something. But that learning is not half-learning. So, it is said there are different kinds: that guru and that disciple. And that which is from God is supreme, which is Brahman. First, there is this jīva, the soul, ātmā, etc. There are some things about the jīva and some things about the earth. In that context, those Brahma yogīs, who possess Brahma knowledge, say that the guru and disciple come from the universe. How many times, or across many yugas, will the soul come back? There are two: a master or guru, and a disciple, from the universe. The Brahmalokas from there come together at that time; the disciple begins to come at that time. After it comes near, to what we call the earth—where we are, also the ocean or the earth—through that, the jīva, the soul or ātmā, comes. It develops practice, and they don't know, but it is. They are making the practice from itself in the cosmic. A mother gets a few children. Sometimes they are two, twins, or one after the other. The mother is the greatest, and the father is also. So when this jīva comes to these five elements, it is said when that soul is trying to come to this area—area means not this room or that room, or this house, but on this earth—and God or destiny, whatever you think, gives that such a child is already God. He has read it. Let's say you have about six children, or ten children, or two children in all. Maybe all ten children are very holy, very... or many are just coming as students, the disciples, etc. So when they are coming—when you have four children or five children—we love them all. All parents feel this, but the nature is different. That is a difference. So, mother and father, they are giving as teachers or parents. But sometimes it doesn't depend on the parents because there is from the cosmic that one child is coming. Every child will have different feelings: how to act, how to think, how to speak. Some are different. For example, one soul will not want to drink alcohol, no drugs, no meat, no eggs, nothing, and will always be humble, kind, peaceful, etc. Others are different. And so you know that this Ātmā, the soul, has come there. And that is searching for the master, that called guru. There are two kinds of gurus. One kind comes only at very different times, from one yuga to two yugas, etc. But as a guru is in every village, in every country, everywhere, in every village. But still, there is something missing. That person has that feeling to be, to have, to come further. But there is no one guiding us. It's very difficult to look for a master, a guru. After that, of course, there is education, schools, etc. But then it is said there are two kinds of knowledge: what we are learning in our schools and universities, etc., and the other one is that inner lecture from the master or guru and disciples inside. And then it is awakened in the person, and it is said, "I am searching." A person then knows that he is searching. There are millions of people who are searching. A ještě se jim nerozjasnilo, neotevřeli bránu svého čela. Different persons who are doing. But in that fight, a place suddenly opens in our kiśmat, what we call. That opens in the forehead, and there you don't understand still, but it is opened. And then it will always be a feeling to go somewhere: "I want to learn something, I want to have something," etc. Therefore, it is said that it doesn't matter how much you have learned. We have many good things; there is no wrong. But Mahāprabhujī said that is a beautiful bhajan. Mahāprabhujī has given this bhajan, beautiful, beautiful. Yes, it is a wonderful bhajan, which Mahāprabhujī composed. Gurū sa bina kārya na jaisā. Kārya. Kārya means my work is completed. Káraž znamená, moje práce je hotová. You have done something for me that I wanted to do. Něco si pro mě udělalo, co jsem po tobě chtěl. Like this, that is something. My table is moving left and right, and one of our disciples, Hanumān Purī, he will come and only a little, little piece of wood, and he will put it in, that it will not move at all. He will fix it so that it will stand motionless. To je velmi důležité. Čili, jak to ten guru znovu otevře? Tomu se říká kárač. Kárač znamená: "Udělal jsi, co jsem po tobě chtěl?" "Ano, udělal." That means, I have done. And who has done this for us? Without Gurudeva, no one can do. Guru Śabina Karjanei Sare, without Gurudeva, whatever we want to achieve cannot be done without Gurudeva. Koṭi upāi kare kui chāhī. Koti means thousands and thousands of times. Koti upāya. Upāya means trying. It means I want to try this, I want to try this, I want to try that. But I don't get that. All the times. Koṭī means thousands and thousands of times. Upai, I try very much. Na koi kare chaho, and you can do many, many things. A můžete dělat spoustu věcí. So koti upāī kare, koi chahe, you can work a lot. Můžete se nadřít. Na bhava sindhu tere, sindhu means the ocean, sindhu znamená oceán. And without techniques or this, we cannot go through. The ocean from this to the other, from this shore to that shore, so we are in that ocean. So far we come, we go, we come. There will be only times that bhajan. This was singing very nice, Mahāprabhujī's bhakta. Only two words. Gurushā, and work is done. Only these two: Gurudev and Bhakta. Likewise, there are many, many yogas, and people are doing good. They are practicing; there is nothing wrong. But in the practicing of yoga, we have to go to that kind of a guru, Brahmalokas. And that's why, as I do have now, that's called Sarvahittāsana. And it is called, from our Prabhujī's, Baddhikhatu Praṇām. And in the Bārikatu Praṇām, it has immense knowledge inside, immense for body and health, it's many things. And so, first is, you know that all four years, oh, four days, sorry, you are practicing every day the Bārik Khaṭul Praṇām. So, now, again, our sister will come and give a demonstration. Go ahead. Five times, go ahead. And I will talk, but you will just watch, look, watch our disciple, our bhakti. Yeah, Vidya. And I will tell you something. And after our Swami Umapurījī, she will further then go ahead with the Sarvahita Āsana. So, Guru Sabina carries in his sari, without Gurudeva, it will not be. We are not yet ready. So, without Gurudev, we cannot be successful. Without Gurudev, we cannot succeed. Gurūś binā kāraj nahī̃ sare, koṭi upāy kare, koī chāhe, na bhavasindhu tīre. Gurushā binā karaj nahīṁ sare. Mahāprabhujī kā bhajan. It is Mahāprabhujī's bhajan. Gaṅgā jāo, Kāśī jāo, chāo dhar phire. It is said you can go to Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā River, Gaṅgā Jao, Kāśī Jao, you know the Kāśī, Gaṅgā is also going there, Gaṅgā is also flowing there, Cāro Dhām, there are four holy places in India, mostly, everywhere you can go, all the four holy places. Ban verāgī udāsī agyānī dharā dhan vicārī. You may try to say that I am verāg, I am udāsī. All is agyāna. Agyāna means the not-knowledge. You can do many things, but you will lose everything. Můžete vyzkoušet spoustu věcí, ale o všechno přijdete. Guransa bina karj nahīṅ sare. So, bhūta ne to śiṣa nāmave, Bhatam bhed dare, pāpī nivinai sadguru āge, kaṣṭ anek bare, guransa bina karj nahi sare. So, we will continue there further. So I will again tomorrow give you further about this, and let's go to the Sarva Hitā Āsana. Sarva means all, Hitā means good for all, and this is Prāṇāyāma, the āsanas. So, āsana means Prāṇāyāma, āsana means Prāṇāyāma, so okay, go ahead. So, we will come now, Umbapurījī, also, time to time. I think Umbapurījī can show her face also. Śrī Divānār Bhagavān Kī Jai. Hari Om, dear friends around the whole world who are with us for our webcast. We will start with... Voice, more please, more voice, loud, loud voice. They will do. We will start with, again, our Saravita asana, level one, part two. And first of all is the relaxation, our Ānanda āsana. Thank you. Make yourself comfortable on your back, if it's possible, and place your legs a little bit apart from each other. Arms beside your body, head in a good middle position. You can move your head left and right side. Find a good position. Bring your lower back a little bit down with your belly muscles. Once deep in, and exhale. And for one minute, close your eyes. Withdraw yourself completely from the outer world, whole day. You were working, but now the time is to relax. All your movements, physically, mentally, emotionally, bring them, make them calm. Feel yourself on your blanket or mat and relax your shoulders. Feel your whole body. Feel your back. And relax your back muscles, the middle of your back, the spinal column, your pelvis, your buttocks, your hips. Relax your thigh muscles, your knees. The lower legs, ankle joints. Feel your right foot. Relax your toes. Feel your foot sole, your heel. And then the left foot sole, toes, the whole foot. Relax. Both legs. Pelvis. Your belly. Your stomach muscles. Feel the slight movement, expanding. Inhale, and relax when you exhale. Left side muscles, till your arm beats, and chest, chest muscle, your shoulder, upper arm, elbow, and lower arm. Relax your wrist, back of your hand, your fingers, especially your thumb, and the palm, inner part of your hand, whole left arm. And then bring your awareness to your right hand. Feel your palm, back of your hand, fingers, thumb, and your wrist. Lower arm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, right side of your chest. Feel the armpits. Feel this part. And also feel your side muscles. Both arms. Both arms. Relax. The height of your shoulder. Feel the beginning of the neck, the whole neck. Feel the beginning of your head. Relax this part. Especially your chewing muscles. Sometimes we bite our teeth together unknowingly, unconsciously. So relax your chewing muscles. The ears, still the middle of the ear, the whole skin of your head, your forehead, eyebrows, and eyebrow center. The eyelids are gently closed. Your eyeballs, they are looking down, directed toward your nostrils. Relax your eye muscles. Relax the back of your nose and nostrils, cheeks, and lips. Your tongue, till the throat muscles. If the tongue is relaxed, your throat muscles are relaxed, and your chin. Relax also to the middle of your chest. Your heart center, the whole body, from the top of your head to your toes. And from the toes to the top of your head. I know that I'm inhaling, and I know that I'm exhaling your breath. So follow, and let follow your mind, the ways of your breath. It's a great help to withdraw yourself from the outer world. And get ready for your spiritual sādhanā, for your practice. Relax your nerves, your whole nervous system. This is the time for yourself. Once more, deep in and exhale. Deep in and exhale. And with your next inhalation, bring both arms slowly above your head. Arms are straight. Deep inhale and exhale. Bring your arms back beside your body. Try that. Both arms go together once more. Inhale. It helps to support our breath in our chest and makes our shoulders again better movement. Also, arms can go beside in a half circle above the head along the ground. Stretch your arms, and in the same way. Back. It helps already to stretch and relax our shoulder muscles once more. Please, very good. Now move your toes, your feet, your ankles slowly, also your fingers and your wrists. Arms beside the shoulders, palms facing upside. Upwards, move your head left and right sides without lifting up the head, and no force to move more, just gently. Left and right side neck muscles are relaxed because they need not to hold the head. This brings more flexibility. Movement in our neck, very good. Now we start to stretch our whole body again. With our inhalation, we keep the stretching. We start with the right side. Deep inhale and bring your right arm above the head again, from the middle towards the... Periphery, stretch your whole right side of the body. Heels going away from the middle of the body, toes up, and exhale. Bring your arm down, relax this part. Left side of the body, deep inhale, stretch, and come back. Hold your breath, inhaled. And with exhalation, relax. And once more, each side again. Those who have high blood pressure, please don't keep your breath too long. Do it according to your own breath capacity. Very good. Once more, the other side. Always from the... Middle, towards the periphery, pressing down our lower back with our stomach muscles. Neck is long. And bring, exhaling your arm back. Very good. Now, with both arms. Whole body stretching. It prepares for our practice to stretch the bending muscles of the joints. Stretch our blood circulation system and nerve system with the kumbhak. Exhale, bring your arms down. And once more, please do it according to your own breath capacity. One is practicing longer already. Yoga and daily life have more breath. Capacity than those who are starting, this is completely normal. Exhale, very good. Now we start with bending the right knee and interlock your fingers. Hold your knee and pull. You can do it from the front side if you want, holding a knee from... On the shin side, bring your knee as much as you can towards the chest, and take care that your left leg is not going away from the floor. We keep our left leg down on the ground. It means that side we stretch our hip flexors, right side we... Stretch our lower back muscles and buttock muscles. The neck is long, and also the shoulders, please don't push up towards your head, but push them down towards your hips. This is very important. Normal breath. The right foot is relaxed, and the left toes. Are upright, positioned towards the shin. Normal breath. This asana, this posture, is very good to improve our digestion. That's why we start again with the right leg. Feel your breath in the right side of your hip, in the lower belly. Off the. Right side of your stomach or belly, slowly stretch your leg again. Bring it down on the ground or floor. Already, now you feel the difference between both legs. Bend your left knee and hold with both hands your left knee or shin. Shoulders, take care on the Position of our shoulders. Right leg is stretched. Don't lift up your right leg. Try to bring your right leg down with the back of your knee. Toes are in an upright position on the right foot, and the left foot is relaxed. Normal breath. Stretching of the... Right hip flexors and left side of our back, lower back, and buttock muscles. This movement or āsana helps us again to bring our pelvis in the upright position, to work against our, how to say, too much lordosis in our lower back. Too much bending of our lumbar part of the spine. And again, stretch your leg, both legs together, down. Relax. And now we stretch our whole body, both arms above the head. Deep inhale. Press your lower back down with your stomach muscles. Under comeback. Keep the breath inhaled, and with exhalation, bring your arms back beside your body and once more stretch, stretch... And now we roll to the left and right side with normal breath, dynamically move left and right side. Of course, who has back pain can bend the knees, hold the knees, and do it in that way. Very good. Rub your Palms together till the palms are warm, and then place your hands, place your hands on the eyes and forehead. Warm your face and under your palms. Open your eyes and remove your hands. Bring the arms beside your shoulders. Palms facing upwards, legs together, and bring your right heel between the big toe and second toe of your left foot. The right heel between the second toe and your big toe. Bring your lower back down with your stomach muscles. Inhale. And with exhalation, make the movement of your pelvis and legs towards the left side and head to the right side, till the toes touching the ground, and inhale again to the middle. There is one contraindication: when you have... Strong back pain, please don't do it. The shoulders are relaxed, this is very important, and inhale back. And before you make the torsion, please always take care that your back is pressed down, and with exhaling we go to the side. And this torsion exercise affects more on the lower part of our spine, especially these short, short diagonal muscles which connect both side horns of the spine, how to say, the vertebra. So, legs together, we do to the other side. The heel is between the big and second toe. Lower the back down. Deep inhale and exhale to the side. Inhale towards the middle. Three rounds. These very deep muscles we can reach only through these torsion exercises. With massage or physical massaging or treatments, we can't come there. So that's why this one, this exercise, this kind of torsion, is very, very helpful. Relax your... Legs pose together. Next is for our shoulders and neck muscles, a very good relaxing movement. We interlock our fingers in the neck, not too much on the head. More, the small finger is in the beginning of the head. Who has long hair, please? Interlock your fingers under your hair so that you don't slip. Legs a little bit apart from each other, and stretch our stomach muscles, especially those muscles which are from the navel up to the chest. There are two parts from The navel down, and one part is from the navel up. So, especially those parts, we start with those facing up towards the shin. Inhale, press down your lower back with your stomach muscles, and exhale. Your hands holding up your neck, elbows together, and The elbows are going towards the toes, and the shoulders are going towards the hips. Also, shoulders down. Exhale, remain. And with your next inhalation, go back. Elbows again depart from each other, and relax your stomach and your legs. Feet relax. One normal breath in between, and once more. First, the feet up towards the shin, pelvis keeping lower back down with your stomach, and exhale. Come up, pull up your neck as much as you can, completely exhale, shoulders down towards. Your hips, elbows going towards the toes, Vāhya Kumbhak, and inhale slowly back. Relax. One normal breath, and once more: toes, stomach, inhale, and exhale, pull down. Also, your shoulders down, back here. Come back, and inhale, come back. This āsana, this exercise. Is practice 10 times. We do it now three times. Relax your arms beside your body. Moving your toes towards the middle, rotation of the hips only. The legs are straight, inside and outside. Very good. This is one movement from our book, Yoga. For good, healthy joints from our system, yoga and daily life are very good for hip joints and relaxation. Now, slowly, slowly sit up from the side with the help of your elbows and hands into the vajrāsana, the vajrāsana legs. A little bit apart from each other, so the distance of your hips. Hands, palms are on your thighs. Now we have those exercises which affect more our thoracic part of our back and spine, and make those parts flexible, especially those thoracic. Parts between your neck and lumbar part, your lower back, are very stiff because it's fixed by the ribs, and we very often have problems there. To make this flexible, we have this āsana. So, please interlock your fingers again in your neck. Can't sit in vajrāsana because of knee problem? Please, you can sit also on the chair, or you in daṇḍāsana with stretched legs. And here, very important again: with exhaling, we bend forward, but only the thoracal part, not the lumbar part. Exhale, bend more, bending more, more... Bending enough till here. Now we bend more, that we see how it is wrong. Bend more? Yeah, in that case, not so. We bend only our thoracic part, elbows together, and inhale, come up, and bring your shoulder blades together. Don't bend in the lumbar part, only shoulder blades. Try to bring them together. And again, exhale forward. Bend in your thoracic part, elbows together, neck down. And inhale up again. Shoulder blades, try to bring them together as much as you can. And once more. Once more. Very good. Very good. And inhale up. Your hands down, your arms down, supporting behind your back, palms on the ground. Lean a little bit back. Now it's the contra pose; we stretch now our chest part. But those who are dizzy or easily get dizzy or have... Neck problems, please need not to bend your head back. So, with inhaling, stretch your whole chest forward and release. Relax your neck and come up again. Sit straight. You can bring your hands a little bit more back side. Be sure that Your hands are placed somewhere where it's not slippery, on the mat directly or on the floor directly. And once more, deep inhale, stretch your chest, relax your neck. Those who have neck problems, neck straight, please, and sit up again. This we can do. Three times, or remain in this position. Please come in the vajrāsana, straight hands on your thighs. Bend your head forward, just hang your head forward, and move the head left, right side. Oh, no, no, only the chin. Like no, no, like no, no, saying, "Look to." Me, just like this, a little bit, very good. And head up, and bring yourself in the meditation posture: sītā sana, or sukha sana, or padma sana, comfortably. Arms relaxed, close your eyes, relax your shoulders and elbows, stomach relax, your eyebrows, and... And once deep in, exhale, mentally do your praṇām, your greetings to your Gurudev, to your Master, after your sādhanā and in the beginning of your sādhanā. And we will sing once, "Aum," deep inhale. Om Śānti, Śānti,... Hari Om. Hari Om.

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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