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Reflections on a Time of Distance and Practice

A spiritual discourse reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, vegetarianism, and spiritual practice.

"Always, those who practiced yoga have not died."

"Why is this disease only for humans?... Only humans. We still do not know why."

Swami Vishwaguruji delivers a wide-ranging talk, reflecting on the isolation and lessons of the pandemic. He discusses the health benefits of a vegetarian diet and consistent yoga practice, shares observations from India and Europe, and stresses the importance of sattvic living and spiritual nourishment. He is later joined by Mahamandaleshwar Gyaneshwar Puriji, who expresses happiness at the gathering and echoes the importance of spiritual practice and proper nourishment.

Filming location: Vienna, Austria

For more than a year now, we have had Corona. They said it once, then again, a third time, and now a fourth time. We are very close to each other, and yet very far away. We were very close—that means within our family and in our house. We closed the door and went to buy something. We came, we kept our distance. Then we moved from this knowledge of distance, entered our house, and closed the door. It was, and still is, a time of sadness. We are at a distance and cannot travel from our other countries nearby. In this situation, our long-time Yoga in Daily Life practitioners have practiced very well at home and learned. Also spiritually—prayer, mantras, chakras. We have learned a lot, practiced, and through our exercises... Perhaps your family has also learned yoga or exercises and so on. This is not only here in Germany, Austria, or Europe. It is everywhere where people are, even by the oceans. Why is this disease only for humans? When one exists, one can be for all. All living beings: humans, animals, birds, and so on. But not that. Only humans. We still do not know why. And we are still sitting here. But I also have it in my... I am also here, hello, hello. But at the moment, I have it like this. So how did it come in? It is like this: for example, we have perfume, just a little. And we apply it here, or here, or here—no matter where. But this perfume spreads throughout the whole room. It feels very beautiful, and so it is with Corona. Someone, or nothing, or where and who... And it is only four people who made the perfume. And then, one says after another, one after another. Many, many people have died. I often heard in Austria, in Vienna, in another place, they said, "We don't want Corona anymore, we want to go home." But we came back, and now they still said everyone has to leave. I did that too. Why not? And for me, I did not even feel that the needle went into my hand, here or there. So, that is, I believe, what people have done. But which people, where, from what—that we can know, we do not know. And we have in Yoga in Daily Life, our Yoga in Daily Life, our bhaktas, students, practitioners. Always, those who practiced yoga have not died. Yes, perhaps someone, all, who was sick, in a hospital, and it comes around here, that is perhaps... I was in India for three months, once also four times, four months. And I saw many Indians also died, many, many. They said, "We practice yoga and so on," but that did not help. I said in India to people, to the Jürgen, "Look at me, what is this here?" I said, "I cannot tell you that. Only my Yoga in Daily Life people, they are very good." They were all living in very peaceful harmony. Yoga in Daily Life, exercises, and nourishment. Very much is about nourishment. And they said, in big countries, America and address... They said many things, no more meat or so. But they still died. Why? Yes, now they say, "I will not eat meat anymore." But you have in your whole body, in every soul, from the animals, and still always, they think it will be again, still always. We have our yoga exercises, and there were three exercises that were very, very important and still are always. One is, we all have our exercises, we already know a lot, our kuṇḍalinī, all the cakras. And as in the chakras, we have done, not to show, but to practice. And so we all do our practice every day. What do you practice? Oṃ lam lam, bam bam bam, dam dam dam, gam gam gam, tim tim tim, viena tu viena, viena is good, ding dang, ding dang, da da, da da, da da ding da, da da, ram ram ram, viena is good, all right, right. Yes, so this is all through our exercises. But many people did yoga, did everything, but took alcohol. Many have, and many have done it with two fingers. Two fingers will get sick at some point. It is already, but it will be more. Two fingers. Do you know what the two fingers are? Two. That is, we practice Prāṇāyāma. So, oxygen. We bring oxygen into the body and bring a little out. So, the two fingers burn. One is okay. So, do we know what now? And it goes into the lungs. In Corona times, we might have returned. And again they come back. So, illness. It is an illness. And so, different alcohols, and even more, the flesh and this and that that is in the body. I have seen, seen a lot. I have seen that the older people, what they ate, drank, and so on, they have lost their lives. And now they sit only, they can't speak, they can't move, they are nothing. Many people are lying because of alcohol and this and that, what I say. The filaments, the human nature, the good food, everything: clean, clean water, clean food, eating. They will be red, they will be very long, and they know, they can see, they can speak, they can do everything. And with this, the Ātmā, the soul, goes out from them. That means, one lives and goes with love and moves forward, as we say. And others, and so many, many people, many, many people have now begun to think about how we live. There are two things. One, for humans, nature has vegetables, fruits, milk. And many have said, "We don't give food to animals so well." And someone told me two or three weeks ago that there was a calf, a cow, there was a calf. And see, this is a calf, right? And what did they make? They made meat, or whatever, and only the cow. And that is only because of milk, and so, as we said, because of it. A lot of people from Austria, many, many people, they are for the vegan. And the one who went there with me was the heart. He has two hearts. One is healthy physically, and one is spiritual happiness. That I live happily, and so I asked, I don't know if the Austrians have done it or not, but in the whole world—America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, here in all Europe—our yoga, and I said, "How many of you in this circle or not?" And not for us. Then I said, others have said that they practice yoga, not yoga in their daily life, but the others. And especially the Austrians, the Indians, the dead. Because the Indians have said now, they are like that. They have now, it's like we in Europe or the others, we will live like that. But it is not. So we come from these people to India. They come more healthy and non-vegetarian. Not good. So much. You cannot imagine. And they are hiding. All hiding, and so many animals they are killing. So, a few days I thought and saw, when I went to Austria, America, London, and so on, I came to Vienna. The people there said, "What? You don't eat meat?" and so on. And why should I not eat? And so and so. Why don't you eat? Do you want to live like the people with very thin legs? So I said, "No, no... no." And now you know how many people are vegetarians. It doesn't have to be just my yoga students. They came to know that it is like this; it is for animals, and like this. Now you can see that in 1975 or '76, I came here. And now you see how many people are vegetarians. And they are healthy, mostly healthy. Yes, sometimes that disease from there, some cancer or something like this. And this means that we, now we are, God has given us. God said, "I give you the human body, everything." And then I give you, now you do what you want. But you know this, and there are two. And you must not, and so you do, but you should live sāttvic. All animals, everything, don't kill them, like something like this. And so, others not. And so, we are suffering. If we live very peacefully and harmoniously, all humans are brothers and sisters, no matter which country they are from. Now, humans are killing and fighting everything. Even so many animals are not fighting like that. Now, what is happening? This God said they will go all in other ways, or those who are you are all. You have many good people, not only me. There are many, many... millions of people who are good, and they will go to Brahmalokas, and they will go to the Narakas. He gives heaven and hell. God has sent in this way. So when I was in other countries, when I was in India, I thought a lot, I said on the phone. And I really thought a lot, a lot about you, and it was, and it is so. It makes me very happy that you are healthy and happy and yogīs and have returned and have seen us. And we will go on. Yes, we don't know, but God said one day we will go. But we will go like peace, harmony, is like a God. But God will not be like a god now. Today, let us say that I am very holy, very holy. But tomorrow may be different. So, that's why the practice, practice till the last life. Now, it is in one day, or this there will be, or a few hours. Then it will be God said, "Yes, this is that." Otherwise, we think, "I am this and that. I go to holy places and this." Come home back. Again, you are the same thing. So this is not still. Working, working, till the whole life. When we breathe in and exhale. And now we cannot exhale, nor inhale. So, in that time, in those minutes, your eyes will see it. And then it is said, you know, when one is dying, animals also somehow, but the humans, there are six paths to come out of the soul. It comes from the body, and this comes in different kinds of parts of the body. Urine, toilets, mouth, ears, nostrils, eyes, and another one coming all the way like this and coming from the Parabrahma over this point. There it goes, then that one. So when we are there, maybe, how well, there is one very beautiful book somewhere. So when the eyes, and then that time when the eyes completely, all eyes are going up. One blood may come from the ears, from the nostrils, etc. So why? Because God has given this door; this is called the doors. And through those doors, we will enter. Those who are very negative and very... things, and this goes down, and then others are this, and so we do practice. We must not do too much. I'm going to ask now, then I must do this, then I will do your Mahalā, Mahalā, maybe not in the head. Rām, Rām,... Gurudev, Prabhudev, Prabhudev. This has to go through, and what is in our prāṇas, going to good people to good and negative to the negative, are coming. Someone dies, we are very unhappy. We are dying, and we put our families, or when one dies, we put them in the water, or in the earth, or the fire, and shed tears. And we bring the meat from the animals into the house. It is like that dead body there. So you are all very, very... So I told in Europe and in India that I told... They said, "What is you, Swāmījī, and this?" I said, "Yes." Yes, my European, my Austrian bhaktas. They are the holiest people. Yes, I said this. And they said, "We Indians," I said, "Under, please, I can tell you." The whole conference, people were like this, about 300. I said, please and please and please. If you are truth, please the truth. How many of you are here, alcohol and meat and this, not? Hands up, please. Many were sitting like this. So you are, you are my gold people. Gold not, God. Yes, yes, you made the atmosphere in our country and in our Vienna beautiful. In every street, somewhere, our bhaktas go. So it means that when we have from outside, inside from us, comes that beauty, peace, harmony, love, and God. This goes, even if you are going beside this, they will feel it. Not their eyes, and this. So you are, you are also developed, and you are everything peacefully. Yeah, we will die. Maybe we fall down, maybe we have some disease, or not, not very old, we will die. But I told you, really, it is not like that. That, my bhaktas, my disciples, they only have the same dress, different, but they are more than me. Yes, and it is the truth. It is the truth. He is sitting here. How many years has he not touched even a little piece of meat? Yes. Dr. Shanti, how many years from me? My God. She said, "What? I will not be vegetarian." But suddenly she said, "No more eating meat." Shanti, how long have you been completely vegetarian? 44 years. Yes. And also, our Hirdekamal, how many years? Very good, thank you. Yes, many are off, and many are coming. It will be. Thank you. So what I want to say is that now, in this time, in this year, we are still like that, we cannot go together. I want to come to India, you came with me, then I cannot. And from India, we cannot come here. So this is, we hope that one day clarity comes so good. Aeroplanes, everything, all. It will be, it will be. So it means we have to do these three or four points. When we open our eyes in the morning, we say, "I am human." Ich bin ein Mensch. And then we want to get up from our sleep, and we say, "Mother, can I stay on earth? Mother, there are two mothers." One mother is who gave us birth, and the second is the earth. The earth is mother, and when you see morning, just touch first the water. Morning, you see tomorrow morning, morning, for your common. And we come to the bathroom. This is how I feel in the water. All the nerves and the system, all the kapha, all the kapha. You are a thief. After washing, after washing, give him prasād. Give him prasād. Hari Om. Anyhow, Swamiji is talking too much. Hari Om Tat Sat. I will now, in that way, Hari Om. We have Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar, Vivek, no, Gyāneśwar Purījī, and he's from Croatia. Now he's been in India for many, many years. He also has an Indian passport, and he's a very, very spiritual person, and he's a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar. So I wanted to talk to him, but I spoke too much, so somewhere, Gyaneshwarji, would you say some words? You can come here. Śrī Śrī Alagapurījī Mahādeva kī jai! Devadhī Deva, Deveśvara Mahādeva kī jai! Ārādhya Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī kī jai! Hindu Dharma Samrāṣ Madhavānand Jī, Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramasumaśan Jī, dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, I'm very happy that I can be here after two years. Corona caught us all unprepared, but we are still hoping that it will go away very soon. That we will stay without masks, because even when we watch from India, we watch the webcasts, but it's very hard to recognize people when they are half covered. So I know many of you, especially our dear Śāntījī, whom we are missing. She, we were hoping that she will come in the Himalayas, but it was locked and everything. Sādhvī Dāyā and Sādhvī Hṛdayā come on, it was very... I was very happy when she appeared again on webcasts after a long, long time. Prakāś is here also. She was with us for more than one year in Jaipur and, of course, in Japan for many, many years, and many other friends, Sāgarpurī, and so many of you. I'm very, very happy that you are all here and that you came to greet and to be in a satsaṅg with our Viśva Gurujī. Of course, Viśva Gurujī was in Strelka for the last three months, which is obvious because there is lots of space. So here the regulations are more strict. They're also strict, but space is bigger. Of course, we hope that you all will be able to come to India, and it will take some time, of course, because still India doesn't issue, like any country, they don't issue tourist visas. Tourist visas, you people can get for traveling in Europe, but for any other country, it is very difficult. So, for me, coming to Europe now, it's not much of a shock. In the beginning, when I was in India for a long time and I came after some time, I was very much shocked because there are so many changes. But now, when I come, I don't see much change because I always go from one ashram to the other ashram, and mostly the other things don't interest me so much. So I see Strelka ashram, I see Vienna ashram. I was very happy to come here, and Swāmījī especially told me you... Come to Vienna, but there were some visa issues, so I managed to come because you have to come, then current quarantine, and this and that, and then you can apply for visa and so on, but all together we are happy, especially. You people are happy to have Swamiji, Vishwa Guruji, for such a long time here, and that he can speak with us. And this was, I can tell you, this was a marathon. This was three months of morning, afternoon, and evening lectures for us. It was actually morning and afternoon, so I don't know how many of you managed to watch all lectures, because this is quite difficult, but still, I find this quite a treasure, quite a treasure. It's very difficult to speak after such a... Beautiful satsaṅg, and it's always, of course, difficult to speak with Viśvagurujī present. Unfortunately, many of the words Viśvagurujī said are true: that vegetarians are actually getting less sick, vegetarians are more healthy. People who practice yoga are more healthy, but still people eat meat in the same quantity, if not more than before, and it's quite sad because it's even proven that the corona came from the meat market, and these meat markets are actually the source of many, many diseases, but still people don't want to become vegetarian. They like to drink, they like to eat meat, and so on. So this is quite sad, but it's our duty to convince them. In India, everybody thinks that people in Europe are healthy because... They eat meat, yeah, they all think so. And then I just asked them, "Did you check the hospitals in Europe?" And they don't believe how many people are in hospitals in Europe. Because if you are so healthy, there will be no hospital in Europe, no? But unfortunately, the hospitals are here also. So it means the food, what people think, is not actually the proper nourishment. And proper nourishment, we have, of course, three. One is physical, two types of physical. One is food, the other one is practice. And the second one is spiritual, so spiritual nourishment is what Viśva Gurujī is giving us, following the holy scriptures. Any holy scripture is good. We have here the Bible, then in India there are the Upaniṣads, Vedas, Purāṇas, many other scriptures, so these are actually the nourishment for the soul, the nourishment for our mind, to keep us away from all this negativity which is around. So, of course, the nourishment is not... The television news, or the news at all, but we have... we live in this world, so we have to know something. But still, every day in the morning or before sleeping, if you can take Līlāmṛta in your hand and just read one chapter, half a chapter, a few sentences, this will make the big difference in your day or in your night. Because the dreams which come before sleeping, or the day that will happen after reading such holy or positive words, will definitely change your life. I'm very thankful that I'm here with you. I will not take much of your time. I hope that you will all manage to greet Vishwagurujī with these words. I would like to finish.

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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