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The King Within: Daily Yoga and the Multitude of Souls

A spiritual discourse and yoga instruction session focused on daily practice and self-realization.

"Within this one body, is it only this one soul you are referring to, or are there many others? The jīva is not just one in your body; there are millions in your body."

"You are the king, you are the king of this ātman. You are the king, and these are your subjects."

The speaker, addressing a group, emphasizes the importance of daily yoga practice. He explains that the individual is not a single soul but a king presiding over millions of souls within the body, analogous to cells. He guides the audience through a brief exercise to locate their sense of self, discusses the five sheaths (kośas), and critiques rigid religious identities. The talk blends philosophical explanation with practical instruction for simple, joyful yoga to be integrated into daily life.

Filming location: Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Are all of you seated here practicing yoga, āsanas, and prāṇāyāma regularly or not? Not just for a day or two in a year, nor only one day a week, but do you practice some form of yoga every day or not? Diāī Sāhab, Diśī Sāhab, do you practice yoga daily or not? Do this for 15 to 20 minutes, or even 15 minutes. Tomorrow I will come again—you should come too. If other people come, they might say, "You told us first, but you told them too." This is the biggest problem. Let them come; new ones will come, and that is good—they will come along as well. But will you come? Today I teach sādhanā, and tomorrow I will teach you again, and the day after. So, will you come tomorrow? You won’t? You definitely will. This is the point. I observe that if I don’t see a particular face tomorrow, then that is fine for me. Now I will teach you, and we will do it together, alright? It is absolutely simple, very simple, isn’t it? But do it tomorrow morning. I will come again after a few days, so keep practicing this daily—whether you believe in Bhagavān or not. Don't you believe? Nothing else matters, but first, understand that Bhagavān is you, and your Bhagavān is within yourself. You are... Anātman and Ātman, Jīvātman—these two occur together. Our jīva is such that its future, how and where it will go, in which direction... Among you, those who speak a little English have decreased, right? You do speak English, don’t you? First, start your telephone. I am very, very... but for a complete English... In this one body, is it only this one soul you are referring to, or are there many others? Now you might say, Maharājī, we have one more jīva, another spirit is attached; this spirit is inside us, this is here, that is there. Yes, that too is there. The jīva is not just one in your body; there are millions in your body. There are millions of beings. Just look at a tiny drop of our blood and see how many beings are inside it—and it is yours. From this blood, one can know to which family it belongs. The beings are throughout the entire body. We all think that we have one soul, but not only that one—there are millions. All the cells in the body, all in your blood, all in your hormones, everything in your skin, beneath the skin—there are countless and countless souls within your body. So you are not alone. Your body is like a vast, vast city—consider it your very own large country. And more than that, what is it now? The ātman, paramātmā, jīvātman—all of these are... If you can understand this, you will be so happy knowing that you have your own universe. We have our own universe, but be that ātman. You are the king, you are the king of this ātman. You are the king, and these are your subjects. The soul that you truly are is a king, and he has to take care of the whole body and all its beings. There is a beautiful bhajan by Acchalarām Jī Mahārāj, written in Jodhpur. Similarly, it was composed by the disciples of Bhagavān Śrī Dīpanār and Mahāprabhujī. The son of the king of Choti Khatu was named Savaīśiṅkh, and then he became a sanyāsī with Mahāprabhujī. Mahāprabhujī gave him the name Śivānanda. We have this in the book of Amāre Paramparā; you can see and read all of this, along with many beautiful bhajans. In this way, the guru is absorbed in the ātman, the mother, the supreme being, the best among men; the inner essence of the entire world, moving and revolving, the ātman, O Lord, moving and revolving. Niritala chaitana ātmā, Prabhukh. Niritala chaitana ātmā, Prabhukh.... Niritala chaitana Śrī Goru ātmā, Paramātmā. You are one; we are one with that Brahman. This body that we have, inside the body, we are this. This entire universe of ours is created by us, and within it, the one whom we call Bhagavān resides within our own heart. But if... Do not become slaves. And what kind of subjects are we? First of all, our indriyas—karmendriyas and jñānendriyas—are within us. It is very difficult to control them because they reside inside our body, and those that are our enemies... If the king himself walks with you, then all the subjects will follow. But if the king is the one who sits holding the bottle of liquor, he will drag others into the pit. This is the way of the world. Now, our soul, which belongs to you, our jīva—whom are you speaking to? Within each and every one of us is a jīva. If you take all of them along with you, then indeed... You will become like the Brahmā loka. Why is that? Because Paramātmā has given you a good body, but we are not maintaining that body properly. That is why you are not having the experience. You are not having the experience. It is not happening, but there is no experience happening about you. Tattvā, the earth—that is what we call our nourishment, solid nourishment. Then the energy, then mind, then knowledge, and then the ānanda: ānandamaya kośa, jñānamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, and the... not anāmaya, yes, and manomaya kośa. If we want to practice yoga in these ways, then we can only control the Annamaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa. These are all four we have to practice through yoga. Now, secondly, there is the Vācārthī and there is the Lakṣārthī; Vācārthī... So, keep reading, keep practicing, keep listening, keep narrating the kathā—that is the vācārthī. But one who truly wants to do yoga, who really wants to attain Brahmaloka, then the only path is yoga. Other religions are okay, are good; we are preserving our culture and so on. But others, what you call, are completely different. Ātmā, so the Ātmā is all within ourselves. Annamaya Kośa—this is food, which includes liquid as well as solid. It contains water as well as solid matter, and beyond that is prāṇa, not the inert sheath. It makes us either sāttvika or the opposite of sāttvika, tāmasika. Tāmasika—where does it come from? It comes from behavior according to your nourishment, or with whomever you always sit—the society and the nourishment. That becomes the energy—our śakti—and that energy we say is, first, we call you jīva. Within that jīva, it is also said that our śakti, or what do we call it, when the body is gone, all the circuits in our system shut down. So, there is the jīva and there is the prāṇa—jīva and prāṇa, your soul and your energy. So what do we say, that the jīva has left, okay, or do we say the prāṇa has left? If the jīva has left and the prāṇa has not, then the jīva cannot leave the body, and that power which is... The jīva and prāṇa... prāṇa... when prāṇa leaves the jīva, it is said that the prāṇa has departed. So the body and its power, the mind—before it the mind dies, mamatā dies, the body dies, but hope and thirst do not die, as Kabīr says. So, the mind, the mind never stops; the mind will not stop. And the mind so quickly either does our work well or spoils it. How? If your greatest power, which is called the mind—how far is it from you right now? In just a moment, I can take your mind there... You will reach that very place. Suppose I just mention the name of Śūrya. Now, our mind has gone to Śūrya, hasn’t it? Now, are we there or not? But the mind has gone, hasn’t it? Or we are sitting here and we are in Delhi. Talking about Delhi... The śakti that is the manomaya kośa and ānandamaya kośa, the ānanda rūpī one draws the mind towards the mind itself, and if that śakti ceases, then the mind is nothing. There, it is only the mind, it is only śakti; with śakti, our mind can think, can go, can speak, can know. So that śakti ceases... If it happens, then just keep crying. Based on yoga, first our physical body, and after that our energy, and its... The mind will make you completely such that it will drive you mad, and it will be such that if the śakti resides within you, then nothing can surpass it. So, the mind, and after that, the mind is that we have buddhi—buddhi, intellect—and that intellect which we have is there. It brings us the good way or the bad way. The animal does not have that much power, but our power is such that we can control it. People say, "Oh, we are not that wise," but if something happens, in our simple language, they say, "Oh, you are not that wise." The animal will not say that, but we do. If such an influence affects you, you will say that you are very stupid. Because regarding this, because regarding this... why... But now it is ānanda in the kośa, ānanda—now, what kind of ānanda are you searching for? If you think this is ānanda, then you are descending; if you say it is ānanda, you are ascending. So, which is better depends on our mind. The mind will lead us here and there, but if that ānanda is with us, then we can go to the supreme. The jīva that is ours, the jīva that is... but our jīva is not one now—where is your jīva? Where is your jīva? First of all... You will find out where it is with you. Close your eyes now, close your eyes. Raise one hand, raise one hand with the middle finger. Just close your eyes, close your eyes. Don't open them until I say so. You, raise your left, right hand, index finger up, okay, and whatever I say, you will do. And Swātalā, you are a foolish girl, close your eyes, yes. You will open your eyes only when I tell you, when I tell you, then you should open your eyes. Otherwise, it doesn't matter; keep your eyes closed, closed. Somebody is looking with half-open eyes now. Do not open your eyes, do not open your eyes. I will ask you a question, but do not open your eyes. I will put a question to you, but don't open your eyes, and if you do, your game is over. Then go to hell. When I ask you, don't open your eyes. I will tell you that you—place your finger on the part of your body where your soul or jīva resides. Place your finger there, where your soul is in the body. Place your finger there, but do not open it, otherwise you will get stuck. Where is your soul? Where are you placing your finger? Don’t open your eyes. Place the finger of your hand where your jīva is in the body. Okay, keep it there. Do not open your eyes. Now, do not remove your finger. Your finge... If Kapil were a merchant, then look, you say, look where yours is. Now look towards the other person, where are their fingers and where are yours? Tell me, is that clear? So see, automatically, where is all of our ātman, where is our jīva here? This much is clear. They said, "We are all nothing else." It is true that my knowledge, my science, everything is here, and that is also good. But so far, the jīva is here; even a little bit, something happens, our heart beats, it does, doesn’t it? Here, it is a little so, the jīva, the ātman, is here with us, but now the soul is here. That is done, now you can put your hands down, thank you. Now, if you are here in the heart, you are in the heart. My heart is here, I am here. Now you are awake; this is suṣupti. Are you alert about your whole body? You are sleeping and awakening, and why in sleep? This ātman never sleeps. It is like a tiny mosquito on the toe. The being who is always awake within us makes it happen. When a mother gives birth to a child, the father may sleep for a long time, but the mother's heart is always concerned, "How is my child? How is this?" This is because it is deeply connected with the heart. You understand, right? So, we are awake while others are asleep, and when something happens to... our body is immediately felt in the heart, and then this part awakens. Further, we observe everything, which means that we are one with our Self, the whole body, and the entire universe is one. There was a question, and that question is—in the Bhagavad Gītā, it is explained somewhat clearly, but people do not understand. The Indian does not understand that once something is caught, it is indeed caught; it cannot be released easily. It is like a tick on a cow—the tick doesn’t matter how much we think we are good or you are good, still, we have those kinds of feelings. And our behaviors, no matter how good they are in Indian culture, if you are still connected to the Western, it doesn't matter how much you come and how much you like everything, but suddenly you say no. But it's VR, like a tick that is stuck; when you pull it, its neck breaks, but inside it remains attached. If the same is inside the teeth, then how are you going to come further? To come to the next step, it is necessary. Some countries, very few countries, are somehow getting better now, but 85% of Indians cannot. Bhagavān Krishna has given this very clearly in the Bhagavad Gītā. For those of us who study this Bhagavad Gītā, we apply everything in our minds, but if we fail to understand it, then Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa has said within it—Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, or Vedavyāsa, has said—someone has explained how to realize it. Because before there was nothing, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam was not there; after it was written, it existed. There was no Thāī then; when there was no Thāī, what can one say about it? So there it is, it means now it is like that. This problem is everywhere in Europe too, in countries everywhere. So what? Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa tried very hard to improve the Hindus. I make them really clear and good, you know, and even the Saṅkarācārya, despite being so knowledgeable, later gained more wisdom. But his family members, his disciples of knowledge, they became the guardians there, sir. This is a very sensitive point. Even today in Hindustān... Our country is still caught in the same cancer. They are trying, all, all Indians—they are in the cancer disease, cancer disease, I am telling them. But they are more than Indians; you are also in the cancer, understand me. On one side, though I said, I myself, my whole body, I am this—this is my whole body, my śarīra. But then, when even a little little ant is touching what you see as zero, what happens? Fear. Now, whose fear is that, and where is it? I will tell you, until this moves, how can you say anything? So I will move towards mokṣa. Do whatever you want, nothing goes further. Come on, you are Rājasthānī, you... You are Pakistani, you are Muslim, you are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and so on, but no one says this is mine, that is mine. We are fighting. We are fighting each other. They say we are Christian, they say we are Buddhist, we are Hindus, we are this, this... But when that time comes, when our soul departs, our king departs, then everything is lost, just like when the queen bee rises, all the bees leave except the larvae. Similarly, when the soul departs, like a honey bee... all the bees will go behind. Now, what I am saying, you will listen and feel good, but you cannot let it go; it is restless. Even after doing so, what have we really done? Later, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said that there is no caste. Only the brāhmaṇa, meaning the mind, is my jñāna; the bhuja is the kṣatriya; and the pet, what do they call it, the vaiśya; and the pair, the śūdra. Without this, you all will just keep falling asleep, even if you eat ice cream. What did you eat now, took a pill, what did you eat now, ate that, now had paan, now sang that, that also happens, right? The mouth is moving; if not that, at least put some tobacco in it. But whatever it is, it is nourishing our body, and then our body, our foot, this... It is such that this, our foot is like that, even we will have to run on the dirty water. Now, if you cut off and throw away that dirty, foul water, who will give it to that foot? Our warrior! And what happened? Who will see that? It is our mind. So, brother, when Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa clearly said in the Bhagavad Gītā... Subscribe and subscribe and... all... Is this or that Chinese, and we are human—our bodies are a little different, but a human is a human, isn’t it? If you do not understand that you are human, then how can you say, "Do your best, keep chanting Jai Gurudev, keep performing ārati"? But ārati... While doing it, another one comes into the temple, saying, "Come out again," and if a fly falls somewhere on the child's fair and sits at the priest's root here, then the fly is not told anything. In the temple, the ritual continues. This is knowledge, and the one who gives it is also not truly knowledgeable. So, our annamaya kośa and... The prāṇamayakoṣa brings prāṇa; the prāṇamayakoṣa and the manomayakoṣa—wherever our mind goes, the mind goes there. The mind wanders here and there, so within the mind, beyond that, is vijñāna. Within the mind is śakti; in vijñāna, one understands. After that, moving forward, one either goes to bābās or to suras. So now, your caste is correct; caste is not something fixed. It is called nās, like this nās belongs to them, that nās belongs to them. This is a teak tree, this is a mango tree, this is an apple tree, this is a neem tree. But after all, it is a tree, right? Similarly, if we take it further... If there are any, then you know how birds shoo away flies; similarly, such beings can be removed. So, where has our jīva entered? It has come inside the human body, but we have forgotten it. And that jīva will be born in another country inside a human again. It is true that within our country, all this is good, but their days are bad; there is conflict, there is politics. Yoga says that through yoga itself—what is lacking in yoga? When Bhagavān Krishna returned, someone said to Uddhava, "Hey Uddhava, please tell us, hey..." Uddhava, tell us, what is lessened by yoga and what is lessened by separation? What is lessened by yoga and what is lessened by separation? For the yogī, the hut in the forest and separation reside in the heart. Yoga is one, and separation is also one. Yoga is only in the forest. It seems that what has happened inside their heart—so please tell us, what is the difference between yoga and separation? And what about a yogi in the forest—there is the forest, but where is the separation? So, separation and yoga both come equally, but within yoga... The only difference is this, and the pain lies in the fact that if one is bound by bondage, then only through yoga sādhanā will liberation be attained. No matter what you do—whether you perform some pūjā, ring bells, or sing bhajan-kīrtan for a while—after that, what will that do? But the one who... Can the one who becomes a yogī truly become one, my brothers? Whether you believe it or not... But I believe that our Ramdev Ji, who practices Kīta Yoga here, had only a short time and was also ill. He was being taken out of the house; his stomach was swollen with tumors, yet he had that strength. While walking, he thought, "What should I do?" and came to yoga. Even today, while practicing, you see Modi Ji... Who would have seen, they must have been sitting as well, but there is a deep love between me and them, so somewhere... If their room is nearby, they might come two or three times, then they bring fruits or something and say this, and after that, holding my hand, they say, "Come, let's sit in my room for a while." Their room would be from there to here, and there is a cot, a little big. I thought, let’s go and sit. When I went there, about 80% of the books were on that bed, so many books, and on top of those rugs, there was a handkerchief, and a man named Basit used to live there, saying, "Bāg Gurujī, I sleep right here." Look, Mahārājī, I am telling you, do this, do that—oh, you pressed it so hard that I still have pain. I want you to do it in such a way that none of my limbs feel discomfort. If you do it like this or that, the streets used to appreciate it, but what about that one? For years, this habit of mine continued like this and that, but he never said, "Do this," or "Do that." He was very patient, which is good. But in reality, a yogī's clothing is just like that—everything is simple—and money, well, money is of no value. In the count of millions and billions, but always engaged in good deeds, he has never done anything wrong. No matter how much money he has—billions and trillions—do you know how many millions of people are getting food or not? Now some say, "Oh Baba..." Bābā jītit payā kamāyā kahūṁ ki āpke dūr kamāve paisā kamāyā nahīṁ hai lekin acche meṁ diyā nahīṁ kahīṁ burā to nahīṁ kiyā nā aur acchī chīz de rahe haiṁ acchī se aisī chīz kareṁ ab vah koī itnā meṁ koī kisī ne kharāb karke de de kisī ko kyoṁ āp pūre varld ke andar meṁ Rām... The matter of Devījī is all about suppression and so on. I won’t say much about Rām Devījī, but she does possess that inner ātmaśakti, and with ātmaśakti, how much can one achieve today cannot be expressed in words. You too can awaken such ātmaśakti. Today I say that it is not as if you do not have it. It does not happen that something done today will be completed by tomorrow. I went abroad, and it has been fifty years now. But you do not know what exactly happened—it's not that everything was suddenly clear from the beginning. For fifty years, our DG Sahab has been with me. What has happened? So, the essence of work is devotion, and the meaning of yoga is... You can practice yoga towards Brahma Loka or whatever you wish to do, and never think that you need to do yoga by turning the head downwards and the hands and feet upwards. Your practice is very simple yoga sādhanā. Tomorrow I will give you more, but for now, I am telling you. Do a little sādhanā, will you? There is nowhere to go. You are already in bliss. Yoga is that bliss. See, there was a professor from Italy, about seventy-seven years old, and he also taught at the University of Vienna. At the age of twenty-five, I got married. Then someone said that yoga would give you strength. I said, "I am old now, it won't happen." But when that passed, someone else said there was no other essence. I even consulted a doctor, and the doctor said, "You should do yoga." So he came to me, I was there, and he said that he wanted to have a private yoga class. I said okay, do it. After that, I had a book, and he took another yoga book to buy from the market. Then he saw a book; the book had a certain name, so he looked at it, and inside it was an āsana. Who does not know savāsana means a dead body, completely relaxed, as if you have left the body entirely and are lying down. Everything is the same, the body is dead, exactly as described in the book. He saw it and got frightened. At night, in the dead of night, he called me on the telephone and said, "Mr. Yogi... You wanted to teach me yoga, but you are giving me the art of dying—telling me to die. You have given me the art of dying, and now I cannot sleep. I took it because my wife is a young girl and I am quite old, so I thought yoga would help. And you were teaching the art of dying." That day, I taught her from then onwards. The name of that āsana has been given differently: Ānanda Āsana, after our Ānandanan Jī Mahāprabhujī. That I had done the āsana of ānanda, then he came to me a second time, saying, "Give me my money back." I said, "Brother, what āsana have you done? Take it away." But I was not able to sleep, I will die. I said, "No, this is not it; this is called ānanda, ānanda, joy." I said yes, my... In the same way, I tell all of you, everybody here, to see yoga as completely simple and joyful. Do not think that any of your limbs will break. Only small children might break or fall. Look here yourself, you do not jump just once, right? Alright, you all must know, you must be aware that we perform swarajī, but see, if you position your body and hands like this, and fold the thumb inward and relax, one by one, if you do it like this, there is no bliss in doing so, nothing at all; but if you hold it like this... By holding it firmly like this, the entire arm and hand will gain strength, the muscles will develop, and the base here will become strong and solid. If you keep holding someone like this, then do it this way: first, hold this firmly and then do this. Hold firmly, hold tightly, refresh it and hold onto today, and open another today, look at Atalī, and now make it happen. Do it slowly, one by one... two, and then do this. Take it easy, don’t rush. Don’t box there. Do it slowly, one, two. This is happening exactly here; this is yogic, it is becoming yogic. And now on the other side, slowly descend, tabla... Come on, one, two, three, four, do it like this, not like that, or straight, like knocking on a wall block, one, slowly, two, three, four. So, this is to be done ten times like this. After that, hold like this, one, place your hand like this, you see, this engages all your muscles, the calf, etc. After this, let us do a little more, slowly... O mind, let everything happen slowly, like the gardener tending gently. How much? Like the earth, nothing happens without the season arriving. Now, even here, do a little. Ah, what can be said afterward? This, this, this is the lung, isn’t it, of the body. Ah. If two or three do this, it’s nothing. This is like "this, yes," and this wasn’t even clicked. Now after this, what do we call this? Like a kind of touch, a direction, lolly, don’t run, and five times, five times, five times upwards—just this much. If you have time, do it while sitting at home, sitting on a chair, do it while watching television, do it while working in the office for two or five minutes. If you do this, how much bliss will arise within the body! This is the yoga of bliss. The book on yoga in daily life, and its very first, foremost principle is... This is called Sarva Hitāsana, for the welfare of all. So easy, so easy. You see, this kind of yoga in daily life, to be done every day, yoga in daily life—you will do just this much. And then, regarding the food we spoke about in the beginning, that is of such a nature... So, through yoga and only through yoga, our soul will receive such bliss that after ten days you will see your life will be completely transformed. That is why, among the people of Hindustan, 98% now do gymnastics, they do this and that, but what is that? Yoga is what truly brings joy to the soul. So this gives joy to everyone; there is no need to rush like that. Later, we will take care of our feet, our knees, and so on. Just observe, but slowly... Many of you should not do this—that we will jump, we will do this, one hand will then go up, then the other leg. Children do this, saying, "Brother, I will do it too." But through yoga, one can become free from disease—only if practiced systematically, systematically. Just as when you eat bread: the plate comes, the bread comes, you mix it with something, put it in your mouth, chew it, savor the taste—everything is complete. The one who eats bread should chew it at least 40 times, so that the juice forms. A lot of juice forms, and that very juice is what is healthy for your body. And see, 40 passes very quickly. You eat a simple bread and while talking, 10 passes by. So, as much as inside our body, and secondly, this... The point is that you should be reminded, but you have this within you. Makhanā is sweet; if you take it and suck it well, or chew it properly, what comes into the mouth is juice. Now, taking that with lemon—then even Modi Ji, just for a moment, we were telling him on Facebook that when I was young, those who used to play music would come, like a sāfer, they used to play, right? Back in the days of the sādhus, when we were just little boys, we used to go there... In the same way, whatever there is, whatever you eat, the taste is only up to the throat; beyond that, whether it is sour, sweet, bitter, or anything else, it is not perceived below here. It is inside the mouth, so you are experiencing the taste, and even the taste... Yoga is absolutely effortless; it is not about running. You do not have to rush to do Sarvāṅgāsana today itself. Just a little practice now, and tomorrow you will realize that even this small effort is what matters. Do it in the morning, whenever you get time—this is what yoga is. Through yoga alone, a human truly becomes Paramātmā. One can proceed with it, but not just with āsana and prāṇāyāma; along with these, one must also follow the yama and niyama. Otherwise, one will end up going back. There was a time when there was a certain taste, a subtle flavor... So then, whatever illnesses occurred, by Bhagavān’s grace, we recovered a little. I eat less chili, less and less. Yes, life is like that—there is taste, so enjoy that taste, the deliciousness. Gradually, little by little, this is your yoga of food and a bit of discourse as well. Yoga is when I observe who will come and who will not come, then it becomes clear who are not the ones practicing yoga. Salutations to Gurudev, peace, peace, 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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