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Part 1: Reflections on Discipline, Practice, and Compassionate Living All are good. Very good. Yesterday was good. Yes, very good. And today they will all... Oh, they will again. Hari Om, Praṇām Viśvagurujī. We were all very happy to see Viśvagurujī’s smile during the performance yesterday. Many of you were also giving us feedback that you liked it. We could perhaps include you in a game that we like to play. We have a sheet of paper here, and each line means one letter. So it’s a word game, and we will see if you can manage to solve it. Children will run to someone, and you and the person they choose will say one letter. Since we don’t have an S in our word game, Filipe will paint an āsana. We’ll start painting an āsana, and then you will have to practice it. So we started with a head, and now another letter, another try: A. Even several A’s are there. We already have K. We already have Nāham, Ka, T. You were really perfect in guessing, so we didn’t manage to actually complete the picture of an āsana. But if you did not manage, you would have to practice ekapāda praṇāma āsana now with us. So if you would like to join us, you can join us. On the other side, we would like to thank you all very much, and especially our Viśvagurujī. So our children are better than we are. Yes, they are going in the... and they should sit like this. What? And how do I sit like this? So, how long can you sit like this? From you? Why? How can you sit like this, let’s say, for 20 minutes? No, show me. So, your master, you should tell them how they are doing. Yes? So you can stand up, and tell them what they are doing already. And tell them how they are doing it, and how they are really doing it, or how they should be doing it. Don’t worry, I will not embarrass you. So, what we do, of course—for those that don’t perhaps know; for those of you who may not know what we are practicing on the Anuṣṭhāna—when Swāmījī points to this side of the field, we are talking about the participants of what we call Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. So these are people who participate in the program we call Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. Anuṣṭhāna means intensive, really intensive. And Kriyā, although the word just simply means "create," it just means activity, it refers to really advanced yogic techniques. So, it’s really intensive for some participants, for weeks and weeks, during every summer, year after year. And every week that people attend, they do several hours of sitting every day. It’s a really wonderful experience, so don’t imagine this just to be a discipline, although that’s a prerequisite. These Siddhas are something really, really indescribable, a joyful experience. And that’s what makes it easy to sit that long. And then you understand that while not moving, while controlling your senses and breathing, you get to such a calm place that enables this peace, this joy to rise. And it brings you such a joy, such an experience that you would have never thought possible before. Of course it starts with difficulties; it’s not easy. It requires training. I remember, like Vivek Purījī once told, really brilliantly, I think, what this looks like. It’s like when you say to a well-trained dog, "Stay." It will stay, but when the dog is not trained, you know what will happen. So it’s the same with us. After years of training, when we tell our minds, "Stay on that object," it will just stay. And then sitting is much easier. It’s not so troublesome anymore. It becomes easy. And since I have followed many who have been participating in Anuṣṭhāna for many years, as you know, as leading the Anuṣṭhāna, it also means sometimes I have to open my eyes. And I can see this development. I think probably Swāmījī would agree that there is a lot of development in all of us. I am happy to say, really, that there is such a peaceful atmosphere every time you enter that hall. Even if you haven’t practiced yoga, if you haven’t developed a sense for that atmosphere, that prāṇa, you will understand. Some of you might have the experience when you enter a church, and it has that atmosphere where people are praying and praying. So multiply that by a thousand. That’s the experience. What you told is good. But I did not tell you like this. I want that, how you are sitting, what you have today, how you are, and all that. I would like to know how you sit and how you are doing today. So, how were they coming after three days? Okay, this is, but further it is this, and he cannot like this and like this, then you have to put outside. So when you come next year from your house, you should train for one month. This is the one. And when we come here, one, two, three, these three days we can do it, and then we will be good. This is the number one. So when you are all his disciples, then I give you one for all of you, for you. And what I give you, every year, one day, all this practice, one day. Okay. Monday, okay, today is Monday. Next Monday, you will do this practice. At home, yes. At home, yes. Because when we are making here, and so many years we were not there, then we are like this. And when your practice is this, we will leave some of it out. But a very good one thinks that this is practice. Morning, little afternoon, and evening time. Thank you. Then you all will be, yes, very good, and practice, and this everything. Okay? Yes, thank you. So this is it. Thank you. So, you were speaking very well, but I only told them how they speak today. Yes, true. So, you spoke very well, but I only told them how they speak today. And there were some people who came from this country, from Georgia, so there are many here, and they have been practicing. Everything is like this. So if they want, please take them with you. So you can tell them that, yes, will you do like this and this, and they are doing very much. Okay, so all of that also goes, and you should one day really practice. Very good exercises, but whatever is good. But one day you should practice. So that we may always be good. Well, I know how many people we have from other countries everywhere. They are from the water, you know. There is from the water going. What is that? Fish. Fish. And to kill that and give, you eat this and that, it’s not good. Or some other animals, a little bit, and the cows and these others. Sometimes. Sometimes. Then it is not. I was working for many, many years. And those who said, "No meat, and this and that," then they are very good, and they were not eating any meat, not this. Then our whole body is very good, and it’s very good. Nekam jinam, they are here, but they are eating sometimes with some people, sitting and eating, and this and that. Then it is gone. You know what I mean? I will not tell you that you said, "Yes, I do." Because you will think it is not good, and so I will not tell you. I know, he told me this. I will not tell you others. But from today, you have to give up everything. Otherwise, my programs, my Gurudev, Mahāprabhujī, and this and that, how long I was there, and we brought you very good. And you know how you are very good, you are very everything, not like. And do you know how well you are physically, how healthy you are, how you are not obese, and so on? There is something that is like this, a little like this, but no eating, no meeting, nothing like this. But this is like this. This is the one who has done something, who is a little bigger. And of course, even someone who doesn’t eat meat and is a pure vegetarian can have some extra kilos, but that’s something different. If we are Swāmīs or not Swāmīs, they are equal, because they clean good, no eating this and that. And morning and Prataṇa. And OK, go with them already. You can go when anybody is this and that and this. But we should not go somewhere to eat just for a few people. And some are eating, and you eat not this, not go inside. So I know there is, but I don’t tell, because the people will not be, I’ll say it is a little bit not good. So I don’t tell him, "He or she," but they have beginnings, time to time, eating. So, no animals and this and that, all, please. We are strong, and in every country where I have my students, everyone is doing well. And in many ashrams, where some of our people from Australia and there are coming to other ashrams, they are only like this, going and eating. But in many countries, like Australia and so on, people come to the Ashram, but then they go to eat somewhere. So that is, you eat, eat nothing. You don’t eat anything. Did you eat anything now? You, meat, nothing, not at all. Okay. From how many years? How long have you not eaten meat? About 30 years. 30 years, then stand up. Yes, and when you see me for the first time, he has learned very much, and so I tell you how and what you are doing indeed. Further, then you should bring the people now in your country and listen. You can come further, yes. Eating meat, well, it wasn’t an easy thing for me to decide to be a vegetarian, actually. I was actually quite surprised when all the other speeches were happening for just about everybody. It was a very easy decision. Swāmījī says one or two words, and suddenly they’re vegetarians. I grew up on a sheep farm, and it’s just accepted that you’re breeding sheep for wool and for eating, but eating is just a normal thing. And the sheep are there because of the rain and also for food, so it’s completely normal to eat. So I stayed away from that, but I managed to make this division between... I made a division between the actual process of the killing and the actual eating of the meat. When it was cooked and eaten, it was quite separate from the process of the killing. But I didn’t give the price of the killing to the relationship at that time, when you have it boiled and eat it. And so, you know, well, actually, first I met another—I did transcendental meditation first, and they didn’t really talk that much about vegetarianism. I mean, they did mention it. And as you have heard from Viśvagurujī, many organizations do not deal with it very much. But I was a few minutes ago watching a lecture from Gurujī, and he was very explicit about eating meat. I mean, he was Mahāprabhujī’s disciple, so obviously Mahāprabhujī also was very explicit, and Swāmījī is very explicit. And I recently looked at the lecture of Holī Gurujī, where he was very explicit about how it is not good to eat meat, and of course he was a student of Mahāprabhujī, and similarly Viśvagurujī speaks about it quite clearly and openly. And if he had told me that I couldn’t eat meat, I would have gone somewhere else. But it happened that I had a daughter, and we both came to see Swāmījī in Europe. And she was quite different. She was quite ready to become a vegetarian. So she promised Swāmījī that she would be a vegetarian. Much to my annoyance, actually. Because then I had to become a vegetarian, as she had to keep her promise. So I learned to cook because I was a single parent. And now my perspective has changed quite a lot. Somebody else spoke briefly when all those stories were being told. And he said that being vegetarian changes your perspective, changes the way that you view the world, and changes the way you act towards it. And that is the way that it is. We come to Swāmījī, and Swāmījī gives us a lot. But we can’t just take what we get and try to overlay the life that we’ve got and keep the life that we’ve got. If we want to grow, we have to change, and there is no other way. And so we actually have to accept what Swāmījī is giving us. I mean, if we accept him as our Guru, we have to accept that what he is trying to do is right. So if we accept it, and we have to accept it, and if we accept Swāmījī as a guru, we have to accept what he tells us, what he wants from us. And it is for our good and for the good of all humanity. They’re not just accepting that. If they want to grow, they have to change. Do you understand that people who have a problem with making a change are still caught up in the ideas they have from the past? And do you understand that they have a problem with accepting what Swāmījī wants? We make this division between animals and humans, but there’s a video on YouTube. If you look up "a psychic parrot," it’s actually a very good video. This woman came to one of the scientists. There is a video on YouTube called Psychic Parrot, if I understand correctly, and it is a very good video that shows us something very interesting. It is about a woman who came to a doctor and said, "I think my parrot can read my mind." And this woman had this grey parrot, I think, one of the African grey parrots that can be taught to talk. And so the scientist didn’t just rubbish it. And he thought, "Okay, I’ll check this." And so they did it very scientifically. They got a separate group to select 100 photos. And then they left the parrot in the room that it was used to being in, actually, and took the woman downstairs and through a corridor, and then they set up two synchronized clocks. They recorded what the parrot said, and the woman went through the photos one at a time. Because the clocks were synchronized, later they knew what she was looking at and what the parrot was saying. And they found that the parrot was very much talking about what she was looking at in the photos. Better to watch the video, actually. It’s actually quite funny as well. And there was another case where a woman taught a grey parrot to talk. And she was trying to prove that the parrot was intelligent. And the book that I read was called "Alex and I." And she would set up, and the parrot knew about 120 words. And she would ask, you know, "What’s in the tray?" And there would be groups of three or four different things. And different colors, because the parrot could recognize the colors. And she would have to repeat the tests, because it was a science test, three or four times. And the parrot would get a bit bored with this process, actually. One day she was doing it, and the parrot had been through this selection process three times, and she was doing a final run. And then the parrot, instead of this object being green, which I knew it was green because she had already been through this process three times, it started to say, "Oh no, it’s red," you know, or, "Oh, it’s orange," or... Part 2: The Only Shortcut Is the Guru’s Grace There is a well-known story about a parrot that was being tested on its ability to identify colors. At one point it refused to cooperate, and its handler threatened to put it back in its cage for the night. Suddenly the parrot cried out, “No, no, it’s red, it’s red, it’s red!” This bird even made jokes—when the handler arrived in the morning, it would tease her. We don’t normally think of a parrot making jokes. In fact, the only difference between parrots and all other animals is that parrots happen to be able to mimic sounds and talk. But the intelligence underlying their behavior is clearly there. I also read about a test with sheep. Sheep have a strong instinct to rejoin their flock. Researchers placed a flock on one side of a maze and a single sheep on the other. After a while the lone sheep worked its way through the maze and rejoined the group. The surprise came when they repeated the test a year later: the same sheep was put on one side of the maze and it ran straight through—it had remembered the entire route. So while scientists may debate, and certainly some religions draw a sharp division between animals and human beings, scientific tests have shown otherwise. Consider the consciousness we experience from childhood. As a child your brain is half the size it will become, yet you are fully conscious. Throughout all stages of life—from small child to teenager, young adult, and old man—that sense “I am my consciousness” never changes. This implies that consciousness is not a function of the body, and it also implies that animals possess that same consciousness. That is why the vegetarianism promoted by Swāmījī makes such profound sense. For those who are not yet vegetarian, the best approach is to experiment: decide to become vegetarian and see for yourself. Hari Om. I would like to refer to what Swāmī Ānandī spoke about the other day—how our different spiritual experiences are, in fact, different types of yoga or distinct spiritual directions. She described how many of us were lifted out of ordinary life and placed directly into Gurudeva’s arms, as if by a divine crane, and how in that moment we somehow accepted it. Listening to those stories from the 1980s and the time of the revolution, I realized that for people of my generation—younger yogīs who came of age in the 1990s—the situation was a little different. By then a wide variety of spiritual paths was already on offer. My own journey did not go directly from yoga practice into the Guru’s arms; it took a more circuitous route. Telling you a little of my story may help you appreciate how fortunate we are with what we have in Viśvagurujī. At the turn of the millennium I was searching for God—not specifically for yoga, but for God. I explored several directions. For example, I tried Buddhism of the Diamond Path. They used a complex of practices: rhythmic visualization, repetition of mantras, and evoking buddhas and bodhisattvas to produce a particular state. One technique is a practice of conscious dying. It involves group work and is said to yield immediate, visible results: a drop of blood appears on the crown of the head, supposedly because a physical channel opens, preparing you to fly after death to the pure land where Buddhists aim to go. Indeed, it worked; ninety-nine percent of participants had that drop of blood. There is even a story that in Russia a film crew captured the exercise on camera, and every member of the crew got the drop too—just from filming. You were also told you could accompany someone else’s spirit to that pure land. At that time my parents were nearing the end of their lives, and I told a friend, Alena, that this was wonderful because I could guide them there through this technique. She replied, “That’s completely stupid. You want to send them somewhere when you don’t even know what it is. They don’t belong there.” And she was right. Imagine if someone close to you died, and you came to Viśvagurujī and he said, “I’m sorry, but you shot him off to some pure land.” That never happens here. There is deep humility—even Viśvagurujī’s humility before Mahāprabhujī—and that makes all the difference. Different groups use different techniques, and those techniques are often powerful and seem to work. But they are like weapons that need a permit, and those people have no permit. Only the true master has the permit—only Viśvagurujī. A year later I encountered another Buddhist-related group. They brought instructions and mantras they said came from a master. I practiced them intensively, and it worked—but in the wrong way. All the animal chakras in my body awakened, the very chakras that are not meant to be activated or focused on. I was relatively all right except that time to time I would produce some odd sounds (I am joking, of course). My friend Alena, who was massaging me, had to try to close those chakras for me, because I hadn’t known what I was doing. Again, this was a technique that had power, but it worked differently than intended. It was another example of an advanced practice that should only be transmitted from master to disciple—to a disciple capable of handling it. Things like that can really get out of control, and it is not good. This highlights the enormous difference, the firm foundation we have in Viśvagurujī. Look at the Anuṣṭhāna with its very advanced techniques: Viśvagurujī personally supervises the entire course of the program and gives concrete instructions adapted to the time and place. You can see how precious what we have is. The final story relates to something that happened a year later, when I was already in yoga. At that time a Czech yoga master, Mr. Tomáš, was about to depart. Knowing his death was near, he distributed everything he could, including what he called spiritual shortcuts. These shortcuts were described in manuals, but down in tiny letters was a warning that they were only for highly advanced, completely purified yogīs. Who reads footnotes like that? I didn’t—and the knowledge remained in me. In 2002 my wife and I attended a seminar with Śrī Swāmījī in Prague, at Hagibor. We were sitting just a few meters in front of Viśvagurujī. He was speaking about obstacles and difficulties on the spiritual path. My ego was as big as a steamboat, and I thought to myself, “This is not a problem for me, because I can use one of those spiritual shortcuts and it will work.” As I sat there thinking that, my vision suddenly shifted: each eye began to see a different field, about a meter and a half apart, like two shutters opening unevenly. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t even leave the room. I just sat there, forced to reflect on the cause. It was obvious that some supernatural power was behind it. Eventually I realized: if I try to use shortcuts to shorten my path, I will not be able to move even a little, or make any progress at all. The moment I understood that, my vision slowly returned to normal. Today we all know there are no spiritual shortcuts. The only shortcut is the mercy of the Gurū Deva. And for Him, we give thanks. Let me add one more thing. For those who have given up meat, this can bring a lightness to the body. But if you are still eating meat and other heavy foods, then what comes into the stomach weighs you down. So please, practice. Practice, practice, practice. In the morning, cleanse your body—cleanse your whole body. That is very good. If you can, try taking only water one day, nothing else—or some fruit. You will see how much purer your body feels. It means you will enjoy a long, healthy life. Those who have been eating this and that without restraint still carry so much. You have to clear it all out. This is what I wanted to share with you this morning; I have been thinking about it since early morning. I am sorry if some have been eating things they shouldn’t—I say this with love. What is the best thing we can do? Let us all become like one. Yes, all one together. And that is what this bhajan does. Swāmījī translated this bhajan two years ago, and he said we cannot even imagine what Holy Gurujī actually gave through it, what he told us, and what this bhajan contains. In the whole universe, the light of Mahāprabhujī is vibrating. He is a vast ocean of light. He is the ocean of Amṛta, and He is immortal. Above us, clouds have risen from that ocean—clouds of nectar. Now they pour down upon us a rain of blessings, full of nectar. Throughout the whole universe this rain is falling. Whoever receives this rain upon himself never returns to the cycle of birth and death. Even in every grain of sand, the light of Brahman, the light of Mahāprabhujī, is present. But only one whose inner sight is open can see it; such a one travels to the immortal destination. Those who repeat their mantra or the divine name with devotion have no difficulties. The power of Mahāprabhujī dwells in His bhaktas. Śrī Madhavānanda Jī says that His glory is so immense that no one can fully explain or express His dignity. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jai. Thank you, Swāmījī, for this translation. Kī Jai, Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda Jī, Bhagavān, Kī Jai.