TV Channel

Long ago, in 2014, the United Nations Organization declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. Hari Om Pranām, dear Vishwa Gurujī, dear Guest of Honour, and all of you. We are here to celebrate the International Day of Yoga. It is since 2014 that the United Nations has declared the 21st of June as the International Day of Yoga. So worldwide, yoga has been recognized. The aim is for humanity to realize the benefits yoga brings to the whole world. Today we are celebrating within our Yoga in Daily Life, in the presence of the King of Yoga, the Yogī Rāj, His Holiness Swami Maheśvaraṇandajī. There are many sādhus and swāmīs from Yoga in Daily Life, the guests of honour, many disciples of Swāmījī, and all well-wishers. Many are also following us online through our webcasting. A most welcome to you all. The wise say that children are the culture of tomorrow. Children are our future. This year, the children have received a great blessing: the chance to prepare this celebration of the International Day of Yoga for all of you. So, we invite the children to come and sit here in front, near Mā Pūrṇā. I will call you when it is your turn. Please sit here. In connection with what was said, the children would like to show you a mosaic—glimpses of the effects of Yoga in Daily Life. What can Yoga in Daily Life give to humanity? What are its benefits? The first are the benefits for physical health: for good posture and a healthy back. It is said that whoever practices Yoga in Daily Life has a spine as flexible as a twig. It is said that when you teach yoga, your spine is as flexible as this. We would like to provide some proof, so our young researchers will sit here beside me. Gītā and Kṛṣṇa will come here. Let’s see how flexible their spinal columns are. One, now. We said that when we celebrate International Yoga Day, you all can’t just sit and watch. So, do you also want to practice this position? If we are celebrating, we should not just sit and look; we should all join in practicing. No, that was a joke. But okay, this posture is a little advanced, so we will present a simpler version. Here comes a beautiful little cat among us. Now she goes to greet Vishwa Gurujī too. The cat, Marjari, is an exercise for correct posture and a healthy back. All the children together will show you this exercise. One, two, three, head up. Mahéś, next. We raise our arms and slowly return back. The children will go prepare for the next part with our leader. Meanwhile, I will practice the little cat with you adults. Before the children prepare, we will all practice Vajrāsana together. So let us sit in Vajrāsana, sitting on our heels—I mean all of you here. People on the webcast can join in as well. Sometimes you have a backache, and this is a very good exercise. Slowly go up on your knees, hands in front. With an exhalation, raise your back, arch your back. Vertebra by vertebra, your spine arches down, and you look up. And again, arch upwards. Pay attention to your lumbar area so the spinal column stretches nicely there. Exhale, mainly up between the shoulder blades. With exhalation, be aware of your movement in the thoracic area of the spine. You are working with your chest muscles and setting the proper way of movement. After exhalation, your arms go up. Keep your back straight and sit back. The children appreciate how well you are practicing. Look here, Matouš is playing someone who has a really big backache. When his back hurts, he perhaps cannot even do this posture because his knees would hurt. He is in so much pain he cannot practice Vajrāsana. Still, he can practice Marjari by standing and supporting himself. Arch up, bow down, and slowly up. Now he doesn’t need a walking stick anymore. We were taking care of our spinal column as it was arching up—all these kyphosis and lordosis curves. We have a very professional specialist on this: Dr. Martin Repko. He always mentions that we should also twist our spine. Look, the towels represent our spinal column. How can we practice twisting it like this? Because those practices affect the deepest layers of muscles around the spinal column, and we work with them. Salutation to the earth, Bhūnamanāsana, is an exercise you will surely enjoy. Observe the spine; the boys will show you what the spine is doing. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. This exercise is a bit more difficult, but you can all practice it, just like our children are showing you the rotation exercise, because it is not difficult. People who suffer from back pain can also practice it. This next exercise is again a little more advanced, but we will show a very simple version of this twisting exercise. Your arms are spread, palms facing up. Find your place. Inhale. Your knees go right, your head goes left. Inhale through the center. And exhale to the other direction, and go back. Thank you, children. You could observe how we were working with our spinal column. So if you have space, please, let’s practice together. Yes, he is very good. He loves to practice yoga. So if you are at home and have enough space, you can practice. You can lie down, lie on your back, bend your knees. Inhale, and with an exhalation, legs to the right and head to the left. Inhale to the center. And exhale to the other side. About three times on each side, so that it doesn’t hurt at all. It is great protection for your discs and makes your spinal cord very flexible. Thank you for practicing. And what is there? The big pot is here. We are going to practice the strengthening āsanas—how to strengthen our body with the help of Yoga in Daily Life. Kṛṣṇa will give us a hint of what’s going to be. There is a big ladle, a big spoon. What kind of exercise can this be? Do you know? It’s the mill. So, let’s see how the mill is practiced. Circle your stretched arms. It helps to strengthen our body and gives us energy. And the other way, the other direction. I’m happy that many adults joined in, and we are applauding you. Thank you. And that’s not all. Now we will make a yoga experiment. I invite the famous researcher Matoušek. Look, he has two containers. In each container there is water. There is dirty water over there, and clean water in the other one. There is a sponge in the dirty water. Now let’s press it. Let’s squeeze the water out, and we will soak it in the clear water. And the sponge is clean. He has cleaned the sponge. Thank you. In yoga, we call this the principle of bandha. It means we press, we squeeze certain parts of our body, and we release the bad energy from there. This is done through certain body postures in your daily life. Then we relax and breathe in. This way, yoga can help cure our inner organs as well. We, with the children, will again show you the most difficult exercises through which the inner organs can be healed in this way. We will show you a very advanced posture which can influence the inner organs: the lotus posture, the lotus sitting posture. Make more space. Mohan will show us one of them. And Kṛṣṇa is smart. Look how he is twisting his arms. Kṛṣṇa has shown us Matsyāsana. He is meditating in lotus posture. And Anežka can bow down, and you could see how the inner organs are massaged in this posture. And Gītā and Sītā now together. I don’t think anyone can do this, so we will invite some tigers here. Because the tiger’s posture is very good for the inner organs as well. And this one is very simple; anyone can practice. So we have little tigers here, and it’s called the tiger posture. Again, if you want, you can join in. We start sitting on our heels, Vyāghrāsana. Go up. Place your palms and bring your knee to your nose or forehead. And to the other side, we lift our leg and head. And lift our head and lift our foot. We do it with the other leg, up to the head, knee. Lift the leg from the other side, look up. Look up, and the foot goes up. Up, look at your belly, and we go up, and sit back. Sometimes children are tired, and adults can be tired as well. We have a special posture in Yoga in Daily Life called Ānanda Āsana. It actually looks simple, but it’s not so easy to relax completely. We will show you how relaxed they are. If sometimes you get a fit of anger, we can cure that with Yoga in Daily Life as well. It’s called Siṁha Āsana, the lion posture. Sit again in Vajrāsana on your heels, shoulders up, spread your fingers, inhale, eyes go up. Thank you, Kājet. For refreshment, some beautiful butterflies will fly around. How to practice the butterfly posture? We join our soles together, stretch our arms, stretch our back, and we move our knees. Sometimes our energy is blocked in the area of the hip joints, and then we tire very easily. That’s why this Yoga in Daily Life posture, the butterfly posture, is very refreshing. Thank you. And then the cream of the crop, the children, will show us a short story. We have many stories in yoga and in their lives. Vishwa Gurujī always teaches us through stories. He tells stories to children and to adults as well. It is fun, but it’s not just for fun. There is always a deeper message in all the stories. Today you will see a classical story of Sleeping Beauty. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, and she lived in a happy kingdom. There were many children, and everybody was happy. There were many animals, and everything looked great. But unfortunately, for the christening of this beautiful princess, one of the fortune tellers wasn’t invited. And that fortune teller said, "One day, the princess will prick herself on a rose." The destiny and misfortune predicted that the princess would get hurt by the thorn of a rose. And the whole kingdom will stop functioning. And finally, everybody will fall asleep. The whole kingdom became overgrown with roses, and everybody is asleep. Only a prince can help. He has to cut through the thorns, and he finds the sleeping beauty, and he will free her and all the kingdom. It is alive again, everybody is happy again. These flowers are for our dear master, but there are no thorns, don’t worry. They are a token of our appreciation that He has been guiding us for each and every step, not only when we are physically with Him, but really in our daily life—He is always with us. Each of us carries that sleeping beauty within. It would be a shame not to use this human life to awaken that beauty. And He is the true prince whom we would now like to bow to.