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From the day before yesterday, I spoke about imagining that you always have the possibility to meet the golden fish and that you need to have three wishes. Do not be ashamed of your wishes. Everything that comes is good, and try to be aware of that. Usually, our problem is that when we have an issue—a problem, a situation, a behavior we are not proud of, or certain thoughts—we want to sweep it under the carpet. We are always trying to push it down. If you push too much down, in one moment you will not have any strength left, and it will jump back up. Many times, Viśwa Gurujī said that if you have a problem, a fear, or something similar that comes in your meditation or in your thinking, just calm those thoughts and feelings. Yet we tell ourselves, "No, no, it’s not good. I don’t know, it is... shameful, or oh no, I can’t think about this, it is prohibited to think about this," and we just push it down. Okay, for some time you are free of that thought. But the next time, that thought comes back a little stronger. Because when you put it down in the basement—or not only the basement, but who knows how many levels below our consciousness—that thought, that feeling, collects similar stuff. Like a magnet, it attracts similar feelings, and that skeleton in the closet—yes, you know the saying, "Everybody has a skeleton in the closet"—becomes stronger. Again, we are strong. We spend a whole lifetime pushing different things down. Again the pain comes up, and we are strong, and we push it down. We do this a few times. And in the end, we are no longer able to control it, and it jumps up really like a monster. Because of that, they say if you dream something not so nice, some fear or something unpleasant, immediately in the morning try to tell somebody your dream. Because by talking about it, it loses energy. And maybe you even start to laugh about your stupid dream. But if you say, "No, no, I will not tell anybody," and you press it down, then the problem starts for you. We are slowly making an elephant out of a mouse. But our aim is to make an end of the elephant. How will we release our problem? We need to laugh. Never take it seriously. Especially laugh at our own mistakes, problems, and fears. Also, try not to put it under the carpet, but be aware. Not in the way of, "I have a problem, I don’t know what to do." In that moment, you are finished. Instead, start to joke about your problem and never run from it. Look it in the eye. It is not easy. Everybody has fears, and it is completely normal to have fear. But they say about those people who are brave that it is not the absence of fear. You have a fear, and you are controlled, and you slowly overwrite that problem. Because of that, we also hear many times that spirituality without love is a terrible thing. I always remember from Kahlil Gibran, "God, please protect me from spirituality without laughter." Remember all the satsaṅg with Swāmījī. There was always joy and laughing in satsaṅg. Not the kind when you are in a cafe, "ha-ha, he-he, ho-ho," but real joy and laughter. And maybe I am boring you, because I am always talking about one satsaṅg during the conference in Bratislava, yes, the story about Sonamukhī. That satsaṅg at the Pozsony conference about Sonamukhī. Swāmījī on the stage was Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Nirañjanānandajī. And it was amazing, do you remember? That is pure spirituality. It was a talk about a spiritual topic, but with laughter, with joy. And that is spirituality. If you are all the time, "Oh my God, it is a problem," you will injure yourself. It will be a problem. For stress, anti-stress techniques are yoga, prayer; in yoga, it means meditation, etc. Yoga is yoga, meditation is yoga, prayer and laughing and workout. Especially people who have a lot of stress at work—not this in-the-office stress about love, not love, problems, etc., but real danger in life: fire department, first aid, police, that kind of stress. Real stress, not this homemade stress. They need workout, practice. They need laughing, especially at their own problems. And when somebody had a real problem in that stress situation and he or she is just frozen or makes a mistake, that person will be aware of the mistake. But others, and that person, will laugh about it. Many times they will talk about this anecdote and laugh. What they said: if you fall down from the horse, you need to immediately jump back on the horse. Immediately. Because if you don’t do it that way, you will start to have a problem with riding the horse. The same thing with practicing yoga. If you make a big deal about falling down from a headstand, you will have fear all the time. But I remember people who fall down and start to laugh at how they fell, and they start again, and there is no problem. That is with every problem in our life, and laughing—but not this "he he ho ho ha ha" coffee shop laughing. These empty jokes, and all the time "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha," that makes us lose energy. And with that energy, I think we lose awareness, concentration, energy, integrity. But a good joke, from which you learn a lot and release the problem, that is very important. Prayer is also excellent against stress, okay? You pray to God, but also the other way. In the rare moment when we have a prayer, you give this command. This is in the car or in the plane. Whatever command you have, you just give it, and you are not controlling anymore. You are on autopilot, and you have a prayer, and you just give everything, control everything to the Divine. And what happens in that moment? I remember what Swāmījī said. He once asked Gurujī, "Why do people during prayer start to yawn?" And Gurujī said, "Because they are relaxing." And you know, when stress passes and you are relaxed, you start to yawn. Because in that moment, you are just put on autopilot. You are not trying to control everything anymore; you are not a control freak anymore. And really, nāhaṁ kartā. In that moment, you are releasing all stress from your body, also in meditation. What we say during meditation, even today you hear: you are observing the clouds. Clouds are coming and going, changing their shape. And you can’t stop the cloud, you can’t change the cloud. Only if you think too much, "Oh, I am so great, I will change the shape of this cloud into a unicorn." And of course, only you will see the unicorn. But just sit, relax, and everything that comes—let it come. Everything that goes—let it go. And you are the observer. You have your mantra, and that is excellent. Also, I have a picture like when you are a small child, and you have a hyperactive child or a hyperactive dog. What you need for the dog when it’s hyperactive is just put it down on the floor and keep it down for a few seconds, and it will relax. But we try like we are... sitting in the lap of the Divine Mother, Father, completely protected. And you don’t need to think, to control, to do anything. You give everything into the hands of the Divine. And just inhale, and that is the best also against stress. All this we have in yoga and daily life. We have so many nice stories that we got from Viśwa Gurujī. And you will see that almost in each story there is a comic situation. Very serious, but also, during the telling of the story, Viśwa Gurujī always put a laugh inside. And I know when I laugh so much at some story, it must be connected with my problem. Because I, not I, but deep inside, understand that problem. And after some time, we said it comes from down to the head, which means kuṇḍalinī. It comes, and you say, "Oh yes, I am like that farmer." And that is also important, to not be so serious. Because when you walk through the city—I think it is a little different from the village—but especially when you walk through some big city, you will see so many very important, very serious people, yes. So important, self-important persons, and very serious. And such people are very afraid of laughing. Because they lose that influence on you to control you. The best way for protecting yourself from such people is a joke. Be with a smile, and such people really hate this. I always tell one story about a witch. She—but now comes another story, also about the witch. Witch. Hexen. And that witch was living near a village. But in my view, which is not negative—I am not such a person who would put a witch in the fire—because a witch is somebody who has knowledge. And maybe all of us will finish like witches in previous times. But when we talk about witches, we think about negativity. And that witch was living near a village. And she didn’t have power, but she was clever. And if you want to control people, you need to create fear in them. You make them think that you are so strong that you will do something wrong to them. And always, this important image: how you look. For me, nobody will be in fear. But if I change the dress, behavior, etc., that image will also make people think, "Oh, he’s dangerous." And she was practicing that. She looked dangerous. Fekete mágia. Like magic. And she always asked the village to bring food, money, everything. And that witch had one rooster. A rooster. Yes, kakas is a rooster? Yes, in Hungarian, kakas is the male hen. In Croatian, kokoš is female. No, no, no. And she had one rooster. And she told the village people, "If you will not give me what I ask, my rooster and I will go away. And if my rooster will not in the morning make this sound, the sun will not rise." You know, if you don’t have knowledge, if you don’t understand, and if you are in fear, you will believe that this rooster is the cause of the sunrise. And people were so in fear. And somehow they did not want to, but they could not refuse what the witch asked. Because slowly, slowly she became more and more greedy. She became increasingly demanding. And she said, "Okay, tomorrow I go with my rooster, and you will not have any more sun." And people were so in fear. The whole day crying, what to do? And one yogī passed through that village. He asked for food, but nobody had cooked anything, no fire in the village. "Doomsday tomorrow, the sun will not rise." And the yogī asked, "What is your problem?" And they explained what happened, because of fear. We said, in fear you have very open eyes. You hear everything. When you are in fear, a little bug will make you think, "Oh my God, a thief is in the house." And that yogī said, "Don’t be in fear." And tomorrow morning, when she was packing her stuff, the rooster, just for showing—the whole village, along with the yogī, went out to her house. Félelem nélkül. The yogī said, "You think that your rooster is the cause of the sunrise? Go away." And she was in shock. And she started to, yes, but, no, but go away. And in that moment, she loses complete power. That is a very usual problem when somebody is blackmailing you. Never negotiate with the terrorist. I don’t think about terrorists with guns, etc. We have enough terrorists inside. Never negotiate with the terrorists. You know which terrorist is the worst? "Five minutes more for sleep." In your alarm, yes? And five minutes more, and five minutes more. Because of that, I put out that solution for snooze, snooze. No plan B. And so we have so many terrorists, and we start to negotiate. Fasting day. Today was a fasting day. Okay, I will fast. But okay, I will drink coffee. Coffee is okay. Chai is okay. But without milk and without sugar. And we put a lot of milk and a lot of sugar, that we will catch diabetes. And if you put too much sugar and milk in it, you will get diabetes. Okay, one apple is okay. That is fruit; we always have a little fruit. But apple is a problem. When I eat an apple, I am more hungry. You have such a dialogue with yourself. Yes, of course. Openly, yes, everybody has such. And we said, "You give a little finger, and they take the whole hand." And in the end, you finish the fasting day by eating more than on a regular day. "Today is hard weather. It is a little chilly. I need more energy." Excuse, excuse, excuse. I know. I have my terrorist. And that is good to laugh about your terrorist. And next time when you have a fasting day and start this terrorist, okay? "A little coffee is okay." You say to yourself, "Yes, okay, it’s no problem. I will drink coffee, but without milk." And sugar? Yes, or black tea without milk and sugar. Okay, it’s not tasty. Yes, and try no, this little snack. "I need a little because I am sick. Look, fasting is for health. If you want to be healthy, you need to fast." You know what Viśwa Gurujī always said, remember your mantra dīkṣā. A few things were important. Be vegetarian. Do not change your mantra and guru every few months. That is for your whole life. To practice regularly, and try—not try, but try—to fast once a week. And that is hard. It is good for your health, and don’t be in fear. Nowadays, thinking changes. Now everybody talks about intermittent fasting. But yogīs have talked about this, oh my God, from the beginning. You talk about the full moon, or Amāvasyā, or Pūrṇimā, and one day a week, Monday, or Wednesday, or if you want Gaṇeśa, something, some other days, it’s depending. Vaiṣṇavas mostly use Ekādaśī, but always take one day. Here in the West also, it was one day, but we spoiled it a little. And on Friday, people eat so much fish. What is a disaster? But one day of fasting is good. And not only for your health. It is good for observing your thoughts, and telling your thoughts, "No." That is important. Never negotiate with a terrorist. Also, do not be fanatic. Sometimes you need to change something. But that is very, very, very rare. And try to be, when you have a problem, try to laugh at your own problem. You have your good friends. With them is... You know who is your good friend? You are joking about your problem and their problem. And nobody is offended, but they even laugh more about the problem. And that is the best way for releasing stress. But here we are not in the stress; here we are relaxed, nicely. Maybe those who are on the Anuṣṭhāna are a little in stress with the Cakraśodhana. Time, time, etc. But relax. Same like what we talk about in Nāḍī Śodhana. When you relax your shoulders, you are much more at ease. You are able to keep the rhythm of breathing. Same thing when you are practicing and you are not in stress, you will manage this. And what is also very important, many people always think, "Only I have this problem." And we are not talking about this problem, and slowly we make an elephant out of a mouse. But if you tell, "I start with the one apple and finish with the fruit garden," and you laugh, you will see that immediately there are 20 people with the same problem. Sorry? Garden, fruit garden. Yes, you start also with the, "Oh my God," scream, scream, and you are screaming for more. Yes, and you will see that other people also have the same problem. And also try not to be self-important, that your walk through the city is so important. Usually, it shows that such a person is without self-esteem. Also, these very serious people are, or try to manipulate you, psychopath or not. So we said, "with the salt in the head," what means with intelligence. And be very serious also, not too much "hee-hee-ho-ho-ha-ha." When we are also in our buffet, we are friends together. You have a nice topic, but also when we start in the moment that is only "he, he, ho, ho, ha, ha," in that moment it’s good to leave, especially when you have your sādhanā and anuṣṭhāna and something like this. Try to avoid such kind of laughing. If this laughing begins, then small talks, we will say. This so-called small talk, then, if you are... Also, many times people ask how to come and to greet the altar and your guru, and so on. And many times, people, especially those who are just starting with yoga for the first time at a seminar, the second time, or even after many years, are looking at what other people are doing. And always, there must be some special yes and some choreography. No. It is your feeling. If you do so many choreographies, bow down, do everything, but you don’t feel inside nothing, or you are just, when there’s a lot of people in the hall, and you are observing if somebody’s looking at me, and if somebody’s looking at... you, and you make a performance for what? It is your personal feelings, it is your personal relationship with your Gurudev. Nothing of that is by the law. If you do by the law, that is religion. And if you don’t do like this, you will finish in hell. Spirituality is not at all like this. Your inner feeling is important. Also, when you come and you see that we put our hands above the fire, the lamp, it is important that it is the light that has a fire, not without fire. Why are we doing this? Because we know that light makes darkness disappear. And when you put a candle or a dīpak, immediately the darkness in the room disappears. And the same thing when you do this, like how this fire makes that darkness disappear, also that light of knowledge makes that darkness of ignorance and all negativity disappear in my inner world. That is the meaning of this: how you bow down. You will come with the flower, with this and that. That is not important. You know that story about Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa visited the Kauravas for eating. He was invited for eating, but the atmosphere was not good. Tudjátok, az a történet, amikor Kṛṣṇa meg a Kauravák. And he went to Vidura’s house. És ezért Vidur házába ment, but his wife was not prepared for lunch. Imagine in one moment Swāmījī entering your home and saying, "What is for eating? I am hungry." Vidura immediately ran to some market, or in the garden, because at that time it was not a supermarket, but his wife immediately brought some bananas and, peeling the banana, she gave it to Kṛṣṇa, and after some time Vidura came. And he saw that his wife gave the skin of the banana to Kṛṣṇa, and she ate the banana because she was completely frozen and bhakti is completely confused. And Vidura said, "What are you doing?" In that moment she realized, oh my God, sorry, sorry. But Kṛṣṇa said, "No, no... that was the best food I ever ate." Why? Because with such energy, with such love, she gave the skin of the banana. And that was full of taste. And in the other house, the food was so tasty, but on the other hand, without love, without anything, but only showing and being serious. "Look, who am I? And look at my food." And the skin of the banana was full of prāṇa. And this food was completely empty calories. Because everything in that house was self-important, very serious, without that joy and love. That is the recipe for how to cook. That is the recipe for how to meditate, how to practice yoga, how to come and greet your master. Very easy. And because of that, we always bow down our head. Because through that mudrā, we are trying to make our self-importance go down. And on that way, if we do, everything is good. And now we will. Bye-bye.