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The ocean of the wisdom

The wisdom of ancient sages offers profound insight into the mind and cosmos, accessible through disciplined study. Patañjali is a foundational figure in understanding psychology, focusing on mastering mental modifications. Greater than any single sage is the collective ocean of wisdom from the ṛṣis, whose work on consciousness and the universe is unparalleled. Engaging with even a small portion of their texts, like the Upaniṣads, reveals immense knowledge. The primary obstacle on one's path is one's own mind, characterized by emotions, attachments, and doubts. To overcome these barriers, one must follow the Guru's word, perform service to the Guru, and thereby receive the Guru's grace. Critics operate from ignorance, and following them is detrimental. In contrast to the long-lived sages of the Satya Yuga, humans in the present Kali Yuga have short, restless lives consumed by desire. The solution is to pursue the light of wisdom through Jñāna Yoga, engaging in clear self-analysis about one's origin, purpose, and thoughts.

"Your emotion, your attachment, your doubts... these are the obstacles, and you can't proceed."

"Simply to cross those borders or remove those barriers, the best way is to understand Guruvākya, follow the Guruvākya, do Guru-sevā, and then you will create the Guru-kṛpā."

Filming location: Czech Republic

This program was very nice, and we have again renewed our memory with Patañjali. I would say Patañjali is the father of psychology. It is he who understood and put it into words. But more than Patañjali, there have been great ṛṣis. When we study about those ṛṣis, then there is immense wisdom hidden. The question is, we have very little time to read about them, but we will work on this; we will work on the Upaniṣads, and we will work on some other works of the ṛṣis. So Patañjali is only one of them; like that, there have been many great sages. What they write on the human mind, what they speak about human consciousness, what they speak about human talents, and what they speak about nature and about the universe is indescribable; their approach and their research work, or the knowledge about the cosmos, is unbelievable. But everything goes through discipline. One has to dedicate one's life to sit down peacefully at least half an hour a day and dive into the ocean of the wisdom of the ṛṣis. You may read only half a page, or only a quarter of a page, or one sentence of them; there is immense wisdom in Siddhārtha. Likewise, Patañjali says, discipline, control the vṛttis, and become one with yourself; only your own mind, your thoughts, are your obstacle. Sometimes we used to say that you are an obstacle on your path, you are one of the stronger barriers on your path, that you can't cross the border, you can't proceed, because you are standing in your way. Your emotion, your attachment, your doubts, your jealousy, your anger, your hate, your complexes, your greediness, your ego, your weakness, your doubts—these are the obstacles, and you can't proceed. Simply to cross those borders or remove those barriers, the best way is to understand Guruvākya, follow the Guruvākya, do Guru-sevā, and then you will create the Guru-kṛpā; that's very important. People, those who are talking against, people, those who are criticizing, simply they don't know, and they don't want to know. They don't know, they don't want to know, and you follow them. You follow their words, then you are worse than they. Therefore, you have to give up the doubts, sit down, and dive into the ocean of the wisdom, of the holy consciousness of the ṛṣis. They spent hundreds and thousands of years; that time, in Satya Yuga, it is said the human had a long, long life. They could maintain several thousand years of life. They had enough time to wait, to marry, and overthink, and have children after some thousand years. And you are not able to wait even some thousand days; they had the time. And they said that in Kali Yuga, the life of the human will be short, it will be within a hundred years, and their mind will be restless, and they will not be able to control, to master their desires. And it is their desires that will destroy their life and shorten their life. So you have to come to Jñāna Yoga, jyoti, the wisdom, the light of the wisdom. So you have to analyze yourself, what you want, and work for that; you have to be very clear with yourself and with the world. Don't behave and don't be depressive; don't fall into depressions and psychophanic and nervousness and emotional problems; wake up in clarity. Who am I? From where do I come? Why am I here? Where will I go? What am I thinking? What did I think? Why did I think? What should I think? And why should I think? Finally, who am I? This I should think.

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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