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Yoga is the discipline, and the discipline is where yoga begins. Those without discipline cannot succeed. Chitta vṛtti nirodhaḥ—control all the vṛttis, the restless whirlings and all kinds of thoughts. Control the mind. Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe ’vasthānam: at that time, the seer, the practitioner, abides in his own true nature. Otherwise, vṛtti sārūpyam itarataram: otherwise, you become identified with your thoughts. As long as you have controlled the thoughts and mind, you are one with your Self. The rest of the time, you struggle in life according to your thinking. Thinking can make us suffer. Sometimes you don’t understand, and when you don’t understand, you think differently. Someone else is also thinking differently. Once, an Austrian lady went with me to India and stayed six months in the ashram. I returned to Europe, and there was an Indian policeman looking after her in the ashram. It was his duty to take care of Gurujī, and he also used to cook for Matajī and for her. In the morning, he would bring her tea and a little breakfast—sometimes juice, food, fruits. Whenever he brought something to her, he couldn’t speak English. For her, it didn’t matter if she said thank you in German or English, so she prepared to say it in her own language. When he brought something early morning or any time, she would say to him, “Danke,” which means thank you. He became very unhappy. Whenever he brought something, she would say, “Danke,” sometimes two or three times: “Danke, danke… danke.” He was so unhappy he went to Gurujī and complained. “Gurujī, I don’t know what mistake I am making. Whenever I bring her something nice, even early morning when I bring her tea, I expect a blessing. But she says to me, ‘Danky’.” He had learned a little English to say thank you. He learned in English: “Thank you, Danky, Monkey.” He said, “Early morning, I want to have a blessing, some good positive words, and she says to me, ‘Thank you.’ I don’t want to bring anything to her anymore.” Gurujī said, “I don’t think she will say ‘Thank you’ to you. Maybe if she was sad or angry, one day she might say it, but not every time and every day.” The policeman insisted it was every time. So Gurujī said, “Okay, this time I will come with you. I will stay outside the door.” He went again with a cup of tea, and she said, “Danke.” He said, “Gurujī, did you hear? Again she said ‘Danke’.” Gurujī said, “It is in the German language: thank you.” Then someone who could speak English explained to Matajī. She was so sorry, and she bought him a nice present. You see how we can misunderstand. When someone looks at you, you have different feelings and different vṛttis. When someone smiles at you, you think, “My God, why is he smiling at me?” Or, “Why is she smiling at me?” If someone looks angry at you, again you have different vṛttis: “Oh God, why is he or she looking angry at me?” If you don’t know the reality, then you suffer. You suffer in such a way for a long, long time, and you are creating the vṛttis. It is better you clear them up. I told you a story sometimes. This is about one couple. They were a young couple who loved each other very much. They were very happy and got married. After four or five days of their marriage, some kind of misunderstanding appeared. She lost her love towards him and her confidence, and he also lost his love and confidence. Because of society, they lived together. They were from a village. At that time, they were still not so emancipated. “What will our village people say? They just got married, and now they will get divorced?” They were young, about 19 or 20, living together like strangers. When people came to their home, or when they went outside, they played perfect theater, acting like a very good couple. But inside, it was empty. They passed many years together. Finally, it came: their golden marriage jubilee. Now, 50 years they were together, married, having only a friendly relation of “Good morning,” “Okay, I’m going,” “Okay, go,” “Come”—that’s all. They went to celebrate their golden jubilee somewhere at a holiday place. They had a nice room. The man told the hotel keeper or restaurant keeper in the evening, “Tomorrow we are celebrating our 50th jubilee. If you can prepare some nice breakfast and some flowers…” It was nice, sunny, warm weather on the terrace. They prepared the breakfast table and a sun umbrella. He got up, did his yoga exercises, took his walk, and then came to the breakfast table. She also did her kriyās and mantras and prayers, and she also then came to the breakfast table. They sat there. The table was nicely prepared, but there were very peculiar feelings. The hotel people couldn’t understand what kind of jubilee they were celebrating. They were like strangers. Then she said, “Rado, do you know today is 50 years?” He said, “Yes, Marcello, 50 years was hard.” She said, “Do you know why?” And she said, “I don’t know. It’s from your side it began. Something that you do, I don’t like.” He said, “Also, what you do, something I don’t like.” So he said, “Please tell me what you don’t like.” She said, “Every day at breakfast, I have been observing you now for 53 years. The hard part of the bread, you always take, and you give me only the middle one. That disturbs me. How selfish you are.” He said, “My suffering was really stupid. I always was so friendly and gave you the best part, the middle, and I was always hoping that someday you would offer me this middle part, but you never did. Always I had to eat the dry, hard part.” She said, “That’s all?” He said, “Yes, you can see now also. You have this best part, the beginning of the bread, and I have this soft one.” So he stood up, corrected his tie and dress, took both plates, and changed them. “Lady, here you are.” Then she was happy, and he was happy. They were so happy that after breakfast they said to the restaurant people, “This evening, we are going to invite all guests of the hotel because we are on our honeymoon.” Their new marriage began again. Again they were very happy, and everything was relaxed. So one thought with a misunderstanding—53 years they were suffering. Why? Because they did not speak openly to each other. Sometimes someone means something other, different than you think. That is why, whenever some misunderstanding comes, you should not suffer. That’s how the mind lets us suffer—all the time, suffering and suffering and suffering. So, how can thinking disturb us? Therefore, when the draṣṭā, the practitioner, has controlled all the vṛttis, that time he is one with himself. It is like a kevalya, a state of kevalya samādhi. Kevalya means ‘only one’. Only one is God, or your ātmā. All misunderstanding is gone. At that time, you see the reality also. Other times, you are as you are thinking. It is our thinking that gives us trouble and suffering. We don’t know what the reality is. If we know the reality, we will not suffer, and we will not fight. We are fighting and suffering, and we are afraid because we have fear of losing something. But our ignorance is this: nothing belongs to us. When you begin to think that you will lose, you have lost it already. You have lost it already. Now it is only a question of time. Time will bring and show that yes, it is true, you have lost it. And why did you lose? Because it was never belonging to you. It is just given to you for a while. We are in this world like in a hotel room. It’s given to you because you paid. When you go away from the hotel room, you have to leave everything there. You cannot sell the room and then go. You cannot.