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A spiritual discourse on the discipline of yoga and the suffering caused by mental fluctuations.

"Those who have no discipline cannot be successful. 'Chitta vṛtti nirodha.' Therefore, control all the vṛttis, or the thinkings—the restless thinkings and all kinds of thinkings."

"Thinking can make us suffer... if you don't know the reality, then you suffer. And you suffer in such a way for a long, long time. And you are creating the vṛttis."

The speaker teaches that yoga begins with disciplining the mind to control thoughts (vṛttis), explaining that one's true nature is realized only when these mental modifications cease. He illustrates the pain of misunderstanding with two stories: an Austrian woman in an ashram whose "danke" is misinterpreted as an insult, and a married couple who live in silent misery for decades over a misinterpreted breakfast habit. The talk concludes that uncontrolled thoughts lead to suffering, while their control leads to oneness with the true Self.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

The discipline is yoga, and yoga begins with discipline. Those who have no discipline cannot be successful. "Chitta vṛtti nirodha." Therefore, control all the vṛttis, or the thinkings—the restless thinkings and all kinds of thinkings. Control the mind. If you control all the vṛttis, you control your mind. "Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe 'vasthānam." At that time, the seer, the practitioner, can become established in his own true nature. Otherwise, "vṛtti sārūpyam itarataram"—otherwise, you will assume the form of your thoughts. As long as you have controlled the thoughts and mind, at that time you are one with yourself. The rest of the time, you are struggling in your life according to your thinking. Thinking can make us suffer. Sometimes you don't understand. And when you don't understand, then you are thinking differently, and someone else is thinking differently. Once, an Austrian lady went with me to India. She stayed six months in the āshram. I came back to Europe, and there was an Indian policeman who was looking after her in the āshram. He had the duty to take care of the Gurujī in the āshram, so he used to cook for Māṭājī, and also for her. In the morning, he used to bring her tea and a little breakfast—sometimes juice and eatings, fruits. Whenever he brought her something, he couldn't speak English. For her, it didn't matter if she said thank you in German or in English, so she prepared to say thank you in her own language. So when he brought something early morning or any time, she said to him, "Danke," which means thank you. And he was very unhappy. Whenever he used to bring something, she used to say, "Danke." Sometimes two, three times: "Danke, danke, danke, ... danke." He was so unhappy, and he went to Gurujī and complained: "Gurujī, I don't know what mistake I am doing. Whenever I bring her something nice, and early morning also when I bring her tea, I expect a blessing, but she says to me, 'Danky'." Because he had learned a little English to say thank you, he had learned in English: "Thank you, Danky, Monkey." And he said, "Early morning I want to have a blessing, some good positive word, and she said to me, 'Thank you.' I don't want to bring anything to her anymore." Gurujī said, "I don't think she will say to you, 'Thank you'. Maybe she was sad or angry, so one day she may say it. But not every time and every day." He said, "It is every time." So Gurujī said, "Okay, this time I will come with you. I will stay outside of the door." So he went again with a cup of tea, and she said, "Danke." And he said, "Gurujī, did you hear? Again she said, 'Danke'." Gurujī said, "It is in German language, thank you." Then someone who could speak English explained to Māṭājī, and she was so sorry. And she bought him a nice present. So you see how we can misunderstand. So when someone looks at you, you have different feelings. And you have different vṛttis. When someone smiles at you, you say, "My God, why is he smiling?" or "Why is she smiling at me?" And if someone looks angry at you, again you have different vṛttis: "Oh God, why is he or she looking angry at me?" So if you don't know the reality, then you suffer. And you suffer in such a way for a long, long time. And you are creating the vṛttis. Better you clear up. I told you sometimes a story. This is about one couple. They were a young couple. They loved each other very much. They were very happy, and they got married. And after four or five days of their marriage, some kind of misunderstanding appeared. She lost her love towards him and confidence, and he also lost his love and confidence. Because of society, they were living together. They were from a village. At that time, they were still not so much emancipated. "What will our village people say? They just now married, and now they will die divorced." They were young, about 19 or 20, living together like strangers. When some people came to their home or they were going outside, they were playing perfect theater, as if they were a very good couple. But inside, it was empty. They passed many years together. And finally, their golden marriage jubilee came. Now, 50 years they have been together, married. They had no friendly relation except, "Good morning," "Okay, I'm going," "Okay, go," "Come," that's all. They went to celebrate their golden jubilee somewhere at a holiday place, and there 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 a breakfast table and a sun umbrella. He got up and did his yoga exercises, took his walk, and then came to the breakfast table. She also did her kriyās, mantras, and prayers, and she also then came to the breakfast table. They are sitting there; the table is nice and prepared, but there are very peculiar feelings. So the hotel people couldn't understand what kind of jubilee they were celebrating; they are like strangers. Then she said, "Rado, do you know today is 50 years?" and he said, "Yes, Marcello, 50 years was hard." And she said, "Do you know why?" And she said, "I don't know; it's from your side it began. And something that you do, I don't like." And 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 am observing you now for 53 years. The hard part of the bread you always take, and you give me only the middle one, and that disturbs me. How selfish you are." He said, "That my suffering was really stupid. I always was so friendly and gave you the best part, the middle, and I was hoping always 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." And then she was happy, and he was happy. They were so happy, they went after breakfast and said to the restaurant people, "This evening we are going to invite all guests of the hotel because we are on our honeymoon." So their new marriage began again; they were very happy, and everything was relaxed. So one thought with misunderstanding, 53 years they were suffering. Why? Because they did not speak openly to each other. So sometimes someone means other, different than you think. And that is that whenever some misunderstanding comes, you should not suffer. So that's how the mind lets us suffer all the time, suffering and suffering and suffering. So, see how the thinking can disturb us. Therefore, when the draṣṭā, the practitioner, has controlled all the vṛttis, that time he is one with himself. It's like a state of the kaivalya samādhi. That means kaivalya means only one; only one is God or your ātmā. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

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.

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