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Śraddhā, vīrya, smṛti, samādhi, prajñā, pūrvat, itareṣām. This kind of practice is very important to attain samādhi. We are talking about our practice. Practice is the most important thing in life, especially for aspirants on the path of spirituality. First of all, Patañjali said that if you would like your realization to become easier or quicker, then you should have these practices. Śraddhā, vīrya, and smṛti bring one to samādhi. Śraddhā is confidence. It is said that belief can move mountains. Belief should be a real belief. In any sādhanā, in any practice you wish to do, or any aim you want to realize, to continue is only possible through confidence, through śraddhā. If śraddhā is lost, everything is lost. Confidence is lost, all is lost. Then you see the world differently. Everything becomes unpleasant. It awakens and provokes anger, laziness; always the vṛttis are created then, those vṛttis which are against your aim. Therefore, it is said, śraddhā and viśvāsa are both the same. Lord, my śraddhā, my confidence, my belief should not decrease. Day by day, my love should increase. And that is what Patañjali is saying: that the practitioner’s interest, love, should increase day by day towards your sādhanā, your practice, in order to realize your aim. If there is a lack of intuition, a lack of confidence towards your sādhanā, then there will be a delay in your realization. Otherwise, there is no reason why you still don’t get the realization. You are practicing already so long, and I am surprised that you still didn’t get it into realization. Now we know where the cause of missing confidence is. For confidence, I remember a nice story. It is said that confidence can change the mountains. There was an ill man. He had some stomach problems, something like what we call an ulcer. He was sitting outside of the village under a tree, and one yogī came there. The man spoke with the yogī: "Sir, do you have some advice for me?" The yogī said, "Yes, what would you like to know?" The man said, "My life is miserable. No one loves me. No one likes me. No one is happy with me, no one speaks to me. My family members also, they are only shouting at me. They say, 'Go and work,' and I cannot work, I am very ill. And they are shouting. Sometimes they say, 'Why don’t I die? I am a burden for them.' So I decided to go away from the home. Now, three days I am away from the home. No one came behind me or looked after me. I am desperate. I have no hope for anything. We used to say people love your money, not your skin. Such a life is not a good life. What to do?" The yogī asked him, "What health problem do you have?" So he said, "I have always stomach aching. I can’t eat, I can’t sit. I can’t lie down. I can’t walk. I cannot work. Everything is very unpleasant." The yogī said, "Well, I have some medicine for you." The man said, "Please, then give me the medicine." So that is the Āyurvedic herb. We call it sonāmukhī. When you take the sonāmukhī, about 10 grams, then you have to run 10 times. Or 20 times. Double effect. Cleaning of the stomach. It is said many illnesses begin from our stomach. Digestion problem, and here we are sitting, so many people, hundreds of us. And 80% of us definitely have digestive problems. And in yoga and Āyurveda, it says, "Clean it. Purify the intense time." Clean systematically. That will improve your digestive system, and it will cure many diseases. Stomach disease, and many diseases: skin disease, blood disease, eye disease, ear disease—many, many, many things. We know when everything is clean, it’s good. The yogī went away. That man went to the market and bought half a kilo. And he thought, "If I drink half a kilo, it will clean everything completely." Who is ill, who has suffering, that one knows what is medicine. Even if you give the gift of poison, such a person is ready to drink it in order to cure the disease. Well, he made the paste out of it, a kind of soup, and he drank it. You can imagine when the 10 grams have such a strong effect, how is the half kilo? 500 grams, anyhow. He had three days of intensive conditions. After three days, he was so exhausted, he lost water and minerals. But somehow, his body regenerated again. He became healthy, no more stomach problems. That’s it, gone. Now he thought. He will settle in some other town, or he will also become a yogī and travel around the world and help the people. So he wanted to become a sādhu, so he took orange dress, and he wanted to change his name. So he did not know which name he should have now. That yogī was disappeared; he could not find him, so he thought, "I shall give my name as the name of that medicine which made me healthy. Lifelong, I will be thankful for this medicine." Sonāmukhī Dās, the servant of the Sonāmukhī, that became also his mantra. Because he did not know any mantra, and you should practice a mantra, so he was repeating the mantra, "Sonāmukhī, Sonāmukhī, Sonāmukhī." He came to one village, and people came to him, saying that some sādhu had come. He will give some satsaṅg, some lecture, but... He did not know what to tell. All he told people was, "Repeat the name of God, Sonāmukhī." That’s all. And one farmer lady came. She said, "Swamījī, can you help us? Because we know you know everything. You can see everything. We had one donkey at home. And the last five days, we lost that donkey. We don’t know where she is. We had been searching everywhere in neighboring villages and the countryside. We couldn’t find the donkey. Please, can you meditate and tell us where our donkey is, so we can go and get her? My husband and I, we are tired from it, searching." He said, "How many family members are you?" She said, "Only me and my husband." "Okay, then both of you drink half a kilo of sonāmukhī. And the donkey will come home to ask him, 'How are you?'" She went home and told her husband. "I met Swamījī, and he said this and this." He said, "Well, I believe everything. But God gave us a little bit of intellect also. It’s not logical. I can’t compare it. We drink sonāmukhī, and then he comes home. What a miracle. No, I don’t believe this." She said, "But we must do it. Guru Vākyā." He said, "I don’t think so, this is Guruvākya." But it is said, what ladies decide, they do it. That’s why they call it Śakti. She went to the market. She brought fresh herbs, sonāmukhī. And she made nice spinach vegetable. And the husband did not know what he was eating, and she put nice spices inside, so it was very tasteful. And today he ate double. Like in old times, everywhere the toilets were outside somewhere, so they also had to go outside to some forest. 500 meters far now, the pressure was so strong, so he sees going and he’s coming and he’s going and he’s coming. He’s looking at her, angry. She said, "Don’t worry." They had one small house where they used to put the dry grass, the cow feeder. And it was open. And for six days before, the donkey went in to eat the grass, and by wind the door was closed. The donkey was closed in. The man said to his wife, "Well, anyhow, I’m so tired. I can’t go 500 meters and come back and go." She said, "It is the same condition I have." Then she said, "Let’s go to this, our grass house, cow house, and tomorrow, then when we are okay, we will clean it." So slowly, slowly, both of them, they hold the hand and walk towards the house. They opened the door. Inside is standing someone, a donkey is inside. She took her husband and threw him out of the house. "You didn’t believe me? A donkey will come home. It came home. Now you go and sit under the tree." Well, the poor husband, he went under the trees. Spent the time when he came home, she kept on shouting, "You don’t trust, you have no śraddhā." As usual, the ladies are saying, "Their husband, all men, knows better than me." He said, "Okay, okay, okay, I don’t believe, but I agree. You are right, I am wrong, please keep peace. The donkey is here, and thanks to God, we survived." That lady used to clean the house of a little king. And that king had two queens: one he loved, and the other he did not love. For the other one, it was like a prison. He did not even want to see her. She had her house separate, and this lady was serving her, and she was getting eating and everything, that’s all. And he loved the other queen very much, and she was so jealous, the queen whom he loved. So this farmer lady... The next day, she went to the queen for cleaning the house and told her story, her miracles. And the queen said, "If your Swamījī is so wise and so good, can he help me? That king will love me." She said, "For him, there is nothing like this. He will say one word, and all problems are solved," she said. "And please, can you go and ask him?" She said, "Okay, I will go and ask him." She went and thanked him for bringing the donkey home. And said, "But when the queen has this and this problem," he said, "tell her to drink half a kilo of sonāmukhī. And the king will love her." She went to the market, bought half a kilo of sonāmukhī, and went to the queen and said, "He gave this medicine. You eat this half kilo, and the king will love you." She said, "Lady, which science is this? I eat this spinach, and my husband will love me? Is this something miraculous, or what is that?" She said, "No, this is sonāmukhī." And she said, "What? Half kilo?" She said, "Yes." He said, "Half a kilo. If you drink less, then he will love you less, and if you don’t take it, then he will not love you." She said, "Okay, either I will die or I will survive." She drank. Her condition was very critical. She thought she would die. She wrote a piece of a letter. To the king, greetings, darling, or I don’t know what she wrote, but something like this: "It’s my last letter. I am going to die. I have one last wish, only to see your face. If you can’t fulfill this, then I am sending the keys of my things with this lady to you, and God bless you. Perhaps I will see you in the next life." And she gave this letter to her. "Please go and give it to the king." At that time, the king was sitting with the other queen. The king read the letter and he said, "Well, I must go to her." She took that letter and she read it, and she tore the letter in a hundred pieces, and so angry, "Let her die like some pet beast. She is a beast. Don’t go to her. If you go to her, then don’t come to me anymore. If you come, I will kill you." Jealous, turning inside. The king became so angry. "You are like a devil. No mercy in your heart at all." He called his servant and closed her in one room, a life prison. Prison. "I will not see her anymore." And he went to the other queen, and he took care of her, and he loved her so much. It was a new beginning in her life. Both were happy. More happy was that farmer lady. Since Guru Vākyā, unbelievable things became believable. Impossible things became possible. The queen said to the farmer lady, "Now you call Swāmījī. He should stay in our palace, and he will have all comfort and service." Now he became Rajguru, the king’s guru. They made a nice room for him, altar, everything, meditation room. One day, the king and queen came to that yogī, Sonāmukhī Dās. And said, "Today is our last praṇām." He said, "Why? What happened?" "The other king is attacking our kingdom. And his army is already about 500 meters away from our palace. They put their tents there. Tomorrow will be fighting, and they have a big army, and we have very little army. They will kill us. Therefore, please be merciful to us and bless us that we die quickly." He said, "No, no... You will be the king, they will be the losers, but how? There are thousands, and we are only a few hundred." He said, "Give this evening party to all your soldiers, and everyone should get... a lot of sonāmukhī." They said, "Go, no discussions," they went back. And that farmer lady was, of course, now the best one there. She said, "I am going to market and find all the sonāmukhī, and they invite the soldiers." For evening dinner, they gave them some kind of eating lot of sonāmukhī, and the stomach begins to function. The whole night, 200 going, 400 coming back, 300 going, 500 coming, 400 going, the whole night. And the observer of the enemies went to the commander, "Sir, how many soldiers are there? So many cannot go to the toilet. Definitely, they are coming, observing us, how to attack. You see, hundreds are coming and going the whole night. What to do? Pack our things, let’s escape from here." They went all away. Next day, the king was there happily. The soul system was clean. That’s called Śraddhā. Belief. Confidence. Have confidence, and I wish you a good appetite. Now the rain will come.