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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 spiritual path. First, Patañjali said that if you wish your realization to become easier or quicker, you should cultivate these practices. Śraddhā, vīrya, and smṛti bring you to samādhi. Śraddhā is confidence. It is said that belief can move mountains. This belief must be a real belief. In any sādhanā, in any practice you undertake, or any aim you wish to realize, to continue is only possible through confidence, through śraddhā. It is possible to persevere only through śraddhā. If śraddhā is lost, everything is lost. When you lose confidence, you lose everything. When you lose śraddhā, you see the world differently. Everything becomes unpleasant. It awakens and provokes anger, laziness; vṛttis are created that are against your aim. Therefore, it is said that śraddhā and viśvāsa are the same. "Lord, my śraddhā, my confidence, my belief should not decrease. Day by day, my love should increase." This is what Patañjali is saying: the practitioner's interest and love should increase daily towards your sādhanā, your practice, in order to realize your aim. To achieve your aim, your interest and love for sādhanā should increase every day. 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 haven't realized it. You have been practicing for so long already, and I am surprised you still haven't realized. Now we know the cause: missing confidence. Regarding confidence, I remember a nice story. It is said that confidence can move mountains. There was a sick man with stomach problems, something like an ulcer. He was sitting outside a village under a tree. A 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 shout at me, telling me to go and work, but I cannot work; I am very ill. They shout, sometimes saying why I don't die, that I am a burden. So I decided to leave home. For three days I have been away, and no one has come after me or looked for me. I am desperate. I have no hope. We used to say people love your money, not your skin. Such a life is not a good life. What should I do?" The yogī asked him, "What health problem do you have?" He said, "I always have a stomach ache. 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, give me the medicine." It was an Āyurvedic herb called sonāmukhī. "When you take about 10 grams of sonāmukhī, you have to run 10 or 20 times. It doubles the effect, cleaning the stomach." It is said many illnesses begin from our stomach, from digestion problems. Here we are sitting, hundreds of us, and 80% definitely have a digestive problem. In yoga and Āyurveda, it says to clean it, purify the intestines systematically. That will improve your digestive system and cure many diseases: stomach disease, skin disease, blood disease, eye disease, ear disease, 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. He thought, "If I drink half a kilo, it will clean everything completely." Who is ill, who suffers, knows what medicine is. Even if you give the gift of poison, such a person is ready to drink it to cure the disease. He made a paste, a kind of soup, and drank it. You can imagine, if 10 grams has a strong effect, what half a kilo would do. After 500 grams, he had three days of intensive conditions. After three days, he was so exhausted, having lost water and minerals, but somehow his body regenerated. He became healthy, with no more stomach problems. It was gone. He thought he would settle in another town or become a yogī, travel the world and help people. He wanted to become a sādhu, so he took an orange dress. He wanted to change his name but did not know what name to choose. That yogī had disappeared; he could not find him. He thought, "I shall give my name as the name of that medicine which made me healthy. Lifelong, I will be thankful to this medicine." Sonāmukhī Dās, the servant of Sonāmukhī. That became his mantra, because he did not know any mantra, and you should practice a mantra. So he repeated the mantra: "Sonāmukhī, Sonāmukhī, Sonāmukhī." He came to a village, and people came to him, thinking a sādhu had come to give a satsaṅg or lecture. He did not know what to tell. All he told people was, "Repeat the name of God, Sonāmukhī." That's all. A farmer lady came and said, "Swāmījī, can you help us? We know you know everything; you can see everything. We had a donkey at home, and for the last five days we lost her. We have searched everywhere in neighboring villages and the countryside. We couldn't find her. Please, can you meditate and tell us where our donkey is so we can get her? My husband and I are tired from 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 each, and the donkey will come home to ask, 'How are you?'" She went home and told her husband, "I met Swāmījī, and he said this and this." He said, "Well, I believe everything, but God gave us a little 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; it is Guruvākya." He said, "I don't think so; this is not Guruvākya." But it is said that what the lady decides, they do; that's why they call it Śakti. She went to the market and brought fresh Sonāmukhī herbs. She made a nice spinach vegetable, and the husband did not know what he was eating. She put nice spices inside, so it was very tasteful, and today he ate double his usual amount. At that time, toilets were outside somewhere in the forest, meters away. The pressure was so strong that he was going and coming, going and coming. He looked at her angrily. She said, "Don't worry." They had a small house where they kept dry grass for cow feed. It was open. Six days before, the donkey had gone in to eat the grass, and the wind closed the door, trapping the donkey inside. 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, "I am in the same condition." Then she said, "Let's go to our grass house, our cow house, and tomorrow, when we are okay, we will clean it." Slowly, both of them held hands and walked towards the house. They opened the door, and someone was standing inside—the donkey was inside. She took her husband and threw him out of the house. "You didn't believe me! The donkey came home; now you go and sit under a tree." The poor husband went under the trees and spent time there. When he came home, she kept shouting, "You don't trust; you have no śraddhā," as ladies often say to their husbands. "All men know 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 a house for a minor king. The king had two queens: one he loved and the other he did not love. For the other, it was like a prison; he didn't even want to see her. She had a separate house, and this farmer lady served her, getting food and that's all. The queen whom he loved was very jealous. The next day, the farmer lady went to clean the unloved queen's house and told her the miracle story. The queen said, "If your Swāmījī is so wise and good, can he help me? So that the king will love me." The farmer lady said, "For him, this is nothing. He will say one word, and all problems are solved." The queen said, "Please, can you go and ask him?" She said, "Okay, I will go and ask him." She went and thanked Swāmījī for bringing the donkey home. Then she said, "But the queen has 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, went to the queen, and said, "He gave this medicine. You eat this half kilo, and the king will love you." The queen said, "Lady, which science is this? I eat this spinach and my husband will love me? Is this a miracle or what?" She said, "No, this is sonāmukhī." The queen said, "What? Half a kilo?" "Yes. If you drink less, he will love you less. If you don't take it, he will not love you." The queen said, "Okay, either I will die or I will survive." She drank it. Her condition became very critical. She thought she would die. She wrote a letter to the king: "Greetings, darling ... It's my last letter. I am going to die. I have a last wish only to see your face. If you can't fulfill this, 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." She gave the letter to the farmer lady: "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 said, "Well, I must go to her." The other queen took the letter, read it, tore it into a hundred pieces, and was furious. "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." Jealousy turned inside her. The king became angry. "You are like a devil. No mercy in your heart at all." He called his servant and locked her in a room for life imprisonment. "I will not see her anymore." He went to the other queen, took care of her, and loved her so much. It was a new beginning in her life. Both were happy. Even happier was the farmer lady. Since Guruvākya, 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 have all comfort and service." He became the Rājgurū, the king's guru. They made a nice room for him, an altar, a meditation room. One day, the king and queen came to the yogī Sonāmukhī Dās and said, "Today is our last praṇām." He said, "Why? What happened?" "Another king is attacking our kingdom. His army is already about 500 meters from our palace. They have put up tents there. Tomorrow there will be fighting. They have a big army, and we have a very small one. They will kill us. Therefore, please be merciful and bless us that we die quickly." He said, "No, no, no. You will be the king. They will be the loser." "But how? There are thousands of them, and we are only a few hundred." He said, "Give a party to all your soldiers this evening, and everyone should get a lot of sonāmukhī. Go, no discussions." They went back. The farmer lady, now the best one there, said, "I am going to the market to find all the sonāmukhī." They invited the soldiers for an evening dinner and gave them, in some kind of food, a lot of sonāmukhī. The stomach began to function. The whole night: 200 going, 400 coming back, 300 going, 500 coming, 400 going—the whole night. The enemy's observer went to the commander: "Sir, how many soldiers are there? So many cannot go to the toilet. They are definitely coming, observing us, planning how to attack. You see, hundreds are coming and going the whole night. What should we do? Pack our things. Let's escape from here." They all went away. The next day, the king was there happily. The soul system was clean. That is called Śraddhā: belief, confidence. Have confidence, and I wish you a good appetite. Now the rain will come. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar