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Salutations to the Cosmic Light, the Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. By His divine mercy, we are experiencing these beautiful, divine days. The opportunity to be human is not so common. Life is divine. Throughout life, the divine consciousness—God—is guiding and accompanying us. Our life is never without Him. He is always with us, observing what we are doing, what we are thinking, and where we are moving. Each and every step is known to our Almighty One. He has given this life to fulfill a duty, the karmic duty assigned to us by God. Each of us has our dharma to fulfill in this life. Those who do not fulfill their dharma will suffer the karma. Therefore, the first thing is this: we should know why we are here, why God gave us human life, and what God wants to do with us or through us. We are the instrument of that Cosmic One. Humans are the protectors. Humans should not become distractors; therefore, humans should have divine thoughts. Humans should have love for all creatures. Humans are the center of love from which cosmic love radiates. Give, give, give, and give. Protect, protect, and protect. Then your life will be happy, your life will be successful, and the aim of life will be realized. Therefore, on this holy day of Guru Pūrṇimā, or Guru Day—today, a beautiful and very divine day—I pray to the Almighty to bless us with divine light and forgive all our mistakes. God is great. God is beautiful. God is light and happiness. God is everywhere. Therefore, each and every thought should dwell in God, and God's name should dwell in our heart. That will unite us with God forever and forever. Thus, Patañjali said yoga begins with discipline. Yoga is discipline, and without discipline, yoga cannot be successful. This means where there is no discipline, there is no yoga, and where there is no yoga, there is no success. Humans may think they are clever. Humans may use their dry, negative intellect. Humans may try many things, developing what they call science. But any science, any knowledge which is against God's name is not good. Where there is no spirituality, where there is no name of God, where there is no mercy towards other creatures, that is not a science; that is nonsense, and it can only misguide the human soul and the human mind again. Humans should not pollute their mind by thinking negatively. Humans should not pollute their consciousness and body by talking negatively. You have been observing for five days now your actions, your words, and your thinking. How much did you think positive, and how much did you think negative? Only you know, or God. God will not tell you. He will not tell you that you were thinking negative or positive. He is only the observer, but your karma will tell you what you have been talking and thinking. To be a protector means to be protected. To kill means you will be killed. To eat means it will be eaten, sooner or later. This is a very deep science that we should contemplate. Therefore, karma is very important; our deed is very important. Who can protect us? Ourselves. How? By not doing the "don'ts" and doing the "dos." Do good things. Do prayer. Do meditate. Do believe. Do love. And don't do the things against that. If you love, you will be loved. That is very important. And if you don't love, you will not be loved. It depends on us. In the human phenomenon, God, our Creator, has given many different functions—what we call the mystery. This life is a mystery which we still have not understood even 10%; perhaps we have understood only 1%. And that one percent we have understood in this life is that we are thirsty and hungry, and we are tired. We want to sleep, we have desires, and we look forward to fulfilling them. That is what we have understood. We have not understood more about this. So, this is a mystery that God has given in this human phenomenon. Life, when it begins coming from the cosmic self, that coming is a kriyā. The kriyā begins somewhere in the universe, like when there is heat, it takes the water away in the form of steam, the gas, and as it ascends into space, there the kriyā begins—what we call thundering, lightning, movements—and then it begins to rain. Similarly, when the soul rises into the astral world or from the cosmic self, that is already kriyā. And with this kriyā, that process begins to continue. The invisible begins to become visible in this physical form. There are many elements, many tattvas, many functions: memories, consciousness, intellect, mind, emotions, feelings, different feelings, hunger, thirst. How many things are there? Again, in this kriyā, a new kriyā begins, and that kriyā begins with your mind. Your consciousness is like a peaceful lake, beautiful. When you look into the lake, you see a very clear picture of the trees standing on the other side. If someone is walking on the other side of the lake, you see the picture inside—a beautiful reflection. You can see the whole mountain if the lake is near it—a peaceful lake. And suddenly, someone throws a stone inside or a rock; you no longer see that mountain inside, you no longer see the trees inside. So it is called Santhasarovar, the peaceful lake, and it is your thought that is a stone in your peaceful lake, in your consciousness. Sometimes you are throwing a rock, and sometimes you are throwing explosive things. It explodes in such a way that it destroys you—your spirituality, your peace of mind—and it disturbs thousands, millions of people or creatures, or just a family. Therefore, the thoughts, the peace, has to be controlled. Purify our vṛttis. Quality is very important. You should have thoughts, but of pure quality, divine quality. We may be poor in material things, but we are very rich in the heart. Be rich; never think poor. What does it mean to think poor? Poor thinking means you think you are unhappy. No one loves you; your life is miserable. You are lonely, you are ill—why did God give you this life? No one is here for you; everything disturbs me; people are not good; wherever I go, they are not good. This is your poor thinking; this is your ignorance; this is your selfishness. Why do you think no one loves you? Why don't you think like that: why should they love me? Did you ever think why they love me? You should think that you will become a person whom they should love; then, without your asking, they will love you. And if you are not one whom they should love, then even if you think they will, they will not love you. Avoid the selfish thoughts. Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha—avoid them. And surrender your life to God. It is your merciful Lord; my life is your life; my life is a ceremony to Thee; my life is a prayer to Thee; my life is only for You, because there is no life—it's only You. So, positive thinking, divine thinking—as you think, so you will be: manomātra jagat. This world is just a creation of the mind. The situation you have is just a creation out of your mind. If you are happy or unhappy, this is just a creation of your mind. So, the mind is a great helper on the path of yoga. Also, the mind can be a great obstacle on the path of yoga—depending on how you think. Therefore, Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ, yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." Through the practice of yoga, you shall control the thoughts. Without controlling the thoughts, your yoga sādhanā will not begin. Whole day and night, be aware of what you are thinking. Someday we have to give up our thinking; someday, finally, we have to surrender. Our physical strength is very limited. Our intellectual strength is limited. Our mental strength is also limited. Either you surrender, or it will be done that you have to surrender. Because what does surrender mean? To give it. So, when it is not yours, how can you say, "I don't want to surrender this"? And when it is not ours, sooner or later it will be taken. Then you will suffer more. God gave us this to practice surrendering. God gave us those things to see how greedy we will become very soon, full of ego and anger—thinking "it is mine." You have nothing to do with my things; you have done this and this to me. No one has done anything to you—maybe to your body. And that's not yours. Protect your body; look after your body as God's instrument. He gave it to us to work through. Thinking makes our life happy or miserable. Control the thoughts; control the thoughts. What does Patañjali mean by controlling the thoughts? It means, don't let them run wild. And it does not mean that you should not have any thoughts. No, without thoughts your life cannot be. Even for eating, you have to think that you want to eat. But control thinking: you have a car—it's not only for standing in the garage; the car is for driving; you should drive the car. But you should control the car; don't drive into the trees or into the lake; don't drive into the meadows or downhill. You have the car; you shouldn't just drive, but control. You should know where you can drive the car and where you cannot. And without driving that car, you will not come to your destination. So it is with our mind. We should know what we should think and what we should not think, how we should direct our mind. The mind is a river which constantly flows; you should not block the river. If you block the river and make a dam, you must leave an outflow. If you don't leave an outflow, then that river will create a big flood. And when the dam breaks, it will damage more land and nature. Therefore, it is said, don't block the river, but you can direct the river. So, don't stop the mind, but direct the mind. Where to direct the mind? To God, to our aim—what we want to realize in life, what we would like to work on. Concentrate on your work; direct your thoughts on your work, on your family life, on your social life, on how to solve problems. Use your thoughts in that direction. And when there is nothing to solve, or you have done your work, then repeat your mantra. Direct your mind and thoughts inwardly to who you are and what is God.