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Ahar, Vihar, Acar, Vicar

Life is sādhana, requiring a clear vision and unwavering resolution. Success depends on time and steadfastness. The essential instructions for all are four pillars of conscious living: āhāra, vihāra, ācāra, and vicāra.

Āhāra is diet, profoundly influencing body, mind, and consciousness. All creatures receive nourishment from the divine source. Humans, considered separate, should therefore adopt a pure, sattvic vegetarian diet, as life should not consume life. Vihāra is one's environment and movement; one should frequent only places offering respect and love. Ācāra is conscious behavior in speech and action, utilizing intellect before expression. Vicāra is mindful thinking. Awareness of these four pillars makes life comfortable, happy, successful, and healthy.

"Where there is no welcome, where there is no respect, where there is no love in their eyes... do not go into that house."

"Before you talk, you should think very carefully. Do not express your anger, doubts, jealousy, hatred, or complexes without thinking."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Sādhānā is life. If one cannot perform sādhana, that life is senseless. There are different kinds of sādhanās, but before doing them, one should have a clear vision and dṛḍha-saṅkalpa—a very strong resolution. That saṅkalpa should not be changed. If you change your saṅkalpa, it will not be successful, nor will you be successful. Yet, one should not force oneself to realize the saṅkalpa immediately. Time is very important; we must give it time. The ṛṣi gives instructions to his disciples, and these instructions are for all. They are: āhāra, vihāra, ācāra, and vicāra. These are the four things we should do consciously. Āhāra is diet. There are different kinds of diets, and everyone is free to eat what they like. But one should know that whatever we eat has a great influence on our body, mind, emotion, consciousness, sādhana, and even our soul, if you believe in the soul. God has created different kinds of nourishment for all creatures. From the small ant to the big elephant, they all need nourishment, and everyone has their own kind. The greatness of God is that no one goes to sleep hungry. Everyone finds food according to their need. So, He who gave the beak will give the food. A human should not worry about this, yet the worrying beings on this planet are mostly humans because they lack sufficient śraddhā, confidence in God. If He gave the pig, He will give the food. Why did He give the pig? He is the creator and the one feeding everyone. Every creature finds its food; every plant finds its nourishment. It is said life eats life; every animal eats another animal. But here is another question: we always talk about humans. We separate humans from other creatures; we don't say humans belong to the animal kingdom. We always separate humans, but when eating comes, then they say life is eating life—there, they forget the human. So, if we are human, then humans should not eat other life. Therefore, humans should have sāttvika, śuddha-sāttvika, vegetarian nourishment. That is why people should have a sāttvika, vegetarian diet. Āhāra influences our life; our life depends on it. Breathing is also our āhāra. There is solid nourishment, liquid nourishment, and oxygenation nourishment. Society is a nourishment. Thinking is a nourishment. Mano mātra jagat—how you think is how you will feel. If you feel angry, you think angry thoughts. If you are sad, it is because you think sad things. Every thought has its cause. Some things directly concern our individual life, and some do not, but still it is said, "manomātra jagataḥ"—everything is created out of the mind. Vihāra is where you spend your time, where you move, what you do. That is very important. Go where you feel happy and relaxed. The great saint Tulasīdāsa jī said: Avadhī nahī̃, ādara nahī̃, nahī̃ nainanimā, nahī̃ Tulasī tā, ghar na jāī, chāha kāñcana varṣai mhi. "Where there is no welcome, where there is no respect, where there is no love in their eyes, O Tulasī, do not go into that house or that place. Even if gold is raining there, do not go. But where there is love in the heart, kindness in the eyes, and a warm welcome, you should go even if stones are raining there." So vihāra—where we go, where we move, where we are—is very important. Where we spend our time counts. Ācāra is behavior: what to speak, how to speak, how to behave. Before you talk, you should think very carefully. Do not express your anger, doubts, jealousy, hatred, or complexes without thinking. God gave us intellect, intelligence, and free thinking. Therefore, you have many combinations and possibilities in your thinking. You can express the same thing differently. So ācāra is very important—where and how to speak, and how to behave. Vicāra is thinking. If we are aware of these four things—āhāra, vihāra, ācāra, and vicāra—our life will be comfortable, happy, successful, and healthy.

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.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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