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There is a story. A river was flowing, and in the middle of the river, something like a beautiful blanket was coming along. Two friends were sitting on the bank. One of them said, "There is a coat floating, or some blanket. I will jump into the water and pull it out. It looks beautiful and interesting." The other one said, "Well, it's nearly 50 or 100 meters out in the middle of the river. Perhaps you will not be able to swim. The water is cold, and there are high currents." He replied, "I am a bodybuilder. I am strong, I can swim, I have a lot of energy. I don't feel cold. Oh, my friend, you will see me very soon. I will bring something beautiful." The other friend said, "Okay, but then take care, please. If you can't manage, come back." So he jumped in. Meanwhile, in the river, there was a high current; it was flowing far away. He was swimming very quickly, and the other friend was running beside the river. Finally, that man came near the coat he wanted. But before he could catch the coat, the coat caught him. Why? What was it? It was a hungry, cold, dispirited, tired, big, grisly bear. It took the man in its arms and began to bite him on his cheek and his big, nice bodybuilding muscles. They were fighting; sometimes he was under the water, and sometimes the bear was under the water. The other friend couldn't understand what was happening. "Is the coat too heavy?" The friend running along the bank to keep the same distance was calling loudly, "František, if you can't manage to bring the coat, then leave it and come back!" Half-drowned, František called back, "Yes, Alan, I want to leave the coat, but the coat doesn't leave me!" And so that bear killed the man. This life is a river. When you are young—12, 13—you know better, you don't understand the neighbors, you don't understand old people, but you are sorry that you are still underage and you want to change the whole world. The stream in this river is very high, and that coat which is swimming in the river, fluttering, is the drug. You want to taste the drug, to see how nice it could be. You just want to take it. But before you can take the drug, the drug takes you. It means now it doesn't let you be free. Then you will be very unhappy. Parents will be very unhappy. You will not be able to finish your studies. You will not have a good social position. Your neighbor will not be happy with you. All good people will try to avoid your company. It is very hard to find a partner in life. Nobody will love you. And then you will feel disappointed. This is all the māyā of the drug. As much as you are disappointed, that much you use the drug then, somehow to forget these negative experiences of worldly life. Alcohol is also a drug. You know how many people are suffering from alcohol. It's very hard to come out of it. So lucky are they who don't try at all and think positively in the world. We heard one nice story from Florida: a positive person living on a negative planet and a negative person on a positive planet. But the negative person, as soon as they are on the positive planet, becomes positive; darkness comes into the light and disappears. And so it's hard to come back to the positive life. But where there's a will, there's a way. Therefore, alcohol is also a drug; one should not become an alcoholic. Now, you know, they are giving a kind of sticker which children tattoo on their arms and hands. It is just for fun; it looks nice, and then you clean it. But they found that people put the drug on that, and it goes through your skin. After two or three times, you become addicted to it. So never put anything directly on your skin. If you want, you can put it on a t-shirt, but not directly on the skin. Our skin, our body, should be untouched by such things. No limb of the body should be damaged. When we buy something in the market and we see that, "Oh yes, it's beautiful," but somewhere it has a little crack, then we say, "Well, it's broken. It's beautiful, but I don't like it." Similarly, your body—whether you are a young child or an elderly person—take care that your body is not damaged, that it doesn't have any wound on it, no scars. That's called pūrṇa, complete. Through using drugs, reactions, and through aggression, you hurt and injure your body, then reject it; its value decreases. Not merely as beauty, but as pūrṇa. It is very important that all our five bodies are healthy, all five kośas. When all five kośas are harmonious and healthy, then that which is sitting inside—the Self, the Ātmā, the Brahman, the Supreme, the Divine—feels immediately. When friends go away and neighbors don't like you, when you remember many disappointments of life, inwardly you are so wounded. Then you feel lonely, bored, unhappy; you think that you are here, something which is not needed, überflüssig. That's not good. This happens to your life because you did not take care of certain societies, and out of emotional blindness, you did something. You said, "No problem, I try, I like it." Liking and disliking is a problem. Those who are trying drugs their whole life are unhappy. Especially for children, it is very important they should think it over. Mahāprabhujī said once, "It is easy to become free from the enemy, but it's not easy to become free from the bad habits, the drugs." A bad habit learned from childhood will trouble you lifelong because you will not be able to get rid of it. These bad habits should be avoided, for what is your habit slowly, slowly becomes a kind of your nature. It is said, "Habit is the second nature of a man." One nature is what we have—natural nature—that we behave properly; we are kind, conscious, aware, wise. This is nature, divine nature. The second nature of a man you can see only when that person is in the habit. It means completely drunken. When he's completely drunken and walking in the street from one window of the neighbor's to the other, that is not the nature of that man. That is the second nature, developed through bad society, using something which is not good for your divine nature. When you repeat this every day, it goes so deep into your subconscious, and that will keep you away from people. Good people will not sit beside you; they will avoid you. Then you will fight for human rights—that the drunken person also has a right to sit in that restaurant, even while he's vomiting because he drank too much. But these people are terrible; they have no understanding for this person. They cannot tolerate it, so because of your bad habits, they have to tolerate. That's it; how many things in life happen. If you are happy or lonely, creative or boring, all is the play of your inner consciousness. Therefore, you should always be happy. Let people do what they are doing; you should not imitate them. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar