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Yoga is the path of perfection

Yoga is the universal path to perfection encompassing all aspects of life. It includes many named paths like Rāja or Bhakti Yoga; choose one according to your capacity, as all lead to unity. Perfection requires daily, disciplined practice across all areas—āsana, meditation, diet—and is not quickly or permanently achieved. Without sustained discipline, any attained perfection decreases. Do not blame the path for shortcomings; examine your own honest practice. Few achieve this because discipline is rare.

"Yoga is the path to perfection, and this perfection takes time."

"God comes according to our imagination. It means God comes in such a form as we imagine Him."

Filming location: Prague, Czech Republic

Our main subject is always yoga, and yoga is a very expansive subject. If you speak of health, it is yoga. If you speak of the environment, it is yoga. If you speak of world peace, it is yoga. If you speak of religion, it is yoga. If you speak of multi-religious harmony or a nation's religion, it is yoga. If you speak of art—music, painting, poetry, dance, singing—all are part of yoga. When we speak of spirituality and the development of human consciousness, that is yoga. Therefore, yoga is universal and a vast subject. It requires practice. Within this totality, there are various paths known by different names: Rāja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Kriyā Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Dhyāna Yoga. These are all different kinds of yoga. We cannot practice them all. According to our own choice, interest, ability, and possibilities, we should choose one path, one direction, one theme, because all will ultimately lead you to unity. God Kṛṣṇa said it does not matter through which faith you come; finally you will find me. I will be there for you. "God Kṛṣṇa" here means that God in whom you believe. God has many, many names, and God has no name. Names are given by humans, and human expectations differ according to their cultures, traditions, and problems. So we play with God. We imagine God as we would like, and He does change form according to our imagination. Indeed, God plays as we want Him to play. If He doesn't, then we cry, we pray and pray, we request. Finally, He has to play that role or that game which we want Him to play. It means God comes according to our imagination. It means God comes in such a form as we imagine Him. Thus, yoga is that part of perfection. Yoga is the path to perfection, and this perfection takes time. There are certain areas where you can achieve quicker perfection, and certain things where we need lifelong work. There are certain things where we need many, many lives. If you have an interest in writing poetry, you may achieve a little quicker perfection. If you are an artist or a dancer, you will attain a kind of perfection in a few months or a few years. But that perfection still requires maintenance. Where people generally make a mistake in yoga is this: they think, "I have practiced for so many years and I know everything; I do not need to practice now." Then they give up certain exercises or their practices. Consequently, the perfection they attained begins to decrease again. Consider a world champion, an Olympic champion. How many hours per day do they train? At the time of the Olympic Games, the whole world looks into the plastic box—into the television—and tries to judge the performance, analyzing every movement. If an athlete moves a little bit wrong, they fall out of the game. How many practitioners, girls and boys, cry because their leg was not perfectly straight, because it was a little bit like this? Jumping, balancing, and keeping a perfect position is not easy. That requires practice every day. That is yoga. That, too, you have to practice. Now, you may have been practicing yoga for the last twenty years and still have health problems. But ask yourself: did you really practice honestly for twenty years according to the disciplines? Discipline in eating? Discipline in āsanas? Discipline in meditation, prāṇāyāma? And also discipline in your mantra singing, your prayers, your kriyā practice? Do not blame others. Do not blame yoga. Do not say, "I have been vegetarian for twenty years, so why did I get this illness?" Merely being a vegetarian does not mean everything. There are many vegetarians who are more ill than you. It is the discipline, the practice. That is what I want to tell you. Yoga is a path of perfection. This path of perfection requires daily practice. That is why there are fewer yogīs in the world. Why? Because there is less discipline in the world.

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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