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When the waves are high

Modern civilization disrupts our natural harmony with its restless pace. The weekend, meant for rest, is often spent in agitation, sleeping until the sacred morning hours. Emotion means "in motion," like stormy ocean waves. When waves of anger or greed are high, do not act—wait. If you cannot wait, drink cold water or sit to relax. The anger will subside. To control emotion, use the breath: a deep inhale and slow exhale will calm you immediately. This is the power of prāṇāyāma. Breath regulation influences body, psyche, and consciousness, awakening dormant energy. For instance, you naturally inhale to lift something heavy; exhaling first makes it impossible. This shows the breath's vital force.

"When there are high waves of emotion—anger, jealousy, hate, greediness—don't take action immediately. Wait."

"That breath, the regulation of the breath, prāṇāyāma, influences our body, our psyche, our emotion, and our consciousness."

Filming location: Adelaide, Australia

Limit your needs and requirements. Take your time to relax, meditate, and sleep. The weekend is designed for us so that we can go to bed early, sleep, relax, and be at home. Now, in this modern civilization, the weekend comes, and people become—well, I don't know how to say it. Friday evening is restless on Sydney streets, Saturday is restless, and on Sunday they go to sleep sometimes at four o'clock in the morning. This is the Brahma Muhūrta, the time to get up. So humans are completely imbalanced with nature and its harmony. That is the mind; the mind is connected with emotion. Emotion, my God, this is such a beautiful word, you know. Emotion means "in motion." You are living here near the beach, near the ocean. You know when a big storm comes, how high the waves are. And when the waves are high, don't dive to search for pearls. Otherwise, they will break you; wait, wait till the sea becomes calm. Similarly, when there are high waves of emotion—anger, jealousy, hate, greediness—don't take action immediately. Wait. If you can't wait, then drink a little cold water. Close your eyes, go into your meditation room, and sit in meditation. You can't meditate even? Say, "No, I will not. I will not; I will relax, I will relax." Then you will see the anger going slowly, slowly down. If you don't know how to control the emotion, then you can take on your research work, sannyāsarañjī: deep inhale, and slowly exhale. Immediately your emotion will calm down, anger will disappear, anxiety will disappear, nervousness will disappear. That is the miracle of prāṇāyāma; there is immense power. When you want to lift something heavy or your suitcase to put somewhere up, what are you doing automatically, without any instructions? You breathe in, hold your breath, and then you put the thing up. My God, it was heavy. Try one day: completely exhale, and then lift something; you can't. That's very important. That breath, the regulation of the breath, prāṇāyāma, influences our body, our psyche, our emotion, and our consciousness, and awakens the hidden powers or the dormant energy, the chakras.

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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