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Yoga - healthy way of life

Yoga is the science of body, mind, and consciousness. It was misunderstood, then associated with hippies and drugs, and labeled a sect, but truth prevails and it is now a global part of life. Modern life creates loneliness, but yoga fosters connection and solves life's purpose. Last century's meat consumption grew from subconscious wartime lack, and a human-centric philosophy dismissed animals, forgetting that all creatures are the soul. Observing an animal's innocence makes killing impossible, for love arises. Forgetting animals created an imbalance, with industrial farming destroying nature. Human greed for more leads to pesticide use, poisoning soil, water, and food, causing unnatural growth and illness. A new awareness seeks wellness through organic food, natural living, and vegetarianism, noting vegetarian children excel academically and yogic practitioners lead healthier, happier lives. Yoga in India is now widespread, with a third generation demonstrating its benefits, as human consciousness turns toward health.

"Ahimṣā paramo dharmaḥ—the supreme, the highest principle is ahimṣā."

"Prāṇī mātra mērī ātmā hē—all creatures are my soul."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Yoga exercises are among the best for the body—the movements. Yes, indeed, it is the science of body, mind, and consciousness. From the beginning of the last century, yoga was not understood. By the end of that century, people had begun to understand it. In the middle of the century, they assigned yoga to the hippies—there was a hippie movement. Then they realized that yoga is not for hippies, that yoga itself is not "hippie." Then they connected it with something else: with drugs. One kind of drug that was very popular was called LSD, and hashish, and so on. Slowly, slowly, they realized that yogīs do not utilize these at all. Then they had no other choice but to label yoga as a sect and blame it. You see, within one century, people tried to destroy this. But it is said, "Satyameva Jayate"—where there is truth, there is victory. And now you know that around the world, yoga has again become a part of human life. Of course, there are again opinions that it is too commercial. But still, it is something which humans require. Now, over these last 35 years, yoga and daily life have become a very solid system. You see, there are two kinds of people. One wants to have an immediate effect. They will not [persist]. These are the people who change their mind with the fashion, what you call moda. This is orange color, they all have an orange dress, orange suits, orange color of the hair, orange handbag, orange writing pen. Again, lonely and individual. And thanks to television and the internet, people are lonely again. Everyone is alone. But yoga makes you more connected with all. And it solves the purpose of life. Now, what I want to tell you is that physical health... The human never consumed as much meat as they did in the last century. Because that was missing in their subconsciousness. You know that during the First World War and Second World War, people did not have enough material things or food, and the mafias that reach people? At that time, they could afford the meat and alcohol. So when people saw this, they were telling at home, "Oh, they have meat today." And that feeling of missing something or longing for something—then again, by these rich people, their feeling is abused. So you try to supply and produce such things that people are happy. And that’s why human beings eat more and more meat. Another thing about the beginning of the last century: people put forward one sentence, and this sentence was humanitarian. Humans. Human development. Everything was human, the best human. There is no mention in the name of animals. And therefore, automatically, people think animals are nothing, only humans. In Vedānta, in Hinduism, it is said, "Prāṇī mātra mērī ātmā hē"—all creatures are my soul, myself. Ātmā so pramātmā, and every ātmā is the supreme. But this is lost. This kind of feeling is lost, not only in Europe, but in India too. If you look at one animal—let’s say that you like to eat a rabbit—but now look at the rabbit: beautiful pink eyes, smiling face, very gentle hair, a very gentle creature, innocent. Now observe him nicely. With a human heart, with your real inner self, and then think: love your neighbor. "Thou shalt not kill." "Ahimṣā paramo dharmaḥ"—the supreme, the highest principle is ahimṣā. Look at the beauty of this creature, the innocence of this creature. Feel your heart, and now imagine your cooking pot and your plate and take the knife to kill this animal—you can’t. You can’t, because you feel love in it. It became part of our life. So animals are forgotten, and as soon as the animals were forgotten, we created a very big mistake. We made a big mistake. And that mistake means we created this imbalance in nature. Now you see the cattle farms destroy the whole nature, the trees. They spoil the whole earth. It will take 300 years to regenerate that spot where they put so much cow dung and urine. And everything is flowing into the rivers. So you know more about it. Then, again, the greediness of the humans. To have more and more. Never have humans been so rich on this planet as now. But never have humans been so dispirited, and in depression, and in the hunger of having more and more. And this greed enters our mind, and the result begins to use pesticides. Now the entire earth, the soil, is like a cancer disease. It’s not fertile anymore. It requires the chemical pesticides, but this is not only the plants are taking, but it’s going to water. Into the earth, our drinking water—nowhere in the world even mineral water is free from pesticides. Now, all these chemicals go into our body. Not only this, we are treating our dairy system also with chemical things; even the animals from which we get milk are also on chemicals. By nature, a cow gives a few liters of milk. So you will see nowadays people and children are growing unnaturally bigger. A 12-year-old kid looks like 18 years, 19 years. So this entire system is imbalanced. Now, at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, a certain awareness has awakened in people, and it is called a healthy way of life. Wellness. Feel well. It means, feel well. And we begin to realize that for this we need organic food again, a more natural way of life, and vegetarianism. And so you can’t even imagine how many vegetarians there are in the world. In America and in other countries, they discovered that vegetarian children have the best results in school. They are less aggressive, they are sitting [calmly]. Few Americans will agree with me when they said about some in university and college examinations, when they speak about this. And among them, if there is some Indian student from an Indian origin family, then the Americans used to say, "Oh, no doubt, he’s Indian, he will pass. Oh, that’s Indian, he will be the best one." I was in North Carolina, and there also I had a program at a university for two days, and there the students told me this: that we admire how the Indian children or Indian kids manage all this. Of course, unfortunately, they are not more vegetarian, many of them. But still, they are controlled at home. Still, they have a different way of life. So also now it’s known that all yogic children, the practitioners of yoga, they are good in the school, at university. And their life is more healthy, natural, and happier compared with the others. We already have the third generation of yoga and daily life. Because when I came, some parents already had children, a few years old. And those little children who were getting chocolates from me, they are today fathers and mothers, and they come with also big children, so the parents, the children, and grandchildren—it’s the third generation of yoga and daily life. So you can see the differences. So, you know, in your country also, you say the tree is recognized by its fruits. So yoga is recognized for its health benefits, and again, by how the generation is developing. So now in India, yoga is again very, very active. Very much. In India, every third person is practicing yoga now. And 30 years ago, when you practiced yoga, they would say, "What are you doing?" It is very much now the consciousness again. What I want to tell you is that human consciousness has again realized and turned towards the healthy way of life.

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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