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Yoga - healthy way of life

A discourse on the resurgence of yoga and conscious living.

"Within one century, people tried to destroy this. But it is said, 'Satyameva Jayate'—where there is truth, there is victory."

"Humans were never so rich on this planet as they are now, but humans were never so dispirited and in depression and in the hunger of having more and more."

The speaker presents a historical overview of yoga's misunderstood 20th-century journey—from association with hippies and drugs to its modern global revival—and connects it to a broader crisis of consciousness. He critiques modern imbalances, including industrialized meat consumption, environmental degradation from cattle farming, and the spiritual poverty within material wealth, advocating for a return to yoga, vegetarianism, and a holistic, healthy way of life.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

Yoga exercises are among the best for our 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. Until the middle of the last century, people misunderstood yoga. By the end of the last century, people already understood it. In the middle of the century, they assigned yoga, what do you call it, to the hippies. There was a hippie movement. Then they realized that it is not for the hippies, that yoga is not hippie; then they connected it with drugs. One kind of drug which was very popular was called LSD, and hashish, and so on. Slowly, slowly, they realized that yogīs do not utilize this at all. Then they did not have any other choice than to label yoga and blame it as a sect. 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 become again a part of human life. Of course, there are again opinions of people that it is too commercial. But still, it is something which humans require. Now, among these last 35 years, Yoga in Daily Life has become a very solid system. You see, there are two kinds of people; one wants to have an immediate effect. They will not; 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. When orange is in fashion this year, then these people are all orange; they have orange clothing, orange handbags, hair, and even pens. But when next season it will be, for example, black, then they will go all black. And these are people who do not know what to do and where to stay. Again lonely and individual; and thanks to television and the internet, people are again lonely; everyone is alone. But yoga makes you more connected with all; yoga connects you more with others. And it solves the purpose of life. What I want to tell you is that physical health is in the first place. Without health, we cannot have everything under control; we cannot have everything in balance. In the last century, people also ate very poorly. Humans never consumed that much meat as they consumed in the last century. Because that was missing in their subconsciousness. You know that during the First World War and the Second World War, people did not have enough material things or also food, and what do you call the mafias that reach people; at that time, they could afford meat and alcohol, so when people saw this, they were telling at home, "Oh, they have meat today." And when the poorer people saw this, they said, "Aha, so they have meat today." And those poor people could not afford it because they did not have money for meat. And it was like blackmail. Because of that, people started to have a feeling that they were missing something. A 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 are to eat more and more meat. Another thing about the beginning of the last century; people put one sentence, and this sentence was humanitarian. Humans, human development; everything was human, 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 merī ātmā hai"—all creatures are my soul, myself. It is said that all living beings are me. Ātmā so Paramātmā, and every ātmā is supreme. But this is lost; this kind of feeling is lost, not only in Europe but in India too. If you will 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 you observe him nicely with a human heart, with your real inner self, and then think, "Love thy neighbor," "Ahimsā Paramo Dharma." The supreme, the highest principle, is Ahimsā; 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. They spoil the soil, and it takes 300 years for that soil to regenerate again where they dump manure and slurry. And everything is flowing into the rivers. So you know more about it. Then, again, the greediness of humans. To have more and more. Humans were never so rich on this planet as they are now, but humans were never so dispirited and in depression and in the hunger of having more and more. And never before have people on this planet been so desperate and longed so much to have even more and more. That is why Mahatma Gandhi said, "Man has on Earth everything he needs, but there is never enough for greed." And this greed enters our mind, and the result is we begin to use pesticides. Now the entire earth, the soil, is like a cancer disease; it's not fertile anymore. It requires chemical pesticides, but this is not only what the plants are taking, but it's going into the water, into the earth, our drinking water. Nowhere in the world is even mineral water 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. Naturally, a cow gives several liters of milk. But we want to have 40-50 liters from each cow. And that is why they get injections. And then you drink that milk. So you will see nowadays people and children are growing unnaturally bigger. A 12-year-old kid looks like 18 or 19 years old. So this entire system is disbalanced. Now, at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, a certain consciousness awoke in people, and it is called a healthy way of life. Wellness. Feel well. It means, feel good. And we are beginning to realize that for this we need organic food again, a more natural way of life, and vegetarianism. And so you cannot even imagine how many vegetarians there are in the world. Every fifth person would like to eat vegetarian, but unfortunately, restaurants are still not sufficiently equipped for this. And in America and other countries, they found that vegetarian children have the best results in school. They are less aggressive, they are sitting ... A few Americans will agree with me when they speak about this in university and college examinations. And among them, if there is some Indian student from a family of Indian origin, 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 I also 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, many of them are not vegetarian anymore. 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 school, at university. And their life is more healthy and natural and happier compared to the others. We already have a third generation of Yoga in 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 in 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 by their health and 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 said, "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. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

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.

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