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Titiksha and Sradha

A spiritual discourse on the virtues of śraddhā (faith) and titikṣā (endurance).

"Without śraddhā, you cannot do anything. If you have no self-confidence, you cannot stand up."

"Titikṣā means to endure something; do not complain immediately. Endure the heat, the cold. Endure hunger, thirst. Endure tiredness."

The speaker explains the necessity of faith in oneself and God, and the power of endurance to awaken inner reserve energy. He illustrates these principles with an extended parable about two turtles, a spiritually inquisitive husband and a skeptical wife, who are captured by a hunter. Despite being placed in a boiling pot, the husband maintains faith that God will save them, which is fulfilled when a storm extinguishes the fire and a flood returns them home.

Recording location: Australia, Maroochydore, Australian Tour

Śraddhā means confidence, faith. Without śraddhā, you cannot do anything. If you have no self-confidence, you cannot stand up. If you have no confidence, you cannot take a single step; you cannot walk. You must have confidence in yourself, in your abilities, as well as confidence among your family members and friends. And at the same time, devotion to God. There is a God and there are divine principles. There is a divine being who has given us life and who is guiding our life. There is something. Śraddhā, then titikṣā: to endure. Endure something; do not complain immediately. Endure the heat, the cold. Endure hunger, thirst. Endure tiredness. If you are walking, going to the mountain hiking, then there comes a point where you feel you cannot go on. But you say, "Oh, I must go; only a few hundred meters are left, I will walk." And you walk. This is called titikṣā. Titikṣā means awakening the inner energy, extra energy, to wake up. And that one can achieve the aim; the other one cannot. There is a time, for example, when you are jogging. Let us come to the lower part of exercise—this is not in yoga, but anyhow, jogging is also somehow good and somehow okay. And so what they call the marathon. When you sit in Olympia or in some games, they are running in a circle. And suddenly a point comes where the person is exhausted, cannot go anymore. But still wants to go and reach the goal. And suddenly, inner energy awakens. And when inner energy awakens, again the body moves quickly. So it is extra reserved energy in our tanks. Like a petrol tank is out and the needle comes showing the red light, the red point. But you look in your car and there is 80 kilometers of petrol inside. So, thank you God, thank you. And so, reserve energies are in the chakras. So, titikṣā: endure something. Endure; you have to be a little strict with yourself, have faith. There is one nice story. Yesterday I told you I would not tell stories today, but I must tell. You like the stories, I know that also, you know. That is called to endure and believe in God. Faith: śraddhā and titikṣā. So, there was a lake, a beautiful lake. And in the lake, there were living two turtles, one couple, husband and wife: water turtles. And in the middle of the lake, there was a rock. Sometimes they would come and have a sunbath and then again go and dive in the water. He was very spiritual; spirituality had awoken in him. And when spirituality awoken, he was in search of a master and said, "How does a master look like?" So, he said the master is a spiritual yogī, a sanyāsī, a swāmī who is always dressed and so on. They were always waiting on this small rock, and she did not believe. She said, "You with your master, I do not believe in this gurū and this. Let us go into the water again." There are some people, you know. Lucky are they who have the same hobby, husband and wife. And unlucky are they who have no same hobby. That is it. One has a hobby to sit and play cards, the husband, and the wife has a hobby to go hiking. And now, if she goes hiking alone or with someone, then he says, okay, then you can see such as the husband. And if she has to sit there, then she is suffering. So, lucky are they who have the same feeling. I am not telling about yoga only. If that one couple has riding hobbies, hiking hobbies, swimming, or something together, to do together, then life is happy. Otherwise, how long will one of the couple say, and how to say, have tolerance? Once I gave a lecture in a small village in Australia about vegetarianism, and many disciples became vegetarian. So, the mayor of the village, his wife also became a disciple of the vegetarian. After two years, we had somewhere a seminar, a retreat—you call it a seminar also? And so she came also to my seminar, and someone phoned his home and asked, "Where is your wife?" He was some friend. "How are you, let us say Mr. France or Yosef, you know, how are you, and where is Maria, where is Maria, is she home?" And he said, "No, Maria is not here; she went to eat grass." Because in a yoga seminar, there is only vegetarian food. So you see, when there is a difference, so lucky are they, the husband and wife are the partners, they have the same hobby, same feeling, spirituality. So, a spiritual couple comes together, then it is a beautiful time. They sit, they listen, they read, they concentrate, they have the same feelings, they practice and so on. But he was spiritually developing and she did not like it. And always she said that she has a right. And he said, "Okay, you have a right." One day they were sitting on the rock about 50 meters deep in the lake far, and one man came. That man was a kind of hunter or a Normadin—do you call them Normadin? Gypsies, Normans, yeah, moving here and there. So, they had somewhere their tents; there were three families, and the man went for hunting or searching something, fish or something, to bring eating home. But he had an orange shirt like you. Only an orange shirt does not make you a Swāmī. So, when he saw that man, he had one dhotī like me, white and orange shirt and a hanging bag on his shoulder. He said, "Master has come today." And she said, "I do not trust." He said, "My darling, always, always you are against. Believe me. You should not have doubts. It is a master and God has sent him for us. We should go and have his darśan. We should see him from near. And I tell you, he will touch us." She said, "He will touch? That I do not want. I want to be in the water." But he said, "Please, can you do once? I do always what you want, and today you should do what I said." She said, "I will do it, but it is a question between life and death, and I will, but I am in doubt." He said, "Please come today once for me." So they came—they were so big turtles—they were swimming and came naked outside. And quickly, quickly, come to the master. And that man, master, what he was called, he was standing and said, "Happy, oh, they are coming near to me. I do not have to go to them." And they came down and they walked. And she remained two foot meter behind. She said, "No, Michael, I do not dare." He said, "Come on. Oh, we are lucky today, blessed. God has come for us." And the master bowed down—that man, that was not a master—and he took Michael in his arms and with the other hand he took her also and put them in the bag and off he go. Now she is biting him and she is fighting. "I told you," she said. He said, "Do not worry, God will fulfill our wish, have faith, God will not let us go down." She said, "You know he is a hunter." He said, "Does not matter, nothing will happen to us." She said, "It does matter." Well, he brought home these two turtles. His wife was waiting with the children. They wanted to cook and eat this animal. Well, they put a big pot of water to boil. And they put both the turtles living in the hot water. And they lit a fire, and the fire began to become hotter. And she said, "Michael, I told you. I will never see you anymore in this life. I hate you." He said, "Darling, do not worry. God will fulfill all our wishes. Nothing will happen." She said, "I do not trust you anymore. We are in a boiling cooking pot. Underneath is a fire. If you try to come out, we will fall into the fire, no? There is a saying: from the frying pan into the fire. And they will not let us come out." And they put the lid on it, hot. So he said, "Okay, you sit on my back and I will be down. But keep quiet. God will not let us go down. God will save us." She said, "I do not believe in that God." He said, "I believe. My Lord has always protected us." And what happened? Within minutes, a very heavy cloud and storm came. It was raining cats and dogs. It was more than that, like a hurricane came and water was falling from the sky. The fire went out, the hut, the tent of the people was blown off, and the pot fell over. And immediately, within one minute, there was like a flood, and he was swimming. "Come on, darling, we go home. I told you, have faith in God. You see what?" And the flood brought them right back home again. So, titikṣā: he had titikṣā, did not give up, though there was boiling, water was cooking and becoming hotter and hotter, you know, like a sauna, and then you put all the water in it, and then, my God, oh, oh, ... you know, and then again, confidence. So, titikṣā, confidence, śama, dama, śraddhā, titikṣā. Recording location: Australia, Maroochydore, Australian Tour

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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