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"Merā jīvan terī pūjā," O my Lord. My life is a ceremony for you. But we are the ones performing the pūjā. Pūjā means prayer, ceremony, meditation, mantras. This is pūjā. The word pūjā—all you can do is for the pūjanīya. You can only truly perform pūjā when the pūjanīya is present. Pūjanīya means adorable, worshipable. The one whom you can worship, whom you can adore. That is called pūjanīya. And to respect, glorify, and celebrate that pūjanīya is the meaning of pūjā. So when we have God, an altar, and we perform pūjā, it means we adore, we worship. But a bhakta said, "My Lord, all my activities in my life, my life is a pūjā for you." This means: I surrender to you. I will do what you say. We, however, constantly ask things of God and always expect some answers. When we pray, we ask questions: "Lord, help me, fulfill my wishes. May I pass my examination, get good marks in school, find a job, find a partner. Lord, may we have good children," and so on. That is called the hunger of humans. Mostly, the hungry being is a human. Other creatures have only one hunger: that is called eating. But humans have many hungers because the human mind is always hungry; it wants to become more. When you earn 100 crowns per hour, you think it would be good to have 200. When you have 200, you think it would be good to have 400. When you have one million, you try to multiply it to five million. And when you have five billion, you think, "I would like to be on the list of the richest people in the world. How many hundred billions do I need now?" So this is called a hunger. Someone has a hunger for money. Someone has a hunger for social position. Someone has a hunger for beauty. Someone has a hunger for a partner. We say bhūk and tṛṣṇā. Tṛṣṇā means longing. "Tṛṣṇā rūpī agni me sabhī jīv jal rahe"—in the fire of tṛṣṇā, all creatures are burning. Every human wants a promotion from a lower post to a higher one. That is it. So this is a hunger. If you can satisfy this hunger, then that is best. Therefore, one mahātmā said: "You become immortal while eating that sweet which makes you immortal. That is the best sweet." And "sweet" here means the fulfillment of desires. "Amar ho jisko khāne se mitāī ho to aisī ho, phatāde man viṣayose khatāī ho to aisī ho"—and [that which] spoils the mind from desires. What a best sourness! Like lemon spoils the milk. So we need that lemon; we need that sourness, which we call khatāī, the sour, which can spoil our desires toward all this hunger in the world. Therefore, the same mahātmā said: "Tu manindriyāṅkā rājā, ātmāntar jānī. O my inner self, the Lord who is within me, you are the king of senses and mind. You are the king of your senses and your mind." And the desires are limited to the senses and mind. "Mat kar iskī gulāmī, ātmāntar jānī." Do not be the slave of this. And therefore, only that person can understand karma yoga who understands spirituality. "Merā jīvan terī pūjā"—my life is a ceremony to you. In English, it says, "Work is worship." We say, "Let's do prayer. Let's do ceremony." So it means doing. So whatever karma yoga you are doing, it is not merely work, but it is a ceremony worshiping the Lord and putting yourself in discipline. It is karma yoga which gives you discipline. It is karma yoga which gives you joy. And karma yoga is the best therapy against depression; it is the best therapy for people who have schizophrenia or people who have some mental problems. Because doing karma yoga means that all stuck energy within you is put out, and new energy is coming. And it awakens within you the beautiful chakras. And your intellect is purified. --- Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar