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Working without ego means cleaning one's inner karma. It is a simple practice with profound effects. When walking on a road and finding a thorn, you should remove it, for you never know whose foot it may pierce. Removing thorns from the path is akin to removing the thorns of your own karma. Similarly, if there are large stones lying about, they could injure any vehicle, human, or animal. Moving such a stone to the side of the road is like removing the rocks of your karmas. This is called Seva. How can we practice this in everyday life? Perhaps a piece of glass is lying somewhere. In such simple ways, we can collect good karma in daily life. Conversely, we can create bad karma: by throwing stones, scattering thorns, or discarding bottles and broken glass. This is especially harmful in forests, where deer, rabbits, and other animals can injure themselves. If we are hurt, we can immediately go to a doctor or apply antiseptic, but to whom should the animal go? Pain is pain, whether experienced by a human or an animal. The best you can do is to take the pain of others away, even if by an injection; the method does not matter. The main thing is that the person or animal is freed from suffering. When we have no pain, we do not understand what pain means, but those who have pain know. It does not matter if it is only a nail hurting; that little nail is painful enough that you cannot sleep. Or one painful tooth can keep you awake. A small infection in the ear can make life restless. If there is pain in any part of the body, your whole being becomes restless. You lose concentration, lose interest, and cannot rest. It is said that two persons cannot sleep: the yogī and the rogī. The yogī is one who longs for God and does not sleep unconsciously, never knowing when He will come; they wait for the Divine. The rogī is the ill person, who cannot sleep, waiting for the sun to rise so the doctor may come with a remedy. One who is sleeping is called a bhogī—one with no knowledge, stuck only in worldly enjoyment. Thus, you either have yoga or bhoga. Yoga leads you to liberation, to Brahmagyāna, while bhoga leads you to Naraka, which you may call hell. Why does it happen like this? Because God said, "I give you the freedom." You have free thinking and free decisions. What you do or do not do depends on you. After all this, Śrī Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna: "Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam." If you practice Karma Yoga, you will be successful in yoga sādhanā. Through Karma Yoga, the fire of yoga awakens, and that fire is knowledge. Yoga, agni, karma, dagdha—the yogic fire will burn all the seeds of karmas. But when you perform seva, forget your position and wealth. Do not think, "Oh, I am a big director, or a president, or such a rich man; I can pay people to work." No, you must do it yourself. Holy Gurujī used to recite this beautiful poem: "Kheti, prīti, praṭhanā, pīṭ tanī khuḷa, jo sukha chāhē prāṇī, hāthō hātha sambhāla." Kheti (agriculture): If you want a good harvest, you must look after it personally. Prīti (love): If you want to love someone, do it personally. Do not tell someone, "Tomorrow is my wedding at noon, but I am very busy; can you go and marry her, and I will take her home tomorrow?" The other man will simply look at you. Prīti you must do yourself. Praṭhanā (prayer): Others cannot pray for you. You have to pray; it is your personal act. Pīṭ tanī khuḷa (scratching an itch on the back): If you want relief, do it yourself. If you tell someone, "A little left, a little down, a little right, no, a little up," it is not the same. You know exactly where it is and can immediately scratch it. "Jo sukha chāhē prāṇī, hāthō hātha sambhāla"—if you want happiness from these things, do it yourself; the best way is to do it yourself. So learn to do things yourself. If you do āsanas, it is for you. If you do prāṇāyāma, it is for you. If you do svādhyāya, it is for you. If you perform tapasyā, it is for you. If you pray, it is for you. If you practice mantra, it is for you. If you eat, it is for you. Everything you do is for you. If you do good, it is for you. If you do bad, it is for you. If you speak good, it is for you. If you speak bad, it is for you. When you talk to someone about negative things, be sure that this person will not keep it to themselves. Gurujī said that if you want a message to spread quickly, tell someone something negative about another person, and after telling them, please say it is confidential and not to be repeated. Then it will go even quicker. And if you wish it to spread like television news or an SMS, tell a woman, and tell her it is very confidential. It will travel quicker than air. Therefore, whatever you speak, good or bad, comes back to you. So, "Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam"—your yoga sādhanā will be successful if you do good karma. --- Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar