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You received wisdom in order to give it further. Problems are there to solve and not to escape them.

A discourse on the responsibility and spiritual duty of a yoga teacher.

"To be a teacher of the spiritual science or a teacher who teaches someone good things in life is one of the best karma you can do."

"Your spiritual development, as well as your physical discipline, will only improve if you will give this knowledge further and help others."

Swami Maheshwarananda (Swamiji) addresses the gravity of being a yoga teacher, criticizing quick certification courses and emphasizing the need for deep anatomical and psychological knowledge. He explains that a true teacher guides students toward holistic health and hope, framing teaching as a sacred duty and a means for the teacher's own growth. He illustrates this with a lengthy parable about a king, a stolen mango, and a spiritual power (siddhi), concluding that wisdom must be shared, not hoarded.

Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Weekend seminar

Yoga is one of the oldest divine sciences of body, mind, and consciousness. It is not merely physical exercises, breathwork, and relaxation. Even if one views it only as such, one cannot become a yoga teacher in a four-night seminar and receive a certificate. Unfortunately, many people try to go on a 15-day holiday to India, to some yoga center, saying, "I am coming from the eastern part of Europe, I have very little money, I can't afford it, please can I still be with you?" They are told, "Yes, okay." In a fortnight, they leave with a certificate stating they are a yoga teacher. They return home, quit their jobs, and think they will earn money with yoga. Like this, there are many, many yoga teachers who received their certificate in a short time. Even if you are only teaching āsanas and prāṇāyāmas, you should at least have a course of study like a physiotherapist. You should know anatomy, you should know about the breath, life, and the psychological influence on the person you are teaching. Therefore, in Yoga in Daily Life, we do not give a yoga teacher certificate very easily. Holy Gurujī said, once Mahāprabhujī told, to be a teacher of the spiritual science or a teacher who teaches someone good things in life is one of the best karma you can do. Everyone can take the bread out of your hand, but they cannot take out of your kismat, which you earn through your good deeds, good work, and the blessing of the master. "Teacher" in Hindi or English is Gurū. School master we say master, we say Gurū. Harmonium Gurū, sitār Gurū, music Gurū, dance Gurū, painting Gurū—so Gurū means a teacher who teaches you something. But then there is a Satgurū, the spiritual master. While teaching yoga, this divine science, and leading people in the right direction, helping them achieve their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health, to solve their emotional and intellectual problems, to give them the right direction in their life, and to give again the motivation or the hope to those who have lost the hope of this life—this is the work. It is said that even if you cut it off, the trunk of the tree will grow again. So sometimes you think you have no motivation and you have lost everything, and have no more sense to stay in this world. This kind of thinking is very wrong, and it is your yoga teacher, your spiritual teacher, who will be with you and give you confidence to carry on. The best school in life is the problem. And the best way to lead life is to solve the problems. The problems are there to be solved, not to run away. So through practicing Yoga in Daily Life—as I told you, Yoga in Daily Life is a living system. It has a life in it. It has a beauty in it. It has spirituality. It has belief. It is divine. Maybe there are some other physical instructors who know more anatomy. There are many doctors who know much better than me or you about the body, about the anatomy, the biology, glands, nerves, blood, and many things; they may know much better than us, definitely. But there is not this life in it. So to be a teacher of Yoga in Daily Life is a great blessing, and it takes a few years to achieve this level of your abilities and to get the certificate as a yoga teacher, a Yoga in Daily Life teacher license or diploma. And when you receive the yoga teacher diploma, you go home and frame it and hang it on the wall, and that's all, just hanging on the wall. You are not teaching. It means the master gave you something in your hand and you didn't realize the value of it and you just lost it. It's like I give you a lamp in your hand, an oil lamp, but it is your duty to fill it with more oil. Don't let go of the flame. So your spiritual development, as well as your physical discipline, will only improve if you will give this knowledge further and help others. Pānī tu chaltā bhalā, paḍā gandelā hoī. Pānī means the water. Water should flow. If it remains still, it will become dirty, spoiled. Sādhu tu ramtā bhalā, dāg na lage koī. The scent should always move. Then there would be no bad spots on you. So the teacher's consciousness, the teacher's wisdom, and the teacher's energy should always move to give the knowledge to others. There is one story I remember. Do you like the story? Or are you tired? No. Again, it is about a king and queen. Well, now centuries will come, sometime we will speak about presidents and prime ministers. A king, a very nice king, one beautiful queen. And the king had a nice park like this park we have. And most of the park were those trees which give fruits, and the park was free for everyone to go for a walk and take the fruits. The king, with his own hands, planted one beautiful, best-quality mango tree, and after some years, on that mango tree, the first mango came, only one. The king and queen were walking in the park and the king said to the queen, "Look, my dear, this is the first mango of this tree." And the queen said, "Yes, your highness, but you know, a wife always has a desire, and a man's duty is to fulfill her desire, her wish. The husband who cannot fulfill the wish of his wife is still missing the quality of a husband." The king smiled. He knew what she was going to tell. And he said, "Yes, my dear queen, what do you wish?" She said, "Your Highness, please don't become nervous. I will not ask for something which is impossible." He said, "Yes, yes, yes, go ahead." "My wish is that I want to eat this mango. The first mango of this tree, I want to eat. Selfish, but I would like to." The king said, "Nothing is easier than this." He called the gardener and told him, "You four have 24-hour duty to take care of this mango. No animals destroy it, no one takes it away, and in case a strong wind comes and it falls down, you have to immediately bring it to me. This mango belongs to our queen. This is a strict order. If this mango gets lost, you will get a life sentence, death punishment." So the four gardeners said, "Relax, friends." They brought their bed there under the small tree. They made a little tub or camping, you know. And one of them had the duty to look at the mango and check on it all the time. About four weeks passed, and now the mango became big, very big, nearly half a kilo, a nice yellow and orange, little and juicy, beautiful mango. And they said, "I think in two days this is completely ripe, and then it will fall down; we will bring it to the queen." So they put a net under it, so if it falls down on the ground, it will not be damaged. The next day morning, one couple passed by outside of the park; there was a fence, an iron fence, and one man and his wife were moving, walking from some village to another village, and that was on the way, the path, on the way. And her eyes fell on that mango, and she stopped, and she said, "Parents' name," that man who was walking his story, and he said, "Yes, my dear Agnes, I have one wish, and you know that every husband should ... fulfill the wish of his wife." He said, "Yes, no problem, what do you wish, Agnes?" She said, "Do you see that very nice, beautiful small tree? It seems it is the first time this tree has this mango, and I wish to eat this mango, and ... you must fulfill my this wish." He said, "No problem, darling." And he had some power, so he put his hand like this and said his mantra, "Kimchi, kimchi, come, come, chicken, good," the mantra, no, and the mango came in his hand, that mango from the ... tree in his hand, and he said, "Here you are, my dear one." She took it, he said, "Thank you," and she said, "We will eat at home; you can share with me, friends, parents," and they went. After 10-20 minutes, the guards were looking at the tree. "Oh, there's ... no mango. What happened?" There was a net over the tree like a mosquito net. They were sitting near the tree. One was standing under the tree so that nobody could climb up, though it was a small tree still. My God, they were so sad. And one went to the king, and the queen was so happy. She said, "Look, our gardener is coming. I think he brought my mango." And she said, "Did you bring my mango?" He said, "Yes, I brought your mango's news. I didn't bring your mango, but the news." She said, "Is that ripe? This news is ripe." He said, "No, unfortunately, the mango disappeared." The king said, "What? The mango disappeared? You were four of you; I told you." He said, "Your Highness, my head is here; you can step up, but we are not guilty. We were standing 24 hours, one of us, and checking and looking after this, but suddenly it disappeared. We put the net; your order was first for us and everything, and we put our tent there. No cats, no animals, no squirrels, no birds could enter there. The mango was there till 10 o'clock, and at 10:30 it suddenly disappeared, and we did not eat it." The king said, "Put all four in the prison, and he called his son and said, "Who has taken this mango? I want to know the guilty one, and I want to burn that guilty one in the fire, alight." His son was a little bit normal. He was very sad, and well, news went, and the news was this: that the king is searching for who took away the mango or who ate that mango. The man who went home with his wife, they washed the mango, and it was very nice, and they cut the mango, and they ate, and it was very tasty, the three ripe mango; mango is special quality. Mango is known as the king of the fruits. And we have over 600 different mango qualities. Like, you have how many hundreds of them? Apple qualities. So that man came to know the king is searching for who is the thief. So that man went to the king and said, "I was, my lord. I am not the thief. I did my dharma." He said, "What?" "My wife wished to eat that mango, and I gave it to her." The king said, "Kill him. Throw him in the fire." The son said, "No, no, no, father. No, no, ... no. Please wait. My request, father." "What?" "How is it possible that he took the mango from our tree when there were the four guards, there was a net over, and he had to climb up a little bit to get this? How did he get it?" Because before the prince brought that man to his father, he asked everything, inquired everything. So he said, "I was walking, and my wife saw this mango, and she said, 'I have to fulfill her wish.' She wished to eat that mango. So, Lord, I have one siddhi. I just raised my hand, and that mango appeared on my hand, and I gave it to her. She was happy. I am her husband, and it is her wish and my dharma to fulfill. Boys, be careful. When your wife wishes, 'I wish tomorrow one Mercedes.' Then go to the showroom and tell her, 'So many Mercedes, all belong to you, but let's go home.'" The king said, "All right, now throw him in the fire." The prince said, "Father, father, a moment, please. Don't let our wealth be lost from our kingdom." "What do you mean?" The queen said, "What do you mean? My mango." He said, "Yes, mother, it was your mango. Ask this man, father, if someone has this siddhi in our kingdom or not." Anyone in our kingdom? And the king asked, "Is there someone who has these abilities?" He said, "Your Highness, we were five guru brothers, and all of us had this siddhi. Unfortunately, my four guru brothers passed away; now I am the last one. I am nearly 85 years old, and this siddhi, unfortunately, only I have. My children were not interested to have and learn, and I didn't find a proper person to whom to give this. And my master said, 'Do not give this siddhi or power to them who can misuse it.'" The king said, "Okay, now throw him in the fire." The son said, "Father, your wish will be seen and will be fulfilled. But can you think what we are losing? Not only a person, but this treasure of the siddhi. So what to do? Learn from him." "Oh yes, that's a good idea." He said to his wife, "Darling, next year our mango will get again new fruit. And I can promise you, we both will sleep under the tree till the mango will rise. But let's learn siddhi. It's okay." So the king said, "You have to stay in my kingdom. Give him a nice room. Every day teach me, and when I will get this siddhi, then we will throw him in the fire." So he said to the queen, "Be peaceful. It will be done." Every day he is making something, mantras, "Kimchi comes up, dibidu." But it doesn't function. The king got angry. "I don't believe in these siddhis and powers. That's nonsense. It's only blah blah. Throw him in the fire." The son said, "Father, don't make a mistake." He said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Master, father, when it's raining, water falls on the mountain and flows down. But water which flows or falls down doesn't flow up. So, wisdom is sitting below you, and you are sitting up. You think it will flow up. However, you sit down there and let him sit on your throne. Then you will see that the guru is up and the disciple is down. It will flow." He said, "You give me a hard job, a hard time. Close the windows and doors. Nobody sees that I am sitting down. He is sitting up." Well, the king was sitting down like this. "Yes, master, yes, master." And the master was sitting up and giving some mantras. "Hmm, cream ice cream, cream cream is your ice cream, don't scream." And the king got the siddhi. That man said, "King, look, there is one mango on that big tree, nearly 10-15 meters high. Say this mantra, raise your hand up, open your palm, look at that mango, say the mantra, and the mango came into his hand. Now, what do you wish? Anything you wish." Whatever he wished became materialized. The next day, again. The third day, again. For five days, the king tried, and it functioned. It worked. The king said, "Now throw him in the fire." And the prince said, "No, father." He said, "What? You dare to say this to me?" He said, "Yes, father." Why? Because now he is your master, and you are his disciple. You cannot kill your master; otherwise, forever and ever, you will go to Naraka, to hell. The father said, "You are the winner, my son." He said, the son said, "Sooner or later, I will be the winner." So, father, thank you. And that man became the guru of that king, to fulfill the wish of the master, to fulfill the wish of his wife, and to fulfill the wish of the king. All were happy. But now the king had to make her happy. She is still sitting, completely blown off. You know, any time it will explode. And the king said, "Darling, I found your mango." She said, "Where?" He said, "Look, sit down. You will see exactly the same mango." And he said, "Appear, that mango, in my hand." And the mango came. He said, "Here you are." She was so happy. "Thank you, your highness. Thank you, king." All were happy. It was happy. And so, to give the knowledge, to give the wisdom—you got the wisdom to give, not only to keep it for you and die with it. Therefore, when you make a yoga teacher certificate, now it is your obligation, your duty, to give this wisdom to others, to teach others. Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Weekend 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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