TV Channel

Liberation comes only through the grace of the Guru (Gurū kṛpā) and through knowledge. My dear brothers and sisters, liberation will not come from torturing the body, nor will it come from the postures of the body. Do not think, "I will sit in Padmāsana for eight hours and my Kuṇḍalinī will go up." Where do you want to go up? Where will you go up? Which side is up? You think this is the downside and that is the upside, but perhaps in reality it is the other side. Maybe the Kuṇḍalinī is already here and would like to come back to the Mūlādhāra. That is why in yoga there is one mudrā called Viparītakaraṇī Mudrā. Urdhvagatī, Viparīta means opposite, and so the energy is flowing from up to down, upside down. In the Bhagavad Gītā, 15th chapter, the first śloka, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa describes, "This human body is like a tree." Normally trees have their roots down, but the human tree has its roots up. The brain and all the branches are the Vedas and holy scriptures, and all the leaves of this tree are the holy mantras and the leaves of the Vedas and spirituality. Therefore, merely sitting in Vajrāsana, the meditation posture, you think the posture will give you liberation. No. Many people only practice yoga for exercise and feel that they are a yogī. Yes, it is better than nothing, but you are not a yogī still. We all who sit here, who have been practicing for so many years now—I have been practicing yoga for more than 50 years in this life—but still I do not dare to say of myself, "I am a yogī." I am a sādhaka. I am a student. I am a practitioner of yoga. I am not a yogī still. You will be a yogī at that time when you will have some dṛṣṭi, equal vision, and the knowledge of that endless universal consciousness; you become one without second. And who knows, except our Gurudev, how many births we have to take still. There is a story. One yogī was sitting under a tree, making his meditation in good postures, Padmāsana, lotus posture. The great sage Nārada, the son of Brahmā, came. The great sage Nārada had the siddhi and access to the entire universe; only one who had such access to the entire universe with body could go to any part of the universe—heaven, Brahmaloka, and this Bhūloka, anywhere—Nārada. So one day Nārada was coming; the Mahāmantra was of Nārada, and the Mahāmantra was this one. He was a great devotee of God Viṣṇu, and therefore the name of Viṣṇu is also Nārāyaṇa. And he was always singing, "Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. Śrīman ... Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa." The entire universe was full of the resonance which was chanted by Nārada, "Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa." And when some ṛṣis were meditating, even the God Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu in the ocean, could hear, "Oh, Nārada is coming." Śiva, Brahmā, all Indra. So Nārada was coming, and when the yogī was meditating, Nārada came and said, "Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa." The yogī said, "Oh, great sage Nārada, what am I? Great luck, I am fortunate one that I have a darśan of you, means I see you today. Where are you going, my lord?" Nārada said, "I am going to have a darśan of God Viṣṇu." "Oh, you are going to God Nārāyaṇa?" He said, "Yes." "Please, can you ask him when will I get enlightenment? My Kuṇḍalinī is awakened, my consciousness is on super-consciousness, my samādhi, I don't know which kind of samādhi, I need vikalpa, savikalpa, all vikalpa, or how, in which life will I get?" Nārada said, "Okay, I will ask Viṣṇu." Nārada went to Lord Viṣṇu, had some darśan, blessings, and Nārada said, "Lord, there is your bhakta meditating under the tree, and he asked me how many lives he has still, or where will he get enlightenment, mokṣa, Brahmajñāna?" God Viṣṇu said, "Tell him, the tree under which he is meditating, as many leaves on that tree, so many lives he has still to get Brahmajñāna." Nārada said, "Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, how will I tell him? The poor man will be disappointed completely." Nārada came, "Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa," and the yogī said, "Welcome, your holiness, great saint Nārada, what God gave the news?" He said, "In many places I spread the message of Buddha, but like China, these islands in Japan, and this part, Sri Lanka, still I was not able to go and preach the teaching of the Buddha." Sangh Mitrā said, "Father, I promise you, I make a saṅkalpa, I will never marry, and I will carry on your wish to bring the teaching of Buddha." The father blessed her and he died, and she, as a sādhvī, begins to preach the teaching of the Buddha. And she went to the China side, and when she arrived in any village, or small city, not so big, hundreds of people were coming. That time human population was not so big; together, a hundred people at one spot was, today, like ten thousand or more. And when she gave a lecture, it was 100 people, and the next day there were 500 people. But none of them accepted the teaching of the Buddha. None of them were ready to become Buddhist. One day, Sangh Mitrā asked her secretary. She had her whole group, bodyguards, and so on; she was a princess. And she asked her close advisor, and the close advisor said, "I'm sorry to tell you what you would like to know, I know, but tell me, what would you like to know?" He said, "So many people are coming, like bees go to the honey, or the ants run to the sugar or to the sweets. So many people come, but no one is accepting." He said, "I made a research work. They all come to see you, how beautiful you are." For a hundred, mostly men used to come, not women. Today was a hundred men, and they spoke, and in the evening came another five hundred men. "How beautiful she is, like you have in your film actors, or whatever you call, no? What do they call the actors? Artists." So she said, "Okay, thank you." She went to the bathroom, she looked in the mirror, and she took this spirit and she put it on her face, and her face was burned. She went to, of course, they took her to the doctor, and like this, but everywhere where the burn spots on her body, on her face, not so beautiful like before. You know, we are only looking to the beautiful skin and eyes; we don't see the heart inside, the soul, how beautiful is that. And then people begin to follow her, and so the Buddhism was spread around the world. So sometimes you think, "I will do only āsanas and prāṇāyāmas and become very nice and have a good figure, and a big stomach." And a big stomach is more dangerous. People will admire you only till you are young. After 80 years, 90 years, the people who were admiring you, even they will not telephone and say, "How are you?" Therefore, only the postures is not the yoga. Only the stretching is not the yoga. Do not waste the time in your ignorance, in your misunderstanding, that you practice yoga, but actually it's not yoga. Like I told you this morning, this story about a dog, a dry bone a dog found it, and he was chewing the dry bones. The bone was from one camel or some big animal in the Sahara, but in reality, it was his own blood. And the blood from his mouth, not in the bone, was not the animal's blood. Similarly, do not waste time only, and similarly, decoration of your muscles and your body, and then saying, "I am practicing yoga, I am a yogī." On the day when you become a yogī, I will tell you, even the Lord Viṣṇu will come and stand up when you are coming. And today, not your colleague even stands up when you come home. Even not your husband stands up when you come home, except you are newly married. After a few months finished, "Are you home?" So, yoga practicing is something beautiful, but we have to look at inner beauty and beauty of the nature. So today was a beautiful day and beautiful constellations that could help us to improve in our meditation. --- Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Weekend seminar