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In this modern world, certain events have background music. In this hall of many stars, you automatically have some beautiful background music. Every tune, every sound is a sound. There is no misclang, as they call it. There is no wrong sound; only how you perceive it depends on you. Patañjali speaks of kliṣṭa and akliṣṭa vṛttis—the thoughts that disrupt you and the thoughts that help you. The question is, in what way do external sounds, visions, and smells disturb you? Perhaps you do not like them. But it must not be that everything should be what you like. It does not mean everything should please you. If everything existed to please you, the world would be paralyzed. Even a man and a woman cannot mutually agree on all things. Something she likes, he does not like, and perhaps what he likes she does not like. Liking and disliking—this is the problem. What you do not like, you feel is disturbing you, but someone who likes it creates that sound. Therefore, Patañjali says: withdraw your senses and be one with thyself, with your own inner sound. Then, suddenly, what will happen? You will no longer hear those sounds you think are disturbing. Long ago, I think it was 1975 or 1976, in Prague at the university clinic—the biggest hospital. I used to come often to Czechoslovakia at that time, more than now; we will talk about that later. Dr. Dostálek and his colleagues wanted to know how a yogī’s brain waves are during meditation. They put many wires here and here and here. You saw yesterday in the video, Nārada was saying, "Ahaṁ brahmāsmī" means "I am Brahman." Nothing can touch me, I am nowhere attached; I am above ignorance. Everything happening is just the body. The body is mortal, but I am immortal, above fear, everything. Yes, it should be like that, but it is not always so. Thanks to God, such a state of being comes in the last minutes of life, though you may have a glimpse of the knowledge of Brahman so you can say, "Ahaṁ brahmāsmī," Brahmaniṣṭha śrotriya. But the vṛtti is changing constantly; the view is changing constantly. The position is changing; the situation is changing. Thought is changing; feeling is changing. Constantly there is change, not only on this planet but in the entire universe; the constellation is changing, everything is in movement. It is very hard to remain fixed in one thought, idea, or feeling. So you may say "Ahaṁ brahmāsmī," but it does not last long. If you say, "Yes, I am Brahman, I have knowledge of Brahman," you should know: there is a Brahmin, which is a caste. Brahmā is the creator. And Brahman is the universal God, the entire universe, above all trinities and everything; that is called Brahman. "Ahaṁ brahmāsmī"—that I am that Brahman. Yes, you and me. Often we have had experiences of Brahman. You have had many glimpses of that Brahman, that nectar. When you came to me, received a mantra, or in satsaṅg, in different ways, you got that divine immortality, the nectar. There are many kinds of amṛta, but at the same time the opposite breeze comes. It is like wanting to fly in one direction in an airplane without an engine, and suddenly opposite air comes. Our breath, our changes in this body, create different waves, meaning uncertainty. Should I or shouldn’t I? Is that right or wrong? Should I take it or not? This question rises from our ignorance: why, how, and so on. So, while practicing meditation with a mantra, while studying beautiful ancient yogic literature about God consciousness, about this entire creation—body, emotion, thoughts, fear, memory, intellect, anger, hate, jealousy, conflicts, fear, and further the consciousness, different levels of consciousness, and so on—one layer after another is hidden in us. Well, in 1975, I was a little younger than now. So to say, the horses were young and wild; it was not easy to keep them on track. Sometimes when you know little things, you would like to say you know all, challenging this and that. I was practicing every day, minimally six hours of Haṭha Yoga kriyās, āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, meditations, mantras, and all, minimum, no matter where I was. I was solid in myself, sure. Now I was sitting in a small room, and doctors tried to keep all these wires here and there. I said to Mahāprabhujī, "Please control the electricity." I thought about my heartbeat: "What? When they put it on, what will happen if they cranked? The flexibility in the electricity." No chance; if one wire, maybe you try quickly to pull it out, but here and here and ... here. I said to Mahāprabhujī, in this physical form, I hope it is not the last praṇām. Now, you see how suddenly fear came. I was surprised. I thought I had no fear in me. Similarly, you will think you have no jealousy, that you are above jealousy; I would not say so. The best thing is always to be on the good side, to surrender. Completeness comes in the last minutes of life. They asked me, "Swāmījī, can you meditate and try to influence or keep your citta vṛtti?" Nirodha means one thought. I said, "Yes, I will do," but I was afraid of the electric wires; my heartbeat was stronger. I asked, "Do you think I will feel the current?" He said, "No, no, you will feel nothing, Swāmījī." I said, "Are you sure? Or will you put high voltage?" He said, "No, no, Swāmījī, that's not like that." Well, I did some prāṇāyāmas: Kapālabhātī, Bastrikā, Bandha, and Uḍḍīyāna Bandha, then Jālandhara Bandha, Mahā Bandha, and influenced my chakras to let the prāṇa and apāna flow in balance, and I sat in meditation. What they did: they put a big bulb light on and off, on and off in front of me, and then they put some kind of sound to change, to see how the brain waves would change or not. Yes, I listened and I made like this, then I said, "No, now I am in Mahananda." Nothing exists around me. In that minute, though they were making light and sound, it was completely balanced. They gave me the printout—the result. Somewhere I have it in my records; perhaps it will come in a book one day. They gave me the time. I asked, "How long should it be?" After, I said, "My ending will be through the chanting of Oṃ." I had no problem sitting long. I was sitting in lotus. I weighed only 55 kilos then. Now it is nearly 88 kilos. Everything, my dear. You spoiled me with the Czech sandwich and cheese and this and that. And in ex-Yugoslavia, the kajmak. Oh, kajmak. And he said, "Swāmījī, please, Swāmījī, one more, Swāmījī." One great yogī said, "All indriyas can be under control, but the tasting indriya is very hard to control." Anyhow, I chanted Oṃ, and they noticed the time of chanting Oṃ. Along the spinal column, there was such a lightning and vibration which they had never experienced with anything. They had many experiments and did many things. That is how God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā: a yogī should be like a tortoise, an animal who can anytime take his limbs in or anytime expand them out. Similarly, all these vṛttis are around you—worshipping, talking, saying—they should never disturb you. They come to you and go. Sometimes you sit somewhere and a bad smell comes. What will you do? Avoid it. Go away. Do not remain there with the bad smell. You should not cry for that. So, master thyself. Master the situation and withdraw your senses. That is how a yogī can anytime be extroverted or introverted. Therefore, for meditation, kāya is the steadiness of the body. If one finger is moving, it creates immense waves and disturbances in your aura. You think, "It doesn't matter, I can do like this, it doesn't matter." Many times I admire this modern technology, which is exactly like yogīs used to say, and Kṛṣṇa said: "Not a blade of grass can move without my will, my energy." All these leaves of the trees and wind and all this is by Almighty God. "Nothing is hidden from me, oh Arjuna. In the entire universe, there is nothing I cannot have, but still I am acting, I am doing karma yoga, karmasu kauśala." So how do vṛttis disturb? How can a yogī control vṛttis? We have an alarm system in a house. You sit in the range of the alarm very peacefully without any movement. If you move one finger, the alarm will sound. Similarly, in meditation, if you just move your lips, your whole aura, your beautiful energy, is disturbed. Then there is a gap between the waves, and different thoughts enter your consciousness, and your breath becomes more and more. Someone said a butterfly can cause a hurricane. When a very silent butterfly flies, her wings create a little wind that starts and supports and can become a very big one. So a little thought, little things, a little negative speech or seeing can cause you lots of trouble and push you down. Or a little thing can uplift your consciousness. When someone cannot swim and falls in the water, a very thin thread hanging somewhere can be held, and he or she can pull oneself out. So, learn to have a steady position, upright, straight upright, so that your spine is straight. Then you will see, when doing Chakra Śodhana or other kriyās or prāṇāyāmas, how the energy is flowing. But mostly, I see you sitting like this, doing your āsana, Chakra Śodhana. So first, master your body so you can sit for at least one or two hours. Yes. Then everything is balanced. Negative energy is filtered. The mantra is going on. And then the consciousness of doing little things, and then nothing. That is okay—better than nothing—but it will not solve our problems or help achieve our destiny. Therefore, prepare today and tomorrow. Eat little. I tell you, if possible, avoid grains, avoid eating in the evening, especially bread. Eat little bread or little rice. Eat more of some different hot soup or something. In the morning, you will be full of vitality and you will be sitting like this. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar