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The Ocean of Consciousness: From the Pond to the Infinite

A closing address at a Yoga in Daily Life conference on health, spirituality, and universal consciousness.

"The person who does not recognize the aspects of God is like a frog in a small pond."

"Yoga is the way to God, the real God, not to the border of the pond, but to the endless."

Swami Maheshwarananda concludes a multi-day conference, expressing gratitude for the research presented. He uses the parable of a frog in a pond to illustrate how a spiritual master expands one's limited understanding of God, advocating for yogic tolerance and universal consciousness as the antidote to religious exclusivity and global suffering. The talk blends spiritual philosophy with practical health advice, urging free thinking and compassionate action.

Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī, Deveśwar Mahādeva kī, Satgurū Swāmī Mādhavānandajī Gurudeva kī. Blessings to all of you. Indeed, it was a beautiful conference. The very detailed program and the lectures were described, and that was good motivation and inspiration for both the teachers and the practitioners. We heard, at least theoretically, what could happen to our body and what we can expect from practicing Yoga in Daily Life. I am very thankful, and I bless those who are doing research work on human health and Yoga in Daily Life, environment and Yoga in Daily Life, world peace and Yoga in Daily Life, spirituality and Yoga in Daily Life. This session was about human health and Yoga in Daily Life—physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. The next subjects in our conference will cover the other aspects: mental health, social health, and spiritual health. There will also be research work presented by people, and discussions about the environment and world peace. We are living on this planet; this planet is our home. The whole planet. It is said the whole planet is a family of one God. And there is only one God. But from time to time, God manifests or incarnates in different places. Therefore, we have, or we should, respect all manifestations of God because it is the same God who is incarnating here or there or somewhere else. The person who does not understand God's different aspects or God's incarnations does not understand at all what God is. That person who doesn't accept or cannot grasp the different aspects of God is like a frog in a small pond. The person who does not recognize the aspects of God is like a frog in a small pond. That frog thinks, "My world is the biggest world. This is all, this is everything." But someone takes this frog and puts it into a big lake or ocean. Then the frog opens its eyes and says, "Oh my God, I thought my pond was everything, but this is bigger than my pond." So the one who takes you from the small pond to the big ocean is the Gurudeva. He opens your eyes to the realization that what we understand as God is much more than what we know. So thanks to Sanātana Dharma in the world and thanks to the yogīs—and I would say this word maybe you don't like, but only yogīs have this realization of tolerance towards all God's aspects or religions. Thanks to the principle of Sanātana Dharma and the yogīs. I would say, yes, only the yogīs actually have the greatest tolerance and the greatest respect towards all of God. Therefore, if the yogic consciousness is awakened in everyone, there will be no fighting. The yogī doesn't tell you, "Don't believe this and believe only that." And that's what we need: universal consciousness. That is very important. Yoga is the way to God, the real God, not to the border of the pond, but to the endless. Yoga is the way to the Self, and this is the teaching of the Master. More teaching of Jesus: one day Jesus was sitting with his disciples and he told them, "Follow me, I am the way to the Father." This means the Master is telling the disciples to follow his teachings; these teachings will bring you to the Father or to God. So we need the teachings, free thinking. The world is suffering, and we know day by day terrible things happen. Many families are suffering, many men die in war, many children are suffering, many women remain at home alone. You know that every country doesn't have the system of automatically getting a pension like Austria. Can you imagine having a few children and your husband died in the war, and that woman remains alone at home? She has no profession and no work. We are very happy now and we are doing well here, but there are millions of people who are not happy. If it is said, "Love your neighbor, love your next one," then help all, and also the animals. You know, there was a bird flu, an infection. Do you know how many millions of chickens were just burned and killed? All their lives, they put them in a big bag and put it in the fire. Can you imagine? It doesn't matter which animal or the human. All feel this fire, all feel if their leg is broken, they feel the fear. So "love your next" is not only humans, or not only husband and wife, or mother and father, but all people of the country. At present, in many countries of this world, women are suffering. They have children, they have no job, no income, and no land. And if then this climate changes, there is no rain. So those ladies and those children, they need our help. Why does this happen? Because people say, "My God is the best God, my religion is the best religion, my culture is the best culture." And this is the reason. We must, or we should, educate people spiritually. But we should not educate fanatically. We have to educate people to think openly, to accept every aspect of God. That is why many people have a problem: they have a problem seeing Kṛṣṇa beside Jesus, or they have a problem seeing the Buddha beside Kṛṣṇa. This is the problem because people are educated with narrow thinking and say, "Only this God, only your father." This is the cause of all suffering, and this is also the reason why many people leave religion, and that's the reason why many people don't want their children to be educated religiously. Therefore, yogic teaching, yogic philosophy, yogic realization is wide—a horizon which you never reach. The horizon is, the nearer you come, the farther it goes. This is very important. Understand this picture which I told you. That mother, how is she going to feed her children? She does. But how? So we shall pray for them, and we shall help them. You know, we are fighting to reduce the kilos constantly. That's the biggest problem. You are angry when you are mourning on the scale, looking at kilos. And there are some people who are fighting to gain a little weight. Because you have too much, you eat too much, you eat junk food. Eat a little methi, your weight will be very equal. And put the rose petals in your tea if you have a problem with aggression, if you have a problem with your aggression with yourself or with others. I heard a very nice lecture here about the changes of the years of the ladies. You are sweating, and this and that, different problems. Menstruation changes, what a climatic issue. It was very interesting. Who understands the woman? Very few men. If men will understand women, it will be a happy family. But unfortunately, it's not understood enough. Why is it not cooked? Why is it not cleaned? Why is it not ironed? Why is it missing? And why not shopping, or shopping, shopping always? So women know what they are suffering, but still they are strong, so I admire them. This is what we heard through the lectures. I can tell you, yesterday I told you about methi, and you should begin, and I am sure you have begun already. Second, the rose petals. This is biological, organic, grown from Jadan. Keep it in your mouth instead of chewing gum, and make a one-week experiment. Then you will see all your temperament, your aggression, everything will calm down. You will experience the calmness, the peace in your mind. Put it in your tea, put it in your salad, put it in your yogurt, many, many things. So my concern is, at present, a spiritual education, a free thinker. And my concern is about those humans who lost their dear family members and who remained alone with a child or with children. Day by day we hear many, many tragedies which happen in the world. And at the same time, this pollution problem. When the pollution will be that far, no one can help. Then neither religion will help you, nor politics can help you. No one can help you. Then it's like an earthquake. That's the end. You can't drink anything, you can't eat anything. Whatever you touch will kill you. And we hope that time will not come. So yoga is that wisdom, those divine thoughts, divine teachings of those great saints. We can't be thankful enough to them. Therefore, we are to be free-thinking. Free yourself from the prison of narrow thinking. Only this God? Accept all divine aspects. Open your heart. Otherwise, you are the one who will remain the last, somewhere stuck up. That's it. So spirituality is different than we were taught because that was the selfish thinking of some people. How many sheep are in my yard? How big is my yard, my territory, my country? And we are still fighting for that. So let us give hands to everyone, and let Yoga in Daily Life come door to door and shore to shore, and work more scientifically, make some research work, and we will have some nice conference like this. It was very interesting, what we can do with our health and very simple exercises. But don't think that Yoga in Daily Life is only this movement of the head left and head up, or your stomach is like a hole or a bowl. We have different kinds of all exercises we have in Yoga in Daily Life, beginning with the simplest exercises and ending with the advanced. These are called āsanas. And when you can do this, then you have finished the whole course. Otherwise, you can decide yourself where you are.

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.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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