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God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, "Yoga-karma-su-kauśalam." Through karma yoga, through work, your yoga life will be successful. It is the best way to get rid of ego, the best way to get rid of pride, and the best way to purify your antaḥkaraṇa. If you have somewhere a little negative karma, then you are the right person to do karma yoga. Our beloved Gurujī, His Holiness Śrī Svāmī Madhavānandajī, used to say the highest principle, the greatest principle, is to serve. Service is the highest. It is said that once, God in Veṅkuṇḍa was measuring on a scale what is greater: mokṣa or selfless service. Surprisingly, on the scale, seva was heavier than liberation. Then God Viṣṇu himself decided, incarnating 24 times to serve this planet, to protect righteousness—the dharma—and to destroy adharma. Those who did not go through the training of karma yoga will find it hard to be successful in their yoga practice. There should be no hesitations when you have an opportunity to do seva. Honestly, don’t just say, "Okay, I cleaned one window, and that’s enough." That is not it. If you clean one window, or half a window, or a quarter of the window, never say, "I cleaned it; I cleaned half the window." No, then you didn’t clean it—that’s it. We have a program for the Karma Yogīs. Karma Yogīs enjoy here more than others. First, they have the privilege to have the first breakfast, the first lunch, and also the first dinner. Karma Yogīs have the privilege to often have a warm drink or cold drink—meaning good water, good yogic chai, herbal chai, and Indian chai. Of course, there are many who drink coffee, and we do not prohibit them from having one coffee a day. So they are enjoying. Not only this, they are enjoying their practice of prāṇāyāma, meaning breathing in such beautiful nature. You can buy everything in the cities, but you cannot buy this air which we have here. One month’s pollution that you inhale in the city—here in Strelka Ashram, within one day, you can purify your lungs. You can’t buy this with anything; you can’t compare it with anything. Our Karma Yogīs have the priority to inhale and exhale and do prāṇāyāma in beautiful organic gardens, in orchard gardens, and in meadows. Not only this, but through doing their seva, they have the time to think over their past life, their present situation, and their future life, and to get inner answers. The best answer you have is your inner answer. Our karma yogīs are guided nicely according to the yogic principle of how to do karma, what you have to do while making karma. Especially in the summer programs and now in this special retreat, I will have beautiful instructions only for the karma yogīs. Our Karma Yogīs enjoy the atmosphere of this āśram, the spirituality, as all others do, and they also have the opportunity to attend the satsaṅgs. Satsaṅg is a boat to cross the ocean of ignorance. Satsaṅg is the only path which can lead you to the highest. Satsaṅg can be with one person or with thousands. And also the prayers and early morning Brahma-muhūrta meditation. So it means our Karma Yogīs have more qualities. Our Karma Yogīs have more benefit. And our Karma Yogīs, at the same time, have their yoga programs and exercises. Dear listeners around the world and in this hall, I invite you: wherever you have the ashram of yoga and daily life, come and do the karma Śiva. You will never forget in your life those golden minutes, hours, days, months, and years where you do the Śiva. If you run away from doing karma yoga, it means you are running away from your inner problems, which must be solved. But you cannot solve them if you are not surrendered, if you have not purified your antaḥkaraṇa—manas, buddhi, citta, and ahaṃkāra—and if you have not mastered your ego and the pride of your age. That thought—"I am very young, and I have such beautiful hands, and my fingers, they are so nice, and when I work in the earth, my God, my fingers feel not so good"—this is your ego. Fingers are for what? Not for sewing like this, not only looking here and putting like this. And your beautiful nails are not only to polish and talk to your husband like this. Hence, Kabīr Dājī Mahārāj, a great saint, said God gave you these hands to give something, donate something, help something. So you have the ego of your young age. You have ego of your beauty and ego of your money. "I am from a rich family, how can I work at home? I have five people who are working for me in my garden. One who brings and serves me tea and says, 'Madam, Madam...'" No, that is ego. In the ashram, everyone is a king and everyone is a servant. And pride of nationality, money, positions—this is what makes humans crazy. Human beings begin to make distinctions through such a modern education, making distinctions of positions, money, countries, wealth, development, and no development. So this ashram is here to get repaired. Your vehicle needs repairing. Your vehicle needs service, karma. Therefore, God Kṛṣṇa said, "Yoga karmasu kauśalam." O Arjuna, through selfless seva, your yoga practices will be successful. Help the needy ones and work for everyone. Animals are also doing for their own family and for their own children. But it does not mean that you should neglect your family. No, you should do for your family also; it is your dharma. Your dharma is to look after your children, and your dharma is to look after your parents. It is your dharma to look after your partner, and it is your dharma to look after your friends and colleagues. A human is completely bound with so many obligations, and you are capable of being successful and following every duty. Then your yoga agni will become strong. So it is said: yoga agni, karma dagdhani. Through the fire of yoga, all your karmas will be roasted. All karmas will be burned, and it means you become pure. Off you go. Where? To Brahmaloka. Others were meditating and meditating and didn’t come even from Czech to Austria, or from Europe to America. How to come to the Brahmaloka? That is a very secret and very beautiful thing. Therefore, that kind of Śiva you cannot do if you don’t have love in your heart. In your hands you have the work, and in your mouth you have God’s name. And in your hearts, you have great peace. Therefore, God Viṣṇu tells Nārada, "O Nārada, ’Nāhaṁ vasāmi Veṅkuṇḍe’—I am not living in Veṅkuṇḍa, nor ’Nā yogī-ke hṛde’—also not in the heart of the yogīs who are meditating, and so on, but I am living there where my Bhakta remembers me and sings my song, names my name. I am with them in their heart, I am." And so that is the khaṛam yogī who is working with love. He works for his Lord. You are not working for anybody, but you are working for that Almighty One. And you are working actually for you, because you know through such a seva you will achieve the highest position, highest consciousness. So in reality, you are a selfist also, but this is a healthy selfist. Therefore, many, many bhaktas who are sitting here have here a duty or privilege, an opportunity to make karma yoga or seva.