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This evening, the subject is also about family. Most of all, you sitting here are family members—householders, mothers, fathers, children. Many of you are great parents. Now, where we are speaking about Patañjali, all these chittavṛttis, nirodha, discipline, and different difficulties in life, it’s not that you run away from your family life. Those who try to run away are stuck in family life again, like a honey and a fly. It is not easy. But for those who wish, it can be easy. Many of you, dear listeners around the world, are mostly householders—working in offices, engaged in different professions, teaching. How would you manage to follow the instructions of Patañjali? Can we achieve what Patañjali is saying, or can we not? It speaks about dharma—the principles, the obligations. So, for the householder, their sādhanā, their spiritual path, will be completed if they are able to educate their children. When you have a child and you are not able to educate them, here is your clear picture that you have failed. You failed on your spiritual path. It means a clear picture is within you that you are not able to see. If you would be capable to master thyself, then automatically your children will understand and follow you. For a householder, the first dharma, the first duty: dharma means duty, dharma means obligation, dharma means responsibility, dharma means principle, and dharma also means religion. Because religion also speaks of discipline and following ethical principles in life, and giving ethical education to children. In this modern civilization, man has separated from man. Five members in the family are all separated. Everyone becomes individualistic. Everyone lost confidence in each other, and especially in the parents. How does it happen that your children lost confidence in you? This is your inner picture because you do not have confidence in yourself. You are not sure. If you would be, automatically your fellow family members will follow your footsteps. In our modern school education, unfortunately, the ethical education is missing. Just a handful of people make a kind of research work and write articles, and we have such education ministers in different countries who have no idea what education is. The ministers are chosen by the majority, but they are not selected by this minority of the politicians themselves. The health minister doesn’t have any ideas about health. The health minister should be some professors, doctors, surgeons who have perfect knowledge about anatomy, medicine, psychology, and all other medicines, and to understand the persons and illnesses. Then you will be a successful health minister. And such a health minister will implement in the country, in the schools, something which is good for the children and good for the people. There are ministers for nourishment and consuming, and they have no ideas about nourishment. Because someone would like to sell the meat or alcohol, and it is implemented, and they got the money from them. They have no idea about vegetarian life, healthy life, or a healthy way of life. This is a problem. In old times, ancient times, people were chosen who had perfect knowledge about their position, their part of functions in the country. Now everything is with money, power, or some kind of protection. Victims are we. And in many countries, parents cannot say anything to the children. Yes, if parents have nothing to say to children, then who is going to say? So, these are the vikṣepas, disturbances, kleśas, troubles, kliṣṭa vikṣepas. Sometimes one is sitting and thinking, "My God, if I had known this before, I would not have had children." But this is also not a solution. The humans will die out. But, of course, all will not think like this. And we have enough people around the world. And if in your country there are fewer humans, there are many countries that would like to come and help you, no problem. Why not? Both hands clean together. Therefore, the situation is this: we do not have support even from the government side. If they knew about the subject, they would support us. There are some rare countries that care about the spiritual growth of their people. There are no parties which would support them with open thinking, free thinking, or tolerance, and making manana, the thoughts, for the spiritual and ethical development of their countries. All countries are running behind money, constructions, this and that, to become one day a superpower. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or whatever you have, you will never be a superpower. There is only one superpower, that’s Almighty God. If you claim that you are the superpower, this can be destroyed within no time. That supreme power, cosmic power, comes, and all your superpower is collapsed. Where are you? What do these people think? That is what we call higher education, academic education. The world’s cultures find fulfillment in spiritualities, and this is destroyed by so-called high education. People became one-sided, and they lost the reality. Therefore, yoga is something which brings humans back again to their heart, and then from the heart comes back to the brain. Our thoughts, what we are thinking, should be colored in your heart with the color of love, with the color of compassion, with the color of mercy, with the color of understanding, and with the color of that knowledge which will make everyone comfortable and happy. Spiritual development will be there. The thoughts from the brain going out without touching the heart, or without a deep, heartfelt color, these thoughts are like a plastic apple. Therefore, we have to come back to the heart to understand. So-called we, the religious leaders around the world, are also fighting that my religion is the best. That is another war in the world. Political war and religious war, and then there is a third war that’s called a cultural war: my culture, their culture; my mentality, their culture. So how do we imagine that, being a household in this turbulent world, we cannot say this or that? We have to keep silent. Otherwise, you are in trouble. Yes, unfortunately, like this. So, how? Patañjali, what is he advising us? What should we do? Well, it is said nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. Begin with the grassroots work. Have self-confidence, and for the self-confidence to keep to your discipline, you have to face many, many obstacles. Yesterday and today we were walking, every day we are walking. We get up from our bed, we walk to the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the toilet, and so on. Today on the walk, when the hundreds of people, thousands of people were walking—one thousand people, how many feet, legs do we have? How many? How did it come? Now, 2,000 feet walking on that particular space on the ground, and I saw there was a very gentle plant again. The ground stood up and was blossoming a flower on it. Yes, that was a will. Ask this small, gentle plant how many feet were on you. Yes, 12 days, every day, 2,000 feet, or let’s say 1,000. So, 12,000 times was, how to say, pressed under your foot sole. But again, the inner strength, little drops, water came, and in the morning we went this time, and I saw how beautiful this is. And on the way, all are walking there. So that small, tiny plant gave me the vṛtti. But Patañjali speaks about vṛtti, and the subject is about the vṛttis. And abhyāsa, strength, confidence in the good power to achieve, to come there, it’s not easy. The mountain peak looks beautiful from a far distance. But to reach that, you have to walk; it is not easy. Very often the thoughts will come, "My God, what am I doing? Why am I climbing this mountain up?" No, I go back. But when you are at the peak of the mountain, then you don’t breathe. You say, "Oh, beautiful." What a wonderful view. That is an achievement. But if you stop your project, you stop your work, you stop your sādhanā, you will not come to the peak. So, for a household, the first thing is, for everyone, for all creatures, for all creation, the first thing is good health. First, happiness is a healthy body or health. That’s why in the Vedas it is said, "Peace for all and good health. All should be happy." This kind of thought is given to us. First is our health, second is your inner confidence. If you are not inwardly healthy, you will always change your opinion. You will change your path, you will change your mantras, you will change your masters, you will change wife or husband. Who is changing? I didn’t experience this. Does husband change the wife, or wife change the husband? This can only... Your answer is always changing, which means inside you didn’t find what you were searching for. So, also for householders and everyone, this is to find inner contentment. Without inner contentment, you will not be happy, and you will not be successful. And constantly changing is not advisable because, let’s say you walk half an hour towards the peak of the mountain, then you change, you come down again for 15 minutes, then you again make your mind to go up, and then again you come down. Then you go straight to the other side, and then you will never come back up. And you will never get up like that. Another thing, the husband and wife should make a saṅkalpa and prayer, purify the body, purify the thoughts, and wait for a beautiful constellation. You should consult with a good astrologer. There are many astrologers, but this astrologer is Phil Gilogan. But there is a certain constellation when husband and wife decide to have a child, and on this constellation, you will have the child, that sparkling star of the heaven. But now these children are born out of alcohol. Husband is drunk, wife is scared and angry, and quarreling. First, purify the environment. Purify the body, purify the thoughts, and pray according to that God which you believe in, or you don’t believe, but some principles, pure energy. But with this, the husband and wife must have a saṅkalpa that, "Lord, my child—it doesn’t matter, daughter or son—my child should be that child who will continue my work, my path, my spirituality, and my humanitarian, veterinarian, and environmental projects." That my child will create, you are replacing your child. You give to the hand of your children the whole culture of your house, the tradition of your house, the relations of your house. Everything you give in children’s hands with this kind of confidence that they will lead further. And so is also the master, constantly praying for that disciple who will continue this paramparā, who will have this light, this strength. So in sannyāsa, in the yogic way, there is a spiritual lineage, paramparā. But in the family, there is also this paramparā, what we call the dynasty. Every family has a dynasty. Your child is born to replace you. And when the child is born, you are happy, but you should know. Now, the lord of the house is already here. Slowly, slowly, now, as Patañjali said, make vairāgya to hand over everything to your children, and you go for meditation, retirement. This retirement system, what we have now, is different. In the ancient system, there are four pillars of life, the four quarters of life: childhood, the student life (brahmacarya), family life (gṛhastha), preparing for retirement (vānaprastha), and sannyāsa, you are retired and detached. For a sannyāsī to go back to the home, it is a sin. You retired, you renounced, you cannot come back. For a sannyāsī, when he goes home, his bag is like you spit it, but you say, "No, no, I will lick it back." Can you lick it back while you spit? Except chocolate, good. That’s it. And similarly, for the household, when you have children, then you prepare and you give it to them. And thanks to God, around the world in this system of the governments, what you call, you have pension, you get your retirement pension, and you live from that. Good, thanks to God, they give you a little pension. Why? Because if you get more pension, then you have a pension. You are always planning, "Now I go to holidays there. Now I go to holidays there." Why? All days are holy days. Remain, meditate. You don’t need to go anywhere, and what you eat, very little. And that’s why the pension is also very little. That’s it. So I admire some certain system of government is good, that you get a little pay. You have no expenditure; all you have is given to children. Electricity, telephone, they should pay. You go and retire in a small hut. What do you need? Few potatoes and half a cup of milk. Don’t eat more, otherwise you will die quickly after 45 years. Our eating should be reduced by 60%, then we can have another 45%. So we are not dying from not eating, but we are eating for dying. Do we live for eating, or eat for living? Of course, we live for eating, and that is all the problem. We don’t eat for living. It’s very difficult to say no. Today I got my lunch salad. Dobrá chapati. Then came a bowl full of fruit salad with cream, and that is the problem with our health. Now it looks nice and sweet. Okay, I ate a little of this. And then came something more. This is this, too much. So good that you are alone somewhere in retirement. Or you and your wife don’t have a lot of energy to prepare food, we will be eating, and we will not have much interest. So, the first duty of the household is to educate children in a good way. Second, maintain peace, harmony, love, and understanding within the family. Once I was sitting in some car, my family took me. I was on the road, stopping somewhere in Europe a long time ago. It was raining, summer, and I had one suitcase. And some man stopped, and his wife said, "Okay, she will sit back side, he can sit in the front." And there was written, I know you are a good driver. So I asked him, "What does it mean? You write here, ’You are a good driver.’" He said, He says, "Mister, it’s not for you." I said, "Thank you. There are so many co-drivers correcting the driver. Take care, red light." Of course, he’s driving with open eyes. Why do you think the red light? Take care, somebody’s taking over. Oh God, somebody’s coming to the front. So, the person doesn’t mean bad. The person would like to make sure that you know. But sometimes it goes to the nerves. And that person is called the soul, the nerve soul, the cutting nerves. It means that partner, he or she at home, has so many arguments. So the joy or happiness and harmony of a family life, for which you married, is lost. And many people have this problem. So quickly it’s lost, you can’t imagine. How was it when you got married, and you decided to marry, and you got a wedding card and this and that? And how are your feelings now? Maybe you kept your wedding card at home. Can you read it again? So, second, that our family should have mutual understanding: husband and wife, mutual understanding; children, mutual understanding. Now, what do I mean to educate children? Educate yourself. You should behave, both husband and wife, in such a way that children automatically will learn how to live. You are an example for the children; you are that picture for them. But when you have no harmony and understanding, then children don’t take it seriously. So, for your... That you have good health, practice āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, pray every day according to your beliefs, and love your children in such a way that they feel that, yes, really you love them. After two, three, or four years, they don’t feel that you love them. And all they go to sit somewhere and look at the television and this and that. I was in Australia, and one family was there, and they had one son. While his mother was cooking, she said to her son—he was about five years old only. You can see the children’s films she put on television. And he came to mother and said, "No, mother, I want to see how you are cooking. I want to be with you in the kitchen, and I don’t want to see the table." She said, of course, you are welcome. She brought a chair. He sat on the chair because the workbench was too high for this small child. And he was sitting there. She said, "No, knife not." But you can give me one piece by one, and I will cut the vegetable. Okay, mother. That child, I am observing him. The last 18 years, I became a very, very good person. Everyone admires him, and Mother didn’t say, "Don’t look at him, come and sit beside me." So how you behave, like that your children will behave. And lucky are they who have such children. There are some which are not like this. And then, when everyone is sleeping, then you meditate. So the householder used to say, "My Lord, you gave me this life. My life is a ceremony to you—mera jīvan terī pūjā. My life is worship for you. My entire being, whatever I do, is worship for you, my Lord." Take care of me. So, as a householder, you must have many vṛttis, and definitely, we have good days, good news, bad days, bad news: health problems, school problems, job problems. Many, many,... many things, and we have to think. So, that time, before 2,500 years, Patañjali, when he was saying there were not so many humans and all were happy, they had one cow and milk, many fruits. Wherever you go in the forest, they were so big, nice fruits, so sweet and good. You eat two fruits and you didn’t need to eat anything now. When we walk to the forest, there are so few berries, and even these berries are poisonous. You can’t eat them. Thanks to God, they are only left for the birds. Nature disappeared. Fruit trees disappeared. Look at beautiful... Agriculture and the thoughts of the farmers, let’s say in the Czech Republic or Slovakia and other countries of Europe, at the end of their land they planted always fruit trees: apples, pears, peaches, and so many fruit trees. And now, what are we doing? Oh, these old trees, they are ill. We chip them off, and we put there some other kind of trees, not fruit trees. This is the thought: they were planting fruits for all who will walk, will have one piece of fruit. And now we said, "Oh, creating flies, we destroy." The science, this was a science, a science for living, but now it is living without any sense. There is no science in it. As a householder, you keep in your heart your mantra. You keep in your heart the presence of God. You pray to God for your happy family. Lord, that my family is healthy, happy, and harmonious, and work to feed them. And create a beautiful relation with the neighbors. That becomes a society. And bring the spiritual, positive thoughts. We shall try to give a trust to humanity that, as your neighbor, I am not your enemy; I am your friend. But how many people do we not trust our neighbors? A neighbor doesn’t trust us. This is the problem. So, Patañjali is saying about this instruction to those yogīs who had a nice wife. When the husband said, "I will meditate," she said, "Okay." And now, when the husband tells the wife, "I will meditate," she says, "No." Go for shopping. But Patañjali’s time, there was no shops for shopping, where everything was there. So you need love and understanding. Then, when you meditate in the evening or morning and pray, your thoughts will calm down. Automatically, many, many vṛttis: "Mera jīvan terī pūjā." My life is a worship to thee, O my Lord. Rest of time, "Ab samp diyā is jīvan kā sab bhār tumhāre. Ab samp diyā is jīvan kā." My Lord. All the responsibility of my life I gave him. That was, and that is still, not everywhere, but mostly in villages it remains. High, high life and very high education—what do you call, doctor, doctor... daughter and the son also. I can’t promise you from them. I speak about those beautiful, nice farmers. It was advised by ṛṣis, by great saints, cool gurus, the gurus of your dynasty, to have at home an altar. Doesn’t matter which religion you believe in. In the home, in the corner, a nice place, while going out of the home, you greeted Kaltar to take care of your life, and while coming home, you greeted also. Before going to sleep, and as soon as the sunset was there. They put on the candle or the oil lamp or the ghee lamp, and this agarbatti or this, what you call, this kind of gum dhūp. So we used to have a dhūp, this is some tree gums, and this smells nice. Pūjā jis ghar meṅ ho, terī āratī, in that house, in Guru Gītā, said, "Oh Lord, well, āratī to you." Ceremony to you. So what happens in your house when you come? A person comes back, and instead of agarbatti, it’s a cigar. And instead of the holy water, there is vodka or cognac. What will God do there? There will come these asuras. You experienced asuras in heaven took over. Asurīśakti is the most powerful one, and now also too. So, culture this tradition throughout the whole world. The humans had in their house their patrons of their house when they traveled. It’s not only blind belief. It is true you are protected by some higher consciousness, and God is there with you in such a belief. And that bhakta said, "Now give all my responsibilities, these sorrows of my life, in your hands." I don’t care if now I will be successful or I will not be successful, because it is in your hands. Dīn bandhu dīnānāth, merī ḍorī tere hāth. O Lord of the weak ones, the rope or the string of my life is in your hands. Please, sometimes move the string toward you so that I can come closer. We are like the puppets in the hands of the Lord’s divine will. In this way, the household leading Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, and Rāja Yoga all hold different kinds of yoga at the same time. And the household is doing one of the biggest, greatest works for God. That they continue his creation. You are getting children; you are helping God. Yes, God is more happy with you because all will become sannyāsīs. Then God will say, "Now where are my children? No more help for them." This will be, the whole world will be dried out. So, don’t be. God doesn’t care if you are married or not. God doesn’t care. He cares only how pure your heart and your thoughts are. And how are you content? Lord, wherever I am, I am happy. In which condition and in which situations do you remember God? And so, through this, we will fulfill the statements of the ṛṣis. So, for a householder, vairāgya means to give up that anger, give up that greed, give up those conflicts and egos towards others. That is your vairāgya. Simple, but with higher thinking: God forgive us. God be with us. Lord protect us all, all of us, not only in some countries. They say, "God bless this country." We said no, "God bless the entire world." All countries are God’s country, and all. So, these were instructions on how to lead a spiritual life while being a householder. The prime duty is that your children have that feeling and love, and spiritual followers, that they will complete your spiritual life. They are your successors. Their complete success will be your success, and their children’s success will be theirs. One after another, the chain is uniting. Chain work. If your children are not following you, then it means you didn’t try enough to develop yourself spiritually, and you have no confidence, you have no certainty, and you have the fear, and that’s why you couldn’t do it. You failed, and when you failed to Keiko Chorasi, who has failed. Go again to this creation, Chorāsī Lākh, 8.5 million creature cycle. You are again in that line. So beautiful. Don’t think, "What will I do?" You will do a lot of work, beginning with the grassroots, step by step. It can happen that in your family, no one respects you for being spiritual. Don’t do that. You work step by step, continuously, step by step by step. One day they will be proud of you. One day they will be proud of you. That’s it.