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In English, there is a saying: "My work is my worship." This is true. Your work is not merely for earning money or securing your bread and butter; it is to create beauty in this world through your talents and intuitions. In the past, people did not work solely for money. They worked to create something beautiful, and we can still see this legacy in architecture. The old buildings—100, 200, 300, 500 years old or more—reveal immense artistic work. Creating such work requires talent and time. Today, we buy a plot, give a contract, and ask how many months it will take to build a house. That is all. In the past, houses were built for generations. For those builders, money was not the primary concern. Beauty, harmony, and balance within human society and with nature were paramount. This was perfectly done, and this is called active meditation. Passive meditation originated more from ashram life or yogic life, where people meditated in caves and huts. This practice slowly spread to the West, into what we call the monastery system. Even now, many monks and nuns meditate and pray in monasteries. Within this monastic system, meditation was also divided into two parts. One is called sevā—helping, service. Through this, they create humanitarian projects: hospitals, care for the ill, or building rehabilitation centers. This, too, became a spiritual practice known as active meditation. Active meditation affects your consciousness, your mind, and definitely your soul. It is a means to come out of negative karma. Human life is given to overcome negative karma, which in the West is called sin. Any bad deed is a sin, and we call it bad karma. Any good act is the opposite of sin; it is called good or pious. It purifies our consciousness, purifies our mental thoughts, and frees us from karma. Yet, you may still not feel that you have established a relationship with yourself. Many questions remain unanswered. For that, there is passive meditation. Passive meditation means withdrawing yourself from the external world. You become one with yourself. You try to understand what the world is, you try to understand your inner world. You try to understand what good qualities exist in you and what the bad qualities are—how to earn or cultivate the good qualities and how to purify the negative ones. In meditation, you discover what negative quality within you disturbs others, even if you do not feel you possess it. Still, there is a problem: people run away from you; people do not like to be friends with you. You have problems with colleagues, neighbours, partners, relatives, and you do not understand why. There is something you do not know. It is like a black spot on your back—everyone sees it, but you do not. Meditation is the technique through which you find out what quality or attitude in your behaviour, consciously or unconsciously, disturbs others. When you come to know this, you try to purify yourself. Sometimes, our ego does not want to surrender. Sometimes we think we are right and others are not, even when we are not right and are disturbing others without realizing it. There is a story: One man, at midnight, was going around the street. There was a lot of snow, very cold like today. He was shouting and screaming, and people could not sleep. Some tried to tell him to shut up, but he did not listen, so they called the police. A policeman came and said, "Gentleman, please do not shout; do not make noise because people are sleeping. Why are you shouting?" The man replied, "You do not know. You are policemen. It is your duty to do what I am doing. When you are not doing it, then I have to do it." The police asked, "Do what?" The man said, "There are so many wild elephants; I have to hunt them away." The police said, "But there are no elephants." The man replied, "Yes, I know. I hunt them away; that is why there are no elephants." You see, we always think we are right, but unfortunately, sometimes we are not. So, learn to be humble. Learn to accept. Then you can achieve spiritual development. Otherwise, you will have neither inner peace nor peace with your colleagues, families, and friends. Therefore, passive meditation means withdrawing your senses and thoughts from the external world and, for the time being, being with thyself. Yesterday we spoke about five points you should contemplate every morning when you get up: 1. I am human. (I explained this in detail yesterday.) 2. What does it mean for me to be human? 3. What makes me human? 4. How to cultivate those qualities which make me human? 5. What is the mission of my life, or what is my dharma, my duty, my obligation in this world? Do I fulfill my obligations, or do I run away? These are the five questions: I am human. What makes me human? What does it mean to be human for me? Which qualities make me human, and how to develop them? And what is the mission of my life? If you contemplate this, you will understand human life. We humans have some high aims in this life. Eating, sleeping, having children—animals can also do that. But human consciousness, the human spirit, is different. This life is very precious. It will not be given to us again and again. It is only a chance. Do not waste this life in ignorance. Become aware of your time as a human. Many things happen in life, good and bad, but the most terrible tragedy is for a human to die without God-realization or self-realization. There is only one God, and that is the God in which every religion believes. Different names, different forms, but it is only one. There is one woman. One man says, "She is my sister." A second says, "She is my daughter." A third says, "She is my wife." A fourth says, "She is my mother." A fifth says, "She is my grandmother." Now, the one who says 'grandmother' believes her only as a grandmother. If you tell him, "She is my daughter," he will be angry. "She is not a daughter; she is a grandmother." Another says, "No, she is my wife." This is the condition of religion. The person is the same: daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother. But the person is the same; the relations are different. From which side do you see? So, whether a Hindu God, a Christian God, or the Islamic God—anyone's God—is only one. Truth is one. God is one. Only our imagination and relations are different. You cannot tell the person who says, "She is my daughter," "Do not believe she is your daughter; call her grandmother." That is how conflict grows in the world. So, God is one, residing within every creature, and you have a higher consciousness. You can realize that. You can open your heart. The question is: what are you thinking? Today, we will have a meditation on the subject of thoughts. Adjust yourself in a comfortable way. Remember, I told you yesterday: always meditate with a beautiful cotton shawl. This is to keep your spiritual energy within yourself, to protect from outer pollution. Therefore, even if it is very hot, if you have a very thin cotton shawl, you will feel very pleasant; if it is cool, you will feel nice and warm. Some people like to cover even the head to avoid outer noises, cold drafts, or wind. You will see many people like to meditate like this. It protects us from flies and mosquitoes. It is a beautiful feeling; you feel protected, you feel your bioenergy, and it is something beautiful. The colour does not matter—choose the colour you like—though some colours have meanings. Some colours attract flies and mosquitoes. But the orange colour is like fire. Wild cats, tigers, and lions are afraid to attack the orange colour because it resembles fire. This also applies to bears. Have you been in the High Tatras? Did you meet a big bear? Luckily not. Do you know what you should do when you meet a big bear, or a grizzly bear? Orange. I did not know this two years ago. I was in Canada, leading a seminar in the mountains. Everyone was meditating. Swami Gajanan was leading the meditation. I just wanted to walk around the house block. There was a storm, and a big tree had fallen. I was climbing slowly over the trunk, through many branches—not easy—but I managed to climb to the other side and cross. Then I walked ten meters, and on a hill, I saw a big bear looking at me, with a baby. You cannot imagine how quickly I crossed back over that tree. It took me four minutes to go, but maybe fifteen seconds to return. Then I asked the Canadians what to do when you meet a bear. They said, "Yes, there is a technique. You make yourself bigger." How should I make myself bigger? If it were our master Devapurījī or Mahāprabhujī, they could make themselves big. They taught me a technique: raise your hands and do like this. Then the bear will be afraid and think, "Oh, God, you are very big." That is it. If you have an orange cloth, they will not attack. But thanks to God, we are in Bratislava, and there are different bears here. You should use a mantra given by your master. A mantra is like the soul in the body. Without a mantra, meditation is like a stone statue. Take your mālā in your hand and make yourself very comfortable so that you can sit for several minutes without moving.