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Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome to this weekend retreat, and a special welcome to our international brothers and sisters, practitioners of Yoga and spiritual seekers. This blessing comes to you from Śrī Gurujī Ashram in Vienna, Austria. This weekend is dedicated to meditation, theory, and practice. Meditation is a part of Yoga; it is the seventh step of Rājayoga: Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, and the seventh is dhyāna, meaning meditation, followed by samādhi. It is suggested that one should go through this Aṣṭāṅga Yoga step by step. Aṣṭāṅga means the eight limbs or eight steps of Yoga. That's called Rājayoga. Rāja means king. And here the king means your Ātmā, the governing force in our existence. In all our different bodies, consciousness, mind, everything is governed by one king, and that is our ātmā. Tū man indriyon kā rājā, ātmā antaryāmī, tū mat kar unkī gulāmī. You are the king of your mind and your senses. This is, O my inner Lord, my inner God, Ātmā. So Aṣṭāṅga Yoga is the way to oneself. It contains all different kinds of Yoga. If we follow discipline, definitely we will achieve the eighth step of Yoga, Samādhi, the final step. Every one of us would like to achieve that level of consciousness. Not only we who are sitting here, but all millions or billions of people around the world. It doesn't matter which kind of spiritual path they are following or which belief they have. The final aim is to be with God, to be one with God. And that God for all is only one: omniscient and omnipresent. He is the ruler of the entire universe, and His presence is in every creature's heart. It doesn't matter if it is human or other creatures. Consciously or unconsciously, everyone is searching for the way back to the origin. Even a small ant is day and night busy to be happy. And that happiness is the nature of that ātmā, and that ātmā is the self. Humans also try many different things to be happy. Some search for money, some to be more beautiful physically, some stand for hours in front of mirrors doing their hair and applying makeup. Someone searches for a partner, and someone changes partners. Some go to eat at particular places, particular food, different kinds of dressing. For what? To be happy. But happiness is within us, not outside in the external world. That happiness can only be realized through meditation, prayers, following disciplines, and Guru Kṛpā. We do so many things to be happy, but still we are not happy. We get some kind of happiness, but it doesn't last long, and again we are unhappy. Our inner self searches for everlasting happiness, and that is Ātmā Jñāna, knowledge of the self. Between the self and our present consciousness, there is a big barrier, a big wall, which doesn't let us come through. That's called attachment or moha. We are more aware of our physical world and our physical being. We are attached to this body, to our friends, relatives, parents, children, to our house, car, money, property. We think we cannot survive without this. Though we know it's not a reality—one day we have to give up everything—we still seek happiness in this temporary world. In all of this, our mind is one of the main principles. Our mind is playing with us. Our mind connects us with our senses and brings back our inner reality into our consciousness, to our intellect. Man lobhī, man lālacī, man cañcal man cor, man kī mate na chalīye, ghaṛī palak man aur. Man is greedy; man is full of greed. Mind is restless, and mind is a thief, which steals everything away from you. Don't follow your mind. Every hour and every second, your mind is different, changing. Therefore, meditation means to come above, come over this restlessness of the mind, like waves on a peaceful lake or waves on the ocean. Thus, yama and niyama are principles to be followed in everyday life: to follow the rules and regulations of the world and endure your inner feelings, control your mind, senses, and so on. Then the āsanas, to sit peacefully. It's not easy to sit peacefully. There is very hard work to be done, like building a house, cleaning the snow, or working in the field, on farms, in gardens. You are capable of working the whole day if someone tells you we will pay you double money and just remain seated the whole day, don't do anything. You can't. It will be boring. You will be tired, sleepy, restless. You will get up because we do not have still enough control or mastery over our body. As long as you do not master your āsanas, your postures, you cannot proceed. Yes, if you are physically disabled, you can sit on a chair or sofa; that doesn't matter. We know that through āsanas we will not get liberation. But wherever you are sitting, can you sit for one hour without becoming restless? If you cannot control your body, you cannot purify, control, and direct your prāṇa energy. Prāṇāyāma means prāṇa vyāyāma. Vyāyāma means exercise, training. Training of the prāṇa, not just breathing in and out, not the oxygen, but the ten different prāṇas: five upa-prāṇas and five prāṇas: prāṇa, samāna, vyāna, udāna, and the five upa-prāṇas: dhananjaya, and so on. This is an exercise. Your meditation or concentration can only be successful if you learn to control and keep your prāṇa healthy. Prāṇa creates a quality in your body. Even the hormones in the body depend on your prāṇa, and the quality of the prāṇa in the body also depends very much on the nourishment. The food, solid and liquid nourishment, influences your gland systems, your brain centers, organs, circulations, everything. This kind of nourishment influences your prāṇa, like when we open the window, fresh air comes in, and through other windows it goes out, and it takes the mixed energy or the mixed prāṇa; air from this room brings out a different quality. So the quality of the food colors our prāṇa, and it is that prāṇa which makes us happy, sad, scared, depressed, schizophrenic, hallucinatory, phobic, and causes all kinds of illnesses in the body. When the prāṇas are not flowing properly, the purification of the nourishment is not there. Due to the prāṇa not being under control, some desires, some feelings are not realized or freed. That will attack a certain part of the body and collect the quality of the prāṇa which is not good for us. It is polluted prāṇa, and that causes very heavy illness. So prāṇāyāma, prāṇa vyāyāma, is not only about sitting down and breathing in and out, inhale and exhale. That is also very good; it begins with this. Inhalation consciously through the Iḍā, and exhalation purifies our lungs and respiratory system. Our respiration is connected very much with the oxygen supplying into our blood, and with this blood, which is developing different kinds of hormones, and through the gland systems will develop different kinds of feelings. So it is important to practice āsanas. Our body is very gentle. Our body is just like a glass or a mirror. It doesn't take time to break a mirror or glass, and it doesn't take time to die. This body doesn't take time. We think we are the mighty ones, we can do all, and we will do. This is only your imagination, even if you are a bodybuilder. But the time is fixed there. There is a table; on the table, a string or a thread is lying, and one who is sitting down is slowly, slowly pulling the thread, and the thread is coming from the table down. The thread has its length, maybe one meter, and when one meter is pulled, it's gone, Hari Om. So life is called Vidhātā, Bhāgya. That's written in our destiny: how many breaths we will have, and then finished. Yogīs say God has given you the credit of the breath, and when that much breath you use, finished. No more credit there; empty. So the science of prāṇa says, the yogī says, that through supplying more oxygen and more cosmic energy, you can prolong your life. It means even destiny has to think over. But don't think that destiny is so weak? No, destiny has thousands of passive possibilities to attack you, to cut the thread. Finished? You have thousands of accidents now. Is it that I will not drive a car? No, accident? Accident can be an earthquake. You are sitting peacefully, relaxed. Who knows? The guest, customer, and date don't announce. Nowadays, guest is not a guest; they are visitors. There's a difference between guest and visitor. Guest is called Atithi. We don't know anything, and suddenly they come to the door and knock. That's called Atithi. Atithi devo bhava in the Upaniṣad says it. Guest is God. But that one who suddenly comes. Now, telephone, mobile many times, can you tell me which road is good, which side? You are not a guest, you are a visitor, that's all. The visitor, you are hanging somewhere. So guest is that who, without announcing, suddenly there it is. You are here, and the customer, you have a shop. Whole day, nobody came, no client came to buy anything, and five minutes before, you just close because no one came, and you go home, and the last minute, someone comes and makes the business with you, with millions of it. Or if you would have gone one minute before, hurry home, you lost. Therefore, a businessman, the owner of the shop or the company, never looks at the watch if they are successful, but employees will go 10 minutes earlier, will come 10 minutes late. There are employees even when someone comes, a client comes to buy, and you say, "I'm sorry, shop is time to close. Excuse me," because she has to go to her boyfriend, and closing quickly because she doesn't feel in the heart. Only that one feels the pain under whose skin the salt is going. Before, you don't feel. That's it. So if it is your own, then you feel something, but if you are just an employee, doesn't matter. End of the month, I will get my salary. Hurry home. And death, death will not tell you that tomorrow at 11 o'clock I will come suddenly. Therefore, always be ready. It is said: Chetan ho jāre mo musāfir, gaḍī āne vālī hai. Wake up. Be alert, oh traveler. The train is coming. The train will come and the train will go. It will not wait for you. That's it. And therefore, if you would like to achieve that highest level of consciousness, then you have to practice, my dear, and prāṇāyāma with the nourishment. So don't you eat what you like? Who, who does this? Like who? Only this part of the body. Did you ask this stomach? No, that's it. Just because the more feeling is here in this part of the body, and that's why... you like this and you don't like this. And our problem is liking and disliking. In this body, there are ten senses. Is tan mein indriyāṇ das hai. Tan means the body. Is tan mein indriyāṇ das hai. Koī pūre yogī ke vaś hai. They are rare yogīs who have under control these ten senses. Par do kā nahīṃ itbārā. But even for them, two they should not trust, you never know. Ek upas ek rachna. So the tasting and the sexual or the gender. These two, you never know suddenly when it's like you will be slippery on the ice. Minus how many degrees? Minus, minus, minus, freezing point, maybe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and suddenly. Route. You are going with your car, and a little slide, curve, and you say, "I'm a good driver." You go, brake, car will go like this. So alert. So through our sāttvic vegetarian diet, we can control a lot of feelings, aggressivities. The biggest problem is aggressivity. Aggressive with aggressivity, if you are aggressive, it means that much you are scared. Why are you aggressive? Because you are scared. These are both parallel to us. So as long as restlessness is there, there is no dhāraṇā. Dhāraṇā means concentration, and concentration is not easy because there are a lot of temptations. You think that you have good concentration, but there is one test to find out if we have good concentration or not. There's one little story. Should I tell you a story? The heads, my god, everybody said yes. So there was a king. Now, the ministers, president, okay, and the boss, the home boss... so the ruler, no, so the king, he had one daughter, and his daughter was very wise, very intelligent, very alert. Don't think that ladies are not like that. They are very wise, you know. You all ladies are thinking about Swamijī saying it's a dream. It's not a dream, ladies. There could be some among you also at that time, at the Vedic call, Vedic time, Vedic religion, it is said the girl had a choice to choose her husband. The boy couldn't choose even if he loves her very much, but that's only a dream. So that was a protection, and they now, the king would like that his daughter marries, and the daughter said she had some game to play. What do you call this? Chess. Yeah. And who will be the winner? That will be my husband. Sure, it was that she had one weapon in her, with her. And that was a cat. What? And the cat was sitting beside her. And she had one oil lamp on the head of the cat. As long as the cat will not move, she will be the winner, and if the cat moves and the light falls down, she will lose it. But the cat was so well-trained, doesn't matter what happened, she was sitting nicely there. Even she had eyes closed, but never moved her head. That's why such cats and the ladies, they are equal, carrying on the head a big water pot or anything, and walking like anything, talking, laughing, doing like this, hey look at that, but still their pot is motionless, no? Do you try? Did you try? No. What kind of women are you? You didn't try in your life. Tomorrow, take a 10-litre water pot, iron on the head, and then walk in your flat and talk to your husband. You did wrong and this, you don't... But this should be motionless. That's called dhāraṇā. What? Concentration. Dhāraṇā. Many beautiful boys came. Many princes came. But the princess Shin was always a winner. One man, he was also very intelligent, very alert, very clear thinker. So they told him that her trick and her winner is the cat. Cat will never move, light will not fall down and you cannot be a winner. That's all. He said, okay, I got, I will wean her. So he got one bamboo flute, thick one. And inside he tied one mouse, the tail of the mouse. So his mouse was inside. When the right time came to wean, he loosened the string of the mouse and mouse came little out of the bamboo. And what did cat do? Like this. Light fall down. And the princess, she took the garland and put in his? Round the neck. Deep Nayan Bhagwan ki. Finally, good boy. Winner. So your vṛttis, our mind, and our feeling are that cat doesn't trust. It never knows which mouse will move inside. Which mouse? Hormones in the body. Desires for eating, wearing, anything. Any kind of desire is not always sexual things. There are many desires, and suddenly your thoughts are disturbed. Therefore, it doesn't matter what happens, your concentration should be very steady. That's called dhāraṇā, pratyāhāra, the power to withdraw yourself from the external world. As long as you cannot withdraw yourself from the external world whenever you want, you do not have dhāraṇā. Therefore, Lord Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna, a yogī should be like a turtle. The turtle that can take at any time his limbs inside and at any time out. So a yogī is one who at any time can bring the feelings and thoughts out, and at any time can withdraw. That's all. And then the concentration comes, and then comes the meditation. Meditation is different. Active meditation and passive meditation. In Kali Yuga, active meditation is easier and more beneficial for us. Active meditation means do sevā, Karma Yoga. And that's why Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, your yoga path will be completed through doing the karma, Karma Yoga, niṣkāma karma, and sākāma karma. Niṣkāma karma means selfless work. And sākāma karma is selfish work. As long as you think selfishly for yourself, you will never be successful. Maybe you think inwardly that I make others stupid, but He knows that you are a selfish one. Who is not selfish? Selfless looks completely different, and selfless is always afraid. Now, selfish is always afraid. In Austria, high in the mountains, there's a farmer's family. And they have a few cows, a little field for crops, and forest. They are sometimes working in the field, but they never lock their house, their rooms, and kitchen. The kitchen is open, and on the table, there is some bread, butter, cheese, and so on, and a piece of paper with writing. Dear one or guest, feel at home, please eat, enjoy. If there is something not enough, there is money in a basket. Feel free to go and buy and eat. I'm asking, how many of you are doing this at home? Do you leave your door open? You have three locks: one up, one here, and one on the side. Because we humans don't trust humans anymore, and that is the conflict in the world. Otherwise, to live for someone is the sense of our life. For you, I will die, and for you, I will live. For you, O my Lord, I breathe. And for you, O my dear, my heartbeat is for you. This means not for one person, but for all. That is a human quality; that's human quality. So yoga-karmaṣu kauśalam. Arjuna, your yoga will be successful through doing good karma. That's called active meditation. People are on a waiting list to do some sevā, to go for some Karma Yoga. Many lives you did selfish for many things and times, and for so long, you worked for yourself. Do something nice. Karma yoga: work somewhere. And that's not easy. Mahāprabhujī said, "Jīva hi murdasam reve nahī siddh" "nahī pīr." And the Bible also says, "You have to die to live." That's it. You have to kill your ego. Then you can do Karma yoga. Otherwise, you have here the arrow of karma, doesn't let you surrender and do Karma yoga. Work is never dirty or bad. The dirt is thoughts and actions. Therefore, passive or active meditation for us, active is easier: to go and work, help, and do these things. Passive is to close eyes and sit down, which is difficult, but very hard because after 10-15 minutes you say that I see when you are all meditating, I am sitting in front of you. A teacher should not close eyes while teaching or meditating. They are sitting with closed eyes, one has to be awakened with open eyes. Even with 20 hours of sleep in one room, one has to be always awakened. A poisonous snake comes in or something happens, the awakened one can awaken you. If you are also sleeping, then it's finished. Similarly, among so many, some awakened yogīs should be, some conscious yogīs should be, some Gurudev who can awaken us and lead us. And therefore, Holy Gurujī said: "Jab jīva jñānī avasar jāve re guru samjhāve re" "Dhan, daulat aur māl khazānā sab yahī rahī jāve" "Yajīv jayā yakelo sāth nahī āve" "Tasmāt yajīv jayā yakelo sāth nahī āve" "Guru samjhāve jayam kabīlo" "Yedum jita ima esir sajan mista" "Satguru śaraṇ gayā gakun vapā"