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You see, every tune, every sound is a sound. There is no, what they call, misclang. There is no wrong sound. Only how you perceive it depends on you. And so Patañjali, speaking about kliṣṭa-akliṣṭa vṛttis—the thoughts which disrupt you and the thoughts which help you—poses the question: in what way do those external sounds, visions, and smells disrupt you? Perhaps you don't like them, but it must not be that everything should be what you like. If everything were only what you like, the world would be paralyzed. Even a husband and wife cannot coordinate themselves together in certain things. What she likes, he doesn't like, and what he likes, maybe she doesn't like. And this disliking is the problem. What you don't like, you feel is disturbing you. But someone who likes creates that very sound. Therefore, Patañjali says, "Withdraw your senses and be one with thyself, with your own inner sound." Then suddenly, what will happen? You will not hear anymore those sounds which you think are disturbing. Long ago, I think it was 1975 or 1976, in Prague, in the university clinic or the biggest hospital, there was a doctor working. His name was Dostalik. He is a very well-known scientist. He had been traveling many times to India, a very open-minded person, a very clear-minded person, and he himself is also a practitioner of yoga. At that time, you know, I used to come often to Czechoslovakia. More about that, we will talk later. So, Dr. Dostalik and his other colleagues wanted to know how a yogī’s brain waves are when he is meditating. And if you put so many wires, you know, here and here and... here and here, you saw yesterday in the video, Nārada was saying, "Ahaṁ Brahmāsmī." "Ahaṁ Brahmāsmī" means, "I am Brahman. Nothing can touch me. I am not attached anywhere. I am above ignorance, everything. Whatever is happening is just a body. This body is mortal, but I am immortal. I am above fear, everything." Yes, it should be like that, but it isn't like that always. Thanks to God, such a state of being comes in the last minutes of life. Though you may have some glimpse of the knowledge of Brahman, so that you can say "ahaṁ brahmāsmī," like a brahmaniṣṭha śrotriya, the vṛtti is changing constantly. The view is changing constantly, the position is changing, the situation is changing, thought is changing, feeling is changing constantly. There is change not only on this planet but in the entire universe; the constellations are changing, everything. In this constant movement, it is very hard to remain fixed in one thought, idea, or feeling. So you may say "ahaṁ brahmāsmi," but it doesn't last long. But if you say, "Yes, I am Brahman, I have knowledge of Brahman," you should know what Brahman is. Is a caste Brāhmaṇa a creator? No, Brahman is the universal God, the entire universe above all trinities and everything. That's called Brahman. Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi: "I am that Brahman." Yes, you and me. Often, we have experiences of Brahman. How many of you have had a glimpse of that Brahman, that nectar, when you came to me, got a mantra, or in satsaṅg? In a different way, you got that divine immortality, the nectar. There are many kinds of amṛta, but at the same time, the opposite vṛttis come. It is like you want to fly in one direction with a flight aeroplane without an engine, and suddenly opposite air comes. So, our vṛttis, our changes in this body, create different waves, meaning uncertainty. Should I, or... should I not? Is that right or wrong? Should I take it or not? Yes, this question rises from our ignorance: why, how, and so on. So, while practicing meditation with mantra, while studying beautiful ancient yogic literatures about God consciousness, about this entire creation—body, emotion, thoughts, fear, memory, intellect, anger, hate, jealousy, conflicts, fear, and further, the consciousness, different levels of the consciousness, and so on—one after the other, layers hidden in us are revealed. Well, at that time, in 1975, I was a little younger than now. So to say, the horses were young and wild; it was not easy to keep them on that track. And, you know, sometimes when you know little things, then you would like to say that you know all, challenging this and that. And I was practicing every day, minimum six hours, with Haṭha Yoga kriyās, āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, meditations, mantras and all, minimum. It didn't matter where I was. I was solid in myself, sure. And now I was sitting in a small room and the doctors tried to put all these wires here and there, and I said to Mahāprabhujī, "Please control the electricity. You know my heartbeat." I said, "What? When they put them on, what will happen if there is current, a flexibility in the electricity? No chance. If one wire, maybe you try quickly to pull it out, but here and here and here and..." I said to Maa Prabhujī, in this physical form, "I hope this is not the last praṇām." Now you see how suddenly fear came. I was surprised. I thought I have no fear in me. Similarly, you will think that you have no... jealousy? You are above jealousy, huh? I wouldn't say no. So, the best thing is we are on the good side to surrender, yes. And completeness comes in the last minutes of life. Now they asked me, "Swāmījī, can you meditate and try to influence or keep... Your chitta vṛtti nirodha means one thought." I said, "Yes, I will do it," but I was afraid of the electric wires. My heartbeat was stronger. Then I said, "Do you think that I will feel the current?" They said, "No, no, you will feel nothing, Swāmījī." I said, "Are you sure, or...? Will you put high voltage?" I said, "No, no, that's not like that." Well, I did some prāṇāyāms: kapālabhāṭī, bandha, and uḍḍīyāna bandha, then jālandhara bandha, mahā bandha, and influenced my cakras to let the prāṇa and apāna flow in balance. I sat in meditation. What they did was they put a big bulb light on and off, on and off, in front of me. And then they put some kind of sound, you know, to change, to feel how the brain waves would change or not. Yes, I listened, and I made like... this, then I... then I said, "No, now I am in Mahānanda. Nothing exists around me." And in that minute, though they were making light and sound, it was completely balanced. They gave me the printout, and how do you call the... the result? Somewhere I... I have it in my records, perhaps it will come in a book one day. Then they gave me the time. I said, "How long should it be?" After I said, "My ending will be through the chanting of the Oṁ three times, I will chant." Well, I had no problem sitting long. I was sitting in lotus, I had only 55 kilos then, and now I am nearly 88 kilos, and it was no... everything, my dear, you know, you spoiled me with the sandwich and cheese and this and that, and in the ex-Yugoslavia, the kaymak, oh, Gokurucha and kaymak. And Swāmījī, Prashim Swāmījī, one more Swāmījī, you see? Then one great yogī said, "All indriyas can be brought under control, but the tasting indriya is very hard to control." Anyhow, I chanted "Oṁ," and they noticed the time of the chanting "Oṁ" along with this. In the spinal column, there was such lightning and vibration, which they had never experienced with anything. They had many, many experiments, and they did many things. So that is how God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā, "A yogī should be like a tortoise, a tortoise animal." It can anytime take its limbs in or anytime can expand its limbs out. Similarly, all these vṛttis around you, gossiping, talking, saying, should never disturb you. It comes to you and goes from you. Sometimes you sit somewhere and a bad smell comes. What will you do? Avoid it. You go. Don't remain there, and the bed is smell, the bed is smell, the bed is smell. You should not cry for that. So, master thyself, master the situation, and withdraw your senses. That's why any time a yogī can be extroverted, or any time can be introverted. Therefore, for meditation, kāya sthairyam—the steadiness of the body—is essential. If one finger is moving, it is creating immense waves of disturbance in your aura. You think it doesn't matter, "I can do like this." It does matter. Let's say, many times, I'm so much admiring this modern technology, which is exactly... like yogīs used to say, and Kṛṣṇa said, "Not a blade of grass can move without my will, my energy. All these leaves of the trees, and wind, and all, is by Almighty God. Nothing is hidden to me, oh Arjuna. In the entire universe, there's nothing which... I cannot have, but still I'm acting. I'm doing karma yoga." So how do vṛttis disrupt? How do vṛttis... A yogī can control, you know? Now we have an alarm system, yes, an alarm system in the house, and you sit in the range of the... alarm very peacefully without any movements, and if you move one finger, the alarm will be on. Similarly, in meditation, if you just move your lips, your whole aura, your beautiful energy, is disrupted, and then there's a gap between the waves, and then... different thoughts enter your consciousness in citta, and then your vṛttis become more and more. Someone said a butterfly can cause a hurricane. When a very silent butterfly flies, the movement of her wings creates a little wind that starts, and that little wind then starts and starts and supports and can become a very big hurricane. So a little thought, little things, a little negative speech or seeing can cause you lots of trouble and can push you down, or a little thing can uplift your consciousness. When someone cannot swim and falls in the water, if there is a very thin thread hanging somewhere, he or she will hold the thread and then can pull oneself out of the water. That's it. So, learn to have a steady posture, upright, straight upright, so that your spine is straight. Then you will see, when you are doing cakra śodhana or other kriyās or prāṇāyāms, how the energy is flowing. But mostly I see inside you are sitting like this, doing your anuṣṭhāna cakra sādhanā. This morning I was doing prāṇāyāma with you, and then I got so tired, I was also sleeping like this. And two girls were sitting, these little girls there, they said, "Oh, Swamijī is sleeping." I said, "Oh! They were thinking Swamiji is sleeping, but I got it loud." So first, master your body so that at least for one or two hours you can sit. Yes. Then everything is balanced. Negative energy is filtered. The mantra is going on, and then the consciousness is uplifting. Doing little things, and then nothing, that's okay. It is better than nothing, but it will not solve our problems, or it will not help us achieve our destination. Therefore, prepare today and tomorrow. Eat little, I tell you, if it's possible. Avoid the grains, avoid eating in the evening, especially bread. Eat little bread or little rice. Eat some different hot soup or something. In the morning, you will be full of vitality and will be sitting like this.