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In the last ten days, we have been continuously discussing Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra. Unless the foundational principles are clear and aspirants behave accordingly, there can be no further progress, nor can the teachings be explained further. If you see improvement in students—meaning they follow what you teach—then there will definitely be progress. If there is no improvement, it means the discipline was missing. This discipline is not merely physical, such as thinking, "Okay, I will keep silent, I will not do this," but it is also mental. What Patañjali speaks about touches the core problem of aspirants: why there is no development. Those who are honestly practicing and wish to achieve can see the progress. We were speaking about vṛttis, the fluctuations of the mind, specifically kliṣṭa or akliṣṭa vṛttis. Kliṣṭa-vṛttis are the disturbing factors. We spoke about the three jñāna-indriyas (organs of knowledge) which have a very intensive influence on our vṛttis. First is vision, through our eyes. Whatever we see, it is natural that we give judgment. We think about it. We know what it is, but still we think about it. This can be a cluster of thoughts, good or bad. If it is good, it supports you. If it is restless, it will not support you; it will not give you calmness. For example, you are walking somewhere and see a very nice bush full of beautiful blossoms with a beautiful smell. It is very pleasant. You come near; your eyes are pleased to see, your nose is pleased to smell. This creates harmonious thoughts within you. But at the same time, we should know that these blessings are temporary. The smell will be temporary. When it is gone, you may become unhappy. So it depends on what we see and how we judge it. You might say, "Well, next season it will be again," and that is okay. This is an akliṣṭa vṛtti, yānī, it means beautiful thoughts, harmonious thoughts, good thoughts, supporting your sādhanā, creating happiness within you. Now, a kliṣṭa vṛtti: suppose you are walking and suddenly see a wild tiger sitting there. What kind of vṛttis will awaken in you? What will happen? This vṛtti will disbalance your entire physical feeling and psychic state; both are gone. Imagine the tiger was nice enough; he excused you, stood up, and disappeared into the forest. But this thought remains in you all the time, for many, many years, and it will create fear. So this is a kliṣṭa-vṛtti, a disturbing one. Similarly, with sound. There are different kinds of sounds: those you like to hear, which are harmonious, or you are waiting for someone's call, the telephone rings, and you hear the voice—you are very happy. But there are different kinds of disturbing sounds that make you unhappy. You are sleeping at midnight, and your neighbor begins to work in the bathroom, fixing tiles or drilling; the sound disturbs you. Here, both kinds of thoughts and sounds, though temporary, are disruptive. So what to do? Try to protect yourself as much as you can, and let those sounds come which support your spiritual development or your vairāgya (dispassion). You see a beautiful bush with nice flowers, and the smell creates in you rāga, moha, or attachment. It creates the thought that you are bound again more tightly to this visible, material world. That will push you back again and again. In this way, this is a kliṣṭa vṛtti. The tiger immediately created fear in you, and you would not like to see it again or meet a tiger like that. You will avoid it, and that will support you in being careful; your vairāgya develops because you want to renounce. Without renouncement, your sādhanā cannot be fulfilled. Third is smell. Good smells you like; you feel happy, relaxed, comfortable, with a feeling of freshness and calm. Some bad smells make you ill; they disturb your whole inner system. Now, which is the bad smell? It is a kliṣṭa vṛtti. The good smell is an akliṣṭa vṛtti. But with this good smell, you became attached to it. You would always like to have this smell. So, it becomes an obstacle for your progress. The bad smell always makes you alert to avoid such places or such smells, and that makes you careful, alert, and renouncing in your feelings. Now, consider both. If you cannot smell anything, then you are completely free and neutral. If someone puts a bad smell on your hand, it does not matter—you do not smell it. Or if they put a good perfume on your hand, but you do not smell anything, it is nothing. So, how the information is given to our consciousness creates the vṛtti. Thus, vision, sound, and smell—these three are very difficult to control. The sense of taste is easier. As long as you have not tasted something, you do not know it and have no feelings. You eat and say, "Okay, it must not be this," and you can avoid it easily. But smell, sound, and vision are more challenging. Let us say you cannot hear anything now. It does not matter even if people are making noise or the neighbor is working all night. For you, it does not matter. In Prague, I was once with someone who had hearing aids. We had a program, but he went to sleep earlier and forgot to take the key out from the door. He was locked inside and had taken his hearing aids off to sleep. You cannot believe it—even when we were knocking on the window so loudly, there was no sign. For him, it did not matter if you were drilling or plumbing or doing anything. Finally, we informed a neighbor. He came with a big ladder, but it could not help. We were knocking directly in the room where he was sleeping. Then we had to break the glass door to go in and open it. So, when you are detached, then these things have no influence on you, whether they are like this or not. So, kliṣṭa and akliṣṭa vṛttis operate in this way. There is also what we call pramāṇa, meaning the evidence or the witness—that is the right word. How can we gauge and create vṛttis? It is said there was no rain at all here, yet a flood came. How can that be? Somewhere it was raining, and that is why there was a flood. We see smoke somewhere, but we do not see the fire. So we will gauge, yes, there must be some fire. Without fire, there is no smoke. So without any reasons within us or outside of us, it will not disturb us, or it can disturb us. What Patañjali is trying to say is to master your mind. The mind has many definitions, but here it means mastery over your thoughts. How to master the thoughts? This is not very easy, and of course, if it were very easy, then Patañjali would not speak about it. It is difficult. A wise person will hear, give judgment, and finish. Do not carry it with you for so long. You know this story I have told, I think two or three times. Many of you know it; many do not. In a forest lived a saint or a monk. These monks had white robes and traveled only by foot, with no shoes or vehicles. Wherever sunset found them, they stayed overnight there. Masters used to give them hard training. The test to pass is not so easy. Nowadays, we do not have time for that. If the master tells something, we say, "Okay, I go." But real seekers, real aspirants, will not decide something different. They follow Guru Vakya. That will lead them through. You think that twenty million people are practicing, and all will get enlightenment? Twenty million self-realized souls on this planet—can you imagine? Wow, my God, this planet would be heaven on earth. But be happy if out of twenty millions, one is self-realized. So where are we? Or it could be that some of you are that one. There are billions of people in the world, so perhaps one in a million. Maybe all of you are that one. But do not think now, as Nārada said, that was only imagination. That was only thinking. Reality and thinking are different. Therefore, even if you are that one, you have to be humble, surrendered, calm, and so on. To go through these practices, we need great support from spiritual masters. We need to follow their footsteps, follow their words, and see how hard it is to follow. It is what we call a hard nut—a very hard nut to be opened. The master had two young disciples who wanted to become monks. There was a training for them: what they should do and should not do. The master told them, "For twelve years, do not come back to me. Do not go to your home, do not go to your friend's house, do not go to your birthplace, do not go anywhere in the villages. Stay outside, or if in a village, stay in the temple. There are humanitarian centers in the temple, or in the forest." To achieve is not so easy. Everything we can digest, but our attachment we cannot digest. That is very painful. Those who cannot digest it find it painful, and those who can will come through—that is all. Those great saints thought for long, long times and gave some disciplines, physical and mental. That is why Patañjali, at the very beginning, said, "Discipline. If you have discipline, come to me. Otherwise, go hurry home." You come to me and say, "Can I have a mantra, Master?" I said, "Yes, after twelve years, okay." In the newspaper, there is a seminar with some master. "Oh, I will go there." So you go somewhere else and get a mantra immediately. Then what happens? You know, to have a mantra is not enough. You should not ask; you should be asked to become. That is it. For twelve years: do not eat after sunset, do not sleep. In Brahma muhūrta, one and a half hours before sunrise, you must get up. Do not sleep during daytime. Some disciples, like me, said, "Okay, Master, we will not sleep, but can we do yoga nidrā?" You know how clever we are. We have many such ideas. "Do not carry anything with you. Do not touch money. If anyone gives you money, say, 'Thank you, no, keep it.' But still, if they want to give it, tell them to please give it to poor people." Twelve years of not touching any money, and twelve years of not touching any woman. And to women, it is the same: no touching a man. So please, ladies, do not be angry, thinking, "Why are we so lower caste?" No, no. You are very high caste. It was not like that. After five years of traveling through the forest and so on, one day at lunchtime, they had some nice fruits: bananas, mangoes, or some kind of apples. They were sitting near the bank of a river. The weather was very hot, and both brothers decided to have some fruits. They were eating fruits when a young lady, about the same age, came and said, "Hello, brothers, how are you?" They said, "Very good, thank you, sister. How are you? Would you like to share some fruits with us?" She said, "Well, no, but I have one request. Can you help me?" "Yes, of course. What can we help you with?" "I have to go to that village on the other side of the river, and I do not know how to swim. If you can help me cross the river." They said, "No problem, we are also going to the other side, so we will take you across the river." One of them, who was stronger, said, "Okay, you will hold my shoulders, and I will swim. But do not hug me like this; otherwise, I cannot swim. Just hold tightly, and we will come to the other side." So she did. He swam, and all three came to the other bank. He dropped her on the bank and said, "Okay, here you are. Take care." She thanked them very much and asked, "What can I do for you, because you helped me?" They said, "Thank you, we do not need anything. It was our pleasure to help you." She said, "Yes, but you can tell me anything, or any time you need, please let me know." The monk who had carried her said, "Yes, one thing: learn swimming, so next time you do not need the help of anyone," and they went away. Finished. She went to the village. They went on their path. They never met again; they never saw each other. Now, seven years passed since this story, and this was the twelfth year. Guru Pūrṇimā was coming. You cannot imagine how happy they were that this Guru Pūrṇimā would mark twelve years finished, and they would see their master. They hoped he was still alive. There was no SMS, no telephone, no communication system at all—maybe through horses, riding ox carts, horse coaches, human to human, or pigeons. They were happy: "Oh, we will see the master. How will he look? Twelve years—he must have become old and have grey hair. Oh, he will also be happy to see us." One day before Guru Pūrṇimā, sunset found them about twenty-five or thirty kilometers away, and they stayed there overnight. They could not sleep. A beautiful moon was shining, one day before full moon, nearly full moon. Nice weather, beautiful, peaceful. There were no noises then—no cars, no sound pollution, except the birds. They were so happy, talking: "How will he recognize us? What will he say to us? Will he say, 'How are you, my sons?' Will he ask us, 'How were the twelve years?'" and so on. Then the other one said, "Yes, brother, really, I am exhausted and excited. How will it be? But brother, what will you answer to the master? The master said, 'Do not touch any woman, do not touch any ladies.' But you did not touch her; you carried her on your back. What will you say to the master?" The brother smiled and said, "Yes, you are right, my brother. But what will you say? Why did I not touch her?" He said, "Yes, I know. But you know, I carried her to cross the river and dropped her there seven years ago. I am surprised that you are still carrying her in your mind. What will you answer to the master?" That is what Patañjali means. Those vṛttis will disturb you your whole life. These kliṣṭa vṛttis, or the akliṣṭa vṛttis—the akliṣṭa vṛttis you will forget, but the kliṣṭa vṛttis will remind you and torture you lifelong, as long as we cannot root them out. Like sabīja samādhi and nirbīja samādhi, so nirvikalpa vṛttis and savikalpa vṛttis. How many vṛttis do we have in our mind, good or bad? From what happened from very childhood till today, it is an individual thing. You are capable of purifying this, of understanding logically, and giving the answer forever to free it. That is it. Therefore, the entire practice—your meditation, your mālās, your kriyās, your anuṣṭhānas, your prāṇāyāmas, your prayers, and whatever you are doing for spiritual development—asks: where are your thoughts stuck? Where is your feeling stuck? These vṛttis will not let you free even in sleep. Patañjali says that sleep is also one vṛtti. Sleeping, you think you are sleeping very deep, but Patañjali said no—in sleep, you still have thoughts, and vṛttis are active. He gives an example: when you are in deep sleep and get up in the morning, you say, "Oh, I slept so well; I had no dreams at all." How do you know that you slept so well and had no dreams? So constantly, you had a vṛtti that you were sleeping well. Therefore, deep meditation and sleep are in some way the same, but in reality, they are not equal. Meditation leads you to higher development, higher consciousness, while sleep leads you to just physical refreshment. We need sleep when we are tired. Sleeping, the entire body is finally good, relaxed. Many organs are relaxed and have time to work naturally. Accordingly, we inhale a lot of oxygen naturally and easily, and we exhale all kinds of toxins. Sleeping deeply is like being very tired and sleeping. Some snore. Snoring begins after thirty or thirty-five years, depending on vocal cords, tonsils, and mostly when you sleep on your back. If you sleep on your side, there is less snoring. Anyhow, we are not talking about sleep problems, but this is also connected with our vṛttis: "I slept very well," or "I did not sleep very well." Similarly, dreaming involves many vṛttis going on. Things remind you, you remember, and at the same time you have new vṛttis and thoughts. Yes, this is like that, but I know from the past it is different. So you have an argument with yourself. You give judgment, you acknowledge the situations, you create more thoughts, or you try to better the situation, or wish the situation would last longer. Therefore, dream and sleep, according to Patañjali, are also kinds of vṛttis that we shall overcome. Then there is smṛti, which is also a very big problem. Smṛti means memory. You meditate, and suddenly some thoughts from old times come to you: "Oh, it was like that. Oh, it was like that." So smṛti is also a factor that cannot let you develop further; it will not let you go further. It will bring you back to your material attachment. There is a story. A farmer died and had good karmas. From the heavens, the angels or goddesses, whatever you call them, came to take him to Svargaloka. The door to heaven opened, and they said, "Come, please. This is for you. We welcome you here." He said, "What is all there?" They said, "Everything is beautiful. You will become very young immediately, and you will look ever young. Everything is pleasant, as if time is standing there. Nothing is changing, and it is so beautiful. You will have everything—eating, prāṇa, really, you will get everything." Farmers are more clever than us, you know, to be sure. The farmer said, "Yes, will I get my water pipe?" They said, "What in heaven? Nobody smokes there. You smoke tobacco. There is no water pipe." Then the farmer said, "Sorry, I think I am in the wrong place," and he went back. So, when we are on the door of some enlightenment, suddenly smṛti, the memory, the thoughts, come out and create negative feelings in you: disappointment, aggression, doubts, anger, hate, jealousy, greed—not because you remember, but because of one situation, one thought. Or you get some beautiful thought suddenly, and your vairāgya becomes saṁtīvra vairāgya, meaning a very strong dispassion. All things dissolve. Nothing is there; it just disappears. And beauty, love, oneness, harmony—everything just awakens in you. That smṛti, those thoughts, will bring you to the divine feeling, to the divine achievement. That will support your sādhanā. Therefore, Patañjali, in the entire book, the Patañjali Yog Sūtra, is not talking about materials and such, but about the psyche of the person, the intellect of the person, and all the different levels of consciousness: unconscious, subconscious, conscious, superconscious, and so on. And of course, he will come to prāṇāyāma and āsanas. Here Patañjali talks about āsanas. You can take any posture you like. Many think, "I can meditate while lying down, like sleeping or in yoga nidrā." Patañjali tells us there is a danger that you will fall asleep. At the right time, the door comes, and you fail. Oh, God. And then you wake up where you have been, so you did not come any further. There is a story. Should I finish the story in three minutes? There is a story of three family members: a child, a husband, and a wife. They always had a little bit of conflict, like every family may have. The husband was angry with her, she was angry with him, and they were angry with the child, and the child was angry with them. But still, they were a family, and very poor. One day, of course, Lord Śiva—who else could it be? Lord Śiva and Pārvatī—we will see, I think today or tomorrow, Pārvatī will be born, no? So Pārvatī was a little disappointed, and she said, "Lord, I cannot understand you." He said, "Why? What happened?" Again, look, there are so many people who have more than they need, and this is a poor family. They are so poor. Can you not give them something? She said, "Well, in their destiny it is not." She said, "What do you mean, destiny? You can give a new destiny. You are the Lord of lords, the universe; you can give. Just tell me you do not want to give." He said, "Well, I will give them, but you will see, they do not take. Okay, go and give. I will look to see if they take or not." God always gives indirectly, not directly. Śiva appeared. The family was happy and said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am Śiva." "Oh, you are that guy who fulfills all wishes, is it?" "Somehow, yes." "Bow." So he said, "Do you have any wish?" Pārvatī was thinking they would ask for money, food, clothing, or some comfort in life. Ladies first, so he asked her, "What do you wish?" She smiled and said, "Oh, really, you will give me?" He said, "Yes, I will give." Then she said, "Make me so beautiful, so beautiful that there is no female on this planet more beautiful than me. So that a king will take me and make me his queen." Her husband was there, but Śiva had promised. So he said, "It shall be," and she became so beautiful that the king took her as his first queen. Now she is enjoying her life with the king. In one word, in one wish, she said, "I gain everything: beauty, king, kingdom, money, everything." But she did not care about her husband and child. Well, Śiva asked the man, "What do you wish, bhakta?" He said, "Lord, you are the almighty. Impossible things you can make possible, and what is possible you can make impossible. But in this situation, what do you think a husband will wish? Such a situation, and you understand my heart, my Lord." Śiva said, "Yes, I understand you. Did you have such a situation?" Śiva said, "Carry on with what you want; do not ask me the question. My family situation is not other. Pārvatī is looking only for one wish. Ask." He said, "Lord, I am deeply disappointed in my wife. I did not think of her like this, that she would disappoint me and disappear like this. I wish to make her a monkey in the desert, where there is not one tree." And Śiva said, "It will be." Now, monkeys are very hungry all the time, eating, eating, and full of desires. So the queen disappeared from the palace. The king sent messages everywhere, but she was nowhere. That lady became a monkey, sitting on the hot sand in the daytime, looking, "Where are the trees? Where is the water?" Hot, screeching, dressing here. Well, the turn came to the son. He was about twenty or twenty-five years old. God asked him, "My son, what do you wish? Your father and mother asked what they wanted. What is your wish?" He said, "Lord, whatever it is, you are a great one to forgive everyone. To tell the truth, without mother, it is lonely at home. So make my mother as before she was at home." Śiva said, "As it will be," and she came home, and Śiva disappeared. So they remained as they were. Śiva said, "Pārvatī, something more." She said, "Lord, your līlā, your māyā, you know. I am sorry to trouble you. Therefore, there are some who have such qualities, and their vṛttis, their desires, their own thoughts, are against them. No one can help them there." Therefore, Patañjali is saying that you should see all the prapañca (manifest world) of the world and ignore it, take it away, and stay above that. All these whom you think are mine, one day they will shout at you. Nothing is thine. Not even this body—it will be so disappointed with this body. Therefore, to achieve that higher consciousness, to become one with God and free from all these troubles, is the way to master our mind, master our senses, master our life, and try to reduce or purify all the thoughts which are in the conscious, subconscious, or unconscious. Then we will also be free from birth and death.