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Prāṇa, prāṇa… We have chosen a beautiful topic: consciousness. When we reflect on what consciousness is, we see that everything is a play of consciousness. Its existence—always existence—is the consciousness where it will always exist. In every type or at every stage of the process of development, consciousness is always consciousness. We will explore what is actually playing in our consciousness, what is happening. At the same time, our topic is, as always, Yoga. Many of you already know what Yoga is. Many perhaps know only Yoga up to Haṭha-Yoga: physical exercise, breath control, concentration, relaxation, meditation, and so on. First, I will say something about Yoga, because consciousness has a very close relationship with Yoga, or Yoga with consciousness. Yoga is as old as our universe. Yoga is the very first awakening force or power in the awakening of consciousness, or the power through which consciousness acts, moves, and develops. Yoga means a balance—balance in the entire universe. All visible and invisible elements and principles are in harmony or in balance through one power. All stars, planets, all solar systems—as it is said in the sacred Vedas: Ananta Brahmāṇḍa Sahasra Sūrya. Ananta Brahmāṇḍa is the endless universe. Sahasra Sūrya: a thousand suns. The Brahmāṇḍa, the cosmos; whatever exists in the cosmos is present within the body. Our body is the microcosm. So Yoga is that which maintains balance. As far as I remember, sometimes the language is spoken scientifically. The word Yoga comes from "yoke," if I am not mistaken. A yoke is that which is placed on the necks of two horses or two oxen that push or carry a cart, a carriage. The yoke connects both animals, and then they pull the entire chariot. If one goes faster and the other goes slower, then both animals suffer—the coachman or the charioteer suffers as well. There must be a balance. Those who run fast must be slowed down, and those who walk slowly should walk a little faster. The word Yoga, in this thinking, comes from the yoke. And here we come back to the same point: balance. When there is no balance, everything is in chaos. On our planet, earthquakes come, natural disasters come; everything we see, terrible things happen—all of this has its meaning. And first, it means that there is no balance. Where there is balance, there is harmony. If there is no balance, then a disease arises in the body, no matter what kind of disease, whether physical or mental. And where there is harmony, there is a good, healthy state—a healthy state in both body and mind. Sometimes a person overdoes it and then runs a risk, because a person is sometimes not capable of keeping their mind and state in balance. Our thoughts run faster. We must each be careful that one day our thought will transform into words. As long as we think, perhaps we think that no one knows what we are thinking. But when our thought becomes louder in the form of words, then it is beyond our control. A state without the mind is a dangerous state. For example, someone who has a new driver's license owns a nice, fast car and believes, "I can now drive faster, as I wish." And he scolds the others for driving slowly. He drives faster, accelerates—150 kilometers per hour or even more—and he overlooks a traffic sign. Suddenly, there is a curve, a sharp curve. What happens? We know. Previously, his feelings, his thoughts were that he wanted to go faster and that he could go faster. That was his attachment. And he has placed his bite in such a way; he has lost his boundaries. The intellect was involved: "I can drive a car, I have the license and everything." But when the curve came, the mind, the greedy mind, took away its responsibility. He raised his hands: "I am sorry, I can no longer guide anything." Only the body remains. And the body cannot ensure that the car safely comes out of the curve again. Where the intellect no longer takes any responsibility, then the state without intellect is a dangerous matter. Therefore, balance and harmony must remain together. And when there is harmony, it is said to be a unity. In family life, when there is harmony between partners and children, with neighbors and society, then it is a beautiful life. If there is no harmony there, then it is not a beautiful life, because they have not united. And so Yoga, literally, means union. But union can only exist when there is balance, understanding, and harmony. Here, union with the thoughts—with which thoughts the yoga philosophy was transmitted—is that the individual self unites with the Cosmic Self. There is a poem: "When I was here, my Beloved was not present. And now my Beloved is here, but I am not here. Because the path of love, the road of love, is so narrow, so tight. Two cannot go together. Two must become one." This is our Self and God. Either God exists or we do. As long as we both exist, it is dualism. It is not a union. Individual Consciousness must merge into the Cosmic Consciousness, what we call the Meru. Meris means to merge into oneness. In German, it is called Hochzeit—yes, the wedding. That is a good word: the highest point of life. It should be the time, the highest point should be. It should always be high, but unfortunately it falls back down again. Our Self exists within five bodies. Our Self exists within the five elements. These five bodies, Annamaya, are called Kośas: the body of food, the body of energy, the mental body, the astral body, the causal body. Or the elements come: all five elements—fire, air, water, earth, and space. As long as an individual exists, he is not one with God. As long as we want to hold on to our identity, "I am," then you will always be "you are." Then there is God; perhaps He helps you, He is there, but you are not one with God. There is a small example, an illustration, which I often give and have given several times in Hamburg as well. The example is this: here we have a glass of water, and in this glass of water is perfectly clear water, nothing at all in it. We do not see; it is pure water. Now I will take a sip, and I say, in this water there is salt; it is salty water. But we do not see any salt. Those who brought the glass of water have added 10 grams of salt or a spoonful of salt into it. Now this salt has dissolved; its form changed. We do not see salt inside, but the form, because the solid form has transformed into liquid form. But in reality, it has relinquished nothing of its qualities. The salt has always remained salt, and therefore water and salt have not united. Because my taste buds say there is salt in it. Water and salt: water is salty. And so it is with us. Our body, the physical body, is not the only body. We usually believe that after death, we will become one with God, will be with God. No, it is wrong—and it is correct, also right. Some who work spiritually strive greatly; they will certainly become one with God, but all in vain, because the qualities always remain in consciousness. Consciousness carries everything along. The subtle body always carries its backpack, the karmic backpack, along with it. It drifts asleep, from room to room, from will to will, from time to time. It wanders and carries its backpack filled with several loves. It gathers fruit from each tree into its backpack and moves on. Therefore, it is important that we transform our qualities, the human qualities, into divine qualities. For example, the human quality is the quality of salt, and the divine quality is water. So the taste, this dharma of qualities, of salt or the human, we should overcome it and let it go, develop in the divine quality, in the divine consciousness. Then water into water. Then it is about quality. There are several pieces of jewelry: an earring, a nose ring, a necklace, a ring, an armlet. These are different types of jewelry, but all are made of gold. Forms are not important; what matters is what they are made of. And so all living beings, including humans, are of various forms. The True Self, Ātman, is only one. Breathers among us, breathers among animals, breathers among birds, among fish, among mosquitoes, ants—everything that lives contains within itself a breath, a light, which is the divine light. And the same, exactly the same, is also in God, nothing else. The soul is different from the Ātman. The soul has an individual quality. As long as individual qualities exist, a soul will exist. And it wanders. It is like a snowball: we make a snowball and roll it. More and more, like a snowball, it grows bigger and bigger. And so the soul is a bundle of karmas, vāsanās, or experiences, of actions that it continually accumulates on the astral planes, the spiritual planes. But what is inside, the force that turns this miracle, the soul wanders—there inside is the reality, the Ātman. If we free ourselves from all five bodies, then only the breath remains. We melt all the jewels into one; then there is no longer a chain or a ring, only gold. And this is the process in consciousness. And so Yoga means union: the union of individual consciousness with divine consciousness. It takes a long time, perhaps several lifetimes. All the oldest scriptures we know of that exist are the Vedas, and the Vedas speak of Yoga. All incarnations of God speak of Yoga. All 24 incarnations of God, according to Indian methodology, speak of Yoga. As you have heard, the Bhagavad Gītā is one of the finest books on yoga. There are 18 paths of Yoga according to Krishna’s teaching. This is Krishna, God Krishna, who speaks, who says from time to time: "I incarnate or manifest myself through my Yoga-Śakti." And that suddenly became clear to me again: even God Himself, who is called God, cannot incarnate or manifest here on this physical plane without the help or power of Yoga. And so all the elements have been created by this power-yoga. So my experiences over 45 years through my yoga practice or exercises and so on—I have arrived at what we call God, or a force in the universe, or consciousness, the highest consciousness, or the light, or the Self, or the highest truth—this is power as Yoga. By this, I do not mean anything like the yoga where one stands on the head, or on one leg, or on the other hand. That I understand that you are somehow standing there. This is a therapeutic system developed to keep the body healthy, flexible, through nourishment, movement, and breath, although it is also very important scientifically. But all of this is so that we can realize this consciousness within us, the yoga-consciousness. And there, because the name Yoga-Śakti comes—Śakti is a power. And wherever the word Śakti appears, it means Mother, the divine Mother. Divine Mother is not the mother as we understand in the physical body. She is the mother of all holy incarnations, of all the holy ones. Not only this divine Mother, but the divine Mother as the power in the universe. And it is said: Mātṛ Devo Bhava—Mother is God. And here, consciousness has two qualities, one could say: one as power, Mother, and the other as consciousness, Father. Śiva. Śiva means consciousness. Śiva means liberation. Śiva means bliss. Śiva means beauty. And Śiva means truth. Satyam Śivam Sundaram: Satyam, truth; Śivam, consciousness; Sundaram, beauty or purity, clarity. And so consciousness, pure consciousness, has no desires; it moves nothing; it is immovable. Unchanging, indivisible, eternal. Achala is the one who moves nothing. The entire universe moves nothing. What moves are the matter, the objects. Space is always space. The universe is the universe. It moves nothing. Therefore, it is Achala. Akhaṇḍa means unbreakable, indestructible; nothing can destroy it. Scripture, weapons—no weapon can cut it or kill it. Fire cannot burn it. Air cannot dry it. And even death can do it no harm, destroy or take away. And it is like space. This space cannot be cut away; nothing can burn it. Nothing happens at all. Space is space. Everything that moves is in space. Space itself is immovable. And therefore, our consciousness is always a pure consciousness. Development and the gradual stages are our experiences in our mind, in the soul, and so forth. This is the Śiva-Śakti, Śiva and Śakti. It is said in Tantra-Yoga: Śiva and Śakti, masculine and feminine. And many commercial books are printed about that, Tantra Yoga and this Yoga. And then one returns again to the small points, the emotional life—aerobic or erotic, erotic… Living erotically. How one misunderstands, slowly, slowly, how one loses all purity and then returns to material things. Śiva is consciousness, consciousness that is unchanging: no desires, no movement. Nirañjana, nirañjana: spotless, pure, unflecken. Nitya: everlasting, exists in all three times—past, present, and future. This is your Ātman: Śivo'ham, Śivo'ham. Vahiśacchidānandātma mehu, Ajaramārātma mehu: "I am the Śiva," means the consciousness, pure consciousness. Sat-Chit-Ānanda: Satyam Śivam Sundaram. Sat is Truth, Chit is consciousness, and Ānanda is bliss—always happy, never sad, never, never, always happy. And then the Śakti, the Mother, who moves through these planes and throughout the entire universe. It brings progress. It is a divine mother power. And when we say Mother, then our inner Self relaxes. For some, nothing, because the mother was stricter. In India, I did not know this, but here often, when I speak of mother and parents, some people become very aggressive and say, "Please, you have no idea how my mother and my father treated me or so on." But that is again an individual case. Generally speaking, mother is mother. If you are sad or nervous or have fears or feel restless, dissatisfied, full of stress, confused, lost, lonely—do a little meditation. This is truly a beautiful, a very simple meditation: close your eyes, close your eyes and surrender to Mother. And imagine, or feel yourself in the mother's embrace, suddenly relaxing. There is no one in this world who will protect you in such a way as a mother. And therefore, one can never be grateful enough to a mother. Mātā bhavati na kumātā: "A mother can never be a bad mother." Whether it is a human or an animal mother. Who has not understood the mother and motherly love understands nothing at all. All our efforts are zero—although zero is very significant. But here in zero is what I say: that is minus and plus, is zero. Who has not understood the Mother, who cannot feel the Mother’s love, then cannot understand God’s love either. And so, it is the power, the Śakti. When Krishna says, without the power of Yoga, I cannot incarnate anything either. He cannot be here without the Mother. And neither can we. For me, this is also a second point: Krishna was also born from a mother. Whether Krishna, or Rāma, or Jesus, or the Buddhas, or Prabhupāda, or the countless thousands, millions of Divine beings who have come to this Earth through the Mother, please. Just to be clear: a divine incarnation will come, one who comes without mother and without father. But then it is a manifestation. He just appears and disappears as a vision in visions. But to be here, in certain cultures, on certain lands, with certain people and nature, and to work and act with them, we also need motherly love, the motherly power. To understand yoga means to understand the whole of life, to understand the entire system—mother and father, children, families, offspring—all of this is to be understood positively, and then your family life will be happy. And our society can become so beautiful. In India, we always say, even now, when we see older women: "Mātājī, mother." It doesn’t matter who it is. We do not say woman or lady or women or anything like that. Mother: Mātājī. And all of them, your age or younger than you, we always say sister, "Behen." And now, in modern language, we say Madame, Madame. I do not know what Madame is. Madame is a mixture of everything in one. Yes, Ma'am, Yes, Madame. When you say Madame or Ma'am, you have taken away those human feelings and moral responsibility; you have graduated from them. And when you say sister and mother, then you have a responsibility towards that woman. You see as a mother and you see as a sister, and likewise, women will see men as father and brother. Now, unfortunately, through this modern system, everyone has lost everything. Women have lost this most beautiful, the highest position in the family and society. And men too. All men, and the women themselves are to blame. But we must not say we can no longer help. Oh yes, we can help. Charity begins from one's own home. So begin from your side. Begin. And thus, yoga has been active in our lives from the very beginning until today. Consciousness—we will continue this topic throughout the entire weekend. And then Karma, Dharma, and Reincarnation will also come into the picture. Karma, Dharma, and Reincarnation—these three have a very close relationship with consciousness. Such a consciousness that rests in the ocean of infinity is said to be sleeping consciousness, although consciousness itself does not sleep. But the consciousness of the Śakti is not yet active—like deep sleep or anesthesia. Everything that happens, happens. He is very kind. And from this consciousness comes a Śakti with a Kriyā. This is called Spūrṇa. And there everything begins again, starts anew. And this is the beginning of our journey. The first milestone is there in the Śakti, in eternity, in Ānanda, there you sleep. And consciousness journeys through the Stone Age, stones, metals, plants, aquatic animals, birds, animals, humans, saints, and to God. And so there are levels of consciousness or layers of the subconscious. We have our subconscious. And the subconscious is the space that carries as a backpack all from previous lives: Prārabdha. Everything we have done in previous lives, no matter in what form of life—perhaps a bird or an animal or a human being, and so on—everything is stored in our subconscious, unconscious, unconsciousness… Unconsciousness. And between unconsciousness, unawareness, and the subconscious, there is a very dense veil. Just like here: we are sitting above a basement room and we do not know what lies in the basement room beneath us. Perhaps fruit or wine cellars or coal or wood or safes or bombs. We do not know what lies ahead because we see nothing through. And so it is in our unconscious. The unconsciousness—we do not know what exists. And that, however, is Prārabdha. Karma—karma is in our hands. Actions are in our hands; actions are within our power, within our decision. But the fruits, the results, are not in our hands. Fate is in God's hands. For example, I have a stone in my hand. I can decide whether to throw the stone away or keep it. It is my decision. I am holding the stone. I can throw it or I can keep it. So my actions, my karma, my deeds are still within my will. God has given us a will. But as soon as I throw a stone with all my strength, it is no longer in my hand. Now I cannot go back and catch it again. It's gone. It is in God’s hands. What you have already done is already done. It is beyond your hands. Now it lies in the hands of God or whatever you call it—fate, your destiny, fortune or misfortune. And such actions exist very much in our unconscious. And then, from time to time, these moments arise and we say, "I don’t understand anything, why is this happening, especially to me, and this and that." The second level of consciousness is called the subconscious. And the subconscious has been active within us, from our mother's womb until now. In this life, in the past time, it is bound with the subconscious. What one calls psychological problems, fears, nervousness, and many other things—it may be that it exists in our subconscious. And then the third level of our consciousness is the present moment. And our current consciousness, the present, which is coordinated with the five Jñānendriyas and the five Karmendriyas. Five Jñānendriyas are the five senses of knowledge, and five Karmendriyas are the five senses of action. Karmendriyas operate through the subconscious and unconscious, while Jñānendriyas operate through consciousness. The Jñānendriyas are all five senses, namely seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, and feeling, touch. These are the five, the five keys, sensors, through which we can store information in our computers. When we see, we receive information: I see who is sitting there, what color their clothes are, their hair, what is lying there, light and this and that—all of that. That is seeing through, information. And if I see someone once and then at some point we meet at the airport or on the plane, I say, "Aha, I believe we have met before." So that is already information, already stored. Smelling—sometimes you catch a scent so wonderful, you never forget it in your life. And sometimes you can smell it on the tram—but you don’t have that, right? Is there no tram here? No. What do you have? Subway, suburban train. And sometimes, when the weather is very hot and many people are inside the subway, and someone enters who constantly drinks beer and eats a lot of meat and garlic, and then sweats—you never forget that smell suddenly. So, the melting senses: taste, hearing, and touch perception. These five Indriyas, I would say, are senses that receive information, impressions from the outside, the external world. And they are our subconscious. It is like a record, like a tape recorder. And everything that enters our subconscious flows into the vāsanās, the desires, and from the subconscious it rises again from time to time. And we would like to do that. And so the mind, what we refer to as the mind, the spirit, is that which wanders between the subconscious and consciousness. It constantly oscillates. It takes the new messages, brings them down, and it takes the other desires from the subconscious, brings them back into consciousness, and then passes them on to the intellect. And the intellect, its task is to make a decision, to give the result. The intellect says that it is a glass of water and that it is a book. And so the mind is never responsible. Mind has only one duty: to bring things from the subconscious to the consciousness and from the consciousness to the subconscious. And no one can stop the mind. And if you stop the mind, you will become mad. And this is what happens when one says, "Purified, I want to meditate, my mind, I want to stop my mind completely." Yes, then I can well understand that psychological problems arise. Mind must flow. Mind is like a river. It is a river, and the river must always flow. Yes, we can do one thing: perhaps to give a direction to the flow. And so, we can give our mind a direction: continue pursuing a goal. And then meditate and work in that direction—direction, goal realization. And so, the mind brings ambitions; the mind brings many ideas. But when it brings something, it relinquishes its responsibility. It takes away its responsibility; the mind, as only the state remains. And the state without the mind is a more dangerous state. We are back again. So, consciousness, presence, should be consciously experienced. Reflect, contemplate. If you do not know what to do, then you can ask others. And if the other person cannot give an answer either, then better leave it. Hands off. Otherwise, you will create complications in your subconscious, and that will one day become a problem in life. The fourth stage of consciousness is the highest consciousness. The highest consciousness is the pure, spiritual consciousness. Spirituality means purity: crystal clear, without any blemish in it. And the highest consciousness comes through meditation, through prayer, through mantras, through good deeds, and so on—spiritual work. And the fifth stage of consciousness: cosmic consciousness. And cosmic consciousness then means unity with God. All qualities have vanished. Only one pure quality: Ātman, So'ham, that is "I, I am that." That comes only at the end of our life, nothing before. Beforehand there is only supreme consciousness, but in the end, it decides. Time will bring decision. And how our life was, everything will then be seen in a book of the Sigsal. And there are many Adhyāyas. And therefore it is said Svādhyāya. One should practice Svādhyāya every day. Svādhyāya has two meanings: reading books, good books that can inspire you, from which you can learn something. And secondly, Svādhyāya actually means this: Sva is the Self, Adhyāya is the chapter. Every day, meditate and read your own chapters of your life. What has it done, what do you think, how do you think, what did I think, why did I think, what should I think, why should I think, and how should I think. All of this leads us to the highest state of consciousness. And finally comes the cosmic consciousness, the fifth stage of consciousness: the Ātman, the Self. When cosmic consciousness enters, then incarnation ends. Again, birth and death, suffering and everything will then come to an end. And so, this weekend, we will take up this topic once more, practice this particular subject a little more, and listen. And we will also have time to ask questions. And that is what I wanted to share today: what Yoga is, principles of Yoga, Love. Love means to pray, to believe, because God exists. Pray, believe, meditate, repeat God's Name, do good, forgive all, harm nothing, be non-violent, practice ahiṃsā, help. All these principles are principles of Yoga. Now, all the religions that exist on this earth, the man-made religions, have these principles: love, prayer, faith, helping, forgiveness. If all religions have these principles, then it automatically means that all religions originate from Yoga, and not that Yoga comes from any religions. The origin of all religions, spirituality, is from Yoga. Yoga is not just what we think, read in books: Tantra-Yoga, Mantra-Yoga, Haṭha-Yoga, Karma-Yoga. No, it is a supreme divine power, consciousness, the mother power and father power. And I wish for you to practice yoga every day accordingly—not only physical exercises, but to live in such a way, to realize in such a way, to see the universe and God and creation in such a way. Suddenly, life becomes completely different. Just like this example I gave: when you are tired and anxious, sit down and think of your mother and say it out loud once, "Mother, Mama, Mother"—it is beautiful. And so the yogīs have always followed a path, a natural path. And therefore they have found a beautiful solution against diseases and for healing. And indeed an architect, an engineer-architect, the master builder who constructed this house with cement, stones or bricks, water—fire is within the bricks, the bricks are fired or burnt, fired—and air, space. Now this house has a crack, and we go to an engineer or a builder and say, "Please, can you repair this wall?" With what will he repair it? With cement, bricks, water. So from the same substance from which this house was built. And just as the Yogi says: this body is made of the five elements—water, air, fire, earth, and space. If you can properly harmonize and cleanse all five elements, one after the other, you determine that you will become healthier. You need to walk this natural path again and nothing unnatural. Just as we create water as a cleansing process, cement and bricks as proper nourishment, the right mixture, movement, fresh air, and spaciousness. And since in Haṭha-Yoga there are techniques like Neti, Dhauti, Basti, Nauli, Trāṭaka, Kapālabhāti, that we can once again create harmony within our body and repair our body once more. Yes, I will tell you the others next time, tomorrow. Today I have shared too much; you may not know where to begin. So tomorrow we will begin again. Now I wish you all the best, a pleasant evening, and perhaps we will have time dedicated to questions and answers. Okay, so we will take a 15-minute break, and after 15 minutes, if anyone has questions, please feel free to write them down and give them to Hinsa, and she will then pass them on to me or read them aloud. Thank you, Hari Om, good evening.