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Yoga has been, is now, and remains an educational system for the development of human life. It concerns the human body, human consciousness, and the mastery of human existence. It means mastering the human mind, purifying it, and mastering the human body. This was the era of Patañjali, the perfect psychologist. Perhaps the perfect master knew what kind of problems would come to the human mind, what could be the cause of suffering. Therefore, he gave definitions to certain problems of the human mind. Patañjali speaks extensively about discipline. We know that when we disobey discipline, problems arise. There will be no success because you break the discipline. It doesn't matter in what sphere; anything we do in this world requires discipline. Thus, Patañjali said discipline is the most important thing. You cannot begin, nor can you be successful, if you have no discipline in yoga. It is not a one-day job, not a one-month job, not for five years, nor for ten years. Sometimes I think, "Now fifty years I have been practicing, and still I haven't gotten anything." Should I give up? If I give up now, the Czech newspaper will come with a big photo: "Swāmījī gave up yoga," so I cannot do that either. I asked Mahāprabhujī, "Fifty years?" Mahāprabhujī just smiled. He said, "That's nothing." So I do not know how long he will let me wait still. It is a lifelong process. But Patañjali said the problem comes in your mind in two forms: either as a thought, as thinking, or as desires. These two are very problematic things. Some desires are so strong that you become totally blind. You think, "It doesn't matter, I shall do it." Sometimes thoughts are so intense that your deep beliefs—whose roots are very deep in you—are uprooted by these strong thoughts. They pull all the roots out. And you know, when you pull a carrot out of the earth, it does not come out as only a carrot; it takes earth with it. So your doubts, your thoughts, pull the roots of your belief out, but at the same time, they take some part of you with them, leaving a wound inside. These are the difficulties which aspirants meet on the way. If you had followed the principles of discipline, then it would not have happened. Then no one could pull your roots out. And what kind of discipline? Do not let the thoughts come in. Whatever you think and feel is coming from the external world. Avoid certain discussions, avoid certain situations in life. Understand: nothing in our life happens only from our self, nor does anything happen only from outside. There are always two factors. If I were not here, I would not have this problem. If I am here, I can expect this problem. You can make a sound with two hands; with one hand, you cannot make a sound. And if you want to make a sound with one hand, then you need someone's cheek—and that we do not want. So, aṣṭāṅga yoga anuśāsanam—discipline, yogic discipline. Through this discipline you will be successful. If you cannot follow the disciplines, you will not be successful. And why can't we follow disciplines? The disciple says to the master, "Yes, master, no problem. What is that discipline? I will have discipline, I will follow discipline, I will do all. Swāmijī, please, I want to go to the Kumbh Melā." You will see there how you will be, whether it will be hard or not hard. How you will feel there, whether it will be hard or not, then you will know. You still do not know. Or it will be very beautiful. Be ready. When you want to travel somewhere, you should expect, "May some difficulties come. May you miss the train, or may you miss the bus, or the bus you catch breaks down on the way." Cold, snow, windy, and no other transportation is there. You are sitting in the bus and freezing. You forgot your coat at home because the bus was air-conditioned, and you thought you would come home very soon, but you did not expect that the bus would be stuck somewhere. If you go on a journey, you should expect the negative as well as the positive. So when you are born in this world, you should expect both things. Whatever happens, we are the cause of it. If I am here, then everything is here. If I am not here, nothing is here. If I am here, then for me there is East and West, North and South, above and below, front and behind, because I am here. But if I am not here, there is no east, west, north, south. One devotee, full of devotion, goes to the temple, to God's altar. It is said that when you go to the altar, you should always bring something—flowers or something. He comes in front of the altar and sings a beautiful prayer or song: "Lord, the flower which I wanted to offer to you, I could not find that flower. I was wandering from mountain to mountain, from rivers to rivers, from the bank of rivers to another bank of rivers, through forests, valleys, parks and gardens, deserts, and rocks. But Lord, I could not find that blossom which I wanted to give you. But I must admit that maybe it was my mistake that I could not find it. The blossom is there somewhere, but I was not searching enough, I was not searching enough, I was not searching enough. Perhaps God is waiting for that." He does not need anything. He does not need flowers. He does not need fruits. He does not need money. He does not need clothes. He does not need incense. He does not need candles. He needs nothing. Whatever we put there, we take again ourselves. We need it. We learn to give, and we learn to take. That is it. So God does not need anything, only pure love. "I am here, Lord, that's all. Lord, I want to sing a beautiful song to you. But how can I sing now? Because the string of my sitar is broken. The string of my mind, devotion, that sitar is broken. There is no resonance. There is no sound. My trust, my belief, my confidence, my love, is broken. Now I would like to sing. I can sing, but still not like that which I could sing with that instrument, which is only my help to sing." So, always, whatever happens—mistakes, problems—we bear the temptation of that, we bear the object of that. We are here. "But Lord, it does not matter how I am, I am here." There was a very great saint from the Sufi religion. He lived in Turkey, in Konya. Mevlāna, his name was Mevlāna. His very famous sentence was this: "It does not matter how you are. Come as you are to me. Come as you are. Do not hide your reality. Do not play with artificial things. Come as you are. If you are a sinner, if you are a thief, if you are a murderer, or you are a saint, or you are a good person, or a bad person, just come as you are." That is very important. Do not escape, or do not play that He does not know. God knows everything. Even if we try to hide, He knows. So we shall surrender to Him as we are, but we cannot, because there are some problems: vṛttis. Vṛttis are our thoughts. We are thinking too much. We are making arguments in our consciousness: "If it is like this, why can't it be like that? If it is like that, why can't it be like this?" Before accepting anything, before understanding anything, before realizing anything, we begin to argue. These are our vṛttis. Suddenly, your thoughts take you away somewhere. Therefore, yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. It has two meanings: through the practice of yoga, you can control your thinking process; those negative thoughts you can convert into positive ones. A restless mind you can make calm. If you use your intellect, your positive knowledge, or your wisdom to control or filter your thoughts, it will be very easy. Let's say you are thinking something stupid. Now, use your wisdom and tell yourself, "Do not be so stupid." It is your wisdom that tells you. Then the mind will say, "Yes, I think it is stupid to think like that." But if someone else tells you, "Do not be stupid," there will be a volcano breaking out. "This one tells me, 'Do not be stupid.' That stupid one told me, 'Do not be stupid.'" Immediately, so the best thing is to use your own wisdom. And you have so much wisdom. You are the master; you know how to help. If someone has problems and comes to you and asks for advice and help, you can talk so well—a perfect psychologist, a perfect master. It seems all holy books are in your book: Gītā, Rāmāyaṇa, Quran, Bible, Yoga. You are the best advisor. But the problem is, when you yourself have some doubt or problem, then the mouse falls into the cold water. "I do not know what to do now." So, Patañjali said that through the practice of yoga, you control your vṛttis, your thoughts. Vṛtti means just thinking. You are thinking this, that, this, that—so a hundred thousand things. He says that without purifying and controlling your vṛttis, you cannot be successful in your life. So it is both: you cannot be successful without controlling the mind, the vṛttis, and those vṛttis you cannot control without yoga. It is really complicated. Where to begin? You cannot have success and begin with yoga without controlling the mind. And if you control the mind—without controlling the mind, or through yoga you can control it. Complicated. Once someone told me that when you wanted to go to Austria, you had to get permission from your employer. And the employer says, "First you should get permission from the bank." And the bank says, "You must get first permission from your employer." And the employer says, "Well, then you get permission from the police." And the police says, "Well, you must get permission from the bank." After all this, you are still not sure that you will come to Vienna. Those were the vṛttis, nothing else. Those were the vṛttis playing, and these vṛttis are in the human mind. The division of the people, dividing people into different religions, creating borders—there are no borders on the earth. These are the borders in the human mind. These are the dualities, divisions in the human mind. If the human mind becomes satisfied and attains oneness, there will be no problems. And the same vṛttis divide you between partners, friends. All life situations that we get, this is only our vṛtti. So sometimes it happens like this. I had several situations in India; they said, "You get the ticket, then you will get the visa." And you go to get the ticket, they said, "No, we have to get permission from the bank." And the bank said, "No, first you have to get the visa." And the embassy says, "No, we cannot give you a visa unless you have the ticket." And the embassy says you will not get a visa until you have an airline ticket. And the tourist agency says you cannot issue a card if you do not have an agreement with the bank. All the Indians who travel abroad have to ask for a visa from the bank. But sometimes you have certain checks, and we still have that problem. It is a very complicated game. You can get it, you will get it, but there are certain problems. Then you go to the bank. The bank will say, "Bring the clearance of the income tax." Income tax clearance? And income tax, when you go there, they say, "From where did you get this money?" Now you give up everything. You will say, "Thank you, better I go and stay with my family, and I will not travel like this." Problems are coming one after the other. These are the vṛttis. Now you cannot meditate. Whenever you meditate, you think of the ticket, you think of the visa, you think of the bank, you think of the clearance, income tax clearance. Then you are thinking about what to sow, from where I got money. Now, there is no meditation. That is what Patañjali means here: citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. As many things you have, that many problems you have. More problems. And the fewer problems you have, the fewer things you have. And that is stress. That stress does not let us solve problems, nor does it allow us to meditate. Patañjali says, try to limit your needs in life and do things which are absolutely necessary. This is instruction for them, those who stayed in one place and practiced and developed in life. Through yoga, you can control your vṛttis. And through the controlling of the vṛttis, you can develop further in the yoga path. Because yoga means oneness. And oneness means to become one with yourself. You are not two. First, get union with yourself. Agree with your thoughts. Agree with your intellect. Agree with your heart, your emotion. Your intellect, your ambitions. Many things we have in our body. So we are not one with ourselves. We are split into thousands of pieces. So first ask, "What do I want? First, who am I? How am I? Where am I?" First, try to know your life situation, and when you will know this, then you will know everything. It will become easier for you. Otherwise, it will not become easier. So the problem is in our mind. And that creates unnecessary thoughts, the thinking. That creates some unnecessary feelings. It produces unnecessary feelings. Many times, I get a problem. When I look very seriously, they say, "What an arrogant person." If I smile, "My God, why does he smile like this?" If they say hello, I say, "Yes, hello." "God, he was so greeting from the heart, and he says, 'What to do?'" If you do this, they do not like it. If you do like that, they do not like this. Many people are suffering because of this situation. And because of that, many suffer and do not know the reality. When we try to project from our own mind, then we create problems for ourselves and for others. Any thought comes to your mind, any feelings come to your mind, do not judge immediately. There was a great philosopher, Albert Einstein. He got one letter, and he should answer the letter. So immediately, Albert Einstein took the pencil and paper and wrote the answer in five pages, six pages. And at the end, he wrote one sentence: "I am sorry to write you such a long letter because I did not have the time." I am in satsaṅg. So, "I am sorry to write you such a long letter. I am sorry that I am writing this long letter to you because writing five or six pages takes time." But he said, "I did not have the time." It means I did not have the time to overthink; I acted so quickly, and I wrote it all down. When you write anything, then read it the next day. Really, do you want to write this? Let it be later, one day more. And then I will read again. Do you really want to write this answer? On the third day, you will say, "No, it is stupid." Once Gurujī was writing a letter to me, a little bit angry. A master can write to disciples clearly. In that way, he helps us with our mistakes. And I was angry. I said this is not true, and how can you say this? And I said I do not want to accept this and that, and I kept the letter with me because it was evening, and I thought tomorrow I will post it. And before closing the letter, I read it once more, and at the end of reading my letter... and at the end of the letter, when I read it, I pulled it out and threw it away. I wrote this answer to my Guru, to Holy Gurujī. He is more than my father, mother. What He gave me in my life, no one could give. Always, He is ready to support me. He is always ready to help me, to support me. And he wrote something, maybe because of my ego, and I answered him like that? No. This is how God gives us right thinking sometimes. So, Mahāprabhujī said, "Do not dive to search for pearls in the ocean when the waves are too stormy, otherwise you will break your spinal column." Therefore, vṛtti. The disciple is asking, "Master, why is anuśāsana so difficult? I will follow the anuśāsana. Where are the problems?" So he said, "The problem is the vṛtti, my dear." The problem is our vṛttis, and you never know. Like a bird sitting on the roof of your house, and you want to catch it. You do not know which vṛtti will come to the mind of the bird and fly in which direction. So to control the mind is to catch the bird which is sitting on the roof. Slowly, slowly... my mind. The gardener gives water to his plants every day, but fruits will come only when the season comes. So, success will be only then. Success will be only when the time comes. Therefore, the British have destroyed many, many people. The British have created wars in the world. They are only in the mind of the people. "My culture, my land, my people, my religion. My caste, my race." These are vṛttis. Do not destroy through your vṛtti the beautiful work and things in the world. If not others, then at least yourself. So our self is inwardly split. Only our vṛttis can control. Calm down. Then God will help us. If any restless thought comes, think of God, if you believe in God. If you do not believe in God, then think what you want in your life. You cannot be successful in that thing if you cannot control your virtues. If you go to some office to get some work done, though you do not like those people who are sitting in the office—maybe they are unfriendly and you hate them—but still you have to. You have to show at least your humbleness. If you will shout and be strict, they will not do it, or they will be, "This is missing, and that is missing, and this is missing, and come tomorrow, take the ticket and wait." You are waiting, they say, "Well, we have still some work. When we finish, we will call you." Unnecessarily, problems will come. Why? Because you could not control your vṛttis. And your vṛttis will let you act, so wise men say, "Take care. Your vṛttis can be one day your word. Your vṛttis can become the word in your mouth. And when you speak this or write this, it may have an effect like a gun." Why are they wise who control their anger? Therefore, it is said, more hearing and less speaking. In many situations, do not act immediately. Otherwise, you are mistaken. Do not judge someone without knowing one hundred percent. Do not judge others when you do not know 100% what to do; it is a sin then. That is it. That is why Patañjali said, take care of your vṛttis. Vichāra is in Hindi. You can ask your friend, "What do you think? Should I study architecture or economics?" Then you will see what vṛtti the father has in his mind. So if it is your father, he only wishes good things for you. He will say, "Well, my son, my child, it does not matter what you want to study; for me, all is good. Only, I wish that you will be successful and happy." What a beautiful vṛtti your father has. Very neutral, very positive, full of love. "It does not matter what you study. I only wish that you will be successful and happy in your life." This kind of vṛtti from the mind or the brain of the father, or mother, or friend, or master, that vṛtti is like a blessing. Such a divine vṛtti we should have. Well, we will continue. Very nice. Next vṛtti. And this we will have in the afternoon. He is going to say, as your vṛttis are, like that you will see yourself. And as you see, like that you will be. So, what do you imagine? What do you think? Like that, you will feel then. But it is not only like that, it is more perfect psychologically. It is guiding the disciple in the path of perfection. Disciples have to listen and obey. Freedom is in your hands. Why is the master telling this? He does not want anything from you; he wants to help you. You know, I am telling so many things to you: practice, practice, be good, be nice, do not be jealous, do not be... think over. Be positive. Do not harm anyone through writing, through speaking, through thinking, through physical action, or through social position. Why am I telling you this? I can say it does not matter, do what you want. It is your problem. That is your problem. You can die, you can live, you can die. In German they say, "This is not my coffee. This is your coffee." This is my life, and this is your life. But this kind of acting is not a master's action. And father and mother will not say like this. So, only that you are helped, for what we are born, or at least for what I am born. It does not matter who is who. I will never say, "Just die if you are ill." It does not matter. I know that someone is very sick and will die, but we should not tell this person that he will die. Because you cause a big pain in his or her psyche. Until the last minute of the life of a person or creature, we shall give a hand. Until the last breath of life, any creature, we should hold it in our hands, our warmness. It is never too late. Always, you can help anyone. To help is difficult, to construct something is difficult, to destroy is very quick. Climbing up the hill is hard. Climbing a mountain is hard, but falling is very easy and fast. People are there to protect, not to destroy, because people have intellect. Through intellect, a human is. Are there all feelings that we have? Animals have also everything that we have. Animals have also some other feelings that we have. Animals have smelling, smelling, hearing, hearing, tasting. Everything animals have also, but their intellect is very, very limited. Unfortunately, with them, unfortunately, the intellect is very limited. And man has this buddhi. If someone tells you something, then one says in India, a listener should be wiser than the speaker. I wish you a good appetite, a very good rest, and a very good afternoon. We will see you again at the afternoon or evening program. I have created so many vṛttis in your mind. You have many vṛttis already, and I put again so many vṛttis, but I hope through my vṛttis, some of your vṛttis are purified, and through my vṛttis, some of your vṛttis are activated. God sees through everything, and the truth is, God sees through everything. So I cannot see your vṛttis, and you cannot see my vṛttis. But I can see my vṛttis, and if I still cannot see, God sees.