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Yoga civilises the world

A discourse on the essence and practice of yoga.

"You should know that the author of yoga is Lord Śiva. He holds the copyright."

"Yoga in daily life means leading your life according to yoga 24 hours a day. If you deny or break the law, you have broken that chain."

A spiritual teacher addresses students, explaining yoga as the universal principle of union and harmony that extends far beyond physical postures. Using metaphors like an educational journey from kindergarten to university, he emphasizes that true yoga is a complete, 24-hour spiritual discipline. He discusses the need for self-purification, the danger of negative speech, and the story of Krishna and Arjuna to illustrate the human condition of spiritual ignorance, urging listeners to awaken to their rare human potential.

Filming location: Strilky, Cz.

DVD 293

First, we must understand what yoga means in daily life. There are many yoga teachers who are not clear in their mind, and many future yoga teachers. The information I share today will be very useful. You should know that the author of yoga is Lord Śiva. He holds the copyright. If you wish to write a new book, you must deal with Lord Śiva to get permission. Yoga has been and remains a central part of Indian philosophy, culture, thought, and spirituality. It is not easy for people to understand what yoga is. Literally, yoga means union, balance, and harmony. It is the balancing principle that balances the entire universe, all visible and invisible elements, and the harmonizing principle. It means bringing about oneness and unity. There are many different techniques, ways, thoughts, and schools, making it hard to grasp. Yet, a human cannot exist without yoga. When humans search for answers or have very creative, concrete thoughts, that is yoga. To establish a happy family, to achieve something in life, to study—all such realizations are yoga. You wish to realize a happy family and a healthy life. Every act of realization is already yoga. Humans possess a great talent called intellect. This intellect needs education, meaning the development or unfoldment of human talents, and that is yoga. The part of yoga we commonly practice—āsanas, prānāyāma, good eating, and health—is elementary. This is what you call kindergarten in the German language. When you grow, you come to primary school, then middle school, then college, and then university. After university, your sādhanā begins. Can you imagine how far you are from finishing university? Hence, you are still in kindergarten or university. It depends on your concentration and motivation how you will achieve these levels. After passing university, you can begin to think and start research work. That means asking, "Who am I?" Before that, you must learn to follow principles, the yogic principles and high principles like Ahiṃsā. This is the noble way of living—living with non-violence, spirituality, understanding, forgiveness, and love. It involves constantly contemplating the cause of this world, the cause of creation, the purpose of existence, the cause of your journey through the universe, and finding final peace and unity. After university, you begin to gaze within yourself and to guide others. To achieve all this, we have a long walk, and we hope to reach our goal successfully. In the Bhagavad Gītā, God Kṛṣṇa advises His disciple Arjuna to practice yoga. Kṛṣṇa tells him that through yoga practice, he will attain achievement and liberation—God realization. Here begins a very interesting subject. Kṛṣṇa is known as God, one of the most complete incarnations. Arjuna is a disciple or bhakta. The interesting point is that although Arjuna is with Kṛṣṇa, he does not know Him. And God advises him to practice yoga. Why couldn't Arjuna say, "Lord, I don't need anything; I have You"? Mahāprabhujī once asked Holī Gurujī, "What do you wish? I will give everything." Gurujī said, "I got everything. I have no more desires. I have already got everything; I no longer have desires. What should I wish for? Whatever I wish, nothing is more than you. When Gurudev is with me, what more should I ask for?" Similarly, it is very interesting that God is there, and He is asking the devotee what to do—so that the devotee will realize God, so that he would recognize God. Because the consciousness, the intellect of Arjuna, still could not accept and see Kṛṣṇa as God. But when Arjuna has this consciousness that yes, Kṛṣṇa is God, then Arjuna will have realized everything. This is our condition. We know that Ātmā is Paramātmā. We know that our real self is that God, but still we do not trust. Still we are searching. The self is searching for the self. So, there is a curtain of ignorance that does not allow clear vision or clear knowledge. For that, you have to go a long, long way. Arjuna knew Kṛṣṇa for a long time, but still he could not realize Him. This is because our feelings, knowledge, and experiences are on the surface only. When you ask a small child in nursery school or kindergarten to write A and B, you see how the child holds the pen and tries very hard to make the A. That is our condition. It is that hard for us to perform one posture. It is that hard for us to come to realization. The whole world, especially humans, cannot exist, cannot have social life, or cannot be civilized without yoga. Therefore, yoga has been the major part of their life—of all the spiritual incarnations on this globe. Yoga in daily life means leading your life according to yoga 24 hours a day. If you deny or break the law, you have broken that chain. This morning I told the yoga teachers that when you listen to negative critique from others against someone, you lose more than the one who is telling you. It is like, who is telling you, "You have the gun in the hand, and you are the victim"? You are the target. The negative words of that person, each word is like a bullet which destroys the spiritual person in you, which kills the spiritual person in you. That is why you will suffer for many lives; you will have many miserable lives. That is why there is a symbol with three monkeys. Long ago in the Mahābhārata, and before that in the Rāmāyaṇa—which is more than 10,000 years old—it is mentioned: do not speak badly, do not hear bad, and do not see the bad. Oh, monkey mind. Oh, monkey of the mind, before you say some bad word, close your mouth. Do not pollute the world. Through that atom bomb which is in you, each negative word you speak against someone is like an explosion of an atomic bomb. Also, many people, when they talk or read a holy book, keep their hand like this. There is a religion called Jaina religion. They keep a cloth in front of their mouth when they speak so that some other creatures living in the air will not die. Because that is ahiṃsā. And if you speak something and destroy, that is violent. Do not hear bad things; close your ears. Do not see bad things; before that, better you close your eyes. It means self-protection. So, yoga in daily life means not only physical exercises. This is only a preliminary part. It is the entire way of life. It is a system which makes you from human to God. It is the path which will make you from Nara to Nārāyaṇa, from human to God. Are you aware of this? Do you wish this? Do not ignore. Listen. Otherwise, you will be very, very sorry. Lost time. It is said, what is gone will not come back. The word you speak will not come back. The bullet which went out of the gun will not return. And the time which is past will not come back. Therefore, Holī Gurujī said in a Bhajan: "Bhai tum jagore, O brothers, wake up. Tera aushar bita jaye, your chance is going." You are missing your chance, which was very, very rare to get. Very rare to get this chance—that is human life. Do you understand what it means to be human? Do you know what the human qualities are that make us human? When we realize this, we will know what human values are. And when we know the values, we will know what human rights are. Human rights do not mean humans can do whatever they want. Humans must have spiritual injections and ethical education. The spiritual injection means the wise words of the saints. That will make you wise; that will make you holy. So, to be a practitioner of yoga in daily life means you are learning how to rescue creatures. You are the saviour of all seekers, all beings. But you will have no ability and energy if your inner self is destroyed, poisoned by negative society, negative talking, and negative company. Nowadays, it is much easier to get into it. You have the internet, emails, SMS, telephone—it is very easy to get these bullets in your brain. So you are completely, how to say, ruined. You are completely destroyed. How can you expect that you will proceed? So, yoga in daily life is trying to build up the human again and to protect the environment. To protect the environment, to love all beings, to understand everything, to respect everything, and to bring peace and harmony—that is very important. But if you, as yoga and daily life practitioners and teachers, cannot harmonize yourself, if you do not know how to use kind words, then you do not even know how to take the next step. It is easy to use kind words for those you love and who are kind to you. But to use kind words for those who are unfriendly, who blame you—that is a master's work. It means we are here to help the needy ones. The needy is not only one who has no money or nothing to eat. People have enough; they need a kind word, kind attention. They need your warmth, your understanding. They need you to give them freedom. You see, every day in the media, in different parts of the world, people are suffering and have hunger. Why? Who is the cause? We, the rich countries. We took all their resources, took everything away. And even now, the help given is still very little. You steal everything from someone's house, and then you make a film and say how poor they are. But you did not tell why they are poor. Who took it away from them? We did not see this. So, practicing yoga in daily life, being active in it, and teaching further is to bring the light of Mahāprabhujī. In the bhajans of Mahāprabhujī and Gurujī, there is a treasure inside—such a big treasure, there is no end. We are very rich; we just have to understand. So try to pass your classes and finish your university. Then you can say, "Now I am a teacher." And then, after research work, when you will be 98 or... "Now I understand what is guru," and a few hours before dying, you may say that I am a guru, but my self still does not accept it. That is it. But you are in kindergarten, and you are playing that you are a professor of a university. That is too much. That is a big problem why many people from yoga and daily life go away. That is why the problem is that you have few students. Because you do not do it with the principle of "naham kartā." You are not doing it as a seva, but you are doing your own seva. That is it. When you look into it for your own benefit, then you have lost the aim, lost the goal, lost the essence and the reality. Of course, we also have to survive; we also must have all material needs. I do not mean you should throw them away. If you remember, mostly Christians are sitting here, and you know Christianity was built up with poverty. Poor. Do not collect. Do not play with this money. Jesus said, regarding the "golden bull" or "golden calf"... The calf is a baby. Bull is the other one, ox. People were playing with gold exchanges and had a golden ox or a golden bull. So God or Jesus said, "You should not believe in other gods like this." He did not say, "Do not believe in Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Buddha." You know that all Christians lead a very humble, poor life. But the Jews were saying, "We are allowed to make business and so on." That is a big conflict between Christians and Jews, also in Islam. Playing with money is prohibited. Gambling is strictly prohibited. A very deep believer of Islam will not accept the interest you get from your money in the bank—not orthodox, but deep believers. Orthodox means very near to fanaticism. They are very deep believers, so they do not accept interest from your capital. But now in Kali Yuga, money is God, and the other gods are only emblems to protect that I am religious. So we lost that fine spiritual feeling. At that time, there were many fruits to eat. Now, even the fruits are polluted. You do not eat your own fruits because they are polluted from the air, but you buy fruits which are dipped in pollution. You do not see how much they are sprayed. I want to tell you that, of course, the principle of yoga is to become a successful human and achieve four things: Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa. Dharma: follow the principles, your duties, obligations. Artha: material life. Kāma: do the right karma. And Mokṣa: liberation. So, of course, you have to work for that. But the main aim is to bring this divine light. If you can inspire one person to spirituality, you have done a great achievement. And if you can destroy one person with negative thinking, you have lost great things. In multi-religious conferences, one mufti told—well, I did not read the whole Quran—so in the Holy Quran it is written: "If you kill one human, it means you have killed the whole humanity." That is it. So all these terrorist activities are not in harmony with the Holy Quran. But who follows the Bible? Three times: the time of birth, the time of marriage, and the time of the funeral. That is all. To follow the Guru Vakya is very rare; people are doing it. All holy scriptures for us are the words of the holy men, that means the Guru Vākya. So I wish you all the best, and I do hope that you understand what is now yoga and daily life: understanding, respect for all religions, tolerance of cultures, and no dualities among nations.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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