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Relax Your brain waves

A spiritual discourse on the conservation of mental energy and the practice of brahmacharya.

"Excessive thinking consumes a great deal of your energy. Indeed, a significant amount of energy is lost."

"Therefore, if you are thinking excessively and this thinking brings you happiness, then you are gaining energy. But if your thinking makes you unhappy, then you are losing energy."

The speaker explains how scattered and negative thoughts drain vital energy, undermining concentration and spiritual progress. He expands the traditional concept of brahmacharya beyond celibacy to include all wasteful energy loss, linking it to mental chatter and negative speech. The talk emphasizes personal responsibility for one's thoughts, using metaphors and references to sages to illustrate the need for disciplined practice (sādhanā) and a positive mindset to reconnect with one's spiritual path.

Filming location: Vienna, A.

DVD 308

Why do you lack good concentration? Because you think too much and attempt too many things at once. Excessive thinking consumes a great deal of your energy. Indeed, a significant amount of energy is lost. Furthermore, an excess of restless thoughts is also a violation of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is not merely the loss of energy through sexuality. It also means losing energy through illness, excessive thinking, nervousness, and hyperactivity. There is hypoactivity and there is hyperactivity. That is the distinction. Therefore, if you are thinking excessively and this thinking brings you happiness, then you are gaining energy. But if your thinking makes you unhappy, then you are losing energy. It consumes tremendous mental energy, and your concentration vanishes. This is why it is called chitta vṛtti nirodha—the restraint of the modifications of the mind. Through meditation and prāṇāyāma, we can stimulate and control our thoughts. Many wrong activities in various aspects of life still cost you energy; they take and consume it. Even excessive gasping for air consumes much energy. And negative speech—what may seem correct to you can be negative for others. All our trachae are in Vien. One who observes the last five years sees that the complete aura is gone. I do not wish to name names, but many of you know. You should look at such a person; what we call charisma is gone. Nūr, in Urdu and Persian language, means divine light. Nūr has this radiance. It is gone. There was a time when sitting with them was like a satsaṅg. Now it is like a twist, a citron. And the edges have become round, foul, moldy. This is your thinking. This is your negative thinking, which is harming and torturing you. Through this self-torture, you are harming yourself. So you must once say, "No, finished," and understand life. You cannot sit all day crying about yesterday, nor can you talk about tomorrow. You do not even know about this very second of life, so how can you know about tomorrow? You have no knowledge of this very moment. So how, what can you speak about tomorrow or about what is gone? You were not able to keep it, and you cannot keep it. Life is a flow; it is flowing. When you think too much, it makes you sad or angry. It consumes your energy to an unimaginable degree. Conversely, that which relaxes and makes you happy allows you to observe relaxed brain waves. There you gain concentration. There you gain happiness and motivation. It is your own negative thinking that harms you. Thus, we are cutting the branch upon which we sit. This mental mechanism is very difficult to stop. It is a reactor, like from atomic energy; it is very hard to halt. And even if you stop it, it continues to function. This means that when you yield to someone's blackmail, when you internalize someone's negative words and then sit in silence, the mechanism is still working. How is that? It is functioning, and therefore it exists. There was an oak tree, an old oak. Upon that oak sat a bird. That bird spoke less but heard more. Was that not a wise one? Was that not a wise bird upon the oak? So it is very important that we now measure our thoughts. Just as when you buy gold, it must be measured very correctly—every gram, even the quarter-gram, and so on down to milligrams. In this Kali Yuga, what you speak and think will first affect you and then others. Therefore, this negative talking, which you may not consider negative, is indeed negative. So consider: How will it affect you? How will it affect others? How will it affect the surrounding respect? How will it affect your future? And what is the aim of your life? If this takes you off your path, then it is your thinking that creates, day by day, a distance from your dear one—your negative thinking and your dear one being your spiritual path, your God-realization. So it depends on you how you think and how you will be. No one can help us, no one. We can only wish you well and bless you, that is all. We need the blessings of our parents, the blessings of our elderly friends, the blessings of our masters. We need blessings. We do not need a curse from anyone, for we know a curse is also a terrible thing. I recently heard in someone's lecture that even an animal can curse you. When you cause pain, the animal, in its suffering, can curse you from its very body. It is said that when you give food to a hungry person or animal, they may not say thank you, but their stomach will thank you. We do not wish to complicate life further. Therefore, it is a tapasyā—to go through that fire to purify and understand life's situations. VCR is not so easy that we will be enlightened. So, after 50 years of sitting, will everyone say, "Ṛṣi, Mr. Harald," or "Mr. Harald, all free days"? Is there anybody? Al-Farīdah is kind of Farīdah. There is Nūr Allāh, Allāh Farīdah. And there are ṛṣis. Can you imagine? Ask those ṛṣis how hard they performed their sādhanās. That is it. When you find a beautiful, nice, round, shining stone on the beach, ask that stone how it became so nice, round, and shining. How many times was it heated among the other rocks? We will sit for six hours with legs crossed, cricket pitch style, so give all this. Otherwise, we are in a sign highly, but it is possible. Do not think it is impossible. Someone asked Mahāprabhujī, "Now everything has changed. It is Kali Yuga." Mahāprabhujī said, "Nothing has changed. Only you have changed your mind." The feeling in Satya Yuga was the same. The sun and moon were different? The sun in Satya Yuga said no. In Satya Yuga, were the same five elements present? Are they the same now or not? Say yes. In Satya Yuga, was there also day and night like this? Has that changed? No. In Satya Yuga, was there also full moon and new moon? Changed? No. Then why do you say it has changed? It is you who have changed your attitude. That is it. So one day your attitude makes you very happy and joyful, and another day it makes you unhappy. They say this, but I must say, it is never too late. It is never too late. We can begin again from our zero point to run, to come to the mileage. Otherwise, we do not have this life. It is like dead movies, bodies, because we lose the energy. This is it. Your brahmacharya energy is gone. Finished. So brahmacharya, always thinking of Brahman, means he or she is always moving into Brahman. Therefore, whatever you do, do with love. And your love means that you think of past, present, and future. This is very important for us. Otherwise, there is one song: "O Lord, I want to offer you one flower, but I couldn't find that flower. I traveled through the mountains, shore to shore and beach to beach, forest and desert and country to country, but I couldn't find that flower. Why couldn't I find it, Lord? Perhaps it was my mistake that I couldn't find that flower—that flower of your devotion, the flower of your confidence, the flower of your love, which you wish to offer. Nowhere will you find it on any beach, in any forest, on any mountain, or in any desert. That flower is very personal, within you. You have to give it. Then again, your energy will begin to blossom." So, perform sādhanā. Then you will see on a person's face that they are doing sādhanā. Everything is shining here—nūr, beautiful nūr. But meditating for half an hour while also talking and thinking—"Why this?" and "Why that?" and "This one and that one, okay, it's not my problem. I meditate," and then again saying, "But I must think, why not?"—this is again our thoughts torturing us. Our thoughts torture us, leading to depression and midlife crisis. And after the midlife crisis, when the second level comes after 55 or 60 years, all indriyas (senses) become slow. Then, mostly they become so depressed, and many men become so depressed that they commit suicide. This is the biggest problem for males after 65. If they had motivation and read holy books, they would not commit suicide. So the best thing is to be against suicide and against stress. To combat stress, study the holy books. That is why it was a very clear and well-considered plan that the ṛṣis divided life into four āśramas. They precisely divided what kind of occupation one should have according to bodily capacity. After 25 years, your learning process slows down. Therefore, students up to 25 years should finish their studies. If they have interest in going to clubs and such, they will not pass. They will have very bad grades in school. They will lack concentration and relaxation. They will lack inner happiness, thinking, "Oh God, must I learn this? Well, this exam and retake, when I am finished with my studies, I will throw all the books under my bed," and so on, because they have too much interest in the other world, the other side. Therefore, it was strictly divided: until 25 years, a student must not go to any theaters, cinemas, or look at any videos or films. At that time, there were no videos or films, only theaters and games. They were not to read books that awaken desires. Then comes family life, then vānaprastha āśrama (meditation, relaxation), and so on. It is all timed. We did not follow the system, and that is why humans are now suffering the consequences. Yoga and daily life have their system. When you do not follow it, then you face the consequences. All who are sitting here were asked to be a click, but it does not help us. These are mudrās, yes? These are mudrās. Ek veda anfangan. Vida. That is death. Hope is the walking stick from the cradle to the grave. Do not give up hope. Confucius said, "The cut tree trunk, the chapped trunk of the tree, will again begin to grow." That is it. Never too late. Never too late. Do not kill your motivation. Okay? Whatever happens, happens. Now say, "I will think only positive, Hari Om, until the eating begins." Therefore, I wish you all the best. For me, yoga and life is the mastering of life in this situation. We cannot shape the external situation as we wish, but we can at least change the situation within us as we like. There are cosmic law, natural law, governmental or social law, and individual law. We cannot influence the outer laws, but we can influence our individual law, and you can become very happy. I tell you, you can be so happy and shining. A lot of spirituality radiates from you, but it is incoming because of the way you think, the way you act, and the way you talk to others. And this is not correct. Think spiritually. You may be poor financially, materially, but in thinking, do not be poor. Be rich in thinking. God gave you such a beautiful body. The man who is very rich also has only two legs, not four. The body of that very rich person is the same as yours. So why can't you be too? You can be active, be creative. That is it. But when you cannot control your thinking and your talking—telephoning and speaking negatives—it will harm you. Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda said that each thought which goes out of the human brain, good or bad, sooner or later will crash back to that brain. Like a boomerang you throw: if you are a master of throwing the boomerang, it comes back to you, you can hold it and throw it again. So every thought that goes out of your brain, whatever you speak, will first influence you or come back to you.

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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