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Oṁ Sukhadāṁ Kevalaṁ Jñāte Dvandātītaṁ Gaganasadṛśaṁ Tasmādyadilakṣaṁ Ekaṁ Nityaṁ Vimalāchalaṁ Sarvādhiṣakṣibhūtaṁ Bhāvātītaṁ Triguṇarahitaṁ Satgurutvaṁ Namāmyahaṁ Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Salutations to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. In His holy presence, a very good morning, dear brothers and sisters, dear brother rabbi. I always feel a strong, protective shoulder when you are sitting beside me. As you know, his name is Hofberg—the mountain of hope, the confidence. At the beginning of this year, we had an international dialogue between Jewish and Hindu leaders in New Delhi, where the chief rabbi of Israel was present. A very interesting point emerged: there are many, many principles which are the same in Hinduism and Judaism. Both religions stand firm that we should not engage in missionary work, because missionary activity is a fact which brings restlessness into the world. It does not matter from which religion; when they begin their missionary work, many terrible things happen, which is not in the interest of that particular religion. Let live to live. Let them believe how they believe. Help them to realize their goal with their beliefs. There is a beautiful story of eight candles, which is our subject today and is also mentioned in the Jewish religion. We know the light is diminishing now as the sun moves towards the south. Around the 14th of January, the sun will move north again, and more light will be there. You all know Rabindranath Ṭhākur, winner of the Nobel Prize in Poetry. His thoughts were similar to the symbolism of these eight candles in Judaism. It is dark wintertime. Sunset is nearly 5 o'clock in India, and in the far east, in Bengal, sunset is already 4 o'clock. Yet the most beautiful sunrise and sunset is in winter. Ṭhākur was walking through his garden and saw a beautiful sunset. When thousands look at a sunset, everyone has different feelings, ideas, opinions, and individual experiences. Ṭhākur writes that the sun was sad: "My time is over. I'm going down, and the world will be swallowed by darkness. There is no one who can give light to the world. I wish I could have left a successor. There are many successors, but they have no light." There was a Śiva temple, and there was a very fine, gentle bell ringing. Yemně tam zvonily zvonky. Ṭhākur turned, and what did he see? It was just the time for prayer in the temple, and there was one ghī-máslová lampička—a tiny ghee lamp—lit. And Ṭhākur writes that the tiny candle or ghee lamp said to the sun, "I will try to give light to the world." So each of us does have that tiny light of God within. Ourselves, we cannot be Kṛṣṇa. We cannot be Rāma. Or we cannot be the prophets or messengers—Jesus, Mohammed. But still, we have the same light, and we can give this light to enlighten the world: the light of wisdom. Wherever you come, you bring the light. Confucius said: when the day is dark and rainy and the way is hard to find, don't be worried. Just light one candle. It's better to light a candle than to stand in the darkness. That light of hope means you are the light in darkness. Darkness cannot remove the darkness; only light can remove the darkness. Humans and other creatures are carrying light within them, the light of God. And humans have special talents to transmit this light to the world. There is a very old song in a film. In my life, I have seen cinema three times. The films were: one about God Kṛṣṇa, the second was The Last Temptation of Christ (I saw it in America), the third was the film I will tell you about, and the fourth was the Gandhi movie. These were the four times I made the "sin" of going to the cinema hall—though I went many times to give satsaṅgs. That film is called Mother India, and in the film it is said: "Light the candles on every step. Light the flames. You have in your hand the light." Tím světlem, tím plamenem, který máte v rukou, zapalujte další světla. A nechť s vámi plyne Gaṅgā lásky. Tam, kam jdete vy, tam, kam se pohnete vy, pohybuje se i láska. A v té Gaṅgā, v té řece, žije mnoho tvorů, mnozí přicházejí, odcházejí, ale buďte tou řekou, buďte Gaṅgou. Když cestou uvidíte někoho nešťastného, nějakého chudáka, někoho, kdo trpí, obejměte je. And so, you are the light in this darkness. Light means the light, not darkness. Life means life, not death. We are very happy to hear about the eight candles. In the śāstras, in the yoga books, these eight candles are the eight chakras: Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, Viśuddhi, Ājñā, Bindu, and Sahasrāra. These are the eight chakras, each with its own meaning. They are different energies, different situations, and the entire personality is dormant in those chakras. The chakras were created before this body was created. A great saint, Kabīr Dās, wrote a beautiful bhajan, a song: "Aṣṭ kamal kā charkhā banāyā, pāñch tattva kī punī." The eight chakras were made as a spinning wheel. Pāñch tattva kī punī: the cotton, the material I am spinning, is made out of five elements. So first, the chakras were created. The chakras follow you in your life, every life. Even in the astral body, when the physical body's five elements disappear—each element merging into its origin—your astral being, your astral body and causal body, remain. This means all subtle functions of this being, a human phenomenon or animals too, remain. Your memory, your feelings, you can hear, you can see, everything—but you can't act. That is the difference between this physical life and astral life. In physical life you can act, and that's why it's called karma bhūmi, the field of action. Bhūmi means earth. It is called Janma Bhūmi, Dharma Bhūmi, and Karma Bhūmi. Dharma Bhūmi means the birthplace, your spiritual development place, the āśram, temple. And karma bhūmi is where you develop and do your duties, actions. Therefore, we are given this physical life to do something good, to become free from all our sins or karma—some call it sins, some call it karma—and the time given is limited. Two things will not wait for you: death and karma, and time. Time will not wait for you, and karma will not leave you free. It doesn't matter how you think. If you are happy, happy waves come in the body. If you are angry, anger waves come in the body. If you are dealing only with the head, then the heart is drying. If you are dealing only with the heart, the brain is suffering. Both should be coordinated. So how you speak, how you act, that is counted as karma. God has given us life; how long, we don't know. And thanks to God that we don't know. If you knew that after tomorrow you will die, I think you would not come here for a lecture. You would go to some doctor or healer, wondering what to do, and you would be depressed. Or, if you knew you would die today from a heart attack... So, thanks to God that we don't know about the past and the future, so that we can lead a comfortable life. When we separate from this physical body, we come to the astral body. In the astral body, you experience everything. There are many who are listening to my lecture, more than you, in astral form. It is not a joke; it is true. About this subject, I will talk next time, perhaps: who could be here, how are they, why are they here? But you can't do the action. One example: you dream tonight that you were in Pilsen, and you drank a Pilsen beer with two friends. Two beers, okay—you are a very dear friend. And then you went for meditation. You couldn't meditate. Why? You know why? Because you drank beer, so don't drink and meditate. Now you wake up and telephone your friend: "How was the beer?" He says, "What? We were drinking?" You say, "No. Are you okay?" In the dream, the astral body was there, but you can't leave any sign behind. You go and knock on the door of your friend in the dream. The friend is not at home. You write your telephone number on the door. But it was in the dream. There was no number. So, this is for us an example, which means that in the astral form you can't act. You are only the witness. Now, whatever happens on the astral level happens according to your destiny. What is that? Destiny is your past deeds. Whatever you do is called karma, and whatever fruits will come is destiny. The cause of destiny is action, and the cause of action is your being as an individual, not universal. The soul is not the Self. The soul is not ātmā. The soul is individual. Ātmā is universal. Ātmā is the Self—that Self written with a capital letter—is God Himself. And your ātmā is the light of God; my ātmā is that light of God. You see how many bulbs are here in this beautiful hall, different forms. But the electricity, the power in all, is the same. Similarly, we are here, thousands of people, but our ātmā is only one. One in all, all in one. That God is in all, equally. Even if it's another creature, a little mosquito, also the light of God is there. You see now outside Christmas decorations: there are tiny bulbs, but they have a light inside, and this big box light is also the same light. But the soul is different. The soul will exist as long as your karma or sins exist. And the soul is reborn, not the ātmā. Ātmā is not born and will not die. But the soul is born and dies. And so it is the soul which is carrying different bodies: physical body, mental body, subtle body, causal body—but not the ātmā. The soul is also a reflection of the ātmā, and through the soul's existence, the cosmic mother—meaning energy, not a form—and the cosmic father—no form, nirguṇa, formless—so energy, consciousness, and matter. It is that cosmic mother who gave the security system for the soul, and that's called chakra, eight chakras, and systematically they are developing. Finally, there is only one light, one chakra, that is the Sahasrāra chakra, that is illuminating: the Brahmarandhra, the door to Brahman. So the story about this light, eight candles, the eight-spinning wheel: "Aṣṭ kamal kā charkhā banāyā"—the first was made: these eight spinning wheels as a chakra. Takže nejprve byly stvořeny o nich osm kolovrátků, onen tkalcovský stav, ty čakry, a pět prvků, pět elementů bylo ono vlákno. It took nine to ten months to make this wonderful, wonderful shawl. And that shawl means the body and your citta. It's a beautiful song; many of you know it, and many of you don't. So, our development, either towards bad things or good things, ascending or descending, depends on our chakra. There is one chakra which was made first, and that is called the Maṇipūra chakra, and we are today on the Maṇipūra chakra. Maṇi, literally, means jewel, and pūra means center—the center of the jewel, and the jewel is you. You are that jewel which is manifested from this center, the lotus. It's a poetic language, a lotus flower. The lotus flower has many meanings. The lotus plant, the flower, exists only in muddy water, dirty water. But the blossom, the flower is above, and there is no dirt on it. So this lake is this world, and you know there are all kinds of dirt in this world. We have to come here in this world, and we have to live in this world, but a yogī, a holy person, a spiritual person—like all of you—is above the lake, above this dirt. It means: don't mind, don't shout. You know, happiness and unhappiness are here, disappointment is here. Especially nowadays, how many wounds we have in the heart, that we are disappointed so many times. Now, disappointment is not only between men and women, okay? Because Czech people always like to know, you know, the highest number of divorces is in the Czech Republic. And when I talk about disappointment, they just think about husband and wife. But you can be disappointed with your car. A beautiful, beautiful Škoda remains standing, and a Trabant goes up. So you are disappointed from your shoes, many things, my dear. Therefore, this is the world, this is a dirty lake, but be above. Therefore, lotus is always used in poetry, in beauty, in wisdom. Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Rāma are known as the lotus-eyed ones: Kamala Nayanā, their eyes are so beautiful, like a blossom of the lotus. In Buddhism, it is said, "Mani Padme Hum." "Padma" means the lotus feet of Lord Buddha, the holy feet of the master. But it is said, "Charan Kamal," the lotus, and "Mani" means the jewel—when the disciple has complete awakening, divine consciousness, the heart and Ājñā Chakra are opened. Then you see on the big nail, the toenail of the master, a light of a jewel, or like if a diamond sparkles. If you have this realization, otherwise not. So, maṇi padme hum: I bow down to the lotus feet of the Master, the jewel of the wisdom, the jewel of the light. That's why the name of Maṇipūra Chakra is given. Maṇipūra means the city, the city of the jewels in the astral world. In the astral world, all preparation is done. All your destiny book chapters are closed again. But you have to suffer and experience in the astral world. You went through all this process. No one can help you. You came alone, you will go alone. Even your dear father or mother, wife or husband, or children—they may sit with you, holding your hand, but you have to go alone. Death is a big change. All relations are chipped off, but still the astral being is aware: this is my father, my brother, my sister. But you do not suffer from relations, thanks to God. Billions of dollars for you become like a rabies paper. The worldly world has no value. It can be peaceful. But you have to go through good deeds or bad deeds. Finally, according to your karmas, the next life is given. You have to go. You can't remain stuck. Be sure, it may be—it will not be given as a human. Maybe another form of life. There are many, many examples. Research worked. Sometimes, some people tell me, "Swāmījī, my grandmother is born like my cat." Can that be? Then I have to deal psychologically. "Is your cat nice to you?" "Oh yes." "Yes, that's your grandmother." So the destiny book, the chapter is closed, and the new chapter begins, and you are given the freedom. You are now free from the prison. If you do the same mistake, you will be closed in again. So, through these chakras, first we enter into the Maṇipūra chakra. Yoga is one of the most ancient systems. Yoga is one of the oldest systems, the oldest science. No philosophy, no religion, nothing is older than this. It is said the entire universe is round. There are fourteen different worlds, seven below and seven above. Fourteen different worlds are reflected, connected to one chakra: Maṇipūra. And you are the king of that. You are the king of two thousand, one hundred different solar systems. And you enter into this chakra. Chakra means cycle, a round circle. There are many chakras. There is a Kāl chakra. Kāl means time, past time. Chakra means circle. It means round. A drop. The dot. So you enter into the mother's body, a tiny drop, a tiny point. Light, where there is a jīva, is already there. Unfortunately, it is said now that until three months of pregnancy, you can have a divorce or an abortion. But that's not logical. The embryo will not develop if there is no soul. So it is from the first second. It's already there. So the Bindu means the dot. From there, your manifestation begins in this world. As soon as you come in touch with the material world, the soul develops and transfers into this world from the astral world through the grains: bread, wheat, rice. And therefore, the bread is holy. Don't throw, don't waste the seeds. The corns represent the cosmic self, the deity, the goddess on the corn, Mother Annapūrṇā Devī. When you go to India, between Nepal and India, there is a beautiful high mountain, it's called Annapūrṇā, and there is a temple of Mother Annapūrṇā. It is a seat. Even Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva go for alms to Mother Annapūrṇā. Through these corns, the soul is descending from the astral world to this physical world. Where God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, before 5,000 years: "Through the moonlight I enter into this vegetation in form of the nectar." Nectar means immortality, that soul, ātmā. You are there now already. And now it will take nine months until all limbs, organs, and systems are developed in the body. For nine months, you are united and connected with your mother's body. And it is the mother's body which is nourishing you, and therefore there is a deeper relation with the mother. And the Maṇipūra Chakra is protecting you; it is the center of the light, the solar sun, and from here begins to develop. Your intense time after that, the spine, with that the head like a small knot, and then the limbs, the bones, and so on. So, the Maṇipūra Chakra is the chakra from where your manifestation begins. In this body are given ten different prāṇas. Prāṇa means energy, not oxygen. Prāṇa we receive through different things: through breath, through food, solid, liquid. What kind of food you eat, like that your prāṇa develops. You drink a glass of milk, you will be balanced, you will speak normally. And you drink a glass of vodka, then you will speak differently. So you see how prāṇa is changing. The Maṇipūra Chakra is that chakra which first developed in the body. Maṇipūra Chakra is the center where prāṇa and apāna both meet together. Prāṇa is inhalation force. Apāna is exhalation force. Both prāṇas, both energies have to be purified. That's called Kāya Kalpa. And Kāya Kalpa, it's believed that if you do it for a few years, it makes you 80% younger. How nice! I would like to do it very much, but you people don't let me have free time. So the kāya kalpa is done with nourishment, and you have to live in a mud house where there is no iron inside—if, then only copper. Otherwise, earth and wood. And in India we use the plaster inside from the cow dung—those cows which move in the forest the whole day, eating dry grass and many herbs, and from their dung it is plastered. The roof is made of wood or grass. This is the healthiest house or room you can live in. Then diet is controlled, so you have to reduce your diet nearly 80%; you will not become weak, and you have to do prāṇāyāmas. And there is a special diet and special root vegetables that are called Jāmī Khaṇḍa or Khaṇḍa Mūla. It's beautiful. And Prāṇāyāma. What happens? The whole system is changing in the body. They regenerate again, and the immune system becomes stronger. So many things change, like you get new parts in the body. And meditation is divine; you sit in meditation, and after eight hours you open your eyes, so your... Meditation is sleep, and sleep is meditation. Another subject. The Maṇipūra Chakra is a center of fire, the solar plexus. Everything is burned, everything is purified. There is one negative point of the Maṇipūra Chakra that comes from the Bindu Chakra. There is a coming nectar, and that nectar is consumed by the Maṇipūra Chakra, and that destroys through Kāya Kalpa. You have to practice one technique that's called Khecarī Mudrā. Very few people can do this. It needs discipline. The tongue you have to roll back, bring it to the palate. And in the palate, there are two small holes. When you sing, the resonance is created there from these two small holes, not the nostrils. The holes after the nose, the Bindu chakra, from the top of the head. Nectar is dripping, and you have to catch it on the tip of the tongue. Then it distributes into the whole body. You know homeopathy. They say just put it on the tongue, because homeopathy is not a medicine, it's a vibration. Homeopathy is a blessing, not a quantity, but a quality, and it goes to the whole system. And so the nectar from Bindu Chakra is received on the tip of the tongue, which gives you immortality. So, for the Maṇipūra Chakra, we have to control it so that our nectar, our ambrosia, is kept maximum until the Viśuddhi Chakra. Maṇipūra Chakra is a chakra of the energy. Now, suppose you are walking in the street and some person comes opposite whom you love very much—your father, mother, husband, wife, child, or a dog (also, yeah—sometimes a dog makes you happier than your husband. Is it true? The ladies know better). Just now, I heard that one lady is sleeping with two dogs. They are so small, nice ones. So, one is near her feet and one is near her head, and the husband, he... has to go to the other room. That is life. That is life. So when you see something you love, how do you know that? Because you see. And when you see, your eyes are connected to the Maṇipūra Chakra. If you have eye problems and you need glasses, practice Agni Sākṣī Kriyā. Practice exercises for Maṇipūra. Your eyesight will be okay. The eye sides are connected directly to Maṇipūra. And what happens? Immediately, at the area of the Maṇipūra, the aura begins to develop. That's called Hāra Śakti. It develops in such a way that, in no time, you are in this big circle, and from there, it touches the Anāhata, and you are sending the rays to the next one, who also becomes happy. This is the Maṇipūra Chakra, the remote controller. It is the heart. Immediately. Suppose you meet someone whom you don't like so much. You drive 150 km per hour. The police stop you. Please. At that time, your Maṇipūra Chakra creates other energy. Maṇipūra Chakra creates a different energy; it's dark, grey, not accepting, rejecting. Now, this means if I tell you I love you, your psychic state will become balanced. It's a Maṇipūra. If I tell you, "I hate you," your Maṇipūra will close, and now, psychologically, you can say if it is connected with your husband or wife, girlfriend or boyfriend, then the Maṇipūra chakra will send very negative energy. Your Maṇipūra chakra will radiate very negative energy to your emotional centers, to your sexual centers constantly. When you have such confrontations, then disease develops there: breast cancer, prostate cancer, and so on. It can also create disturbances in the digestive system. A person gets diarrhea. A person gets constipation. So the Maṇipūra chakra influences our entire being. Therefore, it is said, deep breathing—you have learned deep breathing. One breath is here from the throat, chest. This is like a dog or a rabbit; they live very short. Second is from here, from the lungs. And here, mostly people are doing, they have a belt, a tight belt. Don't want to show the belly. Standing, pressing stomach in, and breathing here. Very bad. That can bring you to asthma, lung disease, also constant pressure on the heart. And the third one is stomach breath. That relaxes everything. Maṇipūra Chakra exercises, I will tell you, it's a long story, but you will read in this book. It's not only that I want to sell this book. You have this book already. And if you don't have it, very soon you will have it. There are very special, chosen exercises for the Maṇipūra Chakra. Oh my God, now, very good, yes, you see, okay: Viparītakaraṇī mudrā, Santulānāsana, Trikoṇāsana, Bhujaṅgāsana, Śalabhāsana, Rokañchanānāsana, and many, many, and so on. Maṇipūra Chakra controls the two chakras, Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna. These three chakras coordinate very closely together. And exercises are similar to both. Practice every day Agni Sāra Kriyā. Agni, sir. Agni means fire. Sāra means to awake or purify, and that Agni means digestive fire. If you can, now leave, and Bhastrika Prāṇāyāma. These will keep your health condition, first of all, at a perfect level. And your psychic being will be very clear and solid. If you have a problem with anyone—with your professor, colleagues, persons, partners—don't let it go in. Observe yourself, where it attacks you, and now you have to build a protection there. And that protection you can have, first of all, of course, your mantra. When you see that person or that object, immediately, your mantra comes. So now the mantra is something, a protection between two. In this cable, there is electricity, but this plastic is a protection between the electric and myself. So the mantra is that protection layer, which will not let that negative energy into you. Physically and psychically, you will not suffer. And intellect will give you the answer: how to understand or solve the problem? The Maṇipūra Chakra is a subject for many days, but our time, as I said before, is not waiting for us. Read this book. If you have any questions, write to me at the address of the Střílecký ashram. I will get your mail, and you will get the answer. Maybe you will get a very short answer, yes or no, or something more, but you will get the answer. If you write in English or German, you will get a quicker answer. But you can write Czech, Slovak, Polish, any language. It will take time to get an answer. Be sure, next year you will get an answer. And next year is very soon. So the Maṇipūra is the center of our happiness, the center of the sound. And everything is manifested from the sound, and nāda, the cosmic sound, the seat of the sound, is in the navel, the fire that is in the navel. God Viṣṇu is known as a fire. And that is in the navel, but Viṣṇu can only exist in the water. Fire cannot exist without water. And therefore, the water is that kind of water of the embryos in which Viṣṇu is residing, on this beautiful bed of the Śeṣa Nāga. Śeṣa means the thousand-headed snake, and that means our Suṣumnā Nāḍī: the thousand-petaled chakra here on the top of the head, and going along the spinal column and Maṇipūra, making a circle, and that is where Viṣṇu, the God Viṣṇu, the ātmā, the nectar, is residing in you. Divine consciousness from there begins.