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In India, we traditionally begin any gathering by chanting mantras, especially peace mantras. Today, Swāmī Avatārpūrī will chant the first peace mantra. Om Dīyoṣāntrī. Om Dīyoṣāntrī. Om Dīyoṣāntrī. Om Dīyoṣāntrī. What Swāmī Avatārpūrī was chanting is many thousands of years old, from the Vedas. The Vedas are among the oldest and first scriptures in the world, transmitted orally from master to disciple. Veda means wisdom. In written form, they are nearly 7,000 years old. This is called the Peace Mantra, a prayer for peace: peace on this earth, peace in the water, peace in the air, peace and health in the vegetation and the herbs, peace in the heaven, peace in the cosmic self. And may that peace dwell in me too. May this peace be everywhere. Peace, peace, peace. This was the literal translation of the mantra. Many of you would like to know about Swāmī Avatārpūrījī. He is also my disciple, like you all. I have guided him from his birth onwards. He has traveled nearly half the world, or almost the whole world, with me. In our ashram in India, we have a primary school, a middle school, a high school, and a college. That school follows the educational law of the government of Rajasthan, India, plus the ancient Vedic system—spiritual and religious—where all different kinds of religions are taught. India is one of the only countries with great tolerance and respect for every religion. I also want to tell you that one of the largest Catholic populations is in India, if you count different countries. So in our schools, there is information and education about every religion and every holy person. Swāmī Avatārpūrī has a special teacher for him and some of his school friends for Sanskrit education, where they learn chanting Sanskrit mantras. Sanskrit is the mother of many, many languages of the world, including the Slovak language. It is a very, very old language. In one month, Avatārpūrījī is going to a most beautiful Sanskrit school in South India, where he will have thirteen years of education. I think when he comes next time to Martin, he will chant more mantras. So this is a little about Avatārpūrī. And he is a master of eating chocolate. You are welcome, dear brothers and sisters. Good evening, and thank you very much for your warm welcome. I also thank the spokesmen from Martin, and I am happy to be here. Yes, indeed, this city is beautiful and surrounded by beautiful nature, at the hills of the beautiful mountains, Tatra and Fatra. I was surprised that already 20 years have passed since I started coming to this beautiful city. It has always been my great pleasure to be here. I remember my first visit to this city was longer than 20 years ago. My first visit to the ashram was in 1975. I came to visit one person in the hospital. There was one lady; she had cancer and was about 70 years old. I traveled from Olomouc to Martin, visited her for half an hour, and went back to Olomouc. At that time, there were no highways, so it was a long journey. I was very happy to see the landscape, both the flat and the mountains. So that's my impression of this city. Very many old friends or disciples from that time are here also, including one of my good yoga teachers, who carries the name of the city, Martin, to whom you gave the flowers. So that's a little commentary. The aim of my coming to this country and this city was and is to guide people toward health. It is said that health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health. We healthy people don't know what health is. We thank God that we are healthy, but we should not think that we will always be healthy. When something unexpected happens and we get some illness, we should not blame anyone. Why did you become ill? It is the nature, the dharma of the body. The nature of the body is to be born, to grow, and to die. Now is beautiful springtime, with nice young green leaves. By the middle of summer they will be mature; in autumn, they will become yellow and fall down. I remember one nice poem. A holy man was sitting in the forest in autumn. (And sorry to break my story—I also want to thank them for their beautiful singing and the cultural program. Thank you very much. You see how I forget also now. Thank you.) The man who was sitting on the hill—it was the middle of November, and the wind was blowing. One leaf fell from the tree, and the wind took it away. The leaf was veering somewhere far in the distance. That man wrote a poem: Pata ṭūṭā ḍāl se. (The leaf falls down from the branch.) Le gayī pavan udāye. (The wind has blown it away.) Ab bichre kab mileṅge. (Now, separated, when will we meet again?) The leaf will fall somewhere far distance. And so, my dear brothers and sisters, the life of humans is also the same. As long as we are healthy, we thank God, and we try to be healthy. We do our best. Yoga is one of the best ways to health. You cannot compare anything with yoga—no gymnastics, no sports. Yoga is one of the balanced and the best. If you practice every day, gradually, slowly, you will gain benefit. If you don't practice, you will not gain any benefit. Yoga needs practice, practical knowledge. One philosopher said, "Tons of theory are nothing compared to a gram of practice." In the Vedānta philosophy, there is one beautiful example. You have in your house, on the wall, hanging one beautiful picture of a horse. Anyone you ask, "What is that?" you know what the answer will be. But the same horse, which is the picture, is in your farm. You ask anyone, "What is that?" You know what will be the answer. A picture on the wall is a horse, and in the field, that's also a horse. Now you would like to ride a horse. Which horse will you ride? The paper one or the real one? The answer is clear. Therefore, practice is very important. Yoga postures are divided into three categories. In the first phase, you practice for a few minutes of dynamic movements. The second phase, you practice stretching postures. Then you practice what are called āsanas or postures. Dynamic movements are for warming the body. Stretching is to remove stiffness from the body. Postures should influence the entire body, especially our nervous system and the glandular system, which are connected with the energy centers in the body. About that, you can read about cakras and Kuṇḍalinī. Cakras and Kuṇḍalinī is that dormant energy in your body. You can awaken and utilize it, or let it be. Dormant cakras are like a dynamo. When a dynamo is running and is on, then it can produce immense energy. If it's not on, it can't give anything. Similarly, in our body, there are thousands of energy centers. According to yogic anatomy, there are 72,000 nerves in the human body. We call them nāḍīs. Nāḍīs have no direct translation in English, but somehow we connect them as nerves, life force, life energy. The vitality is not oxygen, but somehow we connect it with oxygen. These 72,000 nerves, or you may call them the channels, are through which the cosmic energy is channeled into the human body. The cosmic energy is not only flowing into the human body, but into the entire creation. But we are talking about our body. We do not have only one body. We have different bodies. There are five different bodies: the physical body, the mental body, the prāṇa body, the intellectual body, and the causal body, or the body of feelings. Generally, people say there are three bodies: the physical, mental, and subtle bodies. It is said that anyone who gets any kind of illness or any problem, first, its cause is in our destiny. Do you have a word for destiny? People understand? In Slovakia, there is no destiny? You understand? They do? Thank you. If you don't understand, I can tell you an example. It's your destiny that you are here now, and it's my destiny that I'm here. Destiny does not mean only negative; it can be good, it can be bad. What is destiny? Destiny is a result of our actions. Where there is action, there is reaction. And where there is a reaction, there will be again action. So, the word action means karma. It's only a language difference. You can say, "I'm doing work," or "I'm doing karma." Eating, drinking, sleeping, breathing, walking, talking—all is karma. Karma means work, action. Even Mother Earth is working. Entire planets are working. In the entire endless universe, there is also function. Good action has a good reaction or good fruits. Negative actions will have a negative effect. So, destiny is from our past deeds or past life, from many, many lives stored. Our consciousness has three levels: unconscious, subconscious, and conscious. The unconscious is a level where our destiny is dormant, about which we don't know. The subconscious is that level of our consciousness where all kinds of actions, impressions, and experiences from this life are stored. What we call in modern life psychology: psychic problems. From where do psychic problems come? They are from our subconsciousness. And the consciousness is connected to the awakened stage now: to act, to experience, to feel, to hear, to smell, to taste, to see, to touch. So, the present awakened level of our consciousness is that we are now awakened. We take the impression, whether you hear, you smell, you see, you taste, or you feel touched. These are all a kind of layer on your subconscious. Our future life will be governed by destiny. We are like a boat on the water. And it is the wind which will take the boat in different directions. That is destiny. Now, anything that happens to you or to me, physically, emotionally, mentally—anything—first, it will attack my subtle body, then it will transmit to the mental body. In modern psychology, they call it blackmailing. What is blackmailing? What does blackmailing mean? Imagine advertising: a billboard about 15 to 20 square meters, and there is written only one word: "Yoga Daily Life." Nothing else. Why? This one sentence will go into your mind. That's called mental mailing. It must not be bad; it can be good. A big billboard with "health" written on it—while driving a car, you will think of your health. So first, the subtle body, then the mental body, then comes the physical body. And when you begin to feel pain and discomfort in your physical body, it is already too late. Of course, we try to get some therapy, but it is said prevention is better than treatment. So yoga, in the first place, is a prevention to come to good health. And health means not only physical; there can be mental disturbances or karmic influences on your astral body. In yoga, there are different exercises and yogic postures; āsanas are known as psychosomatic. Movements or postures influence your physical body, your psychic body, and develop your spirituality. Spirituality—what is that? It is not merely religious. Spirituality leads to religion, and religion helps one to become spiritual. The word spirituality has many different meanings. We think it has to do something with the spirit. No. Spirituality means purity, crystal clear, transparent, and that you can realize anywhere. If you are religious, it is better, but if you are not religious, you can also be spiritual. There are many people who don't believe in religion and God, but they are great humanitarians, great nature protectors, they are great helpers. What is that? For me, that is great spirituality. It's not that they don't believe in God, but they don't believe in God in that way in which you believe. And it must not be that they believe like what you believe. There is no condition. In spirituality, there are no borders. Spirituality you cannot measure with kilograms or kilometers. Spirituality is universal; that's called God consciousness, and we all have it. When you practice physical exercises, yoga postures, and breathing—we know that we are breathing every day. Two systems in the body are very loyal to us. Our heart, no matter what you are doing, is always beating for you. Whether you are under or above the water, running, sleeping, sitting, eating, talking, your heart is always your loyal one. So be nice to your heart. Don't tell your heart, "Read." Just relax. When the heart relaxes, then you will have ever relaxing. The second is our breath. We know what the breath means according to yoga. When we inhale, we are inhaling that cosmic energy. The Cosmic Mother is nourishing her child, this individual soul. So with the breath, we are constantly connected with the Cosmic Mother, and she is nourishing all creatures. Another explanation for the breath: when we were born, what we did first was inhale. And in the last minutes of our life, when we will die, what will we do? We will exhale and we will not be able to inhale. It is one long breath from birth till death—a big ocean from one shore to the other shore. It is only waves from birth until death. Inhalation is the time of birth, exhalation the time of death. Between is only the waves. So we should know that we can save our life and prolong our life through breath exercises. So yoga is for physical health. For mental health: feed your psychic with positive impressions, positive information, positive views, visions, and a positive way of life. And for social health: keep away from all criminal activities. Keep away from all different kinds of drugs and keep away from all terrorist activities. Do good for your society. That's called social health. Be friendly, be good. Health has a tolerance towards all religions, cultures, and everything. Just some days ago, I was in Ljubljana. They were also celebrating 20 years of Yoga in Daily Life in Slovenia. The different city mayors were inviting me, and there was one conference in Ljubljana organized by the mayor of Ljubljana, where European Union capital city mayors were all there. The subject was intercultural. A Slovakian was also there. I was invited there too, and for evening dinner they invited me. You know I'm vegetarian, and when I entered the dining hall, all were looking at me, thinking, "What is he doing here, Swāmījī?" An orange-dressed man is suddenly moving between them. But many of them knew me, and they came and shook hands. The next day was the closing ceremony, and they invited me for that too. One person spoke something very short. That person also came to my program in Ljubljana to introduce me there. That person quoted from some source, maybe from Ātmā Gandhījī or somewhere else, a few words, very nice. That was the message of how to realize world peace through dialogue. It was one by one, sentence by sentence: I am a different color than you. Will you speak with me? I have a different religion than you. Will you speak to me? I have a different culture than you. Will you speak to me? I have a different nationality. Will you speak with me? I have a different profession than you. Will you speak with me? And I have a different position than you. Will you speak with me? That's all. This was the question put to every individual. So we speak about world peace, but what is happening through our mind? Differences in these things which I told you. So, dear brothers and sisters, a healthy world means a healthy person. First, we all should be healthy, not only physically but emotionally also, culturally, religiously, and nationally. And this is our duty. Yoga gives you good health. Yoga makes a better man. We will have a better family, and better families will have a better society, and better societies will create a better country, and that country will create a better world, a world of peace. This morning I spoke in Banská Bystrica about a grassroots project, and that's how we each individual can contribute something to our family, our town, our country, and the whole world. Peace begins from our own heart. Charity begins from our own home. Every step will be counted, every thought will be counted, and every minute will be counted. We all sitting here should think about the future of this planet. What will we leave for our children when we go? Therefore, we should work for this—not to fight for politics, not to fight for position, and not to fight for religion. We have enough experience from the past, fighting for politics, for nations, for castes, and for religions. We have to realize that we all humans are human, and other creatures are other creatures. This city, where I have been many times, has had many programs. This evening was just one introduction about yoga—yoga which will awaken the dormant talents within you.