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This morning we had a wonderful program with special exercises for headaches. I hope it helped you and that you can continue to share this practice with others. Today, I wish to speak about meditation. We all speak of it. Meditation is a spiritual state where the mind attains silent stillness. This means all thoughts are filtered; unnecessary thoughts, the kṣepas and kleśas, are removed, leaving only pure, positive thoughts and energy within our individual being. Meditation is not something one can command by saying, "Now I will meditate and reach the highest consciousness." It comes by itself, much like sleep. We go to sleep, and sleep comes. But if we overthink and become intensely aware—"I want to sleep now"—then sleep does not come. We are disturbed by our own thoughts and experience sleepless nights. Meditation is the same. If one approaches it with ambition or expectation, nothing will come. It is very important to simply let go, to release. Our thoughts, feelings, and goals must be given or concentrated in one direction. Naturally, when speaking of meditation, God, spirituality, or a higher purpose enters the conversation. What we often do—sitting, trying to concentrate on the body, doing breathing exercises, focusing thoughts, or imagining something—this is not meditation. It is a concentration technique. We try this and that, thinking perhaps this way we will succeed. But there are too many thoughts. Meditation came from the spiritual people who lived in the jungle, in huts. They are the Ṛṣis, the Hermits. Those who lived in huts carried out all this scientific work. What we now see on television and what scientists convey about the mysteries of the universe, the body, illness, and the soul—all of this is beautiful. The Ṛṣis had already discovered everything. The problem is, why don't we know this? Because all these scriptures, the Śāstras, simply lie in libraries. They are not widely published. Nowadays, a person wants to discover and experience something with their own brain and knowledge, and then share it. Recently, there was talk about the planet Mars. But everything is clearly stated in the Vedas and the Purāṇas—even more than what is said now. How did these Ṛṣis experience all this? Their thoughts are faster than light. It is incredible how much they explored through the human body and brain. The Ṛṣis discovered this technique: meditation. And through meditation, astral journey. Astral travel is so wonderful and swift. No rocket can fly that fast. For example, you sleep deeply and dream of Jupiter. You are on Jupiter, and suddenly your alarm rings. You are immediately back in your body. At what speed did you return from Mars or Jupiter? The Ṛṣis developed this meditation technique for the realization of God. What we call Ātman and the soul was discovered by the Ṛṣis. Now science, which does not yet accept it, says there is no soul; they believe it is all chemistry. I am not familiar with this chemistry. Everything is nature, natural, everything is chemistry—but the soul is beyond that. We have done much research on the body, on emotions, contemplation. People have spoken. Freud, the Austrian, spoke of psychology, but I can say the father of psychology was Patañjali. He understood what the mind means and what the psyche is. He clearly explained and provided solutions for overcoming various problems. Those who practice yoga but have not read the Patañjali-Sūtras understand nothing of what Yoga is. The Bhagavad Gītā also states there are 18 types of Yoga, not just four—not only Bhakti, Karma, Jñāna, and Rāja Yoga, but 18 chapters. Meditation can only be successful if you have a mantra or a prayer. I am not saying the prayer must be long. One might want a very short mantra. Then a silence arises within, and one might not even want to repeat the mantra because it feels disturbing. I can well imagine that. It disturbs you because you are now blocked and do not wish to move beyond this blockage. Meditation without a mantra is like a body without a soul. And meditation without a goal leads us nowhere; it is wasted time. At the very least, the goal could be to relax—but that is not enough. One day we will relax forever. Meditation was focused spiritual development for God-realization, divine grace, or the hope of reaching Brahmaloka, Svargaloka, or going to heaven. When we speak of heaven and hell, it is clear people still have great fear. Yes, that is the case. Coming and going, dying and suffering—life is painful. We pray to God for His grace and forgiveness. Yes, there is an invisible God. He has no body, no ears, but He hears us. He has no eyes, yet He sees everything. We need proper guidance. A proper meditation practice does not happen overnight. It is a long path. Sometimes it can go faster if you have brought good karmas or good spiritual energy from a previous life. There is a story about a king. In those days, they were kings; now, they are ministers. Once—we will also say something about this—there was a minister named Kreisky. Bruno Kreisky, the Federal Chancellor. Yes, the minister is also involved. One is small, the other big. It doesn't matter whether it's this or that. The king experienced a terrible ordeal. He had a small kingdom, and another king attacked to take it away. This is the eternal play, always the same. Once they divided all of Europe into pieces and brought it back together again. The Yugoslavs divided beautifully into pieces, and now Europeans want to come together. This is a play, an eternal play of creation and destruction. What is made will be destroyed; what is born will die; what came will go. So it is. It was a battlefield. Both sides fought. So many innocent soldiers, young and old, lost their lives. The king, whose kingdom was small, saw almost 99 percent of his soldiers dead within two days, lying on the battlefield. Some missing hands, some with heads struck halfway. It was cruel. Blood flowed, and vultures and crows flew overhead, making noise. The king, trying to compose himself, walked through the battlefield, sad, with tears in his eyes, weak and tired. He reflected: What is the meaning of life? For what purpose have I achieved all this? Was my goal to be a king and to come into life like all these innocent people? I want to meditate. I wish for self-realization and to attain immortality—meaning, I will not be born again. I must seek a master. About half a kilometer to a kilometer from his palace, the king—even his horse had been ridden—turned back. He went in the direction of the Himalayas to seek a master. Tired, wounded, sad, hungry, powerless, with no physical or mental strength, ruined mentally and physically, he slowly tried to keep going. He found some food somewhere and continued his path to the Himalayas. Meanwhile, the queen received news that the king had been defeated, his entire army had perished, and the king had disappeared. The queen made a great effort. Naturally, opponents from other kingdoms came and supported this kingdom; other kings were punished, and the war was waged. But the queen, alone, sad, and powerless—what was she to do? She had some guards and securities, and that was all. From the other kingdom, they showed human faces and somehow stabilized the situation again. But she was so sad her husband was not there. She personally walked through the entire battlefield with her new people to see if the king was among the dead. They saw thousands of faces, swollen hands and fingers, and rings, but could identify nothing. The king was not there. She went around asking people everywhere if the king was nearby. Without a trace, he had vanished. But she was certain in her heart: "My husband is still alive; he is not dead. I will find him one day." She tried everything to find him—intelligence services, many means—but he was nowhere to be found. He had gone high into the Himalayas, where he found a master or something like that. Someone said he should meditate there—a small mountain cave, cold, ice, snow. He lived there, gathering wood from the forest and mountains. There was a village about 20 kilometers away. Once a week or every two weeks, he would go, beg for something, receive it, and from that sustain himself and meditate. He was sad, having lost his entire family, all friends, his kingdom, and his wife. On the other hand, the woman was also very, very sad. Then she said, "Now I must seek him spiritually. I can do nothing more; he cannot be invented." So she prayed and prayed. Thankfully, a master came and gave her a meditation technique. She said, "My goal is to find my husband and to go on an astral journey. This is the only thing I can do quickly." Where there is a will, there is a path—strength, determination, effort. She did everything herself, giving her secretary the entire task and saying no one should disturb her. Only if she wanted would she open her door for food, and that was all. God helped her. Through meditation, she entered a completely different consciousness. She could see, her eyes watering. She moved with her astral body throughout the room and saw her physical body sitting very straight, comfortable, and relaxed. The heartbeat was there; the body breathed. But the astral body and mind were active. She tried to come back into the body again—going and coming, also practicing. If one day you succeed in making an astral journey, please do not leave immediately, or you may not return. It must be done in pieces. Try, be sure. And she succeeded. For days, she sought everywhere except in her body. Once, with her astral body, she flew over the Himalayas and, with eyes like an eagle's, searched everywhere to see if the man might be sitting somewhere, meditating or feeling sad. In a white snowfield, the hills covered with snow, around noon at 11 o'clock, she saw smoke rising. She came a little closer and saw her husband, the king, sitting and cooking his zucchini cream soup. She was so happy. In the crown of light, she was as happy as one can be in a dream. One can also be sad in a dream—afraid, sad, happy, in love, disappointed. Many things. We do many things in a dream, or nothing. Was someone in love in the dream? In reality, nothing. Just a dream, my God. That is how it is. She went through it thoroughly, flying over like a vulture over its prey. Yes, it was the king. She was sad, very sad. You see a state completely detached from the world, separated. She thought disturbing him in this state would be very bad. "I do not want to disappoint him when I come to him. He might become sad or angry or think how cowardly he was, having left, not knowing what was wrong with him." She went home and then came back again. Every day she visited him, but he knew nothing. Then, at the best constellation, a good constellation, she thought, "Now I have to do something." She went to her master and said, "Master, through your teachings I have attained what I wished to achieve. But one thing is missing; it is unclear to me, and I do not know how I should or can do it." The master said, "Yes, what is missing for you?" She said, "I want to manifest, to appear in my astral body wherever I wish; I can manifest there for a while and then go away again." The master said, "Then focus on the two cakras, Maṇipūra and Anāhata. Through the perfection of these two cakras, you receive this Icchā-Śakti, Saṅkalpa-Śakti, and you will succeed." He gave something else as well, a mantra or so, but I will not tell you this mantra. Now I must still torment you for a long time; I do not say it aloud. She came about 100 meters away and manifested herself in the form of a master, a Svāmījī, not like a queen. She approached the king and spoke with him: "Hello, who are you? Where do you come from? I know you are searching for something, but you have not yet found a true master. Your wishes will be fulfilled. I give you a blessing and a mantra for it." He was so happy that his master had come to him, and then she went away. From time to time, the master visited. After a few months, the master said to the king, "King, there is a problem, an obstacle. That is why you cannot yet have this realization." He said, "Yes, Master, what do you know?" The master said, "You have your wife, your queen; you are a king. Is that true? Say yes. You left because of that. She knows everything. You made the queen very sad. Her pain, her love for you, and her worries for you—what she does is unbearable. But I give you my word, my student, that wherever you wish, I will appear to you or come to you. You can continue your practice, your discipline." The king asked, "Master, what should I do?" The master said, "Yes, do it. Make your way home." She spoke with him at length and assured him he should come home. It was a long journey. From time to time, every two or three days, she manifested again as the master to check if everything was in order. He was five or ten kilometers away from his palace. The queen, who had always been watchful, began renovating the entire palace, painting it, and preparing everything to welcome the king. She brought clothes, had a barber shave him, everything—with great respect and honor, and with all their dreams and dramas, they brought him back. The queen was in her room, looking through the window, as women always do for good things, always with self-awareness and pride—not ego. Pride and ego are slightly different. They always respected that the men and women remained in the background. The man is the head; he does everything and decides everything. He says yes and no; everything depends on him. And the woman is the neck, but the head cannot say yes or no as long as the neck does not allow it. So the men are sitting on the tip of a needle. After all the welcome, his ministers said, "Your Highness, the queen is waiting for you, please." The king entered his room, and the queen was standing there. When the king came in, the queen turned around and said, "Men have a heart of stone." He said, "No, that is not true, it is not correct. I could do nothing else. I was so ashamed to come home, filled with my body, with blood, and that all my soldiers had fallen in the war. When I got such a Veragia, I just wanted to get away." She said, "I understand that. But you have only thought of yourself. Did you not think about me at all? Could you have taken me with you as well?" He said, "You know, please turn to me. Yes, what? But fortunately, I have met such a divine master. After so many months or years, finally a divine master came to the Himalayas. He gave me so much knowledge, strength, comfort, and convinced me that I can even achieve God-realization at home. I thank him for having brought me this far, so that I am here today. But I tell you, the master has given me his word. No matter when I call him from the heart, he will appear before me." So he said to the queen, "You are it, turn around." The queen said to him, "So turn around." The king turned around and said, "Yes, now turn back again." And there stood the master, not the queen. The master said, "I have—" and the king said, "Just now I was speaking of you, my God. And the queen would have so loved to see you. Where is she? She was here. Please wait, I will get her. Where?" So the queen said, "The master said, turn yourself in another direction." He turned in another direction and saw the queen there. "Where were you? Here is my master. Where is the master?" The master had disappeared. The queen said, "My dear, I am that. I was the master who found you there in the Himalayas. I was the one who gave you this knowledge, and I am the one who has brought you back here again. Now you are at home in your kingdom; practice the proper exercises and you will realize everything here." And then she told all her faces. So simply running away from something in search of something else is a mistake. One will err more. Wherever we are, we should practice, meditate, pray, and repeat our mantra. It will come. Meditation is successful when one truly surrenders oneself in meditation. You dedicate yourself to meditation and practice daily with discipline. We practice mantra for half an hour, then we make a phone call, and immediately after mantra practice and meditation, we enter the anteroom of the Ashram and begin to resist. This is my God. No one listens to what one says to others. Lost, gone. Have you seen in many monasteries where monks meditate? There are still many who meditate. After meditation, after prayer, they come to the meal at the dining table. But with what feeling do they come? With what calmness? With what gratitude? Those who accept this soup or whatever it may be—we say monastery soup. That is it. It is very important to change inwardly; then meditation is successful. Otherwise, it is just concentration—trying this and trying that. "Oh, it was nice. Yes, it was wonderful. Oh, good." Meditation, of course, gives us a lot of strength and makes us calmer. It eases the heart's stress; it is like anti-stress meditation. But if one concentrates too much and imagines too much, then one gets a headache, and there is little circulation or blood flow through the brain. The more relaxed you are, the more circulation there is and the more relaxed you become. Whoever clenches their teeth in meditation, presses the tongue against the teeth, and practices mantra here where the butterfly is, between the eyebrow center—then that means they are not meditating; they are trying to search for something. And there is nothing to seek in that. What you seek is already there. But you accept nothing. If you want to see something, then open your eyes and you will see. I closed my eyes and said, "I want to see." What? Open your eyes. So what you wish to see cannot be seen. No one can see what you wish to see. As long as you have physical consciousness and a desire, a longing, then you cannot see. So just be, that's all. And it will come faster. So relax, concentrate, calm down. Clarity arises; many psychological problems are overcome. This is the first stage of meditation. Meditation makes a person calmer. But meditation does not make you passive. No, quite the opposite. God Kṛṣṇa said a yogī should be like a sea turtle, who at any moment withdraws parts of his body into his shell and can extend them out again at any time. So a meditator, a yogī, can at any time extrovert or withdraw again. Meditating every day will bring much strength, understanding, and energy. But do we need love for that? That is the question. One who is in pain waits, waits, waits like for a doctor. Longingly waiting to see if a nurse will come and give an injection, or a doctor will prescribe medication. "When will my pain go away?" You have visitors. They bring flowers, cookies, drinks, and so on, but they cannot feel your pain. They might feel a little compassion, just a little. But others cannot feel your pain. And so it is that Mīrābāī said: > My bed, I cannot sleep, my bed is like a bed of nails to me, like a fakir’s. At night I cannot sleep, by day I cannot eat or drink. O Lord, through You—the longing for You, my Lord, is such that I have become entirely yellow like the leaves in autumn. This is the longing. We will practice a little Yoga Nidrā, a few āsanas, Kaṭhuparaṇana. Half of the group had left during the āsanas. Then we sat on the sofa and chatted over the coffee pot. We had already eaten. Yes, when you have eaten, you could meditate. You could do a little mantra. That is it. I deliberately walked through two or three rooms to see if, among the many people attending this seminar, anyone possesses that inner peace—whether someone truly takes a moment of comfort, closes their eyes briefly, breathes deeply, and feels peace. Yes, such a person has a longing. Others are like children waiting; as soon as the bell rings for a break, my God, they run after it. That’s how it is. What can we expect? What will we achieve? What you have achieved in half an hour, an hour of practice, you completely spoil in another ten minutes. That is how it is. Something is missing. There is a lack of inner vairāgya, inner seeking, inner love. Only one who is wounded, who has unbearable pain, knows what time means and what healing means, and knows what pain is. We do not feel this pain. We can only say, "Oh God, how sad, I am infinitely sorry, you poor one." That is all we can say. But these words will not heal our pain. And that is why meditation is beautiful. Everyone wants to meditate, and beautiful images are coming now. Thank God for many magazines and television and meditation. But what we do is sit like this and say, "The cameraman is good, yes. Chest a little forward, good. Inhale, make the belly a little smaller, good. Yes, that, that. Sitting in lotus. Good, now click, finally." He took photos, good. And then you come the next day in a magazine: "Oh, the best meditator." And when you come and see, he doesn’t have such a belly. It is a large belly; it is not so thin. How was that? He walks hunched. And an image is beautiful for only half a minute. That is all. So please practice, practice, practice. If one day you seek God, He will come to you faster than you think. "Where do you seek me? I am with you. Outside the city is my hut, and my dwelling place is your breath. I am here. Where are you looking for me?" But we are restless inwardly and completely confused outwardly. What are we doing now? This is it. Meditation is one of the most beautiful practices. This is the most beautiful time you can enjoy in your life. The best use of your lifetime is meditation with your mantra and a beautiful, clear goal: the light. So, thank God you have your mantra. Please make the effort; try to do it. Through meditation we will achieve many things, many of the hidden powers, the concealed forces within us. They will only awaken when we dive deep inside—feelings in the heart and visions in the Ājñā cakra. But not so many of you do. This way, meditations will not go wrong. Never raise the eyeball; look from underneath. Therefore, Nāsāgra, Nāsikāgra, Nāsikāgra, Ekāgra. Focus on the tip of your nose. Your gaze is on the tip of your nose, and your feeling is in your heart. This is the proper inner attitude for meditation. It will come. If you try to force and create butterflies here, you will get a headache, nothing else. So do not force anything. Simply let it be. Let it be. What? Only one: your name, oh Lord. It doesn’t have to be that you sit perfectly straight. You can also sit like this. The Danube has curves, but water has no curves. That is it. Your body has various curves, but your mind and your Self have no curves. If we can only realize our meditation through a straight body, then we will tie pieces of wood to our backs so we can no longer bend, we will always continue like this. You can walk like this all day, but you will not attain liberation. So the best thing is that you are comfortable, and even better is that you have had good sleep. If you sleep little, then during meditation—yes, Svāmījī, yes, Svāmījī. Many meditate during breathing exercises. I see; that is why I say that was nothing from me. Three people are sitting here, but I do not want to say the name. This morning we meditated a little, I believe, after the breathing exercises. And there was also someone—thank God, the neighbor was a little further away. That is so. So, that means we have too much Tamas guṇa in the body. To cleanse, purify the body, to become a Pflahari, to perform Śaṅkhaprakṣālana. It is very, very important for everyone to perform Sāṅkṭaprakṣālana at least three times a year—except when someone is pregnant, please do not do it. Second, perhaps someone has digestive problems and an inflamed intestine, or a disorder, and then they should do nothing. Others should carry out this whole system. Meditation is the only way to enter. Āsanas and prāṇāyāma are very good for good eating, good sleeping, and good enjoyment. That is also part of our life. We truly must live our lives. If we do not live our life, then some people will have a midlife crisis, and we will have an end-of-life crisis. The soul departs, but I have not accomplished this, I have not done that. Sahne. And you sink further into depression. God says, "What is happening? Well, you called me too soon; I wanted to experience this and that." God said, "Yes, you did nothing before; you were asleep." The midlife crisis is somewhat better, but the end crisis is hopeless. That is it. So many of us, thank God, have the midlife crisis behind us and the end crisis ahead of us. This is it. So mantra, meditation, santoṣa (contentment)—this is very important.