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You all know that Maharṣi Patañjali spoke in one of his books—a beautiful book adored, respected, and acknowledged worldwide in every university library and in many countries. The Patañjali Yoga Sūtra is recognized as one of the oldest books that the Western education system also acknowledges. Patañjali was the father of psychology, living approximately 1500 years before Christ. He perfectly understood the human body, human emotion, human intellect, and human problems—social, intellectual, political, any kind of problems—what he called vikṣepa and dveṣa. It is Patañjali who discovered the different levels of consciousness and advised the different techniques for self-mastery. Patañjali modified yoga very concretely in different ways: for example, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Rāja Yoga, and so on. The kriyās, the mantras, the meditations, the prāṇāyāms, the āsanas, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, and dhyāna. You may have a problem understanding these words. Āsanas: Patañjali describes āsanas. Generally, in every yoga book in your country and language, there are writings about āsanas, meaning the postures for your training. These postures are known as psychosomatic movements. They are much better or different than sport. Of course, those classical āsanas described by yogīs are very scientific, and sportsmen can have immense benefit from them. But as Patañjali speaks about āsanas, it means a comfortable seat. Where you are sitting, how you are sitting—that is your āsana. Āsana has many different definitions. In India, they can ask you, "Where is your asana tonight?" It means, "Where will you stay tonight? Where are you staying tonight?" So, where you sleep—the bed—that's your asana. Where you sit on the ground or on a chair—that's your asana. What they call the yoga mat—that's your asana. Āsana is for every yogī. It is very important to have your own āsana because it creates a protective border, a safety border. It's your energy within on your asana where you are sitting. No one should step on your asana, and no one else should sit on your asana. Everyone should carry with them one asana. It can be a very thin cotton cloth; it must not be very thick. Wherever you sit, you put this cloth and sit on it. It is very good to have a red color; that's the color of Śakti. That's a nice color. Otherwise, except orange color, any color you can have for sitting: green, blue, grey, dark, yellow, red. If you can afford to have some āsana, the best one for meditation is called kuśāsana. Kushāsana: Kusha is the grass, a grass mat. I remember from Zagreb, there is one beautiful shop where you can get many Asian things. Ethno—you see the shop name is Ethno. It's good advertising, no? They gave me one present, an āsana to sit on, made out of grass, beautiful. One of my disciples, a sannyāsī disciple, was always looking at that āsana, so I told him, "This is for you." I gave him the Kushāsana and a cover. You can have a cover. It should be pure, natural, organic cotton or pure wool. Also, in ancient times, they used to have tiger or lion skin, or the skin of the deer. Now it is strictly prohibited, strictly banned, because tigers and lions are dying out. Very little remain in different countries. Therefore, by law, it is prohibited to kill any tiger or lion or use their skin for sitting, because you inspire others to have something like this. In ancient times, they used to have it because when the tiger skin was there, scorpions, snakes, and different animals were not coming close to your body. From the smell of the tiger skin, many other creatures went away. That's why they used this. Forget that now; there are no snakes, nothing except mosquitoes. Āsana. So, some people have āsana from bamboo, some from grass, or normal cotton, or Ahiṃsā silk. Do you know what is Ahiṃsā silk? Who doesn't know? So many don't know. Oh my God. Well, you know that for getting silk, people cultivate some bugs—silk bugs—and put them in boiling hot water to gain the silk out of them. The wife of our daughter-in-law from Indira Gandhi—her elder son, who died in an accident in a helicopter or a small plane—her name is Menka Gandhi. She is a very great personality working around the world for the protection of animals and the environment. She was sorry for what humans are doing for silk, and therefore she found a technique that, without disturbing or killing these creatures—silk bugs—you can gain the silk from them, and they are still alive and can reproduce more. She called that ahiṃsā silk, and it's very beautiful, as beautiful as... other very nice, and it is only natural colored, no artificial color. So when you like to have any silk dress, please go for ahiṃsā silk. It's available in India and in many other countries. You can have a silk asana or a cotton asana. If the ground is very wet, you can have a plastic āsana, and on the plastic asana you can put your textile asana. That is very nice. This is also called āsana. Now, another meaning of āsana is your bed where you sleep. And another meaning: āsanas—you call āsanas, but it is not; they don't call āsanas, they call asanas. They don't pronounce the "a" at the end. In English, they write "asanas." So it is not āsanas; it is called only asanas. They don't pronounce the "a." Therefore, it is said there is no yoga; it is a yogī. Anyhow, we are not here to correct the language. So different postures are called āsana: Bhujaṅgāsana, Śalabhāsana, Dhanurāsana, Sarvāṅgāsana, Praśimuttānāsana, Ardhamatsyendrāsana—so many āsanas which you have in yoga books; that's also called āsanas. The yogīs advise that you should do your āsana exercises very slowly, gradually. A yogī says during your performance of your asanas, your body should not perspire. If you are sweating, it means it's wrong. You are doing it too quickly, and it's wrong. You lose more energy. There is a call, the high sport, advanced sport. In this high sport, it is said 90 percent you lose energy, or 95 percent you lose; 5 percent you get back during the exercise. You see the marathon in Olympia: at the end of their run, people have no energy. Then the body again tries to recharge the energy. Then, a dynamic movement in yoga for body warming a little bit: 50 percent of the energy is gone, and 50 percent you gain. Then, is this stretching too much? Stretching postures or asanas are not good for your ligaments. When you will be old, around 100 years, you will have problems with your ligaments and joints. As long as you are young—50, 60, 70, 80 years young—it's okay, but when you become 100 years old, above 100, like I am now, then you will see, yes, no torturing. Body stretching is torturing. Then, there is a posture. In the postures, we are also stretching the body, the ligaments, but they are very natural, very gentle. They are 95 percent energy you gain and five percent you lose only. Therefore, the āsanas are very scientific, psychosomatic. They don't influence only our body, but also our emotion, our intellect, what we call our psychic, and it develops the spirituality. So asana is adopted in such a beautiful way where there's no competition and no challenges. That's what you are doing when you begin to practice yoga. You are saying that, "I would like to practice asanas now according to..." According to Patañjali, the definition of āsanas is comfortable sitting, where you can be a long time in that posture, resting. Maybe padmāsana—what you call lotus posture—sukhāsana, or siddhāsana, vajrāsana, where you can comfortably sit and meditate even half an hour, one hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours, six hours, seven, eight hours. Like when you are very tired and you sleep eight hours, hardly you change your position, you know? Eight hours. Similarly, sleep is like a meditation, and meditation is like a sleep. You get relaxed, you get very calm. Meditation replaces your sleep, if it is real meditation. Because Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." There are no vṛttis in your consciousness. All vṛttis calm down when you are deep sleeping. When you are dreaming, your vṛttis are not calm. You are active in the dream. In the dream, someone is running, someone is swimming, someone is eating ice cream, someone is meeting friends, someone is sitting in the cinema hall, someone is riding, someone is biking, someone is eating. Yes, we are doing our dreams. And someone is followed by some people, or you are followed by dogs or by snakes—that's a dream. That time, you are in stress. You are in stress even in the sleep. Therefore, adopt Yoga Nidrā, the bhajan: "Mahāprabhujī, which... What? 'Yogī Janakī, Yoga Nidrā, Virala Śānt Janjanī. Hey, yogī Janakī, Yoga Nidrā, Virala Śānt Janjanī.'" Hey, rare saint, sādhus learned or know what is Yoga Nidrā? Then you are sleeping, but it's like a meditation, or you are meditating. It replaces your sleep, but you can only sleep if your body is comfortable, except some exceptions. You are very tired, and you are going on the train and sleeping, or in the car the driver is driving and you are sleeping. That is an exception. Generally, normally, we would like to go to sleep, and our body should have a comfortable posture so that no pain is there. Similarly, you can only meditate if you have a comfortable posture, so that you don't have to think about blood circulation—that there's enough blood circulation. Some people said, "Oh, there's no blood circulation because you did not practice enough asanas," and some sit 20 minutes like this and said, "This is something." No, it means you were not meditating; you were concentrating on your legs. Therefore, the first step—you are all beginners now—if you cannot sit one hour without movements, straight bodies, upright, straight, upright, and motionless—kāya sthairam, yes, master. Kaya sthairam—that's not a meditation. Therefore, practice āsana. Try training. That's a training. That's training. Now, for the last 45 years, I have been giving satsaṅgs, lectures, and teaching yoga. I'm sitting in this posture. Now, you see, as long as I can give satsaṅg, pravacans, everything, I'm sitting comfortably. My leg doesn't tell me anything. It doesn't dare to say anything. So, this is a practice. Practice makes a master. So, asana: asana means comfortable posture where your body feels comfortable. For example, when the body is comfortable, then your mind is relaxed and comfortable. There is a glass of water. Can I have the water glass? Thank you. As long as the glass is standing here on this table, and this table is motionless, the glass is also motionless. And now the liquid which is in the glass is also motionless. As soon as I move the glass, the liquid will also move. Similarly, when your body is comfortable and motionless, then your mind—now you see, I am holding, but water is moving because I am moving, and now we will see very soon—study Guru Vākya. So then your mind is relaxed. You don't have restless thoughts, and you can withdraw yourself from the external world to the inner world. Many of you were not here the last three days, or we had a beautiful subject. Unfortunately, we couldn't finish all. It's called navadhā bhakti, the nine different kinds of bhakti, devotion. In this navadhā bhakti, one is called—first was satsaṅg, harikathā, śraddhā (the faith or confidence), īśvara bhajan (singing the bhajans and thinking of God), mantra japa (repetition of the mantra), and then it is called saṁyam. Saṁyam means to withdraw your senses from the external objects, material objects, and observe your senses so that they don't run out without your knowing, even your thoughts. Because while you are meditating here, and in thinking you are near your car—"Oh my God, I forgot to lock my car"—no, so you are not here. You are moving around your car. So somehow withdraw your senses. Withdraw your mind from the outer world and become one with thyself, and nothing should disturb you. And whenever you like, or would like to be extroverted, you can. Do it so. God Krishna, saying to Arjuna, the quality or the nature of a yogī: the yogī should be like a turtle. The turtle, which anytime he can take out his limbs from his house, from his body, and anytime he can withdraw the limbs in. Similarly, a yogī can anytime become extrovert—the senses are outside, active, creative—everything you said, "Oh my God, so active," and suddenly, if you want, he or she can withdraw and meditate. That's called mastering. You master your body, you master your mind, you master your senses. Therefore, āsana: some of them, for what? To meditate and come forward. But some of them, if you cannot master, then you have no contentment, no certification in your heart. Santoṣa: santoṣa is the biggest, or the greatest richness of your self. You may have thousands of elephants belonging to you. You know, one elephant costs a lot of money, and if you have thousands of elephants, are you able to take care of them? No. To have a thousand elephants needs a country twice bigger than Hungary—so much forest, and still it is too little forest. There's no more forest, only elephants. You have the golden birds, and you may have the diamond mines, many, many diamond mines. All belongs to you. Gajdhan, the elephants; Bajdhan, the golden birds; and diamond mines. Tons of diamonds come out every day. "Jab āye santosh dhan. But when the santoṣa comes to your heart, sab dhan dhūla samāna." Then all this wealth is like dust. For you, this wealth is like dust because you have santosh. Who is happy? Who is ever happy? Who has the santoṣa? Whatever comes will come. My destiny, what it gives me, it will give. No one can take away my destiny from your hand. Anyone can take away your bread, but what is in your brain and your destiny, no one can take. In India, when you travel, nearly on every vehicle something is written. Even on the rickshaw, when you drive behind, there is written something: "Deepānand Bhagwān kī Jai Bolo, phir chalo." Holy Gurujī wrote on his door side, driver door side: "Deepānand Bhagavān kī Jai Bolo, phir darvājā kholo." No, Jai Prakāś true, still on Gurujī's car, and many, many good words written behind on the trucks and buses and the cars. So there is one sentence written: "Samay se pahale, samay se pahale, you will not get anything. Before time, you will get nothing." Time will bring. So wait and see till the time will come, then you will get it. "Bhāgya se jyādā kisī ko nahīṁ miltā hai." And more than what is written in your kishmat, in your destiny, you will not get more than that. If you get it, you will lose it. You try, sorry, you try to keep it, then family distraction will begin. Your children will begin to drink alcohol, or your wife or your husband will begin to abuse some drugs or go for gambling, many, many things. So, who has santoṣa in the heart is the best person, the happiest one. Santosh is the name of many girls, a female name. And anyone who doesn't have a yoga name or a spiritual name, then call yourself from now onwards Santosh. It means you have to realize that you are now in santoṣa. Your name is Santosh, but you are greedy—that's not good. Your name is Lakshmī, but you are poor—that's not good. Also, a male can have the name Santoṣa. You can say Santoṣa Purī. Both male and female have it. When the santoṣa, the wealth, is awakened in your heart, then all other worldly wealth is dust for you. And therefore, in navadhā bhakti, it is the santoṣa. Try to get the santosh, and what you got is a great—what you got, don't lose it. But, of course, your greed would like to have more, and you will lose what you have. Every one of us, we had some minutes of our life most beautiful, and that's gone. Is that a past? No, Gurujī said, even in the memory, you are still happy with that. Keep in your memory that belongs to you only, you and you, that's it. Santosh: what was beautiful or what was terrible is gone. I am happy on both sides. Thanks to God, the terrible thing is not anymore in my destiny. It is gone, or it was good, beautiful. Thanks to God that I experienced that. Maybe, if God wishes or by God's blessing, I will again get it. Otherwise, I have; I need not to get it. You get one experience in your meditation, beautiful vision; lifelong you will not forget how beautiful that vision was. Santosh and sant means the santosh, samādhan. Sant who have the samādhan, withdrawing of the senses or activating the senses: withdraw yourself from the external world, or become extrovert in the world. That's it. Āsanas, therefore: Patañjali said āsanas. And before the āsanas, Patañjali was speaking about yama and niyama. So according to the ṛṣi Nārada, Nārada... Navada bhakti, the nine points of the bhakti, final īśvara praṇidhāna. Īśvara praṇidhāna, what a beautiful word. Surrender your life to God, to Īśvara, Lord. Everything you gave me, all that comes, you gave me, and all that it is, yours. Nothing is mine. I lose nothing. I surrender to thee, oh my Lord: my body, my mind, my consciousness, my emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, my destiny, my karma, everything, even my bad karma. I'm happy to give you, Lord. Oh Lord, it is your karma now; it's my only dharma to give you, my Lord. That's it. So give in the hands of God. Sooner or later, we have to give it to God. Sooner or later, we have to give this body again to the lap of Mother Earth. "Īśvara praṇidhāna: 'Mera to kuch hai nahī, jo kuch hai so terā. Terā tujh ko arpaṇ karte.' Kya lagega mera? Mera toh kuch hai nahi." Nothing is mine. "Jo kuch hai so tera." Whatever it is, is yours. "Tera tujhko arpan karte, kya lagta hai mera?" Yours, I give to you back. What do I lose? Nothing. And therefore, in the name of God, in the name of all needy people and needy creatures, when you help, it is great what you can do. Do it. Nothing will go with you. And the day when you will depart from this body, and you will be in the astral world somewhere looking up, then all this wealth which I taught before—in the astral body, suddenly you will see all this money, and it is like dust. All relations and money, it is like dust to you. Have a bank account zero, okay? Or you have many, many zeros without any number on it. Or you have a number and zeros, many, many. That doesn't mean anything for you. Your house, your jewelry, your clothes, your cars, your property—zero for you, nothing. You have no feelings to it, because now you detest from the material world and also the relations. We people will cry, "Our dear one died." We do cry, though we know the ātmā is immortal, but still feeling is there because we lost that form in which the divine Ātmā was, and with which we had such a beautiful relation—not that it died or not, but that was some meaning for us. We are a test. But when you go away from the body, it's like when you take the pizza cheese with the cheese pizza slide, and the cheese is thicker, became less and less and less, finally it is broken. If it doesn't happen, then while eating, the whole picture will come up. You cannot depart from this material world and your astral body—you in your astral body, or in your subtle body, you will be suffering. And therefore God made such a principle, or the law: as soon as we go from the material world, attachment is gone. And a person who passed away today, or tomorrow, or yesterday, or someone... looking to us: "My dear daughter, my dear son, my dear wife, or my dear husband, my dear friends, don't cry. Look, I am happy. I am so relaxed and free. Don't cry. I was never so happy." But we cannot see him or her. We cannot hear what he or she is saying. We are still in the mortal body, and that one is already connected more to the immortal body, the soul, the ātmā, but still with this subtle body. And that's thanks to God, that we will not suffer because of our material relation to house, car, money, jewelry—belongs this, that, yes. You will have more love for your dear one. You will have love for all creatures. You will meet the different souls, and some souls will be the soul of a dog, buffalo, elephant, or a mosquito. The soul is all quality, not... An elephant is very big. Do you think an elephant has a big soul? Do you believe this? And a mosquito or some little bacteria is very small. Do you think the soul is also so very small? Quality? So, everyone is there. Everyone has a right. You cannot say, "Mosquito, go away." The mosquito will say, "Who are you, my dear friend? No, who are you? We have equal right in this world of God, also on this planet. But you didn't respect me, and I didn't respect you. I was naughty always, and you were also." But now we are in another, different world. My destination, my destiny; your destination, your destiny is different, but we are all the souls, that's all. And so, prepare yourself now to learn, to renounce, and to meditate. We will be together, and we will be more closer than ever; we will be happy; everything will be most beautiful. But this worldly material disturbs us; that creates the duality between you and me. This table is standing. In the astral world, there is no table at all. Our destiny, and we are there, and we especially, like a master and disciple, we are all these waves moving. You know, when I will die or go away from this world, you will also begin to die. Sorry, not like that, but our age, by the age, you will all follow me, and we will meet on some different planet or again on this beautiful planet. We are ever together, and we are never together, because we are one now, the one. You can divide whatever you like, and therefore, every day before going to sleep: "Lord, whatever I have done, or whatever has happened through my body, through my senses, through my emotion and intellect, through my words, my excellent words, Lord, I offer all to you. Forgive me, and you may give what I need. That's all. Good morning. Thank you, Lord, for taking care of my deep sleep and protecting me. I surrender my entire being—my mind, my senses, my words, my actions—into Your hands. Lord, guide my steps. Lord, guide my steps towards You." "Oh friend of the meek one, oh dear of the meek one, the thread of my life is in your hands. Can you be so kind and sometimes move a little closer to you?" You know this, what you call the puppet dance or playing puppet? So we, all the souls, are the puppets of that cosmic play. And after a long play, he will be tired, and we will all be together again. How beautiful, deep, Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānī. So these are the Saptabhūmi, no, sorry, Navadhā Bhakti of whom? Thank you. This Navadhā Bhakti of Nārada: first was satsaṅg, second Harikathā (where the glory of God is spoken, or the divine glory is spoken or read), the third was śraddhā, īśvar bhajan, mantra japa, samādhi, santosh. Saints are the foundation. This must not be forgotten: respect the saints, no matter from which religion they are, because saints are the greatest ones on this planet. Navadhā bhakti according to the ṛṣi Nārada, and the Patañjali, Maharṣi Patañjali, he said discipline is a key to self-success. Self-discipline is a key to success. And so Patañjali very clearly wrote the definitions of yoga and different techniques, following the ethic principles, āsanas, and prāṇāyāms: dhāraṇā, dhyāna, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. So, we will continue to talk on these points. So, begin again to practice your āsanas so that you can sit without movements, because you are going to have anuṣṭhāna, and I'm looking forward for you, that you will sit motionless, and you will experience many, many experiences. You will make if you will sit motionless. So today, this evening is that's all. Hari Om, and good night.