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Part 1: Mystic Prague and the Power Beyond Understanding Prague, as I understand it, is often spoken of as a mystic city. It has always been home to very interesting people: philosophers, artists, poets, and yogīs. I recall someone telling me about a yogī named Dhṛtikol, a world-famous photographer who passed away last century. They shared a practical experience with him. Dhṛtikol was working in the garden and injured his hand—a deep cut, bleeding. He looked at his hand and said, "No, I don’t want this," and performed tratak. Within two minutes, the wound disappeared. No blood, nothing. My God. I would like to introduce this to hospitals. How? Which energy came there? How did the wound heal? There was a physical cut, about half a centimeter deep, and it was bleeding. So I thought, "Well, Prague must be a mystic place." One man told me another story; he is luckily still alive, nearly 80, 85, or maybe 90 years old. There are many old people still existing. A few months ago, I learned of a man living in Jaipur who is very active and recently celebrated his 136th year. He still walks, dresses, bathes, and does everything on his own. How do we know he is 135 years old? We know his story. He is one of the lucky persons enjoying a long pension, so government records exist. He was a soldier during the English regime in India, and those records from English times contain his birth date. There is another man who is now 145 years old. He also worked in an army for a royal family and has now become a Swāmī, a Sādhu. He too is one of the rare persons enjoying a pension for over 100 years. I would like us to also enjoy our pensions for a long time. No problem. Just practice and lead your life according to Yoga in Daily Life. Our problem is only one: we eat much too much. We eat in one week what they eat in one month, or two months. They are healthy, capable, and very strong. Our life expectancy is becoming less and less because of food quality—all the artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and chemicals we use. Now, the man about whom I am going to tell you shared this story. He was born and lives in an Indian village known as Kelash, where the ashram of our beloved Satguru Dev, Śrī Devpurījī, is located. The storyteller, now about 85 years old, says that when he was seven or eight, he used to go with his father to Śrī Devpurījī. Śrī Devpurījī had a wound on his calf muscles—three or four boils, with pus coming out. The father of the young boy, from a family generation of Ayurvedic doctors, asked Devpurījī, "Can I bring some remedy for you?" Devpurījī said, "It’s not necessary." The next day, he asked again. Devpurījī said, "Does it disturb you?" The father replied, "Well, I think it’s painful for you." Now I tell you, the human mind will not understand what I tell you. I also do not understand, but it is. Śrī Devpurījī stretched his legs and, always having a sword with him, peeled all the skin and muscles from his leg. The young boy was so frightened. Nothing remained except the nerves, veins, and bones. Can you imagine this? Like chipping a carrot. He had a shawl; without any antiseptic spray, he wrapped it around his leg, covered it with his cloth, and put his clothing back on. The young boy, now an 85-year-old man, and his father were troubled. The next day, they came to see Devpurījī again. Śrī Devpurījī said, "Let’s see what’s happening," and opened the bandage. There was a healthy leg—hair, skin, muscles, no scar, no wound, just like this. Śrī Devpurījī said, "Oh, it’s good now." I don’t know what to think of this. Is this hypnotizing? It cannot be, because the man had been observing for one or two weeks already. How did it happen overnight? That is beyond our capacity. What is behind that? Which prāṇa is there? Which energy is there? That is only our limitation; we can say it is a miracle. But what is a miracle? Words cannot explain a miracle. What is psychology? When a doctor doesn’t understand a disease or pain—when x-rays, ultrasounds, and no diagnosis can determine the problem, all tests are negative but you still feel pain—when the doctor does not understand and cannot find the cause, we have this modern word: it is psychological. Now I ask you, what is psychology? Words cannot explain. We only say that perhaps childhood had negative experiences, or you saw a bad film, or had a problem with a partner or a parent. Who doesn’t have a problem with a partner? Yes, because you are all single. And who doesn’t have a problem with parents? We all have. Because I wanted to jump into the water, and my mother didn’t allow me. I was angry, so angry. I ran towards the water, and she caught me again. As a small kid, I said, "No, leave me free." Then she caught me and gave me a little smack on my buttocks because I couldn’t swim; Mother had the right. So, who doesn’t have a problem with parents? These are not problems; this is education, this is life. So, what is psychology? These are a few things I think about all the time, and they are happening before my eyes. One girl had a very strong pain in her ear. She was crying, couldn’t sleep. The doctor said it had to be operated on. The girl was five years old and asked her parents, "Please call Swamiji to help me." The parents phoned and told me, "Please, can you pray for our daughter or calm her down?" They gave me the telephone, and she took it on the painful ear. While talking to me, she calmed down and then slept peacefully. In the morning, they took her to the doctor, and there was nothing—no pain, nothing to operate on, everything was okay. The doctor said, "What happened?" They told this story. The doctor said something, but they told him, "Doctor, you can see it yourself." Even I don’t know what happened through my voice to that girl over the telephone. Like this, many things happen. In 1976, I think, in Bratislava, a couple telephoned me in Austria. In 1975-76, it took a long time to call from Bratislava to Vienna; it was not easy, as technology was not so advanced. Their daughter’s kidneys were destroyed, and doctors gave her a limited life expectancy when she was born—a maximum of one week, then she would die. They could leave her in the hospital or take her home at risk. They took her home and called me crying, "What can we do? What can I do? A blind person telephoning, can you tell me which way to go?" I am like that blind person; I don’t know anything. Only Gurujī is doing, Mahāprabhujī. So I told them a mantra. I closed my eyes and saw the entire function of the kidneys. Then I told the mother, "This technique—rub your palms and put both hands on the back of the child, and repeat this one of the most divine Mahā Mantra: 'Om Prabhudīp Niranjan Sabdukha Banjan. Om Prabhudīp Niranjan Sabdukha Banjan.'" Five times a day? The mother did it ten times a day. The love of a mother is indescribable, and the love of a father is beyond description. After ten days, the doctor called them, asking how the child was and that they should come. They took the child to the hospital, and the diagnosis was perfect—no defects on the kidneys. That happy girl, now a happy lady, got married just three weeks ago. The same thing happened to her brother, and now he is also a happy young man, trying very hard to become a film star in Hollywood or somewhere. These things that happen to us are beyond our imagination. So there is something which can change. It is said: An honī guru kar sake, honī detā mīṭā. That’s a beautiful poem. An honī guru kar sake, honī detā mīṭā. What is not possible, which is impossible, Gurudev can make possible. And what is possible, he can make impossible. An honī guru kar sake, or honī detā mitāī Parabrahma Gurudeva he, sab kus detā banāī Parabrahma Gurudeva, Gurudevī je Parabrahma Gurudevī je Parabrahma. Everything he can make possible. Just to understand Guru Tattva, the principle—who can understand? This will understand the mind, body, soul, ātmā, and universe. It is said in the Vedas: Yathā Brahmāṇḍe Tathā Piṇḍe. Everything that is in the universe is in this body. And what is not in this body is not in the universe. The problem is how to understand it. It is said in the Vedas and Upaniṣads, in Hinduism, there are two things: reality and unreality. The unrealities, which are changing constantly, and the realities, which never change. It means what is created, what is manifested, will be destroyed or changed. But that reality which is creating will remain forever. That is that. So, there are hidden powers in humans, good and bad. Don’t think we have only negative powers. Don’t think that Svādhiṣṭhāna Cakra has only negative powers. Sages of Svādhiṣṭhāna have positive powers also, most beautiful powers. If the Svādhiṣṭhāna power were not here, we all would not be here today. To understand, to know how, we have good energy and bad energy. I have a knife in my hand. Someone thinks it’s bad, and someone thinks it’s good because this knife can kill you or save your life. The question is this: when, where, and how to use this knife, and when not to use it. Therefore, achievement in yoga means to achieve oneness in three: knowledge, knower, and object. Knowledge, knower, and object—these three have to merge into oneness because the three cannot exist. As long as you see three, you are in duality. And when you become one, it means in reality, which is not changeable. The knower is our self; that which we would like to know is knowledge. And to know the object—now these are three: you, me, and between us, that I see you are sitting in front of me. It is my eyes, the Gyanindriya, that make it possible for me to realize that yes, you are in front of me. Suppose I am blind; then my nose will inform me that you are sitting, that someone is in front of me. If I can’t smell, my ears will inform me that someone is coming and sitting. So this knowledge, which you cannot see—there is no instrument that can prove what knowledge is. There is a question: what is memory? And how is memory in the brain recorded? And how does this memory transfer from generation to generation? These things are still unanswered. This we can only get through one instrument: meditation, yoga. Meditation means you try to become one with it. But it is very hard to meditate because we are living beings, part of nature. We have hunger, thirst; we feel cold, hot, happy, unhappy, love, offended. We have friends, we feel someone is rude, an enemy; we have attachment. So many things keep us here, and we can’t proceed. Therefore, we have to master ourselves to instruct our intellect to withdraw from the external world and instruct our mind to be detached from the indriyas, the senses. To instruct our concentration to target that particular point, then the knower, the knowledge, and the object—these three will come closer and become one. It is said: Prem Gali Ati Sakri, Jisme Do Na Samayi. The street of love is too narrow; two cannot walk together. Only one can walk, one by one. So the knower and the object, unless they merge into one... you can’t get the result. And oneness can only come or be realized when there is no doubt, no fear, no question why, and no question of "I don’t want." These things are all cleared up. There is a very clear highway, a clear street, and it is your feeling which pulls you with high speed to come onto this. You are driving at high speed. Suddenly, some stupid one drives opposite you and causes an accident. That means kuśaṅgā—that means blackmailing. That someone speaks negatively, indirectly, into your subconscious. In your consciousness, in your subconscious, it builds up: watch out, watch out. And that is enough; the connection is disconnected. We need protection, a clear consciousness, to become one. As soon as you enter the external world, this old jungle will come again. Therefore, meditation is the way. Mantra is a torchlight to go through the darkness. Yes, it is possible to realize. It is possible to become one. Only they know what oneness means. I have one chocolate in my hand, and I bite it. Now, only I know what this taste means. I can’t explain the taste to you. You eat butter every day. Can you explain to me how butter tastes? The real taste you can’t explain; it only has to be experienced, practically, not theoretically, because tons of theory is nothing compared with a grain of practice. The human brain always wants to know practically. So, it’s very hard to know how, for example, one point of memory is recorded in the brain. Which tape recorder is there, or CD? Or is there some computer or something we push in? Part 2: The Mystery of Memory and the Purpose of Life Medical science knows there are certain centers for memory; when they are damaged, you lose memory. Yes, we know this, but we want to know what it is, how it is lost, and how it is recorded. That is called cosmic energy. That is called Cosmic Creation. Oh man, you will never discover that. Because on the day when you discover that, you will want to govern the entire universe. And that is not your job. When there is selfishness, when there is desire, nothing can be realized. I think it is said in the Testament also somewhere: you have to die in order to live. Mahāprabhujī said you have to kill your ego, all selfishness, greediness; all this we have to overcome. I don’t want to see, I just want to be, that’s all. Then it came, one man came to me. It was in ’71, in Vienna, Austria. So he said, "Swāmījī, can you give me a mantra?" I initiated him. After one week he came, "Your mantra doesn’t function." I said, it’s not a key that can function. He said, "No, this is the 35th mantra which I have. I take from every guru." All they give me mantras, but none of them function. I said, "What do you want?" I want a Siddhi. Perfection for what? To make the miracles. I said, "What miracle do you want? For example, to stop the sun from rising. I put my hand as long as I want the sun to remain there." I said, do you know what terrible things will happen? He said that doesn’t matter. I said, you will never get Siddha in your life because you want it so. You have an ego. So I said, "You will not stop the sun, but the sun will stop you one day." Therefore, I would suggest you lead a very normal life, a happy family life. Create a happy partnership, get many, many children, because I have so many chocolates for them. I am missing today’s children; only two children came. Create happy children, and practice yoga in daily life to be healthy. Health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health. Today, there is no science which can stop us from getting old. But in yoga, few people remain like the young. So, few is not all. Technology made it possible that you can hear the voice from here to, let’s say, Ostrava without a wire, with your mobile phone. Everyone can have this who has money. I want the same thing, if that is possible also in yoga, then everyone can realize. I asked my guru, and he said, "Yes, possible." But you know, what people will do with this, they will use it for negative things. It will be the most terrible thing in the world. That you can read someone’s thoughts, you know, or someone reads your thoughts, you know, "What am I thinking now?" If you know, I will be sweating, and I will run out of the door, but be sure I am not thinking so negatively, yes? And if I will know who is thinking what, be sure that not all who are sitting here think of me with love. There are some still, maybe. What are these Indians talking nonsense? So, it’s good that we don’t know who is thinking what. It is a protection. It is a great protection for us. And you know, if everyone through yoga will become young, then very soon there will be no more place to live. There will be so many people, young people, running and getting more and more children. Niko ne umire, zato prihvatite zakone prirode. Mada ne razumemo, kad moja majka umire, to ne razumemo, ili kada mi dete umire. Ja pitam zašto se to događa, ja to ne prihvatam. Prihvatao ja ili ne, to je prihvatao. Sooner or later, we have to die. Thanks to God that we don’t know the day, place, time, or how this body will fall to the floor. If we know this, we will not see that day; we will die before. So many things are a surprise. When I came to Europe, I saw a Christmas tree, nicely decorated. I remember. This Christmas tree was introduced over 10,000 years ago in the Rāmāyaṇa. When the God Rāma came back from Śrī Laṅkā to Ayodhyā after 14 years of bāṇavāsa, people decorated trees with lights and hung sweets on them, and like this, they hung oil lamps on them, and put many sweets and eating things under the tree. That people who are coming to see the God Rāma, they can eat something. As a little present for children. I said, since when does Christianity have this tree? I’m coming from a very small village, you know, and there was no television, no electricity, nothing, and one school, a primary school, that’s all. We only heard one thing: name, Mahāprabhū Īsāmasī. We called Jesus Mahāprabhū Īsāmasī. We only heard one name, Mahāprabhu Īsāmasī, that’s how Jesus is called in India. Under the tree, there were some presents, and the children had to sit in the other room. Then they said, "You already said baby Jesus will come, and under the Christmas tree we will put a present for you. Children, you must be careful; sit in the other room peacefully." And after the parents ring the bell, the children come and say, "Jesus was here!" Some poor children cry. I want to see baby Jesus. The parents say, "We ring the bell, you came one half minute too late." Why couldn’t he wait for me? He had to go to millions of houses at the same time, and so is this surprise we have in our life. These surprises, these are not fairy tales. There is something inside. Everyone has something in this life, so it’s good to understand. It is good to understand nature. Thanks to God that we are all healthy. I always thank God. Do you also have a healthy head like this? Only my head can be healthy? So, practice yoga for good health. Relax and be happy in life. Be ready. You never know when baby Jesus comes. To put the surprise, to take us. These are all stories in the whole world, in every culture, in every religion. But it depends on how you understand. That’s it. For a small child, two, three years, or four years old. For him or her, Jesus was here. For you, he was not there, because you lost that feeling. So it depends on how you understand. Something is to understand, something we cannot understand. There are miraculous things happening. There is a memory of the past. There is a book written by a scientist, a psychologist living in Philadelphia, America, called "Life After Life" or "Life After Death." And he interviewed people from every part of the world, from different religions and different cultures, believers and non-believers, and some of the, what you call, doctors, scientists, farmers. It’s a very famous book, a very beautiful book to read. He interviewed those people who died, and after some minutes, they came back into the body. What you call clinical death. And now, what experience they had. And it’s a very interesting thing. And they said very interesting things. So there is a life still after this body. The physical organ doesn’t function, but we are not only a physical body. We are physical body, mental body, and subtle body. And in yoga we have five bodies: the Annamaya Kośa, the body of nourishment. Prāṇamaya Kośa, body of energy. Manomaya Kośa, the mental body. Vijñānamaya Kośa, the intellect body, and Ānandamaya Kośa, the causal body. So these are the five different bodies; it’s like an onion, one after the other, layer on layer. But where is the onion? I take one onion, say this is an onion, and I peel it one out to see the onion. I take the second layer, the third layer. What is onion? What is onion? Similarly, this physical body, everything is chemical. These are the five elements. Earth, water, fire, air, and ether—it will disappear. But who is talking in me? Who has memory? That’s a miracle. Therefore, one yogī said, "Yeh Banglā Ajab Banā Mahārāj Jisme Nārāyaṇ Bole." This bungalow is miraculous. Ovo je kuća čudesna. This bungalow is a wonder. Ovo je kuća čuda. Yeh Bangla Ajab Bana Maharaj, jisme Narayan bole. In which the God is speaking. To je kuća u kojoj govori Bog. Jisme Nārāyaṇa bole, par guru binā bheda kaun khole? But without Gurudeva, who can tell you the secret of that? So within these bodies, the self, the self is not a soul. The soul is only individual identity. It is your identity, that is your soul; it means your karma, your destiny. Like my ID is my passport, your passport, but what is my ID in the astral world? But what is my personal document in the astral world? After getting out of this body, I am neither a Czech, nor an Indian, I am a traveler coming from the mortal world, entered into the astral world. What will happen? That is your karma, and karma is a big question. Some people understand and accept. Some don’t accept. Karma is action. Where there is action, there will be reaction. And where there is reaction, there will be action. You take a remote controller and you act. You press the button, you act, the reaction will be the television screen, we’ll show you the picture. So there’s action, reaction, action. Now, that reaction of the television is coming to me, and I will again act. So, this is a long thing to understand karma. Therefore, don’t think that you have only negative qualities. You are a human. All creatures are the same. All are the light of God. All have the feeling of love. No one would like to be unhappy. You see, the little ant is day and night active to be happy, running here and there. And we are also going there, where we feel happiness. All beings, all creatures, they are searching for happiness. The difference between other creatures and the human is intellect. The human has a most powerful tool: the intellect. And human intellect needs education. It can be educated endlessly. And through that intellect, we know as a better being, and therefore we understand. So you are not a sinner. You made no sin. And if you did, you did it out of your ignorance. That’s not your mistake. It’s God’s mistake. Why did He give us ignorance? I am always complaining to Him when I see Him, you know? I said, "He said, ’I’ve sinned.’ People have sinned." I said, "Not people." God said, "What did you say to me?" I said, "Yes." Lord, it’s your mistake. What do you think? I said, "Why did you give them ignorance?" Give knowledge, there will be no sin. God said, "You are right." That’s why I sent you there. That’s it. It was in 1978. I think in Martin, Slovakia, people got mantras, and one man got a mantra, one man who was a very deep believer, Catholic, and I have nothing against Catholics, I am happy that he had a great belief. He received the blessing and mantra. The next morning, it’s a real story, it’s not a joke. From four o’clock in the morning, he was waiting in front of my hotel door, and the security people came. He explained them, that I’m doing no harm. Inside my master is sleeping. Only one question I have to ask him, but I don’t want to disturb him. When he will come out of the hotel room, I will ask him. Well, in the morning when I came out, he greeted me nicely. He couldn’t speak English, so there was a translator. He said, "I couldn’t sleep the whole night, Master." I said, "Why?" "Because I believe in Jesus, and now you are my Guru, I respect you. Now what will Jesus say to me, that I am not faithful to Him?" I see, yes, that’s a very good point. But don’t worry, Jesus is my colleague. I have now the office hours. So it’s okay. He said, "Really?" He said, "Really?" I said, "Yes. What I do is in favor of Jesus." We believe in all of God’s incarnations. He went. Peacefully. So, you know, sometimes we think we are sinners. God will punish us. This is the human weakness. One way is good. That human doesn’t do this stupidity. At least they have fear from doing bad things, but God is not like that. And we are most fortunate ones, that we are born as human. God is most gracious to us. He gave us a beautiful human life. Human is created as a protector, not as a destroyer. Love, protect, that’s our duty, and that’s the purpose of human life. Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. So, don’t think that we have only negative qualities, but our negative qualities are visible sometimes. Good qualities are not so visible, you know. When we plant a tree, a lot of weeds are growing around, though we don’t have negative qualities. And if we don’t want it like this, it’s very difficult to preserve one good quality. But don’t worry, we make mistakes because we don’t know. And that’s why Lord Jesus said, "Father, forgive them." They don’t know what they are doing. He prayed for those soldiers. Who was crucifying him? For him, he prayed. For them, he prayed. Not that. The cause of that is that they are suffering. So, something we do wrong, God will not notice. I always give a very beautiful example. We are in the lap of God. Let’s say God is the mother, and we are in her lap. She is putting us on her lap and giving us milk, and we, little children, only a few months old, are kicking our mother’s face with our little legs. On our chin and here and there, you know, mother is not angry that you kick with your feet. She is happy and giving milk to you. That’s it. So God loves you as you are. That’s it. There was a great saint in Turkey, in a city called Konya, Mevlām. His name was Mevlā, I think, and he said—he was a Sufi saint—"Come to me as you are. I welcome you as you are." Don’t think that you are holy or a sinner, or bad or good, or learned or not learned. Where there is love, there is no rejection. So come as you are. So let’s go to God with a pure heart, as it is. That will create world peace. That will create sustainable development. That will unite humans again. Otherwise, the present situation in the world is very critical. There are differences of religion, culture, nationality, color, and caste. I am a learned one. I am high society. These are uneducated people. Do you know how many problems we have? Some people say, "Oh, we are learned ones." And these people who are sitting and hear them. You know, for many people, spiritual people are a burden. Yesterday, someone told me, an Indian, they did research work. People who have more money, and what they call high society, they don’t care about God. And farmers and people who are poorer, they pray to God. I said yes. That’s why Jesus said, "Don’t collect." Don’t carry with you. Simple life and higher thinking. So people told me, Swamiji, you are preaching the Bible? I said, yes. Because that is your holy ground, Guru Vakya. We Hindus don’t make a difference between the Bible and the Rāmāyaṇa or the Gītā. We Hindus don’t make a difference between the Qur’ān and the Bible. That is the greatness of Hinduism, to respect and adore all holy books of the world and all holy incarnations, and that is the path to unity.