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Part 1: Yoga in Daily Life: Tradition, Succession, and the Path to Inner Peace Swāmījī, Paramahaṃsa Swāmī Maheśvarānanda, first brought yoga and Vedic wisdom to Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1973. Here, ancient science and practical techniques met a receptive spirit, and the foundations of the Yoga in Daily Life system soon emerged—a system now practiced worldwide. Over the years, the system gradually developed and expanded, and many yoga aspirants, guided by Swāmījī, became practitioners. In the last fifty years of his work in our country, Swāmījī has raised several generations of yoga teachers. According to the system, Yoga in Daily Life is practiced not only in yoga centers, āśrams, and bodily exercises but also in specialized healthcare facilities such as hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Courses are offered by numerous schools, including universities. Each week, several thousand people practice yoga in our courses. In addition to regular classes, the teachers of Yoga in Daily Life conduct programs with a specific focus: for people with chronic illness, for patients with mobility impairment, diabetes, and other civilizational diseases. Courses for seniors are very successful and popular. Professional research into the effects of yoga on practitioners’ physical and mental health is currently underway, yielding promising results in disease prevention. The Mahāprabhujī Āśram in Strilky, Moravia, is the largest yoga center in Europe. Founded in 1994 on the grounds of a castle with an adjacent park, the āśram has become a favored place for yoga seminars. People from all over the world come here to deepen their knowledge of yoga and themselves in a clean and peaceful environment. Swāmījī has published a number of books on yoga themes, most of them in both Czech and Slovak. Among the basic publications is the system Yoga in Daily Life, which deals with the gradual development of āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, and concentration and meditation exercises in eight parts, as well as Hidden Forces in Man for advanced yoga aspirants. An important part of Swāmījī’s activities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is the organization of peace conferences, inter-religious dialogues, and the planting of peace trees. These activities are carried out under the auspices of the non-profit organization World Peace Council of Śrī Swāmī Mādhavānanda, which Swāmījī established and which has long cooperated with the UN. Thanks to Swāmījī’s work, many Czechs and Slovaks adopted vegetarianism and a healthier lifestyle. The gradual development of the aspirant’s yoga consciousness leads to a deeper understanding of relationships and the experience of belongingness and unity. From this, the need for protecting the living environment naturally arises—a cause in which Yoga in Daily Life is actively involved. Part of the system’s comprehensive approach to the human being is also the support of humanitarian projects that Swāmījī organizes in India. These include, for example, rainwater management in the conditions of the Rajasthan Peninsula, support for the education of children—especially orphans from poor families—and the construction and operation of a hospital. Over the years, Swāmījī’s tireless efforts devoted to physical, psychological, spiritual, and social health have been appreciated by important personalities and institutions in many countries. In our country, we would like to thank the then President Václav Havel for his acknowledgment of Swāmījī’s inexhaustible spiritual and methodical help to people in Czechoslovakia in the difficult times of the pre-revolution period. Swāmījī’s work was later appreciated by the Slovak presidents Michal Kováč and Rudolf Schuster. The many years of work of Paramahaṃsa Swāmījī Maheśvarānanda continue, and his system of Yoga in Daily Life helps more and more people on the path to health at all levels. In order for the living light of this authentic yogic tradition to shine without interruption, Paramahaṃsa Swāmī Maheśvarānanda, Viśvagurujī, entrusted the spiritual path and leadership of the entire system to his official successor. This is Swāmī Avatārpurī, who was guided and formed by Viśvagurujī from his earliest childhood. Swāmī Avatārpurī was born in 1999 in Jodhpur, India, and grew up in the pure spiritual environment of Om Ashram in Jadan. After graduating from the Jādan School, he continued his academic studies at the prestigious Bangalore Academy. An important stage of his spiritual journey was his stay with the recognized master, Ācārya Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Swāmī Viśokānandajī. Under his direct guidance, he studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and deeply absorbed the wisdom of the Sanātana Dharma tradition. In November 2021, he was officially named the successor of the line of Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddha Pīṭh Paramparā, in the āśram in Barricade. Later, he also handed over his personal Rudrākṣa Mālā to Viśvagurujī, symbolically confirming his role as successor and his masterly mission. In the year 2026, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar became one of the highest spiritual representatives of the Indian Swāmī Order in the presence of many important spiritual personalities of India. Today, Swāmījī Avatārpurī travels the world not only to support the development of Viśvagurujī’s disciples but also, with his youthful energy and deep inner peace, to welcome a new generation of seekers. Through yoga and meditation techniques, he teaches people how to achieve stability, joy, and inner peace in the current hectic and complicated world. The lecture then began. Swāmī Avatārpurī stepped to the podium and offered the traditional prayers: Sadā Śiva Samarambhāṃ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamāṃ Asmadācārya Paryantāṃ Vande Guru Paramparām. Gurur Brahmā Gurur Viṣṇur Gurur Devo Maheśvaraḥ Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Man Nātha Śrī Jagannātha, Madhguru Śrī Jagadguru, mamātmā sarvabhūtātmā, tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ. He continued with salutations: Salutations to the Cosmic Self, salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddha Pīṭh Paramparā, and my profound salutations to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Maheśvarānanda Purījī. My sincere greetings to our Gurudev, Śrī Viśvagurujī Maheśvarānanda Purījī, and Hari Om, and good evening to all of you present here and those watching through Swamiji TV. Many familiar faces and many new ones—it is lovely to see all of you. We are all sitting here today in this beautiful hall. But a simple question: How many of us are truly, mentally and physically, sitting here—not just physically? We might all be physically present, but mentally, very few of us are actually here; many of us are somewhere else. Life presents us with so many different schedules, so many tasks. We are here, but did we leave the house door open? Did we leave the car on? Did we turn off the gas in the kitchen? There are so many things to worry about. That is the problem. We worry about absolutely everything except ourselves. We all seek external sources of happiness, external things that make us happy and peaceful—for example, going to a party. That is well and good if it is with good intentions and good people. But if we are just drinking and think we are enjoying ourselves, and then are completely smashed the next morning, I do not think that is happiness. I do not think that with such happiness we achieve any type of peace. We find so many excuses—why not and why yes. And as humans, we possess the greatest brain in the human race. Our human brain is so powerful that humans created these buildings, the cameras, the clothing—all these things. But it is the same human brain that creates wars, technology, tanks, guns, bombs. Everything has a positive side and a negative side. There is good and bad in each and every one of us. In our Indian mythology, there is the Rāmāyaṇa. In the Rāmāyaṇa, there was an incarnation of Viṣṇu, whose name was Rāma. But—there is always a “but” in life, isn’t there? Whatever happens, whatever we try to do, we always find a “but.” Great knowledge, great everything, but ego. Ego, jealousy, anger, lust—these all pull us down in our spiritual growth. We can achieve many heights on our spiritual journey, and then suddenly something pops up. Why does he or she have that type of car, while I am still driving this? Our human brain immediately goes into comparing mode. We compare our belongings with those of our neighbours, those of our friends. Then automatically, jealousy arises. With jealousy, anger and envy will follow. If our wishes are not fulfilled, expectations are crushed. When our expectations are crushed, many other emotions swing up and down. But if we have no expectations and simply let everything be as it is, life becomes much simpler. This is hard because we always have expectations of ourselves, our family, friends, everyone around us. Expectations are either fulfilled or not—that is the next step. Yet we always find problems in everything. Life is simple. You wake up and you go back to sleep in the evening, no? In between, you have a hundred billion things. But is every single thing we do done with intention, or is it just done? Do we even know why we do half the things we do? Or do we just do them because we have to? There is a difference between doing something because we love it and doing it because we are forced. Bhāva. With feeling. Anything we do in our lives, if done with feeling, has a very different effect. You have a fight, you come home, and immediately start cooking. In your mind, thoughts are racing: “I wish I had said this to that person,” or “I would have done this,” and many other things. Most probably, we do not even mean the things we are thinking. But in the heat of the moment, our mind slips into revenge mode, and all that energy we hold, we put into the work at hand. So if we are cooking, that anger, that animosity, goes into the food. Whoever then eats that food will feel the effect, the change, in themselves. Because prāṇa, the vital energy, flows. When we breathe, we breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. The breath does not just enter the nose; it goes into the lungs, then into the heart, and into every single vein. In the same way, all vital energy—whether obtained from food or otherwise—flows through us, in and out. When we do prāṇāyāma, when we practice breathing exercises, when we meditate, it is to calm our inner body and mind. We are all sitting here, breathing at this moment. But it is natural breathing, happening automatically, not intentional. When we do prāṇāyāma, the breathing exercises, they are done intentionally—and that is a very different thing. It is like taking a saṅkalpa, a vow. “I promise to do this and this.” We tell our parents or someone, “I promise I’ll do this, and then I’ll get this.” In the same way, when we adopt a saṅkalpa, we take a vow to keep our body healthy, and we do it intentionally. When we say “come for yoga,” immediately in our heads there appear ten, twenty different types of yoga schools. Unfortunately, the true essence of yoga has slowly faded in this modern world. Now we have hot yoga, beer yoga, nude yoga, dog yoga, this yoga, that yoga. Yoga is not only the movements of the body, all the cracking and twisting. Yoga is a way of living. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means unity. So yoga means unity. Yoga is that which unites our body and our soul. It is the alignment our body needs, much like our cars need servicing. When yoga is done with true intention and taught properly, it changes so many things within us. With the system our beloved Gurudev has created, you can see how easy it is for every age group to practice. Every āsana, everything in that beautiful eight-chapter book, has been selected by him so that it suits all ages—we saw this in the video, even children. The peace we then feel will be profoundly different. We are so focused on external things that we forget about ourselves. When was the last time you sat with yourself and asked, “How are you?” In India, we have a saying: Khānā, Pīnā, Bhoganā, Paśu Samānā, which means eating, sleeping, and reproducing—even the animals do that. We are humans. We have a brain. We have the capacity to think. We have the capability to make decisions, to use our viveka, our intuitive power, to see what is right and what is wrong. Yet in the morning, we wake up, rush to get ready, go to work, come home, do more work, maybe spend some time with our partner or family, and sleep. That is the normal daily routine we are stuck in. The power of words is immense. The words we utter. Because of our sādhanā, because of what we do and say, the power of words can become such that they come true. We can call it sādhanā, we can call it manifestation, whatever you like. But notice yourself throughout the day. Last month I was in the mountains. Seven days without any signal—no phones, no technology, nothing. And we began to realize so many things about our day-to-day routine that we needed to change. It is wonderful when you have a partner or friends to talk to. But sometimes, try to simply go inwards and talk to yourself. In yoga, we have a term called mauna—silence. Not the silence of “OK, I’m going to bed now, so I’ll be silent,” but intentional silence. Try it sometime. Part 2: The Path to Inner Peace Through Breath and Self-Inquiry Also, make it a part of our routine. It can be in the morning or before going to bed. Whenever you have time—40 minutes, 1 hour, as long as you can—give it for yourself, a time where you intentionally will not say anything. Every breath we take in our body should be intentional. Know that when we are inhaling, we hold that intention, that thought in our mind: we are inhaling all the vital energies, all the prāṇas within our body. And when we are exhaling, we are exhaling all the toxins, all the bad energies, all the negativity out of our body. You will already start feeling the changes within yourselves when just the breath becomes intentional. But let’s say it is all the reason or the result of what we have done in the past. We do good, good comes back. We do bad, bad comes back. Dharma rakṣati rakṣitaḥ. In the Bhagavad Gītā it says, those who protect the truth, the truth shall protect them. Did we ever notice, to hide one lie, we will make up ten to a hundred different lies, just to cover up the first one? My mind creates lies, we create truth; we create problems, we create the solution. If there is a lock, there has to be a key. So if there is a problem, there is a key, there is a solution to that problem. But most of the time, we are the ones who are creating those problems. And until we manage to even solve the first problem, we have already made ten more. And no one else can actually solve those problems created by us. So they have to be solved by us. If we have the power of creating a problem, we have the power of solving the problem. But we are all so stuck in ourselves, with our problems, with this, with that, that we forget about everything else. Yet when we start functioning like a united, beautiful family—in the olden times, the family: parents, kids, everyone sat together at one table for dinner. That was the only time we used to socialize a bit. No, in the modern world, we all have our own lives. We are all too busy. And even if we do manage to gather at one table, all of us will be sitting on our phones, sending each other reels, commenting on the posts. That is the world we are living in. We have zero clue who our neighbor is. Many times we have even no clue who sits at the next desk in our office. Because we are so stuck in our own things. But if we realize that we are not the doer, we are just the observer. This body is a tool. And the ātmā, the soul, is just the watcher, the observer. Let things happen at their own pace. What happened in the past, can we change it? Yes, no. No. What is going to happen in the future? Do we know it? So, if we cannot control what will happen, if we cannot change what happened, then why are we stuck in the past and in the future? And I do not think, till now, we have the doctor who makes the Back to the Future car. I think that no one has yet found a car that would take us back to the past. So if we cannot go back and change anything, there is no sense in bothering ourselves with those things. And if we cannot go back to the past, there is no sense in bothering ourselves with those things. We do not even know what will happen to us in the coming minute. We were born with nothing, and we will leave with nothing. But we hold on to the possessions like we are going to hold on to them for ten lives. Our home, our house, our room is full of things. What comes shall pass. Happiness comes, that shall also go; sadness comes, and that shall also go. Nothing is permanent—neither us, nor our problems. We all saw clouds in the sky. The clouds can be in many shades: dark, grey, black clouds—the neutral ones—or the normal white ones. But what is one thing that is common? All of these clouds pass. Last time I said this, there was someone who corrected me. There is one cloud in the world that is stable. I think it is in Sweden or somewhere, but except that, all clouds pass. So the point is, the problems, it does not matter how bad they are—as a dark grey cloud or simple as a white cloud—they will go. We hold on to those things so much, we do not even see the growth, we do not see anything else. But sometimes if we let it go, maybe there are better opportunities, maybe there are better options which are coming. That is why if we go within and be happy and content with ourselves, then all the external problems feel like nothing. There is always going to be someone who has something to comment. In this world, we all are doctors. We all are, especially us Indians. And here in this world, we are all experts, doctors, especially the Indian ones. In India, everyone has a solution to everything. Does not matter what profession, what they do. You ask that person something, even if we do not know the directions, we will make up the directions to tell you. That is the problem with us. We think that we know everything. We think that we can advise everyone. That is why God gave us two ears: you listen to everyone with one ear. You keep the things that you like, and the rest goes out. Because if we are going to get stuck on listening to everyone's comments, we will not live. We have the freedom to choose what we want to do and what not. No one forced you all to come here today. If we all gathered here in this hall, there was a cause, there was a reason, and there was a wish. I wish to find out something new. I wish to refresh our memory on things that we already know. Or even questions in the mind for which we want to search the answer. So instead of listening to everyone around us, try to listen and search for the answers to the questions within ourselves. We believe in Indian mythology that there are 8.4 million creatures, divided into three: Jalchar, Thalchar, and Nabchar. Jalchar means those who are in the water. Thalchar are those, like us, who live on the land, Earth. And Nabchar are those up in the sky. And we believe that after crossing all of those animals, insects, we finally got this human birth. It is to say, this human birth is very precious. We should not waste it. If we put daily at least 10 minutes, 15 minutes of our time for silent meditation, for breath work, we will already see the effects and the changes within our way of functioning and way of thinking. We will see and feel that all the negativity that we hold, all the anxiety that we hold, and all the stress that we hold—everything just leaves. But for that, we need to believe in ourselves. At least love everyone else as much as we love ourselves, as Gurudev always said. So if we love ourselves, then only we can love each and every one of us, each other. But first, instead of doubting ourselves—we are not this, we could have been this, we could have been that—we accept ourselves for who we are. It is not that we are, but we know that we are the best versions of ourselves, and that we are trying our best to do what we can. Simple three questions to ask ourselves every day. Who am I? These are easy questions, very easy to find the answers, but those answers only we can answer to ourselves. When we go within, we will know that there is no difference between they and us. There is no difference between us all. We are all striving for the same goal. We are all moving forward in our journey. It is just, with which motive are we living our life? Are we happy with that external peace, or do we wish for some internal peace? And if we are content and happy with external happiness, good. But we all are looking for that inner peace. Because the cameras can be looking, and then I just go. I can just smile; that is external happiness. Anger, jealousy, envy, lust—there are many things that pull us back down in our spiritual growth. And if we are in peace within, if we accepted ourselves, and when we accept that inner peace, we already spread love around us. When someone asks us how we are, and we say, "Everything is perfect, everything is fine," but inwardly, only we know how we truly feel, what we truly are going through. And that is only between you and yourself and the Supreme Self. There are so many things that we can find the answer to just by sitting in meditation and going inwards. Zaspíváme Om. Take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Inhale and exhale. Feel the body from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. Our mind is like a monkey, jumping from one thought to another thought. So today we are not going to complicate the meditation very much; going to keep it simple. First, we will tire your monkey brain a bit, so whenever you hear a snap, you change your thought. And whenever I snap, forcefully or whatever, change the thought. As many times as you hear the snap, that many times you will change your thought. First, just relax yourselves. Feel comfortable. Seďte pohodlně. And just breathe. While inhaling, all the positive energies, all the good things, are going inside our body. And when you exhale, you are throwing out all the negative energies, all the toxin energies, out of your body. Whole day you were busy, now you tell yourself, it is time for me to relax. It is time to unite with my true self. It is time to become one with that Brahman, with the Self. The mind is restless. Changing our thoughts will just tire it out. You do not need to see any lights or anything, just thoughts. Now your mind worked enough, enough of thoughts, enough of thinking. Now just relax. Do not control any thought. If anything is coming, let it come. If anything is going, let it go. Do not change the breathing; natural breathing, just observe: cool air entering and warm air exiting, like the gentle waves of the ocean. Now imagine with every breath we are inhaling peace, and with every breath out, you are releasing all the stress. Breathing in calmness, breathing out worries, breathing in clarity, breathing out all the tension. You see a divine light entering, a light of peace. A light of kindness, a light of your higher potential. With every breath, that light is spreading and filling up your whole mind, quietening all the unnecessary thoughts. It flows through your face. To your neck. Kr̥kem. To your shoulders. Rāmeṇy. To your heart. Vaším srdcem. Hands. Pāṇi. Hands. The sky never struggles with the clouds. They come and go, but the sky still remains. So we are that sky, that clear, open, endless blue sky. Do not look for the answer. Allow yourself to experience this quiet space within yourself. Notice that nothing on the outside has changed a bit. But within, we already might be feeling a bit lighter, a bit calmer. This space which we feel within ourselves has always been there. It was never missing. It was just waiting for our attention. Take a slow breath in, and breathe out with gratitude. Inhale, notice every breath going inside of us and exiting our nose. Notice the garden full of flowers around us. And every flower is opening up and blossoming. Each flower represents one of our qualities. It represents one of our qualities. The flower of love, the flower of compassion, the flower of dedication, the flower of devotion, the flower of happiness, the flower... But into your family, into your friends, into your relationships, in everything that we do, we feel that peace. Inhale and exhale. I will sing one stotra, one chant from the Sanskrit. Just keep your eyes closed and feel the energy. Sattvātmā Kārī, Nirdhūta Khila Ghorā Pāvanākārī, Tyakṣa Maheśvarī, Pralaya Jalāvāṃśa Pāvanākārī, Kāśī Purādhiśvarī, Bhikṣāṃ Dehī Kṛpāvanākārī. Bhāṇākarī, Dhanapūrṇeśvarī, Nānāratna Vicitra Bhūṣaṇākarī, Hemāmbarā Ḍambarī, Muktāhāra Vilamba Mānavilāsad, Bhojāñca Kumbhāntarī, Kāśmīra Guruvasitā Rucikarī, Kāśī Purādhiśvarī, Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Kṛpāvalambanakarī, Mātānnapūrṇeśvarī Trelokya Rakṣākarī Sarveśvaryā Samastavāñchitakārī Kāśīpurādhīśvarī Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Kṛpāvalambanakārī Mātānnapūrṇeśvarī Gaurī Umā Śaṅkarī Kaumārī Nigamārtha Gauchar Karī Auṁkārābhijākṣarī Mokṣa Dvārakā Pāṭ Pāṭan Karī Kāśī Purā Dhīśvarī Bhikṣām Dehī Kṛpāvalambhan Karī Mātānnapūrṇeśvarī Drasya Drasya Prabhūta Vāhan Karī Brahmāṇḍa Bhāṇḍodarī Vijñānādi Paṅkuri Śrī Viśveśa Mana Prasādana Karī Kāśī Purādhīśvarī Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Gṛpa Avalambana Karī Mātā Anna Pūrṇeśvarī Urvī Sarvajaneśvarī Bhagavatī Kāma Kāṅkṣā Kārī Janodaya Kārī Kāśī Purādhīśvarī Mātā Anyā Pūrṇeśvarī Bhagavatī Kṛpālambanī Devī Sarvavicitra Ratnaracitā Dākṣāyaṇī Sundarī Kṣatrā Drana Karī, Mahābhaya Karī, Mātā Kṛpā Sāgarī, Sākṣān Mokṣa Karī, Sadāśiva Karī, Viśveśvarī Śrī Dhārī, Dakṣa Krandha Karī, Nirāmaya Karī, Kāśī Purādhīśvarī, Bhikṣām Dehi Kṛpāvalam Manakarī, Mātā Annapūrṇeśvarī, Annapūrṇī, Sadāpūrṇī, Śaṅkara Prāṇavallave Kanyāve rāga siddhārtham, bhikṣāṃ dehī ca pārvatī, mātā ca pārvatī devī, pitā devo maheśvaram, bāndhavāḥ śiva bhaktāś ca, svadeśo bhuvanatrayam. This was one of the chants which we sing. This was one of the old chants. And before ending, we will sing one mantra for peace, for ourselves, for the world, for everyone around us, all insects, creatures, plants, everyone. Rub both hands together. Rub the warm hands on your eyes and on your face. Feel the warmth entering your face and going through the whole body. And slowly open your eyes. Feel slightly more peaceful than before. When we come to lectures like this or talks, it is not like we are jumping and diving into something. It is an experiment: how you feel. We do not need to think about anything or imagine anything; just close our eyes and go within and focus on our breath. That is enough for a slight inner peace. So the peace which we are looking for is not outside; it is inside us. We go more within, we look for that peace, and we will find it. It was always there. From our own problems, which we will solve. So let us now try not to go too much into the past, not to go too much into the future, but be now in the present. It does not matter if we are working, eating, playing, sleeping, whatever. Be more aware about what we are saying, what comes out of our mouth. If possible, try a little bit of meditation: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes a day. Tak utíkejte. So let us not differentiate ourselves with religion, with caste, with race, with this, with that. Let us all unite and become one beautiful humanitarian family. In any way possible, in the tiniest way, if we can help someone, we should. Because it is said, sevā dharma, parama dharma, which means service is the highest dharma, is the highest virtue. So if we can serve anyone in any way—giving them water, food, helping each other, helping our family, helping ourselves—that is good enough. I wish for all of us to be happy, to be healthy, to be blessed. Sat Gurudev Bhagwān Kī Jai.