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Part 1: The Spiritual New Year: Understanding Guru Pūrṇimā Hari Om. Hari Om, dear friends, here in the hall and on webcast. We have Guru Pūrṇimā very soon. But we always have a problem with Guru Pūrṇimā. We do not know how and when to celebrate it. Tomorrow is Guru Pūrṇimā, but today in Jadan Ashram there was a big satsaṅg, and I think it is still running, though perhaps not as much on the webcast. You might wonder how this works. We expect Guru Pūrṇimā to be a big, big festival, yet on the day itself it is not as large as the day before, the evening before, the eve before. But this is the same everywhere. When you celebrate New Year, the big festivity is on the eve. When is Christmas? The eve before Christmas is the big celebration. And the first of January is already the start of depression. It begins with a headache, and we make our New Year saṅkalpa. All the balloons are still there, but no longer full of air; now the air starts to go out, and everything looks like depression. But Guru Pūrṇimā is not like that. Before Guru Pūrṇimā, on the full moon—which is tomorrow—a big satsaṅg begins. The whole night is spent singing bhajans, in satsaṅg, in darśan, and being with Gurudev. Tomorrow morning usually starts with prayer, with the Guru Gītā, with darśan, and everything finishes with the bhaṇḍārā, which means with eating—a great feast. So you need not be confused, thinking, "Today there was a big satsaṅg from Jadan; maybe I missed a day." No, we did not miss a day. Tomorrow, I think around 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon our time, will be the full moon. And Guru Pūrṇimā is the full moon. What this means is that tomorrow is the full moon and Guru Pūrṇimā. For us, Guru Pūrṇimā is a new year—a spiritual new year. I always joke about this because, as you know, I have somewhat strange pictures in my mind, not so holy, but for me they carry good symbolism. You know, when you have a dog, every year dogs should get vaccinated against rabies. They receive a collar—not a collar, but a badge—so that people who collect homeless dogs know, "Oh yes, this is a dog with a home and with vaccination." And Swāmījī said that the human is the most dangerous animal on the earth. We also have diseases, something like rabies. Only the ṛṣis and gurus know this, and all the time they try to give vaccination to disciples and to people. That vaccination comes in the form of religion or in the form of satsaṅg. And we need that kind of vaccination all the time. For me, it is very similar to the book The Island of Dr. Moreau. In that story, a scientist transforms animals into humans. All the time, he must give injections—constantly he needs to give injections—to maintain that transformation from animal to human. And that is the satsaṅg. That is the dharma. Without dharma, without satsaṅg, a human being very easily reverts to being a very dangerous animal. Why a very dangerous animal? Because we have intellect. And no animal is as cruel as a human. No animal does to its own kind the things that humans do to humans. I joke that yoga is very near to quantum physics. Time, space—who cares about these? If we are here in Strilky and Swamiji is in India, no problem. You close your eyes and you are with your Gurudev. You are not in India; you may be anywhere you want. Where is your secret place, and you are with Gurujī? There is no problem with language. "Oh, I do not know Hindi, I do not know English." And that is the relationship between guru and disciple. Second, how to make pūjā? It is very important to know how to perform pūjā properly. For that, pundits study for years and years and years, and it is very important to do it in the proper way. I will tell you one anecdote. At one Kumbha Melā in Haridvār, Swāmījī visited Pilot Bābā. Swāmījī went to see Pilot Bābā and entered a room. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar Gyāneśvarjī, Swāmī Ānandī, and I remained outside. We were talking and waiting near the Yagya Shala, the place where the yagya is performed. At that time, there were—I do not know how many—fires burning. The disciples of Pilot Baba, at that time mostly from Russia and Ukraine, were performing some yagyas, learning how to do them or actually performing them. We did not mention this, but we started to talk, and at one moment we became very nervous. All three of us felt something in the stomach, something almost negative, and we simply walked fifty meters away. And everything calmed down. Never, never play with yagyas and with all this stuff. I also know some people in the past from Zagreb. They bought some books, made a fire, and started chanting "Om Svāhā" and doing something. That is playing, but it is not just a childish game—it shows no respect. And we do not do it in the proper way. Why play with such things? But when you do pūjā to your guru, in front of the altar, and you take the thālī and perform the ritual, in that moment it is not important that you be in fear—"Oh yes, five times, three times, who comes first, who comes second"—and you freeze, wondering what to do. There is your mother and father. And when you do this, your father and mother will be very happy with anything that you do. Because of that, we are happy—the luckiest ones—because when we perform guru pūjā or anything like this, we do not need to be in fear or tension, wondering whether we are doing it right or not. The only important thing is that you do it with love, with respect, and that it is clean. That is what matters. Everything else is not important. And imagine, visualize that you are with your guru. You bow down. You have this relationship, you have darśana. And just give everything to your Gurudev. We are one hundred percent sure that we did something not right this year—something that was not right. Just give that and ask for purification. And what does purification mean? It means that you receive knowledge and strength to change this in the future. And everything that you did positively, give like a present, like a flower—jako květinu. And it will be good to make a saṅkalpa. That is why I am speaking now. Prepare, think it over during the night: what will be my saṅkalpa? Try not to make a saṅkalpa like, "Every day I will meditate 57 mālās." Because we may do that the first day. But after two or three days, when the holidays are over and we start to work, we will perhaps do only one. Because of that, it is very important to have a saṅkalpa that is not so big. Small. Something that is possible to achieve—easy, but plus half a percent. In that way, we will also strengthen our willpower. But every time we decide something that is much more than we are able to do, we weaken our will. And have this mānasik pūjā—bow down, make your saṅkalpa, your decision for the next spiritual year. And imagine, as in many meditations that Swamiji would lead, he often mentioned that you feel the hands of Mahāprabhujī on your head, and you are receiving the blessing. He leads us, He teaches us such meditation. Bow down and feel that you receive a blessing. We spoke in the Guru Gītā, in previous verses, about how Guru Kṛpā is always above us. And not being in the basement means being aware of that energy, that blessing. And that blessing is a spiritual injection against rabies. It is an injection of energy to stay one more year on the path. Because it is not easy to stay. Any project is easy to start. And if you think that the hardest part is starting the project—no, everybody can start a project. But maintaining the project for ten, fifteen, twenty years, a hundred, who knows—that is something. And we are asking for blessing. And perhaps it is the highest prayer: "Please give me blessing, give me strength to remain on my spiritual path." That alone is important. And if we stay—if we stay with our practice, with our Guru Bhakti and transforming, inner transformation, inner evolution—in the end we will come to where our aim is. And when we stay with the inner bhakti, with the inner power on this path, and we persevere, we will reach the goal. Of course, on Pūrṇimā it is always good to fast. And why is it also Guru Pūrṇimā? There are many explanations about Guru Pūrṇimā. One explanation is that on that day, for the first time, the light of the sun touched the earth. But you know that I always prefer to understand the story behind the story. What is the reality? What does the symbol say about reality? I will not talk about the Viṣṇu Avatār who took the earth out of the water, and the first time light came to the earth. That story I will not tell. So I will not tell the story that Viṣṇu took the earth out of the water, and that it was the first day when the earth touched the sun. But what does the sun mean? When we talk about Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā, we talk about Sūrya and Chandra. Sūrya is the consciousness, and the Moon is the mind. It is very nice to explain. The moon does not have its own light. The moon only reflects the sunlight. What this means is that the mind is only a reflection of the consciousness. We will talk later about this. And when it is the full moon, it means that our mind is completely purified, and it is able to completely reflect the divine consciousness. Because of that, we pay attention to the full moon—pūrṇimā, that is the pūrṇimā, full. And our mind is like the moon, always changing. Sometimes high, sometimes low. And because of that, it is such a beautiful picture that the moon is connected with the waves—high waves and low waves. And the sun means that divine consciousness. And when that consciousness comes to the earth, that is one explanation of Guru Pūrṇimā. Second, we say that it is Ved Vyāsa Pūrṇimā, Ved Vyāsa's birthday. And Ved Vyāsa—we speak of Vyāsa, the compiler. But when we say Vedavyāsa, it means Vedavyāsa, who wrote down the Vedas. Yesterday, there was a question about other planets and Guru—Guru and other planets. Somebody many years ago asked Swāmījī about aliens. And he said, "In this life, you do not have karma with aliens." But we also know that Swāmījī many times said—and I think this is also in the old scriptures for yoga teachers—one sentence. And I always joke with professors from the Indology department. And I know that in the audience I have some professor from Indology. I always say that the difference between the yoga approach and the Indology approach is about one zero. Let us say 5,000 years—we will add one zero. And Swāmījī said that the Vedas have been on the planet Earth for at least 2,000 years. I have already said that the Vedas have been here on the planet Earth for at least 2,000 years. But also, when you remember what Swāmījī talked about at the beginning of the Vedas, you know that—maybe Swami Parvatī will tell exactly that sentence. I never remember numbers too well. There are thousands and thousands of suns in this endless universe, and thousands and thousands of planets. And in that universe is Parameśvara. But for this solar system, we call him Īśvara. And when we talk about Vedavyāsa, Vedavyāsa did not invent the Vedas, but he put them down on paper—not he, but Gaṇeśjī, and you mostly visit the cave where Gaṇeśjī wrote, yes? Bhadrīnātham, a little up. Okay. And what does that mean? For each Veda—you know how that came about—a ṛṣi was meditating. And in meditation came the Veda, the knowledge. They said two things: that through the Gāyatrī Mantra, the ṛṣis received the Vedas. Or also, we say that the Gāyatrī Mantra is the essence of the Vedas, and when you chant the Gāyatrī Mantra, it is as beneficial as chanting all four Vedas. And we will now talk about how the Guru Tattva appears only on the planet Earth. That is, knowledge is only reserved for planet Earth. I heard from one—I do not know—one very high dignitary in the Catholic Church speaking about aliens. And he said, "Yes, if aliens come to the earth, we will teach them knowledge—how to say—to receive the knowledge of Jesus." Because they think that nowhere in the universe is there such a teaching, only on the earth. That is the mistake. Okay, and light—this cosmic consciousness touched the earth. It means also Guru Pūrṇimā. Ved Vyāsa, the birthday of Ved Vyāsa, is also Guru Pūrṇimā, and everything is connected with the earth. That is Guru Pūrṇimā. And it is not only connected with your Guru and your Paramparā. Guru Pūrṇimā is connected with all Gurus, the holy persons who were on the planet and who will be on the planet. But I will go one step further—not only on this planet. If there is life on other planets, then on that planet too the Guru Tattva exists. And it is not reserved only for Earth, but everywhere where there is consciousness, there is also Guru Tattva. And on Guru Pūrṇimā, you bow down, you pay respect to all gurus everywhere in the universe. And as I said, we receive blessing and protection for the next year. And because of that, he always said that the luckiest one is he who is with his guru on the day of Guru Pūrṇimā. "Oh, we are not the lucky ones, we are struggling." Or you who are watching Swamiji TV: "Oh, I am at home." No, when you close your eyes—or maybe with open eyes, it is no problem—when you think of your Gurudeva, you are with your Gurudev. Whether he is here or has passed away, Mahāsamādhi, it does not matter. And also, I will say—when you read, for example, the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, in the beginning of the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, the book of Haṭha Yoga, a book about yoga, about āsanas, and so on—the first part is not repeating, but addressing, from beginning to end. And I will speak in our modern language. You know that everything is on the cloud. Part 2: The Ākāśa and the Path of the Yogi Everything is on the cloud. Your information, your emails, your books—everything is on the cloud. You simply need to put in some link or something like that, and you are connecting with that book. This is not something new. We will talk about collective conscience. But in India, we talk about Ākāśa—this scripture, as it is called in English. Everything is written in the Ākāśa. All knowledge is in the Ākāśa. And nothing you invent; you only need a good machine, with good connection, internet, and also to connect with that knowledge. And we will gain that knowledge. And to get good connection—internet connection—with this Ākāśa means also that we purify our mind. Not only identify ourselves with our thoughts, with ego, etc. Go a step beyond that. And when you think of your guru, you are immediately linked, connected to your guru. Is this modern language easier for you or not? Because every day, you are doing this. Even when you do something for fellowship, you must go to the cloud. Everything is connected with that cloud. And also, in the āsanas of Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, we have names of āsanas based on animals. Why? Not because it looks like a snake. When you saw a snake with the hands—okay, Mayūrāsana, peacock, etc. But we practice āsanas, and āsanas have the name of the animal. Swāmījī said nicely, because you are purifying the karma from a past life. But okay, think another way. What is connected with the cobra? Aggressivity. They want revenge. And etc. But that is also all the quality of the Svādhiṣṭhāna—the negative quality of the Svādhiṣṭhāna. And when you are doing such a position, you are purifying that quality, or un-quality, we will say. Because of that, its name is Bhujaṅgāsana. Peacock, Mayūrāsana. Mayūrāsana, peacock, is connected as a symbol of Śiva. Why? Because it is a symbol of Śiva. He has a blue neck, and Śiva is called Nīlakaṇṭha Mahādeva. But why did Śiva have a blue neck? Remember Mahāśivarātri? He drank the poison. And he made Ujjāyī Prāṇāyām, Jālandhar Bandha, and purified with Viśuddhi Chakra that poison. And remained only Amṛit. And what do peacocks also eat? Cobras. Why do you think that people like to have peacocks around the village and in the āśram? In Kāthu Āśram, I always joke with the Mātājī, "Oh, your chicken makes so much noise in the morning," and she was, "It's not a chicken, it is a peacock." Nicely, three o'clock, you sleep on the roof in the Kātu Āśram. Just the temperature starts to be okay. That is my experience with the peacock. I joke. But why peacock? Because the peacock is able to eat the cobra. And the cobra is the poison, and he purifies that poison. And that is the symbol of Śiva. But also, when you practice Mayūrāsana, you press Maṇipūra Chakra. You are in the position, you have influence on your Maṇipūra Chakra, and your Maṇipūra Chakra will be so strong that you will be able to eat poison. We will not be like poor yogīs—oh, if I eat this, I will have problem with digestion, five days, I can't meditate, I have problem with the food. That is the weakness. Remember one story. I always tell this story, because of that I will be short. About two rākṣasas. They play games with poor people: one took the form of food, and the other took the form of the householder. And when some travelers passed near the house, the householder said, "Oh, please come eat." And when a guest was at the householder's house—not vomiting, not diarrhea, but from the stomach, a lot of blood, everything, killing people. That is the joy of the rākṣasa. And for that, he heard one yogī. And he also started to play a game. He played that he is stupid. I don't know anything, I am just a traveler. And the householder, the rākṣasa, invited him into the house. And he ate everything, and that rākṣasa was so happy. Oh my God, it will be a fountain of joy for him. And he called his brother, "Come out." And the yogī said, "Stay where you are." And Haryaṃ. Haryaṃ. That means be a Haṭha Yogī. To have such a fire that you eat a rākṣasa. And what means rākṣasa? Microplasty. Třeba microplasty. And all other poison in the food. Of course, you will not drink pesticide, but you will not be obsessed with this. And our Maṇipūra Chakra, our jaṭharāgni, will be so strong that we will be able to dissolve this. That means yogī. And our Maṇipūra Chakra will be so strong that it will be able to deal with it. That means to be a yogī. That is the idea of how to practice. Not to be weak, but be strong. Strong fire. When you practice Kaśyapāsana, Kaśyapa's pose—in that moment, it's a very easy āsana, yes? In that moment, you are also linked to the Kāśyapa Ṛṣi. And from that Ākāśa, you got some of the quality, positive quality. When you think of your guru deva, you are connected with his consciousness. But when we talk about guru, it is not his or her conscience. But guru is not the body. For us, for our benefit, like in the prayer, what we said—for benefit, for blessing, mercy for your bhaktas, you took the physical form. And because of that, never think, oh, it was how many years ago Mahāprabhujī was here. No. You think of Mahāprabhujī, you have a picture of Mahāprabhujī in your Chidākāśa or in your Hṛdayākāśa, and you are connected. If you think of this stupid spirituality, talks about stupid things, it is not true. He took one popular book, that is not completely a science book, but based on science. The book is called The Field. And inside, you will find exactly what yoga talks about when you think about the Self. Think about your Gurudev. What it means is that it's not only our imagination, but there are also others who are very skeptical, talking about the same thing. And for us, Guru Pūrṇimā is the highest festival. He will set our spiritual new year. We have a few minutes more, and I will continue. Do not save your body, and think that you are this body, and you are so obsessed with your body. Because this body is just a bag full of blood, skin, bones, and all other not so nice things. In the original, it is much worse than what is in English. It is full of worms, etc., etc. And that body will, in the end, become only ashes. Because of that, just dedicate to Guru Dev. Once, the same thing was given in a satsaṅg by Buddha, they said. And in one village, he explained and said to disciples, "Your body is just a bag full of blood, shit, and etc." Because you try to be polite, yes? That is the problem with my English. Sometimes I can't be polite. This body is a problem because we, in the first, identify ourselves with the body. And look nowadays, what is the culture? Everything is about the body. Everything is according to your body. How many plastics—not microplastics, but other plastics—do you put in yourself because of the body? How many, what Swāmījī said, nakrā? And you know how nicely Swāmījī imitates a person in front of the mirror. And that is no longer the physical body. That is the project. I know, really I know, how many times—not how many times, but how much time—not only women, but people, women and men, took for making that project of my body. Pumping muscles. To have nice buttock muscles, to have these muscles, and I admire those people, every day, how many hours they dedicate to the body, exactly knowing how many calories, preparing food in Tupperware. Beauty of the body becomes a new religion. But always was the same. And if you read all books, historical books, in this you will see that also in every age people were obsessed with the body. And this śloka wants to tell you, you are not this body. In the end, you will suffer. You know how many women and guys try to stop the aging process. It is especially nowadays, but you can't win this battle. In the end, we will lose this battle. And in the end, our body will become just ash. And because of that, do not identify yourself with this body. And that Buddha tried to explain to his disciples in one village. And he went from that village, and he walked. And in one moment, one person from the village starts to run to him. Master, master, please stop, stop. And suddenly, a man came out of the village and asked, "Master, stop, wait." And he said, "OK, what happens? What is so hurry?" And he said, your disciple in the village starts to, with the knife, something like harakiri, yes. He is knife and injuring himself and talking, oh, I am just the bag of the blood and bones, I am not this, and start with the knife. Not only one, the whole village. And Buddha immediately came back and gave a blessing to stop all this bleeding, etc. And give another lecture. Look, yes, your body is dead. But what Swāmījī usually said, body is not everything, but without body now you are nobody, and with body try to understand that our body is your vehicle, your car, and if you want to come from point A to point B, you need to have a car. And our car should be in good condition. With the petals, everything should be good. And we will be able to come from point A to point B. But if you become obsessed with your car—you know, people who are obsessed with the car, half their life is polishing. And all the time is in the fear, who is parking the car? No, no, near me, or weather or rain. Even I heard that somebody, when this ice started coming down, he lay on the car to protect the car from that, and he got injured. And that is the difference. To know that you need care, this body, and you will take care of this car, and also you will try with this car to do something good. On the tree of saṃsāra, people are climbing on the tree of saṃsāra, but they will just fall down and go down to hell, but not thinking the religious way about hell. But we are divided into three parts. From toe to tailbone, hip joint—mineral, plant, animal chakras. We can say, what means the level of consciousness of the animal, and that down is called the hell. Patañjali, you have also in the hidden power of human name of these seven chakras. Why? Why is there hell? Because that is the fear. Enjoying the killing and so on, and mostly that uncertainty and fear. And the mercy of the Guru is saving the person. I bow down, I greet him with my love. And mercy, mercy means knowledge. It means that he opens our eyes. Guru Brahmā, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Maheśvarānanda. You know this śloka? And we explained this śloka a few days ago. And you know also, here, the man is blind. Because of the darkness of ignorance. And the guru, with the mercy and like putting the ointment on eyes, is just removing that darkness of ignorance. Oh, please, wake up, wake me from the dream of this world, of this saṃsāra. And now is one very nice śloka, what we know when we are singing, or Tvameva Mātā. You are my mother, you are my father, you are my relatives. Oh, you are my God. But when you said, you are my mother. Mother gives birth to you, and mother is feeding you. And you know that normal people have mother and father, but when you go to spirituality—visit her Gurujī, and he asked, "How old are you?" And she told, "20 years, and your husband? Five years, your mother-in-law? One year. And your father-in-law?" "Oh, he's not even born yet." And everybody in the family knows that Mīrābāī is not completely—for them, standard, normal. And father-in-law asks my daughter, "We know that you have little problems, but how can you say that your mother-in-law has only one year, and I am not even born?" And she explained, "Yes, father, my mother-in-law a year ago got a mantra, and you still didn't start with the spirituality." Gurujī also talked about this, not so nice language, maybe somebody will be hurt. He said, when we got the mantra, we become a human. But means when we start with spirituality, when you try to find something more than only this body. When we start with spirituality and try to find something more than just this body, we focus on something more. And your mother gives you birth. Guru gives you spiritual birth. Father gives discipline. Relatives, so here we said brother, is your, like, in English, like your ancestor. Ancestors are your, what is it? Ancestors. Yes. Oh, please, wake up. Yes, and the Guru, where I sit, you are my mother. Yes, okay. And the Guru is not only mother, father, relatives, brother; he is the divine cosmic self. Please wake me up from this dream of saṃsāra. I bow down with love. The world is existing only because you are existing. And all this world is lightened with your light. It means the same as what I said about the moon: the moon doesn't have its own light, but it is reflecting the light of the sun. And Guru Tattva is that divine cosmic light, knowledge, conscience. The sun is giving the light only through you. The sun is giving you light. And one very important also for our meditation and everything, the whole, to whole living life, you are giving the conscience, but you are above this conscience. But you are above this awareness. What does that mean? Sat Chit. And that is what we are trying in the meditation. Be an observer. Observe our thoughts, observe our feelings. In the dream, or in the vacant state, or in a state when we are not dreaming, but we are sleeping without knowing that we are alive. That is when we said, "I am awake, I am dreaming, and I am..." When you woke up, I was sleeping, but without a dream. That witness of thoughts, witness of your dreams, witness of being aware, that is that cosmic conscience. And we need to know that without paper, it's impossible to have any picture. Only oil. Not your thoughts, not clouds, but sky. And in that moment, start real meditation. And that is that divine cosmic self, that is the guru, that is that highest, and that is our aim to accomplish, to come to that, to merge with the.