Prabhupāda: Yes. They are all western. They have taken to it. They have given up all such habits. In the beginning they were coming to me with their girlfriends, boyfriends. I said, "No, you cannot stay like that." So they agreed. I have got them married personally. They have got children. If you want to live as gṛhastha, live. If you want to live as vānaprastha or as sannyāsa... So generally, young men, young girls, I get them married. There is no harm. Married life, sex life, that is allowed in the śāstra. But not illicit sex. That is not allowed. If one remains sinful, he cannot make any progress of spiritual life. That is not possible. This is bogus, that you remain sinful and at the same time make spiritual progress. That is not possible. Otherwise, why there is distinction of sinful and pious life? You must be pious life. And the basic principle of pious life is this, avoid these four sinful life: illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating. They are sinful life. So one cannot make any progress in spiritual life who is habituated to act sinfully. That is not possible.
M. Roost: I am according, but how to understand, how to measure...?
Prabhupāda: This is plain understanding. Just like physician says that "If you eat these things, then you will not be cured." A physician should straightly speak to the patient, "You should not do this. Then you will be cured." If he does not agree, then he will not be cured. It is like that. If you remain sinful, then you cannot make any spiritual progress of life. That is going on. All the swamis, yogis, and... Don't mind. I have seen. They keep them in the sinful life and talk very, very, big, big words. That will not help. Sinful life must be stopped. Then yoga practice will be successful. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati siddhiḥ. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you are yogi, if you want siddhi, then you must eat and sleep and accept things—yukta. Yukta means "as it is required, not more than that, not less than that." That is yukta. We don't say that you stop. No, we don't say. We give them eatables. We don't say there is no sex life. Sex life is there. But married, simply for begetting children. Otherwise, no sex life. Not for sense gratification. If these things go on... In New York there is a yogi. I do not wish to name his... But in the paper it was published that he was having sex with his disciple. Is it not?
Nitāi: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone knows. What is this? (laughing) Even from moral point of view, a disciple is just like daughter. And this man was having sex life with his disciple. And he's a yogi. Just see. Even he has no moral sense, apart from spiritual knowledge. According to human social constitution, one should not have sex life with daughter, with mother and sister. And what is this? If one has sex life with daughter, then where is the moral life?
M. Roost: I was always interested by Buddhist Zen. I think it's a way, very strong, with a technique which is a little different as yoga. For example, one practical way is les arts martiaux, like aikido, judo, and kendo. I think the approach is very, very interesting, but very difficult to understand.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
M. Roost: It's to go through death by stop one from this sentence that people is afraid of death and is a fast program how to transcend human life, how to transcend la mort.
Guru-gaurāṅga: To transcend death.
M. Roost: How to transcend death. And technically, by practice, kumbha (?), the kumbha, fighting, two persons are fighting, master and disciple...
Prabhupāda: (coughing) Water, little.
M. Roost: To make the problem very, very clear and by fight with arm, sword, is to see what people is able to do in front of the death. Master is coming with an assam, (a sword) and he makes like he will kill the disciple, and disciple must learn to be calm in front of the death. It is so... We can say it's a practice, a psychological practice to...
Prabhupāda: No, why the master will kill the disciple? What is this practice?
M. Roost: No, he don't kill, but he makes like he will kill, but he don't kill. Of course not.
Prabhupāda: That is another...
M. Roost: But it's like a game, we can say, to learn little by little to be the master of our ego, and finally to go through the ego. And I think it's a way, very interesting. But...
Prabhupāda: That is automatically taught in bhakti-yoga. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. It is said, "If you can keep your master pleased, then God will be pleased." Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. And if you make your master displeased, then you are nowhere. These are the teachings of bhakti-yoga. But if the master is such a rascal that if he asks the disciple that "You please me with sex life," then what kind of master he is? Sex life is so strong. In the school, colleges, the teachers having sex life with the students. And yogic process, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, first is saṁyama. Yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, samādhi, like that. This is against this principle of yama, niyama.
M. Roost: Yes, and first is...
Prabhupāda: I know several yogis, so-called yogis in New York. They are having sex life with the female disciples. I know. I do not wish to name them, but I know them personally. So many. They are taking fees and having sex with the disciple and are yogis. Just see. This is going on. Brahmacārī vrate?
Nitāi: Manaḥ saṁyamya mac-cittaḥ.
Prabhupāda: Ah, manaḥ saṁyamya mac-cittaḥ: "Always thinking of Me." Viṣṇu-mūrti or Kṛṣṇa-mūrti. Then?
Nitāi: Yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ.
Prabhupāda: Ah, yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ: "Always thinking of Me." Then?
Nitāi: Yuñjann evaṁ sadātmānaṁ yogī niyata-mānasaḥ.
Prabhupāda: "In this way one who practices yoga..."
Nitāi: Śāntiṁ nirvāṇa-paramām.
Prabhupāda: "Then he gets śāntiṁ nirvāṇa."
Nitāi: Mat-saṁsthām adhigacchati.
Prabhupāda: Mat-saṁsthām. "Then he is promoted to the Brahman effulgence." That means he surpasses the material existence. Then?
Nitāi: Nāty aśnatas tu yogo 'sti.
Prabhupāda: Ah, nāty aśnataḥ. It is not that you should not eat, abstain, no. Eat very little. So?
Nitāi: Na caikāntam anaśnataḥ.
Prabhupāda: Ah. Not to eat more, not to eat less. Whatever will sustain you, you must eat.
Nitāi: Na cāti-svapna-śīlasya.
Prabhupāda: "Neither sleep very deeply nor sleep less." Then?
Nitāi: Jāgrato naiva cārjuna. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya.
Prabhupāda: Yuktāhāra-vihārasya.
Nitāi:
- (yuktāhāra-vihārasya)
- yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu
- yukta-svapnāvabodhasya
- yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā
- yadā viniyataṁ cittam
- ātmany evāvatiṣṭhate
- nispṛhaḥ sarva-kāmebhyo
- yukta ity ucyate tadā
Prabhupāda: These are the actual yoga practice. They are all described in the Bhagavad-gītā. That's all. (end)