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Good morning to everybody. Our international retreat seminar begins today in this beautiful country, Hungary, where we have been holding our seminars for the last ten to fifteen years. It is a protected area, like a national heritage, a beautiful and peaceful forest, free from the sounds and noise of what we call civilization—no sound pollution and no factories nearby. We have dedicated these two weeks to our particular interest: "How to Solve the Problems." There are many, many problems: physical, mental, social, political, emotional, and so on. First, we should know that we, our own self, are the creator of the problems. But when we try to blame someone else, we create a double problem for ourselves. If you accept it, if you acknowledge that yes, it is my mistake, then the problem is finished there. At least it will not proceed further. Therefore, to accept within yourself that you are the one responsible is the best way to clear things up in your life. Then there is additional guidance, additional support, which is always in your favor. But for that, you have to work for it. You have to practice. So, one of the things we spoke about yesterday was two great mantras. One was "Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśāya." When you get up early in the morning, when you open your eyes, you should say this. Don't step out of the bed. Don't turn to the right or left. But just when you wake up and know you are awakened, you say, "Aum Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ." Try it every day, and you will see the result—not only for one day, one week, or one month. This should become a part of your awakening mantra. Now you know the mantra by heart, and you know the translation. The OM is the universe. OM is a universal sound. OM is the resonance of the entire universe, and all creation takes place through this OM. All elements, all stars, all solar systems, all the planets, all elements visible and invisible, all are manifested or created by one resonance or sound that is called Aum. So, whether you believe or not, there are certain things you need not believe; it simply is. When the sun rises, you may believe the sun is still not rising, but the sun is already there. So don't create cultural or religious conflict in your mind. Therefore, nothing is higher than the OM, and that will give you success and happiness. So, OM Śrī. Śrī means wealth—physical, material wealth and spiritual wealth. Śrī means beauty. Śrī means harmony. Śrī means success. So this Śrī is very important. It’s a mantra with spiritual energies streaming through and through. Om Śrī, and then Gaṇeśa Namaḥ. Gaṇ means all the spiritual elements: all of Śiva’s helpers, devotees, all the incarnations, all the gods. And Īśvara is God, the almighty. There is nothing higher than that. Let’s say the highest mountain on this planet—which one is it? The Himalayas, Mount Everest. If you try to climb up and you have no proper conditions, then you have Everest. Many people have forever and ever rest there. So, this is the highest one. Similarly, the highest is called Brahman. When we speak about Brahman, he is not a form. He is God without form. There is the Supreme, something which is ruling everything. There is a divine force; it is everywhere. All exists in him, but he has no form. You cannot touch, you cannot smell, you cannot see, but he is. Nothing is higher than that, Brahman. So, "Om Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ." How beautiful is this mantra? So when you wake up, you say, "Om Śrī Gaṇeśa." The best would be to have an image of Gaṇeśa in your sleeping room, where you open your eyes and see him. Also, mostly they put it on the door of your house, the entrance, so when you come home, you see Gaṇeśa. That means Gaṇeśa is like a protecting wall; no negative energy will enter through this door. In your house, no negative energy can come, and that is Gaṇeśa. So, try to practice this. You will see how your life becomes comfortable. So, when you wake up and remember, after saying "Om Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ," then you say your mantra, "Mahāprabhujī Devpurījī Gurudev," and then you step out of your bed. But before you step out, you must say another mantra. This is not creating stress. When you get out of bed, is it stress? No. You think, "Now I will stand up, get up," that’s all. So when you know that you will stand up, then you say another beautiful, beautiful mantra: "Mātṛ Devo Bhava"—mother is God, Mother Earth. It means, "Mother, allow me to step on you. Forgive me and allow me. Mother, lead me to good places. Balance my steps. Mother, may I always walk in the direction of your teachings. Protect me and forgive me that I step on you while standing on you, Mother. Protect me that I don’t do any sin or anything." So, it is a beautiful feeling: "Mātṛ Devo Bhava"—mother is God. So, "Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśāya Namaḥ," and then your mantra, and then you step. After, you go to touch the water, and you know what the water element means. Did you ever say, "God, thank you"? When you have touched the water, did you ever say, "Thank you"? It is something beautiful. Therefore, when you wash yourself, you can repeat your mantra, like doing abhiṣeka. The abhiṣeka mantra, the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra: "Oṃ Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭivardhanam." There is another mantra also, remembering the holy rivers: Sītā, Gaṅgā, Chāchara, Svātī, Sītā, Satya—all these mantras. Or you can say, "Har Har Gaṅgā." This is the Gaṅgā which landed on the head of Śiva. Because when she came from Brahmaloka with such a force, the earth would have exploded. She did not know where to land; all were worried. So Śiva said, "She can land on my head." Now Śiva is the protector of the entire planet. When the time of the churning of the ocean came, the poison arose, and there was no one who could solve this problem. So Śiva took it. Whenever there was a conflict between Asuras and Devas, it was Śiva who solved the problem. And when the Holy Gaṅgā, Holy Mother Gaṅgā, was called to this planet to take the sin away, she came with such a force no one could hold it. So it was Śiva who held it. Śiva landed, the Gaṅgā landed gently, very softly, and began to flow. So wherever you see a waterfall, no matter in which country or which mountains, you can imagine it is Gaṅgājī flowing through Śiva’s hair. It’s not rocks, trees, roots, and grass, but it is the embodiment of Śiva. So the waterfall is Śiva, and Gaṅgājī was blessed and took the energy of Śiva with her. So while taking water on your head, you can say, "Har har Gaṅgā," then you will not feel too cold or too hot. Now, these are the things which help the human psyche to accept. Then automatically the problems will be solved. So these are things from thousands and thousands of years, many, many yugas. So we trust, we believe. We accept from the beginning of the universe, not only from yesterday. These are from ages and ages. So, how beautiful your day begins. Only these two or three things have made your life very easy, beautiful, comfortable, and without any fear. And your protection is there. So, "Hara hara gaṅgāye." You remember who was in Kumbh Melā? We had the flags in our hands, and we were walking, and many, many sādhus and people were walking. And what did they say? "Hara hara gaṅgāye." Śiva and Gaṅgā, the energy of Śiva, the flow of Śiva, the grace of Śiva. So when you touch the water, you should say, "Thank you." You must say, "Thank you, God," accepting. So what happens? It protects us from doing wrong things. And you will say, "Well, I am the devotee, the follower. I accepted this. How can I do wrong things? How can I do something wrong for my Mother Earth?" We are born on this earth, we live on it, and we will die on it. We are the protection of this Mother Earth. So how beautiful this mother is. How can we make dirty, how can we pollute, how can we do something wrong to our mother? And all the trees which give us good oxygen, good fruits, good shadow, flowers, and beautiful aromas—these trees are children of our mother, as well as the birds and other creatures. They are all my brothers and sisters because they are all from this planet, from Mother Earth. Also, even God comes to my mother. Even that Brahman who incarnates on this planet has to come to the mother. There is no way to go anywhere; I have to come to the mother. And so is the Gaṅgā, the rain, the sunlight. Everything is coming here. She doesn’t go anywhere, so we have everything here. She has got everything for us. So, do we understand? Do we value our Mother Earth, where we walk, we sit, we live, we are born, and again we will go into her lap? We will rest in her lap. So, with such feelings, when you go out of your door, then you say the mantra: "Tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt," and then, "Jaya," and you go. Now, you see the people outside of your house. What thinking should you have? A very nice, beautiful mantra is given by the ṛṣis: "All should be happy." What a great thinking! If you wish: "Sarve sukhino bhavantu, sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ." When you wish that all should be happy, then how could you do something that will make someone unhappy? Then you cannot make anyone unhappy. If you do, then it is against your principle. It means you did not do what you said; you have forgotten your words. So with this kind of feeling, when you move in the world in your thoughts, you have a beautiful radiance. "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ"—beautiful. All should be happy. Like this, there are certain things that a human should do. And now it means these are the spiritual instructions, these are the spiritual laws, these are the spiritual guidances. And if you remain within the frame of all these teachings, you will be able to live happy and relaxed, and many problems will go away. Also, after coming from the bathroom, you walk to your altar. You put a ghī-batī, a ghī-lamp, an agarbatī. You may say your prayer, you know, pūjā. And this pūjā you are doing for yourself. The altar is just an object. The altar is an object where you can put your feelings, because in reality we need to love someone. We don't accept that someone will love us. Yeah, there are many who love us, but we need someone whose love will never be rejected. There are never any conditions in it. It’s without conditions—always acceptance, no rejection—and that is God. That’s your altar, and whatever you put, beautiful things, there is yours. That you have a beautiful vision, you look at something beautiful, not a sadness, not a picture with a frightening image, not a picture which reminds you of sorrow. Therefore, we always decorate our altars; we always give the best to our God, our Gurudev, because that reflects and is given back to us. When you see a happy face, then your whole day is happy. So you do your prayer, and this gentle agarbatī is to have good air in the room, a good smell. And a ghee lamp is most advisable, or very pure oil from seeds. That’s very important. Out of all these seeds, the sesame oil seed is the best. The sesame oil, when it’s burning with the flame, has a healing process. That’s very nice. And some people used to have a tree gum instead of the agarbatī. And so then you have breakfast. And you know what it means to have breakfast? We eat for living; we don’t live just for eating. In our breakfast, in our fruit, again we thank Mother that she gave us this, something fresh. That’s something great. Yes, unfortunately, we don’t have fresh milk. Our milk is only two or three days old, and we don’t know how long it was in the dairy, from which cow it came, how that cow was treated, what chemicals it got—nowadays, in this modern technology, everything is possible. Therefore, always eat the fresh milk, the best milk, that is the time till when we should drink. And that was the mother’s milk that was really directly fresh, and that’s why that remained in our body and remained with us afterwards. Is that okay? That’s why many people don’t drink milk afterwards, whereas this subject is different. So, whatever you have—fresh fruits, fresh grain (what nowadays people are calling cereal, with yogurt or with milk, some fruits and nuts inside)—this is the best breakfast. Or fresh-made chapati. Old bread, old butter, old cheese, all is tāmasik. We like the cheese, but it’s tāmasik. But also, I must say it depends on the climate. In cold climates, the nourishment doesn’t get spoiled quickly, so we have to compromise with the climates, dish and car. That’s very important. So again, we thank the mother. And that’s why we said in the eating prayer, "Ānāpūrṇe sadāpūrṇe." Ānāpūrṇā is the goddess of nourishment. And it is said: a little ant gets a small piece, and a big elephant gets nearly 100 kilos. All is provided by one. Who are you that you will feed someone? Even you can’t feed yourself. It is someone who is giving you food. It is someone who is giving you good health. It is someone who gave you the mouth. And it is someone who is working through your elementary channel. And it is someone who is working in your intestines to digest. You know who you are? Even you can’t feed yourself. So, oh human, don’t be arrogant, don’t have ignorance. There is someone who is supplying to everyone. We are the beggars; the giver is God. The giver is only God; all others are the beggars. So it is that, Mother. Annapūrṇā, God of nourishment, who is giving Annapūrṇā—where she is, there is everything, and where she is, there ever and ever will be enough. Therefore, oh Divine Mother, give me something to eat, for what? Not that I can fight someone, no. That I can show my muscles, how big I am? Not that I learn something to characterize this and that. No. "Jñāna vairāgya siddhārtham." To have the knowledge, right knowledge, wisdom—jñāna, ātmā jñāna—and vairāgya, detachment. That I am generous. I can renounce, I can give, and I’m not attached. I’m not suffering. That I don’t take away from someone. Mother, give me to give. Don’t give me that which I take away from someone. "Jñāna vairāgya siddhārtham bhikṣām dehi." O, Mother Pārvatī, please give. Bhikṣā means alms. That’s why, you know, there are some monks called bhikṣuk. They are monks who live from alms. And they are proud of it, and to go for food as a monk and to ask is good for their ego, to get rid of it. It is a part of practice; it is a part of spiritual practice. Unless you don’t get this, you will not fulfill your spiritual sādhanā. The system in European countries—what they call the ashram system, the monasteries—the monasteries also were living from food which people gave them. They went for alms. And you see, and you heard also, Holy Francis of Assisi was also going for alms. And it is said, if you can get a small, even a small piece of bread or chapati from the pot of that monk, that sādhu, you are blessed. Sometimes, people are standing in the queue to get something from that pot, because then this pot is not from this person, but that is a part of the Divine, and that Divine Mother gave in it. You got a direct Mahāprasād; one should know the value of this. But now, slowly, slowly, people lost these values. And there was a time that people were waiting, that someone would come to my door to ask for something. And on the day when no big śramaṇa monk came, they were unhappy. "God, what have you done wrong? Why didn’t you come to our door?" So they don’t see that person as a beggar. They see in them God itself. So it is said in one nice bhajan: On your door, God is standing. O devotee, fill my bag. Put in my part. Cholī means the bag that these sādhus carry, and they take their bhikṣā inside. You will be remembered, and you will be blessed, centuries and centuries. You know? So you should know that someone is standing in front of you. And God gave you to give it. You never know in which time, how, where God can appear in front of you. Maybe he is sitting somewhere as a beggar, and you just ignore and go, but maybe some are the lucky ones. They just take even one coin or anything, and... Give when a needy person is sitting there, and if you can give some cents, half a euro, or one dollar. You don’t lose your entire wealth. You will not lose your whole wealth. It’s just nothing. For you, it is nothing, and for others, it is something. But for others, it is only something, but for you it is beyond, a lot. Because God will give you millions of times more than this. Your hands cannot move until, in your heart, mercy and love come. Therefore, Kabīr Dās Jī said in one bhajan, "Māt kar mohātoṁ hari bhajan ko mānre." In this bhajan, he said, "God gave you the hands to give. God gave you the hands to donate, so give, give, give." That becomes a beautiful ceremonial part of your life. And you know, you are not lucky enough every day to see somewhere some needy person sitting whom you can give to. And you know, people go somewhere to certain restaurants and spend so much money. And then after this also, you give some tip, some bakhśīṣ, to show your friends that you are generous, that instead of giving two dollars, you give twenty dollars. But when you come outside of the restaurant and sit in your expensive car, and somebody is standing there, you just close the window and say, "My God, these beggars," and then you drive quickly. The red light is there. "Good morning, sir," or "Good evening, sir. Your license, your ID. You were driving too quick, so $300 fine." You know why you got the fine? Because you were not able to give one dollar to that one. And if you would have opened your glass, taken the money, given it to him, and then closed the window, you would go. In this much time, that policeman would have been occupied with somebody else, and you go. So, you know, in the wrong place, we give a lot of money, and in the right place, we don’t give. So that means, be generous. Be good. If you give someone something, you will not become poor. But of course, you should know whom. There are some who only need to take it. But we should know that this one needs to eat, this one needs to have a cloth. That’s called a needy person. Otherwise, it is said: everyone is admiring and helping the one who is strong. No one is for the poor one. Like the wind can blow off the flame, but the same wind can make from a small fire spark a big, big fire. That’s it. So this is also a sādhanā for our life: to be generous, to acknowledge, and to help. And you know, that person will remember you. One day in Vienna, evening, eleven o’clock, I was parking my car. Forty minutes I was driving round and round; there was no parking place. And then I parked somewhere, with half official, half not official. And then one man came, and he was helping me more and more with parking. And I said, "Thank you," and I gave him twenty shillings. He was very thankful, and he said, "Don’t worry, sir, I will be the whole night here looking after your car. I know you live here." See, he was happy. So people, needy people, they are thankful to you. And we said, if one doesn’t say from their own mouth, "Thank you"—which we should not expect—but his stomach will say, "Thank you," the hungry stomach. So this is also a part of the ceremonial life, which will make your life easier, comfortable, relaxed, many, many things. Therefore, these are the certain instructions which are given by great saints, great people, to keep our society balanced and relaxed. So don’t say there are many beggars, you know? Who is the beggar? A beggar is one who always wants more and more, and rich is one who is satisfied. So there are certain people; you don’t know what situation they have. What made them come to the street? We don’t know. So what they need is kindness from us. So simply be good. In one sentence, simply be good. And your life begins to change. You will feel a lot of love, friendship. And you will be relaxed. The anxiety will disappear. The depression will go away because you will feel free. You will feel relaxed. You will not feel guilty. So then, after this, you go. And while walking, driving, sitting, working, repeat your mantra. After this, you go for a walk in the middle of the ceremony. "Prabhu Vipa Niranjana, Sabadhukat Manjan. Prabhu Vipa Niranjana, Sabadhukat Manjan. Isī Mantra Sajanī."