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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 10 to 15 years. It is a protected area, like a national heritage, a beautiful and peaceful forest, free from the sounds, noise, and pollution of what we call civilization. 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 and 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 responsible one is the best way to clear things up in your life. Then there is additional guidance and support, which is always in your favor. But for that, you have to work and practice. Yesterday, we spoke about 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. Do not step out of the bed. Do not turn to the right or left. But just when you wake up and know you are awakened, you say, "Aum Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ." Try this every day, and you will see the result—not only for one day, week, or month. This should become a part of your awakening mantra. You know the mantra by heart and its translation. The OM is the universe. OM is a universal sound, the resonance of the entire universe. All creation takes place through this OM. All elements, all stars, all solar systems, all planets, all that is visible and invisible, is manifested by one resonance or sound called Aum. So, whether you believe or not, there are certain things you need not believe; they simply are. When the sun rises, you may believe it is not, but the sun is already there. Do not create cultural or religious conflict in your mind. Nothing is higher than the OM, and it will give you success and happiness. Oṁ Śrī. Śrī means wealth—both material and spiritual wealth. Śrī means beauty, harmony, and success. This Śrī is very important; it is a mantra with spiritual energies streaming through it. Oṁ Śrī, and then Gaṇeśa Namaḥ. 'Gaṇ' means all the spiritual elements: all of Śiva's helpers, devotees, all incarnations, all gods. And 'Īśvara' is God, the almighty. There is nothing higher than that. It is like the highest mountain on this planet, Mount Everest in the Himalayas. If you try to climb it without proper conditions, you will find your eternal rest. 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—the Supreme, the divine force ruling everything. It is everywhere; all exists in Him, but He has no form. You cannot touch, smell, or see Him, but He is. Nothing is higher than that, Brahman. So, Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ. How beautiful is this mantra? When you wake up, you say, "Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśa." It would be best to have an image of Gaṇeśa in your sleeping room where you open your eyes and see Him. Mostly, they put it on the door of your house, the entrance, so when you come home, you see Gaṇeśa. This means Gaṇeśa is like a protecting wall; no negative energy will enter through this door into your house. That is Gaṇeśa. Try to practice this, and you will see how your life becomes comfortable. When you wake up and remember, after saying "Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśa Namaḥ," 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," that is all. So when you know you will stand up, you say another beautiful mantra: "Mātṛ Devo Bhava"—mother is God. 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. Protect me so that I do not commit any sin. It is a beautiful feeling: "Mātṛ Devo Bhava." So, "Oṁ Śrī Gaṇeśāya Namaḥ," and then your mantra, and then you step. After, you go to touch the water. Do you know what the water element means? Did you ever say, "God, thank you," when you touched water? It is something beautiful. Therefore, when you wash yourself, you can repeat your mantra, like doing an 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 Gaṅgā landed on the head of Śiva. When she came from Brahmaloka with such force that the earth would have exploded, she did not know where to land. Everyone was worried, so Śiva said, "She can land on my head." Śiva is the protector of the entire planet. When the time of the churning of the ocean came, the poison arose, and no one 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 Mother Gaṅgā was called to this planet to take sin away, she came with such force no one could hold it. So it was Śiva who held it. Gaṅgā landed gently, very softly, and began to flow. So wherever you see a waterfall, no matter in which country or mountains, you can imagine it is Gaṅgājī flowing through Śiva's hair. It is not rocks, trees, roots, or grass; it is the embodiment of Śiva. 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," and then you will not feel too cold or too hot. These are the things which help the human psyche to accept. Then, automatically, problems will be solved. These teachings are from thousands and thousands of years, many yugas. We trust and believe them; they are from the beginning of the universe, not just from yesterday. How beautifully your day begins. Only these two or three things can make your life very easy, beautiful, comfortable, and without any fear. Your protection is there. So, "hara hara gaṅgāye." You remember who was in the Kumbh Melā? We had flags in our hands, walking with many sādhus and people. And what did they say? "Har Har Gaṅgā." 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. What happens? It protects us from doing wrong things. You will say, "Well, I am a devotee, a follower. I accepted this. How can I do wrong things? How can I do something wrong to my Mother Earth?" We are born on this earth, we live on it, and we will die on it. We are under the protection of this Mother Earth. How beautiful this mother is. How can we make her dirty, pollute her, or do something wrong to our mother? All the trees give us good oxygen, fruits, shade, 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. Even God, when He incarnates on this planet, has to come to the mother. There is no way to go anywhere; He has to come to the mother. And so it is with 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, sit, live, are born, and where we will again go into her lap to rest? With such feelings, when you go out of your door, you say the mantra: "Tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt," and then "Jaya," and you go. Now, you see people outside your house. What thinking should you have? A very nice, beautiful mantra is given by the ṛṣis: "All should be happy." What a great thought! If you wish: "Sarve sukhino bhavantu, sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ." When you wish that all should be happy, how could you do something that will make someone unhappy? Then you cannot make anyone unhappy. If you do, it is against your principle. It means you did not do what you said; you have forgotten your words. With this kind of feeling, when you move in the world with your thoughts, you have a beautiful radiance. "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ"—beautiful. All should be happy. Like this, there are certain things a human should do. These are the spiritual instructions, the spiritual laws, the spiritual guidance. 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 light a ghī-lamp, an agarbatī. You may say your prayer, your pūjā. This pūjā you are doing for yourself. The altar is just an object where you can put your feelings because, in reality, we need to be able to love someone. We do not always accept that someone will love us. There are many who love us, but we need someone whose love will never be rejected, a love without conditions—always acceptance, no rejection. That is God. That is your altar. Whatever beautiful things you put there are yours, giving you a beautiful vision. You look at something beautiful, not sadness, not a frightening picture, 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, your whole day is happy. So you do your prayer. This gentle agarbatī is to have good air and a good smell in the room. A ghee lamp is most advisable, or very pure oil from seeds. Out of all these seeds, sesame oil is the best. When sesame oil burns with a flame, it has a healing process. Some people use a tree gum instead of agarbatī. And then you have breakfast. Do you know what it means to have breakfast? We eat for living; we do not live just for eating. In our breakfast, with our fruit, we again thank Mother Earth that she gave us this something fresh. That is something great. Unfortunately, we often do not have fresh milk; our milk is only two or three days old. We do not know how long it was in the dairy, from which cow it came, how that cow was treated, or what chemicals it got. In modern technology, everything is possible. Therefore, always eat fresh milk, the best milk, which is the milk we should drink. That was the mother's milk that was directly fresh, and that is why it remained in our body and stayed with us afterwards. That is why many people do not drink milk afterwards, though that is a different subject. So, whatever you have—fresh fruits, fresh grain (what people nowadays call cereal with yogurt or milk, some fruits and nuts inside)—this is the best breakfast. Or freshly made chapati. Old bread, old butter, old cheese—all are tāmasik. We like cheese, but it is tāmasik. But I must say it also depends on the climate. In cold climates, nourishment does not get spoiled quickly, so we have to compromise with the climate, dish, and car. That is very important. So again, we thank the mother. That is why we say in the eating prayer, "Ānāpūrṇe sadāpūrṇe." Ānāpūrṇā is the goddess of nourishment. 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 cannot feed yourself. It is someone who is giving you food, giving you good health, who gave you the mouth, who is working through your elementary channel, and who is working in your intestines to digest. Do you know who you are? Even you cannot feed yourself. So, oh human, do not be arrogant; do not 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 beggars. So it is that, Mother. Annapūrṇā, Goddess of nourishment, where she is, there is everything, and where she is, there will ever and ever be enough. Therefore, oh Divine Mother, give me something to eat—for what? Not so I can fight someone, no. Not so I can show my muscles, how big I am. Not so I learn something to characterize this and that. No. "Jñāna vairāgya siddhārtham." To have the knowledge, right knowledge, wisdom—ātmā jñāna—and vairāgya, detachment. That I am generous, I can renounce, I can give, and I am not attached. I am not suffering. That I do not take away from someone. Mother, give me to give. Do not give me that which I take away from someone. "Jñāna vairāgyī Siddhārtham bhikṣām dehi" ... "O, Mother Pārvatī, please give." Bhikṣā means alms. That is why, you know, there are some monks called bhikṣuk, who live from alms. 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, a part of spiritual practice. Unless you do not understand this, you will not fulfill your spiritual sādhanā. The system in European countries—what they call the ashram system, the monasteries—they were also living from food people gave them. They went for alms. You have heard also of Holy Francis of Assisi, who went for alms. It is said if you can get a small piece of bread or chapati from the pot of that monk, that sādhu, you are blessed. Sometimes, people stand in a queue to get something from that pot because that pot is not from this person, but is a part of the Divine. That Divine Mother gave it. You got a direct Mahāprasād; one should know the value of this. But now, slowly, people have lost these values. There was a time when people waited, hoping someone would come to their door to ask for something. On the day when no śramaṇa monk came, they were unhappy. "God, what have I done wrong? Why didn't you come to our door?" They did not see that person as a beggar; they saw 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. 'Choli' means the bag which these sādhus carry to take their bhikṣā inside. You will be remembered and blessed for centuries and centuries. You should know that someone is standing in front of you, and God gave you the means to give. You never know in which time, how, or 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 lucky; they just take even one coin or anything. Give when a needy person is sitting there. If you can give some cents, half a euro, or one dollar, you will not lose your entire wealth. It is just nothing for you, and for others, it is something. But for you, the return is beyond a lot, because God will give you millions of times more than this. Your hands cannot move until mercy and love come into your heart. 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 a needy person sitting somewhere whom you can help. People go to certain restaurants and spend so much money, and then give a tip, some bakhśīṣ, to show their friends they are generous—giving twenty dollars instead of two. But when they come outside the restaurant, sit in their expensive car, and somebody is standing there, they just close the window and say, "My God, these beggars," and drive quickly. The red light is there. "Good morning, sir, your license, your ID. You were driving too quick, so $300 fine." Do you know why you got the fine? Because you were not able to give one dollar to that one. If you had opened your window, taken the money, given it to him, and closed the window, you would have gone. In that much time, the policeman would have been occupied with somebody else, and you would have gone. So, you know, in the wrong place, we give a lot of money, and in the right place, we do not give. That means: be generous, be good. If you give someone something, you will not become poor. But, of course, you should know to whom. There are some who only need to take, but we should know who needs to eat, who needs to have cloth. That is called a needy person. Otherwise, it is said everyone admires and helps the one who is strong. No one is for the poor one. Like the wind can blow out a flame, but the same wind can make a small fire spark into a big, big fire. That is 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, at eleven o'clock in the evening, I was parking my car. I had been driving round and round for forty minutes; there was no parking place. I parked somewhere, half official, half not official. Then a man came and helped me with parking. I said, "Thank you," and gave him twenty shillings. He was very thankful and 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, are thankful to you. We say if one does not say from their own mouth "Thank you"—which we should not expect—their 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, and solve many, many things. Therefore, these are certain instructions given by great saints, great people, to keep our society balanced and relaxed. So do not say there are many beggars. Who is the beggar? A beggar is one who always wants more and more, and rich is one who is satisfied. There are certain people; you do not know what situation they have or what made them come to the street. What they need is kindness from us. So simply be good. In one sentence, simply be good. And your life will begin to change. You will feel a lot of love and friendship. You will be relaxed. Anxiety will disappear; depression will go away because you will feel free and 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. ... Isī Mantra Sajanī."