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Part 1: The Quest for Eternal Truth: Brahman, Time, and the Illusory World Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī, Devīśvar Mahādev Kī, Dharm Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī, Sanātan Dharma Kī. Good evening to everyone, and blessings of Śrī Mahāprabhujī. Within a single day, we experienced many things: beautiful rain, lightning, thunder, sunshine, swimming, a stunning sunset, and much more. It is said, "Brahma Satyaṁ Jagat Mithyā" — this is a search for truth. What is the ultimate truth? This self, which is a part of the universal self, is searching for the ultimate truth. How do we describe the truth? Truth is eternal, and truth cannot be changed. We speak of manipulation, but you cannot manipulate the truth. Therefore, it is said that evidence will never die, and that truth will never die. That truth is not the kind of truth you tell, such as saying that person was wrong or that was right. Ultimately, that truth is called Brahman. Brahman is that which is everlasting. Brahman is that Divine Consciousness. It is everywhere, in every atom. Everything is created from this Brahman, everything exists in Brahman, and everything will merge again into Brahman. There is a beautiful bhajan from our Satguru Dev, Swāmī Madhavānandajī. In that bhajan, we can see an example of how we come from Brahman, how we will merge again into Brahman, and how we are one with Brahman. This is expressed in that bhajan. Abhāma Gorocharanasi Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Kī Jai. Abhaṁ Guru Caraṇ Sukhapāya. Gurujī said, "Now I realized absolute happiness at the center of Gurudeva." And that is now comparable with Brahman. Sāgara Lahara Samaya — the ocean and the wave. Have you ever seen the ocean? We are sitting on the beach of the ocean. You may call it a coast, but this coast is a ghost of that ocean; it is connected to the ocean. It is the ocean, so you cannot say it is not an ocean. You might call it a sea. Generally, a sea is a sweet water lake, but that is not important. Sāgara is the ocean, and Lahara is the wave. The wave comes out of the ocean; there is no difference between the ocean and the wave. There is no ocean without waves, and no waves without the ocean. The waves are, we can say, the motion, the movements, and that motion we call emotion. So when we are in the motion of emotion, emotion means we are in motion. Sometimes waves are so high that we cannot master them, what we call a stormy sea. Similarly, that emotion sometimes arises from our ignorance. And that ignorance, that emotion is dormant at the bottom of the ocean. At the bottom, it is very peaceful. All waves are on the surface. But when movements take place at the bottom, like a tsunami, and when someone is very angry, very jealous, and very wild, we say, "Oh, tsunami, my God." Thus, this emotion, this ignorance, manifests through our thinking. For instance, some people have conflicts among religions, within European religions or cultures. It involves very small things, but these small things become very bad, very big. I met a man about ten days ago; he was working on the street, with a kind of business selling something. We began to speak, and he asked where I was coming from. I said I was from India. I asked where he was from, and he said, "I am from Kosovo." I replied, "Oh yes, I was many times in ex-Yugoslavia." When I mentioned Croatia and Serbians, he became red. First, when I said I have many friends from Kosovo, he was very happy. But as soon as I mentioned Serbia and Croatia, he became red and said, "They are not for my country. We had a big war." I said, "Yes, I know. But you are very good people. Calm down." You see how the sound, which is nirguṇa, formless, has no form, but when you connect with it, your very deep quality comes out. And that is a problem. Such problems exist only in our mind. They fight about women’s rights, men’s rights, emancipation — this is a problem in the mind. There are many things we need not talk about. This is unreality. What is changing is not reality. Sooner or later, it will change. Maybe after a million years, a billion years, or trillions of years, but it will change. So when this object, which I have in my hand, was created or manifested, the time of its creation — I don’t know when, and you don’t either, but it has its limitation, its age. Anything we can see with our eyes, smell, touch, or hear is limited. All these mountains, the ocean, the earth, the stars, the sun — the age of the sun is written in the Vedas. And we will, in this seminar, speak about this perhaps a little bit. Therefore, what is changing or changeable is not truth. And what is not truth is ignorance. But that ignorance will not last long. If you want to come out of ignorance, you have to make a light in it. The only way out of the darkness of ignorance is the light of knowledge. That light will trace out the evidence. Sooner or later, therefore, this body is not the reality. There is a bhajan of Sūradāsa Jī, a very beautiful bhajan: Bālapana Hasa Khila Gamāyā. When you were a small child, you lost your time playing and laughing. When you became young, then your lover, man or woman, girl or boy, you know, there you become mad, losing the reality. Please don’t be angry, young girls and boys here. Two days ago, there was a dog. Many of you know, that dog was a good house pet, and he was with his master. The dog saw a small child, a two-year-old child. Generally, that dog loved children. But what happened? What kind of thoughts came to the dog’s mind? He attacked. That small child wanted to sit on a toy horse. For the last three days, I have been constantly thinking: why did the dog, who loved children, attack the child? I think in the dog’s mind was a hunting tendency to hunt the animal, and in animal form, the horse was moving, and the child caught it. Maybe the dog didn’t want the child to take it; it was his, and he fought. But when the master tried to pull the dog away from the small child, the master became the victim. The dog was biting and attacking the master. Now, at a certain age, when you are young, your boyfriend or girlfriend is everything. If your mother tells you, "Don’t go," or your father tells you something, inwardly you are attacking them. All young children say, "My parents, they are always against me, and they were always forcing me." So, bhayī javānī, in this youthful age, you became blind with passion, and you lost the time. Now you have become old. Now, even your sweetheart, your wife, doesn’t love you, and she says to you, "Lazy man, get up and go walking with the dog." You know, you have to endure the hard words of your wife. That wife was only interested as long as the lemon had juice. And that nice lemon or orange, when the juice is out, becomes a subject for the waste bucket. That is time; time is powerful. Tulsi Dās Jī said, "Tulsī, naraka kyā baṛā, ara samaya baṛā balavān, kaba luṭī gopīyāṁ, vahī arjuna vahī bāṇa." Tulsi Dās Jī, the great saint who wrote the holy Rāmāyaṇa, the teaching of the life of God Rāma, said: "Tulsī, naraka kyā baṛā?" — meaning, humans are not great. "Samaya baṛā balavān" — time is the mighty one. Even time is mightier than God itself. The Lord of the entire universe, even for Him, time may wait a little bit, but it will not stop. God can come, incarnate on this planet, do His job, and time will say, "Go, make empty space. There is another incarnation waiting. Go." Nothing is mightier than time. Therefore, it is said, "Ye saṁsāra, ye jīvana svapna vat" — this life is a dream. Whatever I am telling you, after a second, it is a dream. And tomorrow morning, whatever I told you now will be like a dream. It will come back only in memory. You will remember, enjoy in the memory, and especially we humans, we survive by living through our memory. We are connected with our memory, thinking how nice that time was. Many people are suffering: one loves, the other doesn’t love nowadays. The wife will say to the husband, "I am going, I will not come anymore." Nowadays, a husband can’t tell her no. This is the time of the woman. Men, be careful. I tell you, when I was little, I often saw written on the wall three W’s. I often saw three double W’s on the wall, and it said, "Be careful of three W’s." The young teenager would look and ask, "What is that?" Now, three W’s is the internet: www. But therefore, be careful with three W’s. And there was written: one, two, three. One W stands for wealth, money; second W, whiskey; and third W, woman. And the solution: fold your hands and sit. Show your humbleness and just walk away, so you cannot say no. You can say that, but you will be in more trouble. Or, the wife cannot say no; she will also be in trouble, maybe. Ladies have more rights, so you must know much better than me. I heard only, and you experienced. I have theory, and you have practice. And tons of theory is nothing compared to the practice of grammar. That’s it. So, Tulsī said, "Naraka kyā baṛā?" Tulsī Dājī said, "Humans are not great." Time is mighty, time is mighty. Consider the time of the Mahābhārata. The time when God Kṛṣṇa was on this planet physically, He had many disciples. The male disciples were called Gopā and the female disciples were called Gopī. Gopī means the cow, so the lover, the protector of the cows. Gopī means one who takes care of the cows. Because Kṛṣṇa protected the cows, He loved the cows. And from the cow, as Kṛṣṇa said, once you drink milk or anything from that, it becomes like your mother. Milk means only who gives milk, the mother. It doesn’t matter if human or animal. Even a tree is considered your mother. As a child, what is our duty? To love, to protect, to be thankful. That is called Gopī and Gopā, understood wrongly in Kali Yuga. In another sense, Gopīs represent our senses and our qualities within us, and the mind is the mighty Arjuna, the warrior, and the Ātmā is Kṛṣṇa. So, the entire Bhagavad Gītā is our entire being. Arjuna was one of the greatest warriors, perfect in archery. When they saw Arjuna with his bow and arrow, Arjuna was the winner, but because of Kṛṣṇa’s support, because Kṛṣṇa loved him as one of the best disciples. Why? Because Arjuna loved Kṛṣṇa. You cannot force someone to love. Love must come from the heart. When love is there, then there is no power in the entire universe which can separate you. But when love is gone, no one can help you. There is another poem which I will tell you now. It is said, "Kāśī pūtī jhaṅkār kahā gaī?" When this bale, or a bowl, or a glass is broken, then there is no resonance. Part 2: The Crack in the Pot and the Chain of Karma If there is a crack in your glass pot, or a ceramic pot, or a metal pot—brass—there is no resonance anymore. So where did the resonance disappear? Because there is a crack. What does a crack mean? Separation. What does that crack mean? Conflict. What does that conflict mean? Ignorance. And when milk is spoiled, immediately, where did the butter disappear? From spoiled milk you can make only paneer, cheese; you cannot make any more butter. Where has the butter gone? One drop of lemon into the milk destroys all the milk or butter. Kāśī putī jhaṅkār kahā gaī, dūdh phaṭā kahā gayā, gṛt, dīpak bujh gayā, lo kahā chīlī gaī — now the flame, candle flame: when the flame is blown off, is gone off, where did it disappear in this room? When the flame is blown off, you cannot search anywhere; gone. Similarly the fourth. Manphatakagai Prith — similarly, when your mind got the question: if there is a conflict, where is love gone? That love will not come back. If it comes, it is not that one. Because it is said, when the thread is broken, you cannot join it. And if you join, there will be a knot. So, Arjuna was a mighty one, and there was a war, and he protected all the disciples and the gopīs. When Kṛṣṇa moved his residence to Dvārikā, in the western part of India, and then after some time, Kṛṣṇa went back. He gave up his body. So they all moved back to Gokul, Mathurā. All the Gopīs and Gopas and Arjuna came to Mathurā. But on the way, the mountains, the tribes—they saw so many beautiful girls, the gopīs, and they attacked. And they took all the ladies away. Mighty Arjuna could not do anything. Tulsī Dās Jī said, "The same Arjuna, the same bow—what happened?" He could not protect even one Gopī. Similarly, time is mighty. You have your time. Now your drama is over. Empty the space. So from birth until death, how many dramas have you played? Now they are finished. There is another one waiting, so you marry. Very good. Now the wife is pregnant. It is a signal for you that now, slowly, slowly, pack your things. The successor is coming. That’s it. The owner of the property is coming. You are only a caretaker now, so work for your children, live for them, and then you go. If you say, "I will not go," time will take you away. Therefore, Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā — the ultimate truth is only that omniscient, omnipresent God. When He manifests, it is also only for a time, and then He goes again. So, this is between us; we are playing. How long? Time is waiting, like a cat waiting behind the door for the mouse. Death is waiting, and we are all aware of that. But we do not want to accept. You know, every day when you have fear, it means you are experiencing death. When you are ill, you diagnose that you are ill. Now, you are constantly experiencing death. We will see. Our end is coming, but still we do not want to take it as a reality. And that is our ignorance. Therefore, the wise one will utilize this beautiful human time. Not a santa jana, bhakta jana, because without this you cannot become a santa, and if you are a santa then there is no īrṣā. Therefore, īrṣā chhoḍu bhakta jana. So, Brahmāśyapya — so that we are part of that Brahman, the truth. And we, our aim, consciously and unconsciously, is to come to that truth, the Brahman. Like through the heat, from the ocean, the steam comes up, and that steam becomes a cloud, and that cloud again converts and changes into drops. And then, it again comes down to the gravity on this planet. Why come here? Why not go somewhere in endless space? Because the origin of those clouds is here on this planet. Therefore, again we have to come to the origin, to the roots, and thanks to God, otherwise within one year, this planet will have no humidity at all, no water. Can you imagine all water just disappearing in this space? That would be the end of the planet. That would be a dead planet. So, similarly, this, our Ātmā, which is now existing as Jīvātmā—and this is like when the rain falls on the earth, and then automatically it begins to flow in the direction where the ocean is. Every river is directed towards the origin, meaning towards the ocean. And every stream of the water would try to join that river. And when they found the river, then they had at least hope that now they would come to the ocean. But unlucky also, very half kilometer or one meter far before merging into the ocean, someone takes that water away. And he goes to the Sahara. What does that mean? That is our destiny. That’s our karma. When once we join the mighty river’s stream of the Satguru, then suddenly some kusaṅga comes and takes you away. And that’s what they said, "O my darling, lost and gone forever." It is forever, but that’s not never, because it will come again sometime back. But how many yugas? Gāna Dīna Bhaṭa Kī Rāma Kanyā Kāvarī Nāma Vā Prabhujī Siṅgha Vā Prabhujī Rekhā So Siṅga Gāna Dīna Bhaṭa Kī Rāma Kanyā Kāvarī Nāma Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, I give. Therefore, the steam which departs from the ocean immediately has a longing to come back. It depends. Some rain falls immediately into the ocean, and some travels far away from the ocean. And as a long way, repetition again—away, again, comes, again, goes. There are many who want to take away the plants, the animals, the humans, the stones, the air. On the day, in a minute and second, that is the most important, when that drop of water, which originated from the ocean, merges into that one. That means the end of the Cāraśika Cakra, 8.4 million different births in different forms of life. That is the end of the circle of birth and death in 8.4 million forms of life. Therefore, it is said, O human, do not be arrogant about your life, but utilize your time, which is given to you. So in European culture, you say time is money. But we say time is amūlya. Amūlya means you cannot price it. It is invaluable. You cannot compare it with anything. Nothing in the universe can compare with time. And therefore, utilize this time, and do not fall into moha. Therefore, it is said, the moha is that one when you are coming very near, close to the ocean, and someone takes away that water. You are in the river already, very close. You are already in the river, you are already very close to the Satguru Deva, and suddenly karmic things come and take you away. So Kabīr Dās Jī was very angry, and he said, that is life. That’s it. So, you know, this moha, attachment, worldly ignorance, is like bubbles on the water. There is one question. And the question is, I think, suited to the subject, which is why I spoke today. The question runs nicely. Dear Swāmījī, of course. Thank you. So many write to me, "Dear, dear, I must be dear." But which dear? There is one similar to a rabbit, a hare—a hare, no? I have a question about karma. I will give a simple example of a situation. Of course, the name of the person I will not read. Maybe he is here or not, or she. Example, a very interesting example: person A beats physically, person B. Ladies, carefully, when you choose your husband, ensure that your husband is not an alcoholic, that your husband is not aggressive. Is your husband obedient? Is your husband a good bhakta? Physically, he beats. Maybe it’s a woman. I know, but I do not want to tell who and where. One man said, "Swāmījī, after my office hours, I am afraid to go home. Because my wife is waiting. Hardly a day goes by that she does not beat me with the broom on my buttocks." And in which way? Which I will not tell you. So, do not think that ladies are not so harmless. Boys, be careful. But generally, ladies are very humble, very kind. They have the heart of a mother, and they forgive the husband. It does not matter how he is. Women have a lot of energy to endure the pain, and that is why they are women. So, A beats physically, badly, very badly, a person with the name B. Maybe Alfred and Berta, or it may be Alena and Bedris. Now, what happens? A person with bad karma has it because he or she was beating another person. So later on, because of that bad karma, person A gets beaten by person C. It is a good question, no? But now, person C has bad karma and might get beaten by person D because of that. But person C had to beat person A because of A’s karma. So, will C get bad karma? Bad? In some way. And since I assume the answer is yes. It leaves me confused, I am confused. Where is justice, and where is harmony here? You know, that is called chain work. Someone must create the karmas. It is a chain work, and that is the complication of life. So, someone has to stop, and that is very clearly said in the Bible: to be a good Christian, a better Christian, show your second cheek. If someone beats you on the left cheek, then show the right cheek. That is the answer to this letter. It means one has to stop to forgive, good way or bad way. In India we say, when a dog bites you, you cannot bite the dog. You have to be careful, that is all. So next time, do not come in front of such a dog. So this is a chain work of the karma. In this way, the karma is multiplying. And now, there is so much multiplied karma over the earth, that the network, and we are inside, like mosquitoes. We cannot fly out. We are always inside. So, try to stop there. Jesus said he stopped that karma. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. So, maybe your husband was drunk. And say to God, Mahāprabhujī, forgive him. He does not know what he is doing. Because it is not he who is acting like this. It is the one within him. Whiskey? Okay. Morning, he will be okay. Your husband will come in the morning and say, "I am sorry for that." How nice that man is. Then you will say, "Okay, but I will not give you any more pocket money." Do not make the mistake of giving pocket money to your husband. Okay, and take all his bank papers in your hands. He is due only to work and give you money. He should not ask what happened with the money. Of course, it is your duty to look after him. He has good dress, good shoes, good food, everything good, and a good vodka. That you get again, lesson. Thank you. So this was a nice question. And nice jokes. You see, husband and wife. It is a beautiful life if there is mutual understanding. And this is all that you are searching for. There are many men who are completely confused. They are afraid to marry. Because they do not know if this woman will stay with me for life. And there are many women who are afraid to learn from someone or become friends. This man, because he does not know if this will stay forever with me. Now, especially in this modern culture and way of life, our promises are empty words. Our promises are like bubbles on the water. You see, it will be one of the greatest achievements for the young generation if they can celebrate a golden marriage jubilee. Maybe the media will be searching for which country has someone who has been together for 50 years. So, it is in your hands to better yourself. Mutual understanding, kindness, you know, the man is meant to be a great protector for the woman in every aspect, and the woman ought to also be a great helper and protect her from the men. Then life is beautiful. Otherwise, life is misery. So only one thing can help us now, and that is the prayer of the Bhagavad Gītā.