TV Channel

Thank you. I had intended to begin differently, but the whole protocol has changed. First, we thank our sister Navina from Navasad, who worked very hard to collect 250 stories and explain what they mean from my satsaṅgs. However, I must tell you that the stories in this book are those told by Mahāprabhujī and Holy Gurujī in their satsaṅgs. From my memory, I narrated these stories to you all in my satsaṅgs. Therefore, these stories are the prasāda, the blessing, of our beloved Satguru Swāmī Madhavānandajī and of Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī. I was merely the one who distributed that prasāda in the satsaṅg. So, thank you. May we once more... God bless you and protect you. Thank you. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī, Śrī Śrī Deveśvara Mahādevakī, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavānakī, Satya Sanātana Dharma. As I told you, the subject has literally changed. It is said: man is a proposal and God is disposal. At the same time, I would like to tell you something different again. I think we can turn off this heater now. Thank you very much. After some time, I am happy to be with you, because it has been a long time. We saw each other last year, and within this period from last November until the middle of February 2011, many things have changed. But our observation and our inner self have not changed. Especially in human life, there is struggle. Day by day, we experience different things. But who are we to judge others? Therefore, it is said it is God who will judge. Your destiny, Sikhs, will judge. Gurū Nānak said: I went to see the bad things, but I did not find anyone bad in the world. But when I looked into my heart, I found no one is worse or more horrible than myself. Other saints have said, and modern psychology also says, that every negative word you think means you are poisoning yourself. Gurū Nānakjī had positive thoughts and positive visions. He used to see in everyone the light of God, and therefore no one was bad in his eyes. But when he tried to see why he wanted to see bad, what "bad" means, then he had to think, "What is the bad?" So first you became bad, and then you see it in others. Yes, when you try to see negative qualities or negative things in someone, it means you are standing near dirty water and you throw a stone into it; this dirt will splash back on you. Suppose, Holy Gurujī used to say, suppose you don’t like the sun. You say the sun is very bad, and you take both hands full of dust and throw it at the sun. Look how far it is going—that dirt will fall back on your head and into your eyes. Therefore, the experiences we have day by day are to learn from and to find the sense in them. The best way is to realize peace; eternal peace is satsaṅg. We are all sitting in this hall and having the same feelings. We all came with the same aim, and I try, through my body and through my words, to deliver words of great sense, not my own. In the last satsaṅg of Guru Pūrṇimā, our Holy Gurujī said the bhajans we are singing, bhajans from Mahāprabhujī, are Vedon ke Vākye Hai—they are the words of the Vedas. The Vedas are spoken by God Himself. Since humans began to understand and their intellect developed, they began to think over and use the wise words of the ṛṣis for themselves and to guide others. My Master used to say: to guide others is very hard, but to misguide is very easy. To clean your dress is hard, but to make it dirty is very easy. Climbing up is hard, but falling down is very easy. Your words and your behaviors should never misguide anyone. If you cannot dry the tears of others, do not become the cause of tears. If you can’t show someone the light, don’t lead them into the darkness. Humans have wrong ambition, and that is the problem. Holy Gurujī said in one satsaṅg, in the same satsaṅg, that this Jīvātmā, this soul within us, is an individual soul. Ātmā is universal, but the soul is individual. This soul is hungry. Janam se bhūkā hai—hungry from birth. For many, many lives, it tries to fulfill the hunger, but this hunger cannot be satisfied. As soon as we come to the human form, this fire of hunger becomes very strong. It will burn you again. Someone has a hunger for a beautiful body. Someone has a hunger for having strong muscles. Someone has a hunger to have more money. Someone has a hunger to have a position. Someone has a hunger to gain fame. Someone has a hunger to find a partner, and so on. But this jīva will not satisfy the hunger. There is only one hunger for which we are suffering in different ages and different situations. Jealousy, greed, and ego make us blind, and we see our greed and our hunger in others. Gurudev said, "Only one thing can remove your hunger, the hunger of birth, the hunger of many, many lives, and that is called jñāna, ātma jñāna." All other kinds of jñāna are just for our stomach, meaning to work and earn money to live, that’s all, for existence. But that ātmā jñāna, self-realization—janam kī bhūk mitā degā—will satisfy the hunger from many, many lives. And that jñāna, ātmā jñāna, is not just something we can have like that. Every negative thought which appears in your brain and which you speak from this beautiful human tongue, negative about someone, pushes you far away from the ātmā jñāna. It is like you are approaching the beach, and big waves come and take you away again. Again, you come nearer the beach to hold the rock, again the waves draw you away. We approach some Satguru, and we are very happy that he is near, coming, and suddenly one vṛtti comes to you and draws you away to the districts. Mahāprabhujī said: O my mind, you lost everything with Kuśaṅgā. I was in Ahmedabad in one āśram of Bāpū Āśāramjī. It is a beautiful ashram at the bank of the river Sabarmati. There in the ashram, many good words are written, nice slogans. Everywhere you can learn. Learning has no end because knowledge has no end. About every ātmā, only ātmā jñāna, there was written that sentence which I always like to tell: Dukha kā kāraṇa mūrkha kā saṅga. The cause of troubles is the company of a foolish one, mūrakha, foolish. So one man said: Jānī Se Jānī Mele Kare Jānkī Bāt. A wise person meets with the wise one; what will they talk about? Wisdom. Murak se murak mele ke ghumake laat. A stupid meets the stupid one, and it results in either boxing or kicking. A donkey to donkey, you know how it’s happening. Always, the donkey turns its back and begins to kick the other one. Wise ones do not say. A doctor meets another doctor nicely, wisely speaks about medicine and some kind of disease and how to solve the problems. Parents meet children and speak about love and happiness. So Mahāprabhujī said: Mana sab khoyo rey kushang yokeshan. So the words of a foolish person, who is full of ignorance, make you also uncertain and create such vṛttis, ego. Therefore, it is said in Rāja Yoga—Rāja Yoga actually has 18 chapters, not only the eight. Yama has five, and Niyama has five, and then Bhakti Yoga has two, and also Karma Yoga has two. Rāja Yoga contains Bhakti Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, all. Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna, Samādhi. It contains all the yoga qualities, aspects of all yogas inside. There it is said: "Thou shalt not steal a stake." Now this book is written here with my name. Now all will think these are the stories of Maheśvarānanda. So in further printings and publications, I would request that it be noted these stories were told by Maheśvara Nanda, who received blessings from his divine master, Bhagavān Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, and Holy Gurujī. What will happen then? I will get double blessings. But now, if you think that this is mine, then this is Maheśvarānanda’s ego, and Maheśvarānanda has stolen. Therefore, it is said, when we tell some sentences or some slogans, we quote. For example, "One in all, all in one." Who said it? Swāmī Madhavānandajī. "Be the change you want to see." Who said this? Mahātmā Gandhījī. So, always there is an attribution. If I will say, "Be the change you want to see," then I have stolen, and my inner buddhi—buddhi, the intellect, the viveka—which buddhi has a cream inside, like milk has a cream. And that cream of the intellect is viveka. Viveka is the ability to give judgment, to divide what is the truth and what is not the truth. So when I use this slogan and tell the name of the person from whom it is, my vivekā will increase, my buddhi will be unchecked. But when I tell it as my own, my inner self will say, "Maheśvarānanda, now we can say your ego is strong." That’s it. Lagutā Se Prabhutā Mele, Prabhutā Se Prabhutā Dūr, Kedī Sākar Khagāī, Hāthī Ke Mukh Dhūr. Laguta se prabhuta mele—some holy saint said, I don’t know who, but I heard often from Gurujī, and that’s why I’m saying. Lagutā se prabhutā mile. If you surrender, if you are humble, you will get God, realization. But if you already say, "I am God, I am Master, I know better," then you will not get that for which you became. We are all just surviving on the name of Gurudev, Prāṇ Nāth, the source of our prāṇas. The nourishment of our prāṇas, our buddhi, and our ātmā is Gurudev. You and I, we are just surviving under that beautiful tree of Gurudev. Stories. Stories means what has been stored in the consciousness and told to others, what you stored. The story means the next step. So when you learn and come to know, then you are already one step above. Your knowledge becomes clearer and wider. That’s why stories are told. This time when I was in Khattu, in the month of January, we had satsaṅgs, many, many satsaṅgs, every day, sometimes three or four. And I was thinking, I tell you the truth. When I come to Vienna and vape, I can relax for a few hours. So can you imagine how tired I was, but then I said, "Oh Maheśvarānanda, don’t be tired. You gave your word to Gurudev, and it’s Gurudev’s prasāda. Distribute, distribute, until the last breath of life. My Gurudev will ever be on my palm as a beautiful flower." Gurubhakti—who is lucky, and who is a karmahīna, who is unfortunate. Unlucky is the one who does not understand Guru Vakya and does not know who his Guru or her Guru is. So a story was told in satsaṅg by one of the sādhus. I liked the story very much, so I thought I would tell you. Should I tell you? And that will become the 251st. But right, this has been told by some saints. Many stories are told by the wise, the experiences of wise people and holy saints. It is a story between Pārvatī and Śiva. This heater cannot be stopped. It will be automatic. Auto, okay, automatic, mathematic. In automatic, there is a mathematics. And that we cannot change, the law of mathematics. So Pārvatī and Śiva were on a walk through a beautiful forest with rocks, nice trees. Śiva stopped, took his triśūl, which was in his hand, held it under his armpit, and with folded hands he was making praṇām. Pārvatī said, "My Lord, first of all, you are the Lord of the lords, Mahādeva." There is only one God, whom we call Mahādeva, and that is Śiva. Mahādeva means Śiva, not Mahāviṣṇu, not Mahābrahmā, no, no. Someone says, "Mahālakṣmī," because of my money, so Mahādeva. "Secondly, my lord, whom you are greeting here, I see nobody." Look at the respect, the consciousness of the woman, or Pārvatī, or the wife, with full respect; she calls her husband’s name, "my lord." Śiva said, "Great Devī, oh great goddess." He doesn’t say, just like in German, in this very nice German language, vibe, no? Now, the vibe is a little bit... not using good words, but lady, not only lady, Devī. Every woman is an embodiment of the goddess, and every man is an embodiment of the god. Chandan hai mere desh kī mitti. The sandalwood is the dust of my country. That’s called the devotion to the mother earth. Chandan hai mere desh kī mitti, tappo bhūmi har grām hai, and every village is a village of the astority, a holy place. Har Bala Hai Devī Kī Pratimbā. Every girl or woman is the embodiment of the Devī, the Goddess. Bachcha Bachcha Rām Hai, and every boy, every child is like God Rāma. Such a pure consciousness towards Mother Earth, our places, villages, or towns, and our brothers and sisters. Men and women must have devotion for each other. Devotion means not that you must always pray or do something like this, but respect. Śiva smiled and said, "Devī, I am saluting this Earth here." The place, the ground here. She said, "Why, my lord? What is the specialty of here? We will say some diamond inside or the gold inside." And Śiva said, "Pārvatī, Devī Pārvatī, a thousand years ago, here on this place, a holy saint was doing his sādhanā. I am greeting this divine earth on which that holy saint was sitting and doing the sādhanā. How blessed this ground is." That one understands what the guru means, that my Gurudev walked through here once. One German writer said, I think it was a German, said, "The time will come and say such a great person walked on this earth like Mahātmā Gandhi." My dear, it is very easy to criticize and very easy to say with your ego, "I am true, I am brave." Humbleness, my dear, humbleness. Pārvatī also greeted, and Śiva took that soil from the ground and put a tilaka on him. And of course, Pārvatī did also, no? She said, "Very good, I will also benefit," and went away. After a few days, once they came to the caves, there was hardly any vegetation, high in the Himalayas, and stones, rocky, not easy to walk, and cold. The glacier’s eyes again, Śiva turned to that rock and greeted. And Pārvatī said, "My Lord, is this rock again someone who had a tapasyā here? Astority?" Śiva said, "No, Devī Pārvatī, no." "Then, my Lord, whom did you greet?" He said, "I greet this rock. Why? Because in one thousand years, one saint will come and sit on this rock. Bhol Satguru Devakī." Pārvatī said, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Śiva. That you gave me such a lesson. Now I understand what a holy saint’s sitting place means. Always, we should greet the holy chair where the holy saint sits. Don’t make a mistake. You will read in the Līlāmṛt, Holy Gurujī was not there in Ambedavada Ashram, and one of the disciples thought, 'Oh, I will sleep on Gurujī’s bed,' and he slept. And you know what happened? You read that? So there are some forces that will throw you down." So satsaṅg is there where these stories, what is stored in our memory, when we open them, then it brings us upliftment from the other stories. So this is told by some great ones’ experiences. And now we know something more. Satsaṅg and the company of the saint is like divine peace. So again, Śiva and Pārvatī are walking, coming a little down to the forest in the mountain. And the whole forest began to cry. All the trees were crying, screaming. And Pārvatī asked, "Śivjī, my lord, why is this whole forest crying?" Śiva said, "Ask them, they will answer you, Devī." Pārvatī said, "My brother, sisters, trees, forest, nature, why are you crying?" One old tree, a very old, wise one, said, "Mother Pārvatī, we are all from the one satsaṅg, one peaceful forest, and we are very happy here. But three days ago, a bamboo grew, a bamboo sprouted suddenly from the earth." Pārvatī said, "Why not? Bamboo is beautiful, bamboo is good." They said, "No, the day will come that bamboo will burn us all. They will come, and that bamboo will burn us. How? When the bamboo and the wind begin to wrap around each other, then the fire fangs come, and in the mountains, in the forest, fire begins to burn." So there is a poem: "Bas Uga Bhūmi Par, Dukhī Huī Vandarāī." The bamboo grows on the earth, in the forest. Dukhī huī vanrāī, the whole nature became unhappy. It will burn us all. Because of the negative quality and the negative words of that bamboo. And bamboo has three qualities which are not good. First, no good smell goes through. Bamboo cannot accept any other smells. So the person, like a bamboo, doesn’t accept anyone’s wise words because the ego says, "It’s me, I tell you." Second, in case something penetrates through, then inside is a hole; it doesn’t remain. Uparse bhare, niche se jhare, Guru Mahārāj kyā? Kare. Inside, above is Gurudev’s feeling, but down is everything flowing out, dripping. What should Gurudev say? Third, a little bit you rub, it makes a fire. So there is so much krodha, agni, anger, jealousy, that little you tell, begins, explodes like a fire. Om Śānti Śānti... Śiva said, "Do not worry, I will plant this bamboo near the Gaṅgā, so there will be no danger of fire." Walking, going. They came the next day to some other hills, and the whole forest was dancing, celebrating. Pārvatī said, "Śiva, look, what happened? All trees and grass and flowers and bushes and the whole forest are happy, celebrating. I think, my Lord, because you came here, because Lord Śiva came here, all are happy." Śiva said, "Devī, Pārvatī, ask them why they are so happy." So Pārvatī asked them, "Why are you all so happy, so much?" So again, one old, old tree said, "Devī, Mother Pārvatī, we are very happy because in our forest, sandalwood begins to grow in our places." It means now our price will go high, and our area will be protected. We are very happy that sandal grows; sandal means good smell. So when an Ātmagyānī Sant comes, when a good-hearted person comes, we are all so happy. Oh, how nice is this person. Or someone comes like a dog, wow, wow... Every negative word is a blackmail for you, and we will lose our path. Therefore, satsaṅg. You can have satsaṅg only with yourself. Think positive, think divine, forgive others, love, learn to love. And you can also have a kutsaṅga only with you, or with two persons, or three persons. Therefore, when Holy Gurujī was asked again and again by Mahāprabhujī, Gurujī saying in his bhajan: Satsaṅg dī jo śrī dīpādā arj śun lī jo prabhudīpādayā kusaṅg se prabhumo ye bachāvo kusaṅg dostāṅ durjan dūr rakhī jo do dost aur dūr rakhī jo śrī dīpādayā mudīpādayā jaśun kar kirpāmo ye satsaṅg dī kar. Kīrpāmo ye satsaṅg jo Śrī Dīpadāyā Mūdīpadāyā Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī, Deveśvara Mahādeva, Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān kī, Satya Sanātana Dharma kī.