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The event began with a traditional Māori welcome, honouring the divine, the ancestors, the land, and the gathering of all people. Prayers and waiata were offered, and gifts of native trees were presented to Swāmījī as symbols of regeneration, strength, and the bond between yoga and daily life. In response, Swāmījī expressed his appreciation for the beautiful ceremony and then addressed the assembly. Mahāprabhujīp Karatā He Kevalam, Mahāprabhujīp Karatā. Thank you. And very soon is coming Easter, and there will also be a lot of what you call chocolates in the form of Easter eggs. And this is the egg, which means the universe, the complete universe, nirguṇa, the formless one. And that is also symbolized as a Śiva Liṅgam. So these ideas are coming from that Śiva Jyoti. This is the flame, the light, and that means the entire universe. No form. It’s like a sky. So, good evening. I will say a small prayer in an ancient language, Sanskrit, and I will explain it. Sadāśiva Samārambhaṁ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamām Asmadācārya Paryantaṁ Vande Guru Paramparām. This śloka talks about lineage, and before we go into the meaning of lineage, this lineage and respecting our ancestors is universal, like in the local Māori custom. It is called Tepunā, where, after God, ancestors are respected before we come to living people. This mantra talks about the lineage that was started by Lord Śiva himself. It was maintained during the middle period by Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya, who is a guru of all. And it has been handed down from one realized master to another realized master. This lineage is very, very important. Sri Devpurījī chose Mahāprabhujī as the right disciple, not only to make sure his name is kept, but to ensure the entire lineage is maintained. In that way, after Mahāprabhujī, because Holy Gurujī, the one on the leftmost, and Holy Gurujī among all the disciples chose one person to transfer the flame of knowledge to. The person who will maintain and propagate the lineage is Swāmījī. This lineage is the one through which we receive grace, and all physical things and buildings are not so important as the invisible grace that we receive from our Guru. So this is a prayer to the Guru, and every time, even before we talk about God, the first thing we do is talk about the lineage and see and provide our salutations to the lineage in an unbroken line. The flame of wisdom comes to us. Just be happy, that’s all. Guruvākyam mokṣamūlam guru kṛpā om śānti śānti... Salutation to the cosmic light, adoration to our holy lineage. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. It is a beautiful evening today. It is a blessing to be here together, and I feel very honoured to be welcomed according to the ancient culture of this land. Such a beautiful welcoming ceremony, and it’s very interesting that around the whole world, where ancient culture is preserved, these things are existing. Especially what we call nowadays the tribes, it doesn’t matter from which country. If I come to America, we see the Native Americans or Native American Indians have similar beautiful ceremonies, prayers, and adoration for the ancestors. If I go to Africa, there is also the same kind of ceremonies, welcoming, warm heart. And now you see the distance between Africa and New Zealand is vast. But at the same time, we see what is in the hearts of humans. When we come to Australia, the Australian aborigines also have beautiful ceremonies, welcomings. If you come to India, which has many, many different cultures, and all these tribes are cultures, they also have very beautiful welcoming ceremonies. If you come to Russia, then in Russia there are also beautiful songs, welcoming, and they also welcome with bread and salt. On the door, when a guest comes, they wait with a basket or a plate of bread, very nice, a big loaf of bread and salt. So, the guest is offered. Guests have to take the bread, a piece of bread and salt. It means, in that house where you eat bread and salt, you are accepted as a family member, and it doesn’t matter what it is or how it is. You should always do good things for that family or those hosts who have hosted you. So, if you go to any part of the world, there is a beautiful human heart welcoming. Now, when we see the modern way of life, there is a welcoming, “Hi, how do you do?” That’s all. With that, it is finished. Ladies and gentlemen, very few cultures, and especially those ancient cultures, will welcome us with the words of sisters, brothers, and friends. I had a talk in America. We were sitting, close disciples, in the evening, and I told them that we should write about these cultures, and that will be a beautiful regenerating, reawakening the love for nature, for the animals, and for the humans. Otherwise, the human roots are getting day by day rotten. The termites of different greed, especially greed toward materialism, have lost or broken the thread, that thread which unites human to human. The people in the past were more focused on taking care of nature, taking care of the soil and the land, to keep it as it is. But now, in this present time, we are abusing this mother nature. We are destroying. The result is this: humans lost confidence in humans. We don’t believe in humans anymore. We believe what is on the piece of paper, black and white. Why? Because some people misused the confidence, the trust, the human values. And as long as we do not respect human values, we will not find peace. All the wars that are going on, you know, what we call these cold wars, the First World War, the Second World War, but I think the war still hasn’t stopped. For the last six decades, around the world, there has been war somewhere, and humans have developed a kind of fear. Humans are scared of other humans. So where there is fear, there is no more peace. We can talk about peace, we can organize many conferences, which I am also doing every year, but we have to learn to remove the fear from the people. Then we will find peace in the heart. It means our way of life, our everyday life, will be comfortable and beautiful. In this, we first have to remember again and again in our intellect as well as in our heart this one word: we trust. We trust in God. We believe in God. And that God, everyone has a different imagination of God. It doesn’t matter. How you see God is God. And with this, God and God’s sons and daughters, all creatures on this planet, and we humans have learned, and we have to follow God. We follow the footsteps of our ancestors. Our ancestors are capable of helping us more than if they were in a physical body. Yes, the soul has travelled. May their soul be born in some other body again, but the light, the love of our ancestors remains with us. That is in our memories. And therefore, before we pray to God, before we remember God, we shall remember our ancestors. We know that humans have immense love, not only for their parents and ancestors, but also for animals. Today, one of our sisters came to me with tears in her eyes because her elderly cat died. You see, if everyone will feel love for every animal, not only the cat, then this planet will again be heaven on earth. So one way is we love our cat or dog, or those which are close to us and we can see, and on the other side, we let them kill and eat. The meat which is coming on your plate in the restaurant or anywhere on your dining table, it’s not fallen down from somewhere. It’s not jumped in your kitchen. Someone has to offer life. You have not seen that one, and that’s why we think we can eat meat. Would you allow it if you have your dear dog at home, a very nice, beautiful, dear dog, and someone comes and says, “Today we shall eat this dog?” My God! Even there, where you offer the bread and butter or the salt, you will not allow that guest. Śrī Śrī... You cannot understand how fear, you cannot understand how pain. You have no... There are such ears that you can hear it, but at least God gave you the eyes that you see. How, how is suffering? It is said, “My beloved one, I suffer for you, O Lord, like a fish without water, a bird without wings, a night without moon. O my beloved Kṛṣṇa, come and bless me, appear to me.” So, peace is first there, that you give the love, and you have so much love in your heart, you can hug the entire universe. Great Saint Swami Sivananda Jī of Ṛṣikeśa said, “Within you is the fountain of joy; that fountain will never stop. Within you is the fountain of joy. Let this fountain constantly flow with joy. Wherever you come, you are standing somewhere, they should have pleasure and joy to see you.” And not him, but he is doing it here. That’s not good. And there are some people, within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the ocean of love. Ocean of love. So you are that ocean, the endless ocean, and how many creatures are existing in this ocean. All, the entire ocean is in your heart, and you have love and care for all creatures. How beautiful. And within you is the immortal soul, the immortal ātmā, which never dies, never, never. You are immortal. Don’t think that you are mortal. The body is mortal, but the ātmā is immortal. Jise śāstra kāṭe na agni jalāwe, bujhāwe na pānī na mṛtyu miṭāwe. No weapons can kill your ātmā, cannot cut in pieces. Fire cannot burn, no elements can destroy, and death cannot take away your Ātmā. You are like a sky, like a space. What is happening? This is a kleśa in the saṃsāras, ignorance in the saṃsāras. And you fight? I am right, he is wrong, she is confused, that, this. Where is that? As long as we do not develop that love, we cannot live in peace. Guilty ones will always be unhappy, and even in their dreams, they cannot be happy. And those who have peace in the heart, even if you are in the tiger’s cave, you will sleep peacefully. And I tell you, in that condition, even the tiger will not attack you. They will come, look at you, and then turn tail and walk away. Because you are peaceful, you are radiating peace. And the tiger says, “No, I don’t want to eat this piece.” So how dare a bird sit on the head of the tiger? A bird dares to sit on the back of the tiger. But the same bird doesn’t dare to sit on the head or the shoulder of a human. Why? Because humans radiate such an aggressive energy. Animals do not trust humans. You will see many animals that are together, but it is very difficult to see humans from different parts of the world together. To live peacefully in the world and to have peace, realize it inside. Your heart, your thoughts are like a parent to the children. Understand? Understand, everyone. That’s why I said tolerance towards every religion, understanding for every individual, respect for every culture, and unite all in your heart; then you will have peace. Suppose I have a snake in my hand. They said in New Zealand there is no snake. Who knows? In the zoo, yes. Are the zoos also not allowed? Very good, but in the books, yes, pictures. Yeah, now I caught a snake in my hand. The snake is not free, but I am also not free. I can’t sleep anymore. As soon as I will sleep, my hands will relax, and the snake will say, “Hello, you were holding me, now I will hold you.” So, the snake of fear, the snake of greed, the snake of ego, the snake of negative ambitions, and the snake of distraction, which we have caught in our mind, in our brain, as long as you will not let it go free, consciously, that snake will bite you. So it is said by one of the great masters from Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda, that each and every thought which goes out of your brain, sooner or later, will come back to you. Your neighbour country, Australia, has one called a boomerang, and when you learn how to throw the boomerang and you throw it, it will come back to you. Similarly, those thoughts which you send out of your mind, good or bad, will affect you back. Action will have a reaction, and the reaction will have an action, and action again will make a reaction. So, peace is there. So, we trust in God. Evening and morning, for a few minutes, sit down, close your eyes, and say, “My Lord, I surrender all to Thee. My senses, my body, my mind, my actions, everything I surrender to Thee, my Lord. Guide me, bless me, and liberate me. I am thine.” And then you close your eyes and just feel in the heart the presence of God, and that means peace. Peace is God, God is love, and love is in the heart, and that love is that kind of love, a universal love. When you see the flower, you feel love. When you see a bird, you feel love. When you go to the ocean and see the beautiful ocean and waves, you feel love. You see the sunset or the sunrise, and you feel the love. That is God. Everywhere, in everything, the beauty, that is God. Oh God, beautiful. Oh God, beautiful. In the mountains and the forest, in the ocean and the lakes, in the meadows and the desert, in the flowers and the butterflies, O God, beautiful, how beautiful you are, Lord. This kind of certainty, when it comes in the heart, then it is called a holy heart. So, let us awake in our heart that kind of love and respect, acknowledgement, appreciation, and forgiveness. So, out of these many different cultures, again I want to tell you about bread and salt. In the Bible it is written, thou art the salt of the earth. We are the essence; this body is the essence of the earth. And in India we say, in the house where you eat the salt, you should not be namak harām. I do not do anything against those families in whose house you have eaten the salt. Salt is holy. Salt is holy in this world. If salt were not here, everything would be finished. And thanks to God, the whole ocean is salt. You know how the ocean became salty? Girls, you don’t know how the ocean became salty? Oh, that was something. I must tell you this story, how the ocean became salty. One man went with the boat into the ocean. And he met, on the way on the beach, some holy men. And this man said, “Where are you going?” He said, “I am going to the ocean.” “Okay, have you everything with you for eating?” He said, “Yes, I have fruits and breads and this and that and everything.” “Okay. Do you have salt?” He said, “No, salt? I don’t have sugar. No, this.” “Okay.” So that holy man said, “I give you this one grinder, like a coffee grinder, a small mill.” And tell this mantra three times: “Grinder, grinder, grinder.” He said, “Grinder, grind me a little salt,” and then salt will come out. If you say sugar, it will come out as sugar. Whatever you wish, it will come. He said, “Oh, that is great, thank you.” So he took it. Now he had bread and everything, but he was in the middle of the ocean. And now he wanted to have salt. There was no salt. So he said, “Grinder, grinder, please grind me a little salt,” and salt came. But the machine didn’t stop. He got the mantra only on how to start. But I don’t know how to stop. So the machine, the grinder, begins to produce so much salt. To this day, it is still producing, and the ocean is salty. You know, that’s why the ocean is salty. So you learn something, how to begin, but you should also know how to stop. So, this is what we shall learn to negotiate or speak, and we shall also learn how to harmonize our family situation and our friend situations. So, again, meditate and feel God, that I trust in God, I believe in God. God is there, like my ancestors. They are gone. Physically, I don’t see, but they are protecting me. They are here. And with them, my God is here. Then you are protected all the time. Meditation, prayers, mantras, and simply being good. If you would like to be peaceful, be good. If you want to live in peace, be good. If you tell someone, “Good morning, sir,” then this person will be good to you also. Good morning. And you say to someone, “Hey, bloody one, good morning,” the whole day, the atmosphere will be spoiled. Bānī aise bolī, man kā apak hoī, oran kū śītal kare, āpu śītal hoī. Speak such a language that it makes others happy, and you are also happy. So, how to live in peace? Everyday life means to be good. Do not do to others what you don’t like to be done to you. That’s it. If you can’t dry the tears, don’t become the cause of the tears. Think of others; don’t think only of yourself. If your stomach is full, it does not mean that everyone’s stomach is full. We are all hungry. One has eaten already and is sitting peacefully, thinking, “Oh, Swāmījī, talk further.” But others say, “When will Swamiji stop? We are hungry.” So, it means we always have to think of others. Your problems do not project onto others. But try to solve your problems. Speak wisely, and speak with some wise persons about how to solve this problem, how to overcome this. So the best way to live every day in peace is to pray, meditate, and change your way of life in a positive way. That’s all. Thank you, and you are welcome to ask any questions. All should be happy, all should be happy, all live in harmony, all live in peace, no one should be unhappy. Bless me, Lord, that I am also happy.