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Part 1: The Harmony of Spiritual Practice Adoration to the cosmic light, to the spiritual lineage. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. It’s a blessing to be here again. I remember my last visit; it was beautiful. And hello, Helen, nice to see you. The trinity—thank you, Steve, for the beautiful introduction about yoga and research work. I was listening as if someone was giving an interview on the radio. Bless your work. There is also one Australian IYT, a Yoga Teacher Association. Once, in Canberra, there was a president. He was from Germany. I would like to say, before any other talk, to introduce you a little further. The president said it is very important to be a part of authentic systems, traditions, and lineage. Yoga is very old, and Lord Śiva is the author of yoga. But from time to time, great saints, ṛṣis—whom we call hermetists—came, and they gave the definitions, teachings, and principles of yoga, spirituality, and so on. That has been carrying on for many decades, for ages, I would say. Now, in India, we do have an authentic tradition as an authority. That comes from Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya. Before, it was also there, but Śaṅkarācārya modified them further and gave the sannyāsa, the sādhus, swāmīs, and yogīs their duties: who should be teaching in the mountains, in the cities, in the forest—Giri, Purī, Bhāratī, Sarasvatī. So these are the ten different names, but all ten in one unity, which is acknowledged by the government of India and all the traditions. That’s called Akhāṛā. Also, in past times, Akhāṛā was responsible for protecting the cultures, the traditions, the religions, and so on. Now, this Akhāṛā has two authorities. One is called Śaṅkarācārya, and we have four Śaṅkarācāryas in every different direction of India, on four different sides: the seat of the Śaṅkarācārya. Then they also have the sub-seats. After the Śaṅkarācāryas comes the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. And Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara is next to the Śaṅkarācārya, has full authority, acknowledged by the government, by religions, and everything. To come to the Akhāṛā is not so easy, because you have to know all the spiritual lineage from where you come, and so on, to prove you belong to that. After that, you have to go through certain tests, what you call the parīkṣā—examinations and tests—and they research your spiritual lineage, your work, and so on. Now, what I want to tell you after all these stories is that Australia is very lucky and privileged. Because last year, in the Mahākumbha Melā in Haridwāra, there were millions of people bathing at the same time in the river. Can you imagine? Thirty million, forty million within twelve hours, but the auspicious constellation is only for a particular six hours, and all deep in the Gaṅgā. It is beautiful, and it is the largest gathering of people, and all Akhāṛās, many other Akhāṛās, are also developed beside it. There is an Akhāṛā committee. Every Akhāṛā has again another leader, which is called Ācārya Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. And these all Ācārya Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras—we have about seven Akhāṛās, but then, after developing many other branches, other sādhus who do not belong to sannyāsa but to different traditions are also living as sannyāsīs. This committee comes together, and they decide who should be given the honor to be a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. It’s not that you just go and say, "I want to become a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara." It’s not like that. You have to go through many, many tests. And so, this year, our Svāmī Jasarājpurījī of Australia, the first Australian, became a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, so we congratulate him. And then, immediately, the news went everywhere. The first foreigners—it was in the histories—it was a breakthrough. Otherwise, this was also limited within countries, that Śaṅkarācārya should not cross the ocean, not fly over there and there. So when Jasrājī became Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, it was something great. And now we have one more Australian who also received the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara title a few months ago. And that was also very great, right? So now we have two Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras. The one country which has two Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras, can you imagine? But the country is very big, so perhaps someone will come, maybe more. But it is not like this, that you just take sannyāsa and go and say, "I have become a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara." It is a very heavy task. You have to fast for more than twenty-four hours, meditate for twenty-four hours. Then, have you interest? How is the process? In the future, maybe some of you will be ready. It is spirituality, because today my subject is harmony of body, mind, and soul through spirituality, and how to maintain spirituality. What is spirituality? That is the subject today. Now, many come and interview him. Of course, they know that he doesn’t know Sanskrit very much, but he speaks very good English and Hindi, and so they were very surprised that he could talk in Hindi because he is a very good speaker. Many Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras who come from South India cannot speak Hindi. That’s it. We have thirty-five official languages and 3,065 dialects. So Australia also has many dialects now, Aborigines and this and that. Then, after twenty-four hours, official guards come, escorting him, and take him to the place where the Akhāṛā is, with the monastery or whatever you call it. And then they shield him, come on this, and then ceremonies go on: washing with different waters, and with milk, and with yogurt—very beautiful ceremonies. The priest comes, the paṇḍits and other members and secretaries of the Akhāṛās are standing there because now they have decided, and no one can interrupt anything. Then many abhiṣekas and ceremonies, and then completely with the ash, and then again wash, and then completely with the earth. But in the Bible, it is said, "Thou art the salt of the earth," and you have once a year, one Wednesday, called Ash Wednesday, you know, where you make it... Śrī Śrī... He takes him up and lets him sit near the Ācārya, and the Ācārya declares that we acknowledge him today as the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. Then everyone is giving mālā, flower garlands, and salt, and congratulations, and the like. So, I am very happy to announce to you, or introduce you to your—now it is your—Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, no? Australian Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. So, and now I am the senior Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, so I am in retirement, you know, I have to put my chair in a different side. So, it was a very great, very great thing, and you are lucky, very lucky, that you have today the darśan of the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarajī of your country, Australia. And he spoke beautifully about Australia, and our Ācārya Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, who is like a president, and he spoke at that time. Jasrājī also mentioned that there was some conflict between Indians and Australians in Melbourne. And there was news that this conflict, especially in the Indian press, became so clear and clean, and also Australians realized how much India respects them. So it was very, very good on both sides. So before I say something, I think I will give the floor to Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Jasrāj Purījī. Okay? Do you have any questions on this subject? After, good. It is not a question. So, Rajī, the floor is yours. Om Śānti. I thought I was supposed to be sitting here giving Svāmījī’s introduction, but of all the things to do, the hardest thing for me is to speak in front of Svāmījī, because when the ocean is there, it’s funny to swim in a bucket. We’re speaking about harmony, and a while back I was thinking about what, for me, is the most peaceful image that you can have. I think a lot of people think about being in nature, being by a waterfall, or being in the bush or whatever. And I was thinking, what is it there that’s peaceful? Because it’s also noisy. There’s a lot of noise there. There’s a lot of noise in the city. There’s a lot of noise by the waterfall. There’s a lot of noise by the beach. But it’s something different. It’s in harmony. It’s all working together. Rather than in a city atmosphere, where things are working for themselves but not necessarily working together, in nature it all works according to some plan that has been there for so long and working together for so long, and one thing nourishes the other. And so it continues and continues, and that’s that harmony. And when we do yoga and when we do spiritual practice, then we look to get that sort of harmony in ourselves and to find that peace in ourselves. A long process, full of experimenting, failed experiments, half-successful experiments, and things blowing up sometimes, and whatever. But we continue with it until we come to some success and some harmony. You know, if you’ve ever experienced learning to play guitar, the first thing you try to do is tune it. And the first time you try and tune it, you tend to spend about fifteen minutes going this way and that way, tuning it up and turning it down. And you just can’t get the two notes to fit together. But with time and practice, it comes that you can just hear, okay, that one’s down, and just immediately put the string into place. And that’s what we aim to do by practicing spiritual practice. Our inner self, our body, our mind, it may go out of tune. But by practicing, by experience, and by our own personal experiment, and then the experience that comes with that, we learn how to put it back into tune quicker and quicker. We learn how to immediately sense when it’s out of tune while it’s still playing, and just to make those adjustments. It puts it back into harmony, it puts it back into peace, and puts us back into our center and steady. And while at times along the way it may not seem like you’re getting anywhere, eventually you find you become a very good tuner, and that’s when you can start to play, that’s when you can start to give to other people. Because when you have harmony in yourself, when you have peace in yourself, then you can offer it. And that’s your gift, which you can give to everybody who’s around you. And that’s the joy. The joy of being able to give that peace, to give love, to give compassion, to give understanding. Understanding yourself, and then being able to give that understanding to other people. Understanding also that we do things wrong. We all do. But then also being able to say, "Okay, I can accept it." Everybody makes mistakes. Let’s go forward. Let’s learn from it. That, for me, is harmony. There’s a story that is in the textbooks in about third class in our schools in India. And it’s about a crow that wants to drink water. And he’s trying to drink it from what’s called a matkā, which is an earthen pot with quite a small lid. And they’re about that deep. They keep the water cool. And the water’s down at the bottom. He cannot reach it. And he can’t fit inside it. So he just cannot get his beak down to that water. And so the crow starts to put stones inside it. He keeps putting more and more stones inside it until the water level comes up to the point where he can drink it. When we’re doing yoga, in the end we’re aiming to experience meditation, to experience that harmony, that inner harmony. You cannot practice it. It happens, but you make the situation in which you can experience it. And that’s putting those stones inside. That is why we do all of the practices, and we learn about ourselves. Do the āsanas and the prāṇāyāma, like putting the stones in that pot which raised the water level. It slowly raises our consciousness to the point where that experience can unfold, that peace can unfold within us. And along the way, it may not seem like, you know, what is the point of this? It’s not giving me that. It’s not meditation, it’s something else. It may be doing service, it may be doing sevā to the community, it may be singing, it may be just listening to somebody, it may be just offering someone your love. But all of those things add up and then bring your consciousness up. And then slowly, slowly, everything unfolds. When you practice and you want to bring harmony to your body, then it also means taking care of what you give to your body. This body is like a temple. What do you eat? What do you listen to? What do you watch? Who do you spend your time with? All of these things are part of bringing harmony to yourself, of bringing peace, of purifying yourself. Because if you’re practicing yoga in order to purify yourself, it makes no sense at the same time to be putting things into yourself which are not conducive to that. If you think of yourself as just another thing to be loved, as you would want somebody else to love you, to give that love to yourself, then when you think about what you offer yourself, you become very conscious that you should put something good inside. Good food, not things that are giving your body trouble. Good entertainment, coming to yoga or coming to any spiritual practice. Spending time with people who are positive. It goes back to being straight, but it never loses the focus of where its position is to come back to that straight. Naturally, it comes back there. With practice, we do the same. The world is changing. It’s a very disturbing time. With what is happening in Queensland and in Japan, and so many things around the globe, and probably also on a local level, all of those things are disturbing. But with our practice, with the spiritual practice, we can still keep our inner balance. And when you have a firm foundation on which you can act, then, of course, you can react better to those situations, and you can offer more. And you can offer something to others, and that can also help them to get some harmony, help them to get some peace. And that is our spiritual practice. I don’t want to speak too long because the ocean is here. But there’s one story I read the other day, and it really struck me as beautiful. And it was about a Jewish rabbi. And he was trying to explain to his students that there were some special ceremonies they should do in the morning at the first sign of light. And they were asking, "But what is that time? Which is that right time?" And one of them was asking, "When is that moment? Is it the time when you can see the difference between a dog and a sheep in the distance?" And another one was asking, is it the time when you can see the lines on the palm of your hand? And he was saying, "No, no." And he was saying, "When is the time when we should do it? Is it the time when we can see the light on the horizon?" He’s saying no. "Is it the time when we can see the trees, the color of the trees, or the flowers?" No. And he said, "Well, Gurujī, when is it?" And he said, "It’s the time when you can see the faces in front of you, or your brother and sister." The time to worship is when we see everybody as being part of our family. And we see that we’re all on this one journey together. And that’s that harmony. It’s not a spiritual journey that’s just mine or yours or yours or yours. It’s our spiritual journey. We’re all going back towards joy, towards love, towards that source. So the real time to worship is when we can start to see everybody as our brother and sister. See everyone with compassion. See everyone with love. Everyone with understanding, that is yoga. And that’s our spiritual journey. That’s all I want to say. Bhājī, if I have permission, sing one bhajan. Yes, and then... so with singing, one should come closer. Tune your guitar, just like you said. Svāmījī is here, and that’s what you’re here for. I don’t know that Svāmījī needs a lot of introduction. I think everybody knows about him. He has been coming to Australia for twenty years now. This year marks twenty years that we are celebrating here. And for forty years, he has been traveling around the globe, giving his knowledge, his prasāda to everybody, giving blessings, and guiding people in their spiritual life. I was thinking today about what is a guru, or what’s an example of a guru. And this may be a little bit left of field, but if you can try for a moment, imagine you’re an iPhone. Please. So you start off, and you’re only using yourself for making calls. Then you come to yoga, and you discover through yoga that you have a camera. And you have the ability to record, you can check emails, you can do this and that, all things that you didn’t know you had the possibility of doing. And then the guru comes, and he’s the app store. And he opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, may He be with you. Thank you. Geeta and Rajendra didn’t come. Rajendra didn’t come. Gopal, tell him to call. Guru Brahma, he sākṣāt Rasmai Śrī Gurave dhyānam. Gurur mūrti pūjā mūlam, gurur pādam mantra mūlam, gurur vākyam mūlam, gurur kṛpā. Brahmanandam param sukhadam kevalam jñānamūrtim, dvandvātītaṁ gaganasadṛśaṁ tattvamasyādi-lakṣyam, ekaṁ nityaṁ vimalamachalaṁ sarvādhi-sākṣibhūtaṁ, bhāvātītaṁ triguṇarahitaṁ satguruṁ taṁ namāmi śāntiḥ śāntiḥ. Salutations to Gurudev. Once more, blessings to all of you, dear sisters and brothers. Blessings to be here, and you are lucky to hear Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Svāmī Jasrāj Purījī. Spirituality, what a word. We are all thinking, how does spirituality look like? People ask me, "Svāmījī, are you spiritual?" I say, "I don’t know." What do you think about spirituality? What do you think about spirituality? If you are fasting, note that you are a spiritual person. If you are meditating, it’s not that you are a spiritual person. Whole day you are praying, it’s not that you are a spiritual person. What is that spirituality? Exactly this I spoke here in my satsaṅg last year. Spirituality means purity, pure, crystal clear, transparent, pure. And that means pure consciousness. The body, the body cannot be pure. The body, śarīra, is the home of impurities. This body is the vikāras, the house of the vikāra. Vikāra means impurities. You can’t clean your body one hundred percent. Part 2: The Body, the Soul, and the Path of Spirituality It is constantly there: something spoiled, something is dying. The cells are dying; it is coming. And you know, when the Chaitanya, that consciousness, the Ātmā, which is at the present involved in the Jīvātmā—when this Jīvātmā is gone out of the body, very soon the body will begin to smell. Though you have been doing Haṭha Yoga, Netī, Dhautī, Bastī, Naulī, Trāṭaka, Kapālabhātī, everything, every day, cleaning the body, cleaning—but when the soul is gone out of the body, again the body is not useful at all. Either we will bear it, or what is pure? The body cannot be pure. The body cannot be spiritual. The body is made of five elements: ether, air, fire, water, earth. And these five elements are brought together with one energy, one power. That we call yoga. And that yoga, in this minute when the five elements are brought together and out of that the body is manifested, that is called the prāṇa śakti, prāṇa, life energy, life force. Prāṇa is like a cement between two bricks that unites the five elements, and it has its limitation. In this body, as Jasrajī said, the body is a temple of our soul, ātmā. This soul is an individual; it is not a universal one. Ātmā, the soul, is not the self. That self is the ātmā. Ātmā is the universal one, and the soul is the individual one. The soul is a victim of karma, and the soul is a victim of destiny. Because it is the soul which is residing in this body, and the soul has its many, many different members. They are all in this body. Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha, ahaṅkāra—these are also a part of that soul, which they are occupying. Kāma, the passion; Krodha, anger; Moha, ignorance or attachment; Lobha, greed; Ahaṃkāra, ego. Kāma, Krodha, Madha, and Madha is pride. These are known as the crocodiles. Australia knows very well about crocodiles. So, there is a crocodile story, but I will not tell you now. Should I tell you? It is a good story. Someone asked me why the Australian yogīs haven’t developed spiritually so far. Please don’t be angry with me. Now, the president of the yoga teachers is sitting here. So, there was a very big ship, a boat, a ferry, going from here to some other countries, Japan or somewhere. And there were two pools, with a little water inside the deck. One was the crocodiles from India, and one was the crocodiles from Australia. So the Indians, crocodiles, they had a net over, iron grill, you know. Australian crocodiles, they didn’t have anything. It was free. Many people were traveling, and they were looking and coming every day. It was a few days’ or weeks’ journey. One gentleman like that was coming every day, sitting, looking, and observing the crocodiles. Then one day he had a question. He questioned the caretaker. Sir, excuse me, I have a question. He said, "Yes, please." Why does the Indian crocodile have an iron net over it, and the Australian one not? He said, "Yes, there is some reason." What, are the Indian crocodiles more aggressive, and the Australian ones are very calm and peaceful? He said, "That is not like that." Then, how is that? He said Australian crocodiles have some specialty. Is that? What is that? That is that when one crocodile tries to climb up, another one comes and pulls him down. So we are not afraid that this Australian crocodile will come up and eat someone. So, yeah, I am telling the opposite, okay? So it means we, we are a crocodile. Our nature is crocodile. Kāma, Krodha, Mada, Lobha, Moha, and Ahaṃkāra. This is called the ṣaṭkumbhaka. Mahātma Jī is a Sanskrit Ācārya, a scholar sitting there. Matsara, what do you call this? Mosquito, crocodile. Matsara, Matsara, Matsara. That’s right. I have to learn Sanskrit from you, Matajī, leave it to me. Okay, so these are the crocodiles which will not let us develop. We are in this pond or the pool of this body. And our ātmā would like to come over, above, to the spirituality, purity, but a little bit of spiritual development is there, one of the crocodiles will pull your leg down, again you are in the lower cakras, again you are in the lower field of life, and that awakens in us karma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha, and ahaṁkāra. The second, which is a beautiful one, which is uplifting, which is protecting, that develops the spirituality in us, that is called tapahastority, to endure, endure the situations, go through tapasyā, what we call life is struggling, hard life. Here, who is sitting, all who had a little hard childhood, now they are successful in their business and everything. But those parents had a lot of money, pocket money, and gave the children as much as this and that. These children don’t know what life is and what money is. So children don’t need money, they need your wisdom. And children don’t need your toys; they need your love. Then they can develop tapasyā. When the creation begins, Lord Śiva creates Viṣṇu. And Lord Shiva’s words, what I am telling is not my words. In the Mahāśiva Purāṇa, it is written that Śiva ordered Viṣṇu, "Viṣṇu, go and do tapasyā." Tapa means the fire. So, to go through a hard time is a fire. We are walking through the fire. Out of the fire, the water is born. Water came out of the tapasyā. So Bhagavān Viṣṇu went into tapasyā, and they are showing fountains going out of his body. Within no time, it became the big, big ocean. Now, said Viṣṇu, you are a fire. You reside in the water, and so Viṣṇu is as a fire residing in. Viṣṇu is a creator. Now, Brahmā is the creator, and Viṣṇu is the protector. But from time to time, he awakes, and when he says Nāga is looking over him, this is a metaphorical picture: coiled, and Viṣṇu is residing. When Viṣṇu is a little bit higher, he turns a little bit, then an earthquake takes place, the fire, you know, the volcano, that volcano down, that is that. So it’s not a human body or something, as we imagine; these are the elements, tapasyā. So, my dear ones, spirituality is to endure, endure the situations, and you have—God has given in this body, to this Jīvātmā, to the individual soul—a beautiful, what we will call, the secretary. A minister has a secretary; you are a director, and you have a nice secretary; they are managing, they are managing. They don’t let all the rubbish things come to the director or to the president, and that’s it. You have permanence in you, and that’s called viveka. Viveka means a very high intelligence, not intellect. Intellect can be influenced. Buddhi can be manipulated. But viveka will not. Viveka will think very peacefully. Please say a moment. Let us think like this. You see, you hear some situations, then Viveka will tell you, okay, this is the person who made a mistake, and this is the person who is blaming. Now, for a while, put yourself here and this, this one. Now, how should this behave to you? That’s why it is said, I think in the Bible, "I will do to you what you do to me." That’s right. So, Viveka will immediately put yourself out of that situation within you, and within no time, your Viveka will say, "Okay, I understand." So, vivekā, and that’s why I am happy to share the Swami Vivekānandajī system and yoga study. Swami Vivekananda’s name was not given by Paramahamsa Ramakrishna. Paramahamsa Ramakrishna gave him another name. But the name Vivekānanda was given by one king of Rajasthan. That place is called Khetarī. And that king had a beautiful story. Next time I will tell you about it, Vivek. My Gurujī wrote one bhajan, a beautiful bhajan: "Sadābhāī ajabrāta hamārā." O my brothers, my body is a coach, a wonderful coach or a wonderful bungalow, betha parambara. Many times I travel in this body. Das ghoda chalesh ratme, the ten horses pulling my coach, these are the ten senses, karmendriya and jñānendriya. Buddhī kī lagām lagāī, it is the intellect which is controlling. What is lagām? The bit. Hakad Man Husyara, and my mind is the rider or the coachman. Gyan Ki Bhati Ratme Lagai, now there is a knowledge, the light of knowledge in the lamp in my coach. Anhad Bhaya Ujara, endless light, the knowledge, knowledge can remove the light. Guru means darkness, Guru means light. Guru. So, every yoga teacher is a guru. Every car driver’s teacher is your guru. Every harmonium teacher is your guru. Dancing guru, music guru, singing guru. Guru means the teacher. And that teacher who leads you from the darkness to the light. You never draw a car. You have money, you can buy the car, turn the key, and go on the highway without a license, or you never drive. How many meters will you come? Very far. How long? Twice. First and last. But you go to a teacher and learn how to drive a car, and you can come safely. So Guru means one who gives us knowledge. Now, anyone can take your driver’s license away. Anyone can take your car away. But the talent, the knowledge which your teacher gave you, no one can take away. That is a Guru and disciple. Raja Atam Vetharatmai, the king of my Ātmā, is sitting in this coach. Vivek Mantrī Rehe Sātme, and the Viveka is the secretary, is with me. Anubhava Karatā Vicāra, talking about the experiences of this world and that world. So, I will go to a different part, okay? So, tapā, tyāga. If you would like to lead a spiritual life, then observe, follow, and adopt the tyāga. Tyāga means renunciation. Mahātmā Gāndhījī said, "Renounce and enjoy." In the Bible it says, "Thou shalt not carry." Do not carry so many things. Don’t you trust that you will get somewhere, something? Puri Jī, Puri Jī... Puri Gurujī said, "Enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice." In the kingdom of the Lord, you can only go when you sacrifice everything. Now, what do we sacrifice? This is it. Not money, not a house, not a car. This is a sādhanā for us to live. Sādhanā means this is a means for our life to live. We are not greedy to have a car, but we want to come on the right time to work. You know, Melbourne is, my God, from New Delhi to Jaipur. It is long, there is no end, my God. Though you have so many highways, I told Jasarājī today, it is wrong. It is not good to build in Melbourne. If I were an architect, I would do it differently. Make it a little more multi-floors, so humans are more together. Mahāprabhudīp Karatā, Mahāprabhudīp Karatā, Mahāprabhudīp Gurujī, how many highways do we build? It is also that we destroy Mother Earth. So tyāgah, not this, but renounce your bad habits. Again, Gurujī said that it is easy to become free from an enemy, but not from bad habits. He said, "No, no, the river has a high current, you can’t." He said, "What do you think? I am a good swimmer." I am not a basket swimmer; I am swimming, a bucket swimmer, I am swimming in the ocean. So, his strength, muscles, he said, "I will get it." He said, "Then be careful." So he jumped in the river, and he swam and swam till he came to the blanket. Surprisingly, it was not a blanket. It was a hungry, tired bear, very tired. Now, he went to catch it, but before he could catch the blanket, the blanket caught him. Now fighting, oh, the bear was so happy, here biting, here biting, you know. He got more muscles to eat. Now they are fighting. Another one, who was standing on the bank of the river far away, said, "Dear friend, if you can’t get the blanket, leave the blanket, come out." He said, "My dear friend, I would like to leave the blanket, but the blanket doesn’t leave me." So, bad habits, like drugs and addiction. Addiction means you have to add every day a little more and more and more. So, bad habits, then you can’t get rid of them. Therefore, spirituality is there to renounce those bad habits. There are many, many different. So tyāga, tapa, tyāga, then comes dharma. Dharma means principle, not religion. The Vedas say, "Dharmo rakṣita rakṣitaḥ." If you protect dharma, dharma will protect you. What is the dharma of your eyes? To see. If you can’t protect your eyes properly, they can’t protect you anymore. Dharma of our ears is to hear. If you can’t protect your ears, they will not help you also. Similarly, there is a human dharma, dharma of nature, dharma of parents, dharma of children. So dharma rakṣitāḥ, we shall protect this dharma, that means nature. The Vedas tell, O men, do not go against nature. Learn to live in harmony with nature. So we have four pillars of human life. These four pillars, if you can make them strong, your house will be very good, solid. These are the foundation: Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa. Dharma is righteous conduct. Artha is the wealth. Many people say, "Money is not good, money is not good." One man was standing on the railway station, saying, "Money is not good, money is not good." But asking for the money, you know. And someone gave him dollars. He said, "I appreciate, thank you, but money is not good. Money is not good." No, no, money is good. Is there anyone of you who may have many, many sittings, can tell the money is not good? If you have no money, you have no tram ticket. You cannot pay for electricity, you cannot pay for your iPhone. Everything. Without money, you can’t make one step today in the world. And you have a guest at home. The guest is hungry. Can I have a glass of water? He said, "Yes, water you can have, but I don’t have a glass." You have to go to the bathroom to drink it. So, this glass is not given to you for free. You have to buy it. Can I have bread? Oh God, I don’t have money, I don’t have bread. So, there was a great saint, Kabīr Dās, he is known as a weaver of God’s name. Kabīr Dās said, "Lord, give me that much that I can feed my family." And, if anyone comes to my door, they don’t go home. Ati sarvatra varjayet, too much is a problem everywhere. So therefore, wealth, in Indian literature, dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa, these four are the strong pillars of life. So money is not bad. When you have more money, don’t think it is bad. Give it to someone, give it to your neighbor who has a problem paying the electric bill. Say, sir, I will help you. Give, give,... give. Great Tulsidās, who wrote the Rāmāyaṇa—you don’t know many, you have to read this literature. When you read that, you will say, "Wow, where am I?" We are at the beginning. We were bathing only in a bucket. Now we see the ocean. So Tulsīdās said, "Tulsī Kar, Tulsī Kar Parākar Kar." O Tulsīdājī said, "My friend, keep always your hand above the hand." It means give, give, give. Tulsī kar par kar kar, par kar kar na kar. Don’t become a beggar with your hand like this. Tulsī kar par kar kar, par kar kar na kar, tā din par kar, kā din mar na kar. Good. On the day when you become like a beggar, it is better to die. So always have a heart, a very big heart. Give, give, give. Give love, give understanding, give forgiveness, give the way, give the rights. Give them, don’t take away. As much as you give, that much you will receive. Make it empty. The source is from somewhere; it is coming. If you don’t take water out of your water well, it will get rotten and stinky. But as much as you take the water, the new water, fresh water will come, and that is God’s love, the wisdom, the spirituality. That is spirituality. Vairagya means detachment. Don’t suffer, have it, but still have vairāgya. Nothing belongs to me. Even my body doesn’t belong to me. I will go out of the body, and the body will remain. So dharma, artha, kāma, your duties and families that you should have, your children and ancestors. It is those spirits and that consciousness of the ancestors which are protecting you. In them is God consciousness. And now it is a great pity that in this modern civilization we have forgotten our ancestors. Even you don’t know the name of your 10th great-great-grandfather from 10 generations past. You don’t know where your dynasty is. You don’t know. We are changing houses like we change our camping. Lost. The roots are gone. But look at the aborigines. They first pray to their ancestors. They still have that tradition. This is from this family, that family, that family: Maoris, Africans, South America, South Africa, Indians, many, many, all these tribes. They have beautiful culture, the roots, and now the roots are rotten. So, Kāma, Karma, and then Mokṣa, Liberation. These are the four things which a human, a normal human life, should achieve. So, Vairāgya, Tyāga, Tapasyā, Śama, forgiveness. Shama badan ko hota hai, chhotan ko utpat. The great one can forgive. A small-minded one is not, is always making bubbles on the top. The ocean on the bottom is very peaceful. The surface is the waves. So little-minded persons have so many disturbances in the mind waves, but in the heart, it is very calm and peaceful. That is spirituality. Dharma, that which follows, protects us. Svādhyāya, svādhyāya. Study, study those literatures, authentic literatures, holy books, and Upaniṣads, Gītā, Vedas, Bible, Quran. These are authentic. Patañjali very clearly said, "Atha yogānuśāsanam." Yoga begins with discipline: physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social—all discipline. Without discipline, you cannot be successful in your yoga practice. So, six crocodiles, and with that, six treasures. You have, you are holding, inner treasures. Śama, Dama, Śaratha, Titikṣā, Uparati, and Samādhāna. This I will be talking about day after tomorrow, I think. There is one more lecture. So spirituality is like insight, developing the love. Great Swami Sivanandaji of Ṛṣikeśa said, "Love, serve, meditate." Many yoga practitioners suddenly feel lonely, they give up, they don’t feel the spirituality in it. Why? Because practice is missing. Therefore, every day you must, you must not, but you should practice. Yeah, because it’s a human right nowadays, you know. Someone told me, someone told me, you cannot say to the audience, "You must," I must. Part 3: The Daily Practice of Inner Cleansing Gurujī gave an example: this glass table is beautiful, nice, and clean. You clean it nicely, close the windows and doors, and go to work. In the evening, when you come home, you see again there is a layer of dust. Similarly, you practice in the morning, you spend the whole day with different worldly problems, and you come home completely polluted. Now, how will you clean this inner pollution? That inner pollution you can clean through your meditation mantra. If you do not practice every day, you will have spiritual problems, psychic problems, any problems, or you will not achieve anything. So, God has given us 24 hours a day and a night, right? Once someone said, "Ah, Swamiji, we Australians are working very hard, very busy, we have no time. Indians have a lot of time." So I looked at the watch which is made in India. I looked at the watch made in Europe. I looked at the watch made in Australia. Every watch has 24 hours, not more, not even one second more. So I said, how is it possible that Indians have more time? So I said, "Okay, I will give you time. I will give you time. How?" I said, I will give you time for every day, a lot of time. Okay, all right, let’s begin. Eight hours sleeping. Who is a lucky one here who sleeps eight hours every day? Except a little baby, maybe. But for your bedroom, bathroom, and so on, eight hours. You still have how many hours? Sixteen. Sixteen hours. When you fly from Tokyo to San Francisco, it’s fourteen hours, and with delays, this is sixteen hours. You come like a tire fly, sixteen hours. Okay, I give you sixteen hours for your work. If you work, sorry, it’s not sixteen, eight hours. If you work eight hours per day, your company will not be bankrupt, not bankrupt. Who is a lucky person whose clients, or one who is working, works 8 hours? How many times do you drink coffee? How much do you telephone? How many times do you go out? How much are you really working? Very little. But eight hours for everything. Now, these are the 16 hours gone: 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working. Now you have eight hours still to fly from here to Singapore. Long flight. My God, we buy a first-class ticket or an economy ticket for eight hours. So, my dear, what are you doing now with eight hours? Eight hours working, eight hours sleeping, still you have eight hours. Okay, shopping, one hour. Good. For cooking and eating, who is cooking every day? Who is your happy husband? That wife is cooking and eating every day. Okay, cooking, eating, one, two hours together. Three hours have gone; you still have five hours. What are you doing with the five hours? So, you now have five hours free. And from those five hours, I take two hours more, I give you gratis, so that you can go somewhere and do this and that. You still have three hours. Every day, practice three hours: one and a half hours in the morning, one and a half hours in the evening. You will feel spirituality in your heart. Your heart will become an endless ocean. And Swami Sivanandaji said again, within you is a fountain of joy. Within you is the joy, not outside. Within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the ocean of bliss. Within you is the divine Ātmā, the immortal soul; live a divine life. So, to lead the divine life means practice, reading, svādhyāya. Now, the second meaning of svādhyāya: it comes in yoga and daily life. You have one technique of meditation called self-inquiry meditation. Śvā means the self, adhyāya means the chapter. Study thyself, not who am I, but how am I. Before I put blame or mistake on someone, I ask myself, how am I? And this only you can do if you are practicing. If you don’t practice, you are on the surface. And mostly people don’t practice meditation; they don’t like to go to the church, ashram, or temple for prayer because they are afraid to know how they are. Many people are afraid to know what is inside them. So we try to escape ourselves. We run away. But you cannot run away. The problem is always there, like a shadow of the body. You don’t like the shadow of your body, so you get in an airplane and fly away. There you said, "Bye, bye." You get out in New York, you are surprised a shadow is walking beside you. So that is karma; it always follows you, which you can neutralize inside. Now, how should I know that I am a little spiritual? You will never know. You will never know that you are spiritual. And if you think that I am spiritual, then you are not spiritual. So there is one beautiful poem from a great saint. > Bade badāī nah kare, aur badā na bole bol, > Rahimanā hīrā kab kahe, Bada means the great. The great one will never say, "I am the greatest one." So a spiritual person will not say, "I am spiritual." A yogī will not say, "Yes, I am a yogī." A yogī will always say, "I am a practitioner." A Guru will never say, "I am a Guru." I am a disciple. Who tells a Guru is not a Guru, but there is some other word before that, and that is called Kangaroo. All these great masters, it doesn’t matter who is who, they themselves will never say, "I am a Guru." So, bada badāī nahī kare. The greatest one will never say that I am a great one. Like what? A diamond never speaks and tells us, "I am a diamond." In the shopping window, there is a beautiful diamond lying, and you look. The diamond will not say, "Come in, I am a diamond." A diamond will never say it. But we say, "Wow, it is a diamond," and the seller will say, "Yes, it is a diamond, and its price is that much." The diamond is keeping silent. It does not say, "My value is..." Hundred dollars or a thousand dollars or a million dollars, it is he who will price the diamond. It is he who will price the diamond, but a diamond will never say that I am a diamond. Similarly, the master will never say that I am the master. A great one will never say, "I am the greatest one." So it is said. > Bade badāī nah kare, aur badā na bole bol, One will never speak great about himself or herself. Rahiman, Rahim Das was a poet who wrote this poem. > Rahiman mukh se kab kahe, ke hīrā mukh se kab gaye lākh hamārā moh. Therefore, Gurujī told one beautiful story in poem, beautiful. How will I realize God? A rich man goes and gives a lot of donation to the church. Now he thinks he will realize God, and now God will be more with him. But that rich man does not know that Jesus said, "Do not believe in this false god, money and gold," no? So, you think that Jesus is happier when I give him two million dollars in corruption? Donation? Sorry, not a corruption, donation? No. But we must give. We are not giving to Jesus. Don’t think that you are giving to Jesus. You are giving to the people the facility that they can come, they have a shelter, a house of God, a temple, a church, or an ashram. For that, not for... Now Gurujī is sitting here. It’s not that we are merely whitewashing other curtains or other tables. For you, it doesn’t matter. We are doing it for ourselves. So never think that you gave something to someone and that you have any right over what you have given. It doesn’t matter to whom you give. So, what is it? How do I feel if I am spiritual? People will tell, not you. They said instructions. If you would like to be spiritual, then do one thing. Always try to be small. > Lagutā se prabhutā mile, aur prabhutā se prabhutā do. > Kīḍī sākkar khā gaī, hāthī ke mukh meṁ guḍ? Yes? Indians understand the language. I must speak very carefully so that I don’t make a mistake. So Gurujī said, "Lagutā se prabhutā mile," as humble you are, that greatness you have inside. And as great you become, that much lower you are. Because you have only dry intellect, there is no love, there is no kindness, there is no understanding. O human, you have the understanding. You can do, you can love, you can forgive, you can help, you can repair. Don’t destroy. God sent humans as protectors, not destroyers. But when the Rākṣasas, the devil Śakti, comes into your intellect, and the intellect is disconnected from the heart, then it becomes destructive. Therefore, the heart and this should both be together. There is one beautiful book, I think you can buy here in the market, written by Harish Johari, and this book is called Cosmic Game. It’s beautiful. This is comparing with the positive intellect, which leads you directly to liberation. Negative intellect leads you there. It’s very nice. There is a chart and game people like to play, nicely, but it’s a spiritual game. You should buy it. You should go and look at Harish Johari’s book. Maybe someone can tell you. Maybe it’s a different title. > Lagutā se prabhutā mile, prabhutā se prabhutā dūr. If you are very proud and blown off like a balloon, walking here and there, thinking, "I am the great one, hey guys, go away, I’m coming." Prabhūta Se Prabhūta Dūr. If you feel that you are a great one, then you are very far from the greatness. So there was a competition. In the competition, there was a kernel of sugar, just a small piece of sugar, and the competition was this, between an elephant and an ant. The competition was that we throw this sugar in the sand, and see who can take just the sugar. The elephant said, "In it came more dust than sugar," because he is very big, his trunk is very big, you know, and it took everything in. Then Her Majesty, the ant, she came with a small crown on her head, she said, "I will try." The ant walked, and very gently and elegantly, just took the piece of sugar and put it on the plate. Here you are. So, Laguta Se Prabhuta Mile, as small you make yourself, humble, you get greatness, and as big you are, you get only the dust, nothing. > Laguta se prabhuta mele, aur prabhuta se prabhuta do, kedi sakkar kha gayi, teke mukti so. > Yeh sansāra svapnakī māyā. This saṃsāra is the illusion of the dream. Now it is a dream, and in the dream, you are somewhere dreaming. What you dreamed last night is gone today. What you experienced this afternoon at four o’clock, whatever you experienced, is gone. You can’t call back. All in memory is gone. So, yeh sansār hai svapna kī māyā, aur yeh jindagī hai pānī, añjalī kā pānī. You have water in your palm; how long will you keep that? It will drip out. Similarly, how long will you keep this life, your beauty, your youth, your wealth, and all this? Very soon, it will go. Spirituality is that you go within thyself and meditate: "How am I? How many people did I disturb?" There are two kinds of persons. One is called the peacemaker, bringing peace, love, understanding, and harmony. And one is a troublemaker. And troublemakers, as long as they don’t create some trouble, they cannot sleep. There was one man, and day and night he was thinking about how to create more trouble. One day, he couldn’t create any trouble, so it was boring. He couldn’t sleep. 2:30 in the night, still he can’t sleep because he didn’t make any trouble. So then he looked in the yellow pages and found a telephone number for someone. He dialed the number. First, he put his numbers, how to call them, invisible numbers, and then he telephoned there. Somebody said, "Hello." He said, "Oh, good morning." He said, "Oh, who are you? What are you? Why did you wake me up so late?" He said, "Because you are the most terrible person in the world, bloody one," and he put it off. And now, as soon as he put the telephone off, he took the pillow and he is sleeping. So there are many troublemakers. Troublemakers, they have the quality of the Rākṣasa, Daivī Śakti, Āsurī Śakti. So what you call the Shaitān, the Shaitāns in the Bible, these are then when the Shaitānic consciousness, the intellect, is mixing inside, then it becomes a troublemaker. We are fighting for world peace, and they are fighting for troubles in the future. Spirituality is that your heart becomes like the heart of a parent, your heart becomes like the heart of your partner, your heart becomes like the heart of your children, and your heart becomes like the ocean. Endless ocean, billions and millions and billions and trillions of creatures are existing. Even the very big white shark is also in that ocean, everywhere. So, we have all qualities: humbleness, kindness, but that comes through practice. So, there is one last poem I will tell, and then I will finish. So, one Mahātma said, Mahātma means great sādhu. > Karata karata abhyāsa pyāre, jaḍamata hota sūjā, > Rāsī kī āvata jāvata, śila para parata niśāna. Beautiful point. Some disciple came to the master and asked, "Master, how should I develop?" Other ones at home, a child came and said, "Father, I don’t know how to learn typing." My one finger goes there, and one finger goes there. Another, his daughter came and said, "Ma’am, I am so sad. I can’t play piano." My finger goes to the wrong key, and my teacher is always angry. So he said, "Okay, baby. Karata Karata Abhyāsya Pyare, practicing while practicing. Oh, my dear one." Karata Karata... means doing. While practicing, practicing. Jadmat hotā sujān, even a very polished one can become a great, wise man, a wise person. Like how? Rāśi kī avat jāvat sil paraparat niśān. This experience you don’t have now, but it is old traditions, but you can see when you go on the, on the, what you call the, where the ships are coming, landing, deck, deck. There you will see they throw one rope with the hook to hook it, and then they pull it like this. For many, many years, the rope is coming and going. What happens there? On the stone, a sign. A rope is capable of breaking a stone by slowly rubbing against it every day. On the other hand, stone has the power to destroy rock within no time, but though it is such a powerful, hard rock, the rope, gentle one, every day coming, going, coming, going, it can cut the stone. Similarly, similarly... my brothers and sisters, I must say it the other way, sisters and brothers, because now there was a conference in the United Nations where ladies were protesting, "Why not sister first and then brother?" So, therefore, every day practicing, practicing ādhyātmikatā, the spirituality will develop. So it is said, it doesn’t matter what is happening around the world, I have to meditate, I do my sādhanā, I will do the sevā. Elephants will walk, dogs will bark. An elephant is never frightened when a dog comes and barks. The elephant still goes peacefully. So this saṃsāra is a troublesome world. Everywhere, disturbances. Sit in meditation and go within thyself and say, "I would embrace even my enemy. I will love them." Because Gandhiji also said, we hate sin, but not the sinner. We hate the sin, but not the sinner. So we hate the mistakes, but we don’t hate the one who made the mistakes. That is the heart of the spiritual person, and that is his spirituality. So practice, if you cannot do more, half an hour, five minutes, how to meditate. How do all great yogīs meditate? As far as, see, I am not a great yogī. One day, when I will be a great yogī, then I will tell you how I did it, but still I am doing my best. Or, great saints, let’s say, in Christianity there are also many great saints. The holy friend’s mama says, "You know how hard a life he had?" People were throwing stones at him. People were blaming him. People were saying he was schizophrenic. A saint’s life was never good or peaceful. But when they went away, we all were crying. Oh. So, all these monks who are sitting in monasteries, who are sitting in ashrams, who are sitting in caves, how do they meditate? I asked my Gurujī, because Gurujī, for nearly 18 hours, he was practicing mantras. Even in his sleep, he had his mālā beside him, but his finger was going like this, like this, as if he were doing his mālā. So, only one best technique is to relax inwardly, repeat your mantra, and observe your inner self. That Lord, don’t let this dust come into my heart, the vikṣepa kleśa from this world. Let me be the heart of all. That is called a holy heart. So, my dear, spirituality is endless, but we cannot say that I am spiritual. At the end of your life, others will say, "Oh, that was spiritual." Even as long as a spiritual person is living, we will try to find something to destroy, try to destroy the spirituality. But when spirituality awakens in your heart, then it is like this light. Outside, there is so much darkness, and the darkness tries to attack this light through windows and through doors. But as soon as they come near the window, the darkness also merges into the light. > Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya, > Mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya, > Asato mā sad gamaya. Brahma satyaṁ, jagat mithyā. You are searching for the truth, but you will not find the truth here. Only truth is that one eternal, everlasting God. > Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍala-kāraṁ japtaṁ yena cāracaraṁ tatpadaṁ akhaṇḍa-maṇḍala-kāraṁ. Akhaṇḍa, everlasting. So your heart, you have that immortal soul within you. Do the self-inquiry meditation. He Kevalam He Kevalam... He So, even if someone kicks with their feet, think, "My child, that’s it." Adopt those techniques, then you can come through; otherwise, it’s very hard. So, more in India, we have folks saying, when the dog bites you, you cannot bite the dog back. So, my dear one, for today, that is enough. I wish you all the best, and develop humbleness, kindness, and understanding. You are spiritual. Who said you are not spiritual? You are spiritual. You are the light of God. You are the greatest one. Your heart is a holy heart. Do not bring negative things into the heart. With this, I pray to the Almighty for your good health, harmony, peace, and spiritual development. > Makāchya Dukha Bhagavān Om Śānti Śānti... > Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Devīśvara Mahādeva Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān