TV Channel

Oṁ, bodhi śrī bhagavān kī jaya, śrī śrī dhepa ṛṣima deva kī jaya. Hari Oṁ. Welcome, everybody, from Jadan Ashram. I think it is best if I introduce myself. My name is Divya Purī. I am a karma yogī here since 2007 for a while. And tonight, it's my duty to speak something. I am very lucky to work in a very motivated and cheerful team in the home office, and I have my own table there. On the top of my desk, my very own mess, and in front of this table, I can look out of the window and see the construction site, a big part, and the whole year I see many times that there is a big heap of a beautiful pink stone. Time to time, one nice crane comes with a few workers, picks up the stone, and brings it to the workshop to carve it. They carve it for a while, and out they will carve some beautiful piece, which then later they will use for our Omāśram, which has already been going for a while. Time to time I was thinking that these pieces of pink stones, it is like us, people or bhaktas or disciples of Gurudev, and the workshop where they bring these pink stones is like this ashram. Because in the ashram we can have the opportunity to focus on ourselves, focus on our weaknesses, on our personality, to observe ourselves, to have our sādhanā. This ashram, especially here in Jodan, everything is supported the same. Like the crane which brings the pink stone to the workshop, it's also like us karma yogīs when Swamījī offers to come to India, to Jodan or to some other ashram. In the same way that masons start to work on a big piece of stone, it is also the same way that Bābājī and Swāmījī are working on us with different tools, and I would say it is a very beautiful and great opportunity to take part of this project and to be here. Many times I hear this from Swamijī and other people, and in many, many religions, they say that God is in us, and we don't need to search for God outside, but we should look inside and find God in ourselves. It's the same as when they start to carve a stone. They carve it out; it's already inside. The only thing is that what we don't need, like what we don't need from our personality, is just cut down, which can be sometimes painful, sometimes easy. It depends on us, and also it depends how hard is the stone because there are parts which fall down very hard. But the main point is that the procedure started, and I can see on myself and on my brothers, on my guru brothers, that it is really working. It is like this. I remember when I came to India in 2007, I was in a very bad condition, I would say, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I remember I came with a very big backpack with all my clothes and stuff, and I also brought another backpack full of anger, full of hurt, shame, and many, many bad qualities, which I hope, and I feel, I think that I could start to take out all these negative qualities from this bag. And maybe I hope that some positive qualities, there will be place for some positive qualities to fill this bag, to be filled by Gurudev's mercy. And I would say it's very interesting for a while, when we are here for longer, let's say for one, two years, that when we go back for a holiday for a while, for one, two months, and we see in Europe or in Australia that more or less everything is the same, the people are the same, but I feel, or I was observing, that something is changed, and I didn't understand what it was. And then I needed time to realize that, actually, because of these big changes here in Jordan, I changed so much that I see the whole world completely differently, and I have a relation with many, many things completely differently, or I would say opposite. So I am very happy that I am here in Jadon, and also that I can be here for more time, and I hope that my aim, or my time here, will be very useful for the ashram and also for me. And I wish that all those things I experienced, that many, many other people will have the opportunity to come here and to experience them. And they could go through all those difficulties which I could go through. And I could work on myself because here, in general, everything is working faster and everything is much more intensive. And that's why we, or I would say my ego, suffers a lot. How Swamijī is cutting down all these parts from me which are not necessary to be there. And I'm very happy, I saw just today that many of my friends, my guru brothers and sisters, will come soon for the Guru Pūrṇimā. And many of them will have a chance to focus on themselves, to come out from their life where they need to concentrate on their job, on their family, and they can come here and a little bit stop these circles and focus on themselves, to stop a little bit, and they can overthink what they could reach, some valuable thing. What they could reach in the last period of their life, and where they are, and what are the opportunities to go. So I would like to welcome everybody in Jadān, those who are here and also those who will come soon, and those who have the opportunity to come for the Guru Pūrṇimā. I wish that they will use the opportunity, because ashram life is mainly just about opportunities, and we need to stand up and use all the opportunities. Thank you very much. Thanks to Devpurījī for his thoughts about being in Jhara. Over the past six months or so, we've been here a little while in Jhara, so it's a very transitory place. Many people come; some stay for a very long time, some stay for a few years, some stay for a few months. Everybody comes with something different, with some different expectation. And everybody leaves with some different experience. But there's one thing that's really beautiful to watch, and when people come for a short time, it's a very different thing to coming for a longer time. And there's also a certain difficulty in becoming a part of the place. It actually takes years. It's one thing to be here, it's one thing to be doing karma yoga, but there's a certain time when it just becomes that you're a part of it. And when something needs to be done, you just see it and you do it, rather than someone saying, "Look, we have to do this," and you go and do it. You start to see things in a different perspective. You start to see it as something that you know to do, and you know what has to be done here and there. And when you see that there's some lack there, you just take it on. Over the past six months, I have had the pleasure of actually living below all of the boys, the Kāma Yogī boys, and it's really been a transformation in the last few months that they really, really started to live here, to be part of the place. And you can, I don't know how to describe this, but you can feel when it changes in people and then their relation with the ashram and their sādhanā and the way that it's working in the ashram. Something transforms and it gives it a new impetus. It gives it a real energy, so it's no longer a struggle. It's always hard to be here. It's always hard to do tapasyā, wherever it may be, whether it's your personal sādhanā, whether it's your karma yoga or whatever it may be. But it's a different type of tapasyā when that changes. And it's wonderful to watch it when it's a whole group of people that it happens to together. Well, that's what I feel about what you see in the last months, it's been really, really special. The other thing about the group of Kāma Yogī boys that are there upstairs... It's very loud, and it's loud with laughter constantly. I think that some of the loudest laughers that I've ever heard are living above me at the moment. But, I mean, there's a point to why I say that, that yoga is something that should be with joy. And to hear always that every evening, the joy, the laughter that's upstairs, that's part of it, that's a very, very important part of any sādhanā. It cannot just be all hard work. It cannot just be all grinding, grinding, grinding. Yoga is love. Yoga is joy. And to hear that, sometimes it can be too loud, it can be a little bit disturbing, but it's fantastic, you know. And what happens is, when you have that type of group, that satsaṅg, that sung together, is that everyone is supporting everyone else's development, everyone else's spiritual path. All the problems that one has in their day are being shared with everybody else. And when you start to share, you discover that there are a lot of people around who have some very practical, very simple, and very wonderful solutions to things that we don't see ourselves. Because it's so easy to look from outside and see that someone else is stuck somewhere or that somebody else is doing something. It would be better if they did it like that. It's easy to observe in others. It's very hard to observe in yourself. But when you have a group of people together whom you can trust, with whom you're open, and with whom you can enjoy sharing those things, it's very special; it's very profitable for everybody. I think everyone here is coming from different communities around the world, from different ashrams, different countries. They have shared their spiritual path together, and I just remind everybody not to forget about that, about how special it is, about how wonderful it is to have satsaṅg, about how wonderful it is to have people with whom you can share your spiritual path. And people who can go on that path with you, who can forgive you when you make mistakes? Who can accept that everybody loses it sometimes, that everybody in their yoga path has a bad day? Or has a bad week, or has a bad month. But for what I feel about here in Jhadan, as a community that stays here for a long time, one of the most important qualities that we all have to have is to accept that in people, and to know that we have to give everybody the chance to change. Give everybody the chance to make mistakes, and give everyone the chance to learn from them, and then not to hold on to those mistakes. Let them go, move forward, and enjoy seeing people transform. So that's just, shortly, my addition to what Divyā Purījī said. Have a great evening, have a great satsaṅg, have a great sādhanā, and enjoy the time in Jhara. Oṁ Voleśrī Dīp Nārāyaṁ Bhagavān Kī Je, Sattva Gurudeva Kī Je.