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Be ready for every moment

Our sādhanā is the inner preparation for the divine arrival. We must clean our inner house as meticulously as we would for a physical guest, dedicating time taken from the unnecessary. Our deep-seated tendencies are like a massive ship, too large to turn directly. We use small trim tabs—our daily practices like bhajans and mantra—to patiently begin a turn, which gradually redirects the entire vessel. A story illustrates how a small seed can grow. A leader was told to plant a million trees after a single peace tree ceremony. He later reported planting three million, but was instructed to aim for eleven million. This leader later proposed planting a billion trees at a global meeting, which inspired commitments from nations worldwide, showing how a single instruction can expand beyond measure.

"Consider if Svāmījī were to physically visit your home. For days beforehand, you would clean, then re-clean... That is the kind of preparation we must do within."

"We may not be able to change them directly, but slowly, slowly, by changing our lives, our actions, and our way of living—through bhajans, through our mantra, through practice—we can, with patience, begin to turn them."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

We can surely find time somewhere—time we can take from what is not necessary—and use it for our sādhanā. To understand how Śrī Kṛṣṇa comes into Mīrājī's heart, consider if Svāmījī were to physically visit your home. For days beforehand, you would clean, then re-clean, check everything, put on new sheets, change the bed, set out new chairs, and think deeply about what to offer him to eat. So many preparations would be made. That is the kind of preparation we must do within. That is the purpose of our sādhanā: to prepare for that moment when He may come. Not come to satsaṅg, nor to Skype-saṅg, but to come inside. To come truly, so that we are ready for Him to enter our house. This is why every moment is so precious—every moment we have here, in our sādhanā, in our lives. There is an example. The qualities we possess are very hard to turn around; they seem to run so deep within us and constantly pull us back onto their track. You may know of those huge cruise ships, like floating hotels. At the back, they have a rudder to turn the ship, but these vessels are too massive to turn with the rudder alone. If they tried while going straight, the rudder would break. So, on the rudder, they have smaller ones called trim tabs. They turn those first, and the ship just begins to turn; then they can turn the larger rudder. Consider our deep-seated tendencies, which we find so difficult to change, in the same way. We may not be able to change them directly, but slowly, slowly, by changing our lives, our actions, and our way of living—through bhajans, through our mantra, through practice—we can, with patience, begin to turn them. Then, gradually, we can turn the whole ship. It is nearly prayer time. I wanted to share one story from a fellowship meeting about how something small can become very large. I'm sorry, I don't know how many times I've told this story in the last three weeks or who has heard it. For me, it's all a blur. In Australia, there is a premier of South Australia. He is the head of that state and is very close to Svāmījī. I think around 2001 or 2002, a peace tree was planted in Adelaide, South Australia. Svāmījī was there, and this premier was also present. Svāmījī said to him, "You know, this is one tree. But if you want to make a difference, you should actually plant a million trees in your state." This premier took Svāmījī's words very seriously and began to act. He told me later that the very next day, he called a meeting with his staff and said, "We have to work this out; Svāmījī said a million." They started planting trees everywhere. So, we went from one tree to a million. In 2005, the premier was in Jādan. Svāmījī wasn't there, but the premier was on holiday and came to the ashram for a day to visit. While there, he was speaking to Svāmījī on the phone. He said, "Svāmījī, I want you to know, you said we should plant a million trees. Svāmījī, we actually managed to plant three million." I could only hear his side of the conversation. I don't know what Svāmījī said, but I soon understood, because the premier got off the phone and exclaimed, "Oh my God!" I asked what happened. He said, "Oh, Svāmījī said three is not good, and we should plant 11 million." I asked him, "What are you going to do about it?" He replied, "Svāmījī said I have to do it, so I'm going to do it. But I have no idea how to explain it to my staff." So he went back and started. In April, when I was in Australia with Svāmījī, I went to meet the premier in Adelaide one day because he would not be there when Svāmījī was visiting. He was talking about this project and said, "I've got to tell you what happened next." He ended up, a few years later, as the president of an organization comprising premiers and heads of state from around the world—for instance, from the UK, Scotland and Wales have separate representatives, and from the USA, all the different state governors are on this committee. The vice president of this committee was Arnold Schwarzenegger, as he was the governor of California. Before the Copenhagen summit (around 2009 or 2010), they had a meeting. In that meeting, he proposed to them that, all together, they should plant a billion trees. He said, "I don't know why I said it; it just came to me in the meeting, and then I made it a proposal." His name is Mike Rann, by the way. Mike Rann. He said there was complete silence for about ten seconds. Then, beside him, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sitting. Out of the silence came this voice, which said, "I'm with Mike." Suddenly, everybody from all these places around the world started committing: Scotland said they'd plant 20 million, someone else said 30 million, California said 40 million. So, from Svāmījī's one peace tree, it had come to this. Thank you.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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