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The Alchemy of Satsaṅg: Transforming Life’s Value

The alchemy of satsaṅg transforms life's value through the Guru's presence.

When one listens to satsaṅg with understanding, life's value changes completely, like iron turned to gold by the philosopher's stone. The burden of human existence becomes a precious jewel. Being with the Guru and receiving teachings transmutes qualities, as a bamboo shoot near sandalwood absorbs its fragrance. Dirty water merging with the Ganges becomes holy. Worries and identification with the body dissolve, and fear of death loses its power. The heart is offered as a temple for the Master. The spiritual family, bound by the Guru's love, surpasses blood ties; disciples are children of Mahāprabhujī. The Guru's love exceeds even a mother's love; the children's happiness brings joy to the Guru. Thus, listening to and following Guru Vākya, even without immediate understanding, leads to liberation. One must accept the Guru's word and follow it, even if not understood. The Guru guides toward final understanding and divine consciousness, having no other desire. Reminiscing early days, local songs were sung instead of bhajans, as in the Beskidy mountains. Swamiji enjoyed these simple songs full of beauty and love. Later, bhajans like "Om Jaya Guru Deva" were learned, marking the evolution of devotion. The presence of the Master remains the greatest gift, filling the heart with gratitude.

“Paras avacchana kanchana kiyakshaname—like this, human life, which once felt like a burden, becomes a precious jewel.”

“Jé se kariyār milé chandan, nasaṅg malī agar ho jāvate hē—a bamboo shoot growing among sandalwood trees absorbs the fragrance and becomes as precious as sandalwood.”

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

When you listen with your own ears to his satsaṅg—Bodha-vijñāna śravaṇam—and understand spiritual teachings in the right way, you suddenly see your life from a completely different point of view and realize its true value. Jīva bhāva palaṭabhate he: the value of life changes completely. The value is transformed, just as the philosopher’s stone turns iron into gold. “Paras avacchana kanchana kiyakshaname”—like this, human life, which once felt like a burden, becomes a precious jewel. “Loha bhāva miṭa jāte he”—the low value of iron disappears. “Jé se kariyār milé chandan, nasaṅg malī agar ho jāvate hē.” Chandan, you know, is sandalwood, used in agarbattī. Being with the Guru, receiving his satsaṅg and teachings, transforms our qualities. Like a bamboo shoot growing among sandalwood trees slowly absorbs the beautiful fragrance of the sandalwood, and in the end becomes as precious as sandalwood itself. Or, “nīra milikara gaṅgāme bhagadati hū jāvate he”—when dirty water mixes into the holy river, it is no longer dirty water; it becomes part of the holy river, the Gaṅgā, and even becomes Bhagavatī, holy water itself. In Āyurveda, I think we speak of seven elements. Perhaps this refers to the five prāṇas and the four antaḥkaraṇasmanas, buddhi, citta, ahaṁkāra, the mental functions within us. All our worries, our identification with this body, dissolve. You leave behind all your desires, passions, and fears. And when you are no longer identified with this body, which has to die, you overcome the fear of death. Kāla, that is death. Then death cannot approach you anymore; it loses its power over you. If death does not threaten you, it has already lost its power. “Siddhī Pāsvāmī Mera Gara Āyā Lalanandjī Balīdzāvatā He.” Lalanandjī sings, “Mahāprabhujī came to my home… And I, Lalanandjī, am surrendering, sacrificing myself to him.” But what is this home? Is it just a physical house? In many bhajans, the home symbolizes our heart, our body. We always say, “My heart—I offer my heart as a temple for you; please live in my temple.” We had a beautiful darśan of Swāmījī, and he really came here. For me, as a Swami, it feels as though I have so many friends, so many family members. It is a beautiful feeling. And now, having lived here in the ashram since April, it is as if the family is coming and going all the time. It is beautiful. Thank you to all of you. Maybe he asked me for one more bhajan. That is a good idea, because perhaps that bhajan expresses exactly this feeling: “Sattva Guru, Sattva Saṅgha, Hari Oluwabe.” My eyes fill with tears when I meet my satsaṅgīs, those who come to satsaṅg—but not to kusaṅg, please. As a Swami, it was my life decision not to have children. And now, suddenly, I realize I even have children—special children. Last week I observed a group of children here. None of them were wrong. I also observed special behavior: sometimes I would ask a child, “Would you like a chocolate? Would you like a cake?” and the answer was no. Santosh in children—can you imagine? Jasrajjī always gives chocolate to the children. Do you know what happened in recent days? Not only that, the children made beautiful pictures, especially Oms, and gave them to Jasraj and me with real love. So I already have an art exhibition at my door. But lately, children came to us, the Swamis, and gave us chocolate. I love being in such a special family. One too. But Gajanandjī, did you give them pictures? And Gajanandjī, did you give them some pictures? I am not so much into that art; I am in the other art, with the sound. Hari Om, many greetings to all of you, to all dear brothers and sisters. I feel that today we have heard everything; everything was told already. There is not much I can add. What more could we receive besides the presence of our beloved Master? Whatever we were expecting, we were given much more. We were given his blessings, his love. He keeps thinking of us. As Gajanandjī spoke about the family, I can simply repeat what he said, because I share the same feeling. I experience this amazing, great feeling here and everywhere I go. Many of us have known each other for twenty years or more. Some of you are quite new faces for me. Time passes, but the feeling that you are coming back to your family remains the same. And we all should become aware of what our family truly is and where we belong. Swamiji made a clear statement about this: we are his children. We are Mahāprabhujī’s family. This connection, this relationship, is far deeper than the blood family. Many have already realized it, many are just feeling it, and many are only beginning to feel it. Thanks to my travels, this feeling grows and grows. Wherever I go—be it here in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, in Europe, in India, in Jādan—I feel this beautiful sense of family. So, where should we direct our thanks, our gratitude? We all know, we can all feel it very clearly. We all have parents; we know what it means to be a child and what it means to be a parent. Thus, we are aware of what this family is, what this parental love is. And we know that the love of Sat Guru Dev towards his children, his disciples, is far stronger. It cannot even be compared to a mother’s love for her child. This is something we cannot fully understand or feel entirely, because our minds are limited to the love of family—a mother’s love, a child’s love. So the only thing we can do is to be good children, to be happy children, because a mother is always happy when her children are happy. And if we apply this to the relationship we are talking about, the love between Master and disciple, Gurū Dev will always be happy when his children are happy. This means one very simple thing: we must listen to and follow Guru Vākya. We must realize all that we are receiving from our Master. We must be able to accept his word, and even if we do not understand it, still follow it. Because the day will come when we will understand everything. We will receive the understanding. And towards that day of final understanding, of final awareness, the Gurudev is guiding us. There is no other task for him, no other interest in the world. He has no desires, no ambitions—only to liberate us, to guide us to divine consciousness, to bring us back where we belong. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān, Kī Jaya! In those first years when Swamijī would arrive or stay in Europe, we didn’t sing bhajans; we didn’t know any bhajans. Since he usually stayed in the Beskidy mountains area, we would sing songs like “Beskidy, Beskidy,” and also Slovak and other songs. Swamiji liked it very much. Of course, at that time we were being watched, monitored very carefully. Actually, even today we are watched and monitored. So we sang Czech songs, and then Swāmījī would say, “Okay, let’s sing some Indian songs.” And we would start, “Om Jaya Guru Deva.” Swamiji, it is Guru Vāk. I was to sing “Sedi Sokol,” but I felt more like singing “Dobrúnoc, Good Night,” because it’s a goodnight song. Co myslíte? What do you think? Sokol? Sokol. And Swamiji liked it very much, because these songs are full of beauty and love. You can feel how Swamijī remembers those early times, the old days. You can sense from this how beautiful it was. It was something completely different from now, but it was very beautiful. So that’s all.

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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