TV Channel

Part 1: The Strength of Satsaṅg and the Inner Sound Satsaṅg, satsaṅg... Even if this network of fire breaks, let it break. My work now is to tell people what they say—let them say it. My work now is to tell people what they say—let them say it. Oh, you shine like the sun, oh, you shine like the sun. Go with me and I’ll be with you, and if there’s unity, let it be. Go with me and I’ll be with you, and if there’s unity, let it be. My work now is to tell it to the people, let them say it: Śrīdīp Nārāyaṁ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Sat Guru Deva Kī Jai. Guru Charaṇam Arṣat Tirat Voh Veda Purāṇam Ghaṭ, Guru Charaṇam Ār Sattatirata Voh Veda Purāṇam Ghaṭ. Voh Veda Purāṇam Ghaṭ, Guru Charaṇam Ār Sattatirata Voh Veda Purāṇam Ghaṭ. Vahiyat vosatya viveka batate, Guru charaṇume arśatātiratāpuraṇameṅgate. Guru charaṇume arśatātiratāpuraṇameṅgate Satya svarūpalākate, Manābhapada vosatya svarūpalākate. Gurucharaṇame are satatī Gurucharaṇame are satatī Ratahe vāveda purāṇameṅgate Pāpatate virejana mamarana naiyate Anta jyotiṣa eba jyore manva Śrī Prabhu dī padaya bhajore manva. Śrī pūjā dīh padayam bhajore manva. Śrī Prabhu dīh padayam. Aibha jore manava śrī pūjā dī padayam. Hāre bhāghe bhāraṁ bhajāṁ jāṁ, jānaṁ bhāvabhaṁ mokṣā. Ebhājore manvāsri prābhu dīpādāyām. Ebhājore manvāsri pujā dīpādāyām. Hāre āye pāryaṁ vākṛpa Sedaṁ sa nāpāve māha. Ebhajore mānevāsri prabhūdīpādāyā. Ebhajore mānevāsri pujadīpādāyā. Śrī Prabhu Dīpādayaṁ. Śrī Pūjā Bhagavānadīpanārāyaṇabhūpanakebhūpaṁ. Śrī Pūjā Bhagavānādipa Nārāyaṇabhūpānakebhu Nārāṇabhūpānakebhūpan Śrīprabhu dī padāyām Puruṣot paśot kardeva Śrīprabhu dī padāyām Aibhvā jore vandavāsere pūjade pādāyām Śrīdhīt nāryāṁ bhagvāne kī jai. Svayam ādhava Kṛṣṇajī Bhagvāne kī jai, Śrīdhīt nāryāṁ Bhagvāne kī jai, Śrī Śrī Dev Purījī Mahādeva kī jai, Dharmasamrāṭ paramahaṁsa Śrī Svayam ādhava Nāntūrjī Mahārāja kī jai. I love it when Swāmījī says, "How I was giving a report." In Strelka, he was saying that Jasraj will be watching and giving a report on everybody who’s there. I immediately got nervous because I thought, "I’m one, but there will be 700 reports about me." So, I’m sure that they will come. This is like acclimatizing for India again. Nice to be here. I’m a bit speechless tonight. I think Swāmījī saved the best till last. I’ve been around Europe now for two months—the most amazing experience for me, as I was telling last night in Rijeka. From India, I’ve been in India for the last 15 years, and I hear so much about Europe and what is happening in the ashrams and so on, but nothing I heard prepared me for what I now experienced. Such a special atmosphere everywhere. You know, of course, I knew about Strelka and about Vienna. And I’d been to Vep, but I couldn’t have imagined how many places there are where there is such a strong yoga community and such an atmosphere in the ashrams when they have satsaṅg. Every day it was like a new surprise. When I was in Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, I saw incredible things. When you come from outside, you actually see things from a slightly different perspective. When tourists come to Sydney and they say, "Oh, we want to go and see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House," we just go, "Oh, yeah, okay." That’s normal, you know, you see it all the time. And perhaps for people who are here all the time, you also think this is normal satsaṅg. But this vibration between people, when you come from outside and look at it, is quite amazing. Such an energy. As Swāmījī said, that’s his 40 years of work. It’s just so beautiful to see, and also the experience of seeing people who have been practicing so long, and to see who have been 40 years, 35 years with Swāmījī, and to see their energy and to see the way that they are, is just special. For me, it just makes me appreciate what it is to be with one even more than I ever appreciated it before. I guess I just say that so that perhaps everybody can think about what they have and just enjoy it more and more. In Jaipur, many of you have been to the Jaipur ashram. You know that it’s quite a high building. Some of you may have seen from where it started when it was first there. And Premānandjī will always say, "I don’t know how it’s standing up." Because the reality of what the foundation is, that’s underneath the building, it’s about this deep. Because it used to be a garage, and you know how it functions with Swāmījī. He just said, "Oh yeah, build one more story," and then, "One more." But it’s still there, and it’s standing up. I very much suspect that the neighbors have the same foundation on their house, and the ones on the back also, and the ones on the other side also. How does it all stay up? We have often discussed it with Premānandī. And we decided, actually, if anybody would take their house down, then probably the next one would fall to the side. They’re all holding each other up just because they’re so close together. That’s satsaṅg. That’s like this satsaṅg community, you know? When someone’s having a hard time, the rest of our satsaṅg holds that person up. That’s what we’re here for as a family. As a yoga family, sometimes it will be my hard time, sometimes it will be Ānandājī’s hard time, Vivek Purī’s, or anybody else’s. But because when a community remains together, when someone is having a hard time, someone else is having a good time, and they can hold each other together. And that’s the beauty of having such a community—to somehow lift each other up to a higher level. And that’s why it’s so special to get together to have satsaṅg every week or to be in programs together as much as possible. The feeling, the atmosphere which was in Strelka when we had the Anusthāna and the seminars now—I mean, in reality, in this day and age and with what’s going on in the world, where can you get so many people to come together who are so special? Just don’t forget that joy, that specialness which is that satsaṅg that Swāmījī has made by creating these ashrams and these communities and giving his guidance. And sometimes it will be our turn to have a hard time, but to come, to keep coming inside, it’s so special. Lastly, it’s been my theme the last days because we’re always swimming, and it causes me to always think about surfing. The only thing that’s missing from the Adriatic coast is some waves. I’m worried about falling asleep. Last night I was also telling this story, so sorry if you were in Rijeka. It’s a childhood experience of mine. I was a little boy, and I was out in the surf, and one big wave came towards me. I tried to run. If you ever come to Australia and go in the surf, don’t try to run. It does not work. I tried to run away from this wave, and then it got higher and higher. You know, waves are a little bit like, really like our mind, vṛttis. They’re cruising—I mean, it’s always expressed in the scriptures like that, but I want to say it in a different way. They go across the water, and you hardly notice that they’re there. As long as your sādhanā is deep, and as long as you’re strongly in your sādhanā, they just go along, and they don’t really matter. A wave only shows its real size and force when it comes to the shallow water. Same way, our breath, it really shows its force if we start to lose our connection with our sādhanā, or lose our connection with Swāmījī, or lose our connection with the satsaṅg. So when this wave came towards the shore and it came to the shallow place where I was standing, the bottom part stays, it stops because it hits the sand, and the back of the water comes up above it and just comes up above your head. And then it decided to take me with it and up into the air, and then bang. I hit the sand so hard. I was in pain, I lost my breath, I had back pain. And then they took me back to the shore. And I recovered somehow after ten minutes and stopped crying. And this lifeguard grabbed me by the hand and took me back out, back out into the surf, and I was screaming, "No, no, no!" You know, I didn’t want to go. I was scared now. But he was great. He just held my hand firmly, and off we went. I never knew this man and never saw him again, but he did me such a service that day. He did his job so well. He took me back out, and we went to that same place, and the waves came again and again. I was terrified, and he just took me and he said, "Now sit down." It seemed a little bit against logic to me at that moment. This thing is above your head, a huge amount of water. He said, "Sit down and sit on the sand and go under it." It was completely peaceful down there. Underneath the wave, there was no disturbance at all. And we literally sort of lay there on the sand and looked up and watched it go over our heads. And then he kept doing it with me again and again. They would come bigger, and he’d just say, "Yeah, go under, go under." I learned my lesson about the waves. And for me, it’s such a good image about what happens in our sādhanā. You know, when those waves come, when our issues come up, when things from within us challenge us or when our outer things challenge us, the peace is inside, it’s inside our sādhanā. Peace exists inside, peace exists in our sādhanā. And that is the time when we need to go even deeper. That is the time when we need to take those tools that Swāmījī has given us: mantra, kriyā, our practice, and satsaṅg. Because if you try and go over those waves, or if you try and run away from them, you get inevitably a bit smashed, like I did that day. But the peace is down; the peace is to go in. All of us have those tools; Swāmījī has given them to us. What I find is the hard thing is just to use them at the times when we really should use them, at those most important moments of our sādhanā, where the challenge is coming. Swāmījī said now, when he was speaking on the phone, that he was giving blessings that everybody should get realized in this life. Let’s do it. I love that Nike ad. Let’s do it. It’s anyhow, we’ve talked about it a few times that we should ask Nike for sponsorship for the Om Āśram. You know, they can put where the Sūrya temple is, and there’s the Chandra underneath. We could make it in the Om symbol, I mean, in the Nike symbol. And really, I think about the Om Ashram, you could write underneath it, let’s do it. "It’s one of those things that’s so big, but let’s do it," said Swāmījī. When Swāmījī says something like he just said tonight, why not? What is stopping you? What is stopping me? What is stopping any of us? Swāmījī said something in Jhadan a little while ago, it was in Hindi. He said, "The only thing that’s stopping you on your spiritual path is yourself." The only thing that is blocking that development. He was giving a satsaṅg about Guru Kṛpā. And everything from his side is there. From paramparā, from the teachings, the mantra, everything is there. And if we choose to let that happen within us or not, that is our part. There is a most beautiful part in the Matrix movie. When Neo starts to do things that are quite freaky, and in the control room, they ask, "What’s going on? What’s happening?" And Morpheus says to him, "He’s starting to believe." And Morpheus says he started to believe. We have to have that belief. That is the least we can give to Swāmījī after all his hard work and blessings that he has given us. We have to have that belief that something can happen to us spiritually, and as a community. What stops every one of us from doing that? And if we are not going to make it there in this life, to at least start running towards that goal? You know, Swāmījī, Gurujī is again and again saying it in so many bhajans. He said this: "Come on, wake up." Every moment that passes, we should not waste it without connection. Combined with a mouth that’s completely dry from the salt of the Adriatic Sea. Why shouldn’t every one of us have that belief? There’s one beautiful story about one master, one sādhu swāmī who came to one town, and he was a master of Vedānta. And there was one community in that town that always invited spiritual people to come and speak. So they thought that they would invite him to come to give a lecture about Vedānta. So the topic was there, and the hall was there, and it was full, and he came. I reckon, do you know what I will talk about today? Everyone knew that the topic was Vedānta. What could they do? He was gone. They invited him back again the next week because they had their meeting every week. And so again he came in and he sat down, and he said, "Who knows what I’m going to talk about? Do you know what I’m going to talk about?" And, of course, they’d all learned from last week, so they all said no. He said, "If you don’t know about the subject, then you’re not ready to hear about it." And he walked back out, and he said, "If you don’t know anything about the topic, you won’t hear anything again." And he got up again and got quiet. And what do you do? And they called him again, and he came and sat down again. And in the meantime, they planned the situation a little bit. And he said, "Do you know what I’m going to talk about?" And half the room said yes, and half the room said no. And he said, "Excellent, you guys should explain to them." And he went. They really wanted to hear him speak because they heard that he was a great speaker, so they invited him one more time. But, as you can imagine, they were quite confused about what they were going to do if the dreaded question came again. Of course, he came and sat down and said, "Do you know what I’m going to talk about?" And there was complete silence. And he said, "Good, now you’re ready to hear what I have to say." You know, Swāmījī’s message is there for us, his teaching is there, everything. When we can silence our own mind and our own opinions to be able to hear that message and to hear the teaching that’s inside, then we really, really can start to work without meditation, without prānāyāma, to calm the mind to be open to hear the secret which is inside that mantra. There’s one most incredible dohā from Kabīr. Kabīr Śabadī: "Śarīrame vinaguna bhajay tanti bāha bītara rāmiraha bāha bītara rāmiraha tāte chuṭi baranti." And it means that Kabīr heard inside himself the sound of a vīṇā that had no strings. The vīṇā is this instrument that’s a little bit like a sitar, round down the bottom. So if you can imagine your body is that vīṇā, but with no strings, and that sound was outside and inside. And when he heard it, all of his doubts were gone. And that sound is what rings within our hearts. That song which is inside us, a song of love, somehow. And we play it with our mantra, virtually. To hear that’s what’s inside, to hear that treasure which is within each of us. The peace which is inside us, the Anāhat, the word itself. It means the sound of something that is not hit together. What is that sound that’s not hit together? It can’t be two sticks, it can’t be the harmonium, it can’t be our voice, because they all involve two physical things hitting together or the air hitting together. What is that sound that’s not two sticks, that’s not harmony? That’s not the sound of our sound. That’s where that song plays that Kabīr is talking about. It’s inside our anāhat chakra. It’s just that we open it, and then we hear that song within us. It’s inside every one of us. Can we silence ourselves so that we can hear it? And inside there is that message which Swāmījī is trying to give to us all. I had a time in Jadana a while back, and we had two sticks—the most terrible instrument I ever experienced. There’s one young boy, you know, Avatar Purī’s friend Rājendra Purī, he’s always with him. One or two of you may have been there in this satsaṅg. Swāmījī wasn’t there, and someone had bought these two sticks which were like an instrument, wider at one end and thin at the other end, and they made some funny sound. No one could master them. Nobody could get the rhythm. But Rājendra Purī was playing them one night. He was in ānanda. He was absolutely in bliss. The singer was not in ānanda because he was completely out of time. It was terrible. And you could feel the tension building up more and more and more. Nobody could sing. He was so far out of rhythm. And I really didn’t know what to do, because I was thinking someone will explode soon and tell him to shut up, but he’s in such a bliss, how can you stop him? And then I called him over and I said, "Rājendra Purī." I was somehow thinking of that Dohā from Kabīr. I said, have you ever heard one stick playing? He said, what? He said, "Yeah, yeah... you just sit there and you hold the stick like this, and you try and hear the sound of that stick playing." Rājendra Purī is a legend. He went and did it. He went and sat there for about three bhajans, just going. And afterwards I said to him, "Did you hear it?" And he went, "Yeah, it was fantastic." I was thinking afterwards, I better go and have a try. But you know, in Zen they talk about that, the sound of one hand clapping. Well, that’s the same thing, Anāhat. Anāhat. Two things that are not fitting together. The sound when something is not hitting together. The best part of that story came the next morning. Avatar Purī wasn’t in the satsaṅg. And you know, he never likes that Rājendra Purī has something which he doesn’t have. And he comes to me in the morning, and he goes, "Can you show me how to play that stick?" He said, "Which one?" He said, "The one that Rājendra Purī was playing last night, this one stick." What did it do? Fantastic. Do we believe? Are we prepared to listen to that? It’s not special to any person, it’s inside all of us. When Swāmījī gives us a mantra and gives us the blessing that comes with that, as it is said in the Jyotas, he lights the jyot within us. Part 2: The Inner Light and the Path of Grace He was speaking during a Skype satsaṅg from Strelka. He said, "Now I have lit the light inside every one of you." Now is the time for you to let it shine. Let it shine. To take it out and everywhere you go, to let people see that light. So, I would say, in a way, that is our sevā which we have to do for Swāmījī: to let every one of our lights shine. To take the time, as much as possible, to be in that inner satsaṅg. To let that light shine when we do sevā, when we come to the ashram, when we teach, when we practice. When we go to work, when we care for our children, when we’re with our friends. It doesn’t involve any force towards anyone; it just shines there, it’s just there. Because everyone has that within, and it’s such a beauty. Why not enjoy it, and why not let other people enjoy it? But it really takes from our side a belief. In lots of the bhajans, it also talks about śraddhā, about that trust. Trust in the teaching, trust in your mantra, and trust in that blessing which Swāmījī has given with that mantra, that it can take you there, that it can make that happen. If Swāmījī is saying that he wishes that all of us get realized in this life, he is not saying it just for the sake of it. Just realistically think about it for a moment. Think about it, that it’s possible. He’s saying it because he thinks that you can do it. He thinks we can do it. So at least half of the equation thinks that we can do it. Do we think so also? So that’s the other half of the equation. In order to pass an exam, you need 51%. So if we’ve got 50% from Swāmījī’s side, we only need one. At least that much we can manage. As it says in the Nike commercial, let’s do it. The other thing I wanted to say, I also wanted to say this again, although I said it at the start. Your satsaṅg, your community, is so special. Everywhere I go, I see the faces that are linked together from there or from there or whatever, wow. I can’t describe how it feels for me. I mean, really, at the start, I would not be capable of speaking because there was such an energy here. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t waste it. Be part of it as much as you possibly can. And again, as we were saying last night in Rijeka, there’s one beautiful system in India on Dīvālī: the day after Dīvālī is called Rāmasamā. On Rāmasamā, everybody goes around and they visit their relatives and they visit their friends and people that are close to them. And it’s one of the most important days of the year. Everybody goes to visit, meets, and has a cup of tea or sweets or something, and then goes to the next house and to the next house. That’s the day of the new year. And the principle of the day is that everybody goes around, and between the two people is an agreement that what happened last year is gone. Any petty arguments, any disagreements, anything that was said wrong, or even if it goes on, any business deals that were done wrong. They leave them in the previous year, and they start new. Now, in Jādoṇ we have a community that lives together all the time. It’s not always peaceful. But if you’re going to stay hanging on to those disagreements which you have between each other when you’re living together, you can waste so much time, and we don’t have that time. For me, it’s such a beautiful concept. Every year we just leave it behind. Now, what is ahead of us? Let’s get on with it as a community and also within ourselves in our sādhanā. The same principle applies to the individual. What you’ve done before, can you change it now? No, it’s done. Maybe you did something you didn’t like, or you were lazy, or whatever. But you can do something about what you’re doing now. You can make a change from what you were doing before. For me, that’s such an important part of living your spiritual life, to constantly be forgiving to yourself. Was it good? Because, you know, we’re on a path, it is difficult. If we make mistakes, so what? What we do next is important. Can we learn from that mistake? Can we progress from that mistake? It may be that a mistake is one of the best things that ever happened to us, because we learned something so important that it will open a new door for us. It’s good to look at the mistake, it’s good to observe it, it’s good to be aware of it. But when you start to be upset with yourself because you made that mistake, or to be angry with yourself because you made that mistake, then, from my mind, you’re wasting time. Because you’re still living in that mistake, and it’s constantly running through your head. You live in that sin all the time, and it is constantly repeating itself in you. It is more important to change that, to advance from that sin. If we will, on our spiritual path, if we will conduct it constantly judging ourselves, being negative about ourselves, it’s going to be a very, very long road. But if we can constantly forgive ourselves, and observe, be aware, learn, and then go. And try in the next moment to do it the way we would like to do it, or the way that would be better. In Patañjali’s philosophy, it teaches really that there is no right and wrong. There are only things that take you away from your goal and things that take you towards that goal, our spiritual goal. Things that drag us back toward māyā. And things that move us away from that. When you look at it in that way, it’s not like a judgment: this was right, this was wrong. But if you made a mistake, which means that you went back one step on your spiritual path, one step back, one step negative. Okay, it’s done. The next step should be forward. That’s all we can ask of ourselves: to do our best and to believe that it can really happen. And then try to make that a part of every part of our life. Yoga in daily life. It comes into that awareness, coming in everything that we do. That is the awareness that comes in everything we do. You know, I was reading one interview with one flutist from India, Harī Prasād Chaurasiyā. You may have heard of him. He’s probably the most famous flute player in India. He is one of the most famous flautists in India. He was 80 years old and still playing big concerts. When I was in Edinburgh, I also heard that Ravi Shankar was playing a concert at the Edinburgh Festival. And it was the most difficult ticket in the whole festival to get. But imagine, he’s 93 and still playing this concert. Harī Prasād Chaurasiyā, when he turned 80, there was one interview, and they asked him what he had learned about his music. As he got older and older, what was different? And he gave the answer, he said, "I have learned over time which one is the most important note." Silence. The thing which gives the whole beauty to what I play. The thing which allows the other notes to have their relation to each other. It’s the silent bits in between, that inner silence. When we can find that inside ourselves, and hear that which is within us. Again, it brings beauty to everything else, all the other things which are playing around. In the Strelka, one person asked a really beautiful question. Because when you think of these things and start to think that this beauty is within me, the question that came up was, how do you remain humble? When you start to think that you’re special, how do you remain humble? I like the question because, somehow, in our Western mind, I think it’s a great stumbling block that we think that we shouldn’t think that we are special. I like that question, because in our Western minds there is a kind of quack that we should not think that we are special. That somehow that is ego. I have a little bit different perspective. I think I’m very special, but I also think that everybody else is just as special. That beauty which is inside me, it’s inside every single person. Because you’re scared that that will be ego. We are, we’re all potential specialness. You know, it’s all inside of us if we let it unfold. And it’s inside everyone who’s sitting in this room, and everyone who’s outside also. How much it’s unfolding or not unfolding, that is the only difference. We can’t deny our own specialness. Because when you’re doing that, you’re doing exactly what Swāmījī said at that time in Hindi, that we’re blocking our own spiritual development. We’re not better than anyone else, but we certainly are all special. And that light, when you light one candle from another candle to another candle, they are all giving the same light. You see in those photos from the peace conferences, when you had all the candles in the circle. Such a beauty when all those lights are together, shining. And every one of them by themselves is just as beautiful as the others. But they’re all shining; they’re all giving that light. So let’s not deny the chance for our own light to shine. Because of some mental complex that will give me a danger of thinking I’m great. But at the same time, look at everybody else and see that they are also that same light and that same beauty, and we are all part of that same globe together. Let it shine, let that which Swāmījī has given us sing from within. Practice, do what he has given us to do, our sādhanā, our sevā, everything, and just let it shine. And the practice that he has given us, just let it go. Bhagavad Gītā. Amṛtāśeṣ nita-vāraso ānda Prabodhipādāyaukāyāmṛtāśeṣ nita-vāraso ānda Juga Juga Jivoma Eśvarānanda Juga Juga Jivoma Eśvarānanda Danya Bhaga Bhārata Bhūmika Pragate Bala Mukhanda Danya Bhaga Bhārata Bhūmika Raghate bala mukhanda Tṛtāpaka pāpaharata hai. Jai sepu namachandam, Tritapaka papaharata, Tugajo prabhuja. Bhakti, jñāna, and yoga sādhanā, Brahma jñāna sukha kāṇḍa. Bhakti, jñāna, and yoga sādhanā, Brahma jñāna sukha kāṇḍa. Viśva vijayī ho mahā samaratha, vicāra jñāna bhaṅga. Viśva vijayī ho mahā samaratha, vicāra jñāna bhaṅga. Juga Juga Jivoma Eshwarananda Sīrīdī pādayāluke āmṛtāśiṣ, Nityabharaso ānanda Prabhūdī pādayāluke āmṛtāśiṣ, Nityabharaso ānanda Juga Juga Jivam Aishwara Nanda, Juga Juga Jivam Aishwara Nanda, Kartā ho nirbandha āpana rūpa samajha kara sabako jīvana vinaśvaratā niśākanda. Jīvana mukta kare bhaktōṁ ko vinaśvaratā niśākanda. Yuga yuga jīva Maheśvarānanda Śrī Dīpadāyaṁ ke amṛta. Prabhu Deepa Ke Amrita Juga Juga Jīva Maheśvarānanda Śrī Pūjā Bhagavān Deepa Nārāyaṇa Rakhte Āpne Saṅgam, Śrī Pūjā Bhagavān Deepa Nārāyaṇa Karhte Āpne Saṅgam, Śrī Mādhava Nandajī Ānanda se kaitā, "Main to sabhā kā pāṇḍan." I am under contract to tell one story everywhere I go. It was required of me by Kṛṣṇānandjī from Hungary. From Hungary. So for those who are in Iž, sorry, you’ve heard this story before. Or if you watch the webcast, you’ve already heard it a hundred times. But maybe someone hasn’t, so I have to fulfill the contract. In Kumbh Melā in 2007, I was sent by Swāmījī to meet one saint, Āśāramjī Bāpū, and to invite him to our camp. He’s big in India. If you can imagine satsaṅg, if he goes to Pali, I remember there were 125,000 people. If it’s in a big city like Jodhpur or Jaipur, then there are 200,000 people or so on there. He’s very popular, and in Kumbh Melā he had a tent that fitted 60,000. And someone had some contact, and they said, "Yes, you can meet him, but just before he has satsaṅg, because that’s when he comes to the tent." And we contacted some of his people, and they said, "Yes, you can meet him, but not right before he enters the tent." I was there, and there was a creak. Someone took me back to the place where his car would come. And with one blow, we were—that part was separated from the rest of the tent, and I was inside by myself. Outside were these 60,000 people. Everything was designed so that he could drive right up to the stage, and they could just walk up the steps and come onto the stage. So it was quite surreal for me at that moment. I’m standing there by myself, and outside, these bhajans are going on—60,000 people singing, "Hari Om, Hari Om." But inside, it was just me and alone, nothing. His car came quite fast, with a lot of dust. And he got out, and he walked really with Śakti towards me. He’d be in his mid-seventies. But he’s still quite athletic and really full of Śakti. And he just came over and said, he was pointing the finger. You’re from Maheshwarananda, from Rajasthan. I said, "Yes, yes." He’s from Pali. He knows Gurujī, since Gurujī had an ashram in Gujarat. Because their ashrams were actually quite close to each other in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. And that’s a long, long time ago. I think Gurujī stopped having that ashram in the 70s at some stage. And he also visited Gurujī when he was in the hospital in Jodhpur and spent an hour with him. He came especially from Gujarat at that time to see Gurujī because he heard he was really sick. But anyhow, he obviously knew about Swāmījī quite well. I know they have met two or three times that I know of. I don’t know how many times before. So he comes over and he grabs me by the shirt and by the shoulders and starts shaking me like this, really and really strong. And he grabbed onto my shoulders, and he said, "He is great." He is incredible, he is great, he is the master. Don’t let go. He constantly was saying, "Don’t let go, don’t let go," like this. Of course, I didn’t have a chance to go like this. I was like, "Yes," and again and again he’s just saying, "Don’t let go, don’t let go." He’s great. Just grab his feet and hold on. Whatever he does, he will. Try and kick you off? Just hold on to that foot. Don’t let go. This is still going on. It was amazing. And then he just said, "What do you want?" And we talked about the program, and I think actually we ended up going to him, and Swāmījī came there. But I will never forget that message: just don’t let go. I think we all know the times when Swāmījī is pumping that foot, that it’s hard to hang on. But if it’s that moment for you, just remember Āśā Rāmjī’s message. Don’t let go, just hold on. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān. One more story. This one is also a real story that happened just before I left Jādoṇ. Going back to what Swāmījī said about that obstacle being ourself. I go back to what Swāmījī said, that we are our own obstacles. You know that in Jādoṇ we have one guard on the doorstep, and at night there are two more who are changing, checking the school. Since about 1999. And he’s from a nearby village, and he’s really just this beautiful-hearted person. And he finished his shift, he was on the night shift, he finished at 7 o’clock in the morning. And at 9 o’clock, he was still waiting for me. And I thought, "Why aren’t you asleep?" But he said, "I’m waiting, I’m waiting. I have to tell you this story, what happened last night." He was so excited. He said, "Yes, you’re not going to believe what happened." And he said, "There was this drunken man at the gate." And he was holding on to the gate, like Āśā Rāmjī was holding on to my shoulders. And shaking the gate and going, "Let me out, let me out, let me out." And swearing at Guman Singhjī, open this lock. I won’t say what he said, I won’t translate it properly, but open this lock, let me out, let me out, I want to go to the village. And our guard was saying to him, "But you’re outside." And I’m inside, and the village is behind you. And, of course, he’s telling him, "Don’t lie to me. Open this lock and let me out." He said they spent ten minutes arguing at the gate. This guy is swearing at him, "Let me out, let me out! Open this lock!" And it took him ten minutes to convince him to turn around and discover that Jāraṇ village was behind him. I think you get the message. Let’s stop holding on to our gates and go. Let’s eat. One more bhajan. Sabaye Hi Raja Viren Anta Samayi Jiva Jaye Kele. Satnāya vīren Guru samajā vīren Anta samayī jīva jaya kele Sat Nāya Vere Guru Samajā Vere Chaitā Chaitā Bhajīva Gyān Chaitā Chaitā Bhajīva Gyān Havasāra Jāve Vere Guru Samajā Vere Mata Pita Ore Kutumba Kabila yeduna yamaki marapare yamaki marapare sirupar konchuravere. Guru samāja vīreṇa chaitā chaitā yāva jīva avasara jāvana Satta Guru śaraṇa gayābhinamuraka koṇḍhavā parāḷaga vīreṇa Satta Guru śaraṇa gayābhinamuraka koṇḍhavā parāḷaga vīreṇa Guru kṛpā binā jaya chaurāsī koṭaka vīreṇa Guru samāja vairam Guru pavina jaya. Chaurāsī gota kā vairam, Guru samajā vairam. Chaita chaita abhajīva, Hamsara jahā vairam, Guru samajā vairam. Chaita chaita abhajīva, Amasa rāja vaeru sa maja, Manuṣa janama mola kapāyo. Mura karatana gama verem, Manusha janama mola kapayo. Mura karatana gama verem, Gaya vakta vena impyare. Pīr pīch tāvēre, guru samā jāvēre, Gāyā vaktāvē na impyāre. Pīr pīch tāvēre, guru samā jāvēre, Chaita chaita jāvēre, guru samā jāvēre. Chaititabha jī siri pūjā, Bhagavānadīpa Nārāyaṇa suta haṁsa jaga vairen. Śrī Pūjā Bhagavānādipa Nārāyaṇa Suta Haṁsa Jaga Vaireṁ Mādhavānandajī Bhajan Se Sab Sukha Pāvaiṁ Guru Samajhāvay Ādavānanda Bhajana Se Sab Sukha Pāvay Guru Samajhāvay Caita Caita Bhajīva Avasara Jhāvay Guru Samajhāvay Om bole Śrī Dīpna Niyam Bhagavān. He came to Croatia. That guy on the border was very suspicious that I was bringing marijuana inside. He was searching my bags for about half an hour. I’m a bit worried about going back out of the country tomorrow, because after the satsaṅg I’ll be so high. If I get the same guy, he’s going to think, "Oh, I missed it. What did he really have with him? One more?" Copyright © 2020, New Thinking Allowed Foundation. Thank you. Thank you. Devāna Andamana Bhāte Pīrāṇa Devāna Indyate Guru Caraṇam Arṣad Vedapura Namaḥ Ghaṭ Guru Caraṇam Arṣad Veda Pura Guru Caraṇam Arṣad Veda Pura Guru Caraṇamaya dāsa tīrthe. Don’t let go. That’s what those feet are there for. Enjoy. Beautiful. Everything we have. If you talk about a good constellation, to have this human birth, to have the wish to be spiritual. To have this type of satsaṅg, this community. And then to have the master and to have the paramparā, and the mantra, and the chance to use it. There is no better chance. So let’s do it. Just do it.