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Hari Om. Many greetings from Jadan. Today Swamiji called us from Nepal and gave us something new to try. She said that for today we should have the webcast with a translation into Czech. So this is the first time we have done this here in Jadan. If we make some mistakes, then sorry. As many people will know, Swāmījī is on retreat in Nepal. He said to send to everybody around the world his blessings, and his love to all the bhaktas, from the most beautiful view of the Annapurna mountains—one of the holy mountains in Nepal, and an area that has many, many pilgrimage places. He is staying there on the side of a lake in Pokhara. As he described it, one could only just get the image of how beautiful it is there. Just the other day, on Thursday, there was a special constellation. It is called Puruṣa Nakṣatra, Guru Puruṣa Nakṣatra. It is a particular constellation, and the special thing this time was that it also fell on Guruvāra. I became aware of that quite early in the morning that day because many of the locals were calling to say their praṇāms to Swāmījī for this particular constellation. It was very special for them. It is a very auspicious constellation. So what better time to remember the Guru and to remember our Master? He may be physically with us, or He may be far. But according to our inner self, according to our inner thoughts, we are far or near from Him. It is up to us and our love, our application, as to where we stand with Him, as to where He is in our hearts. According to that, we can receive the blessing and the guidance. Many will have experienced that feeling at one of those moments when you have a wonderful connection with Swamijī—and at the same time, the question you want to ask Him just seems to be answered from within. Or someone comes who answers that question for us, or a situation arises that answers the question immediately. It is not just a coincidence that this happens; it is that inner connection that allows it to happen. What is important from our side—the key from our side in that relationship—is to be open to accept the advice that Swāmījī gives us, the guidance He offers. It is especially when we go and ask Swāmījī a question, whether inwardly or verbally, that we must be prepared to hear the answer and to accept it. That answer may not necessarily be what we want to hear; it could be the exact opposite. But through our openness and the trust we have for the Guru, He can give us not the answer we want to hear, but the answer we need to hear. Therefore it is important for us to develop openness, the ability to accept what comes from the Master. There is a Buddhist writer, Jack Kornfield, who went and lived many years in a monastery in Thailand. He wrote about the fact that when he first arrived, the hardest practice for him was to bow. It was completely against his Western nature. He said it was so difficult for him mentally to accept that concept that physically he also felt stiff. In that monastery and in that culture, the practice was that in the morning you bow to everybody who was your senior. Of course, he was the newest person there, so every morning he had to bow to everybody. And it was not just folding your hands; it was touching the ground in front of everybody. As he wrote about it, he said that over time he became flexible toward that idea, and he realized what a beautiful practice it was. He realized that it had nothing to do with the person he was bowing to getting anything out of it; rather, he was receiving all the benefit. He was becoming flexible, becoming accepting. And when children go home or wake up in the morning, they do the same thing to their parents, their uncles, their aunties. When you truly accept it, it is such a beautiful practice. In order to understand what somebody has to say, you have to stand underneath them. You have to acknowledge that they have something to give you, to pass down to you. When we bow to the Master, in that same way, it is a physical practice. We express our understanding that the Master has something He can give us, something we do not have, and that hopefully He will let that knowledge flow down to us. In the yogic tradition, in the Vedic tradition, and in the Hindu tradition, when a great master like Swāmījī comes, we bow to their feet and touch the feet. What we are doing is saying from within that we cannot reach the level of his head and his upper chakras, but at least we can get to his feet. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya said in Guru Aṣṭakam: if you have not understood the Guru’s feet, then every other type of knowledge is useless. What is it used for? Because when that knowledge of the Guru, that understanding of Him—even at His feet—comes within us, then all other knowledge awakens within us. In the Indian household, when the guru comes, the first thing the family does is wash the guru’s feet. The ladies of the house take that water as prasāda and guard it especially, for that water is sacred. A similar practice was there at the Last Supper; they washed the feet of Jesus. And one thing for me: when there is a Kumbha Melā, people have often said, “We just cannot bathe where Swamījī is bathing, in that main bathing place, because the crowd is too big.” My solution to that problem would be to go and bathe a hundred meters downstream. Not only do you bathe in the amṛt of the Kumbh, but you bathe in the amṛt of the Guru Caraṇ. It is somehow like that Kumbha Amṛta with interest, and it comes to you. When you wash the guru’s feet and that water is there, it is called Caraṇāmṛta, the nectar of the guru’s feet. Within Hinduism, there are many types of amṛta—Jñānāmṛta, the nectar of knowledge—but of all the types of amṛt, the most sacred is that which comes from the Guru’s Charan. We all know the bhajan, “Guru caraṇome arasata thiratahe.” Within those feet are contained all the Tīrthas—the 84 Tīrthas, Arasat, no, it is not 84, 68. And that is said since ancient times in the Vedas and in the Purāṇas. One can go on pilgrimage to all the holy places of India, but it is just as effective to go and understand your Guru, to sit at His feet and take His blessings, to give a chance for that jñāna, that knowledge, to come to you, to let that energy and atmosphere which is around Him soak into you. If you can remember when Gurujī was here, Holi Gurujī would sit and just do His mālā. There was very rarely a time when we sat with Him that He said something to us. But you would sit there at His feet, and when you went out of the room, something had changed, and you were aware of it. If you came into the room full of anger or restlessness and sat there for a few minutes, inevitably, because of that amṛt which was coming from Him—just His sheer presence—you left not as angry as before; you left without that restlessness. You left with a glimpse of the peace and love which is within you. So somehow, without any words, just by His presence, by His vibration, that started to be revealed to you. Through whatever past karmas, through whatever good things have happened to us at some stage, or whatever blessing we have, we got this chance to be here. I had the chance to be a disciple. See, when you come to Swamiji, when you come to your Guru and you offer something—as we figuratively do, offering everything at His feet—there is nothing special about that giving. It is special to give, of course, but even more special is to have somebody who can accept it. Of course, it is strange to give something, but much more special is that there is someone here who is willing to accept everything. We all know the pure love that comes from Swamijī. Through this, Swāmījī accepts not only the good things with which we come to Him, but He accepts literally everything, even when we are not in the best condition. It is an absolute acceptance from His side, the good and the bad. He can help us purify or transform them. Even harder to find is someone who can accept our love—to just be able to accept that as it is and us as we are. That is what we have when we have a guru; we can offer everything at His feet. Such a special chance, on this special constellation. I have told this story a few times in Europe, but I do not know if I have said it here. But no harm in saying it again: “Na Kumbha Mele v Ilāhābādu.” If he would come to our camp, so that we could have his darśan. He is one saint who has huge satsaṅgs. That day when I went there, there were about 60,000 people in the tent. He was not yet there, but knowing somebody, they took me around the back and said, “Out of the side of the camp came Āśaramjī in his car.” He came in quite quickly; it was the car, and he stopped quite suddenly. As is everywhere in the Kumbha Melā, it was associated with a large cloud of dust. Then, as the dust settled, he opened the door, came out, and really marched towards me—with such an intention, like an arrow going forward. I was not quite sure what to do. Of course, the first thing was to do praṇām. There was no question about that. I was not going to miss that chance. Then after that, he grabbed me by the shoulders and started to shake me. And he said, “You’re from Maheshwarānandajī, aren’t you?” He had come from out of nowhere. I do not know if he had been told who I was or where I was from, because actually nobody there knew who I was, except one man who had led me back. That fellow who had put me there was actually just one of the security guards on the gate that Lakshman Dandi from our STD knew, and he kind of snuck me in. But there was Āśaramjī grabbing me by the shoulders and really shaking me, saying that I was going… And he was saying, “You’re from Maheśvarānandajī. He is great. He is one of the great saints of India.” And then he shook me so hard that I was about to get whiplash. He kept saying, “Don’t let go, hold on to his feet.” And he was saying, “It doesn’t matter what he tries to do. He may try and kick you off, just hold on, don’t let go. Hold on to his feet, don’t let go.” He was saying it again and again and again. When he stopped shaking me, I managed to actually ask him if he would come to our camp. And he said, “Oh, we’ll see.” And then he ran on to the stage to do this satsaṅg in front of 60,000 people. At times, because of our inner baggage, because of what is inside of us, because of our inner difficulties— Could you repeat this? At times, because of our own inner difficulties, it can be a rough ride. But at those times, I know for me, I just think of Āśaram Jī, him saying, “Don’t let go.” I speak from experience. If something like this happens to me, I will remember the words of Āśaram Jī, as he says, “Never leave your master. Never leave him.” I would have one more story from that same Kumbha Melā. When there was the first bath of that Kumbha Melā, Swāmījī was going in the parade to the main bathing, with all of the other Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras from our Akhāṛā. After the bathing, they all got back onto their chariots. And in Allahabad, it happens that after that you drive up the road a little bit and get stuck in a traffic jam. We got to the bus stop, which actually results in everybody sitting in one place for about half an hour, because others are passing, going towards the bathing, so we have to wait for them. I was quite open and wanting to do something, enthusiastic. I thought, we are standing here doing nothing, and I said, “Swamiji, can I go on behalf of everybody and give one flower mala to each of the Mahāmaṇḍaleśwars who are sitting there on their rath?” It was just out of the joy of giving to everybody, because I was so happy to be part of that whole atmosphere and to be with Swāmījī. If you have been there for the Kumbha, after the bathing, you will know that basically everybody is happy. There is such purification from the bath, such exhilaration from the whole event. And I went to each one, starting from the Ācāryajī, the most senior, and coming all the way down the line of the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras sitting there. I was talking with Premānandjī, and we were trying to work out what on earth this was all about. After some discussion, we realized suddenly what it was. It was that blessing from yesterday from giving those mālās. Somehow, it felt like through my innocence I had gone there, and to everyone, it was the first mālā they got after the bath. For every one of those saints, they were just glowing at that moment with happiness, and I feel like they were so open that they gave me such a blessing. It was unbelievable. It was no intelligence of mine; it was nothing that I had understood—just somehow being a little bit simple and going and doing it. What I realized from that is just the power which is there in the blessing of those saints. It is a śakti which you just should not miss the chance to take at every opportunity. When you see Swamījī, take the chance to do praṇām, to touch his feet. Every day, the first time you see Him, do that praṇām. Just as Jack Kornfield said when he went into the Thai monastery: after some time, he realized that he was not giving anything to the person he was bowing to, but receiving everything from them. You have also seen in the Kumbha Melā, sādhus going when they have a bandhārā, with such joy, greeting every single person sitting there—thousands of people. For some, it is just a formality, but for those who understand and those who know, it is actually the best part of the bandhārā. So, I guess what I wanted to say is there in Āśaramjī’s words, especially on this special constellation for the Guru. Just remember that those feet are there; don’t let go. Bhole Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Devpurīṣī Mahādeva, Kī Jai, Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa, Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda Purī Jī, Mahārāj, Kī Jai, Viśvaguru, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara, Paramahaṁsa, Śrī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī, Satguru Deva, Kī Jai. I think someone else has to sing. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar, Śrī Śrī Mahādāna Purījī, Mahārāj, Kī Jai. Om Boli Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Devī Īśvar Mahādeva Kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāj Satguru Swāmī Marvānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar Paramaṁ Śrī Swāmī Maheśvarānanda Purījī Satguru Deva Kī Jai. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya, Śrī Śrī Devī Svarma Deva Kī Jaya, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jaya, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramaṁ Śrī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī, Satguru Deva Kī Jaya, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Śrī Svāmī Jasrāj Purī Jī, Mahārāj, Kī Jaya. So, to everybody, good night, Hari Om, and hope you can all join us again tomorrow. And to everybody around the world in all the different countries, from all of us, Praṇām. Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda Purījī, Mahārāj, Kī Jai, Viśvaguru, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda, Śrī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purījī, Satguru Deva, Kī Jai, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda Purījī, Mahārāj, Kī Jai.