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Om Sukhadam Kevalam Jñānam Ūratim Dvandatītam Gaganasadṛśam Tasmāsyādi Lakṣam Ekam Nityam Vimalāchalam Sarvādhiṣakṣibhūtam Bhāvatītam Trigunarahitam Satguru Tam Namāmiyam Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Salutation to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, Omniscient and Omnipresent. Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. I am happy to be again in this beautiful city, Vancouver, and very happy to see all of you here. I see many new faces. Greetings to our dear Nirvāṇ Purī, President of the Yoga and the Life, our dear sister Nārāyaṇī, and our dear mother, Matajī Catherine. Thank you also to the many volunteers who maintain this Yogananda Life Center. Time passes quickly. It has been twenty-five years of coming to this beautiful place. There must be some special karma and another energy which brings me here again and again. I wish you all a very relaxed and good evening. The subject is yoga for unity. Both words are the same. Unity is yoga, and yoga is unity. The word ‘yoga’ means unity. Anything that comes together is uniting. We have made ourselves together here in unity. There are two words: yoga and saṃyoga. Yoga means coming or being one. Saṃyoga means it happened that we came together now, as if coincidentally. It was in our destiny; we did not know before, but something brought us here together. You came from many different countries and directions, and we are here together. This is Saṃyoga. Today’s meeting is a Saṃyoga, and it is good. The practice of yoga harmonizes, balances, and creates good health for our body, mind, and soul. It brings harmony which you carry into daily life. The spiritual or real aim of practicing yoga is that the individual soul merges into the universal soul. That is called union. We are sitting here as many individuals. As individuals, we are alone, but as Ātmā—the universal one—we are all one. There is no duality between you, me, and others. As individuals we are different, but as the light of God we are one. The practice of yoga means to realize oneness again with God. We exist as an individual soul, but we do not know since when. This individual soul flutters on the waves of time throughout the universe, experiencing happiness, unhappiness, pain, pleasure, darkness, light, and so on. The great master Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya asked: “Who am I? From where do I come? What is the purpose of my coming here? And where will I go?” When these questions are answered, we are in oneness, or self-realized. If they are not answered, we remain individuals. After some time, we will go in a direction we do not know. There is a point in a famous Hindi poem: “Patta ḍal se ḍūtā, legāhī pavana udāī, aba bichāre kaba milenge, dūra paḍege jā.” It means: a leaf is broken or fallen from the branch; the wind took it away. We do not know where it will fall, or if the same leaf will ever come again to the same branch. Similarly, when this body dies, the inner self, your jīvātmā (individual soul), will go somewhere. We cannot SMS, email, or call it. Our destiny, our karma, will take us; we do not know where. Each individual has a different destiny and luck. It means we are not one; we are separate individuals. There is Satya and Asatya: truth or reality, and unreality. The reality is that which never changes, remains untouched, equal, in oneness, and everlasting. That is called Brahman, God, or the ultimate truth. What is changing is not reality. In Vedānta philosophy, Śaṅkarācārya said, “Brahma satyaṁ, jagan mithyā.” Brahman is the supreme, universal one—formless, unseen, but it is. That is the truth. Jagat means this world. Everything in this world is changeable. Who came will go; what is created will be destroyed. Everything is bound by time, and what changes is not reality. How can we understand that which is unchangeable? We can compare it to the sky. You cannot change the sky, cut it, or shoot holes in it with a gun. In the Bhagavad Gītā, God Kṛṣṇa said: “Ātmā cannot be destroyed by any weapons; fire cannot burn it, wind cannot dry it, and death cannot take it away.” That Ātmā is your reality and my reality, in one unity. Asatya, non-reality, is our body. The body exists; you cannot say it is not a reality. But it is a bundle of elements, a temporary instrument or house for the soul. The body changes constantly. Our dear Matajī Catherine just told us about a lady who is above seventy-five years young. Through practicing yoga in daily life, she became healthy and looks younger. We wish her a happier, healthier, longer life. But how long will you keep this body? Similarly, our feelings and thoughts are changing; they are also not reality. Our soul is a bundle of our karmas. Karma means actions—whatever you do, good or bad. Good karma creates a good atmosphere, harmony, and friendship. Bad karma creates a bad atmosphere, perhaps leading to fighting or war. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. A yogī is a person who realized ātma-jñāna and overcame individual feelings. “Ātmā paramātmā kā bhed mita kar abhed siddh karne vālā yogī kahlātā hai.” That means removing the duality between ātmā and jīvātmā, or ātmā and paramātmā. That is the achievement of yoga, or unity. Otherwise, yoga is very good for our body, mind, concentration, relaxation, overcoming diseases, and prevention. But still, yoga means reality. Yoga means union with God—a union you cannot separate anymore. One drop falls into the ocean; you cannot catch it again. Though it is one drop, it gains the quality of the ocean. It merges into oneness, bringing everlasting happiness, light, and oneness with God. One who achieves this will not come and go anymore. According to yogic science, 8.4 million different kinds of creatures are created on this earth. One of them is the human. Therefore, there is no racism. Human is human. A Canadian meets an Indian; they are Canadian or Indian by citizenship. But will you call Canadians human and Indians not? All are human. Do not divide them by color, nation, language, or culture. All NGOs, the United Nations, and many people work on problems in humanity—problems created by some who put up divisions, saying humans are this or that. Humans on this planet are created by God as love. This love means to love all equally, to love all creatures. Humans are here as protectors, to protect and love God’s creation. Do not be distracted; do not create duality. All wars in past history happened because negative thoughts were put in the brain to divide people. But yoga means to unite. Love means to unite. God means to unite. Wisdom means to unite. Kindness and humbleness are to unite. Hate, jealousy, ego, pride, and greed are signs of ignorance. Where there is ignorance, there is division and suffering. Where there is knowledge, there is love, happiness, and unity. What kind of knowledge? Not knowledge of computers or gardening—though that is good. The real knowledge is ātma-jñāna, knowledge of the self. Here, ‘self’ means: Who am I? If someone knocks and says, “I am Catherine,” you invite her in. But if you point to her shoulder or hair, she says, “No, it’s my shoulder, my hair.” Anything you indicate on her body, she says, “Mine.” My blood, my bones, my heart. So it is mine; this is my body, but I am not this body. Let us go further. Who said this? I said this. Is this voice what you are? No, this is my voice. My mind, my intellect, my emotion, my desires, my ego. Then we go further: it is my energy. But who are you? Then you say, “My soul.” But who is sitting in the soul? The speaker says “mine.” So the question remains. Nirvāṇa Purī gave the subject “Realize Oneness.” It is easy to give the subject’s name, but difficult to speak about it. We asked for an onion. She brought it. I took the onion and peeled it: first layer, second layer, third layer, fourth layer. Where is the onion? You have it in your hands, but when you open all layers, there is no onion. Similarly, as long as we identify ourselves with the body, mind, intellect, or even this soul, we are in duality. When we realize that I am the Ātmā, you are the Ātmā, “Ātmā sohī Paramātmā”—that Ātmā is the Paramātmā, the highest, supreme, universal one—then you, me, and all are one light of God. So we love that light. Gandhijī said, “We hate the sin, not the sinner.” We may be different in habits, language, or culture, but we are one ātmā. That is the first point. Second, I told you we are all ātmā and we are all one. But that is only theory at present. How to realize it? That is the practice of yoga or other spiritual traditions and techniques. I would not say only yoga. There are many different cultures and countries; many holy incarnations and saints have appeared in different parts of the world—in China, Russia, India, Africa. The earth has diamonds in her body, not only coal. Many holy saints and great people have been here. A holy saint is not defined by cloth or uniform. Who knows? Maybe some incarnation is sitting with us. We do not know; maybe someone self-realized is here. So we cannot judge anyone as a bad person just because we do not like them. Liking and disliking is duality, discrimination. We like God, love, unity, and happiness. We accept that dualities exist, but duality is not reality. It is a temporary gift given to us: this human life. Human life is a chance for the soul to merge into the cosmic soul. Now, how do you find the way where you feel confidence, relaxed, happy, and spiritually guided? Where you feel you are progressing towards God? Where no one speaks against another, against some religion or culture? It is unity in diversities. We are all in unity, but we do not know it. Meditation, mantra practice, and following our Dharma help. Dharma has two meanings. One is religion. If I talk about following your religion, your dharma, I create duality again. I am Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim—again we divide. This dharma is only a path, not the destination. Life is a journey, not a destination. We are on the way; we are tourists. To be a tourist is also a risk; we may lose our way. Every dharma, every religion, is great and perfect. The problem is with the followers. Because I want many sheep in my yard, and if another has five hundred sheep and I have only two hundred, I will try to manage so more sheep come to my yard. This is a problem with religions today. Those who misguide in this way are not following the will or purpose of God’s creation. Sanātana Dharma says: “Guide them, support them. We convince them, we don’t convert them.” Convince them there is a God and that God is everywhere, equal. There is a fire flame; the fire in the forest is the same fire element. Then we will respect. When I pass a church, I pay my adoration. When I pass a mosque, I pay my adoration. When I pass a temple, I pay my adoration. When I pass a hospital, I pay my adoration—to the doctors. Many say doctors are not good, but I say that is not correct. Doctors are very good. Their science and work is to remove the pain of the suffering. Whether the person survives is different; an operation can be successful but the patient dies. It is not about the doctor as a physical person, but the knowledge that helps people. My adoration also goes to those suffering in the hospital; may they pass away soon. I adore that soul, that ātmā. You see God everywhere. There is a little story. In a primary school class of thirty-five children, the teacher asked a religious question. He said, “Kids, I have ten dollars in my pocket. Whoever answers correctly will get it.” They agreed. The question was: “Tell me, where is God?” One boy said God is in his mother. Another said in his father, another in his dog, another in the church. One boy sat peacefully. The teacher asked him. He stood and said, “Sir, unfortunately I do not have ten dollars in my pocket, but I can do some work for you. Please, sir, tell us: where is there no God?” The teacher was taken aback. He asked, “What do your parents do?” The boy said, “My parents are doing yoga in daily life.” So everywhere is God. When we know He is omniscient and omnipresent, then against what should we talk? That is the way to world peace, unity, love, and following the right path. We have misunderstood dharma. Here, what I mean by dharma is our obligation, our duty in this world for which God sent us. For example, the dharma of the eyes is to see. If one is blind, the eyes have no dharma to see. The dharma of the ears is to hear. The dharma of fire is to give heat. “Dharmo rakṣita rakṣitaha.” If you protect your dharma, dharma will protect you. So what is human dharma? Not Canadian, American, Japanese, Chinese, European, or Indian. Only one: human. What is human dharma? Self-realization: to know who I am, to become free from the cycle of birth and death, rebirth and death. The purpose God has given human dharma is to serve, to help, to show mercy. A human heart should be merciful. When there is mercy, you cannot do anything wrong or bad towards anyone. A master came to a place and gave a lecture. After, two persons asked to be accepted as disciples and to receive a mantra. The master said they must pass a test. They agreed. The master said, “Go and bring me a pigeon.” They caught one and brought it. The master said, “Go somewhere no one sees you, kill it, and bring it.” One went to the bathroom, killed it, and brought it back. The master asked if anyone saw him. He said no, he was closed in the bathroom. The second was sitting. The master told him to go kill the pigeon. He went to the bathroom and came back with the pigeon alive. The master asked what happened. He said, “Sir, you said to kill it where no one sees, but I see that I am killing him.” The master said to put a cloth over his eyes. He did, took a knife, but came back again. “What happened?” “I put cloth on my eyes, but the pigeon sees me killing him.” The master said to put a towel on the pigeon’s eyes too. He did, but came back again. “Sir, I tied my eyes and the pigeon’s eyes, but God sees me. Can you tell me how to tie the eyes of God?” The master said, “You are the right disciple.” Then the master said a mantra, and the pigeon killed by the first person became alive and flew away. Thanks to God. So God is everywhere. You are that pigeon. The story continues for you. Listen carefully. Whether you will be killed or not is in your hands. The next day, a student came to class. It was a class for older boys, about eighteen or nineteen. One boy was very jealous of his master, jealous that the master knew so much and he did not. He wanted to ask a question the master could not answer, so he could say, “Sir, you also do not know.” He was angry inside, though outside he said, “Oh, my Master, I adore you.” One day, he could not sleep. He came ten minutes late to class, holding a small bird behind his back. He said, “Good morning, sir. I am sorry I am late. But you will give me blessings and knowledge. Wisdom is with you. But, Master, I am stupid. I know you know everything, but I think you don’t know something. Can you answer me?” The master knew this boy always acted as a knower. He said, “Yes, my son, what is your wish?” The boy said, “I don’t dare ask because I know you know the answer. But can you tell me what I have in my hands?” The master smiled and said, “You have a small bird in your hands.” The boy twisted and said, “Oh, my master, I love you. You are great. I knew you would know.” The master said, “No problem.” The boy said, “I am not finished yet.” All the students were watching. The boy thought, “I will ask a question so whatever answer he gives will be wrong.” He decided to ask if the bird is alive or dead. If the master says alive, he will squeeze his fist and say it is dead. If the master says dead, he will let it fly and say it is alive. Then he could say, “Master, sometimes you don’t know.” He asked, “Sir, one last question: is the bird alive or dead?” The master said, “My son, this question I cannot answer you.” The boy said, “Why not? You know everything. This is the first time I hear you can’t answer. It means you also don’t know.” The master said, “It is not a question of knowing or not knowing.” “Then what, sir?” The master said, “The life of the bird depends on your hands.” The boy said, “Yes, sir, correct,” and let the bird fly. So, all my dear ones, you are sitting here. Your life depends on you. Whether you will be successful as a human being and achieve the highest consciousness, or go as other creatures do. Many good and bad things happen in life, but the most terrible tragedy is to die without Self-realization. Self-realization means the unity of the individual with the Supreme. Śaṅkarācārya and other masters said the first step of self-realization is to see in every creature the light of God. That means the little ant feels the same love, pain, or pleasure as I feel. See yourself as one with that ant. Our Master, Bhagavan Deep Narayan Mahāprabhujī’s Master, Dev Puruṣ (you see here in the picture above), said: “Surrender to your master; then the master will take upon himself the destiny of the devotees.” It is not easy for a master to have disciples with bundles of karmas, and it is not easy for a disciple to surrender the ego and become a disciple. But when there is an eternal union of master and disciple, from that day the master’s spiritual powers, prayers, and all works are for you—to take away your bad karmas and support you, like the wind supports the leaf to go in the right direction, or supports your boat to reach the mainland. The master can show the way, but you have to walk yourself. So this life is a journey, not a destination. Let us hope this journey will be the last one. If it stops, we do not know where we will end up. Where will this soul go, and in which body? No one can go with us—not our house, money, anything. We came alone, and we will go alone. “Ko’ham?” Who am I? “Kutaḥ?” From where? “Idam?” Where am I going? Why did I come here? “Ko’ham, katham, idam, jātam”—and where am I going? With my karma, where will it lead me? This is the real meaning of practicing yoga: it means no discrimination toward any religion, culture, creature, or society, but to love them. Love does not mean going on the street and telling anyone, “Hey, I love you.” Love means good wishes. The Vedas say: “Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ”—I pray that all should be happy. This world still exists because of the wisdom and spirituality of great souls; great saints are sitting somewhere. Maybe they are not here, but their light and blessings are with us. So, unity, union, practicing āsanas, prāṇāyāma, meditation, mantras—these are good for our health, to prolong our life so we can achieve our goal. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa: “Kṛṣṇa, what will happen to me? Suppose you tell me to practice yoga, but if I die without achieving self-realization, what is the use?” Kṛṣṇa said: “Your body will die, but karma will not die, destiny will not die, the soul will not die. It will lead you again to a good, spiritual family and into human life again. From childhood, your spirituality will awake, and you will continue your spiritual journey.” So this is for this evening. Tomorrow we will continue. I wish you all the best. God bless you. Practice whatever spiritual practices you can. Try to see the world differently now: animals, trees, flowers, mountains, clouds, rains. When it rains, do not say, “Oh, terrible weather.” No. God made everything; it is very good. If you do not like rain, then say, “Please go to Rajasthan or Australia, where there is no rain.” Rain is good; water is alive, the blood of Mother Earth. Everything is good. Good and bad are in our thinking. If someone made a mistake, from your heart, delete it. See the good things. A honey bee brings nectar from every blossom. A yogī, a spiritual person, brings only good things from everywhere and keeps in their mind only that nectar, that honey—the good things. All the best, and God bless you. Merciful Lord, may all be happy, may all be in harmony, and may I also be happy and lead a harmonious life. Peace, peace, peace be everywhere.