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Sanskrit chants: Salutation to the cosmic light. Adoration to our holy lineage, our respect and devotion to all the holy saints on this globe. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. Welcome. The subject given to me is karma: the purification of karma, theory and practice, to create a healthy environment outside and inside. It is said all this pollution is created by the human mind. A few decades ago, or let us say before the Second World War, there was no question of organic nourishment. I remember in 1970 when I came to Europe, people were talking a little bit about organic food, and many said, "What’s that? What are you talking about?" Some people were telling what problems can be and will be, and people didn’t believe. At that time, if you had a mineral water bottle or were carrying your water with you, people would say, "Keenetic person, always carrying water with you." And nowadays, we all search for the mineral water bottle. We polluted water that we can’t drink wherever we like to drink—the water from the lake or the rivers or ponds or from the water tap. So, how the things developed in the last two or three decades is sad. And this is all because of the greed of humans. Mahātmā Gāndhījī said, "Mother Earth has enough for our needs, but not for our greed." And so there is a greed to be one of the richest persons, greed to be the rich person, this and that. One day everything will be taken away from you, which means you will die, go away, and everything will remain here. Santoṣī nara sadā sukhī—who has contentment in the heart is ever happy, and who has a longing more and more is ever unhappy. Happy are they who have no desires; unhappy are they who have desires. Beggars are they who want to have more and more, doesn’t matter what: money, this, that. And kings are they who do not have so much desire. So this is the condition; the pollution began in our mind. We humans like things very much, anything that we see. But at the same time, one tendency awakens in us: "I would like to have it like this. Wow, I want to have it like this." When I was small, 10 to 12 years old, television was introduced, and someone bought one television in the village, and it was only a few hours of programs or news on the television. And you can’t imagine. All people from the streets, from the village, they run and sit in front of the television looking. And it was in all the neighboring villages, they were, oh, that person has got it. Those who were going to see the television, especially the children, they came home and said, "Father, we also want to have a television." Father said, "It is very expensive, and this and that." Okay, slowly, slowly, more televisions came. But suddenly the television was introduced, colour TV, colourful. So slowly, slowly, people, see how the desire awakes in us. It is said this all is a magic power. This is a magic power of the electric power. The person who invented electricity, Mr. Tesla from Europe, after he was very sorry, he said, "This electricity that you introduced to create power, one day, because this is a magic power, one day this magic power will have under its control all the humans and all." So now we depend totally on electricity. Does it matter from a generator, from a battery, or this? We can’t imagine our hospitals without electricity. We can’t imagine our operation theatre without power. We can’t imagine our car without a battery. And we can’t imagine this hall and this TV, Swamiji.tv in webcast. And we can’t imagine that anywhere in the world, whoever is looking, watching this, they see what I talk about and this. There was a time when some yogīs could see everything in the world from one place, or they could materialize themselves, making it visible anywhere. And now this technology is made possible. I don’t know how many computers are on around the world. Each computer can see me. So you can say this is a siddhi. But this has made us dependent. So slowly, slowly, human nature is this. When we see something, we would like to have this. And we would like to have this. That is the problem. And then we begin to make a competition, and if we can’t have this, we are jealous inside. Outside, you are not inside. So there is one story, which is a terrible story, but I think I should tell about this. So there was a man who was very jealous of his neighbor, and he himself was not active, not working, very lazy. Hardly could he feed his children, and he had a neighbor who was working very hard, had a company also, and that neighbor had a beautiful house. Then he had a car, and so on and so forth, everything. And got a television, then a color television, then the one freeze, and this and that. And always he was thinking, "Why does he get so much, and I have nothing?" And every person was greeting that businessman: "Morning, hello sir, how are you, sir?" If you are a very rich person and coming, then we will say, "Yes, please come and sit here, friend, come." And someone who has nothing, then you see them like a burden, "Yes, please sit where you are, don’t disturb more." We make the differences. So the man who was very poor and jealous was always so angry inside. And he said, "Why should I tell my neighbor, ’Hello, sir’? He should tell me, ’Hello, sir.’" But no money. In this Kali Yuga, money is like a god, power. So the man thought, "I will go somewhere and make money and be very rich, and I will come back and then I will show this to my neighbor. And my neighbor will come to see me and say, 'Good morning, sir. How are you, sir?'" Ambition, jealousy, expectation, ego, greed—this is inner impurity, pollution. So he went somewhere, but he didn’t get money. So someone told, "Only God can bless you and get a lot of money." Oh, that’s very good. So he went to the beach, the ocean, and began to pray and pray and pray. So God, the Lord Śiva came. He said, "My child, what do you wish?" So he said, "I want to become the richest one. Bless me, God, with this." God said, "What will you do?" That’s not your problem, God. I want to become rich. Can you bless me with money and this? God said, "Okay, I give you something, and this will give you everything, whatever you wish." Thank you, God. That is great. So God gave him one conch, which we blow to make the sound, the śaṅkha conch. Lord, what is this? He said, "This conch is divine. You take it home and put it on the table, clean it first, bathe it, and then put some flowers and incense, agarbatī, and a little light, and say, 'Hey Śaṅkhadeva, oh Lord Śaṅkara, please give me this and that.' And immediately you will get it. Money, anything, money, gold, this, that, food, cloth, house, car, anything you got, that is what I wish." Thank you, Lord, thank you. God gave him that conch in his hand, and before Śiva dematerialized, he said, "But, Lord, what is it?" Yes, this śaṅkha has another beautiful quality. Is that, Lord? When you ask, for example, for 20 million dollars, he will give you immediately. But he has a good quality also. What is that? You will get 20 million, but your neighbor will get 40 million immediately, double that of you. And God dematerialized. He didn’t mean this. How many months and years I was meditating here on the beach? I will not use this conch. I will work hard to earn the money. And he took this and went home, and he made an experiment. I want to have one cycle. One cycle was standing in front of him, but two were standing in front of the neighbor’s door. He said, "I don’t want this conch." He put it somewhere under the furniture, and he told his wife, "Never use this one because it is this and this." Poor wife, she said, "Finally we got something. We will have to eat, we will have dress, this, that." He said, "No, I don’t want that our neighbor gets double and that he is happy." Jealous, my dear, this human has more; animals also have it, but humans are more greedy. He went to some big city and worked there, what? What should he find to work? There was no work. So he was working as a coolie at the railway station, carrying the luggage of others, for two or three years. Hardly had any money, little to eat, and he was sleeping on the platform at the railway station and saving some money, a little bit. And then, after two or three years, he got a letter from his elderly son. Because his children and his wife decided, "Why should our neighbor not also be rich and happy? We are suffering, we have nothing, nothing to eat, this, this." So they took the śaṅkha out and washed him, bathed him in milk and prayer. They asked for the house, a beautiful bungalow. They asked for a car, and they got it. They asked for many things, like eating and dress, and so now they had a very good life. Neighbors had two beautiful bungalows, and he said that everything. The neighbors were surprised; there must be some ghost. What a magic power. He is the elderly son writing a letter. Dear father, my respect to you, and I am very happy to let you know that by the blessing of Śāṅkhya Deva, the conch, we are very happy, and we have a beautiful villa and everything. Dear father, you need not work so hard anymore. Please come home. He got the letter, and can you imagine how angry he was? He was so angry at his wife. Why did she give this to the children? He left from there and came. He couldn’t recognize. There are three villas. Again he was angry. He came home. He was so angry at his wife. He said, "Calm down, my dear. Sit down. We have prepared food for you. We have a dress for you. Go and bathe and change this dress. The dress is torn, and the shoes are half-broken. The heels are open, and so on." He said, "No, give me guns. Where are those guns?" So they gave him water and this and that. He sang, "My old car should begin to burn where they are." So his car was burning, but the neighbor’s car was burning also. Double, whatever you ask for, double effect will be on the neighbors. He sang, "My building should disappear," and only by that house, one, this all disappeared. So he asked everything to disappear. Now, you see, what a greedy person can do, he said, "Hey, Śaṅkhadeva, my one leg should go away." The neighbor was sitting without a voice. Hey, Śaṅkhadeva, my one eye should go away. He became a one-eyed person, but never became blind. And likewise, he destroyed. And then he said, "Śaṅkhadeva, in front of my door, outside, there should be a very deep hole." And there he threw the Śaṅkhadeva out, and it went through the window away. And the neighbors had only two doors, and in front of both doors was a big hole. He couldn’t go out. So this is the greed, the inner pollution which we humans have. This competition, a wrong competition and challenge, is that we are our own enemy. So inner purification means positive, positive... Renounce, renounce,... and help the needy one. This is inner pollution. Now, when we have inner pollution, then what we say? I don’t care. Out of anger and out of emotion, don’t take any judgment. Mahāprabhujī said, when the waves are too high, don’t dive to search for pearls. Wait until the waves calm down. When we have the high waves, it doesn’t matter which kind of emotion—anger, hate, jealousy, greed—wait and see. Let this emotion go down, and at that time, we don’t know what to do. At that time, no one will help you. Those who motivate you for something negative, even those persons will leave you one day and run away. So that was when Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, before the beginning of the Mahābhārata, said, "Duryodhana, you know about the Bhagavad Gītā, you can read about the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas, and Arjuna and Duryodhana." So God came to make peace, as a peace messenger, a messenger of peace. Kṛṣṇa tried very hard, but the Kauravas didn’t accept anything. And then Duryodhana asked Kṛṣṇa, "I request you, Kṛṣṇa, that you should be on my side." Kṛṣṇa said, "I am neither on your side nor Arjuna’s side. I am on the side of the Dharma, righteousness. I am not supporting Arjuna because he is my friend or disciple, no. Because he is on the side of the Dharma. But tomorrow, I will tell you who will come first to me, and I will join them." Kṛṣṇa was lying sleeping, and Duryodhana wanted to be the first one, so he came earlier. He saw that Kṛṣṇa is resting. Duryodhana said, "Why should I sit towards Kṛṣṇa’s feet?" I will sit on his head side. And Arjuna came and he sat near the feet of Kṛṣṇa, two meters away, with folded hands. Now, Arjuna is mentally praying, and Duryodhana was not praying. He was angry at Kṛṣṇa and at everyone, and he was proud and happy inside because he was the first one there. So Arjuna was praying. Sorry. What did he pray? Some Indians tell me. There are no Indians. Sorry, sorry to ask. You see, sometimes I am also confused. So Arjuna, with folded hands. O Lord, you are the mother. Always, the mother’s name is first. O Lord, you are the mother and you are the father. You are my friend, and you are my relatives. You are my brothers and sisters. You are my wealth and knowledge. O Lord, you are everything for me. Then Kṛṣṇa opens his eyes, and he sees Arjuna and says, "Arjuna, I am on your side." Duryodhana was angry. Kṛṣṇa, I told you, and this is not justice. I was one hour earlier here than Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa said, "How should I know? I told, who will be first there? So I opened my eyes, and Arjuna was the first there. I don’t know that you are behind." So, the ego of humans will turn back to humans as negative energy or pollution. So for us, according to the karma, there are four points which I would like to speak about today and tomorrow. And this one is called dharma. Second is called adharma. Dharma and adharma, justice and injustice. Then comes puṇya and pāpa. This is a very, very subtle, very effective, and very clear point. Puṇya means pious. Puṇyātmā, a pious soul. Puṇya means doing good. What we call the non-profit activities is puṇya. Abusing the non-profit property is Pāpā. So one side is puṇya, and the second side is pāpa. Papa means the sin. Papa means adharma. So the pure and sinner, these are two. So puṇya and pāpa, dharma and adharma, they are very close to each other. And the fruits or result of the action that should come out of these two, that’s called āśīrvād and śrāp. The blessing and curse, we humans understand these points. In every culture, in every philosophy, in every religion, everywhere around the world, wherever you come, maybe you are in China or you are in Africa or in Europe, in Greece, the European philosophies, depending where you are from. The old Greece, or Africa, and everywhere. There is blessing or curse, and curse becomes very heavy on us. Whether you believe it or not, the curse will affect and influence you, and that comes from others, not from you. So a curse is like a weapon thrown at you, a bullet suited to you. But the protection is there, what we call bulletproof protection. And that bulletproof protection is your puṇya. What is a puṇya? Good things. When something happens, you have an accident in the car, two persons were inside, one unfortunately died and the second survived. We say, "Who survived? Thanks to God, his good luck, or his puṇya protected him." So it will never go empty. Nothing that you do good will be fruitless. And nothing that you do, what you call bad, will be fruitless. Both will have the effect. Now, it is said the curse also can be from the animals. How? Through their pain, through their suffering, you remember I told yesterday, if you give something to eat to any hungry person or creature, My person or this creature will not tell you thank you. But their stomach will thank you. Bhūkhe ko bhojan diyā, agar vo āśīrvād nahī̃ dega, toh kam se kam unkī mā̃ toh āśīrvād degī, that we call, no? Virendra, understand? They say or not? That’s it. So similarly, they may physically not be capable of expressing a curse to you, but they are suffering the pain, which will be like a curse. Or they are happy, and maybe they cannot express their happiness or thankfulness, but your help, your support will be a blessing for them. Seek the blessing, seek the blessing. Therefore, Holy Gurujī said, even from the enemy, if you receive a blessing, be happy. There was one ṛṣi that you can see in Mahāśiv Purāṇa, and that ṛṣi, a yogī, a hermitage, that I was less human population. Many spiritual people were living in the forest. It was not easy, not life easy, but they had enough to eat. There were so many fruits and everything, so many berries, and so much to eat, and everything organic. So one ṛṣi was very old, very old, got older and elder. The great saint Nārada, Ṛṣi Nārada, came. Nārada Ṛṣi came to this other Ṛṣi. He said, "Why do you look so unhappy always when I come? You look unhappy." He said, "Yes, Nārada, I am unhappy because I have no child. I want to have one son." Well, Nārada said, maybe God Śiva will bless you. Prayer. Śiva came, Pārvatī and Śiva, and he was again unhappy. God, Lord asked, "What do you want? Liberation, self-realization, what do you want?" He said, "I want to have one child." So Śiva said, "That’s not possible. It’s not in your kismet, not in your faith, in your karma." He said, "Śivājī, if you cannot give me, there is no one in this world who can give me, and you disappointed me. Better you should not have come to me." Pārvatī was with Lord Śiva. And Pārvatī said, "Lord, why do you refuse him?" Give him. So God blessed him with it. Nārada came and he was smiling. The ṛṣi was happy. "Nārada, I got one son. Finally I got a child." He was so happy. Narada was happy. The ṛṣi was a few thousand years old. Maybe they had thousands of years of age. After two years, again Nārada came. And the ṛṣi was so sad. He was so sad. So Nārada said, "Why are you so sad again?" He said, "I am so sad because my child has only 14 years of life. I can’t see that my child dies in my hands." For a father, nothing is heavier than to lift the dead body of his own child. I am sad. Nārada said, "Well, I can’t change the destiny. I can’t change his karma, and so on. But I can give you one piece of advice." Maybe it will protect your son. He said, "Yes, please, please, please. You told me that I will get a son, and I should pray to Śiva, and he gave me." What to do? He said, "Every day, try to give a blessing to your child, and anyone who comes, you should tell them to bless your child. And when the child is three or four years old, tell him he has nothing to do." Always go to anyone and touch their feet or bow down, and they will say, "Bless you, my child. Bless you, my child. Bless you, bless you, bless you." And we in India, when we don’t say only "bless you," our blessing is... Long live, long life, long life. Bless you with long life. Now the child is going whole day here and there, and everyone is blessing him. So he got so many blessings: "Long live, long live, long live." And on the day, because the ṛṣi knew very good astrology, on which day he will die, on that day your son should go in Śiva temple and whole day make the abhiṣeka, pūjā to the Śivajī. Death will come. Yamarāja will send his messengers to take this young child away. But death has no power to enter the Śiva temple, because there is Dharmarāja sitting, and that is the territory of the dharma, not the adharma. Now, and tell your son, when someone comes and calls you, "Come here, boy, I bless you," don’t go. Anyone comes, and the child also knew what would happen otherwise. So Yama came to take the messenger of the day. He heard the Śivaliṅga, that boy, fourteen years, and he went there, and he didn’t want to see Yama, you know. Only Śiva, Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Namaḥ. The day the messenger went away, Yama Rāj, who was king of the day, was so angry. "Why did you come empty-handed?" Go again. So he sent many, many messengers, but they failed. So the king of the Devadatta himself came to take this boy, but he held the Śiva Liṅgam so tightly, and then Śiva came. He said, "Yama, now is not your time to take him." But he said, Dharamrāj said, "His life is only till here." He said, "Yes, tell the Dharmarāja. He has so many blessings. Long live! They didn’t say, 'Fourteen years live.' So go and see, tell the Dharmarāja that in his records, how many blessings he has, what about this? That credit you have to give him first." Yamarāja went away, and that ṛṣi, that young man, declared by Śiva, "Long live," because no one can bless you like neither Śiva, nor Viṣṇu, nor Brahmā, "Be immortal." They will not tell you to be immortal. But they can tell you, "Long live." And when you say long, there is no limit, limitlessness. So, "Long live." And that ṛṣi, still sitting in the Himalayas, still sitting in the Himalayas, he is in the, in the, what you call, the glaciers, full of ice and everything. And what is his name? Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi. Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi, Mārtaṇḍa means that who wins the day, victory over the day. Now, one photographer from somewhere, from England or somewhere, was going to the Himalayas, and his hobby was to take nice pictures. And he went high up somewhere in the Himalayas, and he made one glacier and some caves photo, and he developed it. When it was black and white, and he developed it, he saw one ṛṣi sitting, all is like bones. And he was surprised. He did not make a photo of Champa. And he came and he asked. He made a research, and they said, "Yes, that is a place where Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi is doing his tapasyā." He went to search, they didn’t find any more. That picture was in the reception hall or audience hall of the President of India. And when I was there, I asked the President, "Your Excellency, from where is this photo? Who is that?" So the President told me this story of the Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi, that it is a Mārtaṇḍa Ṛṣi’s picture. I asked him, "Can I have a photo from this?" So he made for me a photo, and I have that photo of that ṛṣi in my room in India. Maybe someday I will transfer it to you by email, and you can see. So, blessings or śrīvāda can do unbelievable things. At the same time, the curse that I will touch tomorrow, I will not put you in fear. Otherwise, you will have nightmares. Therefore, don’t be angry. Do not give the curse and prayer. And therefore, if you know that Jesus, he did not curse them, even when they crucified him. He said, "Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they do." Haven’t we learned from him? Poor little things, you are so angry. I don’t like him, he is like this, or I don’t like, see, and this is a disturbing person, and this and that, blah, blah... blah. Understand the nature of that person. So, dharma, adharma, pāpa, puṇya, blessings and curse, these four things we have to learn in our life. And because of our selfishness, because of our stupidity, that someone is angry with us, and we begin to tell bad things, this is a curse which we are going through. But, jisko rākhe sāyā mār shakena koi, bālana bākā kar shakena, jo chahe jagbheri hoi. Clear? Jisko rākhe sāyā, to whom God will protect, because you have a lot of puṇyā, good things. You have spirituality, that’s called the guru kṛpā. Jispar kripa gurupī hoi, uspar kripa kare sabhī koi. God would want to protect; no one can kill. Not even one hair can be damaged, even if the whole world is against you or is your enemy, for the protector is there. So our protection, the bulletproof protection, is our spirituality, our mantras, our kriyās which you got. And on the day when you will stop and turn away, that will begin to count back again. Therefore, continue your sādhanā, your devotion. When we make a mistake, we should not say, "I curse you," but we should say, "Forgive me, please." My ignorance, my emotion, my anger, my hate, my blackmailing, and this and that created pollution within us. So, therefore, don’t give judgment out of anger. Don’t search for pearls when the waves are too high. So karma is something great. We always have to bow to the karma, and therefore, to good karma. So this blessing, āśīrvād and śrāp, the blessing and curse. Dharma, adharma, write out this and adharma. The pāpaṁ puṇya, these are in our life very, very... So for today, it is enough, because if I really talk too much, then you don’t know where I began and what I want to do. So always, with humbleness, finally we have to come and seek the shelter in the Divine. With such a feeling. Bhagavān Kī Satya Sanātana