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You can go into your garden and every day put out a little bread flour or chapati flour, perhaps with a little sugar, under a bush. They will eat it, they will get something in their stomach. They will not bless you or say thank you, but their stomach will thank you. To give food to a hungry person or hungry creatures is the releasing of our karma, a purification. Or, on your balcony or in the garden, feed the birds. Here in Queensland you have very good nature, and birds have enough to eat, but still they sometimes like certain seeds you can put out. They will sing a song for you. They will dance for you. There are times when you don't feed them and you are late, they come and knock on your window. This is a purification of karma if we have taken food away from someone. We do not know from where we get our food, so we share it. You don't have animals anymore here in your big cities around the world. But our mothers in the villages, still now and before—I remember very well. We were little children, hungry and waiting for mother to cook. Mother would begin to cook. We were waiting: who will get the first chapati? We mostly had chapati. It sounds funny, but I must tell you this beautiful story. We, two or three brothers and sisters, all waiting—and who will get the first chapati? I said I would, because I was the youngest. Anyhow, when mother made the chapati dough, and there was also dry flour, the first thing she did was take this dry flour, say some mantras, and offer it into the fire, the yajña. Now we don't have fire here; we have a gas flame or electricity. Things changed. So I asked, "Why, Mother, are you doing this?" She said, "Yes, Agni Dev. First we have to offer this to Agni Dev, and we have the same Agni Dev in our stomach, the digestive fire." In the Bhagavad Gītā, the 15th chapter, there is a beautiful mantra you should read, in which you chant: "Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahma Haviḥ, Brahmāgnau Brahmaṇā Hutam, Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyaṁ Brahma-Karma-Samādhinām." Beautiful. So brahmāgno, this fire is Brahman, the highest. Brahmagno, brahmanahutam, giving ahuti, offering to this. And whose offering is also Brahman—your ātmā. And the act of this Brahman will lead to the highest samādhi. So renounce and enjoy. The Buddha’s principle was that every time he went to get food, he called the Bhikṣu monks. In many countries, still in Asian countries, Buddhist monks go for food. It was the tradition that when someone didn't come to your door to get food, the whole family was unhappy, and the whole day they didn't eat. They said, "God, what mistake have we done that no one came to my door?" Such feelings people had. There were many who, until they saw a monk and gave him food, would not eat. And until they saw the morning sun rising, they would not eat. Days and days they were not eating because they didn't have the darśana of Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, the sun. This is a tapasyā for humans, a purification of certain karma. Now she rolled the chapati. The first chapati was not for me. That first chapati was for the dog. We had dogs not as house pets inside, but in the street. They belonged to all. It was everyone’s duty to feed them. So the first chapati went to the dog. What was more interesting was, she gave me this chapati, and I thought, "Oh, I will eat." She said, "Go and feed the dog first." I had to go and give it to the dog, my chapati. The second one would be for me. And some was ready. Mother said, "No, this is for the cow." The bull, every day the bull used to come at a particular time to our door and got one chapati. Yes, then it was for us to eat. This is excellent and practical to clean certain karma. As Mahātmā Gandhījī said, "Renounce and enjoy." So, whatever karma we cause, we have to renounce something for that. In a normal household, there are five places where, consciously or unconsciously, we harm some tiny creatures. They have a life, and we should not kill them. These are the five places: the fire, your cooking oven; the water; the grinder; the broom; and the place where you are crushing, like with a pestle and mortar. These are the five sins we call, and these five sins affect you as a khanuk. For that, to become free, we didn't do it purposely. That was our life. We have to drink water and wash our hands. We have to cook. We have to clean our bathrooms and rooms. If you didn't grind your chapati flour or bread flour, it was ground. You become a part of it because you bought it and you will eat it. So you become a part of that. It’s not only the butcher or slaughterer who is killing animals. He will not get all of that karma, but it will be shared: who was growing, who was breeding more animals, who was selling, who transferred, who was killing, who is selling again, who is buying, and who will eat? So more karmas will go to the stomach it enters. We cannot escape; we are always part of it. These five are very gentle: the pañca, the apāna, they are the same. So in this they said, the ṛṣi said, "You have five fingers." Take something with the five fingers and give it to some poor people, poor animals, or hungry creatures. Give something. Use your hands, your fingers, to give. Great Kabīr Dās said in his bhajans, "Do not have attachment. Believe in the name of God." He is describing the limbs of the body. And he said, "God gave you the hands to give something." Give, give. Tulsī Dājī said, "Tulsī kar par kar kar." Put your hand above the hand of the needy one. Tulsī kar par kar kar, par kar kar na kar. Don’t become a beggar. Whoever wants more and more is a beggar. Tulsī kar par kar kar, par kar kar na kar, tā din par kar kar, tā din maraṇ kar. On the day when you become like a beggar, it is like a death for you. So, purification of karma. Now, if you remember, yesterday I spoke about these three guṇas and these three qualities: vāta, pitta, kapha. This is also a karmic reaction on our body. Therefore, in Āyurveda, they will tell you, because you have Vāta or Pitta or Kapha, they will give you a particular diet. Really, it will help you. What does that mean? It will remove your karma. Which karma? Ādhibhautik, Ādhidaivik, Ādhyātmik. These three kinds of karma attack you. Similarly, in the morning you get up and do one pūjā for those mental negative actions you did without knowing. When we don’t know, all we did was out of our ignorance. This is a darkness. So we are sinking day by day in the darkness. How to purify those actions which we mentally did—blackmailing, talking negative, all these many things? That is a morning pūjā. Every morning when you get up and you see the sun, first you go and wash yourself clean, have a shower, and so on. Then take a water kalesh. Kalesh means water pot. Look to the sun. Mostly ladies are doing it. They do it for the whole family and for the husband, because the lazy husband is still sleeping. But men should also do it. You will often see in India pictures and films about the Ganges and different rivers. A man goes, stands in, takes the water, and offers the water. People say they take water from the river and again put it in. What does it mean? It means great. It means now he or she became aware of those karmas or sins, and the prayers purify. There is a beautiful mantra to purify karma in the morning, and this mantra, which many of you know, is called the Gāyatrī Mantra. You may stand in the ocean—you have a beautiful beach—go till the water, it must not be too deep. You can go till your knees and take the water where it is not so cold. Take the water, look to the sun, and offer: "Oṁ Bhūr Bhuvaḥ Svaḥ Tat Savitur Vareṇyaṁ Bhargo Devasya Dhīmahi Dhiyo Yo Naḥ Pracodayāt," five times. Or you can chant these twelve names of the sun. These twelve names of the sun are the twelve hours. Every hour, the sun has a different position and different energy and mind. Oṁ Sūryāya Namaḥ, Oṁ Bhānavāya Namaḥ, Oṁ Pūṣṇāya Namaḥ, Oṁ Bhāskarāya Namaḥ, and so on. All twelve names, you know. Do it. Not only is the hidden karma, the negative power, purified from us, but it will improve your health condition: sound, light, imagination, vision, and feelings. Sound, light, visions, imagination, the vision, and your feelings. This will influence your four tattvas, the elements: the fire element, the water element, the air element, and the earth element. It means to make purification of your body, mind, and your emotions, like a beautiful, blue, clear sky. All is beautiful. Many people do morning puja to the Tulsi plant. You take a little water and you pray to the Tulasī plant. Oṁ Bhūr Bhuvaḥ Svaḥ Tāt Savitur Vareṇyaṁ. Or you know some mantras. Morning and evening you put the dīpak, a light oil lamp or ghee lamp—a candle, but a candle which is not made from petrol or something like this, organic—and put a candle and agarbatti. The Tulsi plant has two meanings. One, it has very high medical value, and that is why it is highly protected. It was disappearing. Second, there is another Tulsī, a holy saint. It comes also in mantras and in many prayers. In the Mahāśiva Purāṇa, it is described about Tulasī, but I will not go into the whole story. The other purification of our karmas is the three tapas: Ādhibhautik, Ādhidaivik, and Ādhyātmik. I would suggest you read "The Hidden Powers in Humans," the book. All this is beautifully and nicely described, with examples, and written in a beautiful way. So instead of reading too many newspapers and too many other magazines, read first śāstras, authentic literatures. "The Hidden Powers in Humans" will help you very, very much. To Shiva, in the morning you can do it at noon time. There are certain times for prayers. But our Satguru Dev Swami Madhavānandjī said, for good things, always time is good. And for bad things, there is no time that is good. Therefore, prayers we can do anytime. You have to be consistent in your prayers. No compromise. In this respect, I must tell you that the Muslims are very consequent, very disciplined. At the time when the prayer time is given, it doesn’t matter where they are, they will pray. At the airport, even in the airplane, they go to one side towards the bathroom, and just—this is four minutes, three minutes prayer, that’s all. They will not think, "Oh, what will people say?" They don’t care, because they are not doing bad things; they are praying. Therefore, you will see almost in every airport there is a prayer room. When you go inside the prayer room, you will rarely see some Hindu or Buddhist or Christian or Jewish. But the brothers, the Muslims, they are searching, "Where is the prayer room?" and they will find it. That means they do value their prayers. But do they understand what God is? If we do the discipline, our religion also will support you. Otherwise, not. Dharmaḥ rakṣitaḥ rakṣitāḥ. If you protect and adore, respect your dharma, dharma will protect you. Dharmo rakṣitaḥ rakṣitaha. Otherwise, not. We quit our prayers. We say, "Oh, tomorrow, okay, I’m going with someone. Can you do it for me, the prayer?" Guruji said certain things, and that’s called Kheti, Priti, Prathānā. Kheti, Priti or Prathana, put tane khujal, jo suk chahe prani, hato hat sambhal. It is beautiful. Khetī means farming. When you have farming, then you should take care of yourself. Personally, you should be there for your crops to look after this and that. There are some people who buy a big olive field and once every five months go there and look at how it is, and then go back again. The workers will not make your company go to a high level. It will go down. You have to stand there. You have to look after your farm. You have to look after that there are no wild animals destroying this, that, many things. A farmer knows what farming means. You have to take care of that. You have to take care of your own small garden. Otherwise, there are many possums. You go for one weekend, "Oh, I go to meet my friend in Hawaii. Then I will come back." You come back, and your entire garden is for sale. Why? Because you were in Hawaii. So, Kheti: personally, you have to take care personally. Kheti, Prithi. Prithi means love. Loving is also individual, personal. You said, "Okay, tomorrow is my wedding and appointment in the church, but you know I have a very important business meeting. I fly to Tokyo and will come back. You go and marry my wife, and then when I come back, I will take her home." Can you do this? Personally, you have to do. Khetī, Prīti, Prathānā. The prayers. Don’t tell someone, "Please, you pray for me." You have to pray to God: Kheti, Priti, Prathana. And fourth is Puttane Khajāl. Itching on the back, somewhere on your back, and you tell someone, "Please, can you stay there a little up? No, a little down, this side, yes." That person doesn’t know exactly where it is. But your own hand will go automatically there, and you will scratch that. It will calm down your itching. To kheti, pṛthī, prathana, poota, talai, khunjal, jo sukha, chahai, prāṇī, hato, hata, sambhav. And similarly, your practice, your āsanas, your prāṇāyāmas, your meditation, your relaxation, your kriyā, your mantras—you should personally do and never lose your devotion towards it. Patañjali said, Maharṣi Patañjali, that an aspirant must have a devotion to the practice like a devotion to God. Many engineers, electronic engineers or any field of engineering, they love their tools. Without the tools, the hands are helpless. The best surgeon, who is performing surgery on the brain or the heart, for him, his tools are the best support. Similarly, your techniques are your support for your self-realization. Do not neglect them. Therefore it is said in the Rāmāyaṇa, in the holy book Rāmāyaṇa, these are very practical instructions for us. Like Gurujī said this, "Kheti Priti Pratana Purthaleku Jaan." There are four who tell you, "I love you, I love you, I am yours, you are mine," very good. But if, in reality, they are yours or not, in difficult times you can test if they are yours or not. First is the dharma. Dharma urakṣita rakṣitaha. Did you follow your dharma, your principles, your prayers, and so on? Dharma, dhīraj. Dhīraj is the most powerful tool of protection for you. And dhairya means when someone is shouting at you or something is going wrong, don’t lose your nerve. Be patient. Wait. Dhairya. Dhīrya only the wise men have. Do not lose your nerves immediately. Don’t explode immediately like corn on a hot pan becomes popcorn. Immediately it pops up. So if someone tells you something, you say, "No, it wasn’t that." That means no dheriyā. There is one lady, one girl, in Sunshine Coast. She is a very great bhakti, and her children, and so on. She has something here written—what people are doing, tattoos. I looked at it, and she has written here, "Dheriya." A very wise word. You should put it on your windows and on the door and everywhere, dheriyā. In the kitchen also, when your husband comes home, you must write dheriyā. Okay, because maybe he is angry. So don’t be angry again. You should not be angry. Dheriya is something great. It means calm, peaceful, and weight. You say, "No, I am always peaceful. I am okay in this." Yes, you are. You are, my dear. You are very peaceful. But a certain time comes in life, suddenly you explode like popcorn on a hot pan. There is your test. If you are subconscious or unconscious, there are hidden negative energies. Dharma, dhīraja, mitra, and the friend. In very hard times, it is that friend who will be yours. Not only when you are beautiful and have money and this and that, and say, "Yes, I love you. Hi, how are you? Let’s go for skiing," this and that. And when you are in trouble, no, no, and you find that, "Hello, friend, yes, okay, but you know, I mean, hurry, I will call you after." There is no friendship. A friend is one who is ready to die with you. That is a friend. Dharma, dhīraja, mitra, arunārī, and your wife or your husband. So you can say, "Your partner." When you marry, they say, "Yes, I promise in the presence of God, I will be yours. And I will be yours in every situation, if you are ill or this and that, in every aspect I will be yours." And then one of them got ill, paralyzed, and so on, and the other one said, "I am sorry, but I am going to marry someone. Wish you all the best." Well, one cannot say no or yes, but inside, that person is sad. You left that person, your words, when you spoke in front of the guards, or the fire with the candle was there on the altar, or the fire ceremonies, like Hindus are doing, you didn’t keep. That is the karma which will attract or attack or will go with you; lives and lives it will return back. So there are many things we can do. Make prayers and many mantras for different problems, as well as a food therapy that also removes our karma. So, partly, you call here, "I really cooking," or "vegetarian cooking," or what kind of cooking? Yes, but... It should be really according to our problems. The problem first attacks our astral body, emotional body, intellectual body, and then the physical. The food, what you have, solid or liquid food, begins from the physical body, energy body, mental body, and subtle body. Then karma is purified. So there are techniques, and of course you have to take care that I will not do it again. Once you drank the poison, I don’t know why, or you took a lot of tablets. You had some problem with your partner or someone, and thanks to God, someone came to know, and the ambulance came, and the doctor cleaned your stomach and cleaned your blood. But the doctor will tell you, "Never do this again." And you will say, "Yes, I will." You go home and do the same thing. Then what should the doctor do? We pray to God to forgive us. We have a personal consultation with God. And when we pray, our mind is purified. When I went to the altar and prayed, my mind became lighter; otherwise, there was a lot of burden on it. So you come in the water to the Shivjī. You can have at home also a small Śiva Liṅgam. Every morning, make minimum five mantras: "Oṁ Tryambhakaṁ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṁ Puṣṭivardhanam, Urvārukamiva Bandhanān Mṛtyormukṣīya Mā’mṛtāt." It doesn’t take a long time. This is for Ādhibhautik, Ādhidaivik, Ādhyātmik, three tapas. These three tapas are the troubles from the outer world, troubles as diseases attacking, and troubles from the inner world. These are the three tapas, three kinds of fire, and this fire is disturbing us. So today, you learn three practical ways to clean our karmas: one was with the water, looking to the sun, giving water to the Tulasī or any plant. Resonance itself is purifying our energy around the body. If you remember, in the Gold Coast course, we learned one technique. We can do it now. Put your hands together on both hemispheres of your head, gently, don’t press, and repeat after me. First, I will chant. Change, and then you will change after me, okay? And feel the vibration. The vibration on your head, in both hemispheres, goes from navel till the top of the head. So I will chant first, and then you will chant after me. Oṁ. The resonance in the head: yajāmahe over svāhā. So, did you feel the vibration? This is how tensions release and positive energy enters our body, in our chakra systems, the energy centers, which are very, very important. Each mantra of the chakras, the bīja mantra, the seed mantra, and the sub-mantras, upa mantras, they purify that particular area of our body. When someone has a disease or difficulties in a certain part of the body, you concentrate, and you place your hand there or just feel and chant that mantra. So, man halkā ho jāyegā, your mind will become lighter from all the burden. It means the tensions are removed. Mantras which are written by great saints—they made experiments, they understood, and then they gave them to us. These are authentic mantras. So, theory and practice for the cleaning or purification of the rest will be in the evening. Wish you all the best, and God bless you. If you have any questions, 15 minutes are left. This then becomes an immortal plant. Let it be, let it be. But if it is somehow attacking something, of course you can cut it. In India, they have many different kinds of pūjā for the Tulasī plant, and they also marry the Tulasī, you know. If you have a Tulsi at home, after certain years, you have to make a satsaṅg, you have to make a... then you have to marry the Tulsi, then you have to marry the Krishna or something like that. We don’t want to do it. Our Tulsī is in Brahmacharya āśram.