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Part 1: The Miracle of Now: Faith, Surrender, and the One-Time Mantra Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Devpurīṣī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁt Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda Purī Jī Mahārāj Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁt Śrī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī, Satguru Deva Kī Jai. Gajānand Jī says, “Do-śabd,” which means two words, so “Hari Om.” In functions, when someone is asked to say two words, they often say only Hari Om, and people get a little worried. But “Hari Om” is indeed two words. Gajānand Jī is speaking today. Just one news: Swāmījī reached India. I guess that’s more than two words. Gajānand Jī will speak today, but just two words: that Swamijī reached India. He arrived this morning, and this afternoon he will arrive in Jadan. So then hopefully we’ll get him on the webcast—on Skype, I mean—hopefully we can talk to him on Skype. I doubt today, but tomorrow. Arjom, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jai. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Kī Jai. Hari Om. I was inspired on Sunday when Swāmījī Āśram Purījī spoke about miracles and said there are miracles in our life, moments of blessing, and we should never forget them. I guess this is not just our experience, but everybody’s. Even before I came to yoga, people often came to me—what we would call nowadays coaching—and opened up about their problems, and I tried to help them. At that time I already realized that everyone, without exception, has experienced in his life at least one miracle. But mostly our intellect makes it small, tries to destroy it, and our mind keeps forgetting. Yet these moments are very precious, because they can be an inspiration for us. And in the end, we are here waiting for a miracle—waiting for the miracle of spiritual awakening. That is why we are here practicing, and the main technique which Swamiji gave us is the mantra. The question is simply, when will this miracle happen? In one satsaṅg many years ago, a disciple brought it to the point and asked Swamiji a simple question: “Swamiji, we are repeating the mantra over and over again. But please tell me, how many times do I have to repeat the mantra until I can get God-realization?” A good question, isn’t it? And Swāmījī’s answer was even better. He said, “One single time.” Everyone was stunned. How is this possible? Because everyone was counting—I already did it quite more than one time, and it didn’t happen. Swamiji then explained: “Yes, if this one time is with complete faith and complete surrender, that’s enough. But of course, if you cannot do that yet, then you have to do it maybe a few times before that.” There is another story, a historical one from the Middle Ages, throwing light on this. One disciple, I think he was a disciple of Kabīrdās, was performing public healings. People with leprosy and other serious diseases came to him—I think it was in Benares, at the river Ganges. He gathered them at the river and instructed them to repeat the name of God three or five times and then dip into the river. When they came out, they were all healed. This caused quite a rumor, and he became quite famous. Some time later, his master—I think it was Kabīrdās—came to the city and called his disciple, and there ensued a kind of showdown, like in a western, a confrontation. The master said, “I heard that you make these public healings here. But you’re not doing right. In fact, you are a non-believer. That’s not right, what you’re doing.” The disciple thought, “What’s going on? But Guru Dev, it works. It helps the people, and it awakens faith in them.” And the Guru said, “Just this is the right thing: you are a non-believer. Why do you let the people repeat the name of God five times? You must know that one single time is enough.” That was his criticism—the Guru thought five times was much too much. There is yet another story shedding another light on this aspect. I think it was also in the Middle Ages, concerning Nāmdev. Nāmdev was a great bhakta. He didn’t have any specific technique; he was not a yogī as such. His whole path was bhakti yoga—love, devotion, and prayer. Through this intimate devotion, God gave him everything. He became very famous and traveled around India. A certain event, I think it happened in Delhi. He came to Delhi and made his camp on a big field on the outskirts, started singing bhajans and giving satsaṅg with so much love. People were attracted, and more and more came, until it became a huge satsaṅg going on for days. The whole city knew about it, and many, many people came. Naturally, the king also got to know about it. But the problem was the king was a Muslim—this was a time of Muslim rule in India, not always easy for believers. The king saw Nāmdev as a Hindu and was not happy. He went there personally, observed what was going on, and decided, “I will put an end to this.” He went up to Nāmdev and said, “You are misguiding all these people. You say your God is all-powerful. True?” Nāmdev said, “Yes, of course.” Now, what had happened just a short time before, I think, is that a horse had died and was lying there. The king said, “You have to prove that. If your God is all-powerful, will He be able to revive this horse?” Nāmdev said, “Yes, of course. God is all-powerful.” Then the king said, “Okay, I challenge you. You have to bring this horse back to life. And if you cannot, you will be killed.” And he asked, “How long do you think you need for that?” Nāmdev said, “That’s a big job. It will take three days.” The king replied, “Okay, I give you three days. If within these three days the horse is not alive again, you will be killed in public.” It was a very scary situation; everyone knew about it. Nāmdev didn’t have any siddhis to revive it on the spot, but he had bhakti, and he knew God can do anything. So often God had shown this already; Nāmdev had seen so many miracles. So he started praying. He prayed for many hours, but nothing happened. He didn’t dare to sleep; he continued through the whole night, but nothing happened. He prayed the whole next day, but nothing happened—the horse was as dead as before. He continued the second night. “If I don’t succeed with this horse, then all the people will be persecuted.” He prayed even stronger, with tears running. Still nothing happened, and the time was already approaching the end. Only three hours more, only one hour more—still the horse was very dead. He prayed and prayed and said, “God, please, the king has already come, just waiting for his victory and looking at his watch.” Seven minutes more, five minutes more. And then suddenly the horse got up. The miracle happened, in public, in front of everybody, and the king got a little bit pale. He had to keep his word and silently walked away. Nāmdev was so happy, and everyone was so happy. With great joy they celebrated satsaṅg and continued for many days. But Nāmdev had some encounter with God. In the night he asked God, “Please, why did you let me wait so long? Everyone was already thinking it would not happen, only at the last minute. Why? Why?” And God’s answer was very simple. He said, “It was your wish. You said it is a hard job, and it will take three days. So how could I do it earlier? It would prove your words wrong. If you had said I would do it just now, I would have done it just now.” And I have now realized: yes, he didn’t have enough faith. That is the point. Miracles do not happen just sometimes. They always happen now. A miracle never happens at another time; it always happens now. The question is, are we ready for that? Our spiritual practice is actually the preparation for this moment—now. Or, as Swāmījī put it, for this one time that we do the mantra. When it happens, this one-time mantra, that is now. But there are certain conditions that this can happen just now. This moment can be really any moment. We should be prepared for this, for the miracle, every moment. Especially in Zen Buddhism, they know about this. The whole life is actually like a chance; every moment is a chance. And some awakenings—definitely, everyone has experienced at different times, some moments when we are just stunned. As our intellect gives up, we come into some, let it be, short samādhi experiences. I remember I had a very short glimpse, I don’t know, maybe fifty years ago—fifty or fifteen? At the time I was active in a church; I had access to it and would play the piano at night. Late at night, maybe at midnight, I came out of the church. It was winter, and snow had come. There was a certain light. I opened the door, and I was just stunned—a breathtaking moment. I didn’t expect that, and suddenly such beauty just went into my heart. It was such a small thing: I opened the door, and there is snow and there is special light. But even after fifty years, I remember that. And I guess it was a short moment of samādhi which I experienced at that time. I remember similar events: just being in a concert, listening to some music, and suddenly you don’t know anymore where you are. So, it can happen any moment, and we should be open for that. It can be just a certain view, a certain smell, a certain sound, or whatever awakens us in a moment. But mostly it is through certain life experiences, certain outer conditions that create the inner conditions for something to happen. And mostly, unfortunately, these are hard situations in life. I would like to speak about the life and the awakening of one Sufi master, which can teach us something. When I started with yoga, right in the beginning, I was practicing classical yoga, Haṭha yoga, and Yoga Nidrā with a Sufi group. He came from Morocco. He suffered from a life-threatening illness; he went from one doctor to the other, and no one could help him. It was clear that basically he had to die. Searching for help, he asked around who could help, and someone told him about a great, famous Sufi master. Full of faith, he went to this master and told him his problem. The master was thinking for a moment, then said, “But there is one condition: you have to give me everything that you possess—all your money, without holding back the smallest coin.” I ask you, would you do that? When we got initiation from Swāmījī, we also gave him some dakṣiṇā, something. But is there anyone who gave everything? This master demanded straight away everything. A challenge, right? But now he was thinking, if I die, I also lose everything. So this might be the chance, maybe the only chance. So he accepted. And he really gave him everything. So what did the master do? They went together on a journey. In Morocco there are many mountains, and in the mountains there are many caves. They went quite far away to a very lonely area, and the master led him into one of these caves. He had a torchlight with him—not what we call a torch now, but a real torchlight with fire. They went in; it was a quite deep and long cave. They went deep into this cave, and then the master gave instructions: “You will now stay here, and I will go. After some time, I will come back and take you.” That was the full instruction, and then he left. And you must imagine now: he is in the dark cave, seeing the master walking out with the torchlight, getting smaller and smaller, and in the end disappearing—no light. Think on that situation: you are in a cave, and there is nobody. Nobody knows where you are. There is nothing around. You cannot see anything; you cannot hear anything. Part 2: Now or Never: The Power of Total Surrender Plus, you have no food. That is a perfect kriyānusthāna. You know, that is the original Kriyānusthāna. In its original form, there is basically only meditation. With minimal sleep, you stay in one place. There is mauna van—the vow of silence. No talking, no communication. No speech. No contact with anyone, and fasting. So everything was there. What could he do? He could only sit down and close his eyes, because he could not see anything anyway, and meditate. There was real, absolute silence—the perfect conditions for meditation. But on the other hand, there is no chance to escape at all. Can you imagine what that means in practice? That is the condition for real self-inquiry meditation. Because there is nothing; the only one who is there is you. So you are dealing only with yourself, and everything comes up. You cannot escape from that. Where will you run? Where will you go? What will you do? There is nothing to do. So it was not easy for him, plus the doubts, which of course also came. Maybe this master is not a real master. That hole is just the scenario of a perfect murder. You see, first he demands all the money, brings you to an area where there is nowhere, and brings you into a cave where you will not find the exit anymore. No food, you will die, and no one will ever know. Imagine, the relationship to the guru is quite tested here. So for a few days he was there under these conditions, and then the miracle happened. He describes it like lightning: some strong energy like lightning shooting in his back. He was healed, and definitely it was a spiritual awakening as well, because afterwards he became a spiritual master on his own. But now let us think for a moment about that. How could it work? We should not forget the condition that the master laid down. The condition was: you give me everything. That means he knew this is my only chance. No way to run away. No way to escape. It must be now or never, and that is what we need: this strong determination, now or never, and then the now can happen. Because a miracle happens always now, or never. So, because he bundled all his energy… But the question was if he would be able to take it. And making it so dramatic, now or never, then he could take it. The blessing is there all the time. The chance is there all the time. We shouldn’t say, “Oh, I had no chance.” Everyone has already had a thousand chances, but we were not able to pick them. So life often brings us into situations where we feel it must be now. The same is said about the enlightenment of Lord Buddha. After trying so many things, finally he sat down under the Bodhi tree and said, “I will not get up before I have attained enlightenment.” Do we practice our kriyānuṣṭhāna with this conviction? That is the point. That we bundle all our life energy on one point, and then it can happen. Effort in meditation. Or, as it was in Nāmdev’s case, effort in surrender. I will give another example, which is closer to us. It happened in Hamburg in the year 1994. One mother, who was Swāmījī’s disciple, had two daughters. I don’t know exactly how old they were at that time, maybe 10–12 years or so. And one of the daughters had a very, very serious disease. It is called dermatomyositis. That means, practically, a disease that causes tremendous pain. It attacks the muscles and tendons, making them weaker and weaker. So this poor girl had been suffering from this disease for two years already. She was hospitalized. They tried everything, but they couldn’t do anything. Her muscles were already so weak that she couldn’t walk anymore. She could only move in a wheelchair. And even her hands had become so weak that she could hardly hold a pen anymore. It was a progressive disease; that means there was no stopping it. She just became weaker and weaker. It was obvious; it was only a question of time until she would collapse and die. The mother, Swāmījī’s disciple, naturally she prayed. It is a very similar situation to Namdev. Every day she and her daughter prayed, but it didn’t get better. And now I will quote from her own diary, the diary of the mother. On the 7th of June, 1994, she writes: “I am suffering so much. But to my own surprise, I am still convinced that all this suffering must have a deeper meaning. In front of Mahāprabhujī’s altar, I prayed once again for guidance and strength. Your will shall be done. With a heavy heart, I laid everything in his hands.” What will be tomorrow? Now, the next day. 8th June, 1994. She wrote: “My daughter describes the next morning. Like every day, my mother had to test my ability to move. There was suddenly so much strength in my body that we both cried happily. I jumped out of the bed and ran through the whole house, leaping with joy. Then we went to the hospital, but not as usual in the wheelchair. Svenja, that’s the name of the daughter, Svenja, as the little girl is called, came on foot to the amazed doctor. Yesterday she had been too weak even to hold her hands.” In his medical report, he called it, frankly, a miraculous healing. That was too much for the doctor. It didn’t fit in his categories. So he just called it a miracle. But now let us look again into this deeper. In this diary, she just said that she prayed to Mahāprabhujī. But I remember I spoke to the mother, and she told me a little bit more than she wrote in the diary. She said, “I was at my end. I couldn’t imagine continuing like that anymore. It was Mahāprabhujī, now or never.” That was a prayer from the deepest bottom of the heart, and that made the miracle possible. When we really open up, when we really, deeply from the heart, give everything, we deeply pray, deeply surrender. Then the miracle is possible. It is very similar to the story which Jasraj Purījī was telling about digging the well in Nepal Āśram. I don’t know, was it here or in the other? In Strilky? Okay, I will shortly repeat this story. Swāmījī gave the order to dig a well in Nepal Ashram. He said exactly which spot. And they were drilling, drilling, drilling quite deep, and nothing came. And then Swāmījī said, just a little bit more. And then suddenly water came, and the whole well was filled. So, as you said, usually it’s just a little bit, and then to go further with the digging, one has to take out that water. Usually, when this happens in digging a well, it’s just some water coming, which has to be removed so that the chance is to dig deeper then. So they took all the water and filled all the tanks that were there, watered all the plants all around, but it didn’t become less. So it was just like unplug, and it was just coming and coming and coming. That is the blessing. The blessing is this water. It’s there. It’s boundless. Just, we need to unplug it. For this, we need to dig deeper. Until one day, one moment, one now, it happens. So we should never have doubts that the blessing is not there. Never have doubts that the chance is not there. It’s on us. It depends on us. If we really open up, if we really dig deep enough, that it can happen. In the end, it’s a blessing. And all our practice is actually to remove this, what is in between, you know, this blocking. And that means, first of all, karmas. Often we try to understand, but we cannot. That is karma. And in Jadān Ashram, I understood quite well how that functions. So let’s say we watch a certain video from Swāmījī. And you don’t understand, and there is no one to explain it to you. So you forget about that and just continue with your life; that means karma yoga. And after one or two or three years, it happens that you see the same video once more. And suddenly everything is clear. But I ask you, who explained it to you now? It was your life. It was your karma yoga. It was your purification of the karmas through the seva, karma yoga. That removed the veil. And suddenly it becomes clear. And even a few years later, you will hear the same person giving lectures about that. And from where does this come? Again, from purification. The saint is in each of us. We just have to remove these layers around. There was a sculptor. He made beautiful statues, especially of Ganesh, the elephant. And someone asked him, “How are you able to make such beautiful sculptures?” He said, “Oh, that’s very simple. You know, I remove from the stone everything that does not belong to the elephant.” That’s in a very short formula, our yoga path. Let’s remove everything that doesn’t belong to the elephant. Also, when we want to put something into practice but we cannot, this is also karma that needs to be purified. Our yoga path is actually just trying to unblock that, so the blessing suddenly can flow. And then it seems like a miracle. But there is another logic behind that. And we should be ready every moment. And you should ask us how serious we are. You see, our seminars here have a very ambiguous case. On one hand, it’s very serious sādhanā. But on the other hand, it’s also something like a family meeting, something like a party. So, now, where do I go? How serious am I? We can celebrate the parties for many, many years more. But I guess Swāmījī’s intention was something else: to see saints, to see disciples who can continue the work, to see disciples who can spread the word. So when you think on the example, for example, of this Sufi master, it was possible only because he was completely dedicated to this one moment: this is my single chance. And when you think of this healing which happened in Hamburg, and if you think about the healing that happened to the Hamburg girl, it was this deep prayer, deep from the bottom of the heart. This is what makes it possible. This is this one time, what Swāmījī mentioned, you need to repeat your mantra only one single time. And this is now. We have one bhajan describing the situation: “Ape saṅg paḍiyā,” the most. I have now surrendered to you everything, O Lord. But the most important word in this bhajan is the first one: Abba. Abba means “now.” It doesn’t say, “I have surrendered to you.” It doesn’t say, “I have surrendered to you,” but it says, “I surrender now. Now I have surrendered to you. All the burden of my entire life, everything, I surrender to you.” And therefore, the bhajan continues: If I have success or failure, it’s not mine; it’s in your hands. Let’s sing this bhajan together. Is this mic on? Maybe another mic here, closer. It’s okay? If you sing like this or like that. This bhajan, in the first verse, he says: “Merā niścaya bas ek yahī, ek bār tumheṁ bhajan meṁ.” Niścaya means decision, and this is obviously a very strong decision. Because he says, “Bas.” And “bas” means enough. That means I have enough from a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and not ever really getting it. Now I make a decision, and he says, “I make one decision.” That means not just one of many decisions. The one decision for my life. What is the point of my life? What do I really want? This is how we must understand this. This is not just, “I decide something.” I make that one decision which will guide my whole life in a certain direction. I make that one decision once. Yoga in daily life. There are two: the yoga and the daily life. And when we start, daily life is big and yoga is just a small seed, just a mantra which we get from Swāmījī. And then it grows and starts to influence our life. It changes our lifestyle; we become vegetarians, we go to yoga seminars instead of on holidays, our personality changes. So the tree is growing and already giving shade over the rest, over life, but still there are two. And there comes a moment when we must decide: what do we really want? Do we really want to go straight on the spiritual path, or continue with the party? Or always go a little bit here, a little bit there, but actually not going anywhere? Let us get ready so that the miracle can happen. And when it happens, it is always now. It is always now. Siddhip nambak vana kī Jai.