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Miracles

Miracles happen now, not at another time. Everyone has experienced at least one miracle, but the intellect diminishes it and the mind forgets. Spiritual practice prepares for this moment. The main technique is the mantra. One repetition with complete faith and surrender is enough. If that is not yet possible, it may require more repetition. A story tells of a disciple who healed by having people repeat God's name five times; his master criticized him, saying one time is sufficient. Another devotee was challenged to revive a horse and said it would take three days. After desperate prayer, it happened at the last minute. He asked God why the wait, and God replied it was because the devotee had said it would take three days. The point is that miracles always happen now. Life often brings situations where it must be now or never, like a seeker left in a dark cave with no resources, forcing total self-confrontation leading to awakening. Another example is a mother whose daughter was gravely ill; her prayer from the deepest heart, a surrender of "now or never," brought a miraculous healing. The blessing is always present, like water in a well; one must dig deeper to unblock it. Spiritual practice removes the layers that are not the true self, purifying karma so the blessing can flow. One must make the single decision to attain the goal, surrendering everything now.

"If this one time is with complete faith, with complete surrender, that's enough."

"Why do you let the people repeat the name of God five times? You must know that one single time is enough."

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Garañjī says "dośabd," which means two words, so hurry on. Dośabd is Hindi for two words. They always say at functions that so-and-so will now say two words. And when they only say "Hari Om," they get a little bit worried. They say two words, so you say two words. And "Hari Om" is two words. I am Gajanandjī speaking today. Just one piece of news: Swāmījī has reached India. I guess that's more than two words. He arrived this morning, and this afternoon he will arrive in Jodhpur. So then, hopefully, we will get him on the webcast—on Skype, sorry. I doubt today, but tomorrow we will make something. In English, we'd say we'll make a petition. It's fine. We're going to collect a petition. It's fine; you must come on Skype tomorrow. Adios. I was inspired on Sunday when Swami Jasrat Purījī spoke about miracles. He said there are miracles in our life and moments of blessing, and we should never forget them. I guess this is not just our experience, but everybody's. Already, before I came to yoga, people often came to me for what we would call, nowadays, coaching. They opened up to me, told me about their problems, and I tried to help them. At that time, I already realized everyone has experienced in his life at least one miracle. Only, mostly our intellect makes it small, tries to destroy it. And our mind keeps forgetting, but they are very precious because they can be an inspiration for us. In the end, we are here waiting for a miracle—waiting for the miracle of spiritual awakening. And therefore we are here doing the anuṣṭhāna, the practice. The main technique which Swāmījī gave us is the mantra. The question is simply: when will this miracle happen? In one satsaṅg many years ago, one disciple brought it to the point and asked Swamiji the simple question: "Swamiji, we are repeating the mantra over and over again. But please tell me, how often do I have to repeat the mantra until I can get God-realization?" That's a good question. And Swāmījī's answer was even better. He said it one single time, and everyone was stunned. How is this possible? Because everyone was counting: "I did already quite more than one time." But it didn't happen. Swamiji then explained: "Yes, if this one time is with complete faith, with 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. There's another story, a historical story from the Middle Ages, throwing light on that. One disciple, I think it was a disciple of Kabīr Dās, was performing public healings. People who had leprosy and other serious diseases came to him. I think it was in Benares, at the river Gaṅgā. So he collected them at the river and instructed them to repeat the name of God, I think three times or five times. This made quite some rumor, and he became quite famous. Sometime later, his master, I think it was Kabīr Dās, came to the city and called his disciple for a kind of showdown, like a confrontation in a Western. And 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 are doing." The disciple was thinking, "What's going on?" But he said, "Gurū Dev, it works. It helps the people, and it awakens faith in them." And the Guru said: "Just this is opposite. 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. So the guru thought that's much too much. There's yet another story throwing another light on this aspect. I think it was also in the Middle Ages. I think it was Namdev. Namdev 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, bhakti, God gave him everything. In fact, he became very famous and was traveling around India. There is a certain event, I think it happened in Delhi. He came to Delhi and made his camp on a big field on the outskirts and started singing bhajan and giving satsaṅg with so much love that people were attracted, and more and more came. In the end, it was like a big satsaṅg going on for days. The whole city knew about it, and many people came. So, of course, the king also got to know. But the problem was the king was a Muslim. That was a time of the Muslims ruling India, and that was not always an easy time for the believers. So the Muslim king saw him and named him a Hindu, and he wasn't happy. He went there personally, observing what was going on, and decided: "I will make an end to that." So he went up to Nāmdev and said: "You are misguiding all these people here. You say your God is all-powerful. True?" And Nāmadeva said, "Yes, of course." Now, what had happened just a short time before? I think a horse had died and was lying there. So now the king said: "You have to prove that. If your God is all-powerful, will He be able to revive this horse?" And Namdev said: "Yes, of course. God is all-powerful." Then the king said: "Okay, then I challenge you. You have to bring this horse back to life. And if you cannot, then you will be killed." Then he asked Namdev: "How long do you think you need for that?" And Nāmadeva said: "That's a big job. It will take three days." The king said: "Okay, I give you three days. If within these three days the horse is not alive again, you will be killed in public." So it was a very scary situation. Everyone knew about it. Nāmdev didn't have any siddhis to revive it, but he had the bhakti, and he knew God can do anything. He had seen so many miracles; this was just a small thing. So he started praying for many hours, but nothing happened. He didn't dare to sleep; he just continued through the whole night, but nothing happened. He prayed the whole next day, but nothing happened. The horse was as dead as before, and he continued the second night. Still nothing happened, and he got more and more desperate. "God, you must save your reputation, and my reputation, and the reputation of all believers. If you don't succeed with this horse, then all the people will be persecuted." So he prayed even stronger, tears were running, and still nothing happened. The time was already approaching the end. It was only three hours more, only one hour more. And still the horse was very dead, and he prayed and prayed. "God, please, the king already came, just waiting for his victory," looking on the watch. "Seven minutes more, five minutes more." And then suddenly the horse got up. The miracle happened in public, in front of everybody. The king got a little bit pale. Now he had to keep his word, and silently the king walked away. Namdev was so happy, and everyone was so happy. With great joy they celebrated satsaṅg and continued for many days. But now 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?" 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 he would do it just now, I would have done it just now." And then he realized, yes, he didn't have enough faith. That is the point. Miracles do not happen just sometimes. They always happen now. Never ever has a miracle happened at another time. It happens always now. The question is: are we ready for that? Our spiritual practice is actually the preparation for this moment, now. Or, as Swamiji 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 for this to happen just now. This moment can be really any moment. We should be prepared for this 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, our intellect gives up, and we come into some, let it be short, samādhi experiences. I remember I had a very short glimpse. It was, I don't know, maybe 50 years ago. I didn't know anything about yoga at that time. At the time, I was active in a church. I had access to the church and had played the piano at night. Late in the night, maybe at midnight, I came out of the church. It was winter. Snow had come, and there was this light. I opened the door, and I was just stunned—a breathtaking moment. I didn't expect that, and suddenly such a beauty was just going in my heart. It was such a small thing: I opened the door, and there's snow, and there's special light. But even after 50 years, I remember that. I guess it was a short moment of samādhi which I experienced. 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, life conditions, which then make the conditions that something can 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. Their master was Sapan Shepnat. He came from Morocco. I had a seminar with him later, and his biography is very interesting. He was suffering from a very serious disease. He went from one doctor to the other, and no one could help him. So it was life-threatening. 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. He said, "Okay." Full of faith, he went to this master. He told about his problem, and the master was thinking a moment and said: "I cannot promise you anything. You know, I'm a master, not a healer, but if you want, I will try to help you. If you really have the faith, I will try to help you. But there is one condition. This condition is, 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. It was some challenge. But now he was thinking: "If I die, I also lose everything, so that 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. So now they went quite far away to a very lonely area. The master was leading him into one of these caves, and he had a torchlight with him—I mean, not what we say torch now, but a real torchlight. So they went in. It was a quite deep and long cave, and they went quite deep into this cave. Then the master gave the instruction: "You will now stay here, and I will go, and after some time I will come back and take you." That was the full instruction, and then he left. You must imagine now he is in the dark cave, seeing the master walking out with a 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. You cannot see anything; you cannot hear anything. Plus, you don't have any food. That's a perfect Kriyā Anuṣṭhān. You know, that is the original Kriyā Anuṣṭhān. In Kriyā Anuṣṭhān, in the original form, there is basically only meditation. With a minimum of sleep, you stay only in one place. There is mauna, no talking, no communication, not having contact with anyone, and fasting. So everything was there. So what could he do? He could only sit down, close his eyes because he could anyway not see anything, 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 it means practically? That is a 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? So it was not easy for him. Plus, the doubts, which of course also came. "Maybe this master is not a real master. This hole is just the scenario of a perfect murder. You see, first he demands all the money, brings you to an area where there's nowhere, no one, 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 also the relation to the guru is quite tested here. So for a few days he was there under these conditions, and it was the real self-confrontation. And then the miracle happened. He describes this like lightning, some strong energy like lightning was shooting in his back. And 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 a moment about that. How could it work? You should not forget these conditions which the master made. 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 on this one point, that actually made it possible that it happened. The master could only give the conditions that it can happen. The master gave his blessing, but the question was if he would be able to take it and make it so dramatic: now or never. Then he could take it. The blessing is all the time there. The chance is all the time there. 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 got enlightenment." Do we practice our Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna 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 more close 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 which causes tremendous pain, and it attacks the muscles and tendons and makes them weaker and weaker and weaker. So this poor girl was suffering already two years from this disease. She was hospitalized, and they tried everything, but they couldn't do anything. So 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 already that she could hardly hold a pen anymore. And it was a progressive disease, which means there was no stop in it. So she just became weaker and weaker, and it was obvious it was just a question of time until she would collapse and die. The mother, Swamiji's disciple, naturally prayed—a very similar situation to Namdev. Every day, she and her daughter prayed, but it didn't get better. Now I will quote from her own diary, the diary of the mother. On the 7th of June 1994, she is writing: "I am suffering so much, but to my own surprise, I'm 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, weeping 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. Svenja came on foot to the amazed doctor. Yesterday she had been too weak even to hold a pen and write. And today she came on foot and sat down in Padmāsana. The doctor was completely amazed and made a remark about Swamiji because she always had Swamiji's picture at her bed. In his medical report, he called it, frankly, a miraculous healing. In his medical report, the doctor honestly said that this was a healing bordering on a miracle. This was even too much for the doctor; it didn't fit into his categories, so he could only call it a miracle." Let's look at this a little more deeply again. Here 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, deeply pray, deeply surrender, then the miracle is possible. It is very similar to the story which Jasrat Purījī was telling about digging the well in Nepal Ashram. I don't know, was it here or in the other? In Sūryakī. I will shortly repeat this story. Swamiji gave an 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 Swamiji said, "Just a little bit more," and then suddenly water came, and the whole well was filled, as he 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's a chance to dig deeper then. So they took all the water, filled all the tanks which were there, and watered all the plants all around, but it didn't become less. So it was just like unplugged, 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 if we really open up, if we really dig deep enough, that it can happen. In the end, it's blessing, and all our practice is actually to remove what is in between, this blocking. And that means, first of all, karmas. Often we try to understand, but we cannot; that is karma. And in Jadan 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 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 karma through the seva. 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. Just we 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 is, in a very short formula, our yoga path. Let's remove everything that doesn't belong to the yogī. Also, when we want to put something into practice, we cannot. This is also karma, which 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 character. 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 Swamiji'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. And this is my single chance. And when you think of this healing which happened in Hamburg, this girl, it was this deep prayer, deep from the bottom of the heart. This is what makes it possible, and this is this one time what Swamijī mentioned. You need to repeat your mantra only one single time, and this is now. We have one bhajan describing this situation: Āpe saṅg paḍiyā. I have now surrendered to you everything. 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," but it says, "I surrender now." Abba, āpe saṅg paḍiyā, jīvan kaṣaṭa sabhār—now I have surrendered to you all the burden of my entire life. Everything, I surrender to you. It's now not anymore in my hands, like the mother of this girl when she prayed and said, "Your will may be your will." Énekeljük el—if you sing like this or like that. God bless you. Jap jap sansār kā keḍī pāno śakāv se karv samet jū śakar to. This bhajan, in the first verse, he says: Mera niścaya bas ekyehī ekvartume padzhaume. 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 the many decisions, but 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. I must attain you. Once it must happen, this miracle. I don't want to wait anymore. That is the point: how we live our spiritual life, yoga in daily life. There are two: yoga and daily life. And when we start, the daily life is big, and the yoga is just a small seed—just a mantra which we get from Swamiji, and then it grows and starts to influence our life, change our lifestyle, become vegetarians, we go to yoga seminars. Instead of holidays, our personality changes. So the tree is growing and giving already shadow over the rest of life, but still there are two: the yoga and the life. 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? Always go a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here, a little bit there, but actually not going anywhere. Let us get ready that the miracle can happen. Let us get ready that the miracle can happen. And when it happens, it is always now. So deep, number one, a key, you say.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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