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Good evening to all spiritual seekers and dear devotees. Blessings are coming from Holy Bhārat, from Nīpāl Āśram. Many of you may know of it, and many may not. The village of Nīpāl is located in the valley of the Aravali hills, where many seasonal rivers flow. In India, nearly ninety percent of the seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—follow very regularly and timely. Between summer and the beginning of autumn, there are about three months of monsoon. The Indian monsoon is well-known around the world. These are seasonal rivers due to the Aravalli hills. The Aravalli hills begin from the Himalayas and extend to the west coast of India. Beyond that lies the ocean, and at the edge of the ocean begins another hill range called the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush mountains stretch for nearly more than 1,500 kilometers, going through Afghanistan and Turkey, and I think some other countries as well. They follow the seasons, which balances the environment and the life of the vegetation, and gives comfort and the right times to the farmer to work for the crops and to harvest them. Nīpāl is located on the bank of the river we call Gaṅgā. Gurujī writes in one poem that Nīpāl is a holy place. In the rest, the dynasty of Holy Gurujī’s family has produced holy saints every few generations. The village of Nīpāl is at the bank of that river. Between the village and this river, and after the river on the other side of the bank, is our Śrī Svāmī Madhavānandajī Āśram. Nīpāl is the place where Holy Gurujī was incarnated; it is his birthplace. Mostly here, people are farmers, though now modern technology is coming. Of course, many people move to big cities for their existence, for business, money, etc. The people in this village, mostly because they are farmers, are very social, have peace, good understanding, and work together. There are all different kinds of people from all walks of life. There are also educational centers, social centers, and, for a small village, first aid or small hospitals. This ashram is here on the bank of the river. You will read in the Līlā Amṛt that at the time of the kings, one of the kings from the state, called Ghaṇī Rāv, due to the divine miracles of our ancestors—meaning the holy Gurujīs or my family background, Amichanji—he was a great astrologist and a great Siddha yogī, leading a beautiful, harmonious, happy family life. One day, the king called him and asked him to look into the astrological calendar in Jyotiṣa to see what moon day it was. It was Amāvasyā, meaning the dark moon, but from his mouth, somehow the word came out: he said, "Today is Pūrṇimā." The king was surprised and said, "How can you say today is Pūrṇimā? Today is Amāvasyā." That Amichānjī, who was great, said, "No, king, today is Pūrṇimā." Other Brahmins or Pandits were sitting there, and they were laughing, saying, "Today is Pūrṇimā?" They stayed there, and after sunset, the full moon rose. Now, it is said that our Holy Gurujī said, "May the sun and moon change their path and direction, but the words of the saints will always come true." After that, whatever Amichānjī told the king came true. First, out of his happiness, the king presented him with one elephant—a big, nice elephant with the mahout, the one who drives the elephant, the "hāthī ko chalāne vālā." At that time, Amishañjī’s son had a wedding after a few months. So, the one we call the Raav, who keeps the family history—at every occasion of birth, marriage, and death, this family history keeper, the Raav, comes and reads the glory of the family background and dynasties, and definitely they receive something. So Amichānjī was very generous, and he gave this elephant to the Rao. Now, the Rao did not know what to do. If you give a horse, it’s okay; a buffalo is okay; a cow is okay; a goat is okay. But to deal with an elephant—an elephant standing in front of your house, eating every day a few hundred kilos—this is not easy. And, of course, you cannot set your elephant free in everyone’s farms. He was happy to have it, but with folded hands, he said, "Can I present it back to you?" So he gave it back. So, as a mission? He gave him something else in the name of a mission, for Gurujī and his glories. That king gave a lot of land to him, to his families. One of the lands he gave was a big area for farming, and this is the land where we are sitting now. Behind our ashram, there are a few hectares—about 50 hectares or more—of land which belongs to my mother’s side of the family. And this ashram spot is that land which was given, donated by the king at that time, a few hundred years ago, I think. So this is actually the land of our ancestors. In due time, through floods and the flowing of the rivers, the bank of the river was slowly, slowly cut off. So the river came nearly inside here. And now, again, through our ashram, we made it. We filled the earth, and we got the ground back from which Amichanji got it from the Ghaṇerāo Thākur. Not only here, but in many villages, he donated land to my mother’s families in Nīpāl and in neighboring villages. The king gave a lot of land to the Amichanjīs. He was more or less the guru of that king. When Amichanji passed away, in memory and honor of Amichanji, the king ordered to make a pond, a talāb, for the creatures, for the animals, for the wildlife to have water for drinking. That talab is now, unfortunately, where farmers slowly, slowly came in and blocked the flow of the water. But that lake is here, just behind when we drive towards the Nāḍor, on the right side. Also, they built walls and roads, and they made it smaller. So the name of the Talaab is still in the name of Amichānjī. At the same time, there was a miracle that happened in Amichānjī’s presence, and there they made a small temple for some deities. In people's beliefs, they believed there was living some ghost or a spirit around the whole world. Some people had the fear, and one day Amichanji came and purified the place, and after that, negative things never happened anymore. So this land where we are sitting is actually the land of Holy Gurujī’s, or my family’s, ancestors; they own this land. When in 1947 India became independent, it became a democratic country, a people’s land. The kings, they all got holidays, forever maybe, and the government owns all the lands and such, and the people own the things. So, at that time, this land and all of this was still kept in the record for our families. In 1963, Bhagavān Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī went into Mahāsamādhi. He gave up his body in Khāṭū. Mahāprabhujī had two āśrams: one ashram was in Khatu, and one ashram here in Bolā Gūḍā, where Mahāprabhujī came. He had his Guru Prabhu, the disciple of Śrīdevapurījī, Haripurījī. So Haripurājī came to this part of the world and had some problems with villagers and such. So he came to Mahāprabhujī, and Mahāprabhujī came here and then made an ashram and said, "You can settle here, no problem." So, the Bola Guda ashram and this ashram. At the time when Mahāprabhujī had samādhi, Mahāprabhujī appeared in different places, including the Bola Guda and where his samādhi is, and so on. So in 1963, when Mahāprabhujī went to Mahāsamādhi, Gurujī decided, and all Nīpāl village people asked Gurujī to make his ashram here. They asked many times, but Gurujī said, "No, I don’t want any ashrams. I don’t need an ashram." And as a sanyāsī, to come and live in one’s own village is not advisable. But people said, "No, please come," and this and that, and they are very devoted people. They are farmers, simple people. So, Gurujī didn’t want to take anyone’s land, so he took this land—a corner of his ancestors’ land, which still belongs to the families. And so slowly, slowly we tried to repair the bank of the river, and the government helped. They built the boundary walls for this ashram two years ago, and we made this ashram. In the beginning, there was only this meditation hall where we are praying, and this front veranda only with four pillars—that was it—and two small rooms behind. The rest was nothing. But as Devapurījī said, it takes time for a sprout to grow into a large, huge tree. So, slowly, slowly, all through the help of the many bhaktas of Gurujī and Mahāprabhujī and Devapurījī, from India as well as from abroad, they helped so that we could make this āśram. Since 1974, the European devotees began to come to India. And Gurujī’s concern was always that these people from Western countries, they used to have different kinds of life, and they should have a different comfort. And that’s why we made this here. And many, many people from India and around the world helped to make this ashram. So now you see how it is. Also, my father passed away at the beginning of 1964. I met Holy Gurujī, or maybe if I am not mistaken, it was in the monsoon of ’63. When the ashram was constructed, Holy Gurujī decided to have the statue of Mahāprabhujī installed. The chief minister of Rajasthan, Mr. Mohanlal Sukhadia, who was a resident of Udaipur—and when you go to Devpurī, there is a big circle, a traffic circle called Sukhadia Circle—so Sukhadia came and made the installation of the statue. The whole village people were helping; many other people were helping. That was in 1964, on the 13th of July, and that was Guru Pūrṇimā Day. So Gurujī sent the invitation, and he sent the invitation also to my mother to come here to that satsaṅg, the big satsaṅg. So we did not know when and how. We should have come one day earlier, but we came on the same day. So the whole function, everything was over. Mother and I arrived about one hour late, after the sun had set. Mother and I walked for three hours because July is already monsoon. Guru Purnima began, and we came by bus from Sojat, and the bus couldn’t come further to cross the rivers, so we stopped in Khivara. Mother and I walked; it was on the way, sunset already. We walked 15-20 kilometers, some path there, and we crossed through rivers also, water this much. Finally, we arrived here at 9:30 in the evening. We came to visit Gurujī here, and there was still satsaṅg going on. So, the first time in the evening on 13th of July, around 9, I saw Gurujī for the second time here at this ashram. As I told you many times, my only wish was to live with, to stay with Gurujī, but I didn’t dare to say anything because, as a young child—yes, young boys are shy, he’s very shy always, maybe girls are also, I don’t know, but from the boys we know that we are shy to express our wish sometimes. We stayed one week here in Nīpāl, and then we went to see my aunt, the sister of my mother, and also my other aunt, who was the sister of my grandfather. So we stayed two days there. And I asked my mother, "Why don’t you ask Kālī Gurujī if I can stay with him?" She said she doesn’t know. If he said no, then what? So I said, "Well, but you can somehow tell. I wish to stay." So it is said that Gurudeva always knows what the disciple wishes, but doesn’t say it directly. So when we came back the next day, it was about 11 o’clock in the morning, and my mother came from the village here to Gurujī, and I stayed somewhere on the river to play, because in Marupa there was no river. I was so happy and surprised to see the riverbed, where there was a lot of sand, you know, to sit in and relax, and like this was great. This is something: when you live high in the mountain, you can come to the flatland, you can bike nicely. And so Gurujī told my mother, "If you allow, I would like that he stay with me here and go to this school in Nīpāl." So mother said, "I can’t say anything, it’s your wish. If you want, okay, I will ask him." And then I came here after half an hour; I was looking here and there. And another great joy and surprise for me when I came to the Nīpāl village was the water. Because in the village where I was born, it’s salty water. Only we have sweet water when the monsoon comes. So, it is very hard to get sweet water for drinking. And when I came to Nīpāl and I drank the water from the water well, that was the joy, the joy of heaven that you could enjoy. Such sweet water. You can’t imagine that I was drinking so much water that I had no more hunger. For me, that water here in Nīpāl is like milk. This is only when, then you know what the water means. We have little rivers. They flow, the seasonal rivers, little creeks. And there’s the sand. There’s the water remains, but it is so salty that you can’t even wash your hands. So that was something. And then I saw so many big trees with fruit trees, which, where I live, we don’t have that many. So, it is something beautiful that changes in the natures. And when Gurujī—mother told me what Gurujī said—that I should stay with him and go to the Nīpāl school, that was, I think, one of the best days of my life. It was such a great joy inside; I was so happy. But still, I didn’t dare to say to Gurujī, "Yes." And then I was sitting with mother, and Gurujī was sitting, and there were no trees. These trees were not there. On 1963, on July 15, this neem tree was planted behind the temple by one of the people from a neighboring village. There was no trace here, so it was very nice. So then Gurujī asked me directly, and I said, "Yes, I would like to." So you never know when and how your destiny opens a new chapter of your life. You don’t know which thought and which meeting with someone can change the direction of your life. Sometimes, it is difficult to forget or overcome your past times and to change your past habits, way of living, relations, and so on. So, at the time when I began to stay here, there was always, like, an unfoldment of the petals of the lotus, day by day. It was not as joyful as I imagined. There were days that were also very hard. There were days I was asking myself what I’m doing here. There were days I wanted to go back. And twice I went really away, went back, but I went home; I was also not happy. I asked myself why I came back. You are the coward. When you decided you should go through. And the many things which we will write. There was a very divine experience here. The time of my life here was about between ten and half years, so till different life ages, beautiful, and all village people, simple village people, were kind and surrounding all the bhakti of Mahāprabhujī. They were still having vivid memory of Mahāprabhujī, because just four years before, Mahāprabhujī went to Mahāsamādhi, and people were coming and having satsaṅgs. So the Nīpāl ashram is an ashram where Gurujī had his tapāsyā also. Gurujī stayed here, and he wrote many, many bhajans here. I was here going to school, and Gurujī was sitting and writing many, many bhajans, Satguru Chālīsās, and many other bhajans and books. So then we were, only me and Gurujī, together. So Gurujī asked me to cook. So I am a 10-year-old boy, what? Will you cook, you know? So, sometimes Gurujī said that it was not too much, and this was too much. I said, "Gurujī, at least you sit here and tell me how much I put in, that’s all." But the experiences and practice make the master. And myself, I had three times divine visions. I was sleeping here in the meditation hall near Mahāprabhujī, and Gurujī was in that other room, or Gurujī was sitting outside near Mahāprabhujī, and I was sitting on the other side, sleeping on the other side. So also in my visions or in my dreams, Mahāprabhujī came and gave me certain instructions and blessings, which I will write sometimes in my book, maybe. That time I was not a sanyāsī, not a swāmī. Just a teenager going to school, coming back, and cooking for Gurujī, and sitting and reading books or something like this. So you are in the Nīpāl Ashram. It is an ashram beautifully located at the bank of the river, with a very pleasant climate and pleasant people. You are all welcome to come any time and do visit Nīpāl Ashram. This waits for you, and you are perfect for making your Anuṣṭhāna or Sādhanā here also. They are happy that all our ashrams are beautiful, very peaceful, and divine, because where Gurudev lives becomes a holy place. Guru Charanamay 68 Tīrth Hai, Wo Ved Purāṇah Gāte Hai. Where Gurudev lives doesn’t matter; wherever he puts his lotus feet, that spot of the earth becomes the divine, the holy. With this, I welcome you all here, and you are lucky, fortunate ones, that you can be here in Nīpāl Āśram, holy village, the incarnation place of our beloved Satguru Dev, Holy Gurujī Śrī Svāmī Madhavānandjī Mahārāj. Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī, Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān kī, Satya Sanātana Dharma kī Jaya.