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There is a saying: simple living and higher thinking. When I speak of it, I hesitate, so I try always to be as simple as possible. Once, some bhaktas asked me: "Why do Indians decorate their gods?" The answer is simple: because we love our God. God is only one, in different forms. Hinduism is declared as a religion of happiness, and we express our happiness to our God. All beautiful things in this world belong to my God. My body, my mind, my thoughts, my actions, my feelings, my soul, my consciousness, my entire being belongs to my Lord. In which way may I make you happy, O my Lord? Beautiful decoration has a positive and beautiful reflection on your consciousness. Whenever you meditate, you find this most beautiful vision. We do not want to see our Lord suffering or starving. I respect greatly, and in some way I accept, but whenever I see Lord Jesus hanging on the cross, I am sad. I do not say this as negative critique, but I am sorry to see the Lord still hanging on the cross. We, devotees of Him, should give Him a beautiful, comfortable, higher position. But this is a very sensitive and different point. He was suffering on the cross because of our sins. But sins of whom? That time or now? He will definitely free us from our sin, but not through his suffering. These are different ways of thinking. I respect their belief and their imagination, but we, in Hinduism—or better to say the culture, tradition, the mentality—say no one should suffer. For thousands of years, from the Satya Yuga, the ṛṣis, the holy saints, said all should be happy. All should enjoy life. All should be prosperous. No one should suffer any pain. Your duty is to give someone happiness. Of course, sometimes people do not want what you want to do. It does not mean you go directly and hold their hands and give a hug. But on your spiritual level, on your mental level, you wish for every creature’s happiness. That is the most beautiful peace prayer: "Oṃ dyoḥ śāntiḥ antarikṣaṃ śāntiḥ..." This peace prayer is so beautiful, and it is not directed to some particular god—neither to Kṛṣṇa, nor to Rāma, nor to any other—because in Hinduism there is only one God. That is Parameśvara, the supreme Brahman. Eko Brahma dvitīyā nāsti. The One is the reality, the truth. What is changing, coming and going, is non-reality, but at the same time we adore His creation, we love His creation. He is the complete one, the entire universe, and we are part of Him. That means all creatures are a part of Him. When we are a part of Him, then we are related to Him. He is the father, He is the mother. You are the mother, and you are the father. You are my relative, and you are my friend. You are my wisdom, and you are my wealth or prosperity. You are everything, O my Lord, this consciousness. Time to time, He manifests here. But when God is manifesting in one individual form, it does not mean the other part of the universe is absent from God. If the universal Lord incarnates in some form, does it mean the rest of the universe is empty? No God there, because He came here? No, it is not like that. Holy Gurujī writes beautifully in Līlā Amṛt: if there is a big fire somewhere—a forest is burning—it does not mean that in other parts of the world there is no fire. That is what we have to understand. How does the manifestation take place in this universe? Creating the universe in the universe, in the universe, into the universe. Even a single atom of your body has an end, yet is endless in it. The entire universe, what we see, is endless. We do not know how big it is. This all is within your very tiny atom of your body. This realization has to be there. So, time to time, definitely holy saints appear. You may call them holy saints. You may call them God incarnate. "Incarnation" means who is born. It is a spiritual word utilized for higher things, but incarnation means the birth; you can say, "Today is my incarnation day," or you can say, "Today is my manifestation day of my embodiment." This is a matter of language. Therefore, we always try to give our best, and whatever we do, it is for us. It does not matter how beautifully you decorate the altar of your God. Definitely He will not come and say, "Oh, beautiful, you made it." And if He did come and say that, you would say, "Who is this person?" Even God, Kṛṣṇa Himself, were He to come again, you would not respect Him. Even Jesus were to incarnate and come and say, "I am Jesus," you would say, "What a crazy man," because we think there is only one, and no more will come. But the Bhagavad Gītā says: "Time to time, I manifest myself, O Arjuna, to protect my devotees and the dharma, and to eliminate the adharma." If you cook nice prasāda, offering to God, you put the plate in front of Him, offer it, and after you take it, you can measure it in kilograms. Still, it will be the same weight. He did not eat. You will enjoy; you will eat. So finally, the prasāda you are cooking is for yourself. Bhagavān vāsanā ke būke hai. God just is hungry for the love, the bhāva, your inner feeling. And these feelings, if you offer, that is a receipt for Him. Like we sing in my bhajan: "Rājadena Guru Samoye Charaṇakī"—O Lord, Gurudev, give me the dust of your holy feet. "Nehime mangubhog svargka"—I am not asking for the joy of heaven, because that is also limited. When all this good karma is enjoyed, then you have to come back again to Chorāsī (the cycle of 84 lakh births). No, I do not want to have a house or money or this. This will all come. If you go and pray for material things, physical things, that is too little. God says, "What a wonder! You are praying for the things which are mortal." Why are you praying for the mortal? Pray for the immortal. From the mortal to the immortal. Lord, lead us from mortality to immortality. Since humans began to civilize and language was developed, the Devanāgarī alphabet—"deva" means the goddess, "nāgarī" means citizen—the citizen of the divine world, where sound and form appear, and both are described: akṣara brahma, in this form is the supreme self, and śabda brahma. Thus, the word, the sound, is Brahman. Therefore, it is not the form of our Brahmā. The form of the Supreme is that resonance; that resonance is in the entire universe. That is declared by the sages: the Oṃ. Oṃ is in the whole universe in the form of sound and light. So do not pray too much and worry about your body. Your bodily worrying is a wasting of your time, because the body is mortal. It does not matter how much care you take of your body; you cannot stop the process day by day. Shall I tell the truth? We are getting old. Every second, the process in the body is changing. And it is good; we are going forward. To get the grey hair is not an easy job. When you walk along the bank of a river and find a beautiful stone, very round, shining, polished not by machine but by nature, you take this stone in your hand and wonder how beautiful it is. Ask this stone, "How did you manage to get so beautiful and so round?" The stone will say, "You do not know, my friend, how many rounds I had to roll, how many beatings I got from different rocks, till I came to this form." So, from birth till today, how many experiences—pleasant and unpleasant—have you had? Finally, you came to the grey hair. Thank you, God. Finally, I reached the stage of my life where I can again think normally. This life is immortal, and to pray for the mortal is not advisable. Pray for the immortal. So day by day, changing. Thoughts changing, feelings changing. Opinions are changing. The age is changing. Mind is changing, attitude is changing, action is changing. We are in the world of change. It is said you cannot bathe twice in the Ganges. Nor in any river can you bathe twice. It is only once, that is all. That water where you dip in, make it dip and come out before you realize that you are out of the water. It is gone two meters far. You cannot bathe in that water again if the new one is coming. Past is past. The future is not here. Be aware, be conscious of the present. The future will be like our presence. So many things have happened and still will happen. You know, our destiny tortures us in a cruel way, sometimes giving a little chocolate of happiness and sometimes giving a slap on the cheek. Many, many things. So do not think that now, from today on, I will be in happiness. Ānandoham, ānandoham, ānandam, brahmānandam. No. Still, we have a long way to go. But one thinks, "Okay, I will die now." That is not a solution. Death is not the final end of life. Only the physical body is not there, but other thoughts, other feelings, memories, pain, everything is there. You cannot run away from the problems because of your destiny. The problem is like a shadow of your body. You do not like the shadow of your body? Sit in an aeroplane and fly with the quickest aeroplane; you get out at Sydney airport because you did not like the shadow of your body, so you left it in Europe. You get out of the aeroplane and the shadow is there. Oh God, how quick should I fly that my shadow will remain behind? There is no chance. Therefore, you cannot run away from the destiny we are in. So try to understand. Try to create beautiful thoughts, beautiful feelings, beautiful words, a beautiful attitude. And always pray, "Lord, what will be with me? Hey Prabhu, ab hamārā kyā hogā?" O Lord, now what will be with me? So, in Indian philosophy, in Hinduism, in yoga, we do not think too much in the past. There is little theory written about going into past lives, because the yogī says to think about the past is useless. If that is the case, then it will only make you unhappy. If it was terrible, it will make you unhappy, and if it was beautiful, it will make you unhappy because that is gone. So the arrow, while going into the body, makes the hole, and while coming out of the body, makes the hole too. Therefore, concentrate in the present to create the future. And therefore, the Hindus, or Indians, I would say, they decorate beautifully. Now, if you go to South India, you know the largest Catholic population in one particular country is in India. If you want to know this: the largest population, well, after Indonesia, the largest population of Islam is in India. The largest population of the Protestants, the Parsis, and the Hindus. So in many ways, India has very big things. The first university was in India, and recently I read the highest village in the world is in India from the sea level, unless we will create on the moon another village. Well, anyhow, what I want to tell: if you go to South India, or anywhere in India, you will see that Jesus is so beautifully decorated. And to see these pictures gives you more joy and feelings. Therefore, it is said, what is good should come up. Therefore, the Creator has given the five jñāna-indriyas above, not below. Imagine if God would have given your two eyes on your toes. How will you find a way? Which direction? Because the toes want to know, "I want to see." Then perhaps we have to change the system: learning walking on hands so the toes can see. So the smelling, the nose—if God would have given it somewhere between the toes, you cannot get good air, oxygen. So many, many things. You can compare why it is upside and not downside. So, Mother Nature never makes a mistake. The creator, the father, never makes a mistake. The only mistake is done by ourselves. And for that, we pray for forgiveness. Therefore, the altar is decorated. Now, let me give one good example. You go to a restaurant. The dining table is nicely decorated with some flowers, some candles, some spices, a nice tablecloth. Everything is nice. When you marry, you decorate yourself very beautifully. You decorate very much for your birthday. You make your house more beautiful. Your bathroom, you make it nice. What is that? Because you would like to have this beauty. Because this external beauty is reflecting on your inner life, and that is one of the points why we have the altar high, why we decorate. But many do not understand and do not see. They will say, "The guru, he wants to sit high up. Look, the poor disciples sitting on the white ground." And he, my God, I think I am in the wrong place. I came to learn yoga, and what I see? These are the thinking of the people. I got many times questions: "Why must you sit always up, Swāmījī?" So I said, "Well, Gurudev gave me the position to sit up." But he said, "Why are you always up, and we are down?" So the answer is this: you are more than me. So on this scale, I am little, so going up, and you are going down. You have more mastery. I would never be able to manage that my skill part will go down and you come up. So it depends how we think, how we feel. And therefore always we try to give good thoughts, good feelings, good words, good expressions, good actions, good decorations. That is how in life we should achieve this. As I gave you example before, we make a very nice bhog—it means to offer the food to God. Early morning, Paṇḍitjī makes nice halvā, and he puts nice almonds inside, and he puts a lot of ghee inside. Then he makes parāthās, parāthās, a special chapātī. If you eat one parāthā lifelong, you will never forget how tasteful it is. And nice vegetables, nice kheer, nice laddus, and a full plate. He goes to the altar, and he makes a curtain symbolically in front of the altar, and he opens the plate and makes the prayer: "Brahmārpaṇaṃ Brahma Haviḥ Brahmāgnau Brahmaṇā Hutam. Brahma eva tena gantavyaḥ brahma karma samādhinām." Hey Lord, please accept and eat. Rucir bhoja lāgau. And what happens? After 10 minutes, 5 minutes—it depends how hurried Paṇḍitjī is—he takes the plates to the kitchen. God did not eat even half a gram. Who will eat? Paṇḍitjī. So whatever you are doing for God, you are doing for yourself. Once someone said to Holī Gurujī, "I helped you so much, and I gave you this and that." Holī Gurujī said, "You never gave me anything, and you never helped me with anything." Whatever you did, it was for you. Do not tell God, "I was making ceremony pūjā for five years, and you are not happy with me." God will come and tell you, "When did I ask you to make a pūjā for me? When did I ask you to cook for me? Did I ask you anything? No. Then? And if you did, the fruits you will enjoy. The food which you made, you will enjoy eating, and the fruits of this making ceremony you will enjoy." In every aspect, you have a double benefit, like a saw which cuts the wood. In both directions, it cuts the wood. So whether you do this or that, it is all written for you. We are human. We have our human weaknesses. Maybe we do not have all clean hands. We cannot play the perfect one. But we would like to admire and remember the perfect one. I told you a few times. The five points, if you remember every day five times, will help you very much. Point one: I am a human. But it does not mean that you make a discrimination towards other creatures. "Human" means to have big responsibility—what a human should do and what a human should not do. That means you have to remember that I am a human. Second, what makes me human? What makes me the human? Hands and legs? Monkeys also have them. The qualities. Which qualities make the human? And how to cultivate those good qualities. And finally, what is the mission of human life? These are very beautiful thoughts. When you do not know what to do for certain problems or for certain things, then you remember these points: I am a human. What makes me human? What are the qualities of a human? How to cultivate them? And what is my mission? What should I do and what should I not do? But still we make a mistake, and for that we pray for forgiveness. So this is why the altar is higher today. And it is very easy to explain that the people who are sitting behind can see better. If I sit down here and speak, many of you will look like this. Or we should have it like in some universities: the students are four meters high, the professor is down. But luckily, there is a door for the professor in an emergency, you know. Because it can happen that the student attacks him and has no way to run away. In some countries, at the time of examinations in colleges and universities, they have to have army force there. Yes, so violent can these young kids be. In some countries, the student goes to the home of the professor, chewing chewing gum, five boys or girls, and all are standing like this in front of the professor’s house, then they disappear. The professor knows these boys have something in mind. "I should be good to them and give good notes." The professor is your guru, and your behavior towards your Gurudev is like this? It is not appreciable because he gives you the knowledge, and therefore it does not matter from whom you get the knowledge. He is your guru, God. The Tāntrika had many gurus; even he accepted a snake as a guru. It is a beautiful story of the Tāntrikas, but this we will tell next time. Time, so I am very happy to sit here under this beautiful tree, in the lap of Mother Nature, and the climate is also good today. The weather is good, neither hot nor cold. This dialogue that we have here, this is called Upaniṣad. Upaniṣad means the disciple who is sitting near to the master and listening to the Guruvākyā. "Up" means near. And so this disciple is listening to the Guruvākyā. There are many, many beautiful stories in many scriptures where the beautiful jungle is described: beautiful trees, beautiful flowers, butterflies, the honey bees, and there was a beautiful hut of the Gurudev, and disciples were sitting there and listening to the wisdom, doing the Guru Seva. There are many, many fairy tales like this. That is why it is said in the bhajan of Mahāprabhujī’s disciple, Swāmījī Śivānandjī: "Guru charaṇam me atsat tirat hai, wo ved purāṇa gāte." In the presence of the holy feet of the Gurudeva is all holy places. Wherever they go, they bring the beautiful energy and atmosphere. In one of the biggest epochs—what you call a story of the dynasty—when the Pāṇḍavas went into the forest, Agyatvās (it means nobody should know where they are), let us say they hide themselves because of Duryodhana. Their cousin, brother, they were searching where the Pāṇḍavas could be. And the answer was this: where there is one right time, raining. The right time, the trees give the fruits; the crops grow at the right time. Many flowers open. Every season is acting accordingly. Balanced atmosphere, balanced season. There can be the Pāṇḍavas.