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Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Devādhidev, Deveśvar Mahādev, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai. Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī, Gaṅgā Vahiyan Kī Jai. Aap sabhī kā svāgat, dharm premī sajjanom. Ātaon aur āj thodā abhī Aṅgrejī bhāṣā mein, English mein thodā vyākhyān hogā, ameṣā mein Hindī mein boltāon. Good evening, blessed self, all dear bhaktas. Today will be the first speaking in English language. I would like to introduce you to one of our great friends, who has been serving the government of India in Vienna for more than 12 years, I think. And last, he was about five years, not only three years, the ambassador of India in Vienna. His name is His Excellency, Shilkanth Sharma, the ex-ambassador of India to Austria, Vienna. Welcome him. And at the same time, his dear wife, Mīnūjī, is also a great soul and very spiritual, coming from a very traditional Hindu family and practicing our yoga and daily life nearly every day. Also, His Excellency does it whenever he finds the time. True? Yeah. And he was very helpful to us, especially in getting some long-term visas for bhaktas. So all Austrians were very nice to him. And indeed, he was very supportive. Of course, he had to remain under the frame of the law of India, but he did his best. And now he is retired, living here in Delhi. And his wife is from here, from Allahabad. Her birthplace is about one and a half kilometers from here. Maybe not so far. They were also very good friends with Muktamani in Vienna, because Muktamani was looking after the Ayurveda Academy of Yoga and Day Life, and many official events we were invited to, and Muktamani had the opportunity to attend. So he came from Delhi to here. To visit his family and the Kumbha Melā, he found that I am here, so he was kind enough to make his visit here to see all of us. I think as long as he is in Allahabad, he will come again. So, I would ask His Excellency to tell us something about Allahabad. It’s a big and beautiful historical city. This city has given five prime ministers to India. It was also the home of the Nehru family. It is called Ānand Bhavan. Now it’s a museum, and many scholars are here with very high educations. As well, it is a very historical place from the Satya Yuga’s time until today because of the holy Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī. So this is a very historical place. Now you see that millions of pilgrims come here, having the darśan and bath in the Gaṅgā. Yesterday, I spoke with one of our Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras about the pollution in the river, and he said, "Yes, that’s true, but we don’t see the pollution." He said that sometimes, in the Kumbha Melā, the arrangement by the government was not as good as it is now. At that time, there were hygienical problems. Some people were going to the toilet just near the Gaṅgā water, and people were bathing somewhere and swimming. Dirt, you know. But they said, for the holy saints and those who have great love and devotion, there is no sin, there is no curse, and there are no impurities. We don’t see the pollution; we see the holy mother. It would be better if the water were more clean, but there are two kinds of eyes. One is to see the physical world, jaisī dṛṣṭi, jaisī sṛṣṭi—how you see the world appears to you. But second are the eyes of wisdom, knowledge, truth, love, bhakti, and devotion. So when we all Hindus see that river not as a river, and the water is flowing from canalization, but it is something great, divine. Only through the darśan of Gaṅgā can you have mokṣa. So in reality, there is a hundred times more pollution in your body than in the Gaṅgā. All that is swimming through your body and through your intestines, and all that goes, that is a hundred times more polluted or stinky than the water situation at present that we see in the Gaṅgā. The great saint Kabīr Dās said, he said one nice poem. Kabīr Dās jī ke wo local language me tha na, Kabīr Dās said: Chamde kā bachrā, chamde kā bachrā, chamde kī gāy, aur chamdayī dhone vālā, chamdayī pī jāy, understand? Chamde kā bachṛā, chamḍāyī kī gāy, aur chamḍāyī dhoṇe vālā, chamḍāyī pī jāy, what are you talking about, skin and no skin and this and that? So, all these impurities, code and urine and all these vikāras, what we have in our body, are more in our body than in the Gaṅgā itself. So, but still we see, and we are proud of our body. We are very proud of our body. We are looking, we are happy, and we do the makeup, and this and cutting hair and mustache and beard, and this and that, decorating our body. And no one can blame our body. So, purity or impurity is within our thinking. But we yogīs are constantly trying to purify the body through prāṇāyāma, through netī, dhautī, bastī, naulī, tratāka, kapālabhātī, and through different exercises. So we also try to purify the Gaṅgā, but it depends through which feeling you see. So the bhaktas, they will not see it as dirt, but as the Holy Mother Gaṅgā. It is her vein through which her blood is flowing as this water. And we children, we humans, polluted the Gaṅgā. When the Gaṅgā came for the first time to this Mṛti Loka, the mortal world, at that time there were no different religions. There was only one Sanātana Dharma. All these other religions developed in the past few centuries. So, it is a pollution in the human mind. So, the mental pollution is more dangerous than the physical pollution. So, it depends on how we accept. But, Mr. His Excellency, Sharmajī will tell you more about this: how we see the Gaṅgā, how people see the Gaṅgā, and what the impact on the whole world is about Kumbha Melā. So, the floor is yours, sir. Charan Sparsh, Param Ādānī Swāmījī, Mīrāsadā Charan Sparsh. I am very thankful to you for your kindness and for your grace, to have treated me of some value to be able to speak before you, before such a gathering of very distinguished bhaktas and your disciples. So, first of all, I give praṇām to all of you, and with Swāmījī’s āśīrvād, I will try and speak a little. If there is something good, it is due to his āśīrvād. But if there is a fault, it is mine. Please forgive me for that. All of you have gathered here on the shore of the Gaṅgā. The Gaṅgā, for all of us Hindus for generations and generations and for hundreds and thousands of years, is the most pious, most pure river. We call it Ātmā Salila, that means it is the water of our soul. And we call it Sur Salila. It is the river from the gods. And Goswami Tulsidas, in all his humility and wisdom, says that all mankind’s fame, that is kīrti, all mankind’s wealth, which is bhūti, and all mankind’s bhanati, which means the art and expression, "Sursari sam sab kahi hith hoi." And every 12 years, vast multitudes gather here. We have heard about it from our childhood. And to be able to come here is a kind of parameter for us. I was talking to my family way back in Madhya Pradesh, and they were saying, "We are very happy that you are there, at least." So if they are not able to come, if someone has come from the family, they feel very nice about it. And what is it that brings us all here, and which has been bringing us here for centuries? The river, its purity, its nirmalatā, its piety, its pavitratā, this is inspiring for all of us. And it is open to all. It’s like if you give a modern simile, it’s like electricity. When electricity is reached, it doesn’t distinguish between good and bad, rich and poor. It is there. The Gaṅgā is the Ātmā Salila or Dev Salila, which is the kind of, you know, ethereal electricity which comes to you to help you, give you energy, cleanse you, and make you feel better. And what you find here is that it is accessible to all. Just imagine, 100 years back, where we are sitting, the river was even here. People tell us that Bharatwāj Āśram, which is two kilometers from here, Gaṅgājī used to come all the way to Bharatwāj Āśram. And just visualize the time when thousands and thousands of people would come from all corners of India. And under the blue sky, when the month of Māgh, which is the time when the winter is going away day by day, and the sun is coming northward, and the bright sun, and you find this water, this pure water. So the Anubhuti, the feeling, the inspiration, is that of Mokṣa when you come here. And it is that which has been sung by our poets, by our dreamers, our philosophers for ages. Even there is a great poet from Allahabad, which, as Swāmījī said, is a place of intellectual learning. When we were children, it was considered the Oxford of the East. Because all our great intellectuals and leaders and thought leaders, they seem to come from Allahabad. One of them was Ragbati Sahay Firak, who used to write in Urdu, and he wrote a poem, of which I will just recite a small couplet. Which means, O river of soul, river of the soul, Gaṅgā, do you remember when, hundreds of thousands of years back, on your shore, our civilization came and rested? And from there we flourished, and we went all over the place. And in the poem he says, there is another one which is the same sentiment, which is another poet, which we sing very regularly, is that "Kuch bāt hai ki hastī mitti nahī̃ hamārī, sadīyoṁ rahā hai dushman, daure jahā̃ hamārā." That means there is something in our existence that doesn’t go away, even though we have braved the hostility of the ways of the world for centuries. So, this coming here and congregating here for several weeks, or throughout that month when one full moon goes into a new moon and again comes back into a full moon. That time you feel an inner strength, and you feel an inner purity. And that purity is the river of humanity, the people who come around you. And that is one thing which I like to say, it is my inner feeling, that our religion at its core is a very humble religion, which teaches us that its principal teachings are of love and humility. And here you find that humility in abundant measure, because there is a certain equality, and you feel very small before the vast river and the vast multitude. And that through that humility, you transcend yourself, and you go to the divine, and you realize the divine within yourself. So, I think it is this great message which one can carry from this congregation. You feel just one dot in the multitude, and almost a billion strong people, in some way or the other, you know, are attached to these waters. Swamiji, we are far away, thousands, hundreds of miles away, and we used to be abroad. When they bathe, they say "Har Har Gaṅge," which means they remember this river, and they bathe with any water. And they imagine that water to carry the purity of this river. So this is so sacrosanct for us and so central to us. And at the same time, it teaches us to be humble, loving, kind, and caring. So with these words, Swāmījī, I seek your permission, and I will just end. And I’d like to thank you for listening to me. I hope I have made sense. Hari Om. Oṃ sa yuktaṃ nityadāyantī yogīna kāṃdaṃ mokṣaṃ ca Oṃ kārayaṇam Oṃ namaḥ. Oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt. Gurur brahma gurur viṣṇu gurur devo maheśvara, guru sākṣāt parabrahma tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ. Dhyāna Mūlam Guru Mūrti, Pūjā Mūlam Guru Pādam, Mantra Mūlam Guru Vākyam, Mokṣa Mūlam Guru Kṛpā. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. How fortunate we are, that we are sitting in such a place, where Devīs, Devatās, Bhagavān Śiva, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and others came and performed tapasyā. Just now, our former ambassador, the envoy of India, who described the glory of this place, the glory of the Melā, the glory of Prayāg Rāj Tīrtha. Bharadvāja Ṛṣi kā Āśram... The Muslim countries are part of India. Gāndhārī was part of Afghanistan. If we look at the other side, then the whole of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Tapu, Sri Lanka, even beyond this, where the sun was rising and setting, India was not visible. In that state, there was always the sun. Until then, Vedic culture, Sanātana Dharma, and Mānav Jāti were happy. There was little means, but there was more happiness. Now we have a lot of means, but there is a lot of sorrow. There was little means, but there was more happiness. Now there are more means, but there is more sorrow. Manav lost his humanity. Manav Jati left mercy on other beings. Purījī, Purījī... The entire world and all beings are suffering. The Ashram is about two kilometers from here, where Bhagavān Śivjī also came when Dakṣa performed the yajña and invited everyone. Who performed the yajña? Dakṣa came. Dakṣa was insulted. So, in that, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva were all there. So, this place is such a place where the Devī-Devatās of Anant Brahmāṇḍ, the Ṛṣi-Munis, came here and did tapasyā. We are sitting in that place, so this land is so sacred. And today we are sitting in the lap of that Gaṅgā Māiyā, on the banks of the Gaṅgā. And listening to satsaṅg. This Kumbha Melā is being held in every temple, in every hut. Something or the other is being done, like kīrtan, bhajan, satsaṅg, yajña, pūjā, prārthanā, etc. The spiritual environment and the spiritual trance that is going on are indescribable. So to breathe here and to live in this environment is purifying our soul. Sahit Yāṁ Janm Lene Vāle Ko Itnā Patā Nahīṁ Hai, Ki Hamārā Janm Kahāṁ Huā Hai. Kumbh Parva Māg Mahīna is the first month of the month of Māg today. So, this Mahāmahīna is a very big month among all the months. According to this, in the Bhagavad Gītā also, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that among the twelve months, I am Māgha. In this month of Māgha, in the number of Kalābhasīs, in the number of lakhs, we will come from far and wide, and for a month we will take our thoughts and do sādhanā, do tapasyā, do anuṣṭhāna. We are fortunate, we remember the name of Bhagavān and think a little about this life, about why Bhagavān gave this life. Why did you give this opportunity? While wandering in the Jīva zone for the last fourteen lakh years, this human body has been found, so now this opportunity should not be missed. Now they don’t say, "Now the ball, the ball is in your hand. Now where will you throw it?" It is dependent on you. So you are all fortunate, and a lot of blessings. Now, after this, you will be shown the story of the Mahāśivapurāṇa. It will run for an hour, half an hour, a quarter of an hour, two episodes. After that, today’s program will be over. So, I was telling how lucky we are, how fortunate we are. You don’t know where we are sitting. It is that divine, holy place, the most spiritual place where Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Ādi, etc., all the 24 incarnations, they came here. All the holy saints, all the time, were traveling for months to come to this place. In the Mahābhārata, there is all Śiva Mātā. In the Mahāśiva Purāṇa, there are also stories. In Bharadvāja, this is where the great Yajña was there, and King Dakṣa humiliated Śiva, and then Śiva left the Yajña. You remember that? This is what he placed here, and this Bharadvāja Āśrama is not far from here, it’s one and a half or two kilometers away. The ṛṣis were coming there to have a certain negotiation and certain kind of sittings and talking, making the spiritual rules and talking about life. So this is one of the holiest places. Where the Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī meet at the Saṅgam, we are fortunate to be here in this holy place. I wish you all the best. Now we will have the Mahāśiva Purāṇa. Tomorrow again, the program will be at the same time, same space. Start to go. Nārāyaṇa Nārāyaṇa.