Swamiji TV

Other links



Video details

Real Knowledge Is Self-Realization

A spiritual discourse on immortality, ego, and dharma following the Maha Kumbh Mela.

"We all who speak, we never got that nectar. And we don’t know if we will get it. We didn't see it. But we speak as if it is there."

"Kill this little 'I', this little ego, and lead a divine life. If someone tells you something, you are so offended. How?"

The lecturer delivers a webcast satsang, reflecting on the timeless spiritual truths revealed during the Kumbh Mela. He explains that immortality (amrita) is found within through self-realization, not in external search, and that the primary obstacle is the ego. The talk covers the nature of time, the purpose of spiritual practice, and one's dharma—including service, environmental protection, and non-violence in thought and deed—concluding with blessings.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī, Śrī Śrī Deveśvara Mahādeva Kī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī, Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī. Blessed Self, dear spiritual seekers and bhaktas here and around the world who are with us through this webcast. Today, the special blessing is coming from Holy Bhārat, Rājasthān. First of all, I would like to convey to you and send you the divine blessings of the Divine Mother, Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī. Many of you know that for the last two months, there was Mahā Kumbh Melā at Trirat Rāj Prayāg, the king of all holy places, or the king of the pilgrims. Millions of people come there. No one has an invitation; everyone comes by their own decision. On the bathing day, eight million people each found a place to have a dip in the holy Gaṅgā-Yamunā Saṅgam. Everyone had facilities and food. The government of India and the Mela Authority had excellent organization and management, especially regarding hygiene. The Kumbh Mela began in the time of the Satya Yuga, which is millions of years ago. Go and search in your computers about the Vedic time according to the Yugas, Kalpas, and Manvantaras. Also, in reality, there is no time. Why do Viṣṇu or Śiva and others have millions of lives? Because it is called one without second, beyond time and space: Ānand, endless śūnyakas. There is no time. But the ṛṣis, the yogīs, they calculated this time on which basis? Therefore, it is said the very beginning was the awakening of the sound, nāda. The Rūpa Parabrahma, the form of the Supreme, is the sound, the resonance. And that was the Aum. Through that resonance, certain vibrations began to develop in the entire universe, began to develop the elements, and began to develop some atoms, some particles. Through meditation, through sabīja samādhi—because with nirbīja samādhi, yogīs do not come back or have anything more to speak—but Sabīja Samādhi was for the purpose of researching and discovering the life or the mystery of the endless universe. Therefore, the science is called in Vedānta and in yoga, jñāna-vijñāna-tr̥pta-ātmā. Jñāna is the knowledge, vijñāna is the science, tr̥pta-ātmā. That ātmā, when it realizes this, becomes without any desires, without any wish. So Nirbīja Samādhi, Nirvikalpa Samādhi, then Sabīja Samādhi, Savikalpa Samādhi. Sabīja or Savikalpa is the same. They are able to bring the message from the different corners of the universe. And what did they bring? Yathā Brahmāṇḍe Tathā Piṇḍe. What exists in the universe exists in this body. So the time was based on that: the movements of those particles or the vibrations, and then they counted the distances between two waves, and so time was created. Otherwise, time is man-made, not God-made. We are all bound to time, but not our ātmā. Our body is bound to time. The cells of the body are getting old. The body is changing; we observe it becoming old day by day. But the inner feelings, the consciousness, the self never changes. That is the mystery of life. Therefore, they began to calculate that first vibration, the first awakening, and what happens next. That’s why it is said: the Yugas, Manvantaras, Kalpas, etc. So the ṛṣis in the Satyuga knew the battle among Āsurī Śaktis and Devī Śaktis. Asuras, what you call the satanic power, and Devīs, the spiritual or God power, were struggling for power, for position, for ego. They would like to exist forever. But nothing is forever, except that Ātmā, Brahman. Therefore, again in the Vedānta it is said, "Brahma-satyaṁ jagat-mithyā." Whatever will happen in this universe, it is all temporary. Truth is that which is the Ātmā or Paramātmā or Brahman, Brahmasatya. Thy Ātmā is the Satya. Thy thoughts, feelings, imaginations, your body, emotions, intellect, etc., are changeable. Life is a dream. What was at lunchtime is not here anymore. What was here two hours ago is not here now. In the Satyuga, at that time, the ocean was churning; water was there, elements were there, so it means the snakes were also there, yes? Nāga was there, otherwise they wouldn’t churn. They used the roof, no? Or the rope. Out of the 14, we call jewels, something precious. The struggle was for the nectar. Now, the nectar is very difficult to describe. We all who speak, we never got that nectar. And we don’t know if we will get it. We didn’t see it. But we speak as if it is there. So nectar is called Vācanāmṛta. There are those worlds full of wisdom: guru-vākya, vācana-amṛta, caraṇa-amṛta, jñāna-amṛta, pañca-amṛta, etc. So, which amṛtā are you searching for? Every amṛtā makes us immortal. Vācana-amṛta, the preachings, the words of the saints, if we follow, we will achieve immortality. It means Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā. Jñāna-amṛta, the knowledge. Many different kinds of knowledge are there, but only the real knowledge is called self-realization, ātma-jñāna; that is amṛta. Caraṇa-amṛta, the water of the holy feet of the saints, masters. Pañcāmṛta, the different combination of certain nectars like honey, milk, water, curd. So we do have that amṛta today with us. We got it, but we don’t know how to drink it, and we don’t want to drink it. We are searching for the things which are with us. It is said the deer, a very big deer, has a beautiful kastūrī, pañcolī. That kasturi is in the navel of the deer. But the deer likes that smell, and he is searching, running here and there, because he does not know that it is in his maṇipūra cakra. Similarly, that ātmā, that self is within us, but we are searching outside. What a funny thing! The self is searching for the self. This jñāna amṛta, vācana amṛta, satsaṅg ke dvārā hi. Swami Acharya Ramaji Maharaj said, which I often use in my satsaṅgs, "When we get that nectar, that amṛta, that yogī is known as avadhūta." Like Devapurījī was avadhūta. Avadhūta means above everything, like a lotus above the muddy water. Avadhūta is without desires, without longing. Jñāna-vijñāna-tṛpta-ātmā is that pūrṇa yogī. We are all trying to become yogīs, but still we are not there, Avadhūta. So it is said, "Kuber bhī hajāra jis ke, phir bhī vikṣā se din guzarate hain; lāparvāhī ho to aisī ho." Kubera is the treasurer of the gods, the finance minister of the gods. All the wealth is in His hands: all money, jewels, gold, everything. And he can give anything. The treasurer of the God is in the service of such an abhūta, a santa, a saint. But look at the situation of that such abdhuta saint: he doesn’t utilize it, and he doesn’t look to that one at all. He goes and gives almost a bikṣā, food, going begging. It’s called bhikṣuka śānta. As long as a santa, a sādhu, who would like to become a real sādhu and get vairāgya, has to go for the vṛkṣa, otherwise ego will not go away. Ego. As long as you have an ego, you can’t go for begging. Someone will say, "You go away from here." You should not feel humiliated in your ego. You have to kill your ego. Swami Siva Rañjī of Ṛṣikeśa said, "Within you is the ocean of bliss. Within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the immortal Ātmā. Just kill this little 'I', this little ego, and lead a divine life." If someone tells you something, you are so offended. How? There are two conditions. In Europe, we used to say, like a dry plum. A draconian sweat skin or a sucked chana in the water. A bean soaked in water is full. You may say like that. I don’t know. How are you? Everything, face reading, psychology says what you are thinking, what are your feelings. I am facing so many faces every day. Everyone has offense, jealousy, anger, greed, and conflicts. My God! Every day, so many faces. So I can paint it nicely. There is one beautiful picture. I should draw it on the... but I don’t have a pen. That is Dr. Shanti’s theory. She is explaining when she is talking. Very good. Thank you. So, very quickly I will finish. So, very good. The face reading. When you are happy, then you look like this. Dikta hai ki nahi? Smiling? And suddenly when someone tells you something, and you are offended, you look like this. Dikta hai? Paper is little, little, so dekho, mundo niche latakri ho hai. Therefore, it is said, "Abham mast bhai Rām raspeeke, Rām raspeeke, Moe lage dunyā ke sabhī raspeeke." Now I’m highly joyful there because I drank the nectar of God’s name, the wisdom. All other tests of the world are testless. Face reading, so look every day at faces, my God. And when someone is offended, it sucks your blood. Yes, my doctor said so. I mean, you know, you had... Two little red cells in the blood, I said, "Yes, because sucked away." Yes, now it’s my little yes. Now I’m increasing. So Kubera is ready to give everything, but he doesn’t go there. He goes for begging. Without getting rid of your ego, you cannot achieve your level of becoming a sanyāsī yogī or monk. This is the first step. Inside there is a spot. Many, many lives you have to clean your mind, but there are spots, very, very hard spots to remove. Like a lemon you put in the milk, the milk spoils. Similarly, you have to face the situation in the world which spoils your complete attachment to the world. Otherwise, sitting here and thinking about someone somewhere, oh my God, jealous. No one knows everyone’s mind, what they are thinking, except sometimes. Now, in the last two years, Devapurījī tells me who is thinking what or who is doing what, and I see it, but I am not going to tell you. Otherwise, I will have no peace at all in my life. But now this hint is enough, so that Amṛtā, immortality, is within us. Śiva Nanājī said, "Kill this little 'I' and live the divine life. I am Ātmā." Moho nirmohī is not easy; to become a nirmohī. Moha, mohaḥ ajñāna se hotā hai, aur mohaḥ ke kāraṇa vāsanā utpanna hotī hai, aur vāsanā hi duḥkha kā kāraṇa bantā hai. Great Saint Kabīr Dājī said, it is said, "Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, I will only say one sentence and you will know all." And it ends. Yes, Jīvāt hi murdha samare, living like he died. In the Bible it is also said, die to live. First, you have to die and then live. It means kill thy ego, kill thy anger, kill thy hate, kill thy offending. Keep everything, you will be happy. Wah! Kyā kenā? Happiness is within you. That is a human life. Animals follow their rules, their dharma, but humans have lost their dharma. Therefore, humans have the first prayer as this: We know that we don’t follow the principle, we don’t follow the rules. We make mistakes. With little thinking, mistakes happen. O my Lord, please do not notice my mistakes. Because, my Lord, you are the equal-vision one, samadraṣṭī. If you wish, you can let me cross the ocean of this ignorance. If you do not know what your real dharma is, then just follow and do the seva with viveka. Seva means not only directly go and give to something. Mentally, you can do the Seva too. Therefore, in our Hindu scriptures it is said, "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ." All should be happy. This is Seva. Now, what does the survey mean? All creatures, not only human. Sabhī prāṇī merī ātmā hai. Each and every entity is myself. Ātmā sohī paramātmā. Because that self is the ātmā. Do you know for what you came? And what are you doing? Ko’ham? Katam idam? Jātam? Ko ve kartāsya vidyā? From where did you come, and why did you come? Are you doing thy kartavya? Are you doing your seva? No. Many come to Jardhan as a Karma Yogī, and then they become a bhogī, and they become a rogī, and become a drogī. Ego, my dear ego, nirmohī, nirmohī rājā, even by living a household life, you can become a nirmohī. Attachment, moha means ignorance. Where there is ignorance, there is attachment. Where there is love and knowledge, there is sevā and dharma. If you protect your dharma, your dharma will protect you. Which dharma? Eyes have the dharma to see, ears have the dharma to hear. If you can’t protect your ears and your eyes, they can’t protect you. Similarly, our dharma is to protect the environment. If you can’t protect it, it cannot protect us either. Dharma towards the animals, birds, all. What we see day by day, the wildlife is disappearing. What a great pity. The honey bees are disappearing. Here, people are spraying so much poison on their crops and fruit trees. And every day, thousands of my bees are dying, which are the wild bees. I say thousands. I tell the people, my neighbors, I can give you money, 10% more than your income, but please don’t spray the poison, all the bees are dying. Maybe the day comes, I hope not, but maybe, that which is a bee will only be in your school books, a picture, nothing else. And when all the honeybees die, who will make honey? How will they make it? There is no science yet that can make honey like honeybees. There is no science, no knowledge, no one born till today who can make the honey that bees make. Therefore, there is an example that a yogī, a sādhak, a sanyāsī should be like a honeybee. Just take the nectar, the essence, even from the poisonous blossoms; they take the nectar out. So it doesn’t matter how much he is offended, how much he is suffering; you just take all the good things out of that. Anger, hate, jealousy, offending, offense is like you suck your blood, you give the āhuti of your blood in the fire of your desires, and you are jealous. Dharma of the parents towards children and dharma of the children towards the parents. Mātṛ deva bhava, pitṛ deva bhava. The dharma towards the neighbor, dharma towards the birds, animals, this is our real dharma. Honestly work and control thy indriyas, control thy mind, the thinking process. Immediately you think negative, and in your heart the healthy cells are dying. That’s why life is very short, Iṣṭa Devatā, who is my personal God. Then, meditate on the form of the Gurudev. What is the form of the Gurudev? That is a knowledge, the form of the wisdom, the knowledge, the bliss, the joy. Equal vision, like the sky, is above liking and disliking, and above the three guṇas. Above the bhāva, anger, jealousy, fever, this, that, my God, I like this one, I don’t like this. I like my dentist Shanti, I don’t like my dentist Mantrapurī. God, why can Mantrapurī have long injections and she has short injections? This is our bhāva. Gurudev doesn’t make the differences. Gurudev loves all bhaktas equally. God loves all bhaktas equally. And parents love all children equally. But the problem is in the mind of the children, the mind of the bhaktas. Therefore, no religion should fight against others. The problem is in the followers of that religion. God, every God, every great saint gave the same message. Maybe Brahma, Śiva, Viṣṇu, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, they all gave this love. The Quran said, "If you kill one human, you kill the whole humanity." Do you follow that? And killing means not only physically; you can kill someone with your jealousy. When you hate someone, you have killed them. If you hate someone, you kill that person. Hanumanjī said to Bhagavān Rām, "Bhagavān, the time came. Bhagavān Rām should give the punishment to Lakṣmaṇa, the life sentence." Hanumanjī said, "Rām, I know that you want to be that one, but you gave your word." Even at the cost of your life, do not fail your word. Life will go, life will go, but our word will not go. Hanumanjī, great Viveka. Hanumanjī and Gaṇeśjī, you know, they are great. Hanumanjī said to God, "Rāma, Lord, you do what you like, you are the Lord, who am I to advise you anything? But my prayer is this: if you reject someone, send them away, that punishment is like a death punishment." That’s it. When you hate someone inwardly, you have killed that person. Ahimsā paramodharma means not only physically killing; emotionally you can kill, intellectually you can kill, socially you can kill, politically you can kill. There are many, many ways to destroy the people or animals. Therefore, Gurudev, bhavātītaṁ triguṇarahitaṁ. Finally, is the Guru Kṛpā blessing. Follow all the incarnations’ and all holy saints’ instructions. But like one bhajan said, "Gurudev, I will be thine." And said, "Jis sūrat ko kabhī nahīṁ dekhā, usse hum kyā kareṁ?" What is the, how do you call, Śānti? Jis ko kabhī nahīṁ dekhā, Gurudev. Jis kī jarūrat kyā hogī? Jis sūrat ko kabhī nahīṁ dekhā, uskī jarūrat kyā hogī? Kaidā Bhagavān kis rūp mein ā jāyaṅgī? Arjuna wants to see Krishna’s reality. Krishna appeared in millions of faces, different. Arjuna was frightened and said, "Please come as a beautiful human." Similarly, you never saw who is the Kṛṣṇa, you never saw the Rāma, you never saw the Yesus. We, or Buddha, we hear about them. You see these beautiful pictures of Krishna, nicely... Make up and smiling, and this, you know, that was not a Krishna. Radha is standing. Radha was not existing at all. Radha, they just put it beside Krishna now, and poor Rukmiṇī, nobody knows where she disappeared, underground ho gayī. Krishna was not like that, and Radha was not like that. Radha was divine energy. Radha was that divine bhakti. But you have never seen, who knows what it was? Kṛṣṇa jāne so Gītā. If you know Kṛṣṇa, then you know what is the Bhagavad Gītā. Gītā gāthā gāī hoī. Upaniṣad, śāstra, sarva gāthā, gītā hoī. The essence of the Upaniṣad is said in such a way that it becomes a Gītā. Mata Janesu Pita, Krishna Janesu Gita, or Mata Janesu Pita. Only the mother knows who is the father of this child. So what is the reality of the Gītā? Only one knows who saw Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, from a distance, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Om, Tatt Sat. But the direct source from where you drink the nectar of the wisdom, that is a Gurudev, and that is our Īśṭa Devatā. And you cannot choose the Guru from a beautiful picture. You cannot choose the Gurudev who intellectually just influences you. Your heart should feel it, that yes, that can be. And that’s the specialty of the Sanātana Dharma. That everyone has a different guru, and everyone has a right to choose their guru. Like every woman has a right to choose her husband. In ancient culture, it was not that some man went and took the wife or told her that, "I want to marry." No, they have to choose and say yes. You see, Sītā had to choose Rāma. So it’s called Swayamvar. What does Swayamvar mean in English? Swayamvar. Var means husband. Swayam means self. Your self has to choose your husband. That’s called Swayamvara. And when you get a wedding card invitation, written there, "This world swam over." But I don’t know how they are doing nowadays. The lady who married, she knows. I don’t know. So if they choose their wife, or their wife chooses them, I don’t know. If you choose your husband, or your husband chooses you, I don’t know. There are many choices which are not a choice. Because choice should not be only emotional. Janam janam kā nāṭā hotā hai, Mīrā dāsī janam janam kī, Hari tumhāre sāth yā pās. So, iṣṭa devatā, you have to feel that love. Living master, because living sanātana religion and svadharma, that you don’t harm, offend, disturb anyone, and that dharma to follow is a hard. Life of Rāma was such that he had to follow his svadharma. My dear brothers and sisters, about this, we can talk the whole night, but somebody will fight. I want to sleep. So today I finished here, and tomorrow we will have again the same time webcast, and we will speak. Bless you once more. In the name of the Gurudev, Bhagavān Śrī Dīpnanā, Mahāprabhujī, Devapurījī, and Gurujī, and the Divine Mothers Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī. You were the lucky one, you were the fortunate one, you were the chosen one by your karma, that you had the opportunity to be with those millions of saints and bhaktas, and in the divine dust of the Holy Mother’s Gaṅgā, the bank of the Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Trivenī Saṅgam, Saṅgam,... Saṅgam. Thank you, wish you all the best, and bless you. Om Śānti, Śānti,... Om.

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:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel