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This year, millions of people attended the Kumbh Melā, which lasted for one and a half months. According to our akhāḍās, we took three holy baths. The atmosphere was very beautiful, filled with divine energy. The Kumbh Melā, held in different places, is not only for taking a dip in the holy Gaṅgā or other sacred rivers. For ages, it has been a place for social gathering. Great thinkers, scholars, and saints—ṛṣis—would come there to discuss human health—physical, mental, social, and spiritual—for the achievement of the divine goal, as well as to contemplate our environment. It is these great beings who declared all these rivers, lakes, ponds, and oceans as holy. But they also said that a time would come when humans would not understand and would pollute everything. When pollution prevails and everything is contaminated, nature will die. Rivers will dry up, as we have already seen with the great changes foretold. Many rivers around the world have dried out. In different countries, many rivers are severely polluted or blocked. Dams are built, blocking the water flow. Forests are destroyed, leading to less rain and less snow. In this way, one can see there is no end to human greed. We did not follow the instructions of the great saints; it doesn't matter which part of the world. In Africa, rivers are drying. In many countries, including here, they are polluted. Furthermore, it is very pitiful, or very sad, that honey bees are dying out because of pesticides. Where there are crops, so much poison is applied. It can be said, or it can happen, that if this continues, our second or third generation will not see a bee in reality—only in pictures or videos. In many countries, they are being destroyed; certain illnesses have come upon them. Events like the Kumbh Melā were meant for finding inner contentment and peace. Therefore, Banaras, what we call Kāśī, the city created by Lord Śiva, has been a city of knowledge and scholars. Prayagraj has been the city of spirituality, tapasyā, and practicing yoga. Now, there are many facilities, possibilities, comforts, and utilities available. But in those times, people would walk for months to come to the Kumbh Melā and stay for two months there, just on the riverbanks. Everyone had their blanket, that's all, and a little fire. But they had peace in their hearts. They were happy. They knew what they wanted and why they had come. Now, many come to the Kumbh Melā only to see how it is. Many tourists come, and so on. But they do not have peace in their minds. They cannot leave the Kumbh Melā with divine peace because they do not understand, and they do not want to accept. They cannot accept. They do not even understand what a Kumbh Melā is or why so many people come. But one does not ask oneself why they came there. There is some power, there is something which always attracts us. To find peace is not easy. Mahātma Gāndhījī said, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." That peace is within your heart, within thyself, not outside. The outer world is known as a world of disturbances. In Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra, vikṣepa means disturbances, and kleśa means troubles or afflictions. These are two kinds of factors in the outer world. Within ourselves is peace. Within ourselves is peace and contentment. It is said: "You may have a lot of wealth, like you have thousands of elephants." This means you must have a big forest, big land. You may have golden eagles. You may own mines of precious stones. But when you realize contentment in your heart, when you are satisfied, at that time all this outer wealth is like dust. The only wealth that will go with us after death is peace, happiness, contentment, and wisdom. This we cannot get outside. We should not always change our path. We should not always change our opinion. If we listen to the outside world, we will never be at peace. Wherever we look in the world, there are challenges, fighting, and many, many things. Wars; humans produce weapons and give them to other humans to kill humans. There were, and maybe still are, countries producing weapons and manufacturing them. They sell them to their enemies, and these enemies come to fight and kill them. You see, money, wealth, position—there is no peace inside. Therefore, spiritual events are not for material wealth, but for peace. It is about simple living and higher thinking. We use the words, but people have put different things in our minds. A few decades ago, humans had more peace and time. But now, day by day, something new comes. We are running and running. Humans have become machines. We use these machines. The answer to this is that you must practice yoga. Swami Sivananda said, "Within you is the ocean of bliss, and within you is the fountain of joy." Kill this little 'I' and live the divine life. Ahaṅkāra, the little "I," ego, "me," destroys everything. We always see the mistakes of others. We do not see our own mistakes. We are afraid to look within ourselves, always trying to run away from this world. How will we find peace? Nowhere will we find peace. Therefore, in yoga, there is a call, ekāntavās. What is nowadays called in all new systems a retreat. People go somewhere outside of the big cities and stay in a farmhouse, a retreat place, or a hotel. They meditate and rest. Again, one comes to oneself. That gives immense happiness, immense joy, strength, and energy. You come back very happy and very relaxed. As soon as we jump back into the world, again we have vikṣepa and kleśa. Kleśa is fighting—mentally, physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, politically, etc. Or vikṣepa: we are disturbed by many, many things. There is personal vikṣepa or impersonal vikṣepa. We are human; we do care. You may be very peaceful, on a retreat, and very happy. Everything is very good, and then you get news that your grandmother died or something happened. You receive a big shock. This message brings you back into sorrow, restlessness, and unhappiness. But we should understand this: our grandmother is a part of our life, our grandfather is a part of our life, our neighbor is a part of our life, and our relatives and friends are part of our life. So we do care about them. This we cannot stop. But our own thinking, which makes troubles, that is the dangerous part. Patañjali spoke of kliṣṭa and akliṣṭa vṛttis. Kliṣṭa vṛtti means thoughts that are disturbing and negative. Those negative thoughts will disturb you forever. An akliṣṭa vṛtti, a positive vṛtti without troubles, will solve all problems. A person may be working, doing spiritual work, sādhanā, kriyās, mantras, and so on. Suddenly comes a kuṣaṅga, a kliṣṭa vṛtti—like someone blackmailing you—and you stop all the years of work you did; you destroy it. Finally, where are you? Nowhere. You have lost inner peace. You have lost faith. I have one story; it is a little longer, but I think I should tell you. What can peace do for us? And when we do not have peace, how do we feel? You know the story of God Rāma. Yesterday was the day of God Rāma's incarnation, Rām Navamī. Yesterday was Rāma's incarnation, like people celebrate Christmas. In every Indian temple, today or yesterday, they will hold a festival. Before this was the nine nights of the Divine Mother, Navarātri. It was a very holy, great festival. There is one organization called Hare Krishna, Hare Rama. When they say "Rāma," it is not this Rāma I am telling about—Bhagavān Rāma, God Rāma, who was an incarnation 10,000 years ago. After Bhagavān Rāma, a few thousand years later came Kṛṣṇa. But they are talking about who is called Rāma, Kṛṣṇa's brother, Balarāma. You know this? So when they say "Rāma, Hare Rāma," it is not Bhagavān Rāma, the son of Daśaratha and Sītā. They do not believe in that at all, so you should know this. But many think it is Bhagavān Rāma. No. Bhagavān Rāma was truly one of the greatest beings in human form. He followed all his dharma, all obligations. There are two great examples: one is Mahatma Gandhi and his experiment with truth, Satyāgraha. He writes in his biography how hard it was, or is. The second is Bhagavān Rāma. He followed all principles, all dharmas, and when he said yes, it was a yes. You know that Bhagavān Rāma had to go to the forest for fourteen years. His stepmother asked this, and you know the whole story. You should see in your satsaṅg every time one episode of the Rāmāyaṇa, and you should also show the Mahābhārata. You can see what humans can do—brother to brother. One family, you know, the real family. Real brothers' children—the Mahābhārata. The Mahābhārata is the epic which has been written by someone. It doesn't matter who wrote it—it has ten thousand or how many thousands of ślokas. Recently, one of the Indian ambassadors said that never in mankind's history, till today, could someone have written such a great novel, and the Rāmāyaṇa too. When you see these videos, you should not see them as they were, but you should feel that it is you. You are playing in this; this is your life playing. So there are the figures: jealousy, anger, hate, or love, kindness, protection. It's beautiful. And you have subtitles there. In the satsaṅg, you should have peace on the day, on Sunday evening. We should have all on the day what we call Thursday. On Thursday, all kriyā groups come together, mantra groups come together. So this day you should reserve for spiritual seekers and advanced disciples. Understand me? Divya Jyoti. Divya Purī. So we shall organize a program for how we all can come, because everyone has different duties. We have to see their possibilities and facilities, not ours. In short, the King Rāvaṇa from Sri Lanka kidnapped Sītā. Rāvaṇa was another very great personality. He was one of the greatest learned persons, and he had immense wealth. His whole kingdom in Laṅkā, his palace, was made of gold. It is called Sone Kī Laṅkā, the Golden Laṅkā. He had done so much spiritual sādhanā. It is said he commanded all nine planets, telling them, "Stay out there, where there is always a good constellation on me. If you move a little in the wrong direction, where it affects me, I will make you like powder." So much sādhanā, so much mental power. In the Rāmāyaṇa, you will see what he did. The king of heaven, Indra, was afraid of Rāvaṇa. When Indra came, Rāvaṇa said, "Indra!" and he was trembling. So much spiritual power, intellectual power, social power. But he had one weakness, and that destroyed him and his Laṅkā and everything: his ego, pride, the "I." When God Rāma and his allies went to rescue Sītā, they built a bridge over the ocean between India and Sri Lanka. You know that; it is called Rāma Setu. In that story, Lakṣmaṇa, Rāma's brother, was struck by a poisoned arrow and was going to die. The remedy, as advised by an Ayurvedic doctor, was found in the Himalayas, and Hanumanjī brought it, as you know this story. On another occasion, Rāvaṇa sent an arrow. At that time, arrows were small, but mantra-śakti was there. The power was that mantra-śakti. The arrow may not be big, but inside is some śakti. So at that time, the arrow would function or affect according to one's thought. Rāvaṇa thought of a snake, and immediately the arrow touched Rāma and became like a snake, wrapping his whole body with poison. No one could free that snake. Nobody could kill it. Rāma was getting more and more poison in his body. The only solution was that the enemy of the snake is the eagle, Garuḍa. Only an eagle could destroy that snake, and Garuḍa is the carrier, the chariot, of Viṣṇu. They said, "Only if Garuḍa can come, then Rāma's life can be saved; otherwise he will die from the poison." But where was Garuḍa? He was on holiday because Viṣṇu had incarnated on earth in human form. At that time, all others were on holiday. So Hanumanjī went and traced where Garuḍa was. Hanumanjī brought Garuḍa to earth to free Rāma's life from the snake. These are all symbols within us. The quality that poisons is our blackmailing; that poison is the snake. And Garuḍa is our intellect, our buddhi, viveka. That viveka can remove your poisonous blackmailing; otherwise, you are gone, you are killed. Garuḍa came. He wanted to greet Bhagavān Hanumanjī. Hanumanjī said, "No time, greet after," because he was in a hurry. Hanumanjī said, "No, no... first work, then you can do everything well." He freed God, destroyed the snake, and then Hanumanjī said, "Now you can do pūjā, everything you want." So first work, first duty. That's why I say helping hands are more valuable than all that ends. Bhagavān Rāma said, "Oh, Garuḍa, you are here. Bless you. You can go." Garuḍa went, but he got a doubt: "Is this really God? Is this my Lord, my Viṣṇu, whom I believe as God, lying here helpless and unconscious? Not able to free himself from this little snake?" While going back to heaven, to the sky, in the universe, this creature, the eagle Garuḍa, could not find peace in his heart. It means he lost devotion; he couldn't meditate, he couldn't read the holy granthas, and he couldn't be peaceful anywhere. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw Rāma lying there like a normal person. Thoughts always come; this is blackmailing. He went to Brahmā: "Please, Brahmā, help me." Brahmā said, "Garuḍa, this is a very big illness; I can't help you." He went to Nārada. Nārada said, "My brother, I can't help you. This is such a terrible disease; only Śiva can help you." So he went to Śiva, and Śiva said, "Well, Garuḍa, I can't help you. It's such a disease, very difficult to help you. But I know there is someone who can help you." Garuḍa said, "Yes, Lord, who is that?" Śiva said: "Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī, a saint incarnated in the form of a crow. I told the story last time, you know, remember? Go there. When you come within 50 kilometers of there, your illness will already disappear. So much energy, so much radiance has that Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī." Garuḍa went. Pārvatī was angry. She said, "Why did you not help? The poor being came to you. You are capable of doing everything, Lord. Why did you send him away?" Śiva said, "You know, the eagle thinks he is the king of all animals and birds. The lowest in the family of flies and birds is a crow. Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī is a crow, and he is Garuḍa. Now he has to go to Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī to bow down. His ego is so big; if he does not do it, he will not be healed. So I send him to clean his ego there. Secondly, Kākabhūṣaṇḍī is giving satsaṅg all the time, and many saints come and sit there. Through this energy of satsaṅg, all negative thoughts... vṛttis will go away." It happened. When Garuḍa was entering the Himalayas, near the area of Mukti Dhām where Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī was, about 50 kilometers away, suddenly he regained his bhakti, devotion to God Rāma. Suddenly he saw within him the beautiful form of his Lord and all his Līlā and all his energy. He understood. He came to Kāg Bhūṣaṇḍī and bowed down. He looked around: Śiva was sitting there, Brahmā was sitting there, Viṣṇu was sitting there, Nārada was sitting there, all the ṛṣis and all were sitting there, and Kāgabhūṣaṇḍī was speaking, giving a satsaṅg. So, peace is found within. You can do many postures and prāṇāyāmas, but you will not find that peace. Real yoga is this: it unites your thoughts in your inner self, in oneness. That's why yoga and daily life require self-inquiry meditation—not "Who am I?" but "How am I?" What have you done in your life? What have you learned? How much compassion, how much love do you have towards others? How much can you renounce? Gandhi said, "We do not hate the sinner; we hate the sin." Can you find anyone in this world without any sin? Yes. When you identify with the body, then your body requires all this, but you are not the body. This body is made of five elements, and these elements always require something. But the body is given to us as an instrument to realize the divine, to get out of the cycle of rebirth and death, caturdaśaloka. So, protect nature, love nature, and live with nature in harmony. It is said: think over, please, oh human, think over. Deeply think over. Nature does not need us, but we need nature, right? When we die, will the tree cry? The tree will not cry. It might say, "It's good that he's finished. He always brings his stinking car, so much petrol, and boom, boom, boom. We can't breathe. So he's gone. No car is there." So nature does not need us, but we need nature. Now, decide for yourself. To survive in this world, to earn more of your dollars, then please, at least try to protect nature. And protect human nature too. Protect human quality. Protect human energy. Protect human abilities, knowledge. Everything is so precious in a human. Everything is so precious, but greed, ego, jealousy, and hate can do many, many things so that you lose peace. When we practice āsanas, we regulate our energies in the body. When we practice prāṇāyāma, we detoxify our body and create positive energy. And then we enter into meditation. Then we can feel, yes, within me there is peace. So yoga is the way to peace, and that peace, yoga gives you peace. And therefore, yoga is the way to God. Because yoga is also devotion, bhakti, belief. Believe me, I am the way to God. The master said to the disciples, "If you have no such confidence and belief, you will not get it." Trust your captain or pilot. Even if you did not see your pilot, or you do not like him or her, but you are sitting in an airplane, be sure this pilot will bring you to the destination. Whether the pilot is beautiful or not, old or young, however it is, it does not matter. Are you sitting in the airplane because the pilot is a beautiful boy? No. But he is a talented one who can take off, smoothly fly the airplane, and land it so gently you can hardly feel it. An inexperienced pilot lands like a jumping rabbit. That's a matter of practice. So it is that master who will liberate you so gently, so smoothly, you will be there. So remain, follow, and practice. Do not change your horses always. Your horse suffers when you give it into someone else's hands. And when another horse comes into your hand, it also suffers. Even your car is used to you, you know. When a new driver sits inside, the car suffers. After three days, you come back. The car says, "Why did you give me to someone else? I don't like this." And you also feel something is wrong with the car. You say, "What happened?" She says, "I'm angry. I'm offended. I belong to you. Why did you give me to someone?" So everything needs good hands, right hands. Peace, inner peace, comes through our inner contentment, happiness, and following the Guru Vākya and practicing our Kriyā Mantra. Therefore, Yogānanda said, "Lord, I will be Thine." Devotees may come, devotees may go, but my Lord, I will be Thine. How many people have come and gone through this door? But you are here because you feel that oneness and belonging. That's it. "I go far, farther than a star, but still, my Lord, I will be Thine. And far somewhere, if I die, look into my eye; they will mutely say." This song, when Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda wrote it, he was having a very hard time because some people were blackmailing him and telling many things to his master. His master wrote him a letter saying that people were saying he had gone to the West and would not come back anymore, that he did not care about his guru, and that he was playing as a guru himself. Then he wrote this: "I have not gone away, my Lord. People may come and go, but I will be yours, my Lord." And then Yukteśvar wrote him a letter, which is published in his biography, which I read in Hindi. Yukteśvar wrote: "Mere hṛday ke dulhārā." This is a beautiful word. You cannot imagine. "Mere hṛday ke dulhārā." Dulhārā means your little baby, your loving one. Hṛday means heart. Like a mother looks at a child: "How is my baby?" So, "You are the one of my heart. Do not think like this. Let people talk, but I know who you are, Yogānanda." And so every sense goes through many, many experiences. But one thing is guru-bhakti. They come through. Peace is within us. So Holy Gurujī used to say, "Peace and bliss are the result of satsaṅg. Come to satsaṅg here." It is your boat where you are sitting, and you drink the nectar of wisdom. So, make it every Sunday, perhaps. People, look, when you have more time, you can, or on Thursday, a little later. Do not give the time, perhaps. So, decide the time, but you should have a satsaṅg: prayer, a few bhajans, some recordings, and watch these—Rāmāyaṇas and Mahābhāratas. They are beautiful, beautiful. You will want to watch them again and again. Have you seen these? Do you have the whole set? You didn't show them? Yeah. It's beautiful. And the Mahābhārata? I think now you will have it, okay? It's something great about Bhīṣma, about who all this was. The Bhagavad Gītā is only one small chapter of the Mahābhārata. The story of how Bhīṣma is the son of Gaṅgā. And what was that story? It is something unbelievable. You should see this. And the Mahāśivapurāṇa. Did you see the Mahāśivapurāṇa? When you see the Mahāśivapurāṇa, then you know who has created the universe. You know? That's why I call Mahā, which means the greatest. Mahādeva, Śiva, is the greatest one. So these three you should see, and a whole year will be gone. There are many, many episodes. Do not watch too much. Just watch what you can digest. Sometimes it is not easy to digest. There are some things which are not easy to digest. Therefore, inner peace comes through yoga. Yoga means uniting, coming to oneself. That is non-duality, because a person who has duality in the heart struggles in the heart, struggles in the intellect, and so on. Therefore, they lose peace and happiness, everything. That will only be inside again when we come to ourself. Okay? That's all for now. This evening we will have another beautiful talk. I am very happy that you have Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar Swāmī Vivek Purījī. He had a nice class, and now he will give you a very special yoga nidrā. After lunch, there will be a very nice yoga nidrā, then speaking about prāṇa, and then a little āsanas, and then again I will come, I think, you know. So, this evening, do I have a program or only Vivekānandajī? Me? Okay, I will come there. Yeah? Okay, thank you. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Adiós.