TV Channel

Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Dev Purīṣa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai. Good morning once more, and welcome to you all on another beautiful day—Friday. This Friday is dedicated to the Divine Mother called Santoṣī Mātā. She is the most merciful one, and it seems she fulfills many wishes. Today we reach the final day of this seminar. You have learned a great deal, and I hope you will cultivate and practice discipline. Without practice, there is no success; practice makes one perfect. In the Bhagavad Gītā it is said, "Abhyāsa, abhyāsa, O Kaunteya, abhyāsa." O son of Kuntī, Arjuna, practice, practice, practice. He followed these instructions and discipline, and sometimes he could not sleep at night because he was always thinking of succeeding. So he would rise and go to practice. This is lagan—to have a deep interest. The great Mīrābāī said, "Moi lagi lagan guru caraṇāṅkī, caraṇa binā moi kāso nahī bhāve, jag māyā sab sapnāṅkī." She declared, "Moi lagi lagan guru caraṇāṅkī"—my interest, my concentration, my devotion is fixed upon my Gurudeva’s lotus feet. "Caraṇa binā moi kāso nahī bhāve"—apart from those lotus feet, I find no delight in anything. This illusion of saṃsāra, this world, is just like a dream. Dreams come and go; you gain nothing from them except memory. All our past experiences have vanished like a dream. Mīrābāī expressed that she longed for that unchanging light, wisdom, love, or devotion—whatever you may call it. Matter changes, thoughts change, emotions change, opinions change. But what does not change is what we are searching for. If we do not understand this, we lack that feeling, and without feeling we cannot follow or practice discipline. You enjoy sweets very much. Your thoughts constantly turn to sweet things. Even in heavy traffic, you might stop the car, dash into a sweet shop, buy something, and come back. Your lagan is in that sweetness, and for it you will do anything. Similarly, we must understand. You buy a sweet, a chocolate, or an ice cream and begin to eat. To your surprise, there is no sugar at all—it is tasteless. What will you do? You will go back and say, "You forgot to put the sugar in." In the same way, you may practice, but if the sweetness of devotion and the sweetness of discipline are missing, everything becomes tasteless. "Aba maṁ masta hu'e Rāma rasa pīke, mohe lāge duniyā ke saba rasa phīke." Now I am blissful, having drunk the juice of God’s name. Once I have tasted the juice of God’s name, all worldly tastes seem flavorless, like food without salt or ice cream without sugar. When you taste this, you understand what it is, and that requires deep discipline. You need not change anything outwardly. Live just as you are—work as you work, have friends as you like, go everywhere—but with a certain discipline. When everyone starts drinking alcohol, your discipline is simply not to drink. When everyone eats meat, you do not eat because you are vegetarian. So no temptations should overcome you. If you are disciplined, all temptations will fail. You must be sure within. When you get up and go to the office, you dress yourself. You do not go naked. Nobody prohibits you; you could go. But surprisingly, a large van with a blue light may be waiting to take you to a comfortable bed in a so-called psychiatric hospital. You might protest, "I’m not crazy, I’m normal," but just because you failed to wear clothes, people think you are crazy. Without the discipline of dress, you appear crazy. There are many things to understand, and without understanding, everything remains helpless. Cooking food belongs to vidyā—sixteen kinds of knowledge. The way of preparing food and the way of eating it is entirely different from that of other creatures. Human food is different. You should buy your food, bring it into the kitchen, clean it nicely, and sing spiritual songs or prayers in your own language. Know that you are preparing this food for your ātmā, and you do not know where the ātmā resides. So we say we prepare it for God, and God needs purity—not these other things. We place fine incense and flowers at the altar because God appreciates pure fragrances. We do not offer meat, alcohol, or similar things; that is not food for the Divine. While cutting vegetables, perhaps a carrot, some people pop pieces into their mouth, making a rhythm of the knife with their teeth. That is not allowed. You are not eating; you are cooking for someone. When the food is cooked, almost everywhere it is taught to say a dining table prayer—that we have offered it to God and thanked Him for giving us this prasāda. Then we eat; it becomes prasāda, divine energy. So during preparation, do not taste. Someone making a sauce or raita might dip a finger in and then continue working. This is not accepted by the guṇas. If you prepare soup or vegetables and stir them with too little salt, that is also not allowed. The main reason is hygiene, but another point is that tasting before offering to God means God receives leftovers. Thus, there are rules and regulations for your kitchen. Your kitchen is very important for your physical, mental, and spiritual development. I have spoken about this many times, yet I do not see how many are following. You see, we fail at the very first step. You still have not come to your temple, your dining room, or your practice. The problem is that people nowadays lack education in this way, and without this education we are failing. Do not blame your religion or your old culture. If you go to a temple, a church, a mosque, or any such place, you will find they all have discipline—and that is very important. It is not only Indians who have these rules and regulations; every religion has them. Some people say, "I don’t want rituals, ceremonies, or all these rules." That is your decision, but without them you will not achieve your life’s goal. There are different choices for you. Our choice is Brahma Jñāna—the knowledge of Brahman that belongs to no religion and does not teach you any particular culture. Culture exists on this earth for the happiness and protection of human society. Certain festivals, events, and marriage ceremonies—marriage is marriage; animals also mate. What is the difference? We make it more beautiful and meaningful. When you go to a temple or church, there is protocol, and there you feel that you are getting married. The Paṇḍit will ask, "Do you agree?" She looks at the man, and his heart trembles. Yet he says yes, perhaps because he is uncertain. When she is asked, "Do you accept?" her eyelids drop slightly as she says yes. That uncertainty pulls the eyelids down. Such a marriage will one day break. Nevertheless, the ceremony is performed. Let us say you live in the Western world, born and raised here, and many of you were married in a church or temple. The original term is temple, not church; throughout the Bible and Testament, the word "temple" is always used. When a pandit or priest officiates, he does not tell you, "Be married as long as you like; afterward you can divorce—it’s your choice." No, they will not say that. Do you think your church rejoices when you divorce? They do not support it, but somehow they no longer have the power to say no to you because of new social sentiments. First you have children, then you marry. A few decades ago, the church would not have married you under those circumstances. So we are forcing our spiritual organizations to change, but the cosmic law does not change. Therefore, cosmic law demands purity and discipline. Then we can proceed to the very subtle and divine level of knowledge. Intellectual knowledge gives us only inspiration, not achievement. For example, intellectually we can imagine going to Budapest, seeing the Danube and both parts of the city, Buda and Pest. Intellectually and imaginatively we know it, but in reality we are still sitting here. We must take transportation to actually go there. Similarly, we know intellectually what Brahman, God, heaven, or hell is, but we are not there, my dear ones. We are here. So we must make arrangements to get there, and that arrangement is our disciplinary practice. Practice, practice, practice. The Kriyā I gave you yesterday is for Brahma Vidyā, and I will give you one more part. Only those of you present here should practice it. If your wife, husband, or friend asks, "Can you tell me about the Kriyā? I was caring for the children at home," you can say that everything is simple and good, but it is still recommended to first hear it directly from the Master. There are no hidden kriyās, but it must be blessed and officially declared. Marriage you have already done. The first time you met and held hands, that was already marriage. What is the definition of marriage? Marriage is to merge into oneness. Two bodies, one soul, opinion, and feeling become one. Mahāprabhujī said in his bhajan, "Choṭī choṭī nadiyā sārī, cala rahī nyārī nyārī, sira samundara jā'eka samā'ī." Small and big, all rivers, are flowing separately, but ultimately they will go into that milky ocean and merge. That point of merging—the first merging—is marriage. And when the river has already been in the ocean for a few years and then decides, "Now we shall merge," the ocean will laugh. "Where are you? There is nothing to be merged; you are already merged." So what is marriage? Marriage has no more value or sense than a piece of paper—a document for paper horses. Thus we lost discipline and unity in the family. There are some couples who proudly say they have been married for seventy years and celebrate a diamond jubilee. Can you imagine seventy years with the same person? You might overthink twenty times: "Should I marry or not?" With this person for seventy years? Mr. XYZ, seventy years together—do you think we will manage? "I doubt," he says. This is our situation because we lack discipline and do not take things seriously. So all, small and big, will finally reach that ocean of immortality. "Choṭī choṭī nadiyā sārī"—all, bigger or smaller, have a destination toward God. That God, who makes no distinctions, is the one and only God. That is Brahman. It does not matter whether you call Him Father, Allāh, or any other name. Therefore, Gandhijī loved one song and often sang it. You may know it. He tried very hard to foster mutual understanding and equality among religions. Unfortunately, he failed. This is a very difficult task, but he awakened the idea of equality in people’s minds. In Sanātana Dharma, there is equality; it does not matter whom you believe in. So we Hindus are taught to respect all holy places—whether a mosque, church, stupa, pagoda, ashram, or temple. You should greet them internally or with folded hands, and people indeed do so. We respect all holy places. Śrī Vara Rāma Candra Bhagavān Kī Jaya, Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Raghu is the dynasty of Rāma, the sun dynasty. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Gītā, "I gave this yoga to the sun, and the sun gave it to Ikṣvāku." So this dynasty continued in the family of Lord Rāma. They were sun worshippers. Rāmarājya, the kingdom of Rāma, extended worldwide, where people prayed to the sun god and respected all elements, trees, rivers, water, rain, and so on. In the āśrama, they also respected animals. This is the sun dynasty, the Raghu Kula. "Raghu Kula Rājā"—O king of the Raghu dynasty, Lord Rāma and his faithful Sītā, Sītā Rām, Sītā Rām. "Bhajamana pyāre, kara Sītā Rāma"—O my dear mind, repeat this name-mantra Sītārām. "Īśvara Allāha Tero Nāma, Sabako sanmati de Bhagavāna." O my Lord, all names are Yours; whether we call You Īśvara or Allāh, it is Your name. "Sabako sanmati de Bhagavāna"—O Lord, grant right understanding, positive thoughts, and good buddhi to all, so that they do not fight. Patita—one burdened with many bad karmas, a sinner—will also be blessed by God when he or she seeks shelter at His feet. Gandhijī used to sit on the bank of the Sabarmatī River, in a very nice spot made of mud and cow dung, wearing a simple, pure cotton khadi cloth, and pray there. He said, "My strength is my prayers. Physically I can fast for days, but mentally I cannot fast because my mental tonic is my prayers." Therefore, in some bhajans it is beautifully said, "Jaba jaba mana ghabarāe, tuma prārthanā karo, jaba raha najara nā āe, tuma prārthanā karo." Whenever you feel scared, fearful, nervous, uncertain—whenever fear grips you, pray. When you cannot find any way out of your problems, pray. Do not go to someone and say, "I have this problem, I have this problem." That person is not God. There is a true story from about thirty or thirty-five years ago—it doesn’t matter where exactly. I had a disciple couple in Vienna. Austrians are very good people and always give me useful lessons, providing practical examples. The couple was retired, and the lady was about seventy or seventy-five. She played the role of mother to everyone, always saying, "Yes, my child, what is your problem? Call me." She would tell them, "Of course, you are my child. I will not tell anyone. Pour out your heart’s difficulties. Don’t tell anyone that you told me; I will not tell a soul." And she would be on the telephone for half an hour. After someone called her, her line was constantly busy. I would sometimes call and she would say, "Swamiji, can you imagine, that crazy person keeps me busy all the time—one hour, two hours talking. God protect us from these crazy people." Then she would call others, recounting what was told to her. And yet she had promised, "I am your mother, I will not tell anyone." So who is there who listens to you and digests it in their stomach? Who can truly solve your problems? Gandhījī said, turn to God. Once, in a joke, someone told another, "Please, what I’m telling you, don’t tell anyone." After two days, everyone was talking about it. The first person complained, "I told you not to tell anyone." The other replied, "Yes, I didn’t find anyone to tell, so I taught everybody." So who can understand you and hold your deepest sorrows and feelings? Digest it? If you cannot digest, take digestive powder—Hajmola. And that spiritual digestive is the Guru Vākya. You must learn to filter those energies. If you tell someone, you have taught everyone, and he may disturb you. Do not display your emotions. Everyone can read them on your face. When you feel offended, your face, which was like this, suddenly becomes like this. You see? Therefore, only God truly listens to us. Only that Divine Mother listens, and that Divine One will solve all our problems. So do not go anywhere else. Whenever you have a problem, go to your temple, your altar, and tell everything there. "Jaba jaba mana ghabarāe, tuma prārthanā karo. Jaba raha najara nā āe, tuma prārthanā karo." Whenever you feel scared, pray; when you see no way out, pray. So go to your altar and talk. Or go to the Gurudeva. It is the same system. I saw in a European church a small chamber where the priest sits; you do not see his face, and may God grant that he does not see yours, and you can tell everything. He will never disclose it. By God, they are honest. Now, someone might be eavesdropping, and that is not good. But in the same tradition, observe: it is in the temple that you go and speak to God, or to the Gurudeva. So the best is to trust the altar. That is why Mahāprabhujī sits like this: "Don’t tell me. I know. Don’t speak foolishly. Be silent." Only one thing: discipline, practice. Forget it—only one way, and that is in your heart. You are the only one who can find a way and solve the problems. You are one, and God loves you also. This mudrā has many, many meanings. It means there is no point in talking. Can you hear me? There is no one who can truly listen to you. Without you, there is no one. The one you are calling to is within you. Do you listen to me? Do you hear me? Place everything in your heart. If the heart cannot bear it, place it in Narakaloka, in the Maṇipūra fire. The Maṇipūra cakra, the phāga fire, the Kālī cakra—it will burn all problems. You are nirmala, pure. Ānando’ham ānando’ham, ānandam brahma, ānandam brahma...