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Good evening to everybody. Welcome, all dear spiritual seekers, here and in other parts of the world via webcasting. I welcome you and bless you in the name of Mahāprabhujī. Finally, today we are in this most beautiful hall, which has natural air-conditioning and enough space for all. We continue our thoughts and practices concerning Brahmajñāna and Brahmavidyā. Vidyā is given by the ṛṣis. Vidyā means knowledge, but knowledge means jñāna. So, what is the difference between vidyā and knowledge? Vidyā comes from vidhi. Vidhi comes from techniques, and vidhi also means destiny. Vidhātā is the lord of our destiny. Destiny is caused by our karma, our actions. These karmas go with us through many lives. After death, the final calculation is made. Yesterday we spoke about the sixteen kinds of saṃskāras. When the final saṃskāra is done, that is called antyeṣṭi, the funeral. After that, you have no more chance to perform any karma, except you may become like some spirit, some ghost, and try to disturb and frighten other creatures and humans. Is there a ghost? We will speak of this some other day: from where the ghost comes, how satanic that ghost is, and how it disappears. Brahmavidyā is the answer. So vidhi means techniques, the correct way. Vidhātā is the lord of our writing, our destiny. She comes at the time of your birth, for every creature. She writes. For every creature's destiny, there is one cat that has the most beautiful life. She belongs to the wife of the president of the nation, and the cat is allowed to jump on the lap of the president and everyone. She gets the best shampoo, etc., though she is a cat. That is her destiny. And there is another cat which nobody looks after, and when she gives birth, people try to kill the babies so they do not multiply. Three sons are from one parent, one father, one mother. The same mother gave birth to three sons. One became a saint, one became a king, and the third one became a beggar. The question is this: can parents give us our destiny? The parents equally loved their children; they tried hard to give them an education, and they equally gave them social communication and relations—how to speak, how to behave, what to speak, what not to speak. But what Vidhātā has written, no one can change. She comes at the time of birth and writes in the book of your life what will happen, how it will be, from the time of birth until death—not only every year or month, but every second. There is one story. There was a king called Rāvaṇa, king of Śrī Laṅkā. He had many siddhis and was a great learned person with immense spiritual and supernatural powers. It is said that the king of heaven, the god Indra, was scared of Rāvaṇa. Sometimes Rāvaṇa called Indra to come and visit him. Before coming, Indra had a saṅgha prakṣālana. And King Rāvaṇa ordered all the nine planets never to affect him in a negative way; their position should be in his favor, otherwise he would make them into powder. They were all afraid. Such a great Rāvaṇa—that is why he was known as very great, learned, and powerful. But inside was āsurī bhāva. The devil's energy awoke in him—destructive. Others should follow him, otherwise he would punish them. So God Rāma came to finish him. Because of his ego, jealousy, position, greed, and desires, he became the cause of his own distress. He had one daughter whom he loved very much, and he wanted to marry her to a good husband. He said, "Look, my kingdom is the best on this earth, but search for me some other kingdom which is bigger and greater than mine, for my daughter will become the queen of that." Messengers traveled around the earth to find someone, and they brought some prince. He looked and said, "No, not suitable for my daughter." They brought another one. "No, his shoulders are not straight; he is standing like this." A third one was sitting like this. He said, "The husband of my daughter, my son-in-law, has to be straight. He will never go down anywhere." When the daughter was born, Rāvaṇa was sitting in his palace. Vidhātā—the one who writes destiny, how your life will be—was passing by. Rāvaṇa, in his sūkṣma, astral vision, saw her. "Who is entering my palace? Who are you?" She said, "Your Highness, I am Vidhātā. Where are you going? Your wife is giving birth to a girl, and I am going to write her destiny." "Rāvaṇa's daughter's destiny—you write?" "Yes, it is cosmic law. I am the lawmaker." "Write the best of the best. Otherwise, there is no space or corner in the universe where I will not trace you out." She said, "King, I will do all that I can. But when I take my pen in my hand, the pencil, it is not me who is writing. It just moves by itself. I am only holding it. It is her past life's stories, her karma. It is in no self, the reality." "Okay, but let me know what you wrote." "That I will do." So she went into the room where the birth was taking place. When the daughter, the girl, was born, she wrote it. It was like just scanning. Where is her time? She has no time. When Rāvaṇa was stopping her, there were billions of creatures on the waiting list. She came back and said, "Yes, how was it?" "Beautiful girl, lucky girl. Everything is very good, but..." "What is the 'but'? From where did it come?" "From her destiny. What is that? Her life is very good, but she will have a husband who will be a little bit paralyzed in both legs. When he walks, both hands will go first front and then back. His neck will be half hanging. Constantly, something will be running from his nose and mouth. And one eye goes this side, and one goes that side." And with both legs, she slid and disappeared. He said, "I will show you. Rāvaṇa will show you that your writing, which no one can change, Rāvaṇa can change." So they searched for a husband for her but did not find a good one. Whatever they brought, he was not satisfied. One day, people came to him and said, "Your Highness, a beautiful kingdom, a big kingdom, very rich, with more gold than golden Sri Lanka, and a beautiful prince for your daughter." "Bring him; I want to see." "The father of that boy does not want to humiliate himself. You have to go to see the boy to pass the boy. There is a long queue to see the beauty of that boy, and your daughter is grown up. It is high time to marry her before something happens. Do not delay." "Okay, when should we do it? We call the astrologer for the constellations." "In Rāvaṇa's palace, you are talking about constellations? Do it." "All constellations are good. In ten days, the wedding should be." "But the marriage ceremony is at 3:30 in the morning." "No problem." So they organized the wedding. Rāvaṇa was completely drunken, eating and happy, looking after the guests. They brought the boy at three o'clock peacefully and performed the fire ceremonies. They married her and took her and him to say goodbye. In the morning, Rāvaṇa was to see his son-in-law to apply tilak. He asked, "How is he?" "The best one. You will find nowhere like this." Rāvaṇa, with his ego, was sitting on his couch. "Vidhātā, where are you? Come here. My daughter, you said she would have such a husband. Go and see how beautiful he is." She came and said, "Rāvaṇa, you see? Constantly blowing from the nose and mouth? Walking like a frog? That is your son-in-law." And she disappeared. He looked, but all the people had disappeared. Then it is said: no one can change what is written by destiny, as it is written in your palm, foot soles, forehead, etc. It is the rekha, the line. On this, the nail can be put in by Gurudeva. Rekha can be made; Gurudeva can change it, but only if you follow his advice. So without Him, it is not easy to change. Whatever is happening is written in your fate. But we can turn ourselves toward spirituality. I always remember a story from old Greek times. A king had a son, and an astrologer told him, "Everything is good, but one thing is not good: he will marry his mother." What was the name? Oedipus. And it happened. So, my dear, we should accept our destiny and follow such a way. There will come obstacles. On a good path, more obstacles come. When your path is very clear and a piece of glass is lying on the way, it is very visible. But if the whole road is full of glass, then what do you care about? As far as your spiritual path is cleaned, then negative āsurī śaktis come—blackmail. That is an obstacle, a barrier. So this jīvātmā, which is now in a human body, needs the vidyā. Vidyā is a technique, a sādhanā. Therefore, the brahmachārī, the student, is studying. It means vidyā pradehe; they are learning this wisdom. And learning is a kind of tapasyā, austerity. You have to endure many circumstances. You are sitting in one room and learning while others are free and playing. You also would like to go to play, but tomorrow you have an examination. So it is said that tapasyā, this austerity of the learning process, will bear fruit in the future if you learn properly. If you studied well, you will have a good position, good work; your life will be happy. So today you are putting the seed in the ground. The future will bring the fruits. If you put a mango seed, definitely a mango will come. If you put a thorny bush seed, a thorny bush will come. So what do you want to have? Such a seed you should put in your field of destiny for the future. What has happened has happened; that is gone. The past is gone; we cannot do anything. But the effects of the past will, in some lives, follow us. However, negative energy, negative attack, will not go far with you. That is called Devrajīndra, Dharmarāja, Yamarāja, and Vidhātā. They are very important. So Brahmavidyā, Brahmajñāna, and Brahmavidyā: Vidyā is that which you are studying and learning in the Upaniṣads and Vedas. That Vidyā therefore becomes your Jñāna, your knowledge. And that knowledge helps you to achieve perfection. So: theory, experiment, and success. This is what we call Brahmavidyā techniques, what you are learning. That is why such scriptures exist: Upaniṣads, Vedas, Purāṇas. There are the ṛṣis who were teaching valuable knowledge. Sometimes they told only one sentence, and for twelve years they did not speak with you, because you had to first learn it, get it, or get rid of it. Today I read in one book, The Great Ocean of Stories. Holy Gurujī has written a book, Ānanda K. Moti: The Pearls of Divine Bliss. Each story is like a beautiful pearl. It is beautiful; that is for Paramahaṁsa. In this story, there is a dialogue or teaching—Vidyā—between the guru of all cosmic goddesses, the Svargaloka heaven, a man yourself, that is called Guru Śaṅkara's Śukra Cārya. Now, where was the system? What of Bṛhaspati? Thank you, Bṛhaspati. Bṛhaspati is Thursday's day. For us to be a tutor... His son is a fiat, so he was told one word only and went away. After 12, 15, or more years, the son said, "Father, I tried, but I did not understand what that is." So he said, "Ego," and again his father dematerialized. So there are many beautiful things that are called Vidyā. Read, learn, understand, gain the knowledge, experiment, practice. Success is yours. That is what we have been learning these last ten days, and we are going and touching that part of our existence in this phenomenon where we can gain these abilities or energies to understand, within our own five bodies, what it is and the effect of the different layers of the universe, the lokas. They are responsible for our annamaya kośa, prāṇamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, vijñānamaya kośa, and ānandamaya kośa—all the five kośas. Therefore, it is high time for you now to understand. You have been practicing for so many years the first level step of yoga in your life: now, āsanas and prāṇāyāma. It means you have prepared the ground. Now you have to get the seeds through this vidyā, and then you will harvest it. So it is not for one day, or for one week or two weeks. Slowly, it is going further. So we will guide each other. Who am I to guide you? The Gurudev is guiding Mahāprabhujī, Devapurījī, and Holy Gurujī. But through this body, I will serve to guide you. So take time. Now you understand what Vidhātā is. You understood what destiny is. It will be. But we can do something better. A very simple example: you have a very high fever, so we do something. The doctor gives us some medicine, and the fever goes away. Do not suffer in the fever; take some remedy. So we are all in the fever of the ego, rajas guṇa. I tell you, this is truth, that is this, because their brain is polluted; they are completely intoxicated by their negative thoughts and energies. But we have a remedy for that: Brahma Vākya, the words of the Brahman; Guru Vākya, Jñāna Vākya, the words. So we will carry on. I wish you all the best. Good evening, all dear ones here and there in different parts of the world. Bless you. And tomorrow at 10 a.m., according to the most beautiful part of the earth, Hungary. Oṃ śānti, śānti, śānti.