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Oṁ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Dev Puruṣa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Dharmahaṁsī Sāī Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsī Sāī Mahiṣānjī Satguru Deva Kī Jai Ho. Dear Guru brothers and sisters around the world, friends, bhaktas, divine ātmās. Today we celebrate a great day—the day when Śrī Devapurījī Mahārāj, the Gurudev of Śrī Mahāprabhujī, left the mortal world, took his brahmalīn, and returned to the Śivaloka from whence he came. From time to time, divine souls from the highest realms descend to this mortal world to guide us from the sea of pain. We know we are all divine, immortal souls. We know this because we receive the teachings from the great masters who come to guide us from worldly life, from mortality to immortality. One such master was Param Yogeśwar Śrī Devapurījī Mahārāj. It was about seventy-two years ago, on the 8th of August, that he left the body. He told his disciples, "My dear ones, tomorrow at this time I will leave the mortal world." And on that day, he left. Śrī Devapurījī Mahārāj became known to the world when he was quite young. He lived in the mountains of the Mount Abu range, having come there from the Himalayas. His entire life was surrounded by miracles; whatever he did was divinely orchestrated. He was a trikāla-darśī, one who knows the past, present, and future. All his deeds were planned well in advance for the well-being of us mortal humans. There are many stories of how he transformed people completely immersed in worldly life, turning them into saintly beings. We must start to think about our higher self, our real self. Who are we? Nowadays, industries make robots with steel bodies and electronic minds. We have entered into this body. We can look with the eyes or through the eyes—there is a big difference. When we live in families, we believe we are whatever we say: Mr. So-and-so, an engineer, a worker. But that reality is different from the ultimate truth. To show us the way from mortality to immortality, the great souls, the Sadgurus, come to this earth to guide us. If we are lucky enough to follow their path, their Vākyas (words and teachings), and fortunate enough to become disciples, devotees, bhaktas, then they take responsibility for our every step. They guide us in such a way as to avoid hardships, traps, and difficult moments in life. But we must develop trust, obedience, and bhakti. From them, we receive knowledge, divine words, and mantras that carry us toward the real worlds, toward immortality. Śrī Devapurījī taught for some time at his āśram in Kailāś, in the Sīkar district. But when he realized his satsaṅgs were full of people mainly because a lot of food was distributed afterwards, he decided to break his ashram. The atmosphere around holy persons is beautiful; their radiance automatically purifies us, and a pure mind is the only way to achieve a higher consciousness. Seeing people came for food and atmosphere, he said, "Run, run, the ashram will fall down." The new ashram began to shake, the upper floor fell, and people ran away. From that time, Śrī Devapurījī walked through Rajasthan—Sikar district, Nagar district near Kāṭū, Bāṛīkāṭū, Riṅgās—with his followers. And who were his followers? Animals: cows, horses, goats, dogs, snakes. They were his disciples, obeying his every word. But the lucky few who had developed enough faith, viśvāsa, and bhakti, who could see beyond appearance and hear the voice of jñāna from his mouth, followed him and benefited from his blessings. It is said that life goes on by the blessings of the saints and by Guru Kṛpā. Without the Guru, without the saints' mercy, we would be lost in the darkness of ignorance. Our beloved Gurudev, Swami Maśa Nārāyaṇī, says there are two paths. One leads to happiness, bliss, and heaven. The other leads to darkness, suffering, and hell. Both paths start with the word Saṅg. If we put Sat (truth) in front, we get Satsaṅg, the way from suffering to enlightenment. If we put Ku in front, we get Kusaṅg, which leads to pain and suffering. Look outside this ashram, open your TV, read a newspaper. Ninety-nine percent is Kusaṅg. Satsaṅg is for the lucky ones blessed by their previous karmas. Our life proceeds according to our karmas, our deeds from previous lives. It is said: how you live today shows what you did in the past; how you live today shows how you will live tomorrow. Those with enough good karmas can meet and have darśan of the Gurudev, the holy saint. We got this life to make good karma, purify ourselves, and achieve self-realization—Ātmajñāna and Brahmajñāna. Śrī Devapurījī left this mortal world seventy years ago. His deeds and blessings are beautifully described in the book written by the Divine Master, Holy Gurujī Svayamadvanandajī Mahārāj. These events happened 70, 80, 100 years ago. But Śrī Devapurījī once appeared at Naki Lake. An officer, unhappy with the evening prayers (Prārthanā) at an ashram near the lake, decided to close it. The paṇḍits and sannyāsīs prayed to Lord Śiva for help. Śrī Devapurījī suddenly appeared. He took upon himself the poison meant for those fasting and praying to Lord Śiva. He drank it. When all thought he was dead, he jumped up, grabbed the English officer by the neck, and carried him to the deepest point of Naki Lake. That officer was blessed with divine realization and understood Śrī Devapurījī was an incarnation of Lord Śiva. He begged for mercy and for a great son. People often have no idea what a great soul, a great son, can do for humanity. Śrī Devapurījī then said, "Yes, Satyaloka will come to the earth, will come to your countries, and will guide you." He was speaking about Swāmījī Mahārāj, our beloved Gurudev Paramahaṁsa Swami Maheśvarānandajī, Viśvagurujī, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. What Śrī Devapurījī was for that time—giving knowledge and blessings—our Gurudev is for us now. Holy Gurujī Swami Madhavānandajī often said, "You can have a horse in the garden or a horse in a picture. Which one can you ride? Not the one in the picture. The one in the garden can carry you far away." Similarly, divine souls incarnate all over this beautiful world, Mother Earth. But most incarnate in this land, which Swamijī calls the Holy Land—India, Bhārat, the land of Rām Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān, Mahāvīra Swāmī, Guru Nānak, and many others. They are here, and Bhārat exports them to the West. Thus, people from other parts of the world have the opportunity to receive their blessings and protection. We are fortunate that the divine power is still merciful enough to send its great souls, Mahātmas, to this mortal world to guide us, lead us, and carry us toward our higher self, toward liberation, Mokṣa. All we need is to follow and to develop certain qualities. The closer we come to the Divine Master, the closer He is to us. Holy Gurujī said, "Gurudev is as far from the disciple as the disciple is far from the Gurudev." Take a measuring tape and measure it. The Gurudev, the Divine Master, is here for us, for everyone. He is like the sun, shining on everything on this planet. It is up to us how much we receive. Or, said differently: the telephone has two sides, two persons. The Gurudev's telephone is always on. If we switch our telephone on, it is up to us. Nothing in this world can be compared to the work of the Divine Master Satgurudev. No profession, nothing. The great souls, when they come to this world, take an oath to live only for humanity, for others. They do not exist for themselves. Whatever they do is for the benefit of their disciples, for humanity, for animals, for plants, and for the environment in general. There are not only humans on this planet; there are animals and plants too. Humans have forgotten their duty and mission. They have become distractors, not protectors. To put humans—us—on the proper track, the Sadguru is needed. I come from a very small country. In each country, people are part of the tapestry. We have two million people, a small piece of sea, and a small part of mountains. We are proud of our mountains and love them. We joke that no one who does not climb the highest peak in our country has any right to carry the name Slovenian. It is a joke. But truly, no one who does not bow to the Divine Master, who does not get a discipleship, who does not get a Master, is a complete human. There is a story of a devoted family with their own Gurujī. By the Gurujī's blessing, the daughter married into a rich family oriented toward worldly things—business, houses, cars, with no time for spirituality. She was sad but continued praying to her Gurudev. Her devotion, pūjās, and agarbattīs were not accepted by her mother-in-law, who told her to watch TV, enjoy movies, go shopping instead. One day, a saint came to the door and said, "Mātā Dehi Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Mātā." She was happy and invited him in, offering food and presents. As they sat with the family, the saint asked her, "You receive me so nicely. Do you have a spiritual master, a Gurujī?" She said, "Yes, I became a disciple twelve years ago, and my husband became a disciple two years ago." The saint asked, "How old are you?" She said, "Twelve years." "Twelve years? How?" She replied, "I got mantra dīkṣā twelve years back." "And your husband is only two years old?" The father-in-law and mother-in-law were surprised, thinking she was out of her mind. The son, her husband, said, "She is not born yet." The father-in-law became annoyed. The son then said, "Your daughter-in-law is right. She speaks the truth. She got the mantra twelve years ago. From that time, she became a real human. Her husband got the mantra two years ago. And you have not yet received the blessing of the sun; you are still on the waiting list." They understood. Without the spiritual master, humans walk through life like a blind person searching for an exit in a deep, dense forest. It is nearly impossible to find the way out. But the Gurudev is the one who walked that way, who knows each step, who guides and protects us, doing everything for us because we are His divine children. Look at your country, Mahāndeśa Bhārata. When Bhārat was guided by Kul Gurus and Rajas who listened to every word of the masters, Bhārat was full of everything, including gold. Foreigners came for hundreds of years, stealing what they could. It is not true that the country was built by others; that was blackmail. The greatest treasure of the divine country Bhārata, India, is its devotion toward the divine power, toward the Gods, Devī Devtās, toward the Gurudev, toward the Suns. Nowadays, from the West come glass imitations of diamonds. But Bhārat has real diamonds. To develop devotion toward the Master is the way our life will be successful, enabling us to finish this chapter, leave this mortal body and everything behind happily, peacefully, and gloriously. Śrī Devapurījī Mahārāj cast off his body seventy-two years ago on this day and went to his loka, back to Śivaloka, with his hands lifted high, for he had done his job. I wish and hope for all of us that we will be wise and lucky enough to follow the teachings of Śrī Devapurījī, Śrī Mahāprabhujī, Śrī Holy Gurujī Madhavānandajī, Śrī Sāī Maheśvarānandajī, and that our lives will finish successfully with ātmajñāna when the time comes. May we cast off our bodies, leave them here in this Mṛtyuloka, and go to the other lokas with lifted hands. Be still.