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Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our summer seminar. I imagine you are not so happy to see me here. And believe me, I am not happy to sit here either. We all hoped Swāmījī would now be among us. Yesterday, we were thinking: should we write a birthday letter to Swāmījī? And someone said, "But tomorrow he is coming." We thought, no, that doesn’t make sense; we will congratulate him tomorrow. Now, unfortunately, Swāmījī is stuck somewhere on the way. We don’t know exactly where; it could be in India. Surely he will come this week, but we don’t know precisely when he will arrive. Interestingly, Swāmījī didn’t give us any information. That means there is something in his mind, because he knows us too well. If everyone had known in advance, do you think we would all be here now? Many would have said, "Oh, then I don’t need to come." Obviously, that is what Swāmījī does not want. So I see this as a training. For more than 20 years, the essence of Swāmījī’s teaching for me is in three simple words: Accept, understand, and give. If I remember correctly, from all the videos ever published by Swāmījī, the very first one had exactly that title. It begins with acceptance. So, accept the situation simply. There must be some sense in it. We should now ask ourselves: what does it mean for me to be here when Swāmījī is not here? We should reflect: why did I come here? Really, think now: what is the point of being here? We are here, of course, to meet Swāmījī. This is one aspect: to get teaching, guidance, and blessing. But for what? To do our sādhanā, to progress on our spiritual path. And this we have to do anyway. I guess this is the point why Swāmījī didn’t announce his absence beforehand—because he wants us to do our sādhanā. I would say it is a kind of test: how serious we are in our will to do our sādhanā, and how serious we are in our discipline. Of course, the special program Swāmījī was conducting these last weeks—this new Brahmavidyā Kriyā—will not be as long, as he is not here. Only Swāmījī can teach this. But it doesn’t really matter for us, because we go back to the normal Kriyā Anuṣṭhān program and the other group. We will have the Kriyā Anuṣṭhān program as it was for more than 25 years. When Swāmījī comes, then we will see; he might change things. We should also not be so sad about the situation. Swāmījī said that when the master is shouting at the disciple, the disciple should actually be happy. When he is kind, explaining, and teaching, that is just the input, the teaching. But when he is shouting at you, then he is really directly working on you. That is much more; it is a kind of blessing. So we should simply accept our present situation as a special blessing. Swāmījī is directly working on us. Swāmījī gave an example of this: how Mahāprabhujī was working on Holī Gurujī. Holī Gurujī was singing bhajans, but Mahāprabhujī didn’t like his voice. One day, Mahāprabhujī shouted, "Holī Gurujī, stop this voice!" Do you know what happened next? Holī Gurujī, in full devotion, accepted that as a blessing. And it was a blessing, because from that day on, his voice changed and became beautiful—the voice we know from Holī Gurujī and fortunately have on many recordings. The point is to accept. There are many stories of the Guru awakening the disciple in a very direct way. I will give you one example. There was a disciple in Tibet who had to participate in a big ceremony with his master. He was very devoted, but on that day he felt terribly sick with a bad stomach ache. The master, who was the official head of the ceremony, came straight to him. They had a special pot or hat that the designated person would receive. The master came to this disciple and placed it on his head. The disciple felt awful, and suddenly everyone was looking at him as the main person. Then the master did the next thing: he took his fist and struck the disciple's stomach. Can you imagine? The Guru attacked the disciple. As a result, something happened in his stomach, and he farted quite loudly, which everyone heard. He became completely red in the face. Then the Guru said, "That’s it." That was too much for the disciple; his mind gave up. He went into samādhi, and that was his enlightenment. He became a great guru and later told this story of his own enlightenment to his disciples. Guru Kṛpā Hi Kevalam. That can also be Guru Kṛpā, but we have to accept it. However, there is a "but": this cannot happen just at any time. There is something required before, and this something is the sādhanā. It is the purification process. Only when the disciple is ripe and at the point can the Guru give this last kick and grant final liberation. There is another, well-known, very similar story about the Tibetan yogī named Nāropa. He had to go through certain trainings. The last step in his enlightenment story was that his Guru took his shoe—a wooden one at that time—and beat him very strongly on the head. That was enough, and the disciple attained enlightenment. But in this case, we know exactly what came before. In the other story, we don’t know the preceding details. Nāropa had to go through twenty very strong tests—said to be 10 minor and 10 major trials. We have an idea of what it is about. I will just read about the very first, the smallest test. He was searching for his Guru, whom he had never met. He received an indication to go east. Understand, in the Himalayas there are not many paths. He arrived at a very narrow path with a big rock on one side and a river on the other. There he met a sick woman lying on the path. She had leprosy. It was so bad that her whole body was affected, extremely ugly to look at. Her hands and feet had nearly disappeared, and she had infected wounds all over her body. She was lying just on this path where he had to go. She saw him coming and said, "Sorry, I cannot move." What could he do? He knew he had to go this path to meet his master, but he couldn’t get past. What should he do? It was a disgusting sight and smell. So what he did was close his nose and jump over her. He could then continue his path, and immediately she disappeared. A voice came from the sky: "If someone practices a spiritual path, one must have love and compassion. If you don’t have love and compassion, you will not get the result of the path, and you will never be able to find the teacher." At a later stage, the master told him that in all these twenty situations, the people he met were the master. So this woman who looked so ugly was just a māyā of his own master. The master was already there, testing and teaching the disciple: "You should not just jump over me. You should have compassion and think how you can help me." That was the first test and teaching of twenty. The others are much harder; I don’t dare to tell them. This means that, in the same way, we have to be worthy of the blessing—whether it is a beating on the head or in the stomach. In the end, that is the blessing of final liberation, but the master knows that not everyone is ready for it. It is on us now to get ready. That means to follow the teaching, to apply it, to practice. And that is actually the main point of why we are here. So let us not forget that. The fact that Swāmījī is not here at present is already a kind of tapasyā for us, a kind of hardship. The sādhanā itself, especially the Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna sādhanā, is also a kind of tapasyā. And how often do we try to escape from it? Swāmījī spoke about this recently, a few weeks ago at the other summer seminar. He mentioned certain points he has tried and tried with us, but simply hasn’t succeeded. He mentioned especially two: fasting and mauna. I think it is worth considering why we always escape from these things when they become a little more difficult. I guess the point is that we don’t really understand them. Let’s take the example of fasting. When we do only the spiritual fasting—which is not a real medical fast—but, for example, when someone fasts for a few days or weeks medically, what happens? First, it’s a great process of purification. Not only is unnecessary fat reduced, but whatever impurities are in the body are released one by one, every day. The body still has energy; one doesn’t feel weak. This is because the body switches to inner nourishment. Instead of awaiting food from outside, the body knows it’s not coming, so it takes food from inside. We should apply this to our present situation: we are not getting Swāmījī in physical form from outside right now, so let’s get in touch even more with Swāmījī inside of us. What we are doing in our fasting is basically just reduced and controlled eating, because we still eat one meal per day. What Swāmījī always advises is to have control in our eating every day. You remember he always says, "Fill 50% of the stomach with food, a quarter with water, and leave a quarter empty." So, who is really doing that? And what’s the point? Another master, Mikhail Ivanov, explained it. He said, "If you don’t eat fully until you are really full, but stop before, then after some time you will realize that you are actually not hungry anymore." This is because that missing quarter is now filled with fine energy, with spiritual energy. So, as in the example of physical fasting, it is replaced by inner nourishment—here, by fine energy. It helps us on our spiritual path. When we keep discipline, when we keep tapasyā, in the end it helps us spiritually a lot. Mauna is also a kind of fasting. I don’t know if everyone has really experienced it, but I can say that when I kept real Mauna for some time, afterwards I was so much more aware of my own speaking. I listened much more carefully to myself, to what I was saying. I was somehow standing aside, asking, "Gajanan, why are you talking such unnecessary things?" It’s just a waste of energy. So we become finer, more sensitive through this practice. It is a kind of purification and sensibilization, and it makes us strong. When we go through something and succeed, it raises our self-confidence. This is also very good on the spiritual path: to have strong willpower, to decide something and really go for it. Consider that one type of tapasyā, Swāmījī makes part of our discipline when he initiates us. He gives us a mantra and says we should practice, but he also gives us the duty to fast once per week. That is exactly why—because it is an essential part of our spiritual path. If we always try to avoid it, then we shouldn’t be astonished that things don’t work as we thought they should. Tapasyā is a very basic element of the spiritual path. I am currently studying the Rāmāyaṇa, and there is a situation where Pārvatī wants to have Śiva as her husband. Ṛṣi Nārada comes and gives a prophecy: yes, he will be your husband, but under one condition: you have to practice tapasyā—a little more than just one day per week fasting, but real tapasyā. Then she had a dream, and in the dream another ṛṣi told her this was the right way. He said, "Go, mountain maid, and practice penance or tapasyā. You should be sure that the prophecy of Nārada is true, and it is also known to your father and your mother. Tapasyā leads to joy and puts an end to pain and karmas. In fact, it is the way to remove the karmas which make us suffer and lead us in the end to real joy." Then he says: "By the power of tapasyā, God Brahmā is creating the world. By the power of tapasyā, Lord Viṣṇu protects the world. By the power of tapasyā, Śambhu, Lord Śiva, is in the end dissolving the world. And again, by the power of tapasyā, Śeṣa, the god of the snakes, is supporting the earth on his head. In fact, the whole creation rests on tapasyā. Keep this in mind, go and practice your tapasyā." Her reaction was that she was happy. She gladly went away and practiced tapasyā. And that was not a small thing; it was for a few thousand years. Then came a voice from heaven: "Listen, O daughter of the mountain king. Your desire is accomplished. Give up now your tapasyā, and Lord Śiva will be yours." But this was after a much stronger effort. When we compare this with the training we get from Swāmījī, I would say ours is just nothing. But even that seems to be too much for us. And how hard is it for Swāmījī now to deal with this situation? So let us try to accept it happily, as Pārvatī did, and let’s try to have a very beautiful and harmonious seminar together. We also have a bhajan about one aspect of tapasyā. It’s always hard when we have to renounce something, and that’s the aspect of vairāgya. So let’s sing the bhajan "Vairāgya Nahīṁ Hovare." It is Mahāprabhujī’s bhajan. He says: "Vairāgya nahīṁ hove re binā satsaṅg." You cannot develop vairāgya, non-attachment, without satsaṅg. The second statement is like the other side of the coin: "Binā satsaṅg nahīṁ lage Hari ko raṅg." Without satsaṅg, you cannot develop the color of God; you cannot be colored in the color of God, which means bhakti. Bhakti and vairāgya belong together. But how? There was one guru who was working in the garden, and people asked him, "What is the way to enlightenment?" He said, "It’s very simple. You know, the plant is here; you take it out there and plant it in there." That means you give up your attachment to worldly things and now direct all your love to the divine. So, let us sing it together. [Bhajan sung: "Vairāgya nahīṁ hove re binā satsaṅg. Binā satsaṅg nahīṁ lage Hari ko raṅg..."] Without vairāgya, you cannot overcome your worldly attachments. And this is not possible without satsaṅg. When we are stuck in worldly desires, thoughts, and the complications of life, part of our energy is bound there and cannot go toward our aim. So, in the end, tapasyā is always a tool, a test: what do we really want? We will accept the tapasyā, the difficulties, if we know exactly why we are doing it and what we truly want. This is also said about Pārvatī. The more she did her tapasyā and continued her strong sādhanā, the more her love for Lord Śiva grew. She had it before, but now it really came out; it was purified. Tapasyā is a way to purify our karmas. This is, in the end, the point of this whole Kriyā Anuṣṭhān program, of this whole summer seminar. In our daily life—yoga in daily life—we are very much immersed in daily affairs. There is always something obstructing our sādhanā—today, the next day, and the next. Here, nothing is obstructing us, at least not from outside. If we want, we can do 100% sādhanā here. So, if you want, you can choose, for example, to keep real mauna here. If you want, you can keep the discipline of eating little, of fasting. If you want, you can concentrate more on the spiritual between the sādhanā sessions, not talking so much or going here and there. Swāmījī is now creating the situation, the chance, for us. It is up to us to take it. Okay. So now, the deep nine back. One, two, three.