Swamiji TV

Other links



Video details

Divine Love, Divine Longing

The treasure of satsaṅg is the crown jewel of spiritual practice. Gathering in the Guru's presence is a great fortune, for satsaṅg is the boat that carries one from darkness to light. This practice requires no complex action, only presence, concentration, and absorption of the teachings. The real work begins in daily life, where theory must become practice. A ton of theory is nothing compared to a gram of practice. Physical exercises and prāṇāyāma are necessary, but meditation is essential for attaining liberation. The serenity felt in satsaṅg is a step on that miraculous path. One must approach with a clean vessel, free from distracting thoughts, to receive the nourishing water of wisdom. The intellect is like a cow that gives the milk of knowledge; it must be protected from negative influences and fed with love. God surrenders to pure love, for love is immortal and never changes. All divine incarnations manifest this love. To understand this is to find inner contentment, making all worldly pleasures tasteless. True satsaṅg cleanses the mind and unites all in devotion, regardless of form.

"Satsaṅg is the technique that takes us from death to immortality, if we follow the Guru Vākya and yogic principles."

"God surrenders to love. God feels like a servant of love."

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Hari Om, Praṇām Gurudev, Guru Swāmījī. I cordially welcome you here in Hungary. We have gathered and converged to join and be part of your beautiful event. I extend my heartiest welcome to everyone present with us today, to all those following us online from all over the world, and to our new yoga friends. On behalf of the International Sri Deep Matapan and Ashram Fellowship, and on the occasion of our mantra recitation, we bow towards our Gurudev. We gather together from time to time to refresh this bond so that we may practice yoga in daily life under his guidance. It is a great joy that, alongside Swāmījī, we may welcome Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Svāmī Vivekpūrījī among us. We further welcome Swāmījī’s followers and sannyāsīs from many different countries. When we gather in Swāmījī’s presence, it is not easy to say anything, as we await his wisdom. I reckon the best thing I can do is repeat Swāmījī’s own words: we should utilize every second, every minute of our weekend seminar to proceed on our yoga path. Many people have gathered from Hungary, from many European countries, and from all over the world. It is difficult to list all the countries, but I wish to underline that we live together according to yogic principles in love, understanding, and harmony. To those following online, I ask you to feel this presence in your homes, ashrams, or mandirs just as we feel it now—this warmth, this love, this elevated mood. Dear brothers and sisters, I wish you could also enjoy Swāmījī’s warmth, love, and uplifted atmosphere as we do here. These joyful moments of our lives will never be forgotten. To those following the webcast, I strongly urge and invite you, through all possibilities online and in person in Strylki and India, to visit Swāmījī’s satsaṅg personally and not only follow it online. As Swāmījī says, it is already great luck to be present at the satsaṅg, at the boat of satsaṅg. This boat takes us from the shore of darkness to the other shore of light, if we follow the words of the Guru and the principles of yoga. Satsaṅg is the technique that takes us from death to immortality, if we follow the Guru Vākya and yogic principles. Many of us present have been practicing Yoga in Daily Life for years or decades. According to my faith and experience, I must say satsaṅg is the greatest treasure; it can give us the most in our lives. Our body needs physical exercises, prāṇāyāma, and relaxation, but the crown jewel is satsaṅg and guruvākya. This is both hard and easy. You don’t have to do anything; you just have to be present, concentrate, listen, and try to absorb all of this. Between the times we meet with Gurudeva, we must take practical steps to integrate this. Being here is, on one hand, very easy, and on the other, very difficult. We must pay attention, be aware, be alert, and remember all the words Gurudev says. In the periods when he is not with us, we must put everything we have heard into practice. As the name of our yoga system shows—Yoga in Daily Life—it must be realized step by step, tirelessly, not just in theory. It means incessantly, day by day, month to month, practicing everything we hear now. As Swāmījī keeps repeating, one ton of theory is nothing compared to a gram of practice. We need to focus on meditation as well if we want to reach our ultimate goal: liberation, Mokṣa. We certainly need to practice relaxation, āsanas, and prāṇāyāma, but we must add meditation to attain Mokṣa. When we are in satsaṅg with Swāmījī, listening to his serenity, everyone’s face shows a typical expression: an inner smile, satisfaction, calmness, and peace. This is a step on the miraculous path to liberation. I see the peace, love, joy, and contentment on people’s faces as we come close to Swāmījī. Is this not one more step towards liberation, Mokṣa? I reckon all of you following the webcast and everyone present wishes to hear Swāmījī’s words, but most of all, it is I who wishes to hear Swāmījī’s wisdom. Thank you. This speaking itself might be a first step towards liberation and Mokṣa for me. You might not believe me, but earlier in my life, when I had to hold a microphone, my hands shook and my knees trembled, and I forgot everything I wished to say. If you will excuse me, I may share a story from my life. It was about 20 or 30 years ago with Swāmījī and Holy Gurujī, Svāmī Mādhavānandjī, in Hungary. We had an open-air satsaṅg among tents in Pát. És vártuk azt, hogy Swāmījī jöjjön, satsaṅgot tartson. We were waiting for Swāmījī’s satsaṅg. When we all gathered, we decided to form a delegation to ask Swāmījī when he would address us, as we were waiting only for his words. Swāmījī said that moment would come soon, but he himself was in the service of Holy Gurujī, Svāmī Mādhavānandjī. Swāmījī then instructed me to go to the people and talk about the relationship between master and disciple. In that moment, I felt exactly as I do now. I was thinking, what should I talk about? My heart was full of love, joy, and happiness, for Swāmījī had come, revealed himself to me as my master, and accepted me as a disciple. I confessed to the people that my duty was to speak about the Master-Disciple relationship. Any duty given by the Master must be carried out to the best of our ability. But I had a problem: I felt unable to speak. When I asked Swāmījī what I should say, he said, "Tell everything that I would say. Think about the fact that you have been a long-term disciple of mine and only repeat what you have heard from me in this period." I reckon you know this feeling: there is a great emptiness in our heads. Your heart wishes to give everything, but nothing comes to mind. Amennyit addig éltem, míg Svāmī Zsivával találkoztam... At that time, I had already been Swāmījī’s disciple for 33 years, but I only had to say two sentences in front of a crowd. Swāmījī instructed me to go and do my duty. Since then, my aim is not only Mauna. És kérem a megértéseteket, hogy nem Svāmījī-t hallgattátok, hanem engem. I take my farewell, and we now wait for the wisdom of Swāmījī. Thank you, Praṇām. Praṇām Gurudev, dear brothers and sisters. It is always very difficult to speak in front of Gurudev, in front of Swāmījī. But we are all very, very lucky to have such a great master and to participate in this satsaṅg. Now is the beginning of the seminar, or retreat. It is very important to hold the idea in mind that we are truly lucky to be here in satsaṅg, to have darśan and lectures from Swāmījī. Something that remains in my memory from about 45 minutes ago: Swāmījī said he is SMS—he joked, but it’s really true—he is Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Sevak. I must share this with you because it is truly what we have here. Swāmījī always jokes that he is a postman, but it’s not a joke; it’s really true. He has that feeling all the time, the feeling of being a disciple of Mahāprabhujī. For us, it is also very important to hold such an idea in mind all the time: that we are disciples and try to be sevaks. Doing seva is not so easy. Seva is not only bringing something to Swāmījī or being near him. Here at this seminar, many people will work behind the scenes, and we will not know they are working for us. If we hold the idea that we are disciples all the time and wish to be real disciples, we will gain knowledge from this seminar. Many times we hear from Swāmījī that if you go to the water with nothing, you can take water in your hands or drink it, but it will soon be gone. If you go with a pot, you are able to catch water. But it is also very important that the pot is clean. Our thoughts are what make that pot clean or dirty. Now we are here in satsaṅg, and satsaṅg is the place, and darśan is the system, to clean the pot of our mind. We must try not to pollute our pot with stupid thoughts or problems, like thinking, "Oh, this food needs more salt." Such thoughts and feelings ruin the cleanness of the pot. I read one really nice thought: "God, please protect me from spirituality without love, without joy, and without laughing." Try to have madhurī mudrā, a nice smile, a nice feeling. Enjoy. We are here with Swāmījī, in satsaṅg, with our brothers and sisters. Just try to enjoy—not too much enjoying with "ha-ha, he-he," but really try to spiritually enjoy and bathe in this water. That water of knowledge and the blessings of Mahāprabhujī will clean our pot, and knowledge will be inside, clean. Once more, thank you, Swāmījī. Thank you for these moments, for such seminars are not easy to come by. Our only problem is that we think, "Oh, it’s our Swāmījī." That is our problem only. Try to be truly aware of what we have and be happy. That is all that is important. Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śrī Dev Puruṣa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Dharm Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Satkeśanātan Dharma Kī Jai. Blessings of Mahāprabhujī, Devapurījī, and Gurujī to all of you. Welcome to all of you here. It’s a beautiful evening. I’m very happy to see you. Thanks to our Hungarian organizers for the beautiful program here in this historical place. After a long time, we are again together here—though "long time" means about two months. For happiness, we need harmony, love, understanding, and respect for each other. That time, if we are away for a while, feels like a really long time. There shouldn’t be any separation. Physically, in the material world, we do have distances and separations. But with our heart, mind, devotion, and love, we are always in oneness. As long as we are in this physical body, we will experience different changes in life. But suddenly we come to one point: there’s no more separation. There are two beautiful bhajans of Mahāprabhujī—all his bhajans are beautiful. One bhajan gives a very clear picture: even God has longing. God has love, and God needs love. God goes where there is love, very clearly. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "In the entire universe, there is no power which can hold me. There is no power in the entire universe to which I have to surrender. There is only one: that is bhakti. Love. God surrenders to love. God feels like a servant of love." This is a clear picture that love is greater than God. All incarnations on this globe, in different places, were incarnations of love, peace, and light. They create this bhakti, this devotion. So, love represents God. Someone said, "God is love, and love is God." Love is that love which never changes. Love is immortal. Love never dies. But emotional things, selfish things, greedy things, and things we do not understand—those change. And that change brings unhappiness and sadness. Sadness, for one who has understood, will never change, as one German philosopher said. To see the blue sky, you don’t need to travel anywhere. So many material changes bring only unhappiness and suffering, putting us again in the same situation. That is born out of ignorance, which means we did not find inner contentment. It means we did not understand what is bhakti or love. When one awakens in you, then everything else becomes tasteless. "It is it. Now I am happy, divine. I drank the nectar of God’s name. And all other tastes of this world become tasteless." For that, even God incarnates here. Whenever He misses the love, He comes to this earth and goes to the humans. And when we don’t understand Him and love, then He speaks about it. He spoke very clearly, Kṛṣṇa, in the 12th chapter. Read the Bhagavad Gītā’s 12th chapter, the Bhakti chapter, where He talks about love, contentment, happiness, safety—everything. We should not read these books just like a newspaper. Every word we should contemplate. It may take you one year to read only this 12th chapter, but still the "problem" will be there: that every time you read, you get new knowledge, new meanings. Only one sentence, one word, one mantra, one śloka, you read the whole year, and the whole year you will get new knowledge. That’s called Kāmadhenu. Kāmadhenu means the cow which fulfills all wishes, the cow which ever gives milk. That cow is within us, and that is our buddhi, our intellect. So our intellect gives everyday milk: milk of inspiration, clarity, understanding, knowledge, etc. So we shall listen inside. One said, "To Mahāprabhujī, Guru Dev, the cream is already eaten." The great philosophers, the great saints, they wrote all bhajans, they wrote all the best things. Now, what we have, we have only the zero milk. So Mahāprabhujī said, "If they ate the butter or the cream, what does it mean? It doesn’t mean anything. Makhan khaya toh kia hua, denu hamare paas, but cows with us, they didn’t eat yet, the cow." So your buddhi, your inner pure knowledge, intellect—that cow is with you. But when this cow comes into the hands of the butchers, the slaughterers—the slaughter of greed, selfishness, ego, anger, doubts, jealousy, etc.—then this cow is suffering. Then this buddhi, this cow, this human intellect loves to listen to negative things. And you love to speak negatively, to criticize someone, and always try to prove that you are the right one. That destroys your beautiful relations. There was a relation where you were happy and looking forward to seeing someone. And that cow came into the hands of a crowd of lions. This cow can’t go out. These are the wild cats, the cow, tigers, lions, and hyenas. And that is missing. That cow is in danger. The cow symbolically is that bhakti, that buddhi, the intellect. Therefore, Holī Gurujī said to Mahāprabhujī, "Oh my Lord, protect me from Kusaṅga. One minute or ten seconds of Kusaṅga can take you years and years to recover, or maybe not. Your whole life you will remember your husband. After my marriage, he told me, 'I hate your parents.' After he apologizes and loves her parents, that nail which he put in, no one can take out." Similarly, this is called kuśaṅga, negative words, blackmail. Then that cow can’t produce any more milk. It’s dried. What we call dry intellect—dry intellect is more selfish. It doesn’t look at anyone but only for oneself. So, Mahāprabhujī said, "If they ate all the cream, it doesn’t matter. Still, the cow is with us." Dhenu, it means a cow. "Chara dalu premka." Feed her with love, the feeder of love. Do a dinner rug, and you can milk her day and night and produce again more butter than what they had: fresh butter. Navnīt. It’s called Navnīt. Navnīt means the everyday fresh butter. So the Krishnas, who said, "Who loves the Navnīt?" So this, our inside sitting, this cow is holy; your wisdom, your intellect is holy. But through the kusaṅga, it became God’s negative energy and became devils. "I don’t like him. I don’t like her. He’s not good. He’s doing this. I’m sad about it. I don’t feel pleasant." And who are you to say "I"? Your beautiful inner self never says this, but this dry intellect does. So, God, whenever He needs and feels lonely, maybe... You see, there’s an ocean, an endless ocean, thousands of kilometers on every side, and He’s sitting there on His Śeṣanāga, Lakṣmījī is sitting beside Him doing seva, and He’s lonely and closes His eyes like this, thinking, "Where to go?" A big ocean, no boat. Can you imagine yourself in the middle of the ocean, on one boat, sitting on one? Fixed one. Yugas and yugas. Boring. God thinks, "What karma do I have? What kind of punishment do I have? One yuga long, present in the middle of the ocean." So again, He comes to this earth, oh, full of love. Everybody loves Him. Sorry. So here is that bhakti. Everything is here. What we call heaven and hell is here. Svarga is here. Naraka is here. And you are living either in heaven or in hell here. Some of us are so happy. We have nice friends with us, and our families. We are sitting with Swāmījī, listening, and our brothers and sisters are sitting. And some are very sad, missing that one who was sitting beside them last time. What a drama of māyā, delusion. But jñānīs, who have the knowledge, are untouched by this. But God Himself said—again, read Bhagavad Gītā chapter 12, read Karma Yoga chapter 3, read chapter 15. Very clear instructions are there. I don’t know if it was spoken by Kṛṣṇa or some wise one on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. It is written by Ved Vyāsa. And the Bhagavad Gītā is the essence of the Upaniṣads, condensed together. From the Upanishads, who has seen Krishna? Nobody. I didn’t see. I saw pictures or paintings, or in some vision, but maybe I was not there with Him at that time. Who knows? Krishna knows what is Bhagavad Gītā. So, who knows Krishna knows the Bhagavad Gītā, like a mother knows who is the father of her child; nobody else. So, who knows Krishna can understand the Bhagavad Gītā. So, God comes here to spread the divine energy of devotion. Now, who understands will get it, and who doesn’t understand, we struggle. But, gone many years. We are praying, and we think we understood, but in the end we say, "Oh God, so you didn’t understand." So rare are those who will understand Him. It doesn’t matter whom we adore—maybe it’s Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Buddha, Jesus, or any other holy saint. The difference is in the body, or the difference is in the shape, design, and form. Diamond is diamond. One little diamond you have on your earring, another diamond you have in your nose, all in different forms. But there is a diamond, so there is no duality. Water is water, but which quality has this water? It is not a quality of the water, but it’s mixed in it. So pure water put color of yellow, black, pink, etc. Now this is pink water, black water, green water, red water, but in reality, there is no red, black, green. So when we look to the oneness, this diversity leads to unity. As long as the duality is diverse, we can’t feel oneness. So it is that different color means different view. Just as it is risky, how your eyes, your vision, like that, you see the world. But in reality, it is the one. Some have understood, and some are still in darkness. We are connected too much to this material world; therefore, we can’t understand the higher world. So God said... so this is what He says. Therefore Mahāprabhujī said, "I am longing for my Guru brothers and sisters who are always in the satsaṅg, all who are sitting on the same boat, who are all the devotees of my Gurudev. How much I am longing to see them." Even if you are not a devotee of the same master, every satsaṅg is a satsaṅg where it is spoken neutrally, and not only to sell your goods. That is not a satsaṅg. That is something different. That’s called marketing. We are marketing the name of God. It doesn’t matter which God you believe in, how you believe—it’s yours. Some like to drink red water, and some like to drink Fanta, orange water. And some like to drink the black water, the cola, but water is the water. What color is inside will have a different effect in your stomach. So satsaṅg is the satsaṅg. I’m longing for that satsaṅg. When I don’t come to satsaṅg for once or twice, I miss the satsaṅg. My condition is like a fish without water, suffering. Jalabina means the fish without water. Tadapa, tadapa, jīva jāve. That one is struggling, suffering. While struggling and suffering, the soul goes out. When you take your fish out of the water, you see this house sees the fish is suffering, and she opens her mouth, talking to you, saying, "Oh man, what have I done to you? Please put me back in my world." That’s very important. There is a particular cell in the ocean, a ship. That one makes the pearl, but only from that water which directly falls as a raindrop. So that fish, in a particular season, jumps out of the water with full expectation, opens its mouth, saying, "Amṛta Jala Kona Barṣāve, who will kill?" And that we have the logo of Rainwater Harvesting. Why did I put this logo? When Holī Gurujī was in Jaipur in a hospital, and some bhaktas were in his sevā, including that Govind Purī from Zagreb—maybe he’s here, or he’s somewhere occupied, working very hard, not working, struggling. You all must help him; he’s suffering inside a lot, so the whole world is listening. So when he had a t-shirt with this logo, Gurujī was so happy, thinking of Mahāprabhujī, Mahāprabhujī’s bhajan. Then he went to his room, washed, and changed his t-shirt, and Gurujī looked, and there was no logo. Gurujī said, "Guru Vinpurī, go and change the t-shirt." Says Swāmījī, "I’m clean. Gurudev is not dry. No discussions. Go and wear and come." Because so much Holy Gurujī loved his master Mahāprabhujī, any kind of sign, any kind of word which related to Mahāprabhujī was the divine and holiest thing for him, the entire... The universal world for Holy Gurujī was this. So we all, including myself, we are sitting in the satsaṅg and looking at the sky, asking, "Who will give us these words, the drops of the nectar of the Guruvākyas, or wisdoms of the Holy Scriptures and of the holy saints?" Because that makes us immortal. In the Mansarovar, the swan is living, but there is no pulse. What will they eat? They will die. Because the real swan only dives and gets the real pearl from the bottom, where the shell died and let the pearls down. That’s called Paramahaṁsa, and they are not visible to us. It’s a beautiful, beautiful Paramhaṁsa. There is one couple, and they only eat pearls. So if there are no pearls, what can one eat? Man is our world. Man means our mind. In the ocean of our mind, the ātmā of our swan is living. But if there are no pearls of wisdom, what will nourish this ātmā? Mahāprabhujī said, "But bhāgy janā soyī pāī," the blessed are they who will get the blessings to be in the satsaṅg.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel