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Om Dīpa Jyoti Parabrahmā, Dīpaṁ Sarve Mohanāṁ, Dīpaṁ Sajate Savāṁ Sandhyāṁ, Dīpaṁ Saraha Satyam. Oṁ Guru Brahma, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Deva Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt, Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ, Dhyāna Mūlaṁ, Guru Mūrtiḥ, Pūjā Mūlaṁ, Guru Padam, Mantra Mūlaṁ, Guru Vākyaṁ, Mokṣa Mūlaṁ, Guru Kṛpā. Dear yoga friends. Liebe Yoga-Freunde, I have just flown in to you from the high mountains; that is where I came from. This will not be a Christmas poem, but I entered roughly in that manner, to bring you the good news that a light was born, and this light is called Jesus. He came to the world in a stable, and his mother, Mother Mary, under great hardships brought this child into the world. We have already experienced several Christmases, and in recent years, and he will do so today, Swāmījī has talked about the role of the mother who brings a child into the world. But first of all, I would like to thank you, Swāmījī, that you give us the opportunity to be here with you on this day and in this wonderful community, that we are all here together. This year, he is speaking very much about the role of the mother during birth, and how difficult it was for Mother Mary to give birth to the child. So, what is most important in this time? It is to try to reflect on our spiritual life. Diwali is the celebration of the Rāma avatāra returning, and it is the biggest festival in India, the festival of lights, like Christmas here. In another satsaṅg, Swāmījī gave a very beautiful comparison, and this I want to share with you. Dīvālī is this festival where Lord Rāma returns, and this is the festival of lights, so similar to the Christmas festival. Swāmījī gave a wonderful comparison in another lecture: a dīpa is a light that is mostly made of simple ghee, and a lamp is lit from clay. Because when God came, in this case God Rāma, he came at night, just as Jesus was also born at night. Perhaps it is a sign that a guru, a divine master, has come to this world and brings us from darkness to light. Back then, in all of India, these dīpakas were ignited. Millions of such lights are burning in India at this time. Millions of lights are burning in this time in the whole world, and the light always symbolizes the light of spirituality. It means the opposite of darkness; it means joy, happiness. Swāmījī made this comparison: if you want your light to burn—"tamaso mā jyotir gamaya," lead me from darkness into light—then you have to be careful about the light. You have to make sure that it doesn't go out. Because if you hold a dīpa, that is, a light in your hand, and blow on it, then it will go out or it will flicker. And this breath, with which you blow on this light—this spiritual, divine light that burns in you and that you can hold on to—goes out when you blow too hard on it. And this breath means your negative qualities. If you are jealous, angry... your whole life possibly. It is a time for reflection on your inner light and also on the fact that God is always there for you and helps you to preserve and recognize this light. So, in another satsaṅg, Swāmījī was giving a beautiful comparison about the light. In India, during Diwali, you have many, many millions of lights burning. And also in our Christmas, we have millions of lights burning on the Christmas trees, the houses, and everywhere. So what is the importance of this time? The importance is to become aware of our inner light. When you have a light in your hand—if I had a light in my hand and I blow on it—it will disappear, it will die, this light. And in the same way, as spiritual seekers, we have to try not to blow out the light. To blow out means that with our negative qualities—anger, hate, I think you know many negative qualities, no? I do not have to mention them, no? So, hate, non-loving, etc., etc.—we blow out this light, and we have to be always aware not to blow out this light. And this is a time of Christmas where we should be aware not to have negative thoughts, feelings, decisions, but try to recognize our inner light and to follow and to develop this light. So, thank you, Swāmījī, for your being here. You are our guiding light, and we thank you very much for all that you are doing for us. And thank you that we can share this evening with you, Mr. President. Thank you, thank you. Yes, I also would like to welcome all of you, that we can be together, be able to celebrate satsaṅg, and especially, of course, when Swāmījī has time to be with us together, and especially on this very special day today, Christmas celebration at our Gurujī Ashram. A little thing I would like to share with you, a thought that always comes to me about Christmas is: yes, what actually is Christmas? When my children were even younger, okay, we read Christmas stories; there was a beautiful magic, yes. Then the children get a little older, and it's much more about, "Yes, what do I get for Christmas?" Then you might have completely different thoughts; maybe it's more about what you get and how great it is, and so on. A little bit, this kind of magic is perhaps a little lost. And if you then look, when the children get older again, then it might go back a little bit, and you can think about it again, or also talk about it, that actually... Weihnachten ist nicht nur ein Fest der Familie, des Schenkens, und des Treffens von Freunden, es ist auch eine sehr schöne Zeit, gemeinsam zu verbringen, eben auch eine Zeit, wie die Shanti schon so schön erwähnt hat, eine Zeit der Innenschau, vielleicht ein bisschen Reprise, das habe ich letztes Jahr gemacht, vielleicht auch ein bisschen in die Vorschau zu gehen, sondern besonders diesen Tag auch vielleicht in diesen Gedanken zu haben. Okay, there was something there for 2000 years, something special happened, namely a great soul incarnated. And that is something that I would like to share with you a little bit, this thought. There is someone incarnated who has changed our whole culture through his love, through his light, through his knowledge. And I can imagine that it wasn't that easy for him back then. I don't think for most people it's easy to change something when he comes and tries to give something through his presence and the light that he gives. And it was certainly not that easy for Jesus Christ. I wasn't there, but you say it. It was certainly not that easy to spread his light, his love. As we know, Swāmījī gives, gives... gives. Gibt, gibt, und je nachdem, wie fähig wir sind, können wir nehmen. Und das war sicherlich auch zu dieser Zeit damals so, dass Jesus Christus, angepasst an die damalige Zeit, seine Liebe, sein Licht und sein Wissen weitergegeben hat. Aber ein bisschen diesen Gedanken zu sein: Wer war denn dieser Jesus Christus? Was hat denn der eigentlich bewirkt? Und wie gesagt, die Welt, die wir heute erleben, besonders in unserem Kulturkreis, wäre nicht das, was sie heute ist, wenn nicht damals vor 2000 Jahren dieser Mahātma, diese große Seele, geboren worden wäre. Worden wäre oder inkarniert wäre, ja. Diesen Gedanken wollte ich ganz gerne mitgeben, und jetzt habe ich das kleine Problem, dass ich das unmöglich in Englisch übersetzen kann, ja. Danke. So, hopefully everyone can a little bit understand. I would only like to explain one thought, share with you, that the deeper meaning or reason why we celebrate Christmas is the birth of Jesus. And the reason why he came, we should think a little bit about this. So that's all. So I wish you all a wonderful Christmas here. And what I would like to do very much, would like to thank you very much, not only, but especially for Swāmījī, namely for not only the guidance that he gives us through his words, through his lectures, but Swāmījī leads us on so many levels: in the heart, in meditation, in thoughts. And each of you may know, if you are not doing well or if you have doubts or the like, only the thought in a certain direction, and that is certainly not bad in the direction of Swāmījī, is that it changes our courage. Yes, that changes something, the mantra, and also this thought about our master, Swāmījī. And I would also like to thank you very much for the many, many karma yogīs who have been working so diligently all year round, especially thanks to the yoga teachers who are working so much outside of yoga in their lives, especially thanks to all the ashram attendants, who make the seminars so beautifully possible, not only here in Vienna, but also outside of Vienna. Und auch natürlich bei den Kindern, die immer wieder, wenn sie hier sind, so ein bisschen mehr noch Freude und so, die haben noch so was Natürliches, ja, die das mitbringen hier zu uns. Damit möchte ich meine Worte beenden und übergebe es sehr gerne an Swāmījī. Na, kannst du? Nein? Swāmījī, your students have come to listen to you. And I wish you a very nice Christmas, and if you go home later, then please drive carefully. Shanti has just said, on the top of the mountains, there is no snow. Hari Om. Hari Om. Thank you, Śrī. Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ, sarve santu nirāmayāḥ, sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu, mā kaścid duḥkha-bhāg bhavet. Om Shanti. Shanti, shanti... Shānti, shānti... shānti, shānti ... Sit down. Be all happy, be all healthy. Nowhere should be any troubles, and may I also be happy. This was the mantra. Something was missing from Mr. President, to acknowledge the Karma Yogīs here in the ashram. We will come after. Well, my dear brothers and sisters, here in this, our ashram, Gurujī's ashram, and our brothers and sisters around the world who are with us through the webcast, the divine blessing is coming from our holy place, Gurujī's ashram, in the beautiful city of Vienna, of course, Austria. Welcome, all of you, and this evening is dedicated to the glory of Lord Jesus. And I'm asking myself, what are we celebrating? The question is unanswered. On one hand, it is happiness, and on the other hand, it is very sad, full of mysteries, full of misery. So, this is life: what we can do, how to understand. One great saint, Kabīr Dās said, "When I was born, all people were laughing, happy, and I was crying. But do something good in your life, so that when you die, you are laughing and happy, and the world is crying. When I was born, all was laughing and happy, and I was crying. When I left, I was happy, but all were crying." This is the conclusion, the result of one's life. Life is a struggle; life is a journey, not a destination, and the fruits of your being in this world will not be acknowledged during your life, but at the end of your life. We have seen, for the last 10 days, hearing through all the media, the life biography, life history of Mr. Nelson Mandela. When he was alive, all media was not announcing and giving all that they are doing now. But at the end, because of the last minutes, you can see, they still spoil the things. The last minutes of your breath, something terrible can happen. It is like in the milk, a drop of lemon juice falls in, and all the milk is spoiled. The milk which comes from the grass, the mother cow has to eat to digest. It goes through her body, and it develops into the milk. We milk it, and we bring it. It's a long process. Can you imagine? One glass of milk, from the field till your cup, how long a way it is. And someone, instead of putting sugar, puts some acid inside, like powder of the lemons. Everything spoils. Therefore, the result is given at the end of life. To carry on in life, your purpose for your coming is not easy. There are many, many obstacles. Many people are jealous of your work or of you, angry, envying, ego, and would like to destroy your work. Those people are like what we call in India, we say, a dog doesn't eat grass and doesn't let the cow eat. Understand? A dog doesn't eat the grass, and he doesn't let the cow eat. The dog is sitting near the grass. If a cow is coming to eat, he is battling and attacking. Similarly, the negative āsurī śaktis in this world are working. And we know those great saints, the great personalities who were working for peace, love, etc., were victims of death by our own people, etc. So, there are two chapters in the Christmas story. One is the chapter where Jesus was born, and the second is when he was crucified. That is what we should think and accept something in life and learn something. The Upaniṣad said, "Lord, lead us from the darkness to the light." This light, this flame is the flame of the Parabrahma, the Supreme, the Highest, Ultimate Truth, Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā. That light is within each and every entity. That light is in every vegetation, and that light is in each and every grain of sand, omniscient and omnipresent. But that we cannot see with physical eyes. For that, we have to open the inner eyes of spirituality. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa said, before nearly six to seven thousand years, "O Arjuna, from time to time I manifest myself; I come into this world through my yogamāyā, through my yogaśakti." My dear, here yoga means not āsanas and prāṇāyāmas, okay? This is yoga vyāyāma, the yoga exercises. Yoga is something which is a great divine. Yoga is harmonizing, balancing, and uniting the cosmic functions and cosmic energy. That is the divine mother, divine śakti. That Śiva śakti, that light of the yoga and consciousness, is Śiva. That's called Śiva Jyoti Rāmāyaṇa. All become Śiva Jyoti Rāmāyaṇa, Dīpa Jyoti Parabrahma, because that is the Parabrahma, the supreme beyond all. Dīpaṁ Sarve Mohanāṁ, that light removes the darkness everywhere. Wherever you will put on light, darkness will disappear, and there is no evening that takes place without the lightening of the light around the world. We are all the light on this mortal world, the darkness of Kali Yuga or any Yuga. We are sparkling in this field of the earth from above the universe when we see. But not only humans, we mean all creatures, my dear. Who are we to say that we are the best? That's a great mistake. The great one never said, "I am the great one." Great ones never speak great things about themselves. Like a diamond never speaks, "I am a diamond," but we say, "Oh, it is a diamond." So, who are we that we think we are the lord of this earth? No, O man, on the stage of the world, your theater cannot be played forever. Come and play your game correctly and go. "So, time to time, I come, O Arjuna, to support, to help the dharma, the spiritual principle, spirituality and ethic in this mortal world, to protect the devotees, bhaktas who believe in God, those who are positive and good-hearted. And to remove or destroy the negative energy, either through my acting or not acting." So, both examples we have. The incarnation acts in both ways. They destroy the negative energy and protect the positive energy. The incarnation has both in their hands, blessings or weapons. Jesus was that one. Without acting, he removed the negative and brought the light. Without the weapon, like Mahatma Gandhi, without any weapon, he said, we will achieve freedom. And he did, and Jesus did. But who follows today? Who follows the words of Jesus? If we believe and follow the words and teachings of Jesus, we should not take any weapons in our hands, we should not have weapon factories, we should not have any bombs, and we should not have this and that. We should be ready to show our second cheek if someone slaps one cheek. Who is here? Who is here? A great Christian believer who can do today's? No one. No one. So, the teachings and his words remain a rubber stamp. Many things about Gandhiji, who said, "Ask the Indians how many follow Gandhiji's words." Everyone is giving big lectures for political success, but hardly do they remember and quote Gandhiji's words and so on. My dear, we forget. How many Hindus are there who are following Ahiṃsā, non-violence, who follow the Bhagavad Gītā or Guru Grantha or Rāmāyaṇa or Vedas or Upaniṣads? Human became very selfish, full of greed and ego. This is our distraction. The light of God is in everyone. But we still are happy and blessed that we got the light of love through some divine souls. But you know how hard it is to get that light of the love? And that is for me a Christmas, and something came to my mind. I went back to research how that time was, before approximately 12 or 2000 years ago. When we see the entire picture of the family of Jesus, which I don't know how which family was, how big the family was, how many uncles, aunts, and grandmothers, and mom, and granny, and granny. But we come to the main point, and that is the person that's called Lady Mary. I don't know, but I can see that before 2000 years, the people had little discipline and a different kind of culture than today. Before a few decades, two to three decades before, in Austria also, you would say "unehrenhaft," which is not married, and then after married, get a child, and who got before married a child. Now, for us, we are modern, free thinkers. It doesn't matter from whom the child is, and married or unmarried, the main thing is the baby is coming. We are happy, that's it. But can you imagine in that situation, for her husband and for her, what that means? For those nine months, how she spent it, even she did not understand what was going on. And I'm sure the society neglected; they neglected. Nowhere shows that people are every day coming and singing songs to her, and glories, and this and that. Laghi laghi sab koi kahe, laghi nahi ligar. Laghi uske aisi laghi, gayi ho gayi aaram par. Everyone said, "Oh, I was hurt, I was hurt." But you were not. That one was hurt and had pain. Well, the arrow went through and through the body. So, nine months of that, Mary, in my thinking, was not pleasure, not easy. She had to endure immense humiliation. Another picture makes me very sad. And definitely, if you will think now very deep, I am asking myself a question which I can't get an answer, and there is no one who can give me the answer: what was the situation, what brought to that condition, that she had to give birth to her child in the animal stable? We know where the goats and sheep and donkeys and these animal stables are. There is bacteria; they're not clean and so on. But what brought her to give there? Maybe it was hidden. Did you want to show, or she did not have any house or comfort or anything? But she was alone after. Of course, everything is coming, and we are happy. I would say, what was the pain and situation of that lady? Yes, we call her a virgin. Yes, okay. She doesn't feel guilty, but how can she give the evidence? They didn't believe her. They wouldn't believe her. In our Indian mythology, in philosophy, in religion, you will see also there are a few ladies who were virgins and gave birth. Like in the Mahābhārata, the Karṇa. The Karan was great, and so, anyhow, but we adore her more than her son. That is the mother who suffered. She suffered for us. She suffered for us to give this light to this world. Jesus never said, and it was never said, Jesus' incarnation. No, he said, I am just the son of God. Incarnations are 24, which is according to the yugas, and Indian mythology or literature is saying. But the light, what we call the bright star, the luminary, that was it. And so the light symbolizes the removal of darkness, which means the removal of fear, the removal of confusion, showing the path, leading to direction, to the destination, to clarity, to safety, and to knowledge. So, the light which we have within us, that's called the light of wisdom. There are two kinds of light: physical light, which we have here, electric light or wax candles or oil lamps, and so on. Another is called the light of the ātmā. That light is knowledge, and that knowledge is given through right education and practice. And many of us who brought from the past lives with us, many we were repeating again and again, many our first time, but who am I to say who was not first, but you know. And so we are happy. The biggest presents, what we can see, we get under the tree, the Christmas tree. That is a shelter of God. The Christmas tree is a shelter of God, and what we get under the shelter of God is happiness, joy, freedom, light, love, understanding, and blessings. So we develop in such a way a kind of culture, where there is a human, there is a culture, and where there is a culture, there is a human, and where the human is going, he is bringing the culture with him. You can't stop that. When Indians come to Vienna, yes, they like Vienna, they like everything, but still they bring their culture, some chillies and some namkīns and some papadum they bring with. This is a culture and a habit. They will bring their cassette in music, bhajans, this, that, Rajasthani, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Punjabi, South India, South. This is how the culture is moving. India is a big one. India is known as a cradle of culture. So in this way, Christmas is beautiful, but it's not only this, that Jesus is now born. How was his life? Sometimes lost and alone, sitting in the hills and desert somewhere, desperate, crying, "Lord, why me? I can't, I can't do it." But God said, "My son, I trust in you." You see, what is trust? If you misuse that trust, and one day you become like an enemy, it is a bigger sin. When you give your word, then you should keep your word. If you can't keep your word, it was compared in the ancient and the spiritual languages to a death. Raghu kul reet sada chali aai, prāṇa jai, par bachana na jai. In the Rāmāyaṇa, it is said, Raghu, dynasty of the Raghu. They said, even we have to give life, but we will not break our promise, our word. That trust. And therefore, the Father said, God said, "I trust in you, and I send you there." "But why am I suffering? I can't." He said, "Still, I am in you. I will work through you. You are just an instrument." An instrument is for life, but the life of the instrument is not easy. An instrument has to give its entire life for that engineer, that mechanic who is working through this instrument, and that is God. God is working through the instrument of love and hardness. Sometimes hardness, anger is a love. When parents are angry on children, it is not as an enemy or distraction, but they are saying out of love to do something for the children. And so, the entire life of his parents, the parents of Joseph and Mary, how they spent the time on that day, no one knows, because I was not present at that time; otherwise, I could tell you exactly. But I tell you what I hear from the literatures and from the festivals. This mother, I am going on this point of her, she experienced a lot of suffering for her son. Because of him, she had to suffer, but still she had the courage and strength, and I can tell you, especially those mothers sitting here, women and fathers, it was for Mary not easy to see that her son is going to be crucified, he had to carry his own cross and walk uphill, where he was crucified and his hands were nailed. And if it is true what he is saying, the Bible or the stories, none of them came and said, "Don't do it." No one had the power to say it. And poor mother can't do anything. Only one thing, she put her head on that log of the cross where the drops of blood were dripping down. No one was there. She was sitting and crying. Tried to get him down from the cross and took him in her lap. What karma had that mother, or what did she have to pay, to bring such a cosmic light from the universe to give to us for the sake of our protection, our guidance, and our blessing? All the great things go to Mother Mary, and after, instead of all that, she had only one in her heart: prayer, prayer and prayer and prayer. And through this, her heart became a heart of mercy, and therefore, what we call Deja Mantra, which you can repeat: "I pray to thee, O Holy Mother Mary, I pray for thy mercy, O Holy Mary." And this is the awakening of the consciousness in everyone. What does it mean to celebrate and acknowledge Christmas? Now our life has begun in the light, but my dear, still heartless, do not celebrate the sun rising, the day dawning. Celebrate at the time of the sun. Celebrate the day when the sun goes down. So it does not begin at birth, but it will begin after death. So this is a lesson for us all, that we know all holy saints and holy and great people, they have to struggle, and they had to sometimes get the stones on their heads, and even sometimes they were victims of the bullets. But still, their principle, their honesty, truth, and love for God, because they came for this: to spread and give the light and love to all. So when I was born, I was crying, but all were happy. And now I will go. I am happily going, that I have done my work, and others will cry, "Why did he go so quickly?" And this is the meaning of any holy festival, any, everyone, all incarnations, mostly, it doesn't matter if it's Kṛṣṇa or Rāma or any other head, not an easy life. But they came in that time when, whenever darkness comes and takes over, then again the sun rises. So this is for me how I see life from birth till death. And what were the good things? We shall take the cream and cream and cream. In this sense, my dear brothers and sisters, if we can open our heart and let the mercy of Mother Mary enter our heart, then we can forgive and understand, and we will carry on through all the troubles or whatever may come. But we will have the mercy, forgiveness, understanding, love, and unity, so that our coming generation will learn something from us more and more. I wish you the divine blessings of the Divine Holy Mother, Mary, who gives us, under the Christmas tree, the beautiful presence of the holy shelter. Let's hold here, be nice, and at the end of the year, we will see how the year was. So, I wish you a very happy, very healthy, successful, and prosperous new year. May God be with you, and do good. What you do physically, mentally, emotionally, verbally, and in writing intellectually will first reflect on us, and then it will go to others. So this is my little message for Christmas. How I understand, can you understand? And have you heard what was the, how was the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa? Seven times more horrible than the mother, Mary. But she witnessed how her own brother, Kaṁsa, did put her in the prison and killed all her children after birth, taking and throwing them against the wall. You know that. You know, we celebrate Kṛṣṇa beautifully. We have all decoration, and where is, where is Devakī? Devakī Nandan. Where is his mother and father? We humans forget that dark time. And just now we tried to take cream, cream. But you don't know how much the cow had to eat and digest and develop in her body, and then give us the milk. Who is milking? Who is bringing the cream? So is that. So, don't forget that from beginning till the end. So, it will be counted everything, like in your system: when you begin your work, it will be counted everything till your retirement, and then you get the pension. After five years of working, they said, "I will still continue to work, please give me the pension," and they will not give you the pension. So the result, the conclusion of our karma, our destinies will come, my dear, in the time of the day. Do not judge anyone before, and do not celebrate the day before sunset. So much love to you, and I pray for peace and harmony in your family and with your friends. God bless you. We pray to the Almighty, we pray to Mahāprabhujī, and we pray to Jesus, that may we all sit together again. Admire the beautiful Christmas tree and celebrate together Christmas trees. Now we will go like birds fly in different directions, and in the evening they all come to the tree, singing beautiful evening prayers and going to their nests. The babies are sitting, and then all the mommies come and the fathers come, you know. And then suddenly one day, finished, all birds peaceful. Then morning, one bird gets up as an alarm, and the others, two or three, make par par... and then all wake up. So is this. So I hope that we will have many Christmas celebrations in your life. Age doesn't matter, my dear. Whether you are young or old, we don't know who will be the first. We are sitting, beautiful swans, on the beautiful Mansarovar lake. We don't know who will just take off first. Who will go to the Brahma Śivaloka? So let us hope, and today, root out from your mind and your heart negative thoughts, negative this, negative that. So from wherever you came, I wish you a good journey. Take care, and God bless you. And now we will have continuous prayer, so that afterwards will come more activities, and for children, there is something under the Christmas trees, and there is something more, and there is something more... For children, there is something under the tree, next to me, to my left, to my right, in front of me. That will come a little later. Now we are doing prayer, so please sit for 15 minutes. Everyone, sit quietly. Those who can sing, sing with us. And those who cannot, hear and feel the sound. Put the light on, and the view should be through the Christmas tree to Daltara. So, most of the Bhishkandani camera links from the vital legion: Śrī Deepnāna Bhagavānakī Dev Puruṣa Mahādevakī Satguru Swāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavānakī Sanātana Dharma Kī.