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Om Śrī Rām Candra Bhagavān kī, Pavan Śruta Hanumān kī, Umāpati Mahādeva kī, Deveśvara Mahādeva kī, Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī, Satguru Svāmī Madhvarānjī Bhagavān kī, Om Śrī Rām. Blessed be, dear spiritual seekers, bhaktas, and aspirants, here in this hall and elsewhere around the globe. Blessings come to you from our beautiful ashram, Alachandria. We welcome and thank our dear president of Yoga and Daily Life USA in Alexandria, dear Divya Purī. Thank you for your care, and to all our friends and board members. Thank you. The subject is to realize, to awake, to know the inner light. And what do we understand about inner light? There is one mantra: Satyameva Jayate. There is always victory of the truth. Brahma is Satya, the world is Mithyā. In this material world, many people work very hard to help and support others, but there is a negative energy called Āsurī Śaktis, satanic powers. A very nice sentence is written, and I love it very much. It is what you call on the American currency, on the paper dollar—I have not seen the coins—"In God We Trust," right? We trust in God. Only this one sentence makes great sense, the sense of a whole life. This is a guideline, an instruction, a suggestion. I love this very much, I like that, but not only that, I like the American dollars. Who doesn't? Even someone who doesn't like America perhaps still likes the dollar. Because there is something inside that I like: that sentence, "we trust in God." It is a very beautiful song or bhajan: Jab jab man ghabrāye, tum prathānā karo. Jab raha nazar nahi aaye, tum prathana karo. Whenever you feel scared inside, in your mind, when you have fear, what to do? Prayer. Only that prayer can give us certainty, energy, security, and liberty. Jab jab man ghabrāye, prārthanā karo. Prārthanā means prayer. Jab raha nazar nahi aaye, tum prathana karo. When you don't see the way out, pray. God will show you the path. And how to pray? How to come out of troubles, fears, and distrust in God? He will not let us go down. What happens? Something happens for good. What is happening will also have some sense in it, and what will happen? Our captain is Guru Parvataranhar. So the captain is a Gurudeva. Maybe there is a stormy sea; remain with confidence, and it will let you cross. Inner light means to find your trust, your belief. As long as we are at the beginning of this path, any spiritual path, we are like a very fragile flame. Now we have to walk from this house to that house, cross the street, but there is a very strong wind, a stormy wind. How will you transfer this light from here to there? We have to protect it so that the wind will not blow this flame out. Which kind of wind? The worldly gossip, worldly storms, worldly problems, worldly temptations. There are many ways to lose our way, and it is very hard to remain on it. Confucius said, "When the day is dark, when the day is very dark, when the day is dark and the way is hard, that is bravery." Don’t let your heart be worried. It is a stormy day, no light, but don’t lose the confidence in your heart. Be trustful in God. It is better to light a candle than to stand in the darkness. So, in such a way, light the candle of faith. Yes, Mahāprabhujī will definitely save us. So it’s better to light a candle than to stand in the darkness. So, faith. Therefore, Holī Gurujī said in one bhajan: "Only I pray for one thing: that I don’t lose my faith in thee, day by day my love should grow more and more to thee. Oh my Lord, I don’t ask for anything, not for a kingdom, not for becoming a president, not for becoming a rich person, not..." becoming some professor, doctor, these scientists, no. Only one thing that I want to be: Thy servant. If we are servants of God, we are always with Him. And if we want to have a kingdom, God said, "Okay, you have your kingdom," and God is somewhere else. You have not a kingdom, but a burden. So, what we search for is the flame, the light of faith. But for beginning aspirants like us, there is one beautiful poem: Sabhe sahayak sabal ke, ar kohun nirbal sahaya, pavan jagavat aag ko, ar deepa hi deta bujhaya. Sabhe sahayak sabal ke: always and all are the supporters of the strong one. When someone is boxing and who is winning, they say, "Yeah, bravo, bravo," or in football, or anything. A rich person, a great person, because that is a stronger one. Everyone tries to support the stronger one. No one is the protector and the helper of the meek one, Durbal, who has no strength, no power. People are playing with money. They pay the money, and you win your case. So throw the money and look at the theatre of miracles. So sabhe sahayak sabal ke. Everyone supports the one who is strong, the one who is racist, this one. I don’t see anyone who is the helper of the meek one. Like what? Pavan means wind. If there is a little piece of fire, and a strong wind comes, it makes this little piece of fire—because where the fire is strong, it makes a big fire. The whole forest will begin to burn. This wind is supporting because the spark of fire is so strong. The wind supports the fire to become stronger. But the same wind will blow off the flame. So this spiritual flame, which is in our hearts, is awakened by thy fortune or good karma, good destiny, or any of your past life. But don’t celebrate the day too early. Therefore, protect this spiritual light in you. Many have been criticized, many have said, "Oh, this is not a good way, come to my way, come to my way." Someone will come and say, "Oh, there is nothing, yeah?" Oh, here is this golden ring. Oh my God! This is a master of his power. This is only the māyā for a yogī to fall down forever and ever. Temptation. So we should not, a spirit doesn’t fall in temptation, therefore it is said, "I don’t want anything, only thy mercy. Accept my service and let me be thy servant." That light. Today, my dear, is a very divine day. It is celebrated very much by billions of people around the world, mostly in Hindu and Indian culture. That was the final work, the nimitta, for which God Rāma had to come to this earth. As Viṣṇu, I told you, after Mahāprabhujī, there is no more life, nothing is there. Then the Swayambhū Śiva comes. He manifests as Vishnu, Brahma, etc. And Viṣṇu gets His duty, His dharma, yugevu yuge; in every yuga He incarnates. But when He cannot anymore and Kali Yuga becomes too strong, then comes the Mahāpralaya. So there was a time, more than one million years, it is 900,000 and 50 or something exactly. God Rāma came before Kṛṣṇa. After God Rāma, Kṛṣṇa was coming. And when people sing "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama," they are not singing a song to Bhagavān God, they are singing glory to Krishna’s brother. His name was Balarāma. So they don’t say "Hare Krishna, Hare Balarāma." They don’t say Balarāma, they say only Rāma. People think Rāma or this or that is a semi-god. There is no semi-god. Either there is water or no water. That’s all. That time when Rāma incarnated, there was a king in Śrī Laṅkā. His name was Ravana, and Ravana was known as a devil. So Rama kills that devil. That’s called now the Holī. After Holī will come the Serā. Now, Holi is on the victory of the Bhakta, Prahlāda. And Prahlāda’s father was Hiraṇyakaśipu, who was a devil. This story is beautiful and very profound. I was thinking to tell you this evening, but now I can tell you because many of you will not hear, probably. Long ago, there was a Ṛṣi, Kaśyap Ṛṣi. And Kaśyap Ṛṣi had 13 wives only, because he had only 13 huts. He was trying to build more, but he became old, and he said, "I don’t want more." And these thirteen all were living in great harmony, peacefully. The Rishi was mostly spending his time in meditation and prayer. Trikaadarśī Ṛṣi, he knew past, present, and future. Very humble, very kind. This story is very significant and very interesting. It gives the lesson. So there are these thirteen indriyas: jñāna-indriyas, karma-indriyas, and these five jñāna-indriyas and five karma-indriyas and three guṇas, this becomes thirteen. That ṛṣi becomes that jīvātmā, that’s all. So this whole story is what you have, a mythological picture only, but you have to understand what that means. The rules are given by the great saints, ṛṣis. They researched all the time, all the constellations. Every hour of the day is divided for something. So, there are certain times of the day and night for prayers. Morning Brahmamūrta, when the dawn begins to rise, when the dawn breaks through into dark night, that time two things are prohibited: eating or doing sex, or what you call other word. So, this time is given for spiritual development and to be one with God. Then time comes about noon, before mid-noon, around 11, 11:30 is also prayer time. Then comes afternoon, when all nature and birds and every cow, and all they have eaten, and they try to think to go back to their place where they are living. And the fourth is called sunset. And you will observe that almost all our Muslim brothers or sisters, they have prayer time, doesn’t matter where they are. They will, in a few minutes, put on their asana, their cloth, and they will make their prayers. Even at the airport, many people are sitting on the chairs, and there is no place. You will observe sometimes that they come, go towards the wall, and they make their prayer. No one said, "Oh, what is he doing?" Everyone accepts. Then why are you afraid to make your mala or prayer there? And it is in every airport, there is a prayer room. And I’m always surprised when I go to the prayer room and see there are no Christians, no Hindus, or no Buddhists sitting there. They are drinking Coca-Cola outside, and they are eating ice cream outside. But a Muslim, an Islamic brother, he’s searching for where the prayer room is, and if it is prayer time, he will go in and pray. You see, I respect them so much because they understand and follow the prayer time, what is given to them, which are the hours. And this is from the ṛṣis, from the Satyugas. They kept it. What we do in the morning in the church, the bell is ringing, or in the evening in the temples. And now, what they do, don’t do this. Six days a week, they don’t do. Only on Sunday they all come to the temple because they are giving good dinner, lunch. Very rare people are aware of God. We like to put God in our pocket because He is a dollar, not because we trust in God. You understand me? Why are you afraid to have a tilak? Why are you afraid to have a mālā? And if someone tells you, you can say, "What does it disturb you?" That means you do not trust. You don’t have that feeling. When I go through the airport or anywhere, nobody tells me, "Hey, why do you have orange cloth?" Why don’t you take the pants, shirt, and tie? Tie. But the tie is a culture of Croatia. You know that? The tie is given to the world by Croatians. Their real name is called cravat. And now, thereafter, the English gave it the name "tie" because you have to tie here; it is a tie. But it is not a tie. The tie is to hang you up, but a cravat, it is something. So, Croatian deeds and after were done by the French people, especially the riders and horse riders. They had a shawl around them because it was getting cold, and then developed a beautiful tie. So, Croatia has given the tie to the world. So don’t think that we are American, we want to tie without a knot. So this is a Croatian tilak on the heart. Yes! And as Indian makes it a little longer, so it comes then here. And when it is here, then you tie the hair here. You see, this is the bindu chakra. This is called the completeness of the man, or the turban or the cap. That’s a coconut. When you get a coconut, in the traditional countries, they will take all things away, but on the nut there will be left some hair of the coconut. Coconut is a symbol of our head, our brain. But to this point, we come after. One day, in the evening at sunset, the Ṛṣi, Kaśyapa Ṛṣi, was sitting there and getting ready to pray. And one of his wives came and brought flowers for pūjā. And the other one, who was elderly, came and pushed the other one away. She told the ṛṣi, "Sleep with me." The ṛṣi said, "What are you thinking now? It is a time for prayer. It is a sunset time. It’s time for divine. Only asuras, animals, they may. But a human should not do, neither eating. It’s prayer time. Sit down and pray." She said, "No, I can’t wait." And another one, she was sitting there because we always respect the elderly. So she took her hand and said, "Go away from here." She went. He said, "Don’t do this, please." But she forced him, and she fell on him. Well, she became pregnant, but that which was in her womb was a Rākṣasa. It came as an Asura. And she came to know she made a big mistake, and what to do now? She came back to her husband. He said, "It’s too late." She said, "But what will I do? I did something wrong for the whole world." He said, "Only prayer will do something. That your son, which will become the king, Hiraṇyakaśipu, and his son will come as a bhakta of Viṣṇu to destroy this." And so the story, you know, the holy truth is that Om, through which Vishnu comes and repeats this, that is the truth. Other is not the truth. He was talking to his mother, to his father, and father said, don’t sing the name of Viṣṇu here. He has no entry in my kingdom. He said, "Father, your kingdom is just nothing. He’s the king of the entire universe." God says to me, "Take this child away." Put him in kindergarten, in nursery school. Nursery school, this little boy, he came there and he taught all the children to sing. And all the children, after class, came home while walking in the street. Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat, Japākar, Japākar, Hari Om Tat Sat. They were sitting on the dining table, parents there, and the children said, "Father, sing." The father said, "No, eat first. You sing." So, we love the children, so in the whole city or village, all began to chant, and the king was so angry. King Hiraṇyakaśipu announced: In my kingdom, there will be no god worshipped. No name of any god will be remembered. There is no god; Hiraṇyakaśipu is the only God. What you need, I will give you. All your problems, I will solve. Why do you pray for someone? Hiraṇyakaśipu is a god. Well, there was a time in some governments, they don’t believe in God, they should not pray. But bhaktas, they were always praying, and they are great bhaktas now. He went in the night, village to village, riding on horseback. It was like a full moon light, 10 o’clock in the night, in one yard, a big fire was burning. He went there. There was one elderly lady, about the age of 70-80 years, and she was singing, "Hari Om tatsat, hue, japa karte hue, yeh mahā-mantra: 'Hari Om tatsat.'" And he stopped his horse there and got off from horseback. And he said, "Crazy lady, what are you repeating?" She said, "Haraṇākāśyapa, Haraṇākāśyapa." He said, "No, no... don’t change your words now. Tell me why you sang that mantra. For what?" She said, "King, I am a potter making clay pots. I have no children. My husband died. I am poor. So I myself create some pots and put them in the fire to burn these pots." And he said, "And?" She said, "Yes." So there are about 40, 50 pots. And I put the grass and wood, and grass and wood. And then I make the fire, and I’m sitting around, and nothing will happen. But in one of the pots, my cat gave birth to four kittens, four or five. And I’ve forgotten that, and I put that pot inside. And now you see, my cat is meowing round and round. And I feel guilty, and I feel guilty. I pray to God to forgive me. He said there is no God. I will wait here. You go and sing your God’s name if you want. Tomorrow morning, when the fire will be calm and the pots will be cool, then I will open them one by another and take out. If the baby is alive, I will give you freedom. If not, then here I will make a fire and put you into the fire. Now, when such a challenge, such a trouble is there, her heart had nothing but one. What? I trust in Him, He will protect me. So she began to chant, "Hari Om Tat Sat." And Hiraṇyakaśipu was listening. And he said, "Oh, don’t sing in front of me." God’s name. He went away and again he came. "What is she doing?" And she said, "Hurry, oh!" So some karma of him also cleaned up by listening. Next day, about four o’clock afternoon, it was all calm, fire, and he let open one after the other part. And when they came in the middle, what he and she... And others, he, there were two parts completely untouched by fire, and the little babies were jumping from one part to the other, and he saw. Oh! He went away. So you see, God, jisko rakhe saiyyāṅ, mār sake na koī, bāl na bāṅka kar sake, jo jag vairī hoī: to whom God protects, no one can do anything, even if the whole world is against you. They cannot damage a single hair of yours. But you must have that light within thyself, in your heart, called "I trust in God." He came home, he sent the child to the school, and he told the master, "It’s your prime duty to tell Prahlāda, don’t repeat this mantra, only repeat my name." They said, "Yes, sir, we will do." But after three days, the teachers came to the king and said, "We can’t educate your child. He has affected all the children, students of the village, like an infection. All are only singing kīrtans in the classroom. No one has interest to learn." He called the people, "Throw him in that lake where there are many, many crocodiles. Go with the boat, throw him there, and come out." They went, they did, and Prahlāda came back. Every crocodile who was swimming there became a lotus flower, and he was walking on the lotus flowers and coming out. Look at the glory of God, what He can do. When the Kali Yuga, when such a time comes to an end, He shows both. And therefore, you will see every incarnation, every God, they have two things in their hands: blessings, flowers, or prasāda, and a weapon. So, where you need, when you have a thorn in the palm or the foot, this thorn you cannot take out with the flower. Can you take the thorn out with the flowers? You need a thorn to take out the thorn. Clear? So, Prahlāda came back. Father was very, very concerned about that. He knew there is something divine playing, but he didn’t want to take it as reality. Said, "Okay, take him into the jungle." You know where we have thousands of elephants? Just drop him between the elephants and come on. So they dropped him where the wild elephants are. He came back home very peacefully. The elephant was putting him on its back and bringing him all the way home, and then it went away. Only one option was left now. Go walking on the high mountains, and from a high rock, just push him down, because he didn’t want to directly kill him, to see that something happened. So they threw him from the high mountain, big, there was rock and there was a beautiful tree branches. He held the tree branches, and the branches tree has like air roots, you know, like a banyan tree. And he was nicely coming down, and there were some fruits to eat, and he ate, and he came home. Today, it is that day he decides to kill him, his son himself. Hiraṇyakaśipu had a siddhi. Now you see, what is that? Siddhi means that he had one sister, and his sister also had one siddhi, that she every day used to take a bath in the fire, not in the water. She will make a big fire and sit in the fire and clean her body. That is good purification. You don’t need the shampoos and everything. So Hiraṇyakaśipu is telling his sister, "Sister, do one thing for me." She said, "What? You have the siddhi to sit in the fire. Can you do one thing? Take your nephew on your lap, and he should also have a fire bath." She said, "Brother, I know what you want to do, but I will do it. I can’t refuse you; otherwise, you will kill me." So she took her nephew, a small boy, on her lap. Big, big wood, thick, thick, lying round, and she was sitting, holding him. And he was saying to his aunt, "I think, in the last minutes of your life, if you can sing this..." One mantra. She said, "What do you mean?" He said, "No, it’s... but something. Can I sing for you something?" She said, "Yes. Will you help me do something, otherwise I will jump out?" She said, "Yes, I will do it with you." But she didn’t want to, and he was singing, "Hari Om Tassat, Hari Om Tassat." A big, big fire was burning. All Rakṣasas and devils were dancing around. What happened? The Holikā, her name was Holikā. That’s why we call her Holī. She was burned to ash. And Prahlāda was sitting, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om, come on everybody, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat, japākar japākar yehī, Mahāmantra Hari Om Tat Sat, japākar japākar yehī, Mahāmantra Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat. Well, that is that: when Holikā was burned and Prahlāda survived. So today, they will make a kind of tree, bring a big tree one month before or fourteen days before, and a small tree. They put the big tree somewhere in the middle of the village, or a little bit outside, and this small tree, as the only trunk of the tree, will be put in the middle of the village where all people are gathering and sitting. So that is a Prahlāda. He remains. And which other tree, big tree will be put, they are decorating with something, and now, today, they will burn, and people will make shooting and this and that. Of course, then people get crazy. They will drink alcohol, and this is what we call the crazy festival. Now, when I came first time to Europe, and I travelled through Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, I saw outside of the village, an entrance of the village, a big nice tree. Branches were chipped up, only some other branches. I said, "What, is there celebrating here, holy?" They said, "No, no, this is called my tree." So this festival is coming from the holy festival. Anyhow, she was burned. Now Hiraṇyakaśipu was getting nervous. He knows something is prepared by Vishnu or someone, but what does he think? I have blessings that I can’t be dying inside, outside, daytime, nighttime, from weapons, animals, death, illness, nothing. I am, but I don’t want this boy. I want to kill him. One day, in the evening, he invites his son, who is sitting in his palace outside, in the yard, a big yard. He made a big and thick iron pillar, a pipe, an iron pipe, about three or four meters high, and pulled the coal inside and put fire to it. So, when the coals were burning, the pillar became very red; you couldn’t sit twenty meters near, so strong was the heat. He called his son and said, "Prahlāda, come here. Three options. First, give up chanting the name of Viṣṇu and give up, don’t teach anyone, or go and hug this pillar, if your God is there. Otherwise, get ready, I will chip your head from the neck." He said, "Better to be burned in that fire than to be killed by a devil like you." The little child said to the father, "Okay, then go." Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat,... Hari Om Tat Sat. Japaakar, japaakar, yahi mahā-mantra Hari Om Tasaṭ. Japaakar, japaakar, yehi mahā-mantra Hari Om Tasaṭ. Japaakar, japaakar, yehi mahā-mantra Hari Om Tasaṭ. Little boy, he went with open arms to hug that hot pillar. And he was doing like this, so strong heat. Just for a second, he got fear: "I will die, I will burn in this." In that second, what he sees: little ants are crawling on this pillar, so hot, fire, and little creatures are climbing on it. He said, "When this small one cannot burn and die, how will I?" Oh, he ran to hug the pillar. Before he could hug it, the pillar broke into two pieces. Out of the pillar came one form. From the navel up was a lion, and from the navel down was a human. And he took this boy in his arm and put him on his lap and said, "My child, don’t worry. Now, to see such a vision, such a picture," Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat,... Hari Om Tat Sat. Syaavara Rāma Candra Bhagavān, Narasiṁha Avatāra Kī, Bhakta Pellada Kī Māta Pittā Gurudeva, Devī Īśvara Mahādeva, Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān Om.