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Part 1: The Quest for Self and the Ashram's Role Gurur Brahmā, Gurur Viṣṇu, Gururdevo Maheśvara, Gurur Śākṣāt, Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ. Blessed self, dear friends, today our Gurudev, Swami Maheśvarānandajī, sends his blessings to you all. Unfortunately, he is not well, so he has asked me to address a few words to you. I was always very keen to become an actor. Finally, if not an actor, at least I made it to the TV, although I prefer to watch rather than to be seen. First of all, my adoration to our Guru Paramparā. Without their blessings, we could not be here together now. There was a German philosopher about 300 years ago named Immanuel Kant. He posed four questions, the main pillars of his philosophy: Where do we come from? Where are we going? What should I do? And what is the meaning of being here? In yoga, we compress this to a simple question: Who are we? That sounds very easy and simple. But if we go a little deeper, we realize it is not simple at all. If we look inside ourselves, we may find certain aspects and qualities. But the deeper we go, the more we realize it is nearly impossible to discover. There are so many obstacles, so many levels of our own inner existence, so many different qualities we call good and bad. To swim or dig through that is nearly beyond human capacity. So, who are we? Swāmījī did us a great favor. He added some salt and pepper, made it a little more amusing, and said, "First, find out how we are." If we start with that question—"How are we?"—we may soon get into trouble. We may find we are not as we think we are. When we start practicing yoga, it may be easy and pleasant initially. But the longer we practice and the more energy we invest, we realize the answer to how we are is not always pleasant, especially when we live in an environment that does not support our sādhanā, our quest. Normally, in our daily environment, we have many ways to excuse ourselves, to run away, to hide, to bypass. However, once we go deeper and truly want to know, we will also find a place where it is easier and beneficial to clarify this question. Such places are, for example, āśrams. The normal definition of an āśram is "āśrama"—you are welcome. You are welcome to do, to work, to work on something, to work on yourself, to help, to support. Every āśram is different; you cannot give one simple definition of what an ashram is or should be. But one thing common to an ashram is that there is always a spiritual guide. He is the center. He provides the necessary information, environment, and all that is beneficial to bring us further in our quests, be they emotional, spiritual, social, and so on. Many of you have been here at Śrī Viśvadīp Gurukula, some for a short period, some longer, some very long, and some even too long. You have all experienced different states of mind, emotional and physical. I am sure that all of you, once you returned to your families and homes, took something with you. Sometimes we cannot explain what it is—a kind of contentment, joy, or satisfaction. You took it and started to share it. How does this transformation through yoga practice happen here? How it works, we do not know. But you will know the difference between being here without the presence of Gurū Dev and when he is here. The main part of what we take with us, what we gain and receive when we are open, is what we call blessing. In a further step, it is kṛpā. But let us call it blessing. According to my understanding, there is a difference. When you get kṛpā, be ready; it is not always pleasant. About ten days ago, a group of Indians came for a one-week yoga retreat from different backgrounds. After seven days, they were cheerful, joyful, and relaxed. They said, "It's great to be here, it's a good thing, we enjoyed so much." Mahāprabhujīdīp Karatā. It depends on your openness and readiness. If you come here only to relax without spiritual motivation, you will get that. If you come for a rendezvous, you will get it. If you come for your spiritual quest, you will get it. This place is like a wish-fulfilling tree. You step under it, stay for some time, and then you take. So the first question is, of course, how we are. We often bypass it, but in the ashram, we cannot anymore. At a certain point, there is no way to bypass it because circumstances will be such that the divine līlā, the play, is set up perfectly. Either you face it, or you move on. The simplest and most effective way to experience this is through Karma Yoga. Everyone knows about Karma Yoga. We can talk much about it, but we know only some of its effects. Some things come out, some things move. After some time, things clear and settle down. We step onto another level. The process starts again; slowly we purify. With time, we realize Karma Yoga means much more than just work; you stop looking so much at the fruits of your action. In this world, everything is action and reaction, cause and effect. Cause is effect concealed, and effect is cause revealed. If we look closely at our actions and reactions, we see a very close relation, though we may not see it immediately. Sometimes the effect is immediate; sometimes it takes days, months, years, or, in the worst case, lifetimes—though that is more difficult to discern. Besides that, we all practice yoga in different ways; we do our sādhanā. There was a great saint, Swāmī Śivānandajī from Ṛṣikeśa. He addressed the science of yoga in a very simple way. He put forth four steps: "Serve, laugh, meditate, and realize." He did not say meditate, realize, serve, laugh. He said first, serve. Karma Yoga is a service. It is an idealistic, realistic, and practical approach towards life. We are used to talking so much about spirituality, big things, our own experiences and development. But real spirituality starts right where we are now. We have to start at the present moment, not where we want to be, where we would like to be, or where we read we should be. Idealism is necessary; it is the hope, the driving force to have a goal. It brings us further and gives us energy. The realistic approach is when we actually do and put into action what we think is good for us and others. The practical approach is that which we have put into action, the projects we see running now. Over the 15 or 16 years this Gurukula has existed, it has grown into a strong tree, firmly rooted in Indian soil, and is just starting to give its first fruits. As you know, we like only sweet fruits, not bitter ones. Most people like the sweet things of life. Unfortunately, too often the sweet turns bitter after some time, and, conversely, the bitter turns sweet. In Āyurvedic medicine, the most effective herbs are bitter. They heal, provide health, support it, and help maintain it. So here in Jadan, some fruits are starting to be sweet already, and some are still bitter. It is necessary for this tree to grow and be well-maintained, and for that, it needs all our support—support of money, as we say. Money is necessary for food and comfort. Food and comfort are necessary for health and proper relationships. Once proper health and relationships are established, we can take a further step. Then it will be revealed that this tree provides an egoless, fearless, and selfless life. So health and comfort are not bad; money is not bad; good relations are necessary; good food is also not bad. But it is necessary to maintain these things and work on them. If we take something away from that upside-down pyramid, then we will know where we are standing. A few weeks ago, there was a big financial crash. Those people who put all their effort and qualities towards money suddenly had to experience the top of that pyramid: fear. When money is gone, food suddenly becomes very necessary, and comfort becomes threatened. So what happens in this Gurukula is that Swāmījī tries to bring a balance between qualities like food, comfort, and relationships. If we consider why and how we practice yoga, we start with āsanas to be healthy, become healthy, to maintain health. It is not necessary to start by studying philosophical concepts. Just work on yourself for a time with your āsanas, with your body. In this body, everything is contained. If you know what is going on from here to here, you know everything about yoga. As I am learning now in the fifth class I attend at the school with Avatārapurī, there is a computer in the classroom. The question is: what is in a computer? It is an electronic machine, very simple. There is input, a processor, and output. The same happens with us. There is input, a processor, and an output. Of course, we are not a machine. But if we understand that what goes on inside has to come outside again, and what happens inside during the processing, we can learn so much about ourselves, our habits, and qualities. We will be surprised by what happens inside, why there are mistakes, why things do not work properly, why we have pain. Every organ is itself a quantity, a quality, and a personality. What we put inside determines, to a great extent, how we feel and how we are. And it is not only what we consume with our tongue, but what we consume with all our senses. It seems that nowadays, the tongue is the most important sense: food. But it is not only food; the tongue's second function is communication. In some traditions, like the Tibetan, you greet by putting out the tongue. In others, putting out the tongue is an offense. In some treatments, a doctor looks at the tongue and knows exactly which illness you have, even the emotional condition of your spine, and so on. So the tongue, among the five jñānendriyas, is one of the most important nowadays. All that we consume inside will stay for some time. It goes to the unconscious, subconscious, stays there, tries to come out, and tries to get purified. What goes in must come out. It is the same with our food when it is not properly digested. Therefore, Swāmījī tries to find a balance in the food we take here, in the level of comfort—not too much, not too little, a simple life. He tries to find a balance in relationships. The aim is to be fearless, more selfless, and to approach more closely the ideals we strive for—not only to know how we are, but further, to know who we are. The practical part of this Gurukula... Swāmījī knows very well. He started the school himself, built it up by the blessings of Gurū Dev. He manages the Gauśālā and initiated certain projects. He will inform you closely about what is going on now. I hope you will listen with an open mind and an open heart and tell others. Hari Om, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. Om Bole, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. What should I say after that, Reverend? I will talk a bit about what is happening here in Jadan, because normally many people do not know all the activities Swāmījī has around Bālī district, around Rājasthān, and around India. They get quite a shock when they discover how much he is doing. I think the first aspect, which Swāmījī has already talked about, is that this is a yoga ashram. People come here to practice yoga, do sādhanā, to be with Swāmījī, get his blessings, and try to develop their spiritual life. That, of course, is the whole purpose of this āśram. Sometimes I think of the other things, and in India we would say, "Time pass." But it is a good way to pass the time, a way that is good for our future, good for our Karma Yoga, etc. Also, I think almost everybody will know about Swāmījī’s main project here, which is the Om Āśram. It will be the centre point of the āśram and the centre point of Swāmījī’s activities in India and around the world. It is a huge project that has been going on for many years. It is quite fantastic to see its development, how it is coming out of the ground now and developing quite fast. Part 2: The Growth of an Āśram: Projects and Purpose It will be a place for hundreds and hundreds of people to come and stay, practice sādhanā, have seminars, have retreats, and come to the mandir. People will come from everywhere around Rajasthan for the āratī, for the prayers. It will be really wonderful to see. In the meantime, one of the first things that Swāmījī started here was the Gośālā, which started in 1993. A Gośālā is a place that takes care of animals, an animal shelter, mainly for cows, but also for any other animals which are sick or are in need of shelter. In our Gośālā at the moment, there are about 520 cows. Quite a few of them came here sick; some of them came without one leg. Mahāprabhujīpada Karatā, Mahāprabhujīpada Karatā, Mahāprabhujīpada Satsaṅg, Satsaṅg. Śrī Śrī... The local Jadan village doctor comes every second day to check the health of the cows. And the workers are also quite well trained. Some of our locals from Jadan, we’ve also trained them to diagnose many of the problems that the cows have. And then they call the doctor and tell him what’s going on. He just advises them what injections they should give. They’re trained to give the injections, and it goes very quickly, which has saved a lot of trouble, a lot of health trouble. He has saved quite a few lives of the cows and of our horses. Next is the school. It’s kind of my favorite, so I’ll talk more about it later. The school started in 2002, and it started off quite small, and now it’s getting quite big, as many people will have heard. The next aspect of the education given in the āśram, which probably most people don’t know about yet, is that we also have a college running. In the Indian education system, a college means after the 12th class, where you do university degrees. So we have run in the ashram this year a Bachelor of Arts degree. Our subjects at present are Sanskrit literature, Hindi literature, English literature, computer applications, and history. From those five subjects, our students select three, which they study for three years, and then they’ll get a Bachelor’s degree. Most of the students studying in that college are from the local villages, especially from Marwar Junction, where there are no college facilities at all, and most of them are girls. It’s an issue in this area for the safety of the girls when they go to higher education, so parents are very reluctant to send them. It was very nice to see that parents are prepared to send their girls here, whereas they wouldn’t have sent them otherwise to a college, because they know the āśram is safe and Swāmījī is here, and he’s taking care of what’s going on inside the āśram. And we have, as you know, security and the walls and the gates, so that nothing can go wrong. We also have a yoga college. This year the course is not running; it will again run from July. In the yoga college, there are two courses that run. One is a one-year course, which is a postgraduate diploma in yoga and health. It teaches you how to do yoga therapy, and it also teaches you other systems of yoga, as well as yoga in daily life. It’s for those who have already done a degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a similar equivalent, and that goes from July until the next June. The other course that we’ll be running next year is a three-year course, which is in a similar line. But it’s a bachelor’s course, Bachelor of Science in Yogic Science. It also studies all of the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Upaniṣads, and yoga therapy, naturopathy, and aspects of health. Mahāprabhujī Karatā Mahāprabhujī Karatā Mahāprabhujī Mahāprabhujī Karatā Mahāprabhujī Karatā... Swāmījī is also preparing an Ayurvedic hospital here, where people can come and stay and have Ayurvedic treatment, and that will keep us busy. The Talāb project was completed some years ago. There was a lot of work done constructing a dam which holds water from the rainfall here, so that the water situation in the ashram is now much better, and also in the surrounding villages. I don’t know if many people know how effective the talāb has been, but in our village nearby, Jadan village, they used to have water at 280 feet in the summer, and it was undrinkable. The last two years, it’s been at 80 feet and 100 feet, and much, much, much sweeter than before, and quite acceptable for drinking. It’s a huge change, and it’s only in three or four years that the talāb has been there, and it’s really changed. Śrī Śrī... Some, which is a huge amount of trees, and they’re still planting more. Every year we plant about five or six thousand trees here, and just keep it slowly, slowly developing. Apart from that, Swāmījī also has projects running in all of the other āśrams around Rajasthan. There is a Gośālā which he supports in Barikatu, a Gośālā in Kailash which he is supporting, a Gośālā also near Nipal which he is supporting, and one near to Soljit which he is also giving support to. We have projects in the villages. We sponsor poor children to go to school, and that has been running for many years. About 800 or 900 students have been supported through that. We also sponsor some students going through college and poor people from the villages for their medical expenses. It’s quite incredible just how much Swāmījī is doing here. Swāmījī told me to talk more about the school, and when I talk about the school, I always like to tell how it started. Of course, that’s kind of epic. There was some talk that there would be a school here for some time, and then Swāmījī cancelled it completely. School here starts on the 1st of July. So on the 26th of June, Swāmījī called and said, "You have to start the school this year," which is four days. We had nowhere to run it, no furniture, no teachers, and no students. So it was fantastic. I think Śokānandjī will remember, and everyone who was here at the time will remember, we somehow filled the ambulance with the projector and took the video player around to the villages. In India, we call it a road show, and every evening we’d go to some village and show an episode of the Mahābhārata or the Rāmāyaṇa, and everyone would come to watch. Then, through that, we would explain to them that Swāmījī is starting a school in Jadan. If the village is interested, then we can discuss how that village can be involved in the school. Somehow, on the 1st of July, there were 120 students here. We also had teachers. I can’t quite remember how we managed that one, but they were there. In the first year, it came to a total of about 140 students here. At that time, the school was in the Swastik building, which is now used for a hostel. Mahāprabhujī Karatā He Kevalam Mahāprabhujī Karatā Mahāprabhujī Karatā... Mahāprabhujī. One of the strangest things for me is in the evenings to go around in the hostel. Sometimes I go at 1 or 2 in the morning and make sure the students go to bed, because they’re studying, which I never knew at home. It’s incredible. Especially the boys who are either in 10th class or in 11th and 12th class, they’re so serious about the chance that they’ve got to get somewhere, and they just want to study and study and take it. But you have to go there and make them have the balance on the other side, you know, so that they take some rest. In the morning, all of the students in the hostel come here and do yoga. They have half an hour of yoga practice, and they also learn Sanskrit. They also do what we call PT, exercises. In the school also, in the mornings at the assembly time, they have yoga. Probably the most special part for me about the school is every morning when they’re here, and you hear nearly a thousand voices singing Mahāprabhujī’s Āratī. You know, when the wind is blowing this way and it’s coming across the whole ashram, it’s just so special, and I think Gurujī must be up there listening and quite happy about that. I don’t know of anywhere else where so many people are singing Āratī every single morning. It’s really, really, you know, it’s a blessing for us, I would say, that we get to be part of that. As you may have seen, those who are here now, the size of the school is now doubling. They’re constructing another 32 rooms because we have no space. In one class at the moment, in the 11th class in science, we have 68 students. They kind of sit, and the teacher works his way into the classroom around the desks. But nobody wants to go out, and there are others still trying to force their way in. So as soon as we get a place, we’ll split that class in half. But it’s that sort of thing that we’re facing at the moment. It was a lot of fun in July, just to have all day the line outside of people wanting to come and join, and calling Swāmījī and bothering him, "Can’t we get my children inside?" and so on. Part of Swāmījī’s sevā, what we’re doing in the school, is that all of the girls who come, they don’t pay fees. In the beginning, when we started, we found that parents were not sending their girls to school so much because they were not prepared to invest in their education. So at that time, Swāmījī said that we can arrange for the girls to pay absolutely nothing. The boys are paying a very nominal amount, which comes around one euro or one and a half euros per month, which is more there to make sure that their parents are behind us to demand something, rather than it being a collection for the school. Once we did that, we found that the enrollment of girls went from about 10% to 35% in the next session. What is very nice to see in the senior classes is that it’s half and half. Because in senior classes, it is normally when the girls don’t continue past 8th class. But here they all keep coming and coming. It’s just the fact that they know that it’s safe and that Swāmījī is taking care. Over the last few years, we have received a lot of support from throughout the world for the school. We made an appeal to get help for school buses, and I made a site on the internet which is just about the school, basically, and what’s going on in the school. I was really surprised, and it was beautiful to have people from really all over the world, and not just from the ashrams, but from anywhere, supporting the project that we have. I’ve no idea how, but there were people who gave donations for the school buses from Japan, and from Indonesia, and someone from Canada, but not from Vancouver, and someone from Luxembourg, whom I still haven’t found out who or whatever, and great amounts of support from Australia, from Perth and Sydney, and from New Zealand, and it’s just fantastic. We’ve had such a huge amount of help from Hamburg, from the educational society from there, which I can never pronounce that German, but sorry, and Diwali and everybody there has always helped with furniture and with sports equipment, books for the library, and buildings—it’s quite inspiring to have people supporting what we’re doing here. Of course, support is not just financial, it’s emotional, it’s physical, people coming and helping, people coming and being part of the ashram in any shape or form. Just to have people here is special, and to have them share Swāmījī’s ashram and share Swāmījī’s blessings here, and get the chance to be in his sevā so often, as he is here. I wanted to end, because I think we’ll soon run out of time, first by asking if anybody has any quick questions, and if they do, they have to come here and ask them, so it will also come on the internet. Any questions about what projects are here in the ashram, or something that they think that people overseas might want to ask, that they could clarify. And next, just to finish, I had one experience with Gurujī, and it goes somehow with what Premānājī was saying about what we come here for and what we stay in Jadān for. Gurujī was once telling me about the forms of kṛpā, and as Premānājī said, kṛpā can be pleasant, and it can be hard. But Gurujī told me, he sat me down one day and said, "There are four forms of Kṛpā." The first form of kṛpā is from the devas, devatās, that we get our birth here in this human life, that we have a chance to do something. The second form of Kṛpā is from the Śāstras and the scriptures, which lead us towards the Guru. By reading the scriptures, we get inspired that we should do something spiritually and go find our Satguru. And the third form of Kṛpā is from the Guru, Guru Kṛpā, which of course, as everybody knows, He gives us the light, He gives us the guidance, He tells us what to do, He corrects us when we’re wrong, He puts us onto the right path. And the fourth one, which Gurujī said, which people tend to forget about, but which is just as important as all the others, is Ātma-Kṛpā. And "Ātma" means self. It means that Gurujī tells us what to do, Swāmījī gives us all of the guidance, but the work we have to do. And what we manage to make out of what Gurujī has given us, the mantra that he has given us, and if you have Kriyā, the Kriyā which he has given us, what comes from that, whether you get huge, huge amounts of blessing, or whether you get some blessing, whether you get full Kṛpā, or you get half, that’s in our hands. Mahāprabhujī’s kīrtana, Mahāprabhujī’s kīrtana. Mahāprabhujī’s meditation. Assume the posture and close your eyes, and we could chant it all together. So, boys, I hope they will say it slow here.