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Oṁ kandusa yuktam manityadayanti yogina, kandam mokṣadam cheva oṁkārayānamonama, oṁ śānti, śānti, śāntir bhavatu. Ānandoham ānandoham ānandam brahmānandam ānandoham ānandoham ānandam brahmānandam. I am bliss, I am bliss, bliss am I. Ānandoham Ānandoham Ānandam Brahmanandam Ānandoham Ānandoham Ānandam Brahmanandam. Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Salutation to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, omniscient and omnipresent. In his divine presence, very good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome. Today, the subject is compassion. This subject is very good, according to this time of the year. Billions of people remember and think of Lord Jesus. Very soon, the time is coming for what we call Easter Time, and Good Friday. It is originally God Friday, not Good Friday. Small children put the question, "Father, when Jesus was crucified, he was suffering, why is it Good Friday?" So, originally, it was God Friday. If we think about what compassion is, then we have to learn from the life of Jesus and, more than that, the life of his mother. She was the embodiment of compassion. It is not easy to be the mother of such a great divine soul and to achieve such compassion. We often speak about mantra. We have mantra in our language, Sanskrit or Hindi. There is a mantra in different languages, too. Every religion, every culture does have the mantra's divine thoughts. So I used to give many people mantras who are really practicing the teaching of Jesus and asking the blessing of Holy Mother Maria. The mantra is: "I pray for thy mercy, O Holy Mother Maria." It is a beautiful mantra. "I pray for thy mercy, Holy Mother Maria." In Hindi or Sanskrit, we can also say the same mantra: I pray to thee, O Merciful Lord, for your mercy or your kṛpā. Kripa is a word for mercy. When we think of Mother Maria, how was her life? When she became pregnant, what situation did she have in her life? The nine months' time for her, I do not know if it was for her so divine and good or not. Only Mother knows. But the social situations which she had to face, I think, were not full of compassion from other sides. Was it necessary? What brought her to give birth to her child in an animal's stable, where there were goats, sheep, donkeys, and so on? Alone, she gives birth to the child, and she puts her child on some dry grass. Had she no extra cloth? I do not know. I only tell what I heard and what I see in the pictures. At Christmas time, they make a small cradle with the grass. And they just put the child, completely naked as a fresh-born child, without any cloth on it. I can only say what I saw. If it was like that, then I feel my compassion, love, and respect for that mother. And I always tell, my love and respect are not enough for you, mother. It is not enough. What happened, you all know much better. You study; maybe some are from Christianity. Jesus had to carry his cross, and his mother had to see this. She definitely tried to stop it, but due to the circumstances, she could not. Yes, some of his disciples followed, some people followed. And there is another very painful picture. It is night, and she, the whole day, was crying. I do not know when she ate. She is sitting under the cross on that log, and she put her head, supporting her head to that log or the cross, and you could imagine that some drops of the blood from her son were falling down. What do you feel, my dear mothers? You are sitting all now. In such a situation, she did not lose her nerves. She still had hope and love for all. And it is that child which was created by her body and given birth who also said, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." If these words were spoken there, I do not know. I was not there. But what can be more than this, what we call compassion, mercy? Because it is said in our religion, in Hinduism, "viśva prāṇī merī ātmā hai." All creatures in this world are my ātmā, myself. Ātmā, sūhī paramātmā. And this ātmā, which is the light of God within us, is God himself. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, "Mame vaso jīva loke," I am in every creature. Jīva-bhūta-sanātana, all these creatures, each and every entity is my origin, my part, myself. So, I think that was the same message that is given from Jesus. Because the mother will not curse her child, and that child will not curse the children of God, we are all. What can I speak more about mercy or compassion today? It is very clear. Similarly, before 7,000 years, what happened to the mother and father of Lord Kṛṣṇa? Mother and father were present in a small room. This story is long, which I will not repeat today. Because someone said to her brother, "You have this Devakī as your sister, and her son will be your enemy. He will kill you." No one could kill him because he was a mighty devil, a Rākṣasa. No one could kill him. So he said, "Avanādakans, you did so many things. Now, the son of your sister, the sixth one, will be the cause of your death." And he puts his sister, just married, and wanted to give the farewell from the father's house. So her husband and she immediately, after a few steps, walked away from the house. He took them into the prison, and Devakī's father, the king, they put him also in the jail, just beside. And he told the guards, "When you hear that Devakī has given birth to a child, immediately inform me." And it does not matter which time, night or day, when they heard that she had a child, he went there, and a nearly born child, half an hour or something, he took it and threw it on the wall. Mother could not do anything, father could not; they were all chained. Six, when the sixth one came, then Krishna, but he had to be taken away from the prison, and there were several gates. But the Māyā, the glory of God, the Līlā of God, that time the voice came, "Vasudev." The father of Krishna took him to Nandgaon, on the other side of the river bank, the river Yamuna. And what happened? All fell into sleep. All guards, all were like in anesthesia. And the doors opened, and he takes the basket with one cloth and walks through the water, through the Yamunā, and brings him to the other side. He comes back, and there was one girl born, and told him, "Bring that girl here." He did not dare to bring her, but it was the order. So he brought the just freshly born girl also, and he walked. When he entered the room in the prison again, all doors shut, and the guards woke up and saw there is one child who has had a birth. The child was crying, he came, he opened and he said, "Give me." She said, "This is a girl." He said, "No, how should I know?" So he took that girl to throw on the wall, and this Mahāmāyā, her name was, just dematerialized and said, "Kaṃsa, your enemy is already born and growing." So, what I want to tell is, what was the condition of the mother of Kṛṣṇa? The Holy Mother Maria saw only one son's pain, but she saw and suffered six children. Similarly, the God Rāma, who had not an easy life, neither for his wife, mother, nor for his own life. What do we say about holy friends from Assisi? We adore, we make a church for it. We have beautiful wisdom from him, but when he was alive, people were throwing stones at him, the crazy one, the schizophrenic one. So the life of the saints is not easy. We humans do not understand, but after we will cry and we will worship them. My dear, maybe it is too late, it is too late. Therefore, and it is a very symbolic chapter in this Easter time, which we witness, and that is the rabbit and egg. How do we compare the egg and the rabbit? Rabbits do not give eggs, but something is symbolic, because rabbits have different symbols in ancient cultures, as life and survival, pure, vegetarian. The egg is the most important subject that is called in the Vedas: Hiraṇya Garbha, golden embryo. The entire universe is round. Everything that is, all is round. Our earth is also round. The sun ray which comes does not come directly; it is also circling, coming round. Water, each drop, the fine drop as a drop of the fog, is also round. That is called zero. Everything, we are born from that round drop of water, liquid. Therefore, it is called Hiraṇya Garbha. Hiraṇya means gold. Garbha means embryo. The entire universe is one egg. And inside is that cosmic consciousness, divine consciousness, and that is called Brahman. So in that womb of the mother of the universe, she is a mother. The entire endless universe is within that. There are ananta, ananta sūrya and candra, many, many thousands and thousands of moons and suns. A yogī, through meditation and samādhi, nirvikalpa... Samādhi, savikalpa samādhi, or nirvija samādhi, sabīja samādhi. Sabīja samādhi means that you come to the higher level of consciousness, but still you have there awareness of the self and desire. It means as long as this desire is there, there is a seed, nirbīja. Then there are no desires, and then you are one with the universe. It is said that when the Buddha came to this level, he could not proceed, and he could not bring anything back. He was lost in that nothingness, so that is why he comes and he says there is nothing. The consciousness of the yogī through this nirvikalpa samādhi, or the nirvija samādhi, can reach 2100 sun systems. Chaudha lok, there are 14 different worlds within this sun, and above that there are 2,099. That far the consciousness of a yogī can go if one practices properly and follows the disciplines. I cannot still follow this. I have tried to do my best. You are the perfect one, so come on. Yes, next time you should tell how many lokas you came. So, my dear ones, I can only tell what the scriptures say, what many, many holy saints say. The ṛṣis, grave saints, hermits, they gave this education to their children, and they had a great, great energy, spiritual power. But though it is 2,100 solar systems or more than this, today science says it is endless. But, good. To this day, no science or instrument has been developed that can reach 2,100 solar systems. Yogīs did, and we are on the way to develop the science. One day, maybe we will come to thousands and thousands of it, but all in one space, and that one space is the mother. When we see the divine mother, when we see divine Śakti, it does not refer to the genders, dualities, and these mortal forms. That consciousness within is both as a father and as a child of that mother. Eko'haṁ pahu syāmī, I am one, now I will multiply. That begins with the sound, vibration, and that original sound which is called Oṁ, ākāra, ukāra, makāra, the form, the resonance, and the life, the light. Oṁ Karbindu Sayuktam Nityadayanti Yogina Kamdam Mokṣadam Cheva Oṁ Karayanamu Namaḥa. Then, "Ekohaṁ Bahusyāmi": I am one, and I will now multiply. And then, all the suns, moons, stars, planets, elements develop, and life according to the environment. We are here on this mortal world, coming and going, perhaps for holidays, or we are coming for a retreat, or for some seminars to develop ourselves. The chance for this individual soul, which began from that origin of the Brahman, is traveling around the world. It is called, this all is fluttering on the waves of the times, to dark rays and light in this empty space. God is merciful and gave us, which I think, and according to the yogīs, there is no other creature like we, the human body. 8.4 million different creatures in this world, in three categories: jalatara, sthalatara, and nabhastara—creatures in the water, on the earth, and in the space. These are the 8.4 million different ways to enter into this world when it comes near to our world, our system, the solar system. Then it comes in touch with the five elements, and through the light and water, into the vegetation and into the body, and creation begins. Many things happen in our life, good and bad, always happen. But the most terrible tragedy will happen, maybe, that a human will die without achieving that higher consciousness, or God realization, or self-realization. Today I visited an old home, and there were some people who have no more memories. They are elderly people, so beautiful, so nice, so kind. But they do not know who is there. The father comes, or the mother comes, or the son comes. I visited one person whom I know. It took nearly half an hour or forty minutes, then a smile. Oh, Swami, what is that life? I think God, something did not make good. I have to have a consultation with him. Thank you. Because when I will say, when this machine is not anymore functional, then please take it away. Do not push us in the workshop. So, four days of the moon, at the end of the darkness, the night. Oh, my dear, four nights are the moon. Nights. Then again, it will be the dark nights. Which are the four nights? These four nights we divide the lifespan: Brahmacharya, from birth until you finish your study, student. The student should have no other interest than study. Amṛt, right? Say yes or no. Yes. Thank you. After 25 years of study, then household. Marry, have good children, educate the children. After 55 or 65, you get a retirement, give all to your children, and you go somewhere, meditate, pray. That is all. And after that, near 75 or 80, then the renunciation, you can become a swāmī or a monk. But Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya said he changed the law: whenever you get vairāgya, detachment, and a burning desire in the heart to know thyself or God, you can become a sanyāsī, but you have to keep these principles there. These are the four nights of moonlights. The rest are all dark. Therefore, Śaṅkarācārya said, "Ko'haṁ? Katam idaṁ? Jātaṁ ko'va? Kartasya vidyate?" Who am I? I am not this body; it is my skin, my blood, my muscles, my nerves, my glands, my bones, my body, my mind, my intellect, my emotion. So, who is constantly sitting inside and saying, "My, my..."? Who is there? I give you an onion, and you say, "Thank you." You peel one layer of the onion. What is this layer of the onion? Second, third, fourth, fifth, there is no onion inside. So that is to know, to find what is the real onion. Similarly, what is the real self within us? So it does not matter how much we try to live a healthy life, with good food, everything good, but at the end, all will fail. There was a great saint; by birth, he was blind, and he writes one beautiful song, or bhajan, and he says at the end, "Not even one cent will go with you." Your money, how we are trying to get money, earn money, make money, but this is so funny. Nothing goes with us, not a single dollar or cent. Even this body will not go with us. And that is very hard to renounce, very hard to understand. So, the way, how to achieve? Sitting all the time in meditation makes you lazy. You steal the time of others. You should work. When your wife said, "Can you please make the vacuum cleaner?" you said, "Do not disturb, I am meditating." That is it. So, what is the meditation? Yes, to find inner peace, to find this, to feel our Self, we should meditate. Without meditation, there is no way. But when and how? So, our inner thinking, way of thinking, that is important. Yesterday we were talking about peace, but why do we not have peace? Because there is a great enemy of peace sitting inside. That does not let one have peace, and that greatest enemy is fear. And the fear is like a gang. It has strong friends. Everyone has a fear of that gang. And that is called jealousy, hate, anger, greed, revenge. All these negative energies, attachments. I am afraid to lose this microphone, I am afraid, have fear for my existence, I am afraid from this, from that, from the date, from that. It is not easy to get rid of the fear, and fear is also a supporter for our life. If you have no fear, you cannot live. If you have no fear, you will just run on the road opposite to the car. When a car comes, fear gives you a signal, and you stop automatically. So fear is healthy, and fear is unhealthy. But where and how? And now, compassion. In the holy book Rāmāyaṇa, great Tulsīdās writes, "Tulsīdās' life was not easy, not easy." Which saint has an easy life, tell me, except me, because I am not a saint. So I asked my Gurujī, "Make me a saint." He said, "Are you ready to suffer?" I said that I cannot. I am modern Swamiji. Mosquito comes, I am afraid. So, my dear, it is a lifelong work. Tulsidas said very clearly, very nicely in his holy book, the Rāmāyaṇa. Daya. Daya means mercy, compassion, love. Daya dharma ka moolaya. Dharma means righteousness, achievement, principle. Ahimsa paramo dharma, the highest principle is non-violence: physical, mental, intellectual, social, political, et cetera, et cetera. If you talk badly about someone or something, this will come back to you. So you should be like a light. When we turn on the light, darkness is gone. Therefore, Lord, let me be light in darkness. So that I, wherever I come, I may enlighten the hearts of others. Dharma. Without dharma, these flowers will not grow. Without that dharma, the fruits will not come. That is called sanātana dharma, the universal principle. And how to achieve that, understand that, is called dayā. For the dayā, we have to follow that dharma, mercy. Which dharma did those mothers follow? Though they were suffering, they did not give up their mercy. And the roots of the sins is ego: "I will do, I will do. They will see, it will see. I, I, I." That is the part of the ignorance and suffering. Great Swāmī Śivānandī said in one of his nice poems, "Within you is the mercy, bliss of the ocean, and within you is a fountain of joy. Kill this little 'I' and lead a divine life." So, the "I" is one of the biggest problems. And when the ego is, we cannot surrender, we cannot be humble, and we think we are the humans, we can do everything. Yes, you can do everything, but you have to then suffer everything. It will multiply like a snowball. You know what it means, snowball? Do you ever hear snow? Oh, very good. So when you make a snowball and let it roll from the hill down, it gets more and more snow, catches, and becomes—a small ball becomes a big one. That is what we call a snowball. So every action will have a reaction, and every reaction will have an action. It does not matter whether you believe it or not. Believe or not believe, it does not change that reality. Therefore, dayā dharam kā mūl hai, pāp mūl abhimān, the roots and foundation of the sins is that abhimān, ego, I, I, I will do. Tulsi dayā na chhoḍīye, therefore he said, never give up your compassion, your mercy, jab tak ghaṭ me prāṇa, as long as you have a life in your heart. When that is gone, then what will happen to your body and things that you cannot do anything? But as long as you are aware, then please think. Understand. Understand, everyone. We should be wise, even with how much dayā or forgiveness we have. We say in India, when a dog bites you on your calf muscles, you cannot run behind the dog and bite him. Do you? No. All of you say, "Oh, naughty dog, we have to be careful," that is all. Similarly, our viveka, our intelligence, our dayā, should try to create peace and happiness in the world through our mercy. Any negative word is like a bullet, and every kind, sweet word, wise word is like the rain for the crops which are drying. A hope. Bānī aisī bolī, man kā āpā khoy. Auraṅku śītal kare, āpu śītal. Bāṇī aisī bolī. Bani means the language. Speak such a language to everyone. Man kā apā khoy. Everyone becomes your friend. They forget everything. It makes everyone happy and calm. And you also feel love, harmony, understanding, and kindness. Mistakes we do all, everyone, but we are together. So when the little finger makes a mistake, the left hand takes the axe and cuts it off. Will the right hand do this? No. The right hand will help to bind it. Do it. At that time, the human heart has become the heart of God. It is said in a beautiful poem: "In every heart God is dwelling, but my adoration is to that heart in which God speaks." And that is your wise language. That is your kind language. That is your full of love, the words, understanding words, not anger, not shouting, not screaming. Screaming dogs, shouting, rākṣasas, fighting, negative energies. Devas, good ones, harmony, there is no fight. We are like the ocean. On the surface are the waves; the bottom of the ocean is very calm and peaceful. So whatever happens in the world, we cannot stop. What happened, happened. But do not put more fire in it, more fuel in your heart and in your intellect, in your mind. You should be like the bottom of the ocean. Peace and compassion always send blessings to the world. We all have the ability to bless. When the children go to school, we say, "Bye-bye, take care, be a good boy." But we say, "Bless you." The blessing should be with you. Take care. Not bye-bye. Bye-bye means finished. Go, go. And I bless you. You connected yourself constantly, and blessing helps. It does not matter who gives you blessing, and we all have blessings. You say sometimes, in your Australian people, when someone makes you, you say, "Bless you." Only that time, other time you say... Bye bye, burden gone, not like this. So, dayā, we can help everyone, and in this dayā, but there is one beautiful exercise, techniques we have, and many people are doing here also. In India, if we see thorns on the way, we will take these thorns and put them away. Or a piece of glass, bottles. And here also, many people enjoy the beer, and they throw the, or they enjoy the alcohol, and then they do not know what they do. They throw the alcohol bottles, glass, broken pieces of glass. Now we have dayā. We carefully collect it and put it away because it can hurt any human, it can hurt animals, the dogs, the birds, many, many, or mice, many. They do not know it is glass. They will come on it and they will hurt themselves. Pain. This is a beautiful, hidden practice of mercy. When you move the thorns from the path, the general path, now it is said in our religion, Hindus, you did not remove the thorns from the path, you removed the thorns from your future path. That fruit comes to us. Whoever is hungry, give them something to eat. There are some people who are poor, sitting somewhere, homeless. And we are walking or driving, and we say, "Oh, these people, they do not work, they will drink alcohol." Who are you to judge that person who cannot work and will drink alcohol? What is bad in alcohol? The whole country is drinking alcohol, and you do not want to let him drink. True? Why? And are you sure that he will drink alcohol? May he buy bread. I tell you, I will not tell the names of the countries. The economical situation is so bad, so bad. That parent, the father, they left the home. Standing on the street, and they write on a piece of paper, "I have no job, and now no more home." Lost family because wife is also standing somewhere. I am not lying. It is a situation, and people stop and give them. But instead of that, you give such thoughts. If you have nothing to give, do not worry, do not give. But at least do not give those thoughts to pollute thy inner self, your antaḥkaraṇa. That is that. And if you give someone who is standing, it does not matter if he is a millionaire, but now he is in front of you like a beggar. If you give one dollar, God will give you thousands of dollars. Whatever we do, good things, God sees, and he will not keep it. He will give us back. Likewise, you put one seed in the ground from the wheat, and it comes, and you can harvest from one seed a handful of seeds from that, multiplying. So when you put one seed of good deeds, that will give you more. So this is the way to develop spirituality and mercy. So all the organizations which we call humanitarian and so on are based on this. Those who involve themselves too much in money, thinking, "I will learn like this, I will do this, I will do this," have lost the spirituality, lost the spirituality. Lakshmi is chanchal. Lakshmi is restless, money. Money will never stay with you forever. A hundred dollars you have now in the pocket, and after ten days you will see in which pocket it is. It is always going, going,... coming and going. But in our Vedānta and in our Śāstra, it is said there are four pillars of human life: dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa. Dharma, righteousness, artha, wealth, means that you can support your family, and if a guest comes, you can give them also something to eat. Artha, without artha, without money, we cannot exist. If you will not give me money for my ticket or donation, how will I come? And when you give the money, you say, "Swamiji, but you said do not give money." It is okay. I may be telephoning it; every minute costs us money. Around the world, people are calling. So now in this yuga, we cannot survive; we cannot even breathe without money. Money is not bad. Bad is how we use it and renounce. But do not only run behind the money. So dharma, artha, kāma. Kāma has many meanings: karma, niṣkāma karma, and seva. That is a karma. Many people understand karma only creates the children. No, no, no. The śāstras need not write to create the children. That goes automatically for every creature. So karma here means karma: niṣkāma karma or sakāma karma. Bhagavad Gītā's third chapter is on Karma Yoga. Beautifully written. You should write, and bhakti. Dharma, artha, kāma, or mokṣa, mokṣa mūlaṁ gurur kṛpā. Now, two kinds of mercy: the blessings, the mercy of parents, brothers, friends, relatives, and all humans, and the second kṛpā, guru kṛpā. It does not matter how much you will practice, but the mokṣa will not come without. Guru kṛpā and guru bhakti is the highest bhakti, the devotion practice to create the mercy. When you lost this, when you lost the guru bhakti, it means the bird has lost its wings, or someone has cut off the wings through negative society, negative talking, negative words. You did not make good. You cut off the wings of that sādhaka, that practitioner. And now the death of the cat is coming. Bird, you would like to fly away, moving only the muscles, but there are no wings to take off. Similarly, when the question of mokṣa will come, that you need the stamp on your spiritual passport, on that stamp is written Guru Kṛpā. And not like a guru, that one year you have this person, second year you have that one. After ten years, you have that one, and after twenty years, you have someone, and then after five years, you have someone who will carry you to the graveyard. That is it. So guru, only one. All are our gurus. From everyone we learn; all are our fathers. But our biological father is only one. And that mother, who is only one, who gave us birth. Mother and father we can get in every life, but Satguru Dev we can get only in the human life. So once you got it, you are a lucky one, you are a blessed one, and that is called mokṣamūlaṁ gurur kṛpā. Guru Brahma, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt, Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurve Namaḥ. Dhyāna Mūlam Guru Mūrti, Pūjā Mūlam Guru Padam, Mantra Mūlam Guru Vākyam, Mokṣa Mūlam Guru Kṛpā. So without Guru Kṛpā, when you get a doubt, then you will be restless, and you will be lost again in the jungle where you cannot find any direction anymore. So mercy, Dayā. So this beautiful, painful era of the Easter, we said prayer first for Mother Mary and for Jesus. And we thank them for their mercy, their blessings, and their guidance. So, my dear one, I think today is enough. I wish you all the best. God protect you. God bless you. Be healthy and achieve your spiritual goal. And when God allows us or blesses us, we will see again, here or there. Thank you. Oṁ Śānti Śānti... Oṁ