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Sadhana leads to inner development

Satsaṅg is the highest shelter for spiritual development. Sādhanā is practice for inner purification, awakening positive energy and clarifying the intellect. Spiritual development fosters humility and simplicity, while worldly education often builds ego and creates a modern caste system of hierarchy and separation. True spirituality awakens compassion and mercy in the heart. It is unconditional love, seeing all as children of God. Selfless service, done without mention, is essential. Karmic pain requires a spiritual master, a surgeon for the soul. Non-duality sees the one Ātmā in all, ending conflict. A happy family, rooted in mutual love, is the foundation for a peaceful society. Spirituality unites; it does not divide.

"The highest level is satsaṅg."

"Your wisdom, your knowledge, your love, your kindness means that you are humble."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Chant, feeling that all the trees, each and every leaf, is resonating and chanting Aum with you. With the blessings of Gurudev, all dear devotees, welcome to our beautiful Āśram, the Śrī Mahāprabhū Dīp Satsaṅg Foundation. We welcome all our dear ones, brothers and sisters around the world who are with us through the webcast. We also welcome all our dear brothers and sisters with us via the internet transmission. As you can see, this place is one of the most beautiful, with very clean air, a spiritual environment, and great peace. We must understand, accept, and be thankful to Mother Nature—all these trees, bushes, flowers, and everything. It is a life. Their life is dear to them, as our life is dear to us. Our spiritual retreat here in this center, this āśram, happens a few times every year. Generally, we call it a Sādhanā camp. There is a big difference between a retreat and sādhanā. Of course, it is for learning, but when we speak about sādhanā, it is directly for our inner self. Sādhanā means to practice, to do something, to accept something for our inner development. What do we understand about development? There are many different kinds. In every field, whatever we learn is good for us. But here, development means the purification of our consciousness, the awakening of positive energy in the body, the clarification of our intellect to understand everyday life situations, and finally, spiritual development. The human can only feel and realize peace through spiritual development. Spirituality is the highest tonic for humans, the best tonic. We have many life experiences, and every situation gives us some kind of lesson. Two things develop strongly in our growth. One is that we have experiences we always try to deny, to say no to. There is resistance. This resistance is a symbol of some kind of problem, difficulty, or fear from the past. Though a person knows what someone says is good, he still does not accept it. Even if he knows it is good, he cannot accept it. That means there is fear in the subconsciousness. Then, slowly, one gets distance from social life. This also comes when one begins to study more and more higher education. In a certain way, one develops one’s own ideas, and it creates a duality. This is a modern kind of caste system—so-called lobbying. Some call it higher education, and some are the labor qualities of the people: the workers, the employees, the boss, the directors. What is this? This is a caste system. We are always talking about caste, but as far as you go and become one-sided, you have the ego of this material education. Recently, a person came who had retired from a higher post in the government and wanted to do volunteer seva in the āśram. But years-long habits are not easy to change. He came wanting to do volunteer seva, but he wanted a room with all facilities, a secretary, a car, and a separate cook. If any other people spoke to him, he said, "How dare you speak directly to me?" Oh, my God. The person had great love in his heart and wanted to surrender, but his wrong education—so-called modern higher education—makes a person highly educated in lobbying society, money, and power, while others, in labor quality, should work. What can be different than the old-time saying of the caste system? If there is spiritual development, then you awaken your heart. What awakens? Compassion, mercy. We are all longing for that divine mercy in our heart. Many Christians have a beautiful mantra. They say, "I pray for thy mercy, O Holy Mother Maria, thy mercy. Holy Mother Maria and her mercy, her life, and her child, whom now the world is." Surrendering, adoring, or praying, but it was a simple life. The higher your spiritual development, the more humble and simple you become. With higher education and ego—"I am a learned one, I am that and that"—you become different. Before coming out from the house, you try to tie the cravat. Sitting in the taxi, you correct the cravat before getting out, change the cravat and jacket, and wait for laborers to open the door and stand to one side. That’s called a blind one. We have to open the door; otherwise, we will hit our head. But if you have the mercy of God, you stand at the door to welcome. Those became the saints that you hug in your heart. It must not be physical, but hugging means you care about them, you understand them. You saw yourself as simple as the simplest, because to serve God, to realize God, and become one with God, you have to serve the servants of God’s servants. "I am your servant, I am your servant,... I am your servant. Oh my Lord, oh my God. Oh my Lord, oh my God. Please listen to my prayers. I beg from you that through thy mercy, bless me that I may always have satsaṅg." When you have satsaṅg all the time, you can’t imagine how beautiful it is, how joyful, how happy, how simple, and how great. You can’t compare anything in this world. The highest level is satsaṅg. My life, 24 hours, is in satsaṅg all the time. It’s like the butter in milk and milk in the butter. That’s it. So anywhere I am sitting, going, sleeping, talking, it is satsaṅg. Přiďte. Loving all, understanding everyone’s problems, is not easy for many people. So the life of Jesus, or the life of Mahāprabhujī, or the life of Devpurījī—how simple was that? It was. Only I created more complications. Now, all these bhaktas have problems. Now Swāmījī created for them a nice room, electricity, this and that, and now they say, "Oh God, we have to repair this, we have to repair that." Before, there was nothing. Sitting under the tree. Time comes—I’m talking about achievement as spiritual. You are that, so you must be humble. When you say, "How dare you call me or talk to me?" that is ego, and that is a sign of falling down. Spirituality does not mean you sit and meditate the whole day. Spirituality does not mean you pray the whole day. Spirituality is not that you have different uniforms. This uniform can also make you blind. You think, "Now I am something." No, this is a uniform of the servant, and the most joyful is the servant. We are servants of God. Directly and without a servant, everything gets chaotic. So we keep the world clean, pure, harmonious. When a tree gets fruits—apple trees, cherries, plums, mangoes—the branches come down. They have, and now they say, "Please come and take it." Surrendering. So your wisdom, your knowledge, your love, your kindness means that you are humble. Surrendering. It is said, "O my mind, be like a tree." My mind, be like a tree. Who gives you water? You are not attached to that. Who chips you up? You are not angry at them. Who throws a stone at you? You don’t throw a stone back. But instead, you give the fruit. These are the very ancient instructions of the master to the disciple; that’s called Guruvākya. That we call Upaniṣad. Upaniṣad means "up" (near), sitting near the master, and "śad" is a disciple. Sitting near the Master and listening to the wisdom of the Master becomes the Upaniṣad. That is what you call, in other languages like English, the Gospel of the Master. So what is Upaniṣad? It is pure teaching, knowledge of the great sense, which they took from the Vedas. Finally, the origin, the source of all, is the Vedas. The word "master" or "guru" is the same; it is only a different language. You have here a word called Buddha. If you tell, in our Rajasthani language, somebody "Boḍā," you know, it means something very bad. Very bad. Like you saw somebody’s finger. If you tell somebody "Boḍā," you know. And if you say "teplā boḍā"—warm water. In our dialect, in Rajasthani, "teplā voḍā." "Teplā" means completely stupid. And here we said, "Please, can I have warm water?" That was the problem when Holy Gurujī came the first time to the Czech Republic. They said to Gurujī, "Here is warm water." And Gurujī looked at me and said, "Mahesh, what did you teach them, or what did you teach about me?" I said, "Gurudev, they mean if you want warm water, hand wash." Long ago, it was 1975, somewhere in a nice forest near Olomouc. Gurujī was sitting, and someone came and said, "Polish Gurujī, Gurujī, do you want a blanket, Gurujī?" So, said Holy Gurujī, "You want dekhā?" Gurujī looked at me. "Mine is enough." I said, "Why, what happened?" He said, "Why, what happened?" "Dekā" means your buttocks or anus. So he said, "Teplā Boḍā"—offering me the buttocks. I said, "Gurudev, this is only a language problem." It happened to me. The first time I came to Australia, I saw how good the people are there. They had a beautiful garden and nice fruits. What we call the papita, they call papita "popo." She said, "Swāmījī, would you like to have a popo now?" I said, "No, yeah, take Popo. It’s very nice." And they brought me that. I said, "Yes, I like this one." So, now Nārāyaṇa is true? What do you say, Pāpīdā? You are Popo, you see? So, my dear, the fighting in the world is out of that ignorance because of different languages. The Vedas are written in Sanskrit, the Bible was written in Latin, and the Koran was written in Arabic, but the wisdom, the source, spirituality is the same. Here in Europe they say, "Oh, it’s a guru." He said, "Yes." It’s only, "Oh, you are a teacher, a professor." So if you tell someone, "Professor," that’s okay, normal. Is it guru? No. So, this is what creates division in the world, and because there is no spirituality, no humbleness. So this, our sādhanā śivir, sādhanā camp—instead of the seminar, we say sādhanā now. Sādhanā means to accept, adopt, practice, and give. Like the main principle of Jñāna Yoga is four: Viveka, Vairāgya, Satsampatti, and Mumukṣutva. These are the four principles which our dear Gurujī sings in bhajan: "Sādhanā cāro karo hari pyāre, jaisī hovai mokṣa tumhārā." Do these four kinds of sādhanā practice, through which you will get liberation. So the human quality is spirituality, and when the human quality awakens in someone—that is, when spirituality is awakened—it means now you have a beautiful relation to social conduct. Now, spirituality is also a kind of tonic or a drug, and that means it can make you one-sided. Now I want to know how many sheep are grazing in my yard. That’s what we call the missionaries. They want to help people, but with one condition: to believe them. But you know, the love for God is without any conditions. We want that kind of education and spirituality which is without conditions. There are conditions that we accept all humans as one. We are all daughters and sons of God. And we see all, each and every entity, is also a creature, a child of God. The second condition: love each and every entity, if not more than, at least that much as you love thyself. Love every creature, if not more, at least as much as you love yourself. And the third condition? Serve. Seva. Niṣkām Seva. Niṣkām Seva means selfless service. Never and never mention that you did a lot of work for this person without anything. Yes, you did, but when you mention it, you have finished. You didn’t do it. Because you took it all back, so what is given is gone. That is niṣkāma sevā. When a doctor gives you treatment, after five years the doctor will not tell you, "I cured you. If I had not done it, you would have died." Doctors don’t tell. A medical doctor knows, or a nurse, that their dharma is to help without any dualities. Like in the war, it doesn’t matter from which part the patient comes—a wounded soldier, maybe from your country or from another country—the doctor has to treat equally. The mahāmantra of the doctors, or blessing of the doctor, is first, and it means, "Give something so that person becomes free from the pain." Doesn’t matter through which injection, which medicine. I personally would say this is the greatest karma, good karma in this medical system, that they make the creature painless. We are not afraid of death, but we are afraid of pain. How will we die? Similarly, the greatest blessing of the Master for a spiritual aspirant is to bless that they get rid of the pain of the karmic pain. So the physical pain is controlled and removed through medical support, and karmic pain through the blessings. But the doctor said, "If you help me, I will help you. If you don’t help me, I will not be able to help you." So the karmic pain—if you help, then your master or your guru, brother or sister, can help you. Finally, we have to walk on that way. As the individual soul, there is a duality because we are individual, and because the karma belongs to every individual. Don’t think that all mankind’s karma is one. No. Ātmā is one. It doesn’t matter, yours or any animal’s ātmā. But destiny, karmic influence on our body, mind, and soul, is individual. Sometimes that karmic pain is stronger than the physical pain. Sometimes that soul or person realizes, "What did I do wrong? How many did I kill?" That’s all. That is spirituality. And one felt in such pain and didn’t find any more help. Because who could help you? You denied and denied and denied. And finally, that person commits suicide. Well, I don’t know anything. Not many things, maybe I know only a little about the Second World War. So, which politicians were fighting? Who am I to judge them? But so-called Hitler, at the end, now he realizes. I don’t know if he did a good or a bad thing. But what happened through him may be good for his people and bad for other people, or bad to others and to your people. Nothing has remained more, and he just shot himself. This is the karmic pain. Sometimes you don’t realize, and when you realize, you don’t know where to go now. But finally, if that person would be clever enough, wise enough, they will seek the shelter of God. Like this. Don’t be in a hurry. That call goes through the soul. Your voice, your nāda, your sound goes through all the five kośas. If you sing, what is that? "Oh my God." But when you go, then it’s transparent, penetrating through the whole, each and every cell of your being. So sit straight. Yes. Eyes open or closed. And feel thyself. Feel that you are seeking the shelter, and you found the shelter. What your soul is telling now: "Very tired, wounded, exhausted, dispirited, lost, nowhere was the center." That is the karmic pain. And for that karmic pain, we need that spiritual doctor, the master. As Holy Gurujī said in Amida Vāṭa Āśram, "I am the surgeon who will operate on all the karmic diseases." And for this karmic pain, we need a spiritual master, a spiritual doctor, as Gurujī said in his speech in the Ashram, that the spiritual master is the doctor who will operate on all the karmic diseases. We don’t know. Maybe he spoke or not. But we believe what is written in the Bible is Jesus’ book. We were not there. Maybe the Bible was written after certain years, but it still reflects on his way of life. And it’s a very simple direction, not very complicated. And that’s why the more people who follow and have egos are seeking complication, and then they are gone out. Like the stones out of the grains be separated. So nowhere can you find that peaceful shelter. So it is said, concentrate on these three chakras: Maṇipūra, Anāhata, and Ājñā. These three chakras are powerful. There is intellect, emotion, wisdom, and bliss. All are there. Then you really feel that you are in the shelter of the Gurudeva. That’s a call of the soul. When you don’t find any way, then you just manifest it yourself. You will feel that you are dissolving, melting, becoming one with that. And all karmic tensions, problems, and pain are disappearing. So this is the difference between a physical doctor, a physician, and a spiritual master. So both are very good. Therefore, the holy gurus used to say, "Next to God is the doctor." Sometimes the doctor is as great as God, thanks to the medical system. Once they can save your life, they can keep your soul back. "Hey, where are you going? Come here. Take an injection. Relax." Then he said, "Thank you, doctor. Thank you. I would have died." Doctor said, "Don’t worry. We will not let you die." So, my dear, if something helps us, it’s great. Help, support, don’t confuse, don’t destroy, don’t separate—that’s it. Unite, don’t divide. So the spiritual soul, the spiritual people, understand and collect all together. "Means, please bring my boat on the shore." That means, please bring my boat safely to the shore. Please bring my boat safely to the shore. So all these bhajans have great, great teachings, spiritualities, and the name of God and everything. So bhajans are better than the kīrtan, and singing bhajans with the feelings is a satsaṅg. So this sādhanā camp is to remove and purify all the karmic impurities and pain. Trying to be only very nice to you is not helpful. If you can’t give the spiritual direction and path, at least don’t misguide them from their spiritual path. That’s like you killed the soldiers from the other army. So we said, "Unite, we should laugh." So there is our Āprokṣānabhūti, a very nice, beautiful little booklet—a little booklet about a book written by Ādi Guru Śaṅkarācārya. This is the philosophy of non-dualism. Non-duality, and there is another philosophy called duality. That’s from Madhvācārya. Madhvācārya declares that there is duality. Śaṅkarācārya says there is no duality. He proves, and another one also proves. So finally, we have to find the balance. This eye is ours, and this eye is ours. Madhvācārya is ours, Śaṅkarācārya is ours. So, which eye should we take away? So we say, balance it, go to the eye doctor. Good, good. And say, the eye doctor is our Satguru Dev. That is the eye of knowledge. So if we see the individual soul, then it is duality. If someone asks, "How many people were in the seminar?" you will say a few hundred, so this is duality. And if you ask Gajānanda, "How many was it?" "One." "What?" He said, "Yes." Others will say, "Gajānand, you didn’t break fast today." He said, "Yes, I did. How many were in the seminar? One. One Ātmā." As ātmā, we are all one—one in all and all in the one. So the Śaṅkarācārya’s philosophy is higher than the Brahman. Madhvācārya is to the Jīvas. Jīvā, Jīvātmā, and Paramātmā. Finally, they become what? So, duality is a problem. Where there is duality, there is attachment. There is greed, and there is conflict. There is anger. There is hate and jealousy. So there is ego. But where there is non-duality, there is nothing. If you see only one, now, whom will you give bread, and whom will you not give bread? There is no one whom you can give. Mahāprabhujī said, "I, my, I am, my Ātmā. I am my own Ātmā. Tatva mṛṣi nirmohī. I am that Brahman. Nirmoha, without attachment." Or nirmoha means ignorance. Moha is ignorance, and nirmoha is without ignorance. So nirmoha is without attachment. "I pray my prayer to myself. I pray my prayer to myself." So if you love thyself, you will love all. But the problem is that you can’t love yourself. Some people say, "I hate myself. I don’t want to live anymore. My friend has left me." I say, thank you. Finally, you are alone. Recently, someone found me. "Gurudev, finally I decided now. I want to marry." And who stops you? "Because I know I will be happy." That I said, don’t ask me. Because I was never married. Ask them who is married. So, where is the majority? Are they happy or unhappy? So for temporary happiness, you are tied forever to unhappiness. So that’s why I said yesterday, please forgive me. But in this Kali Yuga, in this modern civilization, marriage is a misconception. Just be happy, be together, and have children. Declare that you are the father and mother and be ever together. Have a nice family. Save the time to go to some office to sign that you are married, and now you are divorced. But yesterday, midnight, two o’clock, I said, there is some mistake. What I said is misconceptual, because if nobody will go to marry, then the people who work there will lose their jobs. They will lose their job, so courtesy to them. Go and marry often, and die divorce often. But the signature doesn’t create happiness or unhappiness. Marriage is in the heart. One is. So the heart has two ventricles. One has the power to contract, another has the power to expand. And one of the ventricles is attacked. There is a major heart attack. Marriage means that you should know that now she and you, he and she, are the two ventricles of that heart. Please don’t separate. Otherwise you have bypass. Bypass is when your husband is gone, the other one comes in. That’s the bypass, so don’t make a bypass. Then it’s better, bye-bye. So create a happy family. Love and think of the children. If we want to have a happy future for our world and our country, then we should give a happy birth, happiness, and love to children to help them grow together. Both need a father and mother equally. The Bible said, "Die and live." So when you have children, you are dead. Now take care of the branches. Husband and wife are the roots and trunk. So the wife is the roots, and the father is the trunk. Let the children be flexible. You don’t separate them. Can you imagine when the roots are rotten? Or the trunk is chipped off? What is the condition of the fruits, the blossoms, the plums? The principle system, the family system: married, mutual understanding, love, and lifelong. That will have a happy and beautiful family. You know how hard it is for children when you separate them. And you know, for the small children to go to the court, and they ask, "Where do you want to be?" Children, they fear. When they look to Mommy. "Yeah, I want to be with Mommy. But also, my father." What a painful situation for such a little kid, only creating that pain, dualities, and fear. Whenever a father dies, how unhappy we are. Or when a mother dies, how unhappy we are. So, when you got the children, then you died. That seed has sprouted now, separate. Your time is to hold together and let grow the generation after generation. For the sake of a happy, healthy, peaceful, spiritual society and family, and for the sake of the protection of this beautiful earth. What is the use of that education which separates you? Husband is ambassador in Tokyo, and his wife is a well-wisher in Johannesburg. His son is studying in New York, and his daughter is meditating in Střílky. It would be most beautiful if all of us were here. So we wish all the best for our world, and let’s lead our life in such a way we are helpful to all. And for that, we have to come to the aparokṣāṇām buddhi, self-realization, jñāna yoga. So I was in Fiji, and I had some translation. I had spoken; a few mantras are left, so we will complete them so we can have our own aprakṣaṇam buddhi translated. Of course, it is spoken by Śaṅkarācārya and translated by good Sanskrit scholars too. But people ask, "Swāmījī, your lecture is simple and colourful." More stories. I said, yes, stories, one after the other, Skype creepers. And there is a basement, too. So, we wish you a very nice stay here. So sādhanā came. Okay? Sādhānā, Kriyā Yoga, Haṭha Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, very good. Yoga in their life is very universal, Integral Yoga. And so lucky are they who could come and spend time here in summer with us, and we will see how long we are. After some of you will lead, and our children, they will take care, so our future light of yoga in their life is all this. Our juniors, and so they have first priorities. All the best. And evening we will have again satsaṅg and lecture. So our time is 7:30, the international time of Strelky. And if it’s good weather, we will be on the meadow. Otherwise, in the hall. Oṁ Namaḥ Śrī Prāṇāyāma Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī

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

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

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