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Hari Om. Bhakti is the best. The verse says: Kali-yuga kevala nāma ādhāra, sumira-sumira nara hoi bhava pāra. Ultimately, after judgment, the result is given in the Kali Yuga. Bhakti-yoga is the easiest. There is no discipline in the Kali Yuga. People cannot perform sādhanā, they cannot do tapasyā, they cannot follow yama and niyama. Yama and niyama remain only in books, and now children do not understand them. They think "yum-yum" is something to eat. So, slowly, slowly, human culture is changing and becoming animal culture, which is not good news. Many are performing anuṣṭhāna, trying with all their heart, but their vṛttis, their feelings, are not there; they are somewhere else. Everyone has torn themselves into many pieces. If you cannot keep yourself in oneness, how will you proceed further? The ability to perform yajña ceremonies, fasting, silence, tapasyā, control over diet, control over our feelings—all is lost. Only one hope remains. And when you miss this, the whole game is over; we lose. And that is devotion, bhakti. But it is said that in the Kali Yuga, both Bhakti and Jñāna are suffering, and Mother Earth is crying. This mother has two children, Bhakti and Jñāna, and they are suffering like one has a very strong stomach pain or headache. One is rolling here and there like a fish out of water. Bhakti has many, many forms. First, bhakti is towards yourself. Do you love yourself? In my opinion, no. If you loved yourself… I was observing all the Anuśitānī people today. Someone was talking about going on holiday. Someone was thinking about a new boyfriend. Someone was thinking about finding a job, and someone was afraid of getting divorced. Mostly, these problems were there; it was a fog of problems. So I went out of the room. I said, "Oh, stinky, stinky, stinky." It means you do not love yourself. You are not with yourself. How can you calm yourself down? If you do not love yourself, then why should others love you? You have no energy to endure something. You cannot wait. Sometimes you have to wait many, many lives. That is called loving yourself and faithfulness. I think Tulsīdāsjī may have made a mistake. He gave the Kali Yuga the name Ādhāra (foundation). Kali Yuga Bhakti Pradhāna—Bhakti is the major thing. But I think he knew that we would not be able to do it. Then comes Mātṛ Bhakti, devotion towards mothers, and Pitṛ Bhakti towards fathers. But you have no bhakti towards father and mother because they do not have santāna bhakti; they do not have putra bhakti. If you truly love your child, you will be liberated yourself. But very soon, you will give your child into other hands. So, mātṛbhakti and putrabhakti, pitṛbhakti—pitṛ is father, putrabhakti is for the son, mātṛ is mother. Then we go further. This is towards your sisters and brothers. You see, in the Rāmāyaṇa, if you read it, the love between Bhagavān Rāma and his stepbrother Bharata. We say, if there is a brother, then it should be like Bharat. You know the story well. We have missed it; otherwise, we should watch one episode of the Rāmāyaṇa every day. And you read the Mahābhārata. Look, the brothers Duryodhana and Arjuna can be like that, too. And if son and father are like Bhagavān Rāma and Daśaratha, how much they love each other is a competition of who is loving more. And look in the Mahābhārata and in Kṛṣṇa’s story: Kaṃsa and his father. Now he put his father in prison. Can you imagine this bhakti? Rādhā ukrashena. So that is the Kali Yuga’s picture, too. I think day after tomorrow, or in two or three days, is Krishna Janmashtami, the day of Krishna’s incarnation. So, both pictures are in front of us. Let’s see the mother and son, or the children’s bhakti. Like Bhagavān Rāma, he loved all his three mothers equally. Then the friends’ love—Bhagavān Rāma’s love for his friends. Not only there, but for animals, too. And then, the bhakti towards Ācārya Droṇācārya—how much the Pāṇḍavas loved Ācārya Droṇācārya, but the Kauravas had a different love. And see the love of Bhagavān Rāma and the Guru Vasiṣṭha Muni and Viśvāmitra. Then look at the love of the wife for the husband and the husband for the wife. You must have bhakti, devotion, towards your wife. Your wife—you always call her goddess, Devī. Yes. On the day you lose that devotion, of course, that is not devotion. And the bhakti of the wife towards the husband: always in our Sanskrit or Hindi, we say Swāmī, meaning "Lord." He said, "God is," and he also said to her, "God is." When such a thing is there, then touch the hand; otherwise, get out. When such love and devotion are there, then touch the hand. Otherwise, get out. That’s it. We have come completely lost. Then comes bhakti to Gurudeva, and then bhakti further to any god or religion you believe in. But the foundation is bhakti towards thyself. If you do not find someone, forget it. Do not become a beggar, and do not let yourself be tortured and unhappy. Therefore, for many, many yugas, you are waiting to find that partner. And that partner is waiting for you somewhere, and you are also waiting. Wait and see; time will bring it. But if you are spoiled in the meantime, it is gone. Why did God give us this human life? Then you have bhakti towards other creatures; you see God in everyone. Yes, because the light of God is in everyone. Then love towards nature. Many, many sādhus and people, including Swāmī Vivekānanda—when someone came and offered Vivekānanda a flower, he was thinking a little. They said, "What are you thinking? Is it this flower?" If it remains on its own bush, on the plant, it will be happy for a long time. But you cut it off and brought it to me. I know I will not keep it the whole day. And the beauty of this flower is on its own plant. Na jeho vlastnom kríku. So many, many good thoughts are there. That is the first definition of bhakti, and bhakti says: Bhagavān and bhakta are one. They both come into this world to play in this beautiful theater, to show people this balance, equality, the love. The bhakta is constantly thinking of Bhagavān, and Bhagavān is constantly thinking of the bhakta. Then it is the Bhakti that liberates us. Not like you today—the Anushtānī was thinking, so I was very, very surprised. My car was driving 120 km, 30 km… I was sitting behind the chair and closing my eyes to check what you were doing. So this little theatre is not enough. When bhakti awakens in your heart, you can melt rocks. There is one story about Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Krishna’s līlā, Krishna’s play—many do not understand it. Does it matter if you understand or not? It is his līlā. You cannot prohibit him. You cannot force him. So it is a līlā. They think that Kṛṣṇa liked butter very much and liked to play with a baton. He used to give to all his friends. They are called gopas. A male disciple is a gopa, and a female disciple is a gopī. It does not mean that Kṛṣṇa married all the gopīs, no. They are married: Bhakti and Bhagavān are married. That devotion is marriage, meaning both consciousnesses merge. Not like your marriage, where you think different thoughts every day. So, when the gopīs went to get water or something—the husband was going with the cows—they had butter hanging like a lamp so the cats would not get it. It was in a clay pot to keep it cool. Krishna came to the window and threw a stone at it. The clay pot broke all down, and he told all his friends, "Come and enjoy butter." At that time, there was no ice cream, so that was ice cream for them. When the gopīs came, they ran away. One day, they saw Krishna with his friends taking butter down, and Krishna was giving everybody full hands. So they decided to complain to his step-mother, Yaśodā. They went to complain: "Come and see what your son Krishna is doing." They entered to complain, and what is Krishna doing? He has a nice little eating table, and he is eating—we just left it in our room there. And he is here. How can we complain? If we tell her, she will say, "My son is sitting here." Many, many times they could not catch him. They went to the father’s room, to the place where Kṛṣṇa’s father, Nandbaba, was. They go there, and Krishna is sitting on the lap of Nandbaba. They look to the other side; he is eating there. They thought they were schizophrenic, hallucinating. But one Gopī was ready: "I will catch him one day." So, let him be here. They went quickly home, which was about 50 meters away. They see he is sitting, eating—not ice cream, but butter there. They go to others: "Come and see what he is doing." He was playing football with a friend. We call it a gaṇḍ ball, like a tennis ball. They had that then, too. There is a story of the gaṇḍ, the ball. They threw it in the river, and Krishna jumped there, and there was a great, big rākṣasa as a snake under the water. You know the story. But she said, "I will catch him." She hid somewhere, but he knew. So, I think he purposely let himself be caught. So they all, the gopīs, caught him. But they saw that every gopī was with one man, Krishna. They said, "You are māyā, you are līlā; we do not want to accept it. Today we will imprison you. We will tie you to this pillar, and then we will tell Yashoda, 'Come and see your son.'" He said, "Okay, do it." So they tied him with ropes, and the rope broke just like a button. No rope or chains could tie Krishna. All the gopīs and his friends ran away. He is standing, a little child, innocent. "Please, okay, tie me." They tried to tie him. No rope could tie Krishna’s hands, nor any chains. And this one gopī, she was always very active. She said, "Wait, I will bring some rope from my house." That rope was so old and nearly rotten. She said, "With this, I will tie you, and you have no power to break this rope." Another gopī said, "It is impossible. Let him, let him." She said, "No." I want to complain, but your rope is very weak, old, and rotten. No. This rope is a rope of love, and I tie him with love. He cannot break it. So Krishna remained like this, around the pillar. And they went to complain now to Yaśodā: "Come and see your son." And other boys came and said, "Krishna, do it quickly, break it, break it." Break it. How are they doing? It is just a very weak string. They are coming. Do you not see? With a mother. Maybe they will bring the broom. Krishna said to his friends: "My dear friends, there is no power in the universe. Nothing exists in the universe which can stop me, catch me, or tie me. But there is one thing I cannot break. There is my weakness, because of my promise, that I cannot break. What is that?" "Can we help?" He said, "Love cannot be helped. This string is a string of love. I cannot break that. Let mother come with a broom or with sticks. When they beat me with the brooms, I will not feel anything. They will feel it on their own back. So they will put sticks on the buttocks of Kṛṣṇa, and they will say, 'Hmm, who is behind me?'" Another came; she wanted to meet Krishna. And she said, "Oh, who is behind me?" So, such a weird… they are lilās, tales of the Divine One. You do not understand the līlā of the Divine. Why? How? We do not understand all this. So, not Bhagavān said, God said: "I can do all, but I cannot defeat love." What is that love? Bhakti. So we have tied God. He will appear wherever you want because he is running behind us. We should not run behind him. You have to become a small child. You are standing at the platform, at the railway station. The train is coming, and your child is running towards the train. You are the father or mother; you will run to catch it. So we are the children of God. It does not matter which direction we run. If we love him, he will run behind us to catch us. Neither am I in the heart of the yogīs, nor am I in the forest or in Vaikuṇṭha. I am there, O Arjuna, where my bhaktas sing my name with love, with glory. So if you decide to love, do not break it. Then you cause pain on one side, so you cause pain to yourself. And for many lives you have to pay for this. When you do too much, then you do not know what the next life will be. Maybe you will be a parrot in a cage. About a week or four days ago, children made a nice theater, and they bought a parrot. They said, "This is very lovely, and a parrot learns what you speak." So our parrot says, "Lovely, lovely, lovely," then she says, "Enough, enough, enough." So we say, "Oh parrot, say Rām, Rām." So when a guest comes home, it greets them, "Rām, Rām." It will… gruskot. But that parrot is caged, life-long, in that prison. And your dreams will not come true. You will dream sometimes from past lives, my free decisions. Your free decisions brought you now into this cage. Therefore, Bhagavān and bhakta are one. That is the only chance for us to come out of this. Otherwise, śānti, peace, for some seconds or minutes, happiness—you will be sorry for many, many lives. Therefore, we are human; understand human love and human life. So it means, after all this, learn to love thyself. You will already have ātmā jñāna. Mahāprabhujī said very nicely in one poem. Clear? So you understand all. Mē mērā nīc ātmā. I am, myself, on my own ātmā. I am the ātmā. Mē mērā: mē means "I", mērā means "my". Nīc means "belonging". Tatva masi nirmouj. I am above all the tattvas, and I have no moha, no attachment, no anger. Kartāhu mē vandana. I pray. I meditate. I serve. Kartahu me vandana. Meri vandana, my prayers. Meri vandana mujhko ho jā. It is to myself. It is beautiful in Hindi or in other languages. So whatever you do, you are doing for yourself. So, try to learn to love yourself and do not cheat yourself because of your certain indriyasukha, the joy of the indriyas: taste, touch, hearing, sight—many things. What will affect our Ātmā? This? Mahāprabhujī’s words. That’s it. Bhakti. Bhakti. There are many, many beautiful bhajans. Mar guru devon ra deva, janam dhar visru nahi.