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We are fortunate to welcome, once a year, the founder of Yoga in Daily Life, Vishwagurujī Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmījī Maheśvarānandajī. For English speakers, this may sound very long, but these are meaningful titles from the motherland of Yoga, India—recognitions achieved by very few yoga masters today. We are truly blessed to have a master and yogī of this level with us tonight to share his experience, wisdom, and love. Please, take as much as you can and enjoy the program. A most welcome to all. I also welcome Swāmī Madhuramjī, who has come from Wellington and now cares for one of our ashrams in Kapiti. We are very lucky to have him in New Zealand for some years, spreading the teachings of our lineage further. Welcome to Madhuranjī also. Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ... Salutation to the Cosmic Light, adoration to the Divine Masters. Dear sisters and brothers, good evening. Welcome to all of you. I am very happy to see you. Today is a very significant day, especially for Indians and Hindus, as it is the incarnation day of God Rāma. It is celebrated in every house, in every temple, everywhere in the world—like Christmas or Eid in Islam. So it is a divine, divine time. Our subject is the awakening of compassion and peace in our heart, within us. This awakening means it is within us. Within you is the bliss of the ocean. Within you is the fountain of joy. Kill this little "I" and lead a divine life. You are all here practicing yoga. Yoga is yoga, but different ashrams, masters, and teachers give it different names. Our system is Yoga in Daily Life. One should practice yoga in life 24 hours a day. Yoga means not only physical exercises and breath exercises. Yoga is a way of life—how to live according to yoga principles. Yoga means union. When two unite in oneness, that is yoga. Like every river flows toward the ocean: when the river reaches the ocean and merges into it, that is called yoga. At that time, we no longer call that water a river, but the ocean. Each and every creature in this world is the light of God. Nothing exists which is not life. There is light of God in this beautiful plant, which is alive and growing; it is also life given by God. We say there are 8.4 million different creatures on this earth, divided into three categories: Jalchara, Thalchara, and Nabhachara—creatures in the water (including corals), creatures on the earth (including all living beings), and creatures in the space. Out of 8.4 million, one is the human. God said, "I send you into this world on earth as a protector, to serve and to give." So God prepared our life and gave everything that He has. Just as children inherit all properties from their parents, similarly, God has given everything. We are like a gunny bag full of divine qualities. Since the time of creation, through the Yugas, unfortunately, Āsurī Śakti—negative energies—have been developing in parallel. In your garden, when you plant a tree or vegetables, you give water and fertilizer to your plants, but the weeds grow equally. So both powers, negative and positive, are developing. Within us also there are āsurī śaktis, which means satanic powers, and divine śaktis. God gave us many beautiful things, all free. Happiness, love, joy, freedom, peace, compassion—these are the divine qualities. They are within us. But along with this, other qualities entered our consciousness, and that is called anger. First of all, it is created or developed in each and every entity, including plants and vegetation, and fear. Fear has caught the entire creation. Out of fear, we develop negative qualities. So fear is a seed, fear is a root, fear is the cause, fear is the origin of all our negative qualities—different kinds of fears. The biggest or strongest fear we have is of death. We all know sooner or later we will die. We know. And it must not be that now I am so old, soon I will die. No. We are sitting, so many here in this hall. I wish you long, long... long life, healthy life, good life, peaceful life, harmonious life. But we don’t know. I also don’t know. Vajrānanda gave my introduction as high levels of yogī, and this I don’t know. I’m a normal person like you. Please take it from me. You are sitting there on a chair, and I’m sitting on this side. My master gave me blessings to serve all as much as I can. I am a normal human being. So we know that one day we will pass away, and we don’t know. We are sitting so many here, beautiful swans, but who will take off first, we don’t know. God protect us. Many know that we will die, but we have fear. May we not have fear of death, but fear of how it will be. Which kind of pain do we have to go through? Death is so cruel. Death said, "I don’t care how you will die, but you have to die." Some in the fire, some under the water, some in accidents. Many, many are the illnesses. What a mystery of this life, that we have illness inside, cancer for example, or some other. This is a limited body we have. We can’t take out this illness; we can’t say, "Go away." Everything is within us. So here we can say this is our limitation—that karma means actions. Where there is action, there is a reaction, and where there is a reaction, there is action. So we have to go through those karmic causes. Only the thing which can help us to enlighten ourselves is knowledge. In this room, when it’s dark, we don’t know where a needle is lying, or a diamond, or your ring somewhere; it is very dark. So we just make a light and we say, "Yes, it is here." So, within our consciousness or our awareness, we have limited knowledge. We don’t know where what is lying, and when it can come out and attack our body. These are all karmic, from many lives it is said, and they are lying dormant in our subtle body. From time to time, it will come to our prāṇa body. The mental body means then comes the fear, and then it attacks our physical body. But though the body is just... we know how big it is, but we can’t take it out. Therefore, oh man, do not be proud of your life. You can’t do what you would like to do. So, do something good so that you can come out of this fear. Death is another subject. We don’t know how the soul entered the mother’s body, how the soul will go out of the body. We are sitting beside, but we can’t see. But is there a transaction, coming and going? Mother, you know, in our religion... In the Vedas and Upanishads, we are always addressed first: mother is God. Mother is God. First, God is the mother, the father, and so on. Unfortunately, I would say, or I’m sorry, for the mothers, that mothers have to suffer and see the suffering of their children. You know many things about Jesus. Yes, he was divine, great, but we think very little about his mother. What were the circumstances, the situation, when the holy mother Mary became pregnant? Was that necessary for her? In which situation was she, that she had to give birth to her child in the... animals, cattle, what you call, where the goats, sheep, and donkeys were? So it is that mother. If you know the stories of Kṛṣṇa, you know his parents were in prison, and how much the mother was suffering, but still. Mother has given God that strength, that power, and Mātā Bhāvatī Nāku Mātā. Mother can never be a bad mother. Well, therefore, we will go. No one can go with us, and death is like we jump into the darkness, into the nothingness. There is no bottom, ananta, endless. No one can go with us. We who remain here still as physical beings, we are sad, we suffer, we feel the pain and attachment. How long? This attachment of the child or the parents or the friends, this soul will take with it. Slowly, slowly, it will get thinner and thinner, like a pizza slice when you have cheese on it. You pull, and it becomes thinner and thinner. The leaf falls down from the tree, and if a strong wind has blown, it is blown away. The leaf says, "I just separated from the branch of the tree, my origin. The wind of destiny took me away. Where will I fall down, and will I come again there?" This is the question the soul always has. So this is one of the fears. Which have caught every creature? My master, holy gurus, used to say, "Every creature searches and desires to be happy." No one would like to be unhappy. Even if you are in a great, difficult situation, you should avoid creating more karma, to give someone more unhappiness or troubles, or to create the vikṣepa kleśas: disturbances, pain. So this fear is in every creature. No one wants to die freely. We humans, out of fear, create anger. Anger is that thief which will steal everything from you on the doorstep. Whatever good qualities you have, that anger is a fire. It will burn away everything. Because from the fear develops the attachment, and this attachment is so close, it brings the width. When you take a carrot out of your garden, it doesn’t come only as a carrot; it also comes with the earth around it. Similarly, from this fear, attachment brings the fear of loss, and attachment is this. We have problems or troubles to lose, but we have otherwise no attachment, so we are afraid that somebody will take this away. Somebody will take this away. Even a small child, when they have a toy and another child comes and wants to... The other child is angry because it is my attachment, and then there is anger. If we can’t do something against that attachment and fear, then jealousy creates in us a burning fire, the heat. That jealousy will destroy our healthy cells in the body. So an angry person is always jealous. That person will destroy immense amounts of healthy cells in the body, and then from the subtle body, the karma will attack and create some kind of disease which we can’t take away. From the jealous, we have anger, but we can’t do anything against it. Then, inside develops what is called the fire of revenge. We can’t do anything, but still we would like to take revenge. Fire of the revenge, so our blood is boiling in the fire of the revenge, which results will be more negative. You think that you will take revenge. This is only the ignorance, and that all will attack us back. Where there is revenge, one has no mercy, no understanding. There are friends sitting here from different countries. A beautiful country was there called Yugoslavia, and they were living all together like brothers and sisters, all different religions, and all these people from the beautiful country, and it’s still a beautiful country, there’s nothing to say. Only humans have divided on a piece of paper, because this is in the mind of the humans to divide, divide and rule. So what cruelties, cruel things happened? They were killing children and people. You can’t see that. Only the revenge, cultural revenge, language, this and that. And after, when they die, they also don’t know which side they will be brought to. So this is coming from both sides, so please take care. Therefore, it is a mantra, a beautiful mantra written in the Vedas: All should be happy, no one should suffer, no one should have the pain. Oh Lord, I also should not suffer. This is a beautiful mantra, and then in your yoga class, your yoga teacher here is chanting mantras. It’s called asato mā sadgamaya. Merciful Lord, lead us from the darkness to the light. Not me, not you, but we, all. Tamaso mā jyotirgamaya. Lead us from the darkness of ignorance to the light of wisdom. Mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya. Lead us from mortality to immortality, that we are never born again, and we are one with God. As soon as we are born, it doesn’t matter which life, what kind of life, trouble will come with it, karma will come. Sarve sam svastir bhavatu; everywhere should be good health. We have fear from illnesses, and there are many different kinds of illnesses: physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, etc., etc. When such a fear attacks us, then one doesn’t see anything. One is even ready to kill oneself, suicide. Goes to the depression, comes the schizophrenia, hallucination, phobias. We can’t do anything. Good. Thanks to God, we have good doctors and good medicine. That’s something. Make a release, that’s all. We feel relief, but they cannot release us forever; they can’t make us free. So health, not everything, someone said, "Health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health." And not only humans are suffering, but animals are suffering, plants are suffering, and sea life is suffering. Health. If we would like to have good health, then we should take care of the entire environment and the water. Then we can be healthy. Otherwise, we can forget it, that we will be healthy. How much? Do we do something for our environment? The last few decades, we have developed a kind of pollution, the cause of the pollution, what we call "use and throw." But someone said, "Use and throw," but where on this earth? How many tons of the chemicals are flowing every day in? Different forms into the water and ocean, from only from the Oakland, so round the world, how much there? Nowadays, there are two immortals, you can’t kill them. One is the ātmā, our real self, that no one can kill. Weapons cannot kill, death cannot take away, no one can destroy us, that is our ātmā. When we have that knowledge, then we have no fears, nothing. Second, immortal, no one can destroy, is the plastic now. Plastic we can’t destroy anymore. Even if you burn, the plastic is smiling, he said, thank you. I am multiplying now nicely everywhere in the atmosphere. They say that even now they find in every blood, human and animal, some quantity of plastic in our bodies. Maybe if we are completely plastic, then some illness will not attack. But maybe we will not be there. So sarve svastir bhavatu, all should be healthy. Our planet should be healthy. Sarve sam śāntir bhavatu. Peace, which subject is given to me. But what is the peace? Where is that peace? As long as the fear is there, there is no peace. Because fear has so many friends: attachments, jealousy, anger, hate, revenge, cruelty. I don’t care. One becomes mentally completely ill. So peace is then when the fear is gone. Why should I fear? But it is said, "Protection is in the protection." Now, a tiger is coming inside, a wild tiger. We will not sit and say, "Keep peace." Maybe he gives peace or not, but we will have no peace at all. We will search for the emergency exit, no? And nothing is there to hold, so we can jump, and the tiger can’t jump with us. Fear, my dear, from the dead, so we should keep the door closed. We should protect ourselves. We love these creatures, but it does not mean that we go and hug them. So peace, when it enters our heart, and peace is within us, nowhere else. Therefore, Mahātma Gāndhījī said, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." So sarveṣāṃ śvastir bhavatu, sarveṣāṃ śāntir bhavatu, and sarveṣāṃ maṅgalam bhavatu. Mangala means harmonious life. Harmonious life between humans, harmonious life among the other creatures, and in the vegetation, peace on the earth. O Lord, bless us with peace on earth. Sarveṣām Pūrṇam Bhavatu, that everyone reaches the goal of their life. This life is a journey, not a destination. This is the first milestone we covered when we were born, and as humans, as we made the steps to walk. But still, we are not there. At the last minute, it can happen that we will fall back. Like a climber who is climbing on the rock, and the last half meter he or she fell and fell down and finished again, so don’t celebrate the day too early. Don’t think that you have money, you have everything, this and that, you are happy, don’t worry. No, no... Oh, human, don’t be proud of your wrong thoughts, your false pride. Lord, the whole world should be happy. There is no translation of the word sukhī. Sukha and duḥkha. These two words are not translated in English, so I can’t tell you anything. Sukha is not only happiness. I am not the doer. Oh, Lord, I know. I have abilities. I have learned. I have studied. I know everything, I’m right, I’m correct, but still we don’t know. All is, the doer is someone else. On the higher level, there must be some higher consciousness which is guiding, happening. One day, when our self will merge into the endless ocean of the universe, then we can say, "This is yoga." Another part of yoga is exercises to be happy, healthy, and live a long life to do our sādhanā practices and lead life according to the yogic principles. The great saints who gave us this blessing of yoga, yoga is very, very old. They were living in the forest, ṛṣis, also called hermits; they were living in the huts with the family, and some had students, they were called gurukuls. Those ṛṣis were meditating, and they reached the higher level of consciousness. To reach the higher level, you have to lift yourself, levitate yourself from the ground. Like an aeroplane is flying every day on the runway, takes off, then I said, "Oh, now we have to separate from the earth," and it takes off and goes. Similarly, in meditation, in prayers, in actions, in giving our judgment, anything which should first reach the higher level of the consciousness: I am not the doer, God is the doer. God is only the doer; we are only like an instrument. But those qualities will awake in us. We love happiness, kindness, forgiveness, mercifulness. Then the divine energy, the divine qualities of God, will develop in our hearts, and then miracles happen from us. Otherwise, it doesn’t happen. So, peace is within. And therefore, in the Vedas, in the Ṛg Veda, they have a beautiful prayer, a peace prayer: "Oṃ dyoḥ śāntiḥ antarikṣaḥ śāntiḥ pṛthivī śāntiḥ oṣadhayaḥ śāntiḥ vanaspatayaḥ śāntiḥ." You know this mantra. They don’t pray only for themselves. Peace in the water, peace on the earth, peace in the herbs, peace in the vegetation, peace in the heaven, peace in the atmosphere, and peace with me, and peace in the divine consciousness. That prayer takes away our selfishness. Selfishness makes big, big problems. All this, what happens now? You know, there’s a crisis, what you call them, economic crisis. Why it happened suddenly? Money is there. Money didn’t flow. With the hurricane, didn’t fly somewhere? Money’s here, but money somewhere who can’t, doesn’t want to give out. And there was use and throw. So many things developed, they made it too much manufacturing, and consumers are nice now. And if they want... To buy, they don’t have money now, so also factories are closing, this and this, many things closing. All is the cause is too much. Too much is everywhere permitted, but what to do? Where the greed, there is no limitation. And when there is no limitations, then ati-sarvatra-varjate prabhutete, it will go away. Awake the compassion in the heart, peace and compassion. I think tomorrow again we are talking on the same subject or different. So I will have, then, tomorrow some good stories or today’s peace. So one example: one bird, a big bird, a hawk, took some piece of meat and flew away. Now, five, six, or seven hawks follow him and attack him. So he was flying down, up, left. They tried to escape, but he couldn’t. He prayed to God, "God, why? I have done nothing. Why have they followed me? Why did they attack me?" So a voice came, "What are you carrying? What you have, drop it." So he did, he dropped it. All the birds who were running behind or flying behind, they all flew, concentrated on that one piece of meat which fell down, and he was free and happy. No one had interest in him. So Mahatma Gandhi said, "Renounce and enjoy." Gurujī said, "Enter the kingdom of God through the gate of sacrifice." So we have to sacrifice our greed, and we have to sacrifice our fear. We have to sacrifice and forgive. The best protection is forgiveness.