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An Invitation to Om Vishwadeep Gurukul Ashram

An invitation to a place dedicated to holistic service and spiritual practice. This center operates on principles of organic farming, environmental stewardship, and unconditional service. It encompasses nearly 500 hectares of pollution-free land, fostering organic agriculture and caring for hundreds of cows without artificial means. Significant tree planting and rainwater harvesting initiatives have transformed the land and benefited local water resources. The facilities include educational institutions, a new hospital, and monuments for spiritual practice, all built with community labor. This model integrates ecology, education, and humanitarian aid, emphasizing protection for all living beings. The core message is to transcend personal darkness through selfless action. Greed is identified as the root of global problems, while unconditional love and service are the paths to light. One must look within to overcome ego, jealousy, and anger, seeking guidance to awaken divine qualities.

"Mother Earth has enough for our need, but not for our greed."

"Lord, help lead us from the darkness of ego, darkness of ignorance... towards love, understanding, happiness, forgiveness, and wisdom."

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

I look forward to being with you through the webcast, or if you will be here in person. We will have many interesting programs and a World Peace Conference from the Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda World Peace Council, for the first time in India. I will be very happy to welcome you here. If you can come, you are most welcome. Let me share a little information about our Om Vishwadeep Gurukul Ashram here in Jadan, District Pali, Rajasthan, India. This ashram has nearly 500 hectares of land. Since 1990, this land has belonged to the Om Śrī Devpurījī Ashram Trust and the Śrī Viśvadīp Gurukul, Swami Maheśvarānanda Ashram Education and Research Centre. For nearly 18 years now, first of all, you will be happy to know that this place is pollution-free, especially for the ecology. We have all organic farming here: fruit trees, vegetables, grains, corn, as well as very healthy, beautiful cows. We have a cow organization called the Animal Welfare Organization of India. Our cows do not get any kind of artificial feed, nor any injections for milk, cortisones, or pesticides. Our cows are very healthy, and we love them. We have nearly 600 cows—not because of the milk, but because we take care of these animals. We have many beautiful young calves; every month a few are born. Next time through the webcast, you will have an opportunity to see them. Also, we have here eight horses for riding. They are very beautiful, and you can come and ride them around the property. At the same time, many of you are supporting our Gyān Putra project. We have an education center from nursery school till the 12th class, and then we have a college. Yoga in daily life is included in our education; every day there are yoga classes for the students as well as for elderly persons. Besides this, as you may know through the webcast, we just completed a beautiful building dedicated to Sri Swami Madhavānanda—the Austria Hospital, with 111 beds. Very soon it will be opened, and it is a great help for the neighboring villages, as there is no such hospital within about 100 kilometers. There are some small hospitals, but you can't expect treatment for serious cases. This organization is also working to improve the environment. Since 1990, we have planted hundreds of thousands of trees—250,000 trees—and 70% have survived. The soil is salty and was not so good, but in the last 18 years, the quality has improved. Nothing was growing here before, and you will be surprised to see that now we have beautiful rose gardens on about four hectares. We also have a beautiful big garden of about two to two and a half hectares for practicing yoga, with nice flowers and fruit trees. Rajasthan is a part of India with very little rain, so water is a question. In the last 18 years, we observed the groundwater level go very deep. At first, water was at about 15 meters; now the groundwater is at 110 meters. Our organization decided to act with a Rain Water Harvesting Initiative. We preserved rainwater catchments so the water goes into the ground. We made two big dams. One dam lets water recharge the groundwater; as a result, neighboring villages now have better water quality and the water level has come up. Another dam, for our ashram and village use if necessary, holds about 250,000 cubic liters of water. We use that for farming, trees, vegetables, fruits, and gardens. Our animals also get sweet water to drink. In May and June when villages have less water, our fire brigade, with a 12,000-liter capacity, supplies water to neighboring villages free of charge. It's a beautiful model, but we still need a lot of help. Any kind of help you can give us—intellectual, social, economical—is welcome, and we will be very thankful. We also have an ambulance because the ashram is located near a highway, and from time to time there are accidents. Our ambulance immediately brings people to the nearest hospital for first aid, and then transfers them to a better-quality hospital in Jodhpur, 115 kilometers away. This ashram organization also supports poor people who need medical help in different ways. Besides this, we have a very beautiful monument in the form of the Swastika. The Swastika represents the sun—it is a symbol of the sun, meaning light and wisdom. In some countries, especially after the Second World War because Hitler used this symbol for his army, people have unpleasant feelings. But when they see it in India, of course, they don't have these feelings. That building is very large; we can accommodate a few hundred students or people. There is a beautiful energy there. According to Vāstu Śāstra, it purifies the energy and creates a beautiful environment. Finally, the main building is the Aum Ashram. According to the Devanāgarī alphabet in Sanskrit, "Aum," this is one of the first and largest Aum buildings in the world. We have been preparing and constructing this building since 1992 with hand-carved sandstones, with nearly 300 to 500 people working every day. Since the ashram opened, sometimes more than a thousand people, sometimes less, have been working here since 1991. This is a great social help to neighboring villages, providing jobs. In this way, my dear brothers and sisters, Om Vishwadeep Gurukul, Swami Maheshwarananda Ashram, Education and Research Center, in Rajasthan, District Pali, Village Jadan, is a beautiful model and something to be seen. Here we have separate yoga classes, meditations, āsanas, prāṇāyāma, and philosophical lessons—theory and practice—for those coming from different parts of the world. Many people come here to help; this center is run through the help of people. Many devotees from Europe, Australia, America, and Africa come here to render free service to build up this beautiful center, which will be a model for the economy, education, ecology, humanity, world peace, and multi-culture. This ashram is a shelter for every creature and is beautiful. I invite you to please come and see it. This year, 2008, from the 14th or 15th of December until the 1st of February 2009, I will be here, and you are most welcome to come. Do not miss the chance. We also have many other centers which belong to our spiritual lineage, and from time to time we go there to meditate and receive divine blessings. If you want to do something, then do it for everyone. For one's own children, for one's own house, for oneself—every human is doing that. But blessed are they, great are they, luckiest are they who have such an organization to help humanity, humankind, and also to think of and protect other creatures. All living beings are citizens of this planet, and we are also citizens. They are in different forms, but they are our brothers and sisters and best friends. God has created humans as protectors. God gave humans intellect to think and special love in their hearts to feel the pain, unhappiness, and suffering of other creatures. Humans are capable of helping them, freeing them, loving them, and letting them live. We are not the only creatures with the right to live on this planet. No trees, no vegetation, no other creatures means no more life. All modern technologies and pesticides have destroyed the atmosphere and environment. The consequence is that day by day, diseases are coming that humans are not able to fight against, because we are the cause. Mahātmā Gandhījī said, "Mother Earth has enough for our need, but not for our greed." Greed is limitless, and need is limited. Limit your needs; practice simple living and higher thinking. All problems in the world are only because of our greed. We are abusing nature, other creatures, and even people, countries, and cultures. Help, but without conditions. Do not tell someone you will help only if they do this or that for you, or believe what you believe. Who are you to change someone with temptations or the force of your social or economic power? The result is conflict in societies and between countries. Love without condition, service without conditions—that is the work of holy saints and blessed, good humans. God gave you this human life to give something, to protect, to help. Look within thyself. What is your heart saying to you now? How many doubts, how much ego, jealousy, and anger is within you? That is the darkness within thyself. Indian Ṛṣis, the great saints who lived thousands of years ago—not only 100 or 200 years—conducted research and said beautifully in the Upaniṣad: "Lord, help lead us from the darkness of ego, darkness of ignorance, darkness of anger, darkness of jealousy, darkness of greed, towards love, understanding, happiness, forgiveness, and wisdom." That is the light, and the negative part is the dark. It doesn't matter how much you argue; where love and help are needed, argument is not needed. Arguments will not solve people's problems or conflicts on this globe. Therefore, first try to be in the light—what we call enlightened. If you have an ego, you have no enlightenment; you are deep in darkness. If you are offended quickly, you are in the turbulence of darkness. If you are jealous, you are running in darkness towards a rock. If you are greedy, you are sinking in darkness like a person who can't swim, going deeper into the water. Ego, jealousy, hate, complexes, greediness, offending—this is the dark, the darkness humans can't come out of. But there is one hope: that we follow Guru Vakya to overcome these qualities and cross the ocean of ignorance. Holy Gurujī said: seek the shelter of the Gurudev. When you have the shelter of the Gurudev and you look within yourself at your qualities, you will try to remove them. Gurudev will help, and happiness will awaken in your heart. Abham Guru Charan Sukh Paya, Sagar Ler Samaya, Sagar Ler Samaya—like high waves, a hurricane in the ocean, but finally it merges back into the ocean, and the sea becomes very calm. The stormy sea becomes calm. So within us there are hurricanes of ego, jealousy, hate, and so on. But when you realize the Gurudev and Guru Vakya, immediately all these negative qualities become dormant, and you awaken the divine qualities within you. With this, I wish you all the best. Today I had a long journey of nearly 36 hours, but tomorrow I will be with you. Because European time and Australian time are different, we will announce to you, dear brothers and sisters, tomorrow what time we will have another webcast, so it is outside of your office hours. I wish you all the best. God bless you. To those who have a birthday, I wish you a happy birthday. We have here Amṛtānand from Hungary; today is her birthday. We wish her a happy birthday and a happy Amṛtā Day on behalf of all Hungarians. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Deveśvar Mahādev, Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān, Sanātana Dharma 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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