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O Dīpa Jyoti Parabrahma, Dīpam Sarve Mohanam, Dīpānām Sajyate Sarvam Sandhyā, Dīpam Sarva Satyam, Śubham Karoti Kalyāṇam, Ārogyam Dhanasampadā, Śatrubhudh Vinaśāya, Dīpa Jyoti Namostute, Oṁ Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. With the blessings of Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Devīśvara Mahādeva, Dharmasamrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavān Jī Bhagavān, and Satya Sanātana Dharma itself, dear devotees and spiritual seekers. This evening is dedicated to the new happiness following Holi. Holi is a profoundly divine festival, though people often understand it differently. In its essence, Holi signifies the Sūrya Śakti transforming into a positive force. The playing of Holi was also one of the divine games of Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who organized beautiful events. "Holy" means we try to govern our vṛttis, our negative energies, and give a divine color to our life. This color represents divine thoughts and divine works in the world. Never forget this colorful time of Holi. The Holikā we spoke of last time can symbolize our desires, our vāsanā. Vāsanā is the cause of all troubles. If we can overcome this vāsanā, our life becomes truly colorful. Holi also signifies the awakening of the divine śakti within our body, what we call the kuṇḍalinī. That kuṇḍalinī is divine śakti. This divine Śakti lies dormant in our deep consciousness, containing the impressions of our past lives with both positive and negative energies we are unaware of. That is called Śakti: Mūla Śakti, Parāśakti, Ādhyā Śakti, Mātṛśakti. Mūla Śakti means the original; Parāśakti means the supreme, beyond; Ādhyā Śakti means that primordial energy, that Divine Mother which was ever-existent. That Śakti dwells in human consciousness, in all creatures, and in nature. It is present in every one of the five elements. You living here in Australia, on the coast, see little light on the map at night, while the interior is dark desert. That little light on the coast is where civilization resides. When hurricanes come and high waves rise, that is Śakti. Only Śakti can move the entire ocean. Only that Śakti can move the earth in what we call an earthquake. It is that Śakti which moves the clouds and creates lightning in the sky. That Śakti is our life. Without this Śakti, we cannot walk or speak. Without Śakti, no flower can blossom or unfold its petals. It is that śakti which maintains, harmonizes, balances, and lets our heart beat for twenty-four hours without rest. Our heart never asks for a holiday, and we never tell it to take a break. Similarly, all the organs working in the body are that Śakti. What is there that is not Śakti? Therefore, that divine Śakti can protect us, liberate us, save our lives, and give us life. Yet, the same Śakti can kill and destroy us. This is the dual nature of Śakti. Consider electricity, the power from a powerhouse. This power is Śakti. When you use it with tools, you connect them and press a button. If you are not careful and do not respect it, this Śakti can kill you. Śakti is everything in our body; our prāṇa is a Śakti. Therefore, Holi is a symbol of this Śakti. This Śakti has two poles: positive and negative. The negative will destroy us, while the positive will save our lives. Positive thoughts, respecting others, supporting others, loving others—these are the positive actions of our inner Śakti that can save the lives of others and create the best friends and helpers. Thus, every festival in the world, whether spiritual, social, cultural, or for environmental protection, is connected to the well-being of this earth and its creatures. Humans should protect this and always distribute happiness, the color of life. To make life colorful means to have colorful thoughts and colorful words. When you lack these colorful words and feelings, your concentration goes elsewhere. That is kuśaṅga, bad company. In Mahāprabhujī's bhajan book, a beautiful book he himself dictated, there is a bhajan. Mahāprabhujī said, "Rare are they who enjoy poverty." The whole world seeks richness, and within that richness lie troubles. So, rare are they who enjoy poorness, and unlucky are they who suffer richness. Blessed are they who go to satsaṅg and absorb each word of the satsaṅg or Gurudev. Unfortunate are they who go to kuśaṅga. Divine and holy are they who have awakened the divine consciousness within, realizing "Who am I? So am I." Through āra-urāda—where inhalation is āra and exhalation is urāda, seen as the ascending and descending of the prāṇa—the yogī awakens in the nābhi, the navel. There, the anāhata-nāda, the sound from the nābhi-kamala (the navel lotus), awakens and resonates in the sahasrāra cakra. To understand the guru's words, you must understand satsaṅg; you must know every word. It is like a combination lock with 108 numbers. Gurudev taught every number in satsaṅg, but if you missed one because your awareness wandered for a second—perhaps looking to see if a mango would fall from a tree—you have only 107. That is the meaning of the Sumeru bead in the mālā. It is the last milestone. If you miss it and pass over it, it means you did not concentrate, and you must go through the whole cycle of Chaurāsī, the 8.4 million lives, again. It is said that the swan, the Paramahaṁsa, waits to receive each and every pearl. Other birds, like crows or seagulls, may eat them, but the true Paramahaṁsa living in Mānasarovara eats only the pearls and misses none. That pearl is Guru Vākya, the Guru Śabda, the word of the Gurudev. Therefore, Mahāprabhujī's disciple Svāmī Śivānanda of Kathu sang: "My relatives are they, my friends are they, my family are they who understand my word, who understand my language." Śabda-sanehī mārijā taramārī helī... Dhujā nāyave māne dāī māri helī. "Snehi" means my friend, my relative. Those who understand that śabda—the word, the feeling, the spiritual path, the divine consciousness, the divine language—they are the guru's own. We sit in satsaṅg drinking the drops of nectar from the Guru Vākya, called Amṛt Bāṇī. The thirsty one will not miss a single drop. Those who do not understand my spiritual path, my sādhanā, who have different thoughts and ambitions, are not mine. I do not like them; I neglect them. For that wisdom gives color to my life; it colors my heart. There is a song by Mīrā Bāī or Kabīr Dās or Sūr Dās that says, "O Kṛṣṇa, O Bhagavān, please color my cloth, color my shawl." Raṅg de merī chādarīyā. Kabīr Dās also has this bhajan. It asks not for yellow, pink, red, or black, but for the color that is Your color, matching Your heart. "Color my cloth," meaning my body, my heart, in such a way that even after the laundryman washes it for many, many lives, the color does not fade. That color should be applied by my Lord. That color is my bhakti. But that color remains only as long as vairāgya, detachment, is present. When vairāgya is lost, everything is lost. And vairāgya remains only through tyāga, renunciation. Renunciation is very hard, but it is balanced through titikṣā, the endurance of all desires, all pain, all situations, to maintain your vairāgya and tyāga so the color of your bhakti remains. Otherwise, bhakti suffers. Jñāna also suffers. In Kali Yuga, both bhakti and jñāna are suffering like a fish out of water. Just as a fish suffers without water (jalābhinamina), bhakti in Kali Yuga suffers similarly. Jñāna suffers without prāṇa, without air. We have created not just material pollution, but mental pollution. We fight, create differences, act selfishly, and lack the color of bhakti. Raṅg denā. Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar Lāla Nanjī, a disciple of Mahāprabhujī, also speaks of this: Lālo lāl kar dīnī. "Gurudev made my sāl red into red." This red is the color of śakti, the color of bhakti, and that śakti is life, consciousness. From the navel, with mantra, it awakens. There are nine principal nāḍīs: Suṣumṇā, Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Vajrā nāḍī, Brahmā nāḍī, etc. These nine nāḍīs connect to the nine doors of the body—the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, etc.—through which the soul can go out. But rare are those who understand the Guru Vākya and follow Gurudev's words; they reach the tenth door, the Brahma Randhra. "Brahma" means the supreme; "randhra" means a hole, a door. In our hall, light comes through doors and windows, but rarely can one go through that Brahma-Randhra at the top. The Bindu Cakra and Sahasrāra Cakra represent the entire Brahma-loka within us. Śabda-sanehī mārijā taramārī helī. Only through words can we give to someone, and through words we can receive from someone. That is the teaching, the knowledge, the sādhanā from the Gurudev or from others to us. Through words we speak, understand, and dialogue. Through words we come together, and through words we have a gathering, a melā. Through those words, we have many devotees, like at the Kumbh Melā. No one sends an invitation; the Gaṅgā does not invite anyone to Prayāg, yet millions go. We invite sādhus and mahātmās to our camp, but the Kumbh Melā itself issues no invitations. It is the Śakti of that nectar, that ambrosia dropped there since Satya Yuga, that draws billions. Who understands this? Many go only for fun, some as pickpockets, but many poor devotees walk hundreds of kilometers with little food, sleeping by the roadside, driven by devotion to reach the holy place or Gurudev. After the Mahābhārata war, the Pāṇḍavas returned to Hastināpur. Yudhiṣṭhira was to be crowned king. He was advised to perform an Aśvamedha yajña, a difficult ritual where a horse is set free and must not be captured for the yajña to succeed. A priest told Yudhiṣṭhira—still called Yudhiṣṭhira, for the title Dharmarāja comes at life's end to one who followed dharma—that the yajña could only be successful if a certain ṛṣi attended as witness. Yudhiṣṭhira sent his brothers Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna, and Bhīma to invite the ṛṣi. Each was refused; the ṛṣi said he would only come if they had performed a thousand such yajñas. Finally, Yudhiṣṭhira went humbly himself but was also refused. Then Draupadī went. Today is a day acknowledging the power of women. Draupadī approached the ṛṣi as his daughter. When he repeated his condition, she replied with a beautiful poem: "Gurudev, you ask only for a thousand yajñas? But when one goes to a saint, one must renounce two things: pride in wealth (tāj māyā abhimān) and ego. Each step taken toward Gurudev with such renunciation is equal to a thousand yajñas. Count my steps from my home to this forest. Each step is a thousand. Furthermore, when you meet a saint, three things are avoided: kāla (accident, death, tragedy), jāl (deceit—for in satsaṅg no one cheats you), and Yama, the god of death who punishes sins. And one thing more: when I bow my head to your lotus feet, the thousands of sins bundled upon my head fall at your feet. I become free. The decision is yours, Gurudev. Your daughter requests." The ṛṣi then took his shawl and said, "Let's go." This is a beautiful teaching: Sant milan ko jāye—go to meet a saint—renouncing pride in wealth and ego. Go pure. Then each step toward Gurudev is like thousands of yajñas. Satsaṅg is the king of all sādhanās. The final step toward heaven is satsaṅg. We are lucky to have had this beautiful weekend retreat. We treat, and then we retreat, just as Prakash treated the timber for the Śiva temple, and now it has become the temple. Thank you all. Tomorrow may be the last satsaṅg here. Australia is the largest island, surrounded by water. Thank you for your hospitality and care. I am happy the Devīśvara Mahādeva temple is nearing completion, though it still requires technique. Today, a lady asked why we cannot achieve self-realization immediately. I replied: a seed takes time to grow into a huge tree. Fruits come in season. It is crucial that the seed is not eaten by a bird, the sprout not eaten by ants, and that no one steps on it. Ask a thousand-year-old tree how many different atmospheres and situations it has endured. Nowadays, there is a fashion among some who are 70 or 80 to dye their beard and mustache black. That is like dark karma. It is hard to attain white hair. This white is not gray; it is snow white. It is not a sign of old age, but of purity, spirituality, and wisdom earned over a lifetime. Do not be jealous; your time will come. I wish you all the best. I do not know if we will have a webcast tomorrow. Otherwise, from India, I wish you many blessings. I pray to Devpurījī, Mahāprabhujī, and Holī Gurujī to bless you with good health, happiness, a long life, and spiritual development. Namaḥ Karata Prabhu, Dīpa Karata Mahā Prabhu, Dīpa Karata Hi Kevalam. Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ.