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O Kṣara Brahma, tasmai Śrī Gurebenaṁ, dhyāna-mūlaṁ guru-mūrti, pūjā-mūlaṁ guru-padaṁ, mantra-mūlaṁ guru-vākyaṁ, mokṣa-mūlaṁ gurur-kṛpā, Oṁ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Śrī Devīśvara Mahādevakī Satguru Swami Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān kī Satya Sanātana Dharma kī. Good morning, all dear ones. Happy to see you again. Welcome. Thank you, Gītā Purī, for your nice words and the whole team of organizers under the guidance of Durgā Devī. Yes, Durgā is going to be an umbrella over everyone to give them protection. An umbrella is something that has a high position. But ask yourself, how are you surviving? So, thank you for this beautiful program. Inner talents. Talents are something which have to be realized, and that is called confidence. If there is no confidence, we cannot discover our talents. So, like Mahātma Gāndhī said, be the change you want to see. Yes, we can do, but a positive decision is very important. Half-half belief is neither here nor there. I told you once a story, and I will try to repeat it again. That story is like this: unless we find a proper, one hundred thousand percent confidence, then we cannot come through. If we are flying like a butterfly from one flower to other flowers, like this, we will not come to that destination. The story is about one person who was a nice person, but he didn't believe in God. Many people don't believe in God. Well, God doesn't lose anything. If you believe in God or you don't believe in God, he doesn't care because he doesn't lose. So, or so, he will love us, and he gave us this life. So the person, what we call an atheist, and he was loving to go to the forest and mountains and climbing. Climbing on the rocks, yes. He was in the high Himalayas, climbing a very high rock. The rock was going like this, little, and he was expert in climbing. About one meter left, and he would reach his aim on the peak of the mountain. Unfortunately, the rope broke, and he lost his hold. So now he's hanging. He's hanging on the rock. Now, life is dear to everyone. No one wants to die. Fear is there. Looking down hundreds of meters deep, he had no chance to go further, looking left and right. Inner feeling awoke. People say that the Himalayas are holy mountains and that many holy saints and God live there. I don't believe in God and holy saints, but let's have an experience. So he said, "God, do you hear me?" And about 30 meters on the other side, on the rock, God manifests himself. "Yes, my son. What do you want?" He said, "Are you God?" He said, "Yes, what do you want? What kind of God are you?" "You are asking me what I want. You should know what I want now, what I need. Save me," he said. God said, "Okay, but do you believe now in me that God exists?" He said, "Please don't discuss with me. First save me, and then you can ask me questions. My hands, fingers are burning." God said, "Don't worry." He said, "What do you mean, 'Don't worry'? For me, every second is a great task." He said, "Don't worry. My question is to you, to you, man, do you trust or believe in me?" He said, "Yes, I do, I do, and when you save me, I will make a big, big billboard and write, 'Yes, there is a God. God is existing.'" So God said, "You believe in me?" He said, "Yes, I do. You will do everything I say?" "Yes, please. Hurry up." God said, "Okay, if you trust in me, you believe in me, then leave your hands free." The atheist said, "So stupid I am not to release the hands. I will fall down." God said, "Then you don't believe me. Remain hanging there." God disappeared. So unless we have one hundred percent confidence in ourselves, half-half, it will not help. So running here and there will not solve your problems. It will not give you what you really need. So the first awakening, or realizing, or discovering, is confidence needs in us. Then, okay, so uncertainty is a fear, a hidden fear. And that fear will so quickly come and put us more into trouble. Fear is because we still have not experienced it. And there are two kinds of experiences. One is, unfortunately, in this world, there are people going in the wrong direction. Taking drugs, saying, "Okay, try it, experience." But then it is getting more and more what we call addiction. Addiction means to add more and more. Addiction means add more and more and more. Then that habit will control us. We can't give up. So habit is the second nature of man. What kind of habit you develop, like that you will be. If you somehow realized that this is not correct for your health and so on, you can come out with the help of your parents, friends, good friends, etc. So the ability, the talent is there, but we need confidence. You put a child in the water for going swimming, and the child will say, "No, no, I can't swim, I can't swim." Yes, we know you can't swim, but parents will help. You will get a balloon to swim, and one day that child will say, "Look, mother, I can swim, I don't need any more balloons." From where did this talent of swimming come to the child? The child is the same. Nothing is changed. But the abilities which we have in our brain centers, in our heart, in our intellect, and in our feelings, we have to develop. So talents, many, many different kinds of talents. You could drive the car, and one who never drove, cannot. But we have abilities hidden under the subconsciousness, which we can awaken. The person who can dance on the rope, a few meters high, can walk on the rope. That needs practice, practice, practice. Practice makes a master. A person is the same, like we have two legs, two hands, a human body, and we have a human body. But even we have a problem in beginning to walk on the wall on the fifth floor. Yes. So balancing is a talent, a practice. So without practicing, we will not achieve what we would like to achieve. We come on the right path, and then we change it. So from learning to walk on the rope, suddenly we change to learning the bike and driving, or biking on the rocks and down, and this. Hardly have we learned this, and we go for skiing. Yeah? We break one knee, or our ankle joint, or hip joint, and then we give up and we go somewhere else. So, when we find that path and that practice, the right direction, then our inner talents will awaken. Yes, I can. But at the present, we cannot say, "Yes, I can." So, the Master is only supporting us. To do, you have to. Father or mother can give a finger to a small child to walk, but finally the child has to walk. So what mother or father tells the children what to do, what not to do? If they don't follow, then the future of that child will be in darkness. Yes? So what the Master said to disciples, what to do and what not to do, now you don't like to hear such things. But then, in the future, you will be completely confused, or you will say, "Oh God, I am now 110 years old. I have no self-realization still. Why?" How many techniques have you changed? That's it. Like a story of digging the water wells. You know that story? Yes. Many don't know, so I can repeat again, no? I mean, you all know, maybe, but someone on the webcast, they don't know. Rāmānanda, yes. It's a very simple story. Masters and parents, it is said, more than parents, God loves you. And more than God, the Master loves you. There's one stone called Pāras. It's a very rare stone. We are all searching, but we haven't found it yet. But it's a very famous noun. In Indian poetry, often they use this name of the stone. And that stone is called Pāras. You can look somewhere in the computer nowadays; everybody says, "Google, Google." And who put it in Google? You think, "Aha, this is this." So, but anyhow, that stone has a quality. If you touch iron to the stone, the stone will change the iron into gold. How nice. Always, I'm thinking, if I will find the stone, I will touch the railway line. And all the railway lines will be golden. While walking, in everyone's house, the windows, the iron grill, I will touch, and they are all golden. To give all, everybody, but then there will be a problem. Yes. One man wanted to be very rich, the richest person in the world. So he was practicing meditation, meditation. Only God can do something. So God came and said, "What do you need, my son?" He said, "Well, make me immortal like you. I'm like a god." God said, "This is not possible." "Then give me something so that I become very rich." So he said, "Work." "That is not enough, Lord. Give me something." So they said, "Okay, what do you wish? God, give me something: power, my inner talent, awake. That whatever I touch, anything I touch, becomes gold. So whatever I touch becomes gold." God said, "Are you sure?" He said, "Yes, Lord, I'm sure." So God said, "Okay, bless you." He went home, and his grandchild came. "Grandfather, grandfather," he touched the son, and the son became gold. The older child became the golden child. The wife came, and he touched her, and she became gold. He said, "Please, can you give me water to drink?" He touched the water, and it became gold. Now he had so many problems. You can't eat the gold. And no one dared to come close to him; all were running away. So again he went and said, "God, please forgive me, please forgive me, and take this siddhi away." So sometimes we are so greedy, and we wish something, and then we can't get rid of that, like a cobra. That story will come after. So, one disciple, a practitioner, went to one master and said, "Master, can I have self-realization, ātma-jñāna, knowledge?" He said, "Okay, practice and stay." The master gave him some techniques. Ten years, now he said himself, ten years I'm here and practicing every day, like what we have on the CD. Before a few decades, it was what we call the disc record, the gramophone. That gramophone, when it was damaged, it was always in the same place. So he said, "I have become like a gramophone. I didn't get anything." Begin to listen to other people. Is there some other master, good master? And someone said, "Yes, there is one master. He is very spiritual and powerful." So one night, he silently left his master. And he went there. Same thing, the master gave him some sādhanā. After five years, he said, "No, I got nothing. Nothing changed in me." So he went to some other master. Likewise, he changed about seven or eight masters, and he became 80 years old. He was disappointed and became negative, thinking that all masters are just saying nothing. It is only dogmas, dogmas. And I will go to every master and tell them that you are not correct, and don't make people blind, and like this and like that. You know what negative people are talking. So first I will go to the first master. So he came to the first master, very angry and so. The master said, "Oh, nice to see you after so many years. How are you, my son?" He said, "Yes, this and that, and you promised me, and you didn't give me self-realization. And then I went there, and I went there and there." So the master said, "Now I can give the right way to you. Self-realization, you have to practice, but now I show you the path and what is your mistake and what you have done wrong, but it will take one week to know this, one week, okay? One week is not a big deal." So, master, okay, one week. So the master said, "One week you will do whatever I ask you to do." He said, "Okay, I will do it." Now the master is telling the disciple, "We have no water here. And can you dig a water well here, a little water well, so we will have ashram water?" He said, "Yes, that I can do." So the next day he began. The whole day he was digging. The whole evening he was very tired. He slept well and had a good appetite. Morning to breakfast time, master tells him, "Oh, my dear, that corner where you are digging, in the night, I meditated. There is no water, so dig on the other corner." Okay, Master. So he begins to dig on the other corner. Second day, the master again said, "There is a lot of water, but it is salty. Dig there." So, okay, master. Third day, he began to dig in another place. And on the fourth day, the master said, "There is a hard rock down there, so you will not be able to break the rock. Dig, please, here." So for seven days, every day, the Master told him to dig somewhere else. On the eighth day, at breakfast, before Master could tell anything, the disciples said, "Master, one week is gone. Don't tell me to dig somewhere. Why don't you meditate first and exactly tell where I should destroy the whole garden? One week is gone, I have plaster on my palms, and there is no water." Master said, "That is what I want to show you. How many holes have you dug? That means how many masters' ashrams you have changed, and finally, you still have nothing. If you had dug for seven days in the same place, we would already have nice drinking water here." Similarly, time is not waiting for us. Day is passing, and our age is not stopping; it's continuing. One day will come when we are going, and we did not get self-realization. So the inner confidence, the faith, the belief, and the longing for achieving our goal, because this life is a journey, not a destination. And how should our journey be, which can bring us comfortably to our destination? So there should be no fear. When there is a doubt, it's like a crack in the wall. When there is a doubt, it's like you have a good salad. But inside is sand; you can't enjoy it. Similarly, first we have to be sure of ourselves that we have no fear, we are not uncertain, we have no doubts, and we know, yes, we can. Then, through this meditation, we can achieve our goal, which is a lifelong one. The fruits, the result, the realization will come at the end of life. Therefore, it is said, don't celebrate the day too early. Still, the day is there, so if two or three minutes earlier before sunrise we make some mistake, then the whole day, whatever good things we did, is lost. So it will be given at the end of your retirement, when you get your pension. Then everything will be counted, and they will give you money and your pension so that you can live your life further from this. So never be in a hurry. Those who are in a hurry to get spiritual awakening, sooner or later you will become psychically confused, what we call psychic illness. Many people are struggling to awaken the Kuṇḍalinī. But it is not that what you read. I know one person, now I have not seen him in a few years, he is from Berlin. You know where Berlin is? In Virginia or Maryland? So he really is a very honest person, he is very, but there are two things which he is not. First, he is not spiritually oriented; he doesn't want any spirituality. But he went to some master, and some master was talking about some techniques and Kuṇḍalinī awakening. So I don't know what it is. I don't think this was a Kundalinī, but he did some techniques, and now he has such a problem, such a problem. Five years, six years he was coming and stayed in Jatnāśram, Khatṭu Ashram, Kelāś Ashram, five months, ten months, and sometimes he had such spasms through his spinal column in the stomach. He's screaming. He said, "I'm dying. Please, Swamiji, help." On the telephone, so I said some mantra. I said, "Okay, put the telephone on your ear and just listen." So I used to say some prayers, mantras for Mahāprabhujī, and his spasm slowly, slowly relaxed. And he said, "God, sādhanā, as far as I know, Ekānyas Ātmā, thank you, Master." So he said, "It's a horrible life. Now I feel released. But master, please, can you forever take this pain away?" So never make the mistake of wanting to get realization immediately, or in five years, or in ten years. Whatever you have practiced, you have not lost. It will remain with you. It is your work. It is your physical, mental, intellectual, social work. And it will be credited to you. It is yours. But don't expect that now you become like a self-realized being and that you will go everywhere and say, "My children, I bless you," and all will immediately get higher consciousness. No one can do, and no one wants to do. You know, when we speak and learn about a very great master of the last centuries, Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa, the master of Swāmī Vivekānanda from Calcutta. And he had thousands of disciples, thousands around the world. And his wife, she was also very great, very great, realized, divine mother, you can say, divine, divine. So in his spirituality, in awakening and achievement, there is no gender difference. Some people say, "No, women cannot realize this, and they should not do this." And they were saying they should not read this book and not that book. That was the selfishness of the man. He thinks she should remain in the kitchen. So, therefore, in our śāstras, in Sanātana Dharma, now you call it Hindu, we have equal belief, respect, and devotion—it doesn't matter if you are a male or female divine person. When you talk about God Rāma, Siṅgh, his kīrtan, you say first Sītā and then Rāma. You don't say Rāma, Sītā, Rāma. It doesn't, it doesn't... Sītārām, Sītārām, ... Siddharām, Siddharām,... Siddharām. Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa,... Narayan, Narayan, Lakshmi Narayan, Narayan, Narayan, Lakshmi Narayan, Narayan, Narayan. Lakṣmī is the faithful consort of Viṣṇu. Sītā is the faithful wife of Rāma. Thus, the Śakti, the Mother, is primary. As stated in the Upaniṣads, God is first the mother for us. She protects, feeds, and nourishes us so our body may grow to complete perfection within the mother's body. Therefore, there are no dualities of gender in spirituality. Consider Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa and his wife, the Divine Mother. When you see him, you can perceive his divinity. We have had many such divine beings, and they possessed immense energy. The stories I tell you will unfold further and further. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa had many, many devotees. He was a saint we can call a Jīvanmukta, one liberated while living. Yet, he was a devotee of the Divine Mother, Kālī. He prayed to the Divine Mother for hours, standing and crying, "Mother, please come." One day, she appeared to him in the temple, hugged him, and said, "My son, what can I do? You need more." He said, "I want Self-realization, Jīvanmukti." She replied, "Yes, my son. We have the cosmic protocol. Śiva has his own capacities and faculties. Viṣṇu has his own duties. Brahmā has his, and the Divine Mother has hers. Mokṣa, ātma-jñāna, is given by the guru." Therefore: Dhyāna-mūlaṁ guru-mūrtiḥ, Pūjā-mūlaṁ guru-padaṁ, Mantra-mūlaṁ guru-bhāgyaṁ, Mokṣa-mūlaṁ guru-kṛpā. Thus, while we all adore Divine Mother Kālī as the Self of Brahman, she said, "I cannot change the rules. You must go to your master, your guru." His guru's name was Totāpurī. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa went to Totāpurījī, who blessed him and gave him Self-realization. Today, Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa is adored by saints and people worldwide. He placed his hand on the head of Vivekānanda. Vivekānanda described this experience; you can read his account. He attained Self-realization and all the experiences one can attain, similar to what Holī Gurujī gave me at a very early age. Now, Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa did not touch only Vivekānanda's head. He touched the heads of millions. Why did they not get realization, while Vivekānanda did? Every disciple has a different level of consciousness, different layers of energy, as I spoke about yesterday. You remember? We have obstacles in our consciousness: unconscious, conscious, and subconscious. These layers must be purified, and it is not easy. They come one after another. We create pollution not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and socially. In many ways, we create pollution. Pollution means negative thinking. Modern psychology says negative thinking darkens your own phenomenon, while positive thinking enlightens it. We either poison our energy or enlighten it—that is enlightenment. Consider this hall. It is enlightened; we are lighted. It could happen that the powerhouse shuts off the electricity. Suddenly it is dark, and we are all in darkness. Wait. Do not think this light will be forever. We achieve our goal, we finish our writing and reading, and then we say we will go to sleep. We turn off the light. Therefore, Self-realization cannot be achieved forever, for a whole life, in a permanent sense. Temporarily, it will come and go. On the day you are fully enlightened and Self-realized, and you wish to retain it, you will not move anywhere. You will avoid all external activities and just remain in one place. Whether someone comes or not, that person does not care. His or her mere being in this world then becomes a blessing. There are two kinds of wise people. One is called Vācarati and the other Lakṣyarati. Vācarati means giving lectures, reading books, and speaking—this is intellectual work on the surface. Lakṣyarati is one who goes inward and works inwardly. When we do inner work, we cannot do external work simultaneously. External activity means neglecting our inner work. Therefore, we must first do the inner work to discover our ability. Our ability is to know what we can do. When we were small, it was hard to write A and B. A small child holds a pen in a fist and scribbles an A. The mother holds the child's hand and shows how to write B and C. Now, they can write very quickly. Awakening that ability within us is meditation. Meditation is great. In self-inquiry meditation, we contemplate our inner feelings. That discovery of inner talent will not come automatically. Do not think it will simply awaken. Inner talent can only awaken if you know what you would like to do. Understand? If you have no desire to swim, no interest at all, and you dislike being in water, you are not engaged in that discovery. You do not want to learn to swim. I can talk about chakras, and you can probably read books that explain it better. But that dormant energy, dormant talent, dormant wisdom can only awaken when you touch the subject. How is the subject awakened? Through inspiration. Someone must inspire us, motivate us. Then, yes, our talent will emerge. There is a child who does not want to study mathematics or medicine but wants to study something else. If you say, "No, become an engineer," but the child wants to pursue medicine, it will not function. We must ask ourselves what we would like to achieve and in which chakra this energy lies dormant. The centers are: Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, Viśuddhi, Ājñā, Bindu, and then Saṁsāra. In all these centers, particular energy lies dormant, and it can only awaken when you want to know what you wish to do. The digestive fire in the solar plexus awakens when you eat or are hungry. But if you wish to awaken intellectual energy, the solar plexus will not awaken the energy of appetite or hunger. Every chakra has its quality. The Mūlādhāra Cakra is the most powerful cakra. Our entire existence in this universe, not only in this life, depends on it. Since our soul was created is very hard to describe. We put one seed in the earth—a tomato seed. How the other seeds develop, we still cannot fully explain. What we call science today cannot create a seed. We can manipulate genetics; it is easier to cross one animal with another, like a horse and donkey to produce a mule. But to create a seed itself, we have not discovered that. That is God's work. The man-made world is imperfect; the God-made world is perfect. It is visible, physical; we can see, smell, touch, and taste it. Yet, we cannot create a seed from air or nothing; it is the work of the divine supreme. Similarly, my dear, we do not know when that soul developed and came to take its place in our body. Now, does the body love our soul, or does the soul love the body? This is also unclear. The soul is free. Do we know where the soul will go again? There are definite principles, but it is difficult. It is said: when a metal glass has a nice sound, a resonance, and it is complete, it resonates. If it cracks, there is no sound. The resonance comes only from completeness. Second, when milk is spoiled, where does the butter disappear? When lemon curdles the milk, the milk is spoiled. Where has the butter gone? We cannot gain butter from it anymore. Chemically, it is changed. When we blow out a flame, where did the flame disappear to in this room? When love has gone from the heart, where is the love? When our mind is broken or changed, then the preet, the love, is not there anymore. Similarly, this seed of myself, my Jīvātmā, your Jīvātmā, their Jīvātmā—since when has it existed? Though we know we have a Jīvātmā, we have never seen it. It dwells in our body. We always say, "Here, here," but it is somewhere in the whole body. And the prāṇa, the energy, is called prāṇa. Has it gone? So, is our energy, prāṇa, the seed, or is the seed prāṇa? Which energy is so concentrated that it becomes powerful enough to develop into a huge banyan tree? That banyan tree has seeds like figs, very small seeds. This small seed contains the concentrated energy for a massive tree. Do not think an elephant has a big soul and an ant a small soul. No. For the Jīvātmā, our soul, we cannot measure with centimeters or kilograms. We cannot measure knowledge with centimeters and kilograms. We always joke with little children, "How many kilos did you learn today?" Similarly, our soul is very fine. The energy we are developing through this process allows us to discover our soul. That is called Self-realization. At that time, fear, anxiety, uncertainty, doubt, confusion, etc., may arise, but these will remain as long as the soul is present. Without having realized the soul, we cannot proceed to Self-realization. All our doubts, fears, everything comes from uncertainty, and that is fear. The Mūlādhāra Cakra is the seat of energy between animal and human consciousness. When the energy is uplifted, human action comes forth. When it falls down, it results in animal action. We often say, "Oh God, how can she or he do that? It's not human." That person is acting like an animal. So there is a difference. Thanks to God, we are above that now, but we can still be stuck in the Mūlādhāra. The Mūlādhāra is the best cakra. Do not take it as negative. Somehow, I think it is great because it preserves all qualities, karmas, and destinies. It is the center that preserves, like we call Mother Earth. She never loses a seed. There are desert areas where for two or three years there is no rain. Suddenly, rain comes, and after a few days, you see a beautiful green carpet. From where did the seeds come? The seeds were preserved by Mother Earth. Similarly, in this body, the cakras come with us and go with us; they are not physical. Otherwise, we could operate and remove them. No, they are not physical. They are only in that part of the body where there is resonance; the energy is hidden in our body. So, discover your inner talents. There are two signs for this: a question mark, or one line with a dot below—an exclamation mark. What does that mean? Before you wish to awaken certain talents, either ask yourself or be careful. You want to catch a tiger. Okay, you will do it somehow. You catch the tiger and hold it very tightly. Okay, what now? As soon as you free it, it will not free you. This illustrates that when we have a wish, we should analyze it. Otherwise, we project mistakes onto others, but they are hidden within us. The awakening of talent is also a desire to enjoy something. We will finish with a little story about inner talent, then touch on other points before an interval. There was a very nice forest, and after the forest came a desert. It was a very hot summer. A man went searching for a snake, a snake charmer. He wanted a beautiful cobra to train for showing people and earning money. In India, by law, it is prohibited to catch and torture animals like this. He went far and found a big cobra, two meters long. He knew how to catch it, so he caught the cobra. He had a nice bamboo basket. He put the cobra inside, covered it with cloth, and carried it home. On the way, there was a big, beautiful banyan tree. It was nice, green, and cool because the weather was very hot. The man wanted to rest, so he sat under the tree. On the tree sat a nice, beautiful monkey. The monkey was thinking about inner talent and desire. The monkey said to itself, "Why is this man carrying the basket so carefully? There must be something to eat inside, maybe honey. I want to eat it." Now, monkeys awakening their talent involves hypnotizing. Animals can hypnotize as well. Never look directly into the eyes of animals, or they may attack you. If you look at a monkey directly, it will become angry. Similarly, with a little child—the first time, if you stare, the child may be frightened. In my case, when I look directly at a child with my long beard and different appearance, the child gets frightened. Yesterday, Tristow came. I used the technique of not looking at him directly, so he was not afraid. We became friends. Otherwise, he might have cried. Anyway, the man sat down, and the monkey used its mental power to hypnotize. Mental power works for everyone, humans or animals. The monkey mentally said, "Man, go away. Leave the basket here." The man did not know the monkey was in the tree. After ten minutes, he decided to leave but first went behind a bush to relieve himself. He left the basket there, just ten or fifteen meters away. The monkey thought, "Thanks, God." It quickly came down, took the basket, hung it around its neck, and climbed up. It felt great joy. The joy you want to enjoy often brings little joy and more trouble. What happened next? The man saw and thought, "Oh God, poor monkey." The monkey sat on a tiny branch, looked at the man, and gestured tauntingly. Big monkeys are very naughty. It meant, "I have it." It broke the cloth, opened the lid, and instead of honey, something funny emerged—a cobra came out, looking at it. Monkeys cannot move when a cobra stares; they become paralyzed. The monkey looked; everything turned yellow. It was stuck. How to get rid of this cobra? So, our inner talent is linked to our desires. Without thinking and using our viveka, our discriminative awareness in consciousness, we sometimes hang such a cobra of a problem around our neck. It becomes very hard to get rid of it. Therefore, it is said: Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa stated in the Bhagavad Gītā that before doing any action, one should know the nature of the action, then one will know what kind of fruits it will yield. We should know if it is the seed of a cherry or the seed of a thorny bush. We must consider what we wish to plant. If you want a thorny bush as a fence on your property, that is okay. But if you plant an apple there, it will not serve as protection. Where you want an apple, if you plant thorny bushes, you will not get the apple. Inner talents lie dormant at the level of the unconscious, at the border between the human and animal levels. There, Paśupati Mahādeva, Śiva, is the Lord of both Lokas, the upper and lower worlds. We have enough talent, but we need practice. A final example: a pilot who studied and became very good at flying a large jumbo jet. This person need not be a bodybuilder. If you think a pilot should be like a bodybuilder, it does not help. The talent is the knowledge. This talent has developed in the person to be a pilot, and he or she can smoothly take off with hundreds of tons, go into the sky, and safely bring it down. That is a talent made practical in this technical world. So, awaken your talents. Become an artist, a musician, a painter, write poems, be a singer, etc. These talents lie dormant in different cakras. Kuṇḍalinī is a science of body, mind, and soul. It is a safe way. But if you practice incorrectly, disturbances may occur in your nervous system, and you could lose everything. Therefore, Guru-kṛpā hi kevalam—only by the grace of the Guru. Sometimes you think, "Oh, I am free, that's all," but when troubles come, you will say, "Now what to do?" Consider the pilot's example: they must log thousands of hours of flying before getting a license. Slowly, slowly, not immediately, do they take a jumbo jet and take off. It is not so simple. Which talents do you wish to awaken? Then we work on that particular part. Thank you. We have a nice fifteen-minute interval. If you have any questions, we will continue this subject again this evening. Hari Om. Dīp Nayan Bhagavān.