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It is a beautiful evening, a beautiful atmosphere. How nice that we are sitting here in this beautiful hall. This is not only millions of stars, but billions of stars, leaves, and everything. There are two mothers: one is Mother Nature, and one is the mother who gave us birth. In the lap of both mothers, we children, all creatures, feel protected and happy. So, it is a blessing to be here together. The sādhanā we do is easier when done with a group. One feels the energy, the prāṇa, from each other. It gives motivation and makes it easy to continue the sādhanā. This morning we had a beautiful subject regarding the prāṇas, touching on points about birth, death, and suicide. Sometimes a situation arises in human life where a person thinks, "There is nothing for me in this world." This is what is called depression. Depression means the awareness of the person falls very deep down. One feels hopeless, helpless, thinking there is no one in the world for them. Or one feels guilty, having made mistakes they cannot digest or survive. So what remains? One option seems to be to give up life. But the law of dharma, of karma, says you cannot run away from problems. Committing suicide does not mean the problem is solved. This is something one must know. If you have a mistake or a problem and you run away and hide, you are still not free from it. We have to go through it. We have to surrender ourselves—surrender to ourselves—and pray for forgiveness. The problem is there to be solved, not run from. It is a great mistake to run away. One should not lose self-confidence. It is said—some Chinese saying—that a tree which is cut, whose trunk is chipped off, will grow again. If we cut the trunk, the whole tree is destroyed, but still there is strength. From the trunk, branches will grow again. So if one thinks life is completely destroyed, that nothing is left, and it is better to die, this is not good. These are the thoughts of a coward. Do not be a coward; be a hero. Be humble, accept, and pray to God. Again, golden days will come. It is said, as Guru Nānak said, every day is not an equal day, but for the saint, for the hero, every day is a golden day. If you can open your inner, hidden problems, open your chapter and put it on the table as an open book, then it is said—as our beloved Grand Master Devpurījī said—Gurudev takes upon Himself the destiny of the bhakta. God takes upon Himself the destiny of the devotee. If we trust that, then again in our chidākāśa, in our awareness and consciousness, the dawn rises. The sun sets, but it will rise again. So the dawn rises, and hope is there. Just wait; the sun will rise, and we will see again that bright light. Bright light means we have our path again, a very clear path. Everything is in front of us. Our field is free, so whatever good ideas, golden ideas you have, you should work for them. Karma is something which gives us a lesson; karma is not bad. What is bad is our own action. To create good karmas is very good, and if they are created with negative thoughts, then we are again guilty. Now, physical nourishment makes our body healthy and strong. But those problems are in the psychic, in our awareness and consciousness. There is a problem with our intellect that our body cannot solve. Our body is just a chariot. The horse is what pulls the chariot, and the mind controls the horses, but inside sits the Ātmā and Viveka. Viveka is a very wise, very good secretary to the king. That secretary gives advice to the king on what to do and what not to do. In that awareness, in that consciousness, there is a light of viveka, of knowledge. Viveka is the advisor, the secretary of the king, and that knowledge is the light. That light is what rises with the sun; it is the light of knowledge. Suddenly you can find, because now there is bright light. You lost your key in the night; it was very hard to find. But now the sun is shining and you see very clearly. So viveka leads this jīvātmā, this ātmā, and through viveka comes knowledge, and that knowledge is the light. Prāṇa is another force. One prāṇa nourishes our physical body. Another prāṇa nourishes our mental body; that is called the prāṇa body. This prāṇa is in our whole existence, our whole life. When the prāṇa is strong, it means you are not fearful, you are not guilty; you need not be afraid. This is the strength of your prāṇa; that is the satya. In India, there is a slogan under the Indian flag, under the Indian emblem: Satyam eva jayate—the truth will win. The Czechs have the same: Satyam eva jayate—the truth will win. So if you have that inside, knowing you are not guilty—the guilty one is somebody else—you are involved in an accident, but the cause, the one who created the accident, was another. That’s it. And then another, stronger person comes and begins to shout at you, saying, "You are guilty." But when it comes to God’s kingdom, then it is Satyameva Jayate; the truth will be. This is also the prāṇa, so you are not afraid of anything. But you should be aware of your karma, which leads to destiny. There was a great king, Bhaṭṭhari. His cave and fireplace are in Ujjain. They asked me, "Let’s go and see." I said when there is no crowd from the Kumbh Melā, that time we will come. The story of Bhartarī you know very well; I have told it a few times. It is about that immortal fruit. A Mahātmā gave the king a fruit to eat that would make him immortal. The king loved his queen very much, so he said, "My queen should be immortal." He gave the fruit to his queen, saying, "My dear one, you should eat this fruit. A yogī gave it to me; it is immortal. Whoever eats it will be immortal. Promise me you will eat." She said, "Of course, my lord, I will eat when you give it." He gave it to her, and she put it in her room. The king said, "Why don’t you eat? It is so valuable. I have so much joy. I will sit and enjoy." The king said, "Okay." Unfortunately or fortunately, whatever you think—her bad luck, it was not in her kismet to have this immortality. She had a boyfriend, a lover, who was taking care of the horses, working in the stable. The next day she called him and gave him the fruit, saying, "My dear, you eat this fruit; it is immortal. You will be ever young, live long, and be healthy. Please don’t tell anyone. Promise me." He said, "Yes, dear queen," and took the fruit. He went to the horse stable, brushing his horse and thinking, "This stupid queen. How will I get rid of her? Whenever I want to go away, she arranges for me to come back to work at the stable." Many times he tried to go away, but again she sent a message to the king that he should work there. This is called a situation. He used to love another person, so-called street girls or prostitutes. In the evening he went to her and told the whole story of his life. He said, "Actually, I am fed up. I don’t want to live long anymore. I don’t know how many destinies I will create. But you know, I have a present for you. Promise me you will not tell anyone and will not give it to anyone. I wish that you eat this immortal fruit, and you will be ever young, beautiful, strong, healthy, and happy. I wish you are happy, healthy, and so on. Promise me." Such promises are many, no? This is a problem. Otherwise, it is said, "You gave your word; even if you had to give your life, you will not give up your promise." But we break our promise every minute. We change our mind: "I don’t like. I don’t wish. I’m sorry. I can’t help you." This is Kali Yuga. Otherwise, the Guru of God Rāma, Guru Vasiṣṭha, said, "Your whole destiny, you should know—your dynasty—they were truthful; whatever they promised, they kept it. If you will not follow the promise, then you will lose your dignities. You will not be the Mariyādā Puruṣottam Bhagavān Rāma." You know, sometimes God is also in trouble. God is in trouble. There is a bhajan: you can cheat God, but there should be someone who is a cheater. There were many cheaters; they cheated God because God is so clear and so naive. There is a long story about that. So, he let her promise. When he went away, she was sitting near the oil lamp at night, thinking, "God, you gave me a beautiful human body, you gave me this human birth, but why did you give me such a destiny? I am not happy. I want to die. And if I eat this fruit, will I forever have this horrible life? Merciful Lord, save me from this. How to come out of this situation?" Looking at the light of the oil lamp... If you wait honestly, God gives you a solution. She thought, who could be the best person in this world? One who is good for all people, animals, and everything. Not that boy, not that friend from the stable, not that queen. She thought of the king: "My God, this king is a great king. Our king is not a human; he is a God. If he survives, if he becomes immortal, that would be great." So she sent a message the next day and asked for an audience with the king. The king said yes, so around 11 o'clock he gave her time. She came, introduced herself, and said, "I have one prayer, please Lord, accept my wish." He said, "Yes, my daughter, what do you wish?" She said, "I got an immortal fruit; whoever eats it will become immortal. I don’t want to be immortal, but if you become immortal, I automatically feel I am immortal. So, my Lord, you should eat this fruit." He was surprised. That yogī had said there was only one fruit in the world. How did a second come? He felt it, smelled it; the form was the same, the weight the same. An immortal fruit never spoils; it is always fresh. He asked her, "From where did you get this, my daughter?" She told the truth. He gave her many gold coins and told her, "You don’t need to do any work. Live happily with this money properly." He liberated her from doing such karma. She went away. The king called the boy from the stable. He came, and the king asked, "Do you know this fruit?" He said, "Yes, Lord." "From whom do you have it?" "From that lady, and she told you I gave it to her." In front of the king, he could not lie. He knew one way or another, the king might kill him. So why not tell the truth? He told the story. The king said, "Okay, my son," gave him a lot of money, and told him, "Go away from this place as far as you can. Otherwise, the queen will have you killed." He gave him enough money, and he disappeared. Evening came, and the queen arrived. The king asked, "Did you eat that fruit? How was it? Was it tasty?" "My Lord, it was a heavenly fruit. One fruit was for Adam and Eve, and the second one was for me who got it. It was tasteful, divine." "I see. There is one fruit more? Oh my lord, now I am divine. I am immortal, and you will also be immortal. What a great thing God did!" But he said, "No, this fruit is the same which I gave you." She said, "Maybe it’s from the same tree." Then he told the whole story. She was ashamed. She wanted to die. So he threw the fruit away, left, and became a saint. He became self-realized; he became immortal. You see, even though he did not eat it, he touched the fruit. When it went to the second hand, it was second-hand; no more immortality there. Why am I telling you this story? Karma. That’s it. King Bhartṛi first wanted to adore, praṇām, respect all the devas and goddesses. Then he thought, all these devas and goddesses are also slaves of karma. Until they have karma, they will have this life, and then they will go again to Naraka. This is different. If you go to Svarga Loka, to heaven, when all your good karmas are used up, you go back. You had a lot of money in the bank and spent it all. Now you think the state bank will give you money? No, you go and work. So even from that heaven, Svargaloka, Vaikuṇṭha, when the karma is finished... Oh Lord, who said that? A deva, a divine god, said, "Oh Lord, when my karma is finished in this Svarga Loka, I have to come back to this chair, to the 8.4 million creatures' life. Please bless me again with a human life, that through guru bhakti I can get liberation. I don’t want to come again to Svarga Loka." Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt, Parabrahma Tasmai, Śrī Guruve Namaḥ. So, complete mokṣa, to become one with Brahman, is Guru Kripa. So King Bharata said, "Then I will not bow down to the goddess. Why should I not adore God?" So he wanted to pray to God, but then again he said, "God Himself is bound by destiny and karma." See the destiny of Kṛṣṇa, the destiny of Rāma, the destiny of Jesus—all gods who incarnated, even Śiva. Look at their destinies because they are also obliged to karma. So King Bhartṛi said, "Gods are also bound by karma." When God Rāma was in Śrī Laṅkā, what happened? His brother Lakṣmaṇa became unconscious, nearly died, and Rāma Himself was also in distress. The karma... God Rāma said: Śaśī ḍhal rahā. The moon is going down. Śamā ḍhal rahā. Time is passing. Lakṣmaṇ ke prāṇ jā rahe. Lakṣmaṇa's life is leaving. Very soon, when the sun rises, Lakṣmaṇa will die. Hanumān kab āhoge? O Hanumān, when will you come and bring the Sanjīvanī from the Himālaya? Bhagavān Rāma said, "Who knows from which life, which karma is now becoming active, becoming fruitful? Hanumān, come quickly." So, King Bhartṛi said, "What should I do? To whom should I adore?" If even God is not free from karma, so mighty strong is karma, then why should I not bow down to karma? Do not be afraid of anything, but be afraid, be careful of karma. In human life, the main principle, the law, the dharma, is bound to action, to karma. Karma is done in different ways: tannā, through the physical body; manasā, through the mind. When mentally you think negatively about someone, you did bad karma. You think nobody knows, but that karma knows. That Īśvara, Parameśvara, God knows, and your ātmā is sākṣī, the witness. Your ātmā will tell you satyameva jayate. "Oh, my ātmā, you know what is the reality." And that reality is bound to karma. That is karma. Therefore, use your viveka, O human. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, "Arjuna, before doing any karma, any action, use your viveka." Your intellect can be flexible; it can become the slave of your senses, but viveka cannot. Either you have no viveka, so you can’t decide, changing many things every day, every year. This is what, in Kali Yuga, people do: they change so many things. Not only this, you change your guru also, and then blame the guru. But the Guru said, "Oh, stupid disciple, you will suffer the karma." But the great ones, the wise ones, the honest ones, they know this. So, karma—why not? I bow down to karma. And then he did his sādhanā and became a great... So each thought, each movement, each word. Karma through body, karma through words—tannā, manasā, vācā. Bachan means words, promise. Bachan wala lage saame hi jaanu, aur ko kya bakhaanu? Hi jaanu, kai bakhaanu? Bachan wala lage saame hi jaanu. I know what is the Guru Vakya Vachana. Only I know that. No one understands that. How can I explain to you this promise, these words? It has become my self; I can’t tear it. It became my skin; I can’t take it away. When you take sannyās, this orange dress is your uniform. It’s not a cloth; it has become your skin. You promised when you took your mantra, when you took your Kriya—you gave the bachan, you gave your word. So tan man bachan: through the body, through the mind, and through the words. And the fourth one is called dhana: your money, your property, your position. You are using that power. So when you become a minister—some ministers, not all, generally all ministers are good, but sometimes one or two, these are immoral fruits—they can fall down before life, so they can’t keep their words. So tan, man, bachan, or dhana: these are the four ways to create karma. So be careful. The fruits come, some quickly and some take time, but they come. Gurudev again shows that māyā; it is coming. So great bhaktas and great saints, great humans, they keep their vows and do that sādhanā. In this, a big role is played by prāṇa. Prāṇa is the strength inside, and prāṇa will lead us. This is how prāṇa functions and how we create from our body an energy. That energy becomes the cause of our actions, and where action is reaction, and where reaction is digestion... So prāṇa is very strong. Good prāṇa comes to our brain; we speak nicely, we have good thoughts—perfect. But when negative prāṇa comes inside, then you are angry, or you are drunken, or you are in depression. That depression means strong, pure prāṇa is not there. Your prāṇa is paralyzed, so you fall down deep, and that is so painful. A doctor cannot tell you if you have pain. The organs are okay, blood pressure is okay, everything is okay, but you collapsed, you fall deep, and there is no more hope to come up. That one gives up on life; that’s depression, deep in deep you go. So there you need prāṇa. Different kinds of prāṇa give motivation and support. And, of course, that person has to follow the Vākyas. If you are attacked by laziness, by anger, by jealousy, etc., then you can’t come up out of this depression. So it is when in your kismet is everything, then no one can take it away from your hands. And if someone takes it out of your hand, they can’t take it out of your brain. You have everything there; immortality is there. And that immortal fruit is called bhakti, trust in God. That’s it. Trust in God means trust in thyself. "Yes, I will again do it and create it." So, prāṇa... Depression goes deep; consciousness and intellect collapse. This is not good. Therefore, practicing mantra, kriyā, anusthāna, doing sādhanā together from time to time—these are the examples of different saints. I am not talking from myself; I am telling you how great saints were giving us the message, the lessons. If someone tells you, "Don’t run this side; there is a deep water well," but you say no and you drown and fall down, that’s it. So the master can give you only the words, but you must analyze and follow yourself. Tamago.