TV Channel

We begin with the peace mantra: Om. Asato mā sad gamaya. Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. Mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya. Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ. The blessings of Śrī Alagpurījī Siddhāpīṭha Paramparā to all dear ones. Prāṇa. Without prāṇa, nothing can exist in life or in any form. Prāṇa operates on all levels of our being; it is our vital energy as well as our awareness or consciousness. Recently, we spoke about nourishment—a different kind of nourishment. When we speak of food or nourishment, it is not just physical. There is the physical nourishment from food and water. Then comes the nourishment of being in society: speaking positive and wise words, kind words. That is very important. It depends on where and how you feel yourself full of prāṇa. The nourishment we spoke of is not merely about filling ourselves. It could be negative. Consider how our food comes to us. There are large plantations, for example, banana plantations. The people who work there labour very hard, and their little children work with them, which is child labour—a prohibited practice. These bananas are all exported. The workers and their children are not allowed to eat them. The bananas are exported half-ripe. They are treated with a white chemical powder at night, and by morning they are yellow. This is the negative part of our health. The negative part of the astral prāṇa is that those children have no access to the bananas, and we buy and eat them. We have taken this food away from these poor people and children. Sometimes we see documentaries about coffee or tea plantations. There, children often lie under the plants spraying poisons, and they have no access to the coffee beans. They get only some kind of beans to boil and eat. That is all. So when you sit and enjoy your coffee, consider how it came to your lips. That is not positive. Though it may be vegetarian or even organic, it was still taken away. It is said that for every grain of food, there is a written name of who will eat it. We should know how our food came to us. That kind of food, if its origin is negative, will change your way of thinking. There is one story. There was a bandit, a criminal. He had a beautiful horse that he rode. He would go to places and take money and everything away from people. When he came to a village, people would hear he was there and slowly flee from the other side. He had his gang. One day, he was riding on horseback in the desert. It was very hot. In the jungle, there was one nice green tree, and under it a sādhu was meditating. The bandit saw him, and merely looking, merely seeing the sādhu, changed his thoughts. He came intending to take everything from the one sitting under the tree. He came near and said, "Who are you?" The sādhu replied, "I am a yogī, a sādhu. I am meditating." The bandit's thoughts were changing. He was thinking, 'People say if you feed a saint, you get good karma.' Chanting OM was changing his feelings. That bandit—in earlier decades they were called mafia, now they get upgraded to criminals, then terrorists, and so on. It is changing. They have their rights; they speak there. It is not a joy for them; they want to achieve something. But this is not our subject. He said, "Did you eat today, Gurujī?" Oh, he had changed his mind. Before, he had said "Bābājī," and before that, "What are you doing here?" As long as he looked at this yogī, this saint, the man was changing. He was thinking, 'What is happening to me? This is unpleasant.' But inside, he felt good. So he said, "Swāmījī, Gurujī, did you eat today?" The sādhu said, "No, Bhakta. It is eleven o'clock noon. Someone, God will send some food." The bandit said, "Then please give me the chance, the seva. I will bring food for you." The sādhu asked, "What is your profession?" The bandit could not lie. He said, "I am a criminal. I am stealing or taking away." The sādhu said, "Then I cannot eat your food." The bandit said, "What? It is your good luck that I today offer you some food. In my life, I never offer anything to anyone, not even to my wife." The sādhu said, "Maybe, but I cannot eat food which you touched or you bring." "But I want to give you food. You will eat my food," insisted the bandit. "Why should I? I will not," said the sādhu. So the bandit went away. He jumped on his horse and said, "I will, my food he will eat today." There was a restaurant about four kilometers away. He went to the restaurant. The owner thought, 'Oh my God, bad luck, how this devil came. Now he will definitely come to take money from us.' The restaurant owner said, "Sir, sir, please welcome. What a great day. Nice to see you, sir. Come in, what can I serve you? Some cold drink, or hot drink, or some different kind of drink?" The bandit said no. The owner brought $20,000. "This is for you. It is my pleasant pleasure." The bandit said, "No, today I am not coming here to take money. Next time, today, not well." He was thinking, 'I pray to God that he will not come again the second day.' He said, "Well, about four kilometers away, there is one tree called the Kejri tree." In Sanskrit, it is called the Samidhā tree. It is said that when someone dies and is cremated, if you have the wood of that tree, it is said that you will come to Svarga Loka, or your soul will find peace. That tree is mostly used for the yajña—the bark and the wood. It grows only in certain climates, like Rajasthan's desert. We have in our Jardin Ashram a minimum of 100 trees. You can always utilize it, but not for a funeral. You can bring one piece of wood and keep it on your altar or in your house. It purifies the Vāstu Doṣa. If you have the tree in your house or garden or on the property, that is best. That tree has fruits which we are offering you to use and eat. It has many nutrients and health benefits. Even if it does not rain for two or three years, the tree survives. If you have a fever or feel ill, you lie down in the shadow of that tree, and you will get more prāṇa than from any other tree. The banyan tree and the kejri tree give mostly oxygen and good energy. "Well," the bandit told the owner, "under that Kejri tree, one sādhu is sitting. Please bring the best food, the best menu, all different kinds of food, and milk, and yoghurt, and butter, and what else? Make the best food. He is my Gurujī." The owner said, "Yes, of course, sir. I will do my best in everything." "I am sitting here," said the bandit. "You go feed him. Eat what remains, bring the prasād." So the owner made a tiffin thermos with nice food and went to the sādhu. He said, "Gurujī, food for you." The sādhu asked, "What are you doing? What is your profession?" "I have a little restaurant." "Okay, Bhakta, it will be all okay. Good business, everything will be good. Thank you for bringing food." And the Gurujī ate. After eating, he took the prasād and gave it to the bandit. So the bandit also ate. While eating, he said to the restaurant man, "I promise you, I will never do anything bad and take any money from you forever. You are free from me. But one thing: whenever I come, give me good eating, like for Gurujīs." You see how things are changing. And he went away. When the restaurant owner brought the food and the sādhu was eating, at the end of the meal the sādhu asked, "How far is the village from here?" Otherwise, he never went to the village. But this eating changed his thinking. He was living under the trees; now he wanted to go to the village. "Is there a temple?" The owner said, "Yes, Gurujī. About five kilometers from here is a nice village. About three kilometers from there is a beautiful lake, and there is a Kṛṣṇa temple." The sādhu said, "Oh, nice. Thank you." After four o'clock, he went towards that village. Outside the village, there was a beautiful Kṛṣṇa temple. He went there and asked the priest, "Are there some rooms or facilities to stay?" The priest said, "Yes, there are two or three rooms for sādhus, so you can stay here." The temple platform was higher, and down below were some rooms. He put his things in a room, and there was a prayer. They opened the altar, and the āratī prayer began. There was a beautiful golden statue of Kṛṣṇa, about 50 cm in height. They were doing āratī. That sādhu, during the āratī, was hypnotized. Do not do like this āratī. But he was fixed on the golden Kṛṣṇa statue. The whole statue was made of gold. He thought, 'Tonight I will kidnap this Kṛṣṇa.' He said to the paṇḍit, "Go sleep quickly today. I will meditate." The paṇḍit said, "I am not sleeping here. I sleep at home." "Is there someone who is sleeping here?" "You and Kṛṣṇa." "Oh, thank you. So, when is the morning prayer?" "3:30. Kṛṣṇa gets up so early. He never sleeps. This is the problem. Kṛṣṇa has a problem; he cannot sleep. But we close the curtains." He said, "Okay." About two o'clock or two-thirty, he got up and went to hug the Kṛṣṇa statue. He was moving like this—you know what it means—trying to pull out the statue. Gold. He managed to take Kṛṣṇa out. He wrapped him in a towel and ran away toward that lake. He wanted to throw Kṛṣṇa into the lake, thinking he would come back for it later. 'We are at home, no problem. And Gurujī, this side... Śrī Rām Jaya Rām Jaya Jaya Rām, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Śrī Kṛṣṇa... Śrī... Rām Jaya Rām Jaya Śrī Rām Śrī Kṛṣṇa Śrī Kṛṣṇa Śrī Kṛṣṇa Śrī Kṛṣṇa Svayaṃ Vara Rāma Candra Bhagavānkī, Kṛṣṇa Bhagavānkī.' Then the pūjārī came at 3:30. He opened the curtains, and there was no Kṛṣṇa. He began ringing the bell loudly and continuously. The village people got up and came running quickly. The pūjārī said Kṛṣṇa was missing—a 50 cm height gold statue is very heavy. He said, "Someone has stolen it. Do you know who was here yesterday, or anybody here?" "No, there is only one sādhu who was living under... yesterday he came living in that room downstairs." They went there; there was no sādhu. Meanwhile, dawn rose. They saw the sādhu was running, so they followed the footprints. They saw him running, and a young boy was running behind—like our Hari, my God, about 50 boys. The sādhu thought, 'Today is the last day of my life. Kṛṣṇa, do something.' He was carrying Kṛṣṇa like this. Kṛṣṇa said, "Take me to the lake. Bring me there." Meanwhile, all the food was digested. He got śraddhā buddhi; he got good thoughts back. He was about 50 meters from the water of the lake, and the people surrounded him. They said, "Stop! What are you doing?" He said, "Don't disturb. Don't disturb. Kṛṣṇa will be very angry." "What are you saying, stupid?" "No, no, you are stupid. Kṛṣṇa said, 'Since you put him in the temple, he never, never had a proper bath in the lake. So he came to my bed and said, 'Please, can you bring me to the lake and bathe me?' So, boys, come and help me. Carry Kṛṣṇa and let him bathe.'" So everybody began saying, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa... water, Kṛṣṇa, water, Kṛṣṇa, Abhiṣeka, Kṛṣṇa, Hare, Hare, Mahādeva, Kṛṣṇa." They were washing it all, and then, while singing Kṛṣṇa's bhajan, they brought the statue back, and the sādhu put it there again. The whole village said, "Thank you, Swāmījī, thank you, Swāmījī. Kṛṣṇa spoke to you. This is not a statue. Oh, great. Please, Swāmījī, you should stay here." He said, "I will think it over," and he went away. He was thinking, 'Why did my vṛtti, my thoughts, become so stupid? I never go towards villages. I never stay somewhere. I am in the forest.' So he went to the restaurant and asked the owner, "The food you brought to me, how did you know me, and how did you inspire yourself to bring me the food?" The owner said, "That bandit came to me yesterday about quarter to twelve, and he asked, he said, 'Bring food to Gurujī.' So I brought it." The sādhu asked, "Did he pay you, or you brought it as it is?" "No, no. That day, surprisingly, miraculously, he gave me the money for the food. Because he said, 'Today is for Gurujī. And I will not take food from you without paying.'" "Okay, thank you," said the sādhu. "That bandit, I refused to have his food, but he succeeded. As a result, I had to suffer these old troubles. So only one food from someone's name, it came to him. That spoiled all his prāṇa." So it is not that we merely have to eat, but we should know what we eat and how the food came to me. Therefore, it is said: Lucky are the farmers. Best is the farming. To be employed somewhere is to be a slave. Business is a middleman. In business, there is more lying, but the best is farming. It is the farmers. They make from their blood, sweating. At that time, everyone had better vṛttis. Now, this is how it is about the vṛttis, all that we call anything—criminals or terrorists or whatever—because they have nothing to do. They did not get proper instructions or education. So what you drink, what you eat, where you sit, with whom you are talking, to whom you are touching, etc., influences our body, our psyche, our spirituality, everything. So it is not so easy that you are doing everything and that it will be good. So, prāṇa. How to collect positive, best prāṇa? How to select? Then we are more healthy, and we have good prāṇa. But how much prāṇa goes into your body? If you hug someone, there are two rivers coming together. From both sides, energy. Positive is good. Negative can quickly pollute our positive energy. Clean water goes to the clean; it will be clean. But if dirty water comes, the dirty water will remain dirty, and it will make the pure water dirty. So your energy—what you have, with whom you are mostly together, what kind of energy goes into your body by touch, by feelings, many things. That is why keep distance; do not become a garbage container. So there is a purity; then prāṇa will very quickly come to the spirituality. Otherwise, so many thoughts which we get—it is from many. There are many different causes who talk to you and give blackmailing that will destroy you. So, prāṇa. We will come again to the prāṇa. Wish you all the best, and we will come further. Meditation, mantras, kriyās, āsanas, walking, swimming, flying, levitating. Everything will come. Slowly, slowly. Slowly, slowly. Deepnayān Bhagvānkī, Devīśvar Mahādevkī, Mādhav Kṛṣṇa Bhagvānkī, Satya Sanātan Dharmkī. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.