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Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ, Sarve Santu Nirmāyāḥ, Sarve Bhadrāṇi Paśyantu, Mā Kacchid Dukkha Bhāga Bhave, Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ Rabhavatu. Salutation to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, Omniscient and Omnipresent. In His Divine Presence, good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome here in our āśram. Also, good evening to all the brothers and sisters, the devotees, the spiritual seekers, the aspirants, and practitioners of yoga and daily life around the world. In some parts of the world, you have good morning, so we wish you good morning. Those who have a birthday, I wish you a happy birthday. This blessing is coming to you from New Zealand, Wellington. First of all, I’m sure that all of you know and are aware there is an international petition to turn off lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in those parts of the world where it is evening, dark. It’s called the Hour for Earth, Earth Hour. For the protection of the environment, the consumption of electricity is also causing pollution in a different way, but mostly, to produce the energy creates a lot of pollution. The human has become a slave of electricity. The person who first invented and found this electricity was Tesla. Tesla was from ex-Yugoslavia. And when he found this, at the same time he realized that humans will become slaves of this magic power of electricity. Can we open windows here and there, please? We need more oxygen, thank you. And it is true that we became slaves of electricity. It made us very dependent. Many things cannot run without this power, especially hospitals. That’s very important: computers and many different things. But still, it is said, and Holy Gurujī said in his last lecture, that before some hundred years or a hundred years, people did not have all this kind of comfort like we have—all kinds of comfort, transport, communications. But before 100 years, though we did not have that kind of communication and transport and all this, people were more happy and healthy than now. The United Nations is constantly informing people and the organization, what is called the Earth Charter, also is a kind of NGO, and all other NGOs. The United Nations is asking to find or develop sustainable development. If we continue with this technology, then definitely we will fail. This technology and this kind of education that humans have will not lead to sustainability, but it will lead to distraction. There are two kinds of worlds. One world is the God-made world, which is perfect, and the second is the man-made world, which is not perfect. Human tries to correct the things, but it is not correct. Great ṛṣis, great seers, the yogīs or holy saints constantly warn the humans: Do not interfere in the nature of anything. Don’t abuse nature, don’t go against nature, otherwise nature will punish you, and the consequences you have to suffer. Now, around the world, again the consciousness has awoken in the humans. It begins to think now, what to do? It’s never too late. Yes, we can do something. In the last century, humans were somehow misguided and disappointed from the viewpoint of spirituality and God. In this 20th century, people were disappointed because of the two world wars, and these two world wars brought humans great suffering. Millions of people lost their lives senselessly, and millions and millions of children died or became orphaned. Millions of women became widows, and for what? All this for nothing. Nothing got better. And in the past histories, when we see time to time, there was always wars and fighting. War never brings peace. War prepares another war inside, what we call revenge. In Hinduism, in the Vedas, which are the first scriptures, in the Upanishads, which are after the Vedas, in the Purāṇas—if you have not read the Purāṇas, you don’t know anything about the universe. The modern science, what discovers or declares, this all is in Vedas and in Purāṇas written, everything. And that says, "Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ," all should be happy. And even there is a prayer, it is said, peace mantra for the earth, for the vanaspati, for the vegetation, for the herbs, and peace in the water, peace in the air, peace in the space, and even the peace in the... Cosmic consciousness and peace within me, home, dhyo, śāntir antarikṣam, śāntir pṛthivī, śāntir, and so on. Always, great men, the saints, they were praying for peace and to have peace. From the very beginning of this creation, in the manifestation of this universe, unfortunately, two different tendencies awoke. One is good, and one was not good or is not good. That’s called asurīśakti and devīśaktis. Asura means devils or satans or negative energy. And Devīśakti means positive or the holy or goddess. And when both these Śaktis have developed, of course, the Devas would like to govern the entire universe, and the Asuras also would like to govern the entire universe. And there was always war between Asuras, Rākṣasas, and the Devas. The king of heaven, Indra, many times lost his kingdom because the Asuras took over. There was always a fight. It was the Lord Śiva who had perfect control over both forces. And they obeyed Shiva. The Asuras even did not respect Vishnu. They were always fighting against him. But they respect Śiva, because Śiva was the creator, the first one in the universe. From time to time, changes come. So God, Kṛṣṇa, He said, for example, and also in the Rāmāyaṇa, He will say, God, Rāma, all whole incarnations, "O Arjuna, whenever the asurīśakti develops more and devīśakti is suffering, the sins are increasing, the sinners are more and more, and" The right house-ness, or religion, spirituality is suppressed. Time to time, Arjuna, through my yoga māyā, yoga śakti, I manifest it to destroy the negative energy and again purify and support the positive energy. As Mahātmā Gandhījī said, we hate the sins, we don’t hate the sinner. And so, God incarnates. He doesn’t destroy. He destroys only the negative energy, the negativities. It is said there was a Mahābhārata. And it is said, ever in the history, in the creation, there has been such a battle like the Mahābhārata. But that time, Kṛṣṇa had to incarnate. And Krishna tried his best that these things should not happen. But despite Krishna’s interference, even Krishna went as an ambassador of peace to the Kauravas, but they didn’t respect even God’s will and suggestion. So, dear brothers and sisters, from the very beginning, there is always quarreling, there is conflict, there is fighting, there is jealousy. The jñāna-happiness, because happiness and unhappiness both are running parallel. And this individual soul, not the ātmā; ātmā is not a soul. Ātmā is universal, and soul is individual. From the very beginning, this individual soul is fluttering on the waves of time, sometimes experiencing darkness and sometimes light, sometimes pain and sometimes pleasure. This jīva, this individual soul, how many times was disappointed. It stops somewhere, begins the creation, and attachment develops. You know this person, or this is not anymore for you, but still you are suffering for that. Ignorance is the cause of attachment, and attachment is the cause of suffering. Where there is love, there is no attachment. But where there is no love, there is only selfishness, there is fear. And where the fear is, this fear is coming from the attachment. It means to lose it. But it is said for humans, it is the instructions: know thyself. Who are you? Who am I? From where do I come? What is the purpose of my coming here? Oh human, eating, drinking, sleeping, and creating children—animals are also very active. If you do only this much, then... What is the difference between animals and you? Human life is given. The prime duty, the prime mission of human life is self-realization. To come out of the cycle of birth and death, charāsī, come out of this suffering. And those who realize this spirituality, wisdom, the love of God, then it is said, "Now I became divine, happy, intoxicated in the divine love." And all different kinds of juice, this worldly enjoyment, is for me now tasteless. And so, who am I? And from where do I come? What is the purpose of my coming here? Just to create children? Build a house? Animals can do too. The birds can make beautiful nests. No. We humans are born here as protectors, to protect God’s divine creation. Sabhi prāṇī merī ātmā hai. All creatures are myself, the ātmā. Ātmā sohī paramātmā. And ātmā is the supreme one. The soul, which is individual, floats on the waves of time through the endless universe, suffering its destiny. And destiny is a production of our karma. Destiny is the fruits of our karma. And karma we do through four things: tan, man, bachan, or dhana. These are the four ways to create the karma. Tan means body, man means mind, dhana means the wealth or social power, and bachan means the words, the verbal. Be careful with these things, to deal with these things. Therefore, before doing anything, O Arjuna, before doing any karma, you should know the form of the karma, what you are doing. Then your vivekā will give you results even now. What will be the result of these deeds? What kind of destiny will there be? But humans ignore this to accept. Human thinks, "I am the greatest one, I can do all that I like." But this is only for two days’ life God has given you. One day was yesterday, the second is today, tomorrow no one has seen. So when you go to India, many things are written somewhere, and you can learn many things. Behind the trucks, many good things are written, yes, that I cannot translate. So also, social relations, community relations—so there are small shops, and people come and they say, "Please, can I have this? I will pay you money tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." And then they forget, for one year they don’t pay. So on the small shops, return aaj rokad or kal udār. Today, pay in case. Tomorrow, you can borrow. And tomorrow never comes, because every day is a return. Āj Rokad. Therefore, do din kī jindagī, chār din kī chandnī, ākhir andherī rāt. Two days of life: one day is today, and one day was yesterday. Oh, human, wake up. What human do you think you are, that you would like to enjoy? But that kind of joy which you would like to enjoy will be more painful than the joy of that enjoyment. One day there was a person who was most dearest to you, the dearest one for you. And now that one became like an enemy for you, or left you alone. Love is gone because this material love is changeable. The divine love never changes, and therefore, the great sense always was warning us: "Human, don’t play with nature. Respect the law of nature." And so the United Nations’ answer can only be, or that wish can be fulfilled, only if we go back to our ancient way of life and system. I am so happy that someone in whose mind these thoughts came, for one hour, for the earth to put off the light. But you know, in India, we are not doing only for one hour. Sometimes we have a whole day with no electricity. It’s true. In India, that’s why it’s called color for India, you know? You go under the shower, and you have soap or shampoo on your hair, and no more water. What a beauty. And you have an electric shaver, and you plug in and you are shaving. Half is finished, and the electric is gone. No more electricity there. So many things, they are so joyful. In the beginning, people who go from here to India, they say, "God, in India everything is so terrible." We have in New Zealand, everything is perfect. I never experienced the light is gone. You never experienced. That’s why we make the light off now, so that you can experience. So, boond boond se ghaṛā bhartā hai. One, one drop can fill the pot. If we can light all the candles with one matchstick, then why should we use two matchsticks? That is the thinking. In one matchbox, there are 30 matchsticks. And if you use two every day, then you have only enough for 15 days. And if you use three, you have only enough for 10 days. But if you use only one per day, then you have enough for one month. This is not because we are greedy, no. To save, protect from pollution. Now we are living here. Use and throw. Use and throw. But where to throw? Did you ever think? We throw on this planet. You go in the bathroom and take so much shampoo or soap. Clean eyes. But do you know where this whole chemical goes? In our earth. Humans have polluted our Earth completely. So we have to think step by step. In India, even now we have banana leaves for eating. What do you think? Use and throw, but again used. The cows eat. How natural, how healthy. It is environmentally friendly. Or tree leaves plates, dūnapātra. You know Indians, dūnapātra? I wish that we could export dunapāṭal to New Zealand. Yes, that will be a very good business. Is there some businessman here? Yes, that would be very, very good business to introduce that you can use and throw, but is environmentally friendly. For tea, we have a cooler, and now we have here plastic bags. Our cups, you know, when the tourist goes from New Zealand to India, sitting in the train, and even the tea is served in the train, garam garam chāī, oh my God, they sing like, they offer you tea like singing. It’s recording, you can record. Messana station ātā hai. Garam garam chai, Bābujī. They speak so sweetly that even if you don’t want to drink, you would like to drink. And they give you a beautiful cup, and he’s gone. And what Indians do, they drink and they throw their cup. It’s a ceramic cup made out of clay. And many tourists who go, they don’t throw away. They bring it home, back to New Zealand, as a souvenir. Beautiful, so beautiful. They said, "Oh God, how can Indians throw such things?" Indians said, "We throw every day. We are rich people." What to do, you know? If life is boring, then go to India. Your airplane time is 11 o’clock night, and you start 8 o’clock from the hotel. The taxi man stops and begins to talk with the neighbors, and you said, "But I have to go to the airport." He said, "Don’t worry, sir." Then there is a red light, and then a traffic jam, and you said, "Please find a way." He said, "Don’t worry, sir." And it’s already nine o’clock, it’s 9:30, it’s ten o’clock. He said, "Oh God, I will miss my train." He said, "Don’t worry, sir." He said, "Yes, you just tell me, don’t worry, I will miss my airplane." He said, "No, you will not miss, sir." And 45 minutes before he reached the airport, he goes in. And they said, "Yes, sir, come. There is a free counter check-in. Welcome." So quickly, and you go past control so quickly, and you are sitting there, still you have half an hour’s waiting time. In India, everything goes to the nerves, you know. But at the end, it’s a happy operation, a peaceful operation. And therefore, it is like that. One day, a train came from Ahmedabad to Rajasthan Park, Jaipur. And people were standing there at the platform, and the train came 15 minutes earlier. So people said, "Wow, that is something today." The train came 15 minutes early. Another one says, "No, no, this is the train which should have come yesterday." So in India, it’s never boring. It’s very serious, very peaceful. When you come to India, they take your passport. Okay, sir, enjoy. They don’t ask you, "Do you have food with you? Do you have this and that?" So, take it easy. Easy, though you are very busy. And sometimes we have another beautiful thing, which no world has. You see, from where from pollution? I’m coming to other pollution, but that’s not. This is a very interesting thing. The American President Bill Clinton sent a commission of five people to India to find out what kind of technology India had which we don’t have, because India is a developing, fast-developing country, and India has the atom energy and everything. So which kind of technology do they have that we still don’t have? So the whole group of five or ten people were traveling for ten months throughout India. And they visited all different kinds of techniques and technology, everything, but nothing was newer than America. Well, their last time, the last days, still they have to go to Punjab to find out if they have some technology. And what happened? Ten o’clock in the night, or evening, they had one minibus, an eight-seater van, and it broke. In the middle of the forest somewhere, there are no big villages there, only small villages. No light, no electricity, happy all are sleeping, no discos, no clubs, no traffic light, red or green. Now they are standing in the forest. What to do? It is dark. So, there was one Indian guide and an Indian driver. So, the guide told the driver, "Go into the village and bring someone who can make a technology called Jugaad." Make the Jugaad. So, the driver went. There were small farmers’ houses, ten, maximum about twenty. And he knocked on the door. One man got up and said, "Yes, sir." He said, "What happened? What happened?" Our car engine stopped. There is diesel, there is oil, water, everything. Okay, he took a hammer, one screwdriver, and a few wires—iron wires. And the American said, "What will he do with a hammer and this and that?" He opened the bonnet, and with a hammer—the Americans said, "What are you doing?" Just a moment—with the hammer, he was beating. He was twisting the wire with his teeth and put it in and tied it like this, strong, and tied it to some part of the other wire or motor so that it doesn’t go away. And he said, "Start." It was started. Okay. The American said, "Which technology was this?" He said, "Sir, that’s called Jugard." Now they went back to India. Clinton asked them, "Is there any new technology which we don’t have?" They said, "Sir, India has a lot of technology, but we have all except one." Which is that one? Sir, it’s called Jugaad. Okay. Mr. Clinton visited India. And Indian Prime Minister Bajpayee, they had a meeting. Meeting. So Clinton said to Vajpayee, Mr. Prime Minister, can you give us the technology called the Jugaad? Vajpayee smiled and said, "Your excellency, Mr. Clinton, Mr. President, you can have everything from India, but not Jugaad." That’s it. Now, you people don’t understand what that is. What I told, the Indians understood. Even if I explain it to you, you will not understand this technology. Now, this means our ancestors or tribes, the people who lived in villages, they had many, many different kinds of techniques and ideas for how to let it function for the time being. I can tell you only one very little idea about Jugaad because Indians will be angry that I give the Jugaad here. For example, you have an electric charger and you put in the plug, but the plug is very loose and always the plug comes out. What to do? You put the plug in, and then you put your charger in, and the plug falls down. What to do? You are not an electrician. You don’t dare to open and repair. Of course, it’s dangerous. The Indian will come to make a jugadā. And what will he do? He will take a used, used mastic, dieselite. And he will put the mastic inside and the bulb plug inside. Okay, it will not fall down. That’s called a jugās. So it’s never boring. So it means we shall do the things which are good for our economy, good for our environment, good for our country, and that we have everything that we need. If you like, my dear brothers and sisters, make a vow, a saṅkalpa, that from today on I will not use any cups or plates or glasses which are called just once use and throw. We begin our international seminars by asking our friends or students, "Please bring your plate, cup, and spoon with you, but not plastic." And you will not believe that they really bring it. And not only this, they are so happy and tell us, "Thank you," on behalf of our planet and for the environment. So I would tell you, whenever you come to the ashram, bring your own cup or glass for drinking water and tea. It is more clean hygienically because it is yours. And if there is a program with eating, then bring your one plate with you. Why not? And take it back home. It is a little thing, but we can do a little, little, one by one, drop by drop can fill the pot. The Assisi, holy friends from Assisi, said in his one song, "There is one film called ’Brother Sun and Sister Moon.’" And there is one song, "Day by Day and Stone by Stone." Day by day and stone by stone, he built his church. And so, if one begins, then the other will begin. That’s called a grass project. Now, grass project in Vedic culture, everything is done with ceremony and prayers and Vāstu Śāstra. When you buy the land, you will first look: which is a good constellation that you buy the ground? Second, which is the... The best constellation for an earth-breaking ceremony, digging the foundation for the house. Third, when is the best constellation for the foundation stone? And which direction should the door and windows be, and how? And the fourth, when you first begin to cook in that house, that you move into the house. That is what you people call here a housewarming party. But there is no housewarming party, only the first time when you make fire. That is very important. And here you live already five weeks or five months, and then you invite your friends to your birthday or housewarming party. What are you warming? Constellation. There are certain constellations which bring in family happiness. And so, when we put the stone, the foundation stone, we put inside certain things, symbolically. We put one male and one female snake made out of silver. It is believed that the earth is balanced on the head of Śeṣa Nāga, and that will balance your house, your entire house. Then they put this grass, which we have on the lawn. That’s called a grassroots project. So little grass there. As the grass will multiply like this, you will have more family members, healthy and happy. All will be happy, so it is not only we think that it is blind belief. What do we call blind faith? Go? And viśvāsa, blind faith, superstition, yeah. But it has a sense in it. So Vedic dharma means not a dharma, all it has written in the book, a religion, but to respect and follow the natural rules. And so it’s very beautiful. I’m very happy that we today put off the light for one hour, and dear brothers and sisters, it doesn’t matter what you do, spirituality is the first thing. So in the last two decades, spiritual consciousness has begun to awake in the young generation. The young generation has begun to practice more and more yoga, meditation, and prayers. You will see the yoga centers are more full than the temples or the churches because there they can learn practically, experience practically, and feel the spirituality in their practices. And so, around the world, every fifth person is practicing yoga, meditation, and prayers. If you practice every day just five minutes of silent meditation, then in two days it will be 10 minutes. In three days, it will be 15 minutes. And in one month, 150 minutes. How nice. And you cannot sit for two and a half hours at once. Slowly, slowly, step by step. So why, how to meditate? The best meditation I can tell you, last time I also told. First, of course, you should have a mantra from your guru. And meditation without mantra is a body without a soul. Sit down, relax, do nothing. Close your eyes and repeat your mantra. That’s all. That’s the best meditation. Other is only imagination, and this and that. This we are doing always to keep busy. Time passes. Every holy saint, every yogī, every monk in the monastery and monks in the caves, they do not make these imaginations. They have the name of God and inner silence. Inner silence is the key to open the lock of that door which will allow you to enter into the Ātmā. Five minutes is not very much. If not, this is too much, more than one minute. When you get up in the morning, take one minute of time before you get out of the bed. Just say God’s name, your mantra, and you can say, "Merciful Lord, thank you for your beautiful protection in my sleep and that I can wake up. I offer to thee, O my Lord, my body, mind, senses, and everything. Please guide my steps whole day towards beautiful things, positive things, according to Thy divine will. Not my destiny, but Thy divine will." In India, even we have the mantras when we get up, and first you put your foot on the earth, on Mother Earth, you have to excuse yourself. Divine Mother Earth, excuse me that I step on you. My weight of the body will be bothering you, maybe. Oh, Divine Mother, excuse me. What beautiful thoughts humans have always had. When you touch the first water, you say, "Thank you." Did you ever realize what the water means? You don’t know. But people in the Sahara or in Australia, where it rains once in five years, they know what water means. So thank you, God. Everything. What happens? Thank you, Lord, and help to protect all this, for that is the life God has given to human beings. So in this, we have to awaken the consciousness, and it should become something clear to us, and the different energies dormant in different... Chakras, yes. Then you have to practice different meditations: how to awaken the chakras, how to guide the energy, or what is the kuṇḍalinī śakti? Yesterday I had a lecture about kuṇḍalinī, or was it this morning? This morning, sorry. And Manipūra cakra, tomorrow will also be continuing. So, help please to protect this planet, and if you will minimize your needs, you will be so happy, and it’s economic. Now, there is a new washing powder or something new developed. And that is, there is one thing, small. How many times can you use it? No, no,... not the nuts. That is only four, six times. Monica, how much is that one? For two months, 60 times, you can wash the things. And it’s not a chemical. It’s just some kind of a ball. And environment-friendly and very cheap. My God, that we should have all a ball, laddu, you know. So that laddu is a very good laddu, no chemicals, and your laundry will be so nice and clean. Or there are nuts, they are coming from India. They are called washed nuts. Do you know this, all Indians? Indians, do you know? You don’t know. Harita, yes, Harita, yes. Harita, that four, five times you can use it. Three, four nuts put in one cloth, and put it where you are putting, where the dress is, that’s all. It will come clean. There is no, no, any kind of, oh, thank you, my God, yoga. People are really doing something good for the environment. Yes. And people are surprised that the master is carrying with him shampoo. So this heritage looks something like this, yes. Or they keep it away from children. It’s not for eating nuts or washing nuts. Thank you. So in India, the goldsmith is mostly used to clean the gold. Thank you. Is it available in New Zealand? Oh, take. So this is spirituality. Don’t think about what we have to do for the protection of the environment. Oh, yes, that’s spirituality. Our planet is known as a living planet. There is life in this. Even in the air, there is life. And we can do many, many good things. So I wish you all the best: good health, first of all peace and harmony, long life, and spiritual development. God bless you, and thank you for listening. You were sitting so long from 6 o’clock onwards, so I wish you all the best.