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Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī. Devādhī Dev Deveśvara Mahādeva Kī. Alak Purījī Mahādeva Kī. Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī. Satguru Swāmī Madhavānajī Bhagavān Kī. Today is Guru Pūrṇimā, which falls on a Thursday and a full moon. Thursday is the day of Gurudeva and Jupiter, and the full moon is Pūrṇimā. Therefore, the true Pūrṇimā is when it coincides with Thursday. Today is also Rakṣā Bandhan, the World Day of Sisters and Brothers, a day to renew the tradition of brotherhood. It is said that women can bring peace to the world. Yes, they can. If women decide for world peace, they can achieve it. Woman is a power. How? A woman must bring harmony, understanding, peace, and education to her children. Thus, Rakṣā Bandhan is an acknowledgement of the woman. Both Guru Pūrṇimā and Rakṣā Bandhan are very important. We are discussing Jñāna Yoga, Rāja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Karma Yoga. We will continue with this subject. Jñāna Yoga encompasses everything. Rāja Yoga encompasses everything. Bhakti Yoga encompasses everything, and Karma Yoga and Rāja Yoga encompass everything. They support each other. Karma Yoga needs Bhakti Yoga. Karma Yoga needs Jñāna Yoga. And Karma Yoga also needs Rāja Yoga. To perform karma sevā, you need discipline. You need devotion. Without devotion, you cannot perform selfless service. To perform Karma Yoga, you need knowledge. For instance, we might say, "Chip little branches from the trees and clean under them." If someone does not understand and chops down the whole tree, why? Because that person lacked jñāna, knowledge. So we need Jñāna Yoga, knowledge. We need discipline and devotion; then our Karma Yoga will be successful. Yoga is perfected through karma. Now, Bhakti Yoga, devotion. Bhakti Yoga needs Karma Yoga. You must act. Clean your temple. Clean your altar. Keep your altar clean and perform daily pūjā. Read holy books and be kind to all. You should have knowledge about these practices; that is Jñāna Yoga. You should perform your pūjā with discipline; that is Rāja Yoga. And when you do all this cleaning and other duties, it is Karma Yoga. Thus, Bhakti Yoga cannot function fully without utilizing the other branches of yoga. Similarly, for Jñāna Yoga, they are all interconnected. Like our body, composed of five elements, where each element is united with the others. This is very important. Rāja Yoga is discipline. It consists of eight steps, often called Aṣṭāṅga Yoga. Many people say, "I practice Aṣṭāṅga Yoga," but they have no real idea. In America, I met people who said they were doing Aṣṭāṅga Yoga. I asked, "What are you doing? Āsanas? Prāṇāyāma? And meditation or concentration?" That is not complete Aṣṭāṅga Yoga. Some call it Aṣṭāṅga Yoga and some call it Integral Yoga. What is it? Rāja Yoga: Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna, Samādhi. Many hardly reach Dhāraṇā, which means concentration. Meditation is very far off. Samādhi? Forget it. They only know the name. You need discipline. Integral yoga, aṣṭāṅga yoga, rāja yoga, and Patañjali yoga are terms to understand correctly. Now, Haṭha Yoga is a completely different branch. Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Rāja Yoga, and Jñāna Yoga are the four main paths. But Haṭha Yoga is different, though still connected to these four. Sahaja Yoga is also connected. "Sahaja" means spontaneous. Spontaneously, you might be in an emotional state, happily dancing, or suddenly fall asleep. Otherwise, in Sahaja Yoga, you spontaneously enter samādhi. Practically, Sahaja Yoga means you spontaneously feel you are in samādhi. There are many imaginations. Some place their hand somewhere and feel warmth, claiming energy is rising. This is called Sahaja Yoga. Everyone can feel their head is warm. The day your brain becomes cold, that is permanent samādhi. People believe differently. Some say, "I give you mantra dīkṣā and immediate enlightenment." Yes, immediately. You close your eyes. Enlightenment. You press. Do you see it? Now you are enlightened. Such things are not necessary. What is necessary is Guru Kripa, the Guru's grace and guidance, which is a bit strict but disciplined. In this Kali Yuga, many do not want discipline. They get mantras and blessings and think that is enough. They think, "Now I have my guru. I can do what I want. I don't follow what he said. I have the mantra." That does not work. If you truly wish to achieve ātmā jñāna, self-realization, liberation, immortality, divinity, and saintliness, then you must follow what the Master says. Otherwise, you are in trouble. There is a story. A master and disciple were traveling. Their saṅkalpa, their principle, was to stay overnight wherever the sun set. After sunset, they would not travel further, perhaps only 50 or 100 meters at most. This follows the Jaina tradition. When the sun sets, they withdraw. They stay put, using no artificial light to avoid harming moths, adhering to ahiṃsā. Today, they may not use firelight but have other illuminations. But the sādhus follow this. They rise before sunrise and travel from four in the morning to a cool, peaceful place, walking their entire lives without vehicles or shoes. There are many principles. When they take sannyās, the rules dictate that a sādhu should not go alone. There should be two or three sādhus or sādhvīs together, or a trustworthy person accompanying them, carrying their few belongings. Similarly, for sannyāsa, one should not stay alone. In your ashram, do not stay alone; have someone with you. There are certain rules. Of course, you can travel alone on an aeroplane because there are many people; this is not a strict rule. These rules are for your sādhanā and protection. If you do not follow them, you fall back. You may read many books and create your own dreams, but you lose the way. A sannyāsī should be complete. That is why in Akhāḍās, there are pañc, śrīpañc, śrīmant, and others who always travel in a group called a jamāt. This is for receiving sannyās dīkṣā. For what? You become a sannyāsī to attain mokṣa, brahmajñāna, ātmanubhūti, aparokṣānubhūti, etc. This must be followed. It is not merely wearing orange robes and doing as you please. For everything in human life, there are rules. Even animals often do not go alone; they stay with their companions. Birds gather on trees. Monkeys come together every evening. There are even "hugging monkeys" in the Brazilian rainforest. I was there about four years ago. Every day, vast hectares of rainforest are destroyed by bulldozers. So-called learned people, engineers with diplomas, decide the jungle is useless and not commercial. They clear it and plant commercial trees like eucalyptus, which grow quickly and are used for construction. Well-intentioned people try to protect the rainforest, but money and politics prevail. You have no power; politicians do as they wish. If you fight, you go to jail. That is the world today. I went there, and we planted a peace tree. There are beautiful birds, monkeys, and animals. One type of monkey, quite large, jumps from tree to tree. In the evening, they all gather. The eldest monkey sits, and every monkey comes and hugs him before sitting down. They are called hugging monkeys. They embrace like a grandfather. Even animals have unity; they are not alone. Therefore, a sannyāsī should always be accompanied by a good person. Then your sādhanā will be complete. Otherwise, you merely dream, read books, and think, "Guru Devī has blessed me, that's all. I don't need him. I'll come for a lesson and blessing now and then, then hurry home." Gurudeva is not a bank where you withdraw money and leave. We need harmony between master and disciple. Now, the story. A master and disciple traveled with the rule to stop at sunset, whether in a village, jungle, forest, or desert. One day, they arrived at a small village. At that time, money had value. The disciple asked, "How much is ice cream?" He was told one crown per kilo. "Wow! Ice cream! One kilo!" He said, "Give me one kilo of ice cream." He brought it to the master. The master asked, "What did you buy?" The disciple said, "This food is for you to eat, and this ice cream is for me." The master asked, "Is the ice cream the same price?" "Yes, Master." The peculiarity of this village was that everything cost the same price. The master said, "Then we will not stay here. There is no difference between a saint and a thief, a king and a beggar. Everything is equal. We should not stay. Let's go." The disciple pleaded, "Master, I'm tired. You always say to keep discipline. The sun has set; after a long time, we are in a little village. Let us stay." The master said, "No, let's go." The disciple insisted, "No, Master, I will stay. I will keep the discipline." The master said, "Okay, it is your choice. I will go." The master walked five steps, turned back, and told the disciple, "If anyone ever comes to you and asks, 'Is this yours?'—no matter what it is—do not say yes." The disciple agreed. The master left. Now the disciple had freedom. He ate a lot of ice cream, grew very tired, and slept. There was no one to wake him. He thought, "Today I will sleep as long as I want." At eleven at night, a thief came. He took the sādhu's shoes, placed his own there, and went to the village. He entered the palace of the local king, a small place, and stole things. The young prince observed the thief stealing. As the thief began to leave, the prince got up. The thief quickly stabbed him in the stomach and cut his neck. Blood flowed. The thief fled. At one o'clock, he returned to where the sādhu slept, put the sādhu's shoes back, took his own, and left. In the morning, people discovered the prince was killed. The king was grief-stricken. He ordered his men to find the murderer within a week, threatening to burn them alive if they failed, and to hang the murderer if found. Investigators followed drops of blood on clothing and footprints. At eight o'clock, they found the disciple still sleeping, with blood on his shoes. "It must be this person," they said. They kicked him awake, gave him two or three chapatis, and asked, "Whose are these shoes?" He said, "Mine." They took him to the king. The king declared, "He looks like a sādhu by day, but see what he does at night! We will hang him." They asked if he had a last wish. He said, "I want to see my Guru Dev." "You have a guru?" "Yes." They sent soldiers to find the Swamiji and told him the story. "Please come. Your disciple will be hanged, but he wants to see you." The master came. The king was angry, but the master blessed him. The king stood, offered praṇām, and said, "I am very sad you have such a disciple." The master replied, "What can I do? He did not follow my words, the Guru Vakya." The king allowed the master to speak to his disciple. The master asked what happened. The disciple said, "Nothing. They kicked me and asked if the shoes were mine. I said yes." The master reminded him, "Do you remember? After five steps, I turned back and told you, 'If anyone says anything is yours, do not say yes.' Even my body is not mine. I did not think of that. Please, Master, save me." The duty of a Gurudeva is to save a life. "If you cannot save me here, how will you save me in Narakaloka?" The master said, "You should tell." The disciple pleaded, "Master, quickly, please hang me up." The master said, "No, I will let you hang me, please." The disciple said, "It is my chance." The master said, "No, I have been waiting my whole life for this chance. It is mine." The king watched, thinking, "Are they both crazy? Wanting to be hanged? What is the meaning?" The king approached and asked why they were fighting. They said, "Your Highness, please do not disturb us. Time is passing." The king asked what it meant. They explained, "The throne of heaven is currently empty. Whoever dies under this constellation will become the king of heaven. Please hang me up quickly!" The disciple said, "No, then I will go." The king said, "Take both these sādhus and chase them away." They insisted, "Hang me, please!" The soldiers said, "Your Highness, what are you saying?" The king finally ordered, "Do not waste time. Hang him." So he was hanged, and they went away. Thus, Guru Vakya is very important. Sometimes you may not immediately realize how beneficial it is. Only later might you understand why you should have obeyed. That is it. Rāja Yoga is that discipline, alertness, awareness, and thinking five times over. The five steps correspond to the five elements; it is a question of life and of the Jīvātmā attaining liberation. So Rāja Yoga is great. Do not show your weakness. Keep your promise, even if it is hard, for the fruits will be soft and sweet. If you do not follow, thinking you are free, the result will be very bad. Then you will cry, "My God, why did I not follow?" In your next life, you will see the consequences. Rāja Yoga is great. It involves principles and discipline: what to follow and what not to follow. Even Śiva told Pārvatī and Śakti many times, "Do not do this." Śakti and Pārvatī often found themselves in trouble, yet Śiva loves them. Their skull hangs around Śiva's neck. I will tell that story tomorrow. This is called Guru Vākya, which means Ṛṣi Vākya. For instance, whether Jesus truly existed is debated, but for me, he did. I believe the words of Jesus that we use today are Guruvākya. "Do not believe in wrong. Gold will not lead you to God. I will lead you to God, not the gold. Gold is not a god." Many instructions in holy books constitute Guruvākya: what the Upaniṣads say, what the Bhagavad Gītā says, what the Rāmāyaṇa says, what the Vedas say, and what the bhajans of great saints and ṛṣis say. That is Guruvākya. It is not merely about finding one master, becoming a disciple, and then ignoring his words. One must understand all these holy books; they contain profound meaning. My dismissal.