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O Dīpārā Brahma, Dīpaṁ Sarve Mohanaṁ, Dīpana Sajate Sarvaṁ Sandhyā, Dīpaṁ Sarava Satyaṁ, Śubhaṁ Karoti Kalyāṇaṁ, Ārogyaṁ Dhanasampadā, Śatrubhūdevinaśāya, Dīpa Jyotir Namastute. Om Śānti Śānti... Blessings of Om Śrī Alak Pūrvījya Siddha Pīṭha Paramparā. To all spiritual seekers, bhaktas, aspirants, and sādhaks, today is a day of happiness. There are many different kinds of happiness, but when a dear one who has been far away for a long time comes home or we meet again, that happiness has no limitation. When there is a real relation, a real love, it becomes stronger day by day. If it is not neglected, it becomes more intensive day by day. When we put a seed in the earth and it sprouts, it becomes a beautiful plant, and a tree grows. We wait happily for the fruits to come. Where there is no pure relation, devotion, bhakti, or longing for wisdom, that kind of love—if it is selfish—gets lost. Secondly, every incarnation, holy saint, and great servant who does social work always faces difficulties. We often do not know who is sent and who is not. Just now, I heard a true story from not long ago. Yesterday, some people came to invite me to a festival event about a farmer. We passed that village today, which we always pass when we come and go, crossing the railway station. About six or seven kilometers farther, this event is taking place. One farmer, who was old, called his family and friends to his own field and said, "Please dig here and prepare my samādhi," meaning his grave. He specified how deep and where, saying he would soon take samādhi. It does not matter what it is; children should obey their parents, and disciples should obey their master. If you have doubts, you suffer, and the parents or master also suffer. There is a devotion between the two: the devotion of parents to children and children to parents, master to disciple and disciple to master. Belonging should be belonging. They prepared the samādhi the whole day, digging and building a nice wall with stones. The next morning, Vipul Vaisakha was there taking prasāda. He sat down, closed his eyes, and was gone. So, there is somebody. Now they had an anniversary celebration, so they came yesterday in Nepal to visit me and gave me an invitation. You are welcome to go with me. Would you like to? It takes a long time. It’s a long, long travel. Okay. If you see the life of all God incarnations—the twenty-four incarnations—they take Buddha also as an incarnation (there are some others, but let’s count him). He was a prince, but Rāma was also a prince, Kṛṣṇa also. All went through many difficulties. Holy Francis from Assisi, whom we now worship, had a very hard life. People had many doubts, threw stones at him, and declared him a schizophrenic. And Bhagavān Rāma. Bhagavān Rāma was in Ayodhyā, in the southeast corner of India, near the border of Bihār, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh. The divine, holy Sītā was born in Janakpurī, the kingdom of Janaka, who was known as a Jīvanmukta. That is now in Nepal. The story is very long. We have no oil in the dīpak. So, God Rāma was the prince. His father was King Daśaratha. King Daśaratha had four sons. The story is long, beautiful, and very painful. Greed comes. Greed has many different forms. Anger has different forms. Emotion has different forms. Emotion: greed is emotion, anger is emotion, sadness is emotion. So greed, emotion, anger, etc.—when such feelings, qualities, or thoughts come into our awareness, into our consciousness, we do many wrong things. Greed and selfishness can change your relationship. But if it’s real, parents will not do it. If it is not connected to your blood 100%, then one can make mistakes. At that time, kings had many queens, officially. Officially then, and unofficially now. The difference is that. One of the queens of King Daśaratha, Kaikeyī, loved God Rāma very much. The real mother of God Rāma, of course, loved him very much. The others, the third one also, loved the other children—the four children. The three queens were Kaikeyī, Sumitrā, and Kauśalyā. Kaikeyī was from Afghanistan. Afghanistan was, at that time, India. Up to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan—this entire half, part of China also, and different parts. All the islands—Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangkok, Hong Kong—this is all. And still there is a culture, a Hindu culture, of God Rāma there. They have beautiful dramas about God Rāma, many statues, many temples. In Indonesia, Sumatra, Bali, all these islands are named after God Rāma and the queens of his parents and so on. So it was that which was called Sanātana Dharma. There were no other religions at that time. Only two: Sanātana Dharma, belief, and atheist. Always there were the two: Aiśvarī Śakti and Devī Śakti. When Kaikeyī was married to King Daśaratha, they were also kings, so they gave lots and lots of dowry and servants. There was one lady from Kaikeyī’s childhood, taking care of her like a babysitter until the disaster. King Daśaratha had four sons. Daśaratha decided to give over the kingdom to Rāma because Rāma was the oldest, the elder one. Still, the tradition is like that. If there is a king, even among the British, the elder one is chosen. All in one thing, not. And that is in Sanātana Dharma, among the sādhus, in the disciples. Not the ordinary disciple, but one who has that capacity, those qualities. Quality does not need that education, you know. Unfortunately, this world is destroyed and is being destroyed by those highly educated people who have high education, all kinds of destroying and abusing our Mother Earth. All these weapons, electronic weapons, these, that—all. Now, can you imagine the rainforest? Now, the London people, white people, said, "For what do we need the rainforest?" It’s not commercial. Though they chopped off hundreds of thousands of hectares of the rainforest, they are destroying in India, in Brazil, in Singapore, and everywhere, in Malaysia also. Rainforest is such that if the rainforest is there, rain comes from everywhere. As soon as the land forest is destroyed, it slowly, slowly becomes drought again. In the last few years, we have been trying very hard to plant trees around the world, in various countries, in India, in Rajasthan also, and we have been especially focused on that. See the result of our trees, of the rain, no? If you don’t know, tomorrow you can jump in, and I will say, "Please, can you take the earth out of my talab?" You will not come down. It is nine meters deep. Nine meters deep means how much? Twenty-eight or thirty feet deep. And thirty feet deep is ten, fifty, then thirty. So deep is our water still. Don’t try to go to swim if you can’t swim. So we need that knowledge, a bhakta’s devotion, trust in God. Anyhow, when Daśaratha decided, after Rāma finished school and so on—they had to go to school; yes, Kṛṣṇa also had to go to school in Ujjain; no, we didn’t want too many people always going to see his master, the guru’s name, Sāndīpanī—so the king Daśaratha decided to give the kingdom to Rāma. Tomorrow he would be crowned. Tomorrow is the best constellation. But I did not know that what you call the Jyotiṣa astrologer said, "Tomorrow is the best constellation." He did not know for what. So he said, "If he would look properly, he should say, ’No, please, tomorrow is very bad.’" Kaikeyī had one maid, and she heard that Rāma would be king. And the maid said, "No, I want Kaikeyī’s son Bharata to be chosen as king." But it’s not possible. Bharata was the youngest brother of Rāma. Rāma was the first. But sometimes it is said, when you have a strong will, even if you want to die... So she decided, and she manipulated Kaikeyī. She knew from her childhood where the weakness of Kaikeyī was. So far she manipulated: "You will be the, you will be, what? Servant. Not servant, slave. You will be the slave of Rāma. You will be the slave of Rāma’s mother." This and that and that, so much blackmailing. First, she was so angry, very angry at the maid. But she was finished. Always when you have a very nice white dress, it is very easy to make a black spot on it. But to clean a black dress and get it white again takes time. This is that brainwashing. Then you imagine even so many things. So she said, "What to do?" The maid said, "Look, you remember, in that and that yuga, you told me stories that in the battlefield," Daśaratha was fighting, and the enemy could have killed him. But see, you saved him. You fought against it, and you rescued him. And then he said, "My dear, my very dear one, thank you very much for saving my life. I give you three things. Whatever you would like to ask, I will fulfill." So she said, "Okay." Two things she asked him, and he fulfilled them. And one, she said, "I will keep it reserved." And that result, she said, "Now ask your husband. I want to fulfill one wish, and that wish is that my son should be the king, and not Rāma." The king was broken. Inwardly, the king was broken. Innerly, the king was broken. He said, "This is not possible." She said, "Okay, you are a coward. You are not a man. You gave the promise, and now you broke your promise. I don’t want. Go out. I will not eat and not drink. I will die like this." She went into the basement, into the dark basement, and that’s called triyaccharitra. And triyaccharitra is very powerful. I will not tell you, otherwise you will use it for someone. No? So, this mantra I will not teach you. But you can understand, all is the triya-charitra. So, there was a big drama. Already midnight, the king came. He said, "I give you everything, but please, not Rāma." She said, "I don’t need anything from you. I only ask you to fulfill my wish, and if you cannot, then okay, go. I want my son to be the king. And my wish is that my son becomes king, and Rāma, you should send him for fourteen years in exile to the forest. It means for fourteen years he should not enter any village. He should not collect any humans together. He should just wear the dress of the saint, the yogī, the orange dress, and not stay in any village or forest," so many, many things. The king said, "Please, don’t give this punishment. Okay, can your son be king, but don’t give this punishment to Rāma." She said, "When you want to fulfill my wish, then fulfill it." Rāma came to know. Rāma came to know that his father was so far ill, broken, and very sad. So he went, Rāma went to his father, and the father couldn’t speak. Then he went to Kaikeyī, and Kaikeyī told him that your coward father, your this and this and... that. He said, "Mother, I will do all. You should be happy, and your wish should be fulfilled, and I am proud that my brother becomes the king." And Lakṣmaṇa said, "Father, I will go with you, my brother. I can’t let you go alone." And Rāma’s wife, Sītā, also said, "No, I will not stay here. I will go." So Rāma, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa, all three, and Kaikeyī prepared already for three the dress, and they went for fourteen years. So, they left. It was very sad. But Rāma was not sad. So, there was also that time, journalist. So, someone interviewed him and said, "Rāma, how do you feel? Why are you not sad? And so, why are you going? Why don’t you fight against it?" Rāma said, "No, no, no. I am the happiest person in this world today." He said, "Look, my father became free from that vow which he promised my mother. Today, my father is clean. Second, my mother, Kaikeyī, she had such a wish. And how happy I am that Kaikeyī fulfilled her wish. She is to me my mother, and I am her son. And if a son cannot fulfill a wish, then what kind of child are you? So I am so happy. Third, I will be so proud. If anything, I will tell the people my brother is a king. I would not say, 'Oh, I am king,' and so on. But I will be proud that I am the brother of the king, my brother is king. And fourth, how blessed I am, blessed, that in the forest I will go to many ṛṣis and swāmīs and yogīs and will have their darśan, satsaṅg, and knowledge. Why should I be sad? Please let me go." But Kauśalyā, mother of Rāma, you can imagine, the blood is thicker than water. Blood is thicker than water. So the real mother who gave birth to Rāma was broken. She cried, but he said, "Mother, I will come back, don’t worry," and this and that. She said that when the fourteen years were completed, "I don’t want that you delay for one month or one day or one hour, otherwise I will die." And he went. They were so far, Bharata and Śatrughna in Afghanistan, so they call them. Meanwhile, the king was so sad, he died. Lakṣmaṇa went with Rāma. Śatrughna and Bharata were still not in Ayodhyā, and the father died. There was no one who would give him the last water. Well, they kept that body of King Daśaratha in the oil pond, and they came. When Bharata came to know what happened, and why the father died, he was so sad that he didn’t even want to see the face of his mother, Kaikeyī. Slowly, slowly she realized what a big mistake she had made. Bharata did not accept the kingdom. And he put one chair, the chair of the king, he put all on that. And he dug a little bit of earth, about half a meter deep, because he knew that Rāma was also punished. They should not sleep on the bed or in comfort. So Bhagavān Rāma was sleeping on the kuśa grass on the earth. So Bharata, so devoted to Rāma, he said, "I cannot sleep on the same level where Rāma is sleeping." Therefore, he dug half a meter deeper. And they had slept there. He didn’t want to accept. So he went to meet Bhagavān Rāma, and he was searching, "Rāma, where is he?" So they find Sītā’s brother and many other people. They went with Bharata and Śatrughna. They met Rāma, and they hugged each other very much. Bharata said, "My brother, I don’t want the kingdom. I want you." Rāma said, "You have to do your dharma. I’m coming," Rāma said. So, Bharata, he said, then give me your shoes, sandals. So Lakṣmaṇa had the sandal of Rāma in a bag because all three of them were going through the forest barefoot. So he took the sandals of Bhagavān Rāma and put them on that chair of the king, the throne of the king. And he did the work as a secretary, as a prime minister, not the president. Well, this is the story of how it is going. Then there was all this very sad story happening, that Sītā was kidnapped, and this. I am not going to tell you all. You know, many things happened. Then Hanumanjī came, and Lakṣmaṇa could have died, and Rāma had also, with the snakes, poisons. After all this, they finished, they killed Rāvaṇa, and there was called Puṣpabāhana. Pushpabahan, which Rāvaṇa had stolen. So, aeroplane. And Rāvaṇa kidnapped Sītā with this aeroplane. That time, aeroplane was there. In Chicago, there is a very big library, and in that library there is also the Rāmāyaṇa. Three people, for one and a half years, used to come to read that chapter only about this Pushpa Bhaan aeroplane, how they made it. They made it, but they couldn’t find it. Now, they also said on Facebook that in Afghanistan, for many years—5,000 or 8,000, 10,000—all the airplanes, they found them. Now, did you see that? Did you see it on Facebook? It looks like a pyramid. Well, after Rāma killed Rāvaṇa and took Sītā and Hanumānjī, they came. So, the speciality of the Pushpa Vahan was that, according to your wish, it would become bigger or smaller, and it would become a two-seater or a seat for thousands. So, all the army of Rāma, all the bhālus and the bandars, langurs and all this, because Rāma had all his animals—he said, his mother Kaikeyī said, no connection to the humans—so, all the animals were helping Rāma with everything, and so they came back. When they came back, the mother was crying, and now the day is coming, the last day, and still he is not here. Still, he’s not here. Then came the news that Rāma is coming. People were celebrating, all so happy. So they put the lamps on the path where people will come with the ox cart or walking, and they will not see the way. In the night, people are coming day and night to see God Rāma. On the trees, they were hanging some food so that people will come, and they will hang children’s toys. Little children will cry, so they will have something to play with. So, eating sweets, milk, yogurt, lassi, and fruits, and in the night, as a footpath—how to say—you call the guide, guide for the footpath, the lights on the trees hanging, oil lamps. And so it began, this festival at that time. This tree is called the tree of the light of the God Rāma’s welcoming at that time. Now we also have what you call the Christmas tree, no? It reminds, but it is from that time of God Rāma’s arrival. That day is called one of the most holy, divine, happy days, when God Rāma comes back. Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā also come back safely, Hanumanjī and all. This is called Dīpāvalī. So Deepavali means the festival of the lights. So much light, so much light. And that next, today is called Lakṣmī. So now the people are worshipping Lakṣmī, Sītā. You know, humans are very greedy, so they worship now Lakṣmī, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. So now, all business people, everyone will put one empty diary, and they will put Gaṇeśa there, because it’s Gaṇeśa, and then they write Ṛddhi and Siddhi, there’s two, Ṛddhi and Siddhi, and they will put there one pencil, and ask Gaṇeśa, please write wealth and happiness for us. So, under Lakṣmī is pūjā. Now, what the people do, they will make a light, an oil lamp, all the jewelry, everything they will put in one place near Lakṣmījī, and will say, "Please multiply." Yes, and they put, and then you should not look to it. Therefore, you should go to another room after pūjā, prārthanā, prayers. And the thieves know now exactly where all the treasure is there, so unfortunately, many, many things happen. The thieves are stealing today. Next day is the day we will celebrate, happy Diwali. So the Diwali is called the next day, so it’s called that time was a financial year. After the twelve months, the financial month was the New Year’s began for Jyotiṣānuśar Vikram Samvat, and this is about 20 years longer or older than the Christian calendar. So that was the new year, then, in the month of Chaitra. But the financial year was, is the Diwali. All businessmen who have shops have a financial year now. But according to the government, they have it in March. So that is the day why they are worshipping Diwali. They get all blessings and everything, and the children get lots of sweets and everything. Then, become like a Christmas tree—it’s the same thing. Namah Śivāya, Om Namah Śivāya... Namah Śivāya, Om Namah Śivāya Śītārām, Śītārām,... Śītārām Siddhārām, Siddhārām, Siddhārām. Rāma Sītārāma Sītārāma... Rāma Sītārāma Sītārāma Sītārāma... Chant, chant. Om Śānti, Śānti,... Śānti.