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All dear ones, the blessing of Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddha Pīṭha Paramparā. Thank you, Gajānanjī Mahārāj, for giving the whole story of this one month. Yes, it was great, very nice to be here in our ashram in this very beautiful winter time. We experienced one day minus 23 degrees. It was between 2 and 4:30. One of our bhaktas from Croatia, who is living in San Francisco, recorded it on his mobile phone and showed it to me. So from zero to minus 23, and snow. And what a beautiful time—there was no wind. Hundreds of people were coming, visiting every day. Today we were walking through the ashram on the snow. Mahāprabhujī Satsaṅg Foundation Āśram here, a castle, and if we make one round through the garden, this is 1.8 kilometers. It was great. Everyone got healthy here. A lot of people had a flu, but here they got healthy. That was a blessing of Devpurījī, that he made such a nice, cool atmosphere outside, and a joyful, warm atmosphere in the heart. As Gajanan said, even one minute of satsaṅg has more value than anything. Great Tulsīdājī, who wrote the holy book Rāmāyaṇa—Vālmīki Tulsīdāsa Jī, who wrote the holy Rāmāyaṇa—said: Eka gharame Ādi gharie, Ādi me puni Āda, Tulasī saṅgata sādhukī, hare koṭi aparādha. It is beautiful. Ek gharime Adi gharie, one hour and a half hour, and a quarter hour—so even one minute, half minute, Tulsīdās said, a satsaṅg or company with a sādhu, haray koṭi aparādha, it purifies thousands of our mistakes or our sins. With a sādhu. Sādhu means simple, sādhanā, sādhak, etc. So we have here in our āśram all the time good sādhus. You are all blessed ones. Our dear Swāmī Gajānand is here, and Swāmī Pārvatī, and from time to time our Swāmī Umāpurī, Dr. Śāntījī, Sāvitrījī, and many other sādhus. It is a great blessing when a sādhu walks in this space, in this garden, in this house. Their steps will remain forever. Some days one will say, you know, it is said that among the Eskimos, there are bears, and these bears can smell buffaloes from about 40 kilometers away, while some people cannot smell even one meter. So that is the difference between the human sense of smell and that of the bear. Similarly, a bhakti, a spiritual soul, immediately feels the vibration; what we call, “Oh, here is a very nice energy.” And in that time, those who walk with the saint, sit with the saint, and speak with the saint, they have the same energy. So, it is said, one of our dear friends from India, Gulabjot Kothari, is from a large Hindi language newspaper, Rajasthan Patrika. He visited mostly our Vienna and Vip, Hungary. His father also, and he also said, “Now he is very comfortable to travel to holy places.” Very comfortable. They just fly with the helicopter, landing near the holy temple, have a darśan. Half an hour. Sit in an airplane and go back. Or by bus, by jeep, by car. It became easier and more comfortable. But these holy places, like Yadarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Jamnotri, Kelasparvat, etc., are very high mountains, and there were no roads. People were going to these holy places. And they knew there in the Himalayas is one place which is called Badrīnāth or Kedārnāth. And so the access is from Haridwar. When they left from the house and village, they paid respect and praṇāms to the whole village people, the whole families, and they all were with great respect, with great love, and with great wishes, good wishes, that they will successfully have the holy darśan of these temples and come well, healthy, and happy back. And they had to walk, and of course they were not carrying so much food. They said, “When God gave the pig, He will also give food.” Every bird will find something. Who are we to give them something? Kiri means little ant. She gets one corn, a small, little corn. That’s enough for her stomach. Hathī—and for elephant, 40, 50 kilos, 60 kilos. When the grass is nice and green, then he has 100 kilos. Who is feeding this? It’s a great mistake that you think I am holy. To say just that I am holy is also a mistake. It’s a long way. Many, many lives we are blessed ones. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and having children, these are animal instincts. Animals are also very expert in this. O human, if you do only this, what a shame that we say we are human. God gave us more than this. All is dormant within ourselves. But humans have a very hard task. Yes, every step is a danger for a human, every thought, every vision is an imitation of attachment and temptation for the human. So the people began to go on journeys to holy places. In other parts of the world too. They began from the door of Haridwar and Rishikesh. And so there were many sādhus at that time, many sādhus. Living in some cave, there at that time it was a lot of forest, a lot of forest, different seasonal fruits, and very different kinds of herbs, and nice roots of some certain plants. That’s called the mūlakāṇḍa. That mūlakāṇḍa is hard to get now. It is said that the forest has remained 5%, while 95% is destroyed. By humans, by wildlife, they are also not, they don’t have mercy. So, to walk through the very wild forest, to find the way. And when it was sunsetting, they all were searching for some shelter. So before the sun goes down, they were searching for some rock or something. And some sādhus were giving them something to eat. That mūlakanda, mūla means the root. Kan means a root, nice and thick, like a potato, for example. But this mūlakanda was big, like our farmer brought. And so they put a little in their dūni, the fireplace. And then they gave to everyone a little piece. But it was so, how to call it, so rich. Four, five bites and you couldn’t eat anymore. You got so much energy. You were not hungry, and you have the strength to walk. So, this, that the yogīs were surviving for years and years, for hundreds of years. Mūlakant. Even we don’t know what it is. Maybe it exists, but we don’t know what it looks like. Only those yogīs who are still making tapasyā in the mountains in the Himalayas. Not only the Indian side of the Himalayas, but also the China side. The Himalayas have no borders. The Himalayas are for all, equally. Kamal, Kamal… How to know him? He means Kālīkāmliwālā. He used to go to the villages and bring a little food, whatever. And he made a small wooden hut and put two or three pots. So it means take only that much for your one meal. Do not destroy food. Do not waste food. And now, when you go to the Himalaya, to Kedarnath and Badrinath, on both sides there are many, many places called Dharamshālā. Dharamsala, Dharamsala means a shelter, and now it is a big organization, and they are still giving food. But many who go there for enjoyment, then there are rooms, they charge a little bit, but that was a mile. These stones, the path, indicating the path, which side. You have to go to Badrinath, Kedarnath, or Gangotri. So, but that was in the beginning of the last century. Unfortunately, he passed away in the middle of the century. But before that, hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was a very big test: how to find where Badrināth is. They have to climb the hills, then on the next side they have to go down and cross some rivers. And again, climb up and stay the whole night there, and see the stars to determine which direction is Badarīnāth or Kedārnāth. From time to time, they were meeting other people, and they told them to go that side, and you have to go down, and this like this. They made a kind of sign, so it took them two months, three months, cold, snow, but what was it? In their heart and in their mind, in their feelings, in their complete imagination, was only one: Kedārnāth, Kedārnāth. Kedarnath is a Śiva Mandir, where Śiva himself manifested here. And that’s called Jyotirliṅga. It means there, in that stone, Shiva manifested. And again he remained, how to say that, melted, or he became one with that stone. So that stone is a living stone. So, Śiva Liṅga, that was the Śiva Liṅga. Jyotir Liṅga, it’s called Jyotir Liṅga. So, Jyotir means the flame, the light. Like this, there are 13 Jyotirliṅgas, where Śiva manifested and appeared. Twelve Jyotirlingas are in India, and one is in Nepal, in Kathmandu, Pāśupatināth. So there Śiva appeared, and there is the place of Viṣṇu. So all incarnations of the king of that part of the Himalayas, or what we call Nepal, that kings were known as incarnations of Viṣṇu. So this is a history. All further we will speak after. This water is so hot, I can’t drink it. Can somebody bring a little cool water? So when they were going on their yātrā, their holy journey, pilgrimage, in their consciousness, in their awareness, in their feelings, in their heart, everything was Kedārnāth, Kedārnāth, Bhagavān Kedārnāth. Or Badrināth Purī, Bhagavān Badrināth Purī. Or Kailāś, Śaṅkar Bhagavān. At that time, these borders were not there. China existed, it was this, this, but people could go and come freely. So they were going. So, until they saw the Kedarnath temple, one kilometer before, they felt a beautiful aura. There is energy. So, this was also the word of Kapūrjan Kolīsjī and Gulābjī Kothārī. They became themselves like a Kedarnāth. They became like a Kedarnāth. Then they are making Parikramā. So, you know what is Parikramā? Going round and round. In every holy place, from any religion or location, people go there and they move round and round. Because this is the energy which is circling there. And that you move through this, and you are in this cloud of beautiful energy. That bhakta, that pilgrim who came there, became Kedārnāth. They were crying. They were happy. They stayed there for some days. Of course, they got food and hot water. Not from the people, the hot water. There are hot springs, and somewhere the water is so hot that you can cook a little rice in your cloth. You put in your cloth, rice, and hold it there for a while, and the rice is cooked. This is the Himalayas, father, mother, the Himalayas. All the holy places are like that. So they could boil the water in the cloth. Very tasteful rice, that water is very tasteful; there are many minerals in it. And then they start from there, back journey to the home, to Apla Buddha. Someone should give green, not getting cold. Well, so there they used to have prasāda. Different kinds of prasāda. Mostly, they are made from rice. So they made rice popcorn, and the rice was, they made a yellow color inside. Which kind of yellow color? Saffron. At that time, it was not like these shoes. They had different shoes, but some lost shoes, the shoes were destroyed, so they were walking barefoot and cold, ice, snow. At that time, it was not global warming, and there was not everywhere fire and to make a fire. And at that time, there were no matchsticks. This matchstick is a production of the end of the beginning of the last century. So they had to make a fire. That’s called a chakmak. And that Chakmak, you know what Chakmak is? In Kabīrdās Bhajan, or Mahāprabhujī’s Bhajan, yes. Chakmak me agni. That’s a bhajan I will translate one day; it’s very nice. That is a piece of iron, holding it in your hand, and you take one stone. Hard stone, and you scratch, and there was fire coming, and there was a little cotton in the hand, and when that fell on the cotton, it was fire. Then they made a fire; the rest of the cotton they stopped and put it back again, so that was the fire. We have also still now these instruments, mostly the sepoys were using, also in different European countries, they were also having this iron for their smoke pipe, and so on and so on. So, how did they survive? And they were coming back. Always, they had only Kedarnath. So Kedārnāth Bhagavān was traveling with them, both sides. They couldn’t see him, but he could see them, like that story. One man was walking through a beautiful park, a beautiful forest, a beautiful desert, in a very comfortable and nice way, and he feels that someone is walking with him, but he doesn’t see that, but he is sure someone is walking. Then suddenly he had to cross, climb over the hill, and it was the stones, rocks, and thorny bushes, scorpions, snakes, wildlife, dangerous, and this person feels that nobody is walking with me. I think it was God with me, and now it’s a very difficult path. A dangerous path, and he lost me. He was disappointed, so he crossed the hill and came down the other side. Then again, a nice, comfortable path came. Nice sand, and he suddenly saw someone walking beside him. He sat under the beautiful tree, he said, and he felt somebody sitting beside him. He said, “When it is a comfortable time, a good time is when you are with me.” Then a voice came, “My son, when the path is comfortable, I am just walking with you, but when it was very hard, you did not walk; I walked for you, and I carried you on the hollow of my palm.” So, feel the pilgrimage when you go to the temple, the āśram, or to Gurudev. So, like this, they carry that God, Bhagavān, to their village. And the message came two days before already, that they had arrived. The whole village prepares the welcome. The children are happy. Men and women are dancing. And they are welcoming that person like God himself came. And these persons, you can’t imagine. Families, how happy that they came back. And that person begins to tell these stories, how beautiful it was, how many times we had to go a thousand meters down, and cross the cold, wild water, and again climb the other hill, and we lost the path. So we stayed there. And in the night, waiting days and days, till the sky becomes clear. This is the path to what is called self-realization. We are those pilgrims. We landed here on this earth, and we continue our journey. We will get that; we will achieve that. Just keep it in your mind. Never think negative, and don’t lose your confidence. Always. Don’t think that you are disappointed. Just feel the God in that. In the Strilky, and you can see how it is beautiful. I can tell you one thing. It is Mahāprabhujī’s dīlā, Devpurījī’s māyā, and Holy Gurujī’s blessings. Wherever this Maheśvarānanda goes, something is developing. When I came to Jadan, one acre of land was about four to five hundred rupees. And as I came there after one week, it became a thousand rupees. And now, one acre is two to three million rupees. Now I came to the Strilky. And you know, the Strilky village has become beautiful, spiritual, and very expensive. So it is that Gurudeva’s māyā, that’s beautiful things. Of course, too expensive, too much is not beautiful, but the quality is. Strilky village has become a spiritual village. Holi Gurujī taught you here when he was here in 1981, I think, or ’85. So, that is what it means, what Gajanan said, that only a little satsaṅg has great meaning. Ek gāḍī me ādi gāḍī, ādi me punyād, tulsī saṅgat sādhu kī, hare koṭi aparādh. Beautiful. So, now, Achal Rāmjī’s bhajan, “Itnā to karnā Gurujī darśan mu denā.” It is Gurujī Achal Rāmjī and his Gurujī. So you never know when Gurujī will be a little bit angry and make the test that, “If you go out, don’t come anymore. Don’t show me your face.” So many people like us, we are not such disciples. Okay, he said, “Don’t come, don’t show me your face. Get out of here.” Okay, I go. But those bhaktas are just like bees, honeybees. They always will come to the nectar. So, because his Gurujī said, “Don’t show me your face,” so Achal Rāmjī, he said, he wrote this. He was hiding himself behind the railway bogie. Carriage, carriage, za vagonem, vagon, za vagonem. So he was standing outside and waiting, a čekal, for the time when Gurujī is going from the āśram to the bathroom outside. And he sees him, and he makes praṇām. So one day Gurujī did not come out, and he was waiting from 4 o’clock in the morning until 5, and he was singing this bhajan. When he finished the bhajan, Gurujī came out of the ashram, and it was warm, hot weather, so he took his shawl away. He said, and Achal Rāmjī said, he gave me blessings already. I am sure he accepted me. And the next day, the master said, “Search for him and call him. Come here, head.” So he sang, he made the bhajan. That’s viraha. That is a longing where there is love. Always you turn like a sunflower, always moving towards the sun. So he said, “Itnā to karnā Gurujī, please Gurudev, do that much. Darśan jaldī denā, give me your darśan as soon as possible.” Except, etc. On Gajanandajī, then on bhaktas, and then a little bit me, and then Mahāprabhujī. Altar. When the Gurudeva again became merciful, when the Gurudeva again became merciful, he accepted his disciple, he accepted his disciple. And when the disciple comes to the back of the Gurudeva, and when the disciple comes to the back of the Gurudeva, then he sings bhajana again. And then he sings bhaja again. Beautiful. Gurudev, Śaraṇa Tumārī.