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I simply wish to invite you all to come here for the darśana of our Gurudeva and to celebrate this day with him together. To share a spiritual evening, to meet our spiritual brothers and sisters. To listen to bhajans and perhaps later some Christmas songs as well. For this occasion, Swāmījī prepares a small, nice present for all of you every year. This year, for every family and every home, there is a beautiful picture from the Devpurījī cave in the Himalayas. Swami Shanti was there again a few months ago with Muktānanda and a few others. They took a very nice picture and also filmed; you will likely see it. This picture is from that time. You will receive it after the satsaṅg, probably. I wish you a pleasant evening. Enjoy your time here together. It is, of course, wonderful to be here in our spiritual family, but Christmas time is also a very important time for our blood-related family. Try to be with your family—your parents, your brothers and sisters, your grandparents. It is a kind of paramparā for your physical existence here, and this you should not forget. Without them, you likely would not have been born in this physical body. Perhaps you would have different karma; perhaps you would have found a different path to our Gurū Dev. I am thankful that we can all come here today, and especially to our Guru Dev. He brought so much light from India to our Western world. I hope we are always conscious of this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much to our President of the Fellowship, Mansukh Rampuri. Many of you know him; some do not. He has been with us for more than 38 years, and he has four beautiful boys. And what names has he given? First, his own name is Mansukram. 'Man' is the mind. 'Sukha' means giving pleasantness. And that is Rāma. So, Man Sukh Rāma. It is that God who gives pleasant feelings and pleasure to our soul. Mana is also mind. The mind also connects to the soul. And also the name of his wife—that I had forgotten; he should tell what the name of his wife is. So, has the president forgotten or not? Her name is that of one of the most holy rivers: Yamunā. On one side is the Gaṅgā, and on the other is the Yamunā. These two merge at the Kumbh Melā, along with the Saraswatī, which flows underground from Badrināth in the Himalayas. On Wednesdays, that river emerges to merge with the Yamunā and Gaṅgā—Saraswatī. So, these are the Saraswatī, then Yamunā and Gaṅgā. Now, what we call the Vedas—they are the holy scriptures. 'Holy' signifies that which is good, that which is divine. This knowledge was always taught by the master to the student. Disciples had to remember all these Vedas by heart. It is called Smṛti and Śruti. Śruti is what we listen to from the master—remembering the teaching of the master. And smṛti is memory, so that one becomes the master or the great receiver, who knows everything by heart. The Vedas are very extensive. To learn just one Veda, first only through chanting, takes six to seven years. Only one Veda. And there are four Vedas. Through chanting and reciting these Vedas, you do not know the meaning. They do not teach you the meanings. But the entire scripture, the entire Veda, is learned by heart. And if you ask that teacher who is teaching you, "Can you tell me the meaning?" he says, "No, I do not know." Because the next step comes, and that is grammar. When you learn the grammar, then you try to understand what the Vedas are. And then, further, the Master teaches. This is a very, very extensive education. So, if you can learn one Veda, be happy. Perhaps some complete two Vedas. Therefore, there are schools where you learn the Vedas. But the great saints realized that in this Kali Yuga, slowly, the memory of humans is being lost. Smṛti. In smṛti you have lost it. Thus, many, many parts of the Vedas are lost. Therefore, the great saint Vedavyāsa—Veda Vyāsa, known as Trikāla Darśī, meaning the knower of the past, present, and future—came to know that now people, humans, will lose their memory. Because they do not have oxygen, so we have to open the windows. Otherwise, my memory will go. Anyway, so Bhagavān Ved Vyāsa knew everything by heart, and he learned everything by heart. But at that time, perhaps they did not learn writing. Or perhaps there was writing; I cannot say exactly. So Bhagavān Ved Vyāsa decided to write down all the Vedas. Now, who could write? All people were just normal people. They knew what was good to eat, what to make from vegetables and fruits, etc. Ved Vyāsajī was a little sorrowful. It is a great pity if the Vedas are lost. The Vedas are the first scriptures. That was the Sanātana Dharma. At that time, there was only one Dharma. At this last end of the Kali Yuga, more dharmas developed: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc. Well, Bhagavān Gaṇeśa came. Gaṇeśa's memory is the best, the highest memory. That is why Gaṇeśjī is worshipped first. So Ved Vyāsjī asked Gaṇeśa, "The Vedas have to be written, but I cannot find anyone who can write for me." This is the real story. Bhagavān Gaṇeśa said, "I will write." Ved Vyāsa was very happy, but Ved Vyāsa questioned the wish of Gaṇeśa. Who can question Gaṇeśa? Because he is everyone, everything. Whatever you want to ask is within him immediately. So Gaṇeśa says, "Yes, I will do." Gaṇeśjī asked a question of Vedavyāsa. What can I do? So Gaṇeśajī said, "Yes. Can you write?" He said, "Yes." Vedavyāsa said, "I will not repeat again. Do not tell me, 'What did you say?' Gaṇeśa, you will fail. So, I speak and you write it." Well, Gaṇeśa said, "I also have a condition." Ved Vyāsa said, "What is your condition?" He said, "Ved Vyāsa, if you stop dictating, then my pencil will stop. I will not write anymore." So it means Ved Vyāsjī, you have to speak constantly, and if there is a mistake in your talking, then there will be mistakes in the Vedas. "So I will not stop. You should not overthink. You will say something, and then you think it over. Then it is said, 'I will not try it further.' So you have to dictate completely, and I will not ask you what you said." Okay, now, there is one cave in the mountain, in the Himalayas. Ved Vyāsa was sitting there, and about 100 or 200 meters away, there is another cave. There sits Gaṇeśjī. So now, whatever Ved Vyāsa is thinking, dictating in his mind, Gaṇeśa is listening to everything and immediately it is written. If you see the Himalayas, there are many different kinds of rocks and such, and the Himalayas are one of the youngest mountains. But when you see the Vedavyāsa Jīho Gufā, it is as if you have placed one book after another on it. The whole hill, the mountain, is bigger than this hall. You could say the whole of our castle, and you will see it all, like books. If you do not believe, go and see. Perhaps we will see it today in the video. So, now what happens? All the pencils that Gaṇeśa had, he used them. All the wood, everything was used up. He writes, he writes, he writes. He had no time to get new ones, so he used so many pieces of wood; it was all he used. Gaṇeśa said, "If I go to take my pencil and come back..." The Vedavyāsa's knowledge is like a river. You cannot dip into the same river water again. You dip in the water, you come out. That water is already a few meters gone. Other water will come. So, Gaṇeśajī is in the form of an elephant, so what should he do? He took one of his own tusks, broke it off, and used that. So now you will see anywhere, in pictures or statues, that there is one tusk missing. So this is that story. Second, when they took a rest, perhaps, then Gaṇeśjī complained to Vedavyāsa. "Vedavyāsajī, here flows a river, Saraswatī, and there is so much noise from the river because the water is falling from the rocks. It disturbs me." Vedavyāsa said, "Sarasvatī, go far away there, into the earth. No more sound, no Sarasvatī." And that Saraswatī comes back to the Ilābhāḍu, Manā, Kumbh Melā. Now when you go to the Himālaya, to Badrināth, the last village of India is called Mana village. Then there is a river and there is a Bhīmpulā. Then it is said, "Look here, Parāś, she wants to go, so you can go and see, you can see." That whole river goes under the rock, and we do not know how far it goes before emerging there. So the Vedas, the Śruti and Smṛti: Śruti is also that which is spoken, which we are listening to, and that memory is called Smṛti. So śrota and śruti. Śrota is the speaker, and śruti is the memory entering our brain. According to this, what we receive is that knowledge, and to know this is all learning. That was the knowledge. Now, there is one story. One yogī, they call a ṛṣi, was in the Himalayas. Suddenly he came to know the Vedas. So he obtained the Vedas. Now he wants to study. Listening, learning, learning. He became very old. Dharmarāja sent for this ṛṣi, that now his life was finished and to bring him here. So Dharamrāj, that God, said, "Now your life is finished; I will take your soul to the Satloka." He said, "No. Tell Dharmarāja I want to learn the Vedas. Afterward, I will die." "How many years do you want?" He said, "One yuga." Okay. Now, in one yuga, he is learning and learning, and then again comes Dharmarāja. "Now, your time to go." He said, "No. I have still not finished. How many years? A hundred years." Again, a hundred years. Likewise, a few times the messenger came from Dharmarāja. And he is always very old, just bones and skin and a little flesh, learning and learning and learning. So Dhanabarāja said, "Go and bring him." They said, "But he is a ṛṣi; no one can force him. He is above everything, and I cannot tell him to come, because I cannot deny his wish." Then Dharmarāja himself comes and says, "Ṛṣi, it is time for your body to go." He said, "No. I have to learn the Vedas." So he said, "Okay. Stand up." He stood up. "Now hold out your hands and look toward the Himalayan hills." And there was a strong wind coming. The very fine sand, and some grains of the sand came onto his hand. Dharam Raj said, "Do you see something in your hand?" He said, "Yes. What is that? The dust of the Himalaya." "My dear Ṛṣi, till now, what you have learned is only that much which the dust is in your hand. And the Vedas are like the whole Himalaya. How long should we stay here?" So then he said, "Just let me be in the Himalayas. My soul, my ātmā, let me be in the Himalayas." So these are the many, many times of knowledge. The Vedas, knowledge, yoga—all from yoga. First was yoga, nothing else. So whatever you will say, this is yoga: karma yoga, bhakti yoga, rāja yoga, dā yoga, pyār yoga, khyārā yoga, all is yoga. Cooking yoga, washing yoga, eating yoga, dieting yoga, everything is this. So, we learn and we do. We have to practice, we have to go. So, my dear, practice, practice... and we have all the time, every day, some holy days. And now is Christmas time. Can you imagine if one person had covered Jesus in his hands? All hands would fall down in front of him. Now, people do not believe. It is their problem. Whether you believe or do not believe, but see how that time was, and that time will come again. Some people think he is not a god because he was born. Then go to Śiva, because he has no father, no mother; he was not born, and he will not die. And beyond that is called Brahman. So you can say Brahman, or they call it the Holy Father, or you call it Allah. They are all the same. So this is how in our life we are continuing. And so we had the Himalaya, and we have the Kumbh Melā. Well, this year I will go only for three days to the Kumbh Melā. If you want to go, you are welcome. But it is a very short time for us. I will go on the 30th of December. I will be there on the 31st. On the 1st of January, there will be the procession, and the same day in the afternoon, we will try to go back. Because I have so much work, duty. Otherwise, we have to organize a lot, and that is also a problem. I am searching for some hotels; we will try to find something because we will not make our camp. So, if you still want to go and have a bath there, you will have one day, and you can go to the Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī. So why did I tell you this big story? Because of Mānsukram's wife: the Yamunā, Gaṅgā, and Sarasvatī. And do you know the children's names? Yes, the first is called Sītārām. The second is Rādhēśyām. The third is Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa, and the fourth is Satya Nārāyaṇa. Yes, Satya is the truth. Nārāyaṇa is that God. So, can you imagine, in that family, what has come out of it? And so, our president of our fellowship is very, very kind and very good. And I told them, I want one child more. Then we will be the Pāṇḍavas, five. So he said, Mansukram said, "The fifth one is me." Then I said, "Okay." So, my dear, Christmas day. You see, it is not easy to be a mother. And that soul which should come to one mother—every mother is a mother, whether of animals or other creatures or humans—but that mother, what kind of purity does she have? It is not a question of, let us say, emotional love. That is okay, but you are then not at that level. What kind of rules, thoughts, and feelings and everything did Mother Maria have? And we know it was not an easy life. And when you also want to have small girls now, then you can teach them. Otherwise, we are all like a car which is going. A long time ago, I was watching television to learn a little German, and there was one children's program. There was a red bus, road, or something—that's it. So we are that one now. But still, we can, through meditation, through practicing, take it out of the body, mind, thoughts, feelings, everything. Then you may become like that and give this light to others, to the world. So, all incarnations had a mother and had a father, and all these great saints also had a mother. So, this is the day for us all. If we cannot do more, then at least we shall create peace in the family, in the street, in the villages, in the cities, in the countries, and in the whole world. We pray for that. And peace we cannot get anywhere. Mahatma Gandhi jī said, "Peace is in your hand, in your heart, and that peace of your heart you can give further." So not only to have a nice cake, nice sweets, but peace. And we see what is the peace or restlessness in the world. There are certain people who, even on Christmas Day, do not put their guns down. So, everywhere. So we pray that every religion should be happy, but we shall create peace with love. And this is my message for this Christmas, and I wish you all the best. I wish you all the best.