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Message of the three monkeys

A spiritual discourse on the universal ātmā and the misuse of the label "fanatic."

"Every ātmā, each and every entity—where there is life, there is ātmā too." "Do not speak badly. If someone tells you something bad, you can either stop them, plug your ears, or don’t give any commentary."

A spiritual teacher leads a satsang, beginning with the principle that the soul (ātmā) exists in all living beings, advocating for respect for all life. The talk then focuses on refuting the negative label of "fanatic," arguing it is often misapplied to genuine devotion, humility, and non-violence. He uses parables, including one about Gandhi, and shares personal anecdotes to illustrate that true spirituality involves seeing good, speaking good, and serving others (seva), while criticizing hypocrisy.

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

We are talking about the ātmā. Every ātmā, each and every entity—where there is life, there is ātmā too. It doesn’t matter if it’s a human, an animal, something flying, or all others. It is a life. And in this life, there are five elements. This is not only for humans; it is also for these plants, the trees, which have life because they possess these five elements: the earth, the energy, the strength, the water, the air, the nourishment, and a space. So life is everywhere, and we shall respect that life. Then you become a saint, a great saint. Otherwise, after this human life, we will be in another life. We must not be in a human body. The karma we have done in human life, that destiny will lead us. Now, you know, there are many places, many people are writing about this. In Gandhijī’s āśram, there are also three creatures sitting. These three creatures: one is closing the ears, one is closing the eyes, and one is closing the mouth. What will you tell about this? It is a freedom for everyone to tell what you mean by that. Is there someone who can stand up and tell something? So it means you don’t know, so you are blind. You did not see. So even the monkeys said, "The monkeys don’t listen, criticize." Do not listen to all negative words. Do not listen to anyone who is making backbites. Only listen to good things. And see only good things, not bad things. And that which you see as bad, you close your eyes. Because we have no power; we can do nothing. The truck is full; many chickens are being transferred. I think there are 2,000 chickens, or more, in a big truck. And you know for what they are going: they will be killed. We don’t want that, but we have no power. Therefore, better we close our eyes and say to God, "Please, liberate this creature quickly." And close the mouth, which means only speak good things from the mouth. Otherwise, it will come back to you. We see many times that many things come back. For many years you are practicing good things, mantras, meditations, this and that, and suddenly you step out. Okay, you can step out, but you are stepping out with the negative, and that will come to you very quickly. What will happen? In many, many differences. So in this life, very soon, it comes back to us. So do not speak badly. If someone tells you something bad, you can either stop them, plug your ears, or don’t give any commentary. God forgives you. Therefore, it is a human. Others are animals. But animals have the same feelings, the same blood, all five elements—only they have no words to listen. So we try to come to that path where we don’t harm anyone. And that is called tanse, manse, or bachanse. Tanse, with the body. Manse, through the mind. And third, the worst, if we can purify this, we are pure. Otherwise, that backbite—even backbite, who is talking negatively behind you—that’s called backbite. But you know, it will come to them, not to whom you are telling, but that will come to you. When you are sitting under the tree and the crow is sitting up, and he puts very nice, warm something on it, what will you do? Will you spit on that crow? So, only what we can do, we should clean it. Similarly, if there is negative talking, you clean it. You become humble. Sometimes, a person is drunken and falling down, getting up, lying down, vomiting, and all. We will pass and say, "God, alcohol!" Everyone criticizes about alcohol, oh God, but how many are there? They will get up and help him. That’s it. One day we were walking here in Vép, going walking, and we went about five kilometers walking, and we crossed the railway line. We went further, and then came a small village, and we had few houses was there, and still we were walking further, and there near the field there was some channels, waters with the rain. Water flows, and there one was falling down inside, and we said, "Oh God, he will die, he falls down." So we put him out, and we told him, we brought him near, and we said, "Look, this is one person, he will die." They said, "He dies every day like this." With alcohol, well, he will drink and he will fall down, and our duty is we will take him out and bring him home. So that’s called Seva—Seva to your ātmā, Seva to our life. So if someone is talking bad... Immediately say, "Please don’t talk. You can go out or sit down." Still, one is talking, then you close your ears, and we will say it singing. So chet, chet. Oh, oh person, you are still ignorant. Otherwise, it will come back. It will come. Many times, I, you know, we have experiences now, over 50 years here in Europe. And many times, many, after a few years even, they just went away negatively. Because it was within them, that kind of negativity. It was expanding, and it will explode in the heart. Or someone talks bad and bad and bad, blackmailing. But you will see that person very soon will have an accident, or die, suffering many, many things. Houses will break, houses will break, or you will have problems with the government, or with the police, many, many things. And there you will suffer, and you will surrender there. You will surrender, because that’s called karma; it immediately comes back. And then further you will go, or we will go, or I will go on that bad way. Now, there are people who say "fanatic." So, can someone tell what is a fanatic? It’s only someone’s word, saying "fanatic, fanatic." So what is a fanatic, then? What is different, the other one? What is opposite to the fanatic? So, can somebody tell, what is fanatic? So it is the negative words that are telling. And that cannot, because it is. It is said, folks, the grapes are too high, and St. Sparts said, "It is too sour." So they cannot understand the spirituality, the peace, the harmony, the humbleness, the kindness. The spirituality, the peace, the humility, the kindness. But you are in negative activities. And that’s why you think we are the fanatics. If you are a Christian, then you are the first fanatic. Yes. Do you see how much devotion you have to Jesus? How much will you fall down in Jesus’ or Mother Maria’s? You are spreading on the ground? Many, many things. Many things, and you know, Christianity said you must be only very poor, suffering. You should suffer because Jesus was suffering, and we want to suffer for Jesus. Many think about dress and cover, even the people were pitting themselves on their back in Croatia or here. It’s a very old church where you get the, what you call, the dīkṣā mantra dīkṣā, the baptizing. So what we are, till like, hence water on the head and we are lying down. Straight with the legs and hands on the name of the Master, of Jesus. Is that fanatic? No. It is your devotion. We love and we feel Jesus, and so what are you saying? What is a fanatic then? Why are you going to the church? You go only fanatics on Sunday, that’s all, and then go and drink the beer and that, and that. The women are still good souls, so they go on knees. In the church, the outside men are coming and smoking. We have the pipe, and then when the wife comes out from the church, she said, "Let’s go to the pub, drinking something." That is not a fanatic? So what is a fanatic? Killing animals, drinking the blood of the animals, meat of the animals, anything that is not a fanatic? No, no, that is not a fanatic, that is a cruelty. So are you in the cruelty or fanatic? So fana, we are the fana. You know what is a fana? Beautiful plasms, that’s it. So, what do you will give? What is a fanatic? God, they are fanatic, but can you tell the explanation? What is fanatic? Yes, one, because you are jealous, that’s it. So, your jealousy brings you the fanatic, and that fanatic... I want to give you good knowledge, but you don’t want it. So I’m not, I don’t say because of Jesus. It’s everywhere, in every religion. But now religion is just nothing. That’s it. Gandhijī had many, many very good thoughts, and even he was in very poor dress till now. But they will say, "Gandhījī, give the mala, Hari, buy it, and let’s go." Once there was a joke. So when an American came and he went around India. He landed in Mumbai at the airport. And there was a beautiful, beautiful statue of the horse, and sitting on it was the king. Beautiful. Then he went to another state, and there was sitting a woman, a lady, the queen, and she had a beautiful horse, and she had guns, weapons in her hands, and her horse was jumping. And they said, "Yes, this was a hero." Then he went to Jodhpur. On the Jodhpur railway station, there was also the Jodhpur king on the horse. Then he was in Jaipur. Again, the king was on the horse. Everyone, then he went to Udaipur. And Mahārāja Pratāp, a very strong man. His one sword, you know, for fighting, what we call this, like this in the hand, a shield, thank you. Maharana Pratap Singh, no one here, no strong man here, can lift it with both hands. But he has it in one hand, and in the other hand, here was one Muslim. And he was running on the wall of the palace. That was the heroes. You can go and see their weapons and how it was. Now we are fighting, sitting here and drinking the beer, laughing, running, and one button here, so 10 kilometers people are killed. You are not a hero. So that man was coming, going towards Gujarat, and what did he see? There is standing, who? Gandhi, only one shawl, half lungi, and half shoes, half-tired shoes, and he is standing there, adjusting his shoe. So this American said, Gandhiji, that one has a horse, that one has a horse,... All heroes of this country, and you are the father of the nation. And they have no horse, or not wearing chariot, sitting. Gandhi said to the American gentlemen, "Don’t ask me. Go and tell the politicians. Why didn’t they give the horse?" So he went to the minister. And he said, "Gandhiji is standing like this." He told the whole story, and what a shame. I will take the photo, and I will tell America how the poor Gandhi is still standing there, and that minister, the chief minister, let’s go immediately. He sat in the car with the American barman. And he came there on the podium of Gandhiji, and the minister said, "Bapu," they say, "Gandhiji, Bapu," said Gandhiji, "What can we do for you?" What can I do for you? Then Gandhijī looked to the American. Mister, you went to bring the horse and brought a donkey. That’s it. So what can you bring? What can you give? You need the heart. That’s it. So it’s not day by day we are going down. Don’t say no, it was all the time, and don’t, the dress and this and that. It is beauty, dignity, humanity. That’s it. So what do you understand? You can write down and tell me, what is this called? This fanatic. When you have good dress, it means fanatic. And you have only a quarter meter of cloth, that is beauty and great. So what is a fanatic? Can you describe that? That is blackmailing, someone told in the words. Because you go on the right way. You go on the way of humbleness. You wait for the peace, the harmony. We are celebrating from the United Nations as a peace day. We also said the non-violence. So many, many of these words, even the United Nations declaring, and we should not kill the people also, not only animals. So that is not a fanatic. Yes, of course, that is not a fanatic. They are not in our light; they are different, which has no... no, what I cannot tell what it is. Therefore, do your practice and respect Jesus, respect Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Buddha, and also the Mullah. He said, "Allah." Yes. What is Allah? Parameśvara, Paramātmā. Only the words are different. And we follow, we pray, we respect the Parameśvar, or what we call the Allah. Only the world is different, language is different, so that is all. You write, we shall write one book if there is someone good writer, but first let me read, then we will. Then we will read, "I am fanatic, yes," and tell this: what is inside, or the path to the fanatic? So what is that fanatic? Yes, do you understand me? Or, can someone please tell me, maybe a little bit? That’s why we are. We do good things for our nation, for our neighbors, for our world, for all humans, all spiritual things, all gods, that’s it. So what is the fanatic, fanā? You know, fanā? Fanā is something on the ocean, comes the foam, and it fades out. So don’t feel. That someone says it is a fanatic, and if someone tells you a fanatic, then you say, "Oh God, please, can you tell me what is a fanatic?" And if someone tells you that you are a fanatic, then you say, "I cannot explain it to you." Then you say, "Please, can you bring, can you come with me to my master, fanatic?" Then you will see what a fanatic is. My master will give you the definition. So, don’t—it can be individual. People have a problem. When you go to the church, there is holy water on the door, and you put a tilak of the water. And also, when you go to the church, then it makes here cross. That cross went half swastika, and there is one day which is called the S on the tilak. So this is called, which day is that? Then why you have only on that day? Nobody will look too fanatic. But if you put all the times, even it is only Ś, and actually the best tilak is Ś, because it is there two words: the art, salt of the earth, and second, finally the Ś, you will burn into the Ś. And why? What was this? It is from the Śiva, that Śiva was where one came, the... What was this? The God and Rakshasa, not Rakshasa, but Kāma, not Kāmadeva, hmm, yeah, Kāladeva, you know, you have this one, brum, brum, what is that? Yama, yeah, okay, Abhika, so, so Yama, Yamarāja, Yamarāja, and Dharmarāja, it’s... Dharamarāja, so Dharamarāja and Yamarāja, Dharamarāja is Yamarāja, and so the Dharamarāja. Bring always all to the heaven or whatever. And the other, what is that? Yama. Yama brings everyone to death and throws them into somewhere. But there is a story which I will not tell you because it is long. So, that was that one bhakta. He didn’t want to die and had no knowledge, any education, or anything, no diploma, but he was all the time with Śiva. And now they said Yama said it’s a time to bring him back. And he said, "No, and no, and no." So when Yama used to come, he would come to the Śivaliṅga and hold it. And from that much distance, Yama cannot come. And the Yama Rāja, the king of the Yama, in your heaven or whatever it is. Bring him quickly. Bring quickly. Every creature has to go to death. But he is looking at this boy, and he is holding. So finally, the Yama Rāja, the king of death, and he was riding the buffalo. You know how the buffaloes are in Africa and attacking with the lions, yes? It’s power. And he wanted to come and kill, then Śiva comes, and Śiva opens that only once. That time, he opened his third eye, and all. Yamarāja, including his buffalo, became ash, and then Śiva took this and made the tilak, and then he put it on his whole body. So, that is that day, Christianity, that they are making tilak here, that. Who is that? Śiva. And there it is, still. There is, in certain parts, you dig the earth, you dig only the soil. Do you know where the Kumbh Mela is? Where is that? So the whole story you can go and see in there, so it is the truth. This is not a fanatic. And if who said fanatic, go and put him under the earth here and say, "Please dig out," it will come there. You will be the luckiest of the lucky. Immediately, you will become Śiva. Namah Śivāya, Har Har Bhoḷe, Namah Śivā. So, my dear, it is a negative time now. So that’s how the Kali Yuga will become more and more cruel. Because that is a rākṣasa vṛtti. The rākṣasas and devas are in the humans. Same body, same beauty, same skin, two legs, two hands. Everything, but you don’t know what is in your heart. Someone said to me in Vienna, I don’t want to tell the name of the person and not the name of that country, but they said, These people from that country, when they smile, You don’t know if they are smiling or not. That’s it. So if someone tells, Ask them, yes, please, please, I pray you, and you take to ask, can me tell, please, what is a fanatic? That, may I go out of it? Yes. It’s very good, we should write a book. This will be our first. Yeah. People will understand. Yeah. It’s not like that somebody is talking to someone and taking money from someone or this and that. Go to one big shop; they are taking money from there also. We have killed all the little, little shops, and there are big, big shops. That is not a fanatic. They are not getting money out. The church doesn’t get money so much. So better we go to Jesus in the church, Holy Mother, etc. And better you give one token money there than drinking some drug. We should know what was, you don’t know what was before 100 years. Yeah, it was, I don’t know, I was not here. But it tells me, here people were, they said the people were so poor. They were beating themselves on their body and dressed not so clean. All because of Jesus. And that is a fanatic gun. If they will do like this, they say this is fanatic. So what was it when Jesus was there at that time? And we are believing now. We pray to Jesus. But why did you change? Similarly, the Hindus. Look at Krishna and Rāmāyaṇa. They will go to the temple, do āratī, take the prasāda, eat, and let’s go. That’s it. So if you worship a statue or a picture, they will say it is fanaticism. If you worship a living master, you are not fanatic. Then, please worship your husband. It will say, "This is a fanatic man." Okay, what if your wife—oh God, she’s so fanatic. So what do you want? Tell something. This is this. That’s why it is said, it is said, what we call the world I left. Anyhow, anyhow, the words go out. That’s all. So write from every country and then collect. Then you see which you like, and we will say it: The Holy Book of the Fanatic. So, therefore, we believe we should believe every religion. It is not only one, because you have one leg. Don’t you believe your second leg? If you don’t like both, one of the legs, then chip it out and throw it out. No, no, that I cannot. Okay, break your one hand and pull it out. All the limbs of the body are yours. And you love that. Similarly, all beliefs, all religions, according to their place, are very good. And if you believe them, also, it’s okay. If you don’t believe, at least you should not negatively criticize them. That’s it. So that was... I don’t know why I’m talking about this, because there is about this fanaticism, and I know I need to regard. So Ātmā prabhochara. So, Śrī Guru means Gurudev is saying, "Gurudev molya, what?" Śrī Guru said, "Ātmā paramātmā." It is ātmā and paramātmā. Ātmā is paramātmā. It is mahātmā. It is puruṣottama. He is the God of the whole earth. Charachar kī ātmā, and charachar means every living being, entity. Charachar means living. Charachar kī ātmā, so also they have this ātmā. What is moving, what is alive, that is the ātmā. That’s why. So don’t think that we are only good humans, and that’s all. No, no. We have more knowledge, we have brain, we have all good qualities, and we have done so many things. Our doctors, our study, and education have brought many, many good things. And we are admiring. But if you are that Ātmā, Paramātmā, and you have learned it for good things, why are you creating some tools to slaughter the animals? That is then not this. That this Ātmā is all, like the sky. This is it. Nāva means the sky. Nava, Vyāpū, Satyāpū. So, Vyapho means we all, these souls, are merging in one place of the sky. Satya āpho. You are the truth. Means your ātmā. You are the truth. We are the truth; then we are only one. Vimala chetan ātmā. Vimala means that spotless, pure, there is not any spot on it. Chetan, and we are the chetan. We are not sleeping, we are completely aware from back side, front side, above side, below side. Right is OM, left is OM. Front is OM, back is OM. Right is OM, left is OM. Above is OM, below is OM. OM, OM, OM. Swami Sivanandaji said, "So, front is OM, back is OM, left is OM, right is OM, above is OM, below is OM, everywhere is OM, everywhere is OM." Dūn dhyāna ge dūn. Now, you people are always talking, "Dūnī, Dūnī, Dūn," and Dūnī is millions of kilometers far away. And there is one girl, she is always from Strelka, always she is singing wrong. And then, of course, you are also doing so. Dhūnī is a fireplace, and dhūn is your meditation. You are still alive, and you are putting in the fire. So dhun means you are happy in your words. One is saying, "La la... la," so we say, "This is stupid." No, no, he is in his world. He is happy. You are stupid. You don’t understand. Dun. Dun. So dūn means also one with God. It’s a meditation. So dūnī, dūn and dūnā are different. So you should understand the word, otherwise tell me what is that. Many times I’m making corrections, and you are again doing the same thing. Dūn. So dhyāna means meditation. Dhyāna means you are happy in thyself. Dhyāna, concentration. Age, agam jāge. Age means in future. Agam jage, and it will awake within there. Nigam se nitya ātmā, nigam beyond nitya ātmā. This ātmā is always, ever is. That ātmā par se praṇām age, and it is said beyond that it is the evidence till the endless. Pratītho adhyātma pratīth. Means you know that you know, you have evidence, pratīti, yes. You know you knew, pratīti ho, adhyātma, and that ātmā, adhyātma, endless. So we will continue. And this is the subject, which, I think, it knows what you are giving a definition of the fanatic, from where it is coming. And you know, there are, you are telling in Europe here, "Oh God, who is breaking everything in the car?" and this and that, vandals, vandalism, but the vandals. They were very good people, you cannot imagine how nice they were, and I don’t know who gave this name to them. I’m sorry to say, but there were some Yugoslavians coming to other countries for work, and if your cycle is stolen, then they say, "Oh God, Arbaitha." Arbaitha, you are Arbaithing everything. You are going to the bathroom, and you are not washing yourself. Also, you are doing work, but how does the negative word go there quickly? The Vandals were very nice people. Only they didn’t want to see them as they are, and they are different. So it happens further and further and further. So the Tilak from the ash, Shiva put it all on his body, so that it is a oneness. Hari Om, you like it? Yes, so if you like it, then laugh or do something like this. Very good.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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