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Dear Vasant and Gaṅgā, all dear sisters and brothers, and friends—those who have traveled far from America, Australia, Ukraine, Hamburg, and all across Europe—bhaktas and friends are coming to see our beloved Gurudeva. What can I say? Swāmījī is most probably listening and watching. He recently underwent some treatments for his eyes, and everything went well. He will be here soon. We have come here this summer. We took our holidays, spent our money, and arranged many things to make it possible to be here in the āśram together with you all and with our beloved Gurudev. We had to do a lot to gather here with our friends and Gurudev. What we recognize is that the āśram is nothing without us all. The ashram is only alive when bhaktas are here, and we all are here. It lives only when all the bhaktas are present. We have been waiting a long time for this summer retreat. We had two beautiful, divine weeks in Vāpī. Now, during this time, there will be different kinds of anuṣṭhānas and sādhanās for different levels of practice. There will be Group A, which practices more āsanas and prāṇāyāma. Group B will focus more on meditation techniques, with more sitting and concentration. There is also a group for yoga teachers in training, a group for children, and one more group: Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is actually the best group. Without it, your yoga path, our yoga path, cannot be successful. Group A is open for everyone to join. Group B is for anuṣṭhāna. It is said one needs at least three years of mantra practice and permission from one's yoga teacher. There will be evening satsaṅg and a lecture with Viśwa Gurujī. Also, each morning at 10:30, there will be a lecture where all come together, held outside when the weather is good or here inside. In all our sādhanā and techniques, we should try to be aware that we are here in the ashram and to use this time like a precious diamond. Use the time very carefully, and do not miss any program. We do not know how often we can come here or how often we will have this possibility. Just now, a bhajan from Śrī Mahāprabhujī was sung, written in the Līlā Amṛt, where he said, "Haṭha Choramana." In it, consciousness says to the mind, "Give up your own icchā." Give up your own will, your own itch. We know we cannot trust the mind. We say the mind is like a monkey, jumping here and there, just like our desires and our indriyas. The mind always tries to fulfill wishes in a pleasant way. So consciousness says, "My mind, give up this own itch." Gurudeva says, "Come with me, and I will show you the secret of your ātmā." The secret of the ātmā, which is encased within the body of the five elements. That is why you will be very, very happy. Who says this? Śrī Mahāprabhujī says this. You will be very, very happy. You cannot get this happiness in the world; it is indescribable. We have our little, small happiness every day. We try to live a good, happy, comfortable life, to make our life somehow pleasant and happy. But this happiness is not lasting; it is only on the surface. And here Gurudeva says, "Come, I will show you the real happiness from your own Ātmā." That is why Mahāprabhujī said, "Go always to your master." Try to be as near to him as possible. Try to be as much as possible in his radiance. And he will guide you. Meditate on Gurudeva. Then you need not have fear anymore. Father and mother and all relatives and your friends, they cannot give you this Self-realization. To realize our inner Self, to realize who we are, takes some time and peace to withdraw within ourselves, far away from worldly sorrows and troubles—the brahmāṇḍa of this life, the drama of this life. This takes time: to calm down all the vṛttis, all our feelings and thoughts from worldly things. And here Mahāprabhujī says, "I will show you this, your inner divine Self." All the yogīs meditate on this. It is caged in this physical body, so why are you suffering? I have received this knowledge from my Gurudeva, from Śrī Devapurījī. He gave me this divine darśana, and he showed me his divine Self. At the same time, I would like to apologize that I am sitting here. We all expected Gurudev. Please do not be too disappointed. Swāmījī is here. I know this from my own experience. Luckily, sometimes I can be with Swāmījī and be in his seva. We are also doing seva now in different forms. And I know that when Swāmījī is physically here, he is not really here; he is more there where his physical body is not. And he knows exactly when Hirapuri goes around with the camera and shows every face. It does not matter if Swāmījī is sitting here in physical form or not. He is here. But of course, as bhaktas, we would all like to have his darśana—to see him, to hear him, to be with him with all our indriyas. But it will happen, and it will be better than before. You were singing a bhajan from Holī Gurujī: "Juga Juga Jīvo Maheśvarānanda." I remember the time when Gurujī asked our Bhajananjī to sing this bhajan for Swāmījī when we were in India. We had the inauguration of our Śiva Mandir, with the orange flag placed there. Then our holy Gurujī was writing this bhajan for Swāmījī, about Swāmījī. Swāmījī was sitting next to Holī Gurujī, and he was so ashamed that his own master was writing a bhajan about the disciple. Swāmījī tried to divert attention away from this bhajan. I think he wished the whole time, feeling ashamed in front of Gurujī. We know how much Swāmījī loves Holī Gurujī. And here, Holī Gurujī writes about Swāmījī: that throughout all the yugas, Śrī Māheśvarānanda is the one who is showering the immortal bliss of the merciful Śrī Mahāprabhujī upon all living beings. He showers the bliss of Śrī Mahāprabhujī because he is the promise from Śrī Mahāprabhujī: that always, wherever Swāmījī is, our Śrī Mahāprabhujī is also there. And where Mahāprabhujī is, Devapurījī is. And where Śrī Devapurījī is, Alakapurījī is. And where Swāmījī is, we are. So we are always connected. It does not matter how it is. We are growing, and for all living beings, bliss is always being showered upon them. It is a great, great fortune for the country of India that such a great soul is born there. This is what our holy Gurujī said. Such a great, powerful person incarnated there in India. He is removing all the bad karmas of living beings, and he is also removing the three tapas in which the bhaktas are burning. We know the three tapas, the three kinds of heat, the three kinds of fire: from the physical body, from the mental, and from the astral. He removes this affliction of the three tapas. He gives bhakti (devotion), he gives jñāna (knowledge), and he also gives the proper yoga sādhanā, which is different for each and every person. But he knows, and he gives this sādhanā. We know nowadays there are so many different kinds of yoga—I would say on the market—but this kind of Yoga in Daily Life, what we have, we cannot find anywhere. This step-by-step practicing is a very sure way, a sure path, a safe path. And there is one special thing we cannot find anywhere else: we have our Gurudeva, we have the Paramparā, we have everything. I have traveled very far, but nowhere else could I find this. And this Swāmījī gives, and with this he gives us Brahmajñāna, the highest knowledge. We know there are two kinds of vidyā: the aparāvidyā, which we learn in this worldly life for our daily life, and there is the parāvidyā, the highest knowledge. This we cannot learn, but Swāmījī gives this with his blessing—the parāvidyā, the Brahmajñāna—but only where there is devotion. We need to keep this devotion, this bhakti, alive. Often in our life, we think we have lost our bhakti. It can happen due to circumstances, mental troubles, or doubts. But there is a way to find the path of devotion and bhakti again: through our daily prayer. Prayer, prayer, and prayer to our paramparā. "Nothing should happen which divides me from my Gurudev. Please protect this relationship between me and my Gurudeva, between me and my Master." Bhakti is not only emotional bhakti, but bhakti with jñāna, with knowledge: that we know to where and to whom we belong. That always, Gurudeva is guiding us and is with us. It does not matter where we are and where he is. We know when Swāmījī tells the story about the worm in the cow dung. A bhakta had incarnated, not knowing who he was, like a worm in cow dung. In the story, this worm somehow came into a lotus flower—perhaps Gurudeva came as a bird to quickly put the worm there. The lotus flower closed its petals in the evening. Every morning at dawn, this lotus flower was plucked and brought directly to the altar, and the worm had darśana of God and Gurudeva. The worm was there in me. So Gurudeva takes care wherever we are. And here Mahāprabhujī says, Gurujī says here: "This Gurudeva, this Swāmījī, is so much established in his knowledge, he has so much knowledge, that there cannot be any more." He is completely established in this; there cannot be more. And this he is showering on everyone. And everyone, he or she, finds again their own nature. We need not change anything; we just come to our own nature. And here Gurujī said he makes the bhaktas independent and free. He makes them Jīvanmukta, liberated while living. These are the words from Gurujī; this is not a story. And this is done without selfish interest. Śrī Mahāprabhujī remains always on his side. And here Gurujī said—but Mādhāvānandajī says this with great joy—"Remove all tensions and all tapas and all illusions from the suffering of this world." And this is the bhajan "Juga Juga Jīvo Maheśvarānanda." I think we will sing this for Swāmījī because Swāmījī said, "As much as we sing this, as long as I will be alive." We often sing this, as long as he will be with us alive. Jñānasi dayāgirath pārthaki pṛthvī parigaye Śrī Maheśvarānandajī Mahārāja. Juga juga jīvo Maheśvarānandajī. Śrīdhi pādāyā lukā mṛta āśiṣ, nityavaraso ānanda. Prabhūdhi pādāyā lukā mṛta āśiṣ, śrīdhi pādāyā lukā mṛta āśiṣ, nityavaraso ānanda. When we also look at our bhajans, what we have, we also cannot find anywhere else. We find kīrtans, gospel songs, mantras, religious songs, but the bhajans we have from Śrī Mahāprabhujī, from Holī Gurujī, and from all the yogīs and saints—these are where they put their experiences inside: their teaching, their knowledge, their guidance, and the praising of Gurudeva for God. And the bhajans from Mīrābāī, where she tries to describe the longing, the suffering—we cannot find this anywhere. From time to time, Swāmījī translates a bhajan and explains it because we do not know Hindi. For example, I do not understand much; I cannot speak it, or Sanskrit. But in this way, we can understand what it means. And also, it is Swāmījī who explained and described to us about Śrī Mahāprabhujī, about Śrī Devapurījī, about Alakapurījī. We did not know before. Who was telling us? It is Swāmījī through words. Like we have in this bhajan from Swāmī Śivānanda, a disciple of Śrī Mahāprabhujī, who explains what the words mean so that we can understand. With the words, we can see the face. We know what nirguṇa means and what saguṇa means: the formless God and God with form. And he explains to us what Māyā means and what Brahma means, and he explains what this life means. This is through the words Swāmī Śivānandajī said. This was when he was in Kāṭhu Āśram. He stayed there with Śrīmad Prabhupāda, and then his relatives came. The whole family came because they did not want Swāmī Śivānanda to stay there, become a sannyāsī, have no family, have no children, and have no one to take care of him. They wanted to bring him home again. Swāmī Śivānanda said, "No, my relatives are here. I am related to you by blood, but my real relatives are those who understand me and who understand my words—what I am saying: my guru brothers and sisters. These are my relatives; this is my family." And this we all know. We experience this in our daily life, how problematic and painful it can be. How often we are disappointed, even when we do not have expectations. But how hard life can be, that nowadays in this Kali Yuga there is no more ahiṃsā. Everybody is running for position, for money, ego, power. There is only one place where we can find shelter: that is the ashram and near Gurudeva, our spiritual life. And Swāmījī once said, "The protection is in the protection, so we have to protect ourselves now." And be strong. This strength we get from our paramparā. Like here, Gurujī said in one bhajan: "There are many people living, but the real humans... what means a human only is this: one who has Guru Bhakti." And this is not easy to get. Guru Bhakti—we think it is so easy, but it is not easy. We have to work for it. We have to wait, and we have to keep it. We have to realize it and understand it. What does it mean? Gurujī said this in one bhajan. The real human is the one who has Guru Bhakti. And this human who has found his Gurudeva in this life need not have any more fear, because this bhakta will always be protected. We have fear, we have troubles, we have pain, but suddenly when we meet our Gurudeva, it disappears. Suddenly, this pain in our heart opens the heart again. And we see the light again, not only inside when we close our eyes, but also outside. Gurujī gives examples about King Hariścandra, how hard his life was. We know the story: he had to give up his kingdom to keep his dharma, his duty. He was tested. Gurudeva tested him to see how far his bhakti, his dharma, would go. He had to leave his country, his kingdom, and he even had to sell his wife and his son. He had to work in the graveyard and burn dead bodies. He came so far that he could not even bury the dead body of his own son without payment. And then Gurudeva appeared. It is a very painful story for King Hariścandra. There is also Dhruva, who was not allowed to sit on the lap of his father because he was from a stepmother. He was always pushed away and suffered because he could not embrace his father. Then he left and received a promise: "You will not only sit on your father's lap, you will get your own planet, a star. This is only for you, and you will always be with me." That is why the evening star, the first star we see—the pole star—is Dhruva. God made this planet, and you will shine first in the whole firmament. And the bhakta Prahlāda, how much he suffered! Even his father wanted to kill him because he would not give up repeating the name of God, but he was always protected. Swāmījī gave this example: when Gurudeva protects, nobody can pull out one hair. Nobody can do anything. That is why King Janaka, even Śrī Kṛṣṇa and God Rāma—they all serve the Gurudeva. It does not matter how high they are; even Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva serve Gurudeva. I am not telling this because I want to appear good here in front of Swāmījī or in front of you. This is what Mahāprabhujī said about their Gurudeva. And we say this about our Gurudeva. And we pray: "Please, Gurudeva, protect us. Please help us. Please guide us. Please, help us." Kýček.