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Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Devādhideva, Deveśvara Mahādeva, Satguru Svāmī Mādhāvanājī Bhagavān, Satya Sanātana. It is very important to know different scriptures—what we call the spiritual books, the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, and many others from other religions. Recently, there was a large meeting in India with many sādhus or swāmīs, many ministers, and many learned in the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇa, and Gītā, as well as many Christians, Muslims, and Jews. It was on the occasion of one of the great sādhus, a Śaṅkarācārya who had many devotees abroad in America, Africa, and Europe. He gave up the seat of Śaṅkarācārya. This Śaṅkarācārya gave a kind of instruction or law for sannyāsīs, giving them different names based on where they should be. For instance, we are the Purī, meaning in the city, preaching spirituality, Vedas, and dharma in the village. Others are those traveling in the forest. There are different orders of Śaṅkarācāryas. He told them, "Do not cross the ocean." Respect the ocean; do not cross over. Also, during the monsoon, all these Śaṅkarācāryas should not cross any river and should stay in one place for four months. The Jainas respect this four-month period very much, but the sannyāsīs made a law for only two months—the Śrāvaṇa month, which is now gone, and until the next Amāvasyā at the end of August. They stay in one place and preach. The Jainists, during these four months, do not eat any green vegetables because there are many fine creatures present. There are many rules. But due to this prohibition on crossing the ocean, others took the chance to convert people to their religions—Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. In Kali Yuga, many rules are only symbolic. There is Satya Yuga, Dvāpara Yuga, Tretā Yuga, and Kali Yuga. At the end of the three Yugas and in Kali Yuga, so many religions emerged. Everyone makes a religion. In America, anyone can make any kind of religion. You see how many different Christian religions there are in America—you can’t imagine. In Hindu dharma, there are not so many. But anyhow, it is in the name of God, and that’s okay. Yet there are differences. The one who makes their religion has to ban everything: "We are good, others are not good. We should not read their book, we should not step near them," and many other things. Why should they not read our scriptures? Because then they will say, "This is not right, what you are saying." There are some measures in Kali Yuga. One Swāmījī in Ṛṣikeśa, Haridvāra, made a beautiful construction called the Bhāratamātā Mandir, the temple of India, Bharat. It has steps, one after the other, and he placed statues of many good sannyāsīs. If one goes there, one will see. Someone told me that I am there, Swāmījī. I don’t know. Anyhow, we can say it was for a day of condolence. The heads of different religions were there, invited by their successor. Everyone spoke for five or ten minutes about the Vedas and other topics. The Muslims have their Quran, but one Muslim man spoke so greatly that even other sannyāsīs were looking. He spoke with us in such a way that he was one of the great persons there at that time. We should know, we should know. Though he knows Vedānta so well with us, he remains in his religion of Islam. But he is also reading the Bhagavad Gītā and Rāmāyaṇa. Why not? Therefore, I say that we are on the path of Ālag Purījī. We have our lineage, but why not? We can read other books and know that knowledge too. But do not try to tell someone, "Come to me and go away from others." That is negative, and that’s not good. You will be nowhere—neither in heaven nor in hell. Where? In the torturing with the fire, with red-hot iron pushing you up and then down again. Yes, so neither there nor here. Then where is the third place? Nowhere. Therefore, negative talking—that this is a bad person, this is a bad religion, this is not a good master, this is not a good devil—you should know the good with the said devil, you know. Otherwise, one day on the highway, the devil will stand in front of you while you are driving 108 km per hour, and that devil says, "Come to me." This is positive and negative. In between, we should be in purity. Poison is also very good; it can save our life. Only the doctor knows that. That’s it. So who are we to say that we are the best and others are not? Then we are like water bubbles. You know, little children have soap and water? The bubbles are nice and colorful, but you can’t come close. If you touch, they are gone. After a while, they are gone. So why then do we act like that? We shall take the good things and just neglect or live peacefully, that’s it. Of course, I didn’t read the whole Bible. I did read all the Qur’ān. And I did not read the whole Rāmāyaṇa. And I did not read the whole Bhagavad Gītā. I read only Gurujī’s bhajans and Mahāprabhujī’s bhajans. But I know; I went through, I looked there. It does not mean that is bad, no. I read the Rāmāyaṇa, but not in that way. There are many, many good things. This is very important, so we should know. Knowledge is always good. Bad knowledge is also good. If someone is doing bad things and you come to know it, you learn that you will not do this. So you learn that. That’s it. It’s very important—no neglecting. We shall find our path to go through and through. So it’s very important. Now, let’s speak, our dear Vivek Purījī, for a talk on the Bhagavad Gītā. Yes, no, you need not laugh. He knows everything. That’s why I tell him he must not read all chapters. He can say, "Bhagavad Gītā, this side and that side, that’s best." So, no, no laughing. Vivek Purījī, please. What we hear now from Viśva Gurujī was really something. One of the most important things is that all knowledge is good knowledge. All of us need to have curiosity all the time and also to know that we can learn from everybody. The moment we think we know everything, and the moment we think that from that person, that animal, that thing, or that plant we can’t learn anything, we are finished. In Islam, they said, "If you can’t learn something new every day, for what do you have your life?" Another good lesson we hear now from Vishwa Gurujī is that he didn’t read the Rāmāyaṇa in such a way that he studied every sentence. I think that is also a very important lesson for all of us. I’m not sure that is the truth, what Swāmījī said, because we know Swāmījī explained the Rāmāyaṇa to us at a few summer seminars online and here in Strelka. But that is a different kind of knowledge. You have the scholar type of knowledge, with a lot of grammar and all this stuff, and you have another kind of knowledge: understanding and wisdom. Thank God I was not so good in school, and mostly I didn’t read the books that were in the curriculum. I was reading something else. I learned how to go like a fish. Through that, you also somehow find some sentences which are inside the meaning of what is very important. Also, I must say I didn’t study the Guru Gītā and read it very seriously. But I have a few points in the Bhagavad Gītā that are, for me, very important. The beginning of the Guru Gītā is, for me, really very important for our spiritual life. That is the beginning when Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa, because Kṛṣṇa was driving the chariot of Arjuna. It is always important to know the symbolic meaning of everything you read, because in every book, in every poem, in everything, there are many layers. Because of that, it’s very important to have svādhyāya. When we start to read the Bhagavad Gītā, we understand it on one level. But if we practice yoga, if we are in satsaṅg, and if we have the darśana of Gurudev, that darśana changes our whole life, changes our quality, and of course, in that way, it changes our understanding of each sentence in any holy book. If we say, as I unfortunately hear so many times, "I read this already," or "Vishwagurujī’s lecture is always the same," that sentence means your end is very near. Remember, when it is full moon and we are listening to the Guru Gītā—for approximately 35 years I have listened to the Guru Gītā—almost every time I hear something new. In the beginning, I thought, okay, maybe I slept through that part last time. But after so many years, it is not a chance that you slept every time just during that one part. The same is true with every lecture of Viśwa Gurujī and also with every book. In the Bhagavad Gītā, that first part when Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa, "Please take me to the middle," to see both armies, to see with whom he will fight, is so important because it is an explanation of our Ātmācintan meditation. The beginning of the Bhagavad Gītā, as I remember, is this sentence: "Kurukṣetra dharma-kṣetra." What does this mean, that better field? That better field is our life. On that battlefield, on one side are our good qualities, and on the other side are our bad qualities. Ātmā Cintan meditation is, in the beginning, about wanting to see which quality in me is my good quality and which is my negative quality—the Kurus. In that moment, Arjuna—I always joke that this is maybe the first time in literature that depression is so nicely explained—said, "I can’t fight. On the other side are my friends, my teachers, my family. How will my life be if I kill them? I can’t fight." In that moment starts the first problem of understanding. Many years ago, I was at a round table discussion about Ahiṃsā with people from the Hare Kṛṣṇa mission and others. One journalist asked, "How is it possible that you talk about Ahiṃsā, but in the book Bhagavad Gītā, Krishna said to Arjuna, ‘You must fight’?" Some people on that round table started to talk about duty to protect family and the material world. But thank God, we got such a good and nice explanation about this through Viśvagurujī’s teaching. It is not a fight between two armies, me and you, my family and your family. In Advaita philosophy, there are no others; others do not exist. What I hear from Viśwa Gurujī is that this is our inner fight. This Kurukṣetra is our life, and in our life are two armies—positive and negative qualities—and we should fight against our bad qualities. But sometimes we think that a bad quality is not so bad, that a little greed is okay. But this little greed or little negative quality in the end will destroy us. When I read something in the Bible—I am not so big a fan of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, because for me there is a little more blood inside—but through the explanation of Vishwagurujī and through understanding this part from the Bhagavad Gītā, I understand one story. When God said He would destroy some city and kill everybody, everything, even animals, what kind of God is this? If you don’t understand on the symbolic level, you are in trouble. What kind of God says, "Kill everything, even animals"? But that king was also thinking on his way and preserved some goats because goats were nice and he pitied them. God was so angry and cursed him, not only him but three, four, five generations. If you don’t understand this just on the literal, non-symbolic way, I don’t want such a God. But if you understand it this way—that when we think a not-so-good quality is okay or useful, that quality will slowly grow inside us and in the end will destroy us, not God, but that quality—if you understand in such a way, all holy scriptures will make sense, and we will not have conflict inside us. But it is always very hard to understand all this, and because of that, I must say we need a guide. We need somebody who knows, who has wisdom, who knows symbols—not symbols, but really what is the meaning of this—who will, with teaching, with the lecture, with the satsaṅg, give to us a key for understanding. We have such luck that Viśvagurujī, through lectures and not only through preaching but through doing, sometimes in not so important things like sitting somewhere in the garden, always says some sentence. Not only through preaching but also in small things, when he sits somewhere in the garden and says a sentence, and when we try to connect everything in our brain, we will get that kind of key for opening holy books. In every sentence, in every chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, there is something. But always have in mind one nice poem from Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya was a really highly educated scholar with great knowledge. But in one moment when he came to Varanasi, he saw one old scholar who was learning and talking about grammar. In that moment, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya made one bhajan: "Govindam, or your poor one, why are you learning so much this grammar? It is better to put the name of God, Govindam, and at the same time the name of your master, in your mouth." Yesterday there was a talk about bhajans, and I also see that. Many bhajans I don’t know, but in one bhajan I remember one sentence: that meditation will make the stupid one wise. And that is our part: satsaṅg, darśan, meditation. Through satsaṅg and darśan, we will understand the books we read. In every chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā—not chapter, in every strophe, in every śloka—there is so much great knowledge. I remember once Viśva Gurujī said, "In the beginning, when you read the Bhagavad Gītā, you also need a commentary." Through life, we will read and hear many different commentaries. But do not stay on this; stay on that so we really understand what is inside. That is our way of learning, connecting this first part—Kurukshetra, Dharma Kshetra, the armies—and connecting it with Ātmācintan meditation. Also inside is one very important thing about karma. To understand this chapter about karma yoga, I think we have to concentrate. Every day, maybe a few times a day, we chant, "Nāhaṁ kartā, prabhu kī kartā, Mahāprabhujī kī kartā, hīke valaṁ." It means that everything we do, we try to work without "I," without ahaṁkāra. But when we work with "I am not doing this," when you hear Vishwa Gurujī say, "I said I teach this and that," you will always hear, "I am just a postman, nothing." Everything else is Mahāprabhujī. In that way, first you have an open way of knowledge, and second, it does not bind you to your work. If it’s good work, it also binds you, but just without ahaṁkāra. We have everything in yoga in daily life only. We need to listen carefully and utilize it in our life, and we are in the Bhagavad Gītā. We are with Kṛṣṇa on the Kurukṣetra. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Gurudeva Kī Jai. Manu, Buddhi, Ahaṅkāra, Citta, Devakī jai kardu, ajaryamartan kāya kardu, ajaryamartan kāya bhakta Harī kā sachā hove to kyō man mein ghabrāyā? I don’t know what to do, what to do, what to do. Sattva, Kahīna, Vavarāja, Ācāra, Ācāra... To hame ācāra ācāra sattva guru sai apshiri deva purīṣa puravse paya sattva guru sai apshiri deva ācāra ācāka ācāra amarapadapaya ācāra amarapadachaka. Ācāra Amara Ācāra Ācāra Ācāra... Śrī Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Śrī Dev Purīṣa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrī Guru Svāmī Mahādwanājī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Ālag Purījī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai. The bhajans, the poetry—this is not changeable. If you change it, it is wrong. But we can add something right inside; we can leave something out because this is only writing. Therefore, all these poems, the Bhagavad Gītā is only poems. The ślokas, according to the Bhagavad Gītā, present 18 kinds of yoga. When you read the chapter beginning with bhakti yoga and ending also with bhakti yoga, you cannot change it. If you change it, then the whole world will say that was wrong, including the mantras inside. Bhagavān Ved Vyāsa wrote Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, and he wrote 80,000 ślokas. He wrote that which is Śrīmad Bhagavān. Can you imagine? And it’s not the same thing repeated. 80,000 ślokas were written by Bhagavān Vedavyāsa in Sanskrit. People who do readings of this Bhāgavatam do it only for seven days, and when they give a lecture, most of them are dancing. They read only a few ślokas and they are finished. Because it’s Kali Yuga, it is complete if you want to sing or give a lecture on the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Only if you read it, how long will it take? Eighteen thousand? Can you in seven days? Not even read it. Can we know who was that great personality, Ved Vyāsa? The Bhagavad Gītā is only a glimpse of the ślokas. The Upaniṣads, also the ṛṣis wrote these Upaniṣads. The essence of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is beautiful. It is like a sugar cane. Everybody knows what sugarcane is. Who doesn’t know? Hand up, please. You may like this hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Oh yes, many don’t know the sugarcane. Sugarcane is the mother of sugar. It is a plant, like sticks, and very sweet. When we are twisting it, the juice comes out, and that is only sweet. That is the real sugar. If you can drink one glass, it is the best for our health, and it does not affect diabetes because it is sugar; it’s nature. But when we manipulate this, it becomes like a chemical yeast. They make the sugar, white sugar. There are all chemicals inside. Our body is the body of nature. When our body does not accept the chemical, yes, we get a medicine. We may make a little bit of curing, but eleven times there is a side effect. What is the side effect? Many diseases, many things. So, sugarcane. Yes, my dear. You get it. You break it. You chew it; it’s okay. That is called sugarcane. There is one beautiful poem about the sugarcane. Holy Gurujī made a few words; I have forgotten. It is said, "Chandan is what we call the sandalwood, but the flower of that sandal has no smell." So, Chandanake is sugandha nahi. Another one I will also remember and tell you, and he said, "Sugar cane is sweet, but it has no fruit." Why? When the stick is so sweet, how will the fruit be? I will remember completely. The beautiful Gurujī told this: "Somanasugandhanāhi." Yes, "Somanasugandhanāhi." That is right. Now again, gold: gold is beautiful, very precious, but in gold there is no smell. If gold had a smell, we would be more happy. There is no sugar in gold, there is no fruit in silver, there is no flower in sandalwood. This was a mistake of God, because someone said, "Is there any mistake in God?" So, very good, precious gold, but God did not give it a smell. The chandan plant has no smell. There are no fruits in the sugarcane. So this is the mistake of God. But then comes the second: I will sleep tonight and ask my Holy Gurujī, Hari Om. Every bhajan that was originally written by great beings is something. We are writing many things. We are writing technology, something; of course, someone made a nice camera. Definitely someone did it. Everyone cannot do it. If everyone could do it, then we wouldn’t buy it anymore. But it is a subject of spirituality: the soul, the life, and the life of the entire globe. Hari Om, Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, and Kṛṣṇa.