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Part 1: The Wisdom of Scriptures and the Inner Battlefield Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Devadhī Dev, Deveśvar Mahādev, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Satya Sanātan. It is very important to understand different scriptures—the spiritual books, the Vedas, Upaniṣads, and many others from different religions. This knowledge is essential. Recently, a large gathering took place in India, attended by countless sādhus, swāmīs, ministers, and scholars well-versed in the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇas, and Gītās, as well as many Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The occasion honored a very great sādhu, a Śaṅkarācārya who had many bhaktas abroad—in America, Africa, and Europe. He relinquished the seat of Śaṅkarācārya. The Śaṅkarācārya gave certain instructions or rules for Sannyāsīs. He assigned them different names according to where they should reside. For example, we are the Purī. Purī means in the city—preaching spirituality, the Vedas, and Dharma in towns and villages. Others travel in the forest. Thus, there are distinct orders of the Śaṅkarācāryas. He told them, “Do not cross the ocean.” Respect the ocean; do not cross it. Also, during the monsoon season, all these Śaṅkarācāryas must not cross any river and must stay in one place for four months. The Jainas observe this four-month period very strictly, but the Sannyāsīs made it a rule for only two months—the month of Śrāvaṇa, one month of which has already passed, and now until the next Amāvasya, which falls at the end of August this year. So they stay in one place and preach. The Jainas also refrain from eating any greens during these four months—not green spaghetti, but all green vegetables—because many very fine creatures live in them. There are many such rules. But because of the prohibition on crossing the ocean, others took the opportunity to travel and convert people to their religions—Christians, Jews, Muslims, and so on. And in Kali Yuga… (come here, please; two steps and a little farther… yes, a little up, yes, and then two steps… yes, also second.) Well, many rules are now only symbolic. There are Satyuga, Dvāparayuga, Tretā Yuga, and Kali Yuga. At the close of the three yugas and into Kali Yuga, numerous religions appeared. Everyone creates a religion. In America, anyone can start any kind of religion, and you see how many Christian denominations exist there—you cannot imagine. In Hindu Dharma, there are not so many. But in any case, it is done in the name of God, and that is acceptable. However, division comes with these religions. The founder of a religion often bans everything else. “We are good; others are not good. We must not read their books; we must not even step near them.” Many, many restrictions. Why should they not read our scriptures? Because then they would say, “What you are teaching is not right.” Yet in Kali Yuga, this religion has certain measures. One Swamiji in Rishikesh, Haridwar, constructed a beautiful building called the Bharat Mātā Mandir—the temple of Mother India in Haridwar. It has stairs, one after another, and he placed many good sannyāsīs there. If you go there, you will see. Suddenly, someone told me that I am there too, Swāmījī—I don’t know how—so that we could mention it for the condolence day. Many heads of different religions attended. Their successor had invited them all. Everyone spoke for five or ten minutes—about the Vedas, their own scriptures. The Muslims spoke of their Koran, and one Muslim man spoke so beautifully that even the other sannyāsīs were looking on in wonder. What did he speak about? The Vedas, in such a profound way. He was one of the great persons present at that time. So we should know, truly know. Though he knows the Vedas and Vedānta so well, he remains within his religion of Islam. Yet he also reads the Bhagavad Gītā, the Rāmāyaṇa, and prayers—why not? That is why I say, we are on the path of Alakhpurījī. We have our own lineage, but why not? We can read other books and gain that knowledge as well. But do not try to tell someone, “Come to me and leave others.” That is negativity, and it is not good. You will end up nowhere—neither in heaven nor in hell. Where? In the place of torture with fire—iron, red-hot, that pushes you and pulls you up and then down again. Yes, so neither there nor here. Then where is the third place? Nowhere. Therefore, speaking negatively—saying this is a bad person, this is a bad religion—this is not good, Master; this is not good, Devil. You should know the good even with the so-called devil, you understand? Otherwise, one day, the devil will stand before you on the highway while you are driving at 108 kilometers per hour, and he will say, “Come to me, hurry home.” So, this is positive and negative. In between, we should abide in purity. Even poison is very good—it can save our life; only the doctor knows this. 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—nice, colorful bubbles. You cannot come close; if you touch one, it’s gone. After a while, it vanishes. So why do we act like that? We should take the good things, and simply neglect the rest, or live peacefully. That is all. Of course, I have not read the whole Bible. I did read the entire Koran, and I have not read the entire Rāmāyaṇa, nor the whole Bhagavad Gītā—I read only Gurujī’s bhajans and Mahāprabhujī’s bhajans. But I know; I went through them, I looked into them. That does not mean they are bad—no. So I read the Rāmāyaṇa, but not in that thorough manner. Yet there are many, many good things. So this is very important: we should know. Knowledge is always good. Even bad knowledge is good. If someone does bad things and you come to know of it, you learn that you will not do that. So you learn. That’s it. It is very important—no neglecting. We must find our path to go through and through. So that is very important. Now let us speak. Our dear Vivek Purījī, a talk on the Bhagavad Gītā. Yes, no need to laugh. He knows everything, and that is why I tell him he must not read all the chapters. He can recite the Bhagavad Gītā this side and that side—that is best, Bhagavad Gītā. So no laughing. Śrī Vivek Purījī, please. Praṇām Gurudev. Hari Om, dear brothers and sisters, dear friends. What we have just heard from Viśvagurujī was truly something. What is one of the most important points? That all knowledge is good knowledge, and all of us need to have it at all times. And also to know that we can learn from everybody. The moment we think we know everything, the moment we think that from that person, that animal, that thing, or that plant we can learn nothing—we are finished. I think in Islam they say, if you cannot learn something new every day, what is your life for? And also, one very good lesson. What we heard Viśvagurujī say—that he did not 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 am not sure if that is truly what Swāmījī said, because we know that Swāmījī explained the Rāmāyaṇa to us during a few summer seminars in Vepa and here in Strilky. But that is a different kind of knowledge. There is the scholar type of knowledge, with a lot of grammar and all that stuff. And there is another kind of knowledge: understanding and wisdom. Thank God, I was not so good in school. Mostly, I did not read the books that were part of the curriculum; I read something else. And I learned how to go like a fish. Through that, you also somehow find certain sentences that contain what is almost the most important meaning. I must also say that I did not study the Guru Gītā and read it very seriously. But I have a few points in the Bhagavad Gītā that are very important to me. The beginning of the Guru Gītā is, for me, truly very important for our spiritual life. That beginning is when Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa—because Kṛṣṇa was driving Arjuna’s chariot. And it is always important to know the symbolism: what is the symbol behind everything you read? Because in every book, every poem, everything, there are many layers. And because of that, it is very important to have svādhyāya. When we start reading the Bhagavad Gītā, we understand it on one level. But if we practice yoga, if we are in satsaṅg, and if we have darśan of Gurudev, that darśan changes our whole life, changes our quality, and of course, in that way, it changes our understanding of each other. Each sentence in the scripture. If we say—as unfortunately I hear so often—“I have already read this, I have already heard this; Viśvagurujī’s lecture is always the same,” that sentence means your end is very near. Because remember, when it is full moon and we listen to the Guru Gītā… For approximately thirty-five years I have listened to the Guru Gītā, and almost every time I hear something new. In the beginning I thought, okay, maybe I slept last time during that part of Gurujī’s talk. But after so many years, I realized it is not chance that you slept every time through exactly that one part. The same holds for every lecture of Viśvagurujī, and also for every book. In the Bhagavad Gītā, that first part—when Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa, “Please take me into the middle, so I can see both armies, to see with whom I will fight”—is so important because it is an explanation of our Ātmācintan meditation. The beginning of the Bhagavad Gītā is also, as I remember, this sentence: “Kurukṣetra, Dharmakṣetra.” What does this mean, that “better field”? That better field is our life. And on that better field, on one side are our good qualities, and on the other side are our bad qualities. And Ātmā Cintan meditation is in the beginning: “I want to see which quality in me is my good quality.” In our meditation at the start, it is the same—we want to see what are my good qualities, the Pāṇḍava, and what are the negative qualities, the Kuru. Part 2: The Inner Battlefield: Understanding the Bhagavad Gītā and the Need for a Guide In that moment, Arjuna—I often joke—perhaps for the first time in literature, depression is explained so beautifully. Arjuna said, “I cannot fight. On the other side are my friends, my teachers, my family. How will my life be if I kill them? I cannot fight.” And in that moment, the first problem of understanding begins. Many years ago, I was at a round table discussion about Ahiṃsā. Also present were people from the Hare Krishna mission and others. One journalist asked, “How is it possible that you speak of Ahiṃsā when in the Bhagavad Gītā Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, ‘You must fight’?” Some on that round table started talking about duty, about protecting the family, about this material world. But thank God we received such a beautiful explanation through Viśvagurujī’s teaching. That is not a fight between two armies—my family, your family—because in Advaita philosophy there is no “other”; others do not exist. That Kurukṣetra is our life. In our life, there are two armies: positive and negative qualities. And we must fight against our bad qualities. Sometimes we think that a bad quality is not so bad. We think, “A little greed is okay.” But this little greed, this little negative quality, will in the end destroy us. When I read something in the Bible—I am not a great fan of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, because for me there is a little too much blood inside—but through Viśvagurujī’s explanation, through understanding this part of the Bhagavad Gītā, I understand one story. When God told someone (I don’t remember whom) to destroy a city and kill everything, even the animals—what kind of God is this? If you do not understand on the symbolic level, you are in trouble. What kind of God says to kill everything, even animals? But that king was also thinking like me, and he preserved some goats. The goats were nice, and it was a pity to kill them. And God was so angry, and cursed him—not only him, but three, four, five generations. If you do not understand this in the symbolic way, only literally, I do not want such a God. But if you understand that when we think a not-so-good quality is somehow okay, it is useful—that quality will slowly grow and grow inside us, and in the end it will destroy us. Not God, but that quality. If we understand all holy scriptures in that way, we will not have conflict inside. But it is always very hard to understand this, and because of that, I must say we need a guide. We need somebody who knows, who has wisdom, who knows the symbols—not just symbols, but truly, what is the meaning? Who, through teaching, through lectures, through satsaṅg, will give us a key for understanding. We are so fortunate that Viśvagurujī, through lectures—through not only preaching, but sometimes doing seemingly unimportant things, sitting somewhere in the garden—always gave us some sentence. If we try to connect it in our brain, we will get that key to opening the beautiful holy books. In every sentence, in every chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, there is something. But always keep in mind a beautiful poem by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya was a highly educated scholar with great knowledge. Yet one moment when he came to Varanasi, he saw an old scholar who was poring over grammar. In that moment, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya composed a bhajan: “Govindam, oh you poor one, why are you learning so much grammar? It is better to put the name of God, Govinda, and at the same time, the name of your Master on your tongue.” Yesterday there was a talk about bhajans, and I realize there are many bhajans I do not know. But in one bhajana, I remember a sentence: that meditation will make the stupid wise. And that is our part: satsaṅg, darśan, meditation. Through satsaṅg and darśan, we will understand the book we read. In every chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, there is so much—not only in every chapter, but in every strophe, in every śloka, there is so much great knowledge. I remember once Viśvagurujī said that 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 stop there. Stay with it so that we really understand what is inside. That is our way of learning and connecting. This first part—Kurukṣetra, Dharma Kṣetra, two armies—connects with Ātmācintana meditation. And within is also something very important about karma, to understand the chapter about karma yoga. I think we have one concentrate, and every day, perhaps a few times a day, we chant: “Nāhaṁ Kartā Prabhudīp Kartā Mahāprabhudīp Kartā He Kevalam.” It means that everything we do, we try to work without the “I”—without aham. When you hear Viśvagurujī say, “I said, I teach this and that,” you will always hear him add, “I am just a postman.” Nothing. Everything else is Mahāprabhujī. In that way, first, you have an open channel of knowledge. And second, it does not bind you to your work. Even good work binds you—but just Nāhaṁ Kartā. And we have everything in yoga in daily life. Only we need to listen carefully and utilize it in our life. We are in the Bhagavad Gītā. We are with Kṛṣṇa on Kurukṣetra. Śrī Dīpna Bhagavān kī jai! Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī jai! Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Gurudeva kī jai! Kara do ajarī amartana kāyā, kara do ajarī amartana kāyā, Śrī Devpurījī, Śrī Mahādeva kī jaya! Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān kī jaya! Alakhpurījī Mahādeva kī jaya! Sanātana Dharma kī jaya! Viśvagurujī Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda, Śrī Svāmī Mahākṛṣṇa Nandapurījī Gurujī kī jaya! The bhajans, the poetries—this is not changeable. If you change it, it is wrong. But we can add some right insight. We can leave out something. The Bhagavad Gītā is only a poem; all these ślokas are poems. According to the Bhagavad Gītā, there are eighteen kinds of yoga. When you read the chapters, they begin with yoga, bhakti yoga, and end also with bhakti yoga. This you cannot change. If you change it, the whole world will say it is wrong, the mantras inside. Bhagavān Vedavyāsa wrote the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, and he wrote eighty thousand ślokas. That is the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam—can you imagine? And it is not the same thing repeated. Eighty thousand ślokas were written by Bhagavān Vedavyāsa in Sanskrit. People who organize a reading of this Bhāgavatam, doing it for only seven days—when they give a lecture, most of the time they are dancing, and they read only a few ślokas, and then they are finished. Because it is Kali Yuga. So, if you want to sing or give a complete lecture on the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, just reading—how long would it take? Eighteen thousand ślokas. Can you do it in seven days? Not even reading. Can we know who was that great personality, Vedavyāsa? And also, the Bhagavad Gītā is only a glimpse of the ślokas. The Upaniṣads—the Ṛṣis wrote those Upaniṣads. The essence of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is beautiful. It is like a sugarcane. Everyone knows what a sugarcane is? Who does not know? Hands up, please. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten—oh, many do not know. Sugarcane is the mother of sugar. It is a plant, like sticks, and very sweet. When we twist it, the juice comes out, and it is only sweet. That is real sugar, real sugar. If you drink one glass, it is the best for your health, and it does not affect diabetes because it is sugar—it is nature. But when we manipulate it, it becomes like a chemical. They make white sugar; there are all chemicals inside. Our body is the body of nature. But eleven times there is a… yes, the side effect. What is the side effect? Many diseases, many things. So, Śukravāra Tṛtīyā… yes, my dear, you get it, you break it, you choose—it’s okay. That is called Śukravā Tṛṣṇā. There is a beautiful poem that Holy Gurujī composed. I have forgotten a few words. It is said: “chandan ke sugan nahi, chandan ke sugan nahi.” Chandan is what we call sandalwood. But the flower of that sandal has no smell—candanake sugandha nahī. I will remember another line and tell you. And he said: “Sugar cane has sweet, but it has no fruit.” Why? When the stick is so sweet, how could the fruit be sweet? So I will try to remember the full poem that beautiful Gurujī told. “Sonamah Sugandha Nahi,” yes, Sona me sugandh nahī—gold. Gold is beautiful, very precious, but gold has no smell. If gold had a smell, we would be happier. Sona me sugad nahi. Ganna me nahi phal—fruits. And chandan ke phool nahi. Ye vidhātā kī bhūl. This was a mistake of God. Someone might ask, “Is there any mistake in God?” Sona me sugandh nahī—gold is very good, but God did not give it a smell. Chandan ke phul nahi—the sandalwood plant has no flowers, no scent. Ganna ke phal nahi—there is no fruit in the sugarcane. So this is the mistake of God. But then comes the second part. I will sleep tonight and ask my holy Gurujī. Hari Om. So every bhajan, everything originally written by the great ones, that is something. We are writing many things—technology, this and that. Of course, someone made a nice camera; definitely someone did it. Not everyone could do it. If everyone could, we would not buy it anymore. But this is a subject of spirituality, the soul, life, and the life of all on this globe. Hari Om. Dīp Nāyā Bhagavān kī Jaya.