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Good evening to everybody. Welcome, all dear brothers and sisters around the world, especially to the very devoted souls among the many bhaktas in Johannesburg, South Africa. A special blessing comes to you also today. Well, a few minutes ago, you were watching the Rakṣā Bandhan ceremony, which comes once a year. Where is the need for Rakṣā Bandhan? This is a very good question. The Rakṣā Bandhan began at a time when people did not trust each other. There was no security, especially for women. Rakṣābandhan, in our modern time, we may say, is about security. This began slowly, as humans tried to secure their borders. Kings had their territory within their kingdom, and that was the border of their land. After several centuries, in the beginning, it was known as Rāmrājya. Rāmrājya means the kingdom of God, where all humans are free to travel and free to choose a place to live. But it is in nature that all remain together as a family. No one would like to leave their family, and no one would like to leave their friends and what is called society. So people did not have interest in going to different parts of the world. They were happy. They had enough to eat. They had enough for their everyday needs. There was no question of organic production, because at that time there was no question of pollution, except one: mental pollution, the pollution of the human mind. There was a time when people respected each other, and all were happy. That is known as Rām Rājya. Then greed appeared in the minds of people, so-called clever people or those with physical strength. They built a group, and one became the leader, declared as a king. They tried to secure or seal the land known as their kingdom. But at that time, humans were also happier and free to come and go. It was a pride of a king that in his kingdom the population was so big. If someone left a kingdom and immigrated to another, it was a shame for that king, a sign he was not capable of looking after his people. If someone left the village, the whole village was unhappy, requesting that person or family, "Please return back to our village." That much love, respect, and security they had. Slowly, a system developed called Nīti. Ethical principles, Nīti, were created by Ṛṣis. The ṛṣi gave rules and regulations for human societies to look after their villagers, after humans, and to look after nature. They could make a hut anywhere, but they were not allowed to cut trees or kill animals—though at that time, humans were still hunting and eating meat, not all. That nīti is such a higher education and varṇavyavasthā, the management of society. The great saints gave these responsibilities to someone who was spiritual, capable, and of good reputation in society. "Now you will take care of these humans or that part of the land or kingdom." These people were declared as kings. King means Rājā. So, rājanīti. Nīti is created by ṛṣis, and rājā is the king. Rājanīti literally means politics for us. Every system of polity is designed for human well-being, protection of the environment, protection of other creatures, and so on. Unfortunately, human greed increased, so they created borders and security. Now, this border and security is called Rakṣā Bandhan. Bandhan means tie. So you have your border, and sometimes humans didn't trust others, sealing the border with iron threads—even walls, high big walls, like between China and India. That is a security wall to show, "This is my territory." Also, in this last century and the beginning of this one, we see that to protect themselves, they began to build a wall in Israel as well. So humans are afraid of others. Similarly, it began with women. Wars have existed from the beginning of creation. These two forces, Āsurī and Devīk Śaktis, the negative force and the positive. You see, you saw, and you will see more, for example, in evening video programs. So always, humans have been fighting for power. Where one person is greedy and would like to have power, hundreds of thousands, millions of people have to suffer, to give their lives for the sake of that person's contentment. Likewise, when wars were there, mostly or always, only men had a right to go to war. And it was not sure if a soldier would come back. Even now, where civil wars are going on, or from time to time two countries have crises, we don't know if a young man, as a soldier, will come back. Only God knows, and God protects all of them. It doesn't matter from which border, which country, or from which side they are fighting. Millions of children remain without a father. It also means millions of widows; families are broken, and anger and hate are awakened in people's minds. Therefore, there is always a question of security. We are concerned about security, and we know day by day, not only the life of other creatures and vegetation, but also human life is threatened. We never know when something can happen or explode; only God protects us, and God protects others. And best is that God protects their intellect. Therefore, it is said in the mantra, "Śubhaṁ Karoti Kalyāṇam." All should live in happiness, and all should achieve divine consciousness or mokṣa. Śubhaṁ Karoti Kalyāṇam. Ārogyam dhan sampadā. Ārogya means healthy. May all live healthy. Humans, animals, oceans, water, air, and the entire planet may be healthy. Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam ārogyaṁ. Dhana sampadā, and may the humans have enough of what they need. Dhan means prosperity, wealth, material needs. God gives everyone what they need so they don't fight, they don't steal. But human greed went so far: when you have 100 dollars, you would like 200; when you have 200, you would like a thousand; when you have a thousand, you would like hundreds of thousands, millions, billions. The so-called richest person in the world is not happy, not relaxed, always living in fear—how many alarms, how many dogs. Are they happy? So it is said that money will never make you happy. Money will not make you happy. Happiness will make you healthy and bring harmony to society and family. That's what Jesus said also when people were playing with gold in front of the temples. He indicates, what you believe, this gold is like a god, but this is a wrong god. Do not believe in this wrong god. Believe what I tell you. I am the way to the Father—indicating towards material things, money. Money is the main reason why people are fighting. So Sampadā means harmony, that we all live in harmony. Where there is jealousy, hate, anger, or greed, there cannot be harmony. But when one is content, then automatically harmony is there. So in these mantras, dāna-sampada, śatru-buddhi-vināśāya—that is a very important sentence. Śatru means the enemy, buddhi means the intellect, vināśaya means to destroy. "O Lord, remove those thoughts of the enemies who would like to take revenge or harm someone emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, politically, spiritually, and so on." Such buddhi, O Lord, take away from us. And when such buddhi is gone, then we don't have a śatru, an enemy. We have only friends, mitra. Śatru buddhi vināśāya, dīpa jyotir namastute. I adore, my salutation to that divine flame, the divine light of the dīpa, the light. And for us, it is Mahāprabhujī, because Mahāprabhujī is carrying the name of the Īpa. Therefore, we know that for ages, there was always fighting. What did they get out of that? Let's say someone was fighting for this land where we are sitting, the Czech Republic. How many kings were killed? How many people were killed? Where are they now? The winner, where are they now? The loser, where are they now? Did they take a little hundred grams of earth with them? No. Nothing, nothing, and nothing will go with you, so why are you fighting? So there was, time to time, injustice—injustice towards children, injustice to some families, and unfortunately, injustice towards women. In such critical situations, for the sake of protecting our mothers and sisters, they made new rules, new laws, and made people aware that we shall respect and love them, and protect them. In no wars were women allowed to go for fighting. There was a time, when wars were going on with arms, not guns or bombs, if a woman went onto the battlefield, men would always stand up and throw their weapons down. That was power and respect towards men and women. That's it. Unfortunately, that's also lost. And so, in certain situations, they made one beautiful thought: to see everyone as your sister. In India, when we see an elderly woman, it doesn't matter who she is or where she comes from, even if we see her for the first time, we will call her Māṭājī, mother. If she is about 20, 25 years older than you, our culture will always tell you, you are not allowed to say, "Hey, lady." My God, no—mother. When you say mother, then your words you should keep, and see in her as your own mother. And you will never do something wrong to your mother. And mother, she will have a love that awakens in her heart towards you as her child. Mātā bhavati nakumātā—a mother can never be a bad mother, except in some individual cases if she is, unfortunately, not mentally healthy. Otherwise, mātā bhavati nakumātā; in nature, always the feminine power has a feeling of protection, of love. And if you see someone about your age, or ten years older, or ten or fifteen years younger, we will call her sister. Sister means your own sister. You will never do bad things to your sister. You will never cheat your sister. But now people have forgotten. Now people don't say ma'am, miss. He misses that wisdom. And when they are younger than you, twenty years and so on, you have the right to say, "My child, my daughter, my son." Yes, you will automatically say, "My son, don't do wrong things." It means you see young kids as your own children. And when you see your own child, you will never do wrong things to them. There's a big problem now that children are abused and misused. If this consciousness were in people's minds, that this child is my own child, we'll never do this—except if one is ill. There are many problems with tourists going to different countries and abusing small children. Why does this happen? Because education is missing in those people's minds. They are closed and become individualistic. And when they don't trust others, they are your enemy. Your neighbors? No, doesn't matter. It's not my coffee, it's her coffee, his coffee. That is why things are happening like this. So you have a relation. There is one woman; you have a relation of mother. You have a relation of a sister, you have a relation of a daughter. It means the other side, too. She has a relation of the child, relation of the brother, or relation of the father. Also, girls to girls, they also say the same thing: elderly person, mother; equal age, sister; and small, daughter. Such a way of thinking, such a culture, unites society. And this we have to teach. We have to make clear in children's minds. Then you will have no problems, and you will find a good wife or a good husband, and there will be no question of divorce. There are many boys or girls who would like to marry, but he or she is not sure inside if this person will not get divorced after three years. And the person, how many times has this person experienced disappointments, pain? Where is the security? Today we need family security. We need security for our kids. In such a critical situation, there was a very clever woman, and the king wanted to rape her. She took this Rākhī thread in her hand, and she tied it on his hand and said, "This is the Rakṣābandhan, this is the security knot. It means you are my brother, and I am your sister." A brother's duty is always to protect the sister, and he did. And at that time, this festival remained. It's not a religion. It's not a culture. But it is for the well-being of the feminine power in the world. So I'm happy that today, again, we had the opportunity to be here in our Strelka Ashram and have this beautiful celebration on the full moon day, dedicated to sisters. And sisters, we were very lucky today because we had two full moons. It was a double festival, Rakṣā Bandhan, which, if forgotten yesterday, can be done today. And if you are not with your sister physically, you can phone her. Now we have many possibilities. So, I don't know, is it my watch or whose watch is it? Who gets up so late? Someone gets up late, I think. So, you can phone your sister today, say, "My dear sister." If she is elder than you, then say, "My respect, praṇām to you." If she is younger, say, "I bless you today for this Rakṣā Bandhan. I hope you are well, you are healthy, everything is okay. If I can do anything, please let me know anytime; I am your brother." That's it. You know, to be a sister of a brother is a source of pride for the sister. When someone comes, if there is one brother and two sisters, and some other people attack these girls, they will say, "Hey, I have a brother who has big muscles, don't, you know." So he is a protection for his sister. And the brother will say proudly, "I am the lucky one, I have two sisters, three sisters." There are families with six sisters, and the seventh one is a brother. Can you imagine, this one brother is the luckiest because he is spoiled by six sisters. So, a brother is proud to have a sister, and the sister is proud to have a brother. And each respects and protects the other. This festival, what we begin to do also, is not a kind of what you will call maybe religion, but it is morals and ethics protection for both sides, for men and women. That's beautiful. And it's not only that today you remember her once a year, but also on Guru Pūrṇimā, Dīvālī, Holī, Śivarātrī, Christmas, birthdays, and all special occasions you should remember your sister and your brother. And one day, if he doesn't phone you on your birthday, the next day you should tell him, "Do you know what yesterday was?" No. "How do you know that you don't know? My birthday." Yeah. Sorry, sorry... All the best to them all, so it doesn't matter. Always remind him or her to have a pure relation. That will create what we call brotherhood. Now, there's one sentence: what's called brotherhood? This brotherhood is missing. If there will be brotherhood, there will be no wars, because we see others as our own family members, as brothers. But unfortunately, nowadays, even brothers are fighting for a little money or something when the parents... Two brothers died and are going to lawyers and court. "That's my property, and this much I want, and that much I want." What is that? The best brother will say, "Okay, you can have what you want, all that." That's it. The other will say, "No, no, that's not true. That's not nice of me. No, please, you take what you like." How nice it is, because this house of the parents, land of the parents, money of the parents, jewelry of the parents, all will remain here. You will die also one day, and your children will fight. Very often there are cases that brothers and sisters are fighting for the inheritance of the parents. And 95% of all this money goes to the lawyers. Why not? Because the lawyers studied for so many years; it was very hard. The examination for the lawyer is very hard, and they were starting with this consciousness: "I will earn good money, I will help." So that's how we create the jobs. But not in this way. Don't fight. You are brothers, sisters. Parents left, and things remain here, okay. There is one story, should I tell you? Oh my God. There were two brothers; one was very innocent, we would say, not so clever, easily manipulated, a slow thinker. In his heart, he had never bad thoughts. The other brother was very clever; he could take butter out of the water. Can you take butter out of the water? No. Yes, we can do it in our lake. All the canalization goes there. So the parents passed away, and they divided everything half and half. They were very poor, so there was one blanket left and one cow. Now the fight was for one cow and one blanket. How to divide the cow? You cannot cut it into two parts. And the blanket, if you tear it, then neither can use it. So the innocent brother told the other, "You decide, you are the elder one, however you want." He said, "My dear brother, we do like this. We have one cow." He said, "Yes." "Well, the front part of the cow is yours, and the back part is mine. So you have to feed the cow, give water, give grass, and the milk is mine, because that's the back part. And also, dung is used as fertilizer." He said, "Okay, my cow, I will feed you." And he was taking the milk and everything. They had a blanket left. He said, "Brother, we have only one blanket, what to do? How to decide?" He said, "No, you can do it. I choose the cow, you can choose this." He knew his brother would always say, "You do it." So he said, "Brother, please, you do what you know is good for me and good for you." He said, "Well, in the night, the blanket is mine, and in the daytime, it is yours. Okay, so during the day, you should put the blanket in the sun, wash it, clean it nicely, fold it, and in the evening, put it in my room." And he did. Now, at night, one brother had a blanket when it was very cold, and the other was sleeping without a blanket, feeling very cold. One master came. His name was Swāmī Gyāneśwar Purī. Swami Gyaneshwar Purī was very clever, very peaceful, and very just to everyone. But you know, sometimes you have to be a little strict to do something which others don't like, to give a lesson, not fighting, no war. So Master came, Swami Gyaneshwapuri, and the disciple said, "Master, our parents died, we have nothing. They only left one cow and one blanket, and we have to divide them half-half. So, the front part my brother gave to me. Whole day I have to go with the cow in the fields, and in the evening, bring it home. At sunset he takes it, he's milking, and all he's taking, the dung and so on." Master said, "No problem." "And one blanket in the night he's using, daytime's only I have to take care." Master said, "No problem." Swami Gyaneshwar was very clever also. He said, "The front part of the cow is yours." He said, "Yes, good." "Whenever he begins to milk the cow, you take a stick and beat her head. She will become wild. He cannot milk." And he did. The other brother said, "What are you doing, crazy?" He said, "No, it's my part of the cow. I can do what I like." Every time he wanted to milk, he would show her a red towel. Now, the other brother said, "My dear brother, I am sorry. I think I did something wrong. Half the milk is yours and half is mine. Let us have milk, at least." So, the brother changed. Master, what to do with the blanket? Master said, "No problem." Swami Gyaneshwapuri said, "Half an hour or ten minutes before sunset, you put the blanket in the water, soak it, and put it outside. Sunset is coming; he can take his blanket. And daytime it will dry. Daytime you can use for āsanas, practicing your yoga." He said, "Very good idea, Master, thank you." So, evening before sunset, 10-15 minutes before, he put the blanket in the water. The brother came to take the blanket and said, "Where is my blanket?" He said, "Here in the water. Oh, God, what have you done?" He said, "Nothing, it's my blanket. Now is yours. When the hours, time divided for me, I can do what I want." He said, "My dear brother, I will share with you. Please don't do this." And so peace came. Therefore, we have to respect equally and love and know that is yours. Brother, know that's your sister, that's your father, that's your mother, that's your neighbors, and they are humans, our brothers and sisters. We should live in harmony, and therefore this Rakṣā Bandhan—Bandhan means now you are bounded, bounded in that boundary of security. That sister put this thread round your wrist, a thread of protection. And proudly, sister will say, "I am a sister of the brother, and I am protected." The proud brother will say, "I am the brother of my sister, and proudly, I have love for my sister and protect her also, and I know what I can give to my sister." So this is not a kind of using thing in the tradition; it is not a tradition. There are things which are a practical reality, and it is needed in the world to bring such a message, a message of protection. Therefore I congratulate all of you, and I pray for all sisters around the world. May God protect them, and I bless them on this divine day of Rakṣā Bandhan with good health, happiness, harmony, long life, if they are married, a good married life, a good family, good children, and also bless the brothers with good health, long life, and may that brother never forget you. Ever he will be your brother. Ever he will share his pure divine love, divine blessing with you. With this, I bless you all and wish you happy Rakṣā Bandhan. Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī, Devīśvara Mahādevakī. Dharam Samrat Satguru Swami Madhavananjī Bhagwānkī Satya Sanātana Dharma. Sing with me: Oṁ Subhaṁ Karoti Kalyāṇam, Ārogyaṁ Dhanasampadā, Śatrubuddhi Vināśāya, Dīpa Jyotir Namastute, Dīpa Jyoti Parabrahma, Dīpaṁ Sarve Mohanaṁ. Deepānam Sajjate Sarvam Sandhyā, Deepam Sarvaśatyam, Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. Hari Om.