TV Channel

Part 1: The Ferry and the Bridge: A Satsaṅg Discourse Good evening, welcome, and many blessings to the friends who have come today. It is said: blessed are they who come to the satsaṅg of a Satguru. We are all one, sisters and brothers. We are sitting in one big ferry, and Gurudev is the captain. As Guru Nānak Sāhib said, "The name of the Gurudeva is the Ferry." Those who sit in it will cross the ocean and reach the shore. Satguru namah, jahāṅhe chade sa utre par, jo śraddhākar sevāde guru par kare utārā. With devotion and faith, Gurudev will bring them to the other shore, to our home. Here before us is our Dr. Śānti. With Guru Bhakti and Sādhanā, since '76, '77, '78, '79—and some are also from that old time—I think she should speak about her experiences. Sādhanā is like being in a river. Sometimes there are heavy waves, sometimes it is very calm. The river has curves, not the water, but we have to navigate the curves. Śānti has great willpower. I think many of you will receive good instruction and knowledge from her that you can also accept. You will gain much from her knowledge and experience, but only what you can accept. She is a dentist with her own clinic. She has come to India many times and received sannyās dīkṣā in Kailash Ashram long ago, in 1991—already twenty years. I think many of us should listen, understand, and then accept or not accept. It is not easy. For me, it is also not easy. I am also fluttering. You may already be the best. But when ego is there, you are lost. It means our ferry, our boat, is sinking, yet you are not aware. The boat may surface again, but we are gone deep. Understand this: with a little ego, you are going down in this crowd of our bhaktas here, from corner to corner. I see the ego. Let us go further; Dr. Śānti will give instruction. With this, you must learn in your own heart about ego. What happens to ego? Today, yesterday, I am watching very closely what happened with ego. I observe everything. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. That is my name, Brahmānanda Swāmījī. My dear soul brothers and sisters, thank you very much, Swāmījī, for giving me this opportunity to speak, because today I discovered something in your morning satsaṅg, which I will share at the end. Swamiji asked me to speak about my experiences, but if I began, we would end next week. It is not possible. I am currently writing about my experiences, and we must always follow the Master. There is a video Master here, so it will come. I will divide my speech into three parts. First, thank you, Swamiji, for your kind words. I am just a flower in Swamiji's garden; that is all. We are all the same, with all possibilities within us. You must know this. You are as well. You are Gandhi, but you are also the devil. We always have a choice of where to go; it is up to us. I very much like what Swāmījī said today: the path inside you is the most important. That is correct. There is a definition of yoga I like very much: yoga is the work on yourself. Remember this. It is the essence of the essence of the essence. From nothing comes nothing. If you do not sow the grain, no plant will grow. If we do not follow Guru Vākya, if we do not perform sādhanā, nothing will come. That is simple. Truth is always simple. Now I turn back, for I said I have a surprise. I will share it immediately, for I do not know what happened. In the morning satsaṅg, I became very creative and wrote a poem. Suddenly the word "yoga" came. Within the name "yoga," you will be surprised at what I found. You know, in Sanskrit, yoga is the nāḍī, the nāda... Everyone, from the alphabet... The first letter is Y. What does this remind us of? Imagine a large Y. What are these two threads? If you think of your Iḍā and Piṅgalā, there are two streams uniting into Suṣumnā. So, the first letter means you must come from duality to unity. That is a thread below. It means we must understand that the Self is a union; unity is inside us. That is our aim. All that comes in life—left side, right side—we must overcome, accept, and always focus on our aim. Then I discovered a very modern thing in the name of yoga. The next letters are O and G. Read backwards, it is "GO." Understand? So it means yoga is not standing still. Yoga means we must change ourselves each and every second. We must not change others; that is their problem. We must change ourselves, and that means we can only move and go step by step. Therefore, it makes no sense to criticize others. Others will only change if they are ready. First, you must look at where you need to change. So "go" is the main thing. Every day we must move toward our aim. You must also articulate the aim. What is the aim? It is also in the letters of yoga. What is the last letter? A. What does A mean? What is the aim of yoga? What is the goal? The goal is Ānanda. That is Ānanda Ātmā, and that Ātmā is also A. The ātmā is ānanda—endless, non-materialized happiness. Did you understand? I think we should write these big letters in front of our sādhanā book: understand what "Y" means, what "go" means, and what "A" stands for at the end. Once more: A stands for the end, Ānanda. Thank you. But this realization comes only through the presence of Gurudeva. If I had stayed in Vienna watching the webcast, it would not have happened. Many times—not the first time—this different kind of energy, your energy, not only Swāmījī's but all your spiritual energy, evokes a very creative side. I also want to tell you a story. When Swāmījī spoke earlier, I suddenly remembered a story Holy Gurujī used to tell. The main point is we must focus on the aim. I never wanted to go to the Himalayas, but after Holy Gurujī attained samādhi, I decided to fulfill a long-held wish: to go to the mountains. I have always had high aims, so I chose a high mountain; that was clear. You must know what to do. I was freezing in the Himalayas, believe me. I was ill beforehand, and so many things happened, but I did not give up because I knew there was an aim I wanted to reach. So we must name the aim and then focus on it. It is not enough to keep the aim in a book or write it on your hand. We must focus on it more or less day and night. I speak now of the spiritual aim. This is Holy Gurujī's story. There was a country with a tradition: a ruler could reign for only ten years. There was a river filled with crocodiles and other dangerous jungle animals. After ten years, they would throw the king into the river and hurry home. This happened repeatedly. One time came a king who was very intelligent, who had vivekā. He did something. He began building a bridge from one shore to the other, slowly, year by year, brick by brick. After ten years, the bridge reached the other shore. When his time was over, he simply walked across the bridge to the other side, and they could do nothing. And if he did not die, he lives to this day. That is the end of the fairy tale. What does this story mean? This is our story. One shore is the shore of death. It symbolizes birth and death. The soul comes again and again—there may be no crocodiles, but it is a picture of dying and coming again. How do you save yourself? Let us say one shore is the shore of humans, of karma, of suffering. But the wise one, the yogī, built the bridge. The other shore is the shore of Ānanda: everlasting life, self-realization, everything wonderful. As yogīs, we must build this bridge day by day, year by year, perhaps over many lives. But we must never forget our aim, which is the other shore, where there is no suffering, only Ānanda, where everything is śānti, everything wonderful. That was the story. Understand it. If you have any questions, you can ask. I found this a very good story and wanted to add that we must focus. That is very, very important. Not only superficially, but if you pray with focus... If you drive a car, if I start from Vienna without knowing I am going to Zagreb, without knowing the way, I might end in Honolulu. So we must focus on the aim. Our navigator is Gurudev. You are driving the car, and you are building the bricks for the bridge. Thank you for listening. Now I want to say something very personal. One reason I came was for my dear friends from Croatia and Slovenia. It is interesting that in many difficult situations in my life, Croatians or Slovenians helped me. Once, the first name Swāmījī gave me was not Śāntī; it was the opposite. Anyhow, it is true: I broke my legs three times, mostly near Swāmījī because I reacted emotionally to his speech. It was before my sannyāsa, in Jadon. We laugh about it now. At that time, I did not know bhajans. Only one person from that small group knew two or three bhajans: Umāpurī. There was a small white house in Jadon with Holy Gurujī and Swamiji. Suddenly Swamiji said, "Oh, we will have something, we will sing bhajans." I was so afraid that I ran out to find Umāpurī, for I did not know how to sing. Back then, there were no nice paths in Jadon; it was like a field. While running, I broke my leg, but I kept running. I found Umāpurī and sent her to sing bhajans. I was in terrible pain, crying. At that time we also made an open fire. I went and sat there, and the only thing I could sing was kīrtans. I sat and sang kīrtans for two hours, and you will not believe it—I had no pain, because I was so focused on singing that I forgot my broken leg. Of course, it was broken. I lay on a bed in the open air, natural air-conditioning, but it was December, and in Rajasthan it is cold. Every evening, Croatian and Slovenian boys would make a kind of tissue or covering around my bed. Another time, I broke my leg a second time. I fell over a concrete step and cracked the other leg. With so many people there, perhaps 800, the first person to come to me was from Croatia, someone who had helped me years before. It was incredible. One person saved my life, and he is here today. I have courage, but sometimes courage is not so good. I had to remove the plaster cast. I was on crutches and was not supposed to touch the floor, but I followed Swāmījī to Nepal. There were steps leading up to a terrace. I went up with the crutches—that is me. I should sing more "Om Śānti..." I went onto the terrace. Going up was no problem, but coming down—about two and a half meters—I fell like a piece of wood onto concrete. You can imagine: if I had fallen headfirst without help... Mahāprabhujī, Alakojī, whoever, protected me, for standing below was a karate man. It is true. That was Dare from Ljubljana. I fell into his hands. This is a true story, my friends. Satsaṅg is the best in this life. Satsaṅg is two words: sat means truth, and saṅga means to be together, good friends. Satsaṅga. And there is Kusatsaṅga. Ku means negative, not good qualities. Living with that kind of people is negative. Satsang is good, and Dursang is bad; it is negative. When we drink good water, it is good for the whole body. Part 2: The Power and Peril of Satsaṅg Just as poison spreads to every part of the body, so too does satsaṅg—and that includes our Mahāprabhujī’s bhajans. Mahāprabhujī spoke of longing for the satsaṅgī, for people who are positive and inclined toward good qualities, always speaking of spirituality and God. I long for my disciples as a friend; when I remember them, my eyes fill with tears. Today, we are all satsaṅgīs gathered in this hall. You have come from different parts of the whole of Yugoslavia. People say that Swamiji is not in Yugoslavia, but in Yogaslavia. Of course, both words are good. "Yuga" means time, and "yoga" means union. So, you were all in union. Yoga is positive. The negative is like a nice, beautiful glass of hot milk. We can put a little yogurt inside—not yogurt, but ghee, butter. We put the butter in the hot water or milk. We put honey inside. We put in a very nice, little saffron. Then we add a little of what we call cardamom—no, no, there is nothing unhealthy in this cardamom—and then a very nice, little aroma. And we enjoy the milk. So, we are all in one room, in this hall. We have that pure milk, mother’s milk, with so many good things inside. Our whole body, our feelings, our happiness, and many things—that milk contains so many things inside. Like a little drop of rose essence, that is satsaṅg. All of us coming together creates so many nice aromas. In other places, there is also nice hot milk, and someone puts a drop of what? Lemon. And "lemon" means: "le" means 'take it', and "ma" means 'man', human. O human, you can destroy the satsaṅg with one drop, with one word. We come from different parts of this earth; we have come from a far distance to that milk, a cup of milk that we want to drink. That is called Amṛt. That is Amṛt. Amṛt means immortality. That immortality is sweet words; it leads us to liberation. But with that lemon, the milk is gone. Yes, we have paneer. That’s all. It’s called paneer. It is a 'P', not 'nir'. It makes things separate. So, how can we keep friendliness, friendship? Sometimes persons have negative qualities. Though you become a friend, you have a knife in your armpit. Yes. In the mouth, you have sweet words, but the poison is that you have a knife. That friend is not a satsaṅg. We have to remove the knife. We should take pure nectar, not only sweet words. One drop of lemon can split the whole milk. The word of the mouth—you always try to be sweet, but you are waiting for the situation. In a satsaṅg, hundreds of people are sitting there, but one word destroyed everyone’s peace. How? The pigeons are sitting on the roof, and you make only like this—what happened? That is the person who has it in heart and in thoughts, only waiting for that. But again, pigeons will come where they get a feeder, from the satsaṅg. There, whoever comes and puts the seeds, they will not run away. Friendship is also part of yoga. There is a little story of friendship. How many of you are sitting here, and who has enmity or friendship towards whom? We don’t really know; only you know. So, there is one story. Long ago, I told a story. Holy Gurujī told it. "There was a desert. Where is the desert? In the desert is a boat. And the boat in the desert is—which boat? You will use a camel." A camel has a foot like this. It can also go under snow, so the camel can run very well because it doesn’t sink in the sand. And there is also one fox. The fox is very clever and tricky—don’t trust that. Second, I don’t want to tell someone; maybe they will be very angry, but it was an old time. Sometimes you can see this on television, from the, what do you call them, the cowboys. The cowboys and other people who are not good people want to get a message. Where to find information? Spies are very sweet, very good. It is said, "Where do you get information from? Where does it give you all information? Where is the source?" That source is... I will not tell the name of the person, but that time, now also, you go there and you will get all information. Maybe this man, or this one, or this girl. They have their information. You know that? Who is that? Okay, so that person goes and sits on the chair. You know that? Somewhere in some cowboys, tricky, and they know everything. So, that’s a fox. That’s a fox person. And the other one is a very humble camel. A friendship between a big camel and a little fox. Each story is a little, but very dangerous. The big one will be very humble and very naive. So, there was a river, but it was a dry river. The fox said, "Brother, friend, I want to eat the, what you call, the corn." The fox liked to eat that. The elephant, camel also. The camel said, "Don’t take a risk. There are guards, and they will beat us." The fox said, "You have long legs. Let’s go over the bushes, and we go into the middle, and we will eat the kukuruz." The camel said, "Okay. But brother, the way is very long." "Don’t worry, sit on my back." Yes, that friend will sit on you. How will it see now? So they go into the field of the barns. The camel said, "My friend Fox, you should be very peaceful until I fill my stomach. Then you can do it." Because the fox, when he eats one or two cucumbers, that’s enough, and then he’s making, yeah, yeah, like very big. You should see them in that Nipple Āśrama. The Gītā knows, and they are coming at midnight. Many people are frightened, but Gītā is there in the nipple, and she sees everything. So, the camel is eating, and the fox is also eating. When he finished two or three corn, he said, "My friend, I have one mistake. When my stomach is full from eating, I must scream." And he said, "Please wait, I cannot wait," and he was struggling. People came with big bamboos. The folks went away, and they beat the camel, all the buttocks of the camel. After two kilometers, the fox was standing there and jumped on the camel. "My friend, I am so sorry. I can’t control. Teach me how to control." The camel said, "Oh, my buttocks are completely torn; the skin is torn." "I’m sorry, my friend." After one week again, or ten days, "Let’s go to the kukuruz, please." Again, the same thing happened. Three, four times, and the camel said, "I am your friend, and please, can you wait one day? Let me eat with a stomach full. Every time I’m getting the sticks, my friend, I will do everything." "Okay." Once, what happened? Heavy rain came. The farmers came, beating the camel, and after they came further, now the river is flowing with one meter, one and a half meter of water. Now the fox said, "My friend, please, can you bring me to the other side of the river?" The camel said, "Now today is mine, okay, sit." So he’s sitting on it, and that fox used to say, "When I eat, I can’t stop. I must scream." And the camel said, "Please wait a little bit. Can you wait a little bit?" "I cannot." Now, again, he jumped on the camel. "That’s my friend. Go to the side of the bank. And also, bring me there." The camel said, "Oh, yes." Now, the camel brings his tongue like this, and they got to the middle of the river. The camel said, "Friend, I have some feelings. I have some feelings." The fox said, "What does that mean?" "It is such an intense feeling." The camel said, "You can stop for a while. What kind of feeling do you have? Because I didn’t see the water in the river for long, I want to sit in the river, but it doesn’t let me come out. I want to come out, but such a feeling." "What do you mean, such a feeling? My friend, how many times have you let me be in my... buttocks, and you could not wait one day until I eat? Similarly, now I cannot, but I will die." The fox said, "You will die only once. Then there will be no feelings." And he sits under. He is sitting. "Brother, now we can get up?" He said, "No, I have to... I have to turn over left and right," and the fox is lost in the water. He was suffering. But again, the camel opened his mouth and held him in and out, in and out. "Is your feeling better now?" "No, brother, please." So he brought him to the other side. The camel said, "Such a friend, always, always you put me in troubles, but I... will not? I will not let you." So, my dear, sometimes people are like that, and they try to destroy, but again, good friends... will again bring back, but said this was your lesson. So we should know how you are doing your yogic sādhanā practice to yourself, what feeling you have in the tongue. A little ice cream. Okay, one spoon. Our tongue, this tongue, is very, very naughty. I told you the story of the tongue, no? And the teeth. Thirty-two teeth in the mouth. You know this story, yes? Okay, so practice, practice yoga, not only āsanas, prāṇāyāmas. Did you learn? Do you still have in your heart and in your thoughts positivity? If you have positivity and goodness, then you will have no problems—no problems between husband and wife, not between children and parents. That is what you have learned in so many years of yoga. Don’t think that I will become, maybe, not a good person. It is you who will bring thyself to the highest. But we can practice. We said practice. So this is the friendship, the fox and the camel. Yes, so we all are here for developing our spirituality. We have to learn 100% humanity. We should not be selfish. When you are selfish, then you will not be successful. There is in the testament, and it is... It was said about Jesus, and now Christmas is coming, and you know about Jesus. So, it was in one temple, and out of the temple there were some people. They were playing with money, and there was a golden bull that’s called the god. We made a God from the gold, so God and gold are very near. People were playing with the gold, so Jesus said, "This is not a God. Don’t play with gold. I will bring you to God, so I am a path to God, not this gold." But people mix others, only this is God, other is no more God. But there’s a meaning: God and gold, and that doesn’t matter what you do. God is real, gold is not. God is created, and gold is not. When Kali Yuga came and started—from Satya Yuga came Alak Purījī, and that river, Alak Nandā. You already know everything about Alak Purījī and Devpurījī’s cave in the Himalayas, because Devpurījī made Alak Purījī, and Alak Purījī gave Devpurījī all this. So there is the holy, everything holy. Devpurījī’s cave is there. It’s called Sūrya Kuṇḍ. The kuṇḍ is a little water pond, a pond, a crystal clear pond. When Śiva or Sūrya is shining, when he is in the middle of it, the whole is like only one sun, just for certain minutes. That water is very holy. I got today from there; this is water from Sūrya Kuṇḍ, near Devpurījī, where Devpurījī was bathing. So today we are here. This water, Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, Sūrya Kuṇḍ, Devpurījī’s. And Devpurījī said, "No camera will function for me. My picture, Devpurījī said, is the sun. If you want to see me, see the sun. Other pictures you will put anywhere in the garbage." That is Devpurījī. So if you have that much power now—everyone can make a photo, and the photo doesn’t come. If you cannot, then don’t think that I am already my master. You think, "I am the best. We are nothing. We are a tiny, tiny creature." So that is the water, and I think we will give it to everyone. But what to do? In the night, I will multiply it, and this will become endless. From the Satya Yuga, Dvāpar Yuga, and Tretā Yuga, then came this fourth Kali Yuga. In Kali Yuga, different religions began. There was also no name Sanātana Dharma. There was no religion. Only one God, and these are the 24 and all the saints, etc. But in Kali Yuga came many, many religions. Why? Not very good, but duality has then. It is not so when the Kali Yuga in turn now, and the king of this Yuga must take care of this Yuga. Like your king or your president, for these days, he should—each and every entity has to take care of the Croatian. But it is said that the king should not refuse anyone. Everything should be for him. I shall protect all, etc. On that day, the gold came. The gold. It is said the time of the gold is here. The Kali Yuga king said, "Who are you? What is your behavior? What are your qualities?" "I will kill all, I will fight them, everything." "Then why are you here?" he said. "Because I also have a right to come to the Kali Yuga. I will not give you a place here, on this earth. I will not give you the place." The gold said, "You have to give. May you give me a small place, but please give me." That king who came, so where will you give me the place? And that king, the negative Rākṣasa, gave me a place in the gold. The king said, "Only that much?" He said, "Yes. Let me give the place in gold." So the king said, "Okay." After that, the gold said to the king, "I will sit on your head." He said, "On my head, you? And how?" "Happily, you will. I will sit on your head." "Impossible. You will see soon. Now, you gave me. I entered here. You gave me the visa here already." And made a beautiful golden crown, and the king said, "Yes, come. You have to go down. God will not go down. You have to surrender." "I will not." He said, "Do not worry, King. Many things will happen now." So he brought the crowd. "Call your people." Many, many people were there. "Fall at the head," and the king is sitting there. And Kali Yuga comes with a golden crown. He said, "Please, king, give me your head." He said, "Yes." And he put the crown on his head. Kālī Yuga said, "You bowed in front of me. I will now govern the Kālī Yuga: money, everything, gold. This is the Kālī Yuga." And so, even brother will kill brother, child will kill father, or father will kill child, or wife will kill husband, or husband will kill wife, or mother will kill child, etc. Nation will fight nation only for that gold, and that is Kali Yuga. Therefore, we have to be careful. We have to surrender. Humbly, we should surrender, but don’t be the slave of it. Similarly, our ego is our crown. With a little bit of knowledge you have, you think, "I am holy, I can talk very much." Now, many, many people are studying, but they are only one side. The farmer and the highly educated person, if you bring them together, the farmer will be the high. Because he can do all; he can work everything. He will do all kinds of work, and many they cannot do. And when they do, then pesticide—that is education. So, my dear, it is called satsaṅg. Satguru Satsaṅgī Āryolū, there we will get everything.