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Namaḥ śabdāś prabhu śaraṇam. Oṁ namaḥ śrī prabhudīpa nayanam. Oṁ Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Deva Haṁsabhādas Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Haṁsabhādas Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Oṁ Śrī Prabhu Deva. Oṁ Śrī Amasabhādas Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. ... Oṁ Śrī Amasabhādas Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. It is a spiritual devotee, and it is very hard to know who is truly a devotee. How far are you willing to give your devotion, to work on your body, your mind, your whole strength, your sādhanā, and to be sure you wish to achieve your goal of reaching Brahman? There are different ways of going and coming. Some go to what is called Satyuga. We speak of going to the eternal. In some religions, they call it heaven or hell. The difference in thinking is this: heaven cannot be forever, nor can hell be forever. There is a time, but again you will return and continue further on the path. This is what is written as Svarga and Naraka. In this Kali Yuga, when it began, different religions also began. It started somewhat in the Tretā Yuga, where attachment and greed arose. In heaven, or svarga, it is said that as long as you have good deeds, you will enjoy it there. "Enjoy" does not mean in a negative way, but that it is comfortable. Yet, one will come back to Earth, because we are the creation, and we are all within this aura, within this sun. As far as the sun's light reaches, we are all within this globe of the sun. When one dies, we do not know if we will go to heaven or to naraka. They, too, must come to this cycle of 8.4 million (Charasi Lākh) creatures. One birth is for humans, who have understanding and intelligence. But too much intelligence goes the wrong way: "I am good. I am best. I am that." That means we are falling into a negative way. We think we are human, and we like this and that. "I don't like this. I will not do it. I will go a different way." These are animal feelings. But humans are attached to human qualities and are about to reach that supreme state or not. It does not matter if you are married or not. You should marry, no problem. If you don't marry, no problem. It is good. It is said that one husband and one wife are very... the word I've forgotten... they are in oneness. Like a husband and wife are two bodies, but they become like one soul. They will go to heaven, to Svargaloka. Those who create confusion and many difficulties cause separation, and that is different. Therefore, if you act from a little attachment or for a little enjoyment, and then you dislike it and leave, it means you have lost human consciousness. I do not mean you cannot see good and so on, but now you are awakened. You are like one thing: God. So it is said, husband and wife have each other. With equality and happiness, they come to heaven or such. It is very difficult. In this modern time, it is very difficult, but there are many, many people, many couples. It has not been lost. But many are going to be lost. There were fewer humans and many animals; now there are many humans and fewer animals. How do you know? That's it. It means that in this Kali Yuga, there is an effort to bring in human consciousness so that before this Mahāpralaya comes, they should come as humans. But not only that: I am now in a human body. It is not just the five elements; they are in every animal, in everything. But now, with awareness, alertness, and humbleness, we will progress further and further. The first thing is: do not keep changing this and that. Sometimes there are persons who think, "I am the highest, yes, I am a great person, a great master. I have miracles, I give you this, I am..." and they sit there. There is one who is more intellectual on the outside, and the other is spiritual within. That's it. So we do not know who will go where, or where that soul will reach its final destination. You did not know in whose mother's womb you would come, who would be your father. What will you do now? Father is in Africa, mother is in Australia, daughter is in the ashram, and the son is... "Where are we? When will it end? Where will we end it?" I was thinking about this because people ask me many things. I am telling you about our Māṭājī who passed away from this body. What happened was very peculiar. She was born in Switzerland, was in Britain for a long time, and then landed here. It was her power; her will was very strong. She came here, where she met me in various places: Switzerland, various places in Britain like London. How, where... it is very... You were in the lap of your mother and the hand of your father, and they did not know where you would land. The same thing: we are all here, and we know what that is. Nobody knows. We call it destiny. Destiny is always like... I often tell you a story from a country in Europe, where a king had a child. Someone said the child would marry his mother. You know who that was? In which country? In Greece. He tried very hard to avoid it. So his father told a shepherd, "Take this child and throw it somewhere, or kill it." The shepherds were very sorry. They went to the hills among thorn bushes, left the child there, and said, "Now your destiny is further. We cannot kill you." When he grew up, someone told him, "This is your fate: you will marry your mother." He was very sad. A lady was telling him, "Your fate." He was running and turning, going with closed eyes towards a distant destination, then again another side. But finally, he became a warrior. The king had died. He was a very good and strong warrior, and that queen—of course, he did not know she was his mother, and she did not know he was her child—married her. So we do not know where we are landing. The first point is this: God always gives us the right things. What kind of right? Attachment. This attachment is of two kinds of love. One love is parents' love: mother and father, brother and sisters, etc. The second is the love to marry somebody. In that, as we all know in our Indian Jyotiṣa, and in Christianity when they go to the church—what promise they are making there. Afterward, if you go away, okay, you don't like it, you did it, but you spoke on the altar of God. That is very important. So the love is to parents, brothers, sisters, and between husband and wife. But changing, turning—"I will not do this, I will not do that"—this puts us very much on that path. I am talking about this Māṭājī. She had heard sādhanā, she knew, and she was very humble and very strong, attached to her master. She did whatever he would tell. But some people were talking to her—Mother Yam, her name, or Mataji—saying, "Why are you here, suffering alone?" and so on. Many people told her things. They were saying, "Naya, and this and what and why, and Swāmījī is very strong..." Some people said it was okay, but she would say yes, yet in her heart was what we call the Guru Vakya. For me, something very miraculous happened. On the same day as the Mahāsamādhi of Mahāprabhujī, on that very day, she gave up her life. She made a prayer at the same time as the prayer for Mahāprabhujī's samādhi in another ashram. She had so many people and children who loved her very much. After making praṇām, she sat there, fell, and some blood came. I was not there, but people took her. They called me, and I said, "Take her immediately to the hospital in Nagore." This is a beautiful, very good hospital. My bhaktas there said, "Immediately, please take her to Jodhpur." They wrapped her in a dress because it was very cold. The journey took two and a half hours. Around 10 or 11 o'clock, she reached the good hospital. At the hospital, which also has my bhaktas, I told the doctor, the owner. He said, "Yes, Swāmījī, please, no problem." He was in Delhi but said, "I have many doctors and an ambulance. Let it come quickly, and I will call all the best doctors." They called the best doctors that night and immediately took her into the operation theater. They performed a procedure; there was very thick blood. Many times when you have a headache, you must know—we should all know these things—that good blood circulation is important. Someone, not a doctor but a half-doctor, said, "We must not let our head get cold. It should always be protected in very cold weather." Otherwise, as we say in India and other countries, "Head cool and feet warm." When you are angry, your head becomes very hot. That creates tension in your brain's centers. So let it be cool. "Cool" means the brain has enough heat, so let it be nicely balanced. But when it is cold, say minus 20 with snow and wind, then we should protect ourselves. In Europe, with snow and cold, I have enough hair protecting me. As much snow as falls, my hair protects me; only a strong wind is different. Many times Swāmījī says, "You know what is happening?" In the cold, walking, for example, when I exhale, warm air comes out with water droplets. When I inhale, in that time, it all turns to snow. The snow becomes ice. When I exhale again, water comes. So it is good. Our body knows what to do and what not to do. Of course, if you use a cap once or twice, then you must always use it. But if you are not using it, then it's good. When it is raining or there is too much snow, of course we take something. Anyway, the doctor said, "We will do our best." They operated. I don't know exactly what they said, but the blood was too thick. After a while, her eyes began to open a little and she was breathing. The doctor said, "Okay, very good." The next day, they said they would operate again because they felt something. Again, they cleaned everything, and it was good. She was moving a little; the ātmā was there. On the third or fourth night, there was a night doctor—new doctors—who said, "Now she's gone." They called another doctor. In that moment, her lungs were full of water. They tried again, took the water out of the lungs, and again she was breathing nicely, relaxed. She was not suffering. Then I came. They called me, and I gave up my conferences. I came at 4 o'clock, arriving at Udaipur at 2:30 at night, and got up early in the morning. There was a problem with the timing, but it changed. I went to see Matajī. I said, "We don't want her to die." But my inner self said, "If she is brought back again, she will suffer very much." That same day, I drove to Khatu. When I come to Khatu, you see the love. She was a very strict lady. There was one family who brought nearly every day something—milk, food, everything—for Matajī. One day, that man needed a few banyan tree leaves for his daughter who had a problem. He thought, "He is Swāmījī, and Matajī is always with him." She used to come to his house. When he took a few leaves, she was angry. "Why? Why are you doing this? Why didn't you ask me? Now what will... Swamiji will tell me, 'Who took the leaves?'" You see, she was very correct, not this, not that. Similarly, for years she would get up at 4:30, wash, and by five she was coming with many dīpaks, oil lamps, to all the temples. She performed pūjā. At 4:15 or 4:20 in the morning, all the Indian ladies would come for pūjā on their respective days. There was a long queue. On this day, what I want to tell is, because she was very strict: if someone wanted to hold a program there, she first said, "Give money for cleaning and everything; otherwise I don't want any programs." But when Māṭājī went to the hospital, the whole area of Balikhatu was very sad. About 30, 40, 50 ladies every day, and they continued, praying and singing bhajans for her. They were so sad. When I came, I heard again. I came because I had a program somewhere, and I knew something could happen. I went to the... nipple? There was a program at six in the morning. Premanājī said to me, "Swāmījī, I think Māṭājī is not anymore now." I had promised to be at a conference, so I went from Kāṭu to this program for only one hour. There were thousands of people, but I said I could not stay. I think I was not here... I went only through... I don't know. I came there. Matajī was... they had prepared... Premanājī made a beautiful chariot, like a temple, very nice. I went up there. Before that, I knew... some people said, "Where will you give the samādhi?" Someone said here, someone there. I looked everywhere and then said near the holy Gurujī's room. Who is that lucky person just outside Gurujī's veranda? There is this much place, I told them. They said, "Can we dig it?" I said, "No, no... she is still alive. When someone is alive and you dig the grave, it is not good." After two days, they prepared it. We came there; people were there. Meanwhile, it is such a story we could write. Of course, we sent a message to her mother's sons—she had two sons. One son and his wife came. Now, again, the day... that day was Christmas day. The first was when Mahāprabhujī went to samādhi, and the second was Christmas. Maybe Jesus is coming. There is such a connection. In India, we always try, if possible, to perform the samādhi on the same day, or they cremate, but not at night. Her son was coming; we knew he would be in Jodhpur at two o'clock. It takes three to four hours again. One taxi was very good; he was running quickly. We were waiting and praying. It was so nice. Matajī's samādhi flowers were beautiful. We thought, "We cannot do it tomorrow; we will do it now. We cannot leave her like this." Then our son came. Ten minutes later, the son sat. His wife said, "Thank you." Then another thing happened: the police came. They came because a foreign lady had died, and they would not allow burial without passports and documents from parents, etc. We told them the situation. We had the certificate from the doctor and everything. But they said they needed confirmation from the parents or a telephone conversation. The son came just then. The police were relieved; otherwise they would have had problems. They would not have allowed it, and we don't know what would have happened—maybe they would have opened it again. So the police were very helpful. Her son came; first he saw and was nervous. But he could see Matajī, and it was great. I think one should have such a resting place—not a grave, but a bearing—like we had for Mahālī Gurujī. I hope I will not die somewhere behind Africa. Our yogīs were there. He was a yogī, really very strong. You might think a yogī is thin, but it was good. The earth was good. They put her inside, gave salt and sugar, and put so many flowers. For Matajī... the yogīs were doing this, and she was sitting like this. Matajī was not like this or that; something happened. She was only like this, smiling. Really. We have the photos; we will show you. It was very nice. Immediately, the yogīs made everything very nice with earth, made a little hill with flowers and light. People were sad. There were hundreds of children who used to come to Māṭājī; she also taught them English. The children were very sad. Well, it is like this. Every country has a certain ceremony when someone dies. In Indian Hindu tradition, it is about 12 days, and then we perform the final ceremony. But for a sannyāsī, it is 16 days. After 16 days, we have this bandha. Why sixteen? That is very important. Every day for 16 days, twice, Matajī must get a very good meal: chapati with gourd and ghee on it. They bring it into her cave, then take it and give it to a dog. Very nice. Everything was perfect. So there are 16 sannyāsīs for the bandhara. Sixteen different kinds of objects should be offered: a bag, shoes, an umbrella, a comb, soap, cloth, everything. These 16 sannyāsīs should be Śaṅkarācāryas. There were many sādhus from different paths. It was very nice. We did not get sannyāsīs of the Śaṅkarācāryas, so three were left. I also gave to the Goswāmīs, sannyāsīs from Śaṅkarācārya. I gave them salt, mala, and money. Then came the Brahmins. There were many ladies singing for Matajī, so I bought very nice saris for them and gave them. Others also kept... "Who was there? Can I have? Can I have?" And then the other one... so it was. Eating began at 9 o'clock with prasāda and continued till 8 in the evening. All day, people were coming and going. Where I was sitting, I had many things to do. But it was always very nicely said, "Swamiji, all day came to me and to others." Very much work was done by our Premanājī and other Karmayogīs. What is your name? Seva Devi—she was three nights, day and night, helping our mother because she is a nurse. She made her so comfortable, and Matajī was so relaxed. We thought, "Oh, God." Now, thanks to God, we know someone has... So all people were for that, and we did it. The people of the village gave all the food for the bandarās. They all gave donations. Yes, Premanājī? They said, "No, no, this is for our mother." They said, "Always our Māṭājī, our Māṭājī." This is how it can be. We don't need someone to do it for me; it is ours. They said she was disciplined, strict, and kept the ashram the best, clean and everything. There is one joke. Between jokes, we want a joke? Really? There was a king, and whatever the king did, everyone had to do. Otherwise, finished. One day, the king had a little dog he loved very much. Everybody had to think the dog was like a god. The king was very nasty, not good, but everyone had to obey. When the dog died, everyone had to go to the funeral. The whole city came for the dog's ceremony. But when the king died, nobody went. Only one or two people put him in the earth. Yes. So it is said: how you are, not just in the last minutes, but how your funeral and respect will be. That means God says, "Yes, now this person has this path towards the highest." If you are always saying, "Not this, then not this, and this and that," then it is not good. So we have to learn to say yes and be strict. That's it. If you are not strict, then you are lost. Yes, discipline and so on. On the day of Matajī, many people were there. In the afternoon, I said I would go early the next morning. They said, "We will come to say goodbye." I said, "No, because I have to leave at 6 o'clock." I was called. Our bhaktas, a few who were with us, also came, others from Khattu and Jaipur. Premanājī and two or three people were there to help. Everything was brought. Now, Chandra Purī, our Chandra Purī darling, is really very nice. He was running here and there. It was not easy. Also, Narāyaṇ Siṅghjī's son is very good. He knows everything: that light, that water, this, this, everything. He is a very great boy. They are all taking care now. We will see how it is. When Premanājī went, it was already morning, 6:30, when I left. Chandrapurī called me and said, "Swāmījī." I said, "Yes, what?" He said, "There's no one. I miss Matajī. I miss you. It's been so many days you were not here in Badīkaṭṭu or there." Of course, suddenly it feels empty. But people are coming, having bhajans, satsaṅg. Children are there, and I was teaching them something nice; the children were very happy. But the best is for my children, you know what? Yeah. All children come after the prayer, nice, sweet. The whole hall was full at the end. All were coming there. So it is like this: how will we see the last minutes of our life? We shall earn this. What? The love. Love means respect for this and that. Not sometimes, "I don't want," and "I don't go," and "I throw it." That is like different things. Yes, we have to learn and go. So, from this story of Matajī, we can learn nice things. When her son and his wife came—from the airplane they landed in Delhi, then in a car—they saw how India is. They were told what happened, why their mother was here, what she was doing, how. When they came, there was music, many people. Māṭājī was like a god. Many people brought her and spoke of her. She was sitting in this, and all was... Then he said, "I did not know my mother is so great and how people love her. I thought my mother was not comfortable in India, with mosquitoes and this and that." And she said, "How beautiful this ashram, big, big villa." I said, "Wait a minute, I will show you another villa." We went to the Ālagpurījī Siddhipīṭha. He liked it very much, then came here also. This is soda? I went, but the yogīs showed him. They were very happy. So it is like that. How should the end come? We are, but it is that... This is our mālā constantly going. So this is what we call: Likhit mantra, then bekārī, then Upāṁśa, then Mānasik, and then Ajapā. Ajapā jisko kyā japay binā japay, jab jāve Mahāprabhujī's bhajan is there. Otherwise, you run away, and then you say, and you will come again, and sometime you... "No, I will give up. I want different." But in that place where I was studying, Gurujī's room, when Gurujī was there, one day Gurujī said to me—he really had tears—and I got to ask him there. Gurujī said to me, "My, my witness." Witness? Who is my witness? There is this banyan tree. Who was the God here? Many were coming and going, but they don't know. So that is what is the real God, or real something. Some cannot, some will throw it, but Mahāprabhujī was that place, that āśram. So people are... this evening at prayer time, people came for prayer, children came for prayer, but it felt empty. It will come again. We will see; we need some Mataji there, but not one day like this and one day like that. Strict, you know, or one boy... but we will see. Don't worry. Don't think that I will go. It is destiny that will send you there, not me. So this is our Matajī's... what do they call her? Dayāmātā? No. Yogamāyā. Yogamāyā is a very holy, holy śakti, yes. So we pray for her. I did my best so that she will come to Ālag Purījī, Devpurījī, Holy Mahāprabhujī, Holy Gurujī, and she will come into eternal peace and light. We pray for her, and we will also pray for ourselves, and we pray for others for good things.