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Guru Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Guru Devo, Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt, Parabrahma, Tasmai, Śrī Guruve Namaḥ. Dhyāna Mūlam Guru Mūrti, Pūjā Mūlam Guru Pādam, Mantra Mūlam Guru Vākya, Mokṣa Mūlam Guru Kṛpā. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. Welcome, all, and a very beautiful day. This day is a very great day, and I am sure that the coming days will also be beautiful. We pray to our Paramparā, our Gurudev: “Gurudev, please bless us.” Throughout the whole day we had our work, our activities, but now we have come here in the evening as the sun is setting. And in this, we are also moving towards sleep. We have activities for the day, and rest, sleep, or meditation for the night. It does not matter whether it is day or night—we pray to our Gurū Dev, who gives us blessings and knowledge. Day by day, night by night, please, let us draw closer to the cosmic Self. We know, Gurudev, that during the daytime, the whole day, we were engaged in different thoughts and activities. But we were thinking—negative thinking, positive thinking, peace, harmony, and so forth. Gurudev, this is Sandhyā, the evening, when the sun is going down. Here the sun is setting while in other parts of the globe the sun is rising. So we say the sun is setting, resting, yet the sun does not rest. In the same way, the Gurudev is always and ever in that light, even now at rest. Many times it is said that as we go higher, like to the moon or the sun, there are many suns rising. We know all this. The higher we go, the smaller the globe becomes. O Lord of Lords, Bhagavān Gurudev—Om Śānti, Om Śānti, Om Śānti. Our Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī, our Gurudev Swāmī Madhavānandajī, and our God of Gods, Devpurījī, please bless us. We are at your lotus feet, in your holy well, your holy feet. This day was very good, and we wish that every day will be good. Yet we know that we always have different thoughts. Outwardly we are very pleasant, smiling, working, speaking, but inwardly the quality is not good. That is why our Gurudev gave us a beautiful bhajan, one that we are working with and dwelling upon. It bestows knowledge upon us. This is a bhajan of our Satguru Swāmījī Madhavānandajī—a beautiful bhajan. In its short and sweet style, as Gurujī always said, “Short and sweet.” And that bhajan appears in many scriptures and books, yet one may still not fully understand its meaning. It is found in so many śāstras, everywhere. You often sing this very bhajan. Today we will look into it. When I came from my place just now, there were so many nice people and small children. I had to give my attention to them, and also to our other people. As I was coming here, I observed that in everyone the vṛtti is different. You all know what a vṛtti is—the modification of the mind. And this vṛtti is like a cat. A cat moves this way and that way, very silent, yet we do not know when it might pounce—even in the middle of a bhajan, between questions, something may arise. So, a few words about the cat. Cats are otherwise very beautiful, very good. The cat does not sleep at night; we sleep. But some cats living in a house become like us—they have nowhere to go, they stay in one house, eating this and that. So these cats are no longer truly cats; they become toys. And we know how we care for these toys, of course. There are many stories, and they hold truth. Cats are both good and not good. The same can be true for humans. There is a little story about such a cat—one who is always victorious. The cat will always emerge victorious. But like people, perhaps some can surpass the cat. It is a good story, though I do not know whether it is real or whether people made it up long ago. At that time, there was a king, a Rājā. In ages past, we were all like servants. The king—Mahārāja—was created when a ṛṣi gave a person the task: “Please take care of all these humans, for they are always fighting.” There was a strong person, and a very humble person who had little knowledge. Then the Guru Dev, the ṛṣi or yogī, said, “I give you this knowledge. You have to learn. After that, I will make you a king, and that king will be strong and knowledgeable. You should take all the people under your care.” That means protecting them, giving to them, ensuring they are always happy, not fighting. Therefore, the name and position of king were given by the Ṛṣi Yogīs. He said, “Please protect all these humans and be like their father.” And so, slowly over time, kingship came to be. Sometimes, from time to time, some kings became too strong, which is not good. Then again someone would go to the Gurudeva. So, who is that Rājā? The position of Rājā is next, called Mahārājā, and Mahārājā is that Gurū Rājā. As the story grows long, remind me of this bhajan. The story has many stories, like a mālā, one after another. So, the Rājā and his palace. He had some good children, and one daughter. In that kingdom, there was no separation, no politics. All were like his parents, his children. It did not matter which caste. All these humans were his children, his people. If anyone was very poor and had nothing to eat, the king would provide for everyone. The king said to his daughter, “It is time; I think we will find a husband for you.” She replied, “Father, when will you say so?” But she was very intelligent and often played certain games. She said, “I will marry the boy who wins against me. That will be my husband.” Many suitors were brought, but they failed. The princess had a very beautiful cat. In the evening, they would play a game. The cat would sit in front of her, and the rule was that the cat should not move. Until the cat moved, the princess would not lose; she would be the winner. The cat had something placed on its head—an oil lamp. A very nice house, many people sitting there, and now the player comes. Until the cat moves, they will not be the winner. And when the cat moves, the lamp will fall down. That means the boy is the winner and she has lost. These stories sometimes carry important lessons about what to do and what not to do. Tricky. So she also had a trick: this oil lamp would be on the head of my cat, and she would concentrate intensely, telling the cat, “You should look at me, left, right, with your eyes, and always show me the victory.” The king said, “My daughter is getting older and older—twenty years, twenty-five years, thirty years.” She would say, “Father, I have to be the winner, otherwise I will not marry at all.” The king would then say, “Bring me the best husband, a very beautiful and very intelligent man, please.” Yet she would not like any. If a suitor seemed good, she would challenge him to the game. If you are the winner, I will marry you. And she knew that as long as her cat did not move, no suitor could win, and she would not have to marry anyone. Yes, that was a time when girls or boys would not marry in the Tilak house. You know the Tilak house? What is there? You are lost. Say something. Tillak, I think they don’t hear me. You are like the cat that cannot move. You can do like this. You are an old cat. Oh my God, you lost. I am the king and I have said my children are lost. Dobře? You lost. The story is finished. No, finished. So the story is finished. That was the story. My God! That queen and king—especially the queen said, “My daughter.” That boy is better, but these boys are like stones. So, well, that bhajan of Mahāprabhujī—the story is finished. I will not tell it, no, no. The warning story also: when I say you have no prāṇa, you must become active, prāṇa, right? So now, the bhajan. Gurudev says, “Sādhanā, sādhanā, do the sādhanā.” And sādhanā has many meanings. Practicing is sādhanā, working is sādhanā, studying is sādhanā, constructing a building is sādhanā, getting dressed is sādhanā, and even going with that cat is sādhanā. But the young lady, the girl, is lost. She will kneel before Gurū Dev, pleading, “What will you do with me?” I will say, “Sādhvī, what? What will happen to her?” You see, they are all like dead bodies here, in this area where nobody says anything. Do you hear me? Only twenty-eight people were doing like this. Yes, what should I do? Let them be placed in meditation, finished. Sat. Satguru Swāmījī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān said, “O my devotees, O my bhaktas, Sādhanā cāra, do the four kinds of work.” Through that, you will attain mokṣa. What is mokṣa? Liberation. And what is liberation? Liberation from this world. Where will you go? To the Supreme. So, do four different kinds of work. This is also called yoga, and they give four parts of yoga. Generally it is said so. But if we look at the Bhagavad Gītā, there are twenty-eight yogas. So where are the four, and where are the eight? Each chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā begins with yoga and ends with yoga. If we read the Gītā, we come to know what yoga truly is. My dear ones, merely making postures and jumping up and down is not yoga. Karma yoga is there in the Bhagavad Gītā. The Gītā says, “Karma yoga suko śālam.” That which we do as good work, we will succeed in. Sādhanā, Cāraka, Roharī—but Gurudev brings a little more closure: only four. So do these four sādhanās. And this is sādhanā cāra. Gurudev said, “The first sādhanā—and sādhanā means to try, to practice, all that is sādhanā.” For example, very simply, the staircase: from this building, you go down one floor. On the staircase you also have to work, moving slowly, slowly downward. If you jump from above, your sādhanā will be lifted—come. Even life is sādhanā. Walking is sādhanā, cooking is sādhanā, working is sādhanā, washing our hair is sādhanā, eating is sādhanā. Whatever we do is sādhanā. Those who have no sādhanā are lazy. Even if they will not cook something, they just go to sleep, and in the morning they don’t eat anything—they don’t want to cook anything or go anywhere. They look at their friend’s house, go to the park, and sit there, doing nothing. They are lost. We should be alarmed. But we are all like this. The cat is there. Everybody is looking at the little girl. Oh God, the poor, poor girl. The princess did not marry, nor did she get a swāmī—because there is no sādhanā. But I know you are not lazy. Only here and there are a few, but I know why they don’t; because someone has blocked their mouth. If somebody says, “Oh, my God.” Yet deliberately we are not singing, because we are giving from our breath outwards—we exhale, and we don’t know how or what we are expressing. And therefore we are silently kept like a cat. You are right. At least you can say yes. Yes, I see one girl sitting like this. Lazy is lazy. They go behind, this side and that side. Sādhānā, cara, karo, harip. Sādhānā, cara, karo, harip. Very good, very good. Only the singer will say, “Others, do not let the air out too much.” So, my mistake, and you are right. But at least you can sit straight. Yeah, there’s one boy sitting, going down and down, I know. Is it true or not? Yes, that’s it. Anyhow, sādhanā: try, try, work, work, active, active, active. The first work we should do is the sādhanā cāra, viveka. Viveka. Viveka means intelligence. So use viveka. Viveka means two things. If you are Viveka, then you will make the inside completely light, pure. If this room is all dark, we can’t see anything. But if one candle is here, everywhere is light. So if we have the light inside, we can see everything clearly. Viveka is for those people: whether they have negative or positive, good or bad, both will be swallowed inside and it will purify the negative and the positive alike. That is the first step: no jealousy, no hate, no opposition. We become crystal clear. Then you are a vivekī. Otherwise, no vivekā. There are many who appear to have viveka outwardly, but inside, the stomach is full of stones, and they think, “When will I throw my stones out?” The doctor will make a deep cut, and the stone will come out. So the first step is to understand good and bad, to bring it into that work. Satya and Asatya. What is truth and what is not truth? That we have to clear up. When both are very clear, it is good. And that which is not good, the negative, we should also filter. That’s it. But it is not easy. I will tell someone, “Yes, Guru Dev, yes, Swamiji, yes,” but inside… You know the very nice snake, very big—a python, and you can take it on your shoulder. You can walk with it, but one day it knows, one day it will wait. It will not eat anything, become tender, and it is measuring your body. It is true: a few years ago in Jaipur, there was a young lady of about twenty-five to thirty. Her husband had died, and she was a school teacher, very good. She was sad that her husband was gone, so she would not marry again—that chapter was finished. He died, but my feelings and his feelings are with me. Yet sometimes I need someone: a bird, peacocks, or a cat, dog, Paiśāka, etc. And she had a big python. She gave it milk and cared for it. It slept in her bed beside her. One time it became very stressed and was not eating anything. She took it to the veterinarian. “Doctor, this is my snake, a python. He’s so nice, he rolls on me, I carry him on my shoulders. But for ten days he has not eaten.” The doctor asked, “Does he sleep, or what does he do?” She replied, “Sometimes he comes onto my bed and stretches out, as if measuring how long I am. I think he is very stressed.” The doctor said to immediately separate—give the python to him to send somewhere. She asked, “Why?” He said, “Tonight you will be in his stomach.” So, you love God, yes. Place it in a nursery where it can be fed properly, but do not kill it. Similarly, the positive, the good, is good. And someone who is not negative but appears good—we should also give them a good place and good things, but we must know they are separate. For example, in our eating, we have rice, and there are so many stones. What do we do? One throws it all away; another says, “No, we will separate the stone on one side and the rice on the other.” So this is the rice and the stone we must separate. What are they? Our qualities, our thinking, our feeling. And we are so humble that we go to everyone, we are nice to everyone—that is also true. So we create happiness, joy—for birds, for animals, even for tigers. Tigers are very beautiful; lions are beautiful. But if you walk close, you smell death. Don’t go near, please. Yet when they have eaten well, they sleep for three days; you can walk by, except near little cubs. So, can we purify all good things? We have one dress that is very clean and good, and another that is a little dirty because we missed a wash. Should we burn it, throw it away? No. We clean off the dirt. So Gurujī said, “Sat asatya, keep it this side and that side.” Thus, viveka is that satya. Sādhanā cāro karo, Hari pyāre, sādhanā cāro karo, Hari pyāre. Jis se hove mokṣa tumhārā, jis se hove mokṣa tumhārā. Sādhanā cāro karo, Hari pyāre. Dūjā sādhanā ve rāghav kāhī̃, brahmalok tak bhojā. Sādhanā cāro karo, Hari pyāre. The second work, the second sādhanā, is called vairāgya. First was viveka; second is vairāgya. What is vairāgya? Vairāgya means that we throw away some bad things and move towards good things. It does not matter whether you are a sādhu or not; we are in the realm of purities. So, are you? How many thousands of people do you have as best friends? How many are like your own brother and sister in your street? Anyone is with you. How are they? That is a very big subject, but the bhajan book is very small. Vairāgya—we know it, but vairāgya does not mean taking away everything. No, no, no. Vairāgya means that all negative qualities are not good, and we should give them up. The rest is a good bargain. So thank you. Rāga is the negative side, and vairāgya is where we have attachment? Actually, vairāgya is non-attachment. One is attachment, and one is non-attachment. Rāga and vairāgya. So vairāgya is to give up. And rāgya, rāga, there are many good ones too—singing bhajans in a good rāga, dancing in a good rāga, speaking is a good rāga—all that is also good. But the negative things inside—that is not vairāgya, it is rāga, rāga. Try not to go towards that; this is the second. So first was viveka, second is vairāgya. Tījā sādhanā, the third sādhanā, is very important. Tījā Sādhanā Sat Sampati Dharo Jīnsen Se Hove Ānandāya Para... Sādhana chāra karo, Hari pyāra, sādhana chāra karo, Hari pyāra. Jina se hove mokṣa tumhāra, sādhana chāra karo, Hari pyāra. Asādhana chāra karo, Hari pyāre. Jinse ho ve mokṣa tumhārā asādhanācāra, karoharī pyārā sādhanā cāra, karoharī pyārā sat samādhi. Sat, the fourth—one, two, three, and four. Samādhi, śraddhā, and ati tīkṣṇa. Samādhi, śraddhā, and ati tīkṣṇa. Kāryopāram, sama, dhana, vicāra. Kāryopāram, sama, dhana, vicāra. Gurudeva kī. That girl remains virgin, and the cat has hot oil on her head. Whatever it is, okay. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī.