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Śrī Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devā Dī Dev, Deveśvar Mahādev Kī Jai, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānand Jī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Māta Pitā Gurudev Kī Jai, Śab Ṛṣi Munī Mahātmāon Kī Jai, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat... Good evening once more, all dear sisters and brothers, and our very dear children. You are all welcome. We are very lucky to be here in this temple of Bhagavān Śrī Nareṇdra Mahāprabhujī, where there is also Bhagavān Devapurījī, Bhagavān Holy Gurujī, and our dear Holy Mother, Mahāprabhujī's mother, my mother. All other Śaṅkarācāryas and all great holy saints are in this temple. We are all here, so there is a great blessing here. That we are also here is why we receive a huge blessing on this platform. This platform—for how many years have thousands of people always been sitting here until today? How lucky we are to be here on this platform. Once someone is here, forever and ever we will have something from that. When we go to any holy place, we call it a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage is great, thousands upon thousands of years old, yet we still go there—like to places associated with Jesus, the Holy Mothers, churches, and temples everywhere. It is said: where the step of the Holy Saint falls, that place is forever and ever. There, the earth, the rock, the dust, the water, all become very holy. From there, when the rain comes from the air and moves further to the other side, it blesses not only humans but all other creatures. How do we know that? We don't know, but we know. We still have that feeling in our heart, and our heart beats. When we go there, we become like that. It is said that a person who goes to a holy place—I'm not talking about only one country, but the whole globe—and many, many souls have come there. Traditions may be a little different; that doesn't matter. So many were there. We go to that place. Maybe we go to the mountains, to the beach, to a forest—different places. Let's say we walk a long way, from here to Badrināth, Kedārnāth. Badrināth is how many thousands and thousands of Satyugas, Dvāparayugas old? And now Tretā Yuga, and the coming Kali Yuga (Kali Yuga is still coming). There, people go for darśan to that temple or that place where God's holy feet were. The Nirakāra. Nirakāra means there is nothing to see; it's like the sky, that's all. And Sākāra. Then there is Sākāra, and there the holy place becomes. Now we go as pilgrims. Many, many people, of many, many religions, with many, many names of holy persons, go on their way. Let's say we are going to the Himalayas. There were no roads then; now we have roads, vehicles, but that time was not. We only think, and then we know one village after another. This is the path. Let us say to Alaknandā's Badrināth. In the next village we asked, and they said, "Yes, from this left side." Whenever it was night, they stayed somewhere under a rock. A few people together were going at that time. To eat, they brought from home a little of what they could carry. After that, there was nothing. They searched for some fruits, some leaves of the trees. Some people they saw gave them food because they were pilgrims. People said then, and I think even now, "This is our great, great blessing that you are in our house. How great we are that we give you some food." And the pilgrims said, "Thank you very much. You are for us a pilgrim," etc. So they were thinking all together. And now also, there are tigers and many different kinds of animals. Sometimes they said, "You have to cross the river." People were crossing. They asked about the rocks, from this rock to that rock, etc. But going there, sometimes people kept a little place for a fire and put there in some pot rice, some rice and sugar, or something like that. "Go ahead, go ahead. There is no road. Go through this forest; there is a footpath." Many longed, but what were they thinking all the time? Bhagavān Badrināth, or other names. All the time they were thinking about Badrināth. They were asked, "Where are you going?" They said, "To Badrināth." Sometimes they lost the path, then found it again. Shoes were gone, so they had no shoes; they went barefoot. They were going and all sitting together. When it was cold, they had their little cloth, whatever they were sitting on. But all the time they would say, "Let's say OM, OM..." All the time, sometimes it happened that one person died. It happened many times. But they are chanting names. Every religion, every language, has the name of God. Now, what they see: the temple is there. They see it from a distance, but it's about three or four kilometers away. Still they stay there, and the whole night they do not sleep. They are singing bhajans and names. Abhaz. That Abhaz means our feelings, our failings. And when we come to the Badrinath temple, we ourselves begin the Badrinath. They are making parikramā. Parikramā means going round and round the temple. At that time, they are not themselves—they are Badrināth. They were all very tired and a little bit energetic, but when they came to the temple, they had forgotten everything. "I am here." It is said that there was a parikramā. Parikramā means we are going round and round the temple. Maybe there is a temple of stone only, so they become one with it, and then they get some prasāda. The prasāda is not that much; maybe they will give one handful of rice. They will put it on their cloth, and when they go back, all the time they keep it in their armpit. Even when they were going with the water, they were holding it. "This is Badrinath with us." Some people passed away. But slowly, slowly, it took them two, three months, sometimes more, half a year. No vehicle. Then they were coming to their villages. People were running. "The pilgrims came, the pilgrims came!" They come near the villages. The people come and say, "Please sit down here. Sit down, relax. Drink water. We will not let you come into the village. We all will come, and we will welcome you. We will put our hands down, and you have to step on our palms." Music, many things. They were giving colors and malās and like this. They said, "You are here, Badrīnāthjī, with us." And then what they brought, this prasād—of course, they make more, about kilograms, 40 kilos, or 100 kilos, and they mix it. It means that from that, prasād becomes more and more. And they all will give the praśād. Some make some kind of mala, bring from there, it is something. When I was little, about four or five years old, I was once in a village and saw that we make some festival when people come back home. They were worshipping them. They were even taking their cloth and said, because something was... the cloth was not good, but they kept it. It's Badrinath's air from their atmosphere that was in this dress. That time also, before, let's say about 60 or 80 years ago, there was one sādhu. He had a black cloth always because it was very cold, so he had a black cloth. He was making, every five kilometers, a little hut and putting there one pot with rice, vegetables, dal, sugar, and fire, everything, and some pot. He told her, "Oh pilgrim, pilgrims, people who are going on pilgrimage, please, here is everything. Cook everything, eat." Again, clean, and you can go further. Other people were coming and always keeping food and everything. His name was Kālī Kamlīwālā. Kālī means black, Kamlī means this shawl. The name they gave him was the black Swāmījī, Kālī Kamlīvālā Bābā. Now, some people, spiritual and very religious people, and cheap rich people, they make now a little hostel for sādhus, free. Others there, for very little money. But they give them cloth, and this, and sleeping. So when we go from Haridwar to Rishikesh, and then from there it becomes the Kālī Kamlīvālā, to Badrinath, to Kedarnath, everything, and it's still there, very big. It's something very great. But then people come more and more. The road comes. The truck comes. Cars, cars, etc. And there they are going quickly and coming back quickly. People can get there very quickly and come back quickly. That is a different pilgrimage. Now, people going on pilgrimage is night and day different. Then you feel that. Similarly, how many years have we been here? And how did you come in the beginning? Our rooms were not like that. We didn't ask anyone to give them money. But we were trying. We were little coming, coming. We are making now a better bed, and better this, and like this. And it is these buildings we cannot change. We cannot change a window, and we do not want to have a toilet in the room. They are coming time to time from the government. They are coming, saying that if we have not changed something... So this is also a holy place like that. And how is the pilgrim like that? And when they go there... When they travel, they already become that. So this is how it works. There is another very beautiful story told by our Bhagavān Sadguru Swāmī Madhavānandjī. He told a very nice story. Three men from Gujarat, like in the Czech Republic, this and that, wanted to go to the Gaṅgā. From there, by car, it would take about one day and night, or two days and one night. Now the trucks are coming, and everything is done. They had time; they were walking. They wanted to go to the Gaṅgā for water from the Gaṅgā. They wanted to swim in the Ganga. So they were going, they were going. Same stories: people were giving eating, drinking. But that was already a distance, already close to the now. They are going and they are going. In one village, before they left from their house, one sādhu met them. He said, "Where are you going?" "We are going to have a bath in holy Gaṅgā." "Okay," he said. "If you go, stay in the village or somewhere, only in that house should you go and drink water or eat. Ask, 'Have you been swimming in the Gaṅgā?'" Maybe in some village, nobody was there again, so they said, "Sorry, but we will not eat and drink." People were angry. They said, "Please, we bow down in front of you. But one sadhu gave us this instruction, and he said that our pilgrimage will be successful, and that's why we are doing it. Please, don't be angry. We are people from there." Next village? So this village said, "In the next village, there are four people who were in the Ganges." I tell you this, how people have confidence, knowing that that is God. We want God. We want to feel God. So the Ganga is also holy, the Ganga. Well, time to time they were walking, and they were asking, "Please, has anyone been in the Gaṅgā?" Coming closer and closer, there were more people. "Yes, we were in the Gaṅgā," and like this. Next, they believe, "How far is the Gaṅgā?" This Gaṅgā is about now 20 or 30 kilometers. They were very trained, you know, walking. So they came to one ashram, our village, and asked, "How long to the Gaṅgā?" It said five kilometers. They were on the way. Came one ṛṣi. You know what, Zubri? Grass house. So they went there, and there was one sādhu. He had one cottage for him, and one for some people, and a sādhu was there. So these three Gujarati people said, "What can we ask them? Did you swim in the Ganga or not? It is less than one kilometer. And definitely, he has been bathing in the Gaṅgā perhaps every day or many times. And if we ask him about Gaṅgā and ask him, 'Did you swim there or wash in the Gaṅgā?' He will say, 'What stupid people. I am here near the Gaṅgā, still. I have no job. I go and do twice and come and wash and come back.'" They were thinking like this, so the Bhakta said, "Can we stay here in your cottage? And tomorrow we are going to the Ganges." He said, "Yes, no problem. Stay, you are tired." And he made Bābājī Mahārāj, Gurujī, Sādhu. He made some food, rice and this, I don't know what. And he gave them the food. Of course, they didn't ask. And there, to ask, "Have you passed in the Gaṅgā?" Well, they were eating. Gurujī was sitting there, and they were giving satsaṅg. One of them said, "Gurujī, how far is Gaṅgā?" "I don't know. Ganga River. Why should I go there? I have a water vessel. I wash from here. I drink water from here." "You did not bathe in the Ganga?" "No." All three bhaktas from Gujarat, they were coming about two or three months apart from each other. They said, "Oh God, we came from so far. And all our aim is gone." Of course, they cannot say to a sādhu, "Wrong," or something like this. So Bābājī, his Gurujī, he went in his cottage and said, "You can stay there, sleep. Morning we will drink tea and eat something, then you can go where you want to go." All three Gujarati men, they could not sleep. "My God! What is this mistake? I could have asked him. We thought it is Swamiji. But what to do? And, of course, we can't say Swāmījī like this. He told us, he said, 'I didn't bathe, I can bathe here.'" Babaji is sleeping. He went to sleep in his cottage. Both are sitting there. It was something like a moonlight, so it was light. And about eleven o'clock, twelve, one o'clock in the night, three dark or dark cows were coming. They said, "What is that? Three cows, dark completely." Maybe Gurujī's cow. They lost, and now coming, they come close, and there were three women. The dress was not so clean, like the color is like dark. It was a cow, and now it's women. Gujaratis are a little bit always with a fear, and they were coming close. Three ladies went to Bābājī, but Bābājī was sleeping. One lady was cleaning his pot and everything: fresh water, all cleaning, the platform, everything. Second, she was going and bringing some wood and this for fire. And third one, making some nice leaves and flowers and like this. They said, "What is that? We're closing together." And they became completely white, like we have seen in the Mahābhārata. Very white, nice ladies, no? Now, one man, he was a little elderly. He said, "Sisters, please, who are you? We stay here. We will give some money to Bābājī tomorrow. Please, who are you? Are you some ghost or what?" All three ladies said, "We are not a ghost. We are Gaṅgā, Yamunā and Sarasvatī. The whole day people come from the different parts of the world, and they are swimming in us. They are all dirt, everything. All dirt, everything. Their bad karma they are washing inside, and we take all of this on us. We become dark, so at midnight we go to Guru Dev, and we are coming like dark cows, then dark women, and we are working, and we become completely white. And we make praṇām there, and before sunrise, quickly we go to Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī." They are getting dark there. "Say yes. And this sin is washed here?" "Yes. Yes, my brothers." "So, in the river or here?" "People are getting their sins there, but we cannot clean them there. We are cleaning for the Gurudev." Then it is it. "Should we?" "Yes, yes, the sisters, that is the pilgrim." "Thank you very much. Thank you." Then she went, all three sisters. While walking, walking, they are completely pure, clean, and they just went. And they said, "Morning," to Guruji. Guruji said, "Yes. You see, all that you were eating, all clean that. Everything. Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, all these three, they come and do the sādhus, Śiva." Then they said, "Thank you very much." When they went back, they said, "Did you meet that?" He said, "Thank you very much, that we are always asking that, go to some sādhu, only this and that and that." So that is that. Where are you going? And where you are going, it comes to you, that's it. So after, it's only dust and this and that. But the environment there, if all by this whole holy Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, they are taking all dirt from others, and they are going bathing with the sand. So that is a pilgrim. So everyone, in many countries, they have their traditions, but feeling that it's how one should live. That is our sādhana, that is our practice, and that we will become one day. Like that, I am nothing, but I am there. So maybe here, from this area, this lawn, I became pure, and now my environment is there. I'm not for one, I'm for all, so one in all and all in one. Understand what is the master, what is a guru, and who is not. I don't know. We come, it will come. Maybe I am still very black in me. Maybe I'm still so black. Maybe it's my thinking. But others say, "No, I don't know." I will say, in the last minute of my life, I will say only this. So this is that: where to go, why, and what we can do. And still, we are not sure, but that environment came, and immediately we became clear. So Gaṅgā, Yamunā, or Sarasvatī, they are with us. All we are there, we were on their stones. We touched that when it is with us. Some stones are people brought from Alaknandā. And that stone is here, many more so. Tomorrow we will continue, and now we have, I think they call it, the Mahābhārata. Many blessings, my dears. Bless you. In the name of our Gurudev. Hari Om.