TV Channel

Hari Om! Good evening. Blessings of Gurudeva, our guru-paramparā: from Śiva to Alak Purījī, from Alak Purījī to Dev Purījī, to Ārādhy Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī, and to our Satguru Swāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān. This seminar is on "Guru Kṛpā Hi Kevalam, Śiṣya Hi Kevalam." "Śiṣya" means disciples. "Guru Kṛpā Hi Kevalam" means the Gurudeva’s blessings alone. And for the disciple, there is "śiṣya kī ānanda maṅgalam"—the disciple’s happiness and joy. Ānanda Maṅgalam. "Maṅgalam" means all that is good. Holy Gurujī often says to disciples, "Śiṣyake ānanda-maṅgalam." When we sit beside the guru, what should we do? There are many things. The guru sends energy from his body to so many disciples. We have our Gurujī: Śiva, Alak Purījī, Dev Purījī, Mahāprabhujī, and Holy Gurujī. Including myself, we are all disciples. I am also a disciple. We are all disciples, so it does not matter what we see, feel, or how we work or act. Many people may not understand. They think that if their guru is not physically present anymore, they must have some other guru. In every religion, people call upon their God—Jesus, Kṛṣṇa, or Buddha—but that blessing is given by the Gurudev. A living master can be the guru. This is a manner of speaking, but he or she is a living person who has learned. There are two kinds of learning. One is what we commonly know: going to kindergarten, primary school, college, university, and so on, progressing step by step. This is true and very good; we are happy we can do and learn many things. The second kind—I should say the first, but it does not matter—is the spiritual body of someone called a guru. That guru may have left the body, but thousands upon thousands of energy and blessings from that master remain with all of us. Thus, we have our Satgurus. "Sat" means good, reality, truth (satya), as opposed to falsehood (asatya). In our seminar, you are with the Satya Guru, not an Asatya Guru. That guru in our seminar is our Holy Gurujī. From Holy Gurujī came Mahāprabhujī, from Mahāprabhujī came Devpurījī and Alakpurījī, and from them came Śiva Parabrahmā. That is the lineage. In our anuṣṭhāna (practice), we are attaining that immortality within our body. But when we are practising, we must not question, "Is this good or not good?" If Gurudev says something and we say, "No, it is not good," then we have gone to the other side. Secondly, that Parabrahma Guru has existed for ages upon ages, coming and residing in one place, which we call the holy chair, God’s chair, Gurudeva’s chair. Wherever we are, we see that place—even if there is no physical seat, the earth itself is that place. Different religions have different ceremonies. Some religions face a wall or a rock because they believe God is on that side, perhaps where there is water. Muslims have beautiful mosques; they may not have altars, but they all go and bow down. They have different postures: standing, bowing, touching the thighs, going down into Vajrāsana (the thunderbolt pose), a yoga mudrā, and bowing. I do not know if they touch their heads to the earth. Then they rise again. They maintain great purity in their thinking and actions. Hindus have many temples and also come to the guru. But sometimes, some disciples, after their own guru who initiated them passes away, set him aside and perform ceremonies for Śakti or some other deity. That is not good. They lose their way. The guru made you great; the guru’s body died, but he is still there. This shows who is a real disciple and a real guru. We often think differently, but then our actions will not bear fruit. We must follow that path: from father to father to father. That is the way to come through. Many holy books in different religions point to God, and we are on that path. In the same way, the guru is that chair, and it is given by that guru to the guru. If you take one guru and then go away, and he or she makes their own chair as a guru chair, it is not right. But when a guru gives us meditations, or a mantra—not samādhi, but the mantra—that is the first step. Every disciple, whether male or female, is told by our guru to please sit on a clean place. This means we should have an āsana for one hour. It can be a small cloth, and you should sit on it. If you go far away, take it with you. Others should not sit on your cloth. When you receive the guru mantra, you should have that cloth. Going through the mantra means you have already taken your seat. The best is a white āsana, not other colors. We should not use orange. Even if you are a sannyāsī, you should not give up your own seat. People give seats to sādhus, and they sit. An orange seat is very pure, like God itself, and it is not good to sit on an orange cloth. Red is okay. White is okay. Yellow may be acceptable. Not black. I have also seen Muslims with a cloth; they place it in front and pray on it. They have a prayer mat. If you need to leave, for instance to go to the bathroom, you take your cloth with you. In this anuṣṭhāna, everyone has their āsana. The best is a clean, white one. White means spotless. The person sitting next to you should not touch your āsana. If you have a husband and wife, do not share this āsana. On your bed or another chair, it is okay to sit. But for spiritual practices, yoga, meditation, concentration, or talking about God, we have our āsana. Take care not to give it to others. If you are in a good state, you can perform the āsanas. If someone needs, you can give them something else. In this way, step by step, we come to the guru, the Satgurus, the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar, and so on. But not all can be at that level. One Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar may have many disciples, but all cannot become Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar. Even if one Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar gives that title, it commands respect, but you are still like a child; your son is a son. Your father is a father; even if you do not want him, you have to be below. You cannot be there automatically. So it is with father and child, grandchild, and so on. This means we are going higher and higher. A time comes when it all merges into one. That merger intervenes, and then there is no difference between guru and disciple; it becomes Brahman. But how will you get there? There are many books, but merely reading the words and singing them, though very good and beneficial for body and mind, is not the same as the actual oneness. As Holy Gurujī said, merging one into one takes a long time. This is very important. Therefore, in our seminars, we do āsanas very well. Now, what is āsana? It has many meanings. Āsana is our exercise, but mostly these are postures named after animals or others. Why? These exercises come from something else, not from you. For example, the cobra, cat, or tiger pose means we all emerged from these animals; it signifies their qualities. It is said that in human life, we are human but still possess animal qualities. In this life, we seek liberation from these worldly animal tendencies. We live with them, help them, and absorb their energy into our body. How many creatures are still within our body? But we are above that. For instance, we jump into water. We are ourselves, but we are in the water. Water is inside and outside our body. Jal Jagadīś: "Jal" means water, "Jagadīś" means God. As we say here, "Vodha je život." And others are different, also dead. When we talk about water, it is a quality inside us: heat, fire. It is in our body. Without our inner fire, we cannot live. Balance is always needed. Sometimes we feel very cold, but the heat is within; you may not know it. When someone says, "Oh, I am tired, I am ill today," it involves all these elements inside us. Similarly, there is space. Where is space? We are in space, but also only on the inside. When will we be safe? When will we be liberated from this body? How will we be liberated from all the different kinds of bodies? Even when the body dies and we put it in the earth, worms come. It is still in us; it is still there. They say it takes a little time, but it can be burned. Then, physically, when we consign it to fire, we are liberated from all elements. But it is still there. Some speak of the "soul," others of "my life." You can say "God." There is something that is separated from all five elements. That is the paramparā. There are 8.4 million life forms. One kind of creature—how many are there? We do not know in life. How many ants? Not just one ant, but all the ants in the whole world count as one type. So many, many creatures, in different postures, are born and die in a single day. Their lifespan may be two days. That is their life; they have to go further and further. Finally, we come to the human being. That is why it is called human. It is like a statue of God, but is there something inside? How long will it still remain? I told you a story one day. A guru was living in a forest in the mountains and had many disciples. The master gave them different tasks. He said, "Go and do this and that, whatever you like. Then I will give you the next step. Go together. Eat wherever you can find something. Do not play any games. Do not touch the body of a man or a woman. You can go to the village for bhikṣu (alms)." The fifth year was drawing near, about ten months away. They went and came upon water—not a strong river, but like a lake. They sat near the lake and had some fruits. They were both guru brothers, eating. Then a girl came to them and said, "My brother..." or "My brother-in-law." They said, "Yes, how are you? Come, sit down, have some fruit." She said, "Well, of course I will have prasāda from you. But I have one thing to tell you. I am coming from a little village, and on the other side of the river, the lake, I have to bring something for my father and come back to the village. But the water is very deep. I cannot swim. Brother, can you help me?" They said, "No problem." The younger brother, being strong, said, "Okay, sister. Hold onto my back. I will swim across the deep part, and you hold on." After a while, they reached the other shore. Her dress was wet, and so were they. She said, "Thank you very much. What can I do for you?" They said, "No, sister, we do not need anything, but I want to say something, please." The girl said, "What do you want to say to me? Tell me." They said, "Okay. Please learn to swim so that next time your father comes, you will know how to swim." She said, "Oh, that is a great thank you, Gurujī, Swāmījī, brother." The two sādhus went away to the other side, and she went on her way. After some months, the next day would be Guru Pūrṇimā. Both guru brothers said, "Tomorrow we will come to our Gurujī. We are so happy. Five years tomorrow, we will be so happy to see our Gurudeva." There was a knuckled rock with no bush, a very nice stone. On Guru Pūrṇimā, the moon was shining. The two brothers were sitting and saying, "Oh brother, tomorrow we will see our Guru. We are happy, we are happy. You know how many places we have been and many things we have seen. You know what Gurujī said we should and should not do." They were talking. Then one brother said, "Brother, Gurujī said, 'Do not touch any woman, and also not a man.'" The other said, "Oh, I have forgotten." The first said, "You have not forgotten, but I know you forget." He said, "What?" "If Gurujī asks if you were touching some woman, what will you say?" He said, "Oh, how do you know?" The first said, "I only remember that I touched her body to bring her out of the river. But till now, you have that girl in your mind. What will Gurujī say? It means it remains in you. And Gurujī said, 'Just go and separate everything.' So I said, 'Oh, you have a good memory.' But what will this memory say to you? And what will you think?" The other said, "Yes, my sister, I helped you and told you, when you want to go next time across the river, learn to swim." They went to tell Gurujī. Gurujī was listening to everything. Then he said, "Did you touch her also?" "No, Gurujī, I did not touch her." "That is why she is still in your mind. That girl, is that word still in you?" So, is that "Guru Kṛpā Hi Kevalam, Śiṣya Kī Ānanda Maṅgalam"? When it is said, "This is," then forget everything else. But do not say, "This and that," and "I do not want," and "This is not good." Gurujī said, "If we have nowhere to eat, it does not matter. Today is Pūrṇimā. Therefore, we have many things with us—this or that. Here are also your mother, brothers, sisters, friends, but that should be as gold." So in our body, there is more of the human and animal. In every man, there are more feelings for a sister, brother, or anyone else, often more than for a brother. In a sister, there are more feelings for a brother or a boy, and so on. So when it is said, "Śiva," there is only Śiva, nobody else. But it is also told that there was Śakti. Śiva and Śakti: Śakti is the left side, and Śiva is the right side. The male side is the right, and the female side is the left. That is why it is said in our spiritual culture, through all our spirituality, that it is like a snake moving. It means the energy is changing. If the energy is only like this and like that, we die. Hurry home. We have to hold. It is said: if you want to take butter from your finger, put the finger in and out. It is not that much, but go in and tug another finger, a tree, a plant. This finger we have to turn like this, and so when you kiss this, then the other one has to come up. These are all the chakra centers. The energy is in oneness, so nothing can be only one. It will be two, and then it will become one. That is what we are talking to you about in our anuṣṭhāna, and how we were all practicing. I hope you will practice continuously—not the whole day like here, but do something: in the morning, daytime, and evening. Do not practice too much and neglect your duties. No, that is not true. Whenever we have work, we should do it. When there is none, then we can repeat, "Aum, Aum,... Gurudev, Aum, Aum,... Gurudev, Aum, Aum,... Gurudev," your mantra, "Aum, Aum,..." or anything in the name of God. Then we are purified. We were working and talking like this, and after, we clean it again. Therefore, it has been very nice for you this week. For those who are here next week, and for many others who come, it will be very nice. I wish you a very, very healthy, wealthy, and spiritual life, and we will see you again. Whenever you can, we will have time. We are here for nearly two weeks, or months. With this, all the best.