Swamiji TV

Other links



Video details

We should have a flame

A spiritual discourse weaving personal anecdotes with teachings on discipline, the guru-disciple relationship, and reverence for all life.

"Those who are awake and active during Brahmamuhūrta become very spiritual; everything comes to them."

"We are all a lamp... as long as there is oil, the flame will come."

The speaker recounts childhood lessons from his Gurujī about the spiritual importance of the pre-dawn hour and shares stories of other disciples, like Phoolpurījī, to illustrate the transformative power of a guru's guidance. He expands into a metaphor of the individual soul as a flame, emphasizing interconnectedness, and concludes with reflections on non-violence, compassion for all creatures, and the sanctity of Mother Earth, referencing the conduct of Buddha and the perceived moral decline of modern times.

Filming location: Rijeka, Croatia

I was very young, a small child, and I could not sleep. Gurujī told me that some people automatically wake up before sunrise, while others do not. It is said that before the sun rises, there is a special time. Perhaps a person like me was already awake, but I would think, "No, son, I will sleep more." However, Holī Gurujī, our Gurudev, said that one hour before the sun rises is called the very auspicious Brahmamuhūrta. Those who are awake and active during Brahmamuhūrta become very spiritual; everything comes to them. Of course, there are people who work until midnight and then must sleep. That is understandable. I too was sleeping soundly when the sun came up. When I came to Gurujī, he did not tell me off immediately. Two or three times he simply said, "Good time, go to the bathroom," and so on. But sometimes, when Holī Gurujī went to another village, I would sleep in, and he said nothing. I tell you, this is 100% true. This was in Gujarat, at a beautiful ashram that belonged to Gurujī. I was alone there. It was like a forest, with no other people around; now it is big and has many. Since I was alone, I was sleeping again. Gurujī came at some point and stood there. I was sleeping on the floor, and when the Guru came, he saw me lying there. I said, "Om." The Guru said, "But you were speaking." I replied, "Of course, I have to lie down," and so on. There are different Gurus, but that Gurujī was very rare. Mahāprabhujī was also like that, very strict. Mahāprabhujī is the holy Gurujī, and there are our Phulpuri's. In our Jārdhān Āśram, Phulpuri. Phulpuri's was with people, working far away with animals, yet he was like a child. You know, he would go about like this, going with the goat and so on. For about six months he stayed, and then he ran away. His parents brought him back again from the group. He ran away again and did not go home because all the goats were there and it was a great distance. He said he wanted to be a sādhu. He was with some other sādhu, but it was not good. Yes, I am telling you the reality. So he came to me. I said, "Yes, from this and that, go to Holī Gurujī." Holī Gurujī went to him. He went to Mysore Anand. I said, "Yes, Mysore Anand." But he was also working all the time, doing this and that work. And Holī Gurujī said, "You come and sit down with me." And he did. Our Phulpuri Gurujī did not know anything—no school, nothing. Then Holī Gurujī said, "Now you should learn and listen, and this and that." It was very hard for him, very hard. But Mahāprabhujī said, and Madhavānandjī Bhagavān said, Phulpuri—then Mahāprabhujī gave him the name Phulpuri. That is his name, but I add a little more. He had to work very much and always sit down. And Gurujī, me also, when I was there, I was sleeping like this. That is the relationship between guru and disciple, you know. Yes. So Phoolpurījī began to learn something, licking books or something. Sitting with Gurujī’s Siddhāma Prabhujī’s mālā, Phoolpurījī was sitting like this or that, very focused. But he was a person of understanding. Afterward, Gurujī said, "Go to school, write down." And then school, our school. Then his brother also came from Phulpuri, and his father and mother said, "Oh my God, where are the children?" Yes, but he also said to come. So someone said, "You came to hear Mahāprabhujī’s, there Madhavānandjī’s and ashram, because there is very nice eating, sweets and this and that." But they are both very great. And so now Phoolpurī, Phoolpurījī, was learning and going to school and college. Mahāprabhujī said, "Sit down and write everything." So there he was. And now, in our colleges, in our universities, Phoolpurījī became first in the university. He works the whole day. He was working on many, many things. And then, at least after midnight, he was learning. How he was learning was all the same. So Purpurījī was a very great soul, and then he learned Sanskrit. Sanskrit is not so easy. They were only English language and Hindi language, perhaps. But he knows English, he knows German. He was all in Sanskrit. For me, Sanskrit, I do not know. Son? What is the son? I said, "Son, sleep at night." He said, "What are you doing?" Holī Guruji said, "He said, ’Son, he’s gone, I’m sleeping.’" So my path is different, and Purījī is very great, and he works very hard in the ashram on very, very many things, and his brothers also. In Sanskrit, everywhere he will be—he will come to Europe, and they are everywhere he will go. He brings knowledge, this and that, avatāra puruṣa, of course. And avatāra puruṣa came to satsaṅg, and I got, they got me. So I took him as, like, my son. That is a different thing. He is also very strict, very good. But he is different, and this is different, and everything. So, if we come to attain that, then what do we have to do, and how? Otherwise, there are many sādhus, many, many. That is nothing. But some good thing is like this: there is more, there is something. Some stones are also only coiled, coiled; they are in the earth, but not so very rare. Certain ones are of a wild kind of stone, diamond, diamond, very, very, very rare. So, yeah, and so, I myself still am not like this. So what can I tell you? You are more, perhaps, very good. Yes, maybe you are very good. It is not easy. And so, our Gurudev, Madhavānandjī Bābājī, he has many, many disciples now. But you cannot, and Holī Gurujī told me, "You are that." I said, "I am nothing." And Holī Gurujī said, "Chuck, really, really shut you down." He said this side, Holī Gurujī’s, he said, "You are my... you will be my... you are my, of course it is." Also, that is my mother, and any, every... we are very good. So, you, we have to have, like, very... so, like, for example, the light is going here, and this light is burning. And how long will it be? The light, it will be... and so, we are all a lamp. We are all... The lamp and your lamp, my lamp, everyone’s lamp, lamp. It is like this, but why will it go away then? Because oil is with this, and as long as there is oil, the flame will come. But there is someone beside. Someone will say, "Okay, I am very good, I am a sanyāsī, I am a sādhu, or I am Brahm," but it cannot be; all cannot be, or all can be. And so, yesterday we were here sitting, and our flame and Vivekananda jī, he said how to carry like this, like this, like this. Yes. So flame is good, but very quickly the flame can also go out, yes. And so it is said, either you should always be very clear and good and hold everything like this, or you should have your power energy. Etc. From these two, three together, what happened? There is a flame like this: three, three, and two, three. So what is that? One flame goes out, the other is there. That is going about the other. So each other, that is our brothers, our friends. Our guru brothers, my bhaktas, we are all together. So the flame, one goes to the other, and the other goes to this. Like, they are all one. And yesterday was this, no? It had turned very nice. So we have to give the energy and give them separately, and then we are together. Everybody, it will be the way. So this one flame, and this flame, every flame is very... and it was said then, one said that he was going near the river, and like this, the sun comes out, and the flame, not of not, but the sun, so it’s coming, the sun going down, and that this one, he said, the flame is... Going this sun, and he looked left side, there’s one temple, mandir, and he looks this side, there’s a flame that going black, but it will be the light flame. This and this flame will be whole day, night, it will be the light for me, and it will again. The sun rises, and this flame does not need very much. They do not need this. It is like this. And so we are always, when the flame is here, and because the sun went, but the light has to be. And if there is no light, dark night, then it is dark, you do not know, a snake has come. This is something, this is something. That light is very good to have for us nowadays, here also, very much. And what is that? What does it mean? That if something—there are many people doing something—but we will be one flame. We should be like a flame, and we will be clear, everything in my house and outside, on every side. My power is with me, he said. And when the flame is gone, everything is gone. But also, air is not coming; there is also nothing going. And water is nothing, coming then nothing is going at all. So there are all five, all and stone or this, this also. So five principles, and this is all is for the guru. Oh guru kṛpā, oh guru, there he will be. He will make the flame, and not till like this, but goes furthermore. Otherwise, it is said there are two: they are selling this is flame of one. All people, that they are god, humans, and others, is not good outside, only two, but. Flame and this fire, whole fire, both they are also have no power. It will go. So we have to come ourself, that we shall become ourself, and then there is nothing. And so, how we are here? Every day I have so. Many things I concentrate, I look. Every so, please do not tell anyone, but to ourself. And what is ourself? We should have this flame. And but flame, what there? Because oil, yes. And oil, but there is no flame, okay? There is oil, but there is no fire. That cannot come, flame. And so we all have here five elements. Here we are all, means we are brothers and sisters, yes. So they said, "This is very good and strong and okay, but little drink oil is not anymore, then all is gone." So everything, the fire. Fire is a very powerful thing. It can burn everything, the whole world. Two years ago, or one year, two years ago in America, how much it was burning, so much, so much, just burning, such burning. And in Gujarat, in my mud, in Australia. And in Australia, all years they are burning something. And they said, "Because then comes other, better comes." But in our countries, here in Europe or this and that, we have also firing, but ours is not like that. Not because we have different kinds of all foreign and this and that. Here is much better. Everything here we have also strong by a buyer, bower, etc. So you are sitting, my dear, here I am also, and you are also. We are all without you, I am not, and without me, you are not. So the Earth, Earth is Earth, is the mother, you know. I used... to say morning, first I said, "When my eyes are opening, then I see I am." What human? Human? When I opened, then it is coming. You know what? Cobra. You know what is a cobra? A snake. My God, I am sleeping, and he said. Then he said that, so we open our eyes. And we say, "I am human." Then we want to stand up from our, like this, and we say to our, both our foot, and said, "Mother, can I stand up on you?" So we have two mothers: one is our mother, mothers, humans. We are, you know, little baby child, all. The time, yes, or it is mother. Is a mother. What is that mother? Earth. So one is our this mother. All animals, all birds, all everyone, they have from where they have their children, their mind. That is it. So do not think. Do not think like we are only human. We are not only because I am the human. All that, all they have life, and everyone is this. And if others know, have here, then we human, only we will die. So, Mother Earth, Mother Earth, and you know, men do not know, the father does not know, but how the mother has a child, and that is how this little child, everything dry, this and that, she is cleaning. The mother, she is doing all this, and after, how you come, you become very, your mother, very little. So, mother, so earth. The earth is a mother. This is the mother. And therefore, we were doing very many things, very, very many. When I was little, in my age, about, let us say, that some people were also there, and our earth, it was so, we take a little earth, like this, and we were making this, like this. And we were washing our hands, and now all is chemicals inside. And they said, they said, "Mother Earth, Mother, what can we do?" I want you, but everything is not. So Jīva, Jīva Bhakṣate, every Jīva, Jīva people, they are eating itself like it is. But how are we saying earth? And earth is also very great inside. About, let us say, 20 years or maybe more, it was in Vienna. And they have one people who were doing it from America. And Americans from there, they said, and they worked very much, very much. And they said, "What is on the earth?" And that time was not this everything, this kind of all this machine and this machine and this, and no chemicals and nothing. Maybe more, a little, but not and so. They said they were so, in many, many countries they saw it. So they said, "Put your hand out on the earth here, sit on the earth just here, and you will see how many creatures, how many." Living it cannot be like this, and so they put on the step on this, and like this, so many. You said, "My, I die, I will die, I am dying." All so, here is so many. Life is living here, and in that is like this: many sādhus, great gurus, and Buddha. You know the Buddha, Bhagavān Buddha, yes? And Buddha, when he was... it is known where he lived, he then... And there is a beautiful river, not river, tree. And this is Vaidhyamāvadīya. So Buddha and Bhagavān Buddha, he was that, and he has his father only. He was a very great king of the king. All were everywhere there. And so Bhagavān Buddha goes for food. Now he would put one hand, then the second hand. And he goes slowly so that he does not kill any animals. Not like these trees or anything. Slowly, slowly going. That is his book. Very nice book of Buddha’s that he sent. And he comes, "Bhikṣam, Bhikṣam." Bhikṣā means food. Give us, please, something to eat. Bhikṣā, bhikṣā, please give me food, all this. And many still, they are going. Buddhas, they do not eat. They eat at their students, at least students, they will go. And they will come. This is very much from this, so China is nothing. They have the Buddha, but they are killing everything, animals and this and that. But the real Buddha, Buddha is from India. Yes? Yeah, he is from India. And he said, "Someday, people come and bring something, only one, everything." And he goes back. But also, again going, that he does not break something, this, that, everything. And then he comes in his house, in, in... not a house, but a little, what is it? A hut, a hut. Cut, and so he gives this for the ants, then about for one cow, or does something like this, and the birds, and some friend or ghost of friends coming, and one is for, so what he tells also this, and one for him, so five points. And so he is only that he rests, while he gives to everybody. Bodha. The book, there is a book. There, you should get the books. And then, in India, there is Buddhism. In this, they also, some, this dress also. And they are, they do not eat meat and nothing like this. They are still, they are here. So, how many living creatures are eating each other’s this and that? And so, it is said, when we step on our earth, and so they taught that, "Show me, my God, how many things are here." Sometimes, I do not know. Please, please, do not, do not, do not. Very little creatures, and they have, they show like this. There is, I have my disciples here in America. And she was in that. She has two other sisters here. And she is a very, I do not know, scientist. She is our scientist, and she is here now. And she will go now to Jordan. She is here, and she knows how it is like this. So, you are here. This from a scientist? Yes, she is there. She is a very, very good person, very much so. Thank you. And so, how they have, so she, everything like this, like that is, we should see, and we are like that all. And we said, always said, and we will show, some people said in a different way that, "I am, why I live?" So it is not so easy, my dears, that we become God or a real human. The humans. It is not easy. It is not easy. Day by day, we are my disciples, and they are so with me, and they go away. But all the again, they come there because they are, they became so spiritual, or this that was very, very good. And I think in my heart, in my words, I am with thinkings, our ashram said, "All is this, our we are all one. We are one, one in all, and all in holy." Gurujī said. Holī Guruji, it was very hard with Mahāprabhujī and Madhavānandjī, but then suddenly Mahāprabhujī said, "Madhavānandjī, Mysalanjī, sit up." I said, no, no. No, no, sit up. All right, because Gurujī said, "You, I tell you, sit up." Yes, and so it is that you are. For example, all of us sitting here, we are sitting here on the earth. And all, nobody said, "Can you have some other that I can bring?" This, I will have a plate or this and this, but we are sitting here and you do not think anything. Then, needle is there. Maybe something is something, but we are such—we are that we are living ourselves. So, thank you very much. Live to live, live. To live so, from there live to live, and again you will live to live. There is a story. Gurujī Mahāprabhujī told one story. And Holī Gurujī said in Gujarat, and there was like this very nice place here, so there is a very nice garden. And in the garden, a beautiful garden, and one sādhu, one sādhu, sitting under the tree near here and meditating, like this morning I saw from there, and how you were sitting, and some were there, some little fire alone, so I was also looking there now there in time, because that time. They came after the British came out, and then one sādhu is sitting very nicely there with a mālā like this. And one professor, every morning he is going in this garden, a very big garden, very nice, with one stick, nice cloth, this is his cap, and like this, and he is going walking through, round and like this, and every day. And there is sitting one sādhu. A sādhu is like, not so many to dress this and this. It is like it is a bell. One day, that professor, he said, he stood up there. Where is this little sādhu? And he said, "Nothing, nothing." Again, he said, "What are you doing?" He said, "Yes, what do you want?" He said, "What are you doing here?" I am here, I am doing prataṇā or mantra or meditation or this thing. So he said, "Why are you sitting here, Bhagavān?" Where is Bhagavān? Did you look for Bhagavān, God? Did you meet God? Have you? Said, "Yes." No, no. He said, "Where is God? Do you know that?" Then he said, but he said something. You have a college, school? No. Then? You have not gone to school, college? What, you are like an animal. He said, "How do you know?" I said, "Yes." Okay. What is that? He said, "There is a water well on here, and you are sitting on the tree up. What are you doing? This is a big tree full of fruits, so big. And this tree, there is only little seeds, no fruit, like very little cherries, you can say, yeah, no, little." Cherry, so he said, "You know, you do not know. This is not good watermelon. It is a big, should go big, and that one on the tree is very little, and this should be big. Big tree, big fruits, little needle." And he said, "Why? It can be not." Then he said, "Sādhu." Said, "I will tell you." And what? So he looked up at the tree, very big, and one fruit fell on it. Like we, our body, this fruit, cherry, fell on him. He said, "What is that?" He said, "What is that? You had your head, otherwise it will go back." And if that big... Will be from there to fall on you, your whole life will go. Then he said, "Yes, that is right." Who? Yeah, he said, "Professor said yes." He said, "What is a yes? Your whole head will go, finished. Yes, this is good." So he said, "Come next time, I will send you one more." Techniques and meditation, you do not know. And so he said, "I am sorry. Really, you are a good head." So this is like this: our Earth, this is Mother Earth, and inside is so much. Everywhere is there, so, so come to learn this, like. That, otherwise, you know what they are doing now, everybody? And now they killed so many and are making all meat and lead. Is that something? Yeah, because that time also they were not killing the animals very much. Only they had their cows and... Their cows, milk, and this—but now, how are they doing it? It was like that. There was no killing so many. All they were before this, this, and second time. First, you have the war a lot in that time. But that time, it was not so many animals. Was killing? No, you have in your house your girl, you have milk, and it is very good, that is all. But after the second time, and then they came, the Americans that side, and they were killing or eating the meat, and they said, looking, "What is?" That, yes, in Vienna, it is said they told her. They told me otherwise, I do not know. And so from there they said, "Oh, the Americans, they eat good meat," and something like this, yes. And they all said, "We have nothing." And now they said, "We will come," and we come. And now our people have come, eating, eating... All killing animals, killing animals, killing animals. Before, it was not. It is definitely, you can look in the book of Jesus. Jesus was not the one who was eating the meat and this and that. 100%. There is written very well, certain books, there was that. It is like this. And therefore, our people, they now said, "Only kill animals." And what is not earth? No, this meat and alcohol. Meat and alcohol, and many things. And that is why, what is happened is, how now girls and men become famous, and that sometimes there they marry, and then they go away and come back. And more, before was not there, not there. I came to Vienna, how long? I did not see so much that women or men are fighting or they go away. Or this and that, it was not. This has come now, this, yes, and before, to the before, you see how it is. And before, to before, they said, when Jesus’ time, they said, the people, they are very Christians, and they were very, very humble, and like this something, or cloth, they were washing, and this, or. Many things, and now it is completely different. So you or me, we should know what we can bring something back again from this. And so, our vegan people, and they are now more vegans, we can ask the yoga people now, yes, yes. Very much, very much so. Thank you very much.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel