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A Day's Extension in Jadan

A satsang discourse on spiritual practice in daily life and ashram living.

"Karma yoga is something which you do selflessly from inside. There is no, 'I will gain this and that.'"

"Physical knowledge and spiritual knowledge go hand in hand. In the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, it is said that if you follow only physical knowledge, you will end in the darkness, but if you follow only spiritual knowledge, you will end in even worse darkness."

A speaker shares reflections on extending his stay at the Jadan ashram, expressing gratitude for the opportunity. He discusses the integration of karma yoga (selfless work) and bhajan (devotional practices) as the foundation of spiritual life, using examples from ongoing seva at Om Ashram. The talk emphasizes balancing worldly duties with spiritual knowledge, the purifying power of consistent practice, and the blessed atmosphere of the ashram shaped by the presence of the guru.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī Devpurījī, Mahādeva, Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān kī, Mahāprabhujī kī Sabhī kī Jai. Ānandahī Ānandahe, Ānandahī Ānandahe. Today, you will hear very nice, deep, good, peaceful, and great things. There are many things you have not heard before. So, everyone should listen with a happy mind and think something very good. Today we have Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar Gyāneśwar. What is Jñāna? Yes, Jñāna. Now you know Gyāneśvar. I do not know what he will speak, so I will also look at that. Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Āryo. I have been living in India for some time already, but it is always very nice when I can be with Swāmījī. We had Mahāprabhujī's Mahāsamādhi celebration in the Jaipur ashram, as in every ashram around the world. After this, Swāmījī allowed me to come here to be with him and with all of you, for which I am very thankful to Gurudev. Times in India nowadays, when Mahāprabhujī's Mahāsamādhi time was, is basically the wedding season. Now the whole winter is here. There is a little gap of 30 days, and then the wedding season continues. It means everybody travels everywhere, and spiritual things are not the priority. But for us, this does not mean we should not practice. We are here in this ashram. Yesterday and today, around 20-30 people from Czech and Slovak left. They did two months of seva at Om Ashram. Om Ashram's work is going on, and Yogājī and Ramanāñjī and everybody are trying their best to finish it for the opening next year. But this all depends on Mahāprabhujī's blessings and the work of all of us. When you come to Jadan from Jaipur, it is so peaceful. Although we have the highway in front, where many trucks are passing, this place somehow puts you inside. So to go out, you really have to plan your day. Many people are planning their days, like Niranjan Purījī, Premānājī, and the rest. Otherwise, it is very easy not to do anything. This is not only because of this place where Swāmījī made the ashram; it is because Swāmījī and our beloved Hindu Dharm Samrāṭ Mādhavānandjī were living here. Holy Gurujī was here till 2003, so he was in this place for 13 years, and Swāmījī is here for the last 30 years. It is not only the place. It is like when you go to Kela Ashram, you can feel that this is really something special. You know that many people want to run away and care from Kela Ashram at the first sunset because the inner calling is too much. If we are pure inside, then we feel good. But if we are not pure inside, if we have some problems, then depression and all these negative emotions come up. And, of course, what we want to do, we want to avoid. And in Jadan, especially when you have family, you know, all from Europe seminars and everywhere, it is very hard to go away. I was going today to Jaipur, and then Swāmījī said that he was supposed to go to Rūpāvas. Then Swāmījī changed the plan. I asked Swāmījī, "Can I also change my plan somewhat?" He just said, "Yes, yes." So then I said, "I got one day extension in Jadan, so thank you for that." Swāmījī purposely made our system, Yoga in Daily Life, so that every day we are doing yoga, or we are connected to that spirituality. Here in ashrams, after some time, it is not even in daily life. It is not daily; it is like from every moment to moment. In every hour you are actually somehow connected to this place. You are connected to Swāmījī or anywhere. Jadan is getting more and more prominent. Just now, three buses full of people came. Now you can imagine what will happen when we open the ashram. We have always two parts: one is spiritual, another one is normal living. In India, starting from the Vedas, Upaniṣads, and so on, they do not believe in division. In India, ṛṣis and munis do not believe that there is a spiritual path which is separate from the worldly path. Avidyā and parāvidyā go hand in hand. Spiritual knowledge and physical knowledge, this earthly knowledge, go hand in hand. We learn from Swāmījī this in the simplest of the simplest ways, through karma yoga and bhajans. What is karma yoga? Karma yoga is something which you do selflessly from inside. There is no, "I will gain this and that." In Om Ashram it is amazing, because it does not matter if you made the tiles in five rooms or ten rooms; there are still more rooms to be done. If you put, I do not know how much cement construction, it does not matter how much you put; there is always something more to do. Ultimately, there is no other way for you to continue work than surrender, and you do the work. Because the work is there, because you can do it, so then you do some marpaṇ, you dedicate yourself to doing, and that is actually the karma yoga. Karma yoga is something which is called niṣkarma. Niṣkarma is like selfless karma; we are not doing it because we will get something. Because all of us, in the beginning, we want to have something, we want to achieve something. I am doing this because I will get that. If I get sannyāsa, people will bow down to me, and I will give āśīrvād, and I do not know what not. But after these waves pass, then the reality starts, and it is very hard to stay afloat. It is much easier just to go to your room, meditate, lock yourself in the room, and do whatever you want, and it does not matter. This happens in the West now more and more because people have enough money and they are completely isolated. So when they come to the ashram, when they come in big groups, then there are always conflicts because we are used to being on our own. So first thing is karma yoga: when you actually do the things because you can do them, not knowing that you will get something from it. You will always get something. Ultimately, you get food and sleep, but you will also get inner satisfaction. The second one is bhajans. The word "bhajan" is very tricky. It covers so many things. It covers our singing of our bhajans, covers kīrtans, it covers mālā mantra repeating, it covers any study of the holy scriptures. So bhajan is like an emotional background for karma yoga. Both karma yoga and bhajans are meant to purify our mind because we have only five things we have to purify: kāma, krodha, mada, moha, lobha. Kāma is passion, krodha is anger, lobha is greed. So these are our alligators from the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra. They are always there. With time, if we are progressing on the spiritual path, their power is getting less. We get less attached, we get less angry with less, but it does not mean that they are dead. So, with karma yoga, with bhakti... That is why we have satsaṅg here, because if we will have only karma yoga in the ashram, then basically we are just workers. Then the spiritual part, after some time, detaches, and then instead of spiritual knowledge, you have only physical knowledge. Swāmījī told me, when we last time were here, I go and make the tiles in a bathroom because some workers did not come. Well, still, I had to call Yogājī to find out how much cement to put, and where the tiles are, how to put the tiles and so on. Luckily Yogājī came and took over the job. So physical knowledge is endless, but from Swāmījī's point of view, there is no difference between putting the sand from one place to the other and putting the tiles in the bathrooms or writing a book. It is the same, because ultimately these are all—this is only karma, it is only work. So here in Jadan, we who can stay here, or you who are here for a long time, you are actually very blessed that you can stay here. Although many, many things are happening like everywhere in the world, the āśram is like, especially when Swāmījī is here, it is like 10 times or 100 times more active, you see. When I am in Jaipur, then I get maybe five calls a day, 10 calls a day, something like that. "Swāmījī is coming, Swāmījī is coming. Swāmījī is in Europe, he did not come yet. Swāmījī is coming." From five calls a day becomes 50, then 100 calls a day. Then Swāmījī comes, then somehow this is balanced on only 50 calls a day. Then Swāmījī goes, and then again five, ten a day. So it just does not matter that I am not in Jadan. The whole thing is somehow moving with our Gurudev. To return back, physical knowledge and spiritual knowledge go hand in hand. In the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, it is said that if you follow only physical knowledge, you will end in the darkness, but if you follow only spiritual knowledge, you will end in even worse darkness. So the solution is to balance the boat. Because we live in this world, we should do the work. As Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā says, our job is to do the work. The consequences of that work, the fruits of our labor, are not our problem. Our job is to do. Haripurījī's job and Sītājī's job is to make proper eating. Their job is not that somebody says, "Oh my God, you made such good food." So their job is actually to do something. Our job is to do. Our job is to do karma yoga, and then to balance that, we have bhajans, we have satsaṅgs, and so on. Satsaṅg is in India, or anywhere, on the top list of to-do things, because which company you keep, that is your future. If you keep bad company, your future will be bad. If it is good company, your future will be good. So here in Jadan Āśram, we have karma yoga, we have bhajans, we have satsaṅg, we have good company, and that is only possible by the blessing of Gurū Dev. Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī jai, Devashwar Mahā Deva kī jai, Alak Purījī Mahā Deva kī jai, Hindu Dharm Samrāj Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān kī jai.

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:

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