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Nāham karatā, prabhu-dīpa karatā, māhā prabhu-dīpa karatā hi kevalam. Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ... Sada Śiva Samarambhaṁ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamām, Asmadācārya Paryantaṁ Vande Guru Paramparām. Gurur Brahma, Gurur Viṣṇu, Gurur Devo Maheśvara, Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha, Madguru Śrī Jagadguru. Māmatmā sarvabhūtātmā tasme śrī gurave namaḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrīla Pūrvijaya Siddha Pīṭparamparā. My Dhanyavād Praṇām to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness Vishwaguru Mahāmudāleśwar Maheśvarānandapurījī. Good morning and Hari Om to all of you present here and watching through Swamiji TV. Yesterday we were talking about non-stitched clothes. Today, to show you that it’s not so impractical as we might think: life is simple. No need to complicate it. We just need two pieces of cloth, or even one. One goes down and one goes up; you wrap it around in the back, and you are good to go. It is like a half-sleeve t-shirt. This is how the sādhus in Indian culture dress. It started with King Bhartṛhari. King Bhartṛhari had everything, but when he renounced everything, he just had a piece of cloth. That was observed as simplicity—he wrapped it around in a certain way, and it became wearable. This clothing style is called a gati. There are two types of gati. One is a normal gati with two pieces, one down and one up. The other is Brahmagati, which is just with one piece wrapped in a certain way, covering till the knees. You will see many sannyāsīs wearing a tripuṇḍ. Tripuṇḍ is mainly put by the sādhakas who follow the Śaiva paramparā, as Holī Gurujī said. All in one and one in all. In India, we are all one, but it is divided into two parts: Śaiva Paramparā and Vaiṣṇava Paramparā. In the Śaiva Paramparā are the sādhakas who follow the path and worship Lord Śiva. In the Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya, they worship Lord Viṣṇu. There are many types of tilakas applied by individuals in India. For those who follow the Śaiva Paramparā, they put a tripuṇḍ. Tripuṇḍ is applied with three fingers; it is basically three lines representing the three gods: Lord Brahmā, the creator; Lord Viṣṇu, the operator; and Lord Śiva, the destroyer, the liberator. The red in the middle represents Lord Śiva’s third eye, and the red is the Śakti. It can represent the three gods, and it also represents the three guṇas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. It is also applied on twelve parts of the body: on the forehead, both sides of the chest, the heart, the stomach, three on the shoulder, on the elbow, and on the wrist on both hands, and on the throat. These are the twelve Jyotirliṅgas of Lord Śiva. These are the representations of the Tripuṇḍitilak. Now we will have another story which we all like. It is about greediness. There was one pundit, a priest. But human beings, it doesn’t matter if you are a pundit or whoever—kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, īrṣyā, ahaṅkāra—these old things are within all of us, which we try to get rid of. Gurudev is the person who helps us and guides us. The pundit used to live in a neighborhood where there was another pundit living next to him. He was always jealous and said he always wanted more than the neighbor. One day he decided that while doing his daily chores, he did not earn enough money, so he decided to do penance, tapasyā. As a result of tapasyā, God came and asked, "What do you want?" He said, "God, I want from you that I have everything in my life; whatever I want appears, and I want to be well off in life." But God and the gurus know everything, so it is hard to hide anything from Him. God knew that he had jealousy towards his neighbor, that he was greedy and wanted more and more to show that he has more than his neighbor. So God gave him a śaṅkha, a conch. He said, "Whenever you want something, you pray to the śaṅkha, and the śaṅkha will give you whatever you want." But there was one condition: whatever you ask from the śaṅkha after doing pūjā, your neighbor will get double the amount. The pundit was upset and said, "This is not what I wanted. I want more than him." But God said, "What comes out of my mouth is already out; it cannot be reversed." What does that teach us? We should be appreciative of what we get. It doesn’t matter what the neighbor gets; we have, and we should be happy with it. The pundit took the śaṅkha home, but he was upset, so he did not want to do the pūjā and put it in the altar. But obviously, the home minister knows everything. Who is the home minister? Exactly, the home minister is the wife. It is a saying in India that the one who controls the government is the home minister, so the one who controls the house is the wife; she is the home minister. She asked, "For so many years, or for so long a time, you were doing tapasyā. What did you get?" The pundit said, "This thing, this śaṅkha, but it is useless because the neighbor will always get double." He decided to take that śaṅkha and pack it in a suitcase in the corner of his house where he would not look at it anymore. He decided, "In this village, I will not earn anything, so I will go abroad." At that time, abroad did not mean Europe, or maybe it was Europe; I do not know. But he went to some big city where he could earn a little bit more than in the village. He bid farewell and said, "I am off to the city to earn good money." He searched and searched for a job and did not find anything. Because of that, he could not send any money back to the family. The family started having a shortage of food and money, and they began starving. Then the elder son remembered that they had one śaṅkha. He unpacked it and brought it to the mother, saying, "Who cares if the neighbor gets more? We are starving; we need some food. Let us get something." The mother agreed. They offered a nice, beautiful place for the śaṅkha on the altar, did pūjā of it, and then said, "We are starving. Please give us some food for the next few days." Immediately in front of them appeared three big containers of food for the next three days. And guess what? The neighbor got six containers. The neighbor said, "Oh, Annapūrṇā Bhagavān and Devī are happy with me. She gave me six containers." After three days, the son and the mother prayed again: "Oh, Śaṅkabhagavān, please give me a nice house." Then a house appeared. But for the neighbor, two houses. Then, "Śaṅkara Bhagavān, we need some servants, cooks to help in the house." And obviously, it was double for his neighbor. The neighbor was surprised at what was happening, but he was appreciative of what he suddenly got. Then the son, being naive—you know, children are called to be the forms of God Himself because they have a very pure heart—wrote a letter to his father, saying, "Oh, Father, you do not need to run around and find a job anymore. The Śaṅkha gave us everything we needed in life, so please come back." As soon as the father read the letter, he got angry and immediately rushed back, shouting at the kid and at the wife, "Why did you do this? I told you not to do this." They told him, "We were starving. You were not providing anything. It doesn’t matter what the neighbor has. We have; we should be happy with that." He said, "No, no, no." And he said, "Oh, Śaṅkar Lord, take away the houses." So his house disappeared, and the neighbor’s house also disappeared. "Let all the servants disappear." So all the servants disappeared. Then, what comes in our head with jealousy to harm people? He said, "His house was smaller." His house had one door, but his neighbor’s house was a little bigger; that is why he was jealous. That house had two doors, but his house had another door on the back, so he was smart. He said, "Oh, Śaṅkar Lord, make a well right on the door of the house, a well with water, round and deep, but for the neighbor." He got two wells, so he said, "I can still get out of the back door." But the neighbor has two doors in the front, and both are covered with the wells, so he has no way to go out. If the neighbor goes out, he will fall in the well and die. But his evil mind did not give up. He said, "I still need to do more." He said, "Oh, Śaṅkar Lord, break one of my legs." And guess what happened to the neighbor? Both legs are broken. This is the problem with jealousy. You get what you get, but when you get it and you are still jealous, then you want to harm other people. Instead of harming people, just try to be appreciative of what you get and try to be happy and content with whatever we have in our lives. For example, Buddha had everything, but he renounced everything. Buddha means intellect, and dhadha means the one who renounces. So what are we? Sometimes we are buddhu. Buddhi means intellect, and buddhu means in Hindi—I would not call it stupid, but under intellect, like someone who does not have the knowledge. We have to try to become buddhijīvīs, the one who has buddhi, the one who has viveka. How do we get that? By Guru Bhakti, Guru Seva. Gautam Buddha’s name was actually Gautam Siddhartha. He was from a very rich, very big kingdom, and his father was a very great king. In Indian culture, when a baby is born in your house, an astrologer, a Jyotiṣī, comes and makes your kundalī. Kundalī is basically made according to your time of birth, date of birth, place of birth, and name. The horoscope tells you about your future. In his horoscope, it was said that either he would become a very great, very big emperor who would rule and conquer the whole world, or he would become a very great, very renowned master. His father was very happy that his son would become a great emperor. The father obviously did not want his son to become a monk, an ascetic. So the father fed the child, Gautama Siddhārtha, and took care of him, as we would say, born with a golden spoon. He never let Siddhartha have any type of troubles or any type of discomfort in his life. He gave Siddhartha all the worldly pleasures. He did not want him to suffer or to see any suffering things. Siddhartha never went out of his palace. Whatever he needed, whatever he wished for, whatever he wanted, it was organized from wherever. But Siddhartha started growing older—as we all are getting old, but inside we all are young. Siddhartha decided to go outside. He took his charioteer, the driver who rides the chariot, and said, "Take me outside. I want to see the outside world. I want to see how the world looks." As he was the prince of the province, no one could stop him except his own parents. The charioteer said, "As you wish," and took him out on a ride. Outside his kingdom, he saw poverty. He saw how people were living a normal life. The first thing he noticed was an old person walking with a stick. He asked his driver, "What is this?" The driver said, "This is an old person." Siddhartha asked, "What is an old person?" The driver said, "You slowly, slowly age in life, and you become old." Siddhartha asked, "Will I also be old?" He said, "Yes, of course, that is the cosmic law." Then they proceeded further. He saw a sick person coughing and vomiting blood. He asked, "What is this?" The driver answered, "This is a sick person who is very sick. He is in pain, and he is suffering." Siddhartha asked, "Will I also be in this stage of life?" The driver said, "Yes, everyone in their life gets sick." They proceeded further, and Siddhartha then saw a procession, a death procession. In India, we have processions for death also, where four people from the family of that person carry the dead body on their shoulders—one here, one here, two in the back—on a type of wooden light bed made to be burned. The body is carried from the home to the graveyard while singing "Rām Nām Satyehe, Rām Nām Satyehe"—the ultimate truth is Rām’s name. After you die, you become one. Siddhartha asked, "What is this?" The driver said, "This person has died." Siddhartha asked, "So will he again wake up?" The driver said, "No, we all die. Whoever is born, who comes to this universe, dies one day." As Siddhartha was always brought up in luxurious living, he never knew what dying, getting sick, or getting old was; he never saw these things happening around him. Then he saw a sādhu and asked, "What is this?" The driver said, "He is a monk, he is a sādhu, and he is the person who renounced all these worldly pleasures, who is trying to achieve the ultimate goal in life." Siddhartha asked, "What is the ultimate goal in life?" The driver replied, "To end the cycle of birth and death and to become one with the Supreme Self." Then Siddhartha decided that these worldly pleasures, this luxurious life, all these chariots and gold and silver and beautiful clothes, everything in life, was not for him. He did not want this. But he had in his mind that he had a newly born child, so he decided that even though inside he did not feel like it and really wanted to go, he still waited until his child grew up. But after around one year, four months, or five months, he had enough and said, "I cannot do this anymore." He knew that if he asked his parents if he could go and become a monk, the answer would be no. So in the night he escaped, went out of the house, out of the kingdom, and just disappeared. If Gautama Siddhārtha would not have become Buddha, there would not be Buddhism. It is said that Gautama Buddha was the incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu, and he was on the path of Śramaṇa. Śramaṇa is where he used to just walk. There are two types: one are bhikṣuks, the sādhus who go to the houses and say, "Bhavati, mām bhikṣām dehi"—oh mother, please give me some food. That is how they ate. But he was on the path of Śramaṇa, which meant that he did not go to any household. He used to just continuously walk. If someone came and offered him, he took it, but he never asked for food. At that time, kindness still existed, but much less, unfortunately. Nowadays, if someone would go to someone’s house and ask for food, the person would say, "Come on, find a job, work." But at that time, the household, the women, the people who saw him walking understood what spirituality is. People used to walk behind him and try to catch him and give him some food to eat, as they knew that he was on the path of Śramaṇa and he was not going to ask. That is how he used to eat. But many times, he used to walk through the jungles long, long ways because he wanted to try the path of studying the scriptures. It was said that there were approximately more than 1,400 yoga schools at that time. Nowadays—at that time, there were Vedas. The Vedas are basically doctors at that time who had the treatment for your whole body. But the knowledge is so vast that even if you catch one word, you can go so deep in that, and it will take you years just to understand that one word. Nowadays we have doctors for eyes, different doctors for neurosurgeons, we have people for heart, we have people for abdominal, we have people for the bones, we have different doctors for different things. For example, the dentist has to only repair 32 teeth, but for those 32 teeth, he has to go and study for nine years. So the knowledge of anything is very vast. Gautama Buddha was experimenting. He went to one gurukul, did not like it, went to the next one. He went to many gurukuls, but he still could not achieve what he was wishing for. He was not satisfied. One day he was crossing a river—this was before he tried all the gurukuls; then he tried the path of Śramaṇa, walking and walking and tapasyā. He became very skinny because of that; you could see already the bones. When the strong current of the river was there, he slipped and started going with the flow. But he always had a tight grip on things. When you decide that you want to do something, when you have that dedication, it does not matter what you are doing—I want to study, I want to drive a car, I want to become an actor. Anything, if you have that dedication towards what you are doing, then it will always be fruitful. The path towards achieving that might be hard, but if you are patient and do not give up, then you will get it. Siddhartha always had a nice grip, and he liked to hold on to things. If he was studying, he had a grip on studying. At that time, when he was flowing, he caught a root of a tree, and he had that grip, and he did not let go. At that time, he was thinking, "I tried everything. I tried studying. I tried going to gurukuls. I tried the path of śramaṇa and doing tapasyā. But still, I did not achieve the ultimate goal." So he thought, "Okay, now I am going to just sit in samādhi until I get what I want." After he got out of the river, he sat under a tree. That tree is now very famous; that is the tree in Bodh Gayā. That tree is known to be the tree where Gautam Siddhartha became Gautam Buddha and became enlightened. He sat for many, many, many years doing his sādhanā, doing his tapasyā, until he got what he wanted. You know how hard it is. While sitting, we are always moving our legs here and there. Let’s say in Anuṣṭhān, we feel our legs hurting a lot. Imagine sitting like that for years without eating, without moving, without drinking, without anything—hot, cold, rain, storms, everything. It was said that the snails—the ones with the shell—felt bad for him, and because of the sun, the snails climbed on his head. Many, many snails were on his head to cover his head. That is why when you see some pictures of Buddha, you see these curly things. It is basically not his hair; it is actually the snails covering his head. In that period, while he was doing his sādhanā, it was said that he had, till then, five or six disciples who were sitting next to him and waiting for him to open his eyes to give them the knowledge, which is the Ātmā Gyan, to help them and guide them in their lives once he got enlightened. One fine day, he got enlightened, and it was quite visible for the disciples, as he had such a bright glow, brighter than the sun. The disciples got excited. They said, "We see the glow on his face. Now finally, after so many years of waiting, we will get the knowledge." Gautama Buddha opened his eyes. All the disciples were sitting ready. He said, "Let’s cook something; I’m hungry." The disciples were like, "So many years we were sitting and waiting, and he was in samādhi. He was not accepting food, and because of him we could not eat." The first words which came out were, "Let’s cook, I’m hungry." They all said, "Okay, we are leaving," and they all left. Obviously, the guru knows who is ready and who is not, and on which wavelength you are on. Real disciples stay and follow the path which the guru tells them to do. Then Buddha became Buddha and preached his knowledge around the world. From Buddha we can learn renunciation, we can learn dedication towards a certain path. When we want to achieve something, you do not give up. It does not matter if you are starving, it does not matter if there are strong storms, nothing. You are focused. The power of dedication is also portrayed in another incident. We all might have heard the name of the Bhagavad Gītā and Śaṅkarācāryajī. Śaṅkarācāryajī created four ashrams in India. Śaṅkarācārya Jī was known to leave his home and become a sannyāsī at the age of seven, and at the age of twelve, he was already traveling all around India. Bhagatpāśya Śaṅkarācārya was the person who actually created the Sannyās Paramparā. He created the four ashrams: Joshimath near Badrinath in the north, Śṛṅgerī Maṭh in the south, Dvārakā in the west, and Purī in the east. These four Maṭhas were created; then he had four disciples who were in those four Maṭhas, who then further took the knowledge of the Advaita Vedānta. He used to have his satsaṅgs in the forest, in his āśram near the lake. All his disciples were sitting. Bhagavad Gītā, Śrī Śaṅkarācārya was sitting on his āsana. His disciples were all noting down and writing all the knowledge which he was teaching, and then they were traveling around and preaching the knowledge which they got from him. But there was one disciple who was a little bit slow, who was not writing anything, who did not understand much. His name was Giri. One day, he did not come to the class on time. Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya asked his disciples, "Where is Giri?" The disciples said, "Giri went to the river to have a bath. He will come shortly. We can start with the class." Śaṅkarācārya said, "No, no, we will wait for Giri. Let him come." But the disciples said, "Gurujī, anyhow, he does not understand anything. He does not write anything. We are the people who are writing, and we are the people who are traveling and preaching the message, so why should we wait for him?" But Śaṅkarācārya said, "No, no, we wait for him. Let him come; he will come." Forty-five minutes passed, no signs of Giri. Giri was sitting on the banks of the river. He was sad, he was upset, he was feeling very low and thinking to God, saying, "Oh God, I know only Seva. I do Seva, I take care of my Gurujī, I am dedicated towards my Gurujī. Then why don’t I understand anything? Why can’t I grasp and learn all this what my other guru brothers know?" Then Śaṅkarācārya appeared in the sky and said, "Giri, today I bless you, and you will know everything. All my knowledge I pass to you." And Śaṅkarācāryajī, when he was sitting there, said, "Don’t worry, Giri is coming; he is on his way back." When Giri came back, he had tears in his eyes, and he made praṇāms to Śrī Śaṅkarācāryajī. He sang one of the most difficult verses in Sanskrit, the Totakāṣṭakam Stotra. That was the first stotra which he wrote in loving dedication and memory for his guru. It goes on. This is only the first śloka. This was the Toṭṭakāṣṭakam which he wrote for his guru. If you have true Guru Bhakti, if you have true dedication towards your Guru, if you believe in Him, then you will eventually get what you are waiting for, and you will become one with the Self. Now we practice our one. Can they sing one bhajan? I will just go quickly and come back. Okay, then we start. Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥ. Hari Om. Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥ. Hari Om. Na karma na na prajā yadane. Na tyāge naike amṛtatvaṁ āparena nākam nihitaṁ guhāyāṁ vibhājade tadyatayo viṣaṇṭhī vedānta-vijñāna-suṇiṣṭhitārthā sannyāsa-yogāt yata-yatsuddhasattvāha te brahma-loketo parānta-kāle parāmṛtāt parimucchanti sarve. Three times: na karma, na dhane, na. Tyage naike amṛtatvaṁ manuṣyāḥ preṇanā kāṁ nihitāṁ guhāyāṁ vibhrājate, tad-yatayo viśanti vedānta-vijñāna-suniścita-arthāḥ sannyāsa-yogāt, yatayaḥ śuddha-sattvāḥ, āha te brahma-loke tu parāḥ antakāle. Parāmṛtāt parimucchanti sarve na karmaṇā na prajayā dhanena tyāgī amṛtatvam ānuṣu. Pareṇānākam nihitaṁ guhāyāṁ vibhrajate tad yatayo viśanti. Vedānta-vijñāna-suniśchitārtha sannyāsa-yogāt yatāyat śuddha-sattvah te brahma-loketu parāntakāle. In German, you have this "ch," no? In German, you have this sound. No more Portuguese? You have the ch. So dachram. It is the same sound as in German. Dachram. It is not dachram, but it is dachram. Pay attention to the pronunciation; it is the second one. There is an r in the h; the r is mixed inside the h, so it is dachram. To r se vlastně spájá do toho h. Dācram. So dachram, but the h is full and the r is half, so dachram. To je vlastně také poloviční. Děkuji. Dachram ve pápam. Dachram ve pápam.... Dharma, vipāpaṁ; dharma, vipāpaṁ;... dharma, vipāpaṁ... Parameṣmā bhūtam, Parameśmabhūtam, dharam vipapam, dharam vipapam, Parameśmabhūtam. The T is a half T, so you do not say... But Toto je tam také polovičné v tejto časti. Again, this is not a N, but it is a Ṇ. Ale také, že to nie je to práve N, ale troška iný zvuk. And it is not a "d," but it is a "ḍ." Both things with the tongue up behind. Yad puṇḍarīkam, yad puṇḍarīkam... Na karmaṇā na prajayā dhanena tyāgenaike amṛtatvam āśnute, tattvataḥ śuddhasattvāḥ te brahmaloke tu parāntakāle paramṛtatvā parimucyante sarve. Dharmā viparītāḥ parameśvarabhūtāḥ yadindorikā purā adhyāsāt kṛṣṇam. Tat drapidharam gaganam viśokas tasminyadan tas tadupāsitavyam. Yau Veda Dau Suarav Robto Veda Antecha Pratiṣṭhā Taha. Tasya Prakṛtili Nasya Yaf Parasya Maheśvarāha Harihi. Om Om. Śalākurjī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Devadhī Devadhī Viśvar Mahādeva Kī Jai. Śādīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai. Indudāram Samrādh Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Mahādval. Purjīsat Gurudeva Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Maheśvarānanda Gurujī Gurudeva Kī Jai.