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Nāham karatā, prabhu-dīpa karatā, māhā prabhu-dīpa karatā hi kevalam. Oṁ 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. So today, for example, to show you that it’s not so impractical, how we 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 all good to go, and it’s like a half-sleeve t-shirt. So this is how the sādhus in Indian culture dress. It started with King Bhartṛhari. King Bhartṛhari had everything, but when he renounced everything, then he just had a piece of cloth. And that was how it was observed as a simplicity, that he just wrapped it around in a certain way and it became a piece of wearable cloth. This type of clothing style is called a gati. There are two types of gati. One is a normal gati with two pieces, one down, one up. And one is Brahmagati, which is just with one piece. You wrap it in a certain way, and it covers till your knees. And then you will see many sannyāsīs wearing a tripuṇḍ. Tripuṇḍ is mainly put by the sādhakas who are following the Śaiva paramparā, Holī Gurujī said. All in one and one in all. In India, we are all one, but it’s divided in two parts: Śaiva Paramparā and Vaiṣṇava Paramparā. So, in the Śaiva Paramparā are the people, are the sādhakas who follow the path and who worship Lord Śiva, and in the Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya they worship Lord Viṣṇu. There are many types of Tilakas which are applied by individuals in India. So, for those who follow the Śaiva Paramparā, they put a Tripuṇḍ. Tripuṇḍ is applied with these three fingers, and it’s basically three lines, representing the three gods: Lord Brahmā, the creator; Lord Viṣṇu, the operator; and Lord Śiva, the destroyer, the liberator. And the red in the middle represents Lord Śiva’s third eye, and the red is the Śakti. So this is, it can be the three gods, and it also represents the three guṇas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. And it is also applied on twelve parts of the body: on the forehead, both sides of the chest, heart, 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. So these are the representations of the Tripuṇḍitilak. So now we will have another story which we all like. It’s about greediness. There was one pundit. A pundit is 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. And Gurudev is the person who helps us and who guides us. The pandit used to live in a neighborhood where there was another pandit living next to him. And he was always jealous, and he said he always wanted more than the neighbor. So one day he decided that while doing my daily chores, I don’t earn enough money, so he decided to do penance, tapasyā. And the 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’s hard to hide anything from Him. So God knew that he had jealousy towards his neighbor, he was greedy, and he wanted more and more to show that he has more than his neighbor. So God gave him a śaṅkha, a conch. So he said, "Whenever you want something, you pray to the śaṅkha, and the śaṅkha will give you whatever you want." But there is one condition. The condition was that whatever you ask from the śaṅkha after doing pūjā, your neighbor will get double the amount. And the pundit was upset, and he was like, "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. Doesn’t matter what the neighbor gets, but we have, and we should be happy with it. So the pundit was like, "Okay." He took the śaṅkha home, but he was upset, so he didn’t 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’s a saying in India that the one who controls is the home minister in the government, so the one who controls the house is the wife, so she’s the home minister. So she was like, "So many years, or so long a time, you were doing tapasyā. What did you get?" The pundit was like, "This thing, this śaṅkha, but it’s useless because the neighbor will always get double." So he decided to take that chunk and pack it in one suitcase in the corner of his house where he wouldn’t look at it anymore, and he decided. In this village, I will not earn anything, so I will go abroad. At that time, abroad didn’t mean Europe, or maybe it was Europe, I don’t know. But in some big city, where he could earn a little bit more than in the village. He bid us farewell and said, "I’m off to the city to earn good money." And he was searching and searching and searching for some job, and he didn’t find anything. And because of that, he couldn’t send any money back to the family. So the family started having a shortage of food and money, and they started starving. Then the elder son remembered that we have one śaṅkha, so he unpacked that śaṅkha and brought it to the mother, and he said, "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. So the neighbor was like, "Oh, Annapūrṇā Bhagavān and Devī are happy with me. She gave me six containers." Then, after three days, the son and the mother again prayed. "Oh, Śaṅkhabhagavān, 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. And then the son, being naive. You know, the children are called to be the forms of God Himself. Because the children have a very pure heart. And he wrote a letter to his father, saying, "Oh, Father, you don’t need to run around and find a job anymore. The Śaṅkha gave us everything we needed in life, so please come back." And as soon as the father read the letter, he got angry and immediately rushed back, shouting at the kid and on the wife, that, "Why did you do this? I told you not to do this." They told him, "We were starving. You were not providing anything. And 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, Śaṅkara 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. And then, what comes in our head with jealousy to harm people? So he said, "His house was smaller." So his house had one door. But his neighbor’s house was a little bigger, that’s why he was jealous. And that house had two doors, but his house had another door on the back, so he was smart. And he said, "Oh, Śaṅkara, 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. So if the neighbor goes out, he will fall in the well and die. But his evil mind didn’t give up. He said, "I still need to do more." He said, "Oh, Śaṅkara Lord, break one of my legs." And guess what happened to the neighbor? Both legs are broken. So this is the problem with jealousy. You get what you get, but when you get it and you’re still jealous and you can’t, 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, like I wouldn’t call it stupid, but under intellect, like someone who doesn’t have the knowledge. So we have to try to become buddhijīvīs, the one who has buddhi, the one who has viveka. And how do we get that? So Gautam Buddha, his name was actually Gautam Siddhartha. And he was from a very rich, very big kingdom, and his father was a very great king. And in Indian culture, when a baby is born in your house, then an astrologer, a Jyotiṣī, comes to your house and he makes your kundalī. Kundalī is basically according to your time of birth, date of birth, place of birth, and name. The horoscope is made, which tells you about your future. So 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. So his father was very happy that, yes, my son will become a great emperor. And the father obviously didn’t want his son to become a monk, an ascetic. So then the father fed the child, Gautama Siddhārtha, and took care of him, like we would say, born with a golden spoon. And he never let Siddhartha have any type of troubles, any type of discomfort in his life. He gave Siddhartha all the worldly pleasures. He didn’t want him to suffer or to see any suffering things. He never went out of his palace. Whatever he needed, whatever he wished for, whatever he wanted, it doesn’t matter from where it was organized, but it was organized. But Siddhartha started becoming older, as we all are getting old, but inside we all are young. So Siddhartha decided... And he took his charioteer, the driver who rides the chariot, and he said, "Take me outside. I want to see the outside world. I want to see how the world looks." And as he was the prince of the province, no one could stop him and say, "No, you can’t," except his own parents, obviously. So the charioteer said, "Yathājñāpam," which means, "As you wish," and he took him out on a ride. Outside his kingdom, he saw poverty. He saw how the people were living a normal life. And the first thing he noticed was an old person walking with a stick, like this. And 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’s the cosmic law." Then they said, "Okay," and he took him further. And 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. And he’s in pain, and he’s suffering." Siddhartha asks, "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 which is made to be burned. And the body is carried from the home, or actually 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. So then Siddhartha asked, "What is this?" The driver said, "This person has died." Then Siddhartha asked, "So will he again wake up?" The driver said, "No, we all die. Who is born, who comes to this universe, dies one day." And as Siddhartha was always brought up in this luxurious livelihood, he never knew what dying, getting sick, or getting old was; he never saw these things happening around him. Then he saw a sadhu, and he asked, "What is this?" Then the driver said, "He’s a monk, he’s a sadhu, and he’s the person who renounced all these worldly pleasures, who is trying to achieve the ultimate goal in life." Then Siddhartha asked, "What is the ultimate goal in life?" Then 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, it’s not for him. He doesn’t want this. And then he decided, but then he had in his mind, because he had a newly born child, so he decided that even though inside he didn’t feel like it, he really wanted to go, but he still waited until his child grew up. But after around one year, four months, or five months, he had enough, and he said, "I cannot do this anymore." And obviously he knew that if he would ask his parents if he could go and become a monk, the answer would be no. So in the night he escaped, and he went out of the house, out of the kingdom, and just disappeared. And if Gautama Buddha, if Gautama Siddhārtha wouldn’t become Buddha, there would not be Buddhism. And 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. And that’s how they ate. But he was on the path of Śramaṇa, which meant that he didn’t 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. And at that time, kindness still exists here. 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, they understood what is spirituality. And people used to walk behind him and try to catch him and give him some food to eat, as they knew that he’s on the path of Śramaṇa and he’s not going to ask. So that’s 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, and it was said that there were approximately more than 1,400 yoga schools at that time. You know, 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 of anything 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. But for example, the dentist, he 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. So Gautama Buddha was experimenting. He went to one gurukul, didn’t like it, went to the next one. He went to many gurukuls, but he still couldn’t achieve what he was wishing for. He wasn’t satisfied. And then one day he was crossing a river, and because this was before—before he tried all the gurukuls—then he tried the path of Śramaṇa, walking and walking and tapasyā. And he became very skinny because of that. And you could see already the bones. So when the strong current of the river was there, he slipped and he 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 doesn’t 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. So Siddhartha always had a nice grip, and he liked to hold on to things. Like if he was studying, he was having a grip on studying. So at that time, when he was flowing, he caught a root of a tree, and he had that grip, and he didn’t let go. And 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 didn’t achieve the ultimate goal. So then he thought, "Okay, now I’m going to just sit in samādhi until I get what I want." So after he got out of the river, he sat under a tree, and that tree is now very famous. That’s the tree in Bodh Gaya. He’s coming. We are waiting for Swamiji. He will come. So that tree is now very famous, and it is in Bodh Gayā. And that tree is known to be the tree where Gautam Siddhartha became Gautam Buddha and became enlightened. He was sitting 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. So it was said that the snails are the ones with the shell, no? The snails are the ones with the shell. So it is said that the snails felt bad for him, and because of the sun, the snails climbed on his head, and many, many, many snails were on his head to cover his head. That’s why when you see some pictures of Buddha, you see these curly things. It’s basically not his hair; it’s 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, and to give them the knowledge, which is the Ātmā Gyan, to help them and guide them in their lives once he gets enlightened. So one fine day, he got enlightened, and it was quite visible for the disciples, as he had such a bright glow, which was brighter than the sun. So the disciples got excited. They’re like, "We see the glow on his face. Now finally, after so many years of waiting, we will get the knowledge." And Gautama Buddha opened his eyes. "All the disciples are sitting ready. Let’s cook something, I’m hungry." And the disciples were like, "So many years we were sitting and waiting, and he was in samādhi. He was not accepting food, and he was not eating, and because of him we couldn’t eat." And the first words which come out are, "Let’s cook, I’m hungry." And they all said... Okay, we are leaving, and they all left. So 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. And then Buddha became Buddha, preached his knowledge around the world. So from Buddha we can learn renunciation, we can learn dedication towards a certain path. When we want to achieve something, you don’t give up. It doesn’t matter if you’re starving, it doesn’t matter if it’s strong storms, nothing. You are focused. And the power of dedication is also portrayed in another incident. We all might have heard the name of the Bhagavad Gītā and Śaṅkarācāryajī. And 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 already was traveling around all India. Bhagatpāśya Śaṅkarācārya was the person who actually created the Sannyās Paramparā. And he created the four ashrams: Joshimath near Badrinath in the north, Śṛṅgerī Maṭh in the south, Dvārikā in the east. Gujarat is east or west? West. So 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. So he used to have his satsaṅgs in the forest, in his āśram near the lake. And all his disciples were sitting. Bhagavad Gītā, Śrī Śaṅkarācārya was sitting on his āsana. And his disciples, they 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 wasn’t writing anything, who didn’t understand much. His name was Giri. And then one day, he didn’t come to the class on time. And Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya asked his disciples, "Where is Giri?" The disciples said, "Giri went to the river to have a bath. He will come shortly. But we can start with the class." Śaṅkarācārya said, "No, no, we will wait for Giri. Let him come." But then the disciples were like, "Gurujī, anyhow, he doesn’t understand anything. He doesn’t write anything. We are the people who are writing, and we are the people who are traveling and preaching a 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. So Giri was sitting on the banks of the river. He was sad, he was upset, he was feeling very low and thinking to God and 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 other my 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, he said, "Don’t worry, Giri is coming, he’s on his way back." And when Giri came back, he had tears in his eyes, and he made praṇāms to Śrī Śaṅkarācāryajī. And 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. So it goes on. This is only the first śloka. So this was the Toṭṭakāṣṭakam which he wrote for his guru. So 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. And now we practice our one. Can they sing one bhajan? Can they sing one bhajan? I just go quickly and come back. Okay, then we start. Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥa. Hari Om. Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥa. 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’s the same sound as in German. Dachram. It’s not dachram, but it’s dachram. Pay attention to the pronunciation; it’s the second one. There’s an r in the h, the r is mixed inside the h, so it’s dachram. Dācram. So dachram, but the h is full and the r is half, so dachram. Děkuji. Dharma, vipāpaṁ; dharma, vipāpaṁ;... dharma, vipāpaṁ... Parameṣmā bhūtam, Parameśmabhūtam, dharam vipapam, dharam vipapam, Parameśmabhūtam. The T is a half T, so you don’t say. Again, this is not a N, but it’s a Ṇ. And it’s not a "d," but it’s 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. 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.