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Om Śālakpūrjī Mahādev Kī Jai, Devādedev Devaiśwar Mahādev Kī Jai, Śādīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Hindu Dharm Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Mādhavān, Nandpūrjī Sadgurudeva Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mohamadāleśwar Paramahaṁsa Svāmī. Śrī Māheśvara, Nandpurījī Gurudeva Kī Jai. Salutations to the Cosmic Self, Pozdraví Vesmírnému Já. Salutations to Śālakapurījī Siddhapīṭhaparamparā, Pozdraví Ālakapurījī Hosidhapīṭhaparamparā. And good morning and Hari Om to all of you present here and watching through Swāmījī TV. Thank you. Please. Sometimes we just follow people by seeing their work, but not by understanding what they really are doing, and we follow blindly. That’s why it’s very important to find a real Satguru Dev. As we know, nowadays it is Kali Yuga, and in Kali Yuga people are not so nice as they were once upon a time. There is a lot of greed. So there are many people who think, "Oh, I will just put an orange dress on, and life will be much simpler. I will earn a good amount of money." That is not the true Guru Dev, the true Sannyāsī, the true Sādhu. When you have true Guru Bhakti and when you have true devotion and Śraddhā towards your paramparā or towards your master, then you are the embodiment of simplicity. You might have seen Gurudev. Gurudev can have everything that he wants. He can be wearing dresses full of gold if he wants, or driving the most expensive, fanciest car available. This is what we can admire and learn from Swamijī—that is how he lives in simplicity. It doesn’t really matter for him what people think, how his appearance is, or in which car he drives. So that’s why, to find and to know—because in life we all need a Gurudev to guide us—but in Kali Yuga, to find a true Gurudev is sometimes hard. We all should feel very blessed and fortunate to have a Master from such a beautiful and ancient lineage of Śrī Alakapurī Siddhapīṭha Paramparā: a Guru who is enlightened, who knows everything about us, and who guides us and helps us through our journey in life. In life, we should not just blindly follow anyone we see doing something and say, "Oh, this is nice, I should also do this." There is a story. There was one blind sannyāsī doing pūjā of a temple, taking care of it. He was a great bhakta of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He used to always bring food and offer it to Lord Kṛṣṇa and sing: "Anna Pūrṇe, Sadā Pūrṇe, Śaṅkara Prāṇa, Vallabha Vāgīśa, Vairāgya Siddhārtham, Bhikṣāṁ Dehi, Cha Pārvati." Then, offering the food to Kṛṣṇa, but as he was blind, he couldn’t really see what was happening and going around. So there was one cat who used to come and eat that prasāda. Later he used to check the bowl: "OK, it’s empty. Wow, Lord Kṛṣṇa came and ate my offerings." He was very happy, thinking, "My food, which I make, and the Lord eats my food—how blessed am I." The message slowly, slowly spread because he was telling everyone that the Lord comes and eats my food every day. Then one person came and said, "Gurujī, can I also have darśan of the Lord? I am praying and doing japa that I have darśana of God." So Gurujī said, "Yes, yes, tomorrow you come." Whenever you come to God or to Gurujī, we always come not empty-handed. If you come for Guru Pūjā, then you bring a thālī, a plate, in which you normally have sixteen different objects, sixteen different things to offer. You would have gulāl, kuṅkum (the red tilak which we use), chandan (the orange one), abir (which is a sparkly, shiny powder). Gulāl is the pink color. Haldi, which is kurkuma. Rice. Pañca mṛd, sorry. Pañca mṛd is the five mṛds from the cow: milk, curd (yogurt), ghee, honey... and then you have, I think... yogurt I mentioned, you have gomutra. Gomutra is the urine of the cow. All that you mix together, and that becomes pañcāmṛt. The cow is very holy in India, as we all know. All the cow products can be used very beautifully. Many illnesses can go away by having a bath with cow urine. Normally, the process of sannyāsa dīkṣā is that you stand overnight in the Gaṅgā—that’s testing your endurance. Then in the morning, you will have a bath with pañcagavya and pañcāmṛta. These are those five things which I mentioned. Pañcagavya is cow urine, cow dung, yogurt, milk, and ghee. When these five things are mixed, you have a bath with that. That is like a purification for our body. After that, we scrub our body; we put ashes on our body because ashes are an indication and a reminder for us that one day we will also become ashes. When we become sannyāsī, we are leaving the old life. We are dying from that body and reincarnating into the sannyāsa dharma, into the new life. Then you have a vīrya hōvana, which means yajña, and afterwards the guru will cut your hair, give you orange clothes, give you blessings, a mālā, and then you become a sannyāsī. Then it is upon us to follow the sannyāsa-dharma, to follow the Guru-vākya, and to live that life. So that blind sādhu told that disciple, "Bring tomorrow one thali with all these sixteen offerings: objects, coconut, some dakṣiṇā (some money), and with these all things, you come to me tomorrow at lunchtime. We will offer this all to the Lord, and he will come and eat, and you will have darśan." So the next day he came with all these items, and they offered. They again sang the eating mantra. Sūrdās was a blind ātmā. We normally do not call a blind sādhu a blind sādhu; we normally call him Sūrdās. So Sūrdās said, "Oh Lord, we are offering the food to you. Please come and bless us by eating the prasāda." But because there was an unknown person there at that time, the cat didn’t come because it was a little bit scared. He asked, "Did the god come?" "No, still no one came. God, please, today one great bhakta of yours wants to have darśana. Please come in and eat." And suddenly the cat came, took the food, and ran away. He heard the sound of the pot, a little bit clinging. So he said, "So, did you have Darśan?" He said, "Not of God. The person who you think God is is basically a cat." "No, no, this is not possible. God comes in all different forms. So God came to you in the form of a cat and gave you darśan." The person said, "Gurujī, this cat is from my neighborhood. I see him every day, and he also comes and steals food from my house. I know this cat. So Gurujī, I will give you one daṇḍa, like Gurudev has one daṇḍa always. When you are offering the food, you hit the daṇḍa on the floor so that the cat will not come." So then he started doing this, and slowly, slowly he had disciples. Not knowing why he was doing the Daṇḍāī every day while offering food, this paramparā continued. After the Gurujī took samādhi, all the sādhus living in that temple, in that ashram, and also his successor, they all were hitting the stick on the floor while eating. No one knew why, but "Gurujī does it, so we do it." And then they became famous as the Daṇḍī Sannyāsī Paramparā. One day, one very knowledgeable sādhu came to their āśram. When they were offered food, they were also offered sticks with the food. You are supposed to eat and hit the stick. That wise sannyāsī was thinking, "Why did this happen?" So he asked the gadīpatī, the current main sādhu: "In your paramparā, was there ever any Sūradāsa?" "Oh yes, Mahārājī, the first Gurujī who started the paramparā, he was a sūradāsa." Then he said, "Okay, now I know why we are having sticks while eating." Then he said, "My dear, that’s why you should always ask the guru questions when you don’t understand something. We might always have some thoughts in our mind, some questions. First, we should try to see if we can solve that riddle by ourselves. Then eventually, if you can’t, you ask for guidance. But we should never be scared or afraid of asking questions. It’s better to ask questions and solve our doubts than to blindly follow something that we don’t know." So if you have the feeling from inside that, "I need guidance, I want to know something," that’s why we always ask after the lectures, "Any questions? Something you didn’t understand?" Because we all make mistakes in our lives. Maybe while speaking, I also said something wrong, or maybe you didn’t hear properly. So the best is to clear the things as soon as possible so that no misunderstandings are created. Because of that sādhu, that sannyāsī who was visiting, that daṇḍī paramparā ended that day. So that’s why you should not just blindly follow anything you see or hear. There is another story about how sādhus sometimes can be just playing around and not being actual sādhus. It’s a beautiful story from our dear Holy Gurujī. Once upon a time, there was a king, and his secretary was a very evil, bad person. That’s why we should always be careful about which secretaries we hire. Take care if they are trustworthy or not. The best is if you can manage everything by yourself. Till it’s possible, till we have strength in our hands and time to do so, it is easier to do things by ourselves. Of course, when you need help, then take help. That secretary did something very wrong in the kingdom, and the king, as punishment, cut his nose and kicked him out of the kingdom. He was very ashamed about it. He was thinking, "What can I do so that I can still live my life?" He decided that a monk’s attire would get him some money, and he would be happy in life. But that is greed. That is not the śraddhā, the bhakti. That’s not for self-realization. That is just a business. That’s why it’s also important to always see if your guru has a long paramparā, or if he’s a self-made guru. Paramparā is a lineage where the teachings are passed from a master to the disciple. But when there is no paramparā, that means he is a self-made master. So he wore orange. Secretaries are always very wise and learned people, so he knew how to speak well to people and was good at public relations. He read a few things here and there, and he started giving lectures and satsaṅgs around. Whenever someone asked him, "Guruji, what happened to your nose?" he used to say, "My dear, once upon a time I went to a temple in the Himalayas, and I went into a cave. It was so bright, and the sādhu who was sitting there said, 'If you would like to have darśana of God, you have to offer your nose to God, and God will immediately give you darśana.' That’s why I don’t have my nose anymore." Then the disciple said, "Gurujī, I also want to have darśan of God." He said, "OK, but I don’t give public darśans. So, one by one, you have to come in this small room inside, and there I will give you God’s darśan." So the disciples used to go in; he used to cut the nose and then give a mantra in the ear. The mantra was: "Don’t ever tell anyone that you didn’t have the darśan of God, because then you will be in a lot of sin. People believe me, not you, so they are going to say that you are lying, and you will never be good in life. But if you say that, 'Yes, I had darśan,' then people will think that you are enlightened, and wherever you go, they will praise you, they will give you money, you will earn good money." This is māyā. We are always running behind money. Some people say, "Can money buy happiness?" I would say the company of Guru Dev and the blessings of Guru Dev bring happiness in life, not money. You can have as many Rolls Royces or Lamborghinis as you want, but if you are not happy inside, if you’re not fulfilled and content inside, you won’t be happy. Imagine having a big mansion here with all the luxurious things you could ever wish for, all this beautiful Mother Nature, with the presence of Gurudev. What would you like more? Gurudev, no? Gurudev. So then slowly, slowly, more and more people started going there because they wanted to have darśan of God. They got famous as the Nakata Parampara. "Nak" means nose, and "kata" means cut. Slowly, the ruler of that kingdom, that king, also heard about this. He was a great bhakta of the Lord. He said, "Please, can you bring Gurudeva? I also would like to have darśana of God." So then that guru came, and the king gave him āsana, made praṇām, and said, "Gurujī, I also would like to have darśan of God." For the secretary, it was like revenge now: "You cut my nose, now I cut your nose." So then the Gurujī called the pandit, the astrologer, and said, "Please check the good auspicious occasion, the good timing, when we can cut his nose." They said, "Tomorrow evening, five o’clock." The king gave his disciples and him a beautiful place in the palace to stay till the next day. The previous secretary of the king also heard about it. He said, "We are eating the food, the grains from this king, so we have to show loyalty towards him. We can’t let him cut his nose just for this fake guru." That old secretary’s son was the current secretary of the king, so he told his son that he would like to have a meeting with the king. When he met the king, he bowed down and said, "Praṇām. Your Highness, I don’t want you to go through something which is not even true." The king said, "No, no, no, you are old. Your brain doesn’t function anymore. You don’t know what you are saying. I am the greatest bhakta, and I want to have darśana of God. Such a great guru came to give me darśana, and you are stopping me?" Then he said, "Your Highness, I have one proposal. Let me go first, and I will cut my nose. If I see God, then you can do it. But if not, then you will put this fake guru and all his disciples in jail." The king liked that idea. He said, "Okay." So the next day at five o’clock, all the preparations were done. There were all the drums and the ceremonies and all the bling-blong which the king might have. The Gurujī was ready to cut the king’s nose. The Gurujī said, "Wait, wait, wait. This old, my old secretary will go first, and then me." This (new) secretary didn’t like the old one anyhow, so he said, "Oh, what a blessed soul, you decided to also see God. Please come, please come." Then he cut the nose and gave the mantra in the ear. Then the king asked, "So? Did you see God? Did you have darśan?" He said, "I didn’t see God, but I had so much pain that I saw stars in the day. So, yes, I had darśan of the universe." So then the king put them all in jail. So it’s always great to have a self-realized guru as Guru Dev.