TV Channel

How are you? Good. Relaxed? No pain after the first day of Hanumānāsana? Yes. Okay, that is normal. I think we would have no pain only if we were not alive. If we don’t have pain, we won’t even live. But it also shows that we are not practicing sitting regularly. We are sitting, we are practicing, we are meditating—but, you know, not enough. Yet that is our way of life: you must work, you have family, you have so many other obligations, and it is okay if we don’t have so much time for sitting. Today is Devpurījī’s Mahāsamādhi. You know from Līlā Amṛt many stories of how, when someone who is prepared, a great soul, comes to Mahāprabhujī, just one look completely changes everything. There is a story about a great saint who lived in a cave. People would come for darśan. One man came and asked for a blessing. The saint said, “Look, every morning and evening, when I enter the cave and leave the cave, I put my hand on this stone and give my blessing to that stone.” But the stone remained stone. This shows us that to receive the blessing, to receive this energy, we also need to be prepared. We need to be ready for it. I remember an event, an anecdote from Kailāśa Āśrama. Swāmījī was not giving a satsaṅg but was talking with a lady. I was massaging his foot—Vivek Purī was massaging Swāmījī’s leg. In that moment, I didn’t realize what was happening behind me. I don’t know Hindi at all. I don’t know Hindi at all. “Apkese, he, that, Bodhbaliyā, Bodhāchārya”—that is my level of knowing Hindi, just a few words. But in that moment, I understood that conversation between Swāmījī and the lady from Jaipur. I saw that something strange was happening behind me, and all the people on the terrace were in that state. That is the moment when strong energy is present. When we are not prepared, this happens to me many times—at the Kumbha Melā, especially in the time when Gurujī was still in physical form. In a moment when you are with Gurujī and Swāmījī at the same time, during their ordinary conversation with each other, I was completely asleep. Because to receive the blessing and to be in that great energy, we need to be prepared. You know the fuse in your home? When the electricity is too strong, it switches off and saves your house from fire. The same thing happens with us. When we are somewhere where there is strong spiritual energy, we also have to switch off. Many times Swāmījī said: you have a small light bulb run by a battery, a 4.5-volt bulb. That is our condition. And we want to connect it to 220 volts. You know what will happen. Once, as a child, I was playing with a toy—it was Electro-Pioneer, something with a battery, rolling and moving. For me it was too slow, so I plugged it into 220 volts. You know what happens. My toy completely melted, and I got blessings from my mother. Finally, I learned something from yoga: if we are an instrument for 4.5 volts, we should try not to connect to the supreme energy of high voltage. The great blessing and protection from Swāmījī is that we simply fall asleep. How can we improve this? At home, you would change the wires, but we cannot change our wiring. However, we have a great practice. First, we have āsanas. And after that, our great practice is prāṇāyāma. If we practice regularly, our system will slowly become stronger and stronger. You know from our book, Yoga in Daily Life, the chapter about prāṇa; inside is a nice explanation of the five prāṇas and five upa-prāṇas. And there is a very short, concentrated section about Vyāna Prāṇa. Vyāna Prāṇa is for our nerves, and also for having a strong installation inside the body. If someone says, “Oh, my nerves are weak,” or “I have a nerve break,” it means our Vyāna Prāṇa is weak. Inside it is nicely explained what to do—Kumbhaka, not only Nāḍī Śodhana, but for beginners it explains what to do. Inhale, kumbhaka, exhale, kumbhaka—this is even for those on the first level of Nāḍī Śodhana. Just sit and, five to ten times, do this exercise twice or three times a day. Very soon we will see that our nerves are stronger. We need this. We need strong nerves, strong pure nāḍīs. Then our practice will be successful. We have darśan and blessings of our Gurudeva; now we only need practice. What is there to tell about Devpurījī’s Mahāsamādhi? You know everything. You read it in the book, Līlā Amṛt. Many times we hear lectures about Devpurījī from Viśvagurujī. Mahāsamādhi is something we can say is the aim of our life. Because Mahāsamādhi is not someone dying. Mahāsamādhi means someone merged with the cosmic light by His will. You know how Swāmījī once explained it: when you take a drop of water and put it in your palm, that is the jīva. The lake or sea is Śiva. When you turn your hand, that drop merges with the ocean; the jīva merges with Śiva. For self-realized masters, gurus, during their life they are already merged with the Cosmic. For them there is no difference between ātmā and paramātmā. For us, it is different. But for a self-realized person, it is no different. In the moment of Mahāsamādhi, however, even the border of this physical body is gone. When Gurujī passed away in Mahāsamādhi, Swāmījī nicely said, “Now Gurujī is even more with us,” because even this little obstacle—the physical body being in one place—was dissolved. I hope that everybody of us will have Mahāsamādhi. What does “nicely” mean? Like Devpurījī, we will organize satsaṅg, nice singing of bhajans, and after that, three times, five times, however many times you want, chant Oṁ and Hari Oṁ. You know Kabīrdā’s bhajan: when I was born, I was crying and people were laughing; but when I go, let me smile and let people cry. That will be the success of our life. Swāmījī often said that the greatest sadness, the saddest moment, is when we pass away without attaining self-realization. What this means is that in this life, we should complete our aim. In this life, we should be self-realized. Yes, we want this. We are practicing yoga for this—not in the next life. Who knows what will be in the next life? Maybe it will be very easy to practice Catuṣpādāsana. Who knows? Because of that, we want everything in this life. Self-realization. And that everyone of us has Mahāsamādhi. We will find a place somewhere for this Mahāsamādhi for all of us—I’m joking, but that should be our attitude. Not what I hear from some people: “No, that is not for me, maybe in the next life.” No. If you say this, you have already closed the door. Nothing is possible. If you say, “No, no, it is not for me; I am not for this. Yes, I practice yoga, but in the next life I will do it”—no, finished. Therefore, we need to change our attitude. In business, they say never have a Plan B. If you have a Plan B, you have already said, “Okay, I will not do this. I can’t do it,” and your business will collapse. For us, there is no Plan B, only Plan A. The only problem is that we don’t know what we want. That’s why we have this nice seminar retreat—just to get an idea of what we want. I always joke with the story of the golden fish. The golden fish asks you for three wishes. You know that story. Usually, the joke is that the person never knows exactly what they want, and misunderstandings and problems come. Because of that, we need to have a list of our priorities at all times. And always think that you will have a meeting with a golden fish. In the middle of the night, if someone woke you up and asked, “Tell me your wish,” immediately you would say what it is. That is what Swāmī Vivekānanda once said: if you have one idea and you live for that idea, you breathe for that idea, you dream that idea, you work for that idea, you will accomplish it. I hope that one idea will be to aim for Mahāsamādhi in this life. We will die—that is completely sure—but we want to be free and enter into that immortality. Not to be here forever, but to attain immortality. What does it mean? To have no more rebirth and death, rebirth and death. That is one idea, and I think that within it everything is contained. And because of that, when we speak of Mahāsamādhi, we are not talking about something sad; it is the great victory. That is the lighthouse for us—what is our aim, and what do we need to do with our life? On the other hand, it is a sad moment for us because that great soul, that great guru, is not with us anymore in the physical form. But he is always with us in this present; that energy is always with us. Like this seminar, Swāmījī is not physically with us. Swāmījī is in Kailāśa, a far distance. Yet sometimes, with that far distance, you may feel the energy, the presence of the Great Master, even more strongly than in the physical form. And why is it said in the Guru Gītā and everywhere that you should think of your Guru Deva, your Iṣṭa Devatā? Because in that moment, when you are thinking of your Iṣṭa Devatā, your Guru Deva, the waves of your brain start to cohere with that divine energy. And that makes a change in us. I often remind myself when I talk about what I heard from Viśvagurujī about the practice Gurujī did every day: Mānasik Pūjā. What does distance or Mahāsamādhi mean? It has no influence on us, because in your thoughts, in your feelings, you are with your Gurudeva, with your Iṣṭadevatā. Modern science says that for the brain, it makes no difference whether you are doing something or just thinking about it—the brain chemistry is the same. If you have a good Mānasik Pūjā, you are able to be today, now, in Kailāśa Āśrama, at the place of the fireplace—not only with Swāmījī, but with Devpurījī, with Gurujī, with Mahāprabhujī, with Alakhpurījī, with everyone. And what is reality? It doesn’t matter. If you are in your meditation there, you see, you feel all this, you will feel expansion in your heart. You will be with Devpurījī. By abiding in your thoughts, in your feelings, with such great divine souls, masters, gurus, that energy will change us. Now we continue with the bhajans. Perhaps we will have a short meditation—not meditation; we will go to Kailāśa. We are going to Kailāśa, and we will be in Kailāśa Āśrama. Wherever you wish in the āśrama: for me it is the upper part where the fireplace is; for some it might be down where the Mahāsamādhi is. It depends on your feelings, intuition, whatever—and everything is good. Never think, “Oh, maybe I did something wrong, no, no, I didn’t see this.” No, it is what you feel, and the most important thing is that you feel inner joy. That will be the best way to honor Mahāsamādhi, to make a celebration of Mahāsamādhi. We say celebration of Mahāsamādhi because it is the celebration of the great victory, and it is an inspiration for our life. Don’t be sad, be joyful. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa, Kī Jai, Kī Jai, Kī Jai. He came to Kailāśa Āśrama and did not find Śrī Devpurījī anymore. And he said, “Oh, my Gurudeva, without you, my devotion is very hard. My heart suffers if I do not see you. I have great hope that I will see you again, and the fire of desire, the viraha, is burning in me, burning. My body, my mind, and my prāṇa are trembling with fear. If I try to lie down, I cannot sleep.” This was the feeling of Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī when Śrī Devpurījī entered samādhi. It is like taking a fish out of the water—it cannot breathe, it suffers. The same feeling. And the thirsty papīhā bird cries and cries for water, for it does not want to drink from the ground; it always waits for water from the sky, but it does not rain, and it is so thirsty. This is the feeling of Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Prabhujī. And she said, “Śrī Devpurījī, all goddesses and all the holy saints meditate on you. I pray to you with kesar, sandalwood, saffron, and kapur, my real inner self. I want to see this—your darśan.” From his chakra, the Gaṅgā flows very beautifully, and in Kailāśa, Man Kailāśa, he meditates, holding his indescribable thought. So his chakra and the Gaṅgā flow. “Śiva Hayabol Foika Gaṅgā…” When I was sad once, after Devpurījī’s Mahāsamādhi, Swāmījī said, “Do not be sad,” and I came the next day. Devpurījī sent Swāmījī from Śiva Loka to the earth, and he said, “Don’t be sad; I do not have this vachan.” This was the first bhajan I learned, because I was singing. This was the bhajan to Swāmījī. I sing of Swāmījī’s glory, but it is the same—Swāmījī and Śrī Devpurījī, there is no difference. Mahāprabhujī says, “If I hadn’t met you, Mahāprabhujī, if I hadn’t met you, I would have fallen into the cycle of death and rebirth again and again. Guru Deva taught me the mantra So’ham, and he changed the crow into a beautiful swan.” Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī Kī Jai, Śrī Satguru Deva Kī Jai. This was Mahāprabhujī, who said it is through Śrī Devpurījī that his whole life and whole work became successful. I think it will be good—Mahāprabhujī will not be angry with me—if we somehow use Swami Madhava to sing a few bhajans. And I know from the opening of Om Ashram that you know how to be very vivid during the bhajans, yes? I saw it. I made a video because we have some people in Zagreb Ashram who sit in chairs during satsaṅg. But at the opening of Om Ashram, there was singing and dancing, and I said, “Now you can’t ask for a chair anymore.” In Zagreb Ashram, people always sat in chairs, but when they were in India for the opening of Om Ashram, Purī Purī saw and videotaped them standing up, singing, and dancing—so they can’t ask for a chair in Zagreb. We will not dance, but we will be more active in the singing, and not just sitting—with Gurudeva’s Śakti. Madhavan will talk more about this, I think, tomorrow, or we will have more time. We will try to be more active, because sometimes when we sing bhajans, I see that some are fine, but others just fall into tamas. And satsaṅg is a festival. Satsaṅg is joy. Satsaṅg is when you are high with energy. After satsaṅg, it is hard to go to sleep because you are full of energy—unless you sleep during the satsaṅg. Now we will have something strong, and we will be active during the singing of bhajans. Once in Kailāśa Āśrama during Guru Pūrṇimā, Svāmī Ānandī and I were there. In the beginning, we thought it was some punishment, but afterward we realized it was a blessing. At midnight, the prayer started, and it was like New Year’s fireworks in the sky. That kind of energy was present during the prayer, during the bhajans, during everything. You know how it is in Kailāśa during the singing of bhajans. We need to create that energy of Kailāśa here. Yes? Yes.