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A pleasant time of day to you all. We are slowly coming to the end of our summer seminar. This seminar was a little unusual because Vishwagurujī was not physically present. Yet, I believe each of us feels his presence through his energy and his being here. In that way, we can also enjoy this time—enjoy the time with your friends, enjoy the time you have for yourself, and also enjoy this presence, this other way of being present. For today's Satsaṅg, first, I will address a very nice question that has come up. After that, we will have bhajans and prayer. We will also thank our karma yogīs today, for their work is—not was, but is—a truly great job. I remember my first anuṣṭhāna. Swāmījī said, "Why are you complaining? You don't need to do anything." I was an adolescent at the time and didn't understand what he meant. Now, forty years later, I understand. You know what the best food is? First, when you are hungry, they say hunger is the best cook. Second, the best meal is when you don't have to cook or wash the dishes. This is especially true for ladies—though it's not entirely right to say that, as men can also cook and wash—but the best meal is indeed that. You don't need to clean your house. And think of all the problems you have at home; you don't have them here. Nowadays, there's a slight problem because we have these machines. With them come jobs and problems. It's something like karma, always with you. In previous times, there was no mail, no telephone, nothing. We were free. Now we have a golden chain; we are available all the time, and that is a problem. But it is very important to make the decision to just switch off. Airplane mode. Nothing is so important. Only we think we are so important and that the world will collapse without us. Nothing will collapse without us. So many great people came before us, they passed away, and the world still goes on. We just need this awareness, and it will be good for us. In the past, we joked about doctors. Do you know which doctor is very important? The one with more patients, where you always have to wait in the waiting room. If you're not waiting, that doctor is not a good doctor. Now it's not just one mobile phone; it's two. You saw in the Olympic Games that people usually have two phones. Do you know why? One is on a stick to take a picture of me, the VIP, the very important person. With the other, I record what is happening around me. Did you see this? No, you don't watch TV. That is your problem. Once, Swāmījī in New Zealand said to me—because on the airplane he saw the safety video and a clip from The Lord of the Rings—he was so angry. "What is this?" I explained it to him, and he told me I watched too much TV. I said to him, "Yes, but that is research work." It is different how you look at it. Like research work, to see what is happening now. Or you can just consume everything you see. I think it is also very important for us to know what is happening now with us, in the world, around us. Because if we know what is happening now—what the trends are, what kind of energies are at play—we will be able to protect ourselves and also protect others. Mert, hogyha ismerjük ezeket a folyamatokat, akkor tudjuk megvédeni magunkat és másokat. It is very important to have information. Nagyon fontos, hogy információ birtokában legyünk. If you have information, you will know how to act. Akkor tudod csak, hogy hogy kell cselekedni. If you do not know about the situation and you do not have information, you will be like sheep, and very easily we will finish under the knife of the situation. Also, when many people are doing something around us, they have an influence on us. We can call this the collective unconscious. We can also call this the law of the... I don't know the exact term in English, but it's about the 100th monkey. Research was done on monkeys on one island; they started washing an herb or putting it in salty water. Slowly, monkeys began to do this. The moment the number of monkeys doing it reached around a hundred, monkeys on another island started doing the same thing. With humans, they gave American people a task to learn a Japanese poet's song by heart. There were two songs, two poems of similar difficulty. They realized that the song which more Japanese people knew by heart was much easier for the Americans to learn. Why am I talking about this? If some trend becomes common among people, this collective unconscious will also influence us. If we are not aware, if we don't know about this, we will just start doing it. But if we know, the moment we consider buying a second mobile phone and a stick for making a double video, we will be able to say to ourselves, "Stop. Do not do this." That is very important. You know what our parents always said to us when we said, "But everybody does this"? Your parents said it, and if you are a parent, you've said it too: "If everybody jumps from the window, will you also jump?" But for that, we need to be aware. There was one question: Why does a Mālā have 108 beads? Why does Sumeṟan have 27? And what does the number 108 mean? In short, you know what Viśva Gurujī answers to this question: "Why does a mālā have 108 beads?" And now we expect deep knowledge about the number 108. Usually, Swāmījī said, "100 is for counting, and 8 is for the chakras." Have you heard that answer from Swāmījī? Yes, many times. I must say I am not a big fan of numbers. We have a base-10, decimal system now, and we look at everything through ten. Sometimes before, it was base-12, and everything was about twelve, and so on. What does it mean that we always want to give such big meaning to all this? You will see in the Vedas two streams: one is Karmakāṇḍa, and one is Jñānakāṇḍa. Karmakāṇḍa is more related to ceremonies, yajñas, etc. Jñānakāṇḍa is related to knowledge, jñāna. Karmakāṇḍa is related to paṇḍits who perform ceremonies and yajñas. But when you are a sannyāsī, I will dare to say, you are above this. That is why a sannyāsī does not attend the marriage ceremony itself. Before or after the marriage, it's okay to give blessings, but not at the ceremony. For funerals, etc., you only go for your own mother's funeral. That tradition comes from Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. But you are not involved with the ceremony, the rituals, etc. Yesterday we chanted Oṁ Pya Budip Niyanjan Sabaduka Banjan. Through the bhajan, we learn about that mantra. We should have it in our mind all the time. With that mantra, the position of the planets will not influence you. With that mantra, you will not have a problem with different ghosts, the three tapas, etc. Now, thank God, the biography of Swāmījī is here. The first part finishes with 1984, which was my beginning. I remember the summer seminar in '84 was in Rajac (which is in Serbia today), and there were such good lectures. At that time, in the '80s, I started with all this stuff about bioenergy, not so much like radiesthesia, but about earth energies and such. Everybody was walking with a pendulum, looking for "bad energy." The best answer I ever heard from any guru on such matters is from Swāmījī, and it shows what a real sannyāsī is. Somebody asked Swāmījī, "On which side is it good to put your head when we go to sleep?" Do you know the answer? "On the side where your pillow is." Try to understand this, not the hocus-pocus, etcetera, all this nonsense. A year ago, I heard that in the south, it's not good to have your head because energies go south and you will have a stroke. And that person got a stroke. You know who I'm talking about. At that seminar, somebody asked Swāmījī, "What to do when ground energy or this haṭha-man knot is on the place where I sleep?" and so on. Swāmījī looked at that person—there were maybe 50 people maximum at the seminar—and said, "You don't have a mantra? You are not in japa?" That was the answer. Look, understand this: when you have a mantra, don't think about nonsense. In ancient times, they said there was a lady who was a sannyāsī. She always walked with two buckets. In one was water, in the other was fire. They asked her, "Why do you carry these all the time?" She said, "If I go to hell, I will put out the fire with the water. If I go to heaven, I will set it on fire with the fire." For the yogī, heaven and hell are here. We are not practicing and trying to be good just to get to heaven. No, I don't want to be in heaven. Going to heaven is like going on an extraordinary, all-inclusive holiday for 15 days. But after 15 days, you have to pay, and you come back. Usually when you come back, you have no money because all the good karma you had, you spent on the holiday. What I learned from our friends in Canada is that during the hard winter, most people run to a sunny place. But after that, they come back home and take a second job to earn more money to pay it back. That is the principle of heaven. A yogī says that hell is much better because you do something and then you go further. But we know in yoga that hell and heaven are here. Also, at that seminar—my first summer seminar, or a few months earlier in Belgrade—we got a picture of Mahāprabhujī. Swāmījī said, "Always keep this picture with you. That picture will protect you." I still have that picture, always with me. That is the point we need to come to. You don't need Jyotiṣa. You don't need a Paṇḍit to perform some yajña for you. You don't need any of this. That is only a toy for children. We have everything. We have our Gurudev. We have mantra, we have paramparā. The only thing we need is confidence. I will not say faith, because faith is not good. Very soon it becomes, "I believe, but if I don't get a new red Porsche, I will not believe in Mahāprabhujī anymore." Hissek benne, de hogyha nem kapom meg az új piros Porsche-emet, akkor már többet nem hiszek Mahāprabhujī-ben. Yes. Így van. Everybody has a different "red Porsche." Mindenkinek más ez a piros Porsche. That is just symbolic humor about guys in a mid-life crisis. Not faith, but really trust. And when you are completely committed, with no second option, that is important. We have all of this. Every time we try to use some crystal... To continue Swāmījī's answer: If you have so much oil on you and you are walking on a bridge, your leg is slippery and you start to fall. If I try to catch you, you will just slip down because of the oil. If you have so many stones in your pocket, you will go down. See this symbolically. If you believe and think that some crystal will save your life and change your destiny, what are we doing? We are believing that that stone is much stronger than Mahāprabhujī. Yes. We think Mahāprabhujī is not functioning, but this crystal will function. Okay, nice. Nice crystal. That is good. We need a little magic, a little bling-blam in life. But in reality, we need to know. When I put my trust in something like this, it's like I'm putting a stamp on it. For every document, you need the stamp and signature of a court or authority. If I do this, I immediately put a stamp that says this is more powerful than Mahāprabhujī. Because of that, we don't need anything. We need only the mālā we got from Viśva Gurujī. If it's a plain mālā, even better. You know, Swāmījī always talks about his mālā. For him, his mālā is so valuable, more than any stones, any money, because he got that mālā from his guru. And we got a mālā from our guru. If you didn't get a mālā from your guru, you come to Swāmījī. How many times do you give your mālā for blessing? What more do you need? That is your mālā, your mantra. And imagine, see the picture of your Iṣṭadevatā. Nothing more. That is my attitude. If you ask me about numbers, who cares about numbers? Five, ten, eleven, something, okay? But because people always ask about 108, I know something about it. First, they say 1 and 8 make 9, and 9 is the highest number—but only in the decimal system. In binary or base-12, maybe not. I won't go into that because I don't know and don't want to know. Second, they say there are 108 Upaniṣads. Some say more, but the main ones are 108. Next, they say—though it was never measured—that the distance between Earth and the Moon is 108 times the Moon's radius. Also, that the distance between the Sun and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun or Earth, something like that. Because of that, it is the number 108. Why 27? 27 is one quarter of 108. Now start explanations about constellations, numbers like 11, and so on. This is something I don't know for sure, so I will not talk about it. But if you want to research, look into the constellations of the stars, how many different constellations are in the movement of the moon, or something like that. But for me, the best answer is: 100 is for counting, and eight is because we have eight chakras. What does it mean? It is not necessary to make such a big deal about a number. The most important thing is to have confidence. Be sure. Try to have this certainty about your path, about your practice, about your mantra, about Mahāprabhujī, Gurujī, Swāmījī, the entire paramparā. If we are sure inside, in our heart, and we practice and act with 100% commitment, we are confident everything is possible. No stones, no oils, no other things. We have the real stuff. We have a diamond. Don't run after shiny glass. Repeat and repeat in your mind the meaning of the bhajan, "Siddhipā Niyanjan Sabadokā Bhajan." Inside, everything is explained. When we are sure inside, in that moment, everything is possible. It's the same with saṅkalpa. Immediately when you repeat your saṅkalpa, you know whether it will become true or not. But you must be honest with yourself. Because of that, I don't make saṅkalpa. I realized that many times I repeat saṅkalpa in a way that is just "blah, blah" without śakti, without being sure. In that case, saṅkalpa is not functioning. When you are really in a problem, that saṅkalpa you repeat with energy... Immediately when you say it, you know it's true. Not that it will be, but that it is now. In that moment, the saṅkalpa is really functioning. Get such an attitude, such energy, such a satirical way. We will make it so that we immediately come to the aim. You know this story; they say it is connected with Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa. But so many people say this story is connected with this or that guru; who knows? In the end, it's not important who it was. It is very important to understand it. Once, a disciple, a bhakta, came to Paramahaṁsa complaining that he was doing everything—practicing, doing good karma—but nothing happened. Ramakrishna said, "Okay, we will go for a little walk." They walked to the bank of a river. They waded in until the water was up to their navels. At that moment, Ramakrishna just put that man under the water. At first, the man thought, "This is a blessing from my Gurudev." After maybe 30 seconds, he thought, "My guru is crazy; he wants to kill me," and so on. Finally, when the man was really suffering, Ramakrishna released him. The man was furious. "You are crazy! What are you doing? You almost killed me!" Ramakrishna said, "Yes, okay, you are right. But tell me one thing: what were you thinking about when you were under the water?" The man said, "How to get to the air!" Ramakrishna said, "Yes. When you have such a feeling for God, you will immediately get self-realization." We need to have this certainty, to be completely certain about our path. That kind of saṅkalpa. We need God like air, and then it immediately comes. Okay, we know all this, but why are we not self-realized? Mostly because of fear. They say the river is in fear when it comes to the ocean: "I will lose myself. I will lose my identity." This little "I" is in fear. Because of that, we still have a little more kilometer to go before merging into the ocean. If you think, "No, no, I am not in fear," go a little deeper. You know that kind of fear is deep inside. We need to have real confidence, confidence like a child who falls down and immediately runs to its parents or grandparents. For that child, nothing else exists. Just, "Where are my parents?" and it runs to them. We should run to our Iṣṭa Devatā, not to stones or some other system. How to practice this? Don't try to be good and force yourself. They always said, "I must be good. I must be good." That will lead us to psychic disease. Mostly, these "very good" children are the ones who take a gun and kill half the school. Because they were forced to be good, but there was no feeling of goodness inside. Because of that, we need to feel good inside. We were talking a little before about some feelings. It is very important to observe your feelings because, before depression, if you observe yourself, you will see the signs. In German literature, there was a very popular concept: Weltschmerz, the pain of the world. For me, German and Sanskrit are on the same level of difficulty; my tongue is completely like a dead fish. Sorry, but that is the pain of the world. Many artists and writers tried to get that feeling to be inspired to create literature. Yes, you know this from school. Please tell me yes. No, you don't know this? We need to be renaissance men and women. What does that mean? We need to know this, and that is also dangerous. If you look at history, a lot of these artists died from cirrhosis of the liver. Yes, you know this from school. Everything you know from school, from normal education, you need to implant into the knowledge of yoga, and you will have a broader picture. They wanted these pathetic feelings inside, and that feeling is somehow sweet to us. You know that feeling during the teenage years. Yes, you know this. If you are sitting like this and I am talking about this, I feel, "Oh my God, I was really in trouble in my teenage years." But I know everybody has such feelings. When you enter into such feelings, it is hard to go out. This morning we talked about changing our brain, about how we change our brain and our feelings and enter depression. In the beginning of depression, you can easily go out. But in the next moment, when that demon catches you, it is not easy to go out anymore. You need real support from others and a lot, a lot of strength. All these sad feelings pull you down. When you have such feelings, you just say to yourself—in the beginning, when it is just a little—our brain loves this because we are used to this chemistry. But restoring our brain means we are aware that the moment comes to us, and then we say to ourselves, "No, I don't want this." Remember Patañjali: delete, delete. Neti, neti. I don't want this. And you change to positive thoughts. Put on some good music, bhajans, or something else with a lot of energy. Also, change your thoughts. When you start, this first feeling is not yet depression. It is still nice, sweet feelings. What do we do in that moment? We put on some nice, sweet music, and sometimes you take out some memory pictures. In that moment, all memories start: "Oh, how it was!" And immediately, you free-fall into depression. Am I right? Do you recognize this? You are a sannyāsī; you don't have such problems. Sannyāsīs don't have such problems. One man, when I was being shaved before Sannyāsa Dīkṣā, came to me and said, "Oh, how lucky you are! You will not have any more problems. You will not have any of your problems—only from your disciples." I said to him—he was an Indian guy—"No, I have a guru, and he will have problems from disciples. I am free of all problems." Another Western sannyāsī told me that during his shaving, an Indian man came to him many years ago and said, "Oh, you are happy; you will never be hungry anymore." But I will say this in another way. It is not only hunger for food. That hunger is easy. But humans are so hungry for other things: fame, name, material stuff. That hunger is never possible to satisfy. But also, be aware, and you will recognize the first moment of that hunger. Try to stop. Change your thoughts. Change your feelings. That means changing ourselves. That means purification. When we start with yoga, at that time, oh my God, so much nonsense. Usually people come and say, "I have a problem with the Viśuddhi. I have purification of the Viśuddhi." No, you don't have a problem with the Viśuddhi; you have a problem with some bacteria or virus. Yes, and purification of a chakra... Purification means be aware, and awareness will make us see our problem. When we see our problem, we are able to say to ourselves, "No, I don't want this." And we know we have such a problem. I know I have a problem with, I don't know, chocolate. Some have problems with alcohol, some with drugs, some with chocolate. Everybody has their own drug. Somebody has a problem with sex, somebody with anything else. What Viśva Gaurājī said: "Never put yourself into temptation. Never." Because if you say, "No, I will not drink alcohol anymore," and then you enter a bar with your old friend, in half an hour you will be more drunk than anybody else in the pub. Because of that, you will not go into the pub. You will also change your society. In the first moment, you know, every one of us knows when we start with yoga, we lose our old friends. Because your interests change. When you are not fishing anymore, what will you do with your old friend who is always fishing, always having beer and barbecues? What will you do? Slowly, slowly, you change. And that is normal. Every one of us passed through this. But in that moment, you have other friends. Society is very important. Because of that, Swāmījī always said satsaṅg is very important. We need to come to satsaṅg. Because satsaṅg is our support group. Only with satsaṅg, with good society, with positive thoughts, positive talks, something that will inspire us, are we able to remain on the path and go further. Yesterday, some of you came and asked, "Tomorrow—which means today—is the last day. Why will we not make a longer satsaṅg, with more singing, more like a festival?" Today, a book arrived. I know it finishes in 1984, and I just said that at that time was this summer seminar in Rajac. I remember how Swāmījī finished that seminar after two weeks. In the morning, we collected wood. In the evening, he made a big fire. We sat around the fire, singing bhajans, and being together.