TV Channel

Oṁ Śalāk Purjī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Devād Deva Devaśvara Mahādeva Kī Jai. Śrīdeva Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Hindu Dharma Samrat Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Madhavānanda Purījī Sadgurudeva Bhagavān Kī Jai. Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purījī Gurudev Kī Jaya. Sadāśiva Samārambhaṁ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamām Asmadācārya Paryantaṁ Vande Guru Paramparāṁ. Gurur Brahmā, Gurur Viṣṇu, Gurur Devo Maheśvara, Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha, Madguru Śrī Jagadguru. Mātmā, Sarvabhūtātmā, Tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ. Nahaṁ kartā, prabhu-dhīpa-kartā, Mahāprabhu-dhīpa-kartā, Ekevalam. Śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Greetings to the Śrī Alakpurījī Siddhāpīṭha Paramparā. Greetings to our beloved Gurudeva, His Holiness Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Viśvagurujī. Greetings to all the sannyāsīs present. Hari Om and good morning to all of you who are present here and who are watching through Somjit TV. Indian culture holds many deep meanings and deep roots. Many great mathematicians and scientists come from the land of India. Even now, some of the most professional and best doctors come from India. All the doctors present here are also very good. But speaking just of Indian traditions, Āryabhaṭa, Rāmānuja—they were all great mathematicians who invented zero. And even before, like now we have Botox and all these different things, all this plastic surgery—this was all done long ago by Āyurvedic doctors in India, centuries back. Everything done today, such as plastic surgery, was done in India by Āyurvedic doctors already centuries ago. These all are Vedas. Vedas means knowledge: knowledge of medicine, knowledge of inventing things. In the same way, there is also something called Jyotiṣavidyā—astrology. It is a very significant practice in India. Whenever a child is born, from that time onwards, Jyotiṣavidyā is already implemented. When a child is born, the parents note down the time, the date, and the place. Then it is given to a Jyotiṣī, an astrologer. According to the time and nakṣatras, they check the positions of the stars and planets. With that, they give the initial letter for the name, on which you can base the child's name. They also make something called a Kuṇḍalī, where they try to explain our karmic laws from the past and how they may affect our life. I personally also believe a lot in Jyotiṣa. We know that Swāmījī’s family’s main work was this. His father, Swāmījī’s brother—they were all great Jyotiṣīs. Jyotiṣa is helpful in many ways. We can take its help to see what is good at what time, how to perhaps avoid certain things that might be coming. But at the end of the day, we remember and know that even the guru can change destiny, because there is no higher law than the guru’s law. "Honī koṭā sakyevo guru"—what is supposed to happen in your life, the guru can make it go away, and you may avoid it. And what is not there in your destiny, he can make that happen for you. That does not mean Jyotiṣavidyā is not important. It is; it works. To help sometimes, if some planet is down in our Jyotiṣa, we wear rings, for example, to make them better. There is one beautiful example, which many of you might have heard, from Holī Gurujī. In Dhanamuthi, there was a king who was a disciple of a great guru—a very devoted king. One day his wife gave birth to two children. With that good news, the king went to his guru: "Gurudeva, we are blessed. I am very happy. By your grace, we got twins." But the guru is trikāladarśī, a seer of the three times. The night before the children were born, Vidhātā—Vidhātā means the one who writes destiny—was passing by because the ashram was at the start of the kingdom. Passing the ashram, she was going to the castle. The Guru asked, "Where are you going?" She said, "The king is going to have two children, and I’m going to write their destinies." He said, "The king is my disciple, so write a good destiny for his children." She said, "Who are you? Why should I listen to you? I am the Vidhātā. I am the person who writes destiny. I will write what I want to write." The Guru said, "I am their guru, and I want good for them. That is my request, that you write something good." She said, "I will write what I want. I am going." He said, "Okay, at least when you come back, tell me what you wrote." After writing the destiny, she was returning. The Guru asked, "So what is in their destiny?" She said, "The king will die. The sons will be very miserable. They will be in a poor family. One son will go hunting every day, but no matter how much he tries, he will always manage to bring only one portion for the whole family to eat. The other son will be a very hard worker. He will have a horse with which he will load goods and transport them, earning very little money, which won’t be enough to sustain the family." The Guru said, "Do you want to change it?" She said, "No." He said, "Are you sure about it?" She said, "Yes. I hope you don’t regret it. What I write is the final word. I will not change it." The Guru said, "Okay, as you wish," and she left. The next morning, when the king came to give the good news, the guru did not look excited or happy. He said, "Very good, but I have some urgent work. I want to go to the Himalayas. I will be there for a while and come later." On this beautiful, happy occasion, the king saw the guru leaving the kingdom and realized it was not a good sign. He made praṇām, and Gurujī left. After some time, there was a battle, and the king lost his life. The children were found by a kumhār, a potter who makes clay pots. You see Indian technology: even before fridges were invented, in India we had clay pots. You put water inside, make the clay pot wet from the outside, and it gives you even cooler water than in a fridge. In villages, you still see clay pots in households. In Jadan, we see clay pots on the Indian side of the kitchen. This man made clay pots. One day, going back home, he saw the two babies lying in the dump yard behind the castle. They were wearing nice clothes, and the news had spread that the king had twins. He knew they were the king’s children, so he decided to take them home and care for them as his own. No matter how much they tried, slowly they grew up and worked. But what was written by the Vidhātā happened: one boy would only get one animal, and the other would work very hard but not get much money. One day, Gurudeva came back after many years. The villagers came and said, "Gurudeva, your disciple the king was killed, and his children are in a very miserable state. You should do something." Gurujī went to the potter’s household. The children were surprised: "How come you are here, Gurujī?" Gurujī said, "Your father was the king of this kingdom and was my great bhakta." They said, "If our father was your bhakta, then we are also your bhaktas. What is the essence that we have you here at home? It is a great honor and blessing for us." Gurujī said, "I have one task for you both." They said, "Yogyā, as you say." Gurujī said to the one who went hunting: "No matter how many animals the Vidhātā sends for you, do not get diverted or distracted. In your head, have this: until you get a golden deer, you should not catch anything else. No matter how many big animals come, do not take anything other than a golden deer." To the other brother, he said: "The Vidhātā wrote that you will have a horse and will transport goods. In the morning, go and sell your horse. Because the Vidhātā wrote that you will have a horse, you will somehow get another horse. Then sell that one also." They said, "Okay, Gurudeva, as you say." The next day, the boy went hunting. Till evening, he was not getting a single bird. Because he was not trying to hunt, temptations came. The Vidhātā said, "Here you go—a big animal, this animal, that animal." He said, "No, I don’t want. I want only a golden deer." As it was written in his destiny that before sunset he would bring home one animal, and he was not accepting anything, the Vidhātā had to give him a golden animal by evening. He sold the golden deer and got good money. The second brother did the same. He had a horse; he sold it first thing in the morning. The Vidhātā said, "No horse? How is he supposed to work?" By afternoon, he got another horse. Every day he managed to sell two horses. For many months and days, every day selling a golden deer and every day selling two horses, they became well-off. That is why I say a guru can make a king a beggar and can make a beggar a king. They became so rich that they built a big, beautiful house and lived very well. Then the guru went to the king who was ruling at the time and said, "These two children are the children of the previous king." This king was also getting old, so he married both his daughters to those two children and announced them as princes. This is the blessing of Gurudeva: it does not matter what you have in your destiny; with Gurudeva’s blessings, with Gurudeva’s kṛpā, it can change. I would like to tell one real event which really happened many years ago. I will not say the name for privacy, as he is still among us. It was one of the early travelers to India when groups were small, maybe 20–30 people. They were staying in one place, and Swāmījī said, "Tomorrow we will travel somewhere. Everyone will travel, but this one disciple will not. You should stay here." He was very sad because he wanted to travel with Gurudeva, to be close to him. He asked, "Can I not also travel with you?" Swāmījī said, "No, better you stay here." It was hard for him to be alone, knowing Swāmījī would be out for some days. In the evening, he went to see Swāmījī again and asked if it would be better if he didn’t go. Swāmījī said, "No, better you stay here. Someone must take care of the place." Hard to accept. The next morning, when the group was departing, he went again: "Swāmījī, I would really like to go with you." Then Swāmījī said, "Yes." They went by bus. You know Indian streets have speed breakers. When the bus goes over them, especially the last part jumps a lot. The driver overlooked one speed breaker and went over it at full speed. This disciple sat in the last row and was thrown up. His spinal column was broken—a very serious case. Afterwards, he suffered for months and months. Fortunately, he had one blessing: he could sit without pain when sitting straight, but whenever he wanted to relax, it was very painful. I think this is a good demonstration. Gurudeva knew what was in his karma and tried to protect him by saying, "Stay here, so this could not happen." But he asked three times—a magical number. When you ask a third time, the guru knows you really do not want to follow. That is why Swāmījī, in the end, said yes, knowing he would run into his karma. So, the blessing of Gurudeva and following Guru Vākya somehow belong together. This is a beautiful example, like I also shared a few days back about a man in Nepal. Gurudeva knows what happens, what will happen, how it will happen. But as Holī Gurujī said, "Kutikī Kṛpā" is very necessary, which means our own decision-making plays a big role. The Guru will not force you; he will show you the path. But at the end of the day, it is still our individual wish if we want to follow or not. We should, but whether we do or not is ours. This example also applied to me. I like to drive. First, it was "no"—only with the driver, not me driving. Then driving was okay; it is allowed again. But I had a wish to drive a motorcycle. Āmjī says, "Driving four wheels, no problem. Driving two wheels, no." That was around 2017 or 2018. It is called bālabuddhi, a child’s mind: "No, I want to." Not good. When you do not get what you want, what do you do? He knows everything, but we still think he does not, so we do it behind his back. At that time, I was not in Jordan; I was living in Maharashtra. It was neat because one great Mahātma, Guru Śaraṇānandjī Mahārāj, was visiting that āśram, that gurukul where I was living. Everyone was busy preparing to welcome him. The teacher there, Gurujī, said we still needed to get some vegetables from the market. There were many options; other people could go. I was free. I could go. It was not a proper motorcycle but a scooter—you know, with no gears, just an accelerator and brakes. I said, "Yes, I will go." I went. This is also an example that even if you do something you are not supposed to do, the Guru is still protecting us. I went, bought the vegetables. Many things could have happened on the way, in the market, or in the city. But from here to that pillar—what is that, five meters? Ten meters? I was back at the gurukul, and the gate was there. I slipped. It had rained the night before, so the road was slippery. This is Gurudeva protecting us: many things could have happened before, but it happened at the last moment, about five meters before the ashram. I slipped and went all the way there. Since that day, I decided that yes, I am okay with cars; I do not need motorbikes. So, when Swāmījī says, "Do not do something," it is better not to do it. But sometimes we need that kick; we need to experience something ourselves to really believe it. Now I realize that the best is to surrender and let him control our lives. In India, we have puppet shows with strings; you control the puppets with your fingers. Now I believe we are the puppets of Gurudeva, and he is playing with us. Let him play, because he knows how to control our lives. Since that day onwards, the principle of Guru Kṛpā, or Guru Ājñā—which means do not think what he means, just do what he says—I completely dedicated myself to and started following it. That does not mean I was not following before; I was. That does not mean I would not be able to hold on to what Viśvagurujī told me before that, but I had this pubertal mind. I am 24, so I also had to go through that phase. It was still there at that time. But now I told Swāmījī, "Swāmījī, what happens in my life is your problem. Something good happens—also yours; something bad happens—also yours. My happiness is yours, my sadness is yours, my anger is yours, my everything is yours." I really experienced this: since the day I told Swāmījī, "I surrender, do what you want," I am in peace. I always had the thought: "What will happen? What will I do? What will I not do? Where will I go? Where will I not go?" I always used to say to Swāmījī, "I want to go with you, I want to go with you." The answer was always, "You have to stay." When I was younger, it was, "You have to study; you have school." When I became older, it was, "You have work; you need to stay; you have to take care of the ashram." But when I surrendered and said, "No problem," I stopped thinking about whether I would go or not. If so, I just go out somewhere. I used to stand next to his car and make praṇām. Now, after surrendering, even if I am not wanting to go, he says, "Yeah, come, sit, we go." So when we give up the thought of wanting something, when you give up and say, "Okay, I give up," then you get that. Gurujī knows what you want, what you do not want, how your life is going, the ups and downs. He knows everything. But you get it when he feeds it, when you are ready for it. So instead of worrying how your life will go, what will happen, what will not happen, surrender to him and let him deal with it. We know he will never let anything bad happen to us. Even if destiny wrote that our life will be a little bit not so nice, or we might have ups and downs—that is the law; everyone has ups and downs. But if we have dedication and devotion towards him, then maybe those problems will either dissolve completely, or the intensity of the result of our past karmas will be much lower than it would have been without the Guru. Because of the Guru’s blessings, something much worse could have happened, but I just had scraped knees and palms. That is the kṛpā of Gurudeva: many bigger things could occur. When you get a small thorn in your foot, it hurts, but we should realize that instead of that thorn, it could be a big piece of glass going through our foot completely. So if we have hardships, if something bad happens in our lives, we can think it could have been much worse. But the Guru has made it easier for us, and it is as it is. We should realize that Gurudeva has greatly reduced the problem, and it could have been much worse. We are all his children. His bhakta does everything. He considers us everything. His life is ours, for us. He could have come to Europe and gone to the seaside to enjoy, but instead, he devotes all his time to all of us. He is always dedicated to his work, making these beautiful ashrams. Does he make ashrams for himself? No, for us. Beautiful atmospheres, the energy he puts into them—that is all healing for all of us. Because he knows that when we have our ups and downs, when we feel unwell, we come to the ashram and feel good again. Why? Because that place, that ashram, is consecrated with his energies, which he puts there, so that even when he is not physically present, when he is in India, that energy is still present here. You go outside to Brno, or just cross the road outside the ashram, and you will feel the atmosphere is completely different from what you feel here in the ashram. Why? Because Swāmījī invested so much of his life into this ashram. The beautiful Omashram he created is not for ten years; it is for thousands and millions of years, till whenever the building can hold. He is not only thinking of us but of the future of your children, their children, their children. That is why the saṁskāras to bring children to the Guru are very important, so they can also feel what we felt, be in that atmosphere we are in. We are all blessed to be part of this beautiful era. In the future, grandchildren will say, "Oh, our grandmother was in the time of Viśvagurujī." Like now we talk about how Swāmī Vivekānanda did this and that in America—not comparing, many Mahātmas did many big achievements around the world. But I do not think anyone made such a beautiful and big impact on the whole universe like Gurudeva. We all should feel blessed that we found him, or that he found us. He came to Europe and found all of you, united all of us, and created what we have now. We are very thankful to Gurudeva. We are blessed to be part of this beautiful guru relationship. His blessings are always with us. Mahāprabhudīp kartā, Mahāprabhudīp kartā, hi gevalaṁ śānti, śānti,... Praṇām, dear Gurudeva. Praṇām, Avatār Purījī. Sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons—we are all one family. Since Viśvagurujī is teaching us how it is in India, Gurudeva teaches us that... I will say it in Czech, but sometimes I will also say it in English because my Czech is not perfect, but better than English. I will speak in Czech, but sometimes when I do not have the Czech words, I will speak in English, but I still speak better Czech than English. So the translator has to be alert. In India, it is still the case that all children are considered children of everybody, all older people are considered mothers and fathers of the younger people, and people of your generation are considered brothers and sisters by all. So we are also one big spiritual family here. He is teaching us how we should view others as members of the family, and we should realize the idea that the whole world is one family. This applies not only to sannyāsīs, because for sannyāsīs it is said their home is everywhere, their family is everywhere. But it applies to all of us who are disciples. I would like to thank Avatār Purī very much for teaching us the beautiful mantras. Going to India to study, to be in a gurukul—yes, it is guru-kula. But we have such opportunities to learn those original, old mantras that have great power, which we may not have known existed. I forgot the mantras, but do not worry; we will get to that in the evening. We need to practice our brain a little bit more. The mantras are very powerful. I really like to sing mantras, and I am very, very grateful to Avatār Purījī that he brought them to us and shared them with us. The mantras are very powerful, and I like them very much. I am very glad that Avatār Purījī is sharing them with us. I think we all are grateful for this. Now I will become a kind of pleaser, like a kid who wants to please the teacher by showing what they learned. But it is not just for that; it is also to make praṇām to our Viśva Gurujī and to our Dvādaśa Chotir Liṅgam in Jaḍanā Āśram. Our Gurudeva is Śiva for us. He is the embodiment of Śiva here on earth for us. So I will sing one mantra that Avatār Purījī taught us, and I will keep it this way: Śivaliṅga and our Gurudeva. Vande Sūrya Śaśāṅka Vahni Nayanam, Vande Mukunda Priyam, Vande Bhakta Janaśrayam Chavaradam, Vande Śivam Śaṅkaram. Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... It is a mantra that is a complete greeting to Śiva, a salutation to Śiva. I would also like to build on what Avatār Purījī spoke about—the baggage, the backpack we carry our whole life—and that we should take it off and surrender to Gurudeva completely. It is also my personal experience with the backpack. I actually wanted to become a sannyāsī from early childhood. I did not know there was anything like Sannyāsa. I was in a Christian family, and in Christianity you have nuns, so I was attracted in that direction. When I met Swāmījī, I heard there was something like Sannyāsa, and it attracted me very much. But I did not tell Swāmījī for a long time because I knew I was longing for it, but at the same time I had other wishes in life. I do not know how to say it, but perhaps I did not feel good enough to become a sannyāsī. I had many different experiences. There came a time when I did not say it to him, but he actually showed it to me. He made a kind of līlā with a backpack. We had a consultation with various questions; many people were around, and Swāmījī was replying. When it ended, I went out as a different leader from the house we were staying in, Swāmījī’s room. I realized I had forgotten my sleeping bag—actually, my backpack. I had everything there: money, passport, ID, everything, pictures of my family, all documents for my teaching yoga classes. Everything I identified myself with was there. When I went out, I realized I forgot it and thought I had to go back. But when I re-entered Swāmījī’s room, Swāmījī was standing there, and people were helping him put on clothes to go for satsaṅg. I felt embarrassed going there, but I had to get the backpack. I entered and said, "Swāmījī, I forgot my backpack here." He looked at me and smiled. "To je velice dobře," he said. "It is great that you actually forgot your baggage here. You will be very happy in the future. It will bring you good luck." Then he said, "I am here." I went out to the courtyard and thought, "What actually happened?" For a long time, I did not know what the līlā was about. But very shortly after, maybe one or two months, I actually went to Swāmījī and asked him for Sannyāsa. I realized what the situation was about: we actually have to forget ourselves completely. To surrender means to forget about your small self and also to realize he is always with us. If we forget about ourselves, he will take on the responsibility for what we are doing. There are many stories about how Gurudeva takes responsibility for his disciples. That is the way it is. That is actually renunciation—tyāga. Renunciation is not just for sannyāsīs. We have to go to that point where we renounce everything, regardless of whether we are sannyāsīs or not. There is no other way than to renounce completely, and then joy comes. We are learning from the very beginning; it is in our main mantra. This mantra actually means that I am renouncing my deeds, so tyāga is already contained in it. Then the inner joy comes. I listen to different lectures and like lectures of some other masters. One was speaking about three types of joy, or ānanda. The first type is life’s sensual pleasures—a very short-term ānanda, usually followed by disappointment. The second kind is when we are on a yoga or spiritual path. It is the ānanda we experience when we are together, chanting together, when the spiritual family is together. This is a stronger, more permanent ānanda, much higher than material ānanda. But what may happen is we go back home, where there are not many spiritual people or Swāmījī’s disciples around, and we may lose this second type of ānanda a little. As Madhuram said, it suffices if one disciple comes, and it is like heaven because he is not alone there. But Gurudeva is actually directing us to the third type of ānanda, which is permanent and never ends. That is what we actually are: the ānanda, the awareness of ānanda. If we reach this type of ānanda in our life, then whatever happens, we are there. That is what we should aim for, strive for, try to reach, so we have inner ānanda all the time. Going back to renunciation: some pleasures in life, some beautiful, pleasant things—people normally think that to renounce is not pleasant, that it is giving up pleasant things. But it is actually the other way around. We renounce things that cause us suffering, and we gain joy and happiness we have never experienced before. What causes suffering and disappointment stays behind. It is a natural process, the tyāga. Tyāga is a natural development because we just turn a little bit, and what was causing suffering is left behind. We concentrate on Gurudeva, on God, and everything else is behind us. We naturally concentrate on Gurudeva, on God, and what causes suffering is left behind. As during night you have stars and moon shining, and sunrise approaches, the other types of light lose their strength slowly, and the beauty and strength of the sun grows stronger and stronger. I would call it ānanda. So we do not even realize we are renouncing anything. It is a natural development because we are going in one direction, and the other stuff is not interesting anymore. It is a natural development of renunciation. We do not have to suppress anything; just direct ourselves towards Gurudeva, God, love, compassion, etc. That is what I wanted to say today. Thank you. It was probably a little longer than it should have been, but... You can sing together. Sing. Vande Bhakta Janaśrayaṁ Chavaradaṁ Neśivaṁ Śaṅkaraṁ... Hari Om, good appetite. And see you in the evening. Hari Om. And of course, the traditional announcement still: Thank you. Tomorrow is Thursday fasting, but there is one small change. Anyone who does not want to fast, but also people from the ashram and karma yogīs, should pick up their card. They should get their card because we will be checking who tries to get eating, and only those with those yellow eating cards, or children with a card marked "child," can eat. So you can come and pick it up in the office. And one more request: mysteriously, praśād for children is disappearing and getting lost.