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Part 1: The Power of Grace: Destiny, Free Will, and the Guru's Guidance 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 Gurudeva 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. Jeho Svatosti Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaru Viśvagurujīmu. A 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 just talking about the Indian traditions—Āryabhaṭa, Rāmānuja—they all were great mathematicians who invented zero. Even before, like now we have Botox and all these different things, this plastic surgery, all this was done long back 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 Jyotiṣvidyā, astrology. It’s a very big thing in India. Whenever a child is born, from that time onwards, Jyotiṣvidyā 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 in which positions the stars and planets are. With that, they will give you the initial letter of the name, on which you can base the name for your child. They also make something called a Janmakundalī, 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 Jyotiṣ. We know that Svāmījī’s family, their main work—his father, Svāmījī’s brother—they all were great Jyotiṣīs. Jyotiṣ is helpful in many ways. We can take its help to go according to it, to see what is good at what time, how to maybe avoid certain things that might be coming. But at the end of the day, we remember and we 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, even in your destiny, he can make that happen for you. That doesn’t mean Jyotiṣvidyā is not important. It is. It works. To help sometimes, if some planet is down in our Jyotiṣa, then to make them better, we wear rings, for example. But one beautiful example, which many of you might have heard, is from Holī Gurujī. In Dhanamuthi, there were a few disciples of the king. He 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. "Gurudev, we are blessed. I am very happy. By your grace, we got twins." But the guru is trikāladarśī, a seer of the three times. So the night before the kids were born, Vedanā, Vedanā means the one who writes destiny, she was going, passing by because the āśram was just at the start of the kingdom. Passing the āśram, 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 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, and that’s 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, you tell me what you wrote." After writing the destiny, she was returning. The Guru asked, "So what is in their destiny?" She said, "One son, 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 it doesn’t matter how much he tries to hunt, he will always manage to bring only one portion for eating for the whole family. The other son will be a very hard worker, and he will have a horse with which he will load goods and transport them, and earn very little money, which won’t be enough for sustaining 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. So next morning, when the king came to give the good news, the guru didn’t look so excited and happy about it. He said, "Very good, but I have some urgent work, and I want to go to the Himalayas. I will be up in the Himalayas for a while, and I will come later." On this beautiful, happy occasion that the kids were born, the king saw that the guru was leaving the kingdom, which he realized wasn’t a good sign for him. 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 person who makes clay pots. You see, Indian technology. Even before fridges were invented, in India we had clay pots where we put water inside, and you make the clay pot wet from the outside, and it gives you even cooler water than it would be in a fridge. So when you go, maybe not so much in the cities, but still in the villages, you see clay pots in the households. Also, in India—not in India, in Jordan—we see the clay pots on the Indian side of the kitchen. So the clay pots are what the man used to make. While he was going back home one day, 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 those were the kids of the king, so he decided to take them home and take care of them as his own children. No matter how much they tried, slowly they grew up and were doing work. But it didn’t matter how much they tried; what was written by the Vidhātā was that one boy would only get one animal home, and the other one would work very hard but would not get much money. That happened. One day Gurudev came back after many years. The villagers, the people from the kingdom came and said, "Gurudev, your disciple, the king, he was killed. His children are in a very miserable state, so you should do something." Then Gurujī went to the household of the kumhār, the pot maker. The children were very surprised. "How come you are here, Gurujī?" Gurujī said to them, "Your father was the king of this kingdom. I have one task for you both." They said, "Yogyā, as you say." Gurujī said to the one who went for hunting that it doesn’t matter how many animals the Vidhātā sends for him, he should not get diverted and distracted. In his head he should have that until he doesn’t get a golden deer, he should not catch anything else. It doesn’t matter how many big animals come; destruction comes. Do not take anything else than a golden deer. To the other brother, he said that the Vidhātā wrote for you that you will have a horse, and with that horse you will load and transport goods. So in the morning, you go and sell your horse. But because the Vidhātā wrote that you will have a horse, you will somehow get another horse, and then you sell that one also. They said, "Okay, Gurudev, as you say." The next day, the boy went for hunting. Till the evening, first he was not even getting a single bird. But that day, because he was not trying to hunt, the temptations came. The Vidhātā said, "Here you go, big animal, this animal, that animal." He said, "No, I don’t want. I want only 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 the evening. He sold that golden deer and got good money. The second brother did the same. He had a horse. He sold his horse first thing in the morning. The Vidhātā said, "No horse." Now how was he supposed to work? So, till the afternoon, he got another horse. Every day he managed to sell two horses. For the coming many months and days, every day selling a golden deer and every day selling two horses, they became well-off. That’s why I say a guru can make a king a beggar and can make a beggar a king. They became so rich that they made a big, beautiful house. They were living 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 king before." This king was also getting old, so he married both his daughters to those two children and announced them as the princes. This is the blessing of Gurudev—that it doesn’t matter what you have in your destiny. With Gurudev’s blessings, with Gurudev’s kṛpā, yes. So I would like, this is a story, but I would like to tell one real event which really happened. It was many years ago, and I don’t say the name for privacy because he is still among us. It was one of the early travelers to India, when there were only small groups, maybe 20-30 people or so. They were staying in one place, and then Svāmījī said, "Tomorrow we will travel somewhere, and everyone will travel, but this one disciple will not. You should stay here." He was very sad about that because he also wanted to travel with Gurū Dev, to be close to Gurū Dev. He asked, "Can I not also travel with you?" Svāmījī said, "No, better you stay here." It was hard for him to take, to be alone here in this place and know that Svāmījī is maybe for some days out with the other group. It was difficult for him to stay there alone and to know that Svāmījī would leave in a few days. In the evening, he went to see Svāmījī again and asked if it would be better if he didn’t go with them. Svāmījī said, "No, better you stay here. Someone must take care of the place here. Better you stay here." Hard to take. So next morning, when the group was going to depart, he went again to Svāmījī. "But Svāmījī, I would really like to go with you." And then Svāmījī said, "Yes." So they went with a bus. You know the Indian streets, they have these bumps for speed breakers. When the bus goes over it, then especially the last part in the end is always jumping a lot. It happened that the driver overlooked one of the speed breakers and went over it at full speed. This disciple sat in the last row and was thrown up. His spinal column was broken. It was a very serious case, and afterwards he was suffering for months and months. To sit for meditation, fortunately, he had one blessing in this: he could sit without pain when he was really sitting straight. But whenever he wanted to relax, it was very, very painful. I think this is a good demonstration for this. Guru Dev knows what was in his karma. He tried to protect him, saying, "Stay here, so that this could not happen." But he asked three times. That is a magical number. When you ask a third time, then the guru knows you really don’t want to follow. That’s why Svāmījī, in the end, said yes, knowing he would run into his karma. So, the blessing of Guru Dev and following Guru Vākya somehow belong together. This is a beautiful example, like I also shared a few days back about this man in Nepal. Gurudev 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 if we do or not, that is ours. This example also applied to me. I like to drive. First, it was no, only with the driver, not you driving. Then driving now is okay, it’s allowed again. But I had a wish to drive a motorcycle. So Amjee says, "Driving four wheels, no problem. Driving two wheels, no." That was 2017, 18, something. It’s called bālabuddhi, which means child’s mind. "No, I want to." Not good. And then when you don’t get what you want, what do you do? He knows everything, but we still think he doesn’t. So we do it behind his back. At that time I was not in Jordan, I was living in Maharashtra. It was really neat because one great Mahātma, Guru Śaraṇānandjī Mahārāj, he was visiting that āśram, that gurukul where I was living. Everyone was busy in preparations for welcoming him. The teacher there, Gurujī, said, "Yeah, we still need to get some vegetables from the market." Obviously, there were many options that other people could go. Like me, I’m free. I can go. If you have a chance to—it wasn’t a proper motorcycle, it was a scooter, you know what a scooter is, no? Where you have, like, you don’t have the gears, but you just have an accelerator and brakes. I was like, yep, I will go. I went. You see, this is also the example that even if you do something which you are not supposed to do, Guru is still protecting us. I went, I bought the vegetables. Many things could happen on the way there, or in the market, or in the city. But let’s say from here to this pillar, that’s what, five meters? Ten meters? So I was back at the Gurukul, and the Gurukul gate was there. And I slipped. It was rainy the night before, so the road was slippery. But this is Gurudev protecting us, that many things could happen before. But still, it happened at the last, when I was about to reach five meters before the āśram. I slipped, and I went all the way to there. Since that day, I decided that yes, I’m okay with cars. I don’t need motorbikes. So, yeah, when Svāmījī says, "Don’t do something," it’s better not to do something. But sometimes we need that kick, and we need to experience something by ourselves to really believe it, you know. But now I realize that best is to surrender and let him control our lives. As we are, you know, in India at least we have these puppet shows, and then you have strings, and you can control the puppets with your fingers. Now I believe that we are the puppets of Gurudev, and he is playing with us. Let him play, because he knows how to control our lives. Part 2: The Path of Surrender and Ānanda From that day onward, I embraced the principle of Guru Kṛpā, or Guru Ājñā, which means: do not overthink the Guru's intention; simply follow his instruction. From that moment, I dedicated myself completely to following it. This is not to say I was not following before; I was. Nor does it mean I could not hold to what Viśvagurujī had told me earlier. But I had an adolescent mind—I am 24, after all—and I had to pass through that phase. That tendency was still present then. Now, I told Swāmījī, "Swāmījī, whatever happens in my life is your responsibility. Something good happens—it is yours; something bad happens—it is yours. My happiness is yours, my sadness is yours, my anger is yours, my everything is yours." I have truly experienced that since the day I told Swāmījī, "I surrender; do what you want," I have been at peace. I used to be preoccupied with thoughts: "What will happen? What will I do? What will I not do? Where will I go? Where will I not go?" I would always say to him, "I want to go with you, I want to go with you." But the answer was always that I had to stay. When I was younger, it was because I had to study, I had school. When I grew older, it was because I had work, I needed to stay and take care of the ashram. However, after I surrendered and said, "No problem," I stopped worrying about whether I would go or not. If I am meant to go, I simply go. I used to stand by his car and offer praṇām. Now, after my surrender, even when I am not wanting to go, he says, "Yes, come, sit, we go." When we relinquish the thought of wanting something, when we truly give up that thought, then we receive it. Gurujī knows what you want, what you do not want, and how your life unfolds with its ups and downs. He knows everything. But you receive it when He provides it, when you are ready for it. Therefore, instead of worrying about how your life will proceed, what will or will not happen, surrender to Him and let Him handle it. We know He will never let anything truly bad happen to us. Even if destiny has written that our life may be somewhat difficult or that we may face ups and downs—which is the universal law—if we have that dedication and devotion towards Him, then perhaps those problems will either dissolve completely, or the intensity of the results of our past karmas will be much lower than it would have been without the Guru. Due to the Guru's blessings, something far worse could have occurred, but I only had scraped knees and palms. That is the kṛpā of the Gurudev. When we get a small thorn in our foot, it hurts, but we should realize that instead of that thorn, it could have been a large piece of glass piercing completely through our foot. So, if we face hardships or if something bad happens in our lives, we can reflect that it could have been much worse. The Guru has made it easier for us, and it is as it is. We should recognize that Gurudev has greatly reduced the problem. We are all His children. His devotee does everything. He considers us everything. His life is for us. He could have come to Europe and gone to the seaside to enjoy himself, but instead, he devotes all his time to all of us. He is always dedicated to his work, creating these beautiful ashrams. Does he build the ashrams for himself? No, for us. The beautiful atmospheres, the energy he imbues them with—it is all healing for us. 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 has invested there, so that even when he is not physically present—when he is in India—his energy remains here. If you go outside, to Brno, or even just cross the road outside the ashram, you will feel the atmosphere is completely different from what you feel here in the ashram. Why? Because Swāmījī has 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, for as long as the building stands. He is not only thinking of us but of the future of your children, their children, and their children's children. That is why the saṃskāras of bringing children to the Guru are so important, so that they too can feel what we have felt and be in the 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," just as we now speak of how Swāmī Vivekānanda did this and that in America. This is not a comparison; many Mahātmas have achieved great things worldwide. But I do not think anyone has made such a beautiful and vast impact on the entire universe as Gurudev has. We should all 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 Gurudev. We are blessed to be part of this beautiful guru-disciple relationship. His blessings are always with us. Mahāprabhudīp karta, Mahāprabhudīp karta, hi gevalaṁ śānti, śānti,... hi. Praṇām, dear Guru Dev. Praṇām, Avatār Purījī. Sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons—we are all one family. Since Viśvagurujī teaches us—as it is in India—Gurudev 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 it is better than my English. I will speak in Czech, but sometimes when I lack the Czech words, I will speak in English. I still speak Czech better than English, so the translator must be alert. Older people are like mothers and fathers to us, and those of the same age are like brothers, sisters, and friends. Gurudev tells us that in India, it is still the case that all children are considered the children of everybody, all older people are considered mothers and fathers to 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 other members of the family, and we should realize the ideal that the whole world is one family. This applies not only to sannyāsīs—for whom it is said their home is everywhere, their family is everywhere—but to all of us who are disciples. I would like to thank Avatar Purī very much for teaching us the beautiful mantras. Going to India to study, to be in a kind of gurukul—yes, it is guru-kul—we have such opportunities to learn those original, ancient mantras of great power, which we may not have even known existed before. I have forgotten the mantras, but do not worry; we will get to that in the evening. We need to practice our brains a little more. The mantras are very powerful. I really like to sing mantras, and I am very, very grateful to Avatar Purī that he brought them to us and shared them with us. The mantras are very powerful, and I like them very much, and I am very glad that Avatar Purī is sharing them with us. I think we are all grateful for this. Now I will become a bit of a pleaser, like a child who wants to please the teacher by showing what they have learned. But it is not only for that reason; it is also to offer praṇām to our Viśva Gurujī and to our Dvādaś Chotir Liṅgam in Jaḍanā Āśram. Our Gurudev 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 Gurudev. Vande Sūrya Śaśāṅka Vahni Nayanam, Vande Mukunda Priyam, Vande Bhakta Janaśrayam Chavaradam, Vande Śivam Śaṅkaram. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... This is a mantra that is a complete salutation to Śiva. I would also like to build upon what Avatār Purījī spoke about—the baggage, the backpack we carry our whole lives—and that we should take it off and surrender completely to Gurudev. This is also my personal experience with the backpack. I actually wanted to become a sannyāsī from early childhood. I did not know there was such a thing as Sannyās; I was raised in a Christian family. In Christianity, you have nuns, and I was attracted in that direction. When I met Swāmījī and heard about Sannyās, I was very attracted to it. But I did not tell Swāmījī for a long time because, while I longed for it, I also had other wishes in life. Perhaps I did not feel good enough to become a sannyāsī. I had many different experiences in my life. There came a time when I did not say it to him, but he showed it to me through a līlā involving a backpack. We had a consultation with various questions, many people were around, and Swāmījī was answering. When it ended, I left the house where we were staying, from Swamiji's room. I realized I had forgotten my backpack—not my sleeping bag, but my backpack. It contained everything: money, passport, ID, pictures of my family, all the documents for my yoga teaching. Everything I identified with was in there. When I realized I had forgotten it, I thought I had to go back. But when I re-entered Swamiji's room, Swamiji was standing there, and people were helping him get dressed for satsaṅg. I felt embarrassed going in, but I had to retrieve my backpack. I entered and said, "Swāmījī, I forgot my backpack here." He looked at me, smiled, and said, "It is great that you actually forgot your baggage here. You will be very happy. 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 pondered what had just happened. For a long time, I did not understand the līlā. But very shortly after, perhaps one or two months later, I went to Swāmījī and asked him for sannyās. I realized what the situation was about: we must forget ourselves completely. To surrender truly means to forget your small self and to realize that He is always with us. If we forget about ourselves, He will take responsibility for what we are doing. There are many stories of how Gurudev takes responsibility for his disciples. That is the way it is. That is renunciation—tyāga. Tyāga, renunciation, is not just for sannyāsīs. We must reach the point where we renounce everything, regardless of whether we are sannyāsīs or not. There is no other way than to renounce completely; then joy comes. We learn this from the very beginning; it is in our main mantra. This mantra means that I am renouncing my deeds; tyāga is already contained within it. Then the inner joy comes. I listen to various lectures and also enjoy the talks of other masters. One of them spoke about three types of joy, or ānanda. The first type is worldly, sensual pleasure. This is a very short-term ānanda, usually followed by disappointment. The second type is experienced on the yoga or spiritual path—the ānanda we feel when we are together, chanting together, when the spiritual family is united. This is a stronger, more permanent ānanda, much higher than material ānanda. However, when we return home, where there may not be many spiritual people or Swāmījī's disciples around, we might lose some of this second type of ānanda. As Madhuram said, it suffices if one disciple comes, and it is like heaven because he is not alone there. But Gurudev directs us to the third type of Ānanda, which is permanent and never-ending. That is what we actually are: Ānanda, the awareness of Ānanda. If we attain this type of ānanda in our life, then no matter what happens, we remain established in it. That is what we should aim for, strive for, and try to reach, so that we have inner Ānanda all the time. Returning to renunciation: there are some pleasures in life, some pleasant things. People normally think that to renounce is unpleasant, that it means giving up pleasant things. But it is actually the opposite. What causes us suffering? We renounce things that cause us suffering, and we gain joy and happiness we have never experienced before. What causes us suffering and disappointment simply stays behind. It is a natural process, the Tyāga. Tyāga is a natural development because we simply turn a little, and what was causing suffering is left behind as we concentrate on Guru Dev, on God. Everything else is behind us. We naturally concentrate on Gurudev, on God, and what causes suffering is left behind. Just as during the night you have stars and the moon shining, and as sunrise approaches, the other lights slowly lose their strength, and the beauty and strength of the sun grow stronger and stronger. I would call that Ānanda. Thus, we do not even realize we are renouncing anything. It is a natural development because we are moving in one direction, and the other things are no longer interesting to us. It is the natural development of renunciation. We do not have to suppress anything; we simply direct ourselves towards Gurudev, God, love, compassion, and so on. 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, sing. Vande Bhakta Janaśrayaṁ Chavaradaṁ Neśivaṁ Śaṅkaraṁ Hari Om, good appetite. And see you in the evening. Hari Om. Hari Om. Děkujeme. Tomorrow is Thursday fasting, but there is one small change. Anyone who does not wish to fast, as well as 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 food, and only those with the yellow eating cards—or children with a card marked "child"—will be served. So you can come and pick it up in the office. One more request: mysteriously, praśād for children.