TV Channel

Oṁ Śalāk Purjī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Devadit Deityā Viśva Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śadīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsvāmī Śrī Madhavānand Purjī Sadrudeva Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsvāmī. Śrī Māheśvarānanda Purījī Gurudeva Kī Jaya, Sadāśiva Samārambham Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamam Asmadācārya Paryantam Vande Guru Paramparām, Gurur Brahmā, Gurur Viṣṇu, Gurur Devo Maheśvara, Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Mannātha, Śrī Jagannātha, Madguru, Śrī Jagadguru, Māmātmā, Sarvabhūtātmā, Tasmai Śrī Guruve Namaḥ, Naha Kartham Prabhupādīpa Kartham Mahāprabhupādīpa Karthai Kevalam. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Yā kundhintu tu sāra-hāra-dhāvalā, yā śobhrava-sthamṛtā, yā vīṇāvara-daṇḍa-mandita-karā, yā śvetā-pādmāsanā, yā brahmāṁ śuta-saṅkāra-prāvar-devar devai-sadā-vandita. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alakpur Jī Siddha Pīṭ Paramparā. Śrī Viśva Gurudeva Mahāśvarānandovi. Om Namaḥ Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs. Om Namaḥ Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs. Hari Om to all the bhaktas present here... We were going through these points already: kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, ahaṅkāra. We talked about ahaṅkāra. Today we will talk about lobha—greed. Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, ahaṅkāra. These are all important factors in the downfall of any spiritual seeker. We can do tapasyā for ages, and then one of these comes up and you are done, like smashing head first. Yesterday we were going for a walk. It takes much longer to walk upwards, and then it is much easier to walk down, and it’s much quicker to walk down. So it doesn’t matter how much work we do and grow higher and higher, and then we think that we mastered it, and then one of these things comes and we roll down the mountain, and boom. There’s an example for this: there’s a very hard-working person, very punctual for work. Every day, waking up early in the morning, going, doing his work, very nice to people, never harmed anyone. And one day, when he was coming back from work to home, he saw a person with a big advertisement, "Buy this golden egg to get rich." So rich, you know, when that word comes, then even hard-working, good people go down. We are never satisfied enough with what we have. And we always want more and more and more. Is it ever going to be enough for us? Hopefully, yes. We should be content and satisfied with what we have at the moment. Because you never know when even this, what you have, will go in trying to get more. In that story, that person saw the advertisement and went to that person. He said, "What are you selling?" He said, "This is a golden egg. It’s a magical egg." In India we call this Andhra Viśvāsa. Andhra Viśvāsa means believing in some superstition or in something which does not even have any benefit, but just because it’s advertised in that way, we believe it. Magic. He said, "Yes, I want to get more money. I want to be rich." He said, "Yeah, yeah, you buy this egg, but there are a few rules to follow with it. After you buy this egg, you take it home and you take care of it so that no one steals it or breaks it. And don’t let it crack, or don’t crack it by yourself. Just keep it very well in a place where nothing happens to it. And you will see how your life turns around. All your wishes will come true. Everything that you thought about will come to you. All the money, wealth, houses, cars, whatever you want. Everything you will get." That’s called good advertisement. It doesn’t matter if he will really get anything or not, but that person just wants to sell his egg. So that person was very hardworking, trying to earn as much money as possible every day, a little bit, a little bit, but not well off. He told that person, "Don’t sell it. I’m coming back. I just go home, get the money, and come back." Seeing that the person really is wanting to buy it, then the person, when asked, "How much is it?" It was maybe much less, but he knew that this person would buy it by hook or crook, so he just put the rate up and said it. They have many clients, so hurry up when you get the money; otherwise, I will sell it to someone else. He said, "No, no, don’t sell it. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, I will buy it." You can see how greed even takes over our viveka. It doesn’t let you take or make any good decisions anymore. So then he went home, he took all his savings, what he saved up for his family, for himself, for his future, and he gave that all savings to that person and bought that egg. Brought it back home. Then what did he do? He quit his job because he didn’t trust anyone to take care of that egg. He didn’t even trust his own wife, his kids, his family, no one. He left the job, he went back from his friends, he completely detached himself from anything to do with the outer world, and the whole day he just was sitting next to that egg. He went to a separate room to sleep, not even with his wife, in the night. And waiting for the egg to crack, because he said, "Don’t let anyone crack it, but when it cracks, then you will get an abundance of everything." The wife and the kids wanted to see what was going on. They asked him, but he said, "Nothing, nothing. Leave the food outside the door. I will take it, eat, and put the plate back out." Not even have that which we have. So days passed, weeks passed, months passed, and he got very impatient. He decided that now he would just crack the egg because it was not cracking by itself. He had tried before to heat it up, thinking that maybe then it would crack. Nothing. Then after a few days, he finally cracked it, and he saw it was an empty shell painted with gold. Then he found out that he was cheated. He lost everything. He didn’t have money because he didn’t work. He was depressed. Then, when we are upside down, when our lives are upside down, then we think we have a Guru Dev. That shouldn’t be the case. It should be that we remember Him all the time. We do morning mantra japa, we do the prayers, we think about Gurudev, we do a dīpak and agarbattī in front of his picture. Not only that, when we are in some troubles, then we think, "Oh yes, we have someone." He is always going to be there for you. He is always going to protect you. He is always going to forgive you, but it is not fair to Him that we just remember Him when we are in trouble and not on other days. That’s us being selfish. That’s again me, I, ego. I don’t need anyone. I can do everything. Why do I need the spiritual lineage? I’m earning good money, and when we come crashing down, then, "Oh God, save me! Oh Gurudev, forgive me!" Yes, he will. That’s his job. He will forgive you always, and he is the kind-hearted person who does not judge you for what you did. He will still say... Oh, my child, come. So he went to Gurudev. He said, "Gurudev, I messed up. Help me." Gurujī said, "Yes, no problem, Aśiva. Do your mantra." And he gave him an example. He said there was one very rich person. He had all the worldly things that he ever wanted. But greed doesn’t even leave that person who has everything. Then how will it leave someone who has very little? This is Māyā. You can’t get rid of Māyā. Māyā is a part of the saṃsāra. We have to go along with it, not run after it. Nor run away from it. It will always be there in some way. For us, our Māyā should be Gurudev. We should run behind him. For a doctor, it will be his patients. It’s everywhere. You can’t escape from it. Let it be with you and work with it. So, a very rich businessman had everything, but still, when he found out in the newspapers—not newspaper, but somehow he found out—that there’s one land where there’s an abundance of gold. And gold is lying everywhere, like these leaves here. You can go and collect as much gold as you want. If someone were to tell us now that there is gold lying in Sangam Hall, how many of us would run there? Okay. And if someone says, "Swāmījī is sitting there," then? Come on, I expect everyone’s hands up. So he immediately packed his bags and went to that unknown destination. The force of greed is much higher than anything else. So he went there, he took his bag, and he started picking them up one by one. After ten minutes, he realized that his bag was still not full, and he had been filling it already for such a long time that it should have been full. And he was filling and filling, and days passed and weeks passed, and he forgot to eat, he forgot to drink, and family, nothing mattered to him anymore. Sometimes our minds are so corrupted, in Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarī Vivekpurījī’s language, I would say, the virus was, he says a lot, "The virus went in the mind, in the computer system, so the virus corrupted his system," and Gurudev came and said, "My dear one. This is all illusion, leave it and go." But when the virus of greed comes, then we see nothing. No, no,... I need to collect this, then I will come, Gurujī. You go, I am coming. Then what else can the guru do? He can show you the path, but he is not going to pull you and hold you and babysit you. He will show you the path. He will show us what the right path is. He will tell us what the right path is. He will try to help us as much as he can, but at the end of the day, it is our wish. If the guru himself comes in his physical form or in the astral form and tells you, "It’s all illusion, come, let’s go back," and you still say, "No, Gurudev, you go, I will come," then there is nothing you can do. And when Gurudev, whether in his physical or astral form, comes to you and says to you, "This is an illusion, come away from me," and you say, "No," then what else can he do? And so he collected and collected, and he was weaker and weaker every day. And he died, unfortunately. You see, this is the result of greed. So don’t run behind the eggs or the gold or this all-illusional māyā. I would like to add one story, which is harder because it’s true. I love these true stories from Gājānandjī. They really inspire us. It will not inspire you; it will make you very sad. I will again not say a name, but many of you know this person. It was a young swami who was in seva for Holī Gurujī. At times when I was also in Nipal Ashram, we were like friends. So he was really dedicated to the spiritual life and directly in seva for Holī Gurujī for years. One day, the news came to him that in the village from where he came, he owned some land, and someone else occupied it now. I mean, he was a Swami, he lived with Holy Gurujī, what does he have to do with his land? But now his attachment is great, awoke in him, and he was thinking, "That is my land. How can someone else steal that?" And Holi Guruji, of course, tried to explain to him, "What do you need? What would you worry about that? You are a son of Yasin, it has nothing to do with you, leave it." And he tried to explain to him, he said, "What do you need it for? What is good for you? Now you are a sannyāsī, let it be so." And he decided to go there. And Holī Gurujī told him very clearly, "When you go now, you will not be able to come back." But this Māyā was so strong, he left Holī Gurujī. So now he had to go to the court to fight for his land. And, of course, he won the case because it was really his. It belonged legally to him. But he is not a farmer, so he sold the land and got a lot of money. So what to do with the money? So half of the money he invested in a big motorbike, and the other half of the money he invested in a company making this red color, this henna. Many Indians color their hair red, and also, Indian ladies often have the decorations from henna on their hands. Many Indians dye their hair red, or women dye their hands with henna. So what happened? With a motorbike, he made a big accident. The motorbike was destroyed. Všetko stratil. I don’t accept you again. When you now leave Sannyās, forget it. And when I heard about that, I asked, "What is now with him?" And we went to see him because I knew him very well. He was like my friend. He was not far away from Jadon Ashram, on a side road there, making tea for travelers who came to just have some small tea for the people. So we met him there, and I felt so sorry, I was crying. And I met him there, and I felt it was so painful for me that I cried. So Māyā can destroy everything. So then Gurujī told that this is the end, how you will end up if you run behind that egg. He said, "I’ll give you mantra dīkṣā, and you chant your mantra, and everything will be OK." He gave the mantra, but again, after mantra dīkṣā, what comes again? He was thinking, "Okay, now, same greed or ego or whatever." He was thinking, "Okay, now I will do my mantra very quickly, quickly,... and I will get enlightened and all good." The point is in doing it; it doesn’t matter how I do it. So he started doing his mantra, just sitting in one corner, and then instead of doing it in the proper way, he was using any fingers which he wanted. His head was everywhere, always thinking about how he would get enlightened without a focused mind. And nothing happened, and he just got more impatient. After a month, he went back to Gurujī and he said, "What did you give me? It just made me more restless, and nothing is working." Then Gurujī said, "How are you doing?" He showed him how he was doing it. Then Gurujī said, "No." Then he showed him the right way, that you hold it with the, you do the beads with the thumb and the middle finger, because the index finger represents ego. So if you are going to do your mālā with the index finger, then ego will just arise more. Instead of going down and you don’t cross the guru bead, the guru bead, because that represents the guru. So in respect to your guru and devotion to your guru, you don’t cross it; you turn it around and go back. Then, śuddhatā is also very important when we do our mālās. Śuddhatā means that we are pure. I know we are not going to have a shower every time before we do our mālās, but at least cleanliness is important. Wash your hands, have a clean mind, have a clean heart—that’s most important. If we go by the rules and regulations of cleanliness according to the Śāstras, it will be a disaster. So what I would say is, mainly, cleanliness of the heart and purity of the mind is the best cleanliness which we can achieve. That’s what Gurudev always teaches us. Because the pandits would tell that we need to have a shower as many times as we go to the toilet. Which is true, but in day-to-day life, not really possible. But at least as much cleanliness as we can have, that much we should. And also make sure that the mālā is not touching the floor. Mala is not touching your legs. You can have a cloth under, and then do your mala. If you don’t have a cloth, then hold it higher like this, so that it doesn’t touch down. And the mala should be at least still here, not going under the navel, because this part is not when you’re doing japa. But when you wear it, then it should not be lower than this part. If it’s too long, then make two rounds. But mainly, it’s what energies our malas hold. That the malas are blessed by Gurudev. And if the japa is done with a pure heart and devotion, then everything is okay. But still, as much as possible, we should try to follow not touching feet, not touching the ground. Then, certain rules and regulations are always good. That’s why the mantras can be done when we are sitting in the pūjā space in front of the altar at our homes. And when we are walking around and out and about, then we have sumarins for that. And then when we go to the toilet or something, then we take off our malas. You can leave it outside with your friend or somewhere. Just keep it in a nice cloth and keep it outside, then go to the bathroom and come back. Also, while sleeping, the rudrākṣa should be kept aside. And one day we can actually talk about the benefits of different mukhis on different Rudrākṣas, how it benefits or does not benefit different people. You want that? Because a one-mukhi should not be worn by everyone. One mukī is good for sannyāsīs. I mean, if you want to get detached completely from your partners and family and leave everything and live a life of sannyāsa, then you wear one mukhī, very good for you. But I know a family who just had a one Mukhi lying in their house, not even wearing it. It was just in the house. And since they got it, their life was all upside down. Their personal life with the partner in this. Punch Muki is the best, the malas which we get from Gurudeva. That is all blessed, very good. Seven Muki is good for Lakṣmī. We all like Lakṣmī. Seven Mukī is for that. One mukhi is for sādhus, and also Gaurī Śaṅkar can be worn by many people, but mainly also by sannyāsīs, because that’s the embodiment of Gaurī and Śaṅkar, which means Śiva and Pārvatī together. That’s how you will see many sannyāsīs wearing Gaurī Śaṅkar. The mala which we normally buy here, or we get from Swamiji, is normally Pañcamukhī. We can talk about the benefits of Pañcamukhī another time, today evening or tomorrow. There are many, many, many different rules to follow, not to follow. But I will not go into that. Mainly, what we need is Guru Bhakti, pure devotion and love towards the Guru. When we have His blessings, then we are in Param Ānanda. Then we don’t need any rules and regulations. Śānti.