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Good evening. Yes. Welcome once again to our beautiful retreat. Many thanks also to all our brothers and sisters around the world on the webcast who are with us. Today is a beautiful day. It is a blessing. No water, no life. We say, "Jal Jahā Jagadīś." Where there is water, there is God. In many languages they say, "Vodha jīvat"—water is life. Especially a country like Australia needs a lot of rain, and we have, luckily now, exactly thirty-two hours of continuous rain. Thanks to God. Thirty-two hours. What a blessing; that is divine. Also, in those parts of Australia where rain is very rare, this year there is a lot of rain. That is the blessing of God for the Australians—not only for the people, but for all of Australia, the animals, trees, birds, and all. Thank you. God should give this. It is called Amṛta. Amṛta Vṛṣad. In bhajan, Bhajanananda was singing a beautiful bhajan: "Gurudeva Darśana Dhanāhu." It is great fortune to have the darśan of Gurudev. "Chetānanda Gandho." Chetan means consciousness, Ānanda is bliss, and Gandha means endless. So when such a rain comes, it is endless beauty, happiness, and so on. Welcome, all, here in Śrīdevapurī Āśram, Dangong—a beautiful name, no? It sounds a little bit Tibetan-ish or Chinese: dāngōng. But it also sounds like the language of the Aborigines. Thank you. Beautiful. So, Anuṣṭhāna, Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. This morning I spoke about what a Kriyā is, and now you know what Kriyā means. This rain falling is also a divine Kriyā—God’s Kriyā, God’s Līlā, the miracle of God. Now, there are many different kinds of Kriyās. Practicing Prāṇāyāma is a Kriyā. Meditation is a Kriyā. The practice of mantra is a Kriyā. There is someone moving outside, but they cannot find the door in. Can you guide the person to where the door is? Yes, everything is Kriyā. Now, there is one Kriyā called Haṭha Yoga Kriyās. There are different kinds of Yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, Rāja Yoga, Nāda Yoga, Kriyā Yoga, Haṭha Yoga, Kuṇḍalinī Yoga, and so on—many, many, many. Haṭha Yoga means there are six kriyās, and these six kriyās are known as Haṭha Yoga. It is called Ṣaṭ Karma. Karma means Kriyā; the root of karma is Kriyā. So Haṭha Yoga has six techniques, and that is Haṭha Yoga. If you practice Haṭha Yoga, it means you are doing these six techniques every day. There are two techniques which you do not do every day. Trāṭak is a beautiful meditation technique. Trāṭak is gazing on one point—gazing on a flame, gazing on one dot. Trāṭak is for purification: purification of the antaḥkaraṇa—mana, buddhi, citta, ahaṁkāra. Trāṭak is for the purification of the mind. Trāṭak is a very powerful Kriyā. Patañjali said in the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, "Citta vṛtti nirodha." Citta is our consciousness, that part of the consciousness where our intellect is dwelling, where our thoughts are; that is called citta. Mana and citta are different; mind and consciousness are different. Vṛttis are different kinds of thinking. As long as you think, you cannot concentrate. When there are many waves on the surface, you cannot see what is lying on the bottom. Similarly, when there are many, many vṛttis—many thoughts, whether good or bad—it means you still cannot concentrate. So the practice of Trāṭak develops concentration. It is also very good for students who have no concentration; if they practice Trāṭaka, it will develop concentration. The practice of Trāṭak is very good for training the memory. Many people have problems with memory. Especially now, in this modern way of life, in modern civilization, with this modern technology, humans have lost their memory. Your memory is only 15% left—15%. Take care, next year it will be only 14%. Why? We begin to lose our memory on the day when we begin to write everything down. Now Vajrānanda was singing bhajan. He has been singing for the last twenty-five or twenty-six years. It is the same bhajan, but still he cannot sing it by heart without looking at the book. Do you understand me? Only a few lines—for twenty-five years he cannot remember. Where is the memory? Down in the basement. Second, since the telephone came, our memory begins to get lost. Now, how many telephone numbers do you know by heart? All who are sitting, please, let us do a research work. Is there someone who knows twenty-five numbers? It does not matter from whom—your wife, your husband, your children, your father, your mother, your employees, your boss, or whatever you call them, your guru, and so on. Please, who knows twenty-five telephone numbers with the code number by heart? Raise your hand, please. Okay. Twenty numbers? Nineteen numbers? Eighteen? Sixteen? Fifteen? One person. So, our memory is 15% out of 100%. Now, I do not want to insult you all in front of everyone, but you should know: how many numbers you know by heart, that many percentage you have of your memory. The rest is lost. When someone is telephoning and you ask, "Please, can you give me your telephone number?" the person is dictating numbers, and how many times do you say, "Moment, please, it was 9, 8..." and we are not able to remember four numbers at once: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 3, 8. What? 6, 8, no. 6, 8, no, 7. Ah, 6, forgotten. I forgot also, so memory is lost. Then it is lost more. Since we got a tape recorder, everything we recorded—bhajans, songs, lectures, these, that—you record and then you put the record somewhere; you never hear it again. How many tapes do you have at home? Now you do not know what to do. And now came what they call the CD. So everything is on the CD, but you do not know what is inside. So, C for consciousness and D for dull. Now everything is dull, dormant. So, C for consciousness and D for dormant. Consciousness is dormant. Our memory is lost when we begin to make photos and films, and now came the camera. Now came what you call the "eat up," iPod. The iPod is there now. Someone who knows, in your own language, complete, not half-up: ten songs, any folk songs, any songs by heart: one, two, three, four, and five. You do not know them. I know that you do not know. If you have to sing in front of me, then I will see if you know. So, but then you do not know. Why did you have the... book for using buttons? That is it. And if you know, I am very happy for you, Mister. You have to sing tomorrow, ten songs in front of me. Now, what to do? Do you know the name of your grandfather? Your grandfather’s father, to the fifth generation? Who was your fifth grandfather? You know one. So, yes? Agṇadev. Okay, tell me, your father’s grandfather, what was your grandfather? Grandfather? No, no, your father’s grandfather. Grandfather, and his grandfather? Okay. And his grandfather? Then why did you raise your hands? No, there were not five. Your father’s grandfather, beginning five generations, lost and gone, in the and gone. So the practice of Trāṭak will help you to improve your memory. It will purify your consciousness and awaken all those parts of your consciousness where everything is dormant. It is not your mistake or my mistake that we lost the memory. It is a mistake of these things—all this technology. So technology means lejī. Practicing the first technique of Haṭha Yoga, Trāṭak, will develop concentration and memory. Second, it will develop your imaginative ability, your intuition, your inner visions, because it will open your third eye, the inner visions. An artist, a painter—if a painter practices Trāṭak, he will again have more visions and beauty in his painting. When you do not know something, someone asks you, and you say, "One moment, let me think." You close your eyes and begin to think. It means you bring concentration here, and so here is that seat of that door of the memories with the visions of the third eye. And that is what everyone who is teaching meditation tells you: concentrate at the center of the eyebrows, relax the center of the eyebrows. Why? Because there is the seat of that part of the consciousness which is very important for our life. The musician who is searching for new nādas, the resonance—you will hear that the best musician will never use the notes. Notes are used only in the kindergarten. You know what is kindergarten? Kinder. You know what is kinder? Kindle my heart, not this. In German, "Kinder" means the little children, and you call it nursery school. The poor children, they are not trees or plants. What a funny name, nursery school. And now in India we have a new language. They are inventing more words in English. So in India they call kg. First kg and second kg. A kilo. But KG could be the short word for kindergarten: K for kinder and G for garden. So using the notes for reading, looking, and playing is kindergarten. A best musician will close the eyes and go, merge into the universe. Gandharva Veda—that is called Gandharva Veda. Everything is in your memory, everything is in your heart, everything is in your hearing sound, and your finger knows. Your fingers are dancing. Do you know the Bharata Nāṭyam dance? How beautiful is that dance? There are many dance movements, but the dance is the dance called Bharata Nāṭyam. How everything is spoken through the body, balance, rhythm, and so on. I am not a dancer. I wish I could be, but next time. So your fingers are dancing. You do not have to look. Streaming the wisdom through your Ājñā Cakra, vibrating the whole body. And the seat of the sound is at the navel. And that sound awakes from the navel and comes to the heart. It manifests into resonance in the heart and comes to the Viśuddhi Cakra, and there it touches the vocal cords and begins to have sound outside. Then it touches your ears and goes to three parts. One part goes into the space. The second part turns back to your heart, and the third you hear yourself towards the ears and touches the Sahasrāra Cakra, and back to the heart. This is a Kriyā. Another Kriyā we will learn next time. It is beautiful. Therefore, in the Vedas it says, "Nāda Rūpa Parabrahma." The Supreme, the form of the Supreme, is resonance. Nothing else. Everything is united by resonance. These five elements—space, fire, air, water, and earth—out of those five elements our body is made, united by that resonance. And that resonance has inside the prāṇa capabilities to hold. The resonance is like ultrasound. You have a remote control; you press here, and the machine starts there. You do not see anything in between. But it is a connection of the resonance, the light—the light of the Ātmā to the Paramātmā. The small remote control is connected to the base. The base is Bhagavān, Paramātmā, and you are the remote controller. Okay? And Gurudev is pressing. So you have to press your certain points, your cakras. You see, one of the very famous musicians—there are many, many good musicians in the whole world—but there is a sitar player, what is his name? Everybody knows the name, once more: Ravi Shankar, from where? India. When Ravi Shankar jī now, even he is playing very beautifully. When he plays, he goes to meditation, and his eyes are closed. You see, in that person, the whole body is vibrating. Taran, the resonance, the vibrations, the lights—his fingers are like, between, before touching the sitar, already the sitar is resonating. That is called the practice. Practice makes the master. So the practicing of Trāṭak every day will awaken your Anāhata Cakra. Anāhata Nāda. Anāhata means endless, without boundary. Ānanda. Anāhata Nāda is the resonance. So our ātmā and our soul, residing here in the Anāhata Cakra—when you practice singing or painting or playing an instrument, that time your Anāhata Cakra is reflecting. Light comes. That time, your heart becomes a holy heart. But when you are doing like this, I am sorry. All dear brothers and sisters who are looking, I do not want to insult you. Maybe you are a good artist. But I do not accept that, because you have been playing for so many years. You began your music class from kindergarten till now. For what do you need the paper? Your paper is here, and God gave you five beautiful hands and fingers. Therefore, learn by heart and vision by your Ājñā Cakra. Practice Haṭha Yoga, Trāṭak practice. The practice of Trāṭaka will control your dreams. All the bad dreams will disappear. All the dreams, what we call unpleasant dreams, with the snakes and with the tigers and with the ghosts and Draculas and Vatakulas and Bullas, all will disappear. Purify your consciousness, and you will have divine visions. The practice of Trāṭak, the practice of the one Kriyā of Haṭha Yoga, Trāṭak, will cure what we call the allergies. You know, many people have allergies—dust allergies, this allergy—and some people have an allergy to people. Yeah, when they see me, they are allergic. I do not know why, what I have done to them. So there are many people here, they are allergic to each other. I need not tell. If I tell, that is not good, that is not nice of me. So this kind of energy will disappear, because your vivekā will open, your love will open. You know, we came alone, we are alone, and we go alone. Try to love thyself, try to surrender to thyself, try to meditate on thyself, try to know thyself. When you love thyself, then everyone will love you. But when you run away from here to search for love outside, then you are also lost. You are lonely. Ever and ever, you are lonely. "Eko brahma dvitīya nāsti." Only one is the reality, one is the Supreme. Therefore, ānanda is within. What we search outside, beauty, is within. Therefore, it is said in one bhajan: "Abhahama guru caraṇa sukha pāyā, abhahama guru caraṇa." Again, you are putting the papers, you see? Moment, moment, how many times we sing? Everyone opens the books. Where is your memory? I will not sing because I do not know also. "Sāgar Ler Samaya, Sāgar Ler Samaya, Guru Caraṇa Sukha Pā, Guru Caraṇa Sukha Pā, Satguru Amṛta Jala Barṣā, Satguru Amṛta Jala Barṣā." Now I found the peace and happiness in the presence of my Gurudeva. Like what? Like the high waves. Again, they merge into the ocean. Gurudev is the ocean. God is the ocean. And we are the waves, and we are looking forward that this wave will one day again merge and become calm in the ocean. "Jñāna gata le satguru āyā." Gata means these clouds. Now you see, heavy clouds from here to Sydney, to Perth, to Melbourne, to Dangan, and till Singapore, and till India. Oh, how big is the cloud? More than ocean, bigger than ocean. Endless cloud, dark cloud full of water, and that is a gata. So the knowledge, the wisdom of the brahmaniṣṭha śrotriya, brahmaniṣṭha śrotriya sattva gurudeva—his or her knowledge is endless. So, Gurudev, when Gurudev comes, Satgurudev, he brings with him such a gata, jñāna gata. What gata is that? Jñāna, the clouds of the wisdom. Jñāna gata. What he did, he let rain the nectar, the words of wisdom, words of the wisdom, and what we do? So we drink that nectar of wisdom. Our mind completely quenches its thirst. Which kind of thirst? Desires. We are burning in desires. Day and night, we are burning in desires. What kind of desires? Many, many desires. Many desires. Someone is searching for money, someone is searching for business, someone is searching for a partner, someone is searching for a house, someone is searching for beautiful clothes, someone is searching for beautiful shoes. And what not? Desire. Vāsanā. "Vāsanā hi duḥkha kā kāraṇa hai." Holy Gurujī used to say. "Vāsanā hi duḥkha kā kāraṇa hai." Desires are the roots or the cause of the problems. Therefore, Holy Gurujī said often, enter the kingdom of the Lord through the gate of sacrifice. Enter the kingdom of God. If you want to enter into God’s kingdom, then sacrifice everything. You should be able to renounce, but we are not able to renounce. There was one farmer, and he liked to smoke the pipe. All the time, he had his pipe hanging in his mouth. One day, it happened that they brought him to heaven. He came to the door of heaven. The angels came and took him. And the angels said, "This is heaven. You can have everything." Beautiful. And in heaven, you are ever young. You see, in the Śiva Purāṇa, all are very young. Very, very young. In Kali Yuga, here on the Mṛti Loka, we are old. But when we come to the Brahma Loka, or in the Svarga Loka, or in the, what do they call, Indra Loka, suddenly we are all very young and happy. No problem. The farmer said, "It is beautiful. Can you tell me where I can buy tobacco for my pipe?" The angel says, "In heaven, there is no tobacco and no pipe." He said, "No pipe and no tobacco?" He said, "No." Then I quit heaven. Better I go back. Please, can you guide me, escort me to my beautiful farmhouse? So from the heaven door he came back because of that desire for the pipe. Similarly, all desires will pull you back. In the last minutes of your life, you should be sure that all desires are cleared up, everything ironed out. So, "amṛtā nir pya man bhar kī, nirbhay ne chal payā"—now I am without any fear, no fear. Unchangeable happiness is realized through that satsaṅg and Gurudev’s presence. Follow the Guru Vākya. Follow your path. Haṭha Yoga. You know, a Haṭha Yogī is above everything. There are six kriyās: Trāṭak, Netī, Dhautī, Bastī, Naulī, and Kapālabhātī. That is Haṭha Yoga. This āsana and prāṇāyāma is not a yoga; it is Rāja Yoga: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi—this is Rāja Yoga. So when you practice the Trāṭak, that time your antaḥkaraṇa, citta, is pure, free, and renunciation comes. Desires are there. You cannot say that I am without desires. No. Yes, you will be without desires on the day when we will say, "Rāmnām Sathe" or "Thedgya Gathe"—when the people will put with the soul earth on the beautiful body. You are desireless at that time. But desires are there, but they have their principles, and they have all their controls at work, so that you can survive in this life. The practice of Trāṭaka improves your digestive system. Those who have digestive problems, practice Trāṭaka every day, and your digestive system will improve. Concentration directly from here, light goes to the solar plexus. Practicing Trāṭaka will improve your eyesight. Many people who used to have glasses, through the practice of Trāṭaka, gave up the glasses. And while practicing Trāṭaka, like this morning in the satsaṅg, I told you about the eyes. So your eyes will become nirmala. "Nirmalā jaka nena hai bhavana chandana sariva." In your eyes will be reflected the mercy, the love, the kindness, the attraction, like to the flame. Moths come. Similarly, where you look, everything becomes harmonizing. Mahāprabhujī said, "Merī nazar ḍālat hai." Where I look, there is prosperity, there is wisdom, everything. Those who surrendered to Mahāprabhujī and did their bhakti really from the heart, pure bhakti, they got everything. They got more than what they could imagine. But when they lost the bhakti, they lost everything. It is said, oh my mind, you lost everything with the kusanga. So your prosperity, your happiness, your joy, everything is just gone. Like when the sun rises and morning dew just dries up, finished. So Trāṭaka practice is very powerful. And those who practice Trāṭaka, they get a Saṅkalpa Śakti. Saṅkalpa means regulation, that you make a regulation. You want to have something, and it comes true; your wish comes true because your antaḥkaraṇa becomes pure. So practice Trāṭak. And in yoga and daily life books, hidden powers in humans books, there is described how to practice Trāṭak. And perhaps next day we will practice here also Trāṭak, everyone together, so you can learn also, our international friends can. Learn for today; time is over. I spoke a little bit too much, four minutes over. Spoke. Wish you all the best, dear bhaktas around the world, especially today, Croatia. They telephoned and told me, "Why, Swamiji, remains in my country’s name? Vinshovski." The Dada, she was complaining. So Dada, many blessings from here. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī, Deva Puruṣa Mahādevakī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Mādhāvanājī Bhagavānakī, Satya Sanātana. God bless you.