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The Presence of the Guru

A satsang on devotion, surrender, and relating to the spiritual teacher.

"Gurudev is in the same space, same region, I would say, but we all should know that Gurudev is watching. It doesn’t matter where he is, he is always observing everything."

"If we have that mindset within us, that whatever we are doing, it’s him doing... then nothing is going to stop us in this world."

The lecturer addresses disciples in Slovenia, sharing insights from traveling with Gurudev, Sri Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Paramahamsa Maheshwaranand Puri. He discusses the Guru's omnipresence, the importance of selfless service (seva), and cultivating trust over logic. He advises on etiquette in the Guru's presence, tells a parable about faith, and leads a guided meditation (manasik puja) to feel the Guru's inner presence.

Filming location: Slovenia

Devakī Jai, Devadvidevadevaśvara Mahādevakī Jai, Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Hindudharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Mādhavānand, Purījī Sadgurudev Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Maheśvarānand, Purījī Gurudevakī Jai, Nāhaṁ Karatā Prabhu Dīpa Karatā Udiyatā Śānti Śiva Smārambham. Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamām Asmadācārya Paryantaṁ Vande Guru Paramparā. Salutations to the cosmic Self. We continue. Salutations, and my daṇḍavat praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Ānanda Purījī Mahārāj. Oṁ Namo Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs present here. Hari Om and Dobar Večer to all of you who are present here. Kako si? Hope you all are dobro. Viśva Gurujī is also dobro. But as it was intensive travels for the recent past few days, weeks, so he is in śavāsana. In between, a little, little Slovenian, Christian, you know, all mixture. Kichadi is good. It will be very spontaneous, very, very flowing with the water, so we are flowing very quickly. We had a beautiful time in Kailash. We were three, four days in Kailash. Normally, Viśvagurujī usually stays two days, but this time he was very happy there, and we stayed four days. From there, we went to Jaipur Ashram, stayed one day, then back to Jadan. And then he said, "We go." So when the airplane comes, we come here. This is the beauty of Viśva Gurujī; this is his love which he has for all his disciples. For everyone, that is the beauty which he is giving all of us, the blessings which he is giving all of us. We all are very blessed and very appreciative for all that Viśva Gurujī does for all of us. If it would not be for him, we all wouldn’t be sitting here. I am very blessed and very happy to be here in Slovenia again. In 2018, I was with Sadhvī Sāvitrījī in the āśram for one night, but it was like a quick pass-by. The long term in Slovenia, I think, was 2008 or ’10 or something, when we opened the Zagreb ashram. That was crazy, but okay. So after many years, with the blessings of Gurudev, we are here. Gurudev is in the same space, same region, I would say, but we all should know that Gurudev is watching. It doesn’t matter where he is, he is always observing everything. He knows what we are talking about here, what is happening. When you close your eyes, or when you even open your eyes, you can see his form sitting here. We should not think that Gurudev is physically not here, but Gurudev is omnipresent. He is everywhere. He is within us most importantly. When we look within us, when we see inside our hearts, we see him. When we see each other, we see his aura. When we look around, he is everywhere, so he is sending many blessings. When we were in India, he decided that he wants to go to Slovenia already. We all need to understand a little bit in this way. It’s just my suggestion. I said this already in Strelke, day before yesterday in Vienna, but now we have more people, so I would just like to share how I see things and how I feel. You all are individuals; you all can take your own decisions. It’s just how I feel, and I just wanted to share how it looks to me, to be a little bit more open and transparent about how things are. For those of you who are long-term disciples who know Viśva Gurujī from 30, 40 years, you know how it was with Gurujī. There were rules and regulations, so no rules and regulations applied, just a friendly suggestion. As now, recently, for the past five, six months, I’ve been traveling with Viśva Gurujī and constant sevā with him, so things are a little bit more clear. I would say that Viśva Gurujī obviously loves all his disciples so much, and that’s why he is constantly traveling around everywhere, despite the doctors and all of us trying to tell him to relax in one spot and have all the bhaktas come to him. But he’s like, "No, we go every two days." He says, "We go where we go, that’s the unknown destination, but we obviously end up in good places, like Slovenia now." Viśvagurujī always has that within him. Whenever he’s active in the morning, he says, "Where are people? He wants to see the people." So for him, it is we all, and that’s what he created. This is his life. All his life, he has dedicated to creating this beautiful oasis, what we have, this beautiful family of mine that I’ve been born into. You all are my family, and he’s our father, so we all are very blessed to be a part of this beautiful family. In some ways, I would say that Viśvagurujī dedicated his whole life to all of us, and now I think it’s our turn to do anything for him. For us, the most important thing would be to see him happy, right? We all are on, at least not we all, I am on Indian time zone still for one, two more days. You all are in Western time zone, but Swāmījī is in his own time zone, and if that is what he wishes, we respect that, and we go with that. If he wouldn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be here, so obviously he wants to be with all of us. But also, he has to listen to his body, and if his body needs rest, he rests, and then we see him. Tomorrow, just again, my suggestion: when Gurudev comes, sometimes it’s overwhelming when people are completely just like, "So, I’m just trying to walk," and then you make praṇām first thing. It’s kind of dangerous that he doesn’t trip, and second... Sometimes, we just need to see and feel from within. That’s the main part. If we have that devotion towards him, if we have that love towards him, then we are happy and he is happy. But as soon as there is some tension within us or some nervousness, he feels those energies. He feels those emotions of us. He reacts very easily on our emotions. That’s how it works. When Gurudev is passing by, a suggestion is that we just stand and greet him like this, let him pass by. When Gurudeva is sitting somewhere, like on his āsana or even in some house or anywhere where he sits, then peacefully, when he calls people, "Please come for darśana," and then we all have darśana and just go with the flow, be very, very ready for anything. It can also happen that Swāmījī calls you all there, or Swāmījī comes here, or anywhere. Anything is possible. When he says we go, we go. When he says we stay, we stay. In Strelka, it was also interesting for us. We were unloading and loading the car five or six times. So that’s what we learned now. All his life, he was teaching us how to be always ready. So now we are living in the moment, but the most important is the love and devotion. The love is like the dry soil within our hearts, with the seeds planted. But for the seeds to sprout, for that beautiful flower to sprout, we need devotion. So love and devotion have to go together to grow that beautiful flower in our hearts for Gurudev. I think that we all have that love towards Gurudev, and we all have that devotion, that dedication, and that’s why we all are here today. We all are here because of Viśvagurujī, and it’s his beautiful blessings that we all can unite and be here tonight. I am also very happy to be amongst all of you. Sevā is very important. This is what I’m now learning a lot. A few years back, when I was a teenager, Viśvagurujī always wanted me to stick around, sit, and I was very chanchal. In Hindi, chanchal means very restless. So, 10-15 minutes sitting and running away, and then, "Where is Avatār Purī?" Come back, and then again 15 minutes sitting and again disappearing. You know, all of you once upon a time were children, or you have children, so this is how life is. But now, I sometimes feel that I think that was a time where I should have been sitting there with Swāmījī and spending time with him, but it’s never too late. Now I have the beautiful opportunity, finally. When I’m done with college and school, now I can be with Swāmījī so constantly, now traveling and in sevā, learning everyday new things, learning how to be calm, which is sometimes hard because in my age we always need action. I mean, I’m not saying that we are not having action; we are having a lot of action. But in the sense, when we are sitting with Viśvagurujī, it is more now of connecting with him and not having any verbal conversations or anything. It’s just being in his presence and being happy in that. We should know that Viśvagurujī always knows everything. He is trikāla-darśī, which means he sees the past, he sees the present, and he sees the future. So even though there’s not much of words, or not much of conversation is happening, he knows everything, and he knows what is happening with all of us. He can just close his eyes and jump into one of your lives and figure out everything, so don’t worry. That is always going to be there. Again, a suggestion came that instead of now coming to Gurudev and saying, "Gurudev, which clothes should I wear? Is this color good or not good?" instead of that, I think his whole life he was teaching us to use our viveka, and now I think we use our viveka. When we have something, blessings are always going to be there. Blessings are always going to work. So when you come to him, instead of saying, "Swāmījī, should I do this or should I do this?" we say, "Gurudev, I am planning to do this, or I’m planning to get operated, I’m planning to shift cities, or whatever your questions are. Do I have your blessings for that?" and make praṇām, and then he gives you blessings. So that is my suggestion. You’re free to ask as many questions as you want, but sometimes the answers are not coming so much better, and much... that’s how I feel now, traveling with him and seeing how it is, how people come and how the interactions are happening. I am not going to tell you what to do or what not to do, because I want you to feel free to do what you want, but this is how I would do it: "Gurudev, I would like your blessings for this." And as we know, and as Gurudev always says, if Gurudev’s kṛpā and blessings are showering on us, then what do we have to be worried about? The disciple is always in ultimate bliss, which means if we have Gurudev, if we have Viśvagurujī, then what is there to be worried about? Pada means lotus feet, math means head. So if we put our head in the lotus feet of Gurudev, what is there to be worried about? So if we have the blessings, if we have the... nothing to worry about, right? So when there’s nothing to worry about, then why do we carry that baggage on us? You just let it go. That is important. Surrender and believe. Believe in him. Believe in the process. Don’t try to use our brains, and don’t try to use the logic? Because I tried that, trust me. When you try to find the logic, you will just get more complicated. So instead of trying to find the logic, just do what he says. He says we go, we go. On the way, we will figure out where we go. Doesn’t matter, but we go. But if we try to figure it out before where we are going, then we’ll be stuck and go nowhere. So it’s much easier just to let go. Let go of all those fears we have within. Forget all those tensions. When we come to Gurudev, leave all that baggage outside the door. No one is going to steal your baggage. You will find it once you walk out. It’s not going anywhere; it’s waiting for you. But what Gurudev does, what his blessing does, is that he can reduce or remove that baggage for you, so then it will be stolen, but in a good way. So when you come, if you have that all built up within you and you come to him, and he feels those energies, then he will be working with those energies. But it will be much happier moments for you if you leave everything, surrender everything and say, "Gurudev, from inside my heart, I am yours. I know you are mine, and that’s what matters to me." And that’s it. Nothing else should matter. We know that we love him. We know he loves us. Sometimes his love is in the form of a daṇḍa. Daṇḍa means stick. Sometimes his form of love is talking in a louder voice, or sometimes his love is being silent, or sometimes his love is just saying "Hario." So anything that comes out of his mouth, mukharavinda—mukharavinda means beautiful mouth—so whatever comes out of that mouth is a blessing. Now we need to understand that sometimes when a louder voice comes, it’s not in a bad way. He sees through all of us. He is working with all of us, so sometimes you get a slight push. It’s for our own benefit. It’s not something to get upset about and say, "Okay, Swāmījī, you are angry at me. I will never see you again. I’m going." No, this is a test for all of us. He is looking at all of us. He’s seeing how we all are functioning in this time, and how things are moving; he’s observing everything. Don’t think that he doesn’t realize things; he does. He is watching us, and much more now. Before, he was much more busier with other things, but now his full focus is on all of us. What I believe is that his dream of building the ashram, when the inauguration was done, now he released everything, and now he’s trying to just be with himself, be in peace, and do what he wants, and I think we all owe him that much respect and that much, that much love, that we just say, "Swamiji, what you do, how you do, you do... you, but you be with us, that’s what we want, that’s it." And when Gurudev is doing anything, let him do. When he wants to go somewhere, let him go. We should not have those expectations, like right now that the seminar was announced. Why is Viśva Gurujī not here? He is always here. You can’t say he’s not here. He might not be physically sitting here, don’t worry, he’s here. If you want to feel him, you will feel him. You just go inside of you and say, "Gurudev, these are my questions, these are my thoughts, these are my wishes." You will see, in a way or another, your questions, all you will get the answers in day-to-day life. You have some questions within you. Give it to Swāmījī. He might not give you a direct verbal answer, but that question will be answered in one way or another. You just need to trust and have that trust within him, that Gurudev, I trust you. He’s the puppet master, and we all are the puppets, and he’s playing with the fingers, and we all are dancing as he wants. If we are here, we are here because of him. If we are going somewhere, we are going because of him. That’s what we need to believe, that whatever we are doing, it’s him doing. Our happiness is his, our sadness is his, our problems are his, and our joy is his. Everything is his. If we have that mindset within us, then nothing is going to stop us in this world, and we just need to continue this beautiful, beautiful legacy what Gurudev has created and just know that he is inside, and he is always with us. And as much as sevā is possible, that much, in any way—doesn’t need to be working, sweeping, cooking—just being in the company of Gurudev. When Gurudev says, "In the hot sun of Jadan," near the Omāśram, Umāpurījī and I were pulling the weeds. Also good. Why? Because that removes that "I," "me." It’s me, myself, and I. That ego, it burns by doing some sevā. Gurudev always said that these things are what will pull us down from our spiritual path. It doesn’t matter how much we grow, but if any of these come within, boom, down. So it is much better to let go of these things and be in ultimate bliss, ultimate happiness, and always have that love for Gurudev. Know that he is loving us, and trust the process, trust Gurudev, and know that everything is okay. There was one guru, let’s say Viśvagurujī, who was residing in the mountains. Back to my old style stories, you like the stories or not, okay? So Viśvagurujī used to reside in the mountains, and he had a beautiful āśram called Omashram, or what is this place called Slovenskava? So he used to live in the beautiful city of Slovenskava, and he had many disciples, and one of the disciples was called Gopāl. And Viśvagurujī used to love all the disciples, but one day he wanted to test the disciples. Even this situation now, or even every day, we should believe that Viśva Gurujī is testing us in a certain way. It’s all a play, and he’s looking how we are playing it, how we are taking part in it. So once he called all his disciples, and he said, "This is about trust, how much we trust and not try to use our brains and try to see the logic in it. So it’s easier to understand things in a story form, at least for me, so that’s how I try to give it further." He called all the disciples and he said, "You all have to work and make food for 20,000 people." Okay, 20,000 is too much, let’s say 2,000 people, and without any help, without asking anyone else to do anything, you have to do it. Organize everything, organize the beautiful bandārā. We all know what is bandārā, right? For those of you who don’t, bandārā means communal eating, all together. So we will have many guests coming for a beautiful program, a beautiful weekend satsaṅg in Slovensk, all of us, so we need to cook, so no help, no asking anyone, just do it. Then many disciples were thinking, "How will we do this cooking for 2,000 people?" I see that when Umāpurī is cooking for four people in the kitchen, she’s whole five hours in the kitchen, so, so when you have to cook for 2,000 people, I can imagine how long it will take. So everyone started thinking, "What is happening? We can’t do this. Too many people. Why did Gurujī say this? It doesn’t even make sense, how can us—how can we do it?" So, everyone, slowly, one by one, backed off, made some excuse, disappeared. "We are sick, we are coughing," anything. But one disciple said, "I trust him. I trust the process. I will do as he says, and everything will be happening," and he went to the altar. In front of the altar, he sat and said, "I’m not the doer. I’m not doing anything. You are the one who is doing everything. I leave it in your hands, and I know that it will happen." And then one generous person like Narsiṁha comes. He went to the altar and saw Gopāl praying, so he said, "I will give you all the resources needed for cooking the food." Gopāl said, "Very good." So then he started preparing and cooking everything, and by the time came for the bandhārā, everything was ready. Then Gurudev came and he said, "Very good," and he looked around. How many disciples worked on it? Only one remained. So then he knew that this is the one who trusts me, this is the one who believes in what I say, because if you believe in what he says, it will all come true. It will all be fulfilled. There are no blockages. There are no stoppages which can stop us if we believe in him, if we trust in him. We know that when we walk a path, all the blockages will be removed in a way or another way, nothing will be stopping us, but for that we need guru kṛpā. And how do we get guru kṛpā? By serving him in every way possible, by being there for him in every way possible, by loving him in every way possible, by not doubting him in every way possible, so whatever we do, we are doing for him. And we know that he is always there for us. He is always protecting us. He is always guiding us. He is that light which illuminates the path for us. He is that hand which holds our hand and crosses that ocean and brings us one and unites us to that supreme Self. He is the one who is always there for us. Partners will leave, parents, friends, family, everyone. We were born alone, we will die alone, but one person who is always there, protecting us, guiding us, being there with us. And it doesn’t matter how many mistakes we do, doesn’t matter what we do in our lives, he will always say, "Come, my dear, I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere." And if you remember Gurudev every time in many satsaṅgs, he said, "I am there for you." Right? We all believe that. Is there any doubt? Good, that’s how it should be. But there are many more people, and I didn’t hear so loud. When we know that he is there, when we know that he is guiding us, showing us the path, we trust within him. We trust and trust and trust, that’s it. Nothing else we need. So now we will all do mānasik pūjā, imagining that we are doing pūjā to Gurudev, imagining his form. So everyone, please close your eyes. Śānti. We all can now use our imagination as wide as possible. You can go as deep as you want. You can use every single object or whatever you want to use in the mantrapūjā. It’s your imagination; it is endless. Imagine Gurudev is walking into your house. You prepared a beautiful āsana in front of you in your living room for him. The āsana can be in any material; it can be made out of anything—gold, silver, diamond, platinum, whatever you want to imagine. Flowers... Gurudev is walking slowly through the doors of your house, blessing your house, stepping in with his right foot in the house, coming, and you are saying, "Gurudev, I prepared this beautiful āsana for you. Please take a seat and bless my house." Gurudev sat on the seat. You slowly make praṇām, touching his lotus feet, getting blessings from him. Then you bring a beautiful plate, or a plate which you will put under his feet to wash his feet. The plate can be made out of any substance, any metal, and slowly you pour water on his lotus feet, doing caraṇa pūjā, and you slowly offer flowers, do tilak on his thumbs, wipe his feet with a beautiful cloth, tilak on his forehead, and then from the background you hear the mantra: Namo Sunantāya Sahasra Mūrtaye, Sahasra Pādākṣiśiro Ruhā, Sahasra Namne Namaste Puruṣāya Śāśvate Sahasrakoṭi Yuga Dhāriṇi Namaḥ Kamalanābhāya Namaste Jalāsahine Namaste Keśavānanta Vāsudeva Namostu Deva. Vāsanād Vāsudevasya vāsitaṁ bhuvanatrayaṁ, sarva-bhūta-nivāso’si Vāsudeva namo’stu te. Śaṅkaraṁ Śaṅkarācāryaṁ keśavaṁ bādarāyaṇaṁ sūtra-bhāṣyakṛtau vande bhagavantau punaḥ punaḥ. You have your pūjā thālī ready with you. You light the dīpak. Then you do Āratī of Gurudev. Then you tie the beautiful molī on the hands of Gurudev, the right hand. Then you have that beautiful Mālā which you created with your own hands. That Mala you offer to Gurudev. Then you take the flowers and put them at his lotus feet. You can take an envelope, which you created of whatever amount, and give the dakṣiṇā to Gurudev. After that, you are sitting and making praṇām, or making daṇḍavata praṇām, lying down and saying, "Gurudev, please bless me. Please keep us all happy. Please always be with us. Please always protect us. Please always show us the right path. Please guide us." Make your pranāms, and Gurudev is touching your head with his hands and blessing you, touching your forehead with his thumb and giving that blessing through him to you. Feel that energy coming through his heart to his hands to you and flowing through within your whole body. Feel that energy, that powerful energy which is coming to you from Gurudev, and know that he is always there, and he is sitting right in front of you and saying, "I am with you, everything is okay." Then he gives you blessings. You get up, you bring food for him, which you created, and you’re offering Gurudev food. And he’s eating the food which you made. You have 100 items, 108 different foods, and Gurudev is trying one by one and saying, "Very good, good food," and then you say, "Gurudev, a little bit more, please," and then he takes it from your hand and eats it slowly. Then, at last, food is incomplete without dessert, but dessert without sugar, please, so you bring dessert to Gurudev. A beautiful kheer halwa, anything that you liked, you made for him, and Gurudev takes a little bit, and the rest he gives to you and says, "This is prasād for you." And you are taking that prasād, then you take a bowl, Gurudev washes his hands, Gurudev says many blessings, and he is slowly getting up. Gurudev says, "Hari Om." Slowly, he sits in your car, and he drives with you. And Gurudev is always blessing us, always with us. And then we take those flowers which were there in our home. Keep that with us. Drink that caraṇāmṛta, that beautiful water which we used for washing. Distribute the mahāprasāda which was left on the plate to all the family members, and feel the presence of Gurudev always with us. And Gurudev is always within our hearts, and whenever we miss him, whenever you want to see him, just go within. Imagine his form, imagine Gurudev sitting there and blessing us, and we are just sitting and doing our mala or closing our eyes in front of him. He is always present. Vedānta Vijñāna Suniścit Arthasannyāsayogatyātayātsuddhasattvāhaṁ Te Brahmaloke Tuparantakāliparamṛtatparimucyanti Sarve Dhāraṁ Vipāpaṁ Parameśma Bhūtaṁ Yad Puṇḍarīkaṁ Puram Ādya Sadgṛṣṭaṁ Tatra Vidāha Rāṁ Gaganaṁ Viśokas Tasminyadantas Tadupāsitavyaṁ. Now, gently, while rubbing your hands, pat it on your eyes, on your face, and slowly open your eyes. So Gurudeva was present, right? So he is always there. He is always with us. He is always guiding us, protecting us, and always with us. And that’s what we need to know. That’s it. Jai Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Jai Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Mādhavānand Purījī Satguru Dev Bhagavān, Jai Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Maheśvarānand Purījī Gurudeva, Jai Jai Sat Sanātana Dharma, Jai Jai... Āj Kī Ānanda, Jai Jai... Āp Sab Bhakto, Jai Jai... Araṇamav Pārvatī, Jai Har Har Mahādeva, Amen.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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