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Part 1: Taming the Restless Mind and Embracing Impermanence I bow to the lineage of Gurus, from Śrī Śaṅkarācārya to my own Ācārya. Guru is Brahmā, Guru is Viṣṇu, Guru is Deva Maheśvara. Guru is verily the Para-Brahma; to that Śrī Guru, I offer salutations. Mahānātha Śrī Jagannātha Madhuguru Śrī Jagadguru, my Self and the Self of all beings, to that Śrī Guru, I offer salutations. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to the Śrīla Puruṣa Siddhi Pīṭha Paramparā. My praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda Purījī. Oṁ Namaḥ Nārāyaṇāya to all the Sannyāsīs present. Hari Om and good evening to all of you here and those watching through Swamiji TV. We continue from yesterday and the past week on the topic of the mind and thoughts. We also touch upon a topic often considered taboo but which is a reality: death. Our mind and thoughts make us worried and prevent us from truly living while we are alive. It is a subject we should discuss. The mind is a monkey; we all know this. It likes to hop from one tree to another every millisecond. Even when we are meditating, doing our mālā, sitting in satsaṅg, or talking to a friend, that monkey-mind is jumping everywhere. It is restless, called cañcal in Hindi. Our mind is like it has had three coffees and twenty bananas. After such stimulation, that monkey becomes far more restless than usual. Most of the time, our state of mind is like a monkey completely energized on coffee. But instead of killing thoughts or killing the monkey, it is better to tame it. The mind is a storehouse of memories. Many memories are not reality, but we think them into being or imagine them to be real. In truth, those thoughts and memories are most often our own manifestations. When we decide, "Okay, now I will finally do my mālā," something spiritual, a satsaṅg with Truth, our mind says no. "I still have a few more episodes of a series on Netflix. I have 2,400 messages to respond to." We always find an excuse not to do something and choose an easier alternative, even if it is not good for us, because in that moment it is what we want—it avoids doing what is good for us. Why? Because as humans, we are drawn toward negativity. We are drawn toward energies that pull us and offer temporary happiness. We all like happiness, but we must decide if we want long-term or short-term happiness. For those who meditate, what do we do? We let go of our thoughts. We surrender. In deep meditation, we can even travel out. We go out and see our body meditating, but we are actually in our astral form. The key difference with meditation is that we come back. With death, we do not come back—or rather, we come back to a different address, not the same one. We will surely come back if we lack sufficient tapasyā, sādhanā, and spiritual development. Thus, meditation is a process of releasing. It prepares us for what will eventually happen. But yogīs, those great Mahāpuruṣas who know the truth, have already let go. They are not attached. We are Jñānī Jīvas; we are attached. We are attached to friends, family, parents, property, personal memories, and many things. When we are attached, those things will not let us go. Something always holds us back. Consider the story we have all heard from Gurujī, of one who was reborn repeatedly—as a cow, a bull, a dog, a snake—because of attachment, wanting to care for a child. We will be reborn again and again until we let go. While we have this human life, I know it is hard to let go of attachments, hard to let go of things we hold dear. But the thing most dear to our hearts should be the love for Gurudev, the bhakti we hold. That is something we do not let go of; it stays with us. Everything else is temporary and will go. Lives are not permanent, thoughts are not permanent, memories are not permanent. Nothing is permanent. Only the bond, the devotion, the love, the bhakti toward the Guru is permanent. The bond between disciple and Guru is permanent. All else is temporary. Yet the fear we hold about letting go is the strongest fear. Meditation is one practice that slows us down, calms us, and helps us let go of inner things. When we meditate, we let go of inner conflicts. We may not fully let go of thoughts, but we do not tap into them because we are concentrating on something else: the light, the Guru, the Guru's name, our mālā. These practices help divert the mind. We do not engage with specific thoughts; we just let go. Yogīs are already withdrawn; they know what to do. When we try to escape, we cannot. No matter how much we try to run from it, just as with Māyā. Māyā is a part of this, as are death and birth. Māyā is part of this Mṛtyuloka. No matter how much we run, we cannot completely let go. Therefore, it is better to work with it; let it be. We are stuck in a spider web. The more we struggle to escape, the more entangled we become. If we let it go, the Guru will be the one to release us from that web. So, do not fight against it. In Yoga Nidrā, we say: do not fight against sleep. If it comes, let it. It is the same here. Do not fight against these things. Do not try to run. They are a part of existence; we are all part of this. Let it come, let it go. What comes will go. Nothing is permanent. There is a fictional story about a man named Himde. He liked to outsmart people and thought he was the smartest. He decided, "I will outsmart Yama." One day, sitting outside the ashram, he was planning. Why do we plan? Planning is for the future. I understand most of us function on planning, though currently we may not be in that zone. We need some planning, like for vacations, seminars, or trips to India. But most plans I made with friends to go somewhere ended up nowhere. We never managed to go, while unplanned plans always worked. It is easier to function with unplanned plans than to plan something that will become unplanned anyway. And when planned plans become unplanned, it leads to sadness and regret. "I planned this with so much effort, and then a friend cancels, and the planner ends up not going." Planning does not really work. Himde had a plan to outsmart Yama, not by giving him Sonamukhī (otherwise that would be a good plan, but he had not yet heard that story from Swāmījī). His plan was to hide when Yama came. Gurujī, passing by, heard his thoughts and said, "There is no sense in running away or hiding from Yama. Instead, welcome him as an old friend." Yama is an old friend because we have seen him many times across many lives. In that sense, he is an old friend visiting after a certain period. Running will not help. Welcome him with open arms. Himde said, "No, I will manage." Gurujī said, "Okay, you do you. Yama does him." When Yama came one day, Himde said, "Good morning, how are you?" Yama replied, "Very good, I have come to take you to Yamaloka." (I am experimenting with an Indian accent I do not have.) Himde said, "Sorry, Yamarāja, I have different plans." Yama asked, "What plans? The only plan is that you come with me to Yamaloka for some beautiful tea." Himde said, "No, I need to meditate." Throughout his life, this fictional Himde did not meditate. But when Viparīta Kāla comes, when fear or death comes, when someone is beating you, when you are in trouble—then we remember God. Then we remember the Guru or the Higher Self. That is the problem. They should be meditated upon all the time, not only in trouble. But that is human nature. I know from myself and many friends in school: before an exam, even if we were on a spiritual path, many friends would, the night before, light a dīpaka, light agarbattī, and chant "Om Jai Jagadīś Hare" or "Om Namah Śivāya." "Oh God, I have an exam tomorrow. Even though I did not study all year, I remember you now because I have faith that someone above can help." Yes, He will help you, but not in writing your exam. He will help in real troubles, not when you neglected study all year. "Oh Śivjī, oh Gaṇeśjī, oh Hanumānjī, I promise if I pass I will bring a box of pizza from Tilak and serve you pizza, or donate prasāda in the ashram." That is how we bribe, just as I bribe kids to keep coming to seminars next year. In the same way, kids bribe God. It is true. Gurudev created a beautiful family, and this family must continue. Gurudev has all of you. I automatically have a beautiful, large family, for which I am grateful to Gurudev. Every family might have a few or many members; I have a very big family. Death is an event that will come, so we need future generations. That is why I bribe them with chocolates to come to the next seminar. Similarly, students say, "I will do this for you if you make me pass my exam." That is the problem. "Gurudev, I am in trouble, please save me." But where is Gurudev when we are enjoying the beach on the Adriatic coast? Then we do not remember Gurudev. Then Gurudev was in Jadan, and we were on the coast. "Oh, I forgot my mālā. No problem, I will swim now and do it in the evening." In the evening, we are too tired from swimming, so we eat and sleep. That is the problem. That thinking, meditating, mālā—it should become ajapa. Once we practice so much that it becomes ajapa, automatic, then there is no problem. Then you can go swimming or talk like Viśvagurujī. I have seen him on the phone so many times. Even Matajī, Gurujī, and Swāmījī—these three people I have seen doing this. Talking to people, their mālā is constantly going on and on. They can still talk to you. Here, I must stop my mālā to talk and then continue. It does not work like that for me, but for them it does. That is ajapa. That is when the mālā is constant, when the mantra is continuously flowing within. Then you can go for a swim or do anything, knowing that inner practice is still ongoing. Part 2: The Drop, the Realization, and the Present Moment But until then, let us follow and do our daily mālā sādhana, because that is at least something; it is one drop of spirituality. In our lives, in our day, at least one drop is good enough, because one drop by drop by drop can eventually fill up that cup. So if we do not have the energy, if we do not have the time for doing a lot, at least a little bit, because even little, little, little will make it big enough. But as much as possible—not that now I say one drop, so we will only do one mālā a day and think we are done. Not that we think, "Avatārpuri said only one drop, so one drop is enough for me." No, as much as we can, but at least one drop of spirituality. So instead of thinking and planning, he decided that he would hide. He said he would hide by doing meditation. He would just sit there and meditate, and Yamarāja would get bored and disappear. So he said, "Yamarājī, I know. I will do a little bit of my meditation, and after meditation, then you can take me." Yamarāja said, "Okay, Mahārāja, what to do? As you wish. If you say you want to do this... no, you don’t want to. First kid I see, you know." My bragging powers did not work, so then Yamarāja said, "Okay, I will wait." Himdev said, "Okay, I will sit and I will meditate, and Yamarāj will go." But that was the first time when he actually went within, felt and saw something, and relaxed his thoughts. Something changed within him, maybe because of fear or maybe because of anything, whatever the reason. The reason is, even if fear is the reason for you to get enlightened or for you to realize something within, very good. If anger is the reason that you are going to meditate, very good. If you are angry and your therapy is to go and meditate, good. If you are sad and your therapy is to go and meditate, very good. Then I encourage that type of therapy, no problem. If there is something that will make you stop doing something bad, do it, if it is good. So finally something clicked inside, the connection, the signal which was lit. The Wi-Fi was a little bit slow. The Wi-Fi speed became faster from Gurudev’s side, and he switched into 5G mode or 6G mode, and then something started functioning. So then his meditation worked, and finally, when he opened his eyes, he was ready. And Yamarāja was obviously waiting; he did not run away. So he said, Yama asked, "Sir, are you ready?" He said, "Yes, I am." "How come you are ready so soon? Before, you were saying that you do not want to go, and now suddenly you want to go? What is this?" Then he said, "I realized, who am I?" Prabhūśāṇabhūti is saying, "Who am I?" From where did I come? What is the origin? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves, and we need to find the answers by ourselves within us. And then we will realize that this is temporary. If we were immortal, then we would do so many stupid things in our lives we could not imagine. So it is good that we are mortal and we will die, because then we have at least something in our heads: that there is a certain time span which we are having here in this universe. And then we know that, okay, we are not immortal; let us not waste our lives. So every morning, remember we are not immortal; we are mortal, and we will go one day. Who knows when? Yama does not look if you are eating, if you are drinking, if you are outside with friends, if you are sleeping, or if you are driving. Death can come anywhere. It is unpredictable. So instead of thinking, "Oh, I have another day, I have another day"—not another day to live, but another day to do mālā, another day to think about Gurudev, another day to do something spiritual in our life—we need to know. In India we have a saying, "Kal Kare So Āj Kar, Āj Kare So Ab." What you are planning to do tomorrow, do today. What you are planning to do today, do now. Again, we are coming to the same part now. The past is past, the future is future. Now we are living in the present, now we are sitting in satsaṅg, now we are being in ultimate bliss, we are being in peace. At least somewhat of peace we are getting here. It does not matter, inner or outer, whichever peace, some peace we are getting. When we go back to our busy life, we will have the same chaos. No problem, do not worry. It is waiting there. But until you are here, be in the now. Be in the present. Live the moment. Be happy. Be present. Enjoy the bhajans. Enjoy the satsaṅg. Anuṣṭhāns might seem like torture for you now, in sauna or not sauna, or, sorry, in cold or hot or whatever. But later we will remember that, oh, what a beautiful time, how much peace I had while doing that. When Niranjan will be sitting in Nokia headquarters again, then he will think, you know, it is surprising, you know, these people who are on this good high post in India, they would not care a little about doing anything spiritual. So, I am so happy sometimes, and we were discussing with Vikram when we were talking that it is so surprising to see for us, or at least for him now, what a difference there is between our beautiful family and Indians in India. Because the roots of spirituality came from India. All the great Mahāpuruṣas, all the incarnations, happened in India. Why? Because India is the land of spirituality. But the problem is, the current Indians are now unfortunately drawn towards the westernized culture. It is okay to modernize yourself, but it is not okay to forget our roots. Where did we come from? What are our roots? What are our morals? And here it is so happy, we are so glad to see that people who are notable, or who are politicians, or who are in good high posts or low posts or whatever, here at least we do not have this caste system, we do not have divisions. We do not have between each other duality, that you are big, you are small, you cannot do this, you cannot touch this. It is one; we are all one. That is what Gurudev taught us. Gurudev did not see religion, ethnicity, or color. He did not see who you are or what background you have. He accepted all of us with open arms and said, "You are mine and I am yours." That is it. That is what matters. And there, if you are in good posts or no posts, you do not want to do. And Niranjan was telling me, "Oh, I will free my six weeks or four weeks, and I will come to Strilky and lead an anuṣṭhān." I was like, very good. Normally, you know, these people will say, "No, no, we will go." If they have at least two weeks, they want to go to the beach or do something, you know. So it is a very proud feeling for us, to look at how much Gurudev has done. Not for himself, but for the world. That is what we were talking about yesterday. Svadharma and Paradharma. This, what he did for us, was Paradharma. He is doing it for us, not for himself. He made this beautiful oasis for us to live in. But again, saying he had the option, he had the option to go and sit in a cave and not show himself for God knows his whole life. But no, he came to the West, he came here, he spread that divine light of Mahāprabhujī and gave that message, helping us all in our spiritual journeys. So we should not forget that. So when Him Dev finally realized who He is, He is not this body, He is not Him Dev, this body is just clothes, it is a fictional story, do not worry. It is just the clothes, but this is the reality. The story might be fictional, but it is real. This is just clothes. In the same way as we like to change, go in our closet and change clothes and find new clothes, the ātmā also goes and finds new clothes, better ones hopefully, and hopefully it does not need to find new clothes and it can be liberated and out of this chakra of death and birth, death and birth, death and birth. But Yama said, "Because of the realization, because you found out who you are and you became a yogī, I bless you and I will not take you. Now, spread that message and go further." So this is it. When we realize, then many things can change, many things can happen. Why? Not because our time is not over, but because we realized something which we did not know, and even then, gods and Mahāpuruṣas say, "Take it further." That is why they give more time. "Do Hari kā nāma sumaraṇa pyāre, terā janama maraṇa." So death and birth will come and go, will happen. But do Hari Nāma, which means remember the name of God, remember the name of the Guru. Realize that, because that is something which will stay with us. The name of the Guru, the name of our mantra, all these things will stay; the rest is temporary and will go. He also had a similar plan of running away, but running away does not always help, as we figured out in the first story. But this one had a better idea. He had more money, so he decided, "Meditation, not I will fly." So one day, he was sitting in his home. Thinking, thinking... and suddenly he got a knock on his door. He opened the door, and Yamarāja was standing there. Yamarāja said, "Chalo, let us go. Time is up." No, sorry, this was the first story. The second one was that he went to an astrologer, actually. Yes, true. He went to an astrologer, and the astrologer said, "This Sunday, Yamarāja will come and take you from Delhi." So he said, "I am sitting in Jadan, why should I even go to Delhi? And why should I even stay in India?" So he said, "Okay, I will go to the U.S." So he said, "Okay," then he packed his bags on Saturday, already before midnight. He said, "I will not even let it be Sunday, you know." He said Sunday, so it can be one minute after midnight, which is also Sunday. So on Saturday he went to the U.S. And in the U.S., he peacefully went to Alexandria. He started. It is a fictional story. And there he started eating his meal, dinner, peacefully. And you know, the U.S. is in the back, no? With the time on the front. Behind, no? Yeah, six hours behind. So he said, "Okay, great. I saved six hours by flying to the U.S." Purījī, Purījī... "I went to an astrologer, and he said, 'You will come and catch me in Delhi on Sunday.'" He said, "Yes, but you saved me a trip because I was anyhow on my U.S. tour, and I was planning to go next to Delhi. But you are here, and I was surprised to see your name in the U.S., because your name was written in Delhi. But you saved me a trip. Thank you very much." So do not worry, Yamarāj will find you wherever you are. He does not care if you are eating, sleeping, dancing, flying, anything. If he wants, if your time is up, if your destiny says you go. But Guru Bhakti and Guru Kṛpā can help us, maybe not extend our life span, but make our life much more beautiful than it is supposed to be. If our destiny says our life is a living hell, he will make it a living heaven. That is his job. But going and coming, that is according to our karmas, that will happen. So, do not get too much attached to it. Meditation is like putting on earphones because our mind is going crazy. It is like neighbors making noises, you know, if you are living in Gaṅgā, then you understand me. We have slightly thin walls, Vasant, and there you can hear your neighbours and you can hear everything, especially the beautiful, lovely children. This time, also not. So, then it is like neighbours; our thoughts are like neighbours. They will bang, they will make noise. Some neighbors like to play guitar and flute in the night, or some neighbors like to shout and scream at each other. Many things. That is all distractions; that will all be there. But when we are too bothered by neighbors, we still have technology; we put our earphones in, put on music, and zone out. So meditation is like that. Our thoughts are those neighbors who are coming and banging our walls, and meditation is like putting on earphones, but not with music, but with silence, tuning out, making peace in our mind, and just bringing the thoughts down and putting on that music of silence and bringing us down to that peace. So we need that meditation, that is why meditation, mālā, bhakti, śraddhā, bhakti, these all things we all have, so let us just keep it and pass it on to the next generations with the chocolates, and let us all remember and not forget the roots, and not forget that this is what helped us in our darkest times, and now when we are in good times, let us not forget it. Let us not forget the time in Strilky, let us not forget the time with the chakras, let us not forget the time with the chakras, let us not forget the time with the chakras. Gurudev, let us not forget how much we did when we were down. When we are up, then we forget these things. So now, when we are up, also do the same things, or even more. No problem, just remember that, and Gurudev is with us, always will be with us. Within our hearts, we are in His heart, omnipresent, everlasting. So enjoy, be happy, be blessed. Many blessings from Gurudev, much love from me. Swasti prajābhyāṁ paripālayantaṁ nyāyena mārgeṇa mahīṁ mahīśāḥ. Go-brāhmaṇebhyaḥ śubham astu nityaṁ lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Sadgurudeva Gavanakī Jai Haranāmāvaparvatī Pate Har Har Mahādeva Śambhav.