TV Channel

Śrī Śrī Alagapurī Jī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Devadhī Dev Deveśvara Mahādeva Kī Jai. Ārādhya Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhūjī Kī Jai. Hindu Dharm Samrāj Mādhavānanjī Bhagavān Kī Jai. Viśva Guru Mahāmaleśwar Paramsamāśwan Jī Gurudeva Kī Jai. Oṁ Pūrṇamadaḥ Pūrṇamidaṁ Pūrṇāt Pūrṇamudācyate Pūrṇasya Pūrṇamādāya Pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate. Oṁ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Oṁ Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā, mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. Kurvanneveha karmāṇi jijīviṣec chatam samāḥ, evaṁ tvayi nānyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare. Asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ. Tāṁs te pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ. Anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo... These first four mantras of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, which is an Upaniṣad in the Yajur Veda, provide moral and ethical principles. The first instructs us not to be greedy. Be happy with what you have, because you have enough of what you need. How do we know that? Because God is everywhere. This energy, this absolute, is everything and is everywhere. There is no place where there is no God. So, if God is everywhere and you have only this, it means you are supposed to have this. The second mantra tells us we cannot avoid work. There is no option, because even not working—only sitting, sleeping, or eating—is also a kind of work. Therefore, please do the work you are supposed to do. Perform your duty for 100 years, meaning for 100% of your life. The third mantra says that if you decide to give up your life, you will finish in a dark place. We often hope, "If this is so bad, I will go, and then the other place will be better." No, the other place will be even darker than this one. There is only darkness and nothingness. So, please do not do that. There are two ways of killing yourself: one is obvious, and the other is not fulfilling your duties, doing things you know are not good for you. Each and every one of us knows from childhood what is good and what is not. After these first three moral and ethical principles, the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad finally presents the Advaita principle, the principle of unity. It is obvious. We proceed to the next mantra: Anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo... That one is so fast, it is faster than the mind. That one is faster than the mind, but it is not moving. Everything is covered by God. Everything is permeated by God. God is everywhere, so He is not moving. This means He is everywhere all the time. He is faster than anybody, faster than anything. The senses cannot overtake Him because He is already there. He is stationary; He stays in one place and is still faster than anybody. They call this principle mātariśva. It can be translated as air or space, but it is incarnating mātariśva. It is like a mother principle; it is covering everything. It is not moving, so it is faster than everything. All our senses, anything—it is faster than anything. And, of course, it supports everything. Then the Upaniṣad continues: Tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad vad antike. That moves, that thing moves; that thing does not move. That thing is very far; this thing is here. This is inside and outside. If you remember, so 'ham—"That I am." This word "that" is usually used for describing the absolute, God, the principle of eternity. So God is far away, God is near, God is outside, and God is inside. God moves, and God does not move, of course. This we are witnessing, but we have to go a level inside. Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad teaches us the connecting principle. Like in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, it says the same thing is in the small ant, the elephant, and the human. The same thing is always there. Each Upaniṣad gives a slightly different principle. It continues: Yas tu sarvāṇi bhūtāny ātman evānupaśyati, sarvabhūteṣu cātmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate. The one who sees everybody in himself... Once you manage to connect that each and every one of us is connected, then there is no hatred. We always hate someone: I hate my neighbor, I hate my classmate. We always hate somebody. But we are freed once we realize that that thing is neither moving nor stationary. It is outside and inside. It is everywhere, so whom to hate? Once we realize this, once we become one with ourselves, there is no more shock. There is no more suffering. There are no more problems which we are facing, because we realize everything, because there is no delusion. There is no difference that I am here and you are there; we are all one. So, in the previous mantra, it says there is no hatred because you realize we are one. In this one, it says there is no sorrow because we are all one. The whole starting point—whatever is in this world—is covered or permeated by God. The eighth mantra describes this divine force, describes God, describes the absolute: Sa paryagāc chukram akāyam avraṇam asnāviraṁ śuddham apāpaviddham. He is all-pervasive, pure, bodiless, without any body or form. Without any wounds, without any damages, without any cuts, without sin, without taints, untouched by anything. He is omnipresent, omniscient, ruler of mind, transcendent, self-existent. He feels everything. It describes the absolute. Why describe the absolute? Because we are that, and it tells us we are that and what to do. One thing is to hear what I am saying; another is to read; a third is to repeat. But until you have practiced and realized, there is no sense in anything. It all becomes intellectual mumbo-jumbo. When you connect intellect with your heart, then understanding happens. Then we can cross this world. We can achieve whatever is said here. We can see that we are one. It is always compared with air or space—ākāśa—because air is everywhere. We close the air in this room, but still, you go out and the air is there. You would not say, "We close the air." We just say, okay, this is the room. It does not matter how many boxes you put; once the cover falls off, when the doors are open, once the walls fall down, the air is one. And that is our duty, that is our work: to finalize, to realize, that this air, this eternal light, is only divided by this skin, bones, and everything. That we are all one. We are just divided by this outside appearance, and of course we cannot change this. That is what it says: that you cannot overtake it, you cannot realize it with your eyes, you cannot realize it with the ears. You have to close the eyes, close the... First, you have to go in, and then you can realize. Āsanas, prāṇāyāma, mantra, karma yoga, jñāna yoga—everything helps. But you have to do it. You have to accept that I am divine, I am that, so 'ham. If you accept that that thing is me, that this divine force is me, there is the end. There is no end; we are free. The light becomes light. So this is the basics of Advaita Vedānta. Advaita Vedānta is mostly proposed or promoted in the Vedas, although then Śaṅkarācārya came and made it more acceptable, or more bound to rules. Then after that, because it became too complicated, another ācārya came and said, "Okay, we will not [have] Advaita. We have Advaita, Advaita. We will add, 'The world also exists.' Then we have Viśiṣṭādvaita." But these are all technical terms. These are all technical terms and have nothing to do with practice. Practice makes perfect. It does not matter how much I talk, it does not matter how much I read, and it does not matter how much you read. Until you practice, nothing will happen. As long as we are hungry and do not go and eat something, nothing will happen. Thinking about food will not happen. Practice and food also have one thing in common: you cannot eat now for the next whole month; you cannot practice now for the next 365 days. So you will do now 365 times five, so it is 1,500 mālās. "I will do today so that for the whole year I am free," and we are doing this. How? We are doing this every day, one, two malas, and then we come on the strike seminar and do 120 malas a day. Oh my God! So every single day, practice, practice... Practice makes perfect. This all you know, you all practice. Do not give up. We are so blessed, we are amazing, and we are going to an amazing place.