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In Hungary, we continue our subject of spiritual development for a better life, to emerge from life's crises—especially what we call the mid-life crisis, those kinds of depressions and pains which seem insurmountable. There is no one to blame; it is only oneself. When Arjuna asked his question in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā about Bhakti Yoga, he initiated a profound dialogue. According to the Bhagavad Gītā, there are not merely the four branches of yoga—Karma, Rāja, Bhakti, and Jñāna, as per Patañjali. If we look deeply, the Gītā describes eighteen different kinds of yoga. It is explained with great precision and clarity, offering beautiful guidance. Arjuna, as a devotee and disciple, asks the questions, and God, the Master, answers. This begins with the Upaniṣad. "Upaniṣad" means upa (near) and ṣad (to sit). The disciple sits near the master and listens to the wisdom. That disciple, after understanding and realizing, is entitled to pass this knowledge to others. This dialogue between master and disciple is the source of everything. It is what you call the gospel of the Master. "Gospel" is another name for the Upaniṣads. The Upaniṣads are very ancient. When you read the complete Upaniṣads, your view of God, the universal God, nature, and the self will be transformed. The Master is known as a Vaktā, a Śrotriya, a Brahmaniṣṭha Śrotriya. The Vākya are the words of the Master, what we call Guru Vākya. Only that Guru Vākya is valid if the Master is a Brahmaniṣṭha Śrotriya. Those words are counted as real Guru Vākya. Gurujī said, "May the moon and sun change their direction, but the words of the Holy Saint, the Mahāpuruṣa, will never change." Mahā means the great, the one with the highest consciousness. Puruṣa is that Ātmā. The words of such a Master cannot fail. Our aim is to realize Brahman. Brahman is only a name; it is not a form. You may call it the universal God, which has no name and no form. A Brahmaniṣṭha is the knower of it, one who has realized it. That person becomes a Śrotriya and begins to speak. The words from the lips of the Master go into the hearts of the devotees, like seeds planted in the ground. When the season comes, spring arrives, those seeds will grow and bear fruit, and you can harvest according to your wish. A Brāhmaṇiṣṭha cannot be bound by limitations because that jñāna is universal knowledge. It is not about "my master and your master" or "my God and your God." All is God. That becomes Upaniṣad. So a Brahmaniṣṭha Śrotriya Master has the right and can give you the blessing. Others may try, but that is not a true blessing. Goodwill is goodwill—better than nothing—but the blessing of a Brahmaniṣṭha Master, even just a little look, is enough. Kṛṣṇa is there, and Arjuna asks him, "Lord, what is better to worship, Nirguṇa or Saguṇa?" Krishna answers, "Both are good. But, O Arjuna, for a human, for their intellect, imagination, and contentment, it is better to worship a personal God with a form." You have to travel a path, but when you reach your goal, the path disappears because you are there. Each chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, from 1 to 18, begins and ends with the name 'yoga'—Athaḥ Bhakti Yoga, Sanyāsa Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, Puruṣottama Yoga, and so on. If you read the Bhagavad Gītā very carefully, you will gain knowledge that is indescribable, new every day. That is called Kamadhenu, the milky cow which gives milk forever. Here, milk means wisdom, and so is the Upaniṣad. Therefore, in meditation, as long as you have not solved your problems, do not try to concentrate only on Nirguṇa. Concentrate on the Saguṇa form. That Saguṇa form will give you something. There are some people who say, "No mantras, no guru, no this." That person is like the fox who said, "The grapes are too sour." They are known as manmukhī, not gurumukhī. They are lost, their consciousness completely covered by mala, vikṣepa, and āvaraṇa. But once you open that heart, then, oh my God, nothing else remains. You have not yet tasted that sweetness. There is a beautiful bhajan from Mahāprabhujī: Chak le naam sa, fir gondagiri. "O traveller, taste that juice, that bark of wisdom, knowledge, the nectar." So, through Saguṇa, we come to Nirguṇa. Nirguṇa means without the three guṇas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. In prayer, we say: Nirguṇa se saguṇa badhāya bhaktan kī hitkārī. "O Swāmī, dīna nāhitakā. Jayā chalāpadā murātakā. Abandhana." Achalapada: achala means unmovable, unchangeable, everlasting, eternal. Therefore, Gurujī said, "That Nirguṇa, for the sake of the bhakta, became Saguṇa." Nirguṇa becomes Saguṇa. Saguṇa means with guṇas, adopting a material body from the five tattvas. For what? For the sake of the bhaktas, for whom it is easier to imagine. That is why we must have an Iṣṭa Devatā. We say: tan-mana-dhana-arpaṇ-kar-guru-sevā-pau hat-jor-araj-karun-charṇo-me-śhiśh-namau. When that awakens in your heart and consciousness, then tan, mana, dhana—body, mind, belongings—everything you surrender. When you have surrendered everything, nothing remains, but still, with folded hands, you bow down. Why? Because that Nirguṇa came in Saguṇa form to help us. Our duty is to accept it, to take it. He came for the sake of our devotion, to protect and to liberate. His darśan, his bhāvakyas, his energy, his touch is what liberates and frees us from sin. That one can be he or she, but it must be Brahma jñāna; otherwise, it is not. Too much intellectual knowledge becomes an endless, thorny, bushy jungle. Intellect and pure Bhakti Yoga become a comfortable, soft path, as if someone has strewn many flower petals on your path. That is the beauty of Bhakti Yoga. But who can walk on it? Who becomes one with it? "Raiman dhaga prem kā, mat toro chitkāy. Tora phir jude nahi, jude ghaat pad jay." "The thread of love does not break. If you do break it, it will become a knot that your pulse cannot go through." Raimdās said, "When I was here, he was not here. Now he is here, but I am not here." What does it mean? Either he or me, that is all. Because the street of love is so narrow, two cannot go together; only one can go, one by one. But you don't want to be last, you don't want to be first, you are afraid to go first. So become one. "One" means clarity, devotion, knowledge, acceptance. It means one opinion, one path, one practice. Then one consciousness becomes one and goes through. If you break in between, be careful, for under the petals there may be a deep hole. The path looks nice. In the Mahābhārata, they laid a beautiful carpet over a pond, a swimming pool. One side was a carpet on solid floor, the other over water, but the mosaic looked the same. Duryodhana had to walk. There was no visible difference. They told him, "Please come, let's go this side." He said, "No, I go straight." Duryodhana means ego. So many of you have Duryodhana at home, in your heart. Duryodhana went straight and stepped onto the carpet over the water. He felt threatened, bedraggled. At that moment, Draupadī, standing on a balcony, saw him and laughed. She could not control herself and said, "The son of the blind one is also blind," for Duryodhana's father was the blind king. Can you imagine the ego that fell into the water? And words spoken like an arrow to the heart became the cause of the beginning of the entire Mahābhārata battle at Kurukṣetra. You see, the battle is within us. Bhīṣma is our ambition. All the heroes from both sides—the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas—represent the good qualities and the bad qualities respectively. Ātmā is Kṛṣṇa. So listen, on which side are you? But without Brahma-jñāna, you cannot discern. Therefore, practice your mantra, practice your sādhanā, and follow the Guru-vākya. That is why it is called Brahma-niṣṭha-śrotriya Satguru-deva. It is said very clearly in one mantra: that Saguṇa, while being Saguṇa, becomes Nirguṇa. Brahmānandam param sukhadam kevalam jñānamūrtim. That which is brahmaniṣṭha is brahmānandam, the supreme bliss. Param sukhadam: the highest happiness. Kevalaṁ jñānamūrtim: now he is the very embodiment of knowledge. Nothing remains but knowledge. That one becomes ekam nityam vimalam achalam. That one is only the one, ekam; everlasting, nityam; pure, spotless, vimalam; unmovable, achalam. Sarvādi sākṣivutam: He is the knower of everyone and everything. He doesn't tell you, but Gurudev knows everything. And then you are that blind one who will fall again into the water. Decide what you want. Pāyo ilāre. Bhai tum jāgo re terā avasara. This is a bhajan from Holy Gurujī. In it, he says, "Manus," human life, is a most precious diamond. You will not get this life again and again. Do not think you will be human again in the next life. How do you know? Perhaps you will be a rabbit in a field pulling carrots, or eating green beans, or a pig with a little tail running about. Who knows karma? Faithfulness will lead you somewhere; unfaithfulness will lead elsewhere. It is your decision. Therefore: brahmānandam param sukhadam kevalam jñānamūrtim dvandātītam gaganasadṛśyam. Above all this prapañca, dvandātītaṁ gaganasadṛśyam. Beautiful, equal vision like the sky. When the sky is very clear, everywhere is blue. Gagan sadraśyam: gagan is the sky; sadraśyam, like that view. So your consciousness, your heart, becomes like that. Then you are a Brahmagyānī. Then it is Guru Vakya. Otherwise, tomorrow someone might say, "I am now also a sanyāsī, and I master my Guru Vakyas." You can say yes, but inside, you know what it is. In German, they call it "Seinheilig," His Holiness. Many are playing like that. The problem is that many men, after a yoga seminar, go home and play the divine master, telling their wives, "What I am telling is Guru Vākya," you know, "husband Vākya." And the wife is surprised. Then she telephones me and says, "Herr, so ist das." It is a long way, my dear, a long, long way. It is said, "The great one never says, 'I am great.'" Nor will he or she speak highly about themselves. That same Rahim Das, a great poet, said, "When does a diamond prize itself? Does a diamond tell you, 'Come, I am a diamond, and my value is about one million dollars'?" A diamond will never say it, but it is we who will say, "Oh, diamond." So become a diamond. Do not try to expect and say, "I am a diamond." As long as you did not speak, you were the wise one. As soon as you spoke, pity. That one is above the three guṇas. Though in this body, which has the three guṇas, his consciousness is above them. That is called being one with Brahman. That is the highest consciousness in samādhi. That is our aim, my dear. So how far are we? Maybe some millimetre—I didn't say centimetre—that would be the difference. It is not a centimetre; it is a sentiment. So maybe some millimetre, that is the question, my dear. Therefore, intellect, which gives without knowing the judgment, without knowing Brahman, is a thorny, bushy jungle. And Bhakti-yoga, clearly, is a beautiful path with a bed of flower petals. But if you are not that true bhakta inside, and you change your feelings, be careful, for you see only the petals, not what lies beneath. For a bhakta, it is God who walks, and He carries you on His palm. It is as if you have a blister on your hand and you walk carefully, carrying it. Everyone asks, "What happened?" You say, "Oh, you see, I have a very big wound and some blisters," and you are carrying it like that. Similarly, God carries us like that if we are bhaktas. Otherwise, He is not carrying you like that. Then we are like an elastic, a nasty fly that is always buzzing and bothering God. If it is too much, He simply waves it away. So be that one, and practice, practice, practice in that way. Go into the heart. Then your mantra, your Iṣṭa Devatā, then the Nirguṇa appears as Saguṇa, and that Saguṇa will carry you to Nirguṇa in meditation. All your unsolved problems, depressions, bad habits, and bad thoughts can be cleared up with your mantra, that sound, and that Iṣṭadevatā. The three qualities—sattva, rajas, and tamas—which can pollute our consciousness, can become a great barrier on our path. Again and again, you come there. So do not become a dustbin or garbage container, carrying more and more dirty karmas every day. Seek purity. Therefore, śayama and niyama, which I spoke of yesterday—through śayama and niyama you can achieve it. Sometimes it is unpleasant. Sometimes it is very hard. But do not be weak. Have strong willpower. Just as gold becomes pure the more you heat it, so too through tapasyā, vairāgya, svādhyāya, tyāga, jñāna, and bhakti. This is your path, my dear, that will lead you to Brahma jñāna. The Upaniṣad is Guru Vākya. The Vedas are Brahma Vākya. Brahma means the Supreme, the Highest One, what you call the Holy Father. His words are Brahma Vakya, but that Brahman is the Guru. Nirguṇ se saguṇ banāye. That Brahman came in this form, and it will definitely lead you. Therefore, Guru Nānak Sāhib said, "Satguru nām jahāj hai." "The name of your master, Gurudev, is a boat." Chadesu utre par: those who will sit in this boat will cross the ocean of this māyā. With confidence, with faith, your Gurudev will definitely bring you to the mainland, to the other shore. But if, in between, you jump out, your master is not guilty. For beside and behind is a very big fish, what you call a shark. If you jump out, then the shark will immediately... high and buy, buy, buy. And what is that fish? Bhoga, desires. That is vāsanā. Vāsanā hi duḥkhāṅka kāraṇa hai. Holy Gurujī often said in his satsaṅg, "The root cause of all the troubles you have is your desires, vāsanā." Therefore, avoid all the visions, sounds, and society where your vāsanās are fed and become tīvra, become strong. Burning desires will burn you completely. Therefore, vāsanā is duḥkhānakāraṇam. That is the cause of all our problems. To become rich is also a vāsanā, a desire. The rich person needs sleeping tablets, must have a license for a gun, then a two-gun license, then video alarms, then guards, then guard dogs. You are not rich now; your money is ruling you. You are not ruling the money; you are its slave. Money is the boss now. Therefore, vāsanā, vāsanā—this jīva suffers lifelong in this vāsanā. When he was born, he was crying. While living, he is criticizing, and when he dies, he feels pity. Škoda. Therefore, meditation and mantra. Tell your mind and your body, "Bus, finished, finished." Through that, your vāsanā will become calm. But if you put fuel on the fire of your vāsanā, then of course it becomes bigger and bigger. This weekend was about how to solve psychic problems, how to understand and overcome our weaknesses, how to meditate, and what meditation is. This was the subject, and we will continue in other seminars. Watching through a webcast is okay, but this is a little more... how do you call it? Conserved material, like essence from the dose. But sitting near the Master and all Gurubhāīs and sisters has an originality. So I will see you at the next seminar in Vép, Hungary. I wish you a very good journey. Drive carefully, please. Do not try to overtake without thinking. In doubt, never overtake. And even if you are driving together with a few others, do not drive very close to each other. Let another car be in between, because many accidents happen when you are too close together and want to be nearer. Go well. Good home. God bless you. May Mā protect your path. And if someone was angry and did not like my words, excuse them and do not use them—or use them. Even if you excuse them, use them. All the best. Bless you.