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Blessings to all of you, dear bhaktas of Mahāprabhujī and Devapurījī. I am happy to see you again in our ashram. We wait the whole year for this beautiful evening in this natural hall, under the open sky. There is an example: if dry grass falls on a fire, the grass burns. Or, if fire falls on the grass, the grass also burns. Similarly, if a bhakta is thinking of Gurudeva, the bad karmas of the bhakta are burned. Or, if Gurudeva is thinking of the bhaktas, the bad karmas of the bhaktas also burn. Mahāprabhujī said, "If you are a hundred meters far from me, then I am also a hundred meters far from you." That distance means the inner distance. So if you keep the distance, you will always be at a distance. Therefore, you and I must constantly be thinking of each other. And definitely, there is constantly some negative karma clearing up. To clear up karmas, there are different ways. If there is a water tank and you must remove all the silt and impurities from the bottom without losing the water, the whole water will become cloudy for a while. In the mind, saṅkalpa and vikalpa are constantly changing. Saṅkalpa means a wish, a desire to fulfill. Vikalpa means changing: "I don’t want this, I want this, I don’t want this." Deciding to practice, deciding to give up—this is a karmic process. This is not only with you; all of humanity suffers from this, especially all aspirants on the spiritual path. So what should we do? We shall observe our saṅkalpa and vikalpa. For this, from time to time, we have to clean that tank. That tank is the antaḥkaraṇa. Mana, buddhi, citta, and ahaṁkāra are the content of the antaḥkaraṇa. When you touch them, they begin to react. Therefore, mantra anuṣṭāna is the best way to clean that tank, the antaḥkaraṇa. Holy Gurujī always gives a beautiful definition of what a mantra means. "Man" means mind, and "tra" means satisfaction—trapti, mental trapti. When a hungry and thirsty person gets good food and drink, one is completely satisfied. Similarly, this mind is hungry, searching all the time for nourishment, always searching for joy here and there, but it is not satisfied. You will never be happy in material things because they are changeable. Whatever is changing is temporary, and we do not want temporary joy; we search for everlasting joy. That gives us mantra. So mantra, mantra prīti, satisfies the mind. Second, "man" means mind, and "tra" means liberation—trāṇa, liberation. So, liberate your mind from those material things which give you trouble again and again. Manas, buddhi, citta, and ahaṅkāra—these four principles within our antaḥkaraṇa have to be purified. Man, the mind. Man maran, mamta mari, das Kabir. It is very hard to kill the mind, very hard to win or control the mind. Why can we not control the mind? Because of mamatā, we have longing. Mamatvāhi bandhanka kāraṇhe—attachment. Attachment is the cause of all bandhas. A mighty tiger, a very strong tiger, is closed in a cage; it can’t do anything. Similarly, we humans are very mighty, but we are bounded by mamatva, mamatā, attachment. That is why you cannot control the mind.