Podcast details
Trees are the memory and witness
A spiritual discourse on the sacred memory of trees and the nature of divine will.
"These trees under which we are sitting keep the memory of how divine the minutes or days we had here."
"Not even a blade of grass or a tree leaf can move without my divine will."
A speaker reflects on trees as silent witnesses to enlightenment and sacred teachings, referencing Buddha and scriptural gatherings held in their shade. He parallels human life to the inverted tree described in the Bhagavad Gītā and expounds on the one universal God of the Vedas. The talk explores divine manifestation, incarnation, and the immutable nature of divine will, concluding that only devotees, through surrender and love, can transform adharma into dharma.
Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Summer Workshop
Again, it reminds me of many, many things. I remember many things. These trees under which we are sitting keep the memory of how divine the minutes or days we had here. In all those holy scriptures and the telling of the ṛṣis, all was created under the trees. Enlightenment took place under the trees. You know, Lord Buddha had his enlightenment under a banyan tree. That tree is still there. And at that time, that tree was very, very old. And now it's older than it was then. So those trees, those forests are the witnesses of the Holy Saints.
Here we had a peace conference. Here we had the Rāmāyaṇa. Here we had lectures about Patañjali, so many things you heard; now it depends how much you have preserved in you. Toliko toga ste čuli, sade na vama koliko ste toga zapamtili, sačuvali. Annyi mindent hallatatok már itt. Most ki fog derülni, hogy mennyit őristetek meg ebből.
These trees remained faithfully. Ovo drvecse ovde ostalo verno na ovo mesto. Ezek a fák hűségesen állnak itt. Harmoniously. U skladu. Harmonikusan. Facing all kinds of weather. Surucavajucisi sa svim vremenima i vremenskim privikama.
Similarly, the human, or this life, is also a tree. In the Bhagavad Gītā, 15th chapter, God Kṛṣṇa is speaking about two trees. In the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa talks about two trees. One tree has its roots down in the earth. And another tree has its roots up. And that is the human tree. The roots are in the brain, and the branches which go down are the limbs. Beautifully, the human life is compared with the teachings of the Vedas.
The Vedas do not speak about a personal God. The Vedas speak only about one God. The Vedas speak only about one God, the Parameśvara, the Almighty, the Immortal, the Omniscient and Omnipresent, the All-Present and All-Knowing, the Supreme Bliss, the Highest Blessing. That God is in every atom. God is in every living being. God is in every living being. So there is one God, and that is a universal one. So there is one God, and that is universal. And the entire universe is governed by that Divine Principle.
And from time to time, it is He who manifests. Or He speaks through particular incarnations. There are two words: one is birth, and the second is incarnation. There are two types of incarnation: one is born, and the other is incarnated. Incarnation is more used in spirituality. Birth is used for all other beings. But in reality, it is the same. The difference is this: that other creatures, including humans, are born according to their destiny, or karma. Let it be called reincarnation or rebirth; so it's the same thing again, reincarnation.
Kṛṣṇa has said very clearly, I think in the 14th chapter to Arjuna, "From time to time I manifest myself through my yoga māyā, yoga power, a yoga māyámon, yoga śaktimon, a yoga erőmön keresztül, to protect the dharma, azért, hogy a dharmát megóvjam. Dharma is the right-house-ness, dharma is the justice, dharma is the justice, and to free them from adharma, sin, negative power of injustice, and from injustice. From time to time I manifest myself."
So from time to time I manifest myself. He said, "Not even a blade of grass or a tree leaf can move without my divine will." Everything in this universe and on this planet, visible and invisible, movable and unmovable, all are there by that divine will, and no one can influence or change that divine will. With some human powers, with your political power, social power, material power, or your intellectual power, the entire world can try together, but that universal dharma is satya, truth, and no one, no one can vanquish or dissolve the satya.
But only the bhaktas, only the saints, through surrender and through love, they can change. So love is the strongest tool to change adharma into dharma, to accept, to forgive your or our bad karmas. So that we can accept and change our karmas. Through surrender and through love they can change. So love is the strongest tool to change adharma into the dharma. To accept, to forgive, your or our bad karmas. So that we can accept and change our karmas.
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Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Summer Workshop
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