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We were fortunate to have the opportunity to be under these trees and to have this Guru Upaniṣad. "Upaniṣad" means: "upa" means near, and to listen to the truth from the Master. Or, "ṣad" can also mean disciple. It is the disciple who sits near the master and listens to wisdom. This is how the Upaniṣads came to be. Different ṛṣis have been instructing their disciples, and thus the various Upaniṣads were written. Now, it depends on who takes how much. There is a river flowing, and people must go and bring water. Everyone came back with a different quantity of water, according to their vessel. Though everyone was near the river, the river did not refuse anyone, nor restrict how much water they could take. Everyone had the freedom to take as much as they wanted. Some did not take any, some came empty-handed, and some dropped it on the way. So, the river signifies the Guruvākya, the teachings of the Master. The satsaṅg is the river, and all satsaṅgīs, our listeners, all aspirants, are the ones who go to bring this water from the river—the water of knowledge. The vessel is your consciousness, your memory, your heart. How much you can digest, how much you can take in, that is the limit. This is the Guru Upaniṣad that we are engaged in. Mostly, all Upaniṣads were also written or spoken under nice trees in the forest, where the brahmaniṣṭha and śrotriya—the master or guru—were speaking. A brahmaniṣṭha is the knower, the seer of Brahman. A śrotriya is one who can speak and inspire you, and that is very important. In recent days we have had very divine satsaṅgs. Those who had a pure heart and pure consciousness took more from them. Those who have doubts and complexes did not get anything. And some are expecting something different than wisdom, so it is different for them. As it is said: "Upar se bhare, niche se jhare, Gurū Mahārāj uskā kyā kare." (It is filled from above but leaks from below; what can the Master do with it?) So first, prepare that part where you can collect the wisdom. If your pot is dirty and you put something clean inside, it will also become dirty. The dirty parts are jealousy, negative thinking, doubts, and greediness. All these negative qualities are the dirtiness. Such dirty vessels are those who have negative characteristics, doubt, and curiosity, because their inner nature is like that. You tell something good, but it will be understood badly. If you try to explain something, it will be misunderstood. I told yesterday: you can feed a snake with milk and honey, but still it will produce poison. So, however much love and wisdom you give, it will be returned as a negative quality. And the snake itself is suffering; it does not have a good life, it is not happy. A snake's life has no limbs. It has no ears to hear, no hands, no legs. It only has a mouth and two eyes, that is all. But still, it fights to survive and knows this life is not an easy life—and that is the punishment. It means the soul is traveling in a lower form of life. In Līlā Amṛt you will read a story about Mahāprabhujī, how He liberates a snake. In Līlā Amṛt you read how Mahāprabhujī liberated a snake. It is not a fairy tale. It was real. So, all this that I am telling you is not a fairy tale; it is reality. The life of a snake is not easy, and no one accepts the snake. Everyone is scared. No creature likes it. That is another problem. So these are the qualities. They can be in anyone. When bamboo grows somewhere in the forest, the entire forest is troubled. You know, the whole forest gets information about the birth of new plants—which seed has grown, what kind of seed has sprouted. Just as we inform people that we have had a child, or congratulate someone on a new baby, similarly, the entire creation is aware. So when the bamboo grows and sprouts out of the earth, the entire forest is unhappy. When the bamboo grows, the entire forest is trembling and unhappy. As the poem says: when the bamboo comes out of the earth, the whole earth shudders in fear and unhappiness. "Our destruction has been born." Another one asks, "What do you mean? Bamboo is beautiful. Bamboo is so nice." Also, like we all. They said, "One day will come when it will burn all of us. It will be the cause of fire, the cause of our burning." It means the bamboo has certain qualities which are perhaps not good. When it comes into movement, into rubbing, it creates fire, and then the whole mountain, the whole forest is burning. So mostly, bamboo is the cause of fire in those big hills and dry areas. Secondly, bamboo is so hard, with no smell or anything from other plants, that it doesn't accept; it doesn't absorb. The bamboo is so hard that it cannot absorb the smell of any other plant. Inside, at the knots, things get blocked. So, this fire means anger. If someone tells you something, then you become angry. A volcano breaks out. It burns everyone, and you do not listen to or take the advice of others because your ego is so hard, so strong. So it makes no sense to talk and explain. If, in case something goes in your ears, then you have inside the knots of complexes, so nothing penetrates through. So, like that, bamboo is the symbolic seed; there are people like this. Bamboo symbolically means that there are people who are like it. Thorn trees and weeds are very hard to get rid of, and good trees and good fruit trees are very hard to plant and cultivate. So, as a yogī, a practitioner of mantra and a listener of satsaṅgs and guruvākya, we should root out all the thorns and weeds which are there. This means to be a yogī, to practice mantras, to listen to satsaṅg—this means to get rid of all these sins and all these things. We are yogīs, we listen to satsaṅg, we practice mantras, and our job is to get rid of all these sins and all these things. There is one bhajan from Śrī Maṅgīlāljī, and this bhajan says: "Tan kī cheṭī sāf karāo, bhī oṁ kā bōnā hai." (Purify this field of your body, your heart, because we have to sow the seeds of Oṁ inside it.) One of the bhajans of Śrī Maṅgilāḍjī says that you should purify your body, because you have to put your mind into it. Śrī Maṅgilāḍjī says in one of the bhajans, "Clean your inner field, prepare it, because you have to sow the seed of Oṁ." It is a blessing. The word of the Gurujī is a blessing. Both, the Guruvākya is a blessing. Normally we think we are not jealous, we are not angry, we love everyone, we are very good people. But when reality comes, then your reaction doesn't wait for your good intentions. Immediately, it is like a red cloth in front of a bull. You like everyone very much, and you don't like one person. You are very happy, very relaxed, thinking positively, everything is fine. But when this one person comes in, everything is deleted from you, and again you are like a spoiled apple. That's it. So it means that we are very far from our spirituality, our mokṣa, our liberation, our blessing. How can Gurudev bestow blessings upon you? Because he fills you from above, but down below you are leaking. This is not only true for your spiritual life, but for your normal life as well. And you know that everyone is frustrated, everyone is completely fed up with life. We know that money cannot make you happy, because money cannot love you, and you cannot eat money. Therefore, it is something different which makes you holy, free, and divine. No one is against you, but you are against yourself. Because you are against yourself, that is why you think someone is against you, and that is why you feel like that.