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In life, we encounter many situations. According to the circumstances, we form desires and wishes. Sometimes, these wishes are not easy to fulfill, even in a dream. Suppose you have a desire to eat ice cream. You go to buy some, but then you remember—either before or after buying it—that your doctor has told you not to eat ice cream. So you give what you bought to someone else, yet the desire to eat remains. You think, "Well, I could have had two spoonfuls, but what can I do?" After a few days, that desire for ice cream intensifies. You dream at night of a nice ice cream shop selling beautiful, large scoops in pink, yellow, and green. The tongue is very selfish; it likes taste. The problem is that the tongue doesn't think of the stomach, so there is always disharmony between them. In your dream, you buy a nice ball of ice cream. Your doctor has told you, "Now you can eat ice cream. Your throat is okay; you are healthy. You can eat ice cream to become ill." Since you are already healthy, you think that not eating ice cream made you healthy, and now eating it will allow you to remain healthy. You take a spoon and a big piece. As the ice cream comes near your lips and your tongue is just coming out, the alarm rings. There is no ice cream. Oh God! Not even in the dream could I fulfill the desire. So, it is in our hands only to wish. But whether a wish comes true or not is in the hands of destiny. Still, we try very hard. If it is beyond our capacity, we go to God, to a holy altar or a master. We come to Mahāprabhujī: "Please, Mahāprabhujī, bless that I get this and that. May it come true." We do not know if Mahāprabhujī helped or if it was our own work that made it come true. I am talking about desires that we think of and then put in the name of God, whether good or bad. If a desire is fulfilled, we say, "Thank you, Mahāprabhujī. Through his blessing, I got everything." If it is not successful, then we think, "Not even Mahāprabhujī helped me. I am alone. I am lost. Even God can’t help me. I must have bad karma." There is a story. Two criminals, thieves, were going to a village to steal something. On the way, in the forest, there was a beautiful Lord Śiva’s temple surrounded by trees, a waterfall, a pond, and many flowers—a divine atmosphere. They went inside. Both prayed to Lord Śiva: "Shiva, please help us to be successful. If you help us and we are successful, we will give you an offering of a human head." They made this saṅkalpa, this promise. Shiva did not say yes or no; he said nothing. It was all their own imagination. They came to the village. There was a small king who ruled a few villages. Around eleven at night, they succeeded in entering his palace. At that time, there was no electricity, only oil lamps, and the lamps went out for lack of oil. They reached the treasure and took as much as they could carry. Before leaving, they remembered their promise to Shiva to offer a human head instead of a coconut. They thought, "Through his blessing, we are successful. Now, where to get a head?" They were in the palace and wanted to leave. Only the king’s son saw them. They went out and then re-entered through a back window into his room, killed him, and took his head. They came to the Shiva temple and said, "Thank you, Lord, for your help. We promised you, so here is our offering," and they went away. Murder is murder. There was mourning and restlessness. The king and his whole family were unhappy, naturally. The whole village was unhappy; the boy was so nice. The king ordered his soldiers to find the culprit, who would be hanged with a death sentence. They followed drops of blood, which led them to the temple. They found the head. Searching the area, they discovered a half-basement room under the temple where a yogī was living, meditating—a great bhakta of Śiva, a very humble and kind person. They saw that man and took him to the king, thinking, "In the daytime, he plays as a yogī, and at night he does such criminal things." The king asked him, "Any last wish?" He said, "Yes. I have not done this, but I would like to speak to my lord Śiva." They took him to the temple. He came in front of Lord Śiva and prayed truly from the heart. Certain circumstances in life awaken us; then our eyes are open, and the heart pumps those prayers which come from within. Other prayers are on the surface and mostly come from here (the mind): "Lord, I want to find work. I want a partner. I want children. I want to pass my studies. I want this. I want to be healthy." We are always praying from here—aparābhakti. Aparābhakti means full of wishes, while parābhakti is without any wish. He prayed to Lord Śiva, and a voice came: "Yes, my son. What can I do? You know what you can do. I only want to ask you: is this justice or injustice? I have been living here with you for so many years. Every year I am doing Śiva for you. The whole year, I dedicate my life to you. I live only for you, and is this the result of serving you?" Śiva said, "No." The yogī asked, "Why then?" Śiva said, "Yes, it was other people. I didn’t call them. I don’t need that. I didn’t promise them, and I didn’t ask them for anything. It was their own imagination, their own desires, their own wish, and their own promise. What should I do? I’m not guilty. But you, my son, when you were a small child, you caught a locust. You took a piece of iron, like a needle, and put it in its body. You played with it, and it suffered great pain and died. Only the negative karma which you have in you has come back. But due to my seva, you are protected. So only that must trouble you, God. Now you will not be hanged. You will be freed." They all heard this and went to the king. The king was a somewhat wise person. He said, "Okay, put him in prison and search for the real persons." They found the jungle people and all the treasures, jewelry, and things they had stolen and hidden. The thieves confessed, "Yes, we killed the prince." The king himself then came with folded hands and a flower garland. He excused himself and said, "Please excuse me, that out of my ignorance we gave you this trouble, though you were not guilty." The yogī said, "Yes, I know this. Lord Śiva told me. And it was my past karma, so karma will not leave anybody free. Karma will not exclude you, and time will not wait for you. This is one thing you should know. Second, it is your desires, your wish, and you are doing it. Do not blame God. Therefore, before any wish or desire, you should think it over. What you will do now, after going from here, depends on you."