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You are the Vedas

A spiritual discourse on the divine mission of saints and the universal teachings of the Vedas.

"We humans do not realize or understand those holy saints during their lifetime. After they finish their mission here and go back, then we realize who he or she was."

"The highest principle is non-violence. Do not cause pain to anyone, consciously or unconsciously... Good deeds are those actions which will lead us towards liberation, toward enlightenment."

The speaker delivers a teaching on the purpose of saints' incarnations and the core message of the Vedas, emphasizing non-violence (ahiṃsā) and the unity of all creation as children of God. He explains the divine origin of the Vedas, the nature of the Upaniṣads as dialogues, and laments the modern loss of memory and discernment. The talk concludes by identifying the creative trinity and the essence of the Vedas within each human being.

Recording location: Australia, Brisbane, Australian Tour

The incarnation of holy saints in this world is not only for humans, but for the entire planet. We humans do not realize or understand those holy saints during their lifetime. After they finish their mission here and go back, then we realize who he or she was, and then we cry. It is not easy for humans to understand who is holy, or what is God and what is not God. We are all children of God. We are all sons and daughters of God. And not only humans, but other creatures too. It is the biggest mistake that humans are making, thinking God loves only humans. And humans think they can do what they would like to do with animals, which is not correct. It is injustice. Ahiṃsā paramo dharma—the highest principle is non-violence. Do not cause pain to anyone, consciously or unconsciously. There are many different ways to cause pain. Even with our thinking we can make hiṃsā. Hiṃsā means violence. Ahiṃsā means non-violence. With writing, with our words, with our behavior, with our body, with our intellect and emotion, we can cause pain to others. And that kind of act is known as a sin. In India we used to say pāpa, and in English you say sin. Good deeds are those actions which will lead us towards liberation, toward enlightenment. Bad deeds, known as sin, will lead us to a lower life and to troubles, what we call hell. Heaven and hell are both here on this planet with us. Therefore, humans should not think that they are the best. Every creature thinks it is the best. Parents love their children equally. It doesn't matter if one is clever or one is a little innocent. We love them equally. We love children equally. All are the children of God, and that is what the Vedas and Upaniṣads are telling us. The Vedas were given to humans at the time of creation on this planet by Lord Brahmā, of the Trinity: Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva. Brahmā is the creator, Viṣṇu is the protector, and Śiva is the liberator. Mythologically, when you see the picture of Brahmā, he has four hands and four heads. In his four hands, he is holding the four Vedas. And these four Vedas are a message from the Supreme. It is not from some man, not man-made literature. So the Vedas were given by Brahmā, brought by Brahmā from the universe. Now, about 7,000 years before, as we believe, the great sage Vedavyāsa, at the time of the Mahābhārata or before that, wrote these Vedas down. Before, this science of knowledge was given verbally from master to disciple, and so it is called Śruti and Smṛti. Śruti means what you heard from the master, what the master is speaking. And smṛti means memory. So according to your memory, how pure the knowledge you will give further. But slowly, slowly, when the Kali Yuga began to come, humans lost their memory, humans lost their discipline, humans lost their ethic and moral principles. And in the last hundred years, human memory has been reduced by 80%. And in the last few years, or two decades, human memory has remained only 5% more. Why? Because we became slaves. Slaves of the instruments, slaves of the computers, slaves of the tape recorder, and slaves of writing. Very few of you here who are sitting know 10 telephone numbers by heart. It doesn't matter which telephone. So I would like to congratulate those who know 10 telephone numbers by heart. Please raise your hand. Maybe your mother, your sister, your father, your brother, your friends, work, and so on. Out of 200 people, 18. So you see how our memories got lost because we became slaves of all this equipment. At the same time, I would like to ask, who knows 10 songs by heart without looking at the paper? So you see, if you go to the countryside where there is no electricity on the farms and the farmer family is living there, ask them how many songs they know. They know the whole Bible by heart; they know everything by heart. And when someone tells us a number on the telephone, you say, "Please repeat once more. What was it? Once more? Once more?" Because we do not put these memories in our thoughts, and we lose everything. We lost our precious things in our life. So, if you are not able to remember these things in this life, how can you expect the memories from the past life? As life, we don't know anything. And how do we know, if we don't know now about the present, about the future? The essence of the Vedas' teaching, which came, is the Upaniṣad. "Upa" means near, and "ṣad" means the disciple. You can say it is the dialogue of the disciple and master. A gospel, the New Testament, you can call in Sanskrit "Upaniṣad". The disciple is sitting near the master, and the master is teaching. That's called Upaniṣad. Now, what we are speaking and creating, this is Upaniṣad. And so, in the Upaniṣad, there is the essence of the Vedas. The great Ācārya, Śaṅkarācārya, he said, "The first step of self-realization is that when you see thyself in every creature." And that's hard for us to do, and it's very easy to do, very, very hard because we are not aware of what we are doing. We do not take seriously what we are doing. Therefore, God Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, "Arjuna, before doing any action, you should know the form of that action. When you will know the form of that action, then you will know the fruits of that action. And when the fruits will become clear, then your viveka will decide the best part of your intellect, if you should do or you should not do." And we do not have this time. We are full of emotion, and we hurry to do everything immediately. And that's where we make a mistake. In this endless universe, the creator has created thousands of sun systems. Anantabrahmāṇḍa, śāstra, sūryas—endless universe and thousands of sun systems are declared by the Vedas. We don't know where is the beginning of the universe and where is the end of the universe. For a yogī, heaven means nothing; heaven and hell, they are just two rooms. But a yogī would like to become one with the entire universe, one without a second. You are present everywhere, in every, what we call, omniscient and omnipresent, in the entire universe, in every atom. That is the aim of a yogī. For that, the creator has given four Vedas to the humans. Humans are born as protectors; a human is created as a protector, not a destructor. We put a fence around our farm or garden to protect it against animals. If the fence will destroy the garden, then for what is the fence there? And so, God has created humans as protectors and not as distractors. A human himself is the Vedas; you are the Vedas; these four Vedas are in you. And you are the trinity: Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva are within you. All your creative thoughts, your best intellect, your viveka is Brahmā, who is inspiring and creating. So the human intellect is Brahmā; you are Brahmā. Don't search for the creator somewhere in the universe; you can take the quickest airplane and fly. You will not see it anywhere. Very often I try to see when I fly; it's 35,000 meters high in the sky, the airplane. Recording location: Australia, Brisbane, Australian Tour

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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