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Every yoga teacher should know about Gurujī, and a common question in examinations is: "What do you know about our spiritual lineage?" It is very important to understand about Gurujī, Mahāprabhujī, and Devpurījī. It means that parents are spiritual by generation. Being spiritual does not mean being fanatic; spirituality is not about being rich or poor. They are very rich in their heart, and this is the fruit of many, many lives of tapasyā. Tapasyā means austerity, a hard life, following many disciplines, praying, and being humble and kind towards all creatures, and of course towards humans too. A spiritual person has a heart with a tendency of giving, ready to give everything. They are even ready to give their body for the sake of God, for the sake of love, for the sake of others, for the happiness of others; it means to work to be happy. For many, many generations, these couples are together. They come together in different lives; they do not know this, but it is good, and God is testing them: if they have ego, if they are selfish, if they are arrogant—many, many things. Janam janam kī tapasyā, bhakti, tyāg, and vairāgya: many, many lives of devotion and renunciation. And in that family, in that mother's womb, that soul finds its place. Therefore it is said: "Badā ho bhāg un desh kā jahāṁ Satgurū liyā avatār." Fortunate is that country where Satgurū Dev is incarnated. "Toṁhī charaṇ merī vandanā ho bāram bār, lakhom bār." At his holy feet, my adoration a million times. And also to that mother who gave birth to that holy saint—first to that mother and father, and also the family members. In that family, many spiritual souls incarnate, not just one or two. Holy Gurujī's parents were very spiritual. As you read in the Līlā Amṛt, his mother and father were very kind, humble, and spiritual. Naturally, every parent loves their children and wishes them a very happy life. Every parent wishes their children marry and have grandchildren. Consider how much attachment the mother of Kṛṣṇa had, or the mother of Rāma, or the mother of Jesus. This child is nourished and grown from her body; it is her own body in two parts. The father feels similarly. They do not want their child to go far away or become a sādhu or monk out of some disappointment, laziness, ignorance, selfishness, or ego. Suddenly one gets a vairāgya; that is not a pure vairāgya, but just a desire to go to a monastery or become a swāmī, thinking everybody will see them as a holy person. But you do not become holy through dress. You do not become holy in a monastery or āshram. Many mice live inside; do you think they are also holy? And other creatures, like flies. What happens? As long as they have physical strength, they can move here and there. There are organizations, what you might call the monastery soup. Somewhere you get food, and for them, that is enough. Sometimes someone gives them a little donation. They have lost the direction of their life, and all their days will be of great difficulty because they did not realize the Self, they did not develop spirituality, because they did not understand it. There is nobody to look after them, nobody to give them medicine; they do not know where they will be or what will happen. Therefore, parents do not want their children to have such a life. They want their children to marry, have their own children, work, earn money, and die. But rare are those who find Sadgurū Deva, that spiritual line from where we can realize and be sure that we are spiritually developing. It is rare who can realize this, because even they miss it again. There are so many pieces of glass lying around and a few diamonds also. You take the diamond in hand and say, "No, it is not a diamond," and throw it away. "It is glass," and throw it away. So with the pieces of glass, you throw away also the diamonds, because you do not have that feeling, that knowledge. Being a diamond in the hand, you do not realize it and you throw it. And some piece of glass which is more shining, perhaps, you take it. So it is not easy to get a spiritual birth, spiritual parents. In the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, Ādiguru Śaṅkarāchāryajī said that for this jīvātmā, it is very rare to get human life. Second, it is very rare to get spiritual parents. Third, it is very rare that you get spiritual inspiration, spiritual feelings. And it is very rare or hard to find the spiritual master. If one meets all this, one is already Self-realized. That person does not have to worry; just continue as your destiny has led you till now; do something similar so it will lead you further. That is Satgurū Dev's teaching—not miracles, not intellectual discourses and inner emptiness; that is not good. The parents of Holy Gurujī were very humble, very spiritual, and also devotees of Kṛṣṇa. It is not a coincidence that Gurujī was incarnating exactly the time when Kṛṣṇa was incarnating, exactly one week later, in this holy month. So today is Holy Gurujī's birthday. We consider it a most beautiful time. One is called the Brahma Muhūrta, and the other two times are called the Godhuli. Others also call it Godhuli. Godhuli means when the cows from the village depart for grazing. All the village cows gather somewhere on a plain near the village. When all the animals assemble, that time was mostly cows. Because Kṛṣṇa was a person who loves the cows and was grazing the cows, like Mahāprabhujī also, and that is why his name is called Gopāla. Gopāla: "go" means cow, and "pāl" means protector, the protector of the cows. When all cows are milked, and then they go out of the house in the morning, about 7:30; all cows depart for the forest, where the whole day they are grazing in the fields, walking many kilometers. These cows are more beautiful and healthy; every day they walk a minimum of 50 kilometers, eating in different fields, different kinds of herbs, not only one kind of grass. They are walking; they are digesting properly, and what they eat, the different herbs, comes into the milk. Therefore, to drink the milk of those cows is to drink a herbal milk; that milk has a completely other taste. When people come to India, to Jadan, and drink our cow milk, the tea with our cow milk, and then come here to Europe and drink tea with milk, it is completely different. Your tongue is completely white after drinking milk or yogurt or chai; after half an hour, your tongue is still white. When you drink from these other cows, it is not rare that your tongue is white, and you have a good smell. The ghee of that cow is the best part of it; you can call it Āyurvedic ghee. Now people realize in India also how nice is the native cow's ghee, this Indian kind of cows. The ghee should be made in a different way; it is called cultured ghee. You should boil the milk, then cool it down to 40 degrees, then make yogurt from that. After 24 hours, you churn the yogurt. Then the butter comes out, and you melt that butter again with fire, and then the pure ghee comes out that goes through many processes. That ghee is Āyurvedic ghee; that kind of ghee you can eat and undertake many ghee diets. But the kind of ghee we have here will block all your arteries, and it has no taste. Because these cows are different; they are hardly walking. They are just closed in one farm or one meadow. They should walk up and down a minimum of 25 kilometers, with no artificial feeder and no injections for getting more milk. Let them remain natural. I heard they get injections of cortisones to get more milk, so it means with this milk we are also taking cortisone. That is why you see nowadays children who are 10, 12 years old look like 18, 20 years; it is these cortisones. Suddenly you see children growing like a palm tree; these are all chemicals in the body which come through the food. Godhuli means when the cows are departing from the village and there is dust in the sky like a fog. They advise people who have allergies and skin allergies to walk behind the cows in this dust. It is a kind of treatment, and it is where Kṛṣṇa walked. Also in the evening when they come back, Sandhyā time, Godhuli again around the sunset time. So twice is this constellation when cows go to the field and cows come back. They highly respect these animals; they wait for them like a small child waits for its mother to come home. It is said that in the body of the cow, there are about one hundred million different goddesses living. In the body of the cow dwell even one hundred thousand different deities; in every part of the body, they describe some divinity residing there. So it is not that just Indians believe in a holy cow, but it is holy. That is why they see the greatest sin to kill the cow or eat the cow; to kill the cow means exactly that you kill your mother and eat your mother. So, respect nature, love, and the divine creation. Holy Gurujī was born just at the time of the God Holī. Holy Gurujī was also a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa in the beginning, and then he realized Kṛṣṇa in Mahāprabhujī, which you read in the Līlā Amṛt—how he meets him first in a dream and then in person. So there has always been a spiritual part in his life. Holy Gurujī, in very childhood, had interest only about God, which led him to the Brahman; his every breath, every heartbeat was for Mahāprabhujī, for God. That was a great ... so his tapasyā, his sādhanā, his spirituality—we are benefiting. Like a rich father, when he passes away, he leaves everything for the children. So all his spiritual power, like Mahāprabhujī, he also left for us, and Gurujī also left for us. We are nourishing that. We will grow, and we will also leave this spiritual power. We are multiplying, so spirituality will never die. It is immortality, and it is multiplying through us. Sometimes you are not able to develop spiritually because you cannot give up your negative qualities; you cannot give up your gossiping, your jealousy, your anger, your greediness, your hate. Until you give these up, you will achieve nothing. Again you will go to different creatures, and who knows where. If you become a chicken, you do not know in which chicken farm you will come. Just about a 20 cm by 15 cm case; you can only sit or stand. With an electric instrument, they will cut your beak, and under you will be flowing the egg belt. The neighbor's chicken will hit you with its sharp beak, and you will say, "Why are you doing this?" And they will say, "You were talking so much negative about others." She said, "I know that, but what to do now? Now we have to suffer; you are the cause that I also have to come with you." So both chickens are there. And who knows which pig is dead? There is one story about a pig; he gave the name to this pig. There is one film, "Babe." The babe was in New Zealand, I think. The cat was very jealous of this babe, and the cat is saying, "You know, you pigs are only for eating; you have no other purpose in your life, only to be eaten." He was so sad, and you think, "My master said, 'Yes, I am sorry, but your master also believed you.'" So this little pig speaks so sadly. Then he goes to the dog and asks, "Do you think it is true?" And the dog says, "Yes, unfortunately." Then he goes to the goose, and the geese say, "Yes, the purpose of a pig's life is to be eaten." Sad, and he leaves the farmhouse, tries to run away. Of course then the master loves him very much, and it is a happy end. But you never know where this soul will travel. You may not trust that you can come in another life, but whether you trust or not, believe or not, it will be. That is it. Once Rādhā told me a joke about twins in the mother's womb. Both twins are discussing and speaking. One twin says to the other, "You know we will be born?" And the other one says, "What? We will be born? Where will we be born? We are here, and that is all; there is no more life; this is final." He said, "No, no, we will be born, and you know, we will eat through the mouth." "Ugh, do not tell me such stories; do not tell me such science fiction stories. We will eat through the mouth? It is impossible that we can eat through the mouth. You know, we have the pipe here, and we have to do nothing; we are comfortably going through mother's body. We are nourished, and you know, we will have nice clothes." "What is that again? It is so nice and warm liquid we are inside." "Yes, and we will run." "So where will we run? There is no space." "Oh yes, there is a big space; I think today you are drunk. You did not sleep very well today." "I slept badly, that we will eat through the mouth, and we will walk, and this ... nothing is like this in this universe; I do not believe." That is it, and suddenly you are here, and now you see the world. So you do not believe this, or you do not trust. These negative discussions have already reserved your place. So better you make more mālā. To which pig farm you will come, you can choose a little bit. Or this chicken farm, in a small case or in the free-range garden, because your criticizing has already reserved your place. That is it. Or maybe we will try to postpone something, so it is not depending on me or you. It is depending on our action: what we think, what we feel, and what we speak. Mīrābāī wrote a letter to Tulsidāsjī that here at home where she was living, her parents-in-law and husband, nobody believes in God, nobody remembers God Rāma. They only talk against her master and God. So Tulsidās writes that one should go away from such a place where God is not respected and adored, and do not even see the face of the person who talks against your master. Otherwise, you will suffer. Anyhow, it is said there are some people who like very much to have animal skin cloth. Once I was at a lecture in '75 about parapsychology. At that time, parapsychology was very active. The speaker also talked about the skins of animals. He said, "Yes, in this life they like to have the skin of the animals, but next life, they will get the real one." So if you like the skin of the tiger, next life you will be born as a tiger. If you like rabbit skin, you will be a rabbit; karma comes back. So we have to prepare ourselves: humbleness, kindness. And if someone talks to you, then give this person such knowledge and confidence. Build up the confidence of the person. Do not be like one who puts on fire, saying, "Yes, you just do what you want, and you can go and do it; I am happy for you." Finally, I was always thinking, "Oh God, how poor you are. Do not worry, Swāmījī will not be angry; you go and do it." So you created two karmas. Who are you to advise someone to do it differently? If you are self-realized and if you can give mokṣa, then you can advise someone to do differently. Otherwise, what you did is a big mistake; that is it. So on the day of Holy Gurujī's Holy Incarnation, I bless you all and am very happy to be with you. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar