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Spiritual seekers, children of one Father—the cosmic, universal Lord—devotees and aspirants, we are here to understand this life and to know something: our divine Self. You are the Ātmā. You are the Supreme Soul. This Ātmā is Śānti Svarūpa. It means this Ātmā is a form of peace, and that peace is thyself. It is not merely within you; you are that. This Ātmā is bliss. And that divine bliss, that is thyself. This Ātmā is that happiness for which we search day and night. Toto ātmā je nesmrtelné. Toto ātmā je Ānanda Svarūpa. A Svarūpa je podoba. So thyself is that divine happiness and peace. That is why every entity searches day and night for peace and happiness. But that happiness is not outside. It is within you. However, there are some barriers between that Ātmā and our present knowledge. These are three, known as mala, vikṣepa, and āvaraṇa. Mala means impurity: impurity in eating, physical impurity, emotional impurity, intellectual impurity, mental impurity. This kind of impurity will not let us see the Ātmā clearly. Where there is impurity, love does not come. Where there is impurity, the divine Śakti does not come. And where there is impurity, Mother Saraswatī, the Goddess of Wisdom, will not come. Therefore, purify, purify, purify. Spirituality means purity. Pure means the spiritual. Often we think negatively. Often we give commentary which is not correct. Very often, you begin to think something; you hear from someone, and then you begin to speak something. That becomes a negative karma for you. Negative karma is like a very big, heavy rock. You have to cross the ocean, and this big rock is hanging on your neck. This rock will pull you down. And like this, sometimes in life, you come across a rock. You think this is a good friend. You think this is a good person, but sooner or later, it becomes that rock which will pull you down. It will not let you cross the ocean. Through your impure feeling, through your impure thinking, through negative talk—what we call blackmailing—you develop that rock on your neck or tie it to your foot. Long ago, I saw a poster from International Amnesty. There was a room, a small room like a basement, which had only one small window. Sunlight was coming in, and a pigeon was sitting there. On the leg of the pigeon was tied a chain and a twenty-kilo iron ball. The window is open, the light is there, the feeling is there to fly away, the willpower is there, but the twenty-kilo heavy weight—that pigeon cannot lift it. Like this, many of us are imprisoned by certain qualities which are not your qualities. Someone else has given you this. That was blackmailing. Ten days ago, I was at a beautiful program. First, I had a multi-religious dialogue program in London. Then there was one beautiful big program organized by the Brahma Kumaris. There were about 5,000, 6,000, or 10,000 people, and many famous singers and artists were invited. They celebrated the birthday of one of the oldest ladies, who is the leader of the Brahma Kumaris. One of them, an elderly lady they call Dadi—Dadi means grandmother—spoke a few words, but very nice ones. She said: "You have peace in you, and keep this peace in you. In the morning, when you get up, just for half a minute or ten seconds or one minute, before you get out of your bed, think of peace—śānti, śānti... This peace will guide you the whole day. Don’t listen to others," she said. "When someone begins to talk about something negative or about someone, immediately stop. Don’t let other negative thoughts in you. What will happen? This negative thought will come in you, and it will take your peace away. And that one who came in you will also go away. And what will remain? Yourself in darkness, without peace." Very wise words. When you speak in Hindi, it’s a more beautiful sentence. So, you have peace in you, but many negative, gossiping thoughts take you away. We are imprisoned by that blackmailing, and we are imprisoned through our emotional problems and intellectual complexes, and we are lost. Therefore, impurity, mala, will not let you realize the Self. Keep away from impurity: negative thinking, negative words.