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No saint has attained higher consciousness or realization without bhajan. Bhajan does not refer only to chanting or singing. When you meditate, close your eyes, and someone asks what you are doing, in local language we say, "Bhagvān ke bhajan kar rahe hai," or "Bhagvān kā bhajan kar rahe hai." It means I am remembering, I am meditating on God. Bhajan, bhaja, bhajman—as in "bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam, govindam bhaja mudāmate." Ādiguru Śaṅkarāchārya is chanting this. Swāmījī spoke about the Brahma Sūtra. While correcting, writing, or rewriting the Brahma Sūtra—the Śaṅkarabhāṣya—Swāmījī Śaṅkarāchārya, Ādiguru Śaṅkarāchārya, closed his eyes and began to chant: "Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhaja Mudāmate." The final essence is this: bhaja means remember God. Learn about God, meditate on God, try to concentrate on Him. You have to become one with Him. If you cannot become one, you will not realize that. Consider salt that is melted. The solid form of salt dissolves in water but does not become one with the water. Still, the water is separate and the salt is separate. But the great saint Kabīr Dās said—or rather, Rahim Dās said—that the street is so narrow that two cannot walk together. Two have to become one to pass through. That means through bhakti, through love, you have to become one. Rahimān also said: "Dhāgā prem kā, mat toro chitkayā." This thread of love is so gentle, so fragile; do not break it. When the devotee or practitioner has a doubt, it is like mixing lemon and milk. Therefore, in your citta, in your vṛttis, in your consciousness, you must have nothing but the One—that is the Supreme, or God, or your beloved, or whatever you hold sacred. With this kind of bhakti yoga, I see two aims. One is praying for material things. As Swāmī Amaradānjī said, general prayers are: "God, help me to have a son" (mostly they ask for a son, I do not know what else), "God, help my children get a good education; God, help them pass the examination; God, help them get married; please, God, help us get a job." This is sākāmī bhakti—devotion with desire. Niṣkāma bhakti is love without any expectation. People ask me to differentiate between kīrtan and bhajan. Kīrtan is just the name of God. There are many kīrtans, many names of God: "Rādhe Rādhe," the name of Rādhā; "Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa," the name of Kṛṣṇa; "Śrīman Nārāyaṇ Nārāyaṇ," "Viṣṇu Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇ," "Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī," "Oṃ Namaḥ Śivāya," and so many kīrtans. There, if the bhakta has no doubts in the heart, only unconditional love, then that love becomes one with the supreme form of God through this practice. Yet it is said that bhajans are better, because bhajan has more benefits for you. It is teaching; it contains answers and wisdom. The name of God is inside it. Therefore, the poetry, the ślokas, the stanzas, the bhajans—this is where your questions are answered, where you arrive, where there is love. There is no question of why and how. These three questions disappear. Then it means you are doing the bhajans, meditations, or your mantra. Mantra is the power of resonance, of sound. Mantra is compact energy. Man is the mind, which we are all still fighting to understand. What is the mind? What is the mind made of? As Buddha said, everything is void, but what is there after that? So one question has an answer, and another answer will again have a question. Therefore, you have to come to a point where you avoid everything and approach directly. When someone has a heart attack and the doctor comes, everything is finished—bypass surgery is needed. So we need a bypass, and that bypass is finally devotion. No saint came without devotion; no one achieved that reality without devotion. Be it Buddha, if you are talking about Buddha (which was not long ago), or the great saint, the author of the Sāṅkhya philosophy, whom even Kṛṣṇa mentioned: "Siddhānāṁ Kapilamuni." Mahāmuni Kapilāchārya is the author of the Sāṅkhya philosophy. Even he, you see, was always in meditation, bhajan, bhakti. Meditation, mantras, singing—these mean receiving, they mean humbleness. And there you must have the master, the guru. You cannot learn without this. If you avoid the guru, it means your ego is too high. Till now, no one has achieved that reality—which is what we call the guru—without the guru. A very nice question was asked: Why then is the guru always placed high and the disciple low? A professor came to me, and he explained it very nicely and simply. There are two glasses. In this glass is water, and the other glass is empty. Now, if I want to pour this water into that glass, should I hold this glass up, or should I hold the other one up? Similarly, the knowledge, the blessing, the wisdom flows to the devotee where there is devotion—meaning surrendering. And when you are in bhajan, singing, then you have the answer: questions, answers, the name of God, and certainly the devotion. Recording location: Great Britain, Edinburgh, Hindu Conference