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The Rakṣābandhan ceremony comes once a year. What is the need for it? This is a very good question. Rakṣābandhan began at a time when people did not trust each other. There was no security, especially for women. In our modern terms, Rakṣābandhan is about security. Slowly, slowly, humans began trying to secure their borders. Kings had their territory within their kingdom, and that was the border of their land. After several centuries, in the beginning, it was known as Rāmrājya. Rāmrājya means the kingdom of God, where all humans were free to travel and free to choose a place to live. But it is in nature that all remain together as a family. No one would like to leave their family, and no one would like to leave their friends and what is called society. So people did not have an interest in going to different parts of the world. They were happy. They had enough to eat. They had enough for their everyday needs. There was no question of organic production because, at that time, there was no question of pollution, except one: mental pollution, the pollution of the human mind. There was a time when people respected each other, and all were happy. That is known as Rāmrājya. Then greed appeared in the minds of the people. So-called clever people, or those with physical strength, built a group, and one became the leader, who was declared a king. They tried to secure or seal the land known as their kingdom. But at that time also, humans were happier and free to come and go. It was the pride of a king that in his kingdom so many people lived, that the population was so big. If someone left a kingdom and immigrated to another kingdom, it was a shame for that king, a sign that he was not capable of looking after his people. If someone left the village and immigrated to another village, the whole village was unhappy and requested that person from the family to please return to their village, such was the love, respect, and security they had. Slowly, slowly, one system developed called Nīti, ethical principles. Nīti was created by Ṛṣis. The Ṛṣis gave rules and regulations for human society to look after their villagers, after humans, and to look after nature. They may make a hut anywhere they want, but they were not allowed to cut any trees and not to kill animals. But at that time, still, humans were hunting and eating meat—not all. That Nīti is such a higher education. And Varaṇa Vyavasthā, the management of society—the great saints gave this responsibility to someone who was spiritual, capable, a good reputation person in society. They gave the responsibility to them. King means Rājā. So Rājā Nīti. Nīti is created by Ṛṣis, and Rājā is the king. Now, rājanīti literally for us means politics. Every system of politics is designed for the well-being of the human, the protection of the environment, the protection of other creatures, and so on. Unfortunately, the greed of humans increased. So they created borders and security. Now, this border and security is called Rakṣā Bandhan. Bandhan means a tie. So you have the border of your country. Sometimes humans didn't trust other humans; they even sealed the border with iron threads. There were not only iron threads but walls—high, big walls, like you have between China and India. That is a security wall to show this is my territory. Also, now in this last century and in the beginning of this century, we see that to protect themselves, they began to make a wall in Israel also. So humans are afraid of others. Similarly, it began with women. Wars were always there from the beginning of creation, these two forces: Āsurī and Daivī Śakti, the negative force and the positive. You see, you saw, and you will see more. For example, what we see in the evening video program. So, humans have always been fighting for power. And where one person is greedy and would like to have this power, hundreds of thousands, millions of people have to suffer, to give their life for the sake of that person’s contentment. Likewise, when the wars were there, mostly or always, only the men had the right to go to war. And it was not sure if this soldier would come back. Even now, where civil wars are going on, or from time to time two countries have crises, we don’t know if our young men, as soldiers, will come home. Only God knows, and God protects all of them. It doesn’t matter from which border, which country, or from which side they are fighting. Millions of children remain without a father, which means also millions of widows; families broke, and anger and hate awoke in people’s minds. Therefore, there is always a question in the chapter on security. We are concerned about security, and we know day by day not only the life of other creatures and vegetation, but also the life of the human is threatened. We never know when what can happen or explode. Only something God protects us, and God protects others, and best is that God protects their intellect. Therefore, it is said in the mantra, "All should live in happiness, and all should achieve." The divine consciousness or Mokṣa. "Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam, ārogyaṁ dhana-sampadā." Ārogya means healthy. May all live healthy. Humans, animals, oceans, water, air, and the entire planet may be healthy. "Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam, ārogyaṁ dhana-sampadā." And may the humans have enough what they need. Dhan means prosperity. Dhan means wealth. Dhan means material needs. God, give everyone what they need, so they don’t fight, they don’t steal. But the greed of the human went so far: when you have a hundred dollars in your pocket, you would like to have two hundred, and when you have two hundred, you would like to have thousands, and when you have thousands, you would like to have hundreds of thousands, and millions and billions. The so-called most wealthy or richest person of this world is not happy, not relaxed, always living in fear. How many alarms, how many dogs, and so on? Are they happy? So it is said that money will never make you happy. Money will not make you happy. Happiness will make you healthy and bring harmony in society and family. That’s what Jesus said also when people were playing with gold in front of the temples. So he indicates what you believe: this gold is like a god. But this is a wrong god. Don’t believe in this wrong god. Believe what I tell you. I am the way to the Father. That means indicating towards these material things, the money. Money is the main reason why people are fighting. So, "śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam ārogyaṁ dhana-sampadā." Sampadā means harmony. Sampadā means harmony, that we all live in harmony. Where there is jealousy, hate, anger, or greed, there cannot be harmony. But when one is content, there is automatically harmony there. In these mantras, "Dhana-sampadā, Śatru-buddhi vināśāya." That’s a very important mantra, the sentence, "Śatru." Śatru means the enemy. Buddhi means the intellect, vināśāya means to destroy. Oh Lord, remove those thoughts of the enemies who would like to take revenge or harm someone emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, politically, spiritually, and so on and so on. Such buddhi, oh Lord, take away from us. And when such buddhi is gone, then we don’t have a śatru, an enemy; we have only friends, mitra. And mitra means friends. "Śatru-buddhi vināśāya dīpa-jyotir namo ’stu te." I adore, my salutation to that divine flame, divine light of dīpa, the light. And for us, it’s Mahāprabhujī, because Mahāprabhujī is carrying the name of the deep. Therefore, we know that for ages and ages, there was always fighting and fighting and fighting. What did they get out of it? Let’s say someone was fighting for this land where we are sitting, the Czech Republic. How many kings were killed? How many people were killed? Where are they now? The winner, where are they now? The loser, where are they now? Did they take a little hundred grams of the earth with them? No, nothing? Nothing and nothing and nothing will go with you. Then why are you fighting? So there was, from time to time, injustice. Injustice towards children. Injustice to some families. And unfortunately, injustice towards women. In such a critical situation, for the sake of protection of our mothers and sisters, they made new rules, new laws, and made people aware that we should respect and love them. In no wars were the women allowed to go for fighting. And there was a time, if the wars were going on—that time there were no guns and no bombs; they were fighting with their arms—if a woman goes onto the battlefield, they will all stand up and throw their weapons down. That was power and respect towards the men and women. That’s it. Unfortunately, that’s also lost. And so, in certain situations, they made one beautiful thought: to see in everyone as your sister. In India, when we see an elderly woman, it doesn’t matter who she is or where she comes from. Even if we saw her for the first time, we will call her Mātājī. If she is about 20, 25 years older than you, it doesn’t matter who. Our culture will always tell you, you are not allowed to say, "Hey, lady." My God, mother. When you say mother, then it is said that you should keep your words and see her as your own mother, and you will never do something wrong to your mother. And mother, she will have love awake in her heart towards you as her child. A mother can never be a bad mother, except in some individual cases if she is mentally, unfortunately, not healthy. Otherwise, "Mātā bhava tīnākumātā," in nature always, the feminine power has a protection, a feeling of protection, the love. And if you see someone who is about your age or 10 years younger than you, or maybe 15 years or 10 years younger than you, we will call sister. We will call her sister, and sister means your own sister. You will never do bad things to your sister. You will never cheat your sister. But now people have forgotten. Now, people say, "Ma’am, miss." "Miss"—he misses that wisdom. And when they are younger than you, twenty years and so on, you have the right to say, "My child." My daughter, my son, yes, you will automatically say, "My son, don’t do wrong things." It means you see the young kids as your own child, and when you see your own child, these young kids, you will never do wrong things to them. There is a big problem now. Children are abused, misused. If this consciousness will be in people’s minds, that this child is my own child, we’ll never do this. There are many problems with tourists going to different countries and abusing small children. Why does this happen? Because the education is missing in those people’s minds; they are closed and become individualistic. When they don’t trust others, they are your enemy. Your neighbors? No, it doesn’t matter. It’s not my coffee, it’s her coffee, his coffee. That’s why things are happening like this. So you have a relation. There’s one woman: you have a relation of mother, you have a relation of sister, you have a relation of daughter. It means the other side, too. She has a relation of the child, a relation of the brother, or a relation of the father. Also, girls to girls, they also say the same thing: the elderly person’s mother, the equal-age sister, and the small daughter. Such a way of thinking, such a culture, unites society. And this we have to teach. We have to make this clear in children’s minds. Then you will have no problems, and you will find a good wife or a good husband, and there will be no question of divorce. Yeah, there are many boys or many girls, and they would like to marry, but he or she is not sure inside if this person will not get divorced after three years. And the person, how many times has this person experienced the disappointments, the pain? Where is the security? Today we need family security. We need security for our kids. And in such a critical situation, there was a very clever woman, and the king wanted to wrap her. She took this rakṣī, it faded in her hand, and she tied it on his hand and said, "This is the Rakṣā Bandhan." This is the security knot. It means you are my brother, and I am your sister. Your brother’s duty is always to protect the sister, and he did. And at that time, this festival—it’s not a religion, it’s not some culture—but it is for the well-being of the feminine power in the world. And so I’m happy that today again we had the opportunity to be here in our Strylky Ashram and have this beautiful celebration on this Full Moon Day, dedicated to the sisters. The sisters were very lucky today because we had two full… Yesterday was a double festival, Rakṣā Bandhan. Those who forgot yesterday can do it today. And if you are not with your sister physically, you can phone her. Now we have many possibilities, so you can phone your sister today. My dear sister, if she’s elder than you, then say, "My respect, praṇām to you." If she’s younger than you, I bless you today for this Rakṣābandhan. I hope you are well, you are healthy, everything is okay. If I can do anything, please let me know anytime. I’m your brother. That’s it. You know, to be a sister of a brother is a source of pride for the sister. When someone comes, there’s one sister here, only one brother, and there are two sisters. And some other people attack these girls. They will say, "Hey, I have a brother who has big muscles, you know, so he is a protection for his sister." And the brother will say proudly, "I am the lucky one. I have two sisters, three sisters." There are some families that have six sisters, and the seventh one is a brother. And can you imagine, this one brother is the luckiest because he’s spoiled by six sisters. So, brother is proud to have a sister. And the sister is proud to have a brother. And each other, both respect and protect one another. And this festival, what we begin to do also, is not a kind of what you will call maybe religion or this, but the morals and ethic protection for both sides, for men and for women. That’s beautiful. And it’s not only that today you remember her, not only once a year. Also, on Guru Pūrṇimā, Dīvālī, Holī, Śivarātri, Christmas, birthdays, and all special occasions, you should remember your sister and your brother. One day, if he doesn’t phone you on your birthday, the next day you should tell him, "Do you know what was yesterday? How do you know that you don’t know?" My birthday, yes. Sorry, sorry, sorry. All the best. So it doesn’t matter. Always remind him or her to have a pure relation, a pure relation. That will create what we call brotherhood. Now, there is one sentence, what’s called brotherhood, and this brotherhood is missing. If there will be brotherhood, there will be no war, there will be no wars, because we see others as our own family members, as brothers. But unfortunately, nowadays, even brothers and brothers are fighting for a little money and for something when the parents die. Two brothers are going to the lawyers and court. "That’s my property, and this must... I want that much, and I want this." What is that? The best brother will say, "Okay, you can have what you want, all." Others will say, "No, no, that’s not nice of me." No, please, you take what you like. How nice it is, because this house of the parents, land of the parents, money of the parents, jewelry of the parents, and so on, all will remain here. You will die also one day, and your children will die. Very often there are cases where brothers and sisters are fighting for the heritage of the parents, and 95% of all this money goes to the lawyers. Why not? Because the lawyers study for so many years, it is very hard. The examination for a lawyer is very hard. And they were studying with this consciousness: "I will earn good money." So that’s how we create the jobs. But not in this way. Don’t fight. You are brothers and sisters. Parents left, and things remain here. There is one story. Should I tell you? There were two brothers. There were two brothers. One was very innocent. We would say not so clever, easily to manipulate. A little slow thinker. In his heart, he had never bad thoughts. And one brother was very clever. He could even take butter out of the water. Can you take butter out of the water? No. Yes, we can do it in our lake. All the canalization goes there. So the parents passed away, and they divided everything in half. They were very poor, so there was one blanket left and one cow. Now the fight was for one cow and one blanket. Now, how to divide the cow? You cannot cut it in two parts. And the blanket, if you tear it in two parts, then neither you can use nor others can use. So the brother, who was very innocent, told the other one, "You decide, you are the elder one. How do you want it? Is it, my dear brother? We do like this. We have one cow. Yes. Well, the front part of the cow is yours. And the back part is mine, so it means you have to feed the cow. Feed water. Give grass. And milk is mine, because that’s the back part. And also dung is mine, as a fertilizer." He said, "OK, my cow, I will feed." And he was taking the milk and everything. And the older brother took the milk. He said, "Brother, we have only one blanket." And what to do? How to decide? He said, "No, you can do. About the cow, you can choose this." He knew that my brother would always say, "You do it." So he said, "Brother, please, you do what you, because you know what is good for me and what is good for you." He said, "Well, in the night, the blanket is mine. And daytime is yours. Okay, so daytime you should put a blanket in the sun, wash it, clean it nicely, hold it, and in the evening put it in my room." Now, in the night, one brother had a blanket when it was very cold, and the other one was sleeping without a blanket when feeling very cold. One master came. So there was one master, his name was Swāmī Gyāneśwar Purī. Swami Gyāneśwar Puri was very clever, very peaceful, and very just to everyone. But you know, sometimes you have to be a little strict. Do something which others don’t like. Give the lesson: not fighting, no war. So the master came to Gyāneśwar Purī, and this one disciple said, "Master, our parents died. We have nothing. Our parents only left behind one cow and one blanket. And we have to divide half, half, the friend part my brother gave me. The whole day I have to go with the cow in the field and even bring it home. The sunset, he takes his milking, and all he’s taking the dunks and so on." Master said, "No problem." And one blanket in the night he’s using. Daytimes, only I have to take care. Master said, "No problem." Swāmī Gyāneśwar was very clever also. He said, "The front part of the cow is yours." He said, "Yes." Whenever he begins to milk the cow, you take the stick and beat her head. She will become wild. He cannot milk. And he did. The other brother said, "What are you doing, crazy?" He said, "No, it’s my part of the cow. I can do what I like." Every time when he wanted to milk the cow, he was taking the crow, sewing her the red towel. Now, other brother says, "My dear brother, I’m sorry, I think I did something wrong. Half milk is yours, and half milk is mine." So, brother says, "Master, what to do with the blanket?" Master, no problem. Swāmī Gyāneśwar Purī said, "Half an hour or ten minutes before sunset, you put a blanket in the water. Soak it in the water and put it outside. Sunset is coming; he can take his blanket. And daytime is till night will dry. Daytime you can use for āsanas, practicing your yoga." It’s a very good idea, Master. Thank you. So, evening before sunset, 10-15 minutes before, he put the blanket in the water, and brother came to take the blanket and said, "Where is my blanket?" He said, "Here in the water. Oh, God, what have you done?" He said, "Nothing, it’s my blanket. Now it’s yours. When the hour’s time is divided for me, I can do what I want." He said, "My dear brother, I will say to you, please don’t." I want to do this, so the peace came. Therefore, we have to respect equally and love. And know that it’s your brother. Know that it’s your sister. That’s your father. That’s your mother. That’s your neighbors, and our humans, our brothers and sisters. We should live in harmony. "Śivaṁ karoti kalyāṇam, ārogyaṁ dhana-sampadā, śatru-buddhi vināśāya dīpa-jyotir namo ’stu te." And therefore, this Rakṣābandhan, bandhan means now you are bounded. You are bounded in that boundary of security that sister put this thread round your wrist, a trait of protection. And proudly, sister will say, "I am a sister of the brother whom I am protecting." And proudly, brother will say, "I am brother of my sister, and proudly I have a love of my sister and protect it also, and I know what I can give to my sister." So this is not a kind you think it’s a tradition. It’s not a tradition. There are things which are practical, reality. And it’s needed in the world to bring such a message, a message of protection. And therefore, I congratulate all of you, and I pray for all the sisters around the world that God protect them. And I bless them on this divine day of Rakṣā Bandhan with good health, happy, harmonious, long—if they are married—married life, good family, good children, and also bless the brothers with good health, long life. And may that brother never forget you. He will be your brother forever. He will share his pure divine love, divine blessing with you. With this, bless you all and wish you a happy Rakṣā Bandhan. Keep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān. Devīśvara Mahādeva. Dharm Samrāṭ Satguru Swāmī Madhavānandjī Bhagavān, Sat Kīrtan Dharm.