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Good morning to all my dear brothers, sisters, bhaktas, spiritual seekers, aspirants, and practitioners of yoga in daily life. A very good morning from the Śrī Mā Prabhujī Ashram in Strelka, Czech Republic. Many blessings on this Śivarātri day. Today is the final day and the last lecture of this retreat, and this evening marks the beginning of Śivarātri at 7 p.m. You will hear more about why we celebrate this very auspicious day. All your wishes can come true if you pray from your heart to Lord Śiva. Śiva is known as the most gracious, kindest supreme one, who is pleased with even a little prayer and blesses us. We are all Śiva Bhaktas, protected by the supreme consciousness. Śiva is the first and Śiva is the highest; the entire universe is the embodiment of Śiva. Meditation on the Universal Principles Three days ago, I spoke about three principles: space, light, and energy. If you remember from Friday evening, space, light, and energy are there, but they do not occupy space in the ordinary sense. They have room, a place for everyone. These three—space, light, and energy—constitute a universal body, and that universal body is within you. Space, light, and energy are the radiance of the Ātmā. The Ātmā is universal. The Ātmā is only one, and that one exists in everyone. Just as the sun gives light equally to everyone—humans, animals, birds, other creatures, vegetation, stones, or water—similarly, the cosmic form or the cosmic self, what we call Śiva, is the Ātmā. Do not misunderstand Śiva merely as an incarnation. Incarnations came later. Śiva is a manifestation, and that manifestation is not for one individual alone. But we humans need a form to understand. We need something to hold, something to touch in order to believe. We need something to smell. Yes, it is so. And we humans like to adopt that beauty which, through our jñānendriya—the senses of knowledge—we can accept and understand. These are the five Jñānendriyas: vision, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In order for us to receive and understand through our Jñānendriyas, He has to manifest. Otherwise, He is only the universal, the highest one in this universe; that is called Śiva consciousness. That Ātmā is, as Kṛṣṇa said five or six thousand years ago, that which cannot be killed by any weapons. The Ātmā cannot be burned or destroyed by any elements, and the Ātmā cannot be killed by death. The Ātmā is Ajara Amar—unborn, immortal, everlasting. That Ātmā is our reality. When you know that Ātmā, you become a knower of the self. Then you may say sohaṁ—"I am that, and that I am." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi—"I am the Brahman. I am the Ātmā." These are the Mahāvākyas, the four great utterances, which point directly towards the Ātmā. The Liberation of Ātma Jñāna When this Ātma Jñāna is there, then this body becomes like the skin on a snake's body. Once or twice a year, a snake gets a new layer of skin over its body. It can't see properly because the skin covers its eyes. That snake has only one wish: to go to a thorny bush, climb on it, and try to come out of that skin. Then it feels liberated and relaxed. So when we have Ātma Jñāna, then all desires, all wishes, all negative and positive qualities are dissolved or liberated from you. Then everything becomes pleasant. You come to the Brahmajñāna: "I am Ātmā, Ahaṁ Brahmasmi." But it is said that those who have this knowledge will never say, "I have Ātmagyāna." A Siddha will never say, "I have Siddhi." A rich man will never say, "I am rich," but a poor one might say, "Well, I have money." A rich man never counts every dollar or every penny every day, but a poor man—like many of us—counts how many pennies we have to pay for electricity, for the car, for the telephone, and how much we earn per month. With that salary, we go to the supermarket to buy the best we can. As soon as you say you are wise, that you know everything and make your own decisions, you will lose everything. Therefore, never prophesize, never try to tell someone's future, never proclaim that you are the greatest. Always be humble. It is said that when a tree bears fruit, its branches bend down. So, the more fruits of the siddhis you have, the more humble and kind you become. You never speak bad words to anyone. Even if someone is bad to you, it doesn't matter. So never be angry, never jealous, never hateful, never greedy, never offended by anything. Who gets offended? Your ego. That means you are millions of kilometers away from Ātma Jñāna. Therefore, God gave the human body to work through it to attain that ātma jñāna. That Ātmā is within every creature. It is called "kaṅkar kaṅkar me śaṅkar hai." Kaṅkar kaṅkar me śaṅkar. Śaṅkar is Śiva. In every corner, in every grain of sand, Śiva is there. Everywhere is Śiva Śakti, the power of Śiva, and from this the individual is made. The Individual Soul: Jīvātmā The individual soul is a mixture of the Ātmā—a shadow, a glimpse of the Ātmā—and individual qualities. Both together become one, called Jīvātmā, the soul. In English, you call it the soul. But the soul is not the Self. The Self is the Ātmā. The soul is only Jīvātmā. And Jīvātmā is not immortal. Jīvātmā is bound to destiny through karma. But O human, O man, "Jīv se śiv banne ke liye tumhe mānav kā śarīra diyā hai." To become from Jīva to Śiva, God gave you the human body. And to change from Jīva to Śiva, you have to surrender and you have to kill all your negative thoughts and desires. No anger; don't be sad. Who is sad? The one who is sad is in ignorance. That one is sad who has not yet understood Guru Kṛpā. That one is scared and is searching elsewhere. We say, now that I have met my Gurudev, all my holy places, all pilgrimages, and everything are in the lotus feet of my master. Lucky am I that I got shelter at my master's. Where should I go to search for something again? Now I have found the happiness. Sukha, unfortunately, has no direct translation in English. You can say happy, comfortable, or good, but still it is not Sukha. Dukha and Sukha. Trouble is Dukha. A painful thing is Dukha. What is pain is Dukha. And Sukha is the opposite. The Pain of Samsāra and the Shelter of the Guru This Jīvātmā experiences immense pain in many, many lives. Immense pain. Can you imagine? In a slaughterhouse, someone is killing an animal, and it's time for lunch. The animal hangs with a half-cut throat, and the person goes for lunch. Can you imagine the pain of that creature? Unbelievable pain. How many lives have we faced physical, emotional, and mental pain, my dears? Now, finally, we have gotten a human life to come out of this suffering. So when I found shelter at my master's, and the master told me, "Don't do any more such negative karma. Do only good things. That will create happiness." Therefore, "Oṁ Prabhudeep Niranjan Sabdukha Bhanjan." God bless you. Only the one who has tasted the sweet apple or sweet fruit knows how sweet it is, knows its taste. Others do not know. Hari Oṁ, good journey. And therefore, only the one who realizes Guru Bhakti, Guru Kṛpā, and who surrenders to the Gurudev knows. Then all the holy places, all the wandering, everything is gone. There is only one.