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Part 1: The Eternal Bond of Guru and Disciple Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddhā Pīṭha Paramparā. My praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness, Vishwaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Maheśvarānandapurījī. To the new faces who were not here yesterday, welcome. I think today is one of my favorite topics: the bond between the Guru and the disciple. That is the morning topic, I believe. So, the bond of a Guru and disciple is one bond which is permanent, which cannot be broken. Other bonds, other relationships—many happen without a choice. You are born; some bonds are made without any choice. Like when you are born, your parents and your relationship—that is without a choice. Siblings—without a choice. There are many bonds. But one bond is done with full awareness and consciousness: that is when you choose a master. For context, for those who do not know, there are four Yugas. First is Satya Yuga. It was known as Satya because at that time everyone was telling the truth, living by the truth, and moving in the world with truth and compassion. Then came Tretā Yuga, where Lord Rāma was incarnated. Then came Dvāpara Yuga, where Lord Kṛṣṇa was incarnated. And now is Kali Yuga. In Kali Yuga, as we go further and further, to find real, true Gurus is very rare. Nowadays, many just come up one day and say, "We are Gurus." Some are self-proclaimed Gurus. So it is very hard and rare to find a true Śrī Sadgurudev in these modern times. That is why I always say that we are very blessed to be a part of a paramparā. In the same way as in a family you have a family tree—your great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, yourself, your kids, your grandkids—in the same way, in the tradition of sannyāsīs or monks, we have a paramparā, which means a lineage. Our lineage is quite old. How many of you have visited India? Heard the name of the river Alaknandā? That is where it starts, up in the Himalayas. So our paramparā starts from there because our first Guru—his name was Śrī Alagpurājī Mahārāj, the photo which is in front of the light down—he is Śrī Alakhpurījī. He used to do his sādhanā, his meditations, up in the Himalayas in a cave. One day he had a disciple named Nandā Devī, and she wanted to be remembered and wanted her name attached with his name. So then the river’s name became Alaknandā: Alakh Purījī and Nanda Devī became Alak Nanda. So our lineage is from that time. After him came Śrī Devpurījī Mahārāj, the first photo there to the left. He also did a lot of penance and sādhanā up in the Himalayas, and then he came and established his ashram in a place called Sīkar in Rajasthan. If you read the Līlā Amṛt, you will know the many miracles he performed. We still know people there who are alive, their kids or grandkids, who tell those stories: that he brought back people from the dead after they passed away; he performed many miracles; he was walking on water. After that came Bhagavān Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, the second picture. His ashram is in Barikhatu, Nagar, Rajasthan. He also was mostly there, traveling around and guiding people. It is said, "Yathā kāle tathā paristhiti," or "kāla" or "deśa," which means as the generation, or as we move forward in our lives, according to the time and space, we go forward. I get many comments also nowadays that as time moves forward, you move forward with life. So Paramahanswāmī Madhavānandapurījī, who was our Dādā Gurujī, or our great master, started traveling more and spreading the message of Sanātana Dharma of Mahāprabhujī around the whole of India. His ashram is in Nepal, which spreads the message. And after him, we have our dear Vishwa Gurujī, who graciously traveled around the whole world for the past 55–60 years, spreading the message of Mahāprabhujī, his teachings. He created this beautiful family of "Yoga in Daily Life," created this beautiful, magnificent space for us to come whenever we like here, and established many ashrams in India and many other locations around the world. That was all the work of our beloved Gurudev, the great saints, and the great yogīs and ṛṣis. They were all enlightened souls who were happy up there, but they still decided to come back to this Mṛtyu Loka, or the place of Māyā, where we are entangled in this illusion. They still decided to come back here. Why? For all of us—to guide us, to help us, to enlighten us, and hopefully to help us attain Self-Realization and mokṣa. Believe me, they were much happier up there. They did not need to come back, but they did. So that is why we are very blessed to be a part of this paramparā. As I was saying, this bond is a bond which cannot be broken. It does not matter what happens: you leave him, you go, after 10 years you decide you want to come back—his arms will still be open, saying, "Come here, my dear, no worries." That is why the Guru—the word "Guru" means: "gu" means darkness, "ru" means to light. It can be the inner darkness; it can be the darkness which we are surrounded with. It looks pretty bright, but until we do not have that inner peace, that inner joy, that realization of who we are, until then it is still dark for us. And who helps us? We think that, "Oh, why do we need a Guru? We are self-sufficient to know everything. We can read the books and learn things. Why do we need this or that?" It feels like we are following someone blindly. It is blind faith. It is not blind faith; it is faith. You need faith and belief in something, but it is not blind, because if you decide to walk onto this path, it is your own decision. So it is not blind faith. The reason why we need it is because: how did we learn how to talk or say our first words? After we grew up a few months, a few years, from our parents, right? Our parents started to talk to us; we heard words from here and there, and some words might have been taught to us by our parents: "Say mama, say papa, say this, say that." In that way, they also become our first Gurus because they teach us something. So the parents are the first Gurus. If we did not need a Guru, then we did not need that either. Parents become our first Gurus, who teach us the initial stages of our lives. Then we go to schools and colleges to study, to learn. They are our teachers; they become our second Guru, because they teach us all the worldly knowledge which we need—at least for you all, because I believe that in my field of work, maths and chemistry and physics did not make much sense, but still I had to go through it. Why not? And then we need a Śrī Sadgurudev who opens other paths of life, who opens the spiritual aspects, who shows us and guides us on that path. That is why in our culture we had four āśramas. First is Brahmacarya Āśrama. If we divide it into four parts—let us say a person lives 100 years—so 0 to 25 would be Brahmacarya Āśrama. Brahmacarya Āśrama means where you come. In the olden times we had Gurukula systems; now we have schools and hostels. People come, children come, study. Why was the Gurukula system implemented? I will share it in a bit later. So, four āśramas: first is 0 to 25, Brahmacarya Āśrama, where you come, you study, you gain knowledge, you learn things. After that comes Gṛhastha Āśrama, from 25 to 50. That is where you have your household. You focus on your work, you build up your life, you have your own businesses, your work. You have or do not have kids; you are with your partner. You have a partner, so you move on in your personal life. That is 25 to 50. After comes Vānaprastha Āśrama, after your kids are grown up enough. They have that energy; you give them, and you let them take forward what you created, or they can create something of their own. And you slowly, slowly move towards spirituality, towards the path which helps us attain our goal of Self-Realization. Both of you, partner, yourself alone—as you want. But you slowly detach yourself from the worldly things, not completely, but gradually. And from 75 until whenever you die comes Sannyāsa Āśrama, where you renounce everything and stay, completely dedicating your life toward the ultimate goal. Then some of you will say that I do not look 75, then how did I jump directly to Sannyāsa? That is, if in any stage of your life you feel like you are ready for it and you want to go towards that path, you may, if the Guru permits. Second option, like me: if Gurudev adopts you when you are six hours old, then you are into it from birth. But do not take it in the wrong way, that I was forced into it and I joined something that I did not know about. After I turned a certain age, Gurudev asked me if I wanted to live a normal life or if I was okay with this. I said I am completely okay with this. This is my family, this is the path which I need to be on, and this is what I want to do. So I am here. So then comes Sannyāsa Āśrama. In Sannyāsa Āśrama, you come to an ashram like this or any ashram, and you dedicate your life, your time more towards this. The greatest gift that we can get is our mantra. When we get initiated by a Guru with a mantra, you get onto one path, and the mantra is like a direct conversation you can have with God, or with the Supreme Self, or with the Higher Self, or whatever you want to call it. So when you do your mantra, it is something that is connecting you and lifting you more up from these worldly things, connecting you to that. It is a reminder to us that we have these beautiful tools which help us move forward in our spiritual journey. Once upon a time, there was one boy named Eklavya, and it was at the time of the Mahābhārata. So, the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas—how many of you have heard about the Mahābhārata? The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa were two epics which happened: one in Tretā Yuga, one in Dvāpara Yuga. The Rāmāyaṇa is completely related to Bhagavān Śrī Rāma, who was the incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu, and the Mahābhārata is more about Lord Kṛṣṇa, where there were two parties. Basically, there was one family, but two brothers: the children from one father, Pāṇḍu, were named the Pāṇḍavas, and the hundred children from the other were the Kauravas. Kauravas were the negative aspect, the negative side of it; Pāṇḍavas were the positive one. As human beings, we are all drawn towards negativity much easier than towards positive energies. So, unfortunately, or because it was meant to be, the Mahābhārata fight happened, where it was a war between those two. At that time, Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnated, because it is said in the Bhagavad Gītā: "yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata." It means when the dharma will be overpowered by adharma. Dharma means the path of truth, the path of righteousness. Adharma means where not good stuff, evil stuff is going on. So when adharma overpowers dharma, then at that time I shall incarnate. So Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnated at that time, and he became the charioteer who was taking Arjuna around in the Mahābhārata. At that time, when they were still young, before these old things happened, they had a Guru named Droṇācārya. And Droṇācārya was the Guru of them. But in those olden times, there used to be a caste system. And in the caste system, it was a hierarchy type thing. Only the kings or the princes or those families could take knowledge from Droṇācārya. And Eklavya was a villager from the village and lived in the forest, and he wanted to learn the art of archery. So he came to Droṇācārya, he bowed down, he made praṇāms, and he said, "Oh Gurudev, could you please give me the knowledge of archery? Could you teach me this knowledge?" Immediately, the Pāṇḍavas and he and everyone said, "No, sorry, we cannot. You are not in that space." He said, "As you wish." He made praṇām and he moved, and he went back home. When he went back home, the first thing he did was he made a beautiful statue of Droṇācārya. After making that beautiful statue, he every day did his rituals, his pūjā, offered flowers, and took the blessing from the statue. That is why it is nirguṇa and saguṇa. There are two types of bhakti. Nirguṇa bhakti is where you pray or worship nothingness. And saguṇa bhakti is where you pray to a photo or statue or any object where you believe that the energy of that specific deity is put in. Like we believe that Śivajī is in this Śivaliṅga, or Swāmījī’s essence, or we believe that we get that comfort as a living thing in the photo. So that is Saguṇa Bhakti. So he created a statue, he worshipped the statue, and he started practicing. That is the power of Guru Bhakti. When you have faith, when you believe in that—if you do not believe, nothing happens; if you believe, many things can happen. After practicing many, many years and time, one day the Pāṇḍavas and Droṇācārya and one dog were in the forest. The dog’s senses are very strong, so he immediately smelled the scent of Eklavya. So he followed and went there and started barking a lot. What Eklavya did was immediately he took his bow and arrow and shot many arrows into the mouth of the dog. And when the dog came back to the Pāṇḍavas, the Pāṇḍavas started taking out the arrows and later realized that it was really someone professional, because there was not a single arrow which actually punctured any place on his mouth. And there was no blood. It was just to block the barking. Then they immediately told Droṇācārya and said, "There is someone better than you. There is another Gurukula which is teaching such good archery with so much perfection that the archer did not even hit anything, just blocked the mouth. How is this possible?" They said, "Let us go and see." As soon as they arrived there, Droṇācārya saw Eklavya, immediately recognized him, but still asked him, "Who are you, my child?" He said, "I am Eklavya, and I am your disciple." And the Pāṇḍavas looked at him and said, "Really? I thought we were the only ones." Then comes this ego part, you know? "It is only us; how can any other be?" He said, "No, I did not initiate you in anything." "No, Gurudev, look, here is your statue. After you denied, I took your blessings, and I believed that you are in the form of this statue, and that is why you gave me all the knowledge." And then he said, "Okay, if I am your Guru, then where is my Guru dakṣiṇā?" Guru dakṣiṇā means a gift offering to the Guru, which you give. "Anything, my life is yours, whatever you want." "Your right thumb." Because to hold the arrow you need these two fingers—or you can also do it like this, but let us say this. So he immediately took it off and cut it and offered it and said, "Here it is." So all the knowledge which he acquired was gone in an instant. But it is said, "Guru ājñā avichāraṇīya," which means try not to find the logic behind what the Guru says and why He says it, because He knows better than us, because He is the only one who is trikāla-darśī. "Trikāla-darśī": "tri" means three, "kāla" means time, and "darśī" means the one who can see. Can we know what will happen in the future? No. What happened in the past, can we change it? No. So if we cannot change what happened in the past, then why do we go so much into the past and worry about this and that, and bother with our heads going deep? "I did this." Yeah, we did something. Every human being makes a mistake. We learn from our mistakes, and we do not repeat them. But there is no sense of being stuck in the past all the time, worrying about why it happened and this and that. It will just create more troubles for us in our mind. Future, we do not know. But still, we are always creating the scenarios in our mind: "What if this happens, or what if that happens?" "What if?" "If" is future. We do not know it. Most of the circumstances which we create in our minds most probably will not even happen. But still we create it, because who likes peace? With too much peace, life will become boring. So, to not make our life boring, we make troubles for ourselves. We create scenarios which will not happen most of the time. Maybe, to some extent, it might happen, but most of the time we just create something that does not need to be thought about. "What happens if my store gets robbed?" And then nothing happens, but his head will be all day worrying about: Did I lock my store? Did I turn on the cameras? Did I close the shutter? Did I lock the shutter at night? Did I close the doors? Is the staff honest or not? And so many things. But if we have faith and we just say, "Nām Kartā, Prabhudeep Kartā, my problems are your problems, my happiness is your happiness, my sadness is your happiness," let them deal with it. How life happens is, it will happen as it is going to happen. What is going to happen in our destiny will happen; the only person who can change our destiny is Him. So if we have faith and we surrender, and we say, "Everything is yours, you deal with it. I am just the observer. I am higher than that. I am higher than the problems." Then that shall also pass. But if we indulge ourselves so deeply into our daily affairs and daily matters, it will just make us nuts. And not to make our mind completely collapse and crash and have a mental breakdown, we let things happen as they are happening in their own time, in their own space. Whatever happens, happens for a reason. Whatever is happening is happening for a good reason. Whatever is happening is happening because it is meant to be happening. If it would not be meant to happen, it would not happen. So if it is happening, let it happen. If there are problems, really bad problems, just know that it shall pass, and good times will also come. When good times are there, just know that that time also shall pass. So enjoy it as much as you can while you can, because you never know when those happy moments end and again something comes. Because it is best to be in the present. About destiny: this story I mentioned many times, but not to this audience, so let us do it again. There was one kingdom, and in that kingdom, every kingdom had a rājaguru. Rājā means a king, and Guru means a Guru. So, in the night, the Gurujī was sitting outside his hut, and he saw one goddess entering the kingdom and going towards the king’s palace. He asked, "Who are you?" She said, "I am the Vidhātā. I am the person who writes the destinies for the people who are going to be born. Why did you come to this kingdom? Because the king is going to have twins tonight, and I am going to write the destiny." Gurujī said, "Okay, but just know that they are my disciples. The king is my disciple, so write something nice and good." After that, what comes? In ego, she said, "Who are you to tell me what to do? I am the one who is writing the destiny. I will write what I want, not what you want." Gurujī said, "Okay, just telling you." So she went, and after she came back, Gurujī said, "So how was it?" She said, "Bad." "Okay, so what?" "Do you want to change it?" "No. The king will have an attack. He will die. The queen will die. The kids will be orphaned, but they will be taken care of by the person who makes pots, the potter. And when they grow up, one kid will go for hunting but will never be able to get more than one prey back home, so it will not be sufficient enough for everyone to be fed. The second kid will go and have a horse and transport goods from one place to another, but still will not be able to get enough money to sustain the family." "Okay, no worries." Next morning, the king comes with sweets and this and that, full procession, drums and music, Gurujī’s praṇām. "I got twins." Gurujī did not seem to be so happy. He said, "I need to go to the other ashram and meditate. I have some work; I am going." So the king sensed that if there is some beautiful time like this, where there are twins and I got a child, and the Guru is leaving, so it is not a good sign, but okay, what to do? So as it was written, it happened after some time. There was an attack on the kingdom. The king was killed, the queen was kidnapped, and the kids were found by a potter on the boundary wall of the kingdom. After they grew up, every day, as it was written, they used to go to hunt. He did not manage to get more than one prey. The other one had a horse, but he did not manage to earn enough money. After many, many years, when the Gurujī came back, he came and asked, "Where is the princess, or where are the kids?" He said, "Gurujī, you are too late. After you left, this whole disaster happened." He said, "I know." That is why, you know, you might have heard Gurudev also many times: you come to him and say something, and he says, "I know." Then we wonder, how does he know everything? Because he is Trikāla-darśī. Many times the Guru is not going to tell you directly what to do, because that is against the laws. He cannot tell you that, "Oh, this is going to happen to you, do not do this, no." But, as a life example, what happened in front of me was: we were sitting in Nipāl Āśram one day in India, and there was—we are jumping with stories, but okay, I will come back to this one. We were sitting in Nipāl Āśram, and there was one very high-ranking officer, Maṅgalājī. And he came to the ashram, and he was sitting there, and after, you know, always looking at the clocks—you know how these high-ranking officers are, they always want to disappear as soon as possible. So he said, "Okay, Swāmījī, I need to go." Swāmījī said, "Sit." He sat, you know. Guru ājñā avichāraṇīya, he cannot say much, so he sat longer. 10–15 minutes later, again, "Swāmījī, I need to go." "Sit." Then after the third time, he again said, "Swāmījī, I need to go." The Guru will tell you three times; if you want to listen after that, that is your wish. So the third time, he said, "Okay." The third time he left, and after a few hours we got a call, and we knew, because he was such a high-profile guy. His car was shot from every single direction, but only a single bullet managed to go through, and it literally went like this through his shirt, did not even touch him. So that is the blessings of the Gurudev. But if he had stayed back, that time would have passed, and that would not have happened. But because it happened, and still the Guru Kṛpā was there, the blessings of the Guru were there, it did not harm him. It just went through. That is the Kṛpā. And that is why it is said, do not try to find logic, or do not try to wonder why he is telling you to sit. If he is telling you to sit, there is obviously something that he can see but we cannot see, and I believe that many of you who were many years with Swāmījī have had such experiences. So since that day, if Swāmījī always tells me also things two times, if I say no, and the third time, if he mentions it, I know that I need to do it, so then I do not question it anymore. So, there are things which happen. Coming back to the story, he came and he went to the potter’s house, and he told the kids that you were the actual princes and your father was the king of this kingdom. They said, "If you are the Guru of our father, then you are the Guru of us also. So what can we do? Please instruct us." He said, "Just do these simple things every day. When you go to hunt, have it in your head that I will only hunt a golden deer, nothing else. It does not matter if the goddess gives you the biggest prey possible, do not hunt it. Have it in your head that I will only go back home with a golden deer, that is it. And because in your destiny, it is written that you will come back home with at least one thing in the evening before sunset, and you do not hunt anything, she will have to give you a golden deer till you go home. And to the second brother, 'You have a horse. Yours, it is written that you will be working with your horse your whole life, so every morning, sell your horse.' How will you work? Because it is saying that you have to work with the horse, so she will have to give you another horse. Sell that one also." So this process went on for a long time. Every day, golden deer selling; every day, horses, two or three horses a day selling. And slowly, they eventually got back to their feet and got well off, basically. And then the current ruler had also two daughters. The richest person in the kingdom got married to the princesses and lawfully got back their kingdom, and everything was peacefully going. So the Guru has the power to make a king a beggar or a beggar a king. That is the power of a Guru. But it is in our hands, as I said, to choose if we want to go on that path or not. He is not going to force us; He is not going to drag us and say, "This is the path." He will show us the path. He is that torchlight which is showing that light. But to walk on that path or not, that is ultimately going to be our decision. If we want to move forward with it or not, that is going to be our decision. But once we do accept it, and once we enter into that and surrender and be okay with it, then believe me, he will take care of you. The Guru can be a he, a Guru can be a she, a Guru can be anyone, whoever you adopt as your Guru, but just know that that Guru should be a true Guru, not someone who just is a self-proclaimed Guru. If a Guru has a lineage, if a Guru has knowledge, if he is someone real, you will have that feeling immediately. There are many people who had to go to maybe 10 different Gurus to finally find one, so that is okay. But once you do choose one, then do not jump around. Once you take one as your Guru, that remains your Guru. You can learn, take knowledge from many other Gurus, but if you got mantra dīkṣā from anyone, that is going to be a Guru forever, does not matter what. That is how it works. Because when he gives you something as powerful as a mantra, his energy, his life blessings, everything goes into that. When he blesses you, when he touches your hand, what happens in that time? There are energies which are flowing through the Guru to the disciple. The energies can be even felt here, even if Swāmījī is physically not present here, but his presence was here, and because it was here, this space has been consecrated with that energy and with that space. When you are outside in the outer world, you can feel that chaos, that tension, the movements. When you come here, it does not matter what chaos is going out. It feels like you are in a separate world. Part 2: The Flow of Grace: Surrender, Awareness, and the Four Paths It feels as if you are sitting somewhere that is a completely different place. Why? Because this space holds that energy here. Madhuramjī, Samir. Yes, there have been many, many beautiful experiences and moments. How much I share depends on the time we have. We have the whole day, apparently, but I cannot speak the whole day. I don’t mind, however. Sharing is caring. I learned a great deal through the process of building, actually. I had no idea what I was doing when the builder left at one point. He said, "I thought I knew enough to carry on by myself." With the help of YouTube and other resources, I tried many times. I reached a point where I didn't know what I was doing, and things always ended up well when I called my friends who were builders at Gyananath John. He said, "Just start, and it will flow." Thank you very much. That is all I wanted to hear, and it actually did work. I began to realize I was learning a very new skill in a practical way—what we chant as "Namaḥkāra." It was not in the field of teaching yoga, where I always thought it would be, or in music or bhajans. It was in another place I never expected: the building. It really did work. The more I was giving up—or rather, not giving up but letting go—yes, surrendering and giving up are two very different energies. To surrender does not mean to give up or to be inactive. It has been a great experience until today, with the little fixings here and there. The fear of not being able to carry on has now turned into excitement when something needs to be done. I can mention my most recent story. Recently, you know that Swāmījī is not talking very much anymore—in fact, not at all. My friend Gaṅgā Swamī went to India and told me, "You should come with me, you should go and see Swāmījī." I kept saying, "Well, I have duties here, classes and this and that." On the evening of the 24th, Christmas Eve in Europe, I was in my yearly silent Anuṣṭhāna retreat. I closed my eyes and said, "I will only go if you tell me to, Swāmījī." The next morning, I sent him something via Fruganga. That next morning, I got a message saying, "I gave your present to Swāmījī, and he remembered your name. He said you should come." So, obviously, he is well aware of our thoughts and feelings. There are many stories like this; I think everybody here would have something. On the other side, I know a friend whom Swāmījī tried to tell not to travel somewhere. She insisted. He told her again, but she went anyway and got very bad malaria in South India. It went so far that the doctors called her family to come and say goodbye. Her lungs were full of water, and she was basically dying. Yet, just a few days later, she started to recover, and she is still alive. The doctors have no rational explanation for how this could happen. I think she learned her lesson for this life. I often think, when we meet each other and walk through these lives, who actually has time? It requires a lot of mental space to fill your life with thinking of others. The availability of the Guru must be so great that there is no space for himself. He is just always full, working for other people. That is our life, yes. We are coming there, but it is beautiful to truly encounter another person in our lives who is there for you. We ask, "How are you?" but very few people actually have the time, space, and availability to sit with the other and be there for them. That is what we feel in an encounter with Swāmījī. The first thing, when he asks, "How are you?" you know he is ready to sit with you if you tell him anything. Until today, I have not met anybody else who is so available. Would that be enough for now? About not giving up: giving up is not a solution for us. It is the same as when we climb a mountain or a staircase. If we are on a trek and get tired, what do we do? We have a break, sit down, and relax—we do not give up and go all the way back down. In the same way, if in life we have barriers or problems, it is okay to sit down and have a break, but not to give up. Similarly, on the spiritual path, it is very hard to climb up, but if you give up, it is very easy to fall straight back down. If something, ku-saṅga or anything, pulls you, then you fall back and have to climb those stairs again. So, if you need a break, sit down, take a break, then continue. Giving up is not a solution, and that is what Gurudev has been teaching us our whole life. Earlier, when Divya was fixing this, I remembered we were talking about Karma Yoga. These are all four paths, but I would say they are four rivers merging into the same ocean: Jñāna Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Rāja Yoga. Jñāna Yoga is when we read scriptures and books, gaining knowledge. Bhakti Yoga, I would say, is often where we play and feel joy and happiness. Rāja Yoga is also meditation, awareness, kriyās, mana—all of this is Rāja Yoga. And Karma Yoga—I am just giving a favorite example. You come to Jhadan, and the first thing you get is Karma Yoga. How many times has it happened that some of you came to Jhadan, and what was the Karma Yoga? Clean the toilet. Why? Because that is not something bad. When you come, you have expectations. You come from far away and have expectations; that is the problem. When our expectations are not fulfilled, then comes resentment, anger, and other emotions. But when we go with the flow and believe everything is okay, then expectations are lower and these emotions hit us less. Why are these types of Karma Yogas given? It is to burn our ego, to burn that "I": "I am better than this," "I do not need to do this," "I am higher than this." To burn this "I" is Karma Yoga. That is why we are blessed to have Gurudev, because he implemented all these four paths in our lives. Every day we do our prayer and bhajans; that is Bhakti Yoga. We do our mālā and kriyā; that is Rāja Yoga. We read books, scriptures, līlā, amṛt, hidden powers, yoga, and daily life—any books; that is Jñāna Yoga. And we help in the ashram, we help in our place, in our home; that is Karma Yoga. So, all these paths are leading into and merging into that same ocean. They are not separate paths. If a person does only Bhakti Yoga and has too much happiness, then it is also not so good. Too much Jñāna Yoga, and that person will become too serious. Too much Rāja Yoga, the person will become very boring. Too much Karma Yoga, the body will ache too much, and he will just be sleeping. So, implementing all four paths together leads into that same path. We should not have that division, thinking we are Rāja Yogīs, or Bhakti Yogīs, or Karma Yogīs. We are all into that same thing. We are all leading. We always sing, "We need to..." There are two types of satsaṅg. We talked about it yesterday, but for those who were not here, satsaṅg means gathering: kusaṅga or satsaṅg. Kusaṅga means negative gathering, and satsaṅg means positive gathering, like now. We are all gathered here for satsaṅg. Satsaṅg does not mean you all need to come here to the āśram to gather. Even at your own homes, if there are talks of positivity, spirituality, any type of positive and truthful talks, that becomes a satsaṅg. So, it is said in this bhajan: hame hae kāmā satsaṅg se—we want satsaṅg, we do not want anything else. It does not matter what the world is shouting or barking in the background; our job is to go to satsaṅg. If we took the first initiative to come here for satsaṅg, that is already the first step we needed, which is good. The rest is guided, helped, and created by Him. That is why we sing: He is the Brahma, He is Viṣṇu, He is Maheś, He is everyone. So, if He is everything, if He is higher than all these gods and goddesses, and they all come for parikramā around Him, then what is the doubt? There should not be any doubts. When there are no doubts, no worries, no problems, nothing affecting our mental state of mind, then truly we feel that inner peace, inner joy, and inner happiness we have been talking about all the time. But for that, we need to believe that it is okay. We need to understand that what is happening is okay. Why it is happening is also okay. We are only going to get inner peace when we believe that, when we understand that, when we accept ourselves for who we are. Most of the time, we are doubting ourselves. We doubt: are we good enough? Is it okay what we are doing? Do I do this right? Do I do that right? Yes, we are the best versions of ourselves. Whatever we do is right. Whatever we are doing is within our greatest capacity. Are we doing something wrong? Maybe sometimes, but that is also okay because we are human beings. If we do not make mistakes and everything is perfect, then we are not humans; we are superhumans, which we are not. So, it is okay to make mistakes. It is not okay to think about it and worry about it for ages, but it is okay to make mistakes because, without mistakes, how do we move forward? How do we learn from them? But as Mother Ramjī was saying, giving up should not be there. We make a mistake and decide we want to give up? No. We make a mistake, learn from it, and say, "Okay, we are not going to do it again." That is okay. But when we have that guiding light, everything is trust, belief, and surrender. Those are the three key things in our spiritual journey. When we surrender and understand that we are just puppets and the one who is controlling it is Him, then we know there is nothing to worry about. This means Satguru Dev is taking care of you. He is guiding you, protecting you, and taking care of you. But you need to understand that He is. If we believe that He is taking care of you, then He will. It is the same as a river with a very narrow plank in between. When a child is walking on it, holding its mother’s or father’s hand, he or she believes, "Yes, I am being protected. They are holding me. Nothing will happen to me." In the same way, when we are crossing this ocean of māyā, of illusion, this old chaos, and He is holding our hand, then we know we are being protected and nothing can harm us. I say we are in a bubble that cannot be popped or punctured by anything or anyone because there is this protective layer over us. If there is supposed to be, like in yesterday’s story, a very bad accident, but instead you just get a thorn, that is also because of grace. He can reduce what is supposed to happen in your destiny, or He can increase it. That is up to Him, but it also depends on us. How? It depends on what we do in our lives. Some karmas we bring from previous lives; some karmas we create in this life. Many karmas will burn in this life, and many karmas we will take forward. So, if we are doing good things, then good things will happen to us. If we do bad things, bad things will happen to us. As it is said, "Jīva jīva bhakṣate." That does not mean we should eat animals. They have always said, "You cut one chicken, next life you will be cut as a chicken." Simple. So, if we are following the paths, if something is done without knowing why, that is different. But knowingly doing something wrong is wrong. Any karma we do should be done with awareness. Anything we do should be done with awareness. Yesterday we were talking about it: if we are in satsaṅg, be with full awareness here. If we have to work, be with full awareness at work. Whatever we do, it should be with awareness, affection, love, and feelings. Without that, it is not going to work. If we do something, it should be done with awareness. It does not matter if we are meditating; that meditation should be done with awareness. When I say he is teaching yoga, she does it with full awareness. She knows what she is telling you. In the same way, when we are practicing yoga, we practice with awareness. We know which part of our body is being affected by which pose. When we do this, this will hurt; if we do that, that will hurt. That is awareness. Or when we are doing our mālā, we are aware we are doing our mālā because the awareness, the concentration, is there. Either we do mānasik pūjā, which means we do the pūjā and rituals everything within; that is more focused. I was listening to a lecture a few days back. There is a difference when you offer directly to the deity, to the statue, to the photo, or when we are doing it mentally. For beginners, it is good to do it physically, but in the long term, they say if you are doing it with manasik (in the inner consciousness), then it is much more concentrated. Because if you are doing it here, holding this, doing that, offering this and that, your mind can still travel here and there. But if we are doing Mānasik Pūjā, then the full awareness and concentration has to be on what you are imagining and creating there; otherwise, it is lost. Our mind is so fast. Why is it called, in India, a monkey mind? Because the monkey is restless. In the same way is our mind. Our mind runs to different places. Now, I talked about Fiji, and how many of you thought about Fiji and its beauty and weather? Or I talk about India, and then I asked how many of you were in India, and then some of you were thinking about your experiences in India. A thought comes, and the mind just goes. It shows that to hold concentration on something for a certain amount of time is very hard. Probably for a few milliseconds you can be properly concentrated on something. Even when we do Trāṭak to a flame, our thoughts might be somewhere else. We are doing our Mālā or Āratī. That is why now when I do Āratī, I am concentrating there. That is one thing, but I am also trying to understand the words of the Āratī so the concentration at least stays in the Āratī and does not go here and there. Before, I used to sing bhajans as songs. Now, when I sing bhajans, I am more aware because I am trying to listen and understand the words and find new meanings. Every time I sing a bhajan nowadays, a new meaning comes up, or a new sentence occurs to me that did not the last time. So, that is how we can start learning to bring our focus onto something we wish to do. Focus is necessary, no matter what we do. Now, the thing is, when I left my job—I was actually working in software engineering and was head of a department—it was a highly paid, good job. But it did not feel good anymore. I felt empty being there. I suddenly wanted to go in front of people, to talk to people. So, what he is saying actually has a bit of truth behind it because my whole life I was really afraid of public speaking. Working in software, you are in front of a computer working with a team, but I got really bored of that. Of course, when I first quit, what our mind does is start to calculate ahead: "Okay, first few weeks I will take off, and then I will do this and that." The mind goes into its own thing and starts to plan the future because the mind always wants to know the next step. And, of course, anybody who knows Swāmījī and our whole lineage knows he likes to break that—your plans and your house of cards. That is what he did. The moment he said, "Come to me, come to India with me," I had a realization. Of course, because I had not even thought of going to India to see Swāmījī after a long time. Part of me said yes, and part of me went into panic mode: "Oh, what about my plans?" But then after a few days, I thought, "Yeah, I will go." Then, of course, a few days later he started, "Come with me to Fiji and New Zealand and Australia." And that is also a financial burden because you have no income, even if you have something prepared. I had no idea when I would start my business. Then comes a part with trust and surrender. In London, there was another guy, maybe some of you know him, Hanwan from the Czech Republic, though he lived in London most recently. I had a really good conversation with him. He said everything in life is about your relationship with God. So, if God wants you to go with him, just tell God: "I will go with him, but you take care of everything else." It clicked in my mind. I said, "Yes, of course." Then I just knew inwardly I was going. I did not even mention to him, "Fixed, I am coming," but inwardly I knew. Of course, at home with Mom, one thing I am really taking as a practice here is just surrender. It does not mean you do not give a rat’s ass about everything—no, you are just... you do not... yeah, okay, got the point. The thing is, this does not mean you are just saying, "Yeah, I am not going to do anything." Of course you do; of course you work; of course you strive. But you just do not look at the result. You are not worried about the result. Whatever happens will happen, and how it will happen is good. If it looks not as you wanted, that just means there is something else for you to learn from it, or it is just not the end yet. You have to not give up and go on. So, that is really a big practicing part. On one side, traveling sounds good, but still, our minds are all the time: "What will happen when you come back?" You know what? You will know these things, and you just have to be every day. Everything will be fine, and I really believe it will be so. I can tell you one more story because when Swami Madhavaram was talking about experiences with Swāmījī, I remembered something that happened to me years ago. I had just finished my master’s degree in mechanical engineering. I had a scholarship at a company for many years, so they paid me quite a lot of money, but usually you have to go and work after you finish. At that time, there was a summer seminar in Stryuki with a lot of talk about Om and karma yoga. All these things sounded so good. After I finished in September, I had to go to work. But I went to Swāmījī and said, "Swāmījī, I would like to go to India for six months to do karma yoga." I told him after I finish my studies, I want to go. He asked, "What are you studying?" I said, "A master’s degree in mechanical engineering." He said, "Oh, so you want to become a master?" Then he blessed me. He said, "Talk to Yogesh," and gave me a blessing. So, I contacted the company where I had the scholarship and told them, "I am finishing now in September, but I would really like to go for six months to travel." I did not tell the details. The lady from HR said, "Yeah, actually, we do not have any work for you right now anyway, so go. Just contact us when you are coming back." I thought, "Oh, good, this part was okay." Then, what happened during those six months is totally another story. But after I came back, I had to contact them. I wrote an email saying I was back, ready to do whatever I had to do. For three weeks, there was no answer. This was a company in a small town where I was born, but I did not want to live there. If I had to, I would go, but it was not a job I actually wanted. After three weeks with no reply, I started looking for an actual job I wanted. I found one in Ljubljana—perfect, exactly what I wanted. It was connected to my master’s thesis. I applied, went for the interview and tests. I thought I totally crashed it, but after three weeks, a guy from the company called and said, "Yeah, we chose you." I thought, "Oh, what to do now?" because I was still contracted with the other company. But I wanted this job. I said, "Yeah, okay, good." We started talking on the phone about terms, starting in September, etc. Then I looked at my mail and saw that the other company had contacted me one hour ago, saying I had to come the next day for an interview to talk about working there. I spent one night thinking about what to do, how to pay back maybe 20,000 euros or whatever. But I just surrendered it. What will happen will happen. The next day, I went to their company, sat down with the HR lady. She was really nice. She sat me down and said, "Vit, you did everything you had to do on your side, but we have to, unfortunately, tell you we cannot hire you. At the moment, we do not have any free space, so you are free of your contract." I was just like, "Okay, I will survive," because I could not tell them. My mom worked at that company and said if they knew I had another arrangement, they would say, "No, you have to come," because then I would have to pay if I did not. So, everything happened perfectly, even better than I could imagine. I went, did my six months of karma yoga, and then got exactly the job I could not even imagine was possible. It just popped up the moment I came back. I got it, and I got free of the scholarship. To me, it was totally clear because everything came together so smoothly that I knew it was just a blessing. Those things, when you surrender and just do small things, at the end everything comes together. That is my experience, and I believe a lot of other people can share similar stories. But it is true that you have to have some faith. You have to, of course, do things. It does not mean just looking at the sky and scratching your ears. Even Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "Do your karma. Do not worry about the fruits or the results." So, in life, do what you wish, and everything will happen as the divine flow wants it to happen. It will happen according to your wish and His wish, so it will be good for you always at the end of the day. But if there were no trust, if there were no surrender, then it would probably be a different story. That is why in life, no matter how tough it may seem, it does not mean I do not have problems. We all have problems, but we all have different types of problems. We all live in a different way, so problems arise for everyone. Problems are there to keep us entertained because, without problems, what would we do? Problems are there to be solved so we are not so bored. When we solve problems and finally think we are free, they throw another problem at us. Then sometimes we get happy moments in between, and we waste them worrying about the next problem. So, let us just enjoy the moments as they come and enjoy the problems also as they come. We will solve them and deal with them when and how they happen. But when we have trust and faith, then everything will move. Without trust and faith, it will not move. That is why we say: gurudeva kṛpā pāye, śiṣya siddha ho jāye. This means when Gurudev’s blessings and teachings are there, then the disciple is in ultimate bliss. Ultimate bliss can be achieved with our inner realization and the grace and blessings of the master. When we have the blessings and grace of the master, all doings and not-doings go smoothly, and then we are in that bliss. But that bliss can be achieved with his blessings and by our efforts—not just by looking at the sky and thinking everything will happen. We need to do the effort. That is why it is said: "Do the karma. Do what you are supposed to do." How it happens, how it unfolds, is different, but the effort has to be made by us. Without doing the effort, without trying to do something, it will not be. You can stay standing; you can sit there. Because next is you.