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In every aspect, within us and outside of us, everything is a Pūrṇa. When our consciousness, when our intellect, when our ignorance turns towards our individual existence, it separates us from the Pūrṇa. It creates a barrier of ignorance between you and the Pūrṇa. As soon as we lose our consciousness of oneness, immediately sadness, disappointment, pain, and a loss of confidence enter into your limited consciousness. If your consciousness is merging with the Pūrṇa, with oneness, then there is no duality. There is no two, three, four, five, but there is only one zero. That zero is the śūnya, and that śūnya means nothing. Pūrṇa is a form of the zero, and that is nothingness, which means there is, in reality, no problems. There is, in reality, no pain. There is, in reality, no suffering. There is, in reality, no anger, no hate, no jealousy. All is bubbles on the water, and these bubbles are our limited, narrow way of thinking, the narrow perceptions that we are selfish, to be alone or divided. So, Pūrṇa on the Pūrṇimā day today, for example—the divine energy in the form of immortality, Amṛta, is flowing towards our planet. As God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, in the form of moonlight I enter into the vegetation as a nectar. So the moonlight is very important for our existence, for our planet. The moonlight is more intensive or stronger than the sunlight, and therefore it is growing, increasing, and it is decreasing. According to the moonlight, our biorhythm—not only in our body, but in the entire creation and in every element—is increasing or decreasing. The fasting on the full moon day is not only that you have to avoid or quit your meal. There is nothing against your meal, but it is said that on this day, when you fast, there is a wonderful energy, a nectar, which flows from the moon. Your body cells will be more capable of recharging this energy. Of course, if you are pregnant or you have some health problems, so that you cannot fast or you have to eat something after a certain time, that is an exception. That is individual, not general. Fasting means purifying the body, what they call in Āyurveda āma. Through fasting, you can purify your āma in the body. Through fasting, you can purify more toxins from the body. Through fasting, the immunity becomes more active in the body and will become stronger. So, fasting is not only spiritual, but it is also very healthy for our body, for our mind, for our consciousness, and for our soul. It means also the karma. Ahiṃsā is not only spoken towards the creatures, but also towards the plants. In the Vedas, it is very clearly said that every plant and vegetation also has life. Destroying the plants, killing the plants, is also hiṃsā, which means violence. Unnecessarily, do not destroy them. Many people, many spiritual people, they do not accept flowers when you bring them from the garden. They don't want to break the flower. There is one story from Swāmī Vivekānanda jī. When they brought him one flower, he became a little bit sad. And they said, "What happened?" He said, "This flower which you brought will survive only a few hours. But can you imagine if this flower is in its original place on the plant? How many days will this flower be shining, radiating, and giving more and more fragrance and beauty?" Can you imagine, one plant, one seed begins to sprout and develops into one plant. How many days this plant was struggling to survive, to get water. Even we see sometimes between the rocks, suddenly there is a beautiful small plant that comes and it gives a flower. We know here, even in the civilized cities, where there's a lot of cars and people are walking, but even between the car parking place, where we are parking the cars, sometimes there's some plant which survives and gives one nice, beautiful flower. So, from the viewpoint of Ahiṃsā, it is not advised to cut the flowers away from their origin, from the plants. Cultivate there, give the water, and let it be the beauty of your garden, the beauty of your balcony, the beauty of your meadow, the beauty of your forest. That's it. Well, there are many things about this to speak. What should we then eat at all? So, vegetable means the fruit vegetables always meant. And if then take only the leaves with prayers for our surviving, or it is in the grains. So on this matter we can discuss a lot. There is no end. So, Pūrṇimā, fasting on the full moon day or fasting on the Monday, which belongs to also the moon day, Śiva day, also the consciousness—purification of the consciousness. Pure consciousness is the symbol of the guru, the light. That's the Thursday, Jupiter. And Jupiter is the guru among the planets in the sky, in the heaven, in the space. And that Jupiter has a balance and meaning for other stars and planets. So every day, which is decided by great saints and astrologers, they made a research work. It's not that they're sitting down and saying, "Okay, this we put here, this we put here. Okay, that's good." No. Yugas and yugas, they were making experiments. Which planet has an effect, positive or negative, on our planet and on different creatures? Also, the people or animals or a tree—the day the tree sprouted, on which constellation, which day this creature was born, from which day the baby came out of the egg, or the fish, or the humans. Everything has its constellations, and on that constellation, which planet had a positive or negative effect. There are some which have a negative influence, but at the same time, another planet, Jupiter, which will have a strong effect, so it will neutralize the negative energy. So fasting is not only that you avoid your meal, but fasting means you do something good to your body, good to your mind, consciousness, intellect, and your soul. It means that you purify a lot of karmas, a lot of karmas, because as a human, through the human spirit, through the human mind, through the human perceptions, we understand these principles, the law, the cosmic law, the law of the creation, the law of nature. And if we do something consciously, then we become free from certain influences, karmic. And that karmic influence can be from different things. From the trees, it can be too; from animals also, from humans—anyhow, it is there. Therefore, to exist in this creation and come out very safe is not an easy job. For example, you have a snow-white dress, and now you have to walk through five kilometers of underground coal mines. Now, you may have a torchlight in your hand, or maybe there is a light inside, and a lot of work is going on. You enter one side, and after many, many tunnels of the mines, you come out the other side and look at your dress to see if you have any various spots. Though we are very careful, when we come out, there will be some spots. It is a masterwork. It needs alertness, very careful. Then you may manage to come out without a spot. So this saṃsāra, this creation, is that it has both things, good and bad, positive, negative. The other poor creatures cannot. They are just surviving. They don't care; they are not even aware about this. Who is working in the coal mines doesn't care if the dress will be black or the hand will be black. It doesn't matter; one is working for existence. But a human is that creature that has got the talent to be aware, the talent to be conscious. Talent to be careful and talent to think over for every movement, and so it is a human research work. In many, many different countries and cultures, there is fasting. The fasting began with Vedic times, in the Satyugas the ṛṣis were fasting many. Many years they were fasting, even they didn't drink and they didn't eat. Only they were living from the air, prāṇa. There is a training, there is a tapasyā, there are exercises that you can also live from only the air, but you have to get training. You have to make sādhanā. You have to endure certain feelings, like there are some plants that survive with very little oxygen and humidity in the air. Recently I was in Ukraine. On the way, we stopped the car for some minutes. And after, when I walked back to the car, there was a little, round, small bush. It was looking like a little ball. I touched it; it was dry, completely dry, some kind of plant. And we took it in the car. It seems that it walked. It has no roots. It was with the wind rolling. We took it with us, and we put it in the bathtub. And in two, three hours, it opened and began to become green and soft. It means there was a life in it. How many months did it survive without water, without anything? So there is life, and life is struggling to survive, to live. And so when yogīs, those yogīs, not like we... okay, forget it. You cannot forget it. This is only for your information. One can, one can, that they have the control. In the beginning, when you eat three meals, let's say, try to make it half the quantity. You drink 20 times a day, then drink only 10 times a day. Or lessen your quantities, but at the same time, reduce your solid food. If you don't reduce the solid food and you do not take liquid, then you will damage your kidneys. So you have to balance purifying all āma, vāta, pitta, kapha from the body, which Āyurveda people, Muktāmaṇī, will tell you better than me. A doctor tells me that I am a vāta. So I said, "I don't know." They said, "The pitta." I said the baby, vāta, pitta, and kapha. I said, "Every morning I am coughing." Yes. Kapha is there. So this we have to understand and reduce, and reduce, and limit your desires and limit your food, and endure the hunger and thirst, hot and cold, and purify prāṇāyāma, prāṇāyāma, meditation, prāṇāyāma. Then suddenly, your tissues, your body will take the energy and nourishment from the air. With one handful of rice, you can survive a whole week. How nice! Then also, you don't have to go very often to the toilet. Slowly, slowly, about... 10-15 years, then your body is very nice, nearly transparent, you know. And when you stand near the tree, hand there, you will see what is hanging here, you know. Your skin is hanging here. And when you do the marjari, your stomach skin is hanging. My dear, we are consuming in one day the food which those yogīs will consume for two weeks or one month. Still, they are conscious, aware, alert, healthy, and wise. So we are not going to do this. Mother Nature produces a lot of food, and we should consume and enjoy it. Doesn't matter, it will take a few lives. More to come there, no problem. We are attached so much to this planet. It, you know, that is when one farmer was working in the field, and suddenly one big basket came down, a flower basket, and inside were the angels, the devas and apsarās. Then the farmer said, "Oh, what are you doing here?" They said, "We came to take you with." "Really? I have so good karma?" "Yes." "Where will you take me?" Into the heaven, let's go. So he stepped in, and they came near the heaven on the door, and he asked, "Moment, moment. Before I will enter into heaven, can I have my beer there?" They said, "In the heaven, there is no beer." So he said, "No beer in... the heaven?" "No." Then I quit the heaven. Please bring me back down for the sake of the beer. He even quit the heaven. How much we are attached to this, our food. Try and look at your watch. How many hours a day are you not taking something in the mouth? When we don't have something, then we take chewing gum. When we don't have chewing gum, then we take a cherry seed. A long time we have in the mouth all the time, or we take something different, or... A lychee always like a goat? This is so. Pūrṇimā, or every holy festival, is connected with ahiṃsā, love. On that day, at least, you should not kill or destroy animals, humans, or plants, and meditate. Then this pūrṇa-ness, completeness will begin to develop in your body, and you will feel very light and very good. We have today full moon day fasting. Many people didn't sleep in the night. Tomorrow, there's no breakfast. Why, Swamiji, just have a seminar always? We have a full moon day, but anyhow we have tea, coffee, and fruit. So where is the fasting? And now we are waiting; we will have lunch time, some nice vegetables. So our fasting is, let's say... So, so, kimchi, kimchi, okay. We are just symbolically thinking that we are fasting. Really, we, in reality, we don't want. When you will be really 24 hours without eating, just having a little water, only water, because juice, milk, coffee, tea comes to the... Food, water comes to the more neutral, that's it. But when we want to have water, then we want a soda water to satisfy, and then Coca-Cola water, or what kind of water we need? This, yes, this is... some people put the lemon in the water. And a little sugar inside lemonade. This is not a fasting, so today I will not force you to do it, but think it over. Try this all if you have physical weakness, a problem where you become dizzy, or your blood pressure goes very low, or you... are pregnant, then don't do this. So, Pūrṇimā, every Pūrṇimā is a Guru Pūrṇimā. So today we are very blessed ones that we are together on this Guru Pūrṇimā in Gurujī's āśram. Feel the presence, feel the presence, and feel the pūrṇa-ness. We are sitting so many in this hall, but in reality, there is only one: one in all and all in one. That is a Pūrṇa-ness, completeness, oneness. But as soon as we come to our ego, I, who is this one, who is that one, who is this one, that one, oh, how many we are. But I am special. Yes, we are very special. Okay? Are you happy now? We all say that you are very special. Now, what should we do with special? Man is a very special diamond being. What we do, you know, we put it in one box, close it, and go to the bank and close it in the safe. But then you will say, "Why did you put me in there?" Because you are very special, and we will have that party outside. So we know then the special one says, "Can I also come?" "No, no... You are special." That is a treatment from the karmic treatment for those who think that I am exclusive and special. We are human. You are Austrians. Even the president of Austria is a citizen of Austria. Even the president of Croatia or Slovenia or any country, okay, it has some position. But still, it is a citizen of that country. So we are all citizens of this planet. We are all special. What God has created is all special. He will not create anything which is not special. But our consciousness tells, our intellect tells, our greed tells, the things which are rare in the world, that we said, are special. There are many, many rocks and coal; that's not special. But very few diamonds, that is special. So, when you come to that realization of the Pūrṇa, then all becomes for you the same. And therefore, today is the Guru Pūrṇimā. Every day is a Guru Pūrṇimā. Many saints were born on this Pūrṇimā, and many saints also left on this day. It doesn't matter how one looks, but it has karma. It has some good things. You know, one of our, your sister, my very good bhakta, the yoginī, for Navishad, she said, "Swamiji, I am going now, but I wait and pray that I want to go on full moon day, Guru Pūrṇimā." And really, she managed; she left her body on Guru Pūrṇimā. Not great? Yes. And you can also do. You can say, "I want to leave my body this evening." Would you like to do it? No. You see, that's why. Because why? We are not special. So let us celebrate the party of the Guru Pūrṇimā. Therefore, pureness, completeness. So we will feel this ānanda. So we will have this meditation. When we chant this meditation mantra, then you feel how the energy is flowing in the body. Every limb of the body is getting energy. My hands, the fingers, the thumbs, the palms, the elbows, joints, the nerves, the muscles, the tissues, ligaments, from the left hand also, the legs, the trunk of the body, the digestion, everything beautifully is recharging this sound, resonance of the Pūrṇa. And that's very, very nice. And so, let's say, to make it clear and easy for everyone, we will chant this. Means, I am bliss, I am bliss, bliss I am. I am happy, I am happy, happy I am. Ānandoham, Ānandoham. Ānandam, Brahmanandam. We will sing only Ānandoham. Ānand, Ānandakārī. Where there is ānand, there is a maṅgalam. Where there is a maṅgalam, there is happiness, there is truth, there is love and oneness. But still, if you don't feel this and are sitting in one corner and crying at home or anywhere, that is only your stupidity. That we cannot do anything against. So feel the pūrṇa-ness, completeness in you, and we will do this meditation.