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Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī, Deveśvar Mahādev Kī, Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandjī Bhagavān Kī, Sanātana Dharma Kī. Good evening, welcome and good evening to all our dear friends, brothers, sisters, bhaktas, and practitioners around the world. This blessing is coming to you from Śrīmad Prabhudev Satsaṅg Foundation, Ashram, Strelka, Czech Republic. We have been here for ten days now, and what I observe constantly, every day, is people's behavior. Physically, they look very fit. Everyone's complexion has changed. The facial muscles are more relaxed. Why? You know why? Because they practice yoga in daily life. One day we were sitting with holy Gurujī and talking about dṛṣṭi, dṛṣṭi, draṣṭā, dṛśya. This is from Patañjali as well. Draṣṭā—you are the draṣṭā, the seer. Right now, you see me; you are a draṣṭā. You see me; dṛṣṭi is your eyes looking. If your eyes are covered or you are blind, then you cannot be a draṣṭā in that way. You are still the one who can hear, but you have no dṛṣṭi—no vision, no eyesight. Then you cannot see the dṛśya. Dṛśya means the object, the view, the panorama. This is what samādhi is about. When we achieve higher consciousness, which is called samādhi, then jñāna, jñātā, jñeya—these three become one. Jñāna means knowledge. Jñātā means yourself, the knower who would like to know. What you want to know is the knowledge about the object. So, jñāna, jñātā, and jñeya—these three have to become one. Now, ātmā. Our ātmā is our aim, our destination, our lakṣya—the aim, the ātmā. Ātmā jñāna, self-realization, or knowledge about the self: "Who am I?" Here, theory will not help. Theory can only inspire us. Theory can give motivation. Theory can give indication, but theory alone cannot bring us there. We need something more—that is practice, ātmā jñāna. Now, who has ātmā jñāna? There are different levels. First, our mind, or our jīvātmā, or our intellect. Sometimes it is funny that the self is searching for the self. Suppose you are lost in a forest. You say, "I am searching for myself." They will say, "What are you doing in the forest?" "Well, I went to find myself." You can wander lifelong around the forest, desert, fields—you will not find yourself. And yourself is... you are. But you are searching for yourself somewhere else. Yourself can only be you. There is a long story, which I will not tell, about one of the disciples of Parama from the Vivekānanda Rāma Tīratha. He was in America, and there was a very famous artist. It happened that Swāmījī got accommodation in her house. She was very much inspired and liked him very much. After five days, she wanted to have a consultation. He said, "Okay, what do you want?" She said, "I would like to have a son like you." It means she would like to have a son from him. He said, "Yes, a mother like me can only be me, so I am your son and you are my mother. Now you have it, so like you." Only you are that. But what a funny thing that you are searching for yourself—how to find it? Similarly, this subject, ātmā jñāna, is nowhere. It is nowhere; it is only within thyself, because you are the Self. But we have separated ourself: the ātmā, the individual soul, jīvātmā, and intellect, and mind, then emotions, then body, and so on. So there, you cannot find yourself anywhere but within yourself. So, jñātā—you are the jñātā. Jñātā means the knower, that you know. You know you are in Strelka Ashram. You know you are sitting here in satsaṅg. And what you know is the knowledge. And what is that? You would like to know what is ātmā. What is the ātmā? Yes, I am the ātmā. This knowledge we need. Through books, different books, through telling, and through many lectures, and through your own thoughts, you have heard many times ātmā, ātmā jñāna—but that is only on the surface. All it is is a theory. That's called viparīta vṛtti. In one shell, you see the silver. When you walk on the beach, it's nice: shining, reflection. You see, it's full of silver inside, but there's no silver. Bhrama—that is called bhrama, a confusion, a disappointment. In the rope, you see a snake, but there is no snake; it's a rope. Similarly, for us, that which we are searching for is very near but very far. One bhajan said: "Where are you searching me, my dear? I am with you. My heart is out of this metropolitan city, not in this civilized world, which is full of noise, dirt." Many kinds of dirt, but the forest. So, I am not in this world. What you are searching, I am somewhere else, but my residence is in your breath. If you will search properly, you will find me immediately. Pal bhar kī talāś meṁ—in a moment. Pal means just that, you. Close your eyes and open within. That much time you will find me, but search me in the proper way. And that Ajapā. Mahāprabhujī said in his bhajan: "Ajapā jisko kyā japāya? Bin japye jāye hoī. Oṭ jībā hale nāhī." Neither moves the lips nor the tongue, and you need not to repeat. Without repetition, your victory is. There, that means the Ajapa Japa. As long as you will not come to the Ajapa level, then be sure that you will not realize what you would like to realize. So, Draṣṭā—you are the Draṣṭā. Dṛśya—the object; I am the Dṛśya for you now. And Dṛṣṭi—through which vision, eyes, you are looking at me. Jaisī dṛṣṭi vaisī sṛṣṭi. Now, with which feeling you are looking at me, like that I will appear to you. If you are looking full of anger, yes, then this anger will awaken you more and more. So, with which feeling are you looking? There are certain dṛśya; you are frightened when you see. And there are certain dṛṣṭis here; we are happy. So Gurujī said, "The dṛṣṭi, the look of a yogī, the panorama for a yogī should be so far without obstacles." Yes, now in this modern civilization, in these big cities, we have skyscrapers. And from your kitchen window, you can give coffee, or tea, or bread to your neighbor's kitchen window. You stretch your hand, and the other one also, and you can exchange through these windows. So always you look only to the next wall, and you are blocked. That also influences your psyche, and many people get depressions and tensions. So here is all nature, and nature never causes tension; it is relaxed. These are all beautiful trees. It is never boring if you look at one tree. And when you look at the forest and nature, there's never a high pressure on your eyes. But if you look at the computer six hours a day, then you come home. And then you come home and sit with your husband and drink tea together. And you are looking at him suddenly. He says, "What are you doing?" "Oh, sorry, I was thinking you are a computer." That's it. It happened three days ago, we saw Nārada. No, he was sitting there, and suddenly he said, "No, no," karatāla in his hands. No, he wants a Nārāyaṇa, he said no. So that was Ajapā. And so, looking at this man-made world causes tensions, and looking at the God-made world gives us happiness and relaxation. And so we can see, in one week, everyone's face muscles are so relaxed. I was looking today also myself, how I looked before 10 days and now—it looks different. I thought I had some mask here, you know, but not. We are happy, we are relaxed. The weather is so perfect, a lot of fresh air, oxygen, yoga exercises, beautiful atmosphere, and that is a remedy. That's a remedy for our soul, for the jīvātmā. And when the jīvātmā is relaxed and happy, then the entire function is... good. So, draṣṭā, draṣṭṛ, and dṛśya—on these three, Patañjali is constantly telling the disciples what to do. After this, we all know that in the world we have many different kinds of dṛśya. What is a dṛśya? Visions, project, pictures. How many different visions do you have per day? Many, many... thousands. And all these thousands of visions have a very fine layer on your subconscious, very fine. And that's why, in meditation, it is said, "Relax, close eyes." And God, or Mother Nature, made a system, an automatic system, and that... It is when there are so many layers, then you need to reduce them to clear up. Nowadays, they say, you know, the SMS, but your box is full, it doesn't receive any more SMS, so you have to empty it. So, our mind, our brain, is so much filled with so many things, so Mother Nature said, "Okay, I will help you." And so when you are tired, then your eyelids go down. How are you? Good, thank you. Yes, that means now your body, nature, is forcing you to relax. That's too much. So in yoga practice, especially when we do the prāṇāyāma, with prāṇāyāma, when we use our Ajapa Mantra, then this old pollution, which is in our mind or our subconscious, our conscious, can be deleted, can be finished, cleaned up. And so, in our kriyānusthān, you have different techniques with concentration, purification of the... certain cakras, one after the other cakras, and then you have cakra śodhanam, all the eight cakras, and there it helps you to get relaxed. But again, if you have too many vṛttis, or you did not prepare yourself for this kriyānusthāna, then you are constantly occupied with your ankle joints, the knees, and hip joints. That's all. What do I mean by this? Painful. Every five minutes you move your leg. Again, sit like this. Again, you make like this. Again, sitting like that. So that is not a meditation, neither cakra śodhanam. There is no śodhanam. There is only you torturing yourself. Kāyā is the torture. Many, many times, I gave you some example. There is a glass full of water. About three centimeters are empty. The glass is here on this table, which is very stable, not moving. Now, the liquid which is in the glass is also motionless. As soon as I take the glass in my hand, the glass is moving. It means the liquid is also moving. Symbolically, this glass is our body, and our mind is that liquid. So if you feel discomfort, then your mind is not steady. Constantly, you think to move your body, and when you move the body, before you move the body, the mind is already the vṛttis. There are so many vṛttis that you cannot see through. We have a good example: a glass of water, you have a television. And you put on the television, but there is no signal. Then you see many, many stars on the screen. There is no signal, nothing. That's exactly your chidākāśa, thank you. Your chidākāśa is that screen of the television. And all your vṛttis, all these prapañcas of the saṃsāras, these stars are inside. You have no picture because you cannot sit comfortably, you cannot relax, you cannot be motionless. And you do not have a very clear, very clear aim. And therefore, it was asked, "What? How to meditate?" So you must have some object, you must have some aim, you must have some destination, and then remain on that. And so, dhyāna mūlaṁ guru mūrti. The roots, the essence, or the success of your meditation is Guru Mūrti, or the divine form of your Gurudev. Now, it is not easy. It is not easy. Try half a minute. Can you manage to imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute? If you can imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute without any other thoughts, I can tell you have a very big success or progress. None of you is capable of remaining on one object for half a minute. Suddenly, there are some other thoughts that come. I want to see only Mahāprabhujī, nothing else. When you said nothing else, what do you mean, nothing else? That's it. So, dhyāna mūlaṁ guru mūrti, pūjā mūlaṁ guru pādam. What? To worship the holy lotus feet of the master. Mantra mūlam guru vākyam. The best mantra is to follow the guru's word. Mokṣa mūlaṁ guru kṛpā. Then the mokṣa, the liberation, the realization, only follows through the grace of the Gurudev, the blessings. Blessing doesn't come through some, what you call, some kind of protection. Say, "Gurudev, I am so busy, and this, I give 20 million Hungarian forints, please give me mokṣa. I just have to go, it's here, 24, okay? You will give me the mokṣa." Master will know there is something wrong, but okay. Put your millions, go. That's what now. Or you come with someone, a close disciple of Swāmījī, with the Hṛdayakamal. "Hṛdayakamal, please, can you tell Swāmījī to give me kṛpā that I have mokṣa?" She will come and say, "Swāmījī, this is my best student. Please, can you give blessings for mokṣa?" As a courtesy towards Hṛdayakamaladā, I say, "Okay, I bless you that sometimes you will get mokṣa." What to do? So, mokṣa, liberation, ātma-jñāna is not with some exchange. Practice. Therefore, Patañjali said, "Abhyāsa, vairāgya, abhyāsam, tanirodha." Abhyāsa—practice, practice, practice. Vairāgya—you have to practice the vairāgya. Two things he's telling: abhyāsa means practice, everyday practice, and our practice will be only successful if you will have vairāgya. Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya speaks about vairāgya from this planet till the Brahmaloka. All these things which you think you can enjoy, all these material things, should be for you like dirt. That time is pure vairāgya, and without pure vairāgya, you cannot have this ātmā jñāna, pure. Divine dṛśya. Now, it means also not that you deny or hate, no. One who has pure vairāgya has a lot of love. Such a love awakens. This you cannot awake through anything. At the same time, Brahma satya, jagat mithyā. Only the truth, everlasting, is that Brahman. What is created will be destroyed. Who came will go. Who appears will disappear sooner or later. Therefore, Jagat mithyā means not in this way. Some philosophers do not accept this sentence, "Brahma satya, Jagat mithyā." Jagat is not mithyā? Yes, it is not mithyā. It is true that I am here and you are also here, right? But after half an hour, neither I will be here nor will you be here, yes? Or midnight, get up at midnight and come. There is neither webcast nor broadcast, no one. So constantly changing is unreality, and unchangeable, everlasting is the reality. So in the entire universe, all the stars, suns, all the planets, elements, energy, incarnations, everything is changing, but one doesn't change: Brahman. That's like the sky. How many things changed in this place where we are sitting? When this castle was built, when it was built. It is how many hundred years old? Who planted this nice tree? Is that person alive or not? We don't know who planted it and who's enjoying sitting under it, wondering who planted the tree, who is enjoying the fruits. Why not? But it is changing. You go ahead. Every step, plant something beautiful. There's one old film song from India; it's called "Mother India," and there's a very nice song, and there it said, "Jyot se jyot jagāte chalo." You have a candle burning in your hand, and there are so many candles on the way. So, through this jyoti, the light which you have in your hand, the candle, go ahead walking and light all the other candles. Nice. Jyoti se jyoti jagāte calo, aur prem kī Gaṅgā bahāte calo. And the river of love, let it flow with you. Jyoti se jyoti jagāte chalo, prema kī Gaṅgā bahāte chalo, rāha meṁ āye koī dīna dukhī. If someone you meet on your path is helpless or has troubles, and so on, needs your help, and so on, raha me aaye deen dukhi. Sab ko gale lagate chalo—hug everyone as your brothers, sisters, help them. Hugging means to the heart, like yourself. So jyoti se jyoti jagāte chalo, premā kī Gaṅgā bahāte chalo, rāha meṁ jo āyī dīna dukhī sab ko gale lagāte chalo. That Vairāgī who had a pure Vairāgya tells, "Ahimsā paramo dharma." Non-violence is the highest religion: no creature should be disturbed because of you; no creature should have pain because of you. And see, all this beautiful creation of the Lord—but though it is like this, it's not permanent, yes. This saṁsāra, this world, is like a dream. It's like a dream. But we see now, what you hear from me, after some minutes, it will just be like a dream. It's gone. Yes, it was a beautiful dream. It was not a dream. I was sitting there. Yes, I was here, I am here, and I am speaking. You are right, it is gone. So this saṃsāra is svapnavatā. This entire planet, our globe, has been created, and one day it will be again dissolved or destroyed, finished. But this sky, which we look and see, is... ever and ever, there, so "Brahma satya, jagat mithya." "Mithya" means not that this is not true, and this is not this house. Of course, the house is here, a few hundred years old, yes, it is here. But be sure, there is already destiny written when this house will be destroyed, and new building will be demolished, and new building will be built up. That means so vairāgya, your vairāgya, pure vairāgya only can be when you take this world as unreality. But it is there, and aim should be the aim of your life: to have this knowledge of Brahman, the Supreme. That is our aim. So, constantly remind yourself about your Vairāgya, your detachment. Vairāgya means detachment above everything. So long as there is no detachment, you are stuck inside. There is honey on one plate, and a fly came to enjoy the honey. What happened? The fly was flying and landed on the honey. Oh, honey is sweet. Māyā is sweet. There is one sweet company which makes Indian sweets in Australia. This company's name... It is called māyā, sweet, very successful, very big catering. So a fly came, but slowly, slowly, the legs of the fly were sucking in, and she tried to put her back legs out and would like to clean it, and she tried to put it on her wings, and slowly, slowly, wings are also stuck. Now she cannot fly. So this fly, which came to enjoy the honey, after a while, it was very funny. They couldn't go out. Everything is stuck in, and this... is our situation. Suddenly, you are a test to something, and your vairāgya has gone out of your vṛttis? Then you said, "Ah, the vairāgya! Ah, Swāmījī talks about vairāgya. This honey is so good. This is the nectar of immortality." But it is said, this sweetness is a poison. Mahāprabhujī's bhajan, he said, "You cannot have vairāgya without satsaṅg, good society." Lucky are they who can go to the satsaṅg, and unlucky are they who know there is a satsaṅg but don't go. Though they can go, that Swāmījī is not there. There are only four or five people. "I stay home. I will watch television today." You don't know, but you have missed it. Though every day is speaking the same thing, still, for you, it is upliftment. Keep your vairāgya tīvra. Vairāgya konī hove lāl. Bina satsaṅg. Without satsaṅg, you cannot have that vairāgya. Bina satsaṅg nahī lāge hari ko raṅg. Without satsaṅg, you cannot get the color of God. It is said, "Lord, color me not red, not green, not black, not yellow, but color me in your color." That's it. So, color me in your love. That love means the brahmajñāna. And such a color you should color, that the person who is cleaning the laundry, many, many lives he tries to clean and clean, but the color will not go out. Such a color, so many, many lives you are incarnated and coming and going, but this divine feeling... Vairāgya remains in you, and that's without that vairāgya, there's no way to proceed further. Otherwise, like yesterday, day before yesterday, I told about one farmer. When he died, the goddess came from the heaven, "Come, mister, you have very good... karma, you were a very royal and nice person to your wife, and children, and neighbors, and everyone. You now have the opportunity to enjoy heaven." He said, "Okay." He came to the door of heaven. The farmer said, "What is the specialty of the heaven?" "Oh, as soon as you enter into heaven, you will be again like 20 years young, uh-huh. And what is eating? Oh, there's no hunger, there's no thirst, there's only joy, beautiful, that's all. No boring, no, there's no boring, okay." Well, the farmer said, "I forgot my water pipe. Will I find a water pipe there? Can you buy there?" He said, "What?" "In heaven, there is no tobacco and no water pipe." He said, "No water pipe in heaven? Then what kind of heaven is that? No, I don't want to go in. My water pipe is down. Please bring me back home." So he quit his heaven because of the water pipe. And so is that. Sometimes our attachment is so strong that we quit everything. We stop practicing, and then at the end, you will be sorry for that. So be that clever. Fly like a honey bee that will not sit directly on it. It will sit one side and take its honey, and then fly up. Are you so? This saṃsāra is for your surviving, for your existence, and to do something good on the way. So abhyāsa—do your abhyāsa. Vairāgya—day by day. Remember what you are doing. I tell you two things which I followed all the times, and I'm following. Still, all the times I'm following many things, but something I compromise in good sense. But two things I follow all the times: when I come out of India, across the Indian border, then I don't think that I'm coming from Rajasthan, but India, anything. I am asking myself, anything you do wrong, the people from other countries, they will not say Swami from Pali district, Rajasthan, but they will say Indian Swami. True? It means I will blame the entire India. What kind of citizen of India am I? Similarly, you too should keep the name of your country with great dignity, so that nobody says, "Oh, this is from that country." This was always in my mind, because India, which has such a divine culture, such a divine wisdom... a holy land, but so many incarnations incarnated there. And secondly, always in my mind, even now, if I do anything wrong, people will not say that Mahiśvarānand did wrong, but it was, "Oh, Mādhāvanandjī's disciple." It means it will reflect on my Gurudev. What kind of disciple am I, that I make a mistake and the reflection goes to my Gurudev? These two things are constantly in my awareness: what Holy Gurujī will say, "Mahesh, what are you doing?" Where will I hide myself? Where will I run? Nowhere. Similarly, you should also be aware of your Vairāgya. And so I told Holy Gurujī, and Holy Gurujī said, "Yes, this is your biggest protection, and you are an uttama śiṣya." What kind of disciple is that who puts the name of Gurudev down? And what kind of citizen are you, that you keep the name of your country down? It has nothing to do with discrimination, but still, you should be proud and happy. Then we will all be happy together and lead such a nice way. Similarly, whatever you eat, wherever you are going, whatever you are doing, keep abhyāsa, practice. It should become your practice. First, think of your vairāgya. If I do this, will I be attached to it? Will I become dependent? Attachment means suffering. Attachment means suffering. Sooner or later, you will cry. Sooner or later, you will be very sad. Sooner or later, you will be angry, jealous, and hateful because of one attachment. Detachment—happy, relaxed, peaceful, joy. But detachment means not that you hate someone or you don't like someone. No, it's the opposite. You love all. So when you do the Kriyānusthān here in Strelka Ashram, and you work with your cakras, these beautiful kriyās which you are doing. From morning to evening, you have different techniques, and that now reflects beautiful light, a good aura, good light on your face and everywhere. So abhyāsa, abhyāsa vairāgya, abhyāsam tanirodha. So, abhyāsa of the vairāgya abhyāsa gives the nirodha. That vṛtti which pulls you to the saṃsāra, pulls you to the ignorance, to the darkness, will protect you. It will be sealed. It will be like a bulletproof glass. No vṛttis will enter in, because you are thinking about vairāgya, abhyāsa: "Brahma satya, jagat mithyā. I know this is unreality. Therefore, I would like to achieve, realize the reality." And that is ātmā jñāna, brahma jñāna.