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Good evening. Blessings to all of you from the Siddha Pīṭha of Śrī Alakpurījī. Blessings of Gurudev. All the dear friends, bhaktas, practitioners, and spiritual seekers around the world, this blessing is coming to you again from the beautiful ashram, Śrī Mahāprabhū Deva Satsaṅg Foundation. You have been watching the ashram, different locations, the beautiful park, organic production, vegetables, and herbs. After a long time, today it is raining—that is good news. God is very gracious and always looks after each and every creature, as well as each and every blade of grass, trees, herbs, and vegetation. It is said there are three who command the same respect: Śarvar, Tārvar, and Śāntājan. Cauṭhā Barṣe Meṃ, Parmārat Ke Kāraṇe, Cāro Darī Hai Dāhī. Śarvar is the lake. The lake keeps water for everyone; it does not matter who. Tārva is a tree. The tree and the saint have the same respect, values, and mission. The tree stands only for the benefit of the entire world, without expectation. Those who plant trees are not tested by them. If someone cuts off the branches, the tree is never angry. If you throw a stone at a tree, it throws back fruits at you, not stones. It gives oxygen and shelter. Śāntājan, the saints, speak for all, not for a particular person. They are above attachment, exist for all, and preach truth and wisdom for all. The rain, when it falls, does not rain only for one small garden but for the whole field, for everyone. So we are very happy today to have the rain. Rain is a symbol of blessing, the rain of nectar. Holy Gurujī said in one bhajan: Amrita nir piya man bhar ke, amrita nirbhaya ne chala paad, nirbhaya ne chala sukha paad, amrita nirbhaya ne chala sukha paad. Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī. Īśvara Praṇidhāna. Patañjali says that before coming to samādhi, the sādhaka, the practitioner, should realize and take shelter in God. Īśvara Praṇidhāna is surrender and devotion. But in devotion, there are also many obstacles. It means the higher you ascend, the more dangerous the situation can become. But for those who are clear about what they want and what their sādhanā means, there are no doubts. I remember one nice story about Īśvara Praṇidhāna. How should we practice in everyday life? What should we do? Should we renounce everything and just go to the temple and sit there the whole day? Should we renounce all social duties and go into a church, kneel down, and stand the whole day? God did not say that He needs you to come and sit the whole day in a church or temple. My life is a worship to Thee, O my Lord. Do your everyday duty, but keep Īśvara, God, or Gurudev in your mind. Yesterday we were watching Gurujī's video, and what Gurujī said is true: through certain practices, mantras, tantras, yantras, and magic, you may attain some siddhis, but not Brahmagyāna, not that mokṣa we are all searching for. Brahma Gyan only comes through surrendering to the Satguru. If you have doubts, then you are out—out of the aura of that great saint. Ask yourself: does the Satguru need me, or do I need the Gurudev? One bhakta came to Mahāprabhujī and said, "Mahāprabhujī, I don't believe in God." Mahāprabhujī said, "And does God lose something? Does He lose one candidate? No, we need God. A thirsty person needs water; water does not need a thirsty person. So if you are thirsty, then go to the water, or if you are near the water, then accept it. And if the water is polluted, then purify it. It is you who can purify that water through your devotion, through your viveka." There was a bhakta, a barber. He had his small shop. In the morning, people used to come for shaving. He had a nice family, and the whole family was devoted to God and the saints. In that city, there was a king who had a leprosy disease, a kind of skin cancer. The king told the barber, "Your duties every day: come at nine o'clock and shave my beard and my head, and then I will have my bath." The barber said, "Yes, sir. It is my great luck, my happiness, that I will do this service for you." But the king said, "Take care. I am a disciplined one. I have my fixed time for pūjā, for breakfast, and for the public. Especially, the public should not wait because of me. So be on time." The barber said, "Yes, sir. I will always be there on time." Do not think of "Indian time." Many people call it Indian time. Now, I would like to clear this thought from your mind: why they call it Indian time. Actually, Indian time is so punctual. One second is divided into 49 times by Indian mathematics of the Vedānta. The Indians who were fond of Jyotiṣa, astrology, and astronomy ensured that all ceremonies and events took place at the right constellation. Even the earth-breaking ceremony for digging the foundation for your house must be at a particular time. Marriages, everything. If you miss it, another constellation is there, so you should not perform that ceremony. But what happened? Englishmen came to India as businessmen. The spices of India were very well known and healthy. They were exchanging spices for gold. They hired the land to cultivate themselves, and so on. The whole story, I do not want to tell you. Then Indians were only workmen; Englishmen were ruling. Whenever something came to do, the Englishmen said, "Oh, wait a minute, it's time for tea." Time for tea. Though tea grows in India, it was used only for Āyurvedic purposes. Tea is a very powerful, very good herb. But if taken too much, it is always prohibited. When you take more and more, it is not an herb anymore; you become addicted. Pure tea leaves are one thing, but the Indian Āyurveda doctors change the way of drinking tea. You have to add cardamom, ginger, cloves, and milk. This changes the nature of the tea in a positive way. If you drink only black tea without any spices and milk, you become very addicted, and it may have a bad effect on your health if you drink it every day. But if you drink from time to time, only once a year when you have diarrhea, you drink black tea, your diarrhea is blocked. Then you have to go to an Āyurvedic doctor to get something to open it. So it has a treatment for everything. Englishmen liked it very much, and they introduced the habit of drinking tea every day in India. "Time for tea." This habit persists. They are late because they say, "Oh, let's have a cup of tea." Don't worry. Even our trains come a little late because people are drinking tea. Otherwise, in the Śāstras, Indian Śāstras say that wasting time is a sin. Śramaika anādhāra karnā pāpa hai. Not respecting time, wasting time is a sin. Therefore, every second should be utilized in this life. That is why they said, "What you have to do tomorrow, do it today, and what you have to do today, do it just now." Who knows when your last breath is? You die. Therefore, Guru Nānak Sāhib said, "Your life went without the name of God till now. But now, at least begin to repeat your mantra, God's name." Otherwise, time will not come back. So the barber said to the king, "Yes, sir, I will do it." But at the same time, the barber was so devoted to all sādhus and saints; for him, the sādhus were in the first place. Even today, in the Holy Land of India, even the President of India, the Prime Minister of India, or any officer, if they see a sādhu in orange dress, they respect them and give them the first place. There is great respect and devotion for the orange robe. Well, the barber left his home at 8:30 to go to the king. On the way, he met five sādhus. He said, "Praṇām, Praṇām... Praṇām. Please, I seek your blessings." They gave their blessing. He said, "I would be very happy if you come to my home and have breakfast." They said, "Okay, no problem." They were on their way somewhere. They had left early morning, so that was the time for breakfast. The barber went with them to his house. This is a real story, not a man-made story. One of the fifth sādhu began to give pravacana satsaṅg, and the barber sat listening. They were giving blessings and pravacana satsaṅg, and it became 9:30, 10:30, 11:30. Then he served them breakfast, and so on. At 11:30, he became nervous. "Oh God, the king will be angry." Anyhow, he made the praṇāma. The sādhu said, "Now we have to go," so he said, "Okay, please bless my house again." Now he took his bag with all the knives for shaving. His heart was a little nervous, but he said, "I hope the blessing of the saints will protect me, and the king will not be angry." The barber came to the palace, and people said, "Hello, hello, how are you? Where are you? Why did you come again?" He said, "What? What are you saying?" Before he approached the king, the king walked and approached him. The king said, "My dear, my friend, what kind of energy did you have today in your hands when you were shaving me? Look, my whole disease is gone." The barber was looking at Gurudev, thank you. The king said, "Look, I am completely healthy. You touched me today. At 9 o'clock you came, you were shaving. What kind of jādu, miracle, did you have in your shaving knife? When your fingers were going like this, putting the soap, my disease disappeared." That is Guru Kṛpā. What Guru Kṛpā? He knew what happened. It means, for the sake of the bhakta, God took the form of the barber and did the work of the devotee, serving the king. So we call all barbers in India Sena Bhakta. Sena is the caste of barbers. Some call it Naya, but this is not Naya; it is Sena Bhakta. A very famous, very famous place. When you go to Gujarat, you will see the Sena Bhakta. For the sake of the Bhaktas, God came as a barber. Devapurījī said, "The destiny of the devotees, God takes upon Himself. The destiny of the devotee." But you have to be a devotee. Now that is called Īśvara Praṇidhāna. How should I perform Īśvara Praṇidhāna? Should I give flowers every day? Should I bow down? Should I sit and say, "I love you, God. O my divine Lord, what should I do? How should I surrender?" You have to surrender nothing. You should just be there. That is all. Be in each and every blood cell. His presence is within you, nothing else. Your thinking, your eating, your working, everything is in the name of God, with such positive thinking that you work for the well-being of the entire planet. That is Īśvara Praṇidhāna. Hāth mein kām aur mukh mein Rām. Work in the hands and the name of God in the mouth. Some people have Rām in their mouth and a knife in their armpit. In the mouth, they have the name of God, but they have a hidden knife to kill someone. For that, God will never come to help. Therefore, Pālī Gurujī said, and Bāprabhujī's bhajan said, "Who gave one's word to you and then broke it, became against or something, that person cannot come through." Īśvara-prāṇī-dhānaḥ. And there are obstacles. That was the biggest obstacle. That king was very aggressive, very angry. The barber had to be on time. This was an obstacle. But he, even for the sake of God, denied that. Therefore, God appeared there. So there are so many bhaktas. There is one more story, a real story. Should I tell you a story? It was not loud enough. You should listen to the webcast that you said yes to. That's it, thank you. This story comes from Rajasthan, from the farmers who live in grass huts. Today, according to the world situation and especially the health situation, those who live in grass huts and every day see the multi-stars, millions of stars, fresh air, and blue skies, they are the happiest ones. I can tell you where I was born, in a small village; we were sleeping all outside under the beautiful open sky. Now, too many mosquitoes came because of pollution. When I was young, there were mosquitoes, but not so many. Rare were malaria and doctors. My God, we only heard the name "doctor," that's all. And now, before birth, you already have a doctor there. You become pregnant and run to the doctor every day, every month, and every week for checking. When babies are born, you go to the hospital. The ambulance comes and takes you to the hospital. You are born in the hands of doctors, but we were born on the sand, in the hands of Prakṛti, nature, and mothers, so we did not see a doctor. The first time in my life I took a tablet was maybe when I was 15 or 20 years old. It was not necessary. If we had a fever or something, my mother was the best doctor. She gave this and that, and that was it. All the tea you had, a fever and headache, they gave a little tea and you were healthy. That is all. But not drinking everyday tea. If you drink everyday tea and have a headache, you may drink five liters, and the headache will not go away. The story I am going to tell you is very interesting. Every small farmer's house or little village has a temple. Also, in these countries, there is a temple of Jesus, a temple of Mary, a temple of some holy saints, and so on. Every house has an altar. Those who come from ancient education, village education, spiritual education, wherever they go, they have an altar. But spirituality is suffering, and spiritual culture is getting lost because of so-called higher education. All higher education, those who have university degrees, have lost faith in God. They think they are God now, and so humanity is suffering. No minister in the world is worrying about the spirituality of his country. They are all worrying about how to create weapons, atoms, money, and that is all, and to have a position. So the time has to come that such politicians will be great spirituals, and they will again bring the waves of spirituality. Village people are more spiritual because they live with nature. A small temple had Krishna's idol. There was one priest who used to do pūjā every day, morning and evening, offering food to Krishna. One day, the priest or Brahmin, the pūjārī, had to go somewhere for urgent work. The farmer had a small girl about 10 to 15 years old. The priest told her, "Tomorrow I am not here, so please, you make the ceremony, the prayer. Add bhoga." Bhoga means offering food to Kṛṣṇa. After God has eaten, then you can have prasāda. She said, "Okay." The priest used to cook nice food for Krishna every day: butter, milk, rice, halwā, purī, parāṭhās. He would offer it to God with a curtain standing there, saying, "God, please eat." After five minutes, he would open the curtain, take the food, go to his room, and say "Brahmārpaṇaṃ Brahmahavir Brahmāgnau," and eat himself. Of course, we offer something to Mahāprabhujī, and after we eat, Bhagavanto devatāto vāsanā ke bhūkhe, the goddess, the God, they are only hungry for the smell. Nice smell, fragrance—that is why we put agarbatī, incense, and flowers. That is enough. Those who live in the astral world do not eat physical food; only the smell, the fragrance. And asuras, devils, also have their food, also only smell, but their smell is rotten fish, rotten meat, blood, and alcohol. You see in the Mahāpurāṇa, Śiva Mahāpurāṇa, the devas and rākṣasas. So food has a very big influence on the body, mind, and emotions. In the temple, only prasāda is offered. Now, this young girl came to Krishna's temple. She opened the curtain, made a prayer, and brought from her home a little cooked millet, bajra, khichḍā, we call it khichḍā, the millet. On top, she put a little butter. That is the best a farmer can eat. This is a real story. Bill Clinton went to India. He went to Jodhpur and asked the Jodhpur Maharaja to see the villagers. The Mahārāja organized it, and he went to small villages to see how they eat. They had this bajra and butter. When this bajra butter remains, they make what they call rabṛī. Rabrī means the old morning or evening cooked food mixed with cold yogurt. A nice drink, very tasteful and very good. Bill Clinton said, "Do they take this every day?" They said, "Great." They said, "Yes, we drink like that every day." I said, "My God, it must be very expensive." They said, "Yes." But these poor people, they said, "Yes, they can afford it." I thought they are very poor. They said, "No, no, they are not poor." So, healthy food is the farmer's good one. Someone told me, Swamiji, in a five-star hotel, the food, the vegetable, is five days old. In a one-star hotel on the street, just cooked for you, what we call in India a Dhaba or hotel, is a one-day-old vegetable only. So it is your decision: five stars or no stars. That is it. So the natural way of life is gone. Well, let me come back again to this girl. She brought an offering and said, "Krishna, eat." What should Krishna eat? He is only a statue. She said, "Eat." You see how children are innocent and pure. We imprint on the minds of children; they take it as it is. Parents are a very great example for children. Even the videos they watch, what they are shown, children take as it is. Criminal videos and such are not healthy for children. Also toys. Now there are toys like guns, plastic toys. You know what you are doing to the subconscious? That is it. She said, "Eat, Krishna, I have to go. My father will be angry because I have to go work in the field." She said, "Eat." No, Krishna is not coming. She put up the curtain. "Now eat." No eating. She said, "Okay, I put up double curtains." She took her rock and made it like this. "Now eat. I have to go." And really, it happened. Kṛṣṇa appeared and ate that rabrī and said, "Now I have finished. You take rest." And Krishna disappeared. Her name was Karmābāī. So Īśvara Praṇidhāna is very easy to say: surrender to God. But how? You know how many conflicts we have between God and ourselves. How many conflicts we have between Gurudev and ourselves. How many times we say, "Oh my Gurudev, great." And how many times we say, "No, I don't accept this." Now we are challenging the Gurudev. Gurudev should challenge us, you know. But time is gone. So, one mahatma said, "If you are a well-wisher for yourself, then don't say, 'Bhaktas, no.' Let them give the challenge and be peaceful. That is the time." So, Īśvara Praṇidhāna. Patañjali is talking about unconditional love. But unconditional love does not mean that you leave your families and run away. No. We shall develop viveka. We have to work. We have our dharma, our duty. And our duties also, what I am doing all this, honestly, my Lord, is a ceremony to you. But there will come many, many obstacles, and we will not pass through; we will fail. Was it so necessary that Jesus had to suffer so many things, so much pain? For what? He could have run away; he could have escaped. He would say, "Okay, I change it." Why? Because he knew that all this happening is not forever. And it is not what I expect. It does not matter how it happens. I have a duty given to me by the Holy Father, and that is what I am fulfilling. And so, what duty is given to you? What saṅkalpa is given to you when you took the mantra, when you took the kriyās, and so on? Where are these words, Īśvara Praṇidhāna? Kankar me Bhagwan hai, in every atom is God. Hare, kankar me śaṅkar, in every stone is God Śiva. But do you see that? No. If you have that belief and surrendering to God, devotion, then your consciousness will be pure. Even if you make a mistake, God will forgive that, and God will correct it. He will be a worker for you. You sit comfortably; God will work for you. Love is that—that you do not run behind God. God will run behind you. Krishna said, "Nothing is impossible for me in this universe, but for the sake of bhaktas, I am doing karma. I am acting, and there is no power which can change me or stop me or tie me, only one thing..." The love of my bhaktas, devotion, the love, the most powerful. Therefore, Krishna said that love is God, that love is divine, that love is mighty, and that love can melt the rocks. What kind of love? Īśvara-praṇidhāna, surrendering, devotion. That devotion will be our way. And so, while doing this, there is what is called kaleśa karma. There are some karmas and kleśas coming. Many kinds of kleśas, but for the śivar, for bhaktas, all kleśas are gone. The biggest kleśa in us is called avidyā. Avidyā means ignorance. Without knowing, never judge anyone. And when you know the reality, then never punish anyone. Because you are a wise one, a great one, you can forgive, or you can understand. If you do not know, then you are wrong to judge someone. If you know and are punishing, you are wrong because you are so arrogant that you do not have mercy or compassion in your heart for every creature. Knowing still you have a problem, and not knowing you have a problem because you think it is wrong. But if the jñāna-avidyā is gone and vidyā, the wisdom, appears, viveka, then your heart is full of compassion. Your heart is enlightened through the blessing grace of the Gurudev or the knowledge. Saint Guru Nānak Dās Jī said, "Maybe hundreds of moons rise and thousands of suns rise at once. All this still cannot make enough light. The darkness of the heart, thousands of suns can rise but cannot be destroyed. Only the guru-vākyā can destroy the darkness of the heart, which means the darkness of ignorance." So īśvara-prāṇidhāna, what the great saint Patañjali is saying, and then he is coming to certain kleśas, vikṣepas: avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśa. These are the five kleśas. And these five kleśas, if you cannot work out or solve, you cannot attain nirvīja samādhi. So tomorrow we are coming to these five kleśas and to solve, to know the solution, how to overcome these five kleśas. Therefore, Īśvara Praṇidhāna: surrender, surrender, surrender. Act in the name of God, but positively. Also, there is some fighting. I fight for my rights, for my religion. God will not accept this. It does not matter if you are Hindu, Christian, or Muslim. Do you think if you fight in a war, create war, and then come, Jesus will be happy? He will say, "My son, I told clearly, 'Thou shalt not kill.'" How many animals were you killing, not only killing but eating them too? My son, I had another vision to send you as a human on this planet. Will Kṛṣṇa be happy? No. So God never said, and God will not force us to do wrong things. And if it is needed, He will come; He will do it. So Īśvara Praṇidhāna, surrendering to God. Praṇī means the living being. Prāṇa is life force. So we are the prāṇīs, we are the humans. We surrender our prāṇa to God, to Īśvara.