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God longs only for love

A spiritual discourse on the essential components of practice, focusing on love, loyalty, and technique.

"Nothing works without technique. It is like a mechanism. We need a technique."

"God is hungry only for bhāva, for love. Not that you give everything, your money, this and that and that."

A teacher leads a satsang, weaving philosophical instruction with parables and bhajans. He emphasizes that correct technique and unwavering loyalty to one's practice are as crucial as pure, selfless love for divine realization. Key themes include navigating negativity, the importance of satsang over bad company, and the transformative power of devotion, illustrated by stories including that of a homesick bull named Sancho.

Filming locations: Salzburg, Austria.

DVD 373

Spiritual awakening is for freedom, harmony, health, and the fulfillment of our goals. We all practice yoga in daily life, and many have also tried other systems or different techniques. That was also beautiful. Yoga is yoga. The person themselves is themselves. What is missing is practice and practice with a specific technique. Nothing works without technique. It is like a mechanism. We need a technique. If you have the right screw and screwdriver, then you can properly insert the screw. And so, for us as well, there is a spiritual goal to be attained or realized. Last night we spoke about fear, despair, anger, hatred, envy, and greed. There are many negative events in life that undo our spiritual development, not progress it. Loyalty is very important. What is understood by loyalty? First and foremost, faithfulness to oneself. I have thought a lot today about this word. How do I explain loyalty? There are many examples, but since we planted a peace tree, a fidelity came to my mind between the tree and the fruit, a fidelity between the mother and the embryo. Both should have a fidelity, a relationship, inseparable. If a mother loses her child or embryo, it will not become complete. If a fruit falls from the tree prematurely, it will not be as it is meant to be. Let us take an example. Apple trees begin to bloom in April or May here in Salzburg, right? Or in June? In April, May, right? And by the end of May, beginning of June, there is already a small piece of apple, a fruit. Let us remove it and conclude with a device to see whether this apple will continue to grow or not. Perhaps nowadays one could, with so much effort, with millions or billions of euros, create a scientific work proving that an apple grows without a tree. But no one will have this taste. And so there is a relationship between mother and child, spouses, husband and wife, or master and disciple, currents, and so on. Or from Bagda to Bhagavān. Now, this tree standing here, the apple tree, undergoes an experience with many weatherings. Many, many trials. Dryness, heavy snow, freezing cold, storms, and everything else one can imagine. Nevertheless, the mother tree holds the fruit firmly. And the fruit also clings firmly to the mother. One day, realization comes. And so, what does loyalty mean? It is not that you tell the dog to come to your feet. No, it is a love that is inseparable. And so there is also a fidelity to oneself and to spiritual practices. There is no need to say, you should practice. When it comes to the point that one says to others, you should practice, it is already too late. A hungry person does not wait for someone to say, now you should eat. The stomach demands it beforehand. And so, proper practices, a proper place, and a proper technique are very, very important. Inner feelings must be present. Without feelings, everything is lost. It is not easy to maintain the feelings. And therefore, Holy Gurujī speaks or says in his bhajan: Nith Nith Prem Mera Adhik Badijo, O Lord, O God, day by day, may my love for You grow. Deep Dayāl Araj Sunalijo, O Divine Mahāprabhujī, Gracious Mahāprabhujī, please hear my prayer. Lord, be so gracious, kind. Bless me with Satsaṅg, with good friends. You can have satsaṅg with one person. You can only have satsaṅg alone with yourself. Or you can have Satsaṅg with several people. Kushaṅga, O Lord, save me, O Lord, possess me from Kushaṅga. The result or fruits of Kushaṅga are separation, pain, darkness, suffering. And the result of the Satsaṅg is joy, harmony, love, spirituality, and liberation. When you meet someone and you notice that they have a bad intention, or as one says, have some bad intention, immediately you should detach yourself from it, otherwise it is like an infectious disease, and some infections, unfortunately, cannot be healed. And so faithfulness, devotion, a poet named Rehim, who wrote beautiful poems, said that this thread of love is so delicate, you must not break it. If it is broken or torn, then you cannot bind it again. If you try to bind, then there will be a knot in between. And this knot will always and forever disturb you and awaken a sadness within you. So, Patañjali, a great saint, a yogi Patañjali, who says that a practitioner should have devotion to their sādhanā, their practice, just as one has devotion to God as the result. A master mechanic loves his instruments, his tools. You are an excellent mechanic, but you have no tools at all. You simply cannot do that. And so for us, this tool is our practice of sādhanā. Physical exercise is good, and breath control is also very good. Good nourishment is also very good. But how long will you possess yourself for such a long time or to such an extent in your life? No matter what you do, one thing is certain: every second, minute, hour, and day you grow older. And that means, every day is one day less of your life. Every day that has passed is a day lost for you. And so a saint said, The day will be counted or accounted for you. The day you encounter a saint. The day you encounter a Bhakta. A day of treasure singing, which has no other interest than treasure singing itself, is divine and is also a saint. Other days, he said, are also lost, just like with animals. And the other saint said, the time in your life is lost time when you have spent nothing on God or on your masters or on devotion. Healing means thinking. It is difficult. We all have many duties. All of us. I also have many duties. But perform your duty with devotion. That is it. Not that you sit under a tree and say, now I only want devotion, I don’t care about anything else. Your mother calls and says, I am in devotion, go away. The father, that is again too extreme. That means you are not dutiful; it means you are not conscious of your Dharma. And if you do not follow your Dharma, then you create bad karma. And therefore, dear God or Mother Nature or whatever you wish to call it, has given us intellect to reflect. Not just for a passing moment when you fall into temptation, but always be purposeful like a tightrope walker. Many people watch and laugh and say, wow, beautiful. And the tightrope walker looks at you, draws your attention, smiles, and moves his hands. But the main focus is his balance, that I get through. And so a spiritual path is also like a tightrope walk. It is like the sharpness of a knife, how do you say? Cut. The path is like the edge of a knife. And therefore, many fail, to the left or to the right, like cheese. The knife goes in. He has completed half of this side and half of that side. Then Yama, the King of Death, rejoices. It always increases because it has enough to feed on. It is very important that we practice a proper, beautiful technique with devotion. Spirituality, what do we understand by spirituality? This question has often been asked. Being a vegetarian is spirituality. Fasting is spirituality. Praying every day is spirituality. So, meditating every day alone is spirituality. It is very difficult, but for me, spirituality means purity. Transparent, crystal clear. Crystal clear, transparent. Your consciousness, your inner feelings towards others, that is it. And that is spirituality. And this spirituality is purity, pure consciousness, meaning the divine Self. And as long as you have pure feelings and pure thoughts and conduct, and so on, you are one with God. And as soon as you return to despair, to negativity, you are once again in the cave, in darkness. We keep wandering back and forth, back and forth. Where there is love, there is no distance. And so, we spoke yesterday about Bahā’u’llāh. Bahā’u’llāh has several meanings. Bahā’u’llāh also means value or price. Your gain is in the prize. For example, today one kilogram of apples costs 5 euros. And tomorrow the price goes up. It costs 15 euros. The apples are the same. Not even a kilogram less. But you have won. How much? Do you understand English or German? Girl? German? How much have you gained? How much have you gained? 10 euros. The apples are the same. One kilo. Instead of the price going up, the price falls below, costing only one euro per kilo. How much did you lose? Four euros. So, a gain is a Bahā’u’llāh, a prize. And just as you have your Bahā’u’llāh as your personal Iṣṭadevatā, your God, your Guru, your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your children, your neighbors, your colleagues, and so on. You receive back as much as you give or lose. Now, to uphold this prize, you must make a great effort. This is marketing, a spiritual marketing. And that is why it is said, you don’t get what you deserve, but you get what you negotiate. So, we also have to negotiate with our spiritual feelings. That nothing comes and falls under my feelings. Bhāva. The second bhāva means love. Bhagavān is called bhavke bukkehe. Bhagavān is hungry only for bhāva, for love. Not that you give everything, your money, this and that and that. No, no. Is your money, do you believe? Did you bring it with you when you were born? Do you have it anywhere inside? No. You have received everything here, including this body. Nothing and nothing and nothing. And nothing belongs to you. Everything is given to you. And one day you check out. Check out from the hotel, 11 o'clock. You arrive at a hotel, a beautiful hotel, no matter how many stars it has, and inside you have everything. A nice bed, blankets, pillows, television, radio, all of that. But the next day, you are only allowed to take your own belongings with you. You cannot say, now I will also take television and also the telephone and all that. That doesn’t work. You cannot. You should not. And so, in this hotel, this Duniya, Jindagī, there are two kinds of daily life in this world. One day was yesterday, and the second day is today. No one has seen tomorrow until today. Tomorrow is always tomorrow. When you go to India, they write "cash today" on small shops. You can lend tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. Every day is today. So, what can you give him? In the Guru Gītā it is said, Lord, you have given me everything. What can I give you? I offer my heart with folded hands and so on. Do not think that you can win your God over with material things. No, he is only for love. In the Mahābhārata, in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the Mahābhārata appears, Duryodhana wanted Kṛṣṇa to stay by his side. And he invited Kṛṣṇa when Kṛṣṇa came to Hastināpur as a messenger of peace. And Duryodhana had prepared such beautiful things, food and a magnificent dining hall, everything. But Kṛṣṇa accepted nothing. He went to Vidura and ate a dry chapati with spinach. Why? Because there was love, devotion there. And Duryodhana, with all that he arranged, was selfish. Has other thoughts in the background. Once I heard a story about Guru Nānak. Do you know Guru Nānak? Many, many know nothing. All those who wear turbans here in Europe, Sikhs, are followers or devotees of Guru Nānak's tradition. Guru Nānak came to a small village where there were many disciples. And a farmer came to him and asked, "Have you eaten today? Can I bring you some food?" He said, "Yes." And then a wealthy disciple, who was very rich, said, "I will also bring food for you." So both went home, the businessman and the farmer. And came together again simultaneously. The businessman had prepared a large plate beautifully and had many, many dishes. And the farmer brought a dry chapati with garlic on it and a green chili, that’s all. And the rich man said, foolish, how can he do that? And he said, no respect to Guru Nānak. I'm sure that he will not eat this. And he placed his plate in front of him where everything was, we have very many things inside. And Nānak began to eat from the farmer. And he ate and was very happy. And he didn’t even touch the plate that the rich man had brought. And the rich man said, Gurudev, you insult me. What does insult mean? An offense. It is an insult to all these poor people. I have prepared everything with such great love, and it is not my food. Guru Nānak smiles, he laughs and he says, in your food there is blood, and in the farmer’s food there is milk. He said, that is not true, it is 100% vegetarian. A vegetarian said, no. But Guru Nānak did not want arguments or discussion. He took a chapati from the farmer in his hand and a chapati from the rich man. And he makes his fist and squeezes it tightly. From the farmer's side came milk, and from the businessman came blood. And he said, O Saint, you have become wealthy through the blood of another. But he brought his blood to Switzerland and worked hard, and therefore there is good energy in his bread, milk inside. And so this story means to me that God needs love. And so, Holy Gurujī composes a beautiful bhajan. You can try thousands of things. God can bring nothing to you without love. You need love. Surrender of trust. Lost is like a bird that has lost its wings. And now comes fate. Fate arrives as a cat. And the bird wants to fly away. It moves your muscles, but there are no wings to rise high and to fly. So, this bird is already prey to a cat. And so, when you have lost your trust, your love, you have lost your wings. Wait, the cat is already here, its claws are still a little bit out. It makes visible and beautiful. That is what spirituality is, where pure love is. Then we are moving at the highest speed towards our goal. Where there is love, there is no distance. One sits on a very long journey in the mountains or somewhere in another country, no matter where. And the other part, a Bagda or a friend, or sitting somewhere else. Now, it is telepathy. The feelings, the devotion. Devotion leads you there. And no matter what comes in between, you know you are on the path to your beloved God. Nothing and no one can hold you back. There is no matter that can prevent your awakening. It passes through all the elements, it passes through the wall, through the rocks. I told a story, perhaps I will tell it once more today, very briefly, about a bull. A bull in Mexico, and the face goes like this—a cow has given birth to a calf, and unfortunately, she died during the birth. And now, this young calf is standing up with great effort on its four legs. And somewhere in the mountains, a leopard is sitting. And the leopard prepares itself to have as prey this young calf. And at that moment, a cowboy came with a horse. And he sees, the mother cow is already dead, the calf is young. And suddenly he sees a leopard sitting on the rock. So he took the young calf with him on his horse and came home. And his wife, her name was Maria. And he said, Maria, today is your birthday and I have brought a beautiful gift for you. Namely, this little calf. They had no children. And she was so happy. She adopted him as her son. And she completely spoiled him. And he has grown strong. And every day from the kitchen window, she gave him a tortilla to eat. She made a tortilla, one for him and one for her husband. One for him and one for my husband. So she loved him very much. You had a beautiful courtyard. And also the cornfields. You also had some chickens and dogs. It was a beautiful atmosphere with the animals. But once there was a drought, and there was nothing to eat for the animals. And the cowboys gathered all the cows and bulls and went into the mountains. Far away perhaps, 300, 400 kilometers or 1,000 kilometers. I have neither observed nor described that. And up there in the mountains, like here on the alpine pasture, the cows graze there and are happy. At night, it is very cold and uncomfortable. And the bull has stirred a way home. He began to dream. Do you know how the animal also dreams? And he dreamed, and he saw his house and Maria and the tortillas and a beautiful tree and fields of grain. And he wakes up at four o’clock or three o’clock in the night. He wakes up and sees, there is no Maria, no tortillas, nothing at all. But homesickness, he has such strong homesickness. He sensed in which direction he should go home. And truly, he ran away, fled. He came in very difficult situations. Once he was attacked by many wolves, but somehow he freed himself from them. Once he came to a small village where children were playing. And he also went there because he liked having children. And it was Christmas time and there was a lot of snow. And the children were sledding. And then, the children brought him home. They held his tail and pulled him along behind them on the ice or snow. What do you call it? Pulled or something like that. Bringing him home, the children's parents were very happy and said, "Oh, today is Christmas, and after the midnight prayer, we will slaughter him." And they took him into the stable, tied him up, and the children witnessed it. Today, the poor animal is being killed. So during the midnight mass or gathering, someone ran home, was liberated, and didn’t want to leave because it was already pleasantly warm. But then he hit him with a stick and created such an unpleasant atmosphere that he ran away. He was very disappointed. Who? Who? The animal. And then the parents came home, and the householder took a knife. He wanted to go to the stable and saw that there was no one standing there. He goes far away, stretches his head and ears, closes his eyes, and once again sees Maria and tortillas and his home. And there they sang a song, the cowboys. They gave him the name, Sancho. Sancho, come home, you are still too far away. Come home quickly and you will receive inner feelings. Homesickness, homesickness, homesickness. Beloved, I speak of love. Love, this aura, this bhāva, this radiance, that draws you there. A saint has composed a bhajan. O Gurudev, now I have seen Your face and Your radiance. I do not like anyone else. And just as it is said in Bhajan, He keeps running and running and running. Come back into difficulties again. She has overcome the two difficulties. Then she is attacked by wild animals again. But in the end, it is juice. And on the other side, Maria is very sad that her Sancho is not at home. Already two years now. And she waits every day, hoping they will come back. It rained. And it was so beautiful, there were fields of grain there. And she makes the tortilla and looks out the window, and her beloved animal is nowhere to be seen. And she weeps in the kitchen. Kitchen or kitchen? She cries in the kitchen with vegetables, with cherries, and so on. And she looks into the windows and imagines that the one who is coming is there. And she weeps. It is love. Both sides, that is it. Like magnet and ice. Nothing else comes between them. And she makes a tortilla and wants to give it to him, but he is not there. And she places it in the window for him. When he comes someday, every day, she has gathered. All of this belongs to him; one must not touch anything. And suddenly her eyes trust nothing. Someone stands in the cornfields, watching, and sees him and says Sancho. And he runs quickly and attains his good tortillas. And so there was a film on Austrian television, a black-and-white film with this title, called The Bull is Homesick. And that was long ago, when I saw it, it was 1977 or something like that in black and white. At that time, there was no color television. There were temptations that now the colors watch television. And so on. So, that is a feeling. Where the feelings are, no distance, no boundary, no obstacles. You do not need the body; you are already here. So, when you think about God, He is already there. He is always with you. If you think He does not see you or something like that, it is a mistake. Then there is no unity. And thus develop Bhāva, this beautiful feeling. Then you are possessed. Then you do not feel alone. Then you always have support, you always have this energy. You are one with, never a feeling of loneliness, but togetherness. And this unity is throughout the entire body, in every blood cell, vibrating when you think of God. Just a spark of thought and all the blood cells, the entire body cells, they have a current like electricity. And that means, beautiful feelings signify that healthy energy flows through the body. As light, light and power have a healing effect, and as soon as you think otherwise—fearful, sad, jealous, angry, hot, or unfaithful—then the dark power gathers, and the healthy cells in the body begin to die. And so, many, many diseases also arise then. Cancer is not just one cause, but there are many causes, as a person torments himself with fluctuating emotions, and then difficulties arise. The goal of our existence as human beings is God-realization. Every moment is lost time. Every day is a lost day in which we cannot think of or feel anything about God. And the time you have lost, you will not get back. It has been said up to this point that the time you wasted unnecessarily is a sin, because you did not respect this time and you neither knew nor realized anything during this time. In this time, there is the presence of your Beloved, your God. And you become attentive, no longer attentive. One kind of love is that God is awake and you are asleep. He is there, but you are asleep. So this means, sleep signifies ignorance, inattentiveness, that you are wasting time idly. There are many people who, when they go somewhere and others start laughing, defying, making jokes, then that person stands up and moves aside somewhere. Maybe reading a book or going out to the terrace or park or something like that. Because then a spiritual person feels like a stranger there. And so with one person, you can have vows or cuddling. A person on your path can be like a huge rock, or a person can be like a beautiful light and a wonderful guidance on your path. Practice does not simply mean closing your eyes and practicing. It is about changing the inner attitude. Contentment is only in knowledge. Otherwise, we are always hungry and always hungry. The feelings never end. If someone thinks that the time will come when they will have no more desires, that is the greatest misconception. Yes, the time will come when you have no more desires, or this body will be under the earth. Perhaps he still has desires; he continues to stretch even further. The prāṇa expands or celebrates. Hari Om. Back to the celebration. There is a beautiful song, a bhajan about wood. How important is wood. Wood is very important. And wood accompanies us from birth to death and the final ceremony. And so, Kabīr Dās said, your hair burns like grass and your body burns, your bones burn like wood. Jaisī kāyā, vaisī chhāyā, these golden bodies, in which no time has turned to ash.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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