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In India, we say that whether there is light or it is very dark, the hand always goes towards the mouth. It is a good practice, is it not? Even in the dark, it is a good practice. So desire—it can only be understood and spoken of, nothing more. That is all. If you say, "I have no desires, I am free without any desires," there must be something wrong. It is better you go for a check-up. Perhaps some hormonal problems. It is our vivekā, our buddhi (intellect), that develops vairāgya (dispassion). And with that power of vairāgya, you can say to yourself, "no." For the practice of the mantra, to become successful in the mantra and to achieve our aim or goal, we need the mantra. And to be successful in this, we need to follow and develop certain principles. First, bhakti (devotion). Without bhakti, there is no development of anything. Bhakti means trust. Bhakti means oneness, understanding. You need not tell someone that you should have bhakti towards me. When it has come to that, it is terrible. A child need not tell the mother, "Mother, please love me." Or, a mother does not need to tell the child, "Please love me." There is an automatic relation, the love. That is bhakti. On the day when you ask your husband to love you, there is already something wrong. So love means to respect you, understand you, help you, and worry about you. To look after your comfort, look after your well-being, to protect her. This is love, and so that is called bhakti, dedication. And when there is dedication, there is no question. There is no question of what, why, and no. We have the same love for God, for nature, for animals. So where there is love, there is no cruelty. Where there is love, there is no violence. Where there is love, there is no cheating. Where there is love, there is nothing to hide. There is perfect trust. So you are a part of that person, and to disappoint that person is the biggest sin. If someone trusts you completely, helps you, does everything for you, and is sitting beside you, and you put a knife in their stomach, that is disappointment. Though the person will accept even your knife in the stomach and will say, "My dear... I love you. Maybe mistakenly, a knife went into my stomach, and it seems my life is only some minutes more, but take care and look after yourself." That is devotion. And when such a relation develops in the family, such a relation develops in society, there is no fighting and no wars. Therefore, it is said in Kali Yuga, Bhakti is Pradhān. Bhakti is the best one and the first one. Then Jñāna (knowledge), then Vairāgya—to endure the situation, to stay above, to be able to say to thyself "no." So Vairāgya means renunciation, to endure the renunciation. If you renounce something, do not suffer for that. If you renounce something, then do not be sorry for that. So bhakti, vairāgya, jñāna, and tyāga (sacrifice)—these are the four pillars on which you can build that higher building which will bring you to the higher destination. Then your mantra practice will be successful. To have a mantra does not mean everything. There is a story. One master came to a small village, and people came to the master for satsaṅg. There were a businessman, a merchant, and a farmer. Both of them asked the master if he could accept them as his disciples and if he could give them mantra initiation. The master said, "Yes, that is my job. That is why I am the master. I have, and you do not have. So what I have, I would like to give it to you. But you have to go through some examinations." "Yes, Master, what?" The master gave them one seed, which is called moong (mung bean). "Take care of this seed. Whenever I come back, I will ask for it, and you have to give it back to me. Now you put off, then I will give you mantra." "Thank you, Master." So they took one seed in their pocket and went home. The merchant put that seed in cotton, wrapped it nicely in a cloth, and put it in a drawer somewhere, and locked it. That drawer was like his treasure, which was about safety, on the right side, in the last corner of the drawer, and he wrote somewhere in his notebook, "The master's seed is in the drawer. Please do not take away." Good preserved, good preserved. The farmer came home. He has no treasure. He has many drawers, but what to do? The farmer was thinking, "This is just a seed. It will get lost or will be destroyed." Now, it was just the right season for planting, so he put the seed in the ground, put around it a very nice net, also covered with the net. At the right time, giving water, and in four days, on the fifth day, it came out—a beautiful sprout—and it began to grow. In two and a half months, there was a lot of fruit on it. In the third month, it dried, so he harvested about 250 grams from one seed. 250 grams, quite a lot. What to do? The master is not here. So he put it nicely with some sand and ash from the fire. That is how the organic and old-time people used to preserve the seeds and the weeds, corns. No poison, no chemicals. One year passed, and the Master did not come. So, the season came again, and these seeds he sowed in half a hectare of land. And at the end of the year, or end of the season, he harvested 250 kilos. The third year came; the Master is not here. What to do with the property of the Master? If the disciple will be like us, we will make a dāl and cook moong dāl. Śaṅkha Prakṣālana khicḍī, say thank you, Master. 250 grams or kilos of the moong? So he had a big field, and he put all the moong in this big field. He harvested tons, and he made a special storeroom. And the fourth year, the master came. When moong was new as a producer, the price fell down because there was so much moong; people were very happy. The master came. The master gave a beautiful satsaṅg. Next morning, around 10 o'clock, both disciples came—the farmer and the merchant. "Master, now can you give us a mantra?" The master said, "Yes. First bring my moong." The merchant ran home. After four years, he opened the drawer and took that cloth and the cotton. Inside was the moong, and he brought it to the master and opened it in front of the master. There was no moong inside; there was a dead moth. The moth went in, ate the moong, could not come out, and died. He said, "Master, the moong is eaten by the moth, but it is not my mistake, Master. It is your mistake. Why did you come so late? If you give mantra or not, you see, I did my best. Preserved very nicely. But you came after four years." The master said to the farmer, "What about you?" The farmer said, "Master, if you want to have your moong, then you have to come there." "Where is your moong? I cannot carry it here," the merchant said. "Stupid, he has so many moongs, tons and tons. You can take any one seed." And so, here you are. The master understood and went with the farmer, and the farmer opened the door of the storeroom, and there were tons of the moong. The master said, "You have passed the examination. You will get the mantra." So getting a mantra is just like the master gives you one seed, and now you have to repeat, multiplying every day. As many times as you will repeat, that is it, your plus point. There is a little story. There was once a meeting of the god Rāma. God Rāma was the king, and his faithful one, Sītā, was sitting beside him. And the other three brothers were standing near Rāma, and the great bhakta Hanumānjī was sitting near. Rāma's fate and God Rāma were looking constantly at Hanumānjī. He paid his attention to Hanumān, and Sītā was a little jealous, as women are sometimes. Not always. Sometimes they are happy to get rid of that man. God Rāma understood what Sītā was thinking. So Sītā was not jealous in that way, as we think, but she was thinking, "Why does Rāma pay attention to this monkey all the time? Did this monkey hypnotize Rāma?" And Rāma understood what she was thinking, so he took one hair from near the ear of Hanumānjī—Hanumānjī, not Hanumāna—and brought this hair near to Sītājī, and what she hears through that hair is the resonance, the sound, the name of God, "Rāma"—the resonance of the name of God. So not only is the heart full of love, but even each and every hair is filled with the name of God. So you become God yourself, because you are not that one who was before. You transformed yourself into the divine, and that is what you have to sing. The mantra, and there are five different techniques of repeating and practicing mantra. Without that, you cannot be successful. There are particular techniques, and we will speak about that after, and then I will tell you in a practical way so that we will have in the class for every, every... Different kinds of mantra practicing, you have different mudrās, different āśramas that will come after. So let us chant the name of God, Rāma. Experience this resonance, and you hear this resonance within yourself.