TV Channel

Part 1: The Unbreakable Bond: Guru and Disciple Śrī Jagannātha, Madhguru, Śrī Jagatguru, Māmātmā, Sarvabhūtātmā, Tasmai Śrī Gurve Namaḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddhārtha Preet Paramparā. My praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness, Vishwaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar Maheśvarānandapurījī. Some new faces who were not here yesterday, welcome. I think today is one of my favorite topics: the bond between the Guru and the disciple. That’s the morning topic, I believe, right? So, the bond of a guru and disciple is one bond which is permanent, which can’t be broken. Other bonds, other relationships—many bonds happen without a choice. You’re born; some relationships are made without any choices. Like when you’re born, your parents and your relationship, that’s without a choice. Siblings, without a choice. There are many bonds, but one bond is done with full awareness and consciousness. That is when you choose a master, because that bond is in this Kali Yuga. For context, for those of you who do not know, there are four Yugas. First is Satya Yuga. It was known as Satya because at that time everyone was telling the truth, living by the truth, and moving in the world with truth and compassion. Then came Tretā Yuga, where Lord Rāma was incarnated. Then came Dvāpar Yuga, where Lord Kṛṣṇa was incarnated. And now is Kali Yuga. So, in Kali Yuga, as we go further and further, to find real, true gurus is very rare. Nowadays, many just come up one day and say, "We are gurus." Some are many self-proclaimed gurus. So, it’s very hard and rare to find a true Śrī Sadgurudev in these modern times. That’s why I always say that we are very blessed to be a part of a paramparā. In the same way as in family, you have a family tree: you have your great-grandparents, then your grandparents, then your parents, then yourself, then your kids, then your grandkids. In the same way, in the tradition of sannyāsīs or monks, we have paramparā, which means a lineage. And our lineage is pretty old. If you heard—if some of you, how many of you visited India already? Okay, heard the name of the river Alaknandā? That’s where it starts up in the Himalayas. So our paramparā starts from there because our first guru... His name was Śrī Alagpurājī Mahārāj, the photo which is in front of the light down. So he is Śrī Alakpurījī, and he used to do his sādhanā, his meditations, up in the Himalayas. In the cave, one day he had a disciple named Nandā Devī, and she wanted to be remembered, and she wanted her name to be attached with his name. So then the river’s name became Alaknandā. Alak Purījī and Nanda Devī became Alak Nanda. So our lineage is from that time. After him came Śrī Devpurījī Mahārāj, the first photo there to the left. He also did a lot of penance and sādhanā up in the Himalayas, and then he came and established his ashram in a place called Sīkar in Rajasthan. If you read the Līlā Amṛt, you will know the many miracles he performed. We still know people there who are alive, their kids or grandkids, who tell those stories. That he brought back people from the dead. After they passed away, he brought them back. He performed many miracles. He was walking on water, many of them. After that came Bhagavān Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, the second picture. His ashram is in Barikhatu, Nagar, Rajasthan. And he also was mostly there traveling around and guiding people. It’s said, "Yathā kāle tathā paristhiti," or "kāla" or "deśa," which means as the generation, or as we move forward in our lives, according to the time and space, we go forward. I get many comments also nowadays that as time moves forward, you move forward with life. So Paramahanswāmī Madhavānandapurījī, who was our Dādā Gurujī, or our great master, he started traveling more and spreading the message of Sanātana Dharma of Mahāprabhujī around the whole of India. And his ashram is in Nepal, which spreads the message. And after Holi, Guruji, we have our dear Vishwa Guruji, who graciously traveled around the whole world for the past 55-60 years, spreading the message of Mahāprabhujī, his teachings, created this beautiful family of mine, yoga and daily life, created this beautiful, magnificent space for us to come whenever we like here. Or though mushroom in India and many other Russians around the world, that was all the work of our beloved Gurudev, the great saints, and the great yogīs and ṛṣis like what they’ve and others. They all enlightened souls who were happy up there, but they still decided to come back to this Mṛtyu Loka, or the place of Māyā, where we are entangled in this illusion. He still decided to come back here. Why? For all of us, to guide us, to help us, to enlighten us, and hopefully to help us attain self-realization and mokṣa. Believe me, they were much happier up there. They did not need to come back, but they did. So that’s why we are very blessed to be a part of this paramparā. And as I was saying, this bond, this bond is a bond which cannot be broken. It doesn’t matter what happens: you leave him, you go, after 10 years you decide you... Want to come back? His arms will be still open, and saying, "Come here, my dear, no worries." That is why he, the guru, means—the word guru means: "gu" means from darkness, "ru" means to light. It can be the inner darkness, it can be the darkness which we are surrounded with. It looks... Pretty bright, but until we do not have that inner peace, that inner joy, that realization of who we are, until then, it’s still dark for us. And who helps us? We think that, "Oh, why do we need a guru? We are self-sufficient to know everything. We can read the books and learn things. Why do we need this or that?" It feels like we are following someone blindly. It’s blind faith. It’s not blind faith. It is faith. You need faith and belief in something, but it’s not blind, because if you decide to walk onto this path, it’s your own decision. So it’s not blind faith. And the reason why we need it is because, how did we learn how to talk or say our first words? After we grew up a few months, a few years, from our parents, right? Our parents started to talk to us, we heard words from here and there, and some words might have been taught to us. By our parents, oh, say mama, say papa, say this, say that. So in that way, they also become our first gurus because they teach us something. So the parents are the first gurus. So if we didn’t need a guru, then we didn’t need that either, so the... Parents become our first gurus, who teach us the initial stages of our lives. Then we go to schools and colleges to study, to learn. They’re our teachers; they become our second guru, because they teach us all the worldly knowledges which we... Need at least for you all, because I believe that in my field of work, maths and chemistry and physics didn’t make much sense, but still I had to go through it. Why not? And then we need a Śrī Sadguru Dev who opens other paths of life. Who opens the spiritual aspects, who shows us and guides us on that path. That’s why in our culture we had four āśramas. First is Brahmacharya Āśram. Brahmacharya Āśram is, if we divide it into four parts, let’s say a person lives 100 years, so 0 to 25 would be Brahmacharya Āśram. Brahmacharya Ashram means where you come. In the olden times we had Gurukul systems, now we have schools and hostels. People come, children come, study. Why was the gurukul system implemented? I’ll share it in a bit later. So, four āśramas: first is 0 to 25, brahmacarya āśram, where you come, you study, you gain knowledge, you learn things. After that comes gṛhastha āśram, from... From 25 to 50, that’s where you have your household. You focus on your work, you build up your life, you have your own businesses, your work. You have or do not have kids, you with your partner. You have, you have a partner, so you move on in your personal. Life, that’s 25 to 50. After comes vana prastha āśram, after your kids are grown up enough. They have that energy, you give them, and you let them take forward what they, what you created, or they can create something of their own. And you slowly, slowly... Move towards spirituality, towards the path which helps us attain our goal of Self-Realization. Both of you, partner yourself alone, as you want. But you slowly detach yourself from the worldly things, not completely, but gradually. And from 75 until whenever you die comes Sannyās Āśram, where you renounce everything and stay, completely dedicating your life toward the ultimate goal. Then, some of you will say that I don’t look 75, then how did I jump directly to Sannyās? That is, if in any stage of your life you feel like you’re ready for it and you want to go towards that path, you may, if the Guru permits. Second option, like me: if Gurudev adopts you when you are six hours old, then you are into it from birth. But don’t take it in the wrong way, that I was forced into it and I joined something that I didn’t know about, or this and that. After I turned a certain age, Gurudev asked me if I wanted to live a normal life or if I was okay with this. I said I’m completely okay with this. This is my family, this is the path which I need to be on, and this is what I want to do. So I’m here. So then comes Sannyas Ashram. So in Sannyas Ashram, you come to an ashram like this or any ashram, and you dedicate your life, your time more towards this. The greatest gift that we can get is our mantra. When we get initiated by a guru with a mantra, you get into one path, and the mantra is like a direct conversation you can have with God, or with the Supreme Self, or with the Higher Self, or whatever you want to call it. So when you do your mantra; it’s something that is connecting you and lifting you more up from these worldly things, connecting you to that. It is a reminder to us that we have these beautiful tools which help us move forward in our spiritual journey. Once upon a time, there was one boy named Eklavya, and it was at the time of the Mahābhārata. So, the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas—how many of you have heard about the Mahābhārata? So, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa were two epics which happened. One in Tretā Yuga, one in Dvāpar Yuga. The Rāmāyaṇa is completely related to Bhagavān Śrī Rāma, who was the incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu, and the Mahābhārata is more about Lord Kṛṣṇa, where there were two parties. Basically, there was one family, but two brothers, five... The children from one father, Pāṇḍu, were named the Pāṇḍavas, and the hundred children from the other were the Kauravas. Kauravas were the negative aspect, the negative side of it; Pandavas were the positive one. As human beings, we are all drawn towards negativity much easier than towards positive energies. So, unfortunately, or because it was meant to be, or whatever, the Mahābhārata fight happened, where it was a war between those two. And in that time, Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnated, because it is said in the Bhagavad Gītā, "yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata." It means when the dharma will be overpowered by adharma. Dharma means the path of truth, the path of righteousness. Adharma means where not good stuff, evil stuff is going on. So when adharma overpowers dharma, then at that time I shall incarnate. So Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnated at that time. And he became the charioteer who was taking Arjuna around in the Mahābhārata. So at that time, when they were still young, before these old things happened, they had a guru named Eklavya and Dronācārya. And Dronacharya was the guru of them. But in those olden times, there used to be a caste system. And in the caste system, it was a hierarchy type thing. Only the kings or the princes or those families could take knowledge from Droṇācārya. And Eklavya was a villager from the village and lived in the forest, and he wanted to learn the art of archery. So he came to Droṇācārya, he bowed down, he made praṇāms, and he said, "Oh Gurudev, could you please give me the knowledge of archery? Could you teach me this knowledge?" Immediately, the Pāṇḍavas and he and everyone said, "No, sorry, we can’t. You are not in that space." He said, "As you wish." He made praṇām and he moved, and he went back home. When he went back home, the first thing he did was he made a beautiful statue of Throne Acharya, and after making that beautiful statue, he every day did his rituals, his pūjā, offered flowers, and took the blessing from the statue. That’s why it’s nirguṇa and saguṇa. There are two types of bhakti. Nirguṇa bhakti is where you pray or worship nothingness. And saguṇa bhakti is where you pray to a photo or statue or any object where you believe that the energy of that specific deity is put in. Like we believe that Śivjī is in this, so Śivaliṅga. Or Swamiji’s essence, or we believe that we get that comfort as a living thing in the photo. So that’s Saguṇa Bhakti. So he created a statue, he worshipped the statue, and he started practicing. That’s the power of Guru Bhakti. When you have faith, when you believe in that, if you don’t believe, nothing happens. If you believe, many things can happen. After practicing many, many, many years and time, one day the Pandavas and Dronacharya and one dog, who were in the forest, and the dog’s senses are very strong. So he immediately smelled the scent of Eklavya. So he followed and went there and started barking a lot. What Eklavya did was immediately he took his bow and arrow and shot many arrows into the mouth of the dog. And when the dog came back to the Pandavas, the Pandavas started taking out the arrows and later realized that it was really someone professional, because there was not a single arrow which actually punctured any place on his mouth. And there was no blood. It was just to block the barking. Then they immediately told Droṇācārya and said, "There is someone better than you. There is another Gurukul which is teaching such good archery with so much perfection that the archer didn’t even hit anything, just blocked the mouth. How is this possible?" They said, "Let’s go and see." As soon as they arrived there, Droṇācārya saw Ekalavya, immediately recognized him, but still asked him, "Who are you, my child?" He said, "I am Ekalavya, and I’m your disciple." And the Pāṇḍavas looked at him and said, "Really? I thought we were the only ones." Know, then comes this ego part, you know? It’s only us, how can any other be? He said, "No, I did not initiate you in anything." No, Gurudev, look, here’s your statue. After you denied, I took your blessings, and I believed that you are in the form of this. Statue, and that’s why you gave me all the knowledge. And then he said, "Okay, if I’m your guru, then where’s my guru dakṣiṇā?" Guru dakṣiṇā means a gift offering to the guru, which you give. Anything, my life is yours, whatever you want. Your... Right thumb, because to hold the arrow you need these two fingers. Or you can also do it like this, but let’s say this. So he immediately took it off and cut it and offered it and said, "Here it is." So all the knowledge which he acquired was gone in an instant, but if it is said, "Guru āgyā avichāranīya," which means try not to find the logic behind what the Guru says and why He says it, because He knows better than us, because He is the only one who is trikāla-darśī. "Trikāla-darśī": "tri" means three, "kāla" means time. And darśī means the one who can see. Can we... Do we know what will happen in the future? It’s an interactive thing. You can say yes or no. No. What happened in the past, can we change it? No. So if we can’t change what happened in the past, then why do we go so much into the past and worry about this and that, and bother with our heads going deep? I did this. Yeah, we did something. Every human being makes a mistake. We learn from our mistakes, and we do not repeat them. But there’s no sense of being stuck in the past all the time, worrying about why it happened and this and that. It will just create more troubles for us in our mind. Future, we don’t know. But still, we are always creating the scenarios in our mind. What if this happens, or what if that happens? What if? If is future. We don’t know it. Most of the circumstances which we create in our minds most probably won’t even happen. But still we create it, because who likes peace? With too much peace, life will become boring. So, to not make our life boring, we make troubles for ourselves. We create scenarios which will not happen most of the time. Maybe, to some extent, it might happen, but most of the time we just create something that does not need to be thought about. What happens if my store gets robbed? No, Nagin Bhai, say what? And then nothing happens, but his head will be all day worrying about: Did I lock my store? Did I turn on the cameras? Did I close the shutter? Did I lock the shutter at night? Did I close the doors? Is the staff honest or not? And so many things. But if we have faith and we just say, "Nām Kartā, Prabhudeep Kartā, my problems are your problems, my happiness is your happiness, my sadness is your happiness," let them deal with it. How life happens is, it will happen as it’s going to happen. What’s going to happen in our destiny will happen; the only person who can change our destiny is Him. So if we have faith and we surrender, and we say, "Everything is yours, you deal with it." I’m just the observer. I’m higher than that. I’m higher than the problems. Then that shall also pass. But if we indulge ourselves so deeply into our daily affairs and daily matters, it will just make us nuts. And not to make our mind completely collapse and crash and have a mental breakdown, we let things happen as they’re happening in their own time, in their own space. Whatever happens, happens for a reason. Whatever is happening is... Happening for a good reason. Whatever is happening is happening because it’s meant to be happening. If it wouldn’t be meant to happen, it wouldn’t happen. So if it’s happening, let it happen. If there are problems, really bad problems... Just know that it shall pass, and good times will also come. When good times are there, just know that that time also shall pass. So enjoy it as much as you can while you can, because you never know when those happy moments end and again something comes. Because it’s best to be in the present about destiny. This story I mentioned many times, but not to this audience, so let’s do it again. There was one kingdom, and in that kingdom, every kingdom had a rājaguru. Rājā means a king, and Guru means a guru. So, in the night, the Gurujī was sitting outside his hut, and he saw one goddess entering the kingdom and going towards the king’s palace. He asked, "Who are you?" She said, "I am the Vidātā. I am the person who writes the destinies for..." The people who are going to be born, why did you come to this kingdom? Because the king is going to have twins tonight, and I’m going to write the destiny. Gurujī said, "Okay, but just know that they are my disciples. The king is my disciple, so write." Something nice and good. After that, what comes? In ego, she said, "Who are you to tell me what to do? I’m the one who is writing the destiny." I’ll write what I want, not what you want. Gurujī said, "Okay, just telling you." So she went, and after she came back, Gurujī said, "So how was it?" She said, "Bad." Okay, so what? Do you want to change it? No. The king will have an attack. He will die. The queen will die. The kids will be orphaned, but they will be taken care of by the person who makes pots, the potter. And when they grow up, one kid will go for hunting but will never be able to get more than one prey back home, so it won’t be sufficient enough for everyone to be fed. The second kid will go and have a horse and transport goods from one place to another, but still won’t be able to get enough money to sustain the family. Okay, no worries. Next morning, the king comes with sweets and this and that, full procession, drums and music, Gurujī’s praṇām. I got twins. Gurujī didn’t seem to be so happy. He said, "I need to go to the other ashram and meditate. I have some work; I’m going." So the king sensed that if there’s some beautiful time like this, where there’s twins and I got a child, and the Guru is leaving, so it’s not a good sign, but okay, what to do? So as it was written, it happened after some time. There was an attack on the kingdom. The king was killed, the queen was kidnapped, and the kids were found by a potter on the boundary wall of the kingdom. After they grew up, every day, as it was written, they used to go to hunt. He didn’t manage to get more than one prey. The other one had a horse, but he didn’t manage to earn enough money. After many, many years, when the Gurujī came back, he came and asked, "Where is the princess, or where are the kids?" He said, "Guruji, you are too late. After you left, this whole disaster happened." He said, "I know." That’s why, you know, you might have heard Gurudev also many times, he says, you come to him and say something, and he says, "I know." Then we wonder, how does he know everything? Because he is Trigaldarśī. Many times the Guru is not going to tell you directly what to do, because that is against the laws. He can’t tell you that, oh, this is going to happen to you, don’t do this, no. But, as a life example, what happened in front of me was, we were sitting in Nipal Ashram one day in India, and there was—we are jumping with stories, but okay, I’ll come back to this one. We were sitting in Nipāl Āśram, and there was one very high-ranking officer, Maṅgalājī. And he came to the ashram, and he was sitting there, and after, you know, always looking at the clocks, you know how these high-ranking officers are, they always want to disappear as soon as possible. So he said, "Okay, Swāmījī, I need to go." Swamiji said, "Sit." He sat, you know. Guru āgyā vichāra nīyā, he can’t say much, so he sat longer. 10-15 minutes later, again, Swamiji, I need to go sit. Then after the third time, he again said, Swamiji, I need to go. The Guru will tell you three times; if you want to listen after that, not that’s your wish. So the third time, he said, okay. Third time he left, and after a few hours we got a call, and we knew, because he was such a high-profile guy. His car was shot from every single direction, but only a single bullet managed to go through, and it literally went like this through his shirt, didn’t even touch him. So that is the blessings of the Gurudev. But if he had stayed back, that time would have passed, and that would not have happened. But because it happened, and still the Guru Kṛpā was there, the blessings of the Guru were there, it didn’t harm him. It just went through. That is the Kṛpā. And that’s why it is said, don’t try to find logic, or don’t try to wonder why he’s telling you to sit. If he’s telling you to sit, there is obviously something that he can see but we cannot see, and I believe that many of you who were many years with Swāmījī have had such experiences. So since that day, if Swāmījī always tells me also things two times, if I say no, and the third time, if... He mentions it, I know that I need to do it, so then I don’t question it anymore. So, there are things which happen. So, coming back to the story, he came and he went to the potter’s house, and he told the kids that you were the actual princes and your father was the king of... This kingdom, they said, "If you are the guru of our father, then you’re the guru of us also. So what can we do? Please instruct us." He said, "Just do these simple things every day. When you go to hunt, have it in your head." That I will only hunt a golden deer, nothing else. It doesn’t matter if the goddess gives you the biggest prey possible, do not hunt it. Have it in your head that I will only go back home with a golden deer, that’s it. And because in your destiny, it’s written that... You will come back home with at least one thing in the evening before sunset, and you don’t hunt anything. She will have to give you a golden deer till you go home. And to the second brother, "You have a horse." Yours, your... it’s written that you... You will be working with your horse your whole life, so every morning, sell your horse. How will you work? Because it’s saying that you have to work with the horse, so she will have to give you another horse. Sell that one also, so this process went on. On for a long time. Every day, golden deer selling; every day, horses, two or three horses a day selling. And slowly, they eventually got back to their feet and got well off, basically. And then the current ruler had also two daughters. The richest person in the kingdom got married to the princesses and lawfully got back their kingdom, and everything was peacefully going. So the Guru has the power to make a king a beggar or a beggar a king. That is the power of a Guru. But it is in our hands, as I said, to choose if we want to go on that path or not. He is not going to force us; He is not going to drag us and say, "This is the path." He will show us the path. He is that torchlight which is showing that light. But to walk on that path or not, that is ultimately going to be our decision. If we want to move forward with it or not, that is going to be our decision. But once we do accept it, and once we enter into that and surrender and be okay with it, then believe me, he will take care of you. The guru can be a he, a guru can be a she, a guru can be anyone, whoever you adopt as your guru, but just know that. That guru should be a true guru, not someone who just is a self-proclaimed guru. If a guru has a lineage, if a guru has knowledge, if he is someone real, you will have that feeling immediately. There are many people who had to go to maybe 10. Different gurus, to finally find one, so that’s okay. But once you do choose one, then don’t jump around. Once you take one as your guru, that remains your guru. You can learn, take knowledge from many other gurus, but if you got mantra dīkṣā from anyone that is going to be a guru forever, doesn’t matter what. That’s how it works. Because when he gives you something as powerful as a mantra, his energy, his life blessings, everything goes into that. When he blesses you, when he touches your hand, what happens in that time? There are energies which are flowing through the Guru to the disciple. The energies can be even felt here, even if Swamījī is physically not present here, but his presence was here, and because it was here, this space has been consecrated with that energy and with that space. When you’re outside in the outer world, you can feel that chaos. That tension, the movements, when you come here, it doesn’t matter what chaos is going out. Part 2: The Flow of Grace and the Practice of Surrender It feels like you are in a separate world, sitting somewhere that is totally a different place. Why? Because this space holds that energy. Madhuramjī, Samir. Yes, there have been many, many beautiful experiences and moments. It depends how much time you have. We have the whole day, apparently, and I can’t speak the whole day. I don’t mind; sharing is caring. I learned a lot through the building, actually. I had no idea about it. The builder left at some point, saying, "I thought I know enough that I can carry on on my own." With YouTube and other things, I tried many times. I came to the point where I didn’t know what I was doing. It always ended up good when I called my friends who were builders at Gyananath John. He said, "Just start, and it will." Flow. Thank you very much. That’s all I wanted to hear, and it did work. I started to realize I was learning a very new skill in a practical way—what we chant, Namaḥkāra. It was not in the field of teaching yoga, where I always thought it would be, or in music or bhajans. It was in some other place where I never thought it would be: the building. It really did work. The more I was giving up—or not giving up, but letting go—yes, surrendering and giving up are two very different energies. To surrender does not mean to give up or to be inactive. It was a great experience. Till today, the little fixings here and there have turned from a fear of not being able to carry on into excitement when there is something to do. Including my last story, I can mention what happened recently. You know that Swāmījī is not talking very much anymore; in fact, not at all. My friend Gaṅgā Swamī went to India and told me, "You should come with me, you should go see Swamiji." I kept saying, "Well, I have duties here, classes and this and that." On the evening of the 24th, Christmas evening in Europe, I was in my yearly silent Anuṣṭhāna retreat. I closed my eyes and said, "I will only go if you tell me to, Swāmījī." The next morning, I sent him something via Fruganga. I got a message back: "I gave your present to Swāmījī, and he remembered your name. He said you should come." So obviously, he is well aware of our thoughts and feelings. Many stories like this—I think everybody here would have something. On the other side, I know a friend whom Swāmījī was trying to tell not to travel somewhere. She insisted. He told her again, and she went anyway and got very bad malaria in South India. It went so far that the doctors called her family to come and say goodbye. Her lungs were full of water; she was dying. After just a few days, she started to recover, and she’s still alive. The doctors have no rational explanation for how this could happen. I think she learned her lesson for this life. I often think, when we meet each other and walk through these lives, who actually has time? It requires a lot of mental space to fill your life with thinking of others. The availability of the Guru must be so great that there is no space for himself. He is just always full, working for other people. That’s our life. We are coming there, but it is beautiful to really encounter another person in our lives who is there for you. We ask, "How are you?" but very rare people actually have the time, space, and availability to sit with the other and be there for them. That is what we feel in an encounter with Swāmījī. The first thing, when he asks, "How are you?" you know he is ready to sit with you if you tell him anything. Until today, I have not met anybody else who is so available. Would that be enough for now? About not giving up: giving up is not a solution for us. It is the same as when we climb a mountain or a staircase. If we are on a trek and get tired, what do we do? Have a break, sit down, relax—not give up and go all the way back down. In the same way, if in life we have barriers, problems, something, it’s okay to sit down and have a break, but not give up. On the spiritual path, it is very hard to climb up, but if you give up, it is very easy to fall straight back down. If something, ku-saṅga or anything, pulls you, then you fall back and have to climb those stairs again. So if you need a break, sit down, take a break, then continue. Giving up is not a solution. That is what Gurudev has been teaching us our whole life. Earlier, when Divya was fixing this, I remembered we were talking about Karma Yoga. These are all four paths, but I would say they are four rivers merging into the same ocean: Jñāna Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Rāja Yoga. Jñāna Yoga is when we read scriptures and books, gaining knowledge. Bhakti Yoga is often where we feel joy and happiness. Rāja Yoga is meditation, awareness, kriyās, working with the mana (mind). And Karma Yoga—I’ll give a favorite example. You come to Jhadan, and the first thing you get is Karma Yoga. How many times has it happened that some of you came to Jhadan, and the Karma Yoga was to clean the toilet? Why? Because that is not something bad. When you come, you have expectations. You come from far, and there are expectations. That’s the problem. When our expectations are not fulfilled, resentment, anger, and other emotions come up. But when we go with the flow and believe everything is okay, expectations are lower and these emotions hit us less. Why are these types of Karma Yogas given? To burn our ego, to burn that "I": "I am better than this," "I do not need to do this," "I am higher than this." To burn this "I" is Karma Yoga. We are blessed to have Gurudev because he implemented all these four paths in our lives. Every day we do our prayer and bhajans—that is Bhakti Yoga. We do our mālā, kriyā—that is Rāja Yoga. We read books, scriptures, līlā, amṛt, hidden powers, yoga in daily life—that is Jñāna Yoga. We help in the ashram, in our place, at home—that is Karma Yoga. All these paths are leading into and merging into that same ocean. They are not separate. If a person does only Bhakti Yoga and has too much happiness, that is also not so good. Too much Jñāna Yoga, and the person becomes too serious. Too much Rāja Yoga, the person becomes very boring. Too much Karma Yoga, the body aches too much, and he will just be sleeping. Implementing all four paths together leads into that same path. We should not have that division, thinking we are Rāja Yogīs, or Bhakti Yogīs, or Karma Yogīs. We are all leading into that same thing. We always sing, "We need to..." There are two types of satsaṅg. We talked about it yesterday, but for those who were not here: satsaṅg means gathering—kusaṅga or satsaṅg. Kusaṅga means negative gathering, and satsaṅg means positive gathering, like now. We are all gathered here for satsaṅg. Satsaṅg does not mean you all need to come to the āśram to gather. Even at your own homes, if there are talks of positivity, spirituality, any type of positive and truthful talks, that becomes a satsaṅg. The bhajan says: hame hae kāmā satsaṅg se—we want satsaṅg, we don’t want anything else. It doesn’t matter what the world is shouting or barking in the background; our job is to go to satsaṅg. If we took the first initiative to come here, that is already the first step we needed. The rest is guided, helped, and created by Him. That’s why we sing: He is the Brahma, He is Viṣṇu, He is Maheś, He is everyone. If He is everything, if He is higher than all these gods and goddesses, and they all come for parikramā around Him, then what is the doubt? There should not be any doubts. When there are no doubts, no worries, no problems, nothing affecting our mental state, then truly we feel that inner peace, inner joy, and inner happiness we always talk about. But for that, we need to believe that it is okay. We need to understand that what is happening is okay. Why it is happening is also okay. We will only get inner peace when we believe that, understand that, and accept ourselves for who we are. Most of the time, we doubt ourselves. We doubt: are we good enough? Is it okay what we’re doing? Do I do this right? Do I do that right? We are the best versions of ourselves. Whatever we do is right; we are doing it to our best capacity. Are we doing something wrong? Maybe sometimes, but that’s also okay because we are human beings. If we don’t make mistakes and everything is perfect, then we are not humans; we are superhumans, which we are not. So it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s not okay to think about it and worry about it for ages, but it’s okay to make mistakes. Without mistakes, how do we move forward? How do we learn? But as Mother Ramjī was saying, giving up should not be there. We do a mistake, learn from it, and say, "Okay, we’re not going to do it again." That’s okay. When we have that guiding light, trust, believe, and surrender—these are the three key things in our spiritual journey. When we surrender and understand we are just puppets, and the one controlling it is Him, then we know there is nothing to worry about. Satguru Dev is taking care of you, guiding you, protecting you. But you need to understand that He is. If we believe He is taking care of you, then He will. It is the same as a child walking on a narrow plank over a river, holding its mother’s or father’s hand. The child believes, "Yes, I am being protected. They are holding me; nothing will happen to me." In the same way, when we are crossing this ocean of māyā, of illusion, this old chaos, and He is holding our hand, we know we are being protected and nothing can harm us. We are in a bubble that cannot be popped or punctured by anything or anyone because there is a protective layer over us. If, like in yesterday’s story, you are supposed to have a very bad accident but instead just get a thorn, that is also because of grace. He can reduce what is supposed to happen in your destiny, or he can increase it. That’s up to him, but it also depends on us. How? It depends on what we do in our lives. Some karmas we bring from previous lives; some we create in this life. Many karmas will burn in this life, and many we will take forward. If we do good things, good things will happen. If we do bad things, bad things will happen. As it is said, Jīva jīva bhakṣate. That does not mean we should eat animals. They’ve always said, "You cut one chicken, next life you will be cut as a chicken." Simple. If we are following the paths, if something is done without knowing why, that’s different. But knowingly doing wrong is wrong. Any karma should be done with awareness. Anything we do should be done with awareness. Yesterday we talked about it: if we are in satsaṅg, full awareness here. If we have to work, full awareness at work. Whatever we do, it should be with awareness, affection, love, and feelings. Without that, it will not work. If we are meditating, that meditation should be done with awareness. When teaching yoga, one does it with full awareness, knowing what is being told. In the same way, when practicing yoga, we practice with awareness. We know which part of our body is being affected by which pose. When we do our mālā, we are aware we are doing our mālā because the awareness, the concentration, is there. Either we do mānasik pūjā, which means we do the pūjā and rituals within—that is more focused. I was listening to a lecture a few days back. There is a difference when you offer directly to the deity, statue, or photo, and when we do it mentally. For beginners, it is good to do it externally, but in the long term, they say if you do it with mānasik in the inner consciousness, it is much more concentrated. Because if you are doing it here, holding this, offering that, your mind can still travel. But if we do Mānasik Pūjā, the full awareness and concentration has to be on what you are imagining and creating there; otherwise, it is lost. Our mind is so fast. In India, we call our mind a monkey mind. Why? Because the monkey is restless; in the same way is our mind. Our mind runs to different places. I talked about Fiji—how many of you thought about Fiji and its beauty and weather? Or I talk about India, and some of you thought about your experiences in India. A thought comes, and the mind goes. It just goes to show that to hold concentration on something for a certain time is very hard. Probably a few milliseconds you can be properly focused. Even when we do Trāṭak to a flame, our thoughts might be somewhere else. We do our Mālā or Āratī. Now when I do Āratī, I concentrate there, but I also try to understand the words of the Āratī so the concentration stays there and doesn’t wander. Before, I used to sing bhajans as songs. Now, when I sing bhajans, I am more aware because I try to listen, understand the words, and find new meanings. Every time I sing a bhajan nowadays, a new meaning comes up, or a new sentence I didn’t notice before. That’s how we can learn to bring our focus onto something we wish to do. Focus is necessary, no matter what we do. When I left my job—I was working in software engineering, heading a department, a highly paid good job—it didn’t feel good anymore. I felt empty. I suddenly wanted to go in front of people, to talk to people. What he is saying has truth behind it. My whole life I was really afraid of public speaking. Working in software, you’re in front of a computer, working with a team, but I got bored. When I quit, the mind starts to calculate ahead: "Okay, first few weeks I will take off, then I’ll do this and that." The mind goes into its own thing and plans the future because the mind always wants to know the next step. Anyone who knows Swāmījī and our lineage knows he likes to break that—your plans, your house of cards. That’s what he did. The moment he said, "Come to me, come to India with me," it happened. I didn’t even think of going to India to see Swamiji after a long time. Part of me said yes, part went into panic mode: "What about my plans?" After a few days, I thought, "Yeah, I’ll go." Then, a few days later, he said, "Come with me to Fiji and New Zealand and Australia." That’s also a financial burden when you have no income, even if you have something prepared. I had no idea when I’d start my business. Then comes a part with trust and surrender. In London, there was another guy, Hanwan, from Czech but living in London. I had a good conversation with him. He said everything in life is about your relationship with God. If God wants you to go with him, just tell God: "I’ll go with him, but you take care of everything else." It clicked in my mind. I said, "Yes, of course." Inwardly, I knew I was going. I didn’t even mention to him, "Fixed," but inwardly I was like, "Okay, I’m going." Of course, at home, Mom... One thing I’m really taking as a practice here is surrender. It doesn’t mean you don’t give a rat’s ass about everything. You do, of course. You work, you strive, but you don’t look at the result. You’re not worried about the result. Whatever happens will happen, and how it will happen. Good. If it looks not as you wanted, that means there’s something else to learn, or it’s just not the end yet. You have to not give up and go on. That’s a big practicing part. On one side, traveling sounds good, but our minds are all the time: "What will happen when you come back?" You just have to be. Everything will be fine, and I really believe it will be. I can tell one more story. When Swami Madhavaram was talking about experiences with Swamijī, I remembered something that happened to me years ago. I just finished my master’s degree in mechanical engineering. I had a scholarship at a company for many years; they paid me quite a lot of money, but usually you have to go work after finishing. At that time, there was a summer seminar in Stryuki with a lot of talk about Om, karma yoga. It all sounded so good. After I finished in September, I had to go work. I went to Swāmījī and said, "Swāmījī, I would like to go to India for six months to do karma yoga after I finish my studies." He asked, "What are you studying?" I said, "Master’s degree in mechanical engineering." He said, "Oh, so you want to become a master?" Then he blessed me: "Talk to Yogesh." He gave me a blessing. I contacted the company and told them, "I’m finishing in September, but I would really like to go for six months to travel." I didn’t tell details. The lady from HR said, "Yeah, actually we don’t have any work for you anyway, so go. Just contact us when you’re coming back." That part was okay. What happened in those six months is another story. After I came back, I had to contact them. I wrote an email: "I’m back, ready to do whatever." For three weeks, no answer. This was a company in a small town where I was born, but I didn’t want to live there. It was not a job I actually wanted. After three weeks with no reply, I started looking for a job I wanted. I found one in Ljubljana—perfect, exactly what I wanted. It was connected to my master’s thesis. I applied, went for the interview, did some tests. I thought I totally crashed it. After three weeks, a guy from the company called and said, "We chose you." I thought, "Oh, what to do now? I’m still contracted with the other company." But I wanted this job. I said, "Yeah, good." We talked on the phone about terms, starting in September. Then I looked at my mail and saw the other company had contacted me one hour ago, saying I had to come the next day for an interview. I thought all night: what to do, how to pay back 20,000 euros or whatever. I surrendered it: what will happen will happen. The next day, I went to their company, sat with the HR lady. She was really nice. She said, "Vit, you did everything you had to do, but we cannot hire you. At the moment, we don’t have any free space, so you’re free of your contract." I was like, "Okay, I will survive." I couldn’t tell them about the other job because if they knew, they might have said, "No, you have to come, or you’d have to pay." Everything happened perfectly, even better than I could imagine. I did six months of karma yoga, then got exactly the job I couldn’t even imagine was possible. It popped up just when I came back. I got it, and I got free of the scholarship. To me, it was totally clear; everything came together so smoothly that I knew it was a blessing. When you surrender and do small things, at the end everything comes together. That’s my experience, and I believe a lot of other people can share similar stories. You have to have some faith. You have to, of course, do things. It doesn’t mean just look at the sky and scratch your ears. Even Lord Kṛṣṇa said: do your karma; don’t worry about the fruits or results. In life, do what you wish, and everything will happen as the divine flow wants it. It will happen according to your wish and His wish, so it will be good for you always at the end of the day. Without trust and surrender, it would be a different story. That’s why in life, no matter how tough it may seem, it doesn’t mean I don’t have problems. We all have problems, but different types. We all live in a different way, so problems arise for everyone. Problems are there to keep us entertained because without problems, what would we do? Problems are there to be solved so we are not bored. When we solve problems and think we are free, they throw another problem at us. Sometimes we get happy moments in between, and we waste them worrying about the next problem. Let us just enjoy the moments as they come, and enjoy the problems also as they come. We will solve them and deal with them when and how they happen. When we have trust and faith, everything will move. Without trust and faith, it won’t. That’s why we say: when Gurudev’s blessings and teachings are there, the disciple is in ultimate bliss. Ultimate bliss can be achieved with our inner realization and the grace and blessings of the master. With the master’s blessings and grace, all doings and not-doings go smoothly, and we are in that bliss. But that bliss can be achieved with his blessings and by our efforts—not just looking at the sky and thinking everything will happen. We need to do the effort. That’s why it is said: do the karma; do what you are supposed to do. How it happens, how it unfolds, is different, but the effort has to be made by us. Without doing the effort, without trying, it won’t be. You can stay standing; you can sit there. Because next is you.