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Part 1: The Beauty of Satsaṅg Devoḥ Maheśvarāḥ Gurur Sākṣātpara Brahma Tasmai Śrī Gurve Namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha Madhguru Śrī Jagadguru Mamātmā Sarvabhūtātmā Tasmai Śrī Gurve Namaḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddhārth Preet Paramparā. I don’t know. Praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness, Viśvagurū Muḥammad Āliśvarā Maheśvarānandapurījī. Good evening to all. But what makes a place beautiful? What makes a place nice? What makes a place livable? It’s not the place itself, it’s not the energies which this place holds, but it’s the love and support which all of you give. All of us, when we sit here, when we are together, we bring that joy and we bring those energies to this place. The grace of the Gurudev, the blessings of the Gurudev, are always here. But what makes that place full of light, full of joy, is all of us when we come, gather here, sit together, unite, and become one. We all have our individual paths. We all have our own duties in our day-to-day life. We all come from different places of the world or of New Zealand. We all have different things to do, but we still try to find time for certain things which make us happy, and not only the external happiness, but the inner happiness which we are all looking for. And when we all come together and join... Here that becomes satsaṅg. What I was explaining in many satsaṅgs, satsaṅg, what does it mean? In Hindi, saṅg means gathering, and sat means truth. So where the gathering is full of truth, full of positivity, full of joy, that becomes satsaṅg. And a place where there is negativity, where there is wrongdoing, lies, that place becomes kusaṅg. So when we choose and make a choice between satsaṅg or kusaṅg, and we decide where we want to go, that is already the first step to inner happiness or fulfillment or whatever we are looking for. Because we have that viveka. Viveka means the intuitive power to discern between what is right and what is wrong. We all can decide what is right for us and what is wrong for us. We all have that deciding, decision-making in our beautiful head. That’s why God gave us two ears, you know, and something between those two ears. Put information in from here and put it out from here, right? So that’s why we have two ears that we can put it here. Then we have a brain to process it. The things that we like, we keep. The things we don’t like, we let it out from the second ear. But most of us think that most of the things are boring, so it just goes in and out, but the processing thing is in between. That’s why we have such a big head. But that vivekā is very important in our day-to-day life. To make decisions, we need to use our vivekā to see what is right and what is wrong. To know what is right and what is wrong, and to help us. Sometimes we think we know everything. That is what? That is our ego speaking, that we know everything. There is nothing higher than us. We know absolutely everything. No, I also don’t know everything, you also don’t know everything. We all learn something from each other every day. There is something that we can learn from each other every day. There is something new which you will get to know, and every today, there is something more beautiful which we can learn from each other. There’s no one higher, no one lower. We all are one beautiful family sitting together and having a beautiful discussion about something new or something that we already know. If we already know, that’s very good because that’s just a repetition. When we learn something at schools or colleges, what do we do? The teacher makes us read the same chapter again and again and again, till we fall asleep in the back bench, but why does that repetition need to happen? It is because we remember it again, or if we forgot it, we again know about it; we again learn about it. And every time we read, let’s say a bhajan, a bhajan is a beautiful song which we sing, many different bhajans which we have. Every time I read a bhajan, it doesn’t matter if I’ve heard it for the past 26 years of my life, I still learn something new from it. So even though my lectures seem repetitive, and many might say, "Oh, we heard this again and again," and Swāmījī is teaching us for the past 50 years the same thing, every time we listen to it, there is something that we can catch which we didn’t catch in the previous time. It doesn’t matter if we talk about the four paths of yoga, or if we talk about the eight limbs of yoga. It doesn’t matter if we talk about inner happiness and external happiness, or all these topics. We all know it, but something new can come out of it in every discussion, so it doesn’t matter if it’s repeated again and again. Maybe something new you can get out of it. So, when we were talking about vivekā, which means intuition power... It’s at the end of the day our choice what we want to do in our lives. It’s always our choice if we want to go, which path do we want to choose? Do we want to go out and party, or do we want to come here and have a beautiful time? But what makes it a beautiful time? Us singing, listening, feeling that joy from within. External joy we may get from so many things. We go to the beach, we may get that external joy of pleasure of seeing the beautiful nature. We go and visit a new country, something to see, something to learn. That’s also external pleasure. We go for a concert, a rave party, or whatever you want to go to. There also you get that joy, but that joy disappears by the morning or lasts one, two days until you forget about it and something else happens. But the deeper meaning of life, the deeper thing that we are looking for, is within us. And it is within all of us. It doesn’t matter which path we come from; we all have it within us. It’s just a time for when it gets awakened, and when we turn that button on. And most of the time, we think that, oh, to turn it on, we have ourselves; we can do it by ourselves, we don’t need anyone to tell us what to do. But in reality, somewhere we do. In the same way as we needed our parents to help us walk or teach us the first words, in the same way as we went to colleges and schools, that the teachers could teach us something. In the same way, in the spiritual path, we need a Guru. Why is that necessary? Because He is the one who is the bridge, or who is that boat, who helps us cross that wavy ocean. It’s not that we don’t know, or we don’t have it within us. There is always something; even if we go into deep meditation or we sit for hours in silence, something may open up. But to fully open and activate everything within us, there is something deeper which we need or which we look for. And that’s why we need someone who guides us. You can call him a guide, you can call it a higher spirit, you can call him a guru, you can call him whatever you want. But according to my experience, we do need something for that click to happen. There are many other things that we can activate on our own just by reading books, but reading books without understanding them or without fully embodying that within us, it’s not going to help. We can read ten times the same book, but maybe there is some meaning which our ignorant, innocent mind does not know. And for that we need the explanation, which is much deeper than what is written. We have so many scriptures, we have so many books, so many techniques which we can practice, which we can read, but there is something which is much deeper than just the physical, superficial level of textbooks. There’s something, some knowledge which is always hidden there. When we read a book, we can read it ten times, and every time we read it, we’ll find something new. Why? Because it doesn’t matter if we’re reading the same text again and again, there is some new thing that we... I heard somewhere that we can connect, which we can click, which we can understand. So, most of the time, it’s not that we are looking for peace—we’re all looking for peace. We all want peace in our lives; we all want to feel that joy. But it depends if we want to feel it in a temporary manner, if we want temporary joy or we want long-term joy. Temporary joy, temporary peace, these all can be achieved by all this māyā. Māyā means illusion, world. I always say, don’t run away from Māyā, don’t run away from all these things which are here. Māyā, how would you translate "māyā" in English? Illusion. But, like all this materialistic world, we all say, "Run away from māyā, let māyā go." No, work with māyā, because māyā is part of this. We are living in a world of māyā, so we can’t just run away from it. But if we live with it and use it in the right way, in the right pattern, then it works. Because running away from it will not help in any way. If we have something, how do we use it? If we have loads of money, like Naginbhai, then what do you do with it? You have two options. You party hard, live your life until you end nowhere, or you utilize that for other things, for good things in life, not only for ourselves but also for the nature, for humanity, for charity, for anything. If things are used in a proper manner, if the flow of income or whatever... If it is going in a proper manner, then it affects us on many different levels. And if it is spent and wasted, that type of māyā where we are stuck in it, where we can’t move forward from it, as human beings we always need more and more and more. That’s human nature. Sorry, as human beings, we always want more. But there’s a difference in wanting and needing. Do we need it, or do we want it? Most of the time, it’s that we want it. It’s not that we need it, because what we need, or what... We have more than enough most of the time, but that is santoṣa, contentment. We are santoṣa, yeah. Santoṣa means we are, we have it, we know that we have it, and it’s enough for us. But most of the time, even for food, our eyes and our tongue is much bigger than our belly. We want more. We see a nice pink boba tea, and I think, "Oh, nice, it’s really tasty. Let me try it." And then I try one sip, and it’s not good. So, in the same way, that’s our eyes saying that, "Oh, this looks nice." This might be nice, but does my stomach need it? No. Does my tongue need it? Yes. That’s again viveka, to choose. So, no one is perfect. We all have flaws in our lives. We all want to experiment and try and do new things, but we need to realize the difference between needing and wanting, because most of the time we have everything that we need. We have enough to sustain our lives, we have enough to live our lives. We always will get if we have that trust and faith, it will come, doesn’t matter from where it comes. That I learned in the past few years, when I gave up on wanting things—I don’t know if I’m purely given up on wanting things, but working on it, it’s a working process for all of us—but once we learn how to say, "Okay, I’m okay with this." Then God knows from where, but life moves. Things function in their own way. You don’t maybe get the exact thing that you wanted. You don’t maybe get the specifics of anything, but it’s functional, and it’s more than enough for us. But as I always say, the neighbor’s grass always looks greener. Why? Because we don’t know how much pesticide the neighbor used. At least our grass is naturally grown without any pesticides, so even if it’s patchy, even if it’s a little green, it’s still organic and it’s still good. So let’s be happy with that. We have a bicycle and our neighbor has a motorbike, then our inner enemies, which I call them, which are kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, ahaṅkāra, and īrṣā, which means anger, lust, jealousy, ego, envy, and greed. When these things awaken within us, then these emotions or these things come up. We have a bicycle, the neighbor has a motorbike. Oh, I wish I would have that, or I want that. Then what? We get a motorbike, and the neighbor has a car. We’re again in the same loop then. Oh, I want a car. Finally, we get a car, and he gets a Lambo. I want that one. And when we get that one, then he will have a helicopter. And then, if we have a helicopter, he’ll have a private jet. So it’s never going to be enough. We are never going to be satisfied, but when we realize that we have enough, we have enough that we can live, we have enough that we can be happy. But it depends: what is happiness for us? Is it having everything but not having anything inside? That is true happiness. Or having nothing but being happy within everything, because I know people, I have friends who are well off, and I ask them, "Are you happy? Yeah, this and this, but we have this great so..." And I met friends, I have friends who are not so well off, but they’re happy. They even may be living in a smaller place, not so bougie, fancy, but very decent house, but they’re happy with that. Even if there are 10 people, 15 people in that house, in that little house, they still cook their food they eat together, they sit together, they have proper discussions and meals. That is true happiness. Not if you have a fancy mansion, a huge mansion where you have 70 servants and five people living in it, and all of them are on their phones and maybe not eating all at different times. That’s not happiness. That is, we have wealth and not knowing what to do with it. That’s us wanting more, having enough, more than enough, but not knowing what to do, and not giving us that peace. As much more we have, that more distracted, that more upset, that more sad we will be. So that dialogue, "Money buys happiness," I personally do not agree on that. Maybe some others may. I believe that when we find that contentment within us and we are accepting for things we are not expecting. Uh, not, yeah, do not have expectations, but acceptance to what we have. When we expect things from others or from ourselves or from anything around us and our expectations are not fulfilled, then what arises? Anger, disappointment, the main two things. When things which we want, or which we wish for to happen, do not happen, we are disappointed. I tried this, and I wanted this, and it didn’t happen. Or I told this guy, and he promised me to do this, and he didn’t do this, and then we get anger. Is that going to harm that other person? No, anger is just harming. Anger is just harming us from within. It’s eating us alive from within. It’s not harming others. I can shout as long as I want, but if he’s in peace from within, my shouting is not going to affect him. So, us swearing, trying to punch that person, doing anything, but if that person has inner peace, it’s not going to affect him. That’s just us wasting our energy on something that does not need to be wasted. When we talk about Brahmacharya, which people immediately reference to lust and to celibacy, Brahmacharya means self-control; it doesn’t need to only go into that sexual part. When we say Brahmacharya, that means also controlling ourselves from these within, anger, and all these other aspects. When we say Brahmacharya, it means I am controlling myself from shouting at this person, even though I’m stuck in traffic for two hours and the guy behind me is honking and I want to do many things. But no, just turn up the volume and the music and enjoy. Not so hard. But our inner self is going to be, "Nah, I’ll go and punch that guy." Is that going to harm anyone? No. It’s just going to destroy our inner peace. We might be angry at many things. Even if we live in a closed space for a longer period of time with the same person or people, family, whatever. We might have fights, we might have arguments, we might have many dysfunctional things, but that is everywhere. Every place will have some type of dysfunctional aspects of the being. And that is normal everywhere, but how do we deal with it? That’s our choice. How do we want to react to things? That is our choice. At the end of the day, what we want to do or what we don’t want to do, that is going to be our choice. There’s no one pushing us, there’s no one forcing us. If we want to do something, we do it. If we don’t want to do something, we don’t. There’s no one dragging us? There is no guru holding your hand and dragging you and saying, "This is the path. You have to follow me. You have to listen to me. Otherwise, your life will be a disaster." No one is saying that. You come to satsaṅg, it’s your wish. You don’t come to satsaṅg, it’s your wish. You gain something from it, it’s your wish. You don’t gain anything from it, it’s again your wish. No one is forcing us to do anything in our lives. We do it because we feel the inclination towards that, we feel the pull towards something, and that’s why we’re interested in what we listen. We are interested in what we want to learn. If we’re consistent with it or not, that is again our choice. We come, we try. That is yogaḥ citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ, or Patañjali always, he gave this Yoga Sūtras. He never said, "Come, this is the only path. You have to choose this. There’s no other choice for you." No. "Come, experiment. You like it, follow it. You don’t like it, don’t follow." It’s pretty simple. You like the yoga classes. Enjoy it. You don’t like the yoga classes? There are many others. There are many paths. There’s nothing which is bounding us towards something. There’s nothing which is gluing us towards that. It’s just what feels right for us when we find that part. What feels right for us when we feel that inner peace? From whatever that is, that inner peace, but to find that inner peace, we need something that is higher than us. Why? Because we know everything, but we need someone to open that click open that channel which makes everything flow, and for that we need something to look up to. We all look up to someone, to our parents, to our friends, to a businessman; it doesn’t matter what. If you’re a singer, you look up to some other singer who is much more famous and think, "Oh, I want to become like that." But in every aspect of life, there is someone who is teaching us something. We don’t just learn something. Enlightenment is not instant, mokṣa is not instant, mokṣa means liberation. The only instant thing we have in this ashram is instant coffee. As it is getting instant, otherwise, ṛṣis and munis and all the saints would not be doing great meditation for years and years for enlightenment. No, but the techniques have been passed down through these ṛṣis and munis, and we have all the techniques, just how to use those techniques, is upon us. When we come into a spiritual path, why do we come to it? Because we see a higher meaning. We want to achieve something that is not achievable in this normal day-to-day living. But then, when we integrate these two paths, these both aspects of life, a normal household living can also be enlightened. You don’t need to wear orange, not get married, and sit here lecturing others to get enlightened. No. You can get enlightenment from your home, but how? Because you need a guide. You need someone who is guiding us through that path, someone who is showing us that path. And once we have the yamas and niyamas, which are the eight aspects of yoga, which means there are eight paths to yoga, or eight, how would you call it? Principles. Yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. Sounds gibberish? I mean, those of you who know it, it doesn’t, but for many of you, it might sound very gibberish. So, yama and niyama are simplified as do’s and don’ts. Then comes āsana and prāṇāyāma, which are the stretching in all types of different pringle-like positions and tight leggings, right? That’s yoga. Āsanas are basically the exercise part of yoga. Yoga does not mean just exercising. Yoga has a much bigger, deeper meaning. But the āsanas part, then the prāṇāyāma, which is the technique of breathing. Then comes Pratyāhāra, which means withdrawal; Dhāraṇā, concentration; Dhyāna, meditation; and Samādhi is the last one, which we all want to jump to. We all want to feel that, even for a cusp moment, we want to feel that samādhi. What is that? Samādhi is the deepest meditative state which you go into, but for that, you can’t just jump to that. We need to start with do’s and don’ts. So, yama also has their inner functions, like ahiṃsā. We all talk about ahiṃsā. What is ahiṃsā? Not harming anyone, non-violence. Non-violence doesn’t mean, "Oh, I’m angry at him, I want to punch him, and I won’t do that." That’s non-violence. No, non-violence means also, if we say something to someone which may hurt the other person, refrain from doing that. Also, for ourselves, self-love is very important. Love is a big word; we all use it very easily. We just say, "Oh, love you, love you, love you," we do, we mean it, or we are just saying it because we want to give pleasure or give that sense of happiness to someone without love and without feeling? This world does not exist. If we are cooking food, it needs to be done with love and feeling. If we are doing, if we are talking, if I don’t love what I’m doing, me sitting here and just blabbering is not going to help anyone. There needs to be some feeling within that I love doing this. I love carrying forward the message of Gurudev, and I love doing it. That’s what I’m doing. Then it will function. If I’m just sitting here forcefully, or you have to do it, it won’t function. And if we love ourselves, then only we can love others. If we don’t love ourselves, we’re not going to be able to fully love anyone else, any other creature, nature, nothing. So, ahiṃsā, non-violence, also applies to ourselves. When we think, "Oh, I’m not so good, I’m not good enough, I’m this, I’m that." Saying bad things to ourselves is also not good. If we are saying non-violence, it does not mean you are chopping off something or punching someone. That’s non-violence, no? Also, self-love is very important. If we do not accept ourselves for who we are, we need to understand that we are the best versions of ourselves. We have everything that we want or not want. We need, we are happy as we are. If not, happiness shall come. This ātmā, ātmā means this soul, that is the only thing which is ajar and amar, which means which is immortal. Rest everything is perishable, this life which we got, this body which we got, this also goes. We are born and we die. In the same way, as we open the closet in the morning and we choose out of our hundred billion clothing and say, "We don’t have enough clothes," and we buy more, that’s a different problem. But when we look through it and we say, "Okay, today I’m going to wear this," in the same way, our ātmā decides which clothing to wear. And when this ātmā unites with that Paramātmā, with that higher spirit, then that union frees us, liberates us, and that is what we want. But who helps us make that union? Is there? That’s why we need a guide, or that’s why we call it a guru. Guru, the literal meaning of guru doesn’t mean anything; it means from darkness to light. It’s not such a difficult word: the one who brings us from darkness to light. Which type of darkness? External darkness, internal darkness, any darkness which we are stuck in. But we need to realize that what comes shall pass; nothing is permanent. Nothing will remain in our bhajans we sing, which means money, palaces, houses—all these things will stay back. Nothing will go with you. The only thing that will go with you is your good deeds and your karmas, which you did in your life. That will go with the love and respect which you gain from people. That will go with all these other things which are here, but will not go with you. But still, we are so attached to these things because we feel that this is our pride, this is what we need, and this will free us. No, it won’t. This is just binding us more. Spiderweb, you call it a cobweb, right? How many of you saw a cobweb? Everyone. It’s an interactive thing. You can talk. It’s not only me talking. So many of us saw a cobweb. What happens when the insect gets stuck in it? It tries to get out, and it doesn’t matter how much it tries to get out, it just gets more and more entangled into that web. In the same way, it’s us human beings. We try to get out of it, we try our best, but it’s doing nothing. It’s just entangling. It draws us more into that illusional world full of all these materialistic things, so instead of trying to run away from it, work with it and go forward. Integrating spiritual aspects into our life is important because that is something which will give us inner joy, inner peace. Not saying you come immediately, bow down in front of the altar, and start doing something. No, start with simple practices, like chanting. You don’t need to even chant or understand mantras. Just sit in the presence of something like this, where there are bhajans, where there are kīrtans. Where you go into a meditative state, where you do your prāṇāyāma, breathing work, that’s all initial stages. Or just practice this yama and niyama. First we talked about non-violence. Then comes asteya, non-stealing. Non-stealing, we think, oh, let’s go and rob a bank. That’s not, and not doing that is non-stealing. Stealing someone’s time is also asteya. How do we do that? By sitting and talking and talking, and it doesn’ matter if that is going in the other guy’s brain or not. We just continue. That is us stealing someone else’s time, not necessary. Stealing someone’s happiness, not necessary. So it’s not only physical stealing, where we go and steal something physically, no. Part 2: The Yamas and Niyamas in Daily Life If we are stealing something from someone in any possible way, physical or mental, that is also stealing. Then, Aparigraha. Yes, Satya. But Aparigraha—how will you translate that one? Not accumulating, that we already talked about. Then Satya: truth. Simply say the truth. It doesn’t mean we say, "Oh, we will say something, we’re just being honest," and then that might really affect or hurt the other person, but we say, "It’s just me being honest." No, that’s also not the best idea, because that is also then putting other things in place. So we try not to hurt someone. It doesn’t mean that we have to be so honest and brutal that it affects others, because that is doing other things. So Satya: be truthful. It’s better to be truthful than to say one line, then make up a hundred lies to cover the first lie. Truth. Then Svādhyāya. Svādhyāya means repetition. We somewhat touched on that: even if we know something, even if we heard something, it’s okay to do Svādhyāya. Svādhyāya means to repeat, repeat, repeat again and again, even the mantra which we chant with our mālā. Mantra means a chant, a vibration, something that is much deeper than just the words of the chanting. Why do we repeat it again and again? Because that energy then flows within us. So Svādhyāya is very important. Then Īśvarapraṇidhāna—that’s, I think, in Niyamas. So Yamas and Niyamas, the don’ts and do’s, the initial stages. This we all practice in our day-to-day life. Maybe we just don’t know the Sanskrit meaning of what we are doing, but we are in one way or another practicing all these things in our day-to-day life. But do we implement it in the right way or not? That is upon us to decide. No one else is going to decide what is right and what is wrong except ourselves. And that clarity, that right path which we need to choose, that is upon us. The Four Kṛpās There are four types of Kṛpās. Kṛpās means blessings. Our Holy Gurujī, Swamijī’s master—where is the photo? Completely on the left—he used to say there are four types of blessings. The first one, because, talking as what’s said in the Indian mythology or in the Śāstras, which are our scriptures, there are four types of blessings. The first blessing is the blessing of the gods or goddesses, that we got this human life. It is said that there are 8.4 million creatures in this world, all different types. Then they are divided into three aspects: Jalchar, Nabchar, and Thalchar. Jalchar means those who live in the water. Thalchar means those who live on the land, and Nabchar means those who live in the sky. So, all these different types of insects and creatures, big and small, it doesn’t matter what they are, they are all part of this world. Then, after crossing all of these, finally we are given this human birth. So, when we got this human birth, we should take care of it. We should nurture it, and we should take it forward in the right manner, not that we are wasting our time. Because it’s... that’s why it is said that the first kṛpā, or the first blessing, is the blessing of the God and Goddesses, that we got this human birth. Then comes the second Kripa, which means the second blessing, which is Śāstra Kripa, the blessings of the scriptures. Any type of knowledge which we are getting within us, any type of knowledge which goes within our brains, doesn’t matter if it’s in our school, college, our books, any book, if that knowledge is going within us, that is the blessings of the Kripa of the scripture. The third one, which we have, is Guru Kripa, which means the blessings, or the guidance and protection of a master, because when we have that, then we are in ultimate bliss. But he said that the fourth blessing is the most important, which means khud kī kṛpā, the blessings or the guidance from ourselves, because no one will push us, no one will force us. At the end of the day, it’s our decision to make a certain choice. It’s our willingness, it’s our pull towards a certain thing, whether we want to do it or not. That implements in anything and everything in our lives. The Monkey Mind and Worry But worries stop us in between. We are worried about this, we are worried about that. But the worries are created by us. No one else is creating them. Again, repetition for those who were in Auckland. In reality, maybe 0.1% of those things we imagine might happen will happen in reality. Most of the time, we are just worrying about things that do not exist or that may not even happen, but our mind, subconsciously or consciously, is thinking about many things. That’s why our mind is called a monkey mind. Why? Because a monkey is restless in the same way our mind is restless. How many of you have been to Australia? Yeah, that’s why I picked something nearby. And how many of our minds are now in Australia, imagining something in Australia? So that’s the thing. We are here, we are sitting in satsaṅg, we are listening, we are talking, we’re in this beautiful company, but our mind can be so fast that it can go anywhere. If we are concentrated towards something that we are doing, it doesn’t matter what we do. Our mind and consciousness should be aligned in what we are doing. If we are sitting together in this satsaṅg-like atmosphere, then we’ll be present here. But did I leave my car on? Did I leave my AC on? Did I leave this on? Did I fold my bedding before getting out of bed? Did I leave the coffee machine on? Or I need to do this and this and this. When I get back home, I need to cook dinner for my family. Is my kid fine on the other side of the world? So many thoughts come. Someone came to Swamījī and said, "Oh, I did my mālā for the past three years, and I believe that I’m enlightened." He said, "Yeah, try doing your mālā for three minutes without a phone, then we’ll see." So that’s the problem. We are distracted by many things, and our mind being restless makes it much harder for us to concentrate on something. But when we practice concentration, which means dhāraṇā, then we activate certain things which calm us down, which again comes back to the inner peace and inner joy which we’re looking for, because until we are not focused and concentrated on the thing that we are doing, we won’t find or feel that peace, or if we do feel that peace, it will be very momentary. If we want long term, we need to be focused on whatsoever we are doing. When we are on our phones, be concentrated on social media—I don’t say don’t use your phones, because I also use my phone—but concentration on that specific thing. Now we are here, let’s enjoy and let’s be together, and let’s enjoy this time. When we’re at home with our family, with our children, with our partner, with ourselves as we are, let’s then enjoy that time. Everything has time and space. When we are here, this is the time and space for us to be here. When you’re at home, you have those things. Everything has certain time, certain space to be done. The Blue Sky and the Clouds And whatever happens, happens for a reason. Whatever happens is happening good for us. As I said previously also, the blue sky is us; the clouds are the problems. Now, if it’s white clouds like they are now, it’s okay; if it’s slightly darker clouds, grayish, some problems; dark, heavy, black clouds, thundering, raining, big problems. But did you ever see any cloud stay in one space, one place, for a longer period of time? Same way, the blue sky is constant. That is our life. The clouds come and go, so problems come and go. Life without problems would become boring. Do we like boring? No. That’s why we create problems for ourselves to make our life not boring anymore. Why? Because who likes boring? We like more juice, more masala, we call it in India. We want something happening in our lives, and if nothing happens in our lives, we create something that makes it happen. We just know that that blue sky is there, maybe it’s not visible for a certain period of time, but it is there. There are clouds that come and go, so problems will come and go. Nothing is permanent. But the problem with us is, when happy moments are there, we don’t enjoy them. What do we do? Our mind makes us think: What will happen after this? Which problem is waiting around the corner? And when sad moments come, same thing, we don’t then think about the future. We’re thinking, "Oh, how deeper can this go? How worse can it get?" So are we trying to find happiness ever? Because when there is happiness, we are more worried about when it will end, and when there are sad moments, we are just getting deeper and deeper and deeper into it. So just know, when sad moments come, just know, okay, this shall also pass. Happy moments will come, and when happy moments are there, try to enjoy them instead of being worried about when they will end and what is next. Our life is a constant journey, but how we live our lives is in our hands. Again, we are living it. We are the ones who are living that life. We all have our own individual lives. We all have our individual type of living, way of living. But how do we live it? It is in our hands. As good, they’ve always said, "World peace," in a, in... what is it? World peace in our hands? Yeah. So when we want world peace or inner peace or any type of peace, it is in our hands. He or me or someone cannot just give you, throw peace at you, and now you’re going to be peaceful and happy. The techniques are taught by them, but if we follow those techniques or not, our wish. We can, Madhuramjī or Sevadhī or all yoga teachers who are sitting here, can say, "This pose is good for your back, and this pose is good for this, and this pose is good for that," or it’s in the book and we read it, yeah, yeah, and then we just say, "Okay, good." But if we practice it, we might feel the difference. If we don’t practice it, we don’t see the difference. So it’s for us to practice or not to practice something. It’s for us to follow or not to follow something. I’m not saying to blindly follow something that you don’t know, but give it a shot. There’s no harm in that. There’s no harm in experimenting. You might have experienced and experimented with so many things in your lifespan, that experimenting something more is not going to harm you in any way. How many of you experimented very interesting things in my age? Just go back in your head and imagine what all you were doing when you were 26. So, trying something which will give us inner peace, some techniques like mantra, like just listening. The Power of Mantra You know, even when I say, when people ask, "Oh, what is the meaning of this mantra and this and that?" I said, "You don’t need to know the meaning, just close your eyes and enjoy the energy which flows through. Close your eyes, you don’t need to. I’m not forcing you to. It’s again your wish to, but if you wish, please do. Namo sananta. Just feel the energy of the mantra. Just try to. You don’t need to understand a single word of it, just feel it. Feel the energy flowing through your body." Namo svānantāya sahasra-mūrtaye, sahasra-pādākṣi-śīroruhāve, sahasra-nāmne jalāśāyine, namo ’stu keśavānanta vāsudeva namo ’stu te vāsanāt. Vāsudevasya vāsitambhuvanatrayaṁ, sarva-bhūta-nivāso si Vāsudeva, namas te śaṅkaram Śaṅkarācāryaṁ, keśavam Bādarāyaṇaṁ, sūtra-bhāṣyakṛtau vande bhagavantau punah punah. Īśvarau guru-rāj meti mūrti-veda-vibhāgine. We owe, my, what we have today, hiya Dakṣa namo, today namo, guru rāma guru. Viṣṇu guru Devo Maheśvara guru sākṣāt para brahma tasmai śrī guru vena maha mannātha śrī jagannātha madhguru śrī jagadguru mama ātmā sarva bhūta ātmā tasmai śrī guru vena maha akhaṇḍa maṇḍala kāraṁ yaptaṁ yena... So even if we understand a meaning of a mantra, even if we’re not, if we don’t, these are some vibrations, some sound, which affect us internally, which may give us different feelings, different understandings. We don’t need to understand the literal meaning of what the mantra chant means. But it has certain healing powers. Like, let’s say, the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya Mantra. That is for the longevity of life, for health. These things can be given by the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya Mantra. So, even if we can chant it or not, even if we just listen to it: "Oṃ Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭivardhanam... Uruvarukam eva bandhanāt mṛtyor mokṣīyam amṛtat." So this is for long health. This is for health and for long life. So many mantras there are, so many mantras. So all these mantras are not a religious practice. It’s not something that you need to follow, but it is the vibration which can be felt if we are doing some rituals. The Necessity of Faith If we are doing without trust, nothing happens without faith, without trust. If you don’t trust a person and that person said, "Can I borrow your car?" You don’t have trust, why would you? But if you have trust, you get the car, you get your job done, and things function. But for that, you need to have trust. So, in the same way, when you trust something or someone—if you would like a chair, there’s a chair, you can sit on the chair. You’re okay? Cool. So, when you have trust or faith, then many things move on. When we don’t have trust and faith, then many times it may feel like we are stuck, or we want, or, "Why are we here?" or what are we doing? Self-Inquiry and the Guru's Grace What are we doing is a good question. The Bhagavad Gītā and Śaṅkarācārya said we need to ask these questions to ourselves: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the reason for my existence? From where did I originate? These are self-inquiry questions. We have to ask ourselves these. Then the answer comes, that Aham, which means "I", is not that egoistic I. This is the realization that I am the Brahman. Brahman means I am that Ātmā, and that ātmā, that soul, is uniting or wanting to unite with the Paramātmā. When ātmā and Paramātmā, which means the soul and the higher spirit, unite, that blossoms something much deeper, much more beautiful. That realization is given or helped to achieve by the grace of a master. In simple language, we are in an illusion, delusion, māyā, an illusional world, which is a sea. In that sea, there is a boat. In the same way—okay, one first example—there is a river and there is a thin plank like this. And a child is walking on the plank. But when he holds the hand of his parents, one parent or both parents, he has that trust and faith that nothing will happen to me, and he will, he or she will cross that plank very easily without any support from both sides. Fear, we are scared, there are many emotions. In the same way, when we have that trust of faith within that master, within our guru, he helps us cross that. But it’s our choice if we want to step foot into that boat. But once we do step foot in that boat, then we know that this all wavy, illusional world of this ocean will be easily crossed. Why? Because we have trust and faith. And we sing in our prayers every day, which means Lord Rāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa, who were the incarnations of Lord Viṣṇu, when they incarnated to this world, they also had to find a guru. Why? Because without a guru, many things are not possible. But it’s not, I’m not telling you that you need to find one. I’m not telling you that you, what you need to do, what not. That is your inner viveka, your intellect, telling you what is right or what is wrong? It is just telling. Many things move, many things function when we have some type of guidance in our life, some deeper guidance. Many may say, "We know everything, we have everything." That is our ego speaking. Every time there is something new to learn, so there is no harm in testing. Call it a testing period. You like it, you don’t like it, up to you. Give it a chance. There’s no harm in giving things a chance, but there is a harm in giving up? The Spiritual Climb and Inner Enemies In the same way as you’re climbing a mountain or a tall building with many staircases, when we get tired, we sit down, we take a break, we drink water. We don’t just run down the mountain back, and everything goes down the drain. No, we take a break. In the same way, in life, challenges come. In our spiritual path, challenges come. What do we do? We sit down, take a break, drink some water, whatever you need. Take your time, and then continue going upwards. But these inner enemies—jealousy, ego, anger—this is not doing any harm to others. It is just pulling us down, pulling our energies, positive energies, our spiritual practices. Everything goes down the drain when these things awake, and it’s much harder to climb up again, and then again something happens and you go back down. So when you feel anger, try to understand, why do we feel that anger? Why are we angry at someone? Why is that emotion being awakened? I was talking with someone a few days back, and we gave it a name: buffer period. When those emotions awake, take a break, step back, and realize why that emotion has awakened within you. Why is that? Is that you, or is that other person, or are you projecting something from the other person? There’s always a reason why something is happening, even within us, why our emotions are erased. It doesn’t matter what type of emotions. Understand that, and then react on it. Me personally, a lot after I followed that, I call it the buffer period. When something comes, don’t react immediately. Take a step back, understand the whole situation, then see what to do and whatnot, because in the heat of the moment, what our first reaction might not be the best decision, but when we give it a chance, when we step back, when we understand the situation, when we believe in the higher spirit, or whatever you want to believe in—for me, I believe in my master, and I believe that, which means I am not the doer. He is the doer. When we understand that this ātmā, this body, is not the doer—the ātmā, the soul, is the one who is observing—whatever is happening will happen. Whatever will not happen will not happen. It’s not in our hands. Letting Go of Past and Future Can we see the future? I can’t. Can we? Yes. No, something? No, thank you. Can we go back in the past and change the past? No. So, if we can’t do it, then why do we bother thinking about it so much? What happened in the past? We are human beings; we all make mistakes. If we wouldn’t make mistakes, we would be gods, not humans, so if we make mistakes, it’s good. It’s an indication that we are humans. Congratulations. So if we are making mistakes, we learn from our mistakes, and we learn how to not repeat them. We don’t go into that regret mode and destroy half of our day or half of our life contemplating, "Why did we do it? We did it. It happened. Past, let it go." I know letting go is hard. Once we do, and once we surrender—I don’t, don’t say that you need to surrender—I’m saying I did that. It works for me. You want to do it, up to you. But once I surrendered and I said, "My problems are yours, my happiness is yours, my sadness is yours, everything of mine is yours," my life became much simpler. People ask me, "What are you thinking about?" I love this answer. They don’t love it. I love it. I say nothing. They say, "How can you think about nothing?" I said, "I don’t know, but I just don’t." But my life is much more peaceful after I started surrendering. It works for you, doesn’t work for you—your personal thing. Works for me, I’m happy with that. That is something that gives me inner joy and inner peace. Letting go of things, sometimes it’s hard to let go of things: let go of relationships, let go of friendships, let go of thoughts, let go of this, let go of that, but once we do, life becomes much more pleasant, much more peaceful, and we find or feel that inner joy. But most of the time we are holding on to something, some emotion. We are holding on to something that happened in the past, and until we don’t let that specific memory, or specific thing, or specific whatever you’re holding on to, let it go, you will feel something has dropped off, and you became much more lighter, but until we hold on, that is attachment. Attachment is not, "Oh, I’m attached to my beard," which I was last year. So attachment is not when I was growing my old hair and, "Oh, I liked my hair." Yeah, that is also attachment, but I’m talking about attachment which is harming us from inside. This beard and hair shaved off this year, next year I’ll again grow it, it doesn’t matter. That attachment is different. The attachment I’m talking about is the inner attachment, where we are holding on to something which is somewhere deep within, but when we let go of that, we will feel much lighter. We all have something inside of us which we are attached to, which we are holding on to. Are you grasping on to let that go? You’ll feel that peace. And future? "I wish I will do this, that’s all." You know that? "I wish for this to happen. What if this will happen?" If it’s future, we don’t know it, we don’t see it. Let it be. When it comes, we’ll deal with it. Until it doesn’t come, let it be. Enjoy, be now, here in the moment. Be happy, be present in whatever we are doing. But it’s hard to let things go. It’s hard to just be. But try to be doing nothing. Try to just be in the moment. You will feel that peace. You’ll see that whatever you’re doing, if you are being concentrated in that specific thing while doing that, without worrying and wondering about absolutely everything else in the world, you will start feeling that joy. We will start feeling that peace, but until we are distracted, which all of us are, that’s human nature. Like, I’m sitting here and there’s a bird chirping there, my thought will go there. No, I’m here. Let things around us will always happen. Even if you’re sitting in meditation and something smashes in the kitchen, let it be. What will go wrong if you just let it be? It doesn’t matter if someone else dropped it. It doesn’t matter if the wind dropped it. Whatever it can be dealt with afterwards. Right now, I’m focused on meditating, or right now, I’m focused on reading, or right now, I’m focused on work. It doesn’t matter how boring that work is, but it has to be done, so let’s just concentrate on it with full feeling, understanding, let’s get it done, and then we are free to do other things. But if you’re working and having in our minds 100 billion different things that we want to do or have to do later, we won’t concentrate, and it will take much more longer time to finish whatever we are doing, so just first step, try—I’m not saying let it go—but try to let things go. How things are happening, how not? Let them happen in their own pace, in their own speed, and their own way. Things will move on. Life moves on, let alone relationship, let alone other million other things. Everything has to move on, even us as human beings, we have to move on. The Cycle of Saṃsāra But hopefully, at least our ultimate goal is to be free from this circle of death and death and birth. Samjī gave a very nice example which I use in most of my lectures, not only often, but most of them: first, we are in mother’s lap and cradle, mother’s lap, cradle, mother’s lap, cradle. Then after that, school, home, school, home... Then, finally, you’re done with that, like me. Then we think we are free. Then, no work, home, work, home... Work, then finally, after we hit a certain age, then what? Pension? But Swamijī used to say, "Retirement pension, whatever." But Swamijī used to say, "It’s not pension, it’s tension." Why is it tension? Because then we start with hospital, home, hospital, home, hospital, home. Then finally, when we are done with that, we think we are free, we die. We are not, because then it’s death and birth, death and birth, death and birth. But when we have a higher understanding of ourselves, when we move on to that spiritual journey and that spiritual path, we realize that this ātmā is the one which is mortal, and the rest everything is immortal. And when we are not attached to it, then hopefully we get freed from this circle of death and birth, and we can attain the higher consciousness, which is liberation and mokṣa, which frees us from this cycle of death and birth. I know it sounds very, how would you call it, very deep, yeah, very nice. It’s not something negative which I’m talking about. Death comes to all of us; it’s not something that we can avoid. So what’s wrong in talking about it? And it is true that this cycle is there: if you die, you’ll be born; if you’ll be born, you will die. It’s a body, that’s the ātmā, the soul, is permanent, not this body. But again, attachment towards this body is something that we are attached to. Attachment to this shawl, or "I like the shawl," that’s also attachment. Anything that we are attached to will hold us back from progressing in our spiritual path. Closing and the Flow of Paramparā But to lighten the mood, I will ask Madhuramjī now to sing something with some kīrtan. Most of the time when I’m speaking, it’s not me speaking. That’s what I say when I sit on this, then it’s... I just believe Nām Kartā, and what comes through comes through. Once I’m off this, then it’s me. So don’t mind me speaking whatever. Because it flows, that’s the meaning of paramparā, that’s the meaning of lineage. That means that it flows. You close your eyes and you believe that there is someone else, and then they channel through. It’s on me. Once I’m off this, then I’ll be a different 26-year-old kid who will be talking to you.