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The Fountain of Bliss Within

The discourse explores the nature of true, divine bliss (Ānanda) found within the universal Self (Ātmā), contrasting it with temporary worldly happiness. It emphasizes the purifying power of spiritual thought and sound. "Within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the ocean of bliss." "Ānandoham means 'I am blissful'... I have the divine bliss within me."

The teaching explains that all beings seek happiness, but lasting bliss is one's true nature, not found externally. It distinguishes the individual soul from the universal Ātmā. Using the parable of Śiva and Pārvatī's quest for immortality (Amar Kathā), it illustrates that the mortal world operates in cycles and that true wisdom must be preserved and shared. The story of Śiva, Pārvatī, and villagers criticizing their every action demonstrates that one should not be swayed by others' opinions. The conclusion advises regular introspection to connect with the inner source of peace and bliss, beyond the conflicts of the material world.

Filming location: College of Agriculture, Vép, Hungary

Greetings from the Agriculture College in Vep, Hungary. I also greet all the international bhaktas watching the webcast from different parts of the world: Australia, New Zealand, Africa, America, Canada, South America. We will have one beautiful bhajan: Ānandoham, Ānandoham, Ānandam, Brahmanandam. Ānandoham means "I am blissful, I am blissful, I am blissful. I have the divine bliss within me." Ānandoham, Ānandoham, Ānandam, Brahmanandam. When someone tells you, "You are a very nice person," how do you feel? It is not only your ego, but you truly feel happy and relaxed. Or if someone tells you, "You are an ugly one, a bloody one," how unhappy you feel. Similarly, when we sing a song or think something, if it is beautiful and divine, it purifies the negative vibrations from your body. It creates a boundary, a protection—what we call bulletproof—so that no negative energies can enter your individual phenomenon. As soon as you think negatively, it does not matter towards whom or towards what, or even towards yourself. Poison is poison. If you give it to someone else, put it on plants, or take it yourself, poison has its effect. Similarly, the power of your thoughts has immense energy, vibration, and the capacity to purify negative vibrations. It is not the thought of your brain. It is not a thought and feeling from your heart. It is not from this body, neither from this intellect, nor from your soul, but from your real Self, the Ātmā. The soul is not the Ātmā. The soul is individual, and the Ātmā is universal. So within thyself, that tendency is there, that energy is there, the power is there, which has influence and the power to purify all negative vibrations from the body as well as the surroundings. When you sing something, you feel through and through. Within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the ocean of bliss. Within you is the immortal Self. Kill this little "I" and lead a divine life. Each spiritual song, each spiritual poem, purifies our body, mind, and consciousness. The result is that our soul will be liberated from those karmas, or destinies, and will lead itself toward the cosmic light, to the origin. Every entity is searching day and night for happiness. It does not matter which kind of creature it is: humans, animals, birds, reptiles, mosquitoes, flies, bacteria. They are all searching for happiness. We humans, day and night, are trying hard to be happy. But that kind of happiness which remains forever—this material happiness is like bubbles on the water; very soon they will just pop up or be destroyed. The second happiness, that is called God. If you believe in God or if you do not believe in God, that does not make a difference. That God, which we all believe and should believe, is only one. And that is called Nityam Śuddham Nirākāram Nirañjanam Nitya Bodhaya Cidānandam: everlasting, immortal, pure wisdom, pure consciousness, formless, nameless. Only the God One has no form, no name, nothing, but it is there. From time to time, some supreme power incarnates or manifests on our planet, which we may also call God. But the God which we cannot measure, we cannot put in one small form, that is why we call Almighty. He is love, He is the truth, He is the pure consciousness, He is that Ātmā. And that is our reality, our origin. If I throw this piece of remote controller into the sky, it will come back to the earth. What we call gravity, but in spirituality, it is something different than gravity, because the origin of this little material which I have in my hand is the earth. The biggest part of this is here, and so this small one again would like to come and join the origin, the biggest part. Similarly, every creature is a part of that universal one, and it is searching to come back to the origin. The final destination is to merge into oneness. If you believe that you are an individual soul and God is separate, still you will feel this duality. One saint says in a beautiful poem, in the Hindi language, and the translation is something like this: "When I was here, he was not there. Now he is here, but I am not there. Because the street of love is so narrow, two cannot walk together. Two has to become one." That is what in English is a very nice word: it is called marriage. It is a very good word. What does marriage mean? The same word you can use for the road. When the two roads come together, when two roads marry there, it means becoming one. If the husband and wife do not have the same feelings, opinions, and everything, then there is a duality. There is a danger of separation because you did not merge into oneness. And that was the purpose of marriage: to have a happy and good family. But you must think, find out the time and everything, if you want to merge into it or not. Now, in this Kali Yuga, in modern times, we say, if it comes, let it come. If it goes, let it go. Just relax the whole body. In relaxation, your yoga teacher tells you, "Relax, my friend, relax the whole." Do not control your thoughts. If they come, let them come. And if they go, let them go. So someone tells me, "Swāmījī, you taught this: if the husband comes, let him come. And if the husband goes, let him go." It is not like that. There is something different than this. But this will also change, and the real merge means, marriage means, again, to become one with, one without second. And it is true, the destination and destiny, they are together. Destiny is directed to the destination, but negative destiny can lead you in a different direction. There is one song in the German language: "Real friendship should never change." And then there is a long thing, I do not know what it is all, but there is one word which I did not like. Nearly 30 years ago, I corrected that, and it is a very, very famous old song in the German language, but I made a little correction. The end of the song is like this: "When death takes my life, then I will stop being faithful to you." I said, "Oh my God, is it terrible?" So I changed the sentence in that song: "Even if death takes my life, I will not stop being faithful." Mīrā Dāsī Janam Janam Hari Tumāre Pās. Mirabai said, "I am with thee, O my Lord, in every life." We said, Pati Patnīkā Ek Mātā, Ho Svarg Me Śata. If the husband and wife have the same decisions, same feelings, tolerance, respect, and understanding, then they have power in heaven even. Now, these young people, they said, "What? Swamiji is talking nonsense about this. Marriage is a nonsense thing." Nonsense means no sense. It is not like that. Humans, they made some system, and we should follow something. It is good. So, ānanda is bliss. There are two kinds of ānanda. One ānanda is temporary joy. And that temporary joy can be painful. The joy of the joy is a lack in joy. Then the sorrow of that joy, which will follow. But there is one called bliss, divine bliss, that is real ānanda, and that is within you. You need not search outside. Within you is the fountain of joy, and within you is the ocean of bliss. So when you sing Ānandoham, feel something within you. You are that. Ānandoham means "I am that." We were singing last weekend, and the whole week I was in Slovakia, so I learned also this singing, this Ānandoham. "Ja mám radosť. Ja mám radosť, ja mám radosť, radosť mám." So Ānandoham. So try, close your eyes or just feel and sing. Do not make a difference of the language, whether it is Sanskrit, Hindi, English, Hungarian, or German. You see, this surface of the language is only for our understanding. But in reality, it is the same. Nāda. Nāda Rūpa Parabrahma. The form of the Supreme. If you still would like to know how God looks, then it is a resonance. Resonance. Someone said, "The sound can be painted, resonance can be painted." And the painting can be heard like music, the sound. So fine, Nāda, Nāda Rūpa Parabrahma. And it is that sound that will lead us and that will unite us. You know this bhajan, but now we will sing Ānandoham. The translation is this: I am bliss, I am bliss... bliss am I, okay? Brahmanandam, Brahmā kā ānanda, Brahmā is that God which has no name and form. You may call in English, "Holy Father." If they mean the father like this, who has no form, nothing, it is just a universal one. Brahmā kā ānanda, the bliss of the Supreme. That is my Ātmā, not my soul, not my body, not my intellect, not my emotion, not my consciousness, not my feelings, no. This all is changeable: the reality which never changes, and the non-reality which is all the time changing. And that reality never changes. In modern language, they say evidence will never die. That is it. So, relax yourself comfortably. If you would like to change your seat, I will do so as well. Can we feel happiness? Can we feel happiness? It does not matter what it is in your life, how many problems, can you for a few minutes feel that which you would like to feel? It will not come from outside. From outside only will come the hot or the cold. So, give up all conflicts which you have in your mind about religions, about cultures, about nations, about anything. Put yourself in such a state of mind that, yes, now I am happy. And do not be in a hurry to sing. Take your time. We will sing very slowly. Ānanda, ānanda. Like the waves on the water, waves on the ocean. Very gentle waves. Now the waves are fluttering on it. Similarly, you are the wave of the cosmic Self. You came from waves; waves came from the ocean and will again merge into the ocean. So you are those divine waves, ānanda. We are active for 24 hours. Many things happen within 24 hours. Many different thoughts come and go. Many experiences we collect. Many things which we cannot change, many things which we cannot accept. And many things which we cannot understand. This is called saṃsāra, the world. Day by day, human life is getting complicated. Day by day, not only the human, but the entire planet is threatened. Day by day, human society is threatened. Humans are more developed. Humans have better intellect, but still, the most fearful, threatened, and discomforted is the human. Why does this happen to humans? Because we humans went too far. We lost the feeling of nature. Therefore, within these 24 hours, which we divide as night and day, take some minutes for thyself to establish within thyself that happiness or peace. We cannot make good to everyone. Whatever we do, there will be some who will say, "Very good," and there will be many who will say it is stupid. It is not good. There is one story about Lord Śiva. And the faithful one of Lord Śiva, she had to incarnate again and again. It is said that Lord Śiva had in his neck a beautiful garland made of skulls. The residence of Śiva, it is said, is the Himalaya, Mount Kailash, the Holy Mount Kailash. And the Himalaya, the entire Himalaya, it is said the divine souls, divine incarnations, they manifested themselves there. One day, Śiva went for a walk, it seems. We do not know what we can say, different than "walk." He went through the hills. He went at nine o’clock in the morning and came back in the afternoon. Pārvatī, Śiva’s faithful one, was also there. Where there is Śiva, there is Śakti, and where there is Śakti, there is Śiva. Śiva means the consciousness, and Śakti means the nature. Śiva means liberation, Śiva means beauty, Śiva means the truth. And that is why we also sing sometimes, "Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya." A great, says Nārada Ṛṣi. Nārada Ṛṣi had the ability to travel through all the three worlds. Nārada came to Pārvatī. She was sitting somewhere on a rock near the fountain. I do not know where it was, but it is in the Himalayas. Nārada came, he greeted her with great respect. She blessed him, and he said, "Divine Mother, I have one question for you." She said, "Yes." "Can you tell me why your Lord Śiva has a garland of human skulls?" She said, "I do not know, but I will ask him, no problem. I never asked him. I thought it was his hobby and he liked it, that is all. I do what I like, and he does his way. This is perfect tolerance." Nārada said, "Divine Self, if he tells you, please let me." Śiva came back. Pārvatī was sitting there, and immediately she asked him, "I have one question, Lord. Can you answer me, please?" Śiva knew what was going on. He said, "Must be now?" She said, "Yes," but Śiva said, "Well, I will have my bath and relax, and so on." She said, "No, no, but you can tell me, that is all." "What? Why do you have this garland?" He said, "Oh, that is not, that does not matter, forget it." She said, "It does not matter." It does matter. How can you say this? I ask a question. He said it is not so important. One day I will tell you. He tried to avoid it, not to make her unhappy. But it is said in the nature of the woman, sorry, it is a good thing. Why you laugh? What they decide, they achieve, mostly. And if the husband would like to have a happy life, then he should be nice to her. Śiva said, "Well, the time will come, and I will tell you." Well, it was a few days, the discussion went away, and she said, "Now it is finished, you tell me or not." He said, "Pārvatī, if I tell you, you will be unhappy." She said, "Why? I am not jealous. I am not like this. I am not like that. I am not like that. And I am sure you did not kill someone for this." Śiva tells her, "My dear, it is hard for me to tell you, but do you still want to know?" She said, "Yes, Lord, I would like to know. I will have understanding of it." "You know, Pārvatī, we have been together for many, many centuries and centuries, yugas and yugas. Whenever you died or left this world, I was unhappy. And as a memory of you, to be with me and have with me, I take your skull and I hang it around my neck. So this is from your past lives. You are this." Pārvatī fell into depression. From that time, depression began. Śiva said, "Dear, what happened?" God is Pārvatī. What happened? I told you, is something wrong? She said yes, that is why I tried to avoid. She said that was not good if you would have avoided. "So, you do not want me to wear this garland?" She said, "It is okay. That is your choice, Lord. It is not that if you are having this or not, but I am so sad now. Why? You are all the time the same one, and I have to die and find you again. Can you not make me also immortal, so I do not have to die and you do not have to carry these bones around your body?" Śiva was thinking, "Now mankind will be coming into trouble. The creation of Brahmā will be in trouble. There will be a traffic jam. If I tell her the secret of this science, the science of immortality, and the protocol is this: before this world was created, it was declared as a marti-loka, a mortal world. None of us, and no one on this planet, is forever and ever immortal. This is a cycle which is going and coming, the birth and death, what we call now in this modern science, in the modern world, in modern language, a recycling system. So, recycling, they put it instead of reincarnation, so recycling. This is moving constantly. The whole endless universe is moving." Pārvatī says, "Then, please bless me that I will be immortal." He said, "You have to practice long yoga." "Teach me." The author of yoga is Lord Śiva. Many, many mantras and spiritual philosophies, and all this is from Lord Śiva. He said, "Dear one, this science cannot be taught or taught to anyone. It is against the cosmic law." She said, "If you love me, then do it. Hari Om. Otherwise, I go to my home." Śiva said, "Well, my dear, when I will tell you the secret of this science, nobody should hear anything. Otherwise, anyone who will hear this will become immortal. I will search some place." Śiva was on the search. And it is said, finally, he found a beautiful cave, and that cave is known as Amarnāthjī cave in Kashmir, near Srinagar. Every year, millions of people go there for the darśan of that cave. In winter, it is completely covered with snow. And now it will open, and it will be one or two months. People can go there, and there is automatically inside it that which remains only ice Śiva Liṅga. Śiva went there. He searched everywhere. There is one valley, beautiful, and there is a little flatland. So Śiva told his Nandī, "You will graze here, stay here." He gave up his Nandī there. Because if Nandī hears the signs, Nandī will be immortal again, too. Śiva had said that he had many snakes, and one of the most beautiful, says Nāga, is snake-like Viṣṇu’s. He took his snake from his neck, and there is a beautiful lake, and he said, "Enjoy this water." That is called Nāg Talāb, Nandigām. That village is called Nandi and Nag Talab, after that snake. And Śiva had this half moon, the crescent moon, on his head. He took it and said, "You are free, go." And he opened his hair. It was tight all the time. Look, poor man, what he has to do, all for his wife. Ladies, you must be happy to listen to what your husband can do. Tell your husband this story, okay? Yes, I am sure your husband is doing more than this. If not, then tell him. He went to this cave, and it is said that Lord Śiva first created a strong wind, like a storm, and then he told the fire, "Any creature here, burn it." No creature should be alive, and Śiva sat there. It is said that under where Śiva was sitting, there was a nest of one papaya. Papagaya? Papaya or papagaya? Papagaya, mamagaya. So, but fire could not come near, and they said there were two eggs under. One egg was destroyed. Śiva said, "I am going to sit in samādhi, and I will tell, O Pārvatī, the science of immortality. How to become immortal, but one condition." She said, "What?" "Whatever I tell, you have to say, 'Yes, Lord.'" Yes, yes, yes. And that is why, you know, yes became in the whole world now. Yes, sir. Sir... Yes, sir. Anu pane. Anu pane. Anu. Anu. Again. Again. No? Yes. Pārvatī said, "Why?" He said, "Because if you will not be alert, then you will forget and you will sleep, and I am talking and you will miss everything. I will not reveal again." She said, "Okay, Lord, I will not sleep." And she said, "Yes, yes, yes." After some time, I do not know, days or months or weeks or hours, she said, "Yes, yes,... yes." And in the egg, there was this baby who said, "Oh God, that would be a great pity. If she will sleep, Śiva will notice that she is sleeping, and he will be angry, and the knowledge will be half given." Dear friends, whatever knowledge you have, you should leave it here in this world. Knowledge never dies, but with your physical death, your knowledge will disappear. Whatever you have, good things, not money and house, this is nothing. The wisdom, abilities, and that knowledge, you should leave it here. You develop that knowledge on this planet, and you should leave it. This is a heritage of this planet, through your intellect, your mind, your heart. So the baby came out of the egg and sat near Śiva and began to say, "Yes, yes." And Pārvatī was saying, and when she was snoring, saying, "Papa," Śiva said, "Yes." During the sound that Śiva does not hear, he said, "Yes." When the—it is called this Amar Kathā. Kathā means tale, Amar means immortal. Nātha means lord, Śiva, that is why I call Amarnāth, that gufā, the king. Purījī of the Amarnāth, the immortal Lord Śiva. When it was finished, Śiva said, "Ooooooooh!" Did you hear Pārvatī say, "Oh Lord, no, I slept"? God, you know, there are many rare men who can control the nerves. Yes, when he tries everything and then the wife tells him, "I missed it." That is your life. I am just reminding you how your life is. But you said, "Yes, yes," constantly I was hearing. In that minute, the papagaya baby said, "Ti-ti-ti-ti," and flew away. Lord Śiva said, "My God, he has stolen my wisdom." And Śiva runs behind him, and he is flying, and there, and there—this is a tale that goes long, I will try to stop it. Where there is a gufā and a hut of the great saint known as Ved Vyāsa. Ved Vyāsa was dictating, writing the Vedas, the great sage. So Vedavyāsa, he was also somewhere on the walk, and his wife was sitting outside of the hut and waiting for him. That he will come at home, and Śiva was running behind this small baby parrot, and the parrot baby was par, par... To her stomach, symbolically it means nowhere is a safer place than mother. Either a mother’s womb or a mother’s lap. Nowhere is there greater safety than this. Mātā Bhavati Nāku Māta. A mother can never be a bad mother, except with some mental illness. Matri Devo Bhava. For us, first is the God, that mother. Mothers have the highest position in the universe, but those mothers who have the highest position everywhere in the universe, what a condition of these mothers, they are fighting now for emancipation in this Kali Yuga, lost. Śiva came and was angry, and at the same time came Vedavyāsa. Ved Vyāsa saw Śiva and said, "Oh Lord, you are here. How fortunate I am. I am blessed, my house is blessed. What can I do, Lord? I could have come to you. Just tell me, and I would have come there." Śiva said, "Ṛṣi Praṇām." He said, "Yes, but Śiva, you look nervous. Today you are sweating. What happened?" "My thief is hidden in your house." "In my house, there is no thief, Lord." "Yes, he is there, and he is stolen from me." "But what?" He told me, "My wisdom, I will kill your wife now." Vedya said, "Lord, you are a God, you can do anything, give life or death. But you told once, Lord Śiva, to attack a pregnant woman is the biggest sin, and to kill a pregnant mother, you will never get into heaven. It does not matter, human or animal’s mother. Mother is a mother. Śiva, you said, and you are going to do this. You are free to do, Lord. I just remind you." He said, "I go." And Śiva went. But that embryo did not want to come out, and she was suffering and suffering. So they went to Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. All of them came and asked that embryo to come out. "Please come into this world." He said, "No, I will not come in this Mṛti Loka. There is only suffering, only attachment, only jealousy, and this and that. I do not want to come into this world." So Brahmā promised, "I will take away all these negative qualities of the world. Please come out." So suddenly there was a harmony, peace, understanding, happiness. And he was born, and his name was Śukadeva Muni. Sukha Śua is that parrot, and that became a very, very great saint, a great speaker, Śukadeva Muni. In Indian mythology, you can hear, listen, and see. So, this is how you can protect the consciousness, but you have to be alert. See that no negative elements attack your body, mind, thoughts, emotions, or intellect. And therefore, always be aware, you are the richest of the richest ones. Never think that you are poor. None of us is poor. We are the richest of the rich ones. Gaj dhan, bhaj dhan, aur ratan dhan khan, jab aaye santosh dhan, sab dhan dhul shaman. You may have the golden elephants, you may have the golden eagles, and you may have the diamond mines. But if you have no contentment in the heart, you are the poor one. You have nothing, but you are content in your heart; you are the richest one, because that richness is in your heart, and that is called Ānandoham. Like waves on the water and water in the waves, the ocean in the form of the waves and waves in the form of the ocean. The Supreme One is in the form of all these creatures, and all these creatures represent the divine cosmic light. Ānandoham. So the same Śiva and Pārvatī, they were passing through one village. It is said that spiritual divine incarnations always look young and beautiful. So though Pārvatī was very many, many years old, she was always young. They went through the village. Śiva was sitting on his ox. And the villagers were so angry, talking to each other, "How is this man so cruel to this beautiful young lady? She is walking without shoes, and he is sitting on the ox. He could walk very soon, but he will die. She has to live long." They were talking. After they came out of the village, Śiva said to Pārvatī, "Did you hear what the people were talking about?" She said, "Yes, Lord." So Śiva said, "You sit on the oxen, I will walk." So they changed. Next village came, and people said, "Oh God, this is the modern craziness. This poor old man has to walk, and this young one is sitting on, no respect." And they came out of the village and asked, "Lord Śiva said, 'Pārvatī, did you hear what they say?'" He said, "Yes, Lord, I heard it." He said, "Let us sit, both of us, we can sit on it." They came to the third village, and a villager said, "Oh my Lord, no ahiṃsā, poor animal, two sitting on it. One of them can walk? No, both are sitting. There is no ahiṃsā, no mercy." Śiva said after Pārvatī, "Did you listen what they said?" "Yes, Lord, always they are saying, finding some mistakes." Śiva said, "Okay, we will not sit on it, we will just walk." All three came to one village, and people say, "How stupid. They are one of them. Can they sit on the ox for what they are carrying?" This ox with Śiva said, "Pārvatī, did you listen?" She said, "Yes, Lord." "My dear, whatever you will do, there will be many people who will think opposite. Whatever you will say, there will be many people who will think and say different things. Therefore, in this world, it has become a very troublesome world. We humans do not feel secure. Therefore, within 24 hours, whenever you can, just relax. If you believe in God, meditate on God and repeat your mantra. If you do not believe in form and this, then just be within thyself and experience your inner happiness. We are connected with death and birth, happiness and unhappiness. Many tragedies happen, and many good things happen in this life. The most terrible tragedy will happen to us, that we will die one day without self-realization. And therefore, karma does not leave anyone free, and destiny does not excuse anyone. Therefore, we do not know where our destiny leads and ends. So take the time for thyself and do something good for your body, for your mind, for your consciousness, and for your soul."

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

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

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