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Part 1: The Ship of Satsaṅga: Returning to Our True Home Sadā Śiva Samarambhām Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamām Asmadācārya Paryantāham Vande Guru Paramparām Gurur Brahmā Gurur Viṣṇur Gurur Devo Maheśvaraḥ Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha Madhguru Śrī Jagadguru Mamātmā Sarvabhūtātmā Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥa. Salutations to the cosmic self. Salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddha Pīṭha Paramparā. My daṇḍavat praṇāms to our beloved Gurudev, His Holiness, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda Purījī. Oṃ Namaḥ Nārāyaṇ to all three sannyāsīs present here, and maybe some future ones. And Hari Om and Dobri Vecher to all of you. It is a challenge to greet you in German, then Slovenian, then Croatian, then Slovakian—too many languages, a real kitcharī. Good evening. Hari Om and good evening to all of you watching through Somjit TV and Swāmījī TV. Welcome back. It does not feel like it was a long time. When was the last year? December, Easter? It is a question, isn’t it? But time, place, and space are all beyond our control. So, out of our busy lives, we have now come back to our true home. We have left all our worries, all our problems, everything, at our other home. We all come here, beautiful souls unite, and with the blessings of Gurudeva, we officially begin the summer seminar in Strilky. We do not need to welcome you anywhere, because this is your home anyway. But still, welcome to your own home. There was once a bird, and that bird was flying around, slightly lost. For many days it was trying to find its home again. It landed on a moving ship, but it was still near civilization. Then it fell asleep. Later, when it woke up, it looked around—no land. So it started taking off, flying somewhere, trying to search for something, finding nothing, and coming back. That continued until it became so completely exhausted that it just sat down, or collapsed. But later, it realized that the ship was actually taking it back home. The final destination was the bird’s home. In the same way, we wander and wander, and when we come here we still wander around in our thoughts. But finally, we get some external peace when we are here on this ship. This ship of the seminar is like a roller coaster. In the sea, the waves have turbulences. And here, our emotions, our thoughts, all of these arise and go down. Because we let go of all the external things, external worries, our work, everything. We come here not to find something with any expectations, but to release and to rejuvenate. After tiring months of day-to-day living, we come here to dust off a little of the dust that is increasing layer by layer in the outer world. But still, on this ship, we sometimes forget where the destination is. With our thoughts, we still try to fly, to escape, and go somewhere else. But when we are truly relaxed and tired of running with our thoughts, then we remember: this is the boat of satsaṅga which is taking us to our home. Here, when we are with ourselves, we are surrounded by people with purity, surrounded by guru brothers and sisters who are walking the same path. We have the same thinking, the same or similar paths and goals. Then that power of sādhanā multiplies extremely. It is one thing when we are all sitting in our homes doing our own personal sādhanās every day. But it is a different thing when we all gather together and that consciousness awakens in unity. For us to even know what the awakening of consciousness is, and for us to even know how to work with ourselves, we have the guidance, the blessings, and the kṛpā of Gurudeva. Without Him, this united force, this united consciousness, would not be awakening here. Without this, we would not have these beautiful satsaṅgs and gatherings every year. We would still be stuck in that same spiderweb. We would still be stuck in that rotation, like a washing machine going round and round. But when we come here, we forget everything. Why? Because Nirañjana nārāyaṇākāra asane agrabhūtpe tomitane. We came here because the outside world is blabbering all the time. We are here to free ourselves and free our mind from all these things, from all this external confusion. But when we are here, we should be mentally and physically here. Now I understand why Gurudev always kept us so busy here in the seminars. Either in anuṣṭhān, or in yoga āsana classes, or karma yoga—none of us were ever free. Why? Because a free mind is a mind where things can be cooked. And usually, when the mind is idle, it only cooks up naughty things, as we have experienced. So that is why I do not keep myself free anymore. When you are free, you come up with brilliant ideas and brilliant thoughts. But when we are focused on certain things, it is a kind of distraction. When happiness comes, when we get something new, when something new is happening around us, we forget about other problems, don’t we? But the problem with us humans is that we can get bored very easily. So that new toy, or the new thing around us, whatever is giving us happiness at the moment, does not last very long. It diverts our mind, it clears things up for a while to calm our thoughts, and we are happy, we feel that happiness. So whenever things happen, we calm down, we change our mind—it is a distraction. Because that happiness, that love, that compassion, that kindness is in the air. So that is one less thing to worry about, to get distracted by. Bad things will not happen. Sad things, upset things will not really happen, because you have each other to support each other. Supporting each other—a very good point. How many of us truly, truly are there for each other, except when we are together here in Strilky? We call ourselves one family, right? In one way or another, you can give it any name, but we are one family. You can call it a yoga family, a community, bhaktas, sevakas—whatever name you give it, I gave it the name family. But when we say family, what does that mean to us? When we say family, that means we are there for each other. We support each other. We are there for each other. Now I understand that as things around us in the world progress—individually, personally, as a community, as the world—things get or feel a bit shaky. But even when there is a storm or turbulence, things shake, but then they calm down again. Now, I believe, is the highest time for us to show unity in our family, to grow and be there for each other in shaky times. When good things are happening, when happy things are happening with us, our friends and family all come to us and congratulate us. But when there is a shaky time, a time which is not so convenient, are people really there? I understand. When we are in Strilky, when we are in Jadan, when there is some gathering, we are all very beautiful brothers and sisters. And then Gurudev used to come, or now I come, or some guest speaker comes—you have Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar, you have different Swāmīs, different speakers, they come, and we all gather again. Except for that moment, do we truly are there for each other as yoga centers, as family members, as a community, in between the centers? Before, we had one united thought, let’s say: the completion of Om Āśram. Now? Now we all think about our own individual centers, how we are not working, how this center is not okay, how that center is not okay. Nothing is okay. I understand that. Gurudev sees that. But I think then is the time where each center, each country, each disciple, each bhakta, we all come together and help each other in any way and every way possible. Let’s say we have satsaṅg here in Strilky. One day we have satsaṅg in some other center. And to support that center, we go there, or we come here. But in the heart, we need that feeling of unity. For now, we cannot even overcome our own personal, individual problems with each other. We need to come out of that. We need to realize that these personal things are our personal things, we created them, and we will solve them. For example, let’s say Nārāyaṇ Purī is good at photography, and you have a program in your center where you need a photographer and you do not have one. Okay, photographers—we all have phones. Not a good example. But let’s say a bhakta has a construction company. And some āśram in the neighboring country, in the neighboring city, needs some construction to be done. We are going to pay and hire someone, which will be a higher cost or more expensive, and the energy is not the same. I go from Jadan to Jaipur, it takes me five hours—that is from one city to another city. Here, I go five hours, and that is three different countries. It is very near for you to approach each other. So if we know that there is some guru brother, guru sister who does certain work in neighboring countries, then we should help each other, we should support each other. First, we might get some discount because we are guru brothers and sisters. But at least we are supporting inside, within the community. It is not far away to come from Czech to Croatia, or to Vienna, or to any other centers. It does not matter if we are here or not; if there is some weekly satsaṅg, some event in some āśram, and we have time, we can go, we should support them by going. When Gurudev always taught us, Vasudeva Kuṭumbakam—all in one, one in all. So if we all are one, then let us all try to function like one unit. I know I am a little bit strong for the first day. And straight, I say it to the family: then to function in the same way as we function. When Gurudev’s physical presence was here, we did not think. “Let’s go, let’s pick up rocks.” We all went and picked up rocks. There were no questions, or maybe sometimes there were questions when Swāmījī’s request was pretty interesting. But most of the time, we did what He said. But now we are all so much in our heads, unfortunately. We are so focused on so many different external factors. Not as bhaktas, not as spiritual seekers, but as individual communities of the centers. We forgot that they are the branches of the same trunk, of the same roots. Part 2: The Only True Bliss is at the Lotus Feet of the Guru I know on airplanes they say, "First put on your own mask before putting on others' masks in case of low air pressure." Here we put our masks on, but then we forget the helping part. And it is really, really, really high time for us to unite. Unity is the only possibility now. It doesn’t matter who does what around us. There is no sense in hating that person. There is no sense in being angry at that person. That is in their destiny. That is in their karmas. We can help them by helping them get out of their mess. We try once, we try twice, we try thrice. If it doesn’t work, we still try. Because of our help or because of our action, if someone else’s deeds or someone else’s doings can be changed in a good way, why not? And maybe then, when that person finally realizes, he or she will thank us, saying, "Okay, you saved us from going into something." If someone else’s Viveka button is shut off, our Viveka button is still on, no? We as centers, we as individuals, we as everything, we all will have problems. No one is going to be perfect, and no one has a perfect life. Because nothing is perfect. The sun is bright, has light, but is hot. The moon is cool, but does not have enough light. The river is gentle, smooth, flowing, with sweet water. The sea, which is more stagnant, is salty water. And we are those lotuses. Who are the most beautiful ones, but born in the mud? So nothing is perfect. If God did not make nature perfect, then how do you expect Him to make us perfect? And that is why we have to work with ourselves. And when Gurudev gave us everything, all the tools, he gave us each other. Let us do something together. Let us create that beautiful vision which Gurudev has given us, but which we are slowly, slowly either forgetting, or it is getting dusty. What do we say? Sevā dharma, paramo dharma. Sevā dharma, paramo dharma. We left aside problems, worries, external things. We came here for what? We came here to work with ourselves. We came here to help each other grow. Not to sit at the restaurant and gossip about more problems. There is no problem with eating at the restaurant. But do so with purity in heart and with satya, with truth. Instead of sitting there and gossiping about who did what and which bhakta is sleeping, and who is snoring, and who is doing this, we should talk about how was satsaṅg, what did we learn from satsaṅg, what are the things which we can talk about, which we can learn. And what did Gurudev teach us? Helping hands are better than folded hands. And what did Gurudev teach us? Helping hands are better than praying hands. We know all of these things. We are not learning something new. Gurudev has been telling this to us all his life. It is just a little bit of dusting off the dust. That is it. Because we need each other. We think that we are all from Swāmījī’s generation; we need new blood. Yes, but we are the ones who bring the new blood in. And why do we need it? We have each other. We are all getting old. Who will now teach? No problem. By example, today I saw a 91-year-old person, still fully functional, walking, going to the grocery store because of yoga. And if we have that compassion amongst each other, when we unite, when we unite, then people will see that automatically. More people will come, but we need to have our arms open with love. It doesn’t matter who comes, how, in which state, we accept all. How they operate, how not, that is theirs. The āśram, the bhaktas, Gurudev, they can shape and show the path, but at the end of the day, it is the individual, it is us who will have to walk that path. And if we are going to walk the path alone, it will sometimes be hard, we may have thoughts of giving up. When we walk on that same path together, we have some people around us doing that same thing, we can help each other achieve that goal. But when someone else achieves something, then it is also a training for us. Because then immediately we go into that: how he or she, and why not me? So please close your eyes. Now we will take a saṅkalpa. You can all repeat it in your own minds. I promise, or I will try, let us say, I will try to leave all the work-related things. Leave all the worries, all the things that may have happened in the past. All the things that may happen in the future, we leave everything outside. We be ourselves. We try to discover the hidden true self of ourselves. We try to discover the hidden true self of ourselves. We leave the weaknesses, we leave the anxiety, we leave the unhappiness, we leave the struggle, we leave everything in the hands of Gurudeva. This summer, we are here to receive. We do not compare. We do not complain. We do not rush anything. Just be present. We will be receiving anything that comes to us. We will be receiving the kṛpā and the grace of the paramparā and of Gurudeva. We do not analyze anything. We do not judge anything, we do not judge anything, and we are blessed with bhakti, with śakti, with vairāgya, and with Guru Kṛpā. And all these things are showering with positivity, with health, with happiness, and most importantly, with inner joy. In the Bhagavad Gītā, it is said, karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana, which means that we have the right to the actions that we take. But we do not have any rights on the fruit which we will be getting. We do not have the right to the fruits of the actions that these actions will bring. So let us devote our time, devote our energy, devote our true selves to the process of growing, to the process of receiving the grace of Viśvagurujī. And may this seminar, this week, this weekend, or this month, be fruitful for us. The only job for us in this week or in this month is to meditate, to discover our inner child, our true inner self, to meditate, to do our anuṣṭhān, to do our kriyā, to do our āsanas, to come and show up for satsaṅgs. Come here to the satsaṅg with the open mind of receiving whatever comes, and asking for a lot of viveka. May Gurudeva’s grace be upon all of us. May the protection and the guidance of the Paramparā and of Gurudev be upon us. And may we achieve what we came here for. If not, then at least may we walk on the path which we came here to walk upon. And may our every thought be full of awareness and attention. And may our every word that comes out of our mouth be full of awareness and attention. And may we show and live with kindness, compassion, and love. May we have the strength to be in the present. May we get the strength to let go of all the external things. May we have the strength to be in the present. May we get the strength to let go of all the external things. May we realize the light which Gurudev has lit in our hearts. May we realize the light which Gurudev has lit in our hearts. May, with His blessings, our light just grow and shine more and more day by day. May we have awareness with our breath. May we be aware that every single breath that we are inhaling is pulling in that vital prāṇa, and that with every exhalation we are exhaling all the negativity, all the toxicity, all the worries, all the anxiety, all the sadness, and we just pull in that prāṇa śakti, and we become one with that Guru Tattva, and we discover ourselves with this. In the name of the paramparā, in the name of Guru Dev, may we be blessed. And much, much, much love from me, my beautiful, amazing family. Slowly with this, keeping the saṅkalpa in mind, not only for now, but for every day. Not only for this seminar, but every day, may we live with these principles. Slowly rub your hands, and put those warm hands on your face, feel the saṅkalpa sink into your body through that heat. And may we remain blessed, and may we not forget ourselves. Slowly open your eyes. May we not forget ourselves like that king. But I will tell you the story of the king after bhajan. Miltā hai satya sukha kevala kevala āpke caraṇoṁ meṁ. The only true happiness, one is ānanda. And second is Paramānanda. A druhé je Paramānanda. One is happiness, and one is bliss. So we can only get bliss when we are at the lotus feet of Gurudev, and we are all here. I can’t hear myself. Can we increase the volume, please? I am now going to Indian programs. I am used to hearing myself very much. You go to an Indian stage, and right in front of you, there are ten speakers blasting your ears. So, the only true bliss, the only true happiness we can get here, because this is where Gurudeva’s lotus feet are always. Once upon a time, there was a king. And the king died, and end of story. So there was a king, very wise, very knowledgeable, very kind, very compassionate, and he went to the forest one day with his old troops and army and everything, and somehow they got separated. And it was only him and his horse. And for hours and hours and hours, night and day, he was searching for his people, shouting, screaming. And because of dehydration, and the horse tired and he tired, they both collapsed. But when he woke up and he opened his eyes, he forgot everything. No memory about having a palace. No memory of being a king. Family, wife, kids—he didn’t even remember his name. And one woodcutter found him. "What is your name?" Good question. He didn’t remember it. Who are you? From where did you come? No clue. So the woodcutter adopted him, kind of. He started living in his house. He learned how to cut wood, carrying wood, helping. And as time passed, the mentality became in such a way that he thought he is a normal laborer, a normal worker. That he is poor, he can’t do anything, but one thing he used to do: in the distance there was one mountain, and he always looked to the mountain, and always thought, "What is on that other side?" Expectations, searching for more, but still he was discovering himself, figuring out, and wanting more, but still satisfied. And still there, because until you find the body of the king, you can’t make a new king, because there is no guarantee that he is dead. So for the whole year, and every day, there were ministers, and the staff, and army, and everyone going around the neighborhood trying to search for the king again. But no signs. And one day, one saint walked into the palace. And he said, "I know where the king is." And the minister said, "If you knew already, then why didn’t you tell us since one and a half years?" Then he said it wasn’t the right time for him to remember his true self. And then he leads them to where the king is. The photos and this and that reminded him of his true self. And in the same way, we are those kings and queens. But by being busy and by being stuck in the external world, we forget that. And when we come back to satsaṅgs, when we come back to Gurudeva, then he shows us and reminds us who we truly are and who is our true self, and we are on the journey of self-discovery, and we hopefully figure it out.