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Sadā Śiva Samarambhāṃ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamāṃ Asmadācārya Paryantāṃ Vande Guru Paramparām. Gurur Brahmā Gurur Viṣṇur Gurur Devo Maheśvaraḥ, Guruḥ Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Man Nāthā Śrī Jagannāthā Madhguru Śrī Jagatguru Ātmā Sarvabhūtātmā Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥa. Salutations to the cosmic self. Salutations to Śrī Alakhpurījī, Siddha Pīṭha Paramparā. Om Namah Nārāyaṇ to all the sannyāsīs present here. Was the first day somewhat fruitful? Yes or no? Who said no? Why no? Tiredness will go, that is not a problem. But otherwise, in the atmosphere of the āśram, we gain peace. The tiredness comes because for so long we have been working, working, and now finally we let go of everything and are free, so we feel tired. Just as we are connected to one of the greatest paramparās, and just as we need parents, then grandparents, grandchildren, and children, in the same way, in the monastery or in the āśram, we have paramparās. And just like in a family we have great-grandparents and great-grandchildren, we also have a paramparā in the monastery or in the āśram. This is the continuous continuation of the knowledge passed down from the master to the disciple. It is about the continuation of the line of masters, which transmits wisdom from master to master. Śruti, Smṛti, Purāṇānām, Ālayam, Karuṇālayam. Śruti and Smṛti are the things that are heard and remembered. The transmission from the Guru to the disciple is normally done in this way: it is heard, it is listened to, and then it is memorized. In Vedic Gurukuls, that is how we learned to chant the mantras—listening, repeating, listening, repeating a hundred billion times until we remembered it. That is how the transmission of the Vedas was done. The vast knowledge of the Vedas, the vast knowledge of the Śāstras, has all been passed down by generations. Even when Gaṇeśjī was writing it, they were dictating and Gaṇeśjī was writing. Knowledge in the Vedas is transmitted in this way for generations and millennia, and even Gaṇeśa, when he was writing the Vedas, was dictated to. In the same way, the knowledge of the Paramparā is transmitted from the Master, from the Guru to us disciples. When that knowledge has been passed down from the great paramparā as Śrī Alakhpurījī’s Siddha Pīṭh Paramparā, through such great tapasvīs, great saints to Viśvagurujī, imagine how many bhaktas, how many devotees, have been liberated by this lineage. Paramparā is that it does not stop. There is not a day in between when that does not happen; it is a continuous process. That is why the transmission and the guru bhakti which we get, the mantra which we get, if it comes through the paramparā, then it helps much more. Today, here in Strilky, we are sitting under the umbrella of the presence of the Ādi Guru, Śrī Alakhpurījī Mahārāj. Ādiguru means the first guru. Why is Śrī Śaṅkarācārya known as Ādi Guru? Because he was the one because of whom the Sannyāsa Paramparā flourished. Without Śaṅkarācārya, we would not have that way to Vedānta. All this philosophy which we read, he was a very great philosopher and poet. But in our paramparā, as we are initiated, for us Ādi Guru is Śrī Alakhpurījī Mahārāj, because that is from where our paramparā begins. What do we call him? Ādi, Mahā, Siddha, Yogī. Mahā means great. Siddha is the one who has activated things, who is enlightened, who is liberated, who can liberate, who is a great guru. Siddha is the one who activates siddhi, the one who activates knowledge. He is the one who liberates and who is liberated. Yogī, because he was a great true yogī. Alak means great, big, and Purī is our surname. In the Sannyāsa Paramparā, we have Daśanām Sannyāsīs. Daśnā means ten. So if you hear behind anyone’s names—Girī, Purī, Bhāratī, Sarasvatī, Araṇya, Udāsīna, Baṛā Udāsīna—any of these, they are all in our sannyās, daśanāma paramparā. Puri, Giri—Giri means mountain, Araṇya means forest, Puri means mountain. These different names have different meanings. And then Mahāsiddha Yogī, because they were the Siddhas, they were the great yogīs who used to meditate and devote their whole life towards that. Alakhpurījī was also in the cave, but that does not mean that he was not down with the people, helping them, doing jñāna kalyāṇa, helping them move on. It is not that the great yogīs go and sit in caves and in the mountains to suffer. It is the inner transformation. It is not the external heat which they feel; it is the internal heat which they are activating. When we feel more hot or too cold, it is good motivation because then we say, "It's cold." When we are in very rough situations, it is easier for us to chant the name of the Lord, because we think, "Oh God, maybe we will have darśana quickly and get out of here quickly." Tapas, when we say he went for tapasyā, that does not mean he is suffering. That means he or she is in the process of intense sādhanā to light that inner jyoti and to awaken that sleeping self. It is the same principle: if we are sitting and writing a book, or if we are watching a show on Netflix, we always finish the whole thing. If we take longer to watch it, it will be a longer time until we finish it. Similarly, if we are writing a book and take years and a longer time, it will be a longer time until we publish it. In this māyā world, there are too many distractions for a tapasvī. Sometimes it is necessary for us to go into that deep sādhanā, to be a little bit detached from this world, for us to awaken certain things. Whenever we go to the mountains, whenever we are in nature, we can immediately feel different energies. You will feel that different energy in a mountain, in a temple, in an āśram. These places have that divinity within. The sweat of their sādhanā, their dedication, what they have done, has left an imprint in that whole area. Why do we call this āśram also Viśvagurujī’s Tapobhūmi? Because Viśvagurujī spent decades here giving satsaṅgs. In that way, this āśram becomes the imprint of that consciousness of Gurudev. When we go to that mountain, when we climb that air, it carries the tapasyā, it carries the mantras, the waves of mantras. No one to disturb, no one to bother you. No signal, no nothing. Just being there with yourself, with your mantra. When we were recently in the Himālaya, you did not need to do your sādhanā or anything. Just being in that atmosphere automatically was a living sādhanā. These places hold such divinity, so much energy that it is hard for a human being to cope with those energies. The first few times when Gurudev went to Alakhpurījī’s cave, he was told not to even cook in the cave or eat anything. Why? Because there is that purity, that divinity in that cave, which should not be disrupted. Those of you who remember the first few trips for Gurudev, the food used to come from Badrīnāth. It is not because we are trying to protect that area or the government does not want us to light fire or cook anything, but it is because of the sādhanā and the interruption of that sādhanā by anything else than sādhanā. We do not know how many years, thousands, hundreds of years, a saint might have been doing sādhanā there. And maybe there are still many saints doing sādhanā, but not in their physical form. They do that for awakening those things which help to help others. The goal of every Mahāpuruṣ is Janakalyāṇ. Jana means people, humans, bhaktas. Kalyāṇ means to free them, to liberate them. By getting that immense śakti through their sādhanā, through the tapasyā, then all is given further. We always want more, no? There was one worker working hard, lifting rocks in the mountains. One day he saw a rich person there, wearing nice clothes, a beautiful white kurtā, white pajāmā, having a few people around him. He felt, "I want to become like that." Suddenly, he became a rich person. Then he was walking around as a rich person, living a nice, wealthy life, but then he saw a king. He wished for it, and he became a king. But even having everything as a king, he still got sunburned. He looked up and said, "Even a king has to bow down to this." So then he became the sun, shining where he wanted, controlling temperature. On his enemies, he used to focus more and more. Then finally, one day, a cloud covered his glow. So then he became the cloud, raining where he wanted, unstoppable, flying everywhere. Then he said, "I will be the almighty mountain itself." So he became the mountain. He was silent, patient, not moving, nothing but majestic. Now what more? He had everything. He was the strongest, the mightiest. And then one sādhu comes out of the cave and just taps, tak, tak... and the whole mountain is vibrating. "Who is this who is now even more powerful than me? Who can shake me?" That is the tapasvī. The rocks started rumbling and falling, and he started feeling like he was losing himself. After the whole cycle of being everything, the Sādhu asked, "Now what do you want to be?" "I want to be your bhakta." Because if there is someone who can, with the power of bhakti, shake the mountain, then that is a yogī. We always say, "Jahā bhakti, vahā Bhagavān," which means where there is bhakti, there is God itself. But who creates that bhakti within the bhaktas? It does not automatically arise. That spark has to be lit. And that spark is lit by the great yogīs. The devotion between the Guru and disciple is very evident when you know the name of the river, Alaknandā. The Guru is Alakpurījī. When in the form of a cow, the Nanda Devī was there, and a lion was attacking it, she only had one request before dying: that she wanted to be remembered with her Guru. Alakh Purī Jī and Nandā Devī became the river Alaknandā. That river now flows in the Himalayas. So imagine how great we are to be a part of a paramparā which is connected so deeply in the roots of Indian history, in the roots of the Himalayas, where such great yogīs are. For many years, Viśvagurujī was doing research and finding it. Sādhvī Śāntijī was also helping a lot in discovering this gufā. I also had the great opportunity to go with Gurudev, and that was in 2018. One day I was just walking around, and we clicked a picture of one mountain. We came back, and I like to look into these things. When I am doing yajña, I look at pictures of the fire because you might have darśana of some god or goddesses in the shape of the fire. Before that, Gurudev had many times darśan of Alakhpurījī in his vision, in his sādhanā. The same day, Gurudev also saw another face on another mountain. In the evening, I was showing Swāmījī, "Look, I found a body, like a shape of a body." And he showed also the one which he saw, the face—it was only the big face. Then Gurujī said, "Yes, this is Alakhpurījī." Then we had this Kamalā from Zagreb, and I think also Caraṇdās was involved. They were painting many different versions through Viśvagurujī’s vision, and then photo shoots and this and that, trying to find the best possible one which Gurudev liked. Finally, with the vision of Gurudev, with his kṛpā, we were able to have darśan of Śrī Alakhpurījī. Many of us have already been to Alakhpurī Jī’s Gufā. On the 20th of September, anyone who would like to come and join us to Alakhpurījī’s cave, please come. Now I would like to ask some of you who were at Alakhpurījī before to come and share some experiences. Pavitrā is hiding purposely in the back, so she will come first. After this, we will see a 21-minute video from the 2018 Himālaya trip, I believe. Mahāprabhudīp Karatā Mahāprabhudīp Karatā He Kevalam Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha Sarve Santu Nirāmayāhā Sarve Patrārni Paśyantu Mākastī Tukha Bhāgpāvet Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. So I had the opportunity to visit Alakhpurījī’s cave together with a group of people who actually went to Devpurījī’s cave, and on the way we saw Alakhpurījī’s cave. For me, it was very spontaneous to decide to join the group. I did not have enough time to prepare in a proper way to take the altitude easily. But with Gurudev’s blessing, we all managed in a happy and safe way. We slowly made our way with the bus to the Māṇā village, which most of you have heard about. It is many meters high in altitude. Māṇā village is really small. People there sell clothes and blankets made out of the wool of the sheep they have in this area. They are very colorful products, and the people are very happy and content. Even though they do not have a lot of money, they still have a smile on their face every moment. Then, leaving this last part of civilization, we made our way to Alakhpurījī’s cave. First of all, there is a path which is paved, so you have comfortable walking on a stone path. Then slowly, slowly, the track becomes looser, and you have to see where the grass is a little more flat than the rest of the grass. There are sheep herds grazing peacefully in the grass, making nice, lovely sounds. You walk on the right side of the river, so on your left side you always hear this rushing sound of the strong, fast river going in a very powerful way. When I saw this path towards Alakhpurījī’s cave, I felt like a small ant in a big, big universe. On your right, the mountains rise so high, you really have to look far, far, far into the sky to see the top of them. Then the sheep herds become less and less, and the mountains become higher and higher. The grass gets shorter and shorter, and the stones become more and more. On the way, some other people, other spiritual seekers, have some holy places to them, so you see on the ground some places where they did yagya or had some coming together. Before you notice, you reach a very green area all of a sudden again. Big green leaves, big high grass, very lovely scenery. And then you see Alakhpurījī’s cave. When we went with Rājujī, who also accompanied Viśvagurujī when he went to Alakhpurījī’s cave, he explained: this was where the kitchen tent was, and this is where the bhaktas stayed, and this is where Viśvagurujī’s tent was set up. He could give us a very good image of how the situation was back when Viśvagurujī went to the cave. We were not there with Viśvagurujī, but he was there with Viśvagurujī, and he described to us where Viśvagurujī’s stand was, where the kitchen stand was, and so on. We only had a short time there, because in one day we went up and again down. When our group was there, we had a few hours—one hour, one and a half hours. Even in this very short period of time we had darśana, it was like everything else disappeared. It was only this cave and nothing else. Here in this māyā, we always try to have the thoughts move like clouds when we meditate or try to focus on our breathing, but there you do not have any other chance than just being in the moment. For me personally, it was very, very beautiful when we were there, but I also feel like it still has such an effect, still until this present day, just being there in this divine atmosphere for a few hours. So I think everybody who has the opportunity to go there, to join the group walking there, I can only recommend. It is once in a lifetime.