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We wait and we water. When we plant a seed, we don’t just plant it to be hidden in the soil, do we? In this Strilky seminar, in the satsaṅgs where we go, when we have our own satsaṅgs at our homes, that is the watering of the seed which we planted. And then it is time for that seed to crack open and for something to grow out of it. So in this week, in this summer seminar, we let this seed crack and we let it transform into something bigger. But the seed needs care. That seed needs watering. We can’t just leave the seed in and expect the rain to make it grow. In the initial stages, a baby also doesn’t know how to drink out of a bottle. So in the beginning, it needs the mother’s milk. But this seed, which we are going to transform, needs constant watering. Yet it is like the bamboo. You put in so much effort, you give so much water, and there is no growth. For a long time, no growth. And then suddenly, when we give up and say, "I don’t think this is going to grow," then it blooms up. Why? Because all the time when we were watering it, it was making its roots stronger and stronger. As strong as our spiritual roots are, the stronger they will be, the easier it will be for us to stand in our life. We are expecting life to get easier for us. Unfortunately, it is not happening. We all wish, when we go to sleep, "I wish I wake up tomorrow with zero problems, zero troubles, and just enjoy." When we go to sleep in the evening, we say to ourselves, "I wish I had it easy tomorrow, all of it, no problems." But unfortunately, this cruel world does not exist without suffering. We all have different definitions of suffering. We all feel suffering in different ways. Some go through physical suffering, some go through mental suffering, but no matter what suffering we go through, we go through it. And in this beautiful creation of the Lord, there is no one who is exempted from this suffering. We all have our own ways of how we like to suffer. And then, to divert our mind from suffering, we try to keep ourselves busy because when there is certain joy, when there is certain sadness, when there are certain emotions or other emotions, then our mind diverts away from that suffering. But it is just momentary. We will manage to divert our mind from suffering for a certain period of time because we are joyful. Or we remove the suffering by enduring other things, getting busy with other things. But it is just a distraction for our minds. It is a distraction for us to find something else to do in life so that we don’t feel that suffering. But did we have a question? Is it us who are experiencing this suffering? Is it me, the one who is suffering? Because we all say, "My problems, my house, my car." We all say, "My this, my that." Is it really ours? You know, when we start panicking, that is when that imaginary "my" starts disappearing, because that is when we are out of our comfort zone. That is something, somewhat, that we are experiencing that we are not used to. We have conditioned our mind so much in this illusory world. We are so attached to "my this" and "my that" that suddenly, when this thing starts shaking, when your car breaks down—how many of your cars broke down while driving here? One. No? Last week we had one. Nice. Three. What was in your head when it happened? A very simple mindset. He said, "Just thought to go on the side and let others pass." But many of us would go like, "Now I will be late, now this, now that." And instead of trying to figure out a solution to that, we go into panic mode, and we don’t know what to do, and our brains stop functioning. Unless you are spontaneous enough, like the Salzburg people, they just go to a scrap yard and buy a new old car and come here. But every lock has a key. Every problem has a solution. Most of the time, the problems are created by us. And if we can create a problem, we surely can solve it. But it is in our hands. But then, what do we believe in? And what should we believe in? It is in my hands. I am the one who is going to solve the problems. But I trust you more. Oh Gurudev, I know that you know better than me, so I give all my problems to you. But do we give only our problems to him, or do we also give our happiness? Problems and also your happiness—sab kā matlab, everything. Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī is giving us everything. But when we say, "So I gave you my problems, Gurudeva," why don’t we think about Him when we are having some good moments? "Oh God, oh Gurudeva, this is going on in my life. Please help me." We have a five-to-ten-minute monologue with Him, or with God, or with whomever we believe in. And when we are getting a promotion: "Thank you, Gurudev, thank you, God." Why don’t we have that long monologic conversation with Him when something nice is happening to us? Because we are too distracted. We need to realize that neither this happiness is ours, nor this sadness is ours. Neither the good things are ours, nor the bad things are ours. Because we are not the doer. This ātmā is just the observer. And it is just changing clothes, in the same way as we change clothes. In the morning, we wake up and we open our closets, and some of us say, "I don’t have anything to wear." Inside, we have maybe a hundred different clothes. But still, we decide, let’s go shopping. Why? Because we need another distraction in our life to distract us from what we need to be working on. But buying new things—I know the feeling. I went through that phase. Maybe I am somewhat still going through that phase, and there are still different aspects. Maybe you are also going through this. Wanting more, being needy. None of us are perfect. If we were perfect, we would have been gods. But obviously, we are not perfect; that is why we are still suffering human beings. The desire of wanting more and more and more—is it satisfying the body or is it satisfying our ātmā? If it is all God, give me more bhakti. Give me more śakti. Give me sādhanā. Wanting more of that—that is still us being greedy, but at least we are greedy in a positive sense. Because we buy a new gadget, buy a new car—how much was it for me? Twenty days? Twenty days of excitement? For twenty days the phone will be with a cover and a screen protector. After a long day, we come back to our room, and like a gentle baby, we put it on the table on the bedside. Some of us twenty days, some of us ten days. Excitement was there. "I will drive, I would love to drive." Twenty days. I don’t know if I realized anything, but one thing I surely realized: the peace which I get without all this technology and all the other things, I can give it to myself. And when we figure out the way, how can we give that peace and that satisfaction and that happiness? I don’t say that I am perfect in it, but I am surely working on it, and I pray that we all work on that. I also can’t do it completely, but I pray that we can achieve it, that we are perfect in it. Our whole lives, we are relying on someone, on something. We are born, we rely on our parents to feed us, to teach us how to walk, to teach us how to talk. Everywhere, we are always relying on someone. But spiritual development is one thing where we don’t need to rely on anyone. This is the only thing that we don’t depend on anyone else, because Gurudev is showing us the path. Gurudev shows us the direction. But the walking part is going to be our own effort. When a child sees a snake in the night: "Snake, snake... snake." Then we just remember one word. Gu and Ru, from darkness to light. And when we got our mantras, Gurudev lit that jyoti within our hearts. Now that light is removing that darkness. But is Gurudev the one who is removing the darkness? No, he is the protective shield. He is the one who lit that flame. But to keep that flame lit, to add oil or ghee or whatever in that lamp, that is going to be our job at the end of the day. Now, how many of us, honestly? In how many of our heads is it going on, this satsaṅg about ego, or about this—my husband or my wife or my friend or this person should listen to? No one? Perfect. Because when I was listening to Swāmījī talking about some things, I always thought, "I wish that person was thinking about it or listening to his lecture now." But we need to realize it is not for them, it is for us. We have to realize that this is not aimed at some people; it is aimed at us. What did Mahāprabhujī tell us? Be the change you want to see in others. I can talk all my life about karma yoga, but if I didn’t do it with you yesterday and the other days, then it would be, "Yeah, he just talks, doesn’t do it himself." To be honest, I was kind of spoilt. But that is what we are all doing. We are all working with ourselves. And this time I was enjoying doing karma yoga, lifting bricks, cutting the grass, and driving the tractor. It is fun. Why? Because before, I used to think, "What am I going to get out of it?" There was some svārth, some expectation. When I was younger, it was easier. Sweep the floor, you get chocolate. Then now, when you are grown up, then what? Then you realize that these expectations, what we are expecting, to get something in return, they will just give us momentary happiness. But the happiness and joy which I get from working with all of you, hanging out with all of you, talking, interacting, working, whatever—that joy is long-lasting, that is permanent joy. And the only difference which was within me was, before the work was parāyā kāma, someone else’s work. I think we all can change certain things within us. Because those of you who know me from childhood, which is the majority of all of you, know how stubborn I can be when I want something. I am not giving up, and I don’t let you give up either. We are in it together. That is why we are Vasudeva Kuṭumbakam. That is why we are one united family. What are we? One united family. It is high time for us to remove "you" and "me" and become "we." It is time for us to look away from what that person is doing wrong, what this person is doing wrong. It is time for us to remove the dust from the mirror. How many scriptures compare the mind to a mirror? Scriptures compare the mind to a mirror, and I compare the mind to a drunk monkey bitten by a scorpion, jumping on thorns. But that is my mind. Scriptures say, but then I say that, OK, it is a mirror, but the mirror has layers and layers of dust on it. And we are looking at the mirror. I can’t see myself. Is it the mirror’s fault? So if it is not the mirror’s problem, then whose problem is it? The dust. So many layers of dust have been there for years and years, which are now piled up in our mind. And every meditation, every mantra, every sevā, every karma yoga, every good thought, is removing one layer of that dust which has been piled up. But it is not instant coffee, sorry. So we can’t instantaneously remove all the dust. And we say, "Arikame ab sobhadiya, esa jeevanaka sababharatumare haathome. Ab sobhadiya, esa jeevanaka sababharatumare haathome." And please don’t sit here bored, looking bored. Enjoy, sing, laugh, dance, all the while. How many of you don’t know the translation of this bhajan? Until everyone knows it, I can repeat it. Last year people were complaining, why am I repeating the same topic? This is the reason. Ābhā śobhā diyā, īśa jīvana ākāśa, ābhā bhāratumāre hāthome. Now I offer everything, all the worries, everything that is on my shoulders to you. He Jīta Tumhāre Hāthoṁ Meṁ. My success is in your hands. Even my failure is in your hands. I only have one wish, I only have one saṅkalpa. And that wish is: Ek bār tumhe pā jāūm̐, that I may be able to get you once in my life. But that we already got, so that wish Gurudev already fulfilled. Arpa na kardu duniā barkā, sab pyār tumhāre hāto me. I give you, or I offer to you in your lotus feet, all the love in the world to you. Jo jag me rahū̃, to aisā rahū̃. If I live in this world, if I live in this māyāvī, illusional world, then may I live like this. Jo jala meṁ kamal kā phūla rahe. In the same way as a lotus lives in the murky, muddy water. How many of you were yesterday in the satsaṅg? What did I say yesterday about the lotus? The shorter my memory loss, I know that. I forget things, I forget dates, yes. Eh, ta-da! The lotus is in the water, but the water is not in the lotus. The lotus lives in that muddy water. But it has that protective layer, that the mud doesn’t stick on that lotus; it falls off. So if I live in this world, may I live like the lotus lives on the water. Mere sava guṇa doṣa samarpita ho, Bhagavān, tumāre hāthoṁ meṁ. O Lord, may all my guṇas, all my good qualities, but also doṣas, all the bad qualities, go in your hands. When I get born as this human birth...