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Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaḥ, Sarve Santu Nirmāyāḥ, Sarve Bhadrāṇi Paśyantu, Mā Kāścid Duhkhabhāg Bhavet, Om Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ. Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. Salutation to the Cosmic Light, Lord of our hearts, Omniscient and Omnipresent. In His Divine Presence, good evening, dear sisters and brothers. It is a blessing to be here in this beautiful ashram in Wellington. Also, a good evening or good morning to all our brothers and sisters who are with us through the webcast. Welcome to you. This blessing comes from the beautiful country, the beautiful city of Wellington, New Zealand. This evening, we have some thoughts to ponder: how to apply ancient wisdom in our lives in this modern, troublesome time. Wisdom is always wisdom. That light will always be light. But the problem is this: we have forgotten that wisdom which was given to us by our ancestors. In the ancient scriptures, it is said, "If you protect the dharma, Dharma will protect you." Dharma. Dharma has many meanings. Generally, people understand dharma as religion. But dharma is something more than religion. Dharma is that which you accept, which you follow, which you understand, which you adopt in your life. It means that dharma is the law of nature and the cosmic law. Humans have lost their beautiful relation with nature. Humans begin to manipulate and also discriminate against nature and the laws of nature. Out of their greed, out of that ignorance, greed is born in the intellect of the human, and that greed has no limitation. Mahātmā Gandhījī said, "Mother Nature has enough for our needs, but not for our greed." Now, the human crosses the border, crosses the limitations because of greed. Due to greed and selfishness, due to the ego and negative ambitions... Our beloved Master Bhagavad-Deep Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī said in his golden teachings, "Do not go against nature; otherwise, you have to follow or suffer the revenge or the consequences." And that is what we humans are doing. So the word dharma is a beautiful word. Dharma does not have any title. Love does not have any title. Happiness has no title. God has no title. It is just one word. Yes? Very simple, very precious, but we are running behind titles. Many are studying and say, "When will I be able to write in front of my name, 'Doctor,' or this or that?" God, how beautiful is the word "God." In English, three letters: G-O-D. One of our Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras in the Kumbh Melā gave a beautiful explanation about God, very clear. Everyone has to accept that. Every religion accepts the G-O-D generator. Yes? There is a creator. God is the creator. There is only one creator. He created all the different creatures on this planet, including the mountains, ocean, trees, everything. And O for operator, who is protecting us. And D for destroyer, who is destroying all the negative energies. G-O-D. So the creator is Brahmā, the protector is Viṣṇu, and the destroyer of negative energy is Śiva. Trinity, God. If you have that vivekā, you can think. If not, you will not. Now we come to the dharma. What is the dharma of a seed? To grow. We put the seed in the soil, and it will sprout. If not, then we will say this seed is not a seed; it is seedless. What we are doing in modern science is we are trying to make, day by day, everything seedless. You know, our ancient, our old seeds are lost. You have to buy seeds for the wheat. You have to buy the seeds for the corn, for the barley, for everything. From the apples, and all these seeds have no more seeds. They cannot grow. They manipulated animals, and so on and so on. And such nourishment, so many chemicals, which are making also the seedless. Anāpūrṇe, seed, seed is life. God is in that seed. Life is there. And that seed is concentrated from the fire and water. Water is life. So we humans are going against the dharma. We destroy the dharma. We develop the Zen technique, and how much is it harming us? It does not matter. For those who are developing this and manufacturing or supplying us, and we are eating or we are using things, we are going against the ancient dharma, the wisdom, which is given by God and by Mother Nature. The dharma of the fire is to give heat, and if the fire has no more heat, then it is just like what you call fake fire. You shoot nice flames, but even if you can hold it, nothing happens. There is no dharma inside. The dharma of the eye is to see. If you can protect them, they will protect you. If you cannot protect your eyes, they cannot protect you. Dharma rakṣita, rakṣita. If you protect the dharma, dharma will protect you. Dharma of the mother, dharma of the father, dharma of the children, dharma of the neighbors, and so on. And the human dharma, so God has given humans a human birth to be a protector, not a destroyer. If we destroy something, we are distracted. God is not happy if you believe in God. And if you do not believe in God, then understand the law of dharma. And when we do not follow the law of the dharma, then we are creating what we call negative karma. And that negative karma will produce the destiny. And the consequences of that destiny will not be good. If you follow the dharma, then you are doing dharma, good karma. And good karma will have a good destiny, the good things. So in reality, we, our self, are responsible to follow our dharma. Now, dharma, to follow, is not easy. Sometimes there are some difficulties that come; God is testing us to see if we are following or not. Sometimes there are some challenges; what to do? There was one yogī, one saint, who had a small hut in the forest. He was meditating and living there. He had a little water pond with nice water for drinking. He had a nice vegetable garden, small, where he would grow his own grains, a little bit, and vegetables, and meditating, peaceful. One day, a hunter came. The hunter wanted to hunt a deer and was running behind the deer with his bow and arrow. At that time, there was no gun. The deer ran quickly, and the deer ran through the ashram, or the place where the yogī was meditating. The hunter was running, running behind, and he saw there was sitting one yogī. And he was preparing his bread, chapati. The hunter asks, "O man, can you tell me in which direction the deer ran, because a deer was just running through your ashram?" The yogī saw that man; he had in his hand arrow and bow, nidrāvāsī. "Can you tell me in which direction the deer ran?" Now the Yogi said, "Dharma saṅkathā." Dharma saṅkaṭa means a situation from which it is difficult to come out, because if I tell the hunter, "Dear, run on this side," I am making sin, because the hunter will kill that animal, so I will be the guilty. And if I tell him, "No, I have not seen," then I am lying. Also, how to protect myself and others. A protection is in protection. To protect means to protect thyself. So, the yogī said, "Sir, what can I tell you?" He said, "Tell me, which side do you run?" Yeah, this is my problem. He said, what? Who speaks cannot see, and who sees cannot speak. The hunter said, "Must be a little bit screw loose," and went away. It means that the mouth speaks, but the mouth cannot see. If you sit with closed eyes, your mouth cannot see anything. I see, but eyes cannot speak. How to protect thyself, himself, and the victim or the deer? So ancient wisdom, ancient teachings, are showing us the way to protect and be protected, and not have a negative effect on both sides. So dharma, also the Mother Earth has its dharma. Every season, every year, has a dharma. If you have winter, but it is very hot, you will say, "My God, terrible this winter." And if it is a good summer, it should be a very hot summer, and it is snowing. You will say, "My God, something is wrong." Yes, of course something is wrong, because the season lost its dharma. Also, the dharma of the sun is rising and setting. Night and day, the changes are always there, but what is not changing is within you, who is witnessing everything. And for this, we need a satsaṅg. For this, we need someone who can, from time to time, explain to us and open our eyes. What we are doing, many things we are doing, we do not do consciously. Yoga is ancient wisdom. It is vijñāna. It is the science of the body, mind, consciousness, and soul. Yoga is designed for humans to be healthy, to be happy, to be wise, and to be liberated, to attain liberation. So the ancient literatures, like the Vedas, Purāṇas, and Upaniṣads, these are the most ancient literatures. After this come holy books, what we call in every religion, every incarnation, what was spoken or what was taught, that is written in those books. And we adore, we respect these holy books. And we believe that our belief, our trust, has a great meaning in our life. Now this is given to you, if you follow it or not, but it is there. Every day we shall read different kinds of holy books or ancient literature, or from some wise people. In this world, there were millions of wise people. And now, also, there are many, many, many wise people. We are not so wise, it does not matter, but we know in the world there are many wise people. We can learn something from them. So humans need that education, that information, which makes them happy, which makes them free, which unites their hearts with the human to human and creates love for other creatures as well as for nature. One thing that humans should know, and I think we know, but maybe we do not want to know, is that God sees everything. In this minute, what you think, there are two who know everything in this room. Now, whatever you are thinking, there are two in this room who know everything. One is God, and the second is yourself. So, even you think that nobody knows what I think. But, my dear, you know that you are thinking. And in the time of thinking, either you are happy because you are thinking good things, or you are unhappy or nervous because you are thinking differently. And God observes us. God is not like a person who is sitting there and reading everyone’s brain. There must be very hard work. God must have a lot of stress, no? He must be the workaholic, but God is known as omniscient and omnipresent. One without seconds. Every signal which you send from your brain is recorded. Well, modern technology, modern wisdom is also not so bad. Some things are very good. But the thing is like this. God-made world is perfect, and man-made world is imperfect. The development that humans are making has two sides, good, creative, as well as destructive, which we call the side effect. Look, the tsunami just last week happened, terrible. And there was, near this atomic energy, the reactors. It was made with good thinking, that we will have power, we will have energy, light, and everything. But that is a time bomb, so all... Other time bombs, it has a good side and it has a negative side. But God created it; it has positive sides. But nothing is permanent, everlasting. It is change. Change is coming. An earthquake is very important; it releases the tension of Mother Earth when you have some troubles in your stomach; it has to go out, either this side or that side. Now you have to open the ventile. So many things, and especially nowadays, because we humans are taking so many things away. It is all resources from the Mother Earth. So what humans have created has its limitations. So, what I want to tell you is an example. If you do not understand how God knows all at once. And this is, let us say, one will understand who knows about computers. What is the population of Wellington? Half a million. Now, half a million people in Wellington. How many people have a mobile phone? Almost everyone, and some have two or three. So one million or half a million numbers, dialing, and all goes through one network. And when your money is gone, immediately know you have no credit anymore. Yes? Similarly, your destiny, God, where is all observing? When your life is finished, does not matter what? Hari Om. Sometimes, even the telephone does not say you have no more credit. Cut. Hari Om. So death will never come with warning. So in India, also people used to say, you never know when death or a client comes to you. They do not give an invitation. Mṛtyu or graha, kab āyegā patā nahīn. Therefore, oh man, be ready. Anytime, be ready to go. There is no time to pack your suitcase and iron your clothes and put this in and that out, and that is okay. Because nothing you can take with you. This cloth within the body, also, you cannot take with you. And this body also, you cannot take with you. Your body will tell you, "My dear, I love you. Eighty years I helped you, and I kept you in me with so much love. But you did not pay your attention toward me. God created your body with five elements. This engine, this motor needs water. But instead of water, you put alcohol inside. You did not think of me, what will happen to me, what you should eat. But out of your senses, testing, you did not think of me, and you ate this and that." The knees will say, "My dear, I carried you so long. Often, you made me sit up and down, up and down. All the times I had to move for you, up and down. But finally, now I cannot anymore." Your teeth will begin to move. "I ate enough for you, you know, and you did not care. You were chewing this and that, and now I cannot anymore. I am tired of it. Did you ever think how to keep me healthy and brush at the right time and so?" Eyes will tell you. "These eyes have given you to have God’s darśan and see the good things. But my dear, you saw the things which you should not see. You saw in the world only searching for negative things. I cannot help you anymore." Ears will tell. "Ha! You know. I told you to listen to God’s words, satsaṅg. Sarvan diya sun gyān re. But you were going, 'Kushangas,' blackmailing, negative things you were hearing. Finally, I am tired. Finished." "My dear one, I love you, and I was carrying you in the place you call the heart. But now, when the heart is rejecting, go and search for another nest." So nothing is permanent, but as long as we have something, we can take care with harmony, with understanding, with love. Jaisa khāī an vaisā rahe man. The ancient wisdom said, "Jaisa khāī an vaisā rahe man." What kind of nourishment you take, like that will be your mentality. "Jaisa pīye pānī, aur vaisī bole bānī." What kind of liquid you drink, like that you will speak after. Aur jaisā kare saṅg vaisā lage raṅg. In which kind of society you are, like that habits you will develop within you. So still we have enough wisdom in our societies, in our house, with your parents, with your grandparents. They can give us better advice when you have a particular problem. I tell you, especially our young generations here who are sitting under 40 years or 50 years, if you have any problems, I advise you to go to the eldest person in your village and ask, "Can you help me? I have such a problem." They have so many experiences. They have so many situations. And they have that much knowledge that they will tell, "Yes, my child, you did this and this, but I think now you do this and this." That one will give, we believe, and that is what you call the Māori of this land. They always pray first to the ancestors, because the ancestors gave us that wisdom to live life, to go further. And we should be thankful. Anyone who gave us something in this world, we should be thankful. Never say, "Ah, that is terrible." Even your driving teacher should be thankful that he or she showed you how to drive. And that is why, very safely, you can drive on the highway. If he or she had not taught you how to drive, you could buy a new car; you have money, no problem. Take the car and go on the highway. How many kilometers will you go? That is it. So wisdom, the knowledge, what you get from the others or through the ancient literatures, that one can, no one can take away from you. Anyone can take bread out of your hands, but not what you have learned in your brain, the positive and good education. So yoga gives the message. It is not only Haṭha yoga that you just practice āsanas and this and that, oh, and good. Oh, today I feel good. After one week of practicing, I have one button less in my drop. Not only this, yoga is something which makes a human God. Yes. It can make you supreme. It can make you holy. It can make you a good person, a better person, to create a better world. So please, according to your belief, it does not matter which religion you believe, pray. Jab jab man ghabar aaye, tum prathana karo. Whenever you feel scared, pray. Jab raha nazar nahi aaye, tum prathana karo. When you do not see any way out of this problem, pray. These are the instructions of the wise persons, ancient knowledge. Jab jab man ghabraye, tum prathana karo. Jab raha nazar nai aaye, tum prathana karo. So we have to go back to learn and recall that science, that culture. Now, I want to tell you a little family culture. You know, there is a word, it is called joint family. And now the question is coming in the world: is there some joint families? Joint family means grandparents, parents, children, uncles, and all are in one village or in one town, living together in one place. Of course, they have a profession here and there. Sukh or dukh, good and bad times, they are always with you. One mother gave her instruction to her child before she died. Her child, her son, was about 45 years old. And she said, "My son, when you were born, I was with you. I have only one wish: when I die, you should be with me." It is not selfishness from her. She asked for very little. That means the joint family, that you do care. And what we do, oh, grandma, his granny is so old, and this and that, and we cannot take care, and this, we put her in the care. Car-taking room, or old home, or whatever you call it. Because, my children, I have no time, and I have to work, and I have to do this. When you were born, very little, how many times your mother had to wake up in the night? How many months she had restless nights? Who put you from a wet nappy to a dry one? She could also have said, "I have no time, you... are born, cry, but I must go to my work." My dear, understand the relation. A human, even animals, have these feelings, joint family. Now, even if you are not married, you are searching for a separate apartment from your parents. And before your marriage, you and your future wife are organizing that you should have one flat and house, and you should live alone, and you will make everything, and this and that. If your mother-in-law tries to interfere a little bit, then she will tell you, "Me or your mother." In old tradition, ancient times, and even now, many families in India keep, when the young couple gets married, and first time this daughter-in-law comes at home after wedding, then mother-in-law takes in her hand one plate, like what we call the āratī, tilak, flowers, something sweet. And she prays to her, welcomes her like we do the āratī for God. She makes tilak. She gives her garland, and she gives something sweet in her mouth, sugar or gourd, and tells my daughter, "Step in your house. This is your house." Now, the mother-in-law knows that this is the boss now, the future of this house. But, there is now but. Mother-in-law, she got the culture of this house, the tradition of this house, from her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law gave her everything, the responsibilities of this house. Families, cultures, traditions, relatives, rules, regulations. And with hard work, with hard work, I took care of it. Now, my daughter, I give you, and you should take care of this: relatives, the children, the parents, the village, the societies, the religious, pūjās, everything. And if the daughter-in-law makes a mistake, then the mother-in-law is angry because she preserved this culture. And you are destroying, that is why sometimes we go, "Oh, mother-in-law, mother-in-law is not like that." She loves you, but she does not want that something is destroying, and that is why we lost the relation of mother-in-law, father-in-law, and children, and that is why. You just take your things and go away. You do not care what happened. We destroy the ancient wisdom, ancient culture. So think over, please, what you can do and how you can preserve your culture. I am not telling you that you accept. Now, Indian culture, you have a beautiful culture. Your past ancestors had very beautiful cultures, so we shall follow that ancient wisdom. Our life will be more happy and more relaxed. This is the message I want to tell you this evening. I bless you, in the name of our spiritual holy lineage. I wish you a very beautiful, happy, harmonious, and healthy long life. Think over and try to read some good books, not only one-sided, but from everywhere, from different sides. That will give you more beautiful knowledge and information than just something, some magazine, or something like this. When you read one book, do not read continuously. One chapter a day is more than enough, or the same chapter three times. For example, you read the Bhagavad Gītā. Every day, from the same mantra, you get new knowledge; you get new meanings. So, wisdom is like, if we call it the ever-milky cow, which gives ever milk, and that is the milk of wisdom. God bless you. Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ... Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī jai.