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I promised to tell a story for the children. But we need all the children to come to the front. Are you ready to hear a story? Once upon a time, there was a bird, a sparrow, and she was about to have babies. So she made one beautiful nest. She spent lots of time making this nest, but she made it just near the ocean. And then the eggs were hatching, and there were four baby birds. So these four baby birds were sitting in the nest. But then a big wave came from the ocean. And the water came and caught the babies and took them out into the ocean. Now the mother was very sad, and she wanted to have her babies back. And all of the other sparrows heard that she was crying. So then they all came to try to help. First one came, then ten came, then a hundred came. And then thousands of birds came. And they all started to try to help get back the babies. First, they’d fly out into the ocean, and then in their mouth they’d take some water, and then they’d bring it back to the shore, to the beach, and then they’d put the water there instead of in the ocean because they thought if they could take all the water out, then they’d get the babies back. But it was a big job, a lot of work. There were thousands and thousands of birds, all flying into the ocean, taking some water, and coming back to the beach. And then when they come to the beach, they take a little bit of sand in their mouth and put it in the ocean. And so they’d take some sand and put it in the ocean to try and fill up the ocean with sand. And they thought that they would get those babies back eventually. And they kept working and working and working, all together, helping. Then Nārada Muni was walking past. He’s always walking around and checking what’s going on. And when he saw what was going on, that the birds were working so hard to try and get back these babies, Nārada could go anywhere; he could fly anywhere. So he went to heaven to see Indra. Now, Indra is one of the gods. And Indra has always with him one big, big bird called Garuḍa. I don’t actually know how big Garuḍa would be, but he’s probably bigger than this whole ashram. And Garuḍa was sitting there, and Nārada was talking to Indra, his master. But he made sure that he was talking so loud that Garuḍa could also hear. And Indra would always ask Nārada, "What is news in the world? What is happening?" Because Nārada knew everything that was going on, and he said, "Oh, things are good on earth. All the people are happy." And then he said very loud, so Garuḍa could hear, he said, "But the birds are not happy." And Garuḍa, this big, big bird who was a little bit sleeping, woke up and said, "What are you saying? Why aren’t the birds happy?" And Nārada said, "The birds aren’t happy because there was one mother, and her babies got taken by the ocean. There were four babies, and they disappeared in the ocean. Now, all the birds are trying to get them back." And Garuḍa said, "How can this be that my friends, all of my brothers and sisters, are having trouble?" And then this great big bird flew down from heaven to the ocean. And then, with one of his wings, he pushed half of the beach into the water. Now the ocean was filling quite quickly with sand. And the god of the ocean thought, "If this keeps going, then I’ll be full soon, and I won’t have any water inside." So the god of the ocean came out and said, "Garuḍa, Garuḍa, what are you doing?" And Garuḍa said, "Give back the babies, or we’re going to fill the whole ocean with sand." And he said, "Yeah, yeah... I’ll bring them quickly." And then he brought back all four babies. And then they were all happy again, and the mother was very happy, and she wasn’t crying anymore. So you know, even though those babies were so small, when they all got together and helped each other, they could even fill the whole ocean with sand. So that’s why you should always help your brothers and your sisters and your friends and your mother and your father. That’s the end of the story. I actually thought of that story because of one part of the Upaniṣad that we were talking about. That’s the story of trying to control our vṛttis. You just get them to sit down, and they come back up again. There’s one part of that, the Kaṭhopaniṣad, and it’s saying that there’s a certain point that you can come to by your own effort, and then it doesn’t actually specify. But the God or the energy will come and take you for the rest of the journey. Somehow, when I was thinking of that, it reminded me of that story. Because these little birds actually had no chance. But they all joined together, and they started to work. And then from above came the Garuḍa. Somehow, in that same way, like that energy which comes to take you in the Upaniṣad, the Guru came and started to do that work and achieved that which they were trying to achieve. And those thousands of birds, you know, it’s just like all of our small, small things that we do in our life. If they’re all united towards that goal, which we have towards our spiritual path. If we can gather them together and get them all to work together towards that, rather than all running here and there on different things. Then we can go on that way, we can get to that point. I remember once reading Swami Satyānanda describing that focus of energy. That you can have the same source of light, a red light, that if it’s going in all directions, it will be basically nothing. But when it’s focused on one point, it becomes a laser. And they use lasers to burn things and cut things. It’s still the same energy there, the same light there, but it’s focused. That’s what we have to try and do. Pull ourselves together. Pull out all of our vṛttis which are going everywhere and pull them all towards that one goal. One śloka from the Kaṭhopaniṣad. I tried to find a bit of a simpler type of English. I didn’t think about it until I started reading it out, but it was quite complicated. The Ātmā, subtler than the subtle, greater than the great is seated in the heart of each living being. He who is free from desire, with his mind and senses composed, beholds the majesty of the Self and becomes free from sorrow. That’s a translation of that śloka from Swami Śivānandajī. But so many times we talk about the fact that our Mahāprabhujī is dwelling here. Seated in the heart, in the Anāhat Chakra. And somehow in that śloka also is a similar thing. And that theme is also there, of having to quieten your vṛttis, quieten the mind, control the senses, and then be able to come to that. There is also the theme that we have to calm our mind, control our senses, and then we will get to it. There’s a part of the story of Prahlād. Prahlad’s father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, is extremely upset with Viṣṇu because Viṣṇu has killed his brother. He engages in tapasyā and achieves that Brahmā blesses him only because he wants to kill Viṣṇu, to get revenge. And Viṣṇu is trying to run away. And where does he hide? According to the story, he hides inside Hiraṇyakaśipu’s heart. Even in that rākṣasa, all those tendencies which are there in Hiraṇyakaśipu. Inside of his heart, Viṣṇu is hiding so that he cannot find him, because he is never going to look there. As he is, as that one who is just looking to the outer things and looking to the material world, the last place he’s going to look at any time is going to be inside. So Viṣṇu is safely sitting there inside him. And Hiraṇyakaśipu searches for him so much that he finally decides that he’s already dead. Because he’s figured out that he’s searched the whole world, he’s checked everywhere, he’s not there, so he cannot be. The same way, before you turn yourself in, before you start to search in, when you search everywhere for that happiness, we are directed with our senses towards everything that’s around. But all the time, it’s just waiting there; it’s inside. In the bhajan that I often sing, "Is Dīvānī Kā," Brahmānandajī says, "Tere to tujhe māyā virajī, don’t you know you’re sitting inside your own māyā?" That what you’re searching for is already sitting inside yourself. And just see the truth of it. Put the crown of the truth on it. So somehow in this śloka of the Upaniṣad also, it’s just saying that what we’re searching for, it’s there. It’s seated within every one of us. Our tapas, our discipline, our practice, our sādhanā, it’s all aimed towards bringing our souls back. To allow our minds and our senses to become silent, so that we can hear the voice that’s already there. And we heard that call; we heard that voice. Kabīr Dāsjī has one Dohā: Kabīr śebā deśarīrāme, bināguna bhāje tāti, bāha bitharā dhamirāhā, tāte jyute bharantī. And it means that Kabīr heard inside himself the sound of the vīṇā that didn’t have any strings. That sound that he found, that it was the sound, was inside and outside, everywhere. And from hearing that, all of his doubts were gone. If he has that realization, then the doubts are gone. But from what Kabīr is also saying, that sound is there, that vīṇā is playing within us. But the sound is so subtle, we have to hear it. We have to turn down our own volume so that we can hear that which is within. Or tune in our radio to that station. And that’s one of the other parts of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad that says that that sound is Oṁ. And of course, that sound which we are searching for inside is Oṁ. That is what Kabīr is also inferring. Also, as Gurujī is saying, that when you do the mantra, the eye to the lotus of the heart will be opened. In the bhajan "Huva Guru Devaka Darshan," it says, "Hṛdaya paṭakola karadeko," that open the curtain and see into the heart, and there you’ll see that the swans are playing. So many ways of expressing the same thing. That which we are searching for is within us. Even the meaning of the word Anāhat Chakra: it means the sound that’s made when two things are not hit together, the sound where there’s no two things hitting, no things clapping, no vocal cords vibrating. The sound that just comes somehow from itself, that is Oṁ. That is what is there inside, waiting for us to hear.