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Oṁ, Dhyān Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devādhī Dev Deveśvar Mahādev Kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Alak Purī Jīsita Pīṭha Paramparā Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahātmā Dāleśvar Paramātmā, Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Kī Jai. Good evening, all dear ones. The subject is meditation and the techniques of meditation. What is a very important point in meditation? That is called mantra—the seed. Without a seed, nothing can grow. Therefore, the seed in meditation is the mantra. Without a Guru Mantra, meditation is like a statue without life in it. We should know which principles to follow and what support to seek. There are many things to observe, but the soul of meditation, as I said, is the mantra. Our beloved Gurudev, Holī Gurudev, said that mantra is a simple answer; it fulfills all our wishes and calms the mind. The mind is that which moves everything. Just as a hungry person who gets food to eat afterwards says, "Now my hunger is fulfilled," similarly, the mind is hungry, running here and there restlessly. But when the mind receives the mantra, it becomes calm and supports our practice of meditation. There are many different kinds of mantras. We spoke the day before yesterday about yajñas, about the world, about astrological mantras, and many other ceremonies. But the real mantra is called Guru Mantra. You may know a mantra, but it must be given to a disciple with the blessing: "This is your mantra." Otherwise, you can take a mantra and repeat it; it will have an effect, but not that reality. It is with the blessing of Gurudev that he plants the seed in our consciousness which will bear fruit. That mantra is called Guru Mantra. It is said that as a human, one should be Guru Mukhi, not Man Mukhi. Manmukhī means one decides what one wants to do, practices what one wants to practice, and thinks, "I can achieve perfection." But that is like a fake passport. The real passport is from your government, issued in the name of the president and that officer. That passport allows you to go anywhere without problems. "Passport" means you pass through any port—the border. Similarly, you have a mantra that is called a passport. The stamp of that mantra is your mālā, the rosary you use for your mantra practice. Many people think we don't need a mālā or a mantra. This is called manmukhī. Who has understood what mantra is and what the guru's blessing is? Furthermore, the guru should be from a spiritual heritage, a spiritual lineage. There are many different kinds of fruit trees, and these fruits are of many ages. Our spiritual lineage comes directly from God itself. This guru principle exists in each and every age, in every yuga. Therefore, it is said that in the universal principle, within that principle are Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva. The first are Śiva, Viṣṇu, and Brahmā. These are called the creator, protector, and liberator. Brahmā's duty is the creation of this universe, this world. Viṣṇu's duty is protection, maintaining sustainability. And Śiva is the liberator, the remover of negative energy and devils. So Śiva is known as Sarjana Hara. In reality, he is the creator, and with Sarjana Hara, he is who can delete everything again. Above all that, there is a principle called guru. "Gu" means darkness, and "ru" means light. He is the one who removes the darkness of ignorance and leads us to the light of wisdom, freedom, and mokṣa. So mokṣa, brahmajñāna, is given through the principle of the guru. The guru is not a body; it is a principle. Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva are not bodies. But this light must be manifested somewhere. We have light here in this bulb; the light must be produced, otherwise the bulb will be dark. It is connected to the powerhouse, which produces the power. We can sit in sunlight and feel its warmth, but we cannot make the light ourselves. Now, through science, we have solar panels. We catch the light and use many techniques; there will be batteries. Similarly, this light is the guru-tattva. So it is said, how should it be described? "Guru Brahmā"—Guru is the creator. "Guru Viṣṇu"—Guru is the protector. "Guru Devo Maheśvara"—Guru is the liberator. "Gurur śakṣāt paraṁ brahma"—He is himself Brahman. "Tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ"—Therefore, to this guru principle, we bow down. Now, what does "Guru Brahmā" mean? The guru creates knowledge in the mind or consciousness of the human. He gives us inspiration, inspires us, gives satsaṅg, and leads us to satsaṅg. That is why he is Brahmā, the creator. He creates manifestation in the bhaktas. "Guru Viṣṇu"—he protects that bhakta, that disciple, from negative energy and the negative path. The guru is like a magnet, and the disciple is like iron; the magnet attracts the iron towards itself. So the Gurudeva, through satsaṅg, through inspirations, through the words (Guruvākya), brings the ātmā, the soul of the disciple, towards that light of the Master. The Master is a light, and all bhaktas are the moths which come near the light. There are some creatures who do not like light. When light is present, they go into the darkness. Those hints and prāṇī, those who commit violence, are animals which kill other animals. Mostly they are hidden somewhere or go under rocks in the darkness. They come in the night; they hunt in the night when other creatures are sleeping and attack them in the darkness. That is the devil's energy. There are many such creatures. But the bhaktas search for the light. They survive in the light, so the light gives an invitation to those moths. We go, we search towards the light. Light is knowledge. Those who are searching and coming are in ignorance, in darkness, so they come to the light. So, Guru Brahmā creates the inspiration. Guru Viṣṇu protects with many things. A guru can be angry, can be strict, can also be kind. It is very hard to understand what a guru is. When he is a little strict, some say, "Ah, I don't want to go anymore." This means one is still far away from the search for spirituality. You should listen to the Guru Gītā, and then you will see how the disciple has to follow. "Guru Devo Maheśvara"—Guru is the liberator. That is Śiva. "Tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ"—and therefore I bow down to the Guru. That technique—which mantra—when you understand the mantra, then this mantra becomes your prāṇa. The mantra becomes your soul, and spontaneously the mantra comes into your memory. You are repeating and resonating in the whole body. There are different techniques to achieve perfection of the mantra. There is one mantra that, when you say it, gives a blessing. You might say, "Through your mantra, it should be successful," or, "Even without giving, still success." With more practice, like a blessing... Are you really giving a blessing, or did you just say, "Okay, the master will say so"? It means wait, or the master says, "So it is okay." You do not know how the energy is going. That is it. It is said the first step is writing the mantra with very proper pronunciation—the alphabet. I am talking about the Sanskrit alphabet, which is called Devanāgarī. "Deva" means goddess, "Nāgarī" means the citizen—the citizen of the higher world. That is why it is called Devanāgarī. There are 52 alphabets in the Hindi or Sanskrit language. These 52 are different elements, you could say, as it is God. Now you have the seven chakras, from Mūlādhāra to Sahasrāra. Except Sahasrāra, up to the Ājñā Chakra, how many petals are there? On each petal, there is a mantra, plus one bīja mantra. So, all together, how many petals are there? Someone will look and count. Each petal... how many petals are here? There, there... all. You should count. You do not need a computer for these few chakras. This means we are not learned; we depend on the computer. So, how many? Forty-eight plus the bīja mantra. So these chakras, these mantras... it is Oṁ on the Sahasrāra chakra, then it is Laṁ, Raṁ, Yaṁ, Haṁ. These are four. So four chakras, mantras. So it is fifty-two alphabets. Now, these fifty-two petals of the lotus are in the human consciousness, in the human phenomenon. There are so many divine goddesses protecting you, guarding you, leading you, keeping you on the human track. This is called Akṣara Brahma. "Akṣara" means alphabet. Akṣara Brahma means that this alphabet is Brahman himself. To understand, we should know this all is in your body—of course in my body also, in everyone's. That is what God places in the body when the human body is developing in the embryo. Every chakra, every alphabet, and many other symbols create the complete human consciousness, from the Brahmaloka down to this Mṛtyuloka. Therefore, the human is known as divine—Devas and Devīs. So you are a Deva. "Deva" is masculine, and "Devī" is feminine. It means consciousness and energy. These two dwell in our whole body, with the chakras, taking care. So, writing your mantra: write in very good letters, like an artist, slowly, maybe only one line. Write in such a way that it imprints on your consciousness as a picture. The mantra given to you by your guru will purify and awaken the light in your every chakra, every level of consciousness—Akṣara Brahman. Then, while you are writing, you will listen to the sound of your mantra. It is said that when an artist is painting, you can hear it as music. And a musician, an artist, when he or she plays an instrument, the sound that comes—nāda—you can paint it. The sound of the sitar, guitar, piano, or any other instrument—you do not only enjoy the sound, but you can paint it on your consciousness. That is called the artist, whether painting or making resonance. When an artist is painting, he is in a higher dimension because he is from the Ājñā Chakra, the third eye, etc. So the second comes after the letters. It comes: "nāda rūpa paraṁ brahma." Nāda—sound, resonance—that is also Brahman. Akṣara brahma: the letter is Brahman. Nāda rūpa paraṁ brahma: the form of that resonance is Parabrahma, above Brahma. Where is that? It is within the human body. It is a pity that someone destroys the human body through drugs, through alcohol, through eating dead bodies, etc. Very, very bad is thinking of suicide. The biggest sin is killing a human. You kill the humans. You are the devas. You are Śiva-Śakti. Do not separate. You can never separate; it is consciousness and energy—Śiva Śakti. Gaurī Śaṅkara. That is called Gaurī Śaṅkara. Half is female body, half is male body. That is Gaurī Śaṅkara. That manifests when the kuṇḍalinī awakens and your whole chakra system is purified. Then you feel the unity. That means the kuṇḍalinī rises from the Mūlādhāra up into the Sahasrāra. But it is not so easy. What I am talking about is like a dream for us. Yes, but nothing is impossible. Therefore, after writing your mantra, you pronounce your mantra. That is called Vekrī Mantra. "Oṁ so'haṁ saguṇa brahma śrīdīpa paripūrṇa nārāyaṇa namaḥ." It goes from the foundation, from the beginning, to that Brahman. "Oṁ Śrī Deveśvara Mahādevāya Namaḥ." Every mantra has nāda. So when you are alone, chant, but do not chant quickly. Let each letter resonate in our consciousness, in our body. "Oṁ so'haṁ." You see, when you chant this mantra, there is a vibration. Nāda comes from here. Nāda rūpa paraṁ brahma. So this is the second step of perfecting our mantra. Then comes upāṁśu. Your lips are moving, your tongue is moving, but no sound is produced. It means now you are going very deep into the head, into the depth of your Self. That is called upāṁśukha. After that comes mānasika. It means only in your mind. That is very beautiful. So whenever you have no work to do, do not think nonsense things. Just chant, repeat your mantra, always. You know, the cosmic mother is like the queen of the bees. Hundreds, thousands of bees go and search and bring nectar. Why do we call it nectar? Immortality. So, that queen and that beehive, the whole house of the bees, is Śiva and Śakti. And we all bhaktas bring that nectar, the essence, from all different flowers. It means, from a worldly point, wherever we go, whatever we see, we always transfer our impression as nectar, as honey. So the bee can take nectar even from a poisonous flower. So we can, even from a very bad person, take the good quality out of that person, developing it in our consciousness. That is called Mānasika. And the fifth one? It is called Anāhata. Anāhata. This mantra automatically repeats itself, so it is called Ajapa. "A" means no. "Japa" means practice, so you need not practice anymore. It goes by itself constantly. So the lips and tongue do not move. When you are practicing mentally, your tongue is still moving inside. The tongue is inside, so everything is in balance, silent, motionless. At that time, you achieve perfection. Now you are on your right path, on that highway. Then it is from the moon. Until the camel hump becomes one, that time the state of meditation begins. Before that, it is all struggling, concentration, trying, imagining, etc. But you could not open that combination lock. So we try and try and try. It is gone. You know, you have chewing gum. So you are chewing and chewing and chewing. So you are practicing, reading this book, reading that book, going to that master, to this master, but nothing. Not one centimeter do we move forward. Therefore, Mahāprabhujī's bhajans, our Mahāprabhujī's teachings. Therefore, it is said, "Gurudev Bina, Arjuna, Gurudev Na, Koti Upāya Kare Koi, Koti Upāya Chaito." Yes, no, no marathon. No, slow, no marathon. You did not listen to what I was talking about? What you sing or play, they can paint. And what you are painting, you can sing, so it has to become one. Now understand, listen to this within thyself. What you are singing, listen to yourself within. Otherwise, it is a disco, okay? You do not know what was happening. Therefore, meditation. So, likhita—by writing; vekrī—chanting; upāṁśu—inner chanting with no voice; mānasika—in the mind; and then ajapa. Then you need not repeat. You should repeat as your sādhanā. Every day, how many mālās should you do? Make a saṅkalpa. Gurujī said that whenever Gurujī came to Mahāprabhujī, then all his mālās—what he repeated—he prayed to Mahāprabhujī's Holy Lotus Feet. "All these mantras I repeated, I surrender to Thy Holy Lotus Feet. And now, until I come back, I will repeat so many mantras every day." This is number one. And second, every Guru Pūrṇimā, Gurujī made a saṅkalpa: from this Guru Pūrṇimā to the next Guru Pūrṇimā, I will do that many million mantras. So, what does that mean? Let's say 100,000 mantras. So 100,000 mantras to repeat, divided into 365 days. How many mantras do you have to repeat per day? You can divide it further. How many mālās in the morning? How many in the evening? Or, how much daytime do you have? This shows now you know: five morning, five noon, and five evening. That is fifteen mālās. It means one thousand five hundred. Eight is donation. That is it. So, like this, until the next Guru Pūrṇimā, how many mantras do you have to do? You come to Gurudev and, with Mānasika Pūjā, you offer it to Gurudev. It means you deposit into your account in the bank of Gurudev. That is it. So it is not a credit; you are just putting it in. That is how we are working. Plus, if I make a mistake, then we are replacing it, and that is with the Śrīmaraṇī, all the time repeating the name of Gurudeva, so that this is an extra deposit that comes to us. That is how a real bhakta, a real sādhaka, a real master who truly wants to reach that higher level, then consciously or unconsciously they are repeating this mantra. Then you become something, my dear. Only practicing half a minute or five minutes, and then, "Okay, finished." When you put a seed in the ground, you should clean the ground. Check everything. If there are other creatures, they will eat the seed. Then it grows. Take care, give water. Do not give too much water. Do not let it dry. Take care that other animals do not destroy it. So your—our sādhanā, our spiritual sādhanā—we should protect it. There are so many bugs, so many creatures that can destroy your gentle plants. And for Kushaṅga, in Kushaṅga is that kind of bacteria, and that energy which I told you yesterday, how this energy, infection can enter your spirituality. And everything that you did for it becomes nothing. So in one year, your mantra bank, you will see a balance. And that will not get lost. Everything else can be lost, but this will not be lost. Karma will not get lost. It does not matter; you may be happy with what you did, but karma is there. Good karma is good karma. Bad karma is bad karma, so there are two stories we have. We are storing there every thought, every feeling, every doubt, every negative energy, everything. Therefore, take care very slowly and carefully. Mahāprabhujī said very clearly to his mind—our mind.