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How many here are already self-realized? Raise your hands. Well, no answer is also an answer. You are the luckiest ones, for you have not yet attained Realization. Because after attaining Self-Realization, life is completely different. As Śaṅkarācārya wrote in a Sanskrit song, you must renounce many, many things. In my opinion, Self-realization should come, and it does come, in the last minutes of one's lifetime. We have the pañca tattva, the five elements of the body, the five jñāna-indriyas (senses of perception), and the five karma-indriyas (organs of action). All this we have in our life, in our body, in our mind, in our imagination, in our feelings, and so on. Yesterday we spoke about karma. Many people understand karma, and many don't want to understand karma. That doesn't matter. Whether you understand it or not, it is. It is not within your power to avoid it or delete it. There is one story of a great king who became a sādhu or sannyāsī. Why did he become a sādhu, why did he renounce? That story is a little bit long and frightening. Therefore, I turned the pages to the other side. Or, do you want to know? I was thinking. I will tell you afterwards. When he became a sannyāsī, you have to have vairāgya (dispassion). And you should not have any ambition to become a sannyāsī. Because if you want to become a sannyāsī, then there is no expectation. Not even of mokṣa (liberation). It is a state of no death and no life. It’s a very peculiar state of mind. It takes time, but you must have perfect vairāgya, perfect renunciation, to endure all situations as a sannyāsī: no anger, no hate, no jealousy, no greed. And it can happen that after a while your vairāgya diminishes. This can happen, and it happens to many. Therefore, there is one bhajan from Mahāprabhujī’s writing, the "Mahabhūtabhujyirtai" bhajan: "Vairāgya nai ho vairé, bīnā satsaṅg vairāgya nai ho vairé." Without satsaṅg (holy company), there is no vairāgya. Without satsaṅg, you cannot get vairāgya. Satsaṅg is a part of yoga. But it is one of the best yogas, the highest yoga. It is the essence of yoga, the purpose of yoga. Creating realization through that yoga is called satsaṅg. Follow the path of the truth. Brahma-satyaṁ, jagat-mithyā. Brahman is the only truth; this world is illusion. This world is not everlasting. It is an illusion. Only Brahman is brahma-satya (the true reality). This world is only gashap (gossip), quarreling, torturing, and so on. The jīvātmā (individual soul) in this body is still suffering. But when this jīvātmā comes into the Brahmaloka, then there will be no more torture, nothing like that. When you want to have vairāgya, you must renounce and go somewhere where you have no connection to anyone. That is why it is said one should go to the ṛṣi, and ṛṣi means hermitage. That hermitage is in the forest, in such a place that hardly anyone can approach you. Or go into the mountains, into caves, and so on. We are enjoying this worldly life. That means there is no more vairāgya, as Śaṅkarācārya said. There are different kinds of vairāgya. One vairāgya is called graveyard vairāgya. Śmaśāna vairāgya. What does it mean? When your dear one dies—your good friend, your neighbor, your best colleague, your family member, your father, grandfather, your wife, husband, children, anyone—your horse, your cow, your cat... but you are not carrying your mosquito to the graveyard, no? When we humans are connected through ceremony, pūjā, in every tradition, every belief, every religion, every country, everywhere, we go and conduct the funeral. According to Hindu Dharma, you should perform a funeral as soon as possible, on the same day. But not at night. After sunset, no. The next day, you must do it. Otherwise, it is a sin. It is said that if you wait, some ancestors or some ghost will enter that body, and that entity will go into the grave or to what we call the crematorium. Therefore, do not keep the dead body for long. It is also said that the subject is coming from the other direction. When you build a house and it is completed, at the height of the house you put a flag on it or a branch of a tree. You do, yes? Why? Can you answer me why? Because this signifies that the construction is now completed, and you have now established your territory. You are complete, you are finished, you have achieved. And you are dedicating it to God or to your ancestors or anyone. After that, you must have a pūjā. That is what we call graha praveśa according to the Vāstu Śāstra. This should be done as soon as possible. Graha is a house, and praveśa means you now enter your house to live. That is what we call here a housewarming. What does housewarming mean? It is the first time you make fire for cooking, the first time you light the flame for pūjā, and the first time you cook there. And there you should not cook any dead body. What is the dead body? All kinds of meat. All kinds of eggs. If you do this, it is 100% certain that in that house, you will not enjoy it, or your children will not enjoy it. The children will not be peaceful in that house. You made a beautiful house with four rooms. One room for the grandparents, one for the parents, one for the sister, one for the brother, and one you try to have for a guest. Many of you know you built your house thinking, "We will have children. This is a place for the children." But very soon the child will move out, or the husband will move out. The wife will say, "What a burden! I have to clean everything. I have to lock all the windows and doors." This means distraction, family distraction, what we call family life. Do you have a family life? Still, thanks to God, in Europe we still have family life. But in many countries, the parents tell the children, "Why don’t you go out?" This is the effect of that house, or even a flat, where you performed the ceremony improperly. You brought dead bodies (meat), alcohol, etc. So that will cause distraction, and that’s why it happens in life. So, a housewarming party: you invite your good friends and you make a prayer. If you believe in Christianity, you also call a priest to bless that house, and so on. If you don’t have a paṇḍit or priest, you can do it yourself. We are not so stupid that we cannot light a dīpak (lamp) like this. That is called the Graha Praveśa. The first thing you cook there is very significant for Agni Deva (the fire god). First, we worship Agni Deva. That Agni Deva is sitting in our navel, our digestion. If the digestive fire is not functioning, you cannot digest. We are offering all the prāṇas to the different prāṇas: prāṇa, apāna, samāna, vyāna, etc. They all function in our body. We know we can inhale, but it can happen that we cannot inhale anymore. It can happen we have an emergency with apāna. If the apāna doesn’t function properly, your intestines lack strength. You cannot pass stool or urine. At that time, apāna śakti is missing. So these five prāṇas which we have, we offer in that house pūjā. Similarly, if you build an ashram or a temple, if you make a temple, then you must perform the ceremony very soon and install the deity for which you built the temple. If you have not performed the worship, the ceremonies—we call it prāṇapratiṣṭhā—then ghosts will enter. They are searching for a room. You will not complete it, or when you do, it will not be good. So that is like a curse. There is one house I have been observing for nearly 35 years, or let’s say 30 years. One house between Bratislava and Brno, I think it’s between Bratislava and Prague. When you drive on the highway, on the right side is one house. Some person who lived in Canada or somewhere—I don’t know—made a beautiful house, but I don’t know why construction stopped. Still now it is like a ruin. There is not even... you go in, it’s frightening. There are no windows, or some windows are broken, etc. Similarly, the human body. Animals perform their funeral very quickly. Yes, they have other creatures, and they will do their ceremony. But we cannot just throw a human body away like that. It is a law, human law. If you find someone’s dead body and no one declares it is my friend or this or that, it is out of respect for human life that the country, the people, will perform a funeral. So, my dear, it is the same with this prāṇa and this body. We have to worship and proceed further. Prāṇa in this body and all the organs in this body have their functions. You cannot neglect them; even if you want to neglect, you cannot. So vairāgya is not easy. And when you have vairāgya, you must keep it. Otherwise, your sādhanā (spiritual practice), your sannyāsa, is no longer successful. Then it is said, there is one bhajan. One part from this bhajan, you know this. Can you tell me the translation? You say English, Hindi, I would tell also, so that they will say, "Yes, Swāmījī really said something correct or not." In front of Guru Dev, it is like a sesame seed and kora (unhusked grain). They say you get sesame seed untouched, or if you have black, then just peel them and take oil out from the sesame seeds. The middle thing is not useful. Like if you don’t have kora, like fresh or pure, then just take the oil out from that, because you are not here or there. If you are in the middle, it is not very good. So, it is talking to your ātmā, to yourself. An example: either you should take out the oil from the oil seeds, or leave it complete. If you just crush it, it’s not so useful. You neither get the oil, nor do the whole seeds remain. From both sides, it is gone. So either do it completely, or don’t do it. So either have Vairāgya and Sannyāsa, or be finished. Do what you like. Because anyhow, you will again go somewhere. But Vairāgya and Sannyāsa have to lead to Brahmaloka. You can lead to the Brahmaloka, but there should be no ambition, not that "I am the best," and "I am this," and "I just buy this and that." That is very important. Anyhow, now that king... you think Swamiji forgot? I can tell you the king’s story, why he got Vairāgya. Do you know? No, no. King Bhartṛ. Do you know why he got vairāgya? Yes. I should not tell. Okay, there was a king. It can be any king. This king loved his queen very, very much. And he loved his whole kingdom very much. And she loved the king. But you remember, yesterday morning and evening, I told you something? That you never know who is thinking what. You remember? So the king was very great, very honest, everything, and his people loved him very much. Really, he was like a father. In those times, the people were not lazy, not so much like now. The populace had discipline. They did not want to make children whenever they liked or without knowing, surprised, "Oh God, I am pregnant." They were doing pūjā, particular nourishment, considering constellations, etc., but this is another subject again. In one forest, one sādhu was living. A master, a saint, a vairāgī, whatever you call them. He was living in a forest. One day, a beautiful fruit came into his hand. And that fruit spoke to the ātmā, to the sādhu. This fruit said, "What I am in your hand, I am. You should eat me. You will become immortal." Nobody else was there. The fruit was talking. The Sadhu was nirmohī. What is nirmohī? Nirmohī means no attachment. No moha (delusion), no ignorance. He thought, "What will I do to live forever? It is boring. I have had enough of this vairāgya and what I do. I have my mokṣa, I have my liberation. But I should give this fruit to someone who can utilize it better." And he said, "I was thinking, who can be better than our king?" So he went to the king. The king was so happy that the saint came home. He performed a pūjā and washed the feet of the saint. Kali, Kali, Harsha, Kali, Kali, Harsha, Vata Hai, Mhari Kali, Kali, Harsha, Vata Hai, Kali, Vata Hai, Mhari Kali, Kali, Harsha, Vata Hai. The king was so happy. Then the king asked, "Gurudev, what can I do for you? Why didn’t you send a message? I could have come there. Why did you come? But I am fortunate that you came." The saint said, "King, I have this one fruit. This fruit grants immortality. I have no more desires, and I have achieved my immortality. I don’t want to throw away this fruit. So I give it to you, please. You should eat this fruit, for you are such a great king. What a fortunate king for this kingdom. So please take and eat." And he left. The king was very happy, and he was looking at the fruit. He put it aside. He said mentally, "I love my queen so much. She should live forever, young, strong, beautiful, gracious." So in the evening, when the king came back into the room, he told his queen, "My dear," and he told her the whole story. "But promise me you will eat." She said, "Of course, my lord. When you give it to me, and I will not eat, who is the unlucky one? I will eat. I will be yours forever." Then he said, "Eat, please." She said, "I will eat peacefully after. Yes. Let it be in your room for a while. It will have the influence, the energy of immortality, on you too." She was, unfortunately or fortunately, in love with a horse boy. And she wanted to give this fruit to him so that he would be ever strong, young, and ever-living. So she called him that day, told him everything, and gave him the fruit. She said, "Promise me you will eat." He said, "Yeah, yeah." He was not so friendly and not happy. Well, he took the fruit and said, "What will I do? This stupid one gave me this fruit." But, you see, there is always a "but," my dear. I am talking about vairāgya, yes, sādhanā. He was in love with one street lady, a prostitute, and he loved her so much, and she also... So in the evening he went to that girl and told her, "I got this fruit, the fruit of immortality. I have had enough of cleaning the horses, but I think you should live healthy, long, and happy, everlasting. Please eat it yourself." And he said, "See you tomorrow, immortal fruit, my dear." Yes, that immortal fruit, don’t let it drip down, let it remain there. The fruit is hanging there up, so wait. Who is the lucky one whose head it will fall down? She was very sad. "What will I do to live forever? I have had enough of this life. I only ever pray, 'God, let me die.'" But she was thinking, "My king of my country, he is such a great person; he’s like a father to all, a brother to all. He’s the father of our kingdom. I wish very much that our king will live forever." And she sent a message to the king. The king gave her an appointment. She came. He said, "Yes, my daughter, what can I do for you?" She said, "My lord, my father, I have something for you." And she told the whole story and said, "Please accept this fruit. You should eat it. You should be immortal." The king said, "Okay, thank you." He was surprised. "How many immortal fruits are there? How lucky I am. It’s always coming to me," he said. So he asked, "From where did you get this?" She told him, "From the horse boy." He said, "Okay, thank you." He called the horse boy. "Do you know this fruit?" He said, "Yes, I know." "To whom did you give it?" Then he talked about this lady. "From where did you get it?" He knew that if he lied, he would die, or be tortured, or who knows. So he said, "The queen gave it to me." "Okay, thank you, my son. Go and enjoy." Evening came, the queen arrived. They were sitting and talking nicely. Then the king said, "Do you know this fruit?" She said, "Oh my God, what a great—from where did you get it, darling? I’m so happy that we both will be immortal now." He said, "Yes, I will be immortal now. But you know from where you got that fruit?" "My Lord, so sweet, so great. I’m still feeling high." He said, "Don’t play theater. You know from where it comes? The horse boy gave it to you." Then she was looking. It was like Inspector Colombo; he researches everything. So the king didn’t say anything. He just left. He just left and attained vairāgya. That vairāgya was such a strong vairāgya that it brought him to immortality. So that disappointment, that kind of experience, was the fruit of immortality which led him to immortality. So, renounce and enjoy. However, as long as you are still attached and you cause pain to others, it will come back. So we are Agnya (perhaps referring to the ājñā chakra or a state of awareness), and that’s what a yogic... There are different parts of yoga. One yoga is what we have, what we are doing: āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, relaxation to live healthy, live long. But as we see, there is so much freedom in this world now, and this freedom has lost many things. So families are dissolved. But still, in certain countries, in European countries, I see there are still very good connections to the parents. In Eastern countries, there is, of course, a lot of relation with the parents still. Yes. So practice and vairāgya. This means give up attachment. It is better to get rid of attachment now than to suffer at the time of your last minutes of life. What will happen with my property? What will happen with my house? What will happen with my car? What will happen with my money? What will be with this and that? We die suffering. Or as soon as we lose our memories, we suffer. So why not attain renunciation, what we call vairāgya? Slowly, slowly reduce attachments. Otherwise, we travel so much around the world, buying souvenirs, expensive souvenirs. We smuggled them, we didn’t declare them because you had to pay tax. Many things, nice, something was there. But finally we realized all these souvenirs are dust collectors in your house, so much dust. Who will clean? And you don’t want to let them break. You don’t want to let anybody come in; they will steal them. So, Mokṣa—give up. Finally, the king, Bāṛtharī, he became a sannyāsī. He thought, "I will make pūjā. I will pray." First of all, the devas, God is. Then he said, "But devas are not free from karma." Then he said, "Why should I not pray to God?" Then he said, "Even Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, they are all bound to karma. Then why should I go down to them?" He was thinking very deeply. Then he said, "Why should I not surrender to the karmas?" That’s it. So all karmas within you, you have to resolve. All this, what is making you unhappy, torturing you, many, many things within you. Make your life easier. Many of us are unhappy and suffering because we are not free from the karma which is within us. Oh God, all the immortal fruits flew away. I knew that the wind would take them away. I’m sorry. I can’t give you the immortal fruit, but I can give you immortal vairāgya. All right, wish you a good appetite. All the best. Devpurījī Mahādeva, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān, Satya Sanātana.