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We will begin by speaking about Śrī Devpurījī’s gufā, his cave in the Himalayas. Swāmījī is coming, but he still has some work to do, so we will start. We were many, and we were lucky and blessed to be able to go to Śrī Alakhpurījī’s gufā in the Himalayas. We try to find words to explain or describe how it is, but it is actually indescribable. How does one describe the indescribable? How would you describe meditation? To realize and experience your meditation individually, you cannot describe it. Actually, it is nothing special. And it is very special, and at the same time, it is very strange. We journeyed to Delhi, then to Dehradun in the Uttarakhand district, to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is at the bottom, and then it goes continuously up, up, up into the Himalayas. The journey there and back is itself something to see: the nature, the Bhagīrathī and Alaknandā rivers coming down and joining together at Devaprayāg. The air, everything—what can I say? Many of you have been there. Then we went up to Joshimath and Badrināth. Badrināth is above 3000 meters; one can feel the air is a little thinner. What I experienced in the Himalayas, because I practice Agnisāra kriyā and Nauli, is that I could not do it there. It was nearly impossible. I was surprised. One can really feel the high altitude. Then, with five friends—Fiji from Vienna, Gopal, Dr. Chitra from Slovenia, and Dr. Kīrti—we stayed in Badrināth one week before. Every day we did walking training. The first walk was only to Maṇā and back, four kilometers each way, so eight total. The second day, already to Vasudhārā and back, and to Śrī Alakhpurījī’s cave and back. Every day we trained, walking really slowly, a very slow walk. This is the best way, very, very slow. We had a beautiful time there; it was truly a blessing. We could feel Swāmījī’s blessing was with us. We didn’t know if we could go to Devpurījī’s cave or not, as we didn’t have permission. So we said, "Okay, no problem, we will wait for Swāmījī." On the last day, thanks to God and Swāmījī’s work, we got permission from the minister of Uttarakhand, a friend of Swāmījī. He gave permission overnight so that we could go on the 8th of September to Śrī Devpurījī’s Abhṣurya Kuṇḍ. We started, happy of course. We could go, but we didn’t see Swāmījī and couldn’t reach him. At the last moment, we managed to reach Swāmījī and tell him, "Swāmījī, we are going, we are going." Eight of our friends, our children—we call them our children—were the helpers, assisting with the luggage. We had our very nice and good guide from Maṇā, Gajendra. He is truly, how to say, a Śiva bhakta. We started on the first day. The trekking began at Lakṣmī Van, the place where Lakṣmī is said to bathe. If you get up in the night between twelve and one and go out of your tent, then you might see it. There are special trees there; this is the pāc patra. In ancient times, they wrote holy words, and books were made from these parchments. Of course, it is not allowed to take them. We stayed there the first night. It was quite a long walk, but good, up and down through the bushes. From this place, we could already see the camp getting ready for Swāmījī’s arrival with all of you. Everything was there, prepared already. We saw vis-à-vis Alakhpurījī’s cave. In between is the deep valley of the Alaknandā River; you can’t cross there. We stayed there overnight. We had a small dance. There was a very good cook with all equipment, kerosene stoves for eating and cooking. The next day we went further to Cakra Tīrtha. There is a place where many, many thousands of waterfalls come down from the Nīlakaṇṭha mountain. Nīlakaṇṭha is the name for Śiva after he drank the poison and kept it in his throat, turning it blue. The mountains are truly dark blue, the rocks are. This is the Nīlakaṇṭha mountain, and Pārvatī Posa is there. This valley, this kraṭa—one has to go down and then up again. It was quite a cold place, but we didn’t feel so cold as we were walking and moving all the time. During the day we wore the warm clothes we had, but all the time I didn’t use gloves, even when it was snowing; there was no need. All the time we were looking down to see if we could still see the camp of Alakhpurījī. All those looking are still there. How high will we go up? Then, the next day, we continued. The next stop was Satopaṭ Lake. This is also a really special place. The whole Himalayas, the whole area is special. One cannot single out this or that spot. Everywhere there are Śrī Devpurījī’s and Alakhpurījī’s walls. When we read it in the Līlā Amṛt, it is written that they were between Kedārnāth and Badrināth. So this whole area—we cannot say here and there and there—no, it is everywhere. And this one can feel. You can feel that Śrī Devpurījī and Śrī Alakhpurījī lived there. When you read Līlā Amṛt, it is written they were between Kedārnāth and Badrināth. It is known throughout the area, and it is felt. Because when we are up at Devpurījī’s gufā, behind there is Kedārnāth, and behind that is Gaṅgotrī, and behind that is Kailāśa mountain. So everything is there. As Swāmījī said, when we leave this physical body, then he is now outside, but then he is inside. And we are inside, and everything becomes one. I had a feeling there in the Himalayas that Śrī Alakhpurījī is everywhere. We are there, and we are within Him, and He is within us. So, how to explain this? As Swāmījī said, when He leaves the physical body, He can be in the physical body and everywhere around it. That was the experience I had in the Himalayas: that everywhere around us was Alakhpurījī, but at the same time He was in us. That is hard to describe. It is like space. How to explain space? There is only one example: the whole space is the Mahākāśa. Then we come inside a house; it is the next space in the house, with only the walls in between—the Matākāśa. And then there is the space in one pot, the Kāṭakāśa, only the walls are in between. And then there is the Cittākāśa, the space behind the forehead, and then there is the Hṛdayākāśa. There is more space. Everywhere is space. We saw the video about Ādi Guru Śaṅkarācārya. When the young Śaṅkara was asking his father, his father said, "I’m going now." Śaṅkara asked, "Where are you going?" He said, "To eternity." "And where is eternity?" "Here." "Then you are not leaving; you are here; you are not going." So this is the experience when we go to the Himalayas, to Śrī Alakhpurījī and Śrī Devpurījī. Maybe they are not here in a physical body, but their consciousness is here, is everywhere. This was my experience when we went to Śrī Devpurījī and Śrī Alakhpurījī, represented in the form of Swāmījīs. Next we went to Satopaṭ Lake, staying one night there also. It is a beautiful, divine place. Dr. Śāntī said, "I have to dive in." I kept her words in my mind, and I went down in the morning and dived in. The water is warmer than the air outside, so it is good to go in. There is a beautiful Śiva Mandir there. Some sādhus are living there, and there are some caves. For the rest of the year they have to go down because it is really full of ice and snow. There was a weather condition when we went up. Every day it was raining, actually. It was cloudy, but somehow we always arrived at the right time, so we managed to get to the tents, put them up, and go inside. We were always saying, "Oh my God, it’s Swāmījī raining." Oh no, it was looking down everywhere, it’s cloudy. I was thinking, oh my God... One day a helicopter came up, I think from Badrināth. They advertised some helicopter ride to Satopaṭ Lake, and we were thinking, "Now Swāmījī is coming with a helicopter." It is so high. If you see 5,000 meters, 5,200 like Śrī Devpurījī’s cave—5,000, how much? How high is this? It is high. Śrī Alakhpurījī’s cave is 3,649, no? Exactly. And that is already something. And then 5,000, that is something. Svarga Rohiṇī—you think you can grasp it. It is really a lot. You have the feeling that you can almost touch the stairs to heaven; you think you can touch it, but it is still far. Then, the next day—we were already four days in—we went to Sūryakuṇḍ, to Śrī Devpurījī’s place, the gufā. We stayed two nights. Śrī Devpurījī’s gufā is very tiny. Swāmījī said maybe the rocks were falling down or something changed, because there is a wall round, an artificial wall built from stones. Of course we met Praṇām when we went there, and met Altar. We brought Mālā and Kī and Agapathīs, but everybody is... There are some flowers growing there, some special herbs. When we eat them while going up, we do not suffer from thirst and hunger, and not from the high altitude, by constantly chewing these herbs. It’s true, one has little problem with the height and little hunger and thirst. But one has to know them. On the way to Śrī Devpurījī’s gufā, we met some friends, our shepherd dogs, and they were going with us. One of the shepherd dogs, the leader, had an iron belt around his neck—iron, strong. The dog, because there are leopards living there—snow leopards, the white ones—so the leopard cannot bite the dog in the throat. This is the leader, and this one had this. So one never goes alone somewhere far away. Good prasāda for them. Go quickly. At Devpurījī’s place, there is a small creek flowing in the valley where we got our water and went for washing. It was Devpurījī’s gufā place, very special. Then we went up to the kraṭa, because it was also in some kuṇḍ, in some vessel inside. Sitting there, looking, the wind is always blowing, a strong wind. By eight o’clock we were in the tents, latest, when it was not raining. And then we were lying; the tents were below, Devpurījī’s gufā was up here. The first night, I couldn’t sleep because I thought, "Now the whole mountain will come down." There are big rocks hanging only a little bit there, and so up, up. And from far you can hear the avalanche going down, stone avalanche, snow avalanche. I said, no, yeah, Umar Purī, you are still far away, you still have fear. Look, you are now in Devpurījī’s place; if you die here, no problem. But then I said, "How, with the stones over me and so?" No. How the vṛttis are going on, working. So it was—I can’t explain how it was. Muktānandjī and all went also. There are some friends, so you know how it is. It is like you are remote-controlled. Everything goes automatically, smoothly. And it is like this, only we don’t know. We are somehow functioning and working. In German, there is a saying: "Man thinks, and God leads." Humans are thinking, and God is guiding. And this one can feel. It just goes smoothly. On the way back again to Satopaṭ Lake, it was snowing. It was really like a blessing, like the shaking of Śiva’s hair. Snow is falling because everywhere is Śiva’s place. How to give a blessing? How is He giving a blessing? Not with some miracles. It makes you just happy without any reason. You are just happy, and this was the feeling. It was snowing, and we were surprised because we wondered where the snow was coming from. It was freezing cold, but it was okay, no problem. The next day, back at Nīlakaṇṭha base, everything was frozen. Going down is harder than going up. It’s more slippery. There you really have to take care on each step. I would not say it’s an easy walk, but it’s good practice to take care on the steps. Take real care, careful going, walking slowly. Like in the bhajan, "Manavadira Dira." The next last station was vis-à-vis the Ālakhpurījī’s camp. It was a nine-day trek. They said it is better to go slowly, slowly than to rush. Better slowly, and it was good slowly. The one-week acclimatization in Badrināth was very good. I think Gopal is here, no? Gopal and his friends, they are here. It was good. Yeah, but it’s good, maybe for next time. Practice goes up and down, and up and down. The last day was a little quick because suddenly we had to reach the group and Swāmījī. We did not know, but I had a feeling now we have to go quickly, otherwise we will miss it. We came down to the Maṇā village, and all were sitting already in the bus. And Swāmījī also got in the taxi and went. In the Himalayas, the Himalayas and Śrī Alakhpurījī—you have to read it in Līlā Amṛt; there is something written about Śrī Devpurījī in the Himalayas. I could not understand what this means, "between Badrināth and Kedārnāth." He was there, living and realizing his siddhis and all this. I didn’t understand until I was there. I couldn’t understand what this means, "between Badrināth and Kedārnāth." Then one can understand what kind of tapasyā this is. What does one have to do to get this blessing? There was no merino underwear or anorak at that time. No cook, no eating, bringing food with kerosene. And to stay there and meditate and do sādhanā, and in the night, the leopards and... One really has to have this great wish to realize this; otherwise, it’s not possible. How to realize this? So this was some glimpse about it; it was only a glimpse. I cannot, because we have, of course, the pictures, and Muktānand made a nice video CD. This whole area is a special and holy place. Now Swāmījī also brought the Alaknandā to Kaṭhu, to the Siddha Pīṭha in Kaṭhu Āśrama. Siddha Pīṭha, Kaṭhu Āśrama Maheśvara Mahādeva Temple in Kaṭhu, and water is flowing there also. How is it really a miracle? When you see the distance from Alakhpurījī to Rajasthan, how is it possible to make the channels? To let the Alaknandā flow there? How? You were there now at Gurujī’s samādhi? Did you see? I was not there still, but I will see how it is, where the water is flowing. So in that way, when we go to the place of Alakhpurījī and Śrī Devpurījī, also to Kailāśa Āśrama in Rajasthan where both of them lived, where they were walking, still the prāṇa and the consciousness are there. In the origin, in the Himalayas, one can see faces in the mountains, in the rocks. This one can see. You can paint it. You need not imagine. So then I said, for me, now we are celebrating Christmas, but this is everyday Christmas: to become aware that we are living in this time with Swāmījī, we are living with Swāmījī. We need not go into the past. We can, because he is here. And we don’t have to go back to the past. It is happening now. So this is indescribable. I stopped speaking because Swāmījī will not come. When the Omapurī is speaking...