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Śrī Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devā Dī Dev, Deveśvar Mahādev Kī Jai, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānand Jī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Māta Pitā Gurudev Kī Jai, Śab Ṛṣi Munī Mahātmāon Kī Jai, Hari Om Tat Sat, Hari Om Tat Sat... Good evening once more, all dear sisters and brothers, and our very dear children. You are all welcome. We are very lucky to be here in this temple of Bhagavān Śrī Nareṇdra Mahāprabhujī, where there is also Bhagavān Devapurījī, Bhagavān Holy Gurujī, and our dear Holy Mother, Mahāprabhujī’s mother, my mother. All other Śaṅkarācāryas and all great holy saints are in this temple. We are all here, so there is a great blessing here. We are also here, which is why we receive a huge blessing on this platform. This platform—for how many years have thousands of people always been sitting here, until today? How lucky we are to be here on this platform. Once someone is here, forever and ever we will have something from that. Wherever we go to a holy place, we call it a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage is great, thousands upon thousands of years old. Yet we still go there, like to the places of Jesus, the Holy Mothers, churches, and temples everywhere. It is said: where the step of the Holy Saint falls, that place is forever and ever. There, the earth, the rock, the dust, the water, all become very holy. From there, when the rain comes from the air and moves further to the other side, it blesses not only humans but all creatures. How do we know that? We don’t know, but we know. We still have that feeling in our heart, and our heart beats. When we go there, we become like that. It is said that a person who goes to a holy place—I am not talking about only one country, but the whole globe—and many, many souls have come there. Traditions may be a little different; that does not matter. So many were there. We go to that place. Maybe we go to the mountains, to the beach, to a forest, different places. Let us say we walk a long way, from here to Badrināth, Kedārnāth. Badrināth is how many thousands and thousands of Satyugas, Dvāparayugas, and now Tretā Yuga, and the coming Kali Yuga. Kali Yuga is still coming. There, people go for darśan to that temple or that place where God’s holy feet were. The Nirakāra. Nirakāra means there is nothing to see. It is like the sky, that is all. And Sākāra. Then there is Sākāra, and there the holy place becomes. Now we go as pilgrims. Many people, many religions, many names of holy persons, each goes in their own way. Let us say we are going to the Himalayas. There were no roads then; now we have roads, vehicles, but that time was not. We only think, and then we know one village after another. This is the path. Let us say to Alaknandā’s Badrināth. We ask the next village, and they say, "Yes, from this left side." Whenever it is night, they stay somewhere under a rock. A few people together were going at that time. To eat, they brought from home a little of what they could carry. After that, there was nothing. They searched for some fruits, some leaves of the trees. Some people saw them and gave them food because they were pilgrims. People said then, and I think even now, "This is our great, great blessing that you are in our house. How great we are that we give you some food." And they said, "Thank you very much. You are a pilgrim for us," and so on. So they were thinking all together. Now also there are tigers and many different kinds of animals. Sometimes they said, "You have to cross the river." People were crossing. They asked about the rocks, from this rock to that rock. But going there, sometimes people kept a little place for a fire and put in some pot rice and sugar, or something like that. "Go ahead, go ahead. There is no road. Go through this forest; there is a footpath." Many longed, but what were they thinking all the time? Bhagavān Badrināth, or other names. All the time they were thinking about Badrināth. They asked, "Where are you going?" We said, "To Badrināth." Sometimes they lost the path. Again, they went. Shoes were gone, so they had no shoes; they went barefoot. They were going and all sitting together. When it was cold, we all had our little cloth, whatever we were sitting on. But all the time they would say, "Let’s say OM, OM..." Sometimes it happened that one person died. It happened many times. But they are chanting names. Every religion, every language, has the name of God. Now, what they see: the temple is there. They see it from a distance, but it is about three to four kilometers away. Still they stay there, and the whole night they do not sleep. They are singing bhajans and names. Abhaz. That Abhaz means our feelings, our failings. And when we come to the Badrinath temple, we ourselves become Badrinath. They are making parikramā. Parikramā means going round and round the temple. At that time, they are not—they are Badrināth themselves. They were all very tired and a little bit energetic, but when they came to the temple, they had forgotten everything. "I am here." It is said that there was a parikramā. Parikramā means we are going round and round the temple. Maybe there is a temple of stone only, so they become one with it, and then they get some prasāda. The prasāda is not that much; maybe they will give one handful of rice. They will put it on their cloth, and when they go back, all the time they keep it in their armpit. Even when they were going with the water, they were holding it. "This is Badrinath with us." Some people passed away. But slowly, slowly, it took them two, three months, sometimes more, half a year. No vehicle. Then they were coming to their villages. People were running. "The pilgrims came, the pilgrims came." They come near the villages. The people come and say, "Please sit down here. Sit down, relax. Drink water. We will not let you come into the village. We all will come, and we will welcome you. We will put our hands down, and you have to step on our palms." Music, many things. They were giving colors and malās and like this. They said, "You are here, Badrīnāthjī, with us." And then what they brought, this prasād—of course, they make more, about kilograms, 40 kilos, or 100 kilos, and they mix it. It means that from that, prasād becomes more and more. And they all will give the praśād. Some make some kind of mala, bring from there, it is something. When I was little, about four or five years old, I was once in a village and saw that we make some festival when people come back home. They were worshipping them. They were even taking their cloth and said, because something was... the cloth was not good, but they kept it. It is Badrinath’s air from their atmosphere that was in this dress. That time also, before, let’s say about 60 or 80 years ago, there was one sādhu. He had a black cloth always because it was very cold, so he had a black cloth. He was making, every five kilometers, a little hut and putting there one pot with rice, vegetables, dal, sugar, and fire, everything, and some pot. He told them, "Oh pilgrim, pilgrims, people who are going on pilgrimage, please, here is everything. Cook everything, eat." Again, clean, and you can go further. Other people were coming and always keeping food and everything. His name was Kālī Kamlīwālā. Kālī means black, Kamlī means this shawl. The name they gave Swāmījī was the black Swāmījī, Kālī Kamlīvālā Bābā. Now, some people, spiritual and very religious people, and cheap rich people, they make a little hostel for sādhus, free, and for others, very little money. They give them cloth and sleeping arrangements. When we go from Haridwar to Rishikesh, and then from there it becomes the Kālī Kamlīvālā, to Badrinath, to Kedarnath, everything, and it is still there, very big. It is something very great. But then people come more and more. The road comes, trucks come, cars, etc. They are going quickly and coming back quickly. People can get there very quickly and come back quickly. That is a different pilgrimage. Now, people going on pilgrimage is night and day different. Similarly, how many years have we been here? And how did you come in the beginning? Our rooms were not like that. We didn’t ask anyone for money. But we were trying. We were little by little coming, coming. We are making now a better bed, and better this, and like this. These buildings we cannot change. We cannot change a window, and we do not want to have a toilet in the room. They are coming from the government from time to time, saying that if we have not changed something... This is also a holy place like that. And how is the pilgrim like that? And when they go there... There is another very beautiful story told by our Bhagavān Sadguru Swāmī Madhavānandjī. He told a very nice story. Three men from Gujarat, like in the Czech Republic, this and that, wanted to go to the Gaṅgā. It is a long way. They could come by car; it would take about one day and night, or two days and one night. Now trucks are coming, and everything is done. They had time; they were walking. They wanted to go to the Gaṅgā for water from the Gaṅgā. They wanted to swim in the Ganga. So they were going, going. Same stories: people were giving eating, drinking. But that was already a distance close to now. They were going and going. In one village, before they left their house, a sādhu met them. He said, "Where are you going?" "We are going to have a bath in the holy Gaṅgā." "Okay," he said. "If you go, stay in a village or somewhere, only go to that house and drink water or eat if you ask, 'Have you been swimming in the Gaṅgā?' Maybe in some village, nobody was there again, so they said, 'Sorry, but we will not eat and drink.'" People were angry. They said, "Please, we bow down in front of you. But one sādhu gave us this instruction, and he said that our pilgrimage will be successful, and that’s why we are doing it. Please, don’t be angry. We are people from there." Next village? So this village said, "In the next village, there are four people who were in the Ganges." I tell you this, how people have confidence, knowing that that is God. We want God. We want to feel God. So the Ganga is also holy, the Ganga. Well, time to time they were walking, and they were asking, "Please, was anyone in the Gaṅgā?" Coming closer and closer, there were more people. "Yes, we were in the Gaṅgā," and like this. Next, they believed, "How far is the Gaṅgā?" This Gaṅgā is about now 20 or 30 kilometers. They were very trained in walking. They came to one ashram, our village, and asked, "How long to the Gaṅgā?" It said five kilometers. They were on the way. Came one ṛṣi. You know what, a jhuṁprī? A grass house. So they went there, and there was one sādhu. He had one cottage for him and one for some people, and the sādhu was there. These three Gujarati people said, "What can we ask him? Did you swim in the Ganga or not? It is less than one kilometer. Definitely, he has been bathing in the Gaṅgā perhaps every day or many times. If we ask him about Gaṅgā and ask, 'Did you swim there or wash in the Gaṅgā?' He will say, 'What stupid people. I am here near the Gaṅgā, still. I have no job. I go and bathe twice and come back.'" They were thinking like this. So the Bhaktas said, "Can we stay here in your cottage? Tomorrow we are going to the Ganges." He said, "Yes, no problem. Stay, you are tired." And he made—Bābājī Mahārāj, Gurujī, Sādhu—he made some food, rice and this, I don’t know what. He gave them the food. Of course, they didn’t ask. And there, to ask, "Have you bathed in the Gaṅgā?" Well, they were eating. Gurujī was sitting there, and they were giving satsaṅg. One of them said, "Gurujī, how far is Gaṅgā?" "I don’t know. Ganga River? Why should I go there? I have a water vessel. I wash from here. I drink water from here." "You did not bathe in the Ganga?" "No." All three bhaktas from Gujarat, they were coming about two or three months apart from each other. They said, "Oh God, we came from so far, and all our aim is gone." Of course, they cannot say to a sādhu, "Wrong," or something like this. So Bābājī, his Gurujī, went to his cottage and said, "You can sleep there. In the morning we will drink tea and eat something, then you can go where you want to go." All three Gujarati men could not sleep. "My God! What is this mistake? I could have asked him. We thought he is Swamiji. But what to do? And, of course, we can’t say to Swāmījī like this. He told us, he said, 'I didn’t bathe, I can bathe here.'" Babaji is sleeping. He went to sleep in his cottage. Both are sitting there. It was something like a moonlight, so it was light. About eleven o’clock, twelve, one o’clock in the night, three dark or dark cows were coming. They said, "What is that? Three cows, dark completely." Maybe Gurujī’s cow. They lost, and now coming, they come close, and there were three women. The dress was not so clean, the color was like dark. It was a cow, and now it’s women. Gujaratis are a little bit always with a fear, and they were coming close. Three ladies went to Bābājī, but Bābājī was sleeping. One lady was cleaning his pot and everything: fresh water, all cleaning, the platform, everything. The second was going and bringing some wood for fire. The third one was making some nice leaves and flowers and like this. They said, "What is that? We are closing together." And they became completely white, like we have seen in the Mahābhārata. Very white, nice ladies. Now, one man, he was a little elderly. He said, "Sisters, please, who are you? We stay here. We will give some money to Bābājī tomorrow. Please, who are you? Are you some ghost or what?" All three ladies said, "We are not a ghost. We are Gaṅgā, Yamunā and Sarasvatī. The whole day people come from different parts of the world, and they are swimming in us. They bring all dirt, everything. All dirt, everything. Their bad karma they are washing inside, and we take all of this upon us. We become dark. So at midnight we go to Guru Dev, and we come like dark cows, then dark women, and we work, and we become completely white. We make praṇām there, and before sunrise, quickly we go to Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī." "They are getting dark there?" "Yes." "And this sin is washed here?" "Yes, yes, my brothers." "So, in the river or here?" "People are getting their sins there, but we cannot clean them there. We are cleaning for the Gurudev." "Then it is it. Should we?" "Yes, yes, sisters, that is the pilgrim. Thank you very much. Thank you." Then she went, all three sisters. While walking, walking, they are completely pure, clean, and they just went. And they said, "Morning," to Guruji. Guruji said, "Yes. You see, all that you were eating, all clean that. Everything. Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, all these three, they come and do the sādhus, Śiva." Then they said, "Thank you very much." When they went back, they said, "Did you meet that?" He said, "Thank you very much, that we are always asking that, go to some sādhu, only this and that and that." So that is that. Where are you going? And where you are going, it comes to you, that’s it. So after, it’s only dust and this and that. But the environment there, if all by this whole holy Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, they are taking all dirt from others, and they are going bathing with the sand. So that is a pilgrim. So everyone, in many countries, they have their traditions, but the feeling is that it’s how one should live. That is our sādhana, that is our practice, and that we will become one day. Like that, I am nothing, but I am there. So maybe here, from this area, this lawn, I became pure, and now my environment is there. I’m not for one, I’m for all, so one in all and all in one. Understand what is the master, what is a guru, and who is not. I don’t know. We come, it will come. Maybe I am still very black in me. Maybe I’m still so black. Maybe it’s my thinking. But others say, "No, I don’t know." I will say, in the last minute of my life, I will say only this. So this is that: where to go, why, and what we can do. And still, we are not sure, but that environment came, and immediately we became clear. So Gaṅgā, Yamunā, or Sarasvatī, they are with us. All we are there, we were on their stones. We touched that when it is with us. Some stones are people brought from Alaknandā. And that stone is here, many more so. Tomorrow we will continue, and now we have, I think they call it, the Mahābhārata. Many blessings, my dears. Bless you. In the name of our Gurudev. Hari Om.