TV Channel

O Sākṣāt Parabrahma, tasmai Śrī Gurūṇāmā. Dhyāṇa-mūlaṁ guru-mūrtiḥ, pūjā-mūlaṁ guru-padaṁ, mantra-mūlaṁ guru-vākyaṁ, mokṣa-mūlaṁ gurur-kṛpā. Om śānti śānti śānti. Devadhī Dev, Deveśvar Mahādev kī Jai, Alak Purījī Mahādev kī Jai, Satguru Svāmī Madhvānandjī Bhagavān kī Jai, Ārādhya Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī kī Jai, Mātā Pitā Guru Dev kī Jai. Good evening to all dear sisters and brothers, to Yoga in Daily Life, to all teachers and practitioners, to all other yoga centers, schools, and teachers around the whole world. You all have different techniques, and we are all in oneness. I also extend this to other spiritual people around the world; they may not practice in the form of yoga, but they have more or less a similar path. I respect them and look forward. In yoga, which we are discussing, there are many different techniques or practices. What is yoga? For example, there is Bhakti Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga is one of the highest yogas. Many people have different kinds of techniques, but Bhakti Yoga is a sure one which will bring us to the Brahmalokas. Today, I saw a video about one of the great saints. What was his name? We call him Tukārāmjī. He had a family, two or three children, and he was a farmer. He was always sitting on his farm, always singing bhajans, the name of God. He would just put the seeds in the earth, in his farm. Other farmers would make fine fences so that animals would not go in. But this Tukārām was only singing bhajans, and still his corn grew. Some animals and wild animals would come and eat it all, and he did not care. His wife was always very angry. "What are you doing here? What is this? You are not coming home to eat, and you are not taking care of our farm." He said, "Don’t worry. God knows, God is speaking with me, and God is doing." She was angry, but she brought food for him. It is a long story. When he left his farm, he had sugar cane. He was bringing about twenty pieces home to his little village. They were very long, like sticks. People were running and taking them, pulling them from him. One boy came in front, and he gave him some too. When he arrived home, only two sticks were left. But he said, "No, it’s for all. Is it not for all? It is for all." And when the harvest came, it was so much you cannot imagine. When they collected all the seeds, it was like a full hill. In many, many ways, it is the truth that for him, a chariot came from heaven. Guards came, he sat in the chariot, and it flew up. This is truth. There is a temple there in India, and we can go there sometimes. India is a land of God. There are many saints still in the same way. There are many stories about this. I will tell you and bring you. You should go to that temple where he was. So, Bhakti Yoga—all great saints we speak of practiced only Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jñāna Yoga—these are all different yogas. Yes, yoga is good; yoga practices, āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, everything is very good. It is said of such a saint, "He was very holy. He died; he just breathed in and said, 'I am going.'" But yoga cannot be successful without bhakti. As one saint said: "Bhakti rodhanā datā dījīyo. O my Lord, give me bhakti, devotion. Devotion, devotion. That I may worship, I pray at your holy feet. And when I will die, I go. Please, when I come again, may I come to the shelter of the sants, the bhaktas." Bhakti comes when you have no negative thoughts at all. It has to become completely pure. Even if black stuff comes upon it, it will not stay; it will become clean. So Bhakti Yoga is very, very great. In Haṭha Yoga, Bhakti Yoga is present there. These two, Bhakti Yoga and Haṭha Yoga, are among the greatest. Then we have Jñāna Yoga and Karma Yoga. Yes, karma is bhakti, because without karma, bhakti cannot be clear. And bhakti cannot be clear if we are not doing the karma. So this is karma and bhakti together. Anyone who wants to go on the path, it does not matter if you are a sannyāsī or not, with a husband, wife, children or no children. Many saints have gone through like that. These are the great Indian saints; they have this knowledge and these techniques, and they can give them to disciples. They know which way is good for each. Sometimes one wants to be a spiritual guru and do a guru’s sevā, but one does not want to do these karma yogas. So when we come to the guru, the sadguru, that guru is spiritual and belongs to the paramparā of sannyāsīs. There are such paramparās of gurus. One might think, "Oh, he’s not like this or like that." Nowadays, people think, "I am studying, I am in college," and someone is giving more and more stories, talking this and that, but inside they are empty. Bhakti Yoga is very, very easy, and not easy at all, because to give it up, you give up everything; you give up feelings for others. It does not matter if someone is your enemy or your friend, human or animal. The heart has to be very clean and very pure. So, there are many points on which path you want to go in yoga. Nowadays we call it university. In university, how many subjects are there? Someone says, "I want to have this subject, I want to have that subject." Someone gives up after some days, or one or two years, and then says, "I don’t like this, I want to take another subject." If you try to have this and that, you will not be complete. Similarly, in spirituality, to go towards God, towards the Guru, we shall go with bhakti, bhakti. "Bhakti rodhanā datā dījīyo, māris Gurudeva, bhakti kadan Gurudījīye." Give me bhakti, devotion, devotion, devotion. In bhakti, how many techniques are there? One will say, "I will only be singing bhajans," or "I will give lectures." Another is only cleaning in the ashrams, or in their house, or in the street. He will be the highest. Ego is our enemy. This ego is so strong, you cannot imagine. As long as we are good and everybody says yes, we think we are not egotistical. They think because the ego is down. But if someone says something, or if you say, "It is my seat, I will sit here. You go sit on the other side," that means your ego has exploded, and how terrible that is. But the other one will say, "No, I’m sorry, it is your place." All will say, "No, no, please, you sit here," and they will sit there. So this is also ego or humility. Humble means to bow down. Of course, in our whole country, everywhere—someone comes, then we get up and say, "Please come, you sit." Or when females come and we are on a bus or train, we let ladies sit first. Others say, "No, I’m going first. My seat is there first." There is already ego. So, there are many, many things. How do we clean our ego? That ego is only cleansed for a bhakti yogī, a karma yogī. Karma sukho śālam. We will be successful when we do something for someone. If we are doing for ourself, that is nothing. Of course, we want to wash our body and so on; that is okay, it is yours. But if you are washing or massaging someone else, then one is making bhakti. In that case, let’s say 90% of the bhakti goes to the person who is doing the sevā. And only 10% goes to the others for whom they are massaging. And if somebody gives money, then the money is only 5%. But the person who is doing the service thinks, "I have so much happiness and joy that I want to massage someone, I want to practice." So bhakti is the greatest. So, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. It is not like this only: sitting in meditation with a mala, reading holy books, sitting there, doing pūjā, and waiting for someone to cook so you can eat. That bhakti is not very much. Bhakti is that we are doing, with no ego. If someone is sitting beside you and talking to others, and you say, "Why are they talking only together? Why don’t they speak to me?"—that is ego. Ego is a fire, a volcano in humans. When you are egotistical, then śoka comes out of you, burning from the heart inside. That is not it. If we do bhakti for one year and break everything in one day, it is not complete. But Karma Yoga, with the heart, is the greatest, more than bhakti alone. Because Karma Yoga is Bhakti Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga is there. Jñāna Yoga is mostly what people are doing, but there is nothing to say about Mokṣa from that alone. One is not in Brahmalokas. So, then there is Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jñāna Yoga, and what is the fourth one? Rāja Yoga. "I am the Raja." Rāja Yoga is also only knowledge talking. There is spirituality very much inside, but still not that. So, Jñāna Yoga and Rāja Yoga are very good, but they are on the surface very much. Even Bhagavān Śiva is very humble. And Bhagavān Rāma, how humble. Kṛṣṇa also, but Kṛṣṇa is a little bit too much like this. Yes, but he knows this and that. Again, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa was also giving sevā. He was in school. We were at the Kumbh Melā, which is there, Sandīpṛṣṇu. In Kumbh Melā I was there, and last year I went again once more to the ashram of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa where he studied, in Ujjain. Ujjain is the complete center of our globe. Every scientist and everyone has said that, yes, this is the center. There are so many spiritual and holy people, many, many. There is also Śiva, Mahākaleśvara. If we go there for at least two weeks or one month, we shall see each and every point. For example, there is a black Bhairava, and he is guiding. So there are two: one is white-skinned, and one is black-skinned. They are the guards of the Gurudeva. The story is very long. So Kalabhairava is also there. This Kalabhairava is very strong and powerful. Kalabhairava drinks only alcohol, and of the best quality. There are people in a very long line. There is a little temple, like I am sitting here in my glass box, and there is a statue of the Bhairava. During Kumbh Melā time, I went there to see that. The pūjārī does sevā for the Kalabhairava. When I went, he brought me into the room. These teachers, masters, or the pūjārīs were so happy, and they became my disciples. There was some prime minister and his wife. They were also there, right? They were inside doing pūjā. When I came, the Minister and his wife said immediately, "Please, Swāmījī is coming, so next time we will sit more and talk." The statue is made of stone, and his lips, his mouth is open just a little. They bring a kind of alcohol in a little bottle. You should not open it. You give it to the pūjārī, and the pūjārī opens the bottle. There is a nice plate, and he pours half into the plate. With a gesture, he brings it near the mouth of the Kalabhairava, and in two or three seconds, maybe one second, it is just gone into his mouth, finished. The other half of the bottle he gives back to the devotees. Once a year, there is a very big procession. They all come: the police, the guards, the king’s things, and everything, making one procession. I asked them, and many people said, "When the British were in India, they wondered where the alcohol was going." They tried to dig around the temple, but they did not find anything: no pipe, no sweat, and no smell. How many tons of alcohol go per day? Where does it go? In the temple, it is beautiful and nice, and there is no smell. Other people also came; scientists came. What is happening? Where is it going? Still, the devotees who work there also do not know. I was sitting there, and I did not bring an alcohol bottle; I did not know. But the pūjārīs brought it from someone and said, "This is for Swāmījī." I was sitting by the side, and then from that Kalabhairava, there was something there, so they gave me some shawl and something. Some of our bhaktas were there, but in Kumbh Melā there were too many people, so we were not all together. Next time we should come, or you can go. All your many troubles will go away. Bhairava will be protecting you. There are certain dogs sitting there outside, and many monkeys just sitting there. There are mysterious things there. I talked with them, I went with them, and after I visited other temples there, I was also there. There was sitting one dog, his eyes were so... I don’t know, there are 100–200 temples here in this city. There is the Mahākāleśvara. You know, Mahākaleśvara, he was then in the Rākṣasas, then he burned there. And still, when you dig there, the sand comes out. Like this, there are many, many things. Then we will know, yes, what it is. There were too many people, so I did not go to Kṛṣṇa’s school that time. Next time I was there, I went. I had time enough to see that Kṛṣṇa was here, studied this and that, everything. His Guru was there. Kṛṣṇa’s Guru, yes, and the Pāṇḍit of the Kṛṣṇas is Gargācārya, my line. So, in this way, Bhakti Yoga. If you cannot go through bhakti, then you have not done anything. And you can only do Bhakti Yoga if you have done Karma Yoga. Karma-yoga-sukhośālam. So karma-sukhośālam, you will be successful. In that way, then we are coming to prāṇāyāma. In prāṇāyāma, there are only three prāṇāyāmas. In my practice also, only two: inhale and exhale. Inhalation and exhalation, that’s all. But then we call Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. This is also prāṇāyāma, which is very... and they, like Devapurījī, can lift up. But we all still, even we cannot go one centimeter up. So sādhanā is guru kṛpā. Sādhānā cāra karo hari pyāra, jain se hove satumāra. Sādhānā cāra karo hari pyāra. So let’s say bhakti and karma. You can give everything up, but with karma and bhakti, we are in Brahmalokas. My dear, Mahāprabhujī’s samādhis—it means that he was in everyone. We have the vision from eyes to Mahāprabhujī, but we have it within ourself. So, Mahāprabhujī is very great, and all our Bhaktas who know around the world know Mahāprabhujī, Holī Gurujī, and Devpurījī, and now comes Alakpurījī. It was the time when Śiva was alive. So we are connected very much, chain to chain. Practice, but with bhakti. If we are against one another, then you are gone. I have seen this one video of Tukārām and how he was great. It was very, very great. This was only a video, a film, but how was it really when it was that time? So, tomorrow we go further. All the best! Om Śānti, Om Śānti, Om Śānti. We all should, still we have time for us. Guru Kṛpā, surrender completely and do the Seva for all.