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Naḥaṁ kartā, prabudhipa kartā, mahāprabudhipa kartā, hi kevalam. Oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ... Hi sadāśiva-samārambhām śaṅkarācārya-madhyamām asmadācārya-paryantām vande guru-paramparām. Guru-brahmā, guru-viṣṇu, guru-devo-maheśvarā, guru-sākṣād-parabrahma, tasme śrī-gurave namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha, Mad-Guru Śrī Jagad-Guru Om Śālakpūrījī Mahādeva kī Jai, Devādideva Deveśvara Mahādeva kī Jai, Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāḍ Parama-haṁsavāmī Śrī Mādhavaṁ and Pūjya Satgurudeva Bhagavān kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Maheśvara and Pūjya Gurudeva kī Jai. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alak Purījī Siddha Pīṭa Paramparā. My Dhamma Pranāms to our beloved Guru Dev, His Holiness, Vaiśākha Guru Mahāmudrā Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī. Om Namo Nārāyaṇa to Mahāmudrā Śrī Vivek Purījī and all the sannyāsīs present here. Hari Om, and good evening to all of you who are present here and watching through Swamiji TV. I hope you had a wonderful day and a safe drive here. As we were discussing the difference between satsaṅga and kusaṅga, we are all always indulged in one of the saṅgas. Satsaṅga means company. So it’s up to us if we want to have good company and good positive energies flowing within us, and we go to satsaṅg. Or we want to go to a bar and have some party and go for kusaṅga. That’s up to us. No one is forcing us to do what we do. It is always, at the end of the day, our own wish, what we want to do. Before you are 18, then someone else is deciding for you, but I don’t think they will decide for you to go to a bar before you are 18. There is a story about a secretary who had his own team, his own servants, his own cooks. He was a very spiritual person. He was always going for satsaṅgs; if there was any sādhu coming, he used to always welcome them, and he was a very spiritually driven person. The food which we eat affects our body. If we eat sāttvic, rājasic, or tāmasic food, it has an impact. That’s why Gurudev always tries to emphasize eating ashram food. When we are in Jhadan, we eat Jhadan food. When we are here, we are eating here, or sometimes tilak, you know. So this secretary was always eating nice sāttvic food cooked by his own chef. But the chef was a non-vegetarian, and sometimes he used to sneak in meat from the back door in the kitchen and cook there. He decided, "OK, before I get caught, why don’t I make the same food for the secretary, sir, and then I will be able to eat meat without being caught." So he crushed whatever he was cooking—I think he was cooking goat—and he somehow managed to mix it in the food of the secretary. The secretary sat to eat that day. For some reason, we all are sometimes attracted to the bad, to the negative. When something negative is happening, if there is a fight going on, we will first go to the fight, then mind our own business. It doesn’t matter if we know what’s happening or if we know the people involved. But inside, we just want to know what’s happening, so we need to be there. This is our monkey mind; it’s always attracted towards negativity more easily than towards positive energies. So when he ate the food, he liked it, and he called the chef to come to him. He said, "What beautiful food you made for me. Please make food like this every day." Slowly, slowly, every day he started eating meat at that time, not knowingly. He thought he was still eating vegetarian food, but the chef was mixing some nice masalas inside. Masala means spices. Slowly, slowly, that food started affecting his mental state. He started reducing all the pūjās which he used to do. All the spiritual activities which he was doing slowly, slowly deteriorated and became nothing. He stopped going to any satsaṅgs, stopped listening to any masters. Then, anything to do with spirituality, he used to stay a long distance away from it. Slowly, slowly it just progressed and progressed, and he continued living all the luxurious things and spending his money all in the kusaṅga. When he had to travel for some official royal business, he took his chef with him because he knew that this type of good food no other chef would make for him, so he wanted that taste which that chef used to make. They stayed at a beautiful government palace. He said, "Okay, I’m going for my meetings, and until I come back, please cook me my lunch. Go and buy the necessary ingredients which you need for the food in the market." The chef went to the market, and he couldn’t find any goat meat. There was only camel meat available. He said, "OK, I’m not buying this. Today I will cook without meat." He used to eat that before, so it should be fine. So he came back and cooked normal food as he used to before. What is very common in meat eaters? Getting angry very easily. So when the secretary started eating that food, he was so furious, and he said, "What is this disgusting food?" He kicked it and threw the plate away. He said, "I’m not going to eat this food. I told you to go to the market and buy the necessary ingredients which you use. This tastes like soil." The chef said, "No, sir, the food which you used to eat before, this is exactly the same food. Nowadays, I used to add soil in your food." The secretary asked, "Soil from where? Which soil?" The chef said, "OK, now before I get caught, I think it’s the right time to open up and tell the truth. Sir, I’m a non-vegetarian and I needed to eat that, so I was mixing that in your food, and that’s why it tasted so good." Once you are so much driven into that kusaṅga, then you don’t realize anymore what is right and what is wrong. The secretary said, "OK, now anyhow I started eating meat, then why didn’t you make it today?" The chef said, "I went to the market, but I couldn’t find the goat meat which I used to use, and there was only camel meat, and I didn’t want to buy that for you." The secretary said, "If you anyhow made me already start eating meat, then you could have just bought the camel meat, and I wouldn’t even know what’s going on." You see how much it changed. A spiritual person who was very dedicated towards spirituality can completely change his behavior just because of the food which he eats. So whatever food goes into our bodies can affect the mental state of our mind. The cook said, "OK, good for me, he likes meat now." So he decided, "Sir, did you ever try alcohol?" The secretary was like, "No, but what is it? What effect does it give?" The cook said, "Oh, you will be in Paramananda when you drink that." So he said, "Okay, bring me some." And then one bottle goes down, then two bottles go down, you know how it goes on. The cook used to join the party sometimes. Now he used to drink premium alcohol because he used to buy nice alcohol for himself. Slowly, slowly he was enjoying it, and the cook said, "Do you know what gambling is?" And they started with gambling. Slowly, slowly, the king found out what was going on, and he kicked him out of his job. Whatever money was left with him, he spent it all on gambling and drinking. This is how the company of a person can completely destroy someone’s life. So it doesn’t matter how much we are attracted or pulled towards negative people. We still have something between these two ears: our buddhi and viveka, which helps us to see the right path and to distinguish between what is negative and what is positive. In this saṃsāra, in this world, it is always positivity and negativity. You won’t find either one alone. But we as humans, out of all the 8.4 million creatures which exist in this universe, God made us the highest in the chain, who can use their viveka and who can use their brains to do what is good and what is not good. We should always try to have good company in school, in college, or in general in life. That’s why Vishwagurujī also emphasizes, when you choose a partner in your life, to choose a partner also who is on the same wavelength of your mental state, who is also spiritual in some sense. It’s not because he wants you to be stuck with some other yoga person, but because of the saṅgha, because of the company, it can affect each other. The negativity is always heavier than the positive. So maybe you manage, by good luck, to transform the other person, your partner, into spirituality. But it’s more likely that they will transform you. In India, it’s a saying: when you get married, you are married for seven lives. Here, we can’t manage even a few months, a few years. That’s why you make seven rounds around the fire when you get married. So if you want the same partner in the next life, then try to have spiritual partners. Then it’s going to be much easier living, because you both are spiritual, you both are meditating, you both are doing yoga, you both are eating good food. And the greatest of all, you both will have the Guru Kṛpā. As Guru Dev always says, Guru Kṛpā Hi Kevalaṁ Śāśvika Ānanda Maṅgalam. So, when you have Gurudev’s kṛpā, then the śiṣya is always in happiness and in abundance of everything that he or she wishes for. In our lives, Gurukṛpā is very important. That’s why we all gather here to be in the presence of our beloved Gurudev, who is the guiding light for us, who shows us the right path, and who pushes us in our lives to go into the positive side and to go into spirituality. Hopefully, that once we achieve mokṣa, the ultimate truth, and become one with the Supreme Self. May Gurudev’s blessings always be upon you. In the first week, we were learning the Sannyāsa Sūkta. In the second week, we learned the Guru Vandana. Now, in the third week, we will learn a few different mantras, which I will individually explain. I think most of you got this new piece of paper. If not, I think there will be someone distributing it, and you can maybe raise your hand so they know who got it and who didn’t. I’ll sing it once for you, the first mantra, which we’ll be learning today. Today we will learn the first mantra. I will sing it to you first: Vande pāśupatim patim, vande sūryaśaśāṅkavahninayanam, vande mukundapriyam, vande bhakta janāśrayam, jvaradam vande śivam śaṅkaram. So this is the first śloka. We’ll start today with the first line: Vande deva umāpatim. Vande deva umāpatim. Vande deva umāpatim. Did we all have dinner? I can’t hear anything coming out. Slightly louder, I’m sitting a little bit far away, so sorry. Vande deva umāpatim, vande deva umāpatim, sura gurum, sura gurum,... sura gurum. Vande deva umāpatim, suragurum, vande deva umāpatim, suragurum. Vande jagat kāraṇam, vande jagat kāraṇam. We don’t need to do it with the rāga now, if you want. We can just learn it as it is, and then later you can add the rāga. So maybe we can learn it first by saying it and then add the melody later. Vande jagat kāraṇam, vande jagat kāraṇam. Vande jagat karaṇam. Vande jagat karaṇam. Jagat karaṇam. Jagat karaṇam. Vande deva umāpatim suraguram. Vande jagat kāraṇam. I’m used to singing it with the "a," so sorry. Vande deva umāpatim suraguram. Vande jagatkāraṇam, vande deva umāpatim, suraguram. Vande jagatkāraṇam, vande deva umāpatim, suraguram. Vande jagatkāraṇam, vande pannagabhūṣaṇam, vande pannagabhūṣaṇam. It’s easier to learn when we are a little bit singing out loud, that we can hear ourselves, and then it becomes easier. Try learning something inside your head. For some it might work, but sometimes it’s easier to pronounce it louder. Then you hear yourself, and then you know if there is any mistake or not. And if you sing a little bit louder, then I might also be able to hear it and correct if there are any mistakes. And also, if you sing too loud, I will hear it, and if you make a mistake, I can correct you. So, same as for the T’s and T’s. One is a normal T, where your tongue is touching your teeth, normal T. And then one is where you put out pressure and push, T. And then after that comes ṭ, where the tongue goes up, ṭ. And then, same thing with pressure, too. So there are four: T, h, t, t. For you it might sound all the same, but it’s not. So, in the same way, pañ, na, ga, bu, śa, nam. The first na is a normal na, but bhuṣaṇam is the ṇa. So in that word, the first "na" is normal and the second "na" is the "ṇa." Mṛga dharma, same, not dha but dha. Mṛga dharma, mṛga dharma,... mṛga dharma. I swear this is not the hard one. The hard one would be, this would be hard. This is easy. This mantra we are learning now is easy. This would be easier. Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇaṁ Mṛgadhara. Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇaṁ Mṛgadhara. One is "śu" with short "u", like "purī", when you say "avatār purī". So pū, that’s a short u. But the eating purī which we eat, that’s purī. So that’s a long ū. So, in the same way, this is not Paśunam, but Paśūnām. So Vande Paśūnām Patim. And this is a normal N, so easy. Easy, B, C, lemon squeezy. So, vaṇḍe paśunāṁ patim. Vande Pāśupatiṁ. Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇaṁ Mṛgadhara. Vande Pāśunampatim, Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇam, Mṛgadhāram. Vande Pāśunampatim, Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇam, Mṛgadhāram. Vande Pāśu Nampatim, Vande Deva Umāpatim, Suragurum, Vande Jagatkāraṇam. Vande Pannagabhūṣaṇam, Mṛgadhāram, Vande Pāśu Nampatim, Vande Deva. Umapatiṃ suraguruṃ vande jagatkāraṇaṃ, vande pannagabhūṣaṇaṃ mṛgadharaṃ vande paśūnāṃ patiṃ, vande devau māpatiṃ suraguruṃ vande paśuhatkāraṇaṃ, vande pannagabhūṣaṇaṃ mṛgadharaṃ vande paśūnāṃ patiṃ. So once, all of you, please, together, in a loud voice, without me. One day. Congratulations. So this is half of the mantra. The next half we will do, I think, not tomorrow, because it’s Guru Pūrṇimā celebrations, but then the day after tomorrow, whenever. So that was half of the mantra. We will learn the other half, I think, not tomorrow, because it will be Guru Pūrṇimā, but then. Om Shanti, Shanti,... Om Śālakpūrjī Mahādeva, Kī Jai, Devādedevādevaśvara Mahādeva, Kī Jai, Śādīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsasvāmī Śrī Mādhavānanda Purījī Sadgurudeva Bhagavān kī jai. Viśva Guru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsavāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda and Purūjī Gurudeva kī jai. Sat Sanātan Dharma kī jai. Āp sab Bhaktoṁ kī jai. Haraṇāmav Pārvatī Pataye Harahara Mahādeva Śambhu. Praṇām Gurudev. Hari Om. Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends. Pranam Gurudevo. It was always a little terrifying for me in India when starting the addressing of everybody, and so many titles and things, all this. Once I asked Guruji Swamiji, "What to do?" He said, "Your Holiness," and you are free. Now I use this, dear brothers and sisters, because, really, we are brothers and sisters, guru brothers and guru sisters. It is nice that we start another week with Viśvagurujī. And you know what is also, for me, the most beautiful thing? We don’t need to think about the moon, the fuzz, or the date. You don’t have to think at all about what is the phase of the moon or what is the date. Vishwa Gurujī decided that tomorrow we will celebrate Guru Pūrṇimā, and that is enough. That is a beautiful thing because a lot of us will not go to India. Vishwagurujī will be in India, but now we have an opportunity. I think that we will celebrate Guru Pūrṇimā three or four times. And that is the real yoga. Every day is the Guru Pūrṇimā because when we remember our Guru Dev, that is the Guru Pūrṇimā. Once, one Indian gentleman in Europe here asked me to which god or goddess I pay respect. I tried to explain to him that I don’t do this, because for me, and mostly for all of us, if we sing the chant "Guru Brahma, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara," we mean this. What does that mean for us? The Guru Tattva is something we have, like an idol, something we want to accomplish. Because we learn from Viśvagurujī that we need in this life to accomplish our aim, self-realization. Many times I hear from Viśvagurujī that is the most terrible thing in our life, if we die and we don’t accomplish self-realization. And that is, on one hand, a terrible thing, a horrible thing, because it’s not so easy, but on the other hand, that is the beauty of yoga. Don’t think that I will do it in the next life. So many times we hear from Viśvagurujī, "Who knows what will be in the next life?" Everything that we want, we need to accomplish now, in this life. Do not wait for tomorrow. We hear so many times from Swamiji that in the previous time, on the shop, on the door of the shop, it said, "Today, pay in cash, and tomorrow you will have the opportunity to pay later," you know, on credit. If we think, and if we do with this, "Tomorrow I will do this," you know how it is with diet: "From Monday I will go to the diet, from New Year I will go on the diet." If we wait for tomorrow, if we wait for Monday, New Year, our life will pass. Because of that, everything that we need to accomplish, we need to accomplish in this life. Because everything we want to achieve, we need to achieve in this life. And Viśvagoducī also makes a joke that if it doesn’t happen in the future, then you will complain to someone. Thank God, we have this opportunity to have tomorrow Guru Pūrṇimā. For us, that to whom we are prayer, that which is for us the ideal, that is the Guru Tattva, that is the Guru. All other things, what we talked about a few days ago, Mūrtis and everything else, for us, is not so important. Because we mentioned that Vishwa Gurujī and Gurujī also said many times, when you have a disease and you have a nice book about medicine, but you don’t have a doctor, or you have a doctor in another room, to whom will you go to cure you, to the book or to the real-life doctor? Same with the horse. You have a good horse on the picture, or you have a horse in the stable. Which horse will carry you? For us, Guru Pūrṇimā is the greatest festival. When we talk about festivals in yoga, we will say that the most important festival is Guru Pūrṇimā. Because there is a day when, for the first time, light touched the earth. And that light is not only meaning the sunlight, but it means the light of the knowledge. That light which is leading us from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. Guru Pūrṇimā is also known as the light of the knowledge, as it is Vedavyāsa’s birthday. But when we talk about Guru Pūrṇimā, always try to remember the importance of the Guru. When we come to greet our Guru Dev on the Guru Pūrṇimā day, we greet, we give all our love, dedication like a flower to Guru Dev, and also we pray that Guru purifies all our negativity, everything we have done in the previous year. During the wars, but how human lives on the earth? We are very dangerous. We are completely changing and destroying the planet, but that sense, that sense, the gurus know that. What Swamiji said, they gave like a vaccination against this rabies, like a vaccination against rabies. And that vaccination is knowledge, satsaṅg. You know that sometimes I talk about one book, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Inside is a nice story about a doctor who, through the injection, changed the animal into the human. And inside also gave the law that is the heart to be human. Humans walk on two legs and do not eat and kill animals for meat. But what happens in that story? In that one moment, they stopped to give an injection, and that human transfer again into the nature of the animal. Yogīs know this. Great yogīs know this and gave the satsaṅg, gave religion, and that is the vaccination against disease that we have. Only if we get this injection, this injection of the satsaṅg, will we go further. We will remain like a human, and it’s not easy to be human. Because of that, you and I, every morning, say, "I am a human." What does it mean to be human, and what is satsaṅg? I think that is the most important thing. They joke that it is visible that I had a dog. People joke, you are joking that it is visible that before I got a dog. You know that once a year your dog had a shot against these few diseases. That is important, and that is a Guru Pūrṇimā. We come here to get such an injection, an injection of how to continue with our spiritual life, how to be a human, and in the end, how to continue with our spirituality from human to God. It’s not important for us, exactly, the date. But for us, it’s important to be with the Gurudev. That is important because every day is Guru Pūrṇimā for us when we are with the Gurudev. Like when you are listening to Guru Gītā, you know that it is said inside, when you are sitting, meditating, thinking on your Gurudev, and put the little water on your head, they had an influence, like you are bathing in all holy rivers on the earth. We have a so nice bhajan that says, in all holy scriptures they say that all holy places, all pilgrimage places are in the feet of the Gurudev. When I said "feet of the Gurudev," a lot of feet of Gurudev. Sometimes it’s confusing for Western people. But try to make the translation in your brain. That is the physical manifestation of the Guru Tattva. And you don’t have any more problems. Yes? Or do you understand? On this guru’s feet. When we understand this, we also know, as we said a few days ago, that it is not important how we are praying, how we have āratī, prayer, pūjā. For all goddesses, gods, deities, however we will call them, it is a special order of how to do it. If you make some mistake, okay, but it’s not so okay. You will see with the pundits. You need to know exactly how to do something. But when you do Guru Pūjā, it is important that your love. You know what we said when a little child starts to talk. Nobody understands what they are talking about. And sometimes it’s drooling and all this stuff. But mother and father love this so much. So cute, so nice. It’s so nice talking. And that is the relationship between guru and disciple: protection and we will not be judged. It will sometimes. What Swamiji said is good for circulation. But we know that is that love and that connection. Because of that, we have this mantra. When we are chanting this mantra, you are my mother, my father. And you have special feelings in this. With that feeling, come to Gurudev, not with the fear. I know that here in the West, people have some kind of complexes, that is the religion complexes, when you must be in the fear of God. But how will you love somebody if you are in the fear of that? If I do not love enough, I will get punished. Fear and love are not going together. Because of that, do not be in fear. Have love, have respect, that it’s okay, but not fear. Release from the fear, and also do not think about the next life. Everything we need to accomplish, we need to accomplish. We must accomplish in this life. Our Guru will lead us from the darkness to the light, from the ignorance to the knowledge. When we also come to the great Guru Dev on the Guru Pūrṇimā Day, it is also good to have Saṅkalpa: what we will do in the next year. Because for us, Guru Pūrṇimā is the new year. One very important thing: do not decide something so big. Because it is hard. Maybe it’s easy when you are here at the seminar, but try to decide on something that is not easy, but what you are able to do every day. You know from Patañjali, that is anuśāsā. Anupasa means little, little steps. Start with the little steps. Continue with the little steps, and if you will have this Anupasa, like what Patañjali said, with that, we will accomplish our aim. Thank you once more, Vishwa Gurujī, that we have the opportunity to have tomorrow Guru Pūrṇimā. For us in ex-Yugoslavia, it was completely normal. We have two New Years, two Christmases, because it’s a different calendar. Also, that is normal, and don’t think which day is the better day. Today is the best day, and thank you for that. You spoke a lot today, even in my place. You said very good. So, for the sake of everyone, I should have spoken to you. That’s why more people should speak. And you have given it, you have given it very well. Mahāmaṇḍala Svārūpādhyāya gave a good lecture to all of you. Before that, when you came here today, I have always told you that this is very good. With all in this clearance here, and all, we call them, we call them, both by your name, by your picture. If someone calls you, you come from there, right? So you all come, you all come and go. Everyone came, made praṇām, and had darśan. I recognize everyone with the face. When they come to me, I recognize them. So, morning, I came, I did it here, I did it here. He said, "You have done a good thing. You have called everyone. You have done everything." So, you came and we were like this, so I did not want to say it again. So, it is good that you have all been blessed by the Mother-in-law, the Antarjāmī, the Guru-Dev, the Mahādvā Devs, the Mahādvāna Jī, the Param Maharṣi, and yeah. Many blessings from Holy Gurujī and the paramparā to all of you who came. I was out also in the morning, and I am now out also with all of you.