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A pleasant time of day to you all. We are slowly coming to the end of our summer seminar. This seminar felt a little unusual because Viśva Gurujī was not physically present. Yet, I believe each of us feels his presence through his energy and his being here. In that way, we can also enjoy—enjoy the time with your friends, enjoy the time you have for yourself, and also enjoy this presence, this other way of being present. For today's satsaṅg, first, I will address a very nice question that has come. After that, we will have bhajans and prayer. We will also thank our karma yogīs today, for their work is—not was, but still is—a great job. I remember my first anuṣṭhāna. Swāmījī said, "Why are you complaining? You don’t need to do anything." I was an adolescent at that time and didn't understand what Swāmījī meant. But now, forty years later, I understand. You know what the best food is? First, when you are hungry, they say hunger is the best cook. Second, the best meal is when you don't need to cook and wash the dishes. Especially for ladies—though that's not entirely right, as men may also cook and wash—the best meal is that. You don't need to clean your house. And you know, so many problems you have at home, you don't have here. Nowadays, there's a slight problem because we have these machines. With them, jobs and problems come. It's something like karma, always with you. In previous times, there was no mail, no telephone, nothing. We were free. But now we have a golden chain; we are available all the time, and that is a problem. It is very important to make a decision to just switch off. Airplane mode. Nothing is so important. Only we think we are so important and that the world will collapse without us. Nothing will collapse without us. So many great people came before us, they passed away, and the world still goes on. We just need this awareness, and it will be good for us. In the past, we joked about doctors. You know which doctor is very important? The one with more patients, where you always must wait in the waiting room. If you are not waiting, that doctor is not a good doctor. Now it's not just one mobile phone; it's two. You saw in the Olympic Games that people usually have two phones. You know why? One is on a stick to take a picture of me, the VIP, the very important person. With the other, I am recording what is happening around me. Did you see this? No, you are not watching TV. That is your problem. Once, Swāmījī in New Zealand said to me—because on the airplane he saw the movie at the beginning about seatbelts, etc., and on the plane there was something from Lord of the Rings—Swāmījī was so angry. "What is this?" I explained to him what it was, and he told me, "You watch too much TV." I said to him, "Yes, that is research work." And yes, if you are watching TV or something, it is different how you look at it. Like research work, to see what is happening now. Or you will eat everything you see. I think it is also very important for us to know what is happening now with us, in the world, around us. Because if we know what is happening now—which is the trend, what kind of energies are present, etc.—we will be able to protect ourselves and also to protect others. It is very important to have information. If you have information, you will know how to act. If you do not know about the situation and you do not have information, you will be like sheep, and very easily we will finish under the knife of the situation. Also, when a lot of people are doing something around us, they have an influence on us. We can call this the collective unconscious. We can also call this the law of the—I don't know the exact term in English—but the 100th monkey. Research was done on monkeys on one island; they started washing or putting some herb in salty water. Slowly, monkeys started to do this. The moment the number of monkeys was not just one, two, or five, but something around a hundred, on another island, monkeys started to do the same thing. With humans, they gave American people a task to learn some Japanese poet's song by heart. There were two songs, two poems, of the same level of difficulty. They realized that the song which more Japanese people knew by heart was much easier to learn. Why am I talking about this? If some trend becomes common among people, somehow this collective unconscious will also have an influence on us. If we are not aware, if we don't know about this, we will just start to do it. But if we know, in the moment we buy a second mobile phone and a stick for making a double video, we will be able to say to ourselves, "Stop, do not do this." That is very important. You know what our parents always said to us? When we said, "Yes, but everybody does this," your parents—and if you are a parent, you also said this sentence—would reply, "Yes, if everybody jumps from the window, you will also jump?" But for that, we need to be aware. There was one question: Why does a mālā have 108 beads? Why does Sumeṟan have 27? And what does the number 108 mean? In short, you know what Viśva Gurujī answers to this question: "Why does a mālā have 108 beads?" And now we expect deep knowledge about the number 108. Usually, Swāmījī said, "100 is for counting, and 8 is for the chakras." Have you heard that answer from Swāmījī? Yes, many times. I must say I am not a big fan of numbers. We have a base-ten, decimal system now, and we look at everything through ten. Sometimes before, it was base-twelve, and everything was about twelve, and so on. What does it mean that we always want to give such big meaning to all this? You will see in the Vedas two streams: one is Karmakāṇḍa, and one is Jñānakāṇḍa. Karmakāṇḍa is more related to ceremonies, yajñas, etc. Jñānakāṇḍa is related to jñāna, knowledge. Paṇḍits are related to Karmakāṇḍa; they perform ceremonies, yajñas, etc. But when you are a sannyāsī, you are—I will dare to say—above this. Because of that, a sannyāsī does not attend the marriage ceremony itself. Before marriage, after marriage, it's okay to give blessings, but not at the ceremony. Funerals, etc.—only you might go to your mother's funeral. That was established by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. But you are not involved with the ceremony, rituals, etc. Yesterday we chanted "Oṁ Pya Budip Niyanjan Sabaduka Banjan." You know, through the bhajan, about that mantra. We should have that mantra in our mind all the time. With that mantra, the position of the planets will not have an influence on you. With that mantra, you will not have a problem with different ghosts, three tapas, etc. Now, thank God, the biography of Swāmījī, the first part, finished with 1984, which was my beginning. I remember the summer seminar in '84 was in Rajac (today in Serbia), and there were such good lectures. At Rajac, there was one question because, in the '80s, I started with all this stuff about bioenergy—not so much, as we would say, like radiesthesia, and so on. This energy, ground energy, and so on. Then they started talking about these earth energies and radiesthesia. Everybody was walking with a pendulum, looking, "Where is that bad energy?" You know, the best answer I ever heard from any guru is from Swāmījī, and that shows what a real sannyāsī is. Somebody asked Swāmījī, "On which side is it good to put your head when we go to sleep?" You know what the answer was? "On the side where your pillow is." Try to understand this, not this hocus-pocus, etcetera, all this nonsense. One year ago, I heard that in the south, it is not good to have your head because energies go to the south and you will have a stroke. And that person got a stroke. You know about whom I talk. Yes. And at that seminar, somebody asked Swāmījī, "What to do when the ground energy or this haṭha-man knot is on the place where I sleep?" and so on. Swāmījī looked at that person—there were, I think, a maximum of 50 people at the seminar—and said, "You don’t have a mantra? You are not in japa?" That was the answer. Look, understand this: when you have a mantra, don’t think about nonsense. In ancient times, they said one lady was a sannyāsī. She was walking all the time with two buckets. In one bucket was water, and in the other bucket was fire. They asked her, "Why? Why are you carrying these two all the time?" She said, "If I come to hell, I will put the water. If I come to heaven, I will set the fire." For the yogī, heaven and hell are here. We are not practicing and trying to be good to get into heaven. No, I don’t want to be in heaven. To go to heaven is like going on an extraordinary, all-inclusive holiday for 15 days. But after 15 days, you must pay, and you come back. Usually, when you come back, you don’t have money because everything you had—which means good karma—you spent on the holiday time. What I learned from our friends from Canada: during the winter, it is a hard time, and mostly people run to some sunny place. But after that, they come back home and take another job—which means two jobs—because they need to earn more money to pay back. That is the principle of heaven. Yogīs say that hell is much better because you do something, and after that, you go further. But we know in yoga that hell and heaven are here. Also, at that seminar—my first summer seminar, or a few months earlier in Belgrade, I'm not sure—we got a picture of Mahāprabhujī. Swāmījī said, "Always keep this picture with you. That picture will protect you." I still have this picture, always with me. That is what we need to come to. You don't need Jyotiṣa. You don't need a Paṇḍit to make some yajña for you. You don't need anything of this. That is only a toy for children. We have everything. We have our Gurudev. We have mantra, we have paramparā. The only thing we need is confidence. I will not say faith, because faith is not good. Very soon, "I am believing, but if I don’t get a new red Porsche, I will not anymore believe in Mahāprabhujī." Új piros Porsche-emet, akkor már többet nem hiszek Mahāprabhujī-ben. Yes. Így van. Everybody has a different red Porsche. That is just symbolic humor about guys in a mid-life crisis. Faith, but really trust. And when you are completely committed, with no second option, that is important. And we have all of this. Every time we try to use some crystal... Continuing the answer of Swāmījī: If you have so much oil on you and you are walking on a bridge, and your leg is slippery and you start to fall down—if you have so much oil on you and I try to catch you, you will just slip down because of the oil. And if you have so many stones in your pocket, you will go down. See this symbolically. If you believe and think that some crystal will save your life and change your destiny, what are we doing? We are believing that that stone is much stronger than Mahāprabhujī. Yes. Mahāprabhujī is not functioning, and this crystal will function? Okay, nice. Nice crystal. That is good. We need a little of this magic, little blim-blam in life. But in reality, we need to know: when I put this [trust in an object], it is immediately like I am putting a stamp on it. For every document, you need the stamp and signature of the court or something. If I do this, I immediately put a stamp that says this is more powerful than Mahāprabhujī. And because of that, we don't need anything. We need only the mālā we got from Viśva Gurujī. If it's a plain mālā, even better. But you know, Swāmījī always talks about his mālā. For him, his mālā is so valuable, more than any stones, any money, because he got that mālā from his guru. And we got a mālā from our guru. If you didn't get a mālā from your guru, you come to Swāmījī. And how many times do you give your mālā for blessing? What more do you need? That is your mālā, your mantra. And imagine, see the picture of your Iṣṭadevatā. Nothing more. That is my attitude. And if you ask me about numbers, who cares about numbers? Five, ten, eleven, something, okay? But because people always ask about 108, I know something about this. First, they said 108: if you put 1 and 8, that is 9, and 9 is the highest number—only in the decimal system. In the binary system or base-12 system, it's maybe not. But I will not go into this because I do not know this and I do not want to know about this. Second, they said there are 108 Upaniṣads. But somebody said more, but the main ones are 108. Next, they said—I was never measured—but they said the distance between Earth and the Moon is 108 times the radius of the Moon. And also, they said the distance between the Sun and the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun or Earth, something like this. And because of that, it is the number 108. Why 27? 27 is one quarter of 108. And now, explanations start about constellations because you have the number 11, you have all this, and they start with this number. It is something I don't know for sure, and because of that, I will not talk about it. But if you want to research, look into something about the constellations of the stars, how many different constellations are in the movement of the moon, or something like this. But for me, the best answer is: 100 is for counting, and eight is because we have eight chakras. What does it mean? It is not necessary to make such a big deal about the number. The most important thing is to have confidence. Be sure, try to have this certainty about your path, about your practice, about your mantra, about Mahāprabhujī, Gurujī, Swāmījī, all the paramparā. If we are sure inside, in our heart, and we practice and do this with 100% confidence, everything is possible. No stones, no oil, none of these other things. We have the real stuff. We have a diamond. Don't run after shiny glass. Repeat and repeat in your mind the meaning of the bhajan, "Siddhipā Niyanjan Sabadokā Bhajan." Inside, everything is explained. When we are sure inside, in that moment, everything is possible. The same thing with saṅkalpa. Immediately when you repeat your saṅkalpa, you know whether that saṅkalpa will become true or not. But you must be honest with yourself. Because of that, I don't have a saṅkalpa. I realize that many times I repeat saṅkalpa in a way, blah, blah... without śakti, without being sure. In that case, saṅkalpa is not functioning. When you are really in some problem, that saṅkalpa—you know, you repeat it with energy. Immediately when you say your saṅkalpa, you know that it's true. Not it will be, but it is now. In that moment, that saṅkalpa is really functioning. Get such an attitude, such energy, such a satirical way. We will make it so that we immediately come to the aim. You know this story—they said it is connected with Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa, but so many people say this story is connected with this and that. In the end, it is not important who it's about; it is very important to understand. Once, a disciple, a bhakta, came to Paramahaṁsa and was complaining a little that he was doing everything but nothing happens. He is practicing, doing good karma, everything, but nothing happens. Ramakrishna said, "Okay, we will go for a little walk." They were walking and came to the bank of a river. They entered until their navels were in the water, and in that moment, Ramakrishna just put that man under the water. In the beginning, you know, that is the blessing from my Gurudev. First, maybe 30 seconds, and after that, "My guru is crazy! He wants to kill me!" etc., etc., you know. In the end, when that man was really suffering, he released him. The man was changing his attitude: "You are crazy! What are you doing? You almost killed me!" Ramakrishna said, "Yes, okay, you are right. But tell me one thing: what were you thinking about when you were under the water?" The man said, "How to get to the air!" Ramakrishna said, "Yes. When you will have such a feeling for God, immediately you will get self-realization." We need to have this certainty, to be completely certain about our path. That kind of saṅkalpa—that we need this like air, and that it immediately comes. Okay, we know all this, but why are we not self-realized? Mostly because of fear. They say the river is in fear when it comes to the ocean: "I will lose myself. I will lose my identity." This little "I" is in fear. Because of that, we still have a little more kilometer to merge into the ocean. If you are thinking, "No, no, I am not in fear," go a little deeper. You know that kind of fear is deep inside. We need to have real confidence, confidence like a child when you fall down and immediately run to your parents or grandparents. For that child, nothing else exists. Just, "Where are my parents or grandparents?" and run to them. We should run to our Iṣṭadevatā, not to stones or some other system. How to practice this? Don't try to be good and force yourself. They always said, "If you try to be good—I must be good, I must be good, be good"—that will lead us to psychic disease. Mostly, these very "good" children took a gun and killed half the school. Because there was "good," but there was no feeling of good inside. Because of that, we need to feel good inside. Also, we were talking a little before about some feelings. It is very important to observe your feelings because, before depression, if you observe yourself, you will see the signs. In, I don't know, German literature, there was one very popular concept: Weltschmerz, the pain of the world. For me, German and Sanskrit are on the same level, and my tongue is completely like a dead fish. Sorry. But that, you know, is the pain of the world. Many artists, many writers, were trying to get that feeling to be inspired to make literature. Yes, you know this from school. Please tell me yes. No, you don't know this? We need to be renaissance men and women. What does that mean? We need to know this, and that is also dangerous because if you look at history, a lot of these artists died from cirrhosis of the liver. Yes, you know this from school. Everything you know from school, everything you know from normal education, you need to implant into the knowledge of yoga, and you will have a broader picture. They want these pathetic feelings inside, and that feeling is somehow sweet to us. You know that feeling during the teenage years. Yes, you know this. If you are sitting like this and I am talking about this, I feel, "Oh my God, I was really in trouble in my teenage years." But I know everybody has such feelings. When you enter into such feelings, it is hard to go out. This morning we talked about changing our brain, and also how we will change our brain and our feeling, and entering depression. In the beginning of depression, you can easily go out. But in the next moment, when that demon catches you, it is not easy to go out anymore. You need real support from others and a lot, a lot of strength. All these sad feelings and all this, it's making you go down. When you have such feelings, you just say to yourself in the beginning, when it is just a little—our brain loves this because we love such chemistry in our brain; that chemistry is very known to us—but restoring our brain means we are aware that that moment comes to us. Next, say to yourself, "No, I don't want this," and remember Patañjali: delete, delete. Neti, neti. I don't want this. And change with positive thoughts. Put on some good music, bhajans, or something else with a lot of energy. Also, change your thoughts. When you start, this first feeling is not yet depression. Still, it is nice, sweet feelings. What do we do in that moment? We put on some nice, sweet music, and sometimes you take out some memory pictures. In that moment, all memories start: "Oh, how it was!" And immediately, you freely jump down into depression. Am I right? Do you recognize this? You are a sannyāsī; you don't have such problems. Sannyāsīs don't have such problems. One man, when I was being shaved before Sannyāsa Dīkṣā, came to me and said, "Oh, how lucky you are! You will not have any more problems. You will not have any of your problems—only from your disciples." And I said to him—he was an Indian guy—I said, "No, I have my guru, and he will have problems from disciples. I am free of all problems." And another Western sannyāsī told me that during his shaving, one Indian guy came to him many, many years ago and said, "Oh, you are happy, you will never be hungry anymore." But I will say this in another way: it is not only hunger for food. That hunger is easy. But humans are so hungry for other things: fame, name, material stuff. That hunger is never possible to satisfy. But also, be aware, and you will recognize the first moment of that starved hunger. Try to stop. Change your thoughts. Change your feelings. That means changing ourselves. That means purification. When we start with yoga, at that time, oh my God, so much nonsense. Usually, people come and say, "I have a problem with the Viśuddhi. I have purification of the Viśuddhi." No, you don't have a problem with the Viśuddhi; you have a problem with some bacteria or virus. Yes. And purification of a chakra—purification means be aware, and awareness will make us see our problem. When we see our problem, we are able to say to ourselves, "No, I don't want this." And we know we have such a problem. I know I have a problem with, I don't know, chocolate. Some have problems with alcohol, some with drugs, some with chocolate. Everybody has their own drug. Somebody has a problem with sex, somebody has a problem with anything else. And what Viśva Gurujī said: "Never put yourself into temptation, never." Because if you say, "No, I will not drink alcohol anymore," and you enter a bar with your old friend, in half an hour you will be more drunk than anybody else in the pub. Because of that, you will not go into the pub. And also, you will change. Your society—in the first moment, you know, every one of us knows when we start with yoga, we lose our old friends. Because you change interests. When you are not fishing anymore, what will you do with your old friend who is always fishing, having beer and barbecue? What will you do? Slowly, slowly, you change. And that is normal. Every one of us passed this. But in that moment, you have another friend. Society is very important. Because of that, Swāmījī always said satsaṅg is very important. We need to come to satsaṅg. Because satsaṅg is our support group. And only with satsaṅg, with good society, with positive thoughts, positive talks, something that will inspire us, are we able to remain on the path and go further. Yesterday, some of you came and asked, "Tomorrow—what means today—is the last day. Why will we not make a longer satsaṅg, with more singing and more like a festival?" And today, a book came, and I know it finished in 1984. I just said that at that time was this summer seminar in Rajac. I remember after two weeks how Swāmījī finished this seminar. In the morning, we were collecting wood, and in the evening, he made a big fire. We were sitting around the fire, singing bhajans, and being together.