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Good morning, everyone. Since there is no Avatārpūrī, Phūlpūrī, or Swāmījī here yet, I will begin. We will speak about Oṃ. Satyapravatī will continue the lecture tomorrow and go deeper. But for chanting and bhajans, the way we are sitting is not good at all; we are so far from each other. It would be nice if you come closer, especially from there and there. We should be a group; right now we are individuals scattered all over. Here, there is shadow everywhere, so no problem. Let us start with a mantra about Oṃ, definitely from the Vedas. This is a classical mantra explaining the essence of the word Oṃ, or Oṃkāra. "Kāra" has no special meaning; you have it after every letter, like Akāra, Ukāra, and so on. It means just the sound of Oṃ or the mantra Oṃ. "Bindu Sayuktam" means connected with a Bindu. You know that Bindu has two meanings: the point and the drop. You know it from Bindu Chakra, and both meanings make sense here. First, the point: when you have the Oṃ sign, it has three parts. One looks like the number three, which is actually the 'A'. Then there is a hook to the side, which is the 'Ū'. And then there is what we call the Chandra Bindu, which is like a half-moon with a dot. In Śaṅkar Svāmījī's Oṃ Āśram, this half-moon is actually water and the dot is the tower. So, the dot in the Chandra Bindu is the Bindu. From modern science, they say the whole universe was originally compressed to the size of a pea—what they call the Big Bang—and since that time it has been expanding. The whole universe came out of one dot. The other meaning, the drop, also makes sense: the nectar of immortality. So, on one hand, it is the origin of the universe; on the other, the divine nectar which makes us immortal. "Nityam dhyāyanti yoginaḥ." Dhyāyanti—you can understand from the word "dhyāna," meditation. It is that on which the yogīs meditate all the time. "Kāmaṁ dam mokṣadam" means it grants all desires and also liberation. "Oṃkārāya namo namaḥ"—my salutations, my greetings to Oṃ. Oṃ is the mantra of mantras, the original mantra. Swāmījī used to say a real mantra cannot be without Oṃ. Can I ask, does any one of you have a mantra from Swāmījī without Oṃ? Raise your hand. Oṃ is the essence; it must be in every mantra. The classical mantras like Gāyatrī—"Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ"—and other mantras all have Oṃ. And Swāmījī repeats over and over, maybe a thousand times, this one sentence from the Vedas: "Nāda rūpaṁ paraṁ brahma." So, sound is the form of God, or God appears in the form of sound. But sound not necessarily what we can hear; we can say, like vibration. So God in sound form is also called Śabda-Brahman. You can say Oṃ is the sound form of God. Now you might say, "I don't believe." There is a very interesting thing. Some scientists, brain scientists—maybe you have heard of him, even Alexander from America—he was not a spiritual person. He was a brain scientist at Harvard University in America. He had heard about people with near-death experiences but always said that was fantasy, until the same thing happened to him. That experience was so strong that he wrote a book titled Proof of Heaven. It started with a headache, then an epileptic seizure with big spasms, and then he fell unconscious. They brought him to the hospital and diagnosed a very rare disease attacking his brain, so he could not think or perceive anything. He was practically brain-dead, and they declared a 97% mortality rate. In that state, his consciousness went on a long journey for one week while he was in a coma. In his book, he was eager to describe what he experienced. He said first he came into a kind of hell, then a divine light came and brought him out to heaven. What is interesting for us is that in heaven he met God and communicated with Him in a direct telepathic form, which did not surprise him at all; it felt natural. And now he says, "And I remember God as Oṃ, because that was a sound that I still remember and associate with this all-knowing, all-powerful, unconditionally loving God." Definitely, he had never heard about Oṃ before. This is his real experience. In fact, Oṃ is not a sound which we can make. Oṃ is a reality. You can only experience it, and when we sing or chant Oṃ, we are not making the Oṃ sound; we are trying to come into resonance with the really existing Oṃ. And that gives the power. When we speak about Oṃ, we speak about Nāda Yoga. Now I'm going into your field. Nāda Yoga has two parts: the outer and the inner. The outer part, which I know from India mostly, identifies Nāda Yoga basically with Indian music. That's okay, but it is like the Oṃ chanting when it brings us in the direction of the inner path. The inner path of Nāda Yoga is actually meditation. You concentrate on some inner sounds, and then you hear in the background some more gentle sound, and then you concentrate on that. In this way, your awareness becomes finer and finer. At the end, there are different sounds, and the last one is Oṃ. It is somehow the essence of all these sounds, the origin of all these sounds. Let us think a moment on Mahāprabhujī, what we know from Līlā Amṛta. When he was a young child, only fifteen months old—you know the story from Līlā Amṛta? The parents prayed that he might start speaking. But already before, it is written here, before he could speak, he intonated the holy mantra Oṃ in such a way that all those who heard him were deeply moved. For more than one hour, he repeated this holy mantra, and then he gave a lecture to his parents at fifteen months old. And how did he end his life? You know about the Mahāsamādhi of Mahāprabhujī? After these words of farewell, at exactly five o'clock in the morning, Mahāprabhujī began to chant "Oṃ." Prāṇa and Apāna united and rose towards Brahmarandhra. Those present clearly heard the manifestation of Oṃ rise in Mahāprabhujī’s body and then pass through the Sahasrāra Chakra. So Oṃ is something to experience. I know from one girl in Hamburg; she told me in private that once, when she awoke at night, it was very quiet. She just sat up and she heard the Oṃ, the real existing Oṃ. So we must be aware: this outer chanting is a step in the direction to experience the real, existing inner Oṃ. I would like now, with you as a whole group—that's why I tried, please come closer—to do this chanting of Oṃ, but not in the normal way, one, two, three times, but as a continuous sound. So that everyone breathes in their own rhythm, and it becomes overlapping, like one continuous sound. We will do this, and while you are doing it, I will read at the same time a small lecture from Swāmījī about Oṃ. You know, when Swāmījī leads a meditation, he always says after some time, "Now we chant Oṃ." And then comes nothing, because then he starts to explain about Oṃ. In one meditation from 1991 in Vienna, a meditation on the breath, he gave a beautiful, long explanation about Oṃ. So we will now do like this: we start the Oṃ chanting. I asked Madhuram to start it, actually. Not too loud, because you need to hear my voice also, Swāmījī’s lecture. When this is over, then you still continue a little bit chanting Oṃ, but getting more and more peaceful. And then after two or three minutes, the Oṃ chanting stops, but the Oṃ vibration continues. That means now we try to experience this fine inner vibration in a meditation. And then after some time, I will finish. Everyone got it? Okay. So that's why it's a group event; it's not individuals scattered here and there. But you must actually hear each other. Ideally, it should be like a sound bath. Okay, let's try how much we can. We start with chanting Oṃ. Everyone is in his own rhythm. I read the text from Swāmījī. Afterwards, you still continue for a while, and then you stop. And then, a short meditation on Oṃ. Maybe one more reminder, very technically about chanting. I know some people try to sing a nice, loud Oṃ, and this has no vibration at all. This is like you have some snow and you want to throw it, but it goes only one meter. But when you make a snowball, you can throw it very far. So now, the chanting should be like this. The power of the chanting comes from the belly, from the breathing. But the beauty of the chanting comes from the head. The most important part in every musical instrument is the empty space. Think of a drum, a violin, or a piano; it's all around empty space. And our musical instrument is our head, where we have the mouth and the cavity, so we have a lot of empty space in our head. So instead of the feeling, "I sing the Oṃ out," say, "I let it circle in my head, and then it will slowly circle out and carry very far." That's exactly also a point about which Swāmījī speaks here. And this way of chanting brings you more easily into the feeling of the inner Oṃ. I know I don't need to tell this to Madhuram. So, Madhuram, please. Please sit straight; that's also important for good chanting. Close your eyes, and now we start. Go on. [Chanting and reading commence.] "Oṃ is the divine name. Oṃ is God. Oṃ is the light. It is prāṇa, the life. Oṃ is the beginning, the middle, and the end. The trinity in one. Singing Oṃ purifies the atmosphere. It illuminates your inner space. It fills each and every cell of your body with cosmic energy. Singing Oṃ purifies the nāḍīs and activates your chakras. Sing Oṃ very consciously. Relax your body and your breathing. Withdraw your mind from all worldly thoughts and problems. Withdraw your sense organs from the outer world into the inner world. Observe your inner space with closed eyes. Observe how the Oṃ sound originates in the navel as a subtle vibration. How this vibration then rises to the throat and to the lips, where it becomes articulated. But within less than a second, the sound reaches the brain, causing a vibration within the whole head, which you will feel especially in your eyebrow center. When this vibration touches the Sahasrāra Chakra, it becomes reflected in the form of light. This light pervades the whole body and forms a protective sheath around your whole existence—around your physical, astral, and causal body. This protects you from negative cosmic energies. It guards your meditation and allows you to travel freely and fearlessly in the inner space of your consciousness. The Oṃ sound travels through space into infinity, expanding your consciousness into the universe as far as it reaches. This Oṃ vibration wanders in eternity in space, preparing and clearing a beautiful path for you. At the end, we will chant three times Oṃ, slowly extricating our consciousness again." [Chanting concludes.] So, how was it? Really, chanting is a way to inner concentration, not just chanting outside. Now we come to one special aspect of Oṃ as the origin of creation. First, we will look into the Bible. In the Bible, we have two stories about creation: one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you know the story with Adam and Eve and the seven days when God created the world, and on the seventh He was exhausted, and that's why we have Sunday. But the second story is very interesting. This is found in the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man, and the light shines in the darkness." Now, of course, it's not said exactly which word, so it's a little bit shaky ground, but exactly the same thing you find in the Ṛg Veda. This is the ancient knowledge. And actually, we have in Christianity the mantra "Amen," which is very obviously a variation of "Oṃ"—Oṃ, Amen. So this is not very far. After we have already had the lecture from Swāmījī, we will now have the lecture from Holy Gurujī. I hope you didn't forget the Bhajan book like I did. We have a beautiful bhajan from Holy Gurujī about "Oṃ Kī Rachanā Sarīrī." And this goes exactly on that point of creation, because everything is the creation of Oṃ. That's the title. First sing? Okay. First translate? Good. So I hope you take your bhajan book if you have it at hand. "Oṃ kī rachanā śarīrī"—everything is the creation of Oṃ. "Janī, jane, beda"—the janī means the saints, the wise ones. The saints know its secret. "He, jan rahe sukhīyārī" means therefore these people are always happy; they are always in divine bliss. Now, this is very interesting, actually, for Holy Gurujī. You know, Holy Gurujī was a 100% bhakta of Mahāprabhujī, and Oṃ is something you can say is abstract. But he was enlightened, and he wrote the most beautiful full lecture on Oṃ. "Oṃ kā rūpa para brahma hai"—Oṃ is the form of Parabrahman, the highest God. "Oṃ kī chāyā nahīṁ hai"—there is no shadow from Oṃ; it is just light. Remember, Swāmījī said the sound turns into light, but not physical light. Maybe physical light creates a shadow, but divine light, no. "Oṃkār nabh rūpa sadā he"—Nabh is the sky or the space, endless. So Oṃ is like the endless space. Sadā means always; it's eternal. "Nirādhār re"—you know Ādhāra from Mūlādhāra Chakra. Ādhāra, the base, the fundament. So something is based on the fundament. But here, no: Oṃ has no fundament, no base. It exists out of itself, what Swāmījī always says: Svayambhū. Now the lecture continues. Oṃ has actually two aspects, two parts: the nirguṇa and the saguṇa. Oṃ as a whole is formless; you cannot really describe Oṃ. And then Oṃ splits into three parts: A-U-M and the three guṇas. Now, this is a step from the Divine Father to the Divine Mother. Divine Father is just pure consciousness. But the whole creation, which is made out of the three guṇas, that is she, the Divine Mother. So we live in her, and we try to reach Him. That's our yoga path. The three guṇas are like three colors. You know from the computer, you can make millions of colors from only three base colors. So all the millions of appearances in our physical and fine world are made out of these three guṇas. "Oṃkār kī triguṇamayī"—so Oṃ is the māyā existing from the three guṇas. For the purpose of a rhyme, he used here the word māyā. The correct word here, scientifically, would actually be prakṛti. About prakṛti and the three guṇas, you can read in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā. This is poetry; it's not a scientific lecture here. This māyā, or this prakṛti, developed the whole world. "Oṃkār meṁ jīva rahī"—so the jīvas, the individuals, the souls, they live in Oṃ. We are living in Oṃ. "Saba deha dhārī"—so all those who have a body, a deha. Now he comes to the finer levels. "Vidyā"—the knowledge. Swāmījī speaks about parāvidyā and aparāvidyā, the worldly knowledge and the spiritual knowledge. "Vidyā sarva oṁ se hai"—all the knowledge comes through Oṃ. Actually, I remember they made an experiment at a university. They gave difficult tasks to students and checked how many could answer the questions. Then they let them sing Oṃ for one hour, and afterwards they gave the same questions again, and they could count exactly how many more could now answer the questions. So all the knowledge comes through Oṃ. "Oṁ ko ved rachā"—Veda, like the divine knowledge, not just the books; this was only compiled in the books later. So Oṃ is the mūla, the root, the essence of every mantra. "Oṁ se brahma vichārī"—all thoughts, all longing for the divine come through Oṃ. So now it becomes practical sādhanā. "Oṁkār karo mila sāra"—therefore, you all together always repeat Oṃ. "Oṁkār se hot ujjāra"—ujjāra should actually be ujjvala. It's always a question of the rhyme. It means the light, the divine light which we had already before. "Oṁ kī chāyā nahīṁ hai"—so there is no shadow; it's just divine light. So Oṃ awakens the divine light. This is interesting from the grammar here in Hindi. A normal statement would be "Oṃkār se ujjāra hai." But he said "hotā." Hotā is a statement which is always like this, like two and two is four—not sometimes, but always. So he says when you chant Oṃ, it is unavoidable; it will definitely happen that the divine light is awakened. Therefore, keep on going with the meditation on Oṃ. "Oṃ se bhava bhai hari re"—so through Oṃ all the fear in this world is destroyed. "Ṛṣi muni yogī sāra, oṁkār ko hṛdaya dhāra"—Hṛdaya, you know from Hṛdaya Kamala, is the heart. So therefore all ṛṣis, munis, yogīs, they all keep Oṃ as a precious treasure in their heart. "Oṁkār bina, sādhanā sapahote bikārī re"—bikārī means useless, fruitless. Without Oṃ, all your sādhanā has no fruit. And again, "hotā"—that is a basic statement. It is always like this, that sādhanā without Oṃ is fruitless. And now comes a third time such a statement: "Oṁkār se hota ānanda"—through Oṃ the divine bliss is awakened, unavoidable. "Govinda jāne oṁkāra"—Govinda is the name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but definitely here, pars pro toto, it means every saint. All the saints know Oṃ. "Oṃkār se karma sāra"—through Oṃ you can purify all your karmas. "Oṃ se hoye bhava pāra"—Bhava, you know, we have it in many bhajans: the ocean of the world. So through Oṃ you can cross over the ocean of the world because your consciousness is awakened in such a way that you are no longer so concerned with these worldly matters; you want something else. It is Holy Gurujī's bhajan, so definitely in the end he greets Mahāprabhujī: "Mahāprabhujī ko pranāma hamārī"—my greetings to Mahāprabhujī. "Oṁkār ke svarūpa tumhārī"—you are for me like a personification of the Oṃ. "Kahai Mādhvānanda, Holī Gurujī, oṁ ko vandanā hamārī"—my salutations to Oṃ. It's a full lecture. The first time I saw this bhajan, I thought, "That cannot be from Holy Gurujī; that's not his style." Okay. So now we also have Samya. Good. Now we can all sing together. You all join in. [Bhajan is sung.]