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Sadāśiva-samāraṁ bhaṁ, Śaṅkarācārya-madhyamāṁ, asmat-ācārya-paryantāṁ vande guru-paramparāṁ. Gurur-brahmā, gurur-viṣṇu, gurur-devo maheśvaraḥ, gurur-sākṣāt-para-brahmā, tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ. Mannatha śrī jagannātha, mad-guru śrī. Jagad-guru mamātmā sarva-bhūtātmā tasme śrī-guruvi namaḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to the Śailā Pūrja Siddhāpit Paramparā. My praṇāms to our beloved Gurudeva, His Holiness, Viśwa Guru Mahāmudrā Śrī Maheśvarānand Purījī. Om Namaḥ Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs, and Hari Om and good morning to all of you who are present here. So, Pārvatī Jī. Simple. Parvati Ji, I know since I think I was born, so I’m doing a lot of sevā here in the ashram and taking good care. Parvati Ji did a lot of good sevā. I will tell you one story from the Upaniṣad. It’s a story from the Chāndrīkā Upaniṣad. And it’s a story about a ṛṣi. When ṛṣi Viśvaketu was still a young boy, his father told him that he is bonded with Brahma, but it hasn’t unfolded yet. So it was a son of the ṛṣi, so it will be a story of father and son. The father asked the son to go to the Gurukul and study the Vedas. He studied for 12 years and then returned. When the father saw him after 12 years, he was disappointed because he could see that he didn’t go into the depth; he remained on the surface. Instead of the teachings bringing him to modesty, they didn’t invoke in him modesty and humbleness. On the contrary, he had quite a big ego. So the father decided to teach him. He asked him a question: if he knows that thing, when he gets to know it, then he knows everything. His response was, "I don’t know it, but neither do my teachers, otherwise they would teach me." Nevertheless, he asked his father to teach him. The father explained that everything in the space comes from one cause. The cause is Brahma, or the Absolute. Everything that is in the space itself is different forms of Brahmā, just names or shapes. It is similar to a pottery maker creating different shapes and forms, like a mug or a bowl. In essence, it’s all just mud, which is transformed into different shapes and given different names. When we break, for example, a jug, no one says anymore, "Oh, there is a jug," or, "There is a pile of mud." When we have decorations from gold, be it a ring or a bracelet, in a sense it’s just gold in a certain shape with a certain name. When we melt the jewelry, then all it becomes is just gold. So it is essential to find that cause or follow that cause. There is another story from the Mahā Śiva Purāṇa. We all know it, but we know a rather slightly different explanation. It’s the story of the sons of Śiva and Pārvatī, who were supposed to walk around the globe or Earth. Śrī Gaṇeśa started immediately. Shri Gaṇeśa was first thinking a little bit, and then he just did a parikramā around his parents. Because in essence, they are the cosmos; they are the cause. So he went straight for the cause, rather than going to all the different places, which are actually limited because they are not the cause itself. And the father said to the son, "We actually heard it yesterday, meaning you are that." Mahāvākyas—the literal translation is 'great quotations'—describe or depict the unity of Paramātmā and Ātmā. You will find many of these in the Upaniṣads, but only four main ones were selected, and one of them is, in translation, "You are that." Tat means 'that'. In Vedic Sanskrit, the symbolism of 'that' was the divine Self. So when we come across "Tat" in mantras, like in the Gāyatrī Mantra, that’s a reference to divinity, the divine. Later on, it developed into a pronoun. Tvam meaning 'you', but it means you as a divine self—when we take away all the kośas, all the shells, and find just that divine in you. Asi meaning 'you are'. Ātmā nebo brahma. 'To be', so you are that divine, that Brahma. Śākyamuni was also contemplating the fact of how it’s possible that from nothing, from something we can’t really see or feel, the whole universe could be established. The father then asked him to bring a leaf and cut it in half. He asked him, "What do you see?" And he said, "Seeds." So cut the seed halfway through and tell me what you can see. "Nothing." And there you go. From that nothing, this beautiful plant grows with all those leaves and seeds and fruit. Similarly, from that Brahma, the whole universe was founded or created. That comes back to the Mahāvākya, "Tat tvam asi." You are that Brahma. The next thing Śekhādvētu wanted to find out was how it’s possible that Brahmā is in everything and flows through all of us. The father tasked him to bring a jug of water and pour a bit of salt inside, and then they would wait until the next day. When they met the next day, the father asked him to take the salt out. His son replied, "It’s not possible, it has melted." The father asked him to taste the water just from the top of its surface. He replied, "It’s salty." Then, "Try and taste it from the middle of the jug," and again the response was, "Salty." Then he asked him to taste it from the bottom of the jug and asked the same question, and the response was the same: salty. This was another example of how Brahma, the Divine, penetrates through everything, and it’s something we just can’t grasp or feel. Again, his father reminded him, "Tat tvam asi, you are Brahma, you are that divine being." There were other examples. For instance, when collecting pollen from plants to produce honey, not a single particle of the honey would be possible to associate with a specific flower because it’s just the honey; it’s all united. Again, Tat tvam asi, you are that unity. And maybe the last example: how all the rivers end up in the ocean. It starts from a drop of water, then it goes into a stream, then a river, and then it comes to the ocean. All those rivers meet and are united in that ocean, and it’s not possible to distinguish which stream or river that water in the ocean originated from. They all become the ocean. Which means, "Tat tvam asi," you are that. Greetings to our Guru Paramparā, all our Masters, Swamījī and Avatār Purūjī. I was thinking, because everyone was speaking something about himself, I could speak about myself. I will speak about my own name. Last year, I gave a lecture here during the summer seminar, explaining that most of us have two mantras. The first mantra is the guru mantra, which we get from Swamijī. The second one is what many of us have: our yoga name. The yoga name we get has a message; it is also something we should try to realize. Naturally, I was also thinking a lot: what is now actually the meaning of Gajanant? You all know that Gajanant is another name for Gaṇeśa, Lord Gaṇeśa. This is an elephant body with a human head, so it’s a mixture, one of the Hindu gods. Lord Gaṇeśa actually has the animal body of an elephant, but he has the head of a human. He is, in fact, the most worshipped in India, aside from Lakṣmī. Gaṇeśa is seen as a remover of obstacles. So whenever you start something—building a house, a marriage ceremony, or even a satsaṅg—you first call Gaṇeśa to remove the obstacles. In India, when they send an invitation card for a marriage, definitely Ganesh is on top. There are many stories from the Purāṇas about Gaṇeśa. Let me repeat one of these stories, which explains in a symbolic way why Gaṇeśa has the elephant head. Gaṇeśa was actually created by Pārvatī. Her husband, Śiva, was not present. She went to the bath, and of course no one should enter when she is in the bathroom. She gave strict orders to her son Gaṇeśa to stand in front of this room and make sure that no one could enter. In that moment, Śiva comes back home and, of course, wants to see his wife. But there is Gaṇeśa, and they don’t know each other. Śiva sees there is some kind of god. "Why is he there? I want to visit my wife." A big fight ensues between Gaṇeśa and Śiva. Now, who would win? Two gods were fighting with each other. Somehow, no one could really win. It is said that Shiva used a somewhat unfair trick and cut off his head. Then he entered, and Parvati was shocked because she knew that she had put Gaṇeśa in front, so how could he enter? There was a little disturbance in the family. In the end, Śiva explained that, of course, he didn’t know him, but he had to admit that he was not so fair in this fight. As a reconciliation, he sent messages and said, "Bring the head from the next living being you find." That happened to be an elephant. So they cut the head of the elephant, put it on top of the trunk, and now Gaṇeśa was actually created. This is one of the many stories which, when you ask anyone in India about Gaṇeśa, he will tell you. Maybe another one, which is a little bit nicer: Why does Gaṇeśa have a mouse? Actually, a big Gaṇeśa, an elephant. Why does he have a mouse, or some say a rat, as a riding animal? So maybe one more story that is also interesting is why Gaṇeśa actually has a small mouse, which is actually his animal, which guides him, which rides on him. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense, such a small animal and such a big one on top. The story is this small one was actually a big Rākṣasa, a demon fighting with Gaṇeśa. It was, of course, also a strong fight, a long fight, but in the end, Ganesh, with his divine powers, made him a small mouse and said, "You have to serve me." Like most of these stories, it’s a symbolic story. So who, or what does the little mouse represent? This demon represents our mind, and our mind tries to control us. We have to fight to try to control the mind, so that the mind will serve us and not be the master. It’s a symbol for that fight which we have to fight every day. This is the first level, I would say, of understanding Gajānand or Gaṇeśa. This is more on the level of, I would say, fairy tales. Now, when we look in our bhajans, we find another level. We also always call, in the beginning of every satsaṅg, Gaṇeśa, singing, for example, "Sumeru Gaṇanāyaka" or "Vighneśvara". It’s interesting to look at exactly what we are actually singing. What is the text of these bhajans? "Pāḍharo Mīrā Gaṇapathi Medeva Guraṅsa". Pāḍharo means it’s an invitation, please come. Mira Ganapathi—Ganapathi is again one of the many names of Gaṇeśa. But then comes gurāṅgśa, turn it around: guru deva gurāṅgśa, guru deva. So, in fact, this is a bhajan not to call Gaṇeśa. It’s a bhajan to call the guru, and that is not just in this one bhajan; it’s practical in all our bhajans. So Gaṇeśa is seen here as a certain quality, the one who removes the obstacles. We invite the guru to come as a representative of Gaṇeśa with the Gaṇeśa qualities to help us here. That is the main teaching of Swamijī Mahāprabhujī about the guru, that we follow the guru, we invite the guru. This is a topic in all our bhajans, which we can find in all of them. In this bhajan, we ask ourselves what Mahāprabhujī was like. "Satyaka hu esa paramakripa." To say the truth, he was like that. The refrain doesn’t give an answer, but now come many, many verses giving different aspects of the guru. This is the teaching in our bhajans, and this is Mahāprabhujī’s teaching. So that is already a deeper level, the guru level. But after many years of having the name, I finally got a deeper meaning through a lecture of Swāmījī. Now we have to look at the name Gaṇeśa. Gaṇ and Īś. Ish is short for Īśvara, God or the Lord. And what is Gaṇ? Not for shooting. Gaṇ, when you look in the dictionary, is said to be the minor gods—not like Brahma, Viṣṇu, Śiva, the main aspects of the divine, but smaller aspects, like the elements, nature. Especially in the Ṛg Veda, you will find many references to the different aspects of our existence, of our being, of our nature, all as divine aspects. It’s called pantheism, that you basically see every aspect of reality as an aspect of God. This is very good for us, that we see everything as divine. It means also every other person as divine. Oh, would the world change if we would have that attitude, everyone. But the main thing here now is the aspects of nature, that means, practically, the elements. So we have again the different aspects of the elements of nature as gods, personified. Surya is the sun god, the divine aspect of the sun. Vāyu is the divine aspect of the wind. Bhumi is the divine aspect, mother earth. So now, Ganesh, the lord of these elements. What does it mean if someone is ruling over the elements? It means he is able to control, to balance, to harmonize all the elements. Now, remember, when Swamiji gives a public lecture about yoga, whatever lecture he gives, he says one sentence. He says there is one principle which harmonizes the whole universe. And this principle I call yoga. A ten princip je yoga. And suddenly we are there in the middle of Swāmījī’s teaching. When I heard that lecture and I got that point, I was really relieved. When I heard it, when I was at that lecture, I truly felt a release. So practically, what Swāmījī is teaching us is yoga: the harmonizing principle, je harmonizující princip, že rovnováhu, harmonii. So these are really three different levels of understanding, and I was so happy when I came to the third one, because with the first one, with the Hinduism, I cannot really identify. I don’t feel like a Hindu. So finally, Gaṇeśa is the yogī. And in this sense, I try to realize my yoga name, my second mantra. Om Śānti Śānti... Satgurudev Bhagavān Kī Jai.