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Sada Śiva Samarambhaṁ Śaṅkarācārya Madhyamam Asmadācārya Paryantaṁ Vande Guru Paramparām. Gurur Brahma Gurur Viṣṇu Gurur Devo Maheśvara, Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Man nātha Śrī Jagannātha, mat guru Śrī Jagat Guru. Māmatmā sarva bhūtātmā tasmai śrī guruvī namaḥ. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Ālāpurījīsita Pīṭha Paramparā. Mahīdāna namasvābhilāt guru deva. Oṁ Namaḥ Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs present here. Hari Oṁ and good morning to all of you who are present here and who are watching through the webcast. How is the morning? With two or three hours of sleep, this is how you look. So, that is why my voice is not even out so much; please bear with me today. Śrāvaṇa month is a very auspicious and very important month for us. Śrāvaṇa is the month of Lord Śiva. When the ocean was churned, fourteen ratnas, or fourteen different things, emerged. One of them was something dangerous. Any guesses? Poison. My brain is not functioning. Poison was one of the things churned from the ocean. With so much poison and everything else that came out, it had to be dealt with. What to do? When all the devatās were out of options, they went to Lord Śiva. Just as when we are out of options and ideas, we go to our Śiva. In the same way, they all ran to Lord Śiva and said, "So much poison came out; what shall we do? If we put it in the ocean, all sea life will die. If we distribute it among ourselves, we will die." Our Śivajī is Bholā Bābā. Bholā means innocent. He took that poison and drank it, which is why his throat is blue. That is why he is called Nīlakaṇṭha. He drank that poison, so he has a blue throat, and they call him Nīlakaṇṭha. Nīla means blue, and kaṇṭha means throat. That is why Lord Śiva is called Nīlakaṇṭha and has a blue neck, because he drank all that poison to protect all his brothers. In the same way, Gurudev sometimes digests all poison to protect all of us. That is why he is our Bholā Bābā. When we offer jalābhiṣeka or anything, it is an offering for Lord Śiva, but it is also for us. The water offering is for removing our inner ego. Milk is for good health and long life. Honey is for pure and sweet words. So everything has a specific reason why it is done. These offerings you make to Lord Śiva are, in the same way, for your own inner growth and benefit. When it is done in this time of Śrāvaṇa month, the effect is multiplied a hundredfold. It is said that even if you are not performing the Abhiṣeka but are just sitting and listening to the mantra, the vibration of that mantra going inside is very, very significant. Bhole Bābā is bholā because he is innocent. You can offer him anything, and he accepts. He is the easiest one to be pleased and to give you what you want. To invoke Brahmā or Viṣṇu requires very long tapasyā, but not for Śivajī. Even if you come with a pure heart and cannot find bilva patra, you can put any leaf there, and he is also happy. That is why when the rākṣasas wanted a boon, they all performed tapasyā of Śivajī, because it was a slightly quicker process. Rāvaṇa was the biggest bhakta of Lord Śiva. Once, there was a boy named Jayaprakāś. He was very innocent but very devoted to Lord Śiva. One day he said, "Okay, it is the month of Śrāvaṇa." He told all the people, "It is the month of Śrāvaṇa, and I will be organizing a very big abhiṣeka. All of you are most welcome to come." Everyone agreed. He bought a nice, silky, beautiful kurta and dhoti. He took the largest bucket of milk but did not check if it was already spoiled. He wanted rose water, so he took a whole bucket of what he thought was rose water, but it was actually the leftover liquid from pickles. Then he took a lot of honey. But a few days earlier, Nirvāṇ Purī had brought him maple syrup from Canada. He thought, "Śivajī would like maple syrup today." He went up to the temple, which was atop some stairs. He began the worship, poured the milk, and it just went "plop" because it was completely off—the milk was sour. Then he took the rose water, and the whole temple started smelling like pickles. Afterwards, he thought to bring paste for a tilaka for Lord Śiva. He found ashes in the playground, from the graveyard, and brought that. Bhasma (ash) from the śmaśāna, the cremation ground, always pleases Śiva. That is why during the bhasmā artī in Mahākāla, they use it. All the villagers started saying, "What is wrong with him? Why is he putting pickle water and this and that? Śiva will be very angry, and he will destroy us all. Śiva has three eyes; you never know which eye will open." After smelling the beautiful maple syrup, monkeys came and started eating and licking, making a whole scene in the temple. Jayaprakāś was pushed out of the temple and fell down the stairs. But he was so innocent and great that he said, "Oh, this is some inner blessing from Lord Śiva because I did such a good Abhiṣekā." After that Abhiṣekā, the time changed in that village. There had not been much rain, but then there was very good rain. People in the village who were fighting started coming together and became normal. Many changes were seen and felt. Why? Because it was done with bhāva. It does not matter how we do it, but with which bhāva, with which feelings, we are doing it. It does not matter if it is performing Abhiṣeka, doing Seva, working, or whatever we are doing. If it is done with feelings, if it is done with love, then it will be fruitful. Anything and everything you do—whether talking to a person, being there with someone, doing seva for someone, or cooking—should be done with pure emotions, pure feelings. That is the most important thing. On this second Monday of Śrāvaṇa, I will pray to Lord Śiva that he bestows happiness, peace, bliss, prosperity, everything, and that we all stay happy and blessed. Many blessings from Gurudeva. Much love from me, Veda, Lāst Kiyo, Dhamya.