Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

When we look at the life of Krishna, what bind Him? He was always free, ever free. He was born free. The only thing that bind Him, that limited Him is the love of His devotees. There is this beautiful story. It’s the beautiful story when Krishna was small. He was very naughty, always breaking all the makhan and butter pots, trying to annoy everybody, because He wanted the center of attraction to be on Him only, nothing else. So one day Yashoda had Him on Her lap and She had some milk on the fire. So the milk started to boil and started to spill in the fire. How great was this milk. It was crying even that the Lord is so near to Him, but yet it could not come to Him. So Yashoda let Krishna down and rushed to remove the milk. Here you see that the Lord, who even great Yogis try to attain through meditation and penance can’t attai Him. Here he is playing, he is on the lap on Yashoda, but yet she let herself be distracted to the outside, forgetting about the Lord. So what He did: He went in, broke the pots of butter-milk and gave the butter to the monkeys, start feeding the monkeys. So when Yashoda came and saw the pots were broken and monkeys all around she knew that it was Krishna. Then she started to look for Krishna, where is Krishna, running after Krishna everywhere. Of course Krishna with His little, little legs start edrunning around, but she could not catch Him. So finally He let Himself be caught by Yashoda and again she tried to tight Krishna to a pillar. She tried to tight Him with a rope, but every time She tried , he rope was short by two inches. So she got more rope, but again it was too short. She tried more ropes, again it was too short. She became really, really tired. Seeing how much love she had at that moment, He said “Okay, I succeed of getting her attention fully on me.” Then He let Himself be tight. So Love is the only thing that tights the Lord.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Once there was a man. He was always searching for his Sadguru. So he went everywhere, but yet his heart was not satisfied. He met many masters, but yet his heart was not satisfied. It is also one quality of the devotee, that his heart shall feel when meeting the Sadguru. So he went around, but without success. And one day he in the near of a Saint and he asked him “Listen dear Sir, I am in the search of my Sadguru. Could you please guide me?” The Saint closed his eyes, meditated for a little while and said to the man “Listen my son, up on this mountain that you see there are many holy men staying. Tomorrow is a very good day. Invite all of them at your place. Invite them for lunch. With love and dedication serve them food and give them respect, everything. And as they are eating ask them a question. Take a twig from any tree. Take two twigs, two pieces of branch and say to them “Tell me dear Sir, which branch does this tree belong to?" .“Name the tree”. So he did as the Saint told him, invited the Saints and served them food with lots of love and respect. Then he showed them the pieces of the twig of the tree and asked all of them “Dear Sir, tell me which plant, which fruit tree, does this twig belong to ?”. They all looked at it and said “It’s a mango twig, a mango branch”. The Saint said to the man “You do that, but contradict them. When they say it’s a mango, say no it’s a peepul.” So then the Saint also said to him. “If you do that and if they get angry, they are not a Sadguru, but the one, who will stay calm and will say “Maybe, it is possible, that it is a peepul twig" will be a Sadguru. So he did. Eventually as he was asking which twig does this plant belong to, the other gurus got very frustrated and furious and said “Why you don’t see that it is a mango twig and you all tell us all the time that it is a peepul twig. We tell you it is a mango branch”. They all got very angry. Among them, there was one man, very simple, who stayed calm. He was eating his food and looked at him. When the man asked him “What about you dear Sir, reverent Sir?”. He said “Well, it can be possible that it is a peepul twig” very calmly and very serenely with a smile he said this.
You see: the quality of calmness is very important. How can a master guide, if he is not calm? And this is the greatness of a Sadguru. No matter what happens, he will always stay calm.
Like I said in Gurupurnima:The best way is to ask the Sadguru or the Guru directly. So when you see this quality of calmness, when you have found your Sadguru surrender and stop asking questions. The mind, like I always say, is always full of doubt. If you don’t give Sadguru the chance to hold your hand and guide you out of it, you will move away from this. You will lose a chance.
So let the Sadguru hold your hand and guide you. So the feeling that you have, the joy, when the Sadguru is in front of you- the same is reflected. The Sadguru will never show the feeling, but YOU will feel it. He knows that, but he wants YOU to know it. The Sadguru has already found God, has already realised the Divine and he wants you to realise. That’s why you look for him. Try to feel always with your heart and try to listen to your inner self. Cause when your inner self reveals something, the mind will always say "Oh no, no, no, no it’s not like that. It has to be like this. "The mind will always try to divert you from this path, from the reality. That’s why you have to show the mind, that you are the master and not that the mind is the master of you.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

One day a man visited a palace and said “I want to meet the king”. He was passing by the first room and saw a very elegant gentleman sitting and talking to all the people. He said to himself “Is he the king?” But then he thaught "No, he is not the king.” and so he went to the second room, where another person was sitting, who was also dressed very elegantly. Again He akes himself “Is he the king?” and concluded “No, he is not the king.” It continuted- third room, fourth room, fifth room, sixth room. Finally he reached the seventh hall. As he entered he saw the majestic of that place and he saw somebody sitting on a high throne, very elegantly dressed, even more elegant than the others. Without any question he knew that this is the king. There was no question, there was no point of asking “Is this the king or not?”

Try to get what is behind this story. In one life we go through many levels, the seven steps, the seven gates that we have inside ourselves and in each gate we encounter certain aspects of the Divine. But yet the mind is still present, the mind is still wondering “Am I there already or not”? But the more you advance, the more you see that there is more and more to go. Till finally, when you are face-to-face to the king, there is no question, there is no doubt, there is absolute peace. Even more than that: There is this absolute love. So if your aim is to attain that- no matter what comes on the way: Trust, never loose hope, you will reach there. The Divine is ever present around you. He comes in many forms to help you. With the eyes of the heart you shall see and you shall feel Him. So practice. Practice not opening the mind, practice opening the heart, so that you can love unconditionally. You can love and feel the Divine love inside of you, and not only inside of you, but everywhere. The easiest way to do that is to…? (Someone: to sing) (Someone: to chant) Try to be calm. (Laughter) Chanting is good. Chanting helps to calm the mind, but in silence you are coming inside.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

You know one thing: on the spiritual path the utmost thing that we have to do is the control of one’s mind. We say ‘Watch our thought’. What is this thought? A thought is an image. A thought is a creation. A thought is an imagination, but why is it said that we have to watch our thought? Because most of the time the thought makes us negative. We have to watch, we have to have it under control, but very often it’s quite difficult, no? Our thoughts make us who we are, because we always run behind them. A few days ago, there was a reading in the Chapel, where there was a saying from a Saint, from St. Silouan from Mount Athos that said “Let your thoughts be in hell, but you rejoice in the Divine.” I commented a little bit on that. I said “Nowadays, the moment they see their thoughts running to hell, everybody runs with the thoughts to hell. Your thoughts are jumping, jumping, jumping and “bow”. And you also jump behind them and do the same. When we watch ourselves, we see that very often we like to speak out what we have in our mind. We like to tell everybody how great we are. We like to say: “Oh, I have seen that light, I have seen this and I have seen that. I have felt this and I have felt that. “ Why? To feed the thoughts, so that the thought can become bigger. It’s like when you analyze a reptile. A reptile can be very soft, going it’s way. The moment it falls in a pit, it will try it’s best to come out. But the moment that reptile comes out of that pit, the reptile will be more aggressive than ever. That is how our thoughts are also. The moment we let it out, it’s in flame with this rigorous power, saying “Yes, I am out.” That’s what Christ has said, no? It’s not what goes inside the person, which makes one person polluted, but what comes out of the person. The Gita said it: “The controlled mind is your best friend. The uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy.” The controlling of our thoughts- Like I said: The way we think, the way we are.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

There was a saint called Chaitanya Das Maharaj who lived in the 17th century. He was always Gauranga, Gauranga - all the time. Even while he was sleeping, people would just hear 'Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga' vibrating from him. Each breath of him changed to Gauranga and he rised in such a divine, spiritual advancement, that even when he died, when he took Samadhi, his whole body was vibrating Gauranga, Gauranga. Gauranga is another aspect of Krishna, who appeared 1500. So just by chanting you are making proper use of your tongue, by reciting the name of God and also you are utilizing the hearing, which will become more fine till you realize the vibration within yourself. So this will lead you to self-realization or God-realization and to attain the love of God completely.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Doing our daily Sadhana is also to self-analyse us and our day. Sadhana is not only to be practiced morning, but the whole day. At night before you go to bed, just sit down and reflect on the day. What you have done good and what you have not done good. Because what you have done good will bring joy to you and what you have not done good leaves a trace of uncalmness inside of you, because you try to rectify it. When God sees that you are trying to rectify it, He will help you through His grace and love. He will remove all the pride and ego that you have, because He is merciful. We say God is merciful. And as He is merciful, He will give you what you ask for. But only as long as you know what you are asking, because some times you are asking for something, that will put you in trouble. So know what you are asking for.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Love can also be joy. It's not only always hurting. There is a mystical joy, a mystical form of love, that you can even discover in pain. This pain is not a pain of just saying “Oh, I’m having pain.” Like for example: yesterday I went to this place, I hit myself and now I have pain. It’s not a physical pain and it’s not an emotional pain, that you create with your mind, saying “Yes, I want to be painful today”. Pain of love is so intense. The Saints know about it.
Their hearts pain to be with the Divine. They cry for it. Read the life of St. Francis. Do you know how much he was crying always?
But it does not have to be always that intensive.
Right now we are talking about the pain of love, but St. Francis also had great joy.
This insensitivity can also manifest itself as being painful. It's not really painful, but it’s a longing for the Beloved One.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Once there was a man. He was walking in the jungle and as he was walking, he felt tired. He decided to rest a while, when he saw a beautiful tree. He lay down under the tree, not knowing that this tree was a wish full filling tree. So as he lay down on the ground, he said to himself "Oh my back is paining. How wonderful would it be, if there was a soft mattress."
As he had this thought inside his mind, a beautiful mattress appeared next to him. Without thinking he just jumped on it. He said "Oh how nice and soft" and started to turn left and right, enjoying this mattress.
The next thought that passed through his mind was : "How beautiful is this mattress and how great would it be if there was a young girl pressing my feet and massaging my leg." As he thought of that “Puff” there appeared a young, beautiful girl massaging his leg. Then he started thinking whatever everything that he is thinking would happen. At the same time he was feeling hungry and said: "Okay,let me try." Then he thought "Oh I wish there were so many things to eat" and as he was thinking that in front of him lots of delicate subject appeared and he started eating it very greedily.
As he was eating another thought passed through his mind “What if a tiger started to jump on me and eat me?”
So what happened? Eventually this wish also was fulfilled. At that moment the tiger jumped and ate him.
The meaning of this is: Control the mind. Control your thoughts and know always what you are asking from God. Because whatever you ask, He will give to you out of His mercy and grace. Then you should not complain to Him.
Because like I said before we like to complain, because like Christ said we don’t try to remove the small splinter in the eyes of our brother, when we have a big pole in our own eyes.
We like to say “No it’s not me who did this fault”, but instead of analysing one's own mistake, we like to say "No it’s not me who did it, but its God who did it. He has the biggest shoulders, so put it on Him." You know what Christ has said : “Put your burden upon me and I shall carry it."

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

"Sometimes some people asked the question “Why do we have to go to temples? Why do we have to go to prayers to pray?”
This is also a part of Sadhana. This is also why we go to pilgrimage places. These are places where all the energies are gathered in one place.
When you go to prayer or when you go to spiritual places, to holy places, you are always going to gain something. You are profiting from all the prayers, all the vibrations, which have been collected in that place. When you go there your sadhana gets amplified. It becomes more intense and more powerful. It’s the same thing: Let's say you sit down on a place everyday. The same spot, the same time, so you build up certain energy. You chant the same Mantra, the energy gets build up. Don’t think that when you get up from that place the energy is dissipated. The energy is always there. It’s solely defined at that place."

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Once, somebody went to a master. And when he went to this master and saw this master who was so blissful, this person, who himself was a master, said to the great master: “Tell me: who is your teacher? Why are you radiating so much light!?” Then the great one said: “I don’t have one teacher- I have twenty-four teachers.” Then he asked: „Who are these twenty-four teachers?” The master said:” First, above all the teachers, I’ve learned from my parents. Above all, firstly I have learned from my mother, who held my hand and made me walk. Secondly, I have learned from my father who was disciplined,and had shown me, how to sustain myself. My mother has shown me,how to stand on my feet.” Thee man went on like that-he never mentioned anybody apart from the mother and father, the rest he mentioned was about anything that he had seen in his life: the plants, animals... He had learned from every small insect, all together twenty-four. He had learned humility, patience, joy, happiness... all these qualities, just from nature.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

After the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna and Krishna were walking together in the fields. Krishna raised his hand and said to Arjuna, “Look at these birds in the sky how nice they are!”
“Yes”, answered Arjuna, looking in the sky.
“But there are no birds”, said Krishna.
“No, there are no birds”, answered Arjuna.
“Look how nice these birds are”, said again Krishna. “They are really magnificent.”
“Yes”, said Arjuna. “These birds are really magnificent.”
“Why are you always repeating what I am saying?” asked Krishna, “There are no birds in the sky.”
“Yes, it is true. I don’t see any birds in the sky but I know that you could manifest at every moment, these birds and let them fly in the sky.”
Arjuna had total faith in Krishna and had totally surrendered body, mind and soul to the Divine. He was not trusting his mind or his eyes but he trusted every word from his Divine Sadguru.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Very often in the lives of Saints, you see that they are on the spiritual path and they never loose hope. They never say “No, I can’t attain something”. It's the same with football. When the football man is running with his ball, he has a clear goal where to put the ball. He will not turn back and put it in his own goal.
He is always running towards the goal.
And when he makes a goal, everybody is happy.
When you attain the Divine, everybody will be happy.
You will be happy and everybody else also. So keep running and don’t look back.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

All that we do in our daily life, what we work, our spiritual path is only to attain one thing – to attain the purity of Love, to become self-realised. But to attain this purity, to attain and to realise the Self, one can’t without devotion. Only through Bhakti. Without Bhakti it’s difficult. Like Shree Krishna said in the Gita; “Cast away all dogma. Cast away all from the mind, and surrender to me.” Then only true love can be realised. Otherwise, if you see, with Jnani, it's only in the mind. I don’t say it’s not good, its good. But it will lead you only to a certain level. Karma Yoga is very good to help. But if you’re not helping with the right attitude, it still brings you only to one level. Whereas Bhakti; devotion, what Shree Krishna said to Uddhava; “ Above all the Yoga, I prefer Bhakti Yoga. I prefer the Yoga of devotion. Where the devotees and the Lord become one, when there is no difference that stays.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

We chant the holy names of God, Krishna, Narayana, Jesus, Allah and Babaji. All these names help us to open up more, open up our heart to love. Love cannot be only for oneself. You start it with yourself, you realise it, you know about it and let it expand and give it. This source is non-perishable. The more you give, the more you will feel that it is flowing, and the more you will want to give. The more you try to close it, the more you will make your own self unhappy. Then this unhappiness has to go somewhere – that is how many illnesses are created, because one does not want to open up.
The more your heart is open, the more you are happy. The more you see life in a different way, the more the illness will keep away from you and the more all of the worries around you will cease. God loves us, but we should also start loving. Whatever comes on your way, remind yourself of His love; remind yourself through His manifestation around you, through the manifestation of this body. God has created humankind and placed Himself in each person equally. It does not mean that I am superior to you all, because I’m sitting here in a big chair. In your mind, it may seem like that, but in the Divine all is one. We form part of one body.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

Once in a town, there was a shoe maker. He would make his shoes while chanting God’s name. And whenever he would go to sell his shoes in the market, he would tell everybody, “Look, by God’s Grace, I bought the leather for one Euro. I bought the nails for a few cents and all together the shoes cost five Euros. I will make a profit of two Euros, by God’s Grace.” He was very sincere. And with everything that he did, his mind was always centred on God. He accepted everything as God’s Grace. The people around him saw this innocence and this love he had for God and they would buy the shoes without any bargaining.

So it happened one night, he could not sleep. While he was sitting in his courtyard, a group of robbers came by, and they kidnapped him. They then went to rob another house. When the owner of this house heard noises, the thieves ran away and left the shoe maker behind with all the jewellery they had robbed. The homeowner saw this innocent shoe maker with all of his belongings and said, “It’s impossible!” But since the shoe maker had all the jewellery on him, the homeowner had doubts in his mind, and said, “Let me call the police.”

The police came and put the shoemaker in prison. The next day he was brought in front of the judge, there the shoemaker said, “By the Grace of God yesterday night I could not sleep. By the Grace of God I was sitting outside of my house. And by the Grace of God some robbers came and kidnapped me. By the Grace of God this man found me. By the Grace of God he thought that I came to steal from him. And by the Grace of God I am here.”Seeing the innocence in the shoe maker, the judge said, “This man is not the one who stole, he has spoken the truth.” While coming out of the court, the shoemaker said to his friend, “It is by the Grace of God that I was freed.” This shows that very often we take everything for granted. We forget that behind all our actions, behind all that is happening is God’s Grace. If we start seeing it in this way, we’ll be happy and we will find peace in everything. Even the worst of things that might come in one’s life, we will see it in a different way.

Swami Vishwananda tells you today:

There are many ways to realize divinity within oneself, like there are many rivers that flow to the same ocean. The main thing is to find the simplest form. The simplier it is, the more you feel free in whatever path, in whatever way you are. That is the best way. I can’t tell you the way you will realize God and that way you will not realize God. God is sitting deep inside the heart of man and you just need to focus your mind on your heart. Try your best at all times to feel Him.

The best way is to start loving, without thinking of loving, without asking the question, “How to love?” Train your mind to focus on God. Train your mind to focus on yourself. By focussing, take any divine name, take any divine aspect. Keep chanting the name. Then you realize that you have become one with this name. It’s not the name apart from you, but it’s the name of your own Self.
The more you think of yourself being human, which many people often think about, the more they become human. But the more you think of yourself being the Spirit, being part of Divinity, the more you will become the Spirit and Divinity.