He’s not limited to any time, He’s not limited to any place, He’s not limited to any form......

Surrender body, mind, and soul completely to God. Let go of your identity, let go of this ‘I’, this egoism that makes you focus only on the outer. When you let go of your identity, then the Divine will reveal itself to you. Then you will see the unlimited. You will feel the blissful happiness. So open up – if the mind is still troubling you, take any divine aspect, focus your mind on it and surrender to the divine aspect until you reach the formless. From the form to the formless. So, do you want God? Do you want realisation? (Audience: Yes!) Is it a “Yes” from the heart or from the mind? (Laughing… audience: From the heart!) Don’t tell it to me – tell it to yourself and be sincere to yourself. Say, “Yes, I want it!” When you say it, “Yes, I want realisation, I want God!“ with such a determination, with such strength, such willpower, He will reveal Himself to you. He is accessible twenty-four hours, seven days a week, you know – always. He’s not limited to any time, He’s not limited to any place, He’s not limited to any form. When you close your eyes and drop inside yourself, you access Him. Try it. Close your eyes. Sure, your mind will trouble you, but don’t give much importance to it. The mind is also doing its part to create illusion. Remove all the pressure from your shoulders and travel inwardly. Use your mind to imagine, see your heart, your physical heart. It’s a beautiful organ which is pumping the blood in all the parts of your body. Look at it how beautiful it is! You know this.Deep in this organ, there is the greatest thing that has been given to humans! With each beat of the heart it is saying, “Let me out!” The Divine is calling from deep within you, “Let me out!” But you are the one with the key. Open up this heart, make this heart of flesh become the Heart of light, a light that the mind can’t comprehend, a light without any form, a light without any colour, the complete beautiful and most majestic light, even brighter than the sun. Then see the light...who you really are. Once you see it, once you have it – don’t let go of it. Keep it always and radiate this light. At every moment wherever you are, just be the light. Through this light healing will happen; through this light pain will be healed; through this light realisation will be achieved. 

It’s through meditation that you can really come to the power of complete fulfilment.....

Maya Devi is very powerful, because She traps everything, everybody gets trapped in it. Even saints get trapped in it, but the saints know their goal. The yogis, the sadhus, the persons who are enlightened, they know their goal, they know what they want. They know what is real, what they desire inside of themselves. This is what is real: to show what you really want, what your heart wants; to listen deep inside of you, to be free from the misery of this world. I don’t mean that you have to die. You can become a jivan mukti. You can live in this world but, at the same time, not be a part of this world. Then you can have happiness. You will discover it, you will enjoy it, you will know about it. For that, there are many ways. There’s prayer, which helps to calm the mind. There’s bhajan singing, which will give you bliss; you can lose yourself in it, you develop bhakti inside you. But still, this is not fulfilment. It’s through meditation that you can really come to the power of complete fulfilment. When the prayer, when this bhajan singing makes you lose its aspect of witness to the outside, when you lose yourself and forget about everything, forget even about you being the body, you see that you have become One – with eternity, with God. You have attained your own realisation. This is how great saints, great prophets have taught mankind about it. One of the most beautiful aspects of bhakti is Mirabai. She was so much into it, she forgot about herself. She forgot about her body, she forgot about her mind. That state only is eternal bliss. This is the Soul itself.

...So, death, how many people are scared of it?..

... It’s a part of life, isn’t it? We are here to transcend death, to become the light that we truely are. But who really wants to become this light? Many people try it, and then they say, “It’s too long. It’s too much.” This is lack of patience. It is the goal of your Self. It’s true that we should not be attached to the body, but the body itself is divine, the mind itself is divine, so the spirit itself is divine. They are all one. And there is no difference. So, transcend the body into light.

Of course there is lots of purification on the way. At the beginning we say, “Yes – there is a God. We believe in Him. But where is He?” We try to exteriorize the Divine, we try to make God something apart from us. But God can be realised only within yourself. When we talk about God, very often we say, “God? Where – outside from us – is this person?” We think, He is there, we are here. We are different.

Whenever we talk about God, we have also to know that it is our own Self! We are actually talking about us, about each individual person. Because we are a part of God. Even if we all look different, when we remove the veil of illusion we are one light. Like this beautiful chandelier, it has many different bulbs, but the electricity is one! If you put a small bulb in it, of course we’ll have a small light, but the electricity will still be the same. It’s the same for you: all of you can shine the same light, the same divine light, more and more. You just need to let go. To really shine, you have to clean out all of the negativity.

He will teach you to love – love without condition.....

In the Vishnupurana....it says, “Manav seva – Madhav seva.” This means, service to mankind is service to Lord Narayana. So try to see this Divine aspect in everybody. If you only look towards the outside, you will always come to a judgement point of the mind.

The mind has duality: You love – you don’t love; you are like this – or you are like that. You have to reach the point of non-duality, when you see only with the heart. This is the most beautiful thing. Years come, years go, it doesn’t bring anybody higher if the heart is not open. When you really give your best, you will open up your heart. How many saints started small, by helping a few people, and then they became selflessly devoted to the people, to the helping of others. Because in their mind they did not think that they were doing it for Jesus. They just did it because they loved to do it.

This reminds me of a saint, St. Sabbas of Egypt. You know, in the Christian tradition, whenever you go to a hermit, or to a monk, they welcome you by washing your hands and your feet. Even the Benedictines used to do it. They do not do it anymore. So, once a man came to visit St. Sabbas in his cave while St. Sabbas was meditating. When he noticed the visitor, he became very happy. He washed the hands of this man and he washed his feet, and he was so much in love and he was crying so much. When he looked up, it was Jesus sitting there. He started crying and said, “Oh, my Lord, You are here!” At that moment, the visitor disappeared.

So, God will not come to you in a beautiful form. He will always come, even as your own enemy. He will come, because this is how He will teach you to love – love without condition. 

When true faith arises in the heart of man, all outside images disappear....

God has created everyone equally. He has placed Himself equally in everybody’s heart. God lives in the form of Love in the hearts of all people. Everyone is an aspect of this Divine Love. Regardless of your religion, be it Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or any other path, this Divine Love connects us all.

Faith is the same everywhere. When true faith arises in the heart of man, all outside images disappear. We have to understand that God doesn’t have any religion; God doesn’t have any caste; God doesn’t have any colour. God is beyond all this. We have to achieve this Oneness with the Divine beyond all diversity on the outside. As long as one looks outside, one will always see the differences between us, and of course, there will never be peace.

My mission is to help mankind realise their own Divine Self and to be able to express it in their day-to-day life. I wish for everyone to open their hearts so that they may experience this unconditional Divine love deep within.

My mission is to spread love. Divine love. The word ‘love’ itself has so many meanings nowadays that people have forgotten the true aspect of love. This unconditional love is what will change the world. All other types of love have expectations. But when one feels this true love inside one’s heart, it’s beyond all expectation. And only with this love can peace be restored.

This is what bhakti truly means....

Saint Francis expressed in one of his most known prayers: It is in Giving that we Receive. This is what Bhakti truly means. To give yourself, completely, because of Love. So may we unmask this ego that our mind creates, and that envelops us with pride, negativity,  limitation, judgement and fear. May we find the willpower and faith, that permits us to patiently purify ourselves enough to develop a deep longing for Divine union, accepting with positivity everything that comes along before we reach the final goal. May we build up the discipline to persist in our sadhana long enough to obtain the fruits of our puja, japa, meditation or any other means through which we express our Love for God. May we awake and transform ourselves on our spiritual journey, and may we see the Light that we are by listening to our inner voice that leads us to lasting freedom. Most importantly, may we obtain the Grace of the Guru, Divine Mother & God, to find our way back Home at last.

We are so filled with this pride inside....

How will we find God? How will we find the Lotus Feet of the Lord, if we are so filled with this pride inside? Only with humbleness will one find Him, but not in the mind. You say to yourself, “Yes, I’m humble, I’m humble,” but it has to be here, within yourself, inside of you. When you think to yourself, “Yes, everybody is greater than me” you can learn things. There are so many things that you can learn. But, how many like to learn? Not so many.

Beyond all the duality that the mind creates is only the Self.....

I’m talking about opening the heart of man, opening your heart to love. Because you can love, you can love beyond what your mind is thinking about love. In the depth of this love you’ll be one with the Divine. Beyond all the duality that the mind creates is only the Self, and that’s what each one is here for. And no matter which path you are following, at the end, each path will reach that point. All paths are right but you have to be disciplined in them. When I say disciplined I don’t mean forcing or pressing. This is spirituality. Something that has to emerge from the heart of man, is like a flower that opens without any force. Let it open, and let it shine with beauty.

He is the manifestation of who we are, all of us.....

We could be free, but our mind doesn’t let us be free. We can see the Lord everywhere, but our pride always stops us. We can love Him, but our expectation is always there, too. When one lets go of these three things, one will be really, fully into Him. Above all, He is the manifestation of Love. He is the manifestation

of who we are, all of us. In Him Love is manifested in the outside, in everything that He expresses, in every action of Him. But in humans it is manifested deep inside, because we don’t let it out. We are scared of it. We are scared of our true Self. We are scared of what we have inside, but yet we crave for that. We want it. We are always looking for it everywhere. In whatever we do, whoever we meet, we are looking for this Love. But it’s not on the outside. It’s inside of you. Then one will ask “But why do we have to concentrate on Him outside? Why cannot we concentrate on Him inside?” With all these things covering you, all these expectations, this anger and fear, it’s very difficult to concentrate on the unmanifested form of the Lord, on the Love of God inside of you. That’s why He has given His outer forms for us to concentrate on them. It’s like when someone learns to shoot. First they start to shoot at big things, no? And the more experienced and concentrated they become in shooting, the smaller things are given to them to shoot at. So it’s the same thing: as long as you have a mind, which is very active, always jumping around, you need something to focus on in the outside. When your mind is calm through your sadhana, then you will be able to concentrate easily on the Lord inside of your heart. So chant the Divine Name. Focus on His form first and through that, at the end, He can show you that He is inside of you.

Who is yourself in reality?.....

.... It’s just Him! In the Gita, Krishna said: Everything is me. In the Bible, Christ said: Give what belongs to Caesar, to Caesar. And what belongs to God, to God. But what belongs to God? It is your spirit. It is your true Self. Make your prayer like this, “Lord, do whatever you want with me, whenever you want with me, and however you want with me”. And in your mind don´t ask any questions. This is a poison, because the mind always doubts. The mind always thinks it knows best. And when you surrender this mind to the Divine, bhakti will arise, devotion will arise. And when devotion arises, the purity of Love will also arise together with it. It´s not a love where we just say “I love you, I love you”. It´s a Love where when we say “I love you”, there is no condition in it. It is not “I love you because of something. I love you because of your body. I love you because of your wealth. I love you because you are beautiful outside and if I pull the skin from your body, I don´t love you anymore”. But it’s because when you say “I love you” you love Him the way He is. And that´s the purity of Love, the Unconditional Love, the way God loves, the way your heart knows how to love. That´s why you do feel Love, but the moment you start to put conditions to that Love, it fades. But when you stick to this purity of Love, and make this Love grow, it will grow. Because Love is like a seed, which is inside the heart of man: the seed has to grow, has to blossom, also. It has to germinate and grow big; the seed can´t just stay like that. That´s what Christ said, also. There are so many similarities between Hinduism and Christianity. Christ said: If you plant a seed on a stone, it will never grow. But if you plant it in the heart of man it shall grow.” And this is the Love in the heart of man, when real Love is felt, when real Love starts to grow. It grows in six different stages, which are called: Sneha Prem, Pranaya Prem, Mana Prem, Raga Prem, Anuraga Prem, and Maha Bhav. These stages of Love - of course, I will now not go to detail about it - grow when this purity is there, which leads you to complete surrender to the Divine. But first, what is in regard to normal life, is to calm the mind and let Love itself start to grow inside of the heart. Only through this Love will you know who you are. And this is not up to me to tell you, it’s up to you to make the first step.

The seven flowers.....

When we love, we love and forget. We don’t expect anything when we love somebody. Well, there are two different kinds of love. There is a love on the outside, where you only expect something, but there is another kind of love. There is a love where you will do anything for this person. Just to please this person you will do anything. Even that kind of love is divided in two. Whatever is done unconditionally will always make you happy, but whatever is done with a condition will always make you unhappy. To awaken this Love, to make this Love greater and greater is not that difficult. I always say, you just need to want it. I’ll tell you a small story. Once there was a Sage, a great Saint who went to a town. He was so famous that people were very excited when he was coming, so they started preparing four weeks before, busily preparing a lot of things. Then someone said “I heard that this Swami likes to use seven flowers when he performs his prayer.” That’s a lot of flowers – a big confusion started happening. They wondered “What  flower shall we take to give to this Swami?” They didn’t know what  flower to take. So they ran to the Saint and said “Reverend Sir, we heard that while praying you use seven flowers, but there is such a variety of flowers that we don’t know what  flowers to use.” The Saint looked at them and started laughing like mad. He said “Yes, I use seven flowers to pray and I want that each one of you gives these seven flowers to me. The seven flowers are: truthfulness, love, service to people, prayer, devotion, loyalty and control of the senses. These are the seven flowers. He said “If somebody gives these to God, gives them to one’s Self, God will be pleased with that. There is no greater thing than that. This reminds me of Krishna who said in the Bhagavad Gita “When somebody offers to me just a small leaf with Love from the heart, I shall accept it.” People offer a lot of things to please God – big, big things on the outside, but everything is from Him. It is He who gives; we are just taking what is given by Him and offering it back to Him. This Love that we have inside is also Him, but it is up to us to develop it or not. It is up to us how we handle it. We can go and do service on the outside like many organisations that just buy a lot of things and give them to the poor countries. Does this mean that this is service? You can always put a hundred euros aside every month, put it into an account of some organisation somewhere and say “That’s service”. The moment the money is gone you don’t even know what is happening with it, but when you yourself go; when you yourself participate in it, it creates another joy. It is this joy that God wants you to develop. People say “Yes, but I don’t have time to go and serve”, because in the mind they think that when you talk about that kind of service you have to run to India or to Africa. Your neighbour is dying, your neighbour is hungry by your side and you are thinking of India and of Africa, but God is thinking about them. Service starts near, around you. Stop seeing the difference, clear your mind of differences and see the same Lord everywhere. Offer the flowers that I just mentioned from deep within your heart. Offer them to Him. In this way you don’t even need to sit to pray, because He will be always with you. Open up your heart and serve whenever you can. Help whenever you can.

Feel it from deep within you ....

We are looking for Him on the outside. We are looking for Him in this world, but we can just drop deep inside ourselves and find Him. Let go of the mind which is always busy looking on the outside. If we just drop ourselves deep in our heart, we can feel this peace and happiness and enjoy it. You will see how great it is, how great it is to love. Feel it from deep within you – this is the true love of loving somebody. It is not only for one person but for everybody. Love unconditionally!

All of you flow back to the same ocean.....

 

 

 

Our mind tries to separate things, but look behind what only your physical eyes can see. Look at the light. This light which you all reflect, which everybody in this world reflects; this is the reality. When you achieve this level, know that you have come to the point of complete realisation.

Keep practicing everyday, make it your daily sadhana.
Meditate, sing the name of God. There are many ways you can reach this light. Like all the rivers flow back to the same ocean, the same is within all of you. All of you flow back to the same ocean. Make this deep ocean of love which you carry grow more and more, and the Lord will reveal Himself deep inside you.

“First find yourself, then find the world, then look for the world”

A great philosopher said, “First find yourself, then find the world, then look for the world”, no? So, once you have found yourself, then you become a jivan mukti, you become free from the bondage of karmic things. Then you can do whatever you want, as much as you want: nothing will bind you. But as long as you have not found yourself, keep trying, keep looking, and the Divine name of Rama will help you, or the Divine name of Krishna, the Divine name of Jesus, all the Divine names will help you to find that. That’s why they say that the bhakti path is one of the easiest paths, but you have to dedicate yourself. It’s not that the next moment, you just divert your mind from your path; or a little wind blows, and you let yourself fall from left to right. So, hold tight to the Divine names, any Divine name that you feel close to – you don’t need to have ten Divine names, you just need one Divine name. If you have a guru mantra, just chant your guru mantra; if you have one Divine name, one form of the Divine that you feel close with, just concentrate on one. It will be more intensified than concentrating on ten Divine names. In the mind of man, they think that when they have ten, they will advance faster. They will not advance faster. Actually they will advance less fast, because one Divine name is like digging one hole and getting the water; ten Divine names is like digging ten holes to try to get water. You will not get it. So, if you want, just chant one name.

 

We are so busy with what we see outside.......

Discipline helps us to calm our mind, because when the mind is very agitated on the spiritual path, we can’t concentrate. We can’t really focus ourselves on our heart. So even if you want to focus yourself on your heart, your mind is jumping, jumping, jumping. So we do our Sadhana. We chant, we practice Yoga or we do Om Healing or Atma Kriya to calm the mind. It helps that we can listen more clearly to ourselves and realize the Divine within ourselves. Not just tell somebody “Just do your Sadhana and meditate and you will attain God"... It’s true: If one is sincere towards oneself, one will attain God, because God will come to that person and will manifest Itself, the heart will manifest itself. But yet we look at the world and ask “How many people really are sincere towards themselves in that way?” We are so busy with what we see outside, what we think. We want to always analyze everything with our mind, that we give so much less importance to the heart, even when we know that “Yes, we have to be in the heart, but we see how dominant our mind is."So without saying “Yes, I want really strongly to follow, I want to change and I want really to attain my goal, it's difficult.”We can outside say “Yes, yes, yes I want this”, but inside we say “Wow, it’s far away”. As long as you see this distance and are discouraged, you will not enjoy your practice. It doesn’t matter how big the distance is. Keep trying. And never loose hope.

Swami Vishwananda talks about the Mother Nature...

Swami Vishwananda said: "If we want to contribute to

Mother Nature, it is up to us to change. The change is not:

“Yes, I will do my sadhana, or I will do my prayer.” 
No, the change is NOW!"

Take time every day.....

If you want something you shall have it. But you can also detach from the desire by your own will. You see, mankind desires many things, but when they have them they get attached to them. This attachment brings unhappiness. The more you are attached to things which are limited or not eternal, the more you feel miserable. You lose this inner freedom. You become limited in the mind. You become limited with your body, which in turn makes your soul limited. So, to free one’s self, one must surrender the body, mind and soul to God, to the Unlimited.It’s true that everybody can’t renounce the world and live only for God, but you can continuously try to remember God wherever you are. Remember that the soul inside you is the light of God. The more you think of yourself being part of this light of God, this great love, the more you will reflect this love. But the more you think that you are just a normal human being, the more you will just be a normal human being with all of its limited qualities and you cover all of your divine qualities. Take time every day, just five minutes, to be with your Self. Forget about the world outside, forget everything. Forget about your husband or wife; forget about all your relationships with the outside. Only think of the relationship with your Self.Do you know what treasure you will find? You will find the biggest treasure of all, a treasure that nobody can steal from you. And that is love. Love is such a big gift. We feel it with our heart, we know it with our mind, but to realise it, to become one with this love, to spread this love, unconditionally – this is the aim of mankind. The more you spread it, the more you reflect it, the more you will discover your Self.

The way you give yourself to Him, He will give Himself to you......

The Lord can’t see any one of His children suffering, so even if you are falling down, He will always be there to help you get up. So, by calling Him, by chanting His Divine Name, you get more and more accustomed to Him. What is the Divine Name? It’s the name of God. So, the more you chant God’s name, what happens? All this negativity, which is in your mind, gets dissolved. Of course, it doesn’t happen just like that! It happens through practice, through years and years of practice. Some people, after practicing a year or two, say “Ok, I don’t see any result” and then they let go. Well, these people will not go anywhere, because they will move from one practice to the other, from this other to yet another one. This is how their life will carry on. It’s like digging many holes trying to look for water, instead of digging just one hole and attaining the water. But if you dig ten holes, you will never get the water. So, in the same way, when you start chanting the Divine Names, for the Lord to reveal Himself to you, you have to prove yourself, also. Of course, everything happens through His grace, nothing happens through your grace. Even moving, even for me to talk, it is only through His grace that this is possible. But, as man has a mind, you have to prove that you really want to let go of this mind. So, by chanting His Divine Names, you start to call Him. So, the more you call Him, the more you are tuning yourself into His tune and the old you becomes less and less, until only His grace starts to shine through. It’s very simple. For example, when you start chanting Krishna’s name, at the beginning you will feel tired about it, you know. You will feel “Oh, what is happening? Why is He not listening?” But actually, these are all different qualities that awaken, you see, even to be angry with Him, because you wish for Him. In the same way that you wish for Him, He wishes for you much more. Let’s say you get depressed or you say “Ok, I’m praying, all this, you know, but He’s not listening,” and it happens, you know, but actually, this is Maya, His game. When He doesn’t show Himself, it is for you to long for Him even more. Of course, we can talk about it, you can think about it in the mind, but when you are in it, it is completely different. For you, it’s like the world is going upside down. I was talking with somebody yesterday, actually. This person said to me “Swamiji, I would love to see Krishna!” And then he reminded me of something that happened about twelve years ago, when he had the wish to see and I, well, He showed Himself to him, but because at that time he was not ready, I took this grace away from him. Then he said to me “Look, what happened twelve years ago, you took it away. I would love to see Krishna and I want it back!” And I said “What would you do to get this?” Well, he said “Anything!” And I said to him “Are you sure?” You see, it’s easy to talk about, but when it comes to the act, when it comes to practise, it’s difficult. Many people say “Yes, we love God”, but how many really do everything so that this love may grow? Very few do. Like the Lord said “I can count them on my hand.” Well, His hand, His hands are not like a human hand, you know. He has not only one; He has many. So, in the same way, the more you chant the Divine Names, the more you tune yourself into this Divine Name, the more He starts to shine through you and the more He starts to act through you. But of course, not Him, only His qualities do. To get Him fully, you have to go deeper and deeper. It’s the same as when you dig the hole. First you get a little bit of water, which is muddy, but the more you dig you have more water, which is clearer. It’s the same with the qualities of Him. Because, you see, when people reach a certain degree of spirituality, they develop certain qualities. He gives them certain qualities, but the sad thing is that people get stuck to these qualities. They think they have already reached a very high level of spirituality, you know, and they think of themselves as being everything. Then, of course, nothing further happens. But whereas, when you forget about these qualities, don’t give them too much importance, but go for Him, He will not be able to deny you His presence. He will even not be able to deny you Himself. The way you give yourself to Him, He will give Himself to you.

“From the form to the formless, from the name to the nameless.”

Sit quietly and start the conversation with the Divine within yourself. Because it’s only in silence that you will be able to control the thought. Talk less – because people who keep talking and talking – they are just running away. They are just scared of seeing the truth, that’s why they talk and talk. They talk without knowing what they are talking about. If you want to start the communication with the Divine within yourself, be as much silent as possible. But if you want to start the communication with man, then keep talking! You know how beautiful it is to listen to the Divine inside you? It’s the most beautiful thing; I can’t even express it with words, because words are still limited. Like I said yesterday, “From the form to the formless, from the name to the nameless.” This is the Divine in each one of you. And to be always in this place, to be always in this awareness and find that you are not separate from the Divine…it’s so beautiful, it’s so filling! Whenever you do something there is always a gap, something that is unsatisfied. But whereas – when you have discovered the reality in you – whatever you do – the satisfaction will be complete!

When there is complete trust in God.......

Knowledge will bring you to a certain level, but for the rest you will have to surrender yourself completely to the Love of God. Firstly, you have to surrender your mind completely, then you have to surrender your body and then you have to surrender your soul. The power of chanting the Name of God doesn’t purify only the mind, it purifies the body and it purifies, also, the soul.When there is complete trust in God, complete trust in yourself, when you ask God for Himself, will He give Himself to you. Trust that whatever He does is right. Even if the mind doesn’t understand it, it is right. Once there was a king. This king was very generous and very loving, but he had one fault: he was short-tempered. For that, many people were afraid of him. But in his kingdom there was one minister that he loved very much. This minister used to pray every day and he had great trust in God. One day the king went hunting in the forest and, on the way, there was a cobra in front of the king´s horse. The horse panicked and threw the king up in the air and the king landed down near the cobra. The cobra bit the king´s index finger. The king knew that if he didn’t cut off his finger, the poison would kill him. So he pulled his dagger and chopped off his finger. He was in very much pain, so the minister rushed to him, took a piece of cloth and bandaged the king´s finger. As he was doing the bandage, he said to the king “King, don’t worry, it’s God´s Will that you cut your finger and it’s God´s Will that you have pain.” The king bore this for some time, but the minister was going on and on and on. The king could not handle it anymore, so he said to his soldiers “Take this man and put him in the prison. I can’t bear him. I can’t listen to him. He is keeping on saying ‘it’s God’s Will, God’s Will. I’m in pain and he’s saying that it’s God’s Will.’” So they took the minister to the prison and locked him inside, but he was happy and said “Thank you God, I am here, now, quiet and I can chant Your Name. In the world where I’m so busy, I chant Your Name only when I have a little bit of time, but, now, I’m here and have time to chant Your Name all the time.” A few days later, the king went out hunting again, but this time he was attacked by a group of tribesmen. They captured the king and brought him to the chief. The chief was very happy to see the king tied up and said “King, you are so lucky. Today we will sacrifice you to the Goddess Kali.” The King thought “Well, I’m not lucky at all. I will be killed!” Then the chief of the tribe said to his tribesmen “It’s not every time that the Goddess gets royal blood. Take the king, wash him and dress him nicely. We will offer him to the Goddess afterwards.” But as they were removing his clothes to wash him, the tribesmen noticed that the king had one missing finger. They rushed quickly to the chief and said “Chief, chief, we can’t offer this king to the Goddess, because he is incomplete. He is missing one finger.” The chief thought for a moment and then he said “OK, let him go. You are a lucky king. Because of your missing finger, we can’t offer you to the Goddess.” The king was very happy. He rushed back to the palace and he went directly to the jail. He opened the jail and embraced the minister. As he was embracing the minister he said “Thank you! It´s true, you were right: it was God´s will! I was saved, because I’m missing one finger.” Then he asked the minister “But I don’t understand one thing: why did I lock you in here? You are such a good man. You praise God all the time.” The minister replied “It´s simple: I told you that everything happens through the Will of God. If I had come with you the second time, if you had not locked me up in jail, what would have happened? They would have taken us both. And when they had seen that you were missing one finger, that you were incomplete, but that I was complete, they would have taken me and offered me to the Goddess!” So, whatever the Higher Consciousness, whatever God, whatever Name you put to Him, gives you, He’s always right. If something negative happens, now, you may not understand it, but later on in life, you will realise that whatever He did was for your own good. You should never be scared of surrendering yourself to His Will. You should never be scared of opening your heart and Loving. Start to Love, now, this moment. Open your heart and love. Let it flow. And know that whatever you do with this Love will always be perfect. You will meditate, and you will enjoy your meditation. You will do yoga and you will enjoy your yoga. You will chant the name of God and you will enjoy it. People meditate and chant, but when there is no Love in it, it fades with time. Also, the love with limitation fades. But true Love, real Love, Unconditional Love never fades. So cultivate this Love, cultivate this Unconditional Love and surrender to the Divine.

You have to empty your mind completely......

Jesus spoke of: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the light.” It is the ‘I’ of the consciousness, the ‘I’ of the Christ consciousness that leads mankind. Yes, each one of you. This consciousness is in each one of you. It’s waiting to become active. It’s very good that you come for darshan, very good that you sit for meditation. But you should not only do it now, you have to do it always! By receiving the blessing – prana hooti, it’s called – you are receiving and activating the light within you. That’s what I can do for you; the rest is up to you. I can take the food, crush it to puree and put it in your mouth, but I can’t swallow it for you. I will be happy to do it for you, you know? But this part is up to each one of you. Your question will be, “We keep trying, yet nothing happens?” But what I said before, remember that – I said if you try with an expectation, it can never happen. You have to empty your mind completely. The thought will pass by, let it pass – don’t feed it. You are not the mind, you are not the thought; you are more than that.

“Swamiji, is there any technique to open the heart?”.....

....Well there are techniques to open the mind, they are positive thinking and chanting the Divine Names. An open mind leads to an open heart. The heart is an instrument God has created which has a mind of its own. It has its own will. You can’t open it or close it. Sometimes people say you have a closed heart but even if you try to close it, it won’t close. It’s a stubborn chakra! It will do whatever it wants to do. The stubbornness of the heart makes the Love inside you ever present. Just open the heart; you just open the real eyes which God has given you. You will see that it was and is always there. That’s what you are in reality and what you will always be, until you dissolve completely into the light. So realise that. How long do humans stay on earth? Maybe one hundred years maximum? Well not everybody reaches that, some reach 80, some reach 60; but know that death is certain. Nobody can escape it. Even Him, He manifests Himself but He has accepted that. The difference between Him and humans is that He transcends humanity into divinity. That’s what He has talked about. To love each other. He always told people about this mutual Love. All that He has ever talked about is just Love. In Love you have everything. Everything that you are looking for is inside of you, not outside. Outside things come and go. Look, I talked about friends, love in relationships, yet death takes everything away. But consciousness, your higher Self, moves on one life to the next until you attain the Supreme. If you realise the Supreme, actually I won’t say attain the Supreme because it is who you are, you see that the essence of the soul is Him.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda........

You are a part of God. You are the child of God. And you can reflect the light of God. It is beyond all conceptions of the mind. In this truth everyone is free, and this is the truth that mankind has always to remember.

The ninth form of the Divine Mother is Siddhidatri Devi......

  The ninth form of Maa is Siddhidatri, which is also an aspect of Mahalakshmi. She is seen sometimes sitting on a lotus or sometimes mounted on a lion. She is four armed. After having performed the worship to the other forms, the devotee then starts the worship to Her. She is One with the forces of sustenance and salvation of Mahavishnu and so She is the One who delivers all forms of success. “Siddhi” means power. For “siddhi” to become “riddhi” (prosperity) one needs “buddhi”, i.e. intelligence.  So Mother Siddhidatri gives also wisdom. Once we have our mind surrendering to the Divine, She blesses us with ultimate success.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the eighth form of Maa called Mahagauri Devi.....

 The Divine Mother's eighth form is known as Mahagauri. Her complexion is totally white. Her garments are also white. White symbolises the purity of the true Self which is without any stain or impurity. She is mounted on an ox and has four arms.  Parvati had turned dark after doing intense penance for obtaining Lord Shiva as her husband. Shiva then bathed Her in the Holy Ganges, She turned fair and became known as Mahagauri.  Due to the Mother’s Grace the devotee crosses the barrier of limitation and attains supernatural salvation. He is relieved from all his pains, fatigue and previous sins. The devotee wins pure virtue and becomes ever free.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the seventh form of the Divine Mother called Kalaratri Devi.....

 Maa´s seventh form is Kalaratri. Her complexion is as dark as the night, symbolizing infinity. Her cascading hair is let loose and she is seen wearing a garland that radiates light as bright as lightning. She is mounted on an ass. She has four arms. Although she has a menacing appearance, her devotees need not fear her. In this form Devi is always ready to give anything you ask. She accepts everything from the devotee, not only the good, but all the bad, negative qualities. She just absorbs them, so that we can be free, free from the little demons that we create in our mind and who are all jumping left and right.

Sri Katyayani Devi is the sixth form of the Divine Mother.....

Goddess Katyayani is the sixth form of Maa and her name stems from being the daughter of sage Katyayan. Her complexion is as bright as gold. She has four arms. The top right hand is positioned in a gesture of providing courage and another hand is positioned in a gesture of rendering a boon. She is mounted on a lion. As a war Goddess She is associated with the fierce form of Shakti which also includes Bhadrakali and Chandi. Sri Katyayani Devi is the destroyer of diseases, sorrow and fear and worshipping Her helps one to free oneself from the sins one may have committed over the cycles of births and rebirths.

Skandamata Devi is the fifth form of Maa.....

 The fifth form of the Divine 'Mother is known as Skandamata. She is the mother of Ganesha and Skanda (more known as Muruga or Kartikeya), She is referred to as ‘Skandamata’. She is fair, has four arms, holds her son Skanda in her lap and is mounted on a lion.Skandamata is the Mother who gives the power to vanquish all negativity. By holding Muruga, She is not only holding Him, She is holding all of us. 

If we sincerely – like a child - ask Her to let us sit in Her lap, She will also hold us and do everything for us.

Something about the fourth form of Maa called Kushmanda Devi.....

Kushmanda Devi is the fourth form of the Divine Mother and appeared smilingly at the moment of the creation of the Universe. The Goddess has eight arms and rides on a lion. Amongst the sacrificial vegetables that are offered in Her worship, pumpkin (Kushmandam’ in Sanskrit) is the one with which Devi Kushmanda is most pleased. Worship of this form of the Devi exterminates sorrow and diseases and augments life, fame and strength. She is appeased with the slightest of devotion and if any one whole-heartedly worships Her, he will certainly gain her favour so to find true happiness and true joy.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the third form of the Divine Mother called Chandraghanta Devi....

 Chandraghanta Devi is the third form of the Divine Mother. Her Name is connected to a bell shaped crescent moon on her forehead. The colour of her body is golden. She has ten arms which brandish different weapons and is mounted on a lion. Chandraghanta Devi establishes justice. It is believed that a devotee who manages to earn Her blessings can set himself free from his sins and hazards that he has committed or may face in his life. The devotee gains the power to sense the supernatural, to see it and even smell the eternal fragrance. He is also able to distinguish the otherwise inaudible celestial sounds.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the second form of the Divine Mother called Brahmacharini Devi.....

 The second form of the Divine Mother is Brahmacharini Devi. She is showing us how important our Sadhana is, as an expression of devotion to the Divine. She is holding a japa mala (chanting and remembrance of God’s name) in Her right hand and the kamandalu water pot (life-giving Shakti) in Her left hand.  Brahmacharini is the Goddess of discipline. She gives the devotees success and willpower to come out victorious in times of utter distress. She helps to make our faith strong and helps those who are sincerely looking for Her.