Let the Satguru hold your hand and guide you.....

Let the Satguru hold your hand and guide you. The feeling that you have, the joy when the Satguru is in front of you, the same feeling is reflected back to you. The Satguru will never show the feeling, but you will feel it. He knows it, but... he wants you to know it. The Satguru has already found God, has already Realised the Divine and He wants you to Realise, also. That’s why you look for Him.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about.....

You all know the story of Krishna, how He was born, so I will

not tell the whole story again. He says in the Gita about His plan to manifest Himself: “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham”...which means that whenever there is a decline, whenever there will be anything terrible happening in the world, He will manifest Himself. Of course, the Lord always manifests Himself, but in the minds of the people, they want a big manifestation, a bang, but He is everywhere.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda...

God is ever-present, every moment. Any time wherever we are, whenever we need Him, He is here. He’s just here in your heart!

Forget about the outside....

Sit down in meditation, the simple way that we have been taught, just do that. Do you know this simple meditation? Concentrate on your breathing. You listen to your breath when you’re inhaling and exhaling. You’re inhaling you say “So Ham. Hamsa, Hamsa.” What does hamsa mean? What is hamsa? Hamsa, hamsa, hamsa, hamsa becomes So Ham, So Ham, So Ham. What is a hamsa? I am that I am – So Ham. Hamsa means ever liberated, like the swan, which is the purest. When you look at the species of the swan, what do you see? He is ever free. He is always flying around freely. That’s what a hamsa is.

Like that, control your breathing through just sitting for five, ten minutes. You don’t need to look outside. Forget about the outside. Forget about everything that the mind perceives you to understand and inside just concentrate on your breathing – inhaling and exhaling – and, also, to retain your breathing. So when your breathing has come to a restrained state, you will Realise this Unification. Then the Lord will reveal Himself, that He is always with you. He is not out there. He is here [in your heart].

What makes these murtis alive is what you have inside of you. When Maharaji does the prayer, the prana pratish of the murti, it becomes alive, otherwise the murti is just a stone. What gives it life is the faith inside of you, the shradda that you have. That is the same shradda when you come here and pray you have the firm belief that the Lord is listening to you. Of course He is listening.

Just one vision of Him is enough to free you completely....

We have to want the Lord. If we want Him sincerely, He will give Himself to us, because He is ever present. He is ever seated in your heart. He is ever seated in each part of your body, just waiting for you to make the first move of awakening it. The moment you make the first move, He will surely do the rest and you will not need to do anything.

Lord Shiva, like we said, is Bolanath, He is the innocent One, He is the One who happily grants everything you want. Together with Him there is Goddess Parvati His consort, who is Shakti, and all of you also receive the blessing of Maha Lakshmi, who is the Goddess of prosperity.

Give up all. Try to forget about yourself as the body, forget yourself as the mind, forget all your chores, forget all your worries, forget all the things which are outside and sincerely say to Lord Shiva “Please, install Yourself in my heart. Reveal Yourself and if I am not pure enough, cleanse me, as Ganga coming out from your head cleanses and purifies this world.”

Ask Him to cleanse your mind and cleanse your Self, so that you can realise Him inside of you! You can realise Him in each moment, wherever you are. Whenever you need Him, you can call upon Him and at the end, you can have the vision of Him, so that you don’t need to take birth again. Just one vision of Him is enough to free you completely.

Do you think God is far away?

When we look at Shiva, He’s in deep mediation. You all have seen a murti of Shiva. What we see is that He’s a great yogi sitting in deep meditation. Yet, we look for liberation. We pray to Him, we are always asking Him, but we don’t take his example. In our Hindu culture we always talk about mukti. We always say that we have incarnated here because of our karma, to liberate our Selves, yet, we forget about it. We know it because the mind always looks for something greater. Even if it’s attached to matter, to things, it still jumps always from one thing to another until it reaches the ultimate.

So when we talk about liberation, the question will arise “How do we attain it?“ How? When you ask this question, automatically you say “Yes, I have to do this or I have to do that,” but liberation doesn’t lie in the process of doing, it lies in the process of undoing. In doing you are always accelerating the mind, whereas in undoing certain things, you are decelerating the processes of the mind. This is where the mind enters a peaceful state, parashanti. Great Peace is revealed to you.

It’s so simple. When you look at Shiva, He’s just sitting, but deep inside He’s centred within Himself.  He is sitting inside of Himself. It’s simple. For example, when you play nice music, what happens? You lose yourself in it. You are not aware of who is around you, who is walking and what they are doing. In the same way as when somebody is listening to music and they lose themselves. If they move one step forward and lose themselves in the higher consciousness, they will forget the body and the mind.

So if one is lost in the Supreme Consciousness, then the truth reveals itself. Do you think God is far away? No, He is your Self. It’s just that when illusion is removed, then you start to shine. Then you realise what the Gita said “The one who looks for me or the one who Realises me and the one who is a true Yogi sees me everywhere, in everything.”

You will see how consuming His Love is.....

Whatever you see outside comes to an end, but once you have seen the inside, you will see the eternal glory, which is everlasting. It is for everybody to see. The Gita said “Out of millions only few can have a glimpse of it.” It’s true, because it’s not that easy. Until your mind has been purified, until your mind has been cleansed, you don’t come face to face with the Divine. The Divine is always present in front of you, but man is always blind to see It, because there’s such a big veil in front. It’s like this window here. There is no curtain, no? If the sun shines through, you will see it, but if I put a big curtain over it, would you see it? No, you would not see it, you would just see a reflection. This is all just reflection, so that one day you may see the reality and He will come to you accordingly. He will not come the same way for everybody, but it will come, and from your side you also have to make it possible. You have not to say “OK, Swamiji has said it will come. I will sit and wait.” No, be humble, because the only thing that will really make things happen is the humility of your heart, not in the mind saying “I am humble.” If in the mind you are judging yourself, He will know you are not humble. No, here you have to be humble. In the humility of your heart He will reveal Himself to you. It’s easy to be humble in the heart. You just have to forget about the mind. Whatever arises in the mind put it aside. You will see how consuming His Love is.

When He descends, when He comes on Earth, He comes for everybody equally....

Say “Lord, take possession of me completely. Get rid of all this negativity.”  All of you want to get rid of all the negativity. It’s good that you all want to get rid of the negativity. So don’t hang on it. Offer it to Him happily. Say “Look, Lord, You have come, so take it as a gift!” We´ll start with an invocation. First, we´ll start by praying for the world, that there will be peace everywhere, that there will be peace with each one of you, in each one of you, in your mind, in your intellect, in your Self. Then, we´ll chant the mantra for the peace of the world, because prayer is not only for oneself. When one prays, of course one prays, also for oneself, because one has to advance, one has to get rid of all of one’s things. But above all we pray also for everybody – the people we know, the people we don´t know,

the people we like, those we don’t like, the people who are sick, the people who need help. When He descends, when He comes on Earth, He comes for everybody equally. When He comes, when we invoke Him here, we’re also invoking Him for the whole world. Even if there are a hundred people here and millions of people living in the world, He’s sitting in each  one’s heart. Whatever they do, there’s Him inside of them. So we invoke this Higher Consciousness. When we invoke this Super- Consciousness to come, in each one’s heart also, we invoke Him. We invoke Him to awaken peace in the heart of Man.

Out of Love for His devotee.....

 Out of Love for His devotee, the Lord forgets that He is the Lord. When Yudishtira made the great yagna, He served the people Himself. Krishna went and served everybody. Then He Himself picked up the leaves on which they were eating, showing that there is no difference between the Lord and the One inside of you; breaking all difference in the mind of Man, showing that He is bound with this Love, which is inside of you. He accepts, forgetting that He is the Lord. God accepts, forgetting that He is God and becomes the servant of His devotee. And such Love one has to cultivate; such Love, such devotion, such calling one has to have inside the heart. And when you have Him, you will have everything.

Have faith that what you are hearing within your heart is true...

If you turn inward and focus on the Divine within the Self you will feel great happiness and great joy. But for that you should deadlock your faith.

Faith. Like I always say, have faith in your own Self. Have faith that what you are hearing within your heart is true. So many times you hear your heart, but you doubt it. You ask yourself, “Oh, is this really true or not?” You always have doubt like that. As long as you don’t believe in what the Divine wants to show you, you will not advance.

The moment you really have faith in what you feel inside your heart, it will manifest on the outside. Like I said, God gave man the power to create, to have the power over everything, to have the willpower of construction – constructive willpower – inside the mind.

Very often we say the mind is something apart, something which is very negative. It’s true, very often the mind is negative, but we can transform it. Deep inside in the inner cosmic mind, there lies also the Divine. That is the point where we have to use the mind to achieve the higher state.

One could say that Krishna is God, so why does He need power?

When we talk about Radha, we always put Her first, and then Krishna. We say “Radhe Krishna, Radhe Shyam, because She is the Shakti of Krishna. She is the One who gives power to Krishna. One could say that Krishna is God, so why does He need power? But Love - which is Krishna, which is God - is useless without devotion. So in this form, in the form of Radha, He manifests Himself as Bhakti, which is pure devotion. What is this pure devotion? We all have devotion: we pray, we do our work every day and this is, also, called devotion, but pure devotion is complete surrender. This pure devotion, which Radha had for Krishna, even though She was separated from Krishna, even though She was separated from the Oneness – it was just to teach us what it is to surrender. Actually, Radha represents all of us: the creation, the manifestation. She symbolizes the Love, the example. She symbolizes the Bhav, the complete surrender to the Will of God. It’s not about her own will, but the Will of God, the Will of Krishna. That’s why it is said that She is the only true Devotee and we all have to become like Her. The manifestation of the Lord Himself into Radharani is to show us how to love unconditionally, how to have such faith that even a storm will not uproot you. Nowadays we talk about faith. But the moment something happens and doesn’t turn out the way people want, what happens? They are uprooted already. Faith is like this: you have to become like a huge tree. When a storm comes, the branches will blow, but the roots are so anchored into the earth, the tree does not come out. That’s how faith has to be. That is what Radharani teaches to us. In Her Life there were not only joyful times, but She transcended the joy and the pain. We all want bliss, don’t we? We all want to attain the Divine, but yet we hang onto things. We want to love and we want to do God’s will, but in our mind we always say “Yes, I want to do God’s will, but I want to always be happy”, because in our minds, we think that happiness is bliss. But the transcendental happiness that is real bliss is beyond the happiness like when you say with a big smile “I am happy”, because when one is in bliss, one doesn’t know happiness or sadness. It is difficult to understand it with the mind, because your brain can only understand whether you are happy or sad, or you are happy-sad, but transcending these two is Ananda. And that’s what our soul is longing for. There is one bhajan that I always sing, that says “For love, one can do anything.” Isn’t it like this? But Love is sacrifice, you know, isn’t it? Are you ready to sacrifice completely for that? How many of you are ready to sacrifice everything, completely? So, that’s what faith is: complete surrender. If you are completely surrendered to the Will of God and you remember the Divine–wherever you are, whatever you do, even in the smallest things–then you will transcend. Always people ask for something and, of course, God will always give. But there will come a point where there will be no need to ask the Divine for anything, because it will be given to you before you ask. The more you are surrendering to the Will of God, to the Divine–not surrendering only in your mind, but also surrendering here, in your heart – the more there will be no difference between you and Him. That’s what Radharani transcends, the difference between She and Krishna, to show that there is no difference between we humans and the Divine. The only difference is that we are limited with our mind. We see the difference, we see the duality, but in the higher realms they don’t see the same way we see. They have a hierarchy where they have their own jobs, their own duties to do, their dharma to do, but there is no judgement like we always have.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda......

Only when each one is doing its own

function, its own duty or dharma,

then there is perfect unity.

“Give me Yourself”....

Ask Him to manifest Himself inside of you. 
He never refuses anything from anybody. If you sincerely ask for that, if you sincerely ask Him for Himself, you will see that He will give you Himself. That’s what Meerabai asked and she received Him.

When all the saints have asked, they have received, because they were sincere towards themselves. They were sincerely asking the Lord “Give me Yourself”. 
And it doesn’t matter how long it takes, because you know that He can hear you. And in His own time He will come and manifest Himself.

“What is the true way, the true path that I should follow?” ...

“What is the true way, the true path that I should follow?” All paths have beautiful truth in them. All religions have beautiful truth. Truth is when we believe, but it does not mean that one has to be dogmatic. Actually, the greatest truth is in each one of you. And this truth is that you are all a part of God. This truth is above all the religions and all colours and casts. 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.

With the truth in your heart, when it opens up, one sees beyond what the physical eyes can see. There are so many beautiful flowers; it is so beautiful for the physical eyes, isn’t it? But it is much more beautiful to see with the inner eyes. The light that shines through all these flowers, all around you – this is the Truth.

Each particle reflects the light of God – this is the Truth. And this Truth is accessible for everybody.

“Make your own experience about the Love of God”....

We can always think that “God is like this and like this and like this”, but deep inside we are wrong with ourselves. Each one has their own perspective of God and each one has their own way to achieve God. Some can just sing the name of God and they will be in bliss and Realise God completely. But for some, they have to really strive, strive very deeply to achieve, to Realise God. So each one has their level. That’s why very often I say to people “Make your own experience about the Love of God.” I can talk about the Love of God. You can read about the Love of God, but it’s each one’s own experience. When you make your own experience, even a small experience, you will feel great joy and great bliss. You will enjoy it.

The Self is acting for you.....

 



Whenever you read in any Holy book, the Bible, also the Bhagavad Gita, it is said that Lord Krishna or Jesus went far away in a desert corner or on a higher mountain to sit down and talk with God. However, each one of us, we can also go deep inside of ourselves and raise the vibration in our self, reach to the higher level, and open to the consciousness of God. Let the light flow through you and become the Self and realise it; and know that you are the Self, and that the Self is acting for you. And when the Self is acting for you, for sure everything will be perfect.

It is said that devotion has another name: one single-pointed mind.....

The Love that the devotee has for the Satguru, the Love that the devotee has for the Divine. This Love

is one single-minded Love. This Love is a Love where the devotee doesn’t expect anything, apart from the Lord Himself. And, in this Love, nothing can move the bhakta, no matter what comes! When

Meerabai was singing for Krishna, people would say “She’s crazy”, but this didn’t change her faith, this didn’t change her Love. She was so concentrated. Her mind was so focused and one-pointed toward the Lord, that nothing could move her. It is said that devotion has another name: one single-pointed mind. When your

mind is completely focused on God, you will have Him.

The inner Guru will become more important.....

When you find your Guru, be loyal to him. Dedicate yourself completely to the Guru.

There is a verse that says:

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu

Gurur Devo Maheshvarah

Gurur Sakshat Param Bramha

Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha

Meaning, the Guru is also the creator, the protector, and the destroyer of ignorance. Being Param Bramha, being the incarnation of God, God manifests through the Guru to help people, until you reach the Self, until you reach the inner Guru. Often, people on this path become very dogmatic. When they have one Guru they say, “This is the only way.” It’s true; one has to be dedicated to the Guru. But to receive the blessing of all the masters, this is the best. People can see with their two eyes. With the physical eyes they see only the outside. But what is behind the Guru is the same light. The Guru will take your hand and bring you to a level where you can stand on your own feet. I don’t mean that you don’t need the Guru. He will always be there, but he will put himself in the background. Then the inner Guru will become more important. This is the greatness of a master.

In the Divine aspect of your true Self, there is no judgement.....

Christ has shown that we should not be scared of death, but many people think it is a terrible thing and

that we have to fear it. Actually, it’s not to be feared realising that you are eternal, realising that the Light, which you have inside, your Soul, your Spirit, is part of God Himself, so it is eternal. Like we heard yesterday, when we were reading the Gospel, Christ said: I am the Way, the Truth and the Light. There is no one who goes to the Father without passing by me. This means that we have to become like Christ. We have to become the children of God. We have to become the sons and daughters of God, so that we can

rise from this just human nature to the Divine state. When we become the Truth, when we become the Light Itself, we can attain the Father. We can arise on the inside, which is the pureness of the Father, [so it can] be exalted, it can be radiated through us.

And in this glory, in the Divine aspect of your true Self, there is no judgement. There is just pure Love. So, that’s what Christ exemplified by His death and resurrection, like all the great Saints and like all the Devas, also, who have shown that, above all, to reach that state, one has to be humble. One has not to be bound by pride and ego. And, only when one is humble, can one attain the Father. And, only when one loves the way He has shown us to love, like all the Saints have shown us to love, it is that one can really attain God, you know. But with the pride and judgement that so many always do things they will never reach God. And, very often, you will see that many of these people who always judge, think of themselves as being very spiritual and think highly of themselves. And this is how pride makes us think that we are very important and that we are very special. Everybody is special. We all carry the same Light, so all are

special, but some can shine it and some can’t, though they have it, they have the same Light. So, the death [and resurrection by Christ] of Lazarus is showing us that we all carry this Light and that we all can make things happen. It is not only about that, but also the outside, about helping other people, but we have to will it, we have to really want it. And all of you will say one thing “Yes, we want it,” but it is not happening and

it will not happen, because your want has so much pride inside, so much ego “only for me, only me”, that one says, also, that “if I have it, then I can give it”. I’ll tell you one thing: if you have it, you will

never give it, because you think that when you have it, then you will give it, but the moment you have it, you will disappear! So, we think that we ourselves know best, but only God knows best. He knows when to give and He knows what to give and to whom to give. What we can do is to just purify ourselves, always. Before we have not purified ourselves, it’s very difficult. If we have not purified, firstly, our mind, it is very difficult. Like Swami Shivananda said “one of the main steps on the spiritual way is self-purification” is purification of the mind, and when the mind is pure, you can go slowly, step by step. You don’t need to run, you know. Let everything come to you, because if you run, you will fall, you will hit yourself, your feet will hurt, and you will badly fall down. But if you go slowly, God will help you, The Divine Mother will help you.So by rising today, the Gospel is showing how important death is. It is showing how important it is to have reverence for all the people who have died: your mother, your father, your grandfather, your grandmother, because they are on the other side, and probably, they have risen to the other level, if they were good. They can help you. They can intercede next to Him and say “Help them down there.” Why do we pray to the Saints? Of course, they are dead and we go to the Relic Chapel with all the dead and all the bones there and we are thinking “Why are all these bones there?”, but the bones carry the spirit of the Saints, they carry the Holy Spirit. Like Saint Augustine said: the Saints, they are the movable temples of the Spirit. Remember in the Bible when Christ said “you can say something against me, you can say something against the Father, and you will be forgiven, but if you say something against the [Holy] Spirit, you will never be forgiven”. So, the bodies of the Saints carry this vibration of the [Holy] Spirit. Nowadays, when you go to certain Churches, you see how they look after the Saints, and you see how in the Orthodox Church they really have great veneration for the Saints and they know how important it is to venerate them. That’s why when you go to the Orthodox Church, if you go to Egypt, to Greece, or to Russia, you will see that the veneration of the Saints is very, very, very important and that they have great respect, really great veneration for the dead. But if you go to certain churches, especially in the West, you can remove that much dust from them, because they don’t care. Some people would throw away all the relics. Last week, in the antique market, a man was throwing away all the bones, and he said that he is just caring for the artistic point of view, for the object, and the relic was not important. So you see, they just throw them away without any respect, without any veneration. Why are these things in the antique shops? It’s because, firstly, the Church has thrown them away, you know. So, they are here now. You can venerate the Saints afterwards, after you have taken Communion. They will help, when you ask them for help, because you see, all the Saints are still doing lots of healing and lots of miracles when people go to their tombs, because they are present, even if they have been dead for a long time. The Spirit of God is inside of them, even though, for sure, the Saints have incarnated again, many times more, but yet, the Spirit of God,

which is inside, the Spirit at that moment where they rose to Christ Consciousness is still present. You can’t kill it, nothing can burn it, and not even time can destroy it.Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and to the ages of ages. Amen.

The I of the ego is always big......

As long as you have not Realised your Self, the I of the ego is always big. That’s why it is said in the Scripture: Remove this I. Put Him, you know, the Lord, because as long as one has not realised anything, one has to remind oneself continuously that All is Him. Even what you perceive that you are doing yourself, actually, it is

Him which is acting through you. That’s why the great Sages, when they have realised themselves, they always praise the Lord by saying “Lord, I am the vehicle, but you are the one who  is driving it. I am the chariot,

but you are the charioteer. I am the wick of the lamp, but you are the light. I am the house, but you are the

dweller of that house.” So in that state one has fully transcended the human nature seeing only the Divine working in everything. In that state, one sees the world in a different angle, not the same as with the egoistic mind point of view. Often people come, they say “Oh, Swamiji, I have seen this vision and that vision.”.... No, no, because people always want to think that they are special in whatever they do. Very often, without judgement, you see them very proudly “Oh, I have seen that. I have seen this.”, but what is that if it is not just pride? Because when one comes face to face with the Divine and really experiences something from the Divine, one doesn’t talk about it. One treasures it as the most precious treasure inside one’s heart. In that state, the mere mention of the Divine Name will make one cry out of joy knowing that this experience that one has received from the Divine,  is real. 

Learn to trust and move with this trust.......

He’s there all the time... inside of you, know that whatever you

do, He loves you. He is always next to you like a mother is

near her child. The child only needs to call to the mother

and the mother rushes to the child.

When the child is crying, does the child run to the mother or the mother run to the child? Wherever the mother is, when she hears that the child is crying, she will run.  It doesn’t matter what is in the way, the mother will run to the child. 

Here we are talking about the Divine – the Divine, which is even a thousand times greater than a mother – imagine how close He is. We have just to learn to trust that He is always present.

Through this trust you will have the awareness of Him and you will know that nothing in this world is wrong – well, apart from the mind of Man – but whatever nature does is right. Learn to trust and move with this trust. This is one of the things to change if you really want to change. If either you have changed or you want to change, learn to trust.

You will always long for more and more .....

When this Love gets awakened, the longing, it’s like when you give a nice cake to somebody. You will always want this cake again.
It’s the same thing once you discover the Love of God in you and around you, you will always long for more and more and this longing crosses over the body, mind and intellect. Then the soul reveals itself.
Very often when people talk about the soul, it’s just mere words, because the soul in itself is very shy, in the same way that God is very shy.
That’s why He shows Himself from time to time only. Until Love reaches a certain degree inside of you, the soul doesn’t reveal itself. 

Be aware that, even if you don’t feel it, the Divine is always with you. As you long for Him, He longs more for you.

“It’s just the love of God”.....

Isn’t it beautiful to sing the name of God? It’s very easy. It’s so easy to merge with God. It’s so easy to realise His Divine love. Just take one name and recite it continuously. Make the power of the mind combine with the power of the mantra. Let the mantra take over the mind. Let yourself become the mantra. What is in this name, Narayana, or Jesus, has the capacity to give peace to the mind. It’s very simple. Wherever you are, keep singing, keep reciting. It’s not limited. Wherever you are, even if you are travelling, you are on the toilet, you are taking a shower… recite the name of God. If you are cooking, you will have better food. Become this mantra. And let your heart open. And let this love which is inside of you being reflected on the outside. You will become this Divine instrument. Let everybody who is next to you feel this love so that they will also want it. They will ask, “Where does this love come from?” Some of them will say to you, “You look different. You reflect something different.” You will answer..... “It’s just the love of God”.

Whenever you experience the deepness of Love inside your heart.....

 Whenever you experience the deepness of Love inside your heart; whenever you sit down for prayer, bhajans, or meditation; whenever you feel the sense that you don’t feel pain, you don’t feel happiness, you don’t feel hot, you don’t feel cold, [but] you feel a joy, which you can’t even express it, treasure it. There is a word that we can put to this – bliss, but still this word is limited. The only thing I can tell you, you can just feel it. You can’t express it with words.

Free yourself.....

Real spirituality is in each one of you, in each one of your hearts, whether you believe or not, it’s there. God is sitting permanently within you. But to achieve it, this is each one’s way, each one’s personal way. To discover the God without form, God without name, the eternal – to realise that you, all of you, are part of Him. This is the aim of man.

Open up your heart! Love, love unconditionally! Love without limit! Love without expecting anything! Realise this love is ever flowing, the more you give, the more you receive. Just give for the sake of giving. That is what you are here for. Not to receive anything, not to take anything from anybody. Because, what is the difference between you and me? Nothing. But one difference: I realise it, and you don’t realise it. But you can also reach the same level. You need to be continuously in love.

You know how beautiful it is? For sure you know... all of you have fallen in love, haven’t you? Haven’t you? (The audience laughs) But none of you have answered me. Have you really fallen in love? (Audience: “Yes, but it was terrible“…laughing) Yeah, you see, as long love is with expectation, it will always be terrible. But when you love, when you realise yourself being the source of love, it’s not terrible. It’s the most joyful thing, the most beautiful thing. Still, love is just a word that I say to you. It’s up to each one of you to experience it, like a small child. If a small child came walking into this room, he would just experience love; he wouldn’t bother about anything around.

Now about our mind. We think before acting. We always think. We think if we give love we will feel hurt. However, you see, in the mind you already create the hurt; you create the feeling of destruction, so you don’t put love first.

Make the ultimate goal of your life Divine love, and surrender to it. You know what God wants from you? Surrender your mind to Him, continuously. Surrender your mind to the lotus feet of God, to the feet of your guru, to the feet of any Divine master. And free yourself. Free yourself from the mind, free yourself from all the misery that you created. So when you free your mind, you realise the Divine everywhere in every aspect, every small thing. Even the clothes you are wearing are divine. Each atom is divine.

If you have divine eyes to look at the world with, you will see that it is just the radiated light of God shining through everything.

Enjoy being with yourself.......

Keep reminding yourself that you are Divine. As you all remind yourself of being human, you will be just human. It’s so simple, if you can just always remind yourself of being love. Yes, we don’t really need to do big mantras, big japas, it’s just by reminding ourselves that we are love – we will be love. We will be in this world, but at the same time we will be Divine. When the awareness that you are Divine blossoms inside of you, there will be no fear, no doubt, nothing!

This complete trust within you of being Divine will project so much joy and so much peace. But what I said before, be an instrument of the Divine always. So keep reminding yourself. Exercise, if you can sit down for an hour or more – every day. In this hour just be with you, your own Self and enjoy it. Enjoy being with your self, and talk. You will see, deep inside there will be a voice coming out, each thing that you ask, you’ll receive an answer. If you want, you can write it down and meditate on it. Enjoy it, love it, and cherish it! That’s when you’ll be closer to yourself, closer to know and understand everybody.

“Make one step towards God, and he will make a hundred towards you.”

You have to look inside. When you turn inward, the Lord will reveal Himself to you; your Self will reveal itself to you. But you have to be sincere with yourself for that. You have to take your time and enjoy it. So many times people have said to me, “Oh, you know, half an hour of meditation is long enough, and one hour is way too long.” If you can’t do one hour meditation, you should not force yourself. If you can’t meditate for half an hour you should not do it. If you can only do it for one minute, then do a perfect one! Then there is one minute just between you and God, between you and Yourself – so enjoy it! It’s better than meditating for a whole day and not attaining anything!

So keep practicing. I always say it and keep saying it all the time. When you make the effort, the Lord will run to you. It’s said, “Make one step towards God, and he will make a hundred towards you.” It’s true, you know. The moment you are sincere with yourself and you make this one step, you’ll receive His grace. The door will be wide open, and you will see the Lord running to you! You know how beautiful it is, to experience that? How joyful it is! Words can’t express it. I can just say ‘joyful’, but it is beyond that. It even is beyond the word of love itself! The mind can only imagine it, how it is to be continuously, constantly in love. It’s marvellous. This type of love is unconditional. It’s without the expectation of anything in return. It’s just a flowing, a continuous flowing. Be this instrument, all of you! Don’t be scared to open up your heart; don’t be scared of getting hurt. Just love for the sake of loving. Just love because you are love. Just love because you have this fountain inside of you.

But as long as you expect something in return, then you invite sadness and grief to come into your life. You will never be truly happy, because expectation is present. Even when you sit down for meditation, or when you are singing the name of God, don’t expect that God will appear in front of you. Many people do think this way. “Baff”, a big light appears in front of you and Jesus says, “Hi, my child!” Remove this from your mind. Just do it because you love to do it.

It’s a Love that transcends happiness and transcends pain itself.....

The great form of Hanuman showing the intensity of bhakti, where the Lord consumes one’s self completely. Same thing when Saint Theresa of Avila said, “The Lord has pierced my heart, my heart has been pierced by the Lord’s sword, by the

Lord’s arrows”. It is this intensity of Love, not a Love that you

can say, “Yes, I’m feeling very happy”. This is what everybody

understands of Love, you know. No, it is not like that. It’s a Love that transcends happiness and transcends pain itself. And this intensity – it was the same thing as when they opened the heart of Saint Theresa of Avila. When Theresa of Avila died, they removed the heart - this was the culture in the 16th century - and when they opened the heart, they saw that her heart was pierced. It was the same as when they saw Jesus: when they showed His heart, it was pierced. So, this intensity, like I have explained many times before, is a burning sensation for the Lord. But sadly nowadays, people don’t know about this intense longing for God. They know only a little bit about how to long for God but then, the next moment, what passes through their mind, what they see is, “Oh, I need this…” They forget about the Lord. They run after the world. It’s so easy to run after the world because you run and the world is running afteryou. But you have to run after the Lord.

The only desire that will ultimately fulfill you is Him....

Let your only desire be focused on God, because the only desire of mankind, the only desire of the Spirit, is God. All other desires have limits. When you desire something and you want to possess it, the moment that you get the thing that you had desired, all your feelings are gone. You start disliking this thing, because it is not the Ultimate.

The only desire that will ultimately fulfill you is God, because he is unlimited in everything. In addition, in this desire for God, you will never have a question, whereas with the other desires you always have questions. For example, if you start a business, the desire is great. You are very happy, because the main thing is to get money. What happens then? The question arises, how to get the money. When you get the money, the desire is still not fulfilled, because you will think how to get more. Then there will be other things, like how you will pay the people who are working for you, or how will you buy other things for your business to grow more? So in this game, you will always ask the question, how will I do this? You will never really be satisfied and really happy with yourself. That does not mean you should stop your business or should stop your work. It is important that you work, but it is also important that you work with non-attachment, a non-attached feeling. Work and surrender to the Divine. In the morning, praise the Lord and say: “I’m an instrument in your hands. Guide me, be with me!” At the end of the day, before you go to sleep, surrender everything, every action, even if it was not a good action. Analyse it and surrender it to the Divine. Be completely detached from whatever you do, and focus your mind on the Lord. There was a great poet, Adi Shankaracharya who said,“Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhajam Muramate.” Meaning, if mankind would realise how foolish mankind is... We do not realise that the Ultimate of everything is Govinda, is God. If man would realise that everything comes from the source, which is God, why not take the source itself? Why just want something that will be finished after some time?

Even Lahiri Mahasaya, who was a very great yogi, in one of his previous lives when he used to live with Mahavatar Babaji, he had the desire to have a golden palace, and this desire for this golden palace made him incarnate again on earth. Because of the grace of Mahavatar Babaji, his love, and really his compassion for everybody, Babaji guided him and fulfilled his wish during this life. When Babaji appeared to him, he materialised a very huge golden palace, with lots of diamonds and all the precious stones that you can imagine inside. He was very amazed with everything, and then Babaji de-materialized it. Just the same way he made it appear, he also made it disappear. When you fall at the feet of Babaji, think of Babaji and pray to him, “If You could create this big palace, if You are the source of everything, why will I need just a palace? Isn’t it better that I take you completely? You are the ultimate. You are the goal of all life. Let me have you!”