Close your eyes, drop inside your heart and feel this fullness.....

Don’t let the itching of the world get you. You want liberation? Make it strong in your mind; make it strong deep inside your heart. Let it reach fulfilment outside. You are this light. And you all can merge back in this light. You have to want it very, very strongly. It has to be the most important thing in your life. There are many divine incarnations. They all come, they all teach, they all go. People at different times assimilate it in their own way. But we are living in such an age right now that it is very easy to attain Self-realisation.

We just need to be simple with ourselves. Simple in the mind. When I say simple, I mean just to love. Make this love unconditional. This love that you have inside of you, the source of all things, let it flow. Don’t try to stop it; don’t put any barrier around it. Now you are putting up barriers. How long can these barriers hold this love? It will overflow one day. So let it overflow, let it flow right now. But at the end of life you will say, “Oh, I should have done this much more before. I wasted all my life in running after things that have a limit to them. .”

Close your eyes, drop inside your heart and feel this fullness. Feel the greatness of yourself. And this greatness is you. This greatness is who you really are. Without any egoism. Keep concentrating on this greatness inside you. This great love which is emanating from your heart. It passes through each cell of your body. Try to reflect it outside. Isn’t it beautiful to see each person as the full body of light?

Someone is praying to God, and praying from morning to evening, meditating. Why do you think this person is doing that?.....

When you feel deep inside of you that you are unsatisfied, your heart’s desire has not been fulfilled. You keep desiring. The desires keep coming, the wants keep coming, pain keeps coming, suffering keeps coming, misery keeps coming. As long as there is want, which is natural, as long as there is want of the limitation of things, of course there will be misery. Who wants misery? Does somebody really want misery in this world? Nobody wants misery, even somebody who is committing suicide. Why is this person committing suicide? Somebody is committing suicide to run away from misery. Someone is praying to God, and praying from morning to evening, meditating. Why do you think this person is doing that? To go out from the misery that is in this world. So, the goal of life is to attain happiness, to attain eternal bliss. And this is what mankind is here for. The rest is just secondary. But nowadays, people have placed God in the second, even third position, while other [worldly] expectations are shining beautifully – as number one! Misery dresses itself so beautifully that it can make you get trapped in it. And the moment you get trapped in it, She is happy. 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.

Deep inside in the inner cosmic mind, there lies also the Divine......

You can’t have the complete realisation of God and at the same time say that you want the material world. I tell you something: in the completeness, in the Divine consciousness, everything is present. Where else than in the mere mind of man can one just see what these two eyes perceive? On one hand there is everything, everything means also the material part. On the other hand there is just the material part and illusion. You meet people, they try to see what is beautiful, and they get attached to it and keep it. It’s our own happiness that arises in our life, from deep within where we receive the goal. But something is missing; it is not complete. You think, “Now I have got this beautiful thing that I desired so much. Now I got it, I don’t have the same love for it. I don’t have the same enthusiasm about it.” What does the mind do? The mind tries to find something else to hold onto, but as long as man tries to hold onto a material thing, he will always stay on the material level. 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.

“Come, Mother Ganga. Purify us, purify our hearts, purify our minds. Cleanse us from the dirt that our minds create”...

Jesus knew the significance of getting baptised. He knew how powerful water is   – so powerful that it can cleanse somebody. Don’t think that the Jordan is just holy because Jesus was there. No, through the prayer they knew the Mother was there, the Mother would take care of the children and the Mother would clean the children.  He knew the power of water. For everything that we do, we use water to clean. When you clean something, water is taken to wash the thing and to clean. The water is clean and the water takes away all the dirt. Let’s take a plate. I clean it; after I clean it, the plate becomes clean, but where does the dirt go? The dirt goes into the water. The water keeps the dirt, but the water doesn’t become dirty. After some time the dirt goes to the bottom of the water and the water becomes clear again. She knows how to clean. She knows how to purify and that’s why in all rituals – we’re talking about Christianity, we’re talking about Islam, we’re talking about Hinduism, Buddhism – in all religions you see that there is water. Christians go to Lourdes, to the Jordan to take a dip in the water to purify themselves. The Muslims go to Mecca and they take the Zamzam from there – the Holy Water. They purify themselves with the water and they take the water home and drink the water. Hindus, they go to the Ganges to get the Holy Water and take a dip in the water. In all traditions water is so important because it cleans us, it purifes us. That’s why when you call the three rivers    – Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati – you’re invoking all the rivers, you are invoking all the Mothers “Come, Mother Ganga. Purify us, purify our hearts, purify our minds. Cleanse us from the dirt that our minds create.” You are invoking Her. For the abishekam you have to understand the significance of the offering. You offer everything that comes from the Lord back to the Lord. Everything that comes from Him will merge back into Him and you will become one with Him eventually. How long it takes depends on each one individually. If you want it to be quicker, it will be. If you want it to be longer, it will be longer. It is each one offering back to the Lord what is from Him. Yamuna, which is near Vrindavan; it is said that Yamuna was already sacred, but Yamuna became more sacred when Krishna played in Her, when the Lord took His bath in Her. Imagine how blessed Yamuna is to receive the Lord every day in Her from when He was small. The day He was born, She could touch the feet of the Lord! 

When we invoke the Lord, we have also to invoke Him inside our hearts. When He takes complete possession of us, we become Him.

Talk less.......

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.

To be able to realise God, one has to be humble.....

Christ said “What I have done up to you, you all have to do it. You all have to humble yourself. You all have to be ready to lower yourself”. Coming back to the point, in the Gita Krishna said “If you want to realise Me, you have to be more humble than a dry grass”. A dry grass: when we look at a dry grass, it is always crooked down. So if you want to be humble, you have to be even more down than that. And Christ has shown it by washing the feet of the disciples, showing the humility. He is One with God, He has realised the Unity with the Father. The Father had sent Christ but yet He was showing this humility for all the people. To be able to understand, to be able to realise God, one has to be humble. Without being humble, you can forget about it. Very often spiritual people think they are humble. Actually, they have the humility of the spiritual pride, you know. They think they’re humble, but when they really have to act in a humble way, it is completely the opposite. It is not about judging anybody, but it is about realising each one, by selfanalysing - where we can change, what we can change, how we can serve our brothers and sisters. How, in which point, we can say “Ok, let’s forget a little bit about I, I, I, but let’s think about ‘us’, ‘we’”. Imagine if, in your body, your right hand starts to do something that is not in communion with your whole body. What will happen? Huh? Chaos, no? Imagine if my hand will start moving left - right, right now. What would happen? I would not be able to be here, to talk with you, to do my work properly. If my eyes would be one up and one down, and one would want to do something else, nothing would work! Only when every part of your body works in accordance with each other, in unity; when each one is doing its own function, its own duty or dharma, then there is perfect unity. The same in a family: all work together to make a family. In a community it is the same thing, but at the same time each one has to do their own duty. That doesn’t mean that one has not to participate together. One participates together, makes it one family: that’s how the unity comes. But if one starts working against another, then it will be chaotic and there will be problems. And this is the weakness of which I have given many examples. Last year, also, I have told this example. Once there was a Teacher who knew that His time to depart was coming near, but looking at His disciples, He saw that they were all fighting against each another, because each one wanted to take the place of the Teacher. So, seeing that, the Teacher thought for a while and said to them, “Ok, all of you; go in the forest and bring me a piece of wood, a stick”. He told them a certain length - let’s say - a sixty centimetre stick. “All of you go there in the forest and bring it to me”. So all of them went, and all the twelve disciples came back and said “Ok, here, Master, we brought this wood”. And the Teacher took all of them, one by one, and started breaking them. And then He asked the disciples, “Come, break these”. The disciples took one stick, and, of course they broke it. Then the Teacher tied all the rest, which were left over, into a bundle and called the disciples again, and said, “Now break it”. When all the sticks were tied together, no one could break the bundle. The same thing: if you are all together, no one can do anything to you, but if one is against another, then nothing will work. In the Gospel, Christ showed also the ‘humbleness’ that we all have to have towards each other, the understanding towards each other, the Love towards each other. Love is there, but very often understanding is not there. So, this also the all-knowing Christ showed: that He knew everything that was happening and what would happen in advance, but he had also to fulfil what was written in the Scriptures; what God had talked to the prophets: He had to fulfil it. But there were expectations among the disciples of Jesus of how the Master would be: a lot of them were expecting Jesus to be a great Master, who would come and raise everything down and build up something new. If there is this kind of expectation among the disciples, and when it is not like that, they feel bad. That’s why Judas went and betrayed Christ. They expected “Oh, He will do this and He will do that”, but yet Jesus knew what His work was. He knew His duty. He knew for what reason He had incarnated and He did, according to His job. But yet the disciples didn’t know what their duty was. But yet they thought they knew, but when they realised their mistake, it was too late. Very often - it happens to everybody, actually, it was not only the disciples of Jesus, you know - but whenever you go to a Master, to a Teacher, in your mind you already expect certain things. You already create in your mind “Oh, you know, the Teacher will do this and this and that to me, He will tell me this and this and that to flatter me”. You already create it in your mind, but if in your mind you already have some expectations, then even if the Master would talk to you ten times, you would not hear anything.

And at the end – just be love! Nothing else, just love....

We talk about His love for all of us – this love that He has without condition. We start our spiritual way because there is something missing in our life, something that this world can’t give. This thing which is missing, you can only discover inside of you. Yet there is a saying – approach Him with love, reach Him in that love, meet Him in love, embrace Him with love and merge with Him and become Eternal Love! I find it so beautiful.

So we start our journey to approach the Divine. Our first step is searching for Him. This is when in our life we feel the need to pray. Prayer is this essence of realising that there is something greater – whether you call it God, Light, Spirit… The search starts with prayer, and prayer makes the link, prayer makes the first step to this union. Then one will reach the next step by meeting and reaching that love. By prayer the heart opens up, firstly towards the outside, then towards the inside. We meet Him in love. Through the reciting and singing of God’s names, like you are doing, you reach the point where love is, where everybody is sharing one goal: the achievement of that love. Then there comes the point of meeting Him in love. This is happening in meditation, when you sit down and have the connection with your true Self. You meet the love within yourself and start this discussion, start this communication with the Self, about knowing who you really are. In this meeting we embrace that love, we become one with it and realise it more and more. The realisation of love is already in your heart. The moment you are born, it’s already there. It’s up to each one of you to let it out. Leave the problems apart, leave your worries apart – be this love, be this Eternal Love, and enjoy it! Love is simple, if you have it inside your heart. Is it difficult? What a simple word. Let it flow! Everything is in it, everything – even the cosmic float itself is present in it. So make this your goal: Wanting love! Want it! First thing in the morning when you wake up, say it, “I want love, I am love!” During the day recite, “I am love.” And at night, when you are going to bed, recite, “I am love.” First you start by reciting it outside to conquer the power of the mind. Then you say it inwardly, quietly, within yourself, “I am love.” Then you say it with all parts of your body, “I am love.” And at the end – just be love! Nothing else, just love.

Eternal Light resides in everything....

With this Divine love you will realise that there is no difference between the love that you knew at the beginning and now. And with this love there is no difference between you, me – anybody. But this Eternal Love, this Eternal Light resides in everything. It’s so easy, isn’t it? I always repeat the same: spirituality is very easy! It’s simply that you want it! It’s given to you already – inside of your heart. The moment you want it, you will receive it.

“Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me”

There was once a devotee of Kali who lived around Dakshineshwar. It was not Ramakrishna. It was a priest, and his Love for the Divine Mother was  so  great that he would praise the Mother wherever he was. In his house there was no food, so he went and begged, but people refused to give him food. The Divine Mother disguised Herself as a fruit seller and went to his house where She gave some vegetables to the wife and said “Cook them. Your husband sent me here.” When the husband came back to their home, the wife said to him, “Oh, thank you for sending this lovely lady who brought some vegetables and some rice, but now, I don’t see her anymore and she went without saying "Bye". Later, when they opened the door of the temple, they saw that the clothes that the Lady had been wearing were now on the statue of Kali. Once this same man wanted to build a fence, but he needed some help. He called first his daughter, but she was far away. Suddenly he saw her coming and she was saying “Father, sing some songs for me” and in divine ecstasy he sang for the Divine Mother. As he was singing, he was in deep meditation with the Mother and he forgot about the fence, but the Divine Mother with Her shakti, with Her power, made everything right and disappeared. Later the daughter came and said “Father, you were calling me, what can I do for you?” The father said “But you were just here, right now. Before, you were just here, helping me!” Then he realised that it was not his daughter who had been there – it was the Divine Mother. Like that story, there are many stories in each of the saint’s lives. If each one of you became a saint, you would also have nice stories to tell. This is your aim to be, pray to God, tell Him “Yes, I want to become a saint” and ask for help. Ask the Divine Mother, ask God, ask Christ for help. They will help you. They are here all the time to help people to advance, to help all their children, all the brothers and sisters to reawaken the Divine qualities. That’s what they want that you all become, again, saintly. Say “Yes, I want to become a saint” and you will become! As long as you see sainthood far away, if you see that God is far away, you keep God away, but if you feel Him near to you and say to your mind “Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me,” and clear this mind by chanting the name of God. Clear it by thinking positively, firstly about yourself and also about others around you. Like that, you will see that your heart will open up and this unconditional Love will also grow more and more. It’s like a river when it comes out from the source: it’s always small, but the more it advances towards the sea, what happens to it? It becomes larger and larger because on the way many rivers have joined together. On your spiritual path more and more streams of grace will join coming towards you and you will grow and grow. This is what you have to do – advance. Stop limiting yourself. Start saying “No” to your mind and make it positive.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a very beautiful Story today......

It is said that to Realise God, one has to have complete trust, one has to have complete dedication to what one really wants, because if we give ourselves halfway, God will also give Himself halfway. But if we give ourselves fully to Him and call sincerely from our heart to Him, He will respond back to us. Tulsidas was a saint who lived in the 16th century in India and his love for Lord Rama was so great that, wherever he looked, he would see only Rama. He was an orphan and he came from a very low caste. At that time in India – but also now - people followed the caste system. The Brahmins were the highest caste and the Sudras belonged to the lowest caste. But Tulsidas´ love for Rama was so great that he always carried a small statue of Lord Rama with him. When his parents died, nobody looked after him and wherever he would go, the people went away from him, because he was from a low caste. One day Tulsidas´ Guru took him to his ashram and said to the people “You people, who always think that you know God, you know Him only through scriptures; you know only what is said in the books, nothing else. But the Lord Sri Hari is above all this. He loves everybody and everybody is equal to Him. He is with anybody who calls Him with sincere heart.” So the Guru took Tulsidas under his care and looked after him. When Tulsidas grew up, he became well versed in Sanskrit and his main aim was to give the Ramcharitmanas, which means The story of Lord Rama, to the people in their own language. He started to compose poems. He, also, sang the Ramcharitmanas in Marathi, his own native language. The Brahmins didn’t like this at all, because they said that Sanskrit is the language of the Devas, of the Gods - well, some people think also that God speaks only Latin* - but Tulsidas´ main aim was to translate the Ramcharitmanas and give it to the people, to everybody, equally. Through that he had many enemies. When it came time for Tulsidas to get married, one of his brothers was against him and said “No, I have to get married to that girl and not you!” But it was the girl´s father who wanted Tulsidas to get married with his daughter, Ratnavali, and finally he got married with her, and they were very happy. They, also, went to get the blessing of the Guru, who took the small statue of Rama, which Tulsidas had bought in the ashram when he was very small, and gave it to him and said “I don’t have anything to give you on this special day, but take this statue of Rama and never forget about Him!” Tulsidas replied “Guruji, how could I forget about Rama?” He took the statue of Rama at home, he put it on the altar and at that moment he completely forgot about Rama, because his mind was focused only on his wife. He got so obsessed by his wife that she became everything for him. Every moment, day and night, he wanted to be just next to his wife. They had a shop, because when they got married his father-in-law gave him a shop. One day he had to go to another town to get some clothes for the shop. So, in the morning, he said good bye to his wife and went to the other shops to buy his stuff. But, at the same time, his wife got a message that her father was not well and he would like to see her for the last time before he died. So she rushed quickly to the father’s place. When Tulsidas came home and didn’t find his wife, he became mad. He found a note on the bed saying, “I have gone to my father’s place. I need some time for myself, because I have seen how obsessed you are about me and also because my father is ill.” Tulsidas could not bear this and he went to his father-in-law´s place. On the way there was a big storm and he had to swim across the river. When he finally arrived, he saw that the door was locked and he was wondering what to do and how to go inside. So he started climbing over the wall of the house and some people who saw it thought that he was a thief. They started running around and calling everybody “There is a thief around, come, let´s catch him!” But Tulsidas managed to get inside the house and when the people came inside they saw that it was him and they asked him “Why did you climb over the wall like this? It’s your own father-inlaw ´s house, you can use the door.” They understood that he was madly in love and they went to the wife and said “Do you know what kind of husband you have? He is so much in love with you that he cannot let you go like that.” The wife became very angry. She went to Tulsidas and said to him “Listen, I do appreciate whatever you’re doing for me, but I will tell you one thing: if you would have this kind of love for Rama, for sure you would get liberation, He would liberate you. If you would have such a Love for Him, He would always be with you. Instead, toward me, you are just looking at me for your own pleasure, with your lustful eyes. You desire only my body, which is just a bag of bones and it can give you satisfaction only for some time. So have such Love for Rama and he will liberate you from this.” Then she left and her words stayed in Tulsidas´ mind: he was thinking and thinking. Then again this urge for Rama awoke in his heart. He left everything and said “How could I forget about You, Rama? I have forgotten about You because of this illusion of this world. For the sake of the bag of bones, I forgot about You, but as this bag of bones has become my guru, I look for You again, Rama: reveal Yourself to me!” For days and days he kept walking around, just repeating the name of Ram. Finally, he could not walk anymore and he fell down in a forest, but still he kept singing the name of Rama: Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram. He was singing and singing and singing, Rama. After some time, he heard a voice say “Tulsidas, you are such a great soul. I know why you are chanting the name of Rama and I will tell you how to find Him.” Tulsidas lifted his head up and looked around, but couldn´t see anybody. So he asked “Who are you? I can’t see you.” The voice answered “I am a ghost who lives in this tree. I became a ghost because of my own wish. I had a desire to have some Ganges water on the last day of my life, but I didn´t have any. Now I consider myself very lucky, because you have been chanting for nine days continuously the name of Rama next to me. I will reveal Him to you but, for that, you will have to bring some Ganges water for me.” Tulsidas agreed and went to collect one pot of water from the Ganges. He brought the pot to the tree and the ghost from the tree said “I am blessed and I got liberated, firstly, because you fulfilled my wish by bringing the Ganges water to me, and secondly, because I have heard the Holy Name of Rama continuously for nine days. So I will reveal Him to you. Go to Kashi. There you will find a priest who will be chanting the story of Rama. There will be an old man who will come first and he will also leave the last. He is Hanuman, the servant of Rama, and He will direct you to Rama.” Saying this, the ghost which was on the tree got liberated. Tulsidas went to this town. There he went to this place where the ghost had told him to go. As he was sitting there, the priest was reading the Ramcharitmanas in Sanskrit. And it was so boring that, one by one, the people fell asleep. And, one by one, they all would go away. After the singing, everybody was gone and only Tulsidas was left and he went to the priest and said “Priest, why do you do like that? Why are you singing the Ramcharitmanas in Sanskrit? Why don’t you sing it in their native language, in Hindi?” Then the priest, who was jealous of him, said “Oh, you can’t sing the Ramcharitmanas in any other language, because it would be blasphemy. You can sing it only in Sanskrit!” Then Tulsidas said to

the priest “If it would be in Hindi, it would be more interesting and people would not go away, but they would listen to you.” The priest became very angry with Tulsidas and pushed him away, but, as he was going away, he saw an old man sitting there. He went to this old man who said “Oh, you were right: it´s good that you said to him that it would be better to chant the Ramcharitmanas in the native language of the local people.” Tulsidas knew that this old man with white beard was Hanuman in disguise and he fell down at His feet and said “Please, reveal Rama to me!” The old man said “Me? How will I reveal Rama to you?” Tulsidas answered “You are Hanuman.” The old man said “Hah, Me Hanuman? No, no, no, no.” But Tulsidas insisted “Please, remove your disguise, show really Yourself! I know it´s You, the servant of Rama.” He was asking with so much faith and devotion that Hanuman appeared in His real form. He blessed Tulsidas and said to him “You will see Rama. Go to the Ganges tomorrow and you will see Rama there. Rama will

come to you.” The next day Tulsidas was sitting on the banks of the Ganges, where he was preparing some chandan paste. Two young princes came to him and said, “Holy man, give us some chandan.” Without even

looking, Tulsidas just took a little bit of it, put it on betel leaves and gave it to them. Of course, these men were in disguise. Poor Tulsidas, he could not know who was in front of him. His desire was to see Rama, but still, when Rama was in front of him he was too blind to recognise Him. At the same time, Hanuman appeared on the tree just above and sang “How blessed is Tulsidas to have the darshan of Lord Rama and Lakshmana who have come from Heaven to Him.” Hearing that, Tulsidas recognised that it was Rama and

Lakshmana who were standing in front of him. He bowed down to their feet and Rama blessed him without saying anything. Just the smile of Rama was enough. Later Tulsidas composed Ramcharitmanas, expanding the Ramayana and translating it into Hindi, and he had many, many, many people who would follow him. Many of the Brahmin priests changed and started to sing it in Hindi, but the jealous one tried everything to stop Tulsidas. He knew that Tulsidas had only one copy of the Ramcharitmanas, so he decided to steal it. He sent one man to steal it, but as the man was approaching the hut of Tulsidas, he saw Rama and Lakshmana guarding the gate of the place. When this man took one more step, Hanuman pulled him with His tail and started to beat him up with the tail. So the man rushed quickly back to the wicked priest and said to him “It is impossible. I got beaten. There are guards guarding the hut.” Later they tried to burn the hut, but all the fire merged into the Ramcharitmanas, into the book. It went inside the book and disappeared. In this way, they offended Tulsidas many times. Once, the son-in-law of the King of Kashi died and, during the

funeral procession, the king’s daughter was walking by the side of her dead husband. She was ready to be burned, as well, because at that time, when a husband died, also, the wife alive had to be burned. It is called sati. Actually they carried on with this tradition until the English occupied India. Also, Gandhi was one of the main opponents of this sati tradition in which the wife is burned on the pyre of her husband. So, during this procession, they met Tulsidas and when the wife was passing by him, he blessed her and told her “May you always be happy in your family.” When the wicked Brahmin priest heard this, he said, angrily, to Tulsidas “How can you bless her to always be happy in the family, when her husband has just died?” Tulsidas answered to him “I don’t know, I just blessed her because Lord Rama told me to bless her.” Then the Brahmin priest said “If your faith is really strong, it is said that through the name of Rama, one can bring her husband back to life.”Tulsidas started to pray to Rama and said to Him “Rama, if I am truthful to You, give back life to this man. You give the life to many people, You can, also, give life back to this dead man.” His Love and faith in Sri Hari Rama was so strong, his prayer was so strong that, when he was chanting: Sri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram, suddenly the man just started to breathe again. He woke up, after being dead

for a few days, and started to sing the name of Rama, but even this miracle didn’t change the mind of the wicked priest. Again, he tried to burn Tulsidas´ house, while Tulsidas was inside. At that time, when he did that, everybody tried to put off the fire from the Tulsidas´ hut, but they could not. By the Grace of God, by the Love that Tulsidas had for Rama, the fire ceased by itself. It became a ball of fire, which started to follow the wicked priest who ran to his wife and said, “Wife, save me!” Then the wife said to the ball of fire “Out of ignorance, my husband has offended your devotee, Lord. Please, have mercy on him.” Then she said to her husband “Go, and ask Tulsidas´ forgiveness. He will surely forgive you.” The priest went to ask Tulsidas´ forgiveness and became one of his devotees. He started, also, to chant the Ramcharitmanas in Hindi. Things carried on like that and one day the wife of Tulsidas came to Him and said “Out of anger, I sent you away, but now I’m calling you back. Please come back.” Tulsidas replied “No, I can’t come back, but I will do as you said, because you are now my Guru. Because you sent me away, I have got Ram. He is now completely seated in my heart. So whatever you say, I will do.” So the wife said “I will follow you, wherever you are, whatever you do. I will, also, do that. You want to live for Rama, I will live for serving you.” So, whenever the Ramcharitmanas is being read, the bhakti of Tulsidas is always mentioned. The first thing, before even reading the Ramcharitmanas, before even saying the name of Rama, is to bow down to Tulsidas, who gave the name of Rama to the whole world, and to Ratnavali, who let Tulsidas free, so that the name of Rama could be spread out. This story shows how one has to have complete surrender to God, complete surrender to one´s path, complete surrender to the Deity, which one feels inside his heart. One should, also, know that God is beyond everything and that He loves everybody equally. It’s not upon anybody to go and try to change somebody’s mind, saying “My way is right, your way is wrong.” Thinking like this is completely wrong. We say we have only one God, but we adore Him in His many forms until we reach a point to see this Oneness everywhere. The life story of Tulsidas or any Self-Realised saint is beyond the comprehension of the mind, because they live completely in God. And they are calling everybody to live completely in God, to live in the Love of God and to know that God is everywhere: God is present in everybody.

First we see the duality, the separation, and through that separation, God unites us and makes us one with Him. He makes us Realise His Divinity, then we stop talking about Him and we become completely quiet. As

long as we have not found God, as long as we have not come to the point of God-Realisation, Self-Realisation, we should never lose hope, we should never let go of God´s Name, we should never let go of whatever we are doing.

What lies behind this story is that one has to completely surrender to one´s path and, whatever obstructions or obstacles come on the way, one has to always say “No” to them. Your aim is to have God- Realisation, Self-Realisation. Until you have reached your aim, until you have come to the point of complete trust and faith in yourself and in God, keep trying! Don’t let anything come in the way! Many times the mind will come in the way and say “No, no, no, no, no, no, you should not do like that, you should do like this”, but if you listen to the mind, you will stop. You will become lazy. Only when you really, sincerely dedicate yourself and surrender to your path, surrender to what you really want, you will achieve your aim. The aim is to Realise this Love that you have inside and to become this Love so completely that every atom in your body will radiate this Love of God. And this Love, you will spread it around always. This Love is beyond everything: beyond the mind, beyond the body, even beyond the Spirit itself. It is this Love that we have to attain.

When we talk about freedom.....

 Often people talk about liberation or freedom. When we talk about freedom, what are the things we think of at first? Freedom of country, political freedom, economic freedom… But the inner freedom is the most important among all the different kinds of freedom, and that is what mankind really wants to achieve. This is the reason why each soul has come on earth. They come to achieve this freedom, this love of God.

Let me try to interpret this kind of freedom: 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 you will find??..... 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. 

Nityam brahma niraakaaram - nirgunam bodhayet param;

Sarvam brahma niraabhaasam - deepo deepaantaram yathaa.

Just as one candle lights another, the Guru imparts to the

disciple awareness of the Absolute Being who is eternal,

imperceptible and without form or attribute.

Every time in life you go through learning processes.....

Christ said: “Don’t try to remove the small splinter in the eyes of your brother when you have a big pole in

your own eyes.” We like to say “No, it’s not me who is at fault.” In place of analysing our own mistakes and changing and learning something, we like to say “No, it’s not me, it’s the other who did it” or “It’s God who did it.” He has the broadest shoulders, so put it on Him. Control your thoughts and always know what you are asking from God, because whatever you ask, out of His mercy, out of His grace, He will give you. Then don’t complain to Him. Christ said, “Put your burden upon me; I shall carry it.” We all put it on Him quite a bit. I will tell you a short Story..... Once there was a man. Always it happens to men, you know? There was a  Brahmin who had a beautiful garden. Every day he would spend hours and hours in his garden. In it grew lots of beautiful trees and also fruit trees. One day, a cow was passing by and saw this beautiful mango on the tree. The cow just went and started eating the mangos. When the Brahmin saw that, he got very angry, he rushed toward the cow and started beating the cow. Poor cow; the cow is considered to be the mother. The cow died from all this beating. When everybody heard that the Brahmin killed this cow, everybody rushed quickly to the spot where the dead cow was. They saw the Brahmin there and they started accusing the Brahmin with big, big words, you know. They said “You are a Brahmin? You killed this cow; you beat this cow and killed it.” and the Brahmin said “No, I didn’t kill it.” Because he was very knowledgeable, he said “No, I didn’t kill this cow, so don’t blame me. It’s my hand. My hand is governed by Lord Indra. He is the God of the hand, so blame Him.” Up in heaven, Indra was looking down and said “Oh my goodness! He killed the cow and I get the blame? Indra could not handle that anymore, so he came down on Earth in disguise, as a  Sannyasi, as a Sadhu. He came there and as he was walking near the crowd of people, he started praising the beauty of the garden and said “Oh, what a beautiful garden.” Then he asked “Who is the one who planted so many beautiful trees?” The man very eagerly said “Oh, I did it!” Next he said “Oh, who laid this nice path?” and the man without thinking, said “I did it.” very happily. He was getting more joyful, you know? Then the  Sannyasi said “Who removed all the weeds from this garden and made it so clean?”  The Brahmin was getting more excited and said “I did it.” Then the Sannyasi said “Well, if you did all of this, when you killed the cow, why did you put the blame on Indra?” When good things come, everybody is there to receive, but when negative things come – one’s own mistakes – nobody accepts them. So learn to accept it. Only by accepting whatever you have done wrong, you will be able to transcend it and change it. It’s a learning process. Every time in life you go through learning processes. Every time in life you learn new things and if you have not learned something now, it’s a cycle. It will come back to you and you will have to learn it again. Know one thing, sometimes one says “What should I learn from my mistake?” It seems like a worthless thing. We ask ourselves what can we learn from that? But we do learn, nothing is worthless.

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

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.

Let me tell you a story. Once there was a fight between the devotees of Shiva and Vishnu. The devotees of Shiva said, “Shiva is the greatest!”.And the devotees of Vishnu said, “Vishnu is the greatest!” So, God was just looking at the devotees, at what they were doing. This lasted for years and years, until finally the Lord Himself decided to come. Vishnu changed himself into Shiva, and went to the devotees of Shiva, and Shiva changed himself to Vishnu, and went to the devotees of Vishnu. So everybody was praising their master, saying “Oh, you are great. You are great!” After some time they noticed that Vishnu, who is normally the embodiment of calmness, was different. And this quality isn’t normally found in Shiva. The devotees of Shiva saw that this Shiva was a bit different, too. He’s so calm. And they started thinking, “There is something wrong here.” Then they said, “Lord, with all of our respect, which leader are you showing us? Which lesson are you giving us?” At that moment, Shiva changed to his normal form, to Vishnu. And the devotees of Vishnu, when they looked at Vishnu, he changed to Shiva. The devotees were very confused. They didn’t know what to do. So, finally, both Shiva and Vishnu came together, called all the devotees together, and they saw a big bright light. They could not even look at this light. And when the light was vanished, they saw Dattatreya, the Holy Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara – in one.

So, 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.

We have to learn to turn the mind.....

We have to learn to turn the mind and gaze in the inside, inside each one of ourselves and see the Lord there and let Him reveal Himself. When you call Him, when you chant His name, when you recite His name, when you sing His name, this is how you’re calling Him. You’re calling him “Please, reveal yourself.“ Like

in the Gita it is said, Krishna said “ I don’t reside anywhere in the outside. I don’t reside even in the heart of the people, but I reside where there is the glory, my glory is being sung.” The same thing is written in the Bible, “If two or three are gathered in my name, I shall be near to them.” That means that when you sing the name of God, you are calling, you’re asking Him to awaken within you, you are asking Him to come to you and to reveal Himself to you. The more you do that the more he will reveal Himself as this Love. The more you long for Him, the more you will love to do your sadhana, the more your mind will be controlled. And, when your mind is controlled, when you have peace of mind, you will be peaceful. You will be peace in your body and you will bring peace this peace to your surroundings. You will be an instrument of this Divine Love. But, as this first step, you have to not only be contemplating in the outside, but you must contemplate within yourself and find God. This reminds me that very often people are scared about the outside. They are scared and they always look at how the outside thinks of them. This is a weakness of man, actually, always looking about others and forgetting about how they can change things. That reminds me of a story where there was this sannyas, a sannyasin, a sadhu. He used to live just opposite a house where a prostitute lady lived. So, every day the sannyasin looked at how many men visited this prostitute. He counted. So, one day he decided to go to the lady and said “Lady, you don’t know how much you are sinning. For sure, you will go to hell for all the sin. You have to really repent and change your life.” This poor lady, when she heard that, she was very alarmed and shocked. She was crying very bitterly, you know, crying and repenting inside and feeling so bad inside of her when she heard how much sin she had committed. And she prayed to Maha Vishnu and said “Lord, forgive me, I didn’t know how much sin I had committed.” So, she cried and cried, but as prostitution was her only means of living, she could not really change her life. So, seeing that even after talking to her she didn’t change, the sannyasin was thinking and he said “For each person I will put one stone in front just to show her how much is her sin.” So, after some time, it was a big heap of stone. He went to the lady and said “You see this big heap of stone; this is all your sin.” And, again, she cried; every day she was crying. Sincerely, she asked God for forgiveness. It so happened that, after this incident, the prostitute lady died and, coincidentally, the sannyasin, who was a brahmin, also died. So, as he was waiting for who would come to get him, you know, he was thinking, since he was a brahmin that the angels of God would come and take him. As he was waiting, he saw that the angels of God, of Maha Vishnu, came and took the soul of the prostitute lady to Vaikunta, to Heaven. And, for him, the God of the dead came to get him and bring him to hell. So, out of protest, he started to scream, saying how unfair it was, “I am a sannyasin, I am a brahmin, I passed my life praying to God, but here the prostitute lady is going to heaven and I’m going to hell.” At that, the guards of Maha Vishnu, the servants of Maha Vishnu said, “Well, whenever you accused her, she repented sincerely and asked God for forgiveness and she was chanting the Divine Names continuously in her heart. Whereas you, you were not contemplating the Divine, even if you were sitting and praying in the outside, inside your heart you were contemplating the sin that this lady was doing. So, that’s why you are going to hell. In the same way, where you put your heart, there it shall be. That’s what is said in the Bible. So, if your heart is focused on the Divine, the Divine will always reside inside of you, in each part of you and you will start to radiate this Divine Love and give it to everybody, so you will become this instrument that I was talking of before. But, if you concentrate on the negativity that you always see - because your eyes always perceive things that are not good - you will get trapped into this illusion. The only way you can really un-trap yourself is to surrender to the feet of God, you know, and really say “Lord, take me.” Know that God is compassionate. He will hold you and He will carry you and He will always send help for you. That’s how His Love is. So, concentrate not on the negative, but on the Divine, and call Him within you. Don’t be shy to chant the name of God. And, also, don’t be shy, because it is not about the others, it is about you and God.

Focus your attention on the Divine!

Only the mind stops you from realising it. We often talk about the mind. But God has given a heart to man, too. The heart is not just here to pump the blood in the whole body. It’s also to feel. Very often, when you get hurt, the heart has a lot of pain, doesn’t it? And when you feel happiness and joy, the heart is wide open.

And to love God is... I can’t even express it in words actually, because it’s a mixture of everything in it. Sometimes you will fight with God, sometimes you will blame God, and sometimes you will just be completely in love with God. And at the end of all three, it’s just this pure love. And this is the freedom that all of you have. But you have to really express it, to really let it grow. Not with a ‘but’. So many times we say, “We try to open our heart, but there is always something in the way.”

Try it, you will see. One day you will surrender completely, saying, “Open my heart. Here I am. I surrender to You – body, mind and soul is Yours! Do whatever you want to do.” For sure you will be guided. Do it. Very often people start to do it, but then doubt arises in the mind.

You see, doubt arises because you expect limits. People think that when they become spiritual they have to see something; they have to see maybe some light, or some miracles, or anything that the physical eyes can see. But expectation limits the Divine. Do you think God can be limited when you say, “God I love You, I really want to feel You, I really want to know You”? And then you’re questioning about the light when He is the Light of all lights, and the Light that these eyes can’t even look at!

Actually, it’s just that the inner eyes can see it. All of you have this light. All of you have these eyes. But open them! Don’t have fear to open them, no matter what you will see – focus your attention on the Divine! Focus your attention on God – on this light and love that you have inside you. And like a child, let yourself be guided. You will feel that – whatever you want to do, if it is not right – you will not go in that way. But for that you have to be sincere to yourself. You have to be sincere to the feeling that you are feeling inside. It’s not that your heart feels something and you say, “Oh no, it’s not that, it’s my own creation... it’s all just illusions of my mind.”

“Do we have a free will?”

Once somebody asked a saint “Do we have a free will?” The saint said “Well, you have a will, but it’s not free.” It’s like a cow: the cow is tied with a rope and is given only a certain radius to turn around. The cow is free, but it is free only in a certain radius. And such is

so, also, with the will of man. And the rest is His will only. But in this little radius with things which seem so big, we like to make ourselves feel greater than anybody else, don´t we? We like to make

ourselves even greater than the Lord Himself.

One has to let go of the body and realise the bliss of the Spirit....

I’m really happy to be among all of you, especially, to be here in Fatima. It is such a blessed place, for the Divine Mother has appeared here – I’m sure – not only ninety years ago. She appeared many times, even five years ago when I was here. She appeared to me at the same place where the children saw her. And I’ve been seeing that she was very happy. (Laughing…)

You are all here to feel the Divine love. But most of all you are here to realise the Self. The Self that even Jesus Christ talked about. At the time when he considered himself as the son of man – it was the time of the crucifixion. When he said, that now it’s time for the son of man to be crucified and Judas would betray him, meaning this body.

Matthew said, God prepared His son with lots of purification and sent him to earth. The entire world incarnates in the Spirit. These two qualities, these two identities – being man and being Divine are equal for everybody. Even in the Koran it’s said, one has to let go of the body and realise the bliss of the Spirit. All the suffering will be removed. Realise the Divinity within the Self. So, as long as man thinks of himself to be human, just normal flesh, this person will be just the body. But if this person realises that within this body there lies another body which is even stronger... What is this body?

You will realise this cosmic Christ within, which is our Self. Of course, this is not a very quick process. You really have to dedicate yourself to that. It’s not just by touching it a little bit and feeling it and saying, “OK, this is good. I will take it or not.” You have really to be in it... deep inside. You really have to fall in love completely. Completely trust, to really know the depth of this love, to really know the depth of this trust. One way is through meditation.

It is important though, that you do not just fix always on the master, but you also have to do your own part. Be disciplined wherever you practice it. For sure, you will achieve the same level as the master has. Do not just touch it a little bit, as I said before, and after that you say, “Oh, it is very nice.” You do it for one week and finish with it. You should do it even when you are not feeling well, even if you think, “Oh, I’m tired today. I have lot of work today!” If you think that because you have worked all day you will not do it, this will really break this chain.

Therefore, it is important that you practice it twice daily: morning and evening, and if possible in between. It is always good to do more of it. It is always good to forget about the body and be the Self, isn’t it? You will be calmer; you will be happier, more joyful. You will reflect the light of the Divine more, rather than just being tired, working, working, working, and being tired. Moreover, the next day you wake up with a long face, not being nice, not reflecting any light, and doing the same routine everyday.

Meditation energises all parts of you. The body especially needs it a lot. The mind, which is always worrying about something, has to be calm. The easiest way to calm the mind is to focus it on the Divine. Whenever your mind is thinking... sometimes it happens, even though you don’t want to think something! But the thought is there. Then, after you have thought about it, you say, “Oh, why have I thought like that?” You are still thinking more about it! Instead, do this: When the thought passes through your mind, let it pass. Do not question it afterwards. In place of questioning it, recite the name of God. You love the Divine Mother? Think of Her. Recite Her name inside you. You like Jesus? Krishna? Any Divine aspect.So meditate on it.

Atma Kriya deals with devotion; it deals with the Love that you are....

Develop Bhakti; develop devotion. The first step that you have to make is to develop devotion. Don’t try to take a big jump. When I meet people, often I see that they want a big thing all at once. It´s fine, God will happily give you everything that you want, but the point is whether you will be able to handle it or not. Often, although you can only hold so much in your hand, when you look at things, you want to hold too much. It’s difficult. When you train yourself, with patience and with Love, you will grow little by little and you will be able to handle what God gives you.Keep reminding yourself of the Love of God and that whatever you do, wherever you are, He is with you all the time. There is no moment that He is not with you. Often we say God is not with us, but we forget that we are not with God, we don’t think about God all the time. Then we say He is not with us. It is easy to put the blame on Him, but anyway, like Christ said “I will bear your weight.” He is happy to carry it also, but we should not always put it on His shoulders. At the beginning of the year 2007, through His grace, Mahavatar Babaji instructed me to give Atma Kriya Yoga. Atma Kriya is similar to Kriya Yoga, which is considered one of the easiest ways to reach realisation, but still there is a difference, because Atma Kriya deals with devotion;  it deals with the Love that you are. People who have practiced it will know what I am talking about. Atma Kriya is for everybody, it’s not necessary that you be in Bhakti Marga to do Atma Kriya. Whoever wants to do Atma Kriya is most welcome. It will be good for all of you and it will be good for the people around you, but you have to want it. Like in all the paths, you have to want it; you have to really say “God, I want this; I want you!”

Spirituality is humility, is respect and is Love. Above all, we all love. All religions, all paths and all Masters

say to love and that is spirituality. It is so simple.

Try to imagine a little bit with the mind, how close God is.....

Try to imagine a little bit with the mind, how close God is. It’s difficult, isn’t it? The mind will never let you imagine that, the mind will never let it. Only when you start thinking with the mind of the heart – then you can realise the Divinity completely.

So to think with the heart, how to do it? This is why meditation is important, when you can sit with yourself in silence. When Jesus said, “If you want to pray, run to the darkest corner of your house, close yourself and talk with your Father,” he meant, go in the inner chamber of your heart and talk with God. Talk with your true Self, and you will receive the answer. So in this inner chamber – what is there? Just love, nothing else. 

 

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.