Let your True self reveal itself to the mind.....

Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree and say “OK, fine, I have it.” No, it is inside of you. When you have cleansed the outside, actually, your True self reveals itself to the mind. When it reveals itself to the mind, this is when the dissolution happens – the dissolution of your identity, the dissolution of the mind itself. That’s why we talk of the merging of the mind and the heart and the spirit together. Then there is no you and me. There is only Him that dwells everywhere. He is the same Lord which dwells in everything around. The essence of the Lord is present everywhere. If one sees it, if one realises it, one’s life will change completely. For that you have to sincerely want it because that Love, it’s not just the kind of Love that says “I love you”. It’s a Love that consumes you. It’s a Love that burns your identity, that burns everything. 

This is the purpose of man, to search for the Divine.....

God is not outside, God is inside, inside of you. That’s what also Christ said “In the future there will be lots of prophets. If a saint would come and say "Come, I will show you the Kingdom of God; it’s this place or that place" don’t follow them, because the Kingdom of God is not here and there. It’s inside of you.” This is the first place where you have to find Him, you have to realise Him. You have not to just say “Oh, I believe in God.” For sure, all of you sitting here, all of you say “Yes, I believe in God.” I believe very much that all of you believe in God, but believe in God within you. Believe in God that the energy, which is given to you to act in this world, is only Him. This is the first step. 

Once you have this first step, He will manifest Himself through you. It’s not just the energy that you have now. This is just 5 % of the whole energy that you use. There is much more. We say that the divine manifests Himself, no? Of course, He has the power to manifest also on the outside as on the inside. Once you start thinking like that, He will reveal Himself inside of you. In that revelation of the Divine within you, there is the removal of the duality, that you are separated from everything. This is where the saints always say that they have this deep communion with God and when one has this communion with God, all the duality of the outside disappears, because only the oneness of God consciousness which pervades everything stays. You Realise that you, your Self, from the beginning you are fully realised. Then you realise also how stupid you are, because you have been travelling around and looking for something which is just here, always with you. 

Maha Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth...

... Wealth – when we talk about wealth, what do we think about? The bank, eh? It’s true, when we talk about Maha Lakshmi, we think about the bank and money, but is money everything? No, it’s not. We need it of course, without money we can’t do anything, but She also symbolises spiritual wealth. This wealth is what Christ talks about, saying “The wise ones put their money not in the bank in the world, because somebody can come and take it away, but in the bank, which is up or deep within.” She symbolises this spiritual wealth – that the more we surrender towards our path of knowing ourselves, the more we will be free. We’ll be full of spiritual knowledge. We’ll be full of the Grace of the Divine. Otherwise, we are never free. One day we want this, tomorrow we want that; then another day we want another thing. It’s endless. Can we ever be free from that? No, we never can. Maha Lakshmi helps to fulfill all your wishes, so that you can be ready to fulfill the wish of your soul also. We ask Maha Lakshmi to bestow Her Grace not only on all of us, but on everybody who needs Her help in whatever way. To bestow the wealth of health on people who are sick, to shine forth Her Light, so that our intellect becomes pure, and to help everybody who needs help.

We are not special, you know. When we think of ourselves being closer to the Divine than anyone else – this is wrong. 

Focus your attention on the divine....

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.” Look at Mirabai, one of the devotees of Krishna. Do you know her story? Some of you might know it, and some of you don’t. She was a queen, and her love for Krishna was so great, it was beyond everything. When she got married, she said to her husband, “My love for Krishna is beyond all your love, that you can understand. I see Him in you and in all of you who are around.” Whenever she used to sing Krishna’s name or sing a bhajan, he was present there. Such was her love that the Divine manifested Himself there.  Whenever you call from deep within your heart, whenever you call any aspect of the Divine, the Divine will take that aspect and come to you. Mirabai’s love was so great that at the end of her life they blamed her for so many things – but she was fixed and steady on her Krishna.

Spirituality starts when religion ends....

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. 

We will find Him when our heart is completely open...

In the Shivapurana, is said that Shakti always resides with Shiva. The upper part is Shiva and the lower part is Shakti, referring to the kundalini together with shesha, the snake. It is the perfect combination of the two aspects which are in each one of us, the male and the female. It’s also the day and the night. This reminds us that we are not just the body. We are the consciousness of God, whom we will find by surrendering completely to Him. We will find Him when our heart is completely open, without any doubt, without any “buts”. So many times, you say, “Okay God, I will make a deal with You! If you give me that, then I will do something.” Or you say, “I love God very much. I surrender to Him wholeheartedly. But, you know, there is a problem…”You don’t want to let go of the world. You don’t want to let go of the material things, because you are insecure about your Self. So, surrender everything and be assured that God is always with you! If He has put you here on earth, He will not let you go just like that! A beggar on the road will always have his food, because God will always provide him with what he needs. For sure he doesn’t need much. We are children of God. Jesus has taught us, “Don’t beg, but ask. Ask our Father. Ask, and you will receive.”But the point is: we do our prayers in quantity by burning lots of candles and lots of lights and saying to God, “Here, this is my prayer to You, God!” But what God really wants is the quality of your prayer. God wants our prayers to come from the heart without any doubt or negativity. Sure you will receive it – whether you think it’s good or bad, He will give it to you. You will receive whatever you want. If it is good you will enjoy it, if it is not good you will also enjoy it – in a not nice way – because you asked for it. So don’t complain about it! So I will ask you, surrender completely to the Lord.

The greatness of a master...

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. 

Why do people stay always in the cycle of birth and death, even if they know that this is misery and that they have to do everything to attain the Divine?...

Somebody asked me a question today “Why do people stay always in the cycle of birth and death, even if they know that this is misery and that they have to do everything to attain the Divine? Why life after life do we come, but we don’t realise the purpose?” Actually, the answer to that is that people don’t like to change. Even if they know they are doing something wrong, they know that they have to change certain things in life to be really happy, the old habits catch up. They get caught in the old habits. If one doesn’t take the determination to change now, doesn’t take this resolution, it’s very difficult. People would rather say “Later on we will change.” There are always excuses; from childhood they’re learning certain things. They grow up and they think they know everything. They go around thinking that they know best. Then it comes to a point where one realises “What am I doing here? I try everything to be happy, but I’m not happy.” Why is that?  It’s because whenever one says one wants to change, one has to let go of certain qualities. You can’t change and still carry the same qualities with you. It’s like if somebody smokes and says “I want to stop smoking.” I come across a lot of people like this, you know. They say “Swamiji, I’ve tried my best to stop smoking.” It’s very difficult. The old habits catch up again. You see, when you stop smoking, you have to replace it with something. You can’t leave the space.  This is where spirituality comes in. If you want to change life, you have to dedicate yourself. You have to develop faith, because if you don’t have faith, it’s difficult and faith is this yearning. You have to develop not only faith; you have to transcend faith to yearning. You have to yearn for God. As long as there is no yearning for the Divine, there is always emptiness. Into this emptiness, anything from the outside can fall it. That’s why you have to guard yourself always, otherwise the old one, the old you, will be back.

You all can merge back into this light....

You want liberation? Make it strong in your mind; make it strong deep inside your heart. Let it get fulfilled on the outside. You are this light and you all can merge back into this light. You have to want it, and this want has to be very, very strong. 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.

Lighting the inner Lamp....

A clay lamp is very symbolic, actually. With the symbol of a clay lamp we say “God, you are the Light, but we are the batti – the thread.” This is the connection that we have with the Divine. The clay lamp is our body and symbolises that this body is just dust and dust it shall be. One day we will leave this body. We see it in 
ourselves, in little ones. Everybody says when we are small “Oh, how beautiful you are, little, little child. How cute he is.” Then the child becomes sixteen, the Mother comes and says “Oh, my God, the child is like this and like this and like this.” The child grows up and then they say “Oh, my God, my child falls in love” and all those stories and it carries on like that. You see, our body doesn’t stay the same. It changes, it evolves until at the end we leave it. The clay lamp that is burning symbolises this body that is like this clay holder and inside is the burning lamp, is the light burning, is the Love burning inside of you. So rise, make your intellect be illuminated by the Grace of God, by the Grace of the Divine Mother, so that in this life, you can take the opportunity and realise your Self. Realise where you come from, realise who you are in reality, realise your work, your mission and realise where you are going, what your real duty in life is. Let this light shine through you. Become a messenger of this Love, become a messenger of the Divine – not just limiting yourselves, being what your mind perceives you to be. That’s also why we light this lamp. 

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda...

If you fully believe in yourself, if you fully have trust in yourself, you will fully believe and trust in God. Then of course, the Divine will always help you.

You know what God wants from you? ...

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. When you free your mind, you realise the Divine everywhere, in every aspect, in 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, but as 

long as you don’t come to that realisation, keep trying. Never lose hope. The moment you lose hope, you lose everything. The moment you say “No, I can’t do it, I can’t do this,” you will not be able to do it. Challenge your fear! Keep reminding yourself that you are a part of God. You are in His Divine hands and He will never let go of you. Never! He will be always near to you, even nearer than the breath, the air you are breathing in.You 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.  Only when you start thinking with the mind of the heart – then you can realise the divinity completely. 

The voice of God will not talk to you like in ancient times....

You just need to sit quietly and feel. Feel and listen, because when you feel of course, it’s not just feeling. When you are completely in silence, there is also the voice of God. The voice of God will not talk to you like in ancient times. He will talk to you from within you. Learn to trust this inner voice, and if you still have doubt about it, ask Him questions. Ask Him if it is really like this or like that. Then you test it yourself, so that you can learn to trust this inner voice. It’s not that you just hear it and accept it “OK, yes, it’s fine. It’s good like that.” No, you hear, ask certain questions and see if it is really happening this way, then give your full trust to it. This is one way of listening to your inner Self and to make it stronger and stronger.This example is given by the Virgin Mary Herself. When the angels appeared to Her and greeted Her with “Hail Mary, you are blessed among all the women. The Lord has favoured you that you will bear the Son of God inside of your womb” She didn’t say, “OK, cool, I like that.“ No, She said “How can this be possible? I have never been with a man.” So the angels were pleased with it, because this confirmed Her faith. She didn’t have doubt, but She questioned it. This is what the angels said “It will be done according to the Will of God. The Spirit shall come over you and overshadow you.”It’s important to learn to trust this inner voice, and to know for sure if it is real or if it is just a fantasy of one’s mind. You will do that by putting certain questions to that and yet you will be the observer of that conversation. 

There will be lots of things on the way....

When you take a spiritual path, you have a certain goal and a certain determination. Nothing should obstruct you on your way and you should not allow anything to take you away from your spiritual path. If you have set your mind towards your goal for God-Realisation, go for it. There will be lots of things on the way, but be strong. Never lose hope and know that the closer you are to your goal, the more tests there will be. But with each test, know that the Lord is next to you, know that He is there always supporting you. He is there always to guide you. The Divine Mother and He will always be with you. You know they are… I will tell you something, they are like your guardians. They are always standing next to you. If they see that you really want it, they will be here to give you their hands, you know? Hold tight! Hold so tight that when the first wind comes and starts blowing, you don’t let go of the hand. If you let go of the hand you will go back. Then you will have to go, again through the same thing. When you hold the Divine Mother’s hand, She holds very tightly, I tell you, She doesn’t give up easily, but we Her children, very often we give up easily. So hold tight and reach your goal! Set a goal in your life. Set a determination in your life. Whatever you determine, whatever you focus on, you will reach it. Whether it takes many years – four years or whether it takes ten years – you will reach it. 

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about desire for God....

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.

We say that the Divine manifests Himself....

Christ said “In the future there will be lots of prophets." If a saint would come and say "Come, I will show you the Kingdom of God; it’s this place or that place" don’t follow them, because the Kingdom of God is not here and there. It’s inside of you.” This is the first place where you have to find Him, you have to realise Him. You have not to just say “Oh, I believe in God.” For sure, all of you sitting here, all of you say “Yes, I believe in God.” I believe very much that all of you believe in God, but believe in God within you. Believe in God that the energy, which is given to you to act in this world, is only Him. This is the first step. Once you have this first step, He will manifest Himself through you. It’s not just the energy that you have now. This is just 5 % of the whole energy that you use. There is much more. We say that the divine manifests Himself, no? Of course, He has the power to manifest also on the outside as on the inside. Once you start thinking like that, He will reveal Himself inside of you. In that revelation of the Divine within you, there is the removal of the duality, that you are separated from everything. This is where the saints always say that they have this deep communion with God and when one has this communion with God, all the duality of the outside disappears, because only the oneness of God consciousness which pervades everything stays. You Realise that you, your Self, from the beginning you are fully realised. Then you realise also how stupid you are, because you have been traveling around and looking for something which is just here, always with you. So let’s look forward to the next year, but start now. Like it is said “The future is unborn. The past is gone. The present is reality.” It’s all now!

Deep inside in the inner cosmic mind....

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.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. There is no doubt – with the power of trust you have in the mind.

To really know the depth of this love, to really know the depth of this trust....

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.

Let everybody who is next to you feel this love so that they will also want it....

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.

Be completely detached from whatever you do....

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!” In the same way, do not waste your time in wanting things that you know have their limit. Desire the Ultimate, and you shall have it. Surrender your body, mind and soul. Focus on any Divine aspect firstly, and then you realise your Divinity. Remember that whoever you are, even if your advancement is slow or fast, God loves you. He loves you even more than you can think about love, more than the mind of man can think about. So always trust in this love, always hang on this love, and never let go of Him. He is always with you. Even if you do not feel Him, even if you do not see Him, He is there. 

He is patient to wait for you, but you are not patient to wait for Him....

There is a question  that many people have asked “Why don’t we see God?”. They always ask me this question, but now I reverse the question to you. You tell me what is the reason for people not to see God? Everybody knows that God is omnipresent; everybody knows that He is present in you, in me, in everything. We know it, but why don’t we see it? The human mind is so entangled with the sense objects and pride, that it makes it difficult to see God. Actually, we are continuously, always in Him and He is always in us. There is never a moment that He is not present. From day one, before you take birth, He was here inside of you already.How many times in your life have you said “God is not with me”? Faith is there. As God is there, faith is there. We don’t try our best; we don’t persevere. Perseverance is important if you try something, but if it’s not the same as what you expected, you stop. Then what happens? You will never succeed. You have to keep trying. It is there already. By seeing your effort, He will reveal Himself to you. There is another question which will arise “But Swamiji, we are so much into the world, shall we leave everything to realise God?” Even today I had this question. No, actually the answer is you don’t need to leave anything to realise the Divine. To realise the reality, first say to yourself that you live in the reality and this reality is inside of you. To perceive this reality in your daily life, in your daily actions, you will realise that the Divine is always with you. But if you don’t perceive the reality with you, you expect that God will appear in a light and say “Here, cuckoo, I am here”.  You can wait for some lives! I tell you something: He is patient to wait for you, but you are not patient to wait for Him. So live in the world, do everything, but do it in the mind-set of surrendering. No matter what action you do, surrender it to the Divine. Know that whatever action you do, whether it is, positive or negative, it is a prayer for and in front of Him. If in this attitude you surrender every action to the Divine, it will be pure always. In the  Soundarya Lahari, Sri Adi Shankaracharya wrote about it. He said “Oh, Divine, I give you everything. Let my every action of surrender to You, be a prayer to your Feet. When I am lying down, sleeping, let it be a prostration to your Feet! Be it that every food that I am eating is an offering to Thee.” Like that, all the actions that you are doing in daily life, if you do them with the remembrance of the Divine, they will be pure, because the Divine is not limited half as much as we think of Him. We are limited. We are limited, because our mind, our pride, our ego is so huge, that we live in this world and we get attached to the world. We make our whole life depend on this world. Like the great Sages said “Live in the world, but don’t let the world live in you. If you let the world live in you, then God becomes far away.” Like the lotus. Have you seen the lotus flower? Where does the lotus flower grow? In mud – it comes out from mud. All the mud doesn’t affect it. Such is the Divine inside of you also. Such is who you are in reality. You live in this world. Don’t let the negativity of this world affect you. Be positive firstly. If you are positive, automatically you will be humble. Humility – this is a nice word. Humbleness means acceptance – to accept yourself how you are and to know that what you are looking for on the outside doesn’t reside on the outside. It resides here inside of you. If He has humbled Himself inside of you, why can’t you be humble on the outside? Why can’t you be loving on the outside? Why? This has to change. Don’t expect that I will change you or God will change you. You have to change yourself. This is the self-effort from your side. We will help you, but make the first effort. Otherwise, it’s difficult. 

How many times do you really love God for the sake of loving Him and not asking anything? ...

I always talk about love, love, love, always, you know. It is true that the world doesn’t yet know about it. And yet, you are working for that, all of you who are spiritual, all of you who are searching for the truth. It is not outside, it is here inside of you, but you have to want to change. You have to really say “Yes, I want to change.” Like He said: Even if you want to change, the world will be against you. It’s perfectly true! Ask yourself in your life, in your own life itself, when you took the spiritual path, how many people became against you–firstly in your own family? So, it is normal. The more you advance towards the light, the others will be jealous, because inside everybody wants that. Everybody wants to be with the Father. Everybody wants to be close to the Divine, but, yet, they don’t want to make any effort. They don’t want to make any change to their life. They want to get everything happily and for free. So, if you want this really and sincerely, then be sincere towards yourself and ask the Father. Ask God and you will have it. It’s simple. If you are sincere towards yourself, you are more free and you will enjoy whenever you pray. Whenever you sit for meditation, ...."How many times do you really love God for the sake of loving Him and not asking anything?"

The Great Power of a Positive Mind....

One person can change a lot. You have seen it in the past what the negativity of one person could do, here in Germany itself. One person in India – take the example of Ghandi – just one person’s positivity can change a lot also. So imagine, if inside of yourself you can change so quickly and change also not only you, but you can influence the outside and change the outside, then imagine if you become positive, how much it will contribute to Mother Earth, how much it will contribute to Prakriti, to Mother Nature – a lot!  For that positivity – if you look at it both ways – I have given you two examples. I don’t want to mention the names, but in these two examples, one which is negative and one which is positive, what has made them really able to change the world? It’s amazing! Both of them are amazing. This is because of the full trust they had in what they wanted. In both ways, each one thought they were doing good, but the intensity of how much they believed in what they were doing, that is what brought the changes. This intensity is present in each one of us, but in place of making us more positive and more trusting in ourselves or making us stronger in our own will, what do we do? We make ourselves weak. Of course, when one becomes weak, one can’t expect what’s around them to be different. It’s like with one’s body – if the hand gets hurt, doesn’t it affect all the body? It does! You feel the pain everywhere. It becomes a handicap that you can’t use the hand because it hurts. Just the same way, when one becomes positive, one influences the wholeness. One influences firstly oneself – one influences the mind, the body, the spirit. From that, one influences one’s surroundings and the surroundings will also influence nature and nature will balance itself. It’s simple! Well, I can say it’s simple. That’s what many will say “Well, it’s easy for you to say it is simple!” Like I said, it takes everybody together. We want peace in this world, we want peace in ourselves, we want to be happy, we want to make the world happy, so then we have to change. Nobody can change us, only we can change ourselves. It’s not what I am saying that will change you. No, only when you say to yourself “I want to change” with intensity, with full belief in yourself, then you will change. When you change, it will affect your surroundings. It will affect you; it will change you. A few days ago I was talking with somebody who a few months ago found out that she had cancer. Of course, normally when people hear that, how do they become? Depressed and sad; it’s like the world is finished for them. Well, that person was very positive from the beginning. This positivity has changed her. She is getting better and better. That’s wonderful! You see, your positivity can influence everything. You influence yourself, for example, tomorrow morning, when you wake up, if your first thought is, “Oh, my goodness, another day, I don’t know how it will be” – do you think the day will be positive? It will not! If you wake up and feel happy, you will see how happy the day will be. Then of course everything around you will rotate into happiness, and at the end of the day, what you will say is “Today was a lovely day! Today was a beautiful day!” But this day, what made it beautiful? It is you who made it beautiful, because from the beginning you believed that it would be a beautiful day and that thought made everything beautiful. It’s not about the outside, it’s about you, nobody else. If you change, the world will change. If you change, peace will be here. You will be happy. Even one person being really happy will make a big difference.

Talk less....

..... – because people who keep talking and talking – they are just running away. They are just scared of seeing the truth, that’s why they talk and talk. They talk without knowing what they are talking about.If you want to start the communication with the Divine within yourself, be as much silent as possible. But if you want to start the communication with man, then keep talking! You know how beautiful it is to listen to the Divine inside you? It’s the most beautiful thing; I can’t even express it with words, because words are still limited. Like I said yesterday, “From the form to the formless, from the name to the nameless.” This is the Divine in each one of you. And to be always in this place, to be always in this awareness and find that you are not separate from the Divine…it’s so beautiful, it’s so filling!

He gives Himself fully to His disciple.....

Whatever passes through the teacher, which is grafted to the teacher, will receive everything. That is why I said yesterday you become the pot of Amrit, also. You don’t just stay as you are, but you attain the fulfilment of the goal of life. This is how the Grace of the Divine manifests itself into the Guru. As we say “Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha”. The Vedas proclaim the Guru as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Even in the Gita, Krishna said “Whoever will need Me, I shall come, and I shall be manifested as the Guru”. So the greatness of a Master, the greatness of knowing one’s Master and receiving the Shiksha, receiving the blessing and grace from the master is rare. And, once one has it, one carries it with him. One carries this blessing always. It is not that one day you say “Ok, today I am with this Master and tomorrow I am with that Master”. There are many people who do ‘Guru hopping’, you know. Well, it’s normal, because one is on a search, you know. Until one feels this Love, this attraction, this pull, one will always search, no? And once you have felt it, you have to grow into it and then you know “Yes, I am at home. I belong there”. You don’t say “I go to this Guru” no, you say; “No, I am going home, I am going where I belong, where I long to be”. You go there where you feel the Love of God inside of yourself, and where you will achieve the purpose of your incarnation. So this is, in short, how the Guru works. Through this manifestation, through this incarnation, He gives through these three forms - through thought, through sight and through touch. He gives Himself fully to his disciple. He gives Himself fully to the devotee. What the devotee has to do is to be like an empty receptable and receive everything.

So introvert yourself as much as possible and be in silence....

If I ask everybody now “What do you want?” some will say “I want Love”, some will say “I want God” or “I want God-Realisation.” Well, it’s beautiful, but do you really want that? If you really, sincerely want it, then be strong and have faith. Trust! Trust what the Divine is giving to you; trust what you feel inside of you. Like it is said, one has to have faith like a child, no? When you look at children, they are free. They don’t think too much. But what happens afterwards? Where is the child gone? The mind has taken over. You think you know more, so you need to reason. Sometimes you don’t need to reason. You just need to sit quietly and feel. Feel and listen, because when you feel of course, it’s not just feeling. When you are completely in silence, there is also the voice of God. The voice of God will not talk to you like in ancient times. He will talk to you from within you. Learn to trust this inner voice, and if you still have doubt about it, ask Him questions. Ask Him if it is really like this or like that. Then you test it yourself, so that you can learn to trust this inner voice. It’s not that you just hear it and accept it “OK, yes, it’s fine. It’s good like that.” No, you hear, ask certain questions and see if it is really happening this way, then give your full trust to it. This is one way of listening to your inner Self and to make it stronger and stronger.This example is given by the Virgin Mary Herself. When the angels appeared to Her and greeted Her with “Hail Mary, you are blessed among all the women. The Lord has favoured you that you will bear the Son of God inside of your womb” She didn’t say, “OK, cool, I like that.“ No, She said “How can this be possible? I have never been with a man.” So the angels were pleased with it, because this confirmed Her faith. She didn’t have doubt, but She questioned it. This is what the angels said “It will be done according to the Will of God. The Spirit shall come over you and overshadow you.”It’s important to learn to trust this inner voice, and to know for sure if it is real or if it is just a fantasy of one’s mind. You will do that by putting certain questions to that and yet you will be the observer of that conversation. The atma, the soul, will be the observer of that conversation. I will tell you something; this is the most beautiful thing you can do – to observe how the mind is talking to the Higher Self and what you are hearing inside of you.Like I said to you before, this will happen only when you are in silence. So introvert yourself as much as possible and be in silence, because when somebody talks, talks and talks, like I am doing right now, what happens? Of course it is joyful to talk, but afterwards you are tired. Of course, you will say “When I sit down quietly, I also will get tired,” but when the mind is calm, you will not be tired. This is where meditation comes in. Meditation is not only to sit in one place and close one’s eyes and meditate, like we know it in the traditional way, but meditation is also every time when you can look inside your heart and see the Divine.

When you give yourself completely to God, God will also give Himself completely to you....

If you want permanent happiness, it is possible only when you surrender completely to God. When your body, mind and soul have become one and are offered to the altar of the Lord, He will happily give everything to you. He will give Himself to you. The king surrendered to the priest, who had understood that real teaching is within us, not in books. When you give yourself completely to God, God will also give Himself completely to you. But if you give Him only half, don’t expect Him to give Himself one hundred percent to you. So, call upon the Lord from your heart. When your heart calls Him fully, when your mind is completely centred on Him, you will see that He will also completely surrender to you. Then you will be in
this bliss, in this Love, continuously. You will be continuously in love with God. You will be continuously in love with everybody and everything around you. This Love, you can’t understand it with your mind. It surpasses all the love that this world can say about love. You can attain this Divine Love, this Divine Ecstasy only when you surrender. Real happiness lies deep inside your heart. So surrender your mind, which is so proud and so egoistic, and don’t let it flatter you, so you are thinking that you know a lot of things, when actually you don’t know anything. As long as you haven’t come to a point of God- Realisation, you can’t call yourself Realised or think that you know. But keep trying and never lose hope. Know that He is always with
you.

Just be love! Nothing else, just love.....

We’ll talk about prayer, about love. Unity is God. We always come to the same point, where we talk about God. 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.
You grow more and more each day. And 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?

What will lead to the Higher Love??.....

As it is mentioned in the Gita: Only when one develops Love, as Radha has for Her Beloved, will one attain the Beloved. Which means, like I have said: Only when one develops the Ultimate Love for God, will one reach the Divine. And how is one to develop this Love? In general, we know very well, that love is from the heart and we know it is there. You all know about it, no? Yes! We know that inside our hearts are full of Love, but yet, often we find it difficult to express it; we find it difficult to let it out. It’s because, in our mind, we are so limited by our barriers. We are so limited by our limitations. But if we know that Love is seated in our heart, why don´t we keep calling it? Let it out! It´s like this, let´s say, you go to my place and you know I am inside the house and you need me badly. What would you do? You would knock on the door; you would keep knocking. If there were a bell, you would keep ringing the bell. You would go around the house and try to find a way to get my attention. Am I right? You would do that. If this urge is really there, you will do anything for it. It’s the same thing with this Love that is present inside of you. But very often people say, “Ok, I want to feel it, but if I don´t feel it in a month’s time, I’m finished!” But it´s not like that. Love, whether it is for God or for somebody, love is love. We start by loving what is nearer to us, you know: what we can see, what we can hold, what will lead to the Higher Love. That´s why when two persons are in love, at the beginning, of course, there is this great love. But the love can grow more and more, if one let’s it grow. It is the same thing with the love for God that you have inside of you, if you let it out. Like I have said many times, you have to keep trying. It is seated inside, the Divine is seated inside of your heart. The real temple is not out there. It’s here where the real Lord is seated. The real church, the real mosque, is here and all of you know about it, whether you have felt Him or not. In the mind you know that God is seated in the heart and the mind, the power of the mind is so strong. You know it. When you worry a little, you can make the worry feel huge. It’s the same thing with love. If you know even in a small way that the Lord is seated in your heart, you can make yourself know in a big way. As you know very well, the power of Love is the only thing that
conquers everything. If you want to conquer God, conquer Him with Love. If you want to achieve Him, you will achieve Him only with Love. But the Love has to be pure and pure. It’s not saying, “Ok, I have been to the centre here, I have been to the ashram, I know. I have been to Shivaratri, so my Love is pure.” No, you have to make that Love pure inside of you. You have to train your mind to become positive. When your mind is positive and you know that the Lord is seated inside and you keep calling Him, there is no chance that He will not reveal Himself inside of you. Everybody, in the end, will reach the Divine, because the essence of your Self is only Him. And only through this Love, when this Love really gets awakened and becomes like Radharani´s Love, then there is no chance of not attaining Him. So, let Love rejoice inside of you, like I said, not only today, but always. And may you, by the grace of Radharani, become like Her. Like many other Saints, not only Radharani, but also among all the Deities who love the Lord, you will see that there is an expression of this Divine Love. If they could do it, we all can do it, also. If saints have achieved the Oneness with the Divine, be strong and say ‘yes’: you can and keep nagging the Lord inside of your heart until He opens the door and says, “Here I am, what do you want?” And be ready when He asks you what you want, to know, really, what you will ask Him.

Go into the fullness....

...the secret in the Name of the Divine, in the Name of God, is God Himself...if I chant the Name of Mahavatar Babaji, if I chant the Names of Krishna & Jesus, if I chant the Name of Allah, for sure They will come, because the Name of the Divine is the fullness of the Divine Himself.
So, in that way you will go into the fullness. The more you chant, the more you will go into the fullness of the sound within your Self and the more you will know the secret. You will enjoy the beauty that you have inside of you, because after some time of chanting in the outside, the chanting becomes silence within you. Even while you are sleeping, inside of you the chanting always goes on.

Devotion is to give yourself in fullness to Love.....

What is there, apart from God? There is nothing, no? So, what we want is we want Him. But yet we don´t want to surrender. We don´t surrender ourselves completely to Him. That´s why there is always incompleteness inside. But to surrender means to say to God, “Lord, I give myself, my body, mind and soul completely to You”. Isn´t that what spirituality is about? That doesn’t mean that you have to leave your family and renounce everything, but live in a detached way. Try to put God always first in your life. Like that, He can work through you. We all want to be somebody, we all want to Realise our Selves, we all want to know who we are in Reality, but with this mind, we will never be able to. We have to calm the mind. We need certain knowledge, yes, to achieve the Divine, to attain Him, but we need devotion, we need bhakti. When bhakti arises inside, we give ourselves completely. Bhakti – devotion is to give yourself in fullness to Love. Like I said in Algarve a few days ago, when you are in love, you always want to be with your beloved, no matter what. You will leave father, mother, everybody, you know. You will fight for your beloved, isn´t that so ? Yes or No? So you know it very well. The real Beloved is God, because He is the only one who is always fresh. His love always renews itself. Whereas all the other loves, they start very fresh, like a beautiful flower, and they, also, fade, the same as the other flowers. You know that. How many times in your life have you fallen in love? You have really fallen in love? And then to rise, it is a very difficult achievement to be made. About surrendering, there is a beautiful story about the flute of Krishna. You know Krishna always holds a flute in his hand, but there is a great story behind it. Everyday Krishna would go in the garden and say to all the plants, “I love you”. The plants were very happy and responded back and said “Krishna, we love You, too”. One day Krishna rushed quickly into the garden very alarmed. He went to the bamboo plant and the bamboo plant asked, “Krishna, what´s wrong with you?” Krishna said “I have something to ask you, but it is very difficult”. The bamboo said “Tell me: if I can, I will give it to you”. So Krishna said “I need your life. I need to cut you”. The bamboo thought for a while and then said “You don´t have any other choice. You don’t have any other way?” Krishna said, “No, no other way”. And it said “OK, I surrender to you”. So Krishna cut the bamboo, made holes in it, and each time, while he was doing that, the bamboo was crying with pain, because he was paining the bamboo so much. Krishna made a beautiful flute out of it. And this flute was with Krishna all the time. 24 hours a day, it was with Krishna. Even the Gopis were jealous of the flute. They said, “Look, Krishna is our Lord, but yet we get to spend only some time with him. He wakes up with you, He sleeps with you, all the time you are with him”. So one day they asked the bamboo, “Tell us the secret of it. What secret do you have, that the Lord treasures you so much?” And the bamboo said “The secret is that I´m empty inside. And the Lord does whatever he wants with me, whenever he wants with me and however he wants with me”. So this is complete surrender: where God can do whatever He wants with you, whenever He wants, as He wants. And for that you don’t need to be scared, you know, you have just to give yourself. And who is yourself in reality? It’s just Him! In the Gita, Krishna said: Everything is me. In the Bible, Christ said: Give what belongs to Caesar, to Caesar. And what belongs to God, to God. But what belongs to God? It is your spirit. It is your true Self. If you want to Realise your Self, be like the flute! Make your prayer like this, “Lord, do whatever you want with me, whenever you want with me, and however you want with me”. And in your mind don´t ask any questions. This is a poison, because the mind always doubts. The mind always thinks it knows best. And when you surrender this mind to the Divine, bhakti will arise, devotion will arise. And when devotion arises, the purity of Love will also arise together with it. It´s not a love where we just say “I love you, I love you”. It´s a Love where when we say “I love you”, there is no condition in it. It is not “I love you because of something. I love you because of your body. I love you because of your wealth. I love you because you are beautiful outside and if I pull the skin from your body, I don´t love you anymore”. But it’s because when you say “I love you” you love Him the way He is. And that´s the purity of Love, the Unconditional Love, the way God loves, the way your heart knows how to love. That´s why you do feel Love, but the moment you start to put conditions to that Love, it fades. But when you stick to this purity of Love, and make this Love grow, it will grow. Because Love is like a seed, which is inside the heart of man: the seed has to grow, has to blossom, also. It has to germinate and grow big; the seed can´t just stay like that. That´s what Christ said, also. There are so many similarities between Hinduism and Christianity. Christ said: If you plant a seed on a stone, it will never grow. But if you plant it in the heart of man it shall grow.” And this is the Love in the heart of man, when real Love is felt, when real Love starts to grow. It grows in six different stages, which are called: Sneha Prem, Pranaya Prem, Mana Prem, Raga Prem, Anuraga Prem, and Maha Bhav. These stages of Love - of course, I will now not go to detail about it - grow when this purity is there, which leads you to complete surrender to the Divine. But first, what is in regard to normal life, is to calm the mind and let Love itself start to grow inside of the heart. Only through this Love will you know who you are. And this is not up to me to tell you, it’s up to you to make the first step. The easiest way to calm the mind is to sing the Name of God, because you can sing the name of God anytime, wherever you are.

When one knows one´s path, one goes directly. Take this path and just go and Realise your Self!....

When you are centred, when you concentrate, when you pray, when you chant the Name of God, that moment is between you and God. Christ said: If you want to pray, don’t make it as a show. Run to the darkest corner where you and your Father, you and God are alone, where you converse with the Divine. And this corner where you can be quiet is your heart. The mind is never quiet. The mind is always thinking and you will make it quiet by chanting. When through chanting you train the mind to go inside your heart, in that deep quietness, you will Realise that God is sitting there and not because you know it in the mind, not because you have read about it, but because you have Realised it, because you feel it. We are all on the search. Of course, people will go left and right, looking for the truth. As long as one hasn´t found the spiritual path, one is never satisfied. It’s like a train which is going, but without knowing the destination. Like this train, people go left and right, but when one knows the destination, one goes directly to this destination. When one knows one´s path, one goes directly. Take this path and just go and Realise your Self! There was once a saint in India who lived as a hermit in a small hut made with grass. Once a couple came to him and said “Guruji, we love you so much that we would like to make you a nicer and stronger hut. Please come with us.” The saint answered “No, no, no, I’m happy where I am. I don’t want to come.” But after some time, he called the couple again and said “Yes, I will come with you, but can you do me one favour?” The couple were very happy and said “If you are asking, we will do anything for you.” The saint said to the couple “Let me come and live in your toilet.” The couple were wondering “We want to build a nice hut for you, so why do you want to come and live in our toilet?” The saint said “I would rather stay in your toilet than among devotees or people who are only looking for fame and glory. These people come to me and they are only looking for how to end their misery, but they are not really looking for God. If I stay in the toilet, I would rather bear the smell of the toilet than the insincerity of those people and, also, the smell of the toilet will keep them away!” This made the couple realise how people are. People are searching, yes, but they are not sincere towards themselves. Only when you are sincere towards yourself, you will find your path. When you accept yourself, when you accept the Will of God and whatever He gives you as right, you surrender to His Will, you surrender to His Love and then you say “Yes, God, I believe in You and I trust in whatever You are doing for me. I trust in Your Love and I don’t doubt You.” But when we doubt Him and question Him, we are not truthful. Then we say “God, You have made a mistake.” But how could God make a mistake when He is so perfect? How could Love, which is the purity of your True Self, make a mistake? It can’t. It can be a mistake only when there is doubt, when there is fear. But when all these things are cleared-up, when all of these things are put away by the Holy Names of God - which are thousands of Names - then you will see His glory, you will feel His Love. While singing, some people were dancing. When you are dancing for God, you are doing, also, a kind of dancing yoga. You are forgetting about your body, you are forgetting about your mind, you are just singing the glory of God, singing the Name of God. In this way, you are decreasing the power of the mind. You will notice that after moving, when you sit down and relax, your concentration is much better than if you just sit down. When you just sit, your mind is jumping left and right. When you dance in the right way, you are energising yourself; you are calling upon this inner Self to reveal Itself. And when you lift your hand up, you are calling to the Lord, to God “I’m in this illusion. I’m drowning in this illusion. Here, I’m lifting my hand up to You. Pull me out of this illusion. I’m surrendering.” You will notice that in all the Holy Scriptures, there is this phrase, which says: Lord, I’m lifting my hand up to You. Come to rescue me. You will find it in the Psalms, you will find it in the Koran and you will find it, also, in the Gita. So singing the glory of God transcends all religions, transcends all cultures, transcends all races, transcends all what the mind can create and you will find God inside of you.

What will give you real joy is hanging onto the Eternal Lord....

Last time somebody asked me a question "Does whatever we do in this life, whether it is in our sadhana or in our daily life depend on this life or our previous lifetime?" Well it depends on both, actually. The majority of whatever you do in this life depends on what you have done in your past life. Sometimes you have a great plan, but when you have such a plan it doesn’t turn out the way you planned it. How many of you have a plan in life? Has it turned out the same way as you have planned? No, it doesn’t turn out the same way, because in this life your mind functions in a certain way to create what you perceive you need to be happy, but still, there is karma from the past that you have to burn. So, that’s why, very often, when you have a plan, it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted because of these past karmas. When you look at this world, what is permanent in this world? Nothing! With time, everything changes. With time, everything gets destroyed, but, yet, one hangs onto these perishable things, forgetting the eternal. So, as long as one hangs onto perishable things, there will be suffering, because what will give you real joy is hanging onto the Eternal Lord. Only when you are wholly directed towards Him, He will turn wholly towards you. And you can do that through your sadhana. You do japam, chant the name of the Lord, you do your spiritual practices, and you do service. Through service, you realise that you are serving not out of ego, not out of pride, but you’re serving through your heart. Of course, when you start to serve, you know, there’s always the pride in it. You are proud of how much you are doing. You say "Look how much I am doing." I, the big I is always there, and you are forgetting that it’s only Him who is doing through you. The more you serve the more it comes to a point where it is transcended. Then you start to realise that whatever way you are serving, you are serving only Him, and it’s only Him who is serving. So then you have peace, because if you look for peace in this world, if you look for joy, you will not find it. Everybody is looking for peace. Who doesn’t want to be peaceful? Is there among you somebody who doesn’t want to be peaceful? So, all of you, you are just looking for one thing: to be peaceful. But looking at the world itself: in Sanskrit we call it Jagad. If you translate Jagad, it means ceaseless motion. It’s always on the move, you know. The world, however we look at it, is always on the move. When we take time and calmly we look at ourselves; when we look at human beings, they are constantly on the move. Even sitting here, they are far away, somewhere else, you know. They are sitting here, they are listening, but the mind is somewhere else, doing something else. So, how can there be peace, when one is not in peace within oneself, when one can’t take five minutes to sit down here and bring the body, mind and spirit here, in the same spot? And yet, human beings are looking for peace. So, to have this peace, one has to learn to calm oneself. It’s like everything else. You see, if you want your child to study, what do you do? You make the child sit and then you make the child study, no? First you have to make the child sit down, then study. In the same way, without an effort from you, without disciplining yourself and sitting down and practising your sadhana, it’s to find real peace. With everything else, today you have something,but you don’t know tomorrow if you will have it or not. It’s the same thing with real peace, you know: if you have attained real peace, once you have it, you will have it always. It’s the same Thing with Love, real Love I’m talking about, pure Love. Once you have realised it, you will always have it with you. You see, in this world, people like to hang onto their Problems and onto their worries. You see, whenever a problem arises, the solution is also there, but mankind is so easily focusing on the problem rather than on the solution. Do you like problems? No. So then, why do you let yourself be drawn towards your worry? Because it doesn’t give you peace, eh? So, the more you hang onto the problems, the more problems you will have; the more you hang onto the worry, the more you will not see the solution. But if you take a little bit of time, sit in your prayer room, and sincerely surrender to the Divine, the problem will get solved. Whenever there is a problem, what do you do? You run to the temple, no? Then you pray "Oh God, I have this problem," or "I have that problem," because you know deep inside of you that He’s the only one that can solve your problem, nobody else. You can tell your problem to a hundred people and what will they do? They will say "Oh, poor you, you have a problem." Very often they say "Poor you" outside, but inside they are saying "Good for you." So, who is your best friend? Who is the real one looking after you? Who is the one really listening to you? It’s only Him. It’s only the Lord Himself. You see that, as long as there is happiness in life, people give very little importance to their spiritual practice. They say "When I become very old, then I will have time to do that." But that’s why often there are problems on the path, why there are problems in life, so that continuously we can remember God. It’s like the Pandava’s mother said. After the Mahabharat war finished, Krishna went to His aunty to take her blessing and He asked His aunty "What can I do for you?" She said "One thing You can do is You can give me enough problems that I will never forget You." This was how much Love she had for the Lord that she asked the Lord "Give me many problems that I can always remember you." This is how it is, also, in this life. Things happen in life so that we can always remember God. But we don’t like to continuously remember God, you know; we like to continuously remember the problem. We like to focus our mind, all our attention, all our energy, on the problem, thinking that we will get the solution. But you will not, because you have a certain limitation. You are limited with your mind. Your mind is limited to only matter. So, like that, if we concentrate on God, no matter what comes in our lives, we will accept it, we will take it in a positive way. We will not let the mind become negative, because when the mind becomes negative, we start to think negatively, and out of this negativity whatever you do in life will be negative. But if your mind is positive, then, whatever you do in life, the fruit of your labour will be positive. And it will get better and better all the time, but this is when your mind is focused on the Divine. So, like you are laughing and being happy hearing a joke, you have to be happy by chanting, by doing your prayer to the Lord, because He’s always with you. Your parents, your mum and dad, will be with you for some time, but He will always be with you. He was with you from the beginning and He will always be with you until the end, until you realise your Self and until you attain Him. He’s your best friend, He’s the only one that you can really trust, and He’s the only one that gives you solutions for everything. This is not true about human beings, because whoever gives you a solution, any human being that gives you a solution, any friends of yours who give you a solution, they will always have an expectation behind it: they will give this, but you have to do that for them. Do you know about that, no? Yes, because each human does this, you know. It’s a human reaction. So, don’t forget that within this human self you are also divine, you have part of God inside of you. I said part, remember this word, ‘part’. You are not fully God, because you hang so much onto your humanness that the Divine part gets covered. That’s why the karma of the past can affect you. But when you realise your Self, realise that the Lord is within you and you have come to a certain realisation; that your Atma is part of the Paramatma, you will transcend this human quality. It’s the same thing when you do japam. Why is it that you do japam? You do japam to realise the Divine. You do japam so that your mind continuously thinks of and chants the Name of God. So the more you chant the Divine Names, the more His qualities will reflect on you. The qualities of goodness, love, compassion, joy, all these qualities will start reflecting on you, but this will be when you chant sincerely.