Merry Christmas to all.....

Firstly I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, a happy, joyful Christmas. This is the time when everybody is very happy. Wherever you go, there is a lot of happiness and joy vibrating in the air. But this joy should not be limited to this period of time, is it? People start very happily. They have big feasts happening and are joyful until New Year. Then, after some time, it fades again, until next year.

Jesus is not only born once a year. One really has to revive the birth of Christ within oneself. The reason why He incarnated is to remind us that we are not just a human being, not just what we see on outside. We are also children of God. We are also part of the Creator.

Of course, the creation – the Creator Himself is without any ego – is a formless God. That is what we are actually. Many times I have said that, if one thinks of oneself as being a mere human being, one will just be a normal human being. If one reminds the Self about its identity with the Spirit, one will reach the level of being the Spirit.

We celebrate that Jesus is born. We are all happy. Try to keep this happiness all the time. This is how you remind yourself of your Divinity, by taking the example of Jesus, Krishna, of all the Holy Ones and putting them into your life. You will live this life; you will realise that their life and your life are so similar. One aspect that Jesus really taught when He was… He still is with us… is love!

Every day say to yourself, “I am the Spirit, I’m the Christ”, and let it reflect outside.

A little Meditation:

Close your eyes and imagine – use your imagination, like a movie, like a film – see Mother Mary and Joseph. Mother Mary is pregnant, and they are walking to look for a place for her to have her baby. Everywhere they go they get refused. It is cold – but very bright.

Then they reach one place. They knock at the door. The man says, “Yes!” He offers them the stable. So they happily accept it and go to the stable. There they are sitting and waiting. At around midnight, Mary feels much pain and she delivers a beautiful baby boy.

When the child is born, there is great happiness in the air. The cold wind changes into a very warm atmosphere. There is much joy, and the animals around are happily enjoying the Lord in His human form. How great are these animals!

So with your inner eye, see the Lord inside you. See Baby Jesus inside your heart. How playful he is! Enjoy his presence deep inside your heart. Play with him! He is God – He’s inside you! He’s without limit – and he wants you to become the same. Play with him as you would play with your child. Play with him as you play with your brothers, as any child you have been playing with. Look at him and enjoy him.

Open your eyes. It was very relaxing – wasn’t it? How was it? Did you play with Baby Jesus inside you? What, nothing? He didn’t come? He didn’t show himself? Was he very shy? (Someone says Yes ) Ah…, He was running? That’s nice. And? Did he pull your hair? (Laughing) That’s nice, what else? That’s it? And what else? Sleeping? (Laughing)

Really, you should think about that. You had time to play with him. You see how beautiful it is when you can play with your imagination. In place of thinking negativity, better to think something creative and grow in it! Little by little, you have this quality. You don’t even need to make any effort. It will be natural. It will just come with practice of course, like with painting also.

With that we’ll sing some songs. Sing and express yourself! You are happy that Jesus is born! You’re playing with him, you’re flying with him, you cuddle him, so you are not sad, are you? You’re happy? So express the happiness – and sing!....Let Christ work through you!

Love everybody.......

There are many ways of attaining Divine love. There are many ways of attaining this unity, this realisation of who we really are. Each person has their own way, but all paths are the same. At the end you will experience the same love, the same happiness. For sure, some ways are longer and some are shorter. Some people like taking a short way, and some people like taking a long way. Do you like the long way or the short way? Of course the shorter way is better (laughs)… The quickest way is just to love.

This word ‘love’ hides a lot of mystery, hides a lot of secrets given to mankind. This expression of Divine love, pure consciousness, is who you really are. So many times we forget about it. We try to be separate from it. We have to continuously remind ourselves that we are this love. No matter what comes on the way, remember that we are this love. We are here to give and to share this love… to realise it. So how do we realise this love? We meet someone and say to the person, “I love you”. Don’t we? How many times in your life have you said to somebody else, “I love you”? Many times. But have you ever said it to your own self? “I love myself!” When it comes to loving one’s own self, people say, “It is difficult.” It’s difficult because you see all the negative qualities of your outer self, forgetting that this true Self, who you really are, is just pure love. So to give love, first you should realise love with your own self. Start loving yourself. Not in an egoistic way – some people think loving oneself is very egoistic, but to love the Self is not to love the body. Loving oneself is transcending the physical aspect. Through love you will develop trust and patience. If you have these three: love, trust and patience, you have everything else.

This reminds me of a story. Krishna used to stay in Brindavan. He stayed there until the age of sixteen, and then he went away. So when he left, everybody in Brindavan was sad and always thinking of Krishna. They thought that Krishna had forgotten about them. So, one day, Krishna sent one of his devotees, Uddhava, to tell them that he does care for them. When he arrived there, he met the gopis and before he could start talking, the gopis started blaming Krishna, saying, “Oh, he forgot about us. He has left us. He has given us so much love and then he just withdrew everything and went away.” Uddhava was laughing and said, “No, Krishna has never forgotten about you. He thinks about all of you everyday. There is not one second that he doesn’t talk about all of you. The point is: He had other work to do, and that is why he went.”

But they could not accept it. So they keep on saying bad words about Krishna, but in a more loving way. There was so much love in it that it didn’t matter. Then Uddhava gave the gopis a message that Krishna had given to them. Krishna said, “All that is and all that you feel is just a game. I create, I protect and I destroy everything by my own will. And it all goes back to me. Maya, illusion, has created a veil of separation. With this veil, you can’t see that you are all a part of me.”

That is actually why you are all here… to remove this veil. There are many lifetimes that you keep on with the same game. And you repeat and repeat the same thing, forgetting that the Lord is here deep inside our heart. We are looking for Him on the outside. We are looking for Him in this world, but we can just drop deep inside ourselves and find Him. Let go of the mind which is always busy looking on the outside. If we just drop ourselves deep in our heart, we can feel this peace and happiness and enjoy it. You will see how great it is, how great it is to love. Not just to say to somebody, “I love you”. But really to feel it from deep within you – this is the true love of loving somebody. It is not only for one person but for everybody. Love unconditionally!

‘Spirituality starts when religion ends’.......

You know there is a saying, ‘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.

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

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

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

If you have divine eyes to look at the world with, you will see that it is just the radiated light of God shining through everything. 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 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, the mind will never let it. Only when you start thinking with the mind of the heart – then you can realise the Divinity completely.

It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? When your heart is pure......

Jesus said, “There is no other way than me. I am truth, I am light, I am the way.” Do you think he meant himself as the body? No, he didn’t mean himself as the body. He meant himself as Christ who is living in each one of you. This Christ has to become alive by putting what Jesus gave to humanity into practice and by understanding it: “Blessed are all those pure in heart, for they shall see God!”

It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? When your heart is pure. When your heart is purified from all the negativity that we, ourselves, have created, we will shine the light of God! So meditate and sing the name of God, sing “I am love!” Always! If your mind or your heart is troubled, sing it loudly with your tongue. That will calm the mind. Recite it firstly with your mouth, then with the mind until it reaches the heart and it is recited continuously by itself.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda...

"What I want for you is to achieve the finest and purest form of love, which is deep within your heart.You will realise that love can grow and love can become Divine. The same way God loves is the same way humans can learn to love.”

Our mind is like the mirror.....

God created maya to blind his creation; for humans not to take it for granted and to make man to strive for enlightenment! But He Himself is doing it. It is His own play. You just need to be the spectator, nothing else. The moment you have learned how to be the spectator and just see the creation in front of you, you will see the same way God does, and how He thinks about us. Our mind is like the mirror.

The heart is like a mirror covered with grease. As long as there is grease over it, do you think you will see clearly? You will never see your reflection clearly. You will know there is a reflection, yes, but it will be very foggy. So, as long as you don’t clean it, it’s difficult to see the light, isn’t it? Since the thing closest to us is the body, first your body has to be clean. When your body is clean, the mind is clean; when the mind is clean, the heart is clean. And when the heart is clean, the Divine light will shine through you and everybody will see it so clearly.

So start every day by saying, “I’m God’s child and I have to be like the child of God!” Do this for yourself, for your own growth. You know what is good for you, so try your best to change. Take this strongly inside you; put it in your mind. Throughout the day keep remembering that you are love, you are trust, you are peace, you are unity, you are joy! There’s no greater mantra. Just sing, “I am love!” By singing, “I am love!” you will always remember that you are a part of God.

Each particle reflects the light of God – this is the Truth...

Often when people use the intellect, the mind, to find the truth they become dogmatic. They close themselves in the tunnel where they don’t see anything else. They don’t see the beauty; they just see what the mind perceives to see. Whereas with the truth in your heart, when it opens up, one sees beyond what the physical eyes can see. There are so many beautiful flowers; it is so beautiful for the physical eyes, isn’t it? But it is much more beautiful to see with the inner eyes. The light that shines through all these flowers, all around you – this is the Truth.

Each particle reflects the light of God – this is the Truth. And this Truth is accessible for everybody. There is not any dogmatic thinking in it. It is free. The only thing is that you need to take a little bit of time to be able to see it. That is up to you. Nobody else can do it for you. You have the grace of the master; you have the grace of God. It is up to you if you want to let go of the power of your mind and gradually achieve the heart. You don’t need to do much; you don’t need to force yourself.

There are many people that say that they have to sit down to meditate. By saying this they already put pressure on themselves. They are already thinking of how the meditation will be, their expectation is great. They think that they ought to enjoy a few minutes of it, but they don’t enjoy it. You think this will help them? It doesn’t help. It’s only when you let go of all expectation that this inner truth will reveal itself.

You have to lose yourself......

There are thousands of ways to meditate, but try to do what you feel calm and happy with. The main thing is that you have to lose yourself. Lose the identity that you have attached to your body. Remind yourself that you are just the spirit, just part of God. Certainly you will realise it through practice and discipline. Not many people like this word, ‘discipline’. It seems so. Discipline is not something which should scare you, but you should be disciplined with yourself. Because when you start enjoying the love of God within you, it is you who will enjoy it – it’s nobody else first. So it is the same with the discipline, you have to be disciplined yourself. You have to really want it! All right?

The more your heart is open, the more you are happy...

If you want something, you do everything for it, don’t you? If you love somebody, you may write hundreds of letters to this person to express your love. You don’t lose hope. Why then lose hope on this journey towards one’s own Self? It is like losing hope in the middle of the way. It doesn’t mean you have gone backwards, it just means you stopped. The love is still there, still waiting and knocking at the door and saying, “Let me out!” But you have got the key for this door, and it’s up to you to open it. If you want to love, love without expecting anything, pull the door open. The moment you start to expect something, you stop the door from opening.

Then there is another factor that is coming in the way. The moment you start losing hope you will start suffering. You start to see everything as being negative. Then you forget your way. You forget the love that God has for you, the love that you have deep inside you. This is one thing that one should not forget: You are made in the image of God. In this way, you have to go back, back to this image, back to this complete love.

First, start your spiritual way with this, to find this love. Then the rest will be revealed to you. The rest will come to you.

We chant the holy names of God, Krishna, Narayana, Jesus, Allah and Babaji. All these names help us to open up more, open up our heart to love. Love cannot be only for oneself. You start it with yourself, you realise it, you know about it and let it expand and give it. This source is non-perishable. The more you give, the more you will feel that it is flowing, and the more you will want to give. The more you try to close it, the more you will make your own self unhappy. Then this unhappiness has to go somewhere – that is how many illnesses are created, because one does not want to open up.

The more your heart is open, the more you are happy. The more you see life in a different way, the more the illness will keep away from you and the more all of the worries around you will cease. God loves us, but we should also start loving. Whatever comes on your way, remind yourself of His love; remind yourself through His manifestation around you, through the manifestation of this body. God has created humankind and placed Himself in each person equally. It does not mean that I am superior to you all, because I’m sitting here in a big chair. In your mind, it may seem like that, but in the Divine all is one. We form part of one body.

Open up your heart and see the light that is inside you. This love you have, it’s everywhere, in all of you. This mind can’t stop it. Feel God’s love all the time – you may not succeed right now, but keep trying! You know, in India there are yogis who have been meditating for hundreds of years. That does not mean they don’t know this kind of love. They do know about it and they are enjoying it. This love of God that they are enjoying, you can enjoy it in the same way. Just want it!

Jai Gurudev!

This year as well as every year it is the wish of Sri Swami Vishwananda to not give personal gifts to Him instead He prefers to donate for His international center Shree Peetha Nilaya.

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

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

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

So, God will not come to you in a beautiful form. He will always come, even as your own enemy. He will come, because this is how He will teach you to love – love without condition. Once there was a lady in Switzerland. She was walking down the street, and a beggar asked her to give him something. Her only reaction was to just take some money and give it to him. The moment the money reached the hand of the beggar, he disappeared. When she looked in the eyes of this man, he was just light, and he disappeared on the spot. Very often she talked about this story. Maybe you have heard it from someone.

So like that, I can tell you many stories, many facts that many people have told. Through charity, through service, through love they have experienced so much. And if you really want to experience the same thing – open up your heart and let Jesus work through you, let Krishna work through you, let God work through you. Through that you will realise His love, realise that He is always with you, and realise how much He loves you, and how much you can love. Even the mind cannot comprehend this; even the word love is too small for that what you can give. You have to want to give it, only then it can flow. As long as you don’t want to give it, it’s difficult.

Why does man not say it’s enough?

When you were a toddler, when you are still a baby, you are born full with light. When a baby is born, the father, the mother, and all the people around it say, “Oh the baby is so beautiful, so radiant.” Isn’t it? Then what happens afterwards? When the child is born, it reflects the light of God, but when the child grows up the light goes deep inside the heart. With the world being how it is outside, it creates a lot of shadows over this light, and the same people who twenty years ago maybe said, “This child is full of light”, they start saying the child is very bad.

Isn’t this interesting? How can the same child who reflected the light be the same old person in front of you, who now does not reflect the same light? If we look properly with our third eye, we will see that all of you reflect the same light, whether it is a small baby or an adult.

But our mind is busy judging. In this judging, our mind enjoys looking only at the negative parts of life. How this person is dressed or how this person behaves, we tend to see only the negative. But behind what we see with our two physical eyes is the reality. If we look with our eyes through the heart, we will be able to see the reality. First we’ll see the reality of our Self.

We incarnate time after time to attain one thing: liberation. This word “liberation” is present in all Holy Scriptures. Take the Bible, Jesus talks about it; in the Koran, the prophet Mohammed talks about it; take the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about it. So why does man not achieve it? Why does man not say it’s enough?

For many humans the door is now here. 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? Let the eighty-fourth door of your heart open up.

And if your mind is troubling you, sing the name of God.

By knowing your own Self you will know God

It’s true that everybody can’t renounce the world and live only for God, but you can continuously try to remember God wherever you are. Remember that the soul inside you is the light of God. The more you think of yourself being part of this light of God, this great love, the more you will reflect this love. But the more you think that you are just a normal human being, the more you will just be a normal human being with all of its limited qualities and you cover all of your divine qualities. Take time every day, just five minutes, to be with your Self. Forget about the world outside, forget everything. Forget about your husband or wife; forget about all your relationships with the outside. Only think of the relationship with your Self.

Do you know what treasure you will find? You will find the biggest treasure of all, a treasure that nobody can steal from you. And that is love. Love is such a big gift. We feel it with our heart, we know it with our mind, but to realise it, to become one with this love, to spread this love, unconditionally – this is the aim of mankind. The more you spread it, the more you reflect it, the more you will discover your Self.

When people say, “I want to know God”, I answer, “Know thyself!” By knowing your own Self you will know God. Because when we want to know God outside, we automatically create a barrier, we create a limited form. But we are this love. We are this Light. We are not separate from God, we are part of God. To achieve this, we must surrender. Surrender the mind which is always jumping around. Surrender the body, which is the temple of this light and love. And reflect this light always. Jai Gurudev!

Forget about the mind, just enter the heart........

Look at the life of Jesus. It’s so beautiful. He has taught mankind how to transcend the ego into the Divine Self. When you go deeper into the mystery of it, you will see that Krishna has taught the same. He has shown it to mankind. We also have to continuously remind ourselves that we are the children of God. And we have to be children of God. Whenever we have a problem, we identify ourselves with the problem, and say, “Oh, God has turned His back on us”. But we don’t realise that we have turned our back on ourselves. If we look deeper within – if we turn our gaze inwardly – we would find the solution for every problem. Everything that you want to know, it’s just here.

Forget about the mind, just enter the heart and don’t be scared to let the heart open. You will say, “Oh, if I open my heart, I will get hurt!” No! Just let it open, don’t think about it. You are here to love. Just love, nothing else.

“I’m an instrument in your hands. Guide me, be with me!”

The only desire that will ultimately fulfill you is God, because he is unlimited in everything. In addition, in this desire for God, you will never have a question, whereas with the other desires you always have questions.

For example, if you start a business, the desire is great. You are very happy, because the main thing is to get money. What happens then? The question arises, how to get the money. When you get the money, the desire is still not fulfilled, because you will think how to get more. Then there will be other things, like how you will pay the people who are working for you, or how will you buy other things for your business to grow more? So in this game, you will always ask the question, how will I do this? You will never really be satisfied and really happy with yourself.

That does not mean you should stop your business or should stop your work. It is important that you work, but it is also important that you work with non-attachment, a non-attached feeling. Work and surrender to the Divine. In the morning, praise the Lord and say: “I’m an instrument in your hands. Guide me, be with me!” At the end of the day, before you go to sleep, surrender everything, every action, even if it was not a good action. Analyse it and surrender it to the Divine. Be completely detached from whatever you do, and focus your mind on the Lord.

There was a great poet, Adi Shankaracharya who said,“Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhajam Muramate.” Meaning, if mankind would realise how foolish mankind is... We do not realise that the Ultimate of everything is Govinda, is God. If man would realise that everything comes from the source, which is God, why not take the source itself? Why just want something that will be finished after some time?

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.

There is this beautiful parable from the Bible....

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.

There is this beautiful parable from the Bible where one man was walking on the beach... Do you know about it? A man was walking, and every time he looked behind himself, he saw two more footprints, so four prints in the sand. He was very happy, knowing God was always with him, and he did not have any fear. Once it happened in the life of this man, that he started having lots of problems. Then he noticed at that time, there were only two footprints, and that there were not four footprints in the sand. There were only two footprints. He started thinking, praying to God, saying, “Why, when in times of joy you are with me and I see your beautiful footprints behind me, but in times of pain, you are not with me?” God said, “Don’t misunderstand, my child. These footprints that you see behind you are not yours. They are mine, because in times of trouble, I was carrying you on my shoulders.”

So, God is always with all His children, even in times of the biggest trouble. The point is, when someone has trouble, he focuses so much on the trouble that he forgets about everything. Even if the solution is there, he doesn’t see it. The more you feed the trouble, the more you feed the problem, it will grow. This is your own creation, your own way of feeling it, and when it is finally too much, you say; “Enough is enough!” Then you realise that you can’t change it yourself. You turn to the Lord and say, “Here, I can’t deal with this anymore. Handle it yourself.” Of course, do you think He will not come to your rescue? Directly you will have the solution, and you will realise how easy it was. Then you will say to yourself, “Oh, if I knew it earlier, I would have changed it.” How many times has that happened in your life?

Therefore, when many troubles, many things, come along the way, try to analyse things before taking any casual decision. Try to do it with a calm mind, and not excited, because when your mind is excited, it’s already very hot, and you will not see anything clearly. You know this, yes? So, always remember the Divine love, the Divine help, the Divinity ultimately within yourself. You are an instrument of this love, an instrument of this joy and bliss and happiness. You have to reflect it, and for you to want to reflect it, you have to really want that reflection.

Enjoy this beautiful Song.....

The Self is everlasting giving!

One aspect that Jesus really taught when He was… He still is with us… is love!

Wherever you look, he never talked about anything else. He talked about love and faith. In Hinduism, we call it bhakti: faith, devotion and love. In love, you don’t have expectations. You do not want anything from anybody. You are just here to give. Jesus never expected anything from anybody. Did he expect something from somebody? No, he was just here to give. He was always giving. You cannot say his life was a charitable one, but he gave it freely. He gave without any expectation, without even thinking or talking about it. He even taught to be quiet about whatever happens.

In one of the parables he said, when your right hand gives, your left hand should not know about it. That means, give and forget about it. In the same way, sometimes when you receive something, you are very happy about it for some time, but after some time you forget about it, isn’t it? So the same way you should also give and forget it. And when you give – give with love. Give it joyfully without any egoistic thinking, “Oh, I have done this.” So many times people do lots of good things and talk a lot about it. But this is not how it should be. You have to give and forget. Then it is not you who gave, it’s the Self. The Self is everlasting giving!

Keep reminding yourself of why you are here. All this that is around will pass and go. New things will come. But the Self can’t get old. The Self can’t die, so it will be eternal. It is better you realise it now, that you are eternal, rather than at the end when the time of departure comes and you say, “Oops, this was easy. I could have realised that a long time ago, but now it’s too late.” Therefore, you have already messed up the whole life in searching for things. It is here, right now with you! So try to make this the ultimate goal – of realising the Self. You know it in the mind. For sure it will not be quick and easy, that you will just think about it, and then here it is!

Keep practicing it. Every day say to yourself, “I am the Spirit, I’m the Christ”, and let it reflect outside. When you say, “I am a child of God. I’m part of the creator, I’m part of the Father”, and you do not reflect it to the outside, it does not help. What I mean by the reflection towards the outside is to let this vibrate within you at first.

Secondly, as much as possible, help! Help whoever comes to you. Help without even thinking of helping. If possible, once a week, go on the streets. If you live in a town, for sure there are so many people who live on the streets. You can go and talk to and be with them. It is not a big thing.

Listen, for sure, when you approach these people, they will feel that, “Oh, this one wants to make fun of me” or whatever. They will refuse you. But keep trying! This is how you will really find God in each person. Realise that you are doing it for Jesus, you are doing it for God. Remind yourself that he said, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you are doing it unto me.”

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

All spirituality starts here – in the mind

What I would like to talk about with you today is meditation and thought. Lots of people meditate. Meditation is very good. Once you start the spiritual path, the first thing they tell you is to sit down and meditate. But you can’t meditate twenty-four hours. It’s quite difficult, isn’t it? For some yogis it is possible – but even they, after some time, do take a rest. Some yogis can stay in samadhi for days. For years! But after that they have to take a rest. I met a yogi in India who is about two hundred years old; even more than that. Of course, among all the yogis, the raj yogi Mahavatar Babaji is more than five thousand years old. Raj yogi means the king of all yogis, but even he walks around with people. So, we can’t meditate always – especially here in the West. But there is a substitute for it – the thought. The mind that God has placed in humans is very powerful. You can create or you can destroy with it. It’s up to each one of you how to control the thoughts. So the first thing in spirituality, the first, and the best thing you can do, is to control the thought. The more the thought is negative, it reflects outside. Very often these negative thoughts are about one’s own self, thinking “How bad I am, how negative I am.” You know you are negative, but you enjoy it. (Laughing) But why enjoy it? Why like it? First, we have to change the thoughts about ourselves. Then we can change the thoughts towards other people. As long as we judge ourselves, we only look at the negative part of our own self.

Thought is very easy to control. You don’t need to sit down to control it. When the thought is passing through your mind, you know about the thought. You know whether it is positive or negative. So if it is positive, it will be constructive – feed it, then let it grow! But when it is negative, try not to feed it. Then you say to yourself, “This is not me.” And let go of it. When you let go of the thought, you will see how beautiful your own life is, and how great this life is that God has given us. Also in your meditation will be easier. For the powerful thoughts are the positivism in human beings. Through thoughts, whatever you wish for yourself, whatever you think about, you will receive it.

Thought is the willpower of man. It’s the way that you use to realise the Divine. All spirituality starts here – in the mind. Then it reaches the heart. You use thought to open the heart. And to this thought of the heart – you may want to call it the voice of God – you will learn to listen to it without any doubts. When-ever you will sit in meditation, you will feel that deep bliss, and the consciousness that you are Divine will always be with you. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, you will have the consciousness that the Divine is with you.

So there are different ways of controlling thought. I told you to stop it the moment you know it is negative. The next is to sing the name of God, to keep reciting it. God has taken a lot of forms, and in each form there is the energy for man to transcend from mere human to Divine. So as long you have not mastered the mind, you use namasmarana. Sing the name of God wherever you are. And when you sing, don’t close your eyes, leave them open. You see, when you close your eyes, you start thinking and you say, “Oh, I’m singing the name of God.” Yes, but the thinking is still here. Still the mind is jumping like a monkey. Leave them open. If you don’t want to focus on a form, concentrate on a white wall. Focus on it!

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a story .....

Someone asked me to ask Mahavatar Kriya Babaji to come and bless you all, and I said to him, “Do you want me to get beaten by him afterwards?” This reminds me of a story: Sri Lahiri Mahasaya didn’t believe too much in gurus and all that stuff in the beginning. After he met Babaji, his life changed completely. One day his friends were talking very badly about gurus and saints, saying all these gurus, all these saints are just always cheating people. Lahiri got a bit angry, thinking, “No, I know one real guru who is not like that. I can prove it to you!” Babaji had given him a special mantra so that whenever he was in need, he could call upon him, and he will come, even physically – but in need!

To prove that he was right, he asked to be closed in a room. Inside the room he was praying, crying, calling Babaji. Finally Babaji appeared and said, “Yes, what do you want?” He said, “You know, my friends don’t believe, so I want to prove it to them.” Then Babaji told him off by saying, “No, you should not do that. If they don’t believe, it’s their problem! You should never force anybody to believe anything.” Then he said to him, “OK, don’t do that. I will come to you whenever it’s needed. I myself, I will come to you.” Then Sri Lahiri Mahasaya was very clever, and he said, “As you are already here now, can you please bless all of them?” And he was so much filled with love, and so sincere, that Babaji could not refuse. Then he opened the door and everybody could see Mahavatar Babaji. And Babaji came out with them and he even ate and drank with them, and blessed all of them and then he disappeared again.

It is upon yourself to call for all devas, they can come if you really call from deep within your heart.

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

Today I would like to talk about the mind – a big subject. Many people are scared of this subject. Actually, you don’t need to be scared of the mind. The mind of its own is a great gift of God – because it is through the mind that you can achieve the Divine. But what is wrong with thought? It is said, the way you think, that’s the way you are. If you think you are Divine, you will become Divine. But if you think you’re just a mere human being, you will stay always this mere human being. So this is the power of thought. So, to control the mind is to control how you think – to control the thoughts. If the thoughts are good, the result outside will be good. However, if the thoughts are wrong, do you expect anything good will come out of them?

This is how our thought, how our mind, how our thinking works. Whereas if you look at our mind as a gift that God has given us, how marvellous it is! Imagine: your brain can record eight hundred memories per second. Do you think a computer can do that? And it can last seventy-five years without getting exhausted – night and day. Imagine this storehouse that the mind has. Imagine the storage that the brain has, it’s so small, isn’t it? But it can store about ten billion to hundred billion memories in a life time. Even a computer can’t keep such memories.

So if scientists had to build a computer that could store that much – I think this building would be one of the biggest buildings in the world, storing so much information. But how marvellous is this creation of God! That such a small brain can keep so many things inside! But people let the mind control themselves. They let themselves become the slaves of their thoughts. And they enjoy it. To control the thought – the thought will pass by. You know inside your heart whether it is constructive or destructive. It’s up to you whether you want to feed the thought with the right food or deny it. If our thoughts are negative, we keep feeding them with negativity and we become miserable. We create misery with unhappiness and problems. If the thought would be more positive, the mind would be more constructive. Then happiness, joy and peace will enter. Start by thinking positive about yourself. You can’t think positive of others unless you are positive yourself.

Sit quietly and start the conversation with the Divine within yourself. Because it’s only in silence that you will be able to control the thought. Talk less – because people who keep talking and talking – they are just running away. They are just scared of seeing the truth, that’s why they talk and talk. They talk without knowing what they are talking about.

If you want to start the communication with the Divine within yourself, be as much silent as possible. But if you want to start the communication with man, then keep talking! You know how beautiful it is to listen to the Divine inside you? It’s the most beautiful thing; I can’t even express it with words, because words are still limited.

Like I said yesterday, “From the form to the formless, from the name to the nameless.” This is the Divine in each one of you. And to be always in this place, to be always in this awareness and find that you are not separate from the Divine…it’s so beautiful, it’s so filling! Whenever you do something there is always a gap, something that is unsatisfied. But whereas – when you have discovered the reality in you – whatever you do – the satisfaction will be complete!

Christmaspackage

“Christ is born every day in the heart of man.”

- Sri Swami Vishwananda

To find the inner Christmas…

Every year, in all the world, we celebrate Christmas together, the birth of Jesus Christ, the One who came to redeem mankind, the great Master who is an example of humanness, compassion and devotion.

Swami says that in Mauritius, Christmas is not only a feast for Christians, but is celebrated by members of all religions: “The birth of Christ is something very mystical, because Christ renews his birth every year, whenever we celebrate it, in the heart of man.“

When we try to connect with God, Christ and the great Masters during Christmas time, we create a strong foundation for the New Year. Christ creates in our hearts a lasting landmark of love, so that we recognise that we are all children of the One God.

For this year’s Christmas we have put together a package, which is meant to help us, to find that inner Christmas in our hearts. The package contains a rose quartz heart and a bee’s wax peace candle, which have been blessed by Swami himself and are a reminder of Jesus’ light and love. With the light of the candle, blessed by Swami, we can light all candles of the coming year. The incense symbolises the gifts of frankincense and myrrh of the three Holy Kings. And on the new Christmas DVD, Swami shares his thoughts on Christmas and its meaning.

The proceeds of 29,-- Euros (plus postage) per packet go entirely into the renovation project of the Bhakti Marga Center “Shree Peetha Nilaya” in Springen. The Christmas package can be ordered online www.bhaktishop.de (If anyone can't order it online, they can order it also via email: daya@bhaktimarga.org)

We wish you a very Merry Christmas, much light and blessings!

Paartha and Naamdev

On behalf of the whole Bhakti Marga team.

PS: Friends of Bhakti Marga receive a discount of 10% ! If you are interested in joining Friends of Bhakti Marga , please send an email to tusti@bhaktimarga.org