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?"