The Art of Controlling the Mind.....

What is concentration? What does the word concentration mean? It means to focus. Concentration, the word concentration, means to fix one’s mind on something for an amount of time without being disturbed by any emotions or anything. This means you sit down and you focus without wondering “What is this object, 
why is this object, for what use is the object?” Just sit and focus. Just concentrate on the object only for five minutes a day. At that moment, you should not think of anything. You choose the object and just look at the object and how it is. This will help you to bring your mind into a controlled state where, later on, you can utilise the power of this realisation. A part of this realisation is one’s greater power. We develop our inner strength. We are not just this human aspect that you see on the outside, but we also have a Divine Self. In that Divine Self there are many qualities. The qualities of the Divine Self are still only the qualities of the Divine, not the Divine itself. This gift comes when you can handle it, when you can control it. After that, you can meditate. Whenever you talk about meditation to people, first they sit and close their eyes. That’s what you will do when you talk about meditation. You make yourself straight and then close your eyes. When you close your eyes, what do you see? You see thoughts. How are these thoughts at that moment? They are jumping around! We have one word about the mind, which is manasa puja. When you do everything in a visualised form within yourself, this increases the power of concentration and this is considered one of the most powerful ways to control the mind, to control yourself and to attain the Divine. Manasa puja, have you heard about it? I will tell you a story. Once there was a great king. He wanted to build big temples for Shiva. At the same time there was a poor man sitting in front of the place where the king wanted to build the 
temple. Inside of him he was also building the temple for Shiva, but even bigger. When the temple of the king was finished, he sent an invitation to Shiva, which said “Shiva, my Lord, I have built up your temple and I request you, please, come for the inauguration of the temple”. Shiva sent a message back saying “My dear king, I would be very happy to come for the temple opening, but I have to go on the same day to another man. He has built a bigger temple than yours and he lives in your kingdom. His temple is much bigger 
than yours and I have to go, because he is opening it also and it’s at the same time as yours.” The king was wondering about this. He didn’t know that in his kingdom somebody else had been building a bigger temple, so he inquired. He found out that it was this man who had been sitting there, who Shiva had said He had to go to, because he also had been building a temple. The king went to him and said “You have built the biggest temple for Shiva in my kingdom. I thought I had been building the biggest one .” The man was shocked and said “What are you talking about? I am a poor man, I can’t build anything for Shiva.” The king replied, 
“Shiva said to me that you have built the biggest temple.” Then the man realised that in his mind, when they were building the temple outside, he was building a temple three times bigger than the one they were building. His concentration was so intense when he was inwardly opening the temple that Shiva was really present there. You see, the power of concentration is very powerful.Like it is said, man can use only five percent of the human brain and ninety-five percent is sleeping. As the mind is sleeping we also like to sleep and let it always sleep. After so many lives we attain a human body. A human is very special. A human is gifted with 
the grace of attaining and merging with the Divine and becoming One with the Lord, of realising the Lord within himself. Why do we always limit ourselves? Why do we always like this limitation? Why are we not free?It is there. It has been given to you, but you forget about it. Work to concentrate, to focus your mind, to make your mind positive. Work through increasing the power and the strength inside of you. When you know that the Divine is with you, you really know He is with you. Whenever you chant the Divine Names, don’t think that the Divine is far away. The Divine  is present, is nearer than your heartbeat. So close is the Lord, you know, but yet we see Him as if He is so far away. When we talk about attaining the Lord, it seems like some distance but, actually, it’s not that far. When you have learned to control your mind, when you have learned to concentrate and focus it, you will see that He is ever sitting in each part of your body, because the human body is not just made of flesh and bones like we say. It is indeed, but when we look at the mystical form of the human body, there are all the Deities present inside. A certain Deity is responsible for each part of your body. This is beautiful. If you can look beyond the physical body and see the Divine, which is seated in each part of you, you will learn to respect this body. You will learn to love it. 

“Let your thoughts be in hell, but you rejoice in the Divine.....”

On the spiritual path, the utmost thing that we have to do is to control our mind. We say to watch our thoughts. What is a thought? A thought is an image. A thought is a creation.  Why is it said that we have to watch our thoughts; because most of the time our thoughts make us negative. We have to watch them and have them under control – very often it’s quite difficult. Our thoughts make us who we are, because we always run behind them. A few days ago there was a reading in the chapel where there was a saying from St. Silouan of Mount Athos that said “Let your thoughts be in hell, but you rejoice in the Divine.” I will comment a little bit on that. Nowadays, the moment you see your thoughts running to hell, you are all running with the thoughts to hell. Your thoughts are jumping, jumping and jumping and then boom – there they go. You are also jumping behind them and doing the same, throwing yourself after them. When we watch ourselves, we see that very often we like to speak out what we have in our minds. We like to tell  everybody how great we are. We like to publicise ourselves and say “Oh, I have seen that light, I have seen this and I have seen that. I have felt this and I have felt that.” Why? It is to feed that thought, so that the thought can become bigger. It’s like when you analyse a reptile. A reptile can be very soft, very easy, going its way, but the moment it falls in a pit, it will try it’s best to come out. The moment the reptile comes out of that pit, it will be more aggressive than ever. This is how our thoughts are also. The moment we let it out, it’s infamed with this vigorous power, saying “Yes, I am out.” Like Christ said “It’s not what goes inside the person that makes them polluted, but what comes out of the person.” In the Gita it says “A controlled mind is your best friend, but an uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy.” Like I said, the way we think is the way we are. We have to control our thoughts. Prayer and continuous remembering of the Divine help us to control our mind. They help us to bring our mind, which is always running, into calm, into silence. Through silence, the thoughts will disappear. If your thought is negative and you let it out, all around you everything becomes negative. There will be nothing positive. But if you keep this thought inside, through prayer and through inner silence, it will dissolve. But no, we like so much to express ourselves, to express our thoughts. You can;  I won’t say “No, don’t do it”, but  first, master it, then you can express it. If you silence yourself completely, if you silence your mind, you will receive everything. You will not even need to ask. You will receive, because God is merciful. He is the all-knowing, so do you think you really have to ask Him?

He is inside of you.....

Seeing the beauty of the Lord, we ask ourselves how did all the people in His lifetime feel when they saw Him? What did they feel? What did the Gopis feel? How was it for the people of Vrindavan to be near Him? We have read several stories about that. We read how beautiful He was, how great He was, but yet we ask ourselves ”But why not now? Why, when we pray so much, nothing happens?” You, also, would like to feel and experience this Love. You, also, would like to be so much in love with Him, but yet you find it very difficult, don´t you? Why? If we look at ourselves and we look at the people in Vrindavan, there, whatever they would do throughout the day, Krishna was the main important thing in their lives. Their minds were so much into Him. Whatever they would do, wherever they were, it was just for Krishna. They would cook for their own family, but it was for Krishna. They would wash their clothes and, in their minds, it was for Krishna. Everything was for Him. They were so much surrendered, that every breath of them was Krishna. If every breath of them was the Lord Himself, of course, the Lord was present inside of them at all times. But nowadays, when you are working, how many times do you think of God? Only when you have time, because when you are working, you are fully concentrated on your work. And the little time that you have left, what do you do with it? You worry about how to make the work better. When you do your spiritual practice - let’s say, when you are doing your Atma Kriya - you concentrate so much on the breathing, you concentrate so much on reciting the Name of God. Why? All spiritual sadhana, why do we do it? It’s because we know that there is something greater that our soul wants. We want something, but yet, with the mind we don’t understand it too much. We try to understand. We always look at it with the mind and we always want it to be how we want it to be, our way. But what is our way, actually? It is His Will. We always think that we have a free will. The limitation of ourselves, the limitation that our mind creates. We could be free, but our mind doesn’t let us be free. We can see the Lord everywhere, but our pride always stops us. We can love Him, but our expectation is always there, too. When one lets go of these three things, one will be really, fully into Him. Above all, He is the manifestation of Love. He is the manifestation of who we are, all of us. In Him Love is manifested in the outside, in everything that He expresses, in every action of Him. But in humans it is manifested deep inside, because we don’t let it out. We are scared of it. We are scared of our true Self. We are scared of what we have inside, but yet we crave for that. We want it. We are always looking for it everywhere. In whatever we do, whoever we meet, we are looking for this Love. But it’s not on the outside. It’s inside of you. Then one will ask “But why do we have to concentrate on Him outside? Why cannot we concentrate on Him inside?” With all these things covering you, all these expectations, this anger and fear, it’s very difficult to concentrate on the unmanifested form of the Lord, on the Love of God inside of you. That’s why He has given His outer forms for us to concentrate on them. It’s like when someone learns to shoot. First they start to shoot at big things, no? And the more experienced and concentrated they become in shooting, the smaller things are given to them to shoot at. So it’s the same thing: as long as you have a mind, which is very active, always jumping around, you need something to focus on in the outside. When your mind is calm through your sadhana, then you will be able to concentrate easily on the Lord inside of your heart. So chant the Divine Name. Focus on His form first and through that, at the end, He can show you that He is inside of you.

Pray, chant your mantra and silence yourself.....

It is through prayer, through japam, through meditation, that we learn to control our thoughts, but the best of all is through silence. Pray, chant your  mantra and silence yourself. Feel the mantra inside of you. When you chant the name of God, don’t just say, Narayana or Durga or Babaji. It’s not just the name. They are not simple names, you know? These names create a vibration and even when you are not aware, it’s still vibrating. The main thing is you have to be aware of that vibration inside of you. You have to feel that each part of your body is vibrating these Divine Names. You can really feel it and really know it only when you are in silence. Silence doesn’t mean that you have to stop your work and say “I sit in silence and that’s it – finished!” No, silence means that whatever you are doing, you stay calm and you control the tongue. The body is made of 206 bones and they say that wherever there are bones, we can control them, but the tongue is not made of bones, so we have to learn to control it. If this tongue can chant the Divine Names all the time, you will be able to control it. When you have controlled the tongue, you will be able to control your mind. 

The Art of Controlling the Mind.....

After so many lives we attain a human body. A human is very special. A human is gifted with the grace of attaining and merging with the Divine and becoming One with the Lord, of realising the Lord within himself. Why do we always limit ourselves? Why do we always like this limitation? Why are we not free? It is there. It has been given to you, but you forget about it. Work to concentrate, to focus your mind, to make your mind positive. Work through increasing the power and the strength inside of you. When you know that the Divine is with you, you really know He is with you. Whenever you chant the Divine Names, don’t think that

the Divine is far away. The Divine  is present, is nearer than your heartbeat. So close is the Lord, you know, but yet we see Him as if He is so far away. When we talk about attaining the Lord, it seems like some distance but, actually, it’s not that far. When you have learned to control your mind, when you have learned to concentrate and focus it, you will see that He is ever sitting in each part of your body, because the human body is not just made of flesh and bones like we say. It is indeed, but when we look at the mystical form of the human body, there are all the Deities present inside. A certain Deity is responsible for each part of your body. This is beautiful. If you can look beyond the physical body and see the Divine, which is seated in each part of you, you will learn to respect this body. You will learn to love it. What about the word ‘Love’, which we always talk about? One time in Germany I was asking the question “I always talk about Love, but I was wondering how many of you really understand what I am saying about Love? ” We know many forms of love, many kinds of love. In all kinds of love, there is Love, but when we are  on the spiritual path, we talk about unconditional Love. It’s another degree of Love. It’s a Love that transcends the mind itself; that transcends what we understand with the mind. It’s a Love that even transcends the heart itself. How many hearts do we have? Well, we have one physical heart and one spiritual heart, but we have only one brain. I have never heard of a spiritual brain. Since you have two hearts and one brain,  why does this mind seem so much bigger? Isn’t it said that two are stronger than one? This is the illusion that the mind always creates,

to show that it is more powerful, to show that it is stronger, that it can control everything. In reality, it can’t control anything and it knows that. That’s why the mind creates fear, and when you hang with this fear you are never free. That’s why on the spiritual path we say “Think with your heart and feel with your heart. Stay in your heart always.” Our physical heart is always hanging out in the realm of thoughts, but our spiritual heart is much stronger. That’s what we have to discover. To attain this spiritual heart, the journey is from the physical heart to the spiritual heart, from the spiritual heart to the higher Consciousness. That’s the journey for each one of us; if it is not in this lifetime, it will be in the next life, or in the next, next, next life. But if you can do it in this lifetime, don’t waste time! Don’t lose hope, because we are all part of the Divine, whether we want it or not. Whoever we are, we are this and we will attain Him. It doesn’t matter how many lifetimes one takes on Earth. He is the source. He is the beginning and He is the end. Very often people talk about themselves as if they know themselves. You know only one part of yourself, only this self that you think of as yourself now in this life. In this physical body, in this present moment, you think you know yourself. You don’t know anything about yourself. If you want to know about yourself, you have to start working. 

He is the manifestation of who we are, all of us.....

We could be free, but our mind doesn’t let us be free. We can see the Lord everywhere, but our pride always stops us. We can love Him, but our expectation is always there, too. When one lets go of these three things, one will be really, fully into Him. Above all, He is the manifestation of Love. He is the manifestation

of who we are, all of us. In Him Love is manifested in the outside, in everything that He expresses, in every action of Him. But in humans it is manifested deep inside, because we don’t let it out. We are scared of it. We are scared of our true Self. We are scared of what we have inside, but yet we crave for that. We want it. We are always looking for it everywhere. In whatever we do, whoever we meet, we are looking for this Love. But it’s not on the outside. It’s inside of you. Then one will ask “But why do we have to concentrate on Him outside? Why cannot we concentrate on Him inside?” With all these things covering you, all these expectations, this anger and fear, it’s very difficult to concentrate on the unmanifested form of the Lord, on the Love of God inside of you. That’s why He has given His outer forms for us to concentrate on them. It’s like when someone learns to shoot. First they start to shoot at big things, no? And the more experienced and concentrated they become in shooting, the smaller things are given to them to shoot at. So it’s the same thing: as long as you have a mind, which is very active, always jumping around, you need something to focus on in the outside. When your mind is calm through your sadhana, then you will be able to concentrate easily on the Lord inside of your heart. So chant the Divine Name. Focus on His form first and through that, at the end, He can show you that He is inside of you.

We often hear people asking the question “Who is God?”....

 .... I will ask you, now, “Who is God?” Well, it’s true, as long as you have not known Him, you can’t answer. Love is God, but how many Realise this Love? To which religion does God really belong? Is God Christian? Is God Hindu? Is God Muslim? Is God Buddhist? To which religion does He belong? Love… Wherever you go, you will see that there is only one God and He is the Love in each one´s heart, but how to Realise this Love? We are so busy with this material world that we forget about the Divine Love. We try to look for this Love in the outside world. We try to look for this Love in other people. We try to look for this Love by travelling around the world, but we forget that we have to travel not outside, we have not to try to find this Love in other people, but we have to find this Love in our Selves. We have to Realise the closeness to this Divine Love which is here, inside our hearts. Some people will say that it is very difficult to reach this point, but I say that it is very easy. You just need to want it! People try to find an easy way and if they could buy Love, they would do it. But Love can’t be bought. Somebody might come and tell you “Listen, I will make you Realise this Divine Love”, but only the Guru can do that. Only by the grace of the Master can you do that. This Divine Love, which is seated deep inside your heart, is like gold. And when gold is found in nature, it is with all the dust. Both gold and diamonds in nature are full of impurities. To get a beautiful jewel, a beautiful stone from a rough diamond, what do you do? You polish it. The same with gold: to get pure gold, you have to purify it, to remove all the impurities from it. It is the same with man. As long as you are stuck in the mind and don’t purify the mind, this Love will never shine. You will never Realise this Love. Even if you think you know it, because you have read about it or somebody has told you about it or Swami has said it, but as long as you don’t purify your mind, as long as you don´t purify yourself, it will be difficult to Realise this Love. And how is one to purify the mind? The easiest way to purify the mind is to chant, to chant continuously the Name of God. You were chanting the Mahamantra: Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. It is said that just by chanting this mantra one can get liberation, but one has to chant it with faith. Mere chanting alone will not help, but chanting with the heart will help. And how is one to chant with the heart? How is one to train the mind to calm itself? It is by forcing it. When you discipline yourself and say “OK, today I will chant”, then you start by taking your japa mala or rosary and you chant your mantra so you are focusing yourself on it, you are dragging the mind and putting your focus on the mantra. The more you do it, the more you will see that, with time, you will not even need the japa mala. You will not need any rosary, because the mantra will automatically be chanted inside your heart. When you become the mantra, you reach a point of Realisation, you reach a point of elevation, but still it’s not the final one. There is still more to go. And how do you to get there? It’s only when you abandon yourself into the hands of God, when you say “Lord, I surrender to You. I surrender myself - my body, my mind and my soul - completely to You” [that you will get there] Don’t do it superficially, but sincerely. And how do you do it sincerely? Be sincere with yourself and say “Yes, God, I want You. I’m surrendering myself  to You”. When it’s comes sincerely from your heart, it will happen.

Always remind the mind that it’s God that does everything...

Many people take Ghandi as an example; many great people take him as an example for what he did for the world. But above all, when you go deeper into his life, you see he was the model of bhakti itself. He was the model of devotion. Whatever he was doing, he forgot about himself first. It was about devotion to the people, to his country. It’s not just that he wanted to make his country free, but he showed a way to free the country through non-violence. The basis of nonviolence is Love. That’s the greatest thing. Without Love there is no non-violence, there is no peace. Of course, his life was not only joyful. He had lots of tribulations; there were lots of tests on the way that he had to go through. We see how he was, how he died. Yet, even at the time of death, he forgave. He said “Let him be free. He did it through ignorance, let him be free”. We have to take such a life as an example, but of course, we can’t make for ourselves what Gandhi came here to do! But, in our own way, each one can participate in it. Each one can become a model of devotion and peace. And for that you have to cultivate humility. He had a great simplicity. Of course he had fame, names, everything, so that he could have put himself very high up, but yet, he put himself the lowest of all. Such is the life of the Master. Very often we see masters high up and people say “Oh, they are very high”. We are here to serve. It’s not you who are serving the Master, but the Master who is serving you, all the time. Whether you know it or you don’t know it, it’s the Master that is serving you. The Masters don’t come here for themselves. They come to lift you all up. So taking the example of the life of saints, taking the example of the life of great ones, we learn a lot; we learn how to develop selfless Love, unconditional Love and humility.People will say “Swamiji, you talk about humility, but how do we cultivate it?” It’s so simple, I tell you, really. It’s the simplest thing that you can do. Love is there, in the heart, but humility is in the mind. How will we make this mind, which is so ferocious - this big beast - how will we make this mind humble? We always say that it’s our mind, but we don’t say we are the mind, do we? Or do we say we are the mind? No! The truth is that the mind is something apart from man. Man is the master of the mind. Man is the master of all the negative qualities that emerge from the mind, but illusion is so great that it seems that they are the master. We need to remind the mind continuously who is the master to build up humility. It’s not that I am telling you to flagellate yourself every time you have a thought, no, but flagellate the mind with the Divine Names.Always remind the mind that it’s God that does everything. He’s the cause of everything. Every thought is Him. Remind the mind continuously. Whenever the mind becomes negative, say “Mind, it’s not you, it’s only the Lord himself”. It’s only God. If God didn’t allow you to think, where would you get the power to think? In the Gita, Krishna said, “If the Lord didn’t allow the leaves to move, the leaves would not move”. Even if there was a great wind blowing, the leaves would not move. Such is the power. So if He who governs everything is inside each one of you, he’s seated in each one’s heart equally! So how can we forget about Him? So train the mind to remember that it is not this pride; it is not this big ‘I’ - which is the ego - the ‘me’, ‘myself’, you know. Transcend this pride and say “God, it’s You”, and continuously talk to Him.

When you sing, if you want to make it more powerful, let it emerge from deep within you.....

When you sing the divine Name, let it come from deep within you, not just outside. This is the power of sound. And to make it more powerful, it has to emerge from deep within. That’s why when you say OM, you don’t just say OM from the throat, otherwise there is no vibration into it. When you chant OM, you chant from deep within you, from the microcosmos that you have inside of you. That’s what is said in the Vedas. They talk about the microcosmos, which is deep within humans, where the Divine is seated all the time. That’s why, also, when you sing, if you want to make it more powerful, let it emerge from deep within you, and you will have more power. That’s why when a lion roars, he roars from deep within. You never see a lion roaring very softly from the outside. That’s why he is the king of the animals. The roaring of the lion is so powerful that it sometimes shakes even the Divine! When Narasingha Dev appeared on Earth and roared, even the Heavens got scared of it. And it’s the same if you want to wake up the Divine, which is sleeping within your heart, call His name. Of course, one will say “We don’t really need to shout to call Him”, but He will enjoy your call. When He is lying down in your heart, He will enjoy your call. Why do we sing? Why do you think that people, when they sing, are in such a great joy? They forget about everything. Why is it? It’s because when we sing the power of mind is less in action. We are deeper into this Divine energy, because all the vibrations are cosmic energy. There is one technique called the Nada Yoga or Nada Kriya that explains the power of sound. And you will see that all the sounds emerge from the vibration OM and everything is vibration. Our life itself is a vibration.

Sri Swami Vishwananda sings OM.....

Let the Divine Love that is inside your heart take control of you......

Yesterday, we were talking about humility and also about the Love of God. Like I said yesterday, many people tell me “Swamiji, it’s very difficult; it’s very difficult to be humble.”    It’s true. Some people told me again today it’s difficult. Actually, all of you want to Realise God and to Realise God one also has to develop the qualities of the Divine. So for God nothing is difficult and everything is possible, but for the human mind, with human limitations, everything is impossible. If you transcend this mind and yourself, everything will be easy. It all depends on how you think of things. If you think it is difficult, it will become difficult. Like I have always said, God is the Creator, but part of this Creator is present inside of us. When we create the barrier and think that it’s difficult, when we become the creator of this big barrier, then it will become difficult. But when we say “Yes, I can transcend everything” we become positive towards ourselves. We develop the qualities and we make it happen. Look, when you want something – let’s say you want to eat something nice – what would you do?  You would do anything to have it. No matter what people think, would you bother about what people think?  No, you just want to have it; you don’t think about what people would think of what you want to eat! Or would you bother about what people think? No, you wouldn’t. If you want to eat something, you will eat it – no matter what! Whatever your neighbour thinks about you, you will not bother about it. So why do you bother about other people, what they think or what they do or how they act? Bother about you! If you develop the qualities, people will learn from you; you will become an example. You are spiritual people, yes? So you have to act in a certain way you have to have the quality of the Divine within you. This quality has to reflect on the outside as well. The quality of the Divine is not to gossip around; the quality of the Divine is not to criticize; the quality of the Divine is not to curse others. No! The quality of God is to Love everybody. No matter what way a child is behaving, a mother always loves the child, no? So if God says “OK my children, you are all very bad, you have acted very badly today. I shall punish all of you” what will happen? Yet, we who call ourselves spiritual, we let these qualities govern us. We forget about our real qualities, the Divine qualities within us. If little by little you get rid of your negativity – firstly, the negativity of the mind – and if the mind is transcended and the mind becomes pure, everything that you do will be pure. There will be no negativity present inside of you. The power of the mind is so great that you will create what you want. That’s why when you read something, instantly you go into the image of that which you are reading. You become identified with that. So what you are reading is very important. If you are reading positive things, you are becoming positive too; you’re creating this positive energy. If we train our mind to be positive at all times, we will create positive things. If we just say “Yes, I want peace in the world. I want to change the world. If little by little you get rid of your negativity – firstly, the negativity of the mind – and if the mind is transcended and the mind becomes pure, everything that you do will be pure. I want to make a big impact on the world,” and when it comes to ourselves, our self is negative, then what in the world do we want to change, when we can’t even change ourselves? If you want to change the world, if you want to have peace in the world, change your mind. When the mind is changed, everything becomes pure. Let me tell you about the power of the mind. You know, a few years ago, some scientists made an experiment about the power of the mind. There was one man who was under a death sentence, so the scientists went to him and said “My dear man, you know very well you will die, so only if you accept, we would like to make a certain experiment with you.” So the man thought for a while and said “Yes, look, I will die anyway, so it doesn’t matter what I do. I will die.” So he agreed. Then the doctors said to him “Listen, before you agree, we will show you how we will kill you.” So they took the man to show him a horse and a snake. The horse was bitten by the snake and the horse started to tremble, to shiver and foam started coming out from his mouth and he died. The man saw that and said “Yeah, well, I will die, whether here like this or in the electric chair, still I will die.”  Maybe it was in Texas, somewhere – probably. So, what happened was, on the day of the sentence, they brought the man to the laboratory. Inside, the man was thinking “Yes, I will be bitten by a snake.” The doctors said to him “We will cover your head.” So they covered the head of the man. The man could not see anything. They took, in place of a snake, a rat. They made the rat bite the man. So what happened?  He died; he died in the same way he saw the horse die. He started to tremble and then the foam started to come out, then he fell down dead. The most amazing thing is, when the doctors analysed his blood, inside of him was no rat venom, but there was the venom of a snake.Such is the power of the mind, that it can change the venom of a rat into the venom of a snake and that it can make the person die in the same way he had seen. So we programme everything the way our mind functions. We can create, also. Like it is said, human beings use only 5% of their brain and the rest is dormant. So imagine if everybody transcended the mind and transformed everything which is negative into Divine wisdom. This can be done only if you become positive.Such is the power of the mind and such is the power that you have to control the mind. But no, we like to listen. Like I always say, I don’t understand one thing about humans, you know, well I am human, also. We like to listen to the mind, we like to suffer and we like to complain. Three good qualities: listening to the mind, enjoying the mind and suffering and complaining – four! You see, God has given the mind to Man for a reason. Of course, each part of the body, each aspect that is inside this body, God has given. He is the master engineer of everything, you know. He is so perfect that He created human beings perfectly. The mind has been given for the right reason and if we use it for the right thing, it will always be constructive. If we use it in a negative way, it will be destructive to ourselves, firstly, and also to others. Each one wants to change, so let’s see. Be positive in your mind and change. Let the Divine Love that is inside your heart take control of you. The more you want this Divine Love, the more the Divine qualities will be present inside of you and the more you will feel the Love of God. You will feel how much He loves you. Look, when a child makes a mistake, of course, the mother will slap the child – a small slap – but the mother’s heart stays the mother’s heart, no matter how many mistakes you make. His heart also stays the same, even if sometimes He has to slap you a little bit. When you sit down with God and talk to Him, you will see. He will say “I slapped you, but my Love inside is stronger for you.” Look, when a mother beats a child, what happens? The mother showers more love afterwards. So no matter what comes along the way, even a small slap, you know, later on His Love will be much more and in more abundance. It’s for your own good!

Let your life itself reflect who you really are......

It gives me great pleasure to be among all of you, and especially to share this Divine Love with all of you. As you all may know, the ultimate goal of life is to realise the Self. The soul, the Divine, whatever name you want to call it, is your own Self. In this daily life, with our daily occupations, the mind becomes very busy. We read lots of books, and talk about spiritual things.

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. 

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!

When you say, “I don’t love this person…” I don’t love means… you love this person, but in a different way. The mind of man can’t think ‘no’. In words we can say ‘no’, but our mind thinks in pictures, and in pictures, ‘no’ doesn’t exist. It is only how we talk about it on the outside.

So let go of the power of the mind that makes yourself feel separate from the Divine, and be one with it. There are different practices to help with this. You can sing the name of God. Recite any mantra. Sing the name of Jesus, sing the name of Rama, Krishna, or Allah, it is all equal. All are His names. Become one with this Divine name. That’s what the word mantra really means: to merge and become one. Let your life itself reflect who you really are. So, sing with me:

(Everyone starts singing “Om Namo Narayanaya”)

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

They will ask, “Where does this love come from?” Some of them will say to you, “You look different. You reflect something different.” You will answer, “It’s just the love of God.” It’s simple. But you see, sometimes when God gives simple things to man, man is not really happy with it. Man likes to complicate things. The more you complicate it, the more man enjoys it. And the more man complains about it. So, try to be as simple as possible. You will grow closer to yourself, closer to God and closer to the Divinity. Jai Gurudev!

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! There are also different asanas to control the thought. One which is well used is the tree asana, where you stand on one leg. The other one lifts up completely to the maximum, with your hand upright and focusing also on a picture or on the white wall. This helps a lot to control the mind. You will see by doing this, you will experience how imbalanced the human being is sometimes. When the thought is pure, one will reflect also this purity. Wherever you are, this love will always flow. And people will see – I think I said it last time – you reflect Divinity. Not with the egoistic way, but with the love. So there will be no misery if you reflect the light of God. See, our own mind is responsible for all the misery that you see outside. If the mind, the thoughts you have are pure, there will not be such misery. In this world humans think that they are just human and they enjoy being human. Very often they forget that behind this human form there is also Divinity. And to reach this, they should not have fear. It is your true nature... what you really are. You just need to want it sincerely. Want it sincerely for your own self! Then from inside to outside it’ll reflect.

What do you think we can ask from God?

What do you think we can ask from God? If He said what He wants from you, would you be able to give it?

Actually, let’s ask Him one thing – to purify our thoughts, help us to go beyond the thoughts and help us to go beyond the mind. That’s it. When you have gone beyond it, it will be very easy. To go beyond it is the most difficult part where everybody gets stuck, because the mind is very active. We see it every day in whatever we do, our thoughts are always in front of us. At the beginning, when you were always with the Divine, how was your thought? It was always focused on God. There was not a second when it was diverted to limited things, like a Mercedes, but nowadays, how many people’s thoughts and minds are on God – only a few. If you consider the amount of people living on Earth, how many people do you suppose are thinking of God – very few, a handful. The rest are thinking how they will get a Mercedes, how they will get this and how they will get that. They will even pray “God, get me this.” As the Mataji said, God also says “Yes? What can I do for you?” We must be prepared to make only the appropriate request. It is through prayer, through japam, through meditation, that we learn to control our thoughts, but the best of all is through silence. Pray, chant your  mantra and silence yourself. Feel the mantra inside of you. When you chant the name of God, don’t just say, Narayana or Durga or Babaji. It’s not just the name. They are not simple names, you know? These names create a vibration and even when you are not aware, it’s still vibrating. The main thing is you have to be aware of that vibration inside of you. You have to feel that each part of your body is vibrating these Divine Names. You can really feel it and really know it only when you are in silence. Silence doesn’t mean that you have to stop your work and say “I sit in silence and that’s it – finished!” No, silence means that whatever you are doing, you stay calm and you control the tongue. The body is made of 206 bones and they say that wherever there are bones, we can control them, but the tongue is not made of bones, so we have to learn to control it. If this tongue can chant the Divine Names all the time, you will be able to control it. When you have controlled the tongue, you will be able to control your mind. When you express your thought, if it is Divine you will see the positivity, you will see the result of it. If it is negative, you will also see the result. Then you will ask yourself “Why am I not advancing? Why am I not seeing and feeling the Divine?” - though He is here with you. Ask yourself “Am I calm? Am I quiet? Am I in silence?” or “Am I in pride and wanting to express it?” Watch your thoughts, always, and be in silence. This is the first basis of spirituality. You can go anywhere and all the religions will tell you the same thing. All will give you a mantra, whether it is the name of Allah, the name of Jesus Christ or the name of Rama, and they will say “Go, chant and make yourself calm.” If you want a better meditation, if you want to advance, control your thoughts and be in silence as much as possible.

Say “God, it’s You”, and continuously talk to Him....

Transcend this pride and say “God, it’s You”, and continuously talk to Him. Whether you have an answer, whether you hear from Him or not, it doesn’t matter. Deep inside know that He’s listening. From time to time He will give you a hint. From time to time, He will give you a sign in the outside that he’s listening. Rejoice in this sign; look at this sign and say “Yes, He’s with me.” But, don’t let pride rise inside of you. If you are spiritual, on the spiritual path, and you want to realise God, let go of pride. Pride will attack everybody: whether a saint or not. Pride will be there, but the saint knows how to have pride under control, you know. I always give an example of the huge elephant roaming in the market place. If the mahout doesn’t control the elephant with his feet and the stick, what will happen? The elephant will take everything from left to right; he will break everything on his path. And such is this huge pride that if we let this pride control us, it will take left and right, left and right. Then, there’s no control. So when you have control over it and say “God is the Master”, Love will generate. Love will grow. And you will see that there is love that you always say with pride and then Love which will be a different kind of love that you will experience: Unconditional Love. This is the same way the Divine loves, you know? This Love you will experience, because you are part of the Divine. The Divine is seated in each one of you. So, if He can love like that, you also can love the same way.

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

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

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

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

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

Focus your attention on the Divine!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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