Does whatever we do in this life, whether it is in our sadhana or in our daily life depend on this life or our previous lifetime?...

 .... Well it depends on both, actually. The majority of whatever you do in this life depends on what you have done in your past life. Sometimes you have a great plan, but when you have such a plan it doesn’t turn out the way you planned it. How many of you have a plan in life? Has it turned out the same way as you have planned? No, it doesn’t turn out the same way, because in this life your mind functions in a certain way to create what you perceive you need to be happy, but still, there is karma from the past that you have to burn. So, that’s why, very often, when you have a plan, it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted because of these past karmas. When you look at this world, what is permanent in this world? Nothing! With time, everything changes. With time, everything gets destroyed, but, yet, one hangs onto these perishable things, forgetting the eternal. So, as long as one hangs onto perishable things, there will be suffering, because what will give you real joy is hanging onto the Eternal Lord. Only when you are wholly directed towards Him, He will turn wholly towards you. And you can do that through your sadhana. You do japam, chant the name of the Lord, you do your spiritual practices, and you do service. Through service, you realise that you are serving not out of ego, not out of pride, but you’re serving through your heart. Of course, when you start to serve, you know, there’s always the pride in it. You are proud of how much you are doing. You say “Look how much I am doing.” I, the big I is always there, and you are forgetting that it’s only Him who is doing through you. The more you serve the more it comes to a point where it is transcended. Then you start to realise that whatever way you are serving, you are serving only Him, and it’s only Him who is serving. So then you have peace, because if you look for peace in this world, if you look for joy, you will not find it. Everybody is looking for peace. Who doesn’t want to be peaceful? Is there among you somebody who doesn’t want to be peaceful? So, all of you, you are just looking for one thing: to be peaceful. But looking at the world itself: in Sanskrit we call it Jagad. If you translate Jagad, it means ceaseless motion. It’s always on the move, you know. The world, however we look at it, is always on the move. When we take time and calmly we look at ourselves; when we look at human beings, they are constantly on the move. Even sitting here, they are far away, somewhere else, you know. They are sitting here, they are listening, but the mind is somewhere else, doing something else. So, how can there be peace, when one is not in peace within oneself, when one can’t take five minutes to sit down here and bring the body, mind and spirit here, in the same spot? And yet, human beings are looking for peace. So, to have this peace, one has to learn to calm oneself. It’s like everything else. You see, if you want your child to study, what do you do? You make the child sit and then you make the child study, no? First you have to make the child sit down, then study. In the same way, without an effort from you, without disciplining yourself and sitting down and practising your sadhana, it’s difficult to find real peace. With everything else, today you have something, but you don’t know tomorrow if you will have it or not. It’s the same thing with real peace, you know: if you have attained real peace, once you have it, you will have it always. It’s the same thing with Love, real Love I’m talking about, pure Love. Once you have realised it, you will always have it with you. You see, in this world, people like to hang onto their problems and onto their worries. You see, whenever a problem arises, the solution is also there, but mankind is so easily focusing on the problem rather than on the solution. Do you like problems? No. So then, why do you let yourself be drawn towards your worry? Because it doesn’t give you peace, eh? So, the more you hang onto the problems, the more problems you will have; the more you hang onto the worry, the more you will not see the solution. But if you take a little bit of time, sit in your prayer room, and sincerely surrender to the Divine, the problem will get solved. Whenever there is a problem, what do you do? You run to the temple, no? Then you pray “Oh God, I have this problem,” or “I have that problem,” because you know deep inside of you that He’s the only one that can solve your problem, nobody else. You can tell your problem to a hundred people and what will they do? They will say “Oh, poor you, you have a problem.” Very often they say “Poor you” outside, but inside they are saying “Good for you.” So, who is your best friend? Who is the real one looking after you? Who is the one really listening to you? It’s only Him. It’s only the Lord Himself. You see that, as long as there is happiness in life, people give very little importance to their spiritual practice. They say “When I become very old, then I will have time to do that.” But that’s why often there are problems on the path, why there are problems in life, so that continuously we can remember God. It’s like the Pandava’s mother said. After the Mahabharat war finished, Krishna went to His aunty to take her blessing and He asked His aunty “What can I do for you?” She said “One thing You can do is You can give meenough problems that I will never forget You.” This was how much Love she had for the Lord that she asked the Lord “Give me many problems that I can always remember you.” This is how it is, also, in this life. Things happen in life so that we can always remember God But we don’t like to continuously remember God, you know; we like to continuously remember the problem. We like to focus our mind, all our attention, all our energy, on the problem, thinking that we will get the solution. But you will not, because you have a certain limitation. You are limited with your mind. Your mind is limited to only matter. So, like that, if we concentrate on God, no matter what comes in our lives, we will accept it, we will take it in a positive way. Humans are hanging onto the outside and not much onto the inside, because you don’t know about the inside. You know only what is in the outside, what you can see and what you can touch. From these two things, you think you will be happy, but you have one thing, which is not seen, and that is your Atma. You can talk about the Atma, you can say “Yes, we have the spirit inside of us, you know, we have the soul inside of us”, but how many really know about the Atma? In realising the Atma, letting the Atma reveal itself to you, you will have the greatest joy, actually. You will always be happy. Even when problems come, you will be happy, because you will have attained the purpose of life, of lives! You will have attained the purpose no only of one life, but of lives. So, try your best to do your sadhana. Try your best to remember God in whatever you do, even if you don’t consider it as seva, but in whatever action you do in life, try to think of God. If you have five minutes during the day, try to sit down quietly. For these five minutes forget about husband, wife, children, everybody. When you sit in your prayer room, just sit - you and God. Remember Him every day. I will not say all day, because you will not, but at least morning and evening, for one minute in the morning and one minute in the evening, you can remember Him. He has a multitude of forms that He appears in, you know. Each one feels close to a certain form of divinity, though it’s only one.So, try to realise this unity and build up this relationship with the Divine. The more your relationship with the Divine becomes intense, the more He will reveal Himself to you. It’s like when you’re in love. At the beginning you say “Yes, I have a feeling for that person”, but yet, you don’t know that person. How do you know the person? By being close to that person, by being near to that person, you will start to know the person, no? So, the more you become close to that person, the more you know the person, the more the love grows, more and more. So, it’s the same thing with Bhagavan, you know. The more you remember Him, the more you chant His name the more He will reveal Himself to you. So, little by little you will start to feel Him. Little by little you will start to realise Him and that He’s next to you. Sometimes you will see Him in dreams and sometimes you will see Him manifested in front of you. Then, as time goes on, the objects wherein He manifested start to disappear, only He stays. So wherever you go, you will just see Him only. So, the more your Love grows, you will see Him inside of you, you will see Him outside of you and soon you will realise that it’s just Him. We’re just doing a big play. He’s just playing with all of us. He’s acting through all of us. He’s doing what He has to do through each one of us.

You will become an instrument of that peace and Love wherever you are and whatever you are doing...

Once, somebody asked a Saint “How do you see the world?” The Saint answered “Well, each person creates their own reality in this world.” What we see outside is a combination of a mass reality. With this mass reality, of course one person can change and make a difference, a small one. It’s better when one person changes, introverts oneself, opening the heart to Love, because Love is the greatest thing in this world and Love is the only way through it. It’s only through Love that people will change and it’s only through that, that there can be peace and for that you have to open up. That’s what I was saying in the beginning, that it is a time to introvert oneself. Our mind is always running to the outside, so we always see the cruelty, the negativity. Whenever you read the newspaper, whenever you put on the TV, what you see is always negativity. This gets imprinted in you to make your own mind become negative. You believe what you see is very bad, so then what happens? You start to judge and the mind becomes very judgemental. This is like that

or this is like this. But are you changing? No, you are not changing. That is the same thing everybody is doing around the world, there is no difference. Does it contribute to bringing peace and harmony to the world? No

it doesn’t. When you introvert yourself you go into the peace which you have inside of you. You sit quietly and when you sit calmly, of course the mind will begin to rebel. After some time you don’t want to get up,

for some people they can’t get up, it’s painful, or they go to sleep. But when you go into the calmness of the depths of your heart, in total surrender through your heartfelt sadhana, you enter the chamber of peace - the true inner peace. Through that inner peace which you will project to the outside, you will bring changes. For

example, let’s say when you go to somebody you know who is nervous and very agitated, what do you do? Do you try to calm the person down and advise the person to be positive, or do you also sit and cry with the person? It’s the same when you go to the doctor. The doctor will ask you what kind of problem you have. It is the first question and then you say “Doctor, if I knew what I have, I would not have come to you.” Well, when you go to the doctor, you go because you don’t feel well and you open up and tell the doctor what you don’t feel well about. Does the doctor sit with you and cry? No, the doctor won’t do that. It’s the same with psychiatrists. They advise you to move away from the way you’re thinking and the way you see things. Moving away from this, changes certain things inside of you. It changes the way you are always looking at

it. We were just saying that we see the world and project it as being cruel. The media wants us to see all the cruelty. But there are always also good things and it just depends on how you see it. Very often, one will see one’s own projection of what one has inside of oneself. When one suppresses certain things inside of oneself, of course by suppressing energy deep inside, what will happen? Whenever something happens outside, the suppression will project itself. When that happens there will be complete judgement only. When you learn to accept yourself and learn to be in peace with yourself the way you are, you will see that there is nothing wrong with the world. Things can change and it simply depends on each one. But we can’t say “You change

and I don’t change.” No, instead you have to say “I have changed and now the rest will change.” If there are certain things inside of yourself that you do not accept, be positive about them. You have a choice, the choice is how you look at things. Either you place a judgement saying ‘this is bad’ or you can say ‘this is not for me’ in a positive way. This is the way you look at it differently, in a metaphysical way. The first thing is

to open the heart, open the mind, let peace rise inside of you, each part of you. Whenever you have peace inside of you there is no place for anything else. Whenever there is Love inside of you, there won’t be any place for anything else either. You will become an instrument of that peace and Love wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Put yourself in the place of God. How would you see the world?

Let’s think a little bit. Put yourself in the place of God. How would you see the world?

The human mind likes to judge a lot of things. We say that God is punishing people. God is doing this and God is doing that. However, it is not like that. It’s our own self. It’s we who see and say these things. But the Divine doesn’t see it like we do. When you rise to such a level of consciousness you don’t see any good or bad. Everything becomes neutral for you because the Divine resides everywhere.

So try to practice it every day. Imagine yourself as God! Watch whether you really see the negativity or if you see everything as God, as your own Self. If you practice this every day, I tell you the time will come where there will be no difference. You will feel the peace of God everywhere. Wherever you go, with whoever you are talking to, there will be this peace, this love. That is what you all are looking for.

So look at the world with a perfect mind. Look at it in a mind that doesn’t judge anything and doesn’t see anything good or bad. See everything as God, see everything as the Divine. And let this love flow everywhere. It’s simple, isn’t it?

Being in the present moment......

Being in the present moment is the greatest gift, so enjoy the nectar, enjoy the sweetness, even if, as I said before, you don’t perceive what you are receiving. You are receiving something which will contribute to your awareness and to your advancement, to attaining the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to the fulfilment of the human life, to the fulfilment of why you have incarnated here.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a beautiful story about life:

Once, somebody went to a master. And when he went to this master and saw this master who was so blissful, this person, who himself was a master, said to the great master: “Tell me: who is your teacher? Why are you radiating so much light!?” Then the great one said: “I don’t have one teacher- I have twenty-four teachers.” Then he asked: „Who are these twenty-four teachers?” The master said:” First, above all the teachers, I’ve learned from my parents. Above all, firstly I have learned from my mother, who held my hand and made me walk. Secondly, I have learned from my father who was disciplined,and had shown me, how to sustain myself. My mother has shown me,how to stand on my feet.” Thee man went on like that-he never mentioned anybody apart from the mother and father, the rest he mentioned was about anything that he had seen in his life: the plants, animals... He had learned from every small insect, all together twenty-four. He had learned humility, patience, joy, happiness... all these qualities, just from nature.

Sri Swami vishwananda tells us today something about........

I would like to tell you a very sweet story with a great meaning in it. Once there was a master and his disciples. They were walking in a field, and while walking, the master just stopped and looked at a rosebush and said to his disciples, “Look how beautiful nature is!” The master was in ecstasy. The disciples looked at the roses, they looked around, they looked at the bush – but they could not understand what the master was saying. They were looking and looking, and then the master said, “You can’t see, eh?”

They were very confused. They started looking at the roses, looking at each other, and then they looked at the master. The master looked at them, at their long faces, looking back at him with a lot of confusion.

Then he said to the disciples, “Look at the flowers. Look how beautiful they are. Look at them. They are living and acting now, without any hope for the future or any regret for the past. They are living and acting in the present moment, and finally they are giving their fragrance, without any motive, without any expectation – freely. They are living their lives fully. You understand what is behind it? Nature is doing its work, and humans can learn so much from nature – even from a rose. The rose is not expecting anything, but what do humans do? Instead of putting their lives into right action, they are wasting time, expecting always and bringing misery on themselves. And then what do they say? “Oh God! Why do you send misery to me? I have always done well to you. I remember you always.” But on the other hand they are always expecting.

In this game that they are playing, they forget about their true nature. They forget about why they are here. And they like it, you know. They like to say, “Oh, I’m the poor one!” They don’t say, “I am the Divine, I am the creator of everything.” They like hanging around for the future, for what is to come in the future or what has been done in the past, they keep bringing it up all the time. Do you think this will bring happiness to humankind? No! Only misery.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today

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. What is life? Life is divine. And how many people know what life is? How many people know this Divine? How many people know how precious life is? Once you realise what life is, you will see life in a completely different way. Life is not just working, eating and sleeping, like people very often think. People enslave themselves in work. They enslave themselves in eating. Most of the time they don’t eat properly. And they enslave themselves in just sleeping. Life goes on and when the time comes for their departure, then they realise “Oops, I have missed something.” When they look back and see how many opportunities they had of realising the beauty of life, they regret because they realise how many opportunities came on their way, so that they could realise themselves, so that they could realise how great is this gift of life that God has given! And yet, they wasted it. Again I ask the question: What is life? The Divine is far away. For the mind to understand the Divine is very difficult. Until you have really cleansed the mind completely, until you have really purified the mind completely, it is quite difficult to understand the Divine. Love. Life is Love. And Love, of course, is Divine. Love is God. But the feeling of Love, that’s what life is all about, to Realise this great Love, not just this partial love when today we say “I love you” and tomorrow “Who is that person?” Life is not that love, but the Love that is beyond expression, this Love that is unconditional, which is in everything around you. That’s what is life. Have you ever sat down and looked at the nature? Have you ever felt the nature? That Love which is burning inside of you, that Life which is inside of you is everywhere. If you analyse the Truth around you, if you analyse the beauty around you, you will realise that we are all linked together by one thing, which is Love. And it’s beyond the religions, it’s beyond the colours, it’s beyond your status in the outside. It’s beyond the duality that is in your mind, because Love doesn’t know any duality. Love just knows how to Love. And Love doesn’t expect anything. We express this Love every day. Some do it consciously and for some it happens unconsciously. The Divine Love we are talking about right now. And when you take time through your spiritual practice, you will realise the beauty of Love, the beauty of life and you will know why you are here. And once you have opened this fountain, this tap of Love, Love can just flow, nothing else.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today....

"We all talk about God, but we don’t know God, we don’t have an image of Him. Of course, there are different aspects of the Divinity. But one thing that we can do is to feel God and that’s how we can know that He is with us all the time, we can feel Him continuously and enjoy Him at every moment."


Watch this beautiful Video " God of Wonders "......

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about........

You see when little things happen in one's life, very often people put in on such a big platform, forgetting the greatness that such a little thing can show.

So, if one forgets about the tiny things, the ego, the pride and is humble one will attain discipline, one will attain His love and one will get greater things.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

Life is a learning process. Everytime, you go through learning processes. Everytime in life, you learn new things and if you have not learned something now, it’s a round circle. You come back to it and you will learn again.