Hanuman is considered to be the model of bhakti, He is considered how one has to be in one’s spiritual path, and how devotional one has to be.....

Hanuman is an incarnation of Shiva. When Rama came down, all the Deities manifested themselves in the form of Monkeys – Vanara Sena. And Hanuman is Shiva Himself actually. That’s why it is said: when you pray to Hanuman, you receive the grace of Gauri Shankar. And, as I have explained during Ram Navami, the name Rama is a mixture of Om Namo Narayanaya and Om Namah Shivaya. The first word of Rama is: Om Namo Narayanaya, which is Ra, and Om Namah Shivaya, which is Ma. So the name of Rama is infused in Hanuman through His devotion. He was initiated in the name of Rama from childhood and His devotion had no limit. Even till now, it is said: wherever the name of Rama is being read, He is the first one to come and the last one to leave. Hanuman is immortal. He travelled the world around, protecting, giving His blessing to Rama devotees, to whoever prays to Lord Rama. Tulsidas knew that he would not be able to attain Ram by himself. He knew that his devotion was weak. He had to strengthen his devotion and the only way to strengthen His devotion to Lord Rama was to take Rama Bhakta, and become a devotee of Lord Rama. That’s what Krishna said in the Gita, “Whoever wants to come to me shall be devoted to my servants. The devotee of my servants is dearer to me”. So Tulsidas took the word of what is written also in Rama Charitra Manas. He surrendered to Hanuman and asked Hanumanji for His help and, of course, he didn’t know who Hanuman was. So through his penance of roaming around for days and days, he reached a spot, he heard a voice saying “Go to Varanasi. Go to the temple where the Rama Charitra Manas is being read”. Then he
asked “But how will I know Him?” Then the voice said “You will recognise Him, because He is an old man who will come. He will be the first one to come and the last one to leave”. So he went there and, when he went to the temple, he saw only one old man sitting. Then people filled up and, when everybody left, He was the only one left, the last one to leave. So he knew that He was Hanuman. He went and held the feet of the old man and said “Please, Prabhu, you are such a great devotee of the Lord, please guide me to Him. And bless me with a little bit of your devotion that you have to Lord Rama”. Hanuman at this moment, because He was in disguise, said “No, no, no, what are you doing?” You know, He wanted to test him. He rebuked him, pushed him away, but Tulsidas would not let go of His feet. And Hanuman was pleased with his devotion and said “I bless you that Lord Rama will come, but you will have to recognise Him”. So, when a few days later Tulsidas was on the bank of the Ganges, preparing pure sandal paste, two young men came
to him and said “We see that you are preparing some nice sandal paste. Can we have some?” Then Tulsidas said “Well, this sandal paste is for the king, for royalties. And I see that you are royalties, so you can have the sandal paste”. Of course he could not recognise who was in front of him. Then Hanuman was up on the tree where Tulsidas was sitting. He called Tulsidas and said “Tulsidas, this is your Lord in front of you”. When he now saw the Lord in front of him, Tulsidas left and took the chandan and held the feet of Rama.
This is how Hanuman helped the devotees of the Lord to find Him. So He is a model of devotion. So we can just pray that a little bit you can change like Him.

The love of God is the only Reality......

I’ll tell you something: to realise the Love of God you have to live it; you can’t read it. To realise devotion, bhakti, you have to live bhakti. Then you can have just a glimpse of this Love. I’ll tell you something more: even a glimpse of this Love is a lot for this body. Try your best always to achieve this Love, because this is the only Reality. All that we think is real, all these things are just an illusion and will fade with time. The body is an illusion; with time it will grow old and disappear. But yet, the reality of the Atma will stay. How many people really arrive in a lifetime to the point of realising the Atma Swarupa - the real form of the Atma? 

The greatness of the name of God.....

Isn’t it beautiful to sing the name of Narayana? Let yourself be drawn into it. Such is the greatness of the name of God, whoever is singing with an open heart, whoever is singing the name of God with faith, will be pulled more inside of it. See, the more you go into it, the more you lose yourself in this Divine name, the identity of being human disappears. Then what stays is only the Divine, and that is what you really are. If we remove the body, who are you? The soul, isn’t it?We are the soul with a stain on it. The stain is in the mind. However, by singing the name of God – any aspect, Krishna, Jesus, Allah – one begins to remove this stains. But it has to be sung with devotion and love. It is nice when you join together and sing the name of God. It creates a vibration, an urge to merge with God.That’s why it is very important, wherever you are, find a few people and sing. If you don’t know how to sing, just recite His names. While you are reciting, picture the form in your mind. Keep concentrating on the form and let yourself go. Let yourself merge into the Divine energy. And enjoy it! Remove all the darkness and barriers from the mind – just jump in. This is bhakti! 

Who is yourself in reality?.....

.... It’s just Him! In the Gita, Krishna said: Everything is me. In the Bible, Christ said: Give what belongs to Caesar, to Caesar. And what belongs to God, to God. But what belongs to God? It is your spirit. It is your true Self. Make your prayer like this, “Lord, do whatever you want with me, whenever you want with me, and however you want with me”. And in your mind don´t ask any questions. This is a poison, because the mind always doubts. The mind always thinks it knows best. And when you surrender this mind to the Divine, bhakti will arise, devotion will arise. And when devotion arises, the purity of Love will also arise together with it. It´s not a love where we just say “I love you, I love you”. It´s a Love where when we say “I love you”, there is no condition in it. It is not “I love you because of something. I love you because of your body. I love you because of your wealth. I love you because you are beautiful outside and if I pull the skin from your body, I don´t love you anymore”. But it’s because when you say “I love you” you love Him the way He is. And that´s the purity of Love, the Unconditional Love, the way God loves, the way your heart knows how to love. That´s why you do feel Love, but the moment you start to put conditions to that Love, it fades. But when you stick to this purity of Love, and make this Love grow, it will grow. Because Love is like a seed, which is inside the heart of man: the seed has to grow, has to blossom, also. It has to germinate and grow big; the seed can´t just stay like that. That´s what Christ said, also. There are so many similarities between Hinduism and Christianity. Christ said: If you plant a seed on a stone, it will never grow. But if you plant it in the heart of man it shall grow.” And this is the Love in the heart of man, when real Love is felt, when real Love starts to grow. It grows in six different stages, which are called: Sneha Prem, Pranaya Prem, Mana Prem, Raga Prem, Anuraga Prem, and Maha Bhav. These stages of Love - of course, I will now not go to detail about it - grow when this purity is there, which leads you to complete surrender to the Divine. But first, what is in regard to normal life, is to calm the mind and let Love itself start to grow inside of the heart. Only through this Love will you know who you are. And this is not up to me to tell you, it’s up to you to make the first step.

The way you give yourself to Him, He will give Himself to you......

The Lord can’t see any one of His children suffering, so even if you are falling down, He will always be there to help you get up. So, by calling Him, by chanting His Divine Name, you get more and more accustomed to Him. What is the Divine Name? It’s the name of God. So, the more you chant God’s name, what happens? All this negativity, which is in your mind, gets dissolved. Of course, it doesn’t happen just like that! It happens through practice, through years and years of practice. Some people, after practicing a year or two, say “Ok, I don’t see any result” and then they let go. Well, these people will not go anywhere, because they will move from one practice to the other, from this other to yet another one. This is how their life will carry on. It’s like digging many holes trying to look for water, instead of digging just one hole and attaining the water. But if you dig ten holes, you will never get the water. So, in the same way, when you start chanting the Divine Names, for the Lord to reveal Himself to you, you have to prove yourself, also. Of course, everything happens through His grace, nothing happens through your grace. Even moving, even for me to talk, it is only through His grace that this is possible. But, as man has a mind, you have to prove that you really want to let go of this mind. So, by chanting His Divine Names, you start to call Him. So, the more you call Him, the more you are tuning yourself into His tune and the old you becomes less and less, until only His grace starts to shine through. It’s very simple. For example, when you start chanting Krishna’s name, at the beginning you will feel tired about it, you know. You will feel “Oh, what is happening? Why is He not listening?” But actually, these are all different qualities that awaken, you see, even to be angry with Him, because you wish for Him. In the same way that you wish for Him, He wishes for you much more. Let’s say you get depressed or you say “Ok, I’m praying, all this, you know, but He’s not listening,” and it happens, you know, but actually, this is Maya, His game. When He doesn’t show Himself, it is for you to long for Him even more. Of course, we can talk about it, you can think about it in the mind, but when you are in it, it is completely different. For you, it’s like the world is going upside down. I was talking with somebody yesterday, actually. This person said to me “Swamiji, I would love to see Krishna!” And then he reminded me of something that happened about twelve years ago, when he had the wish to see and I, well, He showed Himself to him, but because at that time he was not ready, I took this grace away from him. Then he said to me “Look, what happened twelve years ago, you took it away. I would love to see Krishna and I want it back!” And I said “What would you do to get this?” Well, he said “Anything!” And I said to him “Are you sure?” You see, it’s easy to talk about, but when it comes to the act, when it comes to practise, it’s difficult. Many people say “Yes, we love God”, but how many really do everything so that this love may grow? Very few do. Like the Lord said “I can count them on my hand.” Well, His hand, His hands are not like a human hand, you know. He has not only one; He has many. So, in the same way, the more you chant the Divine Names, the more you tune yourself into this Divine Name, the more He starts to shine through you and the more He starts to act through you. But of course, not Him, only His qualities do. To get Him fully, you have to go deeper and deeper. It’s the same as when you dig the hole. First you get a little bit of water, which is muddy, but the more you dig you have more water, which is clearer. It’s the same with the qualities of Him. Because, you see, when people reach a certain degree of spirituality, they develop certain qualities. He gives them certain qualities, but the sad thing is that people get stuck to these qualities. They think they have already reached a very high level of spirituality, you know, and they think of themselves as being everything. Then, of course, nothing further happens. But whereas, when you forget about these qualities, don’t give them too much importance, but go for Him, He will not be able to deny you His presence. He will even not be able to deny you Himself. The way you give yourself to Him, He will give Himself to you.

It is nice when you join together and sing the name of God......

If we remove the body, who are you? The soul, isn’t it? We are the soul with a stain on it. The stain is in the mind. However, by singing the name of God – any aspect, Krishna, Jesus, Allah – one begins to remove this stains. But it has to be sung with devotion and love. It is nice when you join together and sing the name of God. It creates a vibration, an urge to merge with God. That’s why it is very important, wherever you are, find a few people and sing. If you don’t know how to sing, just recite His names. While you are reciting, picture the form in your mind. Keep concentrating on the form and let yourself go. Let yourself merge into the Divine energy. And enjoy it! Remove all the darkness and barriers from the mind – just jump in. This is bhakti!