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.

When one is humble.....

We always say, I, mine and me. Have you ever counted how many times in a day you use these words? If you were to count them, you would scare yourself. It’s a lot of times! It’s true that we have different I’s. There is the “I” of the ego and there is the “I” of the Self, but most often, what our mind first understands is the “I’ of egoism. And with this “I”, it’s very difficult to awaken Love. Even if Love awakens, it gets diluted with the power of the mind. The ego is so strong. It’s true that to achieve Realisation, to achieve God, we have to be humble, but there is one problem. Very often, when someone sees himself as humble, he starts to say “I am very humble.” These people are very proud people. What is this called? This is the ego of humility and the pride of humility. Actually, it’s very difficult to be humble, but it’s not impossible. When one is humble, one will not even care about putting oneself completely down and regarding everybody else higher. This is the beginning of how to learn to be humble, to learn to put yourself down and say that everybody else knows better than you. Keep repeating to yourself, keep reminding yourself of that and you will learn from everything and from everyone. That’s true humility.

Love transcends all the barriers that we put up.....

Do you know the meaning of the song Choti Choti Gaya? It’s like: Little, little cows, little, little boys. Around Krishna there were always little gopas, you know? The cow-boys. He was a cowherd. Choti Choti Gaya means: little, little cows. (Singing) Little, little cows, little, little boys. Little is my sweet Krishna. Little is my sweet Krishna. In front, in front is the cow. At the back is the boy. In the middle is my Krishna. In the middle is my Krishna. Cows are eating grass, boys are eating milk and Krishna is eating makhan, (Swamiji explains) buttermilk. (Singing) Black, black cows, white, white boys. (Swamiji explains) And Krishna, who is in the middle of them, is like dark, blue-sky colour. He’s like a dark-coloured cloud. (Singing) Little, little anklets and little, little garlands. And Krishna is playing the flute. Little, little girls and little, little boys are playing in the Madhuvan (Guruji explains) the forest of Vrindavan. (Singing) And Krishna is dancing the Ras. (Sri Swami Vishwananda starts to sing with his devotees another bhajan: “Sabse oonchi, Prema sagai”) I will say Sabse oonchi and you will say Prema sagai. Sabse oonchi means: What is the most greatest form of worship? And then you say: Love is the greatest form of worship. Prem means: Love. Sagai means: worship. You know, this bhajan is one of my favorite bhajans. It’s all about Love. It describes the Love that Krishna had, that God has for humans. That’s why He said “What is the greatest form of worship?” And then you say: “Prema sagai.” Love is the greatest form of worship. Love transcends all the barriers that we put up. Even the mind can’t comprehend Love, so it transcends all. And then you say: Duryodhana ko mevā tyāgo. In that form, Tyago means: Duryodhana invited Krishna. Duryodhana was alive in Krishna’s time. There were the good ones, who were Arjun and the Pandavas and there were the bad ones always fighting with them, who were the Kauravas. Duryodhana was their chief. Duryodhana invited Krishna to eat. Duryodhana was a king, so of course he would give the most delicious food, but Krishna refused it. Instead He went to Vidura. Vidura was Krishna’s uncle, but he was very poor. And there, in his house, Krishna ate the most simple food: just rice and such simple food. And He was very happy about it. Why was He? It was because of the Love of Vidura. Duryodhana had everything, had all the luxury, but he didn’t have Love. It was just for pride to show off. Whereas Vidura, in his simplicity, his humbleness, he was full of love. And Krishna went there, because of that Love, not because of the food, you know. Swami starts to sing: Jūṭhe phala sabarī ke khāye. Sabari was a great devotee of Rama. In the time of Rama, Sabari everyday would collect fruits from the jungle and she would wait for Rama, since her youth. Rama is one aspect of the Divine. She would wait till Rama came to eat the fruit. So every day, she would bring fresh flowers and she would bring fresh fruit and wait for Rama. And she would chant all day: Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram. Eventually she grew old; she became a very old lady. All her teeth fell out, you know. She became so old that Rama finally came. When Rama and Lakshman were on the way to Lanka, they came and they passed by the cottage of Sabari and there this old lady without teeth, just two teeth in her mouth, was waiting for Rama. When Rama came, she was really joyfully welcoming Him. She put Rama on the seat there, because every day she would write with fresh flowers the name of Rama. So when Rama was there, she opened up her heart so much. Her heart was so full with Love. Of course Rama was with Lakshman, who is His brother, His small brother. Jūṭhe phala sabarī–jūṭhe is jujube, a fruit. I don’t know whether you have it here. So, she would first taste the fruit, whether it’s sour or sweet. She gave Rama only the sweet ones to eat and then Lakshman said “Oh, my goodness, how can you eat this?” And Ram said to Lakshman “You would not understand that. This is between the bhakta and the Beloved, the Lover and the Beloved one.” It’s the Love, you know, that the soul has, the soul connection and this is the Love that Sabari had for Rama. So Rama would eat it, because of that Love. That’s why we say: Jūṭhe phala sabarī ke khāye | bahu vidhi prema lagāī. That means: But he would feel great joy by eating that fruit. Rājasuya yajna yudhiṣṭhira kīno | tāmai jūṭha uṭhāī There was a great fire ceremony, where all the kings and everybody, all the sages were sitting, but there was nobody to serve them, nobody to really serve. Krishna, what did He do? He went when they finished eating and He helped to clean, to pick up the rubbish. Why was this? It was because of the Love for Yudhistira – the leader of Pandavas. Then, during the war of Mahabharata, Arjuna didn’t have anything to offer to Krishna, apart from his Love. But out of this Love that Arjun had for Krishna, He accepted to be the charioteer and ride the chariot for Arjuna and that’s the greatest Love that binds the soul to the Divine. In Vrindavan, He showed by doing the Ras, doing the dance. When He was dancing with all the girls from Vrindavan, He was the only one. That shows that in the Love for God we are all passive. He is the only One active. We all crave for that Love, whether you are man or woman. It’s beyond that concept, the Love that you are. You crave for the Universal Love, which is the Love that is seated inside your heart. Sūra krūra is lāyaka nāhī Sura Das is writing here, saying “Lord, I am unworthy of that Love.” He’s saying: “I am unworthy. I don’t deserve that, but yet you have shown Your mercy on me.” Sūra krūra is lāyaka nāhī | kaha lag karau baḍā. So He is the merciful one. Surdas was a great poet, actually. He was blind and he would sing the Name of Krishna and he would sing the Name of God, dancing around everywhere. Actually his story is like that: he was small and, because he was blind, nobody wanted to play with him. One day he heard some people singing the name of Krishna, so he started following them and started singing. And then he would sing, but of course, the group of people didn’t want him. So they cast him aside and then he would sing by himself. So Krishna, God, revealed Himself not in the outside, but inside of him, in his heart. Then he would see Krishna inside of him, constantly. One day he went to a temple and there, every day, although he was blind, he would describe how the Deity was dressed. In the Hindu tradition it is like that: every day, when they bathe their statue, they dress their statue nicely with new clothes. Now, everybody and even the priest were thinking “Oh, my goodness, probably he is just pretending to be blind.” So one day they didn’t dress the statue at all. They left the statue naked and then he sang “Oh my Lord in your nakedness, You are even more beautiful than with clothes.” And such was his Love for Krishna that Surdas was one with Him. One day Krishna appeared to him and gave him his sight back. He could see Krishna. Then Krishna said “Now you can go; you can see.” Then he said “No, my Lord, I don’t want anything. No, what I would like you to do is take back the sight. I have seen You, I don’t want anything. I don’t want to see this world. I have seen You. I don’t want to see anything else.” Well, this is what the song is about. It’s about the Love that we have for God. Worship is not about the prayer, you know, it’s not about what we utter as words. It’s what we express with our heart that is the Love and Love is not quantity, it’s quality.

How many of you are ready to sacrifice everything, completely? .......

We all have devotion: we pray, we do our work every day and this is, also, called devotion, but pure devotion is complete surrender. This pure devotion, which Radha had for Krishna, even though She was separated from Krishna, even though She was separated from the Oneness – it was just to teach us what it is to surrender. Actually, Radha represents all of us: the creation, the manifestation. She symbolizes the Love, the example. She symbolizes the Bhav, the complete surrender to the Will of God. It’s not about her own will, but the Will of God, the Will of Krishna. That’s why it is said that She is the only true Devotee and we all have to become like Her. The manifestation of the Lord Himself into Radharani is to show us how to love unconditionally, how to have such faith that even a storm will not uproot you. Nowadays we talk about faith. But the moment something happens and doesn’t turn out the way people want, what happens? They are

uprooted already. Faith is like this: you have to become like a huge tree. When a storm comes, the branches will blow, but the roots are so anchored into the earth, the tree does not come out. That’s how faith has to be. That is what Radharani teaches to us. In Her Life there were not only joyful times, but She transcended the joy and the pain. We all want bliss, don’t we? We all want to attain the Divine, but yet we hang onto things. We want to love and we want to do God’s will, but in our mind we always say “Yes, I want to do God’s will, but I want to always be happy”, because in our minds, we think that happiness is bliss. But the transcendental happiness that is real bliss is beyond the happiness like when you say with a big smile “I am happy”, because when one is in bliss, one doesn’t know happiness or sadness. It is difficult to understand it with the mind, because your brain can only understand whether you are happy or sad, or you are happy-sad, but transcending these two is Ananda. And that’s what our soul is longing for. There is one bhajan that I always sing, that says “For love, one can do anything.” Isn’t it like this? But Love is sacrifice, you know, isn’t it? Are you ready to sacrifice completely for that? How many of you are ready to sacrifice everything, completely? So, that’s what faith is: complete surrender. If you are completely surrendered to the Will of God and you remember the Divine–wherever you are, whatever you do, even in the smallest things–then you will transcend. Always people ask for something and, of course, God will always give. But there will come a point where there will be no need to ask the Divine for anything, because it will be given to you before you ask. The more you are surrendering to the Will of God, to the Divine–not surrendering only in your mind, but also surrendering here, in your heart – the more there will be no difference between you and Him. That’s what Radharani transcends, the difference between She and Krishna, to show that there is no difference between we humans and the Divine. The only difference is that we are limited with our mind. We see the difference, we see the duality, but in the higher realms they don’t see the same way we see. They have a hierarchy where they have their own jobs, their own duties to do, their dharma to do, but there is no judgement like we always have. Through our sadhana, through our spiritual practice, what do we do? We transcend this duality. We focus our mind, so that we can stop thinking and start acting in the divine way. Still, when we say Divine Will, we mean always whatever is good, whatever is creative, but the more we are

surrendered, the more this duality will disappear. And we will see that all is alike.

You can’t understand Unconditional Love out of fear....

We are here – some for tourism, some for the spiritual search, and some just to see who Swami Vishwananda is. But, actually all of you –knowingly and unknowingly – you are here to open the heart; to know who we really are, not here, in this room, but here in this world. Often people come and ask me, “How will we open our heart?” For me to answer this question is very easy, I know how the heart is opened. It depends only whether the person will accept it or not. The first question that I will ask is “Do you love?” Then they tell me “Yes I love!” But, do you love yourself? This is the main important thing. We love towards the outside, but in the same way we love the outside, we also judge the outside. As easy as it is to love, as easy it is to judge. You see, mankind is made in such a way that the attention is always turned towards the outside. Very rarely does it turn towards the inside. And this is a search to go inside! The moment you stop, you stop judging; the moment you stop looking for fault in others, you will start truly loving everybody. And for that, you have to start looking within yourself, looking for what you have to change in your life. I’m not saying to judge yourself, but to look at the negative part of you and face it. But by looking at the negativity only, you will see that you create this negativity. To understand Love, it’s simple, it is just…absence of fear. You can’t understand Unconditional Love out of fear. But if people really want to understand Love, really want to understand who they are…they will. But often, the fear is so great that it makes a barrier, and then you ask the question, “If I realise who I am, what is then?” The fear of the Unknown stops the want of realising. But if you accept, whatever, as the will of God and say “God Thy will be done!” and Christ has shown it, by saying, “Thy will be done – God’s will!” you will realise that the will of God is also your will without egoism. The will of God is one’s own will; it is the will of the soul, the will of the true identity, which is without any egoism; the purity is in the Self, it is one’s Self. So, to open the heart: the yogis knew that it would be difficult in this age for man to really open up the heart because of how the world would be. Today, I put the TV on, just for a short while – looking at the war, it is never finished. So I was thinking: mankind is looking for security but, looking at the world, what security will the world give? Each one has to be secure with one’s self. And this security is only in the trust of God. Trust in yourself! Even if one person is positive and really achieves that stage, it’s really great.

What is Shivaratri? ....

... Actually, Shivaratri is when you forget about your mind and let your mind dwell only on the Divine. Actually, right now when you were singing and chanting “Panduranga Vittale Vittale, Panduranga Vittale Vittale,” you were not thinking. You were just chanting the Name of God and by that movement you didn’t think of anything. You were just concentrating on the vibration that was coming out from what you were chanting, no? That’s what Shivaratri is, actually – it is uplifting you and really awakening what is deep inside of you. If I were to tell you to just sit and meditate, would you meditate? Half, no, three quarters of you will sleep. Like that the whole world is sleeping right now, but you are all awake. What is best, to sleep or to chant the Divine Name? [audience: To chant] Ah, very good. How many of you do that every day? And how many of you sleep the whole night? [laughter -Swami laughs] Well, at least once a year on this night of Shivaratri you can awaken this Divine Consciousness inside of you, awaken this Love, and let Lord Shiva, Lord Panduranga, the Divine Mother, awaken also. Many will say “But it’s Shivaratri. Why are we singing Panduranga? Why would we sing Krishna’s Name? Why would we sing Narayana’s Name?” Actually, in the mind of man there is a lot of difference, but for God there’s no difference. That’s what is said: to enter the Kingdom of God, one has to rise above good and bad. Actually, it is that one has to rise above all duality, which the mind creates. That’s what Krishna said in the Gita: “A true yogi sees me everywhere, in everything.” And of course, in this time it’s not easy to become a true yogi. This night of Shivaratri, why do we stand praying to the Lord? Why do we do four times abishekam when we can just do it one time and be finished with it and go to bed? No, actually this night is a very auspicious night. And what you receive this night, all the other nights you won’t receive that, the Grace of the Lord, the Grace of Lord Shiva. The Grace of God, you receive it by chanting the Divine Name, by chanting Om Namah Shivaya, by chanting Panduranga, Krishna’s Name. It doesn’t matter whose Name you’re chanting. The main thing is that you are connecting with God throughout the night. The four prayers that we do represent the four Vedas. Of course, we can chant the whole Veda. The whole Veda – what is the Veda? The Veda is just about life itself. It’s not about the mantras that we chant. This is part of it, if you know the whole Veda. But yet, if you have not come face to face with God, you have not seen the Divine, you have not realised the Divine, the Veda is useless. So that’s why it’s said the simplest thing is to chant the Divine Name and connect yourself, because in the Divine Names there is everything. The whole Veda is present. It’s like when a moth has seen the light. Does it go back again into darkness? No, it will die in the flame of that light, but it will stay near the light. The same thing is with the Divine Name. When you chant God’s Name, you awaken this feeling. You awaken the Divine inside of you. Of course, it will not happen in one day because your mind has to be purified completely. Your trust has to build little by little. Your strength has to become more and more, then the Lord will shine through you. Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree and say “OK, fine, I have it.” No, it is inside of you. When you have cleansed the outside, actually, your True Self reveals itself to the mind. When it reveals itself to the mind, this is when the dissolution happens – the dissolution of your identity, the dissolution of the mind itself. That’s why we talk of the merging of the mind and the heart and the spirit together. Then there is no you and me. There is only Him that dwells everywhere. He is the same Lord which dwells in everything around. The essence of the Lord is present everywhere. If one sees it, if one realises it, one’s life will change completely. For that you have to sincerely want it because that Love, it’s not just the kind of Love that says “I love you”. It’s a Love that consumes you. It’s a Love that burns your identity, that burns everything. Are you ready for that? No, you are not. Don’t say “Yes.” You are not ready, because if you were ready you would have been burned already, with this Love. One can try one’s best to be ready, because this is what your soul wants and that’s what your mind also wants. Yet, the mind knows only the tangible things which are outside – running from one thing to another, looking for the eternal. Wherever the mind is focused you are not happy. Today you want a house. Tomorrow you will want a car. You will get the car and then so on and so on, because nothing outside can really hold the mind. But once the mind has seen the Light, once the mind has seen the Divine face-to-face, the mind gets consumed into that Divine Love. For this, it doesn’t matter whether you are here, whether you are at your place. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, but it just needs the sincerity of your heart. Just that. Simple! You see Yogis meditating, you see great Sages meditating. Why? It’s because they have already come face-to-face with that Divine and for them, seeing the world, they don’t see it the way people see. They see it completely differently. That’s why if they have to explain that to humans they will not understand. They prefer to run away to caves to hide themselves. They say it’s better being in the cave and being with the Lord, helping the world than being with people who will not understand anything. Man always wants to understand things through the mind. Man always wants to know more and more. What will you do with it? Do you think next life you will take it with you? Ah, forget about that! All that you have studied in this life will be buried with you here. You will not take it to the next life with you. The only thing that you will take is what you are working on for your soul. That’s the only thing that you will take with you and this, you will carry through lives. This is because when you are spiritual in this life it’s because in the past you have already worked, through many lives you have worked your way to be here. It’s not just that God is saying “This one, I like his face. I will bring him on the spiritual path.” It’s not like that. You are here because in previous lives you have worked hard and this life you are also working hard, but this time is different from other times, it’s a very special time. All times are special, but at the moment we are living in a very specific time where God is giving Himself to you, whereas in other times you had to run towards Him. In this time He is running towards you. But what is man doing? He is running away from Him. It would be a good scenario for a film, huh? This is how humans function. They think that they will lose something and they’re scared of losing. What would you lose? The Gita said that you have come with nothing and you will leave with nothing, so the only thing is Him. All what you call “Mine, mine, mine, that is mine, this is mine,” you can’t take with you. Lord Shiva, why do we adore Him with vibhuti? Just to remind us that everything is ash. This body is ash and it will become that ash. That’s what the symbolism of vibhuti is – remind yourself that you are just dust, nothing else. This body that you call “I, I, I,” is actually this pile of dust that we just offered to Him. Once it goes through a furnace, goes through the fire, it’s just that what will stay. Where is your knowledge in it? Nothing! When the spirit is gone it will carry on in another body or it will carry on in other spheres to grow, to advance, to look for the Divine, to look where he can realise himself. Shivaratri….. Shiva is a great Yogi, who is seated within each one. That’s why when we say Shivoham, we identify our Self with Lord Shiva. It’s not just words to say. We say Aham Brahmashmi. These are the three words in the Hindu tradition that we say: Aham Brahmashmi – I am Divine. I will not say I am God. I am Divine, because this is the essence of human nature. You are Divine and when the outside identity is dissolved, the true identity, the Divine identity of who you really are will reveal itself to you. Shiva is always sitting in meditation to represent that the mind has to calm itself. As long as the mind is wandering around left and right, there will be misery. You will come back again. But when you have learned to calm your mind, when you have learned to surrender your mind to the Lord, then He can reveal Himself. That’s what the essence of Shivaratri is – to surrender your mind. Focus it on God. Chant His Divine Names. Purify yourself. Purify your mind. In short, that is Shivaratri, nothing else.

Remove the veil of Illusion......

Krishna said, “All that is and all that you feel is just a game. I create, I protect and I destroy everything by my own will. And it all goes back to me. Maya, illusion, has created a veil of separation. With this veil, you can’t see that you are all a part of me.”

That is actually why you are all here… to remove this veil. There are many lifetimes that you keep on with the same game. And you repeat and repeat the same thing, forgetting that the Lord is here deep inside our heart. We are looking for Him on the outside. We are looking for Him in this world, but we can just drop deep inside ourselves and find Him. Let go of the mind which is always busy looking on the outside. If we just drop ourselves deep in our heart, we can feel this peace and happiness and enjoy it.

Only a few really know the importance of prayer......

Prayer: that’s what transforms somebody. Through prayer, people find solace; some to attain the lotus feet of the Lord, some to achieve whatever they desire in life. But the main thing is to pray: that’s what transform you, what gives you this inner glow, so that you can call yourself spiritual. People, humans are always on a search. They are always searching for something. Some people search for it in the outside world. Some people search for it in the inside world. But, only few really know the importance of prayer. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas said “The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”. Then they can value how precious the stone is. The same thing: if somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it.

Do we have a free will? ....

Once somebody asked a saint “Do we have a free will?” The saint said “Well, you have a will, but it’s not free.” It’s like a cow: the cow is tied with a rope and is given only a certain radius to turn around. The cow is free, but it is free only in a certain radius. And such is so, also, with the will of man. And the rest is His will only. But in this little radius with things which seem so big, we like to make ourselves feel greater than anybody else, don´t we? We like to make ourselves even greater than the Lord Himself.