Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

Real spirituality is in each one of you, in each one of your hearts, whether you believe or not, it’s there. God is sitting permanently within you. But to achieve it, this is each one’s way, each one’s personal way. To discover the God without form, God without name, the eternal – to realise that you, all of you, are part of Him. This is the aim of man.

Open up your heart! Love, love unconditionally! Love without limit! Love without expecting anything! Realise this love is ever flowing, the more you give, the more you receive. Just give for the sake of giving. That is what you are here for.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a beautiful story .....

There was once a devotee of Kali who lived near Dakshineswar. It was not Ramakrishna, it was a priest, and his love for the Divine Mother was sooo great, that he would praise the Mother wherever he was. In his house, there were no food. So he went and beg, but people refused to give him food. Then the Divine Mother disguised Herself as a fruit-seller, and went to his house where She gave some vegetables and some rice to the wife and said, “Cook them. Your husband sent me here.”

When the husband came back to home, the wife told him: “Oh, thank you, to have sent this lovely lady, who brought some vegetables and some rice for us to eat. 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 cloths that the Lady had been wearing, were now on the statue of Kali!”

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda......

The past is finished.
Leave it back. Don’t bother about the past.
As long as you hang on the past, the past will hang with you.
The more you let go off the past, more you will be free and the more you will be in the present.

Here is an excerpt of Sri Swami Vishwananda's Darshan in Munich, September 2007:

Sri Krishna said in the Gita; “Cast away all dogma.
Cast away all what is from the mind, and surrender to me.”
Then only can true Love be realised.
Otherwise, if you see it with Jnani, they stick only in the mind.
I don’t say it’s not good, it is good.
But it will lead you only to a certain level.
Karma Yoga is very good to help.
But if you’re not helping with the right attitude, it stills brings you only to one level.
Whereas Bhakti is what Sri Krishna said to Uddhava; “ above all the Yogas, I prefer Bhakti Yoga. I prefer the Yoga of devotion.
Where the Devotee and the Lord, become one, when there is no difference that stays.
Whereas in all the other Yogas, there is a difference.

Sri Swami Vishwananda told us once a story about ...

Once somebody asked a great Saint:”Tell me, how will I become like you?” The Saint who was very dirty- you know, it was a sadhu and you know how dirty the the sadhus in India are.
So the sadhu looked at him, how he is dressed nicely and he turned to the river and said:”Do you see these two rivers, passing by there?”
The one river was filthy dirty and the other one was very pure, like Ganga- no, Ganga is not that clean, anyway... like a swiss river, you know! Very clear water!
So, the Saint looked at him and said:”When these both river become alike, then you come to me!”

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today

I was asked a question, a few days ago actually. Somebody asked me “Swamiji, you always say, also Christ said it, ‘Blessed are the poor in the Spirit, for they shall inherit God’”.

The person said to me “Shall we be ignorant?”.

Well it’s not what I said.

You see: Blessed are the poor in the mind.

Christ actually didn’t mean that you have to be completely ignorant to realize God.

What He means is: One has to have knowledge about God, because if you are ignorant you will not know anything.

But very often [because of] knowledge arises pride and we get so much attached to our knowledge, that even the reality gets covered. And when you are in ignorance, of course it’s not good.


Actually, it’s good that both are in balance, but at the same time- if you want to realize God fully, you have to put aside both of them.

Knowledge is in the mind and if you want to understand the Divine with the mind it’s futile.

You will never be able to understand. We want to grasp something, which is impossible to grasp, which is not physical.

But our mind understands, even our heart understands only what is physical, what we can grab and handle.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda: " Be in the hands of God "

Like I said yesterday in the story of Krishna’s flute, we just give ourselves.
Be like that.
Be in the hands of God.
May you be ready always to be His messenger, His tool, to spread His Love.

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

As you know very well, the power of Love is the only thing that conquers everything.
If you want to conquer God, conquer Him with Love.
If you want to achieve Him, you will achieve Him only with Love.
But the Love has to be pure.
Not saying: “Ok, I have been to the Center here.
I have been to the ashram.
I have been to Shivaratri- the Love is pure.”
No, you have to make that Love pure inside of you.
You have to train your mind to become positive.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

Isn’t it said in the Gita?
Krishna said: “Out of a million, only a few will attain me.”
Because we hear things, but we are still deaf.
Why?
Because we don’t want to change.
We say “Yes, we want to change.” But in reality, very few, really, really, really sincerely want to change.
Okay, just here now, with a small group- then we will multiply it by a million afterwards.
How many sincerely will do anything to attain, to receive the grace of God?
Sincerely, eh?
Just lift your hand. Anything, I mean anything, any, any, any, anything! (laughter)
Any test that God gives you? You will bear it.
(Devotee 5:Bear it or go into this thing? (laughing))
Not about going, well, this is up to… It’s just a question.
We don’t need to know what kind of tests God gives us… (laughter) (laughing)
Otherwise it would not be a test. So sincerely.
(Devotee 6: If He guarantees us that we will attain Him if we do it) (Some people are lifting their hands)
Even from those who have lifted their hands I can pick out…maybe one or two from that. (laughing)
(Devotee 5: So and what is then our obstacle?)
Each one has their own obstacle. The fear of letting go.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a funny Story.........

Before giving Darshan Swami Vishwananda once told us a story, that he heard during his childhood:
I remember my mum used to tell me a story, when I was small. It’s a funny story. There were two neighbours.
They always quarrelled with each another. One day one of them said “I will pray to God, I will meditate on God, that when I see God I will ask Him for a blessing.”
So he meditated and prayed. God appeared to him and said “My dear fellow, what do you want?” -" God, I want a blessing from you. I want to have the blessing, that whatever I ask from you I get.” God said “Okay, under one condition. I will give you this blessing with one condition that whatever you ask me, your neighbour will get double.” That’s shocking, isn’t it? He thought for a while and said “Okay, fine”.

So when he asked God for one ton of gold, his neighbour had two tons of gold. He asked for one house, his neighbour had two houses. The same thing with one car, his neighbour had two cars.
Of course he was jealous inside. “How come I prayed so much, but my neighbour is profiting more?”
Do you know what he thought then? He said “Okay, God I want a very big, deep hole in front of my house.” Well, God had to keep his promise- the neighbour had two holes in front of his house. The next thing he asked God was “God, I want you to take one of my eyes out.” You know what happened…
This story sounds really funny, but this is how human are.
We can’t be happy for somebody else. Even when we say “Yes, I am happy for that person”, but when you look deep inside, there is something that is eating you.
Probably you don’t think about it, but at night when you go to bed it eats you a little bit, isn’t it? How come that person is like that and I am not like that? How come that person is realised, but I am not? One question which is very nice and that I get very often is “Swamiji how come I don’t see things?” But God has given you two eyes. Everyday you see so many things, you know? But yet they ask you this question “Why don’t I see the things that my neighbour sees?” Start taking time what you see, what you feel, what you want. And only then you can really see him, not only to see some light or somebody walking around, but more than that. To see that what you have inside of you is really equal in everybody.
You all know about it, but it’s time to realize it and to really feel it. And love can really show that, you know? When this love awakes for your self firstly and when this love really awakes completely inside of you, consume you completely with the Divine Love. You know this cosmic love- You can just see love, nothing else, because all the things that are separating you, dissolve into love. And your eyes can make you see only love.

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

To experience God we should love. This is the main experience of it. The definition of God? Love!

Very often people think, when they feel God, they will think “Oh something marvelous, something great”… whatever. But each one has their own way of feeling God. For some the Divine will express itself as complete joy, but for some the Divine will express Itself as separation. For some it is joy just to be in love with Him and just to know that He is there. Actually you can describe every feeling as coming from the Divine. But which is the right feeling? Everybody has his own. And each person is on a different level, each person vibrates on a different level of vibration, where they can feel the Divine in their way.

For somebody who is in the world, the Divine will express Itself in the worldly way. For somebody, who is on the spiritual path, God will express Itself in a spiritual way. But when somebody is completely surrendered to the Divine, the Divine also will surrender complete to that person. This awakening of this cosmic love within oneself can be in a painful way, in a joyful way, but one who is in the spiritual world, one who surrenders completely to the Divine will not question the Divine, but will happily accept it. When one is completely surrendered to the Divine, one doesn't has their own will into it. But when one has their own will, then this pride and ego are still workingand this will make one unhappy. But this is also a feeling that you can express to the Divine.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today....

Everybody who is here knows about spirituality already. They know what they are searching- Well, i guess so. So, we all know we are searching for something. Whether we are in the world outside or we are spiritual. We are always on the search. But what are we searching for? Happiness? (Someone: Yes) Joy? (Someone: Yes) Freedom? (Someone: Yes) Where are we searching it? Outside? (Someone: Yes) Did you forget about it? (Laughter)The search is here. Inside our Self. To rediscover who we are. We all search for something, we all long for something. When we get it, we long for something else. Why does the longing to the outside never finish? Because the longing of the heart is the most important thing, but the longing of the heart- if you try to understand it with the mind, it’s not possible. When we talk of love, we all have an idea of how love has to be. In our mind we say “Yes, love has to be this way, this way, this way.” But if you know really how love is, you don’t talk about it.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Jai Gurudev! (audience: Jai Gurudev!)
It was just a quick decision of doing a Satsang, because today I didn’t spend
much time with the people here. So you didn’t see me much. That gives a chance to be all together.
That’s what the word Satsang means, no?: “To come together”. But to come
together for what? Very often people come together to gossip, no? This is the
favorite topic of people. Whenever there is something to gossip, they like to be together. But the people, who are on the spiritual path like to be together also to praise God, no?
So like that there are different ways where people try to come together to be heard, to discuss, to share and that what makes us strong, that’s what makes one strong in oneself- the coming together. Of course one can practice one’s spiritual path alone, which is also strong. But when you come together, the energy is completely different. It’s like everybody has one goal and everybody is vibrating the same frequency. It’s much stronger.
So, that’s what the word Satsang means. To come together, to unite with one energy, one goal, where everybody is up to. We are not coming together to see how beautiful this one is dressed, we are not coming together to look how beautiful is my voice or how beautiful is somebody else’s voice. We are not coming together to make ourselves interesting. But we come together, so that we can build up our foundation in ourselves, we can build up our strength towards God-realization or Self-realization. But it’s sad to see that nowadays when people come together; it’s mostly to talk about other people, to gossip about what the other person has been doing. (smiling) But what the person has done is not your business; it’s the person’s business. (smiling) Mind your own business; but that’s what
people don’t do nowadays. They don’t look at themselves, but they do look at others, forgetting what Christ has said: “The fault that you see in other people, the judgment you put on to others, is your own judgment towards yourself”.

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 talks about........

All our Shakti (Power) always comes from God, but we have to know that all negative energy like hatred, fustration, anger or jealousy can also be transformed into postivite energy like love, joy or bliss.
Sri Swami Vishwananda is adressing us to find this deep Love inside of us, which will help us not only to have a beautiful environment and harmony, but also to develop a loving relationship to the Divine.

A Mother is lovely, but a Mother also can be strict and disciplined. Often we see a woman always frail and not that strong. The men always think of themselves being more strong.
It’s just an illusion, because when a woman gets angry, what does she become like? Bhadrakali, no? (laughter) Where does this power come from? You know about it, no Matajis? (laughter) (Some: Yes) (laughing) You are well experienced about that. Ma is very calm, but She has different aspects. Like yesterday we were saying if you have this negativity inside of you, of course you will never see Her in Her calmness. You will see Her always in Her terrifying aspect, because She takes this terrifying aspect not towards you, not towards you who you are. Because all is just Her. She knows that. But this terrifying aspect is the negativity of yourself, of your mind. That’s why She appears terrifying.
If your mind is pure, even if Bhadrakali comes in front of you, She will be as beautiful as all the other Goddesses. But when you look at Maha Kali, you look at Her picture, you see how terrifying She is, no? I know very well in Mauritius many people told me “You know Swamiji, we don’t like to pray to Kali.” And I asked them “Why?” Then they said “I am scared of Her.”(laughter)
Well… why are you scared of Her? She is the Mother. She is not terrifying.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

He have given you His sweet name.
He has given you His form to meditate on.
First know that the mind has to be focused on Him completely.
Then, you will know what is Self-realisation.
Then, you will know what is surrender.

A Story about Rama

There is another story that shows again the power of the name of Rama: There was once a king who did lots of sin in his life. He knew that he would die soon.
So he went to see a guru in one ashram. But when he went there, the guru was in deep meditation. So he waited, and waited, and waited, but the guru didn't come out of his samadhi. The king saw that the son of the guru was there, so he called him, ”Please, your father is in deep samadhi, and I can't wake him up, I can't tell him to come out, so you tell me... Look, I have spent my whole life in hurting people and doing bad things, but now I realize that I have to change certain things in my life. Tell me how would I forgive myself for all this?”
The son thought for a while, and said, “Chant three times the name of Rama, and all your sins will be forgiven but of course you have to chant it with faith, you can’t just chant it with the mere mouth.” The king was very happy. When the guru came back to himself, the son was very excited and said, “Father, father, you know, the king came here!” And he explained everything about why the king had been there. Then the father asked him, “What did you tell him?” The son said, “I told him to chant three times the name of Rama, with faith, and that all his sins would be forgiven.” The father got very angry at that moment, and said: “My son, I curse you, because you don't even know how powerful the name of Rama is. You didn't need to tell him to chant it three times; even one time would have been enough!”

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today......

In the life of Rama, Rama wanted to cross over the ocean to go to Lanka to get Sita.
So He fasted for many days, prayed to Varuna, the Ocean God and said “Clear the way, that we can pass.”
But after three days still the Sea God has not appeared.
This angered Lakshmana, the brother of Rama.
He was short-tempered.
And the same Lakshmana has incarnated as Balarama.
So he took his arrow and said to the Ocean “Ocean, I will dry you up.”
Rama saw that and rushed to His brother, saying“Brother what are you doing? My dear brother, I will tell you something, what you are trying to do right now is to kill Maya by Maya, but it’s impossible.
You can’t remove illusion by illusion.
What you see here is an illusion and how would you kill illusion by illusion?”
So how to remove illusion is only by God’s name and spiritual practices.

So if you wanna start to recite the Divine Name, you will find here a nice Bhajan.......

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

There was once a Rabbi. He was giving his discourse, his lecture and as he was talking to his students, there was a line which said “The one who is close to the Divine, the one who is close to God, to Jahwe, is the one who smiles in the midst of difficulties.” Then his students stopped him and said “Professor, Mr. Rabbi, reverent Sir, can you please explain us how it is possible that we can smile in times of difficulties? The Rabbi said “Well, it's very difficult to answer this question, because when there are difficulties, I, myself forget where the smile is gone. I forget how to smile." It’s true: our mind is so engrossed into negativity, that we forget the reality. Saying so, he said “It’s very difficult for me to tell you how to smile in times of difficulties or in times of great tests. But I know one person in the village, who has gone through so many trials in his life. When he was just one week old, he lost his parents. Then later on in life, in everything that he did, he didn’t succeed, but he was always very joyful and smiling.” So they went to that person, knocked at the door, and an answer came “Who is it?”. The students said, “Oh, we are the students of the Rabbi, we came to ask you certain questions.” He replied“Tell me what questions do you have?” Then they said “Oh we came across this line in the Bible that said ‘The one, who is closest to God, smiles in the midst of difficulties’”. The man answered “Well you have come to the wrong address, because I am 78 years old. Yet I don’t know what difficulties are, so I can’t tell you how to smile in it.”

So, know how close you are to the Divine, the difficulties transcend itself. How much your mind is focussed on the Divine or on your true Self. Everybody wants to attain this true Self, no? But everybody wants to attain the true Self only by being good. You don’t need to be good. You don’t need to pretend to be good. You just need to be yourself. Even if people think that you are bad, you have to know how you are.

Dancing for God

While singing, people were dancing. In dancing for God, you’re dancing yoga. You’re forgetting about your body, you’re forgetting about your mind, you’re just singing the glory of God, singing the name of God. In this way, you’re decreasing the power of the mind. You will notice that after moving, when you sit down and relax, your concentration is much better than if you just sat down. When you just sit, your mind is jumping left and right.

So, when you dance in the right way, you’re energizing yourself. You’re calling upon this inner Self to reveal itself. And when you lift your hand up, you’re calling to the Lord, to God, saying: “I’m in this illusion. I’m drowning myself in this illusion. Here, I’m lifting my hand up to you. Pull me out of this illusion. I’m surrendering.” You will notice in all the holy scriptures there is this phrase which says: “Lord, I’m lifting my hand up to you. Come to my rescue.” In Psalm 54 you will find it, in the Koran you will find it, you will also find it in the Gita.
So, singing the glory of God transcends all religion. Transcends all culture. Transcends all race. Transcends all that the mind can create. You will find God inside of you. Man lives in ignorance. Of course, you need a little knowledge of God, a little knowledge of the Divine to get out of it. But in the end, you have to surrender completely. It’s neither your intelligence nor your ignorance that will make you realize your true self. It's your surrender.
It’s like when you’re walking barefoot, and you get a thorn in your foot. You need another thorn to remove it. The thorn of ignorance entered your feet, and you need another thorn to remove it. But what you do afterwards? Do you keep both thorns in your pocket and say, “Okay, I will treasure them.” You don’t keep both of them, you throw them both away. So, even knowledge will bring you only to a certain level. The rest you have to surrender yourself completely to this love of God. You have to surrender your mind completely. You have to surrender your body completely. And you have to surrender your soul.

A Story about the grace of God

Once a student went to his Guru and said: “Master, I am troubled.”
The master stood right in front of him and came very near to his face and said: “Why do you hang on the illusion?
You know, whatever is in this mind is an illusion, why do you hang on that.
You know very well that deep inside of you only God resides. Why you don’t find joy inside of this?”
Then the master said: “My dear child, recite for 24 hours nonstop your Guru mantra* and meditate intensely for four hours and you will conquer the mind.”
Of course the grace of the Guru was there.
The same way the grace of God is also with you.

* A Guru Mantra is a special and powerful Mantra which is given by the Sadguru and which should not be talked about or given to other persons.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

"He hears everything and, above all, He knows when to give you what you’re praying for and when you are ready. When you will be able to handle it, He will give it to you."

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

If we want to give Love, we have to become Love. Like Sri Krishna said in the Gita: A true yogi must first realise Me within himself, then, he realises Me as an extension of the Self everywhere. And also Christ said: Love your enemies, love everybody as you love yourself. To see the similarity of the teachings about Love and its importance

to each one’s life is very important.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

When we do something with our heart, the simple things that we do will give us
joy. So, be always simple and loving.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

Love is a language, which the limited words that we express, can’t express; it can be felt only. It’s a language that the mother understands. When a newborn baby comes on earth the baby doesn’t speak. It’s a heart-to-heart communication and this heart-to-heart communication is the true language. This is the language of love, the language of the soul. Life without this language, life without love is of no use. Even if someone doesn’t feel love, there is a degree of love, or otherwise nothing would exist. A life without love is like a land, which you can till as much as you want, but it will never be fertile. The life with a little bit of love, that’s what we call joy.

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

"We are living in a dreaming state.When we get awakened,we will see the reality.But this reality is not to be understood with the mind.It’s different and that’s what human beings are here for:To attain this reality of who you are.We will attain this reality only through unconditional love.The same love that He loves us.Do you think His love is bind by any limitation or what we understand of Him or how we dress Him?The love of God is not bind by anything,only by the love of His devotee."

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

People like to be ignorant. They like to be always in their own drama. They don’t really want to change. Outside they say, “Yes Swamiji, we want to change, we want to do what you say”, but inside they don’t really want to change. Why don't spiritual people change? Don’t take the excuse of Maya or whatever; these are just typical excuses.

Unlock the lock of your heart and let Love flow; let unconditional Love flow. This is a Love that will really help you. In your path, whatever path you are on, whatever religion, or whatever path you are following, it doesn’t matter. Love is Love. That’s what you have to understand. And if you want the world to change, if you really want peace to reign in the world, change yourself first. By you changing, it will make a difference; by you becoming this pure Love, it will make a difference.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today

Don’t waste time! This is one thing that a lot of people do: waste time. They think that later in life they can do everything. Whenever they have time they can do everything. But you see, one thing is, if you do not make time now, you will never make time - later never comes. Like somebody was saying “Tomorrow never comes.” It‘s true. You have many excuses for not doing your sadhana, but know that what you are doing now is very important. And that contributes a lot. So, taking every opportunity to receive, to be near the master, to be near a teacher, to receive the grace is a must in life. Like I was just saying, you all are very lucky for Mahavatar has graced all of you. The Divine has graced all of you, God has graced all of you, so that you may search, you may look for the greater purpose in life. And I am sure you will achieve it. I am sure you will get what you are looking for. One thing only that I ask is: just be sincere with yourself, open your heart sincerely to yourself and let the Divine do the rest. You will see that this nectar, which we call Love, you are full with it, even if your mind does not feel it. If you are looking at yourself, you do not feel it like that, but actually, each part of your body is full of this. You are sitting here, you are receiving the grace, you are chanting the Divine Names, you are singing the glory of God, and you are receiving the blessing. Even though you do not know about it, but yet you are receiving it. There was once a criminal, somebody who killed people, a murderer. So he received a mantra from his Guru. The Guru gave him the mantra. He told him to chant, but he did not want to chant the name of God. He said “I don’t believe in any God, just give me something to chant so that I can make my head, my mind, calm”. So the Guru was very happy and said “Chant Maramaramara.” This murderer was very happy and he was chanting “Maramaramaramararamaramaramaram”. Can you hear? What is he chanting? “Rama, Rama Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama,Rama, Ram.” So, ignorantly, he had been chanting the name of Rama and, at the end of his life, he was fully realised. He attained God. He attained Rama. So when you go to satsang, when you go to pilgrimage places, it is always you who receives. It is your benefit always. So, surrender to the Guru’s feet! As it is said “When one meets one’s Guru, the world becomes the feet of the master.” And the Guru’s feet are everything. That is why, in the Hindu tradition, we worship Vishnu Padam. Why do we worship the Feet of Maha Vishnu? When we say ‘feet’, it is not the upper part, rather it is the down part. That is why when the Guru places the feet he does not put the upper part. He puts the down part of it, because under the soles of the Feet of the Master is the Vishnu Padam. Beneath the feet is all: They are the Feet of Maha Vishnu Himself. That is why in the Gita it is said: Guru Govinda. Krishna manifests Himself as the Guru and the Guru is Govinda, is Krishna. Service to the Feet of the Master is equal to thousands of pilgrimage places. So, do your service to the Feet of the Master and surrender. Adi Shankaracharya said “I received everything only by surrendering to the Feet of my Master” But, sadly, nowadays, when we say “Follow and do this”, what does the disciple say “Why should I do this?” It is normal, because the difference between the time before and now is that nowadays, the mind has taken over. And, when the mind takes over, of course, there will be lots of questions, lots of doubt, a lot of unreasonable thinking in the mind and, then, one loses certain opportunities. That’s why mankind always goes in the circle of birth and death, when mankind can achieve everything in one life - they can! Charanasparsha, which means surrender to the lotus feet. As the Divine resides in all of your hearts, may the Divine put His Lotus Feet in your hearts. And, as all the saints and all the masters and all the spiritual seekers, may you always be in the Love of the Divine. May you always feel the Divine. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, know that God is close to you as ever. You know, in the Hindu tradition we have a prayer, we say: Karaagre vasate lakshmi, karamadhye sarasvati karamuule tu govinda, prabhaate karadarshanam samudravasane devi parvatastanamandale, vishhnupatni namastubhyam paadasparsham kshamasva me. [Oh!

Mother Earth, who has the ocean as clothes and mountains and forests on her body, who is the wife of Lord Vishnu, I bow to you. Please forgive me for touching you with my feet] Do you know this prayer? This prayer is a prayer which one does before getting out of bed. One puts one hand like this [with fingers] touching the upper part, saying Goddess Lakshmi is there, the middle is Goddess Saraswati and down is Govinda - Maha Vishnu. This is the first thing people used to do before getting out of bed. They would remind themselves that in their palm there are Lakshmi, Saraswati and Govinda. So, like that, they would never forget that the Divine is always with them. But nowadays, the first thing when one gets out of bed, one says “What will I do today?” In place of thinking of God, one thinks of everything else except the Divine. So make it a habit, the first thought when you rise in the morning, just think of any Divinity that you feel close with. If ever you know your Ishtadev, think of your Ishtadev. If you have your Guru mantra, just chant one time even your Guru mantra. And build up!

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

He gives in three forms. First, he gives as Sankalpa, which is through thought. Second, he gives as Drishti, which is through vision, sight. Third, he gives through Sparsha, which is touch. Through these three forms the Guru gives. The first one, Sankalpa, is like a turtle, a mother turtle. Through thought, you know, through the mind, through the transfer of the Shakti, this is like the mother turtle. The mother turtles lay their eggs into the sand, but the mother turtle does not need to sit on the eggs. She lays the eggs and, from far away, her thought is always like a wave of warmth towards the eggs, so that the eggs get hatched. This is done through waves, through thought. One who is an incarnation of that manifestation, one who has ever given blessings in this way is Shirdi Sai. The second, is Drishti, through sight. To give the blessing through sight is like a fish in the water who lays its eggs. Outside, the eggs are surrounded by some transparent bubble, you know, and their eggs are inside. But the mother fish always stays by and focuses on the eggs. Just by this mere focusing of vision the eggs get hatched, also. This is Drishti. And, the final form is Sparsha, which is through touch. You go to the master, you bow your head, you offer the sahasrara - crown chakra - and the teacher touches you on the head, no? He gives you the blessing that says not to worry, the Divine will look after. And, if you have faith, you receive the blessing. Even if you don’t have faith, you receive the blessing, but it takes longer to manifest. So, there are these three kinds of giving, you can say. The first one, as I said, is Shirdi Sai. The second one, who gave through Drishti, you can say through the sight, is Ramana Maharshi. He was giving His darshan through the sight. And Sri Ramakrishna gave His darshan through Sparsha. Through these three things the Master transmits this energy, this Divine energy, which is inside of Him, to the bhakta, to the disciple. Why did I say disciple and I didn’t say devotee? Because, after you have passed through all this purification you become a bhakta, you become a true disciple. You don’t stay only as a devotee, but you become a disciple. A disciple is the one who has received the grace of the Master. And the grace of the Master is the same as the Grace of God within. And this grace is like a teacher. Let’s say you grafted a small plant with another. You take two roses, two different kinds of roses, and you graft them together. But, when you water, you water only the main one, no? So the teacher is the main plant. Whatever passes through the teacher, which is grafted to the teacher, will receive everything. That is why I said yesterday you become the pot of Amrit, also. You don’t just stay as you are, but you attain the fulfilment of the goal of life. This is how the Grace of the Divine manifests Itself into the Guru. As we say “Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha”. The Vedas proclaim the Guru as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Even in the Gita, Krishna said “Whoever will need Me, I shall come, and I shall be manifested as the Guru”. So the greatness of a Master, the greatness of knowing one’s Master and receiving the Shiksha, receiving the blessing and grace from the master is rare. And, once one has it, one carries it with him. One carries this blessing always. It is not that one day you say “Ok, today I am with this Master and tomorrow I am with that Master”. There are many people who do ‘Guru hopping’, you know. Well, it’s normal, because one is on a search, you know. Until one feels this Love, this attraction, this pull, one will always search, no? And once you have felt it, you have to grow into it and then you know “Yes, I am at home. I belong there”. You don’t say “I go to this Guru” no, you say; “No, I am going home, I am going where I belong, where I long to be”. You go there where you feel the Love of God inside of yourself, and where you will achieve the purpose of your incarnation. So this is, in short, how the Guru works. Through this manifestation, through this incarnation, He gives through these three forms - through thought, through sight and through touch. He gives Himself fully to his disciple. He gives Himself fully to the devotee. What the devotee has to do is to be like an empty receptable and receive everything.You see, the rain falls everywhere, the rain does not have emnity toward anyone. It falls on the mountain, it falls on the hill slope. But, can the mountain hold the water? No it cannot: it flows. When can it hold the water? When there is a hole in it, then the mountain can hold this water. The outside people, who are not searching for the Divine, not searching for the purpose of life, they are like the mountain. That is, when the grace of God flows from the Divine to them, it just flows out. Whereas you all who have really the Grace of God - the blessing of God, I should say, not yet His Grace - but the blessing of God to have the urge of searching, the urge of looking for Him, the urge of practising your sadhana, the urge of feeling a Love greater than what the whole world thinks of as love.

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

When you manifest yourself and you have the urge of searching, the Divine manifests itself as Prereka Guru, which means the first thing that happens when you come across your Guru is that Love gets ignited inside. There is an urge to be near the teacher and it is like this: once you have tasted nectar, nothing else in the world tastes the same. In the same way, once you are near your Guru the world changes. That is why I was saying: when you become spiritual the world lets go of you, the world sees you differently. Some say you are crazy, because your actions don’t suit them, because, deep inside you, Love starts to awake. So, in that aspect the Guru takes form as Prereka Guru. The first meeting of the Guru is called Prereka, which is awaking of the Divine Love inside the heart of the disciple. This is how one knows who a Guru is, because there will be an irresistible pulling: it is like a magnet which attracts. Second, the Guru takes the aspect of Sachaka, which means the one who purifies and cleanses the bhakta, the devotee. And in that process you can say the Guru is wrong, you can say the Guru is bad. You can say all the bad words to the Guru, but know one thing: who will understand a Master? Until one becomes a Master, one will not understand a Master. That is why sometimes, when one looks at a Master and says “Oh, you know, this one is a bad one, or this one is a good one”. How do you know what is good and bad? You are just seeing the action on the outside, but you don´t know what lies behind it. So, this is the purification aspect of the Guru Sachaka, to purify, to cut down all the impurities. And in the cutting down, sometimes he can be very cruel, very tough. And like that you know a Guru is a Guru, because if a Guru is soft, soft, soft toward whatever you come with and he says “Ah yes, yes, yes”, it does not work. If you see diamond or gold in nature, diamond looks like a normal stone. But when the expert has seen it and takes it, takes the stone and starts polishing it, the polishing is not soft. The polishing is very, very, very, very difficult, but then you have a beautiful stone afterwards. It is the same thing with gold: when you receive gold with so much impurity. Gold has to go through fire and. when it goes through fire it is very cruel, because the gold is burning with thousand degrees to melt it, to purify it, so finally you can get beautiful jewellery. This is Sachaka. When this has happened and when this has manifested in the bhakta, in the devotee, and the strong faith and the determination is still there - because in that process many will go, because they cannot bear it - if one stays, one will shine. After that process, the Guru takes the aspect of Vachaka, which means that the Guru gives the glory of the Lord to the disciple. He reveals the stories of the Lord, the manifestation of the Lord, to the disciple. He tells them beautiful stories, so that inside the bhakta, when all impurity has gone away, it fills itself with the Divine, it fills itself with the glory and the shine of the Divine. Of course this is knowledge only. After some time the Guru takes the aspect of Bhodaka. Bhodaka means that he transforms this knowledge into wisdom, so that the bhakta, the devotee, can understand everything. Lots of people in the world have knowledge about many things, but the knowledge of the soul, the knowledge of who you are in reality, this is not called knowledge, it is called wisdom. When you have wisdom you see the world completely differently. This is called Bhodaka, Bhodaka Guru. When you have wisdom, what will manifest itself is pure Love. When you have wisdom you become wise. You are not ignorant anymore and, when you are wise, you realise that the Lord resides everywhere. Then the Guru takes the aspect of Darshaka. Darshaka means that the Guru manifests Himself into the Divine Form, the Guru reveals the Divine to the disciple. So, within this whole process, you see, you do not take quickly, quickly the five stages, the five steps, you know. The Guru tests you. You go through Sachaka, Vachaka, Bhodaka and Darshaka as the final one. When you reach Darshaka you see the manifestation of the Lord everywhere. You realise yourself fully. Whatever you are looking for is just at the feet of the Master. And He has given it to you. In the Shiva Purana, Shiva said to Parvati “One can attain all knowledge of this world, but if one is ignorant about the Teacher all the knowledge is meaningless”. The same thing Krishna said in the Gita “I clothed Myself in this human form and then the ignorant think I am just human, because they just see the outside”. Who will understand, who can understand a Satguru? No one! So, when the disciple is ready, the Satguru manifests Himself and He comes. The Satguru comes to the disciple. And the Satguru comes not to take anything, because the Guru already realised the Oneness with the Divine, you know. So what does the Satguru need in this world? Nothing! He comes to give, always to give, even if it seems that He takes, actually: what you are taking is just that what He is giving.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

We have a difference between a Siksha Guru, which is a teacher from the school, and a spiritual teacher. They are two different types. The teacher from the school gives you a certain kind of knowledge, which will make you a better person, which will make you understand how to live here. But a spiritual teacher, a Guru, a Satguru, gives you not only the purpose of life, but also the purpose of direction in life: how and where one sets life. That’s the difference. We say, also, that the first Guru in one’s life is the mother; the second is the father. It is very true. The Vedas talk about the Guru being the mother and the father, but yet the Vedas proclaim that the mother and the father give only the physical to the child, so they give the body to the child. But the Guru gives spiritual life, which is a second birth. And how does this happen? If you remove certain qualities from humans, people who are not on the spiritual path, like pride if you remove the sense of living in the material world, if you remove wealth from them, you remove enjoyment from them – they are finished! They become zero! Whereas, from a spiritual person it is impossible to remove qualities, because spirituality is endless, knowledge is endless. You have knowledge, but knowledge should not just stay as knowledge. It should transcend to wisdom! All this happens through grace, actually, long before you incarnate on Earth. We can say that, yes, we can do certain things, but, long before you come here, it’s already said where you have to be, who will be your guide and when it will be that God makes everything possible for you to achieve Him. Actually, you can say it is you, but it is not you at all. It is only Him, because in the core of everything your Atma is only Him. So, in this process, we want to attain the grace of God, we want to attain the Love of God and we want to purify ourselves. For mankind to do this on its own is very difficult. It’s only when the urge of these spiritual qualities awakens inside of mankind that God will provide everything and prepare one to receive His Grace. It is like this: there is a Saint, a Sufi Saint, who said “When I was enlightened, I realised I had made three mistakes in life. The first mistake I made was that I always thought that I was making the first step towards God but, actually, after I had enlightenment, I realised that it was not me who had made the first step. God, long before I had made that first step, had already made more than one step towards me. The second mistake was that I had ever thought that I loved Him immensely. But, afterwards, I realised that when I thought that I loved Him immensely, my love was just a drop compared to His ocean of Love. And the third was when I attained Him and Realised Him, actually, it was He that had Realised Himself”. So, try to understand these three things. In these three it shows that all is the grace of God. And, of course, to attain this grace one can’t just sit around. You do your sadhana, you try to prove yourself, to make yourself ready. One may say “Well, I don’t need to have a teacher. I don’t need to have a Guru”. But you see one thing: you can receive knowledge in books, but you will not receive wisdom in books. The knowledge will transform itself into wisdom only when the Grace is flowing through the teacher to the disciple. So, when you are ready, you manifest yourself as a human being here. And, of course, just to stay a human being, a mere human being, is a bit boring, no? But how do you know it is boring? You don’t know more than that. You see, you do feel it, because you feel this dissatisfaction. Whatever you do, you don’t feel happy. So there is an urge of searching, an urge of looking for something that will make you really happy, not just a happiness like this, but pure happiness, shuddha happiness, inside of you. When this urge arises, of course, the Guru comes. And it can take lifetimes, you know, it is not only one life, it can take several, several lives. Don’t think that in every life one will have the same urge. It is not like that. It can take thousands of lives. It can take thousands of years.

A guided meditation:

I show you a very simple meditation that you can give to anybody.

A guided meditation:

Try to sit straight. Your spine should be straight First of all, I will ask you to take a normal breath, breathe normally, a few times. Now that you have breathed, concentrate yourself. Focus on the third eye. Close your eyes. Use your creative power now, because, as I said, you are a child of God. As God is the Creator, you are the creator also. With your creative power, the power of creation that God has given to mankind, to all of you, create the Om sign, or any divine Sign, the Cross, the Crescent, any sign that you feel close with. Create it on the third eye. And with your hearing, with your ears, listen deeply to your breathing. Listen to it. And breathe Om. Take your time. Do it in a relaxed way. Breathe slowly Om in and breathe slowly Om out. But keep your focus on your Ajna Chakra, on your third eye. After some time you will feel that on the third eye it is a bit ticklish, like something is working. Go deep into it. Let this vibration go down the spine from your head to the base chakra. Let it flow. With your breathing, breathe Om. Let it vibrate. Let the Om sound vibrate on all parts of your body. Now, reduce the size of the Om. Bring it back to your third eye. Bring it to your heart. Let it stay in your heart. Let it vibrate in your heart. Chant with me: “Om” By chanting Om or meditating on Om, you reap the vibration of peace, joy and happiness. This vibration helps humans to achieve their Real Self, let´s say, to realise the pure Consciousness of God within oneself. You can feel it, even when you say it. When it vibrates, when you say Om, let it vibrate on the solar plexus. All the power of creation, all the whole universe is present deep inside you. Let it vibrate in each cell of your body. Every time you have a little spare time, sit down and just breathe Om in and Om out.