A guided meditation:

So, I would like to do a small meditation with you. This meditation is not really a meditation, but you can, wherever you are sitting, just try to centre yourself inside.

So, what we will do, we’ll chant Om Namo Narayanaya. You see, this mantra is a very powerful mantra. By chanting this mantra, one gets calmness of the mind. The mind becomes calm and it lets go of all the worries removing all the pain. And it also bestows on you a lot of wealth. It doesn’t look after only your spiritual advancement. It also helps you to advance materially, because I know not everybody likes only to centre themselves on the spiritual path, you know, they like also the material path; both are important. Do you like it also? So don´t be shy. Chant Om Namo Narayanaya. What we will do now, we will chant out loud Om Namo Narayanaya. Even if you’re standing – you don’t need to sit down - just stand and let’s do it! So you will chant Om Namo Narayanaya.

Close your eyes and visualise a lotus flower in your third eye. Chant it loud and then we will hum it. So, you will just say for the second and, for the third, you will go into complete silence, but hear the inner sound of Om Namo Narayanaya inside of you. So, first is loud and second is humming. First I will say, “You chant” then, after a time, I will say “Hum” and you will feel the vibration inside of you. By doing the humming, you will feel every part of you vibrate inside. And then, when I say “Silence”, you all stop at once and you go inside. You will hear the sound that you have been making; you will hear it inside of you. You won’t make any sound, but your mind is focused always on the lotus. So what will happen is that you visualise the lotus, a closed lotus. While you are chanting, the lotus is still closed. When you’re humming, the lotus opens, fully opens, like these beautiful flowers here. And when you are in silence, see the cosmic OM inside of the lotus or see the Feet of God inside of the lotus, the Feet of Narayana, inside of the lotus. We are doing the Om Namo Narayanaya in that way. Are you ready? Visualise a closed lotus flower in your third eye and chant Om Namo Narayanaya. Hum Om Namo Narayanaya and see the lotus opening fully.

Silence.

See the Cosmic OM or the Feet of Narayana in the open lotus. Now slowly open your eyes. But stay still in the calm. Just open your eyes and, with open eyes, enjoy the calmness. If you practice this meditation for 15 minutes: 5 minutes chanting, 5 minutes humming and 5 minutes in silence, you will have peace. The point of chanting is to control your mind and to make your mind positive. The humming is to vibrate the cosmic energy inside your body. And the calmness is to attain the inner calm where the Divine reveals Itself to you. It’s only for 15 minutes.

Work towards knowing the Oneness of God.....

It is very simple and easy to offer your heart to God. So, whenever you think that you have to offer something to the Lord, first inside of you, offer your heart to Him saying, “Lord, I offer You my heart. It is not mine anymore, it is Yours. Make me love the way that You Love. Make me Realise this Divine Love.” Spirituality is just about a relationship to God and this Love relationship to the Divine will make you Realised. When you love somebody, you are not scared of anything. In the same way, when you love God, you should not be scared of anything. When you love somebody, you will do anything to please that person. In the same way, when you love God, try your best always to please Him. When He sees that you are trying your best to please Him, He will run to you and He will give you liberation, He will give you Self-Realisation. Work always towards Self-Realisation, towards God-Realisation, and make this the aim of your life. He will provide you with everything. Whatever you need, He will give you. In the Bible, Christ said: If the Lord is giving the birds their food, is giving the ants their shelter, in His eyes don’t you need more? God is ever looking after everybody. You have just to trust that He is looking after you, to trust that He is with you all the time. Whatever you do–good or bad–He is there. His Love pervades everything. If one-percent of your heart opens up to this Divine Love, it’s enough. Work towards this opening of your heart. Work towards Self-Realisation. Work towards knowing the Oneness of God, beyond all limitations that human beings put in place. We place limitations. We say “God is only this; God is only that.” But, when we place our limitations on God, then is this really God? This is not God. He becomes only the limited concept that we have of Him. Limitation is ignorance in man and knowledge is what removes ignorance. I mean the knowledge of the Divine, the inner knowledge, this knowledge that you have inside of you. When you have certain knowledge one day you will have to let go even of it, because you don’t Realise God either with ignorance or with knowledge. Knowledge will bring you only to a certain point of Realising the Divine, but to Realise God, to truly know the Divine, you have to cross over everything, go beyond all limitations.

To Realise God you have to cross over all the barriers that the mind puts in place. And, as I said before, the easiest way to do that is to chant the Name of God. Then the mind will merge completely into the Divine Name and become Divine.

Listen to this beautiful Song *I give you my heart*...

The Divine 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. 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.

He is just sitting inside your heart....

When you surrender the 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 easiest way to calm the mind is to sing the Name of God, because you can sing the name of God anytime, wherever you are. So, I would like to chant Om Namo Narayanaya, because Om Namo Narayanaya, this mantra is so powerful that it raises you, it raises your spiritual consciousness to a very high state. Also, it helps you in your material life and it gives you calmness in the mind. This is one name of God. Of course, there are many names of God that

you can chant, you know, that create the same happiness. So, chant it every day, wherever you are, whatever happens to you, just chant Om Namo Narayanaya. You will see how close the Divine is. He is just sitting inside your heart, you know. You just need to bring Him out and let the Divine Love awaken inside of you.

You have to come to the point of complete trust and faith in yourself ...

Know that God is beyond everything and that He loves everybody equally. It’s not upon anybody to go and try to change somebody’s mind, saying “My way is right, your way is wrong.” Thinking like this is completely wrong. We say we have only one God, but we adore Him in His many forms until we reach a point to see this Oneness everywhere. The life story of Tulsidas or any Self-Realised saint is beyond the comprehension of the mind, because they live completely in God. And they are calling everybody to live completely in God, to live in the Love of God and to know that God is everywhere: God is present in everybody. First we see the duality, the separation, and through that separation, God unites us and makes us one with Him. He makes us Realise His Divinity, then we stop talking about Him and we become completely quiet. As long as we have not found God, as long as we have not come to the point of God-Realisation, Self-Realisation, we should never lose hope, we should never let go of God´s Name, we should never let go of whatever we are doing. One has to completely surrender to one´s path and, whatever obstructions or obstacles come on the way, one has to always say “No” to them. Your aim is to have God-Realisation, Self-Realisation. Until you have reached your aim, until you have come to the point of complete trust and faith in yourself and in God, keep trying! Don’t let anything come in the way!

The secret in the Name of the Divine.....

The secret in the Name of the Divine, in the Name of God, is God Himself, whereas the name of a person is not the person. Whereas, if I chant the name of Mahavatar Babaji, if I chant the names of Krishna and Jesus, chant the name of Allah, for sure They will come, because the Name of the Divine is the fullness of the Divine Himself. So, in that way, you will go into the fullness. The more you chant, the more you will go into the fullness of the sound within yourself and the more you will know the secret. You will enjoy the beauty that you have inside of you, because after some time of chanting in the outside, the chanting becomes silence within you. Even while you are sleeping, inside of you the chanting always goes on.

Just by chanting, you know, you are making use of these two instruments, the first of which is the tongue, in a proper way by reciting the name of God; and you are utilising the hearing, which will become finer until you realise the vibration within yourself. So, this will lead you to Self-Realisation or God-Realisation or to attain the Love of God completely. Love is not just to say, “I love you”, because you see when two people meet and when they like each other, what do they say? “I love you.”

For example, this happens very often in movies: Two people meet, you know, the guy says to the girl “I love you.” The girl looks at the guy and says “Do you love me? But we just met only a few hours ago, how do you love me? You don’t know me. I don’t know you. How can you love me?” We feel something in the heart, when we recognise the other, you know, when we recognise “Yes I know that person, there is something here.” But real Love develops only when you start to know that person. The more you know the person, the more you love that person. It’s the same thing with the Divine, also; the more you start knowing God, the more your Love for God will become greater and greater. When you look at the lives of the Saints, they realise the Divine completely and for them the ultimate is to love Him only. Until they find this True Love within themselves, until they find their Self, until they realise their Self, they just love. So, knowing it is very important. To know the Divine, the easiest way, like I just told you, is to sing, to chant His name. And He has given so many Names, you know? He is like a mother who loves all her children the same, but the mother knows what each child needs. So, she gives according to each child, what the child needs. And there is no special time or place, just chant the name of God. Whatever you are doing, you can always chant. You can always recite the Divine Names and know that He is with you. The moment you chant His Name, He is there. Like Babaji said, just by merely chanting His name three times He will be there. Whether you see Him or you feel Him or not, He is there. It’s like that with all the Divine aspects, all the Divine names that you chant, the Divine in that form is present next to you.

The Wish Fulfilling Tree....

There was once a man. He was walking in the forest. He was going home, but his house was far away. On the way, he felt tired and he saw a beautiful tree and he lay down under this tree. And, as he was lying under the tree, inside his mind he wished “Oh, how wonderful it would be if I had a beautiful bed”, not knowing that he was under the Wish Fulfilling Tree. Suddenly, next to him there was a beautiful bed; it just appeared there. When he saw the bed, he ran and jumped on the bed, enjoying the softness of the bed. The next thought that passed through his mind was “Oh, how wonderful it would be if there was a beautiful lady pressing my feet.” Even this wish was fulfilled. The moment the wish came to his mind, he saw a young lady there pressing his feet and he was very happy. Then he started to think and he said “Oh, oh, all my wishes have been fulfilled, so what about some food, I’m feeling hungry.” And the moment he wished it, he thought about it and there was a lot of food all around him. He was very happy eating the fruit, all the food, and while he was eating he said “Oh, all my wishes are fulfilled, so what about if, while I’m sitting in this forest, a lion jumps on me and eats me?” So what happened? Eventually, a lion appeared and jumped on him and ate him! This is the same with man. We are being eaten every day by these lions, but yet we like it, eh? So, if we say to the Divine, “We want to realise You. We want to be free from all the pain. We want to be free from all the worry,” is it so or not? So ask, ask for it. And really try your maximum. Try your best to achieve it! Only when you try your best, then God will give you His grace and blessing. He will say “Look, this one is trying very hard, you know, let me go to him.” And for being sure you have the grace of God, try your best always. Let it not be that a small wind passes by and you drop. You have to be strong. Know that God is always with you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whether you’re positive or negative, He is with you. When you go in the quietness of your heart, through meditation, through yoga, you experience this quietness. All of you have meditated, no? So, in this quietness, what do you feel? You feel peace and harmony. And for sure, you can always be in this peace and harmony only by the controlling of the mind. The weakest point is our mind. Our mind always wants to understand things. But in meditation, in prayers, in yoga, what do you do? You calm the mind. You don’t want to understand anything; you just want to know yourself. And you will know that not by the mind, but by utilising the mind and transcending the mind, itself, and by transcending the physical body. So, when you have transcended the mind and the body, what is left? It’s the spirit.

Close your eyes and drop inside.....

You are the child of God. You are part of the Divine creation. So make this your achievement. Make this your goal in life. Wherever you are, remind yourself of this goal. Whenever you think that you are doing something wrong or you’re acting in the wrong way, close your eyes, drop inside, deep inside your heart and ask the Self and then listen to it. Only when your mind is quiet will you hear the heart talking to you. So keep practicing, I always say it, and I will keep saying it – maybe every time you come for darshan you will hear the same thing. As long as you don’t practice it properly I will keep saying it, I will bore you with it, because I would love all of you to reach Divinity. I want all of you to realise the love of God that is inside you, not only that – I want all of you to become an instrument of this love, you know, and share it around. Bring it to everybody.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

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

When you fall at the feet of Babaji.....

We do not realise that the Ultimate of everything is Govinda, is God. If man would realise that everything comes from the source, which is God, why not take the source itself? Why just want something that will be finished after some time?

Even Lahiri Mahasaya, who was a very great yogi, in one of his previous lives when he used to live with Mahavatar Babaji, he had the desire to have a golden palace, and this desire for this golden palace made him incarnate again on earth. Because of the grace of Mahavatar Babaji, his love, and really his compassion for everybody, Babaji guided him and fulfilled his wish during this life. When Babaji appeared to him, he materialised a very huge golden palace, with lots of diamonds and all the precious stones that you can imagine inside. He was very amazed with everything, and then Babaji de-materialized it. Just the same way he made it appear, he also made it disappear.

When you fall at the feet of Babaji, think of Babaji and pray to him, “If You could create this big palace, if You are the source of everything, why will I need just a palace? Isn’t it better that I take you completely? You are the ultimate. You are the goal of all life. Let me have you!”

In the same way, do not waste your time in wanting things that you know have their limit. Desire the Ultimate, and you shall have it. Surrender your body, mind and soul. Focus on any Divine aspect firstly, and then you realise your Divinity. Remember that whoever you are, even if your advancement is slow or fast, God loves you. He loves you even more than you can think about love, more than the mind of man can think about.

So always trust in this love, always hang on this love, and never let go of Him. He is always with you. Even if you do not feel Him, even if you do not see Him, He is there.

Everybody wants to see the light.....

We are here to transcend death, to become the light that we truely are. But who really wants to become this light? Many people try it, and then they say, “It’s too long. It’s too much.” This is lack of patience. It is the goal of your Self. It’s true that we should not be attached to the body, but the body itself is divine, the mind itself is divine, so the spirit itself is divine. They are all one. And there is no difference. So, transcend the body into light.

Of course there is lots of purification on the way. At the beginning we say, “Yes – there is a God. We believe in Him. But where is He?” We try to exteriorize the Divine, we try to make God something apart from us. But God can be realised only within yourself. When we talk about God, very often we say, “God? Where – outside from us – is this person?” We think, He is there, we are here. We are different.

Whenever we talk about God, we have also to know that it is our own Self! We are actually talking about us, about each individual person. Because we are a part of God. Even if we all look different, when we remove the veil of illusion we are one light. Like this beautiful chandelier, it has many different bulbs, but the electricity is one! If you put a small bulb in it, of course we’ll have a small light, but the electricity will still be the same. It’s the same for you: all of you can shine the same light, the same divine light, more and more. You just need to let go. To really shine, you have to clean out all of the negativity.

Last week somebody asked me, “I’m always talking to God, but why can’t I see God?” Many of you have this question. We sit down for meditation and prayer, but still we don’t see Him! You see, whenever you sit down for meditation and prayer, do not expect anything. As long as you expect something, you are limiting everything from happening. Because your mind is not really focusing on the Divine, your mind is not really focusing on God. It is focusing on the want. So you have to let go of this want for knowing God. Difficult, eh?

This is the main desire of humans: to want God! But you have to let go of this want and the moment you let go of this want, you will see the light! We call it antahkarana, “the light within”. Everybody wants to see the light. In order to see the light, stop looking outside. Whenever you sit down quietly, go inward, go deeper and deeper till you find yourself – complete stillness! In this stillness you can hear the voice of God within you, then you can hear your own inner voice and this is the voice of God. And when you hear it, don’t doubt it. Don’t say it’s your imagination. It’s true.

That´s what the word Guru means....

When one comes into the guidance of a Spiritual Master and surrenders to what He says, of course, one will be pulled out of this illusion, but as long as one doesn’t want to come into the shadow or guidance of a Master, one will always be in the ignorance. You will see this is the same in all religions. Take Christianity, take Hinduism, take Islam, take any religion, Buddhism, or any other, and you will see that there is always a hierarchy. Even you don’t need to go that far. Let’s take the hierarchy in the angel’s level, you know. You will see that there is this obedience. They all obey God, of course, but there is this obedience within the hierarchy of the angels itself. The normal angels are bound to listen and to serve the archangels. Because this is very important: if one just thinks that one knows something, it’s pure ignorance. That’s what the word guru, which is in two parts, means: gu, which means dispeller, and ru is darkness, so it’s dispeller of darkness, dispeller of ignorance. So, when one comes into the spiritual guidance of a Master, the Master takes on the responsibility of getting the ignorance out of the disciple. The ignorance means all the negative things. Also, in the word Guru, gu means the ultimate fulfilment, ‘r’ is remover of sin, remover of ignorance and ‘u’ is Narayana, Maha Vishnu. And He has these three together in Him; He has all three. The Guru is the one who gives spiritual knowledge which illuminates the mind of the disciple. And He is the Ultimate One, because He has already Realised the Oneness with God. So, when the disciple comes into contact with the Master, the disciple has to be loyal! One must have loyalty – loyalty not only to the Master, but loyalty also towards oneself! Only when you are loyal towards yourself will you be able to be loyal towards the Master and towards the outside. Secondly, the disciple must have obedience. Obedience doesn’t mean slavery. Often people think that to be obedient is just to become the slave of the Master. No, it’s the opposite, actually.

Like I said before, it’s not you who is the slave of the Master, but the Master who is the slave of you. But as in the mind you have ignorance, you have the pride, the ego, all these things, you have to listen to the one who has already overcome it.

How will we find the Lotus Feet of the Lord?

How will we find God? How will we find the Lotus Feet of the Lord, if we are so filled with this pride inside? Only with humbleness will one find Him, but not in the mind. You say to yourself, “Yes, I’m humble, I’m humble,” but it has to be here, within yourself, inside of you. When you think to yourself, “Yes, everybody is greater than me” you can learn things. There are so many things that you can learn. But, how many like to learn? Not so many. It is said that in this world there are four kinds of people: the one who is attached to the world, the one who is looking for freedom, the one who is ever free and the one who is liberated–well, actually, liberated, then ever free. These four kinds of people make this world, and where is each one situated in it? Are we trying to be liberated? Are we liberated? We can’t be ever free, because the ever free is only the Lord Himself. And, of course, whenever He manifests Himself, He’s ever free. He’s not bound by any law of karma, like

people are, but yet, you see how humble He is.
The Lord manifested Himself into a form here, in this level, to show the greatness of devotion, how important the devotion of His bhakta is. The Lord limits Himself for his devotee. So, the Lord is ever free to take whatever form, wherever He wills it, but yet we fight. We say, “Ours is the best; yours is not,” forgetting that He’s the Lord. He has created everything and He’s not bound in the way people are bound with the mind.

There’s this beautiful story that shows these four categories of humans. When a fisherman throws his net in the sea, the ever free will never get caught in the net. The fisherman can try as much as possible, but they are too wise for that. When the net of Maya is cast, the rest of them, the other three, get caught in it - the one who is attached, the one who is liberated and the one who is on the way to liberation. The one who is searching for liberation is like a fish caught in the net. The ones who are trying their best to be liberated see the net and they try their best to jump out of the net, but yet, they don’t succeed. They try and try and try and they can’t. But the liberated ones, they will jump out of the net, and then they will go! And the fisherman says, “Look at this big fish, he’s going away.” And the ones who are caught in the net are like the fish that don’t even try their best to come out. They don’t do anything. They think that, “Yes, I will be saved; let me go down deep in the mud and hide myself” but yet, forgetting that the net is caught in the mud. They will go and hide, forgetting that when the fisherman pulls the net, they will be also caught. They will come out inside the net. So, such are they who are caught in the world outside, who don’t even try their best to realise why they are here. They don’t even try and do something. They don’t even want to think about it, because they think, “Life is beautiful; let’s enjoy it!” Enjoy for how long-ten years, twenty years? They’re getting old; time is running on! And we don’t realise that, you know. We don’t realise that one day there will come a time where we will look at life and say, “What have I done?” We have danced in the routine all the time, every day. We have danced in the routine, which has made us a slave to this world. The merciful Lord has given a chance to change, but yet, we have not taken it. Then when you look at life behind you, you realise what a waste of life, what a waste of time has been. Then you will say to yourself, probably among you -you have even said it already, “Oh, I should have changed that time.” You realise that there were times for you to change, but you didn’t take the opportunity. Then you fall into the category of the fish that has been caught in the net, and when the fisherman pulls it out, you say, “Oops! Too late!” But it’s never too late. When you have practiced to surrender to God, when you have the Grace, take the chance and change! It’s not up to me to tell you to change, but it’s up to you to tell yourself to change. When you try, of course, it’s not in one go you will get the Divine. Of course, for some it’s easy, because of the past karmas. They can try and very quickly they receive the result. But for some, it takes time, but one should not lose hope. When the Divine sees that you are trying, He will send help. If you accept the help, He will lead you to liberation, but it’s up to you. This is the freedom that He gives to mankind. We choose the way we want. That’s why you see the world in this state. We have forgotten why we are here. We forget that our soul wants to be one with the

Divine; our soul wants to reach the Lotus Feet of the Lord.

Your aim is to have God-Realisation......

One has to completely surrender to one´s path and, whatever obstructions or obstacles come on the way, one has to always say “No” to them. Your aim is to have God-Realisation, Self-Realisation. Until you have reached your aim, until you have come to the point of complete trust and faith in yourself and in God, keep trying! Don’t let anything come in the way! Many times the mind will come in the way and say “No, no, no, no, no, no, you should not do like that, you should do like this”, but if you listen to the mind, you will stop. You will become lazy. Only when you really, sincerely dedicate yourself and surrender to your path, surrender to what you really want, you will achieve your aim. The aim is to Realise this Love that you have inside and to become this Love so completely that every atom in your body will radiate this Love of God. And this Love, you will spread it around always. This Love is beyond everything: beyond the mind, beyond the body, even beyond the Spirit itself. It is this Love that we have to attain.

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

To Realise God you have to cross over all the barriers that the mind puts in place. And, as I said before, the easiest way to do that is to chant the Name of God. Then the mind will merge completely into the Divine Name and become Divine.

Focus on the divine.....

Focus on the true joy that you have inside of you. Focus on the Love of God that you have inside of you. Focus on the Divine, which is present inside of you and focus in a way that nothing on the outside can move you. No matter what comes, nothing can move you!

You have to make a difference in this world.....

Today I will talk about the self-confidence, also about the self-respect. So, often when travelling around looking how people are, how people live in different parts of the world and also how far along spirituality is. It’s a bit sad, actually, because people long for peace, people long for happiness; people long to be free, but yet, when you see how they live their life, you ask the questions “Will they ever be free; will they ever be happy? Will they ever be happy the way they live?” Well, if you ask the question, the answer will be “No.” Imagine how lucky you are, sitting here, to sing the Divine Names. How lucky it is that God chose you to be on a spiritual path. But it doesn’t end only here, because when you are on the spiritual path, very often I’ve seen people very shy, very shy to say that they are on this path. They are shy to say that they love God. Well, if you are shy to say that you are on a spiritual path and you love God, where is the self-confidence in it? Where is the faith in it? Where is the faith in yourself? You should never be afraid of saying that you love God, because this is the only thing; He is the only One that you can love, really. And only by being true to yourself, by being sincere to yourself, you can really change something. Like that, you don’t only change yourself, but you change other people also. People are scared of the spiritual path, because they see the limitation in the outside. If spiritual people limit themselves by being scared of the outside, well, it will not help. It will not help others to change. Like I said last time, become an instrument of this Divine Love. If you become an instrument of this Divine Love, you have to spread it. You have to make a difference in this world, not only in your life, but also in your surroundings.

We are so ruled by our mind.....

We are so ruled by our mind and we expect so many things, but in your life, for sure, you have done something unconditionally, but very often it’s easy to forget about it. Let’s say, you want something from somebody. You expect it and you get it. You will always remember it. Or, if somebody has hurt you, you will always remember it. But the good that somebody has done to you disappears [from your memory], also. Time makes everything disappear. There is one question that we always ask ourselves. In the beginning we were with God, so why do we have to incarnate here? Why do we have to be separated from the Divine? This is a question that everybody asks, no? We have read books and we have seen probably many Masters who have said “Yes, the main thing in life is to Realise your true Self, to Realise your true aspect.” But the question, which is still in the mind is “Why are we separated from the Divine?” Actually, the Divine is not separated from us, but it’s true that our mind perceives us to be separated from the Unlimited One, because we let ourselves be ruled only by the outside. We forget what is inside. The last part of the song that we sang says “We visit holy places, we visit lots of pilgrim places, but one place that we forget to visit is our heart.” Why did we get separated? Of course, the Divine in manifest and unmanifest form is present everywhere, in each cell of our body and pervades everything manifest and unmanifest. When we think of the manifestations of the Divine, we only think of Saints and Avatars, but He is, also, in all of you. Of course, these Saints and Avatars are grand manifestations of the Divine where He has to come to help humanity. Actually, He always comes to help people, to help Himself, actually, but we are so bound by the outside that we create karmic things. Always, in many lives, we have been creating a lot of karma and we bind ourselves by that. Some will say “Yes, but we are here to remove the karmic things. We are here to Realise our Selves.” It’s very true and this is the purpose of life; this is, also, the purpose of religion. It’s not only waving the light in front of the Deity or singing the glory of God, which is very good, but we have to attain Him. For that, we have to make an effort from our side. But if we let ourselves get caught by the illusion, Maya will get us. Illusion is, also, the Lord’s creation, but He gives us the choice, also, to want Him or to want the world. Some people are pretending to be very clever, saying, we want everything; we want the world and we want the Lord. But Christ said in the Bible: Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give back what belongs to the Spirit, to the Spirit. He, also, said that: if you think yourself to be Spirit you will be Spirit; but if you think yourself to be human, you will be just human, because you bind yourself.