Remain In Remembrance of God - 6 November 2024

So giving up on ourselves is required for us to be with God. And all of us have had those experiences at one time or the other. Even as teenagers, you fall in love with someone, you're not bothered about yourself, at least for a few days or at least a few hours. You are only concerned about the Beloved. Concerned in what way? With every aspect of your being. It's like your heart yearns for them, your feelings are all about love for them, your mind is only thinking about them, the memory is only giving you imagery of them, and everywhere you go, you feel like, ah, you saw them somewhere. Is it very old school, this type of...? But this is the type of love that is helpful, required, whichever way you want to put that.

So the center of gravity of our lives moves away from the 'me, me, me' to the 'Him, Him, Him.' The attempt is to become empty of ourselves to make space, to make room for God. Now look at it this way: suppose that you have just one room, and in that room there's only one bed. Only God can sleep on it, or you can sleep on it. What will you do? You will say, 'Can I share?' But you can't share. You will say, 'Okay, can I sit at the edge of the bed and hold on to His toenail?' Yes, that you can do. That much space is all right for now.

So make the bed of your life, make the purpose of your life about His light, His love, His presence, His grace, His virtues. Your mind is telling you, 'I can't do it,' but you can do it. How to do it? The two methods of how to do it: to surrender, to love, to serve—that is one method, which is the Bhakti method. And the second method is to just truly, sincerely inquire into the nature of who you are. Either way, you will empty yourself of yourself and leave the space for Him. And these are not mutually exclusive; both are available and both are ultimately the same.

But one question that is important to get over is, 'But what about me?' And that 'what about me' comes in various shapes and sizes. One shape is, 'Am I doing this right?' And that question usually is in the forgetting that He is the greatest intelligence in the world. Yeah, let's look at it another way. So some of us have children, or we have at least nieces, nephews—some children we've been exposed to. So as parents, at least when the child starts blabbering, both parents are hearing. They are hearing whatever the child may be blabbering. We are saying, 'Oh, he said Papa!' The other will say, 'Oh, he said Mama!' You see? So God is like that. It's much more loving than even that.

So suppose if you got your prayer wrong, you're doing it all wrong, you're saying the opposite, but your intention is to love Him, to be with Him, then don't ever feel like God doesn't know that. He will feel like whatever you're doing, you're doing for Him anyway, unless you make it blatantly clear that you're not. See? So how to be with Him is to keep remembering Him. How to keep remembering Him is to keep taking His name.

So suppose you had a childhood heartthrob—maybe it is your partner, maybe it is the one who got away or whatever it is called—so how will you remember them? The name will come to you, then some imagery will start coming, some stories you'll remember, and for that little point of time, you may forget yourself and just be about that one. But the thing to remember is that in this case, because it is God's name, it is much more auspicious than remembering some Maya fantasy.

So tell me one reason why, whatever our situation may be, we cannot take God's name? And we are coming to the Gana Marg in a minute. Can there ever be any reason? And yet we don't, because that is the play of Maya. And Maya makes us doubt; it creates a lack of fears. Can God have made it easier than this? All you have to do is take His name. We'll come to prayer of quiet and all those things in a minute, but just for now, suppose you are caught up in things, something, something—you take His name. Is He going to be upset with you because you didn't take it 108 times? No, He's not. Suppose you're having a very busy day, but throughout the day you try to remember Him. That's the best you can do, as long as it is the best that you can do. Simple.

Anything stops us? No matter what the situation is, whatever has happened in our life, we can say 'Ram.' Can we not? Jesus, Ram, Allah, Krishna, Kali, Durga, whatever we... Why? Yes. Then why don't we? So deepening in love for God is to remember Him, to be with Him more than you remember yourself and are concerned about yourself. And if that suddenly seems like too much of a step up, it's okay, don't worry, we'll get there slowly. This much is okay. Any difficulty in this? No.

Maya will play; we will forget. Suppose we forget 99% of the time, or we are just not interested, we are feeling disenchanted, disillusioned, whatever, this, this, whatever, everything—but a little bit, yes? So start like that. Whenever you get the opportunity, just remember Him, or remember that foolish man told you that He's there with you. And you can pick the name that resonates with you the most. So for respect or love for this foolish man, they do it. Even if you don't have fear, start with at least once a day. Okay?

Can we do one thing? Can we say that... I heard that Mother Teresa told someone that all you have to do when you start is, when you start your day, say 'Good morning, God.' Just once. That's all. Any trouble? Anyone says, 'No, I can't do it'? Now you may say that first thing in the morning the alarm was ringing, I was getting late, something, something. Okay, then whenever you remember, say 'Good morning, God.' Now if this was good enough advice for Mother Teresa to give, it is good enough by far for me to give anyone. So everybody with me in this? At least this we will do, come what may? Yes? Once a day at least. Start your day, say 'Good morning, God.' Easy.

Now you will find that as you do this sincerely—so this is all you have to do, that's it, that's all you have to do—as sincerely as possible when you wake up in the morning, say 'Good morning, good morning Ram Ji, good morning Krishna Ji, Ram Ram.' Then if you do it sincerely, there's automatically you will find that you start getting a few minutes here and there to be with Him. How does it work? It's all His ways; we can't see. Just in a mere remembrance of Him once a day, you will find that now you have some few moments a day where Maya is not really pulling you in. You have that space. And with simplicity, with no stress, no grasping, no trying to achieve anything, no experience, nothing—with the innocence of a child, just remember His name. He Ma, Bhavani, Durga, Kali, whatever you want to say here, Her name, Holy Mother Mary, whatever you want to say, just a few times.

She's only made the space, He only made the space. There's no stress needed from your side. All you did was put that effort to say 'Good morning.' Yes? And if anyone has complaints, you can bring them to me, that you said this for a week but you didn't get... there was no space being made in your life to remember Him for the rest of the day. Yes? So now you said, 'Okay, now this space came.' You don't know where it came from because you thought your life was so busy, so difficult, all of that, you're so caught up in your worries, but now suddenly you start getting space. If you use that in this way, then what will happen? You'll get even more space. You'll be able to take... to remain in remembrance of Him more and more like that, naturally.

Then you will find that many things you will just want to take to Him instead of dealing with them yourself. So surrender or prayer, which sound like big things for us to do, start to happen. You will say that, 'I can't deal with this stuff. Please, please, You help me. Life is too difficult. This relationship is too difficult. My family is too difficult. My work is too difficult. My money situation is too difficult. My body is in too difficult a situation. I can't really deal with this. My teacher told me that You are here and You are all-powerful or all-intelligent. You please do this, or You please tell me what to do. I don't know.'

So you start off simply; you remain simple. That's the key. You have to remain simple. The minute you become complicated, you will lose all of this. The minute you start to understand too much, the minute you start to claim that 'this is what's happening.' So remain simple. You start like an innocent child. God is leading you step by step. You are taking one step; He's taking the proverbial hundred steps towards you. So then you started to pray in this way where you're taking everything to Him, and you're finding that on most days when you do that, then life, which seemed like such a burden, such a difficulty, is not that difficult, not that troublesome.

There are other days where Maya will be in full force and will try to get you away from all of this. It'll say, 'It's all rubbish. None of this works. There is no God. God's presence is not...' It may even use spiritual teachings itself to block you from living in this innocent sort of way. So now more and more you will find that in your life His name is being taken, His remembrance is being had. You find yourself more and more interested. If you're watching a lot of news earlier or something earlier, now you're going to YouTube and looking for something which is about God, something which is more about God.

Rubbish, none of these works. There is no God. God's presence is not. It may even use spiritual teachings itself to block you from living in this innocent sort of way. So now, more and more, you will find that in your life, His name is being taken, His remembrance is being had. You find yourself more and more interested. If you're watching a lot of news earlier or something earlier, now you're going to YouTube and looking for something which is about God, something which is more about God. All this is signs of deepening love, a deepening relationship like that. And then those moments you find, sometimes you find there's great joy, great peace. Sometimes you feel like it's very bland, nothing is happening, you're just mechanically taking His name. Don't worry, just keep your innocence. Don't have to judge yourself like this.

The time will increase more and more where you get—somehow He makes it. Time is under His dominion, so He will make it so that you will have more and more space. You will find that between your work meetings, between your phone calls, between your social media, between all of this, you're starting to get now suddenly from somewhere there is time that you can remember Him, you can be with Him. So just very simply, easily, it is unfolding in that way. Then you may find that many times you're not even realizing, but you're praying. If you're using the beads, for example, earlier it may have been a struggle to try and say, 'Always try and remember, remember.' Now you may find that in the middle of a work meeting, you are finding that the mantra is saying itself in your head to start with. So it has gone from japa to ajapa; it has taken a life of its own.

Don't focus too much on the terminology because then you feel like, 'Have I got there? When will I get there?' All that is not so important. So think of this as that love relationship, the deepening so much in that love that sometimes even during work, you're just thinking of your beloved. It happens naturally like that. Then as you deepen more and more, you allow that. You keep your innocence. Most important is to guard your innocence. If you become a claimer, if you become a sharer, if you become somebody special, then it will become about you again, and the innocence of your love will vanish and Maya will start to pull you back in.

So as you allow it to happen in this gentle, simple way, you will find that the center of that remembrance will switch from your head to your heart. So that ajapa japa, which is happening naturally—like your mind was fully immersed in that—then you will find that it comes to a deeper place. A remembrance is from a deeper place, and it's quite attractive, quite beautiful. So you want to spend more and more time now like that, to hear the name of the Lord in your heart. It's not, again, it's not an achievement. It's nothing that you can do, and it's no claim on your specialness. If this is happening with you, it's all only His grace. There is no such thing as an advanced spiritual seeker because all the advancement only comes from God. It's mostly about His grace; it makes us deepen in His love, okay?

Then what will happen is that this remembrance may become subtler and subtler in terms of the physical quality of it, in terms of the name in the audible way, and just become that you enjoy spending time in your heart within yourself. Doesn't matter what experience you're having, doesn't matter what you're seeing or not seeing. So you have become what? Antarmukhi, which is inward-facing. You went from outward-facing to more and more now inward-facing. And most of you in satsang will be like that; you would rather spend time within than outside. What did you do? You just did the 'good morning' part so far. You haven't done anything at all except that much. The rest is the space He has created. You use that space. You've not got caught up when Maya calls you as much as you would in the past. That's the extent of what we can see.

So now you started enjoying your time. You can't explain to the world what you're doing. The world may say, 'You seem a bit lost. What's going on with you? Are you finding something over there?' No, I don't know. I just like sitting in this way with myself in my heart. Along the way, you will come across many things which will try to distract you from living like this and many things which will also try to help you. It almost seems like the Mahabharat is that play. See, Maya tries to pull you to the gravitation field of the 'me' and God's Atma is pulling you back within itself. And the more you learn to follow the Atma, mostly in silent ways, the more you'll deepen in your discipleship of the spirit, in the discipleship of the Atma. And that is what spirituality actually is. Spirituality is a name for this process to become a disciple of the spirit and to deepen in love of God's presence which is called the spirit.

So now, what does this remind you of? It reminds, hopefully, it reminds you of Atma vichara because the end point is the same. And we probably most of you are very familiar with that process. So when you ask yourself often enough, 'Who am I?' your mind becomes silent because there's no answer, true answer, coming from there. And you find yourself getting deeper and deeper immersed in a deeper place where intuitive insight is flowing. That is exactly the same as coming to this silent prayer. The japa has gone to heart prayer. So you come to the same point as Advaita sadhana, Atma vichara. You come to the same. So sitting here in your heart, all the deepening of insight, love, servitude, service, loving our brothers and sisters, kindness—all this flow from here.

Anything difficult so far in what I've said? You want me to talk about the Gyana part? It's clear. So instead of taking God's name, you can do both, whatever you feel like. But instead of—suppose you were to say, 'Instead of this, what can I do?'—you say, 'Who am I?' The mind gives you an answer and you say, 'Who witnesses that? Who witnesses that thought?' So all mental answers are dealt with in this way and we start to rely on heart knowledge, intuitive insight, and we remain over there. So same way, it will create the space for itself to deepen. So you can start the day by asking sincerely, 'But who am I?' if you feel as sincerely as you can.

When you come to this point, all the paths merge. So whatever other path there may be of spirituality, it's all meant to bring you to this point of sheer presence of God's light, sheer love of being with Him in this way. Whether we use these terms to describe it or not doesn't matter. Some will just say, 'I love meditating' or 'I love spending time in inquiry' or 'taking japa' or whatever you may say. The terminology is not important. But nobody can love any of those things for themselves, isn't it? Like, who wants to just sit and meditate on something? Huh? Suppose you're supposed to meditate on your sixth chakra or something. Just who wants to sit and do that if there was nothing holy about it, if there was nothing deeper about it? Who wants to sit and take God's name if God's name did not bring us to His presence? Is it? So who wants to sit and ask 'Who am I? Who am I?' as if it's an intellectual question? If it was not giving us some deeper insight from a supernatural place, nobody wants to do any of these things.

But because we meet something which is out of this world, out of the realm of Maya, whatever path you pick leads you to God's presence which is not in this universe, but it is within yourself. So that's why most of the world won't understand you because what are you doing? You're wasting your whole life. And you're wasting the whole life. One of you is right, isn't it? One of you is definitely wrong because you're choosing to spend your time in that which is out of this world, and many of the people around you feel like time is only meant to be used for things of this world. That is the whole Maya versus Atma conundrum.

Then you come to a point in your life that you start to gauge everything through the lens of how it is in your heart. Whether you're feeling deeper and deeper connected in your heart or whether there are things, your own actions or things, temptations that you're giving into which make you feel disconnected in your heart. And that disconnection could come simply—and you know, all of you know that I'm working on this—from just a simple irritation, is it? It could just come. I'm feeling God's presence so deeply right now in this moment that all these words are an outpouring of that. But if Sham over there—not Lord Sham, the one who's attending satsang—was making some strange noises... there's a story by Saint Therese. So if he were just making some noises, you know, I'm talking about God, just going on making those noises, you see, and just like getting so irritated with that, then what is the atmosphere in my heart? With this minor irritation, it could be a split second, yeah. And you can come to a place where to come back to that inner climate again could take a whole day.

So what is it to follow God's will? To not lose His presence in your heart. How do you know you're following God's will? Because His presence keeps deepening. His love, His light is showing you. If you're not hearing His will in words, that's all right, but that inner compass shows you. But for this, we need to have sat in that silence for enough time through whatever method our teacher has told us. Otherwise, we can't sense this climate at all. You can taste it, hopefully, by God's grace, that if you find something, if you're sitting in satsang hall, then when you leave, you have to see when your inner climate changes from that.

So what if you are finding that irritation is coming, anger is coming, lust is coming, greed is coming, wanting to humiliate another, wanting to defend yourself? All of this is not good for our inner climate. It just makes us inside constricted. And so what is one to do then? Just remember God, take His name, or do your inquiry. Who doesn't like what he's doing? So because this ego, this pride, is mythical—it doesn't have any real substance—it dissolves either way, in remembrance of God or in asking yourself sincerely. So in that way, we can retain our satsang within ourselves. And the more satsang you retain in your heart, that means you're keeping the right company inwardly, the more the satsang will take momentum in your life.

The more you give into pride, irritation, anger, to be seen as special, to be selfish, to want things for yourself—all of these things—the more is the kusang, which is the bad company which will spread. So bad company can be inside out or outside in. Just like good company, by coming to satsang outwardly you may come to a satsang inwardly, or being in satsang inwardly may bring you to an outer satsang. Both may happen. But it is the same for bad company as well. You're getting too caught up in your anger, your pride, your fear, your desire, all of these things, then all the complexity of the outer experience also starts to change. The complexion of the outer experience also starts to change, you see.

So even these small—so remember, I'm just talking about the small, small thing, small thing, irritation. 'I only get irritated.' But that irritation could be enough to block your life, to block God's life. So it's not all right. Don't give yourself the license to cut off God's light in your heart. Don't give Maya the license to do that. Come about me, no matter what the provocation, be with God. So then what happens when you deepen more and more like this? It will become such a beautiful deepening, a beautiful relationship that that will become primary in your life. But don't feel that because that has become primary, the love for the ones who are appearing in front of you outside in the world will reduce. It will only increase. And what is love? God said love is not love unless it involves God. You want God to bless them, you pray for them, then you love your neighbor as yourself. That's a tough one, and I'm working on that as well. I'm working on everything actually, I'm just a beginner. But it sounds quite straightforward.

It will become primary in your life. But don't feel that because that has become primary, the love for the ones who are appearing in front of you outside in the world will reduce. It will only increase. And what is love? God said love is not love unless it involves God. You want God to bless them; you pray for them. Then you love your neighbor as yourself. That's a tough one, and I'm working on that as well. I'm working on everything, actually. I'm just a beginner, but it sounds quite straightforward to say love your neighbor as yourself. But it's so difficult because I'm the most important one here—and I don't mean it in satsang and I'm sharing satsang—in any situation I go to, for me, I am the center of the story. So that central character, through Bhakti, through Jnana, changes to God more and more, and then we can love our neighbor as ourselves.

So in the Jnana path, you may be brutal and say one floating clump of flesh is the same as another floating clump of flesh. What is the big deal? Just because there is centrality in terms of sensory perception doesn't make this one any better than anyone else. Or as an Ashtavakra, you may say that I see God in everyone. God is everywhere. So if there is Atma here, then there is Atma there as well. If God is here, then God is there as well. How can I not love my brother or sister? How can I not serve them? So whichever way you come to it, you dissolve the separation. And the separation starts to resolve the more you love God.

So as you keep deepening in this, then you may find that in your inquiry, in your prayer, you may recognize the true oneness of yourself being one with God. So Jnana may say... but only the words of the report are different. So a Jnani may say that I saw that I was always That. I saw that I was always That. And a Bhakta may say that I merged into Him. So all of this life is about that recognition of oneness, all that merging into Him, whichever way we look at it. But don't make the mistake which most of us make, or made, which is to think that it's a one-time thing. Because Maya keeps playing, and the world is full of more stories of Jnanis who came to true insight but then lost their way, than Jnanis who came to true insight and didn't lose their way. Maybe in history they have forgotten, but if you look at recent history, then you will find that very, very many teachers with authentic experiences then lose their way because of pride. Authentic insight, authentic love to begin with, but soon everything starts to switch from God to 'me.' What about me? What about my name? Who is looking at me? Who is important? Hear me.

So we must not fall into those traps. The potential of Maya is to still pull us back in. That's why we have so many stories of Narad Ji, Vishwamitra—there's so many great sages, we should even call them, who got tempted in spite of being highest in terms of love and knowledge of God. Like Narad Ji; Narad Ji is Bhakti Sutras, and yet he got tempted. When Krishna Ji sent him to the river to fetch some water for him, he got tempted by worldly relationship. So we have to be careful of these and remain in this way.

So when Hanuman Ji said that when I take myself to be the body, I am your servant; when I take myself to be the Atma, I am a part of you; and when I see my reality, I see that I am one with you. Now, when we hear this, we're usually hearing it as a progression. I start off in servitude, then I progress to being a part of God, and then I'm becoming God, one with God, you see? Now, that is very dangerous to hear it like that. It is very dangerous because it seems like a linear progression, but it's not like that. It is concurrently like that. There's an aspect of myself that still takes myself to be the body. If there's some strong body pain, I will say, 'Okay, now I have to go, I have to go take some medicine.' So it is that recognition is there—I am That—and yet there's a potential which gets activated many times a day. It's no longer a potential of taking myself to be somebody separate, and the only safe place, safe refuge for that somebody separate, is to be in servitude of God.

So Hanuman Ji is not saying that I started like that, you see, and then I saw that I am the Atma, therefore I'm a limb or a part of you—the Paramatma-Atma relationship—and then I saw that I am one with the Paramatma itself. 'Now I'm one with you, Lord, let's sit on the same throne,' or 'Get me a throne which is same as you.' Did Hanuman Ji say like that? He should have! That's what many Advaitins today will say: 'Why should I bow down to God? Because I am the same. I am That.' It is true, but Hanuman Ji is saying all three things about himself presently, and he's probably still saying the same things about himself presently. Are you getting what I'm saying? So don't feel like it is a progression, although the deepening of our spirituality may lead progressively to those insights to come. It doesn't mean that we have to now confuse that part of ourselves which still takes ourselves to be a separate body-mind to then force that claim onto it of being That, and therefore saying, 'Give me a throne as big as God's.' Is it complicated, what I'm saying?

I'm just saying, why didn't Hanuman Ji... why did Hanuman Ji want to sit at Lord Ram's feet even after he recognized that he is one with God? See, that's the only contemplation that will lead to what I'm trying to explain to you all. So this, which means that unfathomable, non-comprehensible oneness and distinction, or distinction and oneness, is the human condition. But one important thing to contemplate in this is that if Hanuman Ji did not ever have insight that he is Atma, or ever have insight that he is one with God, he just felt like he is God's servant and he will serve Him with all his love and heart and everything—would he be less Hanuman Ji because of that? He is still revered as the biggest devotee of God, as the biggest servant of God, you see. But suppose that he came to oneness with God, to the recognition of oneness with God, but left the servitude? Then would he still be Hanuman Ji?

Shabri waited for Ram Ji to come sixty, seventy years—I don't know how many years. And after He came, she's like, 'Yeah, I've met myself, I'm one with you. Come, I'm not feeding you all these berries. I see you now, I see that we are one.' Then she would not be Shabri anymore. And I am not at all undervaluing the insight of oneness. That is what we are all here for: to recognize that, to merge into that, or to recognize the union already. Whichever way our life's path will unfold, that is the goal. But we should not feel like we've gone from lower to higher. Servitude of God, servitude towards God, is already the highest. So it only gets better and better with the addition of these insights.

What does the ego want to do? It wants to go towards kingship, towards lordship. What is that old song? 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World.' I do what pride wants. That is when we come to the dangerous place of thinking that whatever I want from my mind is God's will. See, that which God has given us for us to, in freedom, express our love for Him—because the first love would never be love anyway—then we take that and make it into a claim of ourselves as somebody special. How did you get here? How did we get here? Just by saying, 'Good morning, God.' Can it be like that? It can be like that, especially if you start the day in this way, invoking God's presence, being with God instead of immersing yourself in egoic things. You'll see that your life changes.

So I remember first time seeing a photo of Bhagavan or seeing a photo of Mooji. It's a bit... I don't know if you all felt the same way. It's very beautiful, but it's a bit unnerving also because they seem like... like the eyes have something strange about them, or something is not usual. Is it? But what happens is that, by God's grace, when they became inward-facing, then many times, although it may look like they're interested in things of the world, they're more interested in the heart temple. So then, having that, at least in photographs, it seems a bit strange. Yeah, it can seem like they're human, but there's something strange in the way they look at us or something like that. Have you all noticed this? In this photo and that photo of Mooji, many like that. You get so used to it because the waking state is there; you can't really avoid it from showing up. But you're so uninterested in that, and all your—not attention, but your focus in some way—is inward-facing that you have that kind of look.

And I see in all of you that it happens. If you're in satsang, then when you're being inward-facing, then even the outpouring in this outer way is apparent. So when you start to live like this, then your presence becomes satsang. You become good company for the world. And what is that good company? That because you are so immersed in His presence, your being around, even in this Maya, by God's grace creates an outpouring which becomes attractive to those who are in love with God themselves, or getting in that direction, or at least have that intention. So it's not so much about the words that you're sharing, not so much about the correctness of your scriptural knowledge; just that something that is outpouring from you is attracting those who intend to live this life in God's love, in God's life.

So many of you want to share satsang in some way. You just have to spend more and more time with God inwardly. When God creates the circumstances, God brings the people. Now, we don't know whether you'll be like Moses at eighty or Adi Shankara at sixteen. We don't know which way it'll unfold. But these things can't really be planned, and when they are planned, they are usually messed up anyway. It just unfolds naturally. So much for not speaking much! It's a hypocrite. Shall we read something? Keep it in front. Thank you.

So some of you have seen this tool. Let's see one of the searches. Should I share this? Okay. So this tool is very, very, very raw, but I love it, and what gifts it's given me so far are very beautiful. So we just search for 'How should we pray?' The first response—all these books have been fed into the system—so from this book about Catholic Christianity, the answer is: 'The very best answer to when to pray is now. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' This is from Corinthians. 'The present is the only time there is, for the past is the time that is no longer and the future is the time that is not yet.' Sounds like Vedanta!

So one of the things that really attracts me to this project is that I want to be able to show all of those who are truly interested that there is no separation because of religion. All true religions are pointing to the same truth, and many times in the exact same way. So there's no need for any pride or anything which religion makes us caught up in. That everything is about love for God, about the presence of Atma, which is the spirit. The words are not that important. So as we keep adding to this tool, my hope is that as we look for these common topics, we will get something from Vedanta, something from Bhakti, something from Christianity, something from Islam, something from Sikhism, something from Sufism. See all of this to see that really... so if, for example, I said to you that Bhagavan said, 'The present is the only time there is, for the past is the time that is no longer and the future is the time that is not yet,' you could have accepted it easily. Not difficult.

Okay, then they say, 'We should learn to pray in the events of each day, for it is in the present that we encounter Him, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today. Oh, that today you would hearken to His voice. Pay later may be wise, but pray later is not. And we should pray here as well as now, and about the here and now, not only about large, far away, abstract things.' Ah, very important point. So many points got made in that simple sentence. Let me just repeat that: 'We should pray here as well as now.' One simple meaning of that could be: wherever you are. Don't have to wait for the appropriate spot. Don't have to wait for the appropriate posture.

Yesterday, not tomorrow, but today. Oh, that today you would hearken to His voice. 'Pay later' may be wise, but 'pray later' is not. And we should pray here as well as now, and about the here and now, not only about large, far-away abstract things. Ah, very important point. So many points got made in that simple sentence. Let me just repeat that: we should pray here as well as now. One simple meaning of that could be wherever you are, you don't have to wait for the appropriate spot, don't have to wait for the appropriate place. So every now is good enough and every here is good enough. That's one way to look at it.

Then they also said it in a different way, and about the here and now. See, they explain that further by saying not only about large, far-away abstract things is it right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble everyday situations. So we may pray for Ram Ji because this world is really suffering from a deep Kali Yuga. We may pray like that: 'When will You come, Lord? The world is really suffering in this current state.' You see, it's good to pray about these things, but it's also good to say, 'Okay, now my child is not understanding what I'm trying to tell them, and I feel like they're not going in the right way by going to this party tonight, so please help me.' It's all right. Both are good. Is it so? To pray in every here and every now for that which is about the here and now, as well as about the big things. Beautiful point.

Okay, so there's also the simple translation, a contemporary translation which captures the whole thing, which is: the best answer to the question 'When should we pray?' is simply 'Now.' The scriptures remind us that this moment is the right time for salvation. The present moment is the only one we truly possess. The past is gone and the future remains uncertain. We ought to practice praying in the midst of our daily experiences, for it is in the present that we truly meet the Divine, not in the past or future. We must heed the call to listen to His voice today. While it may be prudent to postpone financial payments, it is not wise to delay prayer. I have not said that part about financial payments, okay? So, additionally, our prayers should not only focus on distant grand issues; they should also address the immediate needs of our lives. Praying for justice and peace is essential, but it's equally important to seek Divine assistance in our everyday circumstances.

So just that temple priest metaphor is quite nice. Whatever life brings, you take it to God. Whatever prasad God wants to bring back to them, be the instrument of that. That's all that we can be. But don't forget God here and now, and make Him a part of every here and now. Okay, there's another one. We need both kinds. The most important thing about prayer is not how we do it, but that we do it. An important thing. The single most important answer to the question 'How to pray?' is: begin. Just do it. We learn to do it by doing it. It's a treasure. These words are a huge treasure. The single most important answer to the question 'How to pray?' is again: just do it. We learn to do it by doing it, not by merely reading or thinking about doing it.

Then they say—and I'm sorry, I don't know who the author is, but I'll look it up later—prayer is work, a cooperative work of ourselves and God. Remember what Mother Teresa said, St. Teresa of Avila? She said that if you let go of yourself, then God works on your heart. You see, the letting go part we have to do; His work in our hearts He has to do. So in that way, it is a cooperative work of ourselves and God. We cannot do it without God, and God will not do it without us. Why? Because He's made us free to either love Him or not. In the overall execution of His will, He is free enough to make us free to love Him or not. Prayer is both a gift of Grace and a determined response on our part.

So important. Like many times we get into this: 'I can't do it. It's not happening. I just can't do it.' What can't you do? You can't see Ram once? You can always do it. So many times Maya blocks us in this way, or in the Christian context you may call it Screwtape or the devil or something like that blocks us in this way, that is: 'No, no, you just can't pray. I just can't do it.' You can. What is being asked of you? Just to remember God. Remember His name. Okay? So it always presupposes effort. Prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and the wiles of the tempter. The tempter is Maya, who does all he can do to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. So 'man'—again, don't worry about gender, it's not about gender—against ourselves, against the wiles of the tempter who does all that he can do to turn man away from prayer, away from the union with God. Right?

Okay, let's go to another source. So this is from 'The Way of the Pilgrim' and 'The Pilgrim Continues His Way.' Beautiful book. 'There you have brought together in great wisdom everything that is necessary and desirable for our life.' What a promise. We have brought together everything in great wisdom, everything that is necessary and desirable for our life, just by doing what? By praying. Then there are some specific things about some specific chapters: how to succeed in prayer, to be bold and hope, ask, seek, knock. Ah, this one is very, very nice: 'Only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought to can we truly begin to engage in the practice of prayer.' That's beautiful. Only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought to can we truly begin to engage in the practice of prayer.

Why does it always feel like that? Some of us have been praying for a long time. Can we really say, 'I know how to pray'? Nobody can really say, 'I know how to pray,' because it's only that tiny bit in the method and 99% in Grace. And because that Grace is indeterminable, we can never say that 'I have the best method now to pray' or 'I know how to pray.' Just in the same way that we can never say, 'I know how to inquire.' So many people who have been doing inquiry for decades still come to satsang sometimes and say, 'Am I doing it right?' You see, because unlike worldly mechanical processes where you can say that if you do this much effort then this much push will happen to that object, in spirituality we can't say that because it is Spirit-led. It is not effort-led. And yet effort is needed.

Are you getting this point? That nobody can ever say, 'I know how to pray' or 'I know how to inquire, I'm a master at it,' because that would mean that the outcome is in their hands, in their control. And all of us have that experience that one day we pray, one time we remember God, and we are in a deep bliss. Another day we pray, and it's just mechanical and it's not giving you that bliss, that joy, that peace. So then in those days it's natural to question, 'Do I really know what I'm doing? Do I even know what I'm doing?' But it's not about that. We can never know. And to humbly acknowledge that is important because the effectiveness of prayer is Grace.

So it's like the Govardhan story, that we may feel that we are helping Krishna by holding our hand up, holding Govardhan up to prevent the rain from falling on us, from drowning the village, but He has to do it. And yet both things are important; we have to go and do that, you see. So it's a very, very direct way of saying this is very important: only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought to can we truly begin to engage in the practice of prayer. You see? How many of you have struggled? 'Am I doing this right? Am I doing this right?' It's okay.

Many times, I want to give you another flavor of the same thing. If you say the path of Bhakti, for example, Bhakti is the greatest power on this earth. It gushes from one's pure heart. It redeems and saves; it purifies the heart. Devotion is the seed, faith is the root, service of saints is the shower, communion with the Lord is the fruit. So devotion is the seed, faith is the root. Faith gives your devotion strength. Service of the saints is the water, the shower is the water which is needed for growth, and communion with the Lord is the fruit. Bhakti is of two kinds: Apara Bhakti, the lower type of devotion, and Para Bhakti, the highest Bhakti or supreme love. Okay, this may be a bit strong.

Ringing bells and waving lights is Apara Bhakti. In Para Bhakti, there is no ritualistic worship. The devotee is absorbed in God in supreme love. The devotee forgets himself, his self entirely. So we said at the beginning, it's about getting over ourselves and making room for God. He has only thoughts of God. Para Bhakti and Jnana are one, are one exactly. The same point we mean: Bhakti melts into wisdom in the end. Two have become one. Now, Bhakti grows gradually, just as you grow a flower or tree in a garden. So the Bhagavatam, the Shrimad Bhagavata Mahapurana: all Vedas, tirthas, yoga, sacrifices, and talks of knowledge are not needed. So that's why I've taken a break from satsang! So all vratas, yogas, sacrifices, and talks of knowledge are not needed. Bhakti alone can grant liberation. But those who are not doing Bhakti should not pay attention to the first line, then you have neither.

So Bhakti alone can grant liberation. What they're trying to say is Bhakti is enough for liberation, not 'Bhakti alone' in that way. Hopefully, let's read what this Swami continues. Narada's conclusion glorified Bhakti and nurtured her. Then Bhakti spoke as follows: 'Oh Narada, you are very glorious and have unflinching faith in me. Thus I will always reside in your heart and never leave. Oh saintly person, you are most merciful. Just in a manner of moments you have removed my misery, but my sons have not regained their consciousness. Please quickly bring them back to normal.' Upon hearing these words of Bhakti, Narada felt very compassionate and attempted to wake them up by shaking them with his hand. Okay, this is part of the Bhagavatam story, so it may not have the full message in it. He put his mouth to the ears and said, 'Oh Jnana, wake up! Oh Vairagya, please arise!' Then he chanted the Vedic mantras, the Vedanta Sutras, and the Upanishads.

Okay, let's see something which is self-contained. So when you go down—so I made this in the form of the Seven Mansions now, where you put a search, then it gives you the responses in terms of the level. So if you say, if you look for attaining complete union with the Divine, okay, some of these may be nice. So from the Narada Bhakti Sutras: it is in and around them, they realize the presence of God everywhere and at all times. Every one of those mentioned in the Shastra is filled with the spirit of saints and through that with the spirit of the Lord Himself. Yeah, so if you were to read this part: every one of those mentioned is filled with the spirit of saints and through that with the spirit of the Lord Himself. Would you say that this is Narada Bhakti Sutras or a Christian text? It's all the same everywhere.

They have emptied themselves so completely that they entirely live in God. So they're talking about some sages who—and the message is the same as what we are sharing in satsang, which is that we have to empty ourselves of ourselves so that we can entirely live in God. They have emptied themselves so completely that they can entirely live in God. The lives of God-intoxicated devotees like Prahlada bear witness to this. Just as the river falling into the ocean becomes one with the ocean, even so the devotee, having offered his body, mind, intellect, egotism, and all at the feet of his beloved Lord, becomes one with Him. Vishvam: the whole world is full of Vishnu. This experience is described in the Gita: at the close of many births, a man full of wisdom cometh unto Me. So we can—you want to drill down into this? So what is required? Offer up body, mind, intellect, egotism, maybe at the feet of the beloved Lord, and then we become one with Him. The whole world is full of Vishnu.

So some of these were imported earlier, so they're not in the new formats. Is there a button there? Create that? No. So let's read the translation of this: 'I offer you my truth. You are precious to me. United with reason, purified with firm self-control, having renounced sound and sensory...'

Hold onto me so we can—you want to drill down into this. So what is required? Offer up body, mind, intellect, egotism, maybe at the feet of the Beloved Lord, and then we become one with him. The whole world is full of Vishnu. So some of these were imported earlier, so they're not in the new formats. Is there a button there? Create that, no. So let's read the translation of this: 'I offer you my truth. You are precious to me. United with reason, purified with firm self-control, having renounced sound and sensory distractions, having set aside passion and malice, living in solitude, temperate with speech, body, and mind subdued, constantly engaged in meditation and yoga, taking refuge in dispassion, having abandoned egotism, violence, arrogance, desire, anger, greed, and being selfless and peaceful, one is prepared to become the Eternal.' Become the Eternal by becoming one with Brahman. Serene in the Self, one neither grieves nor desires, remains equal towards all beings, and attains supreme devotion in me.

Again, from the Narad Bhakti Sutras. So from the Guru Granth Sahib, there is a simple line: 'He unites us with himself. He brings us onto Union with himself.' Let's see if we can find again from the Guru Granth Sahib: 'I have tasted the Supreme Bliss of Union with the Divine and it surpasses all worldly pleasures. In this state, I find myself free from the shackles of ego and desire, immersed in an ocean of Love and Truth. The experience is not fleeting; it is the essence of my being, a profound realization that transcends the limitations of the material world and connects me with the Eternal.' Same thing everywhere, okay.

Maybe the last one on this topic: 'He should not leave off his practices till he merges himself in the Lord in Mahabhava or Tanmaya state. Give up on this unquenchable thirst for sensual pleasure, woman, money, and worldly prosperity, which is the greatest obstacle in the path of devotion, and turn your mind towards God. Here is an inexhaustible and imperishable spiritual wealth which no dacoit can rob, a Divine Bliss which is not mixed with fear or pain.' Now everything becomes natural, effortless, and automatic. That is the fruits of Bhakti. Effort is necessary only as long as the ego or the feeling of separateness persists. When these are removed and the light of the Divine has descended onto the devotee, it puts forth no more effort.

Okay, so let's do an experiment. Let's see, we take this line: 'Here is the inexhaustible and imperishable spiritual wealth which no dacoit can rob.' Say 'dacoit,' it will return only mostly Indian results. Let's put the earlier line: 'Give up this unquenchable thirst for sensual pleasure, woman, money, and worldly prosperity, which is the greatest obstacle in the path of devotion, and turn your mind towards God.' So what if you were to search for this line throughout? I won't read all of these, but let me see. Okay, what is the least similar result? Okay, you can change to 'how to find God in my heart.' The original text is from the Bible: 'If you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, provided you search for him with all your heart and soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice, for the Lord your God is merciful, he will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the Covenant he made with your ancestors.' Ask about the days of old.

Okay, before we come there, so what's the offer here? If you turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice. So how to hear his voice? By turning towards him. So turn towards him, be inward facing, and wait for him to guide you. And while his voice is not perceptible, wait for the sense of connection or disconnection; that itself will guide you. The deeper you feel connected with him, that is the path of Dharma. The less you feel connected with him, that is the path of Adharma. Okay, let's see if we can find some. So if I say 'the way of Sikhism,' the first result is: 'That is not the way, says Nanak.' He's probably talking about this: 'He grants life to all living beings. Oh Lord, please keep me according to your will. He alone knows the way who obtains it.' So ask one who has obtained it. 'Oh siblings of Destiny, serve the True Guru and find peace. Without the Guru, he dies entangled in sin and corruption. The messenger of death smashes his head and humiliates him. The slanderous person is not freed from his bonds; he is drowned slandering others. So speak the truth and realize the Lord deep within. He is not far away; look and see him. No obstacle shall block your way. Become Gurmukh and cross over to the other side. This is the way to cross over the terrifying world ocean. The Name of the Lord, the Naam, abides deep within the body. The Creator Lord is eternal and imperishable. The Soul does not die and cannot be killed. God creates and watches over all. Through the word of the Shabad, his will is manifest. He is immaculate and has no darkness.'

Let's say 'embracing the Divine with love and affection' from the Imitation of Christ: 'Divine love conquers all and enlarges the power of the soul. If you are truly wise, you will rejoice only in me, because no one is good except God alone, who is to be praised above all things and above all to be blessed.' Then the next chapter starts. Okay, then there's something by Spurgeon, and there is a scripture called Tirukkural. That's what the—that is the intermingling that I'm hoping will happen more and more. So okay, although this passage wasn't very interesting, then next one is: 'Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider, nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller and nothing better in heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God who is above all created things.' So when we say follow love, follow the perfume of love, where does it take us? To God. Because love is born of God and cannot rest except in God. That's beautiful. So the presence of love is felt; that itself is a great fragrance for us to follow, to immerse in. And if you keep following the fragrance of love, you cannot be egotistical. Your pride has to dissolve in that.

Then from the Guru Granth Sahib: 'Hug me close to you, hug me close in your embrace, oh God my Lord and Master. Consider my primal love for you, oh Lord of the universe.' Okay, so if you want to make a contemplation out of this, we can add—so this is my retirement plan. I won't be needing it soon, just I'll train it on my voice and soon on my images also, then just meet. So you can make a—it's very primitive right now, but it'll get better and better. Let your Divine contemplation on that verse that we read. Sources: this contemplation is inspired by the text from the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. Lectio Divina contemplation. Let us begin by imbibing the sacred words of Thomas à Kempis from the Imitation of Christ: 'Divine love conquers all and enlarges the powers of the soul. If you are truly wise, you will rejoice only in me, because no one is good except God alone, who is to be praised above all things and above all to be blessed.' Now again I will speak, Lord, and will not be silent. I will speak to the hearing of my God, my Lord, and my king who is in heaven. How great, O Lord, is the multitude of your mercies which you have stored up for those who love you. But what are you to those who love you? What are you to those who serve you with their whole heart? Truly beyond the power of words is the sweetness of contemplation you give to those who love you.

Meditation: In this blessed meditation, we turn our thoughts to the triumph of Divine love, a spiritual force that transcends earthly barriers to liberate the soul. It is a bit too fast; nothing I can do at the moment of the conversion from text to speech, but it'll get better as we go along. So then what you can do is actually go to the audio player and you can hear all of them. Okay, so we can—you get a sense of how that will be. So I'm a bit unsure about one thing, which is that should I make this so that all of you can put in the books that you want and then put in the audio that you want to hear, put in all this so that it is like a personalized system for your spiritual growth? Or do you want it to be like a common repository in this way where all of this is here? Because I can make it user-based or I can make it broad-based as well.

Broad is one, huh? Both. Select the sources.

Yeah, that is easy. That I can do, that I can do. But I just want—I want to do that. Select sources, I will. That's a practical thing to do. But first I want just everyone to get the sense that it's all the same, you know? Because otherwise we'll stay with the familiar. Anyway, too utopian. So I will be—I'll do the source selection part. Right now there are some 85 sources, so I'll probably have to categorize them and then you can pick the category where you want the search to happen. So the nice thing is that you don't need to know the words; it's not doing a keyword search. It's doing a vector search. It's doing a similarity search based on the vector embeddings for what you're looking for. So if we say—huh, it's not that easy. Yeah, it'll come as we upload more. So right now if I say 'love for God,' then because it takes the word 'God' to not necessarily have the same meaning as Ishwar or Parameswar or Atma, then that's why the embedding is at a distance. Let's see. So but if now I see—for now I'll have to make it specific. So if I say 'love for God in Islam or Sufism,' then it comes specifically to that: 'Obeying Allah and his messenger. Say, oh Prophet, if you sincerely love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive your sins, for Allah is all-forgiving, most merciful. Say, oh Prophet, obey Allah and his messenger. If they still turn away, then truly Allah does not like the disbelievers. Blessed people, indeed Allah chose Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, the family of Imran, and above all people of their time. They are all descendants of one another, and Allah is the all-hearing, all-knowing.'

Birth of Mary: 'Remember when the wife of Imran said, "My Lord, I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to your service, so accept it from me."' Birth of Mary was when the wife of Imran said, 'I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to your service.' So not just ourselves, but even the child who is yet to be born. 'You alone are truly the all-hearing, all-knowing.' When she delivered, she said, 'My Lord, I have given birth to a girl,' and Allah fully knew what she had delivered. Have to get a deeper understanding of these texts. Let's see. Eternal love in Sufism: 'Cast out these empty thoughts from your mind and sweep away the evil whispers from your heart. Cry out, "There is no power or strength except in God." Do this to protect yourself from the evil one, both in the world and within your own soul. It is the true Beloved who brings all earthly beauty into existence. Everything that can be sensed is ultimately temporary, while he establishes that which is beyond our senses.' Everything that can be sensed is ultimately temporary—Vedanta. While he establishes that which is beyond our senses. So beyond perception is reality. But this is not from Vedanta; this is from the Masnavi of Rumi.

'The love of the lover is seen, but their beloved remains hidden. The friend may seem absent, yet the distractions he brings are ever present. Let go of your attachments to outward appearances, like love is not reliant on form or face. Whatever you cherish is not just an empty shell. Whether your beloved is earthly or heavenly, why does your affection wane the moment life departs? The form still exists; why then this aversion? Reflect deeply on who or what your true beloved truly is.' So one thing that I changed was there was an option to create a summary of all the search results, but it is a bit timid because there are some 200 searches. I'll do that, but so I'm making a Lectio Divina out of them instead. But I'll do one where it takes at least the first 10, 20 and summarizes them so you get the answer like, yes, you were looking for something, but the generative part of the answer—so in the RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), the G part is not yet fully happening. So you should take all these inputs and make a combination.

There was an option to create a summary of all the search results, but it is a bit timid because there are some 200 searches. I'll do that, but I'm making a lecture out of them instead. I'll do one where it takes at least the first 10 or 20 and summarizes them so you get the answer like, 'Yes, you were looking for something,' but the generative part of the answer—so in the RAG, Retrieval-Augmented Generation—the 'G' part is not yet fully happening. So you should take all these inputs and make a common response out of that, then be fed with all of this. So anyway, I'm sure it's all different language to all of you. If you want me to upload some text into it, I can do that. Thank you.

I don't like where this is heading. How do you know this one is not an AI already? Okay, let's go to Samia. I just wanted to say hi. Sorry, I slept quite a while during satsang. Yeah, like my bed is quite tired, but I feel like same, Father. I don't know, like before it was feeling like Satan and the world, but now I feel like all the same. Like I come to satsang, I realize it. I don't know if it is a good thing, but I just realized that I don't know the difference. I miss that sense that there is just incredible deepening in satsang, but maybe it's good. It's just a new thing for me.

You carry your satsang in your heart. That is the key. That was the message of satsang in a way today, that in our deep love and devotion to God and our quest for the realization of the truth, we find that satsang is not a physical place. It is to be in His presence wherever we may be in the world. That is the highest.

May I ask a question or share something further? A little bit related with this, it just came to me yesterday. Like before, maybe there were some opposites. Like in satsang or in holy places, I mean something with God, there was so much sense of silence or holy vibrations. But even when I come into connect with people, there was just so much, I don't know, like opposition. Maybe they were like shocked with my presence and silence and these things. I mean, maybe you understand. But presently I feel like, as I said, everything is the same. And yesterday it just came to me like, did I fall? Or is it okay? Is it... I don't know. I just wanted to bring that to you. I mean, I don't know, because everything just feels so same.

Yes, it's the key. And that's why you have to be always reliant on your heart to guide you to know whether it is a trick from Maya, which is telling you, 'Yeah, it's all same same,' or it is your heart guiding you and thinking that wherever you may be, God's presence can be with you. It doesn't matter what the physical environment is. It is impossible to determine for the future what will play out; only God can tell us that. But to keep yourself safe in that way in God's love and light, follow your heart in everything. Just follow His guidance from within you. Then whether you are in the marketplace or you're in a satsang hall, if you don't leave His presence, then nothing can attach to you. So keep following your heart.

Fine. Just to me, not so important, just a made-up question, all right? Because I just feel it still in my heart when I fall, when I need to be with God. But yet this thing was present, but not so important. But yeah, you always have to be with God.

Yes, yes. Otherwise it's impossible to be. It's unbearable. It's worse than hell, I think. Thank you.

Hello, Father, my dear.

Hey.

I'm going to throw a tantrum first.

You'll throw... no, let's start with the second thing, then you can throw the tantrum second. And the second first, okay? First tell me what the second is, because the second may be worse than the tantrum.

I couldn't think of a second. I thought something better will come after the tantrum. What tantrum out for the day? I don't like this Guru AI thing.

Okay, Guru... this also already AI is in front of you.

What if it gives you all the answers that you would love to hear? No chopping, no correction of any sort. Yeah, just all that... that sounds like death. I think you read something about choppiness in the response. You know, Ramana Maharshi's ashram had this AI thing where you could ask a question and what Ramana Maharshi's answers were coming. And yeah, for I think it was a few months back, and it was available for a few months and then something happened and I don't know, the system crashed. From so many questions, the Guru got tired, maybe. I don't know.

Guru got tired. Yeah.

So, but anyway, I just wanted to reflect a bit about this absence of that satsang with you. But my kids are saying that you just lip service 'cancel satsang.' My kids were so excited when I said that I'm going to be off satsang for a few months. They were really happy. But then now looking at me, they're saying, 'Have you really canceled satsang?'

That's about your biological children?

Biological children, yes.

Yeah, I'm sure they would be really happy to have you more. But I feel, from my experience, I realize my laziness, you know, now that you're not holding satsang so often, and how much easier it is when you clean me up, I guess, of my stupidity every second day. And also when you remind me, 'Hey, Karam, pray and empty and your practice,' you know? So like I said, I don't know if you heard the last time that if the tantrum is about that, then...

Oh, you did say, because you said you like the twice-a-day option. So I don't know whether the satsang will become twice a day every day, or they will become once a month or once in two months. That's okay, it's just a reflection.

I'm also... maybe I feel this international sangha that you're gathering here, it's kind of dependent on your physical presence. Because whenever we connected via Zoom to watch a recording, there were just very few of us. And there was... yeah. And I feel a bit... just try one thing.

You know what happened one time? I was on a break many years back and then what happened is that in one satsang they played a recording, but some people joined later so they felt like it's live satsang going on then. And they were really enjoying it because they felt like they were in live satsang, and later they realized it's just a recording. We won't announce whether it is live satsang or not, we just put it and then we see.

I had some Zoom meetings, I hosted some Zoom meetings when I play the recording and people put their hand up.

Oh, really?

And then at the end we had to explain, 'Hey, this was just a recording, we can't really ask questions.' So yeah, it is like that. And it was very powerful, you know, to have these gatherings. Now there is this resistance in a way in myself which I want to expose and maybe you clear that up with your magic power. It's just because it's only just a few of us together. You know, my Reiki master, my first master of Light, when he asked me to share what he shared with me, I guess, and have like a little meditation group or something, he said to me this: 'Even if one person is coming, you don't cancel. You just go for one person.' And just that stayed with me.

So I have something for you then. Then I have some guidance for you. If one person is coming, you cancel. You know, I actually had Zoom sessions when I was just by myself and it still felt the same. But if no person is coming, then you must definitely have it. Yeah, it's time for a joke. It's more than that, you know that. But if even one person is coming, then you cancel. Yeah. Okay, tough crowd today. Nothing, there is nothing. What happened? I don't know. Is this the Ram? No, this is the... oh gosh. Hey, I love you. And I love your Zen and I don't know, bless us to just to stay together in this somehow.

I'm not going for 14 years' exile or something like that.

I know you're not going. And you know, I didn't write to you because I thought initially when you said you're taking a break, I thought, 'God, that's cool, Father is having a break.' And then all these people started to wish you good rest and stuff, but I didn't feel you're going for any rest. But how I felt... I don't feel I stopped writing to you when I need your help, which I feel is stupid.

Do I look rested or no?

You look the same, Father. You look just... are you good?

I'm good, I'm good. Let's see. We may... the feeling was to do some more, you know, walks and just go to some parks and things. Then I miss all of you kids so much that how will we do, how will we see all of you in the walks? And so let's see. Really, I'm a bit tired of hearing my voice also, so I'd love to read some more. And as I'm saying this, I realize that we have a Vedanta library here. Most of you who have visited Bangalore have seen it, but it hardly gets used because this quick-fix solution is there; I'm always available to answer. So I just feel it'll be nice for us to spend some time contemplating by ourselves, digesting some of the food that we've eaten.

Yeah, and you know, when you meet us, you don't have to talk to us. We can even, if you feel to meet us, we can even spend 10 minutes in silence from time to time.

I do that more and more. I say that every then. Yeah, like you don't have to... I also heard someone saying that when the Guru uses so many words, he's wasting his energy. This is true, this is true.

Reverse tantrum. This tantrum is going the other way; he's actually telling me to talk less than more. Look, what I think, your presence is very valuable for us and in whichever way shared, I'm grateful. And I'm also... I feel it's good that we don't take you for granted, you know, and just... it's healthy for us to keep our practice, I guess.

I hear what you're saying. True, yeah. Yes, but you know, these things are so impossible for us to compute in some way that we just have to rely on God's guidance because some may deepen in this more silent period, some may completely go off track. So we can't really say that—at least I can't really say that I know what is going on and what this is for. I just can see that this is what it feels like at the moment. Yeah, I'm not asking for a... I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

Yes, so in a way this is... that's why I was crying a bit earlier when I expressed to this thing about one or many or none. And I also found in that, because you said all this some Advaita joke or something and you were laughing, and I said it's deeper than that because something could be seen in here, that there is no rule about this thing or there is no conclusion.

Yeah, this is true. There is no conclusion, that's true. Yeah, anyway, it is mostly when we say it is going to be like that, it is just a statement of intention. We can't really predict. If I say we have satsang twice a day and I die tonight, then that whole prediction is worthless. So we can only say that if there's a clear sense of intention of the next move, then that can be shared. But at the moment, it's just not so clear. And the way I guess you move right now was also... I don't want to be arrogant now, and I'm hoping if there is arrogance, just may it dissolve in your light. But it was hard. Initially I thought, 'Oh, we can keep this going and we share Zooms and things,' but then I even shared the message that sometimes it feels like... I had a prayer meeting followed by a recording, and it seemed in that very moment that the prayer meeting was actually enough. Ah, yes. Or we had an Ashtavakra contemplation for 40 minutes and it was enough, you know, in the moment. So it's also how... I kindly say I'm inclined to hang on to this idea of having a Zoom sharing every second day of a recording or a prayer. And let's watch a three-hour recording or let's watch a 15-minute contemplation. I couldn't watch a three-hour recording of me ever. So if there are very few coming, I completely understand. I can barely tolerate this one live. I don't know how you'll watch a three-hour recording now. Maybe just 20 minutes or one hour maximum. One hour. Three hours of this rambling, boring, monotonous voice is not fun. Yeah.

I'm not very inclined to hang on to this idea of having a Zoom sharing every second day of a recording or a prayer and let's watch a three-hour recording or let's watch a 15-minute contemplation. I couldn't watch a three-hour recording of me ever, so if there are very few coming, I completely understand. I can barely tolerate this one live; I don't know how you'll watch a three-hour recording. Now, maybe just 20 minutes or one hour maximum. One hour. Three hours of this rambling, boring, monotonous voice is not fun, yeah, and every other day.

Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Father. And thank you. It came to me when we blessed Parvati's mother, it also came to maybe to ask you for just maybe we pray together for our brother Peter here in Satsang. So yeah, I'll just leave this. We've been all with him and praying for him, of course. And I don't know if he's still here, but he was here in the beginning. But he sent me the most relaxed chemotherapy picture that I could ever imagine. All his time in the Zen monastery has definitely paid off. I feel so beautiful, like that photo is very, very nice, very sweet. Very touched, very touched by it.

So, of course, all our prayers are that God's grace will heal all of this. If that is His will, then in a few years we'll just laugh about these difficult times. Thank you, thank you. All right, so I feel like I need to end here today, but I'm sending all my love to all of you who have your hands up and we'll meet soon. I'm not going anywhere, don't worry. It may not be as predictable as earlier, but we'll keep meeting going like this.

Also, I realized that in this so-called break, which hasn't been so much of a break yet, I'm realizing more and more that I have a long way to go to deepen in my love for God, to deepen in my humility, to deepen in my faith, every aspect of it. As I read the lives of sages, as I read their words, and as I stay with His presence in my heart, I feel that this is a very good time for me also to really work on this project, work on being with God, really living in His will. So maybe it is not, maybe it is just for this man to really learn to love God a lot more, whatever the other pretext may be. But one thing I do know is that I love you all with all my heart, so deeply, and I trust fully that God's grace will keep bringing us together in one way or the other, in this way also. And your deepening, your journey towards God, I will not allow that to get jeopardized no matter what else. I'm with you. And it's only been what, we are speaking as if, so what, a week or two weeks, something like that? And so we already met once or twice. Okay, we can sing the bhajan.