PART 1: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Transcription

1 PART 1: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

2 Divine Visit to California June 2016 PART I: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA DIVINE DISCOURSES BY BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA IN THE SUBTLE BODY COPYRIGHT Copyright Sri Sathya Sai Premamruta Prakashana, Sathya Sai Grama, Muddenahalli, Chikkaballapur Taluk and District , Karnataka, India. This Booklet contains material protected under Union and International Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorised reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this booklet may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in the original language or by translation, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the Publisher. Please contact for more information. All rights reserved. June 2016.

3 San Francisco Saratoga Palo Alto Milpitas Fremont Sunnyvale

4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction th June, Evening Session 2 Satsang at Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence Saratoga, California th June, 2016 Morning Session 8 Science for Society Conference at Stanford University Palo Alto, California th June, Evening Session 12 Satsang Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence Saratoga, California th June, Morning Session 16 Youth Meet, Best Western Inn Milpitas, California th June, Evening Session 40 Satsang at Sri Prashanth Mehta s Residence Fremont, California th June, Morning Session 45 Satsang at Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence Saratoga, California th June, 2016 Afternoon Session 53 Satsang at Sri Bobby Patel s Residence Fremont, California th June, 2016 Evening Session 60 Public Programme at Sunnyvale Hindu Temple Sunnyvale, California

5 Introduction In June 2015, Swami visited California in the Subtle Body with the message: I am leaving you this thought of selfless love and selfless service. Practise it and you can change the destiny of your nation and thereby the destiny of the whole world. It is up to you what you want to make out of this seed that I leave behind. A seed kept in the cupboard soon becomes useless, but a seed sown in the soil, nurtured and taken care of, will bear fruits tomorrow. To cultivate this seed with the waters of Love, our ever-gracious Lord of the Universe visited California for 10 days in June Four memorable days were first spent in Northern California, where Swami attended the Science for Society Conference on 15 June, held at the world-renowned Stanford University in Palo Alto, following which, Swami delighted His devotees with an Informal Meet for Young Adults in Milpitas on 16 June and a Public Programme held in Sunnyvale on 17 June. These are presented in PART I of this Divine Booklet. In the Subtle Body, Swami then went to Southern California, blessing His devotees with another Public Satsang, this time held at the University of California, Irvine. Swami briefly left the country to spend a few days with His devotees in Mexico, then came back to Southern California on 24 June to give directions to devotees in a few private satsangs before leaving on 26 June. These are presented in PART II of this Divine Booklet. (1)

6 14 th June, 2016 Evening Session Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence, Saratoga, California Swami arrived in the Golden State of California on a beautiful sunshine-filled day where a brand new silver Lexus, adorned with lovely pillows, was waiting to take Him to the home of long-time devotee, Sri Divyogi Patel and family in Saratoga (about one hour south of San Francisco). Bhagawan was welcomed with a walkway decorated with flowers on a beautiful blue carpet, rangoli at the entrance, poorna kumbham and Vedam chanting. He was accompanied by Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy, Sri C. Sreenivas, Mr. Isaac Tigrett and Sri Madhusudan Naidu. During the satsang, Swami spoke about the aspects of God omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence and the importance of believing what one is chanting. He then gave guidance on the Science for Society Conference that was to be held the following day. (2)

7 Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence, Saratoga, California 14 th June, Evening Session Divine Discourse Swami: Just now, you chanted such a long mantra about Ganapathi, but do you know how Ganapathi was born? Divyogi Patel: Mother Parvati created Ganapathi to stand guard for her when she was in her inner chambers. Swami: Can science explain the creation of a divine child like Ganesha? Can somebody take away the sandalwood paste that was applied to the body and make an idol, put life into it, make it come alive and become a god? Can science explain all this? Is there a logical reason to all this? There is no logic. The logic is that God is omnipotent. Whatever He wants, He can accomplish. If He wants to create a being out of sandalwood paste, He can do it. If He wants to replace that being s head with an elephant s head, He can do that, too. He doesn t need operating rooms, surgical instruments, ventilators or ICUs, nothing, because God is capable of everything. Therefore, of all the sixteen aspects of God, the three most important are: omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. One who does not have omniscience, is not omnipresent and is not omnipotent, cannot be God. When you say Swami is God, these aspects automatically follow Him. He is capable of anything, is everywhere and knows everything. With this faith, you have been calling Swami God, Bhagawan. Call Him by whatever name you want, but you must also believe in His omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. He can do anything He wants. He can defy all the logic and reason of science and scientific thinking, because spirituality is beyond science. Spirituality is a full circle; science is only half. Half is a part of full, not more than full. Therefore, everything is a part of spirituality; of the Divine principle the world, the mind, the aspects of nature and everything that you learn and do. Science is a part of spirituality, not the whole of it. Therefore, only so much can be explained by science. Beyond that, only spirituality can explain things. In spiritual realms, there are no constraints of time, space or circumstances. (3)

8 Rules bind this physical or material world. The rules of America are to be followed in America. The rules of India have to be followed in India. Likewise, the rules of this world, bound by time, space and circumstances, the laws of physics and chemistry, govern the way the world operates. However, the laws of spirituality are the laws of love and they have no reason, no logic and no season; they have no boundaries or limitations. As God decides, He does. As God wants, He behaves. As God likes, He says. No one can restrict Him. Nobody can limit God to the limited understanding of the mind. That is why Swami is here, Swami is there, Swami is everywhere. There is no way you can explain why He should be here or whyheshouldnotbesomewhereelse,whyheshouldbehereonlyinthis way and why not in another way, or why this has to be done by Swami and no one else. All these are constraints that you have, based on your human mind and its limitations. Swami is beyond all this. Because Swami is God and because you believe He is God, He has all these aspects that you associate with God. That is how Swami is here today in this way. He could be somewhere else, at another place, at the same time, as He wishes. He is everywhere. You can hear a song in the air if you have a radio. The song is for everyone and, if your radio is tuned, you can hear the song; if it is not tuned, you will hear only noise. The same way, each one of you has the same amount of God, not less, not more. It is you who has to make use of it by developing all that needs to be developed to experience His presence and grace. All the mantras that you listen to are but trying to remind you that you are the creator of everything. You are the one who sustains this. Into you, everything merges. You are below; you are above; you are ahead; you are behind; you are within; you are without. This is what you are chanting when you recite the Vedas. You must believe in what you are chanting. Simply repeating the words like parrots is not going to give any benefit to anyone. Chanting is one part, understanding is the second, experiencing is the third. From one side of America we have come to the other side of America. (Asking a devotee) Howmuchtimedidyoutaketocomefromonesidetothe other side? Devotee: Six and a half hours. Swami: Six and a half hours! I did not even take six seconds. (Laughter) If I were also in the physical frame, like all of you, even I would have to follow the rules. If you are the President of America, it does not mean that you do not follow the rules of America. You still have to follow the rules, although you may have some exceptions. Likewise, if you are the one who has formed the rules, you are the one who should follow them first. (4)

9 If I was still in the physical form, I would have to follow the physical rules, coming all the way, at the same pace and speed. If one trip was organised for America, it would have been only one in all the trips in that year. It couldn t have been so many trips, every week and every place. That was not possible then but, I said that I would come to every place and I will come to every place. How will I come? Which way will I come? What will be the means of My coming? All that is to be decided by Me, not anyone else. It all depends on your mind. If your mind is focused, if it is tuned, if it is well in sync, you will be able to experience anything. If you want to see this tumbler, you must focus on the tumbler. When you focus on the tumbler, you cannot see the chair. If you want to see the chair, you cannot see the tumbler. Similarly, what you experience depends on what you focus on; even if others around don t experience it. That is how the mind operates. The mind is the basis of all this. Tomorrow, there is a conference on science. Many big scientists and people sitting here only think along the lines of logic and rationale, but that is not everything. Science has contradicted itself so many times. First, scientists said the earth was flat; then they said the earth was the centre; then they said that the sun rises and sets; then they said the sun doesn t rise, the earth is round and the earth rotates. In this manner, scientists have been discovering more and more truths and contradicting their own past truths. A hundred years ago, scientists had a different understanding of the world. A hundred years later, they will have another, completely different understanding of the world. Anveshana (exploration) is the basis of science. Anubhava (experience) is the basis of spirituality. Hence, science is still growing and evolving. Scientists are still finding out that science is not complete by itself; it does not know everything. It is enquiring, it is trying to know - but, what you think is the truth today, may not be valid tomorrow, because science will learn something new a greater truth, a greater law and it will replace the previously held beliefs. Laws are always there. Before Newton discovered gravity as the cause of the apple falling down, the apple was still falling down, but people were not going on about it. (Laughter) The laws of nature have always been. Science only explains how something works. It is an understanding that is put into words. All of the logic scientists studied earlier, such as whether they considered the earth flat or round, was always wrong; it was always evolving. The sun has always been stationary. (5)

10 People have different understandings based on their experience and knowledge. The more you inquire, the more you find out, the more your understanding changes. You cannot depend on science and say what you see is all, that this alone is the truth and there is nothing beyond. There could be more, you never know. A few years ago, it would not have been possible for someone to go to America from India this fast. Today, it is possible and, tomorrow, it could be faster. Anything is possible as you go on exploring. Anveshana, exploration, is the basis of science. Anubhava, experience, is the basis of spirituality. Therefore, the difference between the science and spirituality is: science asks, Why? How? Where? What? When? This is the basis of science. Spirituality does not ask; it is. Because it is, it can be only experienced. It can be enquired about or attained, but basically, it has to be experienced. (To Sri Arvind Thiagarajan, the organiser of the Science for Society Conference) Does the scientific community believe that God is the basis of all of this? Arvind Thiagarajan: Some of them believe. Swami: Some of them believe. Some of them, like you, who have experienced, believe. They call the same thing by different names. What you call Allah, Ishwara, Vishnu or Shiva, they call the force of nature. They call it some kind of a force that governs the universe. Everything needs to have a basis. How can there be a chair without a carpenter? How can there be a house without a builder? How can there be clothes without a tailor? How can there be food without a cook? Likewise, how can there be creation without a Creator? There has to be somebody behind all this. That is the inquiry you make. Then you understand the basis of all creation. However, more and more, science goes on contradicting itself. What it has said, it now says something else, because science wants reasons first and then to believe. Spirituality believes first and then finds the reasons. Hence, faith comes first in spirituality, while facts come later. (6)

11 (To Sri Arvind) What time is the conference tomorrow? Arvind Thiagarajan: It will start at 9:00 a.m. sharp and go on until 8:00 p.m. in the evening. Swami: That is a long conference! Arvind Thiagarajan: With Swami s grace, there are a lot of wonderful speakers, and there are very good people from the Gates Foundation and other places; they are all coming. Swami: Good. That is the way to develop a better understanding. All the science, whatever you do, should lead to society s benefit. Science that leads only to selfishness is of no use. Anything that you do should help ten others. You should have conferences only with that understanding and goal. Otherwise, it will become just another wasteful expenditure on meeting and chatting. It should result in something that helps ten others. Pure scientists are very selfless. Whatever they produce, they do so only out of great passion: to give something good to society, to help in some way, to make lives convenient, comfortable, and healthier; but economics got into science. That is where Lakshmi and Saraswati had a problem! (Laughter) They could never go together. When Saraswati is there, Lakshmi is not allowed. When Lakshmi comes, Saraswati has to go. Balancing both is very difficult. Therefore, as time has passed, more and more commerce, economics and finance have gotten into all of the scientific equations, born out of selfishness, and that has defined the purpose of scientific investigations. There has to be an understanding that all that is material has a basis, which is in a subtle form. You all say energy is matter. All matter that disintegrates becomes energy. Energy cannot be packaged to a box; it cannot be weighed in grams or kilograms. Energy is energy. It converts as matter. It can be attributed with all these things. Thus, energy is the basis of everything here on this earth. First, there is energy as Divinity; it is self-governing. It can never be destroyed; it is not born; it does not die; all these are aspects of Divinity. Itisa power that governs the universe. I will come tomorrow morning and watch the proceedings. It is slowly growing now. Last year, this conference was held in a small room; now, it has come to a university. Later, it will grow into a national event. It will slowly increase as a global event. With time, it will grow. A sapling does not become a tree in one day. Year after year, it will grow. You should think like this. I have a long-term vision about how this conference should inspire the scientific community and even the business community to focus on doing things for the benefit of society. I am very happy. We will meet again. (7)

12 15 th June, 2016 Morning Session Science for Society Conference Stanford University, Palo Alto, California The 2 nd Annual Science for Society Conference saw 100+ delegates including notable scientists, engineers and doctors as well as representatives from local and national universities, private foundations and Silicon Valley companies. With a focus on Energy, Healthcare, Education, and Water and Waste Management, the morning session featured speakers discussing the needs of rural communities and current projects that address these needs. Notably, Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy and C. Srinivas spoke about Swami s Education and Healthcare Missions. The afternoon session included breakout groups that developed ideas for incorporating technological innovations into an Ideal Village. Swami guided and blessed that a pilot Ideal Village would be in started in India within 1 year and later expand to other areas. What an historic day! After breakfast, Bhagawan and His entourage left for the prestigious Stanford University, situated in the Palo Alto suburb of Silicon Valley, to attend the path-breaking conference, Science for Society (S4S) Innovations for the Ideal Village. The purpose of the conference was to bring together experts in different fields to discuss the needs and challenges of delivering essential services to underserved rural populations. (8)

13 At the same time, it also explored innovative solutions to these problems, which can be further implemented in a pilot Ideal Village in India in ways that promote eco-sustainability and self-reliance. The four major themes of the Conference were education, healthcare, energy and water and waste management. Over one hundred delegates participated, including distinguished scientists, engineers, doctors and notable representatives from various institutions and Silicon Valley companies. These included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Harvard University, Stanford University, KEF Foundation, AT Group, HD Medical, Sanmina, Ericsson AB, Tesla Energy, Bloom Energy, Intrexon, Rural Shores and Apollo Hospital from India. This was the second annual S4S conference. At the first conference, one year ago, in San Diego, California, Bhagawan guided the team to develop the Saiwheels bus, which was launched on His 90 th Birthday in Muddenahalli. This bus is now being used by volunteer teams during village seva projects for healthcare and educational purposes. Over 30 eminent speakers presented at this year s Stanford conference, starting with Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy and Sri C. Sreenivas, who delivered inspirational presentations describing the ongoing and continuing mission of the Lord, supported by short videos about Swami s education and healthcare missions. The conference participants were very impressed upon learning that both the physical well-being and the mental well-being of childrens development were being provided completely free of cost! The morning session was focused on field experiences and the needs and challenges in providing basic services to rural communities. Dr. Mahadevan from the Stanford School of Medicine shared his experiences in deploying emergency medical techniques and using telemedicine for training and clinical consultations in India. (9)

14 The keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Thomas Burke of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. He highlighted issues of women s health in Africa, especially the high mortality rate of mothers during deliveries due to excessive bleeding. He demonstrated how a simple catheter balloon device can stop uterine bleeding, having a significant impact in saving lives. Dr. Monica LaBiche Brown from Regis University in Denver, Colorado, shared her experience in setting up rural women s agricultural cooperatives in East Africa (Rwanda and Uganda) to promote female entrepreneurship. Speakers from Pratham and Vibha (Shikshana), India, talked about their educational programmes and impact in India, while Dr. Anjini Kochar cautioned about the challenges and economics of scaling up solutions from pilot projects. Following lunch, presentations continued from expert panels on a range of topics, such as: rural wireless connectivity (Ericsson), the IEEE Smart Village Programme for providing rural power using solar energy and micro-grids, software solutions for managing facilities in the Smart Village, utility scale fuel cells using natural gas or biogas (Bloomenergy), batteries for energy storage (Tesla), solutions for water and waste management utilising passive aerobic systems and the Bio-Sand water filter. Dr. Dan Wessner of Regis University spoke about priorities in global community development and their unique Master s training program. Panel discussions were followed by breakout sessions to develop recommendations for the Ideal Village pilot implementation. The evening session included talks on sustainable agriculture and social entrepreneurship. (10)

15 Even though it was a long and intense day which concluded at 8:30 p.m., many of the special invitees said this was one of the best conferences they had attended because of the holistic agenda and variety of topics. Swami s divine guidance for the conference, supported by the hard work and untiring efforts of a dedicated team of volunteers, created a successful and fruitful day of expert deliberations. After the morning conference session, Swami, along with His entourage, departed for Sri Divyogi Patel s residence for lunch. Bhagawan returned to the conference around 5:30 p.m., eager to hear the conclusion of the day s discussions and reports from the breakout sessions. The last breakout session was still in progress, so Swami decided to wait in the lounge area, which quickly transformed into a venue for devotees to interact with Swami! It was an extraordinary blessing indeed. During the impromptu satsang, Swami said that that this venue (Stanford) is for research and collaboration and that all should collaborate and work as a team. As a key outcome of the Conference, Science for Society will implement a pilot Ideal Village in India within a year and later expand to other regions. A needs analysis will be initiated first to understand the requirements of rural communities. Working groups of volunteers and sponsors support will be required for project execution. The S4S website will contain the conference presentations and provide periodic updates on progress. In support of this mission, S4S is partnering with other organisations, such as the Sai Global Mission, a US-based non-profit foundation focused on societal advancement initiatives. This non-profit has been conducting free medical camps and food distribution programmes in hundreds of villages in India for the last ten years. They will jointly set up a research and innovation centre based in Muddenahalli to benefit rural communities and encourage social entrepreneurship. Also, discussions are now going on between Stanford School of Medicine and Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital, Naya Raipur to develop a paediatric research collaboration which will pave the way for the upcoming Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani International Centre for Pediatric Cardiac Science and Research in Delhi, commencing operations in November Swami later advised the primary organisers of the Conference, Sri Arvind Thiagarajan and Dr. Sundar Kamath about His vision for the Ideal Village and what He expects in terms of collaboration and implementation. It was indeed a momentous day! After departing from the Conference, Swami returned to Sri Divyogi Patel s residence for dinner and retired for the day. (11)

16 15 th June, 2016 Evening Session Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence, Saratoga, California Divine Discourse (Following the Science for Society Conference, Swami went to Sri Divyogi Patel s home for dinner. At the satsang that commenced, Swami remarked that the conference went well, however, All these conferences should lead to some action, just talking is not enough. Swami also gave guidance on the Informal Youth Satsang that was to be held the next day.) The only way to be happy is to look at those who do not have all that you have; that will bring contentment. There can always be a reason to feel sad, by looking around and making comparisons. When you see what you have got, you should feel happy; you should not keep falling prey to one desire after another, because there is no end to desires. (To all the ladies) Yes, ladies, what is your agenda? They wanted an interview with Me. They wanted to meet Me exclusively, and complain about all of you. (Laughter) They don t want to talk in public. At the end of the day, whatever the women say is right. (Laughter) All will agree to that, isn t it? (12)

17 I tell them that Gruhastha Ashrama (married life) has only two rules: The first rule is, women are always right; the second rule is, if you have a doubt, follow the first rule. (Laughter) If you want to run Gruhastha Ashrama in peace, listen to the ladies. The women are more devoted, more sacrificing. They are more spontaneous, there is no doubt about it. They live from their heart, but men live from their head, so it is difficult for men to understand things that women can. Often, you find women are more emotional, so their devotion is also greater. In America, women and men are kind of equal; they take equal responsibilities. Men don t shy away from cleaning the house or cooking; women don t shy away from going and taking the responsibility of doing work outside. In a way, it is good, but it should not impact the family system, the value system. When there are young children, women should spend more time at home, with the children. Other needs can come later. I had a meeting with several of our alumni students girls and boys who are now grown up and have families. Somebody asked Me, Swami, You say women should stay at home and look after the children, but the cost of living is going up. Unless we work, we cannot afford to provide good education and good facilities for our children. It is a responsibility of ours to look after our children,so what should we do? I replied, What do you mean by good education to your children? Putting them in a so-called international school, paying lakhs in fees; burdening the little children with so much of activities that is not good education. Is that the education for which you want to work? So that you can pay the fees? It is a waste; your time is also wasted; the child s time is also wasted. The education that a child at that age should get at home is more important than what he can get from school. What he learns about your family, about our values and culture can be taught only at home. What he learns outside is all bookish knowledge. Real, practical knowledge happens at home. Therefore, you should first give that knowledge, which is good. Don t compare with others. This comparison is the root cause of all sorrow, all jealousy, all ego. Do not compare. Then you will be very happy, wherever you are. (Referring to the Science for Society Conference held earlier in the day) The conference went well today. Many people came; there were many thoughts. All talk should lead to some action. Just talking is not going to help. There might be food on a plate, but if you keep talking about the food, and hold a conference about the food and discuss it, it is not going to fill your stomach. You have to eat it. Likewise, all these conferences should lead to some action. I ve told them that those who have come as speakers, those who are willing to volunteer and have been able to commit their time and efforts, can all be grouped together as a small team education, health, water and energy. Take up one village and convert it into an ideal village as you talk about using all these methods. (13)

18 Once you have a model ready, it can be replicated very easily. It only takes the first effort to succeed; after that, success will follow. That is what they should do. Those who are from India, although you are in America, you have a responsibility towards your motherland. You must take up the responsibility. Now there is a good government in India; if you collaborate with the government and work with them, much more can be achieved. A man once prayed to God that if he were blessed with a son, he would hang a bell in the temple the bell that is rung when people enter a temple. Soon, he was blessed with a son. As promised, he hung a bell in the temple. After that, every day he wouldvisitthetempletoringthebell, because he had installed it there not to have darshan of the Lord, but to ring his own bell. (Laughter) The same way, people buy property in Puttaparthi, and then go to Puttaparthi to take care of their property. They are less worried about spirituality. That should not happen. God is everywhere; you have to slowly go from outside to inside. First outside, then inside, then you are one. The light is outside me; the light is inside me; I am the light. This is how Jesus Christ did it. He said, I am the son of God; I am my father; I am one. Swami was there; Swami is here; I and Swami are one this is how one should grow. Puttaparthi Sai Baba outside; this Sai Baba inside; in the future, I and Sai are one that is the way you should grow. Therefore, it is important to sometimes withdraw from outside to inside. What does a tortoise do? When it is under threat, it simply withdraws all its limbs and contains itself inside its shell. The shell will not be damaged even if somebody tries to harm it, but its limbs can be affected, so it pulls them inside. Likewise, you have to withdraw your mind and senses from the outside and take them inside. If you take them inside, you will know that Sai is inside. There is no world outside; all this world is a reflection of what you are; everything inside is what is seen outside. (14)

19 You have to withdraw your mind and senses from the outside and take them inside. If you take them inside, you will know that Sai is inside. There is no world outside; all this world is a reflection of what you are; everything inside is what is seen outside. (Referring to Sri Arvind Thiagarajan, the organiser of the Science for Society Conference) He says that this is the first time in America they are doing conferences where the participants are not charged not for attending, not for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Everything has been given free. This normally doesn t happen. In America, you have to pay for everything; that is what one of the speakers said. He said, I can t believe how these people are offering everything free. We have to go and ask them and discuss with them. Free is possible in spirituality; but it is not possible in science. Has not God provided free air, free water, free light, free earth? He gave everything free. People are charging for it; they have made boundaries and sold and bought lands. Land was not created by them. People are bottling water and selling it for drinking. Water was not created by them. A time will come when people will even start charging for the oxygen that you breathe! This is the way man puts a price on everything. In the realm of spirituality, everything is totally free. God only expects love and gratitude. Love for each other, gratitude for what you have received from God. So, love for each other is all that you can pay God for all that He has given. (Sri Divyogi asked Swami for guidance about his children.) This is the age when one must work hard. Time is of the essence. Time lost is life lost. At this age, one must not waste time. If you sow the seeds now and the tree grows, you can eat the fruits forever. At this young age, one must work hard to develop one s life. Once it grows well, it will yield results. For the restof your life you can enjoy the fruits of the efforts that you put in today. At this age, one should not be lazy. Laziness is rust and dust. At every age you have to work hard, but even more so at this age. If you waste the present, the future will be wasted. Tomorrow there is a youth programme in the morning. I want all the youth in the world to come and join together. Each finger can do only a little, but together they can do more. (15)

20 16 th June, 2016 Morning Session Youth Meet, Best Western Inn, Milpitas, California (In the morning, Swami was picked up in a white car decorated with flowers and, on arrival, was received on a flower strewn red carpet. 90 young adults from all across the United States had excitedly gathered, bright and early, for an intimate, informal, interactive session with Swami. The Lord of the Universe and His entourage were welcomed with flowers and Gayathri Mantra chanting. Swami asked Isaac Tigrett, C. Srinivas, and B. N. Narasimha Murthy to speak briefly, then opened the floor to an extended Question and Answer session. After slaking the thirst of the Youth with His enlightening words, everyone present was delighted at the opportunity to share a meal with Swami and His entourage. Swami and His entourage then retired for the afternoon.) (16)

21 16 th June, 2016 Morning Session Youth Meet, Best Western Inn, Milpitas, California Excerpts of Talks Mr. Isaac Tigrett Growing up with Swami, wow! He was talking to me, I guess, since birth. I didn t understand what my conscience was. This inner voice, which Mahatma Gandhi and so many others have recognised as the true personality, the voice of God not from the mind, which we all know is totally overstimulated in today s modern world. It s amazing how an alcoholic will wake up in the morning, and the first thing he does is reach for his bottle. What we do today, is we reach for our mobile phones! First thing! Because for some reason, we re in an age where we really want to be in the spotlight. We think that s where it is at. Look at Facebook! You invent a personality, friends; you become famous! You can publish all over the world. Everybody is relentlessly seeking to be important, to be special. Can you imagine, in ancient times, when people would send a letter to someone? It would take months to get there. When I d get a letter, as a child, I d go down to the letterbox and there would be, this feeling, Oh, wow! This is so exciting! I m famous for the Hard Rock, the House of Blues and a couple of other things but, that s a different type of fame and it s not pleasant; it s a job. I belong to everybody. That s what fame is all about. But the type of specialty that many people are looking for today, is insidious in so many ways. I m special; I belong to one country that s better than your country; or, I belong to a religion which is better than yours; or, I m a rich guy, I m better than a poor person; or, I m healthy, better than someone who s in a wheelchair; suffering; or even, I believe in the Light Body, I m better than somebody that doesn t! (17)

22 Sri C. Sreenivas If I were one of you, dear young ones, I would take home a small formula. At this stage in life that you are in, the first thing I would try to instil firmly in, is to believe. You are in that part of America, wherein, it is day in and day out taught to you from the outside world that unless you believe in yourself, you re not going to go anywhere. You have to have that confidence in yourself. You have to have that firm faith in yourself. You have to search all the recesses within your being to find strength, to inflame that faith and believe in yourself. The game-changing doctrine that Swami is so strongly advocating, is to believe, not just in yourself, but believe that you are Divine. Now that s not an easy task, but if you could spend the time to think about what makes up the Divine, it would be the first big step in believing. From belief comes the ability to think. First, believing that we are Divine, then incessantly thinking on being the Divine, leaves us and takes us on to the next step of doing what the Divine can. You define yourselves by what you do. Do not limit the enormous possibilities or potential that you have. Learn to think big, because the Divine obviously is something big and magnificent. Unless you think extraordinary, you can never, ever do anything extraordinary. That is what Swami wants us to do. Out of that will come great work that humanity will salute Swami but, more importantly, salute Him through each and every one of you. To this great glory, to this great end, you are the legacy holders. (18)

23 Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy We are Divine there is absolutely no doubt, because Swami tellsus.weneedtobelievethatweare Divine. What is coming between us and the Divine experience is our own mind. It is not a weakness, because if it was, it was the weakness of even the great hero Arjuna on the battleground. After listening to Lord Krishna s sermon, Arjuna said, I know what You are telling is right, but my problem is my fickle mind. The mind is fickle, dangerous and stubborn; controlling it is like controlling the wind. However, Krishna gave a solution: Doubtless, I agree with you. The mind is very difficult to control, but it is possible for you and everyone through abhyasa and vairagya. Abhyasa means practice and vairagya means attachment to God and detachment from the world. It s as simple as that. First, good company is the most important thing. As long as you are in the wrong company, there is no way you can progress on this path. Then, the obvious question is, what is bad and what is good? Good is that which takes us towards God; bad is that which takes us away from God. Any company which pollutes our mind with worldliness, greed, desire, infatuation, jealousy or arrogance, is poison. We have to shun it. That s why Swami says, Run away from bad company. And what do we need to practice? First, every moment of life, we must choose good over pleasant. Second, we have to replace selfishness with selflessness in every act. Ultimately, practice is giving up an egocentric life and leading a God-centric life. Most importantly, you need the grace of Bhagawan. Nobody can say that, I conquered my mind myself. We have to hold onto His feet, pray to Him and when His grace flows, everything is possible. (19)

24 16 th June, 2016 Morning Session Youth Meet, Best Western Inn, Milpitas, California Divine Discourse A good teacher is one who encourages students by saying, Don't worry; it is very easy. If I could learn it, you can learn, too. A bad teacher is one who scares the students, saying, It is very, very difficult, almost impossible to achieve. I found it incredibly difficult and, if I struggled, what hope is there for you? It is very easy to become God and very difficult to remain human that is My opinion; it may differ from what Narasimha Murthy said. It is very easy to be divine, because that is what you are. If you simply have to be what you are, then it is natural for you, it is simple for you, it is easy for you. If you have to be somebody else, then it is going to be difficult; it is going to bea burden. If a boy has to be a boy, it is very easy but, if he has to act as a girl in a play, it is difficult, because he has to put on makeup, wear a costume and behave like a girl. Your true nature is divine and it is very easy for you to be divine. All the misery, all the sorrow, all the difficulties that you face in your lives are because you are trying to be something other than what you truly are. Holding on to that image, that identity, that role that you are not, is causing all the difficulties, pains and suffering. If you just become what you truly are, it will be very, very easy; in fact, it requires no effort at all! To hold on to something is difficult; you have to make an effort to hold on to it. To give up a thing is very easy. It is My view that spirituality being divine, being what you are is the easiest thing you can do; easier than sipping a glass of water. Believe this above all because you are divine and it is easy to be what you are, but difficult to be what you are not. (20)

25 All the speakers have been very good, right from the young lady who began, to the eldest over here. Everyone has shared many good things to think about, good messages and have more or less summarised what, as youth, you are supposed to do. What is your goal? What is the way? How can you achieve what you need to achieve? Everybody has spoken, so there is not much left for Me to say. Generally, people wonder why I keep My talk until the end and allow others to speak first. It is because, if I speak first, there will be nothing left for others to say! So, I keep My talk until the end so that, when everybody has finished whatever they decided to say, I still have something to add and what I want is to tell you to believe that you are already divine. That is your true nature; that is your reality. Being that is the easiest thing to do. Trying to be something else is what is causing all the pain, trouble and sorrow in your life. I would rather spend this time in us talking together; asking questions, answering them, discussing them, so that it is not just one-way traffic, it is twoway. You ask, I answer; I ask, you answer. Question 1: From the bottom of my heart, Swami, I love You more than this human mind and small body can possibly express. You know even my deepest and darkest secrets in the journeys that I have been through and I know now that the one constant force in that time has always been You. Those experiences have brought me so close to You and I have been able to connect to people at such a deep level that I could never have imagined myself to connect and I thank you for the opportunity, Swami, from the bottom of my heart. Swami, You have answered a big part of my question through the wonderful panel here. I had been contemplating the question, how do we turn the thoughts of, We are divine, we are not separate from You, we are God, into a belief that we can feel in our bones, in our hearts, and not just a recurring thought that we try to focus on? My next question is, how do we develop pure, unconditional love for ourselves the way You love us? How do I convince others who are suffering, who I am trying to help, to remind them of that unconditional love that is flowing to them and that they are nothing but pure love, like You always say to us when You call us 'Premaswarupa' (Embodiments of Love)? In our weak moments, thoughts like guilt or judgment sometimes come from the outside world as well as from our own mind. There is nothing more painful than the sadness of someone on their deathbed, or someone who has not experienced love during their entire life. (21)

26 Swami: Such a long question! but I have only a short answer for it. Your understanding is wrong; I do not love others, I do not love anyone else. Ilove Myself and, because I see Myself in you, I am actually still only loving Myself. If you feel that you are seeing yourself in everyone else, you will certainly love them, too, as yourself. It is not so difficult. The problem is, you are unable tosee that oneness within and without. That inability makes you feel that they are different, so you have to make an effort to love them because they are different. A man who walks into a room full of mirrors, sees his reflection in all the mirrors. He smiles and he is joyful, looking at himself in so many mirrors. A dog walks into the same room and sees many dogs, becomes scared and starts barking at each of them. The more he barks, the more he is barked at. Hence, the secret is not to love others and only love yourself, because it is nothing but yourself who is there in the others, too. You all like putting on fancy dress and makeup, and you think you are all different but, at the core, you are all identical. Like the movie scientist, who cloned himself and made eleven of himself, God has cloned Himself and made the whole universe. It is He alone who is there in everyone. It is only your limited understanding that thinks you are different. As a result, you are unable to love. If you develop the belief that you are the same as the other person, and any other being right from a tiny ant to God that everything is one and the same you will be able to love everyone, including yourself, with the same intensity. Question 2: This is indeed a dream come true for me, because I wanted to be in a room with Swami all my life and it did not happen when You were in Your physical form. I really feel that You re here, because my heart is beating so fast and I am feeling so happy! I have two questions: The first is, after marriage, you brought me into a family that really does not understand You or believe in You as much as I, my mother or father do. How should I go about serving You, which I feel is one of the significant things in my life, one of the purposes that You have for me? My second question is, what is the one simplest thing that You would like me to do every day that would make You smile? Swami: The easiest service that you can do is to always smile! That will make Me smile, too. When you smile, everybody else also smiles. Be happy! Happiness is in constantly thinking of God. You think of Me and I will guide you every moment. Why this room? I will be there with you in every room! I will be there with you, all the time, in every place. Continuously think, beginning with when you wake up, What would You like me to wear today, Swami? How would You like me to talk today? What should I do today? What should I eat today? Whom should I meet today? Which road should I take today? Which place should I go today? (22)

27 In every aspect of your life, go on involving Me as your constant companion, and you will see that I answer. I will talk to you and tell you what to do and what not to do because, I am the conscience, your inner voice. That is the best thing you can do. That will tell you everything else you need to know; whether, at one moment, you should meet such-and-such person, or you should avoid some person; whether you should go to a certain place, or avoid going to a certain place; whether you should help someone or should resist helping. Everything will come from within; you do not have to look outside. That is the only way you can be happy, because that voice within, that God within, will constantly guide you and save you from everything that is not good, not nice; everything which would wipe the smile away from your face and hence, wipe the smile from My face, too. Constantly, talk to Me, tell Me, ask Me, consult Me, request Me, pray to Me, seek guidance at every moment then you will definitely be happy. In fact, if you can be happy in that way, by constantly being with Me, you will make everyone around you happy. It is not necessary to do great things to make Me happy. If you can be happy by constantly doing good things, I will be happy and everybody with you will be happy. Start with the little things in life. I am not telling you to go and open a hospital somewhere, I am not asking you to build colleges, one after the other; that is not for you at this time. What is there for you at this time is, at every moment, to involve Me in your life, allow Me to be a part of you, allow Me to come with you everywhere you go and to be a part of all your conversations. In that way, you and I will be together all the time and, just as you are happy now, you will always be happy, everywhere. You will always be smiling and making others happy, too. Start with that. Question 3: Every now and then, I think of some question and then I think, If Swami was in front of me right now, I would say, I wish I could see You directly and talk to You, but, today, You gave me the opportunity and I cannot think of anything! I do not remember any of the questions that I had before. A few minutes ago, You said that it is always easy to be yourself; that we are naturally divine and it is easier for us to be ourselves than to be someone else. Why then do we find it so hard? Swami: Generation after generation, you have been told the untruth that you are somebody else, something other than what you truly are. You have been told, constantly, that you are the body; you are the mind; this is your name; this is your place; you belong to these parents; you belong to this community; this is what you're supposed to do; that is what you are not supposed to do. This untruth has been repeated to you so many times, that it now sounds like the truth and you start to believe that this is your true reality. (23)

28 It is like the story in the Upanishads where a lioness gives birth to a cub which gets lost in a flock of sheep. The cub grows up with the sheep and thinks it is also a sheep! One day, a real lion comes and roars. All the sheep run away for their lives, whereas the cub is amazed at the grandeur of the lion. The sheep tell the cub to run, otherwise it will be killed but, somehow, it cannot move from its spot because its gaze is transfixed on the majestic lion. When the lion sees the cub, it approaches and says, What are you doing here amidst a flock of sheep? I am with them because I am a sheep! You are not a sheep, you are a lion! The cub will not believe because it has lived for months like a sheep. It even knows how to bleat, how to eat grass and do everything that the sheep would do. Then, the lion catches hold of the little cub, takes it to a nearby lake, makes it look at its own reflection in the water and finally, the cub realises that it isalion.withalittleeffort,itisevenabletoroarlikealion.itlosesall the fear, all the anxiety, which it had learned, living all the while with the sheep. The truth of your divine nature and oneness has to be learnt. The untruth about your reality has been told repeatedly; you are continuously living in that untruth, living in fear, living in anxiety. All negativity results from identifying yourselves with something that you are not. The moment you know what you are and you return to that state, it becomes very easy. Tigrett talked about repeating to yourself, I am divine, I am divine, but, Tigrett also has to repeat it. Repeat it again and again, until it becomes part of you. I am like the big lion who has come to show you your true reflection in the pure waters of love of your heart so that you may know who you really are and immediately give up your false identity; the belief that you have been somebody else all this time. Look at your own reflection in your own heart and you will know the truth. That is why, as Narasimha Murthy also said, you need to give up the company of those people, who constantly go on telling you, This is what you are; this is what you have got to do; this is how you should live. All that is false. Listen to what I am saying. I roar and tell you that you are Embodiments of Divinity, Embodiments of Love, Embodiments of Peace, Embodiments of Truth. Tigrett sang, Remind me, my Swami, what I am; I am pure love, and I do remind! Believe in the truth and do not listen to all the noise and chatter that goes on around you because they do not know. They are like the sheep, running around in fear, but you are a lion. Stand up and say, I am a lion! Once you know that, you will be free from all the anxiety and fear; that is the way. Believe in your divinity, believe that you are That. I am That Tattwamasi I am Brahman. These are the great teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads. Iam divine, I am God, I am the Absolute Self believing in that is what I say. (24)

29 Unfortunately, not many around you say that. As a result, you tend to listen to them and start forming your opinions around what they say. Be in the company of people like these here today; people who are willing to believe, willing to work, willing to understand the truth, and you will also become like them. Question 4: Swami, do you read all the letters I write to You? Swami: I do not read them. I am the one who writes everything through you. Therefore, I know them. Question 5: You have given me two very wonderful children. I do not know if I am doing complete justice as a mother, as a parent. My husband travels and then I work and I sometimes get frustrated with all the stress. I keep reminding myself that I have to be a parent. You have given me these two children and my duty is only to raise them in the way You want me to. Please, Swami, could You remind me, show me something that I can remind myself every day to live in that moment, to leave everything outside and just be a good parent? I do it sometimes, but I do not do it every day and I want to do it every day. Swami: If you genuinely love your children, you will do your duty every day, every minute, every moment. If you love yourself more than your children, you will tend to do what you want to do rather than what they need. Suppose I am Me for one day and then from Monday to Saturday become somebody else, do you think you are going to follow what I say? Do you think youaregoingtogrowupthewayiwantyoutogrowup?ifidonotsetan example to you every single day, every single moment, out of sheer love for you, you will not follow and become what I want you to be. You are a mother. A mother must love her children more than herself; that is the nature of a mother. I am also a mother and that is what I do. In that way, what is good for the children will always be on your mind. The moment you as a person comes into the picture, you as a mother will go out. If you always put the mother aspect before that of your own personality, every moment you live in that manner will be good for your children. That is what I do and that is what I teach all My children to do. I tell them to think of others. Think of the role that God has given you. Keep that as your priority. Keep your individuality in the background. It is a great spiritual opportunity, to be a mother to be similar to God, when you have to put the interests of others before your own. If you keep thinking like that and get rid of your personal traits, your ego, your I-ness, you will constantly do what a mother has to do and the children will automatically grow in the right way. You do not have to make any separate effort for that just be a mother properly and they will grow up properly. However, if you give in to yourself, that is when the trouble starts. You have to get rid of your I. (25)

30 Question 6: How do we increase the bond between our children? Swami: There is only one bond between your children, My children and all children the bond of love, of divinity, not of teaching them, You are older; you are younger; you should do this; you should not do that. All such things will only create comparisons and they will only find logical reasons to argue with you, based on your own statement. Teach them that they are all children of God and are all equally divine that you, too, are a child of God that he or she is a child born to you, but truly born of God. Since you are born of God, you have to be like God. If something is made from sugar, it has to be sweet; if something is made from God, it has to be pure, it has to be divine. Teaching this is more important than all the other issues that you asked about. If they get this fundamental principle right, everything else will fall into place. Madalasa was a great mother in the times of Markandeya. She would sing to her children, Shuddosi buddhosi niranjanosi samsaramaya parivarjithosi (You are pure consciousness, all knowledgeable, unblemished and untouched by the illusions of the world). In that way, she would teach her children. Naturally, all the children grew up to become Jivanmuktas (liberated ones). You have to live that thought and that is what has to be taught to the children. That will develop a true understanding. As long as you say that you are the mother and they are the children; that they have to behave this way or that way; it will only limit their understanding of their relationships. Give them divinity as the relationship. Tell them that Swami has trusted you with them and Swami has trusted them with their lives, so He has given them this human birth this wonderful life to live together, love each other, serve each other and make each other happy. That should become the basis of all your teaching in terms of relationships between the children. Question 7: Swami, when will You make my husband Your devotee, in the true sense? Swami: When you become My true devotee, he will also become My true devotee. Question 8: Swami, You have been saying that nobody is asking for what You have really come for. Can I ask You, Swami, can You please give us what You have really come for? I also have another question: You have been spending millions of years telling humanity about Self-realisation. Is it practical for us to achieve Selfrealisation, especially in this lifetime? Is it only a theoretical preaching or, if I may ask with humility, has anyone who has followed this path, truly achieved Selfrealisation? (26)

31 Swami: I have come, as you put it. I have not come; I have not gone. I have always been here and I am here and always will be here. Nevertheless, you have come to know of Me and the reason for that is that you are to become like Me. The only purpose for God descending to the physical, human level, is to help mankind ascend to the level of God. I have come here to make you like Me; to remove everything in you which is not Me, so that what remains is only Me. This is the ultimate purpose of all Avatars, all messiahs, all gurus, all masters, of all faiths to help a person to become his or her divine Self, to remove everything that is not divine. That is why I have come and it is what I am doing continuously. Self-realisation is not a theory. Self-realisation is the most practical thing. Everything else may be a theory; in fact, the whole world is just theory, just imagination; it is just a projection, just an illusion whereas, Self-realisation is real, it is true. Has it been possible for people to be realised souls? It definitely has; there are people who have benefitted from following and attaining what I wanted them to attain and that is how they have become true reflections of Myself. They are in university, you are in high school so you do not get to see them and they do not get to see you but, one day, you will also develop and reach where they are and you will share their company. I am not just here. I am not just Sathya Sai Baba. I am Being-ness absolute truth and consciousness the Indweller of all people. I am the one who has taught people in countless ways, through many yugas and helped them become their true Self. First, believe that it is possible. Suppose you have to go to India to meet someone; if you believe that it is not possible to go to India, then you will not take even one step in that direction. Only if you believe that it is possible to go to India, will you at least make an effort to go. How can you know whether it is possible to go to India? If you come to know of someone who has gone to India and returned, you will meet him and ask, Is it possible to go to India and come back? He will say, Yes, and then he will tell you, This is how you get your visa, buy a ticket and catch a roundtrip flight to India. This is how the masters and messiahs have arisen they have been there, seen it, experienced it, realised it and then returned to tell you that it is possible, that I have been there and returned, that I have experienced it so you can, too. That is what I am also telling you that it is possible. I know it because I have been there. Just because you are standing here and you cannot see inside the next room, does not mean it does not exist. Once you go there, see it and come out, you will know that it exists, that it is possible to go there, be there and return. That has been a primary part of what all the great teachers have taught those who have attained the reality of the Self and are here to help you too, to wake up to the reality that it is possible. (27)

32 You must make the effort that I have told you about; if you stay in America without making the effort, saying, I do not want to buy a plane ticket, I do not want to get a visa, but I want to go to India, it is not going to happen. Question 9: I work with young people, teaching leadership skills and this is my question but also their question: As a daily practice, we go to work, we were taught to work hard and study hard and achieve and then a lot of us do seva projects on the side. How do we combine those two into one life and how do we work hard in our careers without getting lost in maya and remembering seva every day, in every part of our lives? Swami: Understand the ultimate purpose of either your work or seva. Achieving that purpose should be your goal: the purpose of all the work that you do, whether in the home as a wife, in your office as a professional, or in a centre where you perform seva, should take you towards God and make you a purer person. If that is being achieved in some way or another, then it doesn t matter which direction you take. You must consider even your office work as seva. Remember for whose sake you are doing it; that you are not doing it for your own sake, you are doing it for God s sake so that, when you offer it to God, God will give you a salary. With that salary, you can look after yourself which, in itself, is also a gift from God and use your body and your mind to help ten others. Only when you are safe, happy and healthy, can you help ten others. Therefore, considering office work also as seva is very important. Making distinctions between God s work and my work and between worldly and spiritual causes all the confusion. With everything that you do, first offer it to God saying, This is Swami s work. Through this, I am able to look after myself and my family and, because of this, I am able to put my energy, intelligence and all my skills into helping ten others. This understanding should come first. Then, you will not find any kind of conflict or confusion. You will do your best, whatever you need to do in the office, when you are there; you will do your best at home; you will do your best when you are in a centre, or in a group or a congregation, whatever needs to be done because everything you are doing is an offering to God. You would certainly want to offer your best to God, nothing less. With that thought constantly in mind, doing everything for God becomes a constant way of life and you will not experience conflict at all. Question 10: Swami, being a Centre Officer is just not for me, but I would like to ask for everyone here what should our direction be? Should we yield to pressure and resign? Should we continue to serve in both capacities? (28)

33 Swami: Do your duty as an individual first. Follow your heart, not the body, not the mind. Do what your heart says. Follow what your heart says and you will benefit. Don t follow your mind; it is the mind which creates all the confusion. You must do whatever helps you become closer to God. This congregation, or a centre, an organisation or institutions all these are ways and means to help you become closer to God. As long as it is serving the purpose of taking you closer, you must follow it. If it is becoming an obstruction in your movement towards God then, obviously, you have to decide accordingly. However, consult your heart; your heart is the one to tell you. If you follow the heart, you will immediately be at peace and there will be no confusion. If you follow the mind, one day you will feel this way and on another day, you will feel differently. If you follow the heart, you will know immediately what it is you need; it will make you happy and it will be constant happiness, not something which comes and goes. Each person has to make the decision for him or herself. Just as no one can eat for you and nobody can sleep for you, nobody can make the decision for you; you have to do it yourself. The path that may be good for one, may not be the right one for another, so everyone has to consult their own conscience and take their path accordingly. Question 11: Over the past couple of months, I have been going through a rough patch family-wise. My question is, when going through something like Iam how can I still be strong and still connect with You? How can I still think positively and not give up? My second question is, I have learned from You that one should not be attached. Over the past couple of months, I ve been very attached, especially to my parents and I just want to know how I can follow Your path and what You say, especially when it comes to being attached to those that have helped me throughout my entire life. Swami: The world is made of duality. Where there is night, there will be day; where there is heat, there will be cold; where there is pleasure, there will be pain so, you have to accept it. Just as you accept that night will follow day and day will follow night, you must accept both equally, in the knowledge that it is part of God s plan; it is a part of life. Similarly, accept pleasure and pain with equanimity, knowing that it is part of life. In fact, whenever there is a pain, you should be very happy, because pleasure is going to follow. If you are having a pleasurable time, you should be concerned, because pain is going to follow. Therefore, enjoy the fact that everything is perfect; it is all another passing phase. It will pass one day or another and the good times will follow. In this way, you can strengthen yourself to sustain the difficult times. It is all for your own ultimate good. (29)

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35 Unless you have tasted something sour, you will not know the meaning of sweetness; unless you have been suffering in the scorching sun, you will not know the value of shade. Hence, one must understand that duality is a part of life, it is a part of the Creation. One must accept it with equanimity. Regarding attachment to parents, or to anybody in the world, you must have a clear understanding of what role they all play in your life why, in your life, God puts you with certain people, whether parents, relatives or friends. Why does God do so? Consider the example of travelling on a train: There are passengers already sitting in a compartment in the train. When your station comes, you get onto the train, you meet other passengers, you talk to them and you become friendly. You talk to each other and spend your time enjoyably but, when your station comes, there will be passengers who will go beyond your station and there will have been passengers who had alighted from the train before your station, because each is on their own individual journey. The time they board and the time they get off, is all according to the individual. Life is a journey. If you have to travel alone, it can become very wearisome; the road looks longer than it is, when you are travelling alone. When you have the company of good people and you spend your time well; talking about good things, sharing with each other what you have; deriving joy from being in each other s company, your journey becomes easy, comfortable and happy. At the same time, expecting all the passengers to remain with you until you finish your journey is expecting too much. Such expectations are unrealistic and undesirable and always lead to sorrow; staying free from expectations is the right approach. If you understand this, your attachments will go. Even though parents are parents, they were here in this world before you were born and you do not know how long they will remain here; they are like passengers. They have alighted at one station and they will get off at another. You have boarded at a different station and will get off at yet another. The train of life will keep on moving. All relationships should be viewed in this perspective. As long as you are together, help each other, love each other, look after each other, make each other happy but, at some point, you all have to part company, because you are all on your own individual journeys. Your destinations are different and expecting them to be with you, doing what they do for you and you alone, will only lead to sorrow. If you lead your life, understanding what I have said, it is sufficient to see how you can benefit from their lives and how can you benefit them through your life. Such an understanding has to be developed. Question 12: Bhagawan, You have mentioned that, although it is very important that we love God, it is more important that God loves us and says, This is My person. How do we become that person? (31)

36 Swami: If you are walking with your father on the road and you see two of your friends, involved in doing something wrong, would you tell your father that they are your friends? You would ignore them and walk quickly past, so that your father doesn t see that you have such friends. Whereas, if they had been doing something good and had achieved something perhaps with their names on TV you would proudly tell your father, Father, these are my friends! and you would be pleased to introduce them. It is similar with God; if you want Him to acknowledge you as His own, you need to conduct yourself properly, so that He will be happy to tell everyone, He is Mine. If you behave otherwise, God also has to ignore you and walk quickly past, so that nobody knows, just the same. If you do what I want you to do, if you behave in the way that I want you to behave, then I will come to you and, not only I will say, You are Mine, to you, but I will tell everybody else that you are Mine, because I will also be proud to be associated with you. I love everybody, always it is not that I love you and do not love somebody else but, you will feel My love only when you behave accordingly. Question 13: I was born and raised and live and work in New York City. I have always felt its impact in everything and everyone. After I returned from Your Birthday celebrations at Muddenahalli, this increased tenfold; all the temptations became even stronger. I pray every day and I try to do seva every day. Could You advise me on any mantra or something to continue along with my prayers? I know avoiding bad company is the main thing but, in a big city such as Manhattan, I am bombarded wherever I turn at school, at work, everywhere. Swami: When it is not raining, you will not get wet but, if you walk in the rain, you will get drenched. So what do you do? You carry an umbrella, so that, even though the rain is falling everywhere else, it will not fall on you. Whatever country you are in, whatever company you have to be with, since you cannot avoid them for the reasons you say like work, family or friends the least you can do is to carry an umbrella so that you will not get wet. What is the umbrella? It is the constant remembrance of God. Now, Tigrett has given a mantra, Iamdivine, I am God. Keep that mantra with you all the time. Keep repeating to yourself, I am God, and thinking, If I am God, if I am divine, can I behave like this? Can I talk like this? Can I think like this? Does it suit my real nature? Is it dignified on my part to be like this? Keep on asking yourself, in that manner. Initially, you may fall once or twice but, slowly, your strength will increase. When you learn to ride a bicycle, in the beginning, you may find it very difficult to balance but, eventually, what happens? You develop it very well. Through practice, you develop so much skill that, without realising it, your bicycle is balanced. It moves on in balance, even ifyou are not paying attention to it. (32)

37 It is similar with the thought that you are divine. Can a divine person behave like this? Can he talk like this? Can he walk like this? Go on asking yourself and, one day, it will become such a part of your life that, wherever you go, whatever you do, constantly, the mantra will be going on and the thought process will guide and guard you from all evils. It is a matter of time. Nobody grows tall in a single day; they grow slowly. The same way, you learned to talk slowly, learned to walk slowly, learned to sing slowly; everything you have learned has taken time and practice. You can develop your new ability in the same way. Nevertheless, attending satsang once in a while and going to an ashram is a good thing, because it helps you to recharge your batteries. You all carry phones and if the battery goes down, your phone goes off. Likewise, when your spiritual battery is low, you and God cannot talk to each other, but when you charge it up at a satsang, your phone will be on and, whenever you want, you can talk to God. Thus, you must go on recharging yourself with personal satsangs, wherever you are if nothing else, carry a good book with you; whenever your mind is disturbed, open the book and read a chapter; it will give you peace. Question 14: Swami, my question is on behalf of my SSE students, Group II. At the end of the term, I asked them what they would like to learn for the next term, how they would like to improve in their lives. All of them asked, How can we develop patience? It was very beautiful to hear young children, eight to nine years old, asking this question in such a genuine way. Could You please answer how we can develop patience in our lives? Swami: You are the teacher; they asked you and you have to answer it. You ask how can you develop patience. If you have developed patience, you will be able to tell them. If you have not, then you will be unable. Patience is another name for love. If you love somebody, you will have patience; if you do not love people, you will not have patience and, if you develop love, you will develop patience. I am patient because I love you so much. I know you make mistakes, but you eventually learn; it takes time. Out of My love, I go on giving you opportunities to improve yourself and correct yourself and I teach with patience. Tell the children that, if they love each other, they will definitely be patient with each other. Question 15: Swami, how do we keep our minds on the right track? My second question is, are You ever going to be coming to Atlanta, Georgia? Swami: Suppose you are climbing a tall wall and your father comes and says, Don t climb that! Why? you ask and he replies, Because if you slip, all your teeth will be knocked out! Then you will know that the consequence of climbing high walls is that you may slip and fall and suffer injury. (33)

38 If you tell the mind the possible result of whatever you do, your mind will learn to limit itself. Tell the mind, If I do this, I am going to be miserable, Iam going to be sad, I am going to be hurt. Then the mind will stop doing it. You will do only that which will make you happy and which will keep you happy. Thus, you have to know what will make you happy and what will not make you happy; you have to keep teaching your mind. If your mind tells you, Let us do this, then tell your mind, Wait! Last time I did that, I was sad for a whole week. I troubled everybody and everybody else was as sad as I was. Let us not do the same thing again. Let us do what made me happy and made everybody else happy. Keep talking to your mind that way, telling yourself to do good things, things that will make you and others happy. If you know the result of what you are going to do, you will be able to guide your mind correctly. As far as coming to Atlanta is concerned, I definitely will come one day. I have so many children to look after in India; young boys, like you they are all waiting for Me to come to their campuses. I will finish the tour and I will go to meet them all. We will certainly make time, one day, to come to Atlanta. This is the second request; the first came in Boston, from a group of devotees from Atlanta, Georgia. We will go to Georgia at some time in the future. (Referring to Dr. David Cornsweet) He is our tour manager. Make an application to him. (Laughter) (Speaking to Dr. Cornsweet) You are the tour manager. You have to manage what I say; not that I have to manage what you say! (Laughter) I will definitely come when you are ready to organise a meeting like this in Atlanta. Question 16: Swami, I have two questions. The first one is that, recently, I have been feeling Your presence a lot. I feel like I am talking to You and that You are answering all the questions. Sometimes, however, my monkey mind comes into the picture and asks me, Is this your imagination or is Swami really answering you? So, I want You to erase that doubt right now. I want You to confirm that it is You and not my monkey mind. My second question is, for some questions I do not get an answer from You. Why is that, Swami? Swami: It is always Me. No one can imagine Me. It is beyond the human mind to imagine Me. It is only when I want you to know Me or experience Me, that I give you the experience, out of your yearning and sincerity; therefore, do not doubt. Anything that comes from Me is always good, so if you get a good answer which makes you happy and makes everyone happy, it is Me. It cannot be anybody else. Why I do not answer sometimes is because you are not ready to follow what I am going to say. Why should I waste My words? When you are fully, sincerely and totally ready to follow My answer, I will definitely answer. (34)

39 Question 17: Swami, my first question is, although I try to think of You every moment of my life, every day, my true time alone with You is when I drive. I imagine You in the passenger seat and I have a conversation with You, but I do not get answers. How can I make the conversation two-way? Swami: Hmm. What is your second question? Youth: My second question is, if our sole purpose of life is to realise that we are divine beings, why this maya of life? Struggling to live and then die? Why this maya? Were you bored? Why did You make us? Swami: Third one? Youth: Thethirdoneisnotsospiritual.Americaisgoingtobeselectinganew president very soon. Considering the presidential candidates that we have, what is the future of America over the next four to eight years? Swami: He is like the man who prayed to God for boons. After praying ceaselessly, God appeared and asked, What is it you want? He responded, I want to ask You for three boons! God said, Granted! Ask now. He said, The first boon is that I want to move into a bigger house than I am living in. God said, Granted! Immediately, a big house appeared. Then he said, I want a bigger bank balance than I have. Immediately, his bank accounts was increased. What is the third boon? The third boon is that I want three more boons, and so he carried on. Questions after questions! You are always eager that I should talk, that I should reply to what you are saying. Can you just sit in the car and listen to Me, listen to what I have to say, instead of you asking and Me answering? Do not make it a game. Sit there, pray to Me, Swami, You are there beside me, I know. Speak to me whenever You wish, and wait with a calm mind. Then, My answers will start flowing. Most of the time, when you ask questions, the mind becomes disturbed. It goes on expecting answers, usually hoping to hear what you want to hear, so it is not ready to listen to what I have to say. Sometimes, you have to just be quiet and let Me speak, then things will start flowing from within. First, it may come as a thought, then you may hear it as a sound. It may even develop into an experience, right next to you. Slowly, gradually, it will grow. Come with patience to listen to Me, instead of always asking. Things will change then. (35)

40 Regarding the question about America America has a great role to play in the future of the world. If America goes right, the whole world will go right. If America goes wrong, it has the potential to ruin everyone else, too. Have faith that God will do what is best for the people of America and for the people of the world. In due course, you will find out for yourself, how America is going to change and how America is going to help the rest of the world. It is going to happen that way. As for maya, why do you go to the cinema? Why do you listen to songs? Why do you eat so many kinds of foods? Why do you go and meet your friends? All these activities bring you happiness because, when you meet your friends, when you taste various foods, when you watch a film, or listen to music, all these things are enjoyable. Similarly, God feels happy when He sees you all, when he hears you all singing to Him, when He hears you all praying, when He sees that you all love Him and are serving each other. When you do all these good things, God feels very happy, so it is certainly for His own happiness that God has created this world. Maya is an aspect of this world. You have been given maya, which can be used both ways; it can be there to enjoy, worship and pray to God, or it can be used to bring yourself down to the animal level. You can use maya to rise to the Divine; you can use the same maya to go down like an elevator shaft. It can take you one floor up, but it can also take you two floors down; it depends what buttons you press. Therefore, maya is not an obstacle to anybody; in fact, it is a beautiful thing to behold. God has created such wonderful things around you Nature itself; the kind of people around you; the cultures around you, so many ways in which you can worship and adore God. All this is part of His Creation, so that you can see divinity in all things if you want to. However, if you turn your gaze the other way, you can use it the wrong way, too. I am here to tell you that. Take, for example, a knife. You can use a knife to cut fruits or cut vegetables so that you can eat and be happy. The same knife can also be used to cut someone or kill someone. It is the not the fault of the knife; it is the fault of the person who uses it. The same way, if you are devoted to God, you will know how to use maya to reach God. If you are devoted to the world, maya will drag you towards the world. By itself, maya has no power you are the one who gives it its power. Do not be afraid of maya, but do not be too attached to it; neither way helps but, yes, it is a vehicle, an instrument that can take you towards God. Use it that way. You, as young people, have to meet more often. My coming here is not the only reason for you to come from all around to meet. You should all meet at least once a month; in fact, as many times as possible. Find somewhere to meet a minimum of once a month. (Calling the owner of the venue) Is Mehta here? (36)

41 (To Sri Prashanth Mehta) You will not mind if all the youth come here and use this place once a month, will you? Prashanth Mehta: Not at all! Absolutely! Swami: See, he doesn t even expect a hire charge. That is ok, as long as you keep the place the way it is. You should meet every month; that will keep your batteries charged. Whenever you need, he is willing to help. Accept his help. As many people should come as possible, but just meeting and eating is not going to help you much. It is all theory, it will go in one ear and out the other just as, when eating, food goes in one end and out the other; you will retain nothing. However, if you practise, then it will start making sense. How should you all practise? One person can do only so much. With one finger, you cannot even lift a flower but, with five fingers, you can even lift a heavy bowl. So, if you work together, you will be able to start making a difference to yourself and to each other. What I want from you all is that you come together, not just to meet, eat, share and enjoy each others company but, to convert it into a practical approach of serving and helping as far as you are capable of doing. You must go back with greater resolve, that you have been with Me, so that, when people look at you, from now on, they should say, There is such a difference in them. What has happened since last week? Why they have become so much better than before? They are so quiet, they are so peaceful, they are so loving, they are so happy! What has happened? What magic has taken place? Seeing the change in you, they will know that you had been in touch with your spiritual master; that is the change I want to see in you. If that change does not come, then everything you say, do and hear, is going to waste. Change at an individual level; change at group level that is, as a youth group and then, transform society. That is how, as a group of young people, you can make an impact on the society around you. Slowly, I am bringing together the young people of America, Australia, Fiji, India, Africa and so on. I will form it into a powerful body the youth. Through their behaviour, their conduct, their life, each will inspire ten others; with one lamp, you can light ten lamps and, with ten, you can light a hundred. With a hundred, you can light a thousand, so each one of you has to be willing to burn yourself out in order to give light and to light another lamp. That is the only way the Golden Age, the Sathya Yuga that you all talk about, is going to happen. Unless the individual is ready to make sacrifices, nothing is going to happen. A lot of effort is already being made. One World, One Sai is My directive to ensure that it is a group that talks to each other and works together. I am here to coordinate, they (pointing at youth leaders) are there to coordinate. Work together as limbs of the same body. All should work together and come up with programmes that are going to have a positive and long-lasting impact not just one-day affairs that you attend, talk and return. (37)

42 Yes, that is also good, but it is kindergarten; that stage is over. Now, you are grown-ups and you have to do things to your capacity. Everyone, sit down and think it through wherever you have come from, whichever state or country, how you can be in touch with each other; how, as a group, you can meet often; how you can translate it all into activities which will make an impact in society. You are fortunate! At least you have Me giving you direction. You are not as lost as many others but, there are so many young people in this country who are suffering with anxiety and depression, who have lost their way. Seeing your happiness, they will be inspired to follow in your footsteps. What a joy it is ifyou can help just one more person! An alumnus shared a story recently. He said that many fish had been thrown up on the shore by the sea. They were all lying on the shore, drying up and dying. A little boy was going along picking up each fish and tossing it back into the water. Somebody saw him and said, The shore is full of fish. How can you save them all? What difference can you make to the sea? The boy said, I am not trying to make a difference to the shore or the sea. I m trying to make difference to the one fish that I am throwing back into the water. If, in your life, you can make a difference to one young person here in America and teach him or her the right way of living, you will have made a world of difference to him or her. Through his or her influence on their circle of friends and associates, people will change. That is how change should be set in motion it starts with you, spreads to the people around you, then to the community around, and goes on spreading continuously. You must all unite. I have said for a long time that the first step is individual sacrifice. Before expecting others to do anything, you must be ready to do it; only then, can you expect others to follow. That is leadership. If you lead, others will follow you. If I give all these lectures and then I do not do whatever I say, who is going to follow Me? No one. Similarly, you must also follow what you say. Ceiling on Desires is very important, especially for people who live in this kind of society, where materialism has an upper-hand over spirituality. You must learn to reduce your desires. I was recently in Boston and a boy who studies there came to Me. He is originally from Dubai, the son of a businessman. I asked him, What did you do on your birthday? You threw a party and spent a lot of money. All that money went in your mouth and out again, but nothing was retained. Had you used the same money to help a child in need, it would have stayed with the child throughout his life. All of you should think like that. Before doing anything, ask Me, Swami, is it worth spending on this, or can I live without it? If I respond, Live without it, then use that money for something better. Always think like that. You should all get together and put it into practice. Think what you can do consistently every day not just when I come here, when you all wake up, rush to Me and, in desperation, try to do something and then sleep on it all year until I come again. (38)

43 I am with you all the time. Keep that in mind in the way you eat, sleep, dress, rest everything you do, every day. Similarly, every day, you must do seva. Every day, you must make some sort of sacrifice, until it becomes second nature; that is the way you must proceed. To start the whole programme, every person must accept responsibility, first for individual change, then for the contribution to the group and finally the contribution to society, in some way or another. This practical sequence should happen. Yesterday, you had a conference. I said that having a conference is very easy. Calling ten people, giving them good food, listening to their talks and going home is not the end of a conference; it should lead to the right kind of action. All that you have learnt should result in positive action. Then I will be happy that our coming to you, our talking to you, our discussing all these things has not gone waste, but has been put to good use. There was a guru with three disciples. When he was going on a pilgrimage, he called all the disciples, gave them each a handful of chana seeds and told them, This is yours. When I come back, you must return it to me. In those days, you did not have modes of transport like today, so he went all the way on foot, visited many shrines and came back after one year to take back the seeds that he had given. What did his three pupils do? The first one thought, This is very sacred, but it will not last a year, so I may as well eat it. It will become part of me and I will have used it well. This disciple finished off the chana the very first day, so he did not have any seeds to give back to his guru. The second one thought, This has been given by my guru and is sacred. I must keep it safe. He put it in a box inside a cupboard and worshipped it regularly. After a year, when he opened it, there were no seeds left; they had all gotten spoilt or had been eaten by insects. The third one thought, If I eat it, I cannot return it to my guru. IfIworshipit, it is not going to last. Let me sow the seeds in the fields, so that they will grow tenfold, or maybe a hundredfold. When guruji comes, why give him only the handful that he gave me? Let me give him back bags full of the seeds from the crop. Through his hard work and efforts, he grew a big crop of the chana, from what the guru had given. When the guru came and asked, Where is my handful of seeds that I had given you? he said, Not a handful, guruji, this room full of seeds is yours. What you gave me has, in one year, grown into this. So, when I come next year, what kind of disciple are you going to be? The one who eats and forgets, the one who stores and loses, or the one who sows a seed and reaps a big harvest? (The youth responded, The one who sows and reaps a harvest! ) Yes, that is the way you should be. When I come again, I should see that change in you and in others around you. That will give Me real happiness. I am leaving you all with a thought: Whatever I have said, the elders have said, everyone has talked about put it into practice! Grow it 1,000-fold. Why only a thousand? Grow it unlimited! With everyone s effort, anything can be achieved. I give you My blessings in abundance. (39)

44 16 th June, 2016 Evening Session Sri Prashanth Mehta s Residence, Fremont, California (40)

45 16 th June, 2016 Evening Session Sri Prashanth Mehta s Residence, Fremont, California Excerpts of Talks Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy Today is a very glorious occasion. We meet a lot of people in our lives. It is said that to meet a good person, is a true gift of God; meeting God, on the other hand, is the greatest fortune that can come to any human being; and God coming to our house is something which is absolutely indescribable. (Referring to the host, Sri Prashanth Mehta) You are incredibly fortunate. Don t think it is the merit earned by you in this life, because we have all had many, many lives. That is what the Lord Krishna said to Arjuna. After teaching him the great secret of Karma Yoga, Krishna told Arjuna, I taught this first to the Sun God, and he taught it to Manu; Manu taught it to his son, Ikshvaku and, in course of time, it was lost; that is why I am teaching you again. Arjuna was a Doubting Thomas and he asked, Bhagawan, You are just five years elder than me and the sun was created a long time ago. That is when Krishna revealed, Both You and I have had many lives. I know all the previous lives, but you do not know. You only know about this life. And so, it is our great good fortune that we are here on this beautiful evening sitting with Bhagawan. What earned us this great merit, we really do not know. Most of us will probably never know the magnitude of the grace that is being showered on us by Bhagawan. We have to be eternally grateful to Him to make us understand the glory of His divine proximity, the glory of His grace, and the greatness of having met Him, lived with Him, served Him and praying for more and more opportunities for such service. Sri C Sreenivas What can one say at this moment? The divine chooses to come to your home. What will happen hereafter will be not just an answer to all of your prayers in your life, on behalf of yourself and your family. All the good things of life that you can know and you cannot know of will be fulfilled. These are things that our minds cannot comprehend, because we live in a two dimensional world and our perception is limited to what we can see, what we can hear or what we can speak. However, there are dimensions which are beyond us, which bring us grace, blessings and mercy, which are not calculable in human consciousness. As it was said, the great Krishna, who went to His dear friend Sudama s house, went as a friend, but when He emerged, the simple hut was transformed into a palace of goodness, beauty and prosperity. You know what you are seeking in life peace, goodness, wanting to make proper meaning in life, that you should pay a contribution to society; you should make your life worthwhile in service to society. I know that is very dear to you in your heart, you want to make a mark there and this should a beginning, because Swami has chosen to be here and this moment has come to you. Be sure, not just a leaf is going to turn today, not just a chapter is going to be written today, but a story of your life is going to be written, today and here onwards. We are so blessed to share this joy, this moment, with you. With all the blessings of our dear Swami and all the good wishes, we can only embrace you with our love. (41)

46 16 th June, 2016 Evening Session Sri Prashanth Mehta s Residence, Fremont, California Divine Discourse The Bhagawad Gita says, Anityam asukham lokam imam prapya bhajasva mam, which means, This world is impermanent and joyless. Knowing the truth about the world, remember Me and worship Me, to find eternal peace and happiness. This is Krishna s message. Before I came, Krishna had already been here. Do you know where Krishna came from? Just like Me, all the way from India, because this is His final destination. He waited outside, so that, when the doors were opened, He could come in. Like Krishna, I, too, wait outside the door of your heart, knocking on it and, when you open, only then can I enter. I am not somebody who will break down the door to enter your heart but, with all your surrender and love, when you open the door from inside, that is when the Lord can walk in. Knowing that this world is impermanent, knowing that this is not what gives permanent joy, you must invite God into your hearts, into your homes, to make your home into a heaven, to make it a place of permanent peace, joy and bliss. Looking at the menu outside a non-vegetarian restaurant and expecting to find a vegetarian meal or a expecting a non-vegetarian meal from a vegetarian restaurant, is not going to happen. If you go to a shoe store and ask for clothes, you are not going to get them. If you go to a clothes shop and ask for shoes, you will not get them. (42)

47 Similarly, in this world, there is a big board outside which states, This world is impermanent and will not give you lasting joy! Having come into this world, if you ask for lasting joy and permanent peace, it is not going to happen. Hence, know that peace and joy are only with God. (Referring to the bags of prasadam distributed earlier) This was written on your bags today: If you know God, you know peace. That is, K-N-O-W, but it can also be read as: No God, no peace, that is, N-O God, N-O peace. Only if you know God will you know real peace. There was a king who had a very big palace. Though his palace was very big and beautiful, he was always thinking, How can I make it better than the palace of another king, another emperor in another kingdom? One day, he dreamt that he had a palace which could fly like an airplane. He could live inside it and the palace could take off and go wherever he wanted. That way, he would never have to leave his palace his palace would go wherever he went. He awoke very excited from his dream. He immediately called all the architects, ministers and intelligent people in his court and told them all, I had a dream in which I saw a palace that could fly. I want a flying palace to be built. The architects, ministers and all the other people started wondering, How can that happen? How can a palace fly in the sky? It s not possible. The king insisted, saying, No, I saw it in my dream; the palace was flying and you have to make my dream a reality; you have to make sure my palace starts flying. If you don t, I will chop off your hands, or your heads! He threatened them with all such punishments. Everybody ran away from the court, not knowing how to solve the problem, as it was not practicable. There was a wise minister in the court and he went to the king and said, Let me find a solution to this problem. So what did he do? The next morning, he tore his clothes and started shouting in the corridors of the palace, The king has stolen all my wealth! I have become a beggar! Everybody was surprised at his behaviour. They said, How can the king take away this person s wealth? The king, too, was surprised and called him, saying, What is wrong with you? Why are you shouting like this? What happened to your clothes? Why are you behaving like a beggar? The minister said, Your Majesty! You have stolen away all my wealth, you have seized all my properties that is why I m crying. You must give it all back to me! The king said, I never did that! I have always had enough. I have never wanted to take anything from you. You are lying! The minister replied, No! That s not true. I had a dream, and in the dream, you came and took away all my properties, took away all my wealth and made me a beggar! (43)

48 Then the king said, That was only a dream! How could you depend on a dream and believe it? The minister said, If you can believe that the palace of your dream could fly in reality, why should I not believe that you have taken away all my wealth and should be punished for it? Then the king understood the meaning of what his minister said. You cannot find reality in a dream. A palace may fly in a dream, but when you wake up, the palace will not. This world is like a dream; sometimes it is a pleasant dream, when everything is favourable, everything is nice. Sometimes it is a nightmare, when things are not according to your wishes. You live through the dream in which joy, pain and pleasures alternate. As long as you are in the dream, you experience them and believe them to be true. When you wake up, you realise that neither the joy nor the pain are true; neither the pleasures nor the sorrows are permanent. Only when you wake up to the reality of your true Self will you realise that you are beyond all of it. It is not all, it is not permanent. Knowing that this world is like a dream, knowing that it cannot give you lasting joy, you must pray to God and seek union with Him, because peace is only with God. Such peace can be felt and experienced, only in the presence of God. That is why I say, Happiness is union with God; only with God do you find true happiness. The cycle of pleasure and pain, like night and day, keeps coming and going in the world, but real happiness is only when you are with God. What can I give anybody? People in the world have so many things for themselves. All I can give is that peace, that pure love, that gives pure happiness and unalloyed joy. Once you have it, it cannot be taken away from you; it will stay with you forever. Knowing this, remember God, worship God, live a life in accordance with God s command, with God s will and you will attain happiness. If all the things in the world could make people happy, all the things in the world could make people better, then everybody should be happy, shouldn t they? Why are they still searching for more happiness? They are like children who play with one toy, get bored and then want another toy. The same toy that gave them happiness a day ago no longer pleases them; they look for another and another. In that way, you keep moving from one thing to another, in search of happiness but, this is like a mirage it looks like there is water, but when yougoclose,thereisnone.(referring to His entourage) The people who are sitting on this side of the chair have figured out that this is the truth; (Referring to the audience) some of you on the other side of the chair have still to figure it out! (44)

49 17 th June, 2016 Morning Session Sri Divyogi Patel s Residence, Saratoga, California Divine Discourse Once, Lord Narayana asked Narada, Who is the greatest in the Universe? Narada said, I have travelled all around the world; there are mountains, there are deserts and there are plains. It is very big. So, I would say the earth is great. The Lord said, But three-quarters of the earth is filled with water, the ocean. Hence, the ocean has to be greater than the earth. Narada thought and answered, Yes, You are right. The ocean is greater than the earth. Then, the Lord asked, Sage Agastya drank the entire ocean in one gulp, so the sage must be greater than the ocean. Narada said, Yes, You are right; the sage must be greater than the ocean. After a while, the Lord said, Agastya is just one star in the whole sky. As such, space is greater than Agastya. Narada replied, Yes, that is also true. Agastya is just one star in space, so space is definitely greater than Agastya. Again, Narayana said, Vamana measured the entire sky in one step, so Vamana, the Avatar of the Lord, is greater than the entire sky. Is it not? Narada was perplexed. He said, Yes, You are right. Vamana did measure the entire sky in one step, so the Lord is greater than them all. Narayana then said, When Vamana returned in the form of Krishna, He danced for the sake of the gopikas, just to get a bowl of butter and, whatever they asked, He did. So, if the gopikas can make the Lord dance, then the gopikas the devotees of the Lord must be even greater than the Lord Himself. Narada paused for a moment and answered, Yes, devotees are greater than the Lord because the Lord, who can measure the entire sky in one step, becomes encapsulated in the little hearts of the maids of Brindavan. Therefore, the gopikas, the little milkmaids of Brindavan, are greater than the Lord. In fact, the greatest in the Universe is the devotee, not even the Lord, because the Lord is helpless in the face of the love and devotion of His devotees. (45)

50 (Referring to a devotee who just sang a bhajan on Lord Krishna) As you were singing the Krishna song, I remembered the beauty of the love of the gopikas in Brindavan. They cared for nothing; they only wanted Krishna, nothing else. The other day, I quoted: ananyas chintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate tesham nityabhi yuktanam yoga-kshemam vahamyaham (I bear the burden of the welfare and take care of the one who thinks of Me constantly, thinking of nothing else and worshipping Me, united with Me in that way.) Not their relationships, not their wealth nothing mattered to the gopikas in front of Krishna. Once, it so happened that a newly-married gopika came to Braj, that is, Krishna s land. Krishna was in Yashoda s home, playing. In those days, there was no electricity, that you could switch on to make lights come on everywhere, so the rule was that everybody would go and take the light from the lamp of the head of the village, who was Nanda. In the evening, once Yashoda lit the lamp, everyone would go and light their own lamp with Yashoda s lamp and take it to light their own lamps in their respective houses. That was the tradition, so the newly-married gopika, who had come to Brindavan for the first time, came to Yashoda s house. Her name was Niraja. She wanted to take the light from the flame of Yashoda s lamp, so she went there, took her little oil lamp and put the wick to the wick of the lamp in Yashoda s house. Then she saw Krishna, who was just a boy, running here and there. That one vision of Krishna made her forget everything else. She lost bodyconsciousness and did not realise that, instead of the wick, she had put her finger into the flame and it was burning! Yet, there was Niraja, lost in the vision and love of Krishna, totally unaware of her own pain. After some time, when she did not come outside, Yashoda went to see what was happening, why the lamp had not been lit. Then Yashoda saw Niraja with her finger in the lamp, burning it away. She shook her from her reverie and asked, What are you doing? What made you do this? Niraja said, I did not even realise that my finger was getting burnt; I saw the beauty of Krishna. I saw His beautiful, loving form and I lost myself in the vision of the Lord. They were so devoted that they cared for nothing else; Krishna was all that mattered to them. One fine day, though, as fate would have it, Krishna had to continue with His mission; the days in Brindavan were over and He had to proceed to Mathura to carry on the mission that He had come for: to establish dharma in the world. (46)

51 When He was leaving, most of the gopikas cried and felt very upset and heartbroken. They could not eat, they could not sleep and they cried incessantly. The tears flowed from their eyes like the River Yamuna, at the separation from Krishna, but Krishna had to go for He had a mission to complete, and He left. After reaching Mathura, Krishna, too, was crying endlessly. Nobody was able to console Him, nor were they able to console the gopikas, such was their love! Uddhava, the cousin and friend of Krishna, had accompanied Him. He saw the plight of Krishna and asked, Is there anything that I can do to comfort You and ease Your pain? Krishna responded, I suffer because My devotees suffer; I have no suffering of My own. Go to the gopikas and tell them that their Krishna remembers them always; He has not forgotten them for even a moment since He left Brindavan. Uddhava returned to tell the gopikas of the omniscience and love of Krishna, so that they would not feel bad and cry no more. When the chariot came, the gopikas were very excited, because it was Krishna s chariot and they thought Krishna Himself had returned! Then they realised that Krishna had not returned, but it was his cousin Uddhava who was very similar to Krishna in his looks, through having the constant company of Krishna. He went there and started explaining Vedanta that Krishna was not just the body, that He was always with them, ever-present and always remembering them. (47)

52 As he was talking, all the gopikas were listening, but Radha was nowhere to be seen. Uddhava enquired, Where is Radha? Krishna has a special message for Radha. When they went looking for Radha, they found her by the side of the River Yamuna, under the tree, remembering Krishna. When Uddhava tried to tell her that there was a message from Krishna, Radha said, Which Krishna are you talking about? The one who was playing here like a cowherd boy? The one who has now gone to become a king? That Krishna is not Krishna at all! I have never been separated from my Krishna, for I see Him in every leaf, every blade of grass, in the flowing River Yamuna, in the birds, in the cows, in the sand; in every aspect of Brindavan, there is that Krishna and His love. I have never felt any separation. Those who thought Krishna was just the body, living with them, playing with them and then left, are miserable but for me, Krishna was always mine; He has always been here in my heart and I am in Krishna s heart. I know that and it is consolation enough. I don t need your words of advice; you go and tell your Krishna that this is what Radha had to say. When Uddhava heard Radha s words, he realised the depth of her devotion. Though he lived with Krishna all the time, he had never developed the devotion which Radha had for Him. That is the power of the devotee s love. Devotees are greater than the lord God cannot live without His devotees. Every time a child is born, a mother is also born. Every time a devotee is born, God is also born. A mother cannot exist without a child; a child cannot exist without a mother. God cannot exist without His devotees and devotees cannot exist without God. The one who has this kind of relationship with God is, alone, a true devotee one for whom God is his or her life breath; for whom God is the life principle; for whom God is everything and nothing else matters. The greater the incessant devotion or love one has, the greater the devotee. Devotee is not just a label everybody seems to be labelling themselves as devotees. I go to the centre, I sing bhajans, I know Sai Baba, I have books, I have photos, I have vibhuthi at home, I dress like this none of this is the science of devotion. They are all pradarshana, or show, not darshana, or practice. The real devotee is the one who practises love and sees the Lord, not just in a photo, or in one form in one place, but sees the Lord in every aspect. Wherever he goes, whatever he sees, wherever his eyes fall, he sees only his Lord and nobody else. If you develop that kind of devotion, then you may be assured that Krishna will be a constant presence in your lives. Because you are not as devoted as the gopikas, you do not feel the Krishna with you, as they felt. The Yadavas were thousands in number, they were all Krishna s kith and kin but what happened to them in the end? (48)

53 Do you see one temple where a Yadava is standing next to Krishna? Do you see one scripture written about the glory of the Yadavas? Do you see any mention of the sacrifices or services of the Yadavas to Krishna in the whole of history or in the Puranas? Not even one mention. Though they were born out of His own self, they were His own blood relations, yet they are not remembered at all today because they were all near Krishna but they were not dear to Krishna. The gopikas, who were hardly educated, who knew neither Vedanta nor shastras, who had no degrees; neither warriors, nor adept in different arts or politics, were simply the milkmaids of Brindavan. Their knowledge was limited to taking care of their cows, milking them and making butter out of the milk. Yet, they are still remembered, even today. Krishna s own wives do not find a place next to Him, but Radha stands next to Him. In temples, you say, Radha Krishna, not, Krishna Radha, because Radha comes before Krishna. That is the glory of the true devotee to be remembered even before the Lord. Such devotees are dear to Me. Only in the company of such devotees do I find joy. In My company, everybody finds joy, but I find joy in the company of those who are like Radha. You have to strive to be like them, then you will have really found the purpose of your devotion. Give and take is not devotion give, give, give is devotion, not taking. It only wants to give, it doesn t accept, itdoesn t expect anything in return. If you develop that kind of devotion, I will be truly happy. You don t even have to tell Me to come to San Francisco or Los Angeles. I will install Myself wherever that kind of devotion exists. You have to develop that kind of devotion. That devotion will free you from all bondage, the fear of existence and all worry of the future. If you have that kind of devotion, you will be free from all karmabandhanas, that is, bondage to action, past, present and future. Develop that devotion; that is the purpose of your lives; everything else is awaste. You do not realise your good fortune. It is like the boy who accidentally finds a diamond and thinks it s only a marble with which he can play games with his friends. Without realising what he has found, he uses it as a marble. That is the fate of people. You must realise the value of what you are listening and do whatever is required to truly benefit from the value of what you have received. After Radha, the next was only Meera. There was nobody in between. (Swami asked a devotee to sing a song by Meera about Lord Krishna.) Swami: What is the meaning of the song? Devotee: The song means, I will never, ever, break this bond or leave Your hand. Swami and Krishna, if you decide to let go of my hand, then who else s hand can I hold? You are my everything; you are my solace. (49)

54 Swami: Will Krishna ever break the bond? It is only you who will break the bond! (Laughter) Krishna never breaks it, Krishna always holds on; it is you who wants to get rid of His hold. You want to run away, but do you see the compassion of Krishna? He still holds on to you. Meera wrote that when she was angry. All devotees go through every emotion. Meera was a princess. How old was she when she was married? Not even 14; at that age, she had that kind of devotion. Her husband, Rana, said to her, If you worship Krishna and go on calling Him your husband, I am going to abandon you. She replied, You never accepted me, to abandon me. It is only Krishna who accepted me. Only Krishna can choose to abandon me. Such relationships of breaking and making are only of the world; God s relationships don t break. Rana tried everything; he gave her a cup of poison. She said, Krishnarpanam (I offer this to Krishna), and drank, and the poison became nectar. He tried all kinds of things; he produced a snake and it became a garland. Everything was Krishna s grace and nothing affected her. In Rajasthan, during that period, what could a lady do against the power of a king? She was helpless, but Krishna was on her side. Finally, fed up with Meera s ways, the king could do no more. He said, I break the bond of this marriage! I free you! Go and do what you want. She left with just the one sari she was wearing and a statue of Krishna. She walked off into the streets of Mewar, Rajasthan and went all the way to Brindavan, searching for Krishna. She kept on crying, all the way and, as she was crying, she went through various emotions and she composed many bhajans. They were a natural and spontaneous flow of her devotion. She cried and cried, but she could not see Krishna. She prayed and yearned constantly for Krishna s darshan, but she did not have it. She sang nothing but, O mind! Let us go to the banks of the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers. The Ganga-Yamuna have pure waters and, with that, one can be sanctified. Krishna is there, between the Ganga and Yamuna. Let us go and meet Him there. (50)

55 Finally, when she reached Brindavan, the temple was closed. She was very upset that she had come all the way to have Krishna s darshan and there was no way for her to have it, as the temple doors were closed. Having had little to eat, exhausted with hunger and exertion, she fell and hit her head, her eyes flowing like the Ganga and Yamuna. The moment her head hit the threshold, she had a vision of Krishna. The doors of Brindavan temple opened, Krishna came out, embraced her, carried her in His own arms and she breathed her last. That is devotion one darshan of Krishna for all the effort that she had made. All the craving, all the yearning, all the pining resulted in just one darshan of Krishna, for whose sake she had to give up her name, her husband, her family and all her comforts. All this for what? Just to get one darshan of Krishna. She had only one darshan of Krishna in her entire life! That is the kind of devotion Meera had. Enough darshan, sparshan and sambhashan not much has changed. If you had one per cent of the devotion of Meera or Radha, you would go mad with joy; you would not be able to contain the bliss that would flow; you would never be the same! Such was the power of their devotion. That devotion alone, binds God to them, for the Lord follows His devotees; devotees don t have to follow the Lord. He wants to be in the company of His devotees, always, because that alone gives Him joy. After listening to these bhajans, I feel as if I have really had My breakfast. It fills Me with so much bliss and bliss is My food, not idli, dosa or sambar thatis your food! Bliss is My food. When I hear the achievements of My devotees, when I talk about My devotees, I feel happy, just as when devotees talk about Me, they feel happy. I love talking about My devotees. (Swami asked the host, Sri Divyogi Patel about the arrangements to visit the homes of a few devotees.) That is how the gopikas would call Krishna. They would say to Him, I have freshly churned the butter for You today. It is the tastiest in the whole of Brindavan! Come to my home today. That is how they would invite Krishna and He would go just to get a little butter. It is not that His mother did not have any in their own home. Hers was the head family of the village, yet He would not take butter from His mother. When His mother used to say, I have so much butter at home, why do You go and steal and beg outside? You have so much available at Your own home. Why do You behave like this? Krishna would respond, In your butter, there is only butter; their butter is full of love, so I go and eat there. It is not the butter that I eat, it is the love and devotion that I experience in them, that draws Me to their houses. (51)

56 Of all the Avatars, Krishna was the most fascinating and most charismatic. No other Avatar has been as charming as Krishna. On the one side, He was the prankster of Brindavan and, on the other, He was the Yogeshwara who gave the highest message to the world. There is no Avatar that has come close to Krishna. Divyogi Patel: Swami, to us, You are more than Krishna. Right now, You are in front of us. You are Rama, You are Krishna, You are everything. Swami: IamasmuchasyouthinkofMe;Iamasyouthink.IfyouthinkIamlike Krishna, I am like Krishna. If you think I am like Jesus, I become Jesus. I am just a reflection of your own thinking, your own emotions. The children should learn the Gopika Gitam. Apart from the Bhagawad Gita, Gopika Gitam is a very beautiful text about the devotion of the gopikas to Krishna. They sang, as you sang just now, with the same emotions, If you become a tree, I will become the creeper which winds itself around You. If you become a flower, I will become the bee which buzzes around You. If you become the ocean, I will become the river that flows and merges into You. If you become the sky, I will become the star that shines in You. Their thoughts were always with Krishna; that is how one should live. They were all fortunate not to go to Stanford or Harvard and spoil their minds! (Laughter) They were happy in their little village, with devotion as their education, and that kept them in good strength. Unless education inculcates devotion, itisof no use; it is dry, like an artificial flower, with no nectar; it is of benefit to no one. In earlier times, when you visited someone s house, fruit used to be kept on the table. Nowadays, there are only plastic fruits. They look like real fruits, they look good and last forever, but can you eat and fill your stomach with them? You cannot. In the same way, education without devotion is dry and unreal artificial. (52)

57 17 th June, Afternoon Session Sri Bobby Patel s Residence, Fremont, California Divine Discourse Swami: Tell us, why have you called us here to your house? Devotees: To bless the house, Swami. Swami: The house is already blessed. Where there are devotees, the house is blessed. That is what I was saying this the morning that devotees are greater than even the Lord in person because, although the Lord is the ruler of the whole Universe, it is the devotee s love that rules the Lord. He cannot but follow what devotees want; He is helpless before them. Devotees are great; if devotees are in the house, the house is already blessed. If devotees are there, the Lord will be there anyway. Wherever My devotees sing My glory, I am there, is what the Lord told Narada. Such a house, where the devotees sing of the glory of the Lord, is a blessed house. This morning, I was talking about the devotion of Meera, Radha and the gopikas, who had nothing else in their minds other than Lord Krishna. They cared for nothing, for they knew if they had Krishna, they had everything. Wherever devotees are, the Lord will definitely be there with them. Even today, in Krishna temples, people still talk about the gopikas, they still see Radha but, you don t see Yadavas anywhere in the temple; though they were His own kith and kin, they are nowhere near Krishna. The gopikas bore no blood relationship they were related only in their hearts and they saw Krishna everywhere. (53) What is it between Me and you and between everyone here? We are all bound by the relationship of love. You all love God and so you love each other, so you are here together. This relationship is permanent and everything else is impermanent. If you base the relationship on the body, when the body changes or is gone, the relationship ends. When you keep it in the mind, there is a degree of bargaining involved in the benefit to each other; when the benefits stop, the relationship disappears. The only eternal relationship is with the Lord.

58 Today, you remember the gopikas and forget the Yadavas that is the power of devotees. The bond of the relationship of love is greater than the bond of the relationship by blood. If there is no relationship between us, what will make Me come here and what will make you sit here? Had it been a family gathering somebody s wedding, or another function, all the family members would certainly assemble it is natural because you are bound by those relationships. asthiram jeevanam loke asthiram yauvanam dhanam asthiram dhara putradi sathyam keerti dvayam sthiram (Everything of life in the world is impermanent; your wealth and your youth pass; all relationships are temporary, they come with the body and go with the body; only truth and the good name that you earn remain permanent in the world.) Relationships last only as long as you are benefiting from each other. With God, there is no barter it is only about love, so it lasts forever. A man went for a satsang, like this one and, during the satsang, theguru was talking and said the only relationship which is permanent, pure and selfless, is the one with God. The man said, I don t believe it. I am aware that my family loves me very much, so I don t trust your words. I think every relationship is very good. The guru said, Yes, as long as it is selfless, it is good; if it is selfish, it will not last. Let us test it, and he gave him a magic potion. If you take this potion, you can go into a state of samadhi. You will stop breathing and you will appear to be dead, but will not be; when you go home tomorrow, take this potion and lie down on your bed. You will be able to hear whatever is going on around you, but you will not be breathing and everybody will think that you are dead. I will visit then and I will tell you the truth. The man did as the guru said; he took the potion and lay down on the bed. Everybody tried to wake him, but he wouldn t awaken; they all thought he was dead, so they decided that they should do whatever was required for someone who had died. Just then, the guru walked in, in accordance with the plan and, when they saw him, all the people in the house started wailing, Can you help us? Can you help this man come back to life? He is the bread winner of this family; without him, how are we going to live? (54)

59 The guru said, Yes, I can do that. I can grant a boon, but I will have to take one life in order to restore another. Whoever is ready to offer their life, I will take that life and put it into this man. Now, decide between yourselves, who is willing to give up their life? They all looked at each other. The older people said, I have promised to make many pilgrimages, and I have not finished them. If I don t finish the word given to the Lord, I will not be redeemed, so I cannot afford to give up my life. Somebody younger said, I have just begun my life. I have to live a long time and go a long way. How can I give up my life? They all started arguing with each other, but nobody was willing to give up their life. At that point, the man got up from his bed, to the surprise of all and realised that all relationships are like that. The best of friends and closest of relations are not going to give up their lives for another that is the nature of worldly relationships but, in a family, if everybody loves each other purely and selflessly, because they love God and the relationship between each other is one of mutual love and devotion to God, that alone will last forever. All other things will pass. You have to develop that kind of love within the family. (55)

60 If you are a parent, you have to think of your children as gifts from God, which God has given into your custody, trusting you, and you have to raise them well so they, too, become devotees of the Lord and they, too, lead lives of devotion and purity. Between a husband and wife, a wife should ensure that her husband always walks, without deviation, on the path of dharma; a husband should ensure that his wife always sticks to the path of dharma and devotion. Thus, everyone should help each other to remain focused on God. If you lose your focus, the other should help bring it back. That way, if you help each other, your relationship will become pure, selfless and divine; it will last forever. If you do not, it will not. (Referring to the design of the host s, Sri Bobby Patel s house) As I see in America, the roofs are all slanted like this. Now, people are making all kinds of buildings. This is the old style of architecture. Nowadays, in India also, whether they need a building like this or not, it is the fashion to construct buildings like this, because they want it to look like American homes. Here, there might be a need, but they do not understand if it rains or snows too much, you need a pitched roof so that nothing accumulates on it. Where the climate is different, a slope for drainage is unneeded and is pointless. You should not blindly follow anything; you should know the reason for it understand and, only then, implement it. If you chant mantras simply because somebody else is chanting, it is not going to help. If you understand the reason for it, then chant. Do you know the favourite mantra of our students? Brahmarpanam (the food prayer) is the favourite mantra because, the moment after you chant it, you can eat! (Laughter) Depending on how hungry they are, the mantra will go faster or slower. If the food is very tasty and they are hungry, Brahmarpanam will be completed in ten seconds. If the food is boring the same vegetables, the same rice it will go on for a minute; it all depends on their liking for the food. What is the meaning of Brahmarpanam? brahmarpanam brahmahavir bramagnau brahmanahutam brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahmakarma samadhinah (I offer to Brahman [the food]. What is being offered is Brahman; the fire in which it is offered is also Brahman; the act of offering, itself is also Brahman; attainable to the person making the offering; everything is within Brahman, guided by Brahman and governed by Brahman.) (56)

61 This is the way the mantra is chanted. The hunger in your stomach is like a fire in your belly, which is called jatharagni in the shastras. Everythingthatyou eat the food you offer is like an offering into the fire, like a yagnam (fire sacrifice), because the body is the temple of God. What do you do in a temple? You perform yagnas, archanas and pujas (fire sacrifices, ritualistic worship and prayers). Eating food is also a kind of yagnam, performed inside the temple of the body. Who gets the food? It is offered as a naivedyam to the Lord Himself. Knowing that, one should keep the body most sacred and pure. The body is only a boat to cross the river, so you have to maintain the body; if the boat has cracks and holes, it will not be able to cross the river, it will sink halfway. In the same way, the health of your body should be maintained well so that, with a healthy body, you can serve ten others. A body which is weak, which needs a service, cannot serve others so, to that extent, you must look after your bodies. However, keep everything in proportion, neither too much, nor too little. With a good body and a sound mind, one can do any amount of good work. Whereas the body is the responsibility of Sreenivas; the mind is the responsibility of Narasimha Murthy. Education for the mind, health for the body. Along with that, the heart is My responsibility I look after spiritual well-being. (57)

62 Physical well-being, mental well-being, spiritual well-being; all threearebeing looked after by the three of us. I also want something to be done for the children in America, especially the children of the homeless. They have to suffer for no reason, because they did not choose a life like that, they did not choose to have parents that way, but they happen to be their children and, thus, they have to undergo their struggle but, if you don t look after the children today, tomorrow they will form society. You will have criminals, thieves and antisocial elements tomorrow if you don t care properly for the children of today. In society, the role of children is very important; look after them, give them a proper education; their health and proper growth is the responsibility of the entire society. You may think, That is not my child, why should I bother? Its own parents should bother. Tomorrow, however, when the same children grow up and become criminals, the first thing they will do is cause you trouble to you, not to their own parents. Therefore, it is in your own interest to look after everybody in society. Many homeless people are out there, many children on the roads. If each family adopted one child, you would have two children. All you have to think is, One more child. If all the people in this area looked after one child s needs, all the children, everybody, would be looked after. I am not talking about adults, because they will find their way, but children what do they have? Without education, they cannot earn, they cannot feed themselves. It is not their fault. It is something that you must plan, possibly on a permanent basis. Feeding for a day and then going home may be of help to them for a day, but it doesn t help them forever. If they are healthy, if they are educated, society will be healthy, society will be educated then there will be peace and harmony. Thinking in that way, you must do something. I am not saying you must put them into the same kind of schools as your children or give them the same kind of education, but at least something is better than nothing; a respectable education will allow them, too, to earn a respectable livelihood. I have a plan like this in and around this area. (Referring to Sri Bobby Patel, the host) He has been telling Me that, of all the places in America, California is the place especially this area where the maximum number of people are lacking jobs, homes and education. Can you believe that, on one hand, this is one of the most popular, most affluent places, but on the other, it is also one of the poorest? What a predicament! You must think about it. Everybody will do something for their own children; that is their duty, a duty of love; you have to do it. Divinity is love without duty, where there is no sense of duty or obligation; just doing things for everybody out of love. (58)

63 The lowest of the low, is duty without love, treating it as a burden that draws karmic consequences; next is duty with love; finally, the highest is love without duty. Duty without love is deplorable, it should be shunned, abandoned. Duty with love is desirable and should be pursued, but love without duty is divine. Love without duty is when you don t worry about your blood relationships, but with heart relationships, you want to serve and love everyone. Only then do you start evolving, only then do you start growing. As you think, so you are; that also is very important. Amongst young people, especially here, some of them see it and ignore it. Some of you think like that. What can be done, especially for the children who are on the streets, without a place to stay or eat? They don t know where to go tomorrow. At least, you can start a programme. You need not deal with 1,000, 2,000 or 10,000 people in one day, but even if you help one child, it makes a difference to that child, doesn t it? The other day, I was talking about an incident when a lot of fishes were lying on the seashore, drying up and dying. A small child was picking up each fish,oneatatimeandtossingitbackintothesea.anoldmanwhosawhim asked, How much difference can you make today to the ocean or to the shore? The child replied, I am neither trying to make a difference to the ocean nor to the shore,i monlytryingtomakeadifferencetothatonefish,forwhichlifematters. Therefore, you have to think, If I can save one child s life, I have made a difference to that child s divinity. At least for that reason, do something. Start with one, two, ten, twenty, as many as you can and then, slowly, you can grow from there. Do something; don t simply be a mute witness. Love will not be a witness; love will turn itself into service. Service without love is no service, love without service is no love it should immediately translate itself into meaningful action, meaningful service. Do somethinglikethis.doyouallthinkihavecomeallthiswaytotalktoyou,guide you and leave? You take one step and I will take one hundred steps. Just decide to help and all the resources, all the requirements, all the help, will pour in from everywhere. You have to take that first step. America can do a lot, if it wants to do. (Referring to the host, Sri Bobby Patel) He was building a new house a little way from here, but you don t need two houses. It is very expensive to manage two houses; just one is enough. First, practise Ceiling on Desires, then others will practise around you. There is a saying in our country, If you have good children, why do you have to hoard money? They will look after their elders. If you have bad children, there is no point is hoarding money, because they are going to waste it anyway. Just use today what is required. Give them a good education, bring them up well, and make them independent. They will look after themselves. (59)

64 17 th June, 2016 Evening Session Public Programme, Sunnyvale Hindu Temple (More than 500 devotees from all across the US and other parts of the world gathered with bated breath while awaiting Swami s arrival on this most auspicious day. It was a beehive of activity behind the scenes as devotees rushed to complete preparations until the very last second. A half an hour before Swami was scheduled to arrive, and His throne was in another city! It miraculously reached the venue minutes before Swami s arrival with the driver stating he experienced no traffic, even though it was rush-hour on a Friday evening! It was only as His throne was placed on the stage, that organisers realised His footrest was missing, and as soon as this realisation occurred, a Sai Brother walked into the venue with Swami s footrest! He said Swami gave it to him 15 minutes ago because the driver had forgotten to take it along! Everything was ready for Swami just as He arrived. Truly, Bhagawan s omniscience and compassion are breath-taking! Upon His arrival at 6pm, the Lord of the Universe was received with poornakumbham, Vedic chanting and bhajans. Speakers included Mr. Isaac Tigrett, Sri C. Sreenivas and Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy. Swami then blessed the gathering with His Divine Discourse, where He said, What I have come here to do, is to sow the seeds of pure thoughts, so that you develop a pure mind and a pure destiny, but it is up to us to nourish these seeds with the waters of love so that they take root and grow.) (60)

65 17 th June, 2016 Evening Session Public Satsang, Sunnyvale Hindu Temple Excerpts of Talks Mr. Isaac Tigrett In the last two years, a new hospital has been built in Raipur, and there s another one coming up in Delhi. Recently, Swami called me and said, Tigrett,you regoingtohelpmebuilda hospital in America. Then He said, It will be in your homeland. I said, Wow! The Mississippi Delta; it has to be, and He said, Yes, it will be in Mississippi. Raipur Hospital I started doing some research and discovered that, after the Reagan administration, insurance companies had taken over American healthcare, including the American Medical Association (AMA), where they negotiate every single procedure with the doctors. They have tremendous power over the AMA and, with them, the drug companies. As I started looking at the possibilities of opening a free hospital in the USA, some political friends told me, You ll be sued by all the insurance companies and drug companies. They re going to try to stop you in every way, because the lobbyists in Washington represent the AMA. They ll never accredit the hospital, they ll never let any doctors work there! African Americans are going to be against you because of politics and even the Klu Klux Klan is going to come after you! So I went and told Swami, There s going be a lot of opposition to opening a hospital in America, and He said, Tigrett, this is going to be the most difficult thing you have ever done. Every week, somebody is going to try to stop you, and oppose you. I asked, Well, Swami, what do You want me to do? and He said, This is what you do Tigrett: you go into a nice quiet place and meditate on Me; I willcomeandtellyouwhattodo. (Laughter) And I trust Him, and I believe in Him, and I have surrendered to Him. (61)

66 Sri C. Sreenivas In 2000, I was blessed to sit next to Bhagawan Baba for a two-and-a-halfhour flight from Bengaluru to Delhi, as Swami was going to inaugurate the Sri Sathya Sai International Centre in New Delhi. He was looking out of the window and said, All life happens from this world. It is from this world, right from the moment the baby comes out of the mother s womb, that you get your nourishment. You get all that you need from Mother Earth. All the necessities of life that enable human living, beginning with our first breath of the air, to the first sip of water, to the first morsel of baby feed, has been coming from time immemorial from this world. Furthermore, it is from Mother Earth that industry gets its birth, begins to flourish, meanings come to life, economies get generated, jobs get created and life moves on. Then Swami said, Man lives in the world; he demarcates it into countries, quadrants and boundaries, which are political, physical, industrial and every sort. Swami went on further and said, Man lives with the world. Then He asked, What did you understand? The first understanding is the world existed before man. What does living with the world mean? It means that it existed before you and will exist after you. Fundamentally, it means, we have come here as guests of this great, beautiful, marvellous, magnificent world to live with. Just as we behave well when we are guests in someone s home, Swami clarified, When you come to live with this world, don t forget Mother Earth, which has always wished only happiness for you, only nourishment and all that was good for you. Finally, Swami said, If you want to win the world, surrender to the Creator of the world, then you have won the world. (62)

67 Sri B. N. Narasimha Murthy The emcee, while introducing me said, In the last four years, twelve new educational campuses have come up. I want to modify that statement: In the last four years, Bhagawan Baba Himself has established all these twelve campuses. If you go to any of these campuses, or you go to the Super Specialty Hospital at Raipur, you can clearly see the signature of Bhagawan Baba. There is no way these educational or healthcare institutions could have come up, but for Swami. Here is a paradox: In the last four years, twelve new educational campuses and a Super Specialty Hospital have been built, yet Bhagawan Baba was not seen in the physical body. Swami once sang a beautiful composition, All the education and achievements that you may attain in this world are just like cookbooks. Actual cooking is devotion to God. What s the use of having all the cookbooks if you don t cook at all? You may earn several of degrees, make a lot of money, build big mansions, develop big bank balances, build industries but, if the element of love for God is not there, our life is as useless as a fistful of dry sand. Carl Jung, one of the founding fathers of modern psychoanalysis, saw something eternal, the spirit beyond the mind. He said, In my 50 years of psychiatry, not a single person with faith in God ever came to me as a patient. What is the use of earning all the degrees? What is the use of achieving everything in the world if we become mental patients? Nothing has proliferated in the world in modern times other than the mental clinics and the mental hospitals. Why? The simple reason is, we have lost our spiritual moorings. We have forgotten why we are born in the world. (63)

68 17 th June, 2016 Evening Session Public Satsang, Sunnyvale Hindu Temple Divine Discourse One may study all the eight kinds of knowledge and win over an audience by eloquence; one may be born as a king, conquer territories and win battles; one may have enough wealth to give thousands of cows in charity; one may be able to count the stars in the sky or go to the moon and back. One may be able to do all these things, but can they control the senses? Can they turn the mind inwards? Can they make it still? Is it possible? (Telugu poem) Dear Embodiments of Divinity! The whole world is based on the principle of mind; as the Vedas say, mano moolam idam jagat the mind is the basis of the entire Creation. What does this truly mean? To understand this, you must understand what the mind is and what its role is in your life. The mind is, simply put, a bundle of all of your thoughts. As a piece of cloth is made by weaving threads vertically and horizontally, the mind is also woven with all kinds of thoughts. Those thoughts are not the ones that you express now, as you live here, but are the thoughts that have accompanied you from your earlier incarnations. Every time a thought is added, the cloth becomes thicker and thicker the mind becomes denser and denser. (64)

69 If you have a white cloth, it only means that the threads that have been woven together are white in colour. If you have a red cloth, it means that the threads are red. If you have a mix of white and red, it means the threads are of two different kinds, woven together to give the particular colour to the cloth. The mind carries all the thoughts, right from the moment the jivatma, or the individual soul, separates from Paramatma, or absolute consciousness. It carries these through all the times that it lives on Earth and, as a result, starts forming its own impressions of the world around itself. The mind is the way you perceive the world. White threads make white cloth; red threads make red cloth; black threads make black cloth and a combination of these will make a multi-coloured cloth. In the same way, a pure mind will see the world as pure; a divine mind will see the world as divine; an impure mind will find impurities everywhere. That is the basis of your understanding of the world. If you want to ensure that the cloth is white in colour, you must have only white threads. Similarly, if you want to ensure that your mind is pure, you need to have pure thoughts. Pure thoughts are possible through pure company as is the company, so you become. If you maintain the company of the good and the wise, the thoughts that you develop will also be pure and wise and, thus, your mind will become pure and divine. The one who has a pure and divine mind will see everything as one. You are all talking about changing the world. You want to see a change in the world outside, but all your efforts are simply not going to find fulfilment unless you have learned to change yourselves within. That is why it is said that, you may achieve everything possible on earth but, in the end, if you cannot turn your mind inwards, make it still, make it realise the truth, everything else is simply a waste. There was man who developed a disease. He had frequent headaches, so he approached a doctor and asked for a remedy. The doctor said, You have to see only the colour green. If you see more green, you will be relieved of your headache. The person was quite well to do, so he decided that, in order to see everything green, he would have everything around him painted green. He arranged for all the streets, houses, poles, pillars, everything in his vicinity to be painted green so that, wherever he was, he would see green. He spent lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of rupees in doing so and thought it was the way to get rid of his headache. One fine day, the doctor walked into the man s village and saw the strange sight of everything having been painted green. Curious, he approached the man his patient and asked, Who painted everything green? The man said, You advised me to see green everywhere, so I had everything painted green; even the clothes that I wear and the sari that my wife wears, are green. All my children wear green clothes so that everything is green in our house. (65)

70 The doctor said, Foolish man! You spent lakhs of rupees, made so much effort and caused inconvenience to so many people in order to see green. There are glasses which have a green tint. They only cost four rupees. If you wear them, you will see everything green. You did not have to paint the world green. That is the plight of mankind. He always wants others to do things, others to change, others to improve and constantly complains about the problems in society; the difficulties, the immorality, the restlessness but, what has the person himself done? Has he or she made any effort to make himself or herself pure? Make himself or herself divine? Without making the effort yourself, telling others and expecting them to change is not going to happen. The mind, when turned inwards, when turned towards the divine, turned towards God, will make you, too, a divine person. The mind is the basis of the whole world, the whole of Creation. It is also said, Mana eva manushyanam, karanam bandhamokshayo mind is the reason for man s bondage and for his liberation. If you turn a key to the left, the lock is fastened, whereas, if you turn it to the right, it is opened. The mind is like the key; if you turn it towards God, you get freedom; if you turn it the other way, towards the world, you are trapped again. Nobody other than yourself is responsible for your own happiness or your own sorrow; you are personally responsible for what you experience. It is no use pointing fingers at others and blaming them for what you experience. The truth is, you experience what you do, because that is the way you are your mind, your personality, your nature. Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a tendency; sow a tendency, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny. If you sow pure thoughts, you will have a pure destiny. If you sow wicked thoughts, evil thoughts or selfish thoughts, your destiny will correspond. You must believe in the thoughts that I am sowing in your minds. I call you Embodiments of Love, Embodiments of Divinity, Embodiments of Bliss because I am sowing a thought in your minds. The thought which has been sown, if just left there, un-watered, will die in time but, if the soil is fertile and has been watered well and all the weeds have been removed, the seed will slowly start to germinate; it will grow roots; it will develop into a seedling, a sapling and later, a mighty tree. (66)

71 What I have come here to do, is to sow the seeds of pure thoughts, so that you develop a pure mind and a pure destiny but, the minds have to be fertile. Tigrett said that he feels divine because I say everybody is divine and My word cannot fail; that, if Swami has been saying it for 85 years, there must be a reason to always call you Embodiments of Divinity before every single talk; that, if Swami says it, obviously He cannot be wrong, so he must believe it. If you really, truly believe it, you will definitely achieve it. As I said, Sow a thought and reap a destiny. I will quote an example of faith in the word of the guru, when he says that you are divine and that, if you believe that you are divine, you will be able to achieve anything, however dull you might be: A student was very dull, unable learn anything that has been taught by his master. The master was quite fed up with him and said, Let me teach you one thing. If you learn this, consider that you have learned everything in the world. He told the child to just learn the one mantra. Whatwasthemantra? Aham brahmasmi I am God. If you know that and you understand it, there is nothing else that needs to be learnt or known. The child was quite happy because all his syllabus had now shrunk into only two words, Aham brahmasmi. The child learned it and went home. His father asked him, What did you learn in school today? The child said, I have learned aham brahmasmi. The father was impressed that such a small child had learned such a great truth and asked, So, what does it mean? The child answered, Teacher is God. (Laughter) His father said, It does not mean teacher is God, it means I am God. The child thought he must have learnt it wrongly and thought that it meant his father is God. (Laughter) Shortly after, his uncle came home and asked him, So what did you learn at school today? He said, I learned aham brahmasmi. Oh, that is wonderful! Do you know what it means? Oh yes, very well. It means father is God. His uncle said, No, no it does not mean father is God, it means, I am God. The boy said to himself, My teacher is not God, my father is not God; my uncle is God. (Laughter) (67)

72 Then his uncle explained, You are so dense, you do not understand anything! Your teacher is only trying to tell you that everyone is divine, including you. If you believe in this one lesson from your teacher and totally trust him, you will be able to attain it. So what did the boy do? He went into a forest and kept on and on chanting aham brahmasmi until he attained realisation that he truly was divine. Belief is the basis of all of your lives. Without faith, you cannot take the next step. You all believe that you will wake up tomorrow and will continue to do what you have started today. It is the faith that makes you do everything that you do in your lives. Faith in things that are temporary will be shattered when the temporary things disappear but faith, when put into something permanent, will remain firm forever. You are ready to trust a hairdresser in placing your head in front of his knife. You believe that he will not harm you. You are ready to trust a surgeon to look after you, when he uses his scalpel to operate; yet, you find it so difficult to believe in God, to trust Him. That is the predicament of both growing nations and developed nations. In the name of development, they are filling students, adolescents and children with all kinds of worldly knowledge to make them great scholars, scientists, businessmen great in all achievements. However, all this is ultimately a waste if you do not teach them devotion. Education should teach devotion and education which does not include devotion is no education at all. Education is derived from the Latin word educare. Educare actually means bringing out what is already there. You are not trying to add something to the child; you are only trying to bring out what already exists within the child. (68)

73 When a sculptor creates a statue, what does he do? He takes a block of stone and starts chipping away all that which is not the statue, so that what remains is the statue. Similarly, you are already divine, but layers and layers of dust and rust have accumulated on top of your divinity, hiding your true nature. God, your master, is like the sculptor who patiently works on you, chipping away all that is not divine, so that the Divinity within is revealed. If, every time the sculptor struck the stone, it cried Don t hurt me! Don't hit me! could it ever become a statue? It would remain a block of stone on the wayside, not respected by anyone but, when it is sculpted into a statue of the Divine, the same stone finds its place in the most sacred place inside a temple, worshipped by all. All of you are essentially divine; that is your true nature. All that is not divine has to be chipped away. Divinity is purity; divinity is love; divinity is selflessness. Everything selfish, filled with I and mine, has to be abandoned, so that what remains is only divine. You do not have to do much. First, believe that, if I say you are divine, you must be divine for I do not tell lies, I always tell the truth. Now, why are you not able to experience the truth that I describe? Because you are not putting in enough effort to realise it. The effort is not about achieving something or adding something to you; it is all about removing that which is not divine to leave only that which is divine. When you say, Na karmana na prajaya dhanena tyagenaike amrutatvam anashuh, (neither by action, nor by progeny, nor by wealth, but by sacrifice alone can man attain immortality), what does it truly mean? It means that you must sacrifice all that which is not divine in yourself; once you sacrifice that, what remains is divine. You are all intellectuals, men and women of wisdom. You have learned much, you are all professionals and you are doing well. You are gaining knowledge but, if this one aspect of education is not added to your existing degrees, it will all be a waste. A line of zeroes still amount only to zero, but when you put one in front of the zeroes, their value becomes higher and higher. The more zeros you then add, the more its value increases. Similarly, all your achievements, knowledge, wealth, family, relations and name are all like zeroes, lined up one after the other. When you put God the hero in front of all the zeroes, the entire team gains value, but if you put one at the end of the line, only God will have any value; all the zeros will be valueless. Remember always that, with God by your side, everything that you achieve in your life, everything you do will have value. Place God first, others next, yourself last that is the secret of joy, J - O - Y Jesus first, Others next, Yourself last. If you live your life in that way, it will be full of joy. Everybody wants to be happy; nobody says that they want to be unhappy, or want to be miserable. The secret of happiness is that, when you have God with you, you will truly be happy. That is the way you must lead your lives. (69)

74 I have said enough. The adults have spoken and you have previously read a great deal. What is of importance now is the need to practise. However beautiful the menu is, it is not going to fill your stomach. You may read and reread the name of the dishes that are going to be served, but it is not going to satisfy your hunger. Only when it is served and you eat and digest it, will you be satisfied. Similarly, all the good advice that has been given has to be assimilated, then it has to be practised and it is through practice that you will benefit from it. You may achieve everything in the external world, but if you haven t achieved your inner world, your inner Self, it is simply a complete waste. If you have any questions, you may ask them. Question 1: Swami, last year, when You came to this place, You said to us that You had come to plant a seed for us to nurture and You mentioned that again tonight. What I d like to ask is, what does the plant look like this year, after a year s growth? After a year of nurturing? How do we look to You now? Swami: As you heard just now, all three requirements have to come together good soil, a good seed and good water. If all three are there, it will achieve its purpose. California seems to be a place for drought. (Laughter) There is not enough water for the seed to grow. Within a year, what you have definitely done is weed out some of the things that will help the seed to grow but, you need to add a lot of water, the water of love, into the whole effort. When all three come together the seed of divine wisdom, the soil of your mind a fertile mind without all the weeds, stones and rubbish and you then add large amounts of the water of love, it will definitely grow. Last year, I weeded out a lot of things. Now, I have sown the seed and it is your duty to water it, so that, when I come again, it has grown into a tree. In a couple of years, it must grow into a large tree which bears many fruits, fruits which will have many seeds; each seed growing into a further tree which, in turn, will also have many fruits. In that way, it will go on increasing by the day. I have done My part; you have to do your part and, when God s grace and human effort unite, there will definitely be a very joyful result. When you surrender your mind to God and ask Him to take care of it the way He wants it, He will see to that it remains pure forever; that is the way you can keep your mind clean and pure. (70)

75 Question 2: Swami, I am from You and therefore everything about me is You. Does this mean that the mind that I struggle to subdue is also You, or did I create it? If I did, who is this I that created it? Swami: Everything has come from God. Even the mind has been created by God alone. Therefore, it is not you who created the mind in the first place. Creation is purely God s and, therefore, even the mind is divine in its true nature. However, what you do is, like a child who wears fresh, bright clothes given to it by its mother in the morning, and gets them covered in dust and sand, playing in the field; by the time it gets home, the colour of his clothes has totally changed because of the dirt. What does its mother do? She takes the clothes, washes them clean and gives them back, pure and bright. The mind is a creation of God. The way you use it, is in your hands. If you do not use it in the right way, it will become soiled, it will become impure and then, you have to turn towards God and say, Lord, I am suffering because of my own mind, through the impurities that I have collected. Please clean it, please make it bright and tidy, so that I can be pure again and I can wear a clean and bright mind. Nothing in the world is wrong. Nothing in in the world is bad. Everything in this world is divine. However, just as everything looks yellow to a person with jaundice and everything tastes bitter to someone with a fever, using the mind in the wrong way has caused the whole confusion. Everything was created pure, in the divine image, but the feeling of I ness arose in you. The easiest cure is to say to God, You separated me from You, so that I could experience Your magnificence, live for You and serve you. Please teach me how to return to You, serve You, love You and be pure. I have soiled the spotless things that were given to me. Please take them back from me and wash them clean and bright, as they were originally. Question 3: America is a very powerful country and has many opportunities. That being said, there are also a lot of inequalities that exist here in America and I specifically speak on behalf of communities such as the Black or Afro-American community, the Latino community and the Native Americans here in the United States; they have been pushed very much to the side-lines. There is much poverty and a lot of children going to school do not have enough food in their communities. They do not make enough money. There is a lot of violence. A lot of children are not graduating from high school. A lot of their fathers and other men in the communities are going to prison and they are in a lot of pain. What can we do to help heal the racial inequalities in the United States and to help the communities heal themselves? Swami: If you see a mound somewhere, it means there has to be a pit somewhere else. (71)

76 It is earth that has been dug up from one place and has been used to create a mound on the other side. It is the resources of one group, which have been taken, to provide the resources of the other. If you see excess somewhere, it means there is a deficiency somewhere else. That is the story not just of America, not just India, but the entire world. A few selfish people acquire and hoard everything for themselves; far more than they need, driven specifically by greed, leaving the others deprived, poor and hungry. The solution is not going to come from somewhere in the sky, it is right here on Earth. If the pit is to be filled, the mound has to be demolished and that is when things will become equal. You cannot pass a policy, you cannot make a rule, that is not going to work! People spend thousands of dollars, lakhs of dollars in fact, conducting conferences and seminars, inviting men and women from various countries to discuss the issue of inequality, of poverty, of deprivation, but all that is simplya waste of time; they are trying to tackle the situation in the wrong way. If you water the branches, the tree is not going to grow; the root has to be taken care of! The root of the whole problem is human selfishness. The solution to selfishness lies only in spirituality. The only solution is the realisation that everything you are trying to accumulate for yourselves by depriving others is a sheer waste of time and effort; that it is not going to help you or anyone else; that it is impermanent and it is not going to give lasting joy. That understanding alone will make people change and share and care for others. Therefore, all the problems in society today have an answer only in spirituality and nothing else. How do you bring about the spiritual change in people? First, by changing yourself. If you, as an individual, are willing to share and sacrifice, if you are willing to be a candle and shine, so that the light can be given to others, you will inspire many more people to become candles, so that they, too, will give light; they will also be ready to shine and light a few more candles. That is the way it will happen! There is no one-day, one-hour or one-minute solution to all this! It has happened over many years and it has to be cleaned up, too, over many years! What is important is that some change has to begin starting with you and those around you and move on from there. (72)

77 Yesterday I was travelling in the car with our host who was driving us. He said, Swami, it is ironic that, although this is one of the most affluent places in the world where everybody looks up to companies that are tremendously wealthy yet, in the same place, you see the highest number of homeless people, the poor and the deprived. What can I say when I hear something like this? It only means that some people are just turning a blind eye to the problems of others because they do not think that they are a part of themselves. Such selfishness has arisen because of the education of the Stanfords and Harvards, as they say; they have only taught people to become self-centred, wealthier and more powerful, and to hoard everything for themselves and only for themselves. They have not taught that the world is a great ecosystem, where each person s welfare is linked to each other s welfare, and no one is independent of the other, however remote they may be! In the same way, it all affects you as a community, as a group of human beings. True wisdom has not been imparted; that has been the cause of the trouble that the world is facing today! The solution is to start changing at your own level. Looking at you, others will change. It may take time, but it will be a permanent solution. The education system must change, the way parenting is happening in America must change. When parents, teachers and students come together, societies will change, andit is society which has to drive the change; governments cannot! It is not going to come from the government to the individual, it has to go from the individual to the government. Just now, you said that government is of the people, for the people and by the people. So, it is the people who have to change the way governments work, to change the way politics work, the way everything works in the country. Who are these people? You are the people! You are the one who has to start the change and many more will join. Believe in the power of selflessness, believe in the power of goodness, believe in the power of the Divine! As I say, take one step and I will take a hundred steps. Take one step towards changing things and many, many more will join you. All great revolutions have begun with one person in one corner of the earth, later joined by many and they changed the fate of nations, as time passed. This is possible. Believe in it! Of course, it will take time; have patience, but be persistent in your efforts. Purity of thought, patience in your endeavours and perseverance consistency in your work all three will, together, get you the peace that you are wishing for. (Applause) (73)

78 Question 4: In the Mahabharata war, the Pandavas attained Heaven, but You also recently said that a man was Bheema s reincarnation. Is merging with God and attaining Heaven not the end of rebirth? Or are merging with God and attaining Heaven two different things? Swami: Heaven is like a holiday that you get when you do well in your exams. You go to enjoy yourself; you do not have to study; you do not have to worry about going to school and you can do what you want for a few days. Once your holidays are over, you have to go back to your class. That s what happens when you go to Heaven; you come back again to continue your studies. (Laughter and applause) So, Heaven is not the ultimate, it is just a reward for the good that you have done. Hell is not the ultimate, it is the punishment for the bad you have done. That is how to understand it; if you do not do well, you have to repeat your class, work harder and do more assignments that is Hell! (Laughter) If you do well, you get to go for a holiday; that is Heaven! So, he is back from his holiday again to continue his studies. Question 5: How do we attain unity with God every second or every part of our life? Please can You explain? Swami: I just gave a whole discourse on that! (Laughter) Purity of thoughts will give you unity with God. What is purity of thought? Think that you are divine, completely believe that you are divine when you believe that, you will become that. As your thoughts, so you become. It is said, Yad bhavam tad bhavati. So, continue to believe, I am God, I am divine. It is like putting on the green glasses you will see everything as green. If you put on divine vision, everything will look divine to you. You do not have to connect at every moment you are that.itbegins with the belief and then you have to ask yourself, If am divine, is the thought going through my mind worth keeping? Is the thought divine? If it is not, discard it, sacrifice it. Is the word that I am speaking in accordance with my divine nature? If not, then do not not speak it! Does my action befit my divine nature? If it is not, then you must not do it. In this way, filter every thought, word and deed with belief that you are divine and you will desist from doing all that which is not divine. In that way, you can live every moment, everywhere, in divine joy. (74)

79 Question 6: Swami, can You please help Argentina with the chaos that is going on there? Swami: Argentina is as much a country on this Earth as America or India or any other. It is as dear to God as any other country, for all are His children, all places are His! I will do what is needed, but I am like a doctor; I can diagnose, I can tell you what needs to be done in order to be cured; I can give you the prescription but, taking the pills, swallowing the medicine, following the diet, following the doctor s advice are all in the hands of the patients. So, if the people of the country follow the advice, they will benefit, chaos will disappear and peace will return. However, if they do not, then obviously they will continue to struggle. What can a doctor do if the patient doesn t follow the medication that he has prescribed? Question 7: Before I came here, I went to a miracle house. Some people feel it is controversial, but the woman there manifests Shirdi Sai Baba. I ve seen this happen, and sometimes, rock candy descends from the sky, or her hands fill with vibhuthi and many lingams come out of her throat and mouth. She is a friend of mine, so I know that she has immense problems that are unimaginable. I would like to understand, so can You please shed some light on what is going on? Swami: Who said that if God is there with you, you will have no problems? In fact, problems lead you towards God! Those who have problems, constantly think of God and then God finds ways to keep their minds occupied with His divine leelas, so that they do not have to think too much about their problems. Kunti, the great mother of the Pandavas, was asked by Lord Krishna, You have suffered much in your life, what can I give you? What do you want from Me? and she replied, Give me more problems because, only when there are problems do I sincerely pray to You and think of You. When the problems disappear, my devotion also diminishes. When I have problems, I totally depend on You. That is why she has problems and yet has God by her side! The problems have driven her to think of God all the time, so much so, that she does not even consider them her problems; she has no time to think of the problems because she is always thinking of God. It is also a leela of God to explain it. When a child is hurt in a fall and cries, the parents entertain the child with many things to take its mind off the pain and, after playing with the toys, the child forgets for a while that it is suffering until it is reminded again. Similarly, all such leelas keep those devotees busy thinking of Me and keep their mind off the problems that they are undergoing. That is how they can still cope with the problems; with God as their anaesthesia, preventing them from feeling the pain or suffering, even though they have to go through the unavoidable surgery. (75)

80 All the devotees you can think of, for instance, the Pandavas; they were the closest to Krishna, they witnessed Krishna s leelas day in and day out but, did they have any fewer problems? Think of Meera just this morning I was talking about her, so many things happened, she was the one whose poison became nectar and all the difficulties that her husband created became conveniences through Krishna s grace! She gave up everything but, at the end of it, she got Krishna. She did not realise the problems, or even feel the problems, because she was always immersed in her devotion to Krishna. In any devotee s life, problems will come, but they do not consider such problems as problems; they think of them as opportunities to think of God and feel His they see so much in the way of divine leelas, divine presence, divine benediction, in their lives all the time. When you want some of Me, I can give you a few problems, too! (Laughter) Question 8: Swami, when will Your Educare system be implemented on a broader scale in the United States? Swami: It will happen. Governments have to change and the thinking has to change. There should be a willingness to accept it; then, if you implement it, it will make sense. When the season is right and you sow the seeds, they will definitely grow but, when the season is wrong, no matter how much effort you put in, they will not grow. I am waiting for the right season, right leadership and right kind of people who understand the need for spirituality, the need for moral and valuesbased education and not merely materialistic and worldly education then, you will definitely be able to implement it. (76)

81 In fact, the first effort has been made in India, too, to bring many intellectuals together on the subject of education which would incorporate spirituality and harmony of religions in the curriculum. Teachers and people who will impart this, need to be trained and a curriculum needs to be designed. I have already started working on a worldwide programme, Guru Vikas. I talk about training teachers first; about transforming themselves and, through their transformation, transforming the children. I am developing the programme in India and, slowly, it will spread. When India benefits, people will see the benefit and other countries will also have a demand for such an educational system. When they are hungry, if you feed them, they will enjoy the food. So I am waiting for the right time but, it will come! Right now, people are looking for solutions to all the different problems in society, but they will ultimately realise that, whatever they have tried, has not solved the issue and then they will look towards the east, towards India, which has always been the centre of spirituality and wisdom, in order to learn from that country and its wisdom. Then, the system of education will become worldwide. It is a matter of time but it will definitely happen. (Applause) Question 9: Swami, we recently had a massacre in Orlando, Florida, where a lot of gay people were killed. I have cried all week because I am gay and my heart has been broken; yet, You have done nothing but shower love and grace on me! You have asked me to love religions and to respect them all but, when I go to the Quran or to the Bible and look at some of the verses there that call for violence to gays, when You say that we are all God, why do such scriptures exist? How are we ever going to reconcile these differences between religion and the gay community? Swami: No religion, in its essence, differs from one to another. Divinity is as much in a piece of stone, as it is in plants, in animals and in humans; so, there is nothing that is not divine; that is the basis of spirituality. Spirituality is the essence, the knowledge and the wisdom, but it is taught through various religions in various ways, subject to the conformation of each society. For instance, some things are taught in American schools which are relevant to America. They will talk about the history of America, they will talk about the leaders in America and the children in American schools will learn more about what is going on in America. The fundamental truth of justice, peace and brotherhood will be taught through, for instance, the life of Abraham Lincoln in America, because that would be a part of the American school syllabus. Conversely, the same principles of love, justice and peace might be taught quoting the life of Mahatma Gandhi when it comes to teaching students in India. (77)

82 Thus, religions are trying to teach spiritual truths in their own way, using the situations, circumstances and culture of the society to which they are preaching. However, if some schools start changing the subject matter, the teachers do not follow the syllabus and do not follow what is written in the books, but have their own interpretations and understanding of what is being said, because of their personal ideas or personal experiences, they are not doing their job correctly. There are many teachers, even in schools, who do not do their job well. They teach one thing instead of another, because of their own individual ideas and impressions. At the spiritual level, everything is divine. At the religious level, things have changed, based on the teachers, based on the people who framed the syllabus, interpreting the spiritual truths, sometimes in their own way but, if you go back, all the religions were basically there to teach the fundamental truth of divinity. In Hinduism, it is said, Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti, there is only one truth, which the wise call by various names. If you go to Quran, it also says, Allah Ho Akbar, there is only one who is the greatest one. If you go to Christianity, it talks about one Father, one God, one source of everything. If you go to Sikhism, it says, Ek omkar, there is only one and only the sound, omkar, fromwhich everything emerged. They all refer to the same truth by different names, based on their own understanding. However, when you start saying, My truth is right and your truth is wrong, that the name of something is this and not what you call it, there are conflicts. Water, vari, aqua, jala and neeru are all names for water in different languages but, when you drink, you will know; you will experience and you will know that the underlying truth is the same. Experiential religion is the right way, not by learning or preaching. Coming to the questions of inequality, misunderstanding and injustice: it does not relate to just one community or one type of people. Look around, who is not being troubled in this world? There are people fighting wars in the name of religion, considering others religions as untrue. There are people fighting wars against other countries thinking that the other country is not right. People are fighting wars between communities, between men and women, between different tribes. This sort of discrimination has always been the way of selfish minds and that is not only towards you or to certain people of certain types, but it has been there throughout the world. In these times, it is more and more prevalent. Just as love knows no religion, violence knows no religion, neither does it discriminate when it comes to hurting. Therefore, you have to replace all the violence with love. Accept everyone as divine. When you understand divinity and form your relationships, your bonds based on the divine principle of One God and all are His children, then all the differences will disappear. (78)

83 The differences between this country and that country will disappear; the differences between this tribe and that tribe will disappear; the differences between these kind of people and those kind of people will disappear, because you will no longer view the outer, but rather, the inner core, which is divine. Unless you go deep enough to understand the fundamental unity of all creation, differences will continue to exist and, in one name or another, there will be violence, there will be some excuse for injustice. You cannot end it; the end of all problems in all communities, all countries and all cultures, is to understand the fundamental principle that all are divine. Everybody has a reason to live, everybody has to be respected, everybody has to be revered and given their chance to live and grow towards God. Until then, there will be no end to the problem, and that is what all the messiahs, all the teachers, including and especially Me, are trying to teach. I go on and on repeating and emphasising that all are divine. Return to that truth, then all the outer differences will disappear. Whether you drink water from a silver tumbler or a glass tumbler, a mud pot or a golden goblet; the vessel does not matter, it is the water that quenches your thirst. Once you understand the fundamental truth, the differences will disappear and all hatred, violence and unrest will come to an end. That is your goal; you must move towards that. (Applause) Question 10: Swami, could You tell us a little bit more about reincarnation? Do we stay with the same family group for hundreds and thousands of years? Do we shift around? How do You do that? You are the boss there! (Laughter) Swami: How do computers perform so much? They remember so many names, so many addresses, so many numbers. I have something like that, called chaitanya, Absolute Consciousness, that remembers everything. It is like a super-super-computer which remembers everything about everyone. It knows whom to place next to whom, who should live with whom, how long they should live, when they should stop being with each other, what they should do when they are together, what should be the result of what they do; all these considerations are fed into the super-super-computer called Absolute Consciousness and it deals with all the individual souls. It places them together or away from each other for a certain period of time or for longer periods, based on what is good for that individual soul; what will help that soul to grow towards God. All this is done only with that single aim. So, whether you get the same parents, whether you get the same children, whether you get the same friends, totally depends on whether you have learned the lesson that you were supposed to learn in their company. Once you have finished learning, you may go to the next class, where you will make new friends, meet new classmates, have new teachers and continue to learn and grow. (79)

84 If you haven t learned, you will stay in the same class, you will have the same friends, the same teacher and the same people around you. That is how evolution takes place. (Applause) Question 11: I have wanted to attend a meeting with Your Subtle Form for a year now, and You flew me here today all the way from Asia. When the ticket was paid for me, I didn t even know this programme was today! Yet, at the start of the programme, You said to me, You think I didn t see you? Wait and see, I will show you tomorrow. Was that You or was that my mind, Swami? (Laughter) Swami: Did it make you feel happy or sad? (Laughter) Devotee: It was like visiting Puttaparthi when, sometimes, You would shower attention on me and, other times, You would walk by and wouldn t even look at me and I would get sad. Then I kept feeling inside that it has to be You. Swami: Then it has to be Me! Nobody can give you that experience. No one can! (Applause) Only your mother can make you feel the way you feel when you are with her; somebody else s mother will not make you feel that way. The way you feel when you are with your friend, only your friend can make you feel; somebody else cannot. Similarly, the way you feel when you are with Me, only I can make you feel. No one else can. So, if you have felt that, it has to be true. (Applause) We will close now, because the youth have a programme to offer. (Bhagawan visited an exhibition on His Mission and seva projects around the world, which was followed by a cultural programme and Arathi. The next morning, Swami and His entourage departed for Southern California.) (80)

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