Follow the religion not the teacher

When you look at the religious stats on the TV and everywhere else, 1.6 billion people in the world are Christian, 1.4 billion are Moslem, 1.2 billion are Hindus. I can remember 15 years ago when Hinduism was the highest in the listing of religion, and Christianity was third. The only reason they have taken the lead is because you don’t know your book – your Bhagavad Gita. Forget the other books. You don’t need to know them. We’re starting classes so you can learn the Bhagavad Gita and when you are confronted about the Hindu religion, don’t tell them they are right and that our religion is complicated. It is not complicated if you follow it properly. 

But the problem is that we don’t follow it properly. We are always shopping at Hari Krishna and then at the Gayathri Peedam; we go from Drift temple to Sri Gopala temple. We should not be shopping. We should believe that God is one and the same in any of these temples. Christianity tells you that. Hinduism tells you the same thing in a complicated way: that all these forms we see are just names given to the different energy levels we want to access God on. For our education we call God 'Saraswati'. For prosperity and wealth we call God 'Lakshmi'. But the Bhagavad Gita teaches us that total surrender to God is all that is required. Forget the name Krishna. It doesn’t mean God – it means soul.

When we follow Hare Krishna we think that’s the only god and we become fanatical like Manchester United fans. We’ll even say the wrong things to protect our religion. We shouldn’t have that situation. You must be able to see Krishna in Lord Shiva and vice versa. If you can do that then you can see God – just as I must be able to see God in each one of you. I must see some of you as Kali, some as Duruga. I must see you as God and once I can do that then I don’t have any problems in this world. We are not seeing that and therefore we are having a high rate of conversion.

Christianity is not a bad religion. It doesn’t teach wrong. It is a beautiful religion of love. It’s just that some of the people teach it teach it wrongly. But what happens to our Hindu people? They follow the preachers not the religion. You need to stop that and follow the religion. As we say: in the radiance of Babaji, the light of our gurus, and the glory of Christ, if you can be universal like that then you can call your organization a religion. If you are going to separate yourself into Hari Krishna, Christian, Moslem, then we have a problem. When the Christians come to you with their black book and tell you it’s the only book, then you can show them the eternal book, the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God, the DIY of man forever. 

We were sitting outside a temple yesterday to visit the priest and I went over to the banyan tree where they tie the cotton around. I could see that it had been maybe 5 years since anybody put cotton around it. That means we don’t have any Hindus there anymore. The white cotton is actually black – that’s how long ago cotton was tied around the tree. The Bhagavad Gita is your DIY manual for life.

Board Flight GP 2015

Paramahansa Yogananda is a great saint and the saint who brought Dean to the ashram. If I didn’t see that photo in a lady’s shop I wouldn’t have asked who gave it to her. I asked her and she said Dean and then brought this whitey to the ashram. The lady was Linda Smith. That photo is of Paramahansa Yogananda, the one individual who took kriya yoga to the west.

The beauty about Paramahansa Yogananda is that when he left India to go to America there were only 50 people at the harbour to see him off. But when he went back from America to India there were 50 000 people to greet him. He was not popular in India but became popular going to America. He has centres all over the world in America, in Los Angeles is the mother centre. Some time when you’re going that way, go and visit.

Now it’s 2015 and some of you I did not see on new year. To those I didn’t see, I wish for you everything of the best. To those people I’ve seen, I wish you everything of the best. As I said 2015 isn’t going to be any lighter than 2014 so get used to it. 2014 was setting you up for 2015. It’s going to be tough but I think we should all remember that there is only one energy, one individual, who can take you out of any kind of misery. It’s spelled with 3 letters of the alphabet – GOD. You can’t forget Him. Just remember Him in your difficult times.

Let this year be without arguments but with more decisions. I think that’s what we need. Some of you are wondering what the difference is. It’s very simple. In an argument you want to prove who’s right. In a decision you know what’s right. There’s a big difference. An argument is about an individual, and a decision is about what’s right. Let 2015 be that kind of year. I think for me, I’m tired of arguments. Very soon I think I’m going to go into withdrawal and become a hermit, sit upstairs and not see anyone. I’m tired of your differences and arguments and I keep telling you that. To be positive does not increase your life at all. But it makes your life happier. If you’re positive you can go home and sleep. But if you are negative and have arguments with everything you can’t go home and sleep.

This is 2015 and we need to look at ourselves and take accountability for ourselves. We need to do right things and good things. Forget what you did in the past. As I said to you on Friday: Flight GP 2015 was ready for boarding on Friday. I said, “Come on board with no baggage, just good souvenirs”. And just to inform you, I happen to be the captain of this flight. It’s not going to disappear any time soon. So please, let us only think of all the good things that happened. The bad things can never become good but the good things can become better. The bad things will go in the other direction. You don’t need that.

I’ve had so many disappointments in the last few days but I’m not looking at those. I’m just looking at the positive and continuing the journey. You must do the same thing. You’re not going to get everything, but hold onto what you get. Nobody’s going to get everything. You might be at the crest of the wave today but not tomorrow. And, fortunately for you, you know one equation: guru + guru = Gayathri Peedam. But why do we have to have the problem first? Start here, and start living positively. Believe me, everything will come right.

Before we conclude, does anyone know why we say shanti 3 times? The first shanti we say is for us – for ‘me’. The second one is for everyone around you. The third one is for the universe. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Om.