The most regretted thing in life

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Do you know what is the most regretted thing in life?
At the moment of dying, the soul sees the amount of time God has sent, how fortunately, for him to realise Himself that he has let go of.
That’s the most regretted thing of the soul when one looks backward.
Have you ever thought about that? Do you know about this? No?
Nobody has died. (Much laughter)
Well, when you die, the moment you are dying, just before you leave this body, the Angel of God appears and shows you the opportunity of life that you have let go and shows you that you have to come back again. That’s why there is a lot of regret, but when the soul comes back, again, the karma of the [previous] body is forgotten.

Watch this nice video with the Mantra 'Om Namo Narayanaya': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6pqE9W28xg

We are always on a search

Sri Swami Vishwananda: The first thing we have to understand is that all mankind, in one way or the other, are always on a search - a search of who we are, a search of what we are here for.
So many times this is on your mind and you ask yourself: “Is it just this, that I have been born here on Earth?”.
But this search can last for years and years.
You can go around the world to look for what has depth, what will really satisfy you, because humans always have a desire for new things.
You desire one thing - for example a nice clasp.
Once you have it, you enjoy it for sometimes and then the desire disappears.
Then you desire something else. You are always desiring something.
You keep desiring, and as long as you desire material things, there will always be desires.

Kurma Avatara / The churning of the ocean Part 1

Yesterday we had a short excerpt of a speech about Matsya Avatar (This speech was held by Sri Swami Vishwananda on Gurupurnima 2007).
Today we continue his speech here to learn more about the Hindu tradition. This Talk is about the churning of the ocean.
Sri Swami Vishwananda:
The second-incarnation of the Lord is the turtle incarnation. Do you know the story of the churning of the ocean?
So, the second incarnation of the Lord is called Kurma-Avatar, the turtle-Avatar.
The story goes on like this: one day, the Devas and the Asuras, the Gods and the demons, joined together.
They decided that they wanted to become immortal and asked Brahmaji: “What can we do to become immortal?”
So...then Brahmaji said: “You have to churn the ocean!”
So they decided, that they will churn the ocean and finally, if they would do it properly, they would get the Amrit, they would get the Divine Nectar, the Nectar of Immortality.
Here is a video about exactly this part. The English is not so easy to understand and it is rather for children, but it is interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtzW1gCC1zg
(Second part tomorrow)

When you have God, you have everything

Sri Swami Vishwananda: The less you desire God, the more you will be attached to this world.
It's upon to you!
It's your choice!
Each and individual choice.
Whereas, when you have God, you will have everything, you will have the world, you will have everything material- but you will be detached from it.
Somebody will take it, and you will say:”Okay, take. Go. It doesn't matter to me.”


Listen here to Kees Kraayenoord's Song - "God be in everything"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnTilxNH334

This song was born out of a moring prayer from 1527.
God be in my head and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes and in my looking.
God be in my mouth and in my speaking.
God be in my heart and in my thinking.
God be at mine end and in my departing.

What is the use of having a teacher, when you can't listen?

Sri Swami Vishwananda:
What is the use of having a teacher when you can’t listen?
Well I see that everyday anyway. (smiling)
But people like to be ignorant.
They like to be always in their own drama.
They don’t really want to change.
Outside they say “Yes Swamiji, we want to change, we want to do what you say”, but inside they don’t really want.
When you say something, they say “Oh my goodness!” (smiling)
That’s what they like to be and they always like to stay the way they are.
But interesting (silence): Why do spiritual people don’t change?
Don’t take the excuse of Maya [illusion] or whatever, eh?
These are just typical excuses (smiling), so forget about Her.
She doesn’t tell you what you eat, She doesn’t tell you what to do.
So why when you have to change, you have to take Her as an excuse?
Once I have said it: There is something called spiritual pride.
Because we think we are better than anybody else.
We think that when we are spiritual, we are superior to anybody.
And everybody else has to listen. (laughing)
And that’s the mistake that many spiritual people make.
We don’t really want to listen, but we want everybody else to listen to us.
And when people don’t listen to us they are wrong, because we think we are right.
And that’s why we call us spiritual.
Even if the grace is there, they will be still blind, because they still always want to be blind.

Please click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCji-oDTlA
Guru Ashtakam was written by Shri Adi Shankaracharya and tells about the necessity of the Guru and attaching our mind to the Lotus Feet of the Guru.
Also, given are extracts from a lecture of Swami Vivekananda on the need of a spiritual Guru. Hari Om!!

Israel trip part 4 / Experience is always good

Here the forth excerpt of Sri Swami Vishwananda's speech referring to his trip to Israel:

Sri Swami Vishwananda:
I was talking to somebody today. This person asked me a question last January and of course I had given him my answer, that I had to give him, but he chose to do his way, which is also nice, you know? So today, as I was talking to him on the phone, he was always complaining:
“Oh Swamiji, I should have listened to you, all this and that…” So much, but I said “Well, look, what is done is done. You can’t change it.” But one thing you can do: You have learned a lot from that experience and now you know what you have to do. You could have made it much easier by listening, but you have made experience. You have learned. It was good for your learning, because sometimes, if you just tell somebody something, it is easy, but they will not get anything. It’s like when you tell a child “Don’t put your hand in fire, you will get burned.” But if the child has never burnt himself, do you think he will know what is burning? No. And always there will be this want to put the hand in the fire, because he wants to know what is burning. So experience, whether it’s good or bad is a learning process. Learning what your soul needs to know. And if you tune yourself to the right tune, to the right frequency of your soul, you will learn it very quickly. It’s a matter of what you want.