Immortal Sisters and Brothers, Om Namo Bhagavate Pandurangaya.

(Salutations to God as Panduranga, the light of Truth).

Seasons rotate, the years roll on like the waves of the sea. Everything is changing except the Truth. Self-improvement alone counts in attaining Self-realization. Good or bad, praise or abuse, to offer all dualities to Him and to rest at His feet is the secret of knowledge.

Our birthday is just an occasion to realize that there is no birth or death to the spirit. This is an occasion to realize that we are not these bodies, but we are 'atman' in essence. This detachment from the body and the ego is of supreme importance in reaching God realization.

At the same time, it is also important to know that this body is the temple of God. This human body is the great gift of God to realize Him. We have to perform "tapasya" (austerity) through this body. Rhythmic fasting offering salutations, serving the sick and the needy, to chant and sing the Holy Name, to be useful to society through selfless service these are of great importance in obtaining the grace of God. We have to keep this body clean and healthy to realize God who is in our own souls as the universal Self. Meditation, austerity and sacrifice bring the immediate reward of peace, health and happiness of a lasting nature.

Every moment of our life we should try to cultivate divine virtues. The highest of all virtues is humility. Through prayer and confession, by making obeisance to God and saints, by reading about the lives and teaching of saints, by service, and mainly by the grace of God, one attains this rare virtue. When the ego is humbled, forthwith he attains the Truth. Truth is veiled by the ego and desires.

Surrendering this ego or taming this ego through vows and disciplines leads to the grace of God, which in turn reveals the Truth.

Among all types of disciplines, devotion (Bhakti) is the best and the highest. The soul should become so attached to God that all other attachments disappear. The soul should cling to God with all its might and become absorbed in Him. At all times the soul should feel God, either through prayers and worship (puja), or through reading from the holy scriptures or by repeating the word (mantra) of God with all sincerity and devotion.

When the word or mantra is imparted by the teacher in the initiation ceremony, the mind stays in the brow center. Every breath repeats the mantra, and the spiritual progress is a thousand times faster than in normal ways of discipline. Om is God, mantra is God, Word is God; this leads one to realize that there is nothing but God. "All this is God" is the greatest realization when you see Him in everything and everything in Him.

Mahatma Gandhi taught us the affirmation which will make us see only good in everybody. He said, "Whenever I see an erring man, I say to myself, ‘I have also erred.’ When I see a lustful man, I say to myself, ‘so was I once.’ In this way, I feel kinship with everyone in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy." This humility is the secret of his greatness.

Saints and sages of all religions, in all countries and at all times have practiced this humility and were able to reach the highest rung of the spiritual ladder--that is, seeing God face to face. This discipline appears simple, but when we try to practice it, our karma of past lives pushes us in another direction and the demands of the society make us do things which our soul never wanted to do. In this network of karma, our ego goes on accumulating new karma which weights down our mind and soul and we become confused and frustrated.

To rid us of the karma, repentance and confession before God, an intimate conversation with Lord Panduranga, the Light of Truth, is the greatest discipline. Lord Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita, "Apichetsu Duracharo Bhajate Mam Ananyabhak; Sadhureva Samantavya Samyag Vyavasito Saha. (Bhagavad Gita, Chpt 9, V 30). "Even though a person is the vilest sinner or a miscreant, his sins are forgiven the moment he repents and prays to Me for forgiveness. Thereafter, in My view, I consider him a saint." Also the Lord says, "Kshipram Bhavati Dharmatma Shashvat Shantim Nigacchati; Kaunteya Pratijanachi, Na Me Bhakta Pranashyati." (Bhagavad Gita, Chpt 9, V 31). "Speedily, I bless him with everlasting peace. O Arjuna, My devotee never perishes. This is My declaration."

The modern civilization has had a devastating effect upon the minds of the people to cling to this world and its pleasures. Day after day, all of us are, in a way, victimized by the media, food and drink and millions of types of entertainment and engagements. If you observe humanity as a whole, people will be doing the same thing over and over again, until the heart stops; like a smoker smoking, and a drunkard drinking and each one helplessly doing the same things all his life. If we are taught the secret of a better life, a life divine that may be found within oneself, where there is no contamination or mortality, it would be much better for the growth of the soul in reaching its final destination in this very life. Alas! What a loss that all these struggling souls have to come back again and again through the same rhythmic process of karma and undergo the same torments of hunger, thirst sickness, fear and imbalance in the entire system, only to accumulate more karma. Sometimes it looks as if our cry for the salvation is like a cry in the wilderness. Of course, God listens to this cry and the saints are sent to cry at the top of their voice for the humanity to turn to God.