Bhakti means devotion. You devote yourself to God. You haven’t seen Hirm but you devote yourself all your life to God, like those monks and nuns. That’s also counted as Bhakti Yoga.
Hallo! (Hallo!) Feel good? (Good.) (Master, You look beautiful.) Thank you. Thank you. I heard that. Say it again. (Master, You look beautiful.) I didn’t mean for you to say it all together. Funny, how you all look so good after a retreat. How come? (Master, You look beautiful.) Not really. (Like a princess.) That’s about right. I lost a little weight. Sometimes my retreat goes well, sometimes not. It depends. Thank you. Yeah! I am here, safe. You both are still here? That’s great! Amitabha Buddha. How do you say “Amitabha Buddha” in Korean? (Amitabha.) Amitabha! Oh, very simple! (Yes.) Amitabha!
Hey! Are you OK there? You came back? From South Africa? (From America this time.) From America? (Yes.) I thought you were in South Africa, no? (I was.) And now you’re in America? (Yes.) Anyhow, it is a long way. I mean, even then, it’s a very long way to just come back. Wow! You’re diligent. Some of the charmers pull you? (No, Master. You did.) How are you guys? (Good.) Very good! Good to hear that. Any special request? No. That’s good. I hope you answer, “No.” Yeah, no problem. That means no problem. No – no problem. Can you see me from there? Far away, OK there? If you cannot see me, then you imagine how I looked like 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
I thought this weekend I’d have a rest. Because sometimes you need a rest, even from nothing. But then we had good news. We had good news: the United Nations and all the countries in the world signed the less meat protocol. Approval of less meat. No meat is the best. So, it’s becoming official now. I hope they just go forward. Become meatless. Not less meat, but meatless. No meat at all. That’s why I came to celebrate with you. And I want to thank you, all of you, the good, the bad, the medium, the “no good no bad,” in-between; the black, the white, the gray, in the middle, the brown, the coffee color, coffee milk color – thank you all. Good or bad, I thank you for anything that you do at all, even just a tiny bit, to contribute to this result. And we’re happy, happy, happy. It’s getting there. I don’t want to tell you when because whenever I tell you something, it’s delayed, and I don’t like that. Or it’s spoiled. I don’t like that. So, I don’t tell you how long. I let you drool and wait for the meatless day to come.
I’m very happy about it. So, I try to do more retreats, more retreats, even just a few days. Better than nothing. I just finished the three weeks and then I came back to see you, celebrate with the artists, and then I had another four days just now. I just came out today. Look any different? No? (Yes.) I do! I do look a little different. Older! Four days older. Four days and a half. Never mind about that. Sometimes I have a very good retreat, excellent; sometimes it’s very tiring. A lot of organizing, fighting, and protecting myself, and protecting someone who needs protection. In some special case, it’s not just like normal case. Because, it’s like that, when you’re famous or when you’re against something that is already established and mainstream in the society, then some people love you, some people don’t love you. Or, some people came for some reason or wanted something from you. They expect that you can hula-hop, make things perfect, and you didn’t because their karma is too heavy. And they also don’t like you and then they are testing you. Testing with different ways and it’s not always comfortable. Because they think, “Oh! People say you are this and that. You’re a Master, but you can’t do anything. So now I can do something to see if you can… What can you do about it?” Maybe I don’t do anything, but I still need to protect myself and it takes some work. And I also have to protect some people who work around me, some people who are concerned in this.
I’m sorry, my karma is always heavy, so I don’t always have the time to… or control over it. Like last time, I was here already on Sunday and I meant to stay with you until Tuesday or Wednesday, until all the artists were gone and you were gone. But I couldn’t. Something happened. So, I had to leave and come back again, and leave and come back again. I apologize. I can’t always do what you want or what I want even. I am not that free. Too much karma. Forgive me. My karma is heavy, heavy. What can I do? When you have heavy karma, then you have heavy karma; then you have to deal with it in different ways. Forgive me if I cannot always do what you expect or be with you when you want. Life is not always about what we want, but about what we can live with and be contented with.
I’m not happy to not have been with you all that time from Sunday to Tuesday, the artist festival. I wasn’t happy, but I just accepted. And I just hope you forgive me, because many of the foreigners, they came from far away. Twenty, thirty hours’ flight to come here. I don’t mean the artists alone; I mean our people, our brothers and sisters. They came from a very long way. They’ve been saving for that and I wasn’t there for them. And after the party, I had to leave immediately. I wasn’t very happy about that. And I hope they forgive me. Always have to forgive me. I don’t have any excuses. Even if I do, you forgive me. Lucky I am still alive and that’s all you want, right? Not a scratch. Maybe a little bit of scratch, but I hide it; you don’t see anything. I’m always happy, good looking, younger every day. You hope. I hope.
So, congratulations. Your wish, your dream, your hope, your work, have borne some fruits. It’s not yet 100% ripe, but it’s some fruit already, right? (Yes.) Wow. I really thank the United Nations and all the leaders of all the countries for their wise decision. And we pray that they’ll continue to be wise, implementing what they have written and signed. Just like many laws about the animals, like protection for the animals, don’t let the animals suffer or fear or anything of any kind. But, if you continue to eat meat, then the animals are going to suffer all that and more behind your back. You don’t even know about it. People just do not know. Truly like that. Most people are very, very good at heart and love animals. If they see animals suffer in front of their eyes, I’m sure they would do anything to save it, save the animal. It’s just they’ve made no connection between the piece of meat that’s on the beautiful counter and the cow that has been cooped up in the non-movable space all his life or all her life. They did not know; they did not think. Too busy. Truly like that. When you’re too busy, you have no time to think, or to connect, or to do research into things, or to even want to think about what is what. You just come back home tired and feel lucky that you have something to put in the microwave or warm it up and then just eat it. You don’t even think. Poor people, truly. The maya has been so clever in blindfolding everybody up to now. It’s truly like that. That’s why I feel sorry for everyone all the time. Even people who did harm to me or do harm to me, I feel sorry for them. They’re too ignorant, too poisoned, too brainwashed, and just too blind. We don’t talk about that. We’re happy. Thank you.
Thank you, United Nations, and all the nations. God bless you forever and we love you. I want to thank all the vegans out there. All the persons, all the groups, all the organizations, all the governments, anyone whoever promotes the compassionate vegan way of life to save our world for us and for the next generations. Even just in your heart, you wish the world to become vegan and all the governments who approve, who make into law, or who are going to make into law for the citizens to stay on a compassionate, healthy vegan diet. I thank all of you. May you continue these noble actions to save our world and the planet for the next generations. May God bless you forevermore.
I don’t know if I read this already. In India we have many kinds of practices. I wrote something sometime, but I wonder if I read it to you or not yet. Oh, this is already read, I think. This one maybe not. All these artists, they talk like you, like they were my disciples. I hope people outside don’t think I pay them how much for the speech. Yeah, some people are getting paid for the written speech, if you are important. Suppose, if I am a prime minister of some kind, even a small island or something. If they invite me to go somewhere, make a speech, either I write it myself or my secretary writes it, or they write it and I just read it, then I’ll get something. Your Master doesn’t ever get anything. Who cares?
The world is going vegan. I was jumping, dancing inside my little office myself. And I danced with my dog; I said, “Hey, you know what? The world is going vegan! The world is going vegan!” If you saw me, you’d think, “Master, something is not correct in Her mind anymore. Maybe we should look for another Master.” You try. There are so many masters around. Famous and not famous, a lot, a lot, a lot. Oh, not a lot, a lot, but I mean quite some. Good enough for some people who like to do shopping. I also went shopping until I found the Quan Yin Method and I stopped.
This one I don’t know if I have read to you or not. About undivided, undiluted attention. No? (No.) No. OK, you’re lucky. Then I can read it for you. In India, we have many kinds of practices. And one of them is called Bhakti Yoga, meaning devotional practice. Bhakti means devotion. You devote yourself to God. You haven’t seen Hirm but you devote yourself all your life to God, like those monks and nuns. That’s also counted as Bhakti Yoga. All kinds of monks and nuns in our world, whether or not they are Catholic or Buddhist, or Hindu, Jain, or Sikh. These all belong to Bhakti Yoga actually, because they devote their time and their lives to the service of God and think of God alone, worship God alone, whether or not they can see or not see, they can feel or not feel. And they do get some experience. It depends on how devoted they are and how one-pointed they can reach in their minds. But some monks or some nuns, they practice the whole lifetime, they never go anywhere. Like some of the Zen monks say, “If you continue to polish a brick, it will not become a mirror,” because they don’t know what the real thing is. Not like you, lucky people. But Bhakti Yoga, in a real sense, is that you have to really be so devoted that you forget everything else around you.
One example is Sri Ramakrishna. He already passed away. He’s very famous though. He was so devoted to the Mother Kali, one of the goddesses of Hinduism. Of course, people made a temple for her, just like other Saints in the past. Whenever you die, you have a temple. So that’s why I told you I don’t build anything anymore. The buildings already exist. We use it for the elderly or for some people who are not very well, or children, and you guys bring your own house. Nowadays everybody can bring their own house, very cheap. Twenty dollars, you have a house. Just spring it out, throw in the air, and there you go. Shield you from wind and rain, snow even. Wonderful. And you can take your bed with you; a sleeping bag is all you need. A plastic tent and a sleeping bag, then you are OK. When I was a so-called disciple in India, I didn’t even have that. I only had an umbrella. And when it rained, I just sat under it. And I’m still here.
So, this Bhakti Yoga is very popular in India. And even though many people are not aware of it, the devotees of different religions, they are practicing Bhakti Yoga. But the real Bhakti is that you have to really have undivided attention to that object of your worship. And then you will attain samadhi. Small samadhi, big samadhi, that’s not guaranteed, but you will attain something, if you really have undivided attention. And that’s also one kind of practice, one of the 84,000 methods of practice. If you live long enough, you can try one by one, and tell me which one is the best. But I think the Buddha told us already, and Quan Yin Bodhisattva told us already, and the wise Manjusri Buddha told us already, etc. Many Saints already told us to practice the Quan Yin Method. And so, we dumb-dumb people, we just follow the Saints, it’s the safest way. And no other Tantric, no Tantra, no Karma Yoga, nothing.
