The kind of surrounding one has, accordingly one gets enthusiasm. So first of all, we must have a resolve. One cannot get enthusiasm just from the surrounding. But first, if we make a resolve, then that resolve does not last long, what is the reason for that? Something else comes into us from our surrounding. If the resolve we made gets nourishment from the surrounding, then that resolve lasts long. So Maharaj says, that happens when there is such an environment. Environment means surrounding. So in the surrounding, then it is a matter of our choice. This surrounding is filled with everything. 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah' like that. Have you heard this anywhere or not? Swamiji says, have you not heard it? 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah'. It comes in Raghuvansh. King Dilip had such qualities, 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah'. 'Yadas' means aquatic creatures. Crocodiles, whales, sharks, all those fishes. And gems, where do they all reside? In the ocean. They reside together in the ocean. That is 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah'. The ocean is also terrifying, and also valuable. So the surrounding is like that, 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah'. Gems are lying in it and sharks are also lying in it. If we do not pay attention, the shark will bite us. So it will finish us. And gems are also lying. Divers get the gems. Divers, when they dive, there is no limit to how deep they will go. They want to go until they find gems. If they have dived, then 'Yado-ratnaih rivaranavah'. So the surrounding is of both types. Even if it is good, it is good, and also deadly. Where we put our mouth and from where we get nourishment, based on that, our resolve to please Him extremely becomes strong and permanent. It either reduces or increases. If one has a proper surrounding and has made such friendship, surrounding does not just mean surrounding. After surrounding comes friendship, where has he made friendship? If that friendship is such that one keeps getting nourishment from it, then that resolve keeps increasing. We made a resolve that I want to please God extremely. It remains extreme. But then also, Maharaj said a lot in the last Vachanamrut that there is such a force, when does that force remain constant? So, for that, he needs such association, Maharaj said so. Such association is needed, then that happens. Otherwise, it does not happen. Shastriji Maharaj was there, Swami often used to say that he stayed for one and a half years, so Swami became a devotee at the young age of 14. What would a 14-year-old boy know? Nowadays, we take everyone after 18 years. But what would that 14-year-old boy know? Now, he became a devotee then. And within one and a half years, the Guru Guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → and generally, whether good or bad, we have hunger. Even if garbage is coming, let it come a little. So Swami says, they all tried hard to pull me. And he was alone, there was no Guru Guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → Still, Swami reached that state and level, so from where did he get that burning desire, the wish to please extremely, he must have nursed it from somewhere, right? Or did he absorb it from the entire environment? One has to filter the environment. That means, nursing from such a place that it keeps boosting. It keeps boosting that resolve. Otherwise, if Swami met, there were many who increased satsang satsang 1) True company. The practice of associating with Bhagvãn’s sant, other satsangis, the ãtmã, and the sacred shãstras, and also observing vartmãns and niyams. 2) Also refers to the sampradãy, which is the presence of good company. Tap to open in glossary → So it happens. And there were many weak ones too. So he paid attention. If the young one does not know, he might get cheated by everyone. And everyone would desire for themselves. Big circles would be formed by everyone. That let's take him in our group, let's take him in our group. It was like that. So he paid attention that where do I get nourishment for this resolve? Where does it get boosting from? So Maharaj says that by association, that happens. Otherwise, it does not happen. Is everyone going to nourish that thing? Right. After that, what Shreeji Maharaj has talked about is mostly about the qualities of a devotee, how God develops love for the devotee. Until now, we discussed how a devotee develops love for God. Even if a person has many qualities, if he wants to earn Shreeji Maharaj's love, which we call pleasure, then the devotee must live according to the qualities of speech, body, and mind shown in this Vachanamrut. There are many qualities of speech. Speaking truth, speaking sweetly, speaking beneficially, even if God is pleased with all these qualities, God and great saints are extremely pleased with the discretion of speech shown in the Vachanamrut. By its use. How to use speech. There are virtues in speech, right? Where to use those virtues, God is more pleased by that. There may be many other qualities of speech, but if there is no discretion as mentioned in the Vachanamrut, where are they mentioned in the Vachanamrut? Three qualities of speech. Not to slander. Not to hurt anyone by speech, meaning not to slander. Not to indulge in slandering and gossiping. Second? To yield. To yield. If there is a dispute with a devotee? To yield. Third? The command of the great, if it is not convenient, to decline it with humility. To decline tactfully, meaning to decline with humility. Those are the three qualities. Maharaj is extremely pleased with those three qualities. Secondly, speaking the truth, that is a good virtue. Everything is good. There may be many other qualities of speech, but if there is no discretion as mentioned in the Vachanamrut, then other qualities do not mean much for one's liberation. Similarly, of the body Many can deliver good discourses. That is a quality of speech. They can deliver very good discourses, everyone gets impressed, if they can deliver such discourses, then it is indeed a quality of speech. But when does that get used in pleasing God, pleasing Him extremely? Shastriji Maharaj used to say that when I delivered discourses, even my opponents would come and sit quietly, but they could not resist coming to the discourse. Swami had such a quality. When delivering discourses, Swami had memorized a lot of literature. And he would speak fluently. And in the discourse. So everyone could not resist being tempted to listen to that discourse. Swami used to say so. That when Swami delivered discourses, everyone would come. But still, that was Swami's quality, but where did Swami use it? To please Maharaj, to please Nayandas Swami. He used it to please Nayandas Swami. Swamiji used to deliver discourses to Nayandas Swami in Jamnagar. So he would sit on that platform, platform meaning a small wooden stool, he would sit there and deliver discourses daily in the temple. So Nayandas Swami would be sitting on the mattress opposite. So leaving the mattress, Swami would slide forward and come down. Nayandas Swami. So to please Swami, that was Swami's quality, that was certain, everyone had certified it. So that is a quality of speech. But where did he use it to please? To make himself famous, and nowadays all the storytellers of this world, they all count numbers, like, okay, he delivered 1000 discourses, and he delivered 700 discourses, and he delivered 800 discourses, and he delivered 1200 discourses. They all might have delivered discourses. But they might not have pleased anyone. They might not have pleased those who are worthy of being pleased. So Swami, that is indeed a quality of speech, nothing else. Someone might be very good at singing kirtans, okay. That is a quality of his throat. Voice. That is his quality. But if he does not sing at the right time? That my throat is aching. All musicians' throats used to ache a lot. Our Bharatbhai has sung many kirtans for us. He was studying since he was young. Now, when they woke him up early in the morning and made him sing kirtans. So mostly musicians' throats ache, even when the other person wishes to listen. So by using it, that is a quality of speech, Maharaj mentioned many qualities of speech. But this is discretion, this is discretion of speech, that okay, if there is a quality of speech, but just because I learned to speak, then not to consider others as nothing. If one wants to please God extremely, then one has to do this. And if there are other qualities, good qualities of speech, oh, sweet speech, if he speaks, even if he just speaks, it feels good. If there is such a voice, even then it feels good. And what do you call this? Oratory power. That is eloquence. Art of eloquence. If that is there, then that is also a quality. God is pleased by that. But whom to please with that, one must have that discretion. And whom to please So Swami had that speech quality, quality of speech, but again, not everyone has it. It is not that everyone must have it. They may not have it, but if they have it, where to please with it? So Nayandas Swami was extremely pleased. Swami used to say, right? That deliver that discourse to me. So Swami took a handful of sugar. A plateful, a handful of sugar, Swami had very big hands. Handful, take it. So Swami went to take it, then he said, not like that, spread your shawl. And Swami preserved that sugar for his whole life and then distributed it in seva, in that camp. So the use of quality. The use of quality must be extremely for Maharaj. Extremely for God's devotee. Extremely for God's saint. Then God is extremely pleased with him. Overwhelmed. He gets overwhelmed. Maharaj says to please. There may be many other qualities of speech, but if there is no discretion as mentioned in the Vachanamrut, then other qualities do not mean much for one's liberation. Similarly, there are many qualities of the body too. Physical strength, spirit of service, humility, etc. are many qualities, still There are indeed many qualities of the body. There are many arts of the body, all arts are performed. Even in that, for one who wants to walk on the path of liberation, this quality is very useful. That is God and great service is the greatest quality. Service by body, that is called the greatest quality. Penance is also called a quality. Now, where did Maharaj mention three qualities of the body? Penance, service, and worship. Right. He mentioned those three qualities. So performing service of the great, Brahmin, Guru Guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → serving all of them, that is a great quality of the body. As much as possible. In performing service, often they perform service randomly. But if there is this connection, if this is found, then? Let me please him. Let me perform such service. Let me perform such service of his that pleases him. Let me perform service that pleases him. Then he meaning God is very pleased. It is the means to please God and great saints. There are two things in it. Either do according to his wish. Or if we have a quality, bring it to his use. Often we have a quality, it is extraordinary. But then one has to apply it, how does this come to his use? How does it fit his wish? That is called application. 'Yagne viniyogah'. Like that, one must apply it. Nityanand Swami or Premanand Swami or Muktanand Swami, they applied it. Gunatitanand Swami or Nishkulanand Swami Nishkulanand Swami Disciple of Sahajanand Swami (Swaminarayan Bhagwan) and author of the Bhaktachintamani, as stated in the scripture's own closing colophon at the end of every chapter. Tap to open in glossary → how can they be used in Maharaj's wish to please Maharaj? So application. Those qualities must have been in many others then too. Their qualities might be even better than all these saints. But they would not apply them. And even in that, they would not do it in a way that overwhelms. They would use it reluctantly, under compulsion. Then the other person is barely pleased. And if they overwhelm, then the other person gets overwhelmed. For one who wants to walk on the path of liberation, this quality is very useful. If he is a householder, he would use his wealth, right? So Maharaj often used to do that. Someone comes and says, I want to sponsor a meal. So Maharaj says, not a meal, pay our masons' wages. So some devotees would be such, Maharaj, how much is the masons' wages? Take this masons' wages and also sponsor a meal. Then how pleased Maharaj would be with him? Do both things. And someone says, okay Maharaj, I will pay the masons' wages, we just want to please you. And someone says, not like that, I want to feed Swami Maharaj and the saints. I want to feed the saints. All qualities are indeed good. His wish is indeed good. But not overwhelming. The other person overwhelms, take Maharaj, how much wages are needed? Pay those wages, okay. And also take for our meal. So he has the facility, but as a householder has that facility, but there must be a wish to overwhelm. And similarly, sadhus have qualities. But the wish to overwhelm with them must be there, right? This wish to overwhelm must be there. The will is there, that is skill. There may be skill, but no will. What does will mean? Wish. Wish to please extremely. If there is a wish to please extremely, then automatically his skill is used there, its application is in that only. So extreme wish arises. That will arises. And that skill. Skill can be trained, will cannot be trained. That you use it for us, such training cannot be given. If you do, it is good. Saying that much, we have to stop. That if you do, if you do like this, it is good. But training for that cannot be given. And if skill is less, training can be given for it. AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details