Swaminarayan Hare, Swaminarayan Hare. Swami has said that for a devotee of God, the happiness derived from worldly pleasures is hell itself. The characteristic of such a devotee is described as: Kuntaji asked for sorrow and received it; this is the way of a devotee. Worldly pleasures should not even be dreamt of; this is the love for God's feet. That is the characteristic of a devotee. When we leave all our work and come and sit idly to listen to discourses, we should understand that we are doing crores of tasks. What are those tasks? We are drawing lines over Yamapuri, the 84 lakh species, and the cycle of birth and rebirth. We should not think that we are sitting idle. These are powerful ones. Even if there is any kind of desire, at the end of time, like Hirji, they will pierce the body with a scalpel and not let it be aware of the body, and they are capable of removing desires. Serving in a big city, authority, and the occasion of wealth, these are all causes for the soul to degenerate, so one should understand this. Victory to Sahajanand Swami Maharaj. You remember what I said. Why is 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 → Or has he left? He must be preparing. We have come to listen to talks, leaving all work, so we are doing crores of tasks, or we are drawing lines over birth and death. You have some respect. A devotee of God finds hell in worldly pleasures. And the true characteristic is to ask God for sorrow. For a devotee of God, worldly pleasures are hell. How many believe that? How many believe that? Do you wish for comfort or for much sorrow to come to them? Kuntaji asked for sorrow and received it. What do you do? Brahm Brahm 1) The dhãm of Bhagvãn. It is eternal, complete with all gun, luminous, and flawless. Also called Akshar, or Akshar-Brahm, or Akshardhãm. 2) Fourth of the five eternal entities, which transcends everything except Purushottam (jeev, ishvar, Mãyã, and Brahm, and Parbrahm). Tap to open in glossary → But whatever comes, offer it to Vishwamangal Swami. Offer it. One should believe that. A devotee of God should be made to believe that. That comfort and all prosperity are troublesome, they are obstacles. One should be made to believe that. Then we are called devotees, otherwise not. These are very powerful; even if there is any kind of desire, at the end of time, like Hirji, they will pierce the body with a scalpel and not let it be aware of the body, and they are capable of removing desires. Such is his glory; if one clings to him, God does that for him. If one does not cling to him, he does not do that. Then like Hirji. What does it mean to stab like Hirji? Stabbing like Hirji means operating like a doctor. The meaning is that, but who Hirji is, is not very clear. There must be some example, so Swami gave an example. But to stab means to use a scalpel, like a barber used to operate on a boil by cutting it with a scalpel and removing it. Swamiji You said to ask for sorrow, so what is the difference between convenience and necessity, or one convenience? Necessity is not for oneself, and convenience is for oneself. So. Necessity is for God's work. If one wants to advance God's work or a mission, or if there is something that pleases God, and one wants to advance that project, then it is called a necessity. If it is for oneself, it is not a necessity. If it is used for one's personal matters, it is not a necessity. Those are all conveniences, called happiness. Talk. Speak. Serving in a big city, authority, and the occasion of wealth, these are all causes for the soul to degenerate. These are the reasons for corruption. All of them are present with us. Even if there is one, it gets spoiled, and here all are present, so whether it gets spoiled or not is a big question. To spoil or not to spoil, that is the big question. After all these are found, should one spoil or not? Don't spoil it. Rishi says, 'To spoil or not to spoil, no one should spoil.' Swami Others get spoiled. We will not spoil. Others will spoil, but we will not. Don't let others spoil. Why would anyone let themselves be spoiled? We have found the means to spoil. Come on. We have also decided that we should not build a gurukul in a small city, as there are no facilities for corruption there. Seeing the convenience of spoiling, if a person wants to spoil, they need a kind of facility and convenience for spoiling. Otherwise, if there is no convenience, they cannot spoil. If someone goes to spoil, others will ask, 'Where are you going to spoil?' So it cannot be spoiled. For spoiling, convenience is needed, so all the conveniences for spoiling are available in the city. All the conveniences for spoiling that are needed are available. In villages, the conveniences for spoiling are not available. Swami, if we look, many times it seems that there is a need for the institution, but if we investigate deeply, it seems that something has been done for our convenience. So, one has to keep watching it. These three are such slippery places. And there are also places of service to God. To serve God, even if you want to conduct 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 → Year after year, five to seven houses in the village are locked. All of them are gone to Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, abroad. There is no one there, so who should conduct 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, if you want to conduct 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 → What are you going to do? And more than that, after a person goes to the city, they need to pay attention to whether they should spoil or not. Here, everyone is going to be pulled towards spoiling. So. So, should we join him there or not? He will have to be careful. There is consumption of shares. Consumption of large shares. In the city, what kind of people are these? Metro City. Metro. Macdo. Metro. Metro City, like. So, Swami said that big cities are metro cities, and they are means of corruption. Dhirubhai said that your coming to Delhi is very bad. He was talking once. The people here are very strange. The people here are very strange. He needs 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 → For 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's a metro city. Those are places of corruption, talks. Swami says that indulging in big city life is a cause for the soul's degradation. The meaning of serving a big city is serving excellent subjects. Where is the convenience or availability of excellent subjects? Where there is availability of excellent subjects, there is also availability of spoiling, and one can spoil there. And there is also the availability of doing great service to God. If one wants to conduct 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, if one wants to conduct 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, 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 → All the availability is there. The five senses are for spoiling, for doing God's work, everywhere. We have to look within ourselves and see what we desire to do. Everyone desires it. We, the saints, also wish that our place should be in a metro city. If a metro city is to be built, then go and book in advance that a metro city is going to be built in Nagpur, so book it. The place is good. So it has been booked. Swami, Metro City. Even if we live in a metro city, we should not spoil ourselves, and our focus is on pleasing Maharaj, so how can we remain like that? Living in a metro city does not mean one will definitely spoil. Swami has spoken about the availability. Possibility. Possibility. He has mentioned the possibility. That there is a greater possibility of spoiling in a metro city. It does not mean that it will spoil. Swami used to live in Junagadh, which was considered a big city at that time. So. It's not that it will definitely spoil, but there is a lot of possibility of spoiling there. All the facilities needed for spoiling are available. So. That is the meaning, but it does not mean that one will spoil just by going to the city. When a person goes to the city, there are many means there that can divert their focus, tempting and slippery means. So, if a person has focused on pleasing God, then while pleasing God, they might not remain focused on pleasing God. Like that. That is the meaning. Serving in a big city, authority, and the occasion of wealth, these are all causes for the soul to degenerate. So, without big cities, our institutions cannot function now; they are likely to become empty. And there are also places of corruption in big cities. So, what we have focused on, what we have kept in mind, many times we have a good and auspicious desire in our mind that we should please God. As it is written in Swami's words, when Govindanand Swami left home, he faced many temptations. And Swami left after kicking him. But then he became calm, so that detachment slowed down. And it didn't take long for the focus to change. That according to the convenience, Maharaj has been worshipped by keeping the fire burning, so it is good here, and 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 the focus got diverted. Mostly, such things happen to spiritual aspirants. Spiritual aspirants often experience this, and there are many reasons for it. Because if he has made such a friendship, then that is the first and most powerful means to change his focus. Where does he get his wisdom? More than where he lives, who is he with? If those who make him wise have a different focus, then his focus will also change. So, if he pays attention, his focus will not change, even if he is in a big city. 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