Yesterday I gave the interpretation of Guru Pújá. Last night one boy asked me to give the interpretation of the Prańáma Mantra. Then and there his request was complied with. For the information of all, I am repeating the interpretation.

The Prańáma Mantra is “Tava dravyaḿ Jagatguro tubhyameva samarpaye.”

“Tava” means “Your”. “Dravyaḿ” means “that which takes a definite form”. The spiritual aspirant says, “Tava dravyaḿ Jagatguro Tubhyameva samarpaye” – “Your article is being offered to You, is being offered at Your altar.” Why “Tava dravyaḿ”? Suppose a spiritual aspirant has a red flower and is offering it. Why should he say, “Tava dravyaḿ”? The dravyaḿ is being offered by the aspirant, so why “Tava”, “Your”? It is His because in this universe of ours human beings cannot create the original stuff. They have not got the dexterity to create something original. They can create physical mixtures and chemical compounds, but not the original stuff.

Why can’t humans create the original stuff? Because whenever one wants to create something, one creates it with one’s ectoplasmic stuff. Now, human ectoplasmic stuff remains, or functions, or flows, within the Macrocosm, never without. So anything that a human creates lies within his own microcosmic arena and never outside that microcosmic arena. When you create a horse in your mind with your ectoplasmic stuff, that horse remains in your mind. Nobody else will see it, only you will see it. But in the case of the Cosmic Lord, everything is within Him, nothing without. He is the ruler of the Macrocosmic world. When He creates anything, it remains within His vast Macrocosm, and that Macrocosm can remain, can function, both within the jurisdiction of the microcosm and without the jurisdiction of the microcosm. So whatever you take from outside is of His creation.

Now, you may say, “That mental horse is my own creation, because I created it in my mind.” But your microcosm is His creation. So whatever you create with the help of your ectoplasmic stuff of your microcosm, is also created by Him. Your microcosm did not come from nothing – it is also a part and particle of that vast Macrocosmic ocean. It is a minute island in a vast ocean of Macrocosm. Therefore, whatever you think is also a part of Him. So whatever you are to offer or whatever you do offer, physically or mentally, is not yours; you are not the creator.

And actually you are not the owner either. You say, “This house is mine,” but a day will come when the house will remain as it is, and you will not be here to say, “This house is mine.” So here it has been said, “Tava dravyaḿ” – the actual ownership of everything lies with Him.

“Tava dravyaḿ Jagatguro”. What is Jagatguru? The root verb “gam” + suffix “kvip” = “jagat”. The suffix “kvip” is added in Saḿskrta to denote the wont of an object. Here the root verb “gam” means “to go”, and “kvip” denotes “wont”, so “gam” + “kvip”, equalling “jagat”, means an article whose wont, that is whose characteristics, whose properties, are to move. Moving is the characteristic. Moving is the wont. Here in this expressed universe, everything moves. So everything that moves is called “jagat” in Saḿskrta.

And everything that moves is a creation of His ectoplasmic stuff, and these created beings, these moving phenomena, this panorama, are being helped by Him. He helps each and every entity of His creation in attaining salvation. So He is the Guru of each and every expressed particle of the world. “Ábrahmastamba” – from the big Brahmá, the Creator, to a stamba, a blade of grass, everything is being helped by Him, and He is the Guru of everything. That’s why He is “Jagatguru”.

“O Jagatguru, I offer you – what? Your object. I am trying to satisfy You with Your object. I am trying to satisfy You by offering You something that has been created by You, because I cannot create anything. I want to give You pleasure by offering something that was created by You.”

Jiṋániis say that when everything is of His creation, one cannot offer anything to Him, because everything belongs to Him. So what is one to offer? How can one say, “I give it to You”? But bhaktas, devotees, are more intelligent than jiṋániis. The devotees say, “Yes jiṋánii, it may be a fact that everything is of His creation and everything belongs to Him, but although everything belongs to Him, my ego is very strong in my mind. I always think that this microcosm is mine – ‘I am’.”

And this ego sometimes says, “Oh, I don’t know who God is.” The position is like this: In your mind you have created a man. And suppose your name is Mr. X. In your mind you have created that little man, and your mental man says, “I do not recognize Mr. X.” And yet you are Mr. X and that little man has been created by you in your mind. This is the audacity of the human ego.

Now, the devotees say, “Yes, jiṋánii, everything belongs to Him, but you know, my ego says that my mind belongs to me.” In the practical field this is the case. “I come from Switzerland. I have to get a passport, I have to get a visa. I have to extend the date” – so many thoughts. But all these thoughts are connected with the individual ego, the individual mind. And you never think that this mind also belongs to Him. You think, “It is my mind.” Everybody thinks like this. This is all talk of the ego. So the devotee says, “All my ego, all my egoistic expressions, are concentrated in my ‘I’ feeling in my mind. So it actually belongs to Him, but it is full of ‘I’.”

Ratnákarastava grhaḿ grhińii ca Padmá
Deyaḿ kimasti bhavate Purośottamáya,
Ábhiravámanayanápahrtamánasáya
Dattaḿ manah yadupate tvamidaḿ grháńa.

“O Lord, Thou art the creator of this universe. This universe is full of gems and jewels. So do You require anything from a poor man like me? Nothing. All the gems and jewels, everything, all the wealth of the world, belongs to You. And Your grhińii, Your spouse, is Mahámáyá. She is Your spouse, and according to Your order and desire She will supply You with anything. In Nagpur You may say, ‘Oh, Mahámáyá, I want a mango,’ and then and there it will be furnished. Mahámáyá is Your spouse, so there cannot be any want, there cannot be any shortage in Your store. So what shall I offer to Thee? I have heard that Your big devotees, by their strong devotion and love for You, have snatched away Your Mind, have taken away Your Mind. I am not a big devotee. The big devotees have taken away Your Mind. You have lost Your Mind. So there is a shortage of one thing, a shortage of mind. But Lord, You needn’t be disappointed. I have a mind with me – take that mind. I offer it to Thee.”

“Tava dravyaḿ Jagatguro Tubhyameva samarpaye.” “Everything of mine, along with my mind, is offered at Your altar. Please oblige and accept it.”