Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji on the occasion of Guru Purnima – July 12, 2014 – Los Angeles California, USA
Guru Purnima is very important day and very precious day for devotees of Guru. There is no life without Guru. Everything that you study, every experience that you get is through Guru. Every occupation has a Guru. But these Gurus are different. They are called mere Gurus in their field. They are different from Sadguru. Sadguru is the Supreme. He gives gnana, the supreme knowledge. While Guru teaches you alphabets, Sadguru bestows knowledge and protects you. Many are confused with these two. For example, if a Japanese translates to English, he is Guru for that translation. If some one gives you the meaning of Omkara, he is Guru for that. If someone teaches you driving, he is Guru for that. That is the name given to them. This Guru is like a guide. That’s it. But the one who gives Supreme Knowledge, you must call him as Sadguru. You must say ‘Sadgurubhyo Namaha’. Uttering Harihi Om Tatsat is equal to saying Sadgurubhyo Namaha.
There are categories in Guru. Sadguru’s Guru is Parama Guru. Jaya Lakshmi Mata is Parama Guru for all of you. Parama Guru’s Guru is Parameshti Guru. His Guru is Parampara Guru. His Guru is Paratpara Guru. It is like Guru Vamsha Vruksha – the hierarchy. But Vrutti Guru is not related to this. Vrutti guru is just a teacher. Only Sadguru is Guru for you. Jaya Lakshmi Mata is Guru for you. Paratpara Guru is at the peak point in this lineage. He is Maha Vishnu, Maha Shiva, Maha Brahma. He is Dattatreya. Datta is Deva Guru. He is called Deva Devottama, Devata Sarvabhouma. Datta is Paratpara Guru. He is also Parama Guru. He is also called Adi Guru. He is there from the beginning of the creation. He is formless. He is all pervasive. He controls all. He is Hiranyagarbha, who protects everyone in his belly. He appears as ‘Angushta Matra’ – as big as a thumb. When you ponder on this, you will know what is Guru Purnima.
Then why is it called Vyasa Purnima ? Because, we are also in Vyasa’s lineage and Sri Krishna’s lineage. When Swamiji sits on the altar for discourse or bhajan, we call it as Vyasa Peetham. it means Vyasa has come. He is the base for us. There are many in his lineage. In Bhagavatam, we come across Parashura, Pundarika and so on. They all are great devotees. In purana first comes Shuka Brahma. All of them are Parama Gurus because, they are all in Guru’s Vamsha. They do not have Gothram.
Guru is one who bestows knowledge, gives light, and his lineage goes upto Parabrahma. He is Siva. He appears in different forms. He is visible in both gross and subtle forms. Such all pervading Guru has taken a physical form – Karma shareera. So we say, He is there in all living beings. You all are the forms of Paramatma. He is there in all of you. He is there in both movable and immovable form. He is in stone. He is in birds. Now let me confuse you for sometime. (Refering to body) This movable will not move one day. The Paramatma, who moves you, leaves you one day. When He leaves, this body stops moving. He has such great power which is invisible. Since Paramatma was there invisibly in that body, enabling it to move, after it stops moving, we honor the body by putting it into one of the
pancha bhutas – the five elements. Such invisible energy is moving the movable. Ok. Let me stop it here. We are all happy. Lets leave it here. All this knowledge of vedanta is taught by Sadguru.
Why are we born ? What is the purpose of our life ? Is it just to work, marry, have children and die ? Is it so ? No. We are not for this. After building two buildings, you say you have achieved something great. In fact, you are deteriorating. Your children are spoiling your property. If you are aged, they put you in old age homes. What great did you achieve by building ? Knowing youself is achievement. We have taken refuge in Sadguru. Try to know yourself.
When we have moham, it leads to another birth. When you cut it, your number of births will reduce. Many say after retirement, we only need Swamiji’s seva. But when a grand child is born in the family, you fall in moham. You want to play with the child. You must cut this. You should not have desires. There is one Swamiji’s bhajan ‘janmaniki moolamu korikalandi’. Somehow you have come to Swamiji. Now you should be careful. Bhaja Govindam entirely teaches this.
Vyasa is our Parampara Guru. He is like Krishna avatara, Shiva avatara, Brahma avatara. He is main for our Vedas. We give respect to
Vyasa Maharshi. But still, see what happened to him.
Once, Vyasa and his son Shuka were crossing a lake. Shuka was in his young age and was naked. Few young women were taking bath in that lake. Shuka is Lord Vishnu’s form. Except his nose, he is very handsome. When he wants, his nose also becomes ok. He is kama rupi. He can take any form. When Suka was crossing the lake, the women were unfazed. Vyasa came behind him. Vyasa is aged. On seeing him, all these women hurried to cover up. Vyasa questioned them as to why they were not bothered when young Shuka went. They replied that Vyasa still has to cross moha and that Shuka is beyond this.
If your desires are not fulfilled, you get upset. This leads to anger. For example, a 20 year old devotee comes and sits here. A new volunteer, who just joined 10 days ago restricts this devotee from sitting there. This devotee quarrels with that volunteer. What is the point being senior ? That 10 day old volunteer is better than this devotee. What have you learnt in 20 years ? This is a very good definition of Kama & Krodha. You try to study this. Then you will understand. If you leave these, you can reach Parama Guru. Sadguru is compassionate. He will forgive all your mistakes. But Paramaguru will not do so.
Jaya Vijayas did not leave their duty even when Sanaka and Sananda came. Volunteers are like Jaya Vijayas. Sanaka Sanandana maharishis wanted to go inside Vaikuntha but Jaya Vijaya refused to let them in. Sanaka Sanandana never had anger earlier. It came only then. As a result, Jaya & Vijaya got cursed and had to part from Vishnu for 3 births. Vishnu also had to take 10 incarnations. Similarly, the anger and ego that we show on volunteers is troubling our Guru too. What is there in a seat ? You must obey immediately. Only then, your Parama Guru will appreciate.
Datta is smartrugami sanovatu. He feels happy just by taking His name. All my birds say Datta. My Hyacinth Macaw also says Datta. It is a huge bird. Those birds are getting salvation. They will not even be born as humans. That is what I pray to Datta. They are eating vegetarian food, having Sadguru darshan. One parrot by name gold slept on my chest and left its last breath. What more does it need ? Why am I talking about birds everytime ? Like birds, keep chanting Datta or Rama while sititng and getting up. Make it a practice in your breath. it is very easy to do mantra japa during your inhaling and exhaling. Practice it. Datta is invisible God. When I first came to know about Internet, I was very happy. Every one calls Data Data..Some English people say Data Guru ki Jai. Thanks to Software, Hardware, Computer, Internet. Everyone says Data.
Jaya Guru Datta !
Compiled by Bala Aati