Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – July 22, 2016 – KSHT Dallas, USA
Compiled by Archana Penukonda
Jaya Guru Datta
It is 12:30pm. It is time to eat. You all heard the music played by the kids. It was a beautiful music session by small kids. Jaitra Varanasi trained them well on Skype. That is great. Learning on Skype was possible only because they were brilliant students. They are successful due to the blessings of Lord Hanuman and the blessings of Lord Datta. Very nice. It was a nice modern remix of bhajans with attractive rhythms. There were catchy tunes made in a different way with a different approach to attract people’s minds. I am very happy. Very nice. For one and a half years, they struggled on Skype. But, the children grasped the Nada very quickly. Nada is very difficult to sit and train one-on-one. It is very difficult to memorize.
They used various instruments – string instruments, blowing instruments, percussion such as Tabla and Mridangam, various other instruments as well as voice. It is a priceless penance. If I give a prize, they would be ashamed. We would be downgrading all their knowledge. It is not good respect. The program is their prize, that is all. It is priceless. All this knowledge is in our own Dharma, our Sanatana Dharma that we all need to protect. Nada, Veda, Mantra, Yoga are all part of our Sanatana Dharma. They are part of every Dharma, not just one Dharma.
Dharma is different, I cannot explain in your language. We do not want to call religion Dharma. Dharma and religion are different. Each one’s own duty is Dharma. Brushing your teeth when you wake up in the morning is Dharma. Respecting parents is Dharma. Dharma is an ancient practice that we all need to follow. Religion is different, Dharma is different. Nowadays, people are mixing up the two. That is not good.
Swadharma is related to your personal activities. Eating Sattvic food, avoiding Tamasic food, avoiding meat, eating only vegetables – that is our Sanatana Dharma. It is always calm and Sattvic and it gives happiness to you and the people around you. Be happy yourself and give some happiness to your friends as well. Do not always create problems with bad or hurtful words. That is not good. That is not Dharma. That is Rakshasa/demonic quality. You know about Gunatraya Vibhaga. You must practice Sattvic Guna/quality, not Tamasic. Rajo Guna is not good too. Rajo Guna is a temporary state that moody people have.
Sattva Guna is very nice. If someone says something bad to you, take it easy and calmly say thanks. Tell them, “You are giving knowledge, you are giving me the strength to tolerate this, you are also my guru”. Those who insult us are our gurus. If your son or your spouse insults, it does not matter. They are all our gurus. They are indirectly giving us good strength. They wash out our sins. Unknowingly we accumulate so much sin. We do not realize. We commit sins knowingly and unknowingly. They are washed out when someone insults us. How can they be washed out? Such situations automatically come and the sins get washed out.
If you fight, you are adding more sin and confusion. Tolerate as much as you can, you can offer some logical, rational advice, “It is not good that you are talking like this. Do not be hurt, this is the truth, what you are talking is untruth.” You can give small advice, otherwise you can tolerate it yourself. That is also good practice. That is different Dharma. You are fighting against yourself, fighting your buddhi and atma, you are fighting jeevatma and paramatman, fighting sense organs, controlling, fighting your diet, you are fighting so many things. You are giving problems to your body. Only give training to your sense organs, do not punish them.
So anyway, these small children give a lot of knowledge to parents, especially in the Datta family. The parents learned so many things about these small children in the last 3 days. I am extremely happy about the Guru Purnima programs. They are inexplicably wonderful. The children taught us, therefore there are our gurus. We are their gurus and they are our gurus. We teach them one thing and they teach us two things. If we teach them one thing, they remember and hold on to it. But we keep forgetting. So, when they remind us, they are our gurus.
Who taught Prahlada? The Guru’s teaching took place when Prahlada was in the womb. Prahlada held onto the mantra “Om Namo Narayanaya”. He could only see the Lord since the time he was born. He could not even feel the pain inflicted by his demonic father Hiranyakasipu. His father believed he was god and demanded respect. He despised that Prahlada was chanting his enemy Lord Narayana’s name. He wanted to kill Narayana. He demanded that Prahlada chant only his father’s name. But Prahlada was chanting only Narayana’s name. He already saw the Lord while in the mother’s womb. He was given the mantra Om Namo Narayanaya. He had the vision of the Lord in Angushta Matra – smaller than the thumb, one inch high. Prahlada was searching for his Lord, he wanted to see his Lord again. He did not care about the problems his father was creating. It is a beautiful story. You can watch movies or documentaries about this. There are small books too. Even kids can read them. If you read, you will understand the stories of Prahlada, Dhruva, Markandeya, Upamanyu etc. They were all small boys. You will understand their discipline. There are comic books on them like there are on Lord Hanuman. [Addressing the kids] Will you read them? If you read them, you will understand the value of Bhagavad Gita.
So, you all must read those little story books or comics, with figures and drawings. They are very nice. We will learn all those stories at a small age. Those kids will become our gurus. Who was the guru to Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksha? Prahlada taught them a lesson. The Sattvic quality of Prahlada who was from the demon clan, won. Tamo and Rajo Guna will seem to win initially. We feel bad then. We feel like our Sattva Guna is not winning. We become foolish if we believe what we see initially. Tamo Guna is visible, Rajo Guna is visible. Sattva Guna, we cannot see.
We do not have much tolerance. We have too much kama/desire and krodha/anger because we eat too much. We eat spicy food, tamarind etc. The food we eat and the company we keep create more desires in us. We become short tempered. All this comes to us just to destroy us. Rajo and Tamo Guna destroy you, they do not uplift you. They will take you high up and then cause your downfall.
Sattva Guna is not like that. It will always keep you Sattvic in every life. Sattva Guna has no age limit. Rajo and Tamo Guna are big enemies of Sattva Guna. People feel like they cannot see results even after practicing so much sattva Guna, so they lose faith in sattva Guna. They lose faith in god. They doubt their own practice. If you adopt Sattva Guna, you must stick to it even if you have to die. Human beings must take the oath of practicing Sattva Guna and stick to it. Not sticking to Sattva Guna is not a human characteristic, it is demonic. It is very easy to jump to demonic qualities, but it is very difficult to jump to Sattva Guna. If you practice Sattva Guna, you are a lucky person. You can bear problems. Bear and fight. Fight for your Sattva Guna. One day, you will definitely win. Sattva Guna will eventually always win.
The Pandavas lost everything. They lost all relatives, gurus, uncles and family members. They lost all their people. Arjuna even got a little despondent – what is this Sattva Guna? He doubted and he was given punishment by Sadguru Sri Krishna. Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. He gave good punishment.
Sattva Guna finally won and the Pandavas were victorious. Kauravas were destroyed. Their Rajo Guna completely destroyed them. Sattva Guna alone was left. So, we should practice Sattva Guna. Even if a kid teaches us, or even if a donkey teaches us, we should practice Sattva Guna.
We should see guru in everything. You must feel that they (who insult you) teach you indirectly. If someone chides you, think that the Guru came in that form to teach you indirectly. Do not fight back immediately. Think for a little bit. It is really a demon? Or is it someone to teach me? Think a little. Guru will never deceive you. You may have questions come to mind in response to what I am saying right now. I know you have many questions. I cannot answer. You must just listen. I will not answer. Why should I? It is not an argument. You are my disciples. You are my children. You must listen to me. If you are smarter than me, I will listen to you. Declare yourself smarter and I will listen to you. But, I should be the one to declare that you are smarter than I am. It is not enough for you to declare yourself. I am telling you I do not know anything. Just listen to what I say. You may say, “Then, you are not my guru”. Okay, go. It is not my loss. I will not even tell you that it is your loss. Why should I tell you? Why should I give you that reasoning? I will not. You think it is not your loss. Be that way.
You must learn whatever you can from everything. We must learn from everything around us like Lord Datta did. He is Deva Deva Guru. But still he learned. God does not come and talk to us directly. He will act through someone else. That is His Leela/play. He will not directly come and say hello to you. He will not even ask for Naivedyam. We offer it ourselves because we want to eat it. There is no reason to offer it, but we feel guilty if we do not.
I am inciting these spiritual questions in you. These questions will be born in you. I am putting these questions in your head so that you can follow the right path. Moreover, I am saying that I will not answer your questions. “So, what should I do?” Find out yourself. Learn that patience, Sattva Guna, and memory powers. You already heard the answer in many births. Bring it back. How? When you are hungry, do you ask how to satisfy your hunger? It is the same way. If you ask how, that is what I will say. My discourse has gone somewhere.
Swamiji blesses the children. Swami Chidatamananda is here. I am very happy. He is not a guest. This is his temple. [Addressing Swami Chidatmananda] Whenever you come to America, come here, be with the devotees, you will see me in them. Please share your thoughts with them. Please visit every time you are here. Just tell the committee you are here and they will take very good care of you. I will not invite you again, this is my invitation. It is God’s will that every time I am in the US, he visits the US too.
Sri Guru Datta