Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Datta Jayanthi Day 2 – December 24, 2015 – Mysore
Smrtrgaami Sanovatu. Lord Datta is happy as soon as one remembers him. Bala Swamiji spoke in Telugu, Prasad spoke in English. The Kannada people understood nothing. Datta Jayanti is very important. Datta is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara combined. He is Guru even to the gods. He was Parama Guru, Parameshti Guru, Deva Guru, Deva Deva Guru and also Guru to some good demons like Prahlada.
Lord Krishna from the Yadu clan pined to see Lord Datta during his incarnation. Lord Rama too missed Lord Datta a lot during his own coronation. Lord Datta is in a subtle form. Whose house he goes to, whom he blesses, who he receives bhiksha from, who he gives liberation to, we don’t know. Kartaviryarjuna had malformed hands and felt ineligible to rule the kingdom. By the grace of his family Guru, he sought refuge in Lord Datta in the Sahyadri Mountains. He saw the Lord and served him devoutly. The Lord tested him a lot. He passed all the tests and continued to serve the Lord. The Lord blessed him with 1000 hands and blessed that he would rule his kingdom for 10,000 years. “You can take on any form you wish”, the Lord blessed him. Kartaviryarjuna had asked for one boon, but got thousands of them. Kartaviryarjuna asked, “Lord, you gave me so many boons, that too, to me in this human body. You gave me infinite power. In this human birth, it is natural that I make mistakes at some point. I might also become distanced from you. I don’t want either of these to happen. 10,000 years of life may be very boring. It’s natural to make mistakes. You must come and correct me. I can’t die at anyone else’s hands. I must only die at your hands. Please give me the boons”. “So I be it,” blessed the Lord. When you deviate from Dharma, I will teach you by punishing you. After a few years of prosperity, the king instructed everybody in the kingdom to greet with “Jaya Guru Datta” and “Sri Guru Datta”. There was no sin, no theft, no famine, and no drought. Everybody was happy. The King was righteous. At that time, just as Kartaviryarjuna had expected, ego slowly made its way into his heart. When he went to Maharishi Jamadagni’s Ashram, he saw Kamadhenu. He felt that Kamadhenu should be in his royal court, not in the Ashram. He asked the Maharishi for the cow. But the Maharishi said, “Yes, it may belong to you, but it isn’t an ordinary cow for me to give to you or for you to take. It came to me of its own accord. It is God’s gift. If Kamadhenu wants to come to you, you can take her”. Kamadhenu was able to serve a sumptuous feast to the thousands in the king’s retinue within seconds. So, the king felt very jealous and desired that the cow should be in his possession at his palace. So, he forcibly took her away. The Maharshi warned the King that if Kamadhenu gets angry, he would not be spared! As predicted Kamadhenu was enraged and attacked all the soldiers of the King and they could do nothing! Even though the King had a 1000 arms, he stood helpless. The King felt disturbed.
As Kamadhenu was being taken away, Parashurama came to the Ashram. Everyone knows the story. Since the king’s children killed his father, Parashurama decided to kill all the arrogant kings on the planet. You all know that story. You know the story of Renuka Mata. Parashurama killed everybody and finally wanted to kill Kartaviryarjuna. As per Kartaviryarjuna’s desire, he was taught and punished by Parashurama. Parashurama gave Upadesa to Kartaviryarjuna. When Kartaviryarjuna looking d deep into who Parashurama was, he realised that He was Datta himself. Kartaviryarjuna felt that his time was near and that his Lord had arrived to kill him. He was tired of living for 10,000 years, so he was happy that it was all coming to an end. He wondered why he behaved in an Adharmic manner, why he asked for the cow. He repented for all his wrongdoings. This repentance was the result of the Upadesa given by Parashurama. Even today, we follow the teachings of Parashurama. We still listen to the Upadesa of Parashurama. So great was Parashurama. After teaching Kartaviryarjuna, Parashurama cut all 1000 of his arms. Every arm that was cut gave rise to a new arm. Parashurama finally aimed his arrow at Kartaviryarjuna’s heart and gave him liberation.
What we learn is that if we go against Guru’s words, destruction is inevitable. Such a Datta Charitra is wonderful. The first Guru is Dattatreya. Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnuhu, Gurur Devo Maheshwarah. The first Guru is Datta in Guru Parampara. He is known as Deva Guru – Guru to all the gods – Krishna, Rama, and others. He was guru to the noble demons as well as to humans. Lord Datta tests a lot in the beginning. We may even lose faith and get doubts. Once we go past those doubts and firmly hold on to his feet, he will give us liberation. We will be able attain what he has destined for us in this birth.
We are observing such a Guru’s lineage today as part of Datta Jayanti. My mother and her ancestors were all devotees of Lord Datta. Datta came in his Sufi incarnation and taught Mother Jayalakshmi the Guru Parampara. The golden idol made its way here from the time of Sri Padavallabha. It is kept inside for security reasons, Tomorrow, it’ll be placed out here for worship just for the day. That is how we are celebrating Datta Jayanti. Datta is Hanumanta. We are doing Hanumanta Vrata. For one year, we are doing Hanuman Chalisa. First, we started at Tenali with the mass chanting. 250,000 people chanted together. The entire city did everything according to Swamiji’s wishes. Thousands of buses, 2000 police personnel, 2000 cooks, along with government personnel helped to run the program. I can never forget it! They all said that it was like a dream. The buses were in queues for 10km out to ply people. It took 6 hours to enter the place and 8 hours to exit. So many people had gathered for the very .
In America, they had 600 people chanted the Hanuman Chalisa for 24 hours straight. 68 countries are contributing to the Hanuman Chalisa count. As part of this, I went to the Indo Pakistan border and had darshan of Hanuman there. This Hanuman was consecrated by the military. Tonight, see the Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji page for this Hanuman’s photo. It’s such an ancient temple that I decided to visit that place. This is Hanuman’s Yuga. Hanuman chanting is going on. I had resolved to have 900 crore chants. Send your count to sgshanumanchalisa@gmail.com. We are going to use this for the Yajna. We are getting the counts along with their photos. They will be used in the yagna. We will do one Yajna here, one in Hampi where Hanuman was born, and one in the Himalayas, in Gandhamadhana Mountain. Basically, in all 9 directions. We’ll do the Yajna on all six continents. We are chanting for the 700 crore people on the planet. Everybody will get the merit of chanting one Hanuman Chalisa. Christians, Muslims etc. will all get the merit of chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. So, why the extra 200 crore? 100 crore is for mistakes and errors in chanting. The second 100 crore is for deficiencies in chanting. That’s how the Yajna is going on.
Please join and send your count. Let good things happen to everyone. Let there be a dharmic attitude in all. The news around the country is scary, it’s difficult to open the newspaper. Natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis etc., plus the manmade disasters, Naxalites, terrorist attacks etc. make for bad news everywhere. We are living in fear. The ones to drive away that fear is Hanuman and Datta, both standing by us. May both of them protect us. I am happy that S.M. Krishna is here. He was here since the Ashrama’s early days. I am very happy to see him. He always participates in Ashrama events. May good things happen to him and Mrs. Krishna. He has good mental strength. He believes statesmanship has nothing to do with age. May God bless him with good health and strength. May he continue to mentor youngsters and serve the nation. I pray that Lord Datta and Lord Hanumantha be with him and bless him with good health.
Jai Guru Datta
Compiled by Archana Penukonda