Message of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Navaratri day 9 – September 29, 2017
Courtesy: FB Page Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji
Brahma Vishnu Śivārādhye prasādaṃ jagadambike
manobhiniṣitam devi varam dehi namostute
Mother Goddess herself is- Oṃ vāgadhīśwaryai namah-
Starting from the first vernacular alphabet ‘a’ right up to the last alphabet ‘ksha’, all alphabets emerge purely due to Her grace! Speech is born from Her alone! Residing within us, She talks and causes us to talk. She resides as speech at the tip of our tongue. Hence, She is glorified as Vāgvādinyai namaḥ.
In addition to good speech, Her blessings bestow beauty upon the person. The word ‘beauty’ does not connote physical beauty which pertains to the gross body. Beauty refers to the inner beauty. It is inner beauty that grants worthiness upon the person. A worthy person seeks the well-being of the entire universe and all living entities therein!
Seated within the hearts of the living entities, Mother Goddess illumines as knowledge. The Sun, Moon and Fire illumine only externally; however Mother Goddess, who is the effulgence called knowledge, causes everything, external and internal, to illumine. Hence it is imperative to worship Her, who is an embodiment of knowledge, with devotion and through this obtain Spiritual Knowledge while dispelling spiritual ignorance. One should willingly develop noble qualities.
Let us now understand the story of two parrots, which is closely connected to this philosophy.
On a sandalwood tree in a forest, was a nest in which happily lived a mother parrot along with her two chicks. One morning with the arrival of a hunter, their lives turned upside down. The merciless hunter captured the two chicks and without caring for the pleas of the wailing mother bird, walked away with them.
The greedy hunter sold one chick to a butcher at an exorbitant price. Just as he was finalizing the deal to sell the second bird, it escaped from its cage and flew away freely into the skies. Reaching the hermitage of a saint, it began to happily live on one of trees in that vicinity.
Seating under that tree in that hermitage, the saint along with his disciples, was glorifying Mother Goddess. From them, the bird learnt to sing songs praising Mother Goddess. The saint would instruct his disciples, “Always chant the mantra of Mother Goddess. Eternally abide by truthfulness. Strictly adhere to righteousness. Never cheat anyone. Never hurt the feelings of others”.
The parrot which memorized these instructions, would eternally chirp, “Always chant the mantra of Mother Goddess. Eternally abide by truthfulness. Strictly adhere to righteousness. Never cheat anyone. Never hurt the feelings of others”- bringing great delight to the inmates and visitors. It thus inculcated deep love for meritorious activities along with a deep fear of sin in people. In this way, the parrot which grew up in the saint’s hermitage and which was closely associated with virtuous people, developed noble, virtuous subtle tendencies (samskāras).
On the other hand, the parrot which grew up at the butcher’s place learnt wicked, harsh words, due to that association. The butcher’s wicked nature was copied by it. It developed wicked subtle tendencies (samskāras).
Keshava, one of the inmates of the hermitage, observed the contrastingly different behaviours exhibited by the two birds, and was puzzled. he reported the same to the saint, who then explained,
“What could be astonishing in this? Don’t we know that associating with noble persons helps the person inculcate noble qualities while associating with the wicked leads to rise in wickedness in him? Good tendencies and good behaviour learnt through good associations uplift the person. Association with the wicked always leads to his downfall”.
Mother Goddess, who is extolled as Vāgadheeśwaryai namah, goads us to use only good, auspicious words. She also makes it evident that She will remain in the sway of the person who cultivates good, pure tendencies. Therefore, speech should be used purely for glorifying Her and for meditating upon Her. Use speech only for satsang connected to Mother Goddess. With this, you will be bestowed with Spiritual knowledge and will earn Her grace.
May the blessings of Mother Shakti-durgi cause unflinching devotion and wisdom to spurt within you thereby increasing your dedication towards righteousness!