Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Sri Devi Navaratri Festival – Day 3 – Bhagyanagaram, Hyderabad – Trutiya – October 5, 2024
(Pujya Swamiji is dissuading devotees from applauding at every instance. Clap when you sing bhajans instead.)
During Datta Jayanti we will do 3 days and nights of non-stop Hanuman Chalisa chanting at Nada Mantapa, Mysuru. You can book your slot to participate. Those who chant at night should sleep during the day. Ramireddy team has been assigned the responsibility. You can register with them.
Register beforehand, you will not get a slot later. We want to have a limit and a count. This will be a world record and participants will get a certificate. Those who chant at night and those who chant for a minimum of 16 hours can get a certificate. This takes place on 13th, 14th, 15th of December. The event concludes on Hanuman Vrata. Do not miss the opportunity. Register beforehand.
There are dietary restrictions. You must sleep in a regimented manner too. Doctors will be on hand. We don’t want everyone showing up all day and no one showing up at night. In Dallas, we did this for 24 hours non-stop. Even little children were participating without sleeping. That is a world record. Someone broke that record, and we want to break that record.
We are already on Day 3. Mother is a little angry today. She was angry with Swamiji and Swamiji was angry with the devotees. The peaceful form comes back after Ashtami. She is peaceful on Navami and completely at peace on Dashami.
Everyone should take a head bath before coming here. Be careful these 10 days. Do not let non-vegetarian food near you. Only eat sattvic food, be regimented in your food intake. You can eat any amount of Sattvic food. Pray to Mother, may all difficulties be removed, may all desires be fulfilled. Some desires will not be fulfilled; we will pray for the strength to withstand all situations.
Everyone thinks they are in control of their destiny, but it is Mother’s grace that we have what we do.
O Parashakti, O Mother, You are Saraswati in the face of Brahma, Lakshmi on the chest of Maha Vishnu, and Parvati on the left thigh of Shiva. In another incarnation, You sat on the head of Shiva. You took all three forms of Devi. O Universal Mother, salutations to You. It is Mother who took on the cosmic form as well as the form of Sri/Woman. She is also the Ardhanareeshwara. She is all organisms to the big creatures.
A lot of people become great with their intelligence. There are also many who became great in the spiritual field. They sometimes get egoistic about their greatness. But that should not be. They think everything happened due to them, and their intelligence. Whose intelligence is that? At least internally pray to Mother and know that it was Mother or Vishnu or Shiva and not you who was responsible.
Don’t think you built the house with great effort, or got your son educated with great effort. You did all this for your own happiness. You did not get your neighbor’s son educated!
You claim you got him married with great effort. You claim you brought him up with a lot of hard work. And you claim he has left you, then!
Of course, you gave birth, so you had to. Many say they worked very hard to come to Ashram and to be devoted. Why do you work so hard? Just stay home. You are coming to Swamiji out of your own volition.
This is our iccha (Desire) karma. You claim you worked so hard to sit here all day. Why bother? Will anyone call this hard work? It’s not hard work. This work lets us forget all difficulties. This is what we do with great desire. We should do it as a great fortune. We should not think we worked hard. Nothing is ours. It is all God’s. We are mere instruments and mortals.
Did anyone in history take anything with them when they left the planet? Did they parcel stuff to themselves in the afterworld beforehand?
Those who have good births are those who did noble work in a previous life. If you did not do good work in this life, you will be subject to a life of helplessness after.
A beggar begs for alms and cautions: You better give me alms so that you will never be like me in the future. If you do not, you will become like me in a future birth. O wealthy one, o virtuous one, give me just a morsel of food. I did not feed anyone, that is why this is my fate. You do not become like me, do not be my son or friend in your next life. Give me alms so you have a better birth.
We hear this, and out of fear, give alms.
There are many greats in many fields, but they are always egoistic. Mother is the root cause of everything. In the spiritual field too, many write poems and books. Those who know the maya know that Swamiji made them write. They even forget what they wrote. You must believe Mother wrote it. Do not brag that you wrote everything on your own merit.
In the past, in a certain yuga, all demons unleashed their wickedness. After everything got wiped out after a yuga, life evolved again. What we are seeing now is only from a few thousand years ago. Kurukshetra battle took place 6500 years ago, but already do not have the relics from them…mostly due to natural disasters or other calamities. How many times Krishna or Rama came, we do not know. How many times the demons came we do not know.
The yugas keep going and coming. Life evolves, cities come up, science evolves…the same people come back, and the features of people may be slightly different. People used to have two or three heads in some yugas. We do not even know of those yugas. In a yuga, there was no breathing at all.
That was the dharma of that Yuga.
In Rama’s yuga, people lived for 10000 years. I am going to go see a devotee who is 130 years old. He lives in Japan and he wants to invite Swamiji for Pada Puja.
In that one yuga, dharma was in danger due to the violence of demons. Then, Shiva and Keshava, along with Brahma, destroyed everyone that was Tamasic – that means they all got Moksha from this birth. They would take birth again; it was not eternal moksha.
All the worlds cooled down. The Trinity met and were jubilant and celebratory. They went back to their abodes.
Lakshmi was very happy to see Vishnu and with great joy gave Arati to Vishnu and removed the evil eye. She put kumkum and turmeric on Him and was very happy with Him. He felt great and pride and addressed Lakshmi informally saying, “…Hey!”.
Can My father address My mother like that?
Will the children like it when the father talks to their mother like this? No. Never speak disrespectfully to father or to mother.
Vishnu was proud. Same story with Shiva. Parvati honored Him even more than Lakshmi did. She welcomed Him in a grand manner with live instruments played by the ganas. Shiva too felt great pride as He slew all the demons.
In Satya loka, the same was the story with Brahma. The three goddesses witnessed this. To tame Shiva’s pride, Parvati wondered where He got so much pride from. Gauri, Lakshmi, Sarasvati got together and vanished.
When the Mother Goddesses disappeared, the Gods became without essence. They lost all their vitality and were walking around with sticks like old men. They suddenly got old.
They suffered greatly. Brahma had some Jnana and wondered what was wrong. They had lost the energy to speak, they could barely move. Brahma meditated and all the great sages – Maharshis – came running. These great sages are still meditating, they are greater than Brahma, they can be Brahma if they like, but they are not interested. Those great sages came to Brahma who asked them for help.
Brahma explained that they recently slew demons and came back, but suddenly have become without vitality. The sages are always immersed in Atma Dhyana.
Brahma pleaded with them to pray for him. The sages are always submerged in Atma Dhyana. They have been doing this for eons. All this is narrated in the end of Bhagavatam too.
If you are lucky, I will narrate Bhagavatam.
The sages do a big yajna – all the Devatas come together to do this yajna. From the firepit emerged Parashakti.
That Mother Parashakti looked at Trinity with compassion and from Herself gave the three goddesses to each of the Trinity.
She said to the Trinity: The three goddesses are My aspects. You are My aspects too, but you are overcome with some foolishness. The tamas of the demons seems to have tainted you when you slew them.
In this context, I’ll tell you something. A very dear devotee of Mine was a doctor. This was a matter of 40 years ago. He cured cancer for so many patients. He had nobody, only a younger sister. He didn’t believe in God, only in Swamiji and Swamiji’s music. Later in his life, he developed cancer too.
He was placed on a bed in the Ashram. He had many followers and rich people who would come to see him as they had all benefited from his services. After about 40 days, Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy went into his body in the form of Swamiji and licked the place that had cancer. From the next day, he began talking. He gave all his wealth to Swamiji. But I told him not to at that time. When he and his sister passed, they passed peacefully.
Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy is always with Me. Swamiji brought that Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy to Mysuru. I want to build a big temple for the Lord. You can all participate.
Swamiji wants this temple in His life history. I did not want to make this announcement, but I mentioned it because I told you the story of the doctor devotee. This is a wonderful miracle.
Mother blessed the Trinity. She is Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy too. She said: O Trinity, the three goddesses are My aspects. You said you had her in your heart, on your head, on your thigh, on your tongue. Is this the way? You have forgotten. You think you are strong and slew the demons on your own strength. This is only due to Parashakti’s grace.
Mother is effulgence, She cannot be seen. That is why three goddesses were made to appear.
Even the movement of an ant is due to the grace of Shakti. Without Shakti, not even the Trinity can act.
Whatever field we make progress in, accomplishments in, it is all due to the grace of Mother. When we have such wisdom, Mother blesses us abundantly. So, first get rid of the Ego or ahankara. Give up doership and ownership
We worship Kali Devi, Kanaka Durga, Veda Mata, Gayatri Devi. We are all alive due to Vedas.
Everything started with the Vedas. The cause of all joys and sorrows, the root cause Mother is being worshiped. Mother manifests in a variety of forms.
Krishna gave Mother the boon to appear in a multitude of forms. She gives suffering to the wicked. She protects the pious. We offer our salutations to Mother.
(Swamiji sings a new bhajan)
This one bhajan is enough to listen to in one’s life. Such a profound secret is embedded in this Telugu bhajan. It was Mother, not anyone else, who wrote this. This is a big Upadesha. No one can get this easily.
Scholars can expound on this for at least 5 days. This is such a great composition.
This is a very powerful Keertana, Swamiji gave you. This is a great mantra and Upadesha. What Swamij is doing for Navaratri is all in this. This bhajan describes what that Mother Goddess is. No other book or source is needed.
If you want Mother’s blessings and Mukti, this keertan is enough. I will record this later on for everyone’s benefit.
After Navaratri, I will record it. It’s not bhajan or keertan or folk song. It is mantra gita.