Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Sri Devi Navaratri Festival – Day 6 – Bhagyanagaram, Hyderabad – Shashthi – October 8, 2024
Today is Day 6. The entire Devi Bhagavatam preaches Atma Jnana. Removing ego, destroying fickleness, getting rid of our attachment and useless matters, Mother uplifts us in the spiritual realm – through the Devi Bhagavatam. Devi Bhagavatm relates to Vedanta. Sri Chakra Archana also teaches us about Atman.
The karmas of the world are removed so that desires are removed. Mother’s Tattva is such. She will not feed us what we need, She feeds us a lot more. In the form of Guru, Mother nourishes us.
“O Mother! Your glances destroy the demon of mamakāra or attachment. Everyone has this demon of attachment. That is the cause of all worldly problems. That mantra that exorcizes that demon are in Your eyes that surpass the luster of precious sapphires”. So, if we go to Mother’s shrine and gaze at Her eyes, that demon flees from us.
Our upasana/worship is very fickle, we are distracted, phone calls, mind wavers, we cannot sit for long, we keep looking at our watch, we look at those around us pushing us, we look for prasadam, we look to drink water and so on. No one can focus on Mother for even a second. Only one or two may have that focus. Your focus is on prasadam, or water, or the body aches, or neighbors, or phones. Excessive fickleness! Not for one second can we behold Mother with stillness. If we can, the demon of fickleness flees.
Many ask how they can get rid off attachment. Swamiji does not prescribe big books or rituals. He just directs you to witness the puja. But you are distracted constantly – you are looking around, you watch all the drama around the rituals, and other things. That will attract more demons to you. Your mind should be steadfastly on the puja that Swamiji is doing. Then, the compassionate glances that fall on you will melt away all the demons.
You want the fruit, but do not want to work for it. You applaud when it is announced that Swamiji will bless you, but you pay no heed to all the prior announcements about what you need to do to get those blessings.
O Mother, Your glances protect all three worlds and shower boons. They teach great knowledge.
The 14 worlds are divided into three, per Sankhya Shastra. As noted yesterday – head, heart and the lower region are equivalent to the three. There are billions of organisms in the body. Our actions have an impact on those organisms too. Your sin has an impact on them. Your evil thoughts, attachments, etc., are shared with all the organisms in you. What a great sin that is, that we are sharing our sin with those organisms too!
Moreover, when the organisms multiply in our body, we take medicines that kill them. That is a sin too. In the old days, people lived healthily without medicines for 120 years. But we cannot do that anymore. Our birth too was not natural and easy, so we have no way else than to take medicines.
Mother has an expansive gaze. Mother Visalakshi has such wide eyes, and with those magnificent wide eyes looks at the Parivara of Shiva entering Kasi. So, we too should have a broad perspective.
Guru is neer angry, He only feigns anger, so that children listen to Him. Guru uses anger only to uplift and improve you. Mother does not always scold you, She only does so you can correct yourself. God always tests us constantly. So does Sadguru.
Sometimes the Guru might publicly praise you, and sometimes, He might insult you publicly. He is doing this to inflate your ego and then destroy it. Sometimes He will not appreciate your good work, because He wants you to do more good work.
When I was little, a school teacher named Mr. Iyengar chided Me for getting 99 out of 100 in Maths. He spared those who got lower scores, but he made Me stand up on the bench and humiliated Me and whacked Me. Young Swamiji got very angry.
With that anger, I walked a long distance that night to his house to confront him. There was no transportation back then. I knew that he would usually hang out outside his house with friends. To My surprise, when he saw Me, he welcomed Me with great joy as if welcoming God. He took Me inside, sat Me down and gave Me a glass of warm milk.
In the old days, elders used to drink milk at night. These days, people drink some other drinks at night.
He spoke to me so lovingly, and gently asked why I had to walk all the way in the night. Swamiji said He was angry because He was chided despite scoring very well. The teacher said: I was expecting you to get 100/100, if you did, that would have been wonderful. The ones who got low scores would make no improvement even if I chided them.
That is why Sadguru sometimes chides you even if you make no mistake. So, you must understand that, that chiding was for someone else. You must not feel bad; you must bear a sound intellect. You must understand the Guru’s words and needs with just gestures and by following the Guru’s gaze. If I have to give instructions for every single thing, how will I chant mantras?
Even with music, Swamiji will not give every minute instruction to the musicians. If we concentrate well, we will understand Sadguru Tattva well. If we comprehend the Guru’s broad perspective, you will receive His grace.
The disciple should never be egoistic about the work he has done. People come with great contentment and gloat that they did 5 lakh mantra chants. When you do akshara laksha, (one lakh count for each syllable of mantra), it does not mean you are done. It means you will start being able to chant more effortlessly.
So, do not get complacent that you have done some good work. You must start your work with full gusto again from that day.
There are some in America that have done Gayatri mantra crores of times. They keep working in the field of software, and they keep chanting. Mantra must keep coming to you from within, all the time. The Guru is always thinking about His disciples. To understand this, the disciple too needs a broad perspective like the Guru.
A great sage had many disciples that he would educate and take care of. He was quite poor but got along somehow. In that same town, a businessman came to the Guru and asked for 10 children to adopt as he had untold wealth. The Guru did not respond to that yet…he said – you arrived at 12 noon. Why do you not eat first? We cooked only for a few, but it is okay, we will manage. The businessman and his wife ate to their fill. They relished the food and said they would like to get this food everyday even if they adopted the children.
The disciples then came in saying they were hungry. The guru told them that the couple wanted to adopt them. The children said: They ate all our food like demons, we do not want to go there.
There is so much subtlety here. The Guru had already said that there was very little food, but asked them to eat first. The couple did not notice the subtlety in those words.
The children would have to starve for the day because they ran out of food. The couple realized their folly. The Guru taught them a lesson in that manner. So, we do not know how the Guru teaches us, in what way and at what time. The Mother teaches us in a similar manner at various instances.
May Mother bless everyone. We will sing a keertan on Shakti Durgi.
Bhajan ID 355
The composition has been made easy to sing. There is one other composition that is tough, like iron pellets that are hard to boil. We will sing that later.
Bhajan ID 305
Arati.