Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Navarātri Series – Day 9, Navami – Goddess Durgi – Namasankeertana & discourse in the evening – October 23, 2023 – Mysore
We are already at the end of Devi Navaratri. The wheel of time turns relentlessly. That is why, without wasting time, we should keep our mind filled with prayers. That is what we talked about in these 9 days.
Bhajan ID 668: bhuvanagaḷa pālisuva bhuvanēśvarī
We plead with Mother to give us good intellect. We should always have good intellect. We are drawn to sinful thoughts and to laziness, sleep, hunger. They eat us up. That is why humans should always pray for a good intellect, health and Jnana (to navigate through the samsara without getting attached). Once Mother blesses us with good intellect, it is up to Her whether to give us worldly happiness or not. It’s only when we have sadbuddhi (pure/good intellect) that we will remember Mother in our final moments. For that, we will need to constantly remember the Bījaksharas (seed letters of Mother). The entire world and the Trinity is in Mother. She is Maya’s Maya – Maha Maya. She is the One who created Maya. And to conquer that Maya, Mother is the only refuge.
New bhajan
Bhajan ID 8580: śrī nagara san̄cāriṇi – dēvi
Close your eyes and sing, then you will see Mother’s abode – ManiPadma. When you see SriChakra from the top angle, keeping the Bindu (top most point of Sri Chakra) in the middle of the eyes, you will see the ManiPadma city. You must practice it everyday to have that vision. When you practice to see it everyday after performing Archana, you will witness the expanse of that Sri Nagara (Sri city) in the angles of the Sri Chakra. Sri Nagara is Mother’s abode. We are not talking about the city Srinagar in the state of Kashmir, this is Mother’s abode – Sri Nagara. Kashmir’s Srinagar was also once Mother’s abode, She resided there as Saraswati Māta long back and thats where the city got its name from. When we keep seeing the Sri Chakra this way, we will have the vision of Sri Nagara (Mother’s abode) like 1000 Nagaras (cities) and those 1000 continue to multiply into 1000s more and then millions more iteratively. You will have a wonderful experience as you have that vision of Mother’s abode multiplying manifold. So close your eyes and sing.
Meaning: Mother’s Sri Chakra is related to the buddhi and manas in this composition. The song talks about how we offer them to Mother entirely, in a manner that is simple to understand.
New Bhajan ID 8582 – Sherawaali tujh ko naman
The 9 days went past like a blur. Just like Lord Dattatreya swallowed Pingala Naga, Mother swallowed all 9 days. How wonderful it would be if She swallows all of us too! We must all pray for that. Do you want it or not? It would happen if all of us pray collectively, but not enough if only one prays. Mother should swallow us all, enough of this life – if swallows us once for all, that’s enough. Pingala Naga kept pestering Datta for Jnana, so Datta just swallowed him finally to go in and get Jnana. It would be nice if Mother swallowed us and this Creation too. It is Her will, all these planets collectively are tiny as a mustard seed for her. Who knows how many mustard seeds she has in her jaws, she can swallow them or keep them there. We are just getting caught helplessly in the wheel of rebirths. We are like the grains caught between grindstones to prepare batter for Dosa. Its like Mother is grinding all the jeevis in grindstones. This generation is not aware of the yesteryear grindstone. It has one flat stone below, another on the top and a wooden stump that acts as axle at the centre (the upper stone has a handle to hold and rotate to grind the grains). All kinds of grains are poured at the centre and are powdered between those stones. Just like all the kinds of races, religions and species, are ground just the same. Be it any grain or even chilies, grindstone was used to grind anything. While the axle holds everything together, Karma is the one rotating the stone and grinding. Most grains get crushed, but some jeevis (grains) get stuck to the axle and don’t get crushed. You need to extract the axle stump and push the grains down, and yet some grains are left there. Those grains (jeevis) are like the people who have surrendered to Guru. Those jeevis will not get crushed.
Finally, we take the powdered flour and filter out the grains that did not get crushed. Some grains will keep escaping without getting crushed. We should be stubborn like them and latch on to Guru (axle) no matter what happens. However hard you try to grind them all, some grains will certainly escape getting crushed. If you have old grindstone at home you will understand better. Who has an old grindstone at home? I will keep it in the museum. The bottom stone is Karma, upper stone is karta (doer), kirya lopam (lapses/errors in actions). Karma is the base, the doer and the lapses in his actions grind the jeevis. The one who holds the handle to rotate is Lord Vishnu – the puppeteer. The countless jeevis are the ones that keep getting crushed. But those who have faith in Guru will never be crushed. Those 10 grains will always escape getting crushed. You must escape from the sorrows of Karma and keep running to Guru just like those grains. This is such a nice analogy from Kabir’s poems. Such analogies stem from saints’ experiences.
There is another such Kannada poem that says to bring ragi (millets) to give alms. But bring them as a vi(ragi) – one who is dispassionate. Become dispassionate and chant Lord’s names. Beg the Lord to salvage us. We should not merely pray to Him, we should beg for the alms of protection from God, says the poem.
Harati.