Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji during evening session – June 5, 2013 – DYC UK – London
Hari Om Tat sat.
Om Namo Hanumanthe Namaha
Sri Maha Ganapathe Namaha, Sri Sarasvatyai Namaha,
Sri Pada Vallabh- Narashima Saraswati- Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Before telling you all my opinion, let me tell you My English is child English. Now little bit improved now my English is Trinidad English. Trinidad and Mexican English are very difficult to understand. In Los Angeles also Chinese speak English, no it, no that and no but, no grammar, but they speak hours together. Therefore, My English is better than all the above versions of English. My big problem is in India nobody speaks in English. They speak in their own mother tongue like Tamil or Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi. Nowadays only youngsters are speaking English. This is a good sign, as our mother tongue is very important. Do not forget your mother tongue. When you speak to your child in your house, you can speak in your mother tongue because their school teaches English and grammar, so no problem.
Mother tongue is very important. When you come to India then your children get embarrassed and unhappy. Your child would want to go back to his house, as he cannot understand the language spoken by other children here. So he keeps saying mama let us go back to our house, this is not my house. This is the reason why at home, you should speak to your child in your mother tongue like Tamil, Telugu. Your child will then understand oh this is Gujarati is my mother tongue. In my experience, I have seen many children like this. When you go to foreign and come back to India after 8 years then your child will like India very much. They will feel unhappy in foreign and come back to India. All the time, only if studies and special classes in regular education are followed without moral support, moral lessons and moral feelings, then they forget our own culture completely. Then after 16 -25 years you are suffering about the children. You are the first cause of spoiling your children. You are the first enemy of your child. All the time you thinking that you are giving good education and discipline but in reality, you are spoiling your child. Automatically they do not like India. They do not want to come to India also. Lot of dirty news is telecasted by the Television channels. Many Television news channels in India provide lot of dirty and garbage news. This news has impact on the child. His mind is spoiled. You are also very interested for this news. You are always enquiring what happened in India? You are teaching him a bad habit. Husband and wife discuss all the garbage topics like terrorism in India in front of children. The children grasp all these things. Slowly the children tune into the Indian news channel and develop enmity towards India.
Parents are the first enemy of children not friends. Parents should speak to children about our Indian customs, culture, and our bhajans. Tell them about Rama, Shiva. They do not know Who Rama and Shiva are. This is the reason why Sri Swamiji has started the MMS 3 years back. Sri Swamiji is not only telling about Indian customs but also general knowledge. Slowly people have started liking MMS. It has become a habit now. In the beginning, we struggled. You know how laborious it was to prepare videos, voice, moments and taking good photos. I paid money to take photos from National Geography channel. I paid lot of money to shutterstock to buy pictures from their site. If somebody offers money to my padas, then I will give that money also to buy picutres. I used my own money. I did not take any trust money. Later people realised this and came forward to support the cause. 120 American people came and offered their own gifts like shutterstock pictures etc. We are downloading different kinds of videos form shutterstock. Then the ashram boys started preparing their own videos. These boys have no knowledge about computer or laptop. They kept learning and learning. Nearly 30 people are working on the project . Some of them are working outside and stay outside ashrama premises . They come and work for 2hrs or so until 12am or 1am. We have one women section and one boys section. They take photos and then they prepare videos, you believe or not, it is a big factory. There is lot of work. 24 Hours work. American devotees came and sponsored for internet. You believe or not believe we are paying 12 lakh rupees for high-speed internet every year. So many people are also gifting now. It is a big factory. 2-3 Scholarly people are kept for proof reading. 3-4 times the proof reading is done. Finally, when the videos are ready then the proofreader says this spelling is not correct. Again we have to work backwards.
Imagine how much of mental strain. They are my staff workers, my children, my relatives, my grandchildren, my friends. All of them are working very happily. We are also using our own videos in the MMS made by our ashram boys. Shutterstock people were very impressed by these videos made by our ashrama boys. You know how strict the shutterstock people are quality wise and timing wise. They were interested in buying our videos. We gave 25-30 videos out of which they selected 19-20 videos. I am very happy with this shutterstock people also. Inspite of no training in photography and video, making using of the HD camera, our ashram boys really improved in their work. Now they are masters at their work. This is the experience of our Mysore ashram boys. 24 Hours they are doing work. Only 3-4 hours of sleeping, they again work. Sometimes there is internet problem. Sometimes Sri Swamiji is giving different quotes in different languages. Sri Swamiji is sitting hours together in the studio for recording and corrections. Different people give quotes from Sri Swamiji sayings. Quotes from the discourses given by Sri Swamiji on various stories, puranas (epics), and Upanishads. Now next step or level I am giving some Bhagavat Gita, Bhagavatam. Now slowly Sri Swamiji is introducing Indian cultures. People like the videos pertaining to social activities and general knowledge given by Sri Swamiji. People say this video is good, this video is good. After 10 days then slowly I am giving Bhagavat Gita. People like that Bhagavat Gita and ask for some more of Bhagavat Gita. Then slowly Sri Swamiji introducing Bhagavatam.
You do not know Sri Swamiji tricks and study, I cannot explain this phenomenon. We must catch people slowly. If we give strict orders to people to do, then they are fed up and unhappy, thinking how strict are the rules here? You do not like me but I like you. You do not like my habits. I will correct them but I do not like your habits also. I know they are all dirty habits. Slowly the people will automatically correct themselves. This is my friendship and my slogan. Some people are making serious faces all the time and do not laugh. Never mind I am laughing and asking how are you? How are you? Then also, they put a serious face. It does not matter. I will think your serious face is itself your laughing face. I think it is one way of laughing. Ok I will also learn from you. You should be happy from inside always. You are always crying from inside. What is this? You are crying like Trinidad Frogs. Trinidad Frogs are crying 24 hours. Thousands and thousands of Trinidad Frogs are crying from morning 6 am to evening 6 pm. You know Frogs. No? You do not know. They are singing singing. Like that you are also crying. Why? One day you die, no problem. Before dying, you laugh saying that this is my fate. “You know God, You are laughing on my weeping. I weep while you laugh?” Ok does not matter. Be careful. So suddenly, I want to stop MMS because one-year tough works we worked like a factory. You think it is writing few lines and compose a video. No, it is not like that. Later we want to make a small movie on this. There are so many inspirations like from movie people, drawing people, internet people and shutterstock people You can come and see children of small age are doing Sri Swamiji’s work. How happy those children feel doing Sri Swamiji’s work. They are running and jumping. The children feel very happy. Within an hour of finishing of work, they give it to Sri Swamiji for corrections. Sri Swamiji sits in the nighttime for 2 hours only for corrections. Corrects, this is not good, this is not good. Now I am happy that there are 2-3 people to look after corrections. The work is less for Sri Swamiji. In tours, also Sri Swamiji does corrections. That is why I want Wi-Fi. Without internet, I cannot live in the house. Internet is like my Dosa and Idly. Therefore, I wanted to stop MMS. Already newsletter of Datta Peetham is going on, and we have Bhaktimala.
You believe or not believe, in span of two days’ time 26,000 emails came praying for restarting for MMS. People who did not register on the www.puttugam.com site for continuation of email, they are people of wretched fortune or unfortunate and they are blind from inside and not outside. These people are arrogant and ignorant people. Now you go and register. Put your email id on the site. You do not have to look at it daily. You can look it after one week or one month or one year, no problem. That is only advice for you. If you want these emails after one year, who will give you? You will suffer then. You go now and register on your name and your child’s name. Sri Swamiji enquires about how many people from London signed at the PuttuGam page. In Trinidad 4000, people registered on one day. I stopped the registrations then. Normally I have 10,000 old email devotees. Devotees, non-devotees, college students, final year college students, all joined, unbelievable. I did not expect this much participation even in my dreams. There were 26,000 new people and 4000 old email devotees. Total 30,000 people came. We have a beautiful website named PuttuGam.
You believe or not believe, China, Japanese and Pakistanis people are signing for the MMS. Your people are sleeping, lazy people. Tamoguna tamasi guna. You got vairagya (detachment) for this singing up for MMS. You do not get vairagya for eating, sleeping, quarrelling, upset, money, bank and hospital. For Sadguru work you only get vairagya. For facilities, you don’t get vairagya. If you get vairagya for eating, sleeping, quarrelling etc, then go to Himalayas, I will believe you. Sitting in Himalayas, if you speak about vairagya about MMS, I will bow down, no problem. If you say vairagya to all things in life then I will do namaskaram to you. You say vairagya only for Guru/God seva, learning spirituality and for good things. You are like a bull (adamant /resistance to change), sometimes I say this., You have vairagya only for these things.
People who are aged about 85 years are learning how to use laptop and viewing MMS. They say Sri Swamiji today’s MMS is a personal message from you to me. Children are going to school so no problem. People who do not know about computer are learning and viewing MMS. The old people just came to know about computers. They switched on the computer by themselves and watched Shatashloki Ramayana. One old woman said to me “My household taught me to operate computer in three simple steps by switching on three switches. I have learned to switch on computer and watching Shatashloki Ramayana. I am liking it.” I again asked her “Initially you did not like computers and abused them?” The old devotee replied: “Yes, Initially I did not like them, but now since my God (Sri Swamiji) is coming in the computer I am liking computers”. Some villagers doing puja (worship) to computers. They are applying turmeric powder and giving arati to the computer becasue “my Sri Swamiji” is sitting in the box. How innocent! I am having tears in my eyes. How good people they are. You people will not do such things. Why are you people staying in London? Come back to India. Why are you having so many laptops with you? Give them to me, I will take them back to India. Whether you watch or not, teach and make children, watch the Shatashloki Ramayana and MMS in your name. I was telling Prasad to fill up the MMS completion in my name before the time for the competition expires. I am also taking part in the competition. If any price comes, then I will build a second house, no problem. Maybe I win the lottery. It would be nice to see England win the first price, then I will give discourse for one week in England. England should get the prize. For me to give discourse in England, I need good attendance of devotees here. Will England get the prize?
Normally the fun in marriage or birthday’s lasts for a day or two, but this fun of getting prize is everlasting fun. Always fun. Always people are talking like a million dollar prize. 10 years back he got million-dollar prize. This is everlasting fun. So many people are asking about why Sri Swamiji likes birds. I like birds since my childhood but I am afraid about dogs being there. I like dogs also. Dattatreyaya likes dogs also. Some dogs were falling down from third floor. I wanted to take care of them. I do not know how many years these dogs will be associated with Sri Swamiji. The dogs were in the association of Sri Swamiji for 18 yrs. I told them “you go, only then I will purchase birds.” Every dog that was associated with Sri Swamiji, went to Vaikuntha. Those dogs would go to sleep while listening to Sri Swamiji bhajans. One of the dogs did not have one leg, but he was very happy with Sri Appaji. These dogs also listened to Om Namo Hanumathe Namaha.
Coming to bird’s story, you know Sukha the son of Vyasa. Sukha muni has given or told Bhagavatam to king Parikshit, else/otherwise there is no Bhagavatam. We would not have come to know about the 10 incarnations of Vishnu. The parrot in the form of Sukha, told the Bhagavatam stories to Parikshit. In Ramayana, also Valmiki saw the love and affection between the bird’s couple. The hunter laid down a net to catch birds. The wife bird fell into the net laid down by the hunter. Seeing this, the husband bird cried a lot and voluntarily jumped into the net. Valmiki saw this and appreciated the love story of the birds. When pondering over the love story, the Ramayana came into the mind of Valmiki. Birds are the reason for happening of Ramayana and Bhagavatam and Taittiriya Upanishad. The words spoken by humans are also because of the birds. The pure words or chant “Rama” is also from the birds. First, we were all birds in previous life’s and later we got the life as human beings. The GA—gagana that is birds, Ma= human beings. When we see birds, we are a bit happily surprised. This is due to the pre dispositions of past births. We were birds then. That feeling (feeling of being happily surprised) will be there for sure. It is not good to rear birds and keep them in a cage. Unlike previous times, it is not possible and we are not able to rear birds in today’s normal circumstances. There is a special mystical swan in the Himalayas, which can separate milk from water.
The bird stamps are being sold at the counter step up outside. Please pay some money as you deem fit and take them. I paid 45 cents for each stamp. Take the stamps, depending on the final number you will get after totaling the date of birth. The money will be going to the children fund. There are three sets of different birds, but now I have only one set. It is difficult to get collections. People are searching through out India. In their houses, people have birds, like injured birds. Some birds are in bad shape as they are not fed with proper food. Birds are also kept in a very small cages. Such birds are being purchased by the ashram by giving money to the owners. We are giving birds a little bit of freedom and good medicines. Last month we treated 300 birds and let them fly away. Some birds flew away. Some are not able to fly, because their wings were cut. If you keep these birds outside, some other birds are eating these birds. Therefore, we are keeping those injured birds with us in the ashram. Some good birds, when allowed to fly away, are coming back to the ashram.
The story about birds is very big. My family is a very big family. I have 365 different kinds of birds. Some are singing and some are talking. Ashram is always busy. I am giving some birds to people and giving them time, like up to 4 months to teach Om Namah Shivaya, Rama, Om Namo Hanumathe Namaha, Jaya Guru Datta, or Happy Birthday to the birds and then give them back to me. Otherwise, the ashramites are chit chatting always. Now all the houses in ashram are busy. They are busy teaching the birds to chant God’s names. I have given different kinds of parrots to all the houses in ashram. They say happily my bird is talking, my bird is talking. When the bird chants the God’s name, then I take that bird and give another bird.
Have you seen the bird videos in YouTube? All of you go to YouTube and watch the videos. Do you know how difficult it is to make them chant Om Namah Shivaya? The birds now in ashram can speak Kannada, Tamil and Telugu language. They speak things like Good night. The birds, like parrot speak naturally, but birds like the Macaw are not naturally speakers. Sri Swamiji is making them to speak. It is my determination that all birds should talk. It is a small experiment. All of them are talking. These birds are so much jealous when I talking to other birds. Just like you are angry when I talk to others devotees. Sri Swamiji is giving special blessings to you. I am very happy.
This blue ray disc of Royal Albert Hall is very good. All of you take this. It is a collection item. When you go and see, then you understand.
Jaya Guru Datta.