Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – July 30, 2016 – Trinidad
Compiled by Archana Penukonda
Jaya Guru Datta
Last morning, I talked about bhajans. I briefly talked about what a bhajan is, how bhajans give us energy, what a keertan is, what is meditation and what a mantra is. After his penance, Sankara Bhagavadpata too was singing, “Govindam Bhaja Govindam” along with meaningful lyrics. Each bhajan is like a message. Nama Keertana or Sankeertana is different, it only involves chanting God’s names such as “Rama”, “Krishna” etc.
There are two or three different kinds of bhajans. One is conversation between devotee and God. That is like a question/answer session, like the Bhagavad Gita. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is asking questions and God is giving answers. Bhagavad Gita is completely based on questions and answers. It talks about Yoga throughout. And in the second type, the saint gives in his keertanas, some message to humans – about how they can fight in this life, how they can finish this game etc. They talk about what bliss is. These are the types of messages given through their keertans.
Third type of bhajans give Atma Jnana (knowledge of the self). We are calling all these bhajans, but they are not really bhajans. The real meaning of Bhajans is nama sankeertana and it is only in the format of a sankeertana. Bhajans are really only God’s names. Finally, there are also Tattva Bhajans. Yesterday’s “Sikho Sikho” was a very nice Tattva bhajan. It’s a new bhajan. You heard 3 new Hindi bhajans yesterday. Hindi and Sanskrit are international languages. Nowadays we hear only English and half the world understands the language, but Sanskrit and Hindi are understood by the whole world. The two languages are like brothers. How beautiful were the bhajans yesterday! There were Tattva bhajans, Nama sankeertana and also keertans.
What is Sangeeta (classical music)? It’s the same bhajans where the song is bifurcated into Pallavi (thematic line of a song), Anu Pallavi (secondary thematic line) and two to four Charanas (stanzas) with systematic music calculations. Sometimes we understand and sometimes we do not understand. Keertanas are like that. This is how it is done in Carnatic music. Carnatic music has many famous Keertanas, but it is different in Northern India. In Northern India, the Keertans only consist of Meera Tattva, Kabir Tattva, Dohas etc. All these are different kinds of Dohas and Tattvas. When this music is in chaturpada, it has only 4 lines. It makes it easy to understand God. In Northern India, near Uttar Pradesh, they use only 8 or 10 different ragas (scales) and about three or four talas (rhythmic patterns). But in Karnataka, there are thousands of different sankeertans and 36 different talas. We are using two sides of the instrument for percussion – like in the mridangam. Today, you’ve seen the mridangam. He is a famous mridangist in the USA, he came here to participate out of devotion for Swamiji. Today’s program was doubtful, but I came here to just sit with you.
In Uttar Pradesh state in India, they are only using Tabla. In Maharashtra, Bombay etc, they use Dholak. In the rural areas, they use Dholki. Pakhawaj is also a kind of Dholki. Bhajans on Pakhawaj are different. I will sing if I have time. Some bhajans are better suited for Mridangam – they are mostly Keertanas, some for Tabla, some for Dholaki and some for Dholak. Some bhajans are better suited to the Pakhawaj. The cinema bhajans are different. They are mixing all kinds of music in the movies, no rules or regulations. In the olden days, they had a little bit of traditional music. But nowadays it is entirely different. It is like chutney. Importance is given to beats. In the old times, they gave importance only to the lyrics and the meaning of the songs. Even a love song had a nice meaning. It was not ugly. Nowadays it is very ugly. It is dangerous for a family to watch a movie together. It is too ugly to watch with your spouse or children. Earlier, we used to watch movies with entire family. Nowadays, there are no family movies, only very ugly, meaningless nonsense movies with nonsense languages. And the conversations too are very indirect, with double meaning talk. Double meaning is not good, direct meaning is good. Double meanings are very dangerous. We get very embarrassed if we sit with family and children to watch such a movie. We cannot see it. Some science movies are okay, but we do not understand. They only have loud sounds as if they are just sound cinemas. Meaningless sounds.
Anyway, what I am telling is that nowadays our Sangeeta has spoiled. Nada is not spoiled, but our way of using Nada is not good. You are all protecting our Dharma, our Svadharma and Sanatana Dharma. You must sing with devotion. For one hour a day or 2-3 hours a week, sit in front of God and sing Bhajans with your friends. Sing about Rama, Krishna, Guru, Mother Goddess etc. You can choose any God, no problem. Or you can choose all Gods. You can mix and sing. Lastly, you can discuss some Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Geeta or Tulasidas Ramayana or Valmiki Ramayana or Shiva Purana or one paragraph from these or one moral story. The kids will like the moral stories very much. Study the moral story for a half hour or an hour. And then gather for good prasadam – some good roti may be. No problem. That will only make our connections and relations strong. It’ll promote good understand. We want understanding because we have this human birth for a very short time. Do not lose human friends. Do not lose your friends and relatives due to ego. Ego always makes you fight with your friends and relatives. That is not good. We need everyone. Have good friendships. Understand yourself. Then you will improve your friendships and relationships.
Only temples and Satsanga help with relationship improvement. Otherwise, there is no way. Marriage does not improve our relationships either. We can only improve our relationships in Satsang only. Because satsanga makes our minds calm and soft and fills it with devotion. I explained this yesterday. I also talked about how human beings should act in daily life. You were laughing, I was also laughing. I heard the tape from yesterday and I was laughing again. What is Swamiji talking, I do not know. Was that laughing session in the evening or morning? Evening okay. So, you can practice improvement in your attitudes. You can learn to be kind, and to inculcate good friendship even with yourself. Sometimes you hate yourself. You have no right to hate yourself. God is in us. This body is God’s property, not our property. Each human being is God’s property. The quarrel is between each one’s ego, not between the humans. You have no rights to quarrel on a human-to-human level. Manhandling is not good. You have no rights to it. Only the government has some right to create justice, but you can’t do that with your friends and relatives. And don’t talk bad words, don’t hurt each other. You have no right to hurt each other. You can learn from yesterday’s bhajan, “sikho sikho”. Whatever I am talking now is all in the bhajan.
Today’s decorations are very nice. Somebody’s wedding takes place here and I benefit too with the decorations. No problem. I’m also very happy. If there is a wedding everyday, there will be a different decoration every day. Now, our bhajan is also going good. Okay.
Bhajan: Vraatapate Pramathapate Vrataphala Dayaka Namostute
Bhajan: Naman Karo Nit Naman Karo
Bhajan: Re Mann Re Re Mann
Bhajan: Jai Kapisa
Today you are all very lucky. I had some pain in my head, so I canceled all programs and went to sleep. Now, I am very happy. Do not miss tomorrow’s program. There’s Satyanarayana Swamy and Ram Parivar installation. We finished Yantra Prathishtha in three days, the Maha Yajna, Homa are being conducted by priests – one from Canada, one from USA and one from India. They completed all rituals. We’ll have Lord Siva and Mother Durgi in Princess Town. In Penal, we’ll have Navagraha. Here, in Carapichaima, we’ll install Satyanarayana Swamy and Ram Parivar. Today is Ekadasi. Tomorrow we have Ekadasi and Dwadasi. Ekadasi is over in India, but we’ll have a little more of Ekadasi here tomorrow. That is why we chose such a powerful day. We picked the auspicious day tomorrow with good star. Do not miss the programs. After Sri Chakra Puja, we’ll do Purnahati of the Yajna. Then, we’ll do Yantra Prathishtha. That is a very secret ceremony, no public allowed. We’ll do installation after that. You can then go and have Darshan of the dieties. Every full moon day, we are planning to do Satyanarayana vrata. Tomorrow evening is a big event. Do not miss. Do not forget to carry an umbrella. If it rains too, you must continue to chant. We may get a headache, we may get drenched, no problem.
I remember the Pune concert 15 years or so ago. We had a concert in Pune last year too, but I’m talking about the concert 15 years ago. As soon as the concert started, it started raining. I waited a half hour, but the rain would not stop. People were crying for the concert. Swamiji’s stage was okay, it had full security. I had given it a half hour. And then 12,000 umbrellas were brought. People were holding up the umbrellas for the entire time. The concert was going very well. After mangalam, the rain stopped. But they hadn’t had rains for many days in Pune. They suffered for 3-4 years without rains. People were desperately praying to Swamiji for rains, “Swamiji, please do something”. I will do something for you. No one asked for the rain to stop. If anyone asked for the rain to stop, there would not be rains for another 4 years, I know. I was waiting for someone to ask for the rains to stop. No one was asking. Even our boys were not asking. They just adjusted. Someone was holding an umbrella for the mridangam and Tabla players as well. Luckily, in my section, it was very good, no rains. I was safe because my instrument was electronic. But the rest of the musicians, those lucky fellows did not have electronic instruments.
That was Pune. I cannot forget. After 10 years, in Hyderabad, in the summer of 2006, we had a concert. Everything was good. People said they didn’t need any rains. But anyway, I said, I will play one more raga. There was a gigantic orchestra with Swamiji. Many famous musicians were part of it. L. Subramaniam was there. His son was there too. Manjunath, a famous violinist was there. N. Ramani, a renowned flutist was there. Bhaktavatsalam, a famous mridangist, Ghatam Suresh were also there. Big, big orchestra. Lastly, my grandchild Vedavathi was also sitting. I said I don’t want to play that raga. But they insisted that I play that raga. I said, okay I can play, but I am not responsible if it rains. It was summer time and there was no possibility of rain. There were big cameras at the concert. Two or three channels were broadcasting the program live. Around 100,000 people had gathered for the concert. I could not see the last row in the audience. At one point, I asked for binoculars so I could see the last row. There was such a big crowd and so much rush, but they were very disciplined. I told them this raga was not good, but they pleaded with me to play it. I said, okay, if I start that raga, it’ll rain. It immediately rained and everyone panicked. I said I would not stop that raga. But I would give one command. I told the rain to wait till I finished the concert. I gave permission for the rain to stop. Everybody was watching. The rain stopped. That is not mesmerism. There is no secret. Everyone knows.
After the concert, I gave 15 minutes to the camera people. There were so many different cameras and open lights and lots of wires. I asked all the musicians to safeguard their instruments and then signaled for the rain to come. It immediately began pouring. It is not mesmerism. It is only my devotion to Varuna. I am not giving an order.
Sri Guru Datta