Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – November 26, 2016 – Baton Rouge, USA
Compiled by: Archana Penukonda
Jaya Guru Datta
The Bhagavad Gita Phala Shruti (description of the benefits of chanting) says that if you chant one shloka or even half a shloka or if you keep the (Bhagavad Gita) book in your room, lot of merit comes to you. If you touch or even offer salutations to the book, it is equivalent to visiting holy places. You get the fruit of doing Ashvamedha Yagnam.
Your family and children will be protected by God. God is invisible. But if you think of any form for God, that form appears in your dreams and in your daily life, that form will protect you. Bhagavad Gita is itself God. God himself gave Upadesa. Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. He is our God and our Guru.
Bhagavad Gita is very powerful. All religions acknowledge this about Bhagavad Gita. Lot of books also came out on the Bhagavad Gita; people wrote about it in many different ways, in many different languages. But our devotees here are reading fluently and memorizing. It is wonderful.
There is a Bhagavad Gita revolution going on now. Not only in the USA, but also in India, devotees are memorizing and learning. I am not making big announcements. It’s getting propagated through word of mouth. Word of mouth is very powerful media.
Everyone is chanting the Bhagavad Gita. Everyone wants to know the meaning of Bhagavad Gita. My advice to you is also to chant the Gita Saara. Gita Saara is very easy. It is very important. Chanting the Gita Saara also gives you merit. Gita Saara is itself the Phala Shruti. If you make any mistakes in chanting the Bhagavad Gita shlokas, chanting the Gita Saara removes them. That is why Gita Saara is very important. Gita Saara has the summary of all chapters, all important shlokas are covered completely. You must memorize the Gita Saara.
You all just heard the Bhagavad Gita chanting. Even those who listen to the Bhagavad Gita get moksha. Those who sit and listen to all 18 chapters get good merit. It is like having a bath in Ganga or like the fruit of a Yajna. You attain different kinds of merit through Bhagavad Gita. You must listen, you must sing/read the Bhagavad Gita and you must at the very least memorize the Dhyana Shlokas. Listen to Gita Parichaya – Swamiji gave the important shlokas of Bhagavad Gita in that album. Listen to one chapter each day. Swamiji has given the complete essence of the Gita in it.
A big miracle is going on, in December, on Christmas. We are going to Kurukshetra (with the kids who memorized the entire Bhagavad Gita). Also, the kids in Mysore are ready to go to Kurukshetra. Some kids have a problem, with their own classes and exams at that time, but some kids are ready to come with Swamiji. I told them there are two trips – one is with American children, one is with Indian children. You must all (addressing the audience who witnessed the chanting) learn to read fluently. It is not tough. Bhagavad Gita is very easy. If you learn Bhagavad Gita, Sanskrit is very easy to learn and understand. If someone talks in Sanskrit, it will be very easy to understand. It is not tough. A big miracle is going on.
I remember Swami Chinamayananda. He came to Mysore Ashrama. He loves Swamiji very much. I met him twice. Later in his life, he had a heart problem. I would send him Saligrama Teertha daily in the hospital. Krishna Murthy was his secretary. He finally gave Krishna Murthy to me as Swamiji’s secretary. Krishna Murthy was also very powerful and knowledgeable secretary. Swami Chinmaya Nanda asked me why I was not touching Bhagavad Gita. “You are touching all Puranas/scriptures, you are giving lectures and meanings about them. Please sing Bhagavad Gita Swamiji”.
(Swamiji jokes saying) Because my aunt gave me punishment while chanting Bhagavad Gita, I did not want to chant Bhagavad Gita. I was a small kid then. That was not the reason for not singing Bhagavad Gita, but that was instead the cause for me to learn Bhagavad Gita. Swami Chinamayananda said to please sing Bhagavad Gita. “When you sing Bhagavad Gita, people will do too. I am trying for a lot of devotees to sing the Bhagavad Gita”. Gita Parichaya is a great CD. It is our ammunition. God himself gave us Bhagavad Gita, it is very important. It has been revolted against in Russia and some Arab countries. They went to court, but we prevailed. Bhagavad Gita won. No one else went to court after. This is God’s Gita (command, order) to Arjuna, His disciple.
You must all learn the meaning. It is very good to learn the meaning. Your lives will change. Your thinking will be different. Your life and behavior will change. I want to see that. I will see that. I will not let go. You will not get angry anymore (when you learn the meaning of Bhagavad Gita). You will become so saintly. Even if your children and husband yell at you, you will just watch in silence. You will become like rocks. You must learn the meaning – it is so nice to learn the meaning. No one can shake you. You will be happy in happiness and in sorrow. Whatever happens to your body, you will be happy. Fight the devil, always fight the devil. In the end, you will win. You will be victorious if you learn the meaning of Bhagavad Gita.
Why did Swamiji suddenly start the Bhagavad Gita I do not know. I was angry and did not want to learn for sometime since my aunt had punished me. When Swami Chinamayananda had asked me to sing the Bhagavad Gita, I did. He was few years older than me and I complied. I knew the meaning. All my teachings are from the Bhagavad Gita anyway, but I had refused to sing earlier. I was stubborn. You must all sing. The audio of Bhagavad Gita Parichaya is also on iTunes.
Sri Guru Datta