Speeches of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – January 16, 2017 – Pithapuram
Compiled by: Archana Penukonda
Speech in the morning
Since not everyone can come here and have Darshan, I am having the volunteers bring you the Datta Padukas. Have Darshan and offer your respects. There are many people here and it will take very long for everyone to file along in a line here. We cannot be here till the evening. Therefore, the Padukas are coming to you. Feel that the Lord is coming to you. 2-3 volunteers are coming to you with the Padukas.
Sri Maha Ganapataye Namaha
Sri Sarasvatyai Namaha
Sri Padavallabha Narasimha Sarasvati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
We are all gathered here at the Sri Padavallabha Narasimha Kshetra. Lord Datta’s incarnations, his aspects, his Leela are most wonderful. He is the Kaliyuga Purusha (the supreme Lord in this Kaliyuga). This is the first segment (first Padam) of Kaliyuga. From the second segment, Datta and Hanuman will aggressively take the lead. That is why if we keep chanting Hanuman Chalisa, having Darshan of Lord Dattatreya and participating in Datta festivals and events, it is good for our children and for the seven generations before and after us. Yesterday, we celebrated Kanuma. This is the festival when animals (mostly cattle) are worshiped. Colors are applied to the animals, their horns are decorated. They give us our agricultural harvest. The cows give us milk. We celebrate Kanuma by looking after them with respect.
Give way to the volunteers as they bring the Padukas. You must give way believing the Lord is walking. Don’t just see them as a pair of wooden sandals. That is very wrong. As the Padukas are coming, you must give way.
A few volunteers are also coming to you to help you download SGS Posts. Every day, Swamiji’s messages as well as Bhagavatam in Telugu language are made available on the app. They are very nice. You can select the language of your choosing for the messages. The app is free to download. Wherever you have Internet, you can download the app and see those messages. When you are feeling low, the messages on SGS Posts will give you the answers you need. Those two kids are coming to you. If you have a smart phone, raise your hand and they will come to you and download the app for you. Ask them for help and they will do it quickly for free. It is good for you and for your smart phones. You can see the messages whenever you want.
The Brahmotsava Kalashabhishekam is going on. Offer your respects mentally right from where you are. Close your eyes and offer your prayers. You can watch from wherever you are seated. The rituals, Yajna and worship has been going on for 2-3 days. Today, we are doing the Abhishekam. We are all gathered here for this special occasion. Lord Datta and Hanuman are protecting us at every instance. This is the sacred place of the Divine Mother. This sacred place of Lord Subramanya has such power.
We should walk the path of saintliness. We should enhance saintly qualities. We should eat only Sattvic food. Since you have come to such a place, take a vow mentally to not lie from today onwards, to not deceive anyone from today onwards, to not eat meat from today. Pray in your mind, “I will not eat eggs. I will not unnecessarily kill other beings”. You must only eat Sattvic food. So many eat Sattvic food. The elephant is so strong, it eats only Sattvic food. Are we all not eating Sattvic food? We are all living healthy for a hundred years. You get disease because you eat unfit food. The liver goes bad, the heart has blockages, the nerves go bad, you get knee aches and back pain, because you eat too much meat. Eating meat makes you more prone to diseases just as drinking and smoking cause ill health and death. The government reports that 40% of the people in Andhra Pradesh still suffer from leprosy and kidney problems. It is very sad to hear this. Many are suffering from leprosy and kidney problems. It is in the infection in the meat that is eating us up inside. At least now onwards, we should give up meat. We should try to eat Sattvic food, at least for our own health. If not for fear of sin, stop eating meat for health reasons.
All those living beings are our children, we should not kill them. Why not kill our own children and eat them? It will be good to eat the little kids. If the old people are sick, kill them and eat. Human meat is very nice. Why not eat it? Cut and eat your mother’s thigh and your father’s arm. Why should you not? If you cannot get anything else, eat your own hand. Fry it, season it and once it sizzles, eat it. It is very tasty. Try for yourself. After you go home, heat the oil and place your arm or leg and then let it fry and sizzle in that oil. It’ll also be aromatic. Put some chili powder on it and eat it. Can you do that? Tell me can you do it? Can this happen in your house? Tell me. It cannot happen in my house. I cannot do it. But then you eat chicken. Should you be? You eat egg. Should you be? You eat goats. Should you be? Eat Sattvic food. These are all God’s children. God gave them life. We should not take their lives. You should all change. Your minds must change. If one or two per household change, everyone in the house will slowly change. You must raise this ruckus at home, “You can eat whatever you want, but I will not eat meat”. Slowly, they will change too. They cannot stand the smell. Eating meat can cause stomach ache and cancer. The infections from meat will come to us. We should remember this.
There is a big city in America called Los Angeles. There is a town near Los Angeles where lakhs of people live.
It is a big town like Vizag. Los Angeles itself is big. If you join 5-7 of our cities, that is how big Los Angeles is. Near Los Angeles is a town. There is no meat in that town. There are canteens and restaurants in the town, but they do not serve meat. If you ask someone for meat, they will ask you if you have any shame. If you are Indian asking for meat, they will humiliate you like you cannot imagine. I went to that town recently and stayed there for 2 days. I like that place a lot. Whichever shop or canteen you go to, you will get great food, but no meat. They do not torture animals. The people there have changed. The Westerners have changed. We should be the ones changing. We have been known for eons to be the Sattvic people, the saints. They call India the country of saints, the country of Gods. But we are all demons in secret. We secretly cook and eat meat. We are demons in secret. There is no medicine for this demonic nature.
Our minds should change. As our minds change, God will protect us. You did Hanuman Chalisa. 3000 people came. You saved Rs. 15,000. Some of you said you saw Swamiji there. You are chanting such a great Hanuman Chalisa. Thousands of you are doing this. Thousands of crores of Hanuman Chalisa have been counted. Hanuman will protect us. If we become Sattvic, he will shower us with love. If we become demonic, he will kill us. If a person inflicts violence, he will be a demon. If he is non-violent, he is godly. If a person hurts his mother or his father, he is a demon even though he was born a human. Hurting the one who gave you job makes you a demon. Blaming the Guru makes a person a demon. Hurting another person makes you a demon. There is no choice but for Hanuman to punish such a person. He likes it a lot. He goes there and punishes. He tests us. How does he test us? He tests us through disease, anxieties, fights at home, worries, court cases, operations/surgeries, lack of children etc. These are someone else’ sins. It is not our sin. We are paying for the sins that someone else in the house committed.
To avoid such experiences, we should always think about God. What if someone throws a stone at us when are sleeping? We sleep with so much confidence. We sleep in different places, in hotels etc. Our travels may take us to a different town and we sleep in a house there. We wake up the next morning. We brush our teeth, we drink coffee the hostess gives us. What if something happened to us while we were asleep? What if someone breaks our head or steals our watch? Who protected you? Who did? Tell me. Your father-in-law? Your grandfather? Your maternal aunt? Your aunt is also fast asleep and snoring. Your father-in-law is asleep too. What if a snake or a scorpion bites you during that sleep? This happens very rarely when you step on a scorpion or a snake. Who is protecting you then? God is protecting. When going to sleep, think about Hanuman. As soon as you wake up, thank him for keeping you alive. Whose breath is this? It is His. All body, mind and Prana are his.
In Bhakta Prahlada movie, there is a song, “Jeevamu neede”. Can anyone sing two lines of that song?
Sri Guru Datta
Speech in the evening
Is this illusion? It is not illusion. Prahlada was immersed in meditation on the Lord with all his mind, his senses, his intellect and his body. Using that meditation, the Lord protected his beloved child. We are all his children, aren’t we? All beings are his children. If the chicken could actually speak, and you eat the chicken and in the middle of the night the chicken in your stomach starts making noise, how do feel? What will you do if it starts moving? That is why I am saying this. I am saying all this for your benefit. It is enough if you understand. A devotee somewhere must have had some divine experience and Swamiji is talking about it in general terms.
God is the only one who protects us. We made a mistake, and we are seeking forgiveness for it. “We will not make that mistake from tomorrow onward. We now heard this from our Guru; our Guru told us in this sacred place [Kshetram]. I need to follow. I will not commit that sin anymore. What I have done is enough. Please forgive me for what we have done so far. Let people at home do what they want to do, let them eat what they want to eat, let them kill whatever they want to kill. Let them eat chicken or egg, I do not care. Let them eat the fur on the animal, I do not care. I will not eat”. Whoever is making this resolution raise your hand, let me see? Raise your hand! Is it so hard? Raise your hand to promise you will not eat! RAISE YOUR HAND! Say it!
Do not say you did not eat meat, just say you will not commit that sin from today onward. If you say that you will not commit that sin anymore, I am happy. You should not say “I did not eat, why should I promise?” You do not know how you may have committed that sin. We were born to those who eat meat, that is a sin that attaches to us as well. We have to share the sin too. That is why your resolution from today should be, “Today, I dedicate myself to Guru. In this sacred place I am offering my senses, my body and my mind to my father [Swamiji]. Therefore, from today I will be like fire. Please protect me. Please be with me. Please support me. Please cooperate with me in all ways”. That is how you must feel. You must not be afraid. True, we did not deliberately commit this sin but we don’t know if we committed this sin unknowingly. If someone inadvertently gave us such food, we may have consumed without realizing. We do not know if we inadvertently committed the sin. You must make such a resolution. “I did not deliberately do it. I would never do it again. I should never have the desire to do it again. I will change whoever is willing to listen to me”. You must change them as well. You must say to them that if they want you to be their friend, if they want you to be their parent, if they want you to be their sibling, they should listen to you and stop eating meat. It is a sin to kill those beings. They are little children. They suffer a lot when they are killed. We should not become like Hiranyakasipu. He tried to kill Prahlada several times. He tortured Prahlada so much. Hiranyakasipu’s ego led him to push Prahlada off a cliff, and have him trampled upon by elephants.
Once upon a time, we used to peacefully coexist with all creatures. You may or may not know the secret, but in Krita Yuga, tigers used to eat grass. Nature was abundant with grass, fruits and grains. No one had to grow them, they used to naturally grow in plenty, everywhere. It is those grains that we have even today. Did we create new seeds? They have been used since ancient times. We grow our crops from those. Who created these seeds? Science or government? God did. God in the form of great sages [Maharishis] came and tilled the soil and grew crops all over the planet. The kings grew crops. Generation after generation, they grew grains. Green gram, horse gram, paddy, millets, corn, pearl millet, barnyard millet etc., were all there since back then. God has given all this in plenty. These grains do not have one of the five Pranas [life energies, that is why they are dying. When we eat them, they – not we – get life. But we are killing chickens and taking away their life. We take on sin by doing that. If we eat grains, we get life. But if we eat living beings, we get sin. Remember this very well. If we eat grains, we get energy and strength. You get Pancha Pranas [5 life energies].
“Mother, please give me some rice”. We say that when we are hungry, do we not? We do not say, “Mother, give me some chicken”. If someone hungry asked for chicken, we would smack him, would we not? If a beggar were to beg for chicken, we would tell him off. But if he says, “Mother, please give me some rice”, it is so nice to hear. The mother’s heart will melt. Even if there is no rice at home, she will quickly fix something, call the beggar and give him food. She will ask him to repeat his words so she can hear him say the gentle words again, “Mother.” She will say, “Please do call me Mother. The children in my house do not. They fight a lot. You can call me Mother. Come every day. I will give you food”. The mother has so much compassion. No one can show the compassion shown by mother. There are many mothers seated here. They have so much compassion. Because they had no choice, they had to commit the sin [of cooking meat]. I believe that they will not commit that sin today onward. I think they will give up [meat].
Like that, the Lord protected Prahlada at all instances and at all times. When he was given poisoned milk, the Lord appeared in the milk. The Lord would be right there, but would not make himself visible. He was not removing Prahlada’s troubles. But did Prahlada ever think, “I have called him so many times. He never came. My father is torturing me so much. Why do I not just chant my father’s name instead?” If he thought this way, what would happen? Dharma would not survive. If Prahlada had changed his mind, I would not be telling you this story. We would not have had Dharma. That is why with the resolution that Dharma had to win, Prahalda said, “It is okay if I lose my life. I will be firm in my resolution. Do whatever you want. Torture me as much as you wish”. He continued chanting “Narayana, Narayana, Srimannarayana, Narayana, Naryana, Satyanarayana, Narayana, Lakshmi Narayana, Krishna, Hare, Pundareeka, Bhaktavatasala…” He kept calling out for the Lord every second. When Prahlada fell from the cliff, the Lord held his hand so he would not fall to the ground. But the Lord was not visible. The time was not ready.
People want troubles to go away. But the time has to come. Some people want to get married. When your time and fortune for marriage arrives, it will happen, before you even realize. You feel bad that you are still not married. First, you must be in the state to get married. If you are wandering aimlessly without much education, who will give you a bride? If you keep telling lies and giving in to rowdy behavior, who will give you their daughter? Even a donkey will not. It will kick you. Even educated girls should get a degree and get a job. You should be independent. If the girl is employed, families definitely come forward to marry the girl. I have told hundreds of thousands of people that. They come and say, “I am still not married”. I ask them “What is your education?” “I did my undergrad”. I tell them, “Take up a job-related course and get a job”. I’m telling that to many people seated here.
When you are employed, people will come forward to marry you. These days it is necessary that both husband and wife be employed in order to make some money. When you raise a family, you will have more needs and expenses. That is why when you join hands together your family will run smoothly. Those who were married 40-50 years ago are done, but these days, both need to be employed. Even if you find a reasonably well-to-do businessman, the girl has to work. You may wonder why Swamiji is saying all this. “Why should I only be cooking?” You can cook too, but why not work as well? We are all equal. God gave us this body. Why not work? We talk a lot about gender equality, but we should do something to show for it. Show it in your actions. Do not just raise slogans of equality. Show it in your actions. You must become an officer. So many IAS officers, so many police officers are girls. So many lovely daughters are doctors. Even though they are not married, they have so much radiance and strength. They have so much faith. The old people are the ones that cry about girls not getting married, but the girls are brave. “They did not fall into delusion like we did. They should fall into delusion like us, they should have children like we did, they should go through troubled times like we did, only then are we happy. Ahh good, my children suffered like me, good”. So many parents also say, “If you do not want to get married, be happy. Do your job, do some charity, do good to others”. There are great parents like this in many households. There are many young people like this too. Men and women are equal. The body may be different, but no one has the strength and awareness that women do.
I am saying all this because I am my mother’s son. I am Jayalakshmi Mata’s son. My mother taught me this. I asked my mother why she did not make me a girl. When I was nine years old, a few days before she was to pass on, I asked her. She cried and said, “You are Datta, not Anagha. You are not realizing who you are, my son. Do not play like Krishna. Krishna used to play like this, how can you do this too? You are Uttama Purusha [the Supreme Soul]”. She told me all this then. That is why I am saying, I like girls very, very much because you are all Jayalakshmi Mata to me. I see everyone as Jayalakshmi Mata. Every movement is like mother’s movement. Guru is my father. He was an excellent guru and a friend. Even though I was the Guru, I was like a friend to him. I would address him as Father [Nanna] and he would in turn, call me Father. He used to call me Father or Great Soul [Mahanubhava]. I used to be embarrassed, I was very little. Why are you calling me Mahanubhava? “You do not know”, he used to say. He was a great soul, so he knew. I was small, what did I know? I used to play with marbles. What do I know? Of course, I knew. But I had to pretend I did not. I can reveal my nature only when the time is right. It will not happen prematurely. It will happen only at the right time. Until then, divinity will not be illuminated. Did the Lord show His cosmic form over and over again in the Mahabharata? He did only when the time was right.
The Lord went for negotiations. They made human efforts first. Sanjaya was not successful with negotiations. “Do not wage a war”, he said to Duryodhana. “Many will die. Innocent people will die. O King, do you have any sense?”, Sanjaya indicated with his words. He had the right to speak that way. “Give it up. Your relatives will be destroyed. Pandavas are not strangers. They are your brothers. Dharmaraja is the oldest one. Do not be unjust to them. If you wish, just give them five small villages. They will live there. They will take care of those villages”. Even then, they [Kauravas] did not listen. Human effort failed. Human effort will not work. Divine effort alone works. Then Lord Krishna himself went. He went and said to Duryodhana, “There will be much bloodshed. That is not just. But you are not the king. You are the indisputable emperor. Everything will happen according to your word. If you say No, everybody will give up war. What is your preference? You are announcing war”. He finally even said, “Pandavas can even be your slaves. They will bring you gifts. They will be regional kings. Just give them small villages”. Our supreme Lord Krishna pleaded with them in many ways.
But what did they do? They tied up the Lord in view of the full assembly. What is that if not ignorance? How can you tie the Lord? How long will it take for him to free himself? When the mother tied up the toddler Krishna to a mortar, he dragged the mortar to uproot two tall trees [and liberate two celestials]. No amount of rope Mother Yasoda brought was enough to tie the Lord. Yasoda struggled a lot to tie him up. When they were tying him up with the rope in the assembly, he remembered the instance from the childhood when Yasoda tied him up to a mortar. He closed his eyes and remembered his mother. Krishna always remembered Yasoda. Even though he was born to Devaki, he loved Yasoda. Children greatly adore the mother that feeds them. In some homes, the kids are always running after the aunt, they do not go to their mother . They go after the one that calls them lovingly. Nothing wrong with that. The mother need not be jealous, “Why does he do this?” It is the mistake you made when he was an infant. You would often give the baby to the aunt and ask her to wash and feed the baby. Now you realize. He would only go after the aunt, he never comes to you, because you did not take care of him like a mother. What you did was different. You gave birth and handed him over to the aunt. Next, you are ready to give birth to another child. It is a competition. “The neighbor gave birth to one, I will give birth to three”. “The neighbor gave birth to two, I will give birth to five”. We are competing to give birth to more kids. “You gave birth to ten children? It does not look like that.” That means [they are hinting] you can give birth to one more. That is the situation. You did not take care of your child. Lord Krishna too did not grow up with Devaki. He grew up with Yasoda. So, he used to address Yasoda as “Mother”. Devaki did not mind. She was not jealous. She was only happy that he grew up well. He was away from the enemies. She was so happy that he loved his mother so much. Even though the Lord was born to her, she did not think of him as the Lord. Even though Yasoda was bringing up the Lord she never one day felt he was the Paramatman. When you keep the book too close to your eyes, you cannot read the letters in the book. You need to keep the book a little away from your eyes to read.
We know Swamiji very well. If you are always sticking around him and following him around, you will not realize his greatness. Only when you are away you realize the greatness. I am fire, realize that the farther you are, the more you will realize my greatness. The closer you get, the more familiar you will get, and speak inappropriately due to the familiarity. That is a great sin. The Lord should never be close. He is a snake that will hiss. The snake looks nice. Is it is said that the serpent smells good. But if you put it in your pocket, it will bite you. The poor creature needs protection. Like that, if you keep troubling him, Swamiji too will tell you off and ask you to go away. We cannot object to that then because it is our mistake. “ I went to him this time without being called, I made a mistake and he scolded me”. It is not a curse we annoyed Swamiji. So, we should be happy.
Devaki gave birth, but unable to bear the torture of the enemies she sent him away. Otherwise she would have kept him close to her. She kept all of the previous children she gave birth to, close to her. What did her brother rather do? He killed them. He would have killed Krishna too. Of course, no one could kill him. But the play had to go on that way, The Lord had to grow up elsewhere. That is why all this drama played out. He showed his miracles as soon as he was born. How else would the Yamuna river give way for them to walk? How else would Kali [the snake] provide shelter and prevent rain from falling on the baby? How could everyone [prison guards] fall asleep in the night, how could Devaki’s shackles break off, how could Vasudeva’s shackles break off? He played all this drama. Sri Krishna’s birth was a wonderful birth. If Devaki had kept the child with her, what would happen? The previous children that were killed went away as Goddess Kali. What would happen if they tried to kill Krishna too? The story would probably be over. But the story cannot be over. More demons had to be extricated. Killing Kamsa alone was not enough. He had plenty of demons under him. All of them had to be killed, otherwise they would turn into Kamsas. Kamsa had many friends with a lot of magic powers including demons like Pootana. All of them had to be given the appropriate treatment. They would all come out only if Kamsa was there. Otherwise, they would not. If he killed Kamsa, they would all go away and become like Kamsas. The world would be full of demons. Therefore, Sri Rama too killed Ravana at the end only, after killing Kumbhakarna and other demons, did he not? Was it so hard for him to kill Ravana? Sri Rama had to keep his wife there. He kept the Divine Mother there. He sold the Divine Mother and gave her so much trouble. Just as Harishchandra sold his wife for truth, Sri Rama kept the Divine Mother suffering there for Dharma. There is so much subtlety in Dharma here. They are not just stories. There are nuances in Dharma for us to understand. You must listen. You cannot listen afterwards in life. Five minutes later, you cannot hear all this. Once this is done, we each go our way. You take Prasadam and go home. We can always get Prasadam.
(There is tamarind rice and other stuff. I do not know what they made today [for Prasadam]. There were some impediments today. Do you have Prasadam today? [The volunteer says something inaudible on Yogasangeeta]. Okay, even if you do not have food my devotees have food, thanks. [The devotees applaud]. See how they are applauding when I said there may be no food for you. You take such good care of them. You call them and give them food. You work so hard for them. They are actually applauding because I said there is food for them. There is food for everyone. I was just joking.)
So, it may be good if the Lord gives us more suffering. We must develop the energy to withstand that suffering. “I called God so many times, he did not come”. How will He? You have no such energy. How much did Gajendra pray and plead? The Lord finally came to his rescue after much pleading and prayer, but only after Gajendra lost all his strength. After he lost all his ego, the Lord ran to him. Gajendra had much ego. After he lost all his vigor, the Lord came and protected him. Why did the Lord not protect Draupadi quickly? Only when she raised both her hands and prayed to him did Lord Krishna protect her. It was his responsibility to protect her modesty.
So, they tied up such a Lord Krishna here. He then showed his spectacular cosmic form. Similarly, even when Prahlada was tortured so much, he did not see the cosmic form of the Lord. The time had not yet come. The pot of sins had to be full before it broke. Sometimes, when the pot is full, it breaks, if it is not fully baked. You might think, “I have so much devotion. The neighbors have no devotion. They keep going out all the time. They do not think about God”. You are protecting your energy. You are saving it. Just as we save money, we are saving strength, Dharma and devotion along with Swamiji. You need this for all births. You need this for your children. The neighbors did not do that. Whatever they are saving is getting exhausted.
You swipe your card and fill up the form to offer something to Swamiji. You can swipe only if you have money in the bank. Otherwise, how can you? You may donate a small amount of Rs. 500 or Rs. 1000 or Rs. 2000, but you need to have bank balance. If you have no bank balance, how do you swipe? You need the bank balance of devotion. Only then, Swamiji will set out to protect you. That is his Dharma. It is your duty to save that balance and it is his duty to protect you. He protects his Dharma. You should protect your Dharma. You cannot get immediate results. You cannot get pregnancy the moment you decide to have kids. Someone was asked to go around the Asvattha tree to fulfill her wish of having kids. She went around the tree and was touching her belly after every round to see if she got pregnant. How will she get pregnant? It is not like filling up the lungs with air. “What that holy man said about this tree is not true. I went around the tree, but I am still not pregnant”. That is not right. The time has to be right for you to have children. Just as the time has to be right to get married. If you pick an unripe fruit from the tree, will it taste good? Wait for it to get a little ripe and wrap it in dried grass for it to ripen or just pick the fruit when it is ripe. If you want the fruit right away and you pick the unripe fruit to eat, you will throw up. You need to give it time. Cooking needs time. You ask for the food to be cooked quickly. The food needs to be boiled. You pray for Swamiji to give you blessings right this moment. What are you? Who are you? What is your understanding? What is your devotion? What is your lineage? I need to know this. You also need to know “Who is this Guru? What is he like? What is his mind like? What is his life history? Does he have compassion?” Having a white beard does not make everyone a Guru. “What kind of Guru is he? Can he protect us? Can he reveal himself in my heart? Can he help me?“ Only when I feel like having him in my heart will he help me, should I go to him. The timing has to be right.
Even though we have a Guru-disciple relationship, you are now a devotee. But if you need to be disciples, you need to evolve from being a devotee to becoming a disciple. There are some disciples seated here. There are many disciples here who received initiation from Swamiji. There are many. We need to change and evolve. The time has to come. Like that, Prahlada’s time had not yet come. Similarly, time to reveal the cosmic form had not yet arrived. Similarly, it was not the right time for Devaki to realize, as the mother. When the time comes, everything changes.
[Volunteer comes to get the Prasadam blessed by Swamiji]. Looks like there is sambar, rice, buttermilk, papad…will everyone get papad? There is laddu too. My children cannot stand hunger. They are like me. Please have two or three stations to serve food. I just scolded them, so they are hungry.]
We did Bhajans [humorously means scolding] so far, so it is time for Bhojan [food] now. So, when the time is right, everything will happen. Until then, what should we do? We should be patient. Patience is our sadhana [spiritual practice]. If we have no patience, nothing will happen. “Should we be patient until death?” Yes, in some cases you have to. Some people have had that experience. Some people come to the conclusion they are ready for dispassion [vairagya]. After hankering after things for a long time, going to so many doctors, leaving no stone unturned, pouring so much money, you just give up and pray. You come to the conclusion, “O God, you are with me. I am offering my salutations to you. It is you who protects me. Let me to go to see Swamiji. Swamiji alone is enough. That is all I need. All I need is to listen to him and see him. That is enough”. There are many devotees here who feel this way. “We are tired of asking for things. He keeps asking us to do Sadhana all our life”. This is a kind of Sadhana. Do not think that your work is not done. You have a good friend in Swamiji. That is enough. He is a good friend. He gave us such a good Satsang. That is all we need.
Prahlada thought along these lines towards the end. The time was near. The Lord was waiting for him to gain that dispassion. We need that. “I do not want anything else, I just want Swamiji’s grace”. So many came for Pada Puja today. I am so happy, I am getting tears in my eyes. They came inside – they were old and dear devotees of Swamiji. I asked them what they wanted. “I have no desire, I only want Swamiji’s grace”. They asked to touch his feet. Some did not even ask to touch his feet. “It is enough if you are watching over us. We need to be in your heart, you need to be in our heart. My mind needs to be filled with your feet.” I asked them, “You had to pay money and come to me for this?” “No, we wanted to come close to you. We saved up our money for this”. Two or three devotees among the ten that came for Pada Puja said this. I had tears in my eyes.
Time [Samaya] is patience [Samyama]. It is when we are patient that things happen smoothly. We get tired of waiting in long queues. When you go in a queue to see Venkata Ramana Swamy [in Tirupati], we get enchanted when we see the form of the Lord. People keep asking us to move, but we do not even notice that. We only see the Lord. When the time is right, Hiranyakasipu asked if the Lord was in the iron pillar. Prahlada said, “Why not? He is everywhere. There is no doubt that he is all-pervading. He is in you, he is in me. My Lord is everywhere”. “Then, why can you not see him?” “He is in me, why should he make himself visible to me? I am not different from him. We are the same”. He developed so much dispassion. “I am not different from him. I can experience the Lord. I cannot explain it. I am seeing him. I cannot tell you how he looks”.
“I am going to Swamiji for 30 years, but when someone asks me to describe Swamiji, I cannot. I just go to Swamiji. If I talk about small miracles, Swamiji laughs at them. And he says that we should not talk about those trivial things. “My mind is transformed since I went to him. My mind is calm. My desire may not have been fulfilled, but he has given me the strength to endure. I realized it was my mistake to go to him out of desires. If I do not go to him, where will I get the energy and endurance from? I got this energy. This energy makes me live. This energy makes me happy”. There are plenty who say this. “He has given me courage. That is enough. There is no one else who can do this. Everyone is always discouraging. If you tell them about your troubles, they will add to the discouragement. If they lament over our troubles, we will start crying too. But Swamiji is not like that. He dismisses your problems and assures nothing will happen to you. That is enough. We will be good. No danger anymore. That faith is itself contemplation on Guru. You good devotees of Pithapuram have come today for the Kumbhabhishekam. Brahma Kalashabhishekam has taken place. Before leaving, either before or after lunch, have Darshan of the Lord and the Kalasha. Come in a line before the evening and have Darshan. If you see the Lord once, that is enough, good things will happen to you.
Narasimha Swamy revealed Himself. By the grace of the Lord, the demon was killed and Prahlada was protected. Prahlada suffered so much. Finally, he attained liberation. The Lord too took on a lot of suffering as he came out of the iron pillar. Did he have to come in that grotesque form for Prahlada? It was not a guise, it was a form he took on. Did he need to take on the half-man, half-lion form? Our Lord Krishna is such a handsome Lord. He was so beautiful that he enchanted everyone. Such a Lord had to come in a grotesque form because he had to kill the demon in that form. The demon prayed and attained boons that set conditions in which he could not be killed. He could not be killed either inside the house or outside, neither in the sky nor on earth, neither with a crowbar, nor with a knife, nor with a mace. He asked for so many boons. As he prayed, Brahma kept saying “So be it”. He did not even think. He did not think about how hard it might be for Maha Vishnu in the future. He had no compassion. He kept saying, “So be it”.
Lord searched for a way out. Hiranyakasipu also said the one to kill him could not be born in certain places. As soon as Hiranyakasipu asked if the Lord was in the pillar, the Lord thought he could take birth there. He was torturing Prahlada since morning. It was evening time. Hiranyakasipu said he could be killed neither in the morning, nor in the day nor in the night. It was dusk at that time. He had not mentioned dusk when asking for his boons. He asked not be killed inside the house or outside. He was killed on the threshold/gateway – neither inside nor outside. He asked to be killed neither by a human nor by an animal. The Lord came in the form of half human and half lion. He came with two bodies. Hiranyakasipu had asked no weapons could be used to kill him. My Lord used his nails. He suffered so much. To take that form is so hard. It was a grotesque form that was hard to withstand. He had boons that life could not escape from his eyes or from his ears or from his head or from his heart or legs or hands or hair and so on. He did not mention the stomach. His life left him from his stomach. He had specified all the places he could not be killed. Lord Narasimha Swamy placed him on his thighs, tore open his stomach with his nails and killed the wicked demon.
The famous Kannada saint Sri Purandaradasa sang about this instance in one of his compositions that the Lord did not tear open the stomach to kill the demon, but tore open the stomach to see how many gems like Prahlada he had had in his stomach. He sang with such great meaning. The Lord wore the garland of the demon’s intestines around his neck. Such a fortunate soul! Can we get the fortune of having the Lord wear our intestines around him? Can we do that? Will he kill us like that? That would be great. We are not that fortunate. Because Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksha used to be very near to the Lord as Jaya and Vijaya, the Lord took them back to him quickly by destroying them in those births. The Lord could not stay away from them for too long, so he ended their lives soon. There is a meaning for everything. We may question many things out of our limited understanding, but it all happens for the protection of Dharma. He had to protect the good and punish the evil.
Today, the compassionate Lord is protecting us. He gave us birth during these times. We will spend our life in the religion and the lineage we are born in. We should not change our religion under any circumstance. Regardless of the troubles, we should not give up devotion to Guru. We should not give up Dharma. We should walk the path of Dharma with devotion to Guru and always pray to the Lord. All our desires will be fulfilled. No need to even come trouble me. I am blessing you all. May all your desires be fulfilled. May good things happen to you. May your tasks be fulfilled. The compassionate Lord took so many forms – Matsya incarnation was so difficult, Kurma incarnation was so difficult, Yajna Varaha incarnation was so difficult. Who did he do this for? Did the Lord have to be born so short in the Vamana incarnation where he revealed his divine form? If we continue talking like this, we can spend hours and days on end.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta