Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji at Venkataramana Temple – November 10, 2022 – Induru
We witnessed Girija Kalyanam/Parvati Kalyanam – the divine wedding of the primordial couple. This kalyanam we witnessed is for universal welfare, it’s not a wedding between dolls. It is a grave mistake and a sin to think this is a wedding between dolls because these Utsava moortis have had Prana Pratishtha – they have the life force invoked in them.
As Shiva is also present in this Uttara Tirupati kshetra, it teaches us that Shiva and Vishnu are one – that is the main purpose of this place. Even foreigners hold this place in high regard, they wish to visit this place. We are fortunate to consecrate Uttara Tirupati Lord here, and visit this place. On Vaikuntha Ekadasi it seems as if Vaikuntha has descended on earth – such are the programs taking place here. We all got together and built this kshetra and when we see the architecture, the shrines, the altars, the towers, moortis etc, we feel as if an old temple has been excavated from underneath. Old temples used to be like this, made in stone. Over time, many have become dilapidated, some got buried underground, some are being rejuvenated and by Lord’s grace a few temples are giving us Darshan again. The temples are not meant for pastime. The Lord into whom the divine life energy has been invoked verily talks to us – he talks to us in our heart.
Along with Vishnu Darshana, we witnessed Shiva Kalyanam and we also had darshana of the moon during this lunar month of Kartika. The Induru, Nizamabad, devotees are very fortunate. The Kalyanam (wedding) we witnessed is the union of mind and intellect – that is Yogam. Vedas and scriptures say Kalyanam is a yogic process. It is not a human wedding. Mother who is the form of Prakrti is uniting with Shiva who is the form of Purusha. The primordial couple is giving us Darshana in this manner.
Like we do daily Anagha Vratams and Satyanarayana vratam in the south, in the north, every household in the villages does Girija Kalyanam everyday throughout the year. When we go to Kashi and interior Uttar Pradesh, they perform Girija Kalyanam in every single village – it is a household practice there. Bhagavata Parayanam takes place in atleast 1 in every 10 households everyday. When you watch the north Indian TV channels like Aastha, Sanksar and other 10-12 of them, you will always find Bhagavatam discourses. Everyone from auto driver to big officers sit and listen, and the crowd is twice as large as this crowd. They have a lot of devotion there for that reason. Women undertake many vows of sacred practices (vrata). But the devotion in south India has diminished. It is said to be a cursed land but we should not let that be the case. We should arrange for Bhagavatam discourses in our neighborhoods, arrange for such kalyanam, or visit with great devotion wherever they are happening. When you visit, offer your small support to them with humility. Instead of getting caught up in who is in management team and who is organizing, you must just come attend out of devotion.
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I was supposed to be in Delhi now, that was going to be a week-long massive program. Sarojnagar is a really backward area and our Ashram is helping with food and education for many impoverished children there. They also built a new Guru Nilayam, so a program was planned there. When Mr. Venkatraman was President of India, he allocated a land for Ashrama in Dwaraka since Sarojnagar was a bit far from the city and it was cumbersome traveling there. I was scheduled to visit Dwaraka as well yesterday, which is closer to city center.
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Swamiji’s voice got impacted severely due to constant talking, discoursing, bhajans etc. The doctors advised complete rest for Appaji. Plus, Delhi has so much pollution that the ones who arranged the program in Delhi prayed to Appaji to not visit as that would not be good for Appaji’s health. But within two days the throat was alright. I have invisible wheels on my feet and I cannot be still at one place and that is why you got lucky today. I was not going to come to Koti Deepotsavam in Hyderabad as I was resting, but the owners of Bhakti TV who arranged the program insisted that Swamiji visit. I have been attending the program since its inception. They said it would be an incomplete and lackluster program without Appaji’s visit. They arranged for a special flight for Swamiji even though I told them not to waste money. They were adamant. That is why I visited Koti Deepotsava program. They said 10 minutes of Swamiji’s presence would be wonderful, but I sat there for 3 hours.
There is a huge program at Machilipatnam on the 13th – Sahasragala Bhagavad Gita Parayana. In the US, they did a massive Sahasragala event in a stadium, and the arena was overflowing. They distributed 49,000 food packets. I was there for 5 days. Inspired by that event, Machilipatnam devotees have taken up the mantle to do Sahasragala in India. During Gita Jayanti, we will have Sahasragala in Mysuru. I said Bala Swamiji will come but I will not come for that event (in Machilipatnam) and they left it to my will – no one pressures me or causes me any discomfort. But I had two days in between these visits, so I decided to come here.
We had Rudra Homa in the morning and Kalyanam now in the evening. We lit a lamp here now. Lighting one lamp is at par with lighting 1 crore lamps. Lighting a lamp is akin to driving away ignorance/darkness. We are all suffering from avidya and karma, and we are in need of jnana. The feeling of “I dont know” is avidya especially when this relates to scriptural injunctions. We should listen to elders and the experienced with interest. You all (Nizamabad devotees) have good devotion towards God and Guru. Teach the same to your children. The intellect, body and soul needs such satsanga, such temples and such friendship with Guru. This alone is permanent. What is visible is not eternal. God is not visible, if he is visible, we will ask him for random desires. We should figure out how to see the one that does not appear in front of our eyes.
Once king Bhoja was plagued by three questions – Where is god? What is he seeing? What is he doing right now? After asking many, the king finally asked the chief scholar of his court the same questions. The scholar was confused and did not know what to do. The scholar was given an ultimatum – if he failed to answer the question the next day, he would be beheaded. The scholar was afraid and worried about his his ill fate. He referred to many books but could not find an answer and he went home feeling hopeless. By that time, a lot of people had given various weird replies but the king was not happy and finally, the responsibility (risk) had fallen on the scholar. Back then, the king’s word was final. The scholar went home and cried, afraid that he might die.
A young cowherd boy at home who was rearing the cattle asked him the scholar and found out what the matter was. The boy assured the scholar that he would come along and answer the questions. He looked shabby as he did not bathe for a long time, so the scholar hesitated but the boy insisted to go the court shabby (with patches of cow dung). The scholar dissuaded the boy saying the he will be beheaded but he did not even care because it was his duty to protect his master (the scholar). The boy said, “A servant must protect the master at all costs, as master is the provider and life giver.”
The scholar having no other recourse took the boy to the king the next day, as he was prepared to die anyway. He introduced the boy to the king as the candidate who is going to give the answers. The boy was stinking and was smeared with cow dung all over. He used to bathe once in 15 days. It is still better than many people who bathe once when they are born, and get bathed once after death. They are devoid of jnana in both these instances. Such are the customs of certain people! The king was liberal – he only wanted the answer, he did not care who answered.
The king asked the boy – Where is God now?
The boy asked for a big bowl of milk and the king had it brought in. The boy asked – what are all the things you can get from milk? The king said – butter after churning, ghee after melting, curd etc. The boy said, he could not see the butter, and demanded that the butter be shown. The king said butter is within the milk and there is a process to extract butter – the milk had to be boiled, turned into curd and then churned to extract butter. The boy said, “In the same manner, to be able to see God, one needs to do sadhana. Then, God appears in the form that the aspirant seeks. God appears in various forms to various people. When 10 poor people eat to their heart’s content, they see God there. People see God in various forms, with various names – for some their parents are God, and for others their Guru is God. It depends on their Upasana (devotion & worship). The king was impressed at the intellect of the cowherd who answered his first question.
Second question – What is god looking at?
The boy got a lamp ordered and asked – which direction is the lamp looking in? The lamp’s light spread in all directions. Why do we light a lamp? Where does the light fall? All around. The Lord too is looking all around – but we are unable to perceive. Divinity is the reason we can walk, eat, speak, sleep, hear etc and do all our activities. The divine illumination is everywhere, that is why we are alive. We can live even without these (electric) lights, the Lord has given such power to our eyes. The power of the Sun and the Moon and the five gross elements keeps us alive. If these things were under government control, the story would be entirely different. We extracted this electric light from natural resources, so this light came from nature due to man’s intellect. But it is God who gave us that intellect in the first place. That is why, the entire world is lit up. We are living and eating and doing all our activities in that light even while getting entangled in various worldly trappings as per our karma. We are all in that divine light of the Lord – He is everywhere, not just here and there. We suffer based on our own karma: what we ate yesterday is digested today; similarly, the sins of prior birth lead to diseases in this birth. We should experience them gladly.
Ramana Maharshi had cancer. His German devotees got the tumor removed from his leg. When the sage woke up from the slumber caused by the sedative, he saw that the tumor was accidentally discarded in a bin in the same room. He bandaged the tumor back into his body by morning. Doctors were aghast and lamented the sage’s actions as they had come all the way to perform this surgery. The sage said he did not want the cancer of rebirth. “Let the germs of my cancer eat me now as it is karma. I do not want these germs to come back and haunt me again in next birth. They will not leave me until my karma depletes. I cannot live in this fickle world of humans. I want to experience all the suffering now, so let them eat me now.”
We must happily go through our suffering as it is caused by actions of our previous birth. Real devotees simply experience the suffering in this birth. If you find relief in this birth through medicines and surgeries, you will have to come back next birth and suffer again. It will destroy money and people around you. And yet you will suffer in this birth as well as the next. So why save it? Instead, go through that suffering now with a smile. Many devotees of mine suffer from cancer, but they experience it with a smile. For them Swamiji is everything – they go through the suffering listening to my words, singing Bhajans and doing Nama japa. There are many such devotees. There are some who hope that the disease will be cured and sell all their property for treatment. Neither does the person survive, nor does the money last. The children of the patient are on the street as they have no home/money. Many devotees write their will deed saying they don’t want to be fitted with tubes and other things – they want to die peacefully without too many medicines or tubes and write their will deed to that effect. You might be scared listening to the word ‘will deed’ because you yearn to live longer. That yearning must be gone. Did you expect you would be fortunate today for the Guru to visit? And for this Kalyanam to take place in the lunar month of Kartika? It is wonderful, it is divine will. Lord is seeing everything.
The third question – What is God doing at the moment?
The boy said – This is a difficult question, I can only answer it if you are my disciple. But disciple must sit down and the Guru must sit above. As I am going to answer the most valuable question, I am your Guru, so I must be seated above. The boy asked the king to descend from the throne. The king had good intellect, he only wanted the answer and was ready to accept the boy as his Guru. The king came down the throne and sat down. The foul smelling boy went up to the throne. The ministers were worried the stink was spreading everywhere, but the king only cared for the answer. He is my Guru and we should not be concerned about the smell – he told his ministers and sought the answer from the boy. The boy said the answer was in front of him. He said, you were on the throne and I was sitting down. Now I am on the throne and you are sitting there. This is what God is doing – He pushes one up and pulls another down. This cycle goes on and on – this is God’s doing. So the nature of God is unpredictable – no one knows what is going to happen the next second. We are all servants and dolls.
What we witnessed is not a wedding of dolls, we are the dolls, God is the one with consciousness. God must be thinking a lot of dolls (human beings) have come for the wedding. God can remove our life in a trice, can we do the same to Him? God is running this puppet show. He gave us a lot of ego and arrogance. None of this in the world is permanent, only our devotion is permanent.
Fourteen judges came together for the Delhi program, 30 lakh rupees was paid in advance, yet I am here. The devotees there are so devoted, they only wanted Swamiji to be well – my health is of paramount importance to them. They are happy to organize the program another time and pay again. There are many stubborn devotees like that so I will definitely go there for them some other time.
But Induru devotees stole the three days allotted to Delhi program this time. Instead of attributing doership, I prayed to Venkateswara Swamy in the morning, “O Lord! Your Maya is extreme and brought me to the place where I said I would not be!” We want to build a shed here so that we can organize big programs here. All of you come together and make it happen, so that there is shelter from heat. We initially thought the view of the temple would be hidden by the shed, but we need a shed so we can have wonderful programs here. We can have the view from the other side. Then, I can come and stay here for 10 days. We can do various programs like Venkataramana kalyanam, Girija kalyanam, Annadana etc. Shantis can also be performed as this is a kshetra. We can also do Annadana after developing kshetra. People living around here can donate a sack of rice once in a while.
We are doing a program where devotees set aside a fistful of rice each day at home. When they come to temple, they bring that rice to the temple. We can finish the task by bring four big bags of rice ourselves, but when you do this (collecting rice) seva, your sins will be removed – that is the secret behind it. If you remove hunger once by donating a fistful of rice, your hunger for 7 births will be removed by the Lord. It is also for our children and their descendants to have good food and be well. Datta’s shrine is here and the Bhiksha vesel will be arranged in front of Datta, and you all can bring the rice and offer it there. We can use that rice for Annadana.
Today is a wonderful day. May you and your families have good health and Jnana. We need good health to do anything. Even a lifespan of one second is a blessing. King Parikshit was cursed to die in 7 days. He listened to Sage Shuka Brahma narrate the Bhagavatam and attained liberation. Another king Venu was given 7 seconds. He chanted the name of Narayana and attained supreme felicity. That is why we name our children after Gods so that when we call them it will be equivalent to chanting divine names. But these days, children are named Tubelight, Market etc. What use are those names? They give no liberation. Every woman’s name can be appended with Lakshmi. The Lord and the Goddess have a thousand names. Any one of those names would be good for your child. When you have a male child, you can append one of the crores of Govinda’s name to their name. Ajamila got liberation after a life of sin because he chanted Narayana (his son’s name) at the end. Perform good programs at home, listen to Bhajans, teach children bhajans, do Nagara Sankeerta. Have children watch bhajans on Bhajan Babies channel. Do Anagha Vratam and Divya Nama Sankeertana at home.
This place will grow even more, it will progress. You all must create opportunities to do Seva here. That is the only thing that matters because we do not take anything with us. We even leave this beautiful body behind. As long as Shiva is in this body, we live. When Shiva leaves, we become “Shava” or corpse. The respect afforded to you is for the divine light in you, not the body. Once Shiva leaves, this body will have to merge into the elements. Billions have died. The kings and queens and beauty queens, and sages, and incarnations of Rama, Krishna and others have all gone. Anything that is embodied must be gone one day, so pursue adhyatma – spirituality – while you are alive. Do not just hanker after money. We want money money, money all the time. Courts, accident, hospital, operation, bad health, our lives are caught up in all this. Become more spiritual.
Money and home only bring fear and grief. Why do we need this? It only increases the troubles we go through to guard and save it. Only acquire as much as you need. Give children good education, why hoard wealth? Save some money for the unintelligent progeny, and spend the rest of the wealth meaningfully, give it to God. There are 5-6 devotees who were there last time who are not there now. After 10 years some more from this crowd will not be there. No one is permanent. That is the greatest fear, but Paramatma has hidden from us the time of our departure. Old age is very hard, we can manage all the other things but not old age. Once we are old, life is scary. Those around us do not like to serve us for long, money will only help for some time. The family waits for us to die, as they run out of patience serving us. They complain that celebrations in family are kept on hold for this oldie. They get vexed serving. Until the elders get old we only see their happy side but during old age we forget that we are enjoying their wealth.
Old age is a hard time in life – it is the most terrible Ashrama (stage of life). That is why many people are sent to old age homes. Some wise people voluntarily check in to old age homes so as to not trouble kids. You are obsessed with sending children to America. And once they go, they can’t come back to India, nor can you go to America. Why do you even have kids? Is it due to lust that you bear children? The children cannot make it to India at short notice if you suddenly lose your life. You want them to go to America but cry on the day they leave – it is like the sorrow of the final farewell. Those who go there, do not come back. Life is convenient there. They have one home, no need to go to temple or anything, they can live comfortably in their homes. Everyone is pursuing that gratification and comfort of living in the US. The aged are left behind.
After 50 years, see what our state will come to. That is why I told Prime Minister Modi ji to take care of the poor – everyone else is offered reservation, why not them? Now there is a recent court order that there be 10% reservation for the poor. Brahmins now have 10% reservation by order of the courts.
Time always goes in circles, it is never the same all the time. Let both the central and Telangana state governments be well. Telangana state has always been full of devotees. So let there be ample blessings to one and all.