Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji during the Datta Kriya Yoga Sadguru Charana Sannidhi conference – February 22, 2023 – Nadamantapam, Mysore
All of you keep your eyes open and listen. If you have any problems in the body, open your eyes slightly and close them again so you can sit again for longer. Sitting still for 40 mins while listening to sounds is good.
Listen to the sound of waterfalls when you visit. Once you go back home, sit and recall the sounds you heard. This will help with ekagrata and meditation. If you sit here and think about other matters, it is dangerous to your health. Many people are sitting here with eyes closed and thinking many things. If you sit with eyes closed and think of Kama, Krodha, money, travel, calculations and budgets, instead of meditation, this is all dangerous for your heart, health and future. Instead stop meditation. Wrong meditation is not good.
Instead, you can go and jump, sleep, eat, quarrel and do all the things that keep you busy. Even 10-20 mins is enough for meditation, but 40 mins is ideal. After 40 mins, take some rest and change your position and sit again for 10 mins. Repeat again after 24 hours. In the beginning start with 10-15 mins and go up to 40 mins with an alarm when you’re back at home. Initially set the alarm to go off after 10 mins, and slowly you can increase the duration of your meditation based on your capacity. Assess your capacity and slowly buildup to 40 mins. As you come to doing 40 mins, you will become very disciplined.
The next step is mouna, which leads to concentration, Dhyana and gnyana. Without gnyana, there is no path to moksha. Bhakti too must be coupled with gnyana. Just as simply eating food without knowing the ingredients in it is not good, know the path to gnyana. All that we practice in yoga leads to gnyana.
If you simply announce that you have been practicing yoga and Dhyana for many years, it would be a mistake. It will lead to your downfall. Always approach yoga and think of yourself as a beginner even if you have read many books. Only those who come to Sadguru like small children who know nothing, will benefit. If you say you have a little knowledge, and want a little more, you will not succeed.
You all are on the path of Bhakti, but we are meeting here on the path of gnyana. You may be teaching others, but you are still a student. Just as only an ocean can hold the water drawn from an ocean, where will the knowledge drawn from the ocean of Yoga flow into? Since we cannot become an ocean, it is best we partake of this knowledge and merge in the ocean of knowledge. Instead of drawing the water, just take a dip and remain in the water. Just keep doing sadhana.
You can keep acquiring degrees and PhDs, but ultimately when you die, what happens to that knowledge? Therefore, as long as you are alive, keep doing sadhana which will finally result in salvation.
As a person what karmas can you take up at the most? You can pursue a job, get married and have children. What else can be done? If you have a job, you can get a bigger job but when Swamiji teaches you Manasa puja or mental worship, there is no next step. It is the step.
To control the mind from running in all directions, play a soothing sound. After a few days, you should be able to hear that sound even when it is not playing. Sometimes you will feel sleepy. Learn to keep the senses alert. To avoid sleeping too much, reduce food intake. This is why Yogic food is prescribed. Sleep only comes when the body needs to digest food. Instead of eating 4 idlis, eat 2. Instead of eating 1, eat only half an idli, then you will be able to stay awake.
First control food intake to control sleep. Then listen to soothing music to bring the mind under control. When the mind comes under your control, you will be meditating even while speaking to someone. After chanting the mantra crores of times, the mantra will continue even while you are speaking to someone. (HH warns how all the mantra chanting comes undone when one is plagued by mental anguish though.)
There is no next step after merging with the divine, so stop this habit of asking for what is next all the time. Just be happy with what you have seen. There are very few who after an event say, “this sight is enough for me! Even if I die at this point, it is fine. There is nothing else I need.” They no longer feel like doing anything, and just do whatever needs to be done without involvement. Remaining thus, ever with that moment is ajapa japam.
Machines such as fans do not turn so they may generate breeze and get moksha, they simply give breeze. They have no sense of doership. The fan simply turns because of the energy flowing to it. Similarly, this world turns because of the Lord’s energy. The Sun’s rays go everywhere – irrespective of whether the place is clean or filthy without any reservation.
Man made machines can work at various speeds, but God given aspects of nature move at a uniform pace in line with what this world needs.
All the words I have spoken may seem strange to you, but this subject is very deep. You are all here because you are interested in Kriya Yoga. Do not use this energy cheaply to solve small worldly problems. HH gives the example of a yogi who wastes 20 years of tapas simply to walk on water, whereas Ramakrishna Paramahamsa spent a little money and went across in a boat. Know what to expend your energy on, and only if it useful to others.
The energy which you gain from kriya yoga sadhana is like filtered water obtained after carefully catching, boiling and filtering sediments from water. Thinking that kriya yoga healed your leg pain is your delusion. Kriya yoga simply lifted the veil of illusion of pain. Just as money does not feed people, but food obtained with money is used to cook and feed people, the Yoga which you do now results in energy which is Paramatma’s energy. The Yoga which you offer now will become the guiding light in future births.
Don’t overdo exercise. Don’t overeat just because you have a body. Do mild exercise like walking, swimming and simple yoga asanas. If you control food intake, the mind will come under control. While living in this world, you must quietly do your yoga sadhana in secret. HH sees many devotees who come to Him with problems. Their problem is an illusion and the solution I give is also an illusion. Once I give them a solution, I immediately forget about it and move on, otherwise I won’t be able to focus on the next devotee. I forget about a bhajan after I write the lyric, because I don’t need it anymore. Just as a doctor leaves all his patients’ problems outside his main door, while spending time with family, you must leave the world behind while practicing yoga. Otherwise, you all know what happened to countless psychiatrists who dwelled too much on their patients’ problems and eventually needed to be admitted.
You should not become a burden to others. First, learn to be happy and forget about problems. Isn’t this why you sing bhajans and come sit in front of Swamiji? We follow whatever the captain of the ship says. When he asks you to throw your luggage overboard, will you worry about the money in the bag?
If you understood what I said today, you are good students, if not, you are bad students.