Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Datta Kshetra Yatra 2025 – Swagata Sabha – SGS Ashrama, Vijayawada, AP – December 30, 2024
New year for us is Yugadi only, this calendar new year 2025 is only for our calculations and income tax purposes. This is not our tradition to celebrate the new year according to the Gregorian calendar. If you check the almanac, you will know the details. But you do not keep an almanac with you.
You can see how old our tradition of new year is – if you look at the panchangam – the almanac. But you don’t look at it, not care to buy it.
Our Hindu system was born well before 5000-6000 years. We gloat about it, but don’t follow it. If you look at the panchangam, you will see it’s been coming from over 5000 years. If you are able to see the panchangam and tell Me what year it is this, since when it started, I will give you prasadam. Google searches do not count.
How many years have we been doing the almanac? See the SGS Panchangam app. January 1 is only for income tax and accounting purposes. How many thousands of years have we had the panchangam? What year are we in right now?
Everyone must get the SGS Panchangam app. You must know our ancient Hindu Dharma. We should know these basics first. Acknowledge your mistake. Slap your cheeks.
You must learn and you must teach your children. If you don’t know our heritage and ancestry, how will that work? You know all the food dishes, but nothing about our heritage.
AD is Anno Domini which starts from the birth of Christ. But we’ve had a calendar way before then, so we should not change that. Kaliyuga started when Sri Krishna Paramatma left the planet. And it’s been about 5150 years or so. So, Swamiji instructs that all our birthdays and events should be marked according to the Hindu calendar alone.
We should teach children about our tradition. We should celebrate birthdays according to Hindu calendar alone. Tithi, nakshatra, etc., should be observed. For convenience, we celebrate per English calendar and then per lunar calendar, and then per star, etc. We should not celebrate that many times. We should only go by the lunar calendar. That will help us progress in our future births.
The Gregorian calendar date is only for marking our birth in hospitals, etc., but we should celebrate events per lunar calendar.
Here is the time, different Faith’s year has started:
10th – Islam started 610 CE.
9th – Taoism started around 140 CE. Taoism stresses the importance of living in harmony with nature.
8th – Christianity started around 33 CE
7th – Shintoism – Japan’s traditional religion, started at the beginning of CE
6th – Jainism roots are traced back to about 500 BCE stresses on truth and non-violence
5th – Confucianism started around 500 BCE
4th – Buddhism started around 500 BCE and stresses on enlightenment
3rd – Zoroastrianism established 1600 BCE. It is one of the most ancient.
2nd – Judaism roots traced back to 2200 BCE.
1st – Hinduism traced back to 5000 BCE.
This is based on the research done 120 years ago, so Hinduism dates back to 5120 BCE. So, it is the most ancient religion of the world.
So, the first religion was Hinduism. Krishna was born in Dwapara yuga, that is when our faith started. Christianity started when Christ passed.
Within our faith, infighting started, some gurus emerged and they all set up shops and that is how various faiths started. It is similar to how Kriya Yoga started first, now look at how many kinds of Yoga there are!
We have doubts and confusions. We think joining some faith will give us some benefits like getting a job or getting married, or having children or something like that. Islam was the last religion that came into being. Religion has become business. I do not want to discuss that.
Let’s look at ourselves. Let’s see where we are.
During the Kurukshetra battle, Arjuna pleaded and said battles will cause intermingling of faiths and traditions will get destroyed. Krishna said that to step into Satya Yuga, it is necessary to eliminate evil.
The Kauravas had insulted Paramatma Krishna. Sri Krishna had also revealed his Vishwaroopa – the cosmic form. The blind king Dhritarashtra saw the form, but he chose not to get enlightened. What a cruel death the blind king and Gandhari, his wife, suffered from – they died caught in a fire. He had 100 sons, no use. Gandhari cursed Krishna, that was wrong! But He accepted the curse since He had to find a way to leave the planet, and she had to suffer her fate. Despite knowing their sins were wicked, they supported their sons. That is why they had such a horrible death.
Ashvatthama employed his weapon against the unborn child in the womb of Utthara. Lord Krishna showed His Vishwaroopa and protected the child in the womb. That is why the child, when he was born, was looking all over for that form, and hence was called Parikshit (pariksha=exam/examine).
The Pandavas asked for a mere 5 villages, but the Kauravas refused even that. Karna’s chariot wheel got caught in a mud trap, just a piece of land that they refused to give to the Pandavas. In a recent excavation, they found a wheel from Karna’s chariot.
So, this is the calculation of the new year we should follow. Of course, Appaji will give you Darshan on January 1, that is just an excuse to give you Darshan. I will be in Hyderabad for Ugadi. I come here on January 1, may good things happen to you from that day on. Why go that far, whatever day you see Me is your birthday. Bala Swamiji often says that whenever he has Darshan of Appaji is a rebirth for him. What a beautiful thing to say!
We must adopt that mindset. When you see Swamiji, you have taken birth. You are in Swamiji’s presence – that means you are in the mother’s lap. What does the newborn know? Nothing. It cries for everything – it cries at and for light; it cries at and for wind.
Wherever the Guru is, we should prostrate in that direction. Wherever Bala Swamiji is traveling, we should prostrate in that direction. Same for Jayalakshmi Mata’s shrine. So, find these three directions every morning, and we should prostrate in that direction. This gives us jnana.
I did all this research for you. There are many more secrets. Many scholars have brought this out, but we never cared. Scholars have pleased and fed people and tried to give them this jnana, but I will not do that. I will beat you up.
You must see the panchangam. You must follow the panchangam and must observe all events based on that.
Second, no more cake cutting. Cake is akin to meat. Blowing candles is akin to extinguishing the lifespan. We should not extinguish; we should increase the lifespan.
Okay, you can make Badam (almond) halwa and light up lamps. You can sing the Sanskrit birthday song. Don’t cut the cake, but partake of it nicely. So, do not have the tradition of cake cutting for your children. It is inauspicious for your house. You will suffer. It is their tradition, let them do it. You can even buy them cake if you wish. They are our friends; we are all one. But on the occasion of a birthday, we should only celebrate by the lunar calendar (tithi, vara, nakshatra). It might occur before or after the Gregorian calendar, does not matter.
Take a pledge that you will not cut cake again.
I will keep watching. If you cut cake, you will have loose motions.
You can have a big mass of halwa or kesari. Do not cut it. Light as many lamps, little lamps, as the number of years. Let our life shine like those lights. Share Payasam (kheer) with everyone. Or, share sweets made from wheat. Or, do Annadana. I hope you will do that.
Tomorrow’s program is at Jai Durga Teertham. Rudra Yaga and Mother Goddess Puja will take place there. If you are coming in the car, come with more passengers and save on fuel and parking. Also, if you are coming by motorcycle or scooters, be careful when you ride and come there.
Swamiji is appreciating the devotion of Nirmala Choudhary’s children who want to fulfill their mother’s dream of serving Swamiji to the fullest extent possible.
Swamiji is changing the Shiva Linga in the temple here, and replacing it with a crystal Shiva Linga that has been chosen after a lot of testing.
May Smt Nirmala Choudhary enter Shiva Loka at Prathishtha of Shiva Linga. She once said to Me: I want to give You everything, but I am afraid of what people would say. That was the mistake she made, she did not understand Swamiji.
She wanted to write her entire wealth to Swamiji. I rejected the idea and instructed her to save that for her children.
Do not mind Me speaking like this, I am getting old and more eccentric, but I have immense love for you.