Speeches of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Sri Devi Navaratri Festival – Day 4 – Bhagyanagaram, Hyderabad – Chaturthi – October 6, 2024
Speech in the afternoon
Pujya Swamiji is addressing the devotees present in the hall:
There are many new people here, you must learn our methods and ways. This is not a mere temple. Tremendous energy flows here. The new people get angry when you are asked to sit, or not enter a certain place. I do not know why you come at all if you get angry like this.
If you come here, you must follow our practices. You must stay silent. You must not crowd around; you must form a line. Movie stars might like the crowding, but I do not.
Also, I do not like you taking photos at all times. Moreover, you will not get the full Darshan as you are caught up in taking photos. When you go on vacation, you can take photos as much as you like. But here, we are in a life transforming place. This is like a hospital or a court. In fact, Guru Sannidhi is far greater than a hospital or court. The more silence, reverence, devotion and faith you have, the more you get blessed.
The experienced devotees too should not run to Swamiji and try to be in the physical presence all the time. You assumed Swamiji likes this, but Swamiji does not. Swamiji will get angry with Himself and punish Himself, but you do not know or understand it, nor its implications. So, that the curse does not fall on you, Swamiji takes it on Himself.
Discipline is very important. Be patient, steady, devoted, and loving. If not, do not come here. You can stay home and watch TV and have parties. You can go out with friends and do as you please. No one will question you.
You come late and then want to sit in the front. In foreign countries, this will not be acceptable. It is first come first served there. Many come late as if they are very senior and very devoted to Swamiji, and come and sit in the front, ahead of everyone. Do not do that. If you come after, sit in the back. You wobble through the narrow space between people and then come up front. This practice is wrong. Those who are in the front should not allow them to come and sit. Make sure you occupy the seats in front. That is good for you and good for those who come later. It is because you give an opportunity for those coming later to sit upfront that they are.
If you come first, sit upfront with only enough room to get out in case of emergency. It does not matter how senior the person is, or how big a donor the person is, do not let them come later and then sit in the front.
Today, devotee Lakshmi did a wonderful service. A devotee called Sarla who’s been following Swamiji for 4 decades was staying in a hotel that was not very good. Lakshmi noticed this and took her home. She then brought her this morning for Pada Puja. How nice this is! This is real seva. Sitting upfront is not seva. Some others push forward and enter. That is not good.
I mentioned that this is a big energy place. Swamiji’s attention is on you. Swamiji cares for every member of the household when they come to see Swamiji. If someone pushes forward and interrupts while Swamij is talking to blessing someone, that flow is disturbed. A lot of people come late and then push to the front. That is wrong.
You can sit in the back, no problem, Swamiji looks at all the names of Sevakartas. You must always be disciplined. For example, if anyone misses their tasks here during puja, I do not like it.
Some people try to derail trains by tampering with the railway tracks. That is evil. Swamiji’s energy keeps flowing, if you push forward like this, that energy flow breaks, and I have to restart. We should not break that flow. This puja is very, very great.
Your life is so fulfilled. Sitting like this for so many hours is also sadhana.
When you chant the entire Bhagavad Gita, it takes three and a half hours, with maybe a small break in between. But here you sit for several hours without break. Swamiji gives a long break after Annarchana. No one gives you such a long break.
Swamiji is helping us so much. Swamiji had so much fever a few days ago, but I still came here. Medicines do not help. I am singing, I am meeting you, I am giving you prasadam without wearing a mask. We do not know who has an infection, yet with faith in Mother, I keep doing it. What you do is trivial, what Swamiji is doing is huge.
The pendant or prasadam you get is very powerful. If you worship it carefully, the energy from it will protect you. If you just put it away somewhere, what’s the use?
Senior devotees must tell the new devotees that they must safeguard the prasadam, that Prasaadam are invaluable. Do not throw or give it away. Of course, you can buy those pendants in a store, but when they come from Swamiji’s hands, their energy is transformed.
You are listening to Devi Saptashati daily. Swamiji is giving you the shlokas daily, you do not understand how much energy is expended doing this.
We have resolved on a Ayuta Chandi Homa in Mysuru. About 500-600 Brahmins will need to come and perform the yajna over 10 days. This is a mammoth task.
According to Vrksha Shastra (the science of trees), Swamiji is getting a tree for each deity – Vishnu, Shiva, Ganapati, Subramanya Swamy, Hanuman, Devi… and so on. We are going to collect 7000 (7 deities x1000) Bonsai trees. The trees I want cost up to 15,000 rupees each.
According to Vrksha Shastra, what trees are used for medicine, for puja, what sandalwood means, what treatments can be done with each tree are all defined. There are trees for all this, but the vendors who have these trees are quoting Rs. 25000 per tree. There may be up to 40 such trees that I want to collect somehow.
Why is Swamiji doing these two large projects?
An immense number of people will benefit from these mammoth yajnas. No one has undertaken such projects to date. One can participate by donating trees to this project. Those who can afford it can donate big trees to Swamiji.
This vrksha shanti yajna may take place in January. Swamiji has resolved to the ayuta chandi yaga at the same time.
Eleven homa pits, 3 helpers for each chanting Brahmin, and about 400 chanting Brahmins are required for this massive chandi yaga.
These days, trees are being felled recklessly. We are cutting down forests to make way for cities. The animals from the forest are entering cities due to this.
Man tries to make a beautiful house by cutting down one acre of forest, because man wants big houses. We are taking away the homes of the wild animals that is why those animals attack adjoining villages.
That is why rains have become scarce in some places. In some places there’s drought while other places there are floods.
Recently, we saw a lot of floods. In places like California, there’s danger of fire. In some places, there’s danger of tsunamis. We are all unlucky that there is battle raging in some parts of the world – Russia/Ukraine, Israel/other countries. There is so much loss of life already due to these wars.
These projects are prayers for protection of mankind. We protect our Mother Earth. Mother Earth is suffering due to the influence of Kali (yuga).
I worry about this sometimes. What will happen to our grandchildren and their children? I do not know!
Swamiji predicted in the book Heart to Heart about what’s going to happen this year. Swamiji gave advice for our spirituality and also indirectly what’s to come our way.
Nowadays, we do not know what the important trees are. We want to show our children some trees, but we do not find those trees anymore except in photos. So many do not know about the maddi tree or peepal tree. How can we teach our children? The birds are getting extinct now. The trees too will vanish one day. What to do then? No rains.
This will not happen now. Your grandchildren and their children will suffer. They will face strange diseases. That is why when we fell trees, we should plant more trees.
Everyone should come together to support this. Someone was asking whether the Bonsai trees are meant for putting into the homa pit! No, it’s not so, there will be pujas conducted to those trees while the yaga is being conducted. We need all of you to come forward and support this yaga. And, no, I am not going to ask you for any money. I am not asking you for money, God will give money. Datta will help Me.
Datta will enter your heart and punch you to inspire you to support. I tell you lovingly, you do not listen. When Datta punches you and tells you, then you listen.
Speech during Bhajans in the evening
By Mother’s grace, we are already on Day 4. It is a reminder that time waits for none. It always keeps running. We were planning Navaratri recently…and now 4 days are over. This is an example to prove we should not miss good opportunities.
“O Mother, You bear the beautiful moon on the head, You are enveloped in shuddha chaitanya, You reside in the imperishable peetika, you are the consort of Shiva, O Mother, I meditate on You in my heart, salutations to You!”
Mother is teaching us that we should not fill our heart with likes/dislikes. If you do, you will not be able to absorb Guru’s teachings.
Many pay lip service to vairagya, but will never experience it. It is akin to a man clinging to a pillar and crying for help to get released from it. Samsara is like this. We think samsara has a grip on us, but the truth is that we are holding on to samsara. We are suffering.
We should learn this well. We keep saying karma has a grip on us. No. You are holding on to karma. As long as you have attachment, this samsara will not cease to be. You must be in samsara, but without attachment
In this samsara – the cycle of births – Mother teaches that we should be without attachment. The water drop on the lotus leaf does not make the leaf wet. Look at this – the lotus leaf grows and lives in water, yet never gets wet! Can we be like that?
Even the one preaching Vairagya has attachment. That is why we cannot absorb the vairagya they preach.
We should make our effort. Do not leave everything to the Guru. The stones in Ganga water lie there for ages, their shape also changes, but they do not get moksha because they did not drink the water of Ganga ever.
There are many around the Guru, serving the Guru, like servants in a factory, but they did not understand the Guru. There are many like that. How can they get mukti? Since Swamiji needs workers, He kept them. Neither they nor the Guru are striving for their mukti/salvation.
After dropping their body, they will regret when they go to other worlds, that they did not realize what they had in their possession.
We are with Guru as if it is fashionable to do so. We do not have vairagya/dispassion. Only one or two have some vairagya. Those around the Guru also have a lot of attachment. They also have a lot of kama/krodha.
The samsari/householder must learn vairagya, otherwise, all scholarliness is in vain.
Many around Me are like the stones in Ganga, they have not understood Me. Why do we have this birth? 20% should be about sustenance and 80% about understanding Guru. But you flipped the ratios. You spend 80% on worldliness and 20% on Guru, and that too if you have time.
I did not show My cosmic form to anyone. If I do, they will run away in fear and will not be able to serve Me.
An ant was on a mountain of salt. Another on a sugar mountain. Both were happy. Both met. You see ants collide, talk, and move on. But humans fight and argue and abuse each other.
When Swamiji blesses someone, everyone looks at that person’s face…you are so envious. When I look at someone, everyone looks at that person and weaves stories in their head.
When a woman gets up and leaves, your entire attention is on her. You watch her until she leaves. If someone counts money to give to your Appaji, your glances are on their wallet and you count how much they are giving.
There was a nadaswaram band from Tamilnadu, during my childhood. They had scolded us that day asking us not to be there, so we were angry. We wanted to disrupt their concert. We sat at the front, right in front of the band. I had two lemons with Me.
The band was playing well, but there was a percussion instrument that was loud. They began playing and were into the dialogue part of the concert where both were playing their instruments alternately, as if in a question and answer session.
I cut the lemons slowly and intently in front of them and put salt on the cut halves, and distributed the lemons among my friends, right in front of them, and we started licking the lemons with much intense face-puckering and lip-smacking. We were sitting really close to the musicians.
They were so distracted that they stopped playing, and the next moment, in the loudest and angriest voice one heard ever, shouted in Tamil, to get us out of there. The manager came and beat one of the boys – he used to be dark and big – black and blue, but I escaped. My friends were grilled as to who was the boy who escaped, but they never revealed My name. Friendship! The concert had stalled for 40 minutes, no one else knew why, until much later. We were known as the lemon boys.
So, now whenever I throw lemons during puja, I remember this incident.
The boy who was stout and was beaten black and blue was the one who was drooling as he sucked on the lemon. He was so furious, and so what happened the next day… I will tell you next day!
Back to the ants…one ant said: The salt mountain is too salty. The other ant suggested it go to the sugar mountain. The ant went there, had some sugar, and then said the sugar was not sweet enough. The other ant said: You stored some salt in your mouth, that is why you cannot taste the sweet, throw that salt away. Then, the ant experienced the sweetness in sugar.
Similarly, those around Swamiji have attachments, likes/dislikes, ego, and therefore they cannot get vairagya. You have attachments like the ant had salt in its mouth. I am the mountain of sugar, you still cannot taste the sweetness due to your attachments, likes/dislikes. As a result, you cannot taste vairagya.
Samsara will vanish, but you will go to hell. You keep saying you are devoted to Swamiji, you are serving Swamiji, etc…what is the use? You have salt still in your mouth.
You do not have to give up everything physically. Go home, eat well, speak with love to everyone in the family. Be the householder you are. But give up attachment within.
But you are always hankering after worldly things and people. Yet in the midst of all this, you brag that you did a lot for Swamiji. That bragging gets you more sin and you accumulate that as well.
So, when you break free from the attachment and the garbage in the heart, that is when you will taste vairagya. If you are dirty, no amount of perfume on your body can help you. First wash and clean and remove the dirt and filth. Be pure. You kept a lot of dirt and fickleness. If you remove fickleness, your mind will be steadfast and then you can enter vairagya.
Go home, be well with family, do your duty, but… bear vairagya within. As long as you are drawn to likes/dislikes, you will be diseased. If you practice vairagya, all your difficulties will vanish. No difficulty can stick to you. Difficulties stick to you only because you did not make vairagya, a habit.
No amount of puja or walking on your head or breaking your head will remove difficulties. You’ll only get sutures on your head.
You must realize that the visible world is not eternal. You do not need to abandon it; you must know it, understand it. Only when you know it’s fleeting, will you have peace of mind.
No amount of puja or any ritual will help you. Who said this? Mother said this in the Saptashati. If you want to know God’s Tattva, practice vairagya.
King Janaka is a stellar example of one who lived in this world and yet lived with vairagya.
May Mother’s grace be on all of you. Do all programs – get children married, do your duty. But have vairagya within and you’ll be so happy. I will be happy even if 3 people in this crowd can get vairagya. Even if one gets it My life will be fulfilled.
I wish that all of you get vairagya.
Those who sing praises of Mother get Her effulgence. Those who we meditate on, their virtues we gain. Since we are all worshiping Mother, we should imbibe Her nature.
We worship Her not for one or two years, but until the last breath. How do we know we gained Her nature? You will know yourself, no one else needs to or should know. You will experience the fruit of that realization in the next birth. But if you are careless, you will have wasted it.