February 6, 2012
Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji - February 6, 2012 - Guntur
Jaya Guru Datta
The Gam Team appointed by Sri Swamiji helps with all the videos and emails. 30- 50 members in India and 60-61 in the USA and other places. We communicate via a special restricted, exclusive email account with total security, may be 200-300 members, those who think of Swamiji as their own life. Some have left their homes due to difficulties. I feel very sad when I think of their troubles. I rarely give a reply to the messages that I receive, sometimes may be just a dot, to acknowledge that I have seen their note. Otherwise, jgd, ok, yes, I am very happy, I love you (in special circumstances), and I know your problem, I will telephone later, I will give instructions to Prasadi; such short messages I send occasionally, or copy and paste. I know spelling and how to write, but I have no time. In that time I would prefer to write a poem or a special message to send to the whole world which would benefit everybody. Swamiji hardly takes any rest; he may close his eyes for some time. That is all. With those who do computer work to assist me, I communicate.
We started the one dollar a day seva in America. With the proceeds, they have repaid the loan on the land taken for building the Hanuman Temple. Here for five rupees a day we have started the Datta Seva program. We have another easier method also, one rupee per day. Devotees can pay for five years or ten years also at a time. You will receive daily emails from Swamiji, wonderful messages, if you give your email addresses.
There are devotees who have been sending to Mysore regularly without fail since 1971 till today, money orders every single month. Believe it not, in Mysore, in years past, there were days when annadana (free food distribution) depended on whether we had received such money orders or not. There were days when we had to take money out of the hundi to cover the day’s expenses for food. Now we have set up a more permanent system.
If I extend my stay for two more days, and conduct bhajans for two more days, it is for a purpose. All the collections from the pradhana homa and the Sri Chakra Puja go towards paying for the day’s expenses.
It is wrong to speculate and imagine that we are receiving crores of rupees. Everyone here is from the middle class. It is true that they have sacrificed and given special amounts for building hospitals, and the Nada Mantapa in Mysore.
Rice to feed the thousands who visit the Mysore ashrama comes from the 80 acre land since a long time. But that is not enough. Akiveedu sends one lorry load each year. Vijayawada’s Varaha used to send us as long as he lived. Eluru Gurram Anji Narayana used to send. Hyderabad Narayana Rao also arranged for sending rice. In Rajahmundry there was a rice mill near the ashram, in Rajanagaram. That devotee is no more. There they used to gather all the spilt grain that otherwise would have been eaten by rats, clean it and send to us. Guntur also used to send. But not now; now, not even one green chilly comes from here. Devotees used to collect fistfuls of rice and send.
Every morning for breakfast Upma, or Idli is served plus two full free meals are served daily at the Mysore ashrama. Each year clothes are distributed to the poor, in their neighborhoods. Datta Seva funds are distributed to the needy, during flood relief programs and such. Andhra Pradesh has benefited a lot from this program. Swamiji is merely a channel that is all. He eats only chapatis and some vegetables. I do not avoid karma. Karma is also my devotee. Swamiji’s doctors complain that I do not take meals or rest at proper times. They tell me that since I am occupying a human body, I should take care of it and protect it.
A bank manager cannot eat the money that he handles. He will be destroyed. My boys, who help me are also very careful. They are answerable for every item that is placed at Swamiji’s feet. If a week ago some devotee gave a gift, I will suddenly ask them to bring it. They have to find it. They are very scared. They are accountable. Long ago someone had given a saree. Swamiji wanted to give that specific saree to some devotees who were with him then. If the boys bring some other saree, Swamiji will not accept. He will wait and insist on getting only that saree, even if the waiting devotees tell him that it does not matter even if he gives them just a piece of thread with his blessings they will be happy. Swamiji insists and waits while the boys frantically search and find the item.
A woman gave a saree to Swamiji once. Soon after that a lawyer from Delhi came to Swamiji. Swamiji gave that saree to her. She did not keep quiet. She wore that saree, and sat next to the lady who had given the saree. She was overcome with grief. She told the lawyer, “I gave this saree to Swamiji to wear. Instead he has given it away to you. He never wore it. You are wearing it.” Seeing her misery, the lawyer felt bad, and said that she did not know that, and offered to remove it and give it back to the lady. She refused to accept that offer.
Some people give gifts and like the ghee that is poured into the Homa, look for it again. Once an item is given, it is mine. Chapter is closed. You should not even think of it. You must have a peaceful mind. You should not ask, “What did he do with it? Where did it go?”
I was told to finish the program today at 8 pm. I started only at 8 pm. To avoid dviteeya vighnam (any new continuing program should not face a hurdle at the second session) I have decided to sing just two bhajans.
Mantra chanting:
Tvamasmin kaarya niryoge pramaanam harisattama
Hanuman yatnamaasthaaya duhkha kshaya karobhava
Om Namo Hanumate Namaha
Bhajan: Sindoora Hanumantam Aaraadhaye Sarvaanuraagaashrayam bhaavaye
This is a newly composed bhajan. Swamiji gave the words and the idea and Vamshi has put it together.
You are asking why Swamiji sings so many Sanskrit bhajans. It is for an international audience. If I sing in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, or Kannada, the others will feel bad. That is why. Everyone learns these bhajans and sings in groups, even college students.
Hanuman likes sindoor very much. It is a rare red stone Murti that we have consecrated here in Guntur at the ‘Dam’ Dattanatha Kshetram. If with love and devotion we pray to Hanuman, we will imbibe all his qualities of good intellect, virtue, strength, and courage. We always absorb the qualities of those whom we follow and worship. If you follow a businessman, you will also get a business mentality. If you worship a liar, you will also become a liar.
‘raagena rachyate loko yathaa ..’ here raga means love, not lalala…. or tananaaa tune. Love here is not the love that is felt towards blood relatives or conjugal love. These are very short-lived. Hanuman is our source; our father from innumerable lifetimes; he is like Brahma; he is the future Brahma also. His love rules the world and sustains it. Such love gives comfort and happiness. Too much of possessive love filled with greed leads to bad qualities and eventually to destruction.
Hanuman, if we love him, gathers us close to him and makes us transcend attachment. To get that close to Hanuman, every second one must practice detachment. It is attachment that leads us to the six enemies, desire, anger, greed, jealousy, arrogance, and delusion.
One will be chanting the Hanuman mantra, Om Namo Hanumate Namaha, and thinking about the husband, or the son, or whether or not the stove has been turned off. While at the cinema, right at the ***, the turning point in the story, the grandma will nudge and ask if the back door was locked. Then she will forget about it and will enjoy the fighting scenes with great enthusiasm, wondering why the fights at home are not that exciting. But the others are disturbed. The daughter is nudged and asked, since she was the last person to step out of the house, whether she remembered to lock the back door. Then the audiences from the back rows start ‘shhh’ ing because they get irritated with all this talk. They shout, ‘Be quiet”, and the chain reaction starts. Then some baby cries to add to the ruckus.
In Proddutur, Kothi Reddy’s family owned the Ravanakka Hall where they used to show cinemas. They also owned some lorries. Daily he used to give me one ‘paavalaa,’ a 4 annas coin (a quarter of a rupee) to get in and see the movie. I would enter and just then some fight would break out amidst the audience, and I would not be able to hear any of the dialogs. Of a song from the movie, Bhakta Prahlada, ‘Daivamu neeve kadaa’, that I still sing daily in my shower, all I ever could hear was only the first line. By the time the song began, the men in the audience would begin to sing along loudly, or the women would begin to beat their ***, unable to bear looking at the tortures suffered by the child Prahlada in the movie. I used to get very frustrated whether I would in all my life ever get to listen to this song fully. Suddenly the lights would be turned on, or some people would stand up and the others from the back rows would shout, ‘Sit down!”
Perhaps if I had asked they would have played that cinema reel again for me, but I was too stubborn to ask. Finally I began to just collect all the ‘paavalaas’ and use the money to pay tuition fees for poor children. This Kothi Reddy was my school mate. He used to always fail in his examinations. He has never once mentioned or taken advantage of our childhood association.
Raga is also a melody of musical notes; raga sagara is an ocean of musical notes. Sorrow is also like an ocean, this samsara, the ocean of worldly life. If Hanuman is worshipped with raga, he will help you to transcend the ‘ragas’ of attachments.
Tala means pratishtha or to steadily remain till the end. Keesa also means Kesari or Sindoora. Hanuman was born with this orange/red color. The Gandhamadana Mountain where he resides is also of this color. In his sannidhi, in his presence we worship him with Sabda Brahma, the divine sounds or musical notes and rhythms, with music accompanied with musical instruments including percussion instruments. He then blesses us with Sat-Chit-Ananda, Pure existence, Consciousness, and Eternal bliss.
Please participate in Nitya Puja and Mandala Puja for 40 days. Both Chintamani Ganapati and this Sindoora Anjaneya are of the same color. I am very happy. Datta is of course always in my heart.
Bhajan: Anjanamma muddu bidda
Kayena vaachaa .. Sri Guru Datta