AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji - June 18, 2012 - Mysore

Jaya Guru Datta

Earlier you heard a short discourse. What was the topic covered? You should inquire into the purpose of your visit here. Why have you come here? Ask me your questions. I have all the answers. You came for an interview. Why have you come here? You came to while away your time. You ask me more questions. I have answers for all of them. You must understand your purpose here, your intention in coming here; not just to this ashrama, this Ganapathy Sachchidananda Avadhoota Datta Peetham, but your purpose for approaching a Guru. What is the good purpose with which you have sought a guru?  Is it to show off? Just like you show off your Mercedes car, do you want to show off that you also have a Guru? Many people entertain a Guru only for that purpose. Once the purpose is served, you kick him out and go away, not wanting to be bothered with these kinds of things.  That should not happen. Once you have made a resolve to seek a Guru, once the determination has come into your heart, you must stick with your Guru even at the risk of your life.

Why do you seek a Guru? It is very important to zero in on that. Is it because the Guru is very influential? Is it because there is a large following?  Is it because the Guru is famous?  Is it because he sings very well and plays beautiful music? Is it because he speaks entertainingly? These are not the qualifications that you should consider. You should not choose the Guru based upon his personality or the way his ashram is built. You must remember this very well. It is not his personality that is important. It is how you view yourself in his presence; how the Guru appears to you in relation to yourself.  What is my level? What is the level at which the Guru is appearing to me? We should not bring him down to our level. When you fail to rise up to his level, you should not pull him down to your level. You must continue your efforts to uplift yourselves to reach his level. Just to make it easy for yourselves, you should not downgrade him to your level and treat him like a toy. Your moods should not determine your treatment of him, swaying between seriousness and frivolity. You must try to climb up. Just because you are unable to climb the steps, you should not kick the ladder and speak unfavorably of the process. That kind of arrogance and confusion should be avoided. Not everybody accepts a Guru all at once. The one who abruptly chooses a Guru leaves him also as abruptly. Keep that in mind. Many of you have seen this. Many devotees in the beginning praise the Guru to heavens, calling him God and Indra, and so on. They tell everyone that since the Guru came into his life, his family has flourished, his wealth has increased, he has become enlightened, so on, and so forth. The onlookers and the new visitors will be impressed by such show of devotion and will falsely think that they are great devotees. They will be fooled. But Swamiji does not give much attention to such devotees. He does not talk to them much. Then another feeling occurs to the audience. ‘O, they are very ardent devotees, highly placed in society, wealthy, and have come from far away, giving up everything, and are praising Swamiji so much and yet Swamiji does not pay much attention to them’. Only Swamiji knows what is in their hearts. Such hasty devotees also leave in haste. They will not show up the following day. That is because Swamiji does not treat them the way they expect to be treated. He does not give them the importance that they think they deserve. They are selfish, foolish people. They not only delude the Guru, they delude themselves. They are not merely betrayers of mother, God and country, they betray themselves as well.

Those who become despondent and think of committing suicide, or speak about it, will incur the sin of suicide even by the mere thought or word. It is one of the five most horrible sins. It is because human birth is very valuable and rare. We are lucky to be born as humans. We are following at least a little bit of dharma. We are following God and Guru at least to a small extent. We have to strengthen this behavior and continue it. Instead, to leave God and Guru just because our desires are not fulfilled, or to verbally abuse parents because we are faced with problems, is very bad. Many people blame their parents for giving them birth. They say, ‘Why did you bring me into this world?’ It is very wrong. You are the one to be blamed. It was your desire to be born.  That is why you have come into this world. Because they gave you word that would bring you into this world, your parents got married in the first place, for your sake. They go through so much trouble and excruciating pains to carry you to full term and give you birth. What if they turn around and ask you, ‘Idiot, why were you born to us?’ There are no answers to these questions.  It is not your fault that you were born. It is not their fault that they gave you birth. This is all unnecessary mental turmoil.

You feel that those people are great devotees, because they act and appear like that. But I know who belongs to which category. How would you know? The neighbors will not know. People only look at the faults of others. They never examine their own. There are many obstinate people in this world who say that they will hate everyone but that no one should hate them. That is foolishness. When you speak lovingly to people, people will speak lovingly to you.  When we are being friendly and we are doing good things, if people give us problems, we should adjust and proceed. If we retaliate and assert our position, it shows our arrogance or our craziness. We cannot have expectations from anyone in the world, not even from our parents.

This entire topic deals with Harischandra Karmopakhyana that my aunt had taught me when I was a child. It exerted a powerful influence over me. I do not have those books now. This book deals with the teachings given by the celestials to Harischandra, who originally was bound to falsehood, not truth. He used to always tell lies. He and his wife were Gandharvas, celestials, who, on account of a curse were born as humans. They had to be brought back to the right path. This deceitful man happened to be an emperor too. So the gods were determined to teach him a lesson. It was even more important that he had to mend his ways since he was a king. This king, like all kings of the past, had a strong desire to have a son, because kings always felt worthless if they did not have an heir.  He prayed to Varuna. Varuna appeared before him in a subtle form and asked what he wished for. Harischandra asked for a son. Varuna consulted Indra. Indra thought that this was a good time and a good opportunity to make Harischandra change into a truthful man. ‘Falsehood has started with you in the first place. You should be the one to put an end to it. You have to become a witness to your own deception,’ Indra said. ‘What is it you want me to do?’ asked Harischandra. ‘Okay, if we grant you a son, will you give him back to us?’  ‘Of course! Actually I thought of making that offer to you myself. I will raise the boy for five years and then after I am satisfied with the fun of having a child, I will give him back to you.’ Harischandra had no intention of returning the boy. He had decided already to break his promise. Bad character is not easily reformed. People who have a cowlick cannot get rid of it even if they shave their heads. It reappears. Such is bad character. Only by God’s grace it will vanish. Varuna got deceived. He trusted Harischandra’s word and granted his wish. After all Varuna is a celestial. He has kindness in him. He warned Harischandra that if he should go back on his word, he would be afflicted with cancer. Harischandra did not take the warning seriously. He was a bit concerned but then he had no trust in the boon because all predictions given by all the scriptures were against his ever having a child. But to his surprise, a son was born. He felt very happy, extremely happy. Varuna appeared at once and asked for the child. Harischandra said, ‘What use is this small child for you? Let me raise him for some time and then I will give him to you’. Each month, every year, Varuna was appearing, asking for the child, who was named Lohita. When the child was eight years old, Harischandra began suffering from cancer. The pain became unbearable. He decided to give the son away. The next time Varuna came, however, Harischandra said that he simply could not part with his son because of his attachment to him. He said, “Ask for anything else.” Varuna said, “Give up falsehood. If you adhere to truth with no compromise, then I will leave you alone. Even when your life is at risk, you should not tell a lie. You must stick to truth.” Harischandra gave his word. The rest of the story you know. You have seen it in movies and you have read the books.

Harischandra promised to his Guru Viswamitra that he would never break his promise and that he would always speak only the truth. The celestials tried their best to make him break his word but Harischandra remained unyielding and became very famous for his strict adherence to truth, in spite of losing his son, his wife and his kingdom. The mighty king ended up as the guard of a cremation ground. He respected his Guru with uncompromising loyalty. He was ready to go to any extent to please Him by his allegiance to truth. Viswamitra gave him no end of trouble. Harischandra never lost his patience or courage. He was ready to lose reputation, wealth, and even life. That is the way to honor a Guru.

Your devotion to guru should not be based on attraction towards his body or personality. The principle of Guru you must absorb and totally surrender to him. You must serve with body, mind and soul. Most people do not choose the guru in a day. Siva is guru. He is not a casual concept. It is wrong to treat the guru frivolously. It is okay to call him Swamiji or Appaji. But when you address as Guru, it is a very serious matter. You cannot discuss his attire and his personality. You are here not for food, lodging or clothing. You are here for Self-Realization. Do not give prominence to physical attraction or personality of the Guru. Do not misuse your precious opportunity of being here, that you got because of some past merit earned in some previous lifetime. In a family of four brothers, only one will be attracted and will accept a guru. Girls and boys, men and women are all one family here. This is Guru’s order. Do not say that you cannot change your attitude and cannot get along. Then your being here is useless. In Jainism or Buddhism, and in Sikhism, they address each other Guru bhai and Guru behan. There are four or five families who are followers of a Guru tradition who follow Swamiji now by the order of their Guru. You may not believe it, but he came here for Swamiji’s darshan to arrange the future of His disciples. Such is the care taken by a Guru for His disciples.

Ramu’s grandmother told him that Swamiji is his guru at all times. The grandmother was the guru in that family. We must follow the words of our elders. We are not here for simply passing time. Do some service, whatever appeals to you. Do not say that you are here to help Swamiji. That is the greatest sin to think like that. You are here to uplift yourselves. You should feel grateful that you have been accepted as disciples and given a chance to be of service.

Many of you speak empty words of your loyalty to Swamiji. It upsets me. You should develop that kind of commitment towards the Guru as that shown by Harischandra. There are some here like that. I see my father in them. I see my Datta in them. I address them as ‘Father’. It is out of genuine affection that I feel towards some of the elders who come here. The youngsters are addressed by me as daughter or granddaughter. It is not a blood relationship. It is not cheap like that. It is a great blessing and an honor to be referred to like that, to feel the relationship of a father and son or a father and daughter. Do not treat it as something ordinary.

Murthy left a good job to serve Swamiji here permanently. He has no desire to be with his children or to continue as an officer. His wife was ill. Yet he chose to stay and serve. He is happy to be with his Guru till the end of his life. It is a vow. This is training, mental training, physical training preparing you to reach higher planes of existence.

His daughter in Singapore felt happy that her father has been accepted by Swamiji to stay with Him to serve. The worldly daughter has recognized the merit. While he was an officer she had always wished that her father would be close to Swamiji, enjoying good health. Now that he is here she is very glad. Her husband was an atheist. She has changed his beliefs. You should investigate into the lives of some devotees. You will learn a lot.

Ananda Rao has the capacity to feed as many people as he wishes. Yet, he is here serving Swamiji. So many people are here, not because they have no other recourse, but because it is a great blessing to be here serving their Guru. You must never jump to conclusions about people. You do not know their inner worth. It is very wrong to criticize, speak lightly and entertain wrong notions about people.

God is my only friend. My mother Jayalakshmi has taught me never to trust any human being. Only what she whispers in my ear I will believe. Only Guru is to be trusted and followed with absolute faith. If anyone believes that I go by what I hear from other people, they are the worst fools. You should be ashamed of yourselves to think like that. They wonder, ‘How did Swamiji know?’ Am I an ordinary human being? Do I need to be told by other people, to know things? How can you downgrade Swamiji to such a low level? It reflects against you that you are following a Guru who is so unworthy. It is a slap against your own judgment. If anyone questions the worth of your Guru you have to tell them off firmly. Instead, you begin to doubt and suspect. You are guilty of mistrusting your Guru.

Clean your minds. Clean your sense organs. I know all your difficulties. Like a mirror your affairs reflect in front of me. Help me to help you. I am doing my best to help you. Do not blame yourselves also. You have surrendered your body, mind, intellect and sense organs to me when you have decided to come to stay at this ashram. Help me to spread my teachings. Follow my teachings.

Recently I had a conversation with a new medical student. She said, once she started dissecting cadavers at medical college, she became very philosophical and disillusioned with the worldly notions. She realized the impermanence of life. Being sensitive is important. Develop mental sensitivity.

You have to question yourselves, as suggested by Sri Kumaraswamy, as to why you have sought refuge with your guru. Think about what lies ahead. Do not entertain suspicions and doubts. Your vacillating minds hurt me. Do not entertain doubts about your guru. You will forget all this after a while. But guru never forgets. He keeps feeling hurt. Rama felt betrayed by people and wanted to end his life in the Sarayu river. Krishna felt disillusioned with his people’s lack of faith after living for 125 years. Do not make me feel like that. A Guru should never feel betrayed. Do not ever make me speak such words. Go away otherwise. I bow down to your souls. This is a boat. You have obtained tickets. Get on the boat and travel with me. Everyone makes mistakes. Even Vyasa made mistakes. Even Swamiji made mistakes when he was young. Wrong thoughts came to my mind. They should not have come. Now I am suffering the punishment. It cannot be avoided. I take your sins and problems. It is in my nature. I cannot stop it.

I am very happy. There is no problem. You are here for you. Not for Swamiji. It is hellish to believe that you are here to assist Swamiji. It is like claiming that you ate in spite of not being hungry, only to give me the merit of feeding people. Then why do you also remove the plates and take them away? At each function we lose 25-30 plates. So we put an inscription on each plate that reads, ‘This dinner plate has been stolen from the SGS ashrama’. Even that has not stopped the disappearance of the plates. Then I scolded them for putting the inscription on the bottom of the plate. They should henceforth inscribe it on the top where it is clearly visible. Then the people in the kitchen became wise.

Yesterday there was a big discussion about sandals, scooters and cars. Andhra people cause no problems, I said. We gave them rooms so they leave the stolen footwear in the rooms when they leave. So I said, make an announcement that people should wear only old sandals. And then I suggested that we invest in a few hundred thousand bags and we supply everyone with a plastic bag so that they can carry their footwear with them wherever they go. They have to sit on top of the bags. I have paid thousands of rupees per month, and provided a room also for people, tempting with the job of watching footwear against theft. No one is willing to do the job.

We do not have the service mentality here. We feel that it is a sin to touch the footwear of others. We are arranging for more racks to store footwear. Those who do this service will benefit by gaining good health. We cannot feed and also provide replacement footwear. Plates are getting stolen. Earlier we were serving on leaves spending a lot of money. The entire ashram gets littered with dirty leaves. I have to keep begging people to pick up the trash and keep the place tidy. At every function this problem recurs.

Am I a spiritual master or am I a watchman? I have repeated these sermons so many times. Follow if you like. If not, do as you please. These were the words of Krishna to Arjuna. ‘I will anyway go to heaven. You are the one who will proceed to *** if you do not heed my words’, he told Arjuna. Do not misinterpret my words. Follow the instructions of the captain of the boat. Only one can be captain. If unwilling, you may resign and leave. You have the freedom. I will not run away.

If I have hurt you, give me your pain. If you are grateful for the teaching, then say thanks. I really do not need your thanks. I have no expectations. I am teaching you how to reciprocate for help received by you. Like the Sun shines equally on a rock, a newborn, a corpse, and a river, for me it is all the same. I spoke all these words only out of love for you. You require devotion along with your love for guru.

The person who serves food should serve with love and affection, like a mother. If you serve with irritation, you will incur sin. One Nagaraj in the kitchen, used to personally invite latecomers to come and eat or he would save food for them and keep it warm. I never told him to do so. He himself decided to do it. A lot of good people have served here at the ashram.

Jayamma was here. She is now in heaven. I see her there. She used to wait patiently like a dog, to feed the devotees. Many of you have experienced her generosity, kindness and consideration. Someday I hope you will learn kindness and patience. Do not argue and get irritated with everyone. They are teaching you a lesson, like the 24 gurus of Datta. If someone blames you, you feel guilty and feel miserable. Others will criticize and blame. You must keep doing your duty. Everyone curses, but you should carry out your jobs. People blame for the smallest mistakes. Have these workers come from heaven? Thatha garu also was warned that people will trouble him a lot. He is a key point here, like the keys to the safe. He disregards all criticism and does his job. He does not challenge others their right to obstruct.

This man from Chennai wanted to come away here to help. He is a big officer. I told him that the only job I have open is to serve holy water to all. He said he had great education and skills. He should be glad that I did not ask him to clean the bathrooms.

Another devotee came and used to do homas. Swamiji never paid him. He and his father used to come at their own expense. Some Peethams give salaries and support people like that.

Bhaktimala Krishnappa was a scientist with a good job. He wanted to serve Swamiji by leaving his job. His family members protested. But he was determined. He may not look like a scientist. He looks like one who drives a bullock cart. He lost his mother recently. He wanted salvation for her. She got it.

I did not intend to speak for so long. New visitors here may be feeling uneasy with my words."

Sri Guru Datta