AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Chaturmasyam 2013 Dashavataras Sri Rama Katha Sri Krishna Katha Bhagavad Gita Discourse on Dashavataras (the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu) from July 24 - August 2. Matsyavatara Kurmavatara Varahavatara Nrsimhavatara Vamanavatara Parashuramavatara Ramavatara Balaramavatara and Krishnavatara Kalki Avatara Day 1, July 24, Matsyavatara As planned, we are going to talk about the 10 incarnations of the Lord going forward. Today is the first incarnation, Matsyavatara (the Great Fish). This is a very glorious incarnation. The Lord has many incarnations. There are twenty-one mentioned. The Lord has taken a Fish incarnation to save the worlds and protect the materials needed for re-formation of the worlds after the apocalypse. Sometimes we may wonder what these stories mean. We need miracles and magic for belief. Sometimes Hindu stories are criticized. Some might question “how will a fish save the world?”. We may get some doubt form those cricizms. Please do not ever succumb to these doubts. It is a great sin to do so. These stories are ever true. These are facts rather than stories. They might look like imaginary, but they are true. We don’t completely know or remember our own family tree and ancestors. But it cannot be said that they don’t exist! It is not right to say that what we don’t know, has never existed. The other point in this is that while these stories might be true, what value does it create to talk about them now, in this age? The answer is: we need to talk about history and it’s glory. This is our own history, that of our own ancestors. If we don’t talk about it, who else will? Also, by talking of God’s gory, we are drawn nearer to the Almighty. The stories also help us to understand the Almighty. Another question is, some of us might know this story already, why talk about it again? We all need balance in our lives, to be able to get through the good and bad times. We can learn this balance from these stories. There is a great verse from the history of great saint Markandeya: Payat savassakala kalmash bheda dakshah: The one who removes all imperfections from the mind. The Lord removes all imperfections that inevitably occur in our minds. Ksheerodakukshi phani bhadha nivishta murthy: The one who sleeps on the Great Serpent in the middle of the milk ocean. Svasavadhuta salilotkanikakaralah: While the great serpent, disturbed by the waves of the milk ocean, is spitting out enormous amounts of poison from its one thousand heads. Sindhuh pranrutyamiva yasya karoti sangaat: The ocean that has to be more disturbed by this reaction, stays calm and looks like dancing with happiness only through His presence on the snake. The secret here is that the devotee who has Sadguru in his life and practice, will dance with joy even though being constantly disturbed by imperfections of life. Matsya Yantra is a great yantra, said to relieve the keeper of it from any problems in his life. Those who can’t have Mastya Yantra keep an aquarium in their house. We need to teach our children about caring for creatures from a very tender age. Sometimes we observe a tradition to pray to rivers and oceans when people go there. Offerings such as milk are given to the ocean as a part of the ritual. Such traditions are only reminders for us to give to the creatures in rivers and seas. We have to protect our natural resources, or face the fury of nature like we saw in Kedarnath last month. I pray for the peace of the souls who lost their lives and for the strength of their loved ones. Patheenah kamathah: May the Lord who took the ten incarnations, give us all the vibhuti (ultimate happiness). He incarnates in every yuga. He is here, right now in the form of Sadguru. Say the following after me: Vedanudharate Jagannivahate bhugolamudbhibrate daiityam darayate Balim chalayate chatra khyama kuruvate abdhim langayate halam kalayate karunyamatanvate Melchan murchayate dhasha kruti krute krishnya tubhyam namah This is a great prayer singing the glories of all incarnations of the Lord. He protected the Vedas at the time of the apocalypse. He protected the worlds and all creatures during the churning of great ocean of milk. He protected the earth, holding it up in the form of Varaha. He killed the demon to protect His devotee Prahlada in the Narasimha incarnation. He destroyed the Ego of King Bali in the Vamana incarnation. He punished all the kings that were consumed by power and ego. He built a bridge and crossed the ocean as Sri Rama. He protected the earth with His axe as Balarama. He showed His limitless grace and taught the great Gita as Sri Krishna. He came as Buddha and Kalki for the well being of humans. We pray to that Lord Who is Krishna. Today we are with Krishna in the Eluru VenuGopala Swami temple, He is here in cosmic form listening to His own stories! He is with us, in all directions and inside ourselves. Such great Lord was described by saint Pothana in Telugu. We should remember out old telugu poetry sometimes, so we do not lose touch with the glory of our own language. Agreed that English is necessary to get on, but that does not mean we can forget our own language. Doing so is same as cursing one’s own mother. There are some people who don’t admit their mother as their own mother. Such people end up with destroyed lives. People worry about not learning English and that it would lead to not understanding the internet, not getting a job in the US etc. English is a great language, I have nothing against it. I like English and keep reading English books till date. However, we shouldn’t forget our own language. The most spoken language in the world is Chinese! The millions of citizens of China don’t speak English. They speak and live on Chinese, even their internet is in Chinese. Germans don’t speak English either. This is true with most Europeans. Europe is not just England. The other countries in Europe speak their own language such as Dutch in the Netherlands, German in Germany, Spanish in Spain, French in France. They live their lives without a problem. Nowadays Swamiji is sending many messages through the internet. He sends them in all local languages too – this is only Him reminding us not to forget our native language. The people of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka seem to respect their language better than those in Andhra. Respecting doesn’t just mean being able to speak colloquial words. We need to delve deep into the grammar and the beauty of the language. Only then, we will gain respect and love for the language and its history. Our history goes long, not just 2000-5000 years. Just for reference we use dates/years such as 2012 or 2013. Our tradition exists from the start of time. Telugu came from Sanskrit, which is the mother of all Indian languages. There were many beautiful lyrical works in telugu, the Bhagavatam written by Pothana is one of the prominent ones. In his time, it was common for poetry to be complicated and highly sophisticated. On the contrary, Pothana used simple language in Bhagavatam, a quality that was frowned at during that time. Maga Meenakrit Vardhi Jochchi - Lord took the form of a male fish and Killed the demon. This Demon has two names, Hayagreevasura/Somakasura. He took the Vedas from the demon and handed them over to Lord Bramha. That way, He removed the hardships of all the Gods and also forgave Lord Bramha’s complacence which lead to the demon stealing the Vedas in the first place. The secret here is to be very alert while learning and practicing. It is said that if you fall asleep while reading, all the knowledge acquired 30 minutes prior to sleeping will be lost. We can’t go on for more than two hours continuous of reading, which is acceptable. There is a practice in some countries to make school children take power naps of 10 minutes in the school. But one can’t sleep while studying. If you feel sleepy, declare that you’d only study for 30 minutes, close the book and go to sleep. Just like you’d do on a computer, one needs to “save” the knowledge acquired before closing the book. Or else, you’d lose half an hour of typing. The computer is a reflection of human mind. Children need to summarize the reading into important points and prioritize the points in the order of importance in their own mind. Later this should be retrieved and memorized. Lord Bramha fell asleep during His own study, and lost the Vedas to the demon. However, because He is the first creature to exist and is very important in this creation, Lord Vishnu in Matsyavatara returned the Vedas to Lord Bramha , warned Lord Bramha to be alert and determined sleep hours for Him. Manninchi eparaga: I shall always remember and pray to that great Lord who forgave Lord Bramha and saved the worlds. He shows great love and affection to His Devotees. He protects the entire creation. I prostrate to that Narayana. We summarized the main purpose of Matsyavatara now. Now I will mention the great work named Venkatanagadhipati. This is my favorite work, and Matsyavatara has been mentioned in this work as: AtsapuMatsyarupamu: The Lord took the form of the primordial fish or the Great Fish which denotes the arrival of the very first fish form in the creation. Matsya has two words in it: Mat (me) and sya (reside), meaning Lord protects those who reside in His friendship. I pray to the Lord who returned the Vedas which have three forms of knowledge. One might question, aren’t there four Vedas? Well, the fourth, Atharvana veda is a compilation by Veda Vyasa, consisting of the leftovers from the first three Vedas which are the primary ones. These facts are being reviled by foreigners. We as Indians should not miss out on this knowledge. One devotee from Trinidad was here, she is researching on sound energy of Bhagavatam. We Indians forgot these things and are becoming western while they are coming to our culture. Urakambhonidhi: In Pothana’s bhagavatam, it is being said that Vedas were suffering and crying for help when caught in the hands of the Demon. Hearing these cries, the Lord took the form of a Fish. He had a great tail, big moustache, and great form. We should always follow truth. Everything is temporary is like waves in the ocean. Waves are caused by the ocean, but the vice versa is not true. Similarly, we have many temporary waves in our life but to the one who realizes that Sadguru is the only true permanent thing in this world will be protected by the Lord. O Human, know the truth. How to know the truth? It is apparent in the universe. He is everything. He exists as the seer, seen and the scene. This is triputi, the three forms of the Lord. There is another way to express it as five forms, panchaputi: He is the praise, the one being praised, the one praising, the act of praising, the listener of the praise and the one saying the praise. Imagine, a pearl forming in a mollusk is such a wonder. A diamond or a gem comes from earth. We may not realize it when we see sand or earth. Similarly Sadguru polishes us to make a gem out of us. We need to think of who makes the beautiful rainbow, and we remember Him, the all pervasive Lord Govinda. A frog lives in the deep strata of rocks but still somehow finds food and survives. Planets stay in their orbits without any support. Who does it? Of course there is gravity but there isn’t anything to be seen. Ocean stays in its own limits. All these are glories of Govinda the Sachidananda. His first incarnation is made for protecting dharma. Saint Vyasa described the purpose of His incarnations as such: bibharshi rupanyava bodha aatma: The Lord took many forms to give knowledge, teach righteousness to creatures and to protect the worlds. The incarnations will give peace and happiness to those righteous people who are in your meditation and punishing the demons and the unrighteous. We should not be taken aback by hardships and diseases. We should find a way out of those and meditate on the Lord. He has the great capability to govern the worlds. He will remove all our sins and hardships. He blesses at one time and punishes at another. He looks at everyone equally. Ajopisannavyatma: The secret here is, He takes incarnations by His will. Those incarnations will not have the same difficulties as our lives. His glory and energy are unlimited. We might think that Lord is blessing so many creatures, is His energy diminishing? Never! Such is His glory. He has no destruction. He is the Lord of all creatures. This is revelation made by the Lord in Gita: Yada Yada hi dharmasya: He takes form when dharma is hurt. Dahrma is the most important item for Him. Praritranaya sadhunam: When does he take form? One intelligent scholar has an answer – in KaliYuga He takes form in everyone’s heart and not be limited by a form. Bhagavandavu Vushnuvu: The Lord Vishnu takes form to destroy the demons. Now Demons can be any distraction from out spiritual practice. Whenever demons attack, Lord takes form then and protects His devotees. What is in Incarnation? Those who go up in spirituality don’t like to come down. But He, with His unlimited grace comes down to our world and takes out form. Swamiji once said that He likes to talk only in simple language. I prayed Him to continue doing so because He is our Mother and we are His children. Those who think they are learned and can understand complicated words, don’t listen anyway. The rest of us are willing to listen because we know we don’t know anything. And such people only understand simple language. His real form is that of a million suns, and all the energy in this creation. We can’t even look straight at the light in our room. How can we see Him? That’s why He, with limitless grace, takes a form that we can see. If we install that form in our hearts and in temples and pray to Him continuously, we will be able to see His real form one day. We are being thankful to Him while praying to Him in the temples. We offer Him not only our food, flowers and fruits but our soul too. That is the secret in idol worship. He came to protect us in so many forms. If we ask Him, “Lord what is Your form?” He answers “Same as yours”. If we ask Him “where are You?” He says “Inside you, as you”. We cannot directly understand it. To take us to the level where we can, He came as Sadguru. This is also stressed by Guru Gita. Atha Dustha Vinasaya: We are going through a great hardship, but we don’t know it. You know what it is? Taking birth through the Mother’s womb. It is a great hardship we don’t know of. The great Saint SanatKumara was meditating one day when Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati came to that place. The Saint asked Lord Shiva to ask for a boon, such was the power of His penance. They asked Him to be Their child. He denies the request saying He is not ready to take the hell of being in a mother’s womb. It is said that the punishment of half of our sins is experienced in the mother’s womb. That’s why a new born baby cries. It is a hardship we experience without knowing. We don’t even remember it after birth. It is said that Yogis remember the pain and work towards never having to experience birth again. The Lord is born without this pain. Infact He was never born, but it looks like He was born many times. He filled up inside and outside. This prayer has been said about His glory. We should say it everyday: HariMayamu Vishwamanthayu Hari Vishwamayundu Smshayamu Pani Ledu Aa Harimayamu kani dravyamu paramanuvu ledu vamsha pavanavinte He is omnipresent, the world is His form. There is nothing that is not His form. One’s entire bloodline is purified on knowing this truth. His qualities and glory cannot be expressed in words. Sankhyatumnaiva shakhyante: This is a tricky prayer. It means that His qualities or imperfections cannot be measured. Wait, God and imperfections? That’s not possible. So, how was the comparison made? Well the answer is explained thus: Anatyat prathamo raashi: We cannot count His qualities, just like we can’t count the drops of water in the ocean or the stars in the sky. Abhavadeva paschimah: He does not have any imperfections! How can we count those that don’t exist? That’s why it is not possible to count His imperfections. God has 21 incarnations. We only talk about 10 and consider this as the first one because it starts with Vedas and protecting them. Our life starts with learning. It doesn’t start with naming or eating. It starts with learning. Even if we don’t perform the first ritual of learning, kids start writing on walls. Why? Because knowingly or unknowingly, everyone is a form of knowledge. We do a ritual called Aksharabyasamand start their formal learning so they don’t go directionless with their writing on walls. Akshara means that which has no destruction. That which doesn’t end, and lives through time. Whatever education or career we may get, in the very end it meets the endless. The ceremony of Akshabyasam is to remind us that truth. You don’t actually have to get an education. Even the illiterate have realized great secrets of philosophy. I have seen it myself. Everybody has the quest for knowledge built in. We just have to light up the fire with a little oil. The symbolic meaning of oil means friendship. We need friendship with our Guru first. We need to hold on to Him like grease. That will help light up the fire of quest for knowledge. We are all forms of that limitless knowledge. Since the purpose of Matsyavatara is protecting that very knowledge, it is considered as the first of ten most prominent incarnations of the Lord. His real first incarnation is as Sanaka-Sanandana saints. Lord Bramha created Sanaka-Sanandana and three other saints so they can reproduce and expand the human race. On the contrary, they got the divine knowledge right after being born and they went into meditation without delay. Lord Bramha was disappointed with this development. This however stands to be His first incarnation: as the primordial saints. The second incarnation is as Yagna-Varaha, the great pig. Although we consider this as the third in the ten prominent incarnations, it was in fact His second. The third incarnation is as great saint Narada, the main purpose being to teach devotion to the worlds. Sage Narada is shown in telugu movies as a funny character, starting fights between gods etc. That is not true, we should not laugh at it. Infact Sage Narada invented the seven notes of music. The fourth incarnation is Nara-Narayana. The two men meditated at Badarinath at Badari Visaha kshetram. Fifth incarnation is as Kapila. In this incarnation, He gave the knowledge of Yoga-Sankhya to His friend Aasuri. Sixth incarnation is our beloved Lord Datta! That’s why saint Annamacharya, while describing Lord Venkateshwara sang His praise as Datta and GhanaYogaSwarupa. Just by having Darshan of Lord Datta, we get the ultimate Yoga. In this incarnation He helped many people such as Alarka, Prahlada etc. The Seventh Incarnation is as Yagna. In this incarnation, He protected Svayambhuva Manvantara along with Lord Yama. In the Eighth Incarnation He came as Rishabha and taught the qualities of saintliness to great scholars. In the Ninth incarnation, He was emperor Pruthu. He defined agriculture and taught to the mankind. That’s why Earth is also named as Prithvi. In the tenth incarnation, He came as the great Fish, Matsya. This is the story we’re talking about today. There was a demon named Somakasura. When Lord Bramha fell asleep, the Demon stole the Vedas from Him. How did he do that? How can you steal knowledge? They say knowledge should not be defined to books but should be in the mind. Infact this story was also internal to Lord Bramha’s body. The great Fish incarnation took place inside Lord Bramha. Bramha’s body consists of this entire world. Lord Bramha, by falling asleep has neglected the Vedas. This neglect itself manifested as the Demon Somakasura and made him steal the Vedas. At that time, Lord Himself came as a fish and retrieved Vedas from the Demon and gave them back to the worlds. By this, Lord removed neglect and awakened Lord Bramha. Awakening is exactly what Guru does to us. That’s why Matsyavatara is Sadguru’s own form. That also makes this incarnation prominent and the first of the ten main incarnations. Guru comes before everything. “Sri Gurbhyo Namah” comes first, only then do we say “Sri Ganeshayanamah”. The Great Fish incarnates inside all of us everyday. We sleep every night and forget everything. When we wake up, we automatically remember all that we forgot during our sleep. This knowledge is given to us by the Lord in Matsyavatara. In Matsyavatara, Lord protected Vaivaswata Manuvu – the king of this Manvantara. His original name was Satyavrata meaning the one with truth as his only spiritual practice. Some might ask, “what is the definition of truth?” well, truth means admitting what you have seen, listened or experienced as-is. The Lord helps those who follow truth. Without it, one might find temporary victory but in the end they fall into great depths. The true victory only follows those who follow truth. Initially this might be hard, but do not be afraid. Satyavrata was following truth all the time so the Lord wanted to protect him. Satyavarata was performing his morning prayers at the banks of the river, Lord appears as a small fish in the water Satyavrata takes into his hand. His form was small like a goldfish. Satyavrata was about to leave the water back into the river so as not to hurt the fish. Just then, the fish started speaking and calling out to him saying “don’t leave me!”. The fish also asked Satyavrata to protect it from the dangerous sea animals by transferring it into a small pail of water. Satyavrata followed the instructions. That evening Satyavrata came to check on the fish, it has grown significantly and cant fit in the pail of water anymore. The fish asked for a bigger container. He was thoroughly surprised and transferred it into a bigger container. Then it grew bigger and that container wasn’t enough for it. The fish asked to be transferred into a pool. King Satyavrata was even more surprised and looked for a safe pool. He then transferred the fish into a pool. As he was about to leave the fish grew bigger than the pool and asked to be transferred to an ocean. Observe the secret here: Sadguru enters our life at an opportune moment in a small form. With allegiance to truth (Satyavrata), if we are able to grow Him, He will eventually become big enough to fill up our entire lives with His presence. Even the commonplace education in our lives starts with learning the alphabet and goes on until a PhD. At this time Satyavrata realizes this fish is not a normal one. He prays to the fish to reveal it’s real identity and to forgive him for thinking he could tame it. He also expressed his feeling that he suspected the fish to be the great Lord’s incarnation. He asked the fish to reveal the purpose of such incarnation if it was true. Then the great fish started to speak again: “Dear Satyavrata, exactly seven days from now, Lord Bramha will fall into sleep and neglect the Vedas. At this time, there will be a great calamity in which the worlds will drown into water. I want to protect the worlds. I shall come back as a great fish and I’ll have a huge horn. There will also be a big ship floating with me. You take that ship and tie it to my horn. You get on that ship, take the 7 great saints (saptarshis) into the ship, get all the great medicines and Vedas into one place and get them aboard this ship. Within these seven days, collect everything that is needed for this creation to continue and protect them and get them aboard that ship. I will keep you and the ship safe until this calamity cools down. After that, you will become a tool in my hands to restart this creation”. Saying so, the Lord disappears. Satyavrata does what the Lord instructed him to and waits for the next seven days in meditation. On the seventh day, he sees the calamity coming and the entire earth drowning water. He does not move, because he always follows the truth and has belief in it. Just as the Lord said, a great fish appeared before him. It had a great form, one that can’t be explained in words. The fish seemed to include all the worlds inside it. It looked really sweet and innocent despite its great shape. By wagging His great tail, Lord in the form of great Fish was balancing the oceans form drowning Satyavrata and the important items. Satyavrata then followed instructions and tied the ship to the Fish and got aboard it all the items and saints needed to continue creation. The Lord protected the ship until the calamity was cooled down and asked Satyavrata to continue creation and blessed that Satyavrata will be known as “Vaivasvata Manuvu”. This way the Lord protected the creation and essential knowledge required for creation to exist. This is the story of that Matsya, the Narayana , the Datta that is blessing us today. Let us talk about the eleventh incarnation tomorrow. Today was only the summary. We talked more about how to understand the story today than the story itself because the story is already well known. Today we barely scratched the surface of a great story. Tomorrow onwards, we will start early and end early so devotees can go home on time. If we listen to this story or think of Matsyavatara, the great fish or keep the Matsya yantra at home, their hardships will be removed by the Lord. I pray to the Lord to remove the hardships of those who listened to this story. Jai Guru Datta! Day 2, July 25, Kurmavatara Jai Bolo Dashaavataara Murti ki Jai ! Jai Bolo Sriman Narayana Swamiki Jai !! We are talking about Dashavatara tatva and yesterday we spoke about Matsyavatara. We learnt how He is glowing in our body as Paramjyoti - the divine light. All shastras spoke about this divinity. Chaitra Suddha Truteeya, the third day after Ugadi, He was born. When we look for Matsya Narayana temple, we find one in Nagalapuram. He is also known as Veda Narayana as he protected the Vedas for the first time in the form of Matsya Narayana. He protected knowledge. We often see Matsya yantra being used to improve our business. This Matsya Narayana also improves education among children. I remember going to that temple sometime in my childhood. I could not go after that. Now let us sing Madhava Matsyavathara and then enter into Kurma avatara, the next incarnation. Jai Bolo Matsyavatara Swamiki Jai ! Yesterday, we spoke about the 10 important Avataras of the 21 incarnations of the Lord. Today we will learn in brief about 11th to 21st incarnation and then will talk about Kurma Avatara. According to Bhagavata, the 11th Avatara is Kurma Avatara. This Avatara is very special. Some people grow Kurma in their houses. Now a days they are selling tortoise and many raise them up in their homes like how we have fish in aquariums. There is nothing wrong with it. But the only thing is that you need to provide proper food at the right time. When you grow any living being in your house, you need to show attention towards it. You should be concerned like how you are concerned about your children. So carefully, you must protect them. They wait for food. It is our responsibility. So we must protect. When un-favourable things happen to people, they will be asked if they are raising any animals at home and that proper care is being taken. As per dharma shastra, you need to take care of those animals and should not leave them in hunger. When we talk about the speciality of Kurma Avatara, Yajurveda talks a lot about its significance especially in Yagnas & Yagas. Kurma - tortoise has great memory power. Once Swamiji went to a place where there are thousands of tortoise. They hatch eggs, hide them under sand and come back after 6 months. Thousands of toirtoise comes back and go to the exact location where they hatched. Such is their memory power. As per Bhagavata, this Kurma Avatara is taken as the 11th incarnation and carries the Manthara mountain on His back and became the source for amrutha, the divine nectar. Today we are going to speak about this Swami. Next in the 12th incarnation, Lord Dhanvantari came with a bowl of nectar and blessed the world with Ayurveda, a branch of Medical science. When we say Ayurveda, we feel it is only based on herbs. Ayurveda is a shastra. In olden days, there was only Ayurveda and is considered as sub veda for the Vedas. The entire medical science is an extension of Ayurveda. The chemicals that we talk about these days also are mentioned in Ayurveda. It contains everything. Later, it was bifurcated and is called as Naturopathy or herbal medicine etc. The Ayurveda bestowed by Lord Dhanvantari is the main source for all other branches of it. We need to learn about this. The lord came in the form of Dhanvantari and removed all the diseases in the world. It is important that your disease is cured. It doesn’t matter if it is cured by Allopathy or Naturopathy or Homeopathy. Every one needs cure, not the details. Such is the greatness of Lord Dhanvantari. Very rarely we see temples of Dhanvantari. Our Sadguru, out of deep compassion on all of us, consecrated Dhanvantari temple in the premises of Datta Venkateshwara temple. It is very rare. He carries the divine nectar in a pot in His hand. Oushadheeshaya vidmahey Amrutha kalasa hasthaya dheemahi Thanno dhanvantarih prachodayaat He is the lord of oushadhi - medicines, and carries amrutha kalasa, a pot of divine nectar in His hands and distributed it to the world. He is the lord who came out of the churning the sea and gave the darshan of the pot of nectar. Such Dhanvantari is the 12th incarnation of Narayana and is blessing the world. Next is the 13th incarnation. After the Dhanvantari Avatara, you know the story of demons who grabbed the pot of nectar. They are fools. They do not know the value of nectar. They thought Amrutha - nectar is eatable. Upanishad says Amrutha is what is seen. Demons didn't know about this. They grabbed the pot. There is nothing in the pot. It contains value only when touched by the hands of the Lord. Hence He took the Mohini Avatara. There is a temple in Andhra Pradesh in a place called Ryali for this Mohini Avatara. There you can see the feminine decorations in the idol. You must take time to visit such pilgrims. These pilgrim places are like the crown for our country. We see Mohini Avatara in which He puts the demons in delusion and gets back the pot of nectar and distributed to Devathas. This is the 13th incarnation. Next, in the 14th Avatara, the Lord took the form of Narasimha and killed Hiranyakashipa. We will also learn about this incarnation. In the 15ht Avatara, the Lord becomes Maya Vamana. Vamana means Lilliput. He is not Lilliput, but He appears that way. He carried the whole universe in Him. This Vamana got back the kingdom of the Devathas which was grabbed by King Bali. He is giving darshan to us in the 15th Avatara. Next in the 16th Avatara, the Lord becomes Parashurama, and wanders around the earth for 21 times and killed the kings who egoed and protected the earth. In 17th Avatara, He became Veda Vyasa and gave us all the shastras. Veda Vyasa is just not the one in who was there in Dwapara yuga during Krishna's time. There were 24 Vyasas born so far. Veda Vyasa means the one who divided the Vedas and gave to us for easy understanding. It is like distribution of knowledge in the form of subjects. In class ten, we study all the subjects. After 10th, we decide to go for Maths or select Science as option. Further when you go to graduation, even in Science group, you pick Chemistry or Physics or one particular specialization. Like wise, the Vedas were divided by him. It is a major task. So he is called Veda Vyasa maharshi. We celebrate Guru Purnima as Vyasa Purnima. He is the one who gave us knowledge. It is a great task of writing 100,000 shlokas. Such is the 17th Avatara. In the 18th incarnation, the Lord came in the form of Sri Rama, crossed the sea and killed Ravana. Crossing the sea is not an easy job. He built a bridge on the sea and killed Ravana. All these were explained in Bhagavatam. We cannot have a detailed description of each Avatara. For doing so, one Chaturmasya is not sufficient. Hence, we are only talking about Dashavataras. Hence, we are just remembering the 21 Avataras. Next in the 19th Avatara, the Lord came as BalaRama and in the 20th incarnation, the Lord came as Sri Krishna. In the 21st Avatara, He will come as Kalki. This is yet to come. Who ever thinks that their birth is of great one, and that their karmas are all of good virtues and those who believes that the divine incarnations and His Leelas are great, and that He is doing all these for the protection of the world, such people will not have further births. They are merged in the lord Himself. Even the basic awareness about this is sufficient. That is why we need to learn about Avataras and its specialities. By knowing this, we will know His power. Getting rid of re-birth is a great boon. It is not so easy. You get this boon after many births. Because, after being born, no senseful person will want to have another birth. Because we under go many difficulties of previous birth which we don't remember now. Do you have any idea how would your next birth be? If you have any such idea, every woman would want to be born as Miss India or Miss World only and all men would want to be born as Prime Minister or President or some Super Star. Birth is in no one's hands. It is only in the hands of Karma. Our Karma gives our Karma. Even in case we don’t try for salvation, at least try for having a good birth next and finally try for birthlessness. This is the quality of an intelligent man. This is important. But this does not mean, you curse this birth. Since you got this birth, you are using your body for gaining knowledge, for sadhana, for education, for business, for fame or for any other things. If this birth is not there, none of these are there. So, respect your birth, make use of this birth by doing sadhana for a better re-birth or for salvation. The main purpose of birth is to have no re-birth. Many people question why are we born? What is the purpose of our life? Many question this. There is only one purpose. Either through our good deeds or through our sadhana – spiritual practice or by penance, try to have no more births. Since that is very difficult, the Lord has given easy ways. That is why Krishna is called Jagadguru. Not just simply He got this title. His upadesha is such. He made everything easy for us in Bhagavat Gita. Here and there He has given us tips and alerts, like we get daily pop ups these days. In such alerts, this is one important one. You must learn through Tatva. Tatva is to become 'that' and merge into. Tat like in 'Tatvamasi'. What a brief teaching it is! If someone asks what is the summary of the teachings of your Vedas or your Sadguru in India, just say this one word - 'Tatvamasi'. This word is not used by any one in the world. Only our Upanishads in India used it. Who can give us knowledge in such brief way? If you ask Who am I, who will say that you are Paramatma - the Lord Himself ? People say, this is your name, you have born out of sin etc etc, but that is wrong. You are Paramatma. His consciousness is all spread in you. Who in this world can say this except our Upanishad. How much we are assured of this statement! How happy we feel! There is a great truth hidden in the statement Tatvamasi. It is difficult to reach this state. We need devotion for this. It comes step by step. But it will come for sure. Our mind should go towards that. But if you want to go in that direction and go in a different direction, Sadguru has the capacity to join both the directions and take us there. There is nothing wrong in praying to remove difficulties. But you must not be afraid that this difficult situation will remain like this for ever. Along with this prayer, also pray for knowledge. Likewise, you must learn about the Lord's Leelas. Then you become Sat Chit Ananda. Sat means Truth, Chit means glowing with knowledge and Ananda is being in the state of happiness. Sat-chit-ananda - that is why our Sadguru's name is Sachchidananda. If you remember this name, you will reach that state. This is the secret behind it. These three words are very important for anyone. Guru Gita talks about these three words only. Anyone does anything for happiness only. Will anyone get into any business for loss? No. It is only for happiness we do anything. The entire universe is depending on these three. Hence Paramatma is called 'Sachchidananda Lakshanaha'. Who ever, understands this tatva in these stories, such people will have His blessings completely. In some context, He has taken some form like Matsyavatara or Kurmavatara. Why are we talking about it till today? We watch serials and movies and some shows in TV. We don’t talk about it for long. Why? Because, there is no truth in it. But we talk about these incarnations even today. This means this is true forever. This is constant. He may not be visible in those forms, but these stories happen even today. Who ever understands His stories will get rid of re-birth. This must be read with utmost devotion. What is devotion? Offering a flower and prostrating is not devotion. It is karma. Then what is Bhakti ? Bhakti is not having Vibhakti. Vibhakti is division. Without being away from Him is devotion. In one context, Swamiji said, 'for me Ganapathi is not different from Dattatreya. Then why so many idols and temples? It is for the people. There may be devotees of Krishna or Datta or Devi. They need it. So, these idols are consecrated. It is for those who do upasana of their favourite deities. You must reach the state of visualising your favourite Diety in all Dieties. That is how you must pray. In temples, they install Kurma peeta. Many doesn’t know about this. They stamp it and go to have darshan. They literally run to have darshan and come back just to say that they had darshan. They don’t know where the lord is. In Kasi, unlike in other temples, the Shiva linga is in a corner. People break a coconut on the head of the priest assuming to be Shiva linga and come out. That priest screams on them. They are in such hurry. When you go on pilgrimage, you must first discuss about that place, the Diety there and go. You must not go listening to film songs. You are going to temple. At least some time, you spend dedicated for it. Don’t visit just for the sake of adding one more place to your diary's list of places. Visiting these places definitely have some power. Some places like Kasi, just going there also has some power. But by going there, you must also become knowledgeable. In temples, where there is Kurma peeta, you must touch it and go so you get permission to go. To go to Shiva temple, you must touch Nandi and go. In Vishnu temple, touch Garuda, Dwaja stambha, the flag pole, pray to Hanuman and then go in. We say it is common sense to knock the door and go. There should be common sense in the case of God also. By touching these, you get permission to go. Do not do senseless things. A Tortoise withdraws all its parts inside the body when it is in danger. Once I have seen it in discovery channel. A tiger tried to attack a tortoise and the tortoise pulled all its parts inside. The tiger tried all possible ways but didn’t know how to eat it. The tiger was frustrated and went back. After seeing that, I felt that a true Yogi should be like that. When you try to do sadhana, you face many obstacles. At such times, you must be silent. Silence is the answer for many things. If you talk, that becomes a major argument. If you keep quite, they themselves will realise and come back and apologise. What makes them say that ? It is your yoga and patience that makes them speak that way. In such time, you must remember your Sadguru. Tortoise teaches us this. Every animal has some speciality. Usually a Leopard doesn’t eat monkeys. Once out of hunger, it killed a monkey and carried it on to a tree. While doing so, it heard a tiny baby monkey's cry. It looked down and found that this baby monkey clinged to its mother. By looking at this baby monkey, even in such hunger, the Leopard left the mother and came down and caught the baby monkey. We think it is going to kill the baby monkey. But no, it carried this baby to the tree top and took care like its own child. In the mean while a Hyena comes there to attach the baby monkey and the Leopard protects this baby monkey. When there is so much of compassion in a Leopard which is hungry, how much should we as human beings have? Tell me! This is where Paramatma is. The word 'all pervasive' means this. Tears rolled down in my eyes by seeing this. Every animal has a feature. Every man has a speciality. Every object also has a feature. We must know about this and put to practice. It is applied to us. You must understand this. This mercy and compassion alone comes to our rescue. We must learn yoga from Kurma Narayana Swamy. In the whole world, there is only one temple for Kurma Narayana. It is in Sri Kurmam. I have been there many times. There is a priest there by name Kurmachary. His name also is with kurma. He is a great devotee of Swamji. Every year he comes to Mysore. Every day, he performs puja on Swamiji's name and he says, there is no greater Yogi than You. Let me perform archana to Yoga Narayana on Your name. It is a wonderful place near Srikakulam. Take time to visit this place. We are going to talk about this Swami today. His Avatara comes on Vaishaka Purnima. Chaitra Suddha Truteeya is Matsyavataram and Vaishaka Purnima is Kurmavatara. Baisakhi is a great festival. Buddha Jayanthi also is celebrated on the same day. Such Swami is praised greatly in Dasarathi Sathakam. Visualize all Devathas in your favourite deity. There is no difference in them. Each region has some specific God. But you try to see your favourite diety in all of them. In fact this is easy. This is called Upasana. In this process of Upasana, visiting the temples of those dieties, knowing the Leelas, chanting the mantras of that diety are all part of upasana. Remembering about this diety constantly till you attain mantra siddhi is upasana. It reaches to a state of conversing with those Devatas. That is the pinnacle. Kurma Avatara is described also in Venkata nagadhipati stotra. In this, it is described as, the Manthara mountain on the back of Kurma appears as a bee on the lotus flower. Wonderful visualization. Often a sumeru is installed on Kurma. This is very auspicious to have darshan. It seems, due to the weight of carrying the Manthara mountain, it created a tattoo on the back of Kurma. This means He carried so much weight that it left its imprint. It is said that before knowing about Kurma Swami, we must pray to Goddess Laxmi. Why? Because, Goddess Laxmi married the Lord during his Kurma incarnation. Whoever remembers Kurma, and who ever has Kurma peeta in their house or have Kurma yantra, will have blessings of Goddess Laxmi. Like how our shadow doesn’t leave us, Mother Laxmi also followed the Lord in all His incarnations. The one who is all pervasive is Kurma Paramatma. He is also called as Kurma Narayana Swami or Yoga Narayana murti. He is the origin of the universe which is movable and immovable too. Brahma is born from His naval. This means, the entire world is born from His naval. A baby takes food from its mother initially through the naval cord. To explain this science, He created the universe from His naval. He is protecting all of us with His Leelas. Prajapathi Brahma wanders in His stomach. This entire Universe is on motion because of Him. He is rotating the Universe. In life, when we withstand to all difficulties, we get the fruits of it. The Lord incarnated as Kurma to teach this to us. He tolerated difficulties to get nectar out of it. Sleep is His glory. In English, we say take a small nap. Nap is important. In yoga, one must not strain the body. It must be given some rest. If you say, I didn’t get time to exercise whole week, so one day on Sunday I will do the entire week's quota and do treadmill for 3 hours, you will fall down. That is wrong. Kurma Avatara tells us this secret of Yoga. Keep doing it daily. Do it at least for 10 minutes. It is ok. Kurma took the aid of sleep. All of you remember, even when you are studying or working or doing anything, just close your eyes for some time every 90 minutes. Set alarm for every 90 minutes. When it rings, just close your eyes. You don’t need to sleep. Just close your eyes and take a deep inhale and exhale. You will know the difference. It gives a lot of energy. This is Kriya yoga. How long? Just for 1 minute every 90 minutes. If you keep on working continuously, the body gets tired. Kurma, bearing the weight of a mountain, just simply relaxed. Similarly, when people put you to difficulties, just think that is also a lesson for your good. Your life goes smooth with that. Now let us sing Tande Tayi Pandu Ranga. Bhajan is like a power nap for us also. Pandu Ranga - Paadu Ranga - Sing the glory of Ranga. There are deities for everything in the world, like to remove obstacles there is Ganapathi, for knowledge there is Saraswati, for wealth there is Laxmi. But if there is a diety for Nama Sankeertana, it is Panduranga alone. Nama Sankeertane is the only Archana there for Panduranga. There are nine types of Archana. The last one among this is Keerthana - singing. You must immediately sing. You must not say, I cannot sing, my sruthi is not good, my voice is not good. Sing however you know. Swami likes that way only. Nama Sankeertana is very important. When you sing during the evening, all the surroundings becomes peaceful. Now, let us know about Kurma Narayana Swamy as per Kurma Purana. Suta maha muni narrates this story for other munis present there. This Kurma episode removes sins. How? By turning us towards him. Earlier, when there was a war between demons and Gods in which demons occupied their kingdom, all the Devathas prayed to Narayana to protect them. Maha Vishnu instructs them to churn the milky sea. This defeat for Indra is due to Guru's curse. When we sing Tande Tayi Panduranga, we feel why is Panduraga the mother and father rather than our own parents. This means, see your mother and father in Him and see Him in your mother and father. Indra insulted his Guru Bruhaspati. Once, Bruhaspati visits Indra. Indra denies to see Him. Bruhaspati curses him and leaves that place. Hence, all the Devathas had to face this difficulty. To come out of this, churn the milky sea, says Lord Maha Vishnu. To help the Devathas, Narayana took the form of Kurma. Any work is to be done with yoga. Little tactics are required. We think of results even before starting the work. It should not be the case. The results of the work also are to be offered to the Lord. That is Yoga. Certain temples were built like Tanjavur temple. Some generations passed by for its completion. Grand father started building the temple and grandson completed it. Huge dams were built. People did those works for the welfare of people. Hence we are remembering them till today. Offer the merits of the karma to Sadguru. Any work is to be done with tactic. Any work done without knowledge goes waste. This yoga, Kurma Narayana teaches us. During the churning, Laxmi was born. She is called Kamakshim Krodha Sambhavam in Laxmi Ashtottaram. But it is Kamam Ksheerodha Sambhavam. In one instance, it is said that She was born from the anger of Brugu Maharshi. Sometimes after many efforts, when there is no result, we do it again with anger. Similarly Brugu once showed anger and it is said that She was born out of that anger. Hence She is called Kamakshim Krodha Sambhavam. But it has to be Kamam Ksheerodha Sambhavam. He is fulfilling all our kamas - desires and She is born out of the milky sea. She adorned Kurma Narayana with Vaijayanthi garland and announced that He is Her husband. Since then, they are called Laxmi Narayana. Jai Bolo Laxmi Narayana Swami ki Jai !! Narayana Himself explained the tatva of Goddess Laxmi. He says, I don’t need to do anything. Everything will be done by Her. Not just for humans, but for the entire world. Laxmi is just not money, wealth, power and many. Sri Suktham says, everything in the world is Laxmi Herself. Agni Purana also talks about Kurma Avatara. Whoever remembers this, will gain success in life. This was told to Vasishta Maharshi by Agni deva. Jai Bolo Kurma Murti Swamiki Jai ! In Bhagavata, Kurma episode is very wonderful. Lord Vishnu tells the Devathas to churn the milky sea along with demons. Because, in certain circumstances, we must do friendship even with our enemies. No choice. Once a snake was caught and put in a net. It finds a rat passing that way and calls it and asks to cut the net and assures that it will not kill any other rat for doing this favour. Rat gets astonished that a snake which never speaks, is taking its favour. It bites the net and releases the snake. After the snake is released what happened is not told. It is only said that like the snake and the rat, one must make friendship even with an enemy to get our things done. These kind of management skills are to be learnt from Lord Maha Vishnu. This is the very reason He had taken so many incarnations. For the success of your work, you must take the help of others. You must never say, he is my enemy. I don’t talk to him. This will not work out. When in difficulty, take the help of even an enemy and get out of that situation. Maha Vishnu tells this to the Devathas to join with demons and churn the sea. Bali didn't agree for this. They convinced him. Together, they started the churn. Amrutha was born out of it. Before this, they had to face lot of difficulties. They wanted to use the Manthara mountain for churning. However, they could not move it. Then Vishnu went on Garutmanta, brought the Manthara and placed it on the back of Kurma and during the churn, when the mountain sinked into the sea, He incarnated as Kurma and raised the Manthara to the top. We are talking about such Swami. When we feel our life is sinking, He comes to rescue us in the form of Sadguru. Yesterday we spoke about Him, Who is in the form of aksharas - letters and knowledge. This is school stage. After this, we go for a job or some kind of livelihood. He protects us at this stage of difficulties of life too. At this time Yoga is essential for us. He instructs that no work should be done without Yoga. So, He is called Yoga Narayana Murti. Markandeya Purana also describes about Kurma. This we will talk about tomorrow. As per this narration, all the planets, and the entire universe is visible in this Kurma. That is how we must visualise this incarnation. By doing so, all the evil effects of malefic planets will subside. During the churn, many objects were born. One of them is Nectar. To distribute this to the Devathas and the demons, Kurma Swamy took the incarnation. Vyasa bhagawan describes amrutha mathana - churning the see for nectar as thus : Atma Ksheera Nidhihi - The milky sea is our body or Atma. Viveka nichayaha - Manthana Shailottama Working with intellect is Manthara mountain. We collect knowledge from various sources. This knowledge is Manthara mountain. Praneeyoh marudeva vaasukuhihi - Vasuki The snake used as rope to pull is the prana shakti, the inner energy. While churning thus, the good and bad thoughts inside us are the Devathas and demons. After churning, the discussions that we make is Amrutha, nectar. This is what Mahatmas do. So, the important points for us here is, in Atma tatva, there should be knowledge and intelligence. We must do pranayama and protect Kriya Yoga. Drive away bad thoughts and retain only good ones. The divinity that comes out after all this is Amrutha - the divine nectar. Such good deeds will have success always. Then what is Amrutha ? With what is nectar compared with ? Svaananda peeyushakrut The inner feeling of atmananda or brahmananda, the happiness is Amruta. We today remembered that swami, who is the origin for such happiness in us. Jai Bolo Kurma Narayan Swamiki... Jai !! Day 3, July 26, Varahavatara Today all of you have performed Sankashta hara chaturdhi vratham. I pray the Lord to remove all your difficulties. Today Pujya Swamiji has completed His America tour and would have reached Canada for a week long trip and will return to Mysore. Swamiji will come here during the Chaturmasya and will give darshan to you all. Sankashta hara Ganapathi removes all your debts. There is a Ganapathi called Runa Vimochana Ganapathi who removes all your financial debts. Today in the presence of our Ganapathi here, we all performed this vratha. Today is Friday also. We worshipped mother Goddess today. We entered the 3rd day of Dashavatara tatva. We spoke about Matsya, Kurma Avataras and today we will be talking about Varaha Swami. Yesterday while talking about Kurmavatara, we spoke that Laxmi prayer is to be done. Goddess Laxmi was born during Kurmavatara and married Lord Hari and attained a place in His chest forever. Who ever prays to Kurmavatara and has darshan of Kurma will be blessed with wealth. In Nuzividu, during the discourse of Ashta Laxmi Mahatyam, we prayed to Gaja Laxmi with a stotram. Today we will sing that once again, complete Kurmavatara and proceed towards Varaha avatara. Jai Bolo Jagat Janani Jayalaxmi mata ki... Jai.... Yesterday we spoke about the milky sea, Manthara mountain, Vasuki, Amrutha etc. Who ever thinks about Vedanta, knowledge born out of such thoughts is Amrutha. Matsya Narayana is called Veda Narayana and Kurma Narayana is called Yoga Narayana. Kurma Avatara teaches us Yoga. If we can have good memory power, that itself is true sadhana. Continuous remembrance is sadhana. When we talk about Kurma Narayana, we must remember Kurma Narayana temple in West Godavari district. Yesterday I was told that there is another Kurma temple of 400 years old near Peda Kapavaram village of Akiveedu. Here, Kurma Narayana is giving us darshan along with Rukmini, Satya Bhama and Venu Gopala Swamy. Let us pray for His blessings. When we go to temples especially at Shiva temples, Vishnu temples and Devi temples, we find Kurma. We must touch it and then seek yoga. Kurma Swamy held the entire universe within Him. As per Markandeya Purana, Kurma Narayana is spread all across Bharata varsha - Bhaarata desa - India. The present times India is just a part of Bharata Khanda. Earlier, Bharata Khanda was very vast. It was divided into many countries and now became very small from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Beyond Kanya Kumari also, there used to be a small place called Kumari Khandam. It is said that Parashurama sent this area into the sea. Kurma Narayana thus spread across Bharata khanda and all Devathas resided in His body in the form of tiny stars. Like how all Devathas reside in a Cow, Kurma Narayana also is in the form of Devathas. Agni, Pruthvi and Chandra (moon) resided in His abdomen area. Mesha, Mithuna and Vrishabha rasis (Aries, Gemini & Taurus) also resided in His abdomen area. Karkataka and Simha rasis are in his Eastern and Southern feet. Simaha, Kanya Tula are in His Kukshi sthana. Meena and Mesha are in His Western and Northern feet. In Maha Kurma, there are all the countries, stars of those countries and in stars all the moon signs and in these signs all the planets and in planets the entire universe is found. This is the description of Kurma Swami given in Markandeya Purana. May He protect us all. To remove all the famine difficulties in the country, Kurma Swamy is to be prayed, like how we pray Lord Shiva for rains. A live incident happened recently. Swamiji always tells us, In Bommeparthy during His childhood, when there are no rains, a border is build with bricks around the Shiva linga and is filled with water till its rains. Within 40 days, it used to rain. Swamiji witnessed this many times. This is the merit of praying Shiva. Recently, May 26th 2013, we celebrated Appaji's Birthday in Vijayawada ashram. We started on 23rd and surprisingly Vijayawada devotees said not to come due to scorching heat there which was almost 47 degrees celsius. I said, “doesn't matter I will come” and reached on 23rd. We performed abhishekam to Gangadhareshwara Shiva there. After one round of abhishekam, didn't feel like stopping it and continued for 11 rounds. I thought in mind, if the Dhara Patra (the vessel with holes used for Abhishekam) becomes full atleast once, there will be good rains. Exactly during the 11th round, while chanting Namah Somayacha Rudrayacha... it was full and Abhishekam water overflowed. I felt very happy. It started drizzling that day. We did Nagara Sankeertana. 23rd, 24th & 25th, those 3 days it was hot. From 26th, Appaji's birthday till today it was raining continuously. Maybe now, we should pray to Shiva that there are floods. This is the merit of Shivaraadhana. We have seen it live. There could be any reason but there is nothing wrong in having belief. You must never question that is it because of our Puja that it rained? Its very wrong. During our puja time it rained so we must feel that the lord is happy with our puja. Unless you have such belief, you can't proceed further in life and cannot have success. Like wise, we must take everything positive in life. In the word Kurma, Ku means tides. The tides of difficulties that arise in our life are been removed with Kurma Swami. He removes shad urmis - six types of difficulties. What are shad urmis? 1) Hunger. Hunger is required. But too much of hunger obstructs our sadhana. 2) Thirst. If hunger and thirst are not there in this world, this world would become a Deva loka said Harischandra. He suffered a lot with hunger and thirst while working in the burial ground. These two makes the difference between Deva loka and Bhu loka - earth. They are required. Hunger, good digestion and good sleep - these three indicates good health of a man. These three should be balanced. Any change in any one of these means ill health. Each of these should happen in its stipulated time. 3) Greed - Who ever are tied with the rope called greed are surprisingly running and who are away from it are sitting still at one place. Usually who are tied should sit and those who are free must run. But here, those who are tied with greed are running for more and more. Aim is required. These days, they say aim big and dream big. We must say that too and encourage children. Else, they would just eat and sleep. Aim can be there. But greed should not be there. 4) Grief - Sundara Khanda explains wonderfully about grief. Don’t be sad even for petty things. This is wrong. Some people react alike for small and huge things even when they know it is small. This is also wrong. Bhagavad Gita started with the word grief. Asochyan anvasochas tvam It started with this verse and ended with sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma suchah It started with Asochay and ended with ma suchaha which means that you are crying for those which are not required. Ma suchaha - Do not cry. Gitaacharya (Lord Krishna) prevented us from crying and taught us how to be happy. In the presence of Sadguru first thing that we get is happiness. When you find happiness with someone, He is our Sadguru. The very presence and glance gives us happiness. He is Sadguru. You don't get happiness anywhere else. It is not sold in the market. We find it only in the presence of Sadguru. 5) Delusion - In Sharirika mimamsa shastra, moha - delusion is explained wonderfully. What is moha? Ignorance is delusion. 6) Death - Birth and death are not in anyone's hands. Everyone faces this. Before the death arrives, rectify your life and make use of this birth. Who ever does sadhana beyond these 6 principles, the Lord blesses them with yoga as Kurma Murti. Jai Bolo Kurma Narayana Swamiki Jai... Now let us enter the third Avatara the Varaha avatara. Namastasmai Varaahaaya helayoddharatey mahim khura madhya gatou yasya meruhu khura khuraayate helaya uddarate mahim - he lifted the earth very easily. Hela is Helapuri - Eluru. Describing the Varaha, Adi Shankaracharya said, whoever is drowned in the sea of birth, for them, mother Goddess Herself turns into Yaga Varaha Swamy and uplifts them. The tusks of Varaha is brightening even the Patala loka. Among the seven lokas, patala is considered as the last of them under the earth. There are seven more lokas above earth. This brightness of the tusk of Maha Varaha is spread to the last of the worlds too. This is the external meaning. When we discuss about the internal meaning, it means that He is the light of our invisible heart which is patala loka of the body. Antar bahischa tat sarvam vyaapya narayanah sthithaha says Narayana Upanishad. May the tusk of Varaha put us all in the path of dharma! Varaha Swami was born on Bhadrapada Shukla Truteeya the last fortnight of the Chaturmasya and a day before Ganapathi festival. He is called as Yagna Varaha. He is also called Laxmi Varaha and Swetha Varaha. We are now in the eon of Swetha Varaha Kalpa. He is the land donor for the lord of Kaliyuga, Sri Venkateshwara Swami. He donated Tirumala to Venkateshwara Swamy. Till then it was called Varahaadri. Later it became Venkatadri. In Hampi, the Vijayanagara kingdom has Varaha Dwaja - flag. Mysore kingdom also worships Varaha. There is Varaha Swamy temple in Mysore palace. Since we all are related to Dattapeetham which is in Mysore, and since we are all following Mysore Swamiji, Varaha Swami also is very important for all of us. In our Datta Venkateshwara temple, near Audumbara, Varaha Swami is giving us darshan as Bhoo Varaha Swamy. What is Varaha? What is He doing with that form? He is not doing anything. Why? Varaha means pig. It likes wet mud. When floods come, there will be mud. In Kedarnath, the army is cleaning the mud. Nothing can be replaced for their service. Those who serve in the army will get salvation. The salvation which a Yogi gets, the same an army soldier also will get. It is said that those who die in Kasi attains salvation. But they will attain this after three days. But those who die in Kedarnath will get immediate salvation. Let us all pray for those souls. May the lord bestow strength to all those who lost everything in that incident. During August, after Appaji returns back from tour, DattaPeetham is planning to contribute to Kedar Flood Relief fund. All of you become part of it as much as you can. You can even donate your old clothes that you throw away. There are many people who feel happy about this. The wastage that you do while eating can maintain some families. Do not throw away food even if it is excess. Consume only what you can. Every particle of the food that we throw away is counted by deities of food. You will have to take birth for each of the particle that you throw away. So be careful. It is not morsel that is counted, it is each particle of the morsel that is counted and so many births you will have to take again. Food is Goddess Annapurna. Do not waste it. Distribute to the needy. All this is taught by Varaha Swamy. The Maha Varaha, out of compassion towards us stayed still without moving, as His movement in mud will exhaust the entire earth. That is why He is not doing anything. There is lot of physics and science when we observe this creation. It is because of His energy, the earth is in balance state. Without anyone behind it, is it possible? No. Usually pigs dig the earth and eat that is available under the soil. But this Maha Varaha is not doing so, with the fear of destroying even Naga loka which is down beneath. This is how we must visualize the Varaha. Only then we get the merit of having darshan of Lord Venkateshwara. Many people do not have Varaha darshana before going to have Venakteshwara darshan. Doing so, will not give the merit of having Venkateshwara darshana. He is the land owner. He is the one who gave that site to Lord Venkateshwara. Swamiji always says, do not ignore land donors who contributed to construct temples. You must invite them. Even if they don’t come, you must invite. Not just to them, their next generations also are to be treated likewise. But the donors should not have ego that they donated the land. These two points are very important. Venkateshwara charita teaches us this. Yagna Varaha is not even screaming with the fear that the entire universe may blast out of that sound. This universe is not the only one. There are many inside this. There are many galaxies. There is no limit to that. Somehow, I have great respect for Varaha Swamy in my heart. There is no movement in Him. He is just stand still. May such Yagna Varaha Swamy protect all. Who ever has land issues, who ever wants to own a house, who ever has difficulties in completing the construction of their house, they all must pray to Varaha Swamy. Our shastras are so great. Our elders are very broad minded. We call it as pig but the word Varaha has a great meaning. It is Vara and Aha which means this day is good day. He is the bestower of Varas - boons. We hate pigs but Varaha is a great animal. Every animal has its own purpose. That is the reason, the Lord created animals and birds. But we cannot create and cannot even protect them. During summer, put some water outside the house. Birds will come and drink. Sprinkle few grains here and there. They come and eat. Since we are not even able to do this, Swamiji established a great Shuka Vana for birds. Birds have so much importance. The world is protected by birds. We just say busy busy and are not cultivating these habits in children. All these are taught in Bhakthi. Bhakthi is just not performing pujas. It is just not going to temples. All these are paths of Bhakthi. The Lord will be pleased on with such activities. People keep killing mosquitoes non stop. They search for them and kill with electric equipment also. That is sin. Protect yourself from mosquitoes but don’t kill them. I'm not asking you to do penance sitting amidst mosquitoes. Lord Krishna mentioned in Gita where to sit for penance and how to sit also. It is said that one must sit at a high level ground, on a comfortable seat and where there is no harm of insects for meditating or penance. We must learn all this. Do not cultivate such cruel attitude in children. You ask your child how many mosquitoes he killed that day. He replied only 99 and you start encouraging him to kill one more which is near you. This is a very bad attitude. If you teach him this, today he kills mosquitoes, tomorrow he may kill somone else. Because, himsa - cruelty is one and the same in the case of anything. If you have Ahimsa – non cruelty in your mind, it remains the same in everything. Cruelty is not the one we teach children. Teach mercy, compassion. This is very important. If you notice, all these stories are connected with some animal or the other. Matsyavatara teaches us to protect water creatures. Same with Kurmavatara. Varaha is more closer to earth. To stay close to all of us, the Lord took this form and came amidst us. How to protect earth is told by Lord Vishnu Himself. Vedas praise the earth as Vishnu Patni, Madhavi and Madhava priya. Earth bestows blessings to all those who worship fire. It absorbs sun rays and moon rays and is helping us with medicinal herbs. Such Bhumata - mother earth is with Sri Hari. Sri Bhu sameta Sri venkateshwara Swamiki jai... Sridevi and Bhudevi both are His wives. That is why He protects earth with utmost care. Entire earth is called Karma Bhumi, not just ours. She bestows merit for all according to their deeds. We cannot perform any sadhana without Her blessing. Dhanurdharaayai vidmahe sarva sidhdhyai cha dheemahi Thanno dharaa prachodhayaath Bhumata is the base for all siddhis. Vaikhanasa agama shastra describes the glory of mother earth. Once Hiranyaksha and Hiranya Kasipa did penance and seeked great boons. Hiranya aksha means his target is on stealing gold and land. The lord incarnated to ends him. Why are we talking about all these? What is the purpose? Why should we talk about this? Kabirdas says none can describe its merit. Tulasidas says even Adi sesha cannot describe its merit. But Satsanga gives its merit. During evenings, where ever such satsangs happen, we must go. These days Harikatha and programs of such satsangs have reduced. Evenings are spent in shopping and eating chats but no one is thinking of utilizing their time in proper way. That's why there is communication gap increasing between parents and children. We need to imbibe our culture in our children. There is nothing wrong going for these activities once or twice in a week but not daily. However busy you are, evenings are to be spent in satsangs. It is must. No choice for you. In this competition age, you are not bothered of his friendships, his schedule etc. All you see is his marks. They get good marks, but at the end of it, you are not in a position to handle him. What is the use if they are not useful for our culture ? They leave the country and go far away even leaving their parents. What is the use? This is very wrong. We should also cultivate these habits and also cultivate in them. Time teaches everything. We will slowly go back to olden days. Olden days is not going backwards. Development will be there and everything will be there in abundance. But Dharma should not be forgotten. Science and Technology has improved a lot. Swamiji also is using this technology and is sending messages in various languages to teach people of culture and tradition. We must teach children of all these values. That is why we must do satsang. Listening is easy. I would also prefer to sit along with you if someone else speaks. While listening sitting together, we develop good relations. That is important. At such places, Lord gives darshan. Why should we remember the lord? This is explained in detail while narrating the word 'Narayana'. Every letter in this word has lot of energy. In the story of Ajamaya, at the end, he could not completely pronounce the work Narayana and just could say nara and left the mortal body. Still he got salvation. Bhakti takes us all to that level. It has such power. Na - Nastikya hani nirtatvam While describing Paramatma, it was said Neti Neti...which means is he this.. is he this... At the end of all those descriptions, what ever remained is only Atma and that Atma itself is Paramatma says Upanishads. Na - Nastikya hani nirtatvam Na in Narayana removes atheism in us and develops devotion and makes us as theist. Who is a theist ? Who ever believes in the Vedas are theist. Vedas are the basis for entire knowledge. There exists nothing with out Vedas. Veda and Deva are very important. Who is an atheist? Veda Dhooshakaha - who ever abuses Veda is an atheist. Ra - Ranjanam bhagavatyasu Ra - Rashtraanaadhikam Ra gives us happiness in His stories and leelas. It also teaches us what to like and what not to. Its utterance saves the country. It is Shabda shastra - the science of sound. There is a aura meter. We checked this in the ashram. It shows different kinds of reactions when good and bad words are spoken. We did this testing. When we said Narayana or Datta or some good word, there are 100% waves. When spoken bad words, there is not even 1% waves. This is proven. We can do nama smarana silently, or by just lip movement or loudly. Which ever way you do, it does show some power and protects us. Ya - Yogo udyoga phalanchashu Ya in Narayana removes obstacles in yoga or udyoga - job.It also removes the evil of black magic. Na - It gives good words. All puranas described Varaha as Adi Varaha, Yagna Varaha and Swetha Varaha. Why did He incarnate? Namastasmai Varaahaaya lilayoddharatey mahim khura madhya gatou yasya meruhu khura khuraayate He is incarnated to protect the earth. First Avatara is Gnana Avatara, born for knowledge protecting Vedas as Matsyavatara. In the second Avatara, as Kurma Avatara He protected Yoga. In Third, He is Bhu Varaha Swami, protecting earth and all the habitants of earth. So He is very close to us. Hiranyaksha turned the entire earth into water with the ego of His boons and took to patala loka. What does this mean? For the sake of understanding, it is said that he rolled the entire earth like a mat and took it home. This is told for the sake of children to understand. But we are all elders and learners. We have degrees. So we need to know the secret. The secret is he made the entire earth into water and he has hidden himself underneath. To protect such earth, the lord incarnated as Yagna Varaha swamy. In Trinidad, once Swamiji told me about Yagna Varaha Swamy in just 2-3 words. I still remember and hope to remember always. Since then I have lot of bhakti and a special place for Yagna Varaha Swamy. The entire earth is filled with water. There is no earth to do good deeds. There is no sun, no sun rays. Earth is full of insects. To reduce the level of water, to evaporate, the Lord incarnated as Yagna Varaha and jumped into the sea. When He jumped, for that force, the earth came out of the sea. Then the entire creation started again. With this, Mahatmas again started performing yagnas. With this, the universe came to normal. That is how Yagna Varaha protected earth. This is the speciality of Yagna Varaha Swamy. Some stories say that He is born from the breath of Brahma in the size of a thumb and then spread all across the earth. Those who are greedy of land, wealth are punished by Varaha Swamy. Today we are seeing Datta as Varaha swamy. Jai Bolo Datta Varaha Swami ki Jai. Day 4, July 27, Nrsimhavatara Mata Narasimha, Pita Narasimha Bratha Narasimha, Sakha Narasimha Vidyaa Narasimha, Dravinam Narasimha Swami Narasimha, Sakalam Narasimha Jai Bolo Narasimha Swami Ki Jai ! Mother is Narasimha. Father is Narasimha. Brother is Narasimha. Friend is Narasimha. Knowledge is Narasimha. Wealth is Narasimha. My Lord is Narasimha. Everything is Narasimha. Narasimha Swami is protecting all those who trust and pray Him. Until now, in Kurma incarnation, we spoke about the Jnana Narayana swami, Yoga Narayana swami and Veda Narayana swami. We spoke about the incident in which Matsya Swami rescued the Vedas - jnana, knowledge. In Varaha incarnation we spoke about Varaha Swami protecting earth. Varaha is a big form. We may or may not comprehend. We want God to come closer and protect each person individually. When God does something for the whole of humanity, we question how does it benefit me individually? Is there any incarnation that happened to save only one devotee? Listening to only one devotee prayer, Vishnu incarnated as Narasimha to protect Prahalada. Narasimha Swami is a great Yogi. He is protecting all, and He particularly incarnated to uplift devotion. Narasimha Swami can be called as Bhakti Narayana Swami. Irrespective of how many names you call Him with, calling Him as Prahalada Varada makes Him satisfied. Narasimha Swami is mandatorily accompanied by Prahalada in all His sacred places, irrespective of Narada’s presence. Prahalada is such a small child, not educated also. Once all boys were chanting mantras, but a small boy did not know them, he went to his mother and told I don’t know mantras how should I pray god? Mother told son, I taught the alphabets, go and recite them. The small child happily recited it in the divine presence of god. Verily, there is so much hidden secret in this. Tattva is hidden in the way shown by mother. All the mantras contain nothing but these very alphabets. Small child prayed God with such alphabets and got blessed. What can we talk about the God Who incarnated for one small child? Wealth, education, God, and everything is Narasimha. Surrender completely to Narasimha. We all are associated with the Datta Peetham and are devotees of Sri Swamiji. We must proudly say Sri Swamiji’s house deity is Lakshmi Narasimha Swami. It is very special that we are talking about Narasimha Swami. In Mysore the Narasimha Swami idol has been sculpted by sculptor Jakkanacharya. Sri Swamiji has installed the idol with other Panchayatana Gods, saying that this is His worship place. Many devotees came forward to build a big temple for this Narasimha Swami but Sri Swamiji refused because, Narasimha Swami appeared in Sri Swamiji’s vision and asked Sri Swamiji to consecrate Him here. ito narasimha parato narasimho yato yato yami tato Narasimha…sharanam prapadye. Narasimha swami is here, there, and everywhere because He is also present in your heart. He is omnipresent. He is sarvantaryami - the inner ruler of everything. In this world, I don’t know anything other than Narasimha Swami. I surrender to Narasimha Swami. Jai Bolo Lakshmi Narasimha Swami Ki Jai Narasimha swami’s is maha Yogi. His devotion done either knowingly or unknowingly gives us yogam - blessings. His sitting posture is similar to the Ayappa Swami sitting posture. Mere chanting of Narasimha Narasimha Narasimha will remove all your difficulties, pains, and enemies. Chanting of His name is enough. This is taught to us by Prahalada. While you are on the move chanting Narasimha Narasimha Narasimha, He follows you uninvited. Will you call the person who is standing nearby you. Merely remembering Him is sufficient. No need to call Him. Narasimha Swami is practical proof of many Vedic mantras. Narasimha Swami is enveloping both the inner and outer worlds. The entire tattva of Swami is depending on the name Vasudeva. Krishna was called affectionately Vasudeva in His incarnation, but in reality it is the name of the Paramatma. He has created the entire creation, He entered His own creation. He is inside us and outside also. He knows this truth, but we are ignorant of this truth. In the Kruta eon meditation, in Treta eon Yagna, in Dwapara eon pujas, and in Kali eon remembrance are the prevalent forms of God worship. The changes in the modes of worship can be attributed to the degrading strength of man from time to time. In Kali eon, mere remembering of god will give the same fruit as gained by the persons for their worship in the previous eons. Narasimha Swami likes remembering Him the most. We spoke about the special meaning of “Narayana”. Pranams are done by Yati’s only to the mother who gave birth, Universal mother, and Sadguru. The deed of pranams done by Yati’s to any other person is fruitless. All the pranams offered to them are in turn offered by them to Narayana. As the Nigamas say, chanting of Narayana will ward away all the sins. I have practiced the chanting of Narayana as ordained by Vedas, so please protect and save me Narayana. Chanting of Divine names constantly is good for mind, intellect and environment. And the world will recognize you as a person who constantly chants the Divine names. Due the grace of God and Nama smarana, your words will be true. Nama smarana will bestow you with fame, position in society, respect, and all the goodies in this mortal world along with goodies in other worlds also. Teach Nama smarana to your children and make this a habit to them. You must make children understand that chanting of film stars name is futile, instead chant the name of the God who made these stars and has the capability to change your starts - planetary positions. He is not a super star, but the supreme star. Nama smarana provides us the merit which comes with us after we leave the mortal body and blesses us with Atma uddharan - Self redemption, and this is what we precisely need. Our Vedas and scriptures shower on us their immense kindness. Irrespective of how you chant His name, be it in a moody way, in a friendship way, with love and affection, thinking Him as a relative, and out of fear, He will bless you. Hiranyakashipu constantly chanted Narayana’s name with hatred and still got liberation. Devotees may forget God but the non - orthodox people will never forget God. There was big conference of non- orthodox people conducted. The person who chaired the conference concluded the program saying, with God’s grace the conference went off very well. What kind of non-orthodox conference is this? God is ever present. He will make you chant His name. Who should tell you to chant His name? He will make you chant! Your continuous chanting of His name will not enhance His fame or greatness. Whether you chant His name or not, He remains without any change. Continuously chanting His name is benefitting to us. Some people are doubtful whether we can also get liberation the Hiranyakashipu way. Many are of the wrong opinion that practicing devotion is harder than practicing hatred. Actually it is the other way around. No, hating God is not that easy, you have to hate him 24 X 7, without a break. Hiranyakashipu searched for Vishnu in everything, in food, in visitors etc. He would remember Hari at all times but in a hating way. It is said in Vishnu Puana that Hiranyakashipu searched Hari outside everywhere, but did not search for Hari inside his heart. So Hari hided in his heart, but Hiranyakashipu always constantly remembered Hari. All the time he would remember Hari with hatred. As a matter of fact we want to worship Hari with love and affection and not with hatred, we don’t want choice here. We must never abuse or hate God and Vedas. On the later times, with His grace, we will be made to realize the truth about God and Vedas and then we will have to undergo unnecessary repentance. Many people abuse God in anger or sorrow, but God will make them realize their mistake. The love on God is inherent inside you like a small fire. One day the small fire will grow big and make you realize your mistake. You are questioning whether God will pardon me for this abusive act? This very question is the proof that He has pardoned you, and hence you are asking this question. This is the secret and His grace. May god surely bless all of us with ability of not abusing parents, God, Guru, and Vedas. Many times Sri Swamiji has told us that He sees Narasimha Swami in Dattatreya Swami and Dattatreya Swami in Narasimha Swami. Yesterday, when Lord Dattatreya was decorated with Varaha incarnation, I was doubtful of the airflow to Datta because of the snout of Varaha swami. In the invitation cards, the next day decoration was printed as Vamana’s incarnation, so the priest ordered the decorative materials for the Vamana incarnation. The priest expressed his doubt of how the taila abhishekam would be done to Datta on Sunday because on Sunday Datta would be decorated with Narasimha decoration. I was wondering that the Narasimha incarnation should have come on Saturday and not on Sunday. I did not disclose this to the priest. If instructed all would have been ready. See this divine play of Lord. Today in morning, the priest informed me about Vamana incarnation decoration to Datta, and tomorrow’s Narasimha incarnation decoration to Datta. I said yes, today all morning Datta will be in Vamana incarnation breathing comfortably, and will get decorated as Narasimha incarnation in the evening as He incarnated in the evening. We must see Narasimha in Datta because from the padas - foot to the belly He is in the form of Brahma. From belly to neck He is in the Vishnu form. And from neck to head He is in Rudra form. He is enveloped by Shivam - auspiciousness. At all places where He is remembered, auspiciousness will prevail. It means we are auspicious forms now. He has made us auspicious. He is filling bliss inside us. Auspiciousness is all around Him. Narasimha Swami takes auspicious form for the benefit of the worshippers. Worshipers could not see, understand and comprehend on His Nirguna form. Hence they pleaded him that they need an adharam - repository to understand His tattva. It is true that the Nirguna Brahman took form and came down to earth to protect Prahalada, but also to bestow the upasana siddhi – gaining attainment through worship or practice. He took the idol form to bless the devotees. In Mahabharata Narasimha Swami tattva is told. He took the ferocious form which not only the humans but all the three worlds shook with fear. Narasimham vapuh krutva yas trilokya bhayamkaram Hiranyakashipum jaghne Tasmai simhatmane namaha. Jai Bolo Narasimha Swami Ki Jai The Narasimha swami incarnation happened at the time where half day meets half night- at twilight time. The incarnations of Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, and Narasimha are called Sadyojāta and Swayambhu – Self manifested incarnations. These incarnations happened with His Icchā - power of will. These incarnations bestowed benefit to the worlds immediately after incarnating, without consuming much time. Narasimha was not born, or grown up, but He directly incarnated fully prepared and protected His devotee. Narasimha Swami did not take as much time as Matsya incarnation. It means God is getting closer to human beings. Narasimha Swami incarnated as half human and half lion there by subtlety messaging us the essence of His incarnation, to remove the violence from our minds. Lion removes the violent feelings. Lion is written as “SIMHA-lion” when it is written from backwards in Sanskrit, then it becomes “HIMSA - violence”. Mother goddess’s vehicle is lion. She is conveying subtlety that She removes violence from our minds. For the same reason Vishnu incarnated as Narasimha form. In Vishnu purana, Narasimha Swami is being prayed Namaste pundarikaksha Namaste purushottam, Namaste Sarvalokatman Namaste Tigmachakrine, Namaste vasudevaya Namaste karunakara Namaste Vishwaroopaya Namaste Sarvamurtaye. Narasimha swami incarnation gives darshan in all puranas and stories. In Vishnu epic it is told that Narasimha swami has protected and did upadesha to Prahalada, and pardoned Hiranyakashipu. Even though in their opinion Narasimha Swami killed Hiranyakashipu, they highlighted it as a blessing more than killing. The fruit of listening to Narasimha Swami charita is also told. Before going to sleep we must ponder on our today activities and evaluate our actions as good or bad. We must pray and make a determination that bad deeds will not be repeated and good deeds will be repeated. We must not postpone this activity. We must not increase our luggage, but finish it off on daily basis. The accumulated sins will do us no good. The sins should be cleaned on daily basis. Then we can happily and easily travel in our life journey without luggage. The travel should be easy, comfortable, and not risky. The merit of listening to the Narasimha incarnation story removes the sins earned on that day. The full moon day and no moon day are important days. On purnima day the thoughts in our mind run wild so it is very important to do Nama smarana of God. This is the secret. This is why in schools in Sri Lanka the purnima and no moon day are declared as holidays. They don’t have the weekend holiday system. We are yet to realize this secret. Sri Swamiji conducts Pavamana Homa on every purnima day for the same reason. Pavamana homa means remembering God Vayu-the father of Lord Hanuman. Those who remember Narasimha Swami on purnima, amavasya, ashtami, or on daily basis, their sins done on that day are vanquished, and will be saved just as Prahalada is saved. The purnima, amavasya, and ashtami days have special importance. Narasimha Swami is called “dosha hare - remover of sins”. The merit of chanting His name will remove the diseases like fits, destructs sorrows, and slays your enemies. The poet Krishna kavi in Venkatanagadipati stotra is praying like this. On seeing Prahalada, Narasimha Swami wanted to be friends with him. Grace and kindness are big words, but see how practical this is. Narasimha Swami wanted to do friendship with Prahalada. In order to protect Prahalada, Narasimha Swami was animated and wanted to do friendship with him and He was born in a pillar in the evening. Narasimha Swami removed the ego of the demon by killing him with His bare hands to comply with His boons. Here Venkateshwara Swami is being prayed Narasimha incarnation is a strange incarnation. Narasimha Swami has shown His divine play in this incarnation. It is difficult to believe this form. The leelas of Sadguru and God are difficult to understand. Only those who have complete devotion and faith in God will understand His leelas and the tattva. Listening to this story also will cultivate devotion in us. According to Vishnu purana, Narasimha Swami incarnated to save Prahalada, pardoned Hiranyakasipa, and went back to His abode Vaikuntha. As per this story, Hiranyakasipa was not killed. Today, let us speak about this story as per the Bhagavatam version. There are total of 12 chapters in Bhagavatam and a special importance is given to Prahalada story in it by Sage Vyasa. When we speak about devotion, Prahalada comes to mind immediately. He teaches us devotion. Let us all remember Prahalada, Druva, and Alarka who have worshipped and done spiritual practice in their childhood. This devotion in childhood is essentially due to the predispositions of their previous births. They are called Bhagavatottamas – the best in devotion. They have given us the secrets of devotion. Let us remember all of them. Bhagavatulu are those devotees who have full faith in God. Prahalada is the best among them. Prahalada, Narada, Parashara, Pundarika, Vysa, Ambareesha, Sukha, Shounaka, Bheeshma, Dalbhayan, Rukmaangada, Arjuna, Vasistha, Vibhishana. Among all these, Prahalada is given the first place. Sometimes there is confusion in mind, whether the story of Narasimha Swami incarnation, named as Prahalada charitra or Narasimha charitra. Prahalada has earned such status with his devotion. During Varaha incarnation, we spoke about the curse like boon given by Vishnu to his gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya. Vishnu said, “be my enemies for three births, hate me, and come back to me after I kill you in these births". Jaya & VIjaya during these three births became Hiranyakasipa and Hiranyaksha, Ravana and Kumbhakarna, Shishupala and Dantavakra. During the last discourse, we understood about Varaha and how Varaha Swami killed Hiranyaksha. Now, Vishnu is about to incarnate as Narasimha Swami to kill Hiranyakasipa. After the killing of Hiranyaksha, Diti, the mother of Hiranyaksha is weeping near his body. Hiranyakasipa seeing his mother weeping, teaches Vedanta to his mother and along with Vedanta, he tells the story of a bird couple. A hunter laid a trap for the birds. The female bird fell in the trap. Seeing this, the male bird wept. Meanwhile the hunter seized the opportunity and caught the male bird also. In this way, the hunter caught the bird couple. Hiranyakasipa further tells to his mother that one should not repent over the dead ones. One should do all the necessary ritual as stipulated by shastras and then move on in life. He says it is important to understand the tattva of time. Hiranyakasipa also tells his mother the story told by Yama. Hearing all this, we get doubt possessing so much vedantic knowledge why did Hiranyakasipa trouble Prahalada so much. Because being knowledgeable is different from practicing the knowledge and then gaining experience from such practice. Vedanta is not just to be read but it is to be experienced. When reading Vedanta we must practice what we are reading. Similarly, in devotion while we are listening, our mind and intellect should travel to that place. Many people cry while listening to the devotional stories, some shiver with happiness, and to some it is hair raising experience. It means that listeners are deeply involved in the story. When we listen like this, our blood pressure is controlled, sins are washed away, the body is purified, our mind gains peace, and atman is happy and peaceful. Mere listening is not purposeful. When mind is stable, in concentration mode, all the sense organs get recharged, and revitalized. Hiranyakasipa is a scholar, but he did not experience such scholarship. It is said “knowledge comes but wisdom lingers", it means knowledge should be practiced to gain experience. Just being a bookworm is not helpful. Only experience can give you involvement, just as the practicals are done in physics and for MBBS students. Imagination will not help here. We must comprehend and dwell in the Vedanta to the extent that, that Vedanta and you are inseparable. There should be no "I". Only then, Vedanta is understood. Unlike Hiranyakasipa, some people have not studied much but they have comprehended on the topic and dwelled in it to an extent that experience shoots up inside them. In education also, students must try to understand what they are reading. There are subjects when one only needs to memorize, but that is not the case most of the time. Formulas needs to be mugged up, but the understanding of the formula is very important. We must try to understand that until we experience it, this is important. God has given two ears, to use them fully for listening, and let that flow go and dissolve in the heart which is the residence of Goddess Saraswati. God has intentionally given us one tongue there by telling us to speak only truth. Understand what you read, practicing what is understood is more important than just reading. Implementation is done for what we have understood. Hence the principle “Do what you say and say what you do". Practice at least 90% if not 100% to get closer to Sadguru or God. Hiranyakasipa did a severe penance to avoid the type of death that his brother had. If we fully trust God with devotion then His fullest blessing will shower on us. With His blessings, all the goods in the world will rain on us. When Sadguru asks you, what do you want? We must ask for His fullest blessing to prevail on us forever. Then the rest will automatically come. However, despite so much severe penance, Hiranyakasipa did not understand this. His penance did not bestow correct knowledge on him. He asked small things. Hiranyakasipa asked God to bestow on him a boon of living forever with this mortal body. This is not possible for Brahma- the first living being in the creation, yet Hiranyakasipa wanted this boon. Hiranyakasipa’s desire was against the law of nature. His penance did not make his mind think about possibility and impossibility. Varaha Swami killed Hiranyaksha. Seeing this, Hiranyakasipa asked Brahma to give a boon where his death does result from humans, demi-Gods, demons, animals, and death should not occur at any time be it day or night, but forgot to mention the twilight time. Hiranyakasipa never did Sandhya Vandanam. Brahma granted the boon. Brahma at the same time pondered what form Sri Vishnu would take to kill Hiranyakasipa. Vishnu can do anything in any way He wants to. When we think something is over, then He can do it in another way. If He orders, earth will rain on sky and not the other way. Will this happen? Yes, it will if He orders. Water thrown upward has to come down. It is the law of gravity but He can defy the law of gravity also. His wish. He can make the water thrown upward go further upwards. In Bhagavat Gita, purshottama prapti yogam, the ocean is compared to a tree, which has roots upward and leaves downwards. We must have full faith in His abilities. He can do anything. Being devotees, for us also, there is nothing impossible. We must believe this in mind that for God, nothing is impossible. God also will fill such confidence in your heart. Hiranyakasipa asked the boon keeping in view all the living beings in the current creation, but little did he know that a new form is about to incarnate by Lord Vishnu and things would have been different maybe. We must enter in Vedanta only with full faith in God, because the peculiar explanations and definitions in Vedanta will generate a lot of confusions in us. We must not stop at doubts but pursue our journey through Vedanta. Only then we will attain siddhi. Will we stop our journey just because our foot hit a small stone? Similarly, we must continue our spiritual journey despite all the obstacles. It is important to carry on the journey of life irrespective of what speed we move with. This is spiritual practice and Hiranyakasipa did not understand this secret. Braham’s father Vishnu might have thought: my boon giving son has shopped me a new trouble. Father has to correct the mistakes of His son. Hiranyakasipa tested his boon by troubling demi-Gods, saints, and interrupting people from doing prescribed rituals. He became the demon king. All the worlds were troubled. God answered prayers by saying that He has a plan in place. According to the plan, a Vishnu devotee will be born as son of Hiranyakasipa and will be cause of his death. Narada rushi initiated the fetus with the mantra “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya” while he was in the womb of mother, and the boy was born. The fetus chanted the mantra while being in the womb. After birth, the boy also chanted the mantra. If devotion on Hari takes a form then it is this boy. When devotion takes form, it is Prahalada. When dharma takes, form it is Rama, when penance takes form, then it is Vishwamitra. When Nama Sankeertana takes form then it is Nada Brahma Sri Swamiji. All of them sacrificed the life to pursue and practice their things. They are called form of devotion. Bhagavatam tells the guideline for the pregnant women. When women are pregnant, they should ponder over good things and listen to good music. Nowadays there are small children who sing bhajans. That is because their mothers listened to the music in their pregnancy period. This first vision of the Vamana is Sadguru or God. It is their luck. Their parents did not have that luck. Prahalada’s mother was very lenient, so Hiranyakasipa sent his son to Guru Kula. In his kingdom, the lessons on hatred of Hari formed the major part of any school curriculum. They would explain hatred on Hari and simultaneously teach devotion on Shiva. The ignorant demons did not understand that Hari and Shiva are the same. God will bestow good on those who do not differentiate Hari and Shiva. On the orders of Hiranyakasipa, the teachers specifically taught Prahalada lessons to hate Hari. During the quarterly tests or half-yearly tests Prahalada would answer in detail in his words his likeness towards Hari and glory of Hari. Prahalada's writing was in tune with the scriptures and marks had to be given. Prahalada always answered logically and correctly. Teachers had to give him full marks. Teachers were scared to teach Prahalada. Hiranyakasipa called Prahalada to check about his progress in education. Prahalada came along with his teachers. Hiranyakasipa enquired about Prahalada’s education. Prahalada answered, father I have read all the scriptures pertaining to Dhrama, Artha and other important scriptures. Prahalada further answered, not only this I, have studied the essence of the education also. Only Prahalada can say this. Hiranyakasipa happily asked Prahalada to tell further. Prahalada said that the essence of all his education is: Hari is the greatest in creation. Only Prahalada can say this. Earlier, there was a student called Shweetaketu. After studying for some time in Guru Kula, he was in illusion that he has studied all and nothing else is left to study. He was egoistic. His father asked “knowing which there is nothing else left to know in this creation, studying which there is nothing left to study, did you study and know such thing?” Shweetaketu thought for some time and replied " there is no such thing in this creation, if it were to exist, then my Guru would surely have taught me". Father answers: “No, son you are wrong. Atma tattva is the thing which, once known then there is nothing else to know and there is nothing else to learn." Father further proves his argument with 12 examples. Therefore, what Prahalada said, not many could say. Knowing ourselves and teaching children fully about Dharma, Artha - accumulating money needed in a righteousness way, Kama - physical or emotional pleasure, and Moksha – liberation, gives completeness to life. Ramayana speaks in detail about Dharma, Artha and Kama only. Moksha - salvation will automatically come if these three are following perfectly. People living materialistic and mundane lives cannot go to moksha without knowing about Dharma, Artha, and Kama. Listening to Prahalada, Hiranyakasipa was angry. Hiranyakasipa hates Hari so much that he used to name Hari in all things he did and in all times. sharavanam keertanam vishnoho smaranam pada sevanam archanam vandanam dasyam sakyam atma nivedanam iti pumsarpitha vishnou bhakthische navalakshana preeyatae bhagavat yeddha tanmanye deetham uttamam. Sharavanam - Listening to the glory of God. Keertanam - understanding and chanting the names of God. vishnoho smaranam - remembering Vishnu constantly pada sevanam - Serve the Supreme archanam - worshipping God Our Puja room in the house is the place where we spend less time. Even though we spend less time here, we get maximum from this place. Spending a few minutes in the puja room gives us the energy to walk through our daily routines. Spend some time here, decorate photos of the Lord and chant His names that you know. vandanam – prostrations. It is good exercise. Practice surya namaskaram. dasyam - serving God like servant, God I am here to serve you. Such feeling should be in mind. sakyam - friendship with God just as Sugreeva did with Rama. atma nivedanam - surrendering all to Him “Practicing anyone of the above with devotion is very good. Even in mind if one thinks that he should serve God with any one of the above means and with devotion, then according to me father, it is best of the educations.” Prahalada presented his opinion before his father. Prahalada established a new principle in the world of devotion !! Hands, which worship God, are worthy hands, tongue that chants His name is purposeful, worthy eyes are those, which see God, blind people see God in their mind. We must make our eyesight count seeing God, head that prostrates to His lotus feet is real head, ears which hear His name are true ears, our mind should travel towards Him and stick to Him. Words which describe God are real words, intellect which comprehends Him is true intellect. The day and time, in which we remember God is auspicious time and day. Real education is that, which proves this truth. Disagreeing is very easy. When you say there is no God then your life is wasted. When you say God exists then the enquiry begins about God. How is He? Where is He? What is He doing? Such question will arise then. We do not need Guru to say God does not exist, but to say He exists and answers the questions, like how He exists and what He does, we need a Guru. We need a Guru to tell and show God. That is the reason Sadguru has a special place. He makes us walk in the spiritual path. Teachers who tell us about the worldly education, should also tell about God. We must first pray and then start to study. Such practice must always be prevalent in all educational sectors. At times, parents are angry with children even though they are good students, only because the child's choice of subjects is not in line with their choice. It is a mistake. We must encourage the child in their choice of education. Students must pursue any one subject of their choice very deeply. Then many new things will see light. Hiranyakasipa was not able to shower affection on his son because of his hatred towards Hari. One bad quality - hatred towards Hari covered all his good qualities. A father who encourages his son towards devotion is a real father. That is why we must do our worship in continuity. Hearing this from Prahalada, Hiranyakasipa ordered varieties of punishments, threw him from mountains, got him stamped by elephants, and got him bit by snakes etc. Prahalada withstood all those punishments. Hiranyakasipa was frustrated to an extent that he used black magic on Prahalada. Prahalada kept saying Hari is God and kept crossing all the punishments given by his father. Prahalada was again sent to Gurukul and education continued and he came back to his father without tiny change in his attitude. This procedure was repeated many times. Hiranyakasipa lost his patience and questioned Prahalada " You keep chanting the name of Hari all the time. Where is Hari?” Prahalada said, father I will show you Hari in all those places where you think He does not exist. Hiranyakasipa pondered over Prahalada’s answers and he inferred that all his answers are logical and are supported by the Shastras. In mind, Hiranyakasipa is very angry on Prahalada. Prahalada is a good scholar, possess good intellect, and should be appreciated. Prahalada said Hari is omnipresent. He is present inside you and me. How can I show the omnipresent God at one particular place? Is it possible? Is there any place where He does not exist? How can you ask me such a question? A pot is full of water. How can one show water only in one corner of that pot ? Prahalada said “Father, if you can believe me, undoubtedly Hari is omnipresent.” These are not his normal words. This is the order by Prahalada to the devotee world. Pondering over these orders will instill firm faith on God in your mind. Your mind will never waver in belief of God. Hiranyakasipa started searching all sides. Meanwhile Hari was fully ready to keep up to the words of His devotee. Hari was constantly watching Hiranyakasipa. Hari was ready to incarnate at the place where Hiranyakasipa chooses. He was more worried that His devotee words should not become untrue. Hari took the Narasimha form and he engulfed the entire kingdom. He was ready to incarnate. Narashima was more eager to prove Prahalada’s word to be correct. Finally, Hiranyakasipa choose a pillar constructed with gems and asked Prahalada “Is Hari in this pillar?!” Prahalada answered "He is omnipresent. He is in you and me. He is surely in this pillar." Hiranyakasipa took the sword and hit the pillar, the pillar broke, and Narasimha Swami incarnated there. Jai bolo Narasimha Swami ki jai! Hiranyakasipa’s hatred on Hari is burning him from inside, and it is burning his intellect, but he is ignorant of it. He has good qualities like composure and courage, but hatred on Hari made these qualities futile. His heart is filled with Tamo guna. It is preventing his growth, and stopping him from having darshan of Hari. He was in such bad position. Hiranyakasipa banged the pillar with his hand. Narasimha Swami incarnated with huge roar. The sound cracked up all the directions. Bammera Pothana, a Telugu poet wonderfully describes this episode. In this, the description of Narasimha Swami starts with His lotus feet. All the Gods were present in subtle form and were prostrating to Narasimha Swami. Narasimha Swami was standing a few inches above the ground. It was as though if Narasimha swami puts His foot down, neither the Adisesha nor Earth could bear it. He tied the Peetambaram – sacred clothes around his waist. The bells of the ornament that He wore on the waist were making sounds. His stomach can easily accumulate all the sacred rivers, seven seas, yet there would be ample space to comfortably accumulate innumerable galaxies, yet the stomach of Narasimha can be measured with one fist of His, as He is Yoga Narasimha. His face and nails have been described. The weapons He held are described. He is dressed up with all the ornaments like a crown, earrings etc. He is emanating Divine splendor. His neck is described. One can see three lines on the throat clearly just like they are on conch. His lips are furiously making sound out of anger - anger for hurting His devotee Prahalada. His big teeth looked very scary. His nostrils were huge enough to let all the mountains in the creation go into them easily. Those nostrils can be called as huge caves. This again refers towards his Yogic stature. When the lion body is experiencing over heat or anger, the water runs down the nostrils. Narasimha Swami’s nose is also watering, but it seems that all the seven oceans are running down His nose. His eyes were as red as the early morning sunrays. A mere movement of His head can scatter away all the planets. The form of Narasimha is very scary. His cheeks have been described. His hair is been described. Shaking His head, He called on Hiranyakasipa. And the air that was generated by mere head hair movement, threw all the drivers and passengers from the Divine plane in which they were sitting and watching this incident in subtle form. His ears are like Divine conchs. The body complexion of Narasimha Swami is very fair. He shouted and with this sound, the directions shivered and got scared. None other than Prahalada could see this form. Hiranyakasipa was confused, scared and was not able to see the form. Hiranyakasipa thought that Hari took the form that he could never comprehended in his mind. Hari incarnated as Narasimha to destroy the egos of demons. Now the highlight of the entire description is coming. Narasimha Swami is seeing both Prahalada and Hiranyakasipa at the same time. Narasimha Swami sight on Prahalada was nectarean and affectionate, and on Hiranyakasipa it was scary, as if to tell this is your last day of life. Narashima Swami is showing two angles of Him. He is compassionate inside and is furious outside. It signifies that Narasimha Swami even though has taken this scary form, His heart always pours our grace. Jai bolo Yoga Narasimha Swami ki Jai Jai bolo Vugra Narasimha Swami ki Jai Jai bolo Roudra Narasimha Swami ki Jai Jai bolo Jwala Narasimha Swami ki Jai Jai bolo Laxmi Narasimha Swami ki Jai Such is the way Narasimha Swami incarnated! The main purpose of incarnation is to make the devotee Prahalada’s words true and not killing of Hiranyakasipa. Narasimha Swami also incarnated to prove that He is omnipresent. He showed His presence in this beautiful and scary form. His form is a mix of human and lion. None could comprehend this form in mind. He is therefore called Narasimha Swami. The predominant part of His body is Brahma instance, the middle part of the body is Vishnu instance, and the head is Shiva instance. Hiranyakasipa was confused and pondered his boons and he decided that this is not Brahma’s creation, but it is only Hari maya. Maybe he thought this is his day of moksha. First look at the form of Narasimha Swami, Hiranyakasipa was scared, but the next moment hatred towards Hari dominated his thoughts and made him go to war with Narasimha Swami. Contrary to the common belief that Narasimha Swami killed Hiranyakasipa at one instance, Narashima Swami fought for good enough time with many other demons that came in His way of killing Hiranyakasipa. Noticing that the twilight time is fast approaching, Narashima Swami hurried on. Narasimha Swami complying with all the boons given to Hiranyakasipa, dragged him on to His lap, tore open his stomach, garlanded his nerves around his neck, and gave moksha to Hiranyakasipa. Narasimha Swami continued to be in the anger mood. He slowly climbed up the steps leading to the throne and sat on it. All the Gods wondered how to calm down Narasimha Swami. The entire prayers of Gods were futile. Narada went ahead and prayed. Narasimha Swamy let him come close then picked him and hurled him into the sky. Encircling in the sky, Narada chanted Narayana Narayana. Hearing this, Narasimha Swami pulled Narada down to earth. Even Narada's prayers could not impress Him. Meanwhile Prahalada started to pray Narasimha Swami to regain His calmness. Prahalada began his prayer with a doubt if Narasimha Swami calms down listening to his prayers. I am from the demon dynasty. Narashima Swami did not calm down listening to prayers of Gods. Will my prayers work ? Thinking so, Prahalada started his prayers. This is the humbleness of Prahalada. Sri Swamiji often says that devotional mood should be continued at all-time. Only then, he is a true devotee. Being from a very famous dynasty, very rich, beautiful form, egoistic penance, well-read scholarship, strength, splendor, highly famous, very good intellect, yoga… none of these take you closer to God. Here Prahalada remembered Gajendra moksha episode. He pondered what the elephant knew. Vishnu knew only devotion and is accessible only with it. O God! Please grant me the luck of surrendering my deeds at Your louts feet, a chance to serve Your lotus feet, and a chance to remember You at all times. I am praying only for this and not for any other thing. One devotee prayed God to give him Satsang. All things will be eaten away by time but the merit of Satsang not only increases day by day but also remains with you even in the time of disaster. Anyone who wants to look beautiful in mirror applies makeup. O God, all the worships done to You are decorations to me. Prahalada continued to pray. All the worships done to You, respects and hospitalities that are offered to You, they belong to us only because You are Self. We are ignorant of this truth. Prahalada prayed that no fear is invoked in him after seeing this fearful form of Narasimha Swami. Prahalada says the ocean of samsara is invoking more fear and hence I am surrendering to Your feet. Prahalada further prays Narasimha Swami. Prahalada says I will not pray You for the post of Brahma or for good long life as time gobbles up all. I will ask for Satsang only. Please grant me that. Sadguru is not different from Narasimha Swami. Narasimha Swami, You have seated mother Goddess on Your lap, I can only see a smile on Your face, and it gives me Bliss. Narasimha Swami hearing this prayer dissolved His anger inside Him and pacified Prahalada. He offered Prahalada a boon. Prahalada asked unshakable devotion on the lotus feet of Narasimha Swami. My father died abusing You. I am afraid what worlds will he get for this sin. Please bless him with good worlds. Narasimha Swami said, the moment he uttered my name Hari, even in hatred, the moment I touched him, he got salvation. In your dynasty, I am redeeming 21 generations. Prahalada, you are asking for salvation. I will not give it now as you have lot of duties to perform. Go and rule the demons kingdom and establish dharma in them and you rule the earth. Narashima Swami then went back to his abode. Later, our Lord Datta gave tattva upadesha to Prahalada. Anyone who listens to this story will get rid of all their karmas. It is good for us to remember Prahalada and his devotion every day. Those who remember Narasimha Swami, have no reason to be fearful. Hearing Hari namasankeertana fear is fearful and runs away. That is the impact of Hari Nama smarana. All of you who desire for yoga or for removal of diseases should chant the name of Laxmi Narasimha Swami. The chanting of the Narashima Swami names removes our sorrows, differences, and pains. Jai bolo Laxmi Narasimha Swami ki Jai. Day 5, July 28, Vamanavatara A Vamana (dwarf) dressed up in ochre robes walked up to few men. Though he was small, he was radiating in high splendor. King asked: who are you? Vamana: I am ancient and primitive. King: where do you live? Where is your house? Where are you coming from? Vamana: there is no specific place. I am present everywhere. King: who are your parents, who is your Guru, what is your story? Vamana: I am anaadha - an orphan. Anaadha also means that there is none superior to Him. Neither did anyone tell me about my parents nor do I know about them. King: What do you want? Tell me your desire? Vamana: thinking for a moment Vamana asks three footsteps of land. Giving three steps of land is an insult to king Bali. Vamana thought inside “Bali you don’t realize but these three steps will cover all the three worlds. You do not realize this.” Let such Vamana incarnation, which thought such thought in mind, bless all. All of you must remember Vamana incarnation. In Ramayana, it is said that Jambhavanta playing Mrudangam circumambulated Vamana three times. While doing so an edge of mountain brushed against his knee, from then on Jambhavanta hops a bit while walking. At this time Keertanas were born. In Vamana Purana, it said that a demon called Dundu with an intention to occupy the heaven or kingdom of Gods asks his Guru Sukhracharaya to show him a way. Sukhracharaya asks him to do 100 yagas and homas. Dundu immediately commences doing it. The smoke from the homas reached the demi-Gods kingdom. Dundu did so many homas. Seeing this, the demi-God prayed Vishnu to save them. They were of the opinion that Dundu who is not compassionate should not become the king. Maha Vishnu decided to take Vamana incarnation. He came down as a small boy and purposefully stood in Devika River with His head upside down. Homas were being conducted near by the place. The water drove the Vamana to the shore. Dundu saw this and asks his servants to bring the boy out. Dundu conversation with Vamana begins Dundu: What are you? Why are you getting drowned in the river? Vamana: My father’s name is Prabhasudu. My brother name is netrabhasudu. My name is Gatibhasudu. Until my father was alive, all was good. My father did not divide the property when he was alive. Later after his demise there was a quarrel in sharing of property. It is told in some scriptures that property should not be given to people who are short and tiny, blind, and suffering from deadly diseases. Hence, my share of property was not given to me. They thought that later I might stake my claim to my share of property so to ensure that does not happen, they threw me in the river. That is why I am here. No one cares for me. They say this is righteous in the material world. One should take proper care of people like me, instead they did this to me. Dundu: I am doing Homa and Yagna. I will give you whatever you ask for. Go ahead and ask. Sukhracharaya hints to Dundu that this boy is not a normal boy. He is Trivikrama. Dundu was adamant that he would keep up the word given. Here also Vamana asked three footsteps of land. All laughed. Vamana: what will I do with the riches? Can I build the house or can I live in that house? I am fine with three footsteps of land. I cannot earn. So three footsteps of land is good enough. Dundu: agrees to give three steps. Vamana immediately transforms into Trivikrama. Trivikrama pushed the demon Dundu into the patala loka – the underground world and with His hands covered that place with sand. In such way, Vamana Swami removed the difficulties of demi-Gods. Pulastya tells this episode to Narada Maharshi. To remove, the curse of Guru on king Bali, Vishnu incarnated as Vamana. King Bali and Deepavali are very closely related. Trivikrama pushed King Bali to patala loka and gave us a reason to celebrate. Later Krishna killed demon Narakasura. The Lord will be pleased with you when you serve orphans. Let us all share the food among the hungry people. In this Kaliyuga, which one is greater? Donation or penance? Your penance cannot be given to anybody. Donation is greater. Donating the hard-earned money is not easy and hence donation is greater. In the run for money, our life takes back seat. So donating such money is not easy. Hence, sage Vysa decided that donation is greater than penance in Kaliyuga. Vamana incarnation is an amazing incarnation. It depicts Vedic knowledge in a very subtle form. In the creation, God takes both atom size and gigantic size. He is higher than the Mount Everest and broader than the sea. He is in them and He is bearing them. How and where is Paramatma? He is residing in our heart. In coming mantras, Vamana Swami will Himself enumerate the leelas in His incarnation. Purusha suktam says, mother earth is very huge in size. We still have not seen many places on earth. Leave alone earth, be it planets or innumerable galaxies, God measures 10 fingers more in length beyond the entire creation that you show to Him. The same God, equal to the size of your thumb resides in our heart. The only intent in doing many spiritual practices, is to have darshan of God inside us. Seeing the form or power of god outside, we close our eyes and try to visualize the same form and power in our mind. Such beautiful and amazing incarnation is the Vamana incarnation. Vamana incarnation highlights the importance of charity. When asked if charity is greater or penance, Sage Vyasa said that charity is greater than penance. The reason being charity is a difficult job. Even though intellect permits charity, the mind does not permit. The mind tries and postpones the charity to a later time or day. Due to the course of postponement, we forget about the charity. When the beneficiary enquires about the promised charity, we hit a satire saying, is it so? Did I say? Sacrifice is a job of the brave, and not many practice it. Doing charity to the needy be it donation of food, clothes, and medical, it is always appreciated by God. The Vamana in His charitra, proves this instance. Possessing the power of discrimination, it is essential to understand the Vamana charitra completely. Discrimination between the temporary and permanent things is a must. We see many things come and go. Only the time of their stay varies. Some things vanish in a day and some in year and some in 1000 years. Be it trees or planets, time takes away all, but where do they go? They are going and merging in the permanent God. Only God is permanent and rest all is temporary. This is the eternal truth. Only when we believe in such truth, understand, and install it firmly in our mind, we will be able to understand the story of God completely. Otherwise, the stories of God will seem to us as imaginative. We must listen to these stories and comprehend on them. Only then, the story of God expounds the vedantic meaning. While reading the stories of God, we get doubts like, did these stories really happen? Did the instance in the story happen just like this? If they happened, then why is the world like this? This are the normal doubts raised in our mind while reading the stories of God. Saying so, we must not be drowned in the sea of doubts. Someone said there is Manidweepa in the sea. Listening to him, we jumped into the sea. Therefore, our real purpose is to reach Manidweepa and not to swim. Swimming is like getting doubts, but we must cross these doubts and reach the Manidweepa. Nobody said that getting doubts is wrong. One must get doubts. One of the Upanishads is named as Prashnopanishad. In this Upanishad, six questions came up. The entire vedantic shastra came up in the process of answering these questions. We need questions but that should not be our main intention. Ask someone and get the question answered. This body is full of questions we must come out of this body and try to have darshan of God. Listening to Vamana charitra is a part of process to have darshan of God. All these are spiritual practices. Be it yoga practice, devotional practice or knowledge practice or whatever sadhana you do, they are part of the process to have darshan of God. We need all spiritual practices. It is not appreciable to look down upon anyone’s spiritual practice. We do not know which spiritual practice will help to have darshan of God. It will depend on our previous life’s karmas. Who knows what kind of spiritual practice you pursued in your previous lives? You might have on the practice of yoga or bhakti – devotion or jnana – knowledge. Even you do not know it. A warrior going for battle is shielding his body parts in all possible ways. We are spiritual soldiers. We are battling with illusion and ignorance. Illusion is always there. Both before and after creation. Neither the illusion nor the creation will cease. They are here to stay. Will they cease in my case? Yes, they will go away only in your case. When you merge with the Self, then you will not have any feelings in this world. There is no more illusion for you. All those who surrender to God, listen to Guru, and practice His words, only they can win illusion in this world. Illusion is very strong. Normal people cannot win over it. But with spiritual practices like listening to God’s stories and comprehending on them, makes the normal person strong enough to cross the illusion. This is the reason why we are listening to these stories of incarnations. All of you listen to earn the power of discrimination between permanent and temporary. This is the story of king Bali. This story tells us about the greatness of charity, satisfaction, happiness, bliss, and tells the consequences of having ego while doing charity. All these points are there in the story. We must pray God to protect us from illusion and becoming egoistic. “I will do your bhajans as long as I will live, but as time of my last breath in not in my hands, maybe I forget to chant your name. When the death arrives, the body shivers. I may get scared and not chant Your name in conformity with swara or grammar. Maybe I chant Your name or maybe not, no assurances are given here. However, o God, please be brave enough to listen to my chanting of Your name.” King Bali always made this prayer. We face difficulties both at our time of birth and death. One who realizes bliss in between this journey of birth and death, he is always happy. This middle time is present time. You can control the efforts that you want to put in this time. Both the past and future are not in your hands. Bali had egoistic charitable nature, but he possessed many good qualities. Generally, in normal life, we ask, “Please look at my good qualities and ignore my bad qualities.” When we have more good qualities and less bad qualities, then the helper covers the bad qualities and promotes your good qualities, because you may be useful to society. Such persons are encouraged by saying that even the moon has spot on him. But Shiva has placed him on his head. Rama always looked only at good qualities of a person and ignored his bad qualities, especially in Mothers, Gurus, and people younger to Him, and older people. We must learn this aspect from Rama. The overlooking of bad qualities works in the material world, but on the spiritual path, God will completely purify you and transform you into a gem. He puts you in a pearl in His garland that He wears. This is His primary nature. We have one common doubt in the Bali story. Bali is egoistic in his charitable nature, but barring this, he has many good qualities for e.g. he helped in the churning of sea etc. Then why did Vishnu stamp him down to patala loka? Here we must think in the perspective of God. It is His plan. What is god's plan then? He has a desire that His devotee should be a replica of His image that He sees in the mirror. Sadguru willingly cleanses us for the same reason. To grant us such status, God removes all the sins from us. To earn such status, we have to put great efforts to get rid of our sins. The Vamana incarnation happened to remove the ego in Bali’s charitable nature. In this incarnation, earth became the throne, sky became the umbrella, the demi-gods became servants, the Vedas are chanting His praise, the entire galaxy became His home, Sri Laxmi is His wife, Brahma became His son, and Ganga became His daughter. “O god, this is Your glory! Please stay in our heart like this. Let my heart be Your seat, my sahasrara let it be the umbrella, the knowledge in me, let it be Your wife. O Narayana, please engulf by heart, throat and sahasrara. Maha yogamurthy vai vyapinchu. Please grant me eligibility to see such wonderful form of Yours inside me.” We must pray Narayana in this way. In Narada purna, we see the emergence of Ganga. Sanaka maharshi told bhakti upadesha to Narada. Demons waged war on Gods and won. Devathas lost their kingdom. Mother of Gods, Aditi Devi, prayed Vishnu to incarnate as her son and solve the problems of the Gods. Aditi Devi prayed Kashyapa muni to show her a way. On the instructions of Kashyapa, maharishi, Aditi Devi did the payo Vratam or sravana dwadashi vratam. While doing this Vratam, the doer can only drink milk. Consumption of other foods is prohibited during the duration of the Vratam of one year. Kashyapa maharshi told that on successful completion of the Vratam, Lord Vishnu will incarnate as your son. On successful completion of the Vratam, Vishnu incarnated to Aditi Mata as Vamana. Then He walked up to Bali. We know the rest of the story. The conversation between King Bali and Vamana. Bali: What you want? Vamana: Land equal to three footsteps of mine. Vamana Swami conceived each step of His to be each world and engulfed the worlds. Bali: O Vamana, please tell me your tattva. Vamana: Bali, realize that I am present in all. Due to ego, Bali could not realize this tattva of Vamana at the time of charity. What does ego mean? I am doing this. This is happening because of me. If I do not do, it will not happen. These are ego feelings. Egoistic behavior is wrong. Seeing and believing that God is there everywhere is the correct behavior. Vamana: All the galaxies are dwelling in me. What is it that you and I are contributing? Are you the one who is doing charity or I am the one who is receiving it? I am omnipresent. Vamana explained His tattva clearly, but Bali did not understand. Upanishads are the head of Vedas. It means that the Upanishads are the essence of Vedas. Such upadesha has not been done anywhere in the world. What upadesha did Upanishads do? They said just as you respect yourself, decorate yourself, love yourself, maintain yourself, you must have the same thought and behavior dealing with others. Does anyone in the world do this kind of upadesha? Someone asked Vyasa what is your intention behind composing so many slokas in Maha Bharatha? Vysa clarified his intention "just as someone’s behavior, talk, or deed pains or hurts you, realize that your behavior, talk or deeds hurts others." Head is very important. No matter how strong your body is, without a head it is of no use. There is person called Stephen Hawking. He cannot move or eat. He applied for mercy killing. Doctor gives an injection and the person dies. Who gave this right to the doctors? However, his wife interrupted and assured the doctors that she will take very good care of him. Stephen has good head above his shoulders. Head is important among all the body parts. Head means discretion or knowledge. It should always be in our control. Seeing God in all does not mean you call others by your name, which is not the intention. On deeply pondering, we understand that intention of upadesha is to enable the world and society to run smoothly. In such atmosphere, will anyone have difficulties? Even if a person suffers, others will surely help him. That is major intention of doing the upadesha. Vamana: I am seeing all the creation as part of my "Self". What can you give? However, since you are asking, it is said that donating the land is greatest charity. Give me three steps of land. Bali was surprised. Vamana: I am conceiving each step to occupy one loka. When the land is donated for temple, hospital, orphanage, old age home or for a good cause, it gives merit of tremendous value. The benefits of the merit will extend to many generations down the lane. They all will be redeemed with that merit. Vamana Swami tells the story of Bhadramathi to Bali. Bhadramathi is very poor man to an extent that he could not afford one meal a day. One person wanted to donate land. He came to Bhadramathi and enquired how land would be sufficient? Bhadramathi says donate the land that is enough to sit comfortably. That would be enough. In olden days maybe there were such people. Who could live out in such a small piece of land? The charity of land is done and Bhadramathi accepts it. Then he re-donates the land. This re- donation of land earned him huge merit, and he went to higher worlds. Then Bali makes the charity of land. Vamana accepts the land and grows in form. This form is called "Tripatha Narayana". He grows, grows, and breaks open the lining of the galaxy. Ganges flowed down from the opening and did ablutions to the lotus feet of Lord Tripatha Narayana. Seeing this, Brahma came running with His Kamandalam, and did ablutions to the lotus feet of Tripatha Narayana. That is why the bhajan “brahma kadigina padamu" came into being. Jai bolo Venkateshwara swami ki jai. Ganges is the pride of India. The rivers are important. The Lord had made this creation using water. Hence, we must save and conserve water. We must save nature. Since water is born from the Lord’s lotus feet, we must respect water. We throw all the puja waste in water. Puja means cleaning. Without cleaning, there is no puja. What does river worship mean? Cleaning all the dirt accumulated on the shore of the river is important, and then do puja. Such puja will give us fruit. We must not contribute to the dirt or un-cleanliness at the sacred places. When we go to sacred places, we must not eat the outside snacks. Our purpose of going there is not eating those snacks. Ok even if you eat, please do not no throw the covers in open. Air takes them to different places. We must save and maintain the sacred places just as we save and maintain ourselves. We can invoke Ganga in tumblers in our home. Just chanting the name of Ganga cleans us. Let us speak about Vamana Swami according to Bhagavatam. What made God come down and beg? It is a very low thing. Why did God accept to do this low thing? Narayana is omnipresent. Narayana is present in beggars also. Help beggars seeing Narayana in them. The beggars are often called "Daridra Narayana". This name reiterates God’s omnipresence. God is also called Adibhikshu. (Lord Siva). He is the beginning to all these beggars. Beggar gives us wonderful upadesha. What upadesha does he give to us? Here he is teacher and not a beggar. He is telling us that “In previous birth I was not generous with charity, so I am a beggar in this birth.” You be generous in this birth and enjoy the same stature in future births. Therefore, God took the Vamana incarnation to teach us a lesson. Yudhishtira asked Vyasa, which one is greater between charity and penance. Vyasa answered it as charity. With good efforts, we can find people doing penance. To find people dong charity is very difficult. Charitable minds and people are rare. We must practice charity. Even though we may not do much charity, Sri Swamiji has shown us the Datta biksha way. Datta biksha means keeping aside a fistful of rice aside in a basket before you cook food. You can donate this rice to orphanage or old age home or hospitals or if none is close by you can deposit the rice in the ashram. It will be used for annadanam. This trick helps your mind also. Your mind is not pained because the amount of charity is small and money expended is less. A child was born to Aditi. His name is Upendra. Bali on the instruction of Sukhracharaya fought a battle with the demi-gods and took over their kingdom. Bali took the demi-god's kingdom in an unrighteous way and now to maintain or keep up the kingdom, he is doing charity. Now Bali’s charity is righteous or unrighteous? Who should decide it? He is ruling the kingdom righteously, which he earned in an unrighteous way. This is wrong and God has taken notice of it. Meanwhile Aditi mata prayed Kashyapa to give a son who would remove the difficulties of her children. Kashyapa then instructed Aditi mata to do Payo Vratam. We must take the teertha of the panchamurta that we offer to god. It will increases your radiance, energy, and strength. This is very good for health. Science is hidden in every spiritual deed we do. We may not know the science. In olden days, people would keep the God idols in copper bowls filled with water and then they would go to work. On returning in the evening, they would clean the God idols and the water from those vessels would be taken as teertha. It is very good for health. We get sound sleep. We have so many such rituals in our shastras. Nowadays even before we have enjoyed eating the food, they say some uneatable substance is mixed in the food you have eaten. We must be very careful with our food habits. It would be nice to know and practice our customs and practices. Most of the festivals are based on food. Specific foods have been specified for different festivals. There is some hidden science in that food. Aditi mata completed the Payo Vratam. Vishnu entered the womb of Aditi mata. Brahma did Stotra of that fetus while he was still in the womb. This Stotra is called Garbhasta Shishu Stotra. Swami incarnated in the afternoon. In Sravana star, in Abhijit lagnam. Aditi mother has done a lot of merit and hence Swami incarnated. Jai bolo Vamana swami ki jai Both mother and father were very happy seeing their son. We must believe that our progeny is result of your penance. In the thread ceremony function of Vamana, the Sun did the initiation of Sri Gayatri mantra to Vamana, Brihaspati gave Yagna sutram, Kashyapa gave the waist band, earth gave Krishnajeenam – the seat, Soma gave the dandam - stick, mother Aditi gave cloth to cover the lower part of His body, the Gods of heaven gave umbrella, Brahman gave Kamandalam, Saptha rushis gave sacred grass, Saraswati mata gave aksha mala, Kubera gave biksha patra. Bhavani Devi came forward and gave Vamana Swami His first biksha. This program enhances the love and affection between parents and child. Vamana Swami was radiating with Divine splendor. The entire Gods prayed to the child that it is time to go to Narmada shore. Bali is performing yagna there. Vamana murthi walked like a very small child and reached the place where the Yagna was being performed by Bali. With His arrival, Vamana attracted all the people at that venue. This is called Vishnu Maya. All the people there were guessing who this boy is. Is He Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, sun or fire? All the people at the venue were inquisitive to know who this child is? The child was radiating Divine splendor. We do not know where and how atman is. Atman is taking everything and leaving everything. It is in all and it is not there in anything. This is the strange thing about atman. You are very inquisitive to know about it. It is believed that atman could not be spoken about in words. Here atman has taken form of Vamana. Atma is the word which applies to all and still cannot be none. With the arrival of God, the non-believer in God will turn into a firm believer in God. God does this miracle. Bali king walked up to the child and said, “You look as if Brahma has taken form. Welcome.” Tapas and Nama smarana increases radiance in everyone. “Ask whatever you want.” Ego always comes out unnoticed. You are keen to donate but the feeling that “I am donating this” is ego. Bali was famous as a charitable person. Such fame now resulted in ego. Never be inflicted with ego. ‘I’ is more dangerous than death. Bali even offered young girls for marriage. This particular offering shows the ego of Bali. Vamana asked: What will a small boy do with young girls? Is it the time for marriage? Bali: Alternatively, if you want an island, ask. I will give it. After Bali makes these offers to Vamana Swami, Vamana Swami was fully aware that Sukhracharaya would come and stop Bali from making donation. Hence, Vamana Swami asks Bali to give his word. “Bali, is it true that everyone in your dynasty has fulfilled the word they gave? I hope you also are like that.” Bali said yes. Bali is Prahalada's grandson. Vamana swami tells Bali the story of Prahalada. Hiranyakasipa and Hiranyaksha were your ancestors. They did not understand the tattva of Hari and hated Him. Hiranyakasipa searched for Hari in all the places. One friend who follows us all the time is death. He eats, drinks, wanders, and sleeps with us. Hiranyakasyapu searched for Hari outside all the time and hence Swami was sitting in the heart of Hiranyakasyapu. Ignorant Hiranyakasyapu did not realize it. Hence, he had to be redeemed. You are born in such dynasty. Prahalada did wonderful Stotra of Narasimha Swami and got a very nice kingdom. You are born in such a dynasty. Will you keep your word? Bali nodded yes. Vamana asks: “I desire land equal to three footsteps of mine.” Bali felt insulted, prompted, and forced Vamana to ask for more. Vamana responds and says that satisfaction is the main thing for a Brahmin. Desire destroys a Brahmin. The qualities earn great status. A Mother is teaching her child. “Son you will learn many lessons in college. I am telling you an important lesson. We do all these things only for happiness. We must go on and search for happiness.” Meanwhile examinations were being conducted. A question asked was, what is that you want to do in life? Many people wrote answers like, engineer or doctor etc. but this child who is still not perfect in language wrote, “I want to become happiness". The teacher saw this, thought that the answer is wrong, and gave him zero marks. Now the children names were called and the necessary suggestions for them are given along with the announcement of marks. Now the teacher called this child. The teacher said “You did not understand the question and wrote the wrong answer.” The child requested the teacher to give the answer sheet and he wrote on the answer sheet, “I did not understand the question but you did not understand life”. Happiness is very important. The same point is told in Vamana story. These things are told in a very subtle way. They are never told directly. When Vamana Swami has incarnated and is speaking about satisfaction, how much importance should we give to it? Mother goddess took the form of satisfaction. Why did Mother Goddess take the form of satisfaction? Because we will eat too much and spoil our health. That’s why she took the form of satisfaction. Satisfaction should be practiced in your things and not in the help we do to others. Do we want to save all our earning? Nowadays children are very fast. They ask why you store so much at the bank? There are three results of money. The first one is using it for enjoyment. Secondly, use it for charity. When the money is not used either for enjoyment or charity that money gets destructive. Vamana: I am satisfied with land that measures three-foot steps of mine. Bali: Maybe you do not know the outside world. Go ahead and ask all you want. I will give it. Vamana: I am Brahmachari. What I need is an umbrella, a dandam, a sacred thread. If you give me others things, what do I do with them? How can I compare Swakarma Anushthanam and the material enjoyments? A land that measures my three footsteps means a world to me. Sukhracharaya prevents Bali form going ahead with the charity. He discloses to Bali the real form of Vamana, but Bali is adamant on charity to Vamana. Bali says he has a chance to donate to God who always donates to everyone. He does not want to lose this chance. O Guru Sukhracharaya, all egoistic kings who had great kingdoms, have they taken it with them, or do we even remember their names? We remember the name of the kings who did great charity like King Shibi. Who donated his body as flesh for a bird. Dadichi maharshi gave away his body for the benefit of Gods. Neither the kingdom nor the charities are permanent. My decision to do charity is firm. In the process of doing charity, Bali’s wife poured water into Bali’s hand from Kamandalam. Sukhracharaya gets into the Kamandalam and obstructs the way of water. Vamana takes a straw, chants Brahmastra mantra and pokes into the hole. This poke damages one eye of Sukhracharaya. From then on he got a new name, Ekaksha. Sukhracharaya came out of Kamandalam, cursed the destruction of all the demons, and went away. Inspite of this disclosure by his Guru about Vamana’s real form, Bali went ahead and did the charity. After taking the charity, Vamana took the form of Trivikrama and occupied seven worlds with one leg and the sky with His second leg. Trivikrama asked Bali to show the place for His third feet. Bali had no answer. He was silent. Bali incurred the sin of telling a lie. Trivikrama saw towards Garuda. Garuda tied up Bali with nagapasham – serpent as a rope, as the punishment for a lie. Meanwhile Jambhavanta circumambulated Trivikrama three times. While circumambulating Jambhavanta sang bhajans and played Mrudangam. During this process, an edge of Small Mountain hit Jambhavanta’s knee, and from that day, Jambhavanta hopped while walking. Trivikrama asked Bali to show the place for his third foot; Bali offered his head. Bali is teaching us to see God in Sahasrara chakra. Bali’s wife came and pleaded Trivikrama for pardon. She accepted the mistake that this charity was egoistic charity. She pleaded the realization of the understanding that the entire creation is Trivikrama, and there is nothing one can donate to Him. Prahalada also came forward and begged for pardon. Vamana spoke slowly. I wanted to demonstrate the greatness of charity to the world and the punishment for egoistic charity. That is why I have taken this excellent incarnation. I wanted to tell Bali about God’s omnipresence, hence I incarnated. Vamana is saying, “Whomever I want to bless, first thing I do is to strip them of their money, this plan is beyond our understanding. I will strip them of the entire ego associated with money, penance, education, age. I will take back all of them to remove their arrogance. If arrogance is not there in the person, then obviously my blessings are there. When ego is associated with good births, deeds, age, beautiful form, education, and money, these becoming futile. I will not bless such people. I have incarnated to do this work. I am sending Bali to patala loka. Prahalada you also stay there and protect. I will also protect Bali. Day 6 and 7, July 29 and 30, Parashuramavatara Parashurama incarnated on Vaishaka shukla tritiya. This day is popularly known as Akshaya tritiya. This is a frenzy incarnation. Akshaya tritiya is more famous for buying gold. We should practice both buying and donate. Parashurama incarnation and victory made this day auspicious. Why are Parashurama and the charity so closely knitted? Parashurama won the entire earth by killing all the egoistic kings and donated it to the revered sage Kashyapa rishi. According to Parashurama, residing on the land given away as charity is unrighteousness. Hence, using His axe He brought up a piece of land from the sea and resided there. The land Parashurama lifted from the sea is known as Kerala. It is also believed that Parashurama still resides there. Parashurama donated the entire land won by Him to Kashyapa rishi on Akshara tritiya. Hence, on Akshaya tritiya it is customary to buy gold. It is widely believed that the gold brought on that day is inexhaustible. On such auspicious day, practicing of both buying and donating is appreciative. Gold is preferred because it is a precious, sacred, and pricey metal. In Ramayana we see Parashurama in a divine form. The word Parashu- axe is part of Parashurama’s name. Parashu means axe. Yati's carry a stick with them all the time. A cloth is tied to top end of the stick in the form of an axe. A yati should carry such stick with a firm belief that it is a God given stick to firmly refute unrighteousness. Parashurama is born in Bhrigu maharshi dynasty. Being a son of Jamadagni, He is called Jamadagnyaha. Parashurama is always accompanied by an axe and a bow. Parashurama demonstrates both the penance - brahma radiance and valour- Kshatriya radiance at the same time. Parashurama is the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and it further signifies that Parashurama destructs the six passions of mind or desire. It is believed that praying to Parashurama will not only remove the obstacles sown by our ill-wishes in our walk along the righteous path, but also grants us the win over the six internal enemies. Parashurama has both Naga and Sudarshana amshas- instances. Just as we pray Sudarshana to destruct our enemies, we must pray Parashurama. We remember Lord Datta just as we speak about Parashurama. Parashurama is closer to all our Datta devotees. Parashurama is present in Guru Lineage. Lord Datta preached Tripura rahasyam to Parashurama. Lord Datta has preached to both Parashurama and Sage Shantatapa with the intention of spreading His message to the world. Parashurama got rid of all the egoistic kings and established righteousness again. He made necessary arrangements for all humans to walk on a good path. In Nam Dattanatha kshetra, we are taking about both Datta charitra and Parashurama. Parashurama incarnation is the root cause for the discourse for Dashavataras. In the initial stages of the discourse, many of the devotees were confused why well-known topics are being told. As the Dashavataras incarnation discourse moved forward, all were surprised with the disclosure of many unknown secrets and specialties. Such are those incarnations. God came close to us taking these incarnations. It makes it that more important for us to constantly ponder over them. One more incarnation namely Kalki is yet to come. We must express our deepest gratitude towards God for His untiring efforts in taking so many incarnations only for us. Not remembering Him will only be accounted as our ungratefulness towards Him. A person who forgets the help received, the donor of the food, the parents, the Guru, the village where one took birth and grown up, the teachers who imparted education, the spiritual teacher, and the person who cheats the well-wishers or one who helps him in need, one does not know which kind of hell they will go to. Speaking about Parashurama such sins will be washed away. That is why we are speaking about the Parashurama incarnation. Parashurama went around the world 21 times with His axe and killed all the egoistic kings. Here Parashurama is prayed thinking Him to be Krishna. Whenever ego grows, Parashurama incarnates to destroy it. It is the tattva of His incarnation. Prostrations to Parashurama. Lord Datta is mentioned in Parashurama incarnation for introduction of Kartavirya Arjuna. Being the son of Krutaveera, He was named as Kartavirya Arjuna. Kartavirya Arjuna was born with non-functioning hands and legs. There came a time where He was to be sworn as a king but Kartavirya Arjuna refused the kingdom. He attributed his refusal towards the non-functioning limbs. We must always be in the company of elders – those who are elder in age, penance and knowledge. We often under-estimate the value of these learned ones saying they do not know about internet and mobile phones. It is a very wrong perception. The experiences they possess come only with time. It cannot be learned and compensated with anything. Their intellect accumulates all the lessons that time has taught them. We must take the advice of the above mentioned leaned persons and engage ourselves in good activities. We must pray God to bless us with such good company of learned persons. One who gives a good advice and makes us tread on good path is a true friend. We must always choose friends who study better than we do, who cultivate interest in education, one who relieves us of bad thoughts, one who saves us from sins. Shastras gives us guidelines about friendship. Those who are superior in knowledge, who are well educated and tell good things, here their age is not to be concerned. Here only their upadesha is of sole importance. Those who are elder in penance - who do their stipulated rituals constantly, we need the company of such people. Aged and elderly people are most important in our lives. This is the root principle to correct our lives. Garga maharshi told Kartavirya Arjuna about Lord Datta that His abode is Sahyadri. Garga maharshi instructed Kartavirya Arjuna to go to Sahyadri, pray, and serve Lord Datta. Sahyadri teaches us tolerance just as Venkatadri removes our sins. I have travelled to Sahyadri in recent times. Lord Datta teaches and tests our tolerance. Lord Datta is there in every part of Sahyadri. Even today, He roams in Sahyadri. Mahuri Pura Bhikshasi Shahyasai Digambaraha !! Lord Datta rests in Sahyadri that enhances our tolerance. Each mountain has an inner meaning. We must inculcate that quality in us when we visit such sacred mountains. Sahyadri indicates and encourages us to increase tolerance in order to obtain priceless grace of Sadguru. Garga muni tells Kartavirya Arjuna a secret pertaining to Lord Datta. Garga maharshi says Lord Datta is not easily accessible/ available. He is omnipresent so none is sure about His physical whereabouts. Datta will show you many forms. Some of them appear to be gross. Some forms will make you lose devotion and respect towards Him. His behavior will prompt you to address His name in singular. Kartavirya Arjuna, be careful about your opinion on lord Datta. None can predict His behaviors at any given instance. Kartavirya Arjuna, He may not bless you for ages, so be tolerant and continue your service and worship towards Him. Do not come back until you have earned His grace. I will tell you a secret. Lord Datta likes the name Anagha. Anagha means the one who is free from sins and the one who removes the sins. Worship Lord Datta with the name Anagha. Now go. May you be victorious and earn full grace of Guru. Kartavirya Arjuna went to Sahyadri all alone, leaving behind all the luxuries. In the initial stages he could not identify Lord Datta. He enquired around with all the disciples, devotees of Datta but none answered. All of them were either silent or chanted the mantra Jaya Guru Datta as an answer to Kartavirya Arjuna’s queries. Further, they asked him to find it out on his own just as they did it on their own. Kartavirya Arjuna did spiritual practice and finally managed to identify lord Datta. Lord Datta was happy that Kartavirya Arjuna has crossed the first step. The worship and service of Kartavirya Arjuna did not melt Lord Datta‘s heart. With tolerance, Kartavirya Arjuna endured all the irritation and physical violence enacted by lord Datta. Kartavirya Arjuna was determined to earn Datta’s grace. The question is why so many difficulties or say tests. This is Sahyadri. It will enhance your tolerance. Who knows if you will maintain your composure after you get the boons you wanted. Datta is training Kartavirya Arjuna. One day Datta kicked Kartavirya Arjuna hard. Kartavirya Arjuna broke his hands and legs but was not depressed or pained. Kartavirya Arjuna surrendered his head on to the Lotus Feet of Lord Datta and prayed. Lord Datta was impressed with the devotion of Kartavirya Arjuna. Lord Datta said “Kartavirya Arjuna, you chanted my name as Anagha, so I bless you. To get my fullest blessings do Anagha Vratam. I will grant you all the boons you ask for without any more worship, but you will be more happy and satisfied when you get the fruit after employing your efforts. I will bless you with all you wanted”. Today all of you have done the Anagha Vratam. The coincidence of this story and the Anagha Vratam done in ashram is definitely Lord Datta’s grace. Lord Datta then blessed Kartavirya Arjuna with all the boons he wanted. Kartavirya Arjuna asked the boons 1. I should be able to read the minds of the people 2. I should be fully aware of all the unrighteous incidents and go to that place just as they happen. 3. No one should obstruct my way to whatever place I want to go give me such an airplane. 4. I should be able to take different forms and make people tread on the righteous path. Give me such energy. 5. Give me 1000 hands. 6. You must kill me in my final stages of my life and then dissolve me in you. 7. With all these boons, I may become egoistic, in such circumstances; you must come and redeem me. Lord Datta happily agreed and gave all the boons Kartavirya Arjuna asked for. Meanwhile Datta made a sankalpa that he would kill Kartavirya Arjuna in the form of Parashurama and dissolve him in Him. According to Vishnu dharmottara purana, lord Datta, Chandra and durvasa muni have taken birth. We are all Datta devotees. It is mandatory for us to know the tattva of lord Datta. It will help us to gain his grace. When the Veda dharma is not being studied and practiced in stipulated fashion, then lord Datta for the benefit and welfare of worlds uplifted the Veda dharma. Madhusudhana incarnated as lord Datta and established Veda dharma. Vishnu instance is more in lord Datta. Even though Lord Datta has the Brahma and Rudra instances, Vishnu instance is predominant. We have spoken about this previously. When unrighteousness was on rise, when telling lies was prevalent and none was interested in knowing the truth, Lord Datta incarnated. The people were perishing. Nobody knew reasons behind the difficulties they were facing. At this time, Datta came and guided the humans into the righteous path. When we are not able to succeed in fields of education or business, we must check the mistakes made in due course and do adequate compensation. Datta initiated humans into doing good deeds and follow righteous code of conduct. The four Varna Ashrams were installed up Datta. Datta did upadesha of the dharma to people of each Varna Ashram dharma respectively. There was famine everywhere. Once lord Datta went to a place, now called mount Abu in Rajasthan to perform penance. The penance was done for 300 years. After completing the penance, while returning, Datta was surprised to see the land was as if a desert and not greener as it was when He went to do penance. While analyzing the reason, Datta found a wolf crying out of hunger. He gave His satvika food to the wolf. The wolf did not eat it. Then He manifested spicy food and gave, but the wolf did not eat it. Then Datta took the meat of his thigh portion and gave it to the wolf. Tears rolled down the eyes of the wolf. It kept staring at Datta for His liberal grace, but did not eat the meat. Such is the grace of Datta. Seeing this sacrifice, the wolf changed and did not eat the meat. Then Datta made a provisional order. My temple will be built here. After naivedyam, the first food offering should be made to a wolf. A well was dug up for distributing Prasadam to Wolfs. Generally Wolfs do not eat sweet. They smell and go away. But here when the Prasadam is kept in a well and the bell is rung, many wolfs suddenly appear from nowhere, eat the Prasadam and disappear in the same way. Many people are witness to this incident. I wanted to go there many times but somehow it did not happen. Maybe this time it will happen. I will make an application to lord Datta via Nam Dattatreya Swami. The place is known as kala dungar. This is a very sacred place. Lord Datta incarnated to save us from famine and premature death. Lord Datta gave back the previous glory to the earth. Upon the destruction of impurity and unrighteousness on this earth, both king and the subjects will walk on the righteous path. Then the earth will be affluent. After ensuring all these things, Lord Datta went to Prayaga for penance. Lord Datta is omnipresent. He is there in Sahyadri, Prayaga, Mysore Datta peetham, and all the Datta Kshetras. Vishnu dharmottara purana says He has established a hermitage in Prayaga and stays there. Kartavirya Arjuna was doing well as king but he made one mistake. In the war between the demons and the demigods, the demons were losing. They came to Kartavirya Arjuna and prayed for shelter and protection. Kartavirya Arjuna readily agreed and gave them shelter. Kartavirya Arjuna gave shelter to ill-natured people. This is a big mistake. All the demi- gods prayed God to save them from the pain and situation that raised out of Kartavirya Arjuna sheltering and protecting the demons. In ignorance, Kartavirya Arjuna did friendship with Ravana. Kartavirya Arjuna did wrong friendships and he had to be killed. We must be very careful of the company of ill-natured people. God responded to the prayers of the demi gods. He said He would kill Kartavirya Arjuna in the Parashurama incarnation. The Parashurama incarnation is a peculiar incarnation. Gadhi king marries off his daughter to Rucheeka maharshi. In the old days, there was a tremendous science especially in the procreation of progeny. There is a peculiar description of progeny procreation procedures in Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, and other epics. 60,000 children were born to a single woman. Such things are beyond imagination. Such impossible topics have been described in a lucid way. It only means that they had the knowledge of science that we do not know it now. This science depends upon our qualities and deeds. Gadhi king had a daughter, but no son. Both Gadhi queen and her daughter prayed to Rucheeka maharshi for progeny. Rucheeka muni conducted a yagna to fulfill the desire of the mother and daughter. I am of the opinion that research should be conducted in this topic. Unless scientifically explained, we will not understand. Keeping in mind that Gadhi king is of the warrior caste, he bless the prasadam to Gadhi queen to conceive a warrior caste son. To his wife who is the daughter of Gadhi king, is given Prasadam to conceive a son with Brahma splendour. Mother says to her daughter that she is interested in conceiving a son with Brahma splendor, so asks for the Prasadam allotted to the daughter. The daughter happily gave away the Prasadam allotted to her. The Prasadam were exchanged. Rucheeka maharshi came to know of these latest developments and was angry that both the mother and the daughter did not realize the values of the Prasadam. Even though you have the same disease as the other person, the medical prescription of that person should not be used by you. It will not give you good health. Medication is tailor made to each patient. Rucheeka maharshi cursed that his wife would conceive a son with warrior caste quality and his mother-in-law would conceive a son with brahma splendour. Both mother and daughter pleaded Rucheeka maharshi to give concession to the curse. Rucheeka maharshi blesses his wife with a concession that she would give birth to a child with Brahma splendor but her grandson will be with warrior caste qualities. The Gadhi couple was blessed with a son named Vishwamitra. Even though he was born with warrior caste qualities, he did penance and earned the Brahma splendour. Vishwamitra is synonymous with penance. He gave Gayatri mantra to this world. Vishwamitra realized the fact that we cannot win the world with wars. Even if the world is won, certainly God’s heart cannot be won with war. He made this upadesha to us. Vishwamitra maharshi proved to the world that one could attain peace only with penance. Vishwamitra means friend to the world. Grammar was redefined a bit to define his name. The new principle “mitre cha rushow” was born. Rucheeka maharshi’s wife - Satyavathi was blessed with a son named as Jamadagni maharshi. Parashurama is son of this Jamadagni maharshi. Thus, the foretelling of Rucheeka maharshi came true. That is how Parashurama always carries an axe and held on the warrior caste dharma. The attributes of His birth are essentially the pre dispositions of the past life. This is the reason why children should be taught good qualities. Good qualities are preferred more than riches. The above story defines this principle. Jamadagni maharshi got married to Renuka, the daughter of Renu maharshi. Renuka mata in Mahur is revered as one of the deities of the Ashtadasha Shakti peethas. There are three mountains in Mahur. They are Renukadri, Anasuyadri - the place of Datta incarnation, Anjanadri- place of Hanuman incarnation. God is there everywhere. Does it matter where He incarnates? Faith gives fruit unlike doubts. In spirituality, faith works. In material world, knowledge is gained by questioning. If spirituality doubts are unending, we have to put a full stop to those doubts to gain God’s grace. Some people have doubts regarding previous and future birth. Both of them exist just as current birth exists. We have not gained the body arbitrarily. To a person with a proper intellect, the reasoning that this birth is only for food is of no avail. There is some secret. That secret is the previous and future birth. To humans, the main goal is salvation. We should keep this in mind and do spiritual practice. If one believes that this is the only birth, then there is no need for spirituality at all. We are doing spiritual practice to unravel the hidden secret. That secret is this birth lineage. The place of incarnation of Datta and Parashurama are the same. The stories of Vashista and Vishwamitra in the Ramayana and the story between the Jamadagni and Kartavirya Arjuna here, highlight the reverential aspect associated with the holy cow. These stories define the glory of the holy cow. Cows contribute so much of good to us. The dosage of pancha gavya (mix of the cow’s milk, curd, butter, urine and dung in stipulated proportions. One should mix the mixture with sacred grass- Darbha) will act as preventive medicine against many diseases. It is our dharma to protect and look after the holy cows. Does anyone hurt a birth-giving mother? How can we hurt a cow? How can one reason that we are eating a cow just as we are eating other animals? How foolish is this explanation? Many animals give milk. Even donkeys also give milk. Will you drink donkey’s milk. This is a meaningless explanation. There is none other than the holy cow that eats grass and gives nectar like milk. Is there anything from the cow that goes unutilized? Cows dung is used for gas. It is sinful to use the skin of the cow. Sarva Veda rupini gomata, sarva deva rupini gomata. The Cow is the manifestation of all the Vedas and Deities. Holy cows have a unique and strong memory. Many people question the specialty of holy cow’s milk. They compare the milk of the cow with that of the buffalo. The cow and buffalo are miles apart. Buffalo forgets itself seeing and staying in water. Did you ever see a cow land its feet in water? It’s nature is satvika nature. It cares for the purity of the water that is used for other beings for drinking purposes. Many of the farmers who are unable to maintain the cow in desperate situations, are giving it away to slaughter houses. We must do our share of duty to save the holy cow. There are many types of animals to be eaten in this world. God had permitted to eat them. Why the cow? Is it only because of its size and it works out cheaply? Eating cow’s gifts you brain tumor. These are not my words. This is proved by research in UK and US. It is a major sin to eat a cow. We speak so much about protection, but it is all words. To maintain a cow, which in not giving milk is difficult to the owner of the cow, He finds it better to sell it to the slaughterhouses. Let us all promote gobar gas – the gas prepared from cow’s dung. This will help us to save the holy cows. This will promote agriculture in villages in good way and saves the holy cow. All of you promise me to do your bit for saving cows. We should not ignore such things. We must help and do our bit in such things. Milk should come from villages. Only such milk will be pure. In the city, the milk we get is a chemical mixture. The consumption of milk has gone up prompting the mixing of chemicals. The milk does not drip down the fingers. It drips from the finger tips. It is not milk but chemicals mixture. The chaos in the world can be reasoned hence. We are the cause of the previously mentioned mistakes, hence we must protect the cows in the way said above. It is advised that we do not forget the five important words that start with the alphabet G. They are Guru, Govinda, Ganga, Gomata, and Gita. Adding Guru Seva and Gomata seva to the above would be appreciated. Listening to these stories will help us to know about our dharma or duty and how to practice. Bestowal of merit is essential by product. Yoga, Veda, and dharma are there too for practicing. Mere listening is not enough. Kartavirya Arjuna comes to the Jamadagni muni’s hermitage and enquires about his well-being. Jamadagni muni invites the king and the entire army for lunch. King seeing this as unfeasible refuses politely but agrees on the insistence of Jamadagni muni. Jamadagni muni then calls his cow and asks her to look after the arrangements. His cow makes the arrangements, knowing the mind of the guests. No menu was required. The grand feast was thoroughly enjoyed by the king and the army. While going back, the king insisted that the cow should be sent with him. Jamadagni muni resisted saying this cow not only is dear to him, but also it arranges all the required things for his daily rituals. There was a battle for a brief time. Jamadagni muni withdrew from the battle saying fighting is not his dharma. Penance is duty. When the cow was forcibly taken, she came back to Jamadagni muni and pleaded for protection, but to no avail. Kartavirya Arjuna took the cow along with him. Coming to know about the incident, Parashurama’s anger knew no bounds. There was a fierce battle between Kartavirya Arjuna and Parashurama. Parashurama killed Kartavirya Arjuna for the following mistakes 1. Insulting his father, a revered personality 2. Hurting the house which has extended hospitality to him 3. Taking the cow forcibly without the consent of his father and cow herself. Jamadagni reprimanded Parashurama on his return to ashram. Jamadagni explained the importance of tolerance for people whose duty is doing penance. With tolerance comes Lakshmi - riches, vak siddhi - ability to speak and make changes to the material universe. and all luxuries. Patience and tolerance are needed for achieving anything. It is called asana siddhi. Siddhi’s do not occur in fast track process. Hari recognizes and likes people possessing qualities of tolerance. Jagamadani says, “Parashurama, You did a mistake losing Your tolerance.” Parashurama prays His father to show Him a way out. Jamadagni orders Parashurama to go for a pilgrimage and asks Him to undergo all the difficulties of a pilgrimage. This way you will inculcate tolerance. Pilgrimage should be done with less baggage. The local food should be taken. We see many people undergoing difficulties. Only then we understand our comforts. Meanwhile an unpleasant incident happened. The son of Kartavirya Arjuna came into the Jamadagni muni hermitage and beheaded him. Seeing this atrocious act, Renuka mata shouted 21 times for Parashurama. By the time Parashurama came, everything was finished. Parashurama did all the necessary rituals to be done to the parents under the leadership of Datta. Later Parashurama took a vow that He would go round the world 21 times and kill all the egoistic kings. After completion of the act, He cleansed His axe in the Saraswati River. Renuka mata is the head of all the village deities. Village dieties roam around the villages, save, and protect the villages. Renuka mata, Shyamala and Varahi mata are village dieties. We must not ignore one’s village dieties and house deities and Guru Sampradayam. We must teach all these things to our children. Shiva orders Parashurama that once Parashurama meets Rama he should not touch the weapon again. Parashurama entered the marriage hall of Rama. Seeing Parashurama in the hall, all was scared. Dasharatha fainted seeing Parashurama. Some fainted. some did japa and yagna in mind for peace to prevail. Parashurama walked up to Rama and asked Rama to hold the Vishnu bow and to tie the thread to the bow. Until now Rama did not speak. This is the moment where the two incarnations of Vishnu came face to face. How divine the moment should be! Rama said that owing to His father’s presence, He is not speaking until now, but now that you are insulting my dharma and me, I shall speak. In Bala kanda, just before this incident, where Vashistha and Vishwamitra meets, the duties of a warrior are being described in detail. Penance won over the war there. Between Rama and Parashurama, valour beat the penance. Here Valmiki maharshi highlights that attributes and the spiritual practice of a person is main and that caste has no bearing. Parashurama put forward the Vishnu bow and challenged Rama to catch it and tie the thread. Rama readily agreed and the moment Rama touched the bow the entire Vishnu energy form Parashurama flowed into Rama. Parashurama was unable to stand on His feet. He became that weak. Rama continued to tie the thread to the bow and then loaded the arrow on to the bow. Normally Rama is not hasty to load the arrow on to the bow, but once loaded it is mandatory to shoot it. Rama asked Parashurama where to shoot the arrow, and gave Him two choices. Should He aim it at Parashurama and restrict his moments or should He aim at all the merits earned by Parashurama? Parashurama agreed for the latter option. Parashurama reasoned and prayed not to restrict his moments as he has donated the entire land to Kashyapa rushi and hence he has to move away from there. Parashurama says, “Losing in the hands of Rama is a matter of pride and not insult.” Even today, Parashurama responds to prayers and protects people walking on the dharmic path. He is maintaining dharma. In deep trouble if you pray Parashurama, then his shadow along with axe will appear. May the health, merit, and knowledge be in- exhaustive for us. This is the incarnation of Parashurama. Rama is an incarnation of the Lord in a human form. In His previous incarnation to Rama, He incarnated as angry Parashurama. To make it clear to humans that anger is not appreciated and to show the completeness, Rama incarnated as a human. He came down to earth as supreme practitioner of righteousness and calm and composed personality. He came down to earth as exemplary human personality. Sri Guru Datta Day 8, July 31, Ramavatara Mother Goddess Parvathi asked Lord Shiva to give a shorter version for Vishnu Sahasranama. Many people will not be able to chant all the 1000 names for various reasons. Shiva agreed and inititiated the below mantra. Sri Rama Rama Raameti Rame Raame Manorame Sahasra nama tattulyam Rama nama varaanane! Monorame : she gives bliss to all hearts because she is a mother to all. Shiva says those who cannot chant the entire Vishnu sahasranama need ot worry and they can chant the abridged version of it. (mentioned above) How did this mantra get this energy? According to science and Maths Rama nama has lots of energy. In Telugu consonants of “ ya, ra, la, va”, Ra is the second letter. In the consonants ”pa , pha, ba, bha, ma”. Ma is the fifth letter. In Maths, 2 X 5=10 , 10 X 2= 20, 20 X 5 =100 , 100 X 2= 200 , 200 X 5= 1000. Hence chanting the mantra is equal to Vishnu Sahasranama. Chanting and calling Rama nama three times will give you the merit of chanting the Vishnu Shasranama once. Rama nama has more energy than Rama Himself. Even today Hanuman who is an instance of Shiva, is chanting the Rama nama. Hanuman is the future Brahma. He is staying in Gandhamadhana mountain and without any ego He is chanting Rama nama. Today we will speak a little about such Rama tattva. One day, one month, one year, or one lifetime is not sufficient to tell completely about Rama tattva. Such is the tattva of Rama. Tyāgarāju a famous vaggeyakara sang “Tattvam yeruga tarama, paratattvam yeruga tarama, Rama”. Tyāgarāju is one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music. After composing 1000’s kritis he said, “Rama it is not possible to know or understand your tattva. Tat- Tvam- Asi tells about Your tattva which is difficult to understand. Rama it is not easy to understand Your tattva.” Rama incarnated as human to show us the right path. He showed how should we live, behave or conduct ourselves? How to take righteous decisions in tough situations? Rama showed us the way. Until now Vishnu has taken many incarnations. He incarnated as Parashurama but was not satisfied with this incarnation as it displayed lot of anger and fury. So Vishnu took the incarnation of Rama. Looking closely at the incarnations of Parashurama, Rama, and Balarama, we have Rama nama in all these incarnations. He purposely took these incarnations in this line or sequence so that by remembering the name of the incarnations, we chant Rama nama three times. In this way we get the merit of chanting Vishnu Shasranama once. This was the intention of Vishnu behind the sequence of these three incarnations. This is the compassion of Lord VIshnu on us. Chanting any line or word which contains Rama nama in it, will give you the merit of chanting Rama nama. Once there was a conversation among thieves themselves. They were talking “Vane charamaha Vasucha Haramaha”. “Vane charamaha “ - lets roam here in the garden. “Vasucha Haramaha”- rob the pilgrims of their possessions. They began talking among themselves. Unknowingly in their conversation the word Rama came. “Vanae ch+ Rama+ha, Vasucha Ha+ Rama+ ha”. They were credited with the merit of chanting Rama nama and they got liberation. Chanting Rama nama unknowingly gives us such merit and liberation. Imagine the merit of chanting Rama nama with devotion. Rama Ghora Pataka Viramudu If there are no commas and full stops in the paragraphs when reading a book, we get a headache. We are confused where we started and which way we are going. The purpose of a full stop is to stop for a moment. You must stop for a moment and tell in a way that listeners understand. Just telling is of no use as both the teller and listener are confused. We need a full stop for all our sins and prohibitory acts. All the beings have this desire to come out these troubled situations. Who is pulling us out of this trouble? Rama is doing us this favor. Once you surrender to His feet, He puts a full stop to the horrible sins. Rama will interrupt the sins such is His grace. Sadguna Kalpavallika Ramaudu- He possesses the virtuous kalpavallulu- fabulous creepers granting all virtues. He is the garden to such fabulous creepers. Shadvikara Jaya Ramudu : the conquerer of Arishadvargas – the six passions of mind (lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and jealousy). It is true that He has killed Ravana, but His most important victory is conquering the unconquerable. That is the six passions of the mind. Not only He has won them, but He blesses us to win the six internal enemies. Sadhu janavana vratodhamudu: what is His vow or work? To protect the noble beings is His work and vow. Who is noble soul? He who thinks noble thoughts, does good to society, and who at least do good to their family without selfishness are noble people. To protect these noble souls is His vow or work. There is only one vow of Rama. That vow is “Abhayam sarva bhootheybhyo Dadhamyethath pratham mama”. Rama says His vow is to give assurance to all beings. Keeping this vow in mind and making this sankalpa, He incarnated. That is why we should catch Rama. Rama sacrificed all of His things to keep up His vow. Rama, You are our supreme deity. With such feeling we are praying and taking hold of Your lotus feet. Please bless us and see us with the vision of grace. You are an ocean of grace. Please bestow some grace on us also. We must pray like this. Prayer is the strongest of all the tools. Around 15 years back an incident happened in Vijayawada. An old lady was sitting very far away in the crowd. She was doubtful about Sri Swamiji noticing and calling her. Sri Swamiji finished talking to all the gathering and then He called the old woman and gave her a Raksha. If you believe in Sri Swamiji and pray with heart, He will call you. Pray Him with full concentration. While praying, have the vision that you are catching His Padas - Feet and praying. This is the way to pray. Let all the feeling of shedding tears, laughter or telling your problems come out. You must forget the surroundings and pray Him. This prayer has energy. He is Paradaivam- the Supreme. It is more tempting to chant Rama nama than to tell His story. Chanting Rama nama is more Divine nectar than reading the Rama story. Chant Rama nama in one breath. Chanting as many times as you can in one breath. Swallow the saliva that comes while chanting the Rama nama. That saliva will act as great medicine to all your diseases. Repeat this procedure for 9 times. You will get good energy, health and radiance. Our sense organs will get energy, mind will be in control, and you will get mental peace. Do it and check it out for yourself. You can do it on your own. You don’t need any company or any musical instruments. Just chant. You must assume that your chanting has dissolved in the air around you and spread across the world. You must believe that it’s the shield around you and protecting you. Just as our head needs a helmet for protection, you need the Rama nama shield to protect you. Hanuman has this Rama nama shield. Rama’s arrow could not touch Hanuman owing to the energy of Rama nama shield. This is a great science. This is the science of Rama nama. We need the grace and energy of Rama nama. It protects us. Valmiki pondered a lot over what style and language he should compose the Ramayana. Meanwhile Narada Maharishi came to the ashram of Valmiki Maharishi. Valmiki asked Narada: Tapas swadhyaya niratam tapasvi vak vidamvaram Naradam paripapracha valmikim munipungavam You can know Rama tattva only on doing penance. Since the 16 virtues signifies God, who is the person, who is endowed with all these 16 virtues? Please tell me about such a person. Konvasmin Sampratam Loke Gunavaan Kasccha Veeryavan ? Dharmaj~Nasccha Kruthaj~Nasccha Sathyavakyo Dhruda-Vratha Charithrena Ko Yuktha: Sarvabhutheshu Ko Hitha: Vidhvan Ka: Ka: Samartasccha Kascchaika Priyadarsana Aathmavan Ko Jithakrodho Dhyuthiman Koanasuyaka Kasya Bibhyathi Devasccha Jatharhoshasya Samyuge Those sixteen qualities He is looking for are: 1.principled one (Gunavan) 2.potential one (Veeryavan) 3.conscious one (Dharmajnaha) 4.redeemer (Kruthajnaha) 5.truth-teller (Satyavakyaha) 6.self-determined (Dhrudhavrataha) 7.one having good conduct (Charithravan) 8.one who is the well-wisher of all the beings(Sarvabhutha hithaha) 9.scholor of all scriptures(vidwan) 10.ablest-one(Samarthaha) 11.one who is always lovable and good to look(sadaika priyadarsanaha) 12.courageous-one (Atmavan) 13.one who controlled his anger (jithakrodhaha) 14.brilliant-one (dyuthiman) 15.one who is not having jealousy (Anasuyakaha) 16.For whom even devathas also will afraid to stand before Him in war, when He is angry Then Narada Maharishi meditated a moment and answered Valmiki Maharishi’s question. ikṣvāku vaṃśa prabhavo rāmo nāma janaiḥ śrutaḥ | niyata ātmā mahāvīryo dyutimān dhṛtimān vaśī || A man belonging to the Ikshvaku dynasty is famously called Rama. He is fully endowed with all the 16 virtues you asked. Narada maharishi summarized the story of Rama. Narada maharishi thus told the Ramayana summary which is known Sampkshepa Ramayana or Shatasloki Ramayana. Valmiki Maharishi composed Ramayana just as told by Narada Maharishi hence the Balakanda is also composed by Valmiki. Valmiki composed the Ramayana as third person. The description of Ayodhya is done. How should the kingdom be? How should a king conduct himself? A king should lay the corner stone of dharma because the subjects will look up to the king for practicing dharma. How should the ministers, soldiers, commander of the army of soldiers be? How to protect the treasury and storeroom for grains? How should protective shelters for cows, horses, elephants and other animals be maintained and protected? How should He forts like water fort, earth fort, and forest fort be ? These above things are told in detail and then later Dasharatha is introduced. Dasharatha was 60,000 years old and yet did not have progeny. Dasharatha thought deeply and decided to do yagna. Dasharatha decided to do Ashwmedha Yagna and wash away his sins and please the Gods also at the same time. Dasharatha made this sankalpa-determination to have progeny. When we are in difficult situations or circumstances, instead of feeling sad we must pray God. He will bless us. This is a nice lesson taught to us via Dasharatha. At this point of time Dasharatha was 60,000 years and Rama lived for 11,000 years. We get tired at the age of 60 years where will we understand the concept of such long life. It is very difficult for us to understand. It was a different eon. Mahatmas do not tell lies. We know it. It is only that we are not able visualize this truth. Ramayana starts with the concept of clubbing of your efforts and prayers to achieve your righteous purpose or motives. Dasharatha appointed Rushyashrunga Maharishi as priest. Rushyashrunga Maharishi conducted the Ashwameda yagna and Purtrakameshti yaga. The Prajapathi Purusha came out of the homa and gave the prasadam to Dasharatha. Dasharatha gave the prasadam to his three wives and they conceived. Rama was born to Kausalya, twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra, and Bharata was born to Kaikeyi. This is the incarnation of Rama. All the Gods pray Vishnu, Who is present in subtle form to remove the sufferings they are facing because of Ravana. They made such prayers in subtle form. Vishnu then decides to incarnate as a human being. Here we are told about the incarnation of Hanuman. This is the information in the 17th chapter. The incarnation of Rama is told in the 18th chapter. Normally after the incarnation, the description of how a child played, roamed and studied are told. Valmiki Maharishi doesn’t describe these in greater detail. The childhood is described in one sloka and the education is told in four slokas. Guru Vasistha thought how should the boys be named? Since this boy is giving bliss merely with His darshan and vision, I shall name Him as Rama. He names the other three children as Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. Vasistha Maharishi is a great saint from the school of non-dualism, Brahma jnanai the Kula Guru of the Ikshvaku dynasty. Usually we christen names based on stars when the children are born. Some people keep names which are consistent with the names of their father and grandfather. In this way they can remember them often. It is one such custom. We must not forget the names give by our fathers. We must proudly say the names given to us. We must not insult the name. If we don’t tell our name, then how will the world call us? Now Vishwamitra Maharishi enters the scene and takes them away for further education. This tells us how important education is for children. Delaying the admission to school for a child out of love, will spoil the child. He will deny going to school afterwards. We must never neglect a child's education. If need be, we must sacrifice everything and get the child educated. This message is conveyed by Valmiki Maharishi in Ramayana. Vishwamitra Maharishi asked Dasharatha to send Rama and Lakshmana along with him. Though Dasharatha was hesitant to send his sons, but following the orders of his Guru Vasistha muni He agreed. Rama and Lakshmana went along with Vishwamitra Maharishi to protect his yagna, to kill demoness Tataka, to go to Mithila and break the bow of Shiva, and for the divine marriage of Sita and Rama. Rama won Sita on His valour. This is a very amazing and important episode in the Ramayana. Rama and Sita are inseparable. After marriage, while Sita and Rama were going to Ayodhya, Parashurama enters the scene. With this Bala Kanda ends and paves the way to Ayodhya Kanda. In Ayodhya Kanda, the conversation between Sita and Rama is described as heart to heart conversation. They did not need words to communicate with each other. Such was the love and affection they mutually shared. This is true congenial marriage. If Sita would think anything in her heart, Rama will know and vice versa. Such was the congenial atmosphere between them. How many things are narrated in the Ramayana. Ramayana will not only pass on merit but also human will succeed in achieving Dharama, Artha, and Kama. It will bestow victory on us. Valmiki Maharishi tells us great things. Bala kanda ends here. Ayodhya Kanda begins from here. It is very voluminous. Each human being has unique qualities. What is the specialty of Rama? For Rama, dharma is of vital importance. He can sacrifice anything and do anything for dharma. Maricha, a demon praised Rama and said that Rama is the form of dharma. When a demon can know this, can't we humans understand this? Rama is dharma and dharma is Rama. We should also be ready to sacrifice anything for humanity. This is an important quality. God will test whether we have earned this quality or not. He will keep testing until we achieve this quality. Once we attain this quality then He will bless us. Until then, God will keep polishing us. God’s intent is to wear us as a priceless jewel around His neck. So until then He will polish you to fulfill His intent. When we say mother, it means and includes both mother and father and likewise for a father. We must always listen to our parents and never trespass their orders. Forefathers mean not only parents but includes all the elders. We must not trespass the orders of our parents, but how many practice this? Rama is the one who follows the manas of His father. He doesn’t need His father to express His thoughts into words. Rama was to be coronated next day as a prince, but His aunt Kaikeyi told that His father wants Him to go to the forest. Even though Kaikeyi spoke these words, Rama took His father’s mindful wish as an order and proceeded to the forest. The circumstances were difficult to understand and explain to the outsiders, but this did not deter Rama from following His father’s wish. Should we follow the pathway shown by Rama? Should we not fight for our rights? Here the decision is left to the individual's conscience. Each person should think for himself and then practice. Rama followed this path. Rama is highlighting the qualities of contentment, sacrifice and dharma to us by way of practicing it. This is the yoga of obedience shown and practiced by Rama. Rama didn’t want His father to indebted for not fulfilling the promise made to the others. Rama sacrificed His kingdom to keep His fathers promise. It is only Rama who equated the kingdom to a blade of grass. Can we see any such kings? Parashurama was born in the priest’s family and killed all the egoistic kings. Rama annihilated the ego of Parashurama and opened his eyes. The inner meaning is that it is the virtue that matters and not the caste in which you are born. It is the tapas and the virtue that are important. Even though Rama conquered Parashurama, He showed equality among the castes. He showed us how to live practicing equality among the castes. The values of co-operation and brotherhood should be firmly installed in our mind and heart. Rama showed this by practicing in this episode. Here Rama first respected Parashurama and showed the equality among caste. Then Rama listened to His father and went to the forest. While in the forest, Vishwamitra ordered Rama to kill demoness Tataki who is under the influence of a curse, eating lots of noble people and troubling many noble souls. Yet Rama hesitated thinking that this demon is a woman. How can I kill a woman? Seeing Rama delay in executing his order, Vishwamitra got angry. He said Rama, it is the prime duty of the king to rule and protect his subjects. This is the Sanatana dharma. While practicing dharma even if the king gets sins, he should not hesitate. He must protect his subjects. This is very important. You are being forgetful of her atrocities. This is not nice. In a war we must not treat our enemies with neglect or disdain or forgetful nature. If you speak of humanity, kindness, sympathy, then what about your countrymen? They will get destroyed. It is the king's prime responsibility and dharma to rule and protect his countrymen. Vishwamitra Maharishi says, Rama don’t hesitate. You will not incur any sin for killing Tataka. Here Rama is of the opinion that women should not be harmed in any way. Rama shot the arrow at Tataka at a slow pace, considering her to be a woman. Rama expresses His unwillingness to kill Taktaka. Lakshmana says the energy of the demons will increases post sunset, so it is important that You kill Tataka before the sunset. Rama did not pull the thread of the bow till His ear because then the arrow will go and pierce the earth and to to Rasātala- the home of demons beneath the earth and come back. The arrows are not normal arrows. They are drenched with energy of mantras. Rama felt bad after killing Tataka. The greatness of Rama lies in the fact that He killed Tataka because she is troubling the worlds and pardoned His enemy demoness Shurpanaka. Shurpanaka threatened to swallow Sita but Rama punished Shurpanaka in a very small way and pardoned her because she is a woman. After this incident Shurpanaka was nowhere to be seen. It seems that she only came to create a fallacy in Ravana’s mind. Rama was fully aware of the company of Shurpanaka. He knew that pardoning and leaving her is endangering His life, yet He let her go only because she was a woman. When Sugreeva knew the entire earth, it is obvious that Rama Who is born and brought up in Ayodhya, had full knowledge of all the demons around the world. Even in life threatening situations, Rama followed dharma. The entire creation is the proof that God is blessing all impartially. We are not able to realize it. We are born with the vision of seeing dissimilarity. We are not able to see oneness. God is showing us oneness in His entire creation. He thought we are not able to realize it. God has given all the beings the same air, water and food. These are common to all beings. Our intellect is unequal and we blame this inequality on God. Whose mistake is this? Is it our mistake or His? This is our mistake. Without these seven chakras (energy centers) there is no human existence. Human being can exist if the base of the seven chakras doesn’t exist, but without the seven chakras, human existence is impossible. God has created this body like that. The chakras begin from the Muladhara and end at Sahasrara chakra. Some chakras run in first gear, some in second gear, some get rusty and make a weird sound while running, and some run in fifth gear. Irrespective of the condition, chakras surely exist. Whether you repair them or not, is your prerogative. Datta Kriya Yoga helps you to maintain the chakras and thus the vehicle- body will move forward. Be it any vehicle, wheels are important. If anyone argues that a vehicle with wheels is created, then what? Here you must not forget that the very movement of the vehicle itself is the chakra-wheel. Not the physically visible wheel, but the movement also is the chakra- wheel. The walking and moving forwards itself is called chakra. The wheel is something which makes us move forward. God is symbolizing all these seven chakras. He is the ruling deity of all these seven chakras. During the Vijaya year we are speaking about Vijaya Rama. He is victorious. He makes us win and never lets us down. Such is Lord Rama. He is the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. He is our protector. He is the origin of all those who do namasankeertana and are in the path of devotion. In the absence of Rama’s incarnation, we cannot imagine India like this today. Rama incarnation and India are inseparable. We must have such vision of oneness in mind. Be it Vaishnavas or Smarthas, none can visualize Rama and India separately. No matter what path you follow, Rama will show His instance there,because He taught us humanity. Rama taught us kindness, sympathy, truth and dharma. Rama did not perform any leelas which are beyond human’s understanding. Rama took incarnation as a normal human, residing amongst us, He removed our difficulties, and thus indirectly showed us the way to lead life. Rama did upadesha only to His very close associates and not to the general public. Rama answered some Vedantic questions asked by Hanuman. Rama did not do any upadesha to others, why? Because, His very incarnation itself is upadesha. Even for the greatest pundits it is very difficult to tell about Rama. Valmiki Maharishi had composed the Ramayana and had thus implicitly told all the dharma axioms, axioms for victory and management skills. The Ramayana can be called as Ramayana Shastra, just as Bhagavat Gita is called as Gita Shastra. Sri Swamiji has sung the Shatasloki Ramayana with an intention that all should read and listen to the Ramayana. Seeing this, I made a sankalpa to record all the 24,000 verses of the Ramayana. Then I took the permission of Sri Swamiji and for the moment Bala Kanda recording is completed. I am very happy. It is impossible to get into Ayodhya and win. Ayodhya Kanda is very voluminous. Again making the sankalpa of recording the entire 24,000 verses of Ramayana in the divine presence of Nam Dattanatha Kshetram. Rama tattva can be known only with penance. Day 9, August 1, Balaramavatara and Krishnavatara We have spoken about the Balarama incarnation yesterday. He is removing our diseases and bestowing us with yoga. The incarnation of Krishna is one of bliss. He gave bliss to all, either children, elders, saints or knowledgeable. It is said that Sage Vysa described Krishna’s childhood in detail as Valmiki did not describe Rama’s childhood in detail. Krishna’s childhood leelas are of prime importance. These mischief keep happening in our houses also. Krishna’s childhood leelas are for the welfare of the worlds and there is lot of inner meaning associated with each leela of His. Today lets us talk about the Krishna leelas. Since Balarama incarnation is part of Krishna incarnation let us talk about both incarnations simultaneously. The purpose of both incarnations is the same. In Rama incarnation, we have seen two incarnations of Lord Sri Hari, Parashurama and Sri Rama come face to face. Nevertheless, in Krishna- Balarama incarnation they are incarnated at same place and same house and as brothers. It is a bit strange. They showed how brotherhood, good relations between the relatives, affection in family is to be maintained. According to Bhagavatam, the 7th incarnation is Rama, the8 th incarnation is Balarama and the 9th incarnation is Krishna. The number 9 is called a complete number because after nine, the numbers are repetitive like 10, 11, 12 etc. Krishna, being the ninth incarnation, is the embodiment of all the siddhis and energies. He is the form of Nava Durgas. Just as intellect gives new ideas, Sri Krishna gives us new encouragement and makes us walk forward in life. Remembering Krishna relieves you of all the sorrows and difficulties because He Himself has undergone lot of troubles, even though He knows everything, He observed everything for us and showed us many of His leelas. It is often said that Krishna attracts minds of beings because mind is never calm and rested. Mind is always on the move, just as the monkey jumps from one branch to another. A running mind can never be successful. Krishna told Arjuna that if he wants to be successful, he must become like Hanuman. Arjuna grasped Krishna’s hint and won the war practicing it. Mind on the run cannot concentrate and hence cannot understand and ca speak anything. Mind concentration is the root of all victories. Krishna attracts mind. We are unknowingly in His control. Our mind and intellect are fully concentrating on Him and by doing so, we walk in right path, and are successful. Just as field has to be ploughed to do agriculture, Krishna attracts us and churns the mind to remove the weeds - the bad thoughts in mind. The weeds do not let the good crops grow. Krishna removes such weed from the mind and intellect. We do not share our bad secrets with anyone. On the contrary, because we desire fame, we do extra marketing of a small good deed done by us. The common desire of all beings is that we should always be happy, fully knowledgeable and have good fame. A sensible person never tells his secrets outside, but he should tell to himself his mistakes and search for the solutions. We do not attempt any such thing. In such cases, Krishna starts to plough our mind and intellect. By doing so, the weeds are removed and the auspicious Oudumbara tree grows there. He is called Krishna, because He removes the weeds from the mind, sows the seed for kalpa vruksha, waters it and makes it give fruits and blesses us with it. When we chant Krishna, these thoughts should flow in our mind. Chanting the name of Rama should give you bliss. How do you get bliss? By seeing, by hearing and by experience... there are many ways. Bliss can come from anywhere. Krishna changes our life. With such changes, He corrects our life and gives bliss through this life. It is because of our parents, Sadguru and the merit of mahatmas that we are happy. There may be many ways available, but unless they show the way, we cannot walk. We are walking on the good path shown to us by them and we should never forget them. This is true for both materialistic and spiritual worlds. One should thank those people who have laid roads in pilgrimages when facilities did not exist. They ignored all the dangers like wild animals, health, and laid the roads and facilities like electricity. We must be very thankful to them. Krishna has shown us the way by with the teachings of Bhagavatgita. Understanding Krishna’s birth and His leela are not possible. But understanding His words or speech is easy. His language is very simple and does not require explanation. That is why He is called Jagadguru and we are speaking about Him. On reading Bhagavatam, you get many doubts about Krishna. In such cases you must close the book and not read further. Never read His history with a doubtful mind on Him. His story is doubtful because His path, approach, and His life are like the footsteps of a fish in the water. Tracing them is not possible. Saints approach is always like that. Understanding them is not easy. Pray Krishna to clear the lingering doubts. All the spiritual paths come and converge in Nama smarana – chanting the divine names. Reading and listening to His story is doing His Nama smarana. In the devotional path, Nama smarana is the strongest tool. Listening to His glories in the form of His stories, is a form of His Nama smarana. Krishna’s story starts with fear of death - the greatest fear of all fears. Fear makes you lose, even before you attempt to fight the battle. Do not be scared is easier said than done. When we possess energy, we lose fear. We are not fearful when we have companion with us. Friends or relatives can only say I am with you, but physically being with you all times is not feasible. We have brought no companion along with us when born on the earth. Sadguru and God Who possess energy beyond your comprehension, are always with you all the time, and they walk with you. When we have firm belief in our mind that Sadguru or God is with us, then there is no reason to be fearful. Who will have such faith? Only those who are in spiritual path have such belief. Your devotion benefits you. Only you benefit out of it and not the world. It is an illusion that the world benefits from your devotion. When we are devoted, we will have faith that our Sadguru, our favorite God is walking with us. Then we do not complain about loneliness. Only those who do not complain about loneliness will win the fear of death. No other person can win the fear of death. Demon Kamsa was not having the above confidence so he was fearful. A person with good and sensible intellect will not be worried about the things which are always true. For example, death, the flow of river flow etc are ever true. Even Brahma has to abide to them. We are just humans. To make us cautions of the extreme wavering nature of the mind, the stories are told in an interesting way. We must pray to God to give a message in a subtle way to control our mind. Kalanemi has reborn as Kamsa. He loves his sister very much. He searched for a good husband and married her to Vasudeva. The announcement from the sky that the 8th progeny of Vasudeva will be your death, changed Kamsa's behavior towards his sister in a minute. In a second, he was ready to kill his sister. Does anyone kill their sister? The stories are told for us as a lesson that the mind is very unstable and can make us do many bad sins. We should be very careful in such moments. In the circumstances of loss of money, life, and self-respect, we forget everything, and in such situations selfishness strongly prevails in mind. He could not think that his sister has just got married and for the couple’s progeny there is time, and meanwhile let her live. Devotion teaches us many ideas that are beneficial to us. The benefit meted out to society by devotion is unparalleled to any other tool that society benefits. I have no doubt in my mind that society badly needs devotion. The faith that Sadguru is in your heart, makes you stop doing many prohibitory deeds. Else, there is no stopping the atrocities meted out to others. Devotional feeling in society will cut the evils in society largely. This is the difference between the devotee and non-devotee. We have to pay for our deeds. Pondered over your inner consciousness will gift you guilt to repent in respect of the past mistakes you have done. It is very difficult to change or make a stubborn person understand a point. Maybe you can kill a tiger with your arm strength, maybe you can grab a snake by his neck, and win the brahma- rakshasa in battle, but to change the stubborn person mind is not possible. Maybe by doing something, there are no diseases in this world. We can force the tongue to eat the bitter things, we may break the sharp knife, maybe we can run through the sharp fences, maybe we shut the mouth of the all-time bad word speaking people, but we cannot change the stubborn by telling him knowledgeable things. Kamsa is very stubborn. When the king has demon qualities, then the minister will be tigers, harming his subjects and the servants will become the wild dogs. Just as the kings, so are his subjects. This message is for us. We are the kings of our house. As the king is, so are the subjects. This story teaches us management skills. Vasudeva pleaded not to kill his wife. I will give you my progeny as soon as they are born. Upon this promise of Vasudeva, Kamsa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva. After Devaki conceived seven children, Kamsa killed all of them one by one. Balarama incarnated as the 8th child. Balarama has always four plans in place for any work. We must learn this from Balarama. God will have four plans in place to run the creation. These four plans are Pradyumna, Anirudha, Sankarshana, and Vasudeva. This Sankarshana energy entered as Balarama in Devaki's womb. Meanwhile Devaki mata was pregnant with Balarama, God was pondering over the fact that Devaki is losing all the children. “This is an inauspicious and sin. Whatever maybe the reason, I have to do something for stopping this.” He thought of installation of snake images done with her hands. He calls Yoga Maya and tells her to take this child in the womb, and put him in Nanda gokulam, in womb of Vasudeva’s second wife Rohini. Being changed from one womb to another, the child got the name Sankarshana. Sankarshana is none other than Adishesa. Jai bolo Balarama swami ki jai In Kamsa's kingdom, they thought that Devaki Devi has lost the child in the womb. Next, Devaki mata was pregnant for the 9th time. The child born now is Sri Krishna. Vasudeva takes the child, crosses the Yamuna River, deposits the child near Yashodha mata, and brings the girl child - Vishnu Maya from there, and deposits her near Devaki mata. Kamsa comes in and is surprised to see a girl child. Nevertheless he is so scared of his death that he went forward and tried to kill the girl child. He banged the girl child to the floor. She flew up into the sky and appeared in sky as Durga mata with 18 hands. She tells Kamsa that the child, his death, has already taken birth in Nandagopa vrajam. Jai bolo Sri Krishna paramatma ki jai When Durga mata told about Krishna’s birth, then the incarnation of Krishna became complete. Now Kamsa sends a search party to Gokulam. Nice lullabies were sung to Krishna when He was put in a cradle. The entire episode of Krishna’s childhood is very voluminous. When we hear these stories, it feels that Krishna is roaming in our house. That is the glory of Krishna. For the couples who have no children, they should read Krishna’s history. Garga maharishi coined the names of both the brothers secretly in a cow shed. The elder one is named Balarama because he is strong, and the younger one is called Krishna because he attracts and gives bliss to all. As soon as we remember Krishna, the mind automatically gathers flute, peacock feather, leelas, and Bhagavatgita. However, He likes to be called as Navaneeta chora — butter thief. It says “I am all this” is the secret. This is sufficient to know His tattva. If you call anyone thief, will anyone respond? But here Krishna is happily responding. Navaneeta - butter just then came into existence. He is taking all the newly incurred sins of us. Hence, he is called Navaneeta chora. No bank other than Krishna takes the sins. He is a highly luminous fire that will burn all the sins. One of the Krishna leelas: In a house nearby, the relationship between mother-in- law and her daughter-in-law was a bit stormy. Krishna was angry that neither mother-in- law nor the daughter-in-law would feed Him with butter. He decided to teach them a lesson. He tied their plats of hair to each other, ran away from there, and started watching the happenings from a nearby distance. As soon as they woke up they pulled their head towards them with all their might. Krishna enjoyed this view. He said these are the consequences of not serving me with butter. If you want to be peaceful and happy always, remember Me. Krishna gave messages in subtle form in every play of His. Leela no 2: God has created mud to let water get absorbed inside it. Now we have done so much flooring that water is not being absorbed. This results in jala Pralayam - water dissolution. Balarama complained to his mother that Krishna has eaten mud. Mother calls Krishna and enquires “Krishna did you eat mud?” Krishna speaks the first words in this incarnation: “na hum bhakshitavan amba" the ordinary meaning is “No, I did not eat mud.” The inner meaning: “na hum" means “mother, this is not my real form. See Paramatma in me. That is my real form.” Then He said “mother, you have just fed my stomach full. Why will I eat mud? If I were to be hungry, there is a possibility of eating mud.” Mother was not confident that Krishna is telling the truth. Meanwhile a small particle of mud was hanging down Krishna’s lips. Mother Yashoda observed it. Krishna saw Yashoda observing it and He immediately, in a flash, licked the mud hanging to His lips and closed His mouth. Yashoda asks Krishna to open His mouth. Krishna opens His mouth. Yashoda sees all the galaxies in that mouth. She saw it in disbelief. She for a moment thought she is not Yashodha. “Maybe I have come to some other place.” This is very surprising! She then fainted. Krishna entertained His entire mother and all the villagers with His plays. Children should be playful in childhood. Being serious is no point. But studying along with mischief is also a point. When we read the history of Sadguru or God we must inculcate few things taught and make them practice. Practicing some things we read in Sri Swamiji’s life history is highly appreciated. They told their life’s incidents for this very purpose. Krishna is playing with His mother via His leelas. He is increasing the affection of His mother on Him and giving her more happiness. Yashodha mother has a bag full of evil eye removing packets. She loved Krishna so much. Sri Swamiji has told many a time that to remove evil eye on children we must chant god names. Praying specific God to protect specific part of the body. The custom of removing evil eye has a lot of meaning. It acts as a protective shield to the child. You must play with your children and not with your mobile phone. Play with children and make them learn something. When you spend 10 minutes of time with children, you will forget the day's strain. Bhagavatam started with fear of death for Parikshit and ended with complete peace of mind that was given by the childhood leelas of Krishna. Leela 3: Once Krishna was running and Yashoda was not able to catch Him. In fact, nobody can catch Him. But the love and affection of mother caught Him. He cannot be held even by Goddess Laxmi, Sanaka and other yogis and Vedas too, but He was caught by the love and affection of His mother. When we call Him with such love and affection, He comes to our house and stays here. Lord Krishna removed the problems, diseases, and pains of Gopalas, Gopikas, animals and gave them bliss. Krishna is called Tribhangi Krishna. He has three slight bends in His body posture when He stands. One is at the ankles, one at the waist, and one at the neck. Hence, He is called Tribhangi Krishna. He looks like mother goddess, and He verily is Mother Goddess. As Krishna grows up, His story can be divided into 3 parts. 1 .Venu nadam- Flute Music Once He starts playing His Flute, He goes into Trans. Until the playing of flute, He did so much of mischief. He immersed the Nanda Gokulam in His music and gave them bliss. 2. Time for killing of Kamsa. Akrura comes and prays to kill Kamsa and Krishna agrees. Narada also played His part here. Krishna kills Kamsa. The major purpose of His incarnation is to kill Shishupala and Dantavaktra, lighten the weight of demons on earth, to finish unrighteousness, and establish righteousness. He reformed and made the earth pleasant with His divinity and plays. After killing Kamsa, He got His parents released from jail. His parents said “Krishna you are great and God.” Krishna ignored it and said whatever it is, I am your child. The ones who do not serve their parents, there is no salvation to them, and they will have very degraded future births. Day 10, August 2, Kalki Avatara Dasha - phases of life is very important. Every 12 years there is an eminent change in life. The first phase of 12 years, the boy develops rationality. When he is 24 years, he completes his education and looks for a job and the battle of life starts here. On reaching 36 years he is focused on saving and protecting his progeny. Inculcating of service to society begins, and he tries to be a good part of society. On reaching of 48 years he has either still earning or has earned all that is necessary for leading life. At 60 years he has done all his duties in this material world and now retired from family life and gets appointed into spiritual life. He should increase the intensity of spirituality in this phase of life. At 72 years a ritual of ratha shanti is performed. At 84 years he is making arrangements for the final journey of life, he is getting ready in mind to leave the mortal body. At 96 years he performs Shannavati Shraaddha rituals to please his forefathers. At 96 years accounting all the adhika masas, he actually completes 100 years of age. (Adhika Masa is the thirteenth month in the Lunar Calendar) It is the quality of life that counts rather than the number of years lived. Remembering the Dashavataras earns the grace of God and changes our phases of life for good. Venkateshwara Swami has decorated all nine fingers of His feet with rings which symbolize the nine planets. The 10th finger is decorated with a ring which represents the God of death. The evident God of Kaliyuga is lord Venkateshwara. In Dashavataras the incarnation of Buddha is included, but this Buddha is not Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. According to Bhagavatam, He is called Ariha, meaning slayer of enemies and demons. This incarnation came down to earth straight from Vaikuntam – the abode of Vishnu. He walked down to earth naked. He created feelings of moham - greed in demons, and He preached knowledge to humans and Gods. Nobody needs to doubt whether Kalki incarnation happened or not. It happened in the past Kali eon, and it will continue to happen in the coming Kali eons. The eons cycle is always continues. Kali evil has not yet completely stepped on the earth. He only has put his thumb on the earth, yet we see so many consequences of it. In this Kali eon one should cautiously deal with attachments. It makes us do many prohibitory things. Shielding yourself from deep attachment is very difficult in Kali. Kali does not touch Sadguru devotees. Parikshit a king belonging to Kuru dynasty went to the forest for hunting. He was tired and went to the hermitage of Shamika muni. He was feeling very thirsty and asked for water. Shamika muni did not respond as he was in deep meditation. Parikshit garlanded Shamika muni with a dead snake in momentary anger. Shamika muni was still in taps and did not respond this act of Parikshit. The son of Shamika muni sees this and curses Parikshit to die within a week by the bite of a snake. Parikshit had huge mountain of merit and heard Bhagavata for the next week which earned him salvation. Parikshit descendants were extremely surprised with this behavior of Parikshit. How could Parikshit, who was blessed by Sri Krishna Himself and belonging to such a great dynasty, indulge in such a deplorable act? The reason is that Krishna had fought 18 battles with the demon Jarasandha. Every time that Jarasandha lost, Krishna would leave him alive. Balarama objected to this, but Krishna reasoned that Jarasandha would come back again with an army of demons and that they could kill them. In this way we can lighten the weight of demons on the earth. Jarasandha would leave all his belongings and ran away after losing. Krishna would collect them and use them for the benefit of His subjects. In one of the lost battles by Jarasandha, he left behind his crown and ran away. Krishna collected the crown and kept it in His safe custody. Before redeeming His incarnation. Krishna passed on the crown to the Pandavas. They did not use it because it was used by Jarasandha. They kept it in safe custody. It was later passed on to Parikshit. He did use it for a long time. One day he opened the store room to see this wonderful crown and felt like wearing it and then he went hunting. He came to the forest for hunting and felt very thirsty. He went to Shamika muni hermitage, and asked for water. Shamika muni was in deep tapas and did not respond. Parikshit got angry and put the dead snake around his neck. Even though Shamika muni did not respond, his son cursed Parikshit for the deplorable act Parikshit had done, to die in a week by the bite of a snake. It is not good to disturb anyone who is doing tapas. Walking up to a sleeping person and asking him if he has slept well is not manners. Seeing a person coming out of a bathroom and asking him did you have lunch is not manners or dharma. Do you now understand why Parikshit’s mind for a moment thought and did this deplorable act of putting a dead snake around the neck of Shamika muni ? It is because Parikshit for a moment became interested in other’s property of Golden crown and used it. This is the effect of Kali. In this kali eon your mind generates instant fondness for others’ things. Fulfilling this thought of mind will give you bad consequences. Kali was there in Sri Krishna’s incarnation period, but not that much active. Krishna proceeded to Vaikuntam in the Sandi kalam of Dwapara eon and Kali eon. Kali showed his effects visibly at the moment that Parikshit wore the crown of Jarasandha. Kali took physical form and asked Parikshit to show places for his residence. Parikshit gave Kali a few places. Kali resides in the hearts and houses of people who abuse Parents and Guru. He is in the houses of ungrateful persons, in the houses of drunkards, in those who practice prohibitory deeds, and in the houses of people who have deep attachment on the things belonging to others. As time passed by, Kali grew stronger and due to his impact, living beings faced a lot of problems. God incarnated to save the living beings from the effects of Kali. Protection of God includes punishment which aims at reforming the beings. This is illusion of Sri Hari. Lets pray Kalki Swami. He is very proficient in putting lid on sins. Who is Kalki? Just like Krishna Hari, Rama Hari, and Govinda Hari, He is Kalki Hari. He is here to establish Kruta eon in Kali eon, just as old water goes away and paves way for new water to come in. Lord Rama is prayed Apadamapa Hataram Dataram Sarva Sampadam Lokaa Bhi Ramam Sri Ramam Bhuyo Bhuyo Namamyaham Rama not only removes difficulties but also gives happiness. Kalki will incarnate in the sandhi kalam – end of Kaliyuga and beginning of Kruta yuga. Kalki Swami will incarnate to bring back the kruta yuga days in the Kali eon. Kalki Swami will hold a divine sword in his hand, which is like the form of a great serpant. He is radiant with the sword. He does not pardon the kings who lack in qualities of compassion, kindness, and good intellect. He comes riding on a horse and he establishes Kruta eon in Kali eon. This is needed. May this 10th incarnation of Lord Vishnu bless you all. Did this incarnation happen in previous eons? The scriptures have said that this incarnation happened in previous instances of Kali eons and will surely happen in this Kali eon. Unable to bear the atrocities of the wicked people, Mother Earth goes to Brahma and prays Him to lighten the weight of demons on the earth. Brahma in turn, offers the same prayers at the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. Vishnu discloses His plan of incarnation in Sambhala village. He would be born to the pious couple Sumati and Vishnu yashasu along with His three brothers. Vishnu incarnated in this way in previous kali eon. The incarnation of Kalki has happened in previous Kali eons and will happen in this Kali eon on the auspicious day of Vaishaka Suddha Dwadasi. The entire Kali eon comprises of 432,000 years. It is told in Veda, so believe it. Do not believe in “the world will end in 2012 “ type of rumors. Don’t be scared. We cannot achieve anything with fear. Never let fear come in the way of expending your efforts for achieving anything. It is not correct using fear as an excuse. When you have prior information about the impending danger, then try and save yourself. And when you cannot do it, then at least pray to God to save you. Thoughts such as “I cannot save myself. Let me do all prohibitory things.” is very wrong and sinful. Natural calamities in smaller range like earthquakes do happen. In Lalitha Sahasrana Nama, Mother Lalitha is said to be the witness to the Great Dissolution. She is worshipped by the name – ‘Maha Pralaya Saakshini’. Small Dissolutions are common incidents in everyone’s life. There is a lot of time for kali eon to end. It is of very big surprise that, in spite of telling people the consequences of their current deeds, they are satisfied with the momentary enjoyment fruit of the current bad deeds. Informing them of the evil consequences of this deed in future does not deter them from doing such bad deeds. People are more happy with the momentary pleasure the deeds gives, and ignore the inevitable future punishments. Selfishness should mean that the deeds should do good to you both in present and in future. People are not able to understand the correct meaning of selfishness. Maybe we are travelling towards demon hood. When such demon hood prevails, intensely Kalki Swami will incarnate. Jai Bolo Kalki Narayana Swami ki Jai. What does kruta eon mean? All the inhabitants in kruta eon would see themselves in others. In such circumstances there is no scope for mistakes, sins, and horrendous acts. Can anyone cheat himself? Is this act heard of anywhere in the world? No. The Kalki God incarnated on Vaishaka Shuddha Dwadasi. Shasthi Devi is protecting the child. Durga devi cuts the umbilical cord. Savitri Devi bathed the child with Ganga waters. Vishnu incarnated as Kalki with four hands. The parents pleaded that they are not able to tolerate such radiant form and prayed Him to take the normal form with two hands. Vishnu agreed and did so. It must be our strong belief that our forefathers and Gurus continue to exist, even though they have left their mortal body. How do they exist? They continue to exist in luminary - jyoti form. That is why God has taken luminary form and is called jyoti rupa. We must believe that they are with us, in us and are residing in our heart. We must firmly believe that my Sadguru is there for me at all the times. Such feeling and belief is very necessary. Remembering the seven immortals in the creation gives us good health and longevity. "Ashwathaama Balir Vyaso Hanumanascha Vibhishana Krupacharya cha Parashuramam Saptaita Chiranjeevanam" - 'Ashwathama, King Mahabali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Kripacharya and Parashurama are the seven immortals. These immortals came in Bhikshu form to the naming ceremony and named Him as Kalki. Jai Bolo Kalki Narayana Swami Ki Jai As the child is growing up, His father hinted the child the real intention of his incarnation. One day Vishnu yasassu sat with Kalki and informed Him the horrendous and dreadful circumstances prevailing in this Kali eon. He said, “Kalki you have incarnated to bring about a change in these circumstances.” Kalki obediently agreed to father and decided to follow it. In Bhagavatam, it is told that God incarnates with freedom and forgetful of the fact that He is in Vaikutha, and incarnates on earth. Otherwise He cannot dwell with us. He would continue to be beyond comprehension and we can neither see Him nor understand Him. This is the reason why Sri Sadguru also comes down to our level to speak to us, so that we can understand Him. Thus He is called avatar or incarnation as He comes down to our level and speaks to us. Generally everyone wants to go higher and higher and are not willing to come down to lower level. But Sadguru, being the form of love and affection, comes down for the devotees and disciples and gives upadesha. Teaching alphabets to children requires a lot of patience. Showing patience, the parents encourage children to learn as teaching children at their level would be futile. Instead of showing off His knowledge, the real teacher would come down to the level of the student and teach him. This is the real quality of a teacher. Persisting with patience, one day the student will understand and learn. Sadguru also takes so much strain and teaches us. Sri Swamiji speaks in a simple language so that all can understand Him. Kalki enacted forgetfulness until His father made Him remember His real intention of incarnation. Kalki agreed and made a determination in His mind. The parents of Kalki conducted the thread ceremony of Him. The main intention of the thread ceremony is that the father comforts the child, makes the child sit in his lap and does upadesha to the child while covering their heads with a cloth. The major purpose of upadesha here is to fill the child with knowledge and this should be the main intention of parents. After the thread ceremony, the parents wanted to send Kalki to school for further education. Just as Kalki stepped out of His house to go to Guru kula, Parashurama stood in His way. Parashurama was angry. At times, anger appears to be good. But only enactment of anger is good. It should not enter in your heart. Your heart should be ever pleasant. Shiva is worshipped as “Natitha Rosha”. Shiva enacts anger during the Great Dissolution, but after the Great Dissolution Shiva is smiling and is peaceful. How did this become possible for Shiva? It became possible only because Shiva enacted anger and He did not let it go into the heart. He dressed Himself with anger only for the cause of Great dissolution, which is His work. We must learn this from Shiva and practice this. God enacts anger only for our welfare just as we enact anger to our child on his refusal to go to school. It is difficult to understand God’s plan. Parashurama says to Kalki, “Shiva is my Guru, I have learned from Him. I will give all I have learned and you don’t have to go to school for this.” Parashurama transfers the knowledge to Kalki, tells him that He has to learn more, and asks Him to worship Shiva. Kalki worshiped Shiva. In a short time Shiva gave darshan and gave Kalki a horse which is as capable as Garuda. Shiva said to Kalki that in this Kali eon you need to travel all over the earth, and this horse will serve this purpose of yours. The name of the horse is Gaaruda. Shiva gave a parrot named Sarvagna. This parrot keeps Kalki Swami updated about all the happenings in the world. Maybe this is the reason why Sri Swamiji is rearing parrots to relieve us from the problems of Kali eon. Shiva also gave Kalki a gem-studded sword just as Lord Venkateshwara has Nandaka sword. Annamayya is born with the instance of Nandaka sword. He cuts down our ignorance with His divine Knowledge. Kalki adorned the Gaaruda, let the parrot Sarvagna sit on His shoulder, held the sword and travelled to Mahishmati puram. His incarnation leela started by blessing a devotee called Vishakhayupudu. He blessed the devotee and came back to His parents. It is a customary for Mother Lakshmi to go along with Vishnu incarnation. She is surely present at all places where Lord Vishnu is remembered. It is often said that one should keep body, mind, and environment clean because it prompts Mother Lakshmi to reside there. When we sweep off the dust out of the house then "Daridra Lakshmi" goes away and paves way to Maha Lakshmi Mata. We must lit a lamp near Gods idol and believe the lamp to be Mother Lakshmi’s form. Mother Lakshmi incarnated as Padmavathy, as daughter of Bhradrathudu in Simhala country. Padmavathy worshipped Shiva, Shiva appeared in a brief time and gave her a much needed protective boon in this Kali. The boon stated that anyone who sees Padmavathy with romantic vision or bad vision, they will turn into women instantaneously. Shiva gave the protective boon due to the horrendous thinking minds of Kali people. Parents should teach their children. Until you get married, you must see women in the light of motherhood only. Once you get married, you can show all your love and affection on your wife. This should be taught to both son and daughter. You should further tell him that following this principle you will not have confusions, will get good education, and a lot of goodness will be bestowed on you. Parents must encourage and tell children to read Ramayana, Bhagavatam, and Maha Bharatha, and to inculcate good behavior and qualities and practice them. Telling children that reading Ramayana will bestow merit on them, will not serve much of purpose. Tell that reading Ramayana will help you to differentiate between Rama and Ravana. They should behave like Rama and not like Ravana. Merit will come on its own. Prostrations will surely earn merit only when the mind is clean. Prostrating with polluted mind will not earn merit. Normally children from the villages are employed as child labor. You must help children from villages to get educated. Education and knowledge are more important than food. We can survive without food for a day, but without knowledge we cannot survive. The life without knowledge is wasted life. Transforming education as business has proved a destructive world. This knowledge travels with us to future births. Change should start from us. It should be practiced, and not just talked about. There is limit for everything, but for service there is no limit. Service is available as much as you do. Coming back to the story. The heart of Mother Padmavathy was a bit worried, thinking of the consequences of the Shiva's boon to her. Because of this boon, the punishment is the same for both intentional and unintentional mistake. Compassion is womanhood. That is a women's heart. The parrot Sarvagna came to know that Mother Lakshmi incarnation as Padmavathy. She traveled to Simhala country, met Padmavathy, and told her all the things. The parrot introduced himself as a messenger of Kalki. Mother Lakshmi said that even though you are a messenger of Vishnu, you don’t possess Vishnu devotion. Padmavathy initiated parrot into Vishnu devotion. Parrots are quick graspers and learners. After listening to the devotional discourse by mother Padmavathy, the parrot informed to mother Padmavathy that Vishnu, of Whom she just had spoken, has incarnated as Kalki. The parrot pleaded mother Padmavathy to meet Kalki and marry Him. Sarvagna came back to Kalki and told Him the message of mother Padmavathy that she is ready to marry Him. Kalki hopped on to the horse Gaaruda and came to the place Karunipuram and rested there. Padmavathy mata came there, offered pranams to Kalki, and enquired his opinion. Padmavathy mata told her father Bruhadratha that Maha Vishnu has incarnated as Kalki. She herself is Maha Lakshmi and asked him to get them married. Bruhadratha himself being knowledgeable, readily agreed. The divine marriage took place at the shore of the Reva river. All the demi-gods and Gods attended in subtle forms. Bruhadratha was happy that His life was blessed. Indra got a mansion built by Vishwaksena in Shabala village. Kalki resided there for long time along with Padmavathy. One day Kalki went for a sea bath. During that bath, He saw a fox who wanted to cross the sea. Normally many animals are afraid of water, but here this fox is trying to cross the sea. Kalki makes a determination. His victorious journey starts from here. He first freezes the sea and then went on to kill the first demon Jinudu. Jai Bolo Kaliki Swami Ki Jai A Mleccha is the one who is non-Vedic and barbarian. They are those people who do not believe in God, who are not compassionate, kind or righteous. These people always trouble and pain others. Kalki Swami incarnated to kill these people. From here He went to Naimisharanya and killed the demoness called Khuthodhari, who is causing trouble to Valakhilya Rishis. Rama incarnated to protect and instill dharma in this world. He went to Lanka and killed Ravana. Similarly Kalki is prayed to protect, instill dharma, and establish kruta eon in Kali eon in this world. Then Kalki Swami kills the demons Koka and Vikoka. For some reasons Kalki confronted Shashidwaja and war happened. But on the prayer of his wife Shushanta, a devotee of Kalki, Kalki pardoned Shashidwaja. Kalki did upadesha to Shashidwaja and let him go. Shashidwaja got the blessings of Kalki. Kalki finally gave salvation to Shashidwaja. Kalki Swami travelled all over the world in due course and sowed the seeds of devotion, killed all the unrighteous people and thus saved the world . Jai Bolo Maha Vishnu Swamiki Jai. Kalki Swami again continued His victory voyage. He redeemed Vishakanya and send her to heaven. Kalki Swami prayed maya and started yagnas in Sambhala village. The incarnation of Kalki was never to punish alone. Punishment was used as a tool to reform and encourage people to tread on the path of righteousness. Kalki gave a chance to people to participate in good deeds like charity of food, clothes and knowledge sharing during yagna. He further blessed that Sambhala village will be the pivotal point of the world. He gave salvation to His father Vishnuyassasu. Meanwhile He married Ramadevi. Brahma and others informed Him that it is time for redemption of incarnation. Kalki along with His wives Padmavathy and Ramadevi went to take a bath in Ganga River. Kalki went to His abode along with His wives. Kalki Swami went to His abode just as Rama went to Vaikuntha bathing in Sarayu river. This is how Kalki protected earth and living beings in Kali yuga. According to the order of Kalki Swami, Maru and Devapuru ruled and protected this earth by ruling as kings. Knowing that Visnhu went to His abode, they ruled the kingdom. The major sankalpa of Kalki to establish Kruta eon in Kali eon is fulfilled. Some of the kings went to Badarika ashram and did penance for the benefit of the world. Then the creation again began. God again incarnated as Nara and Narayana rushis. This cycle goes on eternally. We must pray that the cycle should continue like this. We must learn truth, dharma and the power of discrimination between the permanent and temporary things. Installing this decision in our mind is very important. Only then we will see the permanent thing. Then we will only see truth. Then we will practice dharma. Then we will earn the blessing of Sadguru and lead our life peacefully. God being omnipresent, is saving all beings. This is the truth. Knowing Him should be the ultimate goal of human life. We should know the truth, remember it and practice it. We shall pray Him. Listening to the story of Kalki’s incarnation will bestow us good age, fame, heaven, and a blessed life. It removes our sins and sorrows. This story of Kalki will keep us awake and will help us to be free of Kali’s grip. It gives happiness and salvation and fulfills all our desires. If we pray to Ganga, we will get the merit of praising Kalki. All the Gods are there in the water. Water is the main constituent of life. All those who take water into their hands, be it tap water, rain water, or bottle water, just chant Ganga Ganga Ganga and sprinkle the water on your head Kalki God will stay in your house and protect you from Kali problems. A devotee is making an agreement with God. I am praying You for making this life purposeful and not for acquiring the fame of being the best among the humans, give me such luck. I am praying You only for salvation. Give me salvation. It is very difficult, so please bless me with it. Listening to God’s glories is very good. It gives merit and also cleanses the mind. Sri Guru Datta