March 7, 2015
Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji - Mahalakshmi Jayanthi - March 7, 2015 - SDVT Mysore
Mahalakshmi Vratam was performed today and the Mahalakshmi Stotram was chanted several times. Abhishekam and other rituals also took place, all during the same time as the Bhagavatam Parayana is taking place in Vishnu sannidhi. I have paused during the recording of the important Puranjana story. Kala Purusha had come. Puranjana prayed to Goddess Mahalakshmi. Thereafter, he took another birth to get liberation.
Only because of an accumulation of great past merit, this great opportunity has come to you to participate in this celebration. In this Kali yoga, nothing else seems to be significant in the lives of many, except only birth, naming ceremony, diseases, operations, house, family, body pleasures, quarrels, and that is all. Pain and disease.
We think the body is God. We do everything only to pamper the body. No pain should come to the body. No insult should be suffered by the body, people think. To body all services are rendered. Obsessed with the body, people waste their lives. Their only foolish regrets are that no house was built, or no son was born to them. People keep dying. We forget them very soon. We quarrel with those who are living. We do not change. People ask why Guru does not change them. No guru can change their mindset. Karma has to be experienced. Only effective way is to offer prayer to God that whatever may happen, be it birth, death, disease, or operation, only God must be remembered always. Prayer offered to any favorite God, be it to Ganapathi, Krishna, Rama, Siva, Subrahmanya, Surya of Mother Goddess, all prayers offered to any God, reach the one and only Paramatman, the Almighty. One must pray to be raised to His level. He is born as a normal person as Guru and sets an example on how to live, going through all pains, sufferings, injuries, and insults and shows how to handle crises and situations. Insult or outside injury, surrender all only to the God within. Surrender all to God.
People become egotistical and arrogant either about their wealth, their beauty, their power, their knowledge, their family, or their lineage, all of which are actually related only to the body. Such egotism and superior feelings have no basis whatsoever. Such feelings are harmful and will draw the person away from spiritual awakening.
My body is not mine. This you must realize. My wife and kids are not mine. In ignorance I suffer. Identifying with body, I suffer. Whether knowing the truth about one's true identity, or not knowing, karma has to be endured. Pray only for constant remembrance of God. You do not have to speak out loud about your prayers. Pray internally. This applies not just for men, or women, or children, but to all living beings. No matter what happens, pray. Pray for devotion. There is no release from this otherwise. Taking another birth is not a solution. If you are born again you go through the same cycle again and go through the same ignorance and suffering. Even those who perform Yajnas, great rituals, acquire great scholarship, still, in spite of obtaining the great sannidhi of a great guru, still are ignorant and cheat and lie. With the magnitude of deception that goes on among humans, Maya/illusion which deludes us, itself will be surprised at man's capacity for deceit. She will run away in shame that her power of delusion falls short of man's tendency to dupe others. It is impossible to rescue them.
Spider-Man oozes out of himself the web and swallows it again. This creation, similarly, comes out of our own minds. Insects are caught in the web, the spider gives injection to *** out the blood out of them and then eats up the web that it creates. I don't feel like removing the beautiful cobwebs. But my duty is to keep my home and my pathway clean. It is my dharma to do so. We have to keep our place clean to protect our own health. We destroy the spider's home. It has to build its web elsewhere. In our kitchen it builds. It does not know. The cleaner who removes the cobwebs does not incur sin. In the wild, in the forests where the insects live, we have no right to destroy their homes. That is not our business. We sweep the floor. So many ants die. We need to protect ourselves.
Some actions are our dharma. We must remain within our dharma. We must not transgress. We must know the line between Dharma and Adharma. We have pains, all kinds of pains, joint pains. Get treatment. But do not blame karma. Our own bad deeds of the past come to us now as bad karma. We must accept the punishment for our past sins.
In getting treatment, be sure to not harm another person. In Rajasthan another person's blood is drawn and his life is sacrificed to save a rich man's life who suffers from paralysis. That is not just. Do not complain that you did this vrata and that charity and yet your troubles have not vanished. You must not perform rituals and austerities expecting rewards. That is wrong. Lakshmi grants health. She gives Knowledge. She shows you a good Guru. You should simply pray.
Hanuman Vrata also we are doing, the 130 crore times chanting of Hanuman Chalisa. Please continue to chant. Puranjana's story I must continue now in the Bhagavatam episodes, when I return to the recording studio.
Sri Guru Datta