So I was asked a question: “I had a death in my family. Is it okay to do the prayer?” Yes, its okay to do the prayer because this is your appointment with God. The person who died has gone. He had his appointment already. I was saying to someone earlier this morning, there's a Tamil word called 'tithu' (tee-too). It means 'filth'. So, when the baby is born, the baby and the mother can't go to the temple because its 'tithu'. And then when the same child dies, the mother is not allowed in the temple again because it's tithu. So when you born it's filth; when you die it's filth. When were you clean? You were never clean, according to that principal. There is no such thing. If you made this appointment today with God, keep that appointment. So, I'm going to tell a quick true story. In 1991, I had an appointment with God and my appointment with God was to carry kavady on a specific Sunday at a place called Glendale Heights in Stanger. On the Tuesday my father passed on. On the Wednesday we cremated my father. Everyone jumped on me, “You can't carry kavady, you don't know what will happen to you. Your whole family will be destroyed”. And I said to them that I still have the appointment with God. I went to Glendale Heights, carried the kavady, took the pins I was supposed to be taking, and twenty years later my family is still together. Please just believe in one thing: if you keep your appointment with God nothing will affect you.
Recently there was a death in the family of one of our devotees. I was in India – the father died – and then the son used to come to the temple for service. We said to the son that he must do the Navagraha and his mother said that the father died so they can't do it. But two weeks after the father died, the son went to the chalets with his wife to have fun. If you can go to the chalets and have fun then you should be able to come to the pooja and have fun too. So don't believe all these things. Many of us do and get into trouble. Your appointment with God must be kept, no matter what the condition. At birth that father made a date with God for his death, so why mustn't you pray? There's nothing wrong, really, nothing wrong; because when you die, when you leave this body, this body is the most useless thing there is. Even the creatures, the worms that live in you, will come out because they know it's useless; they don't want it. So if it's so useless, why are we giving it so much preference in life? The body is only the vehicle. What the vehicle carries is most important and that must be always in the purest state. Atma Sudaleni – it shouldn't be in any other state. And once it is in the purest state, it means we are not contaminating the soul with anger, violence, brutality, lust selfishness – all the faculties that affect us. And if we don't have those faculties, the spiritual university, your body, will funciton without a problem. You need to enjoy that. It is very, very important to enjoy it.
Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “The best union, the best joy, the best happiness, is with Me so come to me”. He says it clearly in the Bhagavad Gita. When Krisna said that, he meant God. Don't get caught up in fanatical behaviour when you come here, and say that Krisnha is more powerful than Shiva, or Shiv is more powerful than Ram. You'll never get anywhere.
Yesterday I said that Shivabalayogi taught that Christ and Shiva are the same, They are just called different names according to our perception - and you need to enjoy this beatitude. Just as taking drugs gives you as taste of ecstasy for, maybe, one hour. Think about being drugged in his name. Your ecstasy will be continuous. And right now the easiest name to attain God is by Ram Nam, God's name. No other way. Whether you are Christian, Moslem, Hindu; a-hundred-and-one gods you've got, hold onto one and recite their name. If you can't do that, your guru's name is equal to God's name. Guru is God and God is Guru. Guruve Shivam, Shivam Guruve. And if you understand that, you won't have a day's problem. Everything will happen the way it should happen.
You know, the Gayathri miracle is unique, and we have seated here some of the miracles of Mother Gayathri. It can make the blind see, the crippled walk and the sick well. Those are Gayathri miracles. But for it to happen, you need to be one hundred percent in tune with Gayathri. Between 1993 and 1999, was the worst period in my life, when I say the worst period, I could not sleep, or take a moment's sleep because this Gayathri Mantra, Gayathri name was flooding me over and over, was drowning me. That's all I could think of. Not the family or food, only Gayathri, Gayathri, Gayathri. And in 1998, She said to me, “This is enough. This is enough. To recite or to mention the name fifteen million times is enough. Now you can do what you want in my name”. And I tried. It worked.
You know, some of you are very young here in the Gayathri Peedam. We've had Poovi here for almost sixteen years. She's come all the way from Johannesburg to do this prayer. She does it every year and why? Because she's found the glory of Gayathri. She'll tell you. Same with her husband. Found the glory and lived in the glory. They have two beautiful children all in Her name. If you believe that the way I believe, Suren believes, Shobha and others of you believe, that the Mother is the only one that will sustain you, hold onto that belief. A single unit of innate desire is all that you need. It must be boiling in you, this name of God, and you will attain. You will receive. It will happen. It has to happen. Nothing in this whole universe is possible, not even the dew on a blade of grass is possible without God's name. The dew on the blade of grass is because of Him, not because of anybody else. No scientist can give you the dew. But He's made the dew on a selected blade of grass. Only the Lord can make that possible. Hang on to that.
Today we're going to do a pooja called a Chandra Meru Pooja. You'll see just now how this will elevate you. You'll feel so good, and the power is going to be experienced by all of you. We're starting with this pooja first … the most beautiful thing in life is His name.
We're going to have Appaji here on the sixteenth. My definition of Appaji is 'God-man'. When you see him you'll understand why. Kumarasen was with me when we visited Appaji and we didn't want to leave. Speak to Kumaresan and he'll tell you what it is to be at the feet at Appaji, to eat at the ashram, sit on the floor, how Appaji just watches over everything. So speak to Kumarasen when you have the chance and he'll really tell you how he felt at Appaji's ashram - and enjoy.
The power of Yoni Mudra, Maha Mudra is very important. For you to know what we have just done – it was because of my disability in my right hand, those mudras are very difficult for me to do, so I got Karl to do the mudras for me, and in the process of doing the mudras, he's absorbed so much energy from the lingam seated on the kalsa, and therefore, without us losing any of the energy, we used a shawl over his head so we could release him from that energy lock he was going through. It is nothing frightening or dangerous, but you need to be mentally strong to go through what Karl went through. Some of you seated here would have had a severe headache. It is called 'the shift'. Some of you would have experienced your eyes burning, and some nothing happens - it's called 'no shift'. So this is the first part of the prayer. When you've finished with that, we'll just do the hawan for this prayer and then carry on with the other part of the Navagraha. If you have any mala or beads that you want blessed, just leave them here by the lingam.
Download an MP3 excerpt from this talk, Keep Your Appointment with God.
