Today is Shivabalayogi's mahasamadhi. Actually it's on Sunday but it's very difficult to get you all here again on Sunday. It's a problem so we do it today. So, something about Shivabalayogi: he was a great saint, a self-taught saint who spent twelve years meditating. During that time every day he took a one-hour break - so for twenty-three hours a day he was meditating. He meditated on Lord Shiva continuously. After twelve years Shiva told him to leave his meditation and start passing on his energy to everyone.The uniqueness of Shivabalayogi was that he gave God-realisation just by meditation. He did not do any kind of ritual. He just said 'dhynam' - that means meditate. And while meditating people would have an inner feeling of great peace and bliss. 'Shiva' is lord, the inner guru, God. 'Yogi' is the outer guru, that is your physical body. Why he used 'Shivabalayogi' for his name is because you've got to have control of the outer body before you can have control of the inner self. He believed, taught and gave experiences to many just by meditation and they attained the state of unique oneness with Lord Shiva. He's not a very popular guru because most of his work was done in Spain. One of his biggest ashrams was in Spain. Sometimes he is referred to as a direct incarnation of Lord Shiva Himself. And this great guru travelled all the way to Sri Lanka with a piece of loin cloth around his waist to install a lingam at the Gayatrhi Lingeshwara temple in Nuwara Eliya. And this lingam in Sri Lanka is actually growing into the shape of Ganesha.
Shivabalayogi carried it all the way himself. That's a picture of him carrying the lingam to Nuwara Eliya to install. He came out of meditation in 1961 so he's a recent guru for some of you who were around during that time. And when you asked him a question he always gave unique answers like this one question a student asked him: “With all the Hindu pictures of Shiva, do we assume Shiva is a Hindu?” his answer was “Shiva is not Hindu. He is for all the worlds but in each world he is pictured according to their imagination. It depends on their moods and emotions.”
Another question: “In India there are a lot of gods that people can worship if you are of the Hindu faith. In the west, as Swamiji's mission goes on, is it that people in the west sfrom a Christian tradition will begin to worship Jesus more?” And he answers, “Whatever Christ taught and preached, that's exactly what Swamiji teaches and preaches. So automatically people will start believing more in Christ and will follow the path of Christ.”
That is Shivabalayogi and his answers. So we will do the pooja and the hawan now. And we'll take it from there.
CONTINUATION OF DISCOURSE AFTER THE POOJA ...
There's somebody whose travelled to India and had some experiences. Between the two of them they will decide who will tell you about India. It's good for people who come back from India to tell you how they felt, whether they will go back, or whether they love or hate India.
[Kantha gives a talk on her visit to India – not included here]
SWAMI CONTINUES ...
My divine desire is to take each of you by the hand to India. The places we go to other people don't go. It's enlightening. The kavadies are all ready for you. Everything is done so methodically and, yes, Vee was having a problem with his knee and he said to me in the bus, “Do they have a cable car?”I said “Yes,” and he said “I'll take the cable car”. And when we got there he just followed Kantha and the music, and he didn't know how he had reached the top. He had no pain and walked all the way back and couldn't believe that he went up there. This is the divine power that you can get in India, and Palani is very unique because there's a swami there who is three hundred years old. He describes how the temple was being built and knows every detail about the Palani temple. We can barely see fifty years and here is a man of three hundred years. He doesn't eat. I had the opportunity of meeting him just once, but if you're lucky you can have darshan from this great individual.
And then the Shiva temple at Coimbatore is also unique, and where you feel the energy of the lingam when you go into the mercury tank - and you must understand this: once before I said this and everybody understood it wrongly. Women have different times than men. One hour is for women, one is for men and so on, alternating. The women go and change into a gown – take all their clothes off – and it's done separately. They enter the water in the gown. The last time I said this, some people stopped coming to the temple. They thought I took them to a nudist camp in Sandy Bay. It's done separately and you really enjoy the energy. Coimbatore, Palani and Sidambaram will always be on my itinerary. Some of the temples were built three thousand years ago and they're huge. There's a temple that has grounds as big as Verulam, and on that is the temple. So, some day all of you can come with me and enjoy – it's not about going here and going there – it's about enjoying the energies that come past while you do this pilgrimage, and you know some of the things that the Hindus do might look silly.
So I told the two couples that came with, that they should tie a knot on their string and they asked me what for. I told them it was so they could have a baby. Both the couples tied the knot and both the wives are now expecting. This is the unique power of going to India. Many of us will go to India, to our guru, like I go to Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya, I have not been to Sri Giri yet. It's the most beautiful place to be in where the Buddhists built a camp up the mountain – but I've never been there because I used to go straight to my guru. Sometimes we think we don't need to do anything else but many things can give you blessings. So sometime I hope all of you have the opportunity of joining me in India and you'll see also many things about me that you don't see here. You'll learn from that as well.
Just to remind you, on Sunday we have a meeting at 10am. It's a very important meeting so if you're available please come. Tomorrow is Maha Navagraha and if you come here at two o'clock – in the afternoon – you can join the Navagraha.
Do you have any questions? Okay if you don't have questions we'll just do aarthi now.
Hari Om.
CONVERSATION CONTINUED AFTER AARTHI
Because of the way the moon was in saturn in many of your houses, astrologically, and when that happens the affects of the moon is the greatest, malefic. Seventy percent of you seated here are affected which means even if something is working out for you at the moment, come the seventh or eighth of April, it will slip out of your hands. That is how bad it is.
If you have people in your family who are not well, it's guaranteed there will be a death. The transition when the moon is so strong in Saturn and moving into your house, is definitely a problem. You may be thinking, 'But theres only twelve houses and we're not all in one house...'. There are also lords, sub-lords and sub-sub-lords in Vedic Astrology. For example, in Cancer you may have a lord, Mars, a sub-lord, Mars and a sub-sub-lord, Mars. Others may have Saturn, Mars, Saturn. That structure is what we worry about and many of us seated here, over sixty percent of you, will see the affect. When it moves into your house it stays there for no less than eighteen years. You don't want to go that route. So that's where the numbers come from. Just now I was looking at where Saturn is in your house. Saturn is Sani. Very interesting when you get to the astrology, but very complicated. Theres an exception to every rule, so that makes it difficult and you don't know whether to use the exception or the rule. Just to be safe, I only use the rule.
So today I had a young man come here with his mother, wife and daughter - Jagadambal's contact – they came all the way from Chatsworth. When anyone is your wife's contact, men now, just drop everything and do that. You'll have peace for the whole week. So his words were, 'so I did this nonsense everywyere. How is your Navagraha different from all the other Navagrahas?'
'Mine is not nonsense,' was my answer. 'Do it if you want.' And he carried on and then I remembered that his aunt, his mother's sister, came here many years ago and I told her that at the age of eighteen, her son would die in an accident. He drowned at the age of eighteen. I asked the boy if he remembered his cousin and told him that I predicted his death. Then I told this young man that he would have cancer of the liver and have no pancreas left. I said, 'You'll be going with ten bags hanging, one for every organ in your body, by the time you're forty-two'. He froze. 'When can I start the prayer?' He said.
I'm a victim of planets, I used to tell people that if God wanted me to pray to Him He would have kept me up there by His feet. I was penniless, I could not buy food for my children. Reality hit me and I we went to a priest in Pietermaritzburg and he said to me, 'I feel very sorry for you. For eighteen years you are stuck.' I asked him the easiest way to get out of it and he told me to change my name. I thought he was stupid. In the rush I dropped the bucket of abishekam water from his pooja all over the back seat of the car while I was swearing at him. I came home and had a bath with the little bit of water left. I was thinking that maybe I should give him a chance so I changed my name to what the guru gave me. Ever since, my life has gone from good to better. I can't complain. I have no complaints. I don't have an abundance of money but I'm not starving. From there I learned, and that is why I do the prayer exactly like that guru. Understand?
If any of you don't believe, it won't work. You must have a single, innate desire to do anything. It mustn't have any confusion, any choices. It must be a single, innate desire to do it and know that it has to work. But if you don't have that single, focused desire, nothing's gonna work. You know if you don't know what chocolate you want you'll stand in front of the Cadbury's counter. Will you make a decision? No. You'll say, 'This is nice, I'll take this one. No, leave this, I'll take this one...' But if you walked into the shop with a sigle desire to buy a Top-deck, you won't look at the other chocolates. You had a single thought, a single desire and you got your Top-deck. You won't go and get Jelly Tots. Prayer is like that and God is like that. You must have that single, innate desire for God. But you can't have that because you have too many choices in life.
Another examle I always find amusing. When Lynne is here, Mellisa is ready to be picked up fromwork and Lynne asks, 'Which car must I use?' Just take the first key. If a car is by the gate why use the one by the fence. We don't have focus. So I always smile because that's where cofusion sets in. So, have the desire for God. Some of us are lucky … I experienced God at the age of fourteen. Not everyone can do that. But when I look at Yastil and Ashveer, I can show them God because they are at the right age. I can't take Jane 'cause she's got too many things in her head: her husband, her children, her dog Lucy. See how many things? This is why some of you seated here you are most fortunate that your children can know God at an early age. You are all past the stage. For you to adjust is virtually impossible. When you have a small argument, you go and sit in Sibaya Casino. I dont know what peace Sibaya can give. Come and sit in the ashram. But you'll go to Sibaya, Suncoast or the Wildcoast. Whatever. Why do we do that when we can come and sit here and enjoy this oneness with God? I find that across the board. There's no excepton here, that we are becoming lazy. We are really becoming lazy. If we sit on the couch or settee we sit put there – its our comfort zone. The reality of life is always you must be able to get up and get your own coffee. The show is over. But if u sit on the couch, the coffee comes to you, 'Ma bring the coffee!' Once we're in that comfort zone we won't want to get up. Settees and lazy-boys make you lazy. So we need to come out of this comfort zone that we are in where everything comes to us - and start living in reality.
And what is reality? Reality is to get up and get your coffee. That is reality because you have an awareness. Do you think you have awareness when you're watching TV and they're bringing the coffee to you. You dont even know you're drinking it. We need a wake up call. We have become extremely lazy. I'm not going to pick on it, I'm tired of going that route. Wen eed to wake up! We are very lazy and we're finding excuses for every little thing – and once we have the excuse and see it's working, we use it all the time because I don't question it. I'm sure many of you have gathered that I don't question much these days. If you want to leave, I nod my head. If you don't want to come to the prayer, I nod my head. Your whole life has become a nod. Very few words come out - it doesn't need thought. And we are losing God in the same manner. We don't know if we are saying yes or no anymore. We don't know what it means anymore.
You know 1969 saw the beginning of a most powerful and great organisation, the Sathya Sai organisation. I remember clearly because I was still in secondary school. There was this bread that was multiplying – roti – like a wrap. It used to multiply on its own. Take a piece and give it to somebody and it used to multiply. Somebody from the University of South Africa by the name of Professor Sony, did a test on this bread and he gave some scientific explanation to why it multiplies. What I'm coming to tell you is – was that needed? The fact that God is there, it has to multiply, no matter how scientific you can get. If god decides it's not going to multiply then it's not going to multiply. Like you buy seed in the shop and some of them don't grow.
So, the message went to Sathya Sai Baba. Do you know what his answer was? 'See God in the bread'. He never answered anything more. Then, many years later in the recent past, Ganesha murthis were drinking milk. The same university professor investigated and said the granite was porous so it was absorbing milk in the heat. I have not seen porous granite yet. And if granite was pourous it wouldn't be so heavy. So, when that story came out I said 'Let's try that in our ashram'. I put one teaspoon of milk to the mouth of the brass Ganesha murthi and the milk disappeared. I told Ashok to try - he's thinking that I'm pourning it and its going into my clothes. So he tried it and the milk disappeared. Why did it work? Because we believe that God is in that brass. The beauty of the Hindu culture is that we can call anything God. No other religion in the world can take anything and call it God. It's the only religion that looks at light and makes it God. A Hindu will draw something and make that something God and thousands will follow.
So, like that, if we have such powerful forms of worship why can't we get one of those into ourselves and call it God? Spirituality is the ultimate simplicity. Theres nothing more simple than that. We complicate it.We complicate our whole life. We don't look like the people we're supposed to be. So we're sitting in a Gayathri hawan, from six in the morning to six in the evening, and this aunty is sitting where there's maximum fire, and I'm sitting watching. There was something wrong with this aunty – in all the heat her foundation was dripping, dripping. Behind that was the reality. We mask reality by our thoughts, by the thousand sons of the blind king. Because we mask the reality we cannot get to the reality. Whenever you mask, you're going to change the way things look. Look at it from within.
Today Roy and Jagadambal accidentally got some secrets of life. Both of them were sitting in a discussion and something came out that shouldn't have come out but they don't even know what I'm talking about. We dont' know God when we meet God. We'll never know God when we meet God. Simple as that. You know why? We're not trained to do that. And if somebody wants to train they'll have to reorganise everything inside their head. Throw some out. And that they can't do. Throwing out is no good, so they want to keep it in.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Okay. Any of you got questions? You must have questions all the time – that is the journey. If you don't have questions you're not on the journey. You can't learn. Theres nobody that knows it all. Nobody.
Question: Gurudev, in death many people will find peace. Why then, when people are very ill and they're on death's bed, prayer or certain rituals are done to prevent the person from dying?
Swami Answers: I think it's the other way around, no? There's no way anyone can prevent anyone from dying. Not even a doctor but there's a ritual they can do so that the soul leaves the body quickly. In the Guruda Puranas there's a story. When death comes, nothing - no doctor, no specialist - will be able to stop it. Let me give you ane xample. The God of death is called Yamaraja. He looks exactly like Lord Shiva, but a very dark form. He's very jovial, not as stern as everybody makes him. And he comes into the room and stands there, waits for the right moment as though there's a signal from upstairs. And when the time is up he just exists your soul and takes it. But you must understand also that, only if you have a strong perception will you be able to see what Yamaraja looks like. Many of you have lost loved ones and when they are critically sick they are talking to someone. That means they've already gone into the level where they can communicate with those gone before them. Tammy has experienced many of these things with me – as we walked out of a home, I would give her a time at which time the soul would go, half an hour or forty-five minutes – but you need to know God, be with God, and understand God to understand all this. So, yes, he comes. These people see him and talk to him before they die. They tell you lots of stories.
Question: Before the person passes on does he or she know they are going to go?
Swami Answers: Yes. Up to fifteen minutes before they will know – even people who are not spiritual. I'll give you an example: Tammys granny got up, not sick. She had a bath, prayed went and laid in the bed and died. They know. Your kundalini becomes very active at that time so everything opens up, your perception and connection with God. Kundalini is very edgy when your soul is leaving yoru body. The people are aware of all these things.
Question: Is there such a thing as accidental death?
Swami Answers: Yes, there is. That's how we get wandering souls – the time was not right so they linger around the area they died, like Highway Sheila, and for many years sometimes. These things also I've seen. Once they were sitting in the car, Tammy and my aunt – I'll tell you where it is. You know Tongaat, the overhead bridge? Right there. We were coming down this way to Verulam, Mountview, to my brother-in-law's house, at about ten or eleven o'clock at night, when we saw a beautiful girl hiking on the road. I was driving and my eye looked down to see if she had any legs. And she didn't have any feet, she was just floating so I carried on driving. My aunt, who was in the back, also saw it and when we arrived at my brother-in-law's house she said it was a ghost and she didn't want to go back that way. There are many like that.
I'll tell u another story. Siva, who used to work in the bank, told us that he had an accident but there was no other car involved. He was the only car. There was a big bang and his car was pushed into the ditch – no dent in the car. At the same spot. But they don't trouble you.
One day, in this house here some years ago, I was lying in bed upstairs, Tammy and them went somewhere – she wasn't there. I was still awake, thinking, and I saw a lady standing by the door. Her hair was long and she was looking at me. I looked away thinking it was my mind playing tricks. Then looked back and she was still there. I knew she wasn't there to harm anyone. If my wife and children see herthey will be terrified. Sometimes, when you're upstairs you'll hear somebody opening the drawers in the kitchen, then come downstairs and there's nobody there. So who's staying here tonight?
Download MP3 file of Swami singing Shivabalayogi Om
