The Purpose of Life

Hari Om

What is our purpose in life? What is the purpose of life? Why do you think that we are born here like this? What is the reason for this? If you go to the Bible, Matthew chapter 8 verses 21 and 22 answers that question very clearly and very distinctly.

“Another disciple said to him, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father'. But Jesus told him, 'Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Let the dead bury their own dead. That is the answer to life. Who are these dead people? These are the people that are dead to the spiritual journey, the spiritual life. In your idea dead people cannot bury dead people. They are dead to spirituality. So the purpose of life is to know God in the Bible, to know Jesus and to know the journey.

If you go to the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna continuously emphasises more than 108 times, “Just surrender will give you that state of eternal joy”. What is that state? No worry. No pain. No sorrow. That is the point of eternal joy. Many of us think the purpose of eternal life is to be complete. Get, married, have children, have some money in the bank and then die. When you take a life where we just eat, sleep and die, That is only for the lower forms of creatures. This creature is an intelligent creature. It has in its system something called logic, justification, justice. You are not the lower creature; you are the higher creature. Many times in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says “Surrender, surrender, surrender,” and he goes further in this purpose of life. He doesn't stop there. He starts by telling us of gnana yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga. He's giving you all the yogas, and in the end he gives the yoga of the self. “Surrender to me, then you will attain the state of bliss.”

But we are caught up in this accumulation of wealth. We are caught up in this race where we now have this distrust of everybody. If somebody said something to you, you always confirm with somebody else if it happened or not. You are living in the state of distrust, not only in the ashram, but at home, in your marriage, work, school. We have this constant turmoil within us and this is what Jesus is referring to when he says, “Let the dead bury the dead”. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “You should not grieve for the dead. You should not have any pain or sorrow when somebody dies. You should be joyous. Enjoy this life but enjoy it with me. Enjoy it with the Lord on the spiritual journey. Once you do that, life for you can be termed bliss and that becomes the purpose of this life.

What's the point if God gave you intelligence and you don't use it the way you should? You use it only for accumulation – of children, clothes, property, wealth and money. We do not use our intelligence to accumulate spiritual knowledge, and spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can give you spiritual joy. There's no pain in spiritual knowledge. On the material plane everything is painful. We live a very mundane life. We get up in the morning, we do the same things seven days a week 365 days a year. We don't change. When I say 'same thing' I mean we get up, brush our teeth, get our bag, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, get up, do the same thing again. We have this automation in our system. We don't think any more. We are so accustomed to our routine. Yet every day in the spiritual journey is a magnificent day. Always happiness, different kinds of eternal happiness. And that is the greater definition of the purpose of life. To know God. And Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita has put it down so conveniently, so simply. It has been translated into so many languages how to attain God. The Bible says, “The Kingdom of God is within”. Krishna says, “I am that which is within”. 'That' he is talking about is the Self. The Kingdom of God is the Self.

We need to understand – as I was listening to a speaker a while ago - you know those people who go to Ayappa? They walk for forty-three days up Swamiamalay, and what happens when they get there? As soon as they're in front of the murthi they close their eyes. Why? Because only then they realise that it's all within. You all do that. You shut your windows. You carry kavady from Verulam to Tongaat and then get to the murthi and close your eyes. By closing your eyes you're shutting the windows and doors to outside interference.

What is no mind? Meditation. What is meditation? No mind. That is the only time on this journey you'll be able to experience and understand God. Only then. Many of us believe that God, whatever you call Him, Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Muruga – you see pictures of them sitting next to each other. There's nothing like that up there. It's your perception. You don't even need that. You need to see within.

As Paramahansa Yogananda, the great saint and rishi, said very clearly and nicely – “In the deepest, in the innermost altar of your being, is Ishwara”. Think about that. You might know Ishwara, your neighbour's son, but this is another Ishwara. He's seated there. Enjoy him. Why are we looking everywhere else? It is only possible to experience the inner self through the grace of Guru and God. No other way. I told you last week, I'm emphasising it again. There's no other way to experience the states of bliss, beatitude, love, peace – all eternal, not ending. The only time you can experience that is if your guru holds you by the hand and points it out to you. Where will he point? Inside. We need to get to the innermost self and to get there – meditate, meditate and meditate. Meditation is no-mind. If you meditate constantly every day for five minutes with deep music, not letting your mind flicker everywhere, you'll have that experience.

Know life. Know life to be. Know life to be constant. Know life to be a constant inspiration. Know that inspiration to be from God. Do not live your life mechanically. Then you are dead inside. Do not indulge in shallow channels for your happiness. Go to the source of limitless joy (bliss). That is God.

In John chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert so, the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him”.

What is the desert? It is the muludhara chakra. If you lift up the serpent from the muludhara, then man becomes divine. Because once the kundalini has been lifted, divinity starts. Again, nothing different from what the Hindu scriptures have been telling us.

In John chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 we read, “As he went along he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that the was born blind?”The disciples asked Jesus, the rabbi, 'who sinned the parents or him?' We talk about karma. Christians will tell you there's no such thing as karma. But there it is in the Bible. The disciples were aware of it. Jesus answered, “Neither him nor his parents,” referring to him in his past life.

“But seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given unto you as well.” What does 'seek' mean? Search within. Once you find it, you will get everything else. Self. That is self-realisation.

Hari Om.

Good Friday

Hari Om.

There's something I want you to observe during the prayer. I'm not going to tell you, you must tell me. Observe the energy and you will feel something. It is here already, just enjoy it. If there are those of you want to go during the day to make another visit, you can go and do that. You won’t get this energy there. Just observe for the whole day.

I told you earlier on that the water is here. Take the water home but do not drink the water. At two o'clock I'm going to pour it in the pond. It's very good for the skin. The mercury was submerged in the water for two and a half weeks – since the ninth of April. The water is now purified. I'll show you just now the power of the mercury. These are pure silver vessels. Used for special purposes only. This one had the normal water in it. This had the mercury. See what the mercury has done inside it. Only put your mercury water in plastic, glass or silver. Whatever you do, do not consume that solution. It's not good for the body. You won't die but it's not good for you. You can use one litre with every ten litres of water. I'm scared to tell you there's mercury water in the pond. You'll empty my pond.

One of the greatest factors that is going to affect many of us at this time until 2014, is the energy of Mother Kali. When she comes in the force of Raksha Kali nothing in this universe can withstand that force, no matter how strong your structures are. As Raksha Kali she's the most powerful destroying energy in the universe. And we’re going to see many, many effects of Raksha Kali in the time to come 'till 2014. You'll hear stories that are so unbelievable, impossible, yet so true. So the force of Raksha Kali is here. Kali is not come because you didn't give it life. It comes because you didn't live your life properly. That means we have destroyed, affected, reduced all the natural energies that God has given us: trees, plants, rivers, creatures in the ocean, on the land and everything else God has given us because we have destroyed so much of God. In the process of destroying all the natural elements in the universe we have destroyed God. Because we have destroyed God Raksha Kali is inevitable. For what we have done today, on the ninth, and continuously in the worship of Kali – actually, the Gayathri Peedam, I think, is the only temple that is known to worship kali at every pooja – because at the Gayathri Peedam we understand the energy of Kali through our astral association with masters, sages and saints, and because of that we know that Mother Kali should be invoked first because we have been provoking Mother Kali in all her forms.

When I say 'Mother Kali' don't expect that when you pass on from this life you will see Mother Kali in the way you see her here, somewhere at heaven's gate, with a knife in her hand, waiting to butcher you. The force is called Mother. It is the energy of the Mother. We say 'she', 'Mother Earth', that is how we refer to this energy as Raksha Kali, all-destroying, all-forceful, never-ending energy of the Supreme Mother.

I want you to understand that you might be the protected few in the journey of this life - both material and spiritual. God has granted us all this last opportunity to make better, to make peace with everything that we have done in the past and past lives. We have destroyed gurus, we have destroyed masters, we have destroyed swamis, we have destroyed saints in our process. In our process of total selfishness we have destroyed them. The time has come where the destruction that every individual or human is trying upon these great saints and sages will come with a reverse negative impact to such an extent that you would regret the day you were born.

In the Bhagavad Gita God said when there's a decline of the totality of the religion of Hindu Dharma, I will ascend. But God did not say in the Bhagavad Gita how he would ascend whether in Vishwarupa, Rama, Krishna or human form. Therefore it is our duty to look at all saints and sages in the light as avatars of God - that they have come upon this earth, to us at this time, to save us from destruction, chaos, hate, greed and ego, and take us on this journey of realisation of Self and God. This is the time. It is you who are fortunate. It is not the saint that is fortunate. It is you. The saint is not really fortunate because in this present age he has great obstacles and obstructions holding him back for your progress and those obstructions are you and yourself. No other obstructions. Your mind is your obstruction.

Let's take a simple example today: where are all the once-a-month-devotees who come here once a month to worship Mother Gayathri. Where are they? It was only you. And you were here all day. But where are those that fill this place up during pournami? Once-a-month-devotees, where are they? Selfish worship is no worship, for once a month it is guaranteed that you'll have prosperity so that is why they're not here. Because here there's no guarantee of prosperity. This is just worship. If we miss it in 2011, we'll catch it in 2012. This is the now to seize, capture, keep and enjoy with total divinity and love for God.

When Krishna was giving a discourse to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, God was giving a discourse to you in this life. And you will enjoy that moment, that time, the experience of this oneness with God, unification with God, this Yoga of God. Realising God is in itself a form of yoga. Remembering God is yoga. Speaking to God is yoga. Anything you do with regard to God is yoga. It is the union, the gap that has been filled between you and God. God is not in some distant place away from you. God is right in you. And, because He is in you, you will lose the opportunity to find God because we seek him outside. You would be praying for twenty-four years, wanting to go to Katrigama - you are wide awake, full of energy to see Lord Muruga or Babaji in full form. You walk all the distance and stand right in front of the murthi of Babaji and you close your eyes. Why can't you see God with your eyes open? Why do you have to close your eyes to see God? Very simple: when you draw the curtains to your home you turn the lights on. You don't draw the curtains in the daytime. You turn the lights on so you can see better. You close your eyes so you can see the light within you. That light is the total reflection of God and God alone. You need to enjoy that reflection, that God. Not any other God. Once you know the greater guru within, which is atma, knowing the guru without is very simple. The guru without you will show you the guru within.

Raksha Kali has come because of the wrongdoings of every one of you, and every human in this universe. I still say you are the most fortunate ones who will say, 'I am saved'. When you say that, you'll say, 'I've realised God. I'm enjoying and experiencing this unification, union and love with God'. Make God your lover. And why am I saying, 'make God your lover'? Many of you seated here have boyfriends and girlfriends and that is the only thing on your mind. Turn that around and make God your lover and you will find that you will remember God twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Because you will remember anything that you love. Unfortunately, you have not attained the ability to make that contact with God, but that will come in time. You do not plant a seed and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow. It's the same with unification with God. Enjoy this God. Enjoy every moment with God.

Today was the most beautiful experience - after twelve years. Twelve years ago, I had this experience in the small top temple. While we sang bhajan, Mother Gayathri walked out of the statue and danced in front of me. Twelve years ago we had that experience and we never had it again. This morning she walked out of the statue and danced where the white lines are drawn, with the total ecstasy of love, beauty and peace - an indication to me that she is still with us: every moment, every minute she is present here.

I want all of you to have and enjoy that ecstasy of knowing the beautiful, powerful, extraordinary Mother Gayathri. When she dances, she only brings tears to my eyes. She came out of the murthi and danced the Tandava Shiva dance of Kali, and she danced and danced 'till she sat in the spot that is marked. And when we marked the area some of you walked there. So you can all enjoy the beatitude of that Supreme Mother, the most Beloved Mother. The only Mother, beyond the sun – tat savitur - that can give you any light in this time, in this age. Every other form is just a representation of Gayathri, including Kali. So there again, we are most fortunate that we recite the Gayathri Mantra continuously and listen to it continuously.

Many of us like to watch TV programmes. Get the Gayathri CD, the mantra, and play it continuously. Let it be secondary to your nature. If you know of anyone who is expecting a baby ask them to listen only to the Gayathri Mantra. No other mantra. Then we'll have another Raja, another Sujana. Because those two were born out of the sound 'Gayathri, Gayathri, Gayathri'. And I pray all of you believe in this God, this Energy, this Cosmic Field called Gayathri and enjoy every moment and bliss that I enjoy in Gayathri.

You all know me as Swami Shankarananda, and many of you seated here, when you tell people you go to the Gayathri Peedam, they will give you a long negative history of the Gayathri Peedam. Let me tell you this: here I stand with each one of you still strong as ever. Nothing in this universe can stop me now from being one with the Mother. And I pray that each one of you enjoy this journey and become one with the mother. I can quote you examples here and proof of what the Mother can do. But I know what will happen as soon as I walk out. Some of you will come and tell me that it was my ego, that I boasted. How else can you praise the success of the Mother, the achievements of the mother, if you don't give examples? That you need to know.

So with that I say on this day – and this might reflect on you later some time, and you might be wondering this is why I said that, and it will reflect on you some time in your recent future, and your strength will be tested then. Just be one with Mother Gayathri and enjoy the beatitude, love, peace, oneness of being with that Mother Gayathri. For, I have to be blunt and to the point, ‘guru bhakti yoga’ are only words to many of you here. We talk and you discuss. But bhakti is lacking. It is really lacking. We've seen it in the recent few days, and I know that weakness also exists in the Gayathri Peedam. Again I tell you: find your guru and hold him for dear life. I don't have to be your guru. Find a guru to take you to where you want to go. I might be doing my job very, very slowly. If you want, find yourself a guru and he'll take you there and you can enjoy the bliss. There's no objection to who your guru is. Don't think you come here stuck with me. I'm no guru. I'm just a perfect idiot. Whatever I tell you now, in this moment today, I don't know tomorrow because I have no mind. I think nothing. Everything is thought for me from the astral plane. You'll find in the middle of pooja I get up and do something because that's the instruction we get. Believe that. I'm sure you don't want an idiot for a guru. Get a guru that's totally intellectual. Get a guru that can teach you. I can't teach you. My guru didn't teach me. He taught me how to transfer energy to the mind: gnanagni. That is the only way I know because you don't have the time to sit and learn and listen. So this is the time I'm telling you on the Good Friday of 2011, really, find yourself a guru and hold onto him for dear life. Do not let go of your guru for anything, even if your guru is called a murderer, do not let go of him for anything. Then you are a devotee, or a disciple. And don't be as fortunate as some of the devotees who could let two gurus down in the same lifetime – don't ever be those ones. Find your guru. Hold him for dear life. Grab him. He will kick you, smack you, throw you. Run back and grab your guru's feet.

I told you how I and my family were attracted to my guru Narayansami Gurudeva, and how he chased us at our first four visits, and swore at us with really bad words, and then said 'you are the disciple'. Gurus do that: scream at you, shout at you. Gurus will do the worst things to you. You must have the energy and the strength, the beatitude, the love, peace, surrender, faith and devotion for your guru. Then you can stand by your guru one hundred percent. And once you stand by your guru one hundred percent, this journey will be the best journey in all lifetimes. Many of you seated here have enjoyed some lifetimes with me, but I am not prepared to take you in this life time. Find a guru. and when you find a guru, make the best of it. Enjoy every moment with your guru. He must be able to make you laugh when you want to cry, and cry when you want to laugh. Don't follow blindly.

You people made me a guru. They're sitting here. I was an ordinary layman like you all – they made me a guru. Find your guru and hold onto him for dear life. Enjoy the beatitude of being with your guru, moment by moment. And everything reflects on now, and now reflects on a moment ago. It cannot reflect on a moment to be, but on a moment ago. Enjoy your Easter. Drive carefully. All of you must go for the last few rounds. We finish at seven. Then we can come back for service.

Hari Om.

Click here to view Facebook photos of the Good Friday Pooja.

Guru Bhakti Karma Yoga

Hari om.

So, we all come here for service, for darshan, and what is it all about? So today I'm going to just touch on a topic called 'guru bhakti karma yoga'. Great masters and spiritual saints and sages of the past have declared that the easiest way to attain God-realisation is through guru bhakti karma yoga. What is the meaning of bhakti? Devotion, dedication, and love. What is the meaning of karma? Act, action, to do. So, to do duty to your guru with love is what 'guru bhakti karma yoga' means. It is a yoga in itself and we must understand that great sages have said to us that you only have five ingredients to become a disciple and those five are very simple: dedication, devotion, faith, surrender and love. If you have those five you can call yourself a disciple. That is what great masters have said to us, and Swami Siviananda very nicely said it in his book Guru Bhakti Yoga that 'A disciple is he who is one hundred percent committed, one hundred percent behind his master or his guru'. And in guru bhakti karma yoga we are saying very simply that coming and sitting here in front of the guru is not guru bhakti at all. It's laziness. Coming here to listen to the guru is guru bhakti gnana yoga. That means you are getting some idea of this journey. But coming here and doing work as instructed by the guru is called guru bhakti karma yoga and it's very important that we follow it.

So I'm going to tell you something now. When a guru is ready to leave his physical body, he seems to be the most agitated person and he will say and do things that you'd never believe. When a guru does that you must understand that the guru is ready to leave his physical body. And if you have mastered or performed guru bhakti karma yoga in your time with your guru, even if it's five minutes. Satyaseelan only spent two months with his guru, and at the time of his guru's death - because of the two months of dedication, love surrender, faith and devotion for his guru - his guru given him everything just by touch, and immediately after that he left his physical body. That is guru bhakti karma yoga - where you do everything for your guru. There's nothing that you do that does not have guru in it. I know there are some of you here, the only thing that comes from your lips is 'Guru, Guru, Guru'. I know some of you here, even when you are travelling, you imagine your guru is there. That is guru bhakti. But let's take it further. We can have the faith, devotion and surrender. But do we have the action? Are we doing things that the guru wants to be done? We're not. And yet masters have declared that the easiest way to Self- and God-realisation is guru bhakti karma yoga.

As I was walking from the house to here, a great master said to me 'Let the yoga continue'. And I'm trying for that – for the yoga to continue in myself and every time I try to hold you by your hand and take you on the guru bakti karma yoga journey, you pull back. You have excuses, reasons, justifications. And once you start having excuses, reasons and justifications, you have no devotion, no dedication, no surrender. Just in one aspect, out of three of the rungs of the ladder for guru bhakti, karma yoga disappears.

You must know that to be a disciple you need to be strong: emotionally, physically and spiritually. It is a tough life, a tough journey. Your guru will scream and shout and then the next minute he'll be laughing. A guru does not take this moment into the next moment. He knows that now is now and it's finished in five minutes. It's just a moment, then it's finished. But do you know that? You'll have a permanent marker board somewhere in your head where you write it down so it cannot be erased. Why can't you be in evenness of thought, mind, and decision. So in this guru karma bhakti yoga, you must have total surrender. It must be complete, should not have any obstacles or stoppages. It should not be clogged. If it's clogged, use your mind to plumb it out. Simple as that. Get it out and have this devotion, and see where it takes you.

So what we are saying is that guru bhakti karma yoga is the easiest way to God-realisation through Self-realsiation. And everyone seated here has the potential, has the know-how and the utensils to do it. There's nobody here who doesn't have those three. Find your guru. Hold him for dear life. If he kicks you hold him again.

When I first met my guru at the age of fourteen, on our first visit to him he told my dad, 'Are you'll crazy? Get away. I don't do these things'. My father was upset. There was an old granny that took us there and he was shouting at her. She said, 'don't worry, small brother. It will come right'. Two days later she was back, forced my mother to come again. My mother put on some drama and my dad said we could go. So we went and the guru was labouring in the field, as a supervisor, and saw us on the other side of the river. There was no bridge. He stopped the car and said, 'I told you not to come back'. And he swore at us and told us, 'Get out!' He didn't want to see us. The third time my mother didn't eat for three days, so we went on the third day to his house and he said, 'Come, come, come. Sit'. That is a guru. He was testing to see if we had the devotion, love, surrender and faith. My father showed through his persistence that he had these. And he became my first guru. He was no guru like those of today. If he was here now, none of you would follow. He was rude, untidy and filthy but he was a guru. Today, not one of you would prostrate at his feet because you are seeing through your eyes so you wouldn't touch him. That is how the mind works. And he would have his bottle of Mainstay, and chops on the table while he talks to us. I used to think, 'What kind of guru is this?' My mother accepted him first and then I accepted him. He was my guru for many years. His name was Narayansami. But in those years, many times, he was absolutely rude. He said once 'If you don't go now I'll give you rain'. My my dad tested him and we didn't go. Then we couldn't go over the bridge because of the rain. But we held onto him every moment of the way. He was the only one who could tell my father what was wrong with me. The doctors declared me insane but Narayansami told my dad I was going through a spiritual transformation. I was fourteen. At no time did my father disregard him because he was shouting. We kept on going back to him.

One of the persons who has guided me to this position here is my Gurudev Narayansami. He was a very unique individual in the way he guided me and my family. My father would not do anything without us going to Gurudev, even if we were travelling. And some of you might think I'm telling a story but if you speak to Betty's mother-in-law she'll tell you. They had a cow that could not have calves. They went to Gurudev, told him the story: no milk, no calves. Gurudev gave them something, said, 'Feed the cow'. They did and it had a calf. Gurus have all the power but they won't show it to you. He never showed it for one day. He just did things. He'll give you a thabeeth with circles squares rectangles, triangles, like a child's drawing, and give it to you. But at the end of the day he was a great guru and it takes a wise one to identify with a great guru. Really, we can go right past him and think he's a beggar. For as long as I knew him which was from fourteen to about thirty years – for 16 years - he only had one coat and it fitted him for all those years.

So guru bhakti karma yoga is very important. The guru will walk right past you. Don't think he doesn't like you. He's just testing you. If we go back to Kriya Babaji, Bhogar Maharishi did not do good for him. Bhogar Maharishi always brought him down, but Babaji kept going back and said, 'Gurudev, what have I done wrong? Show me'. Bhogar used to show him exactly what he had done and say 'That is incorrect,' even though he did the same thing he was shown. That's what gurus do - make you very strong. I want all of you to somehow find a guru and let him help you find yourself. Really, it is very, very important that you do that. And if you have a guru, make that acknowledgement within yourself and let it be pure with devotion, dedication and total surrender, faith, and love. Don't superficially say, 'I surrender to you.' The guru knows what is total absolute reality. Temporary reality he knows.

So I want you to do that. Hang onto your guru. Find him and hang onto him for dear life. Only he knows the way. You don't know the way. If you knew the way, you wouldn't be here. But you don't know the way, therefore you're here. Find yourself a guru who can lead you. That is what life is all about. So guru bhakti karma yoga is for you. Think about what I said and enjoy.

Hari Om.

Sri Maha Meru Pooja

There are many seated here that have problems in life, especially in business. Lots of things don't work out in business. Just meditation on the Shri Chakra Maha Meru is enough for a turnaround in one hour. And one such person who is here, who we've tried it with is Dean Petzer. He'll tell you. He'll talk about something in the morning and he'll phone me or send me a message by three o'clock, "Thank you Guru, everything is good". And it's all to do with the Maha Meru.

The maha meru was kept by the brahmin class for themselves. They wanted to prosper. They didn't want to give the maha meru to ordinary people like us. My guru, in his wisdom, has discussed and trained us in the maha meru, and has told us the importance of the maha meru. My guru is the only one in the world who has a three ton maha meru sri chakra in his sri chakra temple. And he has prospered in every aspect of his spiritual life.

But what happens to us, especially we Hindus? We think the ashram is one of the stalls in the Gateway. That's what we think. We think an ashram is like Gateway. We can go from shop to shop until you get the best. You go to Edgars, Truworths, Identity, and everywhere else. And eventually you buy it from Price. That's what you happens on the spiritual journey. Eventually you get it from Price, and it won't last.

There are some devotees used to be here that were doing extremely well until they wanted to get better. You know Gayathri Mata always decides that half a loaf is better than no loaf, and She'll give you half a loaf. That means you can feed everybody, put some money in the bank and buy yourself a nice car. And they would stand at 3am in the morning, at other venues in queues waiting to see some impersonation. And he asks them to do something else. You know what happens? Like what happens when you buy from Price: the name tag is taken off. Price doesn't have a name tag on the clothes. They take it off. That's what happens. You're getting something without a name tag, and the name tag here is God.

So when you take this (meru) home, believe this, it will work for you if you're sincere and devoted. If you're not sincere you think, "I'll keep it in the prayer-room, Guru won't know". He knows. We keep forgetting that he's watching us. We forget God is watching us and we do the wrong thing, and we fall. That's when there's a spiritual attack - the beating God gives you for not following him totally.

Sometimes we make mistakes. Even mothers - they love their children. Some people say, "Why does God hurt us?" Why should your mother hurt you? Mothers love their children, but when the child is naughty, do you think the mother shows the same love? Yes, but in a different way, with one or two slaps. But it comes out with love because you're the mother. God does the same thing for us. When we're not listening, He gives us one or two slaps. And what's those slaps? What we lose in this material plane - and we think God's playing a game with us. He plays no games. He is direct, straight and to the point. You go this way, or you go that way. If you go this way, that is what will happen. If you go that way this is what will happen. And he gives it to you like that.

So every Friday, you will do this mantra - nine recitals only.

Om Nithya klinna thirupurusundarie vidmahee nithya mantraye dhimahee thanno nithya prachodayath yoni mudraya pranameth namaha.

You put the kungum on the coconut. The chakra must stay inside the kalsa pot with the water. Don't take it out for polishing. Use the same kungum over and over. The more you recite the mantras the more energetic and powerful they are.

It is a fact that I did not do any of the pooja that you have seen today. I will give you back the book and you'll find most of the mantras I recited were not in the book. Agasthiar was here. I had nothing to do with the prayer. I was only used to do the prayer. There's always some time in our lives that we find this new energy, this new force behind us, and we are always too blind to recognise that force or energy because we are so caught up in the material aspect and the reason we don't enjoy it is because we're too busy to recognise, or accept this energy.

Paramahansa Yogananda, a great saint of the west, said that the good Lord lives within and he said it like this: "In the deepest sense, in the innermost altar of your being lies Ishwara. And that Ishwara is no other than God himself. So you have all the possibilities to enjoy this God within you, every bit of possibility you have just to enjoy that God within you and yet, in this mundane daily routine, we do not understand and enjoy this God within us. God is the only factor that can give you peace. Nothing else. Not the money in your bank or that you earn daily, but God, ever so willing to take you by your hand and to lead you to that supreme bliss that is so very needed in this life, on this journey.

And we have failed in everything that we did. We have failed miserably in God. And it is for those very reasons that we have right now all these disasters and calamities. It is all due to your failure, to our failure, to failure to this Mother Earth and nature. We have failed, and there's the only chance, the chance to remember Him, to sing His name, to praise His name, to live His name. And once you can do that, people around you will definitely think you're insane. But you'll have that extra sense of peace, bliss and beatitude which they don't have.

In spirituality the ultimate goal is simplicity - and you'll be able to receive that which we call God, and you'll enjoy the energy of God. Many beings have encountered this oneness and uniqueness of God alone and they have written books making it easy for you to go through this journey. But you prefer to go through the material journey and enjoy this material pain, this material sorrow and this material gain. All this is no use to you, but God and God alone, can take you where you want to go - and just by saying His name. Think how simple it is that you can say his name: Krishna, Namashivaya, Vishnu, Ram - and you can say His name over and over and you will not get tired. Yet we prefer to do all those things that strain the physical body and eventually bring pain to it. Yet the name of God will never at any time bring to you any kind of pain. The name of God only brings you peace, harmony beatitude and love. And above all of this, this unique oneness and merger with that Supreme Light and Lord, God. It is for you. It is for you to experience this moment with the Lord, this time with the Lord. It is for you to experience this now where God is here, present, in front of you, right here now.

You need to enjoy that God. And once you enjoy that God nothing in this universe can bring you down, or bring pain upon you. You need to know this. You need to understand this. And once you understand and know this, you can live this. And once you live this, you will be the most blissful person on this whole earth. Think about it - how easy it is to be blissful, and how difficult it is to be painful, yet we will choose to be painful, we will choose sorrow. We will choose the temporary pleasure that eventually leads to pain and sorrow. We chose it, not God. We choose it in every act, in every moment, in every act of our daily living we choose the pain. Unknowingly, we think it is bringing to us pleasure. Every pain you have is from some kind of pleasure that you had. Remember that. You buy a new car - it's a pleasure. You drive it at high speed - it is a great pleasure. And then you bang that car into a wall - there's no more pleasure, its pain. You have all the jewels in your house - great pleasure. You talk about your jewels to everybody - great pleasure. Then somebody steals them from you - no more pleasure. These are temporary pleasures. But yet the name of the Lord is a permanent pleasure, a pleasure that is everlasting and eternal. The only pleasure that you will enjoy. So in God's name, I say to all of you: Namashivaya, Sri Krishna, Shri Ram Jay Ram. And may the universe listen to you. May the universe be be energised by you reciting these names. And once the universe is energised by you reciting these names, you'll find yourself dancing in the rain continuously. Every moment will be a rainy moment of joy, pleasure and of togetherness with God and I'm sure that every one of you here wants to experience that. I'm sure that you know how to experience that, and I'm very sure that you are afraid to let go of what you have now to experience that. To experience that means you should not have any accumulation around you, be it good, be it bad. you should have a total evenness of mind. You should be able to be mindless. You should be able to do things without being judgmental. You should be able to be with God, and God alone.

This is a unique time for you to experience this God. If you have not experienced the energy of God, or the feeling of God today, you'll never experience it again for you'll not be in a situation where you'll be informed that the presence of this energy is here. You might experience it but you might not know. If God knocks on your door, you would not know who He is, yet when you go to ashrams, when you go to temples, you have this feeling, this oneness, uniqueness, that something is different here. And what is different? The energy of God. This is in all temples, in all ashrams - the energy of God. So I ask you all to live in His name - only his name. There's no other name - call Him whatever you want to call Him. Even if you want to call him Gayathri, there's nothing wrong with that. Live in his name. Live in the Lord's name. Live in God's name and see how wonderful your life can be. Hari Om. Jai Krishna.

Download an MP3 recording of part of this discourse.

Photos of the Sri Maha Meru Pooja can be viewed on the Gayathri Peedam Facebook page at www.facebook.com/gayathripeedam

Gurudev Take Me Home

Swami talks on the Maha Meru Pooja and the Hanuman Murthi Installation

Hari Om.

The Maha Meru pooja is unique. The Maha Meru is divided into seven sections and each section is called an arvana. The sections have petals and the petals in the first section after the squareare called nityas. And on the last part, right on top, there's a dot like a ball. That is called the bindu which is seated in a triangle called 'trikona'. Around the meru will be seated fifty-two clay pots which fifty-two people will take home. And at home you will worship with this clay pot like you have never worshipped before. Whatever your desires, whatever your problems, whatever you difficulties, success will come out of this.

Some of you have merus of your own. These merus will be submerged in your kalsa pot. All the mantras will be recited with the greatest vibration and you will take your kalsa pot home, remove your meru and do pooja in front of this kalsa to the meru. Pooja must be done every Friday. Every day is good but in your busy life you don't have time to do it every day. Every Friday do the pooja with just nine mantras. The wonder, the beautitude, you'll get out of doing this pooja cannot be measured on this plane. It is a very unique prayer. And outside the yagasala are sixteen kalsas. Inside we have fifty-two. With the bindu placed in the middle to show you that is the centre. It's not a kalsa, it's a bindu. That spot that is totally energised. That is why you wear a spot on your forehead. That is the spot that needs to be energised. And those sixteen kalsas you see there are the sixteen nithas of the Sri Chakra.

Outside will be a total of seven hawan kunds of different shapes, most are for the shapes of the meru. So each arvana will be worshipped separately and after we've finished the Mahameru Pooja, abishegam will be done to the meru. So the yagasalam will be open to all of you at that time. Prior to that, only those people who can be initiated tomorrow morning between five and six in the morning, when we have a mass initiation into Sri Thirupurasunadari Ambige, and is regarded as one of the greatest initiations. It is done on a temporary basis. You have to give up the material life, to follow totally on the path. But that initiation will be given to you for twelve hours only. You will be able to help those working with the kalsas inside but if your kalsa is inside then you must be part of the prayer and can't be a helper. Helpers mean runners who can walk in and out of the the gayasalam.

So you have sixteen kalsas on the outside. Then on the outside of the yagasalam, on the tables, you'll see a meru. That meru is panchaloka gold. Under that meru is the Maha Kali Chakra - so its not just any meru. It has a Maha kali. That is a Sri Chakra Meru. This is a Maha Kali Sri Chakia Meru. On the other side we have no other than Ganesha in jade. Its the first time the jade Ganesha has come out. We need tight security because we have some very unique, ancient and expensive items laid out there.

Because tomorrow is such an auspicious day, between seven and eight in the morning, the installation of the greatest of all deities in this whole universe, Hanuman, will be done. Because its Ramayan week there's no better time to install Hanuman. It is believed that it is better to call Hanuman than to call Ram because wherever there is Hanuman there's Ram. So if you call his name before any installation, nothing will go wrong. And to add to all those energies, there's a kalsa for Mother Gayathri.

So there will be twelve hours of interesting mantras, tantras and yantras. You'll hear mantras that you've never heard before. And you just have to hear the mantra - just to have the mantra go into your eardrum – and it's enough to heal you. They are the most powerful mantras. This pooja has never been done on the African continent. It is only done in some temples in North India and one temple in South India. The reason for this is that people are not prepared to do it the way it is supposed to be done - for twelve hours. It requires you to do that for a whole day. You can't fast for seven days and then do Navagraha on the 9th day. So, this is the uniqueness.

The whole night there'll be lot of activity here: decorating, setting up. There might be some happenings. God might be here. Who knows? So, if you are not part of the prayer as in having a kalsa, just partake in the prayer. Just come and sit here and listen. It's going to be very unique in many aspects. I said to some devotees this afternoon. I don't even know why I'm so excited. I'm never excited about these things. But I've worked out why I'm excited. All astral beings will be present to give us the energy to go through this pooja. So if you're in tune and you're meditating, you might see your late granny or grandfather... No, That's not what I'm saying. Astral beings as in saints and sages. They'll be here, so come and enjoy this great pooja. This prayer is done to save all of you from whatever pain and suffering you are having – physical, emotional or mental. This is the time to come sit here and enjoy, and be free from that aspect of your disturbed life.

Download Guru and Sivananda singing 'Gurudev Take Me Home'

(PS If this doesn't activate your heart chakra, you need some serious work!)

Swami talks on the Guru-disciple Relationship

It is so important in our lives that we should have the name of the Lord ever-present in our discussion. But we are more interested in who said what and why they said that, but we're never interested in His name. His name is the purest. His name is the only name that is possible and His name is the Lord - whatever you want to prefix to him, that's His name. And just by holding onto your guru's hand, the journey on the spiritual path is ever so easy. It is a pure journey. It is a journey of laughter, a journey of sorrow a journey of pain, and it's a journey of pleasure. And your guru is the only one that can give you all. And he tests you. Your guru is the one that puts salt in your wound because it makes you stronger on the journey.

This journey of spirituality is not for the weak ones. This journey of spirituality reminds me of when I was young. There was a radio presenter by the name of David Gresham and he said 'Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars!'. Very impossible, so you think - to keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars. It's not impossible if you have a guru. Nothing is impossible if you have a guru. So go and find one and hang on to him for dear life. Hold his hand like you've never held onto anything before. He will kick you, shout at you, swear at you and throw you. Your guru loves you, therefore he treats you badly because he wants to make you strong, because the journey is not an easy one at all. It's the toughest journey. And on this journey, everything is taken away from you, slowly but surely. The first thing he takes away from you is your ego, and many people are nothing without the ego. Their ego is bigger than them. They live by the ego. Once your ego is taken away, you are non-judgmental because being judgmental is being egoistic. And once you are non-judgmental, evenness of mind will come.

Somebody asked, 'What is evenness of mind?' A Christian - and he went away and came back and said, 'Tell me one more time'. Evenness of mind is to have no mind. Can you imagine all of you having no mind, how beautiful this world would be. Its the mind that creates the problems. To get evenness of mind, ego is the first thing you must flush down the toilet. Many of you seated here, when you first came you had big egos, and somehow along the way you lost it. And that is what's good about it. Once you lose your ego you are nobody. Only when you are nobody can you be somebody on the spiritual path. If you're somebody on the material plane you're nobody on the spiritual plane. You have to be nobody to be somebody, and you have to be somebody to be nobody. You cannot say 'he's nobody'. If you say somebody is nobody, he was somebody before you called him nobody. The two must be together.. So let's be nobody to be somebody on the spiritual journey.

This is the beauty of the journey. You can laugh, you can be happy. All of you can agree. When are you the happiest? When you're here. You know why? You don't have mind. You're focused on one thing and everything that happens here. When you leave here, you start to focus. University, debts, what-and-what. So it is time for us to be egoless. That means, lessen your ego. Start today. Don't go and profess who you are - nobody wants to know that. Don't go and tell the people, 'My husband is a doctor so you should take Panados'. But that's what we do. Our egos are so big.

So, I expect to see all of you here tomorrow for this pooja and enjoy. Not long from now, there's going to be another massive earthquake. Get ready. We cannot say we're not going to have it. Just be ready and take it from there. You know why we're having earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis? Because we have hurt God in every sense, and God's creation. You know why Japan is always being hit? Because they kill dolphins and whales. They can them and sell them. They're tampering with nature's creations, therefore they have to suffer the consequences. We are feeling sorry because we're human beings. But nobody feels sorry for the whales, sharks, cats and dogs.

Hari Om.

Sacred Mantra Healing in Port Elizabeth

Hari Om.

Paramahansa Yogananda, the great eastern saint that went to the west, has declared in his Autobiography of a Yogi that 'the Kingdom of God lies within'. In the inner altar of your being Ishwara rests within you. This evening I am going to attempt to unite you to that great Ishwara and ignite that Ishwara within you. Once we ignite that Ishwara within, you will find that union with God becomes a very simple duty and large progress will occur in your journey.

My guru, Swami Murugesu Maharishi, a great saint of the International Trust Gayathri Peedam of Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya. has given the instruction that I should take God to the people since the people are too busy to come to God. We have travelled a long way to introduce you to God in a playful, in a happy way, in a blissful way so when we leave here you don’t make the statement, 'I fear God' you make the statement, 'I love God'. Fear is always a negative aspect. Many of us say, 'I am God-fearing'. Loosely translated, this means that we'll stay far away from God. God-loving means always embracing. That is the most important aspect of us knowing God. We need to love God first. We should not have this, 'I am a God-fearing person.' You fear your teacher; many of us fear our parents when we do wrong. We can’t say, 'I love my parents when I do wrong'. Nobody says that. Just by the sound of His name, that beautiful name of the Lord - sounding the name in every aspect of the Lord, in both male and female aspects - you will walk out of here regenerated in His name.

Actually, Punditji said that when he saw us seting up he thought we were AH Raymon giving a concert. Well, I thought about it and we are nowhere near AH Raymon. And AH Raymon is nowhere near us. We are on two different flights, on two different planes and we are going to different places. But when we leave here you will all feel the vibration of the muladhara chakra going up the spine to the sahasrara chakra. We have the greatest element in the Hindu scriptures called the maha meru. It's not in use because it has been kept for the brahmin class. We are now bringing this three-dimensional Sri Chakra to you and the people to hold and meditate upon, to feel the vibration of the maha meru. On Saturday, the ninth of April it will be the first time a maha meru pooja will be performed at the Gayathri Peedam in South Africa, and on the African Continent. For twelve hours mantras will be recited continuously. If you can make it, come. After experiencing tonight’s vibration, you will want to be with us.

Krishna gives us many ways to attain God in the Bhagavad Gita. He gives us Raja Yoga, Jynana Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and also says if that doesn’t work, just call His name; it works! In the Bhagavad Gita it says that even if you don’t remember God in your daily life, at the time of death if you call His name you will receive moksha or liberation. This is a very wise statement but many of you understand it very loosely. It doesn’t mean you will get moksha when you die. It means you are a fool. If you don’t remember His name now, how the hell are you going to remember it when you are dying? Our parents, grandparents and ancestors were clever when they called us Krishna, Deva; so when we remember our children’s names, we remember God too. Now we have changed. We call our children Jack and when we call Jack when dying, the dog will come. We have changed. There is no chance you will change or call His name when you die. I met somebody called Chalize. I couldn’t pronounce the name so I called her Chillies. We call our children Dolly. These are not the names we should give our children. But still, we go to the priest and he gives us a sound 'sa' but we don’t give the right name: Sarasvati is the right name, but it’s not fashion. We will call the child Sajel. You go to India and ‘til today, the names have some religious connotation.

This white lady seated here, she always sits in front of me, her name is Sundrie Maheswarie and she loves the name Sundrie. Many of you seated here don’t like the name. This girl here, her name is Lalitha. She loves the name Lalitha. That white fellow there, his name is Kailashadeva, and over there his name is Shivabalananda. What I am saying is that we Hindus are going west and the westerners are going east. Who are the fools? The Hindus are. These whities aren’t the fools; they know they can find God, be with God; enjoy God and reach the different states of Samadhi. We Hindus believe it our birth right to be enlightened and that’s why we don’t meditate. It doesn’t work like that. You will find in four years’ time I will come here and there will be no Indians. There will be all whites - 'Swami Shankarananda and his white elephants'. We are losing it. I can say, 'Go out and sing His name, that’s all'. We will do many things here. According to Punditji, the whole night is mine so I am going to take that opportunity. This will be this first time in your life that you will want to sit for so long without paying –think about it! That silver object sitting there is the Sri Chakra Maha Meru and I will ask you just now to touch it while the healing mantras are being recited. From the meru I have signing bowls. These bowls create the most beautiful sounds when I instruct them to sing. I will show you just now how it works. Each of these stones has a different healing potential and here are some crystal wands. I just have to place it on my head, look at you and it will send the energy required to heal.

Now, we will introduce you to our first bhajan ...

[After some bhajan, Gurudev offers Punditji mala beads then reciting of Appa dammapa while the devotees touch the maha meru.]

So we are going to use this pendant. You are not going to use it around your neck. You will try find a way of covering it. It has to be worn in this fashion: on the right arm, okay? Because most of the time we get sick, and we get sick because we are affected by negative energy which generally comes from always shaking hands. Paramahansa Yogananda says, “More powerful that this physical body is a thought”. A thought is like putting some powder in the ocean and then trying to get it back – impossible! We can never get a thought back. It will come back to you like a boomerang with double the force. Therefore, this pendant is to protect you and to protect whomever’s hand you will shake. It doesn’t mean if you are sitting here today you don’t have bad thoughts. Everybody has bad thoughts and, because we have bad thoughts, we need protection for ourselves too. This will protect you.

But you will have a problem with this. Do you know why? Because it's not fashionable. All of you are not dressed for yourself. I am seated here and am not dressed for myself. If you see this outfit, you will call me Swami or Guru. If I walked in here with a pants and a shirt, you would not recognise me. I am not dressed for myself. You aren’t dressed for yourselves. You are all dressed for a comment. I know some of you think, 'Let me take this guy outside and beat this guy up'. I tell the truth, my Guru taught me that. It hurts but only for a short while. We dress for the boss, we dress for our clients, we dress for the people we work with and for the people around us, but not for ourselves. When do we dress for ourselves? When we are casual in front of the TV at home, nobody will see and we don’t care. Do we dress like that outside? No. What will the people say?

All those energies are the energies that affect us. Agastyiar Muni is a great sage and, in communication with us, has said to us that in 2014 we won’t be able to control the natural and man-made disasters and the wars in this world. Are we ready? Are we making the changes to ourselves so that we might not be included in this 2014 disaster? No, we are not making any changes. I am sure this is not the number of people in Port Elizabeth. I am one hundred percent sure. India versus Sri Lanka is on television but this important parsad that we are going to give you cannot be recorded. India versus Sri Lanka can be recorded and watched tomorrow. This is where the boat will go right past us and when it’s gone we say, 'That was it!'

When the bus passes, we don’t run after it, we stand by waiting for the next one. In this situation, that won’t happen. At the Gayathri Peedam we don’t do the same thing twice. If you miss it, you have lost it. God is so important in our lives; God is the ultimate simplicity in our lives - there is nothing simpler, whereas without Him we are lost. Just by thinking of Him, you get bliss. In all these sanctuaries you have to pay, but this is free. We go to some place, light one incense, light one candle and feel joy for two hours. And then you go home and you are back to where you started, so you have to go back. But with God, you never leave the situation so you never have to come back to the situation. How simple! Sri Ram Jay Ram ; Shivo Ham Shivo Ham - they made it so simple for us. We don’t have to recite complicated mantras. But when we are walking and kick a chair we yell, “O my god!” Only then it’s 'my god'; only when you are in pain. Let it be God all the time.

Do you think you will get frustrated in traffic when singing Sri Ram Jay Ram? No. But we won’t do it. We have Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. When we play one bhajan and the son gets into the car, the first thing he does is change the music and say, 'How can you listen to that?' Well I say, 'How can you listen to that other garbage you listen to?' I think we need an adjustment. It can only come from that great inner guru, Namashivaya. You can’t leave your car at home and call the mechanic to fix the car; you have to make that move to take the car to the mechanic to have it repaired. That is how simple it is.

We have some of our children here. This child was my youngest yoga student. She was three years old when she took part in the yogathon. I hope that her parents have continued that. But what do we do? We take the child to the Wimpy, buy one ice-cream and the child is quiet. In KZN we have the biggest crèche in the whole world, it is called Gateway. All parents dump their children at Amma Gateway. Then they call and say they will wait for them at the water feature. But little do the parents realise that the child had her own feature inside. And in six months, you will have a feature problem. Then the mother calls every half an hour to ask if the child is ok. The cell phone doesn’t say the child is at Gateway but the mother calls just to have peace of mind and the child has silence. It doesn’t work like that.

[Muslim prayer sounding in the background.] Can you hear that? We need to learn one tenth of spirituality from the Muslims. They make sure everybody is aware that at this time, every day, it is prayer time. If our pundit put out one mike to play Sri Ram we will pull it down because it’s irritating. We can’t watch TV, we can’t sleep. We will. I know this because my neighbour calls the police every time we have a prayer. Yet the mosques will scream at five in the morning, and he will put his pillow over his head and say nothing, but as a Hindu he will complain when we have a Hindu prayer.

Paramahansa Yogananda has a great story. This is the story of the frog – an Indian frog. The discussion was to show them how this weakness we Hindus have affects us. There was an experiment to be done. The scientists decided to go round the world to collect frogs to see differences between the different frogs all over the world. They went to America, collected frogs and sealed the jar. They did the same in Europe and sealed the jar. When they got to India, the Indians told them not to worry about sealing the jar because the frogs won’t jump out. When asked why, the answer was that if one tried to jump out, the others would pull him down. This is true; we are the very people bringing our masters down. We have no guts to shut the others up but we will do our best to shut our own up. You come here with this simple man and you terrorise him. We are like that but we should not be like that. We should be able to sing His name anywhere, any time, at any place and see what happens. You will become Mahaprabhu. You will be in such bliss that everyone will think you are mad.

Some people will tell you not to join the Gayathri Peedam because they are in the fast lane; they're just fast, fast, fast. We had one devotee who took a fish out of the fridge fifteen times because just as he was ready to eat it, we put him on another fast. Eventually he gave the fish away. So now he says, 'don’t join Gayathri Peedam, they fast all the time'.

We are going to dance in the name of the Lord, for His name is the only name. If the Bible is the New Testament, the Koran is the First Testament then the Bhagavad Gita is the Only Testament. Hare Krsna! Jai guru ... [Bhajan commences, followed by thank you from Punditji. Swami continues.] I just want to conclude with a beautiful song, an English song. As Punditji said we are joining eastern and western. I am sure when you walk out of here; it will be in your head. I want you to know this has nothing to do with me. I am here for you because I love you so much and that is the only way we can move forward. [Singing of last bhajan.]

To my spiritual brother, Punditji and to all my spiritual children, I say thank you. I think that anyone who should be applauded here is Pundit. He is working so hard to unify us. We have a habit of making linguistic separations: the Tamil temple where only the Tamil-speaking will go; and the Hindi temple where only the Hindi-speaking people will go. Here you have a fine young man who is trying to bring about the unification of the Hindu people not based on their linguistic backgrounds. It is very uncommon to have this mixture of people, and the Gayathri Peedam is proud that language has never been the basis of our spirituality. God has been the basis.

Our job is to take you on that country road to Vaikunta. You may think all these whities are mad. If you ask them, they will tell you that they have something that you can only claim by birthright and nothing else. Because we are born of Hindu parents, it does not make us Hindu. It is not a religion like Islam or Christianity, it is a unique way of life: sanatan dharma.

I hope you can have many of these togetherness moments in this temple. Last night we were at the East London SS Alyum and even there, it is based on linguistic denomination. You cannot be divided in religion. The reason we have problems in life is because of division. We cannot have this division. But if we can have a unification that is by the grace of Paramahansa Yogananda – that is why we are here and I was praising just him. Because through Him I met two beautiful people, Leena and Deena. Leena grew up not far from where I lived in Shakaskraal and we had to meet under these circumstances. The uniqueness of masters is unbelievable. They will, in a very strange, subtle way leave a message with you. So to Leena and Deena and Ma and the two children, thank you for giving up your bedrooms for these children from KZN, who don’t have homes. It is by God’s grace that last night we stayed in a very beautiful home with beautiful people. Their house was left to us do as we please. For the children of Gayathri, that is a dangerous thing - lucky I was there.

To the people outside, these children seem mad that they can leave their homes and drive with this mad man all over the country. Think about it: to sing His name. If any of you had my health condition, you wouldn't leave home. I have to travel with a TNT for heart attack but I know that even if I have to leave this body in PE, I left it on Krishna’s instruction - just recite His name. The beauty of that should make you want to die. Krishna how nice. Just hold his hand, he is waiting for you. “Moksha is yours because you recited my name!” The beauty of being in that habit of singing His name is that as you go to bed say 'Muruga'. I guarantee to you that you will get up saying 'Muruga'. I want you to try it and experience what it does to you. The law is whatever you do for twenty-one days will become habit. Develop a habit for twenty-one days reciting God's name and, in your desire, God will appear.

For me this opportunity is rare. For you, this rareness is an opportunity. To all of you, just being in PE is divine and being in some of your homes is Divine. When you walk into your home and see your picture of Guruji, that is enough to be enlightened. We are starting a meditation group, please join us. Speak to Leena and Deena. You will feel so good, it is unbelievable. This is unique!

Namaskaram vanakam Jai sri Ram and hari Om

QUESTIONS

Devotee: When will you stay for long?

Swami: It will happen. Slowly I am giving up the ashram and will stay for some time. I am planning on many things and some of you I feel energy that you really need some guidance.

Devotee: What is the significance of the red string?

Swami: It is for you protection. Red is Duruga, Latchmi and Suryan. That’s all you need in life, you need the Dun, Duruga to protect you and you need the money. Its something that we do at the Gayathri Peedam. When I sit here, I get instructions. Today, the instruction was to give you a red string and a pendant. We work with energies and get guided instructions from Agastyiar Muni, Paramahansa Yogananda and Lahiri Mahasaya. For some of you, this guy is mad, there is no such thing. For the one who believes in God no explanation is necessary and those who don’t believe in God, no explanation is possible! We should not want any explanations, we should just accept. If my master says that next week I must leave for India, next week I am on the flight because I enjoy God's work. In God's work there is no boss, He will never shout at you. For the children at school, if you think your teachers are tough. Wait till you get out there and you meet a boss!

Hari Om