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.
