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
