Year-end Message

There comes a time in a human being's life when he has to make some serious decisions. And all of us, some time on this journey, have made some decisions; and out of those we had some results that were positive or successful, or have had results of failure - but we made decisions. I've made a decision that I want to stay away from you for a long time. For that reason I'm leaving for India in a couple of day's time, and I'm going to be in India for a long time. I don't know when or whether I'm coming back. This is because you don't want to be ants, you want to be wood-borers. I find more wood-borers here than ants. Ants are good. They have great foresight, can work in a team in harmony. Wood-borers do too, but the end result is destruction - you won't have a house afterwards - but not with an ant.

Until I find that I have ants in the ashram and not wood-borers, I'm going to stay away for a long time. You won't have any contact with me, know where I am or what I'm doing, or whether I'm in India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, or Malaysia. As much as I am ready to give up this life, I live this life for one individual - and as soon as that individual says to me, 'It is time for you not to live for me any more,' then I can leave this life; but I made a promise to one individual that I would live this life just for that individual, and that is why I've taken that decision to move to India for a long time.

But, in my absence, I hope you can feel my presence. I hope you can do that. It is time for you to start to attune yourself to feel this presence, and enjoy this presence. On the 31st night of December, if you're here, you'll feel my presence. I won't be here for Christmas or New Year, or for the Kavadi in January, or in February for Shivarathri. I just need to go and find what I'm missing, and what I'm missing are the ants. I need to go find those ants who know the meaning of guru and love.

Guru has become a very prostituted word. You have all kinds of gurus but, really, the true meaning of the word 'guru' has been lost in this journey by many, if not all, of you. You have lost the meaning of the word guru and maybe in my absence you'll understand what it is to have a guru in your presence.

I think this acquaintance that we have is the biggest problem. The fact that I always like to be at your level. I don't expect you to come to my level, and the time has come for me to put my right leg forward and leave you all behind. I prayed all my life that I would be your shadow but the time has come to find your own shadow. I cannot be your shadow or your banyan tree. Both of those have disappeared because the light has gone and they have died out because there is no more love.

I pray that every one of you seated here keeps the service going because you don't know which day my presence will be here. For me it's a sad-happy moment. This is a time for me where I feel parting is such sweet sorrow. I will be working with my masters at the khumbamela, and I will be lost in India. Really lost. When I say 'lost' I will only find out where I am when I'm there. Its a great moment. I've promised you many times that I'm going to go away for a long time. I think the masters have made this possible for me.

I have a new year message for you. Come here on new year and the message will be read to you, and maybe we won't all be affected by the war that is going to start. The major war of 2013 is going to destroy a lot of this world that we know. It is a time that we should have our holy war as well within ourselves, destroying all the things that we carry with us. My guru always said to me that he who entertains gossip is a gossiper himself. You can gossip to me but you'll find me reading the paper and I'll just nod my head. My guru has taught me right. Gossip will always be found on this journey. You will be gossiped about, your guru will, and everyone will.

Walk this journey with just one aspect: that you want enlightenment. The great saints came in this era so we can walk this journey with light. It doesn't matter how dim the light is. If the light can only give you a light of one meter, walk the one meter and eventually you'll reach your destination. In the darkest time of my life, when all lights were fading, I could still see my guru's hand. When everyone of you seated here failed me, my guru was there. He gave me directions that even now when is it black I think how amazing it is that he's given me direction in the most trying, difficult times. Many of us seated here have some sad and bad experiences with gossip. I don't want to mention your names. Some of you have lost dear ones through gossip, some of you lost yourselves through gossip. This is the most trying time for you when I'm away from you.

You can only turn to my advice in meditation. You won't be texting or speaking to me. I won't have the same numbers. I'm changing all my numbers in India when I go now because I want you to learn that the most important aspect in each one of your lives is not God. It's Guru. Because you don't know God but you know your guru, and because you know your guru you can know God. Simple as that. And the time  is now. Next Friday in this chair will be only a photo of me and my sandals. Friday and pournami will be the same and it'll become so monotonous that you even won't be aware of the photo. It won't mean anything, it's just a photo. To those who put it here, it has a meaning and through that you should feel this energy and enjoy this energy.

As I said, I leave with great disappointment and much joy. And my joy is that I will be with my master and people that just love the ground that I walk on. I cannot even move my toe. And the only reason they are like that is because I'm never with them. That was my lesson. Because I'm never with them, the few moments I am with them I don't even have to walk. That is just an example of the dedication and love they have. You know that as you walk in that door I'll be sitting here. You take that for granted. Well now the change has come. If I find that you have become ants and not wood-borers then I'll definitely come back. but if I still see some wood-borers here, I promise you on my guru and all the masters, coming back here will be very difficult for me.

If I have to do anything, I'll post it to the ashram. Anything to print I'll post to Dean, Tarryn, Jo and Nirvana. They can type and print. But as for me and all of you, if I ever make a call to you it means that at that moment I'm sending you that energy, but that's going to be virtually impossible. I'm going to try and avoid contacting you so you can find your true space while I find my true self.

Looking sad like that really wont change anything. You should all be happy that you are having this time to experience the energies I always talk about. Three days ago I received a Facebook message from a very senior man called Shantakhumal. He's been in our ashram for about five years now and following me for five years, and he sent me a Facebook message like this: 'Gurusharanam. This morning when I was meditating, I felt your presence. I am so excited that I don't feel like going to work'. For me those are accolades. I am proud that somebody could even have that experience. You must be able to have those experiences.

Most of my work here will be done through Seelan, Dean, Deepak and Suren. If I need any messages to be spoken they will speak it here and it'll be my message. Most of my instructions for the ashram will be given directly to Roy so the ashram must continue in my absence the same as it is now. As much as I will be absent my presence will be strongly felt. If you're not here for new year, I'll take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas, and a prosperous new year to all of you. May 2013 be guided by the masters and may you use opportunity of experience of the masters so you may not be affected by the misfortunes of 2013.

If 2012 was bad, 2013 is going to be terrible. It's just because we're going into the nip of the astral cycle that it's getting worse. It's in the perfect downward trend right now. We're going right to the bottom before we rise again in 2016. War and nuclear attack is inevitable in 2013. The greatest earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes will happen in 2013. Thousands and thousands of lives will be gone. In South Africa you are very safe. You're going to have more natural disasters, more rains, more storms, more destruction, more freak accidents in South Africa.

Politically, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 in South Africa will see a downward trend. Bread will cost us more than R15. Normal bread, not the fancy bread. R100 will buy you a packet of biscuits, a litre of milk, and a loaf of bread by 2016. Our rand will be so weak it'll be unbelievable. We will be affected greatly by the political trend of South Africa between 2013 and 2016. We will lose many of our possessions and our assets during this time.

So my prayer for all of you for 2013: may God bless you all so that you can enjoy the divine light in my absence.

Hari om

Navarathri: Saraswathi Pooja

The final stage of Navarathri has begun. These are the last three days, and by this time we should all be ready.

 Today we start the journey to acquire divine knowledge. We started with Durga in the first 3 days, to give up all our vices of arrogance and attitude. In the next three days we worshiped Luxmi to develop prosperity and move forward toward spiritually to attain wisdom and knowledge. Today we start the three days of Saraswathi pooja. During these days, we are supposed to be reading scriptural texts and books. We are supposed to be studying. If you look at the bigger picture, our rishis knew where to designate the Saraswathi pooja – just before your exams! This was done so that you can have the confidence that God is with you during your exams.

Just believe in God. Fall in love with God and make God your lover. If you do this you will never go wrong. The bhakti that so many of us have for cell phones, take some of that bhakti and let it be for God. Most of us don’t know a spiritual or social life because we have this thing called a Blackberry. Even at a social function we are BBMing. I remember at school we had a little black book. Whenever you were taken to the office or did something wrong your name was put in the black book. If you go to any spiritual being or priest he will tell you black is a bad colour. For Hindus, black is especially bad because it is the colour of Sani. We shouldn’t even be wearing black. Yet, each one of us has a thing called a BLACKberry...

Today you should start this journey, nurture this journey of falling on love with God. I can personally tell you that nothing is better… you can place your head on the pillow at night and have a good sleep. You can wake up the next day with no worries because God will take care of everything -  your good and your bad.  

Tomorrow I won’t see you. I’m going home to Sri Lanka. I will be there for twenty days, so please continue the next three days – keep your fast and as I said just believe! That is where I started and it works!  

Hari om!

Navarathri Chariot Procession

I've never seen you all so exhausted! Even a fly could go for a tour in your mouth and you wouldn't know. What you've just done should energise you!

I thank all of you for making this chariot procession a success, and the masters have told me that this will be THE chariot procession and I think that's what we experienced. As of today I won't be involved. It will carry on with the members and committee. I won't be involved at all because for the period this procession was tabled, I've only had stress. I've got all the dates for your chariot procession for the next ten years and you must decide if you want to start preparations for next year tomorrow, or wait until the day before.

The mother looked absolutely beautiful today. In 22 years I have never seen her in all the glamour we saw her in today. Thank you to everyone who made that possible. To all of you who pulled the chariot today, if it wasn't for you the chariot would not have left here. Give yourselves a round of applause. To my masters who were fighting with God to keep the rain at bay, give them a round of applause. I think they really did a good job. They told me there'd be no rain for five hours - from 1.30 to 6.30pm we had 5 hours without rain. Thank you very much and God bless all of you.  

Just this morning I was talking, and I said, "For me, this is my greatest passion". Even a thank-you won't help me. This is what I live to do. I don't do anything else. For as long as many of you have known me I have been doing this. This is my passion. My masters instruct me, and I come out and do it. Many of you don't understand this concept of master and disciple. It doesn't only work on the material plane. It doesn't stop here. Even after he leaves this material plane, your master will guide you, talk to you, and tell you where you are going. Your master teaches you the art of silence. Only your master can do that. Your master tells you when to act, when not to act, and how to react. But you must be in tune with your master. Some of you think that by sitting here you're in tune with me. It's not like that. Hundreds of you can serve me food, but only the guru can decide who gets the darshan. He can take your food and not even recognise you. He can take your food, and give you darshan and you won't understand until your guru is gone.

Some of you don't understand your guru. Your tone, your voice, your statements are not called for. But your guru doesn't react with you because he knows the art of silence. And the art of silence is the only thing that will take you through this journey. When the media phones, anybody knowing the art of silence, will say, "I have no comment". The art of silence lets you leave your issues behind, and just go with your tissues. That is the art of silence.

I'm only an instrument and this is my love. I'll give up anything for this. I'm leaving for Sri Lanka on Tuesday for my guru. It is his birthday on the 26th. I will be there on his birthday. I will be so happy to be at my guru's samadhi place, to sit there and enjoy his energy. You are all lucky. I don't have my guru in the physical. I have my guru in energy. You have a physical guru. If you don't have a guru, go and find one. I used to say that a lot before. Find a guru and hold onto his leg for dear life. And once you can hold onto his leg for dear life, that guru will take you to your heights.

I'm going to conclude by talking to you quickly about my first guru, Narainsami. Before he accepted me as his disciple he chased me away three times. I was young, just fourteen years old. He chased my father too. His words were, "What rubbish! I'm no guru. I cut sugar cane! Who told you this rubbish? get out!" My father had a short fuse and all the way back home he was swearing at my mother. There was an old lady there who said, "Son, relax, he behaves like that". My father said that Narainsami was mad. My mother cried to go again so my father took her. It was by the beach, and his words were, "I told y'all yesterday! What's your people's problem? Get out now!" My father shouted at my mother again.

To secure a third trip, my mother cried and didn't eat for two days, so my father gave in and took her again. We get there, and Narainsami said, "Come, come". My father couldn't understand this. The same man who chased us and said what bullshit all this was, now said, "Come, come".

Today I remember my first experience with my guru. He had a bottle of Mainstay, and a pork chop in his hand. He asked, "What's your problem?" My father told him that I had epilepsy and fits. My guru said, "Nonsense. He doesn't have epilepsy. Go home". Narainsamy was filthy, with fat dripping off his face from the chop. He took a piece of paper, drew some lines, a triangle, square, rectangle, circle. He said to my father, "Take this home, put it in a bucket of water and bath him outside". My dad said it wouldn't work. We go home, my mother holding the piece of paper for dear life. She put it in the water, I was outside, naked, and they poured a bucket of water over me. Then I came right. That's how he became my guru. And I held onto him for dear life, for ten, maybe twelve years. And then I met Jagadambal and left him to hold onto her.

Navarathri: Kali Pooja

So, it was confirmed today that Navarathri started on Monday. Many of you thought that the priests can’t make a mistake, but here you have it, a mistake was made. Most of you think I am talking utter rubbish but the priests in Sri Lanka started Navarathri on Monday, and this was confirmed today. We have deprived the Mother of one day because our fool priests have given us the wrong date. On Tuesday they said that we should have started the day before. That is too late. So, how are we going to fix this? 

On Saturday between 6:30 and 7:30am we must do a Kali pooja. The only destructive factor that will come is Kali. I’m telling you because you are close to my heart and I don’t want you to be affected by not doing the full 9 days. 

Now, I've found that all of you are like zombies here. You don’t know what is happening! Today you saw them dancing with the Durga murthi, with all her weapons. Just assume the knife fell off and hit somebody on the head… dangerous! You are the very people who will say the Guru did something wrong because throwing blame is your profession. You will always point. That is not acceptable – we can’t take the Durga Mata and rock her so much without being aware. You can walk here, kick this chair and break your toe, it will be very painful but if you are over 60, it won’t heal. You will live with that pain until you die. The same goes for the brass. If anything fell from there and hit your head, it will knock you unconscious! Just imagine, then you will blame God!  We are not even lackadaisical – we are just zombies!

We are not allowed to do this on the journey. Because of this, every other day I have to shout at you. Today is not the first day we have taken the instruments off Durga, we do it all the time. And then if something happens, I have to sit and worry about it, not you. These are the things that worry me: somebody will get hurt! We don’t know how half the things are done. Inside me I feel so much disappointment that we are not awake. Not aware.

Anyway that’s finished now. On Saturday, no nonsense! The chariot will leave here at 13:30. This is the time given to me by the rishis - not ten minutes later. Anytime later we will be caught, so we should rather leave on time. Don’t say you didn’t get a warning! At 10am will be the Janda and Swasti prayer for the flags that will go on the chariot.

Om

Navarathri: Flag Hoisting

During Navarathri we pray to Mother Durga, Luxmi and Saraswathi, and each of the deities make up 3 days of the 9 days. But what does that mean? It doesn’t mean you must come here every day, sing bhajan, eat supper and leave. It means you must come every day and slowly change who you are so you can become knowledgeable like Saraswathi.

We start with Durga, with all your arrogance and all your problems. For the first 3 days after hawan, bhajan, and singing to the Mother, you get some prosperity in your journey. By getting that prosperity you then pray to Mother Luxmi. After you attain the highest prosperity from Mother Luxmi, you worship Her. Luxmi does  not mean finances only, it means personal prosperity and good health. After that, you attain knowledge in the worship to Mother Saraswathi. In those 3 days we're supposed to become very knowledgeable beings. Hindus do everything in 9s. In 9 days you can become super-human. But it’s only possible if you tune yourself to becoming super-human. It’s not possible when you say that you can’t wait for the 9 days to finish.

Sometimes God likes to punish, but God punishes very subtly. Partassi finished yesterday and Navarathri begins today which means you must continue your fast. Navarathri has started like this so we can purify ourselves. That is why we fast. For the Tamil people, they say it feels like God is killing them! ‘God is punishes us!’ is what runs through their minds. ‘Hey, the jol starts now!’ is what is heard in the workplace. Why? Partasi and Pitarpak are over now, and the pitars have been fed. Now there is the desire to feed the human pitars. That’s us – we are just like pitars too. But, here we come for 9 days to purify the mind. The faculty of the mind is the most destructive faculty that this body has. You are better off without mind. You will be healthier without mind. You will be more prosperous without mind. We teach you here, and we do the pooja here; we do japa, recital and sing bhajan so we can excite your bhakti, your devotion, so you can become spiritual beings. During a discourse in 1951 with Paramahansa Yogananda, His devotees said to him, ‘We love you Guruji! We love you so much, we can’t live without you.’ He sat for a moment, laughed aloud and said, ‘But you don’t love yourself, how can you love me?’

That is why we've come for the nine days: we need to purify ourselves. When we say 'purify' we are talking about the physical self and this manamaya kosha (mind body). It is the most destructive thing if we don’t use it properly. The sages, in their wisdom, have given us the second half in the year to pray, pray, pray. I heard someone ask not so long ago, ‘Guru, tell me, why do the sages do this? We've just finish Ganesha Chaturi, then we have Luxmi pooja; we finish Luxmi pooja then we have partasi; we finish partasi now we have Navarathri. Is God trying to kill us?’ My answer was, ‘I didn’t know that if you don’t eat meat you’ll die.’  God doesn’t want to kill you. God wants you to live a good life, that is why he took the meat away.

What we did there (in the main shrine) was hoist the flag so that everybody knows we are observing Navarathri pooja. This flag-hoisting also has another very important meaning. It means that each one of you have come here and developed the courage to change. This flag is your victory flag - showing that each one of you has made this move. In the olden days when they won over parts of the land, they put up a flag to say that they had conquered the land. This flag means that you have conquered the mind and mind stuff, and that is why you have chosen to observe this Navarathri pooja.

Om

30 September Pournami Pooja

I realised something was bothering you with those empty seats. Those are all for the pitars. We can't see them. And I tell them beforehand we won't feed them. Unless some of your pitars came with you and they're sitting there. All those seats are empty because they are having pitar pak – they put out food for their relations who have passed on. But there's no use in following that if we don't know why. Some people will request a logical explanation by asking what happens to those souls kept in 'holding' that are not reborn. Good question. You don't know if your uncle, grandfather or aunt is in 'holding' or has been reincarnated. If they're reincarnated, then you're wasting your energy because nobody as a pitar (wandering spirit) will come and consume the food. The food you prepared so well, you leave outside. If they're not reincarnated then on their death day, you should take food out for the deceased so you give him or her a birthday gift in the astral plane, that is when they first entered the astral realm after this lifetime. On that day, according to my guru, is the perfect time to take food out for those people that have passed on.

But here we follow without reason or explanation - blindly - and we do pitar pak. For us who do the prayer it's a great event because we can have good food. Every time we pray it's an event: the food list comes out before the prayer list. As soon as we have a prayer Ahok asks what we're going to eat. That is how we work. So whether you pray or not at this time it doesn't matter. But what matters is we should remember God at this time. And if we're remembering God, it means we're praying.

You're in a catch-22 because the older generation say we must not pray during this time, but they don't say we mustn't go and gamble at Sibaya. That is what you must look at as a logical answer. If we can do something that is so negative during this time, like gambling, what is wrong with doing something that is so positive during this time, like praying. Nothing is wrong. So at the Gayathri Peedam we don't follow any of these dates.

I was telling someone last week if you chant the Gayathri Mantra when the child is born he'll have a powerful material life. If you recite it when the child is about to die, the child's journey back home will be most blissful. When we are born we recite, when we die we recite and during life we recite. It is even described in the Vedas as a Veda-mantra, a most powerful mantra, the mother of all mantras. So, you're telling me that you're observing pitar pak and you're not praying in your mind when something happens, for example a tax almost drives into you but misses, and you say, 'Thank God!' You're not supposed to do that, according to the old people. The word God should not be mentioned.

I told you that so that you know I also observe death days of my father, mother and in-laws. When I pass on I'll observe my day as well through each one of you. It'll be done, but on the death anniversary. Like last Monday when we did Swami Murugesu's Mahasamadhi pooja on the day of his attainment in another plane.

While I was driving this morning, I had two requests from my gurus. One of them was I should come home and look at the astrology of South Africa today and then immediately afterwards do a Babaji hawan. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell any of you because I had to do it within half an hour of receiving the message. So I did the hawan and the astrology. And really, the astrology for South Africa and for some of you is not looking good at all. I also did the astrology for South Africa on the day the ANC officially took their seats in parliament, on the 10^th of May 1994. On that day the was 1-55-23. On the 10^th of May this year, the numerology was 1-55-23. What this means is that the country will go downhill in all aspects of operation from the 10 of May 2013. The country's stability will be at risk, food prices will increase 100 percent. Finances will be on a down trend. Strikes will marr the country. Change is only possible on the 10 of May 2021.

Then I said, 'let me just see what our president has in store for us,' so I did a reading for Jacob Zuma. The numerology for Jacob is 4, and for Zuma is 7. 7 and 4 gives us 11, a master number 1. And 1 and 1 gives us 2. According to numerology the 4 of Jacob gives us a character of no boldness. Zuma is one who is is always in conflict. Times ahead are very shady for him. 11 means imprisonment.

We need to make, take and adhere to the requirements from the spiritual aspects to sustain. That is the last line I was given. So we need to now try and make sure that we have enough for those days when we don't have. There are going to be those days ahead of us till 2021. Tomorrow is the 1^st of October and the next three-month cycle is going to be a difficult one in our lives. I took tomorrow's date and, as a day, it comes out very shady.

So, today were going to do a very special prayer and the prayer will be for all those people who have sun signs of Virgo, Leo, Scorpio and Libra. For you Saturn has a bad affect for the next five months, until February. That is todays astrology as of 10.30 this morning. So, you know who you are. I'm not going to repeat myself. When I say, 'sun signs you come now', then you come and do your hawan. those who are not here, unfortunate for them.

What is the difference between a teacher and a guru? A teacher takes responsibility for your growth; a guru makes you responsible for your growth. A teacher gives u things you do not have and require; a guru takes away what you have and don't require. A teacher answers your questions; a guru questions your answers. A teacher takes you out of maze; a guru destroys the maze. A teacher prepares you for the outer world; a guru strips you naked and prepares you for your inner world. When the teacher's course is over you get a certificate; when the guru's discourse is over you get to know the absolute Truth. 

This morning, I have some good news. The Gayathri Peedam would like to take this opportunity to welcome Gloria from Heaven Letters. If you read the Transcendence you would have read Heaven Letters by Gloria and Santhan. Some of you should talk to him - he's toured the world.

Hari om

Grow antennae, not horns

Hari Om.

Many of us are growing horns instead of antennae. With antennae we can connect with supreme energies and the outer world. But we are too busy fighting with each other and forgetting where we have come from. We have all that, a journey until this point. For some of you the journey might have been a difficult one; for others, an easier one. Whether difficult or easy, we must all understand that this is the journey. Many of us forget our roots. We forget what we used to do and, above all, we forget the love that was taught to us by those very dear people we call our parents.

This is the time to show the love that you have. This is the time to make everybody around you feel as comfortable as possible. This is the time to unite with your maker. Every one of you has a maker within. Try to unite with that maker. By uniting with that maker we can find eternal peace, eternal joy, and states of bliss that you, yourself, cannot explain.

Our journey thus far has made us recognise and know who we are, what we can do, and what we can't do. It has made us know what is to be believed and what is not; that there is an energy out there, a divine cosmic energy whom we so lovingly refer to as God. The time has come for us to continue this union with God, for this union does not just stop here. From here this union takes you to another level. After death this union takes you to a higher level, a higher state, to a place where love, peace, joy, and bliss is so common. That is the place we need to be. This, most beautiful place, is called the cosmic realm.

Today is the day, now is the time for each one of you to find within yourself, to dive deep within yourself, and pick up that cosmic energy that rests in you. Enjoy the radiant energy that can be experienced while knowing this cosmic energy. God has given each one of you an intellect, the power to know and to attain knowledge. God has given you the ability to know right from wrong, good from bad, and happiness from sorrow. You know all that, but you only know these things because God has given you the power to recognise them. In the same light, he has also given you the intellect to recall who you are, where you come from, and to recall that inner atmic realm that gives you self-realisation leading to God-realisation. You are unique in your own way, but atmically every one of you is the same.

There is nothing unique about one person's atmic realm compared to another. All the atmic realms are the same. Therefore, all of you have the power to find this atmic realm and to reside in it, to enjoy states of bliss, happiness, and excitement, by knowing God. For God is the atmic realm and, only by transcending from the physical plane to the atmic realm, can you transcend from the atmic to the cosmic realm, situated in the abode of supreme love. At that time we can make the union with God our father, our maker, our guardian.

It is very important that we start recognising and trying to make contact with the inner self or the atmic realm. Transcendence is only possible through that. You are not just a bundle of flesh, bones and organs. You are a bundle of joy, love, and bliss. Every nadi, every organ, every part of your body, works in harmony with each other because you are a manifestation of love. Therefore, stop growing horns and start growing antennae. This is the most beautiful thing you can do.

The time is come for us to now make this union with the maker. This is the right time, the right moment, the now. The now that you are not going to experience tomorrow; the now that you are not going to experience the day after tomorrow; the now that is here at this very moment. This is the time to pledge your love, divinely and sincerely. This is the time. There is no time better than this time.

To you, the children of Gayathri, love is a journey. And when I say love is a journey, I mean that love is a mother-child relationship. Because the mother we call Gayathri is that love. And only through that love is this journey possible. Time is running out for all of you, for all of us. And when time is running out we need to make the best of whatever is there. We need to understand that this whole journey, this whole lifetime is the most important aspect. A stranger now, after some time becomes your friend. It all depends on time. So, my love for you has been developed, generated, by this aspect of time. You should experience this bundle of great manifestation of bliss. You should experience this bundle of great manifestation of healing energy. You should experience this bundle of joy and happiness. Just experience ... for this is the time, this is the moment, this is the now. This now can never change. This now is here at this moment.

My love for you, children of Gayathri is all pure and a true manifest of bliss. My love for you has no motive, 'cause I have nothing to gain. My love for you is divine and supreme, 'cause it is free from partiality. My love for you is without any logic, 'cause it made me understand you. My love for you is the only discovery of myself in you, 'cause I delight in recognising it. My love for you is the only love that unites you to the maker, 'cause i know it. My love for you is the medicine that will heal your world, 'cause I have healed you before. My love for you is boundless, 'cause I have no boundaries.

Do not grow horns, just grow antennae.

Hari om and god bless you.

Launch of Mahakali Mandir

Hari om.

Every now and then every one of us seated here goes through some changes in our lives. Some of the changes that we go through are good, and some not so good. When you have to follow the instructions of great masters like my guru, Swami Murugesu Maharishi, Shivabalayogi, Kriya Babaji - and not forgetting the one that hammers me all the time Agastyar - when you follow these great saints, changes happen every day. When this project, this ashram that you are sitting in, was complete I thought I could rest – but no, they didn’t give me the chance to rest. Now they say I must complete the Kali shrine. They also said that this is my last project: "This is your only project. This project will take you where you belong". I stand in front of you here to hand this project over to you as the most sincere devotees of the Gayathri Peedam, and some sincere followers of my Guru's teachings. 

This is not a simple project. To install a Kali murthi means I have to split my energy so I can make this shrine a reality. It takes a lot to install a Kali murthi. Talking about the Kali murthi as She stands here: It is a design that came to me through my Guru in meditation. I remembered it in every detail. I went to Mahabalipuram, told the guy what I want and in my next visit, he produced something that, to me was beyond my imagination, and a total disbelief – this is exactly how I saw the mother. Now that I am going to house her, it gives even me better joy because, in my meditation, she was seated in a shrine that looked very much like the Taj Mahal – in all her glory. That is the plan I have for the installation of this supreme mother Kali who has guided us through every major prayer we have performed at this ashram. Before every prayer we first worshiped Mother Kali. To me, she is not just made of black stone; she is not just made of granite; to me, she is living and I expect her to live in each one of you after we complete the installation. 

The project will be one of its kind. It will be the most unique Kali temple and it will be THE Kali temple for all for you to worship and absorb Her energy. There will be nine kalsas placed underneath the Kali murthi which will generate energy continuously. There will be a Mahameru above the murthi so that you can absorb the energy of mother Kali. Some of you have worshiped mother Kali before and you are now thinking,‘How is Guru going to do the necessary pooja?’ Kali has never asked any one of you to give a life – Kali does not represent a life sacrifice. Mother Kali represents your own sacrifice. As you can see she has a garland of skulls which means, "before you come to Me, purify your mind and come to me with pure mind". They are human skulls and not goat skulls, and because they're human skulls we should not believe that we should sacrifice goats.

A man came to me in the early days to 'open book'. We didn’t use the word ‘astrology’ in those days. When we did the reading, I told him that he needed to become a vegetarian. He said he couldn’t because he owned buses and he had to sacrifice. He said that when his great grandfather ran the business, there were no accidents on the road because he did the Kali prayer. Well, I had to find a quick answer for that and said to him, ‘When your grandfather was driving the bus somebody had to run in front of it with a lantern and there were no accidents because there were no cars on the roads.’ Nowadays we have so many cars on the roads so it’s not easy to avoid an accident. I told him there was no need to sacrifice. He then called me some names which I cannot repeat here. But today, he no longer has buses, neither does he have his lower limbs. That is what happens when we sacrifice – we are the looser.

For this Kali murthi we have no sacrifice. Sometimes we want to bluff ourselves and do sacrifice with nutmeg. Sometimes we cut a pumpkin and put red kumkum inside and say that it's blood. There should not be any kind of sacrifice here. And this Kali is no exception – there will be no sacrifice here. Don’t make you contribution thinking that you can come here on Good Friday to offer your sacrifice. It’s not going to happen! You may think on Good Friday you can bring your goat here instead of driving all the way to Isipingo – it’s not going to happen here. 

The shrine will be in stainless steel - that means the upper deck and the dome. It will be open on four sides so worship around the shrine is possible. The Kali shine should not have walls because she is there to protect. After the installation, the protection of the shrine will be in the radius of 200km or more. If you come from Stanger, you will be protected. This includes ships that will be traveling 200km from here. That is the total energy radius of this Kali. 

In the joy of us installing this Kali murthi also comes some sadness. This morning the Shiva lingam came loose from its base and that is not a very good sign. But I believe that by making my pledge today I will be able to overcome whatever obstacle is in store for us. There are many aspects of life that can be affected when a lingam comes loose from the base. The biggest and most terrifying for you is called death. It is not supposed to come loose on its own. This is not to shock you. We are doing a re-installation tomorrow at 5am. Come and feel the energy.

So, I stand here and, as I always say to everybody – nobody is a better beggar than me. Here I stand to beg of you to make your contribution to this shrine which we call the Sri Vidhya Maha Kali Mandir. Sri Vidya because of the Sri Chakra and nine kalsas, so that she will be encapsulated in this divine energy. It will be so powerful that you may have a problem approaching the shrine. I ask you in total humility and love that your contribution is not based me being your guru or on pleasing me; your contribution should be based on yourself as individuals. Once you make your pledge, the next step is to fulfill the contribution. In the name of my master Swami Murugesu Maharishi, in the name of Sri Agastyiar Muni, I pray that we meet whatever is required for the building of the Kali shrine.

Mahanavagraha Pooja

Today we did Navagraha for the 12 zodiac houses. One set of mantras was for the sub-lords of the zodiac and the other was for the lords and sub-lords of the Navagraha.

With Jupiter having just left many of your signs right now, we still have a problem and therefore we did the pooja for the zodiac. You can go anywhere you want in the world, you'll find that nobody does the pooja for the zodiac, and this is an instruction given to me by my guru, that if we want to have a prosperous three months ahead of us without any obstacles, we should do the zodiac first, and that's what we did. You all offered to your specific sign, and then we gave you the opportunity as businessmen, breadwinners and home-executives. That is because whichever of those you are, the planet has an affect on you that you cannot run away from. All this is from Vedic astrology and I know from my experience that it does affect you, and many of you now will find that you are going through a bad patch. That's because Jupiter has just left you with your pockets inside-out. This isn't the time for you to chew on the end of your pencil and gaze endlessly out the window. This is a time for you to work so you don't have any negative affects from the planetary and zodiac setup. This prayer is to remove the obstacles that were going to affect you over the next three months. Each one of you made your special offering, 'athma sudhileni', as your soul was the purest, you made this offering and you had Lord Shiva in all the lingams. 'With my third eye I look at Shiva and make this offering, and he must energise my third eye and make me aware of all that's coming in my direction, good or bad'.

Now we're going to do the hawan so that each of you carrying baggage on your back and continuing to fill it up with the happenings of the day and past days, can throw that baggage into the fire. That is the purpose of today's hawan. Throw your baggage in the fire. You don't need to carry baggage. Look at the three months ahead of you so you don't have any difficulties, obstacles or pains, and the love that comes from you is eternal. If you can do that then you have no baggage. But if you cannot show another individual unconditional love, then you have baggage and are carrying something you shouldn't be carrying. This is your opportunity to burn your baggage and walk from here, your walk to freedom. Your attainment of God- or Self-realisation will then become possible when you let go of the baggage that you carry. It is very sad that we don't let go. If I had to hold onto everything that each one of you did to me knowingly and unknowingly, wittingly and unwittingly, then I would have more enemies than friends. But I don't carry that baggage.

My guru has taught me that every time you have a situation where you carry baggage, you should do a mental hawan and offer the baggage to the fire. That is why I gave you all these special cards yesterday and today, confessing my sincere cosmic, unconditional divine love for each one of you. I live by my guru's teachings only, and his teaching was always, "See the person in front of you as bigger than you".  If you see others as being inferior to you, you'll go nowhere because you'll have nobody there. He also told me that whenever a bird is flying, it has to come down to drink water. So even when you're riding a high horse, you have to come down. So don't ride the horse then you'll be down on the ground with everybody all the time. Teachers, lecturers, nurses, they have excellent karma because they are doing something that is benefiting others. And that is how karma works. So, before we start the hawan, I'm going to conclude with my line: “You are here in this restaurant. We don't have a menu. You get what you deserve”. Once you remember that then karma is an easy thing to understand.

Whenever we are in a prayer we always have to go somewhere but whenever we're in a party we have to go nowhere. And even when we're there, we go nowhere. Before we do aarthi I just want to tell you that we have some booklets here printed by Ma Foolchand for free distribution. It doesn't mean you have to take a book. It means if you take a book you must follow it and read it. The Narshma Kavaka Strotram is very powerful and has special methods and procedures so don't take it home and throw it with the other books that you have, the pile of religious books you've never opened before. It is pocket size. Carry it in your pocket and whenever there's a moment of dire straits, pain or distress, just flip through the pages of the booklet and you'll receive the solution or answer to your problem. So, as I said, this is not for you to take and keep at home not to read. It is for you to carry in your pocket and it works very much like the Bhagavad Gita. The verses, if you can read the Sanskrit, have a beauty in the way they streams into each other. They are very beautiful to listen to. So, after aarthi, you can take one of these books per family, and go home and practise it.

Also some of you will be getting a mala from me. This is because of the planetary zodiac signs as they stand right now. Others of you - generally businessmen - will be getting a ring to will keep away evil mind and evil eyes. And some of you will be getting the Shivaling ring to wear for your protection. There's always a time to give, and today we find this time. Also on life's journey, we do not know if we'll have the opportunity to give tomorrow, so if you feel like giving today then let it be today because tomorrow you don't know whether the sun is going to rise above you. Life is uncertain. You need to live this life in its uncertainty, knowing full well that it has to end. If you deserve a mala, you'll get a mala. If you deserve a ring, you'll get a ring. And if you deserve a slap you'll get a slap.

Hari om and God bless you.

Ego

Ego is the greatest aspect of the mind. But greater than ego is envy. Do not be envious of anybody. If he drives a Mercedes, good for him. If he drives a Ferrari, good for him. But don't be envious of him. Many of us are envious of other people, their progress and success. We shouldn't be. Just accept life. In the simplest form, it comes to you, but because you're looking for life in extravagance, not in simplicity, you lose it. Life can never appear to you in extravagance, only in simplicity. And when you know your soul (your atma), simplicity becomes your foundation, your wall, roof, windows and doors. But if you don't know, then we decorate the walls, roof, windows, and everything else.

Live in that simplicity. I'm not saying you must not have good homes – I'm talking about the home you carry around you: your body. The Bible says the “Kingdom of God is within”. Don't destroy the temple with your mind. Just enjoy it and see how good you feel.

You know, Kumaresen paid a lot of money to travel with me. And when we landed in India he had a viral infection from the water and was in bed for four days. But we carried on. From Chennai we went to Arunachala, then to Bangalore, and he slept while I did what I had to do. We went to Appaji and I insisted he come with me. He slept all the way to Bangalore. We reached Katmandu and he slept. When he was okay I said, “You spent so much money and wasted your trip”. What he said to me was, “I'm sure God didn't want me to see all those places – there was a reason behind it”. As soon as he saw Mount Kailash he was fine, and the journey after that was excellent. He said to me, “Maybe Kailash is where I needed to go”.

There was no sorrow or sadness that he had spent so much money and couldn't do everything because he was sick. Is he successful? Yes. Why? He envies nobody. His neighbour can be richer than him and it doesn't bother him, but it bothers us. If I drive a BMW or Mercedes tomorrow, none of you will come back because you think I took your money to buy it. See how the mind works. But you don't think that you didn't give me a cent. You'll say, “Guru took all the temple money”.

Issues in your tissues

This human body that we so much adore and adorn, is controlled by the mind. And because it's controlled by the mind we have issues that we carry over and over again. And as long as we have these issues, we don't have progress. So, to have progress, we should not carry issues.

You know, we have a devotee in Cape Town by the name of Desika. As you can see, the camera is facing me, she is having bhajan with us in Cape Town on Skype. She has total dedication to guru and God, a real, sincere love. It is not altered by the mind. No matter how the mind works, she still has a total love and dedication for guru and God. And no matter what you say to her, she'll say, “By the grace of Guru and God”. She leaves on Monday to present a paper in Spain, and when I phoned her to congratulate her, she said it was “By the grace of God”. No mind. No issues.

Issues will irritate your tissues. Remember that. We carry these issues, we have an irritated tissue. We're always finding faults because we have issues. We make them other people's problems. We need to change that. I can have an issue with every one of you seated here, but I'm not prepared to have it in my tissues. It's as simple as that. Therefore, I don't have issues.

You can tell me what you want. I will listen to you and, as you walk out, of here it's finished with me. I don't carry it. But as long as you carry it, misery will be around you all the time, be it because somebody you love dearly has passed on, or somebody you love has disregarded you. You must have evenness of mind.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Out of delusion, comes anger; and out of anger you will perish”. That means you will not know who you are. You'll always be in a state of continuous sadness. You don't need that state of sadness. You are here to do a specific duty and that duty is not to be an engineer, a doctor, a teacher or principle. That duty is to find the god within yourself. That's why you're here. You've been here before. You've acted your part, didn't do a good job, went back stage and they sent you back to do it again. Just like that. Just like when you were in school, the teacher will tell you, “It's no good, go back and practice”. You're here to practice what you failed in your past life. But you're not practicing it. You are caught in this issue, no matter what it is. Your issues come from the mind, not from anywhere else. The mind is your biggest garbage truck. Even the municipality garbage truck is smaller than your mind. And you carry and carry, you're not even getting rid of the garbage that you carry, and you are miserable and make everyone around you miserable, because you cannot be miserable alone. You don't want to, so you drag everybody else with you. As long as you do that, happiness for you is only a temporary solution. In four days time you won't be happy.

So please, let us not carry. We are carrying so much. Many of you here, I've heard, had issues from childhood. Many of you think I didn't have issues in childhood. Mine are worse than some of yours, but do I carry them? No, because I don't want to waste this life and come back here to finish what I was supposed to finish in this life. Don't waste your life. There's only one thing I have in my head: to have this union with my maker when I return home. We are all going to return home, but if you don't know who your maker is while you're here, who are you going to return to? That's something you don't know. Know that energy now. That supreme energy called Shiva, Krishna, Jesus, Allah. Know it now. And if you know it now, when you leave this body you'll be welcomed because you know who's welcoming you. Do the duties that you're sent to do here. Be a good husband, wife daughter, son, devotee, disciple – that's why you're sent here. There's no other reason. We need to find this goodness within us.

We're going to have a seven day workshop with regards to this: release the issues in your tissues. That is the title of the program. It sounds funny. As I sit here ninety percent of you need to come to the class. For Sundrie we have to have two nine-day sessions. Let us see how we can help each other on this journey of spirituality, well being and cosmic energy, so that we can get on in this journey.

Hari om.

Sacrifice vs Slaughter

Many types of sacrifice are given in the Vedas. Knowing that liberation is possible, after knowing real knowledge one will never fall into delusion, but will see all beings in the Self and in the Lord. We meet people who say that, according to the Vedas, they have to do a specific kind of pooja (ritual prayer). Many kinds of action have been prescribed through the sacred texts of Hinduism, and by performing them you can be liberated. But what is Krishna's definition of liberation? It is when we are able to see Him in all beings, and all beings in Him. Then we are liberated. Therefore, doubts that are born of ignorance should be removed with the sword of this knowledge. Once you have such knowledge you should not have any doubt.

But doubt seems to be our biggest problem. As you sit there, some of you are thinking. “This Bhagavad Gita ... is it really such a great book? This guru sitting here blabbering away … is he telling us the truth?” As long as we have doubt we cannot be liberated because doubt is one of the greatest factors in obstructing, in restricting, our upliftment on this spiritual journey. Arjuna goes further to say, “Oh Lord, tell me about yoga,” and Krishna continues, explaining that after attaining success in yoga, tranquility is the support.

Realisation is difficult work for somebody whose Self is not in control. Which self do we refer to here? The mind self. If your mind self is running havoc – and most of you have such active minds if mind was a factor in the olmpics you'd come first – it can destroy you. Let the mind remain a servant. Never give it promotion to be your master. Once you do that, you're in trouble. You'll always be in trouble. Have control of the mind, says Krishna. He also says that we must not wait for the fruits of our action, “surpassing the fruits of merit, performing sacrifice, austerity ... you will attain supreme peace”. We must do charity and perform sacrifice.

But what is sacrifice? Sacrifice is when you give somebody else something that you see they need more than you do. You have it and need it, but not as much as somebody else does. And I'm not referring to thirteen black chickens and two goats. Don't interpret sacrifice as slaughter. There's a big difference. Sacrifice is a very good word for what it's supposed to and slaughter is a very good word for what it's supposed to do. Don't mix them. Many years ago I heard a well-educated spiritual being say that Krishna propogated sacrifice in the Bhagavad Gita, and that was the reason this person sacrificed. Right now he doesn't have either of his feet – they were amputated – so what did the prayer do for him? He created his own sacrifice. When krishna talks about sacrifice, he's not talking about slaughter.

When I first came to Verulam, a bus owner came to me and said he was doing Kali Pooja and that he sacrifices two goats. He said that when his father started the bus business, as long as he was performing 'sacrifice', there were no accidents. I told him that his father's bus was the only bus on the road at that time, so the chances of him having an accident were so low. Nowadays there are so many vehicles on the road, there are a lot more accidents. Some of you are thinking, “This guru is putting us off...” I'll tell you, my mother did all of that – slaughtering - and she was blind for fifteen years. I'm telling you from my experience. So don't confuse sacrifice with slaughter.

Krishna says that He will accept anything offered with love and devotion, even a leaf, fruit, flower or water, but it must be surrendered to the Lord. That means that when you prepare food, you should take some out and leave it for the Lord. The Hare Krishnas take their food and leave it at the altar before they partake of it. Many of us seated here think that we're Krishna so we take the food instead.

Hari Om.

Krishna Janasthami

According to our visiting Doctor Kusum, on this midnight Krishna was born. I wanted to ask her if she was there. So why are we starting so early when we should be starting at midnight? Krishna has become famous because of the Bhagavad Gita, and nothing else. It is one of the most beautiful scriptures to read. No other scripture comes close to the Bhagavad Gita in the beatitude of explanations about many aspects of life.

The sole purpose for the Gita is to be found Chapter 1 Verse 47. Had it not been for this chapter and verse, the Bhagavad Gita would have concluded with Chapter 1 verse 46. But it exists because Arjuna was suffering due to the fact he had to fight against his teachers, his grandsires, his uncles, his cousins, and his nephews. The verse reads as follows: “Having thus spoken in the midst of the battlefield, throwing down his bow and arrows, Arjuna sank down on the seat of the chariot, his heart overwhelmed by sorrow.”I think this is the most beautiful aspect of the Bhagavad Gita because we do the same thing so often when we are faced with a problem. The first thing we do is drop everything.

But Krishna, from Verse 48 onwards, has given us a precise method overcoming this kind of sorrow. He starts by saying to Arjuna, “From whence has this weakness come to you at this difficult time? It is not befitting you, who are of noble character. It does not lead to heaven and can only cause you disgrace”. Krishna is reminding Arjuna that he is a warrior and such sorrow is not befitting of such a position. Arjuna responds thus: “Indeed, rather than to slay these noble teachers, it would be preferable for me to be a beggar here on earth. Having slain the teachers with desire for personal gain, I would only enjoy on earth delights tainted by my actions”.

Krishna tells Arjuna to have no attachments to the actions of the gunas - the three attributes that the human form enjoys: tamasic, rajasic or sattvic. What is tamasic? I like to refer to food because all of you understand food. When you have spicy food, meat, chicken, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, those are tamasic. When you have a variety of food on the table, like, brinjal, potato, muffin puri, samoosa, salad, fruit, it is called rajasic. But when you have just enough food just to satisfy you and not just to fill your stomach, that is sattvic.

So Krishna is telling us that we are confused by the three gunas. Once we have learned of the absolute reality, we should avoid creating conflict in the minds of dull-witted individuals. Know that it is better to do one's own dharma than to do the dharma of another. We discussed this in one of the talks during Gita Week. Krishna says that we should not have sorrow. We must be informed that whenever there is a diminishing of dharma and a predominance of unrighteousness, then He will descend for the purpose of establishing righteousness and dharma. He says: “Why are you so afraid? I am the giver of dharma, of righteousness, I come age after age, wherever and whenever there is a decline in religion, and in righteousness, then I descend to bring about correction, to eliminate misgivers and re-establish dharma or righteousness”. Then Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him about action and inaction. And Krishna says, “About action and inaction, even the intelligent are confused in telling the difference,” and he follows that with an explanation of the differences, the knowledge of which will free one from misfortune.

Arjuna asked Krishna how it would feel if he could see the Lord in his true form at that moment. Krisha tells him that it would be like the brilliance of a thousand suns rising at once. We can't even handle one sun, can you imagine a thousand suns? That is the intensity and the potency of Sri Krishna. He has that kind of energy. Krishna concludes by saying that this is only possible for those who follow the virtuous path of immortality, taught by the Lord in the Gita, and with complete faith serve the Lord with an undeviating devotion, transcending the gunas, to reach the Lord who is the fundamental aspect of the immortal and immutable Brahman, of dharma and bliss. We must abandon all virtues and surrender to the Lord alone, then liberation from all evil and grief will be possible, and delusion will vanish by the grace of the Lord.

You came here for seven days so by now I'm sure that you understand the Bhagavad Gita. If you don't then we have the Essence of the Bhagavad Gita in 43 verses, called Nonsense Sense Essence. Before you read it you're loaded with nonsense, after you've read it once you'll get some sense, and when you've read it properly, you'll get the essence of it!

Hari Krishna!

Gita week: Who is a wise man?

Yesterday was pournami, so the quota for coming to the temple is finished for the month – for most of you. As a Hindu, the most important aspect of our lives is based on the Bhagavad Gita. We have just a few of you here tonight, yet when you become Christians the first thing you say is that you did not understand Hinduism, that Christianity is so much simpler. But if you make an effort to come to discourses and talks of this nature then you'll understand Hinduism.

Hinduism is not based on all these Gods, on all the different scriptures: the Vedas, Ramayan or the Bhagavad Gita. Hinduism is just a way of life, but if we take one book and we master that book, then we can call ourselves Hindus because we can talk about a scripture. When you meet a Christian convert, the first thing he'll do is quote from the Bible, all these passages from the Bible, and you'll stand there and listen because you really don't know what to quote from the Bhagavad Gita because you didn't make it 'your' book.

So we have these eight days set aside to reflect on the Bhagavad Gita, and reflect positively on it. It is a DIY manual, the simplest book to understand if you read it to understand it. But if you try and read it like a novel you'll never understand it. The Bhagavad Gita has no stories. It only has answers, solutions to every problem in our lives. Our biggest problem is that we believe it is impossible for us to know God because we cannot feel God, and we cannot see God.

Before you even know God you should know yourself. That's called self-realisation. Even that you don't know. If you don't know who you are, how will it be possible for you to know who God is? From desire comes attachment, leading to delusion, leading to loss of memory and then you'll perish. I'm going to take the verse that Suren just mentioned. How is it that you'll perish if you have desire? The Bhagavad Gita clearly states, that one will perish or be lost. You'll have more stress because, from desire comes ego, the end result of desire. And with ego you'll lose all identity of your physical self. And that's the delusion.

Losing identity of your physical self, even the people who love you will stay away from you because they can see there's something happening to you. That is what will cause you to perish. Once you perish, in the sense that you lose all identity of yourself, you do things that ego allows you to do: buy a fast car with your accumulated wealth because you need to show everybody that you've lost identity. And you drive the fast car fast. You buy these cars that are really not meant for our roads – like a Ferrari. They are meant for German roads, not South African roads. In Germany it's legal to drive at 180 kilometres an hour. If you drive like that with ego, you'll meet with a serious accident and perish.

The key is not to have desire. One without desire is a wise man because from desire all this comes. That is what Krishna says. We should not have that desire. Krishna also says, “You should desire me, God”. And if you desire God, you won't have that because the desire for God won't give you attachment, because it's not physical. 99.9% of the time all attachment is physical, even in a relationship. You buy a car, it's an attachment. All that I'm saying is that attachment comes from material desire. But with spiritual desire it doesn't exist. If you take the route of spiritual desire, from spiritual desire comes non-attachment, leading to fearlessness, from which comes the great state of spirituality, because you have spiritual desire, and you can become somebody spiritually, just as you can become somebody materially.

A wise man is that one who does not have material desire. Now don't understand the Bhagavad Gita, Suren or myself wrongly. We are not saying that you shouldn't have wealth. Nowhere does Krishna say you should renounce all your wealth. He says, 'renounce and surrender' your desire. Only after renunciation of desire is surrender possible. You can't bow at the guru's feet and look at his gold toe-ring, and think to yourself, “maybe I should have one too”. That is a desire. But with God you cannot have an attachment. It's a non-attachment relationship. Because He's never going to let you go. Unlike a human relationship where you can detach, with God you can never detach. He'll never let you go but you can be away from him until you have problems - then you'll need him again. If all of you want to become wise people, kill your material desire.
Hare krishna!

Agasthiar Pournami

Hari Om.

The August pournami is normally Agasthiar pournami. If you don't know who Agasthiar is, that's him there in the centre. He's a great saint.

Because it's Agasthiar Pournami, the first part of the prayer will be for those who follow and worship Agasthiar. They will sit and offer to Agasthiar. Today is also raksha bhandan – at least one day in the year sisters remember their brothers. Like mother's day, father's day, and women's day. Today is brother's day.

This is Agasthiar's stick. He used it to train Khanniah Yogi, Swami's guru. One day Kanniah Yogi sent swami into the Nilgiris forest to find this stick. He got an astral instruction from Agasthiar who told him exactly where it was buried. Swami Murugesu and three other devotees went into the forest to find the stick. The forest is full of wild animals, elephants, tigers. When they reached the spot where Khanniah Yogi told them to find the stick, the animals surrounded Swami and the others, in a circle to protect them while they dug for the stick. There was also a begging bowl found with the stick. This piece of wood is a hundred times older than the oldest person here. Therefore you can see I'm taking care of it – not to hit you – but so it doesn't disappear. Today I'm going to bless you with this, according to instruction. If I give you one tight one, like this, it means you misbehaved sometime.

Ashok asked me a question just now. He asked me, “What happened on this Agasthiar pournami that we have such a small crowd?” I have an answer for him: we've had Lakshmi pooja, and everyone came to Lakshmi pooja instead. Also, Saturday is our Maha Yajna. Everyone will come to that instead. They say, “My quota is once a month at the ashram so I don't have to go'.

Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutra gives us practical methods of controlling and modifying the mind. Many of us think it is impossible to attain or experience what cannot be seen or touched. And that's where many of us are wrong. I get very happy and joyous when I get an SMS after a function: “Guru, I've had this fantastic experience; I've had this energy flow through me. I could not control my emotions”. That is an experience with God. So if you have controlled the faculties of the mind, then there's some kind of harmony in your body. And an harmonious body will make it possible for you to attain those states of bliss, peace and eternal joy. This can only be done through sadhana.

What is sadhana? Spiritual practices. And once we have this sadhana, daily practice, then we will experience these things. You won't get it by coming to the ashram once a month, for one function and think, “Now I am religious, I am spiritual”. You're far from that. Spirituality is a regular, daily practice. The sadhana for spirituality has to be regular. What does that mean? It has to be every day and at a specific time every day. If you can do that you won't have any stress. None at all. But we can't. We believe it is impossible to reach those states that are untouchable, that is, when we cannot feel or see. We think it's difficult but it's not. And that process Patanjali calls 'meditation'.

In astanga yoga meditation is the seventh step on the rung of the spiritual ladder. There are only eight steps and meditation is so close to the final step, yet we have such great problems, such difficulty even practicing meditation. It all comes back to the mind. Our mind sets us up to believe that we don't have to go to the temple or the ashram, that we can attain those states at home. Yes you can. But you have to have a guru when those states appear.

Recently somebody passed on. The guru had taught them certain techniques. They practised the techniques, short-circuited their prana and, after thirty-one days in intensive-care, died. These are the things we are worried about. Gobi Krishna is a perfect example. He walked around insane. It took him fourteen years to come back to normal. Why? Because you need someone to guide you. If you have your guru with you, you won't have a problem. We can do tantra, mantra, japa yoga, and leave this body if you so desire. But you can only do that if you have a guru in your presence who can guide you and stop you at the right time. Therefore it is very important for you to come and absorb this kind of energy. It is regulated. It won't make you mad. It won't take you to states of permanent ecstasy like taking drugs 24/7. You'll reach states of ecstasy that you'll really enjoy. Drugs can also give you states of ecstasy but they are temporary.

Meditation is permanent. You can experience it all the time. And why I'm bringing this up is because many of you, as you sit here, you believe, firstly, that it's impossible to experience God because you can't touch him or see him. Secondly, you say it's too difficult to do sadhana: “I don't have the time”. There's no such thing as, “I don't have the time”. You have the same 24 hours that I have, and many other people have. But they have arranged their 24 hours in such a way that they can do everything in, including their sadhana. But we cannot get up in the morning; we cannot make that extra effort to say, “Well, I have to be at work at 8am. I have to leave at 6am so l'll get up at 4am, do one hour of sadhana and leave at 6am”. You have one hour to get ready. But our problem is that we take too long to get ready. And then we rush because we are late.

I've said this to you before and I'll say it to you again. We do everything to our face, not for ourselves - nobody does things to their face for themselves – none of you can stand up here and tell me that you do that for yourself, put make-up on your face. We walk out of our house so that other people are happy and can tell you, “You're looking good!”. It must be yours, and once its yours it must be good. That extra time that you waste on your face, rather use it to think about God, do some sadhana. It's the most important aspect of this journey, of this life. This is the highest form of being. There's no form higher than this as you sit here. But we fail. We failed as beings because we've got this thing called God only allocated to certain times of the month, once a week, four times a month.

We must have a passion for God. And I think that's what we lack. You must have a union with God. You must be in love with God. Once you're in love with God, nothing in this world will bother you and why do I say you must be in love with God? Because that love for God becomes kolavery – a madness, a total madness. Just as a young man needs a young girl, and after a couple of months of relationship, kolavery begins: the cellphone will be in his hand waiting for a call. This is true. In the same way we should be in love with God. God sends you messages. You don't need your cellphone on. God's messages will guide you in your daily life. 'I love you,' are just words – they are not energy at all. You can pre-set your phone to send 'I love you' messages. But to be in love with God you can't do that, you have to connect. You don't have to pay and there's no top-up.You just sit there and God will take you (the Tamil word kola means 'kill', very means 'madness' ). So go home and enjoy this madness. Fall madly in love with God and kill the ego.

Some of you are thinking, “Guru makes it sound so simple”. Yes, it is simple. You just have to change who you are and be what you should be. You should not be God-fearing, you should be God-loving. So, enjoy this new relationship that you are going to start today with God. Forget all you other relationships. They bring about another kind of madness.

Lakshmi pooja

Hari om

Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity. And, as I look around me, I think we should have Lakshmi Pooja every Friday so we'll have this crowd every Friday. But unfortunately we can't.

In the history of this human race, there has never been, and will never be, a time when the human race will not believe that the accumulation of great wealth is not the key to happiness. Yet we see, time and again, millennia after millennia, people living lives of great misery. At times many have even ended their own lives. What happens after this? Children live their lives aimlessly, taking lives and concluding their own lives in destruction. Not only wealth is needed - the key factor is God.

As children of God we must know all about God, like a child knows all about their father. Here today, at Lakshmi pooja, we sit with a great anxiety, a belief that by doing this pooja prosperity will be coming our way. But if we don't know about God, about Lakshmi, we're far from attaining the prosperity we so long for. This prosperity that Mother Lakshmi gives us is not only in the form of wealth, it's in the form of health as well. That is what we need to look at. Not accumulation of wealth and property, but of health. That will give you all the prosperity you want.

On this day we wear red, and on Varalakshmi day Lakshmi is adorned in red to signify prosperity. Therefore we should wear something red on ourselves. We should do this because it is a sign of prosperity. Who is Mother Lakshmi? She is the great divine Mother who bestows upon us all great health and prosperity. The prosperity to live this life without any obstacles, to have health without any obstacles, the prosperity to gain wealth without any obstacles. But health is the main factor in this prosperity. Praying once in twelve months to Mothers Saraswati and Lakshmi does not bring success in all aspects of life.

We need to remember Mother Lakshmi every Friday. Many of you here have a maha meru and you recite special mantras given to you and offer kungum to the maha meru. That is the offering to Mother Lakshmi herself. That red kungum is a sign of prosperity, your good health and good wealth. Only with good health will good wealth come. There's no point in having millions of rands if your whole life is miserable. The reason we have so much self-destruction in the form of drugs, alcohol, and suicide, is because we don't know God. We don't know how to turn to God. Right now is the time to turn to God - for your good health and wealth.

But wealth isn't the accumulation of property, just so you can show it off. As I've said many times before, the human race does not know when enough is enough, when to stop. They will work themselves to death, just to accumulate. This is not what we're here for. This is just one part of being here. We are are here to serve the poor, the unfit, those who are sick, and the old. And that is what Mother Lakshmi tells you - that is the prosperity.

Today we did a very special Mahalakshmi pooja for all of you: Astalakshmi Mahalakshmi pooja. That means we are asking all eight forms of Lakshmi to bestow upon us good health and good wealth, but health is always first. All of you need to know this. We can drive good cars, have big wallets, fancy pens, suits and outfits, but if we don't have the health for it everything is useless. Remember that.

Therefore on a Friday, at least nine times, you should make your offering to Lakshmi before you leave the house. You should be carrying something red with you. Then you'll find that unique prosperity, wealth and health will come upon you and you'll be happy. Once your cells are happy, your organs are happy, and when they are happy, it means you're healthy. When we have unhappy organs we are not healthy. So today at Lakshmi pooja, I wish each one of you good health and good prosperity. May Mother Lakshmi bestow upon you all of that which I have just mentioned. Let us recite: Om Mahalakshmi Namaha, nine times.

Hari Om.