We all like to blame other people and make sure the responsibility of failure is not ours. Even in an ashram situation we have the same problem. When the guru tells you and your child to take certain precautions with regards to the future, you ignore him totally. And then when you have a problem, and the problem gets serious, you blame the guru for not stopping it. That's not the guru's job. Because, if that was my job then I'd make all of you vegetarians and stop you from eating meat.The guru's job is just to show you the direction to find God. Your job is to make the journey. You'll have your failures in the journey, but somehow the guru will pop up there and guide you. But throwing blame and blaming others for mistakes, errors and misunderstanding, is not spiritual at all.
We have children here who go to school, and the guru will tell their parents a hundred times, a thousand times even, at every service, function and festival, 'Do not give your children cellphones'. But the child makes one noise and the cellphone is given. And that is where our problem arises. Many things are done with the cellphone besides what it's made for. The cellphone was invented to use when you are away from your office. But nowadays everybody has a cellphone, and almost everybody has a Blackberry. The word 'black' itself is bad. At school they had a black book – my name was in it, and not for a prize. Every child has a Blackberry, somehow. Why do they have a Blackberry. Because it's got BBM, 'Black Berry Messaging', for free so all the children are busy texting during in class.
There was one child here from the ashram who was texting my daughter in class so I took her phone away. When I took the phone away, her parents did not come and question me, and she had a very good Matric pass. Why did I take the phone away? The message came to me and it said 'physics is a boring class' – while she was sitting in the class! Now you see, they have the attention on the cellphone and not on the lessons - that's why it's boring. I'm telling you all. I know you're going to go out and say, 'Hey, that guru, what does he know?' When I talk to you, it's not me talking. I know nothing. I'm stupid. I'm not talking to you. We're going to have such great chaos in schools in 2012, 2013 and 2014, all because of the cellphone. When it happens you're going to think back to what the guru said on pournami.
Sometimes we become very liberal and we think it's like a profession, a special title, to be 'liberal'. It really means 'you're a delinquent parent and you can't look after your children'. You give in to everything. They jump a little bit and you leave them at the biggest daycare centre in KZN, Gateway, so you can go to the biggest shrine in the world, Suncoast Casino. People will go to Suncoast, but they won't come to a prayer. I know people who used to come to the ashram, but today they are living from hand to mouth because of Suncoast, because of Sibaya. They think the guru won't know. I'm not going to stop them. Why should I? They can carry on.
If Swami Sivananda was living now he would call the cellphone 'the one-eyed guru', because all of you seated here are dictated by the cellphone. We used to have delinquent children but now we have delinquent parents, liberal parents. Change. That's all. You must make the change. And once you make the change you'll get whatever you want in life. I am telling you this from my personal experience and from experience with others seated here.
Hari Om
