Hari Om.The great saint Sivabalayogi, had a great merger with Lord Shiva. The only thing he lived for, spoke about, listened to, was Shiva, Shiva, Shiva. He was a very great Shiva bhaktan. He went to Sri Lanka with a lingam, the very lingam he is carrying in that photograph taken in Sri Lanka. He installed the lingam at the Sri Lanka Gayathri Peedam, our Head Quarters, when Swami Murugesu was still in his early thirties.
That lingam has now grown, taken form and shape, and when you go to the Gayathri Peedam in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, you are given the opportunity to do abishegam for the lingam. It is the only temple in the world that allows women to do abishegam for a lingam. Nowhere else will they allow that. Even here today, you had the opportunity of doing the abishegam.
Shiva was called 'Gengadhara' when he had the Ganges in his hair. And when his hair became matted, he was called 'Jadatharaya' - the same Shiva I tell you to become One with. Become One with Shiva. Let every muscle, every molecule, every nadi, every vessel in your body, vibrate in the name of Shiva. And once you can vibrate in the name of Shiva, if the word 'Shiva' vibrates you, if you feel a change of emotions, then you must know you have a great union with Lord Shiva.
You'll have many people tell you Lord Shiva is demi-god. Whenever your religion is Christian-based, you'll always have a situation when you will bring somebody else down because Christianity is fear-based. Saying Shiva is demi-god is fear-based. Shiva is not a demi-god. The Shiva we are talking about is a being from here to there. We cannot see his beginning nor end. That's how he is. The giver of boons; one who has all treasures; you ask and you will get. He's easy to please. He doesn't ask you to do unnecessary things. He only asks you to pray for him once, at Shivarathri. Nobody does Lord Shiva prayer. He says 'Remember me and you'll be satsified'. You don't go and do a sacrifice prayer for Lord Shiva. You just look at the lingam, do the abishegam and pray. And once a year he says, 'Sit with me in my name, on Shivarathri'. This is the Shiva we're talking about. There's only one night, Shivarathri, that he says we must observe. He has given us twelve nights, but asked us to observe just one – Mahashivarathri.
Here, today we're celebrating Janasthami* for someone who has had that union with Lord Shiva, who meditated on Lord Shiva twenty-three hours a day for twelve years. His meditation was so intense that even his hands became crippled from holding them in his lap. You sit for just two minutes in meditation and it's too much. Even with his disability he carried that lingam.
I'll tell you about a similar lingam we brought back from Sri Lanka. Deepak, and Prathna were with me when Swami Murugesu, my master, gave me the lingam, and the way he was holding it, I thought it was easy to carry. Everyone was sitting and Swami gave it to me and I couldn't hold it. We didn't want to put the lingam in the baggage. We decided to take it in the hand luggage instead, so we bought a bag with wheels. We put the lingam in it, and poor Deepak, even though he was on honeymoon he pulled the lingam all over India. We got it into the plane and had to put it into the hand luggage compartment, but we couldn't lift it. We eventually got it in, and I was praying the whole flight that it wouldn't fall.
We took it to Chennai and just two of us put it in the car with no problem. When we arrived at our friend's shop there, I told him that I wanted to show him a lingam that Swami had given us. Four men couldn't lift it out of the car. We brought it all the way to South Africa in the hand luggage compartment. We went through customs. They don't usually allow funny-looking things on the plane, but no one asked us to open it to see. The lingam has been growing ever since. It was not that size when we brought it here.
So over there is the same lingam. The best thing for you to do, before you leave here tonight, is take a little petal from there, from the offering. Take it home, put it in your purse, in your prayer place, wherever you think necessary. If you think you're sick, put it in your mouth and chew it – it's only a marigold. Believe me, you'll see what kind of power this lingam and Shivabalayogi have. For those people who have businesses, I have some lingams, small ones. Put your donation here. Don't give donation for a small one and take a big one.
Hari Om
