Why this Kolaveri?

Om.
Why this kolaveri? We are all stuck in this kolaveri, in this madness. If you look around you, you only see kolaveri. Every one of you has this madness, called 'cellphone'. Even today it has been mentioned on the news that children should not have cellphones. Yet, to keep the peace, we parents give our children cellphones. Some of you seated here as parents are guilty of that. Just because you don't want your child to irritate you, you hand them a cellphone to have your peace. But while you're having your peace, there is destruction going on. This is the madness, the kolaveri, that we are caught in right now – cellphone kolaveri or cellphone madness. We're all guilty of it.

You leave your children with the most sophisticated phone, but you could leave them with a phone that just does the basics. Cellphones, besides being expensive, can do everything from sending messages, to receiving them and watching a complete video. Now, we have this thing called BBM. You'll rattle away, say things and do things without thinking. And this is the kolaveri that we're stuck in. It's so big that it's gone beyond our control, and yet I ask you very nicely to start controlling your homes. Once you start controlling your homes then we'll have less people and less children with cellphones.

Why do you need a cellphone? If you ask a parent why their child needs a cellphone, they'll answer: 'So the child can contact me'. That's strange. We all went to school, we had nothing – no walkie-talkie even, let alone a cellphone. The parents know what time their children finish school. School doesn't finish any odd time during the day. The school has a phone if they need to contact you in an emergency. Why do you give your child a cellphone? This madness is going to go to another generation, an even more delinquent generation. We are going to have worse situations. The next generation of children will become Blackberry children.

We need to look at ourselves as parents and ask ourselves if we have failed in our duties as parents. If we're giving our children cellphones just for our own peace, we are failing to parent the child. That is one kolaveri. Then we have another one. The Gateway Mall is another madness. Parents just drop the kids there and they walk aimlessly from one end to the other. I walk five minutes there and I'm tired. Many of the young girls are dressed in Edgars 50% off. Madness.

We're stuck in kolaveri, stuck in madness. Every one of you is stuck in cellphone madness. You can't leave it alone for a minute. Let's look at the scenario. Thirteen people are sitting at the last super. Judas' cellphone rings. What does he do? He picks it up and starts walking in a circle. All of you do that - every one of you here – because your whole life is a circle. Why do you do that? Because it starts to affect your brain. How many of you have the mental strength to put your cellphone off on a Friday at 6 o'clock in the evening, and only put it back on at 7 o'clock on Monday morning? None of you, because you can't live without it. But I can do it. To me the biggest burden is a cellphone, and I wish I was never introduced to it. To me it's the biggest load of rubbish. Things that can wait until later, now become urgent: 'Luvvie what did you cook? Did you put in extra chillies? I heard your conversation, Don.

Sometimes we travel to Port Elizabeth or East London and some of the passengers don't even know that we've reached our destination because they're on their phone. They photograph their coffee, send a picture and say, 'I'm having my coffee'. Then they see a dog passing urine on a pole and take a picture and send it and say, 'the dog is having a pee'. The best time to connect with God is when you are traveling, and somebody else is driving.

Please, everybody, as much as we're laughing, were laughing at ourselves as individuals, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. Go home and think about what I just said. Everybody's lost it. There was an incident in Tongaat when a teacher reprimanded a child. The child left the classroom, took a stone and smashed the teacher's car – this week. See the madness. Teachers have no control any more. They've lost it.

The law says we can't hit the children. Do you know that some of the children in schools are twenty-three years old? We never saw that when we were at school. If you didn't make it by the age of eighteen, you were kicked out, because we had teachers who ruled with the rod. I caught it from my teacher once, but karma caught up with him and and he ended up prostrating at my feet and became my disciple – how's that for karma? He hit me in Geography class. He gave me a tight one and I didn't say anything because it was my fault: two minutes before the bell rang I packed my bag and was ready to go. In 1994 he became a devotee of the Gayathri Peedam and a disciple. Every time I saw him I was amused because I used to think about the shot he gave me and I'd say to myself, 'This is your karma'.

I think I'm going to stop this topic of cellphones now. I'm tired. Instead of carrying your cellphone, carry the Bhagavad Gita. We've made a nice pocket-sized one. Instead of sending an SMS, turn to the pages and get a nice long message from the Bhagavad Gita. SMS means 'short messaging'. But some people send me an SMS and it is so many messages long. I don't know what they write because it comes incomplete: 'from Nitha incomplete' – I don't know what that means – is she not complete? Send one line at a time. 'I see kitty. Kitty sees me'. Do you remember that? 'I see ball. Kitty sees ball'.

Then we have another madness: drugs. Why is it that our children are so much into drugs and alcohol at this time? I had a principal tell me that one of his grade eleven pupils arrived at an award function drunk out of his mind (the principal used a different word). The pupil damaged three teachers' cars. So where is this going to? It's going to total delinquency – no control. That's what it means. This is the kolaveri we're in; the madness we're in. Yet we can change this whole thing and become evolved individuals.

We are just like water. Water is the only thing that can defy gravity. Did you know that? It is the only thing that can go against gravity. Just add some heat and you get steam. That's against gravity - it goes up. Put some steam in your backsides and you'll get to the cosmic world. I can't say it any other way. I'm really tired of saying it. Evolution is possible for everyone. It's not for the selected few. Krishna says that only a few wise men find the way. That means all of you are wise but only of a few evolve. Don't you want to rise like that steam? The same steam, if we change the temperature while it's rising, becomes ice. That's what you all are: blocks of ice. We have the potential to become steam, but we don't do anything about it. Are ice-blocks water? Yes. The molecules are cramped together in a block of ice. There's no space for movement. When there's free movement its called water. What's the beauty of water? It will always find its gradient, and it will flow down to the lowest spot. What do we do? We sit like ice in the fridge. We are useless. An ice block is useless in winter. You need to put some heat behind you. When I say heat, I mean get some spiritual bombardment.

I'll be gone one of these days, and laughing at you all because you're not taking this advice seriously, especially for your children. I can't change you, but at least make your children better people. Our parent duties and responsibilities fail if we give our children a cellphone. It's been mentioned today in the news and it something that we need to take seriously for the future. I know some of you are upset with me, but I really don't care. I have to do my job, and this is my job. I want you all to be like water – capable of defying gravity. You must be able to rise, spiritual levitation, spiritual connection. Then you come and ask me: 'How come we're not connected, Guru?' If you have all that nonsense in your head, how can you get connected?

Nurture Mother Earth

This world of ours: where is it going and why is it going in that direction? For years you would have noticed, even when you were young kids, that we call this earth Mother Earth. And in all those times nobody has even shown one bit of respect even, to the word 'Mother' in Mother Earth. And today we have great moments of distress where we're having such devastating natural destruction that thousands of people are dying. And, strangely enough, we carry on our normal duties without any concern. We look at the news and say: 'one thousand people died,' and we just carry on.

What have we done with the unconditional love we're supposed to have? Where is the compassion we're supposed to have for other beings? Krishna mentions many times in the Bhagavad Gita that we should just love and love, and not hate. Nothing bothers us any more, as long as we have money in the pocket and can drive a car. Humanity at large is not our concern any more. This is why all this is happening. We've lost being in touch. By that I mean: being in touch with emotion. We don't have any more of that. And slowly in the next two years, in 2014, we will see complete destruction. Many things that we have never seen, and past generations have not seen - hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis - will destroy. And what have we done? Nothing.

All of us sign eagerly onto the computer so that we go green, so that email is sent to you instead of post and there's no wastage of paper, no trees are cut down. Isn't it rather too late for that? We need to plant one billion trees in the space of six months to sustain this earth again. We are living on a non-sustainable earth at the moment. We have Spain which has 66% unemployment; Greece which is bankrupt. Have you heard of such things before? And why is this going on in the financial sector? Every one of you seated here has a financial problem. Why? Why is it going in that direction, and in the direction of our health? There are conditions and diseases we've never heard of before. Why? Because it's only then that we think of God. When our finances are bad we pray to God, we see a priest for help. We're not even praying honestly anymore. We're praying for purpose. We should just be praying for prayer's sake. So God has created these situations.

Osho says there's no such thing as God, and he might be right. God created this earth, and then He created diseases for us, incurable diseases, and as soon as we find the cure for one, He sends another disease. He does not stop giving us problems. And the only reason is because we forget God. We only think of Him when we're in distress. But what do we do? We want to take whatever is said word for word, analyse each word and find a different meaning so we have a reason to fight, argue and make a scene out of no scene. This is why we are losing the earth.

Islands and countries are going to disappear off the face of the earth in the next two years. The globe is going to be restructured. Science will map a new earth in two years. Can you imagine, you go to Google Earth and see, 'Japan was here'. Why? It was submerged with all its people. The Masters have warned us over and over again about this situation but we have not taken notice of it, nor have we been cautious of it even once. And we're really all going to suffer from the mistakes of the past generation and the generations to come.

Why is there no water? Why is there a restriction on water? Why is there no rain? How can there be rain if there are no trees? If you drive to the north or south coast and through the sugar cane plantations, in the centre of the plantations you'll see a forest, just one patch of trees – that is to bring rain so that the rain falls there. Now that we've taken all the trees away, where's the rain going to fall? We need to think about how to plant one billion trees. I was thinking of planting them all over Verulam. Demolish all the houses and just plant trees. Maybe we'll come right and Verulam will be saved. Go home and see if you have a tree in your yard. Plant some if you don't, and see how good it is for you.

We need to create a situation where we can save this earth of ours. We can't look to science, to the rainmakers or draughtsmen. We have to look in one direction only – to God. And if each of us does that, I'm sure God will realise that we're ready to make a change and will save this planet for us. But you must start this. I know what happens: as you leave here and get in your car you've already forgotten what I'm talking about. We're losing a battle started by our forefathers. It's gathered so much momentum that we're going to have a problem and we'll be caught in the inertia of this whole thing.

Hari Om and God Bless you.

Spirituality vs Religion

Comparing spirituality to religion is like comparing trust and belief. They're exactly the same. Belief is implanted in you as you grow. Trust you learn and grow with it. Spirituality is the same thing. Religion is like belief. It's thrown at you and you must just follow. Because of that you'll have sixteen different people doing the same thing in different ways. That is religion. The best definition of religion for Hindus is relating to your language because if someone dies in a North Indian or Hindi home it takes ten or thirteen days to do your prayer. In a Tamil home it takes sixteen days. Diwali falls on two different days for Tamil and Hindi people. And yet we strongly believe that we all follow Sanatan Dharma, and that we're all under the same religious body.

Spirituality is like trust; it's a development. You might believe somebody but you won't trust them. You might be religious, but not spiritual. Spirituality is more than religion; it's more than turning the camphor around a murthi (effigy). Spirituality is knowing the inner Self. No matter which spiritual belief you follow, everything leads to Jivan Atma, the inner Self. In religion you don't need to know anything about the inner Self. The priest knows what is in the book. He cannot give you a spontaneous discourse. He'll give you the same discourse given from the time his grandfather was little. With spirituality you don't have that. Each one of you is different. Each one of your abilities is different on this journey. Some people might take one year to reach a state of bliss. Others might take five years. It depends on how you develop. That is spirituality. In religion there's no development. The Hindu religion is based on rituals and rites. What are the rituals? For everything in the Hindu religion there is a ritual. In spirituality there are no rituals.

Every person on the journey is seeking the same thing – that inner Self, the same state of eternal joy or bliss –  Each wants to find it. In religion there's no state of joy or bliss. In spirituality it has to be a routine. It's called sadhana – spiritual practises. But in religion we don't have these routines. We might have what we call routines but we follow them once in twelve months, like Janda Pooja (flag prayer). In spirituality we don't have that kind of routine. We have a daily routine called sadhana and in that we find the Self. And that is important – to find the Self. So the difference between spirituality and religion is the same as the difference between truth and belief. One is thrown at you; the other you develop.

All of you will tell me the same thing. You say that you pray, but don't you put more emphasis on your prayer when you're in trouble? The same prayer you usually do for ten minutes a day, you're now doing for one hour: “Please, please, help me, please - you're the only God I love”. At other times we'll walk in the garden and pick the flowers – a red flower on Tuesdays, Hanuman flower, and we'll place it by the janda. Then you put nine flowers there, one for each planet, to put more emphasis. Why can't you exert that emphasis continuously? When we're not in trouble we don't care. It's not the number of janda flags you display, it's your effort that matters. By that I mean – how did you emphasise God in your thoughts? Were you thinking about your job, or your son? Or were you thinking about God? That's where we've failed – because we're not praying right. We've become mechanical. We go, take the water, look at the sun, pour it – Surya Japa done for the day. No emphasis, no emotion, no love, no want, no need, no God.

My mother told me every morning before seven o'clock to pour the water on the rose tree. The energy was so bad that the rose tree died – because there was no emphasis. When the rose tree dies you go to the priest and he points to the neighbour's house. But it's your energy – you poured the water. I'm sure you've heard these stories. What were you thinking when you were pouring the water on the rose bush?

This whole universe of ours is built on this thing called energy – our energy. It goes out into the universe. Can you imagine the collective energy emanating from all the politicians simultaneously. What will happen to us? Luckily they don't know anything about energy, because we would all die, their energy is so negative, based on money and greed. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about divinity to such an extent that, after reading it, you want to become like Krishna. Being like Krshna and becoming like Krishna are two different things. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna only gives positive comments to Arjuna. He always says 'almighty warrior', not 'you idiot!'. And that is what's important.

Pournami Pooja Discourse

Why are we doing Pournami this morning and not in the evening? Pournami full moon started last night after half-past-seven and finishes at 5.30pm today. So we are having the prayer at 10am. I think every time Pournami falls on the weekend, we should have it in the morning. Then you don't have to worry about being late for work the next day because this guru is keeping you up talking until 11 o'clock at night.

The month of May is a healing month for the Gayathri Peedam. We travel around the country doing healing mantras. So today we're going to try and heal those who weren't here for the healing pooja on the first of May. We're going to take you through the healing. The children who are playing the instruments here have a name: The Murugesu Swami Bhajan Group and Drummers. You'll feel the energy going up your spine. Just enjoy it.

Our AGM is on Sunday 13^th  of May, at 3pm. An AGM is important for any organisation. It is better for you to come and tell us what you do and don't find good in the ashram, instead of congregating in the corners to discuss it after service. The AGM is for that specific reason. The only thing is, at the Gayathri Peedam AGM you don't get to elect anyone you want. The responsibility is on me to select a committee. We don't want you to come here and put your hand up for anyone. I will choose you the way I think you can do the job. If you don't come we could lose our fundraising number and won't be able to raise funds. If we can't raise funds we can't run the ashram and you'll have to pay me to come into the kripa. Rather come to the AGM and let's do things properly. So on Sunday, Mothers' Day – you can visit your mother or your mother's grave in the morning (they go back to the astral plane in the afternoon). Actually, we are supposed to remember our mothers every day, not just on Mothers' Day. Mothers' Day is prosperous for Edgars, not for you. So you finish your business in the morning. Be here in the afternoon at 3pm. It is important to me as well that you are here and know who's who in the Gayathri Peedam. 

When I was young, mielie-rice (corn rice) was the staple diet, milk was in abundance and bread was cheap. Uncles and aunts lived in the same home and we showed them every respect. Kids called their mothers Amma or Ma. When I was young Blackberry and Apple were just fruits, now they are problems in our lives. Yesterday during service, there was a child in the back texting someone. We are going to ban cellphones in the temple if you use them during prayers. Patanjali says that all focus should be towards Ishwara. By carrying a cellphone, we're always waiting for it to vibrate. The next person I find using a cellphone during service, I will confiscate their phone and put it in the hawan in front of you. I'm warning you beforehand – at least Agni can send me messages. No cellphones on these premises. Whether you're waiting for a call from your husband, wife, soulmate, whoever, I don't care. Go outside the gate and talk. You come here and you must surrender to God. Many of you lack that dedication and then want to know why prayers are not working for you. You want to blame the guru, the ritual and our ways of worship.

I've had failures in my life. They will come, and they will pass. For every decline there's a valley; for every incline there's a peak. Sometimes you'll be in the valley, and sometimes in the peak. You must be able to make the best of both situations. We are very materialistic and, because of this, we forget that there is a greater energy out there. One group of Christians call it Mother Mary, another group call it Jesus, we call it Krishna, Rama - we can call it anything we want, the energy is the same. So just come and focus on that energy and it'll happen for you – whatever you want. There is nothing impossible in the eyes of God. Everything is impossible to us. But we don't put out the right thoughts, at the right time or with the right energy. Always create the right energy and you will  find that at the end of the day you can sleep well.

So, two things we need to understand and remember. We come here for one purpose: to benefit from the Gayathri Peedam, and to have the energy of God within us. The second thing I said today – no more cellphones. I'm instructing all executive members: if anybody has a cellphone bring it to me for the cellphone mantra...

Cellphone cellphone yavidmahee
Maha cellphone dhimahee
Tanno cellphone prachodayat
Swaha.

And that's your cellphone gone.

Hari Om.

Yama, Niyama, Attachment, Non-attachment and Detachment

If we tell everyone that we follow sanatan dharma, it's the same as when the Christians say they follow the Ten Commandments. Ahimsa is one of the Hindu Ten Commandments, according to Sanatan Dharma. We need to follow those if we are Hindu. In Kriya yoga the commandments are Yama and Niyama. Yama is how you conduct yourself. Niyama is right living. Together they make up the Ten Commandments of Yoga, and only if you follow those commandments can you call yourself a yogi. If you don't follow them you are not a yogi. Only after you follow the Ten Commandments of Yama and Niyama, should you be performing asanam. Some of you say, 'I'm rushing to yoga classes at Virgin active!'. You go there and do asanam, yoga postures. That's not yoga at all because you don't practice the other nine aspects of yoga. You're only doing  one fraction of yoga.

I know some of you plan tomorrow to go to Isipingo temple and stand in one of those nice smelly queues. You know, when they pull that goat around the temple, the poor thing knows already that its days are numbered. Live a pure life of ahimsa in thought and deed. Once you live that life you have nothing to worry about in this physical, spiritual or material journey. But if you are not following ahimsa you have a lot to worry about. Just now we'll all become like the Chinese and eat everything: frogs, dogs, cats. You will become like that if you don't change. When I was growing up Sushi was my neighbour, not a food. Now you get sushi everywhere – uncooked fish. People eat it raw. All this is not good.

Why I'm telling you this is because the masters have indicated that before 2014 the whole of Africa will be having riots. South Africa is not so saintly that they will be excluded. We will all be involved. The coup has started in the Middle East and it'll spread downwards. Even Maitreya has predicted it. If and when this world comes to an end, let us be ready for the next world. We will have many different kinds of positive changes in the next two or three years. Are we ready?

What are the changes? Islands will be disappear, tsunamis, volcanoes, Japan might be non-existent. The only remains of the Seychelles may be the shells, everything else might be gone. Think about it. These are the predictions of the Masters. Get ready now. Start now. You still have time to make the change. Join the yoga classes to meditate and purify your mind, thoughts and actions.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says 'surrender'. But you'll never surrender because you're so attached to what you have: your car, your wife, your house, your son, your husband – 'my' is an attachment. And we'll carry on like that. We don't need that. Have a detached mind. Have a son, a daughter, and have relationships with them, but don't have attachment. Krishna says: 'Don't lament for the deceased'. But we'll cry, cry, cry - for nothing. And after three days a war is on about all the things that were left behind by the person who died, and who it goes to. Siblings don't talk to each other for years. It all comes down to one thing: attachment.

I'll tell you a quick story . Every story I tell you happens in Tongaat. A man died in Tongaat. And everybody went to the funeral, crying, crying. The wife arrives and she starts crying. But when they were about to close the coffin lid, she throws a cellphone inside the coffin and says, 'Call me when you're there!' Let us not have attachment. Whatever is yours will go with you, whatever is not yours will remain here. Don't say 'mine, mine, mine,' and get attached because 'bye-time' is hard. 'Mine now' bye later,' is hard. Don't get caught in that. Live this life of non-attachment. Not detachment. That is impossible. Non-attachment means you have interaction and connection with your family members, but when you leave to do your sadhana you don't think of them. With detachment you must have no relationship with your family whatsoever, not even to see them.

So let's live a non-attached life, and a pure life because, when the day comes, I'd really like to see all of you with me on the same train. And not a steam engine. We'll have to be flying. This engine is going to be very fast. If we are all on the same train we should all have the same values of Yama and Niyama, and only then is liberation possible. Don't think you can live a non-ahimsa life and attain this state. You can't. Believe me. The butcher has less karma than you. Did you know that? The guy at the abattoir has less karma than the butcher. You, the end-user, have the most karma. Think about it.

Hari Om. God bless you.