New Year Message 2015

In the radiance of Babaji, in the light of  my gurus and in the glory of Christ, fortunately or unfortunately this is going to be the last namaste for 2014. If 2014 was disastrous for you then 2015 is coming to you like a tornado. Right up to 2019 we’re going to have a period of depression in all aspects of our lives. We might think we have everything in this life, all the finances, but there’s one thing we keep forgetting as human beings that no matter how much wealth we have, if we don’t have the health then the wealth is worth nothing. We’re going to get many new conditions and diseases affecting us, including in South Africa. Many things we’ve never experienced before we will experience in the next 4 years. The only answer or solution to this is continuous prayer, worship and belief that God exists.

I don’t know how many of you believe in or experience the Divine but I’m going to tell you a small story that happened about 3 weeks ago. I’m sure all of you heard of those children in the Middle East in Pakistan, who were killed. There’s a story of a young boy who couldn’t get up that morning because his alarm didn’t go off. He is the only survivor in the school. It is by the grace of God that he was not there. No child on a Monday morning misses school. He must have prayed very hard in his life to be spared another chance. In the same way, you need to believe strongly that God exists, God is here and God created you in his image and therefore we should be somewhat perfect in everything we do or believe.

God is the unique energy that gives you 2 types of living: lower living and higher living. As you sit here you are in lower living, sitting in the material plane and material aspects. In higher living you are living in the self – the inner self, the cosmic and divine self. And you will experience things higher than those on the lower plane. This is God’s play and we sometimes get caught in his whirlwind of jokes and sometimes fall from the highest to the lowest. Then we blame God when we are caught there because we got caught in the material aspect of life. No pleasure comes without pain.

So 2015 is going to see tsunamis, massive earthquakes and volcanoes, many near and dear to you just being taken away by the violence of this material plane and the environment. Again, to overcome this, only prayer is a comfort. Nothing else is going to help you. Some of you sitting here believe in one thing and do something else. Find a guru and hold onto his feet for dear life. He’s the only one who is going to show you the light. Without him you will be in total darkness. And that darkness is total ignorance, no knowledge. I am not your guru. I don’t intend to be your guru. I’m just an instrument and I will just direct you to where you have to go.

2015 is going to come with many surprises and disappointments – especially to the congregation of the Gayathri Peedam, but you need to believe and know at this time that you have brought this upon yourselves. God was not instrumental in your 2014 disappointments. You are instrumental in every aspect of your disappointments. And you need to do a divine accounting of yourselves and everything that you have done for 2014 and see if your good is better than your bad or your bad is better than your good. Double standards are not becoming of a spiritual being and you are all spiritual beings.

You need to get out of that and do what is right, and that is to find God within yourself. And once you find God within yourself everything in front of you will not be like a maya, an illusion, but will be total reality of every aspect of the Divine. You need to understand that. You need to know that and to live by that. And in living by that you will stand up in this sick society, you will stand out to give advice, to heal, and above all, you’ll stand out to direct the path to God to whoever you talk to. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, “He who preaches my work continuously is dear to me”. And what is Krishna’s work? It is God’s work. So it is time for us all to be dear to God. And to be dear to God we have to continuously live in the realm of God, speak in the realm of God, and give in the realm of God. We need to give more than we take. And when I say 'give' I mean that we need to give so that other people around you can be comfortable as well. We live a very selfish life and in that we have created this situation in the world presently.

Have you ever wondered why, in this very modern electronic nuclear time, planes can go down? We have never heard of it occurring in the last 25 years as commonly as it does now. We are doing something wrong. And the plane crash that happened recently was predicted on that Sunday night and on Monday the plane disappeared. It’s not a good way to go. Why would God do such a thing? We could say that God is angry, but we could also say that God is teaching us a lesson. Every disaster we go through should be a lesson learned. But I think that, as human beings, we just live the disaster for 15 days and then forget about it until the next one – and that’s how we live. If we can forget such a disastrous thing so quickly, how can we have God at the back of our mind continuously? We can do it only by practice. And if we don’t practice we’re not going to have Him at the time of death. 

Krishna says that we must call His name at the time of death to achieve liberation, moksha. If you don’t remember His name in your lifetime, how are you going to remember it when you are dying? If you call it continuously then at the time of death you’ll call it too. Try to practice calling God’s name. Once you practice calling God’s name you will live by that name, you will sleep by that name, walk by that name and die by that name. But we cannot call God continuously because we're caught up in this material plane. And in this material plane all that matters is to show our physical self as an identity of our successes. What we wear, the name brand we wear, shows our success on this plane. Yet when you are spiritually inclined the only name brand that sticks to you is God’s name brand? And what is that? It is to be walking about like a pauper. He has no trademark. No one can say that Jesus Christ is only for Christians, there’s no TM after his name. No one can say that Ganapathi is only for Ganesha worshippers. You can sleep in peace, wake up in peace and walk in peace. Nothing on this material plane will ever bother you if you have God’s name in your mind all the time. You will live a life of non-existence on the material plane. That is how God works and how he works when you remember him continuously.

2015 is not going to be a good year at all so enjoy the few hours you have left of 2014 and remember them. You might not believe this but when you are experiencing it, as Suganiya came to me and said, ‘There’s going to be a tsunami’. So believe it’s going to happen and it will happen. Don’t think it won’t affect you. It will affect everybody. So, in the name of God almighty, whatever you want to call Him in sincerity, He will work for you by that name. The Hindus are very unique. They’ll pick up a stone from the beach, take it home and call it God for the rest of their lives. And from that something happens. Whatever you put in you’ll get out. It you believe that stone contains God then you’ll find God in it. If you see God in a banyan tree then God will exist in it for you. It is for you to believe there is a unique energy out there. When Jesus came he said, “Our father who art in heaven”. He is talking about that energy that only he could see and enjoy. Everyone else followed the emperor until the messiah came and he said this is the way we should live – and this is what God’s work is.

So 2014 here it goes, 2015 almost to come. Enjoy. May God be with you in the radiance of Babaji, in the light of my gurus, and in the glory of Christ, may 2015 for you be filled with light, with knowledge and with joy.

Hari om.

Karma, Koshas, Ajapa Japa

Namaste, Vanakam.

You know, in the Vedas and the Bible it said that God created man in His image and likeness, and we understand that as in form – this form is God’s creation. The way you look is God’s creation. So if somebody is born with one leg missing, is that the likeliness of God? How can we say, ‘in His image …’? That means we must look exactly like God. Actually, what it means is ‘in His energy’ because we are a single unit of pure consciousness, and that consciousness is God. If we understand it like that then we don’t have to worry about disability, inability, and debility. You should not worry about these things because they won’t affect you if you are in His image. So that means when God sent us down here He sent us for 2 things: to experience this life again; and to work out the karmic consequences of your other lifetimes. And what are the karmic consequences of your other lifetimes? What are my karmic consequence of my other lifetimes? You. All of you are my karmic consequences from other lifetimes, be it good or bad. Because I am your karmic consequence from another lifetime too, whether you want to accept it or not. And because of that we are here. When you are born again in another lifetime (which all of you will from all of the karma you’ve accumulated in this life) you’re not going to escape the cycle of birth and death for a long time, in many cases it’ll be 33 000 years before you lose it all. You’ll come back here in another lifetime with the karmic consequences of this lifetime becoming the agama karma.

There are 4 kinds of karma: sanchita, prarabdha, agama and kriyamana karma – and somewhere, sometime in our daily lives one of those are in action, whether you’re doing good or bad. For example, we have teachers here. The teaching of students is their karmic consequences. They complain to me every day but in my mind I say ‘live your karma whether you like it or not’. So you might be thinking that you don’t remember your last karma. Do you have to remember it to suffer in this life? Whether you remember or not, you are suffering. Understand it like that. Many people wonder what the point of it is? We don’t know our last karmas but we’re suffering them. For example, Warren’s biggest karma, literally, is Sundrie, whether he likes it or not.

Every one of us is living our karma on this journey. You might be in any one of the 4 karmic divisions – any one of them is active at any time. To overcome that, the great masters, the ancient masters and teachers have given us a method called ajapa japa. It is a meditation technique that was given by the masters and came down to where we are now in a traditional way. By practicing ajapa japa you can overcome the consequences of this karmic action – when I say   ‘overcome’ don’t think it’ll be reduced – you’ll go through it without even knowing it.

Okay, to overcome your karmic consequences you need to devise a technique, and ajapa japa is the easiest technique. Paramahansa Yogananda taught it to every devotee he met. But, unfortunately for you, all of you are not as dedicated, devoted, or disciplined as those who Paramahansa taught. It’s all lost – you don’t have it. We have to literally cry to the people to please come to service. Service is yoga and sadhana. Eating, sleeping, loving, walking, seeing is yoga. Everything that you do is yoga whether you know it or not. So you can’t say you don’t know anything about yoga. Talking is yoga too. You’re exercising some part of your body. Understand? But gossiping is not yoga because then you’ll say you weren’t gossiping you were doing yoga.

So, in His image we were created to be a beautiful being in which He resides, not anybody else. He says, ‘I am a single unit of pure consciousness, in you I am fire, in you I am water, in you I am the wall, the body, everything. In you I can’t be destroyed’. When they say 'ashes to ashes' it’s not 'me' at all, it is the physical body referred to because you never die. That is how you’re living your karmic consequences of your other lifetimes because you won’t die. Your body will die but you won’t die. How can we understand this? It’s very simple. Today you know me as Guru. You all call me Guru. If tomorrow morning they call you and say that Guru died, at my funeral none of you will ask, 'When is Guru coming?' You’ll ask, when the body is coming because the ‘you’, the guru that you know is gone with the atma – that single unit of pure consciousness. When you die the atma within you, in the body, is no more there. It is only a useless body worth nothing, to be thrown in the ocean (the fishes will die), to be be cremated. If you’re a drug addict it can be planted and six months later we’ll get plants. The body is absolutely nothing. It is just here to function, to work out your karmic consequences.

The body is called annamaya kosha, meaning ‘food’. What does it require to live? Food. Annamayakosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, anandamaya kosha, are our 5 koshas (sheaths). All of us should strive on this journey to live in the anandamaya kosha. The vijnanamaya kosha is the intellectual state; manomaya kosha is the breath state; the annamaya kosha is the body. We should not satisfy it. We should satisfy all the others. We should transcend the annamaya kosha through the others, to anandamaya kosha. If you transcend to that state you’ll become a living Caitanya Mahaprabhu – nothing else. You will have everything you want in life, spiritually and materially. Bliss will be all over you. Just to see you, people will find bliss – by just looking at you. You will glow with the intensity of God and God alone. People will see you and be attracted because the God in you has come out. And all of that stems from just one thing: a single unit of pure consciousness. And as long as you are a single unit of pure consciousness and being, in that state you are equal to God in every aspect. But you have one factor: mind. The most dangerous aspect of a living entity is the mind.

So the question is: how do you control the mind? Everybody asks that question. To control the mind you should not be against the mind. You should be with the mind. I’ll tell you a short story. There was a king and he had 4 beautiful horses, but nobody could ride them because they were wild. So he put a challenge out to everybody. Whoever could tame the horses and ride them could have whatever they wanted from the kingdom. Hundreds came and went, some died, broke their backs or their legs –everyone left either as a body or with injuries. He decided that nobody could train the horses. One day a young man arrived and told the king that he would like to try and tame the horses. The king told the young man that professional horsemen had tried and not succeeded. How could a young man do it? The young man begged for a chance on condition that he was granted 12 months to try. By the13 month the king thought the young man had died. Then one day he came back riding one horse with the other 3 following behind. The king said, "Before I give you what I promised, can you tell me how you did it?" The young man replied: "I became a horse.  If the horse slept then I slept, if it ate, then I ate, When it ran I ran. Eventually the horses thought I was one of them and they became my friend. One day I touched one of the horses slowly until I could hold it around the neck, and then I could ride it". And that is what we need to do with the mind. What we are doing to the mind is pushing it away. We are not running with it. You cannot control the mind by pushing it away. You know that. To control your children you give them sweets, toys, play with them. You can only control the mind if you become the mind and act exactly as the mind is acting. So the manomaya kosha is that mind. And if you overcome that, the vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas are really nothing, they are easy to transcend. But the beginning, the starting point to this is called ajapa japa. Go and look it up you’ll find it on the internet.

Hari Om. God Bless you.

           

We cannot live without prana

Hari Om.

Your whole lifetime is engineered by God, and God only engineers the destiny of lives by the number of breaths he gives us. We fix that by how we breathe those breaths. In comparison, it’s like a cellphone. 2 people can top it up for the same amount of money but one might use it longer than the other person. That’s the way we use this breath.

Kriya Babaji is a perfect example of the usage of breath and all of us should catch ourselves breathing and change the way we breathe so we can enjoy for a longer period this journey given to us by God. Whatever we do in life – eating sleeping, breathing, walking – is all based on yoga. And the total concept of yoga is based on pranayama. Prana is the life force energy that enters the body and sustains the body through your existence in the time given to you determined by the number of breaths God has given you. It is the most important aspect of this body. The day your prana disappears is the day you disappear and become just a body, you’ll no longer be a father a mother, or a son, anymore – but just a body. The identity of the father, son or mother is in the prana. When I call you I’m calling your prana because that is your existence. Once the prana is gone you’re just a body.

We are all living in just the body. We are not living the prana, the most important aspect of this journey is breathing – not eating. You can live without food for a number of days but you cannot live without prana for an hour – you’ll die. That is how important the life force energy is. And the beauty of this journey is that when both members of a household walk the journey together, a total state of bliss is easily attained. It is very important to understand that. This is not a single journey for a householder. It is a journey for both householders because the most important ingredients in any household are devotion, dedication and discipline. And the most important ingredient to attain states of bhakti is the same: devotion, dedication and discipline. And only these ingredients can spice up the spiritual journey. Only after attaining the spiritual journey will you realize what life is all about. It’s not about running in the park or the bush, it’s much bigger than that and as long as you don’t understand this concept of life, and life itself you’ll understand nothing on this plane or in this universe.

As Paramahansa Yogananda said, “You are a single unit of pure consciousness”. But we are not living by that. Instead we are living by the mind and letting it continually dictate to us how we should live this life. How should we live this life? There are only 4 aspects to this life: the Kriya Babaji Mantra states them clearly – “Om Kriya Babaji namaha aum”. To attain the state of Om you have to nullify the state of aum. Aum is your states of wakefulness, sleep and deep dreaming. Om is the universal existence of consciousness called God. And how do we explain the states of aum? In your waking state it’s like you’re standing on the first floor of a building looking out of the window. What you see outside is the awake state. The sleep state is when you’re on the second floor looking out of the window – you can see the first floor and the second floor. The deep dreaming state is when you’re on the third floor and seeing all three floors. But the ultimate state is standing on the roof and being able to see everything, that one pure conscious called God, or the state of turiye. It is a very important state in our lives, and it is important to attain it in this lifetime. But we cannot attain it because we are living in the aum state continually – either awake, sleeping or dreaming. When we are awake we become the greatest faculty of food, then we sleep and start dreaming. And all that is based on the anamaya kosha, the physical body. But the Om state, the state of turiya, is the anandamaya kosha, the most blissful state of the body and we need to attain that state in this present lifetime – that state of total purity. And once we attain it we have attained the state of turiye, a very important state on this journey of ours through the material plane.

Everything we do in this life whether playing music, singing, sitting and daydreaming – is all yoga. It is all based on your breath. When you’re in a deep dream state you breathe slower than when you’re in a sleep state. When you sleep you breathe slower than in your waking state. We all need to transform, but how are we going to do that? It is done by continuously reciting the name of the Lord. The most important aspect is the name of the Lord. Subconsciously, at the back of your head you must have that name 24/7, and then you will receive great heights of liberation, of moksha, and attain nirvakalpa samadhi – but we need to first start by understanding prana. Once we understand that then everything else is easy.

Hari om.

Navagraha and angels

Hari Om.

To tell you what we did today: we prayed that all your nakshaktras from Ashwini to Ravita are satisfied. We prayed to all the planets, and to Ganesha, and asked them to please help us with obstacles, and then we prayed to Mother Gayathri. Above all this we prayed to every master who existed before our time and who exists now. We even prayed to the ascendant saints who guide us daily. Daily we have a saint watching us continually. That’s why there's a saying: "If you're driving, don’t drive faster than your angel can keep up". Your angel is always there. Even the Moslem Koran was given to Mohammed by Gabriel who is an angel. And 30 years after that they revised the Koran to what it is today. The original Koran was given by Gabriel.

We all have angels. Many of you must have had experienced that sometimes you turn around because it feels like somebody moved past you. But we can only see them at a certain angle. Our eyes are not trained to see that dimension. We are only trained to see this dimension and we can't see beyond it. But sometimes you'll turn around quickly and you can see into that dimension for a second. Your angel is with you 24/7. We talk about our biological clock. Actually, it's your angel who gets you up in the morning. Once somebody actually shook me to get up. That’s your angel.

To all of you, we sit here, do the pooja, eat the food and go home. We don’t know that behind the scenes there is Rajen. He doesn't actually belong to the Gayathri Peedam, but one phone call to him and he’s here to cook supper for us – and he doesn’t charge us a cent. He says, "That’s for the Mother". He’s our lifesaver. He always comes, sits there, prepares the food, and then leaves.

Om.

Music gives you life

LIVE TALK AIRED ON RADIO LOTUS AT SARASWATHI PADASALAI.

Om bhur bhuva swaha. Om tat savitur varenyum. Bhargo devasya dhimahee. Dhoyo yonaha prachodayat.

If we go to the Srimad Bhagavatam, cantor 12 (I pray that everyone of you sometimes read that), it talks about the youth of this present day. And what they say about the youth of the present day is very true. To defeat what is said there we have the Munian brothers who have collected all these youth, trained them and kept them off the streets with this beautiful music we heard now.

There's a thing called 'bhakti' - what is bhakti? It is devotion, dedication and discipline. If you have the discipline, devotion is easy to attain. But if you don't have the discipline you're going to lose the devotion and dedication. And today the Munian bros have allocated this day for Mother Sarashwati, the mother of wisdom, the mother of music, the mother of learning, and if you look at the picture of Mother Saraswathi she has a nadi in her left hand, a nadi is palm leaves on which the wise words of the great masters have been written. And one of the great masters who has written a lot about music is none other than Agasthiar Kumbamuni, the great saint of South India. Agasthiar said, as Shakespeare said, "Music gives you life". Without music there's no life. The continuous vibration in our body is music, and with music we are existing here, so music is life. And in that music we can enjoy that union and the highest level of yoga. The highest level of yoga is music - not the asana - music is the highest level because it is the easiest way to have this union with God and God alone.

We must have a guru, and both the brothers (I've met them personally) have done an excellent job making these children aware of that divine Mother Saraswathi. We all need to worship this mother because the constant vibration in our body - the beating of the heart, the breathing, the prana we breathe continuously - is based on music. In badranatam the breathing is more important than poses and postures. That's what Saraswathi is about - attaing the hghest goal on the material plane. And right now the whole material plane is in such dissaray that we have to get these young children into our fold and take them on the journey of spirituality through music. 

As I stand here, I pray that each one of you, before you leave, make a pledge to the Munian brothers to support them. The Gayathri Peedam will make the first pledge of R2500 towards their India trip. Saraswathi is that unique purity, and you will find that during navarathri you have a yellow sari, a red sari, and a white sari. That white sari says that you have attained the state of purity, and that purity can be attained by Saraswathi alone. Yoga is Saraswathi. Saraswathi is music. And the greatest union with God is through music.

Hari Om.

The greatest form of worship is Anbu

Discourse after business pooja

Any pooja done during this constellation (all of the planets being in Rahu), if done during ekadasi, amavasa or pournami, will be effective and override these planets. I pray that comes to you in a positive manner and that each one of you prosper from here onwards. What you saw today I don’t think I’ll be able to repeat. If I could do it again I would but I don’t think I can because this is the last of this kind of prayer that we can do. Therefore I’m praying that this prayer brings some success, joy, peace and harmony into your life.

All those with a crystal maha meru, please wear it. If you’re not going to wear it then give it back to me. It is very important that you wear it. Those who didn’t get one make sure that you have that kavicham, the silver or copper plate. The silver one must be worn around your neck – the side with your name on must touch your skin, the other side with the numbers must face out. You can bath with it, you can swim with it but you can’t lose it. Don’t even think about coming and telling me if you lose it. You’re not allowed to lose it. It must be on you all the time. The copper one can be placed in your wallet. You will see the difference in a few days in your prosperity. Just enjoy that difference.

Whenever you have the free time just call Mother Lakshmi’s name continuously and you’ll see that she will be at your side immediately. This is from my experience. I recite Gayathri, Lakshmi and Saraswathi mantras continuously and they have all been there with me, helping me heal many of you. I can’t heal you, the healing comes from the Divine. I am only the instrument. If you go to the doctor, the syringe can’t heal you without the doctor using it on you. I am like that syringe. I am void, nothing – but when the day is here to heal you, you will be healed. I’m sure some of you felt the divine energy resonating around you. You might feel light-headed or weak. That comes from Mother Gayathri. 

In the quest for peace there’s continuous war. Our bodies all work in the same way. Mentally, all of you are looking for peace, and in that process you create conflict in your body. All kinds of diseases are created in the body and when these are created they start to affect all the systems in the body. The easiest and best way to fight this is to continuously think about God, and God alone. You’ve just started the early stages of destruction in this material plane, and much more destruction will follow. In fact, in a couple of months there will be a great destruction and during that time praying to God is no good, wanting God is no good, requesting from God is no good. To prevent that you need to take precautions now and continuously inflict yourself with God’s name. And once you can do that you can be protected from all kinds of calamities, all kinds of destruction, all kinds of pain, and walk this spiritual path peacefully without any conflict or war within your self.

The constant vibration in your body is what creates the auric field around your body. During times of conflict that constant vibration of the molecules and atoms in your body becomes weak and eventually will be destroyed. Once that happens you have a state of depression. Sometimes this will take you to the lowest ebb in your life. But by continually remembering God’s name, the vibrations and molecules of the body are kept and maintained at the best possible frequency. The only mass is this body because of the atoms in your body, but you are the beginning of a single atom, a single molecule – you started with one molecule, one single atom. And by multiplying you have become a destructive machine that not only destroys the self but also destroys other selves around you. This is a time that you should all stay away from any negative trend that might bring down your auric field, your magnetic field, and that might cause for you severe states of depression.

It is God’s will that you live a pure and spiritual life. You have unwilled God’s will. You don’t live a pure and spiritual life. And because of that you are where you are now in all these depressive states, these painful states, these grieving states that will destroy you eventually. Let your destruction come from the Divine. Do not let it come from the mind. The mind is the destroyer of everything that exists, manifest or unmanifest. The mind is the destroyer of all relationships, the destroyer of all wealth, of the greater self. But by remembering God continuously, that state will never exist, or be able to exist under the vibration of God’s name. So what is the name of God? Call God whatever you want. If you can take a stone, place it somewhere in your field and call it God; if you can take a coconut place it somewhere and call it God; then you have the power of calling God by any name you desire. You might say, “Well, I am a Hindu therefore my God is Shiva ... my God is Parvati ... Vishu ... Krishna ... Ram." Call him or her whatever you want. At the end it is they are all the same universal God called Love or Anbu.

The greatest form of worship is through Anbu. After Anbu everything else comes into worship. If you don’t have a speck of Anbu in your worship your prayers will never be answered. That is one of the reasons that you may be praying daily, often, continuously – but without Anbu nothing exists. Even the relationship between 2 people exist because of Anbu. Between father and son; son and mother; daughter and son; daughter and mother – they exist because of Anbu. It is very important to understand that Anbu is the centre of this body that we call the universe, and you are that universe. You will always be that universe. You need to remember this continuously in your life. You need to remember God continuously in your life. God is love. Love is God. It is mentioned in the great book, Thiravasakum, that God is Love and Love is God. Read and understand all this.

Today is the most beautiful day. Today cannot be repeated. It will never be repeated because today cannot be tomorrow. The thidi, the nakshaktra, the yogum, the karuna – they all are so beautiful today that whatever you request today you will get. You have come at the right time to heal yourself, your finance, your relationship. Whatever it is, today is the best day for it so enjoy this day, enjoy this moment, enjoy this now. For this now is not going to be repeated again, ever. This now is this moment here as we sit, as you stand. Enjoy it. Enjoy it from the deepest self, from that single atom. Enjoy it until you attain the state of union with God. And once you attain that state, there’s nothing more to enjoy but just to live in it. Living in it is equal to enjoying it. Be prepared to make that change. Be prepared to understand that you have to change. Be prepared that you have to extend Anbu to everyone you meet. That it is the greatest aspect of this material and cosmic plane – you are no different from everybody else. You are exactly like everybody else. It is the way you think that makes you different. If all of you thought the same way you wouldn't be different at all. There would not be arguments, abuse, fighting or war. We see each one as opposite to us and that is not true.

Hari Om.

Navarathri Chariot Procession

This is our 18th Navarathri procession. Over the period of 18 years many have left, some have stayed and those who have stayed have had the dedication, devotion and determination to take this organization to where it is now. There’s somebody here who deserves accolades for this period and that is Saras Singh. She used to go door to door to get money to build this structure. She had strength behind her. She would tell them, “If you don’t give me a donation I’m an attorney, I’ll take you to court”. She has made this structure what it is today. Also, the structure would not be completed as it is now without other important people like Strini Naidoo who has donated large sums to the ashram even today. Tubby Reddy has also made great contributions to the organisation. And here we are 18 years later. And when Rose Ma hugged me at her home just now she said, “This is your 18th year, Guru”. On the 27th of September 1996 we started this.

With all that said, I think we have to congratulate ourselves for today's event. To the co-ordinating committee, Desika, Vishnu, Tashi, Bhavta – I think they’ve done an excellent job. This program is being followed by about 140 000 people online. That credit goes to Seelan who records everything live on the Peedam internet webcam. And Sundrie and her team – I think they really did a good job. And I think we can’t forget the strenuous practice you had for garbha – we didn’t’ have it because nothing happened. We have to say thank you to Neeta for that.

As you know, the temple is now complete. Those who didn’t see the new temple now please make an opportune time to see this. Thank you goes to Mahavishnu, Don, Athish, Mervin, Deepak – they’ve put money and time into finishing the temple. It was only completed because Athish started navagraha and after that gave me sleepless nights – he had a mantra: “When are you going to do the temple? When you going to do the temple?” I waited until 108 rounds and then we started. Somebody else who very tirelessly contributed a lot to making sure the completion of the temple was a success, is Jagadambal. You know I’ve been married for 32 years and I did not know that Tammy could blow up balloons until today.

If I missed any of you it’s not with intention. All of you, thank you very much, really. Whether I will be sitting and saying this again to you next year only God knows. I love all of you. Thank you very much for being here. Today the wedding would not be in that vibrant feeling that we had if it was not for one individual who assisted. This individual spent some years with his guru in India and today he assisted with the wedding and that is Vimal – thank you Vimal. I have a present for him:  a rudraksha with 62 faces.

Also we have to thank Steven for all that he has done. You don’t know what he does. And also thank you to Ashok and myself. If anyone wants to say anything, this is the time to say it. If anybody stresses me out in this temple its Jane. She finds nothing, forgets everything, and she brings me coffee wen I’m expecting to taste tea. We can start with service. God bless all of you and I love you very much.

Swami Murugesu Mahasamadhi Pooja

On this day Swami Murugesu left his mortal body. While we’re waiting I just thought maybe I should tell you about a few experiences I have had, and some devotees have had, with Swami Murugesu.

Ashok and I were touring India with Swami and one of the temples on our tour list was Thirupathi. It is one of those temples where you have to camp outside for 3 days beforehand in a queue to see the murthi. And when you come in front of the murthi they throw you across, literally – not even a second. Swami said we were going to see this temple. When we got to Thirumalai Swami had an ingrown toenail and had surgery without anesthetic so he was in a lot of pain. We drove up the 16 km mountain called Thirupathi and Swami booked us in a guesthouse. Ashok and I were massaging his feet. All of a sudden he said to Ashok that he must go and shave his head now. That was at 11.30 pm so we had to go and find a barber for Ashok. I asked him if I must do it too and he said, “No, not you”.

So the next morning, at 5 o’clock he woke us up and said he would not leave the guesthouse because he was in so much pain. We were there all the time and he got us up in the morning at 5 and he told us the car was waiting and we must go to the temple. I dreaded the trip. I know that even if we went there at 5 am we would only get there at 6pm. A man arrived and said that Swami sent him. He didn’t have a cell phone. I looked at Ashok and Ashok looked at me trying to figure out how Swami had contacted this man. Anyway, he’s the chief director of the Thiruputhi temple. We didn’t know that. He took us inside and said we could sit and meditate as long as we wanted to. He closed the doors. We were the only 2 people sitting in this temple when you usually don’t even have a second in front of the murthi. Anyway, we meditated and when we were finished he told us to stand on one side, about 3 metres away form the murthi. And he said, “Tell me when you want to go”. We said we wanted to go and when we got back to the guesthouse Swami said, “You enjoyed sitting by the murthi and meditating?” At that time I didn’t understand all this and I thought he had some contact with the temple head.

Later on we were driving and Swami said, “Are you hungry?” We said we were and Swami said we would stop at a restaurant. I’m thinking we must not stop at any of the restaurants on the roadside. But we stopped at a roadside restaurant. The table was black with flies. While you are eating the flies are eating with you. I was really feeling sick, I don’t know about Ashok – but he asked for a second helping. Anyway we got in the car – the hooter didn’t work all of a sudden so the driver said he had to stop somewhere because in India they cannot drive without the hooter. They’ll take a chance without brakes but not a hooter. Swami told him that, “Shankarananda will fix it”. We open the bonnet and there a simple wire had come right out, the bolt and nut were there but the lug was sitting outside. I didn’t think anything, but I just fixed it. Everyone thought I was a great engineer except Swami. So we get back to Chennai and I came back home.

On another trip, Dean was there, Ramona was there, there were 18 of us, Joey was there. Dean and I were sharing the same room. How many of you are frightened of ghosts? So when I used to go there to Sri Lanka, because I wasn’t used to the food I used to take a lot of biscuits. Remember in the olden days we had a mirror with chest of draws? There was one like that there. I was sleeping by the biscuits and then I saw one biscuit moving but nobody is carrying the biscuit. I look at Dean and he’s sitting with his headphones on and his eyes shut – he must have already seen it. I fell off to sleep. In the morning Dean and I were discussing it. He said he saw it too. I went to the girls and asked them how they slept. They said they slept fine, meanwhile a ghost threw one of the girls from the bed onto the floor but she thought she fell out of the bed. They didn’t say anything. We walked to Swami’s house and when we got there he said, “Today we’re going to talk about ghosts”. He can do anything. He gave us so many experiences.

One day swami was staying with us and he came in the house without a shirt. We gave him a shirt we had just ironed and he put the shirt on. The next minute he put his hand in the pocket, took out some money and handed it out to everyone. We didn’t know where Swami got the money. It was 500 rupees. That’s all he took out. This is the man that I used to call Guru, my swami, my everything. To those who did not meet him, you’re not going to get a chance to meet a man of this calibre He was simple, he never spoke about what he did.

One day we were in the ashram – his house was near the ashram. The whole day he was with us in the ashram talking about this and that. Then we were called to eat. Before we went, Swami took a deep breath and told us exactly what was on the table. When we got there on the table was exactly what he had said would be. This is the swami we were so fond of. Ramona was so fond of him that she didn’t want to get on the bus. She hid behind a pole. Luckily I counted everyone. Of that trip only 3 of us remain here at the ashram. The others have all disappeared.

One of the most powerful forms of worship is guru worship. The strange thing about guru worship is that, whether the guru is here or has left his body, he will still come to help protect and guide you. I have a very unique family, not my Gayathri Peedam family – my real family. Ma follows Agasthiar, Seelan follows Sivabalayogi. Melissa follows Swami Murugesu, Vish and Tashi follow Babaji. So you shouldn’t restrict your family to follow what you follow. They should follow what gives them that energy, that peace. Guru worship is the most unique worship that has been given to us by the great sages and saints. And how did this come about? The first guru is Lord Shiva and, directly or indirectly, we worship Lord Shiva, not as a guru but as God – he’s your first guru. After Lord Shiva we have other gurus. One powerful guru was Parashara who had the power of traveling from earth to all the planets, get the attributes of the planets, then come back down – not in a spaceship, this was 5000 years ago – come back down and write the astrology books. He wrote about the 9 planets long before western civilization knew there was anything out there. They still thought the world was flat. He is the most powerful guru, the astrology guru. He has the most powerful and accurate astrology. Only one man has come close to Parashara and that’s the founder of KP Astrology. At any time of the day he could tell you what would happen at an exact time.

So you can have more than one guru. Many people say you can’t but you can. You go to school you have a geography teacher, a physics teacher, a maths teacher. You can have a yoga guru, a spiritual guru, a ritualistic guru to teach you all the rituals, and many such like that. So don’t think you can only have one guru. But there is only one problem with that. Many people become fanatical about their gurus. It is not like Manchester United. Don’t even get involved in that fanatical behavior. If you worship a guru, worship without the fanatical behavior. I’ve seen it in many organisations where the guru had such a place that they became fanatical. “Swami this, swami that, swami said this to me, said that to me,” – once you become like that you’re fanatical. My guru has taught me that I should just remember him continuously and he will make everything possible for me. He makes everything possible for me. I won’t look for another guru in this lifetime. I still have my guru. Therefore today we remember my guru leaving his body. And the saddest thing about that is that he touched me on my forehead just 2 hours prior to that. He was in a coma, I had just arrived in India and Rani, one of the devotees who’s been with Swami all her life (she runs our ashram in Colombo for me and is very dedicated) said to him, “Swami Shankarananda is here”. He left his body sitting in a lotus pose and was buried sitting up in the ashram in Nuwara Eliya.

Swami likes cheese. If Melissa counted the squares of cheese today she will find that one is missing. He has made that promise to me that whenever I remember him and place cheese by his murthi, he will definitely come and take the cheese. How do I know he loves cheese? One day he said that he wanted pizza with double thick cheese. As we walked out Rani said to us, “You can buy the pizza but no cheese at all. The doctor said no cheese.” We went to the pizza shop and told them no cheese. We saw the cook prepare it with no cheese, bake it, and he gave it to us. I asked Vishal, “How does someone eat a pizza without cheese?” There’s something wrong with Rani Amma. Anyway, we go to the hospital – Swami was in a private unit, like a house. So we go in there, we give him the pizza, he opens the pizza in front of us – it had double thick cheese on it. Vishal and I just looked at each other. Last week I was with Vishal and we were talking about the same thing. He still asks how the cheese got there. So whenever we do any kind of pooja for swami we must place the cheese by his murthi. Swami was given the title of maharishi by 216 saints just 18 months before his samadhi.

No day passes without me thinking how funny my guru was, and how he used to teach his nephew’s son to swear, vulgar words, in Tamil. He told this child to tell the people those things and Swami would sit and laugh. We have his cup, the last kurtha and dhoti he wore. You can see them. When I come back from Sri Lanka again I’ll bring back the original sandals he wore. Talking about sandals, there’s another guru that Swami knew and washed his feet. His name was Gnanananda Giri. Swami spent some time with him and Gnananda Giri also came to South Africa in 1990. He took samadhi in 1994. He stayed in South Africa with Mr TP Naidoo.

Swami had a pair of sandals and he told one of the devotees from Malaysia to take the sandals in a box and to deliver them to the Gnananda Giri Foundation in Malaysia and he wasn’t to open the box even if customs asked him. Swami opened the box, showed him the sandals inside and then closed it. The devotee went to Malaysia and when he arrived customs insisted that he let them open the box or they would lock him up. When they opened it, only cobras came out of the box. The customs officials ran out of the office into the road. 

Then, when I went to Malaysia after Sri Lanka, Swami told me to take the sandals and give them to the Gnananda Giri foundation. He said, “Don’t worry, nobody will stop you”. I carried them through the airport and nobody stopped me, as he said. I got to Malaysia, went to the Gnanananda Giri Foundation and was shocked to see how popular Gnananda Giri was in Malaysia. Thousands of people were flocking just to see his sandals. Now why are sandals so important? They say at the lotus feet of your guru is the most powerful energy you can attain. So Swami carried those sandals for 26 years, and after 26 years, 5 years before his samadhi he gave them to the Gnananda Giri foundation. Now that foundation is blooming and they have one individual who’s passed on in 1998 – by the name of Haridos Giri, and he also had a lot of power. One day he walked right into the Ganges and never came out. He told the people he was going to another world below the Ganges and wouldn’t be back. Until now they haven’t found any trace of his body. He also came to South Africa and stayed with TP Naidoo.

I’m never finished with God’s work. It brings me the most powerful energy, joy, and beatitude. And this beatitude can last within us for days to come, we can experience the joy 24 hours, and in that joy we can find God. And God is the only entity in this life of ours to sustain us during this difficult time. I leave you with this thought: only God can make you happy in your sorrowful times. Only God can make you feel painless in your painful times. And only God can make you smile when you want to cry. Remember this for now and forever. This day, each one of you should remember to be the most beautiful day in your life and in that beatitude, remember that God has entered you totally tonight. You have this one union with God at this moment and that union with God you should not for a moment allow to be interrupted by your social life, in your happy life, in your disturbed life and in your difficult life. Do not let it be interrupted. For finding God is not easy, and you have found God now, and in that finding enjoy. Enjoy this moment, enjoy this hour, and enjoy this now. For this now is not going to repeat itself. I leave you with that thought.

May God bless each one of you. Om.

Come and be protected

Hari om

You know that on the 25th of September we’re starting Navarathri. And you’ll remember I’ve said that it is the most appropriate time for Navarathri pooja because many of our difficulties will be borne away during this period. Whatever you do, don’t miss any of the 9 days. It is for your benefit. We’re not telling you to come here with money and make an offering. We’re asking you to be present here. You don’t know on which day you’ll get darshan from the masters, and you must be here. The sad thing is that many of you miss darshan because as soon as service is finished you decide to sit in your car and go. It is sad that some of you who deserve that experience are not here.

During Navarathri you should not have any excuse to not be here unless you are working during that time. These 10 days will help you, 9 plus 1. I know they will help you. And also during those 10 days, one morning we’ll dedicate just for the businessmen so you can also benefit in that time. Those talismans I spoke to you about, the kavicham that costs R4000, we’ve managed to get them in a cheaper silver. They will only manufacture 17. Those will also be part of the business pooja and you can have what is left after that. They are for protection, they are very powerful, ancient, and have special mantras, poojas, done for a period of 9 to 21 days, depending on which kavicham we’re using. I will do the poojas myself. They will be available after we know the number of business people who will partake in the pooja, and the balance will be available on a first-come-first-served basis. No pre-booking so don’t ask me to keep one for you.

Also, to help you, Dean and myself are deciding to make some bracelets – for your protection. This is an astrological bracelet designed by Paramahansa Yogananda, and he suggested that everyone get one. We’re busy in the process of having these manufactured here in South Africa. The stones have changed a bit for our current times. Here we have a pearl, a yellow sapphire and a red coral stone. When they are ready we will let you know and you can wear one. You wear it on the top of your arm under your sleeve and nobody can steal it from you. It is protective. The ones we are making will be a bit wider than this one, and will be on a special band. This is for your protection. The money we get from this will be for the cost of the item.  The only thing I request form you during this time is to pray and not miss service. Don’t miss. You’re only going to bring disaster upon yourself. God only helps those who help themselves. So, please, don’t miss any pooja.

At the end of the day I get nothing out of this besides satisfaction. My satisfaction is to see every one of you not hurt on this journey. Please come for every pooja. Don’t think because you go to the gym and do weights that you won’t get sick. It doesn’t work like that. You can have petrol and oil in your car but your car will still break down. As I sit here, I took all my tablets, a whole bottle of cough mixture, so I’m a little bit drowsy but I’m here because you’re here. I expect all of you to be here for each day of Navarathri. Don’t tell me you have a project. If you want to be in the top marks for your project, be here – and I’ll show you what Navarathri can do for you.

Hari om.