Navagraha, Karma, Fate

To explain navagraha to you: if you’ve studied numerology then you will understand the prayer. Every 9 years your numbers are repeated and your cycle is repeated, that’s why I said that if you are a number 7 you need to do this prayer more than once. Number 7 means obstacles and difficulties are in your way. That is the first thing. If you go anywhere else they do navagraha by the book but we do it according to your own numerology, with your number, the number you are vibrating at the moment. If you are vibrating at 7 you will be attracting 7 and obstacles that will cause problems. If you are a number 1 you’ll be attracting number 1 issues like a quick temper, harsh words, badmouthing – that will be it – nothing really that will affect your journey beyond your control. But number 7 problems will affect your journey so you have to do Sani abishegam. The best time for this is on a Saturday.

If you sit or stand in front of a Sani statue and repeat, ‘I love you, I love you,’ so it becomes a mantra, then Sani will be happy. If you recite the Hanuman Chalisa in front of the Sani statue, he will also be happy and have peace. Reciting the Sani mantras does not take a long time to remove the obstacle, or fate. Karma is your destiny. But it’s your fate to suffer so that you remember God like you did today. At the beginning of the year many of you didn’t think you would remember God today. So we condition you by the calendar. We remember God today and pray to all His forms in the planets and ask for some relief in our difficult times.

With karma you can’t come to do navagraha and expect 50% of your karma to be gone. There’s no such thing. With karma you have to work at it. Karma is not financial difficulties. Being murdered, getting married, that’s karma, because your whole life will change.

Karma has nothing to do with fate. It is accumulation and there are 4 kinds of karma. I’m not going into them but all of that must be cleared, those reserves must be cleared. We have a lifelong fixed deposit, a 2-year fixed deposit, a 12-month fixed deposit and a 32-day call account. The call account can happen to you every day of your life. 1 year and 2 year karma comes in time. Your lifelong karma will be there like a mirror looking at you continuously. Karma has nothing to do with navagraha or fate. Many priests make you believe that by doing navagraha your karma is reduced. There’s no such thing. If that were true then none of you would be here because you are my karma. I would do navagraha every day. The fact that you are sitting here is your karma. You could be deejaying somewhere in a nightclub on this Saturday night.

I am praying that whatever you prayed for or requested will be fulfilled. Whether you want a new factory, machine or car, I pray that it will be fulfilled.

Hari Om.

Live in OM

We should live this life properly in a total spiritual journey. Let there be complete healing, prosperity, peace and, above all, let there be the constant vibration of the sound of OM in your total being. Each one of you is a total incarnation, a total manifestation of that vibratory sound OM. Your organs in your body work with that vibration. And you will heal your body by continuously humming in the deepest part of you the OM sound. And you will find that, no matter what the situation, you will be healed.

What is OM? It is the divine sound of the Supreme Lord, call Him (or Her) whatever you want to. In his wisdom He created each of you in his perfect image and therefore your total manifestation is from that OM vibration. It is the purest vibration, the purest sound to man. Let it resonate in your being continuously and you’ll find that no condition will affect you. No matter how serious the condition, you’ll just pass it by and live life and enjoy your body the healthy way.

God’s intention with each one of you is perfect. He only made one mistake in the whole creation process and that was to create Lucifer. But let there be only one Lucifer. We should just live in the divine energy given to us by the Supreme Lord. And in that energy you should dance, sing, cry, laugh, run - all in that energy.

The anamaya kosha (physical sheath) that you so much enjoy and beautify is only a useless mass of flesh. It does nothing but consume. But if you go focus on the other koshas you will live a perfectly beautiful life. You’d live in your own wisdom, in your vignanamaya kosha, and enjoy that kosha until you attain the state of anandamaya kosha, the state of total bliss.

Many of you believe bliss can only be attained at death. But it can be attained in this life, in this living mass we call ‘body’. So enjoy this supreme energy and live in this supreme energy.

Hari Om and God bless you.

Your parents

I carried kavady until the age of 48, and when I was 50 I gave my kavady to Seelan. I didn’t just carry one kavady, I carried up to 10 a year – for my mother – all the way from Port Shepstone to Richard’s Bay. I used to pierce myself without being in a trance, but my faith in Muruga and my love for my mother allowed me to do that. My father died of a heart attack on a Tuesday morning, on the Wednesday we had the funeral, and that Sunday I carried kavady. Nobody spoke to me for months. My mother was still living at that time and I needed to fulfill my promise to her. Nobody came with me because it was against any principle they knew. They said I can’t do it and they disowned me for months. Nothing has happened to me since. If somebody died, I carried kavady.

When my mother died my brothers and I had a fall-out because they wanted to do 16 days but my teaching is against that. I don’t believe in it because I follow the Bhagavad Gita and there is no 16 days. So I didn’t do the 16 days. Right there, where our samadhi shrine is now, my mother’s body lay and I did the hawan there. I took the hawan to the crematorium, put it on my mother, pushed her into the burner and that’s all.

You know what happened? When we went to the beach with the ashes I could feel my mother around my leg. The ash came around my leg and wouldn’t leave. My brothers did the 16 days. But I’m fine. I’m happy. I know where my mother is. They don’t. So, therefore, do not follow what you are told by your parents 100%. They are also following in fear what they learned from their parents. I explained to you about the 16 days and 10 days. In the olden days the crematorium, or ghat, was not near the house so they had to carry the body all the way there. They could not eat boiled foods while travelling so they still tell us today that we should not eat boiled foods. Give your mother everything while she is living, not when she’s dead.

Vish and I went somewhere today and saw a beautiful hearse. I said, “What’s the point of putting a dead person into a beautiful hearse? He doesn’t know about it”. Give your parents everything you can now. My father-in-law used to like Mainstay cane. I would buy him a bottle and hide it away and tell him where it was so he wouldn’t get caught. When he died there was a whole bottle of Mainstay there at the funeral so I asked why. They said it was because he liked it so I said, “He can’t drink it now. You’re going to drink it”. And they said, “Ja, we’re waiting”.

If you have parents make sure you give them everything that you can give them. I only have 2 regrets, that I didn’t take my father to India and that I didn’t take my mother to India. Otherwise I gave them everything. That’s why today I’m happy, I don’t have any doubt or guilt. Your parents are 2 people you don’t ignore, no matter what the circumstance, because it’ll come back to bite you. Remember that. Your parents are the most important people in your life, then your husband or wife. If you’ve got that right then you have life right. So allow me to be the lamp at your feet and the light on your path.

Gossip

We should not have gossip in an institute that is religious. But you must also understand the difference between a man’s head and a woman’s head. Inside a man’s head there are boxes, lots of boxes, and the boxes don’t touch each other. Inside each box are all his 'goodies:' his son’s box, his mother-in-law’s box, etc. He can go to the mother-in-law’s box and have a discussion. Inside a woman’s head there are no boxes. It's like an express train, everything is connected to everything.You start a topic and they go there and there, and they don’t even know what they said.

So, do you understand? Men have ‘boxified’ emotion. Women have 'electrified emotion'. And the man gets fried. Men also gossip, but they have specific topics, they have boxes. Women don’t have specific topics. You tell one woman something, by the time she’s told another woman the expressway has got connected somehow, all the wrong things are offloaded and things that weren’t connected are all of a sudden connected. In the man’s head the boxes don’t touch, in case some of the content spills over, they are very neatly placed. I saw it on the net.

So, as much as you will say, men also gossip, I agree with you. But the only difference is that the men’s gossip remains where they discuss it. If 3 men gossip, they laugh it out, and that’s where they forget it. With women’s gossip, the expressway is still working as they walk out that gate and tell the next person. Gossip is no good. I’m not saying you should gossip. I’m just showing you how gossip happens. With men it is contained in the boxes. With women, ‘shwing shwing’, expressway. This is not picking on women, this is from my experience of 25 years in the ashram.

Belief

Babaji was in Katrigama. Bhogar Maharishi was his guru there and Agasthiar was his guru in India. The spot where Babaji attained his Samadhi state is in Katrigama. Every morning Bhogar told him to build a hawan kund with stones. And every morning Bhogar would kick it down and tell him it was wrong and then rebuild it exactly the same way. After many practices Babaji realized it was a lesson. From that lesson Babaji became a perfect person, in every sense of the word. So, like that, in this life you have to have obstacles in your path.

I’ve had obstacles. When I was really on the religious path I was about 36 years old, I was just onto the spiritual path. Clinton, Melissa, Tashi and Vishnu were all little – and what happens? Somebody attacked me. They chopped my hand and I lay in hospital in a coma. But that is what made me stronger, made me believe more in God because I still had breath. That they couldn’t take away from me. When I went to the orthopedic surgeon 4 months later, he said that we had to remove the hand. Something said to me, like a bee in my brain, to tell him not to remove it. 5 months later I went for a retest and he said it was developing nicely but I needed to learn to use it. I told him that I would write his cheque with that hand, and 4 months later I did. Still today I write with this hand because I learned from the obstacle. If I had removed my hand and had to develop my other hand I’d never get it right. Now I write with both hands.

What have I attained in 20 years, spiritually? I couldn’t put it on paper, there’s so much. There were things I never knew, but now I know. I don’t know how. And what caused this? One obstacle. I had more time, I didn’t have to go to work. I could sit and meditate for hours. There was a time I used to meditate for 10 hours in one sitting. I would lock myself in my room from 4 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. But I had a reason. I needed to prove that I could still carry on living and doing God’s work even with a disability. I’m telling you these things so you can put more into your belief.

Belief is not like having a carrot in front of a donkey. That’s not belief. Belief is much stronger than that. Anyway, I want you to have strong faith. You don’t have it but you think you do. I’m telling you these things so that even when I am not here you’ll think about this and have a strong belief in God. I know that nothing will flicker that light in me, not even a hailstorm. I make sure the light is protected. When I am locked in my room from 11 to 1, nobody disturbs me for 3 hours. They know that is my time. And I will sit there and have a discussion with the masters, like you are having with me now. So, the order is: enlightenment, self-realization, and then God realization. The definition of enlightenment is to make the mind lighter. As long as the mind is like that your journey will be simple, and quick.

2 June 2015 Pournami Pooja talk

Hari Om.

A great man once said, ‘don’t do unto others what you won’t do unto yourself’. This is called a boomerang effect. What you do to others comes back to you through your children, through your spouses, through many things. It comes back to you. Many people cannot stand to see other people progressing in life so they do many unnatural things, nothing spiritual, so that those people cannot be successful. It comes back to bite you. Always remember that. It will come back to bite you.

Times are difficult right now, money is tight and a few people will be progressing. You should just be happy for those people. Patanjali says in the Yoga Sutra, ‘Do not want what somebody else has’. Don’t think that you should have it and not them. It is because of your karmic consequences from the past that you are in this difficulty. Instead of going around and looking at others who are successful and thinking bad things about them, just think about God and you will become successful. Nobody here is successful by himself or herself. They are all successful because that’s what God desired. If God doesn’t desire it for you then you won’t get it.

It is by your karma that you are walking in this life, no other reason. And it is by your karma that you are building for your next life in this life. And you need to make sure that you work out your past karmas in this lifetime without accumulating new karmas for your next lifetime. You must be thinking that this is very difficult to do. It is not, really. Do good and be good. That’s all there is to it. When you do good then you should be good. But don’t do good and be ego. It won’t work for you. If you did some good deed it should be between you and the individual or organization you did it for. You shouldn’t go around telling everyone. That is asking for the fruits of your actions and you won’t get anything out of it other than just boosting your ego. When your ego comes down it comes down dangerously fast.  What’s the point in talking about good things? You don’t have to be aware of good things. You have to be aware of bad things. Good things will come and go but bad things will leave a big dent in your life.

The next 6 months will be a difficult period. If you read astrology you’ll see that there’s a great planetary transition happening at the moment that will affect every one of us. And the only way to get out of this and to keep your head above water is to pray. Only prayer can save you, nothing else. Believe me, the casino will not save you. It will only take away what you have. It doesn’t give you anything. Many of you think that if you go to the casino your finances will come right. They won’t. If you work it out, you end up putting in more than what you get out. So don’t think you can go in the evening to the casino, come out in the morning and miss a whole night of your life just pressing buttons. Enjoy life. Buy some buttons and press them at home. We waste our energy. And money, that is so difficult to accumulate right now, we’re just wasting at the casino. I’m not asking you not to go, or telling you it is wrong. I’m just saying you’re not going to get anything out of it. It is your choice, your money. But there will be at time in your life when you’ll sit back and think about what I’ve told you about the casino and realize what a fool you were. Some people’s second home is the casino. They literally live there. If you can’t find them just go to Sun City or Sibaya – you’ll see them there looking like they own the premises because they have a premium card. And when they talk about casino they’ll show you their card and what membership status they have. Rather pull out a card that will show you what status you have in the astral plane, and then I’ll be happy. In the time wasted at the casino we should rather chant some mantras. If God so desires for you to have R10 million from the casino then you’ll have it.

There’s something else I need to tell you. Many of you have lost money at casinos – a lot of money. And when you lose the money what do you think? That someone else is going to get your money. That money is cursed. If I went to the casino and lost R100 I would leave there depressed and so the money is cursed. You go there to gain money not to lose money and when you don’t gain it you’re miserable. Casinos are not places to go and waste your money and your beautiful time. Spend your nights in the luxury of your own home and lovely bed. I know, I’ve been to the casino and I saw some of you there. You’re happier in the casino than in the ashram. But you didn’t see me. I’ve seen many of you. Hard earned money, you’ve worked all your life for, you go and put in the casino during this difficult time. Think about it. You might be thinking, ‘This guru, it’s not his money so what’s he worried about?’ I’m not worried that it’s not my money. You didn’t ask your geography teacher why he’s teaching you geography. We are going to have more very difficult times and I’m asking you to keep your money for a rainy day. You need to save your money. Many of you are so lavish, and I know somebody buys face cream for R3000, but from the time I’ve known this person until now their skin is still the same colour, nothing has changed, so I don’t know what the cream is doing. This is how we waste our money. There are some things you need to know. If you’re meant to remain black you will and if you’re meant to remain fair you will. The colour of your skin does not make you who you are. I’ve seen some people who are dark and are so beautiful, and some people who are fair but you don’t want to look at them. Save your money.

Remember also, the Gayathri Peedam is not a once-a-month or a once-in-a-while place to pray. If you want to experience the energy you need to really come here and pray. You know, I can take you to my kripa and show you on my camera what kind of energy is around the Babaji shrine. You’ll be surprised. If you stand there you disappear, you don’t appear in the camera photo.

Hari Om.

Mudras and diet

The hand movements we did this morning are for the different aspects of Muruga, Babaji and Agasthiar. We did the peacock mudra, the same one for Mahavishna and for Garuda. We did the Ganesha mudra, then you tapped your head; the shivaling mudra with the thumb sticking out, the sankh mudra, the gnana mudra, and the chin mudra. Mudras are important. Every time you do a mudra it activates organs in your body. Every mudra activates a specific organ. The chin mudra activates the pineal grand, and the gnana mudra does too. If you do it for long enough you’ll feel like something is flowing down your brain – it’s a secretion from the pineal gland. It’s the same with the toes. If you desperately want to get pregnant, then massage just below the ankle on both the feet. If you over-activate it you’ll end up having two at one time.

God has given us every remedy in our body and in nature. Have you heard of Mangosteen? It is very good to keep you slim. Here’s a nice simple diet for you.

For one whole week, 7 days, have no rice, no bread, no butter, no salt, no dressing, nothing. Just have salad only for breakfast, lunch and supper, as much salad as you want, until you’re full. Then for 3 weeks eat whatever you want. Then one week eat salad only. Eventually you’ll be having salad for 3 weeks. During the 7 days have no salt, no rice, no bread – just salad. Rinse your canned beans nicely to get rid of salt and any preservatives, and put them in your salad. Don’t use salad dressing because there’s salt in it. In one week you can lose up to 500g. For some people you wont see it, unfortunately, but after a few kilograms you’ll notice.

Hari Om.

Find union with Paramshiva

Due to the changes in human behavior, the arrogance of human nature, and the attitude in this human form towards God, much turbulence is going to be experienced. And those turbulences are because of your total disrespect for the supreme gift called Mother Earth, even to you, by that supreme almighty Paramashiva. The time has come for man to now start analyzing and retracting from the advances that he made in this material plane, and in that process destroying what the Supreme has given to him in the form of Mother Nature.

You are responsible for your own destruction. And you are also responsible for your own retraction. It is you who can make the difference and save this beautiful gift given to us by Paramshiva Himself. If each one of you get together collectively and do things that are positive towards this earth plane or Bhoomadevi, you will find that you can reconstruct this beautiful gift of God given to you by Paramshiva himself.

As one of the devotees said, ‘ignorance is bliss’. If that were true then all yogis and masters who are in a total state of bliss are stupid because they are ignorant of everything else. Do not even use that line ‘ignorance is bliss’. By using that line and being ignorant you have robbed the earth to this stage, the destruction will become inevitable and you will all become victims. Try to save something that’s given to you by that supreme energy Paramshiva himself. And do what is necessary in your daily life to save what is yours by the word of the almighty Paramshiva.

The sapta rishis cannot go on protecting you and giving you all the oxygen you need to live on this plain. This is a journey that you need to take and make a committed spiritual journey. Your ascendance from this plane should be a joyous one. And you can only make it joyous if you satisfy the requirements of Bhoomadevi, Mother Earth, the great gift given to you by the supreme Lord Paramshiva himself. He is not Shiva that you know. Paramshiva is that energy that lies beyond the sun, beyond your faculty of imagination. And that energy is all that you require through constant meditation to attain the state of bliss.

You destroy this earth by building all kinds of towering buildings, making concrete jungles. The only difference between a concrete jungle and a real jungle is that in a real jungle you find life, in a concrete jungle you don’t find life. It’s a total rat race. And in that process you forget what is due from you to keep this beautiful earth plane, Bhoomadevi, the gift from Paramshiva, intact and calm.

You’ve heard of how two earthquakes happened within 14 days of each other in the same country, the same city. As much as many people say, ‘But why can’t you predict the exact date?’ If that were so then where would the people go? They can still not hide from what is due to them.

This is what I have to say to each one of you: enjoy this plane, this earth plane, to the best of your ability without destroying it. The more you destroy it, the more you’re cutting off your hands, and the less you can do later in life. Paramshiva is that great energy, that supreme energy, which even you cannot exist without. You live in that Shiva in this body, with the atma within you, that is part of this great Paramatma – and you can find that divine union with Paramshiva if you meditate properly and do the right things on the spiritual journey.

So you should start as soon as possible to save what you have around you. And it will slowly spread. There is no way you can build up again the ozone layer that is missing. But whatever you have now you can keep it if you do the right things. 

Pray every day

There is always a time in our lives when we need God most. Every individual, whether rich or poor, happy or sad, sometime in their life will have to seek and find this somewhere. And right now the time is for all human beings to seek out this Andavar by whatever name you might Him or Her: Shiva, Muruga, Vishnu, Gayathri, Duruga, Kali. The time, the moment, is now. It is now for you to experience and seek this great energy that has been encircling this institute for the last 3 weeks and giving the devotees the highest form of darshan. What has taken place in the last 3 weeks is a mystery in many of the minds of those were present. But even though it was something you cannot contain within yourself, you have enjoyed every moment. It is sad to note that many have not come to take this darshan, this diksha that was given in the last 3 days here at this ashram.

God is not a once-a-month aspect of your lives. God is not a once-a-week aspect of your lives. God should be a daily aspect of your life. Actually, at least once in a day, you should be talking to somebody else, another individual, about God. And you should get to that state where you can talk about God to somebody without feeling any kind of discomfort. Many of you think that if you discuss God among your friends and colleagues at work, they will look down upon you. Something you need to understand: the highest form of any entity, the highest energy of any entity, the highest for any entity is that of God. And if you can talk about God you will get closer to God and eventually experience what it is to be God-like. It is the most beautiful and marvelous experience that each one of you can attain. Through the grace of your guru and God, through the grace of the energy present here, you can take this energy and go home and you can experience this energy.

Many of you have forgotten God but have come to places like this just to overcome the guilt within you. God should be a daily entity in your life and at least once in your day you should be talking with somebody else about this great, super energy called God. And then only can you say that you are doing some kind of divine work. Instead of standing around and talking about things that will not give you any kind of prosperity but will come back to bite you like a boomerang. Why do you like that kind of pain? And at that moment you’ll be the first one to blame God for your downfall. God has not helped you, God has not shown you the way, God has not directed you. I have been praying for so long and yet not one day, not yet have you been able to pray properly. It is not the duration of the prayer. It is the intensity of your dedication, and the total intensity of your discipline. Have you got all 3? Are you so well disciplined that without missing, without failing, you do your duty towards God? Have you got that kind of devotion and dedication that nothing will move you if you have to do God’s work? Or do you just get up in the morning, stand outside, look at the sun, say your surya japa, do your offering and once that’s finished you’ve forgotten about God? Is that your dedication, your devotion?

Why is it that when you worship Sri Hanuman you worship him on just one day a week? Why is it if you worship Sri Muruga it’s just for a period? Why when you worship Lord Shiva do you make the greatest effort at Shivarathri? Is that devotion? Is that dedication? Is that discipline? Shiva should be worshiped every day of your life? If you really want to observe Shivarathri you should observe it for 12 months. There is one every month that you should observe. It’s the same with Muruga, You shouldn’t restrict worship of Muruga to just some times. It should be continuous. It’s the same with Hanuman. If you’re worshiping then worship continuously, and then you’ll see how God will always have His hands out to you and you’ll always be holding onto His hand and having no kind of difficulty.

So the time has come for you to seek God. Seek him properly. And once you see God hold him tight. Do not for one moment release him. And you’ll find every bit of joy, every bit of love, every bit of happiness. Don’t disregard your prayers. When you pray it should be to God at all times. Then you will understand this life better.

Yoga and enlightenment

You are required to believe that you are being protected. Every day it must be so strong that it must have solidified into a rock within you so that nothing, no dynamite, no bomb, no weakness or doubt of mind can destroy this belief. Remember, if you have this strong belief together with devotion dedication and strict discipline, you will get whatever you want in both the material and spiritual planes. All of you need to practice yoga. By practicing yoga you can perform all the material and spiritual requirements. Yoga will be able to set your mind where you know good from bad, happy from sad, and understand what to do using the equilibrium of the mind. In that evenness of the mind you can enjoy the world of yoga and the material plane and also stand out in the material plane as a giant with all the success, where you will continuously ride the horse of success. Similarly, while that is happening, you can become a giant in the spiritual field as well and you can ride the horse of enlightenment. And both those horses will take you where you to where you want to go in your life.

This journey of yours is very important. This journey of yours is required. This journey of yours must be completed in this lifetime. If you get caught in the cycle of birth and come back in the next lifetime, earth will be hell for all who come back. Earth will be the most treacherous place to be in the next lifetime. Therefore, in this lifetime you should make all the adjustments and progress on both the horse of success and the horse of enlightenment. In both these you’ll get up on a pedestal. The pedestal on the material plane is called prosperity. On the horse of enlightenment there’s also a pedestal, and when you get on that pedestal it’s called realisation. With prosperity on the material plane and realisation on the spiritual plane, you can become a giant and have the power to receive whatever you want.

Each one of you is only unique by the way you look and your features, but you are not different or unique in intelligence. You are all the same in your understanding, your knowledge. There’s no difference between a teacher, a principle, a professor, and a cleaner. Each one has just developed their material intelligence and attained different states of success. Even a cleaner is riding the horse of success.

On the spiritual plain every one of you has within you enlightenment, which means 2 things. The first meaning of enlightenment is to remove all the obstacles from the mind and you become lighter and can transcend. The second meaning of enlightenment is Arul Perum Jyothi, Arul Perum Jyothi, Thani Perum Karunai, Arul Perum Jyothi. When you, the atma, and Param Shivam unite in realization, you will become like jyothi, light, in the eyes of everybody is in your company. You will continuously carry the fragrance of the jasmine on the spiritual journey and that fragrance of jasmine will take you to God realisation and eventually into the deepest state of samadhi in its different variations. At the same time, if you are practicing yoga (which is not just asana), the different steps of yoga, you will attain the state where you will have any kind of siddhi that you want, and that is called samyama. When dharana, dhyam, and samadhi are practiced together in the deepest sense of meditation, then samyama is attained. if you practice samyana you will be able to stop the rain, pull a train, to pick up the biggest lorry. Through samyama the strength that you believe in your mind becomes the strength that is actioned through your arms.

So yoga is very important and it is saddening to know that so few of you take the opportunity of practicing yoga at this institute. The knowledge that the students of yoga in this institute have about the spiritual life in general is not comparable to any other organisation. This institute is person-orientated. I urge all of you to find the time at least once in a week to come and join the Bhagavad Gita class, join the Patanjali Yoga Sutra class, and know what the answers are to questions that are normally posed to you by other religious organisations and people, that you do not know the answers for. Every answer on the spirit or material journey lies in the hands of the guru. Therefore you need to take this opportunity to join in and enjoy this yoga. Whatever condition you have, through yoga and meditation, you will be able to lessen or totally cure the condition and enjoy a healthy life.

Yoga means ‘to unite your atma with paramatma’, prior to which you, your physical body, is united to the atma, and that is all self-realisation. And in self-realisation, you understand the self that is situated in the highest plane of your body. And from understanding the self, and the purity of the self, you’ll transcend, you’ll elevate to the highest plane called God-realisation. And once you have realised God, you have nothing else to realise in this world. That should be the aim of each one of you. You coming here for service is also a form of yoga. It is called bhakti nada yoga, bhakti bhajana yoga, bakti satsanga yoga, which is also good. The only difference is the absence of the mind is only temporary. You have to do this daily, continuously, in a disciplined way at a specific time – only then you can attain God. The other way of yoga is also karma yoga. Karma yoga is physical working in a spiritual environment doing seva, and it can take you a whole lifetime to even realise the self. And then you have jynana yoga, the yoga of wisdom, the yoga of mind. It is a very difficult discipline as your guru would never be able to correct you because the book becomes your guru. In jynana yoga you use scriptures to attain God. And the 4th yoga is what we call raja or kriya yoga. This is the most powerful of all yogas. This is a healing yoga. In this yoga form are different headings or divisions: kriya mantra yoga (Om Kriya Babaji Namaha Aum), kriya kundalini yoga, kriya dhyana yoga, kriya asana yoga in which there are only 18 postures which you have to master in your own flexibility and ability. And once you do that you will find that all conditions that you were having will lessen or diminish. 

Shanti Om Shanti.

Paramshiva, Shiva and Muruga

Arul perum jyothi, arul perum jyothi, thani perum karunai, arul perum jyothi.

This should be recited continuously. What is the meaning of ‘arul’? What is the meaning or ‘perum’? What is the meaning of ‘jyoti’? Arul is the total energy of Paramshiva, which is the light in the soul of each one of you. And that light should be daily energized to such an extent that when people look at you they only see you as jyothi, a light. From the most ancient times in the early Vedic scriptures, the light has been the most important aspect of a home, in our days. That jyothi is what you call today the God lamp or Lakshmi. It is very important that you stand in front of that Lakshmi and give your total self in the name of Arul perum jyothi, arul perum jyothi, thani perum karunai, arul perum jyothi.

This most powerful mantra was handed over by Paramshiva, the great lord of this universe. It surpasses any kind of definition of the term ‘god’. And this great jyothi was given by Paramshiva to Muruga to light up each one of you. Any worship of Muruga should be continued worship, not just a single moment of worship, not on one specific day. Muruga is that significant light, that jyothi. And in present times, because of the lack of this jyothi knowledge, the children are now becoming abusive towards their parents. It is shocking to find that your child can use such abusive language and actions against you in this modern time. And this all has to be linked to the weakness of the parents, that the parents have failed somewhere in their life to educate or to bring up that child in a proper manner.

It is very important for as long as possible to keep your child away from modern mechanisms and mechanics. The destruction to the brain comes from these mechanisms. It is very important that you start to nurture your children and know what your children are doing all the time. This is the most important thing that you are lacking in this life. You don’t know where your children are, what they are doing, who their friends are and whether they are good or bad. In the names of Muruga, you can save your child from destruction and distraction.

Right now is a very special time, and in this special time you should all worship Paramshiva, the light that has no ending, and bring it to the Shiva within you. It is important in all your lives to remember that God, in whatever form, energy or field you worship Him, will make His presence felt and you will enjoy his bliss.

 You will feel the energy lingering around you. Just absorb and enjoy that energy as much as you can. There is this light within you that also needs to find the joy without you. This is the moment to let the light within you find the joy without you. In the great epic (the Mahabarata) it is said that when the seer and the seen become one, at that moment there is pure union with God. When Paramshiva and the Shiva within you become one then you have a perfect, pure union with God. That is all that you need.

Arul perum jyothi, arul perum jyothi, thani perum karunai, arul perum jyothi.

The importance of navagraha

Hari Om,

I was asked a question today so I though maybe I would answer the question. Before we start I’m sure you all know that right now we are sitting with Saturn over us continuously and that can be good or bad.

I showed a [visiting] gentleman all the murthis today and the Kali murthi and he said about Kali, “This is the terror”. When he saw the Sani shrine he said the same thing, “Saturn is terror”. The only reason we have these grahas is to remind us to continuously pray and remember God.

If you didn’t have pain you wouldn't be sitting here. There’s some kind of want in your system that creates the pain. And the only obstacle to you not getting your desire is the 9 planets. You’re wondering how these affect your body. You know the lunar cycle is 27 or 28 days and the same cycle goes for the trance. According to how the moon is placed, that’s how we get the trance. The moon is not really a planet; it’s a satellite that reflects the light from earth. That can affect the ocean and the planet that is 80% water and 20% land. Our body is also 80% fluid and 20% solid. Everything in our body can become fluid, except for 20%.

You know, there are spiders in Brazil that bite you and put in some kind of poison and that part of the flesh becomes liquid and they drink it. Really. That is how this body is. It’s just a mass of fluid. And if the moon, such a small aspect of these 9 planets, can affect such a huge ocean, what is it going to do to us? Also, you’ve heard when people aren’t right in the head we say they’re a lunatic, they’re affected by the moon. You saw that one child here during full moon, he was in a bad shape, and other times he’s fine. Now, he doesn’t look at the calendar to see when full moon is.

Lets take all the planets. All the planets put together create for you fate – which we call graha, navagraha or naughara. And that affects you. And if we don’t satisfy these planets by worshiping them, then it will affect us. And I think, as you sit here, that some of you are here because of successful navagrahas to say think you. Of all the poojas, the most beneficial prayer to all of us is the prayer for the 9 planets. They don’t give you wealth. Don’t go and do the prayer because you want to own 20 trucks. But it will remove the obstacles that are there in front of you preventing your wealth.

Don’t misunderstand fate for karma. Fate is something else. Karma is brought upon yourself. Fate is placed there in your destiny. You develop the karma yourself. No matter what you do in this life you will experience it and have an encounter of the same thing in the next life. And if you don’t make a change you will continue with it. This is why we have the cycle of birth and death. We need to do all these things.

When a child is born you go to an astrologer and he opens the almanac and tells you the child is born this year, thidi, nakshaktra … so the child will be like this and if you do XYZ everything will be fine. But you know what, 90 % of the parents don’t follow the astrologer. Then as soon as something goes wrong they go to another astrologer. In Sri Lanka, especially, they know their nakshaktra, tidhi, and rashi and they have a chart. As soon as I go there they bring their charts and ask me if they are matching. They all have charts and they live by the charts. But we will go to the priest and ask for the right time, and for what to do but we won’t do it. For example, a couple who are getting married go to the priest and ask what time the bride must leave home. The priest will say, “8 o’clock”. But at 8 o’clock the bride is not ready so they take her handbag and leave it outside, and that’s supposed to mean she is outside.

We compromise so we have difficulties. When it comes to God’s work there should not be any compromise at all. No matter what somebody tells you. God’s work must continue. Write that in your head. When he comes back to bite you it’ll be like a boomerang. Many years ago I was at the worst ebb of my life. It was so bad we couldn’t even buy food or milk for the children. But it was a cycle. We did what was necessary at that time and everything has changed and, ever since, that’s all we do. But, unfortunately for you all, you always find excuses not to do it. If I say service is from 7 to 8 pm, then at 8 o’clock everyone is looking at their watch and watching me to see if I’m going to stop service. There is no time limit for God. It stops when it’s finished – and it’s never finished. God’s work is never finished. It continues always, every day. So navagraha is the most important aspect in this journey.

Parents and children

GAYATHRI DEVI, GOOD FRIDAY

Hari Om.

In our lives many things are important and essential. But there’s one aspect of our lives that the present youngsters fail to acknowledge and that is the role and duty of their parent in their lives. The most important factor in each one of our lives – and the fact that we are who we are – is due to the effort and ethics of our parents. In this day many of us think our parents are old-fashioned and we might have some wise friend or aunt who might be advising otherwise, telling us to do it the other way. I want you all to understand one thing, especially the youngsters: when you are in deep trouble, in the most difficult time of your life, when everything in front of you is collapsing, no friend or aunt with wise words will come to you. But your mother and father will find, do and procure anything to make sure their child is happy. It’s strange but true.

The children of today have a strange idea that parents are still living in their days. So when a parent tells them something they say, “That was in your days, Ma. This is in modern days”. In these modern days we have more drought and more load shedding. In the olden days we didn’t have all that. The reason we have all these things is that in modern times you are careless and as youngsters you are all careless. I can tell you as we sit here, on Monday we will have news that 3 or 4 youngsters from Tongaat have had an accident. The reason is they were speeding, drag racing whatever. Do you think they listened to their parents? No.

But in some cases parents are delinquents too. The parents give their child everything. And in that the child gets spoiled. We must be able to nurture, grow and develop our children to the best of our ability and the children need to know that there’s nobody out there closer than their parents. Not your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife – they are not closer to you than your parents. I’m saying this because we have so many youngsters at the Gayathri Peedam and so many of them have delinquent parents. You know why a child can’t think any more? Why do we have to tell them the same thing 10 times before they understand what we said? It’s because their fingers and eyes do the thinking on their cellphones. They cannot live without the cellphone. We have failed miserably in our duty. You go to a restaurant: mother, father and 2 children, each of them is on their cellphone doing their own business. They’re supposed to be a family. Why is this? Because we have failed as parents. You don’t know what the cellphone is going to do to you and your child. As soon as the child cries for a cellphone we give it to them because we don’t know any other way to quieten the child. When we were young there were methods to quieten us – things that really worked. And if I had my way right now I’d do the same thing to all the delinquent parents and children here.

Please, children, first and foremost in your life, before anything else, are your parents. Only after that siblings come. Parents know when their child is being hurt somewhere in America or when the child is sick somewhere in India – they know and will make that call at the most appropriate time because they are the most connected to you. Not your wife, girlfriend, or friend. It’s not about having a good time. It’s like being vegetarian. We’re told that it’s unfortunate to be a vegetarian because everyone who is vegetarian meets a meatarian. When they ask you if you are a vegetarian and you say “yes” they say “shame”. It’s shame on them, not on us. In the same way we become weak with our children. You know why you were born into that family?

Do you know why it took your mother 13 years to deliver you? It’s because for 13 years she couldn’t have a baby. God needed to find the right karmic consequences for each one of you including the child. That’s why it takes so long. For some people it just happens, but for others it takes longer. God has to find that child for you and you need to nurture the child without the child going anywhere out of alignment of parent-child discipline. It’s very important. God didn’t send a child to you and when you don’t have a child you go to 21, 22, 23 astrologers and all those temple people and when you have the child after 3 or 4 years you loudly say, “I shouldn’t have had you, I was better without you”. Same parent. Delinquent. Parents, just like prana, are the life-giving force for each one of you.

If you have parents nurture them like they are the life. That’s all. You must look after your parents, that is your duty. You must listen to your parents, that is your duty. Sometimes they say mad things. Tashi always says, “Dad, something’s wrong with you”. I said, “Something’s wrong with God, he sent you to me. Nothing’s wrong with me. Something’s wrong with God”. He sent Bhavta to my house like I’m not satisfied with 3 females already so he had to send another one.

Anyway, I know it’s the Easter weekend and you are the crazy people who go to temple when everyone else goes everywhere else. All religious people, spiritual people are crazy. Please believe that. Spiritual people don’t do different things, they do the same things you do differently. If you stir your tea clockwise they’ll stir theirs anti-clockwise, but it’ll taste sweeter than yours.

Hari Om.

Awards dinner speech

Today’s world is changing very fast. More and more people are joining the rat race of this consumer life. The urge to earn more money quickly, have bigger homes, drive bigger and faster cars, and do everything fast has made our lives over busy. There is an ever increasing demand for gadgets that do more work in less time. The demand for items that require more time and physical effort is decreasing. Newer technology is constantly replacing the slower older ones. In 1984 when the computer age started and the Internet age followed, businesses would consider themselves lucky if they could get 1 megabyte per second connection. Now, the Internet connections of the order of terabytes are available. Computers have also become powerful during the last 10 years from booting up to starting up.

Man’s love for speed is the reason the Wright brothers invented the airplane. And that small invention led man in pursuit of supersonic jets screaming past the sound barrier. Thousands of years ago, no man would have dreamed of running 100 metres in 10 seconds, whereas today there are so many runners like Usain Bolt who have broken that limit. Maybe this record will also be broken. Our traveling speeds have also increased in leaps and bounds during the last century. It used to take us 3 months to travel from Durban to India. Whereas today it takes only 14 hours for the same distance. The kitchen is not left far behind either in this race of speed. When I was growing up it used to take hours to cook food using wood and coal stoves. Now, the wood stoves are replaced by gas and electric stoves. Then microwave cooking became the latest innovation. Food can be now prepared in a few minutes.

Technology has changed our lives in every aspect. When I was young, to make a phone call we needed to book the call with the operator, then came automatic exchanges and we would crank the phone and get the operator to connect us to the number we gave him. Then came digital phones and exchange so we could dial direct anywhere in the world. Now we have the greatest menace in our lives, actually another appendage, the mobile phone that later came to be known as the cell phone. I think even Graeme Bell would have been upset with this device. This is the worst of all of technology. It causes cancer and distorts a child’s mind. As parents, we give this gadget to our children so that they are out of our space. Well, it has introduced in the child’s life a new dimension and experience about life and life’s activities. I ask all parents to take away cell phones from school going children and see what results are produced. This gadget and its social media is the only activity that interests the child of this generation. I, as the head of the Gayathri Peedam, totally ban cell phones at the ashram. If your child comes to the ashram with their cell phone and I catch him or her, the phone will be confiscated and put in the fire and the parent will be fined R1000.00.

With this I say enjoy this evening’s programme.

Hari Om.

Spirituality is a way of life

Hari Om.

Everybody talks about spirituality and many talk about it as being ‘an experience’. They say spirituality is an experience. Actually spirituality is a way of life. As Hindus we should live that as a way of life, continuously. Spirituality doesn’t mean going to temple or sitting in meditation. Spirituality means more than that. It is a way of life, a way we live. Namaste, vanakam, namaskar, good morning – these greetings are all part of being spiritual. But many of us have a new way of greeting. I went to a school not so long ago not far from where I live. My children used to go to this school. When I went to the school I greeted the principal, “Good morning Mrs so-in-so”, and she shook her fist at me (fist-bump) – this is the new way of greeting. This in my eyes means violence but it is how everyone is greeting now. Palms together and handshake are over now. They say, “Howzit?” How’s what?

That is why we are having so many problems in our lives. As we sit here every one of you is having problems you never thought you would encounter but they are coming your way. You might have been a successful businessman for many years and all of a sudden you’re having financial problems and the first thing you blame is the dollar. We always blame something else for our failure. Once you start to live in God, evey nadi, every molecule, every atom in your body resonates in God. Whatever you call God – Namashivaya, Jesus Christ, Allah – if it resonates in that then you’ll live a very successful life. Believe me.

We need God in our lives every day. We don’t need God only when we’re sick or have financial or other problems. God is always there and answers you in very subtle ways. And the God that we want is accessed through our gurus. Our gurus are great masters and through them – Kriya Babaji, Sivabalayogi, Murugesu Swami, Yogi Ramaiah – these are our gurus and through them anything is possible.

I’m going to give you an example of how God and the masters work. Seelan and Bhavta, after they were married could not find Seelan’s passport. My room was literally taken to pieces and we could not find it. We took everything out of Seelan’s room and we could still not find it. Mentally I said, “Babaji, today’s Monday we need to find this passport to send these children off”. We looked all over and everyone was blaming everybody. Seelan was blaming Ma, Ma was blaming me and I was blaming the masters. Then within 5 minutes of asking we found it – after searching for 7 days – just because I said “Babaji, I want it from you”. This is how they work, very subtly. And after I found it I was blamed because I locked it in the safe! Normally I don’t put things there. This is how the masters work. I’ve had this experience all my life, somehow the masters play their part in whatever I want.

So I’m asking all of you, that every nadi, every molecule, every atom, every vessel in your body resonate in God’s vibration. And to resonate in God’s vibration you have to say His name, not just in times of difficulty – say it continuously. You don’t have to go outside and shout it to everyone, but say it mentally, say His name. Dean will tell you how, just by saying the masters names, how things have happened in his life. Suren will tell you as well. And there are many others here who will say the same.

Spirituality is not an experience; it’s a way of life. Make it your way of life and, believe me, everything will happen for you. The masters have made everything possible. They can make anything possible. Somebody said to me, “Guru, if you could change Donovan Nair, you can change the whole world”. I said, “Who’s this chap?” They said they would bring him to me. There’s Donovan over there, he never used to come to service and now he never misses service. That is how it works. I went to buy a car once and the salesperson looked at me like I couldn’t even afford a pair of sandals. And there he is sitting over there. This is how it happens. And it’s all because of God and by the wisdom of His masters.

I met Dean by chance. I thought he was an albino Indian. Dean has been with me for 15 years. But he’ll tell you it’s all by the masters’ grace. Dean had the opportunity of sitting at the master’s feet on 2 occasions. Suganiya grew up in front of Swami Murugesu. This is what I’m saying: you’ll get what you want. Pingla here has finished her honours in pharmacy. Everyone wrote her off saying she would never make it. She believed in Babaji daily, in Babaji’s grace. In her matric year she did abishekam for Babaji every Thursday. She has recently started again. Spirituality is not an experience. It should be a way of life. Whether you are writing your Masters, MBA or PhD, without God you are nothing and you won’t get anything. Only God and the masters make it possible. Who are the masters? They are those who give you God’s energy. So make spirituality your way of life.

Follow the religion not the teacher

When you look at the religious stats on the TV and everywhere else, 1.6 billion people in the world are Christian, 1.4 billion are Moslem, 1.2 billion are Hindus. I can remember 15 years ago when Hinduism was the highest in the listing of religion, and Christianity was third. The only reason they have taken the lead is because you don’t know your book – your Bhagavad Gita. Forget the other books. You don’t need to know them. We’re starting classes so you can learn the Bhagavad Gita and when you are confronted about the Hindu religion, don’t tell them they are right and that our religion is complicated. It is not complicated if you follow it properly. 

But the problem is that we don’t follow it properly. We are always shopping at Hari Krishna and then at the Gayathri Peedam; we go from Drift temple to Sri Gopala temple. We should not be shopping. We should believe that God is one and the same in any of these temples. Christianity tells you that. Hinduism tells you the same thing in a complicated way: that all these forms we see are just names given to the different energy levels we want to access God on. For our education we call God 'Saraswati'. For prosperity and wealth we call God 'Lakshmi'. But the Bhagavad Gita teaches us that total surrender to God is all that is required. Forget the name Krishna. It doesn’t mean God – it means soul.

When we follow Hare Krishna we think that’s the only god and we become fanatical like Manchester United fans. We’ll even say the wrong things to protect our religion. We shouldn’t have that situation. You must be able to see Krishna in Lord Shiva and vice versa. If you can do that then you can see God – just as I must be able to see God in each one of you. I must see some of you as Kali, some as Duruga. I must see you as God and once I can do that then I don’t have any problems in this world. We are not seeing that and therefore we are having a high rate of conversion.

Christianity is not a bad religion. It doesn’t teach wrong. It is a beautiful religion of love. It’s just that some of the people teach it teach it wrongly. But what happens to our Hindu people? They follow the preachers not the religion. You need to stop that and follow the religion. As we say: in the radiance of Babaji, the light of our gurus, and the glory of Christ, if you can be universal like that then you can call your organization a religion. If you are going to separate yourself into Hari Krishna, Christian, Moslem, then we have a problem. When the Christians come to you with their black book and tell you it’s the only book, then you can show them the eternal book, the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God, the DIY of man forever. 

We were sitting outside a temple yesterday to visit the priest and I went over to the banyan tree where they tie the cotton around. I could see that it had been maybe 5 years since anybody put cotton around it. That means we don’t have any Hindus there anymore. The white cotton is actually black – that’s how long ago cotton was tied around the tree. The Bhagavad Gita is your DIY manual for life.

Board Flight GP 2015

Paramahansa Yogananda is a great saint and the saint who brought Dean to the ashram. If I didn’t see that photo in a lady’s shop I wouldn’t have asked who gave it to her. I asked her and she said Dean and then brought this whitey to the ashram. The lady was Linda Smith. That photo is of Paramahansa Yogananda, the one individual who took kriya yoga to the west.

The beauty about Paramahansa Yogananda is that when he left India to go to America there were only 50 people at the harbour to see him off. But when he went back from America to India there were 50 000 people to greet him. He was not popular in India but became popular going to America. He has centres all over the world in America, in Los Angeles is the mother centre. Some time when you’re going that way, go and visit.

Now it’s 2015 and some of you I did not see on new year. To those I didn’t see, I wish for you everything of the best. To those people I’ve seen, I wish you everything of the best. As I said 2015 isn’t going to be any lighter than 2014 so get used to it. 2014 was setting you up for 2015. It’s going to be tough but I think we should all remember that there is only one energy, one individual, who can take you out of any kind of misery. It’s spelled with 3 letters of the alphabet – GOD. You can’t forget Him. Just remember Him in your difficult times.

Let this year be without arguments but with more decisions. I think that’s what we need. Some of you are wondering what the difference is. It’s very simple. In an argument you want to prove who’s right. In a decision you know what’s right. There’s a big difference. An argument is about an individual, and a decision is about what’s right. Let 2015 be that kind of year. I think for me, I’m tired of arguments. Very soon I think I’m going to go into withdrawal and become a hermit, sit upstairs and not see anyone. I’m tired of your differences and arguments and I keep telling you that. To be positive does not increase your life at all. But it makes your life happier. If you’re positive you can go home and sleep. But if you are negative and have arguments with everything you can’t go home and sleep.

This is 2015 and we need to look at ourselves and take accountability for ourselves. We need to do right things and good things. Forget what you did in the past. As I said to you on Friday: Flight GP 2015 was ready for boarding on Friday. I said, “Come on board with no baggage, just good souvenirs”. And just to inform you, I happen to be the captain of this flight. It’s not going to disappear any time soon. So please, let us only think of all the good things that happened. The bad things can never become good but the good things can become better. The bad things will go in the other direction. You don’t need that.

I’ve had so many disappointments in the last few days but I’m not looking at those. I’m just looking at the positive and continuing the journey. You must do the same thing. You’re not going to get everything, but hold onto what you get. Nobody’s going to get everything. You might be at the crest of the wave today but not tomorrow. And, fortunately for you, you know one equation: guru + guru = Gayathri Peedam. But why do we have to have the problem first? Start here, and start living positively. Believe me, everything will come right.

Before we conclude, does anyone know why we say shanti 3 times? The first shanti we say is for us – for ‘me’. The second one is for everyone around you. The third one is for the universe. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Om.