Hari Om.There are three very import aspects in our life. And these three very import aspects that I'm going to talk about are the easiest way to get to God; the easiest way to accept God. God is not attained by sacrifices as many of us know. We want to sacrifice for every little thing. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'It is by your sacrifice that you can become dear to me'. He doesn't mean to literally sacrifice any creature. It means sacrifice your self, your mind.
My very first guru, Gurudev Narayansami, used to do many sacrifices in his life and none of those sacrifices gave him any joy. He would tell God continuously that he wanted to be a healer of an extraordinary status; that he would not charge anybody any money. He would do these services for free. And God would say to him, 'I need a sacrifice'. And he would sacrifice and get no joy out of it. He did not attain what was supposed to be given to him by God but he continued to sacrifice. Then one day in his frustration he said to God, 'Stop playing games with me. I need this power'. And God said, 'I want sacrifice'. And he said to God, 'I've given you so many sacrifices already. What else do you want? My whole family?' God said, 'I want you to sacrifice your eldest son'. And he did. He did that and he served five years in prison for the murder of his son. Now, are any of you here prepared to do that? Sacrifice your child? No, we won't. We will never do that. And the only reason is because we love our children. We have an attachment to them. That's why we don't do it. When a father murders a son and a son murders his father, they have no love or attachment between them. They have nothing between them.
Your attachment and love for your child causes a point you can't think beyond - that everyone else is wrong and you are right. You won't sacrifice because you have this intense focus, attachment and love for this child which is yours. But, should a priest tell you to go and sacrifice a chicken, a goat or a pig, you are quite happy to do that. And the only reason you're happy to do that is because you have no love for the creature – nothing at all. It doesn't live in your house. You've only had it for four hours - it has just come from wherever. To you it means nothing. To many who attend the function it means a sumptuous meal. I'm not going to argue that our parents and ancestors did this prayer - because they had the most powerful mantras ever. They could recite a mantra to bring rain in two seconds. We don't have those people like that any more who can nullify the consequences of that sacrifice. You get a maharaj, a priest, a pandit, and when its time to sacrifice he hands over to you. He's too scared to tell you he doesn't know the mantras to nullify the karmic consequences of killing that animal.
My mother used to sacrifice. I come from a family that sacrifices and I'm going to tell you a story of why I refuse to sacrifice. I was about twelve years old and our neighbour in Stanger - I lived in Stanger - was doing what is known as Amman prayer (we call it porridge prayer) and they were sacrificing. At twelve years of age, I enjoyed meat, and chicken was my favourite. So I was watching them sacrificing and at the top of my head appeared a huge hand that turned my head away from watching the sacrifice, and I collapsed. Now when I think about it, that was God telling me I was not made for that. This is not a story, it was a personal experience. I've already had the experience of the touch of God telling me not to sacrifice. I was carried to the house unconscious for, maybe, six hours. So there must be something not right in the way we pray. Not in the way our ancestors prayed – we are so weak in comparison to them. We are the weakest link to our ancestors. We know nothing. Our ancestors knew everything. We've changed so much. Don't get caught in that karmic consequence. If you have a parent at home who is equal to your ancestor, living a long time, then follow for as long as they are here. They have not taught you how to do it.
There are only three words that can stop rain. And three words can bring the rain down again. But they are so powerful and intense that if you say them, it won't work because there's a way to say them. Do we have those people who know those mantras? We don't. So, therefore, we need to look at the whole thing and see where we're going wrong. Why are our children having problems?
I was in Sri Lanka when I got a call, or when I remembered that a certain devotee's niece might be dying of cancer, and I was standing in front of the seven metre tall Hanuman statue in a place called Rambara, a Chinmaya Mission ashram, and it is a principle that whenever I go to Sri Lanka I visit the shrine. If I don't it's a miserable trip. So, on this occasion I looked at the statue and said when I go back home I must get positive answers. And when I came back home I got positive answers. No sacrifice was needed, just strong faith, devotion and love. Faith, devotion and love. Faith in your dedication. Once you have those three, whether we believe that God exists or not, everything will be possible. Do not doubt. And we lack this. We lack this sense of belief that God is there and as soon as we come to the weakest point in our life we blame God. We blame God when we are down and we never praise God when we're up. I've not heard anyone say, 'By the grace of God I'm a millionaire. But when that millionaire falls down they say, 'What has God done to me?' Why? Because we don't have dedication, devotion and love. We need to have all three to dedicate the time to be with God, to have a sincere devotion towards God with the greatest and most intense love. Only then, whatever we want in life is possible - only then.
I've been bankrupt in life. When Tammy was still arguing about why we should pray so much when we couldn't make ends meet, I was sneaking out to do prayers at other people's homes. That has brought me to where I am today. Our karmic consequences are ours, and only by praying to God will you be able to work our those karmic consequences for your benefit. I'm not making this statement for you to give up the way you pray, don't get me wrong. My mother sacrificed all her life. For fifteen years before she passed on she was blind. And I argued that every day of my life for fifteen years. 'What did the sacrifice do to you, Ma? You sacrificed all your life, every prayer, and for fifteen years you've been blind'. Do we understand this? I realised afterwards the prayer has caused her blindness. She was blind to the prayer as well. When I was telling them not to sacrifice they would argue with me. When they did sacrifice I would go out and come back when it was finished. I didn't die yet. Everybody said I would have a miserable death because I didn't respect my ancestor's pooja. But I didn't die yet.
We must be bold and strong enough to accept the Bhagavad Gita as a testament. Take one book and make it your God. See the Moslems, they only have the Koran. The Christians only have the Bible. What do we have? You name the book, we have it, for every letter of the Alphabet. It's called 'the ABC of Hinduism'. Why? Because we want to know everything. Read the Bhagavad Gita and somebody will tell you the Upanishad is better. So you read the Upanishad and somebody else will tell you to read the Puranas. Take one book only. I only talk to you about the Bhagavad Gita. You know why? It is the only Hindu book written without errors. Where you cannot point a finger at anything that is said there. You take all the other books and you can get into trouble. All eighteen chapters are repetitions of the first chapter. Whatever they tell you in the first chapter is in other chapters too. It's the most powerful book. Take it and read it. If you have any doubts or questions in life, open to the pages of the Bhagavad Gita.
I'm going to tell you a story that happened in the Drakensberg on our retreat. Some of the students were playing a game from the Bhagavad Gita where you think of a question, then flip the pages of the book and the answer will be there on the page you land on. This is something that was taught to the world by Mahatma Gandhi. Clinton and all of them were playing. Deepak came along and asked, 'What time will I sleep tonight?' They flipped the pages and it said, 'Those that sleep too much are tamasic.' Now, you see? It said, 'He who sleeps too much...' For those that sleep too much, it's no good. And for those who sleep too little, it's also no good. You must have equal sleep. That is the power of the Bhavagad Gita. You must test it. Try and get one with one verse per page.
So, make the Bhagavad Gita your book. That's all. If you want to know who you are flip to the Bhagavad Gita it will tell you at any time.
Hari Om
