Namaste.All of you have a small card in your hand that was given to you just now, about the Bhagavad Gita versus the cellphone. If you don't have one please come and get one. Its also a bookmark so you can see it all the time and be reminded that the Bhagavad Gita is more powerful than the cellphone. I took the time to get these printed so you can have it with you in your wallet or purse all the time, read it and remind yourself that the Bhagavad Gita is more powerful than the cellphone. You can live without the Bhagavd Gita, but not without the cellphone.
We claim to be Hindus, followers of sanatan dharma. But nowhere on our person do we carry any scriptural identity that tells people that we adhere to sanatan dharma. We don't come to the temple with our Bhagavad Gita, and yet when you look at other religions, Christians are proud to carry their bible. Whenever I see a Christian walking with his black book, it reminds me of when I was in school. Every week my name was in the black book. Even the Moslem is proud to carry his Quran, all covered so your eyes can't see it.
But today we have a cellphone, an ipad, and we are proud to show those, but we'll never take out a Bhagavad Gita in public, so as Hindus we are a disgrace to sanatan dharma. Maybe we can follow the teachings of this DIY manual for man. It teaches you very casually, very subtly, how to surrender. It doesn't come with any harsh words, but in every chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, you'll find the word 'surrender' more than fifty times. If you read the Bhagavad Gita, eventually the only word you'll remember is 'surrender'. It's the most beautiful word.
We are always in turmoil, we don't surrender. We always want to take things an extra next step. We always ask why, when and how. But in the Bhagavad Gita, there's a word more beautiful than any other. Surrender. This is the most beautiful time to surrender. It is Ramayan week. Sunday is Ram Naumi. There's no better time to surrender than now. Start surrendering your thoughts, the modifications of the mind. And when I say surrender them, I mean when they appear, just ignore them. But we don't do that. Why? Because we're Hindus.
Today I had the most beautiful day in twenty years. I was in mouna, silent fast. Do you know how beautiful it is not to speak to anybody? Really, everybody just looks at you. They look so funny when they speak, and you are not speaking. Then you realise how funny you can be when you are speaking. We need to take time off in our lives to relax this mouth of ours. Swami Sivinanada says that every Thursday you should do mouna to your guru. Be silent every Thursday. Don't talk to anybody. You don't have to do it on a Thursday. You can do it on a Saturday or Sunday. But then you say you can't because you can't talk to your friends.
I screamed and shouted at some devotees and one of them took it to the next step and sent me an email saying how disappointed she was. We're not used to that because we want to be in charge. In the Gayathri Peedam I am in charge. I'll scream, shout and run without clothes if I want. That's my business. If I shout at you, I have a reason. If I scream I have a reason. But you will take it the next step. You won't leave it and let it lie. When sleeping dogs awake they can bite you badly. We need to understand that we must not take anything to the next level. Just let it rest and see how beautiful your life will be. But we don't know how to surrender, so it plays in our minds over and over again. Still, we carry on. We don't know when to rest, when to say, 'Thank you, I'll zip it now'.
I asked a child why they spent all their money? She tells me 'It's my business'. One thing I'm telling all youngsters here, is that you are your mothers business. Get that in your head. Whether you're married or not, there's no such thing as 'mind your own business'. There's no business like mothers' business. All of you are mother's business. The mother will ask you at any time. You cannot tell her 'None of your business,' because those lines are like a boomerang. They'll catch up with you. They'll come back so fast that you'll be saying 'I shouldn't have'. Do you understand?
The cycle of karma will catch up with you in this life. Kriyamana karma – in happens in this life. So please, whoever you are, whatever you decide in life, one thing you do not do is hurt your parents. This is sanatan dharma, the scriptural teachings of Hindusm. Mata, Pita, Guru, Deva. No other religion teaches you that. The Guru is left out in other religions. Mother, Father, Guru, God. And only the mother knows who you are, and only the mother can point to the father. She could point to anybody as your father and you have to accept because you don't know who your father, is but you'll know who your mother is. That bond is there. She can say, 'That man sitting under the tree is your father'. As you grow your father will take you to school, introduce you to your guru. And your guru will introduce you to God.
What is God? God is success. Once you are successful, you learn about God. You learn how to pray in school. Most of you leave home and you don't know how to pray. They teach you that in school. In sanatan dharma 'Mata, Pita, Guru, Deva' is held in the highest esteem. No matter who your guru is, he comes after your mother and father. He's the one who will direct you to God. Some people are fortunate the guru is their father as well. They sit on the lap of their father and guru, one-time. They are lucky.
So in sanatan dharma we teach you all these things. I started with the Bhagavad Gita because it is really such a simple book, yet such great value comes from it. The insight from the Bhagavad Gita is unbelievable. Don't worry about reading chapter one because you'll close the book. Read from chapter two. Read it like you would read a story, like you are having a dialogue with Krishna, and see how you'll enjoy this book.
The cellphone thing really bothers me a lot. We give our children cellphones. When the mother or father cannot control the child, they hand them a cellphone. By some serious coincidence he presses the wrong button and sees things he shouldn't be seeing - and contamination starts. Don't give your child a cellphone. You won't listen to me, but you are going to be the losers. I'll be sitting here and saying I told you so. Don't give your children cellphones.
One thing I can tell you there's one child who used to get good results in school, but after they got a cellphone, only bad results. Some kids have two cellphones in case one gets a flat battery. So take the cellphone away. Cellphones are no good. It's the worst thing your children can have. I'm telling you this because we had a situation here. Through the cellphone we lost one of our young devotees, who left us and disappeared. The day I took the cellphone away, that evening she left home because the cellphone was the connection. Understand? Cellphones are no good for children. But I know what you'll do. You'll give your child a cellphone and say, 'Don't take it to the ashram. Don't let guru see it'. I know how you mothers think. You think 'space for me' so you give them a cellphone and leave them at the Gateway. For some reason some people get caught. Everybody gets caught.
Hari Om.
