Today we started worshiping Mother Kali before sunrise. After that we had sacred reciting of the Gayathri Mantra; and at 10am a healing pooja where sacred mantras were chanted. Then we recited the Gayathri Mantra again from 11 o'clock, and at 4pm we started Hanuman Jayanti.What is Hanuman Jayanti? Different schools of thought will give you different explanations for this great day. Jayanti means 'most happy occasion', the happiest occasion. It also means 'janastami', birth of Sri Hanuman. But the birth of Sri Hanuman where? If man was not around then, how can he pinpoint a birthdate for Sri Hanuamn? Hanuman Jayanti is the birthday of Sri Hanuman within yourself, where you have conquered all your evils and planted a flag outside your house as a sign of victory. Today the children of the Gayathri Peedam were victorious in conquering hate, violence brutality, and a hundred other things. Remember it like that.
In the olden days whenever a country conquered another country they put up a flag. We are putting up a flag as a sign of victory over all our bad deeds. Don't think that Hanuman was born today. There's nobody living to confirm that date. If we look at it as the inner birth of Sri Hanuman within, that we are strong in the positive aspects of life: love, happiness, joy, togetherness; then Hanuman Jayanti applies to us. But if you regard it as merely the birthday of Hanuman, then it doesn't concern you because we don't have birthday cake and balloons, or anything like that. If you remember that today you are victorious over your evil faculties, then you can go home and say Jay Hanuman!
When we do abishekam we use maas, milk, and rose water. Milk signifies purity, maas signifies impurity, and rosewater signifies the fragrance of the soul. And that fragrance should linger just as when you go into a pharmacy, to the perfume department, you won't even touch the perfume but you'll walk out smelling like perfume. In the same way the fragrance of your soul should linger forever. By being in the company of sages and saints, their fragrance will linger with you for a long time. If you spend time in the company of notorious people, their fragrance will linger too, and you'll always be in trouble.
The Gayathri Peedam is a very liberal school when it comes to forms of worship. We are not stereotyped. Others say that ladies are not allowed to perform the rituals; that ladies shouldn't touch the Hanuman statue or janda, but the ladies must make the food for offering. Why don't the men make the offering sweetmeats, the rot? They don't know how to. They only know how to open the boot. At any Janda prayer all the men have a special congregation at the boot of a car. They come here with the spirits of Hanuman. Here, everyone is part of the prayer. The ladies, men and children can do the hawan. Prayer should be a joyous event, not a fear-based event.
When I was growing up we had a fear-based form of worship. At 5.30pm my ma would tell me to go and light the lamp, right when we were in the middle of a really interesting soccer match. She would say, 'Wash, then light the lamp. If you don't come now, God will poke out your eyes!' Then I would rush inside and light the lamp - fear based. If you want to pray here, good for you. If you don't want to, also good. A great sage once said, 'For he who believes in God, no explanation is necessary. And for he who doesn't believe, none is possible'. If you believe in God you don't need an explanation.
Last week somebody asked me, 'What happens if you spend your life calling, God, God, God. Then when you die there's no God and you've wasted your time?' I said, 'What happens, if you say there's no God, there's no God, there's no God, then you die there is a God?' Rather believe that God is there, and when you meet Him you can introduce yourself: 'I said a hundred chalisas for you, God'.
Those people who put up a hundred jandas at one time think they're liberated. Your enlightenment is your Self. You can't enlighten the soul, or evolve the soul. It has always been evolved. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'I've always been. Whenever there is a decline in religion, I will come, I will descend'. The Bhagavad Gita is the Hindu DIY manual. Do-it-yourself, one verse a day. It's so easy.
