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.
