Discourse of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Sri Devi Navaratri Day 7 – Oct 7, 2016 – Mysore

Namaste Tripure Mataha Namaha Parasivashraye
Namaste Tripure Mataha Namaha Karana Satyakhya Parananda Sudhatmike

Bhajan: Devi Viradrupavainatti Neeku

Don’t look at the drone camera flying overhead. Your teeth and your funny expressions will be on camera and then you will curse yourself. So, do not look at the drone camera. With devotion, lower your head and focus on Swamiji. What is there to see like monkeys? Have you never seen a drone camera before? There is cool breeze from the drone fans, enjoy it, no need to look at it. Swamiji has given you food and now cool breeze from above like you are in a swing, what else do you need? Go to sleep happily. Do not look at it, it will make editing difficult. The editing team will curse you. If you keep looking at it, the editing team will curse you and laugh at you. They will point to each person and mock at him/her. Not just here, everywhere else. Therefore, do not look at that drone camera. They will poke fun at you. They will show your teeth on the big screen and freeze the image for everyone to laugh at. Your strange expression will become laughing matter, until another editor comes and picks on someone else in the recording. Don’t look at that camera. That camera is doing serious business. You can do your bhajans. If you want to, you can sleep. Sometimes, the camera acts like a free fan, enjoy. The camera is nothing new, you are all used to it.

A few television stations called. They want the song Sakaladhara Rupini Tum. They are recording it to broadcast tomorrow or the day after.

Bhajan: Sakaladhara Rupini Tum

Until yesterday, we talked one-by-one about the preparations we need to make beforehand, for understanding Atma Tattva. It is just like the way we pack items for our journey. It is a normal course of activity in the world. So far we learned about devotion, dedication, faith and even Iswara Pranidhana. Without devotion on Iswara/God, we cannot get the grace of Mother Goddess or the grace of Guru, nor can we learn the principle of Self-realization. Lord Dattatreya has so far taught to Parasurama directly, through examples. There are a lot of teachings here. We don’t even know if we started the Table of Contents yet, there’s so much to it.

Prostrating to Mother Goddess, we are entering the seventh day of Upadesa.

Bhajan: Vandeham Vandinutam Nandayutam

One who is beseeched by spiritual seekers, one who is ever blissful, one whose teeth are shining like Jasmine flowers, one whose face blossoms like the moon, one who is capable of shattering all doubts, one who gives the rays to the Sun, one who is the embodiment of Yoga, I prostrate to such a Jaganmata (Mother to all the worlds).

She is Gayatri who is pleased with music. She is Savitri who is pleased with the chants of Samaveda. She is the energy of the Creator Brahma. She has a beautiful body. She is capable of ferrying everyone across the ocean of life. I prostrate to such a Mother.

Her blissful form pervades the entire creation. She is Varahi energy that protects the people who establish Vedic practices and she bestows eloquence to them. She is Sita, the daughter of Mother Earth. She is the one who bestowed salvation. Her infinite bliss pervades this entire creation. At the place of fire sacrifice, everything including the blade of grass is her form. I prostrate to such a Jaganmata/Mother of the Universe.

She is the consort of Shiva whose abode is Kailasa. She is Kamakshi who created Illusion. She is Kali, the embodiment of eternal bliss Sachchidananda. May such a Mother protect you, me and everyone else. I prostrate to her.

Chant: Namaste tripure mataha – maha parasivasraye Namaha karana satyakhya – parananda sudhatmike

Today, Mother teaches us through the teachings of Lord Datta to Bhargava Rama/Parasurama that the world is not real, that Atman alone is real. Let us comprehend this Upadesa.

Parasurama pleaded to Datta, “O Lord, O Sadgurudeva, this world always seems real. It is real, we see it. It has all movements and activities. When we talk, the world talks. The world around us is always real. Even if we know that the world is unreal, even if we are told the world is not real, even after much penance, why does it seem so real? We are told all the time that this is unreal, that it is a dream and that this will not last. Tomorrow, you will not be there, nor will I. This place will not be there, even this creation will not be in existence. Yet, I am seeing it. I am unable to understand even after being told repeatedly. Why?”

If Parasurama cannot understand, how can we, who keep living in the world of Pakodas and other eatables? “Please dispel this ignorance. We are touching, feeling, speaking, sitting, etc. How can we call this unreal? How can we sit down and say – no, I am not sitting? How can we eat and drink and say we are not eating or drinking at all? I sat, I ate, I drank. This is the truth. But elders are always saying this is unreal. But this all seems so real. What do I need to do to dispel this ignorance?”

Lord Datta said, “Parasurama, the illusion that this world is real is not new. It has been a problem since ages. The root cause for this illusion is ignorance. We think the body is the Atman. Unable to comprehend the Atman, man thinks that the body is the Atman. We look around and believe what we see is all that exists. Unable to know God, man thinks that the body is the Atman. That is the big problem. The world is as we feel it is”.

We feel it is real – the touching, the sitting, the eating, drinking, etc. How can we call all this unreal? That I am touching is real. That I am sitting is real. That I am eating is real. That I am drinking is real. You are calling all this unreal. You are the big person and you are saying this is unreal. But, I am unable to see that. I am unable to agree that this is unreal. What is the reason for this?

Illusion – the illusion that the body is the Atman. That illusion has enveloped man. Illusion leads us to believe that the world is real. That illusion leads us to believe that the body is Atman. When you think the body is the Atman, the entire world seems real.

There is one way to get rid of this ignorance – a firm determination that this world is unreal and the Atman is the only truth”. So simply put. You must always have a firm mind that there is nothing, that only Atman is the truth, only God is Truth. Whatever we see is not there. Only when you believe that with firm determination, the ignorance will be dispelled. So easy. You must believe firmly. Only then will it go away. Otherwise, it will not. We are not believing firmly, that is why it is not going away. You must firmly determine that Atman is the only truth, that everything around us is unreal. When we firmly determine that Atman alone is truth, that Atman is God, then the enveloping illusion gets destroyed. To understand this, God is telling a story. He is giving an example Himself. “Once upon a time in a country called Vanga, a righteous king by name Sushena, ruling over a kingdom called Sundaram, performed Ashvamedha Yaga to please the Almighty. He had many sons and an affectionate brother Mahasena. One day Sushena let loose the horse of the Yaga, and sent his sons after it. “Go where the horse goes and win the kingdoms wherever it goes, if its movement is resisted by the ruler.” If the king of the region captures the horse, the sons would fight a battle to win the kingdom. If the king of that region worships the horse, it indicates the king was surrendering his kingdom to them.

The sons, along with the horse reached the banks of Airavati river. The sons followed the horse wherever it went. No one knew where the horse would stop and which king would capture the horse. As they kept progressing, they saw a sage called Tanganamuni who was in a state of Samadhi (deep meditation).

In that state of Samadhi, Tanganamuni had forgotten his body. That is what is Samadhi state. They seem like they are dead, but they are not. Their Prana/life force is there somewhere. The sage sat in deep meditation. Not paying attention to him, the princes were marching forward behind the horse. They did not even offer respects to him. Noticing this, Tanganamuni’s son got very angry. The sages do not usually get angry. It is the people around them that get angry. The son got angry, “They are going away without offering respects to my Guru. Catch them”. With his yogic energies he destroyed the entire army and merged them into a huge rock along with the horse and the princes. Some of the remaining warriors who noticed this, reported the matter to King Sushena, “We insulted the great sage. The sage’s son got angry. We do not know what spell he cast, but everybody merged into a rock. We somehow managed to escape. It was a big rock. They just entered the rock”. How did they enter a rock? We do not know how, but they did. This is Yoga Shakti (yogic power). There was nothing inside the big rock. It was just a big rock. King Sushena was very surprised. He sent his brother Mahasena to get the horse and his sons back.

Mahasena managed to somehow please Tanganamuni and his son. Due to Tanganamuni, the son created a whole world inside that rock. There was a whole world within the rock. There was another Tanganamuni and his son in that rock. There was Sushena and Sushena’s brother had arrived too, within the rock. What Maya is this?! This is not something trivial. He established a whole creation inside that rock. Mahasena realized that the son of the sage had made a whole creation within that rock. After getting the horse and the princes, he sent them back to their kingdom and expressed a desire to Tanganamuni’s son see the world within the rock. “O Great soul, pardon our mistake. I want to see the world within that rock”. Tanganamuni instructed his son to go within the rock show the world to Mahasena. How can you go inside the rock?

“Go inside and show him the world” said the sage. They were entering and the exiting the rock like it was normal. Would it not be nice if we could enter and exist in and out of rocks that easily? We do not need to pay rent. We can just live in those rocks. Our hearts are of stone anyway, how would we be if we were to enter that stone? Our hearts are made of stone anyway. We have no compassion, no pity, we are stone-hearted. I will show you what a stone heart is. “Vajraadapi kathoradi” is how the great souls are described. Their hearts are softer than a flower. Can butter melt in the refrigerator? No. But the sage’s hearts can, they are that soft. They will melt easily due to that cold. But such a heart will not break even from any weapon even made of diamond, when it gets hard. Tanganamuni instructed his son to show him the world within the rock and entered into Samadhi himself. The son made Mahasena assume a subtle form, assumed the subtle form himself and entered the rock with his yogic power. There, he showed him the creation he created, “Look, I created this”. Just as Mahasena was observing the spectacular things, a day went by in the rock. On planet earth, 1200 million years had passed during that time.

You may have seen in the movie Back to the Future where you can go forward or move back in time. They have not yet discovered such a machine, but if they did, that would be nice. We could keep one in each home. We could go back and see all our grandparents. If we jumped to the future, we could see how we would be born as buffaloes next. Later, the son came out of the rock with Mahasena and both of them assumed gross physical forms. So many years had passed. No one was there. Mahasena’s brother wasn’t there, the related people were not there, the kingdom was not there either. Some other regions came up. The whole place had completely changed. Mahasena noticed all this. “This is not even my world. It seems like some other world,” felt Mahasena. It was their world, but it had changed. We change every day. If we go to a new house, our way of life changes. Little children look so cute when they are young, but as they grow, they harden up. Look at the children. I used to sing this Kannada song during my childhood, “Tottila magu chanda, emme haalu chanda, halli jeevana bahu chanda, katte mari chanda…” I used to keep singing this song in my childhood. A baby in a cradle is beautiful; buffalo milk is beautiful; village life is beautiful; a baby donkey is beautiful.

Mahasena noticed that everything had changed. The city had turned into a forest and the forest had turned into a city. Towns became villages and villages became towns. Mountains turned into rivers and rivers became valleys. Valleys became mountains. Tanganamuni’s son looked at the amazed Mahasena, “O King, the world always changes like this. The world you saw has within a very short time changed completely like this”.

A couple of little children used to come here, little boys. They were very cute, like little girls. One of them is here today too and is after me, calling me Tataji. He was here for Pada Puja, I felt like giving him a kiss, but he was growing a little beard, so I did not feel like petting him anymore since the beard would be pokey. “Tottila magu chanda, katte mari chanda, emme haalu Chanda….”. Puppies are so cute, you want to kiss them, carry and pet them. Once they grow up, we shoo them and discipline them. Life in a village is so nice – no traffic, no traffic lights, no phone, no electricity. No noise after 6 pm, everything is quiet. Everyone is asleep. In the city, even at 12 midnight, the cars are honking. Until 12 midnight, or even 1 am, there is heavy traffic. In the villages, they go to bed by 6 pm. The milk and butter there are so fresh and good. People there are always happy. No TV, no telephone, they go to bed by 6 pm. The song continues “Halli jeevana chanda…”. The song also says “Nirmala manase bahu Chanda…” a pure mind is so very beautiful.

The world you were thinking about has changed greatly. The changes are not over. There will be more changes. As science progresses, there will be more changes. There will be a thin pole and at the top of the pole will be a house. It will be very strange. The poles will swing so you can go from one house to another. No need to get out on the street. The houses will fly from place to place. You will not need to drive. Science will take over. If you are hungry, you will not eat anything. You turn on a switch and it will satisfy your hunger. If you turn on another switch, you will fall asleep. A switch will wake you up, a switch will give you coffee, a switch will give you a shower, a switch will make you breakfast with chutney and put it in your mouth. All this will come. It will be very nice. We will not be humans, we will be dolls of electricity, robots with no feelings, no heart, no mind. How will the kids be born? May be a switch will instantly give you kids. They will use computers to select whether they want a boy or a girl. The kids cannot be small for too long. Turn on the switch and they grow up. Turn on the switch and they get married and go away. This doll will cry (missing its children). Flip the switch and everyone sleeps, flip the switch again and everyone will wake up. There is no need to pee or poop since there is no eating. Very nice. This is the world. It will be the time of robots. We are lucky we are in Vaikuntha. If we see people playing video games in China or Japan, we are worried we may become like that. There the kids talk to each other only with computers. We do not know anything, they may be talking about us and mocking at us. They look at us smiling, but they are actually mocking at us “Look at him, he looks like a monkey. Look at his hair”. The world will be like this. No self-respect, nothing. Brahma will also be like that. He will make us like him.

Villages will become mountains; deserts will become populated. Now Dubai has got rain. It was big news. I was in Dubai then. There was so much happiness. If we get rain, we can grow good crops. Things always change. This is a puppet show. No feelings. We live as long as we live. No relationship with one another. Ta ta, bye-bye, cheerio – we each go our own way. As long as we live, be happy, pray to Mother Goddess and do not let go of Guru Padukas even for a second. Useless work will always be there, why hold on to it? You can get that kind of work again, but you will lose Sadguru Padukas.

Mahasena contemplated on this secret and attained permanent happiness. So, the Lord taught Parasurama about the impermanence of the world and the eternal nature of the Atman through an example. May you all also get released from ignorance and experience the true bliss of eternal truth by the grace of Mother Goddess.

Everybody should contribute to Anna Dana (food donation). The photos of the donors are shown in Annapurna Mandir. The 75th birthday will take place in a grand manner. The actual Indian calendar birthday will take place in Hyderabad on June 6. I will be there from June 3, 4, 5. Everyone who has come here may also come there.

Bhajan: Ninnu nammi vachchinanu.

Sri Guru Datta