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Om Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavāna Kī Jaya. Om Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Jaya. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Kī Jaya. Devādhi Deva, Deveśvara Mahādeva, Kī Jaya. Hindu Dharma Samrāṭa Maravāṇandajī Bhagavān, Kī Jaya. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānandajī Gurudeva, Kī Jaya. We are continuing the tradition that Swāmījī, Viśvagurujī, started with Swāmī Bhajānānandajī. A great deal of work on translating the bhajans was done by Swāmī Gajānānandajī, and he is still doing it, along with Sātvī Pārvatī and many, many others. Today in Om Ashram we have the opportunity to meet Bhakti Gyānānand, who not only works at Om Ashram and runs the Bhakti Builders group, but is truly passionate about the bhajans. He loves bhajans deeply. You can see this in his three-day continuous bhajans or twenty-four-hour continuous bhajans in Strilky. So he urged and requested Swāmījī to let him translate bhajans. I will now present a few bhajans, because translating bhajans is quite difficult. It is not only a matter of language, but also of the mixture of languages. The bhajans our gurus sang originally began in Marwari, and Marwari gradually blended with Hindi. Many Marwari words were changed into Hindi, but the meaning also shifted. So one must return them to their original sense. The second problem is that whoever translates the bhajans—I gave them to many professors and educated people—but they did not have the background in our paramparā. For instance, “Viśvadīp” is often translated as “universal light,” yet “Viśvadīp” is actually one of the names of Mahāprabhujī. Then there is a third problem, especially with the Anubhava Prakāśa of Mahāprabhujī: one should know by heart, if not realize, the whole hidden powers in a human being in order to translate these bhajans properly. One of the most famous bhajans from this tradition is “Yogī Janogī Yoga Nidrā.” What is Ulta Nena? Because Nena can mean eyelids, it can mean the lotus, it can mean several things depending on the context. We began with simpler bhajans—simple in the sense of bhakti bhajans, mainly giving us the names of various gods and goddesses. The bhajan I will now translate is actually a Dohā, considered a Maṅgalācaraṇ. Maṅgalācaraṇ is the idea of invoking an auspicious beginning whenever you start some work. For example, before setting out you might say, “Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Kī Jai,” or recite a mantra. Similarly, when you begin singing bhajans or writing them, you request the deity who is the remover of obstacles. In India, that is Gaṇeśjī. In our paramparā, Gaṇeśjī is the Guru. So Holy Gurujī, Śrī Mādhavānandajī Mahārāj, is requesting Gaṇeśajī to please remove obstacles from the writing of his bhajan books. This is the very first bhajan in Śrī Svāmī Mādhavānanda’s Ānanda Prakāśa, and as you know, we have it in our bhajan books; it is very, very common. Here is the bhajan as sung: Mahābhūpana ke bhūp, Gajānanda Gaṇapati, Ṛddhi siddhi ke dātā, gyāna ghaṭa le padhāro, Bharaso amṛta dhār, Śrī Mādhavānanda ke ānanda karo, Gaṇa-nāmī Gurudeva, Viśva Dīpa Hari āp ho, Dījo caraṇakī sev, Mahārāja kī jaya. In this Maṅgalācaraṇ stuti we find various names of Gaṇeśa: Gajānanda, Gaṇapati, Gaṇādhiśa, Gaṇarāja, and Gajānanjī is the most famous. The story behind Gaṇeśa is well known: Gaṇeśa is the son of Pārvatī. She created him from mud. Then she said, “Now I will go to do some work. Please let nobody disturb me.” Śivjī came, and because Gaṇeśa was just born—in these stories one grows from birth to full age within a few seconds, so knowledge does not come with those seconds—he did not recognize Śiva and objected. Śiva tried to force his way in, and a fight ensued. Śiva, being quite powerful, cut off Gaṇeśa’s head and then went to visit Pārvatī. The meeting was not happy; Pārvatī’s first question was, “What did you do to my son?” So Śiva went into the forest, found an elephant, cut off its head, and placed it on Pārvatī’s son’s body. Thus Gaṇeśa became the son of both, because Śiva gave him life again. The body was made by Pārvatī, and life with the elephant head was given by Śivjī. Elephants are considered a symbol of wisdom, and wisdom is symbolized mainly by the head—you don’t need the body. So the body is of a human, and the head is of an elephant to represent wisdom. Another story: once the gods were concerned that while Śiva was meditating, Rākṣasas and other demons could do whatever they pleased. They asked Śiva to designate someone they could approach for help during his meditation. Śiva set a test: whoever goes around the world fastest would be worshipped first. Kārtikeya, mounted on a fast peacock, sped off. Gaṇeśa, however, was broad, fond of laddus, and rode a mouse. He thought, “How will I ever go around the earth before my brother?” But Gaṇeśa was intelligent. He said, “Everything consists of my mother and father.” So he simply walked around Śiva and Pārvatī. They declared him the winner, and that is why he is worshipped first. So whenever we greet something, we need someone to stop obstacles, and that is why we request Gaṇeśa to remove them. Gaṇeśa sits in the Mūlādhāra Cakra. By requesting Gaṇeśa, we ask him to stop the influence of previous karmas; the work you have to do begins from this moment onward. You will have problems—there is nothing in this world without problems—but Gaṇeśjī is the one who halts your past karmas. If you have had unsuccessful business or anything else until now, when you worship Gaṇeśa, he sits on your karmas and says, “Okay, let us see what you will actually do.” Holy Gurujī sang in this bhajan, “Gajānanda Ānanda Mūrati, O Gajānanjī.” Gajānanda means the blissful elephant-headed one, the embodiment of happiness. Kṛpākaro Mahārāj—we ask, “Be merciful, O Mahārāj.” It is like when we enter an office and repeatedly say, “Yes sir, sir… please, sir…” So here we address Gaṇeśa as Mahārāj, Mahārāj, showering him with pleasant words. Satsaṅga me padārtho—we want Gajānanjī to come to our satsaṅg, to be present in what we are doing now, and saphala karo sabhā kāj—whatever fruits are to be achieved through this satsaṅg, through these bhajans, please make them true. Make it all happen. Gaṇādīśa Gaṇarājaho—you are Gaṇādīśa, you are Gaṇarāja. The Gaṇas are the attendants of Śiva. Śiva is so universally respected because he does not care if you are a ghost, a bad person, a demon, or anything else; you can worship Śiva, and he will grant your wishes. He sees everybody equally. Whoever is rejected by others comes to Śiva, and Śiva says, “Yes, no problem, come.” These groups of attendants are called Gaṇas, and Gaṇeśa is Gaṇādhiśa, the Lord of the Gaṇas. Gaṇarāja—he is their king. There are many synonyms: Gajānanda Sukharūpa—you are the very form of bliss, Ānanda Mūrti, the embodiment of all happiness. If a person is happy, he will give you something; if unhappy, it is very hard to receive anything. Then we go further: Mahābhūpana ke bhūpa—among all emperors and kings, you are the highest, the king of kings. Gajānanda Gaṇapati—again, Gaṇapati means the general, the leader of all the Gaṇas. The Purāṇas speak of constant battles, whether on an inner level or outwardly, so a general is needed. Ṛddhi siddhi ke dātā—you are the giver of ṛddhis and siddhis. There are nine ṛddhis, a kind of wealth; there are eight basic siddhis, then twenty-four siddhis, and thousands and millions more. But the easiest modern translation of ṛddhi and siddhi is “money and power.” That encompasses everything. If you have money, you have all kinds of wealth; if you have power, you can do anything. So we ask Gaṇeśajī to give us everything. Bharaso amṛta dhār—take the pot (ghaṭa, a maṭkā) of knowledge and pour the rain of nectar on us. Which nectar? The nectar of knowledge. Because when we realize something—when we stop repeating the same mistakes—we become happy. Take this pot of knowledge and make it rain on us. Śrī Mādhavānanda ke ānanda karo—make Holy Gurujī happy. Gaṇa-nāmī Gurudeva—O Gurudeva of so many names, because we have Gaṇapati, Gaṇādhiśa, Gaṇarāja, Gaṇeśa, and many more. In Indian culture, it is normal for a deity to have thousands of names; Viṣṇu has a thousand names, Śiva has a thousand, the Devī has a thousand, Kṛṣṇa has a thousand. So Gaṇa-nāmī Gurudeva. Now here lies the special depth: when an ordinary translator, a sincere believer without a Guru, works on this bhajan, he will translate it just as I have done so far. But there is a hidden turn. Gaṇa-nāmī Gurudeva—O Gurudeva, O Mahāprabhujī, you are that Gaṇapati, you are that Gaṇarāja, you are Gaṇeśa. Gurujī is not calling Gaṇeśajī to come; he is calling Mahāprabhujī, saying, “Please come and do all that I have spoken of here.” Viśva Dīpa Hari āp ho—he continues even more explicitly. Viśva Dīpa, O Mahāprabhujī, Hari, you are Viṣṇu. Or we can say, Dīp is Mahāprabhujī, and you, Mahāprabhujī, are Hari, you are Viṣṇu in this world. Viśva Dīpa Hari āp ho. So we can take Viśva Dīpa as Mahāprabhujī’s name, or we can see Dīpa as a manifest Hari in this world. Both understandings lead to the same truth. Dījo caraṇakī sev—in the end, Holy Gurujī states what he truly wants: “Give me sevā. Let me serve your lotus feet.” How will one serve the lotus feet? By serving other beings, not only humans but animals as well. The easiest way to serve animals is to save them from slaughterhouses by not eating meat—that is truly active sevā for all creatures. In Europe, saving animals often means protecting cats and dogs; in India, it also means protecting cows through goshalas. So dījo caraṇakī sev—grant me the service of your feet. Thus, Holy Gurujī presented a bhajan that is accepted all over India, but at the end he subtly camouflaged it with the words “Gaṇa-nāmī Gurudeva.” When you give this text to a person who is not a follower of Mahāprabhujī, they will say Gaṇeśa is the Gurudeva of many names. Certainly Gaṇeśjī is Gurudeva to someone who follows Gaṇeśjī. But Holy Gurujī follows Mahāprabhujī, so in reality the entire bhajan is a call to Mahāprabhujī: “Please come and bestow upon me all the blessings you can give.” Siddhīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān, Kī Jaya. Deveśvara Mahādeva, Kī Jaya. Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Maravāṇandajī Bhagavān, Kī Jaya. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānandajī Gurudeva, Kī Jaya. Gajānanjī Mahārāj, Kī Jaya.