TV Channel

Oṁ Śālampurjī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Devādū Devadeva Īśvara Mahādeva Kī Jai. Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jāya. Hindūdharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Madhavānanda Pūjīsāda Gurudeva Bhagavān Kī Jāya. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Maheśvarānanda Pūjyaśrī Gurudeva Kī Jaya. Sadāśiva-smarambhaṁ Śaṅkarācārya-madhyamām, Asmad-ācārya-paryantāṁ Vande-guru-paramparām. Gurur Brahmā, Gurur Viṣṇu, Gurur Devo Maheśvara, Gurur Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Mannātha Śrī Jagannātha, Mad-guru Śrī Jagad-guru mamātmā sarva-bhūtātmā tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ. Nāhaṁ karatā, prabhu-dīpa-karatā māḥ, prabhu-dīpa-karatā hi kevalam. Salutations to the Cosmic Self. Salutations to Śrī Alak Purūjī Siddha Pīṭa Paramparā. My tender praṇāms to Abhilād Gurudev, His Holiness Viśvaguru Mahāmudali Śarmaheśvarān, and Purujī. Oṁ Namaḥ Nārāyaṇa to all the sannyāsīs present here. Hari Om, and good evening to all of you who are present here and who are watching through Swamijī TV. The longing for the Gurudev is present for all of us at this time. But as we were discussing, one thing is for sure: Gurudev’s blessings are always there for us. He resides in our hearts, and He is always there for us. This reminded me of my childhood in India when Swāmījī used to be here with you. I used to see him for Guru Pūrṇimā, for Dīvālī, and maybe once or twice in between. But because I had school, I stayed in Jadan. I had education in Haridwar, Bangalore, and other places. When I was in South India in a Gurukula on the banks of the Kāverī River—which, unfortunately like many rivers now, faces pollution from us human beings—I felt upset being far from home. Nature is always loving and caring; you cut a branch, and the tree will still give you fruit. So, the most loving entity after the Guru is Mother Nature. She is like a caring mother, always giving. The Kāverī River is still quite clean. One day, sitting there at age thirteen with normal homesickness—for me, home is Jadan, and Swamījī is my guru, my father, mother, brother, sister, friend, my everything—I hadn't seen him for months. I was only allowed to go home to the āśram for vacations. A teacher saw me and asked what happened. I said I was just missing Swamiji a bit. He gave a beautiful example I remember today: a group of fish swimming together in a river or ocean. A strong wave or current comes and disperses them for a time, but after a few minutes, they all unite again. That group of fish had no leader, but inside, they all had the feeling and sense of being together. Even though dispersed by the current, they come together and unite again. In the same way, His blessings are within us, and He is within us. That is why He united all of us. Yes, the physical form and presence make a big difference, but we must know He is also traveling and giving darśan to many other bhaktas in different countries. When He comes to us after a longer-than-expected time, we are more excited and full of joy at that moment. Yet, that eternal light and joy are always within us because He resides within us. He is always there to protect, guide, and show us the right path. He is always here to lead, protect, and show the correct way. Sabarka phal mithā ho tai—as long as you wait, the fruit is sweeter. At times, we might feel upset that Swāmījī is not here, but He is always here; He is everywhere. Right now, He is sitting in Jadan, but He knows I am talking and what I am saying. That is the beauty of being a guru, a great self-realized guru like Viśvagurujī; He sees everything. Sometimes that can be scary, to think, "Okay, He knows every move I am doing." But you can take it in a good sense: if He sees and knows everything, then He knows when we are going wrong and when to use the screwdriver. His unconditional love for all of us never changes; it is everlasting. Guru Kripaya Gevalam Shashri Kyananda Mangalam. So we have Gurudev with us, always within us. With a focused mind, if you do sādhanā, close your eyes, think about Him, do the mantra, you will have His darśana. When we do Mānasika Pūjā—how many of us have done Mānasa Pūjā sometime in your life?—He is not physically sitting in front of us. We close our eyes and imagine all the things we would do if He were physically there. In Mānasik Pūjā, we can make that scenario even more beautiful; we can imagine a silver, golden, or diamond thālī for the Pūjā. Let’s all close our eyes. Chant Aum. Everyone, in front of you now, slowly imagine that you put a beautiful, soft, and shiny āsana for Gurudev. Try to make it as beautiful as you can. Then you go to Gurudeva, welcome Him, and offer Him the seat to come and sit. Now He is coming and has sat on that beautiful āsana. We make daṇḍavat praṇāms to Him. We touch His lotus feet. Then we have a thālī of the highest material you can think of. In the thālī, we have candan, we have kumkum (the red tilak), we have rice. You have a beautiful golden, or any material you wish, mālā to tie around His hands. You ask for permission to start the pūjā. Avatārapurī is standing there singing mantras: "Namo’stu Nantāya Sahasra Mūrtaye, Sahasra Pādākṣi Śiroruhāve. Sahasra Nāmne Puruṣāya Śaśvate Namaḥ, Kamala Nābhāya Namaste, Jalāsahine Namaste, Keśava Nānta Vāsudeva Namostute." Now we take our ring finger of the right hand and dip it in the candan. If you wish, you can make the three lines on His forehead, called a tripuṇḍ. So you make a beautiful tripuṇḍ on His mastak (forehead). Then we make a red kumkum tilak in the middle. We put rice; rice is for Āyuṣa, meaning long life. Then we take that Moli we have for Him and imagine tying it on His wrist. We offer Dravya Dakṣiṇā, which means whatever we feel, as much amount as we wish, because now you can imagine whatever you want in a beautiful envelope tied on a coconut. We offer it at the lotus feet of Gurudev. He accepts it. We make praṇām, touching His lotus feet. He puts His hand on your head, His thumb on your forehead, blessing you. He says, "Āyuṣmān bhava saddhā sukhī bhava," which means, "May you live long, may you live happy." Then you light the beautiful dīpak you prepared for Him and perform the āratī. Dhyānamūlaṁ gurur mūrtiḥ, pūjāmūlaṁ guropadam, mantramūlaṁ gurur vākyaṁ, mokṣamūlaṁ gurur kṛpā. Dīpa jyoti para brahma, dīpaṁ sarve mohanaṁ, dīpānāṁ sajate sarvam, sandhyā dīpaṁ sarva satyam. After doing the āratī to Him, you offer the plate for Him to take the āratī. Now He has taken the āratī and put it on His head. Then you take the beautiful mālā you created with your own hands, with all the beautiful flowers you personally picked from a beautiful garden. You put all your love and devotion into that mālā. Now you are putting the mālā around His neck. We again make praṇām. Then Gurudev takes that mālā off His neck and puts it on your neck as blessings. We sit there with Him, listening to His beautiful words. His beautiful words were, "I am coming soon, I will see you soon." We smile and make praṇām. We thank Him for everything: for His tireless work for all of us, to unite us, to make us all one without any diversity, without dividing people, without any expectations, without seeing which country we are from, without noticing our past. With His open arms, He accepted all of us and said, "Now you all are mine." He is always within our hearts. You thank Gurudev for coming. You seek His blessings. Gurudev gets up from His āsana and goes within your heart. He forever resides in our hearts, always protecting and guiding us. He is the torch that shines on the path we walk. He is the one who unites us to the supreme Self. Now, slowly, by chanting OM three times, rub your hands. When you open your eyes, look at Gurudev’s āsana and make praṇām. Feeling better? Many emotions arise: many tears of happiness, many smiles. But now you have opened your heart and seen that Gurudev resides within all of us. So whenever you feel lonely, you can do Mānasik Pūjā wherever you are, whenever you are. Because Gurudev is within us, all in one and one in all. We all are in the heart of Gurudeva, and Gurudeva is in the hearts of all of us. From childhood, He was teaching all of us to give saṃskāras to the children, the coming generation. Did you all guess that you would one day be a disciple of an Indian guru, having your own normal lives in your early times? Not only that, the paramparā is very great; it is one of the oldest guru paramparās, starting from Śrī Alakpurījī Mahārāj, on whose name the river Alaknandā is there. Swamiji’s disciples already span five generations: great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, son, and grandson. When the children are already with us—and we give, like, not me, you all give birth—then you, when you have children, should start giving them the saṃskāras: to come and greet the altar, to learn to come to satsaṅgs. It makes me very happy to see this. In Europe, here in India, sometimes children sit with parents who give them phones, and they don’t engage with what’s going on. In France, in satsaṅg, they are on their phones. But I feel really blessed that we all are disciples of such a great guru. I see that even the children here come for children’s programs and enjoy their time in the āśram. You all are teaching your children the saṃskāras from the beginning and bringing them to the right path. So, thank you, Gurudev, for making you all great bhaktas. And thank you to all the parents who give these saṃskāras to their children. And thank you to all the parents who passed on the saṃskāras to their children.