07/11/2025
LESSONS TAUGHT!
Pujya Balaswamiji ; Recently, Pujya Gurudeva went to South Korea and conducted a special Raga Sagara. At that time, this region - Kakinada - Rajamuhndry, Vizag - had a potential storm brewing. Swamiji was keeping tabs on the developments every moment just as a mother would on her child. Swamiji protects devotees with so much love and care and keeps sending blessings and praying for them.
With that divine love and prayer and protection, that danger got averted. At that time, Swamiji even had a phone conversation with the devotees here to enquire if it was still congenial to conduct programs here as planned. Are the roads good? Are devotees able to travel? Like this Swamiji inquired about everyone's safety. The typhoon here was averted and another region had rains instead. We cannot put a stop to natural events, but we can pray to minimize the adverse impact. So with knowledge of the future, even despite Raga Sagara here earlier this year, Swamiji had promised He would come back here in November for Raga Sagara in the stadium outside.
So in this Kartika Masa, we are having darshan of Swamiji as Lord Shiva. Swamiji is blessing us with Gita Parayana as well as Raga Sagara and thereby enhancing universal welfare. The greatness of Raga Sagara cannot be explained in words. We heard the Veena recital of one bhajan a while ago and it sounded so divine. Many of you bought tickets, but there are tickets still available.
Once the event has passed, no amount or regret of missing it will help. Swamij is here to grant blessings to this place. Swamiji blessed devotees at Koti Deepotsavam in Hyderabad and is now here in Vizag. Swamiji expressed happiness about the progress at this place.
Swamiji suggested that this place is called Sirasapalli (sirasa=head), but it appears to be without a head - it has no parking space. So, Swamiji wants to make sure there is parking for this place.
When Swamiji was speaking last time, there was a lot traffic noise outside. So, Swamiji decided that we build a parking lot. About three quarters of the funds have been raised. If the parking lot is done in time, Swamiji has blessed that He will visit again.
Without doing karma, we cannot expect blessings. The Guru is not indebted to us to give us blessings as soon as we ask. Only when we do some good deed or some useful deed do we gain some worthiness to make the plea. In fact, when we do the right actions, there is no need to even ask. Swamiji will automatically bless. Swamiji will grant you the energy to do good deeds.
We see in Swamiji's life history that Swamiji said: You do my job, I will do your job. This is a Mahavakya. If we can participate in Swamiji's mission, Swamiji will take care of us.
A devotee once said he was looking for a job, but got immersed in Swamiji's work. He had only filled out the application form half way, but to his surprise, the employer responded and offered to give him a job once he completed the form. Thousandss of people applied to the job, but he got it.So if we get immersed in Swamiji's seva, Swamij will help us win in the battles of life.
Swamiji thinks about Dharma a lot. People speak recklessly about Dharma often, but Swamiji is always thinking about ways to spread the right knowledge. We should also participate in this noble endeavor.
We will now take pleasure in the Datta Vani of Pujya Gurudeva.
Pujya Datta Swamiji's message:
Harihi Om Namah Shivaya.
Chintamani Ganapati Kshetram is not a temple made by some committee. This is God's Kshetra. Normally, Chintamani Kshetram is referred to in our Itihasas. The worries of the world - health issues, marriage issues, progeny, sale of homes, debts, surgeries - this is not what this Chintamani is about. We have Chinta or worries about this cycle of rebirths.
We follow random advise, we grieve, we fight, the mind turns sour, the rituals we undertake get ruined, our faith gets diluted- these kind of concerns should be gone. We should live in the kingdom of Bhakti. This is the only way in Kaliyuga. What is Bhakti?
Is it buying ingredients for Puja and sponsoring Abhishekas? Yes, this is some kind of Bhakti, but not real Bhakti. Then, why are we doing this? To stead and discipline the mind. The mind keeps forgetting all this when its caught in the web of life. It's like wearing a uniform.
Those who observe mauna sometimes forget and speak. That violates the mauna ritual. So they put a cloth around their mouth and eat in moderation to keep reminding themselves of mauna.
God is not a stone idol. God is in fact in stone too. He is in all five elements, we saw this from ancient stories and we also experienced some. We know that the five elements is Paramatma, we see Paramatma wherever we want. If we call God with sincere devotion, God will respond from the stone.
In every breath, we experience God. That is the kingdom of Bhakti. We should not get into too many questions and doubts. It not only wastes time, it also destroys our feeling of Bhakti.
Our contemplation wavers and gets derailed. The path that we have developed for ourselves gets destroyed. We end up back tracking. It wastes time. It's akin to driving. If we do not drive for sometime, it takes some adjustment when driving again and its same with cooking.
Now, those who played the Veena will not play as well if they do not practice everyday. We should work hard. One person may practice steadfastly and everyone else just follows that one person playing the Veena correctly. But we should not depend on others. We should do our own sadhana. You can follow those who are good, but you must do your own practice with discipline. If you depend on others, you will not find success.
Why do we do all these Pujas and Vratas? We are doing navagraha pujas. Okay, that's good. But when viewed in the spiritual perspective, we do not need all this. When everything is Him, we do not need any of these smaller deities.
So we should do our own sadhana. We can find inspiration from others, but not mimic them. If we only mimicked them, we will fail.
Krishna was walking in flesh and blood, he was showing many leelas .He slew even Putana, but out of compassion for her, drank her milk like he would his mother's, despite it being poisoned milk. He drank the poisoned milk, but she is the one who died. Even though she was demon now, she was once a Devata, she was Meghala, the daughter of Emperor Bali. During Vamana's incarnation, she felt great motherly love for Vamana and wished to feed him milk from her bosom.
The Devatas are always ready to bless 'So be it!'. So, we should not keep wishing to die. Death will come one day anyway, no need to wish for it. Disease, death, difficulties will come anyway, so don't wish for them. Keep thinking only of good things. Do not wonder "Oh my God, I may run into losses", "This friend may dupe me". You are only thinking inauspicious, you are full of doubt. You think the bank may sink and lose your money, so put your money elsewhere.
So, when Meghala made her wish, the Lord blessed her. Vamana took the gift of land and through that quelled Bali's ego. Bali had a lot of ego. Then, Vamana took 3 steps of land and through that action sent Bali to nether worlds. At that time, she was angry with Vamana and wished to kill him.
That is why Putana came to feed Krishna milk from her bosom, but hoped to kill him through that process. Krishna drew out all her poison, as she wished. There was no milk, it was all poison. Krishna drank heartily. Poison was her life force, so she died. Is that the Lord's fault? The little Krishna innocently drank the poison that she fed him.
Meghala wanted to kill him because she was angry with the boy, but she had also wanted to give him her milk prior to that. Krishna did not stop people then from worshipping. He only asked his folks to focus on the Paramatma only, and not the demi Gods.
Based on the Shiveti Shoureti shloka, it is enough if we worship Shiva, Vishnu, Vinayaka, Skanda, Devi and Surya. We have faith in all our Shastras just as Jyotisha etc. We wonder why we do Navagraha Shanti. The grahas/planets are all around us. Will they be pacified with our offering here? May be, may be not! Since those planets are powerful, we offer them our respect. That is why we do these rituals.
I am not saying, we should not do Graha Shanti, but we should not forget our main God. We should remember God while doing these rituals.
To show Paramatma's power, Krishna encouraged them to worship God alone because that gave greater faith to those people and to the sages.
He lifted the mountain with his little finger and for several days protected the people. Then, Varuna came and sought forgiveness. Brahma too tried to test Krishna. This was only Krishna's way to teach us that we should never forget Paramatma. That message is the Bhagavad Gita.
We are so caught up in samsara and its grief. To uplift us, God gave us Bhagavad Gita. Adults too must learn the Gita. You remember everything about what you ate, your investments, the things your spouse said, the insinuations and humiliations, but you cannot remember the Gita shlokas?
We need faith. Bhagavan never said we go to Vaikuntha. He said we gain a felicitous state. This could be Vaikuntha or Gauloka or heaven or whatever we wish to call it.
So you will be peaceful until you die. We will not die peacefully, we will die wanting and with desires.
So pray to God, do not pray for extension of life for two more days. Health we desire is only for the body! Remember you are always healthy, if your soul is always healthy.
Sometimes the mind is unhealthy, not the body. Many old people are very peaceful until they die. Recently, a few devotees - about 5-6 of them - passed away after having lived for over 100 years. One of them ate 5 masala dosas the day before he died. He lived very happily. There are some who are also bed ridden, but they are happy. We should learn to be happy. We should always remember God.
We should pursue what we need to be happy, instead of wasting time and going after other influences. We should only follow what the Guru's teaches us, no matter what.
You are doing Navagraha Shanti, that's good. We don't really need it, we have the primary deities - Vinayaka, Vishnu, Shiva etc. I laughed when you said you were doing Navagraha Shanti. Okay, go ahead. I have faith too. I will also do Navagraha Shanti, but we must place first importance on the main deities. We must place first priority on Chintamani Ganapati. In addition to that, you can do all these pujas and rituals.
Donation of land is so important. Even Emperor Bali gifted land to the Lord. Everyone can participate in the donation of land. Then, the head portion of this kshetra will be complete (in Sirasapalli). We will pray that God give us the ability to make these donations and offerings.
The one who is donating food will not find fault with the food. It is the one who is receiving the donation that will find faults with it. That is how you know the ones who donated from the ones who did not.
We will not take anything with us when we go. A devotee recently passed. He only had 20k rupees in bank, he had told his daughter not to spend the money on him, but to give to Swamiji. It's a small amount, but his bhakti is so great. He did not want to be intubated. What will we take with us?
I also want to get a pond made here. I wish to do Panchotsavas here (the 5 utsavas) so it will become a big kshetra. Those who have the means can also donate some portion of the land adjacent to here. Like and Share
Courtesy Avadootha Datta Peetham; Swagata Sabha • SGS Ashrama, Visakhapatnam • 7 Nov 2025
