Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Sri Chakra Puja – April 2, 2026 – SGS DYC, Burlington, NJ, USA
Jaya Guru Datta! Some just asked a question – why do we get fickle regarding Guru, God, mother, wife, husband, children and one’s own self. Why do we have doubts? Doubts come to those who have nothing better to do. If you are busy, you will have no doubts. Those who have very little to do, who are empty headed – devil’s workshop – will have doubts.
But those like us have no doubts, we are always busy, thinking about our goal, no matter what we are doing. Where is the room for fickleness? Those who are free, lazy, and have nothing to do, or foolish will have fickleness. Examine for yourself which one you are. Those who are busy are very happy, they leave the planet peacefully. They may have the sankalpa to do 1 crore japa and whatever they are doing, they keep doing japa. They may not even respond fully to others, but they are fine. They are only focused on doing the japa.
Only the ones with ego, with no hardship at all, laziness, those who bring upon themselves difficulties with doubts, gossip, lust, desire, etc., will have fickleness. Others will not. Those who are busy physically and mentally have no fickleness. Look at the mahatmas – great souls – they are always busy doing sadhana. Second, those doing good music sadhana too have no fickleness. They keep doing sadhana and keep climbing step by step. You can ask them if you wish.
I used to have a big violinist, a devotee of Swamiji, he had so many hardships. He would never complain to Swamiji. Swamiji would in fact ask him, and he would request not even to be reminded of those hardships. He would still do concerts despite all that. Each concert would fetch him about 10 – 15 lakhs Rupees from the government. He even played when his wife had passed and her body was still at home. Someone asked why he had no grief. He said the violin was everything for him and he saw Swamiji in it. He wanted nothing else. There was a cancer patient at home, he had small children, he didn’t have enough money, yet he was fine. When he was not doing concerts, he would practice music.
But we, on the other hand, lament over difficulties. You must move on from there instead of dwelling on it, talking about it all the time. That’s a waste of time, it does not get resolved, we only suffer. Court cases in India can take 30-40 years to get resolved, it may not even happen in our lifetime. So, we should set everything aside and keep doing our duty.
There used to be a devotee family in the UK. They had moved to the UK – a couple and their children. They lost their passports, they lost everything. The couple would serve Swamiji. They had no home, no relatives, no friends. The government would put them in prison occasionally. Yet the couple would remain happy chanting Guru Gita. There are such devotees in the world. This was about 25 years ago. The children are doing well. They are in good jobs, they are citizens of the country and are happy. The parents are also happy. They never asked Swamiji for anything. They only asked for Seva/service. They felt – The Guru is the only one who does us good. If we trouble Him, we have nowhere else to go.
Guru is the only one who listens to our grievances. We only need strength to live, they felt. Anyway, that family got well settled. He wrote a beautiful letter about all this to Prasadi. We keep telling Swamiji about the same problems over and over. If we keep doing this, Swamiji will get annoyed and will evade seeing you. Or, He might just dismiss you with annoyance. The affection for you gets weak.
When you know Swamiji is you, you don’t have to keep telling Swamiji. You must also not grieve. That is why Guru gives you a mantra, to keep your life busy. That is why Swamiji gives you rituals to do, opportunities for yajna, divya nama sankeertana, satsangas, etc. There is no difference here of faith or status. We are all brothers and sisters in the Guru family.
Whatever work we wanted to do for Swamiji, we should only be focused on getting that done. We should be happy if that work is done, not crave for personal recognition. Such personal hankering does not work here, it works in personal life, family, business, office, politics, etc., but it does not work in the presence of the Guru.
You must never think – I gave so much to the ashrama, but I’ve not been given importance. If you keep repeatedly saying this to Swamiji, your merit is gone. You must not crave for recognition in the presence of all. It is in politics, in union, family, committee where such things work. Here, Guru is the head, all actions go to Him.
You must only consider yourself lucky to have done some seva, you must want more seva, but not keep seeking recognition.
Everything I am telling you is from Bhagavatam. I am not quoting shlokas, we don’t need that, but it’s all in the Maha Bhagtavatam.
Our life is all Mahabharata, remember. That is why, the mind should always be busy. The moment we keep it idle, old memories flood in, or the crooked mind seeks doubts, etc.
The old man might accuse the wife of having spoken to a boy 60 years ago. That shows the old man had a devil’s mind.
Remembering what someone said to you years ago is futile. We don’t know if we will live to see the next day.
There are battles in West Asia, many are dying. Someone asked why.
A few leaders sit in air-conditioned rooms and make decisions to fight. In the old days, the kings would decide to wage battles and would be on the battlefield personally to fight. But our leaders don’t do that today. It’s only the common man that goes to fight. The leaders are fine, moving in bullet cars, but it seems like we are protecting them, not our country.
The leaders should want to protect the country. It’s unfortunate that the common man suffers. What sin did they commit?
Perhaps, there is a prior sin they are paying for. It is said that those who kill will be killed. This is karma.
What did they kill? Countless animals are killed for meat – food. Those animals will come back and kill the ones who killed them.
There is so much food available to eat, yet we kill animals and eat. That means our stomach is a graveyard. Lamb, goat, egg – all these in the stomach make our stomach a graveyard for dead animals. But we are chanting the name of god and following the Guru, yet move around with a graveyard in our stomach. You eat eggs because you say the doctor asked you to. That makes your stomach a graveyard. There are so many foods that make you just as strong as eggs do. The elephant is so strong.
There are so many grains that give good protein, but we like the smell and the flavor of meat and we like to bite, chew and pull on the meat – the chicken legs, etc.
In the old days, when there was no farming, man used to eat raw meat like this. When fire came, they cooked that meat and ate. Now, we add masalas and other spices to hide the smell of meat.
Do not mind what I am saying – even if you do it’s okay. Our intellect gets spoiled because we eat food that is Tamasic. We are all going closer to devotees, we should be sattvik until our last breath.
Some astronomers went up into space recently. They follow a very strict diet regimen for 6 years before takeoff. When they saw their parents or children, no one knows, they are determined to do this sadhana to go into space. They sacrificed so much – family, friends, food for that goal. They ate only in moderation as advised. They are floating in space.
We cannot go into space as we wish. If the car turns really fast, we feel like throwing up. So, how are those people there up in space? They did sadhana and were able to go up.
Similarly, if we do sadhana we can also progress. Those astronomers did so much sadhana for 6 years, they were very focused. If they had to worry about family, friends, children, they couldn’t go up to space. If you want to do sadhana, you must give up certain things.
There are children in the ashrama, who study Vedas for 12-16 years. They don’t think about parents and other common hankerings. Once, a little boy in the group was crying. I asked him what was wrong. He said he was crying because he did not see the new refrigerator that his parents bought. He was sobbing uncontrollably. I told him I would send him home to go see it. He went. I told him not to forget to sit inside the fridge for an hour.
He went home, and was about to sit in the fridge when his father chided him and said – he didn’t have to come home just to see the fridge. He came back to the ashram the same day with no interest in the fridge anymore. That boy grew up, became ghanapaati and now is married and has two children. Two become ghanapaati, one cannot use the phone, they have to be so focused on their studies.
We give them full freedom to go home, but they don’t wish to. We send them home for holidays, and they return in 2 days. They don’t like it at home, they love being in the ashram.
We have 120 children in this Veda school. They are turning into big pandits and ghanapaatis. Later, Swamiji gets them married and also gets bachelor and master’s degrees in English. There are also teachers to teach English and other subjects for free.
Ashrama gives all the 20-30 teachers a salary and place to live. This is all to protect and uphold the Vedas. So, I am talking about all this to talk about sadhana.
The soumi – the wife of the veda pandit – cooks. When the student eats, they don’t realize that there is no salt in the food.
Once upon a time, when the student realizes that there is no salt in the food, that is when they have finished their lessons. Otherwise, they were so immersed in sadhana, they did not realize the food had no salt.
We walk around with a devil in our head and a graveyard in our stomach. In the past, when people came to America, they would read the entire ingredients list so as to make sure there were no forbidden food ingredients in it.
At least from now on, be careful with what you eat. It is due to all these that we get fickle-minded. So, when we don’t have anything to do, we get fickle. There are some that seem idle, but are chanting silently in their head. We should not engage in useless activities because we are chanting. We should only do what is useful. If there is nothing better to do, just go to bed. Let people call you lazy. So, we should do more physical work, that will keep the sleep away.
You can do good work – you can do science-related work, creative work, bonsai trees, drawing, music, etc.
Everyone must register to get the flute. It will keep you busy, it will teach you pranayama, it will teach you Pranava Nada, you will live longer, you will live longer with Me. These days, there is a greater incidence of heart problems. We are not doing pranayama properly. We gave flutes to 4000 people in Mysuru. These flutes are not made in the factory; they are handmade. You don’t need to do a concert; you just learn to play pure notes. Then, the mind becomes happy and you’ll naturally feel like learning to play a song on the flute.
If you play one song, you will be inspired to improve and play more. If you get hooked on the flute, you will be very busy. You will keep learning notes; you will not even engage in banter much. That is the quality of a good student. You must do all your work and then sit and play the flute. You have a certain duty; you must play the flute while you do your duty.
There is a free YouTube Channel called SGS Datta Venu – subscribe to it. It’s not a difficult skill to learn, it’s very easy. If you improve, that’s up to you. It’s good for the lungs and the heart. It will improve our concentration. It is just like Pranayama. Since we do not do Pranayama, Swamiji has started this.
In Mysuru, old people also got the flute, they keep blowing air into it. If you keep practicing in the open, the dogs might chase you, or the neighbors might complain.
Someone was quipping that Swamiji gave flutes anticipating the shortage of cooking gas due to which people would need to use coal or wood fired stoves.
You can order the flutes on SGS Raga Ragini Bookstore. Then, you can get them during Guru Purnima in the US when HH visits.
These flutes are handmade, not factory made. This will be posted on Yoga Sangeeta website. There are two kinds of flutes – bamboo and PVC. You can get both. The PVC flute is weather-resistant, but the bamboo is very vulnerable to heat, cold, and moisture. It needs to be handled like an infant. It’s the original flute. It is enough if you learn to play the seven basic notes.
There are teachers on YouTube teaching in multiple languages for free. You don’t need to pay a fee; your learning is the fee. But you must watch the videos repeatedly to learn.