Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – December 10, 2023 – Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, USA
kr̥s̥n̥am vande jagadgurum
The new Bhagavad Gita batch is very enthusiastic. You can prepare for the Gita MahaYajna during Guru Purnima in July. I bless that you all memorize well and win gold medals. You already finished 6 chapters. I think you are getting close to your goal. Make good efforts and fight your mind and finish the Gita. This is good tonic for mind and body. There are small children as well as adults and older people in the program. If you try to memorize, your brain also gets sharper. After 40 years of age, the brain gets a little lazy. You must wake up the brain. Study shlokas and stutis. Sri Sankara Bhagavad Pada has give us so many shlokas such as Saundarya Lahari, Sivananda Lahari etc. He has given our society – all humans, not just Hindus – so many shlokas.
Europeans have memorized our shlokas, especially our kavachas. Those are not easy to learn, but they memorized very easily. They have very good pronuncation too. 2-3 Europeans memorized all the kavachas. I went to one of such devotees’ house and had dinner there. They are pure Christians, but they were very happy. They are very devoted. They are also pure vegetarians. They also have a good Sattvic lifestyle with devotion.
The bhajan “Bhayamu, Bhakti, Nammakamu…” is wonderful. Nammakamu means belief. Another bhajan I heard today “he janagana…” is also very good. It is a very patriotic song. It goes very rhythmically like to a marching band. You can sing this bhajan in any assembly/conference, people will like it. It is easy to memorize this bhajan.If you learn bhajans, the mind wakes up and becomes fresh. You will also excel in academics. Many students that are unable to grasp academic lessons will also benefit from this.
Special blessings to the new batch of Bhagavad Gita students. The teachers are doing a good job. I am very happy that new teachers are also joining. Some old teachers are getting a little lazy. I am telling the old teachers to cast away their laziness. You must propagate the Gita. If you teach one student the Gita, you get the fruit of doing Ashvamedha Yajna. Lord Krishna himself said this. Lord Krishna came to us as uncle, father, relative, cousin etc. Such a Jagadguru sang this song called Bhagavad Gita. If you memorize the Bhagavad Gita, automatically Krishna will be in your heart, home and body.
During my childhood, my maternal aunt would chastise me and teach me the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam. The entire essence of the Bhagavatam is in the shloka
ādau dēvakidēvi garbhajananaṁ gōpī gr̥hēvardhanaṁ
māyāpūtana jīvitāpaharan̥aṁ gōvardhanōdhāran̥am
kamsacchēdana kauravādi hananaṁ kuntisutāpālanaṁ
hyētadbhāgavataṁ puran̥akathitaṁ śrikr̥s̥n̥a-līlāmr̥tam
Chanting this one shloka daily is at par with chanting the entire Bhagavatam. My Aunt who was also a Guru to me would chant this mantra 24 hours a day. During Navaratri, she would chant Devi mantra, during Sri Rama Navami, she would chant Sri Rama’s mantra. Sri Sankara has thus given us short mantras for our convenience.
Special blessings to the Bhagavad Gita teachers and students.
Children can play cricket once a week here as a group. Swimming also prevents asthma attacks. Many are afraid of water, but you must learn to swim. Your lifespan improves when you swim regularly.