Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Pradhana Anaghashtami Vrata – December 12, 2025 – Mysore
Datta Swami is pleased when we merely think of Him. Chanting ‘Datta’ with a full heart is enough. The birds here (in the Ashrama) all chant the name of Datta constantly. Like that, if we give ourselves to Him, and call Him, He gives himself to us. Ultimately, we want a cessation of desires.
The Lord is the 6th incarnation of Paramatma who we call Vishnu or Shiva or Devi. All Devatas are an aspect of Paramatma. The panchayatana are an aspect of Paramatma. Shiva, Vishnu, Ganapati, Skanda, Devi, Sun are all born of the same Shakti. That Shakti is Paramatman. Paramatman has no form.
Vishnu, Shiva have all come from Paramatman. We do not know who made this creation. Paramatman appeared as light. He gave life to all beings to give them liberation and bring them back to their source. But we are not going back to our source, we are ceaselessly taking more births due to the sins and attachment we develop. We keep taking birth in various wombs.
We keep saying we want freedom from bondage, but our actions don’t align with our words. We plan to learn the Gita, visit temples etc. but we do not follow. We are trapped in our body and the children that come from it, the joys and sorrows that come from it. We have so much attachment to life. Many languish in sickness in bed, intubated. What use is this? You are not gaining Jnana, you are only wasting money.
You do this out of attachment for life. You will realize this when you are in that state, but I do not know if you will even remember then. You think the body is everything. God’s plan is different from man’s. We take one step forward and two back.
That is why God came as Guru. In the krta Yuga, there was no guru. It is only from the 6th incarnation of Lord Datta that we have Guru. We were there at that time, but were sinners.
Follow the Gurus words, learn Vairagya and slowly give up attachment – the Sadguru keeps teaching you this.
The guru is beyond the three Gunas, but is also the Gunas themselves represented by Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara. Devi also took form representing the three Gunas as Lakshmi Saraswati and Parvati.
Datta stayed under water for 1000 years, many left thinking he drowned, others left in disgust seeing a half naked woman with him. When his disciple Kartaveerya was overcome by ego, he had Parashurama subdue the ego. It was Datta himself who officiated as priest for Kartaveerya to do Anagha Vratam, otherwise how would we learn? The Lord showered many wonderful miracles. This Vrata can be performed any day, not just on ashtami. There are some devotees of Swamiji who do this vratam everyday.
I love Anagha Vratam very much. It fulfills all our wishes. We should not believe this is different from Satyanarayana Vratam. We should do both. By showing to Kartaveerya, the Lord showed us how to do this Vrata.
Swamiji summarizing the same message in Telugu:
We do not like to leave our body or this earth. When we had consciousness, we lived conditioned by our surroundings. Do not harbor excess desire for things, people, places, food etc.
You should earn Vairagya. That is why we go to pilgrimages so we can live a spartan life for a few days with bare minimal necessities. That is why the Ashrama is this way. Now you have water, geysers, beds etc, but back in the day, we had nothing. People would sleep on the bare ground, no hot water.
I am like hot ghee, that you can neither swallow, nor spit out. You will not leave me even if I leave you.
Anagha Vratam does good to the world. I was to go to BHEL, but did not. We did Anagha Vratam with 10k people in Warangal two years ago. I wish for this Vratam to happen in a big manner in Mysuru too.