Speech of HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Swagata Sabha – Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, Frisco, TX, USA – July 4, 2025
Harihi Om Namaha Shivaya
Veera Hanuman ki Jai!
First of all, Happy Independence Day (USA). How happy the founders would be! It is a victory for them.
Real independence is seeing God and realizing God, realizing the Truth. This is real victory. Kauravas and Pandavas had a battle. In reality, Pandavas attained a spiritual victory; kingdom and other possessions vanishrf. They barely lasted 60 years. The real victory that Pandavas had was the teaching of Bhagavad Gita by the Lord. That is the victory we want. We should get rid of the six vices (arishadvargas), the mind must be calm and be absorbed in God. This is victory. The rest of the things are just problems created by humans. Money, house, diseases, fights, pleasure, pain etc are all problems created by us humans.
What we really can create in life is Sadbhakti – true devotion. Many have devotion. We do not only want Prema Bhakti either. We want Jnana Bhakti. That is when we attain real victory. Bhakti for a lot of people comes out of fear, fear of problems, fear of disease, fear of losing reputation, fear of not having children, or having the children become distant, fear when we eat, fear when we do not. We have fear of everything, without realizing it. Fear can also manifest as dissatisfaction and restlessness.
If we get an ice cream, we are happy immediately. If we find our lost phone, we find immediate happiness. But what we want is permanent happiness. Seeing God, hearing His stories is happiness. We should unite with God.
This earth is like a rental house. We must vacate it one day. Once our karma contract ends, we have to leave. Not one second will the owner extend our contract. That is why all this is a rental, this body is a rental. We keep repairing the body, but one day it will perish. The only ancient one is Paramatma. The body is not ancient. Paramatma is present all over the body. Once the mukhya prana leaves, the body falls. Then, the body is a corpse, we do not keep it at home.
We buy a nice expensive piece of clothing and value it greatly for a couple years. We are very happy on the first day, we take great pride. But after a few years, it goes into garbage. We do not even regret throwing it in garbage. Like that, the body too will go into garbage and we will find a new body, a new womb.
The jeeva will get into the womb of a pig, or a dog, or rooster within seconds, per its karma. There again, the jeevi experiences its karma. It falls into a womb and suffers greatly. Sri Sankara wrote about garbha panchakam – the jeevi suffers so greatly for 9 months in the womb. You did too, you do not remember. We are born for some reason. The new born makes various sounds like kim, kaa, karee, each one has a meaning. This is beejakshara language. The infant is remembering the past and crying about why it had to take a birth again.
But we take pride in the new born, admiring its features and thinking the nose looks like the grandfather’s, the eyes like the mother’s and so on. But the infant is crying and the being will cry all its life until the last minute in the body.
So, we should explore why we came to earth. We should think about how we can escape this cycle. This is the disease of worldly existence – bhava roga. If we listen to Bhagavatam, we find the answers. Everyone must get tickets for Bhagavatam (Saptaham). Money is not important, it is ticketed because you must listen with attention.
The ticket is only $5, no free entrance for anyone. Only if you have the ticket can you enter. Otherwise, it is very hard to control the crowd. This temple hall is small now, at one time we were overjoyed this was such a big hall. We proudly publicized everywhere that this hall is big, now we are ashamed we did that.
Everyone must make use of this (Bhagavatam) opportunity. We will not post this on YouTube right away. You must listen live. We might post to YouTube later, whenever we feel like, may be in 5 years. So, you must listen live. No live feed for Bhagavatam. You can view Bhajans and other events on YouTube live, but Bhagavatam you cannot. This is Upadesha.
Those present will receive an English script for the day. Swamiji has done extensive research, and worked very hard for your sake. Do not miss the 7 day event of Bhagavatam. Early morning, we will have Puja. There will be a very systematic process. At Abhijina lagnam, there will be naivedyam and food served to 4 scholars. Participate in Annadana, Puja etc. You will not get the opportunity again for Bhagavata seva. Swamiji will be here till the noon – till the lagna.
We will do abhishekam and other events to Dashavatara moorti and in the afternoon, we will have Parayana. There will be multiple parayanas. You can chant Vishnu Sahasranama repeatedly. Scholars will have a break 12-4pm. Then, Swamiji will come and start Parayana. The dsicourse will be in Telugu, in our language, along with music and instruments. We cannot cover the entire Bhagavatam, we will do Dashama Skanda – 10th canto.
Swamiji will recite the verses penned by Sage Potana. Swamiji selected some of them. Some Kannada verses too are being selected. There will be mostly sanskrit shlokas and explanations, as well as our favorite bhajans.
After evening Arati – at whatever time that happens before 9:30pm – you will get chapati or poori or whatever was offered as naivedyam to the Lord.
How wonderful is this family event like Bhagavatam! I do not know if I will do this again in the future. Do not miss this. All events on this trip are beautiful. There is Srinivasa Raga Sagara! How wonderful. We have Bhagavad Gita Parayana. Do not miss. We have consecration of Venakataramana Swamy, we don’t know if it will happen successfully within the time. Even if it is later, we will do it then. But right now, it seems to be on the fence.
The most important event is Guru Purnima. All these are taking place during holidays in July. Children have summer holidays right now. Book your Bhagavatam tickets early. Donate to those who cannot afford. We will see how many can fit in the temple and then we will close it. You will not even get tickets in black. So, reserve them immediately – tonight. Did you see how wonderful the line up is.
Hanuman is always blessing all the programs Swamiji thinks of. We wanted land, we wanted car parking, He has said Tathastu for everything. I do not want to ask for anything. Whatever we wish for with a pure heart and devotion, He blesses. We should pray believing Hanuman is in our heart. He will surely fulfill our wishes. It is dangerous to wish for anything, he grants it immediately. If you have wicked wishes he will disfigure your face into that of a monkey’s. Beseech the Lord: Give me jnana soon, give me good health as long as I am alive
First pray for good health, then for jnana. You need good health for jnana. When you have jnana, you get bhakti and that is when you get vairagya. So, first health and then jnana. Then, we ask for some money, so we can give to the Lord. Not too much, just a little. And you must stick to your promise and give the Lord the money. That is why we talk about Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya. We should surrender ourselves to the Lord. The Lord pervades our body fully.
Everyone participate in the programs. All of you must listen to the healing music. We also have a big bhajan program…lot of classical compositions of Swamiji will be sung. All of you must participate in those too.