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| Summer Camp - Special update |
Abraham Lincoln once quoted, "And in the end, it's not the years in your life counts. It's the life in your years". We do celebrate & cherish the birthday's of our closed & loved ones including the 'self' year after year. For some, it's the day of retrospecting, for some it's just the day to share happiness & for some it is the day to feel good about to know how many of them remember their birthday's even if they don't remember other's!!
So in this situation, it is interesting to find out, How a Guru celebrates His Birthday? Does He celebrate in first instance? Below is a brief synopsis of this eventful day during this year Summer Camp to know the answers for these questions.
Though the day began as usual like any other day, the members of the Sadhana Sangama family, were quietly planning this event to celebrate even if Guruji himself want the day to be treated as any other normal day. This event was planned together by all the aspirants and the Sadhaka's requested Dr. Shikaripura Krishnamurthy ji, Sri. Shankar Narayana Shastri ji & Shri.Srinivasa murthy ji to lead the function.
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| Dr. Shikaripura Krishnamurthy Ji, Shri. Shastri Ji & Shri. Srinivasa Murthy Ji |
Starting this function, Dr. Krishnamurthy ji stated, "We are all integral part of the Sadhana Sangama family and you know when once we become a integral part of the family, we cannot dispense it. A brother/sister cannot say to his brother / sister, that you are no more my brother/sister. We cannot say to our father that you are no longer my father, because it is karma. In the same way, it is our punya (good) karma that we are all integral part of Sadhana Sangama initiated by Shri. Swami Rama and initiation continued in this part of India by our revered Guru Shri Pattabhiram ji. 58 years ago this great soul landed on to this earth and this heart went on beating 58 years and it is going to beat for 62 years more. To celebrate the birthday of our family brother, elder brother, may be fatherly associated by his dharmapatni Prof. Jyothiji, we all sit here for a short program to invoke the blessings of the lord on our Guruji Pattabhiram to continue to serve this land with this divine mission.
With this, he requested the group of sadhaka's to begin the function with a small wishing prayer. This Prayer was sung by Smt. Bhanu along with group of enthusiastic children. Below you can find the live Audio recording of this prayer:
The Prayer:
Janma dinamidam ayi priya Guru
Santomotu te Sarvada mudam
Prathaya mahe bhava satayusi;
Isvarah sada tvam ca raksatu
Punyakarmana kritimarjaya,
Jivanam tava bhavatu sarthakam
Janma dinamidam Pattabhiramahe,
Ishvarah sada tvam ca raksatu
Prer yaamahe bharatham sada,
Saadanam tava bhavati sarthakam
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| Smt. Bhanu singing the prayer along with enthusiastic young aspirants |
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| Sadhaka's joining the wishful prayer |
Post the prayer, All the children one by one, gave flowers to Guruji, wishing Him which our Guruji lovingly accepted and blessed them.
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| Happy Birthday 'Guruji' |
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| Thank you my dear children's |
Dr. Shikaripura Krishnamurthy ji, speaking further briefly translated the meaning of this Prayer to all the Sadhaka's. He stated, "All the good things only comes to us because of our punya (good) karma. We are celebrating this function of our own family. We should pray and get the continued blessings of the god to enjoy this happiness in the family set up. Therefore pattabhirama is the central nucleus force of our family and we beg mata Poorneshwari, mata Lalitaparameshwari to bless you on the janma janamdiam. May god shower on you all goodness, He is always pleasant, He is always happy, I have not seen pattabhi becoming angry. He is like Lord Ganapati, who is always smiling, ever pleasant, Santhosa, blissful face, blissful appearance, blissful personality, so may god bless him ever.
"What do we pray? May lord isvara protect you from all the difficulties of health. May god bless him with safety, security. He is getting fame by his punya karma, He is inspiring many of us, He is putting back on to the track of dharma for many of us, otherwise we would have gone somewhere else. This punya karma has given Him 'krithi', and He does not enjoy this 'krithi', He says, let it be there and He offers it back to the Lord. May your life be successful".
"Let us all together motivate bharatham, the whole country so that, all that you have achieved these days, and all that we are together trying to achieve, all our sadhana’s may be successful, may be fruitful, in building up the humane, enlightened, and successful India and world".
Later Krishnamurtiji requested Shri Shankar Narayana shastri ji to speak few words. Shastriji welcomed all the aspirants for the function and said, "Guruji and Mataji, and beloved brothers and sisters, it’s a privilege to be here on this day, when two things come together, we call it a coincidence. But there is nothing coincidence here, everything is planned and happens. So we are all from different homes, different shades, different culture, different language. All of us merged to be here on this eventful day. I remember the day, on which we met together in a thick jungle near sagara, bachodi. And it is that day, which was brought by Krishnamurthy ji, and personally that occasion myself, associated with the great Sadhana Sangama. Without that, I think I would have been in some roadside. So I hope many of us, are inspired by his presence and by his teachings. Another good thing is, I have not seen Swami Rama. It is true Pattabhiramji, he have been a association with the great Himalayan sadhaka 'Swami Rama' and even though we have not seen Swami Rama, we are linked to His parampara (tradition), through a great soul (Guruji), which has linked all of us with that great soul (Swami Rama). We are really grateful and may the almighty give you all the strength and life and pleasure, if not pleasure, to endure all the problems you face"
As a Symbolic, memorable event for the day, sadhaka's requested Guruji & Jyothi Ma to light the lamp. The light which represents the glow of parampara, was initiated with the Holy chants from all the assembled participants along with Guruji.
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| Guruji Pattabhiram & Jyothi Ma lighting the lamp |
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| Guruji Pattabhiram & Jyothi Ma lighting the lamp |
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| Guruji Pattabhiram & Jyothi Ma chanting Shanti Mantra & praying for the well being of all Sadhaka's |
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| Lamp lit on the occasion of our Guruji janma din (birthday) |
After lighting the lamp, Both Guruji & Jyothi Ma, did namaskar infront of everybody thanking them for their love & warm wishes.
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| Guruji & Jyothi Ma thanking for all the love & wishes showered on them |
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| Our beloved Guruji & Ma prostrating to all for their wishes & prayers |
On this auspicious occasion, our beloved Gurudev lovingly stated, "I did not expect this, it’s a great surprise to me and I profusely thank Krishnamurthi ji, Shastri ji, and the entire Sadhana pariwara showering on me, so much love and affection and concern. Life is worth when jeeva receives grace and the showering from the humanity and also from the divinity. Otherwise this life has no meaning. Since my childhood every minute , this inspiration has to go on in me, to serve the humanity. I did not think about myself. During my younger days, I received two mantra’s. The first mantra is “mein nahi tu hi”. It’s all you, you, you and you only. There is no 'ME'. In 'YOU' I see myself. Not in 'ME' I see 'YOU'. In you, I see myself. It means you are the mirror, I am the reflection and I have been growing in this beautiful fragrance of ‘mein nahi tu hi'.
The second one ‘rastraya swaha , rastraya itham, na mama’. These two have inspired and inspiring me continuously to serve the humanity. At the later stage, Gurudev (Swami Rama) has strengthened this and gave me the clear message, "Bete, selfless service is your worship’, do it. You do the selfless service, the rest is assured from the parampara. Don’t ask anything. Don’t seek anything. We know when to give, what to give, how much to give, where to give. You just offer yourself and serve selflessly".
Serving selflessly is really a very very challenging, crucifying task. It’s not mere a challenging, but it is crucifying. Every minute, every second, 'ME' tries to pop out. 'ME' tries to come forward, at that time, again and again, sadhaka has to gather that 'I' without hurting that 'I' and offer that 'I' at the lotus feet of the parampara. This is the sadhana. Not controlling, not suppressing, not fracturing, but gather that 'I' again and again. It’s a beautiful 'I', 'I did it', 'because of ME it happened', gather that as a flower, and again and again offer that flower at the lotus feet of the god and the guru and pray to that lord, 'Oh lord this flower, is still has to pick up the fragrance and the essence of the humanity, bless that flower with that fragrance'.
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| Ma & Pa |
If you work in this direction, life will give us a meaning, will give us a message and will give us an inspiration to travel further, otherwise selfless activity at some point will turn into a very frustrating activity, makes the sadhaka to temp and attempt for suicide again and again.
It’s not that easy. Because every time the action takes place, but you cannot claim anything about that. Because, the mind over the years, has developed a very powerful impulse called “parigraha” means to possess, i.e. 'ME' & 'MINE'. If you listen to our own mental japa that is going on, when we are not conscious, we hear, 'ME MINE, ME MINE' only. It’s the only japa going on and that is the inspiration to do actions, and every actions comes out of that is going to be a karma and karmabandhana. So a sadhaka has to constantly work inside while performing the duty outside. He has to work continuously. But deep inside he has to find out, is this action painted by 'ME' or is it the action of the grace of the divinity.
After 50 years of age, we have to celebrate, janmadin as a chintana din. Contemplation. Not merely cutting the cakes and all those things. That is upto may be 15 years. After 15 years, on every birthday, we have to make a sankalpa. It should become a sankalpa din. On this birthday, I am going to aspire & work towards this activity, I am going to work like this, like that etc. It should go on upto the age of 50. After 50, it’s not the sankalpa, it’s the chintana. Contemplation, enquiry. What is that enquiry? Who am I, from where I have come, to where I have to go is the enquiry.
If you are able to work at this level, from where I have come, to where I am going, and find out what is this 'I', Is it possible for me to catch this 'I', Is it possible for me to face this 'I', Is it possible for me to feel this 'I', then grahasta will slowly elevate himself to the vanaprastha level. Upto grahasta level, upto the age of 50, it is sankalpa, I build up my family, I serve my people, I work, I do this, I do that, all excellent. But after the age of 50, we have to elevate ourself to vanaprastha, means 'going inside', where we have created the dense, wild forest, sitting inside the forest, contemplating on 'Who am I'?, What is my relationship with all the surroundings?. Just closing the eyes and able to stay with it, able to feel that itself, becomes a beautiful dhaarana.
You need not try to find the answer, in contemplation, there is no seeking, in contemplation, there is only 'seeing' and 'experiencing'. So friends, on this day, this is what, I do. I observe silence, I stay with myself, but fortunately or unfortunately, since 7-8 years, I am not able to observe silence, because camp (summer camp) comes only during this time, but it’s really a wonderful thing to spend this day with you all.
So is it possible for each one of us, on janma din, to contemplate on what is this janma, who has taken this birth, why the birth has taken place and what is the purpose of this birth, on which direction the journey is on, and where this journey is going to culminate?. If you are able to work on it, immediately, our great acharya, Shankaracharya’s mantra will start ringing in our ear's. The mantra is:
"Bhajagovindam, bhajagovindam,
govindam bhaja moodamate,
samprathe sannikite khale,
nahi nahi rakshat,
dukrin karane".
"Bhajagovindam, bhajagovindam,
govindam bhaja moodamate,
samprathe sannikite khale,
nahi nahi rakshat,
dukrin karane".
Here, some people call it as a piece of grammar, a rule of grammar, but symbolically, it’s not that. Symbolically this represents the world. By holding on to this world, you are not going to get, samprathe sannikite khale, when I have to leave the body, this world is not going to come to support me, protect me, help me, guide me. This world, whatever I am doing here, fame, name, working day in and day out, working, building, demolishing, constructing, reconstructing, molding, all these things, they are not going to come, that is the dukrin karane here.
Now is it possible for me to detach from the world and see. When you detach and you see, then bhaja, will start. Bhaja at one level means 'chanting', at another level, 'worship' and at another level, 'merging' with it. so in the beginning, bhaja means, let me chant, it means, let me introduce, another language in the mind. The language is Govinda. That is the language one has to introduce. It’s a new language which mind is not familiar and now we have to to make the mind to be familiar with the language ‘govinda, govinda, govinda'. Once it is familiarized, then we have to move on to the second, 'pujana'. 'Pujana', means 'worshiping'. Worship means respecting it, respecting means, looking again and again and again, that is called 'Puja'. Respect, re-spect, look again and again. Look at 'Govinda' again and again, that is 'pujana'. It’s not simply doing some ritualistic activities.
So I have to elevate myself from bhaja to pujana. Once when I start experiencing the pujana, in that the duality drops, and only 'THAT' stays, that is the Samadhi bhava. Here very interesting thing is, Shankaracharya is not insulting the human beings, He says, 'mooda mate', i.e. 'Eh! dull, headed intellect', please see the beauty of it, he is not addressing, 'Eh! stupid fellow', No. He is not using the word, stupid fellow, dull fellow, He says, 'muda mate', 'mate' means the 'intellect'. 'Eh dull headed intellect, think about it, work on it', it means, Shankaracharya, is helping us to respect ourself keeping us at the highest level and the main culprit for all this is the 'mate', the intellect. So catch the intellect, work with the intellect and change the attitude & approach of the intellect towards life. This is the message.
So on this, occasion , it is not only my 'janma din', it is the 'janma din' of all. So let us feel like that, and let us start contemplating on 'Govinda'. 'Govinda' means that which is sustaining everything, holding everything, protecting everything, relishing everything, that is 'govinda'. So one has to ask this question, "what is that which is relishing me, what is that which is protecting me, what is that which is making me to function, to work, 'bhaja', let me connect with that".
So friends, let us experience this. So janma din if you celebrate like this, this is the celebration. Otherwise, if we merely cut the cake, we eat the cake, and finish the celebration, there is no real meaning in it. So let us go back with this message, I once again thank you all for showering me so much love on me. Guru parampara bless you all, thank you very much.
After completing this 'Thank you' speech, our Guruji realized that He still had 15 more minutes before the next break. So with all sincerity and with the permission of the participants, Guruji continued his lecture session on "Love & Family Life" which we will cover in upcoming updates.
Vande Guruparam...
(Aspirants who wish to hear the complete Guruji lecture series on 'Bhajagovindam' public program can get it here)
-'Bansuri'
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