Disc 138 Track 1. Swamiji says: Your Ishta Devata is ALMIGHTY – regardless of who you worship.

To listen to Swamiji speaking, please fully open the post and then click HERE.

[The later excerpts on this audio recording are sometimes indistinct.  The pearls of wisdom are still there.]

Swamiji starts this homily by saying that we must have faith in our individual deity, because that deity has all the astras and shastras – s/he is almighty. So they all the ‘mights’.

[This is such an important point because in our early days at the ashram we had the erroneous idea that certain deities were more, or less powerful, than others. Swamiji stresses again and again, that there is one consciousness and no separate parts from it. So all powers are inherent in even what we might perceive to be a ‘fragment’.]

If you think your deity can only give you certain limited things, says Swamiji, that’s what the Hare Krishna [ISKCON] people refer to as a ‘demigod‘. Swamiji has some fun with this, saying that Lord Shiva is considered to be almighty. And Lord Krishna is considered to be almighty. So there can’t be two ‘all-mighties’ says Swamiji.

Swamiji says: Both Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna said, ‘I am infinite’. There can’t be two infinities. It’s the same power in a different name and form. But it’s one and the same. Swamiji says this understanding does not need a Guru to clarify it – it’s in the scriptures.

Swamiji switches to speaking about the awful habit that some parents have of speaking ill about others, in front of their children. Says Swamiji, ‘That is the worst thing that you can do!’ Even if it’s your enemy, say something good about them. If you already have an enemy, why create another ‘enemy’ in your house by telling the child about that enemy? Now there are two enemies. Plant positive things in the child’s mind. The idea is to make your child positive. Swami says that although we may not know about it, he pities children with such parents and actually weeps for them.

Says Swamiji: Any scripture will give you inspiration. But preferably take scriptures from your own culture. Swamiji says it’s easier to discuss matters with like-minded spiritual travellers, and we’ll also learn faster.

Emphasise in children’s minds that God takes many different forms in different religions. This makes them a ‘universal’ thinker. Swamiji suggests teaching the children the 18 verses of the Isha Upanishad. Teaching them the meaning. He then recommends the Gita Sapti Shlokas. Says Swamiji: Nothing can beat it. Nothing. 

Someone asks what happens if one continues sinning despite trying not to. Swamiji’s response is, ‘If you are sincere, and sincerely ask for forgiveness and thereafter don’t go on committing that same sin, then even if man doesn’t forgive you, God forgives you. It’s more important for me to know that God has forgiven me, than man. Swamiji says God is not blind to man’s sincerity. Once you are sincere, God has forgiven you. It’s only when you’re not sincere that he doesn’t forgive you. 

Swamiji goes on to remind us of what he always called the ‘MYOB mantra’. He speaks it out: ‘OM, M-Y-O-B, OM’. It’s the ‘Mind Your Own Business’ mantra. To the great merriment of the congregation, Swamiji says, ‘They say that if you repeat a mantra, you must concentrate on the meaning of it.’ Swamiji says, ‘It may sound foolish or ‘jokey’ what I’m telling you, but what I’m telling you is a real mantra.

Swamiji says our only job is to do good to other people. What they do or how they behave is not our business. Because doing good to others, only adds merit to you. Holy Mother Sarada Devi said the same thing. ‘If you want to be happy in this world my child, don’t find fault with others.’ Swamiji says, ‘Your dharma [designated righteous life-path and duty] is doing good to others. That is giving – not taking.’

Swamiji concludes the homily by saying, ‘Only a Guru can correct a chela [disciple].’ Others must behave perfectly [be an inspiration], so people can imitate them. Then you might ask, ‘What about lecturing?’ In the scriptures themselves, Veda Vyasa says ‘I am not teaching, I am praising God and glorifying God. Perchance, if you learn, that’s your business.’ Says Swamiji:  To be ego-less is a funny thing you know. So just go on praising God, give good lectures, don’t try to teach people.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.