Swamiji says: Do Katha and Jhanda for the whole world. Disc 132 – Track 4.

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Maha Yagna is later on elaborated in the scriptures as karma yoga. It is the same fire maha yagna that the householder used to perform, but later on elaborated as karma yoga. He should perform it because it is his dharma [ordained righteous path and duty]. Not for something else. But in that dharmic karma [work, duty] we are still further projected to have desires that will not bring harm to you and to the world.

I laugh at people when they say that we mustn’t do Katha and Jhanda. I laugh at people who say, ‘Don’t do any prayers or fast on certain days for something.’ But, we should! While fasting, don’t fast only for yourself, don’t do katha and jhanda only for yourself, but do that katha and jhanda so that all the people in this world will get the benefit of it. 

You will find things like these done. Take [King] Dasharatha and his children. Did he not perform the Putra yagna? Did he not? He also performed ‘desire-full’ action. But his desire-full action was not a selfish one. It was that he should have a son who would rule the whole country. That he must have a dharmic son, not adharmic [unrighteous]. It is in the scripture, written, that even for a child’s sake, you can worship God. 

But then on the other hand you find that when a man has taken the dharmic path and he finds that evil is overtaking him, when you find that adharma is going to eat him up, what does he do? They say that in the Kali Yuga [Swamiji now speaks in Hindi] they say that if you tell lies, everybody will say, hello, such a nice Swami this, he’s putting [serving] butter and cheese every day. But if you tell the truth, they’ll hate you. But if you tell lies, they’ll say, ‘You know how sweetly he talks…so nice. Write a ZAR500 cheque for him.’

So like that, you see, if a man does adharma, to overcome that adharma, you can also pray to God. Example: Arjuna. He wanted the Pashupatastra. Astra means ‘weapon’. Pashupati is Shiva – Shiva’s weapon. Then he himself went – who advised him do you think? [Swamiji chuckling at the irony]. He, who in the [Bhagavad] Gita advises that you mustn’t have desires, also advised him, ‘Go, pray, and ask Shiva Bhagavan for the Pashupatastra.’ 

So he goes and performs this worship. He does tapasya [austerities] for many, many days. Then who appears? A hunter, with his wife, tied up bundle of old [animal] skins, bow and arrow and then what happened – there was a wild pig [boar] – what was it? A wild pig. And the hunter [actually Lord Shiva bhagavan in disguise] and Arjuna shot at the boar. But what happened with the hunter? His arrow came [hit] first. Arjuna’s arrow also struck but it pushed the other arrow aside and killed the pig. 

And then they faced each other, Arjuna and the hunter. The hunter’s wife was standing there, there was an argument between Arjuna and the hunter. The hunter claimed that it was he who killed the boar. That it was his kill and he wanted it. He said, your arrow pushed mine aside. Arjuna answered, I wasn’t aiming for the arrow, I was aiming for the pig. But they didn’t agree. And it escalated. It got to the point where Arjuna ended up wrestling with the hunter. And suddenly, Arjuna realised, ‘Aah! I have fought [successfully] in many ways, but I am a loser. I can’t win with this man.’ And he looked with his inner eye, and found Sakshat – Shiva Bhagavan Parameshwar and Parameshwari Devi – Parvati – there, disguised as hunter and wife. 

And he prostrated and said, ‘Forgive me my Lord, I was fighting you, forgive me my Lord.’ And then he gets the Pashupatastra. He takes the weapon and he goes into the battlefield and with this, he destroys the adharma.

So you can see that there are these desires, but these desires are only permitted for the householder. And as I said, a certain food may digest in certain people – so there are many dishes. And with the householder, there are different kinds of householders [playing different roles]. Amongst the householders you will find that one is a king, like Raja Ram, [but the same diet or role will not suit everyone.]

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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.