Welcoming Speech

[Guest guest]

Welcomig His Holiness Sree Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji

Speech Given By V. V. Prakasa Rao on July 20, 2002 in Chicago, IL.

 

It is a great privilege and a rare opportunity for me to introduce His

Holiness Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji. Thinking of saying

something about Sri Swamiji is so overwhelming and overpowering that

our body shivers. We become numb, silent, speechless, dazed and loose

our descriptive skills thinking about His divine, cosmic personality.

Sri Swamiji's personality is varied, diverse, challenging, imposing,

radiating, composed, gripping, engrossing, magnetic, mysterious and

incomprehensible; yet simple, sweet and serene. He is omnipresent,

omnipotent and omniscience. That means He is every where at the same

time, all powerful and all knowing. It also means that He is all ears

whereby He can hear every thing, all eyes whereby He can see every

thing and all knowledgeable where by He understands everything.

 

At this critical time in human history which is wrought with terror

and

violence, every day human beings are faced with uncertainty, despair,

troubles, tribulations, fear, distress, distrust, hatred and animosity.

In spite of all the material comforts, life is becoming unbearable. We

need help to swim in the ocean of Samsara. How can we be helped? Who

can help us? To a large extent it is all in our hands only if we know

it. Help comes when we are ready. Our mind is difficult to understand.

Like a monkey, our mind wanders, wavers, groans, gnaws, jumps, gallops,

swings and craves for something - not knowing what that something is.

Our mind is neither stable nor steady. It rebels against our effort to

bring it under control and revolts against any meaningful change.

Unless one is touched by the grace of a Sadguru like Sri Swamiji, we

cannot bring the mind under control to experience real happiness and

joy. Just one word by Sri Swamiji can ease the mind and change the

whole life of a devotee. His speeches can make one feel comforted and

peaceful. As you meet His Holiness Sri Swamiji today and the next few

days, please be reminded that our readiness, open mindedness to absorb

His message and accept new ways of looking at things will bring peace

of mind we never experienced before.

 

Once we recognize Sri Swamiji as all powerful, we can describe Him

without limiting Him to any set of guidelines and rules. It all depends on

one's own imagination of that mystical personality. Hence I will take the

liberty of looking at the

selected alphabets found in the name of Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji,

what they stand for and the significance of these alphabets. Since Sri

Swamiji is going to conduct Healing and Meditation Music today, we start with

Nada.

 

Letter "N"in the name of Sri Swamiji stands for Nada, Nada Brahma.

Nada means sound - both instrumental and vocal. Nada is a science dealing

with effect of sound and it's vibrations on the mind and the body. Sri

Swamiji is the only one who experimented andsuccessfully used both

instrumental and vocal music for healing both mental and physical ailments.

The sounds Sri Swamiji uses may be harsh,

coarse, gross, pleasant, soothing, sweet, exquisite, fine, and blissful.

These different ragas have different purposes, powers, vibrations, strengths

and frequencies. Sri Swamiji only knows how to se them, when to use them

depending on the time, the day, constellation of stars and the needs of the

listeners. Based on his intuitive knowledge and divine vision He creates a

unique atmosphere in His concerts where the listener experiences the music

traveling deeper and deeper into the heart by tapping into Ananda Maya kosa

(blissful state). Sri Swamiji uses different ragas for relaxing the nervous

system of the listener, for creating soothing effect on the mind, for curing

different ailments, for balancing the Pancha tattvas (five elements) in the

body, and for harmonizing the body and the mind. He can do this because He

has the power to enter into a state where no sense organs can enter.Many of

us had so many experiences with Sri Swamiji.

 

How many times did we say that He knows everything? We often say that

He reads our mind, even before we ask a question He tells us what to do, He

looks through us, and we cannot hide any thing from Swamiji. Then the

question is How does He know? The answer appears to be that Sri Swamiji has

the powers to enter into our inner most chambers of our heart where the

silence reigns. According to Tantric literature, sounds occur at different

levels. They are Vaikhari which is mainly audible, material sound; Madhyama

which is to a large extent a mental sound; Pashyanti which is basically a

visualized sound and Para which is a transcendent sound. At this level sound

is not audible because it has the highest frequency which cannot easily be

measured or heard. Silence prevails at that level. It can only be perceived

and tapped by our Sadguru Sri Swamiji. The minute Sri Swamiji looks at us or

visualizes us, He knows in a fraction of seconds all our thoughts, ur

feelings, our faith, our past connection. Hence we are like an open book for

Sri Swamiji. We cannot run and hide from Him.

 

Letter "N" alsostands for Lord Narasimha. He is the only Avatara that came to

being to prove that He is every where in both animate and inanimate objects,

pervading all the regions of the universe. Without being a half-man,

half-lion form, without those deadly teeth, without that razor sharp tongue

and without that fearsome face, Sri Swamiji battles for His devotees. Sri

Swamiji like Narasimha helps devotees and others even without their knowledge

and without their earnest request for help.

There are so many devotees who can testify to that fact that Sri Swamiji was

helping them and guiding them both in dreams and real life years before they

knew any thing about Sri Swamiji. The only weapons Sri Swamiji uses are His

smile, word, looks and touch, not the mace, bow and arrow, trident, disc,

Brahmastra, Pashupatastra in order to help His devotees either by taking

their bad karma by suffering Himself

or by cushioning the effects of their bad karmas thereby reducing the

magnitude to the minimum level. Once we are under His protection, He will put

you on a spiritual path that helps us to shed shackles of dayto day mental,

material and domestic tribulations.

 

Letter "S"stands for Sadguru. Sri Swamiji is Sadguru of the highest

divine order, highly spiritually elevated. That means Sadguru Sri Swamiji is

one on whom the spiritual powers descended by Guru Parampara in an unbroken

chain of

discipleship starting with Sri Jaya Lakshmi Mata, Pada Vallabha, Narasimha

Saraswati, Dattatreya and Brahma Himself. He is the means for realization of

the liberty. There is no knowledge without a Sadguru and beyond Sadguru. Guru

Gita says "I bow to the Sadguru who is the source of bliss, giver of great

comfort, form of pure knowledge, beyond all dualities, sky - like the essence

of the Mahaavaakyas like Tatvamasi, unique, eternal, pure, steady, witness to

all intellect, beyond the

intellect and who is without the three qualities --- Sattva, Rajas and

Tamas." (87)

 

Why do we need Sadguru Sri Swamiji? What can Sri Swamiji do for you

and me? If you want to experience unparalleled compassion, receive the

boundless love, experience the inexpressible silence, receive the Himalaya

mountain size of support, experience the undescribable miracles in life,

receive infinite joy and bliss that we

never received before, receive the unlimited grace, understand the real

meaning of life, feel the presence of divine - god himself, uplift your

spirits, subdue your ego, elevate your mind, tread the path toward vairagya

(renunciation), bathe in the company of the holiest of the holiest, cleanse

the impurity of thought, and show compassion toward others, then you need Sri

Swamiji. If we approach our Sadguru Sri Swamiji with bhava, bhaya, and

bhakti, He gives you every thing you deserve and much more. He will always be

with you and within you.

 

If you want to open your inner eye to see the self inside instead of

seeing outside only through outer senses, if you want your life to be

directed toward spiritual growth, if you want your heart to be filled with

Amrita (ambrosia), if you want your suffering to be minimized and cushioned,

and if want your problems to be diminished, you do not have choice except to

surrender at those Lotus Feet of our Sadguru Sri Swamiji.

 

Letter "S" also stands for Saraswati - goddess of learning. Like

Saraswati, Sri Swamiji is Vagdevi, speech personified. He influences His

disciples as well as others by His speech along with ooks, touch, and

silence. It is through speeches He imparts Saraswati (knowledge). His

speeches are simple and powerful. They touch the inner core of our hearts and

divine element of our human personality. Sri

Swamiji knows what kind of message is appropriate for a given occasion. When

He looks at the audiences before He gives His discourse, He knows their

mental state, senses their spiritual needs, feels their pain, discerns their

physical well being and detects their potential problems. It is not a mere

coincidence that He gives a particular, impromptu discourse at any given

place. He knows what kind of message

will ease the stress and tensions of those assembled to hear Him. It is

amazing to know how He satisfies and answers different people with different

expectations through His speeches. It is also astonishing to note how

different questions of different people get answered by the same speech. The

speeches Sri Swamiji given at different times, at different places, and in

different countries to different groups of

people with different backgrounds and different levels of spirituality

touched heart and mind of all the listeners. To days speech would be no

exception. The essence of His speeches is not limited by time, place,

country, race or religion because the message is divine, eternal and

universal.

 

Now let us look at the number of letters in Sri Ganapathi

Sachchidananda Swamiji's holy name. There are 33 letters. Some how this

number evokes memories about the conversation between a devotee named

Vidagdha Sakalya and Sage Yajnavalkya in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.. The only

reference to multiple gods in the Upanishads comes from a conversation. For a

devotee’s repeated question "How many gods are there, Yajnavalkya ?" First

the great teacher says "Thirty three

crores", then he says "Thirty three" (they are eight Vasus, eleven Rudras,

twelve Aditays, Lord Indra and Lord Prajapati), again he says "Three"

(Brahma, Visnu and Maheshwara) and finally he says "O N E" (Sri Swamiji),. It

is not a mere coincidence that the number of letters in Sri Swamiji's name

match with Vedic Gods. Sri Swamiji can be described as an embodiment of all

33 crore gods, thirty three gods, three gods all culminating in ONE - that is

Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji.

There may be millions of gods but in reality there is only ONE. For devotees

Sri Swamiji may appear in thousand different forms according to their own

perception of the supreme power of our Sadguru Sri Swamiji, but Sri Swamiji

is the only ONE.At this time I bow to and request Sri Swamiji, who is

eternal, all blissful, all gracious, all

compassion, all loving and all powerful to say few words to those who have

gathered here.

 

Jai Guru Datta.