Just a reminder

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Jai Guru Datta to all!

 

Sri Swamiji's discourse in Datta Yoga Center, Brampton - Thursday, July 20,

2006:

Swamiji focused on one’s sacred duties in life.

You must continue to perform your duties in the usual manner even after you come

under the umbrella of Swamiji. Many people neglect their duties and totally

depend on Swamiji saying He would take care of everything. It is not good. You

must continue your good habits like chanting mantras, doing poojas, visiting

temples, etc. You must continue to observe your daily spiritual practices. You

should not assume that if you telephone Swamiji with your problems everything

would be taken care of. Also, you have your duties towards your parents,

family, and Guru which must be observed.

Swamiji wants to tell you the story of a Panduranga devotee, who sincerely

performed his duties towards his parents. One day Lord Panduranga came and

knocked on the door of this devotee announcing His arrival with the intention of

taking the devotee to Vaikuntha. The devotee asked Panduranga to wait for a

while as he still had some unfinished tasks of seva to his parents, and only

after finishing those tasks he would talk to the God. Sage Narada noticing this

said to the devotee that he should be a fool to make Lord Vishnu wait for him at

the doorstep. The devotee replied that Narada Himself could ask Lord Vishnu to

come inside and wait until he was ready. Lord Vishnu said He did not want to

give darsan to the devotee’s parents as they did not deserve it. The devotee

insisted he was not concerned of his parents’ karma and that it was his sacred

duty to perform seva to them.

Here is a story to indicate the status of one’s Guru. When Guru and Lord

Govinda stood in front of a devotee, the devotee prostrated to the Guru first

and then only to the Lord. After all, it was the Guru who introduced the God to

the devotee and without the Guru he would not have known about the very

existence of the God. So it was quite appropriate that he greeted and served

his Guru first and only then the God.

These two stories stress the importance of observing and performing one’s sacred

duties in life towards parents and Guru.

 

A reminder to all devotees

 

Sri Swamiji in his discourse reminded us all of our duties towards our parents

and Guru. Because of our jobs, or difference in culture, we are drifting away

from our duties. I regret that I did not have the chance to do so, as my father

passed away when I was very young and my mother lived in India and now she is no

more. In those days it was very expensive to call India like $3.54/minute and I

could not call my mother as frequently as I wanted to. But nowadays, we live in

such a technologically advanced era, we are lucky to get free local, long

distance calls and with free internet chats, and phone charges as cheap as 3 or

5 cents a minute to India, we should be able to keep close ties. So just a

reminder to everyone - please pick up that phone and call your parents just to

say hello, how are you and how is your health – not just on Mother’s day or

Father’s day at least once a week, if not daily. This will give them a mountain

of energy. And you will get enormous blessings not only from your parents but

also from your GURU.

 

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