He is a true Christian, a true Sikh;

A true Hindu and an true Muslim—

He who cultivates the crop of love in his heart—

He is a true man and the preceptor.

God is all pervasive and is the indweller of all beings. Likewise, the Pancha bhootha (five elements), which are divine manifestations are also all-pervasive and all powerful. The whole world is pervaded by the five elements, bound by the five elements and functions because of the five elements. The world cannot go on if even one of the elements is absent. Therefore, for every man, the five elements are like his five life principles (Pancha prana). None can comprehend the power of these elements. However, every man must necessarily know the significance of these elements. He alone is truly blessed and truly meritorious who understands their significance and acts accordingly. In fact, he would have achieved the objectives of human life, i.e. the purusharthas (objectives of life). It is the bounden duty of every man to recognise the value and import of these elements.

The five elements are responsible for man’s pleasure and pain, good and bad. Even for happiness, or for misery it is these five elements that are responsible, depending on how he makes use of them. Their names and forms may appear simple, but they are highly powerful.

Having been born, man lives for a few years and ultimately gives up his body. What is the cause for his growth and death? It is these five elements. The five elements are spread right across microcosm and macrocosm. They are present in man from top to toe. So it is imperative that man knows the secret of these elements. Having understood the significance of the five elements well, Buddha made concentrated efforts to gain control over his five senses. He taught:

Buddham sharanam gacchami.

Sangam sharanam gacchami.

I seek refuge in the Buddha

I seek refuge in the Sangam (religious community)

He used his intellect to understand the truth and shared his wisdom with society. First of all, he exercised control over his vision. Why has he exercised such a control? Among the five senses of perception, the eyes are endowed with immense power. There are forty lakhs of light rays, and they are being wasted in many ways. Today man puts his senses to misuse and as a result, his body becomes weaker and weaker day by day. His life-span is being reduced by his un-sacred vision and the sensual pleasures that he is indulges in. Lakhs of light rays in his eyes are being lost because of his un-sacred vision. That is why man is afflicted with eye ailments and then undergoes cataract operations to set his vision right. The doctors may say that man develops defects of vision are due to cataracts, but in fact, they are the result of un-sacred vision. So, one should have proper control over one’s vision. You are deluded that you acquired a state of sacredness by controlling your other senses. Whatever be the spiritual practices that one may undertake, one cannot derive their benefit without having control over one’s vision. All the types of sadhanas like Japa, Tapa, and Dhyana confer only temporary satisfaction. These practises cannot help you have control over your vision. In fact, the entire Srushti (creation) is based on your drishti (vision). The Netra (eyes) is verily the Sastra (sacred text). Hence, all the powers endowed on by man are being lost on the account of drishti.

Along with control over vision, one needs to have control over one’s tongue. There are over three lakhs of tastes buds in the tongue. As man has become a slave to taste, he savours various delicacies, and in the process spoils his tongue. Not merely that, he makes his tongue utter un-sacred words also. He hurts others’ feelings by using harsh words. His life span is further reduced by the misuse of his tongue. Likewise, all the senses lose their power as they are misused thereby cutting short man’s life-span. So, first of all, man should keep his vision and tastes under check. When these two are controlled, man’s energy is revitalised. The power that one cannot attain from years of penance is obtained when man puts his eyes and tongue to sacred use. You are often mistaken and you use the senses in a worldly way.

Jihve Rasagne Madhura Priyatvam,

Avarnayeta Madhuraakshram;

Govinda, Damodara, Madhavethi.

O tongue, knower of the taste and one that is sacred; speak knowingly

Chant the Divine names of Govinda, Madhava and Damodara incessantly.

Do not cause pain to others by using harsh words. In fact, others are not distant others but your own self as the same principle of Atma is present in all. The one who causes pain and the one who suffers from it are one and the same. So, never speak in such a way as to hurt others. That is why I tell you often, ‘Talk less’. But you do not take my words seriously. You do not understand what hazards excessive talk will lead you to in future.

See no evil, see what is good. Only then will your eyes attain the sacred power by which you can visualise the Divine Cosmic Form. Spiritual practices will yield greater rewards if the senses are kept under control. Unmindful of the power of the senses and without making proper use of them, man is under the delusion that he can achieve great rewards by undertaking various practices which are physical and worldly in nature. But in reality, one cannot get anything out of these practices except temporary satisfaction. First of all, man should exercise control over his senses: Sabda, Sparsha, Roopa, Rasa, Gandha. Never listen to anything that is bad. If any situation arises, leave the place immediately. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Make every effort to be away from evil. Only then will spiritual power in you grow more and more. Why did our ancient sages and seers go to the forest and live their lives in solitude? It is only to control their senses. True spiritual sadhana lies in controlling one’s senses. Without sense control, all spiritual practices will prove futile. Instead of using the tongue to utter evil words, why don’t you chant the divine names of Rama, Krishna, Govinda? You are piling up sins because of the misuse of the senses. The sins that you have piled up may not be visible to your naked eye, but they are sure to put you to suffering. Kanipinchanide Tinipinchunu Ne Karmala phalamu marmamu Jeeva. That which is not seen will make you eat the fruits of your action. O man, understand this secret of Karma (action).

The senses are the life principles for every man. Once you rein in your senses, your life will be peaceful. You should not only avoid evil talk, but should also talk less. Your speech should be short and sweet. Sages like Valmiki, Vyasa and great devotees like Potana composed sacred texts and sanctified their lives. Emulate their ideals and make your life exemplary. Read sacred texts composed by such noble souls. Today, people read books which pollute the mind. This is a very bad practice. Be it reading, writing, seeing or talking, let everything be good. Do not commit any mistake knowingly. You can experience divinity in humanity by putting the senses to proper use. One can visualise the Divine manifestations and become Divine himself only through sacred use of the senses. Man, unaware of his innate divine potential, considers himself low and leads a life of delusion. He thinks there is a power superior to him and makes efforts to attain it.

There is no power superior to him, ‘Ekam sath viprah bahudha vadanthi (Truth is one, but scholars speak of it in many ways).’ There is only one, not two. It is a sign of ignorance to think there is something different from you and be in search of it. Multiplicity is your own imagination. ‘Ekoham Bahusyam (I am one, I will become many).’ You can understand this truth once you control your senses.

People are under the mistaken notion that they are happy when their desires are fulfilled. In fact, happiness results not when desires are fulfilled, but when they are controlled. One can enjoy the state of Bliss by controlling one’s desires. One who craves for the fulfilment of his desires is always restless. Desires correspond to Pravritti (outward path) in which there is no happiness whatsoever. You are deluded by your thinking that there is happiness in the world, whereas you are distancing yourself from Nivritti (inward path).

For everything, love is life. To attain that state of love, make proper use of your senses. See Good, Talk Good, Think Good. Buddha visited many noble souls, studied sacred texts, and undertook various types of sadhana. To what effect? He realised that all those were related to Pravritti marga (outward path). He further realised that happiness lay in making proper use of the five senses. He stopped reading sacred texts; he did not visit noble souls any more and gave up all the spiritual practices. He understood that any type of sadhana was done with this ephemeral body would yield fleeting happiness only. True and eternal bliss will result only when sadhana is done with pure feelings.

When Buddha started exercising control over his senses, he experienced infinite bliss, which he could not contain in himself. He hugged his cousin Ananda, who was by his side, and said, "Ananda, I have attained the state of Nirvana and I am unable to contain the Bliss within me. I am ready to give up this mortal coil." Hearing this, Ananda started shedding tears. Then Buddha said, "O Simpleton, instead of rejoicing over my attaining this state of Bliss, why are you grieving over it?" You are looking for fleeting happiness in worldly matters, whereas Buddha strived to attain Bliss in the spiritual realm, which is true, eternal and immortal. As you are immersed in worldliness, you are distancing yourself from immortality. Though you are committing many sins, you do not consider them as sins. You think that they are quite natural to human beings. You keep committing mistakes, yet you pray for pardon. Actually one should never seek pardon for the mistake committed. One should be prepared to undergo the punishment. Only then can you be free from defects. If a person commits a serious offence, he is imprisoned. He is released only after he serves his required period. Likewise, you will be redeemed once you atone for your sins. Likewise, if you want redemption, you should be prepared to face punishment for your mistakes. You should exercise control over the senses and see that you do not repeat them. "

By chanting the sacred Vedic verses, one gets immense bliss. That is why even Buddha, who did not believe in the Vedas in the beginning, developed interest in them. People were under the impression that Buddha opposed the Vedas,. Later, Shankaracharya tried to erase this misconception from people’s minds, saying that Buddha was never against the Vedas. He said that people themselves were against the Vedas out of their own ignorance. Buddha conquered desire, which is not possible for everybody. One need not do any great Sadhana to conquer desire. You will not be troubled by desire once you understand the inner meaning of life.

Roopayee kosamai lopri kaariga,

Addamaina gaddi Tintaarayya

Ranga Ranga yanchu donga mokkulu mokki,

Parganaama kadaku pedtaaraya.

Today man is prepared to stoop down to any level for money.

He pretends to be a great devotee of the Lord, and tries to cheat people’

Is this what he is supposed to do?

No. He should conquer desire and control the senses.

You are young and yours is the right age to exercise control over the senses. You can make use of them in a sacred manner. Once you know the proper path, you will never give it up. You can understand the teachings of the Vedas only when you cultivate good qualities. You can cultivate good qualities only through good practices. There may be a few obstacles in your path, but never give up.

Today we celebrate Guru Poornima. Poornima is full moon day. Then who is a guru? The modern Gurus whisper a mantra into the ear and stretch out their hand for money. Such people are not fit to be called Gurus.

Gurukaro Gunatheethaha

Rukaro Rupavarjithaha

(Gu—attributeless, Ru—formless is the true Guru.)

A Guru is necessary to make you understand the formless and attributeless divinity. Since it is difficult to get such gurus, consider God as your Guru.

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara

Guru Sakshath, Param Brahma, Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha

Guru is Brahma,

Guru is Vishnu,

Guru is Maheshwara

Guru is the Supreme Brahman

I salute that Guru.

Consider the Guru is everything. In this world everything is a manifestation of Divinity. ‘Sarvam khalividam Brahma (verily all this is Brahman).’ All are the embodiments of Divinity. In fact all that you see is nothing but the Divine Cosmic form. (Viswa Virat Swarupa).

Sahasra Seersha Purusha,

Sahasraksha Sashasra Padh

With thousands of heads

Thousands of feet and eyes

Divinity pervades everything. This means all the heads, all the feet and all the eyes that we see in this world belong to God. When the Vedic statement Sahasra Seersha...was first used, the population of the world was only a few thousands, but now it runs into a few hundred crores. In those days, everyone considered everybody as Divine. They believed in the Vedic dictum, ‘Sarva bhuta namaskaram kesavam pratigachati (Salutations to all beings reach God. ‘Easwara sarva bhuthanam (God is the indweller of all beings).’ ‘Isavasyam idam sarvam (the entire universe is permeated by God.)’ Divinity is not restricted to a particular place.

Ikkada akkada yekkada choochina,

Vokkade atmalo makkuvai unnadu.

God is here, God is there, He is everywhere. You develop differences out of delusion, but Divinity is one, and only one. It is the duty of a Guru to propagate the principle of Oneness.

Today there are many good disciples, but it is very difficult to find a true Guru. We have many good boys among our students. However, even if one or two are bad, all of them will have to face the bad consequences. Here is a small example. When you sleep at night, one or two mosquitoes bite you. Then next morning, you spray insecticide and kill all the mosquitoes, though you were bitten by only a few. Likewise God also punishes those who join bad company. That is why it is said,

Tyaga Durjana Samsargam;

Bhaja Sadhu Samagamam;

Kuru Punyam Ahorathram.

Run away from bad company;

Have good company, and perform meritorious deeds day and night.

This was the declaration of Shankara.

Whenever bad qualities like anger and jealousy crop up in you, do not be carried away by them. Control them. Keep telling yourself, "Anger is a bad quality, it will lead to bad deeds actions and ultimately lead me to ruin." Whenever you are angry, sit quietly in one place and drink cold water. Chant the Divine Name. Then your anger will gradually subside. If your anger persists, go to a place of solitude or walk briskly for half a mile. There are many easy paths to conquer anger. But the youth today do not make any effort to control their anger. Whenever they get angry, they take it as an opportunity to hurl abuses at others. This is the worst sin. Through prayer and contemplation on God, you should try to control the evil qualities in you.

First of all, control your vision and tongue. You incur a lot of sin because of evil vision and you are bound to face its consequences. When you make use of your senses for evil purposes, the children born to you will also be evil minded. So, see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. In olden times people used to take care that pregnant women do not see and hear anything bad. They used to narrate the sacred stories of the Lord to them, give them good food and convey only good piece of news. They did so because the elders knew if the mother had good feelings, then the children born to her also would have good minds. The sins committed by the parents will certainly affect their children too. You know this pretty well. When Subhadra was in the family way, one day Arjuna was describing to her the intricacies involved in entering the Padmavyuha (lotus maze: a military formation). He had described to her in detail how to enter the Padmavyuha, and when he was about to tell her how to get out of it, Krishna appeared on the scene and took Arjuna away, saying, "This is not the proper time to talk about these matters. It is not Subhadra but the child in her womb that has been listening to you all along." This was the reason Abhimanyu only knew to enter the Padmavyuha, and not how to get out of it. As a result, he was caught in the maze and, ultimately, was killed not knowing how to come out of it.

God is watching all that you do. You may think others do not know what you are up to. You may hoodwink others, but can you ever hoodwink God? He knows everything. So always do good. All your sins will be atoned when you make proper use of your senses. The hand has five fingers. When you slap with all the five fingers, how hard is the blow? But never beat or attack people. If you really want to do that, slap him with your little finger. How does it matter if you beat with five fingers or one finger. Ultimately you will have beaten. When you become angry, you lose all power of discrimination and behave in an inhuman manner. So whenever you are angry, leave the place immediately. It is better to be away from sin rather than commit sin and repent later.

I want to tell you one more thing. You may feel pained by what I am going to tell you now, but I am happy about it. From today onwards, I am not going to grant permission to do padanamaskar (salutation to the feet by touching the feet) to anybody because I and you are one. God is present in all. Easwara sarva bhutanam... God is the indweller of all beings. Understand this truth. From today onwards, I have resolved not to allow Namaskar to anybody. You may do Namaskar to your parents as they and you are not aware of the truth that God is present in all. Since I know the truth I shall follow it. The same Atma is present in you, me and everybody else. So, no one needs to do Namaskar to anybody for that matter. If you still want to do Namaskar, do it mentally. Bring your palms together and say "Swami, I offer my ten senses to you." That is enough, you don’t need to touch my feet to do Namaskar.

Understand the truth that God is in you and act accordingly. You then become God. If somebody is allowed to do Namaskar, others feel they are not fortunate and become jealous. I am stopping this practice of allowing Namaskar only to see that such feelings of jealousy do not sprout in you. Wherever you are, offer your Namaskar to me mentally. That gives me happiness. I have told you this many times, but you have not put it to practice. Touching Swami’s feet and extolling Him are wrong practices.

From this Guru Poornima, develop sacred feelings and enjoy supreme peace and Bliss. Every man aspires to attain Ananda. How can Ananda? There are five sheaths in man - Annamayakosa (food sheath), Pranamayakosa (life sheath), Manomayakosa (mental sheath), Vijnanamayakosa (wisdom sheath), and Anandamayakosa (bliss sheath). Make every effort to reach Vijanamayakosa. Only then can you attain Anandamayakosa. Lead a happy and blissful life and share your happiness with others. You do not know how great this Ananda is. Just as a small piece of wood becomes fire when it comes into contact with fire, so also when you are close to me mentally, you will become Divine. Your mind will be illumined and will dispel the darkness of ignorance within you.