Satsang at Panchamukhi Vinayagar Temple, Tiruvannamalai on 2nd December, 2009
“Yesterday, during the lighting of the Bharani Deepam, Arunachala established us and the thousands of seekers who were present with us in total Ananda or Bliss. All of us understood that enjoying this bliss every moment of our lives is our spiritual birthright. We also realised that chanting ‘Om’ which is the seed syllable of our Soul, activates and brings out the 72,000 divine powers which are dormant within us. Today Arunachala wants to take us further on our inward journey.
“The whole essence of Arunachala can be summed up in two words – ‘shweta’ and ‘shubhra’. The meaning of ‘shweta’ in Sanskrit is ‘white’. However, here it not only means white, it also means ‘extremely pure’. That which is shweta cannot attain a greater degree of purity because it is already the purest of the pure. Arunachala is the supreme effulgence of purity who emits only vibrations of purity and nothing else. To a Soul who is overflowing with devotion, Arunachala appears as the whitest of white light. Like the Sun, He is always infinitely bright and radiant.
“While ‘shubhra’ also means ‘pristine purity’, it denotes the immeasurable value and power that emerge from this kind of purity as well. Arunachala is the most priceless even amongst the priceless. If we pile up 10 billion priceless Kohinoor diamonds in a scintillating heap, all of them put together cannot match the value of one tiny particle of dust on Arunachala. Such is the value of Arunachala who manifested Himself to remove our ignorance! There are many deities which manifest themselves divinely through their own Supreme Will, but they usually choose an upasaka or worshipper to enshrine and worship them. However, Arunachala has no upasaka, but He has called many, many Siddhas or Enlightened Beings and has given them His priceless power. They have received the knowledge of enlightenment from Him. In spite of this jnana or knowledge overflowing from them, they humbly pray – “O Arunachala, it requires great inner subtlety to understand You. Just as You are the giver of knowledge, You are also the giver of this subtlety. We pray to You with great reverence to empower us with the subtlety that is needed to comprehend You completely.”
“The call of Arunachala is so compelling and irresistible that nobody can resist it – be it a Siddha, Seer, Sage or an ordinary human being. While we are walking, if we step on an ants’ nest by mistake, the ants begin to bite us. Then what do we do? We immediately stop whatever we are doing till we remove the biting ants. Likewise, when Arunachala touches our hearts, we drop everything and come running to Him. When we come here in response to His call, He operates at different levels and in different stages within us. Even His softest touch brings forth a spurt of joy from our hearts and many such small springs of joy fuse together to generate a gushing fount of perennial bliss. Once we experience this, as we did yesterday, we will stop all worldly talk and gossip and immerse ourselves in bhajans and God-sip. What is God-sip? It is silent chanting and meditation. Arunachala loves the silent japa or chanting of His name – ‘Arunachala Shiva’ or ‘Om Namo Arunachalaya’. He also loves it when we focus our minds upon Him in deep meditation. Arunachala loves the attitude of solitude. Solitude is not external aloofness or aloneness, but complete internal silence. That is why the Sages and Seers called japa ‘the sound of silence’. Once we get used to this nectar of God-sip, we will never be content with anything else.
“Though our hearts are beating constantly, we need a stethoscope to hear this sound. So also, though the sound of ‘Om’ is always reverberating in the Cosmos, we will be able to hear it constantly in our hearts only when our devotion for Arunachala becomes very intense. If we hold an empty glass next to the ear, we hear a faint hum. That is the sound of ‘Mm’ or the last part of the Cosmic Syllable ‘Om’ that is even now making the Universe expand constantly. This sacred sound contains the element of akasha or ether within itself. As most of us are aware, the seed syllable ‘Om’ is actually a combination of three vowels – ‘Aa’, ‘Uu’ and ‘Mm’. The Himalayan Sages always chant ‘Om’ as ‘Aum’.
“How and why is ‘Aum’ chanted? There is a particular method we should all follow when we chant ‘Om’ as ‘Aum’. The sound ‘Aa’ should begin deep inside the belly in the region of the nabhi or umbilicus. The ‘Aa’ should then merge into ‘Uu’ and the ‘Uu’ into ‘Mm’ with the pitch and volume rising progressively. Listen to the chanting of Aum by Pujya Guruji below...........
‘Aum’ shatters our tamas or inertia and keeps us wide awake while we chant or meditate. Otherwise, whenever we begin to chant, the mind relaxes and we tend to become drowsy or fall asleep after sometime. The whole point of spirituality is to totally transcend inertia so that we are fully aware and awake at all times. Why is there so much tamas or inertia in us at present? We are taking too much food for the body and too little food for the Soul. When we over feed the body and starve the Soul by neglecting our spiritual sadhana, we go on increasing the inertia within us. ‘Aum’ feeds the Soul and re-activates it. It also charges our breath completely. This is very crucial for our well being because our entire power comes from our breath. So, if we want to bring out all the power latent in us and lead long, healthy, joyous and successful lives, we should all chant ‘Om’ as ‘Aum’ from today.
“Aum connects us to our Soul. As we chant it regularly and strengthen this connectivity, our minds become extremely subtle and we attain the subtleness that is required to understand Arunachala. For instance, all of us have many electronic or electrical gadgets at home. Most of them have at least one crucial, subtle micro connection which has been soldered. We can view this joint through a powerful magnifying lens. As long as this soldering is intact in all the joints, the gadget functions perfectly. When this soldering connection breaks, the gadget breaks down. Likewise, ‘Aum’ is the sacred syllable that re-solders us to Arunachala. Always remaining connected to our Soul is the purpose of Spirituality which is the science of vibrational frequencies. When we want to tune in to a particular radio station, we select the appropriate frequency on our radio. So also, if we want to tune in to Arunachala, our Soul should vibrate at the right frequency. This happens automatically when we chant ‘Aum’. ‘Aum’ is a universal connector. We get connectivity on a mobile phone only when we insert the SIM card. Likewise, ‘Aum’ is the spiritual SIM card that we should all use to obtain complete connectivity with Arunachala.
“All of you have been given so much divine power when you were created. Unfortunately you are not aware of your own worth. All of you are eligible for enlightenment and I want all of you to be enlightened. So, let us all tune in to the vibrations of Arunachala by chanting ‘Aum’ together. Sit straight. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath… Aa…uu…mm………… Aa…uu…mm…………Aa…uu…mm….” Listen to the chanting of Aum by Pujya Guruji below...........
