The tremendous trust in the power of Integrity
Many times, people ask Me, "If I just say I am complete, how can I be complete?" You can, because you are nothing but the bunch of words you utter consciously or unconsciously to yourself or to others. Unfortunately, 99.99% of your words are unconsciously uttered. That is where the problem starts. So, many times you don't recognize the power of the words you utter, especially towards yourself. You should have tremendous trust over the power of your words, over the power of your integrity. You always feel, "I am integrated, but I still need to evolve".
If you declare completion now, you are complete. But if you say, "No! No! Now I am saying I am complete, but I am not complete." Then you have already decided that you don't want to be complete! Declare that you are complete! Roar like a lion and stand on completion! I tell you: you are nothing but the words you utter.
So understand, the first lesson you need to learn from this story is the ability to trust the power of your integrity. If you say, "I am free," you are free! If you say you are bound, you are bound! If you say you are a liar, you are a liar! If you say you are enriching, you are enriching! It is just you! If you utter the words, "I am efficient. I am powerful," you are that! If you utter the words, "No! I am powerless. I am inefficient," you are that!
The words you utter to yourself and to others is life! What a big relief! This can be good news for you if you start believing it. It can be great news for you if you start living it. It can be bad news for you if you start worrying about it.
The second truth you need to know is about the power of your authenticity. Even in the initial level, what you do might look like inauthenticity, but just stand by it; it will rise to the next level of authenticity. In this story, in the beginning, when I started feeding or planning to feed Ganesha, it was inauthentic. But, even if it was inauthentic, when you are authentic towards your inauthenticity, it will lead to authenticity!
The third important lesson you need to know: when you take responsibility, when you decide to become responsible, the whole cosmos simply listens to you, follows you! With responsibility, even if you sit in one corner, the very space changes the way the world responds towards you.
Vivekananda beautifully says, "In Bharat, even if we want wealth, we sit under a tree and create the space. It happens around us!" He told these words in the U.S., the country which teaches you that you have to work so hard to accumulate wealth, and that if you sit with yourself, you may accumulate peace, but not even a piece of bread!
I am under the Banyan tree at the Bengaluru Aadheenam on the day of Guru Peyarchi, when, as per Vedic Astrology, the planet Guru moves from one house to the next
What do you think I did in My life? I just sat under the banyan tree at Bidadi and created the space. See the city happening here! Do you know that when this land was donated, it was infested with snakes?! There was a snake farm here. Before donating this land to us, the owner moved the snake farm out. When he was welcoming Me to this land, he told Me, "Swamiji, we have moved almost all the snakes out. We had snakes earlier. But during the transition, snakes escaped, Swamiji!" Today, a city has happened! It took us time just to get a telephone connection! But now, anything I speak sitting here, people are listening, sitting all over the world! I just created the space! Now this place has become the model, the source, for multiple spiritual cities to happen all over the world! So, when you take responsibility, when you sit and create the space, and you are ready to sacrifice, the world will simply move based on your word! The world moves as you want!
The fourth truth you need to learn from this is: when Ganesha ate, I saw the tremendous joy, the inspiration to raise Myself to the next level, to enrich Myself and enrich others. It is not that after that, I kept quiet. I started creating a group of people who would go around and worship every Ganesha in the city and village.
The experience of Ganesha eating gave birth to Ganesha in Me. After that, I remember - wherever Ganesha was seen, I would see that he was literally happening in Me! In Tiruvannamalai, every street will have ten Ganeshas! In that one year, that habit, that pattern of worshipping Ganesha that got developed, was there in My life till I left Tiruvannamalai.
Even if I went to school, which was at 8:30 in the morning, I would have to start from home at seven o'clock itself. The school was only two kilometers from My house. My elder brother would drive Me on a cycle.
Only later on I discovered that because the 'right side - left side' separation was not there in Me, I could not ride a cycle. Especially on a bicycle, you need to feel a separation between the right and left sides of you, because you need to give separate signals and balance it.
Only if your left side is suppressed, you will get the balance between left side and right side. For all of you, the left side will be suppressed because of others constantly telling you, "Don't touch with your left hand. Don't eat with your left hand. Don't do with your left hand." The left side becoming suppressed is a very big reason for you becoming normal human beings. When you are born, you are God only. When the left side becomes suppressed, you become normal humans. One portion of your body becomes suppressed. For Me, that suppression never happened. I never allowed that conditioning. From then till now I will eat with both hands. I can write with both hands even now. If you see Me during programs, I will autograph with both hands! I will give energy darshan (energy transmission) with both hands. But because the right and left are not separated, there would not be balance in the body. I would not be able to tell between right and left sides. The whole body would be like a single organism. There would be no split of right and left inside the consciousness, so I will not be able to balance; I would not be able to ride a cycle.
Till the end, My elder brother drove Me to school. Even after he left school, he would still drop Me. And he would curse Me, because at every spot, even at corner houses, where for the sake of vaastu parihaara (remedy in Hindu system of architecture); or for warding off evil eyes, they would have placed a Ganesha deity, I would stop and worship! I would not leave even those Ganeshas! I would do all My shodashopachara puja (ritual of sixteen offerings), vandana (worship), namaskara (joining the palms in humble obeisance), and what not! I had My own protocol also - three times this, three times that – it was almost like ten minutes of akhada (physical exercise)!
For Me, it had become an experience. But this poor fellow, My elder brother…it was such a big torture for him! But he had to take Me to school every day! If he did not take Me, I had no problem, because I did not want to go to school anyway! But they wanted Me to go to school. See, the time it took for him to take Me to school, even that much time I would not spend in school itself! And the funny thing is, I would do the same thing on the way back also! Sometimes, if I was late, the school watchman would not even search for Me anywhere else. He would straightaway know that I would be doing this to every Ganesha!
From My house to the school, at least twenty-five Ganeshas were there. Without missing even once, try to do these three actions, three times each, twenty-five times - then you will understand! It is equivalent to doing akhada in twenty-five places! The Ganesha would be hiding in a small place, and I would stand in a corner so that I could see him! People would laugh seeing Me!
For almost a year, Ganesha was living with Me
So in every one of you, the Divine has to incarnate. Sometimes, even a powerful click, a concept clicking within you, makes this incarnation happen inside you. Sometimes, even the darshan of the Guru makes the incarnation happen in you. Whether by the darshan of the Guru, or by the words of the Guru, or by the nearness or presence of the Guru, or on your own; sometimes, with even just a book, or some strong suffering, or some separation, or feeling of insecurity, or some accident, or some disease… Even these strong actions in life can make the incarnation happen in you. But in some form, in some way, the incarnation has to happen in you.
I can tell you from My own experience how these incarnations happen. When devotees sit in front of Me with tremendous devotion or love, I can see very clearly, part of Me, without My instruction or command, just expands and extends to them so powerfully!
The vatavarana (ambience) matters!
Whatever is in you is awakened by the external happenings or information.
I have seen one of My friends… he was so interested in politics, that even at the age of eight, wherever political meetings happened, he would go and listen. Once the speaker left and the crowd dispersed, he would get onto the stage and give the same speech! He would scream in exactly the same way, "Soda! Soda!" (Usually, when the politicians spoke, they would ask for soda.)
We both had an agreement: he would help Me in My puja, I would assist him by giving him soda! I used to be his assistant when he gave his political discourses. When I did My puja, he would be My assistant, getting My flowers, making the sandalwood paste and all that. So, whatever is in you is awakened by the external happenings or information.
The western world kids are taught to live with Barbie dolls or cartoons that they see on television. Fortunately, God saved Me! I was born in a village in South Bharat. From a young age, I was living and practicing the presence of God. What I understood about Ganesha at the age of three, and what I understand about Ganesha now, is different. But that understanding at the age of three only has led Me to this understanding. If I was too busy with Mickey Mouse, Tom
and Jerry at the age of three, I would have been disillusioned at the age of thirteen that Tom and Jerry don't exist, but I would not have reached any higher understanding.
Because I started living with Ganesha at the age of three, even at the age of thirty-five I had a higher understanding of Ganesha, which has led Me to higher and higher planes of existence - ishta nishtha and leela dhyana - practicing the presence of God, living with God!