There was a morning Sadhana Programme from 6-6.25am which attracted 502 views. The programme comprised Ganga Arati and a short invocation.
In the evening, 663 devotees participated. Our reading was taken from the book, Sivananda’s Gospel of Divine Life, which records the Master’s day-to-day conversations with his monastic and householder disciples. It was compiled and edited by Pujya Swami Sahajananda. In the section on “Encouragement”, the Master encourages an advocate to continue chanting the Gayatri Mantra despite the fact that he had completed “Six Purascharanas” (600 000 repetitions). “Six Purascharanas is a great achievement indeed. Even now, you should go on repeating the Gayatri Mantra. You should not give it up till you achieve the goal of God-realisation,” said the Master. We in Divine Life Society of S.A. would do well to heed this advice. Pujya Swamiji reinforced the value of chanting the Divine Name continuously in the 58 glorious years that he was Spiritual Head of the Society.
It was pleasing to hear the melodious voices of our singers, all well blended together, making their offerings in the form of Bhajans and Kirtans. It enhanced the quality of the Satsang. A refreshing inclusion in the programme was the singing of the spiritually charged, melodious voice of Pujya Swamiji. Indeed, a great boon for devotees from various parts of the globe to hear the voice of “a divine being on earth” as the Master put it earlier in this report. The spiritual energy radiating from Pujya Swamiji would have had a healing effect.
The second boon was Pujya Swamiji’s pre-recorded audio message. In this ex temporare message he said, “Go home today and see what the Master has given you and call for his protection. In the last few months, we are listening to many stories from our devotees of how Gurudev protects. We have recorded a number of them. They are so marvellous and thrilling. Only God can protect us today. We must learn to call, call and call. That is the new Yoga, the calling Yoga.
“I went a few days ago to see one of my friends in Reservoir Hills. He used to work in our press about 15 years ago. He said that he had lost about R20,000.00. Someone burgled his place. And then he lost another R4,000.00 right in West Street. They put a knife at his throat. He couldn’t pull out the revolver that was in his socks. What can man do! If your R4,000.00 has to go, it will go, even if you have the revolver in your hand, it will go. Even if you pull the trigger, it won’t go off. So, what can man do when God controls the whole Universe. You all think, ‘I am looking after my child, without me my child cannot live,’ etc., etc. So that gave me a lot of food for thought. It confirmed in my mind that God controls the whole Universe. And Gurudev can do whatever he wants. I believe that we should ask God for whatever we want. But we should try to get from the Guru, the most precious knowledge.
“I want to offer my gratitude to all our devotees who are running the different sections. All the Ashram activities are running very smoothly. Our householder devotees are playing a magnificent part. We have a very fine set of devotees. Maybe the best in the country. But we must remember now ‒ Have we gone forward? Have we progressed? Have we developed faith in God? Have we increased our faith? Have we become more efficient?”
In concluding this report, we are again reminded of Sri Gurudev’s words when he said that his mission may fail elsewhere, but not in South Africa. Sri Gurudev referred to Pujya Swamiji as the “Chota Guru of South Africa”. We thank Sri Gurudev for giving us Pujya Swamiji, and also thank Pujya Swamiji eternally for his sterling work and profound legacy that he left behind in South Africa and beyond.
In our next online audio stream Satsang, we will observe the Mahasamadhi Day of our Divine Master, Sri Swami Sivananda on 14 July. The online morning Sadhana session will be from 6 to 6.25am. In the evening, Ganga Arati will commence at 5.30pm followed by Satsang. Follow this link to join the WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CJcU8Vo1Wsp0enO1IlR1jy
