Speech by Mahant Shri Swami Vishveshwarananda Saraswati,
President Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas,
on the occasion of Krishna-Janmashtami, on 30th August 2021

Hari OM. Hari OM Lord Krishna!
My heartfelt Adorations to all of You!

You see, we prayed very much to Lord Krishna and said: "There is lot of rain going on, please help and protect us!" And Lord Krishna was very kind enough, He was listening to us and actually only a small drop has come and nothing more. So, we are very grateful to Lord Krishna, that He has come and saved us from the rain. At least up to now no rain is there and the function could be done so beautifully.

First of all, Dear Friends, let me give Thanks, my heartfelt Thanks, specially to our highly dedicated Chief-Priest and our Priests, our Suresh, Sanjay, Mukesh. They have made, with all other Priests together, a wonderful Altar here. They have made Bhajan, Kirtan and also there I felt, Lord Krishna was in the middle over there. They have done a very wonderful job. From morning early, they have started to make all this preparation. I am very thankful to all of them! And thankful I am also to Soma Ji. She has switched over from Bharatanatyam to North Indian Dance, a Dance for Lord Krishna, and I felt she has done an extremely wonderful job here and sometimes I thought, if we could open our third eyes, we could see how Lord Krishna is dancing with her together. Wonderful! Very well-done, Soma Ji!

Dear Friends, we read Bhagawad-Gita, we speak of Lord Krishna, we go to Temples, that's all well and good. But have we ever thought of the fact, what a tremendous suffering it is for an Avatara to come to this earth, from the Timeless enter into the time? Very difficult... We cannot imagine what kind of sacrifice a Guru is taking on His shoulders to be here and to help to release us. It is Lord Krishna, it is Lord Rama, Guru Nanak, name anyone, it is Paramahamsa Omkarananda. They all have come. They all have taken a terrific pain, because to go in such a life is very very difficult. To go from the Timeless into the time - very difficult...

Now you see, let us say any one, let's say You ask a dog: "Would you like to become a human being?" He will say: "Never! I am so happy here. I can run around, I am free, I like anything here!" See, he lives in this consciousness as a dog. Now, we human individuals, we are living in this human consciousness and feel: "Oh fine, we can have breakfast, we can eat, we can drive car and all these things here!" But we are all in the time, and that holds us completely up. Why should we not go for Supreme Realisation? Once we realise our Real Self, we experience Oneness with everything, the life of a dog, the life of an ant, the life of a human individual, the life of a Celestial, the life of a Lord.

Lord Krishna has come to sacrifice everything, to help all of us for Realisation, a Realisation of the Truth. These great Saints, Sages and Wise Men, they have suffered terrifically. They were on the battlefield. Rama was sent to the forest. It is not easy, fourteen years forest! Can we go just for two days ino the forest and search for food and everything? Very difficult. All these people have taken up their pain, their struggle and everything for all of us. They have come to this life as a human being to tell you: "Look here, you have to do this here!" We have to follow and we shall never avoid this!

We are bound to follow the way of any of these great Saints, who have come as an Avatara, if we are looking for Realisation. But if we are being simply caught up in this play, in this matter of time, in all these temptations, in all these difficulties, in all these attachments, in all these desires and all these things, if we are caught up in them, we are blind and we can never see the real Beauty of the Truth.

Friends, Lord Krishna also has come. How he has explained to Arjuna everything! But Arjuna had a great doubt. He was not even willing to fight in the nick of the moment, till Lord Krishna has shown him His real Being. When Lord Krishna gave him that moment, where he could see him as Universal Being, where he could feel, for a fraction of a moment, the Timeless, then he understood, and then he started acting with full force, and he was very very successful.

Dear Friends, the whole water of the ocean can never sink down a ship, unless and until the water goes into the ship. When we are not careful, when we open ourselves for all this dangerous pleasure, by which we are being surrounded here, then our own ship can sink. So, to avoid our own ship from sinking, we must keep hold on these Saints, on these Sages, on these Wise Men, who have taken terrific pain on Their shoulders. We are bound to follow them! This is the Truth and will remain the Truth here, and it will go on like this, till the last piece of a halm has achieved supreme Realisation!

Dear Friends, life should not be taken so easy. Life is a serious matter, because time is counting. One second lost, you can no more get it back, it has gone. So, you have to start working very hard. Lord Krishna has given us - to make it short - a wonderful Sadhana. He Himself has said, that this is the best Sadhana: "See Me in each and everything, and you will become Me!"

Try, my Friends! Try to see not Mr. XYZ! Try to see Lord Krishna! It is true, it sounds very very easy, but is highly complicated to do it! But we must work on us, if we want to achieve it, if we want to find true Happiness, if we want to come nearer to the Eternity, nearer to the Timeless, where no time counts, no watch is going on. It is an Eternity! If we want to achieve It, then we have to work very hard.

I am very thankful to my Gurudev Paramahamsa Omkarananda, who has made all these Temples and everything so wonderfully, who has given a chance to build up beautiful Schools in the Hills. We are grateful to Him; He has taken pain on His shoulders, so that we all can grow.

Adoration to Him again and again. Thank you very much.
Swami Omkarananda Maharaj ki Jay!

ॐ