In the pre-recorded audio message, Pujya Swamiji spoke at length on the path of self-surrender. "Our devotion goes to the Guru first because it is the Guru who leads us to God. There is a free relationship between the Guru and disciple. The Guru does not sit on a pedestal. You can talk to him, you can question him, you can even argue with him. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 'By questioning you get knowledge'. To make a million rand, to go to the moon is nothing, but to get God-realisation, the price must be paid. Imagine being the whole universe, your soul expands, it is a stupendous experience. The mind stands aghast even when a little bit of the power enters. As you go on in your spiritual practices, your vision expands. Then the whole universe seems to you as a form of the Guru. Many people limit the Guru to a single body. Guru is all-pervading. So, we revere all Gurus and bow to them but we follow one." Pujya Swamiji concluded with this powerful statement, "We have been very fortunate that in our lifetime we had a Mahapurusha like Gurudev. And, we all have to agree that in the whole country, no other saint has given to South Africa what Swami Sivananda has given."
On this day, we released our latest publication, Ramayana for Children. This publication is taken from Yoga Lessons for Children and is very special to us as Lord Rama was Pujya Swamiji's Ishta Devata and consequently the majority of DLS devotees are also Ram Bhaktas. The most impressionable period of a person's life is the tender age of childhood when strong spiritual thoughts can be imprinted on the mind of the child. It is envisaged that parents will read this inspiring publication to their Spiritual Darlings, especially at bed time. When the child is asleep, the subconscious mind will actively consolidate all the powerful thoughts from this unique publication and lay the foundation for a stable spiritual life in the years to come. Children are the custodians of the future and as explained by Sri Gurudev and Pujya Swamiji, if we carefully monitor their progress from the very beginning, it will reap handsome dividends. In this publication, we have aptly included various beautiful multi-colour hand drawn pictures on important aspects of this epic. These were artistically produced by one of our talented DLS youth. We express our deep gratitude to him and to all who contributed to this book for their creativity and labour of love.
Our Spiritual Darlings from Verulam stole the hearts of devotees with their confident, sweet and innocent presentation of "Pujya Swamiji Says". Their presentation was interspersed with song & music as they expressed some of the most profound thoughts injected with some humour:
• Wealth is not always the cause of happiness and poverty is not the main cause of suffering.
• If I win, I shall be happy, if I lose, I shall also be happy.
• If you have God at your side, you will not have any problems.
• A courageous person is always cool and calm.
• Moan, groan and complain, but always repeat God's Name.
• Our ladies have a reserve tank of crocodile tears.
The climax of their presentation was the Birthday Song to Pujya Swamiji. They succeeded in getting the congregation to join them in singing Happy Birthday to Pujya Swamiji. Well done, Spiritual Darlings of Verulam.
