Datta Maata 207: The eight flowers that grow in our body

What is a real flower? Many people worship God every day. Few people worship with loads and loads of flowers and behave as though there is no one superior to them in this world. They are only doing favour to the seller of the flowers. Even though worship with flowers is acceptable by the scriptures, in fact God does not expect the flowers that are plucked from the trees. Remember this! God accepts eight flowers that grow in the tree called body. Let us learn about those eight flowers.

The first one is "Ahimsa" (non violence). This word immediately triggers the sense of physical torture. But, hurting others' minds either in thoughts or words is also considered as violence. Not committing this violence is termed as non violence. This is the first flower that can be offered to God. The second flower is "Control of senses". One can achieve this by focussing mind on God. The different ways of attaining God easily include worship with focus, meditation, japa (repeated chanting) and Nāma sankīrthana. The third flower is "Compassion". One can attain this by looking at all the beings with a feeling of equality. By doing so, one can attain compassion. To practice this, one must possess broad mindedness. The fourth one is "Patience". In both worldly and spiritual fields, to achieve anything one must possess patience very essentially. You must observe this. The fifth flower is "Shanthi"(peace). People search for peace everywhere. However, they do not observe that it lies right within their minds. We can share peace with others if and only if we are peaceful. The sixth one is the flower of penance. This is classified as physical, mental and verbal. Many people sometimes consider penance as going to forest, closing the nostrils and doing japa. However, leading the worldly life that is devoid of any distractions of the mind, focussing the mind on God, speaking without hurting others, sticking to truth all the time, chanting the divine names - all these come under penance. This is known as verbal penance. The seventh one is the flower of meditation. It means to focus the mind on God. To attain such focus, the easiest ways are singing the divine glories and constant japa. That is why, Swamiji gives importance to Divya Nama Sankīrthana. Hence, Swamiji makes the devotees chant Nava Graha mantra and Datta mantra.
Om Aim Hrim Srīm Siva Rama Anagha Dattaya namaha. This mantra also is recited a lot by devotees. Finally, the last and eighth flower is the flower of "truth".Since God is in the form of truth, he likes this flower a lot. Each and every human must try to speak truth alone to the extent possible. Truth only is to be spoken, in fact! In few situations when there is some threat to life, it is said that one can tell a lie. One must not lie at all times. Lot of care must be taken. One might get good name temporarily but others bear the brunt. We need to be careful.

When we discuss about these eight flowers, the following sentence also is said, "Vishnōh prīthikaram bhavēt". This means that God will accept these eight flowers, out of love. All of you understood what the real flowers are. Let us offer them to our favourite deity, Mother Goddess, Shiva or at the lotus feet of Sadguru. Let us attain the Lord's grace.

While discussing this story, we remember a story from Swamiji's childhood. While Swamiji was in high school, the head master was Sita Ramayya. One day, suddenly, he caught the ears of Swamiji tightly and made HIM stand in front of the microphone. The head master was insisting Swamiji to speak something. HH did not understand what to speak. Then, Swamiji remembered about Bhagavatham, the eight flowers and spoke about it. This was the first lesson taught by Venkamma.

Jaya Guru Datta! Sri Guru Datta!