Lord Dattatreya Reveals a Powerful Secret

We are seeing about the avatara of Lord Ganesha called Vakratunda.

There was an asura called Matsarasura. He got a boon from Mahadeva that he would become the emperor of the universe. But then, he conquered all worlds, including Kailasa, and held captive Mahadeva himself, along with all the other Devas, Brahma, Sri Hari, and Indra. Indra was Matsarasura's father.

Then, after some time, he released them all, and they returned to Kailasa. Matsarasura called himself God and forced everyone on earth to worship him. He stopped all other pujas and yajnas. The Devas got really worried about how to destroy him. He would lead the world to destruction.

At that time, Lord Dattatreya came to Kailasa. Dattatreya is the highest of yogis, Parabrahma in a body. He was beyond all thoughts of you and me, yours and mine. Fearless, he would roam around as he wanted. He was not bothered about what he was wearing. He could go wherever he wanted, even walk into Kailasa whenever he pleased. He was fearless, but everyone feared him.

When Dattatreya walked into Kailasa, all Devas paid respects to him and worshipped his feet. After that, Lord Shiva started speaking to him. Dattatreya was a devotee of Lord Ganesha.

'We know that you have relinquished all dwandwa bhava, the thoughts of you and me, yours and mine. But still, you are very kind at heart. Whenever you see someone suffering, your heart melts. We know that you are a great devotee of Lord Ganesha, to the extent that we all look at you as Lord Ganesha himself.

We are all in great trouble. Matsara has conquered us all, rendered us powerless. We are all roaming about like vagabonds. He has stopped yajnas. We don’t even have anything to eat or drink because of that. It is because of some punya that we have done in the past that you have come here today. Please tell us how to get out of this. How to eliminate Matsarasura?'

Lord Dattatreya looked towards the Devas with kindness. He told Lord Shiva, 'You are the Lord of the universe. You control everything. But do you know what has happened? Matsara has occupied your heart. You are constantly thinking about him now. He has filled your heart, mind, and thoughts. This is why he is able to control even you. There is only one way to get out of this situation.

First, you have to remove him from your heart, your mind, your thoughts. Only then will you be able to tackle him physically. The more he occupies your mind, the more powerful he will become. First, remove him from your heart, mind, and thoughts.

It is not easy to do that. Take the help of Lord Ganesha. Do sadhana of the Ekakshara mantra of Lord Ganesha.

When you do that, Lord Ganesha will come and occupy your heart, mind, and thoughts. He will throw out Matsara from within you. Then tackling him outside will be easy. So, start worshipping Lord Ganesha.'

See what a great principle is revealed. When you are in some kind of trouble, that keeps on occupying your mind. You keep on thinking about it. Those negative thoughts keep on growing within you. What is inside you is what is outside you as your world, your experiences.

If you are peaceful inside, you will also see peace outside. If you are agitated inside, then you will see agitation outside as well. So, the first task is to remove negative thoughts from the mind. Stop thinking about what is troubling you.

This is not so easy. Negative thoughts are very powerful. They keep on coming back to you. The method is to replace negative thoughts with divine thoughts. Do some sadhana. Listen to some divine stories. Don’t go in search of knowledge now—that requires a lot of effort. You are already in trouble. Your mind is full of negative thoughts. If you take up jnana marga, you will only get confused. Jnana marga is for when your mind is stable and peaceful.

The best solution is to do some kind of sadhana. If nothing else is possible, listen to devotional songs. That is nada sadhana. Go to temples. Do puja the conventional way. This is the only way to push negative thoughts out of your mind. And when you achieve that, you will realize that the trouble outside is also gone.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi