Jaya Guru Datta!
His Holiness Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, Avadhoota Datta Peetham, gifted the world with five discourses in English during the consecration ceremonies of the 85-foot Karya Siddhi Hanuman murti at Sri Dattatreya Yoga Centre in Carapichaima, Trinidad & Tobago W.I. on June 5 - 9, 2003.
Here’s a little background on how this series of videos came into existence.
It was early 2003. My wife and I sold our house and embarked on what was to become a one-year pilgrimage. First on the list was Trinidad, where the 85-foot Hanuman murti was under construction. I had a desire to take video of the final leg of construction. Sri Swamiji told us to come in early March-three months before consecration-and were blessed to be able to stay on the ashram grounds. I did take a great deal of footage of the construction, and then when Sri Swamiji arrived, I wanted to capture every public moment of Him.
I was a newbie to videography, so much of my learning was through experimentation. The Sony TRV-50 I purchased recorded on MiniDV tapes that had the option for either 60 or 90 minutes of video per tape. I concluded I could get more footage per tape using the 90-minute setting, so that’s what I did. I was not aware that the quality of the recording would suffer as a result of this choice. Remember this was 2003. 640 x 480 NTSC. No High Definition video.
In March of 2004, after six months living at the SGS Ashrama in Mysore, we returned to the States. Thanks to Sri H.V. Prasad and Sri H.V. Pramod, I was able to start editing using Final Cut Pro. This was my first large editing project, and it was a huge learning curve. I knew I wanted to add the lyrics to the many bhajans Sri Swamiji sang. Back then, there were no online bhajan lyrics to copy and paste. I had to find them and type them all by hand. I received great support from my friends, brothers Vamshi Krishna Ghanapathi and Chandra Sekhar Chaganti for lyrics issues and Bilva Osmer for audio.
In 2006, I was able to present this historic collection to Sri Swamiji in Trinidad. I asked Him if I could upload the Life and Mission videos to my newly launched KZread channel, @hanuman108. I was told that the quality of the video was not good enough for the narration portion of the videos, but I was granted permission to upload the wonderful bhajans to my channel.
Fast forward to 2023. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, an app for upgrading old footage to High Definition became available. I purchased this app and applied it to all the Life and Mission videos. The quality was greatly enhanced. I presented old-to-new comparison videos to Sri Swamiji, again asking for permission to make this incredible story public. He said yes!
I am elated to share the only footage of that historic occasion where Sri Swamiji enthralled us for five days with stories in English of our beloved Lord Hanuman.
Koti Pranams at my Datta Sadguru’s Padma Padas!
Om Namo Hanumate Namaha!
Sri Rāma Jaya Rāma Jaya SiyaRāma!
00:00:00 - Marker
00:00:44 - Day 1
00:01:01 - Swamiji sings "pranava svarupam" Bhajan ID 25
00:04:45 - Swamiji sings "śrī hanumān jai hanumān" Bhajan ID 1127
00:10:53 - Hanuman story begins
00:13:50 - Swami Manasa Datta speaks
00:17:27 - H.V. Prasad speaks about Life & Mission Story
00:24:33 - Let us begin the story of Hanuman
00:25:55 - Swamiji sings "taddhiṁ śaṅkara" Bhajan ID 1276
00:31:52 - H.V. Prasad speaks about Lord Shiva
00:38:45 - Swamiji sings “hari hari hari hari haridēvā” Bhajan ID 1957
00:43:09 - H.V. Prasad tells about Vishnu and Shiva
00:46:48 - Swamiji sings “namaḥ pārvatī patayē” Bhajan ID 1185
00:52:23 - H.V. Prasad speaks about the Devatas approaching Lord Brahma
00:54:37 - Sri Swamiji speaks about the origin of Hanuman
01:02:18 - Swamiji sings “śambhō mahādēva” Bhajan ID 1316
01:04:47 - Prasad speaks about Kashyapa
01:07:11 - Kesari story begins
01:08:39 - Sadya takes birth as Anjana
01:10:11 - Kesari only can kill Shambasadhana demon
01:10:26 - Narada arrives
01:13:00 - Ahalya story begins
01:15:02 - Surya and Indra desire Ahalya
01:16:48 - Ahalya becomes pregnant with Vali by Indra and Sugriva by Surya
01:17:01 - Appearance of Vali and Sugriva
01:23:34 - Anjana Devi becomes a vanara
01:27:51 - Anjana Devi gives birth to Hanuman on this star date
01:28:05 - Sri Swamiji sings “vaiśakhe māsi kṛiṣṇāyāṃ” no Bhajan ID
01:31:52 - Sri Swamiji explains about the astrology of Hanuman’s birth
01:33:19 - Sri Swamiji sings “idiga huttida kapivira” no Bhajan ID
01:42:01 - H.V. Prasad give concluding remarks
01:43:23 - Kayena Vacha