Jaya Guru Datta!
Om Namo Hanumate Namaha!
Day four....
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.
00:00:00 - Day 4
00:00:31 - Sri Swamiji sings “Palaya Gananatha” bhajan id #18
00:04:19 - Sri Swamiji continues Hanuman story
00:08:20 - Prasad begins narration of Hanuman crossing the ocean
00:14:42 - Sri Swamiji sings bhajan “rāmaṁ śyāmala mēgha kōmalaruciṁ” id #2059
00:20:02 - Prasad continues with Simhika story
00:22:01 - Sri Swamiji gives Ramayana Shloka “Yasya tvetani Chatvari”
00:24:12 - Prasad gives meaning to shloka “Yasya tvetani Chatvari”
00:32:21 - Sri Swamiji sings “vandāmahē vandāmahē” bhajan id #1435
00:33:55 - Sri Swamiji tells of Lankini Devi’s last words to Hanuman
00:34:15 - Valmiki Ramayana mantra for victory. Lankini’s praise of Hanuman
00:35:30 - Prasad continues with Hanuman in Lanka
00:45:13 - Sri Swamiji gives mantra “Namostu Rama Sa Lakshmana” id #797
00:48:10 - Sri Swamiji sings”Krishnam Vishnum Sridharam” bhajan id #798
00:50:02 - Prasad tells meaning of “Namostu Ramaya Sa Lakshmana”
00:52:39 - Hanuman finds Sita
00:53:19 - Valmiki tells of Hanuman finding Sita
00:57:50 - Sri Swamiji sings “batabata sēyaṁ tanvaṅgī” bhajan id #2065
01:04:41 - Prasad gives meaning of “batabata sēyaṁ tanvaṅgī”
01:12:33 - Hanuman sings “Nama Ramayana” to Sita Mata
01:17:26 - Hanuman suddenly stops singing the bhajan
01:25:53 - Sita Mata asks Hanuman to describe qualities of Sri Rama
01:26:27 - Sri Swamiji sings Hanuman’s praise of Sri Rama “jaya jaya pumsāṁ mōhana” bhajan id #891
01:36:53 - Sita Mata gives “Panchamukha Anjaneya” mantra as Hanuman reveals His vishvarupa
01:44:25 - Sri Swamiji sings “ān̄janēyā! pālaya” bhajan id # 1091
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!