GANDHINAGAR MAHADHYAN 6TH MAY 2012

This was a totally unplanned visit which went off like Pujya Gurudev had actually called us – it went so smoothly and the incidents - small small incidents which occurred were just out of this world! In fact I had declined a facebook invite from the Samarpan Meditation group. Here is the story of how this transpired. I had another engagement at Pune which got cancelled at the last minute, which is on Thursday afternoon, 3rd May to be precise. I then called Shri Ramnath Kamath and asked him if he was willing to come as I planned to drive down from Mumbai, if I got the company. He said he will confirm within an hour. He had to visit Surat on office work from Monday, which got confirmed, so he decided to combine his Mahadhyan with office, so instead of leaving on Sunday for Surat, he decided to leave home on Saturday! I then called Deepak Tandon, he said he cannot make it but I should call Shri Ramesh Ganiga and ask if he would join. He said yes on the spot. Then I called Dr. Ishnath Singh who also confirmed and so did Shri Pravin Purav. We had a good team of five. I told Ramnath to use his contacts to book a hotel in Gandhinagar, which he proceeded to do. On Friday we got the hotel booking confirmation. On Saturday morning, I left home ten minutes behind my scheduled departure time of 6am after taking my mothers’ blessings. I called Pravin and he said he was walking along the street to the pick-up point and if if I take a slight detour I could pick him up instead of waiting at Sai Motors. I picked him at 6.25 or so and then called Dr. Ishnath and then Ramesh to say that we had left Andheri and they should also leave. In the meanwhile I called Ramnath and he said that he had already left and would meet us at Fountain. We reached the next pick-up point at Thakur village and we had just a couple of minutes of wait and Ramesh turned up at around 6.35am. By 6.45am we had picked up Ramnath who was already waiting at Fountain. As we reached Vasai, we saw Dr. Ishnath waving to us at around 7.05am and as he got in he said it is such divine timing as he had just reached the spot when he saw the car coming! He got into the car and we had a gala time sharing experiences and pulling each others’ legs. We halted at Kamath’s for breakfast at around 8.15am and left there at 8.45am with Ramnath taking the wheel. He enjoyed driving the XUV making full use of its features. With such great characters in the car we had an almost non-stop laughing session with tears streaming down and all of us holding our stomach with the laughing session going on full steam. Ramnath mentioned that Swamiji had said that good laughter also helps in clearing the aura. We reached Ahmedabad at around 2.30pm and had lunch there. We left for the Hotel Pathik Ashram using the car’s onboard GPS to track it down. When we reached the hotel around 3.45am, we realised to our utter surprise that the hotel was just 5 minutes walk from the ground where the Mahadhyan was to be held. This hotel was booked by Ramnaths cousin in sector 11 at the last minute! Ahmedabad was very hot and humid, and when we checked in the receptionist said that only one non-AC room was booked and not two as we had thought. I told the receptionist that it is not possible – it has to be two rooms. In the meanwhile Ramnath parked the car and came to the reception and said that his cousin had spoken to the manager. I told the receptionist that we had asked for two AC rooms, whereupon she said ‘ok’ – AC rooms were available! The manager then came and confirmed that he had taken the call and had booked two AC rooms at a discounted rate which was offered. We carried our bags up to the rooms and rested for an hour or so as we had planned to go to Akshardham in the evening. We had planned to reach Akshardham for the sound, light laser show at 7.30pm, but we reached only at 7.15pm so we decided to see the second show at 8.30pm. We booked the tickets and went in to see the temple – it was quite hot outside, but the moment we entered the temple sanctorum, the energy changed, it was markedly cooler. We went into the temple and paid obeisance to the golden idol of Shri Swaminarayan and then we went around the inside of the temple where in each corner an idol of each of the successors of Lord Swaminarayan were placed. As we walked past the back of the main idol, I felt a whiff of energy and turned back calling Dr. Ishnath and Ramesh who were close to feel the energy. With eyes closed we soaked in the energy as the vibrations coming were nice and cold. We then left the temple complex and had dinner and then left for the laser show. The laser show was awesome, something which should not be missed by anyone wanting to visit Akshardham in Gandhinagar. On a mystic full-moon night, where the moon shone more brightly than normal as it was closest to earth – it’s perigee – it is also called supermoon on this day and is great for spiritual progress and experience. We sat on the topmost bench of the amphitheatre taking a central view. The laser show was based on the story of Rishi Uddlaka and his son Natchiketa. The show was phenomenal with lots of Samarpan sadhaks present at the show. The end when Yamadoot shows his satvik avatar to Natchiketa and tells him that to obtain Brahmavidya he should go back to earth and find a living Guru….we all clapped loudly as we felt we were truly blessed to have the proximity of a living Satguru in our lives. The laser show ended with the spectacular show of the Kundalini shakti rising. There was great energy in the show with the sahasrar activated and the kundlini shakti jumping up and down every time the flames went up. It was beautiful…something one should definitely see. We left Akshardham at around 9.45 and retired for the night, as we had to wake up at 3am to get ready for the Mahadhyan. Next morning at 3am, I woke up and got ready as we had planned to leave by 4.15am to reach in time. I woke Ramnath up, he too got ready. I carried the meditation cushion with me as we would have to sit on the ground for two hours. The others had in the meanwhile got ready. We walked down and took an early morning walk to the ground. The roads were already crowded with the large number of people coming for the event. As we walked briskly towards the ground, we turned into the first entrance, which we were told was the VIP entrance, we said sorry and started walking to the end of the ground from where the general public was entering. We had covered about half the distance when Pravin came running after us saying that he had got 5 VIP passes which were handed over to him by a sadhak. Back we went to the entry from where we were first refused! We entered and were about to sit on about 5 rows behind when a volunteer told us to move ahead, we went to the end and got to sit on the first row, and that too bang opposite a giant screen which was put up for video display. This was as if Pujya Gurudev had carried us in his arms and made us come and sit right in front of Him – we all thought this was unplanned but we all got the feeling that this was all His doing – as they say “bulawa aaya tha!” in Hindi. I realised that there is no point in going prepared thinking about comfort as Pujya Gurudev made us sit in the VIP section which already had cotton mattresses laid out, hence my meditation cushion did not make any difference at all!! We sat down at about 4.40am prostrated to the subtle energy and I closed my eyes and sat down, after about fifteen minutes I felt a subtle energy and a cooling of the atmosphere and realised that Pujya Gurudev was about to enter the ground. Just as this thought came to my mind the conch played announcing the arrival of Pujya Gurudev. There was tremendous energy and the body had gone comfortably cold as we recited the GuruAvahan mantra with Shri Rambhai . As we said “Gurur Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo, Maheshwara….” I felt my crown chakra activated and a subtle cool energy coming and sitting on the right hemisphere of my head. As Pujya Gurudev started his discourse, I sort of went into a trance. During his discourse he mentioned that he had recently been to Akshardham and that there was a black box behind Lord Swaminarayan’s idol which contained the ashes of a Saint which had tremendous energy. We got the answer from Pujya Gurudev as to the source of the energy which had drawn us back the previous evening! At exactly 6.30am Pujya Gurudev started the meditation session with the Guru Avahan mantra. I had my eyes shut soaking in the energy shower, there was a different aroma which I was getting, could not place my finger on it, but it was not something I had experienced before. I could feel my heart chakra spinning along with my crown chakra. It was all in all an unbelievable experience. The meditation ended at 6.45am with us saying a prayer along with Pujya Gurudev for the welfare of Gandhinagar and Gujarat. I prostrated as Pujya Gurudev left thanking his subtle body for the Grace showered on us on this day. In my estimate there were 25-30000 people who attended the Mahadhyan. There was great silence and discipline, a very well organized event, with the large projector screen the icing on the cake which should be followed for all the other Mahadhyans also. We subsequently left the ground after meeting a lot of sadhaks and friends. We had breakfast at the hotel, and then left for Mumbai at 9.30am. We reached Surat at 2.15pm where we had lunch and Ramnath got off to leave for his Surat office. The previous night I had called home and said that I should reach by 6.30pm. We left Surat at around 3.20pm and drove the 300km non-stop. I reached home exactly at 6.30pm after dropping everyone on the way back. This was a truly memorable trip as Pujya Gurudev had literally called us and carried us in his arms and taken us to the ground. Thank you Pujya Gurudev and all the Guru Energies for your infinite Grace…..Jai Baba Swami.