Mahashivratri 2012 - PP Gurudev's Discourse

My Salutations to all the pure souls gathered here at the Ashram on the holy occasion of Mahashivratri.

Today’s program has great importance because today is Monday which is a good day, secondly it is the conclusion of the Deep Meditation Anushthan and thirdly the Samarpan Meditation movement completes 18 years today. 18 years ago promotion of Samarpan Meditation had commenced. From my point of view the movement has matured, it has become an adult. The way in which parents have expectations of their children on them becoming adults, like the children can now vote and behave responsibly. [At this point PP Swamiji got irritated as children were creating a ruckus – he said: parents keep your children quiet and stop them from creating a racket that is why we do not allow children below 12 into the Ashram]. The time has come now to tell you those points which I have not told anyone in the last 18 years. Like when you go to a railway station and sit alone – you do not have to go anywhere nor do you have to receive anyone – you just sit quietly at the railway station observing all the activities at the station. People come drop their friends/relatives and leave – you have no connection with anyone. Observe with a peaceful chitta – you are not going anywhere and no one is coming for you to receive them. Try and experiment in this manner, you will feel very relaxed. During these last 45 days this is the way in which I was observing the goings on with a peaceful chitta. I had peace of mind and I was watching people coming and going to the Ashram. In my room I was alone, so in solitude I thought why not make rooms with a single window for all sadhaks at the Ashram, so that they can come and stay in solitude for as long as they like. What happens in large cities is that they are affected by thought pollution as one’s aura and surrounding comes into constant contact with that of others. When that happens you start thinking, and those thoughts may not be yours at all, those thoughts may be because of the influence of people around you as their thoughts affect you. Secondly, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart all those who directly and indirectly helped me during the Deep Meditation Anusthan and also to congratulate them. In my home I had no control over my body – there was so much energy that I had absolutely no control over my body. Guruma used to come, cook and go in 2 hours, and I would not realise that she had come and gone. I was flying very high like a kite, Guruma brought me back. I got her help hence I came back just in time. The Kutch idol is ready and it has been given life force energy (pran pratishthapan). This is a very special medium - it has its own uniqueness. It has no personal identity - you will find yourself inside it. The Himalaya ka Samarpan Yog’s next volume has already been completed. I have written so many messages during this Anusthan because you wanted me to; it is your thoughts which made me write so many messages. Guruma is taking time to proof read the Himayala ka Samarpan Yog, as she goes into a trance while reading the book. If she takes so much time, I do not know how the other proof readers, translators, printers and publishers will take for this book to come to the sadhaks. Thirdly I came in contact with a lot of birds and came to know and realised that human birth only enables you to set and achieve targets, only man can aim for what he wants to become, in any other living being (other than humans), there is no plan, no target, no purpose. So even if our life is like those birds and animals – without purpose – then what is the use of this birth? We will come down to the level of those birds and animals. There is a banyan tree where I was meditating and I met Gurudev there, I asked Gurudev, “when will my sadhaks progress?” He replied, “as long as you do not place their true condition in front of them, they will not get the right direction. You forgive all the mistakes of your children just as a mother keeps forgiving her child thinking he will grow up and learn and she keeps turning a blind eye to all the mistakes. Similarly you forgive all the mistakes of your sadhaks and do not tell them the truth and wait for them to progress.” I thought that on the occasion of Mahashivratri, Shivji’s Shivlinga, you should get the message of the formless Paramatma. Why not tell you the truth.

If you have to know the truth, there are two types of sadhaks, you judge for yourself which you category you fall under. Most of them are like this, sadhaks come and meditate with their body, meaning, they are simply trying to concentrate and control their mind, meditation is not making an effort, meditation should occur automatically, we are trying to suppress our mind. You are just trying to tie the mind down during meditation, and with great difficulty you manage to tie it down and you expend your entire energy and strength in trying to tie the mind down; and when these forcefully tied down minds are free after meditation, then they become extra fickle. Your tied down minds’ condition subsequently becomes like that of a small child who hears the school bell ring at the end of the day, he leaves the class making a loud racket; and then the mind starts going into very small issues and then one does not know what kind of thoughts of the past begin to arise. This means you are meditating with your body. Thus your first step itself is wrong and everything else that you do is also wrong as your first step is wrong, thus you continue to go on the wrong path. When you reach a state thoughtlessness, then Samarpan Meditation begins. When you meditate with your body you only get ordinary benefits, does the ego dissipate? No! It just changes form, now you say you are a sadhak, the ego has just changed form! As long as you have a feeling of being a “doer” nothing can happen.

The other is forgiveness. How many of you sadhaks have forgiven everybody? Forgiving makes your chitta pure and chaste. You are not forgiving anybody. I come to know of what you are thinking of others – I know all this because of my connection with you through your first experience. You have not forgiven and you have an ego. Thirdly, have you accepted your situation in life? Do you accept both the good and the bad with equanimity? You cannot do this as your vision is very narrow. First learn to accept all the situations, you should be able to accept and if you learn this then only will you progress.

Next, many times in my messages I have written to you about women power, “Kundalinimata” is representative of” women power”. When you are on the spiritual path, your outlook towards women should be pure and that of respect, I cannot see that in your behavior. Women have not received that position in society which they deserve. When I talk of world progress and world peace, and if we exclude women, we are only talking of half the world. Half the world will be without this benefit, you should include them in this. When both the wheels – man and woman are imbalanced there will be no progress in society. Women are doing all the work which man does (in offices, in politics, in medicine, in research, in police, in army, etc) but they do not have the position which they should have rightfully. Women also work against women. Women complain the maximum against other women, there is no unity amongst women.

When you meditate with the body there will be limited benefits – you will feel good, you will have peace of mind, etc. If you look at Samarpan Meditation, you will realise that the situation with which Samarpan meditation started does not exist for you – it started in the Himalayas where there is no thought pollution. So why did Samarpan Meditation start? For the sadhaks to obtain liberation and this methodology was started with liberation as the only objective. Samarpan Meditation was started to obtain liberation – ask yourself how you came into Samarpan meditation. As soon as the discourse commenced your soul got control of the body, you are trying to control the body, which is not what I had taught. Your beginning was good with the experience which you got. But now you have gone on the wrong path. This meditation is to connect your soul with Paramatma. For an ordinary person this is to help have a good life. You have to keep telling yourself, reminding yourself, that you are a pure and chaste soul. On day a hen had come to the Ashram. A peacock’s egg was placed in her nest to hatch, which was dully hatched by her. The peacock baby was growing up till it say a group of peacocks which looked like her and the peacock kid then flew off with its own kind leaving the hen behind. You have forgotten the original soul experience, leave all your efforts and come back to the point that you are a pure soul. Secondly, why are you not holding on to the experience, that is the energy bridge by which you should reach Paramatma through feeling (“bhav”) – the greater the feeling, faster will you reach a meditative state.

There are some people in society who are complete atheists and are not connected to any medium but definitely have faith in the existence of some kind of a superpower. If by accident the medium of a superpower comes into the life of such an atheist and he gets an experience of the superpower then he can get connected to this superpower, because they are not connected with any medium and their slate is still clean. The theists accept God in one form or another. They get stuck to that form and see Paramatma in that form. Do not take hold of any kind of medium. Paramatma is formless and is Universal Consciousness which keeps changing form from time to time. Today our situation is like that of a person whose child was lost for the past twenty years, being searched with the aid of a photo made twenty year back. My dear! Now that child would have become a twenty year old youth, who you cannot identify now with the help of a photo clicked twenty years earlier. If you have to look for him today you will require his latest photograph. Similarly, how will we ever find “Parmatma” with a photo which is thousands of years old? Today’s “Parmatma” will also be an incarnation as per today’s modern age, then only will He be present today, now the question is, if one has to look for Him, how does one look, there is only one way and that is, in the presence of whichever living person your eyes close and your inner eye opens and the soul begins to experience “Parmatma”, then stop your search and seize that divine experience. Then your soul will begin to experience peace and make your soul your “Guru”, as “Parmatma” will give you future guidance through the medium of your soul.

Study all the religions, their Gods, their Saints – they all repeat the same things, Paramatma is one, Paramatma is one. This is humanity, do not speak evil, speak “good” always. All have said the same thing – speak good, do not talk evil of others, by doing this you slowly reach the soul level. Guru Energies have said this thing time and again that patience reduces as intelligence gets developed. The feeling of satisfaction also reduces with greater intelligence levels. Our kids are not as patient as their parents. If after telling you all this if there is no use then how will I light your lamp for which I have come? You have received knowledge of what is good and bad so that no you can know your own faults. Mediums always keep changing with the times. As it is, the Gurus body is ordinary just like that of a plain clothed policeman who is difficult to recognise in a crowd till such time you are not introduced to the policeman. The manner in which we recognise a policeman by his uniform, actually we do not recognise the policeman. The Gurus body is also ordinary, what makes the difference is “Godliness” which cannot be seen but can only be experienced.

The idols are being prepared and consecrated, books are being written and live events are being held – this is all being done for the next generation. You would have seen some painter, he has his own style, which shade to use and while doing this he begins to love his work more than his own life. He will give his all to a deserving and capable student; similarly a singer wants his art and work to outlive his life. He will give his everything, his entire knowledge, skills and techniques to a deserving student. In the same manner the Enlightened Masters in the Himalayas should pass on their knowledge to someone, and the work they could not accomplish, that should progress and that is why they have passed on their knowledge to this medium; and I also came into society to create/develop/train another medium so that it is passed on to the next generation. But I have not found anyone capable enough, hence I am preparing and consecrating idols as the mediums for tomorrow, some soul will come and develop the knowledge in those idols. You too can become a medium, but that is a log process. You have to become like a pipe – its uniqueness is that you put water from one end and it just passes through, you need to become empty and surrender. The word “Samarpan” is the prefix to the word “meditation” in “Samarpan Meditation”, meaning first surrender completely then you will reach a meditative state automatically. Do not make efforts at controlling the mind. You are a pure soul – accept that, once you do that the soul will control the body. Meditation should happen automatically, effort only controls the mind – some sadhaks know all this as meditation happens with a high state of mind which they have already reached. This is the second type of sadhak which I am going to tell you about.

These sadhaks have reached this high state with the expectation of getting spiritual powers. This can hurt you and I will tell you how. An astrologer told someone who had reached a high meditative state that he would die if he ever travels abroad. I used to tell this person to go – and if you go you can do Gurukarya, but he did not go and recently died. He had not travelled abroad at all and while dying he had the feeling of going abroad hence he will have to take re-birth to satisfy his dying thought. Siddhis (spiritual powers) cannot come just like that, even if you gain them you cannot exhibit them nor can you test them. You gain siddhis when you have the right feeling (bhav) and have reached the third level, as you progress and reach the fourth level you will gain siddhis associated with that level, but remember these siddhis come for your protection and not for you to misuse them. It is so, as the siddha purush knows that ordinary man lives half his life influenced by his past birth, and of the remaining half, half he spends sleeping, so man is left with one quarter of his lifetime to attain the “state of liberation”. Now this quarter he has to achieve everything, what a difficult target this is, but an ordinary person does not have this knowledge. Once you reach a high state of meditation you will not get stuck, you get protection and will always be protected. This happens automatically, but this should not be your objective. You can receive information about anyone by just sitting in one place, once you put your chitta on that persons’ aura you come to know everything about that person. This experiment was done by me in London live on TV some years ago, where I took calls and told people of their problems and the causes of those problems while sitting in the studio in London. I was introduced by the compere as a great “astrologer” from India.

Your life’s expectations will be fulfilled automatically; the end aim should not be to gain “siddhis”. There are some sadhaks who are doing this – this is not correct. Observe this and progress and do not get stuck on “siddhis”. Samarpan Meditation will progress based on what you consider yourself to be – a hen or a peacock. If you believe yourself to be a soul or body that is what will manifest – believing is a feeling of the soul. The more you develop this feeling the closer you will be to Paramatma. Paramatma has made a pathway to reach you through energy, through that path and with feeling you can reach Paramatma and after reaching Paramatma you can get that state – which is called “moksha” (liberation). Liberation does not mean death; liberation is that state of meditation which on reaching, in spite of the soul being in the body is freed from the defects of the body, body has no control over the soul and the soul gets full control over the body. Samarpan Meditation is that form of meditation in which you consider yourself to be a soul and thereby reach Paramatma and receive His experience. Meditate regularly, in collectivity and at the center because you are staying in a society which has negative thoughts which affect your way of thinking. Every act, every work which we do we do it for getting satisfaction, satisfaction is the target. You get greater satisfaction when the benefits of your work reach more and more people. When we work for society, any particular society, if we do it based on language the benefits reach the people who understand that language, if we do it for the country then it benefits the entire country. Gurukarya is the kind of work which reaches all people in the world - it has its own network. You will get the satisfaction that the Gurukarya which has been done through your medium has reached a lot of souls. Do Gurukarya with good feeling, as a soul and in collectivity – these are all matters which will develop the feeling of the soul. This is natural as it benefits all humanity.

The other name for Shiva is “truth”. Truth is not bound by language, country, color or state, it is that experience of God which connects all people in the world. Experiences are not different as Paramatma’s love is universal in the form of energy. Samarpan Meditation is the only group which is based on experience of a (one) unique kind. Remember how you obtained your first experience, start experiencing the same again and revive that feeling. Put your chitta on that experience. I won’t tell you what is good or bad in you. Firstly you are a pure soul and secondly you have received Paramatma’s experience. All you have to do is progress - you will have to be a soul and not a body. How you believe yourself to be, based on that, you will experience the change accordingly. The soul does not dissipate thoughts, problems, worries, etc, as all problems are connected with the physical body. You pray for very small things of Paramatma and these are all fulfilled, but all this is temporary. More wants and desires keep coming and you are never satisfied. If you have to get satisfaction, it has to come for the soul. Hence on the holy occasion of Mahashivratri if you commence your practice of believing yourself to be a soul you will definitely progress in Samarpan Meditation and will not ask for siddhis! Thus slowly and surely you will lead a fully satisfied life. This is the need of the day.

In Germany I had met a sadhika who was connected at the soul level with her Guru but could never meet him personally because of the Trustee. When I heard that, I had decided that whenever Samarpan forms a Trust, I would put a limitation of 3 years for the Trustee to do his work and then new one’s would be selected. From April 1 the Trustees will change, and I have been given the job of informing you about the names of the new Trustees:

SSAT Trustees: Mr. Jitendra Patwari,(Vadodra) – Managing Trustee
Mr. Yogesh Trivedi, (Surat) – Trustee
Ms. Atalben Sharma, (Rajkot) – Trustee

YPBSST Trustee: Mrs. Sharmila Patil, (Mumbai) – Managing Trustee
Mr. Ramchandra Kamath, (Goa) – Trustee
Mr. Anil Pagare, (Mumbai) – Trustee
Mr. Lokesh Joshi, (Kutch) – Trustee
Mr. Vibhav Parikh, (Mumbai) – Trustee
Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal, (Mumbai) – Trustee

Before leaving the stage, PP Gurudev advised us to do our work peacefully. To achieve a good state you should try and attend all the Mahadhyan programs which come one after the other starting with Mumbai, Rajkot and then Gandhinagar. When you go in collectivity there is great progress. Commit yourself to meditate on every full moon day (Purnima). With lots and lots of blessings to everyone.

MAHASHIVRATRI - 2012, DANDI ASHRAM

I took my mothers’ blessings and left for Dandi at 7.50am. I picked up three sadhaks at Vakola and I was to pick up Shri Purav at Chikuwadi, Borivali where he was having a meeting early in the morning. I was to pick him up at 8.15am along with a vehicle full of new sadhaks who were to follow us to Dandi. I too had wanted to visit the ground where the Mumbai Maha Dhyan will be held on March 7 and this was like my prayers were answered. We tried to go from the highway, missed a turn and were thoroughly lost in the bye-lanes of Borivali East. We ultimately found our way to the ground after repeatedly asking for directions and reached the ground just as Shri Purav’s meeting got over! We picked him along with another sadhika and left for the highway. We again got lost and by the time we reached the highway the new sadhak car had left and Shri Ramnath Kamaths car had also passed Fountain Hotel on Ghodbunder Road, the usual touch-base spot. We decided to catch up at Kamat Hotel just off Manor. We picked up Dr. Ishnath Singh at Vasai and reached Hotel Kamat at around 10.15am. The hotel was packed and Ramnath said that after waiting for 15 minutes they had just got seats. But as we entered a large group got up and we all got to sit together – all divine timing, would you say!?! The rest of the drive to Navsari was uneventful. One group had to check whether bookings made through a third person were available at Supreme Hotel, hence we there first and as it was already 1pm we decided to have lunch while that group checked into Hotel Supreme. After lunch we decided to go to Royal Regency and check in, relax and leave for the Ashram at around 3.45pm. We checked in, relaxed, freshened up and then left for first the Dham and then later for the Ashram. We soaked in the atmosphere at the Ashram – it was already crowded and gave a clear indication of what we should expect the next day. At around 6pm, we saw that Ashram volunteers had started removing the mattresses from the meditation hall and were taking them outside readying for next mornings’ program. Ramnath Kamath and Deepak Tandon said lets help. So we all picked up 3 mattresses each and started carrying them to the designated spot. On our way back, we found that collective energy had worked, as other sadhaks had also joined. I made two more trips and the entire lot of mattresses, were relocated in about 15 minutes flat!

We went for “bhojan Prasad” at around 6.45 pm thinking that we will get the final dhyan in time. As the persons who came for bhojan Prasad far outnumbered those who had registered, the Prasad was being freshly cooked, hence we had to wait. At 7pm we were served by volunteers after which, Deepak Tandon and I finished our Prasad dinner and left for the meditation hall. As we sat down the “Guru Avahan” started – we had just reached in time. After a good last session of meditation, we left for the hotel. In the car park, we saw a group of five who were stranded as their auto had not come. They asked us for a lift, and I told them I could drop them off at Eru circle to which they said ok. It was a tight fit, as we now had ten people in a car made for 7 people. We dropped them off at Eru circle and proceeded. We reached at around 9.30pm. Dr. Ishnath Singh said he will prepare his herbal concoction which he has kind of made me addicted to (I have it every morning at home). He had forgotten to bring jaggery (one of the ingredients) so Shri Pravin Purav, went down to the Hotel kitchen and brought some. In the meanwhile Dr. Ishnath asked me whether I had got a writing pad and pen to write about the event. I said no, no one had told me, and if I write I will be writing my blog. He then told me that my write-up on the Mahashivratri function for last years’ blog was translated by him for the official version (this I did not know till that moment). I was not keen to write though Dr. Singh said he will give me pen and paper. I was non-committal! Dr Ishnath prepared the drink and Shri Purav served it to everyone. After that we sat upto 11pm chatting and sharing spiritual experiences and discussing books. We had a gala time. We retired for the night, saying that we will leave the Hotel at 3.30am so that we could go to Hotel Supreme, pick the other sadhaks and guide the new sadhaks to the Ashram. The idea to leave early was to try and avoid the expected traffic.

Next morning Dr. Ishnath woke up at 2am, I wished him good morning and went back to sleep. He finished his morning ritual by 2.20am, at which point I got up and freshened up with a bath, etc. I woke up Pravin at 2.45am by which time Dr. Singh was well on his way to make his brew. I told him, that I will go down to the reception and complete check out formalities. I called the Supreme Hotel and told the sadhaks there that we will reach the Hotel at 3.45am to pick them up. I then went to the reception asked them to prepare the bill, went out to the car and cleaned the windshield of all the dust and turned the car around for a quick departure. When I went in again to sign the bill, guess what happened! The guy at the reception gifted me a diary – which I saw as a divine indication to write, so I asked the receptionist to give me a pen too! On now being gifted the diary and pen the decision for me to write the Mahashivratri event diary was already taken by divine intervention! So the blog after this one will be the full event report.

We left at exactly 3.30am, reached Supreme at 3.45am, and got stuck as the sadhaks there were not ready. I called them down urgently as I anticipated great traffic with the recent Mahadhyan experience which was a much smaller event. At around 4.05am they came down and we left without waiting for the new sadhaks, telling them to come by themselves as otherwise we would miss entering the Ashram in time. My fears were proved right, as there was a massive traffic jam for about 5km from the Ashram. This traffic jam came into being because of complete lack of discipline amongst sadhaks. The road to the Ashram is narrow and vehicles returning from the Ashram had their way blocked because of vehicles going to the Ashram starting to overtake vehicles and going on the lane for oncoming traffic. This is what caused the jam. We were stuck from around 4.30am to 5.55am. A little bit of self-discipline would have gone a long way in avoiding the chaotic traffic conditions which put tremendous pressure on the volunteers to clear the jam. A lot of good souls got out of their vehicles to help – God Bless them. As we got onto the rough road, we found that sadhaks had got out from their vehicles and were running to reach the Ashram. This made driving really scary as using horns was not allowed. But in spite of the challenges, we reached the Ashram just in time. We took a seat again just in time to catch the Guru Ahavan before start of silent meditation from 6am to 6.45am.

At exactly 7am Pujya Gurudev entered to the sound of conch shells and enthusiastic clapping from the assemblage of around 20000 participants. Pujya Guruma also entered and lighting of the lamp at the hands of Pujya Gurudev took place. After this he sat down to deliver his discourse. After the discourse, at around 8.30am Shri Rambhai announced that Pujya Gurudev will give a personal darshan to all his sadhaks in a Rath (carriage) to be pulled by sadhaks – this was a first! In the meantime, Pujya Guruma’s departure was announced. We were told to avoid joining hands in obeisance but to close eyes and soak in the energy. As the Rath started passing in front of me, tears started rolling down my eyes, as I felt how much Pujya Gurudev wants his children to soak in the real energy. As tears rolled down my eyes, my spine was becoming chill and my fingertips were pulsating with energy with cold vibrations in the center of both the palms of my hands. I kept my eyes closed for most of the time and just soaked in the energy field with a feeling of intense love and awe at what was being showered on Pujya Gurudevs children through his immense Grace. After the darshan, Pujya Gurudev left and we were told that we could participate in “paduka naman” followed by two exhibitions – one of photographs in the meditation hall in the ashram and the other – an Ayurveda exhibition outside. We were told to definitely view these, partake of bhojan Prasad and then leave. As we had a lot of time on our hands we just sat down and chatted and generally enjoyed ourselves in the energy filled environment. As there were long lines everywhere, we thought it prudent to sit down and relax. We had a lot of fun discussing spirituality and also pulling each others’ legs! A volunteer at around 11am asked us whether we had done paduka naman, we said no, to which he told us to go as there was no line. We paid obeisance at Gurucharan and then went for Prasad. We stood in the queue for about 15 minutes, we then went for the photograph exhibition which show cased Pujya Gurudev’s photographs on events and on his life as depicted in his Autobiography. This was beautiful, but we did not get to really enjoy the display because we were made to rush through due to time constraints. We went for the Ayurveda exhibition at around 12.15pm which was very informative and then wound up - located all sadhaks who were to travel with us and left for Mumbai at 12.45am. We stopped for a watermelon break to Vapi, a snack break at Parsi da Dhabha at around 4pm, where we met a whole lot of sadhaks. We had snacks, then left for Mumbai, I dropped off my fellow sadhaks one by one and reached home at 6.40pm with the same feeling of another event which should not have ended – going to the Ashram and returning is always difficult. Hopefully with Mumbai-ites adopting the Dandi Ashram maybe we could in future have some plans where it would be possible to stay at the Ashram for a number of days with permission of the Trust. Jai Baba Swami.