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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

SAMARPAN CHAITANYA MAHADHYAN SHIBIR – 2016


7, 8, 9 November, 2016….Samarpan Ashram, Dandi, Navsari, Gujarat

We had decided to leave for Dandi at 6.30am on 7th but postponed it slightly as Sridhar Maniji’s flight from Bangalore was to land at 6.50am. I left home at 6.30 and first picked up Prabha Rao from Vakola and then Harish Rao from the domestic airport. While I was at Bandra Sridhar called saying his flight had landed. After picking up Sridhar, I called Deepaliji and told her that we were leaving and should be at Borivali by 7.15am. We reached there at around that time and within a few minutes Deepaliji also arrived. With all on board we left for the holy land and for Divine Birthday Celebrations…… 3 days of bliss. We halted at Datta’s for hot kanda poha and thali peeth accompanied by tea. After a 40-minute halt, we left for Dandi and reached comfortably by 11.15am. We registered and went to the meditation hall where our sleeping arrangements were made. After leaving our bags we went and got fresh and went to meet and greet the sadhaks who were coming in. There were meetings lined up for various events……we attended one meeting at 1.30pm before the start of the main event. We had our Prasad, got ready and left for the main event tent at 2.15pm and took our seats. The event was registered for about 4500 sadhaks.

Event Calendar

The event was being compered as efficiently and entertainingly as ever by Dr Paras Bhatt and Ms. Ketki Parikh. Dr. Paras Bhatt is a fountain of information and knowledge and always pitches in very interesting tidbits with a great sense of timing! We were all seated with the chant playing on the sound system ensuring that we went into a silent quasi meditative state. Her Holiness Guruma arrived on the dot at 2.30pm to the blowing of conches and loud applause followed a few minutes thereafter by His Holiness Swamiji again to the blowing of conches, applause and shouts of Babaswami maharaj ki jai and Vandaniya Gurumaiyya ki jai! Ramkaka then announced the lighting of the lamp and the mantra was chanted as His Holiness lit the lamp and offered His respects to Shivbabaji. He then took His seat – Guru Ahavan took place in collectivity. Then the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by religious leaders representing different religions took place. As the names were announced one by one the religious representatives came on stage – 1) Shri Mohammad Suved Rampoorvala representing Islam, 2) Shri Khurshid Desai representing the Parsis, 3) Shri Sajjan Singh – Sindhi, 4) Geetaben and Mukeshaben – the Brahmakumaris, 5) Shri Ramdasbabu – Arjun Ashram, 6) Shri Ram Prasad – Krishna bhakts, 7) Shri Alex Preta – Catholics, 8) Rameshbhai Patel – Gayatri Parivar-Surat, 9) Sarpanch of Dandi – Shri Parimalbhai Patel, 10) Ashishbhai Shah – Bar Council of Navsari, 10) Shri Ankurbhai Patel – Executive Engineer, Navsari – all these delegates were escorted by Shri Sundeep Sharma (Mg Trustee – SSSAT), Smt. Sharmila Patil (Mg. Trustee – YPBSST) and Shri Umedbhai Tandel – President South Gujarat Ashram Committee. After lighting of the lamp, each representative was welcomed and felicitated with a small gift and memento by the Trust representatives.

At 3pm new sahitya was launched at the hands of Her Holiness Guruma – a) Guru-Poornima 2016 Q&A DVD, Calendar 2017 – both table and wall, and a keychain. Guruma then took the mike and said that the lamps have now been lit and this light should be taken within with this feeling – if both the northern star and the southern star then there will light on the whole of the earth. The calendar will remind you of your journey and the destination you have to reach from here.

At 3.10pm Shri Tandelji gave the welcome address and beautifully explained the importance of donation. Then he said that one should take whatever has to be taken and one should not unnecessarily focus one’s attention on the arrangements and food, etc. He mentioned that the focus should be to go within.

At 3.15pm His Holiness followed by Her Holiness leave the tent. After they leave there is a break for tea and time given to visit the exhibitions on display. After tea, we strolled around the exhibitions – the Chaitanya Mahotsav exhibition displayed all the main points of His Holinesses discourses right from the first CM held in 2000 to 2016 – details on where it was held, the dates and the highlights were depicted both pictorially and in writing. The exhibition on donations was one of the most unique and wonderfully conceptualised exhibitions I have ever seen. It was so powerful that it induced sadhaks to donate on the spot on their way out. I requested Hemanginiji to explain the slides to us as Sridhar Mani could not read Hindi – and she did so with great passion and feeling. It started with Swamiji’s 2005 September message in Madhuchaitanya issue– Daan se Atmadaan (from donation to soul-donation). It explained the concept and importance and meaning of donation as explained and understood in different religions. It had a section on research results on the beneficial effects of donation. There was a section on the nobleness of donation through the ages right from ancient times starting with the incident concerning Rishi Dadichi who donated his bones to Lord Indra and the Vajrastra was created to kill the demon Vrutrasur, then Bali Raja from which the concept of Balidaan (sacrificing one’s life) came into being. It continued with examples from different religions right upto the Gurushaktidham and its importance. The exhibition concluded with Swamiji’s message ‘Yoadaan’ dated 1.2.2012. The exhibition was compactly shown in 26 displays.

Her Holiness Guruma's note on the Donation related exhibition

Guruma's blessings on the beautiful depiction of feelings through display of colours

We reconvened at 4.30pm and shortly thereafter Guruma and Swamiji arrived to the sound of conches. Ramkaka requested His Holiness thrice to shower His divine nectar in the form of His discourse. Swamiji then started His discourse:
My salutations to all pious souls present here!! The CM is one such collective festival in which I present a few things which I want to say and listen to some things you have to say – this is a festival of mutual communication. Hence I am in front of you today to share with you my life’s stories and experiences and how on that basis I have reached a definite place. The opportunity to tell all this is now and as your spiritual progress commences, you will find your way forward – this is my own experience. The Guru-energies are telling their secrets, and maybe it is happening now because you have reached that spiritual state. In the Himalayas sages meditate in secluded places where no human is there for miles around. We perform whatever rituals, but none of this was there, no yagna, no mala, no temple – in spite of that each monk, rishi, sage was connected to Paramatma. How did they reach that state?! You will have to understand that. You get this opportunity here because of the collectivity of thousands of pure souls. In my recent visit to Singapore 200-220 people on an island called St. Johns. It was a secluded place – we were dropped there in a boat, and we carried out an experiment on my aura and then the experiences of sadhaks was called for. After the experiment, sadhaks from India asked my when you are overseas you give us the experience of your aura, why not to Indians in India? Why the difference? Why are Indian sadhaks deprived? I told them that the sadhaks overseas are poor and those in India are rich. The wealth of collectivity which the Indian sadhaks have, the overseas sadhaks do not have that. If a mother has 3 daughters, then the mother’s chitta goes to the one who is poor. You have the power of collectivity – you focus on that – they are poor, you are not as they do not have that collectivity. Increase your circle, increase your contacts, the more you connect with collectivity the greater will be your progress.

On this path, nothing has happened suddenly, everything has happened sequentially and slowly – my grandmother used to tell me that Paramatma exists – he was there yesterday, is there today and will be there tomorrow. Paramatma is not a person, of that I was sure. I had decided as a child that if I find Paramatma I will distribute that knowledge to all. I am going to tell you the secret of Paramatma. My Nani used to worship Lord Krishna and my Nana used to worship Lord Hanuman – there cannot be 2 Paramatmas – husband-wife they lived together but they believed in two different Gods, this means it all depended on accepting/believing Paramatma and that this depends on one’s belief. A sadhika will be someone’s mother in law, daughter in law, sister, wife – but she is a soul, this is all at the physical level – which the soul has taken on, that is the body. You can call Paramatma God, Allah, Jesus, but Universal Consciousness is the same. You give it names, but it does not become different. Water is water whether it is in a bottle, lake, river, tap, etc. Similarly, Paramatma is one – it is how you address it, hence there are differences in the religions – but Paramatma is one only. My Nani increased my curiosity – why whole world was Nani – my first Guru was my Nani, she said Paramatma was there, so I believed that Paramatma was there. She could not prove it but she believed in Paramatma. When I started searching, I realised that you cannot believe or accept any form as Paramatma – my slate was completely empty – I was willing to find Paramatma in any form. The doors to my heart were open to anyone, to any language, religion, person, form. Dissatisfaction was awakened within me – I was not happy – I found some happiness in temples, in mausoleums (samadhis), etc. Everything in my life was okay, but there was no satisfaction. I was successful in life but there was no satisfaction. Everything was fine – education, job for an ordinary person – I had everything but no satisfaction. My search was on, but there was no inner peace. I was looking everywhere, but I kept feeling that I should go to Nepal. I was in the state of a lost child – you give him a chocolate, anything but he will keep crying for Ma. My search was like that, I used to go to the banks of the Ganges and listen to bhajans, the sound of the river flowing, I felt this river will reach the sea at some time, but when will my search end. I did not know this! My search was on – a deep desire awakened and because of this it became possible to reach Shivbaba. A Satguru is a pure soul, who goes within and has attained Paramatma and if we want we can attain the inner state, the inner journey can start in His proximity and we can attain that state. Do not take it at a physical level, do not use this opportunity for material gain, the more you use it for going within so much the better. You obtain Satguru’s darshan because of your past births good deeds. You will keep getting till your past good deeds get spent after which the proximity/darshan will also go, because you do not use the opportunity for going within. When you use it to go within, then Satguru’s need also does not remain. It is like a mirror – make use of His proximity to go within – make use of His proximity to go within. A person is praying to Vaishnodevi mata with his rosary, if you want to go to Vaishnodevi you will ask a person who has already gone there even though he is not a devotee. Choose a person who can show you the inner path based on his own experience. With Shivbaba, I did it to go within. Once I became one with Him there was no regret. Guru-karya is a flow of Guru’s Grace. It is like a cow and its calf. If you want to catch the cow you cannot but if you catch hold of the calf the cow will follow you. Similarly, if you catch hold of Guru-karya the Satguru’s will grace will shower. For example, during my recent trip to Singapore retreat I was watching from my room. A sadhak was pushing a trolley with sadhaks bags up the hill and when I looked closely he was the President of that event – at that very moment Guru’s Grace showered on him. Our thinking is limited – a Guru always thinks of the progress of His sadhaks. As meditation progressed, more and more knowledge came to the fore – 15 years ago doctors did not believe in the aura, but now through kirlean photography you can see the human aura. I sat on a chair for about 6 hours in Singapore and asked the sadhaks to enter my aura which has seven layers from a distance of about 200 feet. I asked them to walk in a straight line with their eyes open and palms upwards and note down their experiences. Sadhaks felt that they were entering an energy field, and as they moved forward they felt the energy changing and becoming full of love, some had tears flowing from their eyes. Scientific proof, temples, chakras, other people’s knowledge – I cannot teach and nobody can learn what I have to give – you need to become one with the Guru to receive. I am leaving all this behind. Anyone capable who comes after 200 years – he will receive it. Samarpan meditation is free which in itself is unique, this is in a pure form because it is pure, you maintain and increase its purity – meditate without expectations. I do not even expect people to meditate, I did not have any benchmark – I just distributed equally to all. Meditate without expectation and meditate regularly for 30 minutes. Compulsorily sit down for 30 minutes, it is possible that all obstacles will come – donate 30 minutes to me for my birthday. It is a small thing, but you will see the results in your lifetime. When you meditate alone you become capable and strong and in collective meditation you get control over your chitta. If you have no control over your chitta you become a garbage dump as you will attract negative energies of others. When bad people come you will have to have control, at the centre you cannot scratch around and hence you sit quietly with focus. Meditate regularly and collectively without expectation. You have received in pure form, do not mix your expectations in it and make it impure, keep it pure. I ask my Guru, I am giving them as I have received from you then why are they not progressing. This will benefit you in all spheres. I was sitting with a diamond trader. He told me a new kind of artificial diamond has come into the market with the exact same properties of a real diamond at the fraction of the cost and it is almost impossible to make out the difference. I told him I will find out the difference, we will carry out an experiment. I asked him to bring me both types of diamonds in two separate packets. I told him to ensure that he does not know which diamond is in which packet. So he told his employee to bring these diamonds and separate packets and keep them at home. The next day when I went there he removed both the packets and gave them to me. I took out the diamond from the first packet and held it in the palm of my right hand, placed my left hand on it and squeezed it really hard. As I applied pressure I could feel the catches in the diamond of the people who had polished it and after the diamond was purified, it started pulsating in my hands. I kept it aside and then got the other diamond and carried out the same process. I felt the same things as earlier but this diamond was not giving out vibrations, so I told the trader that the first was real and the second was artificial. Then I explained to him how to make out the difference. He experimented and he too learnt how to differentiate between the two. I narrated this story because this is knowledge of the soul, the knowledge of vibrations – if you acquire this then you can use it in all spheres of life. I did not only want to learn the difference between a real and false diamond, it was my desire that he should also learn.

What I am going to tell you now – I have attained Paramatma – next listen to what I am going to say very carefully. I want to make you stand on your own feet, I want to make you self-dependent. In the intervening period I have made a deep study and the time has come to tell you about it as you now also have the state for me to tell it. I knew when I was 5 years old that my birth was not ordinary, it is special – I kept getting this feeling from within that I am a holy soul, I am a pure soul; the inner being inspired me on a path to look for Paramatma. It took me to temples, samadhis, pilgrim spots, etc. I went to a temple in a village where Ramu Bhil has full faith in a Lord Hanuman temple, for years he has poured his faith into the idol, and he feels good in that temple. He feels good in Paramatma’s proximity – in a temple we get darshan of the idol and feel good – who feels good? The soul! If you get physical comfort in a temple, there is nothing, if you get pushed and shoved but you still feel good – who feels good? The Soul! Do you feel good because of the idol? A saint has put his vibrations in the idol – you felt good because of the idol or because of the vibrations? You feel good because of the vibrations put by the saint who has gone within. When we get darshan of such an idol, we too go within for a fraction of a second. We felt good because we went close to our own soul and became inward looking.

When you go to a mausoleum, here a Satguru who has no re-birth leaves his subtle body at the Samadhi. The subtle body is there – it takes 30/40 years for the subtle body to develop. My Samadhi took place in 1980. Nothing happened till 2010 – 30 years! Once I got free from my physical feelings my subtle body developed. As we reach a saints Samadhi we feel those vibrations and we feel good. Collectivity of lakhs of souls is connected to that saint – all who have turned inwards, then we too turn inwards and feel good. We feel good in the presence of a Satguru – He is inward looking (antarmukhi), we go close to our soul and hence feel good. It is not his body, not his presence, it is his vibrations which make us feel good, we go close to our soul. It is a mirror. We can find out our state in front of a mirror and thus realise our state. We make use of such places for our material benefit – it is misuse. Once you go close to your soul and learn to stay with your soul then you will be in masti – you will be in your own blissful world. My soul is my Paramatma – Paramatma is within, this Paramatma whom we have attained – do not search outside, no temple, no Samadhi! Go to a temple or Samadhi and use the opportunity to go within, do this to go within. When you go in nature, you feel good, you become thoughtless and you feel good. This is not what I am talking about. Use this opportunity to become antarmukhi. As far as Samarpan Meditation is concerned, the deeper you feel about your Satguru, that much more you keep yourself clean, your mirror clean. Keep cleaning the mirror – faith and the feeling of complete and unconditional surrender cleanses your mirror. Cleaner the mirror the better you feel. You go to a temple and ask for something, that appeal goes to your soul and the soul takes it to Paramatma. You need to go within – Satguru is the highway – the highway will not go to your house; a lane goes to your house. Proximity to the Satguru is the highway to become inward looking – but to reach your own soul you have to take the lane and you have to walk yourself. The Satguru remains on the highway. You have to walk on that lane which takes you to your soul and then you will realise that Paramatma is within you and that there is no need to search outside. To go on this journey, no religion, caste, country, colour is a barrier – any person who wants to reach his soul, who has the desire, can do so. For such a person – no one can stop him, there is no obstacle – the only thing which is there is solitariness, solitariness and more solitariness! The Himalayan sages became stabilized there in the Himalayas and they do not need temples, samadhis, etc. These are all prams – you should be free from these prams – mind, intellect, temple, Samadhi. ‘Mujhko kahan dhund rahe ho re bandhe, mai to tere pass hi hoon, tere pass hi hoon, tere pass hi hoon’ (where are you looking for me o brother, I am near you, I am near you, I am near you). This subject is new. Experience it yourself. Walk on this path and see what you experience. The places where you go and you feel good – actually it is your soul which feels good. If you have to become inward looking, then there will be no itching, no thoughts, we will do this meditation day after tomorrow. Do not have any doubts. Whenever we feel good we go close to our soul, we feel good for ourselves, we do it because we feel good from within. Do one such deed which makes you feel good. Pray once without selfishness, these are all the paths to go within. You have received in purity; it is necessary for you to go within in purity. Do something that makes you feel good, do it without expectations. The soul is your father, do something which makes your soul happy. For 20 years I did work selflessly hence it spread so wide and so fast! It is very difficult – but the more stay on the path and go within the better. Darshan happens through happiness, you experience peace within, then you attain that state for which you were born, which is moksha – the state of liberation, nothing more remains to be done. Then whatever you do, you do for others (Swamiji is saying this from a very high state with tremendous vibrations) and keep on doing for others, your life is then devoted to others. Some karmas are of this birth and in Guru’s Grace they get extinguished, but some karmas are of your past births which you have to endure. You have to endure because this is your last birth; you have to experience your bad karma, make use of your bad karmas to go within, do not try to run away, and after that everything is good. Use those occasions for Guru’s proximity, go close to your soul, make your existence small, and you will not realise when your bad karmas have passed by. The more you make good use of your bad karma the better. Namaskar!

After the divine, vibration filled discourse, His Holiness Swamiji leaves the tent at 5.55pm followed shortly thereafter by Her Holiness Guruma. We were asked to reconvene at 8.00pm post dinner for the cultural programme. We had a meeting with Ambareeshji for planning a musical event in Rajkot from 8.30 onwards and hence I could not watch the cultural programme. I was informed that I had a small cameo role to play in the Madhuchaitanya skit and it was the first of the cultural programmes scheduled for 8.30pm.

After dinner, I reached the tent for the programme and sat in the front row in the audience. When my turn came, I stood up and performed my 5 second role which I am sure no one would have noticed as the main players were on stage and I do not think the cameraman had been informed to focus the camera on the sadhaks playing roles from the audience. In the end Her Holiness also stood up and performed her role, though originally it was to be only her voice. It was a pleasant surprise for all of us and the thundering applause she got was much more than the applause received for all the other performers put together. All in all, it was a good performance and a different way to disseminate information about Madhuchaitanya and its benefits. After my role, I went to the library for the meeting which went on upto 10.45pm. After the meeting, I retired for the night.

I requested Sheila Makadiaji for the list of cultural programmes and she was kind enough to provide me with the same. After the Madhuchaitanya performance, sadhaks from Thane, Mumbai performed Omkar Dun – Om sarve shyam swastina bhavatu dance. Sadhaks from Virar-Mumbai perform Ganpati dance to Ganpati dhun. Thereafter, Surat zone-I sadhaks performed Hanuman dance, then Bharuch sadhaks, Ram dance; Surat Zone-2 performed Saraswati dance; Rajkot sadhaks perform a dance on Lord Jesus; sadhaks from Navsari performed the Lord Krishna dance and finally sadhaks from Goa performed the Shiva dance.

8.11.2016

His Holiness Gurudev's message on Donation
I woke up at 2.45am and went and had a nice cold water bath, and sat for meditation in the lawn. It was very peaceful with the regular rhythm of the sound of the sea’s waves coming from the distance. The silence was deafening and the meditation at 3.30am in that divine atmosphere was wonderful. I went back to the bedding hall and woke up Sridhar Mani. Harish and Khamankarji were already up and had left for their bath. I relaxed for some time and once everybody returned we went for a cup of tea before leaving for the main pandal for 6.00am collective meditation.

His and Her Holiness performing havan at the inauguration of the new Yagnashala
 Ramkaka led the group meditation which began on the dot at 6am. After the meditation those sadhaks who had registered for the havan left and those who had not, sat in the tent and watched the DVD of the question and answer session of Guru-Poornima 2016. At 7.45am there was a break for breakfast after which we were requested to reassemble in the main sabha mandap at 9.30am for the main celebrations. The chant ‘Shivkrupanand Swami Namo Namah, Karuna Swami Namo Namah’ was playing. The comperes were telling everybody to take their seats and go inwards while waiting for the Master to take the stage. Ramkaka then announced that Swamiji, Guruma and family were at the opening ceremony of the new Yagnashala followed by the bhoomi pujan and khat muhurat for the new permanent meditation dome which will be ready by Mahashivratri. It was announced that the opening ceremony of the new Dome would be at Mahashivratri. This Dome would have a seating capacity of 15-20000 people with room for expansion at a later stage. The entire ceremony was telecast live and we watched it in the sabha mandap. After that it was announced that His Holiness would arrive in the sabha mandap shortly. In the interim period the main cake and lots of cakes for being vibrated for the participants were being brought and kept backstage. 


A huge mechanical lotus flower was on the left side of the stage. Her Holiness Guruma, Anuragji, Ambareeshji and Shaswatiji came on stage. After that Swamiji made a grand entrance as a life took Swamiji up into the mechanical lotus and as its petals opened Swamiji came on stage to the continuous non-stop shower of red rose petals from a machine and then fireworks commenced with sparklers being lit above the stage, then those lining the stage and then those on the aisle, sadhaks were squealing in delight shouting their heads off as the joy and delight and the uniqueness of the entry took everyone by surprise (Later Tandelji said that Swamiji had requested him to do something different this time). The sadhaks who had been given small packets containing two balloons, a candle and a toffee earlier – all had blown their heart shaped balloons and they started bursting them with the popping sound coming from all directions. The entire mandap was in a very jovial and happy mood as their Paramatma’s birthday was being celebrated. The birthday song started playing and everyone sang along, after which Swamiji cut the cake and took a bite, then the family partook of the cake. There was a short break after this and the sadhaks were told to reconvene at 11.20 for the Deep Yagna.


Swamiji's birthday cake

At 11.20am we again reassembled and Ramkaka said that the young girls (18 of them) were to be our representatives for the Deep Yagna. Ramkaka chated the purification mantras and the purification ritual then took place. The Gayatri mantra recital commenced during which time Ambareeshji was requested to go and place a garland on the subtle body, apply tika and then the kumarikas were asked to tie a red thread to each other’s right hands. After which a sankalp was made for a long life for Swamiji. The deep yagna then commenced with the recital of the gayatri mantra, ganesh vandana, mahamrutyunjaya mantra, Guru maha mantra and ended again with the gayatri mantra. After the mantras, the Aarti commenced as we all stood up and lit our candles for the aarti. The scene was beautiful as diamond-like dots of light lit up the huge tent. For the entire duration of the aarti His Holiness Swamiji stood up with eyes closed blessing all those present with His right hand raised in blessing and left palm raised up parallel to the ground symbolic of receiving universal energy and showering it on us through His right hand. After the aarti, Ramkaka led the Jay-gosh – first in Swamiji’s name, then in Guruma’s name, then for the successful yagna, then in the name of all Ashrams and finally for today’s joy – the ‘jays’ resounded with the collective sound of 4500 sadhaks and am sure would have heard in Dandi village!
Deep Yagna in progress
Kumarikas representing sadhaks for the Deep Yagna
At 11.30am Ramkaka announced that Her Holiness Guruma will leave the stage after which the Namaskar programme started with all the volunteers at various counters being requested to come for the ceremony, while the others were requested to remain seated and enjoy the bhajans. Repeatedly, the comperes were requesting the sadhaks to take this opportunity to turn inwards. At around noon our turn came and we offered our prostrations and left for lunch. We finished lunch at around 1.10pm and Sridhar had this urge to go back to the tent for watching the namaskar vidhi and listening to the bhajans. This was because during Guru-Poornima we had missed out on the shower of divine energy which Swamiji emanated from Swamiji as we had to leave immediately so as to enable Sridhar to catch his flight. Also, this time because lots of sadhaks had missed the energy shower last time, the namaskar vidhi was held on the second day – extremely thoughtful of the organisers to whom we are all eternally grateful! At around 1.20pm we came back to the mandap and sat down in the aisle. Just as we sat down Ramkaka started singing bhajans and he started singing with such devotion that Swamiji stood up and to our great joy the energy shower started! We got up from our seats and went into the main mandap, all the sadhaks were on their feet – the faces close to me radiating with joy, as some danced, some cried and others started clapping in rhythm with the bhajans. The next one hour or so was totally magical as Swamiji, while standing, kept continuously showering energy – my hands were raised and I was clapping and swaying in the energy field. This went on and on and I subsequently noticed that even though I was clapping with raised hands for more than an hour my hands were not aching – it was like everything had been numbed up or we were all beyond body state for that stunningly, amazing magical hour. Our timing in returning to the mandap was absolutely divine as Ramkaka took the mike moments after we reached the mandap. At 2.30pm or so Parasbhai then asked Swamiji whether we should recite shanti paath and Swamiji said okay! But just as the shanti paath was about to start one of the bhajan singers said let me sing one last bhajan and Swamiji said okay – and then this bhajan too went to great heights and Swamiji continued showering energy for another 7 odd minutes extending our state of bliss! After this, Shanti paath was chanted and we all left at around 2.45pm with a request to reconvene at 3.30pm for Guruma’s session.

The bhajan maestros led by Ramkaka

The ecstatic gathering totally enraptured and bathed in energy

Namaskar Vidhi in progress

The Divine Master in inner bliss
We reconvened for the afternoon session at 3.30pm and Her Holiness Guruma arrived to the sound of conches at 3.45pm and took her seat. Ketkiji requested Guruma thrice to shower her divine nectar in the form of her discourse. The discourse commenced at 4pm.
My salutations to all souls who have come here on this occasion. Jai Baba Swami! We have gathered here on the occasion of CM – I will start with an inspiring incident. Once upon a time a temple was being constructed in a village and the work of laying the flooring of the temple and installing the idol remained to be done. The temple authorities had decided to have a marble flooring and also wanted the idol to be made of marble. So, they all went to Rajasthan to source the marble stone and idol. They gave the order for the marble stone and the idol as required. They then called for a truck and loaded the marble tiles and packed the idol to protect it and then loaded it into the truck and started on the return journey. The truck was moving at its own pace and a discussion started between the marble tiles and the idol. The marble tiles were a bit upset, they said what is so unique about you as we are both made of the same marble. The tiles said that people will pray to you while other people will walk on us. One marble tile was very jealous and he said that you are very lucky but it is an injustice to us – you will be offered flowers and incense sticks and people will pray to you. The idol said I do not know anything about injustice, but I can tell you my story. Lots of blocks of marble were removed from the mine – out of which one part is me and another is you. A sculptor tried to make an idol out of your block but you could not endure the pain and your block started to break up and then it was kept aside. I was cut and chiseled and unwanted parts of me were removed by striking the block with hammer and chisel – there was so much of pain that I did not know whether I would survive! Then I surrendered myself to God, and as I surrendered to God, I said do what you want with me and then from that block of marble this idol was created. You could not bear the pain and hence you were made into tiles – I became an idol and you a tile. Our life is also like that, everyone has some suffering, and this is your last birth so this suffering will take place. We should have no problems as our Paramatma is with us. Samarpan is very important – samarpan, samarpan, samarpan! It happens slowly and then it becomes our habit. Some of us may be of such a state where we don’t get disturbed. Our objective is to attain a goal and we have selected this body, our parents, our relatives, religion and country. There should be no question in the mind. The selection has been done by the soul but the mind is disturbed. Any dissatisfaction which we have and our progress slows down. When so much of divine energy flows and you are still dissatisfied then your progress starts slowly. Always remember why we were born. What is important is what we did, what we did to progress on the path to moksha (liberation). This body is like a machine. I will tell you a story, if a small insect can do such work, why can’t you?

I was playing with Chaitanyaswami after the Guru-poornima. I was talking to him and I told him a story. I showed him a pearl and he asked me where it came from. Original pearl is created in an oyster and I told him the story of how a pearl is formed. I told him about the oyster and how a worm is there inside the oyster shell and then when a particle of sand enters the shell then the process begins with the worm slowly secreting gum which over time wraps itself around the sand particle and creates a pearl. Then he asked what happens to the worm, I told him it dies. Then he asked what does ‘dies’ mean? I explained to him by giving example of a pant – I told him what happens when the pant tears? Mommy gets me a new one. I told him that this body is like that, it becomes old, tears and dies. You are young and you can run around and play, but I cannot run, this body is becoming old and God gives us new clothes and one is reborn, this is called death. Accha, the worm will be reborn, okay, he said. What we learn from this story is what all we can do with this body. If we can do something good, then what is wrong! Our family responsibilities have been fulfilled, then what about obligation to society? Why don’t we do something for society, ashrams, others? Why don’t we give something to the Ashram – time, money, etc. I also keep talking with strangers when I am travelling and I keep sharing with them. Instead of talking nonsense why don’t we share something good, so they too feel like meditating. One incident – I am a chatterbox and so is my daughter. In the recent trip to Singapore she was travelling by taxi and she started talking. She told him that she had come for a meditation event and asked him also to come. She told him that it was free of cost – to which he replied nothing is free in this world. She then invited the taxi driver and told him to come and see for himself. There is no compulsion, if interested, he will come otherwise he won’t. Another incident - a person called for some reason, a person I did not know, I did not know him. It was while booking the hotel for the Mahila Samellan to be held shortly in Ahmedabad. I casually told the person that I was coming for this event and his curiosity was aroused. He asked for details – which trust, which temple. I told him no it is about meditation, I asked him to come, he said he will not feel good but my mother will definitely like it. You can easily propagate in this manner; you do not have to do anything special. Any work you do is Guru-karya, even keeping your lane clean is Guru-karya. This is like making sandalwood into coal! I will tell you another small story. There was a king who was travelling in the forests and he felt very thirsty. A woodcutter gave the king some water to drink. The king thanked him and told him to ask for anything in return. The woodcutter said you give whatever you want. The king called the woodcutter after 10 days. Now this was a woodcutter who cut trees as a means of livelihood. The king thought I will give him a sandalwood forest and did so. Now this woodcutter used to cut the wood convert it into coal and sell the coal – he started doing the same with the sandalwood forest. Every day he used to cut some trees, make coal and sell it for his daily requirements. In a short while he had cut more than half the forest. The king came after some days to see how the woodcutter was faring. The king was surprised to see that half the forest had disappeared! He saw the cut sandalwood and the coal which the woodcutter was about to carry to the market. The king immediately realised what had happened and told the woodcutter not to convert the remaining wood into coal but to go to the market and just sell the wood. The woodcutter was not convinced, but as the king was telling him, he had no choice and he went to the market. To his pleasant surprise he made 100 times the money from sale of the sandalwood as compared to the sale of coal. He returned to the forest and told the king what had happened. The woodcutter was ashamed and said sorry to the king for destroying his forest. The king told him not to worry and asked him to slowly plant more trees and to cut only enough for his requirements so that his life could pass by comfortably. Are we too not making sandalwood into coal! If we do that then we will not progress spiritually. You need to have complete faith – you have faith but not complete faith. If you are worried, then you should realise that it is time to meditate. If you are worried, then understand that your state is not good. Meditate. It is possible that you relations with your parents is not good. Parents are connected with the heart, hence they worry, if they do not worry then you get blessings. You need to improve your relations with your parents now, immediately! I can show you the path to liberation but you have to improve relations with parents, if they die you will not be able to do anything. If they are already dead – then pray. If your parents are alive, keep them happy – if they ask for 10 things, say yes to 5. A girl recently asked me about marriage. She said she does not know how to select a boy. She was an NRI and she asked for advice. A boy too asked me the same question in Singapore. It is simple – I am just expressing my thoughts – my view is that parents will be the best people to select your partner for you. Whether son or daughter – if you are late in coming home who is worried? The parents see that their child is worried and out of this worry they start questioning you. Those parents who cannot bear to see their children unhappy how can such parents select someone bad for you?!? This experiment is for girls in the age group 22 to 25 – you place all your bets on how the boy should be and see if you can get someone with all your preferences. If not, then when you are in the 25-28 age bracket cut your expectations to half, if still you don’t find someone, then in age bracket 28-30 keep just 25% of the expectations which you think are a must, after that when you are more than 30 years old marry whoever you want to. Whether the parents select, you select or Gurudev selects. If you are your parents select then there is no difference – wherever karmic debts are there then such relations take place. If you meditate then everything takes place. If Gurudev is given one choice he says yes – it is your choice, go ahead. If you give Him a choice, then He will select a person who is good for your spiritual progress. For a good sadhika – it took 4-5 years to settle down. Even after 5 years she was still sad. She told me about her problem and I was so worried that I asked Swamiji. He told me to keep quiet. He said she has to bear the sufferings of her past birth – you wait for two more years and she will come and tell you that all is well. We have to endure the effects of our past karmas the end will be good. I get to know a lot of good stories from Samarpan Vivaha and then I feel good. In Singapore, I wrote a song on Swamiji. With your permission, I will sing it and all of you join me in chorus. Maa starts singing – moksha marg pe hume chala do Baba Swamiji (make us walk on the path of liberation Baba Swamiji). After the song Guruma asked the sadhaks that she would answer whatever questions they had in mind.

Questions and Answers with Guruma
1.    Swamiji keeps saying that he goes very high in meditation like a kite and it is only Guruma who brings me down. How does this happen?
Guruma: It is very simple, don’t think that there is a string with which I pull Him down. It is just my deep emotional feeling which brings Him down.

2.    Why do some ladies have to keep adjusting after marriage right till the end?
Guruma: Even males have to make adjustments. I believe that after 4-5 years they adjust – once one accepts the change then you start ignoring things that cannot change. After marriage, Gurudev used to pull my leg. He always told people that I did not know Marathi. One day one of his relatives came to our house and said that it is sad that you cannot speak in Marathi. I replied in Marathi saying who told you I don’t know Marathi. He said Gurudev and I realised that this was one of his jokes. When I asked Him, He said I told him as a joke, don’t tell me he took it seriously! I could have got angry or laugh – I chose the second option. He makes fun, and I choose to accept it and laugh it off. Some karmas are there which you have to endure and we make mountains out of molehills. Just make sure that you are not doing it. Housewives may have problems. They are at home, then those incidents are compounded. Talk to friends and try to get it out of your mind. Gardening is a good hobby and helps to calm your mind, touch with soil is good.

3.    Between office and home there is a lot of spare time, how to maintain one’s spiritual state in this time?
Guruma: Do something creative to occupy your mind, this will give you happiness.

4.    How do you encourage creative children to go forward?
Guruma: Ask them to make their recordings on the phone or create a raw CD and send it to Jayeshbhai, Jayeshbhai along with the Editorial Board will decide what to do with it. A child made a poem on me based on a poem which I had recited once.

5.    Why do bad events take place even though we are connected with Samarpan Meditation? Why are things stolen?
Guruma: If anything was stolen then just accept that it was meant to be.

6.    My father died, and our mother does not recognise us. She does not accept us, how do we get out of our guilt?
Guruma: Forgive her from the bottom of your heart. Keep good relations with her, meet her during Diwali and come back. You have not done anything wrong so why would you feel guilty. She has kept you in her womb for 9 months and to get rid of your debt to her for giving you birth, you go and meet her once a year. Pray for her too.

7.    We pray for others – but even then we are asking even if it is for others. We are still asking is it not?
Guruma: While praying for others there is no selfishness. When you write prayers to the Prarthana Dham – personal questions are okay. You need to completely surrender and then write a question to Prarthana Dham with full faith. If you do not have faith in Prarthana Dham, then no can help you.

8.    When we come to events there are 3-4 questions in our mind, but we somehow get answers during these days – how does this happen?
Guruma: Here you are at the soul level and so you get your answers – that knowledge gets transferred.

9.    You were Swamiji’s first disciple. What was your experience in the beginning?
Guruma: It was nothing special, I felt good, that’s all. Slowly after meditating for a long time I realised that if I do not meditate on a particular day for some reason, then the day does not go well. Then I realised that meditating daily keeps me balanced. Regular meditation is the best – I feel good while meditating, if I do not meditate I do not feel good, hence I meditate daily.

10.  I am a soldier, our soldiers are facing tough times on the border, why do we not hold shibirs for the army men?
Guruma: Efforts are on at a very high level, through the Ministry. We are hopeful of getting permission.

11. I have two photos of Swamiji facing each other in my house. One is of subtle body and one is of physical body. Someone who came to my house told me that this is not good and the energies of both photos will clash and create disharmony. Is this true? (there was a lot of laughter on this question).
Guruma: While laughing Maa said that even if two photos are facing each other the energy will be good for the whole room. How will Swamiji’s energies clash with each other!

As that was the last question, the session ended with Shanti Paath at 5.50pm.

The lucky draw took place thereafter in which 62 gifts were handed out to the lucky winners whose numbers were picked by Guruma from a box and handed over to Shaswatiji for calling out the names. This session went on for about 45 minutes as the sadhaks took their own sweet time to come on stage and names had to be called out repeatedly. It is sad that sadhaks do not realise the trouble they are giving their divine mother who was made to stand for almost 45 minutes! After the distribution of gifts Her Holiness and Shaswatiji departed and we were told to reconvene at 8.30pm for the cultural programme.

We then took the opportunity to visit the Nandini Gowshala exhibition which had on display, with sadhaks explaining the beneficial effects of milk, curd, ghee. Also, the medicinal properties of cow products were explained in detail. After the exhibition, we went and had our dinner and relaxed for some time. As tomorrow’s meditation was crucial, we decided to skip the cultural programme, as it is I had got just about 3.5 hours of sleep the previous night!

At 8.30pm the cultural programme commenced. There were 8 performances – they were: 1) Ambe-Maa dance performed by Kandivali, Mumbai sadhaks; 2) Allah dance performed by Surat Zone 1 sadhaks; 3) Sai Dance performed by Dombivali-Mumbai sadhaks; 4) Wahe Guru dance performed by Ahmedabad Zone 3 sadhaks; 5) Bhagwan hai kahan re tu dance by sadhaks from Surat Zone 2; 6) Jab jab yug parivartan hota dance by sadhaks from Mumbai Yuva group; 7) Mukti made ken a made dance performed by sadhaks from Ankleshwar and finally 8) Sach sukh hai Samarpan me dance by sadhaks from Surat Zone 2. The cultural programme ended at 10pm.

9.11.2016

I woke up at 3am and got fresh, had an ice-cold water bath and sat for meditation in the lawn. After meditation, I checked my phone and saw whatsapp messages which were full of news about the cancellation of Rs 500/1000 currency notes. I was absolutely thrilled and happy. At last we had a leader to take tough decisions to strike at the root of corruption. I was so happy that I rushed to the sleeping hall to give information to Sridhar Mani, Harish and Khamankarji. Everybody was completely overjoyed by the surgical strike on black money.

At 5.30am we left for tea and then went into the meditation mandap for the experience of a lifetime with the Divine Master. We took our seats by 5.40am and I focused my chitta on the crown chakra and shut my eyes while listening to the chant which was being played. Exactly at 6am the conches started blowing announcing the arrival of His Holiness who paid His respects to Dada Guru, lit the lamp and then took His seat. We then collectively chanted the mantra invoking the Guru-energies with Ramkaka leading us. Thereafter Ramkaka requested His Holiness thrice to shower his nectar filled words on us. Swamiji then started His discourse:

My salutations to all the pious souls present here!
Samarpan Meditation’s objective is make one dependent/reliant on one’s soul. He should not depend on any other person because in society there is a tradition of depending on others. We have always used different means of worship for personal gain, selfishness – our prayers, yagna are all used for solving personal problems, selfish purposes…..fasting, rosary beads……..actually all these paths were used for going within, to go within – deeper and deeper. Secondly, after seeing this atmosphere in society, many sages started methods of worship which were based on meditation, but after the passage of time slowly, meditation has been left behind and only the rituals remain. Your Gurus started this for meditation. They too say that these rituals lead to meditation – morning, afternoon, evening – this was a medium for meditation; but in society, meditation went away and rituals remained! All these means of worship were a means to let go of physical feelings and go within, but all this has been forgotten and we all try to do this here too. Meditation also has become a means for personal gain. Water will come and fill the hole, you don’t have to invite it. Today you give it a try, forget that you are a body and sit without expectation, become empty, void. If you are not a body then there is nothing, become empty and it will fill up - energy does not need to be told where there is a hole – your chitta should be on the energy. In Samarpan Meditation we tell people not to focus on problems, if your physical feelings end then there is no problem. Freeing one’s self from physical feelings does not mean death, it means getting free of physical feelings. As you reduce your physical feelings all your ailments will disappear. Everything is controlled by the brain, so just relax your brain, your chitta should go within. Next, wherever you go you feel good, it is not because of the place, but because of the energy of some saint, you go to such a place and feel good just by taking darshan; if you stay in that state for 24 hours it will be so good. I have told you to go within for the last 24 hours because you should know yourself – you are a soul. Know yourself by going within, then all the illusion will go, all suffering will go, there problems are there all because you have taken on a body – your soul has no problem, it is strong by itself. By taking on a body you have the illusion of trouble. All the energy you get from meditation you use for solving external problems and all the energy is spent on the problems – the root cause for all your problems is within. You solve one problem through meditation, then another will crop up as the root cause of the problem is within. Do not waste your energy in solving external problems You need to focus your energy on solving the problems within. It all depends on how you use your energy. Today, in meditation your entire focus should be to go within, then your external problem will get solved. Wherever I have gone, I have only talked about meditation. I have not wasted energy outside - all this has changed in front of you. You are witness to the change in my life. This is going to become very big, mark my words. Just as a small seed takes root, when it takes root it has small energy and it does not waste it in fighting big stones, it is not afraid but makes its way around the stone and spends its energy in progressing slowly and taking deep root and growing into a sapling, then plant – goats come and eat its leaves but it ignores the pain and focuses its energy on taking deeper root and then grows into a plant and then it slowly grows into a tree; the goats which used to eat its leaves come and rest in its shade, the stone appears small in comparison now and remains where it was. You put your energy into problems and enhance them. Use your meditation to go within and grow. A villager from Uttar Pradesh comes to Mumbai to free his father from debt, his land from debt and after coming to Mumbai he forgets all about the debt in the jazz and razzmatazz of Mumbai. You will also realise why you were born and reach a state to know why you were born! You need to meditate regularly in collectivity – regularity makes your chitta strong and collectivity gives you control. A strong chitta without any control is dangerous. Meditate without expectation. Next, if you meditate and maintain its purity then only you progress. Expectations are connected to physical feelings. Meditation is a way to attain Paramatma. You are going on a path from which the soul goes to Paramatma, and if you bring your problems to meditation then it takes you outside instead of within. Last year in Australia I asked sadhaks why they were watching a football match, what is the benefit to you – they said they enjoy it. So, make meditation your hobby. You start expecting from meditation – marriage, recovery from illnesses, etc. You have many hobbies in life, car driving, games, kite flying – you don’t get anything from it, you just enjoy it – so make meditation your hobby, don’t expect anything, if anything happens then it is not natural and you are not making good use of meditation, and problems will recur. Meditation means becoming free from everything – relations, country, religion, gender. When you sit for meditation feel that you should not even realise how you are sitting. As you go higher and higher, even the feeling of gender should go – the feeling of gender remains till the last as it is the strongest. The body is free but the feeling of gender remains. Hence it has a shape – you need to free yourself from that too. Go so high that you should forget whether you are a male or a female – all other matters will go – your chitta should remain only on – I am a holy soul, I am a pure soul. I am not anyone’s father, mother, uncle, aunty, brother, sister, daughter, son. Soul is not anyone’s father……soul is a pure part of Paramatma. To reach that phase only one thing remains – the feeling of complete, total, unconditional surrender (Samarpan) – the greater the samarpan the lesser the physical feelings. Focus only on your soul….you will be free of the body. Today you will go…..if you don’t then it will be different…..place your hand on your crown and press down and rotate your hand clockwise three times….. ( Swamiji was saying this very slowly from very high up and the energy was unbelievable) …… the meditation started. The meditation was very blissful and the only thing I recollect is getting the same divine unearthly fragrance twice during meditation which I had got while taking diksha at Pushkar in 2009. Suddenly Swamiji said let us pray : it is my pure wish to know myself…. My eyes were not opening, the feeling of let this session continue was all over within me. But then, sadhaks around started moving about, I opened my eyes and it was 7.30am – just over an hour had passed, no cramps in the feet, nothing – I can’t express in words the divine session. We chanted the shanti paath and were asked to reconvene after breakfast at 8.30am for the final session.
As I was returning from the meditation session and as we entered the ashram office area I noticed a man in a rich brown kurta pyjama talking on his cell phone – he was very disturbed and cursing away on the phone – the talk was about the cancellation of Rs. 500/1000 notes and he must have been hit hard because the tone was very harsh and disturbed. I passed him and moved on, but a thought crossed my mind, that this sadhak probably did not have his chitta on Swamiji’s discourse or on the awesome meditation – he missed the whole crux of the discourse on going within and was stuck on his perceived loss. A small prayer for him came automatically and I moved on. After breakfast, I changed, packed the bag and got ready to leave immediately. A meeting had been arranged with Ambareeshji at 1.30pm so I informed the sadhaks who were returning with me accordingly. Veenaji had come and requested to come with me as she needed to reach home early for some personal reasons.

At 8.30am the final session started. I had been called for a meeting, hence I reached at 8.40am, but Sridhar and Harish had kept a seat for me which I occupied. The Managing Trustees of both the Trusts were jointly informing the sadhaks present about the activities of both the Trusts along with the developments which were taking place in all Ashrams.

Her Holiness Guruma made a quiet entry and took her seat. Mr. Sundeep Sharma, MT of SSSAT then started his vote of thanks speech giving thanks to all the agencies involved and a special thanks to Umedbhai Tandel and the South Gujarat Ashram Committee for a wonderful job done. Mrs. Sharmila Patil mentioned that we Trustees only look at the legal aspects of the Trusts functioning but the real people who are at the front and working hard all the time are the Ashram Committees (Pujya Guruma appreciated this comment and clapped). After the vote of thanks Saurashtra Ashram Committee members came and made an appeal for sponsorship for the proposed Kailash Kher musical concert to be held in Rajkot on January 8, 2017.

At 9.20 the conches announced the arrival of His Holiness Swamiji. As Swamiji took His seat Ramkaka requested Swamiji thrice to shower us with His nectar through the discourse.
My salutations to all the pious souls who have come here! From the first day of this shibir it has been my effort to recognise the mistakes we have committed in our life, and next not to repeat the same in life. Like when we go inside a well-known temple, well-known meaning where our expectations are fulfilled. We go in front of the idol in which some saint, some mahatma has established his energy by giving that idol life-force and that saint himself is inward looking. When we go in front of such an idol we too become inward looking for a moment and at that moment we reach close to our soul, and we thus feel good. We reach our soul, but don’t stay there, because we remember our problems and we pray to solve the problems. Problem is of the body not of the soul, so when we pray we all come out immediately. We are near our soul and back! It is like taking a horse to water but not allowing it to drink. Similarly, we go close to our soul but are back immediately because of our problems and this does not allow us to stay with our soul and we come back. Same thing happens at a Samadhi – we go there where there is a consciousness filled body, the subtle body of that saint is present there, and because of that energy we go within in a moment and reach our soul – we reach but come back because we remember our pledges, problems. The same thing happens in front of a living Guru. He is inward looking (antarmukhi), and in his aura our inward journey begins, we go inside and reach our soul, we feel good but do not become stable. We come out immediately – so we make these mistakes in temples, samadhis, in proximity of a living Guru! Have we learnt anything from that? It is possible you have got rid of problems because of that. Don’t you have any problems? You have, we have become dependent on temples, samadhis to solve these problems. These is no place where you can go and solve your problems, you have to come home – there is no living Guru who is going to stay with you till the very end, it is impossible. Forget proximity, even a Guru’s darshan is because of the good effects of your past birth. Till balance is there it is good, once it gets over then nothing. It is like a cheque – if your cash is over, once encashed and spent then there will be no cheque or cash. What is the way to save – invest in a place where more cash is generated. And that place is your soul, the more you use this proximity to go within this will remain stable. I got proximity of 5 days, you have got for years – I took it within in that time and I took hold of his Guru-karya and for me he is present in that form. But we cannot physically know this changed form, our mind will object. But if you become one with it then you will know from within. A Guru only changes form – he is present with Guru-karya in collectivity – you are so lucky to have got proximity for years – I had for only 5 days, but those 5 days I am continuing to experience for so many years. I desire that you use this proximity to go within, go to your soul, you know who you are – ask yourself these questions: who am I? where have I come from? Where am I going? What is the purpose of my life? Who is my Guru? What is my relation with him? This cannot happen at level of the body and mind, you can only understand only at the soul level. Guru-karya is only a motive, and excuse to satisfy your ego, that you are also doing something, else the Guru-energies are doing it subtly. You feel you are doing such great Guru-karya. Hence you won’t understand at the physical level, many books say such things and one feels how can one write like this! That person has reached a height and writes at his level and he feels everyone is as mature as him, so we will not understand at his level unless we reach that level. Hence it is necessary to expand our spiritual state. I stress on the spiritual state because your state makes the soul strong, then that soul does not need to pray. You become such a soul that there is nothing to be achieved in life – you become completely satisfied – no desire to live, you are ready for death at every moment. When I meditate while leaving the body, saints want to learn that technique, but their love of body is still there – and they ask what if do not return to the body?!? I tell them there is no guarantee. Your fear of death will go when you have achieved everything, fulfilled all desires and you do not have any further desire to live. Fear of death is the biggest fear. There is no more desire to live, free of desire, free of your relations, no reason to live for which you need to take on another birth. So, if you ask today will I get moksha in this birth – I can only say you have got it – but you need to maintain it; my experience – I have no desire to receive anything. Even if I meet it is because of their good karmas – I don’t take, I only give. See where they have reached. Nothing to do, there is nothing left – it is a mukt awastha (free state). Such a state I got from Shiv Baba. After this your life is for others. When you have nothing to do for yourselves, you do for others. Yesterday excess vibrations were coming during the bhajans. The more you give the more it increases. Now proof is required for everything – what was my state earlier and what is my state now. My aura photo was taken ten years ago and one was taken recently in London. Where one gets what benefit, I don’t know. The UK aura benefit I got recently during my visit to Sri Lanka. These photos had already reached Sri Lanka before me. The Buddhist monks told me that your aura is like that of Lord Buddha. All this has increased in your presence (Swamiji is referring to His aura and Samarpan Meditation both). Many countries are joining and there are many countries in line to join next year. All this progress has happened in your presence. This sapling has become a tree, then why not me? If you are fully surrendered, then your aura should be like mine – this is my desire. Till that happens my purpose in life is not fulfilled. I don’t have ill feeling towards others, you too should not have. Love is not for friends, relatives – this love should be universal – for all sentient and non-sentient beings – it should be open for all. Next, I am not a saint, ascetic – I am a family man, there is no difference between you and me – Gurus have sent me as an example – why can you not become like me?! A simple person like me has been selected and kept in front of you. A householder can advance so much spiritually, such that saints, sages come to his door to fetch him. A householder is not abnormal or of a low type, he creates a new generation, he develops ashrams, an ascetic cannot do all this. It is like a lotus flower which blooms in the muck. Its roots and stem are in the muck but the flower itself does not allow the muck to tarnish its beauty. You stay with your family, but keep the soul’s existence separate. Atma is just Atma – if you can do that, only then will you progress spiritually. Make a small place in your house your very own place. It is necessary to have solitariness to find your own soul. Many people meditate like that – there should be no soul within 15 feet of you. Meditate and your aura will start expanding. As you practice your aura increases, and you will start hearing a humming sound, and as soon as someone enters your aura field that sound will stop. If it does not happen then go to the centre, learn to meditate in the company of people who are not in a good state – when you do that your energy will be donated, the centre’s vibrations increase – liberation is donating your divine energy (Chaitanya ka daan hai moksha). Meditate alone, become capable, go to the centre and give. Foreign sadhaks are poor, they have low collectivity. Take benefit of your huge collectivity.
On this 23rd Gadhi sthan is being established in Ajmer – take such opportunities for joining in the collectivity. Meditate alone to enhance capability and meditate in collectivity for gaining control. Practice driving at high speed with control. If you get catches because of others, you will learn to bear the pain. Don’t let on that you have caught something. Do without expectation, meditate without expectation. You may now ask questions – but not at the physical level – ask questions at the soul level. If you ask me about your personal problems then I have only one answer – meditate, meditate, meditate. So now I have given you the answer to your personal problems, do not ask such questions, ask spiritual questions.

It was 10am when the questions and answers session started.

1.    You said in today’s discourse – we reach our soul and become one with our soul – who becomes one with soul?
Swamiji: It is your ego which becomes one with the soul.

2.   You say keep your chitta on the crown chakra and meditate, can we use breath to control, is it necessary to take breath to meditate?
Swamiji: This method of meditation takes you only upto the brow chakra, we have to meditate by keeping our chitta on the crown chakra. If we see some deity in our agya chakra, it is both good and bad. It is good because this means that you have at least reached the agya chakra, but you have not reached completeness, hence bad. If you have established Ram in your agya chakra and you see Ram it means that you have recollected from your subconscious what you have established over there. God is formless, means you see nothing. People get stuck at the agya chakra, you do not get stuck there, you need to go further.

3.   If we meditate does fault of our ancestors affect us? What do we need to do to remove these faults and obtain peace for our ancestors? Please guide.
Swamiji: Pray with complete faith, nothing else needs to be done. For the faults of your ancestors if you keep repeating the same prayers again and again then nothing will happen. Just pray with full faith once and then let go. If after your prayers still nothing happens, then it is the effect of your past birth and you have to endure it. Do not repeat prayers.

4.    I experienced that the soul and body are separate. Is there any state above this? If there is, could you please make us experience it?
Swamiji: It is nothing, just meditate, meditate, meditate and you will experience all states automatically. The complete/ultimate state is the one in which no expectations remain and there is nothing further to be achieved.

5.    What is the soul? There was a video doing the rounds on social media showing the soul which looked like human form leaving the body. What do you have to say?
Swamiji: Remember only the soul. Reach a state where you are neither a male or a female. Research has been carried on about the soul. When a person dies, the weight of the person reduces by 21 grams, hence it was concluded that the soul weighs 21 grams.
Guruma then said – the video in question was discussed on TV and the journalists found out that there was no death in that hospital on that day. What has been captured on the CCTV is most likely the aura of the sick person.

6.    I had this experience of a mausoleum where a samadhist Guru was interred. What is the difference between kundalini and subtle body – does the smadhist saint take birth again?
Swamiji: If there is no next birth only then the subtle body develops at the mausoleum (Samadhi sthal) and if there is a next birth then the subtle body goes with that person’s soul.

7.   What is kundalini energy? Where is it located? Is it necessary for it to get activated for spiritual progress? Does it get activated with Guru’s Grace or the Grace of the Guru Energies? Or is there some other process? How do we measure our spiritual progress? How do we know we are progressing? Please guide.
Swamiji: In the Dnyaneshwari – in the 6th stanza there is a reference to the kundalini energy and this is the first recorded reference on what is kundalini Shakti. What happens after the kundalini energy rises – that also is mentioned in it. Firstly, all chakras become good, they are cleansed; all illnesses are connected to these chakras so if your chakras are good then there is no illness. Thoughts reduce, if you get thoughts then later the intensity of thoughts reduces, the gaps between thoughts increases. The silent gaps between thoughts become longer and you obtain control over your chitta, once control comes your chitta becomes strong and then a connection is established between atma-Paramatma (Soul-Supreme Soul). Saint Dnyaneshwar asked his Guru whether he should give this experience to others. I have written what you asked me to write. His Guru told him that that was not his sphere and nor was it the correct time. That time will come after 800 years when it will get awakened in collectivity. He was not authorised. We are those blessed people who are living in the time referred to in the Dnyaneshwari. In Rishikesh you will meet saints who live in caves and in trees, waiting for self-realisation. You have got it easily. There are 2 types of people – one type is those who did not seek self-realisation, but who got because of the good deeds of their past birth. The 2nd type is those who are born for self-realisation and they take the opportunity. The first type got it unexpectedly and hence they do not value it and do not meditate regularly. Those who recognise it, value it and their aim is to attain self-realisation in this birth. The kundalini is positioned at the base of the muladhar (root) chakra. During pregnancy if the mother has negative thoughts then a feeling of guilt gets established in the foetus. That child is subsequently born with a blocked vishuddhi (throat) chakra. The one who is awakening the kundalini should be pure – it is not easy to awaken the kundalini, if the awakened person so desires then the awakening happens. Once the kundalini reaches the sahastrar (crown) then all chakras get energised, you become healthy, thoughts reduce. Whether we progress or not we come to know during our life. People who don’t like you, they start coming to meet you. You need to maintain your state. For 7-8 months’ you meditate and make your chitta strong, but you have no control. In such situations when you put your attention on others you take their negative energies and become a dustbin. Your chitta should be under your control. If you progress a little it is fine, but the progress should be under control. If you learn this, then spiritual progress also happens with control. All religions talk about retaining what is good and letting go of what is bad. The process is to awaken your soul, but this is difficult and it takes a lifetime to do so. Self-realisation means your inner lamp is lit and once your soul lights up, you start seeing your own dark spots yourself. Just like when you light a lamp which has spots on it, the lamp will see it first. You will stop seeing faults of others – this does not mean that you have climbed the first step. On the first step, you will start seeing your own faults as they are closest to you. After meditation, it is a practise, sadhana, it is not like you blow and it just happens! People ask me whether I awaken kundalini. I say no, it happens automatically just like when you take a lit candle close to an unlit candle and the unlit candle lights up in the proximity of the lit candle. It lights up by itself. This happens in His proximity because of power of collectivity. He looks ordinary but he is not. He has the collectivity of lakhs of souls. When I was in UK at Penrhiew I got an experience. There was a journalist and she asked me how do I explain to my colleagues that you are different. You and I are alike, how do I make them understand that you are different. I told that journalist to try and reach that hilltop alone. It is very difficult. But if a person reaches that hilltop with 60 years of penance, he then comes down slowly making a path for ordinary persons by removing obstacles and then makes a gate at the bottom and waits there. If anyone wants to reach the top, then I tell them that I have returned from there and removed all the obstacles, you walk on this known path, if you take this path it will take you to the top. It is my desire that every person reaches the top which is called moksha. It is no longer a path, it is now a highway! Reaching from here is easy, I am guiding you, but you have to reach it yourself. This body is connected with lakhs of souls, and this collectivity will definitely benefit you. Once I was staying in a resort in Mumbai and I was meditating below a mango tree at 4 in the morning. A couple had come for their morning walk. They started talking with me and I spoke with them for half an hour. The next morning again they were waiting for me. Once I acknowledged them the man said that he was in the Information Technology profession and a problem had been bothering him for a very long time, but yesterday a miracle happened, as he found the solution to his problem immediately on reaching office. This person was sitting only for half an hour, you are sitting for 3 days! From tomorrow, there will be great positive change in your life also. Make a note of today, write down your experience and see the difference. Re-visit these 3 days in times of depression.

8.   Samarpan Meditation which has come in society in which we have been told to do two practices which operate in a subtle form – chanting the Guru Mantra and the Guru Ahavan Mantra – how will these two practices occur in pure form? And the pronunciation of these two mantras, the nuances which are there in these, they are not just a group of words, so the subtle matter in them, if you can explain these in great detail and if ‘Samarpan Meditation’ has to last till the sun-moon last, so please give a solution for this.
Swamiji: I meet different religious leaders – your religion is based on meditation, but meditation is no longer practised and only rituals remain. We catch hold of rituals very easily, we wear a scarf and take our chitta on to the sahastrar – you wear the scarf but is your chitta really on the sahastrar? Those who cannot meditate during meditation get a meditative state while performing aarti. Some people who are meditating at the start of the aarti are shaken and made to get up for the aarti. Such kind of drama occurs in all centres. While a Guru is alive, he keeps his attention on all this. After my death, I am afraid that only rituals will remain. My experience about the Ganpati Atharvashirsh is that I did not learn it or anything, it just got transferred to me like in a u-tube – from my Guru who had established it in himself to me. I don’t know Sanskrit, but it just came to me. Sanskrit scholars will be able to point out mistakes in my pronunciation. But when I recite the mantra, vibrations flow from it because I have absorbed this from him. Don’t give importance to pronunciation etc., give importance to feelings (bhav) – you will feel its impact when you chant it with pure feelings. A child uses a baba gadi (baby walker) to learn to walk and leaves it after some time. These are all baby walkers – photo, scarf, lamp, aarti, etc. Learn to walk, your entire attention, your chitta should be on that soul, through whose medium you can reach this spiritual experience. Do not go on external form and colour, clothes – whenever you get proximity, whenever you come in my proximity, learn to place your chitta on that soul, who has created me. It has an external form, go into the form within and realise for yourself that these physical eyes are not fir for it. You will have to go to your soul’s sanctity and look with the soul’s eyes to experience my soul. Your and my connection is at the soul-level, experience the soul and you can do so by using meditation as a medium. Apart from meditation everything else that you do/use are just baby walkers – main thing is meditation and through meditation spiritual experience. Think a bit, only one experience is happening to all the people across the globe, whichever language, colour, race, country, etc one belongs to. There is no difference, one kind of experience for everybody. Your entire chitta should be on the spiritual experience. This is because of our soul-level relationship. To get that experience, we have taken on all these rituals. I tell all religious leaders, all the baby walkers should go, but not meditation. Whether you stand for aarti or not, wear a scarf or not, chant the mantra or not – the main thing is whether you connect with me or not. If you concentrate on this, you will move towards the core. A person got a stomachache and hence went to the doctor. The doctor gave him 3 medicines – to be taken in the morning, afternoon and evening. He called the doctor and asked him how to take the medicine. The doctor said take it with milk. Then the patient asked cows or buffalo milk? Doctor said cow – he asked white cow or black cow? White cow – hot milk or cold milk? The doctor said come and return the medicine and do what you want! (laughter in the audience). This has happened – the relationship should be like that of a u-tube, things should happen automatically.

Last year I conducted a shibir with 90 Jain monks. It was a 4-day shibir. One Gutchadhipati (top religious head amongst Jains) wrote to me saying that you are a scholar and have read our Jain scriptures. I kept the letter in my pocket and met him after the shibir. I told him as far as book is concerned, I have not read any book. I have lived with Jain sages in the Himalayas, meditated with them, we never discussed religion, and their knowledge just got transferred to me automatically. One kind of knowledge gets transferred from teacher to student through teaching, another kind of knowledge is that which cannot be taught but gets transferred from teacher to student on the complete, unconditional surrender of the student to the teacher. This happens because of soul-level relationship. This is inner-knowledge. When you totally and unconditionally surrender, it will happen, I cannot stop it. Beyond that there is nothing – all rituals are nothing but roles which you play to reach that state. These are roles for you to go within. There is a close connection between havan and meditation. Meditation is your own havan and the best time to meditate is 4am. You raise the heat in your body and it exits from the sahastrar, Rambhai helps you to do that. Do not catch hold of the ritual of havan – we create our own havan, which destroys our thoughts, illnesses, etc. This havan is to be performed when it is cool – like in the early mornings or late evenings. One request – you can take it to the next generation. All rituals are roles to obtain spiritual experience, our roles should not become so big that only rituals remain and not meditation. Every year, lots of countries are joining, leave me free to do my work, if you keep me busy in Ashrams in India, then I will be stuck with you. Leave me free to do my work. In Singapore, I met a person on the beach. If I change my place, country, etc I am always with you. The owner of 4 dogs was dragging them home by their chains. The dogs did not want to go home, and they were busy looking here and there. They did not want to go home! I see the sadhaks as those dogs and the owner as me. If I let go of the leash everyone will go his own way. I have caught hold of you and am dragging you towards moksha. The Guru catches you and drags you because of his attachment. The difference between a samadhist Guru and me – there is no control. Think about it. When you leave my proximity your chitta is wavering. Focus entirely on meditation and let go of the rituals.

9.   This question related to Hanuman and him being sapt-cheeranjeevi – Swamiji said I do not have any experience or knowledge of this so I cannot answer.

10.  When I meditate I hear the Brahmanaad and the sound keeps moving around inside my head, sometimes behind, sometimes left, right or top. What is this sound? Is this the sound of the universe?
Swamiji: Place your hand on your sahastrar and centralize the sound on the sahastrar (Swamiji was speaking with a lot of love and kindness). Nobody should be near you for at least 15 feet. This is like the sound of an empty pipe when you put your ear to it – this sound comes from within you. As your aura develops you will hear it. This is your own world. We cannot have world peace, but we can establish peace within our own small world, this is our own personal space, if any disturbed person comes in your space, he should find peace. Wherever you go, your peaceful world goes with you. You can create such a world for yourself. By meditating you should be able to create your own 15-20 feet world for yourself and you can create it for yourself and it will be in your control. When this happens, you will not have any accidents, no illnesses – this world is in your control. Your own protection can be created by you, the protection of your aura. Last year in Goa, the International Retreat took place and we had discussions on each nation’s problems. Every citizen of every country felt insecure. If you want protection create your own protective shield. I tell the Jain monks to do this so that no accident takes place. Efforts are taking place for holding shibirs for the Armed Forces so that they too get complete protection. You should free me to do my work, don’t tie me down! Scientifically it can be proven – the soldier’s aura before and after meditation can be seen and verified. Once you become strong and capable you will provide security to others too. Stay clean in society like a lotus. Your family is of 4-8 people, my family consists of lakhs of people, with innumerable problems. The proof is in front of you. It is my pure wish that you reach that state.

11.   It is my wish and prayer to you that the Mehudi Ashram in Ahmedabad should be created. Please guide.
Swamiji: We now have got so many Ashrams, there are already two in Gujarat. Lots of development activity is taking place. Now something different needs to be done. I am thinking of creating a girl’s school/college on that plot of land. Once we do that then the values instilled in the children will be permanent. Their entire life will be connected with that. From childhood to college strong values will be instilled. But this will happen with your approval only, if you say yes, then only it will happen.

12.  How does life change from before starting Samarpan Meditation to post Samarpan Meditation?
Swamiji: Experience this for yourself, meditate and find out for yourself. Focus on your soul and find out. The location of the soul easily as that place becomes like a block of ice. Take decisions based on your experience, many times we go and say yes based on influence of others. Yesterday Parasbhai asked me whether we should say the shanti paath, I said okay. Then the bhajan singer asked for one last bhajan, I said okay. When you ask me something, it should be balanced, your own wish should not be attached to it. The youth ask me questions on marriage. They create a background and then ask me whether I should marry or not? I say – yes – if you give me options and do not attach your own wishes then I can give you correct decision else I will say yes to whatever you want. The sages in the Himalayas – no one can go within 500 miles of them without their wish. I went because they allowed me to – all of them used to say your container is big, your container is big. I checked in the river (laughing) and saw whether my head (container) was really big. The sages said your desire to give is unlimited (reference of container was for desire to give). They came to know that immediately. This is also true of singers, artists and other creative people – they have the desire that their knowledge/skill should reach the maximum number of people. All Gurus also felt the same thing – so they gave their knowledge to a medium who could then give it to the maximum number of people. The maximum number of people this knowledge can reach it is good. Their desire was to make their knowledge available all over the globe, but they could not do so, so they got me. The donations should also reach and benefit the maximum number of people. So, you give your donations to a person through whom donations reach all people. Hence, donations given to a Guru reaches more people. The Guru Shakti Dham is like that. Money has no importance - this will happen and last for the next 800 years. You have an opportunity now to connect, this opportunity will not be there tomorrow. There is no greater donation than that of self-realisation. Clothes etc. will get destroyed. Guru Shakti Dham experience will make them strong and self-sufficient. They won’t need donation then. You do not know the future results, but I know them. I know how many souls the Gurus Shakti Dham is going to benefit, you don’t. I keep telling you to donate, because it will help others get self-realisation. Research will take place tomorrow on how people can get self-realisation in the idol’s proximity. There is no greater good deed (punya karma) than the donation of self-realisation. Sadhaks/sadhikas ask me whether there is no liberation without giving birth to a male child. The thing is, if some soul takes birth through your medium then he/she is your child. Understand the importance of self-realisation. No work will stop because of the lack of money. You should not go into guilt that you could not even contribute one brick to the Guru Shakti Dham. Stay in the present and meditate regularly. Focus on your inner experiences during meditation, everything else is useless. Namaskar!
      
      After the end of this answer, the final session came to an end. As always one got the feeling why does this have to end. But as always, one is reconciled to all good things coming to an end. It was 12.30 and we went back to the bedding hall, finally packed the bags, folded the sheets and kept them on the bed. We then went for our Prasad, after which I was to attend a meeting at 1.30pm in the library. I had informed the sadhaks with me about the meeting and had requested them to wait for me near the registration counter. A sadhak had requested me to get Swamiji’s gold pendant for his relative, which I went and did later. At 1.25pm I reached the office and a sevadhari told me the meeting has already started, so I went to the library, but it was a Trustee meeting and everybody just looked at me, and Khamankarji said come on let’s wind up it is 1.30pm. I got the feeling that I had intruded and quietly left and waited outside in the office. About ten minutes later, I was called and the meeting on the arrangements for the Kailash Kher concert took place. At around 2.30pm we wound up and I came out. Sridhar and Harish were waiting outside – they had already brought my bag with them. I said Jai Baba Swami to all and gave the key to Harish, he said he will get the car out as I went and collected the Prasad on handing over the entry card to the volunteer. All of us then sat in the car and left for Mumbai. As Sridhar’s flight was at 9.30pm we had to reach Mumbai by at least 8.30pm. We were well in time as the traffic was not so heavy and toll on all the toll booths had been waived due to the annulling of the high denomination notes by the Government. We reached Fountain at about 6.15pm, dropped Veenaji and moved on. There was a line at Dahisar toll booth too, but here too they were not collecting toll. We next dropped off Deepaliji at Borivali, Harish at Andheri and as we crossed the Andheri flyover, I looked at the watch – it was 7.15pm and I told Sridhar we should reach the domestic airport by7.45pm (don’t know why I said it because it is less than 5 minutes from that spot). As we entered the Santa Cruz airport I asked Sridhar whether he was flying Indigo on the return trip too. He looked at me in surprise and said no, he was flying Jet Airways. I said, o shoot – then we have to go to the international terminal. It was 7.27pm when we came around again and Sridhar said drop me near an auto I will go. I told him to chill, and that I would drop him. I also told him it’s not his fault as I had said 7.45pm meant my soul knew something was wrong. I told him to check the watch when we reached the international terminal – it was exactly 7.45pm. We dropped him, said Jai Baba Swami and left for home. I dropped Prabhaji at Vakola and reached home incident-free at 8.10pm.

One thing I observed this time was the silence. The silence amongst the sadhaks had increased, no useless chatter. The ambience was peaceful and filled with energy. The organisation and management was impeccable – a million thanks to all those who were part of this Guru-karya both directly and indirectly. May His Holinesses Blessings shower on them always.

After the end of this answer, the final session came to an end. As always one got the feeling why does this have to end. But as always, one is reconciled to all good things coming to an end. It was 12.30 and we went back to the bedding hall, finally packed the bags, folded the sheets and kept them on the bed. We then went for our Prasad, after which I was to attend a meeting at 1.30pm in the library. I had informed the sadhaks with me about the meeting and had requested them to wait for me near the registration counter. A sadhak had requested me to get Swamiji’s gold pendant for his relative, which I went and did later. At 1.25pm I reached the office and a sevadhari told me the meeting has already started, so I went to the library, but it was a Trustee meeting and everybody just looked at me, and Khamankarji said come on let’s wind up it is 1.30pm. I got the feeling that I had intruded and quietly left and waited outside in the office. About ten minutes later, I was called and the meeting on the arrangements for the Kailash Kher concert took place. At around 2.30pm we wound up and I came out. Sridhar and Harish were waiting outside – they had already brought my bag with them. I said Jai Baba Swami to all and gave the key to Harish, he said he will get the car out as I went and collected the Prasad on handing over the entry card to the volunteer. All of us then sat in the car and left for Mumbai. As Sridhar’s flight was at 9.30pm we had to reach Mumbai by at least 8.30pm. We were well in time as the traffic was not so heavy and toll on all the toll booths had been waived due to the annulling of the high denomination notes by the Government. We reached Fountain at about 6.15pm, dropped Veenaji and moved on. There was a line at Dahisar toll booth too, but here too they were not collecting toll. We next dropped off Deepaliji at Borivali, Harish at Andheri and as we crossed the Andheri flyover, I looked at the watch – it was 7.15pm and I told Sridhar we should reach the domestic airport by7.45pm (don’t know why I said it because it is less than 5 minutes from that spot). As we entered the Santa Cruz airport I asked Sridhar whether he was flying Indigo on the return trip too. He looked at me in surprise and said no, he was flying Jet Airways. I said, o shoot – then we have to go to the international terminal. It was 7.27pm when we came around again and Sridhar said drop me near an auto I will go. I told him to chill, and that I would drop him. I also told him it’s not his fault as I had said 7.45pm meant my soul knew something was wrong. I told him to check the watch when we reached the international terminal – it was exactly 7.45pm. We dropped him, said Jai Baba Swami and left for home. I dropped Prabhaji at Vakola and reached home incident-free at 8.10pm.

One thing I observed this time was the silence. The silence amongst the sadhaks had increased, no useless chatter. The ambience was peaceful and filled with energy. The organisation and management was impeccable – a million thanks to all those who were part of this Guru-karya both directly and indirectly. May His Holinesses Blessings shower on them always.

Jai Baba Swami

Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did reliving it. Gurudev Bless!!