Mahashivaratri – 2017

Dandi Ashram, Navsari, 24^th February, 2017

We were to be nine sadhaks travelling to Navsari on 23^rd, but in the end two dropped out and two decided to travel late in the evening, as a result our two cars reduced to one and we had a pretty comfortable journey. I left home at 5.07 am and picked up Deepaliji and Harishji at 5.23am (8 minutes behind schedule). I had requested Umeshji to be ready on the highway at Mira Road at 5.45am. I reached the spot at 5.40am, ahead of schedule and we waited for Umeshji who came bang on time. We got stuck at the Vasai creek bridge for about 15 minutes and then we were on our way to the Ashram. We got very heavy traffic and weaving through the traffic made the going a bit slow. I had factored this parameter into the travel time and had informed our fellow sadhaks that we would reach the Ashram by 10am. After a breakfast halt of 45 minutes at Vithal Kamats at 7am, we left for Dandi and reached the Ashram at 10.15am. During the journey, I called Hotel Regency and told them that we would check in at around 8pm and they said not worry as two rooms were booked!

We spent the day having spiritual discussions, some fun and banter, visiting the stalls, etc. Made some purchases too from the Saurashtra Ashram stall where clothes made from ‘Khadi’ cotton were on display. After ‘prasad’ we had meetings lined up from 2am onwards till 7.15 in the evening. After the various meetings, we had evening ‘prasad’ and then left for the hotel. We checked in at around 8.45pm and retired by 9.30pm for the night. Next morning I woke up 2.30am and completed my morning formalities, after which it was Umeshji’s turn. Not to waste too much time I then went and settled the bill, returned and sat for meditation with Umeshji. Deepaliji’s call interrupted us, and we got up and left for breakfast arranged by the hotel. We met Khamankarji and family, Jitu Patwariji and some sadhaks from Goa. After breakfast, we left for the Ashram at around 4.10am and reached by 4.50am. After parking the car, we went and took our seats and soaked in the atmosphere. While leaving Navsari it was warm and as we entered the Ashram it was pleasantly cool, maybe around 19 degrees. There was a cool breeze blowing and lots of vehicles were coming in. Expected attendance was in the region of 25000 plus people.

Even though blowing of horns in the Ashram premises is not permitted, there was a lot of hooting going on, plus the reverse parking musical horns. As a rule, we should instruct sadhaks having cars with reverse parking musical horns to either silence the horns or park their cars outside Ashram premises. Even after taking our seats the honking and musical horns continued for quite a while disturbing the calm and divine consciousness filled atmosphere.

At exactly 5.15am Rambhai started the meditation to balance ourselves before the advent of His Holiness Swamiji. The meditation was deep and profound with waves of consciousness passing through the body. When the meditation started, it was warmish, then it became slightly colder and towards the end the temperature must have been at around 16 degrees. The meditation lasted for 25 minutes. Thereafter Rambhai announced that the Jain monks and sadhvis and other dignitaries would be welcomed by Anuragji, Ambareeshji, Tandelji and Sundeepji. First Jain monks – Prashant Muniji, then Tarachand Muniji and Muniji were welcomed by Anuragji and Ambareeshji. The Jain sadhvis – Ushabai Mahasatiji, Sangeetabai Mahasatiji, Ramabai Mahasatiji, Ramyetabai Mahasatiji, Amritjyoti Mahasatiji, Sudarshan Mahasatiji, Antarjyoti Mahasatiji, Akhandjyoti Mahasatiji were all welcomed by Dakshaben. Bhartiben Shah, MP, was welcomed by Managing Trustee Sundeep Sharmaji. Dignitaries of the corporate world were welcomed by Tandelji.

At 6.00 Her Holiness Guruma took her seat with the blowing of conches and thunderous applause. ‘Pavitra Atma’ (The Pure Soul) – a compilation of His Holiness Swamiji’s divine messages issued every Thursday during the 11^th 45-days Deep Meditation Practicum in the form of a booklet in Hindi, Gujarati, English and Marathi was launched at the hands of Guruma. Thereafter, a MP3 CD titled ‘Prerna’ (Inspiration) comprising of Her Holiness Guruma’s Makar Sankranti discourse was also launched. It was announced that these books were now available for sale and each sadhak should take a copy of the divine messages. The uniqueness of this booklet is that it has a message for every section of society and would prove to be a wonderful guide to all. I’ll tell you some inside news. While speaking with Jayeshbhai, he mentioned that the tempo had left Mumbai with the books at 5.40pm yesterday, but reached Dandi only at 4am on 24^th! This was cutting things really fine – apparently the driver of the tempo was falling asleep all the time – probably could not fathom and comprehend that he was carrying a mass of energy in the form of those booklets and hence kept falling asleep at the wheel. But with His Grace the books reached in time and Jai Baba Swami for that!! J

After the launch of the ‘sahitya’, the chant – Shiv Krupanand Swami Namo Namaha – started playing in Her Holiness Guruma’s voice. As the chant started divine energy started flowing as if on cue! As the energy started playing with the crown chakra and started flowing through the body, a deep calm engulfed me and I sat through it with eyes closed with attention on the crown chakra. At exactly 6.10am His Holiness came on stage to the blowing of conches and shouts of Baba Swami Maharaj ki jai! Rambhai started saying the ‘Deep Prajolit Mantra’ as Swamiji lit the lamp and paid His respects to His Gurus. After lighting the lamp, a lady started screaming and continued for a couple of minutes as Swamiji sat with His eyes closed. After a few minutes, she either stopped or volunteers took her away – don’t know what happened. Rambhai then requested Swamiji to shower his nectar on the participants through His discourse.

The discourse started at 6.15am.

My Salutations to all the pious souls present here today. Today is the holy festival of Mahashivratri on which the Eleventh 45-days Deep Meditation Practicum comes to an end. All you holy and pure and souls have come to this place of worship, this holy place and have assembled as a collectivity of souls….(the speakers in the front were not functioning as a result it was almost impossible to hear what He was saying as the sound from the speakers behind were being merged with the echo and everything that was said was becoming very confusing, as a result I stopped writing. L ).

The birds were chirping away in happiness, as that is all I could hear due to the malfunction of front speakers. Pratapbhai went and spoke to someone to sort it out. The problem was sorted out after about ten minutes and we could now hear the discourse clearly. The crescent moon was in the sky appearing as if Lord Shiva Himself was watching the proceedings from up there!!

This Mahashivratri festival is a collective of souls. The name for the basic form of the soul itself is Shiva. Shiva is also called Bholenath, he is called Bholenath because he is the most simple, easiest fount of kindness to become pleased was Shivji. He is also called indestructible, universal consciousness personified was there yesterday, exists today and will be there tomorrow. A form of that universal consciousness is present within us in the form of the soul. Today we exist because of it, it is our God (our Soul). We give time to society, our family, our country, our language – we give to the whole world. Today you introspect and find out how much time you give to that soul, that Shiv, that Paramatma in your daily routine, what is the percentage of time you give? Today it is a day for introspection, this is a day of introspection for you as well as you. I too have introspected, I am placing before you the result of my introspection. Introspection makes the soul holy, pure, takes you close to the soul, hence introspection is a must. Through continuous introspection I have realised that I stay very close to you, near you; even though you may not be close to me I am close to all of you, near each one of you. You will say how is this possible, no you, only you are in this world, there is no one else like you in this world, each one of you has a separate existence. You may not recognise it, but I know it recognise it and I have a very old connection with you. You remember me at any time and see, you will find me with you in the form of divine energy. You may not be with me, but I am with you always, I am with you at every moment. It is necessary for you to know and recognise that proximity. In the entire world, you have taken on a separate existence, you just need to recognise that existence. You are just a diamond fallen in the muck, I have just removed you from the muck and cleaned it, washed it and have made you meet yourself. You are a soul and after experiencing that soul you have become capable. Just like you tell your mother, wake me up at 4am and after that I will study by myself. What happens is that we don’t have control over our own body. We don’t have control over our sleep, we don’t have control over our desires, hence we delegate this work to our mother. Mother, you wake me up at 4am, after that I will do everything. Because of my habits, I cannot wake up by myself, you just wake me up – this same work you had delegated to me. It happens, you had told me just remind me in my next birth that I am a soul, that I am a holy and pure soul. After reminding me, the path ahead, the road ahead I will walk by myself. Just remind me about it. Self-realisation is nothing, you just have to remind yourself that you are a soul and not a body. You felt this, you experienced this through a spiritual experience (anubhooti). Every person has an objective for taking birth on earth, after millions or crores of births you get the birth in human form to obtain self-realisation. To obtain self-realisation you have to keep on taking births and this cycle continues. Many times, in villages fairs take place in which a merry go round is there, and some person keeps operating it, which goes up and returns to the same place after turning full circle. We feel that the merry go round is spinning because of the operator, but he makes some heavy people on one side and some others on the other so when he pushes from one side then the weight of the person on the other side brings it down and so on, we feel that it is the operator who is doing the pushing which makes the wheel go round, but all this is just balancing as a result the swing keeps moving. 

Our life is also like that. We have taken birth only because of our thoughts. We take re-birth because of our thoughts, our feelings as a result we create karma – both good karma as well as bad, thus we took birth because of our karmas. We take birth and then create karma and then take another birth and this cycle keeps on repeating. Similarly, the swing operator is Paramatma. He gives us a push to bear or karmas and we keep enduring our karmas, as we keep going up and as we come down we keep on adding more and more karmas and this cycle keeps repeating itself. And this karma inspires us to take another birth. Jain monks call this physical body a sack of flesh and bones and it is full of muck – which body does not contain excreta, sweat, urine, etc. The body is full of excreta – we use perfumes, body odour repellants, etc because we cannot bear their own stink! We live in a body which stinks so much. It happens, isn’t it!! Then you start getting the fragrance of rose, the fragrance of sandalwood! Why? Is it from the body? How does this happen?? This happens because of the grace of the soul – the fragrance of sandalwood that too comes from this body in the proximity of the soul. I am getting this fragrance from this morning itself. This happens when we go close to our soul and this fragrance then emanates from the soul. This is a spiritual experience, and we doubt it – we think, how can such fragrance come, the intellect intervenes and tries to find out the external source of the fragrance and whether anyone has applied rose or sandalwood perfume! This body stinks, then from where does the fragrance come? This happens only through Paramatma’s Grace. It is said that this flesh and bone body is a sack of stinking muck, it stinks when alive and even after death! Look at any dead body, it starts stinking. Why do we come in such a body? Many souls experience the fragrance of roses, of sandalwood! The question is why have we assumed a stinking body when we are experiencing the fragrance of rose and sandalwood!! However dirty and stinky you call your body, but then this filthy body is the only path to moksha, to liberation – there is no shortcut, you have to assume this body and only then can you get liberation, moksha. It is necessary to find out why you have assumed this body – there is only one reason and that is ‘thoughts’. Like you cannot have a body without filthy excreta, similarly you cannot have a body without thoughts. Humans will think, they will always have some kind of thoughts. If you have good thoughts, you will give rise to good feelings, and if you give rise to good feelings then you create good karma and if you have bad thoughts you will give rise to bad feelings, and if you give rise to bad feelings then you create bad karma, then you have to take birth again to bear the fruits of such karma. If you do bad karma you have to birth to endure the bad karma and after taking birth, we forget the objective of our birth. There is an objective for everyone’s birth. Your birth has an objective, my birth has an objective. The objective of your birth is to receive self-realisation and the objective of my birth is to give self-realisation. You have received self-realisation and I have given it so the objective of my taking birth has been fulfilled. Like a school teacher who teaches his students throughout the year, takes great effort and when the exams approach, he tells them to sit at home one month prior and study alone, because the future path, the road ahead, the study/practise ahead has to be done by the student himself. Similarly, it was my work to give self-realisation and this work has been accomplished during my life-time. It was your job to obtain self-realisation and that work too is over. But, obtaining self-realisation is only a path, the spiritual practise going forward you will have to perform by yourself only, you only will have to do your practise, you yourself will have to select your path. Just imagine that there is a fort very high up and that there is a palace inside that fort. You know that there is a fort up there and a palace within that fort and we know that we have to reach that palace within. It is not visible but it is there. We know it is there, but it is not visible – what is visible is the fort, we can see it’s grand gate, it is beautiful and attractive gate – that is visible but we cannot see the palace. So, to reach that palace our objective is the gate only and we start moving slowly and steadily towards it; we give as much time as possible and try to climb towards the gate, and we go with the desire to reach that invisible palace. As we near it we can see that grand and attractive gate, it is so huge that we can see it from way below also. After reaching such a gate, we do not have to stop there, because your objective was not the grand gate of the fort, it was indicative, the palace inside was your objective. So, you will have to go beyond the fort’s gate! If you sit near the gate all your life, then you will never reach the palace. You will reach the palace only when you go past the fort’s gate. Guru is the door to the fort. After reaching it you will have to cross it, you will have to go beyond it. Once you obtain self-realisation the entire path ahead you will have to determine by yourself only. You may have come by the highway, but while leaving your home you would have decided in how much time you will reach the Ashram. First you determine the destination, then by what time I should reach, and after deciding this we leave Mumbai. And after leaving we keep watching, we stop for breakfast and snacks, at that time too we are observing the time and seeing whether we are within our pre-determined time-lines to reach the Ashram at the pre-determined time. Similarly, before birth the soul decides where I have to take birth, which religion, which caste, which house, which parents – all is pre-decided. Where I have to reach during my life-time, all this is pre-decided and he takes birth accordingly.

Next, once in Germany Dr Sachapara had asked me, when does the soul determine where it has to go, is it when the parents are together, or three months later when in the foetus. I have made a deep study about this. It happens at that very moment. Millions of sperm are moving about, and the soul picks one out of those. Even 45 days prior to that the soul decides on which parents to take birth through – which mother’s womb and through which father’s medium. And as the pregnancy progresses the mother’s spiritual state will keep improving. What I mean to say the soul pre-decides everything, where to go, etc just as you decide on coming to the Ashram. Once you leave the highway, then the remaining 20-25 kilometers you have to travel by yourself only. No highway takes you to your ultimate destination. Guru is also a kind of highway. You cannot stop on the highway, you can see good scenery, beautiful lakes and mountains, can you stop the car on the highway and look at the scene? No! Immediately the police will come and ask you to make a move on. The highway is only for you to move fast, so that you gather speed, and you journey is completed quickly, smoothly, comfortably; but the highway does not go to anyone’s doorstep. Hence, you too do not stick to me, make use of me to go ahead. After self-realisation you will have to reach yourself only. Lord Mahavir has said in beautiful words – meditation only is my religion. Knowing yourself itself is meditation. We know everyone else in the world, but we do not know ourselves. In the present time, the need for a Satguru in society is so great, that it was never so great in the past as it is now. Why am I saying this? Now, sit quietly for some time and introspect quietly. Nowadays everything takes you outward, mobiles, phones, websites, radio, TV, whatsapp, youtube – everything takes your chitta outside. All modern instruments are taking your chitta outwards. Everything gives you information about the outer world. When all instruments in the world are taking your chitta outside, then the chitta gets destroyed. Think about it, Satguru is so rare, only He is there in the world who can take you inside. He is the only asking you to go within when the rest of the world is telling you to go out. The path and the direction to go within is self-realisation. A father because of his attachment and love towards his son, gives him an invaluable diamond, when the child does not even know whether it is a diamond or a piece of glass. But the father gives it to him out of his attachment, the robber knows that there is a diamond in the child’s pocket but the child does not know it. Similarly, because of my attachment to you I have given this diamond of self-realisation to you, but I have not explained its importance. I have made the mistake of giving it to you without explaining the importance – I am now going to rectify that mistake. Self-realisation is that which can free you in your lifetime. Once you realise that you are a soul, then whatever good work you do, the best work you do you surrender to your Guru, these good karmas will not get credited to you, so you will not get tied to it and the Guru will not keep it with himself, he will use it for doing more good work. So you don’t get tied down by this and you will never do bad karmas as your soul will not let you do them, so you won’t be tied by bad karmas either. In many temples you will find a list of donors who have contributed to the temple, it is a very long list; but you look at our Ashrams, there is no name of any donor, it is not that people do not donate, lakhs of people contribute but there is no one’s name mentioned. Why is there no name? Because we do not want karma to be attached to his donation, because if the name is given then the karma will get attached and if karma is created then re-birth is assured. We don’t wish that the donor should take re-birth. What I mean to say is that if you do good or bad karma you will have to take birth again to endure it. When you surrender your good karma to the Guru, and the other thing is that you will never do bad karmas. To do bad karmas you need bad energy, and if there is no bad energy around you then you will never commit bad karmas. So when you are not going to do any good or bad karma then there is absolutely no reason for you to take rebirth. It is my last birth and this has to be your last birth too. So you practise you will have to do, I am not asking you to leave society, I am not asking you to leave your family I am not asking you to be a babaji and nor am I asking you to go to the Himalayas. All I am saying is to perform your work as a soul. What do you think – does a yogi have 4 hands, 4 legs, 2 heads, is he strange, is he different, no! A yogi is not strange, he is like you only, he is the same. Nobody can differentiate between a yogi and a bhogi (a worldly person) – but look the same. The only difference is that is a yogi performs any bhog (enjoyment), he does it with yog and a bhogi who performs yoga does it with bhog. Even if a yogi does something for enjoyment then he will do it with the pure feeling of being a holy and pure soul and hence it will not affect him. When a bhogi does yoga, he will be thinking about and discussing worldly matters. Hence, there is a beautiful example in our history. The ideal is King Janak – there is used to be music playing, dancers dancing, entertainment all round, but his chitta never used to be on any of this. He was there in his durbar but at the same time not there. He used to live his life as a soul. He is my deal, in spite of living a worldly life, in spite of all the wealth he lived the life as a soul, above all these things as a Brahmagyani. Similarly, there is a story of Guru Nanak. A mullah once asked him whether he would read the namaz, and Guru Nanak said that he would if the mullah also recites it. The mullah sat to read the namaz and then told Guru Nanak, se I have read it. Guru Nanak said where have you read you were selling horses in Arabia. Even when you were reading the namaz you were thinking how to sell horses in Arabia. A bhogi will be thinking of worldly matters while meditating, you can see him meditating but his chitta is not within, it is outside, it is roaming outside. I am not telling you to leave civilization, stay in everything but do not be attached to anything. Live like the lotus flower, in spite of its roots being in muck, it still blooms beautifully without being sullied. It is connected to the muck with its stem, but not one drop of muck is on the flower, attractive with good fragrance. Similarly stay in society and keep one corner, one place which is that of your own, on which place only you and only you are there, there is no one else with you; such a corner, such a place, if you make such a room, such a place in your lifetime then there is no greater thing than your soul, no greater thing than Paramatma. But it is necessary to know yourself and for you to go within, you will have to perform your spiritual practice yourself. Many times because of my attachment to you, I think of many things, but then I realise it is practically not possible. Once I had said, during Mahashivratri itself, that small, small cottages should be built so that sadhaks can also be given solitude for doing anushthan like I do anushthan for 45 days. Then I realised my own mistake. Only that person can stay alone who has in reality gone within, it makes no difference to him whether the body is alone or in a crowd. But a person whose chitta is focused outside, for him it is very difficult for to stay alone. Put such a person in a room alone for a couple of days, he will go mad, tear his clothes and come out. When he is thinking of the conditions outside the room, how will he stay inside, his entire attention is outside. You start your practice with one day, start with one day at least, if not then for 4 hours, 3 hours – practice staying alone. You should not get any thoughts, you should not get thoughts about anyone – practice this. In that solitariness give yourself time, in this running around give yourself time, you give your soul time now then during your last few moments no one will be of use to you, only your soul will prove useful. So give some time to that which is going to stay with you permanently, know it a bit, recognise it a bit. Next, if you have come by the highway your car is parked far away and you walk from your car to the Ashram slowly. So leave all you bookish knowledge behind, because till you do not let go of your bookish knowledge you will not attain Paramatma. You can only get spiritual experience if you let go of knowledge and your intellect.

Also, when you go to any temple, do you just go to the entrance of the temple and return? No! You go inside and take darshan of the deity within. You stay in line and go inside, it is my desire that today you should not go by taking the darshan of the temple only, but take darshan of the deity and then go. Darshan of deity means, do not look at this temple-like body look at that pure soul, experience that pure soul which resides within this body. The body is a temple, what is visible outside is just the outline, it is a destructible body, within is a holy and pure soul – and your connection with has been there for many births. But you cannot see with your eyes, you will have to shut your eyes and look at it with the eyes of your soul, you will then experience it, it is beyond being seen. It can only be experienced though divine vibration. The purer you make your soul you will realise that Paramatma lies within you. He is hidden, you need to bring him out, you need to recognise him. A sculptor dreams that there is the possibility of Krishna’s idol in a huge rock, Krishna is hidden within this rock. Then the sculptor slowly, slowly chips away at the rock and slowly and steadily Krishna emerges from that huge rock. In this manner the Paramatma lying within comes out after removing all the waste and dirt which lies on top and then later, Krishna’s idol emerges from within. Similarly Paramatma lies within each one of you, but along with him you also carry a lot of useless stuff, like feelings, emotions, once you sacrifice all these slowly you will reach that Paramatma, the path to Paramatma is Samarpan Dhyanjog. Samarpan Dhyanyog is not a sect, it is a path, don’t try to separate it by making it a sect.

It is necessary for you to know yourself, all paths will open out only after you know yourself. As you recognise yourself, there will be no feelings within you so you won’t perform any good or bad karmas. You will be in a free state, satisfied and completely happy, you may feel that I am repeatedly talking about the soul, about the spiritual state. In reality we are working at our level, at the physical level, there is difference of heaven and earth between the work which happens at the physical level and that which happens at the soul-level. I wish that you live your life at the soul-level rather than at the physical level then you will have all round progress. Once you become strong, then the qualities of the soul will start developing within you. It is the basic nature of the soul to forgive and seek forgiveness. If you develop a forgiving nature then so many tensions in life will come to an end, as you will keep forgiving everyone and won’t create any karma. We create so many tensions just because we are unable to forgive. Next, being unable to forgive is a physical-level feeling. I will explain an indication to you, I like this person - I don’t like this person, I like this thing - I don’t like this thing, I like this food - I don’t like this food – the more you keep saying ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, - these are all indications of physical feelings. If physical feelings end, all these things will end and you will forgive everybody. Next, speaking the truth is the basic nature of the soul. Look at a child, he always speaks the truth – he is taught to lie, it is like this – not like this etc. What is natural is to speak the truth, he will never lie. Who is operating at the physical level will lie, a person at the soul-level can never lie, it is not possible for him to lie.

It is the same with non-violence. This is also the basic nature – physical violence is something so remote. If someone murders someone then, first he thinks about it – meaning he kills himself first before killing someone else. First, he kills the humanity within him, then only can he kill some other human. Physical violence is a remote possibility, even thinking about violence will not be possible for you, you will never feel like hurting anyone, you will always try to ensure that no kind of violence takes place through you. The other thing is satisfaction, it is the basic nature of the soul to obtain satisfaction. You will yourself be fulfilled, totally satisfied, you won’t have any desires, you will feel you do not need anything at all. When your soul becomes strong it will give you protection. It is said that Shivji’s other name is Mahakaal – he gives protection to everyone. As soon as you submit to the soul, the soul will provide you with complete protection, you will not get affected by any virus, you will not be involved in any accident, nothing bad will happen to you, nothing at all – this is because you are under the protective shield of your soul. Today there is such a great need for protection. Just observe, maximum number of youngsters are involved in road accidents. So many changes are taking place all over the world, situations are changing and with these changes the question of security is looming larger and larger day by day. That security, that protection can only be given by you to yourself – so, you lead a life as a holy and pure soul then you will get protection for your life. It is necessary for regular spiritual practice, it is necessary to meditate, you give time to everyone, now give some time to your soul, stay with your soul. Spiritual progress is overall progress – it is progress in all spheres of life. Next, it is a wrong notion that you cannot progress spiritually by leading a worldly life, by staying in society, by staying with your family. I have been sent into society by my Gurus to break this misconception. Look, it is now 22 years since I have come into society, there are three photographs of my aura and these photographs are a proof which show my state 15 years ago, 10 years ago, and how my state is today. Today is the age of intellectualism where everyone want proof – so there us the proof. Whereas problems come in your life, my life also has seen its share of problems, I have faced lots of problems – your family has only 4 people, look at my family which has millions of people and I have to face all their problems and in spite of being in the midst of everything I am not in the midst of anything. So why don’t you make this state yours too! It is not that I am telling you to run away, however big your area of work becomes, you make a separate existence of yourself. Next, we have to take entire society with us, what is happening now is that the intellectual people are growing very fast in society, but emotional people/people with feelings are not growing so fast, hence the level of the intellect is growing day by day. It is necessary for spiritual experience – anubhooti is the only medium by which the intellectual people can be explained at the intellectual level. It is my desire that what I have not been able to do in my lifetime, you should do in the future, make a research centre, a research laboratory, in which you experiment on the changes which happen at the physical and mental levels after meditating for 45 days. According to the WHO, not only physical health but also mental health is connected to it. Everything happens, change occurs in the brain, it all happens and all this can be proved by using MRI scans – so create a research centre by which all this can be proved and established. Experiments are taking place in England, similarly you too can conduct experiments, create laboratories and conduct experiments. Next, we have made a mistake in our lives – first we let the problem go out of hand and after becoming so bad we try to rectify it. The better thing is not to let the problem go out of control. It is my desire that an education centre be opened in which children are slowly taught in a spiritual environment, right from the beginning, from childhood itself about spirituality and meditation, so as they grow in the material world their spiritual state will also grow simultaneously. It’s okay, our life has moved on, but for the future generations, say from the first standard, they should be taught meditation – look we cannot pick things up as quickly as the younger generation can. Hence if he does it from that age, by the time he becomes an adult his state will be such that he will have overall and all round progress in life. 

Meaning he will progress in all spheres of life. It is necessary to do that. Also, you will be curious to know how the 11^th Deep Meditation Practicum concluded. If you have a question as to why temples are built only of stone, then this Anushthan’s experiences is that the environment inside the kutir was like that of a cave. Just as no vibrations, sounds, no waves enter into a cave – the environment was like that of a cave. During the 11^th Anushthan as during every anushthan it is your time to practise connecting with the subtle body. During these 45 days, you must have been coming here, you cannot see the physical body, you are sure you will not get to see the physical body, so whenever you come here your connection automatically gets established with the subtle body. It was a kind of practise for you to stand on your own feet. It is my desire that you should not get tied down to me, you should become strong and independent and stand on your own feet. For this to happen, the source of energy, the source of power is sitting within you only, it is just that you need to go deeper and deeper within to reach it and for this you will have to be regular. This won’t happen in a day, you will have to give yourself time daily, regularly – your problem is that you are not regular – give yourself time every day for meditative practice and try to not have any thoughts during that time. The soul does not have any thoughts – the entire birth-death cycle, the biggest obstacle to moksha are thoughts! These thoughts of yours, you have to stay within your body and also stay away from its stench – so that experience you have already got – you have experienced fragrance of roses and sandalwood even while staying in the body. You have experienced getting beautiful fragrances while staying in the body, similarly you will experience not having any thoughts while in the body, such a state can also exist that you do not have any thoughts. In reality, isn’t it, there is nothing like moksha – just as you don’t get thoughts of the past and the future, this is a state of void – meaning a thoughtless state, no thoughts of past or future. Similarly, as kind of life in which there are no good or bad karmas, no karmas of the past and no karmas of the future, so no thoughts leads to a thoughtless state and a state where no karmas bind you is a free state – there are no karmas neither good nor bad. That free state is called the state of liberation. Thoughtlessness is natural, the moment you go into the proximity of nature your thoughts will stop as it is, hence it is very easy to sit in the Himalayas and meditate. Why? Because there are no thoughts there, if there are no thoughts then there are no emotions/feelings, if feelings are not there then there are no karmas, and if karmas are not there then there is no way ahead, then there is no next birth. Automatically this happens in the Himalayas, but every person cannot go to the Himalayas, and to go to the Himalayas you need to have a (high) spiritual state. Till you don’t reach that state there is no entry into the Himalayas, so it is difficult to keep going and returning again and again. Many times in my daily routine I go to a very high state and then some sadhak comes to meet me and I come down, this going up and coming down keeps happening many times during the day. Guruma also experiences something similar during every Anushthan. I remain in a very good state, but Guruma has to keep coming back to a bad state after a very good state and then back – she has to keep enduring both. It is like keeping somebody in 18 degrees temperature and then take him to 42 degree temperature and then back to 18 degrees, then it takes a toll on the physical body. This happens to Guruma too – good state, bad state, good state for 45 days. Now after continuing this practice over the years she has mastered the technique to stay balanced. But this is very difficult. So, in such a state the 11^th Deep Meditation Practicum has concluded and during this Anushthan I realised that Paramatma is resident within me itself in the form of my soul, that soul which has not let me sleep since my childhood, which has kept me away from worldly matters since my childhood, which has reminded me since my childhood that I am a holy soul, I am a pure soul. It has repeatedly reminded me, and then later that very soul kept guiding me where to go, what to do and then slowly, slowly, it too me to my Guru and then I recognised that very soul, I came to know that very soul. In the Himalayas, the Himalayan Masters, kaivalya kumbhak yogis, poured whatever knowledge they had into my container like body so that it could spread this knowledge to the maximum number of people. When we take birth isn’t it – there are three things with us, and all other things get connected later. One is the soul, with it is the Kunadlini Shakti and understand that this Kunadlini Shakti is your CR report, the ledger of all your karmas – good or bad – is recorded in there, it has a record of all your past births, when you took birth, what you did, and whether you did good or bad. The third is the subtle body. The subtle body carries your spiritual progress, your spiritual knowledge, it has a record of how much spiritual knowledge you have gained and what spiritual progress you have made. And you take birth with all these three things, it happens again and again whenever you take birth and keeps happening again and again. But, when a Satguru leaves his body, he leaves behind his subtle body here itself, he leaves it behind because he does not have another birth. What he does is he leaves the subtle body behind, he leaves it here itself. Then people get its anubhooti even after he has gone, they experience that he is here itself. So, we embark on our journey with these three things and you have to see which one you should catch, what you should leave – so, you catch hold of only that which you had come. And whatever you had not come with leave all that behind, all this has connected to you externally. So, if you want to embark on your inner journey then leave all external things behind and if you want to go on the inward journey then only take these three things with you. Many times, I keep repeating inner journey, inner journey – many sadhaks wonder what is this inner journey? Inner journey means, for example, now I am talking to you but I do not know what is going on behind me, I cannot see what is happening behind me – why can I not see it? Because I am looking in front. Why? Because my chitta is in front, similarly, when you embark on your inner journey you will not see anything else, you will not see other’s faults. If you see other’s faults means you are not inward looking. After becoming inward looking you will not see external faults, you will not see anything. Yes, after becoming inward looking you will start seeing your own faults. If you start seeing your own faults then understand that you have become inward looking, because there is nothing closer to you than your own faults, there is nothing closer to you than your own sins. As you start becoming inward looking you will start seeing all your past sins, you will remember things you did 50 years ago. Meaning things which you have forgotten because of your daily routine, even those sins will become visible once you become inward looking. After becoming inward looking the deeper you go within the greater the peace you will find, you will experience a kind of inner peace. That inner peace is the same inner journey. I thank all those who directly and indirectly performed Guru-karya during these 11 Deep Meditation Practicums from the depths of my heart. And I also thankful to the millions of souls, because there is a sandalwood tree in the jungle, and if it dries up in the jungle without being of use to anybody, nobody has cut it, nobody has rubbed it, nobody has made use of it, then its life is worthless. A sandalwood tree’s worth is determined if it is cut, it is rubbed and it is used. Look at flowering plants, the flower blooms and if nobody removes it and uses it, it just droops, dries and falls off the plant. That life is useless. If your life is not of use to anybody then it is a waste. I have taken birth with a deep desire to give self-realisation, that desire is the motive for my birth, the reason for my birth. But all of you have taken birth at the right time, not only taken birth at the right time but you have reached me with which the objective of my life has been fulfilled; if you had not come, however much I wished if there was no one to receive it would have been a waste. So, all of you have absorbed it, you have taken birth in the right birth at the right time, but you remained under the control of your soul that is why you have reached here. Now look, people have come in their thousands. Why? Because your soul has control over you! Your soul has control over your body, the soul has correctly brought you to the right place at the right time. There are lakhs of souls who wanted to come, but have they managed to come? No! Only those whose soul has control over the body have reached here. This is a very bid incident, it is not so easy. Also, there are many people who wanted to come, have they reached? No, they have not reached. Why could they not reach? They did not have a strong desire. Their soul was not strong. I say it isn’t it, you cannot get anything suddenly. You are pushing a handcart on the road, you can push it alone, but if it falls in a ditch you cannot pull it out. Then you need ten people to bring it back on road. Just one person can push it. In the same manner, you require a Guru to come on the road, once you are on the road you will push yourself. What I mean to say, is that if you want something suddenly, it is not possible. You will have to practise regularly, regular spiritual practise should be there, you should meditate regularly. If you meditate, then your soul will become you friend, you will come to know it. Once you come to know it then it will correctly guide where to go, how to go, make arrangements for you to reach. You only need to have a strong desire, then the soul will make all the arrangements, car, etc everything will get arranged. That will not happen if your soul has no control over your body. But, if you make your soul strong, then it will guide you correctly. I am telling you from my experience…where it will take you, when it will take you, where you have to reach, everything…. Sometimes when I recall my early days I find it very strange. How is it said, meaning, forget this kutir, but when I was in the Himalayas too where there was snow I could see water, and where there was water I could see snow, while walking even if I would have missed a single step it would have meant death. Who protected me – it was my soul! My attention would be only on the next step, because one mis-step would mean the end, and the other thing is there was no one over there to come and save you. Even one wrong step would have ended my life, so my soul has paid attention to me every moment of my life. Your soul also keeps tabs on you every moment, it is only that you need to establish a connect with your soul. The moment you do make your soul strong, then your life will become very good, very beautiful, and you will make all round progress. In this way, the life of all of you should be subservient to your soul, and your soul becomes strong, after becoming strong you stand on your own feet, then will have no need for external support, external thing. You become strong, this is my desire. It is my desire that your soul becomes strong (Swamiji is now speaking very slowly, softly from a very high state – very high energy), becomes successful and you attain that free state in your life which is called moksha. After attaining that state there are feelings or emotions to do anything, because feelings, emotions, action – these are related to the body. You will not have any feelings, when you have no feelings then there will be no action, when there is no action there will be no karma, if there is no karma it will not become the motive for your next birth and you will attain liberation in your own lifetime – this is my pure wish. Namaskar!

The discourse got over at 7.35am and then Swamiji got off the stage to climb on to the new chariot which was to be pulled by the sadhaks in a figure of 8. Rambhai and team started playing bhajans which were divine and full of energy as Swamiji started moving in the chariot. My eyes were closed and my hands were clapping rhythmically to the music. My hands stopped clapping and I was feeling cold waves of energy moving down from crown chakra and moving through the entire body. I could feel cold waves of consciousness, people had worn shawls and mufflers and I was just enjoying the divinity, drowned in consciousness. The eyes had turned upwards and tears of bliss had started accumulating and running down my cheeks. At the same time as I was feeling the cold energy within me I could feel a warm glow on my face as the rising Sun shone its rays. The feeling was unique - nice and warm outside and cold, brilliant energy within. As I opened my eyes I saw Swamiji passing right in front of me as his chariot ride came to an end.

We were just sitting there and enjoying the early morning glow and the flow of consciousness, when the announcement for paduka naman programme was made. No sooner was the announcement made, when Paiji, Harish and self, found ourselves being nearly trampled upon, as the sadhaks from behind rushed to go and stand in line. We just sat till things quietened down and then went and stood in line. We offered our prostrations and Guru-dakshina and left to find the others. It was just past 8.30am. Pratapbhai took us for the Prasad, which we had any by 9am we were ready to leave. I met Deepak Tandon and we hugged each other like long lost brothers. We all left together, Pawanji going in Deepak’s car and Prashant Mehtaji coming in our car in Pawan’s place. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant around 1pm. After lunch, we left for Mumbai and reached Mumbai after almost a one hour halt at the Vasai creek bridge. As I did not have the house keys and nobody was home, I went straight to office at around 3pm.

Millions of thanks to all the organisers of this wonderful event. The parking arrangements were meticulous and there was absolutely no trouble reaching the venue or leaving it. Once again, my heartfelt gratitude to all the organisers and to HIS HOLINESS for the divinity and the nectar which He was showering on all of us.

Well that was Mahashivratri 2017 – the conclusion of the 11^th Deep Meditation Practicum. Just pray it is not the last one!! _/\_

Jai Baba Swami to all.