“Hail the profundity of purpose of the Enlightened One!
His patience and dispassionate equanimity!
Hail! Again and again! Again and again!”
The backdrop to a thoughtfully designed dais said it all. The reverential words, loosely translated above, were inscribed in the centre. Leveraging the high spiritual quotient of this message was a meditative profile picture of Param Pujya Bhaishree on the right. Along with the picture, each word resonated with each one of us, stilled us and took us inward.
There is one special day in the year every spiritual seeker waits most eagerly for. For mumukshus of the Shree Raj Saubhag Satsang Mandal, that day is November 24, Bhaishree’s birthday. It is a day we give thanks to the supreme powers for blessing the Earth with a gift that is rarest of the rare, and most invaluable for its potential to forever free us from the miseries of the world – the birth of our Satguru. Countless births we have craved a Satguru who can shake us out of our worldly stupor and guide us to eternal freedom. Now that we have, after monumental strife and struggle, found him, we look forward to every opportunity to celebrate his presence. His birthday naturally turns into a spiritual fest.
A most awaited welcome
As we reached the Pracharya B N Vaidya Auditorium in Mumbai bright and early, the mood was soft and celebratory as women in cream and red attires and men in pastel shades bustled about quietly, wearing radiant smiles. As Bhaishree entered to the beats of ‘Guru maari same ubha (The Guru is standing before me)’, the auditorium burst into joyous applause. He made his way to the dais led by exuberant dancing by Brahmanisht Minalben and Brahmanisht Vikrambhai. Everyone rose in a wave of devotion, clapping, bowing and tearing up in gratitude.
On the dais, Bhaishree was welcomed with a tilak by Kavit and Suhani and garlanded by a devout follower and sevak, Mahendrabhai and his wife, Sulochanaben. Minalben, also an accomplished bilingual writer, said in onomatopoeic verse that it was Bhaishree’s spiritual fragrance that we follow, and on the spurs of his guidance that we travel to our spiritual destination. Vikrambhai said aptly that it is impossible to repay the debt of a Guru till we achieve his state of bliss!
From among the birthday greetings received from all over the world, he read out Param Pujya Rakeshbhai’s letter. In fine literary expressions, it hailed Bhaishree’s exalted virtues including his inner peace and stillness, the way he lives the exceptional teachings (‘apurva bodh’) demonstrably, his selfless love for all, his dispassionate sermons, and wished him sound health so that many more can forever benefit from his august presence, divine knowledge and compassionate guidance.
After Guru Aarti and stuti, Vikrambhai and Hiren Boradia sang, ‘Hum khushnaseeb hai kitne, Guru ka mila sahara, hum go gaye usike, woh ho gaya hamara.’ O the glory of a Guru who needs nothing from us but becomes ours for our sake so much so that we believe we own him but he knows nobody does! The song mentions how a Guru changes the course of our future lives forever by showing us the way out and getting us out of it.
Speaking for all of us who have experienced the sublime magic of Bhaishree, Vikrambhai said, “When his all-seeing eyes and his enlightened gaze falls on me, I melt my bodily attachment.”
Bhaishree's message on this special day
Swadhyay Video Recording
Bhaishree began his swadhyay on the importance of the unwavering pursuit of knowledge. He cited numerous instances of luminaries who had achieved spectacular success in spite of adverse circumstances. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, whom Mahatma Gandhi regarded as his political guru, was dismissed by all as a hopeless child. However, he was passionate about his studies. He studied under a streetlight and evolved into a tall national leader, inspiring giants like the Mahatma.
Thomas Carlyle, Freidrich Schiller, Benjamin Franklin, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Gifford and many more stalwarts earned world renown by single-mindedly pursuing their passion for knowledge against seemingly unsurmountable odds.
Once, Munshi Premchand created a bonfire of papers on a wintry night and sat to write. When someone asked him why he was burning paper, Premchand told him he had no possessions left to burn! The brilliant writer was too broke to buy even a blanket for himself but that did not deter him from continuing to write.
Astronomer David Rittenhouse was a poor farmer’s son who was taken up with the sky. While tilling his field, the eyes of this young boy would always be turned skyward as he absorbed the grand view of stars and heavenly bodies. For want of any writing material, he would scribble his calculations and findings on the walls of his modest house. This poor boy grew up to be a phenomenon who was much sought after by leading scholars.
David Rittenhouse
Michael Faraday collected discarded bottles in his younger days and went on to achieve greatness in the field of electromagnetism. The biggest driving force in all these instances is the determined striving of each of these giants to work towards their goal and their resoluteness to aspire high, undaunted by their physical reality.
Contending that our intellect is God’s finest blessing, Bhaishree remarked that it seems to flourish only in extreme adversity. Stories of these towering personalities inspire us to pursue with patience, persistence and perseverance our true calling even in the most trying circumstances.
Bhaishree said a true seeker is indifferent to the reality of his circumstances - favourable or unfavourable. He stays determinedly centred on his goal. In fact, he emphasized, one has to constantly fight not just one’s circumstances but also oneself to attain extraordinary success in one’s field of interest.
As definitions go, all knowledge, whether of the material world or the spiritual realm, falls under the generic domain of knowledge. However, in its manifest reality, knowledge with self-realisation (samkeet) is Satgnaan (true and pure knowledge) while that without self-realisation is agnaan (ignorance) because it is derived from incomplete and improper perception. Such knowledge does not free the receiver/knower from the cycle of birth and death, however accomplished he or she may be. It is only spiritual knowledge that has the potential to liberate one from the trappings from the finite world and take him to salvation (moksh).
Spiritual quests cannot and should not be founded on one’s comfort level. One needs to marshal one’s inner strength to hone his strengths, overcome his shortcoming and unflinchingly strive towards the goal of self-realisation with positivity and determination.
Bhaishree said cultivating inner peace enhances and expands one’s knowledge, which is boundless. Indeed, like an itinerant traveler, a spiritual seeker knows there are many peaks to conquer. Taking the analogy further, Bhaishree said the presiding deity of Jains, Bhagwan Mahavir, is the ocean of knowledge and Param Krupaludev Shrimad Rajchandra, with his powerfully evolved self-awareness, is the aspirational peak for a seeker.
In the metaphysical sense, perceiving and comprehending the essential nature of the insentient (‘jad’) world is knowledge. Knowledge is the seamless, comprehensive, unconflicting and unchallengeable appreciation of the "true" reality. This knowledge which leads to the end of the tumultuous whirl of births and deaths and liberates the knower is preciously rare. That is the reason we celebrate November 24. It is the celebration of our eventual release and freedom, of our immense fortune in having received grateful access to a Satguru who points us to Satdharma and Satdev.
Vikrambhai captured the essence of Bhaishree’s swadhyay: it is only by exposure to fire that gold gets purified.
Swaying to the symphony of devotional notes
After a break, the gathering reassembled to listen to well-known Gujarati singer, Jaydeepbhai Swadiya and his troupe. The next two hours were spent swaying to the symphony of notes stringing devotional and spiritual emotions that stirred and nourished the soul. From a drenched-in-devotion ‘Mane vhalu laage Guruji nu naam, tan man dhan Guru na charnomaa’ to a profoundly philosophical ‘Maati ka bhed nirala, kisko samaj nahi aaya’ that vividly described the material theatre of delusion and deception created of and by the inanimate world, he and Upagnaben smoothly covered the lyrical gamut of spiritual music.
When the troupe began the opening bars of the invigorating ‘Taaraa nayane chhato Bapuji amiras chhaatnna,’ Vikrambhai and Minalben sprang to their feet. Taking their cue, many more poured onto the aisles to sway and dance their heart out. The focus of this spontaneous outpouring of devotion, Bhaishree, watched indulgently as his corps took over every inch of floor space in the auditorium.
Cake-cutting ceremony
In the presence of his family and friends, Bhaishree cut two cakes, one for himself and one for Param Pujya Guruma, whose birthday, coincidentally or by divine design, falls on November 25.
Highest honour of the year
The day wound up with the highest honour of the year that is granted to mumukshus on this day – a box of prasad personally handed out to each one of us by Bhaishree with a wide and gentle smile. His outstretched hand was almost a symbol of his tremendous outreach to each one of us, the compassion he exudes and his relentless endeavour 24x7 to deliver us from the morass of worldly attachment onto a planet of spiritual bliss.
Thus blessed, there was just one prayer from all our hearts: May we forever continue to enjoy the untold divinity of Param Pujya Bhaishree’s hand on our heads, comforting, healing, guiding and delivering us for our infinite betterment.
