Mumbai’s Dadar railway station was packed with devotees before Swamishri’s arrival. Swamishri was going to Pune on 17 December 1989. Devotees filled the station with loving outbursts of jais and joyful praises when Swamishri arrived at the station. The devotees were running here and there to have Swamishri’s last darshan. Swamishri was to walk all the way to the last coach. However, due to a tight cordon of volunteers, it didn’t cause any inconvenience to Swamishri. The scene outside the cordon was worth seeing. Youth (men and women) were running in such a way that the handcarts arranged were pushed aside in disorder, many lost their sandals and some dashed against others. This scene was indescribable. As the departure time of the train drew nearer, Swamishri entered into the carriage. The devotees started bidding goodbye by waving their hands high. In two minutes, the train started moving. The devotees started running with the train. Their frenzy was uncontrollable like their love. Swamishri kept saying, “Stop now, please go back. Do not run! You might slip and fall.” But Swamishri’s voice was drowned by the din and excitement. No one was ready to hear what Swamishri was saying. The platform ended. One youth, in his zeal for having darshan fell down, but luckily he was not hurt.

What was that element which never let the devotees feel satiated even after having Swamishri’s darshan, touch and blessings continuously for one week?

It was the great pleasure of getting lost in the joyfulness of Swamishri’s divine personality – where there was sheer divinity, where place and time dissolved and worldly affairs just ceased to be remembered. What did that divinity mean?

Shriji Maharaj gives the meaning of divinity or divine feelings as follows: God is one and unique. He remains in his Akshardham always in the divine form only. He is full of endless supremacy, endless power and endless redemptory virtues. He is free from all faults. When this same God descends on earth in human form for the moksha of countless souls, he comes by bringing with him all his supreme powers and his Akshardham. But he is constantly keen on hiding his powers. Not only that, he displays human nature, such as fear or fearlessness, hunger or thirst, mineness or yourness. Those who are wise can perceive divine traits in such human traits. They can comprehend and experience such human episodes of God as liberating (kalyankari). In short, divinity means there is no difference between God who has assumed human form and God who is sitting in Akshardham. Both are one and the same.

Just like the human form of God is divine, the form of the Sant, through whom God is fully manifest, is also equally divine. Shriji Maharaj explains in Vachanamrut Vartal 13 that when God manifests on earth in the form of a sadhu or a king, though he appears like a human, he is divine. Therefore, spiritual aspirants get casually attracted to him. I shall describe episodes where such aspirants got intuition and received inspirations for moulding their lives by the divine experiences they had with Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

Some experienced Swamishri’s yogic powers. Some perceived a slow pace in his brisk walking routine. Some saw Swamishri becoming stable in a moment after winding up all his activities, just like a tortoise withdraws all its body parts in a moment. Some saw him in an easy mood in spite of him being engrossed in activities and saw him appear fresh even after hard work. Some saw him in a casual mood like someone behaving in private (even) in the presence of thousands of people. Some had witnessed Swamishri’s spiritual joy even in his solitary moments. Some experienced righteous anger in him at one moment and a loud laughter in the very next second. Some experienced his tenderness, simplicity and disinterest in tasty foods, whereas some experienced his state of desirelessness. Some had darshan of Swamishri’s fearlessness and some had the sight of his compassion. Some experienced his egolessness and some experienced him being free of (even) the pride of egolessness. Some had seen him being happy even amidst insults. Some saw him solemn and some saw in him childlike innocence. On seeing him, many hearts echoed, “Oh! He is Truth incarnate! He is Bliss incarnate! What couldn’t we do for him?” Some saw him as the ideal listener of spiritual discourses. Some had darshan of him having intense love for Thakorji. Some had seen in him Shastriji Maharaj’s personality, while others had seen Yogiji Maharaj in him. It is impossible to count or note thousands of such experiences because they kept happening every moment and there were thousands who experienced them.

Some gained strength to quit addictions, while some to give up superstitions and some to give up their base natures. Many experienced their prejudices dissolve. Some experienced becoming free from all physical pain. Through Swamishri’s gentle touch some received inspiration to become humble, some burst into tears, some felt their callousness dissolve, some experienced warmth, some became free of the guilt that was corroding their hearts due to some mistakes, some received self-confidence, some tasted love more than that of a hundred mothers, some experienced as if Swamishri loved them the most. Then, in Swamishri’s presence, some received inspiration to work sincerely hard and offer selfless service. Some experienced fearlessness; some experienced fulfillment. Some felt deep peace even by offering a simple thing like a glass of water to Swamishri. Some experienced divine peace by Swamishri’s touch, speech, laughter, smile, and glance or by his letter. Some were inspired with faith in God on listening to his pure speech.

Some may witness certain virtues or achievements such as compassion, tastelessness, desirelessness, calmness and miracles in some ordinary humans, spiritual aspirants or spiritually elevated people from the above mentioned experiences; but the quality and the quantity of these virtues were quite different and much greater in Swamishri. He was different; he was divine. This was a statement from thousands of devotees and swamis who experienced Swamishri’s divinity. Whoever came into Swamishri’s contact experienced that he was greater than a human even though he appeared to be so. He was divine.