Some Inspiring Stories
Nilkanth Shukla of Bharuch began to memorize, but found Sanskrit difficult. So, he decided to quit. But, during Dhanurmas (16 December 2020 to 14 January 2021), Swamishri frequently proclaimed the glory and benefits of Satsang Diksha through his daily messages: ‘Memorizing Satsang Diksha = Akshardham’; ‘Reading Satsang Diksha leads to progress on the path of moksha’; ‘One who memorizes the Satsang Diksha in Sanskrit is a scholar of Akshar-Purushottam’ and other motivating messages. Boosted by these messages, Nilkanth finished memorizing all 315 shloks.
Dhanraj Prajapati of Vadodara revealed that since the beginning of the pandemic, he had spent more time playing video games and using social media. But, to memorize the Satsang Diksha he stopped playing games and using social media.
Hardik Solanki of Moviya also deleted the social media apps from his phone to allow him to focus on memorizing.
Digant Desai of Mumbai works for a leading advertising company, which requires him to watch and study movies, TV and social media. However, after learning that Pujya Kothari (Bhaktipriya) Swami was memorizing the Satsang Diksha, he was also inspired to start memorizing Satsang Diksha. After a busy working day, he would start mukhpath at 11 p.m. and continue until 4 a.m. In this way he memorized the whole shastra.
Krunal Thakkar of Matar is a yuva nirdeshak responsible for all of that zone’s youth activities. He quickly memorized 150 shloks, but then the death of his uncle impelled him to stop mukhpath for 15 days. Four days after re-starting, his grandfather passed away, which meant he was occupied for another six days. Thereafter, he revised the initial 150 shloks and completed memorizing the remainder.
Dr Harivadan Solanki of Ahmedabad is a physician working in a government hospital. He was posted to a coronavirus ward, so had a heavy workload. At home, his 3-year-old son occupied a lot of his time. So, to complete memorizing the shloks, Harivadan would wake up early and use free time on the ward.
Khantil Desai of Vadodara has a young daughter and his wife was pregnant with their second child. Daily, Khantil stayed at the office after hours to memorize some shloks. At home, his wife would test him, so that the unborn child would also be exposed to the words of the Satsang Diksha. On 11 January, they were blessed with a healthy son. So, afterwards, Khantil would recite the shloks he had memorized in his presence. In this way, he finished memorizing all 315 shloks.
Akshay Chauhan of Ahmedabad completed memorizing all the shloks. However, the day before the zonal adhiveshan, he fell ill with intense kidney stone pain and had to have an emergency operation. Yet, from his hospital bed, he still participated in the zonal phase and qualified for the national adhiveshan. After several days, he had to undergo further surgery and was required to stay in the hospital. He appeared for the national adhiveshan from his hospital bed and passed.
Utsav Solanki of Mumbai. Due to the pandemic his father had to shut down his tailoring business. So, for income he started selling masks. Utsav also had to help from morning to late night, with a little rest in the afternoon. To memorize the shloks, Utsav would stay awake till 3 a.m., which he would then revise the following day in between his duties.
Lakshman Kuchhadiya is a physiotherapist in Mumbai. Daily, he had to make home visits to his patients from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. So, while travelling in between visits, he would memorize shloks. At night, he would revise them and then listen to and read several times the shloks to be memorized the following day.
Parin Bhavsar of Mumbai lost his job during the pandemic. So, he and his wife began cooking for and supplying tiffins to a hospital – three times a day. He also had to care for his cancer-stricken bed-bound mother. Thus, he would be busy till 11 p.m. He would use free time during the day and stayed up till 3 a.m. to memorize.
Vipul Patel of Vadodara contracted COVID-19 and was quarantined for 15 days. He suffered only mild symptoms and so used this time to memorize the Satsang Diksha.
Kunal Trivedi of Vadodara has a 1½ -year-old son. His wife is a gynaecologist. Much of his free time was taken up in caring for his son. At night, he would have to get up several times to put his son back to sleep. So, he would recite the shloks he had memorized to his son until he went back to sleep.
Krishna Modi’s, a yuvati of Ahmedabad, was expecting her first child. She gave birth to a daughter on 21 December. Thereafter, the demands of caring for the newborn were exhausting, yet Krishna daily memorized 10 shloks and finished memorizing the entire Satsang Diksha.
Meshwa Patel of Himmatnagar had to undergo neck surgery just six days before the adhiveshan. She was unable to speak without pain. Yet she continued revising and bravely bore the discomfort and successfully participated in the adhiveshan.
Nidhi Dobariya of Ahmedabad is a dentist, who only began to practice satsang after her marriage. She has a 10-month-old daughter. Her in-laws encouraged her to participate and assisted her in caring for her daughter to allow her time to prepare. Thus, with such support, Nidhi memorized all the shloks.
Yogita Kambad of Bhavnagar had memorized 250 shloks when she suffered fractures in both arms in an accident. She was in a lot of pain and dependent on help for daily needs. Despite this setback, she continued to memorize all the shloks.
Vidhi Kotadia of Jamnagar married into a satsangi family. Slowly, she began to practice satsang. She decided to memorize the Satsang Diksha. She has a 3-year-old daughter, house duties and was unfamiliar with Sanskrit. In addition, her husband and father-in-law were both hospitalized for COVID-19. Yet Vidhi used whatever free time she got to write each shlok 10 times and listen to the audio. In this way, she completed the mukhpath.
Dipika Patel of Sarol, suffered a significant injury to her left knee which required surgery. However, on being tested COVID-19 positive, her operation had to be delayed by 15 days. In the meantime, she continued memorizing. Then, after two operations on her knee, while recuperating she completed the mukhpath.
Bhartiben Bhanderi of Bhadra has had heart valve problems since childhood that have required seven operations. After she had memorized 100 shloks, her health deteriorated due to an infection. She was hospitalized for 10 days and needed a further week to recover fully. However, she persisted even amid this situation and completed the mukhpath.
Komal Modi of Ahmedabad studied only up to Standard 8 before dropping out to work to support the family. She sews blouses with her mother. From their family of six, Komal’s elder sister and younger brother had completed the mukhpath in the first national adhiveshan in October 2020. As Komal had little formal education, she struggled to correctly pronounce the Sanskrit verses. However she endeavoured, spurred by the desire to please Swamishri, and did memorize all 315 shloks.
These stories represent the many struggles all the participants had encountered, but their deep desire to please Mahant Swami Maharaj helped them to overcome all difficulties and reach their goal.
Benefits Experienced
Through their hard work and desire to please Mahant Swami Maharaj, the participants experienced many personal benefits. The following are some of their experiences:
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Developed a habit to introspect in any situation to decide how to act.
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Consolidated the understanding that God is the all-doer.
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Resolved to read the Vachanamrut and Swamini Vato daily.
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Realized the great fortune in having the opportunity to serve the satsang.
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Inspired not sleep on ekadashi.
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Gained the inner strength to cope with family and other situations.
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Developed the confidence to attempt and achieve difficult tasks.
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Learned how to interact with others in a more mutually beneficial way.
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Developed greater partience.
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Reduced expectations of being praised and egoistic feelings.
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Realized the power of Sanskrit to increase memory power.
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Developed ability to remain calm in stressful situations.
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Better able to focus during meditation and puja.
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Realized that whatever God does is ultimately for our benefit.
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Experienced the presence of Mahant Swami Maharaj in my life.
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Feeling of great joy for having fulfilled Swamishri’s wish.
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Learnt how to effectively use time to be more productive.
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Developed a clearer and deeper understanding of Satsang Principles.