The AARSH Lecture Series is a three-monthly event held at Swaminarayan Akshardham, Gandhinagar, in which distinguished experts on spiritual, social and othersubjects address the audience of scholars and the public.
On 28 June 2008, Mahant Swami as a sadguru sant spoke about the personality of Yogiji Maharaj. The following is a translation of that lecture.
Shastriji Maharaj had come to Jabalpur when I was six months old. While giving me vartman (initiation into satsang) he named me ‘Keshav.’ However, a family member had already given me a name (Vinu) and some of them did not like Keshav so they called me by the old name. However, when I became a sadhu, I got the original name ‘Keshav’ when I was named Keshavjivandas by Yogiji Maharaj. This showed the spiritual oneness between Yogiji Maharaj and Shastriji Maharaj. What Shastriji Maharaj did (by naming me Keshav) was continued by Yogiji Maharaj. The naming procedure of all sadhus by Yogiji Maharaj was like this: All the names of youths to be initiated into sadhus were written on small pieces of paper, then folded and kept on one side. Thereafter, the names of new sadhus were written on small pieces of paper, then folded and kept on the opposite side. Yogi Bapa picked up one piece of paper with a youth’s name and then another having a sadhu’s name, which in turn became the new name of the initiated youth. I got my name due to divine providence, as it was not pre-arranged.
Bhagwan Swaminarayan says in Vachnamrut Sarangpur 1 that divine bliss and eternal happiness are generated by the mere darshan of God.
Nowadays, people make every effort to go to America to live happily. Even here in Gandhinagar, if someone gifts you two acres of land, it will give you immense joy. However, even if you receive the entire state of Gujarat as a gift or the entire universe or, for that matter, all the universes, still all their combined comforts and happiness would be less than the bliss derived from the darshan of Bhagwan for one second. This statement may seem like mere imagination, but Yogiji Maharaj enjoyed that supreme bliss of God every moment of his life. Compared to that the total material happiness in all the universes was like trash to him. To portray such a personality in words is almost impossible. Even if I describe him to some extent, how much will you understand? Because here was a person of a different class and character. One who had experienced God all his life is beyond our capacity to describe, but I will still try to say something about his personality.
It is a fact that those who had met Yogi Bapa, had his darshan and served him are unable to give justice while describing his character. He was beyond our understanding. Since we have all eaten ice cream we can understand the joy we get from it, but someone who has never tasted ice cream will not understand its taste and its joy. Similarly, one who has not known about or experienced the bliss of God will not be able to understand Yogiji Maharaj’s divine attribute of eternal happiness. However, Yogi Bapa had given God (his bliss) to everyone. Everyone experienced the joy of God when they came in touch with Yogi Bapa. Many satsangis have the firm conviction that Bhagwan Swaminarayan is God and they experienced his divine bliss through the grace of Yogi Bapa. He gave a divine experience to those who came to him, but it was like giving an expensive diamond ring to a child who was not aware of its value. People who were blessed by Yogi Bapa felt the divine touch of his pat, but they could not experience the bliss of God like Yogi Bapa did. However, even though a child is unaware of the value of the ring, if he preserves it, he will one day realize it. Similarly, those who got that divine experience of God in the presence of Yogi Bapa, will one day become deeply engrossed in that bliss. Since Yogi Bapa gave us the divine bliss of God, we can retain it providing we focus our attention on God.
In this world, we are made up of three things: body, mind and soul. Whatever we do or strive for our body amounts to material pursuit, and whatever we do for our soul tantamounts to spiritual pursuit. Our mind lies between the two. As per the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagwan Krishna says, “A steady mind experiences happiness, whereas an unsteady mind experiences pain and misery.”
Therefore, if you incline your mind towards material things, which are unstable or temporary, you experience pain and unhappiness. However, if you incline your mind or focus your attention on spiritualism, which is endlessly pure and eternal, you become happy and blissful. The common denominator in both realms is to strive for happiness, but the difference is apparent; materialism has never given long-term happiness to anyone. Many famous personalities of the past have made these statements after pursuing a materialistic way of life:
Napoleon: “I have not seen six happy days in my life.”
King Solomon: The richest person of his time, he received 150 pounds of gold daily in his coffers and had 700 beautiful queens. Still, he felt that it was all meaningless and he had merely been chasing after wind.
Alexander: He passed away at the young age of 33. He had instructed his doctors and army generals to carry his coffin with his palms open so that the world could see the conqueror of half the world leaving empty-handed from earth.
Now let us look at the spiritual pursuits of our great devotees and saints from India: Mira, Kabir, Narsinh, Tulsidas, Sant Tukaram, Namdev, Eknath, Brahmanand Swami, Muktanand Swami and others. In spite of facing many difficulties and hardships they all remained steady and happy because their minds were fixated on God. In short, we need to focus our mind on spiritualism.
Like we have the richest person in the world, Yogiji Maharaj was the richest spiritual person in this world. He lived a life of unfading internal and external spiritual splendour.
Someone can become richer than the presently richest person, if not this year, then the next. There is no end to it. It is not fixed that the richest person will always remain so, and that no one will overshadow him.