29 March

After his Delhi trip, Daaji arrived at Indore early in the morning. After a warm welcome at the airport Daaji went to the Marriott Hotel. Sadly, Daaji was very tired and developed severe back pain and was unable to be physically present to conduct the meditation for the abhyasis gathered in Indore. After some much needed rest Daaji left for Ujjain in the afternoon and arrived at the Ratnapriya Hotel and Resort. Daaji wanted to come for the evening meditation but could not come due to the back pain. Daaji spent the day resting due to the severity of his backache.

30 March
Speech in Ujjain: Role of Attention in Maintaining our Spiritual Condition  

Daaji was not feeling well but he wanted to come and conduct the meditation. Apart from conducting the morning meditation at 9am, he also solemnised two weddings. He addressed the audience afterwards, saying that he was grateful for everyone’s prayers for his recovery and that he had recovered enough to finish the task at hand that day.

He shared that that morning he was wondering about how his illness (vertigo) came about so suddenly. He said he had been advised not to make sudden movements with his neck while looking up, down or to the left and right, but due to just a little carelessness, he moved his neck sharply and the vertigo came back. “It was my mistake,” he said with great humility.

Here are a few choice excerpts from his talk.

Daaji continued, “But when I think about this from a spiritual angle, I remember what Babuji Maharaj told Chariji once. Babuji said that as one progresses on the spiritual path, one has to be just as careful and cautious while living life. Even the slightest carelessness, slightest slip, and we fall from whatever heights we have achieved. And we have to start all over again. For example, when we are walking, we have the freedom to walk anywhere; on a cycle, we can only ride on some terrain, we have slightly less freedom; in a car, we have even less freedom—we can only drive in certain lanes and we can’t drive on the wrong side of the road, etc. But in India, everything goes—they misuse the freedom and then cause accidents, harming not only themselves but other people as well.

“Babuji further gave an example of a rocket heading into space—there is no scope for freedom of movement there at all. Even the astronauts have such limited movement in the spaceship. They cannot even stand up, drink, or eat as they wish. Everything is controlled—even the amount of their food and water intake!

“Similarly, in spirituality, so much is revealed to us, but carelessness in our behaviour, our thinking, our attitude has a strong impact upon our inner condition. So we might think we have not done harm to anyone, stolen, or lied, then why does our spiritual condition get spoilt? Because we haven’t kept our condition in check.

“Our carelessness at a physical, mental, and spiritual level is directly related to our freedom to act in a precise, correct way.”

Later in the day Daaji left for Vikram University of Ujjain where he had been invited as the Guest of Honour for their 29th Convocation Ceremony. Many dignitaries including the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Mohan Yadav, and the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Mangubhai C Patel were present at the ceremony. They met with Daaji before the ceremony began.

Following the opening ceremony, Ph.D. and D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) graduates were awarded their degree certificates and gold medals, receiving congratulations from the dignitaries on stage. This was followed by the formal exchange of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Shri Ram Chandra Mission and Vikram University. Daaji was then invited to address the gathering.

The day continued with more events, and later in the evening Daaji visited a factory where a small gathering had been organised. There he conducted meditation and answered a few questions from the audience.

Q: Should we work on [getting rid of] our tendencies which pose as hindrances to our progress, or is this dependant on the grace of the Master?
 Daaji: You should do it. You only have to do it. In Babuji’s words, “There is a great difference between samskaras [impressions] and tendencies. When impressions are deepened by repeated actions it is akin to water dropping on earth and forming a stream and then into a river. Even if the river dries up, the river bed remains and if water falls again, the river come to life. So the river bed is like your tendencies. Babuji said, ‘Become like the living dead.’ Just like you wash and dress a corpse before burial or cremation: it will not resist you. It doesn’t mean you should be dead inside—you should be a witness to what’s happening. So you witness, but you do not react. If your wife or husband abuses you, it's okay, be happy—it is they who will get angry, why should you get irritated?

It is this reaction that creates problems.

31 March

Daaji joined all the abhyasis for breakfast on the open lawns of the hotel. He conducted meditation at 9 a.m. after which he left for Indore airport to take a flight back to Hyderabad.