Ahmedabad, Gujarat 10th and 13th August 2024

10th August

Daaji reached Ahmedabad on the 10^th evening. He arrived at the Heartfulness center in Adalaj at 5.45 pm and proceeded almost immediately to conduct meditation for all the practitioners waiting for him. He also spoke briefly to the audience thereafter in Gujarati.

“Namaste, everyone. I don’t really wish to speak about anything in particular, but I have a couple of questions for you to reflect upon. Many of you may have read the book My Master. Those of you who have not yet read it, please raise your hands.”

Since not everyone in the audience had read the book, Daaji said, “You must make some effort to know or at least have some desire to know the guide, the guru whom you are following. If you talk about progressing ahead without knowing, how is it going to be possible? So please read the book. There is no joy in putting forth those questions to you; if you are not even familiar with the book, what do I say about it? In my next visit, I will ask you the questions. Thank you.”

11 August

Interview with Editor-in-Chief, Jankalyan Magazine and Q&A with audience

The next morning, the audience that had gathered in the meditation hall included many Heartfulness practitioners from the surrounding villages of Ahmedabad who had been practicing for 3 years or less under the Village Connect Heartfulness program. After the meditation conducted by Daaji, some of the villagers shared their experiences with the Heartfulness meditation practice. Following this, Daaji was interviewed by Dr Harish Dwivedi, Editor-in-Chief of the Jankalyan magazine. This monthly magazine has been publishing philosophical, spiritual, and religious content in Gujarati for the past 74 years, enlightening readers in India and the Gujarati diaspora across the world. Daaji’s articles have been a regular feature in this magazine for the last three years. Here are some translated excerpts from the interview.

Dr Dwivedi: I took my first sitting long back with a preceptor in Ahmedabad, the late Shri Dahyabhai Patel. Then I got busy with my profession, with job transfers and so on and lost touch. Many years later, when I took over the Jankalyan office, I came across a book titled Designing Destiny in Gujarati which had been a gift to the former Editor-in-Chief. I read it and was deeply impressed, finding it remarkable that all its principles aligned with those of Sahaj Marg. Inside, I found a scribbled phone number—it belonged to a preceptor in Ahmedabad, Smt. Tara Chauhan. I reached out to her, and since then, I have revived my practice. I wish to ask you, Daaji, which among all factors mentioned in the book, is the main one that leads to designing one’s destiny?
Daaji: Let me put it this way. Where is our mind? Wherever your thoughts take you, that’s where the mind is. If your thoughts are with your mother, then your mind is with your mother. Where your thoughts take you, your mind follows. The breeze blowing through a garden carries the sweet fragrance of flowers, but if it passes over garbage, it carries a stench. Similarly our thoughts too can bring either sweetness or stench.  As your goal is, so are your thoughts; as your thoughts are, so is your mind. So to truly design your destiny, you need to figure out where your interest lies. And when this interest is awakened it can truly transform your life and design your destiny. Suppose your interest is to make fast and easy money, your mind will work toward it, your thoughts will be of a similar nature, it will become your lifestyle, and eventually you will become a thief of great fame. So our goal determines our destiny.

Dr Dwivedi: If anyone from the audience wishes to ask a question to Daaji, please come forward.

Q: In this race, this competition of life, how can Heartfulness be of guidance?

Daaji: Who are you competing with? There are all kinds of competitions in life. Every day, there are various competitions happening all the time with some or the other person. If you try and engage in each and every one, you will lose. Compete with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others; there is no end to that. Today, you must be better than you were yesterday. Tomorrow, be better than you are today. Lord Krishna said, “Ego manifests in three major ways—self-respect, pride and arrogance. If you are a doctor and say, “I am a doctor,” that’s self-respect. If you say, “I am a good doctor and I will become a better doctor day by day,” that’s a matter of pride as long as you don’t compare yourself with others. But if you say, “There is no better doctor than I,” it becomes arrogance.

Q: I am a vice principal and for 5 minutes or so before each class, I make the children do some meditation. But the teachers in my school warn me that this will make the children too calm and they will lose the spirit of competition. So, is it true that with meditation, the children will lose their desires and spirit of competition?

Daaji: It’s true that the desire to compete diminishes. But they will begin to compete with themselves. They will begin to focus on how they can study better without comparing themselves to other students. They will connect to the source within and develop one-pointed attention and concentration, which automatically brings about cooperation with Nature. But yes, small children up to the age of 15 should not be made to meditate. Do Heartfulness Relaxation with them, in the morning before school starts and at the end before they go home. Also, teach the children that they must go home and at night hold their parents’ feet and do the Relaxation for them. They may begin by saying, “Energy is flowing from me to you.”

Dr Dwivedi: Spiritual Anatomy explains numerous chakras. For the benefit of the layman who may not be well-versed in these concepts, could you highlight the one chakra that serves as the key to overall spiritual progress—much like the saying ek saadhe, badhu saadhe [by mastering one, everything is mastered]?

Daaji: The Heart chakra. Our spiritual yatra [journey] begins in the heart chakra and ends in the heart chakra. The heart chakra is connected to all the other smaller and bigger chakras in the body. So, when we meditate on the heart, the pranahuti [transmission] that we receive with the guru’s grace, enters the heart. And from there, it spreads not only to all the other chakras, but also to all the cells of the body. Hence, meditating on the heart is a very profound and noble practice—Lord Krishna has said it, science says it, yoga treatises say it, and even your own experience says it. In the first sitting [mediation with a trainer] itself, you experience peace. What does that mean? So let’s meditate on the heart and progress ahead.

At the end of the interview, Daaji shared his childhood memories of the Jankalyan magazine. He said, “Ever since I could read, perhaps by the time I was in the 3^rd or 4^th grade, I have been reading Jankalyan. It used to come regularly to our house in the village; it still does. My father used to read it aloud, with or without an audience! Who knows, maybe some of it would reach someone's ears and contribute to their well-being?!

Daaji stayed for four days at the Heartfulness center in Ahmedabad. During this time, he met with many guests and practitioners, including the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendra Patel. On the morning of the 12th, Daaji welcomed the Chief Minister and his team. After a brief discussion, Daaji gave him an individual sitting. They then proceeded to plant tree saplings near the meditation hall.

After the Hon’ble Chief Minister took his leave, Daaji retired for some rest before gearing up for more meetings. In the late afternoon, Daaji met with young students from Silver Oak University. Later there was a meeting with a team from the Adani group in which discussions took place about many initiatives. After the meditation session in the evening, Daaji answered questions previously collected from the audience. Here are all the translated Q&As.

Q: What is the condition of a contemplative mind like, and how to develop it?

Daaji: When we develop a meditative condition after each meditation, we pay attention to it, try to hold on to it as if we have just received a valuable gift. All conditions that occur during meditation are valuable. But we don’t contemplate on them; there is no need for contemplation on them. Just be one with it and let that condition carry you through the day. The mistake we make is holding on to it and going ahead through the day. Instead, let the condition hold you and take you further. Just make a suggestion that just like the guru is holding our hand and leading us forward, the spiritual condition too is taking us forward—it will expand automatically.

If we just take a joyful interest in spirituality, everything will happen on its own, we won’t have to do anything except morning meditation, evening cleaning, and nighttime prayer.

Q: By the expansion of my consciousness, how can I be of use to the Mission and the Master?  

Daaji: That depends on your capacity. When the consciousness expands, such a question won’t arise—the consciousness itself will guide you what to do and what not to do. Just change yourself, transform yourself; that is the biggest service you can render.

Q: How can I know that my superconsciousness and subconsciousness are expanding?

Daaji: You will know when it happens! In fact, it happens every day. Those who don’t meditate won’t know, because it happens very slowly. Those who meditate should know: if they don’t, it means they are not meditating properly. So, follow the protocol. Do as it is prescribed. Then if nothing happens, we can raise a complaint to Babuji, “I meditated, I did the cleaning and the prayer, but I am still the same. Why is it so?” But if we have not done it properly, then we will keep finding fault all our lives, “Should I have done that? Did I do it properly?” It will end up like an unfinished task. So if you do it, do it perfectly. If you can’t, leave it. It doesn’t work if you do it one day and skip it the next day.

After the program in the meditation hall, Daaji met with Dr Hasmukh Adhia, IAS, (Retd.) Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and Dr K.L.N. Rao, Additional Director General of Police, Prisons & Correctional Administration, Ahmedabad. Before dinner, Daaji also met with architects on the upcoming projects in the Heartfulness center in Ahmedabad.

13 August 

Daaji’s day began busy as usual. In the morning, he met with many guests including Shri Rushikesh Ganeshbhai Patel, who holds Health and Family Welfare, Higher & Technical

Education, Medical Education, Law & Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs in the current Cabinet. A short discussion later, Daaji proceeded to conduct mediation. On his way, he was greeted by two monks from the Swaminarayan sampradya [sect]. Before starting meditation, Daaji gave a speech where he elaborated on various topics related to religion and spirituality. Below are some translated excerpts from his talk.

• Many people question me: What is the difference between religion and spirituality? Religion teaches us to have faith, preaches the concept of surrender, and gives us a belief system. In this belief, it says that God is omnipresent, omniscient, and almighty. Spirituality says, “Now experience God—and test whether God is really omnipresent, omniscient and almighty. In Vedic times, the rishis [sages], whenever they looked at the sky, the mountains, or rivers, they would bow down in respect, because they felt the Divinity in everything around them. Back then, there weren’t any temples. Temples came much later, around 2500 years after that. If you were to do carbon dating, you wouldn’t find any temples from those times, because they weren’t needed.  Temples are merely symbolic of the fact that God exists. When we bow down in a temple, we do it with faith. But, deep inside, we still wonder if the Divinity is really there. We bow down, but we don’t experience. The truth is, the real experience of divinity comes only through meditation.  
• Arjuna says to Lord Krishna, “You have shown me your Vishwarupa (Universal Form), but I am terrified and overwhelmed by it. Please return to your friendly form.” Even great figures like Bhishma and Dronacharya saw this divine form, yet in spite of this, they didn’t fully comprehend that they were actually fighting against Lord Krishna, the Supreme One.
• Hence, simply seeing something is of no benefit; it's like water flowing over rocks. Until one's heart melts, one can't truly feel or experience the presence of the Divine. If by seeing the true form [of God], we haven’t progressed, how are we going to move forward by just seeing His fake form?
• Recently, DGP Vikasbhai talked about the generational gap in the police force. He mentioned that those who joined after 2010 belong to a new generation. It’s not that they are not good, but the gap in ideologies is quite large. Every batch, whether from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, has its own set of values, morals, and standards. In families too, we see this generational gap. The gap between me and my father was smaller, but now there's a wider gap between me and my children, and an even bigger one between me and my grandchildren. The more rapid transformation [of society and the world], the more the gap grows. As a result of this gap, there’s often instability, imbalance, and chaos in the family. We cannot accept that someone else’s opinion is different from ours, and this leads to arguments and our egos getting hurt.
• But through meditation, the entire atmosphere can change. I’m not saying everyone in the family will suddenly start listening to you. Differences will still exist—in fact, it's healthy to have differences. However, when you begin to accept those differences, it can make a huge difference.
• Meditation sensitizes us. Meditation makes us understand, by looking at situations and  scenarios from all angles. Thus we start to develop a sense of discrimination.

After the meditation session, Daaji and Shri Rushikesh Ganeshbhai Patel planted tree saplings on the ashram premises. Later, Daaji took a group photo with the team working on the reforestation of the Taranga Hills (located in the Aravalli mountain range) in Gujarat, as part of the Forests by Heartfulness initiative. This marked the end of Daaji’s trip within Gujarat, after which he departed for Hyderabad to return to Kanha Shanti Vanam.