Jabalpur 21st June 2023

The day dawned bright and early, with practitioners at the ashram departing for the venue of the International Yoga Day celebrations by 4:00 am, to arrive well in time for the event which was to be graced by the Hon’ble vice President of India, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Minister for AYUSH and many other dignitaries. Daaji arrived at the venue early and was warmly met by everyone before the start of the event. 

There were thousands of people attending the event, distributed around several venues close to the main grounds with large screens relaying the proceedings from the main stage at Rabindranath Tagore Garden in Jabalpur. The event began with a welcome of all. In their address, The Hon’ble Vice President, Cabinet Minister for Ayush and the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh lauded Daaji for the record breaking and unprecedented work done in the Ekatma Abhiyan - 1.13 hearts touched; 52 districts, 313 blocks and 40,136 villages covered by more than 10,000 Heartfulness volunteers and trainers. They commended Daaji’s vision, his inspiration and called it an unbelievable work. This recognition of the Daaji’s great work and the contribution of Shri Ram Chandra Mission was truly moving. There were huge rounds of applause from the thousands of people attending the event when Daaji was appreciated and many of us had our throats choked with emotion. Daaji’s simplicity and humility even in the face of such praise, was an example for all. His encouragement to understand the true meaning of yoga brought a newer depth of understanding to everyone present.

Daaji returned to the ashram, had breakfast and rested for some time. Group meditation was conducted at the meditation hall by Shri Umashankar Bajpayee ji for the large group of MP Jan Abhiyan volunteers and coordinators present. Daaji came to the hall after meditation along with Shri Prahlad Patel, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti, who had come to invite Daaji and take him to his native village Gotegaon. 

Daaji gave a significant talk where he emphasised that the great beginning in the Ekatma Abhiyan that had been made should never end. Like a stream turning into a river, growing and expanding, so should our efforts. Meditation is the ultimate flowering of all aspects of yoga leading to a balanced life. The Ekatma Abhiyan movement must grow. Efforts towards economic prosperity as well as spirituality must be made in every village. We have much to learn from them as well. We are grateful to all those whose hearts have been touched in the movement, for having accepted our services. Our volunteers have felt their inner condition transform in doing the work in the villages, hearts being filled with love. 

This brings to the fore an important aspect of work that if one is to do anything with a feeling of it being a burden, it is better not to do that work at all. Every piece of work, every little act, should be done only with a feeling of bhakti. It is with bhakti that every act transforms into the pinnacle of excellence and life becomes worth living. Put your heart into everything that you do, even the mundane acts of day-to-day life. We have to develop the attitude of ‘saranagati’. Whatever is done for the Lord, must not invite the desire for results. Without bhakti, knowledge becomes foolishness and work becomes ‘shrama’ - mere effort. The opportunity that we have received of doing the work of taking spirituality to every heart in every village of Madhya Pradesh is “Karma”, not “shrama”. Serving the Lord is our karmayoga - which is useless without bhakti. Daaji ended the talk by urging everyone not to rest as there is a lot of work that lies ahead.

He then departed with the Shri Prahlad Patel to his native place at Gotegaon where a large event had been organised for him. There was a large gathering at the town hall at Gotegaon where he was felicitated by many dignitaries present. Shri Patel gave a talk welcoming Daaji and thanking him for his presence there. He informed everyone about the magnificent work done in the Ekatma Abhiyan by Shri Ram Chandra Mission and shared Daaji’s guidance on karma and shrama from his morning talk. Daaji conducted group meditation at 12:30 pm despite a restless audience. He then gave a short talk explaining the method of introduction to Heartfulness. Speaking about how a mere glimpse of the meditation just concluded could not indicate the wealth of divine experience that meditation could bring, he said that to move towards infinity, infinite efforts are required. Small efforts cannot give us the infinite divine. To attain Him, everything has to be sacrificed, one’s own self has to be sacrificed.  and then went to the minister’s house for lunch. He conducted a short meditation session for the family of the minister after lunch. He moved back to Jabalpur ashram in the late afternoon.

After a short rest Daaji then conducted group meditation at the ashram from 6:02 pm to 6:32 pm and then visited the plantation of the micro forest area near the meditation hall at the ashram. He spoke to several practitioners present there and spent some time with them. Upon his return to the cottage, he met a reporter from the Dainik Bhaskar and gave him a short interview. A demonstration of Brighter Minds was also conducted for the gentleman. 

Daaji then met his old friend from his pharmacy college 40 years ago, Shri Prakash Narang who came to meet him upon learning of his visit to Jabalpur. It was a joyous meeting with happy reminiscing that brought nostalgic memories back to them. What happened next was a surprise for beloved Daaji when he made a phone call to another old friend Shri Ishwar Advani who recognised him from his voice. A long conversation about the old days of meditating together at college ensued with a lot of catching up to do from those times. It was sheer joy to watch him reconnect with his younger days and seeing him retain the centre point of that conversation as meditation was a true learning for us all. After dinner with the guests, Daaji retired for the day, a much needed rest after the long and full day, before embarking upon the long trip of the next few days.