Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Itasca

Jay Shree Swaminarayan

The abode of Atma

Chapter-37

Who are the relatives ?

To which category does he belong?

On the fourteenth day of the second fortnight of the month of Paush of Samvat 1876, Shriji Maharaj was sitting facing west on a cot tinder margosa tree near the temple of Shri Vasudev Narayan in the Durbar of Shri Dada Khachat at Gadhda. He had put on a white turban which was decorated with yellow flowers. His ears were encirced by bunches if white flowers and he was garlanded with white and yellow fowers. He had covered his body with white cotton shawl. Saint and the devotees from the different places were assembled before him.

Then Shriji Mahraj said, One who lacks Vairagya and Atmagyan, but has renounced the world, secretly nourishes an attachment to his birth place. He can be said to have received no enlightenment from his spiritual training. Then showing a scar on his theigh, he said "Whenever I see this scar it reminds me of the tree from which I fell into the pond at Chhapaiya - my birth place - I remember both the tree and the pond. It is very difficult to eradicate fully the attachment either to ones birth place to one's bedy. I now have to ask you to disclose here frankly any attachment that you may still have either to your birth place or to your relatives. Those who are ashamed to make such a confession are asked to do so in the name of Shri Naranarayan. Hearing this benign order of Maharaj, the munis made their confessions.

Then Shriji Mahanij said, Since you are all truly Atma and not body, which is your birth place, who are your relatives and which is your caste? If your atma, which sustains your body cherishes a delusion about the phantom truth of the relations of this body, your Atma should similarly maintain an attachment to the relatives of its innumberable past births. And if you maintain an attachment to the relatives of this body with a desire to liberate them, then you should also desire such a liberation for the relatives of your past births. However, owing to the veil of ignorance, you have forgotten your past relatives. In the same way, the knowledge that you are Atma should enable you to discard the relations of your present body. As for me, I have no attachment to my relations, I have no attachment even to those who may be in my service but are devoid of devotion to God. I would not be attracted even to a most virtuous person like Narada - if I found that he lacked devotion.

One's heart should be filled with devotion to God. A devout man must realise that God and his saints sitting in close proximity to him at present, manifest on the earth in the same divine form as they are in their abode at the end of the Atyantik Pralaya. His knowledge will never fail him in this belief even if he reads the scriptures composed by pseudo - vedantis describing God as impersonal - Nirakar. To him God in human form before him is the ultimate reality and the final cause of the cosmic evolution without whose will even the smallest leaf can not stir. A devout man who has this understanding is dearest to me, even if he seemingly does not possess the intelligence at the status of the worldly wise or wordly great people. Kala, Karma and Maya cannot overpower him and punish him for his misdeeds if he commits only, as God alone will deal with him. He is so highly respected by me that I would rub the dust of his feet on to my forehead. I would be pained to harm him and would long to have his Darshan. He is spiritually wise because he believes Gods grace to be the source of ultimate redemption - contrary to the belief of the worldly wise whose wisdom would impel them to Cross the ocean without the help of a ship. Such a devout man is so dear to God that he bestows his highest powers on to him, and empowers him to redeem millions of souls only by his Darshan, which are equivalent to the Darshan of God himself. Anyone who lacks such an undestanding and knowledge of God, and yet is full detachment, is not esteemed highly by me, because he tries to seek his liberration by his personal endeavour but lacks intelligence like those who desire to cross the ocean by their own efforts. Such people after death will be transmigrated to the region of the demi Gods but will never go to the final abode of God."

So saying Shriji Maharaj asked, "Now chant Kirtans."

Thus Ends Vachanamrit : Gadhada First - 37.

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