SHRI HANS RAJ MAHARAJJI

Maharajji Sacha Baba's Mahasamadhi

2011-10-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

Brothers and sisters,

On Sunday 23^rd October 2011 in the morning, the great saint and Mahatma, our beloved Master Shri Hans Raj Maharajji Sacha Baba left his body at the age of 89. A few days earlier, he had been suffering from a slight infection and had been admitted to a hospital in Dehradun.

His leaving this plane has brought great emotion and sadness to the whole community of disciples and to all those who knew him, for everyone knows how much he was love and compassion, and that he only lived for the Common Good. Maharajji was simplicity, love and grace united in one being.

On that same morning of 23^rd October, his body was brought back to his ashram, Sacha Dham, and exposed in the great hall, decorated with flowers. Everyone was thus able to come and pranam, renew their love and devotion to the divine Guru who has served us all well. At the same time, the choir of disciples continually sang the powerful mantra Prabhu Aapa Jago. The last funeral and religious rites took place the following day, on Monday.

A special ceremony is to take place on 6^th and 7^th November during which disciples and friends from all over India and abroad will pay a vibrant homage to the holy Master.

After his enlightenment, which happened in exceptional conditions in October 1955, this great saint has thus spent fifty-six years serving God, his Master Sacha Baba Kulanandji and humanity. Maharajji Sacha Baba only lived for one goal — that humanity should turn to God through the path that each person would choose. He has always said that all religions lead to the same goal which is this same God, whatever the name each religion gives Him. So Maharajji Sacha Baba has never practised proselytism for any particular religion, for he often used to say, “Everyone has a heart, which is the seat of love; love is universal. And love is God, Who is universal.” For him, if a man listens to his heart, he will find God. But if he only listens to his mind, then he will take the wrong path.

So the divine torchbearer of the Sacha lineage has left for the higher plains, but we are certainly sure that from these high plains, he will continue to work for the transformaton of humanity and his disciples. Each of us will be able to continue benefiting from his holy guidance and assistance as long as our hearts are in harmony with him. May our faith and devotion in him shine like the indelible link which joins us to his divine grace forever!

Jay Maharajji Sacha Baba !

Gurupurnima 2011

2011-10-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Summary of Maharajji's speech, July 15^th

My people!

I have just one thing to say, it is necessary to bring God into your life. He is the only doer. Whatever effort you make, the Guru wants you to do it for Paramatman [cosmic Spirit, God]. You must understand. You should follow your own path. He will show you the way. The time today is such that it is like a dark, moonless night.

Now Parivartan [the spiritual rise in consciousness] is taking place. Remember, in the Sacha lineage after me, there will be two more Avatars in the future [Maharajji has not said exactly when in the future these Avatars will come. Is it just after him or later on, we do not know]. Then the Parivartan will be entirely fulfilled. How much of the world will remain, how many of the people will be wiped out from this world? All those who remain will be those who are devoted to Paramatman. What I am saying applies not just to India, but to the entire world.

This Kali Yuga is very simple, if only you chant "RAM RAM", the Name of God, you will be able to go through it easily. All sins of past, present and future lifetimes will be wiped away. But we don’t give priority to Paramatman. Whoever comes to me tells me, “I have this problem, that problem etc.”. Hardly anybody uptil today has come to ask for Paramatman. Whatever they ask for, I always pray for it; but the samsara [the almost endless cycle of rebirth and death till man attains liberation] keeps on expanding.

No one has managed to control this world and no one will, because whatever one’s actions are, that very fruit he will reap. If there are four brothers in a house, then the karma of each will be different. Even if all four live together lovingly and eat together, still the karma of all four is different. But if all four chant the Name of Paramatman even for an hour [a day], then their sins will be wiped away and they’ll attain moksha [liberation]. reaping in that way the fruit of that spiritual practice. But people want only samsara, and they go deeper into it, thus accumulating “dust” for many lifetimes.

We should at least think about where we are going and for what we are going. After a short time [of sadhana] people go off the path, because they have no wisdom.

Later Satya Yuga (the era of wisdom) will come. The world will keep on its flow. However today if by misfortune someone does not chant The Name of God, then he also will have to leave this world [because he will not be in harmony with the Divine Energies which are coming down on earth in this Parivartan cycle]. Human life is itself a chance. And there is no second chance.

Follow your religion seriously. The major religions, for example, all have different paths, but all lead to God. And all those who practise these religions sincerely attain union with God, whatever their social class.

In India there are many Gurus, you can easily choose one. If you don´t find Paramatman with one, you can find Him with someone else. And whether you find a Guru or not, follow the one in whom you have faith.

You should give up everything for 1-2 hours daily and chant the Name of Paramatman. If it becomes a habit then you will start doing it lovingly later on. You will grow love in your Heart for Paramatman.

Wake Up!

You should wake up early in the morning and chant the Name of Paramatman for 1-2 hours. And the rest of the time you can eat, sleep and work hard. The circle of maya (illusion) is weak in the beginning but later it grows hard like iron [if you don't have a steady spiritual practice]. It won´t break. If you tell an old man to say “RAM RAM”, he’ll say “go and tell someone else” [if he has been used to living without steady spiritual practice].

Time is passing, the sun will rise and set, it will do its work. The higher powers will continue doing their work whether we reach the goal or not. Therefore I won’t say much, I just say that you should devote some time to Paramatman, Whoever your Paramatman is, with form or without. Some people have faith in Allah. If they have faith by heart, when they rise up spiritually, there is then no distinction [between these devotees and those of other religions who also rise up spiritually]. Paramatman of all religions and people is One only. All people have similar organs. God has given to everyone intellect and strength.

Although I speak and speak [year after year], people still don’t understand. Therefore they get all kind of sorrows. So devote 1-2 hours daily [to avoid these trials and sorrows in your life]. In the morning after having a bath, or without a bath, sit and chant God’s Name. Usually people have a bath and then go to their shop. They [only] keep the shop in their mind.

It is up to you, nobody is forcing you . Whether you like or not, just sit. After a while or after two days you'll start liking it. Slowly slowly you will leave samsara behind. [Maharajji never forces anybody; he only gives wise guidance and let people freely follow it or not]

Permeated by Divine Light at Jageshwar (Premi, India)

2011-10-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

In 2010, my wife and I decided to make a visit to Uttrakhand, Matkanya in order to have darshan of the jyotir shiva linga at Jageshwar, one of the twelve oldest shivalinga sites in india which Markenday Rishi and Adishankaracharya had visited, from where you can also see the entire range of the snow capped Himalaya mountains stretching from India to Nepal.

Before this visit my wife and I had darshan of Sacha Baba Mahatma Hans Raj ji at Laxmanjhula, and I informed him of the shaktipath he had done to me in 1996 in my room at midnight and we discussed the "swayambhu" divine light experience of Sat-Chit-Anand, divine existence, peace, love, conscious-awareness, bliss-joy.

This experience had made me to take up research in the swayambhu and satchidanand. I discovered that Guru Nanak explained this in his loolmantra as "saibhang" and Buddha referred to this to Maitrei who had established the swayambhu stupa by draining out the water from the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. I also studied the scientific work of Einstein on cosmology and discovered the scientific concept in the theory which he postulated as the "cosmological constant" of this universal phenomenon and its equation which is used in the quantum theory. I also discovered the "absolute horizon" concept of Nobel prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrashekar in his study of the black hole phenomema in the universe along with the creation of stars and collapse of stars. Both these concepts lead to not only universe but multi-verses phenomena which are in line with with vedic thought of 10,000 realms or 3000 realms of existence plains in buddhistic thought. Einstein has clearly said that for an expanding universe the cosmological constant is required which never changes as it is the fulcrum substratum on which the wheel of the universe rotates and changes continuously.

This is is the "swayambhu" of Mahatma Hans Raj ji, other saints and mystics and which is present throughout the universe and in each and every individual but as superconductivity permeation. In that way it sustains all change in nature. Even in the Gita Lord Krisna has stated the two levels of his existential phenomena, one the lower which is the ever changing natural phenomena which is supported on the unchanging , unborn, eternal phenomena. Thus the swayambu satchidanand principle of saints and the cosmological constant of scientific physicists is one and the same. This is the meeting point for atheists, scientists and mystic saints. In the case of saints they can grant you the experience of swayanbhu satchidanand, the cosmological constant, whereas in the scientists case it is a derived mental observation and hypothesis of the universe, they cannot grant you the experience of the cosmological constant, absolute horizon— the swayambhu satchidanand.

I give below once again the experience granted to me by Sacha Baba Mahatma Hansrajji in 1996 through his divine light swayambhu satchidanand body in 1996 in English:

When the guru's grace dawns

The breath and mind stop

Bindu(reddness) and sunyatha (spaceless-space) occur

and then the being of light swayambhu occurs

flashing forth in all its divine glory throughout in consciousness-awareness and embracing all in divine love.

The swayambhu divine light says that

"I am a circle without a circumference whose centre is everywhere, and if you try to find my centre with the ego-centric mind then I am apparently nowhere, yet I am everywhere", hence the need to give up ego centric thinking and to surrender totally in heart and mind — as Sacha Baba says he /she who surrenders onto me, to him/her do I do yogshem (draw in and protect).

The entry of the divine swayambhu light in one’s being is portionate to The amount or extent of surrender in heart and mind.

Thus the following Gita sayings as received by my soul from gurudev's swayambhic soul are:

1. Thou art unborn, eternal and never are you born and thus you never die.

2.He/she who surrenders to me (Sacha Baba), him/her I draw in and protect — yogshem.

3.He /she who gives up his/her heart and mind to me comes to abide and rest in me (Sacha Baba's satchidanand swayambhuic state or soul)

4.Leave all the other ways and means you have heard of, just seek my shelter and protection and I will free you from all your sufferings, struggles, tribulations both physical and mental, I will bestow on you moksha, spiritual freedom, do not fear.

The swayambhic divine light of Sacha Baba Hansrajji says: "Never was there a time when I was not, never will there be a time when I will not be, many a time comes when even time is not (in total withdrawal of universal phenomena), yet I am forever."

When staying in Jageshwar, Matkanya I came out of my room at 2 a.m. at night and stood in the garden with the clear bright moonshine shining on me, I looked up to the heavenly stars shining down on me, and in the stillness of that divine moment Sacha Baba Mahatma Hansrajji manifested through the moonlight and permeated my whole being in a superconductive way.

Jai Guru Dev!

Guru Purnima 2010 at Sacha Dham

2010-08-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Sacha Dham Packed Full

Sunday 25th July 2010 was a special day in India, for it was Guru Day, Masters day. And in India the Guru is such a central person in the thoughts and life of a Hindu that each family has a Guru.

This marvellous festival was celebrated at Sacha Dham ashram in Risikesh, in honour of our beloved Master Shri Hans Raj Maharajji Sacha Baba — the Guru Purnima festival. As usual, on this occasion the ashram was packed full, for many of the Master’s disciples had come from every region for this solemn event. They were about two thousand. They had come to honour and thank their Master for all he had given them and will continue to give, in particular — spiritual light.

At this special event there was a puja (prayer) in the ashram temple and the whole atmosphere was permeated with divinity. Love and devotion reinforce the mutual links between Maharajji and his children. The Master shed his holy blessings on all his disciples — both those present and absent.

At the end of this special puja, Maharajji spoke to his disciples about the perils which humanity has to face in this Parivartan cycle (cycle of transformation in hearts and consciousness) which has begun.

Lunch was a bandhara or brotherly meal of which all partook in a joyous atmosphere.

The Most Powerful Links

It is said that the links between Master and disciple are the most powerful and solid links in this world. Indeed, they are links which continue in each life. When one reads, for example, the book Shri Hans Raj Maharajji and the Dawn of a New Consciousness, one is struck by certain stories which say that when certain disciples met Maharajji for the first time in this life, they definitely had the impression that they knew him already from past lives. This is due to the fact that when a disciple is incarnated, if his Master also is, then divine laws come into action so that they meet again.

This is perhaps one of the reasons why Sacha Baba Kulanandji, Maharajji’s Master one day said that Maharajji’s disciples, who live all over the world, would come to him. He had said that at a time when Maharajji did not yet have one single foreign disciple. But today, come to Sacha Dham, especially in autumn or spring and you will see the many disciples from all five continents.

A Priceless Treasure

It is a special blessing to have a Master, for no one but the Guru can give all that he gives. Not only does he progressively raise his protégé’s level of consciousness with love and compassion, but he also spares from him thousands of useless trials and suffering. The student will, of course, have to undergo certain trials, but quite often the Master has already made them lighter, even if, from the student’s point of view, what remains of these tests is just as difficult to bear. But through trials one learns a lot and it would not be wise to spare someone from all tests. This is true in both the secular and the spiritual world. Above all, the Master is the one who will one day bestow enlightenment and the treasures of God on his disciple when the latter is ready.

However let us never forget, Maharajji's and the Sacha Lineage’s work goes beyond his disciples for it concerns the evolution of the entire humanity, particularly in this period of the Parivartan or period of the transformation of hearts and consciousness which is now beginning.

Let us say with love and devotion,

Glory to Maharajji, Glory to the Guru, Glory to he who is one with God, Glory to he who is God!

Om Shri Sache Maha Prabhu Ki - Jay Ho !

Realization Without the Help of a Master?

2010-06-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

This question comes up frequently, for certain seekers on the path of light claim that one does not need a Master to attain spiritual realization. According to them, all one has to do is to choose a discipline from among those that are offered to the public. And they maintain that by practising this discipline with perseverance, one will inevitably reach the goal one day.

These men and women affirm with conviction that spirituality is a matter between God and man and that there is no need at all for an intermediary. But let us say right away that this last assertion is risky, to say the least, for who then had spoken to them about spirituality? Where had they learnt that there was something called spirituality? Even if they had eventually got it from someone close to them, hadn’t it come directly or indirectly through messages from Great Prophets of the past? In any case, God Himself did not appear to them to tell them to follow that path!

Continuity of the Divine Message
But they feel that they know enough for them not to follow a living Master who is also a Prophet and who, in truth, continues the work of the Prophets of the past. Indeed, Maharajji has said several times that all true saints (meaning those who have attained divine realization), whatever path they had followed before their enlightenment, are one, for they are definitively united with God. From then on, in order to help other men attain the same magnificent goal, which is the aim of all that exists (even stones, plants and animals), these saints all receive the same message which, adapted to the level of evolution of the epoch and culture of each nation, becomes the religion of that nation. However, men, in their blindness and separative attitude, think that only their religion is the true one, and make war on other nations who have other beliefs, or make fun of them.

Necessity to Hear the Guide
Spirituality is indeed a matter between man and God. But are those men able, at the level of evolution that they have reached, to hear or see the instructions that God would give them? Wouldn’t it be perilous to follow a path while being directed by someone whose instructions one can neither see nor hear? And is it not logical to think that God has appointed ministers or intermediaries who can speak the same language as those they speak to? What ordinary citizen speaks directly to the Head of state for business with government offices, schooling, medical care etc.? If our Heads of state work through ministers and numerous civil servants and agents, how could man, arrogant as he is, think that he can speak directly to the infinite God for instructions?

One thing is sure: these same men will never say that if you want to reach a level in mathematics (or any other academic subject) which is as high as someone with a university diploma, you do not need qualified teachers. And why would they not say that? Because they had gone to school and had seen how much it was difficult for example, to solve certain equations in algebra. So when they remember how they had often toiled over those exercises, they will never underestimate the more than necessary help from a competent teacher.

The Path — a Hard Battlefield
Do they know that spiritual progress raises even more difficult equations to solve than mathematical ones or exercises in any other academic subject? Do they know that one of these equations is called purifying the consciousness of certain inclinations and bad entrenched tendencies (bad in the sense of what keeps one away from the Light, what prevents one from perceiving the Truth) and which the disciple cannot get rid of by himself ? Are they aware of this other equation which is first of all making the disciple’s karma lighter and then liberating him from it? And yet another one which is the judicious awakening and at the right time (and not in a disorderly or brutal way) of the different psychic centres? For the order in which they are awakened changes according to whether the disciple belongs to one or the other of the seven big groups of men which inhabit the planet; and the disciple does not know which group he belongs to.

Have they even thought about the fact that the disciple has to avoid falling into traps — and there are a lot of them — on the path? While it is up to him to avoid some of those traps, for others he will need the protection of the Master, for the disciple is not even aware that they exist. This is especially so for certain powerful forces which naturally try to impede the progress of all disciples so as to keep them in their present state of ignorance. And there are many other equations to solve, and not the least, for the path to liberation is a very hard battlefield. Do those who want to set off on this path on their own know the laws governing one’s being, so as to be able to lead their soul to the realization of God? The disciple does not know these laws whereas the Master does. That is why he is a true guide and in India, his highly respected name is Guru, i.e. he who leads from darkness (Gu) to light (Ru). Even this holy name has now been defiled and emptied of its meaning by some supposed gurus who have brought public condemnation upon true Instructors. But it is said that every cloud has a silver lining. Indeed, this state of affairs also helps to set up a guardian on the threshold of light so that those who are not yet ready and who listen to the murmurs of the world may not find the door to the Master...

Fruitful Cooperation
In our schools and universities, students have to learn lessons and do the exercises set by their teachers. Their progress results from teaching and guidance from a teacher on the one hand, and their own efforts on the other. In the spiritual domain that is also how things go. The Master does teach indeed, but the disciple has to put those teachings into practice in his daily life. However, there are aspects of his progress which do not depend on him, or at least which he cannot deal with alone, for he is not even aware that they exist.
But that is not all! A Master is able to give energy to a disciple at any time, so as to push his consciousness up to a higher level if he finds it necessary. It is similar to the case where the doctor gives tonic to a sick person.

Truly Like Childbirth
One can say that attaining divine realization is literally the birth of a spiritual man. And we know that to be born, at least in our age, we need parents. So who can say he was born by himself, without parents? We all know that the mother goes into labour and pushes while the baby is being born so that he can come into the world of men. In the same way, the Master pushes, so to speak, the disciple into the spiritual kingdom (the fifth) when he sees that his disciple is ready for this ultimate stage. To do so he uses his divine power to set off the disciple’s enlightenment. This energy is shaktipat, which the disciple does not possess, and therefore can never set off by himself. Isn’t the Master therefore indispensable?
But before we end, let us not forget the following for it may have a bearing on the topic we are dealing with. A true Master never wants anyone to be subjected to him. He does not try to dominate anyone, even his disciple. He only wants the latter to submit himself to his own inner God, which some call soul, for it is this inner God which must be revealed and come to power in one’s being when the ego or outer personality (the social man) characterized by ignorance and numerous limitations falls away … All the Master’s work consists in fostering the coming into power of this inner being.

And the disciple works towards that goal while living a normal life in society, with a job and a family. There is no need at all to go off and live in a monastery, an ashram etc. A true Master does not seek to keep his disciples with him all the time.

* * *

What’s the Situation Today?

2010-04-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

A big hello to you, our dear friends, brothers and sisters,

It has been over a year since we last published an article on this Blog. However, this is not because there was nothing to speak about, for during the past year, there have been celebrations like Guru Purnima, Prakash Diwash, Navaratri, Holi, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Basant Panchami and others like Holi a short time ago. All these festivals have one thing in common, and that is the victory of light over darkness.

A Major Turning Point in Humanity’s Life
On all these occasions, or practically all, our beloved Master Maharajji encouraged us, his disciples to show ourselves worthy of what God and the Masters expect of us in this particular period of humanity's life, which is a period of transition: this concerns the opportunity for all men to henceforth adopt a spiritual path and progressively turn away from materialism which has ruled humanity up till now. It is the Parivartan or the Transformation of hearts and consciousness.

The Heart, a Gateway to Everything Possible
Maharajji says that the aim of Man is to acquire divine Light. According to him, Man can succeed in doing so by relying on his heart and living according to its inspiration. He often says that everyone has a heart, the heart is the seat of Love and that Love is God. If Man lives through his heart and not following the commands of his purely terrestrial desires, to put it mildly, he will then find the divinity which lies within and will attain transcendence, perfection.

There is nothing as authentic, beautiful and simple as living through one’s heart. This causes a multitude of qualities to blossom out in a human being, and these qualities vie with one another in beauty — Love, being the highest of them all. To follow this path is to make the arid desert green, to bring invigorating warmth in winter, to give life to faded flowers, to bring the dead back to life. The path of the heart leads to the accomplishment and acquisition of the famous Chintamani stone which transforms life into what is even better than a fairytale. Above all, this path leads you to the very Heart of God, the centre of all the possibilities from which you can dry the tears of your human brothers and sisters, heal their illnesses and bestow joy and immortality on them.

Shivaratri Festival at Sacha Dham Ashram, February 23 2009

2009-03-05T03:15:00.000-08:00

On February 23, at the Shivaratri festival at Sacha Dham ashram in Rishikesh, there was a large gathering of disciples as there is every year. The temple turned out to be too small and many had to participate in the special ceremony from the hall leading to the temple. Maharajji went to the ceremony and delivered a message to the participants, which is summarized as follows:

My souls,

Mahesh [Lord Shiva] is considered to be very compassionate, as he is known as Bole Shankar — innocent Shankar. The following stories illustrate this very well :

Once there was a couple who was unable to have children. One day a Mahatma came to their home, and seeing their devotion, blessed them: they would have a son, but he would live for only sixteen years. Their son was thus born. The boy grew up, and only three days before the end of his sixteenth year, he found out about his coming death. Greatly sorrowed at this, he prayed to Narada for him to to change the course of things and allow him to live. Narada advised him to go to a Shiva temple and embrace the Shiva lingam [Shiva’s symbol which symbolises the creation of the universe through two energies, one masculine and the other feminine.] during these last three days. The boy obeyed and as a result, the God of death proved helpless. Finally Shiva granted the boy’s request to become amar (immortal). This boy was later known as Markandar (or Markandeya which is the name he is best known by), who since then lives throughout all Yugas. [Yugas are very long cycles of time which follow one another as seasons do, during the lifetime of the world and the universe.]

This illustrates the fact that with a little effort Shiva can be pleased and so answer our prayers.

When Brahma was ready to create the universe, He first created seven Rishis Who He asked to help with the creation of the world. They refused. Narada also refused. So Brahma went to Lord Shiva and asked him to help. As Shiva was compassionate, he agreed and, taking on the attributes of Ardha Narishwar [half of Him became a Man and the other half became a Woman, in other words, he took on the form of a divine Androgynous Being], created the universe.

Sita also prayed to Parvati [Parvati is the feminine aspect of Shiva] so that Rama would become her husband, as in the following couplet :

Devi pooji pada kamala tumhaare

sura nara muni saba hohin sukhaare

[O Devi, Gods, human beings, and sages bow down at Your lotus feet, And in doing so they easily gain all that they truly seek.]

Her prayer was heard and she married Rama. This couplet became a prayer which states that through prayer each person can realize the God Who resides in our hearts.

During this Kali Yuga, “Om Namo Shivaya” [also pronounced “Om Nama Shivaya”] is the most powerful and fruitful mantra. So in the present period of time, the easiest way to attain spiritual as well as material goals is to pray to Shiva for just one hour every day.

A Few Comments on this Message

Let us bear in mind that this festival celebrates the marriage of Shiva (first God in the Hindu Trimurti corresponding to the Father of Christians) with Parvati, the daughter of the mountain (Parvat means “mountain”), the Himalayas. In particular, it is a symbolical representation of the inner alchemical marriage which takes place in human beings who are duly prepared through assiduous spiritual practice.

When this alchemical marriage, which is usually called enlightenment happens, the divine Spirit aspect in man unites with the earthly personality aspect or Parvati. This union, which takes place when man is still in the night of ignorance, makes him enter God’s light of Day for ever. He becomes immortal, spiritually speaking: the different bodies in which he will henceforth live (if he decides to reincarnate in order to help his human brothers progress) can die, of course, for they are governed by earthly laws, but he, himself, never ever looses the consciousness of being. Ordinary man, however, looses this consciousness when he dies and in his next incarnation, no longer remembers what he had been before.

But for realized or enlightened man, the body is simply like a vehicle in which the driver enters at birth and leaves when it becomes worn out; he then takes another one and continues his work for the universal good. This driver is constantly aware of being, and is fully conscious of his past incarnations.

Consequently, with this mantra, “Om Namah Shivaya” man invokes the Spirit aspect within so that he will be governed by it. This is the highest aspect, the highest power which man can invoke and that is why it is such a powerful mantra. During the last three days we have left to live, i.e., the final part of the process of our evolution, if we embrace the Shiva lingam, that is to say if we unite with our Atma, then Yama, the God of death (God of ignorance) will not be able to overcome us and we will become immortal, living through all the Yugas like Markandeya !

Christmas 2008 and New Year Celebrations at Sacha Dham ashram, Rishikesh

2009-01-18T00:50:00.000-08:00

Jesus Christ Came for All

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ who, through his life of love and sacrifice opened the way on the inner planes so that man can reach the Heart of God more easily. Indeed, when upon the cross he gave up the spirit, then the veil of the temple was rent in two, meaning that a significant opening in the veil of ignorance (maya) separating man from God was made, and henceforth man can more easily apprehend the truth leading to the Kingdom of God so that it can become a reality for him. Man then gained access to his soul more easily, as an opening in the the veil between his soul and his outer self was also made. And as Shri Hans Raj Maharajji has pointed out in his message, Christ never came for just one person or one group of people, he came for everybody, and his spiritual work on the inner planes touched all mankind.

As usual, Christmas was celebrated at Sacha Dham ashram. Indeed, the Master of this ashram, Shri Hans Raj Maharajji is beyond religion, having achieved unity with God and the Whole through enlightenment in 1955. All his disciples are his children, whatever path they follow, and so different religious festivals, including the Christmas Day celebration, regularly take place at his ashram. This year, present were the disciples who live at the ashram, along with Western and Indian disciples who come to be with their respective Gurus — Maharajji, ShantiMayi and Prem Baba during the Christmas season.

Showers of Blessings

Christmas is a time when love is more openly manifested, and so gifts are often given, reminding us of the love for others Christ taught us through the example of sacrifice and abnegation he showed. Gifts are only a symbol of this brotherly love among human beings. Disciples at the ashram gave their Masters presents to show their love and gratitude for all they do for them and the entire humanity.

The Gurus, in silence, shower blessings on all present and also on those who connect with them through their hearts in spite of their being away from the ashram. Christmas is indeed a time when the energy of the Christ is poured down on the Earth, on all men, in response to humanity’s call for Peace and Goodwill towards all men at this particular time. Masters who work for the welfare of humanity receive this energy and then redistribute it all over the world and it is our duty to open our hearts to receive what is given; indeed, one cannot receive with a closed heart, or with a heart already filled up with other things. But only those who have consciously tuned in with the saints associated with the festival in question and who have opened their hearts on this occasion reap any significant benefit.

On Christmas day, as usual, the carol singing took place early in the morning at around 7 a.m. The joyous group of singers went around the ashram, warming our hearts with traditional carols. They stopped to sing for Maharajji on his verandah, then sang for the Mother (Mataji) of the ashram, Anitaji, and then for ShantiMayi. Presents and a mala (rosary of beads) were given to all three of them, and a mala given for Sacha Baba (Maharajji's Master who is no longer in our world but whose statue is in the temple). Christians and non-Christians alike were happy at the merry Christmas spirit this created in the ashram.

Follow the Example of Love

At about 11.30, Maharajji went to the hall to deliver his Christmas message. He was accompanied by ShantiMayi and Prem Baba. Maharajji reminded us that Jesus Christ had come for all mankind and insisted on the importance and universality of his message: that we should love one another. Even while he was being crucified, he told his disciples to love those doing him wrong just as much as they loved him. Maharajji repeated that we must love one another regardless of our different origins, and live as one family, also loving those who do us wrong, He concluded by saying that love is God and that this is the easiest way to attain realization.

Prem Baba then gave his message. He stressed the fact that although Jesus Christ was well-known for his great miracles, few people were able to see that the greatest miracle was the fact that he had accepted to die on the cross and still kept his compassion for others intact. Even while he was being crucified, he did not deviate from this love, and was even able to pray for his assassins, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He thus showed us the way, the way to love.

ShantiMayi pointed out that like his life, Jesus Christ’s birth also had a very strong signification. At this event, there was a guiding star which guided everyone to Him. That had something to do with us as Earth people, as a living family of the Earth, being of the Cosmos, that we open our hearts rather than just being Earth-bound; that we open our minds to the whole of the universe. This ideal has to do with the guiding star which came that day; we remember that He was born on this day which was a new beginning for the great power. And this great power should not be feared for it is the power of love which is in every single human being.

Receiving the Blessings

During the messages, the spiritual atmosphere became very charged and one’s heart felt touched and uplifted by “something”, which could be called “spiritual blessings”. Following the messages, bhajans were sung by the disciples. These songs, added to the messages opened our hearts, and many a tear was wiped away as our hearts overflowed. The following beautifully expresses the experience which a disciple had on a similar occasion :

"On Christmas day all the foreigners were in the temple and most of them were disciples of ShantiMayi. Maharajji was present and his hands radiated a sort of energy in the form of white tear drops which entered all the participants alike.
Maharajji told us that to be in contact with him was enough to put our hearts into contact with his. This is what I think: it is not necessary to be physically at his side to feel his energy." ( Ascension, Spain)

After this celebration, ShantiMayi's disciples went to the Ganges river nearby to carry out a ritual for the benefit of humanity. Standing on the Laxman Jhula bridge, they poured flowers into the holy Ganges to the rhythm of the Gayatri mantra, as a prayer for the enlightenment of humanity. This beautiful ceremony lasted for about twenty minutes.

Then came the bhandara (agape or religious meal shared as a sign of love and fellowship) which was excellent. Added to the disciples, children from nearby schools along with pupils from the ashram’s Sanskrit school participated, adding a special touch to the day.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, ShantiMayi’s disciples received their present for the New Year.

Prayers for Humanity for the Coming Year

Continuous prayers for the enlightenment of humanity were said for the New Year. The divine mantra Prabhu Aap Jago revealed to Sacha Baba Kulanandji was chanted without interruption for twenty-four hours in order to enhance the spiritual atmosphere of the world and bring humanity closer to God.

Disciples who participated were deeply marked by the strong, purifying vibrations of this mantra, and it also brought them great joy. They were happy to serve God and humanity, and these celebrations had offered them many occasions to do so with others. These past days of spiritual celebration were indeed days of fellowship and blessing.

Om Shri Sache Maha Prabhu Ki -Jay Ho !

Maharajji’s Message at the Diwali Festival 28 Nov. 2008 (Summary)

2008-12-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

My souls...

Why is Diwali celebrated in India? In Indian culture, there is a spiritual cause for all festivals. One must therefore go beyond the outer aspects to see the true message.

The Importance of Self-Sacrifice so as to Obtain Everything

The Diwali Festival commemorates the crowning of Ram in Ayodhya after having been banished for fourteen years. When Rama entered Ayodhya, people spontaneously showed how happy they were. During his reign, there was prosperity, happiness, truth and good health for all. These changes were possible because Rama had sacrificed himself for many long years, far from his family, fighting demons in the jungle.

This shows that to succeed, one must make sacrifices. You must therefore make sacrifices if you want to realize God. Through devotion, you enter into communion with the transcendental state of the Master and you can also become spiritually developed to the point where you are as well-known and celebrated as your own Master. That is how Hanuman, because of his great devotion to his Master Rama, is today as celebrated or even more so than he is. If his devotion is great, the disciple becomes perfect and through the grace of his Master, he can do things as great as him, or ever greater.

Today, one sees few true sadhus (people who have renounced the world and seek God). They die their clothes, but are not real sadhus. The true sadhu is one who has surrendered to God and who, through his grace finds the solution to all his problems, and who is not materialistic.

It has been five years now since I no longer leave the ashram. Sacha Baba told me that I would have all I needed and that it was no longer necessary to look for anything whatsoever outside. And because I have always surrendered to my Guru, this is what has happened. God can give you everything, but you must first surrender to him.

Entrust the Master With all Aspects of your Life

You must be devoted to and have complete confidence in the Master. No aspect of your life can or must be hidden from God. The Guru sees everything in the life of the disciple and he takes care of him in every little thing as with the more important things. All aspects of his life, the most important as well as day to day situations must be carried out with his inspiration. He must not be left out of any of them.

Ever since I’ve been with my Master, I’ve never disobeyed, nor done anything against his will. One day, I had to leave Varanasi and go to Calcutta. Normally there were three trains I could take, and as usual I had decided to take the first one because usually there was more space. But that time, my Master told me to take the second one. So, confidently, I waited for the second train. When it arrived at the station, it was indeed packed, and there was no space. But as it stopped, a door opened just in front of me. Only one person got down from that door, and I was able to get on the carriage and take his place.

Cooperate with the Masters so as Not to be Crushed

Spirituality must be manifested by all, for God’s creation must become perfect. That is what saints work for, when they watch over humanity’s evolution, thus serving God. This evolution comes about in two ways : either easily and harmoniously when men cooperate with this transformation, or else difficulties will bring about this change. This is so not only for individuals, but also for nations.

Disciples in particular and humanity in general must cooperate with God and the saints for their evolution.

The Earth Has a Good Future

2008-08-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Maharajji ’s Gurupurnima Message (summary), 18th July 2008

Dear souls,

Harmonize Yourselves With This Transformation

This is now the time of divine transformation, the awakening of consciousness on Earth. This is destined to happen, for it is the next step in the evolution of humanity on this planet.

May Sacha bless you with enlightenment. Today we are here to celebrate Gurupuja [religious celebration in honour of the Guru] so that we will connect our hearts with the Guru. In celebrating this puja, we will pray that the Guru will hear our prayer and fill our hearts with peace, honesty and love for all.

Harmonize yourselves with this transformation, remember me and connect yourselves strongly. So when maya wants you to repeat the karmic mistakes of humanity, this connection will save you and open you up so you become one with me. Then you will become free of the ego, the human demon.

Bhai Kanhaiya

I will give you an example from life of a very loving human being and his Guru.
Once there was an Indian who was both a ruler and a Guru. His name was Gobind Singh. At that time he was fighting Mogul people in a big war. He had a close devotee, Bhai Kanhaiya who was asked to go to the battle field and give water to the warriors. So he went out, and started give water to both Indian and Muslim warriors (Moguls were Muslims). At this, the people became very angry and ran to the Guru to complain about his conduct. Bhai Kanhaiya was sent to Guru Gobind Singh, who asked him to explain this behaviour.
Bhai Kanhaiya told him,
“Beloved Guru, I can’t see any difference between Indian and Muslim warriors; I only see Guru Gobind Singh.”
The Guru looked at his devotee and replied,
“I’m very pleased with you, Bhai Kanhaiya.”

My Guru Opened my Spiritual Eye

Look at my life. I was a simple clerk and I surrendered my life to my Guru, and that principle has always brought everything which was needed to the ashram and to the people living here. And much is needed to have an ashram. People always come here and support the ashram for a long time. For five years I have not left the ashram to ask anybody for anything. My Guru opened my spiritual eyes so that I could help humanity in this life.

Get Ignorance out of Your Heart

All I ask of you is to get ignorance out of your heart and become good devotees of Sacha. Follow the custom of dharma.
You Indian people have to change your opinions about Western people. They come here to India and have faith in the Vedas and puja; they worship and practise the dharma sincerely. You want to live in very modern style, giving up your spiritual practice, and that is not good. You should have faith in your religion. If you are fond of a worldly life, then maybe you will have to experience some of the destruction taking place. This will destroy all your plans.

The Lord will Always Remember You

In these days many people suffer from all kinds of diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, aids diabetes, high blood pressure etc. If you want to live a high life, sacrifice one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening for meditation, kirtan (devotional songs), havan (fire ceremony) or some kind of spiritual practice. This will be helpful for all.

It is important to see kindness in others and to be kind to one another. The best thing to do is to donate to people who are in need. Give food, clothing, donate money or do whatever you can for people who suffer in life. You will see that the Lord will always remember you and bless you.

Be honest in all aspects of life, especially those who are doing sadhana. Suffering will come when this has not been acquired as a living principle of life. You can realize this divine leela. You can also do this “Prabhu Aap Jago Paramatma Jago” mantra for your benefit and also for the world’s.

The Time to Reconnect With Me

The Earth has a good future. Are you ready to join this transformation?
Always remember God within and you will always have what you need. Guru Purnima is the time to reconnect with me.

OM SHRI SACHE MAHA PRABHU KI - JAY HO
PARMATMA KI - JAY HO
OM SHANTI

A Book on Maharajji and the Lineage Published

2008-04-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

A book has just been published in English about Maharajji and the Sacha lineage. Its title is :
Shri Hans Raj Maharajji and the Dawn of a New Consciousness

The Contents
This book of 365 pages is divided into five main sections as follows:
Section 1 : Maharajji’s leelas or how Maharajji intervenes, sometimes in an extraordinary way in the lives of his disciples.
Section 2 : How certain men and women became his disciples.
Section 3 : A sketch of the life and work of the past Masters of the Sacha lineage with some unpublished anecdotes about Kacha Baba, Sacha Baba Girnari also known as Girnari Baba and finally Sacha Baba Kulanandji, Maharajji’s Master.
Section 4 : A sketch of the life and work of Maharajji. This section includes the heart of his message to humanity for Maharajji works above all for the entire humanity. We follow him through his childhood up to the time he dedicates himself to the Universal Good, where his life takes a radical turn one October day in 1955. He had gone to be healed of a chronic illness which was sapping his life. God asked him to heal the entire humanity ...
Section 5 : ShantiMayi, her meeting Maharajji, the circumstances of her enlightenment, the work she has undertaken since then and how some of her disciples came to her.

Back Cover
What does the back cover of the book say ?
“One day, when I was forty-one years old I went to bed at home as usual. I laid down, relaxed with my eyes closed and suddenly a picture appeared in my third eye. I had never seen anything like this before. A very peaceful man with very strong, pure love appeared. He smiled in a heartfelt way and looked directly into my eyes. He was sitting on a chair, dressed in white and had a long beard. I could see his upper body. After that, I woke up. I was very touched and wondered who this man was and what it meant,” says Monika from Switzerland.
Later on, she did indeed meet Maharajji during a trip to India and became his disciple like many others from the five continents...

“Maharajji” is the title that his disciples have given to the great saint Shri Hans Raj who lives in Rishikesh in India. He became enlightened in 1955, on the very next day after meeting his Master in Allahabad. He is the latest successor in a line of great saints which was started at the beginning of the 20th century with the aim of leading the entire humanity in the great adventure — that of the spiritual Transformation or Parivartan which started off then and which is progressively unfolding decade after decade. This great Transformation, will be the means to overcome the upheavals in all fields of human life, and so bring more light, brotherhood and peace to all men if they seize the chance given. With total abnegation and a heart which encompasses each being, Maharajji works night and day for this task so that each human being on this planet, whatever he may be, will find true happiness.
In this book we will see Maharajji with his disciples through engrossing stories, and also a sketch of his life and work along with that of other Masters of the Sacha lineage.

How to order
This book will be available within a month in Europe for 18€. You can order on the following websites, given in alphabetic order :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://www.prajnaparamita.nl/engels/cdshop.shtml
http://www.sacha-cd.com/
It will also be sold in Australia, the United States (adhikari@shantimayi.com) and at Terre de Sacha in France (TdS@ShantiMayi.com).
A website which is being created in France will also be offering it for sale.
This list will therefore be completed later.

Maharajji’s Message at the Basant Panchami Festival (Monday, 11th February 2008)

2008-02-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Saints and the Sun Are Alike
Saints and the sun are alike. Just as the sun sends its rays all over the world without making any distinction between clean and dirty places, in the same way saints give their love and blessing to everyone, whether they are considered righteous or unrighteous, spiritually advanced or not. In the same way, the Ganges gives its coolness to everyone alike. One must love each being, for he is a child of God whatever he may seem to be. Whether one be good or bad, when one dives into the Ganges, not only does one get its coolness but one also benefits from the purification it offers spiritually. It is the same for saints when one goes to see them; whatever your status or the state you may be in, you receive their blessing.

The Guru is God
When I met Sacha Baba [Kulanandji] in 1953 and had his darshan for the first time, I immediately thought he was God Himself incarnated. I had complete faith in him. So whatever he told me to do, I obeyed; I had confidence in Him because for me it was God who was speaking. The Master is God, and one does not disobey. That is why in 1958, when Sacha Baba told me that if I could manage to fulfil the basic needs of the ashram [in Allahabad] for food, then he in turn would satisfy India’s basic needs for food, thus putting an end to recurrent famine in the country. I had faith in what he promised. I therefore went to Punjab to ask the people there to donate cereal, which I transported to Allahabad. I devoted myself to this task every year until 1972. My Master kept his promise, for today, India is self-sufficient in food. Today, Tripathi is the one who is continuing this task for those who live at the ashram in Allahabad, by going around and asking for donations of cereal.

Empty Your Heart for the Master
One day I had a profound mystical experience where I had the darshan of three great Divine Mothers, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi et Mahasaraswati. Tripathi was with me that night. When I wanted to bow down before Them, They refused for they said, “You are Narada, you are Vishnu, you are God.” Then I understood that Sacha Baba wanted to incarnate in me. I sent Tripathi to tell him that I did not want him to incarnate in me because my body was too fragile and could not bear a large amount of divine energy. So if he could incarnate in the body of a young disciple or of a more appropriate person, it would be better for me. Sacha Baba replied that the first thing was that I thought that I would always be just sitting at his feet at his ashram in Allahabad, whereas one day, I would have to take care not only of that ashram, but also of another one and of the whole world too. Secondly, he could only use a place which had been cleared out, not one which was cluttered up, for there was no space at all there. “As you have emptied your heart and your heart is longing to be with me, I will come into you, and will work through you for the whole world.”

If You Worship Your Guru, He Will Give You What You Ask
When time came for Sita to get married, a competition was organized, as was the custom in those days. Only the suitor who won the contest which consisted in breaking a special bow could be given her hand in marriage.
Now Sita had already seen young Ram before and she had seen in a vision that the young man was God Himself incarnated on Earth. So, well before the contest which was held in order to choose her future husband, she performed tapasya [austerities undergone in order to obtain God's help] and asked the Goddess Parvarti for two favours. First of all, she asked that everyone pray to Parvarti and that She grant humanity whatever it wanted — whether the people be saints or ordinary men. Secondly, she wanted to marry God if he was incarnated on Earth, and not an ordinary man. So she implored Parvarti, saying that if God was really present, let him accept her as his wife.
This means that she thought Ram was God and wished that Ram would accept to marry her. And finally, Ram was the one who won and was given her hand in marriage. If you worship your Guru, he gives you whatever you ask.

Whatever a Saint Promises Will Ineluctably Come True : Story of Turkaram and Namdev
In the past, there lived a great saint called Tukaram who lived in Maharastra. One day, someone by the name of Namdev, from Punjab came to visit him. Namdev lived for a long time by his side. When he wanted to return home, he asked Tukaram to help him so he would have God’s darshan. The Master answered, “Go and wait, for one day you will have it.”
And Namdev returned home. One day he was making chapatis [indian flat bread] under a tree. When the chapatis were ready, he went away for a few seconds to wash his hands so as to spread ghee (clarified butter) onto the chapatis before first offering them to God according to the custom, then eating them. But as soon as he turned his back, a dog came and took the chapatis out of the fire and moved away to eat them. When Namdev saw that, he was so angry with the dog that he took a big stick to hit it. As soon as he raised the stick, Lord Krishna came out of the dog, holding all the chapatis. Namdev was both surprised and embarrassed. He bowed down at Lord Krishna’s feet saying,
“Lord, why didn’t you wait until I had put ghee on the chapatis before taking them? They would have been nicer.”
The fact is that he had in that way had God’s darshan. This means that if a saint says something, you must believe him for what he says will ineluctably be fulfilled.

Devoting Oneself to Serving God
Devote yourself to serving God. Do at least one hour of sadhana in the morning and another hour in the evening. He who devotes himself to God does not need to pray for his material needs for God will fulfil those needs, seeing that he knows what they are. Look at this ashram [Sacha Dham], I never ask who is coming to eat, I don’t choose those who should eat here, yet there is always enough food for everyone. God meets the needs of whoever serves him, and he does not even need to worry.

The Good Or Bad You Do Will Come Back to You
Be just and good towards all. If you do good or bad, this will inevitably come back to you. If you cheat someone, in fact you cheat yourself, for karma is inflexible and one can neither escape from it nor get rid of it. Take Lord Ram, for example, when he came to Earth, he killed a demon called Bali by hiding behind a tree. Later on, when he came back in the form of Lord Krishna, he was killed in exactly the same circumstances by a hunter who was hiding behind a tree.

Maharajji's Christmas Day Message 2007

2008-01-25T00:55:00.000-08:00

My souls,

All Saints are like the sun. The sun never finds that this water is dirty, and that that water is pure, or that this place is dirty, and that place is cleaner, it never thinks so [It therefore shines everywhere]. So every Saint gives the same message; whether it be Christ, Krishna or Guru Nanak, the message is the same : “Love is God. Love one another.” However certain religious people create differences, otherwise there is no difference between saints. You worship Christ, I worship Krishna, others Vishnu or Guru Nanak, etc. They all give the same message : Love. And Love is God. Remember Rama and Krishna, they had the same love.

When Christ was being crucified on the cross, he told his disciples that they should love the people who were crucifying him in the same way as they loved him. He never thought that since they were crucifying him they were his enemies, but rather that he was one with them. The sun and saints are the same. The sun never sees that the place where it goes is dirty or clean. In the same way, Saints never think that this person is “like that” so they will not give him love, and that others are righteous so they will give them more love. NO. Love is equal. It is the same love for all men, whether they be “righteous” or “unrighteous”. Indeed, everybody is entitled to become realized, and the message of realization is the same.

So I pray to God that He will make us forget our differences and that all will get Love and give it to to the whole world so that there will be no differences in religions. All religions go to God, and God is one. God is in every heart. The heart is one; Love is one, and Love is God. Rama says “Love is God.” Krishna says “Love is God.” Christ says “Love is God.” Nanak says “Love is God.” Love with your heart. When one works, it is done mentally and intellectually, not with the heart. When one loves with one’s heart, one loves everybody equally. The heart makes no differences. The heart is one, and it is universal. Why am I the same as you? I am the same since my heart is within all of you, you are all one heart, so I think all of you are my heart. And the heart is one. Love is heart.

I pray to Christ, I pray to Krishna, I pray to Rama, I pray to Guru Nanak who all give us the same message, so that throughout the world there will be peace, love and wisdom; in this way every body here will love one another and become an example for the world. And for everybody in Sacha Dham I want things here to become such that all religions will live together in love, through their hearts, not with their intellect. And I pray again and again and again to Christ for him to give me Love so that I can give it to all of you.
This is my message.

Prakash Diwash or Enlightenment Day

2007-10-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

Maharajji’s Enlightenment

On 3rd October 2007, the festival called Prakash Diwash or Enlightenment Festival will be celebrated at Sacha Dham. It is held every year to commemorate the spiritual enlightenment of our beloved Master Shri Hans Raj Maharajji which took place on 3rd October 1955. Surprisingly, he had arrived at the great Guru Sacha Baba’s ashram in Allahabad only the evening before.

How did he arrive there? At that time, Maharajji was working as an accountant in the Indian civil service in Allahabad. Unfortunately he developed a chronic form of dysentery which was exhausting and which resisted different treatments prescribed by doctors. This discouraged Maharajji so much that he did not know what to do to return to health. Then, a fellow office worker, Swami Navalji, suggested he go and see Sacha Baba, a very great saint living in Allahabad, who would heal him. At that time, Maharajji had already moved away from religion, although as a child and a young man he had ardently desired to realize the Divinity, so great was his aspiration. It must be said that from a very young age he would often see Great Beings in his visions and dreams. But with time, this aspiration had progressively disappeared. He no longer believed in religion and saints.

However, having followed medical treatment in vain, he accepted his colleague’s offer, for after all, one never knows where the solution to a problem might come from. He therefore went to Sacha ashram in Arail, Allahabad, where he was received very kindly by the Master, Sacha Baba. The latter gave him a room with all he needed for his stay at the ashram and recommended that he go and participate in a session of devotional songs which was going on. The following morning, Maharajji decided to meditate at dawn. It was during this meditation that an extraordinary mutation took place in his consciousness and his whole being, causing him to reach divine realization. He had come for his physical body to be healed, but he had received healing for his whole being! He had attained Self-realization. This was a marvellous event which became the turning point in his life and which, later on, would have profound effects on thousands of men throughout the world.

With time, Maharajji became progressively attached to Sacha Baba and he had only one aim : to help his Master awaken the consciousness and hearts of men to Wisdom, Love, Peace and the Beauty of God. In order to achieve this, he left his job as an accountant and abandoned everything in order to Serve God and his Master.

Serving God

For several decades, Maharajji travelled throughout India to share his Master’s teachings with all those who he could reach. He completely forgot himself in this task. Little by little, disciples gathered around him and in 1974, Sacha Baba asked him to create his own ashram in Rishikesh, at the foot of the Himalayas : Sacha Dham or “The place of Ultimate Truth” (or “Holy Place”). Thus Sacha Dham was born, where Maharajji settled. Since then, he has always lived in Rishikesh and up until the time of Sacha Baba’s mahasamadhi (his leaving this world) in 1983, Maharajji, who has always nourished deep love for his Master, went to see him regularly. He has always said that he works in the name of God and that of Sacha Baba, and whatever he does, he attributes it to his Master, taking no personal merit, even when he works what men call miracles.

For those who have spent even a few days with Maharajji, the life of this great saint is an immense sacrifice made out of love for all men. His example, while evoking in each of us the greatest respect and the deepest veneration, remains a model from which we should draw inspiration for the good of all beings. Indeed, all beings are in fact ourselves, in spite our consciousness which has been muddled by ignorance, thus leading us believe that we are different and distinct from others.

Intense Moments of Spiritual Communion

The Prakash Diwash Festival is an opportunity to remind disciples that the aim of life is to achieve this divine realization, for with time, one lets oneself go and forgets one’s highest aspirations. Moreover, during this same festival where a puja (a highly significant religious ceremony) is celebrated, Maharajji gives special impetus to his disciples’ spiritual development by granting them certain specific energies which are usually grouped together under the term “blessings”, but all blessings do not have the same aim and the same impact. On Prakash Diwash day, enlightenment is given special importance! Many of his disciples come together at Sacha Dham to benefit from these unique moments of spiritual communion and deepen their ties with the Master. For those who are far away, it is always possible to share these moments with Maharajji and the assembly of his disciples by connecting inwardly with them, for we are taught that time and space do not really exist.

Special Blessings

So on this special day, without neglecting his task of directing humanity towards a higher spiritual state, Maharajji devotes great attention to pouring blessings upon his disciples wherever they are in the world. It is true that Maharajji blesses his disciples all year long, but this day is a special one, and so special energy is transmitted. On this day, the channel between the Master and his disciples widens, and disciples who focus on Maharajji, opening their hearts even more to receive his blessings, will receive particular grace according to the efforts they have made in the past year to connect with the holy river (the Master), who purifies them like the holy Ganges purifies dirty water which flows into it.

Indeed, Maharajji has often said that the more one loves a true Master, the more easily one is purified, for the love one shows to him opens a canal through which the Master can work to take away negative things which keep us away from God, while transmitting positive energy to allow the divine spirit of God in us to manifest. Indeed, the Guru is God’s representative who He sends to guide disciples seeking more and more light. And since the aim of all disciples is to achieve union with God, it is the Guru who plays the role of intermediary between them and God. God has therefore given great power (the power of Shiva) to the Guru to cut away whatever is negative from the disciple’s personality and heart. He has also been endowed with the necessary shakti or spiritual power to make the disciple grow little by little into a great spiritual tree. This enlightened person will finally be able to communicate freely with the Divinity and in turn cooperate with God to help others return to the divine state which all men have to reach one day.

What is therefore important, is what happens in one’s heart throughout the year, and not just on Enlightenment Day. Knowing that it is the Guru who leads us from darkness to light, it is necessary to constantly focus our hearts on Maharajji throughout the year, while carrying out the specific sadhana he has recommended. Then we are sure that whatever particular blessing the Guru has to bestow on us, we will be able to receive all of it.

Kind Attention to Humanity

Disciples, of course, show deep gratitude to Maharajji for devoting his life to humanity and his pupils. Maharajji in turn, asks his disciples to pray for humanity, so that all may turn to God, and that hardship and even lives may be spared from disasters in the coming months and years. He also wants his disciples, through their prayers, to help humanity so that all their needs may be fulfilled. The Sacha lineage has seen to it that this can become reality; that progressively all hearts will turn towards God, and that the basic material necessities of all men will be met.

May Maharajji’s peace, love and light descend on us all !

Maharajji Mahaprabhu Ki Jay !

The New Car (Aurora, Germany)

2007-08-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Maharajji has done many things for my family and I, and I am very grateful to him for this. One day, I had a car accident, and the insurance company said that I was not to repair my car because it was almost ten years old. This was a big problem for me, because I lived very far from the place where I worked, and I needed a car to get there. What was I to do? My husband was unemployed and my salary alone was not enough to buy a new one. We therefore decided to ask Maharajji to help us, although I was a bit reticent since he had already helped us a lot and I did not want to bother him again. However Maharajji accepted and said that I would be able to buy a new car.

Encouraged by his promise, I went to choose a suitable one. Having done so, there was now the problem of paying. I consulted two banks for a loan, but they needed my husband’s payslip as well as mine and so I was not able to get one. Fortunately the concessionaire had his own bank, so I applied there for a loan. While discussing the terms, I kept on hoping not to be told to bring in my husband’s pay slip along with mine for the loan, but fortunately only mine was asked for. I was offered 10,000€, the sum I needed to buy the car. I was relieved, and felt deep gratitude towards Maharajji for what he had done.

Although I was surprised to get such a big loan with only my salary, this surprise wore off very quickly, for I knew that with Maharajji’s help anything is easy. However, about six months later, I needed a small loan of 2,000€. When I applied to a bank for it, I was told that I would need both my husband’s pay slip and mine. Not being able to give my husband’s, I tried other banks, but was given the same answer, and so I had to give up.

I fully realized then that it was indeed a miracle to have been able to borrow 10,000€ alone since I was systematically refused 2,000€ everywhere with just my salary. Maharajji had been so simple about it, no fuss, no problem. I must say that I had had such deep faith in Maharajji, that I had not doubted his words and everything had seemed so natural. With him, even miracles come so naturally.

A Very Useful Loss (Liloue, France)

2007-08-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

My son’s car had disappeared. After searching for it in vain for several days, I was lamenting this loss when I heard a voice say,
“You are crying for the car which was going to carry away your son!”

Maharajji had taken the car away and protected my son from a very serious accident. Maharajji is truly loving and is always with us.

A Providential Ticket (Cez, France)

2007-08-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

For many weeks I had been waiting to get official permission for prolonged leave so as to go to India to be with Maharajji. This exceptional leave was granted one Friday, a week before my departure date.

As I was going to be absent for many weeks, I had to take care of many problems relating to my work before leaving. So every half-day, from Monday to Friday, during the five days before my trip, I was extremely busy with different appointments and meetings. I was to leave the following Saturday. I then realized on Sunday evening that I had not yet applied for my visa at the Indian consulate. I was only able to find time in my programme to make the application on Monday morning and get the visa on Tuesday afternoon.

Since the consulate had been closed on the Friday before, the very long queue on that Monday morning was already almost fifty metres long when I arrived. I had never seen such a long one. After waiting for more than three hours, when I was ten metres from the consulate, we saw that many people were coming out more and more quickly. In answer to our queries, some of them informed us that no more tickets were being given out for applications to be submitted, and that they had been told to come back the following morning. They therefore advised us to stop waiting, since it was now a waste of time.

It would be very difficult for me to come back the following morning. While inwardly asking Maharajji to help, I continued advancing with the queue, and so did most of the other people in line, as they wanted to hear for themselves that they would not be received. After several minutes, at last I entered the hall of the consulate where I was indeed told by the personnel that only those with tickets could remain there, and that the others would have to come back the following morning.

I remained, however, waiting for Maharajji to do something. What exactly? I had no idea, but I could not bring myself to leave for then it would be difficult for me to get the visa in time and the departure date could not be changed. I persisted in waiting for several minutes in one of the queues with those who had tickets, although having none, I would certainly be sent away when I reached the counter. I continued praying to Maharajji for help.

Suddenly, someone beside me said that there was a ticket on the ground, just at my feet. I immediately picked it up. No one nearby had lost his. I was therefore able to keep it and so go up to the counter where I gave in my application.

I even got the visa for the following afternoon as I had wished, while most of the other people had no other choice than to come back two days later because of the high number of applications to be dealt with.

I really had the feeling that it was indeed Maharajji who had answered my prayer in that way.

Guru Purnima 2007

2007-07-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

On the calendar of religious festivals in India there is to be found a special festival, Guru Purnima, devoted to the Master, called Guru in that country. This festival is celebrated every year at full moon in the Hindu month of Ashad throughout India and in Hindu temples across the world. This year, at Sacha Dham, Maharajji’s ashram in Rishikesh, it will be celebrated on Monday, 30th July.
On this occasion, disciples from all over India and even from abroad will participate. On that day, there will be a ceremony in the ashram temple and Maharajji will deliver a message to all his disciples. The ceremony will end with the blessings which the holy Master will shower on all, present or absent.
It is highly recommended that we inwardly connect ourselves to this ceremony and to Maharajji on that special day.

Why is there Such a Festival?
From a historical and traditional point of view, this festival is celebrated in memory of the great Instructor and Master, Vyasa who, it is said, wrote the Vedas and certain other important books of the Hindu Scriptures. Vyasa, also called Veda-Vyasa, has thus become the Guru of Hinduism. Later on, this festival was held to honour all the Gurus who, from age to age continue to spread divine light for the benefit of all beings.
The word “Guru” (Master ), is formed from two syllables of which the first “Gu” means “darkness”, “ignorance”, and the second “Ru” meaning “light”. The word “Guru” therefore means the one who dispels darkness and brings light.

Destructive Doubt
One often hears this question: Why is it that in India there are many saints and through all the ages, without exception, contrary to other parts of the world? In fact, one of the main explanations is to be found in this special relationship which Indians have with their Master, their Guru. Indeed, for Indians who are just as monotheistic as those who claim to be so in other parts of the world, God, who is inaccessible in His transcendance (Parabrahman is the Absolute, the transcendent One), manifests Himself fully through those who have attained spiritual realization, so as to be accessible to men. Consequently, for a Hindu, the Master, the Guru represents the living incarnation of the Divinity.

This attitude creates in the student a true link of confidence and firm faith in his Instructor. The effect of this is that the disciple more easily has access to the soul of the Master, for there is a spiritual law according to which, if a believer or a disciple doubts his Master or any Divinity, he can never create a spiritual relationship with him. Why is that so? It has been explained that doubt raises an impassable barrier between the disciple and the Master (or the Divinity). From the time a barrier is created, the light from the Master cannot reach the one who doubts, and so he remains in darkness. There is a good reason why Scriptures in all religions have always recommended that the believer have faith. It was not at all because there was the desire to have submissive people, who never thought about what they were told, but on the contrary is was so that people would not raise a barrier between them and the Divinity. One who doubts can follow all the yogas and disciplines he likes, but this will be to no avail for each spiritual discipline is not only a set of techniques, but also a psychic and spiritual link which connects the Master and the disciple.

Consequently, when, through faith, confidence and sadhana, the disciple gains access to the Master’s soul, the latter can transfer directly to him his own light and knowledge on the subtle planes.

Masters Act According to the Law of Harmony
Does one find elsewhere than in India disciples with the same attitude of confidence and faith in their Master? In these regions other than in India, does the society acknowledge the existence of Masters? Do they not try systematically to discredit anyone who calls himself a spiritual teacher? Isn’t he often suspected of being an imposter or a person trying to live at the expense of others? Unfortunately, the few cases of fraud are seen as being the rule and today in certain countries, the word “spirituality” itself is looked upon with suspicion. It is therefore not surprising that those regions of the world do not produce as many Masters, and the very few ones who incarnate there are obliged to work anonymously.

Masters act according to the law of harmony. A Master manifests himself in a place where the spiritual atmosphere is conducive to his physical existence from the vibratory point of view on one hand, but also that of his spiritual work on the other. He cannot carry out his work where no open hearts aspire to infinity. No doctor would want to operate a sick person in a place full of germs. Thoughts of suspicion, doubt and mistrust towards a Master are like germs and cannot attract him for they are very inharmonious. And do not count on him to waste his time justifying who he is. He will only shake the dust off his feet and go far away from there.

The Bridge of Confidence and Faith
If, on the other hand there is faith, if there is confidence, and if, added to this there is a sincere effort to seriously follow one’s sadhana, then one has started off on the highway to spiritual enlightenment. Faith alone is not enough, but without it, nothing can be done.
All those who have read the Gospels remember that Lord Jesus Christ insisted on one having firm faith. We remember the example of how Peter, who was walking quite well on the water as his Master had told him to, started to sink as soon as he became afraid (Matthew 14:25-33). We also remember the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who, with faith, asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus did so saying “Go your way, your faith has made you well” and he immediately recovered his sight. (Mark 10:46-53)

The Bhagavad Gita, in chapter 4, verses 39 and 40 stresses :
"The man who is full of faith, who is devoted to it, and who has subdued all the senses, obtains (this) knowledge; and, having obtained the knowledge, he goes at once to the supreme peace.
The ignorant, the faithless, the doubting self proceeds to destruction; there is neither this world nor the other nor happiness for the doubting."

Hindus who have understood these spiritual laws for millenniums know, and rightly so, the place of the Master on the Earth, and they are right to consider that God is the Guru and that the Guru is God. This can seem shocking to certain people, but in the long run, which other country has seen as many saints as India? Hasn’t this country’s practice proved to be effective? Time alone decides what the value of each thing in the world is...

A Summary of the Present Task

2007-07-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

As we have seen, according to Maharajji and the Masters of the Sacha lineage, a great cycle is starting off at the present moment, and will progressively bring light to the world. From now on, each person must turn his consciousness towards God in order to be in harmony with the powerful vibrations and energies of this cycle. Turning towards God does not at all mean retiring to monastic and religious orders as formerly. Turning towards God today means making God the centre of one’s life by devoting to Him even a minimum of one hour a day in prayer, meditation or any other valid spiritual practice. But along with this spiritual practice, one must have a loving heart, be tolerant, open to others, concerned about the Common Good. At the same time, one must live a normal family life, carry out one’s professional activities, thus serving society to the best of one’s ability.

A Great Adventure
It is not simple to follow such a discipline, especially in the beginning, for each of us has already acquired so many habits in life that it is difficult to change them. However, whoever wants to achieve such results always does everything in his power to succeed. Each person, when he is motivated enough, always manages to move mountains. Why wouldn’t he succeed in the greatest adventure in his life called the “quest for the Divinity within”? This is the first reason for his coming into the world, it must never be forgotten. Maharajji does not invite anyone to adopt a particular religion. He rather teaches a technique of yoga, an inner attitude based on the heart to find the God within each of us, who is the reflection of the universal God. Maharajji always stresses the importance of the heart, which could be summarized thus : live with your heart, see others with your heart, do everything with your heart, for the heart is the centre of love in man and love is God.

Be Courageous
Much courage is needed to take this step. But is there anything in this world which is of great worth and for which courage and hard personal work are not necessary? Many people remember Lord Jesus Christ’s parable of the hidden treasure in the Gospels when speaking about the Kingdom of God, a symbolical name for the state acquired by those who have attained spiritual realization.

“The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when someone finds a treasure hidden in a field and buries it again. A person like that is happy and goes and sells everything in order to buy that field.” (Matthew 13:44)
This is exactly, almost word for word what Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita. (6:22 – 23)
“After Self-Realization, one does not regard any other gain superior to it. Established in this state, one is not moved even by the greatest calamity.”
“The (state of) severance of union with sorrow is known by the name of yoga. This yoga should be practised with firm determination and perseverance, without any mental reservation or doubts."

What Prometheus Accomplished
Naturally, a wise person does not take this path to the Kingdom of God to enjoy eternal beatitude, for that would be selfish behaviour, although not of a low type. Each human being is potentially a Prometheus, the Greek Titan who stole divine fire to give men, although it was a great sacrifice for him. Consequently, a kind-hearted person with a sense of duty takes the path of realizing the Divinity especially because it is necessary to help suffering humanity, show men in a practical manner and step by step the way to peace and endless freedom without hindrance. That is why all true Masters sacrifice themselves. They remain among men to serve them although they do not have anything to learn here. Joy, happiness and divine blessings are only flowers found on the way, but they are not the goal. So with steadfast determination, let us take the path leading to the conquest of our eternity and immortality. In doing so, we will become an agent of the Divinity for the good of all beings who are, in fact ourselves, in spite of how things may appear because of maya (illusion).

A World-wide Chain of Pilgrims
It is marvellous that from now on, this quest for the Divinity within is an adventure which is both collective and individual, in that the entire humanity is involved in it, even though today everybody is not aware of it. But progressively, as the years go by, circumstances will be created and each person will become consciously involved. We will be even stronger if we hold one another’s hands to go up the path together, and lean on one another !

May Maharajji’s peace shine in our hearts and in all our being !

Meditation

2007-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

Meditation is a very ancient technique that gives man access to the treasures of God which are in his heart. Its purpose is to create a channel of communication between the physical body and the soul, then with the Atma. There are several techniques for meditation, but we will not list them here.

Besides creating a channel between the upper and lower parts of our being, meditation calms the mind, refines the emotions and purifies the physical body, so that the outer man progressively becomes receptive to the influence of the soul. This results in the development of intuition which manifests itself more and more frequently. More and more often the disciple experiences a certain inner peace which he had never felt before, and which becomes stronger as he practices meditation. He then becomes more tolerant and loving.

It is Said That Patience is a Virtue!

With time, if the disciple meditates regularly, one day the outer man and the soul merge and become one, resulting in the soul’s perfectly ruling the outer man. It must be known that it is necessary to live many lives before these results are manifested, for in nature everything develops slowly. That is why one has to be very patient. Concerning this point, the Masters advise us to always practice meditation without seeking any results, for it is sure that once we have followed the programme given, this will ineluctably bear fruit in due time, when God sees that the disciple is ready... Maharajji usually says that it is little by little that the disciple becomes transformed. In fact, when the disciple meditates, inner transformation takes place in his subtle bodies and in what is called chakras. (We have already indicated in a preceding article how much it is dangerous to try to artificially develop one’s chakras through “miraculous” experiences found in books or on the advice of people who do not know what they are doing”.)

The Master sees these transformations with his divine eyes before they manifest outer effects. However, the disciple himself notices nothing in the beginning; he therefore concludes that nothing is happening and often becomes discouraged. This is a common mistake. Practising sadhana is like a farmer sowing seeds in the soil. When he has finished this simple work, nothing seems to happen in the first few days. But the farmer knows from experience what will take place, and so does not become impatient. He does what is necessary, i.e. weed the ground and prevent the seeds from being eaten by birds and small animals. He then waits as long as necessary, and in general after a few days, a small, frail plant comes up out of the soil, on its way irresistibly up towards the heights! The farmer was not worried before the germination, because he knows that seeds go through different phases of transformation in the soil, and that this entire cycle must be completed before the shoot appears above the ground.

Cumulations of the Past

Of course, we see that certain disciples get results quickly, and seem to progress extremely rapidly. This is not due to a miracle or to God showing favouritism, for God is never unfair, and basically miracles do not exist. What seems to us to be rapid progress is due to the fact that these disciples had already attained or got close to those levels in their past lives and so in this life, they simply get back up to that level first of all, before going beyond it, if they pursue their sadhana. Indeed, in each life, one must first of all get back up to the level one had in one’s last life before progressing when one becomes an adult. In fact, the different bodies of a child cannot bear the high vibrations of the soul and consequently, the spiritual level reached in the last life is toned down.

Nothing is Better than a Sure Guide

It can be added that the best thing is to practice meditation under the guidance of one's Master. Certain people will reply that they do not need a Master because they find meditation techniques in books and that all they need to do is just use them, and then all is fine! We will ask these people if they want to visit or cross a forest in an unknown country if it is better to just trust the descriptions given by friends, follow information given in a guide book, or rather go with a person from that region who knows the forest well? Everyone will agree that is is better to choose a guide from the region rather than descriptions from friends or books, however detailed they may be!

And why have we drawn a parallel between meditation and visiting or crossing a forest? Simply because when one meditates, one’s consciousness goes on high planes which are not the physical plane one is used to. So one needs to be guided by a person who is used to being there and who knows them as we know the physical plane. Furthermore, there are certain ways of meditating which can be prejudicial to the disciple. If he has a Master, the latter will step in on the subtle planes to correct these errors.

In Good Hands

Maharajji intervenes in that way from time to time to help his disciples when it is necessary to set right certain situations, whether the disciples be in Rishikesh or at the other end of the world, for his divine eye constantly watches over his disciples. This help can be given through intuition, dreams or direct spiritual perception. If the disciple has spiritual faculties which are developed enough, he can then clearly hear the voice of the Master recommending that he do this or that or correct some wrong way of doing things. But that is not all. The Master is also the one who, when he judges that the disciple has made sufficient progress, gives him additional spiritual energy to raise his consciousness up to a level which the latter alone would never have been able to reach.

The Flowers of Ardent Aspiration

Naturally, for different reasons, certain seekers will not be able to leave their country to go and find a Master living in India or elsewhere. In that case, through spiritual aspiration, prayer and devotion towards the Master one has chosen, one places oneself under his spiritual guidance. The Master is an essentially spiritual being and he knows who, in the entire world, aspires to be guided by him. So if the seeker is worthy, the Master will guide and protect him even if they have never met each other in this life. We have reported such a case in this blog with the story of the Dutch nun in the section “His Disciples’ Stories”. This nun had never physically met Maharajji, but he guided her whenever necessary. Many sincere seekers have successfully experienced this solution. On the other hand, if it is possible to go and see the Master, nothing is better than to go and spend some time with him, for he can better help a student who is available for a short time, free from the daily cares of the world.

Indeed, here we are speaking about energies, and these energies can only be given by the Master when conditions are right, otherwise the opposite results may happen. Seriously ill people are only operated on by doctors when the requirements for hygiene and whatever is necessary for the operation are met, so as not to put the patient’s life in danger. Masters act in the same way. They cannot grant too great a quantity of energy to a person who is deeply immersed in the world, drinks alcohol regularly (one could give other examples of ways of living which are dangerous when one wants to attain high planes of consciousness), whose mind is not calm or who does not sufficiently master his emotions. When one is near a Master, one usually makes an effort to be pure enough and this makes the transmission of energies easier.

Do not do one thing and its opposite

One last thing before finishing this article. Formerly, people who wanted to practice meditation and a sadhana, generally retired to monasteries, caves or isolated places to escape from the turmoil of life and solicitations of all kinds. This is no longer what is suitable today. Maharajji says that we should practice spirituality wherever we are, and at the same time carry out our duties to society. Each cycle has its requirements. However, this advice does not mean that someone who wants to progress spiritually can give in to whatever goes on in this modern world. One must be, as the saying goes, “in the world but not of it”. Indeed, certain habits are not conducive to progress, in particular indulging in a lot of alcohol, too much meat, too much sensual practices, being too materialistic. Here, it is not a case of morality for, generally speaking, morality is only a deformed image of a natural law which has not been perceived clearly. If we say that these above practices are contrary to progress, that is because they weigh down the subtle bodies instead of refining them. Therefore to indulge in them while following one’s sadhana is like wanting to go somewhere and then taking one step forward and two backwards. What will the result be?

Having said that, all those who up to now have been living like that are not less worthy to start a sadhana than others. Who can throw a stone at his brother, don’t we all go through that stage? What is important is to progressively break with the habits of the past. In the end, Mary Magdalene whose life had not been a model of virtue before the meeting with Jesus, turned out to be more virtuous than certain disciples who had been with the Christ in Palestine from the very beginning ... It is the devotion which one shows to the Path, the Master and to God which counts and not what one is today. When one has a lot of devotion, weaknesses are easily overcome!

May Maharajji’s peace be with all!

Spiritual Realization From a Technical Point of View

2007-06-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Aim of Life
In a preceding article, we said that man was on the Earth for a specific purpose, i.e. to attain divine realization, also known by several other names such as Self-realization, spiritual enlightenment, cosmic enlightenment, liberation, the Mastery of Life . In fact, all these names designate this state where man realizes, no longer intellectually but permanently, in his every day life, in his whole being, that he is one with the Divinity and with the whole creation. Not only is he, from then on, aware of his immortality, but Wisdom and the Love of God have also become a part of him to the point that he no longer lives for himself as he had been doing for ages, but lives to serve God and for the good of all beings. While the ordinary man’s love for others is always motivated by more or less selfish factors, a realized person, on the other hand, loves each being without any condition, even those who hate him, for his nature has simply become love and no ounce of wrong-doing or indifference is to be found in him.

The Sadguru
He is no longer attracted to worldly things. Never again will he pursue any personal or selfish goals. One who has attained this state is called a Master (he is also given other names) for from then on, he perfectly masters his mental, emotional and physical nature, as well as the laws of nature and spiritual laws. Only the person who has reached this summit is called Sadguru, the true Master, the true Guru, the true Instructor, for having trodden the entire path which leads from dark valleys of ignorance to the summit of the mountain of enlightenment, he is perfectly capable and has all the necessary experience to guide his brothers and sisters who accept to be trained in order to reach this same sublime goal.

A God Who is Unaware of his True Nature
When one reads the Scriptures of different religions of the world, one is struck by the recurrence of the number seven. This is because God always expresses Himself in the manifested world through a combination of seven energies in order to realize His goals. And this is what the Greeks, for example, mentioned in their mythology, an echo of the primordial and eternal wisdom, in giving a lyre with seven strings which sing the mysteries of nature. Therefore it will not be surprising to learn that man also is a being made up of seven bodies which correspond to states of consciousness of the same number, of which the most gross is that of the physical body, and the most subtle is that of the Atma (Spirit), a pure ray of God in man. It is this Atma which makes man a true son of God or a god as the Lord Jesus Christ said in Palestine,
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, 'I said, Ye are gods' ?” (Bible, John 10:34)
Lord Krishna had taught the same thing three thousand years before, to his beloved disciple Arjuna,
“He who sees that the imperishable Supreme Lord is equally dwelling in all the perishable beings, truly sees.” (Bhagavad Gita 13:28)

The Blocked Path
However, this divinity in man must be realized, activated - so to speak, for it remains latent as long as he has not attained Self-realization. Indeed, the average man does not at all live according to the consciousness of the Atma, the divine Spirit, since he basically expresses himself through what is called the triple lower personality made up of the physical, emotional and concrete mind bodies (indeed there exists an abstract mind to which the average man does not have access.)

Such a man does not even have access to his soul, which is not as high as the Atma, for it is found half-way between the top and the bottom, in the abstract mind, at the place where the parts consisting of the lower man and the spiritual man meet, and where intuition starts to manifest.

And why is he not aware of the soul and the Atma which, however, are are in his being? Quite simply because in order for the physical man to have access to these states of consciousness, he must clear away, rebuild and embellish the path which nature had initially built for him at the time of his involution (descent from the divine plane to the gross physical plane). With time, this initial and natural path became overrun and obstructed by weeds, the forest of errors and landslides caused by physical, emotional and mental growth which was a necessary stage to gain experience on the Earth and consciously acquire wisdom and love. It can therefore be clearly seen that ordinary man had the divinity within him, but cannot manifest it because he has lost the way.

Very Rare Moments of Grace
One can express the same idea by saying that concerning ordinary man, there is no direct, permanent communication between the soul and the physical brain because of the barrier made up of his thoughts, emotions and physical body which is not adapted. The result is that this man depends only on his brain, emotions and the needs of his dense physical body. Even more so, he can receive nothing from his Atma, which is higher. The fact that he is disconnected in this way from divine wisdom causes him to make many mistakes in his life. This situation is similar to the one where a very small child who is left alone on the ground floor while his parents (the soul and the Atma) live on the upper floors. Not being guided wisely, he will do many wrong things. One can notice that from time to time when man is in a state of great distress or when he is in great need of a solution for some serious problem, momentarily, he will completely surrender. The barrier made up of the lower self is then broken down, the veil is torn for a short moment thus allowing the soul, which always watches over him, to guide and protect, to give him advice through dreams or a remarkable flash of intuition.

But let us come back to the topic. Spiritual realization or enlightenment is obtained when the Atma rules over one’s whole being, from top to bottom, and when man in his physical body lives according to the Will, Love and Wisdom of God which emanate from his Atma, for there is direct communication, from the lower bodies to the higher ones, without obstruction between the Atma and the physical brain. That is spiritual realization from a technical point of view.

Building the golden path
Consequently, one sees from what has been said previously, that consciously progressing on the spiritual path (for there is an unconscious initial stage which precedes these two end stages made up of numerous lives during which earthly experiences and karma constitutes one’s path of progress) takes place in two great stages. First of all, contact must be established between physical man and his soul, and then using the soul, he must build a golden bridge to the Atma. For this, there are several disciplines which the Masters teach us in order to rebuild the path between physical man and his spiritual counterpart. Among them, there is, for example, meditation and japa (repitition of a mantra) which, combined with philosophic understanding and a certain healthy lifestyle, allows us to reach the goal one day if we are steadfast and regular in our effort. Each true Master knows what best suits his disciples.

Can Everyone Practise Spirituality?

2007-06-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Soul Must be Nourished

We have said that Maharajji is now working hard and without interruption to turn the hearts of men to God. The question which one could ask is whether all men on the Earth are able to practise spirituality today. One could first of all answer that he who has a soul (and everyone does) must nourish this soul in the same way that he who has a body must nourish it. And the soul is nourished by spiritual practice. One could also say that apart from some rare exceptions, today humanity on the whole is advanced enough for all its units to turn to such a practice. Things are more logical than they seem at first glance, as we will briefly explain.

The Great Journey
According to Eastern teachings and also that of certain Western mystical brotherhoods, men have not come to the Earth by chance. There is a divine Plan which governs his stay here which is a very long journey, the aim of which is to acquire more divine wisdom. Consequently, when the time for what we usually call “creation” comes, (which is, in fact, only the awakening to a new activity of God’s life in the manifested universe after a period of rest, these cycles of activity-rest being repeated endless), successive waves of life descend from the divine plane to come down to the Earth so as to start their period of learning and return to God’s bosom once they have acquired wisdom. This whole process of coming down and going back up to the Divinity could rightly be called the Great Journey and it has been going on for millions of years... And humanity on the whole is beginning to start its upward journey. Naturally, certain human units started off before others, for certain reasons which we will not mention here so as not to make our article too complex. These units in advance are those who are Masters, including those of the Sacha lineage.

The two Guides
This period of learning during the Great Journey takes place under the aegis of two great divine laws, that of Cause and Effect or karma and that of successive rebirths. These two laws lead to a third which is the law of Love-Wisdom, love and wisdom being the two sides of the same coin.

The Law of Justice
The law of Cause and Effect is a law according to which each cause produces a similar effect or consequence. It is also rightly called the law of Compensation. For example, if someone does something good for someone else, sooner or later he will benefit from an act of similar kindness from another person when he most needs it, this other person only being the intermediary used by the law of Cause and Effect. On the other hand, if he acts wrongly, thus causing his brother to suffer, sooner or later someone else will act towards him in a similar way, and so he will suffer in the same way, at the most suitable time, in order to learn the lessons which he most needs to learn. This law is called the law of karma in the Hindu and Buddhist religions. It is a law of justice which, in both the spiritual and material domains, gives each one exactly what he deserves. In short, and as it is often said, each person reaps exactly what he has sown. The aim of this law is not to punish, but to guide people unfailingly through time (and thus during different lives), towards wisdom and love by making people understand the right lessons to be learnt from their behaviour, whether in the domain of thought, word or deed.

Moreover, as long as an individual creates karma, whether it be the type which brings satisfaction (this is usually called “good” karma) or suffering (“bad” karma), he cannot attain perfection and has to come back again and again to reap the fruit of this karma. Only a selfless action does not create either good or bad karma. This is stressed in the Bhagavad Gita 3:19,
“Therefore, always perform your duty efficiently and without attachment to the results, because by doing work without attachment one attains the Supreme..”

The Law of Time
The law of successive births or the law of Reincarnation is the one according to which as long as an individual has not attained divine wisdom, he must come back to the Earth as often as necessary to continue his training. Consequently man lives several successive lives which bring him closer and closer to divine perfection. Finally, all this seems logical for in the material world, as long as a young person in a school has not yet passed the diploma which he needs to get a job, he comes back year after year to study in a school or university. A person who would require that man reach perfection in only one life to go and sit with God and His angels would not at all be wise...

An Essential Knowledge
If one wanted to make an analogy between the Great Journey and school, one would say that spiritual perfection is to the Great Journey as the final diploma is to the school, the law of karma representing the mark scheme (the karma gained by a person represents his marks) while the successive lives play the role of the different school years.

Put together, these two laws explain in most cases, the differences in material wealth and the level of spiritual evolution between men. However, there are exceptions concerning material things, since, for example, the wealth which a robber gets by looting is not at all provided by karma, but by the temporary violation of this law. Later on, this law will catch up with the robber and will demand that he completely pay for his acts, for no one can escape from its justice.

When one does not know about these two important laws, it sometimes happens that one thinks that finally, either God does not exist in the way religions present Him, or that if He existed, he would be unjust because there is too much misery and suffering in the world and He does nothing about it, when He is said to be a God of love. This partial understanding has puzzled so many people, and even leads to atheism.

How To be Useful?

2007-06-03T00:45:00.000-07:00

The Solid Foundations
We have just given the story of the Sacha lineage according to tradition. The illustrious Masters who showed the way, Kacha Baba, Sacha Baba Girnari, and Sacha Baba Kulanandji have laid the solid foundations on which the Temple of a new era can be built. Their work, on the inner planes, certainly reached the whole world, but the people in countries other than India did not at all know about such an undertaking and so they could not consciously cooperate. Today, under Maharajji’s guidance and according to Sacha Baba Kulanandji’s predictions, this work will be be known all over the world.

Which Direction Will Humanity Take?
As we have said in a preceding article, disciples came from the five continents from the 1980s to be guided by Maharajji, although there had never ever been any publicity about him or any book written. Today, the work of his disciples and of all men of goodwill, while carrying out their spiritual training, is to help Maharajji by informing everyone that this important cycle of the transformation of consciousness and hearts has started. Indeed, it is important for men to know for it is up to us, both individually and collectively, to decide whether we want to enter a civilization governed by light, wisdom, love and brotherhood. On the contrary, we can decide to continue in the present direction, which is leading us little by little to the precipice because of our ignorance and its consequences which are selfishness, injustice and all kinds of violence, be they physical or moral.

Creating a Worldwide Good Climate
By informing a large number of people in the world and creating in this way the desire of men and women of goodwill to follow a sadhana which they themselves have freely chosen, a good atmosphere will be created which will greatly contribute to the success of this undertaking and consequently to the plans of the Great Beings. This is so because it is well known that when several people get together with the same spiritual intention, this meeting in itself automatically brings down divine assistance. We remember that for the sadhana Maharajji recommends that each person should start off by doing an hour a day whether in prayer, meditation or the reciting of a mantra. Later on he can spend more time on it, depending on his inner needs.

Each person, wherever he is, must try to understand that it is his duty out of love for himself and for all beings to turn to his soul so as to use its wisdom, love and spiritual power for the benefit of all.

Peace, as Elusive as the Wind
Maharajji once said,
“If your perspective changes, every action becomes worship. You see God in everything and everyone and at the same time your lower nature is transformed in a positive way.”
We all have an urgent need to change the perspective from which we have considered life up until now. Some of us have been satisfied to just live a life where one tries to find happiness according to the way society defines it. Other believe that getting as much material riches as possible will bring them happiness and peace. Yet others have looked for this happiness and peace through fame, intellectual erudition or by other means. And we all discover bitterly, that unfortunately this is not the case, for if one day our situation satisfies us, the following day this satisfaction disappears. Happiness and peace of heart seem to slip away indefinitely, playing hide and seek with us. Each of these directions seems to lead to a dead-end. And finally, all of them are only some of the many ways in which the mind, not receiving any light from the heart, plays tricks on men, dangling things in front of them which, in fact, are only mirages...

The Hidden Treasure
We must admit that only our souls possess the key to our happiness. As for material things, we must put them in their rightful place, for the Sacha lineage is neither for asceticism, which is destructive and arid nor for unbridled materialism, which is a source of attachment and suffering. Intellectual knowledge had greatly contributed to our scientific and cultural progress, and so is praiseworthy. However this intellectual knowledge by itself cannot be an end in itself, otherwise it will lead us away from our inner divinity. Is it not said that the uncontrolled mind is the slayer of the Real? In our quest for the only true treasures in life i.e. wisdom, happiness and peace, we have forgotten one basic thing, which is that a part of us is human and is made up of our personality, while the other part is divine and is our soul, our atma. To neglect one of these parts to the detriment of the other can only lead to an unbalanced state. Aren’t two legs needed to walk?

The Perfect Way
It is therefore obvious that one must follow the middle way in everything if one want to act wisely and make sure progress. And it is the way of the heart that Maharajji recommends, the heart being the centre of gravity in man, where he meets himself in his essential aspect and where he finds inner peace which is rightly called “the peace of heart”. There, he also meets his human brothers and his God in love and no longer in confrontation, and then, as the Bible says, his joy is perfect, the perfect joy which Indians call ananda, i.e. bliss and which is said to be a part of the very essence of man. One should therefore be able to find it if one knows how to search in the right place.

Speaking about the Sacha lineage, Maharajji one day said,
“The sun has risen over India so that the entire humanity will find happiness. For this, you and I need to be idealistic. That is the Will of God, that is my promise and my work.”
If, on the wings of noble ideals we contribute to bringing light and peace to all men, in spite of the many obstacles on the path, we will be sure to succeed, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, for our hearts will work in unison with That of God’s!

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 8, end)

2007-05-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

Go to Part 1

The mahasamadhi of Sacha Baba Kulanandji
According to a popular saying, all good things must come to an end. Perhaps in this way God wants to incite us to keep on going forward rather that getting attached to a particular situation, however marvellous it may be, as long as we have not yet returned to our Heavenly father’s house. So one September day in 1983, disaster struck his disciples and all those who love true spirituality when just after the Janmasthami festival which celebrates the great avatar Shri Krishna’s anniversary, and which was also Sacha Baba’s, the great saint left our world definitively after a short illness which had not at all seemed serious. Everyone was at first stupefied, then became despondent. Maharajji and the other disciples organized the funeral rites in homage of the incarnation of God who had so brilliantly illuminated our horizons.

He had taken care of the future
He left behind him excellent disciples, certain of whom created ashrams to carry on the teachings and ideals of love, light and universal fbrotherhood of their Master. The torch of the Sacha Mission was taken up by Maharajji so as to continue this work of awakening hearts and consciousness. We have already spoken about his work, and that of those who help him in this formidable task: this is to be found in the very first article of the site and is entitled “Shri Hans Raj Maharajji” which you can find in the topic “Introducing Maharajji”. (End)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 7)

2007-05-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Sacha Baba Kulanandaji and his disciples
One of the first things he insisted on was that his disciples should remain in society while carrying out their sadhana. Concerning this he said, “It is the destiny of each individual to work”. He thought it was not honest in a hard-working country like India, to definitively go away to a forest or a cave under the pretext that one was trying to find God. According to him “each of man’s actions should be united to God” and so even in the middle of daily action, in one’s work, one’s family, one progresses spiritually, for then everything is done for God and not out of personal interests. It may be stressed here that the divine Master did not exclude short spiritual retreats form time to time, but he did not want seekers to indefinitely cut themselves off from the world. Quoting the Bhagavad Gita, he often said “Perfection in action is yoga” thus stressing spiritual perfection which is reached through right and entirely selfless action, always dedicated to God. This is the very basis of Karma Yoga. However, his teachings went beyond this particular path, for he was also a being of profound devotion and perfect love for all beings. In fact, like all accomplished Masters, he was at the junction of all paths which he had united within himself through his high spiritual state.

Spiritual faculties belong to God
He also warned the disciple against catering to his ego, in particular when some of his spiritual faculties start working. He reminded him that these faculties belong to God and not to the disciple who only benefits from them. If he thinks that they are his and that he has become an important person, then not only will he lose everything but he will also put an end to his spiritual growth. His fall will be that of one who is unable to resist the temptation of pride.

An alchemist of souls
Sacha Baba Kulananandji had an extraordinary effect on each disciple because he was the living incarnation of God. In a preceding article, we have already spoken about the case of Shri Hans Raj Maharajji who came to him as a simple patient to be healed of a devastating illness which had been sapping his strength for a long time, and who became enlightened on the very next day after coming to the Master. There is also this teacher who was looking for a spiritual Master and who hurried to meet Sacha Baba when he was told about him. When the Master saw him coming, he said, “Close your eyes” and the teacher obeyed. A bright light then appeared to him, lasting for about fifteen minutes. When he opened his eyes at last, important changes had taken place in his consciousness, and he became an ardent disciple of the Master. Sacha Baba was a true divine alchemist who possessed the key to the soul of each living being who came to him. He turned it when he judged the time was right, for he could read each person like an open book.

God's Great Plan
Going beyond his disciples, he saw the great Plan of God which includes the entire humanity and has always brought men towards more perfection in all domains down the ages. He had especially come down from the high planes to participate in a powerful way in the accomplishment of this great Plan. (Continued in Part 8)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 6)

2007-05-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

In the abode of Yogis
Six months later, his Master appeared to Kulanandji in a vision and recommended that he go and complete his spiritual training in the Himalayas. He obeyed and settled in a cave in Deoprayag on the road to Badrinath, one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in India.
In those mountains, known to be the country of eminent saints, Kulanandji followed very strict spiritual practice, and in less than three years, reached a very high degree of perfection. One must add to this the fact that he incorporated all the powers of his Master and so became the incarnation of Sacha Baba. That was why Swami Kulanandji was later known as “Sacha Baba”, and has been called by that name ever since. However, in order to distinguish him from his Master Sacha Baba Girnari, we will call him Sacha Baba Kulanandji in all our articles.

Sacha Baba Kulanandji leaves the Himalayas
In 1947, Sacha Baba Kulanandji was divinely instructed to carry on the spiritual transformation of the world that his Master had started. He therefore came down from the Himalayas and travelled all over India for seven years to see and understand how people actually lived. He saw how they suffered from so many hardships. He was so touched that as soon as he arrived at Jagannath temple in Puri, which was the end of his journey, from his soul spontaneously sprang a song which he sang:

Prabhu Aap Jago, Paramatma Jago,
Mere Sarva Jago, Saravatra Jago,
Dukhaantak Khel Kaa Ant Karo.
Sukantak khel prakash karo.

Wake up Blessed One ! Beloved One wake up
Wake up my very own, wake up my all,
Wake up in the whole world, Wake up in every heart,
End this era of pain and sorrow,
Light up the era of joy and bliss.

It was Sacha Baba’s soul invoking God. Then he went to the seaside nearby. There he saw a scene of unbelievable beauty, for Lord Vishnu was there in all His glory, in radiant light which covered the whole world.

The marvellous work promised
In 1953, Sacha Baba Kulanandji founded an ashram in Allahabad called Sacha ashram, near Triveni Sangham, a confluence of three of the most sacred rivers in India: the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. Indeed, in a vision, his Master had told him to found an ashram in Allahabad and have the mantra Prabhu Aap Jago chanted there, for, as his Master explained, this song which he had chanted for the first time at the Jagnnath temple in Puri was in fact a very powerful mantra which was to be used for the spiritual awakening of the entire humanity. After the foundation of the ashram, when everything was ready in 1960, the mantra was indeed sung for twelve years straight. This cycle ended in 1972 and was marked by a great religious festival during which one of the most sacred and powerful fire ceremonies, the lakschandi Mahayagna was organized. The aim of this ceremony was to awaken humanity and contribute to bringing peace and harmony in the world during that period of cold war and very dangerous international tension.

An instrument for all
However, the Prabhu Aap Jago mantra is still sung daily in all the ashrams of the Sacha lineage during religious ceremonies and by disciples in their daily sadhana, for it is an excellent means of contributing to the awakening of humanity. All people of goodwill everywhere in the world can use it to participate in this magnificent undertaking. In this way, one can work towards the awakening of all beings as well as one’s own at the same time.

Some aspects of Sacha Baba Kulanandji’s work
The work that Sacha Baba Kulanandji carried out during his whole life was gigantic, and it went from the training of excellent disciples to the raising of the consciousness of humanity through work on the spiritual planes. It is not known either by the general public how much he did to eradicate famine in India. There is an instructive story about this, and we may tell it later on, but for the moment let us get back to his work as a whole. In a way, he also reduced the distance between man and God by special work on the inner planes.
In fact, not only had Sacha Baba been a great avatar in a past life, but was also one in this life, and time will bear witness to the immense work he accomplished. (Continued in Part 7)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 5)

2007-05-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

The promising young man
In 1936, a young man named Kulanandji who had just finished school, came to ask him to help him find a job. He came with his uncle Shrikant, a disciple who had been with Sacha Baba Girnari for a long time. To the young man’s request, the Master replied that if he stayed with him he would have a marvellous job. He therefore stayed and soon became an excellent disciple. It is said that his spiritual progress was rapid. He was so loving and helpful to everyone that he was highly appreciated by Sacha Baba Girnari and his fellow disciples. When his parents asked him to go back home to get married and live a non-religious life, he answered that he had decided to become a brahmachari [1] and that his whole life would be dedicated to God and all men. He had to face many trials, but he overcame all of them.

Very curious disciples
Something surprising happened the same day Kulanandji went to meet Sacha Baba Girnari for the first time. The Master, seeing the young man coming towards him, got up and embraced him. This was unusual, for in general a Master never gets up to go and meet a visitor. Something happened later on one day, which could give some indication as why the Master had done so. While the Master was with his disciples that day, one after the other they asked him questions about what they had been in last life. The Master, from whom nothing is hidden, answered each one. But only one disciple had not asked anything, and that was Kulanandji. When the Master mentioned that to him, Kulanandji replied that this question had never crossed his mind. Then the Master let him know that he had been a great avatar [2] in his past life...

The mahasamadhi of Sacha Baba Girnari
Later on, he became the Master’s personal attendant. Consequently, he was with him all the time and accompanied him on his many trips around the country. It is said that his confidence in the Master and his devotion were unequalled. However, on 16th June 1944, while they were both in Varanasi (Benares), Girnari Baba left his body, for he considered that his role in the mission he had started on the Earth was finished, and he knew this mission would soon be in good hands.

I will be with you for ever!
This was a great loss for all his disciples, and especially for Kulanandji whose heart was broken by this event. But Kulanandji had seen all the miracles his Master had worked and was hoping so much he would come back to life that he did not want him to be buried right away. As he did not stop crying over the loss of his Master, the latter appeared to him and told him that he was always with him and that he was indeed the Atma of his beloved disciple. It was true that he had left his physical body, but he would continue to teach and guide him, and also watch over him. Kulanandji therefore found peace of mind once more. (Continued in Part 6)

[1] He had taken a vow of chastity for life.

[2] Descent of God among men, generally in the body of a great saint or a great initiate, and having special powers to accomplish a particular mission.

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 4)

2007-05-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

The well-being of the people

Girnari Baba also cared a lot about poor people, and so he enjoined Maharajas and those who had any power at all to see to the well-being of the people they were in charge of. He was goodness itself. For example, during the Ardh-Khumba Mela in 1936 and the Maha-Khumbha Mela in 1942 in Allahabad which gathered millions of pilgrims as it usually did, there were crowds which came everyday to Girnari’s temporary camp. They came for the free meals, and among this large number of people, some asked for blankets, since the Khumba Mela is usually held in January or February when it is very cold in Allahabad. What is strange is that the divine Master managed to feed all those people and give out blankets to all those who asked for them, while no one knew where he got the money from to buy those things. The story is also told how he went to a a region in India which had been suffering from drought for a very long time, causing devastating famine. Girnari Baba spoke to the people there, gave specific advice and made it rain regularly so that this region became prosperous.

A great Siddha

Eminent saints in India acknowledged that he was a great Rishi and Siddha. That is perhaps one of the reasons why he was chosen to be president of the Fakiri Parliament, which was an assembly of Hindu and Muslim saints whose aim was to instil spiritual values into the society. He presided over the destiny of this prestigious assembly for about twenty-five years until he left this world. Having foreseen the Second World War which was about to start off, he tried to shorten the period it would last for, and lessen its effects on the whole world. (Continued in Part 5)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 3)

2007-05-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Girnari Baba and the transformation of men

After Girnari Baba had received Kacha Baba’s powers, he continued his spiritual work all over India where he constantly travelled. Not only did he work for the spiritual upliftment of the people, but also for the improvement of living conditions in India and in the whole world. Many years before the Second World War, Girnari Baba told certain political leaders that a great spiritual transformation was about to begin and that it was necessary for men as well as nations to turn to God. He explained to them that life in our physical world was only the shadow of life in the spiritual world. Consequently, if men did not follow spiritual truth, there would be no harmony between these two worlds, and this would result in ignorance concerning divine wisdom with its consequences such as disorder, wars, illnesses, poverty and the whole range of suffering which unfortunately afflict man here below. Unfortunately, what he said was not taken seriously enough.

Invisible work

It must be stressed here that a Master does not need to travel physically from country to country to touch the entire humanity. He does this quite simply from the high spiritual planes on which humanity is one being. This is done through instant inner harmonisation with these planes, and consequently, it will never be a spectacular thing which disciples or the average man can see.

The Gayatri Mantra

It is said that Girnari Baba used the Gayatri Mantra a great deal for the training of his disciples. It dates from the times of the Veda and possesses great transforming powers. But one cannot reduce the spiritual food a true Master gives his disciples to just one instrument, important though it may be. Indeed, in a way the Master is like a mother who brings up her child; there is, of course, the basic food for the family, but depending on the child’s health or his period of growth, she also gives him many other types of specific food which play an important preventive and curative role in his health and growth.

Tilling the soil
Let us remember that most of what a Master does for his disciple is not known by the latter, for the Master always works for the welfare of his student on high planes. The only thing he notices from time to time, provided that he follows his sadhana correctly, is that added to the usual slow progress, there is some unexpected progress. Naturally, the student should not think that only his sadhana brings about this result. His sadhana does indeed help him to make progress, but it is not the most important factor for enlightenment.

However, if this sadhana had not existed, there would have been no progress at all, for its purpose is essentially to prepare the student by raising his consciousness to the minimum required, and by purifying his subtle bodies so as to receive safely , the powerful energy which his Master will pour upon him when the “soil” is ready. One could therefore say, like mathematicians, that a sadhana followed carefully is a necessary condition, but is not enough where the essential stages of spiritual progress are concerned. Maharajji has declared several times that in order to attain realization, the student must do his sadhana perfectly and at the same time have a deep inner connection with his Master. This sadhana and heart to heart connection with the Master is like, in a way, the work of farmers who till the soil before planting ... (Continued in Part 4.)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 2)

2007-05-06T07:08:00.000-07:00

Kacha Baba, a life dedicated to serving men

Kacha Baba was an extraordinary saint. Although he deplored the degenerate state of humanity, he had profound love for all beings. He had an ashram in Jalhupur and was surrounded by disciples. All his life, he worked ardently to raise the consciousness of the entire humanity. His work concerned both the material and spiritual well-being of men, for like all true saints, he knew that one had to live a balanced life by giving each thing the right importance. He was blind but people say that he moved around like everybody else, as if he did not have that disability. He had no need at all for for a guide or a walking stick to find his way.

He was given the name Kacha Baba because he ate only raw food. The story is told that one day he asked a man to bring him some food. This man went home and asked his wife to quickly prepare some delicious food for the great saint. After some time, as the food took a long time to come, Kacha Baba went to the man’s home and the man then understood, but a bit too late, that Kacha Baba only wanted uncooked food. He therefore gave him the food he wanted. A few moments later, the man’s wife discovered that her kitchen was filled with many delicious dishes which had appeared out of nowhere ! (Continued in Part 3)

History of the Sacha Lineage (Part 1)

2007-05-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

The saint who was a few centuries old

From a historical point of view, the story of the Sacha lineage starts at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, there lived a great saint whose origin and name were unknown. He was so old that some people that he was 250 years old, while others thought he was more than 400 years old. He had no ashram, for he constantly travelled around India, and his disciples were to be found all over the country. However, he frequently went to stay on the Girnar mountain in Gujarat, and that is why he became known as “Sacha Baba Girnari”, i.e. “the Father of Truth from the Girnar Mountain,” or the “great saint from the Girnar mountain”. He was also more simply called “Grinari Baba”. It was said that he was the incarnation of Devarishi Narada. His spiritual stature and powers were so great that he drew huge crowds and inspired great devotion. His disciples came from all levels of the society, from the humblest to Maharajahs, from illiterate people to intellectuals, from the poorest to the richest. And all these men and women gathered at his feet wherever he stayed temporarily.

Why start afresh?

One day, while he was on the Girnar mountain, he wondered who the greatest saint in the world was. The answer to this question came as a vision where he saw that it was a saint who was living in Jalhupur near Benares. He immediately set off to find him. He did indeed find him. According to tradition, this meeting took place in 1906.However Girnari Baba was intrigued to see that the great saint was reciting a mantra for the purpose of dissolving the world. The destruction of the world! So Girnari Baba asked him why he, his illustrious host was doing that. Kacha Baba replied that humanity had completely degenerated, and was now only a shadow of itself, so deeply it had fallen into ignorance of divine wisdom while only spending its time enjoying worldly pleasures, which inevitably caused great suffering in the form of diverse illnesses and problems. So, out of compassion, to avoid man’s falling more deeply into such a negative and painful situation, he wanted to dissolve the world, after which a new one would appear, and in which true virtue and love would rule the life of each human being.

But Girnari Baba did not see things that way. He knew that Kacha Baba possessed immense powers which could progressively transform men and bring them to live according to virtue and love as Kacha Baba desired. He therefore told the latter,“If you transfer your power to me, then I will transform humanity little by little and bring men to God without it being necessary to destroy the world.”

Everything in life must be merited

Kacha Baba did not give an answer this request right away, but submitted Girnari Baba to a series of trials which lasted several years, to see if he had the necessary qualities to lead such a mission. When, after these long years, Kacha Baba saw that Girnari Baba had succeeded in all the tests, he told him that after few days, he Kacha Baba would die, and on that occasion he would transfer his powers to him. What he said did indeed happen, and his powers were transmitted to Girnari Baba. He was thus ready to carry out the gigantic task which he intended to do – that of bringing humanity to God.But who was Kacha Baba, to be given such vast powers which allowed one to destroy the world, or transform it? It is said that he was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu Himself. He won great fame at the time and is still well-known today. (Continued in Part 2)

Tea For One Hundred People (S., India)

2007-04-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, when Maharajji used to visit my city Jagraon, he would give satsangs in different houses of devotees. One day, he said to my father,
“I will come to your house to give a satsang there”
“I have no space because my house is too small !” replied my father.
“I will only take up a little space”
“No, I have no space” replied my father, who did not agree to this .
“So I will come alone” said Maharajji.
“Under this condition it is Ok” concluded my father.

After few days, Maharajji came to our house and he sat in our guest room. Then he said to my father,
“Hey, look, you say that you have no space but I have taken up very little space”.
A little later, Maharajji added :
“I will go onto the roof of your house for a certain time”.
So he went onto the roof which was like a terrace.
Our neighbours saw him on the roof and came to our house to have his darshan. Shortly after that Maharjji started the satsang and about hundred people came to attend this satsang on the roof. Maharajji asked my mother to give chai to all these people especially as we were in winter. I must explain that in India, what we call chai is usually prepared with about two-thirds tea and one-third milk. This is the way Indians make tea. But the problem was that we had only around one litre of milk at home and normally, it was far insufficient to prepare chai for all these people. But she accepted to prepare this chai without telling Maharajji about the milk.

Surprisingly, she was able to prepare the chai for all the people with this little quantity of milk while keeping to the proportions of one third of milk to two thirds of tea for each of the participants. This feat was due to Maharajji’s grace.

Are There Still Saints in India ? Part 3 (End)

2007-04-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Part 1

Part 2

This defied all the laws of physics !

Now, when I went back to Delhi, I started doing this mantra japa. Then one day, after coming back from Dubai, I started doing small havans (a type of fire ceremony) in my room and I started doing this mantra more seriously. One day during the afternoon I felt tired. I lay down on the bed, and with a particular awareness, I could see a God and Goddess on the roof of our flat with a book in front of them. The pages of this book were being turned over by the wind which was blowing. The whole atmosphere was charged with divinity.

Another day, I saw that through some astral process I had again come into Mahatma Hans Rajji’s room. Before going in, through the roof I saw a boy lying on the floor sleeping; and then the boy told Mahatma Hans Rajji that some ghost had come into his room. But he replied,
“Oh no, there is no ghost here. It is only one of my devotees, but in his spiritual body.”
So he took out a little piece of prasad, a piece of burfi (a type of Indian sweet) and dropped it. I took it and came back.
While coming here to the ashram through this astral process, near the room, I saw Lord Shiva on the sandy beach, and then I saw Mahatma Hans Rajji in the form of Lord Shiva. So I was quite surprised and it developed my devotion to him.

So I continued my japa and various things started happening. I had a lot of visions of Lord Shiva and many other things. Then one day, the entire process culminated, during the night. It must have been about one thirty in the morning because all the lights were off and I was sleeping in my room. Suddenly, I felt something moving my eyelids, while I was asleep. I wondered who could be trying to disturb my sleep, who wanted to open my eyes? So I opened them to see who was moving my eyelids, and I saw a whitish-bluish light, and it was focused on a particular photograph of a saint called Swami Shivananda (great saint who lived in Rishikesh up to 1963) which was in my room.

I remember that suddenly the light took the form of a bearded saint. And out came the face of Mahatma Hans Rajji. I was so surprised. This defied all the laws of physics! Moreover, I had studied physics as a student, and so I wondered how it was possible that such a light could be focused in such a way without any tungsten wire or without a bulb, or without any particular medium. And suddenly out of Mahatma Hans Rajji’s two eyes flashed a small whitish-blue light which entered my eyes. When it entered me, I closed my eyes suddenly, and when I opened them again, I saw that the light which had been focused on Swami Shivananda’s photograph had gone. Suddenly I felt a command, “Go and sit in the next room.”

So I obeyed and got out of bed and went to the next room. I sat there in padma asana (sitting on the floor, cross-legged) Suddenly I lost total consciousness of the outer physical world and of my body; my mind had stopped. I had an experience which lasted for about two and a half hours because at about four thirty the birds started singing and my consciousness became externalized.

This is how the experience usually goes. When the Guru’s grace dawns, the mind stops and the breath is stilled. Sunyatha (absolute stillness) occurs and then the Self Being - the swyambhu (the Self-Existent) flashes forth in all its divinity as existence, conscious awareness and bliss, bringing forth everything in divine love. That was my experience which I wrote down when it happened. (End)

Are There Still Saints in India? Part 2

2007-04-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, my God, this man is a true saint !

I was quite surprised because the next morning when I went to his room, I saw the shivaling, symbolising the cosmic creation of the universe, which is on the mantelpiece in his room, and I had a feeling that somehow Mahatma Hans Rajji had been able to stop my mind and give me an answer to the second question I had asked the day before, within my own mind. So I stayed at the ashram for three days. I wanted to stay longer but then Mahatma Hans Rajji told me later on that I should go back to Delhi and then he would answer my first question regarding the existence of saints in India nowadays.

I went back to Delhi, and within a week, on a Sunday afternoon after having lunch, I lay down for a snooze - an afternoon siesta. Suddenly, I saw that my own consciousness had been drawn back into Mahatma Hans Rajji’s room in Rishikeskh. I saw Mahatma Hans Rajji sitting on his bed as usual and his entire body became light. And in that light I saw Guru Nanak there. I was shocked. Suddenly I opened my eyes in my afternoon siesta, and I woke up. And I said, “Oh my God! This man is a true saint! How can he catch my consciousness in Delhi and bring it to his room in Rishikesh?”

So as soon as I could, after two or three days I caught a bus and came back to Rishikesh and I told Mahatma Hans Rajji that I wanted to be initiated. He replied that he would do so, but he first had to go to Dehradun. As promised, I was initiated by Mahatma Hans Rajji when he came back. He gave me a particular mantra, as well as specific recommendations concerning this mantra. (Continued in Part 3)

Are There Still Saints in India? Part 1

2007-04-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

The mysterious attraction

My name is Premi. In 1993 I had come down to Rishikesh and I went and sat at Mastram Baba’s place on the left bank of the Ganges. I was doing some japa (reciting a mantra) and meditation on this rock where Mastram Baba’s small mud hut is, and when I saw the tree near the platform on the other side of the riverbank, there was an attraction. It was a sort of magnetic attraction. So in the evening I walked along the Ganges from Mastram Baba’s place up to the Laxman Jhulla bridge which I crossed, and I came to the place where the people have their baths.
When I came up to the spot I was looking for, there was a swami (one who dedicates his life to God) called Midhaji drying his clothes on the clothes line. He saw me, and I saw him, and I asked him,
“What is this place?”
“This is Sacha Baba’s place,” he replied.
So I asked him who Sacha Baba was. He then invited me to his room to have a cup of tea, and said he would show me Sacha Baba. So he took me to the temple after tea, at about four o’clock in the afternoon, and I pranammed (bowed) to the statue of Sacha Baba in the temple. But I was still not satisfied, and I told him that I wanted to meet the real Baba. (Baba means a sage, a saint)
“There is one real Baba here,” he explained. “His name is Mahatma Hans Rajji. He is in his room, and he will open his door at about five o’clock. Then you can have his darshan.” (meeting a Master)

The two questions

So at five o’clock he took me to Mahatma Hans Rajji’s room. He had opened his door so Swami Midhaji went in and told him that someone had come for information. So he sent me in, and when I saw Mahatma Hans Raj Baba, I felt that I had met him previously, maybe from a previous life, but it was very difficult to say at that time.
When I sat down, I looked at him and kept looking at him, and I still felt there was some sort of connection which I was unable to explain. The first thing the Mahatma (Mahatma literally means a great soul, a saint ) asked me was where I had come from, so I told him I had come from Delhi. I told him I liked his place very much and that I wanted to stay there. I also said I wanted to ask him one or two questions.
He replied,
“Yes, you ask me.”
“I was reading about Guru Nanak (great Indian Saint born in the 15th century and who founded the religion of Sikhs), and he said that if you meet a true saint it is a great blessing. But how can it be possible to find a true saint in our time? There are no true saints in this country anymore!”
“Acha!” (Ah yes !)
Then I asked him how this world had come about, because according to science, there is this “big bang” theory, whereas when we read the Upanishads and the Indian Shastras (Upanishads and Shastras are holy Texts), they talk about something else.
“That’s so !” he replied. Then he added, “Listen, first of all go and sit on that particular platform where Sacha Baba used to sit. Then stay here at the ashram for two or three days.”

And the “big bang” ?

I accepted and went and sat on the platform. And when I was sitting there, at about six o’clock, I found that suddenly my thoughts had stopped. No thoughts were coming anymore. But I could still see the Ganges, all that was around me, and I was aware of everything. And suddenly, in that awareness, a word came. The word was sankalpa ( a sankalpa is a thought-force, a decree, directed will power used to materialise something or a new situation or event). So I immediately realised that I was reading something that might have happened sometime in the past, that this entire world is a “notion” or a “thought” which takes form in the great cosmic world. It is known as sankalpa. (Continued in Part 2)

A Reservation for Five (Amrit, India)

2007-04-23T03:33:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I learned that Maharajji was ill, so I decided to pay him a visit. As I lived in Punjab more than 300 kilometres away, I had to organise a trip for this, and my two daughters accepted to go with me to see him. However the day before we left, I thought of inviting my neighbour to come with us. When I spoke to him, he hesitated, and said he would let me know the following morning if he was coming, the very day we were leaving.
When the day came, he informed me that not only would he come, but so would his own daughter. In the end, five of us were going on this trip to Rishikesh. Neither my neighbour and his daughter, nor my daughters and I had told Maharajji about our visit. We were going to give him a nice surprise! We left very early, because Rishikesh was quite far.
When we arrived, we were received by Maharajji and while we were speaking to him, Swami Baldev came into the room. Maharajji then told him,
“Baldev, here are the five people for whom I told you to reserve rooms this morning !”
We were completely dumbfounded. And how we had been looking forward to giving Maharajji a surprise!
We then learnt that in the morning, here at the ashram in Rishikesh, Maharajji had called Swami Baldev and given him precise instructions to reserve rooms for five people who were going to come. He had insisted that on no account should the rooms be given to anybody else. It must be said that at the time, the ashram could loge very few people.

He Listens to Our Hearts (Liloue, France)

2007-04-23T03:30:00.000-07:00

On the last day of one of my stays at the ashram, I told my husband how disappointed I was to be going back without the peace of mind which I had hoped to find on coming here. My heart was still not at ease, for I was still worried about certain things. I was not completely happy.
We went to say goodbye to our Master before taking the taxi for Delhi, and without our having expressed any request or the least regret in front of him, Maharajji spoke to us and during the conversation, he told us that our hearts would surely find peace, but little by little. I was very astonished, because our Master had read my thoughts and seen the trouble in my heart, and had just given the answer I needed to put an end to my sadness.

Your Light Has Lit Mine (Keshav, India)

2007-04-23T03:26:00.001-07:00

My wife used to suffer from a heart problem and the lady doctor had forbidden her to go upstairs. She could only stay on the ground floor of our house. In this house, we had a special room reserved for our Guru Maharajji Shri.
One day, my son and daughter who live with us came here to Rishikesh, and since I too was absent, my wife was alone at home. In the evening time, at about 6:30 p.m. she thought, “There is no light in Maharajji Shri’s room. I should go and switch it on.” But she was much too weak and she remembered the doctor’s interdiction as that room was upstairs. So she was extremely worried about this situation and thought all the time “How can I switch on this light ?” So thinking, she fell half asleep for about two or three minutes. When she woke up, she was surprised to discover that the light in Maharajji Shri’s room had been switched on !
After this event, when we came to the ashram a few days later, my wife spoke to the Master about what had happened, and he replied,
“You should not disclose these things to anyone! As in special circumstances, when there is no other solution, I have to do such work exceptionally.”
Then he added,
“Don’t worry! I am always with you !”
Later on, my wife’s heart problem was healed.

Selective Rain (Gandhi, India)

2007-04-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Some time in the past, Maharajji used to come regularly to Punjab where he gave satsangs. One evening, one of the satsangs took place at one of my brothers’ house, which was far away.
But unfortunately it started to rain very heavily in the town during the satsang. My wife and I were at a complete loss because we had left the wheat to dry outside in the yard. My wife asked me to go and put this wheat away because not only was it going to get wet, but the water running through the yard would wash it away if we did nothing. But I found the atmosphere at the satsang so captivating that I did not want to miss one word of what Maharajji was saying. I therefore retorted that it was raining so hard, and the house was so far away that however hard I tried, I would still arrive too late; and not only was the wheat already spoilt, but I would also lose the spiritual manna that the Guru was giving out. I had carefully weighed up the situation and had chosen to lose the wheat and keep the Master’s spiritual food. So I stayed until the end of Maharajji’s talk.
Then we went back home to see what damage had been done. And, to our surprise, the wheat was still there, perfectly dry and not a grain was missing. It had rained all around it and the ground was drenched, but some mysterious force had protected just the spot where the wheat was ! So we hurried and put it away - the wheat which had caused us so much worry. And as soon as we had finished, heavy rain poured down again, but this time it no longer spared the place where the wheat had been drying a few seconds before!
Later on, when I was alone with Maharajji I reported these strange happenings and the miracle which had taken place. He touched me on my head and added,
“Hush! It’s a secret and make sure you tell no one about it. When you were at the satsang you were doing my work - work for the Sacha Mission and work for God Almighty. It was therefore my duty to do something for you !”

The Dutch Nun (From a Dutch disciple)

2007-04-23T03:19:00.000-07:00

I am from Holland and am a disciple of Maharajji. I have an aunt who is a nun in the Catholic Church. She has a very understanding nature, but when I announced to her one day that I was about to leave for India and spend six months with my Master Maharajji, she did not appreciate it at all. “How is that? A Guru? While we ourselves have a religion!” Those were her remarks.
Nevertheless, I left for India and once I was with Maharajji, I kept up regular correspondence with her. I related to her in detail all that was happening to me and in general in the ashram. In this way the habits and the life in the ashram became familiar to her and interested her deeply. After all, she said to me, she did not see much difference between life there and life in her own Catholic monastery.
After the six months, I returned to Holland and visited her. On this occasion, I showed her pictures of Maharajji, Sacha Dham ashram, the people who were living there and the Ganga, etc. One of the pictures of Maharajji in particular, pleased her.
“Could you give me this one?” she asked.
“Of course, it is yours!” I answered.
And she put this picture near Jesus, on her altar.
After having worked for five months in Holland, I returned to India for six months. In her first letter, my aunt explained to me that even though she didn’t write often, she thought of me every day, especially because the picture of my Master was on her altar. And, she added, she was very grateful to Maharajji that he took very good care of me.
One afternoon a few months later, I was sitting on the verandah in front of Maharajji’s room, when Swami Midhaji brought me a letter from my aunt (I received all my mail at the address of the ashram). After the news, she wrote,
“Oh yes, I forgot to tell you before, but your Guru has become my spiritual guide. I ask him everything and he always answers me in my heart.”
I was so touched that I couldn’t hold back my tears. At that moment Maharajji opened his door. He looked at me with a big mocking smile so I stood up and started to speak to him about my aunt, but he did not listen and continued his way. Just before he disappeared around the corner of the verandah, I called out loudly,
“Maharajji!”
“Yes,” he answered and turned to me.
“Maharajji, you have many Western disciples, don’t you?”
“Yes, many!” he said with emphasis.
I understood that Maharajji took care of all of those who were in the hearts of his disciples. This story is all the more remarkable since Maharajji left his room that day at a time when he never usually went out. He certainly knew of my aunt’s letter from the beginning.

Mahatma Hans Raj Maharajji

2007-04-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Extremely Rare...

Shri Hans Raj Maharajji is a very great saint in India, who lives in Rishikesh. Some call him Mahatma Maharajji, the title “Mahatma” meaning “Great Soul” and is given to those who have reached a very high state of spiritual realization, which goes beyond enlightenment, the first stage. Sacha Dham, his ashram, is situated on the bank of the Ganges, at the foothills of the Himalayas. What is unusual is that he became enlightened the very next day after meeting in Allahabad the one who was going to become his Master, Shri Sacha Baba Kulanandji. This happened on October 3, 1955 and he was thirty-three years old.

Experiencing God Directly

From them on, his work was to help spread the teachings of his Master throughout India, around which he travelled for decades. And that was how little by little, thousands of men and women gathered around him and became his disciples. He did not just give theoretical teachings since for Maharajji, oral teachings, however important they may be, are not enough to bring about the desired progress in a seeker. For him, the latter must experience God directly in his own inner consciousness. That is why he gave and still continues to give his disciples a precise technique which, if applied with perseverance and regularity in daily life, ensures their spiritual growth. Moreover, for decades up to the 1980s, he would regularly organize what is called sadhana camps. These camps were in fact spiritual retreats, each lasting about ten days, to which he invited disciples who had a sure potential, and would give them intensive training which enabled them to experience their inner divinity and contact the higher planes during that very retreat.

Graceful Simplicity
Shri Hans Raj Maharajji is characterized especially by true simplicity and very pure, unconditional, limitless love for all beings whatever their origin, religion, race or social class may be. He makes no difference between rich and poor, wise and ignorant. He loves each one as he is for, as he says, “I only see souls in front of me, in other words children of God, all equal. The outer differences are of no importance.” In his presence, the visitor feels purer, closer to his soul, and provided that he is a little sensitive psychically, he will feel a very strong, harmonious vibration which will bring inner peace and calm his spirit. This visitor can also feel that true power, God’s power expresses itself through this being. One then understands why great instructors have always recommended being in the company of saints if one want to progress spiritually, for not only does one benefit from their teachings, but one is also purified and raised spiritually by their presence.

Work in the Universal Soul

After the death of his Master Shri Sacha Baba Kulanandji in 1983, the heavy responsibility of continuing the work of this great line of saints called the Sacha Lineage (Sacha means Truth, God) to which his Master belonged, was passed on to Maharajji. From a historical point of view, this lineage began at the beginning of the 20th century when two very great saints of exceptional stature met and worked together. They were called respectively Shri Kacha Baba and Shri Sacha Baba Girnari. Kacha Baba lived near Benares and was said to have been an avatar of Vishnu, while Sacha Baba Girnari was a travelling saint who often made long or short stays on the Girnar mountain in Gujarat, and who was said to have been the incarnation of Devarishi Narada, the great messenger of God and a glorious character who can be found throughout the Hindu Scriptures. They were two great yogis who God caused to meet for the benefit of the human race.

The aim of this lineage is two-fold : on the one hand to help the entire humanity to turn to spirituality, for humanity is now entering a delicate era which holds the most exalting promises in store, but also terrible perils if humanity continues to walk blindly forward without giving due importance to spiritual values; on the other hand to lead all sincere, worthy disciples to the state where they will become workers for what is usually called the Common Good, the Universal Good or the General Good, in short, people who will work for the benefit of the entire human race. For this Maharajji, since he has taken up the torch, only goes out very rarely for short visits. He works especially in what is called the Universal Soul, a high spiritual plane from which one can reach the entire humanity. His work is therefore not at all aimed at trying to get disciples to come to him, but rather that each person, wherever he is on the planet, will adopt a religion or a personal path which he will follow sincerely by putting God in the centre of his life, so that God’s Purpose for humanity can be achieved in the best conditions.

Two Simple but Powerful Techniques

Because of this universal work, Maharajji no longer gives satsangs (a meeting where Master and disciples discuss spiritual topics) today or any oral teachings, and has given up holding sadhana camps himself. Since then, his technique for each student can be globally summed up as meditation and the reciting of the Gurumantra (all mantras have intrinsic power, however with the Gurumantra, the power of the Master who transmits it is added to this intrinsic power) which he gives when he accepts a new disciple. From then on, he is always with this disciple spiritually, although he may not be visible to physical eyes, but those who are intuitive or clairvoyant will see him.

The sincere and regular practice of these two powerful techniques – meditation and Gurumantra will not only bring about the spiritual growth of the disciple, but will also allow him to be in contact inwardly with Maharajji in order to receive spiritual direction, specific teachings or even help if necessary, for a personal problem which is not connected to spirituality. Moreover, from time to time he gives personalized advice when it is needed.

One must not be taken in by the apparent simplicity of the technique which Maharajji uses to guide his disciples. Indeed, certain people like complicated spiritual practices so as to convince themselves that they are using an efficient method, thinking that complexity is a sign of excellence. In fact, the more one develops spiritually, the more things become simple. For example, for meditation an ordinary disciple needs to sit alone in a specific posture so as to establish contact with his inner Self, whereas a more advanced disciple only needs to think of this connection for it to be done instantaneously, wherever he may be; he may be sitting down, walking, having his meals or speaking to someone, this is not important.

Do Everything With Your Heart

So the only thing Maharajji asks of his students is that whatever they do, especially their sadhana (spiritual practice), they should do it with their heart, since for him, the heart plays an essential role in the relationship with the Self, with God and with the whole creation. Maharajji is simplicity itself, and everything he gives or does always bears this stamp of simplicity, which is the mark of those who have attained the essence of life and of all things, that which bears names like God, Truth, the All! He does not restrict his disciples to a particular form of yoga either, or to any particular path. Each person follows his own inclination and his own path, be it Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga or any other Eastern or Western path; Maharajji only gives the powerful instruments to progress, provided that the student is sincere in his practice.

This is how things go because when a being has attained enlightenment (you may use the name you wish), he has become one with what Indians call the “Atma” and Christians call the “Spirit”, the pure Ray of God in him, and this Atma is one with the Divinity and with all that exists. From then on, he is in harmony with all the paths leading to realization and is one not only with each individual, but also with the profound teachings of each religion and each mystical path. That is why he is beyond religions for he is one with the source of all religions. Maharajji has said, “My work has nothing to do with the promotion of a particular religion.

They Have Come from Everywhere

Little by little, starting from the 1980s, foreign disciples from the five continents came to Maharajji to be guided also, and today they are still coming. This had been predicted by Sacha Baba Kulanandji who had said that those who had been Maharajji’s disciples in other lives and who were now incarnated would come back again to be with him and be guided by him. He had also predicted that the work of the Sacha lineage, known as the Sacha Mission, would spread throughout the world. Today, Maharajji has a few thousand disciples from different religions in the world (Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jewish, Sikh etc.). Some of them had no particular faith or were even atheists before meeting Maharajji. He never advises disciples to definitively retire to monasteries, temples, caves or forests since for him, one must find God wherever one has his duties to carry out to the society and one’s family. The time when one would completely cut oneself off from society is now a thing of the past.

It is necessary for a disciple to be responsible and autonomous, for Maharajji will never ask him if he puts into practice the teachings received. Once he has let his disciple know what he has to do, he leaves him completely free to do so or not; the disciple is the one to decide if he wants to progress or not. He respects each one’s absolute liberty and never interferes with his free will, although he knows what each disciple is doing. That is why he sometimes encourages certain disciples, which is an indirect way of congratulating them and letting them know that he knows quite well what effort and progress they are making.

It must also be mentioned that during the 1990s, Maharajji no longer wanted to accept disciples in order to devote himself to his work in the world, but he could not refuse those who continued to come and knock at his door in search of inner light and peace. Consequently, up until today, men and women continue to seek his guidance. Let us also add that those who, for one reason or another, cannot go to India, can be guided by Maharajji if they pray sincerely and so connect with him through inner aspiration. There are examples of this all over the world. Maharajji is not limited by space or time. He manifests himself wherever his disciples and sincere hearts are in search of divine light.

Centres of Light

Generally, his foreign and Indian disciples go to the ashram for a short stay and then return home. However, there are permanently with him a few swamis (people who have decided to dedicate their lives to finding God under the direction of a Master) and other Indian disciples who carry out the activities usually done in an ashram, both from the social and spiritual point of view; indeed ashrams are also institutions which feed the poor free of charge. Each of his swamis and disciples, while following their spiritual practice, is in charge of a specific task at the ashram.

In addition to Sacha Dham ashram, Maharajji has founded other ashrams in India, which constitute centres from which divine light shines, allowing each seeker to go and quench his thirst. In addition, two of his most advanced disciples, ShantiMayi and Prem Baba, have each founded an ashram, respectively “Terre de Sacha” in the Pyrenees in France (not far from Spain) and Sacha Mission near Sao Paulo in Brazil. It must also be mentioned that ShantiMayi’s disciples, scattered everywhere on the five continents, and Maharajji’s have also opened secondary centres which carry on the ideals and teachings of Maharajji and the Sacha lineage here and there on the planet. ShantiMayi herself travels a lot around the world to personally transmit these teachings.