New Era
A new era began when we celebrated the centenary of Pujya Shashtriji Maharaj. Prior to this, we would affiliate with a Gunatit Satpurush (attain atma-buddhi and priti), but would acknowledge the Satpurush to be on the same spiritual level as ourselves. Thus:
- The Satpurush constantly remained humble towards us instead of us remaining humble towards them.
- The Satpurush remained helpless i.e. could not reveal their true power to us as we were still unable to accept them.
For many years, it was Shastriji Maharaj and Yogiji Maharaj’s wish to build temples; money was required and hence they were so humble that we believe that without our help (monetary or otherwise), the temples would not be built. Thus when we made even the smallest donations towards this, we believed that we were doing these Satpurush a great favour !!
Someone who had made a donation of Rs. 5,000 would expect to be recognised for the donation and if someone had donated Rs. 50,000, then he expected to be given even greater attention, i.e. to be garlanded, given a special seat in the front at the temple, almost to be treated as though he were the Satpurush himself.
The Satpurush put up with our ignorance in these matters. Once Shastriji Maharaj told a particular devotee that by using his own power and might, temples could have been built over-night (without anyone’s help). That devotee was so offended that he left the satsang. Other ignorant satsangis would give Shastriji Maharaj all kinds of advice, fearing that if He did not visit devotees’ homes, then no-one would make donations and temples would not be built etc. They would ask Shastriji Maharaj to bless devotees and show His powers. Satpurush such as Shastriji Maharaj simply put up with our ignorance and gave us whatever we demanded. i.e. recognition, fame etc.
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Such was our foolishness at the time that we did not even realise it. Shastriji Maharaj when giving discourses, often quoted historical examples of devotees who had been as foolish as we were being. In his way, he often hinted that what we were doing was wrong, but still had forbearance towards our behaviour and gradually we improved.
The genuine reason for giving devotees the chance to donate money for the temple was to give them the opportunity to serve the Lord. If devotees served the Lord, their lives would be improved and their souls would be purified, but in giving us such opportunities, the Swaroopos suffered.
A new era has emerged. Devotees have become more astute, having a better understanding of the Satpurush.
- Devotees accept the Satpurush as the ‘Brahm-Swaroop’ and feel honoured to have the opportunity to serve the Satpurush in any way whatsoever. No matter how humble a devotee, when he stands before Bapa, his only wish is to serve Bapa according to Bapa’s wish.
- The spiritual progress of devotees is such that previously those who did not even realise the mahatmya of Shastriji Maharaj, now hold a deep respect for satsangis. They serve not only the Satpurush but quite willingly serve their fellow devotees as well.
- In return for our insignificant service to the Lord; which is worthless; we are rewarded with price-less gifts i.e. purification of our soul. Devotees now realise that the Satpurush would not normally give us the opportunity to serve them. We are fearful of missing such opportunities that we serve with humility and without any expectation of rewards etc. We serve only with the expectation that we will acquire the peace, bliss and happiness of Akshardham; our egos will be purified and we will be liberated from mundane worldly desire (vasna). We have begun to believe that the séva / service we perform is often trivial in relation to the rewards bestowed upon us.
- We now believe that whatever happens in our lives is controlled by the Satpurush. When faced with problems we immediately turn to the Satpurush, knowing that it is He who controls our destiny.
- We are afraid to take offence of other devotees. We realise that the Satpurush is omniscient and thus refrain from taking offence.
- We now serve all other devotees with the intention of pleasing the Lord. We would take on more responsibilities in order to relieve the Satpurush of having to deal with trivialities.
In this way a new era emerged.