The paathi sings the Bani of Swami Ji Maharaj...
Bhajan kar magan raho man mein.
Bhajan kar magan raho man mein.
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Swami Ji Maharaj. He says that if you want peace, then you should do Bhajan, Simran, and Dhyan. Even Kabir Sahib Ji says “simran se sukh hoth hai, simran se dukh jay, kahe kabir simran kare toh sai mai samay” meaning, ‘If you want happiness and peace then do Simran because Simran is what cuts sorrow, Simran is what brings peace and happiness to the soul and with Simran one merges with God Almighty’.
So, the Masters give us Simran to cut our karmas, and by doing Simran in the mind, our karmas are gradually reduced and, with that, the soul gets happiness and peace.
So, Swami Ji Maharaj also says, “If you want happiness and peace, then you should do Bhajan and Simran.”
Jo jo chor bhajan ke prani
So so dukh sahen.
Jo jo chor bhajan ke prani
So so dukh sahen.
Swami Ji says that those who have been initiated by their Masters and are not doing Bhajan and Simran, they suffer from sorrows. Since our karmas are not redeemed, we have to suffer. If we do not do Simran, then these karmas do not get redeemed, and then we have to suffer these karmas in the form of ill health or sickness or other ailments. It is with Simran that our karmas are redeemed or reduced, and that is how one gets happiness.
Aalas neend satave unko,
Nit nit bharm bahen
Kaam krodh ke dhakke khaven,
Lobh nadi mein doob marain.
He says that those who do not do Simran, they are troubled by sloth or laziness and sleep, and they are forever in bharam. The meaning of bharam is “believing the unreal to be the truth and the truth to be unreal”. And in this duality, they live in bharam, in sorrow.
So, these people, who do not do Simran and Bhajan, basically, they spend their time in sloth or laziness and sleep, and they fail to gather the kind of conviction, faith and the willpower to do Simran and Bhajan regularly. Such people are predominantly driven by the five ailments: lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. And, driven by these, the karmas keep increasing.
By doing Bhajan Simran, the mind becomes pure. The mind becomes more sublime. And, as it becomes more sublime, it automatically tends to go to the Feet of the Master, and the intensity of love and affection increases.
Guru sang preet karen nahi poori,
Naam na dor gahe
Trishna agni jale nis baasar,
Narakan maahin parre.
So, for such people, they are unable to develop complete love and faith in the Feet of the Master because without doing Simran their minds will not become pure and they will be unable to develop this faith and true love for the Master. Then the desires and materiality overcome them. So, they are forever in this inexhaustible fire of desires and want more things to be fulfilled. And they feel that their lives are only for gathering wealth, for taking care of their families and spending time in material pursuits. They fail to understand the true reason of their birth as a human being.
Kabir Sahib Ji says, “kehta hu keh jaat hu, kahu bajaye dhol, swaasa khaali jaat hai, teen lok ka mol.” Kabir Sahib says that each breath that we take is more valuable than the entire value of the three worlds and, despite this, we are wasting these breaths from the store of our life.
People fail to understand the importance of their breath. Therefore, Saints say that you must appreciate the importance of each breath that you take. Each breath must be used in the remembrance of Naam because it is this Naam that shall liberate you and take you to your True Home. Our desires for worldly pursuits are the reason why we take birth again and again in this ocean of the world. And these births and this life cycle of birth and death are what give us great sorrow.
Santan saath birodh barrhaaven,
Ulti baat kahen
Satsang mahima mool na jaane,
Bherr chaal mein nitt phasen.
By not doing Simran, the mind plays upon us and we lose faith in the Master. And sometimes because we lose faith in the Master, we also start distrusting the Master. It is the mind, which plays on this weakness of the soul, which has not gained its strength by Simran and Dhyan.
These people also, when they sit for Satsang and they listen to the discourse of the Masters, fail to understand the message of the Master, fail to understand the subtleness of the Teachings of the Master.
These people can be compared to sheep. Sheep simply follow the footsteps of the sheep ahead of it. So, if the sheep in the front falls in a well, then you will find that all the sheep start falling in the well.
So, like the sheep, such people also follow each other in pursuit of materiality, and if one person gets entangled in worldly affections and materiality, then others also follow. They get into the cycle of materiality and sorrow.
Therefore, Swami Ji Maharaj says that “With every moment, do your Simran and do your Bhajan, and remain content in this Bhajan and Simran, and that will give you joy."
Dhan aur maan bhog ras chahen,
Rog sog mein aan phasen.
Such people get greedy for wealth and they get greedy for esteem. They fail to distinguish between what is theirs and what belongs to other people also, and they become blind in this greed. They fail to listen to the Satsang properly. They fail to understand the Satsang properly. Because, if they would have listened and understood the Satsang, then they would have realized that this life is very short-lived, and everything that is material has to be left here.
So, Saints say that greed, passion, drive such people and they fail to understand brotherhood and the relationships of their families. They are completely blinded by wealth. And, in the greed for material pursuits, they fail to appreciate relationships.
Bhaag heen mat heen prani,
Nar dehi barabaad kare.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that such people are rather unfortunate. God has given such a beautiful body to attain liberation and get salvation. They fail to understand this and they spend their lives in very wasteful materialistic pursuits and worldly matters and, in the end, they repent.
Aisi dasha maahin nit barten,
Ham kyon kar samhaaye saken.
So, after explaining all, Swami Ji Maharaj says that such is the state of people who do not do Simran and Bhajan. And though Saints come and keep reminding them to do Bhajan and Simran, there is no transformation in such people and they continue to lose their priceless life, losing it to material worldly pursuits.
Sadguru ka kahaa na mane,
Manmat apni than thane.
So, such people who do not do Bhajan, they listen to their mind. They are driven by the mind. Saints and Masters come and caution them through their Satsangs, but such people fail to understand the Teachings of the Masters. They follow their own mind.
Mahatmas say that your biggest enemy is within. It is your very own mind. We should not listen to the mind. We should follow the Teachings of the Master, and if we follow the Teachings of the Master then, in this very life, we will get salvation.
Kar kookar sam ve nar jaano,
Birtha udhaar bharen.
So, people who spend their whole lives behind worldly pursuits trying to fulfill desires of the family and accumulating wealth, they are akin to asses and dogs. And there is no difference between such a human being and an ass or a dog. Donkeys and dogs are known to have difficult lives.
In India, you have dogs that come from door to door wanting to eat something. And whatever little food is thrown out is what they get to eat.
And, likewise, a donkey serves his master who is a washerman. And he loads this donkey with a huge amount of clothes, which he takes to the river to wash. But then he does not feed the donkey. So, the donkey doesn’t get food either at the riverside or at the home. He is just carrying the load on both sides. The washerman ties the feet of the donkey; the two feet are tied to each other so that he doesn’t wander far away. And within the distance that he can manage to wander, he gets very frugal grass to eat.
So, it is similar to a person who moves heaven and earth to fulfill the desires of his family, only to be ignored as he grows older by the same family.
Therefore, if you fail to do Simran and you fail to do Bhajan, then this great opportunity given by the God Almighty, which is the highest of life forms, is a waste.
So, for people who follow worldly desires, the only thing at the end is repentance for having spent their whole life in pursuit of such desires because none of these material things are going to go along with you at the time of death.
Jampur jaye, bahut pachtave,
Vahan fir unkee kaun sune.
In order to fulfill their desires, these people undertake a lot of karmas and they even have to suffer in hell to redeem those karmas. And it is there that they repent for such a wasted life where they have spent so much precious time and done such deeds to fulfill those worldly desires.
There was a person called Ratnakar. He later became a great Saint called Valmiki. Ratnakar was a dacoit and he had his house in the forest. And he would plunder the wealth of people who passed by that forest. So, the way he plundered people, he would strike from behind, and when the person fell, he would take their wealth. And he would kill them and take the last, the small finger, and he had made a big garland of all such fingers. He was known for that trait.
Narad Muni, a sage, observed that this person is plundering wealth like this and incurring such bad deeds. Narad knew that it would take Ratnakar several lives to redeem these bad deeds. He took pity and came down to the forest.
He knew that He was being followed by Ratnakar. And when Ratnakar, as usual, attacked Him from behind, Narad Muni turned and gave His Gracious look to Ratnakar. So, that way He kept showering a lot of grace with each step that Ratnakar advanced towards Him.
So because of this grace, Ratnakar did not attack Narad, but instead, he stopped Narad. And then Ratnakar asked Narad, which was quite unusual to his usual behavior, to part with his belongings.
Narad Muni again looked very graciously and He graced Ratnakar. And He told Ratnakar, “Look, I am a wanderer and a muni. And I only have this instrument with me and this pack. So, you can take both of these things from me. But, before you do that, please answer one question of mine. You plunder so many people, take their wealth, kill them and then you share this loot with your family. Is your family sharing in the bad deeds that you incur?”
So, Ratnakar was intrigued with this question. But he replied, “Of course, they will be sharing both because, eventually, they are eating what I’m giving them, so they will also be sharing whatever deeds I am incurring.”
Narad quickly corrected him, “No, only the person who incurs the deed suffers the deed. And if you are not sure of this, why don't you go and ask them?”
So, Ratnakar went back and met his parents first and he asked them this question.
So, the parents replied, “Look, we are old and you are our son. It is your duty as a son to fulfill the needs of your old dependent parents. Now, how you are achieving that is entirely up to you. So, we are not going to be sharing in what you have done. We only know that you have to fulfill your duty.”
So, he was quite shocked with what the parents said. And he then set out to meet his wife and children and he asked the same question.
So, likewise, the wife told him, “Look, it is your duty to fend for the family and take care of your wife and your children. That is your duty. Now, how you do that and what bad deeds you are incurring for that, we will not be party to that.”
So, after listening to this he was shaken up because he realized that he alone would be responsible for the deeds he was incurring, and neither his parents nor his wife and children would share any of those bad deeds. He repented thinking that God alone knew how many lives he would have to take to pay off those bad sins. So, he was overwhelmed by that feeling and he went back to Narad Muni.
Before he had left for asking questions to his family, he had tied up Narad Muni. So, he went back and then he untied Narad Muni. Then he sat there and Narad Muni gave him initiation.
He was so repentant that, after receiving the initiation from Narad Muni, he sat at the same place for meditation for ten thousand years. And for ten thousand years he didn’t move; so much so that there was a full ant hill that was built on him over so many years. And that is how he got his name ‘Valmiki’.
So, Valmiki is known as “one born from ant hills”.
So, after about ten thousand years, Narad Muni felt He should go back and meet this initiate. And He came and then He looked around and He wondered, “This person should have been sitting here, where is he?” And He looked around and there was this huge anthill. So, He put His ear to the anthill. And He could hear the chant of “mara, mara, mara” being recited.
So, Valmiki because of his initiation and so much repentance and meditation, had opened his Third Eye and he had gone within.
So, when Narad Muni brought him out of that mediation, He said, “You should make use of whatever vision you have inside.” And He said, “Let the world learn from what you have seen inside and what experiences you have.”
So, Valmiki wrote the ‘Ramayana’, which is an epic. And this was written ten thousand years before Rama was born. Rama was the avatar of Vishnu. Valmiki wrote this epic in Sanskrit, and it was later that Tulsi Das wrote this in Awadhi.
Thus, by doing Simran and Bhajan, all of our karmas get redeemed, our love and faith towards our Master increase, and we get peace within.
Janm janm chaurasi bhoge,
Yah shareer phir nahin dharen
Durlab deh mili yah ausar,
Aisi kar jo baat banee.
Under the influence of the mind, a person goes in the 84 lakh cycles of life and death and becomes sad. Swami Ji Maharaj says, “Do something that gets you out of this, and make use of the human life that has been given to you.”
Sataguru sharan pakad le abaki,
Toh sab kaaj saren
Itna bachan daya kar bole,
Tu nahi kaan sune.
So, therefore, He says you should go to the Satguru, or the Master because whatever the Master says is for your benefit. But, unfortunately, you are not willing to listen. He says you should go and surrender to the Masters. By surrender He means that you should surrender your mind, you should surrender your body, and you should surrender your wealth. So, He says that if you go and listen to the Master, and surrender to the Master, and accept what He says, then your work will be done.
Andha behra phire jagat me
Kul kutumb teri haani karen
Kar satasang maan yaha kehna,
Kan ankh fir dou khule.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that you should surrender to the Masters and not keep running behind your desires and your family. Swami Ji Maharaj also refers to the family as sweet thugs because they rob you of your life.
There are three types of thugs or thieves; one is a type of thief who actually robs your house. There are earthen homes here. And people in the nighttime, while everyone is asleep, would make a hole in that earthen wall and come inside the house and steal whatever valuables that house had possessed.
The second type of a thief is a dacoit who at gunpoint, stops you, takes off your wealth and bids you “bye”.
And the third thief is the family because it is for the family that a person strives and spends his whole life to meet and satisfy all their needs. Effectively, what happens is, that he is robbed of all his lifetime in following these pursuits to satisfy the family. And, in the end, he only has repentance.
The family always motivates and encourages the person to earn money, get wealthy, get high esteem for himself, and for the family. But seldom is a family member going to motivate a person to go and do austerities or devotion of the Master.
It was only the great Druva's mother who motivated him right from his early age to actually spend his lifetime in devotion. So, seldom will you get family members who are motivated to do like that.
Kar satsang maan yeh kehna,
Kaan ankh fir dou kule
Dekhe ghat me jyot ujaala,
Sune gagan me ajab dhune.
Swami Ji Maharaj says listen to the Satsang of the Masters. Try and understand the Satsang of the Masters and follow that. Do Simran and Dhyan and Bhajan. That is, focus at the Eye Center and get to see the Radiant Form of the Master. With that, your eyes and ears of your soul open up so you can hear the Sound Current of the Almighty and you can see the Radiant Form of the Master within. By doing this, we are saved from all these frivolous desires and waste of time, and we are, above all, saved from the continuous cycle of life and death and the 84 lakh life forms.
Sunn jaaye tirbeni nhaave,
Heere moti laal chune
Mahaasunn mein surat charrhaave,
Tab satguru tere sang chalen.
As we follow the Teachings of the Master and do our Simran, Dhyan, and Bhajan, our soul transcends up at the back of the Eye Center and we see the Radiant Form of the Master, and from there on, the Master is there at every step we take, and He takes us to the planes above. He takes us in the Par Brahm. And there in the Mansarovar, He makes us have a bath in the Pool of Nectar where we get rid of all our karmas and sins.
So, He is describing the place where we go. And that’s a place where we have bungalows of diamonds, of rubies, and that’s where souls reside and that’s where we will reside.
Bhanwar-gupha ki bansi baaji,
Mahaakal bhi sees dhune.
After the Par Brahm, the Master takes the soul through Bhanwar Gupha. He bypasses the wide expanse of Maha Sunn, which is the place of Maha Kal. And there, Maha Kal also bangs his head and feels the loss of the soul because, at that time, the soul has left the land of Kal.
Ab charrh gayi purush darbaara,
Vahaan jaave dhun been gune
Le durbeen chali aage ko,
Alakh agam ka bhed bhane.
Thereafter, the Master takes us to Sat Lok, where there is the Sound similar to that of the been, or pungi. The been is an instrument that is played for charming snakes, or like that of a bagpiper. So, that is the Sound that is there in Sat Lok. The Gurumukh takes you to Sat Lok first where the soul meets Sat Purush and gets the radiance of sixteen suns.
And, thereafter, Sat Purush sends the soul to the three planes above, which are: Alakh, Agam, and Anaami. And it is from Anaami that the soul has come.
So, it is in Anaami that you get your True Home, your True Family and that is where the soul has come from. And that Family is everlasting. That Father is everlasting. That Home is everlasting. It is unlike the home, or the bungalow or the house that we are wasting our lives in pursuit of getting riches, and only for four* days. Because, after you leave the body, this bungalow and this house and this family don’t remain with you.
* four…referring to the four stages of a man’s life
Yahaan se aage chali umang se,
Tab radhaswamy charan milen
Mila adhaar paar ghar paaya leela
Vahaan ki kahe na bane.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that one should go there. You meet your True Family, you get your True Home and you get happiness.
Now there is no way to explain to the soul what that happiness is because there is nothing in this world, which you can imagine or which can give you the hint of that happiness.
Yahaan se aage chali umang se,
Tab radhaswamy charan milen
Mila adhaar paar ghar paaya leela
Vahaan ki kahe na bane.
So, once again He says that once you reach there you meet your True Father, you meet the Almighty. You meet your True Family and you get to your True Home. The glory of that place is beyond explanation. There is nothing here that can explain it to you. So, Swami Ji Maharaj has called the Almighty, or the Father, as Radhaswami. In Anaami, actually, there is no Name of that God, so He accepts whatever name you give Him. So, with love and affection, whatever name you call Him, He accepts that name.
Yahaan se aage chali umang se,
Tab radhaswamy charan milen
Mila adhaar paar ghar paaya leela
Vahaan ki kahe na bane.
Kabir Sahib has explained the situation by giving an example: It is like giving jaggery to a dumb person and you ask the dumb person how do you feel about it. Now, he can only enjoy the sweetness of the jaggery. But he cannot talk and he cannot explain to you what it is. So, Anaami is beyond explanation and beyond comprehension.
Yahaan se aage chali umang se,
Yab radhaswamy charan milen
Mila adhaar paar ghar paaya leela
Vahaan ki kahe na bane.
Radhaswami
Closing Talk - Jan 2015Prioritize The Work Of Simran, Dhyan, And Bhajan, To Enable The Masters To Shower Grace On Us
SO, NOW, THIS FIFTEEN-DAY PROGRAM has come to an end. I pray to the Masters — you have all come here, you spent money coming here and you spent time coming here — and I pray to the Masters that They extend Their Grace to all of you and all of you are able to do the maximum amount of Simran and Dhyan and Bhajan when you get back.
Ajaib Singh Ji Maharaj also used to say, “When we attend programs, we should not leave that meditation there. We should go back home and carry that effect. And whatever time we get and whatever time permits, we should maximize the time spent in doing Simran, Dhyan, and Bhajan.”
Dhyan Bhajan Simran is our true work, because that is the work, which we do for our own soul. Every other work that we do, we are working for somebody else. So, we must prioritize this work — and that should be first priority — in terms of doing our Simran, Dhyan, and Bhajan.
So, by doing Simran Dhyan Bhajan we are enabling the Masters to shower Their Grace on us. And, by doing that, we are also redeeming our deeds and helping the Masters to help us. Because, by not doing so, by not doing our Simran regularly and consistently, we will not be able to reduce or redeem our deeds. And these accumulate and, ultimately, we have to redeem these deeds in the form of illness or loss of wealth or other forms of sorrow.
So, I pray to the Feet of the Masters that They Grace all of you and the Grace enables you to do a lot of Simran, Dhyan, and Bhajan, and devotion.
Achha, Radhaswami.