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Bhagatji Maharaj Parva - Day 5

Pragji Bhakta's ABC - E

E - Enlightenment:

Gunatitanand Swami bestowed much divine grace upon Pragji Bhakta, who had selflessly served Swami, through mind and body, with deep devotion and love for three-and-a-half years. Now Swami wanted him to experience the divinity of God. He asked Pragji Bhakta to sit in meditation in a secluded place. At the end of the ninth day of meditation Swami asked him, “Do you see anything?”

During the meditation he continuously had the darshan of Swami’s murti. Swami asked him to remain attentive. On the tenth evening of his meditation, he saw an intense light in which he had the darshan of the graceful divine murti of Shriji Maharaj. He was dressed in saffron robes. Pragji Bhakta’s joy at the sight of the divine figure of Shriji Maharaj was boundless. Tears overflowed from his eyes. He enjoyed this darshan.

Pragji Bhakta was completely overwhelmed by this divine experience. He offered his prayers and said to Maharaj, “O Master! O Maharaj! You have made me fulfilled. I do not deserve this, yet you have graced me with your divine darshan.”

Shriji Maharaj smiled and said, “Swami has earned you this merit.” Then he disappeared. But now Pragji Bhakta began to see Maharaj’s divine murti continuously in his heart.

Just then Gunatitanand Swami arrived. Pragji Bhakta fell at his feet. He was overwhelmed by what he had seen. He asked Swami, “Shriji Maharaj gave his divine darshan, but why had he worn saffron clothes?”

Swami said, “He gave darshan in the form of a sadhu, but now see!” So saying, Swami looked at him and Pragji Bhakta had the darshan of the divine and graceful murti of Shriji Maharaj in Akshardham, dressed in glittering garments and ornaments. Shriji Maharaj graced him and said, “I am under the loving command of Swami and you have won Swami’s heart. Therefore, I am now at your command, too.”

Pragji Bhakta’s joy knew no bounds. His heart danced with joy. Now he was impatient to reveal Swami’s greatness to the people.Thus, Swami fulfilled the promise which he had given to Pragji three years previously. Pragji Bhakta’s moulding into a divine receptacle was complete.

He was filled with divine nectar. Now Swami exhibited his divine power and grace through Pragji Bhakta. He observed, “This Pragji does so much service and continuously offers devotion that people will make him their guru, even though he does not desire so.”

Thus Swami appointed Pragji as the guru of all his devotees. He instructed Pragji Bhakta to preach to and purify all the devotees. Also, Swami commanded Pragji to reveal the true form of Mul Akshar in Satsang, and to make people fearless by giving a divine assurance that they will experience divine bliss if they worship Shriji Maharaj.

By his contact with the paras, Pragji himself had now become a paras. Now he had no fear. He started telling people, “Gunatitanand Swami is the manifestation of Mul Akshar, the divine abode of Shriji Maharaj.” He intuitively knew the desires of the devotees and brought them to Swami for atonement and purification. Word went round the entire Satsang that Swami fulfils all the wishes of Pragji Bhakta.

Pragji Bhakta’s father left his mortal body and was blessed with Akshardham. Pragji Bhakta was reluctant to go to Mahuva, but Gunatitanand Swami told him to pay a visit. It was his first visit to Mahuva for four years. There, he stayed in the mandir and talked to the devotees about the great ness and divine power of Gunatitanand Swami.

Discussion points:

1.  How many days did Bhagatji Maharaj sit in meditation?
   1. 10 days
2. For 9 days he only had the darshan of Gunatitanand Swami, and only on the 10th day did he have the darshan of Shriji Maharaj. What virtues can we notice by this incident?
   1. Pragji Bhagat stayed persistent and focused on his meditation
   2. We can also see that he followed his gurus agna.
3.  Why did Maharaj give darshan to Pragji Bhagat in Saffron?
   1. Maharaj gave him darshan in the form of a sadhu
4. Then what did Gunatitanand Swami do?
   1. Gave Pragji Bhagat darshan in glittering garments and ornaments
5. When Maharaj gave him darshan again, he said that “I am under the loving command of Swami and you have won Swami’s heart. Therefore, I am now at your command, too.” 
   1. This is significant because it shows that Bhagatji Maharaj had made Gunatitanand Swami Maharaj raaji and won his heart.
   2. This is also very powerful, imagine this, Maharaj being Sarvopari Bhagwan saying that he is at Bhagatji Maharaj’s command because he pleased Gunatitanand Swami.
   3. Now, imagine this, that same Gunatitanand Swami is present today through Mahant Swami Maharaj, so, if we can please Mahant Swami Maharaj, then we can also make Maharaj raaji.

Activity - Dhyan:

1. Bhagatji Maharaj could always see Maharaj’s murti in his heart after he had darshan of Shriji Maharaj, so in this activity, find a picture of your favourite murti, then focus on that murti and do darshan. 
2. Now close your eyes, and try to remember that same murti, how much of it do you remember?
3. Now try again and remember the things that you forgot or may have not noticed.

E - Excommunicated:

The understanding of the mahima of Gunatitanand Swami was increasing. Certain sadhus and Acharya Bhagwatprasad Maharaj decided to reprimand Swami and so asked him to see them at Una. When Swami received the message from Acharya Maharaj, he said,

Bhu ko bhãr haru santan hit, karu chhãyã kar doi, Jo mere Santko rati ek duve, tehi jad dãru me khoi, Nãrad mere Sant se adhik na koi...(“I bear the burden of the earth for the benefit of the Sadhu. I protect him. If somebody harms my Sadhu even a bit, I shall uproot him. Oh Narad, there is none greater than my Sadhu...”) 

Pragji Bhakta requested Swami to explain the meaning of the couplet. Swami said, “The sadhus from Vartal have resolved to reprimand me. And as you are spreading my glory, they have decided to excommunicate you from the Satsang. But they will not succeed at all in this region.

…

“I can’t tolerate you being insulted in my presence.” Pragji Bhakta requested Swami, “Let any trouble come to me. But you should not feel despondent with this world.” 

…

As soon as the letter excommunicating Pragji Bhakta from the Satsang came to Junagadh, he set off for Mahuva. The bhandari had given him some laddus for his journey. After travelling for some time he broke his journey to eat a little. As soon as he put a piece of laddu in his mouth, he felt a terrible burning sensation in his body. He realised that the sweets contained poison, so he buried them deep in the ground and, with great difficulty, reached Mahuva. He was able to digest the poison through yoga, but boils developed all over his body. Then Maharaj gave him darshan, touched his whole body with his hand and advised him to take some soup of black beans. With this remedy he was completely cured within a short time.

Discussion Points:

1. Imagine this, you’re at school and a group of your friends don't like your best friend, but to punish him, they decide to not speak to you.
   1. How would you feel in this situation?
      1. We would be thinking why we are being punished for something that isn’t really our fault
   2. What would you say?
      1. We wouldn’t want to lose our other friends right?
      2. Or we may not want to be in that situation
2. A very similar situation happened to Bhagatji Maharaj, like we read in the prasang, because the popularity of Gunatittanand Swami was rising, they decided to excommunicate Bhagatji Maharaj. Gunatitanand Swami didn’t like that fact that Pragji Bhagat was being punished
   1. Now instead of being upset or anything, he instead insisted that Gunatitanand Swami have no trouble. That goes to show how loyal he was to his guru and that he would do anything for him.
3. This was not the worst part, after being excommunicated, he was given laddus with poison.
   1. He tolerated so much and won the raajipo of Gunatitanand Swami
   2. We also saw the love that swami had for Pragji Bhagat. He met with him in private and gave him darshan, and also cured him of the bolis he had on his body due to the poison.

Activity:

1. From these 2 prasangs and the the ones we covered in this parva, we got to see how much Bhagatji Maharaj had done to please his guru
2. So now, let’s brainstorm how we can make swami raji? What can we do to please Mahant Swami Maharaj?
   1. Look back at Bal Din, what are the 5 things covered? 
3. After brainstorming, now, pick one thing that you will start doing this week to make swami raji.