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Guruhari Ashirwad, 16 May 2023 Morning, London, UK | Yogi Jayanti
This week, we focus on Yogi Jayanti! We were fortunate to celebrate this Utsav last year with Swamishri on the 16th of May! In today’s Smruti Saturday, let’s focus on Swamishri’s morning question and answer session, where Swamishri shared his prasangs with Yogi Bapa.
Q&A with Mahant Swami Maharaj
Tell us about the time your eyes met with Yogiji Maharaj’s
I was a Yuvak. At Anand Mandir, Yogi Bapa was seated on a platform and I was slightly lower. At that moment, our eyes met. Our eyes had met many times before but at that moment, I felt a moment of magic that everything else became irrelevant. Through this association with satsang, I was able to experience this. It was like I was staring a new life…
What did Yogiji Maharaj say to you?
At that time, I was a Yuvak. Everyday, we used to meet but one time he said, “Vinu…ayo?” – “Vinu, you’ve come?”. That action and speech… so much love… like we say, the love of infinite people, in just a second. Happiness, happiness… he won over my mind.
Yogiji Maharaj was anand-ni-murti (Murti of Joy). Wherever he used to go, he used to give joy to everyone. There was an incident once where you all had upvas and Daji Bapu was also present. Please tell us about that incident.
It was Narsinh Chaudash meaning everyone had to observe a farar fast. Santos had upvas until the time that Nursinh Bhagwan was born. Yogi Bapa said, “Today is Narsinh Chaudash therefore you must fast the whole day”. We had no doubt. Yogi Bapa had said so we must observe. We were Yuvaks at the time, and so we agreed to do the whole upvas and not only half-day. It then happened that we had to go to the kitchen. In the kitchen, the season’s first fresh Rajapuri Mangoes had arrived. Seeing this, we wanted to break our fast but who would go and tell Yogi Bapa? As we were only young at the time, we thought that we should send Daji Bapu (Nirmalsinh Rana’s grandfather) to tell Yogi Bapa as he was good friends with him. We told him that Yogi Bapa has given us a whole day fast. He was taken aback and spoke of eating five times a day and not fasting in Gondal. We thought to ourselves that we have found a good advocate and lawyer in Daji Bapu to present our case to Yogi Bapa.
Now comes the funny part.
We all got together with Yogi Bapa. Daji Bapu began “There should be no upvas here. This is Gondal Akshar Deri. They should be eating five times a day!”.
Yogi Bapa replied “Daji Bapu, you have no idea. These Yuvaks can do two upvas on the trot!”. Now that Yogi Bapa spoke like this, we were stuck! Even then, Daji Bapu insisted that there should be no upvas on that day.
Yogi Bapa said, “They can break their upvas after Katha”. It was 1:30pm until the katha finished and before we were able to break our fast. And then Yogi Bapa said “Go and please Daji Bapu!”. He didn’t say “Go and please me!”. At 1:30pm, we ran to go and get keri-no-ras, but by the time we got there, there wasn’t a drop left. Our moods fell flat. Who was going to repair how we felt? We went to convince Yogi Bapa but ultimately, he was trying to prevent us from feeling this way.
Bapa, you often tell us of an incident of Yogi Bapa and Keri-no-ras that took place in Anand. Please tell us about this incident.
We were at Ghanshyam Bapa’s house in Anand. The mangoes from the farm used to be collected at his house. Yogi Bapa just kept looking at the mango. He didn’t know how to eat it. Then Mota Swami said, “Start turning the mango”. Yogi Bapa started turning the mango but the gotlu (centre of the mango) flew up and fell in the lap of Mota Swami. Mota Swami remarked, “Yogi Bapa, have you ever eaten a mango or have you just observed fasts? Let me show you how it's done!”.
Mota Swami began to show him. He began to do it with such force that the gotlu fell from below. That was a funny incident.