All World
Gayatri Pariwar

My Life: Its Legacy and Message – 18

Mind of a brahmaña – Actions of a —RISHi - I
[Autobiography of Pujya Gurudev, continued from the previous issue]

As soon as attributes of a brahmaña awaken in the inner-self of an individual, saintliness is effortlessly expressed in his actions. A brahmaña means a person who possesses the moral strength to overcome allurements and greed. He resists temptations and is happily contented in leading the life of an average citizen. I received guidance from Gurudev in the early days of my life how to cultivate these attributes of a brahmaña. Thus, I was truly reborn as a brahmaña; my physical birth from brahmaña parents was of no significance. I might have assumed and shed human bodies carrying an animal-like soul during many lives in the past. I have no recollection how many times during this immortal and eternal journey, I had led sinful, animal-like lives, heavy-laden with sin and consequent suffering. But I feel blessed and blissful with the achievements of this life, which can be truly called of a brahmaña. It is in this very birth that I have had the rare opportunity and joy of transforming myself into a divinized man in an animal body. A brahmaña has a huge fund of surplus energy at his disposal, as he spends only a small fraction of it to satisfy his personal and family needs. Elephants, camels, buffaloes, have big stomachs. One can understand why they spend so much time in filling up their stomachs. A man with two dexterous and skillful hands, a mind capable of finding out thousand ways and means to earn necessary resources and cooperation of family and friends, should be able to earn his livelihood easily. Man has a very small stomach. Even peacocks, pigeons and sparrows earn enough to meet their daily needs. There is thus no problem, as such, for man to earn his livelihood. It can be done within a few hours, leaving many spare hours for altruistic efforts. Persons in whom saintliness awakens think only as to how best and where to utilize their spare time, labour, resources and talents.

It does not need much time to find a reply to this question. The lives of illumined personalities provide us the demonstrations in this respect. One is free to accept any of these divinized personages as his role model. Only demons have unrestrained and insatiable cravings and desires. It is they who plan to amass unlimited wealth and resources and to enjoy them without restraint; but none, right from Hiranayaksha to Sikandar, was able to fulfill such a desire.

Divine man, Dev-manav, emerges at the meeting point between the soul and God. He has several other names like a great man, a saint, a reformer, a martyr, etc. In ancient days such persons were known as —RISHis whose needs were the minimum and who applied the savings of their resources, money, etc. in tasks, which were essential to fulfill the needs of the Time Spirit. They helped in enhancing righteous tendencies. They did not allow the evil designs of those who were bent upon causing destruction to succeed. The —RISHis mobilized all their efforts directly or indirectly in this direction. They did immense work by moving ahead in positive pursuits step by step and by accumulating a reservoir of excellence, drop by drop.

I fail to appreciate that devotion (bhaktī) in which there is emotional effervescence, without any moral restraint. I found the —RISHi path of life worth emulation and tried to mobilize all my time and resources in the revival of these traditions. Those engaged in constant single-pointed effort are able to amass huge wealth through small earnings over a time. A bird collects straws one by one and prepares a beautiful nest. It was my good fortune that I got an opportunity to revive —RISHi traditions and it has shown good results.

Different —RISHis had undertaken different assignments in the ancient times and have accomplished them satisfactorily. They had sufficient leisure and opportunities to do so. But in these days of emergency several things are to be done simultaneously with great speed. If a house is on fire, the work of rescuing children and valuable goods has to be done at the same time. I am facing a similar situation and different tasks which different —RISHis had entrusted to me were to be accomplished simultaneously. I have received inspiration, guidance and help from my great Gurudev and I have done whatever I was required to do with utmost willingness. The ancient story of Shri Krishna acting as charioteer and Arjun handling the Gandiva bow seems to have been repeated in my case.
A momentous task like transforming of an epoch is accomplished by the will, plan and power of God but the credit for it is given to liberated —RISHi-kalpa souls. This alone is the best reward for their sadhana, their competence. I also got the opportunity of getting this credit and I feel blessed and fulfilled. As I am able to clearly foresee even at this moment the events that are to happen in the distant future, I have no hesitation in making this statement.

None of the ancient —RISHis have their physical bodies now although their individual consciousnesses still persist in appropriate planes of manifestation. I was introduced to all of them and was asked to follow in their footprints, establish an Âïram at Shantikunj, Haridwar as a symbol of Devatma Himalaya and execute the programme of revival of —RISHi traditions in such a way that the transition to the new era may be as smooth as possible.

The —RISHis, great men with awakened souls, who had once lived physically in the Himalayas and about whom Gurudev had referred in my third pilgrimage to the Himalayas, were Bhagirath (Gangotri); Parashuram (Yamunotri); Charak (Kedarnath); Vyas (Badrinath); Yagyavalkya (Triyugi-Narayan); Narad (Gupta Kashi); Adya Shankaracharya (Jyotirmath); Jamdagni (Uttrakashi); Vashistha (Dev Prayag); Pippalada, Soot-Shounik, Lakshman, Bharat and Shastrughna (Rishikesh); and Daksha Prajapati, Kanada, Sapt-Risis including Vishvamitra (Haridwar). I was given glimpses of the lives and works of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sant Gyaneshwar and Tulsidas and was directed to spread the parivrajak dharmacakra (reawakening movement) of Bhagvān Buddha throughout the world in the light of present circumstances through the medium of music, sankirtan and discourses of Pragya Puraña and thus enable Pragyavatar to fulfill the latter half of the mission of Buddhavatar. Gurudev had already given a hint during my pilgrimage to the Himalayas that just as gymnasiums, Mahaveer temples were got established by me, in one of my earlier births as Samartha Ramdas, I have to give them new forms as Pragya sansthans, Pragyapºthas, CarañapºÚhas, Gyanmandirs, Svadhyaya mandals etc.

The direction of transforming Shantikunj as a symbolic representative of Devatma Himalaya was not an easy task. It needed labour, money and cooperation of the colleagues. The souls of —RISHis residing in the Himalaya in astral bodies had to be summoned, invoked and installed here. Temples of various gods have been built at various places but living installation of the souls of all the —RISHis at one place cannot be found elsewhere. It is still more important to know that not only mere idols of —RISHis have been installed here for symbolic worship but anyone sufficiently purified and fine-tuned can feel the strong vibrations of their particular energies. Thus, Shantikunj and Brahmavarchas represent the energies of all the —RISHis.

To commemorate His victory over Lanka and establish Ram-rajya, Bhagvan Ram had built the temple of Rameshwaram and installed the idol of Shiva. It is my good fortune that I had got an opportunity to build a temple and install the living soul of Devatma Himalaya in Shantikunj as a living symbol of my single-pointed pursuit (param puruRISHartha) towards the ushering in of the new era. The grand temple of Devatma Himalaya can be seen here along with five Prayags, five Kashis, five sacred rivers, five sacred lakes as well as the respective places of tapasya of the —RISHis. This is thus a unique temple. Those who have not visited the difficult regions of the higher Himalaya can have the satisfaction of having a view of Devatma Himalaya in miniature at Shantikunj.

Jamdagni’s son, Parashuram, had beheaded several tyrants by his paraRISHu (battle-axe). This can be taken as a symbolic description also. He had performed tapascarya in Yamnotri and had started a campaign for creative transformation. He destroyed evil tendencies of persons who were engrossed in immorality and were acting as impediments in the transformation of the society. He was engaged in the heroic task of rooting out viciousness and corruption prevalent in the minds of the people of his time. For this Bhagvan Shiva gifted him a paraRISHu. In his latter half of life he had discarded the axe and had taken a spade in his hands, which outwardly was symbolic of tree plantation but actually meant sowing the seeds of righteousness and creativity. The written and spoken words emanating from Shantikunj have played the role of paraRISHu in radically transforming the beliefs, feelings, thoughts and activities of innumerable persons.

Bhagirath had performed rigorous tapascarya to bring the Ganga from heavens to earth for removing water scarcity. Bhagirath Shila is situated near Gangotri. Ganga descended as a result of his tapascarya and heroic industriousness and was, therefore, named as Bhagirathi. Bhagirath was put through a tough test; he successfully passed the test and earned the grace of Bhagvan Shiva. Today, there is an all-pervading drought of faith, which can only be removed by Gyan Ganga, the divine flow of knowledge. The present drought in the realms of feelings and thoughts can be removed by the cleansing stream of knowledge which is flowing constantly from Shantikunj and it is hoped that goodwill and righteousness will soon be established throughout the world.

Charak —RISHi had undertaken thorough research of the inaccessible region of Kedarnath in the Himalayas to find out rare medicinal herbs, which helped in healing. It is described in the scriptures that Charak —RISHi used to have conversations with such herbs and enquired from them about their healing characteristics and qualities. He used to collect them at the appropriate time and conducted research on them. Several medicines which help in the growth of the life-forces, in pacifying emotions and mental derangements and which possess the qualities of bringing about positive changes in attitudes, actions and nature of man are contributions of his research. Ancient Ayurveda has been revived here and research on finding out rare medicines and testing their ingredients and qualities, with the help of modern scientific equipments, is being done at Shantikunj. How the use of only one appropriate medicine at a time can promote longevity is one of the researches, which are being conducted here in accordance with —RISHi traditions of Charak.