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Part 1: Reflections on Swāmī Maheśvarānanda’s Birthday: The Dohā and Bhajan of Holī Gurujī Today, the 15th of August, is both Swāmījī’s birthday and India’s Independence Day. I used to be invited to the 15th August function at the Jadan Village School. The event was full of patriotism and stories about Gandhiji. In the middle, they began singing a song: “Videśa yon ko bhagāo, videśa yon ko bhagāo,” meaning “Chase out all the foreigners!” I stood up and started walking toward the gate. They called out, “What are you doing? You’re the special guest!” I replied, “I don’t know, you told me to go.” Yesterday we began Swāmījī’s birthday celebrations with the special bhajan that Holī Gurujī composed for him: “Jai Śrī Maheśvarānandajī Mahārāj.” It feels fitting today—on his actual birthday—to explore that bhajan a little more. I will not sing the whole thing now; we can sing it again this evening. Instead, let us speak about its meaning. Holī Gurujī wrote this bhajan in July 1999 while he was here with us. It opens with a dohā, a two-line mantra. Before we look at the bhajan, let’s first recite the dohā: “Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī jai. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda, Śrī Śrī Maheśvarānanda, Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda, Śrī Gurujī Śiva kī jai. Bhārata Bhūmi para banye Śrī Maheśvarānandajī Mahārāja.” This dohā is remarkable. While the whole bhajan recounts Swāmījī’s life and achievements, the dohā provides a deeper background. It declares that Lord Śiva sent a Yogīrāj from Śivaloka – a jñānī and a siddha, a wise and perfect one – to incarnate in the land of India. And that is Śrī Maheśvarānandajī Mahārāja. This goes far beyond merely saying he was born in a particular year or village. How did Holī Gurujī know this? To understand, we must look into Līlā Amṛt. In the appendix of Līlā Amṛt, Holī Gurujī himself speaks about Swāmījī’s birth. He writes: “The story of Swāmī Maheśvarānanda’s birth is meaningful, and I will tell it here. In the early 1940s, I was staying with Mahāprabhujī at Mount Abu. One day, while resting in the shade of an aśoka tree, I had some worries and thoughts about the future. Mahāprabhujī was nearby and glanced at me. ‘Madhavānandjī, why do you worry? Do you have electricity?’ Mahāprabhujī’s voice spoke to my heart and put my mind at ease. Then I expressed my wish to him in a prayer: ‘Lord of the universe, please hear my request. My dearest wish is that, in your divine mercy, those who wander in the darkness of their ignorance may receive, through yoga and Vedānta, the realization of ātmā and paramātmā so that they can attain liberation. This is my humble prayer to thee.’ Mahāprabhujī laid his hand in blessing on my head and said, ‘It will be so.’ Then he told me that many years ago, Śrī Devpurījī had already made a divine prophecy on this subject. Long ago, Śrī Devpurījī made this promise to the British governor at Naki Lake: one of the seven ṛṣis from Satyaloka will soon incarnate on earth. In childhood his name will be Mangilal. Due to the pledge made by God Maheśvara (Śrī Devpurījī Mahārāj), this child will be under his special protection. Later, he rose to fame as Swami Maheśvarānanda. The great task will be made known to this great yogī and sannyāsī – a brave hero and knower of the truth. And through him, your wish will come true.” This is the backdrop that Holī Gurujī gives for the opening dohā. It is good to recall these words now and then, because sometimes we become too familiar with Swāmījī as the “Guru Next Door” and easily forget the true nature of the Guru. Now, the refrain of the bhajan: “Jaya Ślāva Maheśvarānandajī Mahārāja, Pulī Bāī ke lāla kī jaya.” Glory to the great king, the great yogī, Maheśvarānandajī! Glory to the beloved son of Pulī Bāī – Swāmījī’s mother. Just now, in everyone’s heart, there is indeed a special feeling for Swāmījī’s mother. “Pandrā Agasta ko janame Yogeśvara.” The yogī was born on the 15th of August. “Śrīpāda kṛta kāma kamala.” Here kamala does not mean lotus; it means wonderful, miraculous. He truly accomplished a wonderful, miraculous work – a great achievement in life. In the verses that follow, Holī Gurujī traces Swāmījī’s entire life like a short biography. He sings: “Maharṣi Gargācārya ke vanja meṅ” – Swāmījī descends from the lineage of the ancient sage Gargācārya. “Brāhmaṇa kula ke bāla” – he was a child of a Brahmin family, the traditional priests and teachers. In his childhood, bhakti awoke within him, and he cast aside the net of the world. That is, he renounced worldly temptations. Holī Gurujī is here referring to the fact that already at the young age of seventeen, Swāmījī left everything and became a swāmī. “Pitā Śrī Kṛṣṇa Candrajī Paṇḍata” – his father was Kṛṣṇa Candrajī, a paṇḍita, a priest. “Rupavāsa Purohitana” – he was the family priest, or the leading priest, of the village Rupavāsa. “Prakata bheye Pālī jilameṅ” – Swāmījī appeared in the Pālī district. “Bhārata, Rājasthāna” – in India, in Rajasthan. Here we see Holī Gurujī’s special touch: he loves to give complete postal addresses in his bhajans. I wondered why. Not only in this one, but also in “Dānya Dānya Baḍā Dābūmī,” he does the same. I think it is because he knows that bhajans travel. If a bhajan is beautiful, one person shares it with another, and it may reach faraway parts of India where no one knows who this Maheśvarānanda is. If a sincere spiritual seeker has a karmic link with Swāmījī and begins searching for him, there will be no problem – the full postal address is right there. It’s a kind of care. The biography continues: “Guru Mādhavānandjī ke nija āśrame, paḍhate rahe kuśala.” Happily he studied in the Nipal Ashram of his guru, Swāmī Mādhavānanda. Again, very precise. “Alpa samaya meṅ saba vidyā āī.” In a short time, all knowledge came to him. “Vidyārthī be misāla” – a disciple without equal, like no other. This is very telling. In a yoga class with twenty students, all will say, “I’ve never practiced yoga before, I don’t know anything.” After some months of teaching, nineteen do fairly well, but one stands out. For that one, everything seems easy and natural. Why? Because that person is clearly a reincarnated yogī. He already possesses the knowledge, only it is buried. It reawakens. This is the hallmark of an incarnated yogī like Swāmījī – he did not need a hard struggle to learn; things simply came to him. The verse says, “Sarvavidyā Āī,” literally, “all the knowledge came to him.” Then Holī Gurujī sings: “Śrī Satgurū Mādhavānandajī milī dayā, Mahāprabhu dīpa dayā.” Through Holī Gurujī, Swāmījī came into inner contact with Mahāprabhujī. Swāmījī has repeatedly said that he never physically met Mahāprabhujī. But through this inner connection he received Mahāprabhujī’s guidance. How often have you heard Swāmījī suddenly say in a seminar, “I got a message from Mahāprabhujī”? Holī Gurujī brought him into that contact. “Mehera bhaī, Mahādeva Śrī Deveśvara” – through Mahāprabhujī he also received the mercy of Śrī Devpurījī. “Jāgī jyoti viśāla” – a great light awoke within him. In poetic language, that means enlightenment. Through this mercy, he attained enlightenment. The whole process of learning, understanding, practicing, and finally enlightenment was remarkably short and smooth. For someone for whom it is merely a reawakening, it is like that. After all, what did Mahāprabhujī do to become enlightened? Nothing. He had it from childhood. When and how a reincarnated saint reveals his divinity is simply divine līlā. Every yogī, every avatāra, plays a different role. If our own progress is not so quick, it says nothing about the techniques; it says something about us. Now comes the point in the bhajan when Holī Gurujī sent Swāmījī into the world. “Viśva bhramaṇa kārake Yogeśvara” – this Yogeśvara undertook world tours. Please don’t confuse the word “bhramaṇa” (journey) with “Brahman” (God) or “bhrama” (doubts). Here it clearly means journey. This Yogeśvara, Swāmījī, travelled the world. He started in 1971 when he came to England. As I have heard from Swāmījī, it was hard for him. He returned to India and complained to Holī Gurujī, “I cannot do that.” But Holī Gurujī was strict and sent him again. So in 1972 he came to Vienna and settled there. Just imagine what would have happened if Holī Gurujī had not sent him again – quite a lot would be different in this world. “Videśa yonī kari sambhāla” – he took care of the foreigners. That is us. “Jñāna amṛta o yoga sādhanā se kara diyā saba ko niḥāla.” He taught the nectar of wisdom, the yoga sādhanā. In these poetical words, “teaching the nectar of wisdom” means giving satsaṅga; “yoga sādhanā” means creating and teaching the system of Yoga in Daily Life. And so, as the bhajan says, “kara diyā saba ko niḥāla” – he made everyone content, happy. Another crucial point of Swāmījī’s work appears next: “Videśa yon ko śuddha śākāhārī banāyā” – he made the foreigners strict, pure vegetarians. The word “śuddha” is important, because there are many types of vegetarians. Some eat eggs; some consider fish to be vegetarian. Holī Gurujī states clearly: he made us pure vegetarians. I remember a reflective moment with Swāmījī. He said, “Maybe I did nothing, but one thing I have done. One thing I have really achieved is that through me, thousands and thousands of people around the world have become vegetarians.” This is truly a very, very important point in the heart of both Swāmījī and Holī Gurujī. “Dūra vyasanana, se dhyānī kāla” – he helped us overcome vices, bad habits, our Western lifestyle. “Śuddha ācāra vicāra bhakti sādhanā kare trikāla” – he helped us to practice sādhanā trikāla, which literally means in the past, present, and future. Thus the bhajan captures Swāmījī’s entire mission with precision and devotion. Part 2: The Simplicity of Sādhanā: A Moment-to-Moment Practice We can say: do sādhanā all the time. This means not only during the one or two hours when you practice in the morning, but the whole day should be ācār. Ācār means behavior. Āhār, Vihār, Āchār, and Vichār. So Holī Gurujī refers here to this. Now he comes to the country of India, where Svāmījī has incarnated. Vishvaguru Bhāratadeśa, he says—the guru of the world, that is India. Kārya Pratyakṣa Pramāṇa, and pramāṇa means proof. And Svāmījī gave a clear proof of that. Bhārat Mātā keśā putra jaisā Śrī Maheśvarānandajī Mahān. So he says that Svāmījī is one, like a good, great son of the country of India, of mother India. And the biography goes on. What is Svāmījī’s biggest project? It is a Jadan Ashram, and that is next. Jñāna or Jokī Siddha Pīṭha Om Viśva Dīpa Gurukula Dhāma. So he established the holy place of Om Viśva Dīpa Gurukula. Again, the complete name is like a postal address. A place of wisdom and yoga practice, sādhakas, the practitioners, the seekers are coming, sādhanā karaki, they can practice parama viśrama. Now, it’s again a poetical language; literally translated it would mean: What makes us restless with our desires? Paramahaṁsa Viśvām, no desires. That means achievement, perfection. Self-realization. And then the ninth verse. Holī Gurujī made it a little bit later. He first forgot and said, "Oh, a very important thing I forgot. I have to make one verse more." Pūraṇa Kumbha Kīpāvana Parapa Hari Dvāra Ligāya Jamāta. So, in the holy Kumbha Melā, in Haridvāra, he was taken in the organization. How to say it in English? It means that he took all these people as martyrs. That means that he took all his foreign disciples with him. Aha, so he took us there. Okay, that’s, yeah. So he took all his followers there. And Mahānirvāṇī Akhāṛā Kehol Gayai Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar ab. And he was, he became a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara of the Mahānirvāṇī Akhāṛā. And he became a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara of the Mahānirvāṇī Akhāṛā. Bhārat Kī Gaurav Gathāme Ho Gayā Ajapā Ujjal. I’m a little bit doubtful. Can you translate this? I’d say in this history, this glorious story of Bhārat, something incredible, something new, an incredible light. Okay, I’m not sure about today. In the glorious history of India, something happened... Some new incredible light happened. Some incredible new light. Okay, this is one aspect, but there is another aspect also, because "Bhārat Kī Gaurav" is also one of the titles which Svāmījī really got. So Gaurav literally means someone of whom one is proud. So "Bhārat Kī Gaurav" means someone on whom the whole country of India is proud. So now, in the last verse, usually it is the one who wrote the bhajan. And now you will be astonished, there is written Gaṇeśa Purī. But we all know very clearly that’s Holī Gurujī’s bhajan. So we had a little discussion with Holī Gurujī about that. He didn’t want to put his name there. Because it is against the tradition of India, actually against the spiritual principles, that the Guru praises the disciple. It’s the duty of the disciple to praise the Guru, but not the other way around. But you know how great was Holī Gurujī’s love for Svāmījī, and his respect towards him, that he even wrote this bhajan praising his disciple. So he was searching for someone else whose name he could take to put in. So he took the name of Swami Ganesh Purī, who lived with Holī Gurujī for many years in Nipalāśṭra. And Ganesh Purī was very happy and felt very honored that he was now the official author of this bhajana. And I asked Holī Gurujī, but in the bhajana "Juga Juga Jīva Maheśvarānanda," there you have given your name. And that’s also about Svāmījī and also Svāmījī’s glory. And then he said, "No, that is my blessing for him, that he may live long." So, he said, that is a little bit different. So Gaṇeśa Purī, Guṇagave Guruva, so Gaṇeśa Purī, or Holī Gurujī, is praising the qualities of the Guru. Satyakāma Jabālā. And he spoke the truth. And I think we know it is the truth. So now it’s a long bhajan. Maybe we save it for the evening, that we sing it then once more. Do you want to do something? Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s sing the short one: Juga Juga Jīva Maheśvarānanda. And now, because we are a bigger group, I would like to repeat a correction in this bhajan, which is not yet all around. In the refrain, it was "Siddhi Padāyālu Ke Amṛt," but it is now "Kā Amṛt." It is a correction from Svāmījī: "Śrī Dīp Dayālu Kā Amṛta Anśiś." And also, in the very last line of the bhajan, Meto, there we had two versions, which were difficult to understand, and it got lots of confusion. So I mentioned this to Holī Gurujī, and then he changed it or simplified it. So the text in the last line is now "METO JAKADUKHA PANDAN." The other two words, please simply cross out, OK? Śrī Dīp Dayāloka Amṛtaśiṣ Niṭhamarasa Ānanda Prabhu Dīp Dayāloka Amṛtaśiṣ Niṭhamarasa Ānanda Jugga Jugga Jīvam Maheśvarānanda Jugga Jugga Jīvam Maheśvarānanda Apnā Rūp Samajh Kar Sapko Karate Ho Nirbanda... Jīvanam uttakarī bhaktānko vināśvarat niśākand. Jīvanam uttakarī bhaktānko vināśvarat niśākand. Jutta jutta jīvam Maheśvarānanda. Jutta jutta jīvam Maheśvarānanda. Prabhudīp dayāloka amṛtāśiṣ nityabhārasa ānanda. Prabhudīp Dayāloka Amṛtaśiṣ Nityabhārasa Ānanda... Maheśvara Nanda Dūka Dūka Jīvam Maheśvara Nanda Śrī Dīp Dayāloka Amṛtaśiṣ Nityamarasānanda Prabhu Dīp Dayāloka Amṛtaśiṣ Nityamarasānanda Dūka Dūka Jīvam Maheśvara Nanda Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvarānanda, Śrī Maheśvarānanda Purījī, Śrī Mādhavānanda Purījī, Śrī Mādhavānanda Purījī, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai. Gajānandjī’s got my mind spinning. The bit about the postal address. Because I’m trying to work out how to say this to Gurujī, I think we need to correct the bhajan. Here it says, Prakatabaye Pali Jileme Bharat Rajasthan. So, I have a new suggestion: the address should be really good so that everyone can find it. So, I think we should sing "Prakatabaye Pali Jileme He." The website is www.swamiji.tv, Swamiji, and then everyone will find Swamiji. Kājānandjī failed to mention one small point there at the end. I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention it, but I will anyway. It was supposed to be him who wrote the bhajan first. But as soon as Gurujī mentioned it, he said, "But Gurujī, I don’t know the Hindi to write that bhajan," and the matter was finished. And then it was Gaṇeś Purījī’s name. But it seemed that it had to have something to do with Gaṇeśa Jī. Because first we had Gajananjī, and then we had Ganeś Purījī. I want to take up one small point that Svāmījī said last night. It was about taking care of your mantra. And always be aware of your mantra. Yesterday morning, when we finished the prayer, we went out here to go for a walk around the garden, and it was already light, and I found myself slipping into an old habit from when I was working with Gurujī, and I ended up going around switching all the lights off. Whenever he used to go for a walk in Jadan with Gurujī in the morning, he would see one light on at the Om Āśram and go quickly to turn off that light. And then, in the swastika, you would start running around, although the sun had just come up and all the lights were going to go off automatically. But he was always saying, "Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste electricity." In this saying which we have in Hindi, "bund, bund, se talāb bhare," hey, drop by drop the lake gets full. And Gurujī, and as you know also, Svāmījī has a similar way of thinking and being aware of such small, small things. Everyone is practicing, everyone, the anuṣṭhāna is going on. It’s, um, when you look at it in such a broad way, that you’re here for a week or two weeks. Or when you look at your sādhanā as lifelong, then it can get quite intimidating. You think, how will I get through this? Even when you sit for meditation for two or three hours, and you think, "How will I manage this?" But it’s actually only moment by moment that you practice. And it’s drop by drop that your meditation occurs. And what is meditation but actually just a whole series of points joined together of concentration? So you can’t concentrate, you can’t... He’s gone. See Gaṇeśjī, he has that prod which makes everything move forward. So Gajanandjī also. He’s holding it there in his hand, and whenever we get lazy, you know, when you... you can only concentrate on what you’re doing right now when you’re sitting for meditation. It makes no sense to worry about what happened two minutes ago. It makes no sense to worry about what’s going to happen in two minutes. It makes no sense to worry about the fact that you’re not going to be standing up for another hour. The current moment is all that you have. And if you can bring your meditation down into those moments, then that’s when it will start to work. In the same way, Gurujī saw all the small, small things that were around. In our sādhanā, let’s just not forget that it’s actually very, very simple. It’s not about big things. Svāmījī was saying last night, you don’t need all these different practices and so on. You need your mantra. Whichever practice we’re doing, we just do that practice. Do it fully. Be there. And just worry about that moment, what you have now. If we’re in the satsaṅg, then just worry about the satsaṅg. And if we’re at lunch, then just worry about lunch. Sleeping is sleeping. Asana, prāṇāyāma, meditation is meditation. You can’t do two of them at the same time. So, every point, every moment, let’s just try and do the one properly. Best we can. And in the evening, when we have satsaṅg, then we enjoy it, Svāmījī’s birthday. Enjoy the webcast, enjoy the bhajans. The whole thing, if we can be in that present moment, then we can really enjoy what we’re doing. Really take something from this week. We already have narrowed it down to a week. We’re here for a week to practice. So if you come down to today, and then just come down to the hour, and then come down to the minute, and then come to now and be in that. That’s how to make the practice successful. What is that? It’s the lunch bell, or what? It’s the two-minute warning, only two minutes more of satsaṅg. Fifteen minutes. That’s just what I wanted to say. Okay, it’s very short, but put it into practice. And I was thinking of it last night, but we had so many things to say. And Svāmījī was saying that in his satsaṅg. But let’s really take it. Our practice is simple. We often want it to be complex, or think it should be complex. That’s human nature. I often get amused by people; there are two types of people who ride a bicycle. One type does it because they’re going to win a competition. The other type of person wants to get fit. Or the third type wants to just get to work and back. If you want to get fit, I never understand why you buy a good bike. Because surely the worse the bike is, the more exercise you’ll get. And you have to pay less, and you don’t have to get new tires because you can’t go so far, because you’re exhausted after two kilometers. All of these things, you know, we want to have the super version, but what for? I mean, you go swimming and you buy a swimsuit that makes you go faster, but you want to swim to lose weight. It would be quicker to lose weight if you swam in all your clothes. And you’d really struggle. But we make everything more and more complex. And our sādhanā is something really simple. The essence is there, Svāmījī has given it to us. Let’s not try and collect more things that we have to do, and this we have to do, and that we have to do, and that we have to learn. It’s the basics which are really important. Svāmījī has given us everything which we actually need. Gurujī would often say, Hari Om, we all know what that is. The Om is the word, Om is the essence of God. Hari Om Tat Sat means, sorry, Hari Om Tat Sat, that is the truth. And Bākī is everything else, what is left over. That’s all gossip. Gossip is gossip. This here, what we have, this satsaṅg, the practice, our mantra in Svāmījī’s darśan, Svāmījī’s satsaṅg, is Guruvākya. If we are going on our spiritual path, that is the truth which we need. And the rest of our life, and other things, and other practices which we collect, or whatever, they are actually gossip in a way. They may be interesting, they may be entertaining, they may make you feel good. But the essence is just there, what Svāmījī gave us, our mantra and our practice. And the teachings which he gives us, that’s more than enough. And that is more than enough. But we just have to understand it, practice it, and realize it. We have to understand it and really practice it. Oṁ Bholē Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jaya, Śrī Śrī Devpurīṣī Mahādeva Kī Jaya, Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsī Svāmī Madhavānanda Purī Jī Mahārāja Kī Jaya, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī Satguru Deva Kī Jaya.