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Tuma Sab Ke Dina Dayala

A spiritual discourse explaining a devotional bhajan and recounting a temple inauguration.

"O Śiva, O Devpurījī, did you forget about me in your bliss?" and "Śaraṇa Bali Hari means I am completely devoted to you."

The lecturer explains the meaning of a bhajan composed by Mahāprabhujī for his guru, Devpurījī, interpreting its lines as a devotee's heartfelt plea and a lesson in absolute surrender. He connects this to a recent journey to inaugurate the first statues of Devpurījī and Kṛṣṇānandajī Mahārāj at a disciple's ashram, describing the ceremony and reflecting on the spiritual lineage.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Hari Om. Siddip Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. I would like to share with you what happened today, but before that, should we translate this bhajan, or do you already know its meaning by heart? We have been singing it for the last forty years, I think. It is a bhajan which Mahāprabhujī sang for Devpurījī. You know English, you have studied, so you will not have any problem. Later on, he was invited to Chottevali. So, Mahāprabhujī wrote this bhajan to his Gurujī, Devpurījī, and it describes all our problems. It describes one simple, singular problem we all have, which is in the second line. The first line: "Dindayāl" is actually a name for the Lord, for God, for Kṛṣṇa, Śiva, Rāma, anybody. But it means, indeed, there are people who are suffering. Dindayāl is the one who is merciful enough to help them. So, Dindayāl is a synonym for Bhagavān. You are everybody’s Lord. You are helping everybody. "Araja Sunamerī"—listen to my prayer, to my request. "Araja" is basically a request. And now comes this, what we all sometimes feel: "Kya bhulga ye Śiva ap nijānandalerī?" Instead of Śiva, we can put anybody’s name there. Did you forget about me in your bliss? Śiva is very famous for when he goes and meditates, he just disappears. Because of this problem, because Śiva was in meditation, the gods had so many problems, and they had to do so many things just to wake Śiva up. Sometimes it was not successful. So then, when Śiva was awake, when he was out of meditation, they said, "Please, we need somebody who would be present." So then came the story about Kārttikeya and Gaṇeśa, and who would become the one to whom the people would come first for answers. In your bliss, "nij ānand"—inside, the bliss from inside, the waves of bliss. O Śiva, O Devpurījī, did you forget about me in your bliss? I think we can all identify ourselves with that line. You are the one who is protecting, who is nourishing, who is helping your bhaktas, your devotees. You are the great one. "Prabhu me śaraṇāgata terī nāta avatārī." O Prabhu, I, "me," have come to your shelter, "śaraṇāgata terī." I came to you. "Avatārī" is again one of the synonyms for the Lord. In India, because India is a very old civilization, they have for one god—for Viṣṇu, for Śiva, for Devī, for Kṛṣṇa—just one, maybe two, maybe five sets of thousands of names. So there are many, many synonyms for the one Śiva. We have 1,000 Śiva statues, 1,008 Śiva statues. The 1,008 Śiva statues have 1,008 different names in the Śiva Mandir. Not a single name is duplicate; I checked. And they all have different meanings. And then, if you go further, that one name has many meanings. So, it is not just Śiva, it is not just the Lord, it is not just the master. "Avatārī," you are an avatāra, you are an incarnation of this ultimate Lord. So, I came to your shelter, and Mahāprabhujī says, "You are that ultimate God, you are the God." So who else will help me if you are not helping me? If you will not help me, who will help me? "Tum sāro sabake kāj." You are the fruit of everything, so basically, you are the work. You are absolutely everything. "Cukak ya meri." What is for me to do? Because you are absolutely everything. There is a very famous line: "Whatever I have is basically yours already." What should I give you? I give you my heart in folded hands. I give you my heart because this is only what we can give; otherwise, nothing is ours. You are the beginning and end, and absolutely everything of everything. What is mine? Why, oh Lord, oh merciful one, why did you forget me? "Lagai derī"—I’m waiting. Why are you delaying yourself? A similar bhajan we know: "Why are you hiding behind the curtain? I know that you are here. Why are you hiding behind the curtain?" So this is like... What are you waiting for? I know that you are there, I know that you are here, but why are you... what are you doing? Why are you not coming? And now comes the line which basically explains, which teaches the people who Śiva is and who is the family of Śiva. He says that: "Tere Pārvatī Kesanga"—your wife is Pārvatī. "Nande Asavari"—you are riding on the bull Nandi. "Prabhu Gajananjee Mahārāj, Gajananjee Gaṇeśjī is Putra." "Terabhari" is your great son, just to make sure. Because with the bhajans, Mahāprabhujī sent the bhajans for his disciples; he sang the bhajan for Devpurījī, but basically, the bhajan is for all people. Many people don’t know who Devpurījī is, so the bhajan singer makes a general reference so everybody can understand and everybody can identify, and say, "Aha, okay, this is about Śiva." So, here Mahāprabhujī said, "Your wife is Pārvatī, you’re riding on the bull, and Gaṇeśjī is your son." With this line, he basically identified Devpurījī with Śiva. He said, basically, you are nobody, no one else but Śiva. If we come to this state, if we come to this state that we feel that Swāmījī is dead, then there is no problem anymore. But as long as we have doubts, then it’s slightly problematic. "Śrī Devpurīṣa Mahādeva, Baredhunadari." Śrī Devpurīṣa—Śrī Devpurījī. "Śrī" is respectful, revered. Devpurī is the name of our master. "Sa" is usually what is used in Marwari for "Jī." But if you look in the dictionary, you find out that in Marwari itself, "Sa" means Lord, God. So there are many, many different beautiful words. "Bare dhunādārī"—you are the great keeper of the dhūnī. So we have this fireplace. A normal fireplace is called a dhūnī. But when somebody becomes powerful, then this dhūnī becomes a dhūnā, like a big fireplace. So Mahāprabhujī’s ashram was called Dhunā just because of this reason. Dhunā is the place where the saints live, especially of the Goswāmī and Nāth lineage. So "Dhunādhārī"—you are such a great master, you have, basically you are the master of the Dhunā, which means you are the master of yourself. You’re the master of the world. "Śrī Svāmī Dīpā Hedāsā." Svāmī Dīpā. He now, Mahāprabhujī tells Swami, he said, "I’m Swami. My name is Deepa Hedasa. I’m your servant. I’m there for you. Śaraṇa Bali Hari." I dedicated myself to be in your shelter. I dedicated myself, I came to you. The direct meaning would be "śaraṇa bali hari." If we were to go to the basic meaning that people nowadays think, it is: "I came to your śaraṇa, I came near to you, and cut my head off." This means "bali," giving your life away. But obviously, Mahāprabhujī did not do that, otherwise we would not have this many bhajans. So "balihārī"—wherever you find this word "balihārī," it’s a very tricky word, because nowadays "bali" means only sacrifice. But in our case, "bali" means dedication, absolute dedication. The real meaning of "bali" was never sacrifice, never giving the head. This came from the story of the Vāmana Avatāra. The Vāmana Avatāra was when Bali, the lord of the master Rākṣasa from the underground, from Pātāloka, conquered this loka and conquered heaven, and became absolute master. Then the Devatās, Indra and the rest, went to Viṣṇu to ask for help. And Viṣṇu said, "No problem, don’t worry, I have a solution." So he appeared in the form of a dwarf, of a Brāhmaṇa dwarf. And at that time, the Brāhmaṇa dwarf, he was like a child. They had the tradition to grant them any wish they wanted; they were not going empty-handed. So, Viṣṇu as Vāmana Avatāra came to Bali, King Bali, who was the king of all, everything that you can see, and asked him... the king asked him, "What do you want?" He said, "No, I don’t need anything." He said, "No, no, you came here, so please tell us what you want." And in the background, his guru, Śukrācārya—because gurus are always smarter than us—was telling him, "You don’t... this is not a brāhmaṇa boy, this is not... this is Viṣṇu himself." But of course, the king didn’t listen because why? We... would we listen to Swāmījī or anybody? You know, we know best, no? Then later we remember, "Oh my God, yes, Swāmījī was really smart, no? He was really correct." So the king took the water in his hand and said, "I give saṅkalpa, I swear that I will fulfill your wish. What is your wish?" "Three steps." "No problem. Take three steps of my land." So, with one step, he occupied the whole earth. With the second step, he occupied heaven. And now he said, "Where is my third step?" And Bali was so devoted and so impressed, he said, "Put it here, I’m yours." So he put a leg on Bali’s head—he didn’t squash it, okay? He just put it—and he said, "You are now mine, but I’m so happy with you, I’m so happy with you that I will take over back heaven and give it to the devatās, the world to the people, but you will forever rule the down places." So "Bali Hari" comes from this: Bali Hari, which the king Bali gave his head. That’s why this head sacrifice is there, but Bali did not give his head. He just renounced two parts of the land, and he’s still ruling the underworld. So "Śaraṇa Bali Hari" means I am completely devoted to you. Wherever is this "balihārī"? Basically, it means devotion, because when you put it in the dictionary, it will be "sacrificed." This is the first word you will ever get. No, it’s not that. It’s sacrifice, but of ego. And this we have the name called devotion. So today, on this auspicious day of Monday—not any Monday but Śrāvaṇ Monday—so this is the month which is dedicated to Lord Śiva. On this day, started on Śiva’s day, so this month started the Śiva month, and many of you did already pūjās in the Śiva temple. On this occasion, we had many, many guests coming, but Swāmījī was invited for the opening, the inauguration, the Praṇpratiṣṭhā—giving life to one statue, two statues: one statue of Devapurījī Mahārāj, which I think is the first one; I don’t know if there was ever a statue of Devapurījī, and one statue of Kṛṣṇānandajī Mahārāj. So, around 70 kilometers from here, which is very close, it took only two and a half to three hours to reach, because occasionally the road was missing. So we came there through a really beautiful, hilly, green area. And I’m always wondering why Swamijī made the ashram in the desert, why we couldn’t just move twenty kilometers that side. That’s a different story. So from here we went to this place. So this is one ashram, or one place dedicated, was dedicated to Holy Gurujī and our paramparā by Swami Kṛṣṇan Purī. Kṛṣṇan Purī was a disciple of Holy Gurujī, and he was traveling a lot, he was singing bhajans. We have many of his recordings, and he passed away in 2016. So, in 2016, his samādhi was put there, and on the top of the samādhi, his disciples put the statue. So, we are in the lineage of the lineage of the... Devpurījī, Mahāprabhujī, Holy Gurujī, Swāmījī, and then we are here. But they decided, so Holy Gurujī, and then Kṛṣṇānanda, and then this is this line now. There are no Swamis there; they’re all householders. So the person taking care of the ashram there, or the temple, he’s a householder. But he loves and respects Swāmījī and Fulupurījī and all of us. He likes us very much, so we are in really... Because they are all Gurujī’s disciples. And because Swamiji is traveling a lot around, people need, of course, to talk to somebody. So Krishnānand was their guru, and they put a statue of him. But if you saw on Facebook, I posted on Vishwagurujī’s page... So it’s a Christian statue, but behind, they did not put Krishna’s picture, but Mahāprabhujī’s picture, because it was, as Holy Gurujī never forced himself on anybody. Holy Gurujī always said, "Mahāprabhujī is the one who is doing that." Even Swāmījī needed, or Viśvagurujī needed, so many years to realize, "I said, but you are actually my Guru." Because Gurujī was so convincing that he convinced Swāmījī that his guru is Mahāprabhujī. And after 10, 20 years, Swāmījī said, "But you’re actually my guru." And Gurujī said, "Yes." So we have Kṛṣṇānand with Mahāprabhujī, and then we have Alakpurījī’s place with the dhūnā. And then there is the Devpurījī statue, and it’s really beautiful in a hilly area with lots of water and lots of greenery. Don’t worry, same temperature. It’s same hot; it’s not colder because it’s greener, no. It’s hotter because the wind doesn’t blow, so it’s like... So we had this beautiful program. So we had first prāṇapratiṣṭhā—so putting the life in the statues, so that when people worship, they feel that it is like we did here, that the statues are alive. Then we had the finalizing of the yajña ceremony, which all was done by Swāmījī, and then we had short lectures. Short lectures were basically glorifying the person who did it and telling some nice things about the paramparā and about these people. So after that was eating, of course—very light eating, you know, just purī, sabjī without oil, you know, full falahārī, like all normal Indian meals are. So all this lasted quite a long time, so we managed to reach with this. We went longer ways, so we reached again in about two and a half hours, so all together it was quite a long journey. So Swamiji was still in the room, I asked, "So I don’t think he will come, we will ask again." So this was two days. So today, on this auspicious day, Swāmījī inaugurated the first ever statue of Devapurījī in India or in the world.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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