In the Samvat year 1876 in the evening of the third day of the bright half of the month of Paush, Shreeji Maharaj was seated on a wooden bedstead laid in the veranda in front of the hall facing the east in the Durbar of Dada Khachar in Gadhada. He had covered His body with a large white double sheet of cotton and had put on a white turban on His head. A white upper garment with black borders was put over His shoulders. He was seated facing the east. Saints were singing devotional songs with the accompaniment of musical
instruments like zanz and pakhaj. etc. Saints and devotees from various places had gathered before Him in an assembly.
Then Shreeji Maharaj asked the saints to stop singing and said, “All of you please listen to me. I want to say something to A you to-day.” With these words He closed His eyes for a long time and remained in deep meditation. Then He said, “If a devotee desires to highly please God, the only means to do so is that he should have firm faith in his own Varnashram Dharm- [duties ordained by the holy scriptures according to the caste and four stages of life] and also in his own self. He should have a dislike for everything except the Lord Himself. His devotion must be selfless and must be accompanied by the knowledge of
the greatness of God. God is pleased very much by these four means. These four means: faith in Vamashram Dharm. faith in one’s own self. dislike for worldly objects and selfless devotion with knowledge of the greatness of God taken together is called ‘ekantik dharma.’ It is a matter of pride that even in these times there are some devotees who practice such ekantik dharma in our holy fellowship. A devotee of God must remember God even while eating. drinking, bathing, washing, walking, sitting and doing all usual activities. When the mind is undisturbed he should meditate over the divine image of God and concentrate on it. But when the mind is disturbed by conflicting ideas, he must remember that his own real self is different from his physical body, the senses, the conscience, the deities presiding
over the senses, and their objects of enjoyment. And when the conflicting ideas subside, he should meditate upon the divine image of God. He should never think that this physical body is his own self, and that the relatives of this body are his own relatives. This is because this soul has acquired this body after passing through innumerable lives of about 84 lacs of different species. He must have been born of innumerable females, and must have enjoyed with innumerable females. He must have been born as a female in innumerable lives, and must have taken innumerable males as husbands. We do not consider the relatives of those innumerable births to be our relatives, and do not consider those innumerable bodies to be our bodies. Similarly we should not consider this body also to be our body, and relatives of this body to be our relatives. The contact with those previous innumerable bodies is lost and the contact of this body is also not going to last.
Hence one must consider his body and his house and all other things unreal, and think himself to be different from the body, and the senses, and the conscience. One must practice selfless devotion remaining attached with one’s own duties. One should always move in the company of saints. That way he will realize day by day the immeasurable greatness of God. One who does not understand this and remains attached to his body is a man of ordinary intelligence. Even if such a person remains in the holy fellowship, he is as good as an animal. After all God is very graceful. Even an animal will attain the ultimate good if it remains in the holy fellowship. Then what is the wonder if a human being attains the ultimate good. But such a person cannot be called ekantik bhakta [a single minded devotee] of God in the real sense. A person can be called a single minded devotee of God only if he understands what I say today. Such a single minded devotee, when he leaves this body, becomes free from the clutches of Maya , and reaches Akshardham [divine abode of God] by the path of archimarg [the luminous path of light].
Akshar has two images: one is the formless and uniform all-pervading universal spirit. It is called Chidakash [pure undiluted consciousness] or Brahma-mahol [divine abode of God] The other image is engaged in the service of God Lord Purushottam Narayan.
The devotee who has reached Akshardham acquires similarity of nature with Akshar and remains engaged in the service of the Lord constantly. Lord Shree Krishna
Purushottam Narayan eternally resides in Akshardham All the innumerable redeemed souls who have acquired such a similarity of nature with Akshar, also remain engaged in the
service of the Lord. Lord Purushottam Narayan is the Lord of all those redeemed souls. He is the Lord of Lords of all the innumerable universes. Hence all the members of our holy
fellowship should resolve to-day that we have to reach the divine abode of God and join the assembly of the redeemed souls, and always remain engaged in constant service of the Lord. They should not get enticed by the worthless perishable happiness offered by Maya. With such a firm determination they should always remain engaged in single minded devotion. We must understand that the greatness of God is immeasurable. We must get rid of all the desires for worldly objects like women, wealth, etc. during our life time only. If
desires for things other than God persist till the last moment, we may perhaps be able to proceed on the path to Akshardham, but on the way we might come across siddhis [superhuman powers]. We might be lured by these superhuman powers and might be distracted from our path of God-realization. Then it becomes a great hurdle in our progress. Hence we must get rid of all the desires for objects other than God, and worship Him till the last moment.
