In the Samvat year 1876, on the first day of the bright half of the month of Paush, Shreeji Maharaj was seated in the Durbar of Dada Khachar in Gadhada in the evening. He had put on all white garments. Saints and devotees from various places had gathered before Him in an assembly. Then Shreeji Maharaj said, “In our holy fellowship devotees of God desire for their ultimate good. But it will not be sufficient for them to possess only atm-nishtha, faith in one’s own Self, born of knowledge. Such Knowledge alone will not achieve for them their ultimate good. Nor only love for God strengthened by nine kinds of devotion, nor non-attachment alone. nor even adherence to swadharm, one’s own path of
duties, none of these will singly achieve the desired goal. One must practice all the four, because they are dependent on one another.
I will explain how they are interdependent. If one tries to acquire faith in one self but has no love for God, he will not be able to earn His pleasure. He will miss the grandeur to be gained through His favor. He will not acquire the power to resist the influence of Maya. If he possesses only love and devotion to God and neglects knowledge, the gains of love and devotion will have to be lost because of his attachment for his body due to neglect of knowledge. If one possesses both devotion and knowledge and neglects non-attachment, the gains of knowledge and devotion will have to be lost because of his attachment for the objects of the five senses. If one has non-attachment, but neglects devotion and knowledge, then the highest bliss to be gained through the sight of the divine image of God will not be achieved. And if there is only swadharm and the other three are neglected. then the person
will not be able to go beyond Bhoorlok, Bhuruarlok, Swargalok, etc. the abodes of Brahma and other deities. He will not be able to reach Akshardham. the divine abode of God, which is beyond this universe and beyond the deep darkness of Maya. And if only swadharm is neglected and the other three are practiced, the gains of the other three will not be achieved.
This shows how all the above four are interdependent. One can acquire all the four if he seeks the company of an ekantik bhakta – a single minded devotee who possesses all the four. Such a devotee is supposed to have completely mastered all the means of realizing God, and he alone can be known as ekantik bhakta. If a devotee is deficient in any one of the four, he must make up for that deficiency by seeking the company of an ekantik bhakta and rendering service unto him.”
