A once in a life time opportunity to participate in Maaji's shashtiabdhapoorthi celebrations at the SISS premises on 9th of December 2017. Words cannot describe the feelings and experience of being in the presence of a Sadguru. As I stepped into the premises of the ashram, I automatically forgot the materialistic world, there was peace and tranquility through out.
A commendable job experienced by all the volunteers under the able guidance of Manishji in ensuring that even the smallest detail was fully taken care for the success of the event. My humble pranaams to each one for such wonderful organization.
The morning began with aarti at the Sree Ishwara temple followed by homam by Pandit Bhimsen Bhatt ji and his team. The homam was performed to invoke the Navagraha's and sage Markandeya to ask blessings for the sadguru's well being and long life to follow the path of Janakalyan.
The Homam was followed by Maa reading out Gurudev Chinmayanandji's message for the day-
"When the mind is agitated, we feel sorrow or anxiety
When the mind is tranquil, we feel joy and happiness
Thus happiness is measured by the tranquility of our mind"
The main event started at around 10:30a.m with invocation, Guru paduka puja by three generations of disciples, it was wonderful to watch how the young generation has blossomed and their dedication towards the Guru parampara.
We had glimpses of Maaji's poorvashram life from none other than her poorvashram elder sister Smt. Sonal Shahji. Also gracing the occasion were Maaji’s younger sister Smt. Minal Trivediji and her poorvashram brother in law Sri Dinesh Trivediji.
Pandit Bhimsen Bhatt then explained the process and importance of the Tula Bhaar offering, followed by the Tula Puja and then the Tula Bhaar ceremony commenced. The overwhelming response to the noble cause of distributing books to the intellectually deserving was amplified by the fact that total books donated by various people amounted to 9 times of weighing. The event was followed by a Mahaprasadam lunch offering to all the attendees.
Later in the evening all devotees made an offering of small play act on Samudra Manthan. The participants in a very short span of time and with limited practice enacted the samudra manthan skit at Maaji's lotus feet. Later Maaji brought out the real essence of samudra manthan to all. The highlight of the evening was the Guru Stuti geet mala which represented almost all the regions from India starting from Gujarat, Maaji's Poorvashram home, going through Maharastra, MP, Assam, Bengal, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi, Urdu, Rajasthani, Tamil, Oriya, Telugu, Malayalam and Sanskrit. The sudden entry of Ganesh Neelkanthanji in the attire of Gurudev and dialogue between Maaji and Gurudev was the highlight of the evening.
10th December morning we had a wonder Chai pe Churcha with Maaji and Manishji. Manishji throwing questions followed by a healthy discussion to dispel our myths/notions and show us the right path. Maa also spoke of her fond memories during her days with Gurudev and Tapovanji Maharaj; it was as though we were living through time. Soaking the winter sun and being in company of Maaji in SISS is like being in heaven itself, we did not want the session to end, but as grihastas we have to return back to our real life. We ended the session with an Aarti to Maaji.
I took a lot of learning from the 2 days I was in company of a wonderful set of people and most importantly our divine Guru Maa. Maa's message is like the ghee which goes through so many processes to be able to light the wick of the lamp to dispel darkness - was my takeaway for this session.
Tulabhaar image
My humble pranaams at Maaji's lotus feet and our Guru Parampara.