‘Krishna dham is home sweet home’ – Bhagwat Katha at Durban
Pujya Bhaishri conducted Bhagwat Gyan Yagya at Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa from 15th to 22nd April 2001. The occasion was to commemorate the official opening of the Ekta Mandir built by Shree Gujarati Hindu Sanskruti Kendra.
This was Pujya Bhaishri’s third Katha in South Africa – the first being during the peak of apartheid in the country during 1987, held at Lenesia in Johannesburg with the blessings of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi (as Indian nationals then required special endorsement for travel to South Africa). The second Katha was a Ram Katha and this was held in 1993 at Durban. During this period Bhaishri found out that in spite of such a large and prosperous Hindu population, Thakurji (God) was being worshipped in a rented house known as Sapta Mandir. He unified all the various factions of the community like Kathiawad Hindu Seva Samaj, Surat Hindu Association, Shree Surat Arya Bhajan Mandal and several other smaller groups into one single group called Shree Gujarati Hindu Sanskruti Kendra. He persuaded Kathiawad Hindu Samaj to lend its prime land on a 99 years lease for the construction of the Temple. Due to the co-operation and involvement of every member of the community he named the Project as EKTA MANDIR- temple of unity. It may not be out of place to mention that by the time Ram Gyan Yagna was over a sum of over three million South Africa Rands was raised for the Project.
Pujya Bhaishri paid tribute to the Late Gautambhai Shukla, who as the local resident priest had taken a vow not to wear footwear and instead walk barefoot till the construction work commenced. He also congratulated the present and past Management Teams of the Ekta Mandir for the excellent job done though with long delays. He said a plant grown from a seedling takes much longer time to grow but at the same time it survives much longer than the plant grown from grafting, which has a much shorter life. Ekta Mandir along with an adjourning Community Center has been built at a cost of fifteen million Rands (approximately US $ 2.2 m Dollars).
Bhaishri expressed his happiness over the successful germination of the seed planted by him in 1993 and named the Exta Mandir as Radha Govind Mandir as he explained that after Pran Pratisha it was now the home of Shree Radha Govind Sarkar.
During the Bhagwat katha gyan yagya Pujya Bhaishri highlighted the importance of a Sadguru. He compared the Shreemad Bhagwat to the sun (surya), which removes the darkness of ignorance (agyan) and there is no darkness once the sun rises. Further Shrimad Bhagwat brightens the Puranas, as the light of sun brightens all the planets in the universe. Enlightenment is achieved through a Sadguru (spiritual master), who prepares his disciple to experience the ultimate God by tying his knot with him.
He said that by nature one is filled with knowledge (gyan) yet one is totally ignorant due to worldly desires. Sadguru removes ignorance and once he achieves it, the ultimate is produced. Further, Sadguru is like a step in the temple, where one bows before entering the temple, as it’s only the Guru who lifts one to the heights to meet the Lord. Our real home is Krishna Dham and Shrimad Bhagwat removes worldly illusions. Pujya Bhaishri gave an example of one’s inner feeling of satisfaction of ‘sweet home’ on returning from holiday. Similarly our real home is Krishna Dham but due to our past births and pursharths (efforts), we wander in this universe distracted by its attractions. One would similarly experience the feeling of ‘home, sweet home’ once one returns to his home in Krishna’s Dham. To achieve this one should simply stop doing wrong, and then one would automatically find peace, attain inner satisfaction and meet the Lord, whose autograph’s we are.
The Sadguru purifies his disciple and releases him from the bondage of four knots of Shika (knot tied in one’s hair, choti), Pothi (our scriptures), Dhoti (clothing) and Yagnopavit (sacred thread worn by Brahmins) purifying him like a Paramhansa (like Sanat Kumars in the Bhagwat), which in turn makes him fearless and innocent like a small child. When a baby cries a mother immediately attends to it despite being busy; similarly God also rushes to help and protect when we cry for his love or chant Ram, Ram, Krishna, Krishna. One must remember that the objective of life is to meet our Thakurji and one must do every thing possible to attain him to get salvation from the cycle of rebirth. It’s said every body meets Thakurji at least once in his lifetime but is not able to recognize him. We should respect and love every living being as one would not know in which form Our Lord would come to meet us. One must see Krishna in the heart of others and ‘love thy neighbor’. Lord visits the heart of devotees who love others.
Ishwar (God) is Truth and one can know God only with his blessings and grace and not by one’s intelligence (buddhi). Sadguru is like a father (pita) who ties our knot with our ultimate husband (pati) and enables us to experience Him. In other words a Sadguru is like a key to a lock without keys.
Worldly people are combining their good deeds (punya) with the boiling pot of sins (paap), which acts like an ice. One must continue doing good deeds (satkarmas) and offer his punya at the lotus feet of his master, without any pride as otherwise the Lord will disappear and hide (antardhyaan) as he did in Raas Leela, when the Gopis (one who hides God in his/her heart) succumbed to pride. When they realized their mistake they prayed to the Lord for forgiveness, with the Veenu Geet, and then alone they were able to participate in the Raas Leela.
One cannot have a dip in the Bhakti of Holy Yamuna till one removes the clothing of lust and arrogance and only then one is ready to receive the Lord for his cheer-haran. One must pray innocently to the Lord like Meera bai or Surdas, which will enable him cage the Lord in his heart (mara ghat ma virajta shrinathji…..!!!!!)
One is not aware of what is going to happen next, as people in Gujarat who were taken by surprise and shock on the morning of 26th January 2001, when a devastating earthquake of tremendous intensity struck for less than a minute; causing loss of over 25,000 lives and total destruction of habitation, in several towns and villages; total losses estimated at over US $ 5 billion. Hence one must always do ‘satkarma’ and submit it to the Lord.
Bhaishri also explained that the existence of the Lord is possible without the universe, while the universe cannot exist with out Him; also that God takes birth in the form of a human to give humans an opportunity to become God. As such one must do good deeds always as guided by the Sadguru.
Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji (Pujya Muniji) also graced the occasion and was there during the Katha Gyan Yagna.
On puranahuti (closing ceremony), Bhaishri along with Pujya Muniji flew to Maputo in Mozambique to give guidance to the local Hindu population, who had not been blessed with the darshan of any Saint in the past forty years.
Pujya Bhaishri along with Pujya Muniji also visited the reconstructed home of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) at Phoenix near Durban. Bapu had established a printing press here during 1903 and lived here till 1905, before returning to India. The original house was razed during the height of communal rights during 1985 but the house was reconstructed last year and officially opened by the current President of South Africa Mr. Mbeki.
Pujya Bhaishri was disturbed to see the original printing press used by Bapu lying in the open yard. Originally it was over a 100-acre estate but most of the land has been encroached by the local settlers.
Pujya Bhaishri along with Muniji also visited the Ashram and Centres of Divine Life Society (Swami Shivananda) and Ram Krishna Mission at Durban. Bhaishri was very pleased to see the infrastructure developed by both the organisations and complimented them for their untiring effort to bring awakening amongst our population. Bhaishri mentioned that during Swami Shivananda centenary year, he conducted three Bhagwat Kathas at their various Ashrams, to pay homage to the great Saint.
