Mozambique gets darshan of divine saints after 40 years
Pujya Bhaishri after the ‘puranahuti’ (closing ceremony) of Bhagwat Gyan Yagna at Durban, South Africa on 22nd April 2001 flew with Swami Chidanand Saraswati (Pujya Muniji) to Maputo, Mozambique.
Currently there is a Hindu population of about 1,000 people in Maputo, whose ancestors migrated there during past 300 to 500 years, mostly from Sudamapuri (Porbandar) – our Bhaishri’s karmabhoomi.
It was a very moving experience as this was the first visit by any saint to that country in the past forty years. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony till 1975 and after the liberation of Goa in India in 1961, our political relations soured with Portuguese authorities, who banned immigration from India and prohibited direct interaction with the Indian community there. After the Communists took over in 1975, they sealed all places of worship (temples, churches and mosques). This led to mass exodus of our population mostly to Lisbon in Portugal.
It is amazing to see how the local population have conserved their traditional Indian values and preserved their mother tongue – Gujarati, which is spoken along with Portuguese at home. Present Government has relaxed rules pertaining to places of worship and our community has got back the control of the Temple, which was kept sealed for over twenty years. Our Gujarati Samaj is also building a new Shiv Temple at Maputo, which Bhaishri visited in addition to the original temple.
Pujya Bhaishri was accorded a very warm welcome at the airport and was well received by hundreds of devotees; many of who had seen Bhaishri only on T.V. Government Protocol Officials were also in attendance and welcomed the visit.
There were about 80 percent of Indian population in attendance to listen to Pujya Bhaishri and Muniji and the hall was jam-packed. Indian High Commissioner His Excellency Avinash Gupta along with his wife and other staff members of the High Commission were there in full attendance to receive Pujya Bhaishri at the hall.
Pujya Bhaishri gave a beautiful talk and said that one must become a Yogi and be useful, as this is a period when one must be ‘upyogi’ (useful). In the current period of cutthroat competition, it’s a matter of survival of the fittest and to be ‘upyogi’ one needs to have three qualifications. Firstly he must have capacity to love (prem), secondly have capacity for sacrifice (tyag) and thirdly to serve (seva). When one becomes upyogi his chances are enhanced to become a Yogi.
One must have love for God, as otherwise inspite of one’s wealth one’s life is useless. Meera bai, Narsi Mehta and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were upyogi to God as HE can be won purely by love. Further, love is mankind’s nature (swaroop) and by loving, increases it to greater heights (sabse oonchee prem sagai…). Love also helps to become a useful tool (upyogi) for service to God. Bhaishri gave an example of Lord Krishna’s love for the Gopi’s calling them ‘Krishna prem ki murtis’. He also cited the example of love of Shri Hanumanji and Bharatji for Lord Rama.
One sacrifices normally for personal mental satisfaction, obliging some one in need, where the receiving party obliges the donor by accepting the assistance. Pujya Bhaishri said there was nothing wrong in wishing to earn money but it must be earned by right means and used for the less privileged children of the Lord as he is the ultimate owner of wealth (Laxmipati). One must simply be a Trustee of the Lord as every thing belongs to him and the money thus generated must circulate to bring peace and happiness to the community.
By serving the needy without expectations, one becomes useful to society, something that our Lord Krishna appreciates very much. By providing selfless service one becomes useful to society while also serving (seva) the Lord.
In the present materialistic world one must always think first of Dharma while earning money (arth) as this in other words means Laxmimata, who is the ladder for Moksha. By doing this one would experience ultimate joy, peace and happiness. Bhaishri said in order to swim in the swimming pool, one needs to disembark from his vehicle take off all his clothes and possessions and swim in the swim suit; similarly in order to swim in the worldly ocean of materialism and cross over to the Shri Krishna Dham one needs to swim leaving bereft of ones ego and pride, totally surrendering to the Lord.
Bhaishri emphasized that unity is synonymous with GOD and wherever there is unity, God is always present as hatred leads to self-destruction. By knowing God’s importance one should value him all the more observing the following principles:
Karma by niti (perform deeds morally and ethically)
Live by riti (live righteously)
Bhajo by preeti (sing the glory of God with love)
Pujya Bhaishri blessed the audience and thanked them for their abundant love and affection showered on him during his short visit to their beautiful country.