Dear Sister / Brother:
ON TOUR WITH REV. MASTER
Hyderabad and Nalgonda, Andra Pradesh
28-Feb-2006 to 3-Mar-2006
Report by brother Sharat Hegde and brother Bhupendra Chuphal, India
Master arrived by flight IC-431 from Delhi to Hyderabad at 12:40 pm on 28th Feb and proceeded to the ashram in Thumkunta (Hyderabad). Late in the night, after completion of his work for the day, Master sat out in his balcony for about half an hour till midnight, surveying the ashram and looking at the meditation hall being readied for inauguration the following day.
On 1st of March, Master was very fresh and happy when He started from the cottage and walked about 200 meters to the entrance of the meditation hall. Master was in a very cheerful mood, touching hearts of hundreds of Abhyasis by His gestures, His smile, impromptu comments and His stick. Master inaugurated the newly built meditation hall at 8:50 AM and dedicated the meditation hall to Babuji Maharaj. After taking His seat at the stage, Master called everyone to come inside the meditation hall. In no time the hall, which can seat about 6000 abhyasis was full. The hall has been constructed using pre-engineered building (PEB) material. It has a span of 160 ft without any intermittent column in between and is 150 ft long. With open front and sides, it provides unobstructed view of Master to all the abhyasis within and outside the meditation hall. Master conducted first meditation in this newly built hall at 9:00AM.
After meditation, Master gave a speech in English, congratulating the Hyderabad center for having erected this magnificent structure with devotion and determination and with not much money and even less time. He said, “If abhyasis work, thinking that everything they do is their Gurudakshina to the great Master, their work will not only be excellent but will be easy, will be fruitful and will be done in minimum time. We only think that Gurudakshina is money. Gurudakshina is everything that we do. Every breath we take we must give it to our Master because with him, from him comes our life.”
Master said that maintaining silence in the meditation halls is the basic discipline of spirituality and insisted on the need of silence in the meditation halls at all times. He went on to say, “Until you are silent, I will not accept that you are true abhyasis. Silence will make you listen to your heart from where the great lord can speak to us, if he wishes and the first sign of success is silence in our assemblies”.
On 2nd March, Master at the breakfast table recalled an incident in Babuji Maharaj’s life. Babuji Maharaj was in Baneras (Varanasi) moving around the city and cleaning the environment, when he found himself in an undesirable part of town a, he suddenly heard Lalaji Maharaj’s voice from above saying, “What are you doing here?” Babuji Maharaj said that he did not know where he was. Lalaji Maharaj then asked Babuji Maharaj to leave the place and to clean it before leaving as He was already there. “There is a lesson in this for all of us”, Master said, “If you see a dirty bathroom for example, we must clean it and not complain that it is dirty. Leave the place better than you found it”.
After morning satsangh, Master met abhyasis from an educational institution. Master outlined his view on education. “First rule is when training children, allow them to develop their own genius. Without that you are going to produce unhappy societies in the future. Children must have the fundamental right to develop their own genius, because each child has a genius. You can’t force them into deliberate moulds. So, the fundamental rule in education – give your children freedom to educate themselves, to marry according to their heart, to work as they choose, in the field in which they want to shine in, because they will shine when you give them this freedom. This is my policy for education.”
“We are trying in our own small but significant way, to introduce new values in the field of education and contribute to the production of children who will shine in society as leaders in the future, because what we want is not population – we want leadership. We have seen how the leadership of India has corrupted our country, demeaned it, defeated it, created war of caste-ism, communalism, created terrorism, created dirty politics, created, you know corrupt, profession of lawyers and doctors, we have to reverse all this, this can only be done by proper leadership. So we are aiming in our own humble but significant way to contribute to a future leadership which will guide India correctly whether in politics or medicine or the professions or even in such simple things as leadership in schools, motivated, morally oriented, selfless service in schools, that is our aim.”
Master left Hyderabad at 3:30pm for Nalgonda, which is about 130 km from Hyderabad to inaugurate a newly built ashram in a rural setting surrounded by farmlands. Master inaugurated the cottage as soon as He arrived at 6:30pm and conducted satsangh immediately thereafter. He showed no sign of being tired. Master prefers to travel by road. He mentioned that He gets more tired in a one-hour flight than a daylong road journey.
After dinner, Master sat outside the cottage where about 200 abhyasis were waiting for Him. There was a gentle nice breeze and the atmosphere was pleasant at the ashram. The ashram is located about 4 kms away from the Nalgonda town. One abhyasi asked for blessings, Master said, “Blessings are for all, at all times. They are not for this and for that. While this beautiful breeze is blowing, I do not catch the breeze, the breeze catches me. If I try to catch the breeze, I will only have my hands empty. Blessings are like that only. Think about it.” He gave another example on blessings. “The Sun is always there and will dry the wet clothes but we should put our effort to spread the clothes out in the Sun. Wet clothes in your bathroom will not get dry”.
On 3rd of March, Master inaugurated the newly built meditation hall at Nalgonda followed by a sitting. Master left for Hyderabad by road at 10:30 am, where he stayed for one more day and then boarded a morning flight to Bangalore on Saturday, March 4th.
