There are personalities born on this Earth even today who are very difficult to comprehend and who give new direction to humanity. Such lives enrich not only the lives around them, but are an inspiration for future generations.

My Baba

By Naveen Joshi

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Naveen Joshi
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-3642-3

Contents

Ananda Marga (1966)...................................................1Jamalpur, India (1967)................................................5Nagpur, India.........................................................13Masters Program in Jaipur, Rajasthan India (1968).....................23Employment (1969).....................................................31Trip to Germany (1971)................................................35Dharmasamiksha........................................................39Kosikii Nrtya, Lalita Marmika, and Tandava Dance......................43Spiritual Powers & Demonstrations.....................................49Trip to Banaras, India................................................55Dharmacakra...........................................................61Tihar Jail (1975).....................................................65United States (1982)..................................................71Gauri's Wedding (July 9, 2004)........................................77Great Departure (October 23, 1990)....................................79October 6, 2007.......................................................83Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar.................................................91Author's Message......................................................101

Chapter One

The Supreme Spirit within the humanity, neglected forages, has awakened today. This awakening will initiate a new chapter in human history. You will all be the pioneers of the new trend. [January 1, 1956]

ANANDA MARGA

In the year 1966, I was a student at St. Francis De Sales College at Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. I was enrolled in first year of B.S.c. One day one of my friends came to me at college and told me that one Acharya from Ananda Marga was coming to his house that evening and invited me to come. He said that the Acharya was going to elucidate about the Creation of the Universe. That evening I reached his house; Shri Rai who was an Acharaya of Ananda Marga and was working at the time for All India Radio as Deputy Director was giving a speech on how the Creation came into being, according to the Ananda Marga philosophy. He was explaining Saincara (Extroversion Phase) and Pratisanincara (Introversion Phase). During his speech he explained that this philosophy had been propounded by Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiji who was his Guru and lived in Jamalpur, India. Shri Rai asserted that his Guru was Lord Krishna and Shiva and if anyone wanted to verify this he or she could visit Jamalpur and have BABA's Darshan. Shri Anandamurtiji was lovingly called BABA by His disciples. I was thinking that either Shri Rai was not telling the truth or he was deliberately misleading people. I told him that I would like to go to Jamalpur and verify his claim. Shri Rai happily answered that I could certainly do this but before that, I will have to learn meditation from an Acharya of Ananda Marga. Shri Rai referred me to Shri Jia Lal Gupta who was an Assistant Collector with Customs Department of the Indian government in Nagpur. When I went to meet Mr. Gupta at his residence he informed me that Acharya Nirmohananadji was going to arrive in a few days from Bombay. I met Acharya Nirmohananadji and requested that he teach me meditation or Sadhana as it's called. Acharya Nirmohanandji was a monk of the Tantric order and was a avadhuta. He was a full time worker and Acharya of Ananda Marga. He told me that he will gladly teach me mediation but I will have to come the next day at 8 o'clock in the morning. Perhaps he was trying to see how keen I was to learn Sadhana. But to his surprise, the next morning, I reached his house exactly at 8 o'clock and Acharya Nirmohananadji taught me the first lesson of Sadhana, which is mandatory for all margis and four Asanas/Yogic Postures. I was taught the first lesson on Iswar Pranidhan and was also explained Yama and Niyama. He wanted me to meditate with him for a few minutes which I did. I asked him, "Dada how I can have BABA's darshan?" He responded by saying that I should practice Sadhana for six months and during the summer vacation I could travel to Jamalpur by train to have BABA's Darshan. Yama and Niyama are briefly explained;

Yama sa'dhana': Ahim'sa'satya'steyabrahmacarya'parigrahah yamah. That means that ahim'sa; satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha together are known as yama.

1. Ahim'sa': Not to inflict on anybody pain or hurt by thought, word, or action is ahim'sa.

2. Satya: The right use of words and proper thoughts and actions keeping the spirit of welfare for others is satya.

3. Asteya: To eschew the desire of taking what belongs to others is asteya.

4. Brahmacarya: To constantly engage the mind in the thought of Brahma by introverting the sense organs is brahmaca'rya.

5. Aparigraha: To accept only those amenities which are essential to life and not to accept anything extraneous is aparigraha.

Niyama sa'dhana': Shaocasantos' atapasasva'dhya'ya iishvara pran'idha'na'niniyamah: That is shaoca, santos'a, tapah, sva'dhya'ya and iishvara pran'idha'na make Niyama.

1. Shaoca: a: physical cleanliness b. mental purity

2. The ways to maintain mental purity are: kindness to living creatures, charity, helping others and engaging oneself in proper action.

3. Santos'a: To remain satisfied with whatever one gets in lieu of his labor.

4. Tapah: To lead one's life, serve elders and one's teachers through physical hardship.

5. Sva'dhya'ya: To read books and understand their meaning

6. Iishvara pran'idha'na: means to surrender one-self to the Supreme Controller according to the path shown by the master

Chapter Two

Life is a spiritual sa'dhana' and the result of this sa'dhana' is to be offered at the altar of the Supreme. [A'nanda Pu'rn'ima' 1960]

JAMALPUR, INDIA

After doing meditation regularly for six months twice a day came summer vacation and I bought my train ticket for Jamalpur. There were about five or six Margis who were also traveling with me. Jamalpur is a small railway town in West Bengal and is on the border of Bengal and Bihar. There was a small group of Margis with their families who were traveling as a group. After we got down from the train at Jamalpur, we went down to the ashram. After reaching the ashram I was looking around, when I heard "BABA is coming! BABA is coming!" This must have been around 9a.m. and it was a bright sunny day. So I stood behind a pillar and thought let me see who BABA is? How does He look and whether my trip of over 1000 miles from Nagpur to Jamalpur was worth it. And While I was standing behind the pillar, BABA entered the court yard wearing a white dhoti, a white kurta and glasses. He was fair in color, about 5'6 tall lightly built and very cheerful. The only thing that I thought was striking about Him was His beaming smile. He did namaskar to all and walked straight into a room. At that time I thought it was better that I have BABA's Darshan after I took a shower, because I was so dirty from the train journey. I said to one of the Dadas "Dada I will run to the bathroom and take a shower and come back". Dada said, "Fine, make it fast, you don't know how long BABA would stay". I ran, took a shower changed into clean clothes and was back in no time. Dada asked me "did you come to have personal contact with BABA?" I said, "Yes Dada" He said "fine, there are four people before you, go stand in the line." One by one everyone's turn came. Dada who was standing outside told me "when you enter the room, you should do Sashtang Pranam to BABA."

My turn finally came and when I entered, I did Sashtang Pranam and I saw BABA half reclined on a hard bed resting His head on His palm, and looking straight at me. When He saw me doing Sashtang Pranam He did Namaskar and said in a loud clear voice in English, "come near come near". So I got up and sat on the carpet very near where BABA was half reclined and looked straight into His face. BABA asked "what is your name." Respectfully I replied "BABA my name is Naveen Joshi." "Where have you come from?" BABA asked. I said, "BABA I am from Nagpur in Maharashtra state." He looked at me, and I could see both His eyes were half closed and the irises of His eyes moved towards the center or the AJINA CHAKRA, in other words He moved both His eyes towards the center of His eyebrows. And couple of seconds later He opened His eyes and said "Itni der se kyon aya (why have you come so late?) You should have been here two years back." I did not know what to say. For a second I thought and said "BABA I was looking for spiritual guidance" and He said "yes the search was there". He asked me a few more questions, which I don't remember and He said "I know your past but you do not know it. For good moral life good thinking is necessary and for good thinking good thoughts are necessary." After that He asked me to take an oath "I promise in front of my BABA that I shall do SADHANA twice a day, if not more". He recited a mantra in Sanskrit and brought His palm close to my face and made a gesture with His hand of blowing something away making a "shoo" sound. He then told me "you can go now". I did Sashtang Pranam and as I was getting up He said "remember my boy; this life is a mission, it is not for crude enjoyment" and this He repeated three times. Very respectfully, I did Namaskar and left the room. The Dada who was waiting outside asked me "How did it go?" I told him "Dada everything went well." And he said "what happened? What happened?" I briefly narrated him what had happened and he looked at me and asked, "What do you think now?" I said "He is a great personality but I don't think He is Lord Krishna, at least not for now" and then I went into another part of the Ashram. About 10-20 minutes later we heard BABA was going to give group Darshan, so all of us went towards His room. And one by one we went and sat in front of Him. After we were all seated BABA looked at all of us and said "today I will speak to you about the first shloka of Bhagavad Gita. He recited the first shloka and then He began to explain each and every word of shloka and I think that was the first time when I heard the meaning of that shloka in that particular way.

One by one He broke every word explaining the root of each word. He said, "Dhritarashtra is our mind which is blind. Sanjay is our conscience. Our mind has 50 main propensities working internally and externally which makes them 100. The mind works through ten motor and sensory organs in ten directions representing the sons of Dhritarashtra. The chakras in our body are the Pandavas, starting from the lower chakra called the Muladhara Chakra. There is always a tug of war going on between Kauravas and Pandavas. When He came to the word "tug of war" He asked somebody in the group if they knew the pronunciation of the word "tug of war". He asked is it "tug of war" or "tugawar"?' BABA then responded by saying, "tugawar means pulling from two sides", and that is where the discourse ended. We all did Namaskar to BABA and then He left the room.

Soon after, I saw BABA leaving for His office. After BABA went to work, I started discussing different things with Dadas. One of them said "BABA used to go on top of a hill past the death valley which is just outside of Jamalpur. On top of the hill is a Kali Temple, where He used to sit and meditate." I thought that since I'm here, why not go up the hill and find out for myself what is really there. I went to the market and bought a small earthen pitcher and filled it with water; placing it on my shoulders I started walking towards the Death Valley, passing the Tigers Grave. Slowly I climbed the hill, which was pretty high. Along the way I saw a lot of sheep and goats and could hear the tingling of the bells in their neck. It was a bright sunny day. In about two hours I reached the top of the mountain and saw the Temple of Kali. I walked towards the temple which appeared to be very old and saw a big idol of Goddess Kali inside which was blocked by an iron door. The door was locked so I decided to have Darshan from outside. There wasn't much to see but the red marks around the temple caught my eye.

I looked around for a place to sit near the temple and nearby I saw a flat rock. I went to the rock and from there I could see the whole town of Jamalpur. There was a nice shade casted on the rock by a tree so I sat down and started to drink some water. Since I was already at the top of the mountain I decided to meditate. I mediated for about half an hour. Suddenly there was surge of emotion running through my mind. I felt alone and forgot who I was, where I was and what I was doing there. Everything around me turned dead silent and still. So many questions were running through my head; why am I here and what am I looking for? All of sudden I felt like crying, for no apparent reason at all. I cried and cried and cried. I couldn't stop and I had no idea why. I cried for quite some time. When I came back to my senses I decided to start walking down the hill before it became dark. Since I hadn't eaten all day as soon as I reached the town I went straight to the railway station and went to the cafeteria to get something to eat.

From the cafeteria I headed to the ashram. I told dada about my day and what I had experienced at the top of the hill. Dada responded by saying, "You know that you're not supposed to go all by yourself. You should have informed one of us where you were going."

I wanted to meet BABA again but I knew the only way to meet Him in the evening was to visit Him at His house. I asked around and found out that BABA lived in one of the railway quarters, but I didn't know which particular house was BABA's. I went roaming around and looking at the house numbers when suddenly I saw BABA standing outside one of the houses looking towards the sky. I stood still. I didn't have the courage to approach or even talk to BABA. BABA was standing completely still looking into the sky, so without bothering Him I did Namaskar from far and went back to the jagrati. I didn't tell anyone that I had gone looking for BABA's house.

The next morning when I got up, I thought maybe if I stand on the road that BABA takes to come down from His house then I could have His Darshan and possibly talk to Him. I was even more curious now about BABA and I had so many questions to ask Him and I couldn't wait. I quickly got ready and went down the road. I was standing near a place where there was a wall with a big opening through which people used to pass. After waiting for about 15 minutes I saw BABA coming. As He came closer towards me I approached Him and did Namaskar. BABA returned my Namaskar. I mustered enough courage to ask BABA if I could please talk to Him once again. BABA replied "Contact Abhedananda." After saying this to me He kept walking towards the Jagrati. He was on his way to the Jagrati.

That afternoon I also thought of visiting BABA's office just to see how and where He worked. Around 4 p.m. I stood in front of BABA's office gate which was closed. As I was waiting a truck came to make deliveries and that's when the gate opened. Swiftly along with the truck I entered the office premise as the gate shut behind me. The truck went towards one of the barracks where some people were working. I was roaming around looking for BABA and suddenly saw Him sitting behind a long wooden desk in one of the Barracks. He was looking straight at me. I was so taken aback that I kept moving without even doing Namaskar to BABA, which was disrespectful. I knew very well that Margis [such as me] were not allowed to go into BABA's office. I turned around and started walking towards the gate to leave. For one moment I turned around and looked back towards BABA and saw Him looking right at me. I quickly ran out of the office and went straight to the Jagrati.

Chapter Three

It is action that makes a person great. Be great by your sa'dhana', by your service, by your sacrifice. [January 1, 1964]

NAGPUR, INDIA

The next day I was supposed to return to Nagpur by train. Around 11 A.M I hired a rickshaw to take me to the railway station. When I sat in the rickshaw I looked back at the Jagrati and suddenly started sobbing loudly. It felt like I was leaving my home, leaving a piece of me behind and going away forever. At one point I even came close to canceling my ticket and going back to stay for a few more days. However, with tears in my eyes, a sense of utter loneliness and dejection in my heart I went to the railway station.

After returning from Jamalpur and having my first personal contact with BABA I thought about writing a letter to BABA without signing my name on it. In the letter I wrote to BABA, I said "As Dada's say that you know everything, you will know who is writing this letter". After about 6-8 months BABA came for DMC to Nagpur and we all sat in His room for a group darshan. When we were seated, BABA looked at us and asked, "Who is Naveen? He is a good boy but he is unconstitutional." I quickly stood up and said, "BABA, I do not understand." BABA smiled and with His right hand made a gesture of writing. I understood that He was referring to the letter that I had written.

In Nagpur, India where I was studying and living once BABA came for DMC (Dharma Maha Chakra). DMC's were events when Margis from all nearby villages and towns would come and hear BABA's discourses. Each discourse was highly spiritual and enlightening. A collection of all these discourses has been made in several books called "Subhashita Samgraha". To this day about 24 parts of this collection have been published. Other books like this include "Ananda Marga in a Nutshell", "Guide to Human Conduct", "Idea and Ideology", "Ananda Sutram" and "Ananda Vachnamrtam"; all these books form the basis of Ananda Marga philosophy. In my opinion this collection constitutes the best spiritual philosophy of Bhagwat Dharma (Human Dharma). They are the essence of spirituality and will guide human beings for a long time to come. After reading or hearing these discourses, one can only conclude that the author can be no other than "Tarak Brahma" Any true spiritual seeker from anywhere around the world or religion should read this collection to clarify their minds of so many dogmas, misconceptions, biases and complexes. The true meaning of human existence becomes clear. BABA has said that the purpose of human life is, "Atma Moksartharm Jagat Hitayacha" (Salvation of oneself and service to humanity). The ancient Rishis used to say this in one breath so as to signify that one was no less important than the other. Salvation of one self and service to society are both equally important. At the end of the discourse BABA would bless the congregation by giving BARABHAYA Mudra which is a special gesture imparting fearlessness and blessing all the devotees and also creating a tremendous spiritual force.

(Continues...)

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