On Tuesday 22 August 2023, Gnan Mahodadhi Acharya Swamiji Maharaj performed Sandhya Aarti at 6pm.
Following a scripture recital by Sant Siromani Shree Gurupriyadasji Swami, an oochav led Acharya Swamiji Maharaj into Mandir adorned in a gold, blue and yellow haar.
In today's Ashirwad, Acharya Swamiji Maharaj explained;
We are of Indian heritage - and seeing the progress of our motherland, we should feel incredibly proud. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft will shortly land on the moon. Through this endeavour, India is truly demonstrating its global leadership. We pray to the Lord that this mission is successful - fulfilling the hopes of 1.4 billion Indians!
The Lord says that just as all rivers aspire to flow into the sea, where their respective flows find stillness, and the sea welcomes their waters, true seekers of salvation should aspire to merge with the Lord’s Murti, where their ultimate bliss awaits.
The Lord explains that in the Vachanamrut, before souls become disciples, they have the light of a mere firefly. As they increasingly understand His supremacy and glory, He imparts an increasing amount of His divine light to such souls. Eventually, those souls become as bright as the Lord’s own lustre - His Maha-tej. Beyond this, here at the shelter of Shree Swaminarayan Gadi, the Lord has made us the form of the source of that Maha-tej - the form of His own Murti. That is the essence of Jeevanpran Bapashree’s philosophy.
We all become the Muktas of who we worship. If we worship the Lord believing Him to be as great as Shree Krishna, we will only reach the assembly of Shree Krishna. If we understand the Lord to be supreme, and worship Him as such, we will attain Akshardham. However, if we worship Him in the hope of attaining any desire - including the desire to attain salvation - we will only reach the status of Param Ekantik Mukta; we will reside in Akshardham, but will only have the Lord’s darshan in front of us. Only through understanding His supremacy and worshipping Him completely selflessly, can we attain the Anadi Mukta status and reside within His Murti. This is the ‘secret’, and the essence of the Vachanamrut, that Bapashree has revealed to us - it is not a truth that merely anyone can accept and understand.
We are incredibly fortunate to have this understanding - there is no one as blessed as us. For this understanding cannot be attained through any religious means, through any scripture, or through any level of intellect. It has only been attained by us due to the immense mercy of the Lord, which He has chosen to bestow upon us.