Lord Shree Swaminarayanbapa Swamibapa has known us as His own children and made us immortal by blessing us with extraordinary nectar. The Lord’s only aim is to bless his disciples with contentment to whoever take patronage at His lotus feet and get attached to God with self-realization and immense love.

One is said to have attained true Love for the Lord if he recognizes the Lord and His Sat-purush and does not get flown away by the stream of Maya (worldly desires). It is due to The Lord’s benevolence that He manifested on earth from His Divine Abode (Akshardham). The real benevolence is to recognize the Sovereign Lord Swaminarayan’s actual form and the Lord and the spiritual lineage is the one capable of such benevolence. God has provided us with devotion, dhyan, adoration, and hymns as a route of benevolence. One who takes this route attains the love of God and does not see anything else as valuable as the Lord.

For one to experience the Lord’s contentment he has to perform veneration (poojan), mala and pray; but together with that we have to examine ourselves whether we are doing it genuinely having the Lord in mind or not. If one does not distant himself from the world he will be flown away with the stream of Maya and will not be able to attain the divinity. Our darshan becomes worthless if we are unable to forget ourselves whilst performing darshan.

To attain the contentment of the Lord one has to perform satsang, be fearless, and has to take control of his mind. He has to have a good company, a clean heart and stay under the commands of the Lord. We have to make sure that does not act in a way that will hurt the Lord. If one does not take in the Lord’s beneficial advice, his intellect becomes sinful. The Lord and Gurus have showered us with good culture but if the mind takes a wrong path then we should also restrain its company.

One should not fear anything apart from committing sins. Whilst in religion we should make sure that we do not commit any sins with our speech, behavior and thoughts. If one realizes his sins and runs to God for forgiveness, he will be forgiven immediately.

In order to merge with the Lord’s Murti, one has to take control of his mind through the ways shown by the Lord and His Sat-purush. If one does this, he attains the charm of spirituality. If one gets into bad company despite having control of your own mind, the mind can be easily drawn away towards the stream of Maya. To attain the divine lustrous attributes of the Lord one has to have fear of the Lord.

The Lord is always blowing the wind of mercy upon His disciples and it’s upon us to always think before acting such that we do not act in a way that may annoy the Lord. The Lord tests a soul on how much religion it has attained and through this test if one gets into the stream of Maya, it is clear that, that soul has no emotional attachment with the Lord.

To become God’s we have to have allegiance, patience, tolerance/endurance, dedication and virtuousness/piousness of our efforts towards the Lord.

Without the Lord’s grace one cannot cross the ocean of Maya. Therefore we have to continuously pray to Him to help us cross this ocean of worldly desires.

If we abide by the commands made at Shree Swaminarayan Gadi, then the Lord will forever be our protector.

The ecstasy of the Lord’s Murti is the true contentment. One should not have any sort of avarice.

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Acharya Swamishree Maharaj Ashirwad - Nairobi 9th Dec 2017