Dividends of Divine Love Dharmesh Doshi, secretary of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (UK), a member of the Jinmandir Committee of Sadguru Prerna and a capital market investor by profession, shares how Pujya Gurudevshri guided him to invest in the scrip of spiritual growth Born in a Deravasi Jain family, visiting the temple, performing rituals and participating in religious activities was part of my daily life, albeit without true understanding and purpose. I never felt the need for a Sadguru. The focus of my life was to achieve material success. I always sought pleasure from outer activities and material things. In Mumbai I would attend Pujya Gurudevshri’s discourses at F.P.H. hall during Paryushan in the late nineties and was impressed with His immense knowledge and extremely articulate way of conveying the message. Meeting the Master Investor It was in June, 2006 when Pujya Gurudevshri was visiting London that I met Him in the true sense. This meeting is now embedded in memory and can be never erased. There was nothing in particular to ask other than to seek blessings from a saintly person. Simplicity and stillness in His dialogue reflected purity. I had never before experienced such a deep sense of peace and calmness within as I experienced during those few minutes in His divine presence. I could not understand why I uttered the words, “What do I do to be on the spiritual path?” without any conscious effort. It is here that the realisation dawned that there is much more to Him than what was perceived and Pujya Gurudevshri became my Sadgurudev, my Bapaji. The entire experience was motivating, as the Divine magnet had started to work. According to me, my spiritual journey in this birth began here. Life Changing Recommendations Being associated with stock markets I would invest for gains but sometimes witness value erosion. But my investment in satsangs, bhakti and seva however are with one considerable difference – these investments are with Param Krupalu Dev’s blessings and on the strong recommendation of Bapaji, which means they never diminish in value. The magnet was working and pulling me towards satsangs and bhakti. They started to take priority over all other commitments, including business. In 2007, Pujyashri Gurudev was visiting London for a dharmayatra and we requested Him to perform Param Krupalu Dev’s pratishtha at our home. A day before the pratishtha Bapaji mentioned, “Your life will change from tomorrow,” and it indeed has. The experience during the pratishtha ceremony was profound as there was instant connection with Param Krupalu Dev with tears flowing without any reason. After the pratishtha, I told Him, “I feel that I must move towards retirement to progress on this path.” As usual, He smiled and said, “That’s what you are meant to do and if you can, then do it.” Earlier, I could not imagine what I would do if there was no office to attend. I was a man in a hurry and always running a tight schedule. And now, here I was looking to walk the spiritual path due to the inspiration that Bapaji had given me. It motivated me to relinquish all executive responsibilities and offer myself at His Lotus Feet when He visited London in 2008. In 2009, Bapaji graced us by staying at our home. During breakfast He asked me the reason why I was not eating sweets, cakes, chocolates etc. I always considered it to be a big achievement to be able to abstain and would take pride in the vows taken. He smilingly explained it is not only abstaining, but overcoming the desire that is critical. This completely changed my concept of abstinence. I learnt that being free from desires is a must for success on the spiritual path. The concept that existed from childhood and could have taken many years or possibly many lives to erase, was set aside with complete clarity within couple of minutes. The Masterstroke of Glad Acceptance Let me now share an episode that reflects the unbelievable transformation that I experienced with Bapaji’s teaching of glad acceptance, without which my reaction would have been completely different. I had left for London from Mumbai with a halt in Dubai in very high spirits after the Raj Upvan opening ceremony at Dharampur. At immigration in Dubai, I was told that there was some problem and hence I had to be detained. They handed me to the Dubai police and I had to spend about 24 hours in this ordeal. At times they even threatened that they would deport me or I would be put behind bars for 2-3 months. Eventually they realised that there was an error in their system and finally I was allowed to travel to London. All this is not important. The thing I want to share is that during those 24 hours, neither did I have the anxiety of ‘what will happen next’ nor did I crib asking ‘why me?’ Neither did I lose my cool with the snail-like speed of processing nor did I mind being treated as a culprit or fear the outcome if they really put me in custody. All along I reminded myself that this is a passing phase and it is a result of my past karma. Not once did I blame the officials for wrong records. Amazingly, I did not even forget to do my nityakram including meditation. In fact I was helping some others at the police station who were feeling threatened, assuring them that everything would eventually be fine. My friends in Dubai who were trying to sort things out were extremely tense and really appreciated my state when I finally met them. When I mentioned it was Gurukrupa that resulted in such a state, one of them commented that he would really appreciate if I could ask Bapaji to visit his home on His next visit to Dubai. Reflecting on the entire episode I felt this would not have been possible without the formula of ‘Glad Acceptance’ given by Bapaji. Setting My Priorities Right Cricket World Cup, April, 2011 – I missed the first day of the satsang shibir on Shrimad Devchandrajikrut Chovisi – Shri Padmaprabha Stavan to watch India play the cricket World Cup final, with my son. This is when I witnessed a completely different side of Bapaji’s immense compassion. He cannot see anyone straying away from the spiritual path and to make me and many others understand that for a sadhak nothing is more important than satsang, not even a day at the World Cup final match, He told the entire London group that He would not visit them as planned during the Europe Dharmayatra in June, 2011 because of my act. This news was like a tornado, difficult to withstand. Under normal worldly circumstances, even if one misses a few minutes of a movie because a friend comes late, one gets upset. Here the entire London group would miss 2 days of His samagam – the most precious thing in the world – and instead of being upset they prayed to Bapaji to forgive me and bless me. Where in the world would you get to see this? This is the power of Love and Oneness. He taught me an important lesson – ‘To be a compassionate father is not to fulfil all the desires of your child but to ensure he walks the correct path.’ This has had a lasting impact as it made me realise how blessed I am to have Him as my Spiritual Father. Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, 2011 – A day before the marathon, during His pravachan in Mumbai He turned to me and said, “Call me if you survive and complete the 42 km run tomorrow.” That inspiring look and words worked more the next day than the six months of training for the marathon. After completing the run I called Him and said, “The last 5 km were extremely challenging but the constant yearning to call You on completing the run made me finish it.” He responded, “Similar yearning to be one with the Almighty will get you over in the final lap of the path to liberation.” My confidence grew manifold – that with Him by my side, liberation is only a question of time. He has changed the goal of my life. The objective now is to not only gain knowledge but to achieve an elevated state of consciousness. He once said in Nairobi, “Realise that you are staying in a hotel named Dharmesh. For how long can one live in a hotel? One has to go to one’s own home to achieve peace and happiness.” I am confident that His blessings and guidance will take me to my true home. Topicsinspirationpersonal experiencesadguruspiritual growthspirituality Quotes Worship of the form is to realise the formless Self. See that day by day, the graph of your inner peace and happiness rises higher and higher. Listening to the glorious virtues of the Sadguru is more spiritually beneficial than any form of penance or austerity. Learn to count your blessings every night, so you can begin your mornings with an attitude of gratitude. View All #SadguruWhispers Listening to the glorious virtues of the Sadguru is more spiritually beneficial than any form of penance or austerity. Select category for which you wish you receive updates via email - SRMD Updates Wisdom Updates Subscribe for updates
