Sabha commenced at 9am on Sunday 13 August with kirtan bhakti. The Mandir was already full by 9am with devotees arriving bright and early to obtain the darshan of Lord Swaminarayanbapa, Swamibapa, Ved Ratna Acharya Swamishree Maharaj and Acharya Swamiji Maharaj.
A swagat led Acharya Swamiji Maharaj into Mandir to conclude another Vachanamrut Parayan.
In today's Divine Ashirwad, Gnan Mahodadhi Acharya Swamiji Maharaj explained as follows;
God is so benevolent that He regards any amount of service (sewa), no matter how small or large, to be equivalent to a mountain of gold. In accepting that service, God bequeaths the priceless gift of eternal salvation (aatyantik moksh) to that servant.
In life, there will be highs and lows, progress and regress - but at the shelter of the Lord, we have His divine ashirwad showering on us, that His disciple will never suffer any poverty, and they will always have enough to eat and wear. However, any regression away from the Lord’s shelter will cause us great harm and genuine pain.
Swamiji Maharaj explained that Lakshmi (wealth) is fickle - she is with us one day, and gone the next. We can see this today in how the value of currencies increases and decreases all the time, and in how the grandchildren of historically wealthy people, today working lowly jobs. In this way, no one has been able to truly acquiesce or keep wealth. However, there is one way to acquiesce Lakshmi - she is acquiescent to her husband, God. Meaning, by enjoining Lakshmi with God - by donating our wealth to God - wealth can be tamed. Lakshmi doesn't stay in one place but resides wherever Bhagwan resides.
Acharya Swamiji Maharaj then went onto explicate the six types of Dharma.
The Lord manifested to established something beyond this, the Ekantik Dharma, the Bhagwat Dharma. But what is this? The other Dharmas are for the health of our physical selves. By abiding by them, one progresses in society and lives an honourable life. When those worldly Dharmas are combined with the Dharma of the Lord - it is called the Bhagwat Dharma.
His Murti - eternal salvation - is attained by abiding by the Bhagwat Dharma. The Lord has distilled the Dharma contained in over 350 scriptures into His divine Shikshapatri scriptures, to make it easy for us to understand and abide by the Bhagwat Dharma. By abiding by the commandments of the Shikshapatri, one is guaranteed divine bliss in this world and in the next.
The Lord has done all this to enable us to defeat our internal enemies, such as lust, anger, greed, etc. Consider just anger - it could last for a fraction of a second, but its impact could last a lifetime. Each of these enemies are individually greatly harmful. Imagine just how detrimental those internal enemies are as a collective?
Swamiji Maharaj ended today's Ashirwad by reminding us to let go of our internal enemies which arise in everyday life in order to lead a peaceful life. Responding to members of our own household with 'Halse', 'Chalse' and 'Favse' will surely diffuse any potential argument and allow peace to reside within one's life.