My Beloved Gurudev

Year 1999
It was six in the evening at Indore and I was waiting in an office for the owner to come. An elderly man came and sat in front of me. I had to go back Manawar, my home, 125 km away by a bus scheduled at 8.30 p.m. I thought of waiting for half an hour maximum for office owner to come otherwise I would have returned. Meanwhile the old man sitting in front started to talk. It began with negotiations, stock Market...inflation... traffic.. and ultimately rested on spirituality. While talking to him I went into a trance like state. When I regained my full senses, it was past midnight and all the chances of returning home were over. I started to get interest in the old man’s words. While returning home in the morning, I thought as if life had found some meaning. After a few days, I received a letter saying, "I am Harivilas Aasopa, people call me GuruJi, you can call me Aapsaa, I and my wife want to come to your house". I immediately replied the letter accepting His proposal, showing interest in His visit. After Deepawali, on the day of Shukla Chaturdashi Gurudev and Mataji came to my house for the first time. We had some formal conversation after the evening meal. The next morning, on the day of Tripurari Purnima, my wife and I sat with them. Uncharted, almost involuntarily I asked him "Can you give me initiation?" "That's the moment, that's why I've come here" he said. For me the world cycle turned rapidly. I and my wife brought some flowers to put on His holy feet. In the next few moments our teacher-disciple eternal relationship had been restored. Within the next one minute, he pulled out a packet from his bag and said “here are eleven Upanishadas, I know you can read them and comprehend.
During his practical introduction to the Upanishads for the next seven years, he frequently visited my home in Manawar and stayed for a total of 840 days (he had counted the days). Whenever he went back to Indore, he would write letters every day, not one, but many letters, sometimes in a day, I received 3-4 letters simultaneously. He also sent me on many trips which were unique. He sent me to many saints. A huge collection of about 4,000 books was prepared under his guideline. I knew that I was not even a straw in this spiritual world. My grand preceptor, Baba Devishankar Chattopadhyay, whom I have never seen, began to guide me in mysterious ways.

Year 2006
"Now I assign work that you have to do for lifetime," he said one evening. I looked at him with great eagerness, deep into his lemon like big penetrating eyes. He was also looking through my eyes with a distinction. "You have to adopt the Kashmir Shaivism philosophy from today" "That's your religion." "You have to propagate the same" "Immediately get these works” (He scribbled names on a paper) - Tantralok, Tantrasaar, ShivSutra, Pratyabhigya, Vigyanbhairav, Parmarthsaar, Ishwar Pratyabhigya, Parapraveshika, Spand Karika, Geetarth Samgraha. I got these books from Delhi and Varanasi. In a few days, these texts were on my desk but stayed far from my ability to understand. He knew my difficulty, "Go to Mother Prabhadeviji, she will initiate you in Kashmir Shaivism." He said. When I contacted her, she suggested me to come at Faridabad. During my four-day stay with her, mother Prabhadeviji's cleared my vision effortlessly. One day suddenly, Gurudev's order came, and in the next three days, I had to destroy all his letters. It was very annoying and painful work, but I destroyed them all after reading every letter once again for the last time. The letters contained his instructions, life philosophy, and His real-life experiences that I had to save in my memories from now on.

Year 2007
"You should leave your town Manawar" said Gurudev a fine Sunday afternoon.The next day I bought a residential plot,to build a house, in the ancient town Maheshwar, the next month construction begun. I sold our Manawar's ancestral house.

Year 2008
I migrated permanently in the ancient town of Maheshwar .In the meantime; some friends helped me in organizing a Public Trust named Vishwatma Nyas by Aapsa. Under the banner of this trust the building of 'Harihar Trik Ashram' (named by Maa Prabha deviji) began to be built, simultaneously I began to settle my profession of family physician once again in the new town.

Year 2010
On the winter morning of January 10, my dear Aapsaa lit a lamp in the Ashram, hugged me and kissed my forehead, I was overwhelmed. Satsang began at the Ashram every Thursday night.

Year 2011
Mother Prabha deviji came and stayed for four days in the Ashram along with Mrs. Meeinaji Sopori. She brought lot of literature for Ashram and gave me a wonderful vision that amaze me to this day. Since then, she has been in my lively contact.

Year 2012
Maa Poorn Pragya Deviji disciple of Akhandanand Ji Saraswati, along with two saintly ladies of the Oriyaba Ashram came to Maheshwar and stayed for a few weeks. These young ladies attended Thursday-symposia for few weeks. On their suggestion we began to record the Ashram dialogue, which is now available on archive.org in the form of audio books. Thursday satsang continues to this day.

Dadaguru Devishankar Chattopadhyay said that the scriptures should be interpreted in a timely manner, more important than the superiority of the language is the ease of communication where the speaker can give the audiences a favorable vision. When we analyze the rich literature of Trik Darshan with scientific vision, the heart is filled with awe. All modern science principles support the notions of Trik-Philosophy. A common confusion is prevalent that non-dual knowledge is dry, standing close to atheism. The truth is quite contrary to this. That the heart of the knowledgeable is full of compassion for the whole world, and his love is never limited. Religious harmony is possible only through knowledge.

Let's look at what the nature of knowledge is according to the Kashmir Shaivism: Kashmir Shaivism is a spiritual tradition where there is lots of description yet the vision is more important. The realization that “the whole world is a unit, ‘Shiva’ and the ‘world’ are synonymous and indicate same ultimate reality” is called knowledge.
"Imagine a world where there are repertoire, waterfalls creating music, moonlight, garden and a fascinating scene, but there is no conscious creature in the universe! There is no conscious being enjoying them. "

Does the statement make any sense? Who would say that there is beauty? Without consciousness, no existence can be proved. In other words, beauty is not in the inconscient world, but the enchanting scenery is only instrumental in unfolding the beauty inherent in the conscious beings. Therefore, the presence of a conscious entity is essential behind each event who has a purpose behind this event. Otherwise no event has any meaningful exist.

Now let us extend the concept. The world must have been created at some point of time. When the creation took place, there should have been some consciousness behind it, otherwise, how would you say that the world was created? Who would have any purpose behind this creation? But the world is there. This eternal consciousness is Shiva who creates the world as his own projection and has the purpose in the creation of the world. The reason for creating the world is a play of Shiva in which Shiva tests his own power of free will. This means that the whole manifest world is the means of Shiva’s enlightenment and is of the nature of His power. It is a unit which has never been disrupted even today because the diversities of world have erupted from the common source. There is no evidence that even a sand particle could ever be separated from creation. This Knowledge was received by many yogis as intuition. Strong scientific evidences were also found in the last century when quantum physics became impervious. In Newton's physics, the experimenter was only an observer, whose observations were not considered to contribute to the outcome of the test. At the same time, the results of the experiments were always in the realm of forecast. The motions of a stone tossed in sky, the sun, moon, earth or stars all followed Newton’s laws. Man understood that all the mysteries of the universe have been discovered. But this was a huge mistake. The realm of mathematical prediction could be the insentient world, not the conscious part. Newton's physics was the physics of insentient world leaving aside the better half. Some experiments conducted at the end of the nineteenth century produced results that depended on the observer, i.e. the experimenter is not just a neutral performer of the test but an integral part of the experiment! The famous experiment is "Double Slit Experiment". The conclusion is that in any event, consciousness is as essential to the event as the soul for life or the moon for moonlight. In other words, the Divine dance of the world is being performed by Chaitanya Shiva or Nataraj (which we can call the universal consciousness) in the form of sentient or insentient world. The supreme power of Shiva is absolute freedom which can make and violate any rule. How could Newton's laws regulate this power? Even the actions or motions of sub-atomic particles could not be predicted by Newtonian physics of insentient bodies. You can anticipate the results while tossing a stone in the sky, but you cannot predict position and velocity of a particle of atomic dimensions with equal precision. What about conscient world? Can you predict what will happen by slapping on a friend's cheek? This freedom of Siva chetna is at the center of Heisenberg’s theory of uncertainty. Based on statistics, the behavior of a group may come under the purview of forecasts but not of one unit because a person as a unit enjoys limited freedom (e.g. whether to visit or not Ashram today) whereas the wishes of different persons in a group (The algebraic sum of vectors in a group is more or less stable) give reasonable scope of prediction.
None of the hundreds of the parts of a car, in any way, function like a car but by mutual coordination they become a moving unit called car. Thus, the moving car is a dance of numerous small parts depicting Dance of Natraj. Now let's do a mental experiment – a wheel of a moving car wishes to be an observer and see how the moving car looks. One day it separates itself from the car and sees the accidental car! It makes the mistake of treating it as a moving car. There are three conclusions of this mental experiment: 1. the ultimate truth is not perceivable with the external senses, but only by intuition. 2. The outcome of any experiment in the world depends on the experimenter, as the experimenter is inseparable from the experiment. It is impossible to become an absolute onlooker and remain un-involved in the experiment and cause no effect on the result. 3. It is not possible for me to separate myself from this Universe to become an onlooker, like this car wheel, as there is no “Outside” to go. Even if a sand particle could be separated, the whole Universe would collapse, as there is absolute interdependence in the whole creation.

Even this thought experiment depends on the thinker, thus the absolute truth always remains elusive if tried to be perceived with senses and analyzed by mind. These findings lead to the development of a universal non-dual vision.

Only one prayer is performed in Harihar Trik Ashram.
"Grant us Lord the vision with which you see the creation"

How can non-dual vision free a person from sinful virtue? To commit sin or merit, it is necessary to have two, one sinner or a virtuous one and one against whom it is done. If my finger falls into my own eye, the finger does not become sinful because the eye is also ‘me’, the finger is also ‘me’. Suppose a thorn in pierced in my left hand and it is rescued by the other hand. The right hand doesn't become virtuous because both hands are me. The beholder of non-dual universe behaves in harmony with the wish of Lord. This vision is the discoverer of Universal co-existance. Here, there is an empire of love; no one is your friend as no one is there who is not. He sees Shiva on all sides. If a person with evil intention enters my house, is he too Shiva? Surely that visitor is Shiva, and evil in him is the reflection of my previous evil actions? Then, what is my duty towards the visitor? "Face the situation, take him out if necessary. Knowledge of Non-dualism does not prevent you from performing your worldly duties. I am Shiva, I am Shiva, it is good to meditate, but it is dangerous to say I am Shiva, I am Shiva to public. There will be a slap on face and I will know that I am not Shiva! If there is a sense of Self-realization, then the whole world will become a game of self. He remains equipoise in happiness and sorrow, in profit and loss, in birth and death.

If you want to have a meaningful sense of knowledge, Gurudev used to say, "Love the truth with commitment, don't compromise on any achievement less than the truth." keep life simple, avoid high ambitions and extremism, don't leave love at any cost and never be concerned with people's living, eating or dress. Don't run away from happiness or run for happiness.

Today, my Gurudev is not physically with me, but his selfless love is always the guide for me and the seekers.