Prasangs of Mahant Swami Maharaj

In this week's kishore-kishori sabha, we will be highlighting the life of our guru, Mahant Swami Maharaj, with prasangs. With 35 minutes allotted, it may appear difficult to connect his 85-year lifetime with ours, so we need to emphasize relevance. At NC18, delegates took the time to put together a life map highlighting milestones in their life.  

One way to kick off sabha is by asking the audience, "Imagine we had the seva of drafting Mahant Swami Maharaj's life map. From birth, what 9 events would he want to feature from his life through the age of 30?" 

Allow them time to brainstorm independently before putting together the events.

To explain why we picked this age, Chip and Dan Heath cite a study in their latest book, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, which clarifies why we picked this age range. 

In a study by Dorthe Berntsen and David Rubin, respondents were prompted to think about the life of a baby who had just been born and to predict what would be “the most important events that are likely to take place in this infant’s life."

1. Begin school 
2. College 
3. Marriage 
4. Parents' death 
5. Others' death 
6. Retirement 
7. Leave home
8. First job

It’s striking that 4 out of the 8 most important events all happen during a relatively narrow window of time: roughly age 15 to 30. 

Similarly, if you ask older people about their most vivid memories, research shows, they tend to be drawn disproportionately from this same period, roughly ages 15 to 30. Psychologists call this phenomenon the “reminiscence bump.” Why does a 15-year period in our lives—which is not even 20% of a typical life span—dominate our memories? “The key to the reminiscence bump is novelty,” said Claudia Hammond in her book Time Warped. “The reason we remember our youth so well is that it is a . . . time for first... first jobs, first travel without parents, first experience of living away from home, the first time we get much real choice over the way we spend our days.”

For Swamishri, let's look at his firsts. We highly recommend this book in preparation for this weekend, particularly the first section on his life as a balak, a kishore, and a yuvak. Here is our sample of 10 major events from birth to age 30.

1. 9/13/1933: birthday
2. 1934: first encountered Shastriji Maharaj who named him 'Keshav' [0.5] 
3. 1946: placed first in the annual exam and received a book as a prize [12]
4. 1951: encountered Yogiji Maharaj & Pramukh Swami Maharaj [17]
5. 1951: received first kanthi at the hands of Yogiji Maharaj [17]
6. 1952: spent time in Gondal with Yogiji Maharaj and acknowledged his guru's wish for him to become a sadhu after graduating college [18]
7. 1952-1954: pursued Bachelor's in Agriculture as it allowed him availability to spend time with his guru [18-20]
8. 1957: received parshadi diksha [24]
9. 1960: received diksha again [27]
10. 5/11/1961: received bhagwati diksha [27]

See what ideas the audience comes up with, and let's share with them the experiences our guru had in his life.

Yogiji Maharaj’s Love for Devotees

This week, we look at Yogiji Maharaj's love for his devotees. On first glance, it might be harder to create excitement for this topic, it is definitely possible through maximizing our storytelling skills.

Step 1: Synthesize the simple statement. Feel free to brainstorm or use some of the ones taken from the syllabus.

• Yogiji Maharaj loved his devotees.
• Yogiji Maharaj's was a servant of servants (das na das).
• Yogiji Maharaj's love inspired others.

Step 2: Start with the shakeup. 

• Start off sabha by asking the audience to identify this kishore who we already know. Framing this prasang pre-emptively encourages the audience to pay attention in hopes of identifying the individual. If the majority of your audience may have already read this book, feel free to substitute this prasang with Pujya Viveksagar Swami & Pujya Doctor Swami from below.
• Mahant Swami Maharaj: An Epitome of Saintliness: In 1951, Yogiji Maharaj visited the home of one family. Their 18-year old son didn't find religion or sadhus appealing - to the point where he would run out of the house the moment he knew Yogiji Maharaj entered their home. Once as he was leaving the home, he encountered Yogiji Maharaj who lovingly held out his hand and asked affectionately, “Guru, where are you going? Come back upstairs.” He loving places a kanthi around his neck, but he immediately tears it off with the beads flying everywhere. We can only wonder what future this kishore will have in Satsang! A couple of days later, Yogiji Maharaj was departing. En route to the the railway station, he saw this kishore sitting on the parapet of the village pond with his friends. Yogiji Maharaj hailed him affectionately, so the kishore reluctantly came to Yogiji Maharaj, wondering what would he say now! However, to his surprise, Yogiji Maharaj humbly joined his palms and smilingly said, “Now I am going. Forgive me for my mistakes.” And so saying, Yogiji Maharaj blessed him with his signature pat and walked away hurriedly. 
• See if anyone can identify this kishore. We all know this kishore. He is our guru, Mahant Swami Maharaj.
• Through prasangs like these, we will learn about the power of Yogiji Maharaj's love.

Step 3: Support the simple statement with stories filled with details (concrete) and validity (concrete). Here, we took prasangs to support the simple statement, "Yogiji Maharaj loved his devotees."

• Kiritbhai: Yogiji Maharaj's love reminded Kiritbhai of his parents given the care and attention he took the smallest things.
• Natvarbhai Shukla of Jhadeshwar: Yogiji Maharaj loved his devotees enough to acknowledge the time they spent. 
• Theplas for Third Class [Nilkanth, March 2012]: One kishore in college in Mumbai decided to spend five days with Yogiji Maharaj in Atladra. Adhering to Yogiji Maharaj’s wishes, on his way to Atladra, he traveled in the 3rd class compartment on the train. However, his return ticket was booked for the 1st class compartment – in which there was air conditioning, food, & comfort. After the five days were complete, he went to Yogiji Maharaj and told him he was leaving. Yogiji Maharaj asked in which train he was going, but he tried to avoid the question. Yogiji Maharaj said that he couldn’t let him buy the ticket and that the Sanstha would pay for the ticket. Yogiji Maharaj told a haribhakt to buy a 3rd class ticket for him, as he was a student and probably didn’t have the money. Yogiji Maharaj also instructed that haribhakt to ensure he got dropped right onto the train to avoid getting lost. In private, this kishore told the haribhakt that there was no point buying the ticket because he had money and would buy it himself. The haribhakt then told him that it was Yogiji Maharaj’s agna, so he could not disregard it. The next morning, Yogiji Maharaj woke up at 4:00 am, made fresh theplas, and a package for him. He initially became embarrassed because he would have to carry the package onto the 1st class compartment of the train, where there would already be food. With this in mind, he decided that, on his way to the train station, he would give the package to some homeless person. Additionally, he decided that after getting into the cart and leaving the mandir, he would tell the haribhakt to step out. As the cart left the mandir, Yogiji Maharaj made sure the kishore got on to the cart. When the cart was about to make a final turn, the kishore looked back to get one last darshan of the gate of Atladra mandir, and his heart skipped a beat. He saw Yogiji Maharaj standing at the gate and watching the cart make its last turn. That moment changed everything. He decided that he would sit in the 3rd class compartment and eat the theplas that Yogiji Maharaj made. We all know this kishore as Pujya Viveksagar Swami, and the haribhakt as Pujya Doctor Swami. Both can personally recall how Yogiji Maharaj loved his devotees.

Yogiji Maharaj's love for all inspired the start of Sunday sabha, so let's make the most of our time in sabha this week.

Go To Move: Follow the Crowd

Dev, a Bal Sabha Sanchalak and Sabhaologist shares a go to move that did not go as planned either in Kishore Mandal or Bal Mandal, but still worked to drive home his overall message. He writes the following:

This week in Bal 1, our theme for the Sabha was simplicity. We played a game of Follow the Crowd in the beginning to show simplicity among our lives. This activity was played in Kishore sabha (K1) and did not go as expected (it was still unexpected but the presenter had to maneuver on his feet to make it fit the simple). We thought it would be a great activity for Bal Sabha (B1) and decided to try it out there as well. Here is what we sent in our sabha preview and review (combined into one post).

Simple: Simplicity is key in happiness.

Unexpected/Go To Move: Follow the Crowd.

Follow the Crowd is a game which will show who follows the crowd or who can stay away from the influence of fellow balaks/balikas.

Objective:  Sway a few balaks away from the right answer to show that we can all get influenced by others.

Supplies/Equipment:

­   Whiteboard

­   Markers

How to Play:

• Before sabha, when MC is talking or as soon as sabha starts, take one balak/balika in the hallway or away from the other balaks where he/she can’t hear what the presenter has to say.
• Talk to the balak and distract him from what’s going on inside of the sabha, making sure that he/she can’t hear the presenter.
• While the balak/balika is outside, tell the rest of the sabha to say the wrong answer, and not tell the balak/balika that was outside what is going on. 
• For example, draw a big box and a small box on the board. Tell the balaks/balikas to say the wrong answer. If the presenter asks which box is bigger, everyone must point to the box that is smaller.
• The balak/balika will not know what is going on and will say that everyone else is wrong. This will show that he is not influenced by the crowd and strongly believes in his answer.
• What is expected is for the balak/balika to go along with everyone and say the wrong answer.

Outcome:

• When we played the game in Kishore Sabha, the game did not work as the Kishore that was picked went against everyone’s saying. He was a fellow Bal Karyakar and, so we decided to try the same game in Bal Sabha.
• When the MC was talking, a balak was taken out and “talked to”.  The other Bal Karyakar explained to the rest of the sabha to say the wrong answer.
• As soon as they were ready, the balak was brought inside. Even though everyone was told not to tell the balak, one of the balaks told him to say the wrong answer. 
• This game did work in a way but did not go as planned since the balak already knew what was going on and said the wrong answer like everyone else.

Relation to Simple:

• The simple of the sabha was that simplicity is key in happiness.
• In life, we tend to go with everyone else and fall into the trap of wanting to get everything that everyone else has.
• In this game the balak/balika had a choice of going with everyone or keeping firm in his belief of the right answer.
• In our game, the balak went along with everyone because he knew about what was told to the rest of the balaks.
• In Kishore Sabha, the other Bal Karyakar went against what the rest were saying.
• While everyone else is getting new toys, games, etc. we must be the one who stays simple in our lives. We must stay away from the influence of other balaks/ balikas.
• We must live a simple life by staying away from what everyone else wants. Only keeping what we truly need will lead us to happiness.

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In general this is a great unexpected activity that makes the point of that we all can be influenced by our peers (follow the crowd).  It may not go exactly as planned, but it will still bring home the point, just be prepared to think on your feet.  When we tried it in Kishore Sabha the kishore simply refused to be influenced. Kudos to him. We then used this as a counter example - he was like fire and not water as Yogi Bapa used to say. He stayed true to being simple. In Bal 1 our execution was off. We took one balak out of the room but when he came back in the rest of the balaks told him what we were about to do so the activity turned out to be a bit pointless. We salvaged it by asking the balaks to image if it had gone as planned - what would have happened? This game might work better in groups 2 and 3 since the older balaks (hopefully) won’t tell the one balak. Let us know how it works out for you.