Om Namah Dada Vitragai!
I received gnaan from Kanudadaji on Spetember 15th, 2001. This last year I have been very fortunate to be living at home during my first year of college. I had the chance to learn many lessons that most people do not realize until much later in life. Instead of looking back and regretting, I am lucky enough to have parents that have shown me the right path before I made any mistakes. In just this one year, I feel like I have progressed in gnaan more than I have over the last 6.5 years combined. The reason for my growth can give only be attributed to my mother and father.
Dadaji has always said, “Mabaap ni aashirvad vagar, maarathi pan kai nee thai.” I have to thank my parents for raising me the way they did. I can honestly tell you that without their guidance, I would not be half the person I am today. To prove my point, I want to share an experience I had in my last year of high school.
I have always been a very outgoing person who constantly had to busy, be around people, be active. Ghare beti-ne akraaman jevo thatho mane. I never understood why my mom would be so strict and only let me out of the house on very rare occasions. I used to get furious and fight with her almost every week, asking why she was holding me captive. I was confused since they knew and trusted that I would never do anything wrong. All I was asking was to be able to spend a few hours with my friends from school. My intention was never to go against what I knew was wrong (i.e. drinking, smoking etc.). They knew that, and had total trust in me. Both my parents would try and make me understand that they did not think spending time with friends was wrong or unnecessary but that it was simply not valuable. They so badly wanted me to spend time where I would progress in the real and not the relative.
No matter how hard I fought, how much I used to cry, my mom would never give in. Rather, she would ask me questions like, what do you get from being with your friends? Are you learning anything? I would get frustrated because for every twenty times my friends got together, I was only allowed to go once. Using this as an argument would only result in my dad telling me that I cannot compare myself to Americans. “We live by different standards and are at a different level of understanding than they are.”
Months went by, and foolishly I did not try to understand why my parents were putting such restrictions on my social life. Instead, I kept fighting back. Deep down I knew that whatever they were doing was obviously for my own good, but at the time I did not want to accept it, for it would mean spending more time at home, getting bored. Not until I was pulled away from that environment did I realize what a great deed my parents did for me. After graduating high school, I was able to look back and see how much time my parents saved me from wasting with company that was not benefiting me in any way whatsoever. As time went by, I stopped spending unnecessary time outside my home and gradually started to see the difference in myself.
I began spending more time talking to my mom about things that actually matter. Every time we talked, our conversations would turn into a satsang that would sometimes last for hours. There were conflicts after conflicts between my mother and I before I had closed that very wasteful chapter of my life. After I had finally awakened there was so much more harmony and peace between us. My mom became my best friend and the person I turned to when I needed help.
With this on-going satsang, I began to have little epiphanies, for example: I can now take full responsibility for everything that happens to and around me, for I have understood and accepted the power of karma. Nothing has come my way without my asking for it. Now, in this blameless life of mine, all I try to look for is the positive, the good, the real. With this knowledge, I have the strength to handle almost any situation without looking at anyone else’s faults but my own. This way of living has removed an uncountable number of obstacles from my life. Everywhere I look, all I see is beauty.
Today I look back and realize how much time I wasted complaining about the temporary happiness I thought I was losing out on. My parents taught me to spend every possible breathing moment towards progressing in the real. Now, I myself have no interest in wasting time the way I did before. There was a time in high school where I would be counting down the days until I could move to college and be “free.” Today, I find myself wishing I didn’t have to leave, wishing that I could stay in my positive and beneficial home where I can continue to sit down and have satsang with my parents everyday. They have taught me the value of time, the value of company and because of them, I have reached a higher understanding for the value of Dadaji and his aagna.
As a result of spending more time with the people whose first interest is to help me on my path to moksh (my parents), I find myself constantly gaining by having more opportunities to pick up the Akram Vignaan, or watch Dadaji’s video while my parents explain this science to me. I feel like my life has become a constant learning experience without any conflicts in the home. Everywhere I go, I now find peace, since there is peace within me.
Along with staying at home and expanding my knowledge of Dada’s science, I reap the benefits of our Indian sanscar. Our Indian culture is one of the few in the world that stresses the importance of heartily respecting and loving your parents. I believe that this is the reason why Indian children can most effectively accept and apply Dada’s gnaan in their lives.
My parents have set me on the right path. These temporary joys that kids my age get caught up in no longer appeal to me. Every breathing second that we have available should be spent in the real. Everything else will eventually end and we will have gained nothing. I am so happy my parents made me understand this at a very crucial time in my life, for even now when I think of those wasted months I cringe inside. People waste so much time, and all I hear Dadaji saying over and over again is “jetlu lootai etlu looto, kaam kadilego, kaam kadilego, kaam kadilego. Dadaji repeatedly says, “Aa ek bhav sachvilego.”
With utmost humility, my parents totally attribute the way that they have been able to discipline my brother and I to Dadaji because they also feel that they themselves did not have the right knowledge and values before they met Him in 1988. Without Dadaji’s grace and this knowledge, the four of us would have continued to live in that very wasteful state that I was so gracefully saved from.
Sapna Mistry
Age: 17
California, USA
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