One day Shrimadji put this question to Muni Chaturlalji:
'what restrictions did you accept for yourself from the day you took the vow of self-restraint till now?'
Now Shri Chaturlalji had realized that the monks most often wasted their time in sheer laxity.
So he candidly confessed the truth.
He said 'In the morning we collect tea for ourselves and take it first thing. next, we collect some snuff, and take in pinch of it.
We next go around collecting for our morning meal and having eaten whatever we are given freely by householders, we retire for our noonday rest.
In the evening we perform the ritual of pratikraman, and finally go to bed.'
Shrimadji now said, with a touch of good-humour, 'Do all great ideals such as enlightened world view (darshan), enlightened knowledge (gyana) and enlightened conduct (charitra), boil down to these mundane activities, taking tea and a pinch of snuff, and morning meals and finally retiring to bed.'
Shrimadji next offered some words of pious reflection to Shri Lalluji and made recommendation: 'You ought to encourage other monks to give up their laxity and devote their time to reading scriptures and to religious studies.
Again, all of you should take meals only once in a day, and should avoid receiving tea and snuff and such trifles.
You must devote yourselves to the study of Sanskrit.'
On hearing these words, Muni Shri Mohanlalji said, 'Maharajshri and Devkaranji are both of an advanced age, and there is little scope for them to devote themselves to studies.'
Shrimadji said, 'They must devote themselves to studies whenever the opportunity arises.
You have before you the example of Queen Victoria of England who is also of quite an advanced age and yet devotes her time to the study of foreign languages.'
Poojabhai Someshwar Bhatt, an attorney of Kheda had studied vedant and was the author of 'panchadashi'.
The questions and answers during his conversation with Shrimadji were as under.
Attorney: "Is there the existence of soul?"
Shrimadji: "Yes, soul does exists."
Attorney: "Do you assert that by your experience?"
Shrimadji: "Yes, I say with experience that there is the existence of soul. It is not possible to describe the taste of sugar; that is experiential. Similarly soul cannot be defined; it is experiential; but it surely exists."
Attorney: "Is there only one or multiple souls? I want the reply based on experience."
Shrimadji: "There are innumerable souls."
Attorney: "is lifeless matter like Karma real or is it merely imaginary?"
Shrimadji: "it is real, not imaginary."
Attorney: "Is there reincarnation?"
Shrimadji: "yes, there is reincarnation."
Attorney: "Do you believe in illusive concept of God as acceptable to Vedant?"
Shrimadji: "No."
Attorney: "Is reflection in a mirror virtual or is it composed of some elements?"
Shrimadji: "It is not merely virtual; it is composed of some elements."
Finding Shrimadji always steeped in the element of spirituality and devotion, a certain neighbour of his in Mumbai put this question to him:
'I find you in religious devotion and studies almost all the time, every moment of the day.
You can also read what is passing through the minds of others.
Well, by the same token, you should also be knowing in advance what turn the prices of things will take in the market, I am sure. What do you say?'
Shrimadji said, 'God forbid, I should ever put my religious study to such use in order to know the changes in market prices!'
A person Padamshibhai of Kutch once asked Shrimadji during his stay in Mumbai,
Sir, I am constantly haunted by a sense of fear. What is the remedy?'
Shrimadji asked in return, 'What is it that you are mainly afraid of ?'
Padamshibhai said, 'Of death.'
So Shrimadji said, 'It all depends finally when the length of your life-span, ayushya will end.
When you are sure that you are not going to die until the ordained moment arrives for your life-span to end, of what use is it for you to be troubled with such kind of fears ?
You should steady your mind in this way.'
On one occasion a person named Shah Zaverbhai Bhagwanbhai of Kavitha put this question to Shrimadji,
'How can one identify a samakiti, a person who has attained the state of being enlightened?'
Shrimadji said, 'You require to have a high degree of knowledge, (jnana), in order to identify such a soul, and you ought also to have attained a high degree of purity of mind.'
On one occasion, mahatma gandhiji grew eloquent while praising the wife of Gladstone, Prime Minister of England, for the love she showered on her husband.
Gandhiji had chanced to read somewhere that Mrs. Gladstone was so particular that she would even prepare tea for her husband herself, even while the sessions of the House of Commons were in progress.
This became a rule that this most disciplined of couples strictly observed.
On hearing Gandhiji speaks in this vein, Shrimadji commented 'what do you think is of greater importance here: Mrs. Gladstone's role as a wife or her spirit of selfless seva?
Suppose this same woman happened to be Gladstone's sister? Or she was one of Gladstone's faithful servants offering him tea in the same spirit of affection?
Do we not come across examples of such women, of such faithful servants, even today?
And supposing you had come across an example of such love in a member of the male sex instead of the female sex, would you not have felt a similar sense of joy and surprise?
Please do give some thought to what i say.'
Gandhiji comments on this incident in his Autobiography, 'Raichandbhai (Shrimadji) was himself a married man.
I retain the impression on my having found his remark as being particularly harsh at that time. But the remark served to stick in my mind like a magnet.
The loyalty of a male servant would count for being a thousand times higher in its worth.
Husbands and wives are united by a bond of oneness; and so there is nothing surprising in the love they bear towards each other mutually.
The love between master and servant, on the other hand, is one which has to be consciously cultivated.
I felt the intensity of these words of Kavi (Meaning Raichandbhai) ever increasing within me with each passing day.'
A person by the name of Shri Thakarshibhai Laherchand Shah happened to overhear some criticism about Shrimadji one day.
He passed the information to Shrimadji.
Shrimadji thereupon commented, 'The world is always and forever the same.
When the enlightened ones, the jnanis, are still living, no one recognizes them, to the extent that they may even get beaten up, with blows from sticks raining on their heads.
And-the irony of it-once the same enlightened souls, the jnanis, are dead, they worship the stones named after them. i.e statues, images.'
During the time when Shrimadji stayed at a place away from nadiad in spiritual retreat, Motilal Bhavsar attended on him, looking after him.
On one occasion, Motilal asked his wife to reach Shrimadji's place of residence at a fixed hour after the departure of a particular train.
She was supposed to wait with the meal for Shrimadji at a place some three fields away.
Her husband, Motilal, would meet her at that spot.
Motilal's wife, however in her over-enthusiasm, turned up herself at Shrimadji's residence, carrying the tiffin.
She did not have the necessary patience to wait for Motilal.
Motilal was very upset at this and he sharply rebuked his wife on this account.
Shrimadji came to know this, and he told Motilal, 'Why did you pull her up? Are you asserting your right as a husband? No, no; It's wrong.
On the contrary you should be thankful to her.
This good women is to reach the state of ultimate liberation, of moksha, in her eighth birth. You should admit her to our presence.'
Motilalbhai, wasting no time, thereupon immediately spoke to his wife, telling her she could join them at Shrimadji's darshan, if she so desired. He said, Shrimadji himself had granted her the permission.
Motilal's wife, was only too happy to hear this and went to have darshan of Shrimadji.
On this occasion, Shrimadji spoke of the need to overcome laxity. He said, 'Shed all laxity, all negligence.
Why do you waste your time in this way, in such idleness, putting in no spiritual effort?
It is indeed rare to have such a chance.
You are not going to have such an opportunity again, one which you have earned through your good deeds, your punya, of the births gone by.
Why do you let it go waste? Wake up, wake up.
All the advice we may have to offer finally comes to rest on this one call, the call to overcome laxity.'
Shri lalluji Maharaj would visit Shrimadji daily and spend some time, when Shrimadji came to khambhat for the first time.
Once in the course of their conversation, Shri Lalluji Maharaj said, 'I have been fasting every alternate day for the last five years and have been devoting my time to meditation. Yet, I am unable to observe strict celibacy, bramacharya, on the mental plane.'
Shrimadji said, 'You should not do any of these things merely for the sake of appearances.
You should not perform penance merely for the sake of show.
The main thing is to eat meagerly so as to shed all craving for delicacies and keep yourself only half-fed.
If there is a fine dish on your plate, pass it on to someone else.'
On one occasion, when Shrimadji was on a visit to Kavitha, one shri Pragjibhai, put this question to Shrimadji at the end of a discourse at Zaversheth's place.
Pragjibhai asked, 'For sure, there is in us a strong urge to pursue the path of devotion, of bhakti. But there is this belly of ours which asks to be filled, and which again is given by God Himself. So there is little that we can do about it, for we are helpless.'
At this, Shrimadji asked, 'Suppose we provide the right reply to your belly?' and turned to Zaversheth and made this recommendation to him, 'Please give him the same plateful of food you usually take yourself, twice a day, and keep him well-supplied with a pot of drinking water.
In return, he shall confine himself to the upper storey of this upashrey, monastery, and spend all his time in religious devotion, to bhakti.
He has to abide by this condition, though; he is not even so much to peep outside no matter what the temptation, whether it be a wedding party singing on its way.
He shall not indulge in small talk or any worldly gossip. If some spiritually-minded soul turns up, he can engage in talk on devotional matters. but otherwise he is to refrain from talking of any worldly matters and nor is he to listen to anyone talking in that vein.'
On hearing these words, Pragjibhai immediately protested, saying, 'No, I am sorry, I cannot carry this out, no.'
Shrimadji now said, 'So the truth is out.
This soul is not inclined to follow the path of devotion and so puts all the blame, on the belly.
Was there ever a man who died of starvation in pursuing the path of true devotion?
You see, this is the trap in which a worldly soul is often caught.'
