NEWS BRIEFS

APRIL 2004

Maharasthra Tour

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj has recently traveled to the United States after a two-month stay in India, which included a six-day tour of Maharasthra, where he visited Ulhas Nagar, Vashi, Mahabaleshwar, and Pune. The spiritual leader touched down at Mumbai airport on February 16th, 2004 and proceeded to Ulhas Nagar where he gave the first spiritual discourse of the tour. Explaining that the entire creation emanated from the primal current of divine Light and Sound, he stressed the importance of realizing that this oneness underlies the entire universe.

At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), where he had been invited to speak, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj spoke on “Spiritual Science.” The professors, directors, and students attending were fascinated to hear the spiritual leader explain the integral relationship between science and spirituality. He said spirituality offers the answers we are seeking in life and science is the language best expressing these answers.

Following this, he journeyed to Vashi, a town near Mumbai that is being developed as a suburb to the larger, metropolitan city. In honor of his first visit, the whole town had been decorated with colorful posters and banners. Before Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj’s discourse, Mata Harbhajan Kaur Ji and Mata Rita Ji, offered a moving hymn by Mira Bai. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, discoursing on the verse, explained that some people lose their faith in God when they have no first-hand experience of the Divine. Outer rites and rituals do not satisfy a heart that is yearning to know the Lord. Through meditation, he said, we can connect to the inner Light and Sound principle reverberating within and experience the eternal love that awaits us.

In Pune, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj spoke to a gathering of 20,000 people, stressing that, like a compass, the needle of our attention should always point toward God. Among the many high points of the tour was the inauguration of Sant Rajinder Ashram in Ghansoli, where 150 children with lit candles stood along the roadside waiting for the spiritual leader to arrive. He also laid the foundation stone for the proposed two-acre Darshan Academy in the Chinchwid area of Pune, an event covered by all the major Hindi, English, and Marathi newspapers.

In Delhi

Saint Valentine's Day, a holiday from the West, was celebrated in India also. On February 14th Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj explained the deeper meaning of the holiday, saying it celebrates the love between the soul and God. We must understand, he said, that the more we love God, the more we receive God's grace and love so that we, in turn, become more loving and peaceful. On February 22nd, Darshan Academy Delhi celebrated its 7th Annual Day. With over 20,000 people in attendance, students from pre-school through ninth grade performed a play entitled, "The Awakened Soul," which focused on the journey of the soul away from God into the physical world and its subsequent spiritual awakening.

Tour to Rajasthan

On February 24, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj left Delhi for the desert state of Rajasthan, known for its great women saints Mira Bai, Sahjo Bai, and Daya Bai. The four-day tour took him to Kishan Garh, a city known for its marble industry, and Ajmer, renowned as the birthplace of the Sufi mystic, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. He also visited Phool Mahal Palace, the royal palace on the banks of a lake, now a hotel, where he met the king of Kishan Garh, Brajraj Singh, and his queen, Manishadevi.

Return to Delhi and Nearby Regions

In his efforts to give a series of spiritual discourses in different parts of Delhi, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj spoke in Paschim Vihar on March 4th. Before the spiritual leader’s address, the Union Minister for Labor, Shri Sahib Singh Verma, presented him with a plaque in honor of his tireless work toward world peace.

On the evening of March 10th, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj left for an evening talk at Rohtak, an hour's drive from Delhi, making a side trip to Chamria to inaugurate a new ashram. Accompanied by a long procession of cars, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj traveled to Bigas in UP. Here again, the spiritual leader, addressing huge numbers of people, stressed the fact that this world is an illusion, and with every passing second we are getting more entangled in its meshes. By connecting to the inner Light and Sound of God within ourselves, he explained, we can soar into the inner spiritual regions, thus dispelling the world's illusion and attaining our reunion with the Lord.