The Early Years
The auspicious birth of our beloved Guruji Swami Hari Har Ji Maharaj took place on the full moon day, in the month of Phalgun in the year 1899. He was named as Sri Fateh Raj Ji Purohit. He was born to a family of respected Brahmins. His father Sri Jeth Mal Ji Purohit was an Honourable Judge of the court of the then Jodhpur state being ruled by His Highness Maharaj of Jodhpur state. Swamiji got his early education at Sri Sumer Pushtekar School, Jodhpur.
In the year 1928, His Holiness went to Karachi (Sindh), in undivided India along with his elder brother, Sri Damodhar Purohit Ji. There Swamiji initiated and founded a number of Institutions like, Pustak Bhandar, Marwari Vidyalaya, Gujarati Pracharak Mandal, Navyug Sewa Dal and Marwari Sabha of which he was appointed President. He worked mostly in Pali area of Marwar in Rajasthan.
He was also an expert in making carpets and had acquired complete knowledge of running a printing press. He was a real Karma Yogi following the principles as enshrined in the Bhagawad Geeta…
karmany evaa’dhikaaras te
maa phaleshu kadaacana
maa karmaphalahetur bhuur
maa te sango ’stv akarmani (Ch. 2, vs. 47)
Participation in India’s Freedom Struggle
Swamiji Maharaj, was a very energetic young man. He was a prominent and active member of the Indian National Congress. He got a call from the revolutionary freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to work actively for mother India’s freedom against British rule. He immediately gave up Pustak Bhandar shop in Karachi and left barefoot to join the freedom struggle. He followed the preaching of the Geeta..
sukhaduhkhe same kritvaa
laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau
tato uddhaaya yujyasva
nai’vam paapam avaaapsyasi (Ch. 2 vs. 38)
He was a staunch revolutionary and spent most of his youth underground facing many hardships. Several warrants were issued against him by the then British Government and he was kept under strict vigilance. He used to constantly keep Geetaji and a revolver by his side. During the underground period, he assumed a variety of disguises including Bhudev Shastri, Fateh Mohd, George Ferdes, Samt Fateh Singh, etc. When Swami Ji was arrested, he spent many years in British jails in India but he never gave up his struggle for freedom. Maharaj Ji worked in the company of eminent leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan, Pandit Madan Mohan, Sri Aurobhindo Ghosh, Shahedd Sardar Bhagat Singh, Sardar Ballav Bhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. S. Radha Krishnan and many more.
Soon after India’s independence, its first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru invited Swamiji to join the Government of Independent India but His Holiness refused as by that time, He had become a Sannyasi and had already chosen the spiritual path of self realization.
Journey to Spiritual Enlightenment
Maharaj Ji’s transformation from an active freedom fighter to a supreme Yogi is truly a change guided by the supreme will of God. Arjuna, in the battlefield of Kurukshetra was similarly directed by the Lord..
tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogi
jnaanibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikah
karmibhyash caa dhiko yogi
tasmaad yogi bhavaa ’rjuna (Ch. 6, vs. 46)
The events which attracted him to Krishna is an episode related to his brother’s foot injury. All medical attention could not heal the wound of his brother. On hearing of a sage, a Holy Baba having miraculous yogic power, he carried his brother on his back, to him. The Baba observed complete silence and never spoke to anyone.
One day, a weeping woman brought her dead child and would not leave the Baba. After a long time, Baba hit the child with a stick and lo and behold, the child stood up in front of everyone.
Similarly, the Baba hit the leg of Swamiji’s brother and his brother started recovering. Maharaj Ji brought his brother home but himself did not enter the house.
Swami Ji turned back and rushed to the village of Holy Baba. On reaching the village he went near the blessed sacred hut and prostrated himself before the Holy Baba. Swami Ji’s determination and faith were so strong that he gave up everything and started living as a Sannyasi in the village itself. Although he lived away from the Holy Baba’s hut, Swami Ji surrendered himself completely to the Holy Baba and served him day and night. After a month of testing time, he was accepted for initiation by the Holy Baba. Swami Ji got up early, took his bath, performed his meditation, changed his clothes and went straight to the Holy Baba’s hut with flowers and fruits in his hands as offerings. The Holy Baba gave him a divine smile and gave Swami Ji Guru Diksha. He also blessed Swami Ji with innumerable spiritual powers.
Journey to Attainment of God
After being blessed with the guiding light and power from the Holy Baba, Swami Ji with full of faith and devotion, started his journey, his sadhana to attain Lord Sri Krishna. For this sadhya, he was instilled with faith in the truth of the verse found in the Geeta…
sattvaanuruupaa sarvasya
shraddhaa bhavati bhaarata
shraddhaamayo ’yam purusho
yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah (Ch. 17, vs. 3)
Maharaj Ji did Tapasya – intense meditation and severe penance for twenty years in the hills of Rajasthan. As a Maha Yogi, he rebelled against the “tyranny of the flesh, the myopia of the mind and the pride of the ego”. His jeweled sayings radiate the light and joy of a Siddha (illumined soul). He was one who has shown the way to control the senses. For the last 70 years of his life, he refrained from taking cereals, salt and water. Occasionally did he take some milk and boiled vegetables.
He was ultimately graced by the vision of Lord Sri Krishna. Maharaj Ji requested the Lord for the benevolence of the vision of Sri Radha Ji along with the Lord. They blessed Shree Gurudev Maharaj Ji.
aharaj Ji then appeared at Mathura, the birth place of Lord Sri Krishna. He then carried out the Lord’s wishes by giving the jnana form of Lord Sri Krishna, the Bhagavad Gita a home and thus, the first Gita Ashram came into existence.
It is well known that Maharaj Shree had the vision of the past, present as well as the future. He had divine powers which included giving eyesight to the blind, curing his devotees of grave diseases. He also had the power of granting boons and material wealth which was a very small thing for him. His sole aim was to propagate the Supreme source of all bliss, the Bhagavad Geeta to anyone who desired to attain liberation. To this cause he devoted the rest of his life and was instrumental in the building of many Geeta Ashrams all over the world. The administrative office of Geeta Ashram was set up in New Delhi. Its foundation stone was laid by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India. It now functions as the Headquarters of International Federation of Geeta Ashrams – formed in 1974. Under its auspices, national seminars and international conferences are held from time to time in various countries.
It is difficult to find adequate words to sing the glories of this Great Master described as “one of the greatest Tapasavis of the present era” by H.H. Jagad Guru Shankaracharyaji. He is the Geeta incarnated. He is Ramanujacharya in devotion to Lord Krishna and He is Vallabhacharya in His Bhakti (devotion) to the Lord. He was always touring the world (even at the age of 100) to dispel darkness and gloom and to weave humanity in the bond of universal brotherhood and peace based on the teachings of the Geeta. Like the Sun, Revered Gurudev illumined all. His love encompassed all rich and poor, male and female, young and old irrespective of man-made boundaries.
The Geeta Dham near Jodhpur is His vision of spirituality in the midst of activities while being in harmony with the environment. This should be the goal of every person.
Swamiji left his physical body on 30th March 2000 at New Delhi, at the age of one hundred and one years. In our hearts and minds, we know that He is with us all the time. He is regulating our good activities while spreading the universal teachings of the Geeta.
Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwarah
Guru Sakshaat Param Brahma
Tasmai Sri Guruve Namah
(Article courtesy www.geetamalaysia.org/PDF/HariHarji.pdf)
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