Even after death, a devotee of God faces obstacles, and that is the temptation of spiritual powers (siddhis). To overcome this, it is necessary for the devotee to have a strong resolve in their soul to serve only God. If their upasana is firm, then they are not enticed by any temptation. This Vachanamrut points out the factors that cause one to change their path after having walked on the path of God. One factor is extreme misery or extreme inconvenience. Whatever it may be, if misery falls, Maharaj, if a devotee is weak-hearted, they will sit down dejectedly. If confusion arises, they will also sit down dejectedly. If things do not go as they wished, they will also sit down dejectedly. So, if confusion arises and they sit down, what do they do? What judgment do they make? They abandon the service of God. They abandon it, what else? They do not abandon their own desires. They do not abandon anything else. In abandoning, what is it that gets abandoned by them? The service of God. They abandon the service of God. That is the only thing to be abandoned, there is nothing else to abandon. So, they abandon the service of God. And then they feel at ease. What was the trouble about? What was the confusion about? That they had to do this forcefully and they did not want to do it much, like that. So that was their confusion, so they abandon it and the confusion is gone, just like that. It is gone. What if they leave one seva and do another seva? Then how can it be said that they have left it? Huh? Why they leave one and do another, that is for them to understand. Why they do it, they have to understand. Otherwise, if God's seva is being done, it cannot be said to be abandoned. Then in what context did they leave the other one? The first, the first seva they left, in what context is it considered abandoned? Well, now they would know, the one who leaves would know, we wouldn't know why they left it. Leaving one for another, meaning they left a difficult one and took an easy one, or they left an easy one and took a difficult one, either of the two, both are possible. Gunatitanand Swami was told, Maharaj was traveling like this, and you were with Brahmanand Swami, so how did you end up with Atmanand Swami? So he said, "Maharaj, there was no one to serve Atmanand Swami, and serving Atmanand Swami was a bit difficult, as in, he used to restrict and scold a lot." And Brahmanand Swami was a great person, so there was not much restriction, and there was not much time, Maharaj, much. And there was more opportunity for various material objects, so I came here, like that. So, leaving one place and taking up another seva, in that he thought it might be a bit difficult. And if it is easy for someone, they might leave it saying, "It is difficult here, so let's take an easy one." Let's do the easy one. It is like that, why they change it, only they would know. So, is that considered a flaw in devotion to seva? Huh? Is that considered a flaw? If they leave a difficult one and take an easy one? Then it is considered a flaw. And if they leave an easy one and take a difficult one, then it is considered of higher quality, right? We will do as much as possible, as Maharaj said, then they perform bhakti bhakti Devotion to Bhagvãn. One of the four attributes of ekãntik dharma. There are nine types of bhakti: Tap to open in glossary → So that is the second choice. It is not the first choice, like that. It is not like "do or die", like that. And if it is deeply ingrained in the soul, then it is just like that, "do or die". That is called passion, right? When passion rises, what happens? Huh? To the other side. One factor is extreme misery or extreme inconvenience, which we call times of calamity or harsh circumstances. While the second factor is when someone opposes us, meaning they go after us, or when God tests the devotees, then the path of those with little patience changes. If there is little patience, the path changes. If there is proper patience, the path does not change. In addition, a third factor that shakes patience and changes the path is intense temptation. Beauty, taste, honor, wherever there is weakness in our soul, and the temptation of that very thing comes, then our path changes. Beauty, taste, honor, otherwise this lust, anger, greed, etc., lust, anger, greed, all those temptations are trivial and insignificant. This person has not developed such a yearning for seva in their soul. If a yearning arises in the soul, then all those other things move away, step aside, they do not obstruct them at all. That soul says, its weakness like that, crying over it, then Maharaj also consoled them that with this, feelings had come, Kathi and Koli came forward, and and Vaniya and Brahmin came, right? But if one is like Prahlad, then what can obstruct him? So was Hiranyakashipu like Kathi and Koli? So if one is like Prahlad, who has developed a yearning, then they face no problem. It must rise in the soul. Intense temptations of beauty, taste, honor, wealth, etc., also make one forget the path of God. If there is convenience, temptation means conveniences. Even if there is convenience, it makes that person forget. The paths of Saubhari, Parashar, Narad, Ekalashringi, Vashishtha, Govind Swami, etc., had changed due to intense temptations. The only way to overcome temptation is a strong desire or resolve to serve one's Ishtadev. Only one, no other however great, if this one thing is clung to in the soul, then they will cross over safely. God becomes subservient to them. Otherwise, no matter how great the patience is against temptations, temptations are greater than that. The patience of all those others would not be less. Saubhari, Parashar, for sixty-sixty thousand years sitting in a pool of water, then how much patience should be attributed to them? And an anthill grew over them, then how much patience should be attributed to them? So would they not have any patience? That other thing was not decided, that "we want to do only this". So the path diverted, that happened. They had made their patience firm in this, gathering all they had to make patience, only then an anthill could grow on them, and sixty thousand years passed, so their patience was not less. They had not decided that "I want to do only this service of God, nothing else", that had not risen in their soul. To fight against this had risen in the soul. But the meaning of patience is, what is the meaning of patience? Under no circumstance leave the path of God, do not leave seva. Its meaning is, there they did not have much of "not leaving the path of God", that very weakness has remained in this, if we look at historical examples, that is the only weakness, what else is there? But they had self-realization (atmanishta), right? It is indeed considered atmanishta. It is considered atmanishta. But not leaving the path of God, meaning God's seva, "I want to lose myself in God's seva", such, not that much firmness. They had this much firmness to perform penance, that "even if an anthill grows, it's fine," not caring for anything, but that same level of firmness to engage in God's seva was not there, like that. Looking at the examples, it seems so. Otherwise, where did Mirabai perform so much penance? Mirabai faced obstacles, right? But she overcame those obstacles because "Govinda is my life, the world seems bitter to me." "If poison comes, bring poison, no problem. But Govinda is my life, the world seems bitter to me." Was that called atmanishta or what? Was atmanishta mentioned so that patience does not waver? Even if there is atmanishta, if there is atmanishta, then in this ordinary patience, not like that, look at all these, these examples of ascetics, they overcame through atmanishta, like that. They spent sixty thousand years, an anthill grew, yet they did not waver. So that happened through atmanishta. But there remained a lack of upasana of God. So they wavered. Even then, they wavered later. Both are needed. Both are needed, like that. More than both of these, this is needed more. Firmness of God's upasana. Meaning, in simple language of upasana, devotion to God's seva, like that. We want to serve Maharaj, at any cost, and we do not want to back down from it, if that devotion is established, then it will carry them across. We must not forget that, we must ensure it is not lost, then it will carry them across. [inaudible] To overcome misery and calamity, atmanishta during life is useful. At the time of death, taking refuge (ashray) is useful to cross over. And to overcome temptations after or before death, devotion to God is useful. There must be devotion to seva. Devotion to God means there must be devotion to God's seva. To become better, one has to bear miseries and pay the price in the form of atmanishta. To improve the time of death and to cross over, one has to become a devotee and pay the price in the form of ashray. To overcome intense temptations, one has to pay the price in the form of upasana. Without God's upasana, hard labor, final tests, or intense temptations cannot be overcome. That is the very characteristic of true upasana, which overcomes all these three. Then it is considered true devotion to seva, not being enticed anywhere. In conveniences, no matter what kind of disguise they come in, right? All these might come in disguise, saying, "Come, now let's do this, like that." But they want to make them leave seva, at any cost, seva. Even then, in any temptation and in any form it has come, yet they do not leave it, then it is called upasana of God. Tatra brahmatmaka krishna krishna 1) An avatãr of Bhagvãn. He incarnated in the svarup of a cowherd. This is considered to be a greater avatãr than the others, as Shree Krishna possessed all of the powers of Bhagvãn, whereas other avatãrs possessed less power. Shree Krishna conveyed the message of love and humanity to the world. Also, He recited the epic poem, the Bhagvad Geetã, to Arjun in which He stated: ‘Whenever dharma declines and adharma increases, I shall incarnate myself as a human to save the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, and to establish dharma. I come into being from yug to yug’. 2) In the Vachanãmrut, Shreeji Mahãrãj also uses the name “Shree Krishna” to describe Bhagvãn Purushottam Nãrãyan. Tap to open in glossary → If they do not decide here, how can it happen there? So they must decide here in life. And if they decide in life, then they remain there. After death, no change occurs in our soul. After death, no change occurs in life; if one wants to make a change, do it before dying. That change especially happens in the age of youth. Does it happen when one is old? For them, everything is already finished. The old cannot do anything. The changes that happen in the age of youth, happen when one is capable. Then, if they have been doing it and have respected doing it in youth, even when they grow old, this happens. But if they have done nothing now and have only increased their natures, then when they are old, it increases further. Nothing happens to them now. So changes happen in youth. And devotion to God's seva, happens only then. It is decided in the mind and soul, gradually as it is decided in the soul, a knot of firmness is tied, then they overcome all temptations. Because of that, overcoming temptations becomes easy, the support, on that support one overcomes. And if there is no such support, one cannot overcome. Such temptations come that they dissolve a person. Or if obstacles come, they dissolve them, so. Without God's upasana, hard labor, final tests, or intense temptations cannot be overcome. That is the very characteristic of true upasana, which overcomes all these three. They perform the hardest of hard labor. If the upasana of Swaminarayan Bhagwan has risen in their soul, then they make efforts that no one else would make. And no matter what obstacle comes, they overcome it. And no matter what temptation there is, they do not stop in it. Only then is it said that devotion to Swaminarayan Bhagwan's seva, or in other words, upasana, has been established. Until then, it cannot be said to be established. Until one passes through these three tests, it cannot be said to be established, it is considered weak. AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details