And why do great saints suffer from illness? The answer is, there is no deficiency in them, but if there is even a slight body-consciousness, it is removed through illness; for that reason, Maharaj gives them illness. If there is illness, is body-consciousness removed? Is it removed, or what happens? Have you ever fallen ill? Ordinary people don't get it much. Great people don't get well. That's how it is. When ordinary people fall very ill, what do they know about illness? Like, what is a headache? They say that. They may not have it, but if illness comes, body-consciousness... here Swami has written that if illness comes, body-consciousness is removed. So, to remove it, God... like Muktanand, right? So illness applies to everyone, it applies to ordinary people too. So when ordinary people fall ill, is their body-consciousness removed, or does it increase, or does it remain equal? What happens? What do you say? If one wants to remove it. Yes? What if it is a good illness? And what if it is a very pleasant illness? If one wants to remove it, it is removed. I thought if it is good, it is removed. Otherwise, pleasant, and even in illness, pleasant and very rough, it is like that. VIP. Yes? VIP illness. If it is a VIP illness, is body-consciousness removed or not? Yes? So now what? You should not comment on anyone. The time for commenting is just after this. So Maharaj did say that... well, Swami did say that if there is illness and one takes it positively, it is removed. And if one cannot take it positively and has attachment, it is not removed. Maharaj has said, right, that Muktanand Swami has fallen ill, but Muktanand Swami takes it positively. Maharaj said, "Check my pulse." So Muktanand Swami said, "Maharaj, there is a lot of deficiency. The whole satsang satsang 1) True company. The practice of associating with Bhagvãn’s sant, other satsangis, the ãtmã, and the sacred shãstras, and also observing vartmãns and niyams. 2) Also refers to the sampradãy, which is the presence of good company. Tap to open in glossary → Maharaj said, "What deficiency is there in that?" That is, "Maharaj, you have a fever." So fever is good, Maharaj said. "We had gone to the forest to perform penance anyway, so if it comes here and makes us perform penance, it is good," he said. So if one takes it positively, one's body-consciousness decreases. If one takes it negatively, one's body-consciousness... if one becomes agitated, body-consciousness does not decrease. In any adverse situation, if a person becomes agitated, God cannot help them. And if one keeps taking it positively, keeps some patience, thinks calmly, and remembers Maharaj, then it helps in removing body-consciousness. Whether they are old or young, everyone. For young people, the only difference is that when illness comes, that happens, but then they become strong again, so that goes away again. It would have gone. So that is the difference between young and old. If they are great and of very old age, and have some attachment to body-consciousness, Maharaj, Swami says, then God gives them illness. We have examples, right? Shukanand Swami asked Maharaj for such a thing. Shukanand Swami, Gunatitanand Swami, and Gopalanand Swami, those three gathered, after Maharaj passed away. And Swami knew all about it, and they were all scholars of scriptures, that the final moments are very difficult. Leaving the body is very difficult. What if something goes wrong then? So Gopalanand Swami said, "We should sit in lotus posture and leave by breaking the crown of the head." Through the path of yoga, go straight to Maharaj, nothing can obstruct us. Gunatitanand Swami said, "Just as we put on a sheet and then take it off and put it aside, in the same way, leave the body and go." And Swami passed away in that manner. He was doing all the work until evening and passed away at night. He passed away as if he had put aside a shawl. Shukanand Swami said, "I do not have such capability, brother, I am not a yogi yogi 1) A person who has mastered the art of yog. 2) A person who has attained siddh-dashã and other extraordinary powers. Tap to open in glossary → That, "Maharaj, if you are to take me to the divine abode, before that, give me a mild fever for six months. Not continuously, but give me a mild fever." So Maharaj did give it. If there is a mild fever, one does not feel like eating or drinking, has no appetite, remains weak, feels bored, all that keeps happening, so one becomes detached and anyway has reached the end. So one feels in the mind that now it would be good if Maharaj takes me. Then Maharaj would be waiting, saying, "Come." So in that way, if one thinks positively, illness helps them. It happens to ordinary people too. If one thinks positively and takes advantage of it, illness helps ordinary people too. Otherwise, it does not help great people or anyone. And if there are two equal devotees... Bhagatji is saying something. Like Shukanand Swami, should we also ask Maharaj for this? What is Bhagat saying? Like Shukanand Swami, should we also pray to Maharaj, ask for it or not? Why should we do it? Right now we are strong, so we should pray to serve. We will do it when it is late. Okay Swami, Jay Swaminarayan. In this, it was mentioned that if great saints fall ill, their body-consciousness or ego decreases. Yes. Something like that was mentioned, right? Yes, it was mentioned that why does illness affect great saints? So Swami said that if Maharaj gives them illness, if there is any body-consciousness, it is removed, and they go to God's abode purified. That's why Maharaj gives it, or sometimes saints have prayed, many times we see that they pray. Yes. So in the present context, as we see our elders, or in temples, or such realized seekers like Ramakrishna Dev Dev A demi-god who is given powers and responsibilities in the universe, and who lives in a higher lok. Devs are bhaktas of Bhagvãn and follow His ãgnã. Tap to open in glossary → I didn't understand. Great saints, when they fall ill at the end and leave the body, ordinary people might feel that they must have had body-consciousness, so... No, not like that, but one can think positively that it was a virtue in them to remove body-consciousness. Ordinary people should not think that they had body-consciousness. And they respected the disease which is harmful to body-consciousness, because it was harmful to body-consciousness, so one can take such a lesson that we should also do the same. Like that. But that does not mean taking a negative view of the great ones, that they were all egoistic. One should not think negatively about the great ones, otherwise it leads to downfall. Yes. But then what is your point? My point is that suppose these great saints, in our lifetime, our own elders are or were healthy or ill. Yes, yes. So hearing this, people like us or anyone might think that Gopalanand Swami has written this, so those are not good thoughts. So what resolution should they make in their mind? After hearing this. In that, one should not make such a resolution about the great ones, this is about oneself when illness comes... about those great ones, we... hasn't Gunatitanand Swami said that if one person is chanting and others are not, and he thinks that all these people are just eating and sleeping and I am the only one doing it, then whatever he does is burnt. But it can also be understood that they have already done it before, only I am left. So I have to do it, then he will have no problem. So a positive thought... suppose, whatever the situation of the great ones, only they and Maharaj know. 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