Bhagavad-Gita refers
to unaccomplished yogis as yoga-brashta. In that context, I would like
to make it clear that I am not a person who is described in the ‘Gita'
as the one who has deviated from or whose yoga is incomplete. I wish
that nobody would attempt to label me by such a name, because I have
not gone through such an experience. I have to request therefore that
if someone makes such an attempt in future, treat it as misleading and
far from reality. I am only an ordinary child of God and I wish to
live and be known as such.
Do the basic
components of the body and the mind change drastically by the performance
of ‘Sadhana'? This indeed is the belief of experienced saints. I have not
undergone such a severe ‘Sadhana'. Yet, I have been experiencing for the
past several years that my body and mind have undergone a complete
makeover. I do not feel at all that I was born anywhere. I am in a state
of complete transformation or metamorphosis. It is not a mere feeling, nor
a figment of imagination. Rather, it is a concrete fact. It would be quite
difficult for an outsider to understand it. Yet, I am stating only the
fact. A few experienced people may take it sympathetically and probably
can understand it.
Let no one conclude from this that I was not born normally like everybody
else in the world. That is not at all what I mean. It is not as though my
physical existence has not been the result of the biological act of some
other human bodies, and has come into existence on this earth without
taking support of any other human being or that, I descended miraculously
from the heaven. Such an idea is totally unfounded. Like all others, my
body has also come into existence in the usual way as a physical
phenomenon. However, that body and my present body seem to be far apart.
I cannot help feeling that the body that come into being through the
conjugal act between my parents has been completely transformed as a
result of ‘Sadhana' and I have entered into a new state of mind. That is
why I do not feel attached, as I should, to my home, my birthplace,
mother, sister and other dear ones. For long, I have been experiencing
that I have been born anew or my whole existence has emerged as a new
incarnation.
Being in that state,
if I should talk in ordinary terms, I can say that I was born in a Brahmin
family at Saroda, situated between Ahmedabad and Dholka. My father's name
was Manilal and my mother’s name was Jadavben. Saroda is a small village
having mixed population, with a majority of Brahmins. Agriculture is the
main occupation of the people. The sacred Sabarmati River flows near by
the village. I was born on Monday, August 15, 1921. According to the
Indian calendar, it was the twelfth day of the bright fortnight in the
lunar month of Shravana. It was almost the time of sunrise. The sign of
zodiac at the time of my birth was Sagittarius (‘Dhan’ rashi).
Accordingly, I was named Bhailal.
