Good morning!

Welcome everyone, to this Siddha Yoga Satsang in Honor of Bhagavan Nityananda’s Solar Punyatithi.

My name is Mark McLaughlin. I am a professor of South Asian Religions in Virginia, where I live with my wife, Asha, and our two sons, Ananda and Shambhu.

And I am thrilled to be serving as a visiting sevite here in Shree Muktananda Ashram! I am equally thrilled to serve as your host for this satsang.

On Wednesday, July 31, a satsang was held in honor of Bhagavan Nityananda’s Lunar Punyatithi with Gurumayi in the Bhagavan Nityananda Temple. Shivalini Kinsley was the host and spoke about the significance of Bade Baba’s punyatithi. There was one sentence from Shivalini’s remarks that Gurumayi asked her to repeat again for all the participants. It is this sentence that I wish to further explore with you here today.

The sentence is:

Today marks the 63rd lunar anniversary of the day Bhagavan Nityananda left his physical form and bestowed his divine merit, his punya, on all his devotees—those who worship and love him.

Then Gurumayi asked what people understood from this sentence. After a number of us shared, Gurumayi asked Ujagar Kushnick and me to reiterate what we had said.

My comment focused on the process by which a great being bestows their punya upon their devotees when leaving the body, and Ujagar’s comment focused on what actions a devotee takes in order to receive the punya.

Today, in this satsang, we will delve deeper into this extraordinary and mysterious event of Bade Baba’s bestowal of divine punya. And we will explore how we, the disciples of the Guru, become receptive to receiving this immense gift.

As Shivalini explained, punya means “merit,” and in the case of a Siddha, such as Bhagavan Nityananda, it means “divine merit.”

Punya is a particular kind of karma. Karma,as many of you know, refers to the actions performed, as well as the consequence of those actions over time. Punya-karma, then, denotes actions or deeds that bring good merits, good fortune, or blessings.

Now let’s think about that for a moment in relation to Bhagavan Nityananda—a born Siddha, a mahasiddha. Can you even begin to imagine the immeasurable merit accrued by Bhagavan Nityananda over the course of his lifetime through his selfless and compassionate actions?

When a liberated being leaves their physical form at the end of their life, a most miraculous occurrence takes place with their punya-karma. To understand this, we must first talk about prana, one’s life force, the life force that enlivens the physical body. This is because one’s karma, including one’s punya-karma, is stored in their prana.

When an ordinary person passes from this life, their prana travels to a new life that is shaped by the karma within their prana.

However, when a liberated being, like Bade Baba, leaves their body, their prana does not travel to a new life—such a one does not take birth again. Instead, taking hold of the practice of meditation, a liberated one draws their life force into the central channel of their being and ascends upward to the crown of the head, where they merge with supreme Consciousness.

Since they are now utterly free, unbounded, infinite, and eternal, the prana is no longer needed. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which forms part of the Yajur Veda, describes this culminating event in the life of a perfected being this way:

One who is without desire, … whose desire has been attained, whose desire is the Self [na tasya prana utkramanti], their prana does not ascend. Being Brahman, they go to Brahman.¹

You see, the punya stored in the prana of a Siddha remains in the crown of the head, where it continues to emanate their great merit for the benefit of all those who worship and love them.

This boundless storehouse of punya gathered by Bade Baba over his long lifetime is his eternal gift to us all. This is the benevolent power we experience radiating from his Samadhi Shrine in Ganeshpuri Village.

Yet this power is not bound by the space of the Samadhi Shrine. Being boundless and eternal, it is immediately accessible to any of us wherever we are.

So, how do we receive and come to embody this gift of divine merit? The clue is in the second part of Shivalini’s sentence.

…[Bade Baba] bestowed his divine merit, his punya, on all his devotees—those who worship and love him.

“Those who worship and love him.”

This is the key to receiving Bade Baba’s sublime gift to us all. As Ujagar said in the Lunar Punyatithi satsang, “It is the act of worship that opens the devotee to receive the punya of the great being.”

Worship prepares our entire being to take in the great merit that Bade Baba is continually showering upon us. The scriptures and words of the poet-saints are replete with declarations that instruct us to worship the Guru with love and devotion.

Throughout his writings and poems, the great thirteenth-century Siddha, Jnaneshvar Maharaj, demonstrates for us how, through our worship and reverence, we receive this great merit.

Let me provide some exquisite examples of such verses from his renowned rendering and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, called the Jnaneshvari.

Jnaneshvar says:

Hail to you, O God and Guru.
You are like the wish-fulfilling tree,
which is beyond the power of thought to imagine,
the soil in which the seed of Self-knowledge grows.
Does the lotus hesitate to open when it receives the rays of the sun?
Doesn’t salt lose its form when touched by water?
Similarly, when I remember you,
I lose all thought of my own individuality….
…Since you have filled me with yourself,
I have lost all awareness of myself,
and my voice desires to praise you.²

Jnaneshvar is showing us here that through worship, we ready ourselves to receive what the Guru is giving us—the experience of our true Self. As our worship unfolds, we recognize the Guru’s presence within our hearts. Through this remembrance we dissolve the apparent separation between ourselves and the Guru. And this unity awareness brings forth a yearning to worship with ever more focus and love.

And now, we will do just that—we will give voice to our devotion to Bhagavan Nityananda by chanting Nityanandam Brahmanandam.

 
Please refresh your posture…

Breath easefully…

This namasankirtana is in the Yaman Kalyan raga, which evokes devotion, peace, and compassion.

And it invokes blessings.

Listen to the meaning of some of the beautiful names for Bade Baba that we will be chanting:

Nityanandam—“the bliss of the eternal”

Brahmanandam—“the bliss of the Absolute”

Shrigurudevam—“the divine Shri Guru”

Om Namo Nityanandam—Om, I bow to Bhagavan Nityananda.

Let’s chant in praise of our beloved Bade Baba.