Select Excerpts from the Personal Diary of Late Shri Shanker Nath Fotedar, a life-long Devotee of the Great Yogi, Shri Bhagawaan Gopinathji

OM is the symbol of God Ishwara and Braham.

OM is your real name.

OM covers the whole three-fold experiences of man.

OM stands for all phenomenal world.

OM represents the physical, mental and astral planes.

OM represents the whole deep sleep-state and all that is unknown in your wakeful state, all that is beyond the reach of intellect.

OM represents all.

OM is the basis of your life, thought and intelligence.

OM is everything.

All words denoting objects are centered in OM.

Hence the whole world has come from OM, rests on OM and dissolves in OM. Guru, Ishwara, Brahm, truth and OM are one.

BHAKTI

Bhakti is based on the strong theism of the Bhagwata Cult. The Narayana or Vasudeva cult and Pashupati and Shiva Cult are the twin covenants of that permeate, the devotional side of Hinduism. The supreme person or god is thought by Vashnavites (worshippers of Vaishnav) as Narayan who transcends the trinity of Brahmah, Vaishnav and Rudra. The shavites (worshippers of Lord Shiva) consider Lord Shiva as the Supreme Lord. The conception of personal God is the same though the name and form may vary. We can appreciate the strong prediction of the votaries of Narayana as Shiva to their respective chosen torms of Brahman better if we understand that Bhakti is centered on emotional appeal. Phelgmatic people and men of cold logic can never be moved to the ecstatic state of Bhakti.

SAINT

A saint can help one to attain a stage wherein the experience of knowledge is possible. But for this the aspirant must get something like a shock (to awaken him from his dreams)...

The teaching of saints, the intensity of their messages and the influence created by them directly or indirectly on the atmosphere roundabout help the humanity, in general, to attain the truth.

RELIGION

True religion is not what we get from outside, from books and teachers. It is not the religion of routine which we adopt as a matter of habit. The saints pray without break. Their whole life is "one single great continuing prayer." By it we not only ascend to God but attain the revelation of God in the heart of man. When insight into the truth is attained passions are subdued, ill-will subsides and inward conflict ceases. When the spark in us is released it becomes fire which cleanses the earth. It can be released only if we end our narrow egoism, greed, anger, hatred, all the restricting appetites and passions which keep the individual locked up inside his moral stuff. Every religion provides a ladder to perfection which we have to climb by effort.

GURU AS HEALER

A Guru's work in this world is to alleviate sufferings of people through spiritual or intellectual counsel or will-power, escaping to super-consciousness whenever he so desires. A master can become oblivious of his physical illness, sometimes to set up example to disciples he bears the pain stoically. By putting on the ailment of others the Yogi can, for them, satisfy the karmic law of cause and effect. The law is mechanically or mathematically operative. Its working may scientifically be manipulated by men of divine wisdom.

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