Adalaj, Gujarat, India

The Dada Bhagwan Foundation celebrated the auspicious 114th birthday of Late Shree Ambalal Muljibhai Patel, fondly known as Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan or the Gnani Purush. He is revered as the spiritual scientist of the Akram path to Self-realization and is the founder of the organization.

Organized from 17th to 21st November 2021 at the headquarters in Adalaj, Gujarat; the event was held in the divine presence of Pujya Deepakbhai Desai, the current spiritual head leading the organization.

With full adherence to the state's COVID-19 protocols, this five-day event was celebrated in the physical presence of 400-500 spiritual seekers per session along with hundreds of other national and international seekers on Akonnect (their proprietary mobile app) and YouTube.

The event started with the insightful question and answer session wherein the spiritual seekers asked their most perplexing, problematic, or knowledge-seeking questions to which they sought practical and enlightening answers from Pujya Deepakbhai. Each session was of 2.5 hours held in morning and evening daily, except for the day marking the birthday of the organization’s founder.

On this day, all seekers got a divine opportunity to do the darshan of Pujya Deepkbhai in person, an event for which they were waiting for past two years. Pujya Deepakbhai, fondly called Pujyashree, did the pujan of the Gnani Purush after which He gave a spiritually inclined message to the seekers so that they can become spiritually strong and progress easily towards the ultimate liberation.

According to an attendee, “This time, Pujyashree’s Janma Jayanti (birthday) message of doing inner penance is a much-needed booster. Penance is perhaps the only area where we all seekers seem to lack. After listening from Him, I feel so motivated to do this penance 24 x 7.”

After message, He gave one-to-one darshan to each seeker present in the Dadanagar convention centre to bless them to become pure for the salvation of the world. It was for the first time after COVID-19 that this live darshan ceremony was held.

The newly elected Chief Minister of the state, Shree Bhupendrabhai Patel, also came to do the darshan of Pujyashree on this day and seek blessings to perform his political and other duties with purity, meaning without the intention for pride, money, envy, and lust.

At night, the seekers rejoiced the choir bhakti wherein the live singers sung the spiritual praises of the Gnani Purush and the instrument players just made the overall experience melodious and blissful.

Another significant highlight was the Gnan Vidhi ceremony, which is a 2-hour process of realizing one’s own Self (https://www.dadabhagwan.org/self-realization/). The only prerequisites to attend ceremony are humility and an open heart. It is worth noticing that this precious session was held at no cost or fees.

According to a new seeker who attended this ceremony, “The Gnan Vidhi of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan is matchless. It gives us the same knowledge that Arjun received from Shree Krishna Bhagwan, Lord Ram received from His guru – Vashisht Muni, and what Jesus said to recognize (Know Thy Self). Religion now stops and spirituality starts for me! This is an indescribable feeling and a revolutionary transition.”

This ceremony marked the end of this five-day spiritually uplifting event.