Life Sketch » Balyogi Narayan Sai: A Spiritually Enlightened and a Divine Personality

In the Srimad Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna has said "One who is engrossed in realising me, lives for me, and who is my devotee dies before realising me, he in the next life takes birth in the enlightened family which is devoted to God and such a person again realises me in no time". We still feel the truth of the above words of Lord in the present day. The national Saint His Holiness Reverend Asaram Bapuji with the inspiration of his spiritual preceptor and Guru His Holiness Shri Lila Shah invoked a divine and unique personality for the welfare of the humanity, especially for the youth. With the union of a great yogi given to solitude and yoga and a saintly lady Mother Laxmi Devi who is an embodiment of power and strength a child took birth who is the man of the masses and spiritually enlightened. While this child was in the mother's womb he inculcated in him ideas and thoughts of knowledge and devotion to God. The child took birth on 29th January, 1972, a very auspicious day. While with the child in her womb Mother Laxmi Devi used to think for long about the divine image of Lord Krishna. These were the ecstatic moments for her.

Because of such type of concentration and meditation from the very childhood the signs of spiritual attraction, power sweetness, calm and peace were visible. This simple but attractive, with fair and reddish complexion child was named as Narayan. It appeared as if he is the incarnation of God Himself in human form. Soon after his birth Pujya Lilashahji Maharaj visited the house on a rainy day to bless him. He called mother Laxmi Devi to bring Narayan and he blessed him by putting his hand on his forehead.

The great man who is able to give strength and inculcate devotion in the people belonging to various religions, sects and different schools of thought and as a result of whose touch and sermons people get rid of bad habits such as gambling, falsehood etc. and atheist become believers in God and ultimately they become great saints themselves, then who can doubt the greatness and piety of such a child?

There is an Urdu couplet-
"Lakhon gulistan sanware hain jisne, uske gulon ki baat na puchho.
Ujiyara kiya sare jahan ko jisne, uske jane-jahan ki baat hi na puchho "
With the growth of age, wisdom and spiritual urge, humility and devotion have been simultaneously developed in the child who is both smart and strong. It is wisely said -

Saint beej palate nahin chahe yug beete anant,
oonch neech ghat avatare,
rahen saint ke saint
The Saint visits the saint and so the Yogi comes to a Yogi. Day by day the father and son developed friendly relations. For about 4-5 years the young child remained with his maternal uncle and thereafter with his father. It was a unique relationship - that of a son and father and that of a disciple and the Guru. The relationship became deeper and deeper day by day. It will be in the fitness of circumstances to mention here that he remained with mother Laxmi Devi for a very short period. Narayan always remained and behaved like a disciple and seeker of truth.

At times the young man curiously asked spiritual questions from Gurudeva and sometimes His Holiness Gurudeva himself cleared the doubts which the young seeker felt.Thus the Gurudev hit hard at the roots of the doubts which the young boy came across.

Some time he listened to the gospels of Bapu with full attention and while at other times he often passed into trance and lost consciousness. He used to be so engrossed in the Satsang that it took some time to bring him back to normal position. It is beyond the knowledge of those persons who were sitting beside him to know where he had lost himself. He was barely 7-8 years of age when Bapu initiated him into the spiritual life. While he used to be in his meditation pious thoughts of devotion were visible in him. Sometimes his throat used to get chocked with devotion and ecstasy and sometimes he would burst out into laughter while at other times, suddenly, he would weep loudly. Yogic activities and yogic positions were being practised by him. It is very difficult to do all this at such a small age. Sitting in meditation for long became just routine with him.

As a result of meditation and concentration, young Narayan achieved a divine state of being. He imbibed in him the divine qualities such as peace, truth, forgiveness, generosity magnanimity, non-violence, celibacy, self-control,divine bliss, fellow feeling, etc. Because of his divine qualities and nature those who were near him started identifying him with God. His Holiness Bapu dissuades people from thinking so about him. But those who really see him as God they don't stop, rather they go ahead with their conviction and consider him a manifestation of God.

On the one hand, he is becoming divine day by day, on the other hand, his interest in the worldly knowledge is reducing. Going to school became a burden on him. Schooling went on normal till 3rd standard. But as he joined the Ashram, formal education became a burden on him. Education for him was some sort of punishment. While going to school or coming from the school to Ashram he often used go deep into the jungles where he used to sit in mediation. His behaviour with other classmates was generous. He used to distribute his meals among other fellow students and often remained without food himself. His teachers loved him very much.

Teachers sometimes left their meals and joined him in divine discussion. Sometimes they asked him to chant the couplets of Ramayana or Gita. From the school books he used to pick up only those stories and couplets which concerned the life of great men and saints and which were in accordance with the religious scriptures and which could be easily understood and followed. Other things which were irrelevant and useless were left out by him. Aim of his life was not to pass examinations.

He only remembered those lessons which were beneficial and good for life. As regards different portions of the books he only read those portions with concentration which were meaningful and useful. The rest of the time he passed in Self practice. While in his studies he used to peep out of the windows and observe the plight of the people who travelled by scooters and buses. He, while thinking about the momentary and transitory value of the world used to pass on in deep meditation.

He could stand the rebukes and reprimands of the teachers, could face the failures in examinations but he did not like the meaningless discussions nor he took interest in things which were transitory and momentary. Education which distracted him from spirituality made him helpless. He often thought that he might not succeed in the worldly tests but he must pass out the test which aims at renunciation. He was confident that he must pass out the test which would lead him to God realisation. This attitude may seem strange but those who know the spiritual path and who realised it; and who took up courage to follow this path and those who attained perfection on this path are great and scholars, men of letters, learned people all bow before him.

He was never averse to his studies because of his incompetency to learn. Intellectually, he was so sharp that whatever he saw or worked on once, he used to master that thing with ease then let it be music, both vocal and instrumental, sports, swimming, driving and navigation of aeroplane etc. he learnt in no time.

Unlike other ordinary youth this was not the end in itself for him. Under the spiritual guidance of his great father this young and great youth took the path spiritual in order to attain self realisation. At the very tender age of eight years he accompanied Bapu in the jungles of Mount Abu for 'Yog Sadhna'. Sometimes he was very close to Bapu and while at other times he was away from him but in both the situations he was inspired by Bapu and got his blessings. By the practice we mean spiritual penance of previous births helped him a lot in this life. The devotees of Bapu often tell that once Shri Bapuji had mentioned during one of the spiritual discourses that in his previous life Narayan was a Bengali 'Sadhu' i.e. a Bengali saint and his name was Keshvanand, who did great penance in the jungles of Mount Abu in 'NAL CAVE'. For keeping himself bodily fit he used to take milk or rice (Bhat) as his meals. Even today he is very fond of rice (Bhat).

Right from his very childhood he was a seeker of truth and his nature was serious and introverted. He did not lose balance of mind even if he was placed in the uneven circumstances. He loved solitude. It has become a part of his life. Even in the spirit-ual discourse when there is lot of rush, he somehow used to find a solitary place, where there was no noise. That is why Narayan the Balyogi became famous by the name of Narayan Swami. He could study only up to 9th class. In his last answer book he wrote 'Om Hari, Om Hari Om' and came out of the examination. It appeared as if he was bidding good-bye to the little use of the worldly knowl-edge and education . He had acquired the real knowledge much earlier. He was already initiated into the spiritual world much earlier.