The Divine Abode

by Chariji, November 2, 2008, Inauguration of the Param Dham Meditation Hall at Bangalore , India .

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I welcome you all to this wonderful place that the Mission has built. It has been named Paramdham. Those of you who have been familiar with the Gita know that Lord Krishna says, That place to which you reach and from which you don't return, that is my Paramdham, my Divine Abode yad gatvaa na nivartante, tad dhaama paramam mamah.

So I hope this place will fulfil a very I won't say sacred or holy, because they are neither, and I don't want to bring in religious connotations and convert this into a temple I hope this will fulfil the purpose of taking you up in your spiritual evolution to the Highest, which is what the Paramdhama means. It has been built with great love, great hope, great expectations that the people of Karnataka will benefit. I hope it will be used properly, regularly and fully.

It has been built with the generous donations of some thirty abhyasis, families, and there are rooms upstairs. I invite all of you to go up and have a look. There is a kitchen and a dining room, a meditation hall, an office building with a library opposite. And since spiritual places should provide for elderly people more than the younger people, we have also installed a lift, an elevator. The staircase you will see is beautifully designed as all of our staircases in the Mission are. Five-inch riser, at least seven-inch wide steps so that people can comfortably walk even old people.

There will be medical attendants on call because we have many doctors here. Suitable security will be provided. And, in keeping with Babuji's often stated requirement for a spiritual person that the inside and the outside must both be clean, spic and span, meaning our environment of the soul inside, and our physical ambience outside, I don't expect to see any litter. It must be so clean that mosquitoes stay away from it, flies stay away from it. And I assure you, you will all have a wonderful, peaceful, spiritually-oriented life here.

I expect to have a resident preceptor here who can give sittings. The local administration will be organizing Sunday satsanghs and Wednesday evening satsangh, only for south Bangalore. Satsangh at Banashankari will continue so that the crowd is divided, you know. That [place] is too small. I hope this will become too small in the next five years. Because, like children you know, when we have children, I have seen blissful smiles on the face of parents when the child outgrows its clothes. Some of them are so wonderfully healthy that in the sixth month we have to change their clothes. Again, before they are one year. And again, when they are three years. Expense, of course, but a lovely, charming, prosperity-filled, future-filled growth, and at such expenses we don't grudge. Parents sacrifice, if necessary, to keep the children fed, clothed, and happily alive.

So I want this place to outgrow. I want people to come and tell me, even next year if possible, Sir, I think your calculations have gone wrong. We should have doubled it. We have a proverb in Tamil which states, Build small and grow big. Don't plan on a seven-bedroom house even before you are married. Add rooms as you go on. Organic growth of the house, organic growth of the family, not haphazard but natural. Because in the West they have this idea that unless you plan everything in the beginning, it is poor planning, bad planning, et cetera, et cetera. I assure you that organic planning, meaning adding facilities as we go on, produces a beauty of its own which you cannot provide with advance planning for forty years in the future.

So, by Babuji's grace, I hope all of you will utilize this place thoroughly, well. Stay here as often as possible. There is going to be a library. Of course, it is going to be expensive but I hope our economy will rise to the occasion and we will be able to provide reading material. There will be a beautiful garden here in front. Maintain it, utilize it, and get to your destination as promised in the name of this building and as promised by Sahaj Marg for all sincere aspirants.

Thank you.