In June 1958, one evening at around six o’clock, Ambalal Muljibhai Patel (1908 – 1988), a family man and a contractor by profession, was sitting on a busy railway platform of Surat, in Gujarat, India, waiting for His train to arrive. All of a sudden, a phenomenal experience of ‘Self Realization’ happened within Him, during which the answers to spiritual questions such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘Who is God?’, ‘Who created this world?’, ‘Who governs this Universe?’, ‘What is karma?’, ‘How can one get liberated?’ etc. unfolded on their own.
During this experience, His ego dissolved, all the impurities within melted away, and He realized His real Self. From that moment onwards, He became one with the Soul and totally detached from the body’s thoughts, speech and acts.
The Lord within Him became unveiled and manifested with all His powers. He attained ‘Absolute Vision’ such that He could see the Soul within all living beings. Referring to the physical self of every living being as a mere packing, He would say, “In this world, I simply cannot see anyone as having faults. Even a pickpocket or a person of immoral character, is faultless in my Vision. I do not look at the packing. There are infinite varieties of packing. I see only the Real which is Pure.”
No worries, no complaints, no tension, no botheration, bliss and only bliss is what He experienced all the time! Param Pujya Dadashri’s only desire now became, “May the whole world experience the happiness that I experience.”
"Remarkable powers were instilled within me as a result of not desiring anything the world had to offer", said Param Pujya Dadashri. He attained the spiritual power by which He enlightened others with the experience of the Pure Soul, the real Self, within just 2 hours through a scientific process called ‘Gnani Vidhi’.
Akram Vignan, the stepless path to liberation, spontaneously arose within Him to liberate the world from all suffering. ‘Akram’ means an elevator path or a short cut and ‘Vignan’ means science. Akram Vignan is a spiritual science that is a direct shortcut to the bliss of the Self.
The scriptures are able to define the Soul, but to experience it, one needs a Gnani Purush. Because only a 'Gnani' (The Enlightened one) can make you experience it. The Knowledge (Gnan) then gives results on its own.
Ambalal Patel became a Gnani Purush when He attained Self Realization. He would travel to different places within and outside India giving Gnan (Self Realization) to the seekers that came to Him. Whoever interacted with Him, felt immense reverence for Him, and with love, people started calling Him ‘Dada Bhagwan’.
But He never accepted this title unto Himself, instead He entrusted it with complete clarity to the Lord residing within Him. He always said, “I am a Gnani Purush and the Lord that is fully manifested within me, is ‘Dada Bhagwan’. The Lord resides within every living being; the only difference is that within me He is completely expressed, and in you He is yet to manifest. I am not Dada Bhagwan. I too bow down to Dada Bhagwan within me.”
He has spoken on different subjects that hold significant relevance in today’s time, such as husband and wife relationship, parent-child relationship and resolving conflicts in worldly interactions. He has also exposed the science behind money, food, celibacy, spirituality, death, etc. Each subject running into hundreds of pages and every word has been defined and used with proper exactness, and is applicable to today’s times. The application of this knowledge brings peace in our life, and internal harmony even amidst adverse times.
He has been able to explain the ultimate philosophy in layman’s language through simple examples. His speech delivers experience. He has guided people of every age, dealing with their respective set of problems, from each one’s individual perspective. The Gnani’s words are such that if just one word is absorbed and digested it will take one all the way to liberation. And for that Param Pujya Dadashri would always say, “Only understand what I am telling you. That is more than enough. The understanding itself will result in knowledge.” You are not required to change your behaviour, you just need to change your understanding and eventually your behaviour will change automatically.
It was Param Pujya Dadashri’s heart’s desire that the work of the salvation of the world continue even after He left His mortal body. He would say, “I am personally going to give special spiritual powers to a few people. These people will be required after I leave, won’t they? People of future generations will need this path.” He was very positive for the young generation. He said, “Today’s young generation feels suffocated due to lack of proper guidance. All they need is someone who can show them the right path. Once achieved, they will revolutionize the whole of India. This will happen soon… very soon.”
In 1987, during the final days of Param Pujya Dadashri’s life, satisfied with the continuous self-less service and total dedication of Pujya Niruma and contented with the sincerity and outstanding spiritual awareness and progress of Pujya Deepakbhai, Param Pujya Dadashri blessed them both with special divine powers. These divine blessings allowed them to become great instruments for the world's salvation and continue the mission that Param Pujya Dadashri had started.
Pujya Niruma and Pujya Deepakbhai carefully preserved Param Pujya Dadashri’s words and have explained the right meaning and perspective of these words to today’s generation. As a result changing the vision of people and bringing results in their life, here and now.
The link of Akram Gnani’s continues even today, through the medium of Pujya Deepakbhai.
Pujya Niruma
After Param Pujya Dadashri left his mortal body on January 2, 1988, Dr. Niruben Amin, a dedicated disciple of Pujya Dadashri, continued the mission of the salvation of the world, travelling to various cities and remote villages in India and to places in USA, Canada, UK and Africa too.
Because of her unparalleled love and affection towards everyone around her, Niruben became everyone’s loving ‘Niruma’ wherein ‘Ma’ means ‘Mother’.
Born on December 2, 1944, Niruma was a very sharp and intelligent girl right from childhood. In her final year at Aurangabad Medical College, she learnt about Param Pujya Dadashri and Akram Vignan, from her brother. As he explained, ‘..after attaining this Akram Vignan no worldly happiness or sorrow can affect your inner peace and happiness….’, these words deeply touched her heart. She became desperate to attain ‘Self Realization’ (Gnan) from Param Pujya Dadashri.
Surrendered herself in the feet of Dada:
The day she met Dada, in her heart, she surrendered herself to the Gnani. On 8th July 1968 she took 'Gnan' from Dadashri. That day onwards, Dada and only Dada resided in her heart. Day and night she was in the worship of Dada. It’s a rule that whomever you worship, you become so.
Dedicated her life for Dada:
She expressed to Dada that she had no desire to earn money and she dedicated her life in the service of Dada and in serving Dada’s goal. Her service was such that what 20 people together would do for Dada, she could manage it single-handedly. Dada once complimented her saying “You behave as if we are two souls and one body” because she never ever cared for her own self one bit. All day long her thoughts revolved around Dada, Dada and only Dada!
Got devoted to Dada:
Not only was she absorbed in the devotion of Dada, but she was also able to make every person she met feel the same reverence for Dada and get him absorbed in the devotion of Dada too. We can imagine how well she must have recognised Dada, as whoever she met, her endeavour was, “how to get this person in touch with my Dada, how to get him to recognise Dadashri in real terms, how to get him addicted to Dada’s work for salvation of the world, how to get him attain real knowledge (Self-realization) from Dadashri and how to keep him motivated on the path of salvation.”
Involved people into Dada’s work:
She was very good at influencing youngsters into Dada’s work. Depending on each one’s individual characteristics, she had a nice knack of fitting right people in the right place, such that he / she would do the work of Dada for their entire life and thereby get onto the path of liberation!
Spiritual Upbringing:
Just as a sculptor cuts through a rough natural stone and shapes it into a beautiful idol of God by chipping away all the extra stone with the chisel and hammer, so that this idol can be installed for mass worship; similarly Dadashri carved out a marvellous instrument for the salvation of world out of the living human image of Niru. Gnani Purush Dadashri was an exceptional sculptor and with all his compassion, he was able to chip away Niruma’s ego, lust, pride, attachment, etc. and create an exceptional idol in the form of Pujya Niruma!
Just as gold is put in the furnace to refine it, Dadashri gave proper heat treatment to Niruma to make her completely pure. Although Pujya Niruma experienced lot of pain and suffering when her ego was sawed, she received, accepted and yielded to every effort of Dada with all grace, total surrender, ultimate humility and complete oneness with Dada, because she was very well aware that whatever Dada is doing is for her ultimate good, to get rid of her disease of inner residual passions, so that she becomes pure and thereby an effective instrument for salvation of this world!
Groomed into an instrument for salvation of the world:
While she was being moulded, Pujya Niruma remained sincere and in total surrender to the Gnani Purush at all times. Dada showed her the path and she accomplished His wish by walking that path. On one hand, she persevered for the progress of her Soul and on the other hand her mind, speech and body were surrendered totally for the salvation of the world.
Such was Pujya Niruma’s surrender, that if Param Pujya Dadashri pointed out any of her mistake, she never repeated that mistake again. As a result of which, she received tremendous blessings of the Gnani and became an unmatched instrument for the salvation of the world!
Became an Embodiment of Love:
Dadashri was everything for her. He taught her to see every living being as flawless and faultless, one of the most precious lessons of Pure love; and also helped her develop Pure Love for every living being to such an extent that she became an embodiment of infinite love!
Revered Dada’s speech:
Understanding the value of the Gnani's priceless speech, every word that Dada said, she would carefully record it in a tape recorder. The greatest service to the world is the exact preservation of Dadavani as it came forth, recorded at Dadashri’s feet by travelling with him from villages to villages, cities to cities, across the globe. From these recorded collections, she along with Pujya Deepakbhai, who was an equally sincere follower of Dada like her, both compiled and published Gnani's speech, and thus offered to the world Gnani's pure and unaltered speech!
Absolute humility:
There is a huge collection of Pujya Niruma’s impromptu writings which is rich in nature. One day, Deepakbhai approached her, suggesting printing of this material for the benefit of readers. However, she straightaway denied the proposal and strictly prohibited any printing of her own material, saying “There is no need for it. Only Dada’s words must be printed. Consider Dadashri as the prime focus and beyond Him, give the prime importance to Lord Simandhar. I am simply the dust at their feet.”
Fulfilled all the wishes of Dada:
She fulfilled each and every intent that Dadashri had expressed:
- Pujya Niruma had promised Dadashri to execute with complete dedication His vision of the world's salvation through the simple path of Akram Vignan. She fulfilled this promise until her last breath. In the last 5 days of her life, she gave Gnan while lying in bed with oxygen being supplied to her via nasal cannula, to the doctor who was treating her cancer.
- She had given a promise to Dadashri to complete the work of publication of Dada’s speech in 14 ‘Aptavani’s (book’s name) and this momentous task was completed by her in her final days.
- In accordance with Dada’s wish that people sharing the common goal of spiritual progress should stay together and work towards their goal for better and speedy results, she constructed a residential city in the vicinity of the Trimandir for Dada’s followers and made it conducive to following of the five principles of the Gnani.
- Dada said, “A bank would be helpful for the residents in this residential city.” It was done.
- Niraant, a senior care facility, with all the amenities was founded in 2008 for old people whose only aspiration is to do as much as they can for their spiritual upliftment.
- As per Dada’s wish, she groomed about 100 young men and women, who have exclusively taken up the path of salvation of the world by totally surrendering themselves to the cause and practicing celibacy under her guidance.
- Dadashri had said that the salvation work would be enhanced by worldwide devotion to Lord Simandhar, the living Lord. The enlivened marble idols of the Lord were created which could be installed in people’s homes.
Groomed the next Akram link:
She took a lot of care of Pujya Deepakbhai, who was shy and introvert by nature, and groomed him to become an able next link of Akram Gnani, which was one more aspiration of Dadashri.
Describing her role, she would say, “When the King is no more in this world and the Prince is still very young, the Queen Mother’s role in such a situation is to take umpteen care of the Prince, to train him and groom him on one hand and on the other hand, set up things in such a way so as to ensure that no one causes any harm to the kingdom. And once, the Prince grows up and becomes ready, she seats him on the throne and leaves.”
On March 6, 2006, Niruma said, ‘Today, I am going to teach all the Vidhi to Deepak. I am not holding back anything.’
In her last days,
Pujya Niruma asked for personal forgiveness for any errors committed by her, from people with whom she had worked together in the presence of Dadashri, by asking them to place their hand on her head.
She was in the clear, present, and total experience of the Self. Inspite of the severe pain of cancer, she said, “For us, the ‘I’ is in the absolute enlightened state of knowledge without interruption. There is no result of the world evident here. There is no pain here, nor is anything of the body affecting here.”
Pujya Niruma left her mortal body on 19th March 2006. In her final moments, Niruma asked for a promise from everyone treading on the path of salvation to ‘live with love’.
Her subtle presence and love is experienced even today by one and all. Param Pujya Dadashri's mission continues to flourish with the same principles of purity and love, now under the guidance of Pujyashree Deepakbhai.
All who have come in contact with the Akram Vignan owe a great debt of gratitude to Pujya Niruma who has been instrumental in facilitating the availability and implementation of this spiritual science for everyone.
Pujyashree Deepakbhai Desai
About Pujya Deepakbhai Desai?
Deepakbhai Desai, formally known as Pujyashree, an Atmagnani and a dedicated disciple of Param Pujya Dadashri and Pujya Niruma. After attaining Gnan (Self-Realization) from Param Pujya Dadashri, he made a firm decision to use his mind, speech, and body for Jagat Kalyan (world salvation). He is the current spiritual leader of the Dada Bhagwan Foundation.
Childhood and Interests
Deepakbhai was born on May 9th, 1953 in Morbi, Gujarat. From a very tender age, he was very quiet and soft-spoken, the youngest of five children. Growing up, he found the worldly life dull and unsatisfying. Pujyashree graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from VJTI College in Mumbai and shortly afterwards, established his own consultancy firm.
Efforts for World Salvation with Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan and Pujya Niruma
At the age of 17, during his studies, his brother introduced him to Param Pujya Dadashri. His brother told him that obtaining Gnan (Self-Realization) would greatly help improve his grades and studies. Pujyashree attained Gnan through Param Pujya Dadashri on March 6th, 1971. Immediately after attaining Gnan, Pujyashree became fascinated by Param Pujya Dadashri’s Akram Vignan (step-less spiritual science). He became passionate in wanting to understand the spiritual science, and thus began to spend all of his spare time helping Pujya Niruma and Param Pujya Dadashri. Whether it was sweeping the floors for satsangs (spiritual discourse) or editing Param Pujya Dadashri’s books, he did each and every task with sincerity.
As Pujya Deepakbhai became more involved and immersed in Akram Vignan, he decided to write a letter to Param Pujya Dadashri and make an oath to practice celibacy and continue the work of Jagat Kalyan (world salvation). His father did not support his decision, but after many years he understood and supported Pujya Deepakbhai’s decision. This was confirmed when his father made Pujya Deepakbhai his guru and stated that, “You have shown me the true path of liberation."
Param Pujya Dadashri gave Pujyashree Deepakbhai the advice to check every night where he missed applying the five agnas (cardinal instructions). Sincerely following this advice after two or three years, Pujyashree Deepakbhai had reached a level of spiritual awareness that had existed since Lord Mahavir’s time, as stated by Param Pujya Dadashri.
When Param Pujya Dadashri’s health started to decline, he requested Pujya Deepakbhai to come to the U.S. After training Pujya Deepakbhai and receiving satisfied results, Param Pujya Dadashri gave him siddhis (spiritual powers) to conduct satsangs (spiritual discourse). From this day on Pujya Deepakbhai started conducting satsangs around the world with the help of Pujya Niruma. She guided and helped him blossom into an even higher spiritual state, while they both spread Akram Vignan across the world.
Role in Leading Akram Vignan Movement
As Pujya Deepakbhai worked alongside Pujya Niruma, he learned and practiced the importance of humility, sincerity, and purity. In 2003, Pujya Niruma graced him with the siddhis (spiritual powers) of conducting the Gnan Vidhi (Self-Realization ceremony). When Pujya Niruma passed away, Pujya Deepakbhai fully took on the role of being an Atmagnani (Self-Realized soul who can also give Self-Realization to others). Just as Pujya Niruma, he travels all over the world leading satsangs and answering questions of thousands around the world and giving solutions through the principles of Akram Vignan. He has also helped in writing and publishing Aptavani books and spiritual songs. Additionally, he monitors many committees working to build Trimandirs in India and abroad, as well as further developing Simandhar City. Pujya Deepakbhai helps train and guides others who have also taken an oath of celibacy and Jagat Kalyan. Pujya Deepakbhai is constantly using his mind, speech, and body, as well as the teachings of Param Pujya Dadashri and Pujya Niruma to help permanently end human suffering around the world.
