Dadi Janki’s message rings true even today during the Coronavirus crisis

By Neena Badhwar

Dadi Janki, Rajayogini and administrative head of the B K Raja Yoga Centres across the world, passed away at the age of 104. She breathed her last at 2 am on Friday at a hospital in Mount Abu suffering breathing problems and stomach related issues for the last two months.

I had met Dadi Janki exactly 32 years ago as an interview with her was organized. Meeting her reminded me of my maternal grandma, Bhabhijee. A white-haired old lady in spanking white malmal saree, Dadi Janki spoke exactly like her, soft spoken, gentle giving soothing gems of advice. She spoke very softly that you had to concentrate hard to hear her, yet her profound words have carried messages and meaning to life in a substantial way that also helped me transform my thinking.

The year was 1987, Dadi had just come back from a UN Assembly address where she had said, “The world although rich in energies like coal, atomic power etc., lacks in one very important energy. The energy we need today, cannot be found by digging, but by looking inside our own body and mind and realizing ourselves.”

To my question what made her join BK Raja yoga mission, she said, “I wanted my life to be full of purpose. I did not want to spend it like any other ordinary girl. It is not a big thing to live for oneself. To achieve much more, you have to spend your life helping others.”

Dadi Janki joined as a Brahmkumari when she was hardly 18 years of age, naturally one wonders that a girl as young as she was at her age, someone who would be looking towards worldly desires, did she face any opposition from her parents and the family, she said, “When the truthfulness and determination is strong. God also helps. The truth even melts a hardened person. I faced my parents and elders with love and courage, knowing that I was not doing anything wrong but merely had taken a path to serve God, a path of ”˜Moksha’. I believed in myself, and with patience I finally triumphed.”

She said her daily routine was to get up at 4 O’Clock in the morning, after the daily chores, she said she practiced yoga, “Yoga needs a lot of practice. The final aim being that you lead a selfless life.”

She stressed everyone to kindle the love for God in you, “Once the inner self is known, the need for materialistic things disappears.”

To the kids her advice was that children copy their parent’s behavior, “Give kids a good upbringing, looking after their health and needs. “If children get affected by outside worldly desires, why can’t parents affect them with their ideas?”, she asked., “It is not a struggle, just a way of handling the kids.”

To the women of the world Dadi’s advice was Tolerance, Patience, and Love, “Charge ahead with these attributes in you. A worried nature lets people take advantage of you. Women have been the weaker sex in the East or even in the West. Right to self respect is important. Women are capable to bring global awareness with the positive energy they have in them and the inbuilt knowledge they possess.”

The world is going through a severe crisis caused by Coronavirus pandemic. We are all worried, helpless, alone and feeling insecure, Dadi’s words still ring true for us all to be united, do yoga at home during isolation and practice it well as per her advice. It is a time to self reflect, an opportunity to discover our inner self. And most of all ”˜Believe in oneself’ so that we can spend this crucial time helping others, that we can all tide over this difficult time together.

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