Monday, December 8, 2014

Wisdom and Teachings of Gunatitanand Swami ni Vaatu

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.” said Francis Bacon.

Books are our best friends, but according to the above quotation only a few books show us the true north and become the guide of our spiritual life because we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Books like Gunatitanand Swami ni Vaatu, Shikshapatri, Shreemad Bhagvat Geeta, Ramayan, Ram Charit Manas, Purushottam Bolya Prite and Vachnamrut are the kinds of books that one should chew and digest. Life is full of challenges and in the midst of these challenges we seem to lose track many a times. However the people who have made these books their constant companions are the ones who smile their way through adversities and remain happy.
So, with a desire to introduce to our students with one such companion for life, Suhradam House celebrated the teachings and wisdom of the book Gunatitanand Swami ni Vaatu in the very first week of the month of December. During the week, Suhradam House teachers shared various vaatu in order to help students understand the glory of God, how to gain spiritual knowledge and how to attain peace and happiness.


To simplify the meaning of vaatu for students and to help them relate these gems in their life through a real life example, Suhradam House presented a drama on Saturday in the morning assembly: "જો બકા! આપણે દેહ નથી, આત્મા છીએ.". The drama was inspired by a true incident from respected Vijay Sir’s life, the Principal of Atmiya Vidya Mandir. Vijay sir has been a voracious reader of Vaatu since childhood. He has chewed and digested the book in true sense. Students have been learning from him about vaats from time to time in his assembly talks.

The drama narrated a challenging situation from his life and how Swami ni Vaatu helped him overcome his challenges despite extreme adversity. The incident was taken from the time when Vijay Sir was doing his PhD in Physics at Stony Brook University New York and he was working on making a micro-chip in the one of its kind state of the art lab. He had worked tirelessly on this invention for 3 months and was successful in making it. However, on the day after he made it, he broke it accidentally. He saw all his hard work done in vain. At that time, he was invited by Param Pujya Swamiji to attend a shibir in India. He had two choices – to immediately start working on his life time achievement and get the chip done again or go to India to attend the shibir and meet Swamishree. In such a time of difficulty he remembered Swamiji’s word to seek solution from Swami ni vaatu, so, with a prayer in his heart, he took help of Swami ni vaatu. He came across two teachings from the books:
  1. The unwavering faith in God enables a person to remain stable in any adverse situation. The faith is to believe that whatever happens, is the wish of God and God never does anything wrong to His child.
  2. Whenever one faces any perplexing situation and when it seems difficult to take decision, one should do bhajan – take the name of God and pray to Him to show the way.
These vaats helped him decide to go to India and he found peace in his heart being in the divine company of Swamiji and he forgot all his worries. After coming back to US, to his greatest astonishment, he found the chip in working condition. This experience strengthened his faith in God and in vaats. Gunatitanand Swami ni Vaatu is his favorite book and his constant companion.

After enacting, seeing and understanding this incident of the person who is a role model for all at Atmiya Vidya Mandir, students got a very convincing insight about the need to regularly read such scriptures as Swami ni Vaatu. Our former Head Boy, Sachinbhai Verlekar, now in grade 12, shared his favourite Swami ni vaat in the assembly: the one who wants to study, should never expect any pleasures or conveniences. Not only him, but the entire batch of class 12 students live this vaat day in and day out. They work close to 15-16 hours a day and sometimes more than that, without getting tired and they do it rather happily. Such is the impact of practicing Swami ni vaatu in their lives.

It’s a matter of great pride and honour for the students and teachers alike, to have such an accomplished and yet humble individual in Vijay Sir, as a School Principal, whose invention of making the fastest chip in the world has still not been made better by anyone.

Suhradam House was further honoured to have had this humble opportunity in attempting to learn lessons for life from a great book Gunatitanand Swami ni vaatu and help students lead a happy life without worries.
Written by: Nirali Ma'am

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