HANS JAYANTI '75

Once a year, Guru Maharaj Ji gives all his premies the opportunity to come together with him to celebrate the birthday of Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, Guru Maharaj Ji's father. This festival is called Hans Jayanti, and it is like no other event in the year.

Shri Maharaj Ji was more than just Guru Maharaj Ji's father. Giving satsang, Guru Maharaj Ji once said of his relationship, "[Shri Maharaj Ji] is my father and he is my Father, he is my father and he is my Real Father …" Shri Hans Ji Maharaj Ji was Satguru before Guru Maharaj Ji, and was loved and revered by hundreds of thousands of devotees as the source of their profound experience with the Knowledge. Shri Maharaj Ji was the one who gave Guru Maharaj Ji Knowledge, and who entrusted Guru. Maharaj Ji with the grace to take over his service when he left this world.

Hans Jayanti is the time when we gather in festivities honoring Guru Maharaj Ji's father, but the significance of the occasion goes much deeper than it may first appear. When we asked premies what Hans Jayanti meant to them, an often repeated reply was, "Hans Jayanti is important to me because it is important to Guru Maharaj Ji; if it means something to him, then it has meaning for every part of my life." One sister answered, "I guess that question is the whole reason we go to Hans Jayanti - just to find out what its meaning to us really is."

Knowledge is Life. There is a meditation that we have to do, but the practice of Knowledge itself is much deeper and more encompassing than just the time we sit in formal meditation and we are only beginning to understand what this means. The more we practice meditation, the closer we come to Guru Maharaj Ji inside - and the more we become aware of how deep our dedication to Guru Maharaj Ji and the path he is laying before us must be.

Here we can begin to see the beauty and significance of the Hans Jayanti celebration in our lives: at Hans Jayanti, Guru Maharaj Ji sets before us the perfect example of what devotion and dedication really is. These are qualities we have never experienced before and we have no hold on them. We need that perfect example to be set before us. When Shri Maharaj Ji instructed Guru Maharaj Ji to carry on his work, and passed on to him the power of Satguru, Guru Maharaj Ji accepted, and has since dedicated his whole life to the service of sharing Knowledge with people in this world. "This is my job," said Maharaj Ji in London, "I am here to let everyone who can, experience this peace.

Every day of our lives, this same example is set before us. Maharaj Ji is constantly calling us forward on our path, and if we can only suspend our habitual state of disbelief - for even a second - Maharaj Ji is right there to help us up the next step. How many people in history have ever completely realized this peace? Yet this is exactly the course Guru Maharaj Ji is demanding that with every breath of our lives.

In this special issue of Divine Times, we celebrate the relationship of devotion between Guru Maharaj Ji and his father, Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. We invite you to celebrate with us, so we all might come together and gain from the example and the lesson Guru Maharaj Ji is putting before us. Welcome to Hans Jayanti!