Dadi Janki, the 99 year old yogi

image from http://brahmakumaris.fr

I change my mind, I don't want to be a monk.  I want to be a yogi like Dadi Janki, the administrative head of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University.

I had the good fortune of listening to her classes for 5 consecutive days when I was in India. Just like before, she left Shantivan, the campus by the foot of Mount Abu where 24,000 meditation students from India have converged, to attend to 500 foreigners from 50 different countries.

Unlike before though, she had to be wheeled into the stage and  four  people had to help her walk and seat on the gaddi.  She was thinner and paler, too.  Two years ago, when I last saw her, she entered the room by herself with the energy of a toddler. 

However, when she opened her mouth it seems as though a young king is speaking.  She was still very articulate and sharp.  Her voice was filled with so much power that it's a stark contrast to her frailing physique.

"This body has aches and pain everywhere but I am a conqueror of matter", she said with the gusto and strength of an army general. "There may be pain in the body but that is not what I should be focusing on".

Instead she encouraged everybody to remember God.  Like a cheerleader she commanded, "Say from your heart Mithe Baba (Sweet Father), Pyare Baba (Lovely Father), Sukriya Baba (Thank you Father)!".

"By making God our companion, there's an experience of Godly intoxication", she explained. "Stay beyond sound and the more you'll experience His company"

"Enjoy being in solitude. Enjoy being in God's company.", she said with the intoxication of a lover of the One Beloved. 

Then like a strict teacher, she queried with her signature raised eyebrows and wagging finger, "Do you have that inner quietness? that inner silence? Do you experience that solitude?"

"I wish that all of you feel that love (God's love)...it is that love that makes us go beyond these things", she sweetly expressed like a grandmother giving blessings to her grandchildren.

Dadi Janki is truly a yogi, one with a mind that's beyond the material because it is only connected to God.  Her only wish is that everyone feels this deep love of God as well so like her we can fly above the mundane.