Three Darwaja‘Teen Darwaja’ or Three Gates lies about halfa kilometre from Bhadra Fort. The stone gatehas ornate carvings. Maharaj used this gate to goto the Bhadra Fort. There are records of Maharajand his sadhus and devotees having climbedto the room on top of the gate. He stood thereto give darshan and blessings to all standing below.Jamalpur DarwajaShriji Maharaj entered Ahmedabad citythrough Jamalpur Darwaja to quell the crisesraised by Raghunathdas, a disciple of RamanandSwami. He had also entered and exited throughthis gate on many occasions.Khanpur DarwajaThe gate lies to the west of the former walledcity and it is also quite near to the banks of RiverSabarmati. Bhagwan Swaminarayan passedthrough this gate whenever he went to bathe inthe river. Today, every year, a procession of Thakorjiand the murti of Ganapati passes throughthis gate to celebrate the Jal Jhilani celebrationin the River Sabarmati.Kalupur DarwajaShriji Maharaj passed through Kalupur Darwajawhenever he came from or went to the villagesof Vahelal, Kathvada, Kanbha and othersof the Daskroi region around Ahmedabad. Healso used the gate while going to the villages ofSaraspur, Khokhra and Gomtipur, which arenow a part of greater Ahmedabad city. The gatestill stands today.u42 Swaminarayan Bliss u <strong>May</strong>-<strong>June</strong> <strong>2013</strong>
(Contd. from pg. 7)very speciality of pleasures. When we physicallyrefrain from partaking pleasures, they stay afar,but they leave behind desires for them. Thepleasures go, but they do not take the desiresfor them with them. Therefore, even after havingphysically forsaken them, there still remainsa mental desire to indulge in pleasures.This can be seen in birds and animals too. Ifa dog or crow comes to eat some cooked food,we deter it with a stick or stone. It is not able toeat the food, but it cannot stop thinking aboutit. That is why it comes back a short while later.The thing that makes one think about pleasuresis called desire. If a bullock is tied up all day andnot given any food, it does not eat any forage,(Contd. from pg. 17)“Then, Shri Hari bathed in the Sabarmati atNarayan Ghat. The clothes of the sadhus anddevotees had so much colour that the river waterchanged colour. Thereafter, Shri Hari donnednew clothes and after a padhramani in Motera,returned to the city via Shahibaug.In V.S. 1882, Shri Hari again celebrated theRangotsav in Ahmedabad. Also on this occasion,he bathed in the Sabarmati near the PadshahVadi in Shahibaug. In addition, he presided overan assembly amid the dense ambli trees in theShahibaug. 39 A poet-devotee, Badrinathdas, 40described this,“Em kahina Puranchand, Pãdshãh Vadi gayã Govind;Temã ãmblo ek bhãri, tyã sabhã kare Girdhãri…Chãlyã Nãrãyanne Ghãt, nãva nirmã re…”Meaning,“After discoursing, Puranchand/Govind(Shri Hari) went to Padshah Vadi. There, amidthe many ambli trees Girdhari (Shri Hari) heldan assembly…Then went to Narayan Ghat to bathe…”The divine occasions of Shri Hari bathing,39. Ibid. 339-40.40. Ibid. p. 441.but it still continues to think of it. A bullock canbe separated from forage physically, but it cannotbe separated from the desire for it. BhagwanSwaminarayan calls this ‘dhoralãnghana’, i.e.merely fasting physically (Vachanmrut, GadhadaII 8). With regards to desires for sensual pleasures,man is no better than animals. This is theessence of the word ‘rasavarjam’.Thus, Shri Krishna gestures to us to make refrainmentmore stable by detachment, i.e. makerefraining from pleasures more stable by sheddingdesires.The above precepts inform us of the characteristicsof the senses and mundane sensual pleasures.ucelebrating the Rangotsav and sanctifyingShahibaug have been captured in the nine versesof the famous bhajan ‘Ek samay Amdãvãdmã,ãvyã Shyãm sujãn…’ composed by GopaldasSwami, a contemporary of Shri Hari. Theseverses are still widely sung throughout theSampradaya even today.In this way, Shri Hari sanctified Shahibaugon numerous occasions. The above is just asummary of the documented visits. The divinityof the area is palpable even today.In V.S. 1878, Shri Hari decided not tostay in Shahibaug out of concern that thegardens may be damaged by the large flow ofdevotees. Now, on this sanctified land whereonce the ambli and mango trees stood Shri Hariresides permanently with his ideal devotee,Aksharbrahman Gunatitanand Swami, in thecentral sanctum of the BAPS Shri SwaminarayanMandir consecrated by Yogiji Maharaj in 1961.Daily hundreds of devotees come for theirdarshan and to receive the blessings of theirdivine gaze.u<strong>May</strong>-<strong>June</strong> <strong>2013</strong> u Swaminarayan Bliss 43
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