Dada's Birthday Celebrations at St.Mira's College

Celebration of Dada J P Vaswani's birthday at St. Mira's College for Girls – July 27, 2004

As Dada entered the Sanctuary Hall of the Mira College a chorus of “ Aaj More Ghar Sant Padhare ” greeted him. Dada humbly said that he was not a Sant but a mere pilgrim. Mrs. Mohini Khot read out the welcome address on behalf of the college. Dada greeted all the students and expressed his thanks to the principal and all the heads of departments at the college for organsing the function.

This was followed by a question and answer session between the college students and Dada.

A student asked Dada what boon he would ask for if God appeared before him. Dada was quite amazed because he said that God is always around us and the question of him appearing does not arise. The only boon that he would ask for “God may You always be with me and keep me in Your service strong”.

Given an opportunity to create a new world how would he like it to be? Dada said that the only famine in this word is the famine of love. True love makes a whole lot of difference to our world.

What impressed him most about the western society? To this Dada answered “sincerity and frankness”. Sincerity is the very beginning of spiritual life. For 12 centuries India has been a slave to other countries. In the short time of freedom from slavery, we have yet to discover the strength that lies within us. The soul of India is very strong, hence there is hope.

Asked to convey his birthday message to the students, Dada said “be simple and strong”. The motto of Sadhu Vaswani was “Simplicity and Service, Purity and Prayer”.

The questions were endless but time was limited. As a birthday gift to Dada, many students of the college had taken a pledge to abstain from non-vegetarian food.

Dada said that this was the best birthday gift he could ever have asked for. Nothing could please him more.

The function concluded by Dada cutting his birthday cake and sharing it with all.