Biography: About Shri Kamlesh Patel

“If you want to have infinite happiness, infinite bliss, then minimise your desires, from more and more to less and less and finally to zero! Make peace with yourself.” – Shri Kamlesh D Patel

Shri Kamlesh D Patel was born in Gujarat, India and is now the President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) and the fourth Spiritual Master of the Sahaj Marg system of Raja Yoga meditation.

From an early age, Kamlesh Patel was interested in spirituality and meditation, and eventually came to the feet of his Guru, Babuji Maharaj in 1976 while still a student. Over the decades, Kamlesh Patel has assisted his guide, Chariji, in the management of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, which offers the Heartfulness approach to the practice of Sahaj Marg in most countries of the world free of charge.

Kamlesh Patel is married with two sons, and is a role model for students of spirituality who seek that perfect blend of Eastern heart and Western mind. He travels extensively and is at home with people from all backgrounds and walks of life, giving special attention to the youth of today.  

Music and Sahaj Marg: Chariji Maharaj

This nice little snippet is narrated by Dr. Sanskrit Kannan, an SRCM Preceptor (Prefect)

The incident happened in 1985 at Gayatri, the residence of Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari, Chariji Maharaj, Spiritual Master of Sahaj Marg. 

One sister Abhyasi told Rev. Chariji Maharaj, " my music teacher says that in Kali Yuga,  music will take one to liberation ".

Rev. Chariji Maharaj " It is not correct ".

Abhyasi, " how can you say this?"

Rev. Chariji Maharaj, " music will not take you anywhere in spirituality ".

Abhyasi, " Lord Rama came before Saint Thyagaraja. He saw the Lord.  Otherwise he could not have written like this".

Rev. Chariji Maharaj,  " well, Wordsworth has written so wonderfully about Nature.  Does it mean that he saw everything? "

Abhyasi,  "No, it's all imagination ".

Rev. Chariji Maharaj, " So too in the case of Saint Thyagaraja. "

The Abhyasi got angry and said, " well you don't accept anyone as great except your Master, Babuji Maharaj. "

Rev. Chariji Maharaj laughed and said, " I am only saying what I heard from my Master. Music cannot take you to higher levels in spirituality.  I can add that had I wanted,  I could have been a great musician ".

Abhyasi, " Then what drove you away from Music and towards Sahaj Marg? "

Rev. Chariji Maharaj, laughingly, " my samskaras ".

Chariji Maharaj Narrates: Time is Relative

 Dr. Sanskrit Kannan, an SRCM Preceptor of Sahaj Marg shares this incident with us.

“Rev. Chariji Maharaj narrated us the story of Ravana.  Once Lord Brahma was going for his ablutions. Someone told Lord Brahma "Ravana was born". After a few minutes, Lord Brahma was coming back and he was told, "Ravana had died". Brahma said, "Its such a pity, Ravana is so short lived".

However, if tradition has to be believed, Ravana is supposed to have lived for thousands of years. This shows how time is relative. What had been just a few minutes for Brahma was thousands of years for Ravana."

Shri Kamlesh D Patel is the successor of Chariji Maharaj and the current President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (www.srcm.org). In many instances after giving group meditations in Sahaj Marg, both Kamlesh Patel and Chariji Maharaj have commented how the meaning of time itself changes when we go deep into ourselves in meditation. Many times, it feels like only 5 minutes has elapsed during meditation but when you open your eyes and see, one full hour has passed by. The opposite experience is also possible that what feels like one hour long during our absorption in meditation, actually has elapsed only a few minutes on the clock. This shows how time is relative, even in our lives, when we go deeper into our sub-conscious levels.

To get a simple understanding of how time can be relative in layman’s terms, one can read this article as well: https://www.quora.com/Can-somebody-explain-how-time-is-relative-in-laymans-terms. 

A Call to the Youth – Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari

So the message I have to give is nothing very important, nothing very earth shaking, you know, nothing very profound, nothing very philosophical. It is the same call in the Vedas you see, “Uttishtatha, jaagratha, praapyavaraan nibodhata.” [Awake, Arise, having approached the Chosen One, realise your goal.] Youth must awake. Youth must realise that it is the root of society – roots – and that unless each root is nourished properly, one part of the tree will go; and that tree is our life – total life, including all of creation. Therefore the Gita also speaks of “urdhvamoolam madashaakham ashvattham praahuravyayam” – our tree is an inverted ashvattha holy fig tree. Roots are there above and the branches are here below. No use watering this. The nourishment must come from above. What is above and what is below? Above means the higher world, the higher thoughts, teachings which we have lost, forgotten, deliberately set aside. Go back to that.

(Talk given by Chariji Maharaj: Youth: A Time of Promise and for Effort, ‘Throwing off the Shackles of the Past’, Volume II, p. 243)

Chariji Maharaj, the Master of Sahaj Marg, has quoted this call of the Vedas many times. Even Swami Vivekananda has used this famous quotation, which originally is from the Kathopanishad text. This call is not just for the youth but it is for all of us. In order for one to pursue anything in life, it is necessary to be both arisen and also awake. Having said that, what is the next thing to do? It is to “Rest not, Stop not, till the goal is achieved”.

Now, what is the goal? The goal is nothing but self-perfection, inner excellence, manifesting the self within, there are so many ways of looking at the one and the same goal. The current president of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) Shri Kamlesh D Patel has demystified the various definitions of goal by saying that the very purpose of existence is to simply excel in whatever one does. And then he said that this excellence of perfection is oriented towards the inner self, inner perfection. It is for us to listen to these clarion calls and act accordingly. 

Fear: Swami Vivekananda and Chariji

"Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came the monkeys and they began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, "Face the brutes." I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life--face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us." - Swami Vivekananda

On the topic of  Fear, Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari, the spiritual Master of Sahaj Marg system of Yoga says, "Forget your Fear. When you forget your fear, there is nothing to be afraid of". During one of Chariji Maharaj's regular walks,  he mentioned, "I admire two personalities for their fearlessness. One My Master Babuji Maharaj and the other Swami Vivekananda".

Sahaj Marg Heartfulness Meditation: SCTV Public Channel 5 on Comcast

This link is published in Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf4LoIQIiCM

Shri Ram Chandra Mission offers Sahaj Marg Meditation practice through the Heartfulness approach and the current Master of this system of practice is Shri. Kamlesh D. Patel. He lives in Chennai but travels constantly world-wide and enables interested seekers to practice the Heartfulness way.

SRCM Preceptors

In January 1985,  Rev. Chariji Maharaj, after preparing one person Prefect, wrote to him:
The one who doesn't do anything, but makes/lets Master do all the work (on the Abhyasi) is a lazy Preceptor.
The one who does or thinks that he is doing all the work is egotistic Preceptor.
The one who joins his will with Master's Will and does the work is an ideal Preceptor. 

In the system of Sahaj Marg meditation practice, the Preceptor is basically a trainer, who can assist the meditation practitioners in their meditations. In these meditation sessions, the Sahaj Marg preceptor meditates along with the abhyasi and "assists" in the meditation.

Shri. Kamlesh D. Patel, the current Master and President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission has been enabling those willing abhyasis to become Preceptors and offer their service for the betterment of humanity.

Retaining Condition by Chariji Maharaj

In 1985, One young abhyasi asked Rev. Chariji Maharaj, " will Master help me in retaining the condition..? "

Rev. Chariji Maharaj said, " It is your responsibility. God would give only rain. He would not construct dams or lakes to preserve the water. It is your responsibility.  Similarly the boss would only give salary to you. You have to save money out of it. If you spend it on unnecessary things, it is not his fault. So you have to retain the condition bestowed on you."

On another occasion, when he was asked about Constant Remembrance,  He told that to retain the condition bestowed on you in the sittings,  is Constant Remembrance. It is subtler than mere Remembrance.

However, He cautioned another time," Remembrance of even Ultimate Reality is only a Remembrance and not the Reality Itself.

- Chariji Maharaj

Observation: Master Kamlesh D. Patel has given an extensive talk in July 2015 Bhandara about retaining the condition to all abhyasis. These talks are available in www.sahajmarg.org site. 

Concentration

"Meditation is the process, and the result is concentration. Now this concentration, by itself, is not of much value in our development because concentration is only the use of a power, and power by itself does not lead to evolution. But it has a positive advantage in our daily life because by meditation, when we are able to make the mind concentrate, we are able to exclude thoughts we don't require or we don't wish to receive."

Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari: Master, Shri Ram Chandra Mission