November 2, 2008, (Barnawa, Uttar Pradesh):  The holy bhandara of the birth month of Shah Mastana Ji Maharaj was celebrated here at Shah Satnam Ji Ashram, Barnawa with pomp and gaiety.  The faithful in their lakhs participated in the bhandara and it seemed as if the week-long preparations at the Dera were not enough to accommodate their love and enthusiasm.  Sant Gurmeet Ram-Rahim Singh Ji Insan greeted the spiritual community on the holy birth month of the founder of Dera Sacha Sauda and conducted a three-hour long free-flowing spiritual discourse in his inimitable voice.  At the end of the bhandara, His Holiness gave the gift of the Naam to 10,780 people.

Of note, Shah Mastana Ji Maharaj was born on the holy Kartik Poornima day in 1891 in the Kotra village of Balochistan, Pakistan, and the month of November is celebrated by Dera Sacha Sauda and its followers by holding feasts at the various ashrams of the Dera and by remembering their first Guru.

These are excerpts from the spiritual discourse by Guruji at the bhandara:

Shah Mastana Ji Maharaj from his very childhood was contemplative of God.  His thoughts always used to be on how to realize that God who was All Light.   He was a saint of God-gifted attributes, who at an early age ventured out in search of the Perfect Guru.  In his search, Mastana Ji once met a sadhu who told him about the powers of riddhi-siddhi, but Mastana Ji told him that he did not need these but wanted Him who was the Owner of the two worlds.

Mastana Ji in his childhood used to sit at his father’s shop, and at his home there was a small temple of Sri Satyanarayan, in which he used to do worship.  Once a Fakir came to the temple and asked him what he wanted in life.  In his reply Mastana Ji asked the Fakir about the path that led to union with God.  The Fakir discussed at length with him about Ram Naam and Mastana Ji became convinced of that path.  Mastana Ji then went into the kitchen to get something to eat for the Fakir and while going, locked the Fakir inside the temple.  When he returned with the eatables, he saw to his surprise that the Fakir had disappeared.  This incident made him even more anxious for God.  Mastana Ji in his quest for the perfect saint finally came to Beas in Punjab.  Baba Sawan Shah Ji Maharaj was sitting in the Guru’s throne at the ashram.  When Mastana Ji’s eyes fell on Sawan Shah Ji, tears welled up in them.  Sitting on the throne was the same Fakir who had come to his home and instructed him on searching for the Guru.

The faithful at Sawan Shah Ji’s ashram used to sit in contemplation during his discourses, but Mastana Ji started a new trend.  He used to tie ankle bells to his feet and dance in abandonment.  Sawan Shah Ji used to look at him and smile.  A few people at the ashram became jealous of Mastana Ji because of the fact that though he was new to the ashram, the Guru was always happy with him while they themselves did not make any such impact on the Guru.  They tied ankle bells to the feet of five to seven people and asked them to dance when Sawan Shah Ji came in.  As soon as Sawan Shah Ji came, the seven people started dancing like Mastana Ji.  Earlier, after watching him dance, it was Sawan Shah Ji who had given Mastana Ji his name, which meant ‘the joyful one’.  So when Sawan Shah Ji queried as to who these new dancers were, the people who had readied the dancers said that these were also the Guru’s mastanas.  But Sawan Shah Ji only smiled and said that there could be only one Mastana, the rest were mere actors.  So, these were the ways in which Mastana Ji made his Satguru happy.

The people who were jealous of Mastana Ji again went and complained to Sawan Shah Ji that Mastana Ji did not say the slogan of the ashram like others but said his own slogan.  Sawan Shah Ji asked that Mastana Ji be brought to him.  Mastana Ji came running to him with ankle-bells tied to his feet.  Sawan Shah Ji then queried Mastana Ji about his new slogan.  In reply to this Mastana Ji started chanting aloud the slogan of “Oh praiseworthy Sawan Shah, you are the only refuge!” and dancing in joy.  Sawan Shah Ji then asked him why he called him praiseworthy instead of God.  Mastana Ji replied that he had never seen God and had only seen his Guru, and that he had heard that God appeared in the form of the Guru, so if he did not call the Guru praiseworthy, who else would he call so?  When Sawan Shah Ji heard this he smiled and said that though he was right, he would rather prefer that he alter his slogan to “Oh praiseworthy Satguru, you are the only refuge!”  So, Mastana Ji adopted that slogan but never wholly gave up his earlier one.

One day Sawan Shah Ji said to Mastana Ji that he was giving him the title of Shah Mastana from that day on; that his selfless service had reached its culmination and had been accepted by him; and that from that day on he was assigning to him a new service: to go to Bagarh and to impart the glorious Ram Naam to the people there.  Mastana Ji’s eyes welled up with tears on hearing this.  He begged his Guru to not distance himself from him.  He said that he was an uneducated person who spoke only the Multani language and would not be able to carry out his command effectively.  Sawan Shah Ji, however, asserted that Mastana Ji must do this service and that he would be with him in spirit to help him out.   Mastana Ji then agreed to his Guru’s command and then endearingly told his Guru that he had a few boons to ask of him.  He said that he was an illiterate person who would not be able to explain to people about the spiritual stages that come on a soul’s journey back to God, and so he wanted his Gurumantra to be such that the person who received it from him would not get stuck in any of the in-between stages and would go straight to Sachkhand   Sawan Shah Ji promptly agreed to this and granted him the boon.  Then, Mastana Ji asked that the slogan of Dhan Dhan Satguru Tera Hi Asra be heard and accepted in God’s court if it is said with a pure heart.  Sawan Shah Ji accepted even this wish of Mastana Ji.  Mastana Ji then in his charming manner asked his Guru that if a person takes the Naam from him, strictly abides by its principles, and does a little bit of selfless service and meditation, then be it that that he receives the happiness of both worlds even while living.  Sawan Shah Ji again had no hesitation in granting him this boon.  The working of these boons are visible even today when Satsangis in their lakhs come and tell us that they get both inner bliss and worldly happiness from the Naam.

Many times people used to say to Shah Mastana Ji that they loved him greatly.  Mastana Ji used to smile and say, “Is that so?” and then he used to tie garlands of currency notes to the necks of dogs and goats and shoo them away.  The people who just a little a while ago had said that they loved him greatly would run after the animals for the money.  Mastana Ji used to watch this spectacle and declare that everyone loved Maya, but very few loved him for his own sake.  This way it used to be known as to who the true lovers of God were.

Mastana Ji from his very childhood had a selfless nature.  Once his revered mother made some sweets and asked Mastana Ji to go to the market and sell it.   Mastana Ji took the sweets and while on his way to the market fed them to a hungry Fakir.  He then remembered that he was answerable to his mother.  So he did manual labour for the whole day in the fields of a Zamindar and with the money that he earned through it, he walked back home.  The Zamindar, who was impressed by the hard work of the boy, followed him to his home and told his mother that her son had done the work of four men in the fields that day.  When mother asked the little Mastana about it, he told her the whole story.  This incident gives us an idea of how principled Mastana Ji was from his very childhood.

The Saints and Fakirs who come into this world are sent by God Himself and their only purpose in coming is to connect man with God, and it was with this purpose that Shah Mastana Ji Maharaj came into this world.