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XIV
Adhyatma Geetä and Ätmopanishad
Zaveri died after prolonged illness. Thereupon Laghuräjswämi felt that if he also met the same fate, his life would end without gaining right perception. In that case he would have to continue the infinite wandering in the cycle of birth and death. He therefore wrote to Shrimad to send him something that could help gain right perception.
Thereupon, Shrimad wrote to him the well-known Letter of Six Fundamentals, which is included in the Appendix II. That Letter is called the abode of right perception. Laghuräjswämi was very pleased to receive it and went through it repeatedly. The Letter was then sent to Saubhägyabhäi in 1895 A.D.. He also liked it very much and used to ponder over it again and again. He wanted to commit it to memory. But it was in prose and he found it hard to memorize. So he requested Shrimad to bring out something similar in verse.
Shrimad was inherently compassionate. Moreover, he had a special regard for Saubhägyabhäi, who had been instrumental in bringing out, in the form of letters, what lay in his heart. Therefore in late 1896 A.D. when Shrimad was in Nadiäd, one auspicious evening after returning from a walk, he called Ambälälbhäi and asked him to hold a lamp. While Ambälälbhäi held it as directed, Shrimad started writing and within an hour and a half he wrote the 142 stanzas of Ätmasiddhi Shastra. Mere copying of those stanzas would take longer time than that! The fact that Shrimad brought out that great work in that short time, would give some idea of the great spiritual wealth abiding within him.
Initially only four copies of the Ätmasiddhi were made; one for Saubhägyabhäi, one for Ambälälbhäi, one for Laghuräjswämi and one for Mänekläl Gheläbhäi Zaveri. Saubhägyabhäi was much elated to get it. He was highly impressed by its contents and committed it to memory. He wrote, "Ätmasiddhi is the essence of 14 Purva. Gosaliä (Dungarshi Gosaliä, who also had become a follower of Shrimad) and myself regularly read it and enjoy it very much. ... After reading it, one is not inclined to read anything else. ... It would have been hard for this body to survive, if you (Shrimad)
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