Daaji visited the garden near the nursery, where some people were unloading the vermicompost. After carrying out some tasks there, Daaji returned home for breakfast, which he had with two people who had come from his village, Kalla. After breakfast, he remained with them till lunch, after which he had a little treatment and went for a walk. The abhyasis from Kalla left for the airport to catch their 5 pm flight back home. 

At around 5.30 pm, Daaji came backstage to meet Ananda Shankar Jayant, a senior classical dancer from Shankarananda Kalakshetra, Hyderabad, along with her family. They had a cultural event a couple of days ago, to which Daaji sent a recorded message. They were very honored to have received Daaji’s message and wanted to meet him. As soon as Daaji came, they felicitated Daaji with a shawl and a basket of fruits as a token of respect and introduced themselves to Daaji.  

Daaji told them about the thoughts that had been wandering through him since the time he recorded his message for the event and discussed them with them. 

When they expressed their joy regarding the recently organized Global Spiritual Mahotsav by the Ministry of Culture in Kanha, Daaji happily acknowledged it, expressing his disappointment at some very well-known persons in the world of yoga and spirituality not attending it out of perhaps just a question of ego! 

He felt that unity amongst religions and yoga gurus is difficult because each one wants his or her own identity to be maintained instead of coming together for the greater good of humanity. Some were even upset that Kanha Shantivanam was chosen to promote this festival instead of their premises. Of course, the Ministry did not promote any one organization. It was held here because we had the facility to hold the program. 

The discussion moved to cultural programs that were being organized by the organisation of the visitors, and Daaji explained that art is required to instigate learning in an innovative way.

He felt that we had been living in silos. We study to become engineers and dancers, and we each remain in our own field. But what if everyone came together to contribute in a unique manner to teach using art as an expression? Teaching movement through a classical dance form in order for the student to sharpen their spatial intelligence might be a great integration of art into education. Unfortunately, art tends more and more towards entertainment and performance. Daaji pondered how art would be meaningful if we could integrate it into education and make it a part of everyone's lives. That actually brings satisfaction. 

The visitor shared that dance had been instrumental in helping young girls focus better on their studies. She mentioned that her own story was about having been through cancer and feeling very supported because of her dance practice. 

Daaji told them that if ever they created an institution that blended arts and education in a school, he would be very happy to contribute to such an undertaking.

He gave the example of teaching life’s lessons through art. Imagine if we could portray, through dance and art, the story of Lord Rama’s ‘Jalsamadhi’ through drowning in the Sarayu river. How would we do it? After all, art is not just about telling joyful stories. It is about life. Enabling young people to appreciate the philosophy of what India has been through could be done wonderfully through art. 

There are thousands of stories in the Vasistha Samhita. There are stories within stories that are complex. If we can find a way to express them in art form, it would be splendid.

The entire Vashistha Samhita is all about consciousness. Where modern science cannot even scratch the surface or define what consciousness is, art can go a much longer way in the understanding and expression of it.

Daaji explained that he encouraged young people to not believe in any indoctrination by anyone, even if they are their own parents. He was all for self-sufficiency, self-innovation, self-experience, and everything self-related. 

Meditate and seek your own experience. We force ourselves to believe in something, especially if we invest a huge amount of money in it. People tell me that they went on a trip with such a guru to such and such a place and spent several million rupees. But what is the outcome of it? Did they experience transformation and godliness, or were they simply conditioned to feel that they had achieved something of importance?

A real experience cannot be imposed upon us by anyone. 

That was Daaji’s message to the youth. Subtle aspects of existence must be interiorized and made our own. Anyone who asks you to pay for a spiritual experience, according to Daaji, cannot give you Brahmavidya. Daaji said that his Guruji used to say that if you can pay something for realizing God, then why do you need God?

About art, he said that his Guruji would say that art is neither a performance nor a career. It is an expression of life, and life is an expression of art. They mirror each other. It cannot be, you know, narrowed down to just a performance. When they asked Daaji for further guidance, he simply said, “Integrate yoga into everything you do and make your art an expression of bhakti to the Lord.”

There was a demonstration of brighter minds for the visitors. They were rather impressed by the young girl’s abilities, which were displayed. 

Daaji explained that it was possible to develop such capacities through intuition and not focus. "Focus," Daaji said, “is an overrated commodity.”. He explained that when we focus, the mind is in a state of excitement. That is where people go wrong with meditation. They think that to be able to meditate, they have to focus on something. In fact, it is by defocusing that we are able to transcend the mind. That is how Indian culture defines meditation. 

The English Oxford Dictionary says that meditation is to focus your mind on an object. But how about it if you have to focus on something that is not an object? 

How do you focus on something you haven't seen? 

Daaji explained that that is precisely where meditation comes into the picture. When you transcend, then whatever comes to your vision is what you can see from the height of consciousness you are at. Something that Lord Rama or Vasistha could see would come to your perspective. Great Rishis may have described certain things but we are unable to see it. Why? Because they looked at it from their perspective. It is at a different level of consciousness. So for it to happen to us, we need to achieve that level of consciousness.  

Daaji continued, “The only purpose of life is to refine your consciousness. People go crazy when they try to do it by taking the object of meditation as anything that has a form. How many people understood Lord Krishna in his lifetime, or Lord Rama in his lifetime? Perhaps there are people who could be counted on their own fingers. Even Lord Krishna’s best friend, Arjun, couldn't fathom his actual form. When Lord Krishna showed him the Vishwaroopa Darshan, Arjun was frightened and requested the Lord to take back the form he was accustomed to seeing. 

So while he still walked with them on this earth, if nobody could fathom and understand him, how in the world were you going to understand Lord Krishna with all these copies and projections of him going around? 

If I asked you to meditate on Lord Krishna, on which image of him would you meditate? You will meditate on some blue-colored figurine with a peacock feather in his crown. Forms mislead us. Formlessness is something we cannot fathom. 

So while we begin the meditation practice, here in Heartfulness, we sit with a gentle attitude, in reverent supplicancy, saying, "God, I do not even know if you are there, but let me experience your presence in my heart. Then you will have a certain experience. To the extent that your consciousness is evolved, pure, and surrendered, you are able to perceive. We keep working on our inner selves with meditation and cleaning, as taught in Sahaj Marg. The pranahuti is a specialty of the system, which is a flow of energy from the Guru. We sit quietly, invite it into our hearts, and make a sankalpa right from the beginning that my heart is filled with divine light. If other thoughts arise, don't struggle with them. Just remind yourself that you are meditating. 

Daaji then conducted a meditation session from 6.08 pm to 6.29 pm. They all took a group photo with Daaji and then took leave

Later, many practitioners met Daaji and spoke to him in the office. Upon leaving, he exchanged greetings with all those present before making his way to his car and departing for home.

Daaji invited brother Vivan Patel for dinner. Later, he had ultrasound therapy for his shoulder pain carried out by the physiotherapist, Doc. Surekha.