The purpose of Sacha Baba Kulanandji's powerful mantra is to to make it easier for everyone to attain a higher state of consciousness and then spiritual enlightenment — not only to alleviate pain and suffering, but especially to make humanity ready for the new era coming in. This mantra, working in the Universal Soul on the higher planes, greatly helps to tear away or disolve the veils of maya blocking the path to the Atma (Higher Self) and God. Here, Shri Hans Raj Maharajji explains how and why Sacha Baba Kulanandji created this mantra.
Shri Sacha Baba Kulanandji
The Explanation of the Prabhu Aapa Jago mantra
"Prabhu Aapa jago, Paramaatma jago,
Mere Sarava jago, Saravatra jago
Dukhaanta ka Khela Kaa Anta Karo,
Sukhanta ka Khela Prakaash Karo"
( Lord awake, awake Supreme Soul,
Awake in me, awake in everyone.
End the play of suffering
Bring light to the play of bliss. )
Humans are sensitive beings, who most of all perceive and communicate their emotions. Shoud language be without emotion, or should emotions be without language, they would both be meaningless. The usefulness and the evolution of language certainly originate in emotions and empathy. In other words, the manifestation and evolution of language becomes possible through emotions, because humans are very emotional beings.
"Prabhu Aapa Jago, Parmaatma Jago" is spoken from God to God2. For the upliftment of all, for the welfare of human beings and the establishment of new values in society, whenever God deems it necessary, He appears among us3 in the form of a Saint, working for the liberation of the whole world, and praying to Himself for the establishment of those values.
The Seer of this great mantra, Saint Sacha Baba, incarnated only for this prayer. When he saw that once incarnated in his physical body he had forgotten his divine state, he began to awaken God in himself. Then experiencing Him, he went deeper into this consciousness and awakened Him. God is hidden in all beings — “sentient” and “non-sentient”.
The Saint also saw that the whole world, which is a form of God, had fallen asleep, so he was filled to overflowing with compassion and kindness, and wanted to awaken everyone. Putting aside his own name and form, he started singing to himself,
“Prabhu Aapa Jago, Paramatra Jago.”
This has happened not once but several times in the history of man.
Seeing that the Lord, the origin of the whole world was sleeping, the Seers of the Vedas, the great Rishis chanted this mantra:
"Uttishthat Jagrat Prapya Varannibodhat"
(Awake, arise and go to the Sages.)
Full of mercy great Seers began to awaken their divine sons and daughters, saying: "Oh my sleeping sons and daughters, awake, arise and go to the Sages and receive divine Knowledge from them."
This lineage of Rishis has continued up to the present time with the great revolutionary Saint, Sacha Baba. He joins his tune with theirs and he awakens us.
"Prabhu Aapa Jago, Paramaatma Jago"
Just like the Rishis of the Upanishads, he has tried to awaken us. It can never be that our sorrow and suffering do not reach the hearts of the Rishis. In modern times this suffering reached the Heart of another revolutionary saint (Tulsi Das), and sharing that suffering himself, he began to sing:
Moha Nisa Sab Sovan Hara
Dekhahi Swapn Anek Prakara
Then Tulsi Das started saying that everyone was living in a dream of illusion (maya) and that they were attached to the world of desires they found there (moha). They were all spiritually asleep in that illusion, they were living in dreamland. So those who came out of that dream, who had gone beyond that illusion and who had broken the bonds of attachment then turned towards man. Those Rishis or Saints felt great compassion for humanity's plight, for they saw that although all forms are God, and the whole creation is God and His play, people are not awake. So they wanted to lead them to enlightenment – they (the people) who were indeed a manifestation of God. They then began to pray and call upon God :
Prabhu Aapa Jago, Paramaatma Jago,
Mere Sarava Jago, Saravatra Jago
The One who is Lord of the world became the One who sustains, maintains and preserves the world, and having entered it, fell asleep. When we sleep we forget everything. We don't remember anything in sleep — name or form. Sleep removes everything from you, your culture, society and education and nothing remains apart from sleep. Sleep brings about complete solitude, even loss of consciousness. Neither the comfort of the place where we sleep nor the state of our body matters. When sleep comes it snatches away our body consciousness. For the development of life and for the evolution of consciousness, sleep is a necessary condition. It is a need, which gives us bliss. For this reason, human beings are always eager to go to sleep. It is strange however, that when one tries to sleep, it is not certain that sleep will come. When our efforts stop, when we are not doing anything at all, the mind progressively ceases its activity and only then do we fall asleep.
The state we call samsara [the almost endless cycle of rebirth and death till man attains liberation] is just like that. Having entered this samsara, which is steeped in passion and hate, we have fallen asleep. When we are drawn into and fascinated by the illusion, then God inside us, falls asleep. This world of samsara is similar to the sleeping state. When we enter that state, we lose the awareness of our own divine state.
As soon as we stop sleeping we are in the waking state. When sleep stops, when the body doesn't need it anymore, then we wake up. That is also the case with samsara. When we lose our passion for samsara, when we understand its false, deceptive nature, we begin to lose interest in it. As soon as we become disinterested, confused and uncomfortable with the world, then our consciousness starts looking for another dimension.
When our flow of consciousness becomes ready to change direction we then enter an awakened state, on a plane where we are one with Paramatma. In that state, there is no samsara, nor the confusion of it, nor attachment or repulsion towards it because we now understand its true nature.
Whoever had entered that state, whoever had reached that place, had perceived that every creature in samsara is sleeping in a dream of illusion, in the night of desire. These Seers of Truth [Sacha] are called Rishis. When these people saw and understood that Truth, they were filled with compassion, because they also had been asleep, in the past; they also used to be in that night of delusion. So quite naturally they felt compassion for them.
After realizing their true nature, and seeing their brothers and close ones asleep, their minds were set on one thing - to find all those who were sleeping and wake them up. Just like when the sun rises, you start to wake your children up for them to go about their duties, our Rishis and Seers, when they see us sleeping in illusion, they wake us up, and from them this chant arises:
Prabhu Aapa jago, Paramaatma jago,
Mere Sarava Jago, Saravatra jago
The all pervading Lord, who has fallen asleep in your and my form, in the night of delusion, in the state of desire, in the world of false attachment, is being called upon: "Oh, all pervading God, You are everywhere, You are everything. Awaken in everybody, because all names and forms are You manifested. If You have awakened in my name and form, then assuredly You have to awaken in all other names and forms also."
This is the cry of the Saints, that the all-pervading God, must Himself awaken, because after He came among you and me, He Himself fell asleep. He succumbed to the illusion, and became worldly minded. Only He is competent to awaken Himself. He has the power to become awakened, that is why I am speaking about this. That is why when this music came to me, it became the mantra of my life. A mantra is simply a prayer to call on God. It is spoken from God to God.
Sacha Baba told this story: “ Once I went to Jagannath, to have His Darshan. In the temple this inspiration came to me, and my inner voice burst out in song. Beside me, there were some people, and seeing their poor condition I began to sing to Jagannath, (a form of Krishna):
Jago Jago Jagannivas Ab Tum Jago Jagannivas
Jagannivas, Jagannivas, Ab Tum Jago Jagannivas
(Awake, Awake Jagannivas, now you awake!).
The whole night this prayer went on. The whole night I was weeping, with a continuous flow of tears. Looking at the condition of the world and worldly people, the flow of tears did not stop. I came back to Allahabad, but these words were still echoing in my ears. In 1960, I again experienced a wave of compassion. I went on weeping and singing. I was singing to the Lord, the creator of the world, who after coming among us, has fallen asleep.
Prabhu Aapa jago, Paramaatma jago,
Mere Sarava jago, Saravatra jago
This prayer itself became a mantra for me. Slowly the people of the ashram began to sing it. For three years continuously day and night from 1960 to 1963 this Kirtan went on. In those days a devotee was in my service. He felt in his heart that this Kirtan should go on for nine more years, and because of his request, this Kirtan went on continuously until 1972. Now many people repeat this mantra, praying to God within:
Prabhu Aapa Jago, Paramaatma Jago,
Mere Sarava Jago, Saravatra Jago
This is my request to that Highest Being that he must Himself awaken. He must Himself bring His consciousness to us. Human beings are very weak and powerless, they cannot awaken You — but You Lord, you are full of power and You are able to disolve the ego in human beings. For this reason, Oh Lord of the universe, by coming to us Yourself, give us the knowledge of this life and this world, which are made by You. ”
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1 One can consider that prayers are from God to God because Man is not the physical body that we see, he is the Atman — God, God in Man. Narayana, through the Atman and the soul is reflected in the heart, and with deep, sincere prayer one can draw close to God.
2 Sacha Baba Kulanandji, the Avatar who created this mantra, like his Master Girnari Baba and later on Sacha Baba Hans Rajji, was the incarnation of Vishnu - the second God in the Hindu Trimurti, linked to the soul and consciousness. He was “God speaking to God”.
3 Lord Krishna says the same thing, “ Whenever spirituality decays and materialism is rampant, then, O Arjuna, I reincarnate Myself ! To protect the righteous, to destroy the wicked and to establish the kingdom of God, I am reborn from age to age.” (Bhagavad Gita, ch. 4)
We can note that there is a special connection between the great
Saint and Lord Krishna:
Kulanandji was born on the day of the Janmashtami festival when the anniversary of Lord Krishna’s birth is celebrated in Gaura. What is more, while he was being born, the waters of the river flooded the village and baby Kulanand fell from his mother's womb directly into the Ganges which had flowed into the room. In a similar way, when Lord Krishna was being born, the river nearby had flooded the streets.
Saint Sacha Baba Kulanandji left his body on the day of his birthday, which was also the day Lord Krishna's birthday is celebrated in Allahabad — Janmashtami.
