1. Spiritual Awakening
Pran Nath Ji called the process of total spiritual awakening as Jagni. The term ‘awakening’ does not mean waking up from bed every morning. It means knowing about our true self, knowing about one Supreme Truth God, His eternal abode-Param Dham, and understanding the purpose of our life as a human being. Sometimes, this process is so subtle and gradual that it is almost imperceptible. An individual soul undergoing such a transformation experiences a profound shift in his or her understanding of the world, values, ethical standards, and life strategies. This change might start by reading a fact-filled heart-touching book, or coming in contact with some awakened souls, or other experiences or associations. This is how a spiritual journey begins in one’s life.

Jagni involves thinking beyond the three routine stages: sleeping, dreaming, and waking. Most people just circulate in these three stages and never find an EXIT in absence of soul awakening wisdom such as the Tartam Knowledge. A true master or a Sat-Guru is essential to guide a soul for consciousness to be able to evolve to a stage at which one find himself as a soul of one Supreme Truth God. When a soul realizes the true purpose of her existence, she can be considered as ‘awakened.’

 
True Awakening Comes Only Through Lord’s Grace

 Spiritual awakening means different things to different faiths, religions, and philosophers. Some of them say Self-Realization must take precedence to God-Realization; while some regard the reverse to be a more appropriate approach. Others just practice both together. While they all have apparently similar goals as discussed above, the question remains to be answered is: Do they all really lead to the same destination?

 Consider an example of someone in New York who must reach California in the next ten hours for some emergency meetings. If, for any reason, this person boards a wrong non-stop flight heading towards London, he will not only miss his appointments in California, but may also have to face serious consequences. This is what happens when we don’t take enough time to plan, or when we are in a stressful situation, or when we do not have appropriate directions or instructions. Worst of all can be the situation in which we are holding wrong directions, instructions, or ticket in our hands!

The end result: you start all over again—from where you originally started. Can you afford it? Of course, not. Pran Nath Ji says, "The level of efforts put by an individual soul to reach the goal of spiritual awakening, and the level of expectation by each one of them may also vary in a significant manner. The so-called ‘realized souls’ may have realized just one or two aspects of the Spiritual Awakening, but not completely. How can an ordinary human being succeed on a path on which even the three godheads of this Universe have failed, and are still trying to succeed? They don’t even have the knowledge about the Supreme Brahmn." Therefore, such a quest that begins from within one self, and that rely solely on one’s individual efforts, appears to be lacking assurance for the success.

We can also learn this same lesson from the many scriptural examples. Many seers and prophets, including the three godheads, attempted to search the Supreme Brahmn on their own. We know that they failed to attain the Supreme Divine Wisdom. Specifically, let’s take an example of Dev Chandra Ji, the founder of the Faith. He could not reach the peak of his search for his True Spiritual Identity and the Supreme Lord until the Lord Himself descended and offered him all he wanted. All his attempts and sincerity could raise his consciousness only up to the domain of eternal Yogmaya. He would never have realized his True Identity of Consort Shyama from his search within--on his own! Therefore, it is not wise enough for a soul seeking the Supreme Wisdom to just wait till the answer comes from within. Such an answer may not be a complete one.

The only hope is that if the Supreme Divine, who is beyond the perishable Kshar Purusha, descends here on this earth, and guides a soul through His Grace to the Eternal Bliss or Nijanand. A seeker soul must start her quest, by first winning His Divine Grace, and then, His Love. With His Grace and Love, the soul begins to realize her True Identity. In brief, this is the Way prescribed by Lord Pran Nath for the Awakening of a seeking soul.

The Number One Obstacle is Ego

Many modern humans want to be spiritually evolved. But in doing so, they continue to reject the Holy Scriptures and the teachings of the great masters of religions. They say, "I want to go my own way. I will work out my own religion for myself." They waste their lives by making this gigantic mistake--"Me, Me, Me; I, I, I, ....Ego . . . " The development of this ego actually forces such individualistic seekers backward to the point from which they started. In addition, many have conveniently preferred to maintain their focus just on the benefits in this visible world and life here. They have simply preferred to stay away from the scripture-told facts regarding remote spiritual realms or celestial state of a soul. An awakened soul always remains conscious of these errors and continues to evolve under the umbrella of the Lord’s Divine Grace.

Not Believing in the Existence of the Supreme Brahmn is Another Obstacle

Many others do not want to accept the idea of the existence of God. They think that believing in the existence of a Supreme Being called ‘God’ is not essential on the path of spiritual awakening; they just do not want to pursue the search for one Supreme Truth God.

According to Pran Nath Ji, "such souls may rise to a higher level of consciousness, and may describe their experiences as having attained the state of Supreme Bliss or Nijanand. However, in reality, they have only experienced one of the intermediate levels of awakening! For a soul to rise to a fully awakened state or Nijanand, the presence of a divine intervention--more specifically, the intervention of the Supreme Lord’s Grace--is essential!" A seeker soul should understand this from the many examples in the scriptures.

 
The Two Aspects of Spiritual awakening
 
What does Spiritual Awakening really mean according to Pran Nath Ji? According to Pran Nath Ji, the process of Jagni has two distinct aspects: awakening of self (Jago), and awakening of others (Jagao).

Mein bhulun toh tu muzeh, pal mein dijey jagaaye |
Tu bhuley toh mein tuzeh, deungi turat bataaye || (KS) Both these aspects can occur or can be practiced simultaneously in one’s life. It doesn’t have to follow one strict sequence. Both, youth and elders, can play a critical role in it through Lord’s Grace. All we need to do to be a part of the process is to allow the birth of true love for the Supreme Divine and self-determination. As a true sundersath, one has to learn the basic concepts of jagni. In fact, the entire Kuljam Swaroop and the Bitak Saheb have one purpose - the awakening or Jagni of the souls. This book also has the same divine purpose. Jagni is the key message of Pran Nath Ji.

Through the Divine Grace of the Supreme Lord, an awakened soul affirms her true form, true abode and true relationship with Him. The soul understands the greater significance of this present period of spiritual awakening. The soul strongly feels that: "My Lord will purify me through the fire of His Divine Love. He will always shower His gracious love to support me in my mission. He will teach me the way to awaken others; not just using human intellect, but by sharing love with others and revealing the hidden truths of the scriptures to them. And yes, all this can happen only through His exalted power or Aavesh. Also, this is possible only with His accepting me in His Lotus Feet, and that the fruits of Jagni cannot be reaped without His Grace."

Jagni Means Realization of the True Purpose and Nature of the Creation

An awakened soul also realizes that: "The Supreme Lord has ordered the Creator God for the creation of this universe, just to satisfy my desire to experience this worldly drama. That the Lord will lead me to my original abode, in the state of Total Bliss, called Nijanand. That He will take all His souls together in the state of Total Awakening. And that the Divine Tartam Wisdom is the masterkey that is capable of unfolding the secrets of all world scriptures. And that the term soul has three different meanings and each category of souls will go to their respective abodes. The terms Jiva and Atman are two different entities in one human body."

Jagni Means Realizing that the Supreme Brahmn is Perfect Divine Couple

Further, an awakened soul understands the fact that the Supreme Lord, His Heaven, and His Sports are all Suddha Saakaar, i.e., the purest, unsophisticated, and immaculate form. That, the world languages and human philosophies are really limited in conveying His Total Truth. That, He is not formless, or Nirakaar--as widely acceptable and convenient to the modern humans. The Supreme Lord is a Perfect Divine Couple--not just a male or just a female. The Divine Couple represents truth, consciousness, and bliss solidified. In the highest spiritual world, the Divine Couple does not really reflect the presence of male and female sexes in the Supreme Heaven. Being that way just reflects the completeness or perfection in the Supreme Divine. The Supreme Divine is still above sex. Only ignorants categorize such a belief as deviating from monotheism. Nothing can be subtracted from the Supreme Heaven. There arises no need for any addition. It’s perfect in characteristic, and is even beyond the highest known eternal universe of Yogmaya.

Jagni Means Understanding the Final Judgement

An awakened soul also understands that only this particular universe will attain eternity for the first and the last time among the many other innumerable creations. That, this unique event will take place only due to the touch of this Divine Wisdom. That all world scriptures are the testimony to this Supreme Wisdom. That in the end, this Wisdom will wake up Lord Vishnu, who remained ignorant of it for important reasons. That the Divine Plan allows formation of eight eternal domains called Bihists for offering eternity to all different categories of souls. Let’s attempt to understand these high-facts in the following chapters in light of the revealed scripture.

Eahi apni jagni, jo yaad aavey nij sukh |
Ishak yahin saun aavhin, yahin saun hoiyen sanmukh ||

Jyon jyon hosi jagni, tyon tyon udasi eah |
Dekhogey sab najron, piya hansi kari hai eah ||

Tartam saar jagni vichar, sabka arth hoshi nirvaar |
Nirakaar ke paar ke paar, tartam ko jagni bhayo saar ||
                                                                                (KS)

 Jagni means Knowing ‘Pran Nath’

To a Nijanandi Sundersath, the name Pran Nath - literally "the Lord of Souls"- means the Supreme Lord Aksharateet, the Perfect Divine Couple or Yugal Swaroop. In a true spiritual sense, Pran Nath is not a name of any individual; rather, it directs one’s focus to the One Supreme Divine. Pran Nath is the Lord of Indrawati. Pran Nath is the Lord of Mahamati and the Original Supreme Source of all identifiable sources. The word Pran Nath is just a Nijanandi or Pranami way of calling the one Supreme Truth God, Sat-Chid-Anand, Allah or Jehovah. In Kuljam Swaroop, Pran Nath has been called by at least more than fifty different names such as Krishna, Muhammad, Dhani, Piyu, Wahla, Jivanji, Shyam, Preetam, Sai, Maula, Khavand, etc. They all reflect His Supreme Qualities. Approximately one hundred names are used in the Holy Koran (Hadith) are also for this One Supreme Brahmn. They all, too, are simply the expressions of His supremacy.

According to the Holy Kuljam Swaroop and Bitak Saheb, Pran Nath descended with His different divine powers on this earth, at least on these five occasions:

With the divine powers of the Supreme Lord, Mehraj Thakur is called Mahamati.  Since Mahamati brought the complete treasure from the Supreme Heaven, the devotee souls (Sundersath) recognized him as Pran Nath.  He earned this high regard during his journey from the City of Surat (Gujarat, India) till his journey to the holy world shrine, Mukti Pith in the city of Panna (Madhya Pradesh, India).   For this reason only, in our later discussion, we will use the name Pran Nath for Mehraj Thakur, wherever appropriate.  The seeker souls should not misunderstand this, and should always keep these broad meanings in mind as he or she attempts to seep the taste of the Supreme Bliss.  More discussion on this subject can be found in the later chapter when Pran Nath Ji arrives in the City of Merta.

With the basic knowledge regarding the Faith, now let us begin to focus on the spiritual aspect, which is really important to a seeker soul.  Let’s understand the process of creation, and how our souls are linked with this universe, its creator, and the Supreme Lord.  Our exploration will continue with the discussion of some related key historical events of the Bitak Saheb, including a brief overview of major Hindu faiths and acceptance of Mahamati as Buddha Nish-kalanka Avatar.  It will conclude with the discussion of scriptural similarities, and some key revelations.