(11:33 minutes) Bruce Kell from Strathfield, Australia, made this 1975 recording of Dadaji singing Sanskrit Sloka song during the Utsav Celebration in Calcutta India.

Download English or German PDF files:

Fragrance of the Heart

Duft

A Special Private Edition
Eine besondere private Edition

THE FRAGRANCE of the HEART is a remarkable book about a remarkable man. In a masterpiece of story-telling, Peter Meyer-Dohm takes us on a journey of spiritual discovery that in its wit, wonder and revolutionary celebration of love and freedom is destined to become a classic.

Dadaji: The Last Pilgrimage
by Hans Conrad Zander, Stern Magazine

Dadaji: A Bhakti U.G.?
by Anna at The Zoo Fence

2 Transcribed talks by Dr. Peter Meyer-Dohm

The man to whom my last pilgrimage is destined is called Dadaji. By many he is considered the greatest sage of India. The most outstanding scientists and artists of India are devoted to him. The surprising thing, however, is the fact that he is only a small businessman in New Market, Calcutta, who has at the age of 73, retired from business. He does not own a temple or an Ashram. In a suburb of Calcutta, between slum huts and luxury villas, he lives in a small unpretentious house.

Kindly he helped me down from the lorry into the water, as it was time of heavy flooding in Calcutta. "Come upstairs to the first floor," he said, "where it is dry. But, please don't kiss my feet. They are no Lotus Feet. No man should kiss the feet of another person." The sage laughed, broadly, almost childlike. But, the conversation is unexpectedly slow. Dadaji does not see many visitors. He does not know how to talk with a foreigner. Only during my second visit does he open up.

I am called Dadaji," he says, "that means Elder Brother. You are my younger brother. Come closer to me." He blesses me by touching my hippy-hair with his hand. "Because you are my younger brother I will reveal to you the deepest wisdom of the East today." And, he raised his voice. "Conrad, go home to the West and lead a normal life."

The electric light goes off. Several times a day the electric current supply breaks down. The sage does not feel disturbed by this. He lights a candle. "Dadaji," I object, "I have come to India in order to find my Guru."

"According to my experience," said the wise man from Calcutta, "all Gurus are swindlers. They deal in the shadiest business of the world. They deal in illusions for poor souls. They make a business of the misery of the people and of their immaturity. If a country is in order and one is really grown up, one will not require a Guru. One can, oneself, cope with problems. Grow up. Go home. Put and end to religious tourism!"

I shook my head. That means "yes" in India. The wise man fetched two glasses. But, I still have one question. "Dadaji, I have come to India in order to learn something about meditation."

"Meditation," the wise man of Calcutta said, "is an especially highly developed form of idleness. Haven't you got a profession, a family, any friends? A normal person has, after all, no time for such things." "And, Yoga?"

"That," said Dadaji, "is also such humbug. I consider all these complicated bodily postures an ostentatious self-torture. It is not even a good technique of relaxation. Swimming is far more relaxing. Also going for walks." He offers me a cigarette. "Smoking," he says, "also relaxes."

"Dadaji," I say imploringly, "I haven't come to India to learn to smoke, but to find God."

"God," answered the Sage, "is within you. You don't need to seek Him. Fulfill your duties, do your work and enjoy your days. Whiskey, cigarettes and love. Then you will feel within you what no Guru can sell you: the living God, the true God, Who has created you and loves you."

Dadaji was pouring me a drink. In Calcutta, in the middle of floods, my soul found God. And, on this I had a double whiskey with the greatest Sage of India.

The Zoo Fence recently was the fortunate recipient of a very powerful book, "The Fragrance of the Heart - Encounters with Dadaji" by Peter Meyer-Dohm. It is a biographical memoir of the now deceased Teacher known by his "devotees" as Dadaji, or "elder brother". (I use the term devotee cautiously, as I suspect Dadaji himself would wince at its implications.)

"If I am a Guru, you are also a Guru."--- Dadaji

In my long journey of 'looking for answers' to life's mysteries, I have come across about seven books out of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, I have read that contain within them not only words, but a spirit, or power, or living-ness that other books do not seem to contain. This book is one of those.

Without fail, such 'living' books that are bhakti in nature, or devotional and surrendered, produce in me, at least, an uncontrollable sleepiness, or zombie-like state of mind, which no amount of tea or coffee, or mind control, can dissipate. It is the same state of consciousness, bordering on unconsciousness, that occurs whenever there is a leap in my own consciousness, a revelation of truth, which causes the mind, when it rushes in to recapture the event, to 'fall asleep', and to refuse to maintain its focus. This state, of course, is interpreted by my mind to be 'asleep' or 'unconscious', which, of course, to a conscious mind, WOULD appear to be just that.

While reading this particular book, the altered state was so intense that I feared losing consciousness altogether -- an interesting reaction to the mind's stillness, no doubt, by a mind pre-occupied with maintaining control.

"You can do nothing."--- Dadaji

This state -- and it occurs each time I pick up the book -- signifies to me the power and depth of the spirit that resides within it. It is also this state that signifies to me that the book works at a level different from the mind. Perhaps a better way to describe what I mean might be to say that immersing oneself in this book immerses oneself in Dadaji's consciousness. This is what I mean by 'a living book', and it applies to other books of like power as well.

To me, this Teacher speaks the words of U.G. and Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi, to name just a few, but within a devotional or bhakta frame of reference. However, lest I suggest differences by this statement, I note that they all say essentially the same thing, and their similarities outweigh their surface differences.

What I particularly resonate with in this man's teaching is his apparently simple combination of devotion and thus certainty of a God (which he calls simply "He"), and an understanding and expression as a living example of the God within, and the within-ness of man in God and thus, of a non-dual universe. He has managed, to my mind at least, to combine jnana with bhakti, or the heart with the mind, without conflict and without imbalance.

At the same time, despite the bhakti approach, he is adamant that no human being can be a guru, and that the guru is within. He is also impatient and intolerant of all power structures which use authority to control mankind, including those of a religious nature, and in particular, of the bhakti path that is too often used in this manner. He seems to apply this across the board, including ALL religions that use devotion as a method of control. His ability to discriminate objectively and lovingly indicates to me at least the level of his Realization.

Coincidentally, he has managed to divinize all human activity, all human longing and desire, and he uniquely encourages all his listeners to live their human life fully, without rejecting any of it.

Suffice it to say that this gentleman still lives, obviously. But lest this be misunderstood, buying the book and reading it will not guarantee that he will walk in your front door. However, it may invite God into your heart. Much depends upon our motivations, and much depends upon God.