| (Continued from issue 205)
To awaken spiritual emotion rapidly, initially
one needs to make constant efforts at the level of the mind and
intellect. In the
last Issue 205, we discussed how to do ritualistic worship (puja)
to develop spiritual emotion and saw some spiritual experiences
of seekers in this regard. In this Issue we will discuss how to
do the ritual of singing hymns amidst moving of lit lamps (arati,
aarti) can help develop spiritual emotion.
How to perform arati / ritual of singing hymns
Recitation of verses and hymns are a means of glorifying
a deity. Since The Lord likes praise and is compassionate, if hymns and verses
are sung with spiritual
emotion (bhav), He is appeased. Since these hymns and verses in praise of God
have been compiled by Saints and evolved souls, they are enriched with divine
consciousness (chaitanya). Besides, when a Saint compiles this, His resolve (sankalpa)
and blessings that devotees should benefit by reciting it accompanies it. Hence,
a worshipper derives both worldly and spiritual benefits from it.
One definition of a hymn is ‘that
which is sung with earnestness (aartata)’.
Some spiritual experiences narrated below will depict how spiritual emotion
is awakened in a devotee who sings hymns devotedly, imagining
The Lord to be in
front of him and how he experiences the God principle.
Experiencing that ‘God exists where there is spiritual
emotion’ and getting a vision of Lord
Shrirama, Lord
Maruti and H.
H. Dr. Jayant Athavale while singing hymns: On the
morning of October 20, 2002, during the ritual of waving lit
lamps (arati)
in the Devad ashram (hermitage), a lot of spiritual emotion was
awakened in me. When singing a hymn in praise of Lord
Shrirama,
I felt as if Lord Shrirama were in front of me. When singing
that of Lord Maruti, I saw Lord Maruti’s colossal form.
Similarly when singing the hymn ‘Jyot
se jyot jagao’, I perceived H.H.
Dr. Athavale to
be before me and my inner flame merging with that of H.H. Dr.
Athavale. After the ritual concluded I felt very Blissful.
In the evening however, I could not sing the hymns with spiritual
emotion, therefore I felt unhappy and begged H.H. Dr. Athavale
for forgiveness. |
