Messages to Seekers
Need For Spirituality
Saints’ Blessings
to the Sanatan
Common Misconceptions
Spiritual Practice for Awakening Spiritual Emotion
Children's Corner
Activities Worldwide
Religious Festivals
Implied Meanings
Spiritual Practice for Destroying Ego
Spiritual Experiences
Experiment of the
Subtle Dimension
Saints' Quotes
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Messages to Seekers
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For week ending January
3, 2004
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Repetition (chanting*) of
The Lord’s Name in the destroyer (marak) form
will only be
effective upon developing spiritual emotion ( bhav) towards
The
Lord’s marak form |
| In order to make repetition
(chanting) of The Lord’s Name in the destroyer form effective,
and to develop spiritual emotion towards the destroyer form of the
deity Whose Name is repeated (chanted), seekers are advised to do
the following: |
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| 1. |
To develop
spiritual emotion towards the destroyer aspect of God, as well
as fighting spirit (kshatravrutti) in oneself, it is most helpful
to sit with the back and neck straight. Both hands should be
in tight fists, resting on the thighs with the elbows jutting
out as shown in the above picture. |
| 2. |
Pronunciation
should be clear. Click here to
download the correct tune and pronunciation for each deity’s
Name in Their destroyer forms.
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| 3. |
The voice
should be loud. |
| 4. |
While repeating (chanting)
The Lord’s Name as advised above, one should visualize
and have the spiritual emotion that "the enemy is in
front of me. And I’m running towards him to attack him.
" |
| 5. |
If one has received
guidance from the subtle
department on placing one’s
hands in certain mudras, then one should do so while repeating
(chanting) The Lord’s Name. |
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Only a seeker having spiritual
emotion should conduct the bhav satsang |
To increase the spiritual emotion
among seekers, Sri
Durga Devi has advised seekers attend weekly bhav
satsangs. Only those seekers who have spiritual emotion should conduct
the satsang, as this will benefit both themselves and others.
It has been noticed that in some bhav satsangs
the first half an hour study session exceeds the 30-minute time
limit established by
Sri Durga devi. This portion should not exceed 30 minutes. If there
is no material for the study session, then two pages of the Sanatan’s publication “Spiritual
Practice for the Awakening of Spiritual Emotion” book
should be read.
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Don’t have blind faith
in guiding or senior seekers
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It has been noticed that seekers
in the Sanatan who are actively spreading Spirituality look up to
and have a certain viewpoint of their guiding seekers. Some of these
viewpoints are incorrect and are given below:
1. Guiding seeker is the form of the Guru
As a matter of fact, a guiding seeker should be
looked upon as a more responsible seeker.
2. The guiding seeker is never wrong
Only God is perfect. Since the guiding seeker
is also a seeker seeking God, their decisions, working method and
the guidance they give can
have errors. So if one feels the guiding seeker is never wrong, then
a senior seeker should be consulted.
3. Showing the mistakes of guiding seekers is like criticizing a
Saint!
In reality, a guiding seeker is a more responsible
seeker. In other words, the guiding seeker is also a seeker, doing
their spiritual
practice (sadhana).
Therefore, the thought that ‘pointing out
mistakes made by the guiding seeker is like criticizing a Saint’ should
be removed. Saint
Tukaram Maharaj has said, "A critic’s
house should be next to ours." In other words, if somebody
is showing us our mistakes for our spiritual progress, then it is
not wrong. |
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It is preferable that new
seekers are not brought to daily satsangs |
| In the Devad ashram (Panvel,
India), some seekers bring new seekers or relatives who do not do
any spiritual practice for
the daily satsangs held there. In the daily satsangs, the study of
the mistakes made by seekers while doing satseva,
mistakes at the organization level, the underlying causes, the personality
defects
of the seeker responsible for the mistake and how to avoid these
are discussed. As a result, a new seeker coming for the satsang will
have doubts about Sanatan and the seeker himself, thus resulting
in a loss for him. Instead, new seekers should be invited to satsangs
discussing the science of Spirituality for their spiritual nourishment. |
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Be advised of the following
while
going
to Saints for solutions to problems! |
Some Saints have taken focus
off Their work to help the Sanatan. With Their consent, seekers
who have a lot of distressing
energy trouble are sent to them for
solutions.
At such times, the following things have been noticed:
| 1. |
Seekers
go to the Saints for treatment at a fixed time. However, since
many seekers go together, a crowd gathers at the Saint’s
place. As a result, the seekers who need immediate attention
because of the amount of distress faced are forced to wait. |
| 2. |
Some
seekers, due to incomplete information, go to the visit the
Saint at anytime other than the fixed time. Since this happens,
a lot of times the Saint’s personal time is spent in
treating the seekers. |
| 3. |
Some
seekers go to meet the Saints without previous consultation
with or advice to do so from guiding or senior seekers. When
the Saint tells them the solution, they express doubts about
it and ask their guiding seeker whether they should do it or
not. |
To avoid all of the above, seekers should consult
the guiding seekers from their local
center who, in turn, will consult the district level seekers and determine
the time to visit the Saints. |
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If seekers feel any pressure
change at satsangs, meetings
or any other functions then take the
necessary spiritual measures
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The attacks by distressing
energies on seekers are increasing quantitatively. Many times at
satsangs, meetings or any other functions, there is a significant
increase in pressure due to distressing energies. At these satsangs
and meetings seekers feel physical, mental and spiritual discomforts
like body ache, sleepiness, unwillingness to sit for the satsang
or meeting, not understanding the points discussed or disagreement,
etc. At such times, instead of silently bearing the distress, seekers
should immediately stop the activity and take spiritual measures
like prayer and repeating (chanting) The Lord’s Name, blowing
holy ash (vibhuti), etc. By doing this, the black covering made
by the distressing energies reduces and the satsang or meeting
can continue.
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In case of yawning, bouts
of a coughing or drinking water
to quench the thirst while repeating
(chanting) The Lord’s Name, continue doing so mentally
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While repeating (chanting)
The Lord’s Name, if one feels like yawning, coughing or one
feels thirsty and gets up to drink water, then one is distracted
from the repetition (chanting) of The Name for some time, thus
wasting a few minutes. If the repetition (chanting) occurs even
one minute less than advised by Shri Durgadevi, She doesn’t
consider it as done. Seekers should therefore continue repeating
The Lord’s Name mentally. A distressing energy that had manifested
in a seeker said the following: "We chant every second.
While drinking water, we chant with every sip of water swallowed.
That’s why our spiritual practice is more than yours."
To overcome the distressing energies, seekers should make efforts
to repeat (chant) The Lord’s Name every second.
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Eating the food from ashram as
holy sacrament
(prasad) increases energy! |
Instead of eating food from
the ashram as
food, if one prays and eats it as holy sacrament (prasad), then
one gets sattvik energy
from the food. If meals are eaten as holy sacrament, then one gets
energy equal to five malas and
at breakfast equal to three malas of repeating (chanting) The Lord’s
name. Even if the food is not eaten as holy sacrament, then one
still
gets energy equal to one mala. Therefore, seekers staying in the
ashram
should derive maximum benefit from the food eaten there.
Note: Only the seekers with bhav will get the benefit. So one
should avoid visiting ashrams just to have food.
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*Repeating or remembering The Lord’s Name according to one’s
religion or as determined from the experiment in Issue 124, Messages
to Seekers section. |
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