To awaken spiritual emotion rapidly, initially one needs to make constant efforts at the level of the mind and intellect. In the last Issue, 212, we saw the importance of praying to tools used in spiritual practice and day-to-day life, to invoke spiritual emotion. In this Issue we will see how a tool assists a seeker in an activity when one prays to it.

(Continued from Issue 212)

    If one undertakes a task after offering obeisance to the tool which one will be using in the task, then the tool assists in the task. A spiritual experience elucidated below is in this context.

Chopping of wood occurring spontaneously without trouble after offering a prayer unto the Guru, the wood and the axe despite my not being habituated to doing this task:
     I was not habituated to chopping wood at all. Once when learning the satseva of chopping wood for the ashram, I became breathless, developed sores on the hands, etc. The next day, I began the same task after praying to the Guru, the wooden log and the axe, and lo and behold, I was able to chop the wood easily.

Spiritual Experience by offering prayer to the tools
    In November 2003, seeker Shri Neelesh Padhye handed me a taal (musical instrument that is played during aarti) before the aarti. Before this I had never used a taal. I prayed to the seven deities to give me the ability to play the taal in the manner in which it will please them. At that moment I also prayed to the taal in a friendly tone: "We have got this opportunity to serve God. Let us take maximum advantage of this opportunity." When doing the prayer I felt as though the taal is alive. At that moment the taal expressed enthusiasm in performing the seva. When the aarti of Lord Ram started, the taal guided me from within as to how to play it so that it would please Lord Ram, also which tune Lord Maruti (another name for Lord Hanuman) would like, and at every moment it guided me accordingly. After the aarti, the taal folded its hands and paid gratitude to me and God for getting this satseva done from it.

    Lord Datta chose twenty-four Gurus as well as subordinate Gurus, each one for the quality which He possessed and imbibed that quality conducive for spiritual practice from Him. We also can learn from different objects, e.g., just as a pen strives selflessly to write books for others, so also we should sacrifice ourselves selflessly all the time, for the Guru’s mission without any ulterior motive.

    Once a seeker learns to see the God principle in different tools utilized in spiritual practice, gradually he is able to view it in everything. This assists him in realizing the God principle in living and non-living creation.

    In the next issue we will discuss the different stages in prayer