Realization that spiritual experiences are encouragement from God, after getting a vision of H. H. Dr. Jayant Athavale during repetition (chanting*) of The Lord’s Name

    One day recently, I was repeating (chanting) The Lord’s Name (at the time, as determined from Issue 124, Message to Seekers section, I was repeating “Om Namaha Shivaya” while looking at the picture of Lord Shiva on the altar at home. Shortly, I saw H. H. Dr. Athavale smiling at me from the picture of Lord Shiva. His one hand was raised to bless and protect me. I was overcome with gratitude and spiritual emotion upon this vision.

    I realized that the Guru is God Himself and that God encourages seekers’ spiritual practice by giving them experiences like these. I also felt that God is so caring, because in spite of our repeated mistakes from the flaws in our personality, He continues to shower His grace and encourage us.

Improvement in the behavior of a five-year-old child after becoming aware of one’s ego and praying before correcting the child

    I used to have a difficult time whenever I tried to correct or discipline my five-year-old son, Abhinav. Although he would do what I asked him to, I felt that he was resentful. He felt that I could not understand him. Thus, he would not understand why I was correcting him.

    This made me think about my own actions. I noticed that whenever I spoke to him authoritatively or acted like I know more than he, or in other words when I had ego, he never responded positively. Then after reading a co-seeker’s spiritual experiences about her son and her ways of handling him, I got a more concrete solution to my problem. Now before correcting my son or disciplining him, I first pray to God and ask Him to teach me how to express my concern so that it reaches my son correctly. Now I see a distinct improvement in my son’s attitude and behavior.