While practising Spirituality, it is necessary to sacrifice one’s mind, body and wealth. The mind can be sacrificed by chanting* (repeating) the Name of the Lord, the body by undertaking physical seva and wealth by offering it. Our glorious culture teaches us to give 20% of our income as offering. However the offering should be done to one who is worthy of it, otherwise a give-and-take account is generated. Could anyone be more deserving in society than Saints, who are the manifest (sagun) form of the Lord Himself? By offering to Saints, the accumulated account (sanchit karma) gets reduced and the ability to endure destiny (prarabdha) also increases.

    In Kudal, (India) at a satsang where mistakes** in the seva centre are addressed, the conducting seeker questioned on who was responsible for a particular mistake. None of the seekers responsible for it accepted the mistake; but seeker Yojana Parab, who performs seva in the kitchen, accepted it. (When the mistakes had happened, she was doing the seva of propagation of Spirituality.) The conducting seeker asked her, “How do you think you are responsible for this mistake?” She replied, “This is my ashram, hence any mistake that happens here is my responsibility, too.” Her reply indicates her expansive spiritual emotion (samashti bhav). If our attitude with regard to mistakes is similar then God’s grace will definitely be upon us.

* Constant remembrance or repetition of The Lord's Name. Seekers in the initial stages of spiritual practice (less than one year) are advised to repeat The Name of the Lord as per their religion (refer to Issue 3, Clarification of Doubts section for details). Those seekers who have been doing regular spiritual practice for over one year are advised to determine The Name appropriate for them from the experiment given in Issue 124, Message to Seekers section.

** Please click here for practical suggestions on introspection on one’s mistakes/reactions and using hypnotherapy techniques like autosuggestions for rapid and lasting removal of personality defects.