Getting energy and enthusiasm to conduct Bhav Satsang after making intense prayers to H. H Dr. Jayant Athavale and Sri Durgadevi

    Last week I was in a spiritual low almost through out the week. This is the first time I had ever experienced a spiritual low, and it was good as a learning experience, because I could understand what a low was. When Saturday came (we have Bhav Satsang on Saturdays), in the morning I said an intense prayer to Sri Durgadevi and to Gurudev (H. H. Dr. Athavale). I prayed that I did not feel equipped to conduct the Bhav Satsang, as I had not felt any spiritual emotion (bhav) during the week due to the low. Then about 4 hours before the satsang, my fellow seeker in the ashram told me that to test a new camera. He had arranged a video conference with seeker Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar in the U.S. As he was busy, he asked me to do the conference/chat with her. I reluctantly agreed, because I was in the middle of preparing for Bhav Satsang. However, as soon as I saw her image on the screen, all I could feel was spiritual love (priti) for her and spiritual emotion.

    I reflected that this meeting, though scheduled for my fellow seekers, was actually for me. I continued to feel spiritual emotion through out the chat video conference. At the end of the chat I knew that H. H. Dr. Athavale and Sri Durgadevi had answered my prayer, and I was fully charged to conduct Bhav Satsang.

Experiencing Bliss while chanting* Sri Durgadevi’s Name in the Marak** (Destroyer of evil) tune

   I have been having some trouble chanting in the Destroyer (Marak) tune, and every time I began to chant thus, my shoulder would start to hurt and I would be distracted.
One day as I sat down to chant, my shoulder started to ache as usual and I began feeling sad. However, the thought came to me (from an email I had read the week before) “Don't accept this and let it stop your spiritual practice, be angry and fight it!”

    Accordingly, I sat in the Marak pose and began to chant forcefully in the Marak tune. After a few minutes I felt my spine straighten and from the center of my chest a spinning disc came, it was golden and as it spun it threw off showers of light. The pain in my shoulder completely went away and I felt physically renewed. As I continued chanting, I then saw a 5-pointed, star-shaped thing. I had the feeling that I was seeing the tip of a spear or something of that shape, but light was flowing out behind it, so I never actually saw the other end of it. This divine weapon was moving very quickly towards earth. The chanting was very Blissful. When it was over, I looked at the clock and although I had felt as though only a few minutes had passed, I found that I had been chanting for 50 minutes.