Experiencing spiritual emotion (bhav) after viewing an inanimate object as one’s Guru brethren

    During the bhav satsang a few weeks ago, I was assigned the responsibility of ringing the bell periodically to indicate the pause for prayer during the chanting sessions. During the satsang I had to make room for another seeker who had joined us late. While moving to another spot, by mistake I left the bell behind. The seeker’s baby son was crying from the start of the satsang and hence, his mother could not attend the satsang continuously. However, the baby saw the bell and found it amusing. He began to play with the bell and was so caught up with it that he did not trouble his mother any further.

    Upon seeing him use the bell as a toy I felt very guilty. I immediately apologized to the bell, as I felt that it was one of my Guru brethren and should have been employed in service unto the Guru. At that time, I felt the bell telling me that it was feeling very glad in entertaining the small baby, because then his mother could attend the satsang properly. After this, I was feeling a lot of spiritual emotion thinking about the bell and felt immense gratitude to the Guru (Teaching principle of God) for teaching me how important it is to treat everything around us, animate or inanimate, with love. A few years ago, I would not have understood this concept.

Experiencing no obstacle of traffic after prayer to the deity of the road (Margadevata)

    A few weeks back, I was to attend a bhav satsang early in the morning. Generally I am on time, however, this time I was running late. So, I prayed to the deity of the road to get me to the venue with no obstacles. I traveled by a narrow road, which is so congested, that it has a fair amount of traffic even at 5:00 a.m. With every hour it gets more and more crowded.

    However, though it was nearly 6:00 a.m. that I left for the bhav satsang that day surprisingly, I did not encounter any traffic – none at all -- right up to location (Bombay central) where the bhav satsang is held. I reached within 10 minutes, which is very unusual. One may feel it was a miracle. However, I feel that for a seeker, who experiences God’s presence in various ways in the spiritual journey, it is yet again a confirmation that a sincere prayer to God is a potent weapon to remove obstacles.