To awaken spiritual emotion rapidly, one needs to initially make constant efforts at the level of the mind and intellect. In the last Issue, 234, we studied one of the ways of the nine - fold path of devotion.

    In this Issue, we are going to learn and understand yet another way. We will also see the corresponding spiritual experiences that one gets while following any one of these types of devotion.

Service of the holy feet (padsevan)

    In this form of service, one literally serves the holy feet of The Lord / Guru, or performs ritualistic worship of His feet. Service unto the Guru’s feet means harboring the spiritual emotion ‘I am a servitor of The Lord’.

     The Guru has greater attachment for a disciple who worships His subtle form, which is the Guru principle, than one who worships only His gross (physical) form. Propagation of the Guru’s mission in the best possible way is true service unto the Guru’s feet.

My son’s recovery after partaking of holy water from the mentally performed ritualistic worship of His Holiness (H.H.) Dr. Jayant Athavale’s feet

    If my five-year-old son, Omkar, got afflicted with fever, then it used to last for at least a day. One morning, I received a phone call from my wife that Omkar had fever and bouts of vomiting, and that he was very restless. What could I do physically from so far away? Surrendering to H.H. Dr. Athavale, I mentally performed the ritualistic worship of His Holy feet. Then I imagined that I was offering my son the holy water obtained from the mental worship performed, that is the water used to wash Doctor’s Holy feet in the ritual. When I called my wife an hour later, I came to know that he was playing happily and that his fever had subsided.