Increase in faith in prayers after experiencing the subtle presence of His Holiness (H.H.) Dr. Jayant Athavale after saying regular prayers about the same.

    I was pleading to H.H. Dr. Athavale in prayer to please walk with me, as I desperately wanted everything to happen as per His will. I was also praying in this manner because I had the firm conviction that if He walks with me, then automatically every activity will be done with spiritual emotion. Even though some days the prayer is just mechanical and devoid of feeling, I still say the prayer just as one does not forget to brush one’s teeth everyday.

    One day, He graced me with the subtle vision and feeling of Him truly walking with me. I felt my feet to be His feet! If I walked fast and briskly I could visualize His feet walking like I walk. This automatically slowed down my pace and the walk became much slower, since I did not want to make Him walk fast. This lovely feeling stayed with me on that day. I feel immense gratitude towards H.H. Dr. Athavale for this experience. This increased my faith in the importance of saying prayers. He taught me through this spiritual experience that no prayer goes unheard. I am also really grateful that He made me promptly share it with other seekers, and this is another prayer that He has answered.

Ability to grasp deeper understanding of spiritual teachings after saying prayers to Lord Ganesh to remove black covering from the mind.

    Recently, I started to pray to Lord Ganesh to create a protective sheath around me and also to remove the black covering from my mind. After the commencement of these prayers, I now feel a difference in my understanding of the guidance given to me and about the purpose of my spiritual practice. I also feel that the spiritual discourses I used to listen to have different meaning now. The meaning is deeper, that is, I find that I understand the meaning at a higher level of consciousness.