Atheist beliefs leave after chanting*

    My first spiritual experience was in March of 1999, a week after I started chanting. I was an atheist living in a communist country, where the word ‘God’ was rarely heard. Even so, since childhood, I thought that I have some connection with Mother Mary, because I was born on the day of Her Ascent (as per the Orthodox Christian calendar). This same day is a Holy day for our family, since Orthodox Christians celebrate the day of the family Saint. So my birthday also happens to be on a Holy day. On this day, doors are opened to everyone and food is served, music is played and people make merry.

    I started chanting God’s Name as per my religion (‘Hail Mary’) a few years ago. On the night of my birthday that year, I “saw” a mirror frame across my bed. Then, in the mirror, I saw Mother Mary, being uplifted. At first, she was lying down, with hands crossed over her body and then got lifted up, chest up, floating upwards.

    At that moment, I got a message within that there is a meaning to the day of my birth. Next, I saw the lace tablecloth over a night table and in between the lace holes, I “saw” the Name ‘MARY’, almost as a signature, reinforcing my belief of my connection with Mother Mary, and thus, with God.

Realizing the unnecessary use of intellect

1. In 1995, many seekers had gathered in Mumbai, India for a function held in His Holiness Bhaktaraj Maharaj’s honor. The function continued till late evening, after which, Baba (H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj) told some of the seekers to go home, as they would have to travel by train to get home. However, the seekers thought that this was a golden opportunity for them to remain in Baba’s saintly presence and that they should continue helping out with doing satsevaof cleaning-up, etc., at least till Baba leaves. Finally, much later that night, those seekers were ready to go home. However, when they got to the train station, they found that due to some unforeseen problems, all the train services had been stopped earlier that night.

       This served as a spiritual teaching for everyone that when an evolved person tells us to do something, they are advising with prior subtle knowledge of the future. We should obey it without making unnecessary use of the intellect.

2. A few years ago, I was supposed to give my first lecture in the U.S., on the Introduction to the Science of Spirituality. I was quite nervous about giving the lecture and spoke to Mrs. Sequeira, who was in charge of the Sanatan organization’sUSA chapter then. She was very encouraging, and told me to prepare well and to trust that The Lord would take care of everything. However, I kept entertaining doubts about the success of the lecture and kept worrying about whether I would be able to answer correctly the questions that the American audience might ask. I kept on thinking of all the possible doubts they might ask, and as to how I would reply to them. Finally, when the moment of the lecture arrived, I found, much to my pleasant surprise, that the audience were completely in spiritual seeking mode and asked very good questions. The lecture as well as the question-answer session went off very well.

       This spiritual experience taught me to refrain from entertaining doubts about the success of the Lord’s work and from making unnecessary use of the intellect.