Today, most of us are sensitive purely from the point of view of our ego. God’s vibration that is reverberating in our souls is many times more sensitive than our sensitivity. We must understand that to be able to experience the power of our soul, we must at first become sensitive and subtle. For this, our feelings must first become sensitive and subtle. We must be able to feel more and more with our hearts and operate less with our minds and intellect.
We must transform a hard, purely intellect-driven mind to a pure, soft one and sensitive. Lord Shiva in the holy scripture of Shri Guru Gita, Skanda Purana, prescribes a sadhana technique to become subtle and sensitive. He says it’s very simple. In the sloka 15, He prescribes: “Everyday, partake as prasad the holy water that has washed the Lotus Feet of the Supreme Guru. This is nothing but udaka or teerth—the sacred water equivalent to the water of all the sacred rivers.”
This makes us completely soft from inside. Therefore, our actions, too, will become soft. The way we think becomes soft. The way we vibrate becomes soft. The way we start feeling about others also becomes soft. Once we start becoming soft in all these ways, automatically we start becoming very sensitive and subtle to be able to experience the power of our soul.
By continuing to follow the above sadhana technique of partaking the udaka—holy water—we are already following the subtleness and sensitivity of Shiva as Sadashiva. The Guru becomes the embodiment of Sadashiva. Now our life becomes focused and precise.
For sometime, you may deliberate on how is it that by merely partaking the Guru’s udaka makes one subtle and sensitive? First of all contemplate on why we look reverentially upon the feet of the Guru as the Lotus Feet. It is because the lotus is the most sensitive flower in nature. It denotes the Sahasrara Chakra on our crown. The inverted lotus flower of the thousand petals covers the subtle and sacred opening in our head. When we partake the udaka with the utmost feeling of devotion to the Guru, we are invoking the power of the Guru within us, in order to evoke the divine quality of subtleness and sensitivity like a lotus flower. We then become eligible to attain the knowledge needed to experience the power of the soul–atma shakti. We may not be able to physically wash the Lotus Feet of the Guru everyday. So, simply remember his Lotus Feet and sip the water with a feeling of devotion and surrender. Automatically, the water gets charged with the powerful vibrations to transform it into Guru Pada udaka. It has the power to melt our stone hard feelings and change us into subtle and soft beings.
When we follow this sadhana precisely with astute awareness, our heart becomes Kashi. Kashi is the holy abode where Lord Shiva first manifested himself from the un-manifested state.
Lord Shiva says, ‘Today, your soul is couched with narrow lanes, since so far you have been narrow minded. The narrow lanes of Kashi represents this. The moment the Guru sits in your heart and your heart becomes Kashi, the whole narrowmindedness that is deep rooted in you will disappear. The Guru completely removes narrowmindedness to access Sadashiva—the ever permanent soul within you.’ Remember, when we consecrate Lord Shiva—who is nothing but astute awareness himself— in our hearts, then Lord Vishnu, who represents our consciousness, also follows and our heart now becomes Gaya—the place where Buddha attained Enlightenment.
Thus, continuous sadhana changes one into the source of power and knowledge. In short, one becomes the powerhouse. The Guru Gita in the Skanda Purana clearly emphasises this sadhana technique to attain liberation and salvation.
ashram-india@shrinimishamba.org
