Today, all of us approach God with our own agenda. Depending on each one’s inadequacies, we approach divinity to fill in divine grace to attain perfection in that aspect and become complete.
Saints and sages have said that even before we approach divinity, God has already blessed us with talents, comprehension power, mental stamina, immunity and other qualities that are essential to survive and thrive.
Over years, due to overuse or under-usage of these faculties, we have burdened ourselves in a manner that we can no longer handle it ourselves. This is when we run to divinity for help through visits to holy shrines, taking up vows and oaths, offering prayers and thereby bind ourselves in obligation to receive the grace of divinity.
Divinity never proclaims that only when a puja is performed, we are eligible for God’s grace. It is we who condition our mind in such a manner.
With a very limited mind, we ourselves block the grace of divinity from flowing to us. We set rules for ourselves and thereby contribute to our own misery. Remember, God is continuous flow of energy. God should not be confined to an obligation.
That is why satsanghs are so essential for us today. Wisdom (jnana) imparted in the satsanghs removes ignorance and avidya from us, and makes us open to receiving God’s grace without any obligation. Jnana removes the stress element from our lives that was hitherto blocking our faculties, skills, talents and strengths. Satsanghs and bhajans give us solace, mental peace and restore us with will power, grit, determination and focus.
Satsanghs uncover the blocks by instilling awareness and confidence in us thereby sharpening our faculties further.
This results in self-development and transformation. Satsanghs shift gears of our lives from leading an ordinary, mundane life to a conscious life full of positive energy, enthusiasm and zeal.
As we assimilate the teachings of wisdom imparted in a satsangh, we are automatically led to the cave of our heart which is the seat of energy. This sacred place is called as hridaya-akasha—the spiritual heart—our ethereal sacred space.
This is the starting point for the nectar of blissful energy, ojus, to flow to the rest of our body. Ethereal space can be accessed either by a mantra given by a guru or through deep contemplation—nidhidhyasa or deep intense meditation. This meditation eliminates deep-rooted tendencies (vasanas) from past lifetimes to establish EkaChitta (pinpointed mind). Till we incorporate spiritual teachings, we do experience spurts of energy—ojus flowing out from our spiritual heart.
But this is not adequate enough to overpower the stress levels or match our expectation which have been accumulated from many lifetimes.
ashram-india@shrinimishamba.org