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Sisters and Brothers, let us begin with the collective chanting of the Gayatri Mantra:

Om Bhur Buvah Swah, Tatsaviturvareñyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yonah Pracodayat ||

Let us first know what the real source of power in our lives is.

Praña: The Life-Energy

A person’s identity remains the same when he is dead. You would continue to refer to him by the same name; his face in the photographs would remain what it was when he was alive.  Every one who knew him will recognize that face, as before. Unless it is damaged due to some accident or so, the face of a dead-body looks the same as what it was when the person was alive. Those of you who have seen some relative’s or acquaintance’s dead body must have noticed it! A person, who was alive moments before, is now dead; no change in the appearance of his body, but it is now his dead-body. Why? What has changed? You may say that his heart is no longer beating; his body is not moving, etc. But you see, the biochemical activities inside continue in the dead-body as well! That is what accounts for its gradual biodegradation. So instead of heartbeat and other normal reactions, some new activities start in the body. If no preservatives are applied, these reactions progress very rapidly. What was that which used to prevent these degrading reactions earlier? What was that because of which there was auto-regulation of the body-functions including the heartbeats and the brain impulses?        

It is the energy of consciousness-force (cetana or cit-shakti) that is no longer available to the body. It is this vital spiritual energy (praña) because of which the body (and the person who was identified by the name given to the body) was alive. The physical components, material form, appearance, and the name and identity of the body are the same but it is dead and cannot do anything, cannot even prevent its degradation, if there is no cit-shakti in it. You may keep it in the graveyard, build samadhi (tomb) on it, take its photograph, save its external physical existence (as mummy) by filling it with chemical preservatives and applying medicines on the skin, but by no means you can make it do anything on its own. Because, it is dead! 

Do you notice a somewhat similar difference in the idols/statues or the pictures of gods kept in a shop or in a sculpture museum and those enshrined in a temple? Both the kinds are made up of pulp-papers, metal or wood, but those in the shop or museum are not worshipped. Why?

The Importance of Praña-PratiSHTha:

You may go to a shop or exhibition of sculptures or idols in the shape and images of manifested forms of gods, you will find they are also lying there as other artifacts, statues or effigies. Be that of Lord Ganesha, Lakshmi, or any other manifestation of divine powers, they are nothing except some archetype of carved stones, metals etc. At times they might be kept haphazardly, even upside down, or crowded on a stand or even on the floor…! But no one – including the idolaters or idol-worshippers finds anything unusual in it. No one cares whether the place around is cleaned, whether there is dust on the statues or images. In fact, one hardly even notices it.

But what if the same idol was there in a temple, in the sanctum sanctorum of a holy shrine, or at a worship center? Same face, same form, same image of the manifestation of a god. But now it is worshipable! One won’t tolerate or forgive anyone trying to touch or displace it? Now it is well decorated, worshipped, looked after by the believers as a god personified.  Earlier it was only a physical object. But now it is a deity! Why?

The deities worshipped in the holy shrines are often revered by the devotees as incarnated divine powers. Many of them have been blessed by and have experienced miraculous powers of the deity. It is the devout faith (shraddha) of the pure heart of a devotee that makes god appear before him/her. Many authentic incidences of saints affirm such possibilities. Most people including non-believers also find great peace in the vicinity of the idols enshrined in a temple. Fine! What concerns us in today’s discussion is — not why it happens, rather, when does it happen? When does an idol or an image of god-form become worshipable? The devotees, the believers, worship only these forms of deity and not the statutes kept in the museum or shop. What is the difference between the two stone-carvings/images of the same god-form?

An idol or sculpture of a god-form is enshrined and worshipped in a temple only after the sacred process of praña-pratiSHTha. To an onlooker, it would appear like yet another ‘customized ritual’ of invocation. If it were so, anybody would have been able to utter some prayers and perform the enshrinement steps of the ritual. But that is not correct. In fact this sacrament is a spiritual experiment. Only saintly priests who have devoted themselves to spiritual endeavors for ultimate light, only the dedicated devotees with enlightened hearts that pulsate with shraddha can do praña-pratiSHTha. With this, the transcendent divine power of god is invocated and established in the idol. Then the same idol, which was earlier like a toy, would work like god-personified for a true devotee.  Depending upon the depth of his shraddha, a devotee can communicate with the deity as though one is talking to a living god.        

I hope, you have got a hint of what I am trying to convey. It is the awakening of citshakti — the praña, which makes all the difference. This principle applies everywhere in the world, in every aspect of life.

See Beyond Superficial Activities of Sacraments:

Friends! Whatever you have learnt so far in this sadhana course amounts to following some disciplines, doing some ritualistic activities, chanting some mantras and attempting some meditative practices. But, without the praña-pratiSHTha of your sadhana, all these would be nothing more than superficial activities, mere sacraments and exercises of the mind and body.  Without praña, these will only constitute a skeleton of upasana; these will only be mechanical activities but no spiritual flow. 

Have you seen the toy-top? It rotates with great speed. But does that movement make it lively? Does it evolve or improve its condition? A pendulum keeps oscillating but reaches nowhere.  Your attempts would also lead you nowhere without the force of your inner spirit.

Have you ever seen a game of cards? In varieties of these games people ‘cut’ (defeat and ‘kill’) the opponent’s King by the ‘weapon’ of an Ace or a Queen, or by an attack of another King, etc.  But does the opponent files a case of murder against them? Does the conquering king get any treasure or empire? No, nothing of that sort happens. It is only a game, a means of time-pass or entertainment for some people.  Your attempts of sadhana should not be hollow. These should not be a new mode of time-pass, fun or activity of interest. Many people find joy in devotional practices and feel as though they have had supernatural experiences. But most often these turn out to be hallucinations. Please note, devotion is not mere fantasy or emotional tumult excited by crying or by singing a prayer before the deity. 

So far you have known only the name and form or skeleton of sadhana. Haven’t you? Yes! You have been taught how to do pavitrikaraña and achamana by sprinkling or drinking few drops of water with chanting of some Vedic hymns, how to do the breathing exercise of prañayama, how to hold the rosary and move its beads, how to do japa (rhythmic enunciation) of the Gayatri Mantra, how to count the japa with the help of a rosary, how to perform the fire-ritual of yagya (havan), how to sing the devotional araties, etc. What are these? These are only external activities; only movements of the body using some sense organs. 

One more thing you have been introduced to is ‘names and forms’. Yeah! You have seen the image of the Divine Mother Supreme – “Gayatri” enshrined in the temple here.  You know the syllables of the Gayatri Mantra, you know how to chant it, you know the word meaning of “anuSHThana”, you also know how many japas are to be completed with what kind of disciplines of fasting, etc.  So you have passed three exams! The ritualistic procedures (karmakañDa) and the name and form (nama-rupa) associated with Gayatri AnuSHThana.

Now you may be eager to experience the astonishing results or to be blessed by divine boons and all that which you might have heard from some yogis or read in the scriptures.  Yes my dear children, you can see the miracles, can attain the supernormal benefits, provided you infuse life in the skeleton of your sadhana (spiritual endeavors).  How?

You may wonder, what I mean by making your karmakañDas alive. Can the ‘actions’ be also dead or alive like a being?  The ritualistic procedures of upasana-sadhana you are practicing at present are only like physical exercises.  Your mind and body may soon get accustomed to do these automatically. But this means it is happening almost mechanically! This way a machine, a robot may also be trained to give oblation, offer flowers, recite (or play a pre-recorded cassette of) a mantra, sing a prayer, etc. That is what I call as dead karmakañDas of sadhana. Similarly, your upasana (devotion) is also confined only to the worship of nama-rupa of god. 

Unfortunately most devotees get trapped into only the superficial acts of upasana-sadhana. Many of you also keep asking for learning more types of rituals or methods of worship, cramming more and more mantras and prayers, etc. Many of you like to read and talk about the allegoric depictions of god forms narrated in the scriptures. However, all this leads you nowhere. It is unnecessary. If you continue to go ahead only with the dead practices, either you will dump yourself in the mire of blind-faith and superficial religion, or get frustrated and dejected from upasana-sadhana because of your wrong approach. On the other extreme, some of you get attracted by the complicated terminology of philosophical text and want to master it and debate on the logics of different schools of philosophy merely for intellectual satisfaction. This way you may inflate your ego with illusory interpretations of philosophy and get engulfed in the imaginary world of words without any glimpse of the true light.

What is important now is to complete the task in hand: First you should grasp the meaning and purpose of making your efforts lively. Then adopt it in action. Whatever has been taught to you so far is sufficient for initial conditioning of the mind-body system. The real upasana-sadhana should begin now.  I am going to discuss that in today’s discourse.   

                     (To be continued in next issue)

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