What now… after Deepawali? 5 Steps to keep the lights on

What a great festival Deepawali is – festival of lights, celebration, and much more. Hopefully everyone had a chance to celebrate in the traditional ways.

WHAT NOW?  – What  happens now, with our lives … does the celebration stop, do the lights go out?  In the material sense we may not celebrate as much now, we may not light many lamps but….

do we need to stop celebrating who we truly are,  our chaitnnaya swarup, our connection to Satchidananda Parmatma?

We light up lamps and turn all the lights in our homes on Deepawali day.  The darkness of night is hardly noticed with these lights.

How about the darkness our mind – does that go away with exterior lighting?  Not a chance, only “Parmaatma Sri Ram, Param-Satya Prakaash Roop ..” [The Supreme Soul,  Sri Ram, is the matchless radiant and non-dual apotheosis (divine elevation) of Absolute Truth], as stated in Amritvani, can do that.

Can we know Him easily?  According to Saint-souls (Sant Mahatmas), for a vast majority of people it is not easy, rather it is extremely difficult.

5 STEPS TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON AND GROWING SPIRITUALLY:

The following steps we need to take for our spiritual growth and to continue celebrating our connection to Sri Ram.   (The following 5 steps are based on/adapted from Maharajji’s pravachan: Deepawali Ke Shubh Awsar Par):

1. Pray to Sri Ram that with the glory and power of His Name, may our inner darkness may be removed.
2. May our material possessions not prevent us from our spiritual progress.
3. Take a pledge that one day at a time, we will not not speak ill of anyone, not think negative about anyone, and do no physical harm to anyone.
4. To do the step #3 above we will need the blessings of our Gurujans.
5. Lead a simple and pure life.

Let us all continue to celebrate the essence of Deepawali every day.   May Lord Ram and our Gurujans lead our path.

How to move forward in our devotion to God

We must keep on moving forward in our devotion to God inspite of our weakness, our sins, and our repeated mistakes.

Q.  How to do that?  The question comes to our mind, how to do that when we have so many weaknesses and we keep on making same mistakes over and over.

A.  According to our beloved Pujya Maharajji is to ask Lord Ram to forgive all our sins until now (Kshma Karo mere Ram Raghunath, Ab Tak ke Saare Apraadh – dhun sung by him in USA Open Satsang).  He adds in his pravachan elsewhere: Another way is to again and again go sit at the feet of loving devotees (Sant Mahatmas – our Gurujans are definitely them) and lose yourself in their devotion and love of God.  We are surely to come back with a positive difference and move forward in our devotion and in our life with Guru Kripa.

Listen to audio

A saadhak who has a Satguru in life is very fortunate

According to Sant Mahatmas:

To be born as a human being is a blessing which is very difficult to obtain.  Much more difficult is to have God’s blessing and to start a journey as a saadhak (devotee).  And it is extremely, extremely, extremely difficult to have a Satguru in life.

So my beloved brothers and sisters, we the saadhaks are most fortunate to have a loving Sadguru in our lives.  We are not able to live our daily lives as shown by Maharajji in Sadhana Satsang and as in Pravachan Piyush by Swamiji Maharaj.  It helps to cry in front of Ma (Divine Mother – Lord Ma) and talk to God about our weaknesses and ask for mercy and grace (kripa).

Each one of us need to wake up to the fact that, “Main shaktimayi atma hoon” (I am a powerful soul), powerful to walk on the path as shown in Sadhna Satsang and discourses given delivered by our Gurujans.  No matter how many times we get off the path we simply need to get back on it and know that our Gurujans and Shree Ram are always with us,  helping, and protecting us.

Dhanya Huva Main Satguru Paake (dhun) – watch video clip

uva Main Satguru Paake

Rome Rome Shree Ram Pukare – Happy Mahatma Gandhiji’s and PremJi Maharaj’s Birthday

Mahatma Gandhiji and PremJi Maharaj not only share the same birthday (October 2nd) – both of them were devotees of Lord Ram.  So many of Sant Mahatmas like them must have bhavana, attitude and feelings such as ” Rome Rome Shree Ram Pukare ..,” that most of us can’t even imagine.

Hum par bhi aisi kripa karo mere Ram.  Hamara rome rome bhi Shree Ram Pukare ..aisi kripa karo mere Ram.  (Bless me Lord Ram so that every atom of my being calls for Shree Ram.. yearns for Shree Ram).

Our Gurujans tell us that for this to happen we must do our practice consistently and also attend Satsangs (where Sant Mahatmas  and true devotees are present).  We need to and must go again and again and learn from Sant Mahatmas how they lead a life of selfless service, express love and devotion to God, and impart knowledge in spiritual discourses, etc.

According to Shree Swamiji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhiji used to recite Sthitpragya Ke Lakshan (Shreemad Bhagvad Gita – second chapter) with heart at both times of his daily prayers.

We can learn from the lives of Mahatma Gandhiji and our Gurujans by following their advice and may be one day with Ram Kripa we will also be blessed with similar bhavana and bhakti.

May the following dhun sung by Maharajji evoke similar devotional feelings in us.

VIDEO CLIP – Rome Rome Shree Ram Pukare