Our First Chitra Puja of 2021!
January 8, 2021Jai Gurudeva!
Recently our monks celebrated our January chitra nakshatra with their monthly padapuja to Gurudeva. Yogis Haranandinatha and Jayanatha performed the short abhishekam. Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and other monks attended for this evening worship, invoking the love and blessings of Gurudeva. Aum.
"Understanding, loving and making allowances--these are the strengths of the soul awakened through sadhana, once the emotional ups and downs and the barriers of the instinctive influences of fear, jealousy, anger, deceit and disappointment are conquered" - Gurudeva
\"The yoga of pure devotion is found at the beginning, the middle and the end of the path. Merging with Siva is more and more a deeply felt experiential reality when the soul gives of itself to Siva inwardly and outwardly in unabashed devotion.\"
Prapatti truly is the key that unlocks the love needed as merger increases as the years pass by and, as Satguru Yogaswami said, \"Love pours forth to melt the very stones.\" Bhakti yoga is not an intellectual study. It is a practice
It is also not an emotional experience. It is a devotional experience. There is a difference, which we will come to understand. Bhakti yoga is not a cure-all, nor a means to fast enlightenment.
Rather, it is the foundation for enlightenment. It is not a technique. Nor is it a magic mantra. It is a way of life. The transformation that comes from living in the state of bhakti yoga is the softening of the heart.
External worship, bhakti yoga, is taught first on the spiritual path, because it produces a softened, mellow heart. It is to waste the guru\
s time to give training in meditation and contemplation before the heart has been softened through bhakti yoga. '
It is to waste the guru\
s time to give training in meditation and contemplation before the heart has been softened through bhakti yoga. The patient guru will wait until this has happened within the devotee.'
Otherwise, any accomplishment attained through intense raja yoga practices will not be sustained.
\"Whereas a mature bhaktar takes such problems, or negative karmas, which are sometimes aroused as a result of deep meditation, to the temple Deities, placing them at their feet to be dissolved.\"
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