When Does an Otherworldly Shakti Begin Supporting a Sadhak on Its Own?

The speaker opens with the question of when the situation arises that alaukik, divine powers of any kind begin to support a sadhak or sadhika of their own accord. If you are connected with any paralaukik field and keep trying to learn about it, he says, you will now and then always get this kind of information: you see some person at some place; he was a SadhakOne who undertakes a sadhana; the practitioner as distinct from the ordinary worshipper.; he went there, and there it seemed to him that he would be caught in some calamity and would not be able to get out, yet he got out. He experienced some kind of alaukik shakti, he was guided, and in a place where nobody knew him he came out of the crisis. In the same way, in the field of Bhagatvaal, whether the village bhagatvaal field or the tantra field, when a tantrik is removing some tantra badha connected with an enemy and his own earned siddhis and powers begin to weaken, outside help comes to him too, on its own. And if this is looked at on an ordinary level, he says, it also happens that some devotee, some sadhak who does nitya sadhana and the like, also gets the support of outside powers. So how does all this happen, and when does a shakti begin helping a sadhak on its own, in any field? That is what he goes on to explain.

The speaker says the support that comes can be of different kinds. The first is that when you are stuck in a crisis, many kinds of thoughts are transmitted into your mind, and through them you are given guidance for getting out of it. The second is that guidance is made to reach you through some person. The third is that some shakti itself helps you by taking on some form. This, he says, is a thing that seems well-nigh impossible, but you will also hear episodes of this kind in the lives of many people.

Beyond the forms of help, the speaker says, the most special question is when and to whom all this support is received, and this must certainly be thought over. First of all, he says, the people who by daily rule give arghya to Bhagwan Surya, give arghya to Tulsi ji, do their daily puja-path, and, surrendered to the mantra of any one Ishta Devata, daily japa it in at least a certain fixed quantity: they have a niyam. The help of people who walk with niyam and nishtha certainly happens. The reason, he explains, is that those who go by a daily niyam, if there is even a little ShraddhaFaith and reverent trust in a deity, guru or practice — distinct from the ancestral rite spelt Shradh. and SamarpanaThe dedication of Japa and worship's accumulated merit to one's chosen deity — performed by taking water in the right hand at the conclusion of practice and reciting a formal dedication formula before offering the water. in them and they reflect and meditate on the mantra, will think fifty times before doing any wrong deed in their life. What you have been seeing and hearing, that a person does 15 malas, 20 malas, 50 malas or 11 malas of japa every morning and then abuses people all day and thinks wrongly about others, does not happen that way; that, he says, is mostly seen only in TV serials and movies.

The speaker considers the case where someone really is doing that, behaving wrongly while doing seva-puja by daily niyam. After a time, he says, by those very powers whose seva-puja he does, such punishments are given to him that he himself is corrected and comes back onto the line: yes, I should not do this kind of work. The punishment is not such that he suffers some very great loss. Only to awaken VivekaDiscernment — the capacity to tell the real from the apparent, and a genuine instruction from a mistaken one. inside him, some small, minor calamities come into his life, and then he understands the matter. Or, to save him, some means are also created by those powers, so that he abandons this kind of act, brings some feeling of SamarpanaThe dedication of Japa and worship's accumulated merit to one's chosen deity — performed by taking water in the right hand at the conclusion of practice and reciting a formal dedication formula before offering the water. into what he is doing by niyam and nishtha, and is able to purify his chitta too. Because, he says, if the chitta does not remain pure, none of these things will bear fruit.

The second point, the speaker says, is this: whenever you take hold of any kind of niyam. For example, suppose you daily recite only a ChalisaA devotional hymn of forty verses addressed to a deity, recited as a daily or vowed path., or daily do a Kavach path, or maybe you daily japa only five Malas; but a niyam of it has become bound. If you begin to continue it absolutely without break for three months, six months, up to a full year, then whatever kind of suffering or calamity comes in life, however big and bad your PrarabdhaThe portion of destiny already set in motion by past actions — spiritual practice and good deeds can lessen its severity, but not eliminate it. may be, if there is SamarpanaThe dedication of Japa and worship's accumulated merit to one's chosen deity — performed by taking water in the right hand at the conclusion of practice and reciting a formal dedication formula before offering the water. within you, if toward your ishta, to whom you japa those mantras, there is ShraddhaFaith and reverent trust in a deity, guru or practice — distinct from the ancestral rite spelt Shradh. within you, and not hollow shraddha, then it just cannot happen that you are not helped. The people around you may make fun of you, he says: he used to do so much puja-path, but look what state he is in. The feeling must not arise in your mind that "we used to do puja-path and even so such a calamity came".

The speaker gives an example. Someone's father-in-law does a great deal of path-puja and naam-japa, a hundred Malas of japa and puja daily. Suffering came into his body, and his daughter-in-law phones the speaker and says: what was the use, brother, he did so much path and japa every day, and in old age he has to bear so much pain; God does not come to see him, does not just cure him. To people who hold views of this kind, the speaker says, think about it: when he was doing that much and such a bad state is happening to him, what will happen to you? That is what should be considered. The meaning, he says, is that the elder is living out his own PrarabdhaThe portion of destiny already set in motion by past actions — spiritual practice and good deeds can lessen its severity, but not eliminate it.. And God has given some medium or other: he will not appear there in body and serve him, but he has given such sons, he will have given such a daughter-in-law, who are quickly finishing off the prarabdha of his old age.

The speaker turns from the daughter-in-law's doubt to the sadhak's own. If such a feeling comes into you, you being a SadhakOne who undertakes a sadhana; the practitioner as distinct from the ordinary worshipper., and you yourself begin to think, what was the use, every day we did so much japa, so much seva-puja, we kept the Navratri fasts, and this calamity has come upon us: the moment this feeling of non-surrender, this feeling of ashraddha came into your mind, the thread with your ishta and aradhya snapped, and all the arrangement you had made up to now begins to become fruitless. He notes that when ashraddha takes birth inside a person, that person can also say or think that it is God's duty too, that when the feeling of ashraddha comes in us he should help us; and he says God certainly does. He then speaks to the listener directly. If you are hearing this video right now and this thought is arising in your mind, then look: out of a population of a hundred crore, barely a thousand people will hear this video. So if you are one of those persons whose inner ShraddhaFaith and reverent trust in a deity, guru or practice — distinct from the ancestral rite spelt Shradh. is breaking, then somewhere God is transmitting just this much: brother, listen to this, understand it, do not let the VivekaDiscernment — the capacity to tell the real from the apparent, and a genuine instruction from a mistaken one. inside you die, do not break the thread of your shraddha, stay surrendered; it was your karma by which you reached this state, and you will get out of it. "These are my words," he says.

The speaker recalls that in the Bhagavad Gita Bhagwan Shri Krishna has said, has he not, that for one who remains dependent on him, the responsibility of carrying his Yoga KshemaThe securing of what one lacks and the preservation of what one has — the whole burden of providing for a household. is his, and he himself will take him out of it. But, he says, you will only go on reading and reading it and keep raising a finger at him, again and again: what responsibility is yours, you do nothing, you do nothing. So now it becomes your duty too, does it not; in what manner he will do it is his wish. You are pointing a finger at him all day long. This means, the speaker says, that you simply do not have full faith in his word, and that is the only reason you raise the finger. And when there is no trust, the work will not happen either.

The speaker anticipates the objection: brother, you are just saying "yes, fine, you had no trust, that is why the work did not happen" to brush the matter aside. No one can say that, he replies. Reflect properly and see. When a feeling of surrender toward any deity, any ishta, first woke in you, whenever you started some puja-path, you must have received a motivation from somewhere or other; some person must have told you their experiences. You took hold of that mantra, that deity, after hearing about some subject, reading it, coming to know of it. It happened like that, did it not? And if nothing else, you were reading a Purana, you recited some Kavach, and in the kavach it is written that whoever does the daily path of this kavach will obtain such and such; if he makes it siddha in this way and recites it again, he will obtain Lakshmi, diseases will be destroyed, God himself will help him. Many such things are written in the PhalashrutiThe closing section of a hymn or scripture that lists the benefits and results promised to whoever recites it.. Reading those phalashrutis, ShraddhaFaith and reverent trust in a deity, guru or practice — distinct from the ancestral rite spelt Shradh. woke in your mind and you began to recite by daily niyam; that was a feeling of shraddha. And right there some person recites to you: brother, we used to do a hundred paths of this kavach every day, and still such a calamity came into our life. Hearing him, you reduce your own shraddha: we are doing it too; he is telling the truth; nothing is happening inside me either, nothing is happening in my life either. Then, the speaker says, the powers that used to support you at that time, by whose support your life was running very well, they too will begin to leave your side.

So understand it this way, the speaker says: all the paralaukik powers there are, which help you indirectly or directly, do so only for as long as you do not change the feelings of your mind, keep your thoughts surrendered toward your aradhya, and go on carrying out your daily niyam with nishtha, together with SamarpanaThe dedication of Japa and worship's accumulated merit to one's chosen deity — performed by taking water in the right hand at the conclusion of practice and reciting a formal dedication formula before offering the water.. Closing the talk, he says he hopes everyone will understand the subject and keep their feeling of surrender intact. Even in adverse times, even in suffering, do not let the feeling of samarpana and ShraddhaFaith and reverent trust in a deity, guru or practice — distinct from the ancestral rite spelt Shradh. die; rather, keep it alive with VivekaDiscernment — the capacity to tell the real from the apparent, and a genuine instruction from a mistaken one., go on increasing the feeling of surrender, keep investigating what mistakes you have made in your life, and give up all those thoughts that would produce a feeling of ashraddha within you.

The speaker says that suffering and calamity keep coming in line with our karma; but if we remain surrendered, then the path for getting out of it also keeps emerging. If we do not remain surrendered, breaking is bound to happen. Whether it is you or us, everyone has their own karma; we break too, and you will break too. However great the comfort and convenience we live in, he says, one day or another, if our Punya begins to be exhausted, then our sufferings will also come. And if they do not come to us, then to the people of the family we are in; suffering and calamity will come to them, and for them we will have to do karma. This does happen in family life, does it not. But from that, he says, we must not break and must not run away. Whatever people do, if we remain properly surrendered and keep trust in our aradhya, then he will certainly support us, and all the powers around us, the energy there is, will support us.