Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts

Tuesday, 8 May 2018

Practical tips to successfully complete a purascharana

Hari Aum.

I thought I would share some practical advice on how to complete a purascharana based on my experience of having completed a few so far. This advice is especially intended for people who want to do a purascharana while juggling various commitments such as career, family and so on.

I will discuss some common obstacles that stop people from completing a purascharana and then suggest some possible solutions. I am myself a student on the spiritual path but I have some experience that may be of help to you. I am therefore sharing this in the hope that this may help you complete your purascharana and move towards the attainment of God.

Note- this article is about providing solutions to overcome some common obstacles in completing purascharana. For the specifics  of how to do a purascharana, please see the article dated November 6, 2015 (link below).

http://mantrayoga.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/how-to-perform-purascharana-simple.html


Obstacle 1: The mind says it is too big a task 

Solution: Break it down in to smaller goals and celebrate when you complete each one

A purascharana is an extended mantra practice which typically requires several hundred-thousand recitations of a mantra. The mind may be daunted by the number of recitations. What is the solution?

Beak down the purascharana mentally in to smaller goals. If your target is five lakhs of the panchakshara mantra of Shiva, break it down into five portions of one lakh each in  your mind.

After each lakh, enjoy the achievement, thank God and continue. See the purascharana as having different stages. Each time you complete one stage (e.g. 25 %, 50 %, 75%), do something to celebrate your success so far. This will help stay motivated to complete the sadhana and complete 100% of the purascharana.


Obstacle 2: The mind says there are too many rules

Solution: Be realistic, bend the rules where needed, but never abandon the japa 

It is true that there are some traditional rules to be followed when doing purascharana. However, rules are meant to support the practice, not to destroy it. A purascharana should not collapse simply because one cannot precisely follow every rule.

For example, it is advised that one should bathe three times a day when doing purascharana. My Guru says that it is enough to wash one's face, hands and feet and sit for japa if one cannot bathe. Obviously a busy mother who has to care for her children and also do a job, may not be able to bathe three times a day! It is perfectly reasonable in these circumstances to bathe once a day to maintain basic hygiene.

Equally one may not be able to eat freshly prepared sattvic vegetarian food daily. This is especially true for people living in the West where there is limited domestic help. One is one's own cook, driver, cleaner and everything rolled into one (Sivananda says this is a good thing as one should be independent and not rely on servants!). In these circumstances, one may have to eat food cooked the previous day from the fridge. While this may not be the traditional way, it may be the only practical solution. One has to be realistic about one's external circumstances when doing purascharana and not get overly bogged down by rules.

As my Guru Sivananda says, "Use your common sense always". All worries about rules etc, will vanish when one reminds oneself that the purest thing in the world is the name of God. It makes the unclean into clean and the unholy into holy.

If one is tired, unwell, sick or weak, one can bend all rules and do the japa alone. If one feels too weak to sit and do japa, one may lie down and do japa. If one feels too ill to even brush one's teeth one day before doing japa, one can sit up in bed without doing so, and do japa.

Every rule can be abandoned if necessary, but the japa should never be abandoned under any circumstances.

If one has to choose between keeping the rule and doing the japa, one should always choose the japa over the rule. The rule is to support the japa, not break it.

Note- my Guru says that those who do purascharana with worldly goals in mind (more money, career etc) will have to follow every rule. However, he says those who do purascharana simply to please God and attain His grace, should focus more on doing the japa with devotion and worry less about external rules (though one should of course keep these where possible).

In summary, one should emphasise the spirit rather than the letter of the rules in purascharana if one is doing this for spiritual attainment.


Obstacle 3: Trying to do too much japa daily

Solution: Be practical, commit to a small amount but do it every day until completion

Many people make big commitments of daily japa to do purascharana and give up after a few weeks or months. This is a mistake. It is better to do a smaller amount with regularity every day for years, than do a lot for a few weeks and then stop completely.

If one has family and work commitments, one has to be realistic about how much seated japa can be done. One may be able to commit 30 minutes or one hour only per day. This may mean that the purascharana takes 1-2 years or more. This is absolutely fine. The important thing is to complete the practice somehow, even if it takes a few years.

The key is to do the same amount every day - not less, not more. This will help develop a habit. Once the daily habit of japa is there, it becomes much easier to complete the purascharana.


Obstacle 4: Fear of God

Solution: Understand that God is love

Some people are afraid that God may become angry if they make some mistake in their practice, do not stick to every external rule, if they give up the purascharana etc. Instead of risking incurring the wrath of God by not doing the purascharana perfectly, they feel it is better not to start at all.

This fear is completely unnecessary and is simply the mind's way of creating obstacles in one's spiritual path.

God is love, He/She is compassionate and our nearest relative and friend. Would our earthly mothers become angry if we start making them a present and give up half way? Obviously not. Then why should the Divine Mother and Divine Father, who are the source of all love in earthly parents, be angry if we stop our spiritual practice?

Nobody will be angry if we give up sadhana. The only thing that will happen, is that we will lose the protection we get from the mantra. The mantra protects our mind from vicious, undivine thoughts and raises our consciousness to a pure level. It destroys our past negative karma and creates new positive karma, it helps us rise above all karma into the realm of the divine.

If we stop our sadhana, the only thing that will happen is that we will lose out on something precious. We will become vulnerable to undivine thoughts (anger, lust, greed etc) and may do evil actions/negative karma and thus create unnecessary suffering for ourselves. We will create delay in attainment of spiritual peace, bliss and immortality.

But nobody will be angry. Especially not God. He/She may feel compassion and pity for us, that we are foolish enough not to see the damage we cause ourselves by stopping sadhana. But there will be no anger. Let us understand this well.


Obstacle 5: Impatience for results

Solution: Learn to manage the mind, remember that good things come to those who wait

The mind wants to see immediate results. We all experience this. We want some fantastic spiritual experience soon after doing a little sadhana. The mind becomes frustrated if this does not happen and wants to give up the sadhana.

However, good things come to those who wait.

Based on my experience, I can say that doing purascharana has made me kinder, more compassionate, more aware of my faults, more sensitive to the suffering of other living beings. Of course I still have a long way to go to purify my mind but some improvement has happened as a result of my sadhana. This is very valuable. Only a pure mind can meditate and realise God.

This internal purification is more valuable than some siddhis like flying in the air, clairvoyance etc that only serve to fatten the ego. I am happy to say that I do not have any such siddhis. Nor do I want them. I pray to God that I may have enough sense to ask for Him alone and not for any siddhis- because He alone is worth having, nothing else. This is the approach advised by my Guru.

So one needs to learn patience on this path. It is not easy. I become frustrated at times myself. But I have learned to manage my frustration and continue the purascharana practice. I am grateful to God for this.

It is also worth remembering- every recitation of the name of God produces a result. It may be invisible but it is there. It has an auspicious effect even if our mind cannot immediately see it.


Obstacle 6: Poor time management, inability to finish the day's japa

Solution: Start the day with japa.  Aim to complete more than 50% of the day's quota in this session

I have two sessions of japa per day. This is realistic given my circumstances.

I have a morning session and an evening session. The morning session is before breakfast. Whatever time I wake up, whether early or late, I start the day with this. During the morning session, I complete more than 50% of my day's japa. This puts me in a relaxed frame of mind as I know I will be able to easily complete the rest in the evening. I am also more fresh in the morning so like to do most of the japa then- in the evening before sleeping, I am more tired and do a shorter session.

On days when I do not start with japa, I am more likely to fail in completing the japa for that day. Therefore I have formed the habit of having a morning japa session before breakfast. This may take place at different times as I wake up later at the weekends, and earlier on working days. But in general, I never have breakfast until I have done my morning japa session.

Also, if you have a busy life, aim to complete your japa in 1-2 sessions during the day. Unless you are a full-time japa yogi with no other commitments, it is very unlikely that you will be able to sit 3-4 times daily. So calculate how much japa to do in 1-2 sessions to be able to finish the daily quota.

If you are unable to complete the full day's japa, note down how much was not done and try to catch up (do the extra) in the coming days to make up the deficit.


Obstacle 7: No clear goal for completion of purascharana

Solution: Have a clear completion date for purascharana

Before starting the purascharana, clearly write down your intended finish date. Calculate this by working out how much japa you can do per day, your intended start date and how many days you need to finish the purascharana.

I use a website (see link below) to help me with this. I enter the start date of my purascharana on the website and add the number of days I need to finish- the website then tells me the end date. I write this down in my mantra japa diary.

https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

Once I decide an end date for purascharana, I try to stick to this at all costs. If I am sick, or there are some unavoidable circumstances, and for example, I can only do 7 malas that day instead of the usual 11, I note this down in my mantra diary and catch up by doing extra 4 malas on another day. (However, in general, I do the same number of malas every day). But I do not extend the date of completion - this remains fixed. This helps me to stay focused and continue the japa steadily every day.


Obstacle 8: Not keeping proper count of japa

Solution: Keep a separate diary for purascharana

I keep a special notebook only to record the mantra done every day during purascharana. Looking at my diary, I can easily see how many malas were done daily since I started. After every 2 lakhs, I draw a line under the date of completion, and write down how much has been done, and how much japa is still to be done. The diary is a valuable visual aid that shows me my progress towards completion of purascharana. It is an exact record of how much japa I have done daily. My Guru Sivananda advised this and I find this very useful in keeping motivated in my sadhana.


Obstacle 9: No fun and relaxation in life, too much discipline 

Solution: Take rest, do some hobbies, let your hair down from time to time

Purascharana is a discipline. It can take years to complete. It takes significant mental adjustment and planning. While japa may be enjoyable at times, on other occasions, it may feel like hard work. It takes effort to discipline the mind and to sit every day to do this practice.

To stay motivated in the path of discpline, it is important to have some relaxation and enjoyment in life. It is good to spend time with family and friends (in a sattvic way), do a hobby, go out in nature, watch a good movie or do something to let your hair down occasionally.

Being very tough with oneself all the time, will lead to mental rebellion as the mind will say it has had enough of discipline. I go out for walks in nature, watch some movies occasionally, spend time with family relaxing and ensure I keep a sense of balance between discipline and fun in my life. This helps me stay balanced and continue my daily purascharana practice.

Note- it may sound strange to say 'have fun' along with being disciplined. After all, in spiritual books, one reads about yogis doing terrible tapas like standing on one leg for years, living on mere air and doing nothing but sadhana.

But one has to be very realistic in spiritual life. Even great yogis like Yajnavalkya and Vishwamitra were overcome by flaws like anger and lust, other great yogis like Bharata became attached to a deer. Even the ancient yogis had to overcome the same flaws that you and I have to overcome.

It is no use building castles in the air and dreaming about tapas. The only tapas that matters is what we actually do, not what we dream about doing.

If having some fun in life, means one will do sadhana daily, then one should have some fun in life (sattvic fun obviously!)- this is to be seen as an investment in sadhana, as an aid to spiritual practice (not as an obstacle).


Obstacle 10: Lack of sleep, poor diet, poor health

Solution: Sleep enough, eat healthy food, exercise and take care of the body

Health is wealth. My Guru Sivananda says: "If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If character is lost, everything is lost."

A physically healthy body is a great help in doing sadhana. Having a sick body that is in pain will make it difficult for the mind  to concentrate on the mantra. Taking care of one's health is an important duty for every sincere spiritual aspirant.

One should get enough sleep (6-8 hours per day depending on the individual), eat healthy sattvic vegetarian food, and do some exercise at least 3 times a week. Along with this, one can do a little asana and pranayama as able for health.

In the name of being detached, some spiritual seekers disregard the health of their body, and refuse to take care of it, saying they leave this in the hands of God. This is extremely foolish according to my Guru.

He says that self-effort is needed to obtain the grace of God. The human body is a precious instrument given for the purpose of sadhana and God-realisation. The Gurus say that one gets a human birth only after countless births in other species and it is a great gift from God. It is the one birth in which the door to God realisation is open.

One should therefore avoid foolish habits that destroy the body (such as over-eating, smoking, drinking alcohol, using recreational drugs etc) and take good care of one's health to ensure maximum sadhana in this lifetime.


Final advice:

Only one thing ultimately matters in purascharana, i.e. daily practice of mantra japa. This alone will grant everything else that one may lack, be it devotion, discipline, ability to follow other rules etc.

Daily japa without break is the one and only rule that really matters. All other rules are dependent on time, place and circumstances.

My final advice therefore is- be fearless, trust in God and in yourself, and proceed with determination on the path of purascharana, the path of success in spiritual life.

May God and Guru bless us all with spiritual peace, wisdom and bliss.


Hari Aum Tat Sat

Saturday, 21 April 2018

Importance of the smallest act

Hari Aum.

One of the challenges of spiritual life is that the seeker has to learn to perfect even the smallest act. This is very hard work. One has to train the eye to see God even in the most ungodly people and things. No matter how severe the provocation, one has to train the mind not to react. This is a terrible task, a tremendous challenge. Every experience of anger, jealousy, greed, craving, pride in the mind is a failing. To fail is ok, it is a step towards success. To make a mistake is ok, but one should acknowledge it and take responsibility (and not blame others).

I want to be perfectly frank here and state that my mind, like that of most others, has two sides. There is the noble, the spiritual, the aspiring side. And there is the other side- that gets grumpy, irritable, negative. There is a Mahabharata (great war) going on in my mind, like in the mind of all spiritual seekers. There is a war between the positive, divine, sattvic forces and the negative, undivine, tamasic energies. The daily recitation of mantra helps to empower the divine energies in the mind and weaken and remove the negative, undivine energies. Reciting a mantra or meditating daily is like having a mental bath. It is necessary for mental hygiene.

The smallest act matters in spiritual life. No progress can be made if one does not pay attention to these. I would like to share an example here of a recent mistake that I made- when I failed to pay attention in a small act and what I learnt from this. It is a rather sad story in some ways.

In the winter here, it gets quite cold and my husband and I had put some seeds out in the garden in a feeder for the birds. We enjoyed watching various birds come and feed - it was a mutually beneficial experience, the birds got food and we enjoyed watching them (some are very cute).

One day, sometime in January this year, a small mouse appeared in the garden and began to eat a lot of the bird food with great energy. We were both rather concerned and wondered what to do. We did not want to stop feeding the birds but did not wish to encourage the mouse due to the risk of causing an infestation that could have affected both our house and the neighbourhood.

On one occasion, I became annoyed and alarmed watching the mouse eat continuously from the feeder - my mind imagined large numbers of mice in the garden and the house. This would not have been good from a health perspective, as mice, although cute, do carry some serious diseases.

I therefore went out into the garden and loudly clapped my hands to scare off the mouse. It looked at me in some surprise (as if wondering why I would try to scare it) and then continued eating. Again, I went closer and clapped more energetically- this made it run away.

After scaring it off, I went indoors. For a few moments I felt satisfied that I had accomplished my task. Soon after though, I began to experience a very uncomfortable feeling. I realised that I had caused fear in another creature- that too, an innocent animal which was only eating because it was hungry like any other (it was simply trying to survive on a cold winter's day).

I had a strange conviction that this act of mine was ignoble, cruel and would not be pleasing to God and Guru- after all, God and Guru are present everywhere including inside the mouse. In the Gita, Krishna says He resides in the heart of all beings. He does not say, only human beings. He says all beings- that includes animals and birds.

In other words, I felt that I had been cruel to a living form of Narayana in the form of the mouse. This act I felt was not befitting one who was trying to develop devotion to Narayana. I felt remorse and regret for my unkind behaviour.

After a while, I noticed the mouse returned to the garden and was cheerfully eating plenty of seeds from the feeder. This time, I did not go and frighten it away. I decided to let it eat as much as it liked. However, from a health perspective, the next day, I decided to close off the entrance to the feeder that the mouse was using and let it eat only the limited seeds on the ground (to reduce the risk of mice infestation). I decided that, while I would not actively hurt the mouse in any way in future (including causing it any fear), I would take sensible steps from a health perspective.

However, the nagging feeling that I had done something wrong and that I had not properly atoned for this did not leave me. I then decided that, to become free of the feeling of guilt from having carelessly hurt a harmless creature, I would dedicate a portion of my mantra chanting tapas to the mouse's spiritual welfare.

I told Narayana, that whatever tapas I had done during the week of the eclipse in February this year (which was the previous week from when I made this prayer), including several rounds of japa during the actual eclipse, should be dedicated towards the spiritual welfare of the soul which currently inhabited the body of the mouse. Mantra done during an eclipse is said to be several hundred thousand times more effective than at other times, so I hoped that this would be a decent attempt at atoning for my negative act.

I also apologised for harming any souls in the form of animals, birds or other species, knowingly or unknowingly, in this and all previous lifetimes and dedicated that week of mantra chanting to all of them. After this, I gave the mouse a name, and enjoyed watching it come and eat seeds in the garden from time to time. There was no mouse infestation - only one mouse (I assume it was the same one) would appear daily to eat a few seeds and then go away.

Spring began a few weeks ago and one day, my husband and I happened to be sitting on the sofa and looking out into the garden. Suddenly, we saw the mouse. By this time, we had come to recognise it rather well and were pleased to see it (my husband had even taken some close-up photographs as it was rather cute and quite fearless).

It was an idyllic sight. The sun glinted on the leaves, flowers bloomed in the bushes and the mouse played on the grass. Suddenly, to our horror, a large magpie swooped down and grasped the mouse by the neck and began to viciously peck at it. The mouse went limp and did not appear to fight back. I looked away in shock, and the bird flew off with the mouse. We have not seen the mouse since and can only assume that it has died. We chanted the Maha-mrityunjaya mantra for the peace of the soul of the mouse (as it was a rather unpleasant way to die) and to make ourselves feel better (we were rather traumatised at the horrible sight).

Nature has an incredibly beautiful and an incredibly terrible side. The episode reminded me again that things can change so quickly. One moment, the mouse was playing cheerfully in the garden. The next minute it was in the vicious grip of a bird, breathing its last. Life changes in seconds.

Cruel though this world is, I suppose it goads us to seek a realm where such cruelty does not exist. One feel shocked at the murderous brutality that abounds everywhere on Earth, and most of all, among human beings (who can behave with a cruelty that animals lack). Seeing the viciousness and cruelty all around- under the beauty of Nature lies such terrible cruelty - one cannot help but agree with Lord Krishna as He says in the Gita- this world is an impermanent world of suffering ('dukhalaya'), seek a way out O Arjuna.

And that is what I guess we are all trying to do as spiritual seekers. Seek a way out. Seeking freedom from the cruelty within and without. I hope the tapas dedicated to the mouse will help it have a better rebirth and that it may quickly attain eternal peace at the feet of Narayana. I am glad I made my apologies to it before it died (would have felt worse otherwise). This episode also reminded me to take care in terms of how I behave towards other species on Earth as these are also manifestations of God.

May God and Guru bless us all to continue on the spiritual path to find a way out of this dukhalaya (abode of sorrow).

Hari Aum Tat Sat

Sunday, 28 January 2018

Directing the mind to God in the midst of challenges

Hari Aum.

2018 has arrived. It is quite surreal in some ways thinking that we are already 18 years into the 21st century. I remember the year 2000 so vividly, it feels like it was not that long ago. It is incredible that eighteen years have already flown by.

So another year has dawned. And it brings with it, new opportunities and new challenges in the field of sadhana (spiritual practice). We all face challenges on a daily basis. We meet with difficult people who are unjust to us, with unfavourable circumstances and so on. In the midst of this struggle for daily existence, we are to direct our minds to God to attain Him/Her/That. This is no easy task. Yet the yogis say there is no other way.

7.6 billion people live on the Earth today according to the latest statistics. Every day, 7.6 billion people wake up and go about their daily business, some mostly helping the world and some mostly harming. We encounter some number of these people every day. Some help us, some harm us. The mind feels pain on account of the harm done by others. But if one thinks too much about this, then one loses the God-thought which is the real harm done by the other. So, even when one faces challenges, particularly posed by difficult and negative people, one has to direct one's mental energy to thoughts of God and not to thoughts of those who harmed us. This is easy to say and phenomenally difficult to do, especially when we feel particularly aggrieved or wronged. This is where the mantra comes in very useful. Even as the mind repeatedly tries to run towards thoughts of the past and future, one needs to gently bring it back to the mantra.

At times we may be so irritated by events in our life that we lose the taste for japa. The mood to recite the name of God may not be there at the time (especially for us as beginners). Even then one should never leave the practice of the name of God- because the yogis say, this is the most auspicious of all auspicious things. This grants both material and spiritual peace and bliss. Challenges are sent to us by God to strengthen us, so say Sivananda and other Gurus. We can only face them with help from God, and that help comes when we take His/Her name. The famous lady saint, Anandamayi Ma, used to say that sometimes one has to feed oneself the name of God as a medicine (at other times, one may enjoys the recitation/japa like drinking nectar). The name is both a medicine and a nectar, so say the yogis.

Hence with or without love, with or without concentration, in whatever circumstances, and whatever our mood or state of mind may be, we need to cling to the name of God and recite it for some time daily. Challenges will pass eventually, the name of God will give us strength to bear them.

Glory to the name of God.

Om Namo Narayanaya

Hari Aum Tat Sat

P.S. There are two eclipses next month in February. These are very auspicious times for sadhana and japa. The effect of any sadhana done during an eclipse is said to be severalfold that of other times. Hence one should take the opportunity to do sadhana at this time for one's own benefit and that of the whole world (peace in the world).

P.P.S. My fourth purascharana is carrying on, am nearly two months into it. Have a further 20 months to go. My writing sadhana is also continuing. The second book on part two of Krishna's life is nearing completion and will hopefully be published in the next 1-2 months.