“Faith, in true sense is a lively link connecting the mortal with the immortal”

(Basic Writings of Sri Ramchandra, Reality at Dawn, Page 250)

                                                                     Sri. N.V.Viswanath

The above sentence of the Master is taken from the chapter on Faith from the book “Reality at Dawn”.

In this article Pujya Babuji Maharaj says “Faith in reality, faith in the right course you have adopted for realization, faith in the worthy master whom you have submitted to, this is the rock upon which you must build your edifice of spirituality if you really aim at success.”

I would like to share my sadhana as how my faith in Sri Ramchandra Consciousness is developing.

I started doing sadhana from Nov 1995. I used to get lot of thoughts initially while doing meditation and did not feel anything for a month.  After practicing the system for more than 1 month I started feeling the vibrations for few minutes in the whole one hour of meditation. I started liking this and this motivated me to do my sadhana sincerely.  After sometime I started observing that I used to get absorbed during the satsanghs and used to enjoy this. This helped to develop belief in the system.

The individual sittings with the trainer started giving me some peace of mind for some time.  I did not have any understanding of the system nor did I have the goal clarity.  I used to observe vibrations at different knots as given in our books and feel great about it without understanding anything about the states of consciousness at each knot. This gave me the confidence that whatever is written in our books and what we experience in sadhana are the same. This started giving me confidence in the system.

I attended the birthday celebrations of our Master in April 2000 for the first time.  I enjoyed the grace of the Master for three days.  This helped me increase my faith in the system.  I understood that during the celebration days we receive His grace in abundance which motivates us to do sadhana more sincerely.

I got an opportunity to observe Rev.Sir closely when he came to USA.  After one month of his stay in USA Rev.Sir told me that he took up my case and I need not worry and asked me to orient to him.  I did not know how to orient then.  I observed that I felt happiness in his presence.  This made me believe that there is something in him which makes me happy and he is different.  I observed his commitment to serve the abhyasis sincerely.  While he was in USA he got some problem with his eye for sometime.  Inspite of the pain he was giving sittings to everyone.  This really made me think very seriously about his commitment and about his love for his master.  This motivated me a lot and I started to feel that I should lead a life which would be useful for others.  This helped me to think more about him with love and devotion.  I understood that to think about him with love and devotion is orientation.  I developed my orientation towards him in addition to following all the meditational practices.  Whenever I used to think about him I used to feel the grace which used to give me calmness.  I used to enjoy it.  I sincerely started thinking about him.  Since I used to enjoy it I was always trying to think about him.  I did not know what I am asking but I knew this much that I feel happy in his thought and wanted to be always like that.

I started communicating to Rev.Sir about my sadhana on a monthly basis.  I used to feel very happy to see his responses which were always motivating and inspiring.  I started understanding his hard work for my progress.  This made me do my sadhana more sincerely.  I made up my mind that I should co-operate with him as much as I can so that his hard work can be reduced and that is possible only when I am oriented to him continuously.  I always think that I should be ready whenever he wants to work on me.  Since I do not know when he works on me I thought I should continously orient to him.  Sometimes I used to see him in dreams.  It took me sometime to understand that he works while I am asleep.  So I thought that I should orient to him after my bedtime prayer and before going to bed so that my orientation towards him would continue even when I am asleep.  His continous help started developing faith in him.  I repeatedly think about his help to keep myself motivated in sadhana.

Over a period of time the lightness and calmness started increasing.  Sometimes I used to enjoy these states.  It took me sometime to understand that I should feel grateful for what I got instead of enjoying the condition.  I observed that when I am enjoying the conditions given I forgot about the one who gave and my orientation suffered to that extent.  This made me think that whenever we get anything we should acknowledge and then be grateful to the one who gave it.  There is happiness in this.

Along with the lightness and calmness I started to know my lower self also.  Many times this made me feel disgusted.  During these times it is the help of the guide alone which brought me back to normalcy.  After I got back to normalcy the seriousness in sadhana increased as I started to understand my lower self and also understood the help that I am getting.  This has always helped me increase my faith in the guide.

For sometime I was under the impression that I should always keep the goal in view to reach it.  It took me sometime to understand that unless the road blocks on the path are removed I cannot reach the goal.  The road blocks are our desires, attachments, samaskaras and our ego.  Contemplating on the thoughts that we get during different times help us know the road blocks.  Any repeated occurrence of any undivine thought or feeling that comes for a long time is a road block.  I always considered anything which is coming in between my orientation to the master as a road block.  Sometimes when the blocks look like mountains, then it is all the more important to be more oriented to the guide and be more sincere in following the meditations practices.  Through pranahuti alone I am able to get rid of these blocks.  I understood that in addition to the help through pranahuti, I need to put in my best efforts to overcome them.  Whenever I understand the need to develop a positive quality I suggest myself that “I am starting my sadhana all afresh and I need to be more sincere”.  This attitude is helping me develop the positive qualities relatively faster.

The purification done by the trainer helps us get rid of the deep rooted samskaras, which we acquired over past lives.  Some of them we will see going out of our system in dreams or during deep meditational sessions.  The nature of these dreams tells us about our past.  Some of them could be pretty scary.  I had few such dreams which really shook my confidence for some days.  It was tough for me to meditate during this time.  I wanted to get absorbed so that I am not aware of myself.  I did not have confidence to meditate since I was not sure what I would see.  I did not stop any of the meditational practices nor did I stop my orientation for the only reason I knew that it is the guide alone who can bring me out of such situations.  The help of the guide through pranahuti did help me regain the confidence in myself.  I understood from this that sadhana should continue under all circumstances and faith in the guide during those circumstances is all the more required. The help that I received during these times helped me increase my faith in the guide and in the system.

Gratitude helps us develop love which in turn helps us develop faith in the master.  To develop my gratitude I remember the following frequently.

1.  What I was before joining the system and what I am now.

2.  What I have got so far by following the system.

3.  Where I would have been had I not got so much help

4.  The instances where the help of the guide brought me back to normalcy

5.  The hard work done by the guide/trainer for my progress

I started to understand that as we get purified through pranahuti and through our sadhana, we start to get closer to the reality Or Master or Sri Ramchandra Consciousness.

I started to strongly feel the following which is helping me develop faith in the Master.

1.                   He is infinite with infinite qualities.

2.                   His love is infinite

3.                   He knows what is best for us.

4.                   Everything here happens as per His will.

I started feeling the transitory nature of everything in this world.  The feeling is everything in the universe is changing at a very fast pace except the Great Master.  We need to get attached to the Master who is eternal, omnipresent and omniscient.  The whole creation is being maintained by this consciousness which we call as Sriramchandra Consciousness.  Getting attached to anything other than Him will only make us unhappy because they are transient.

This body is made of flesh and bones and there is no point in getting attached to it since even this is temporary.  I am not this body but I am the consciousness behind the body.  These feelings made me understand that everything in this world is consciousness with varying levels.  Each one of us is consciousness and level of our consciousness would vary depending on our past samskaras.  The consciousness of the Master is pure and unalloyed love which is everywhere and is eternal.  The purpose of sadhana is to merge our consciousness in the pure consciousness.

My understanding of the term consciousness is as follows: Thoughts and feelings which are demonstrated consistently over a period of time.  The purity of thoughts and feelings would tell the quality of the consciousness. To have this consciousness turn towards the Master is a very tough task and without the help of guide through pranahuti for me it is an impossible task.  I started to understand that my sincere effort in this endeavor is as important as the help that I get from the guide.

I started to understand that the help of the guide is to connect each one of us to this consciousness and continue to support us until we develop true love, complete dependency and unshakeable faith on this pure consciousness. I started to understand that I need to orient to Sri Ramchandra Consciousness which is working through the guide/trainer.

The feelings of Love, Service, Sacrifice, Empathy, and Commitment to serve others etc which I have been observing in the guide is helping me to slowly comprehend the nature of Sri Ramchandra consciousness. It took me sometime to understand that to convert this awareness into reality is what whole sadhana is about. For this we need to yield to Him without any expectations and there is no end to this yielding.

I was under the assumption that yielding means yielding to that pure consciousness only while receiving pranahuti during different occasions.  It took me very long time to understand what yielding truly means.  Yielding means to accept whatever happens in this world as His will and accept it for our own good.  I started to understand that unless I yield to the Master I cannot follow the commandments 5-7.  I am trying to remember the greatness of the Master and my lowliness to develop yielding.

Another thing which I understood is that we should always contemplate on the condition that has been bestowed on us only then Viveka develops.  Unless we apply our mind and contemplate in a prayful mood Viveka does not develop.  Any wisdom that we get through this contemplation must be implemented in our daily life to make it part of our consciousness.  This would help us stabilize our faith in the Master.

My feeling is that to stabilize faith in Sri Ramchandra Consciousness we need to develop single pointed orientation towards It and this is possible by developing true love and dependency on Him.  Along with these qualities we need to develop an attitude of waiting.  I was of the opinion that I need to be always restless to reach the goal. Recently I started to understand that being restless I also need to learn to wait because He knows what and when to give anything. 

I thank imperience for providing me this opportunity to share my thoughts on this auspicious occasion of the birthday celebrations of Pujya Lalaji Maharaj.

Namasthe.