Efforts to be undertaken to awaken bhav

When bhav (Spiritual emotion) is awakened in a jiva, it gradually thinks more about God than itself. That is why, the existence of the self is slowly forgotten and actions as per God’s expectations are performed. Praying is important for awakening of bhav. Since through a prayer the atma-shakti (Energy of the soul) of a jiva is awakened and its manomaya-kosha (Mental sheath) gets purified.

‘Actions change thoughts and thoughts bring about a change in acts and appropriate acts bring about a change in actions and thoughts’, according to this principle if acts are performed continuously at the level of the mind and intellect to awaken bhav, then bhav will certainly be awakened.

1. Prayer as a means of awakening bhav

A. The process of awakening of bhav due to a prayer

When a jiva offers a prayer with namaskar, the emotion of humility is generated in it, consequently increasing the concentration of its mind. Then, sattvik (Sattva-predominant) waves from the universe enter the cavity in its skull through the Adnya-chakra. Due to the flow of these sattvik waves, the Panchapran (Five vital energies) fixed at umbilicus get activated and move upwards, activating the Anahat-chakra. Hence, the physical body of the jiva gets tuned to absorbing vibrations of the Divine Principle. When the Anahat-chakra gets activated, the manaha-shakti (Energy of mind) of the jiva gets converted into atma-shakti and is able to absorb subtle vibrations of the Divine Principle at the level of bhav.

B. By praying with bhav, seeker enjoys Anand (Bliss), because
of which when he performs any action he prays spontaneously and with liking

When the bhav for God grows with prayers, the seeker starts becoming aware that he is talking to God. Hence, he prays wholeheartedly and with more bhav. He develops the bhav that every word he speaks is delivered to God and that he has to select words which are uttered with love and humility, and he pays greater attention to how wholehearted, loving and humble his prayer is than to the words in it. In other words, he concentrates on how his mind focuses on God more than the words in the prayer. Hence, he obtains Anand from the prayer. Such a seeker prays willfully when performing every action and such a prayer recited even once reaches God.

C. In Gurukrupayoga (Path of Guru’s grace), it is because of praying
when chanting that while performing any action, the bhav in the jiva grows

If prayer and gratitude are also expressed when chanting while performing an action, then chanting becomes qualitative. This is because due to chanting, the subtle waves from the universe get activated and are attracted to the jiva. Due to praying, the bhav of the jiva grows; due to gratitude, the ego reduces and the subtle-most waves get activated and are attracted to the jiva. That is why, when performing any action the jiva benefits from all the three waves simultaneously. Jivas that perform sadhana according to Gurukrupayoga advance towards qualitative chanting faster than other souls who simply chant.

D. Importance of prayer

• Every action is performed with a prayer with the bhav that ‘I can do nothing, God will do everything’. That is why, ego automatically reduces.

• Vibrations of God’s Principle absorbed due to a prayer help in purifying the pranadeha (Vital body) and the pranamaya-kosha (Vital energy sheath) of the jiva.

• Prayer activates atma-shakti, because of which the jiva benefits from the sagun (Materialised) Divine Principle within a short time; that is why, prayer is important.

2. Performing every action with the
bhav that it is taking place with God’s grace

Try to perform every action with the bhav that it is taking place with God’s grace. So, for that time your mind will remain in contemplation of God and get purified, and Chaitanya (Divine consciousness) will act for your sake continuously. Your sharanagatbhav (Spiritual emotion of surrender to God) towards God will grow. You will not get entrapped in any bondage of karma and there will be neither sins nor merits nor will any give-and-take account be generated.

3. Comparative importance of various actions for awakening bhav

4. Efforts required to eliminate obstacles
of personality defects and ego in increasing bhav

Ego and personality defects obstruct vyashṭi (Individual) and samashṭi bhav (For the welfare of the society). Also, due to ego we cannot love God and His forms completely. Seekers should make the following efforts to overcome this.

• Pay attention to mistakes taking place at the level of actions, thoughts and attitudes, and study them.

• After studying wrong actions or thoughts from our personality defect chart, we become aware of personality defects that obstruct awakening of vyashṭi & samashṭi bhav within us, so we overcome them.

• Due to our mistakes or personality defects if society (or even one seeker for that matter) is distressed even a little bit, we should feel bad and repentant about it and make continuous efforts to overcome personality defects and to rectify mistakes.

5. Going from expressed bhav to unexpressed bhav

When a jiva moves from expressed to unexpressed bhav, thoughts about Sat imprinted on the mind in the form of responses also get destroyed; hence, its attitude becomes steady. At this point, one begins to wonder if there is no bhav in the mind at all. However, as the attitude becomes steady, the soul begins to view everything with sakshibhav. In this process, the combined awareness of the mind and the intellect becomes known to the chitta (Subconscious mind). The chitta is full of impressions. Awareness about God’s grace is hidden in the chitta.

Reference : Sanatan’s Holy text ‘Spiritual emotion (Types and Awakening)’