At Shree Peetha Nilaya, the abode of Divine Mother, everything is getting ready for the Navaratri celebrations.
Every year, Sri Swami Vishwananda showers us with countless blessings helping each one to strengthen the inner connection with God, while praying for nine consecutive days, addressing our prayers to nine different forms of the Divine Mother.
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| Navaratri 2013 at Shree Peetha Nilaya |
Through the years, Sri Swami Vishwananda has encouraged everybody saying, “When Divine Mother comes, She comes for all Her children, for everybody equally! And this is Her Motherly Love.”
“So during this time while we are praying, participate together! Call upon Her inside your heart! Participate with your spirit so that She may reveal Herself inside of you and remind you of how strong is this Love.”
“If you can think of God above everything, She will help you. She will awake inside of you this Love, so that you can reach your final goal, your final destination - God.”
“So during this time while we are praying, participate together! Call upon Her inside your heart! Participate with your spirit so that She may reveal Herself inside of you and remind you of how strong is this Love.”
“If you can think of God above everything, She will help you. She will awake inside of you this Love, so that you can reach your final goal, your final destination - God.”
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| Maha Kalash Abishekam, Navaratri 2013 at Shree Peetha Nilaya |
In 2012 during a Satsang, Sri Swami Vishwananda further explained that along our journey to God, prayer itself takes different forms:
“There are different degrees of prayer, different ways of addressing one‘s prayers to God. But to be able to listen, one has to silence oneself. So let‘s put it like that: prayer is, firstly, silencing yourself, so that you can let the prayer speak!
In the first form of prayer one is like begging, annoying God, ‘Give me this, give me that.’ It‘s always based on the material level.
Second, you stand in front of God with your mind in your heart. In this form of prayer there is an intimate and personal relationship with God - not outside, but inside. There is still a demand, but it‘s less. The requests have already changed.
Third, you realise that you are an instrument of the Divine. Every action, it is not you who does it, but it is Him who does it. You share His action. Then we can say that the prayer is silent. Prayer is to hear the voice of the Prayer, Itself. In that point, all the doubts, all the questions - everything disappears.
This leads to the next form of prayer, which is the Revelation or the manifestation of the Divine within yourself: in the deepness of the heart, there is a point of complete stillness, which is not affected by anything; in this stage, from deep in that point, the Grace of God is revealed. You are still you! You are still doing all your actions in the world outside. But you are doing your actions with His grace. There you realise the unity with the Divine, in you. Then you realise that there is no point of always asking, asking and asking, because it is only Him who does everything.
Second, you stand in front of God with your mind in your heart. In this form of prayer there is an intimate and personal relationship with God - not outside, but inside. There is still a demand, but it‘s less. The requests have already changed.
Third, you realise that you are an instrument of the Divine. Every action, it is not you who does it, but it is Him who does it. You share His action. Then we can say that the prayer is silent. Prayer is to hear the voice of the Prayer, Itself. In that point, all the doubts, all the questions - everything disappears.
This leads to the next form of prayer, which is the Revelation or the manifestation of the Divine within yourself: in the deepness of the heart, there is a point of complete stillness, which is not affected by anything; in this stage, from deep in that point, the Grace of God is revealed. You are still you! You are still doing all your actions in the world outside. But you are doing your actions with His grace. There you realise the unity with the Divine, in you. Then you realise that there is no point of always asking, asking and asking, because it is only Him who does everything.
From prayer, you become surrendered. From surrender, the Grace reveals itself. You become realised.
You see, the way of Realisation is not complicated, in reality, you are doing it every day. You just need to know that it is God doing it through you. Just this! But knowing, with complete sincerity, and a certitude, without any doubt!
In these four forms of prayer: the first two are what man does and the other two are what God is doing through you.”