The Mother Divine
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By Kinkar Vitthal Ramanuja (Excerpts from Shri Vitthal Uvaacha)

Every aspect of your spiritual life is anchored upon just one vital input: sadguru. सतगुरुलाभहोगया, तोसबहोगया! Once you get sadguru, everything else follows naturally.

Q. Why is it important to attend satsangs? Is it not enough to do sadhana by oneself?
A. A sukshmaparimandal (spiritual orb of subtle vibrations) envelops the devotees and increases the spiritual power of each one in the satsang. Buddha too has stressed on sangha as being a precious jewel which serves as a spiritual refuge.

Look at all the mahatmas, all the great souls! They are all a product of satsang. Once there is satsang, there is light. Once you have satsang, you may be rest assured that there will be grace of God! Tulasidas calls satsanga ‘muda-mangal-mulaa.’ Contact with noble souls is the root of joy and blessings. Goswami Tulsidas says in Bala Kanda:
बिनुसत्संगबिबेकनहोएरामकृपाबिनसुलभनसोइ Whoever, whenever and by whatever means has ever attained wisdom, glory, salvation, material prosperity and welfare anywhere and by any means whatsoever – know it to be the result of association with holy men; there is no other means either in the world or in the Vedas.

Tulasidas says, सबसाधनाजपतपफूलहै.... सत्संगफलहै! Satsang constitutes the very fruit and fulfilment of all endeavours, whereas all other practices are blossoms as it were.
“Remember one thing: satsang (company of the righteous) leads to heaven, while asatsang (company of the unrighteous) leads to total perdition. If possible, try to have satsang, otherwise just stay nissang (without any company).”

“We are all blessed and have a peaceful life because of the blessings of the innumerable saints who are meditating continuously.”

“यातोसत्संगकरो, यानिस्संगकरो, बीचभंवरमेंमतफसो. Either mix with the virtuous and seek the fellowship of the righteous people and holy men or just be by yourself. Don’t be caught in a situation whereby you are neither here nor there.”

Q. Who is Satguru?
A. I will give you the answer that Kinkar Bhumananda gave. He has simplified the answer to this difficult question through three basic checks. If you wish to know if the person is a satguru just check if any of these three things happen. 1. While in his presence, if one forgets oneself even for a moment 2. If the longing for his darshan naturally gets intense 3. His mere darshan draws ashru-dhara, streams of tears, from one’s eyes. sbr
Q. What is the difference between Guru and Satguru?
A. Guru takes responsibility of His disciples and their families during His lifetime. Satguru takes responsibilities of His disciple and his generations (before and after) even after completing His mortal leela. It is with great fortune that a disciple gets initiated by a person like Shri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. He is a Sat Guru. He is the incarnation of God. All of us who are initiated by Bhagwan Sitaram Thakur or initiated in His order are indeed extremely fortunate.

Q. Are there types among holy men?
A. Every saint has a past and every devil has a future. There are grades in saints as there are grades in human beings. High souls of towering order are called ucchakoti mahatmas, these are of three types—brahma koti, ishvarakoti and jiva koti. Then there’s a division into avataras, satgurus, gurus, mahatmas etc. They also get classified on top as bahudak, kutichak, parivrajak and so on depending upon their lifestyle.

Q. If I had been initiated but hadn’t done any japa or puja, would I be better off than someone who is not initiated? What is the basic difference between initiated and non-initiated one? How does this energy transfer take place?
A. “If one child is home-tutored and another one goes to the school to pursue studies, what is the difference between the two? What’s their future? You see, the child who studies out of home will pick up this and that for studying in a self-styled way; in any case, he won’t be able to appear for an examination because he has no adhikara, he is not authorised. He won’t be able to pass out. The child who goes to the school on the other hand will be a registered student, the responsibility of his learning, studying, assessment, examination etc rests with the teacher. In the same way, once the disciple is initiated, the entire responsibility is passed on to the Guru. Thus, whoever follows a Guru will make great progress. The path of advancing on one’s own involves a lot of trial and error, pointless wandering and a lot of risk along the way.

Q. “But Gurudeva, all this is relevant because he follows the Guru. Is there any change that comes over him in the very moment of diksha? What’s the internal transformation in terms of energy or consciousness, how is he different from how he was before initiation?
A. “With diksha, Guru helps the disciple take a giant leap. He takes over the great sins (paap) of the disciple onto himself so that he may swiftly make progress through japa There are a lot of other details about this which you will find in the book The Eternal Festival. Read it!

Q. An ordinary sadhak has limited vision, thus he sees Gurudeva in His body alone. So, whenever he is away from Gurudeva, the sadhak experiences Guru-viyog. How can this problem be solved?
A. Hriday me prasthaapit karo- Establish Guru in your heart. The sadhak can then experience the omnipresence of Gurudeva.”