Vyakhyaan by Vinod ji Agarwal_'B'

The external ambience acts like an encouraging factor for our devotional sentiment but its foundation lies in our own keenness to meet Him.

Like all the other realized souls, Swami Vivekananda too has said that we need not try to bind God by languages, dress codes etc rather we need to recognize the Supreme Being by building a personal bond with Him. He is formless but readily takes up various forms as per the notions of His different devotees.

The spiritual practices like chanting Lord’s name, singing His glories, reading sacred text, reciting prayers, listening to His pastimes and attending spiritual discourses are highly essential to foster our keenness for Him. It is like learning ‘A’ by referring to an ‘Apple’ but the intended thing is 'A' not the apple. Similarly, our hearts must crave to actually realize Him and not be contented with His references only.

It is our own wishes which disturb us and more than that we expect others to live as per our standards. We must always remember that each individual has its own lot to face and hence there is no need to be over concerned for anybody. Moreover, if we sincerely submit to God's arrangement, every occurrence will progressively lead us towards Him i.e. joureny of life will get enrouted through 'Govind ki Galiyan.'

Just like any other pursuit, spiritual success too has three prerequisites- identifying a goal for the soul, second is to tirelessly endeavor towards it and then patiently waiting for the desired result even if it looks to be getting delayed. He may put our faith to severe tests but we have to remain determined. Moreover, the route of divine love frees us from the customary worshiping as love itself is the supreme form of worship. So if we resolutely aim at attaining God in the present life only, things surely begin to fall in place to take us ahead.

Every word originates from sound and each sound has its echo. So a devotee should practise chanting so fervently that the echo of naam jap/mantra begins to be heard from inside while he is silent outwardly. This is called ajpa- jap i.e. continuous chanting through our sub conscious mind. It happens with the grace of God only but firstly the seeker needs to be desperate for Him. Then only our chants can bring the desired result.

There are said to be five stages of reflecting upon personal form of God- Dhaarna, dhyaan, dhruv smriti, svaroop chintan and samadhi. It starts from taking His form as a particular figure which may be Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva, Devi Durga and like. Second step is to hold the same figure inside our body and attentively focus on it. 'Naam sankirtan' scientifically helps in strengthening this practice of concentrated inner visualization as the centrifugal force of the sound waves throws the wandering thoughts away and the gravitational force of the devotional words makes our heart feel His touch.

Spirituality basically demands the dissolution of self into its source. In the present times of Kalyuga, Hari naam sankirtan is the most favorable way to immerse ourselves into Lord.