Devotee: Would you talk about the relationship of seva to bhakti? Shri Anandi Ma: Seva and bhakti are interrelated. Who do you do seva for?  That’s where it starts; if you have some level of love or devotion for someone, then you will be motivated to do seva for that person. At the same time,
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Devotee: How can individual consciousness, and collective consciousness, be applied when natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes occur? I try to be stoic and compassionate, but honestly, I find it quite devastating, both on a personal level and for the planet. So what kind of attitude should we have towards these events, and how
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Devotee:  What is grace? Guruji:  When one person is suffering and another person feels this suffering as his own, wanting to help in whatever way he can, in thought, word, or deed; if he can remove the suffering of that person through his energy or through his power, then that is grace. God and Guru
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FOR JAN 2012 SO Devotee: I received Shaktipat from another teacher and have been a devotee of this teacher for twenty years, but I am not enlightened yet. Would it help if I receive Shaktipat from you? Guru: Twenty years may seem like a long time, but in spiritual terms it’s very short. There are
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Disciple: If God is everywhere, why don’t we know him? Guruji: Between God and us there is maya and it is like a wall. Just as you cannot see things on the other side of a wall, in the same way we don’t see God. In the Ramayana, Ram is God, Sita is maya, and
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Disciple: You have said that silent repetition (japa) is more powerful without the lips moving. Why do we do external repetition when the other one is more powerful? Shri Anandi Ma: We as humans have to deal with the mind, and the mind requires variety, even “spiritual entertainment,” so different things are offered to the
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PART TWO of an interview, which Ma gave in 2004. What are the fruits of the different anusthan practices; for example, doing malas of the Guru mantra versus writing it, reciting the Rama Raksha Stotram or the Hanuman Chalisa? The basic goal for any of those practices is to achieve a level of purification in
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  Disciple: Guruji, you said before that there’s a tremendous amount of energy in chanting. What’s the best way to maximize the benefits? Is it singing loudly, quietly, all in the same voice? What’s the best way to get the maximum benefit from the chanting? Guruji: The sing­ing should be in rhythm, not haphazard. Everyone
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Disciple: Since spending time in India I have become very aware of Hinduism. Am I on a path that says I should believe in this religion? I am sort of confused about following what my Guru says and the overall India experience. Shri Anandi Ma: You have to differentiate between self-realization and anything religious. Those
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D: Would you speak about the importance and the significance of seva, or service? And how do we discover what our seva is? G: One of the biggest benefits of seva is the washing away of negative karma. At the same time it gives further strength to the positive samskaras, which are helping your spiritual
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