Happy to be here

[Bhaktina]

Namaste everyone,

I'm Bhaktina and am 23 years old. Couple of years ago my intuition lead me to one mystical forum, on which I was introduced to Hindu teachings and way of life. At that time my beliefs were atheistic, so I had hard time understanding Sanatan Dharma, even though I was very attracted to it at the same time. Friend suggested I should read Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, and so I did. I fell in love with Krishna immediately, which was a miracle for me, because I did not understand his teachings at all. I just developed feelings for Him, He became my best friend and His unconditional love helped me get through very hard times in my life.

As I was mostly exposed to ISKCON teachings, I had no idea about other types of philosophies that describe Shiva or Vishnu as Supreme God. I've seen those two as demigods, as Srila Prabhupada described them. For 3 years Krishna was the Only One for me, and I payed little or no attention to any other "demigods" whatsoever. So few days ago I stumbled upon this beautiful forum, and decided to join you. I'm here to learn, explore and expand my consciousness. I have many questions to ask, and I'll do so in near future. I hope I did not offend anyone, as I'm still kinda new to all this and want to learn as much as possible. My goal is to find perfect kind of spiritual day-to-day practice, as I'm always trying out new things and can never settle on one path. It's time to settle and choose just one. Also, I'm very happy I can connect with people who's no.1. priority in life is spiritual practice. There's so much love and kindness on this forum, so I'm really blessed to be here. Much love to you all.

Blessings!

[Believer]

Namaste,

Thank you for a detailed introduction and welcome to the forum. Hope you can put your 'shopping around' phase behind you soon and select a path that suits you.
Unlike in ISKCON, there are no 'demigods' in Hinduism, only Gods - one God in His infinite incarnations. Some of us tend to stay with one form to focus more on spirituality rather than arguing/fighting about who is bigger or who is better; others accept/worship and adore God in all His forms.

Regards.

Pranam.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Bhaktina: Welcome to HDF. I hope you find your time here fruitful.
Aum Namasivaya

[devotee]

Welcome to the forums, Bhaktina ! Hindu Dharma has tried to explore Truth in many ways. We believe that Truth is not just a matter of belief / faith. Truth can be realised as It is. All scriptures, names and forms of God, ways of worshiping / realising the Truth in one name or the other are just pointers to the One Unchanging Reality. Whether you call It Shiva or Vishnu or Krishna or Mother Goddess Durga or whatever .... the Reality remains as It always Is. We all are moving towards the same Truth ... may be some will take a longer route, some may take a shorter one ... but we are all destined to attain the same Ultimate Reality, which we all are.

OM

[Bhaktina]

Thank you all for your kind reception. Before I start posting questions on other topics, I'll post some of them here. Hope that's OK.

Devotee: You say some of us take longer route to realizing Truth, while others take a shorter one. In your personal opinion, which route would be a short one? Can you give some examples?

As I'm still in my "shopping around" phase, I discovered that chanting Hare Krishna makes me extremely happy and satisfied. It fills my heart with love which just pours out on everyone around me. But this kind of practice does not give me some other useful results, like activating third eye, better concentration, deeper meditative states, etc. For these kind of results I used to practice meditation on breath and focusing on ajna chakra. I've also experienced increase in intuition, clairvoyance, astral projection, etc. I know this kind of experiences are not necessarily sign of self-realization but I think it can be of great help to develop some of those "powers". At the same time, this kind of practice does not give me happiness that I experience while chanting and thinking about Krishna. So, I guess my question is: what does your daily spiritual practice look like? (This goes to everyone, not just Devotee). What should one spiritual seeker actually focus on, while looking for perfect spiritual practice? How does one decide what is best for them?

I really appreciate your effort to answer my question. I apologize if they're already answered somewhere else.

Thank you.

[devotee]

Namaste Bhaktina,

Devotee: You say some of us take longer route to realizing Truth, while others take a shorter one. In your personal opinion, which route would be a short one? Can you give some examples?
So, I guess my question is: what does your daily spiritual practice look like? (This goes to everyone, not just Devotee). What should one spiritual seeker actually focus on, while looking for perfect spiritual practice? How does one decide what is best for them?

May be, if I had known that you would ask this question, I would not have said that !

Now, answer to your question :

Hindu Dharma has many paths leading to the same Truth. And practitioner of a particular path sees relative reality from his own perspective. Why did I use the term, "Relative reality" because any perception of Reality can be only relative. "Seeing" brings in duality and Reality doesn't allow that. Certain things that I talk may not be clear right now and I will explain them later. My only submission here is that if you ask me, my take on reality will be different from what seekers from other paths may claim even though we all may be talking about the same Reality. So, one may describe one path as a shorter route whereas the other one may consider the other path as the longer one.

I am a practising Advaita VedAntin and therefore, whatever I write here should be seen from that perspective. From Advaita VedAntin's perspective :

1. Reality is One. He is Lord Krishna, He is Lord Shiva, He is Goddess Durga, He is what you are and what this world is. The multitude perceived in our relative existence is only due to our ignorance of the Reality.
2. There is no other goal except Realising the Ultimate Truth : "I am That". We all are knowingly or unknowingly moving towards Realising that Reality. How ? This is because of Time and our blissful reality which compel us to move towards that One reality.
3. Some aim directly towards realising that Truth and some take other route. One leads to the Truth directly but is considered to be full of dangers for people who are not ready for treading that path. The others too will lead to the same Reality but are not the direct path.

******************
My suggestions based on what you have stated are :

You have chosen conflicting path. Practice of meditation, activation of chakras etc. are paths of Self-realisation i.e. Advaitin's path (usually). ISKCON preaches Krishna Bhakti where these things have no place. In Self-realisation, Bhakti is a means of attaining the Reality and not the end in itself whereas in organisations like ISKCON, Bhakti is the sole and the ultimate aim. ISKCON bhakti is a bhakti of Das-bhaav (Master-slave relationship with God), whereas in Self-Realisation, it is like Father-son/daughter or Mother-son/daughter relationship. In Self-Realisation, you want to dissolve yourself into God and be One with Him (and therefore duality ceases to exist) whereas in ISKCON, any thought of ending duality is considered a sin towards God.

So, at this stage, keep studying and don't be in a hurry to get identified with a particular path ... time has only relative existence. We all exist in eternity. There is no hurry at all. Take your time.

OM

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Bhaktina: Devotee has given an excellent answer. I'll offer slightly differing ides, based on my sampradaya, monistic Saiva Siddhanta as taught by Subramuniyaswami, and Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, which will be a bit different, but not much.

Firstly, we practice patience, and we're in it for the long term, and think in lifetimes, not years. So we don't think about developing siddhis at all, because that would feed into the individual self/ego of one life, ignoring the bigger picture. The very query, "How can I?" demonstrates that. The 'I' being referred to is the individual 'I', here.

As to what practices help the most, we base that on the individual, yet everyone attempts to have balance and be mindful in whatever pursuit it is. So we do seva, we do bhakti, we try to meditate, we sing, etc. It;s all integrated, none operating wholly without the other. Meditation helps for deeper bhakti, and bhakti helps with deeper meditation. So my daily practice consists of spirituality throughout. I don't separate spiritual life from mundane life. Having said that, I do do a regular 1 hour sadhana consisting of a puja, a japa round, a meditation, and some reading. But creating, seva (like this, trying to offer help to a fellow path treader) is all religious too. We attend temple a couple of times a week, and observe several major festivals, do occasional penance, etc.

I'm also aware that developing spirituality doesn't always mean 'feeling better'. One had to analyse with intellectual honesty this 'feeling better' idea, and for us it's cleansing of the subconscious mind that is the key.

Hope this helps in some small way.

Aum Namasivaya

[Believer]

Namaste,

As you have already discovered, within the confines of Vedic gods/traditions/philosophy, there are a myriad of paths that one could take for spiritual progress. My comments come from a lifetime of experience and not from a rigid adherence to one school or the other. With that as the backdrop, I think that everyone's path has to be unique depending on his/her overall personality. If combining different aspects of Hinduism help you to maintain your mental balance and give you happiness in life, then by all means continue to follow that regimen. Imposing something that conflicts with the natural flow can never do you good. In the final analysis, all the labels are of no use if they don't help to get where you want to go. Following road signs to a barren mountaintop would be meaningless if your eyes yearn to see a green vista. As far as I am concerned, routines are only guidelines which have to be tailored for every individual to make them meaningful to him/her. So, I don't see any conflict in mixing traditions and using different recipes for the peace of mind and happiness that everyone craves for. If at some point there is sufficient awareness to drop one or the other practice, so be it. But for now I would stay the course.

At the end of the day how our practices translate into dealing with people and events in our daily lives is all that matters. A content and happy soul would come across as a bowl of honey and a soul preoccupied with a rigid code may not be so happy and might come out as hot salsa.

Pranam.

[Bhaktina]

Namaste,

I am so grateful for all advices given here. In meantime I've read some other topics on HDF and came to realize that I'm not the only one with this kind of "problem". I see many people have been asking about mixing Advaita and Bhakti together. My limited experience teaches me that Advaita and Bhakti compliment each other, they don't negate each other. While I was practicing Krishna Consciousness, I've had intense experiences of being one with Him, while still feeling like His child and being able to talk to Him, just like I talk to my mother or my friends. I was serving Him while still being one with Him. Everywhere I looked there was Krishna, in each and every human being, animal or thing. I guess it's in human nature to always search for feeling of belonging to some organization or path. This is why I thought that mixing different practices doesn't make sense.

My problem also comes from different understandings of Krishna. Some say He was a prophet, others say He was God in human form. This makes me very confused. I cant speak for myself since I really don't know who He was/is, I can only rely on what other spiritual teacher have said. I'm also very curious about this: did anyone actually experience samadhi while chanting HK mantra? I've read biographies of some Acaryas and in none of them is mentioned that they have actually experienced samadhi. All they did was chanting their whole life, singing and dancing, and that was it. (I hope nobody will get offended by this, that is not my intention.) Currently I'm reading "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Swami Yogananda, and am amazed by all the beautiful experiences he had while practicing kriya yoga. I know that spiritual practice would be much easier for me if I had a living guru, but I don't. That's why I'm so confused.

Thank you all for telling me about your daily spiritual practice, you gave me some very helpful answers. I'll keep on spending my time on reading and learning. I believe perfect spiritual practice will come to me when I'm ready for it.

[Believer]

Namaste,

My problem also comes from different understandings of Krishna. Some say He was a prophet.......

Who all are included in these 'some'?

While I was practicing Krishna Consciousness, I've had intense experiences of being one with Him, while still feeling like His child and being able to talk to Him, just like I talk to my mother or my friends. I was serving Him while still being one with Him. Everywhere I looked there was Krishna, in each and every human being, animal or thing.

That is very believable and interesting, but...

did anyone actually experience samadhi while chanting HK mantra?

....you feel comfortable questioning the experiences/realizations of the acharyas - Why? Just askin'. What makes you doubt that their experiences were much more intense than yours and their connection to the divine REAL?

I am not the least bit offended by anything that you have offered, just trying to connect the dots of your thoughts. Help me!

Pranam.