March 06, 2014: Celebrating a birthday is actually expressing gratitude to God for the opportunity to do sadhana (spiritual practice) during the past year and praying for His grace in the coming year.’- Pujya (Mrs.) Anjali Gadgil , 21st January 2005, 4 p.m.

The birthday is the day to assess spiritual progress of the embodied soul: ‘The word ‘vad-divas’, in Marathi language literally means “day of growth”. Here growth indicates spiritual progress. For the soul to progress spiritually, purification of the subtle body and imbibing of the three components also known as ‘trigunas’) from Deities in appropriate proportions is necessary. The spiritual progress of an embodied soul begins at birth. Even if an individual does not undertake actual spiritual practice, due to various spiritual rituals performed on him the sattva component in him increases thus initiating his spiritual progress. Birthday is the day to take stock of the effect of spiritual rituals on his subtle body. From a spiritual perspective, birthday is the day to assess one’s spiritual progress and if there is spiritual progress then it signifies actual growth’.- Ms. Madhura Bhosale, 13th May 2005, 8.04 - 8.22 p.m.

Birthday is the day to enhance one’s ability to imbibe chaitanya: ‘Birthday is the day for enhancement of the ability of an embodied soul to imbibe chaitanya, through the benevolent frequencies gained by invoking Deities. Through this action which raises the sattva component in the atmosphere, the embodied soul achieves stability of the inner mind.’ –  Pujya (Mrs.) Anjali Gadgil, 28th August 2005, 11.40 a.m.

In the Satyayug the first birthday was celebrated with an evolved soul making a silent resolve and either showering unbroken rice grains (akshata) on the appropriate chakra of the spiritual energy system (kundalini), touching the chakra or initiating the journey (activation) of the kundalini with a mere glance: ‘An individual is born with a spiritual level which is carried forward from the past birth. Accordingly, that particular centre in the spiritual energy system is already in an activated state or a state where the journey of the spiritual energy has halted. In the ‘Satyayug’, ‘Tretayug’ and ‘Dvaparyug’ evolved individuals would be invited to bless the individual whose first birthday was being celebrated or the child would be taken to Him. The evolved soul would perform the ritual of ‘aukshan’ for the child and making a silent resolve would shower unbroken rice grains on various parts of its body thus activating the chakras of the spiritual energy system in that area, till the chakra where the spiritual journey had halted was reached. He would touch the chakra beyond the one where the spiritual energy flow was arrested with unbroken rice grains in the fingers. This would resume the further journey of the spiritual energy. The evolved soul progressed beyond 75% would know merely by looking at the embodied soul upto where his spiritual energy was activated. So, a mere glance at that chakra would restart his spiritual progress.

In the ‘Satyayug’ the spiritual level of the average individual was 60%. The embodied soul himself was capable of perceiving the progress of the spiritual energy in his chakras. In the ‘Tretayug’ too some embodied souls had this potential. However, in the ‘Dvaparyug’ most embodied souls lost this ability.

In the ‘Treta’ and ‘Dvaparyugs’ either the individual would visit saints or vice-versa and the saint would bestow His blessings for rapid spiritual progress. After having received blessings the embodied soul would seriously enhance his efforts to increase spiritual progress. On the subsequent birthday when the individual would go for blessings to the saint He would bless him only after assessing if his spiritual progress had occurred in the past year. Since the seeker was fully aware that his progress was a consequence of the saint’s blessing there were less chances of inflation of his ego.