July 20, 2013: Sarla asked Pujya Guruji, “While chanting any mantra, many people use a japamala (rosary) and keep a count of the number of times they chant it. We are told that chanting one lakh times or one crore times has certain tangible benefits. Is this counting done separately for each day or is it counted cumulatively day after day ?”

Shri Nimishananda Guruji said, “It is we who count days. To God all days are the same. The account is always cumulative and continuous.”

Umanath said, “Sometimes the worship of God in so many different forms in India causes a lot of conflict and friction. One group of worshippers claims supremacy over the other.”

Shri Nimishananda Guruji said, “If you go to a sweet shop, there are so many varieties of sweets displayed there and all of them are made from sugar. Each person who goes there will relish one particular kind of sweet more than the others. Which sweet one likes is purely subjective. Does this mean that one sweet is superior to the other?

“All deities in the pantheon of Sanathana Dharma are forms of the same God. They are all equal. They just cater to different bandwidths of devotees. If you go to the mother of six children and ask her which of them she likes best, what will she say ?

“There were once two ascetics meditating in a dense forest. One of them was a devotee of Lord Vishnu and the other was a devotee of Lord Shiva. They were both wandering in the forest looking for a form to worship, when they coincidentally stumbled upon a temple at the same time. Forcing their way through the thick undergrowth that flourished around this abandoned shrine, they discovered the idol of Hari-Hara (a deity that combines the forms of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva).

“After some discussion they arranged a schedule of worship which would give each one of them a few hours of solitude in the temple. Whenever the devotee of Vishnu performed a ritual he said again and again, ‘I am not worshipping Hara (Shiva)…’ Likewise the devotee of Shiva worshipped the idol of Hari-Hara by repeating, ‘I am not worshipping Hari (Vishnu)…’ Ultimately, as his sadhana progressed he was granted a vision of Vishnu, while the devotee of Lord Vishnu had a vision of Shiva! Such are the wonderful ways of God! So we should not allow ourselves to be trapped by the limited conditioning of the logical mind. Unless we transcend logic and analysis, we are caught forever within the narrow confines of the Ego. If we become servants of the Lord, we see and accept Him in all forms. Stop analysing and comparing. Simply surrender to the form of Divinity that appeals to you.”

This article has ben taken from the book Wisdom Through The Eyes of Shri Nimishananda by His Holiness Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji

Source: The New Indian Express, DT. July 20, 2013.