Multiply the effect of Earth Hour

We can. We will. Will you?

Newspapers, media, the internet and social networks are reminding people that on 31st March 2012 it’s Earth Hour Day, aimed at raising awareness about the unfavorable climate change on our planet.

When I received a text message from my mobile phone provider to shut down the lights for 1 hour in the evening, a thought came that with spiritual practice we can take this effort further.

We have shared in our article on climate change, that the spiritual practice of chanting assures an increase in spiritual purity in us. In the long run, this changes both us and our environment as chanting is far more subtle (and therefore more powerful) than any gross means we resort to in order to prevent unfavorable climate change.

If all the people who are willing to participate in Earth Hour day chant for 1 hour tomorrow, we can only imagine how much impact this could have on our planet!

So let us switch off the lights tomorrow for 1 hour and even better, let us chant for 1 hour tomorrow.

In case you like chanting and start experiencing it’s numerous psychological and spiritual benefits you can chant for at least an hour every day. That could not only help avert further climate change but would help our inner growth as well.

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Read more:

• Occupy Wall Street and the way forward
• Prayers for the Gulf Oil Spill
• The real pollution
• Global warming – causes and facts

H. H. Dr. Athavale

Other than spiritual practice, all other subjects have their respective final exams. It is enough to study for 2-3 months just before these exams in order to pass. In spiritual practice however we have an exam at every moment. And in order to reach a spiritual level of 60% and more, we have to pass all these exams.

-H.H. Dr. Athavale (2.1.2012)

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Read more:

• Winning the world
• Advantages of living with other seekers

Perform spiritual practice for surviving the difficult times ahead

H. H. Atul Dighe

According to the principles of Spirituality, one of the mini-cycles of four eras within the Kaliyug era will be ending soon and another mini-cycle of four eras will commence. Kaliyug is considered an era of strife. We all are experiencing it in our daily life in the form of personal problems, family problems, job problems, financial crises, psychological problems, etc. In a day we are happy hardly for 2-3 hrs. This will decrease further as the difficult times approach. In these difficult times, mankind will see many natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, floods, etc. The possibility of Third World War is also looming large. However, if we commence spiritual practice now, then we will be able to survive these difficult times. Let us take this opportunity given by God to start spiritual practice because it is only He, who can protect us in any situation.

- H. H. Atul Dighe

Offer the mind, intellect and ego to God

H. H. Lola Vezilić

With the beginning of spring, the Sun rays are bright and pleasant and all of nature is awakening full of joy and dressing in glorious, fresh colors. All this Divine beauty that we are surrounded with is a gift from God to us, out of His immense love. Now pause for a moment go deep in your heart and express gratitude for everything that you have been given, for all the love and care He is pampering you with, for life, and above all for your spiritual practice. He has given all without expecting that we even acknowledge what He has given. What have we given back to Him? Do we remember Him even for even tiny bit of how much He remembers us, how much He loves us? Let us all make a firm resolve this very moment to surrender all to Him and to plead fervently that He keeps us close to Him, to forgive us all our wrong deeds, let us offer at His feet our mind, intellect and ego in the form of the most beautiful flowers and plead that He accept this humble offering.

Let us continually be in rememberance of God’s Glory.

- H. H. Lola Vezilić

Insights we gained from comments to a Youtube video of SSRF

From the year 2007, SSRF has uploaded videos to Youtube on different subjects related to Spirituality with the aim of educating society about the spiritual dimension. Currently there are more than 60 videos uploaded to the SSRF Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/SSRFINC), in various languages.

The most visited video by far is ‘Violent Demonic Possession’, consisting of 2 violent manifestations of negative entities:

1) A lady seeker possessed by a demonic entity rolling on the floor while being choked by the possessing entity
2) A higher level negative energy possessing a lady seeker that is fighting with His Holiness Dr. Jayant Athavale while He meditates.

The video received an astonishing 4.3 million visitors between October 2010 and October 2011.

[click on the image to view it in full size]

Currently there are almost 6 million views of this video. Visitors are leaving approximately 10 comments daily. There are thousands of comments.

In this article we give an overview of the type of comments we receive for this video.

Most of the comments can be grouped in several categories, as follows.

1. Vulgar or disrespectful and ridiculing (over 60% of all comments)

   Most comments contain some vulgar word or curse that is very disrespectful, stating that the video is ‘fake’,  ‘acting’, ‘a lie’, or ‘ROFL (Rolling On the Floor Laughing)’ etc… Needless to say, most of these comments are moderated by us before they see the light of day.

2. Intellectual or rational

   Most of the intellectual comments are grouped around the claim that this is some sort of mental disorder (e.g. spontaneous hallucination, multiple personalities, obsession, schizophrenia, etc.) or a physical one (e.g. epileptic seizure). Other rational comments hover around statement that the spiritual world (including God, demons, ghosts, angels, etc.) does not exist, and that it is strange that in 21^st century during the age of science and technology, people still believe in such things.

3. Emotional

   Some of the comments are emotional in nature: ‘why didn’t anyone help the poor girl’,’ ‘if I were there, I would help her’, ‘why did the cameraman move the chair but did not help her’, ‘the poor girl got hurt’ etc… Repeated explanations are given in order to clarify why we publish such videos and why manifestations are not stopped. Other comments just show some strong emotion of fear or disbelief; ‘this is really scary’, ‘HOLY MARY!!!’, ‘shocking’ ‘that’s just sad’, ‘what on earth is this?????’, etc.

4. Religious

   All comments in this group approve and support the fact that demonic possession, ghosts and the spiritual world do exist. However, their suggestions on how to address this issue are different:
   - Christian: the way to save ourselves from ghosts is to accept Lord Jesus Christ and to repent for our sins. Some suggest that Vatican should be consulted as they are experts.
   - Muslim: they call ghosts jinn and say that the Name of Allah and the Holy Kuran, as well as reciting the Al-Ikhlas, An Nas, Al-Falaq and Ayatul Qursi can be used for spiritual healing.
   - New-Age related: we should have love, patience and desire to help ghosts and demons, because they need our help to be free them. Such comments are usually mocked by others.

5. People who have had such experiences

   There is a group of comments from people who have had some experience with possession. They usually state that they started believing in possession when they had witnessed some possession or exorcism, and they sometimes briefly share their experience. Their comments also support our Knowledge. For example: ‘Mental Disorder IS possession, my wife, was manic depressant, suicidal, schizophrenic, and would often lose herself to another physical voice that would come out of her mouth (a male’s voice). All classified as “mental illnesses” diagnosed again and again ever since she was 15. Then she went under in the spirit of Jesus’ grace when she was 20 years old, collapsing and writhing on the floor screaming, crying, all that good stuff. The doctors can’t explain it. She’s is healed now.’

6. Disappointed as they expected something supernatural

   A certain group would like to believe in the video but they do not, as they expected something supernatural to happen. For example, to see the person flying, going through or climbing the walls, being dragged on the floor without visible force, etc. Others say ‘I can easily do the same’ ‘it is nothing special’, ‘I lost my time’ etc. Through such comments we can observe that current knowledge about demonic possession is very poor and that public opinion is shaped by Hollywood movies. One example of this type of comment: ‘I would believe it if she started to crawl up the wall and twisting her neck and stuff’

7. Gender/religion/nationality biased

   - Gender: comments pointing out that possession happens only to women
   - Religion: this happens only to Hindus or religious people. There are questions such as ‘why atheists do not get possessed?’, etc.
   - Nationality: this can happen only to Indians who come from a poor background, and by acting they seek attention. One comment was: ‘In India it is so normal that girls love demons’.

8. Related to drugs

   Many viewers jokingly shared that the reason for such behavior is: ’they are on acid (type of drug)’,’ ’they are on crack (type of drug)’, ‘I behave like this when I get high’, etc… This shows how taking drugs is highly tamasik behavior that enhances demonic possession and how much humanity at large is unaware of it. Through these comments we can also see how drug use has become more socially accepted among the younger generation.

9. Related to personality defects

   Some viewers jokingly shared that the reason for such behavior is: ’the girl did not get her favorite food’,’ ’this is the way kids behave when they get angry’, etc… This proves what is mentioned on our website, about how certain types of personality defects leave people more vulnerable for possession by ghosts.

10. Those who have knowledge about the subtle dimension

    Some readers write comments that show a certain level of knowledge regarding the subtle dimension. For example, the question: ‘How would one distinguish between a demonic possession and someone who has a mental disorder?’ answered by another reader as follows: ‘EASY. Signs of demonic possession may include: * Speaking in languages the individual has never learned or even heard * Saying things that do not make sense * Physical strength above and beyond what the individual is capable of medically * Loathing the name of God, Jesus, Mary, or the names of any saints or other religious individuals * Pain or physical discomfort when Scripture or prayers are read or the sacraments performed.’

11. Sexual pleasure gained

    Such comments do not appear as often, but is interesting to mention that a certain percentage of male viewers experience strange sexual pleasure and stimulation by watching such videos.

12. Questions and help needed (less than 1%)

    Such comments are the rarest, and we answer them in a short period of time. Readers are directed to the log-in facility on the SSRF website for more personal guidance.
    Example: ‘Hi there. I think I might have a negative entity inside of me. It’s not in control all the time but it takes over more frequently these days. I talked to the local pastor but he says it’s not a demon and I should go to a shrink. I live in Greenland and no catholic church is anywhere close. How can I find help? When taken over my body started to indulge into raw meat lately. It is usually supposed to be our Sunday dinner.’

Conclusion

This set of comments are a valuable source of information through which we can assess the current state of society.

Unfortunately we can observe that the vast majority of the population (around 80%) is lacking basic knowledge about the spiritual dimension to such an extent that they are completely unaware of its existence. Also, we can see how much society is influenced by negative energies at large by the way tamasik conducts are spread as common and acceptable behaviour through the freedom of expression, choice and democracy (drugs, drinking, showing disrespect, swearing, sarcastic comments, being ungrateful, etc.)

The minority that has some knowledge and percentage of truth about the spiritual dimension are usually restricted to having knowledge as per the religion that they follow, or through their personal experience. They are usually unaware of the limitation of their knowledge, yet present themselves as ‘knowledgeable’.

However, even if only a few realize the importance of the knowledge presented in these videos and they are inspired to help themselves in their spiritual progress, then our aim is fulfilled and we will continue putting selfless efforts in educating humanity about spiritual dimension and its effects on us.

Comment of H. H. Dr. Athavale:

Now 60% of the world population is laughing at demonic possession, in 10 years only 30% will be laughing, and in 100 years nobody will be laughing.

Reported by: Andrey Kislovski

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Read more:

• Hollywood actress studies SSRF video of demonic possession
• Forces of nature assist video shoot after prayer
• Have you seen “Live an Aware Life”?
• What is sattva, raja and tama?

It seems that love is no longer about how we are with each other, but instead how we can materially appease one another

Photo: Organic Trade Association

One of my co-workers mentioned in late December how the 31^st hadn’t even come and gone and already the local stores were putting up their Valentine’s Day displays. No one had time to recover emotionally, let alone financially, from holiday sticker shock, before being reminded that yet again, they had to buy their friends’, family’s and paramours’ love with gifts of wine, chocolate and roses.

With each passing year, I hear the dread in those around me grow at Valentine’s Day and all that it entails. A day that is, in theory, supposed to be all about love, seems to be about nothing but stress. Where to get dinner, what to order, what to wear, what gifts to buy, and so on and so forth. It becomes a production with a questionable return on investment.

It seems that love is no longer about how we are with each other, but instead how we can materially appease one another. The idea of spontaneous and genuine expressions of love have been supplanted by staged commercialism. This begs the question of whether, in light of this, we really know what love is any more.

If love can cause so much tension, is it actually love?

As we can see from just one day a year, what we term “love” these days actually seems to be more a set of conditions or expectations for doling out one’s affections, more than anything else.

The key here would be the expectations that we as individuals, as well as a society, place on love. Once we remove these expectations, then there would be neither room for disappointment, nor a need for a day to ostensibly love one another, as it would be inherent in our every action and interaction.

This is a task much more easily said than done. If it were so easy, we would all be doing it already. Unconditional love is actually spiritual in nature since it goes, and takes us beyond, the five senses, mind and intellect where our expectations reside. It is also why most of us tend to misunderstand unconditional love—because we are so outwardly focused on input from the five senses, mind and intellect. Given this, the first and most important step we can take in developing unconditional love would be a spiritual one. That is, undertaking spiritual practice, where the journey goes inward and where we examine ourselves, as opposed to looking outward for validation.

Another key here is practice. It is not something that will necessarily happen overnight. Practice makes perfect, which would hold true even when learning to love unconditionally.

Maybe this year, instead of worrying ourselves about “love” on one day, we can try to develop and express it unconditionally every day.

Facts from Wikipedia

• The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards.
• Mother’s Day continues to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
• According to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts—like spa treatments—and another $68 million on greeting cards.
• Mother’s Day will generate about 7.8% of the U.S. jewelry industry’s annual revenue in 2008, with custom gifts like mother’s rings.

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Read more:

• What is spiritual love?
• What spiritual practice can I do?
• Lessons learnt from the kitchen sink
• What is actually important after all?