The simplest spiritual practice
Shri Prakash Ji Satsang. 07.04.2015

The simplest spiritual practice

The simplest spiritual practice. Shri Prakash Ji Satsang


People come with different questions to a conversation with the Spiritual Master Shri Prakash Ji. Guruji gives answers to many of them personally, because the questions are personal and intimate. But often there are also "general" questions, to which, from time to time, the Master gives answers during satsangs. This satsang refers to the performance of a mantra-meditation.

For clarity, the asked questions are also included in the text of the satsang.


They say, that there is a spark of God within us all. Why then do we not feel His intimacy? Why does not He hear our prayers?

- If a person wants to approach God, then he should be purified. The purer the internal state of a person is, the closer the person will be to God, and God will hear his prayers better.

What do you need to do to get this purity?

- To achieve God, there are various austerities and various practices. Through these austerities a person can purify himself and make himself b, resilient. When a person is b? When his faith is b. A person with good health is not always a b person inside. And when his faith is very b, then, with this faith, he can do much good.

- When you want a person to love you or to be friends with you, then you need to love and trust him yourself. That is be true even for God. If you want to reach God, to unite with God, you'll need really much love and faith!

- There is a very simple sadhana (spiritual practice) to reach God. If you do it every day and always follow your way, then you will rise up and become closer to God. What is needed for it? To do this sadhana, the most important thing is to try to always be a bhakta (believer, loving God), so that in your heart there would a feeling of bhakti (love of God). Without bhakti, there is nothing.

What is bhakti?

- Three elements: love, faith, and devotion. All together they are bhakti. For self-improvement one really needs to have bhakti, from it all his progress will grow.

How is bhakti connected with purification?

- When you love someone, you always think about him, keep him in your thoughts. A good bhakta always thinks about God. And God takes good care of such a bhakta. To get closer to God, you need to try to think more about God. This is the simplest practice for purification — to think about God by repeating His name.

- What does a preson do day by day? All or almost all time we work. Someone more, someone less, but still everybody, just as everydody needs to eat. Everyday we do all the needed things to continue living. But ut is necessary to add something to this regime: "Every day when I wake up, I will think about God." This is the simplest sadhana (spiritual practice): "I will wake up in the morning, and for a while I will repeat His name, I will recall Him." Try to find some rime in your daily routine: "I will be with God only ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty or forty minutes." If you can contribute more time to this practice, it's even better.

What is the God's name? Is there only one or many of them?

- God has many names. Through any name you can recall Him. But each has its own special element. This element is gradually obtained by a person repeating this name.

- A mantra is also a name of God. And there is a practice called mantra meditation. A person learns to concentrate and at the same time repeats a mantra.

Are there any rules for practicing mantra meditation?

- It is very good to wake up early in the morning, at 4-5 a.m. and to do this practice. But now people have various day regimens, some come from work back home late, so they can not get up early. Some even work at night.

- Why is this practice very simple? Because at any time, when you wake up, you can do jap (repeat the name of God). You take shower, seat down in a comfortable position in clean space, and for as long as you can, repeat the name of God, start your day with this practice. During it, try to sit still and concentrate well.

- Try to support the cleanness of the physical body, the cleanness of the place where you do jap, when you regularly practice at home. At other times the name of God can be mentally repeated in any place and in any position. If your work does not require very much concentration, you can mentally repeat it even while working.

Do I need to sit in a certain position?

- If your health is good, then try to keep the spine straight while doing jap, so that good energies would rise up to ajna-chakra and sahasrara-chakra. It is not really good if energies get stuck in the lower chakras. We should get them higher. The place of ananda (joy) is ajna-chakra. The place of paramanada (divine joy) is sahasrara-chakra. And we need to lift energies up towards them.

- When a person repeats a mantra every day and meditates well, then energy rises through three channels (nadis), which come from muladhara-chakra to sahasrara-chakra - ida, pingala and sushumna; and this really improves our inner and physical state of being. But during the practice it is not necessary to think about this, everything happens of its own accord.

- You can sit down in sukhasana, not necessarily in padmasana (lotus position). Sukhasana literally translates "a comfortable pose". You may cross your legs to get comfortable. The main thing is to keep your spine straight.

- Some people say: "When I'm lying, my spine is also straight." Well, you can do jap even if you lay down, mentally repeating the name of God or a mantra, but for regular practice it is better to be sitting.

- If you are in your advanced years, have some problems with your back or sit for too long time, you may get some support for your back.

What should I focus on during a jap meditation?

- When I give you a mantra, I say which center you need to focus on. To some I say to concentrate on anahata-chakra, then you need to imagine light in this chakra. If I say to concentrate on ajna-chakra, lit it up with your thoughts. It's better to imagine a white colour with a slight tint of yellow for this light.

- During regular practice, you should try to repeat the minimum number of circles I suggested. Everyday. You can do as much repetitions as possible, there is no upper limit.

- Who has not yet received a mantra yet, can repeat the name of God (Narayan, Sita-Ram) or try to meditate. Those who already have a mantra, should chant more of it.

What about food? Can I eat before practice or should I do jap meditation before eating?

- It's better to practice in the morning before breakfast. But you need to take care of your health. If someone can not practice without food for a long time, or has some problems with his stomach, then he can have breakfast and then jap. But if it's possible, it's better to practice before breakfast.

- When a person wakes up in the morning, it is very good to drink plenty of water. By plenty I mean three to four glasses. Then the body will work better, will get rid of unnecessary things.

- Repetition of the name of God is the simplest sadhana (practice) that everyone can do: either poor or rich, healthy or unhealthy, a man or a woman, beautiful and- In fact, nobody is ugly, everyone is beautiful! This sadhana can be practiced in any situation.

What can make the practice even more effective?

- When you do your practice, take it seriously. Seriously means with complete devotion and faith.

- With any practice regularity is very necessary. The result will be better if you practice daily at the same time. If you do it at the same place, it will also give its good result.

- You can repeat a mantra anywhere and anytime. A person who has a mess in his life still lives: he eats when he wants to, he sleeps when wants to- In any case a mantra will give its result, even if there is no stable schedule. But if there is order in this practice, you can literally see how your life changes.

- During meditation, try to be in a very pure state of mind, start your practice with a good intention.

- The practice is good to be done in the morning and in the evening. The morning practice purifies the karma accumulatied in your past lives, the evening one cleanses what you have done during the day. Even if you are very tired, try to concentrate for at least five minutes and repeat a mantra.

- When the Master gives you a mantra, then he says how many circles you need to repeat it. The minimum is necessary, but if you decide to do more circles, then repeat this amount for a month or a month and a half regularly. Then add two more circles, three, five, depending on your situation. But try to adhere to the amount that has been determined, so that you wouldn't do sixteen circles today, and only five tomorrow. There is nothing bad in it, but for a good result it is always better to have stability.

- When you take your practice really seriously, then you'll get a very good result. These 30-40 minutes of practice can be very valuable for your life. During this time, you unite with the power of God, which is always within you. Someday you will be able to completely connect with it.

Are there any signs by which you can tell how good your meditation is, how successful your practice is?

- There are three states in every meditation. The first is when a person sits down to meditate and immediately gets into state of dhyan (meditation). It means that his level of bhakti is really high, as soon as he began thinking about ishta (the beloved image of God) no other thoughts disturb him. My isht and I. And there is nothing else.

- The second condition is when a person is searchimg for God during his meditation, but can not find Him. It's like you have a globe in your hands, and you're looking for a place on it that you were told to find, but you do not know where it is. You turn it around and around, but can not find the place. There are still a lot of thoughts in your mind. But if you keep trying, you'll certainly find God.

- The third state is when the dhyan state does not appear. The mind is so busy with something, that it does not even allow you to concentrate. And instead of ishta, you begin to see what your mind is busy with.

- The first condition, when you sit down, your eyes closed, and immediately your isht is in front of you, is the best. This requires a state of really high bhakti.

When you say that you need to close your eyes and concentrate, does it mean that you need to focus your eyes somewhere?

- How do you close your eyes? We need to sit quietly and leave our eyes as they are, just close them. Some people think, that eyes should be focused on ajna-chakra. But in this case your eyes might hurt. Just look in front of you and close your eyes. You do not need to move them anywhere. And mentally focus on ajna- or anahata-chakra and imagine your ishta and the light around Him.

- It is very good to imagine, that the hand of your ishta is raised and He gives you His blessing. He sits in sukhasana, and his fingers are folded in abhaya-dhan-mudra. Abhaya-dhan means that all your sins, all your mistakes and minuses are forgiven. People have made so many mistakes in their lives and are still making them! The Master can forgive any your mistake. But the main thing for a person is to understand his own mistakes. Therefore, it is good to imagine the blessing hand upon you and the light around it. Then your jap (chanting a mantra) will go well.

- If a person believes in God without an image, only the light can imagined.

What should I do, if I can't concentrate, if various thoughts distract me all the time? Is this a useless meditation?

- Why does dhyan (meditation) fail? There are still many things that distract you. But even if a person is still a sakam-bhakt (one who loves God with the desire to receive something), one who does spiritual practice to fulfill his own desire, focuses on jap, then, eventually, he will get into the state of dhyan.

- A mantra has such a power, that it can bring a person's life in order. It gives him those things that a person should receive in life, and doesn't allow him to the things that will harm him in any way. A person himself does not yet know what will be good for him, he wants everything the way he sees it, even if it will harm him eventually. But a mantra allows a man to receive what he needs without forgetting about God.

Radhe-Radhe!


If you have not received a mantra yet, but you want to start doing a spiritual practice, you can repeat one of the names of God.

Repetition of the name of God "Narayan". Record from the Ramnavmi Festival on 03/28/2015.