In Sanskrit there are two words for ‘Grace’, but they are very difficult to translate: kripa and anugraha. Anugraha is the highest form of grace: it is like getting everything without your having to put in anything to receive it. In a worldly sense, one can compare it to winning a huge fortune in the lottery. But there is a difference:
In a lottery, you have to buy a ticket, for anugraha, you have to give nothing.
This unsolicited Grace is shaktipat.
Guru Purnima is a great spiritual festival honouring the master. In the shaktipat tradition, it is even more important than in other
traditions, because the master gives the awakening Grace, the Shakti, while, in other traditions, the master gives techniques,
and methods.
But in reality it is not the human guru giving Shakti, it is the Guru-Tattva, the ‘Guru Principle’. Swami Satyadevanand ended the satsang while speaking on this Guru Principle:
The Guru principle is Conscious. If one is devoted to the master, to the sadhana, if one is loving and respectful in dealing with other people, this Guru Principle will give us more and more blessings. But if we are selfish, negative about others, hurtful, we create distress and bad thoughts in the other person that will block our growth. The conscious Guru Principle will never turn against you, even if you do very wrong things, but instead of being positive, it can become neutral, then one’s progress is halted.
So in your interactions with other people, be very careful.
”
Shaktipat is Grace
On the path of shaktipat, you don’t have to wait for many lives in order to achieve some attainment. If you practise, you can become jivanmukta, liberated while living. In shaktipat, you don’t have to put your hopes on some heaven after death. You can end your suffering here and now and become immersed in Bliss in this very life.
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