Divine Grace

Satsang by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Sat Chandi Mahayajna is a most sacred tantric yajna performed to invoke the blessings
and auspiciousness of the Mother, Devi Chanda. We worship Devi in the Sat Chandi Mahayajna to bring prosperity, peace and happiness into people's lives. Devi Shakti is the answer to all mankind's difficulties, poverty and sickness. Worship of the Divine Mother is a most powerful and effective way to obtain divine grace. A wish made at a yajna receives divine attention and fulfilment.

A yajna must have a purpose. A sankalpa which defines the aim of the yajna is taken by the host of the yajna. Our sankalpa is for the peace, prosperity and spiritual upliftment of the entire world. This universal sankalpa guides the performance of the Yajna and your participation in it. We invoke Devi's blessings to protect us from natural calamities, to spread her benign arms to avert impending misfortune. When we feel helpless, we surrender to the Divine Mother. In this earthly life there is sorrow and poverty, disease and fear of death, or death. This distress can be remedied by divine grace. Divine grace is the purpose of this yajna.

Our sankalpa mantra is the prayer to the Cosmic Mother. When invoked, she manifests not as a physical body, but in the form of a body created through the power of the mantras. That divine power manifests in the heart of all those who have fixed their mind on it. When we invoke that cosmic force, feel within you, around you, above you and below you, the presence of this cosmic shakti.

Through this sankalpa we try to connect with inner faith. When your mind is full of faith and when this flows towards God and is reflected in your day-to-day actions, your life is filled with peace and happiness. It does not remain confined to your personal life, but permeates the whole family. The total environment is surcharged. Physical and mental diseases disappear.

All seekers and devotees who have worshipped the Cosmic Mother have had the experience that she is the reliever of all suffering, real or imaginary, psychological or social. She is the bestower of physical and mental health, social and personal prosperity,
individual and global peace, and a guide to those who walk the spiritual path. The mere act of participating in such a yajna bestows peace, virtue and merit.

Depending on our frequency of mind, yajna has the power to accomplish our desires, whether it be artha, material fulfilment, kama, emotional fulfilment, dharma, virtue, or moksha, liberation. The highly specialized ritual of yajna is able to touch all dimensions of our life because the power invoked is a divine deity who can grant all our desires, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Yajna fulfils not only our spiritual desires but also our material desires. Material gain and the welfare of your family are also God's blessing. Yajna is not a ceremony for amusement or a simple experience. Our yajnas are conducted to appeal to Devi to grant us wealth, long life, success, good health and smooth sailing in these disturbed oceans of life. Yajna is the cure, the balm, for our problems because it is a divine force.

People go to a yajna with desires for children, for money, for solutions to all kinds of troubles. In yajna they search for solutions and they get solutions because the awareness is heightened. During the yajna you have to make an important sankalpa for your life, "God, reveal yourself to me in any form you like." That's all, and it will happen.

The success of a yajna is not measured by the expenditure incurred or by the number of people who participate, but on the faith and bhakti generated by the participants. By tuning into the divine vibrations present in the environment, the benefit of yajna is experienced. See the divinity inherent in everyone and everything around you. We need to feel oneness with other beings, with their suffering as well as their happiness.

When you leave the yajna, go with one idea in mind: "I have nothing to be afraid of. Devi will take care of all my difficulties, physical, mental and spiritual." We may be rich, educated, famous sportspersons or people of personal excellence, but we have our own human frailties. Put everything before the Divine Mother during the yajna.

"God, give me enough so that I can give to others" - this should be our prayer. I always pray in the sankalpa for the wealth, long life, success and prosperity of everyone. May everyone be happy, may everyone be healthy and may no one feel pain or sorrow. May everyone receive God's grace. Sorrow, disaster, poverty, disease and fear of death can all be remedied by divine grace. That is the purpose of yajna.