I recently received an email from a friend. It tells about Pravachanam & Prachara.
The mail did bring about a change in me ,a retrospection of what and why I saw wrong in others. Here is a snippet of the mail. Hope it enlightens spiritual seekers to know more clearly where we stand.
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Our Religion does not speak on ‘prachara’ at all -nowhere, neither in the Upanishads, in the Vedas, in the Shastras nor in the ‘Itishasas’, can we find anything spoken on ‘prachara’. Has our Religion spoken on ‘prachara’? No! Certainly not. The Vedas say, “Do ‘pravachanam’ (discourse) daily. Do not give up ‘pravachana’.” Is this ‘pravachana’ to be done for others? No! No! It is only sadhana for you! Why would‘pravachana’ be performed? Not for others. It has been prescribed as a sadhana for the one who performs the discourse. Our Religion has never said, ‘Preach others this and that.’ Not just this. It goes beyond this. In fact, our Religion says, ‘Do not preach!’ What does it say? ‘Do not speak such matters to someone who casually walks in but to one who comes with deep yearning. Speak this to one who listens to this with ‘shraddha’ (faith and interest). It is enough if it is spoken to those who are interested. Since it is a high subject matter there is no need for you to gather all around and speak about it.’ Our Religion then goes on to say, ‘Instead of preaching practice it (‘anushtan’)!’ There is no use of preaching dharma without you standing on dharma.Therefore, it is better for you to stand in dharma rather than preach dharma. Seeing you stand in dharma someone will surely correct his ways. Let someone correct his ways or remain as he is. Your standing in dharma itself is a great boon to the world. It will bring in world’s welfare. We sit here in this place and perform some japa, dhyana, puja or tapas. This is such a big world consisting of crores and crores of people. In such a huge world someone in some corner sits and does some spiritual practice sincerely. It is said that there are innumerable invisible ‘lokas’ (worlds). You may question, “What is the use of someone sitting in a hut in some corner and doing tapas? How will it bring in welfare to the world?” or you may question, “Is this not selfishness (‘swarta’)?” But, though are many countries like America, Africa, Australia there is only one Sun. Each country does not have a separate Sun. Just as the whole world’s welfare is taken care by the one Sun above just so when someone sits in some corner and does proper japa or dhyana or tapas it brings about welfare to the world. He is like the Sun.There is no need for him to do ‘prachara’ in the world. The Sun does not say anything to anyone; in the mere presence of its rays, light (‘prakasa’), in its ‘sannidhya’ (presence) things happen in the world.Likewise, his ‘tapo bala’ will in itself bring about the welfare of the world. This is the ‘siddhanta’ (philosophy) of our Religion.
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In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says," Among rituals, I am the ritual of mantra repetition."
