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Gyani Baile & Dolly Baile

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sees God in everything and everywhere. Eventually the devotee reaches<br />

Divinity in the form of Ishta Devata who is one aspect or form of God.<br />

Bhakti in its ultimate form binds the devotee to God, without any<br />

restrictions of caste or color, and without any rules for worship.<br />

Chanting of Divine name, Japa and Stotra<br />

Before going through <strong>Dolly</strong>'s inner experiences we had this wrong<br />

notion that the purpose of chanting was to please God. Our minds could<br />

never accept that notion, and as a result we could never full heartedly<br />

engage in any those activities. Later we learned that the purpose,<br />

accurately, was deeper and three fold: one purpose is invocation of the<br />

deity; second purpose is to cultivate inward concentration and third is to<br />

keep the devotional fervor up.<br />

The chanting of divine name has an important place in the Bhakti<br />

Yoga. Name chanting is done in the name of Japa, Stotra and Bhajans.<br />

Japa is the silent repetition of a single divine name e.g. Om Namah<br />

Shivaya, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, etc. or it can be a long formula<br />

which is called a mantra like the Gayatri Mantra (described below). The<br />

stotra, on the other hand, is loud chanting of verses conveying the glory<br />

and attributes of the Divine. The chanting of stotras is done mostly by<br />

individuals alone or sometimes in the company of a few. There seem to<br />

be Sahasranama (thousand names) Stotras in praise of the most of the<br />

deities in the indu Hindu pantheon. The two most popular Sahasrnama<br />

Stotras are Vishnu sahasranama (in praise of Lord Vishnu) and Lalitha<br />

Sahasranama (in praise of deity as the Divine Mother). The Bhajans<br />

(also called kirtans), which are songs conveying the names and attributes<br />

of the Deity, which are sung by a group people. All the three forms of<br />

chanting are for the invocation of the divine. Among these different<br />

chanting options, she went in full circle on doing each in different time<br />

slots according to the prompting she received from within.<br />

Gayatri Mantra:<br />

The Vedas (most ancient and authoritative scriptures of Hindu religion<br />

and philosophy) are full of mantras of great thought powers which have<br />

come from nada or sound. There are various kinds of mantras, Vedic<br />

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