Imaginings - how important are they?

[Guest guest]

Pranam, Narasimha ji,

 

We sometimes get carried away by imagination. My question is whether there is

any role for imagination or should we shut our minds to fantasies?

 

When we are near the real thing maybe there is no role for imagination. However,

when that is not the case there may be certain longings that may lead to

imagination.

 

For me, i have not been able to imagine a personal deity. u can call it my bad

luck. But on your advise that one should begin with Mahaganapathi homam, i am

trying to develop a relationship with him.

 

There are many attributes of Ganapathi that i am beginning to become conscious

of(i looked up the wiki). what i pray to is someone joyous and dancing, someone

who governs intelligence (siddhi), and, of course, the remover of vighna. i

imagine the twists and turns of his trunk (vakra tunda?) to be the twists and

turns within me, my own crookendness.

 

i have a small metallic idol of ganesha that i use for the homam. Lately i have

started imagining the four arms of ganesha as the arms of the flames in the

havana. that makes me wonder whether the arms of various deities are a depiction

of sun flares...a central energy point from where these shoot out.

 

somehow i like the heat of the flames on the face and imagine that maybe some

purification is taking place when i bend down to the fire towards the end of the

homam. The smoke of the agarbatti dances around the the kund and sometimes

enters into it, almost as if it had a live presence.

 

today was one of those rare days when i could get up early and do homam around 5

a.m.in an open courtyard. i imagined that the brahma muhurtam was still there. i

imagined that the fire got started very quickly and was bright and crackling in

no time. i have a habit of turning the pieces of coconut with the tongs so that

they would burn thoroughly. i imagine that they they are my past sins/karma

which should reduce to ashes. Today the akshatra, the raisens and the flower

that i offered were taken away one by one by the ants that appeared from

nowhere. it was amusing to see the flower and the raisens " walking " away. i

imagined that the ants were the ganas of ganapathi who came for the offerings.

 

now u may ask with all these " watchings " and imaginings where was the mind in

meditation?

 

the answer is obvious

 

i know the imaginings are distracting and my " meditation " is imperfect.

 

but then i have a long way to go....

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

>The smoke of the agarbatti dances around the the kund and sometimes

>enters into it, almost as if it had a live presence.

 

Yes, that is a very good sight. if you have noticed in Narasimha's Homam vedio,

smoke line from Agarbatti is seen entering in to Homa Kund fire. when i perform

Homa, initially i used to notice it and gave a very good feeling. recently, my

son was almost screemed when he observed that. It is really a beutiful spectacle

to see a smoke line connecting burning tip of agarabaati and Agni of the Havan

kuna.

But we all know that it is due to the sucking effect of vaccum created due to

fire which draws the smoke of agarabatti towards itself - Bhakto ko science se

kya lena dena:)

 

Warm Regards,

 

Utpal

 

 

 

 

, " vinita kumar " <vinitakuma wrote:

>

> Pranam, Narasimha ji,

>

> We sometimes get carried away by imagination. My question is whether there is

any role for imagination or should we shut our minds to fantasies?

>

> When we are near the real thing maybe there is no role for imagination.

However, when that is not the case there may be certain longings that may lead

to imagination.

>

> For me, i have not been able to imagine a personal deity. u can call it my bad

luck. But on your advise that one should begin with Mahaganapathi homam, i am

trying to develop a relationship with him.

>

> There are many attributes of Ganapathi that i am beginning to become conscious

of(i looked up the wiki). what i pray to is someone joyous and dancing, someone

who governs intelligence (siddhi), and, of course, the remover of vighna. i

imagine the twists and turns of his trunk (vakra tunda?) to be the twists and

turns within me, my own crookendness.

>

> i have a small metallic idol of ganesha that i use for the homam. Lately i

have started imagining the four arms of ganesha as the arms of the flames in the

havana. that makes me wonder whether the arms of various deities are a depiction

of sun flares...a central energy point from where these shoot out.

>

> somehow i like the heat of the flames on the face and imagine that maybe some

purification is taking place when i bend down to the fire towards the end of the

homam. The smoke of the agarbatti dances around the the kund and sometimes

enters into it, almost as if it had a live presence.

>

> today was one of those rare days when i could get up early and do homam around

5 a.m.in an open courtyard. i imagined that the brahma muhurtam was still there.

i imagined that the fire got started very quickly and was bright and crackling

in no time. i have a habit of turning the pieces of coconut with the tongs so

that they would burn thoroughly. i imagine that they they are my past sins/karma

which should reduce to ashes. Today the akshatra, the raisens and the flower

that i offered were taken away one by one by the ants that appeared from

nowhere. it was amusing to see the flower and the raisens " walking " away. i

imagined that the ants were the ganas of ganapathi who came for the offerings.

>

> now u may ask with all these " watchings " and imaginings where was the mind in

meditation?

>

> the answer is obvious

>

> i know the imaginings are distracting and my " meditation " is imperfect.

>

> but then i have a long way to go....

>