> > Skip your own individual enlightenment, and > > wait till day X when we get all enlightened... > > authfriend: > For the record, I never encountered anything > like this... > Nor have I, but from the begginning I was told about the benefits of group practice being beneficial to the individual and the world at large.
The idea that group spiritual practice could have an influence on our physical world dates back to before 4,000 years ago in India. Before that there were the shamans in Siberia. So, gathering together in groups is not a new cultural practice. According to the the Indian Press near the end of World War II, over 2000 Hindu sadhus and tens of thousands of their followers gathered outside New Delhi to pray for world peace, for ten days under the inspiration of the Jagadguru Sri Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath. The yajna consisted of spoken and silent phrases from the Rig Veda, the Gayatri. It is estimated that 10,000,000 phrases were recited and according to the Forman and Gammon in their classic book entitled "Truth is One": "...it was probably the greatest demonstration of mass praying in modern times and as many Hindus believe, helped defeat the Axis powers." Aerial view of Guru Dev's Mahayajna: http://www.rwilliams.us/images/yajna.jpg Source: 'Truth is One' The Story of the World's Great Living Religions in Picturs and Text By Henry James Forman and Roland Gammon Harper & Row, 1954
