Using mantras for material gain vs. liberation

Day 3

This practice has brought so many insights, I'll have to choose just one to write about today.

As I do this practice, I've been really questioning my motivation. It's definitely a concern, since for one of the mantras I'm doing, one translation lists its effect as "The inner light shining through you will make you so beautiful that people will be bewitched by you and will do anything you say..." LOL! :) That's not what I'm after! Needless to say, there are more subtle, esoteric meanings that I'm focusing on... (Read more on How Mantras Work) but since these mantras ARE quite powerful and I wish to use them wisely, I am definitely careful to ask myself:

How much of me wants the outcome, and is invested in the "material gain" vs. how much of me is absolutely in pure alignment with Divine Will, and completely surrendered? There are elements of both desires present - which in Evolutionary astrology would be called "separating desires" and "returning desires."

My experience with this apparent conundrum is quite remarkable. Since I've been dedicated to the spiritual path for many years, the momentum of my being is clearly in the "returning desires" category. As I do these mantras, I can literally see and feel my "separating desires" being lifted into the greater magnetism of my soul and its orientation toward full realization & return to Source. It's an inner, energetic experience, and the best way I can describe it is like bubbles in a pot of almost-boiling water. There's a sense of total effortlessness and non-attachment as I feel them rise within me and evaporate, absolve. The lightness and clarity are very pleasant to experience.

So the answer (for this moment anyway), is that to whatever degree I am motivated by desires that would root me deeper in the wheel of karma - the material cycle of pleasures and pains, gain and loss, etc., this practice is purifying.