In this Weekly Wisdom, Gurudev shares what mantras are and how they work with meditation to bless and bring desired results.
What are mantras? Mantras are specific vibrations. They're very powerful.
They are the link between the material world and the subtle level of spiritual existence. They're called mantras because they're the link.
Silence is a power source
Mantras have power only when there's silence. Many people simply chant mantras. It doesn't produce the desired results because it's on the surface.
There's lightning in the sky, but it won’t help you connect the electricity in your home, because it's not connected. You may have a wire in your home, but if it's not plugged into the source, there’s no electricity.
Similarly, mantras are there. Unless and until there's a connection with the deeper being, the Self, they remain ineffective.
Meditation makes mantras work
When life is there, when a person is alive, then the limbs work. If I'm lifting my hand, then there's a spirit inside me, making me lift my hand. There's a life force.
If you're walking, that indicates there's life force. The presence of life force makes you move your limbs. Likewise, peaceful states of mind make mantras active.
Meditation is the basis for mantras to work. Unfortunately, many people today do not meditate enough. Their mantras aren’t effective. But people who meditate attract and charge mantras. Their very presence brings power to mantras.
Those of you who have seen chanting, have you noticed it? When meditators chant, you find a definite difference.
Catching nectar
When all your vessels are upside down, and there’s nectar flowing, all the vessels remain empty. No vessel is catching nectar because they’re all upside down.
Such is a scenario where people are just chanting. However, when someone is meditating, they automatically have some affinity for chanting mantras. People may have never heard about mantras, but once they meditate, they’ll feel the vibrations.
The meaning of a mantra isn’t important, but the sound, vibration, and rhythm are.
Sometimes I’ll ask what the meaning of a seed is. The meaning of a seed is the tree that grows from it. Like that, mantras are seeds of existence.
Don’t try to understand what it is. Just enjoy the rhythm and sound. Vibrations are more important.
One mantra does everything
When you recognize that this whole universe is one vibration, then mantras start loving you. They come to you. There’s an affinity between that state of consciousness and mantras. It’s a natural affinity, and then, that fructifies.
Mantras are a way to heal and to fulfill wishes.
The ancient people say that if you want to make a pot, you need clay. But to make a cloth, you need cotton. You can’t make a cloth out of clay or a pot out of cotton. For different things in the material world, you need different materials.
But with mantras, one mantra can do everything!
From one electricity, you can heat the room, bring light, cool the air, run the fan, and have entertainment on the television, all through one electricity.
Like that, one mantra, whatever mantra you have, is good enough to bring whatever your desired results are.
So for a pot and a cloth, you need different materials. But with one mantra, you can do it all. Mantras transcend the divisions of material existence. That’s why they’re so close to the absolute.
Fructifying the mantras
Chanting should happen after a deep meditation. In fact, the best way is to sandwich it between two meditations.
Intellectual scholars often don’t understand what emptiness and meditation are. All they know is words. So they fill the space up with words.
Actually, the order of the rituals or yagyas should be meditation, then chanting, and conclude with meditation. This is the real procedure.
It’s important to experience nothingness for mantras to get charged. That’s why in Hindu Temples, they want the Guru present. When a Guru is into meditation, that Guru’s presence fructifies the mantras. This is the belief.
