by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 38
April. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 12

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

QUESTIONS FROM THE READERS

QUESTION 1 from –from Sri SATHYANARAYANAN

Please suggest a very effective prayer for complete mental happiness. I shall do it in a japa style. Please help.

ANSWER: Whenever one is mentally unhappy and would like to have some immediate relief, mantrajapa is quite effective. The philosophy of mantrajapa for its real effectiveness has to be first properly understood, and ventured upon after due mental preparedness. It is too serious a subject to be prescribed casually. It is person specific, object specific and condition specific and belief specific.

Without enough familiarity with the person, it is not wise to prescribe a right remedy. Often teachers are too eager to give mantra dikshya or mantra initiation to any one who approaches. This is not the right thing to do and is seldom effective.

However this is not to say that one can not be helped at any juncture of one's mental condition. But the right thing to go about intelligently by first appreciating and understanding what mantrajapa is all about. One can safely say the following.

The first thing to be done is to bring about a shift in one's mental occupation.Human mind has a choice. It can choose to dwell in worldly anxieties or choose to gradually find more and more time for spiritual bliss that automatically takes care of worldly problems. Mantra has this power. If you are a regular visitor to the AHWAN site, please go through with determination the articles, which will help you in this shift.

The following study is specially recommended:

1. Question topic in AHWAN Vol 15, November 2001 issue.

2. Question topic in AHWAN Vol 22, August/September 2002 issue. (There are five questions on the topic)

Mantra is a great therapy but to be really effective it is better when person specific, object specific, condition specific and belief specific.

Ofcourse, universal mantras in their own way bring tremendous amount of benefit. The following simple suggestions should generally help.

a.) Develop unflinching faith in that Supreme power- the Bramhan. Until that faith has taken hold of your inner being, no amount of japa will help. (through the various issues of AHWAN the steps and practice to develop such faith has been explained.)

b.) Do not expect any mantra to bestow on you a particular material or worldly benefit. Although such benefits do come as a fall out, mantrajapa is not a stand alone cure for a particular malady. It is an integral part of sadhana as a whole.

c.) For a beginner, mantras which address to the formless and attributeless Bramhan, is difficult to focus upon. Therefore it is better that one must go for any particular manifestation of the Lord defined within a form and aspect, such as Krishna, Shiva, Rama, Durga, etc. The idea should be to retain the focus but never for a moment to forget the ultimate concept of Bramhan. The selection of deity (often described as aradhyadeva) could be any in which one feels most comfortable and happy. This is generally a result of one's upbringing, sanskara etc. Often a Guru who knows you well defines this for you. Remote suggestion of a mantra is not a very good idea.

d.) Mantrajapa can be resorted to, anywhere and anytime. However the three sandhya times have been found most effective. Similarly it is recommended that japa is undertaken at a place of clean and pure surroundings, with clean and pure body and mind and away from distractions.

e.) While focusing on Bramhan the mantra often used by most is the Gayatri. For focusing on personal Gods with form and attributes the most popular ones are "Om namah Shivaya"( I surrender to the Lord (Om) who is manifested as Shiva), "Om namah Krishna Vasudevaya" ( I surrender to the Lord (Om) who is manifested as Krishna Vasudeva),"Om Durgaya namah", "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" etc. One can come across as many number of mantras from our scriptures or from satsangs. All can be effective if followed with understanding as explained.

QUESTION 2 from Ms SHEEL Bakhshi

A friend I know believes in living a life of worldly enjoyment and carefreeness without thinking beyond the present? How do I help him? Should I help?

ANSWER: From the spiritual stand point one should always take a holistic view of everything. My action, your action, anyone's action should be seen dispassionately as part of that overall grand design and then the steps that should be taken become easy.

When any person wastes most of his/her limited precious life running after the worldly enjoyments and separated from the very objective of life, we should understand that even this stage is an essential experience in her spiritual journey. If the present condition of the mind, the level of her understanding, born out of the past sanskaras and present circumstances has placed her where she is, then one day this itself will provide the base for her to learn the right lessons and change course. Such is the inevitability of the divine way of things.

Obviously, at present she is unaware of this and her path has drifted away from the spiritual road. The Lord has not abandoned her and the nature in her own slow way, is working upon her. Eventually one day, in this life or lives to come, she will return to the right path. When we ourselves become conscious of this, we put our own efforts and by that, speed up our process of understanding. If we leave it to the nature, it may take long time and in the process, unhappiness and suffering that are part of this ignorance, will have to be endured by us for a longer period as well. That is the divine correction mode acting through the nature (or maya in a broader sense)

But the Lord constantly protects all his creations and in His benevolent way continuosly offers situations for the wayward to see and return to righteousness, to the path of spiritualism and dharma. Look at how the combinations of circumstances and coincidences are already shaping up. This friend of yours has some one like you by her side who already understands what is preya (momentary pleasure with sufferings at the next corner) and shreya (unpleasant now but for ultimate good). You have already kindled a thought in your mind that your friend has to be helped. Do you not see a divine hand behind all these?

Eventually by God's grace, you, working slowly but steadily, will win over your friend to the right path. Remain sincere. With the help from outside as well as with your own efforts, you will be instrumental (nimitta) in turning her mind towards the true objective of existence and towards her higher consciousness. When the prodigal returns miracles will start happening.

Please do not stop looking at your friend alone. These combination of circumstances are meant for you too. They have been presented to you for your benefit also. It is also the Lord's way of testing your faith and your capability to be part of His scheme of things. How you come out of it is now your sadhana, your tapasya. When I speak of miracles happening, they will happen in your life too.

What a wonder this life is. The interaction of the nature with our lives and our interaction with each other is the key to the integral evolution of all and everyone.

QUESTION 3 from SRI KANUBHAI SARKAR

Respected Sir, How the age old system of GURU-SHISYA relationship is relevant to the present day system where thousands of followers throng to a single Guru from the world over? Unlike a few handful of disciples used to be taking the lesson in the past and the GURU could personally direct or suggest different ways / steps of SADHANA on the merit of each SADHAKA's progress. Keeping this in mind, how an authentic beginner in the spiritual path would really progress as he can only have merely a DARSHAN only of his GURU after an unspecified period and even his doubt or question would be edited before being passed to the GURU. Please accept my gratitude.

ANSWER:You are quite right in your observations. Through the pages of AHWAN, we have often discussed the guru-shishya relationship. I would specially request you to read the question topic in July 2002 issue (AHWAN Vol 21). Please also read the present issue. This modern phenomenon as you have pointed out is indeed alien to the guru-shishya parampara, and is mostly governed by commercial considerations.

But then, this should not be the excuse to any sincere person to abandon the path of knowledge. If one is conscious of himself and the Lord even in the minutest of minute degree, the world around presents million opportunities for gathering knowledge and for self improvement The inner voice keeps on advising every each one of us. Sooner or later you hear that voice. Swadhyayana strengthens this quest. There is no dearth of quarters from where knowledge flows to us. Neither the guru nor the shishya need run all around in search of one another. When both are ready, truly ready, the divine brings them together. Only such relationships benefit both.

Till such time all life should be a preparation.