Mantra
Q. Is there any mantra or japa that will give us this shanti state that you spoke about just now? If there is any, which is the important one?
A. Mantra and japa are essential for all types of men. What is a mantra? Ma means manana and tra means saving; so mantra means that which can save you if you meditate on it. Mantra will save you from being caught up in the coils of this worldly life that is infested with death, grief, and pain. Of all mantras, the Pranava [primordial sound Om] is the highest and the best. It is the very head and crown of all of them.
Q. Suppose each one does the japam of the name of the Ishtadevata according to his own light, I believe it is not wrong. Or is it?
A. You mean that however savage or foolish a man may be, he cannot but call on the Lord! Well, if the name is recited along with the Pranava, it is bound to be beneficial. Just as the waters of the ocean are raised into the sky by the rays of the sun and then, falling as rain, they form rills and rivers and rush toward the ocean to become once again the waters of the ocean, all sounds and mantras that were once only Pranava, reach the Pranava through the japa and other disciplines and rites. They all get merged in the Pranava, their source.
Q. Swami! Some elders have said that the more bija-aksharas a mantra has, the more effective it is. Are such mantras to be preferred to others that have only a few bija-aksharas?
A. I don’t agree with the view that when the number of bija-aksharas diminishes, there is less chance for concentration in dhyana [meditation]. Sadhakas [spiritual aspirants] would be benefitted more if they repeat the panchakshari [5 syllables] or ashtakshari [8 syllables] with the Pranava added in the beginning. When they have proceeded some distance thus, they can give up even the words and concentrate on the form depicted through the sound and transform the mantra into the Devata [Lord] Himself. That is why the shruti [scriptures] says, “Nissabdo Brahma uchyathe—Brahma is silence, absence of sound.”
Q. How are we to create a vacuum of sound? How can that be Brahmam?
A. The shrutis declare that this objective world, this prakriti [nature], is maya; they also say that He who has all this maya under His control is Easwara [God]. So, try to have all this creation under control and become Easwara yourself. The stage when, so far as you are concerned, the objective world has come to naught, is the stage when you attain Brahmam. Until that is set at naught, you cannot attain Brahmam; that is certain. Like the snake that discards its skin and assumes a new skin, the sadhaka discards the old skin, puts on the skin of the deity indicated by the mantra that he concentrates upon.
Q. Pardon me, Swami! I cannot understand all this. Make it clear through some more examples.
A. You have seen an egg, is it not? When the bird sits on the egg for some time, the chick grows inside it to its full stature and then, when the shell of the egg is broken it emerges and assumes its real form. In the same way, when the sadhaka, with purified consciousness dwells on the mantra and its meaning, and revolves its significance in his mind without break, the vision grows in his mind without break, the shell of ajnana [ignorance] breaks and he shines in the splendor of the divinity that he has formed in his consciousness.
Source: Prasanottara Vahini
