Mantra And Japa
Q. Is there any mantra [spiritual formula] or japa [recitation of the name] that will give us this shanti [peace] state that you spoke about just now? If there is any mantra, 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 [the 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 [personal preferred deity] 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 [small streams] 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[seed words] amantrahas, 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 benefited more if they repeat the Panchakshari [five lettered] or Ashtakshari [eight lettered] 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, is maya [illusion]; they also say that He who has all this maya under His control is Eashwara. So try to have all this creation under control and become Eashwara 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 and 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.
Q. All things originate from pranava and all things finally merge in pranava, they say. Then why is it that the very elders who say this declare that some can pronounce this and some cannot?
A. What is prakriti (nature) except the commingling of the five elements? The pranava is the very life of all the elements and so it is the life-breath of prakriti itself. The roar of waters falling down a cliff, the beating of waves on a promontory of the shore, both repeat the pranava only. The sound of inhaling and exhaling breath is itself the pranava, is it not? Whether they know it or not, the heigh-ho of the men who carry along a palanquin on their shoulders, the heave of those who lift weights, the heehoy of those who beat clothes on slabs by the riverside, all resound with the pranava. Repeat it with a full knowledge of its inner significance and you will soon be relieved of the burden of this world’s worry.
The pranava of the breathing process is also the savior from grief. It is meaningless to argue that some have the right to utter the pranava and some don’t. Those who do not breathe may not have the authority to utter it; but all who breathe are reciting it already in the process and so there is no sense in denying it to anyone. When Arjuna [a Pandava of Mahabharatha] asked how one should remember the Lord at the point of death, do you not know the reply that Krishna gave? He said that he should recall to his mind the pranava that is undifferentiated from Him. Such a bhakta [devotee] will, He said, attain the highest goal. So everyone has the right to this great mantra, the pranava.
Q. How can the goal be reached through the upasana of pranava? How can the person who meditates become transformed into the thing meditated upon? Please make this unequaled mantra and the way it helps us clearer to me by means of easy illustrations.
A. Very good. Pranava is the bow; the atma [soul] is the arrow; Parabrahmam is the target. So the sadhaka must, like the practitioner of the art of archery, be unaffected by things that agitate the mind. He should pay one-pointed attention to the target; then the bowman is filled with the target; he becomes the thing meditated on. In the Kaivalyopanishad, the Mundakopanishad,and in various parts of the Shruti, the pranava is extolled in various ways. Therefore, this mantra that liberates man can be recited and meditated upon by all. All can practice the pranava upasana; you need have no doubts on this point.
Source: Prasnottara Vahini
