Chapter 6 - Guru Is The Way
Day 40
Mind should become the mantra. It means this is how the mind should be maintained: the mind should be prepared this way. This is also a great experiment.
Observe the mind carefully. The tendency of the mind is to return to unwanted thoughts. So much energy is drained from the body every time we think.
Every thought is equal to 1000 volts of electricity - that much energy leaves our system. We are using two wrong mantras, which we need to remove from our mind.
One is that we brood on misery over and over again, and the second is that we keep calling back anger. The mind gets disturbed and the body weak because of ardra or roudra, and then the body falls ill.
Use a mantra in order to rid the mind of these disturbances. How to use a mantra? The mind should be immersed in the mantra. The mind should become the mantra.
The mind is always engaged in something. It is always touching, tasting, listening, etc. You may smell some fragrance at the beginning of meditation or at the end you may see lights.
All of this happens either at the beginning or at the end. But meditation is different from all of these experiences. Meditation is the absence of sense experience.
This is a subtle way to quiet the mind. Mantra japa, repetition of the mantra, should start after meditation. If you are meditating with a cheerful mind, you can experience the vibration and the power of mantras.
The power of every mantra can be felt in the form of vibrations. When an atom explodes, its impact spreads not only for many kms, but the effects remain for many years - all this from the explosion of an atom.
The mind is a 1000 times subtler than an atom. Imagine the power of the mind when it becomes quiet. When the mind becomes quiet again and again, this is called mantra.
Mantra is the cure for the mind. Whether the mantra is "om namah shivaya" or Rama, Rama," the effect of the mantra depends on how it is pronounced and invoked.
When a mantra is read out of a book, it has no value, but when it is chanted in satsang or after receiving it from a Guru it is alive. For example, "Sohum, Sohum" can be read by everyone in a book - it is written everywhere.
But only when it is said in a particular way can its power be felt. Once, a Guru had a disciple, who requested the Guru to give him a mantra. At an auspicious time, the Guru gave him the mantra, "Ram, Ram."
The disciple was disappointed and unhappy. He had known this mantra since a long time and wondered whether it had really been necessary to undergo so much hardship just to get this mantra.
He approached the Guru and said, "You gave me Ram mantra. Give me something new. Show me a miracle. My grandparents also repeat 'Ram Ram.' Everyone chants ‘Ram Ram’. Teach me some other mantra."
Then the Guru gave him a small stone and told him to go to several people and find out the value of the stone. The disciple was told not to part with the stone, but only to find out about its value.
So he went to the market and approached a vegetable vendor and asked him the value of the stone. The vendor took the stone in hand, and said, "This is a beautiful stone. I can use it as a weight. I will pay you 10 rs. Give the stone to me."
As his Guru had told him not to give the stone away to anyone, he did not give it. He noted, "The vegetable vendor is prepared to pay 10 rs."
Then he went to another person and asked about the price. He offered to pay one hundred rupees for the stone. After asking many others, the disciple went to a dealer in precious stones.
He offered 1 lakh rupees, saying, "This stone is beautiful and rare. Please sell it to me." Now the disciple became troubled and afraid. He was confused why from
morning to evening some people were willing to pay handsomely for the stone.
Some were only willing to pay 10 rupees and then there was a trader who was ready to pledge his life and serve the Guru for 10 years in order to get the stone.
The disciple did not understand all of this. The disciple told the story to his Guru, and by that time his mind had changed. He understood that the Guru had transferred the fruits of his tapas, his penance, to the stone.
Only those people that had sharp minds and were aware were able to grasp the value of the stone. Although a mantra may be the same, its value is different when given by a Guru.
Then you feel the power of the mantra. When the mantra, "om namah shivaya," is chanted in satsang, have you felt the vibrations of the mantra?
When you come in contact with that mahatattva, that greatness, when your mind is at peace, you can experience the real power of the mantra.
