A warm welcome to Day 6 of our 40-Day Retreat.
I greet you as part of my own being, as a reflection of my own being. I say this because this is important for you to understand that when I speak, I speak to you as part of myself. I don’t see you as another. I may see a physical form, but I see the same life inside of me listening to me through this body. That is how I see you. Then I really wish that every human being can see that.
You may remember in the Guru Gita where the Supreme Teacher was saying to his companion, Mama roopaa si devi tvam. He said, “You are my own Self. I repeat this to you because you are my own Self.”
Recap of last two Days
Significance of word “Guru”
During the last two days I have been speaking about the word “Guru”. It is a word with a lot of meaning. I also spoke to you about the Power of the Word. When a word has power it allows you to open the mind, to open the consciousness to experience the expansiveness of the word. Notice I say “experience”, not just too intellectually understand, but the word can take you to the experience especially by one who lives there. Words are vehicles of power, power to open your consciousness and even the power to protect you.
During the last two days I was speaking about the expansive meaning of the word. What a big meaning it has. We said that Gu stands for darkness and Ru for light- the remover of darkness. So that which is Guru is able to take away the darkness from within us with the power of light. Of course, darkness means ignorance, lack of knowledge, lack of knowing. Light means the light of divine knowledge, and experience. That which is Guru is able to bring this light to remove darkness.
Three Gunas
We also said that in the world there are the three qualities in Nature. These are called Gunas. We said there is the tamas guna which is the darkness, inertia, dullness. There is the guna of activity which is raja guna. Then there is the guna of calmness called sattva guna. We said that the state of Guru is beyond the gunas and that which is beyond the gunas, that which has transcended the gunas is the witness inside – the Pure Witness that is beyond judgment. I try to take you to this witness every day in meditation. And that Pure Witness is within us all, not being in one and not another.
Beyond forms and Attributes
I also said this state of Guru is beyond forms. No matter what form it occupies, it remains beyond form. This is marvellous, hugely interesting! It means that which we really are deep inside, even though it has entered into form and works through a form, is beyond form. So, the word pushes us to experience that state of Guru where we can see beyond the Guru and beyond forms.
Therefore, this word “Guru”, if you begin to contemplate it, can take you deep into yourself. There are other verses too that also explain about the Guru. One verse says that Gu stands for the disease of the world, the disease that brings us back again and again into the world. Ru stands for that which is beyond the disease. Another says that Gu stands for maya or the illusion and everything that is illusive, and Ru is that which is beyond maya. It allows for such beautiful contemplation. I am sure I will include that at some point in the Guru Gita that we are trying to create, and other verses that we are reflecting upon.
King of Mantras
Today, however, I want to consider the word “Mantra”. And Guru is also considered to be a Mantra. Now I have an opportunity to share with you the meaning of mantra. Mantra is a very powerful tool. And you can only experience that when you understand it and you are able to practise in the best way this technique of mantra.
I will read now a verse from Guru Gita that relates to mantra and I will talk a little about the power of mantra. This is a verse that I like and whenever I repeat this verse it stirs my soul because I reflect on the power of the word. It is a word that I use as a mantra too. It says:
Mantra raajam idam devi
Gurur ityakshara dvayam
Smriti Veda puraa naa naam
Saarameva na samshayah
Mantra raajam idam devi - means that the word “Guru” is the king of mantras.
Gurur ityakshara dvayam - the word Guru is composed of two syllables
Smriti Veda puraa naa naam
Saarameva na samshayah:
He is saying to his companion Devi that the two syllable word “Guru” is the king of mantras. It is the essence of the Vedas, the Smritis and the Puraanas. And these are very core Scriptures. This verse is saying then that the essence of these Scriptures is in that two syllable word “Guru” and it is the king of mantras.
Though it is a little verse that you can repeat in seconds, the meaning is so potent that for a whole lifetime you can contemplate it, and you can use the power of that word Guru. Let us talk a little about that word “Guru”.
Power of Mantra
Mantra has two syllables man and tra. Man comes from the activity of the mind. Tra means to protect or to save. Therefore, one of the meanings of mantra is that which protects you. So if Guru is a mantra then how can this be protective? It is a tool for contemplation so it allows you to expand your mind and think of what is Guru. That is one. But I will show you a practical way in which you can use these two syllables to train your mind, to give power to your mind and to take you deeper inside into the realization of the meaning of the word. Such power it has!
Just to say to you that my 40 Days began after the first week in a much more powerful way, when I understood what was the essence of my training for that 40 Day period. And it had to do with Guru, and with mantra as well. So I took that mantra into my 40 Days but in a deeper way than we know it.
I want to share with you the power of mantra. In a very simple way a mantra can be used to train your mind everyday. I think you need to understand what this really means. If you observe your mind you may find that your mind is scattered, and I am sure this will apply to every one of you no matter how advanced a thinker you are, or you think you have control over your mind. A lot of us think that we have powerful minds, but we may not be able to control the mind in powerful ways. There may be favourable circumstances when the mind is powerful, and there may be times when the mind is beyond our control. But how can you be a powerful person when you cannot consistently unconditionally control your mind? Not only when conditions are favourable but in every situation. How can you bring the mind under control?
Importance of Mind Control
I am speaking about the simple exercise that we all need to be able to perform. If you have a tool and you become a master of the tool and use it for exactly what you want to achieve, whether it is a simple hammer or saw or drill or whatever the tool may be, if you were to control the tool and use it to achieve your objective then you have mastered the power of the tool.
The mind essentially is a tool – the tool of thinking, the tool of reasoning, and that tool distinguishes us as human beings amongst the lower life forms. So would you say you have control over your mind - a very important power that you need to have? I always question the Education System of today why is it that our children are not trained how to master the mind, how to master thought? We are taught what to think but not how to think. So how can we learn to bring control over the mind? This mantra tells us how to do it.
Practising Mental Mastery
You begin this simple practice by repeating this word against the temptation of the mind to think other things, and you hold it there for a while to show that you are the master, not the mind. The mind is habituated to thinking, so given a chance it is going to think all the time. Even when you dream the thoughts are still there. Only in deep sleep it disappears.
Some of us never know the joy of a quiet mind. A very essential, a very simple and effective technique is for about 15 to 20 minutes, just keep one thought in your mind. Don’t try to have a long thought but a simple one. If it has great meaning then it is easier to practice, and if you put a melody to it then it becomes easy as well. When you want to teach a child a language you put melody to the alphabet or to the words and they begin to remember it very quickly. It begins to stay with them because it has a rhythm.
What I have found is that though a lot of people would listen to what I am saying; when it comes to the practice they don’t do it effectively. To sit down for 15 or 20 minutes and be completely involved without feeling bored, with full focus, being completely in the present, holding a thought in the mind that excludes every other thought. That is a practice that is essential for developing concentration. And if you are guided by someone who is truly in the present, someone who has developed the power of mind, when they inspire you to repeat this, you will find as if grace is entering and it becomes easier and easier until you have mastered the practice. And those beings who can inspire you powerfully to do this, we call them Guru because that Guru power is inside of them.
Powerful Vibrations of Sanskrit
Sanskrit is a language that I love from the moment that I heard it. Even the script is called Devnaagiri meaning divine script. What is beautiful about this language is that every letter of the Sanskrit alphabet has a power that influences our psyche, inner energy, our inner being. In the Science of Yoga they speak about it. When these letters are combined to form very powerful sounds with meaning they are called mantras.
Mantras allow you to use this technique to manage the mind and to make it powerful. When a mantra is short like “Guru”, it becomes a very powerful mantra. You can also add to it “Om” which is said to be the primordial sound which we chant these days. “Om” has a lot of power and is a mantra all by itself. When you add “Om” to a mantra it gives it more power. “Om” is added to a number of mantras like “Om Guru”, “Guru Om”. And if you wish you may explore this two-syllable word itself “Gu-ru”. So there are several options that you can use as you go into the practice of managing the mind.
This may seem simple but if you repeat the practice again, it means being completely devoted for about 15 to 20 minutes. It means staying fully in the present, knowing that you are learning to manage the mind. It means keeping one thought to the exclusion of others. And keep the word Guru in there: Guru Guru, or Om Guru, Om Guru. By primordial sound is meant the very first sound of creation.
The Gift of Grace
I have said to you that if you are guided by someone who is established in that inner consciousness, or Guru Consciousness and they guided you in how to say this, they focus their attention on you so it becomes easier. We realize that just their attention, just their guidance, helps this mantra to become more established inside of us. Those persons carry the Guru consciousness. It is called the Guru Tattwa.
What I am going to do today is to take you into the practice. In the following days I am going to share with you the secret of mantra as I have found it. This is very exciting for me and I think this is very essential for people to know in their development. Do not think that this is just a simple practice, because you can use it even after in your activities when the mind is idle. Learn to use the mantra.
Bring Feeling and Joy in your Practice
Just to say even when you begin to repeat this and the mind becomes quiet, it is only the sound that has disappeared from the mind, not the feeling. The feeling that the sound creates continues to be there so even when you can’t say it, the feeling that the mantra has created is still there. It means that the mantra is not lost. It is embedded in the feeling, so even when you stop saying it, it is there in the feeling. So if you have to do any work you can be doing it in that feeling, and the moment the mind becomes unoccupied the mantra comes up again.
However, there must be joy in saying it. There must be joy in wanting to get into this practice of managing the mind. There must be joy. It must be adventurous. But do not ever let the mind control you. Don’t let the mind be your master. You be the master of your mind. So one of the secrets of mantra is to use it to master the mind, to protect the mind which is what Man-Tra means.
Post –Meditation Remarks:
Another reminder to you. Maybe a lot of us think that we have heard this before and we know what mantra is, but the power of mantra is so deep that you can spend a lifetime learning about it and its power.
Use this simple and effective practice that is given to you with grace in your daily life. Take it with you and hold your mind in control, in management. You will see the immense benefit.
We continue with the secrets of mantra in the following sessions
