The Spiritual Potency of Mantras

PERSON IN AUDIENCE: What mantras... what mantras can you suggest for chanting on beads?

Mantras? You know, a really good foundational mantra to teach people is the Gauranga mantra, even to use on beads. Or Nitai-Gauranga, or Nitai-Gauranga Haribol, or Haribol Nitai-Gaur Nitai-Gaur Haribol. One of the reasons that this mantra is so powerful and wonderful is because you do not need any qualification to use it and to derive tremendous benefit from it. It becomes foundational for all spiritual practice.

Lord Chaitanya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when He descended to deliver the particular yoga process for this age, the Age of Kali, He was an incarnation who came to deliver this process and to Himself distribute, because of His great spiritual potency, to distribute mercy to anyone and everyone particularly those who are unworthy. And in other Vedic practices there are very rigid rules about when you can do things, how you can do things, etc. For instance, you know this use of harinama as a form of meditation, it is unlike conventional Vedic mantra. Vedic mantra required a huge amount of ritual purity. It should be practiced by a qualified person, in a qualified time. You had to learn correct intonation, you had to learn correct meter. All of these things were required; and if someone attempted to do this and were not qualified it could upset and disturb a person mentally. This harinama is the holy name, is Vedic mantra, but it is unique in that there is no such requirements for taking it. There is no such requirement, or qualification, or pre-qualification that is necessary; and it can be done in any circumstance, anywhere.

Amongst the different categories of the holy name or harinama, the name of Gauranga and Nityananda have a unique spiritual potency. Because of Their magnanimous natures, They were spiritual personalities that took no offence. They took no offence. They reached out to the most unqualified and fallen of people and offered them the opportunity to attain the highest spiritual experience and realization. And so when we take this sound vibration that is connected with Them it has that same effect. There is no qualification or pre-qualification. It makes it so a person is able to build a very wonderful spiritual foundation to progress upon. So it is like when you build a house you lay a foundation. You don’t have a foundation the house may tilt or fall over. This Nitai-Gauranga, Nityananda Chaitanya, any of the mantras related to the sound is the actual foundation for all spiritual practice for all spiritual enlightenment, for all spiritual experience in this age. And so it is a fantastic thing to pass on to people; and people experience the wonderful effect of using it. And then when a person is building a practice, a personal practice of this form of meditation you can help them build on it with other mantras like Gopala Govinda Rama Madana Mohana. Madana Mohana Murari.

These mantras, these are not just things that are plucked out of the air or invented. There is this whole thing that must be understood; that this spiritual sound actually descends from the spiritual world. It is not a material sound. We may appear to be saying it with our mouths and hearing it with our ear, but it is actually much more profound. It descends directly from the spiritual world, may enter through the ear, but it penetrates the deepest recesses of the heart and causes a form of purification and cleansing that is unparalleled. There is nothing that can compare with it, and brings forth a gradual experience of this awakening and spiritual realization, this development of a very profound spiritual love.

So the way in which this is received is through the system of what is called parampara. Parampara is this disciplic succession of perfect spiritual masters and disciples who have received from Bhagavan Himself this sound and they are able to transmit it because they are transparent via media, glasses, considered like a transparent via media. If there’s a piece of glass in front of it, it’s perfectly clear, you can’t tell that it is there. So in a similar manner this potency of this transcendental sound is delivered from the spiritual world via the spiritual masters in parampara, in disciplic succession. The example is given that for you to receive the actual transcendental sound, not just the appearance of it, but the actual transcendental sound that is filled with spiritual potency, it is absolutely essential that you receive it from a bona fide, or authorized, an empowered source.

I can go down to the hardware store and pick up a... what do you call it? You know, an electrical outlet, a plate, and just screw it onto the wall. It looks like it’s the real deal. (Audience laughter) Just like somebody might be sitting there - robes and long hair, or shaved head or beard or no beard, whatever, you know, and maybe able to do the ‘pretzel’ thing, you know, and people think that’s really spiritual. But it’s irrelevant what something looks like. We must learn to distinguish between what is real, and what is apparent. What is shadow, and what is substance.

For instance, if it’s a hot day and I’ve got an electric fan and I plug it in and the fan is blowing and it’s moving, the blades are turning and I feel the air from it. If there’s a strong light source behind the fan it’s casting a shadow on the floor and that shadow is also turning and the blade is turning, but if you put your hand in front of it you don’t feel any current of air because it is a shadow, there is no substance to it. In a similar manner, mantra may appear as shadow, or have real substance. Real substance would be when it is received from a bona fide and authorized source connected directly with Bhagavan. And so, like I said, if you go out to the hardware store and you buy an electrical outlet plate and you just screw it on the wall and you take the cord and you plug a fan or an appliance into it, and it doesn’t work. Why is it not working? Because it’s not connected to the main source of energy, there is no wire that’s connecting to the power lines which go all the way back to the power station that is generating the electricity. So in a similar manner, it is not a question of simply external appearance or superficial qualification. It is a question of genuinely being connected to that original source of all power and energy, Bhagavan Himself, and so that one may receive this transcendental sound as it is transmitted through the bona fide representatives, through this system of parampara. When one receives this, then one can utilize and practice this meditation upon this transcendental sound and receive the purification. You can also pass it on to someone else, provided you have received it properly.

PERSON IN AUDIENCE: In my teaching of transcendental sound meditation, Om Hari Om is by far the most popular and yet I know... Is it because people are attracted to the impersonal...

Yeah, I think you’ll find this also... people are attracted to use om hari om mantra because there’s a certain familiarity that exist with it. This om, omkara, there is a very deep and profound meaning to this sound. People sometimes have a limited appreciation, but I can read, maybe we can read a little bit from the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali; and he relates, I mean, we need to talk more about the different types of spiritual self-realization.

There are three fundamental levels of realization of the Absolute Truth - the realization of Brahman, of Paramatma, and Bhagavan - but we’ll talk about that more. People are more familiar with the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth known as the brahmajyoti, or the Brahman, and people mistakenly think that this is the total realization of the Absolute Truth, and it is not. It is not. So because there are these ideas and there are some association with the use of this omkara in relation to this understanding, people have some attraction, there’s some familiarity, but it is not... People will derive unimaginable benefit from chanting this mantra, Om Hari Om.

For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
BHAGAVAD GITA 2.20

The Wisdom of Yoga Part 8 - The Spiritual Potency of Mantras