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Meaning of Mantra

In the early stage, if you are repeating the mantra mechanically, it is not necessary to know the meaning of the mantra. But when the mantra is established in the mind and there is no effort to become aware of the mantra, then at that time the meaning of the mantra is revealed. The bhava becomes associated with the mantra and the meaning is revealed. It is realized intuitively; you recognize it as the underlying reality of the mantra. The guru can help you realize the meaning of the mantra, but not tell you. The meaning of the mantra being revealed and telling the meaning of the mantra are two different things.

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However, the revealed meaning of the mantra is different from the literal translation. The revealed meaning instantaneously leads you to the experience of Shiva. That is why the guru cannot actually tell you the meaning, but he can help you to understand the meaning. It is like this with every mantra, whether chanting 'Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare', 'Jai Jai Rama Sita Rama, Jai Jai Rama Sita Rama', or 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva', or any other mantra. The meaning of the mantra becomes revealed when the bhava, intense feeling, becomes associated with it. So, in the end, bhava is the real meaning of the mantra.

-- Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

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Chanting with Bhava To think of any practice without bhava actually is the sign of an immature mind because mantra will become fruitful only when bhava is associated with it. Just as a feeling is associated with a state of anger, jealousy or stress and tension, or with what you eat and drink, or with a friend or enemy, similarly a feeling is associated with a mantra. How then is it possible to keep the practice of mantra separate from the feeling associated with the mantra? It is not logical. Therefore, whenever you practise a mantra as part of mantra sadhana or sing kirtan, you should also try to project the emotion associated with the mantra into it. Then when you chant or sing the mantra you are able to channel your emotions with full control, and that is quite an achievement for any human being. Normally, logic follows a predetermined path and emotion follows a different path. Many times emotions cloud logic, and many times logic can suppress an emotion. But when they complement each other, then logic becomes an experience and emotion becomes an insight which gives you wisdom. Therefore, try to feel the emotion of the mantra when you repeat it. That is the real practice of mantra. -- Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

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Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

-- Swami Vivekananda

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Seven times I have tried, I have come back and tried again, not with pride and force, not as a soldier to an enemy, but with love, as a child climbs onto the lap of its mother. Now, at last I have been granted success, and I give thanks, I am grateful.

— Tenzing Norgay, Tiger of the Snows

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Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

-- Leo Tolstoy

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Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions.

-- Rig Veda 1.89.1

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Ecology of yajna

Yajnas should transcend religious and geographical barriers and become one of the most powerful means of ecological balance. Yajna purifies the air. The smoke from the yajna is the best cleanser, because the herbs, flowers and twigs are specially chosen for their purificatory qualities. Everything offered purifies the atmosphere. So those of you who are educated and who can communicate must see that yajnas become a part of our effort to purify the atmosphere. The customs need to be explained so that people can perform yajna in their homes. This has been our traditional system.

In the Vedas, there is a system of yajna that an individual can perform at home with his family. Every morning, my father would position a few sticks in a copper pot and chant the Agnihotra Vidhi Veda Mantra for fifteen minutes. I still remember it from the time I was a small child. So an individual can perform yajna at home and purify the atmosphere. A community can perform yajna and purify the atmosphere of the community, the village or town.

-- Swami Satyananda Saraswati

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Purifying the Environment

Yajna is the remedy for imbalances such as the green house effect, global warming, and so on. First of all, lovers of the environment, all those who believe that the atmosphere should be purified, that carbon monoxide must be reduced, are the ones who must practise yajna, not only on this large scale but also on an individual scale.

More than purification of the physical atmosphere of the earth and its environment, it is now becoming more important that we should purify the mental atmosphere, the psychic atmosphere, the emotional atmosphere which has become corrupt. Your mind is full of bad thoughts. It is just like a monkey that has been stung by a scorpion. How can you silence that monkey? Our ancestors said, "Perform yajna." Yajna means offering. When you offer food to the poor and hungry, that is yajna. When you give clothes to someone who has none, that is yajna. To give and to give and to give is yajna. In Sanskrit the word yajna is a combination of the three letters 'ya' 'ja' and 'na' - production, distribution and assimilation. There has to be a balance between these three components. The Bhagavad Gita has also suggested various forms of yajna. Yajna is a very powerful tool for inspiring and enlightening human consciousness.

-- Swami Satyananda Saraswati

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What Standards Should be Adopted to Measure True Greatness?

The true greatness of a man is to be measured not by the amount of wealth nor by the number of bungalows which are had or by the exercise of personal influence, but by the degree of selflessness, all-embracive outlook, generosity, liberal views, cosmic benefaction, self-sacrifice, egoless, self-effacing nature, grade of perception of unity in diversity, humanitarian services etc.

-- Swami Sivananda Saraswati

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Kama, eshana and the instincts

These four eshanas [putreshana, dareshena, vitteshana, lokeshana] are the foundation of life, and they ignite, propel and power the entire creation. No one is free from eshana. From these four evolutes of kama originate all the other desires. The eshanas are like the code of the computer program; they lay down the basic functionality of the program, determine what it will do and how. Everyone is compelled to perform karma in order to fulfil or satisfy these different expressions of desire.

One of the first functions to come out of the eshanas are the four instincts that form the basic reactive nature, expression and experience. The four instincts are ahara or craving, bhaya or fear, maithuna, sexuality, and nidra, disconnection and sleep. These instincts can be understood by looking at them from the perspective of eshana, the basic programming of desire that underlies and generates the instinctive reaction and expression.

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Eshana

At the individual level, this primordial kama expresses itself as eshana, the desire that pushes one towards a particular involvement, attachment and expression in the world. Eshana is the first evolute of the primordial kama. These eshanas have been classified into four. The first is putreshana, the desire for progeny, dareshana, the desire for relationship, vitteshana, the desire for wealth and lokeshana, the desire for fame. These four desires represent propulsion, progression and evolution of human life from birth to death.

-- Swami Ratnashakti Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 37

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Kama

Kama is the primordial desire that sages and rishis identified in the form of spandan, a throb or vibration, existing at the origin of all life. The initial impetus that ignited the process of creation is kama. This vibratory impulse has been expressed in the Upanishads and by sages and seers as the sankalpa of Brahman upon experiencing oneness, Ekoham bahushyam - I am one, may I become many. This initial desire is kama, a primordial force existing in and influencing all forms of created life. We exist because of desire, the world exists because of desire and the entire cosmos came into existence because of that desire.

Kama is like a primordial genome, an ancient strand of DNA that we have inherited from the divine. Kama is not inherently negative, or something to be supressed, rather it is the motivating force in life. It drives every though, speech and action. If there were no desire, there would be no life. Everything is initiated by kama, and it is kama that ultimately guides and influences the individual experience and evolution. From the moment that we are born until the moment we die, it is kama that is propelling, guiding and governing our entire life.

-- Swami Ratnashakti Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 36

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Desire is the most important thing in human life; it is the identity of man. Desires are necessary because they are a recognition of life. Through desire one can come to know one's personality and situation in life. There are some people who cannot desire, and others who desire all day long. Through proper analysis, one will come to the know that desire is an innocent force in the mind. In childhood one desires toys, in youth friends, then a job and money, family life and children. Later one desires position, name and fame, then mental calmness, peace, yoga, relaxation, meditation and God-realization.

-- Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 104

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“Any negative state of mind can be managed by being happy, by smiling and laughing. Even depression can be managed by being happy. You may wonder, ‘If I am unhappy, if I am suffering and depressed, how can I be happy?’ Yes, you can be - because happiness is your natural state of being. It is a limited understanding of happiness when you think that you need a cause or a trigger to be happy or that if the circumstances are difficult you cannot be happy.”

— Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 74

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Happiness

Happiness is a state or condition that is experienced in the body, mind, emotions and prama. In the physical body happiness is the state of health and vitality, in the mind happiness is a state of clarity, contentment and optimism, in the pranas happiness is balance and harmony. The problem is that in the state of tamas, happiness is confused with pleasure. Pleasure is a short term experience, reliant upon sensorial input that leads to the mental reaction of raga, attachment. Pleasure generates more craving and desire, leading to increased dependence on the external, material aspect of life. Manahprasad [Happiness] is the opposite; it does not make you dependent. Happiness connects you with the positive, spiritual qualities within and develops independence, wisdom and clarity in life.

Happiness reduces the influence of desire. Happiness is not dependent on fulfilment of desires, or getting what you want. When you are happy, desires have no power or influence. You are happy just because you are, without any need for an external condition, situation or experience of pleasure. Increasing happiness in life is the key to management of tamasic kama, because it reduces the gravitational pull of the vritti of kamna. To practice manahprasad, try to increase the level of, depth and quality of happiness in day-to-day life, activities and interactions. The pull of desire and the negative tendencies of the tamasic mind-set that confuses pleasure with happiness will reduce.

Often the negative conditions and experiences of life have a greater impact on us. The harsh or cruel words spoken in an argument will always be remembered, whereas the compliment will be easily forgotten and brushed aside. This tendency to give greater emphasis to the negative has to change. The practice of manahprasad is the effort to emphasise the positive. The feeling of happiness has to be cultivated by putting more energy into the positive experience. When the mental and emotional prana is directed into the negative experience, that conditioning is strengthened and the condition of unhappiness, dis-contentment and dissatisfaction is created. Whereas if the prana is directed into the positive experience, then the corresponding states of happiness, joy and love can be established. When this mental conditioning becomes a habit, then you have attained the state of manahprasad.

— Swami Ratnashakti Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 74

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At the emotional level, the projection of tamasic kama on relationships is the desire for more and more attention and emotional gratification. The desire for emotional fulfilment is projected onto another person, and there is a constant undercurrent of demand for that person’s attention and emotional support. If the demand is not fulfilled, the result is jealousy, lies, deceit and manipulation. Happiness is sidelined and control and manipulation take over.

— Swami Ratnashakti Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 70

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Pleasure is confused with happiness, because pleasure is sensorial in nature. If pleasure is the goal, then the ability to discriminate between right and wrong, especially in terms of the objects of desire is lost. Unhelpful, unhealthy and detrimental things are desired because they feel good. The pleasure obtained is fleeting, and once experienced, the basic state of dissatisfaction and unhappiness returns.”

— Swami Ratnashakti Saraswati, Transforming Kama, pg 68