Mantra and Meditation

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Does it matter if you repeat a mantra or can you just look at something? There are many ways to meditate. Is one better than the others?

Master:

There are many so-called techniques of meditation that are mere mental exercise. There are people who try to get into meditation by gazing at a tree, or a spot, or by looking in a particular direction. Real meditation however, happens spontaneously, as a result of grace; you do not have to learn it.

Mediation should happen automatically. However, a Guru in whose presence you get automatic meditation is rare.

There are two kind of meditation – one is with Japa, and the other is without Japa. Japa is mantra repetition. Mantra has great power and is very necessary. If you meditate with a mantra, (Om SathGuru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae) you would be absorbed very quickly. However, in pure meditation there is absolutely no thought or object in mind, not even the mantra. But you reach that only through the mantra. As you repeat a mantra more and more, the mantra begins to disappear, and you get into a state in which you are aware of neither yourself nor God.

Mantra Initiation

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Does mantra initiation usually involves some sort of special ritual performed between the Guru and the disciple?

Master:

More important than any ritual is the faith of the person who receives the mantra. One with faith can receive a Siddha’s mantra in any place, at any time, under any circumstances, and that mantra is guaranteed to bear its fruit. A Siddhapurusha’s mantra (Sri Seshadri Swamigal) is no inert one – it’s fully conscious and not bound by time, space, or ritual. Through the Siddha’s grace, it bears fruit immediately. Ordinarily, there is a ritual for mantra initiation, but the main ritual is faith. Where there is no faith, ritual becomes pointless, where there is great faith, ritual becomes unnecessary.

The Guru and His Mantra

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

After a Guru has passed away, does the mantra continue to have his power?

Master:

If he is a Sathguru or SathPurusha or SiddhaPurusha, a perfect Guru, the mantra will continue to work with the same force. It also depends on whether the mantra is a conscious mantra or a dead mantra. A conscious mantra is one that the Guru has practiced for a long time and whose full power he has realized. That mantra has awakened his own inner Shakthi and unfolded it fully and made him experience the goal of the mantra. If you receive that kind of mantra from a Guru, it will awaken your Shakthi because it is a living mantra. But a mantra that one just finds in a book or hears from someone else will be a dead mantra, and it would not work.

It is also true that a real Guru never passes away; he is always alive.

Our mantra, Maha-mantra, “Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae”, is a conscious mantra. It is a living mantra.

The effect of the spiritual Mantra

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Could you give a bit more detail about what is achieved through the use of a spiritual mantra?

Master:

First of all, a mantra removes the grossness or dullness from the intellect through which one perceives the Supreme Truth. The mantra permeates the intellect and purifies it. In fact, it removes all impurities within one’s entire being and thus purifies all the inner instruments. Furthermore, if you keep repeating the mantra, it eventually awakens the dormant power of the inner Self. When the Shakthi (Sheathe) is awakened, one begins to cross over the great barrier – the ocean of transmigration. This awakening is the starting point of Siddha Yoga.

How does one find the right mantra?

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

How does one find the right mantra?

Master:

The Mantra you receive from one who is fully realized is the right mantra. If you receive your mantra from one who has himself received something from it, you can also receive something from that mantra.

There is a saying in Sanskrit:

mantra chaitanya vignata

Receive mantra from one who has realized its full conscious power”

So if you receive a mantra from one for whom those mantras become fully alive, fully conscious, that same mantra will also bear full fruit for you.

Our Mantra is:

“Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae”

This is called a Maha-Mantra.

The mystery of mantra is profound, and from a certain viewpoint every letter is a mantra. Each word is bound to do its work, depending on what it denotes. These mantras bring results immediately. Likewise, the maha-mantra, the great mantra, directs you toward the highest goal of man. By repeating the mantra, we achieve the true goal of life. According to the scriptures and personal experience, it is the Supreme Principle, which has manifested itself as mantra.

Can one become one with God, with a mantra?

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Disciple: would you say that the person who repeats the mantra eventually becomes one with God?

Master:

There is no doubt about it. The secret of mantra is very great. By the strength of mantra we can change the entire body. The body is not an ordinary object; it can be literally transformed by a sustained act of will. We can actually convert the body into the form of the mantra.

Is Mantra a vibration?

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Is mantra a Vibration?

Master:

It is energy, or Shakti (Sheathe). When we repeat a mantra for a considerable length of time, we accumulate energy (Universal energy), which in turn makes the mantra more and more powerful.

When our Guru’s mantra, “OM SATHGURU SRI SESHADRI SWAMIGAL THIRUVADIKKAE”, is transmitted to someone else, it usually creates an immediate effect on the person who receives it because of its accumulated power. When we dwell constantly on any thought, eventually our entire being will become permeated with that thought, and mantra is the most potent kind of thought.