Chanting (mentally repeating)
All the major religions in the world, despite their intrinsic mutual differences, hold a unanimous view that the entire universe with its animate and inanimate parts was created out of a divine word. The Hindu or Vedic religion is no exception to this concept of God being the divine word of our origin. It acknowledges Om as the sacred syllable — the divine sound out of which God created this universe. Out of this divine word evolved variations of potent vibratory sounds capable of connecting with specific planes of consciousness on the subtle level. Each of these sacred vibratory sounds was called ‘Mantra’ in the scriptures with instructions on specific ways of pronouncing the divine word to achieve specific results. The mantras therefore form the very basis of Indian spiritual discipline.
Under spiritual discipline, a mantra is potent only when it is given by a Guru to someone who he has accepted as a disciple. Guru Siyag chanted powerful mantras before he attained enlightenment, and thus has the authority and the ability to initiate seekers. He says, “When an enlightened guru utters a mantra (while initiating seekers), it is His voice that charges the mantra with divine power. When I utter the mantra, the sound of my voice emanates, not from an ordinary body, but from an enlightened body. Someone who has never chanted God’s name should not preach about God. I chanted the mantra out of necessity. Circumstances forced me to chant, and that has brought me here today (as a Guru).” This is the reason why the mantra carries the power to transform the disciple’s life. Mere reading of a mantra from a text, such as the ‘Vedas’ or ‘Geeta’, would be an exercise in futility as the word would lack potency, and cannot therefore yield desired results. The mental repetition of the mantra, called Japa, results in full utilization of its potential.
Guru Siyag often refers to his mantra as the ‘Sanjeevani Mantra’. He says, “The mantra that I give during Diksha is a Sanjeevani Mantra. Let me first explain what the Sanjeevani is. In the mythological epic ‘Ramayana’, Lakshamana was struck by a poisonous arrow and became unconscious (nearly dead). Hanuman brought the Sanjeevani herb. When the herb was administered to Lakshamana he regained consciousness. The Sanjeevani worked only because Lakshamana had life left in him. Whatever disease you may have – whether it is AIDS, Cancer, Hepatitis B, Leukemia etc., and if medical science has said that it is incurable – once you receive this mantra you will not die. The Sanjeevani Mantra is part of the tradition of Shaktipat Diksha. The mantra that I give has the divine power of Radha and Krishna. It is Krishna’s Shakti (divine energy) that gives you life. Krishna is a complete Avatar (incarnation of God). Nothing is impossible for him.”
Gurudev’s explanation of the Sanjeevani Mantra can be interpreted as an allegory for ‘coming to consciousness’. The very purpose of spirituality is to ascend from the unconscious to the conscious. In the spiritual sphere, a life lived in ignorance of the divine is regarded as a ‘near-dead’ one. Legends of Nath yogis (the sect of ascetics that Guru Siyag’s Guru belonged to) are filled with stories of how Gurus startled their ‘sleeping’ disciples into a state of ‘wakefulness’. By chanting Guru Siyag’s ‘life-giving’ Sanjeevani Mantra round-the-clock, the disciple aspires to be freed from the clutches of ignorance (sleep / death) and be released into the light of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo has said that the mantra given by a Siddha Guru has the ability to give the disciple an inner vision, “The Mantras, always secret, and given to the disciple by his Guru, are of all kinds… This type of magic, or chemistry of vibrations, simply proceeds from the conscious handling of vibrations on higher planes of consciousness. This is poetry, music, the spiritual mantras of the Upanishads and the Vedas, the mantras a Guru gives his disciple to help him consciously make direct contact with this or that plane of consciousness, this or that force or divine being. Here, the sound holds in itself the power of the experience and realization – it is a sound that makes us see.”
The vibrations produced by Guru Siyag’s mantra resonate in the crown of the head and then descend downwards. This means that the vibrations of Guru Siyag’s mantra latch on to the higher planes of consciousness and affect a transformation that descends and then manifests in every atom of the being. The unconscious practitioner is fettered to his world of relations, ambitions, possessions, emotions etc. by Maya (illusion of duality), and always lives in a state of suffering. By chanting Gurudev’s mantra, the disciple begins to wake and ‘see’ the falsehood that he lives in and thus aspires to attain liberation from this endless cycle.
