Hari Aum.
Hope you all had an enjoyable Guru purnima yesterday and were able to make full use of the wonderful lunar eclipse that took place for the purpose of sadhana. It is rare for a lunar eclipse to last that long and it was a great blessing from God as eclipses are powerful times for sadhana. My Guru Sivananda and other Gurus say that an eclipse is a perfect opportunity to take steps towards attaining mantra siddhi.
I would like to discuss the meaning of mantra siddhi here based on the teaching of my Guru.
Let us first be clear on what mantra siddhi is not. Many people think that mantra siddhi involves doing a purascharana (or a few) and thus attaining power over the mantra. Attaining the ability to use the mantra to achieve whatever they want in life- be it wealth, job, relationship, children etc, the list goes on.
That is not mantra siddhi.
A mantra is the sound form of a deity. Mantras of God are one with God Himself/Herself. My Guru Sivananda uses the phrase 'mantra siddhi' as synonymous with God-realisation in his book 'Japa Yoga'. He says in this book: "You must have the bhava that Atman, Ishvara, Devata, Mantra are one. With this bhava, you will have to repeat your Guru mantra or Ishta mantra. Then alone you will have mantra siddhi or God-realisation quickly."
God-realisation requires surrender to the will of God. God has a will. He/She wants something for us, has a view on how we should live. Sages say to God "Thy will be done". Not "my will be done"!.
The wrong concept of mantra siddhi that many people have involves thinking of the mantra and God as a servant who should fulfil one's request for various things in life. God cannot forcibly be made anyone's servant. It is complete nonsense to see the mantra in this way. This way is the "my will be done" way. This cannot lead to any spiritual progress.
Some people also confuse mantra siddhi with attainment of the 8 siddhis (which involve being able to become very big/small/heavy/light etc). These 8 siddhis are not the same as mantra siddhi or God-realisation. In fact, they can be a big distraction from attaining God as they can fatten the ego and create a sense of pride which is very unhelpful in the spiritual path.
Real mantra siddhi gives realisation of one's own immortal nature, of eternal peace, bliss and wisdom. Other siddhis such as being able to read minds, fly, become heavy etc do not automatically give God-realisation. Death takes away all such siddhis. The only siddhi worth attaining is mantra siddhi i.e. God-realisation. One should not waste time running after other useless siddhis. As one Guru said, if you want to fly, take a plane- don't waste your precious human lifetime running after such foolish siddhis that death takes away.
Death takes away all wealth, relations and all lowly siddhis. The only thing it cannot take away are the mantra, the Guru and Ishta Devata. These stay with us life after life, until we attain God. Sivananda says that the japa and kirtan and spiritual practices we do follow us in to the next lifetime, no worldly thing does.
The right attitude to attain God-realisation or mantra siddhi is "Thy will be done". This means doing one's duty to the best of one's ability with regard to home life, work, health and everything. But then leaving the results in the hands of God. Not insisting that something has to happen a particular way. Accepting that whatever happens, whether it seems good or bad to us, is the will of God and is therefore good for us. This is very difficult to practice. But it becomes easier as the mind becomes purified through the practice of mantra, selfless service of humanity and so on.
Coming back to the subject of an eclipse, it is said that 1 recitation during this time is equal to 1000 recitations at other times. Mantra siddhi is said to be attained though many, many recitations of the mantra, and particularly purascharana (100,000 times japa for each syllable in the mantra).
To complete a purascharana of an 8-letter mantra, one will have to recite it 800,000 times (+ havan etc, or 10% extra japa). Now during an eclipse, some people are under the impression that this can be achieved by doing just 8 malas (of 108 beads) i.e. around 800 recitations. Because they think that 1 recitation during the eclipse = 1000 recitations at other times. And they hope that mantra siddhi will be attained by doing some malas of japa during an eclipse.
However, it is not quite so simple to attain real mantra siddhi or God-realisation. My Guru Sivananda says, it can take many purascharanas to attain mantra siddhi or God-realisation.
He strongly encourages people to make full use of both regular, daily japa as well as japa done during eclipses to attain mantra siddhi. A sadhaka who has attained God will have merged their will with that of God. There will be no separate will. They will not ask God to come and provide wealth, job and other things for them therefore as there is no desire left for these things.
So let us remember that spirituality is a journey from "my will be done" to "Thy will be done". And mantra siddhi is God-realisation (not trying to control God through mantra recitation to achieve worldly goals).
Mantra siddhi is gradually achieved through purification of the mind through daily mantra japa and by doing japa during special times such as eclipses. As my Guru says, it took Swami Vidyaranya 18 purascharanas to attain darshan of Mother Gayatri. He also mentions that the famous Madhusudan Swami got darshan of Lord Krishna halfway through the 18th purascharana.
So we have to prepare ourselves to do many purascharanas to attain mantra siddhi and God. But no action can go without producing a result. We can be confident that every purascharana we complete, every day of japa that we do, takes us one one step closer to mantra siddhi and God-realisation.
May God and Guru bless us all with success in our sadhana and the attainment of mantra siddhi or God-realisation (which is our birthright according to my Guru) in this very lifetime.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Hope you all had an enjoyable Guru purnima yesterday and were able to make full use of the wonderful lunar eclipse that took place for the purpose of sadhana. It is rare for a lunar eclipse to last that long and it was a great blessing from God as eclipses are powerful times for sadhana. My Guru Sivananda and other Gurus say that an eclipse is a perfect opportunity to take steps towards attaining mantra siddhi.
I would like to discuss the meaning of mantra siddhi here based on the teaching of my Guru.
Let us first be clear on what mantra siddhi is not. Many people think that mantra siddhi involves doing a purascharana (or a few) and thus attaining power over the mantra. Attaining the ability to use the mantra to achieve whatever they want in life- be it wealth, job, relationship, children etc, the list goes on.
That is not mantra siddhi.
A mantra is the sound form of a deity. Mantras of God are one with God Himself/Herself. My Guru Sivananda uses the phrase 'mantra siddhi' as synonymous with God-realisation in his book 'Japa Yoga'. He says in this book: "You must have the bhava that Atman, Ishvara, Devata, Mantra are one. With this bhava, you will have to repeat your Guru mantra or Ishta mantra. Then alone you will have mantra siddhi or God-realisation quickly."
God-realisation requires surrender to the will of God. God has a will. He/She wants something for us, has a view on how we should live. Sages say to God "Thy will be done". Not "my will be done"!.
The wrong concept of mantra siddhi that many people have involves thinking of the mantra and God as a servant who should fulfil one's request for various things in life. God cannot forcibly be made anyone's servant. It is complete nonsense to see the mantra in this way. This way is the "my will be done" way. This cannot lead to any spiritual progress.
Some people also confuse mantra siddhi with attainment of the 8 siddhis (which involve being able to become very big/small/heavy/light etc). These 8 siddhis are not the same as mantra siddhi or God-realisation. In fact, they can be a big distraction from attaining God as they can fatten the ego and create a sense of pride which is very unhelpful in the spiritual path.
Real mantra siddhi gives realisation of one's own immortal nature, of eternal peace, bliss and wisdom. Other siddhis such as being able to read minds, fly, become heavy etc do not automatically give God-realisation. Death takes away all such siddhis. The only siddhi worth attaining is mantra siddhi i.e. God-realisation. One should not waste time running after other useless siddhis. As one Guru said, if you want to fly, take a plane- don't waste your precious human lifetime running after such foolish siddhis that death takes away.
Death takes away all wealth, relations and all lowly siddhis. The only thing it cannot take away are the mantra, the Guru and Ishta Devata. These stay with us life after life, until we attain God. Sivananda says that the japa and kirtan and spiritual practices we do follow us in to the next lifetime, no worldly thing does.
The right attitude to attain God-realisation or mantra siddhi is "Thy will be done". This means doing one's duty to the best of one's ability with regard to home life, work, health and everything. But then leaving the results in the hands of God. Not insisting that something has to happen a particular way. Accepting that whatever happens, whether it seems good or bad to us, is the will of God and is therefore good for us. This is very difficult to practice. But it becomes easier as the mind becomes purified through the practice of mantra, selfless service of humanity and so on.
Coming back to the subject of an eclipse, it is said that 1 recitation during this time is equal to 1000 recitations at other times. Mantra siddhi is said to be attained though many, many recitations of the mantra, and particularly purascharana (100,000 times japa for each syllable in the mantra).
To complete a purascharana of an 8-letter mantra, one will have to recite it 800,000 times (+ havan etc, or 10% extra japa). Now during an eclipse, some people are under the impression that this can be achieved by doing just 8 malas (of 108 beads) i.e. around 800 recitations. Because they think that 1 recitation during the eclipse = 1000 recitations at other times. And they hope that mantra siddhi will be attained by doing some malas of japa during an eclipse.
However, it is not quite so simple to attain real mantra siddhi or God-realisation. My Guru Sivananda says, it can take many purascharanas to attain mantra siddhi or God-realisation.
He strongly encourages people to make full use of both regular, daily japa as well as japa done during eclipses to attain mantra siddhi. A sadhaka who has attained God will have merged their will with that of God. There will be no separate will. They will not ask God to come and provide wealth, job and other things for them therefore as there is no desire left for these things.
So let us remember that spirituality is a journey from "my will be done" to "Thy will be done". And mantra siddhi is God-realisation (not trying to control God through mantra recitation to achieve worldly goals).
Mantra siddhi is gradually achieved through purification of the mind through daily mantra japa and by doing japa during special times such as eclipses. As my Guru says, it took Swami Vidyaranya 18 purascharanas to attain darshan of Mother Gayatri. He also mentions that the famous Madhusudan Swami got darshan of Lord Krishna halfway through the 18th purascharana.
So we have to prepare ourselves to do many purascharanas to attain mantra siddhi and God. But no action can go without producing a result. We can be confident that every purascharana we complete, every day of japa that we do, takes us one one step closer to mantra siddhi and God-realisation.
May God and Guru bless us all with success in our sadhana and the attainment of mantra siddhi or God-realisation (which is our birthright according to my Guru) in this very lifetime.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Namaste..
ReplyDeleteCan you pls let me know your Japa procedure as advised by your Guru?
I’m doing Gayathri Japa after finishing Astakshara Mahamantra recently.
I read this morning that one should do the following:
- Rishi Chandana devata( I’m doing)
- Nyasa( doing anga nyasa not Kara nyasa)
- PraNamayama( not doing )
- Prayer before mantra start( seems ok)
- mantra with anusandhana and stops/pauses( mine seems to be not correct)
- arghya( don’t do)
Thanks in advance for your time.
Namaste,
DeleteMy Guru essentially recommends repeating the mantra regularly every day while following the yogic ethics (this is the heart of success), and some basic external rules (maintaining cleanliness, sitting at the same spot if possible, reciting some slokas beforehand to elevate the mind, some light asana and pranayama).
I feel the yogic ethics are absolutely essential for success (at least trying one's best to follow even if it is not easy). I try to do japa at approximately the same time and place daily. I recite some slokas before the japa session (including the Gayatri mantra of my deity). I try to do it with as much devotion as I can (sometimes more, other times less). Whatever happens, by the grace of God, I do not let a single day pass without japa (at least 15 minutes, ideally half an hour or more). In between, during the daytime during pauses in work, I recite the mantra occasionally. I do manasik puja at times during japa.
This in essence is the procedure that I follow.
Wonderful to hear that you are doing Gayatri japa. May Mother Gayatri bless you with every success.
Thank you
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