21 May 2020
Mind and mantra
Hare Krishna!
Devotees are chanting with us from 765 locations. Numbers have gone down. May be you are back to work. It is business as usual. You are getting free from lockdown. This might be the reason that chanting is taking place from a fewer number of places today. Please don’t do this. Keep on chanting and take advantage of the japa talk. Now we have 780 locations. Numbers are gradually going up. Let’s talk and then walk the talk. Let’s hear today’s ‘food for thought’.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
We keep on repeating this. Why? Is it fine if we just say it once? Why is there no such arrangement? Why do we repeat it again and again?
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Is this repetition right or wrong? This is absolutely right. This must be done. Japa is repetition of a mantra and the process of chanting is known as manan or cintan. These two are synonyms. Cintan means contemplation.
Manah trayate iti mantraha
By manan (constant thinking or recollection) one is protected and released from the cycle of births and deaths One is Mantra.
Mantra protects the mind by purifying it. Mantra is man and tra, Manah trayate iti mantraha. Mantra liberates the mind by purifying it. One state is a conditioned state and another is liberated.
mana eva manushyanam
karanam bandha-mokshayoh
bandhaya visayasango
muktyai nirvisayam manah
Translation
For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage and Mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation. (Amrita-bindu Upanishad 2)
Mind is the only cause of bondage or liberation. If we are getting bound or liberated then it is because of the mind. We don’t liberate the mind, but make it free from faults and fickleness. We fix and concentrate our mind which results in the faultless mind. The reason behind aconditioned or liberated jīva is the mind. Our goal (sadhya) is to liberate the jīva. Sadhan (means) emanates siddhi or sadhya (goal). Mind is the means. Which mind will liberate the jīva? A purified, clean, fixed, or concentrated mind. We are souls, and not mind, intelligence or body.
The mind plays a very vital role if we want to get love for Krsna or uninterrupted service to Krsna and want to return to Godhead. What is our sadhan, our means which we are using?
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Maha-mantra improves this means. When we chant this maha-mantra, our mind becomes free from faults. This way we combine the mind and the mantra while chanting. The mantra itself is very pure and powerful and therefore it improves the state of mind.
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaḿ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaḿ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaḿ prati-padaḿ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaḿ
sarvātma-snapanaḿ paraḿ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-sańkīrtanam
Translation
Glory to the sri-krsna-sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious. (Verse 1, Sri Siksastakam)
Caitanya Mahāprabhu has called this ceto darpana marjanam. We call it the mind, intelligence and false ego together as consciousness. The mirror of consciousness is cleansed by the maha-mantra. When we repeat this mantra again and again, our mind gets liberated and purified. Then we will achieve the Lord. That is the yoga.
We are the soul and holy name is the Lord. There is the mind between them. If the mind is purified or free from faults then we can get the association of the Lord. If we chant 16 rounds or more everyday, then our mind will become transparent. One is opaque and another is transparent. If glass is transparent then we can see everything clear from both sides. The mind, which is there in between us and the Lord, shows or doesn’t show us the Lord. If the mind is transparent, pure, clean, fixed then we can see the Lord. It doesn’t tell you this directly.
There is a book Hari Bhakti Vilas which is written by Sanatana Goswami. We get the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra at the time of initiation.
yatha kancanatam yati
kamsyam rasa-vidhanatah
tatha diksa-vidhanena
dvijatvam jayate nrnam
Translation
As bell metal (a mixture of copper and tin) becomes gold by mixing with mercury, similarly, by the process of diksa, initiation, a person becomes a brahmana. (Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa, Sanatana Goswami)
Kancan means gold. We can get gold by some processes. There are two ways, diksha vidhan and rasa vidhan. In rasa vidhan, we get gold by experimentation or by mixing chemicals. In diksha vidhan, when one gets a mantra via initiation or diksa then one can get self or Krsna realisation. We can get gold or the wealthiest Lord. As we were saying yesterday, that person wanted gold and he got the Lord. The Lord is the real gold. Like we get gold by combining chemicals, in the same way, by combining mantra and mind we get real birth. By diksa, we will experience ourselves as souls.
Srila Prabhupada was a chemist. This is from scriptures that there is sulphuric acid and mercury. We get gold by combination of these two, but to combine these two is not so easy. This process involves a lot of hard work. Have you seen mercury? It’s not solid or fixed. The mind is just like that.
cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa
pramāthi balavad dṛḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye
vāyor iva su-duṣkaram
Translation
The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Kṛṣṇa, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind. (BG 6.34)
Properties of mercury are the same as that of the mind. One needs to keep on mixing them and it takes a lot of time. When they combine together then finally it turns into gold. In the same way, Sanatana Goswami explains in Hari Bhakti Vilas that by diksha vidhan, we get a mantra and it’s combination with the mind takes a lot of hard work, concentration and time. So rasa and diksha vidhan have been compared here. It’s not like we mix sulphuric acid and mercury and we get gold in minutes. This may take a lot of time. Similarly, the process of combining mantra and mind together may take a lifetime or many lifetimes depending on our efforts. It’s a gradual process. In Marathi there is proverb , Takiche ghav soslyashivay devpan yet nahi The Sculptor uses a strainer and hammer on the marble innumerable times to make a Deity of the Lord so that we can have darsana of the Lord in the form of the Deity. It’s not that we get the Deity in one stroke.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Similarly we have to keep on repeating this mantra. As we chant, the Lord gradually manifests Himself in front of us. We have to make the mind of the same rasa as that of Krsna. We have to Krsnaize our mind as transformation is the property of the mind. This will happen when we do this again and again. We have to chant again and again. We have to say and hear it, śravanam kirtanam. Then we have to remember or smarana also.
In Brhad Aranyak Upaniśad, the process of meditation has been explained. We need to do śravana, manan, nidhidhyasa. The process of chanting has been explained with eating and then gaining energy. When we take food from the plate to the mouth is śravana. Is eating complete? Then we chew the food and this is manan. It’s been said that we need to chew 32 times for proper digestion. When we chew then we relish various rasas (nectar). So relishing harinama is manan. Śravana or hearing is just the beginning. Repetition of mantra or manan is chewing of food. Sravana is taking the food to the mouth and manan is chewing the food or in English we can say as reflection or contemplation. What is nidhidhyasa? We need to take this food to the stomach for further chewing. From this food, we get various rasas and then it gets transformed into blood. This rasa (nectar) is nidhidhyasa. When we get rasa then the soul becomes the great soul. ( Atma becomes Mahatma) This whole process of chewing of food is śravana manan and nidhidhyasa. Some mixing takes place in the mouth, some mixing takes place in the stomach then we get blood, flesh.. and at last virya.
mantra tantra visharadha
There is a tantra or mechanism of this mantra. We need to understand the technicalities to get love for Krsna. When we chant again and again then the mind comes under control.
dhriti kshama dmosteyam
shouchamindriya nigrahah
dheer vidya satyamakrodho dashakam
dharma lakshanam
Translation
If you want to practice Dharma, then you must follow patience, forgiveness, self control, honesty, cleanliness, sense control, sense of reasoning, knowledge, truthfulness, ability to control your anger. (Manusmriti, Manu Rsi)
We can get all these qualities by this mantra. First we need to control our mind then with that controlled mind, we can meditate. There are meditation centres but we cannot meditate directly. First we need to control our mind with the help of Hare Krishna mahā-mantra. Mind control is not the only goal, but attaining Krsna’s love and service is the ultimate goal. By chanting the maha-mantra, we can purify, control and fix the mind. And with the controlled mind, we will become Krishna conscious and thus liberated.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
Translation
In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. (CC Madhya-lila 6.242)
Hence we need to keep on chanting.
Hari bol!