5 February 2003, 12:18am IST
Swami Sukhabodhananda.
Peace is not made in documents; it is made in the hearts of individuals. Tragically though, we tend to look for peace outside. We seek joy in the world of objects. A mind that is only extrovert is caught up in the myth of security. Can there be an enlightened approach to security? We live in a universe and the universe lives within us. The art of looking within is the mantra of wise living.
Mantras help draw energy from both external and internal universes.
The nature of our thou-ghts is largely compulsive. We are conscious beings but we live like machines. Our likes and dislikes are programmed. Addictive thoughts take away from the soul of the individual as a conscious being. By chanting mantras with understanding, compulsive thoughts are transformed. The mind becomes calm and our perception will be wise with respect to both the exter- nal and internal universes.
If we look at life in silence, the world becomes a divine university. Just by observing, one can learn so much. The lotus, for instance, was considered to be one of the gurus of Sage Dattatreya. The lotus grows from muddy waters; yet, it gives out fragrance. Despite the many bad things happening around us we should strive to be as fragrant as the lotus.
Dattatreya observed a hen which was furtively looking for grain in garbage. Similarly, in the garbage of worldly difficulties, let us look for the good things. Let’s not get lost in worrying. A noisy, compulsive mind invalidates the miracle of life. A man worriedly sat up all night in front of a river.
Frustrated and angry, he picked up the little stones lying next to him and started throwing them into the river. At sunrise, he got up to go home. He noticed along the way that all that he threw in anger were in fact diamonds, and not pebbles, as he had thought. There was a bag of diamonds next to him and due to the dark- ness he could not observe this. This is the state of a noisy mind.
Silence is created by understanding; by chanting a powerful mantra; by having a commitment to grow. A noisy mind is not good for the body, for the mind or for the soul. With worrying thoughts, unhealthy chemicals create toxins in the body, giving rise to various diseases. With worrying thoughts, the mind loses its clarity to see what is and starts seeing what should be.
With worrying thoughts one exists in the world of the mind and not beyond the mind, where the soul exists.
When a powerful mantra like the Gayatri Mantra is chanted, the higher centres in us open up. The higher centres are constantly communicating. But since the lower centres are impure, the mind is unable to receive the fine vibrations of the divine. By a nuclear reactor, an atom is split and thereby great energy is relea-sed. So too, once our ignorance is destroyed, a great awakening happens within us. Mantra facilitates the awakening of our hidden energies. Just as fire is in the wood and has to eventually be released, so too, powerful energies are hidden within us which have to be realised.
Unless there is a commitment to grow, no growth can happen. The commitment to excel should be the way of life. Creativity is not doing something new and different; it is about bringing a new energy of love and joy in whatever one does. We should connect the universe within us to the one outside us. Mantras give a mystic dimension to connect. Mantras are like a ladder. Climb it with love and trust.
(Mantra Yoga classes will be conducted by pracharaks: February 8-9 from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. at C-9, Defence Colony, New Delhi. Contact: 24692686/ 56003054/9810099559)
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