Preparation for Mantra Diksha

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Preparation for Mantra-Diksha

(Spiritual Initiation)

 

Swami Bhuteshnanda

 

 

(Swami Bhuteshananda was the President of the Ramakrishna Order from

1989 to 1998. This lecture, originally in Bengali, was delivered by

Swami Bhuteshananda on 4 August 1995 at Ramakrishna Ashrama, Sylhet,

in Bangladesh and had appeared in the Bengali monthly Udbodhan, 7th

issue, 1406 Shraban, from where it has been translated by Swami

Hitakamananda. )

 

 

Many desire to have initiation. Some show great interest. But before

initiation, unless one is familiar with the ideal which we want to

present before you, the initiation will not be fruitful. That is why

it is our practice that one must be familiar with the life and

teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda.

Hence one seeking initiation is asked to prepare himself. Those who

are found underprepared are advised to wait. Only the eligible

candidates are advised to take initiation. This preparedness helps us

to do our duty properly. Besides, the recipients also are able to

grasp easily what we instruct.

 

According to scriptural injunction, whosoever approaches a guru for

initiation must have certain qualifications. Let me cite an example.

Narada went to Bhagavan Sanatkumara for initiation. Sanatkumara said,

`Tell me first what you know; then I shall decide what is to be

taught.' At this Narada gave a detailed list of what he had studied.

None of the principal scriptural texts were left out. He had come to

Sanatkumara after finishing the studies of all the major scriptures.

He said he had read Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, the

six Vedangas; also all the principal puranas (eighteen), and many

texts dealing with secular branches of learning. In spite of so much

learning he said, `I am not in peace, neither am I satisfied. I still

feel discontented. This sense of unfulfilment is probably the cause of

my mental unrest.' `Well, Narada,' said Sanatkumara, `I understand

that you have studied quite a lot. But what you know are only some

words. You have become a master of words; but you do not know

yourself. You are not an atmavid. Only a knower of the Self overcomes

grief. Since you are not an atmavid, a knower of one's Real Nature,

you have been overpowered by grief.' Then Narada humbly said,

`Bhagavan, kindly impart me that knowledge by which I can get rid of

all misery.'

 

What does this story suggest? It suggests that it is necessary to

prepare the ground of one's mind before initiation. It is no use

sowing seeds without preparing the soil. The soil must be properly

tilled, and manure must be spread beforehand. If the seed is sown

after that, it grows well. But if we sow the seeds without tilling the

soil and without adding manure, will there be a good crop? No.

Similarly, careful preparation is required before receiving

mantra-diksha. This preparedness conduces to success. This must be

kept in mind.

 

Most humbly, I want to touch another point. There is no end to this

preparation. Before taking the name of God, before receiving the

mantra, the soil of our mind has to be processed. Unless the mind is

pure, the mantra will not be effective. The mind has to be prepared

through the practice of good conduct, humility, shraddha, and true

yearning. If there is a genuine urge in the mind for taking the name

of God, the result of initiation will be highly rewarding. There is a

beautiful simile given by Sri Ramakrishna. The oyster eagerly awaits

with its mouth open. If a drop of rain falling during the ascendancy

of the Swati constellation enters, the oyster closes its mouth, goes

to the bottom of the ocean and turns it into a pearl. Mantra-diksha is

just like this drop of water in association with the star Swati.

Before having initiation, one must keep one's heart open to receive

that Truth with great yearning like an oyster. Only then will the

mantra be effective in life.

 

We always say, even at the time of initiation, that without devotion

and faith it does not become fruitful. Hence we must have faith. One

has to receive the mantra with shraddha. Only then the mantra, like a

seed, will sprout and flourish into a full grown tree, bearing flowers

and fruits. Hence it must be borne in mind that prepared-ness before

receiving the mantra-diksha is mandatory. In fact, nothing in

spiritual life can be achieved without preparation. The scriptures

recommend that a spiritual seeker must approach the Guru for learning

the ideal by being serviceful, humble, with selfless devotion, making

himself pure and blemishless. Why is so much importance laid in the

scriptures on preparedness? The reason is, the moment is an invaluable

one, when the name of God is presented to us. Receiving that holy name

in our heart with faith and devotion and concentrating our mind on it,

if we can dive deep into our being, like the oyster, and remain

engrossed in it, the most valuable gem will take shape within us. This

is to be especially borne in mind. We get this lesson from the

teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. In the Bhagavad Gita (18.67) also it is

said,

 

Idam te natapaskaya

nabhaktaya kadachana

Na chashushrushave vachyam

na cha mam yobhyasuyati.

 

This is never to be spoken by thee to one who is devoid of austerities

or devotion, nor to one who does not render service, nor to one who

cavils at Me.

 

Why have these categories of people been excluded? Because the field

(of their mind) is not prepared. The criteria mentioned earlier are

only preparatory steps. Once the field is ready, one develops love for

the name of God. This is to be remembered by boththose who are seeking

diksha and also those already initiated. Hence it is said in the

scriptures that one must be humble, inclined to serve and must keep

one's life as pure and stainless as possible. Many people have an

opposite notion. They think that their body and mind will be purified

after mantra-diksha. This is a wrong concept. Before being initiated,

our hearts are to be purified to receive initiation. Before installing

the deity, the temple and its surroundings must be well cleaned. Then

only can we think of the installation ceremony. Receiving mantra

signifies installation of God in one's life. All preparations are

aimed at this only. Without compliance to these conditions, or even

being indifferent to them, we cannot really install God in our heart.

This must be especially borne in mind.

 

We do not want to initiate young boys and girls. But at times devotees

insist on initiations of boys and girls of ten to twelve years or even

less in age. They feel hurt when we reject their request. They

repeatedly request us. These people do not realise the significance of

mantra-diksha. Are these young ones ready for initiation? Are their

minds mature enough to grasp the importance of initiation? Not at all.

`Please initiate, please initiate' etc. is nothing short of childish

insistence. Maybe some guardians put such requests with true faith and

in all seriousness. But they also do it due to lack of understanding

of the importance, meaning, and gravity of mantra-diksha. There is an

appropriate time for mantra-diksha. When the mind becomes restless for

initiation, then it must be understood that it is capable of receiving

the mantra. To keep this fact in mind is beneficial.

 

We should not forget that mantra- diksha is a very significant event

in life. So, it should be taken with all seriousness. Here I like to

point out one thing not only for the initiated but for everyone. Let

not initiation be looked upon as a status symbol or as a means to

attain a status either. Let us not forget that it is a means of

God-realization only. Those who come to take initiation should be

serious about it. That the moment of initiation is a unique one should

be borne in mind. Suppose the guru is speaking something that requires

close attention but some are not attentive and are thinking of

something else. It clearly suggests that they have not understood the

importance or seriousness of mantra-diksha. I have no intention to

criticize anybody. I mention it to drive home the point that one must

have a reverential attitude towards initiation. One must remember that

it is an important event in one's life. Otherwise, one will not feel

the worth of this event. At times, we are forced to pass through a

number of adverse situations. They must be overcome. From where shall

we get the strength and motivation to overcome them? If we get

initiated after due preparation, that initiation itself will provide

us with that strength.

 

There is another point to be remembered in this context. Our conduct

should be in tune with our state of being initiated. I recommend

following five codes of conduct at the time of initiation. There is

nothing secret about it. Everybody should know it. Hence I speak for

everyone. No one can move towards God, unless he is pure in conduct.

To proceed towards God the conduct must be pure. We often hear about

the necessity of taking pure food. Does it mean that our diet should

include sufficient clarified butter? Not that. Pure food implies

sattvika food, nourishing food. This is the scriptural injunction. The

food that is beneficial both for the body and the mind and for

building them up is to be consumed as much as the body needs it, i.e.,

one must not eat to satisfy one's greed. We must partake of the food

with the idea that it will nourish our body and mind, and we shall use

the nourished body and mind for contemplation of God. We have to be

particular about food, not merely that `I shall not take this, I won't

take that' and so on; these are not the criteria of aharashuddhi or

consumption of pure food. It implies consuming food in appropriate

quantity that ensures sound body and mind.

 

 

 

Purification of one's conduct is even more important than purification

of food. We shall state here the five types of good conduct.

 

1. We should pray for the welfare of all. We should behave in such a

manner that no one's feelings are hurt and no harm is caused to

anyone. We must not do anything by which anyone is hurt physically or

mentally or whereby evil befalls anyone. The scriptures speak of

Ahimsa or non-injury. It not only implies not hurting physically or

mentally anyone, it also means not to think ill of others or harm

others. This must be practised in thought, word and deed.

 

2. We must hold on to truth always in such a way that under no

circumstance should we deviate from it. We should never have recourse

to falsehood. We must honour our commitments. Sri Ramakrishna used to

say, `One who holds on to truth rests in the lap of God.' He further

says, `Truthfulness is the austerity for Kaliyuga.' I am not saying

that it is easy to stick to truth. It is not at all easy. We will have

to make a lot of sacrifice in life to observe truthfulness. Hence, it

is never an easy job. But we should not forget that holding on to

truth is our ideal.

 

3. Let us not cheat anybody or deceive anybody in any way. Let us not

get anything by cheating somebody. Let us be satisfied with what is

due. This is honesty in our dealings with others. It is of great help

in the spiritual path.

 

4. We have to bring all our sense organs under our control. Let us not

be guided by them. Control over one or two sense organs will not do.

All the senses are to be brought under control. It is a must for

spiritual life.

 

5. Life is meant for thinking of God and for realising Him. Lead a

simple, straightforward and natural life. We should not seek luxury. I

do not mean that all should wear clothes like beggars or live

miserably. I mean we should strive to maintain ourselves with minimum

requirements. We should be absolutely free from greed. The man who

earns thousand rupees a month wants to earn five thousand instead.

Another one earning five thousand a month wishes for ten thousand

monthly. In a similar fashion others are after a target of one lakh

from ten thousand and even one crore from one lakh and so on. This is

how our desires are continuously increasing. Such ever increasing

cravings keep the mind constantly restless.

 

Hence it is advised to control the mind. No one's mind feels satisfied

or peaceful even after getting all the treasures of the world. That is

mind's very nature. The more one gets, the more he wants. Our craving

for objects of enjoyment goes on increasing with the supply of objects

to the senses just as the addition of clarified butter to fire further

kindles it instead of reducing it. These desires cause mental unrest.

They confuse the mind too.

 

Some people say, `We want peace'. I say, free your mind from desires,

you will get peace. As long as desires are there, there will be no

peace. For, we nourish so many desires that it is impossible to

satisfy all of them. So the mind gets disturbed. Why don't we get

peace? Because our mental desires are not being fulfilled. It is not

easy to fulfil all these desires and expectations. While satisfying

one desire ten more desires crop up. He who has enough to eat and

clothe thinks, `Do I simply want food and clothing? Is it enough to

have mere sustenance? I don't have a scooter and car--no

horsecoach!'How then can we enjoy life?

 

On the contrary, if someone has all the objects of enjoyment, but is

physically unfit, he cannot enjoy even with everything available.

Hence desires don't subside. King Yayati enjoyed life in all possible

ways in his youth. As he became old he no more had the strength to

enjoy but he observed that the desire for enjoyment was intact. What

to do? He prayed to God, but He said, `You have passed your youth. All

right, if any of your sons agrees to give his youth to you, you will

be able to enjoy again.' Yayati called his sons and asked them if they

could give him youth. None except Puru, the youngest one, agreed.

Getting back his youth Yayati again indulged in sense enjoyments. Then

it occurred to him, `I have enjoyed life for such a long period but

the desire for enjoyment has not decreased at all. It is growing all

the more just as the flames of fire leap with the addition of fresh

fuel. The mental unrest is increasing hundredfold.'

 

This is human life. We say, we want peace. We also think that we shall

get it by praying to God. But we pray to Him only for obtaining

objects of sense enjoyment. There is no other need to call on God. If

God grants us enough wealth and prosperity, if we can live happily

with friends and relatives, we say, `God is gracious'. On the

contrary, if we fall into tragedy, like the falling of a thunderbolt,

we label Him as bad. Suppose a young man in the family dies or some

such mishap takes place, we say it is a conspiracy of God. We say,

`Look, what has God done!' God loses His credibility. Our main

objective in praying to God is to get our desires fulfilled. The

moment we fail to get them fulfilled, our devotion vanishes. We can

never have peace of mind through contemplation of God with such an

attitude. Whether He keeps us in happiness or misery, does us favour

or disfavour, under all circumstances we must accept all as His benign

will. We must accept happiness or misery, whatever comes to our lot,

with willingness. We should receive them with a grateful heart. We

should not only not dread death, we should accept and welcome it

without the least resentment. Such an attitude comes from

self-surrender. It is written in the scriptures: he who has been able

to surrender himself gets peace of mind. All the sense objects and

enjoyments of the world become insignificant to him who wants God from

the core of his heart. As a result of constant remembrance of Him his

mind becomes so much concentrated on God that it loses attraction for

everything else, just as the man who has a philosopher's stone in his

possession does not care for petty things. Other objects of enjoyment

become insignificant.

 

Rabindranath Tagore has depicted a beautiful incident in his poem

Sparshamani (literally meaning `philosopher's stone').

A poor brahmin used to worship Lord Shiva with a desire to become

wealthy. The Lord said, `Go to Vrindavan, meet Sri Sanatana Goswami

there and learn from him how to get wealth.' The brahmin went to Sri

Sanatana Goswami with the hope of getting rid of poverty. Sri Sanatana

said, pointing out a particular spot on the bank of a river, `Under

the sand a philosopher's stone is embedded. Dig it out and take it.

All your poverty will be removed and you will get infinite wealth.'

The brahmin hastily single dug the spot and obtained the stone. The

moment he touched his iron amulet with it, it instantly turned the

amulet into one of gold. Astonished, the brahmin now thought that in

spite of such a precious object close by, how undisturbed was the

Goswami. He went to Sanata and asked, `Please give me a fraction of

that treasure, having which you don't consider this precious stone as

precious.' Saying this, the brahmin threw away the philosopher's stone

into the river.

 

In the words of Rabindranath:

`Je dhane hoiya dhanee,

manire manona mani,

tahari khanik,

Magi ami natosheere,'

eto bali nadineere felilo manik.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam (11/2/53) says:

That person of confirmed faith and experience is the greatest among

the devotees of Vishnu, whom all the wealth and resources of the three

worlds will not detract even for a trice from his firm grasp of the

holy feet of his Lord, which is yet only a distant aspiration even for

celestials seeking it.

 

He becomes so contented with the joy of communion with God that all

worldly possessions and treasures become insignificant for him.

 

Here it must be noted that this dispassion for everything worldly has

not to come out of disgust following failures or blows. The attraction

for God is so strong that everything else becomes insignificant. Sri

Ramakrishna has given the illustration of the attraction of iron by a

magnet. If two magnets, one small and the other big, are placed on the

two sides of a piece of iron, which magnet would pull the piece of

iron? The bigger one, for sure. God is the biggest magnet, as it were.

His attraction is irresistible. When once His attraction is

experienced, then nothing of the world will be able to attract the

mind any more. Then nothing can take us away from His lotus feet. Our

progress towards the Lord is also the test of attraction for Him. If

we want God as well as worldly riches, then it means that our love for

God is a mere pretence.

 

Generally people remember God with the intention of getting wealth and

happiness. They do not want Him for His own sake. Our real objective

is wealth and prosperity. And God is one of the means of acquiring

them. If the means does not work up to our expectation, we do not

hesitate to throw that means away. In other words, we shall give up

even God! We must remember that to get only happiness from God is an

impossibility. Misery, poverty, obstacles, accidents also come from

Him only. People just forget God in their happy days but remember Him

when they are in trouble. While others go on lamenting in distress, a

devotee holds on to Him all the more firmly in such a situation. He

remembers Him more intensely in the midst of suffering. We know the

life of Kunti. Her entire life was filled with continuous suffering.

She roamed about from one forest to another with her husband. Then her

husband died and she came to Hastinapura with her minor children. Even

after getting the kingdom the Pandavas, her sons, were deprived of it

by the conspiracy of the Kauravas. This was followed by Pandavas' long

life in the forest and one year of anonymity. Next they had to roam

about in the forest with the mother. Kunti led almost the whole of her

life in danger and suffering. Then came the war of Kurukshetra. At the

end of the Kurukshetra war when Sri Krishna came to take leave of her,

she prayed to Him, `O Madhava, when we are in the midst of happiness

we forget you. But we invariably remember you in danger. I therefore

beg sufferings from you so that I may remember you constantly.' How

large must be the heart to ask for suffering from God? Although such

prayers are rare amongst us, we must not forget that such prayers

alone are the ideal ones.

 

We simply mutter the name of God verbally but remain steeped in

worldliness. We ought to seek Him because He is our greatest

benefactor under all circumstances, our all in all, the Soul of our

Soul, nay, our very Real Nature. Man loves himself the most. He loves

other objects because they are dear to the Atman. In other words man

loves Atman alone. It is from this standpoint that God is called

Paramatman, i.e., Atman of one's atman. We should love God because He

is our true Self and not for any other reason. This is called ahaituki

bhakti, unselfish devotion. Sri Ramakrishna has talked about this type

of bhakti time and again. The devotee in this kind of devotion does

not seek anything from God because he has no other cravings. He feels

completely satisfied by whole hearted surrender to God with love and

devotion, without seeking anything in return. Such an ideal devotion

towards God is the ideal of Sri Ramakrishna. If we fail to raise

ourselves to such a high level, we should at least remember that

thirst for worldly possessions and sense pleasures should not be

allowed to shift our attention from God, the centre of our life. Petty

desires will be there, body and mind would like to fulfil them. Let

them be and let them do it, but they should not cloud our power of

judgement to such an extent that we forget God and make enjoyment and

worldly possessions as the very purpose of life.

 

Another key point in Sri Ramakrishna's teachings is that we should be

sincere in repeating the name of God. It is not important how many

thousand times we chanted the name of God or how long we meditated.

Someone may eat vegetarian diet and undertake severe austerities

wearing a single piece of cloth and so on. These are of least

importance if they lack sincerity of purpose. The important thing is

whether we are able to love God wholeheartedly. Due to such a love for

God, all other worldly attractions would fade into insignificance. We

should always keep it in mind.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam says, `A genuine love for God reduces all other

attractions of the world.' We are to tread the spiritual path with

this standard. One may lose consciousness while singing of God, one

may meditate the whole life sitting in one place, one may perform

lakhs of japam for years, one can go on pilgrimages one after another.

None of these really matter. Feeling the constant presence of God in

our heart is what really matters. There will be no space left for

anything else, or any other person or even any other thought in such a

heart. We ought to offer all our love and adoration to Him. We shall

have to surrender ourselves completely at His feet. This is the gist

of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual teachings.

 

And if we succeed in loving God with our whole heart, we will be able

to feel His presence in all the creatures of this universe. I

sincerely pray that all of us may be able to live our lives holding

fast to this ideal. May this ideal influence our lives to such an

extent that everything of the world becomes insignificant. By His

grace everything is possible. I pray to Sri Ramakrishna that all of us

may have such intense love for God.