Thoughts on Mantra: What we can learn from the humble Lightbulb!
Be the lightbulb - prepare to channel the power of God through mantra!
The lightbulb – a divine metaphor!
There is an excellent analogy used by yogis to symbolise the evolution of man that is required before he can experience God.
It is the idea that one cannot place 1,000 W of electricity through a humble lightbulb; such power levels can only be withstood by, and are only meant for, a powerful electrical transformer.
What does this mean? Well let us analyse the idea. What happens when 50 W of electricity pass through a 100 W lightbulb? It will probably not shine to its full capacity, but it may dimly light. What happens when one puts 100W of electricity through a 100 W lightbulb? Undoubtedly it will shine brightly, as it was meant to. But when 1,000 W of electricity – 10x the required amount – pass through a small 100 W lightbulb, what happens? Quite simply, it will probably explode! The reason is also simple – it was never manufactured to withstand such a powerful electrical current.
What makes us more than mere lightbulbs?
What should become quite obvious is that electricity symbolises the power of God in this metaphor, manifesting as the light of consciousness when passing through a human being. Ordinary humans are like the 100 W lightbulb. They have great potential to shine, but this is still insufficient (in their current forms) to withstand the full force of the divine.
However, human beings have a critical advantage over the lightbulb: we are not inanimate objects! We live, breathe, think and act independently. This also means that we have the capacity to grow. Pushing ourselves daily beyond our physical, mental and emotional limitations allow us to exceed our past achievements with ever greater accomplishment.
In other words, what must happen is that our ‘power level’ must slowly increase before we can experience the full glory of the divine.
Power comes from within
There is no doubt that mantras are the auditory or vocal manifestation of the divine. By meditating more and more deeply on a mantra, you are increasing your capacity to channel the divine through you. Just as the lightbulb shines, one who learns the secrets of a mantra will undoubtedly shine in every aspect of his or her life.
There is no limit to the spiritual growth that one can experience through focused and determined meditation – even with a small daily effort!
Burn Karma 24/7: Turn Work into Tapas!
Let your every action be a prayer to help you continuously burn karma!
Karma bears a heavy burden
Past actions can weigh heavily on your progress in your current life. Such is the rule of the universe.
However, God has provided a mechanism to alleviate the strain – karma can be burned away or dissolved by a variety of methods; most of which are good actions toward your fellow man and the Gods.
This blog is focused on the benefits of mantra. One such mantra for effective and powerful karma burn is to chant Rama nama – or the name of Rama. I have previously covered the merits of Rama nama in prior posts.
But as anyone knows from experience – karma can be thick and stubborn, taking time to eliminate before one can move on. How can one make time to steadily burn karma in our busy lifestyles?
The art of Tapas
Tapas is the practice of intense austerities with a singular goal in mind – to raise one’s consciousness (or put another way, build one’s spiritual power) to extent to which the Gods take notice and provide one with a boon. When one thinks of boons, our thoughts are coloured by visions of grand (and implausible) requests for immortality and invulnerability from various divine weaponry – as happens frequently (!) in the Mahabharata and other popular epics.
In reality, the practice of any sadhana, if performed correctly and with sincerity, will often result in unseen benefits, or a big step toward your stated goal – be it getting over past karmas, praying for happiness, or a resolution of an ongoing problem.
There is a simple way of performing tapas – by turning work into prayer, and prayer into meditation.
Banish idle thought to focus the mind
Have you noticed during the course of the day how many times idle thoughts enter your stream of consciousness and interrupt your work? This is the precious spare time in which one can refocus the mind on God and dissolve karma!
Use every moment of idle thought or pause during the work day to your advantage and chant the Rama nama silently in your mind, praying for the forgiveness of the Lord for yourself and all of your colleagues and loved ones.
In office work, there are a multitude of ‘brainless’ tasks that happen daily which are ripe to reclaim to useful thought! Such as: when you commute to work daily; when you ride the elevator to your floor (or between departments); photocopying; typing inane emails…the list is endless!
Never lose a moment! Focus your mind on Rama and let him remove your burdens!
Push toward subconscious prayer
As detailed in prior posts the subconscious mind is actually a more powerful tool for focus and deep thought than the conscious mind at times. Chanting Rama nama continuously in the mind during idle periods for weeks at a time will undoubtedly seed the mind with this potent idea. Once the conscious mind continues its focus on work, one will find that the subsconcious mind will continue and direct you back to Rama nama in your idle moments. What a mechanism! The mind is truly wonderful in this way.
This is the path to continuous karma burn and turning every duty into pure, fruitful tapas. Burn karma to move forward!
Never be Late Again! Pray to Ganesha.
Let Ganesha manage your Time - you will never be late!
Do you have a problem with timing?
Modern life is undoubtedly tough. When you live around a tight timeline every day, ever moment counts – whether you work in the corporate world or not.
In this context, being late is unacceptable. But once a schedule is upset, its incredibly difficult to get back into the routine, is it not?
Pray to Ganesha to restore balance…
One sure-fire way one can avoid being late for any situation is to pray to the Lord of Beginnings – Ganesha.
Through my experimentation with mantras, I have found that reciting any Guru-initiated Ganesha mantra no less than 1,008x DAILY without fail, one will ALWAYS be on time. This is one of the earliest Siddhis one gains from praying to Ganesha – who is the Lord of Siddhis. It quickly appears and when it does, it revolutionises your timekeeping!
…even when you think a situation is insurmountable!
As one perfects the practice of a Ganesha mantra, it extends to cover even the most impossible situations. In fact, this miraculous siddhi will extend to situations where you actually believe you are late – you will in fact still be just in time! Some twist of fate will inevitably work in your favour – if not in the short term, the long term.
Put your faith in the Lord of Obstacles to destroy all hurdles in your way; He is never wrong and always works in your favour.
The Original Mantra: the Pranava - OM
Swami Mantra Yogi 