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Almost all of you know something about mantra, but I would like to tell you more. Mantra has a healing power. It is one of the most powerful energies which exists in the universe. That is mantra. It is a kind of prayer. When the ṛṣis began to receive spiritual consciousness and spiritual energy, they began to meditate and think on certain things. It was inspired by God Himself. You know, the creation took place through sound. Whenever God or someone likes to give some message to us, there are two ways. One is through some symbols as an indication, and the second is through some voice. That can be the inner voice, that can be a voice through someone, or the voice which comes from the space—that is a sound. So a particular sound indicates something to us. In this way, when the yogīs begin to meditate and they have expanded their consciousness in the universe, there they find first a great, great power. A great power, Almighty, that means the most powerful power above every power. That power is governing everything. That becomes a creator. That becomes a protector. And that becomes a liberator, and that becomes the distractor. That great power, they gave the name as God. God, that God which is in everything. How to come near to that power? How to enter into that cosmic power? How to become one with that power? You have to search for some channel of the power, a power channel. Like all rivers, they are the channels to enter into the ocean. Similarly, all spiritual channeling power is that which enters into God. And those channels are the mantras. So mantras are known as vibration, mantra is known as resonance, mantra is known as sound, and mantra is known as God itself. The yogīs try to manipulate the different forces in the universe and put them together in one sound. It is called cosmic sound. That cosmic sound is known as the cosmic language. As far as I know about the Sanskrit language, it is that in this way it was received by the yogīs. Sounds—every language is a cosmic language because the human mind, human brain, human consciousness, is able to manipulate the sound into words. Animals cannot pronounce. In their brain, they do not have the language center. You can train them a little bit—some birds, or maybe some monkey, a little bit. Their language, their talking is on the feeling level; only there are waves. They are understanding through certain waves. But humans took those waves and formulated them into words. How is the language coming? Where there’s a positive development, there is also negative development in your language which you speak. There are good words, and there are also bad, dirty, negative words. But the mantras are mostly holy, divine. Some selfish people played with those sounds, developed some mantras, what they call the magic, the black magic, the harmful one. That also belongs to that creature. And that also belongs to the Creator. Like this, they found the channeling system to enter into the Cosmic Consciousness, where the long sentences became a prayer, and the short sentences became the mantra. So, mantra has many definitions. Man is the mind, and tra is liberation. To liberate your mind from material attachment and to come to the Cosmic Consciousness. The mantra functions as a filtering system. It filters all the negative energy and it directs your mind, your consciousness toward the purities. That is what we call spirituality. Mantra is like a light. Wherever you bring the light, the darkness disappears. So whenever you repeat your mantras, the ignorance and negative karma disappear. The mantra is like a torchlight which shows you a way to walk through the darkness of this world. The mantra has the healing power because the mantra brings things again into their original position or original condition. But this all is realizable only when you get perfection over your mantra. We have to learn the language, we have to practice, we have to understand. Similarly, you have to practice the mantra. Generally, there are five steps of practicing a mantra. First is writing the mantra. Write your mantra with concentration, like meditation. It’s like you are painting something. Akṣara Brahma, it is said, Akṣara Brahma—that Brahman, the Self, is in the form of the letters. These symbols should go into your subconsciousness. If you can write in the original Sanskrit language, that would be the best. Second is then chanting, the chanting, the sound, which goes to your subconsciousness, unconsciousness, and consciousness. Third is chanting inwardly. And fourth, practicing your mantra mentally with meditation, during walking and so on, whenever you find the time. But do not practice mantra with tensions, with nervousness. Don’t practice your mantra with fixed ideas because that can change your consciousness in a negative way. You should chant and repeat your mantra in a healthy way. A healthy way means completely relaxed, without anxiety, without nervousness. Don’t say to yourself, "Oh God, I must practice my mantra." You must not. Whenever you have some duties or something to do or something to decide, you should decide and do. Only when you have little time and your mind begins to think nonsense things, then it is better to repeat a mantra than to think nonsense things. If there is a problem or a problem with your mind, then do not do the task, but when there is a small problem, then practice the place of unselfish thoughts. Then the fifth step of the mantra will come. That’s called ajapājap. That means spontaneously. Without your trying, your mantra is coming itself. Even in the dreams. For example, you have some unpleasant dream, what you call a nightmare or a horror. In that case, in the dream, you will repeat your mantra automatically and that dream disappears, and you do not wake up with fear. You have a very beautiful, nice dream, and during the dreaming, you will know, "I’m dreaming this because of my mind." And that takes a few years, about 25 to 52 years. There is time calculated as a yuga. So the 12 years becomes one yuga. This is the mini yuga. You know that every 12 years there is a Mahākumbh Melā in Allāhābād because the most powerful constellation comes together once in 12 years. So, the minimum time for reaching the Ajapajap level, the stage of Ajapajap, is 12 years. If not in 12 years, then 24 years, or 25 years. Thirty-six years, or forty-seven, fifty years. Now, on what does it depend that you have ajap-ajap or perfection in your mantra? Only on practicing, but the discipline. What kind of life you lead, that is very important. How pure your food is, how much ahiṃsā you follow. How pure you are in your heart and mind. If you are jealous or not, if you are angry or not. If you are greedy or not, if you are selfish or not, everything will be counted in twelve years. There is one story about a very holy person. In his whole life, he was very humble, very kind, very pure. And at the end of his life, the decision came that now he would be liberated, completely liberated. Self-realization, God-realization. He and all were sure. But the Vidhātā, the destiny, came with a big book and began to look into the book. All the pages of the book were completely white, beautiful. But suddenly, one page had some black mark, that once he was angry at a dog. Therefore, no books. What to do? Repeat the next slide. So, can you imagine these twelve years, through which situation you go, that will decide how much power you will have in your words? Then your every sentence becomes perfect. Whatever you speak becomes true. That’s mantra. Besides this, what about your devotion? What about your devotion to your master? How many times you had doubts? How many times you were angry at him? How many times you lost your confidence? Through which waves and changes you went? How many times you did prayer? How many times you practiced? I can tell you it’s hard, but divine. This all will count in 12 years. Therefore, in one bhajan Gurujī said, "O Mahāprabhujī, day by day, my love should increase for Thee." Day by day, my devotion to Thee, O Lord, should increase more and more. It should never decrease. So that’s why there are very few people who are holy and self-realized. So, if you have mantras for more than 12 years, and still you have not achieved this perfection, which Swamiji is always telling and the books are writing about, then I can tell you something very important. There is one meditation technique, a very powerful technique, it is called self-enquiry meditation. Analyze yourself. In 12 years, what have you done? The answer will be very clear in front of you. Why didn’t you attend the Ajab Ajab? So, Guru Bhakti, Guru Bhakya, and Guru Seva. This is very, very important. Understand the Guru Vakya, the words of the Master, and do the guru-sevā, and then, as you call it, you will get the guru-kṛpā. Through the guru-vakya and guru-sevā, your guru-bhakti will increase. Everyone would like to have a mantra. Everyone would like to get perfection. Everyone would like to be enlightened. Everyone would like to have the power and mokṣa. But that mokṣa is not so cheap. It is expensive: hard work on yourself, discipline. And also, you have to be very humble towards your wife. You have to be very kind towards your husband. If you shout at your husband only once, twelve years are lost. So, never shout at your husband. You have a very precious glass pot in your hand. Beautiful, very precious, and it falls down from your hands. It takes only some seconds, is broken, lost. Similarly, it doesn’t take time to destroy your spirituality, which you build with great concentration and discipline. So no one can help you. Only you can help yourself. There is one beautiful story in the Rāmāyaṇa. There was a great ṛṣi. His name was Viśvāmitra, and he made one yajña for some power, for some peace in the world. But that yajña can only be successful if you are not angry. And if you get angry, it will not be successful. So when he began to perform this ceremony, the rākṣasas used to come. They didn’t want his yajña to be successful. They begin to throw the bones, meat, blood, and alcohol. These are rākṣasa’s nourishment. Now they were throwing the yajña into the fire. If a ṛṣi becomes angry, then he will lose everything. Yajña will not be successful. If he keeps quiet, and rākṣasas are throwing impure things in the yajña fireplace, then the yajña will not be successful, and Agni Deva will be angry. So Viśvāmitra went to King Daśaratha and asked Daśaratha to send God Rāma to protect the yajña, protect it from the rākṣasas, so the yajña could be successful. And so Rāma came with his brother Lakṣmaṇa, and they hunted away all the Rākṣasas. And then the yajña was successful, so you are the Viśvāmitra. And you are doing yajña of your sādhanā. But the rākṣasas of anger, jealousy, hate, and the different disturbances from other people’s side come and disturb your sādhanā. Sometimes the husband disturbs the wife, or sometimes the wife disturbs the husband. Lucky are they that both of them have the same feeling, the same way, the same thinking, and the same spirituality, so the yajña of your life will then be successful. So that’s a little bit about mantra. There are still many things to tell about mantras, but you can begin now, from today onwards, your sādhanā. Don’t be angry if your husband is angry; let him be angry. You should not be angry. Or if your wife is angry, let her be angry; you should not be angry. When you will not be angry, then he will be more angry, and when he’s more angry, you are more cool. Cool and nice, then he will be angry with himself, that how stupid is he, that he is angry with such a humble, pure, nice person. So observe your twelve years. After twelve years, you will have ājñā powers. Write in your notebook every day. And if you stride till you are angry, the years are lost. Hard work? Better Swamiji should have spoken something different. So I wish you all the best, that your words will have truth in it, power in it, and through your mantra, through your spiritual sādhanā, you will help all, be honest, pay back all your karmas, because if you take from something... someone, and if you don’t give back, that’s also karma that will be an obstacle for your liberation. Never cheat. It is better to be cheated than to cheat. And whatever happens in life, it is our mistake. It is our weakness, and therefore we should better develop ourselves.