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Mantra Practice Is The Biggest Blessing

A morning satsang on mantra practice, purification, and self-healing.

"Vāk-siddhi follows vāk-śuddhi. Śuddhi means purification and siddhi means perfection."

"Negative thinking means poisoning oneself or darkening your own phenomenon. Positive thinking means purification and the healing process."

The lecturer leads a discourse exploring the purification of speech (vāk-śuddhi) as a foundation for spiritual power (vāk-siddhi). He explains how mantra practice, particularly the Upāṃśu and Ajapa-Japa levels, purifies the energy body and the Viśuddhi chakra, transforming the 'poison' of negative thoughts into wisdom. The talk covers themes of fear, self-healing, and the gap between spiritual aspiration and worldly attachment, concluding with a detailed Ayurvedic neem therapy for skin purification.

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Good morning to everybody. It is nice to see you here. Someone is doing prāṇāyāma in the hall. When so many people are present, the air is not good. Prāṇāyāma will not be healthy for you to do now. Always this Denny from Slovenia, wherever he is sitting, he is holding prāṇāyāma. Also, I would like to welcome our dear Professor Sadeśmukh from India, an Ayurveda professor. But it seems he is not here in this area. As usual, people keep him busy. So, we will speak something also about Neem today. And I think Professor Sadeshmukh is a proper professor. Professor means proper sir. Can you tell us the benefits of the Neem? But now our mantra is the subject. Many people are waiting for that, not for the neem, but for the mantra. Well, yesterday we spoke about mantra and saṅkalpa: Vāk-śuddhi and vāk-siddhi. Vāk-siddhi follows vāk-śuddhi. Śuddhi means purification and siddhi means perfection. That saṅkalpa-śakti can only be developed when our words, our vākyā, are pure. It means in our citta-vṛtti, no negative, harmful thoughts should be towards our self or towards the outer world. By practicing vāk-śuddhi for a long time, then comes vāk-siddhi. At that time, when vāk-śuddhi is achieved, positive or divine vibrations develop in the heart. The Upāṃśu level of mantra, also the Vekrī mantra, purifies three chakras: Maṇipūra, Anāhata, and Viśuddhi. The name of the Viśuddhi cakra itself gives the introduction: "viṣ" means poison and "śuddhi" means purification. Which kind of poison? The poison is that we have poisoned our inner antaḥkaraṇa—manas, buddhi, citta, ahaṃkāra—with negative energy which we hear, we see, or we speak. It is said also that in psychology they say negative thinking means poisoning oneself or darkening your own phenomenon. Positive thinking means purification and the healing process of your phenomenon. We know that any negative activities, if we are mistakenly involved, will harm and disturb us, and trouble us a lot. So it is true, psychology speaks of darkening or poisoning oneself with negative thoughts. For example, if we have a fear because we have pain somewhere in our body, and then we have fear because nowadays a very common disease is cancer or psychic problems, which they also call schizophrenia. Now, who doesn't have fear from this? We all have fear. We don't wish, and we don't want, and we pray to God that this should not happen to us. And we are trying very hard to practice our way of living, good eating, healthy eating, healthy dress, the material, healthy water; everything we try very hard to live healthy. In the last four decades, we humans have produced a lot of pollution—physical pollution. We are afraid to drink water from water fountains, rivers, lakes, even the water tap. We are living on bottled water. And you don't know from where the bottle was filled. Only we think it's mineral water, that's all. And if you check inside, how much mineral is there? It is less mineral than the mineral of the river water, less mineral than the mineral water of the lake. But they are polluted now. So we do our best: we go for a walk, we practice sport, yoga, and many other things to be healthy. Why? Because in our subconscious we are afraid; we have fear not to become ill. And when somewhere you have the pain, or there is this world, saṃsāra-sāgara, this ocean of the world, there are little swans and more crows. Saṃsāra-sāgara, kāmahaṃsa, jaḍabhāgara. Now, we begin to think, "Oh God, I have some kind of swelling in my muscles." It could be, maybe you just hit somewhere on your body or something. It can be, why not? But it is not that I have some knot in my body, but automatically we turn to thinking, "I hope it is not a cancer." And this is negative thinking. Now, this negative thinking goes to our subconscious, and we repeat it consciously and unconsciously, and we feel a kind of pain in the body. We feel that our body is threatened. By whom? By our own thinking. So negative thinking means not only that you think negatively about her or him or them, but also towards ourselves. Now, when we practice upāṁśu mantra, also vekhrī mantra from the navel, it goes through anāhata, then comes to the viśuddhi. So viṣ is the poison, śuddhi is purification. So here, the poison of our ignorance is filtered into the nectar of wisdom. And that means the seed of Saraswatī, God is Saraswatī. And Saraswati, it is said, in Kaṇṭha Kamala, these are the names, Kaṇṭha is the throat, Kamala is the lotus, so we can say the Viśuddhi Cakra. That means that in your words, what you speak, there is Saraswati speaking, not you. And Saraswati, she is the goddess of wisdom and learning. And so, the Upāṃśu mantra, through practice, purifies the Viśuddhi chakra. So when someone comes on the podium or on the stage and begins to speak, you tell anything? Please, can you introduce something, or can you introduce the program? Need not write any notes. He or she looks at the room's atmosphere and begins to talk. And looking to the room, not like this. If you look to one or two persons like this, you can't talk. Because in Vāk-siddhi, in Sarasvatī's vision, it becomes equal vision. You see the people, but you don't see them. You have no communication as a very individual, but you have communication to all in one place. At that time, the Upāṃśu mantra is going on. Everyone, almost all who come on the stage, somehow think, according to their belief, "God, help me." And many, they like to talk about so many things. Talking here in the corner, and all the times I tell you, talking. And do you know? And you know how it was? And do you know this? All the time, blah, blah... like a chicken. And a telephone and telephone. All the, we call the trachea, or the trachea in Dutch is trachea. In English, I think we are always chatting all the time. But when this person, you can please, can you give the introduction today? Immediately gets the, what they call, the stage fever, the bunen fever. Satsaṅg, we satsaṅgīs. Namaste, everyone. There, even only you give the telephone talk. Yes. I have Vedic vision, speak in front. Okay, that's it. Light a moment and nothing. How you see the chittering like this. Hand. Park is on. That means there is no Saraswati. Less talking and more hearing and giving insight, already the judgment and purifying the atmosphere is the wise one. So that was an old oak. There was a bird sitting on the old oak, and she heard more and spoke less. Wasn't she very wise, that bird on the oak? Old oak, so wise are they who speak less and listen, and then digest what the people call the reader's digestion. So vak-siddhi yoga teacher, when one begins to give yoga classes, they are practicing in the beginning already the upāṁśu mantra, and when they will say, "Nāhaṁ kartā, prabhu dīpa kartā, mahā prabhu dīpa kartā, he kevalam." It means you gave your responsibility to your co-pilot. Then you have Vāk-siddhi. So when someone speaks well, then in India we used to say, what can we say about this person? In his or her throat, Saraswatī is sitting. In his words, Saraswatī is there. This comes from the practice of the mantra Upāṁśa. Then, after that, the Upāṁśa mantra, when through Upāṁśa in the Kaṇṭhakamal, in the throat, Sarasvatī is awakened, and you gave your responsibilities, and you begin to talk. When you are speaking, giving a lecture, by every word you don't say, then you say, "Ladies and gentlemen, nice to see you, good morning." It's not like that. That upāṃśu turns automatically into ajapa. Sarasvatī is speaking in you. The Ajapa mantra is your wish, your prayer, your intention. What you would like to speak or tell the people. It goes through that filter, and it is ajapa mantra. The level of the ajapa practice guides you further. Then, when ajapa is there, no one tells you to do it. When you just turn the key of your car to start automatically, many of you say now, "Deep Nayan Bhagavān Kī Jai." And even the small children who learn from the parents, they are also sitting behind on the baby chair, or baby chair or child chair, and say, "Jai." And one day, when father or mother doesn't say "Jai," then the child says, "Jai." Yes, that is ajapa. So when the ajapa level is reached, all functions happen automatically. Then you don't have to worry about anything. All is organized in the right place. So vāk śuddhi, pānī me śuddha thā, vyavahār me śuddha thā, āhār me śuddha thā, vichār me śuddha thā, aur vyavahār mein śuddhatā, bolane mein bhī śuddhatā, sochane mein bhī śuddhatā, tab śuddhīkaraṇ hotā hai. Clear? Very good. So is that. Śuddhatā means pure, purity, cleanliness. In speaking, śuddhatā means, I told you day before yesterday from Tulasīdāsa jī, to make all friends, there is only one magic. And that magic is, then all will be your friends. And you know, when inside is impurity, even if you don't speak anything, you can see it on the face. That's called face reading, psychologically. When someone is offended, immediately the face has a different shape. And when you are jealous, immediately you have a different shape. And for many, a jealous person mostly has these veins in tension here, stretched, this kind of vein. And clearly, to see who has thinned, not too many kilos, you know. So there is really such a tension. It must not be in all cases, but in some cases, persons who always have such tensions have these blood circulation problems in these veins, and a little supply of blood towards the brain. And then the memory gets lost. Many things happen. So when we speak, our neck should be very relaxed. Then, here comes more nourishment; otherwise, it's dried. Here, relaxed, then the heart is relaxed. You know, almost everybody, there is one Swami or Master, whatever you will call. This is Sri Śrī Ravi Śaṅkarjī, and he often tells in his lecture, if you smile, then only three muscles have to work, and all other muscles are relaxed. And if you are angry or jealous and you can't smile, then 64 muscles are in tension, the whole body. So, it's your choice. Do you want all your muscles to be in tension, or just to move a little nicely and all are relaxed? How nice. With three, we have relaxed all. Or with the three, we put all in trouble. So, that is again coming from vāk-śuddhi, śabda-śuddhi, āhār-śuddhi, vihār-śuddhi. The nourishment, purification, pure nourishment, sattvic nourishment, vihāra-śuddhi. Where you are going, to whom you are meeting, should also be a pure atmosphere. Vāk-śuddhi, speak positive and good. So these are the negative thinkings which are compared with poison to oneself. And it depends on us. Doesn't matter how angry you are, how disappointed you are, how whatever, one day you will die. All will remain here, but you will go with, unfortunately, only those karmic impressions that even you have hated yourself. Then there is no ajapā-japa, and there is no upāṃśu. And if there is fear, fear,... fear—yesterday Śāntī told you one story: that one man went into the house of the God, and God was sitting behind the door, and he went in, but... He looked in, there is no God. But if I will see the God, then all my joy of the life is gone, because God will say, "Okay, stay here. You want to see me so much." And then you said, "I am hungry." God said, "No problem. You were hungry of me." So, but the story goes like this further. He didn't find, and he wanted to go out, and God was sitting behind the door. Now he is in front of the door; it depends from which side you go. And God said, "I go with you." He said, "No, no..." You stay here because when God will go with you, then again you can't do what you want. So God said, "Then why did you come?" He said, "Just want to see how you look." So it means he lost his 89% visualization and his wish to see God. Everyone, you said to go to church and, "Jesus, you are mine, only mine, I am yours." And can you imagine from the cross, suddenly Jesus makes like this? Will you stay in the church? He will say, "Yes, my child. It's a little bloody, my hand, but it's fine." So it is very easy that we say, "We love you, Jesus." We love you, Kṛṣṇa. We love you, Rāma. We love you, Mahāprabhujī. But when reality comes in, you say, I mean, not like that. So this kind of fear is within us, and that's it. It is, our words are not that kind of words which have the truth inside. We are searching for the truth only here. But truth towards God, to be one with God, I think 99.5. None of us have that truth or trust or wish. Even me, I am sitting here, and Devpurījī comes and says, "Okay, now we go, come on, let's go to Śivaloka." I will say, "Yes, Gurudev, let's go, but I have to do my Om Āśram finished first, and you know, I have to give everybody mālā and blessings, and then we..." Can go, so my dear, it is not easy. We are selfish, only for certain things, that God should fulfill this for us, and then He should go. We have nothing to do with Him. Yes, in my opinion, including myself, I'm telling. We are 99.5 percent not prepared and not clear that if God will come, let's say, all we are sitting and God comes and, "Okay, this is all," is like a Puṣpabāhana aeroplane, "Let's go to Brahmaloka." He will say, "Mā, Prabhujī, my children, my wife," My husband, I have to cook dinner for my husband. So that's why we don't have that śuddhi. Phool tujhe chāḍhanā thā, vo phool meṁ dhuṇḍhanā payā. That flower which I want to offer to thee, O Lord, I couldn't find. I traveled everywhere, all lokas, but I didn't find anywhere. But finally I realized, oh Lord, that flower may be somewhere, but it was my mistake that I couldn't find it. That's it. So it means not that all who are sitting here don't have that wish. Honestly, I would ask you today, let's say if God comes and says, "Let's go to Brahmaloka," who will be ready to go now? Now, raise your hand up. Okay, thank you. Don't go home, stay here. Okay, no eating from today, no drinking, no sleeping, and not going home. Stay here, finished, because you will come to Brahmaloka, and we will say bye-bye to you. We will make a very good farewell, okay, that's it, no śānti, yes, therefore we quit the Brahmaloka, we quit the Brahmaloka and we go to Skopje Loka. Where is Skopje Loka? Slovenia, that's it. Therefore, the subject is that Ajapa Japa. Ajapa Japa spontaneously moves this positive energy, healthy energy, divine energy of your chakra, which you did Vāk-śuddhi. Otherwise, your chakra is also, and your mantra is also not purified. You need purification of the mantras. You see, there is a lot of śiva liṅga you can buy anywhere, a lot of statues of the goddess, but still, when there is no abhiṣeka... Ceremony done is only stone, but these are the mantras there and anugraha, anugraha of the temple and a statue. Then we give inside prāṇa abhiṣeka, means prāṇa, and that we call prāṇa pratiṣṭhā in Sanskrit, prāṇa pratiṣṭhā, and prāṇa pratiṣṭhā means. In the statue, we put the life inside. There is not more any statue, big rock, big rock stone. And now the sculptor, the sculptor comes with the hammer and piece of iron. He sits on this big rock with his shoes and begins to. Make a statue, and then he takes his beads and puts on it, and he's making his statue, but one day he will make this statue so beautiful, and then we will buy that statue and we will put it on the altar, we will give the prāṇa-praṭiṣṭhā ceremony. And the same master who was sitting with shoes and everything will fold his hands and prostrate himself in front of that statue. That is my creation. I bow down to my creation. He, there was a day he bought the stone and was sitting on it with his dirty shoes and everything. But today he puts his shoes outside, and he comes to the statue because of prāṇa pratiṣṭhā, prāṇa inside. Life is given inside. So Mahāprabhujī said, "May mera nija āpuhu, tattva masi nirmoye, kartā hūm may vandanā merī mujhko hoye." Can someone close this curtain? That sun is reflecting too strongly from the car window. Or move the car, please. Thank you. Little more. Thank you. So, are you not this one? Yes, this one. Thank you. May mera nijaapu tatva masi nirmoye. I am myself. May mera nijaapu. There are two kinds of me. One is ego and one is ātmā. So, I am that, my reality, that Ātmā. I am now of all the Tattvas and Nirmohī. I have no moha, no attachment, no ignorance. And I pray, I salute. My prayer, my salute is to myself, the Ātmā. That time is Brahma Jñāna. That time is many things. Now, some person was raising a hand: "I am ready to go to Brahma Loka." And someone will tell him something, so offended—it doesn't matter if he or she is offended by you—but even she will not talk to me for five weeks and said, "I want to go to Brahma Loka. I don't." Believe her or him, and now he will be so offended, as Swamiji told in front of all. But he is very happy that I didn't tell the name. No Shanti? That could be the Shanti or who? Ashanti, no? So anybody. So it is not easy. So Ajapā, Ajapā. May Mera Nijayapahum Tatva Masi Nirmoye Kartahum May Vandana Meri Mujhako Ho. This is in Mahāprabhujī's Anubhav Prakāś Bhajan book. Beautifully said. So the subject was Viśuddhi Cakra, Viṣa Śuddha, purification of the poison. And not the poison that you get, food poisoning. That is also a poison. But food poisoning a doctor can treat. But your mental poison, no one can treat. That is, we poisoned ourselves through our attitude, through our thinking, through our many, many things. And that's very hard, and therefore there is no doctor who can help us; only you yourself can help. Finally, you have to work. The master will give you the mantra, but you have to work it. And don't think that the master didn't give me a good mantra. Every mantra is a good mantra. Many years you are practicing your mantra, and still you are unhappy. And why? And how? And this horrible, terrible... What is a hurry and bull? And what is a Terry and bull? There's a name of a person called Terry. Hi, Terry, how are you? So, these are different things. Therefore, mantra practice is the... The biggest blessing for everyone is that they have such a beautiful mantra and techniques. Now it depends on you if you will practice or you will not practice. And I tell you, you will find very rare gurus in this world who will tell you so. Many things about them, only someone who is talking again and again, and after and after so much explanation, again you have the question, again you are suffering, again you are unhappy. That is your, then it is said, not even God cannot help you. Then it must be something wrong, like the tail of a dog. You keep it straight, and you lose it again; it goes back. My master told me only, mind, there are four levels of mantra practicing. And even I didn't say what is the difference between them. And he didn't give me the lecture for hours and hours. And so I am explaining to you. So the Ajapa mantra, the level of the Ajapa mantra is a purification of that poison, meaning that disease, a self-healing process. And many of us would like to have some healing process. Doesn't matter how it is, this body is immortal or immortal. That we will deal with after. But in the present is our body, and our body is above everything. Nobody has to say anything to my body. And that's why everybody has one body. But my body is different than others' bodies. And I must take care of my body, and this should learn everybody that we should take care of our own body. So, if there is God or no God, we would like to be healthy. That's the main thing, yes? So health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health. But you know, health is also nothing if there is no body. Who will enjoy the body? Therefore, first is our body that we practice, and we get self-healing power. A doctor can only help us if we help the doctor to follow the rules and regulations. Anyone can, the child cannot walk, we give a finger, holding for a while, but finally the child has to learn walking. And this is, so the problem is that many people think the doctor will help me, and the doctor said, "I can't help you your whole long life. I suggest you do this and that's all." So finally, you have to do it. So we can try to do our mantra as a healing, and that is healing power that you buy by acceleration and inhalation. Ascending and descending prāṇa: when we inhale, it is prāṇa, incoming energy, and when we exhale, it is apāna, outgoing energy. And with ajapā, when we are in the ajapā level, then we are in the whole body. So always think, take positive, pure energy in and negative energy out. Therefore, I think the great ṛṣi Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." Now, nirodha means two things: control or purify. Śuddhi. Vichāra śuddhi. Śuddhi vichāra. Pure thoughts, pure thinking. So chitta vṛtti nirodha. So don't think that you are ill, and you are ill, and... this is pain, and that is pain. Everything is okay. So self-healing and self-supporting are very, very important. So ajapa is that level where you sit and you are already in divine consciousness. But as long as you are in the japa, you meditate and say, "Fifteen minutes, my bus will go." I don't want to miss my bus like yesterday. In my company, many people have quit. They were dismissed from their jobs. I don't want to lose my job. Mahāprabhujī will help. So you are not in a japa. You are in some japa, and that japa is for yourself. Apa japa. Apa means the same. So, my dear, I wish you all the best, and if you have any questions, we will talk again about this. Some people have to go to the bus, because I was talking about the bus, and therefore, self-healing outside at night in the water. If you want to write, you can write it. Don't tell me tomorrow, please. How to watch it, Swāmījī? Oh, God. Now, listen very carefully to the beauty. You have to do it only once a week, and you will get such beautiful skin. Whenever you go, your skin—you will say, "Oh, it's like a baby's skin." Yes, baby. It is a baby's skin that is given. By mother, and there's a nature mother. Now, there are four things involved in this, not only neem. Morning, Sunday, or on a day once a week when you have time—even if it can be midnight—you buy an orange, not a mandarin, an orange. And try to buy that orange if you can get one which is not completely ripe, half ripe, or 80% ripe. Croatians, Slovenians have no problem because they have many. Okay, so cut the orange in two pieces. And now, with this orange as it is, whole, you rub your whole skin everywhere, your whole body. Like you brush it or clean it clear, without dress, because I was doing like this. After that, you take this neem, which you put in water for a few hours, and you apply it on the whole body, cream. Whole body and look into the mirror. At least we have to, we have to bring that chair for his excellency, the ambassador of India is coming, so please. Here, one chair, he is already here, so you rub all on it and then look into the mirror, and then you make. One, it's called yoga exercise, yes, and that's called Maṇḍūkī Mudrā, you know, Maṇḍūkī, frog. Good, thank you. So this is a masala between. So we welcome his excellency, Chair is coming, Ask Krishnanand. Where is the chair for His Excellency? They thought you would come at 11:30. We are very punctual. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. First, we need a chair. So, where was I? In the frog's life. Thank you. This is for His Excellency Vivek Purī. Tell Krishna, "Hey, hey, boy, boy..." Don't be nervous, all is right. Give him this chair, too, for ambassador. Yes, now, okay, this chair. Thank you, yes, yes. We were waiting a little late, but protocol was too late. Thank you. Come here, here... No, no... Yeah, yes, a little more bag, flowers, look okay, and then after, I will, uh... So now, what we did with neem, so the neem should remain on your body minimum 20 minutes. If it is winter, put the heater, and if it is summer, enjoy nice cool. Actually, neem has a cool effect on the body. After 20 minutes, wash yourself with warm water, or the water temperature which you like. This is the second process, yes. Now, third, after washing the whole body from the neem cream, now you take pure... All talking about organic, but I don't know which. Organic, or something, must be yellow mustard oil. Yellow mustard oil you find in many food shops, in the health food stores. If not, then in Ayurveda. And then you oil your whole body with the mustard oil. It is a beautiful... you can massage yourself. Your face, your skin, all with the mustard oil, you will feel it like in the body something is happening positive, yes, not negative. And you wait again 15 minutes, just sit there. You can do your ajapa japa. Mustard oil after 15 minutes. Then you wash yourself with the neem or sandalwood soap, a sandal soap. That's it. The whole week, you will feel such a purification in the body and such a beautiful feeling. All marmas will go out of the body, all vikāras will go out of the body, and this outer pollution. Physical pollution, air pollution, will not so much affect your skin. So you need a lot of neem to put it in a katorī, and the next day you do it very nicely. The whole family can do it. Then you need one kilo of neem. Why not? Don't worry, we will provide a lot of neem from India. Or you come to India and take it gratis. We will give you as much as you like. This is a very, very good therapy for the skin, for the prāṇāyāma, for breathing, and for the glandular systems. And what I told you before about these four, five levels of mantras, so upāṁśu, between mānasik and ajapa-japa, this nīm therapy is very important. So now I will give you a 15 or 20 minute interval. And after 20 minutes, again, we will come to the webcast. My dear friends, brothers, sisters, spiritual seekers, stay on the webcast. Now we have 11, and 11:20 will be another program. I would like to introduce you then to His Excellency, the Ambassador of India to Hungary, Budapest, Gauri Śaṅkarjī Gupta, and he is a philosopher. He is a Vedāntī, and he has studied, and his experiences, and— Knowledge about Vedānta. So today he will give some glimpse of the Vedānta towards our physical being. So enjoy the 20-minute interval. Don't occupy me, I am going with him to have a cup of tea. Thank you.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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