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Mantra and Mala

A spiritual discourse on the use of prayer beads (mala) and the practice of mantra.

"Life is everything. Whether it is a human, a cow, a buffalo, a goat, or any being... its soul, that Ātmā, is to see our Self."

"One mala means for us one step toward God. One step to God. This mala goes with mantra."

A speaker delivers a teaching on spiritual practice, emphasizing reverence for all life and the importance of constant remembrance of God. He explains the purpose of the mala as a tool for mantra repetition, detailing two methods: one with a guru bead for seated practice and another for constant, walking remembrance (sumaran). He shares anecdotes about devotion, including a story about Hanuman, and concludes by describing the ultimate goal of merging with divine light.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī. Devādidev, Dev Purīṣa Mahādev Kī. Satguru Svāmī Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Alak Purījī Mahādev Kī. Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Jaya. Om Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpanārāya, ... Haṁsabhādas Prabhuśaraṇa Parāyaṇam, Śrī Prabodhī, Śrī Prabodhī, Hamsabhadassaprabhosarparayanam, Śrī Prabodhī, Śrī Prabodhī, Hamsabhadassaprabhosarparayanam, Śrī Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Devādhi Deva, Dev Purī Samādhi, Mādhāvanānjī Bhagavān kī, Satya Sanātana Dharma kī, Jai. Life is everything. Whether it is a human, a cow, a buffalo, a goat, or any being—in water, on earth, in the forest—its soul, that Ātmā, is to see our Self. Jīva Jīva Bhakṣati (the living being consumes the living being). But humans should know, and they do. There are two: one which is eating animals, many different things, but who is that human? It will come a long time, through many countries and places. But it takes a long time to come to him, that Ātmā, Paramātmā. In that, we understand and say, for each and every one, they will pray not to kill, not to do this. As long as many are doing all this, they are not very far. It will not be. It is said we should know when we feel pain, then we say, "Oh my God, it's not good." Even we ourselves, we feel and we say, "What are we doing?" It is not easy to become that yogī who will, after many, many years, come close to God, who is God. We come close, we come close. If we have done something we did not know—we step on some animal and we kill some animals or something, but we did not know it—then, "O God, please, please God, forgive me." But those who we know do this, kill them, eat them, etc., then it will not be for those who will come to that supreme, the gods. Others will come again; that's not what they will do. That's why sant, śānt. When the saint is that, then they are not we run, not we take many things. "I am this, I am great and this." That means it is only life, like a window. Yes, then it comes like, "I'm very great," and with this, then we lost down. We are coming, "I am higher," and this and that. It's okay, good. But it is going down in that. But when we, of course, help the people, speak to the people, give to the people, then, of course, this is what we are doing, really very good for everyone and animals or anything. So, Gurudev, Mādhavānandjī Bhagavān, that night and day and night, our Satguru Swami Mādhavānandjī was all the time as he was in his mālā. Some people, they give the mala in the hall, in the house, in hand, or in this. But at any time, we should have a mala in our hand. And mala means that each and every day, every minute, we are thinking of God. This is a mala, and one mala means for us one step toward God. One step to God. This mala goes with mantra. Your guru gives you mantra, your mother gives you mantra, your father gives you mantra, your student, the teacher, gives you the awesome name. Everything, each and every, and so who can do this? There are so many people, and I show you again. Always, for example, the Muslim people, even their little children, girls and boys, in the morning they make prayer. Also midday, evening. So they give such a, to their children, to their, their religion, their this. But always, yes, we do this. We also, we also, in the morning when the child comes, the mother, she's giving good things. The father also gives, comes, practices, gives the mantra, pūjā, prasāda, and then can play with animals, or why not? But first is the seva and guru. That is a guru. First is the mother, the father, friends, and then comes the gurudeva. If the parents cannot give this all, and all running this and that, then these children, they cannot work anything, and they cannot come. We have many, many—I saw in India now, also in India—many, many people that their parents, morning they come to the prathānā. I was somewhere in Āyurveda. So that Swamiji's, that their parents made such good children, they come spiritually inside, and they always come and praṇām, pray. I was yesterday evening in Jodhpur. And some people came, they came to me, they saw me, and then went with me, and then they said, "Please come to my house, come to my house." I don't know them, and this, but no, no, please, Gurujī, and I want to go somewhere else, but they brought me. So their children were there, they also sit and make praṇām, really. And so those parents, how they give their children to give peace, harmony, good, good to everything, and prayers. Everybody says, "Oṁ praṇām," with both hands. We said, we said both, we fold our hands and then we bow down when we see the two persons. Then we have these two hands, and with both hands we get together, and what we said? Namaste, namaste, praṇām. So this is the, mostly it is that always hold your hands, and it means that we both, you and me, we pray to God to give you good, everything. It is said many times that one comes and gives the hand like this and does not know what they can make. And when we take the hands, what happens? What is there? But it is like this, that you and me, we pray to God. So you know that if you go to many other countries also, when I go to Australia and other places, and the city, other places there also, they always greet with the praṇām. When I go to Australia, Australia, and I come to the... There are other countries at the aeroplane. When the people, they come to India already from there, when they come, they stand. People from certain countries with so praṇām like this. So this is all from India, and this too. Hold that part of this all, and still there was Rāma, Bhagavān Rāma, Rāma... Vīkya, so very peaceful, very pure, very clean, and always giving the people something. This is that, how we, in that, and that is which is that we go with mala. This, many people, they are Buddha, from the Buddha. And all Buddha's people, they also all the time make praṇām. Many, the children, and they all go for the, kya kya de, bhikṣam. Bhikṣam, they, bhikṣam. They are South India, South India. There was, now is not so much, otherwise they all, they come there again to them praṇām or jūmā nābhi kā vikṣam. Here also, in India, in Rajasthan, the paṇḍits, the paṇḍits, the good paṇḍits, the brāhmaṇs, they go also to the bhikṣā. Now he slowly forgets, he goes to our village, in our village, in our village. Please give me God. Vīkṣāṃ Deī. And then also you can say, when we give something to others, this is also good, good things. So mālā are two. There are two malas. This is one mala, which has 108. Between, there is only one, so it is only 22. Now, this is a mala, so that we are holding the mala. If it is, we do it with the right hand. But let's say one has a right hand, and the fingers are not good, then they will take it, the left one. Why not? But mostly we are doing like this, so we take the mālā. So, mālā, we take in two fingers, middle finger and small finger, like this. Then, in this, one bead, mala, and with the thumb, holding this bead like this. And this one is not for using. It should not be. You can hold it here or like this. Or sometimes you can say, "I need something for like this." It's a joke, but this finger will remain here. So the middle finger takes this beat, holding the thumb, and pulls inside one. Om, om,... om. This hand should not be there. When we are coming near to this, then we go like this. This is Guru Mukhī. So we are holding this middle finger and thumb. Now, what we do, we should not go through. We look again like this, and we come to this one again. So we go like this, and we come again here, and we are turning here. We are coming here like this. This is the mantra. This is the mantra we are making. The mantra, how long I will have my prathana or kus, so this is only for this. And then the other one is another, and that's called Sumaran. Sumaran means walk, walk, walk. So, this one has no guru point. If you put this in, then it's not good. Then it's not good. Then, of course, you can also turn like this, but going constantly, then it means your mala, your mantra, is like how we are taking breath in and out, we inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale the whole night, we are sleeping, but we are going with the breath in and out. So, this is the—we don't know my time, thousands, millions of times—we are doing this, and the mala is going there. This is the one that will be there all the time. But when you have this mala, sit down, and then how many malas you will do, it is yours. One mala, two mala, three mala, four mala, it is there. This is because I will sit here for ten malas. Then I will sit like this. You can be like this, or you can do like this. Or, in our cloth, we put it here, cloth, and here the mālā is going. Then it is that we are really practicing, and good. These two malas. Now, there are other things. For example, you say this mala is too big because the beads are very big and it is too big. We can say half. We can have half. Then twice it will ruin. Then it becomes one mala. But it's half, it will go like this, but it will be 101, it will be. So, mālā, mālā is the greatest. Then we will see that we are going with our mantra. And then it's many different things, we will talk tomorrow perhaps, if I'm there, about how we are doing. So, mālā, or yeh mālā, yehī mālā hamārī hai, mālā, oṁ, all the time. And Hanumānjī, how he was doing, and when, so what was he doing then? Ram, Ram... and was something happening? Then what was he doing? Yeah, so something is going on, you cannot end this. Then we said, "Rām, Rām,... Rām." So what happened? When Sita, Hanumanjī, and Lakṣmaṇ all came out and were sitting, and Rāma was sitting down. Hanuman jī was sitting like this, and all the time he was doing, "Rām, Rām,... Rām, Hanuman jī." But Rām, all the time Bhagavān Rām is looking at Hanuman jī. Then what happened? Who said? Sītā, Sītā saw so, Sītā, Bhagavān, he don't look to me, only to Hanumān. Why this? Then he said, "I am with you, but Hanuman is that, that I cannot go away from him." Ram ka jo hai, toh wohī apnā Rām hai. Your Rām is your mother, your father, your brother, your good friend. They are also like Bhagavān Rām and Hanumanjī. So, how do we sleep in that time? This will go more and more and more. This is our path, and one day, that means we came above to God, far, far above God, then we are gone. That becomes the whole ocean, everywhere. All the clouds and everything are nothing but only the whole light. This is that. Many, many people are working all the time. Ram, Ram,... Ram. As Ramjī, so Hanumanjī, so what quickly? Ram, Ram,... We were once in the Kumbh Melā, and all the people were chanting, "Rām, Sītā Rām, Sītā Rām,... Sītā Rām." We could not make our mantra: "Rām, Sītā, Rām, Sītā,... Rām, Sītā." We cannot make our mantras, so it is something we should not do. Of course, mentally we should go. They should also make it like this. This is a different one. So that is, where are you? It means when all the time our mantra is going like this, then we don't go to the negative things. Negative things, yes, then in the mood, in the mood, it is not like this to see, to do, to do, because Rāma, Rāma... So that Rāma's name goes, if you look at the other side, so from today, from tomorrow, see this, this garland is there. So in this, don't do that. You people are the best of everything. Ram Ram... ...

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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