Darshan with Swami Krishnananda – 1995

by Swami Krishnananda

20. Japa of Gayatri Mantra

(Darshan given on August 24th, 1995)

A visitor: Wherever I go, wrong things enter the mind and create disturbance.

Swamiji: What are the wrong things? Tell me one wrong thing. Let me hear. What is the wrong thing that is coming to your mind? Give one instance.

Visitor: Accident or fire, that may happen. I may die. All these things.

Swamiji: If you think that some fire may come, it may really come also, because whatever you think will take place.

Visitor: I can't stay alone and do sadhana.

Swamiji: Since how long have you had this trouble?

Visitor: Since two months.

Swamiji: I will tell you one method so that all these thoughts will run away. Do Gayatri mantra japa. This is a mantra which glorifies the sun. The sun is the highest purity and greatest power, immeasurable energy. When you recite the mantra, feel that the great energy of the sun is coming into you. It is the representation of God Himself, surya pratyaksha devata. If you want to see God, you must see the sun. He is God Himself. If you recite this mantra, you draw the energy of the sun into yourself, and every day you must feel that now the trouble is going, the trouble is going, the trouble is going because fire-like energy is entering into you when you recite this mantra. You must take some time to do this mantra japa, not only two or three minutes. Three hundred times you do it in the morning – three malas. With every chant of the mantra, feel that energy from the sun is coming to you. The mind should not think anything else at that time, only surya. The blazing power is entering into you and destroying all evil of every kind. If you have time, you can do it even ten times, ten malas. If you have no time for that, do at least three malas. This you should do after taking a bath in the morning, facing the east, and if possible, again before dinner, or if it's not possible, then after dinner. Wash your mouth and sit. Do three malas in the morning, three malas in the evening. If you have time enough, you can increase the number. And the same number of malas should be done every day.

There is no power greater than this mantra, which can destroy all the foolish ideas in the mind. It is a kind of illusion in your mind. What you said has no meaning, really. There is no fire, no earthquake; nothing is there. Unnecessarily you are worrying. The defect is in your thinking itself. So the mind has to be illumined first, and this is the most powerful mantra to brighten the intellect. Yona prachodayat means 'brighten my intellect'. Your intellect becomes sharp and powerful and radiating. That is the prayer that you offer in this mantra. Do this japa every day, and feel that everything is all right. All the negative forces are gone completely because when the sunlight comes, all darkness goes. All these negative thoughts in your mind are like darkness, like cobwebs. The whole thing will vanish when sunlight falls on it. If you do this mantra every day, you will find everything will be all right. All these ideas will vanish. No other thing is necessary. Gayatri mantra japa is sufficient; no negative thought can arise afterwards. It will purify your mind. Do it with faith.

Another visitor: I feel my friend is selfish.

Swamiji: There are two things. One is social life, another is meditation. They are two different things. When you are meditating, you must also bring that selfish person into the field of consciousness. It is one centre of consciousness operating in a wrong way, but it is within the consciousness only. Sometimes the waves go this side, sometimes the waves go that side, but yet it is within the ocean only. This is how you have to think of selfish people, or anybody, in meditation.

But in social life your mind may not work like that, so you keep away from those people. You don't become friends with them. Otherwise, if you are a very strong person, you remove that selfishness by telling them some good thing. Then the selfishness of these people will go away. Do some good to people.

Visitor: In social life, I don't need to feel that another person's selfishness is mine?

Swamiji: No. In meditation you can feel like that, but if you have got a practical difficulty in your daily life you tell this person, “I have gone to Rishikesh and I have heard these things, very beautiful. Do you want to hear? I will tell you this.” Then if you tell that to the person again and again, the selfishness will go away. You are not selfish now; you have become very clear in your mind because I have told you something. Tell the same thing to other persons. Spread this knowledge everywhere nearby little by little, little by little, and you will make your whole country beautiful. Do some good to your friends also. They may be on the wrong path because they don't understand. Then you tell them, “I went to Rishikesh and learned all these things. It is a very good thing. You also do that.” Then they will feel happy, and they will also start meditating. Then you will have a good group for meditation. Everybody will be happy.

Visitor: Is there any way to do concentration?

Swamiji: Now you are concentrating on consciousness, isn't it?

Visitor: Does that have any image?

Swamiji: No, consciousness does not have any image because it is everywhere, but if you want an image, you can have one. What image do you want?

Visitor: When I try meditation, I cannot concentrate.

Swamiji: If you want an image, what kind of image do you want?

Visitor: Something.

Swamiji: Take Buddha's image. Think that he is a very powerful man, that he realises consciousness everywhere and so he is a figure of universal consciousness. Think of Buddha. Take a photo or an image, and keep it in front of you. Feel, “I am in the presence of a mighty, great power who has realised this universal consciousness.” Think of him again and again, again and again, again and again: Buddha, the great one, Buddha, the great one, Buddha, the great one. Centralise consciousness. Consciousness is centralised there. “Very powerful. I become like that. I want to become Buddha.” Go on thinking like that again and again, and you will become like Buddha afterwards.

Another visitor: I am a manager in a company. I want to know what is spirituality.

Swamiji: Management is nothing but a concept of wholeness in the mind of a person who manages. Only a person who has knowledge of what wholeness is can manage everything. Part by part, fraction by fraction, bit by bit it cannot work. At one stroke, the whole thing must be in your mind, whether it is industry or agriculture, or whatever it is. Spirituality is the concept of wholeness. Now I have told you what spirituality is. And the wholeness has many degrees. The family is a kind of whole organisation because though there are many members in a family, they work like a total organisation, so it is one unit. It is not made up of different individuals, but is one entire concrete organism. The family is also a part of many other families in the community. Hence, in the same way as an individual in the family is a part of the wholeness that is the family, the family also is an individual which constitutes part of the wholeness which is the entire community. So you will become a part of the community, rather than merely the family. This goes on in the same way. I am mentioning to you the concept of higher and higher. The entire state is one whole organisation, to which all the communities belong. Then comes the nation. The nation is a total whole which transcends all the particulars. And then you have got international wholeness. Then you have got universal wholeness, cosmic wholeness. This is the way you have to think, gradually. This process of thinking is spirituality.

Visitor: Does method flow out of meaning, or does meaning flow out of the method?

Swamiji: If a thing has no meaning, there is also no method. You don't practise a method in regard to meaningless things. There is some significance in it; meaning is there, and importance. Therefore, it is necessary to pursue it. The way of pursuing it is called method. The thing has to exist first. That is called the meaning, and then the way of reaching it is the method. If it does not exist at all, the method also cannot exist. The city of Delhi must exist first before you travel to that place. If it does not exist at all, there is no question of travelling there. So the meaning or the significance of a thing is first, and the modus operandi or the method of reaching it is afterwards. The thing is first, the effort is afterwards.

Visitor: Swamiji, what makes a place holier than other places?

Swamiji: It is the percentage of divinity that pervades that place. What makes a person very great? You say that person is a great man. How he has become a great man? Can you tell me? Ordinarily, every person is like every other person – same eyes, same nose, same hunger, same thirst. Everybody looks alike, but why is one person called a great man? There is the presence of a supernatural power in that person that makes him great, and so also is the reason for the greatness or importance of a place. There is a supernatural vibration acting and operating in that particular place – something beyond nature; divine, you may call it. That is the reason behind it.