Delhi, India
If a bad word can create so much physiological reactions in you, do you think a very sweet name, a chanting, which includes a lot of energy of the cosmos does not do anything to your body?
It is unscientific and stupid to think that a mantra does not do anything to your body. That is not the case! It does.
Mantras bring out all the positive energy inside you. That is why it is called mantra kavach; a mantra creates the sense of an armor around your body.
Sometimes you meet some people and you feel like talking to them. You get good vibes from them. Sometimes you meet people and you want to avoid them. Do you know why? The negative vibes around a person make them repulsive. Mantras turn around these negative, repulsive vibrations, into more positive and attractive vibrations. This is the advantage of mantra chanting.
Today, if you go to New York, you will find hundreds of places where they learn chanting. People go for one hour in the evenings to chanting classes. They chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’,’ Om Namo Narayana’, ‘Sri Rama Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’. Of course, they have a different pronunciation.
In China, they say, ‘Ladhe Ladhe’ instead of ‘Radhe Radhe’.
In Taiwan, 7,000 people to 8,000 people sing ‘Ladhe Govind’ instead of ‘Radhe Govind’.
People have seen that there is an effect. And there really is!
Now when should you do it? If you do chanting after pranayama and meditation, then it has a better result. If you do it at a superficial level, then it is not so effective.
Sometimes you get all these questions, ‘Why does God make old people, who studied all their life, die? Why did Einstein die? He should have given him another 200 years. Why are new children born? They have to study all the way up to standard 12, then go to college, and go through all this trouble?’
Sometimes, God seems to be short of good advice. If you have good advice for God, we can give it to Him for the next set of creation. Don’t worry!
Some of these questions, you can only wonder about them. ‘Why are poor people there? Why are rich people there? Why are there two nostrils in one nose, it could have been one big hole? He has given two eyes in the same place; one could have been in the front and the other at the back!’ There could be many ideas or suggestions you can give to God.
Anyway, if you understand Vedanta, dive deeper into the Vedanta philosophy, many truths, many secrets will open up to you. Read Yoga Vasishta, it is a fantastic book.
Do you know, the University of New York has taken copyrights for the translation of Yoga Vasishta in English? It is a very exciting book.
How many of you have seen the movie Matrix and Inception? Do you know what the source of these movies is? How many of you don’t know? It is Yoga Vasishta!
The story, the essence, the philosophy, the basis of these movies is Yoga Vasishta.
When Sri Rama was a youth like you, he was very depressed. He was worried about this nation, the country, and he got so depressed. His Guru, Vasishta, gave him some advice, and the book which contains this knowledge is called Yoga Vasishta. It is an absolutely thrilling and exciting book to read.
GOD is ‘Generator’, ‘Operator’ and ‘Destroyer’, that principle is called GOD. Brahma (generator), Vishnu (operator) and Mahesh (destroyer), but there is only one parmatma (God). Atom, the quantum field itself, you can call as God; the field in which everything has happened. It is that one thing that forms itself into many. If you want to hear in an artist’s words, then ‘Love is God, and God is Love’.
Suppose I come back next time, wouldn’t you like to comeback with me, and have a lot of fun here? We can have a lot of fun! Life is all fun.
‘Ananda dhi khilbi bhootani jayanti’, the whole world is made out of bliss. We have come to play here. Take life as leela or play.
This is the greatest gift of India to the world; we said, ‘Life is a game’; ‘Life is a play’. It is not a struggle. When you think of life as a struggle, you are miserable.
Just see, on a football ground, you will find people falling and fighting over one little ball. If you see it all as a struggle, you wonder why they are struggling so much. Just give one ball to each one of the players, let them kick it in the goal, and sit in the goal if they want to! However, if you see all this as a play, then it is fun! Someone is pushing the ball from here, someone is kicking it there. The whole thing is a game. There is fun.
In the same way, you see life as leela, as a game, not as a struggle. This answers most of the philosophical questions that the world poses.
What is the need for medicines? If we have illnesses, that is when we will need medicines, isn’t it?
It is like somebody saying, ‘I am not a Guru, but have a Question & Answers session with me’, or some student says, ‘I am not a student, but I have questions to ask you.’ What will you call both of them? Foolish!
If you go and check the internet for the benefits of vegetarian food, and why one should be vegetarian, there is a lot of research work available. You don’t need to believe it just because somebody has said it. You see what the research is saying. Have a scientific temper while deciding. You will find that it is best for you.
There are three types of karma:
1. A latent action: If you had done something wrong because of which your car license was taken away, that is your past karma
2. A tendency. The tendencies in you is your future karma
3. The effect of an action in your life. Whatever you are doing now is your present karma
Karma is always there. You can get rid of the past. You can make your karma better for the future, and be in the present.
