“How will I know which form I have an affinity for?”
“That is the job of your guru, to assign you the proper mantra and the proper form. He will know which mantras are appropriate for you. If you are of a very tender nature and you start to repeat a mantra for some terrifying deity like Smashan Tara you may scare yourself to death. If you are prone to greed and you worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, you may simply enhance your greed, which will not help you progress. This is why a guru is necessary: to teach you what you need to learn. People are amazing nowa days; they tell the guru what they want to learn from him, instead of trying to find out from him what they need to know. Is there anything more ridic ulous?
“You must also be sure that you have the proper form of the deity that goes with your mantra; otherwise you may waste years in fruitless effort. Most deities have many different forms. For example, it is possible to wor ship Krishna as a baby, a young boy, a handsome young man, a lover, a king, a warrior, Arjuna’s friend, and so on. You can see Him in many different forms, including even His universal form. But name and form are identical, so each different form must have a different name, a different mantra. With out a guru’s help, how will you know which is best for you? You can only know which is best for you if you have already understood both your own nature and the inherent nature of the deity.
“It may take ten years of hard penance for a man to achieve success with a mantra for Anjaneya, since most men relate to Anjaneya as the greatest of heroes; but a woman can satisfy Anjaneya in ten days. Most people will tell you that women should not worship Anjaneya since He is celibate, and this is true in the sense that romantic or erotic love is useless. But Anjaneya must respect and love one woman: His mother Anjani. So if a woman wor
[144]
MANTRA
–
–
.. ——
ships Anjaneya as if she were Anjani and He were a tiny baby monkey she can get results very quickly. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? People worship Lord Krishna in the same way, in the form of Lallu or Gopala, just as they worship the Baby Jesus. A man could do the same thing, but men are not innately motherly like women are; it may take a man years to develop real motherli ness.
“Not only must you know the right form of the deity, but you must have perfect faith in that one aspect of the Godhead if you hope to succeed. One whom I’ve known for several years came to visit me recently and was boast ing that he worships one deity, does japa for a second, prays to a third, and sometimes approaches others as well. How can he ever succeed in propitiat ing one when he divides himself among so many, like a prostitute?”
Another striking image: the spiritual harlot.
“And he is not alone; look in the worship-room of almost any Indian and you’ll find pictures of images of fifteen or twenty gods, goddesses, saints, wonderworkers, and what-have-you. This is just a sign of a chaotic mind. If you ever hope to achieve you must select one form and stick to it; that is part of niyama. Look at the great poet-saint Tulsidas. When Lord Krishna came to him, he said, “Lord, I know that you are nothing but Vishnu in a different form, and you are in no way any different from Lord Rama; in fact You are the Universal Self. But still I prefer to see the form dearest to my heart, my Raghuvira, my heroic Rama.’ And Krishna smiled and showed it to him.”
After a brief intermission, during which the rice was put on the fire to cook, Vimalananda continued.
“Even if you have been given an appropriate mantra, and know the cor rect form to visualize with it, and follow good niyama, you still cannot hope to succeed just by repeating your mantra without any discipline. It is always good to repeat God’s name, and so it is good to repeat your mantra all day long, whether you are eating, sleeping, making love, or sitting on the toilet. But do not expect that this will be sufficient to achieve Mantra Siddhi. For that you need to follow a specific process called purashcharana.
“For one purashcharana you decide how many repetitions you can do in a year. You must do the same number every day. After you finish, ten percent of that amount must be offered as oblations, that is, as offerings into a homa fire. Then ten percent of the number of oblations must be offered with water; this is called tarpana. Ten percent of that number must be then recited as you sprinkle water about your body in a particular way; this is called murjana. Finally, ten percent of that number is offered as bhojana, gifts
( 145 )
AGHORA II: Kundalini
of food, usually to children. When all this is complete so is your purashcha rana.
“In Kali Yuga they say that you need to do only three purashcharanas cor rectly to bring about a mantra’s full effects. In truth, if you really desire God to come He can come in three days, or three hours, or even the minutest instant. But today Maya is so strong that very few can do even one purash charana properly. Why do you think Maya tests everyone? Not because She wants to ruin us; oh, no! She is the Mother; She has given everything to us. It is because She has to know if our love is really meant for Her, or only for Her creations, that She tempts us; She loves us so much that She always wants us to get exactly what we want.
“Because a year is such a long time to follow strict discipline during Kali Yuga, God in his wisdom has established another, easier way of performing a purashcharana. According to this reckoning a purashcharana is made up of three anushthanas. One anushthana is made up of the minimum amount of japa required to perfect the mantra. Before you become so great as to do a full purashcharana you must first succeed at an anusthana.
“When we talk about ‘perfecting’ a mantra,” he said pointedly to me as I furrowed my brow, attempting to understand, “we mean purifying it, and ourselves, so that it can exert its effects without any obstructions, so that its Shakti becomes available to us. The number of japas needed to perfect a mantra varies according to the mantra, but is often one hundred thousand
or more.”
“How many is it for the mantra I am repeating right now?” I had been repeating this particular mantra for many months, and a little voice was now telling me, “You haven’t been paying attention to how many you’ve been repeating! How will you ever achieve this way?”
“For right now, assume that you are repeating a mantra for which one hundred thousand repetitions are necessary. Suppose you were to decide to do an anusthana, to repeat this mantra one hundred thousand times in a controlled, consistent way.” I decided then and there to do so. “You can do them in as many days as you please, but you must do the same number each day. Then you must offer ten percent of that number, i.e., ten thou sand, as homa. Ten percent of that, or one thousand, must be offered as tar pana, one hundred as marjana, and finally you must feed ten people. Each deity requires a different sort of human ‘mouth’; for Anjaneya small boys are needed, for Ma little girls, and so on.
“So this is why I should keep track of how many oblations I offer at each homa,” I said. “Should I do some of this tarpana and marjana, and feed peo
( 146 )
MANTRA
ple, after I do homa?”
“Of course you should! Then your worship will be complete. Each seg ment of a purashcharana or anusthana relates to one of the Elements. Japa purifies the Air and Ether Elements in you, homa the Fire Element, tarpana the Water Element, and marjana the Earth Element. Bhojana is your final offering to your deity, whom you see in all those people you feed. Unless you know how to apply this sort of knowledge you can never be successful with any mantra. This is practical Bhuta Shuddhi, purification of the Five Great Elements which make up the universe, which is the essence of Tantra. You are not yet ready for Panchamakara, so you can begin with this.