The Beej Mantra or the Seed Word given by
the spiritual preceptor or the Guru is potent and alive. If chanted correctly
and with the right intonation, it gradually helps dispel the ignorance of the
disciple and ushers in a flood of spiritual light. The disciple is raised unto
the spiritual realm and he then comprehends that his Guru is none other than God.
When the Guru is a spiritual adept and the disciple a fit recipient, spirituality
flows from the former to the latter as a tangible force. The disciple's mind is
purified by the divine touch of the Guru who by an act of grace absorbs the
former’s negative karma and reinforces his system with fresh spiritual energy
that raises his consciousness, setting him along a new channel of life and
flow, the royal avenue of God. This is an extraordinary act of spiritual
transmission and is possible only when the Guru is spiritually well-advanced
and the disciple a receptacle of readiness. Spiritual initiation invariably
involves this flow of the spiritual current from preceptor to pupil in an
unbroken chain down the ages called the ‘Guru-shishya parampara’. It is pointer
to the fact that spiritually we are all one, else such transmission would not
have been possible for it requires some contact point of souls for the
thought-circuit to be completed. This integration of the universe at its base,
this undivided wholeness which is the real basis of fractured phenomena is the
great hope of humankind for its future evolution and the fundamental field
impelling the universe on to its final fulfilment in dissolution into its very
nothingness or, to put it positively, into the Great Void of its summation of
parts and the transcendence thereof.
The Guru is seated on the Mantra, the
mystic syllable. He is thus Mantraarurha. The Mantra is the sonic symbol of
God, the carrier of the Guru’s grace and the spiritual vehicle that transports
the aspirant from his present habitat fraught with ignorance to his Real Self
full of the effulgence of knowledge. Each chant of the Mantra clears the cloud
around the soul and reveals a little more of the Self hidden beneath although
the process is not uniform and therefore often imperceptible. However,
disciplined chanting gradually clarifies the soul and reveals the grandeur
which is its intrinsic nature when all doubts are dispelled and the knots of
the heart cut asunder. Along with this strict continence must be observed for
without chastity no spirituality is to be attained. Chanting will be insipid if
not performed with the observance of the strictest of purity for all energy is
to be conserved if a critical mass is to be achieved when the mind will dive
into its dissolution zone revealing the Self seated within. Holy Mother Sri
Sarada Devi has vouched the efficacy of chanting the Holy Name as the means of
realization of God and so have Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who
have upheld Naradiya Bhakti and Naam Mahatmya (the pre-eminence of the Holy Name
of God) as the effective mode of spiritual practice for the Age. This should
encourage us as we wend our way Godward bathed in the spiritual bliss of loving
repetition of the Beej Mantra. The Mantra is the means, the Guru is the guide
and God is the goal. So, why fear brothers? The path is set, the means are at
hand and destiny is calling. Let us respond to it with all our soul, our
heart’s ardour and a profusion of love for our Chosen Ideal (the Ishta Devata).
Even today Ramakrishna calls from the roof-top of the Kuthi Bari at
Dakshineshwar,"O my children, where are you all? I can scarce wait any longer. Come fast, I can bear no more." Sisters and brothers, let us rush on to the
Master to alleviate his pain of separation from us. Every breath we breathe is
His, every pulse we feel is He and every moment we live is in Him. So, why
tarry, rush on and become merged in His supreme bliss. And herein we ride the
divine vehicle as we gravitate unto Him, the Beej Mantra (the Seed Word).
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