What is a Mantra?
What is a Mantra?
A Mantra is a combination of divine syllables or sounds which when chanted with devotion, faith and emotion gravitate a particular God or Goddess to the devotee and attains their divine blessings. For divine assistance, one must link with divine forces but majority of humans are unaware of these forces and have no link whatsoever. But when an individual starts chanting Mantras related to a particular deity regularly, the gap between him and the concerned divine force steadily decreases. By chanting Mantras regularly, a subtle link is formed through which any desired wish is fulfilled by the invoked deity. One could obtain wealth, prosperity, fame, success and spiritual enlightenment by chanting different mantras and invoking different deities.
A Mantra is a special set of words through which a particular deity could be summoned. If I write or speak in Chinese you won't be able to understand and my words will not produce any effect. But if I speak the language you know, it will facilitate our discussion. Praying to these deities in one's own language is of little use but if one uses the words they can understand, the result shall be instantaneous.
Mantras have evolved from Rishis and Yogis who actually prepared them and used them to prove their value. Over the ages these have helped thousands of Sadhaks achieve success in situations that seemed impossible to them at first.
Tantra
A hypothesis and the principles derived from it are the foundation of any body of knowledge. When the same principle is ascertained as law, it is rendered the form of pure science. Now it is clear that science is the knowledge brought under general principles derived from minute analysis and experimentation.
Tantra is an eminent science having thousands of such principles. In fact, it is the system of our life and a science of practice and practical knowledge. Through Tantra we can acquire magnificent powers by attracting the divine faculties pervading the entire cosmos. The aspirant of Tantra makes his internal capacity sharp and intensely forceful, akin to a magnet. This science is the process of activating the various dormant vital glands and chakras of the astral form present inside the human body. It makes us aware of a person’s liberation from his own subjugation, achieving immense power even with the physical body present, and freeing the body and expanding all faculties infinitely.
There is deep interconnectedness in all elements of nature. Every action has a definite basis and for that action there also exists an equal and opposite reaction. This uninterrupted succession of atomic processes is ongoing in our atmosphere. The formation of water vapors, rain from clouds as a result of the contact of negative and positive atoms, storms, tempests and earthquakes, are all interrelated to each other.
Tantra is the process of intensifying our particular inner potentialities so that we can command this atomic arrangement. This is also known as 'Siddhi'. The flow of energy continues ceaselessly in the environment and when your own inner energy becomes capable of influencing the external ones, nothing will remain impossible for you to accomplish. This is the science of Tantra in which the aspirant's wish is the most important factor.
Fear of Tantra is baseless
The notions of an ordinary person about Tantra are not worthy of mention as this science of power has been extensively misused. Those who are quite conversant with Tantra, by awakening their internal cosmic faculties, acquire knowledge to progress ahead and by activating the internal Chakras become ultimately successful in attaining Self realization and thereby Supreme Bliss, whereas the imperfect Tantriks focus their attention towards the leftist part which hitherto has been utilized by such Tantriks in causing pain and harm to others and in achieving sensual enjoyment. Thus they involve themselves in a wrong direction. Although they can cause damage to the common men, yet eventually such Tantric undergo severe sufferings and their lives get highly miserable.
This is human nature that every person focuses his attention first on the bad aspect of any subject and not on the virtuous one. This attitude proves harmful to them. As I have said earlier, Tantra is a process of activating internal cosmic faculties of the invisible world and making them favorable for oneself. During this process, that vigorous energy at first affects the person who is trying to overpower it and if at that time the aspirant does not get frightened, the divine energy itself behaves like a slave and then performs all the miraculous deeds at the will of the aspirant. To explain further I am citing an illustration- If you go outside during winter without wearing woolen clothes, what will happen? The frozen particles of cold wave will fall violently upon you and you will fall sick. But in case you are totally prepared- you have a healthy physique covered with woolen clothes, cold cannot affect you in any way and you will proceed ahead without any fear. The same is the case with Tantra. If you are not afraid, have the required equipment and also a sound knowledge then Tantra is the easiest way for you to acquire the divine powers.
To be successful in Tantra, fearlessness as well as elevation of inner consciousness is absolutely essential because in this Sadhana, the power is to be evolved from within.
Confidentiality in Tantra
In our ancient scriptures, there is great emphasis on the fact that the real Tantra should be kept confidential. What is the reason behind this secrecy? If this science is useful it should be popularized and propagated everywhere, every person should have its knowledge. But this is not the case. What is the reason behind it?
The competent Guru passes on the real Tantra and its secrets verbally to his disciples. The disciples memorize the science and also got realization of 'Siddhi' but the Guru got his disciples to promise that this knowledge would be granted to only those who really deserved it. So they had this relevant argument behind their secrecy. As I have written above, every action has equal and opposite reaction. For example if you disturb anyone - tease a dog, bull or snake, it will certainly attack you. You should have strength to fight them and ultimately bring them under your control. The same is true for Tantra. If a suspicious, weak and fearful person starts Tantra Sadhana, on experiencing some distress or crisis, he generally leaves it midway and thus puts himself in danger due to reversible reaction of the Sadhana. At that moment the inner energy of the aspirant is feeble and so is easily overpowered by external forces. This is the reason why only a competent Guru is capable of imparting Tantric. A Guru minutely and completely analyses the disciple and on getting assured that his disciple would never misuse that power, he starts teaching Tantra Sadhna. Immediately after achieving success, the aspirant becomes energetic and his vigorous activities must be utilized for public welfare as well as for Self Realization and not for causing harm to others.
Due to the afore mentioned reasons, the methods of Tantra Sadhana have been written incompletely, or in symbols and one who performs Sadhna according to what is written in scriptures can never be successful as complete knowledge can be attained only through the guidance of a Guru.
How Tantra became a taboo
What then happened in between that has made Tantra a taboo today?
Perusal of the past reveals that after Gorakhnath pseudo gurus like Bhayanand started the misuse of Tantra and thus got introduced vile practices like meat eating, sex and money spinning into the system. These false Tantriks not just used these rather expounded that without them success is impossible in field of Tantra. These unconscientiously one's even stooped so low as to resort to drinking, rape and swindling.
It was then but natural for the common man to keep distance from such practicers who were unfortunately more in number than real masters of Tantra. Soon society began to shun Tantra and a belief was generated that Tantra itself is a vile practice and has no useful applications in life.
But the problem was not with Tantra rather with the charlatans who used Tantra as an excuse to give vent to their beastly cravings. In fact Tantra is a science that can instill totality in life. A question may arise that when there are Mantras to procure divine blessings why do we need Tantra?
Wise and capable persons do not come to their conclusions in a moment, but only after a careful analysis of any thing. When the left wing of Tantra got predominant and those, who were keen to do these leftist Sadhnas for their petty and selfish ends, did not get success, they turned into big critics of Tantra and only those persons created misconceptions about Tantra.
British education and Muslim influence attacked the fundamental elements of Indian society i.e. religious rites, mantra, tantra etc. They were aware of the fact that this great science of Vedas, Upanishads and Mantras was responsible for the highly elevated Indian culture, so they thought that if they circulated misconceptions against this science, the Indian people would spontaneously become slaves and unfortunately they succeeded in their evil mission. It should be remembered that psychological subjugation is more dangerous than physical one and this was the mental dependence, which caused our deterioration from the heights of prosperity.
The objective of 'Mantra Tantra Yantra Vigyan' is to present the proper and complete knowledge of these occult sciences in simplest form before the people so that they themselves verify it and emerge successful in life through it's use. Only then this science will flourish and we will get deliverance from mental over subjugation and will also regain our self-respect and an exalted spiritual stature.
The Real Benefits of Tantra
Tantra is basically the source of energy and if you master this science, you can easily conquer your materialistic obstacles, other persons can be influenced by you and their activities can be channelized according to your own will. The harmful effects of planets, influences of an evil eye and evil spirits can be removed. It is also helpful as a remedy of mental tension, unbearable pain and other physical and psychological ailments. The scope of Tantra is very wide including Vashatkaar, Moran, Chatting, Hypnotism, and Divine Vision etc., which in many ways are beneficial in modern life.
In fact, Tantra leads to the path of self-surrender and it pertains to all the aspects of physical and psychological life. Life, a divine gift bestowed upon by the Almighty can be fully purposeful by regenerating one's inner creative faculties and giving 'Karma', a predominant role in our lives and this is the genesis of life's purposefulness and success.
An unchallenged master of Tantra himself, Gurudev's Sadhana discourses often pivoted on this science and he once said:
"One who fears Tantra cannot be a human; and a Sadhak he never can be.” In times of Guru Gorakhnath, Tantra was a highly respected science popular in all stratas of society and containing solutions to all of life’s myriad problems.
A Mantra is mainly a prayer offered to the concerned deity for assistance. But it is not necessary that the deity will be moved by one's plea. On the other hand if one uses Tantra, one could compel the divine power to help. Tantra guarantees that the concerned deity will, without fail, shower his or her blessings.
A prayer may fail to touch the heart of the deity but Tantra forces it to grant the desired boon. The Sadhanas in Tantra and Mantra methods might appear similar yet Tantra is a thousand fold more powerful and unfailing.
Tantra gains more significance in the present times when life has assumed a very hectic pace. One cannot be expected to devote several hours each day to long Sadhana procedures. Today every one wishes for instant success. Tanta requires performing Sadhana by a special and meticulous procedure. Nothing is left to chance and all aspects are considered so that success is certain.
However, if due to human weakness some imperfection creeps into the Sadhana or Mantra chanting, there are no negative results as is often (wrongly) believed by most people. The only problem is that a desired result will not be achieved but more Sadhanas can be performed to do so.
Tantra is a jewel of the Sadhana world that can solve quickly and effectively all problems of human life such as poverty, misery, unhappy married life, Tantra childlessness, unemployment, failure in business or health and so on. To turn to Tantra for assistance is a guarantee of success provided that care is taking in performing Sadhanas.