That stillness of the mind is the first requirement for experiencing the Divine in its truest sense, which is when you want to experience the divine energy – not just want to use it for your or others’ benefit, but for its own sake.
For this, the mind has to be still, like that lake. With no bubbles in that stillness, you experience extraordinary bliss and crystal-clear awareness. When you chant in such pristine awareness, every word you utter will have a tremendous impact on your consciousness. There is only one way to gain that state, and that is practice – there is no other way that I know of.
Without practice, you may have intermittent or occasional experiences, but ultimately, these mean little. They don’t mean that you are progressing unless you manifest a purity within you; unless you find yourself less angry at the world; unless you find yourself softer, mellower and more compassionate. Because a true spiritual experience is always transformational. If it hasn’t transformed you, it is not a true experience – at least in the spiritual sense.
A disciple once asked his guru, “How do I gauge my spiritual progress? I have been chanting, I have been doing everything you have been telling me, but how do I know if I am progressing?”
The master said, “Just write down how many times you get disturbed in a day, and how many times you get upset over little things.”
If you get upset very quickly, that means you are not progressing spiritually. If earlier you would get upset ten times in a day and now you only get upset five times a day, you are definitely progressing, because ultimately your spiritual progress must show through.
If you say to yourself, “Oh, I have done 1,00,000 japa ,” it really means nothing, it’s like playing a tape – that parrot-tape.
A doctor had two parrots that were always chanting: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare . One day, the doctor went to a friend who had a female parrot that used to swear a lot, and he was appalled. He said, “This parrot is using such harsh words, and I have two parrots that are so spiritual.”
His friend suggested that if he left his female parrot with the doctor’s parrots for a week or two, she might learn something – she might become more spiritual. The doctor thought that was not a bad idea at all. That, they would benefit much from it, too. So he took the swearing female parrot back home, and he left her in the cage with his parrots. The two parrots were going, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, and then they saw the female parrot. One of them stopped, but the other one kept chanting, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare . The one that stopped said, “Hey, man, shut up! Our prayers have been answered, we can calm down now.”
We don’t want to be like those spiritual parrots. Be absolutely clear: chanting is not done to have your prayers answered. You pray when you want something, you don’t chant. You don’t chant the Gayatri mantra or any kind of mantra to have your wishes granted. You chant a mantra because you want to invoke the divinity within; to gain immense inner strength; to constantly purify yourself. With that purification and inner strength, everything would become plain sailing. Maybe you wouldn’t even need to pray.
A good prayer would never ask God for something, anyway. A good prayer would not say, “God, please give me this or that.” This is begging, not praying. A good prayer would simply express gratitude. But let’s say your “prayer” entails asking the divine in you or outside – or a deity of your belief – for safety or health or sound finances or whatever else you want. That’s not praying, but if you are praying, then stick to praying. Don’t shift to mantra chanting for this.
Mantra chanting is supposed to invigorate you and your consciousness, to stir things up. For a while after you take up mantra chanting, you are going to experience a kind of upheaval in your life – everything will become topsy-turvy in the beginning. Then you will start to align yourself. A mantra is not chanted to fulfill our desires – for that, you have other options.
Mulla Nasruddin met his friend after a long time. He offered to take Mulla out for a drink.
“No, I no longer drink,” said Mulla.
“You don’t drink anymore? Why? What’s wrong?”
“I quit drinking.”
“Fine,” his friend said. “Let’s at least have a smoke.”
“Sorry, I quit smoking too.”
“You quit?” his friend asked. “Is your health okay? Let’s go to the casino then.”
“I don’t gamble anymore,” Mulla said.
“But why?”
“Well, I had a girlfriend, and she told me that she would marry me only if I stopped fooling around and stopped drinking and smoking.”
“Oh, when did you stop?”
“It’s almost been a year.”
“And are you married now?” his friend asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Well, after I became so good and sober,” Mulla said, “I figured I had plenty of other options, and I did not have to marry her anymore.”
Chanting is to sober up. And once you do that, a whole world of options will open up for you.
In my book on mantras, I have talked about various kinds of beads and how they are used for different sadhanas. Most rosaries will have 108 beads; the one at the top is the 109th bead. We don’t chant on this bead. It is simply to mark the beginning or the ending, depending on which way you look at it. It’s called the sumeru , and we don’t actually cross the sumeru when we chant the mantra.
The first finger is called the tamasic finger, which means it represents the mode of darkness, ignorance – tamoguna . The second finger represents the mode of passion. The third finger, the ring finger, represents the mode of goodness. The first finger is kept away when we do any sattvic chanting, which is clean or chanting of the right-handed path. Chanting can be of dakshinacara , the right-handed path, or vamachara , the left-handed path. Vamachara is outside the scope of my current exposition.
We rest the rosary on the ring finger supported by the thumb, and the second finger is used to move the beads. The thumb is called Brahma.
Now when I am at the last bead, I should not cross the sumeru. Instead, I have to turn the beads around and start again. This is how we chant with beads. You are welcome, even in your daily lives, to put these beads around your neck once you have finished chanting. Or you can put them back in your bag or put the bag around your neck, or you can leave the bag out – that’s your personal choice. There are no hard and fast rules here.
The main rule with chanting, though, is to not cross the sumeru . If you are chanting and you lose your focus and drop the beads within the bag, for example, don’t try to find where you were. Just start from the beginning.
I don’t usually advise my more advanced disciples to chant on beads, because when you chant on beads, there is a tendency to rush through the chants.
You might say, “Hey Swami, I did my round in three minutes!” This is quite pathetic; it’s not an achievement at all. So usually, instead of chanting with beads – or even while chanting with beads – I set a minimum time (rather than a minimum count). Hence, my own six-or-seven-or-ten-hour stretches. If I say, “I am going to sit like this and chant for ten hours,” my mind will not rush – my mind will say, “Oh, he has committed to ten hours’ chanting.” Even if I finish quickly, my mind will not disturb me sooner.