Talks Excerpt 564. Swamiji speaks on Mantra power.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
[At a Yoga Camp/Spiritual Retreat]
The wife should look upon the husband as veritable spirit. The husband should look upon the wife as veritable spirit.
At least for these three days [the usual ‘long weekend’ duration] at this Yoga Camp (Spiritual Retreat) you have to go about with your mind pure, with your heart as a shrine of God and not as a shrine of the ego.
Sri Ramakrishna’s [recommended practice of taking time in] ‘solitude’ became a yoga camp, and today many take refuge in it and fashion their lives on it.
I want to warn you that I am not here to intellectualise you; because everything intellectual will externalise you. I am here to tell you the simple truth, the homely truth. And if this homely truth can do something to your heart, then we have succeeded.
To you I say: ‘Blessed art thou. In thy presence I am blessed. May you inspire me and may I inspire you.’ Om Tat Sat.
Swamiji chants a Peace Mantra: Om saha navavatu, sahanau bhunaktu, Saha viryam karavavahai; Tejasvi navadhitamastu ma vidvishavahai; Om shantih! Shantih! Shantih!
May He protect us both (the teacher and the taught) together (by revealing knowledge). May He protect us both (by vouchsafing [giving/granting] the results of knowledge). May we attain vigour together. Let what we study be invigorating. May we not cavil [gripe/criticise/nitpick] at each other. Om Peace! Peace! Peace!
The power of your sadhana must make every word you utter come true. When you say, ‘God protect the teacher,’ there must be immediate protection which, though invisible, will protect the teacher. Similarly when you say, ‘Protect me,’ the purity and power of your sadhana will protect you. There is a kind of a force, a kind of a vibration, that protects you.
These mantras are not mere words, they are sacred words that were heard in the depths of the hearts of the Rishis. Therefore they are not ordinary words. They have in them the metre [rhythmic structure], the force of purity, the force of faith, the force of the Rishi himself.
Have faith in the mantra. It will work because the guru has given it to you. And if you have faith that the mantra will work, it must work.
From a young age I used the mantra: ‘Om hanumate namah‘ – may no danger befall you. If these words have that power, then every mantra of the Vedas has the same power.
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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.