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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00054 Aug 2004

 
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--- In tiruvenkatam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Sudarshan K Madabushi" 
<mksudarshan2002@xxxx> wrote:
--- In tiruvenkatam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "MK krishnaswamy" 
<krishnaswamy@xxxx> wrote:
> Our ancients therefore suggested that a Mantra must be chosen for 
us by a realized person and must be received with faith and respect. 
This rule applies to all Mantras, even if they are literally known to 
us - we get the words, not its hidden power. It is in this sense that 
the mantras were considered as secret.

                          *************
Dear members, 

It's true. Our long Vedic tradition tells us that sometimes what may 
appear to ordinary ears as unintelligible syllables, phrases or 
expressions carries extraordinary potency when imparted by a realized 
Master to his deserving disciple. The Vedic 'rshi-s' understood the 
power of Sound to a degree that we simply don't. 

We must ponder over what really is "mantra".

 "Mantra" represents the triumph that the Spirit scores over Matter 
through the medium of Sound.

Sound, as even modern physics tells us, impacts us both at the 
physical and non-physical levels. I have watched a trained soprano 
singer raise her voice to such a shrill pitch that the ensuing 
vibration made a wine-glass on a nearby table shatter. Glass-panes of 
houses near a busy airport very often experience the same phenomenon.

The power of Sound is often felt at the non-physical level too. The 
commonest experience of such power is Music. The sound of music has 
power to transform our deepest moods even -- fron black depression to 
ineffable exultance. No one can exactly say why a ThyAgaraja 'kriti' 
or a Kabirdas "dOhE" or a Beethoven symphony lifts one's spirit up, 
but it undeniably does. Such is the power of Sound... the power to 
bring about remarkable changes in our behaviour, in the way we feel 
and think our way through this world!

In south-western Namibia (Africa), there is a desert where herds of 
elephants roam about all the year round in search of water. They 
travel miles into the wilderness. Often a bull-elephant, in its quest 
for some subterranean water-spring, will stray away from its family 
and be virtually lost to them. Yet, when the bull does come across a 
water-source, its family will be notified instantly wherever they 
are, no matter how many scores of miles away. How? The bull-elephant 
has a way of communicating with its family through emitting a series 
of sounds/syllables which travel across the barren wilderness at 
radio-frequencies no human ear can ever pick up.

Deep in the cold waters of the northern Pacific Ocean, giant blue-
whales use the same medium of Sound to let their mates know where 
precisely they are out in the vast seas. During the mating season, 
the female-whale will emit extremely low-frequency mating-calls which 
travel through the water-body of the ocean. The male-whales a few 
thousands miles away will pick up the signal. The whales will then 
swim towards each other to a spot that is their natural mating 
grounds in the sea.

In each of the above cases, we see how Spirit triumphs over Matter 
through the medium of Sound. In the case of the soprano singer, we 
get a glimpse of the raw destructive power that may be found in 
Sound. In the case of soothing Music, we see the ability of Sound-
power to alter and modify human mood or behaviour. In the case of the 
Namibian elephant-herd and the blue-whale of the Pacific Ocean, we 
see how Sound can conquer limitations of Time and Space.

                       ************

When a true 'guru' gives his disciple a "mantra" -- through the 
solemn rite of "mantrOpadEsa" -- he gives him the opportunity to be 
able to invoke that awesome power there is in Sound ("vEda-shabda"). 
It is the power with which the 'sIshya' can destroy all obstacles 
that Matter may place in the way of his soaring Spirit. It is the 
power with which the disciple can bring about changes in being and in 
behaviour. It is the power with which he can hope to triumph over the 
constraints of physical Matter, Space and Time.

Rgds,

dAsan,
Sudarshan
--- End forwarded message ---





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