Best wishes for Navaratris! When someone asked about chanting Chandipath and moola mantra without initiation, someone else forwarded a 4-year old mail I wrote on vedic-wisdom yahoogroup. It covers various aspects nicely. I re-read it and really liked it. Now that I think of it, there were some really nice, inspired and crisp writings on that yahoogroup during 2008-2011. ------------------------- Namaste friends, Happy Vijaya Dasami! (1) I do not share Dr Choudharys opinion about reading English translation instead of Sanskrit verses if one is not initiated. (2) Initiation serves two purposes: (2a) As in the analogy I gave earlier, a rich father may open a bank account in a sons name with a starting balance of one million dollars. Similarly, a guru with some achievement in a mantra can transfer some of it to a disciple. However, one without a rich father is still better off opening a bank account with a zero balance and building it up slowly with ones own hard work. Similarly, one not finding a guru can still do sadhana with famous mantras and build ones own spiritual account. If you find a guru to initiate you (not as a formality, but truly initiate you), get initiated. Otherwise, just go ahead and do it. (2b) Mantras and rituals are used for two purposes - (i) for getting specific material results and (ii) as tools of increasing surrender and making spiritual progress. In the case of (ii), initiation is not that important. But, in the case of (i), there are pitfalls and a guru can prepare one sufficiently. One can get in trouble otherwise. However, as I said several times, there are very few people who can do (i) now-a-days. Nature has destabilized the whole system, for a reason, as Kali progressed. I suggest doing mantras and rituals only for increasing surrender, getting whatever material results god wants to give and making spiritual progress. If one is meant to do rituals for begetting *specific* material results (for oneself or others or society/universe in general), Nature will make arrangements for one to get correct knowledge of such rituals. But, as one starts, one should start with the attitude of (ii). (3) If you want to do Chandipath or any mantra or any ritual or any homam, do it with the attitude of I have several material desires, but I do not know how to fulfil them. Because of this ritual, god may give any material results or spiritual results and not necessarily fulfil my desires. I will accept whatever god gives. I want to increase my devotion and surrender and make spiritual progress. You are then SAFE. Initiation is not required. That attitude itself is an initiation! (4) Gentle deities give good results slowly, but there are fewer hiccups. Fierce deities give results fast, but there may be some hiccups. I gave this analogy earlier also. Imagine that a person is taking rotten fruits from a fruit basket and throwing them in garbage and trying to retrieve one good fruit from under them. If the person is gentle, one may do it gently and the spillage of rotten fruits on the floor will be minimal. If the person is aggressive, one may do it fast and there may be more spillage of rotten fruits on the floor. But the good fruit stuck under the rotten fruits will be retrieved faster. Similarly, phala of your karmas is in a basket. The deity is trying to take bad fruits and throw them in garbage and give you a good fruit to eat. There may be some spillage. A gentle deity like Ganapathi, Vishnu or Lakshmi may take more time to get out the good fruit, but the spillage will be minimal. A fierce deity like Chandi or Bhairava or Kali or Narasimha may have more spillage, but the good fruit comes out faster. At the end, remember that these fruits are not deitys creations, but fruits of your own actions. Without sadhana, you wouldve had to eat each of those rotten fruits before eating the good fruits! Nevertheless, one unable to take some of the spillage of rotten fruits is better off avoiding fierce deities such as Chandi and staying with gentler deities. If initiation if made mandatory, one can be assessed by a guru before starting a practice. If you realize the above, you can start mantras without initiation. If some bad results occut, you have to realize that it is a fruit of your own actions and the deity is trying to accelerate good results. If you are weak-hearted, stick to gentler deities. (5) Some people who never lit a lamp in their life and were ignorant of rituals, are doing daily homam now. Some people who took several hours to read Saptashati for the first time just 2-3 years back are now doing Chandi homam with entire saptashati everyday. I know that some of them have transformed a lot and have experienced some things too. Obviously, they have done sadhana with fire and sadhana of the Fierce aspects of Divine Mother in some past lives. (6) In this age of ignorance and rank materialism, if someone has even a faint idea that spiritual progress is important, is looking for god and is attracted to a specific advanced sadhana (e.g. Chandipath), that person obviously has some good karmas and good vasanas. That person has done that sadhana in the past. Previous lifes sadhana itself is ones adhikara. (7) If you have a good understanding of what is what, how things work, why one should do something, how to do it, what is more important and what is less important, that is what initiation is all about! Best regards Narasimha
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 23:42:44 +0000
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