The Mantras मंत्र from Veda वेदा are very powerful
The Vedas वेदा , the Mantras मंत्र of the Vedas वेदा , are filled with such threefold or fourfold meaning. Hence it is difficult to understand the full meaning of any Mantra मंत्र of the Veda वेदा . "Ananta Vai Vedah अनंत व वेदा "-Infinite is the meaning of the Vedas वेदा The meaning of the Veda वेदा is infinite। It has no end at all. It is Mathematics, it is Chemistry, it is Physics, it is Ayur veda आयुर्वेद , it is Psychology, it is Metaphysics, it is Philosophy, it is Spirituality, it is meditation, it is love, it is ecstasy. You will find everything in every Mantra मंत्र of the Veda वेदा .
All depends upon how you look upon it, how you feel it. A person can be a father, he may be a brother, he may be a son, he may be a friend, but all the while he is one and the same person. Attitudes are different on account of various relationships connected. So the Rudra Adhyaya रूद्र अध्याय is before us, a majestic prayer for world-peace, international-peace, subjective peace, universal peace and God-Consciousness.
It is difficult to chant this Veda Mantra वेद्द मंत्र called the Satarudriya सतारुद्रिया , because it requires training, as in music, for example. Everybody cannot sing. It requires a tremendous training for years together. Likewise, the chanting of the Mantras मंत्र of the Veda वेदा requires training for years together, not for a few days only. Just as one who does not know how to sing, will make a jarring noise and you will like to get up and go away rather than listen to it, so also when you chant the Mantra मंत्र wrongly, Gods will get up and go away. They do not bear it any more. So, it requires training. But once it is properly learnt, it becomes a protection for you from catastrophes of every kind - physical, psychological and what not. So, those who know may chant it, recite it and take part in the recitation of it everyday in the temple, at least during the worship on Mahasivaratri महाशिवरात्रि .
Those who cannot do this because it is difficult, can chant the Mantra मंत्र 'Om Namah Sivaya' ॐ नमः शिवाय , the Panchakshara Mantra पंचाक्षर मंत्र of Lord Siva भगवान् शिव with Om preceding it. It is a Kavacha; कवच a kind of armour that you put on. This armour will protect you from danger of every kind. It will protect you and also all those whom you want to be protected. It will protect your family, will protect your country, and will protect the whole world. It can cease wars and tensions of every kind, provided you offer the prayers wholeheartedly from the bottom of your heart.
Collective prayer is very effective. If a hundred persons join together and pray, it will have a greater effect than one person praying. Of course, if that single person is very powerful, even one person's prayer is alright. But, where personalities have their own weaknesses and foibles, it is better that people have congregational prayer. When all the minds are put together they form a great energy. It surges forth into God. So during this period preceding Sivaratri शिवरात्री prayer is to be, offered to Lord Siva भगवान् शिव as the Master of Yogi योगी as the incarnation of all virtues and powers, as a facet of the Almighty Lord. The glory of Lord Siva भगवान् शिव is sung in the Siva Purana शिवपुराण , in the Yajur Veda Rudra Adhyaya, यजुर्वेद रुद्राध्याया and in the Mahabharata महाभारत .
You will be wonderstruck at the force with which Vyasa व्यास and other Sages sing the glories of God, of Vishnu विष्णु , of Narayana नारायण , of Siva शिव , of Devi देवी in the various Puranas पुराण and Epics, because these masterpieces have been written by those who had the vision of God. Only one who has the vision of God can express in soulful force. Otherwise, it will be an empty sound without much significance and thought. So, chant the Mantra मंत्र 'Om Namah Sivaya' ॐ नमः शिवाय as many times as possible everyday, mentally or even verbally as is convenient, with self-control, which means to say without any thought of sense-object. If you chant the Mantra मंत्र together with the thought of sense-objects, then there is divided devotion. It is like dividing the course of a river in two different directions so that the force of the waters gets lessened. Suppose you have five sense-objects and towards all of them your senses are running, and you are thinking of God also at the same time.
Then, you know, energy is divided, concentration becomes weak and meditation is not successful. No meditation will become successful, if the senses are active; because, the senses are the opposite of the effort at meditation. While meditation is the collective force of the mind concentrating itself on God-consciousness, the senses, when they are active, do the opposite of meditation and you become a tremendous extrovert. You are connected to the objects of sense, rather than the universal concept which is God. God is unity, whereas sense objects are multiplicity.
They are the opposite of what you are aiming at in your spiritual life. With moderate behaviour in every manner in your spiritual life, you will attain to success. As the Bhagavad Gita भगवत गीता beautifully puts it, 'moderate in your eating, moderate in your activity, moderate in your speech, and moderate in your sleep'-form the golden mean, the via-media, the golden path. God is the harmony of all powers in the universe. Harmony means the middle course, neither this extreme nor that extreme. You cannot say whether it is or it is not. We don't know what it is. As Buddha बुद्ध said:" 'Nothing is', is one extreme; 'everything is', is another extreme. God is in the middle. Truth is in the middle." So, the middle path is the best path, which is the path of austerity with understanding. This is the characteristic of the middle path. When there is understanding without austerity, it is useless. When there is austerity without understanding that is also useless.
There must be austerity with understanding and understanding with austerity, knowledge with self-control and self-control with knowledge that is wisdom. Knowledge with self-control is called wisdom, whereas knowledge without self-control is mere dry intellectuality. That is of no use. And austerity without understanding is a kind of foolishness. It will have no proper result. So, Lord Siva भगवान् शिव is not merely an austere Being but also a repository of Knowledge. All worshippers of knowledge also worship Lord Siva भगवान् शिव , as He is the God of all students, scholars and seekers of wisdom and knowledge.
The Vedas वेदा , the Mantras मंत्र of the Vedas वेदा , are filled with such threefold or fourfold meaning. Hence it is difficult to understand the full meaning of any Mantra मंत्र of the Veda वेदा . "Ananta Vai Vedah अनंत व वेदा "-Infinite is the meaning of the Vedas वेदा The meaning of the Veda वेदा is infinite। It has no end at all. It is Mathematics, it is Chemistry, it is Physics, it is Ayur veda आयुर्वेद , it is Psychology, it is Metaphysics, it is Philosophy, it is Spirituality, it is meditation, it is love, it is ecstasy. You will find everything in every Mantra मंत्र of the Veda वेदा .
All depends upon how you look upon it, how you feel it. A person can be a father, he may be a brother, he may be a son, he may be a friend, but all the while he is one and the same person. Attitudes are different on account of various relationships connected. So the Rudra Adhyaya रूद्र अध्याय is before us, a majestic prayer for world-peace, international-peace, subjective peace, universal peace and God-Consciousness.
It is difficult to chant this Veda Mantra वेद्द मंत्र called the Satarudriya सतारुद्रिया , because it requires training, as in music, for example. Everybody cannot sing. It requires a tremendous training for years together. Likewise, the chanting of the Mantras मंत्र of the Veda वेदा requires training for years together, not for a few days only. Just as one who does not know how to sing, will make a jarring noise and you will like to get up and go away rather than listen to it, so also when you chant the Mantra मंत्र wrongly, Gods will get up and go away. They do not bear it any more. So, it requires training. But once it is properly learnt, it becomes a protection for you from catastrophes of every kind - physical, psychological and what not. So, those who know may chant it, recite it and take part in the recitation of it everyday in the temple, at least during the worship on Mahasivaratri महाशिवरात्रि .
Those who cannot do this because it is difficult, can chant the Mantra मंत्र 'Om Namah Sivaya' ॐ नमः शिवाय , the Panchakshara Mantra पंचाक्षर मंत्र of Lord Siva भगवान् शिव with Om preceding it. It is a Kavacha; कवच a kind of armour that you put on. This armour will protect you from danger of every kind. It will protect you and also all those whom you want to be protected. It will protect your family, will protect your country, and will protect the whole world. It can cease wars and tensions of every kind, provided you offer the prayers wholeheartedly from the bottom of your heart.
Collective prayer is very effective. If a hundred persons join together and pray, it will have a greater effect than one person praying. Of course, if that single person is very powerful, even one person's prayer is alright. But, where personalities have their own weaknesses and foibles, it is better that people have congregational prayer. When all the minds are put together they form a great energy. It surges forth into God. So during this period preceding Sivaratri शिवरात्री prayer is to be, offered to Lord Siva भगवान् शिव as the Master of Yogi योगी as the incarnation of all virtues and powers, as a facet of the Almighty Lord. The glory of Lord Siva भगवान् शिव is sung in the Siva Purana शिवपुराण , in the Yajur Veda Rudra Adhyaya, यजुर्वेद रुद्राध्याया and in the Mahabharata महाभारत .
You will be wonderstruck at the force with which Vyasa व्यास and other Sages sing the glories of God, of Vishnu विष्णु , of Narayana नारायण , of Siva शिव , of Devi देवी in the various Puranas पुराण and Epics, because these masterpieces have been written by those who had the vision of God. Only one who has the vision of God can express in soulful force. Otherwise, it will be an empty sound without much significance and thought. So, chant the Mantra मंत्र 'Om Namah Sivaya' ॐ नमः शिवाय as many times as possible everyday, mentally or even verbally as is convenient, with self-control, which means to say without any thought of sense-object. If you chant the Mantra मंत्र together with the thought of sense-objects, then there is divided devotion. It is like dividing the course of a river in two different directions so that the force of the waters gets lessened. Suppose you have five sense-objects and towards all of them your senses are running, and you are thinking of God also at the same time.
Then, you know, energy is divided, concentration becomes weak and meditation is not successful. No meditation will become successful, if the senses are active; because, the senses are the opposite of the effort at meditation. While meditation is the collective force of the mind concentrating itself on God-consciousness, the senses, when they are active, do the opposite of meditation and you become a tremendous extrovert. You are connected to the objects of sense, rather than the universal concept which is God. God is unity, whereas sense objects are multiplicity.
They are the opposite of what you are aiming at in your spiritual life. With moderate behaviour in every manner in your spiritual life, you will attain to success. As the Bhagavad Gita भगवत गीता beautifully puts it, 'moderate in your eating, moderate in your activity, moderate in your speech, and moderate in your sleep'-form the golden mean, the via-media, the golden path. God is the harmony of all powers in the universe. Harmony means the middle course, neither this extreme nor that extreme. You cannot say whether it is or it is not. We don't know what it is. As Buddha बुद्ध said:" 'Nothing is', is one extreme; 'everything is', is another extreme. God is in the middle. Truth is in the middle." So, the middle path is the best path, which is the path of austerity with understanding. This is the characteristic of the middle path. When there is understanding without austerity, it is useless. When there is austerity without understanding that is also useless.
There must be austerity with understanding and understanding with austerity, knowledge with self-control and self-control with knowledge that is wisdom. Knowledge with self-control is called wisdom, whereas knowledge without self-control is mere dry intellectuality. That is of no use. And austerity without understanding is a kind of foolishness. It will have no proper result. So, Lord Siva भगवान् शिव is not merely an austere Being but also a repository of Knowledge. All worshippers of knowledge also worship Lord Siva भगवान् शिव , as He is the God of all students, scholars and seekers of wisdom and knowledge.
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