On May 23, 2009, at 4:41 PM, emptybill wrote:
SSRS has been clear that bija mantras dissolve
into pranava (om) at the finest level. He called it
the merging point of the tri-veni. Tri-veni is the
confluence zone of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati
rivers. He explained it as the mythographic symbol
for the merging of the three nadi-s - ida, pingala and
sushumna at ajna chakra.
Some years ago I received mantra-diksha from him
which included the pranava. Remembering the barking
dogs of the tmo, I discussed this with a sankhya-yoga
scholar who is a long time student of SSRS. He pointed
out that MMY did not want the pranava practiced in a
bare manner since it brought intense reversal of the pranas
(nivritti) and severance from material and sensorial affections
- all good for renunciates but an utter disaster for householders.
He pointed out that front loading a dhyana bija-mantra with
pranava was in perfect accord with the tradition and that
SSRS was a mahapandita who gave it to those he thought
could benefit from using it.
To paraphrase forrest gump's guru - a mantra is as
a mantra does. All this yada yada about meaning or
its absence in mantras overlooks this simple fact. The
meditation mantras of tm-sahaj are not used for their
meaning but for their perceptual sound value. To
contemplate mantras for their meaning is
dhyana-bhaavana. Tantrika-s contemplate their mantras
because their meditation-contemplation yoga is an
amplified form of deity puja (antaryaga).
It's great to hear these good things coming from SSRS's camp.
The point about mantra and meaning isn't that it's something you have
to do or "hey you're really missing out on something here", it's the
fact--the fact--that people were lied to consistently instead of being
told the truth. And there's basically two reasons such a thing might
happen: a desire to hide the truth so you could get away without
people knowing the connections to the various devatas or MMY simply
was not that knowledgeable of mantra-shastra (or of course, both).
The unfortunate thing is most people will at least know subconsciously
that someone is lying to them. So it's not a good vibe to carry in
your subconscious, IMO. If I got a vibe that someone on a so-called
spiritual trip was BS-ing me, there'd be a much higher chance I'd dump
them (or perhaps get side-effects).
Thank SSRS for truly restoring the purity of the TM tradition, or TM
2.0 as I like to call it!
I like Ravi's description of the collapse at the triveni, he's right on!
