Daily Readings from the Works of Swami Venkatesananda


Insights and Inspirations (Venkatesa Daily Readings Vol 2) — The Inner Meaning

May 25, 2023

The Inner Meaning

sent from PriyaQuestion: What is the meaning of all this singing and chanting, and the repetition of what you call a mantra?

Swamiji: This question seems to rise in the hearts of most people, particularly the educated ones. If it is asked in a spirit of enquiry, it is the open door to enlightenment; but it is often spurred by cynicism and doubt, which close that door. Sometimes it is raised by curiosity which is easily satisfied with words rather than truth. "What is the meaning?" we are eager to ask. But, can we understand the answer? Can we recognize the truth or God or whatever these things point to? Can we verify it by our own experience?

    If you take a mantra (for instance Om Namah Shivaya), its meaning is not a description of what it stands for, etc. but what it is. I repeat the mantra, at the same time contemplating the 'meaning' (the truth concerning it). When I ask myself, "What is the meaning of 'Om Namah Shivaya'?" I observe the 'Om Namah Shivaya' sound within. This observation creates a division within - between 'me' (the observer) and the 'Om Namah Shivaya' sound. It is this division that thwarts all attempts to gain knowledge. It creates likes and dislikes, love and hate, etc, and gets caught in the division and then enjoys and suffers endlessly. As long as this division exists there is no knowledge; and in our social relationship as long as there is psychological division between 'you' and 'me' there is no understanding, no peace, no harmony and no happiness.

    Then you learn to reframe the question: "Am I the producer of the 'Om Namah Shivaya' sound or am I the observer?" The mind gets puzzled when confronted with this question. And the question is re-framed once again: "Who am I?" What is my relation with the mind? Am I in it, or is it in me? When this question arises spontaneously in the mind, there is great stillness, an inner silence. In this silence alone can the answer manifest itself. Verbal answer is no answer: it is a set of words, an image, a thought. This image is not knowledge because it involves the inner division of the one into the observer and the observed.

    The mind is locked with the question, unable to move, unable to know the answer in the conventional way, which is thought. Beyond this, only He who is 'not-me' should give me the final push, enable me to cross the chasm that divides the known from the unknown. Only the grace of God, Guru, Self, etc., can do this.

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