Bhaktamara Darshan

SR No.: 002588
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Rajyashsuri
Publisher: Jain Dharm Fund Pedhi Bharuch
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 436
Language: Sanskrit, English, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 50 MB

Page 415

THE METHODS OF COMMENCEMENT The question when to commence the Bhaktamara-worship may now look a little out of place as the printed books are available easily every where and to everybody. One can not start practising a mantra or stotra just like that because they are available in printed form or for the asking. Many, having heard the greatness of mantra, get an insatiable desire to practise them and start doing it on their own. But they fail to consider or regard them as profound or venerable. But when it fails them, they proclaim from rooftops that they counted so many times, remembered the entire thing but did not get any benefit and as a result try to belittle the mantras.
Stotras like Bhaktamara must be accepted (i.e. the sadhaka should get initiated) with great respect and reverence. Initiation into a mantra forms the centre of such initiation function. Even now this method is well preserved in the initiation of Vardhamana vidya for Ganis and Panyasins and Surimantra for Acaryas. It is high time such traditions started for Bhaktamara and other mantras. The ceremony to celebrate the mantra and stotra initiation can be started as people celebrate the acceptance of five great vows and the acceptance of garland when people take to upadhan penance.
Mantra or stotra is not just a collocation of sounds or words but enshrines in itself great pranasakti. Initiation into mere sounds does not confer any benefit. A sadhaka should aspire to become the repository of the great pranic power. This requires a competent Guru. A mantra or stotra can be taken from such a person for whom it is breathing as it were and who has got complete and unflinching confidence in it. Guru also must be having the power of charecter, penance and resolve. If the aspirant develops an earnest longing for such a teacher, then he may be blessed by his fortune to meet such a Guru. Jayaviyarayasutra, offers a prayer, soliciting the company of a good Guru. It is not only a prayer for a Guru, but also a wish to serve the Guru till the end of one's life or till the attainment of moksa whichever is later. In days of yore, aspirants had their spiritual goal alone in their minds and did not mind spending longer time nay years and years with their Guru. They tested the qualification and competency of their disciples for years together before passing on any mantra.
Finally, when the Guru found his disciple competent, they instructed/initiated their disciples in the requisite mantra or stotra. The following verse appears very important, to me. "Guru must be the subject of meditation and his feet must be the object of worship. His words must be mantra and his blessing is the sure way for moksa". The grace of Guru is something very important which we cannot do without, and an aspirant must always be alert to be blessed by a teacher and not foolhardy enough to fritter it away and waste one's rare life. (There is also a subhasita in Sanskrit, "Guru can save the people from the anger of God, but even God is not competent enough to save the hapless person, fallen from the grace of his Guru"').
Many a time people full of good characteristics like humility, devotion, service and compassion, a sincerity of purpose in their mind and pious are invited by Gurus themselves and are initiated.
We should bear in mind that world is full of mystic and mysterious things, so full of unsolved mysteries. We are not even competent to comprehend fully the power of an atom or the forms it can take or the effects it can change into. A full span of human life too is not sufficient to comprehend even the gross forms of gross matter. Definitely we would feel helpless in the face of powerful and mysterious nature. The power which helps aspirant to wade through this mysterious nature and reach across is called, "Guru". The very word "Guru" means 'dispeller of darkness' etymologically. The word has two elements 'gu' and 'ru'. The letter 'gu' signifies darkness and 'ru' dispeller of darkness. He who sheds light in the darkness is called "Guru".
Having got an outside teacher, one should not neglect one's inner awareness which also works like a Guru and is called internal preceptor. Aspirants, thinkers, philosophers, worshippers could have experienced in their lives some guidance from unexpected quarters when they had a feeling that they were standing at crossroads in their spiritual pursuits. People call this the invisible hands of Guru. Ekalavya getting success in his practices of archery
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