What is the value of mantra dikcha?

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj teaches that you must purify your mind by doing roop dhyan (loving remembrance) of Radha Krishn. Whether you use a mantra to help you in your remembrance, or you just chant a name of God, or you listen to kirtan to help with your remembrance, the only thing that matters is that you remember Radha Krishn. So he does not give any importance to the use of mantra, and he himself does not give any mantra. He simply teaches how to do remembrance (roop dhyan).

Just because you have taken a mantra from another Guru does not mean that you are bound to keep following that for your whole life. If there is something else which is going to give you more benefit, then you can change your spiritual practice and no one is going to punish you. Some people feel a kind of psychological bondage that because they have taken mantra from someone, they cannot try anything else for their whole life. This is not correct. In fact, this is one reason that mantra dikcha is so popular, because it creates a kind of psychological bondage.

Study the teachings of Kripaluji Maharaj and understand more deeply what the path of bhakti is, what a true Guru is, and how a Guru Graces his devotees. I would recommend reading any of his books, which can be ordered online at http://shop.JKP.org. Also, his speeches come on TV Asia here in America every morning. If you are in India, the speeches are aired every day on Sahara Samay Channel (6.30 AM), Sadhana Channel (7.10 AM) and Aastha Channel (6.20 PM).

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved.  

Devotional Service to God

Devotional service means service to a Saint. Although it is our ultimate goal to be able to serve Radha Krishn personally in Their Divine abode, that is only possible when we meet Them, which happens after God realization. Until then, the true Saint who is one with Radha Krishn, and who represents Them on the earth planet, accepts the service of the souls on behalf of Radha Krishn. Thus, during the devotional period, we serve Radha Krishn by serving Their Saint.

The benefit of such service is received immediately in the form of heart purification, which brings us closer to our goal of God realization. Service to a true Saint improves the humbleness of the devotee and develops a connection between him and his Master which becomes a channel for receiving more of his Grace. This Grace takes the form of loving feelings for Radha Krishn in the heart of the devotee. One should remember that if a Saint accepts our service, it only shows his greatness, like a king accepting a gift of a few pennies from a beggar. The Saint does not benefit from our service, but nonetheless accepts our service because we benefit from getting the chance to serve.

Devotional service is said to be of three kinds: tan, man, dhan (physical, mental and financial service). Physical service means offering any service to the Saint or his mission that we perform with our physical body. Mental service is performed simply by thinking positively about the Saint. Financial service means offering any financial support for the Saint's mission. All three are considered devotional service and lead to the same benefit. Out of the three, the most important and the one that can be practiced all the time is mental service; maintaining a feeling of surrender and having positive thoughts about the Saint is the most important form of service. Physical and financial service are meant to help us improve our mental surrender. 

This is the secret of service and surrender which has been described in beautiful detail in the book "The Science of Devotion, Divine Love and Grace" which is available at http://shop.JKP.org.

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved. 

Leelas of God

(Reply to a question on why Bhagwan Ram killed Sambuca)
There are some very important points to keep in mind when reading or listening to any leela of God. The first is that all of God's leelas are Divine. What does it mean that they are Divine? It means that since God has no personal reason to do anything, whatever He does is because of His unconditional kindness. Whereas, before God realization, a soul can only perform actions for the fulfillment of his own happiness, so all of his actions are material. Once he finds that happiness by attaining God, he becomes a Saint, and then that Saint also performs all of his actions for the benefit of others. So all the actions of God and God realized Saints are done for the benefit of others, because they do not need anything for themselves, and they are also beyond anger, greed, desire, etc. So their actions are considered Divine. They are already whole and complete and do not have any reason to do any action, but they still perform actions just to Grace the souls.

The second thing to remember is that we cannot understand all of the reasons behind every Divine action of God and the Saints. It is similar to how a 5 year old cannot understand all of his parents' actions, even if they try to explain them to him. When his intellect reaches the level of his parents' intellect, then he can understand all of their actions. So when we become God realized and we get a Divine intellect, then only will we be able to understand all the actions of God and the Saints.

For these two reasons, it is best not to allow our mind to indulge in asking 'why' when it comes to God's actions. We should assume that whatever Ram or Krishn did was all out of Grace and kindness, even if we can't understand how it is so. When we get to His level, with His Grace, we will understand. Regarding the specific instance to which you refer, the individual whom Ram "killed" was sent directly to Ram's Divine abode. This is true for all instances of "killing" in God's Divine leelas. When Ram killed Ravan, Ravan went back to Ram's abode, as did any other demon or person who was killed by Ram or Krishn or any other form of God. So the act of God "killing" someone is in fact just the act of God sending that person from this material world to His Divine abode. What greater Grace could there be?

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved.

God realization is not possible without a Guru

God realization is not possible without a Guru. Shree Krishn Himself has said this in the Gita (chapter 4, verse 34); the Upnishads, Puranas and Ramayan all make similar statements. It would be like trying to get a PhD without the help of a professor. That Guru must be someone whom we can see, talk to and relate to. We should be able to ask them questions and clear our confusions. They will tell us the path so we know how to live our life for God realization.

Krishn helps us by sending a Guru into our life. The Guru helps us to purify our mind through proper bhakti. Once our mind is fully purified and we become surrendered, then Krishn comes to us. (Harihin bhave shuddh jan tohin patit bhave pyare; explanation of the difference between God and Guru from the kirtan "Jayati Guruvar" by Shree Kripaluji Maharaj). It is through the Grace of the Guru that we receive the Divine vision of Krishn (Guru mile kripa Rijhavar, Guru kripa mile sarkar; from the kirtan "Guru charan kamal balihar" by Shree Kripaluji Maharaj). So ignoring the Grace of the Saint and asking Krishn to help you is like the person who is searching for his spectacles when they are hanging on a string around his neck.

One should also know that we not only need to follow the instructions of the Saint for how to do devotions, we also need to open a channel in our heart to receive the Saint's Grace. This is done by surrendering (internally) to the Saint. This allows us to receive the Grace of the Saint, which will redeem past spiritual transgressions and open us to experience bhao in our devotion to Radha Krishn. This is the real devotion. Otherwise, it is like a dry practice of devotion, with no real feelings of affinity. Thus, we see that not only following the teachings of the Guru, but an internal feeling of surrender in order to receive his Grace is required to proceed on the path of bhakti.

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved.   

Devotional & Divine expressions (the 8 sattvic bhao)

Regarding the sattvic bhao, I will tell you what I have understood from the writings and speeches of Shree Maharajji. The 8 sattvic bhao are as follows: stambh (becoming motionless like a statue), sved (sweating profusely), romanch (goose pimples, or hairs standing on end), swar bhed (choking of the voice or change in tone of voice), vepathu (trembling), vaivarnya (change in the complexion of the skin), ashru (tears), pralaya (unconsciousness). These are the physical manifestations of bhao bhakti. Bhao bhakti is only received through the Grace of a Saint by following his instructions for sadhana bhakti and by serving him faithfully. As a devotee progresses, these sattvic bhao become more intense, which is a sign that he is proceeding in the right direction. It is indeed a wonderful sign when these sattvic bhao appear in the body, and it is the desire of every devotee for this to happen.

The precaution which I hear Shree Maharajji repeat is as follows: a devotee should not think that he is important or highly evolved just because he starts experiencing one or more of these sattvic bhao. He should carefully maintain his humbleness. He should remember that he is experiencing these sattvic bhao through the Grace of his Guru, not through any effort of his own, and the basis for his experience is his humble dedication to his Guru. The moment a devotee feels self-important, vanity has risen in his mind, and his humbleness is gone. When his humbleness is gone, then his experience of the sattvic bhao will also cease. In order to maintain humbleness, Shree Maharajji advises to control the outer expression of these sattvic bhao. Try your utmost to control your physical bhao, so that no one notices you and you will not feel proud that, "Someone has seen me in bhao, so now they know what a great devotee I am..."

To help maintain humbleness you can also remember that a Saint shows the same 8 sattvic bhao from his body, but those a Divine sattvic bhao. Let's say that Saint and a devotee are sitting in the kirtan and both are crying tears for Krishn. Both are crying the same amount of tears. The power behind the Saint's tears will be unlimited times greater than those of the devotee. Then why is the devotee crying the same amount of tears? Because along with an increase in the intensity of the sattvic bhao, the ability to control them also increases. So it means that you cannot judge the greatness of a devotee by how many tears he cries (or other sattvic bhao). A Saint may be holding the ocean of Divine love in his heart and only allowing a few tears to escape, whereas the devotee may be experiencing a low intensity of bhao and be unable to control it, thus tears are flowing copiously.

So even if we are unable to control our tears or other sattvic bhao, we should remember that we are just entering the beginning stages of bhao bhakti and we still have a lot of work to do. People from higher stages of bhao bhakti have fallen due to their vanity, so we should not allow self-importance to creep into our mind just because we have experienced a little bit of sattvic bhao. We should try with full force to control our physical expressions of bhao and be thankful to our Guru for Gracing us with the experience of bhao bhakti. Then we will continue to receive his Grace and we will continue to progress higher and higher on the path to God realization.

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved. 

Meeting God, knowing God, experiencing God

There is a saying that a person gets to meet God face to face 7 times in his life. The truth is that even if we met God face to face, we would not recognize His Divinity. He is omnipresent, yet we are unable to see Him. He resides in our heart, yet we do not experience Him. In uncountable lifetimes, we have seen Him uncountable times during his descension on the earth planet. Yet not once have we recognized Him. That is why we must do devotion to purify our heart. Upon complete heart purification, God will Grace you. With His Grace, you will receive a Divine mind and senses. Then you will be able to see Him, know Him, and experience Him.

Swami Nikhilanand, JKP Radha Madhav Dham. © 2011. All rights reserved.