Posted on: 14 May 2021
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on May 08, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Swami’s answers to devotees’ questions are given below.]
[Śrī Sasidhar asked: Namaskaram Swamiji! Apologies for my dumb questions. When my maternal uncle was admitted in hospital last week, I recited the Mṛtasañjīvinī Mantram on somebody’s advice. Yet my uncle passed away on 7th May in a miserable condition. I know it is his fate. But why did the mantra not help? Was there an issue in its recitation or in my faith? Does it mean that when the time comes to leave the body, no mantra will work? Is it only to console us, that these mantras are suggested? Or do the mantras work only when advanced souls recite them?]
Swāmi replied: A mantra does not mean a specific statement. A mantra is any statement which attracts your mind, making you spontaneously repeat often, even though there is no pressure of any aspiration in your mind. The mantra is not related to the fulfilment of your aspiration. Irrespective of your aspiration, if you repeat a line of prose, poetry or song on God, that line is called a mantra. If that line is a song, it is called Gāyatrī Mantra. This is the correct interpretation of mantra and Gāyatrī Mantra. Unfortunately, people are misled due to wrong concepts that have crept into spiritual knowledge. As a result, they are losing the benefit they could have gained by following the correct interpretation.
The Mṛtasañjīvanī is meant for making a dead person alive. It is not meant for preventing the death of a dying person. But please do not think that by reciting the Mṛtasañjīvanī Mantra before a dead person, the dead person is going to come alive! If you do not believe Me, you can try reciting this mantra before a dead person. It means, this mantra by itself, has no power. All the unimaginable and miraculous power lies only with God. God will support you if you are His real and practical devotee. Without God’s will, no mantra has any power of its own. The mantra works only with the help of God’s will.
The Pūrva Mīmāṃsakās say that the word itself has power (śabda mātra devatā). They say that the words of the Veda themselves are powerful enough to yield supernatural results and that there is no other power like God. This is totally wrong. If you understand the words of the Veda and practice what they they instruct you to do, God will be pleased with you and you will get miraculous powers. When God grants you such miraculous power, your mere will will be sufficient to perform the miracle and no words will be required.