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Initiation
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
Initiation is like opening the doors of another reality, another
room in the house. We live in a house with
many rooms and many of the rooms are s till locked. The chakras
are the locks. What has been def ined in
religious terminology as removing the veil and in yogic
terminology as awakening the chakras indicates
that t here are still many unopened rooms. There are dif f erent
f orms of initiation to open diff erent doors.
One door opens when you are initiated into mantra, another when
you are initiated into sannyasa and
another with shaktipat.
Mantra diksha, initiation into mantra, is the f irst and
simplest initiation. Any mantra exerts a very powerful
cont rol on ajna chakra. Ajna chakra is the chakra of sens
itivity, the chakra which has to become active
before moo ladhara chakra can be awakened. That is the t heory
of kundalini yoga. So the f irst initiation,
mantra, opens a door. Apart f rom all the other ef f ects, this
is one of the f unctions.
In the tantras, emphasis has been given to the use of mantras f
or inner transf ormation, whereas the
Vedas emphasize the use of mantras t o propitiate nature and the
elements. So vedic mantras and tantric
mantras are dif f erent. In yoga we deal with tant ric mantras f
or inner purif ication and inner transf ormation.
Once you become a master of that, then other things can f
ollow.
The spiritual name is an aim to f ollow and attain in life. It
should work like a carrot dangling in f ront of adonkey. As long as
the carrot is in sight, the donkey keeps walking towards it. You
should all become like
the donkey and follow the carrot . The only dif f erence is that
the carrot will not be illusive. By walking a
f ew steps t owards it, you will have the carrot in your mouth.
The name provides the f ocus and aim to
attain. A name has a relationship with an aspect o f your nature
and spirit which can be felt intuitively by a
f ew people who are aware of it. That name represents the need,
the aspiration o f the human spirit in this
lif e to become that, to attain that.
Being Sanskrit, the name also evokes a particular vibrational
response because Sanskrit is a combination
of sounds which creates a f requency change in the vibrato ry
aspect of our personality. When we say the
name in Sanskrit using a combination of sounds which has the
power to harmonize, alter and change the
pattern of our vibratory waves, spandan, then that quality of
spirit is now lived. It doesn't o nly remain an
aim to attain, but we become that. Of course, this has to be
taken as sadhana and not f or granted. If a
plate of f ood is placed in f ront o f you, you can eat it and
satisfy yourself. If you choose to ignore it and
ust wear the name like a label, or use the mantra as an aid to
deepen meditation, that is f ine too but the
potentials are much greater.
Sannyasa diksha o pens another door, another chakra. Karma
sannyasa diksha and the conviction to live
like a karma sannyasin, not just being initiated but actually
wilf ully living like that, opens another door. It is
creating harmony between the various dimensions of your
expression and experience. By sensit izing the
mind you are able to perceive and become aware of many other
situat ions, events and happenings which
previously you would have chosen to ignore. Initiation def
initely cannot be escapism, rather it is
becoming aware of areas which you ignored in the past and which
created some psychological,
emot ional, intellectual, psychic or spiritual obst ruction in
your personality.
The third fo rm of initiation af ter sannyasa is shaktipat. In
this also there is the vedic way and the tantric
way. There are dif f erent types of shaktipat: drig diksha,
initiation through sight, sparsha diksha, initiation
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