Revered Swami Gambhiranandaji Maharaj, 11th President of the Ramakrishna Order

Question: What is the meaning and. significance of Diksha (specific, spiritual instructions from a guru, or initiation) in the life of a disciple?

Answer: Many people have often put questions like that. What is Diksha? Now, in the scriptures and in other literature also there is mention of some sort of initiation in every case of learning a new thing. In helping a child to write first on a slate, the teacher takes the hand of the child with a pencil in it and writes. That is also a sort of initiation for knowing what the letters are. Similarly, there are different forms of initiation in Islam, Buddhism, etc. In Hinduism, getting the Gayatri mantra and the Yajnopavitam (sacred thread) is also a form of initiation. There is mention of initiation before undertaking a Yajna or sacrifice. So different types of initiation are there. But we are not concerned with all kinds of initiation.  People who are initiated by us have a particular form of initiation in mind. They want to know what it is. As we read the Lilaprasanga (Shri Ramakrishna, the Great Master), written by Swami Saradananda, we find three kinds of Diksha, mentioned there. One is the Anavi or the Mantra-diksha, i.e., Diksha given through mantra. We find that Shri Ramakrishna gave Diksha-mantras; as mentioned in that great book, at least to three persons Shri Vaikunthanath Sanyal, Swami Niranjananda and Tejanarayan. That is Mantra diksha, Diksha given through mantra. We also know that Swami Vivekananda had Rama nama mantra from Shri Ramakrishna at Cossipore, and soon after that he went round and round the house there one whole night with a stick on his shoulders as though he was protecting Shri Ramakrishna from other people. The writer of the punthi (Shri Shri Ramakrishna punthi), Shri Akshay Kumar Sen says that on the Kalpataru day, that is on 1st January 1886, he got a mantra from Shri Ramakrishna. Besides, we also know that Shri Ramakrishna wrote mantras on the tongues of some people. So, that way he gave Mantradiksha. Then there is also the Shakti-diksha. That means transferring one's power (Shakti) to another. The guru, Shri Ramakrishna, transferred his power to some of his disciples. One outstanding instance is known to you all. Two days before his Mahasamadhi he transferred all his powers to Swami Vivekananda, then Narendranath, and said: "After, giving all this to you I have become a fakir (one possessing nothing)." Also, as you read the Kathamrita (The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna) and the Lilaprasanga, you will find that Shri Ramakrishna is transferring his powers to others by touching them in the course of debates and thus silencing them. Besides, it is well known that on 1st January 1886 many went into spiritual ecstasy and some had the vision of their chosen deities at his mere touch. That way he transferred power to many persons. That is the Shakti-diksha. The third kind of Diksha is the Shambhavi-diksha, where the guru and the taught do not know what is happening but somehow the power of the guru gets transferred into the disciple without the knowledge of either of them. For example, many who simply visited Shri Ramakrishna accepted him for life as their guru and believed they had their life's purpose fulfilled. So, it certainly did occur in the cases of many who came in contact with Shri Ramakrishna, saw him from a distance perhaps, or had his touch or a talk with him casually. Thus, these are the three kinds of initiation discussed in the Lilaprasanga. But here we are not concerned with all the three. We are concerned with the common kind of Mantra-diksha given by us to some aspirants. What does it mean? The other day, just a few days ago, one girl came to me and said "I have got no new inspiration during the Diksha." I said, "Well, it is a two-way process. On your part, to get new inspiration you must be prepared for it." Again, in the scriptures they say that the guru must have certain qualities, without which one cannot become a guru.

“Shrotriyo Brahmanishthah”: He must be a Shrotriya and a Brahma-nishtha. Shrotriya denotes one whose conduct is according to the Vedas, according to the scriptures; whose conduct is beyond any criticism. He must be truthful, he must be sincere, he must be God-loving and alI that. Then he must be a Brahmanishtha, always merged in thinking of God, of Brahman, and so on. These are the qualities of the guru. And in the Vivekachudamani (The Crest Jewel of Discrimination)-and other places they also say that the guru should be “Avrijino-akamahatah”. The word Avrijina has two meanings: one who is sinless, and also one who is sincere, i.e. free from crookedness, one who is not deceiving his disciples. He must also be Akamahata, not inflicted by passions, by desires, for getting wealth and all that. These are the qualities that are needed in the guru. In the shishya also there are many qualities that are needed to be a true disciple. To get any inspiration just at the time of initiation one needs a background. What is that background? It is enumerated in the Vedanta-Sutra-Bhashya by Shri Shankaracharya that there. should be Satsampatti, six kinds of treasures, in the pupil. What are they? They are Shama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha, Shraddha, Samadhana. He must-have control over his body and mind and then he must be a little detached from worldliness. He will not exactly be a monk, but his mind should not be totally engrossed in worldly things. It must have some sort of detachment from it. Otherwise, how will it run after God? If it is all given to the world, then nothing is left to think of God or follow God. So, there must be. some sort of detachment. Then there should be Titiksha: Sahanam Sarvaduhkhanam Apratikar purvakam. Titiksha is forbearance. What does it mean? It is not giving a tit for tat, but remaining silent when one is maltreated or one is deprived of something. He understands that he is deprived of something, still he does not react. That sort of a mental attitude is called Titiksha. And it also includes bearing up against all sorts of sorrows without being baffled by them. That is Titiksha. Then there should be Shraddha, faith - faith in the guru and faith in the scriptures. Then there should be Samadhana, concentration of mind. The guru is teaching something but the disciple's mind is wandering here and there that kind of wandering will not help in the communication of the' mantra from the guru to the disciple. So, he must be equipped with all these qualifications. Then again, as Shri Ramakrishna said, there should be Vichara discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent, right and wrong, good and bad: Nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka. Then there should be Iha-amutra-phalabhoga-viraga, dispassion for enjoyments here and hereafter. Last of all comes Mumukshutva, longing for liberation. There must be hankering for getting liberated. That is what makes religion truly what it is. All other factors are within the domain of morality, but that Mumukshutva makes it what true religion means. It converts it into spirituality. When the disciple is prepared with all these things and goes to a competent guru, then the Diksha is real Diksha. He gets real inspiration. and gets uplifted. But even if the guru is not so competent and the disciple is not so prepared, still there can be a Diksha. How? Now, boys can be taught in different classes by different people. For teaching ABCD a first-class M.A. need not be. brought in; an ordinary man can teach them the alphabet. Similarly for teaching a boy in, say, class six or class seven, you don't even need a graduate; a matriculate can very well teach him. Similarly in imparting spiritual knowledge also there may be different classes of gurus with different powers, and the disciples also can be of different standards. There can be communication between them even though 'they are not of the highest order-neither the guru nor the taught. Even so, there can be communication of spirituality or spiritual knowledge. Hence, as I said unless the shishya, disciple, is fully prepared, he should not blame the guru that he is not getting everything that he should get. For acquiring proper eligibility, proper competence, a disciple must prepare himself. Without his preparation the guru cannot do everything. Even Shri Ramakrishna said, referring to a disciple, "Look at this one. This man wants me to prepare the curds, then prepare the butter and put it into his mouth! He will do nothing. He expects me to do everything for him.” That is not the sort of attitude that a disciple should have. Then what does Diksha mean to the disciples in ordinary cases? It means that he is taking a vow, a sort of Pratijna, that throughout his life he will be following the instructions of the guru. For what? For the realization of God, he will endeavor all his life. But God will come when it pleases Him. Here I repeat one incident from Holy Mother's life. One Swami who was undergoing Tapasya, austerity, in Rishikesh wrote to Holy Mother, "Mother, I have been calling upon God all these years and nothing has happened so far. The Holy Mother said to her assistant who wrote letters for her: “Just write to him, ‘You have become a monk and it is your duty to call on God. God will come to you when it pleases Him. It is your duty to call on Him.’” So, one who takes up religion must have that kind of attitude. That determination he must have: I shall go on calling on God, and may it please God to. reveal Himself to me, of course, according to His own will, according to His own time and convenience. AccordingtoHisconvenienceandaccording toHisownsweetwill,Hewillcometome. Butmydutyisto gooncallingonHim forever. ThisisthemeaningofDiksha for ordinary cases. Ofcourse,somesortofnewlightdoescometothedisciple. He had wanted God, but he had not been put on the right track by an experienced man. There are desultory thoughts within his mind and unless he takes up a course of training well chalked out by a man who is adept in the matter, he falters at every step and may  go astray. Thus, some people adopt mantras according to their whims. Their mantra can be anything whatsoever, it may even be meaningless, but they go on like that and after sometime they again run to some other man and say, “Give me a mantra”! That is not steadfastness in life. Steadfastness comes when one formally accepts somebody as his teacher. We go to the school, certain teachers are fixed for teaching in our classes, we follow their teachings and we progress. There should be something well determined on either side, on the side of the teacher and also of the student. So, this is the meaning of Diksha in brief.

Now, somebody has put the question, “What is God-realization and what is God?” Well, that you have to find out for yourself, by consulting or reading books and all that. I read once in one of Aldous Huxley’s books that every man, whether he knows or not, has his own metaphysics. He has certain ideas about himself, about others and about the world, etc. Some sort of theory about the world, etc. Some sort of theory about all these is working on his mind, may be unconsciously, but there it is. So that kind of metaphysics or philosophy has to be clarified in one’s mind: “My mind is in this state. I am thinking like this on who God is? What should I think of God? Who is the guru? Who is the taught?” All these sorts of thoughts have got jumbled up in the mind now. They should be clarified. Then only can know what God is. Unless your own mind becomes steady, thorough and competent to understand higher thoughts, how can you know of God? God is described in various ways. He is described according to the philosophical bent of one’s mind.  One may & an Advaitin (monist). To him God means Reality-Existence-Knowledge- Bliss, to him there is nothing but that God. But when he is in the phenomenal world or the empirical world, then he thinks of God as somebody working in some way. Hanuman (Mahavira) was once asked by Shri Ramachandra, “How do you think of me?”. Hanuman replied, “When I think of myself as the body, I am your servant. When I think of myself as an individual being, then I am a part of you. And when I think of myself as the Self, then I am one with you.” So that is the relationship. Once he thinks of himself as a servant of Shri Ramachandra, another time he thinks of himself as a part of Shri Ramachandra, and another time he thinks of himself as identified with Shri Ramachandra. Now these three strands of thoughts are technically called dualism, qualified-monism, and monism. So, we have concepts of God of different types. For ordinary people God is taught as somebody with form and having some activity also like the creation of the world, its preservation, its destruction, and giving the fruits of works to respective people. God is engaged in these kinds of action. He may have form and also be formless. Formless to those who are Advaitins, and He has form also to the qualified monists and the dualists. And even to the monist, He has form so long as he is in the phenomenal world. For instance, Shankaracharya says, “Even when all the differences between you and me go away, still I belong to you and not you to me, because the waves of the sea belong to the sea and not the sea to the waves.” So even Shankaracharya who was the greatest promulgator of non-dualism, who really brought the Advaitic philosophy to us, says that he belongs to God, that he is a part of God, a slave of God. Some relationship was established between him and God, and so he says: I belong to you and I am yours. Again, when you think of God as having forms, then this God may appear differently. He may appear as Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Kali and so on and so forth. Again, He may be thought of a God having qualities but not form—some Existing Being without form, who acts for me, who gives the results of my works to me and who listens to my prayer. God is formless to the Brahmos, the Muslims, and the Christians. According to them, though ii.- has no form He is Saguna, i.e. possessed of qualities.  He can work, He has Shakti, He has power. So, that concept is also there. But we Hindus think of God as having form also. Thus, there may be different kinds of ideas about God.  All these are true, corresponding to the competence or eligibility of the person concerned. We need not confine God within a particular set of ideas. He has so many forms and multifarious states. So, we need not quarrel about that. Somebody may think of God as with form, somebody may again think that He has neither qualities nor any form and He is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss only. People's thoughts about God may differ in various ways and their realization of God will also be according to the ideas they entertain. To somebody God may have form and He may appear to him as Kali, Durga, Vishnu, Shiva, and so on. Again, somebody may think of Him as pure Existence with qualities. i.e. He is Existence with qualities, but without form. Again, one can think of God as somebody or some sort of Existence within his heart, who is not with form but who guides him at every point, at every step. This also is a kind of God-realization. God realization may be seeing God as Shri Ramakrishna saw Kali, the Mother with form. That is one form of realization. Shri Ramakrishna also saw Mother Kali as mere Existence without any form. That also he realized. So, all these are the different forms of realization of God according to the competence of the man or woman concerned. There is no end to that.

Ouestion: Shri Ramakrishna says that Karma-yoga is very difficult for the Kali Yuga and so Bhakti-yoga is the Yuga- dharma. But Swamiji seems to say the opposite.

Answer: Swamiji seems to say the opposite—that is all right. And Shri Ramakrishna says that Karma-yoga is difficult. Now, I do not question either Shri Ramakrishna or Swamiji but I am stating facts before you: Is any yoga easy? Take for instance Karma-yoga. Karma-yoga is difficult, Shri Ramakrishna says. True, it is difficult. He then explains that Karma- yoga has to be done without any desire for the fruit and without any egotism that I am the Karta, doer. That idea, “I am the doer”, should not be there and one should not hanker after the results. Now, these are very difficult. He told Shambhu Babu. “You can do this work in the true spirit of Karma-yoga, but Karma-yoga is difficult. One does not know when and how some sort of vanity comes in. Egotism somehow creeps in.” That is quite true, we cannot deny it; it is a fact. On the other hand, take the case of a Bhakta. The Bhakta also can become proud. He may become Showy that he is a Bhakta, putting some marks on his body and talking big things, while internally he may be a mere cheat. It may happen like that. Then some devotee may be outwardly professing some religion but cheating others in business and telling falsehood. That sort of thing everybody comes across in life every day. That is not religion. So, Bhakti too is difficult. Jnana also is difficult. It depends on the person concerned. But Bhakti is easy in the sense that it is natural to us, because we love people, we want to Jove others. If we transfer that love we have for human beings to God, it becomes an easy way of approaching God. That is what Shri Ramakrishna meant. But as I told you, the path of Bhakti also is fraught with difficulties. Pure Bhakti does not come so easily, you have to work hard. You have to devote much time to the thought of God to japa, dhyana, the reading or hearing of good literature, mixing with good people and all that. Then only Bhakti comes. Now­ Karma-yoga. What does it actually mean? The other day I was reading Madhusudana Saraswati. He says that Karma-yoga means lshta-purta-datta: performance of sacrifice, building dharmashalas etc., digging wells and giving money in charity, etc. These constitute Karma-yoga. These things are prescribed in the scriptures. If I do that, it becomes Karma-yoga according to some. God is not brought into this scheme. The old ancient Mimamsakas said that if you perform these sacrifices, if you utter these mantras as given in the scriptures­ then that will lead you to your goal. And what is the goal according to them? Going to heaven. This Karma yoga leads to that much (heaven), only to the world of Pitris, to the world of manes. But that Karma yoga can again be turned into a sort of Karma mixed with Bhakti. For example, I may work for the pleasure of God, so that my mind may become purified for the realization of God. If with some such motive you do work and offer the results to God, and eliminate your egotism as much as you can, then that also becomes Karma yoga mixed with Bhakti. That leads to the world of the deities you might be worshipping. It may lead you to Vaikuntha-loka, Vishnu-loka, Shiva-Ioka, and so on, or it may even lead to Brahma loka, the world of Brahma, technically called "Hiranyagarbha". And from there you may become ultimately free. Y our deity becomes pleased with you and frees you for all time. That is also possible through Karma-yoga if it is associated with Bhakti and Jnana. Now Shankaracharya says that in Karma-yoga when the ego is knocked out and when the desire for result is absent, then that Karma amounts to Jnana itself. It is not different from Jnana. So, we must realJy understand what we mean by Karma-yoga. If we mean lshta-purta-datta, then it has one meaning and its goal 'is something as I have already told you. Then again if it is mixed up with Bhakti, it leads to some other result. Again, it can be turned into Jnana when there is no egotism in me and there is no desire for result. The highest instance we have of this kind of Karma-yoga is Rajarshi Janaka. He said, 'I have everything that people desire; all things are there in full in my palace. But even if Mithila, my kingdom, is burnt away it harms me in no way whatsoever." That kind of detachment must be. there in the true. Karma-yogin. And that true Karma-yoga which Janaka had is not different from Jnana as Shankaracharya defines it. So, this is how we have to understand. Only using a term and being carried away by it, won't do. You must go thoroughly into it and understand what that term really means, and then you can get the philosophy behind it. What Swamiji taught was the last kind of Karma-yoga which he termed Seva or service to God in human beings. This has for its basis the non-dualistic philosophy of Shankara­ who said that all beings are but Brahman itself. Swamiji taught and worked with this idea. Shri Ramakrishna also worked for the good of others and actually imparted this message of Seva to Swamiji and others. Thus, there is no conflict between what they taught.

Question: How do we know that we are progressing. in the path of God?

Answer: Peace of mind. If you have peace of mind and if you are at peace with your environment, you can know that you are progressing. This cap. be the only simple answer. Of course, if we have visions of God­ that is also an indication that we are progressing, we are coming to God. If you have thoughts of God always in your mind, or even in dream if you have visions of the deity, of your guru, or of similar great spiritual personalities, or if high thoughts are ever in your minds, you are progressing. If your mind expands and embraces the universe in a bond of love, that, too, is .an indication of spiritual progress.

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These answers to questions from devotees, were given by Revered Swami Gambhiranandaji Maharaj at the Ramakrishna Ashrama, Rajkot, on 18.3.87.