SWAMIJI ON DHARMA AND DIKSHA

After delivering his famous speech at the World Congress of Religions at Chicago and returning home, Swamiji, in every public address he delivered at various places from Colombo to Almora, highlighted the fundamental point that, Dharma was the basic ideal of the people of this country.

 Every nation has its own ideal and goal to achieve, which guides and regulates its social life; and it suffers  when the ideal gets corrupted. In India, Dharma is the guideline of social life. If we try to replace this old and established ideal by a new one, the result will be catastrophic. Thousands and thousands of years ago, this nation has accepted Dharma as its basic ideal which cannot be altered today, just as we cannot make the waters of the River Ganga to flow up towards the Himalayas.

 Swamiji used to say that this nation has adopted an ideal (i.e. Dharma) which is neither mean nor ignoble. Moreover, this nation has remained faithful to this ideal even during the days of severe crisis. If India has to rise again, it must ascend following the path of Dharma and nothing else. Of course, it might have other ambitions too like political hegemony and economic prosperity. But it should always be remembered that these ambitions should also be guided by the principles of Dharma. So, Swamiji said, “If you want this country to flourish in political and economical fields, spiritualism must flourish first”. He also said, “The Supreme Truth contained in our Upanisads and Puranas is to liberated from the grip of the maths, different sects of people and from oblivion, and should be propagated among the common people”, so that every individual of this country might have a chance to taste that truth.

 Swamiji used to believe that the people belonging to the higher castes had a monopoly over the said Truth and thus deprived the hoi polloi from its benefits. He was also convinced that it was one of the major causes of India’s downfall. Due to this utter selfishness of the people of the higher castes, Swamiji, in various occasions, passed harsh comments against them.   

The word diksha, in fact, signifies to commence anything or to take a vow to do something which is good. So the English word ‘initiation’ seems to be very close to Sanskrit diksha. And hence diksha can be expressed as an initiation or help one to initiate a good, generally a spiritual, practice. However, the aim as well as the procedure of diksha may vary. Scriptures mentions yajnadiksha, which simply means performance of a yajna ( a religious rite) for attaining some (generally mundane) benefits. But we are to discuss mantradiksha, that means to take a vow to muse a particular mantra.

What is a mantra ? The word mantra stands for a spiritual intimation, a continuous muse of which leads one to liberation from darkness of ignorance, cycle of rebirth and finally the attainment of mukti or moksha. And that is the purpose of accepting a mantradiksha. There are many prevailing suspicions and wrong notions about the role of the mantradiksha and its influence on the spiritual life of an individual.

On the other hand, many opt for a mantradiksha without understanding its real significance and the benefits one obtains from it.  I prefer to use the word mantradiksha as the beginning of the process of musing a mantra as a daily routine work with the ultimate goal of obtaining God’s grace.

How the word mantra has been derived ? ‘mananat trayate iti mantra’. Or in other words, mantra stands for the thing that liberates one from  maya (illution), avidya (ignorance), cycle of birth and rebirth and sorrows and sufferings of this mundane life. And diksha stands for the procedure of chanting that mantra, which the guru ( teacher) instructs.