The Mantra Business

The Mantra meditation business is flourishing these days. Modern-day "messiahs," "gurus," and "incarnations," with all varieties of mantras, are a dime a dozen, as eager customers flock to the feet of self-styled saviours. One so-called guru instructs his disciples in supercharged techniques for becoming a financial success. Another tells his followers that meditation will make their intelligence sharper and the body more fit to enjoy sensual pleasures. Still other "gurus" claim that sex is the ultimate goal of life and that unlimited sex will free one from all material desires. Some chic spiritual seekers pay a lot of money for secret mantras that they believe will allow them to perform mystic feats. But the Vedic literatures issue stern warnings about charlatan gurus and bogus mantras.

If a person is actually serious about spiritual life, he or she must come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master and learn from that person the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad states that “In order to learn the transcendental science, one must approach the bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession, who has a spotless character and who is fixed in the Absolute Truth.”

Not just any guru will do. This verse informs us that the spiritual master must be in disciplic succession from Lord Kṛṣṇa, the supreme spiritual master. Such a genuine spiritual master receives Kṛṣṇa’s teachings through the disciplic chain and distributes them exactly as he has heard them from his spiritual master, without watering them down or altering them to suit his whims. A bona fide guru is not an impersonalist or voidist. He will never claim to be God; rather, he aspires to be a servant of God and His devotees. Such a guru is called ācārya, or one who teaches by example. His life is free from all material desires and sinful behaviour, his character is exemplary, and he must be qualified to deliver his disciples from the path of repeated birth and death. The Kṛṣṇa conscious guru is absorbed in service to or meditation on the Supreme Lord at every moment.

Since the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is completely spiritual, it must be received from a pure representative or servant of Kṛṣṇa, who acts as a transparent medium between God and the sincere spiritual seeker. Mantras received from any other type of “guru” simply will not work.

the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states: "Unless one follows the disciplic succession, the mantra one receives will be chanted for no purpose. Nowadays there are so many rascal gurus who manufacture their mantras as a process for material advancement, not for spiritual advancement. Still, the mantra cannot be successful if it is manufactured. Mantras and the process of devotional service have special power, provided they are received from the authorized person."

The age-old Vedic literature of India tells us clearly how to enter into spiritual life: “One must approach a spiritual master if he desires spiritual realization” (Muṇḍaka Up.. 1.2.12). Also, “The aspirant should surrender to a spiritual master if he is genuinely inquisitive about the highest goal of life” (Bhāg. 11.3.21). And in the Purāṇas, a more recent part of the Vedic literature, it is said, “There are many so-called gurus who are very expert in plundering the money of their disciples, but rarely can one find a spiritual master who can free his disciples from all material anxieties.”

The bona fide spiritual master does not invent anything new. He’s a messenger, not an inventor. His duty is to transmit the Vedic knowledge as the Lord originally spoke it and as the disciplic succession has handed it down. Just as a postman delivers your letters without subtracting anything or adding anything of his own, so the spiritual master delivers the spiritual message of Vedic knowledge as it is, without adding or subtracting anything.

How can you tell whether the spiritual master meets this qualification? Very easily. The words of Krishna are recorded in the Bhagavad-gītā, and you merely have to compare. For example, in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says, “Always think of Me and surrender to Me” (Bg. 9.34). So the bona fide spiritual master instructs his disciples to think always of Krishna and surrender to Krishna. If a so-called guru advises his disciples to think of something impersonal or void instead of Krishna, or to surrender to someone other than Krishna, how can he be bona fide? We should immediately reject him as worthless.

Nor can the spiritual master advertise that he himself is God. The bona fide spiritual master always presents himself as a humble servant of God, never as God Himself. Any so-called guru who claims to be God, or who tells his disciples that they can become God, is a charlatan. The bona fide spiritual master acts as a humble servant of the Lord and instructs his disciples to do likewise.

While it is generally advised to receive a mantra through initiation from a bonafide guru, there are some universal mantras for which one need not to be initiated. The chanting of the Hare-Kṛṣṇa-mahā-mantra is so powerful that it does not depend on official initiation, but if one is initiated and engages in pañcarātra-vidhi (Deity worship), his Kṛṣṇa consciousness will awaken very soon, and his false identification with the material world will be vanquished.

The offenseless chanting of the holy name does not depend on the initiation process. Although initiation may depend on puraścaryā or puraścaraṇa, the actual chanting of the holy name does not depend on puraścaryā-vidhi, or the regulative principles. If one chants the holy name once without committing an offense, he attains all success.

'The holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa is an attractive feature for many saintly, liberal people. It is the annihilator of all sinful reactions and is so powerful that save for the dumb who cannot chant it, it is readily available to everyone, including the lowest type of man, the caṇḍāla. The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is the controller of the opulence of liberation, and it is identical with Kṛṣṇa. Simply by touching the holy name with one's tongue, immediate effects are produced. Chanting the holy name does not depend on initiation, pious activities or the puraścaryā regulative principles generally observed before initiation. The holy name does not wait for all these activities. It is self-sufficient.' (CC Madhya/15/110)

Chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra isthe simplest of all processes of self-realization. There are no exorbitant fees; the mantra is free. The thriving business of selling mantras is a form of cheating. The test of a person's sincerity is not that he pays some money, but that he is willing to change his life.

In order to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, one need not equip oneself with expensive props and paraphernalia, learn to stand on one's head, or perform other difficult postures or breathing exercises. The only equipment one needs is a tongue and ears. Everyone already has these. The tongue simply has to vibrate Kṛṣṇa's holy names, and the ears must hear it. By this simple process alone, one can achieve all perfection.

People should know, that so-called mantras received from professional chant leaders and mantra recording artists, for beauty health and business, are worthless, having no effect at all, except, the mantra-seller is getting rich and the buyer, not only loosing his money, but also wasting his time with a concocted mantra that has no power.