Secret of Secrets

Why is it kept secret? It is said that mantras are like seeds and seeds sprout in secrecy. You put the seed under the ground and cover it with mud, then the seed sprouts and becomes a tree. The ancient concept of mantra is that a sound which is kept secret grows and resonates within you. Any secret that you keep to yourself does not leave you but it takes you deeper to the subconscious layers.
The same principle works for confession. Why do you confess? To ensure that it does not go deep into your consciousness. A mistake or sin leaves you once you say it out. It does not remain within and bother you. But the mantra, a sound which has been given, and that too by one who is deep into meditation, one who has mastered it, helps you go deeper.

The sound (mantra) is given to another person, a student saying, ‘Keep it to yourself, it is your personal mantra, and let it grow.’

Here the meaning of the sound is not important, just the vibration is important. Understanding the meaning is superficial compared to the vibration of the sound. It could be the same sound which everybody knows.

In olden days there used to be four days of celebration to give a mantra. They would call all the relatives and friends when the child was to be initiated. They would bring horses and put the child on the back of the horse and have a procession.
This was the ancient way of doing it.

Spiritual journey is considered very sacred, very personal and yet a matter of pride. You are getting a secret sound and that is a big pride because it is sacred.

Based on a series of talks entitled ‘Secrets of meditation’ given by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on April 21, 2012, California. These talks have been made into knowledge sheets.

Meditation Secrets Revealed

Every human being has the need to meditate because it is a natural tendency of human life to look for a joy that doesn’t diminish, a love that doesn’t distort or turn into negative emotions.

Is meditation foreign to us? Absolutely not! You have been in meditation for a couple of months before your birth. You were in your mother’s womb doing nothing. You didn’t even have to chew your food, it was fed directly into your belly and you were there happily floating in the fluid, turning and kicking, sometimes here and sometimes there. That is meditation. You did nothing. Everything was done for you. So there is a natural tendency in every human being, in every soul, to crave for that state of absolute comfort.

You know why you want comfort? It is because you were comfortable at one point, because you have experienced a state of comfort called meditation. Meditation is absolute comfort. So getting back to that state which you have experienced before coming into the hustle, bustle of this world is very natural because in this universe everything is cyclic. Everything wants to go back to its source. That is the nature of the world.

During autumn, leaves fall and go back to the soil and nature has its own way to re-cycle them. The natural tendency to re-cycle all that you have collected every day of your life as impressions, to get rid of them and to get back to the original state that you were in when you came to this planet, is meditation. Becoming fresh and alive is meditation. Getting back to that serenity which is your original nature is meditation. Absolute joy and happiness is meditation.

A pleasure minus excitement is meditation. A thrill without anxiety is meditation. A love without hatred is meditation. Meditation is food for the soul. There is a natural craving for food. When you are hungry, spontaneously you eat something. If you are thirsty you want to drink some water. In the same way, the soul yearns for meditation and this tendency is in everyone.

There is not a single individual on this planet who is not a seeker. Just that they don’t know it, they don’t recognize it. We try to look for that food where it is not available, that is the problem.