what is initiation

Whenever you need to heal yourself, you need inner healing, you need to bring yourself again to the life energy. Many times you can see, a simple disturbance from the current experience of the outside world or from the past memory inside you can drain your energy.

Another thing that drains your energy is taking too many decisions. For example, you can try to go and sit in your office, not do any work but just take some five to six major decisions and you are already tired.

The truths, ideas, words which bring you out of that tiredness, that low mood, that depression and give you the energy and confidence, are what I call shaastra-shastras, knowledge-weapons.

The truths which not only bring you out of depression but also destroy the source of depression once for all, are called mantra. ‘Man traayate iti mantraha’, the words which show the path for human beings are mantra.

When any mantra comes from the enlightened experience, from the pure inner space, you do not know why, how or what but you suddenly you see that it is true. It ‘clicks’. One part of your logic continues to fight with it because if you accept the Truth and start expressing it in your life, all your vested interests and many things which you thought of as life are at stake. But your core, your being, will have that click, ‘I know what he is talking is the Truth.’ There may be a doubt in the corner of your heart, but your very core feels connected. You can’t understand logically, but suddenly your heart feels connected to the words being uttered, the truth being expressed. That connection, that ‘click’ is what I call ‘initiation’.

In the tradition of Vedanta, we have three beautiful words, shravana, manana and nidhidhyasana. Shravana means intense listening; manana means internalizing, contemplating; nidhidhyasana means living it.

Initiation means the great Truths, the words which lead you to the Truth, a clear path which leads you to the Truth. If it is experientially transmitted, if you have at least one glimpse, then the initiation has happened, then you are initiated.

When I use word ‘initiation’ there will be so many doubts, ‘I am already initiated by some other guru, can I have initiation? If I get initiated can I go to some other gurus and learn something?’

Perfectly alright, nothing wrong! I always tell people, go to all the gardens and pluck flowers and make a beautiful garland for yourself. It is not like a shop that if you go to one shop, you don’t go to another! Our ego is such, if it is beaten by ten to twelve gurus, only then it will die! So, there is nothing wrong in approaching different gurus. Learn all the best things from all the sources and enrich your life.

Gurum Bhajé - Guru Poornima 2008 celebrations with Paramahamsa Nithyananda at:
Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, Off Mysore Road, Bidadi-562109, India
Ph: 080 - 27202084, 080 - 65591844