Mantra

Explain the meaning, preparation and process of mantra deeksha -- mantra initiation. And what are the reasons why individuals must keep the mantra secret?

But the council decided that Ananda could not be allowed because he was still unenlightened. He could not record Buddha's sayings because an ignorant man cannot be believed. He would not deceive, but with an ignorant man nothing is reliable. He may think that something happened, and he may relate it authentically as far as he knows, but he is a man who is not yet awakened. Whatsoever he has seen and heard in sleep could not be believed, so only those would record who had become awakened -- they decided. Ananda was weeping just outside the door. The door was closed, and he remained just by the door for twenty-four hours, weeping, crying and screaming. But they would not allow him. For these twenty-four hours he was weeping, weeping, and then suddenly he became aware what had been the barrier -- why he hadn't been able to attain while…

Before, you used to talk about the mantra hoo. Then why you are emphasizing now the mantra aum?

I am not emphasizing. I am simply explaining to you Patanjali. My emphasis remains for Hoo. And whatsoever I am saying about Aum, the same is applicable to Hoo. But my emphasis remains with Hoo. As I told you, Patanjali existed five thousand years before. People were simple -- very simple, innocent. They could trust easily; they had not much of the mind. They were not head oriented: they were heart oriented. Aum is a mild sound -- soothing, non-violent, non-aggressive. If you chant Aum, it goes from the throat to the heart, never below it. Those were heart people -- Aum was enough for them: a mild dose, a homeopathic dose. was enough for them. For you, it wont help much For you, Hoo will be more helpful. Hoo is a Sufi mantra. Just like Aum is a Hindu mantra, Hoo is a Mohammedan, Sufi mantra. Hoo was developed…

I always thought that you were against politicians, so I was very much surprised to know that you have blessed indira gandhi. Beloved master, would you like to say something about it?

I am against the political mind. The political mind means the cunning mind, the political mind means the murderous, violent mind. The political mind means the mind that is only interested in dominating others, that is only interested in being in such a position where millions of people's lives are in his hands, this way or that. The politician's mind is the mind of the perfect egoist. I am certainly against the political mind. I would like a world which does not go round and round the political mind. I would like a world which has the religious quality, not the political quality. At least I would like the political quality of the mind to recede into the background. At the center should be the creative mind. Politics is destructive. But this cannot happen right now. For millions of years politics has been in the center, so this cannot happen…

Osho, what do you say about mantra-shakti, the power of mantras?

There is no power in any mantra. That is why a mantra of one religion does not work for another. That is why the people of one religion laugh at the mantras of another, calling them foolish; yet they have great faith in their own, even when they don’t know the meaning. When you understand something and it affects you, of course it can work. But how will you be affected by what you don’t understand? Almost everywhere the priests have arranged it so that dead languages are not allowed to die; at least in the temples they keep them on life support. The advantage of dead languages is this: since you don’t understand, you think, “It must be something extraordinary!” Open the Vedas and you will be astonished—ninety-nine percent rubbish! Stuff that has no business being in the Vedas; calling it “Veda” is utterly pointless. But who reads them?…