The exchange of thoughts, ideas and samskaras seems to happen through the internet or Google. Nowadays the situation is such that people either turn to God or to Google to solve their problems. If you fall in love you promptly consult Google to find out the meaning of love. You feel some pain, and before going to a doctor you turn to Google. It has been noticed that those who turn to Google seem to have more problems and those who turn to God seem to face less problems.
Sri Swami Satyananda asked, in this modern age when society is changing and the family is undergoing transformation from where will one get samskaras? There is no exchange of ideas between the young and the old in the family. All one does is try and find fault with the other and to try and confirm one's own position that 'What I am doing is right and what you are doing is wrong'.
To bring about some peace and well being. in such family circumstances, each Saturday there should be japa of Mahamrityunjaya mantra in a yogic or yoga-minded family. It should ideally happen in each family. A yoga-minded family will be aware of the importance of this mantra and its beneficial effects. The chanting of one mala of this mantra might take about forty minutes when one starts the practice, then it comes down to twenty or twenty-five minutes over time. If one takes a sankalpa for the peace and happiness of the family and sits down for twenty-five minutes in the evening together with the whole family – husband, wife and children – and chants one mala of this mantra, then after two or three weeks one will experience for oneself what happens.
One will notice positive changes in the family environment. One will see samskaras flowering in the family. There will be an exchange and interaction of ideas between the family members. One will see respect and regard for each other find a firm place in the home. In this way one will reconnect with samskaras, an ideal, a way of thinking, some discipline and there will be peace in the home. Ever since this weekly practice was initiated, every week we receive thousands of letters from all over the world requesting their names to be remembered before the Mahamrityunjaya mantra havan, whether it is for good health for oneself or a loved one, for peace, happiness, or well being.
I will say emphatically that it is an incontestable truth that whenever there is communal or family chanting it yields a positive effect and one connects with good samskaras. When we pray for the well being. and peace of people who write with their requests, we find that people write to us and tell us about the life changes that they have experienced as a result of this. This is not just a powerful sadhana; it is deeply connected with the sankalpa of a sannyasin.
The sankalpa of this sannyasin for peace, plenty and prosperity for all beings everywhere is what we will connect with and distribute amongst ourselves while we proceed to chant one mala of Mahamrityunjaya mantra together. Do not think that your religion is going to change. By chanting a mantra your religion does not change.
For when you follow your religion, you do not change. You can discover a change in thoughts, ideas yet your dharmic or spiritual behaviour does not change. Spiritual or dharmic behaviour is that which allows for the expression and manifestation of positive qualities in life. You express compassion, you express love, and when your expression is full of such qualities it is called dharmic behaviour.
26 July 2014, Swabhoomi Rangamanch, Kolkata, India