Babaji's Message - Part 5 of the Interview with Babaji, Summer 1978 By Dio Urmilla Neff (printed in the Yoga Journal, 1980)As active as Babaji was, he rarely made a speech, or held forth in spiritual discourse. He simply instructed us to live lives of truth, simplicity and love and repeat "Om Namah Shivaya." (Om Namah Shivaya is pronounced "Om" [rhymes with "home"], Nah-mah-hah [the "a" in father], She-vai ["vaya rhymes with "bye"]. (Swami Muktananda, a renowned siddhi yogi beloved by many Americans, also teaches this mantra, pronouncing it "Om Namah Shivaya.") I knew something about nam jap, the repetition of a mantra, from my studies of the Vedanta philosophy years before. It is believed that Sanskrit terms are of the same vibration, though on a different frequency, of the objects they name. So the Sanskrit name for "light," for example, is made of the same stuff, vibration-wise, as actual physical light, but on a different octave, so to speak.
It is further believed that if one repeats the name of God in Sanskrit, one will then very precisely attract His attention, and thus evoke or create that divinity within one's own consciousness. Evoking God's presence so immediately, it is believed, is one way to enlightenment. I had heard "Om" described in books as the underlying sound of creation. To me, "Namaha" translated as "I bow down to Thee" and "Shivaya" as the Hindu god Shiva, or that aspect of God that destroys our neuroses, our ignorance. I also learned that "Shiva" in Sanskrit means, "one who gives happiness," and thus can refer to all gods or God in general. The mantra invoked God no matter what one's religion, I was told. It therefore meant to me, "Om, I surrender to you, God, or Om, rid me of this ignorance, God!"
Topic: Babaji's Message - Part 5 of the interview by Dio Urmilla Neff, Summer 1978 (Read 8698 times)