Dear Master AD,
I came across an article in a book recently, in which it was written that Sabar Mantras are very powerful and they can be successfully perfected without much of effort. It was also said there that the keepers of these mantras are generally from the lower strata of society, who are neither devoutly religious nor much educated but still are able to put many Gods and Goddesses to their work and help others. It was described in that article how using these Sabar Mantras these mostly illiterate, unreligious, people living in unhygienic conditions, eating meat and drinking alcohol are able to treat sick people, cure them from spirits and possessions. It is surprising and kind of unbelievable because I see there are so many devout and pious religious people who don’t have such capacities.
I request you to please shed light on what are Sabar Mantras and how these Sabar Mantras work in the hands of these ordinary people and we, despite putting so much efforts in maintaining cleanliness, living a disciplined and moralistic life fail to acquire any such powers.
-Ameesh Halokane, Palghar, Maharashtra
Shivoham!
Beloved Ameesh,
Sabar Mantras fall in special category of mantras that were revealed by Lord Shiva especially for the ones who have no knowledge of ‘Language of Elite or Devas’ – the Sanskrit. Goswami Tulsidas in his epic ‘Ramacharita Manas’ which is dedicated to the Vishnu Avatar – Lord Shri Ram has briefly mentioned about the origin and power of these mantras. He says –
कलि बिलोकि जग हित हर गिरिजा। साबर मंत्र जाल जिन्ह सिरिजा॥
अनमिल आखर अरथ न जापू। प्रगट प्रभाउ महेस प्रतापू॥
Meaning “Upon seeing the arrival of Kaliyuga, lord Shiva along with his consort Parvati for the benefit of common people created this system of mantra known as ‘Saabar’. These mantras seemingly have no metre (rhythm), sometimes lack a definite meaning and don’t require elaborate ‘japa’ (repetition in certain numbers) to become effective instead these ‘sabar mantras’ are effective and potent due to special status being granted to these by Lord Shiva himself.”
Another important thing about mantras is that most of them are initially ‘keelit’ (rendered ineffective) and only when the practitioner ‘ignites’ their powers using the power of ‘sankalpa‘ (intention) and ‘japa‘ (ritualistic repetition) after ‘deeksha’ (getting initiated in the mantra) from a Guru (authority in imparting that mantra) but sabar mantras don’t require elaborate and prolonged ritualistic regimes. These are potent from the time of receiving itself. In fact sabar mantras are transmitted orally from Guru to Chela (disciple) and they become ‘keelit’ if they are written down. One more important fact about these mantras is that these have been resurrected again in the lineages of ‘Naths & Siddhas’ and therefore you will find many of these mantras with the phrase of ‘nau naath chauraasee siddhon ki duhaai’. Here ‘duhaai’ is a way of invoking and exciting the concerned deity (god, goddess or para-physical entity) to become active and come to help. Needless to say these mantras bring about results too quickly and you can easily use them to help & heal others as well.
Before I explain why these mantras are so potent I wish to ask you something. What gives you authority to call someone lowly, irreligious or not-so-pious? It ought to be your worldview rooted in archetype, where body-identification is somewhat primal obsession. All spiritual and meta-physical systems accept that ‘we’ are not the body and just think how can we be? Our presence and being is something ‘beyond’ and ‘separate’ from body. When we ‘leave’ this body – it becomes what it really is; Nothing but a dead matter. Investigating ‘Awastha-traya’ (wakefulness, dream and dreamless-sleep) will further give your more clarity about whether we are body or not. Also, if we take ourselves to be the ‘body’ then is this ‘physical body’ is the only body or we have some other bodies as well and which of them is more potent and of more value.
Physical body never comes in the way of experiencing your subtle and inner world nor it’s upkeep comes in the way of gaining control over the subtle world of energy, prana, nadis and tanmatras with which the bodies of so called intervening divine entities are made. If upkeep and surroundings in which this physical body is kept, could come in our inner-capacity developments – Aghoris could never gain any supernatural and paranormal powers! You need to spend a day in a cremation ground to see it yourself, how these Aghoris conduct themselves and how clean is their environment. Yet another recent spiritual personality as an example will further shake up your who firm belief in cleanliness and nobility. This medieval spiritual icon earned his livelihood from the business of making and mending shoes. Dealt in cooking and tanning leather, was unable to leave his job for a day to take a holy dip in the Ganges. Who was he? The revered saint Raidaas (Ravidas). There are so many miraculous stories about this divine, yet not so clean and pure saint. In fact we should ever refrain from taking a higher ground only because we have all the facilities and vasana to keep our physical bodies clean and dressed in an elite way – Your real purity is an inner phenomenon and it is best felt in your mind.
Further I would like to paraphrase your another objection. You say these people are illiterate and that in your opinion it makes them lesser human than us. It is covertly implied in this observation that inability of someone to read and write a language is a great impediment in one’s inner capacity development. My beloved friend, even if we look at the definition ‘Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world‘.. Here the second part (underlined) of the definition is the supposed capacity outcome of the first but first is not mandatory in my personal opinion. History has seen many Masters who were unable to read or write a language but they communicated better than any erudite scholars of the subject they chose to speak and make sense of. Do you forget Kabir who declared –
मसि कागद छूयो नहीं, कलम गही नहिं हाथ।
चारिक जुग को महातम, मुखहिं जनाई बात।।
Meaning “I have not touched the paper and never held a pen in my hand however I am ready to explain you the secrets of all the four Yugas using only my ‘mukha’ (spoken words).
What to talk of being literate but even being a scholar of all the worldly subjects doesn’t help in understanding the mysterious ways our inner world operates. And the supernatural prowess of Kabir? He is one of those rare few who dissolved their bodies when leaving this physical plane. Frankly speaking being an intellectual is no guarantee of even intelligence forget divine intelligence which is the key to understand the secrets of the invisible world and its operating principles. To this effect Kabir himself says –
पोथी पढ़ि पढ़ि जग मुआ, पंडित भया न कोय |
ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़े सो पंडित होय ||
Meaning “People continue to read books, scriptures and philosophies but they don’t become wiser. The one who has become familiar with the language of heart is the only one who can be called ‘Wisest of all’.
Having dealt with your wrong assumptions now let me briefly speak on the question of ‘instant power’ and peculiar language of sabar mantras. Before proceeding I will tell you one secret. Although it is bit difficult to comprehend yet you should always keep in mind – ‘Gods, Goddesses, keepers and drivers of this universe are well within us, not outside but whatever you believe about them is equally true.’ Now, read further in the light of this statement. It will help you understand the alchemy of sabar mantras better.
The first reason is the quality of mind itself. You should understand that the system of education is based on questioning, doubting and it consists methods to strengthen and develop our faculty of logic. Yet in deepest of your mind you know the power arising out of our inner convictions, faith and trust is far superior than what ‘logic’ and questioning can bestow upon us. If logically you are convinced ‘I can not win over this situation’ there are almost zero possibilities you ever winning over it. It takes an undoubting mind to develop faith and it is the power of faith (not trust) that stirs up the cauldron of infinite possibilities and limitlessness – ‘our mind’. Your limitations are due to your so called ‘impure knowledge’. The great tantric text Shiva Sutra declared ‘ज्ञानं बन्धः’.. knowledge is bondage or limitation. Impure means the knowledge that employs only logic and structure to receive and accept anything – but doesn’t this existence exists and operates in ways that are beyond all our logic? For sure it does!
An innocent (uneducated or so called illiterate), raw mind in its nascent state, is fully endowed with the critical balance between both the qualities – Faith and Reason. This is the type of mind which is literally an ideal instrument and the source of power in itself. Such a mind ready to accept any concept that is presented to it. Be it existence of a deity and that this deity is endowed with humanlike emotions but superhumanly in its capabilities & powers. Such a mind does not ridicule any concept to that extent where it refuses to experiment and verify the associated experiences that are being claimed. Such a person will readily accept, let’s say presence of Hanuman (a half-monkey half-human God) and will enthusiastically take a plunge in ‘calling’ and invoking ‘Him’ in the deeper realms of his own psyche or in the place (be it a temple, peepal tree or a statue made in the stone) where he has been told that this ‘God’ lives. This innocent, unquestioning attitude gives rise to that unshakable holistic faith which is able to orient and channelize all the mental and pranic energies at command. Only such a mind is capable of moving mountains. Moving mountains is a phrase symbolic of the powerful miracles that such a mind can create.
To be able to appreciate the miracles created by the users of Sabar Mantras we must understand – ‘What is a miracle?’ and ‘What is role of the Mind in it?’
Prana is an active cosmic force that organizes the matter and gives it a structure. Prana at individual level moves, stabilizes and disrupts the pre-organized structures out there, including this physical body. Further Prana is influenced and moved by the ‘Power of mind’ and therefore in a sense we can say the power of mind is what moves, organizes and disrupts the movement of all the matters in our personal world. The natural flow of unmodulated prana, that is not influenced by mind, in this physical world is what we is considered to be ‘Normal’. Another ‘normal’ is that event in which prana is used in mobilizing, altering states/positions of matter while taking help of physical contact with other things and bodies. Miracle is roughly an event wherein so called ‘normal’ rules of working on prana & energy are seemingly defied which means – events, states of matter, organization or movement of matter is accomplished without an evident ’cause-effect’ explanation. However ‘miracle’ is a ‘Normal event’ using the (unknown) rules of ‘prana-mobilization’ belonging to the higher planes of existence. That is why it is sometimes called ‘para-Normal’. Mantras are the divine instruments of higher plane that are utilized by the mind (in specific states) to concentrate, modulate and direct the prana in most effective way. Sabar Mantras are no exception in this regard except in their readiness to exhibit their inherent capacities to direct prana and the attribute of ‘raw mind’ of the ‘user of the mantra‘.
While decoding the alchemy of miracles here we should not discount this critical factor that the users and very genre of ‘sabar mantras’ is such that it utilizes the power of heightened emotions to a greater degree. To show you how sabar mantras are worded to invoke heightened emotions let me give you an example. Have a look at this mantra below –
ॐ हनुमान पहलवान पहलवान, बरस बारह का जबान,
हाथ में लड्डू मुख में पान, खेल खेल गढ़ लंका के चौगान,
अंजनी का पूत, राम का दूत, छिन में कीलौ
नौ खंड का भूत, जाग जाग हड़मान
हुंकाला, ताती लोहा लंकाला, शीश जटा
डग डेरू उमर गाजे, वज्र की कोठड़ी ब्रज का ताला
आगे अर्जुन पीछे भीम, चोर नार चंपे
ने सींण, अजरा झरे भरया भरे, ई घट
पिंड की रक्षा करें कुंवर हड़मान
हनुमान हनुमान, बरस बारह का जबान,
जो न करे मेरो काम तो दुहाई अंजनी माई की
दुहाई गुरूजी की।
I am not sure if you know Hindi but frankly speaking this mantra can not be translated in any other language (forget a foreign language like English). However I can tell you that this sabar Hanuman mantra is like a personal conversation. This is a mix of prose and poetry, thus has no fixed metre. It is full of loud praise of the deity Hanuman but the mantrik (user of this mantra) is making a request in a way which is like pleading (as one is on one’s knees) emotionally and next moment he (user) is somewhat ‘threatening’ (though still full of reverence and cognizant of the divine powers this deity-friend hanuman has).
Any elite, educated person who comes to hear such a pleading will probably laugh at the way all this is being said – especially so because this all is directed to a higher power, God, a deity. A mind, that has become dried of raw emotion of friendship, is devoid of faith can never appreciate this way of calling, pleading and invoking a divine force.. but beloved Ameesh, it is this power of raw emotions which stirs up the etheric matter to create a giant whirlpool of prana which is then faithfully directed by an able ‘tranced’ mind to the desired outcome. This grand explosion of prana is possible as ‘trance’ is a state of meditation that we refer to as ‘dharana‘ in yogic/tantric terminology. Using trance one can transcend this plane of physical reality. The so called ‘normal’ of higher planes actually transcends the ’cause-effect paradigm’ of this lower plane..!
Emotional purity, a personal humanlike connect with deity is that peculiar element of sabar mantras. This human friendship with the divine forces is rarely experienced but wherever and whenever it gets ignited in a heart – any mantra will work. You can also try it but for that you will have to unlearn and decondition a lot and you will need a Guru.
Jai Ambe Shri!
-Acharya Agyaatadarshan Anand Nath
Its all about you! 