IS CHANTING A MANTRA A COMPLICATED PROCEDURE?
No. Just recite or chant the mantra.
The following story says about an ascetic mantra practitioner who received a gift of clairvoyance.
"I walked to the temple from where I had asked my driver to park the car.
After sitting there for a little while, I paid my obeisances again and went close to the staircase where I’d left my shoes.
“You have one brother and one sister,” a voice startled me from behind.
I turned around. There sat an ascetic clad in bright ochre. In this confined place, I certainly hadn’t seen him sitting there when I’d entered. Nothing about his appearance gave away his spiritual status. His eyes looked particularly bright on his very dark face that sported a yellow tilak on his forehead.
Rather than wearing my shoes, I walked to him and offered my respects.
“You are right,” I said humbly.
“You’ve lived in a foreign land for many years. You have come back to live in Bharatvarsha forever,” he continued, “and your sister has a son.”
I nodded.
“You want to be alone, you want to do sadhana*. You want nothing less than God himself.”
I kept quiet. Hoping for something more than this accurate rundown of the life I had lived so far.
“Six months from now, you’ll come here and do a sadhana. Here,” he said giving me a scribble, “chant this mantra before beginning your day. The fruit is ripe.”
I accepted his gift with a slight bow.
He went on to give me three precautions I must follow in my sadhana and told me that success was imminent. I didn’t doubt him but I didn’t believe him fully either. I didn’t think I would choose this place for any sadhana. I always fancied even remoter and more secluded spots to immerse myself in meditation. But the ascetic said that this place was actually ideal.
I tried to talk to him bit more about sadhana as nothing excites a sadhak more than meeting another genuine practitioner. But, he said he knew nothing about sadhanas as such and that all his life he simply chanted the mantra given to him by his guru and that he lived the life of an itinerant. He told me that he had already stayed at this place for three days and that he would be leaving that very day.
I offered him a ride but he declined. I tried to give him money but he wouldn’t take any. I had nothing else to offer at the time. My mother, a deeply religious woman, had always told me to never visit a saint empty-handed. After much pleading, he accepted my offering and I felt that my visit to this temple was complete. I took his blessings, put on my shoes and walked to my car."
*sadhana - a dedicated spiritual practice that includes mantra and rituals, done for some longer time.
(From a book "The Ancient Science of Mantras" by Om Swami)
