Divine touch is necessary

सामर्थ्य आहे चळवळीचे । जो जे करील तयाचे ।
परी त्यास भगवंताचे । अधिष्ठान पाहिजे ।।
                                                  - दासबोध

The content in this article is based on notes captured during travel with Shri Raghupathi Sir. It is also based on discourses of Shankaracharya and other great spiritual persons.

For this article we are considering a common question - does listening to Veda mantras or puranas through recorded media yield desired results?

The answer is no.

Listening to the words in actual presence of a person versus listening to the recorded voice of person is much different.

To start with, let’s take a simple example in day to day life.  For example if  we record a  sentence of mother “oh son, come here”, will it have same effect as when mother is actually present and she is calling her son. The physical presence carries lot of other things, such as warmth of voice which makes great difference.

Similarly listening to vedamantras, stotras or scriptures directly from Guru or person of caliber carries a lot of importance versus listening to the same through recorded media.

Lets take another example of upanayana ceremony. The most important event of this ceremony is father acting as guru initiates his son in his bramhacharya phase by whispering Gayatri mantra in the ear of his son. Here there are two requirements to benefit from upanayana ceremony. One - father must have been consistent enough in his practice of chanting gayatri mantra and two - son must be ready to receive this mantra from his father. One may perform this ceremony in most pompous way, but if the two basic requirements mentioned are not satisfied then the ceremony is of no use. In this case also if we make the boy listen to recorded Gayatri mantra, it will not be same as father telling this mantra in the ear. The voice of father who is physically present contains his love for his son which makes a lot of difference.

Similarly vedamantras and stotras need to be learned directly from Guru or by attending vedapathashala - schools where vedamantras are taught. When Guru initiates disciple in chanting of vedamantras he adds his own divine touch to that mantra. Guru assumes complete responsibility of all mistakes that disciple commits while learning to chant the mantra which gives a protection to disciple which is not possible by learning the same by listening to recorded media.

Guru’s words carry a lot of power. We all know the story in Saisatcharit. Once when heavy rain was pouring over Shirdi, all Shirdi residents were quite worried about the storm and they approached Saibaba. Saibaba, out of compassion for all Shirdi residents, gazed at sky and just said “Stop your fury and stay calm”. And the wonder of wonders, the storm came to stop immediately. Such is the power of Guru’s words.

Another example, of recorded media versus actual presence of person, is performing puja. Nowadays due to difficulty in finding priest many people perform puja by playing recorded instructions. All pujas contain mantras to invite gods, called  as avaahan mantras. Will the recorded mantras be able to invite gods? It is not possible. That's why priests are usually initiated by Guru. The mantras chanted by such priests carry a lot weight and warmth needed to invite gods. Actually the priest seat carries a lot of importance. In case of difficulty in finding priest one may even make a family member e.g. young boy to act as priest, but there should be somebody acting as priest. In such cases kula daivat (family deity) assumes complete responsibility of the priest’s performance in puja.

Not just vedamantras, even activity of reading scriptures also needs to be initiated and blessed by Guru. In Saisatcharit, we come across stories where devotees asked permission from Saibaba for reading certain scripture e.g. Dnyaneshwari and only when Saibaba blessed that devotee and gave permission to read it then devotee read it and could understand the meaning of content.

So in essence, in all spiritual efforts one needs divine touch which is nothing but initiation from Guru and his blessings. Only then the spiritual activity can yield desired and best results.