There is a famous Indian parable in which a saint visits a village to initiate anyone interested into the use of a sacred mantra.
A few of the villagers are interested and amongst them is a simple farmer, the Saint initiates them one by one into this linage, by whispering this sacred mantra into their ear so no one else can hear it.
He tells them that this mantra will grant anyone who uses it liberation from the
samsaric cycle of birth and death and bring an end to their suffering.
On hearing this the farmer suddenly stands up and runs out of the room to a hilltop above the village and starts shouting ... ‘Om Namo Narayan’ which is this sacred mantra, at the top of his voice.
The whole village can hear this, so a few of the saints devotees angrily run to the top of the hill and drag him back down. Sat in front of the Saint again the Saint asks him ... "Why did you do that when I told you to keep this to yourself?"
The simple farmer responded, as soon as you told me that this mantra would grant whoever knows it moksha (the end of suffering) what other option did I have but to let as many people know it as possible?
The Saint smiles and tells the farmer he himself doesn’t have long left to live and at last he has found the person who’s heart is pure enough to be his successor. In this way there are some rules and regulations, but beyond all that is the purity of our heart and intention.
Some people say that Sanskrit needs to be pronounced accurately in mantra use, but my own teacher used to say that ‘if a child falls over and shouts out for its mother .. whether it cries, shouts out in pain, or shouts Ma, mother or even screams the mother will come running.
In all of this I think if we are pure of heart in our endeavors that is enough, everything else is secondary. Sometimes we can get so tied up in our Yoga, Meditation or Tai Chi practices we can loose sight of this simple understanding, the reason we are doing them in the first place.
Much love have a blessed day
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