The MANTRA is a formulated realisation in words of a Rishi's spiritual eminence. What is spiritually mature in our inner being, finding verbal expression is a mantra. A mantra will serve fully one who has discovered it. To others, such as disciples who accept him as guru, the mantra has a great use value. A physicist uses a telescope or a chemist uses a microscope. They may not know the construction of the tool they ably use with scientific relish. Disciples use mantras with felicity. Mantras yield their full power, provided all the conditions are followed. One such condition is the PRONUNCIATION must be flawless. A little flaw will render the mantra ineffective or sterile.
People in distress pray. Prayers are answered, sometimes are not answered. People go to a Guru in great numbers, believing in the great power of the Guru. At times of crisis, they expect the Guru to relieve their distress. Occasions vary. Often the problem is solved, often it is not. The disciple wonders why. ‘Does the Guru have no power,' he asks himself. It is true the Guru has great powers. It is equally true that every human guru has human limitations. When we invoke the Spirit, many times our prayers are unanswered. Of course, we understand that our prayers must be the right ones and must be sincere. There are honest prayers sometimes not answered by the Spirit. Are we to understand that the Spirit also has its own limitations? No, the Spirit has no such limitations.
Why, then, is the prayer not answered? That is a wider philosophical question which I shall not attempt to answer here. Let me confine myself to saying how the Spirit can be made to respond. As the mantra yields its full power to perfect pronunciation, the Spirit moves into action when TRUTH in the prayer is utterly truthful. The medium for mantric power is swaram, the tune and its pronunciation. The medium for spiritual power to act in life answering our right prayers that are sincere is truthfulness in word and deed. Such a truthfulness is sometimes called SINCERITY, sometimes PURITY. The Spirit never fails. Its power is unfailing. How can God fail, especially when He is coming towards you, anxious to relate to you? Still, for God to act, the conditions must be fulfilled. God acts unconditionally in the lives of those who have surrendered unconditionally.