Sacred Places for Mantra Siddhi | The Secret Rules of Food and Sadhana

At Shri Hit Radha Keli Kunj, Vrindavan, intimate conversation with revered Shri Hit Premanand Govind Sharan Ji Maharaj. Sadhakas place questions about their life and sadhana, and Maharaj Ji resolves them.

Full Discourse

Just as you have received a guru, received a mantra, so you need a place to perfect the mantra. The perfected seat of some saint or a blessed land, a sacred pilgrimage site or the bank of the Ganga and Yamuna or some revered mountain peak or a tulsi grove, cowshed, temple, pipal or amalaki tree, or a large lake—on those banks, on those sacred lake shores—the mantra becomes perfected. In these places, by chanting the mantra, it becomes perfected. It was once said that the benefit of bhajan in the cowshed is ten times that of at home, and from the cowshed one receives a hundred times greater benefit.

A sacred solitary forest is a thousand times greater. Lakes and ponds are a hundred thousand times greater than that. The banks of the Yamuna, the sacred banks of the Ganga, are a crore times greater still. Sacred mountains—Giriraj, Kamadgiri, Chitrakut and such holy peaks—are several times greater than that. Lord Shiva's temples, Lord Ram's temples, Lord Hari's temples where they are established—those temples are, and billions of times greater, the eternal leela places of the Lord. By "billions" is meant: if you chanted the naam a billion times at home and once in Vrindavan—it is billions of times greater, not billions upon billions.

Where you are seated, there is no place in the three worlds greater than this. But beyond even this is what has been said: in the proximity of the guru, infinite times. In the proximity of the guru, infinite times. The guru's sandals, the guru's image established—now if such a guru cannot sit beside you constantly and you wish to perfect your mantra first, then go. Since such gurus do not sit with everyone, the guru's sandals and the guru's image—these are considered the proximity of the guru. Sit in such a place that is level, that is even, where there is no fear of snakes, scorpions, insects, or wasps coming, where the disturbances of the wicked do not reach—in such a sacred, solitary place, practice continuous bhajan.

You have received everything. Shri Dham Vrindavan—because you have received this, you have received everything. Now let the naam and mantra flow continuously. For this, the sadhak must improve their food. We are speaking of those who are pursuing this. So what should the effort be? In such sacred places, one should take the means to perfect the mantra and the naam. For the naam and mantra to flow continuously in our heart, food must be improved. From food comes essence, and that essence nourishes the body and the life-force, and creates the mind. As is the food, so is the mind created.

Those who continue to eat impure and forbidden food—their life-force becomes polluted. Their mind becomes polluted. Bhajan does not happen for them. To attain God, there must be vibrancy and consciousness in the body, the life-force free from stain and the mind free from dejection—then bhajan happens. When we eat impure food, the mind holds onto impurity and distraction. The mind grasps. Dirty thoughts, past thoughts, thoughts of enmity—all of this will grip it. Your mantra is flowing. It will not grasp the mantra. But if the food is pure, then the mind, leaving distraction, grasps the mantra and contemplates it.

Contemplation is the work of the mind. Food has the greatest influence on bhajan. If you are a householder, sustain yourself from wealth earned through dharma and nothing else. This is not to say that if food is being distributed on the roads or if there is a bhanda at a saint's place, then you who are a householder should not go. If you receive food at a bhanda, calculate its cost—if you received food worth ₹1, leave ₹101 there and offer your pranams. Such conduct is not proper for a householder. Do not be happy anywhere thinking "I got it free." You will receive food; your merit will be destroyed. Your bhajan will be disturbed.

A householder's wealth should be earned through righteousness. Only then will bhakti be formed. Only then will bhajan be formed. Wealth obtained through injustice, dishonesty, theft, deception, and the food obtained from it—the very foundation of its action is impure, so bhajan cannot happen. Their bhajan will not become perfected. Even with great effort, if distraction is involved, bhajan will not happen. If all your food is impure, earned through dirty means, then bhajan is out of the question. Food creates the mind. The mind grasps the mantra or the naam. One who commits injustice, who accumulates wealth through injustice—

forget that they will do bhajan. A hypocrite may hold a rosary in hand, but their mind is in the world—no bhajan. So first, improve your food. If you are a householder, sustain yourself through wealth earned righteously. Do not drink even free water from anyone. See, your bhajan will grow. There is no halwa and puri being distributed on the road. You are not a renunciate—buy and eat it. Buy from a pure place. If you must receive something, come with 100 or 50 rupees as an offering. Do not come empty-handed, eat, and leave. That is too easy. Your merit will be destroyed. Now, what of the sannyasi, the brahmachari, the Vaishnav?

Where should they get food? There are several means of sustenance. Sky sustenance—akash vritti—is when the Paramatma brings food to us directly. We do not ask, we do not even gesture—whatever comes to us, we sustain ourselves from that. In Kashi, people lived by this akash vritti. The second means of sustenance, in purity, is madhukari. The madhukara—the honeybee—takes a little pollen from each flower and sustains itself that way. Similarly, from five houses or seven houses, take madhukari from each and sustain yourself. Never accept the dog sustenance. Using flattery toward wealthy people to arrange your provision—that is dog sustenance, never that.

Never adopt the lion-like manner. One should not sustain oneself by displaying miraculous powers through one's austerities. There are several ways: the sky-like manner, the bee-like manner, the gathering manner, and the greatest of all is the python-like manner. In the sky-like manner, we make arrangements—if we have one hundred rupees, we will bring wheat, rice, and lentils and make provisions. But in the python-like manner, one does not even arrange this much. If something is already prepared and placed before the mouth, one eats it; otherwise, not. Adopt the python-like manner. Those who are sanyasis, vairagi, seekers on the path of God should take on these ways. If they find themselves in an ashram, their service should be complete, exhausting service.

I did four to six hours of service. When Narayan Swami Ji was living in Vrindavan, after doing eight hours of labor, he would say, "Give me four rotis." Just eight hours of hard work, and he would take four rotis. And he would do bhajan abundantly. Do not think that you are a bhajan lover with fine clothes, fine shoes, fine food coming for free. Bhajan does not happen this way. Sweep, mop, work hard for four to six hours, and then sustain yourself from that. When you are absorbed in bhajan night and day, then your bhajan will grow and remain protected. Otherwise, obtain madhukari and lie by the banks of the Yamuna. Beg and eat only that. Dwell on the sacred banks of Yamuna. Do not do any service. Then your bhajan may become pure. But even that, only through the guru's command, not through arbitrary conduct. When food is not pure, there remain within it laziness, negligence, and desire for enjoyment—these three things. If you restrain food this way, bhajan will not happen. Whether you are a householder or a renunciate, food should be only half-stomach if you are to do bhajan. When the mind is engaged in bhajan, there is no interest in food. And bhajan has such power that it does not happen that for eight days we get no food and drink only Ganges water—we have never felt distress. If you suppress your eating this way, bhajan will not happen. I have seen my guru ji all my life, and I still see him with the same daily routine—never taking more than two rotis. One should have two rotis made with one's own hands and one meal in the evening as one's daily food throughout life.

Even for the renunciate, three defects in food are recognized: jati dosh, ashray dosh, and nimit dosh. Jati dosh is that which is forbidden by nature. Such as onion, garlic, turnip, carrot—these will definitely cause distraction in bhajan. These are of tamasic nature, which is why we do not use them. Tamas quality manifests from these. Although the process of their manifestation is pure—where potatoes emerge, onions and garlic also emerge the same way in the earth, in pure soil—these are forbidden for bhajan. They cause distraction in bhajan and the intellect. Therefore, the saints have forbidden them. It is not that if you eat onion and garlic you will commit sin, but bhajan will not be done. For bhajan to be pure, this is a tamasic object, and therefore it has been renounced. It is not like meat and liquor in the same way, but it creates obstacles in our bhajan. Therefore, turnip, garlic, onion, carrot—objects with category defect—if we partake of them, they will make our mind impure and bhajan will not happen.

Second is ashray dosh. For example, the kitchen prepares kheer, puri, and bread very purely for you, but in that same kitchen meat is prepared. It is the same stove, the same preparer, the same utensils—this becomes ashray dosh. If you partake of it, your intellect will become corrupted. Just as eating meat corrupts the intellect leading to hell, similarly, partaking from that kitchen will corrupt your intellect and bhajan will not be done. It is like ashray dosh: if you have a bottle of liquor and fill it with Ganges water, due to ashray dosh that Ganges water will not be fit for sipping. Like when liquor is kept somewhere and you keep your vegetables in the same refrigerator—that vegetable offering becomes impure due to ashray dosh because liquor is kept there. In this way, one should renounce ashray dosh and jati dosh. Here it is not about the caste of humans, but about objects. Objects that are forbidden by scripture—do not consume them. Shelter, shelter—with great discernment: where do you eat, from whom do you eat, what is the conduct of those people? With great care, even pure cow's milk, if kept near liquor—like in a refrigerator where a bottle of liquor is kept and milk is also kept there—that milk becomes impure like liquor due to ashray dosh. A Vaishnav should never partake of it. Therefore, one should not eat food without knowing the person and their circumstances. And what is kept in their refrigerator, how they eat and drink—this is why we do not encourage the madhukari manner as much. We do not become a baba merely to fill the belly. Pure madhukari from those who practice pure conduct and pure behavior—from them our bhajan will be done. Therefore, now the sky-like manner is the best: whatever God gives, sustain yourself from that, eat, drink, and do bhajan. Just as in Sri Ji's own establishment, no one asks from anyone, there is no donation box, no asking anyone in any way—it is not like fortune opened up, becoming a baba for money, becoming a baba for food, becoming a baba for God. It is not that in the world there are only impure people; there are also very pure people. It is through them that things work. So jati dosh, ashray dosh—and now nimit dosh. The seeker should also avoid nimit dosh. Those who are not Vaishnavs, who have impure eating and living habits—food touched by them is not for us. Who is untouchable? One who is not a Vaishnav, who does not do bhajan. If he is a chandal and is doing bhajan, wearing the necklace and tilak, we can sit with him and partake. But if he is a pundit without proper conduct, averse to God, he is not in our association. "The prasad of a Brahmin falls on fire." "What is left over by the chandal of Vrindavan, accepting it as an offering, that purifies." That chandal too is worshipable by the world, on whose tongue the divine name resides.

Those who do not do bhagavat bhajan should not receive food from their hands, and one should take care that their gaze does not fall upon the food. Just as we cover food for Thakur Ji, if we offer it, we keep the plate covered so no one can see it. When the curtain is drawn and food is prepared, the gaze of such people should not fall upon it—those who are averse to bhagavat, who engage in lowly conduct. The sadhak should also be protected from their gaze. A sadhak should obtain food free from three defects: jati dosh, ashray dosh, and nimitta dosh. Where this is kept also has an effect. Now we speak of the principal substances—such as cow's milk, cow's yogurt, cow's ghee.

These will be very helpful in pure bhajan. Then, for sustaining the body and for bhajan, cow's milk is like buffalo milk and goat milk—but not for bhajan, not for bhajan. For bhajan, cow's milk and cow's ghee. Some people believe that milk should not be drunk because it is the calf's share. Some through their own reasoning—there are many such people, we do not prohibit them, but we want to tell them that it has been our rishi tradition to perform yagya with cow and cow's milk and ghee, and to use cow's milk for our own nourishment and sustenance.

You are not God. Whatever idea comes to your intellect—our God Shri Krishna went to tend cows. Cows used to be milked. Cow's milk, cow's yogurt, cow's butter, cow's ghee—this abundance existed in our Braj. Yes. Now the principle in this is: if you honestly feed a newborn calf from all four teats every day, it will become weak. It does not have the capacity. Because God has placed such ability in cow's milk that if one teat is given to a small calf, it will be nourished. When it grows a little, with half the portions—half to the cowherd and half to the calf—it will remain well-nourished.

This has been the tradition from the beginning. The Lord Himself spoke of this in our scriptures, but it is in our scriptures. Many brahm rishis sustained themselves merely by drinking cow's milk. When Vishvamitra Ji saw the effect of the cow at Vashishtha Ji's place, seeing how the great brahm rishis at such places—with cows, cow service, cow's milk and ghee—sustained themselves. Even today, cow's milk, cow's yogurt, and cow's ghee, the use of these three in food is very helpful for bhajan. Here we are not speaking against the scriptures. Society should be served what is proper, as a sant would. Tasmat shastram pramanam te karyakaryavyavasthitih—what the scriptures say is absolutely correct. Those who listen to what goes against the scriptures and say yes to it are cowardly. No. Tasmad shastram pramanam te karyakaryavyavasthitih. Yes, every animal is served in our tradition. Our eternal dharma serves every animal.

It even serves the dog. God is seen in the dog. God is seen in the donkey. For seeing God, God has given orders: Vidya vinaya sampanna brahmane gava kuni suni chupa pandit samadarshana—the learned, humble brahmin sees one God in the brahmin, in the dog, in the chandal, in the elephant. This is eternal dharma. Not to act the same toward all would make one foolish. To have the same vision but act differently—that one is wise. The pandit is he who sees God in all, in all, but acts accordingly. Therefore, Tasmat shastram pramanam te karyakaryavyavasthitih—everything is regulated by the scriptures. For bhajan, if milk is not obtained, that is good. But the milk of other animals is an obstacle. Cow's milk, cow's yogurt, ghee, white sesame, mung, tubers, banana, mango, coconut, amla, rice, cumin, barley, wheat, orange—use these.

Do not obtain items from the market if you wish to do bhajan. Rules—where have they been made? Who made them? What is their intention? What are their practices? What is their purity? These have an effect on the food. As we obtain food, so our thoughts are formed. One should not eat honey without medicine. It is an obstacle to bhajan. Honey has only one instruction: if you become ill, you may obtain it as medicine. Otherwise, not to have honey—then the fault, the sin does not come. Because honey is only for medicine. Just as tablets are for medicine—if you were to use them for intoxication, that is prohibited. You would not obtain tablets like that. If a doctor gives it, then this honey, which is so strengthening—one should not eat it like that. The scriptures say bhajan will not be formed. Its use is only in medicine, as Ayurvedic instruction prescribes. It is medicine. When water is taken with honey as the vehicle, the practitioner may take honey. One should take care that the food prepared in the evening is not eaten in the morning.

In prepared dishes, such as things fried in ghee, for a day or two that is acceptable. But such as bread and lentils—this is raw food. Stale food, dry food, and that into which hair has fallen, in which a fly has died—such impure food should be rejected. A sadhak should not obtain food in a brass vessel. Our people—rightly, by great grace—use vessels of raj. And one thing more should be kept in mind regarding food: when you are eating, where has your mind gone? Where is your meditation? While eating, there should be neither meditation on the food nor on any person, thing, or place.

If you meditate on a person while eating, their nature and qualities will be transferred to you. They will be applied to you. You will have to remain troubled for 24 hours with that person's nature. If that person is a saint, your bhajan will grow for 24 hours. The effect will remain for 24 hours, and it will be special. The effect lasts for 24 hours. So while eating, the practitioner should very carefully keep their mind in the Lord or in some great bhagavat, guru-dev, the saint who is a perfected great soul, so that the senses gain strength, so that sleep, laziness, and negligence do not trouble you. Therefore, eat a small amount of food with great care.

This has been said many times in satsang. If while eating you contemplate on a woman with wrong intention, then mantra siddhi cannot be attained. Because your mind will become fallen. If while eating you contemplate on enmity towards someone, then restlessness will be created in your mind. You will remain disturbed for 24 hours. With great care, while contemplating on bhagavat, take pure food and food in small quantities. Sannyasi, Vaishnava, and those detached—they should receive food only after examining it carefully. If necessary, let them fast, but do not take impure food. This discussion about food is special.

Now another discussion: if a sadhak sits and, making jokes and laughter, discusses women and such things, or discusses lust and such things, then that place should be abandoned immediately. If they show dirty things on mobile or speak such dirty things, then a sadhak who wants to attain mantra siddhi should put their finger in their ear and leave immediately. There is only one remedy—never meet that person again, do not listen to discussion about that person. Whoever is lustful, whoever speaks of lust, whoever acts against bhagavat—if one wants to attain mantra siddhi and realize bhagavat, then maintain distance.

For procreation, a householder can have conjugal relations with his wife after one week of the fertile period, otherwise maintain distance. If you want to attain mantra siddhi and realize bhagavat, then female sadhaks should maintain silence and distance from male sadhaks—in toilets and bathrooms—until purified. This is necessary for siddhi.

If you cut nails or hair, according to the scriptures' instruction, get your head shaved every two months, or keep your hair for life. According to the scriptures, whether detached or a householder, when you cut hair, when you cut nails, you should purify your hands and feet by rinsing, or bathe completely.

If you have your hair cut while impure, then that affects your worship of the Deity and bhajan—there is great certainty in this. They say, if you need to wash your hair, use pure substances like soapnuts, amla, and such. Otherwise its effect will be felt. The quality of rajas will increase. It will create distraction in bhajan.

Never remain with an unwashed mouth. If you eat anything, perform achman. Three times: "Radha Vallabh, Shri Harivansh, Radha Vallabh." And according to the scriptures: "Keshavaya Namah, Narayanaya Namah, Madhavaya Namah."

If possible, bathe three times; if not, at least two times—morning and evening.

It is not that if you are not concerned, you should not bathe. Morning and evening—two baths should certainly happen. Three baths—that is the matter of tri-daily bathing.

Receive bhog and prasad only after worshipping your ishta dev. Whoever's ishta dev is established—first offer bhog to them, worship, and then receive prasad.

So if possible: dwelling in the dham, sleeping on the ground, bathing two or three times, lifelong brahmacharya, or for procreation after one week of the fertile period, then conjugal relations; silence about guru; service to guru; renunciation of sinful deeds; daily worship of the Deity; daily service to bring happiness to others; daily praise of bhagavat; daily disciplined practice of naam jap.

If you follow these disciplines, then this path will lead you to the state of siddhi.

If even slightly anything goes astray, then the ways of maya are such that it will drag you and create great distance.

Dhruvdas Ji wrote: राई के समचलत ही होत और की ओर।
[The rarity of walking the true path.]

Then bhagavat says: हजारों पुरुषों में कोई एक चलता है। मनुष्य सहस्र और उन चलने वालों में कोई एक विरला सिद्ध होता है। उन सिद्धों में कोई एक तत्व ज्ञानी होता है।
Among thousands of men, one truly walks this path. Among thousands of humans who walk, one rare one attains siddhi. Among those siddhas, one is a knower of tattva.

That tattva knowledge I am telling you.

So bhagavat continues to describe this. The rest of the discussion continues. Victory to Shri Radha Vallabh Lal!

This text is taken from the video's auto-generated captions—it may contain errors in words. Please listen to the video for the authentic words.

Original video: Bhajan Marg (YouTube)