However, behind my question, there was a very practical dilemma at the level of an ordinary human being, which perhaps I could not fully clarify in my previous email. I would like to place that specific doubt before you once again:
Suppose a person does not desire spiritual liberation or going to God’s Abode at all, but wants to remain in this material world. Their only wish is that:
By chanting this mantra, they receive forgiveness for their past sins.
The mantra grants them the wisdom (discernment) so that they do not commit any sins again in the future.
They can live happily, peacefully, and purely within this material world itself.
Or will the inherent power of the mantra (even against a person’s explicit desire) gradually pull them out of attachment to this material world anyway?
It will depend upon the mantra as well as the wish, desire, or aspiration, as it may be, in the heart of the sadhak. There are mantras that do grant material happiness as well as wisdom. So it is perfectly possible to get these benefits through specific mantras. At the same time, there are universal mantras such as Om as well as the traditional Gayatri mantra that can grant intelligence and, if such be the aspiration, even material desires within limits. While inner things do not have a limit or rather are limited by the capacity of the receiver, outer things invariably have limits and conditions that are set by the cosmic forces. Besides, it may not necessarily be good for the person doing the mantra and hence his wish may be delayed. The cosmic deities are not blind or act mechanically. They follow their own inner intuition.
For forgiveness, one doesn’t need a mantra, but simply a sincere repentance in the heart expressed to the Divine with a will not to repeat the mistakes. Here too one can take the aid of mantras such as the Sri Krishna mantra, which liberates us from the past errors and their consequences.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
