Whenever you need to heal yourself, whenever you need inner healing, you need to bring yourself again to the life energy. Many times you can see, a simple disturbance from the outside world or from the past memory inside you can drain your energy.

Another thing that drains your energy is taking too many decisions. You can try this. Go and sit in your office, don’t do any work, just take some five to six major decisions. You will feel tired.

The truths, ideas or words which bring you out of that tiredness or depression, and give you the energy and confidence, are what I call shaastra-shastras or knowledge-weapons.

The truths which not only bring you out of depression but also destroy the source of depression once for all are called mantra. The words which show the path for human beings are mantra. When any mantra comes from a being with the enlightened experience, with a pure inner space, you do not know why, how or what, but you suddenly see that it works. It ‘clicks’!

A mantra need not be a chant. It can be just a few words of clear expression of the truth that sinks deep within you and lifts you in awareness. You are so shaken by the truth of it when you hear it the first time. It literally explodes in you, in your consciousness. You cannot forget it. As you listen, you start to live by it. Your life changes without any effort. This is the power of mantra.

One part of your logic continues to fight with it initially because if you accept the Truth and start expressing it in your life, all your vested interests and many things which you thought of as life are now at risk. But your core, your being understands. It gets the click and says, ‘I know what he is saying is the Truth.’ There may be a doubt in a corner of your mind, but your very core feels connected. You may not understand logically, but suddenly your heart feels connected to the words being uttered, the truth being expressed. That sudden click or connection with the master and his teachings of truth is what I call ‘initiation’.

Initiation means the great truths, the words which lead you to the Truth, a clear path which leads you to the Truth. If it is experientially transmitted, if you have at least one glimpse of a powerful experience of something beyond your logic, something that transcends your mundane desires, then the initiation has happened, you are initiated.

When I use the word ‘initiation’ there will be so many doubts like, ‘I am already initiated by another master, can I have the initiation from you? If I get initiated can I go to other masters and learn something new?’

Perfectly alright, nothing wrong! I always tell people, go to all the gardens and pluck flowers and make a beautiful garland that you can wear over yourself. It is not like a shop where if you go to one shop, the shopkeeper will try his best to keep you in his shop till you finish your purchases! The human ego is such that it will die only if it is beaten by ten to twelve masters! So don’t worry, there is nothing wrong in approaching different masters. Learn all the best things from all the sources and enrich your life. Only one thing, don’t become a window shopper. It is dangerous because then you will not learn anything from anyone.

The first thing that happens to a genuine seeker is the dissolution of his questions. His questions dissolve and only tremendous thirst remains. This is the first initiation that happens when the master changes your focus from knowledge towards knowing, from memory towards intelligence. Once the emphasis has moved from knowledge to knowing, your focus moves from ‘knowing about’ to ‘knowing’. You are interested in knowing yourself. For that you use the master as the means.

As you come closer to the master, the master takes you to the next level of moving beyond knowing you. You will never know yourself unless you drop the obsession with yourself. Your obsession with you is your ego. So the ultimate happens when you drop the ego, surrender the ego at the feet of the master. Just when you forget you, you will discover you!

source: Living Enlightenment