Introduction

In may 2001 I met Swami Sudhir while I was staying in the Swami Dayananda Ashram
in Rishikesh  for two  weeks.  His  appearance  is  one  of  overwhelming  friendliness  and
modesty.  As  a  Brahmacharya  he  was studying the  scriptures  under  the  guidance  of
Swami Dayananda and Swami Sakshatkrtananda. It was confusing for me when I found
out about his perfect knowledge  of the Vedic  scriptures and his  great experience with
performing  religious Hinduistic  rituals. Confusing,  because  he looked  so  young to me
(though he  was  35)  and  also  because  it  confronted  me  with  my  preoccupied  mind:
friendly  and  modest  people are  not  intellectual.  Now this  humble  and  modest  Sudhir
turned out to be a very intelligent man.
Sudhir was educated at the university to be an engineer. In his late twenties he realised
the emptiness of a luxury life. This was unbearable. He quit  his well-paid job at a car
factory,  gave away  all  his  possessions and  started wandering.  After two  years  he was
picked up from the street by Swami Dayananda and Sudhir became a brahmacharya.
At the  time  I  met  him  I  was  looking  for  inspiration  and knowledge  about  mantra
meditation. With some Dutch men  I had just been to the Shankaracharya of Shringeri,
Shri Bharati Tirtha, mahaswamigal. All of us were experienced in meditating with a bija
mantra. Some of my friends though were not very happy with their mantra and so they
asked for a new mantra from the Shankaracharya. To me this did not seem the right way
to do. But I could not clearly explain why, so I decided to investigate in this subject.
I asked Swami Sudhir if he could provide me with information about mantras. The next
two  days  I just  had to  push the  ‘record’-button  of  my cassetterecorder. Swami Sudhir
started  talking  and  could go on  for  hours.  All  my  questions  were  answered.  All  my
doubts were cleared. I was so happy.
Allthough  I  had  received  so  much information  already, still at  my  departure  from the
ashram I dared to ask him if he was willing to write an article about mantras. Without
any hesitation he said yes. When I was back in Holland, I received an email within two
weeks. It turned out to be an extensive yet comprised treatise about mantras. As for my
question stated above, the direct answer to this can be read in the last two sentences of
this article.
Sudhir permitted me to  share this writing with everone who  showed interest. Are  you
interested?