Namaste,

I sketch/paint quite well, thus I call myself an artist. I have uploaded some pictures I have made in my Facebook page.

Sometime back, a shady personality inboxed me and he was pestering me again and again to sketch a particular deity's picture for free and present it to him.

At first, out of inconvenience, I politely refused. But upon seeing his staunch persistence, I was a little surprised, and the caution side of me warned me not to make the said picture for him. Also I didn't know the person well enough to entertain such a request.

That was episode 1.

Recently another person wanted some clarification regarding a mantra about which I posted some info online.

Although it is a very popular mantra, he quoted it wrong and asked me to clarify with the right mantra and also requested me to specify the number of rounds to recite it.

Again I felt slightly suspicious about it, for some strange reason. So I just casually remarked that it is a famous mantra and asked him to google it, and also did not give him the count, etc, to recite.

This precaution comes from a recent YouTube episode on mantras wherein a guruji had stated how it is very, very inappropriate to initiate someone into a mantra, even for a bonafide guru, because mantras are super-powerful when given to the wrong person, it is like a dynamo and will attack the initiating guru with all sins committed by the unworthy recipient.

Thus, I want to add a word of caution to all who read this message, how not to oblige in strange requests like painting for others or clarifying on mantras, is so important to save oneself from unasked-for trouble!

Pranam.