THEREFORE, O SARIPUTRA....

This whole Prajnaparamita Sutra is about the movement from the third to the fourth. Sariputra is at the peak of the third: the noosphere - reflection, thinking, self-consciousness. He has traveled to the uttermost into the third, he has reached the maximum of it. There is no more to it. He's standing on the boundary line.

THEREFORE, O SARIPUTRA....

Buddha is standing beyond the boundary and calling Sariputra forth: "Come... come... and yet come...." The whole sutra is condensed today in this last sutra. All of the sutras, up to now, were just preparation for this last peak.

TASMAJ JNATAVYAM: PRAJNAPARAMITA MAHA-MANTRO MAHA-
VIDYAMANTRO 'NUTTARA-MANTRO' SAMASAMA-MANTRAH...

THEREFORE ONE SHOULD KNOW...
TASMAJ JNATAVYAM...
...Therefore the only thing worth knowing is this. This is the conclusion of this whole beautiful dialogue. The dialogue is between two energies, Buddha and Sariputra, because Sariputra has not said a single word. This is a far superior dialogue than exists between Arjuna and Krishna in the Gita, because Arjuna says something. It is verbal. Arjuna is more like a student than like a disciple. He becomes a disciple only at the very end. When he becomes the disciple, Krishna becomes the master. If the disciple is not a disciple, how can the master be a master? If the disciple is just a student, then the master is just a teacher.

Where the Gita ends, that is the point where this Prajnaparamita Sutra starts. Sariputra is a disciple: utterly silent, has not uttered a single word, has not even asked a question - not verbally. He's a guest, not a questioner. His whole being is asking, not his mind. He's not verbalizing; his existence is a question mark. He's standing before Buddha, his whole being thirsty, on fire, afire. Seeing his state Buddha goes on saying things on his own. Not that the disciple has to ask; the master knows when the disciple needs. The master knows far better than the disciple himself what his need is. The disciple has to wait. Maybe Sariputra has waited for many years, for twenty years almost, for this moment - when the master would see the need, when the master would feel his hunger and thirst, when he would be worthy of receiving a gift from the master. That day has come, that fortunate moment has arrived.

TASMAJ JNATAVYAM...
Buddha says, "Therefore, O Sariputra, this is the only thing that is worth knowing." And now he condenses his whole message into a few small words, into a small sentence, into a mantra, into a maxim, into a formula. This is the greatest mantra, because Buddha has contained in it all that is needed for the whole journey. He has put everything into this small, this very small formula.

THEREFORE... the only thing worth knowing is...

THE PRAJNAPARAMITA
AS THE GREAT SPELL, THE SPELL OF GREAT KNOWLEDGE,
THE UTMOST SPELL, THE UNEQUALLED SPELL...
Buddha praises it like anything; he goes through all the superlatives possible. He says, "This is the great spell!" Spell, mantra, means a magic formula. What a mantra is has to be understood. A mantra is a very, very special thing to be understood. It is a spell, a magic formula. It implies the phenomenon that whatsoever you have got is not really there, and whatsoever you think you have not got, is there! A magic formula is needed. Your problem is not real! - that's why a magic formula is needed.
  For example... a parable:
  It happened: A man was very afraid of ghosts. And unfortunately he had to pass the cemetery every day, coming and going. And sometimes he was late, and in the night he had to pass the cemetery. His house was behind the cemetery, and very close to it. And he was so afraid of ghosts that his life was a constant torture. He could not sleep: the whole night he was disturbed by the ghosts. Sometimes they were knocking on the doors, and sometimes moving inside the house, and he could hear their footsteps and their whisperings. Sometimes they would come very close to him and he could even feel their breath. He was in a constant hell. 
  He went to a master, and the master said, "This is nothing. You have come to the right person." Just like I say to you! "Take this mantra - this is enough, and you need not be worried. You just put this mantra in a small golden box and carry the box always. You can hang it around your neck." 
  It is just like the locket: it is a mantra; or it is like the magic box that I give to sannyasins who are going far away from me. It is a magic box, it is a mantra. 
  The master said, "You keep this mantra. You need not even repeat it; it is so potent that it need not be repeated. You just keep it in the box. Keep the box with you and no ghost will ever trouble you." And it really happened: that day he passed through the cemetery almost as if he was going for a morning walk. Never before had it been so easy. He used to run! He used to scream and shout, and he had to sing songs while passing. That day he walked very slowly with the box in his hand, and it really worked! No ghosts. He was even standing in the middle of the cemetery, waiting for somebody to come, and no ghost turned up. It was utter silence.

Then he went home. He put the box underneath his pillow. That night nobody knocked on the door, nobody whispered, nobody came close to him. That was the first time in his whole life that he slept well. It was a great mantra. But now he became too attached to the box. He could not leave it anywhere, the whole day he had to carry it everywhere. 
  People started asking, "Why do you go on carrying this box?"
  And he said, "This is my safety, my security."
  He became so afraid that now if some day this box was lost, "I will be in great trouble, and those ghosts will take great revenge!" Eating - and he had his box. And in the toilet - he had his box. Making love to his woman - and he had his box. He was going crazy! And now the fear was too much: if it is stolen, if somebody plays a trick or if he loses it somewhere, or if something happens to the box, then what? "Then for months those ghosts are hankering to create trouble for me! They will jump upon me from everywhere, and they will kill me!" 
  The master inquired one day about how things were going.
  He said, "Everything is good. Everything is perfectly good, but now I am being tortured by my own fears. Again I cannot sleep. The whole night I have to see whether the box is still there. Again and again I have to wake myself up and search for the box. And if sometimes it slips here and there in the bed and I cannot find... it is so frightening! I get so scared!"
  The master said, "Now I will give you another mantra. You throw this box."
  Then he said, "Then how am I going to protect myself from the ghosts?"
  The master said, "They are not there. This box is just nonsense. Those ghosts are not there; that's why this box has worked. Those ghosts are only in your imagination. If they were really there they would not be afraid of the box. It is just your idea, those ghosts were your idea. Now you have got a better idea, because you have got a master. And the master has given you a box, a magic spell. Now be more understanding: the ghosts are not there, that's why this box has helped. Now there is no need to get so obsessed with the box. Throw it away!" 

A mantra is a spell to take away things which are not really there. For example, a mantra will help you to drop the ego. Ego is a ghost, just an idea. That's why I say to you that I am here to take away things which are not really with you, and to give you things which are really there. I am here to give you that which you already have, and I have to take away that which you never had but which you are thinking that you have. Your miseries, your hurts, your ambitions, your jealousies, your fears, greeds, hatreds, attachments - those are all ghosts. 
  A mantra is just a trick, a strategy to help you drop your ghosts. Once you have dropped those ghosts then the mantra has to be dropped too. One need not carry the mantra anymore the moment he feels the ghosts have disappeared. And then you will laugh at the whole absurdity: the ghosts were false and the mantra was false - but it helped.

The Heart Sutra, # 9