Living Master?

[Questioner]

Q from Susan
Must one have a living master to give a mantra? I had a Shaktipat experience with the photo of Swami Muktananda, and it was very real. So then after that I used Om Namah Shivaya. So do I then need to find a living master to give me a mantra, or can I continue to use this one?

Can the mantra one uses change in one’s lifetime? Or does it stay the same?

I am aware that Muktananda said that Guru Om, Om Namah Shivaya, and So?ham were really all the same. Since he has taken his mahasamadhi, his spirit is still very much with us, right? Then is he a living master?

[Mukunda]

I can answer this as Muktananda was my guru and I was a teacher in four of his ashrams until his madasamadhi (the meditation that culminates in death) in 1982. mantra can be given by anyone empowered by their teacher to do so. In this way the mantra, the teacher, and the student are empowered and that takes the form of Shaktipat ? spiritual awakening of kundalini. Shaktipat occurs through any form of contact with a Sadguru, by definition this is one who does not die to the Truth of who they really are. It does not mater whether this is in a dream, from a photo, or physical contact with them in a body.