Mantra

1. What is mantra? Include a variety of examples
2. What is the significance of OM?
3. Detail your own experience of practising/teaching Mantra.

“A mantra is so-called because it is achieved by the mental process. The root ‘man’ in the word Mantra comes from the first syllable of that word meaning ‘to think’ and ‘tra’ from ‘trai’ meaning ‘to protect or free’ from bondage of the phenomenal world. A Mantra generates the creative force and bestows eternal Bliss. A mantra when constantly repeated awakens the consciousness.”(1) These are the words of swami Sivananda, that so eloquently describe mantrum.

The power within the mantra is encased in the sound structure by continued repetition of the sound, this energy is released and begins to take shape. This energy is so powerful it was said that the ancient Egyptians could move the massive stone blocks that formed the pyramids using the science of sound vibrations.

Mantras are formed from the fifty syllables of the ancient language of Sanskrit, which is ‘Devarangi’, a language of the gods .The practice of mantra is called japa. They are also associated with certain petals or spokes of the chakras.

All sound are vibrations, that if repeated often enough start to have a meaning, when there is intent behind the sound it is even more powerful. So sound produces energy. This energy can work on the physical body, and on the consciousness. Mantras start a powerful vibration in the system, which correspond to spiritual energy, and consciousness. If repeated enough, overtime there will be actual physiological effects upon the body.

According to tradition Mantras are past down from guru to guru, and form part of the ancient scriptures, the Vedas and the Upanishads. “Every true mantra full-fills six conditions.

1) It was originally revealed to a sage, who achieved Self-Realization through it and passed it down to others.

2) It has a presiding deity and

3) a specific meter.

4) It possesses a bija, or seed, investing it with a special power that is the essence of the Mantra.

5) it also has a dynamic power, or Shakti.

6) Lastly, there is a plug that conceals the pure consciousness hidden in the Mantra. As soon as the plug is removed by constant prolonged repetition, pure consciousness is revealed, and the devotee receives the vision of his deity.”(2)

Nada takes the form of Kundalini in the body, and through the power of the mantrum this latent power is released. The mantrum works on this latent power, much like fire used on a block of ice; start heating the ice, and it becomes loose as water, heat it some more and the energy transcends into steam.
Mantrums take various forms.

Saguna Mantrums, are related to deities, the mantrums very repetition is said to evoke the power of the deity, one is concentrating on. In other words if one meditates on the mantra ‘OM Namayah Sivayah’ the form of Siva will be produced.

The Gayatri mantra is one of the greatest from the Vedas, and like Om can be used by everyone, (it is tradition that as an initiation into spiritual life ones Guru gives them a mantra, which they must use only, and is personal to them) not just the initiated.  There are Gayatries to different deities, and the verses are of a specific length and meter. As a westerner I feel the following verse more acceptable to my thinking, as I find the idea of multi deities not as easy, as Ishwara, is the one God, we can generally relate to that concept.

“Om Bhur Bhuvah Swah, Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dheemani, Dhiyo Nah Prachodayat
We meditate on that Ishwara’s glory, Who has created the universe, Who is fit to be worshipped, Who is the embodiment of knowledge and light, Who is the remover of sins and ignorance. May He enlighten our intellects.”(3)

Nirguna mantras, have no form or deities associated with them, and starts with Om, from that sound all other mantras are formed it is the primeval sound. From Om the bija mantras are derived.

Bija mantras are seed sounds from which the fifty primeval sounds are derived. They have an inner mystical meaning, but are not direct words. There are many seed sounds, but the seed sounds I work with are, as follows;
Lam                they are associated with the following chakras         mooladhara
Wam                                                                                                           svadisthana

Ram                                                                                                    Manipura

Yam                                                                                                                                             anahata
Ham                                                                                                                                             vissudhi
AUM                                                                                                                                              ajna

It is said, that if one chants bija or other mystical mantras without proper knowledge of the Sanskrit language, that it can actually bring harm to the psyche.
A japa can be audible (vaikhara japa), humming or whispered (upamsu japa), or silent, mental repetition (manasika).

One can use mala beads to count, or fingers or a silent count. When working with deity mantra the aspirant chants each syllable of the mantra 100,000 times, a maha mantra, can take as long as three years to complete.

An abstract mantra, which I use frequently, in silence, is Soham (I am That I am), as  this takes on the sound of the breath.

“Just as physical energy is still driving the universe at a background temperature …………………….. so divine energy still reverberates through the cosmos with a magnitude of joy and power sometimes “heard” by the sages as the non-physical “sound” Hindu tradition represents as AUM” (4). It is as “padartha”, which means that the name and the form are inseparable, it is the sound of the universal energy or Brahman, and it is the universal energy and its name.

A few weeks ago I had some friends around and we decided that we would repeat the mantra AUM at midnight for 15 minutes, quite light heartedly, to see what effect it would have in the room. We did this, and at the end of our session, the energy in the room was magical. We sat and talked about it, and my friends daughter, who is only 14 said something very profound, I quote, “It was like there was a thin wiggly line between it and me, and I could feel it all around me, it was really nice”, now none of us in the room had described AUM in that way to her, we had just said it was the universal sound, that we copied. From that small statement my other friend with whom I had been discussing Brahman all week, had her first true understanding of AUM and Brahman. “out of the mouth of Babes.”, could not have been truer of that situation.