The Mantra's Work

 

 

"Articulation is the last and grossest expression of divine sound-energy. The highest manifestation of sound-energy, the primal voice, the divine voice is Para. The Para voice becomes the root-ideas or germ-thoughts. It is the first manifestation of voice. In Para the sound remains in an undifferentiated form."
(Sri Swami Sivananda)

 

I have mentioned before that not everyone is cut out to be a yogi. This is especially true in the western world where business and commerce touches us all to the extent that we really have to partake in the game. Our lives are mostly involved with cars and the mortgage and college tuition and food and shopping and a myriad other items, and also a daily time-consuming job to support all these. And that is if we are lucky. Others are suffering in much more desperate ways. Some of us hunt around for what we call "free time" to just hang and chill for a while. Time to relax can be very hard to come by. The world has its demands and they are many and mostly unforgiving if we slack off our attention for a while at the wrong time. Where then can we ever find the time to do yoga?

 

If memory still serves, to reach Enlightenment via the Path of Hatha yoga takes eight years! And that is 24/7 pure living. So with your hour a day, if that, this is gonna take a while and you may as well get used to the idea of a lifetime of Hatha. Most non-yogis take one look at this and say, "nah, not for me". And I don't blame them.

 

True, there are quicker yogas; Bhakti, Karma, Kundalini, Jnana, and Kriya, but also many others and still many more non-yogic methods. But most of these require either an inner orientation obtained or arrived at by evolutionary means or Divine Blessing or significant suffering or a combination of any or all of these to really be pursued in the best possible way. But what if you and the majority around you have neither the need nor orientation or the quickening Blessing but still desire a way to lessen your suffering and frustration in your life and your world? The pills and drugs and TV and booze and shrinks don't really cut it for you any more – things just stay the same or slowly get worse. What then, in the name of Yoga, can you do?

 

Well, first of all, from a yogic point of view you burn the name "yoga" because it creates all kinds of uncomfortable imagery inside of your psyche and your mind - like people standing on their heads and sitting for hours on end in a lotus in a damp cave in a loincloth, living on beans. Forget about all that stuff. When you are into yoga it is nothing other than you living your life – that's all. So instead of then saying "yoga", say "life", because probably the worst thing about yoga is its name. There, now that that's out of the way we can get on with it.

 

For those who feel they have nothing, and I mean nothing auspicious, there is Mantra. Now bear with me a little, because Mantra Yoga is a fairly complex science in some ways.

 

In its most basic of forms it consists of repeating a semi-monotonous set of words over and over again. The science is very involved and for those who find anything in this writing, I won't bore you beyond the basics other than these few words: Sound is a vibration. A vibration is energy and has frequency and believe it or not, it has color as well. Energy also affects the material world - well, duh! Ok, but you too are matter, and on a subtler level, you also have energy that vibrates not only as visible matter but also as emotional matter. Anger, for instance, is felt by most people around you because the energy is so great. All emotions have energy. In fact, nothing is not energy. Even depression radiates an energy. Then there is still spiritual energy, but maybe we'll leave that for now...

 

The deeper science of mantra is hidden in the fact that most (authentic) mantras were created by some pretty powerful spiritual people. The mantra contains the energy instilled in it by that person. But much more – it also contains the energy of a deity, a "seed" of special power, Life Force, a pillar, a pin, and some other things I won't go into now.  Mantras are also mostly in Sanskrit because that is considered a highly sophisticated, sacred language and considered the language of the gods.  It was also the language available in ancient times when some mantras were originally conceived around 1500 BCE. Scriptures in Sanskrit were also sung and passed on through the generations in that way. That is why many mantras have a tune to them. Hmm, so now you're getting bored and all this seems a bit esoterically shaded… Ok, all these things are merely for your interest and you can forget them now if you feel you need to.

 

If you can get to the point where you can accept that any sound you utter or come into contact with has some correlative influence or at least a relationship of some kind with your body and also your inner being (the way you feel, if you must), and that some sounds have a good influence on you (check out laughter) and some a negative influence (words of anger or snide and cutting remarks or a loud cry of pain), and then make the stretch that mantra may be a cool sound that may have a really cool effect on you and you are willing to give it a whirl for a while, then you have come to mantra and you may just have picked up what could be the key to the lock on the chains that keep you so unhappy and stuck.

 

So where do you get a mantra? Well my Friends, Google it if you must, or check out some of these:

 

Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Namo Narayanaya

Aum Namah Shivaya

 

There are many, many other mantras, and each belongs to a specific type or style of yoga.

 

Find one that feels to you as though it fits with you. If you are fortunate perhaps someone in the Path of that mantra will help you with pronunciation and tone and so on, but if not, these days many mantras are on YouTube, so check for it. But don't worry too much if you don't find the sound. Say it as you feel it. You'll know almost right away because after a day or so it already starts making you feel kinda cool inside. Find a nice rhythm and tune that fits for you and go for it. Take a week or so.

 

At first it will be distracting but you get used to it after a while. Just to get the hang of it say it out loud at first when you are out alone. Then whisper it for a while and eventually say it silently. Then stop saying it and start listening to it. Then listen even for the echo of it. The sound of the ending of the mantra usually flows into the beginning of it so that it sort of becomes a circle and never stops and so in that sense becomes an endless sound. Once you get it established never change it. because on a higher level it is in the end not really "your" mantra as such. Maybe you did not even "choose" it like you think - maybe it chose you? Hmm...

 

Later the mantra becomes your companion. Then it becomes your friend. Still later it becomes your Friend and then the influence of the mantra on your inner energies really comes to life. After a while – and I mean a long time – you don't "say" your mantra any more - it says you. It never leaves you because it has become part of you.

 

Mantra has the most calming effect that you can ever imagine. And when your life and actions proceed from such calmness and equanimity, everything you touch, everything you and your consciousness come into contact with is affected in a pleasant way. Imagine that! So you change your life by your own volition and power and exertion. And that is what you wanted to do in the beginning, remember? But you didn't know how and you didn't want to get too deeply involved in the whole awkward and seemingly demanding yoga thing.

 

Well then, there you go. Pick a mantra of you feel a fit with and make it cool for you and then do the work, albeit a little repetitive. Soon the mantra does its own work and it won't be long before your life will start changing from the inside out. And you would not even have set foot in an ashram.  "A what?" Never mind… say your mantra and be happy :-)

 

It is really and truly as simple as that. Try it and see for yourself.

 

Namaste.

 

 

 

More Selected Writings

 

 

Sri Humananda &copy
Dwapara 310 (2010)