power of mantras

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What is a Mantra and How Does It Work ?

 

Mantras are powerful sounds. Mantras are the ones that have when chanted

produce great effects. These are chanted repeatedly and that is called

Japa. Japa is a key part of Hindu prayer.

 

Mantras are very rich in their meaning. While doing japa one can

meditate on the mantra and its meaning. As the mind dwell more and more

into that, the mantra conditions the mind and takes up to the higher

states and forms the path to the great liberation - eternal bliss !

 

What makes mantras so special as compared to the normal words ? Mantras

are not human composed. One may wonder how can that be possible.

Especially given that there are sages associated with the mantras ! The

point to be noted is that these sages are not composers of these

mantras, as we normaly compose the sentences; they are not the

inventors, but they are the discoverers of the mantra. They get to know

the mantras in a state in which these words do not emanate from their

thoughts, but they are just passive audience to it. Those who go deep in

meditation and realize God may be able to get a feel of this situation.

 

To be such a discoverer, even though they are just passive hearers,

needs great amount of qualification. Only the perfect one can

unchangedly reproduce the mantra heard. The only one that is absolutely

perfect is God. All other discoverers reproduce that mantra only as pure

as their closeness to perfection.

 

veda samhitAs are full of mantras and hence have been preserved for ages

in their pure form by utilizing the various techniques like patha,

krama, jaTa, gaNa pATas, that ensure that the chanter clearly gets the

correct letters and even the correct level of sound for each letter

(svara). The chanters are advised to chant the mantras only after

getting the right pronunciation of it, so that the mantras are presered

against deterioration with time. There would be gurus who initiate the

disciple in a mantra. guru ensures that the disciple got the mantra

right, so that the person can chant independently as well as initiate

others in that mantra. Ensuring this preservation vedas were passed only

through the tradition of guru and disciples and was never written down

till very recent past. (It is really amazing to note that without being

written down the vedas have been preserved in pure form across the land

by these techniques. Though the texts are freely available now for

anybody to read, it would be important to ensure that these mantras are

properly learnt and then chanted. This way the treasure that as been

preserved so carefully over multiple milleniums do not deteriorate due

to indifference.)

 

It is to be noted that many of the hymns of thirumuRai are known to have

great powers of mantras that are practiced even today.

 

While there are plenty of mantras available, there are a few that are

chanted with high esteem by the shaivas. Definitely those are highly

powerful ones that can lead the chanter on the great path to mukti

(liberation). praNava, paNJchAkashra, gAyatri to name a few. For

shaivites the Holy Five Syllables (paNJchAkshara) with or without

combined with the praNava is the ultimate mantra.

 

Definition # 1: Mantras are energy-based sounds.

 

Saying any word produces an actual physical vibration. Over time, if we

know what the effect of that vibration is, then the word may come to

have meaning associated with the effect of saying that vibration or

word. This is one level of energy basis for words.

 

Another level is intent. If the actual physical vibration is coupled

with a mental intention, the vibration then contains an additional

mental component which influences the result of saying it. The sound is

the carrier wave and the intent is overlaid upon the wave form, just as

a colored gel influences the appearance and effect of a white light.

 

In either instance, the word is based upon energy. Nowhere is this idea

more true than for Sanskrit mantra. For although there is a general

meaning which comes to be associated with mantras, the only lasting

definition is the result or effect of saying the mantra.

 

Definition #2: Mantras create thought-energy waves.

 

The human consciousness is really a collection of states of

consciousness which distributively exist throughout the physical and

subtle bodies. Each organ has a primitive consciousness of its own. That

primitive consciousness allows it to perform functions specific to it.

Then come the various systems. The cardio-vascular system, the

reproductive system and other systems have various organs or body parts

working at slightly different stages of a single process. Like the

organs, there is a primitive consciousness also associated with each

system. And these are just within the physical body. Similar functions

and states of consciousness exist within the subtle body as well. So

individual organ consciousness is overlaid by system consciousness,

overlaid again by subtle body counterparts and consciousness, and so ad

infinitum.

 

The ego with its self-defined "I" ness assumes a pre-eminent state among

the subtle din of random, semi-conscious thoughts which pulse through

our organism. And of course, our organism can "pick up" the vibration of

other organisms nearby. The result is that there are myriad vibrations

riding in and through the subconscious mind at any given time.

 

Mantras start a powerful vibration which corresponds to both a specific

spiritual energy frequency and a state of consciousness in seed form.

Over time, the mantra process begins to override all of the other

smaller vibrations, which eventually become absorbed by the mantra.

After a length of time which varies from individual to individual, the

great wave of the mantra stills all other vibrations. Ultimately, the

mantra produces a state where the organism vibrates at the rate

completely in tune with the energy and spiritual state represented by

and contained within the mantra.

 

At this point, a change of state occurs in the organism. The organism

becomes subtly different. Just as a laser is light which is coherent in

a new way, the person who becomes one with the state produced by the

mantra is also coherent in a way which did not exist prior to the

conscious undertaking of repetition of the mantra.

 

Definition #3: Mantras are tools of power and tools for power.

 

They are formidable. They are ancient. They work. The word "mantra" is

derived from two Sanskrit words. The first is "manas" or "mind," which

provides the "man" syllable. The second syllable is drawn from the

Sanskrit word "trai" meaning to "protect" or to "free from." Therefore,

the word mantra in its most literal sense means "to free from the mind."

Mantra is, at its core, a tool used by the mind which eventually frees

one from the vagaries of the mind.

 

But the journey from mantra to freedom is a wondrous one. The mind

expands, deepens and widens and eventually dips into the essence of

cosmic existence. On its journey, the mind comes to understand much

about the essence of the vibration of things. And knowledge, as we all

know, is power. In the case of mantra, this power is tangible and wieldable.

 

Statements About Mantra

 

Mantras have close, approximate one-to-one direct language-based

translation.

 

If we warn a young child that it should not touch a hot stove, we try to

explain that it will burn the child. However, language is insufficient

to convey the experience. Only the act of touching the stove and being

burned will adequately define the words "hot" and "burn" in the context

of "stove." Essentially, there is no real direct translation of the

experience of being burned.

 

Similarly, there is no word which is the exact equivalent of the

experience of sticking one's finger into an electrical socket. When we

stick our hand into the socket, only then do we have a context for the

word "shock." But shock is really a definition of the result of the

action of sticking our hand into the socket.

 

It is the same with mantras. The only true definition is the experience

which it ultimately creates in the sayer. Over thousands of years, many

sayers have had common experiences and passed them on to the next

generation. Through this tradition, a context of experiential definition

has been created.

 

Definitions of mantras are oriented toward either the results of

repeating the mantra or of the intentions of the original framers and

testers of the mantra.

 

In Sanskrit, sounds which have no direct translation but which contain

great power which can be "grown" from it are called "seed mantras." Seed

in Sanskrit is called "Bijam" in the singular and "Bija" in the plural form.

 

Let's take an example. The mantra "Shrim" or Shreem is the seed sound

for the principle of abundance (Lakshmi, in the Hindu Pantheon.) If one

says "shrim" a hundred times, a certain increase in the potentiality of

the sayer to accumulate abundance is achieved. If one says "shrim" a

thousand times or a million, the result is correspondingly greater.

 

But abundance can take many forms. There is prosperity, to be sure, but

there is also peace as abundance, health as wealth, friends as wealth,

enough food to eat as wealth, and a host of other kinds and types of

abundance which may vary from individual to individual and culture to

culture. It is at this point that the intention of the sayer begins to

influence the degree of the kind of capacity for accumulating wealth

which may accrue.

 

Mantras have been tested and/or verified by their original framers or users.

 

Each mantra is associated with an actual sage or historical person who

once lived. Although the oral tradition predates written speech by

centuries, those earliest oral records annotated on palm leaves

discussed earlier clearly designate a specific sage as the "seer" of the

mantra. This means that the mantra was probably arrived at through some

form of meditation or intuition and subsequently tested by the person

who first encountered it.

 

Sanskrit mantras are composed of letters which correspond to certain

petals or spokes of chakras in the subtle body.

 

As discussed earlier, there is a direct relationship between the mantra

sound, either vocalized or subvocalized, and the chakras located

throughout the body.

 

Mantras are energy which can be likened to fire.

 

You can use fire either to cook your lunch or to burn down the forest.

It is the same fire. Similarly, mantra can bring a positive and

beneficial result, or it can produce an energy meltdown when misused or

practiced without some guidance. There are certain mantra formulas which

are so exact, so specific and so powerful that they must be learned and

practiced under careful supervision by a qualified guru.

 

Fortunately, most of the mantras widely used in our portal and certainly

those contained in this chapter are perfectly safe to use on a daily

basis, even with some intensity.

 

Mantra energizes prana.

 

"Prana" is a Sanskrit term for a form of life energy which can be

transferred from individual to individual. Prana may or may not produce

an instant dramatic effect upon transfer. There can be heat or coolness

as a result of the transfer.

 

Some healers operate through transfer of prana. A massage therapist can

transfer prana with beneficial effect. Even self-healing can be

accomplished by concentrating prana in certain organs, the result of

which can be a clearing of the difficulty or condition. For instance, by

saying a certain mantra while visualizing an internal organ bathed in

light, the specific power of the mantra can become concentrated there

with great beneficial effect.

 

Mantras eventually quiet the mind.

 

At a deep level, subconscious mind is a collective consciousness of all

the forms of primitive consciousnesses which exist throughout the

physical and subtle bodies. The dedicated use of mantra can dig into

subconscious crystallized thoughts stored in the organs and glands and

transform these bodily parts into repositories of peace.

 

Some of you may be interested or even fascinated by the discipline of

mantra, but feel somewhat overwhelmed by the array of mantras and

disciplines, astotaras and pujas you find in here. If so, then this

chapter will be of use to you. It contains some simple mantras and their

common application. They have been compiled from vedas and upanishads,

drawn from the various headings of the deities or principles involved.

These mantras address various life issues which we all face from time to

time.