Manasa puja, Gayatri mantra and shabda

[Guest guest]

|om|

Dear Narasimha, Pradeep, Neeraj and others, namaste

 

Following the various useful comments on how to visualize the components of a manasa puja or chanting, I made some progress in understanding this concept last Friday when I entered into manasa chanting for almost 2 malas of a mantra. However during this short time, my head started sweating profusely compared to the rest of my body and I intuitively felt that I was perhaps creating too much 'heat' in my head so I decided to revert back to the usual voiced chanting. Almost immediately, the localized sweating stopped. I noticed however that there is no sense of time in manasa chanting and therefore was intrigued as to how to monitor the number of times of chanting the mantra without any aid (such as a counter or rosary).

 

 

Thanks for the Gayatri mantra and the suggestions on how to pronounce it. Even though I was taught to pronounce it without ||om|| before/after the savitur gayatri, I tried humming it as per the advise and immediately could feel the lingering effects of the omkara. So I suppose it should be right.

 

 

Regarding the four levels of shabda, I recollect reading somewhere that the great rishis usually taught only in para vani. An example of this is recorded about Ramanna Maharishi; some disciples requested Ramanna Maharishi to enlighten them about the significance of Guru Poornima/Dattatreya. He said okay and then spent the whole night in complete silence, yet the disciples were enlightened!

 

On a different note, from the discussions on shabda, it follows that the sense of hearing is required to detect vaikhari. If a person is deaf, can that person still be able to detect the other modes of shabda (madhyama, pasyanti and para)?

 

 

best regards

Hari

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Hari,

 

Hope you don't mind if I interject.

 

> Following the various useful comments on how to visualize

> the components of a manasa puja or chanting, . . .

 

There are many strata even within manasa japa. For example: (a)

inaudible japa accompanied by movement of the lips & tongue; (b)

movment of the tongue only; © the tongue is almost still, but still

vibrates; (d) the tongue is absolutely still, and the mantra is

willfully pushed across by the mind; (e) japa where you merely observe

the movement of the mantra across the outer mind (f) and so on.

 

At the outer levels, with some practice, it is rather easy to train

the body to mouth the mantra while the mind is elsewhere. However,

when it is the mind alone performing japa, it is much more difficult

to get away with 'cheating'.

 

> However during this short time, my head started sweating

> profusely compared to the rest of my body

 

It might have also been created merely due to forced stillness in

the facial muscles. You want the body to be calm; but not forcibly rigid.

 

ajit