Some years ago, after a particularly energetic
kirtan session, an older woman approached me and asked what she was supposed to have experienced.
"You were chanting the same mantra over and over for about half an hour. Was I supposed to enter into a state of trance or euphoria?"
"Yes," was my simple answer, and I began to explain what we, as yogis, do when we enter that sacred inner space of
samadhi through mantra mediation.
If you're a God-conscious person you may have already come across mantra meditation in various forms. Catholics chanting repetitive Hail Marys on rosary beads. Muslims repeating
Allahu Akhbar, God is great, over and over, several times a day in contemplative meditation. Buddhists chanting
"Om Mani Padme Hum" until that mantra merges into the very existence of their being. You may have heard about the name for God in the Jewish tradition that comes from the sound of our in- and outgoing breath,
"Yah-weh!" Our conscious breathing of
"Yah-weh" reminds us of the ever-present existence of a higher power. The 13th Century Indian saint Madhvacharya noted that every human being unconsciously chants the sacred sound
"Hum-sah" 26,000 times a day... that's counting our average in- and outgoing breaths.
"Hum-sah, hum-sah, hum-sah..." one of many sacred names for God in Hinduism, along the same lines as the Jewish
"Yah-weh."
Sacred mantras are meant to bring us into a peaceful, meditative space by repeating sacred sounds, mantras, over and over. Setting the religious context aside for a moment, let's just look at this process on a purely bio-mechanistic level. We may or may not believe in a higher spiritual power, so what's going on in our bodies, physically, when we chant?
The effect mantras have on our psyche, biorhythms and physical bodies is much like the effect produced by repetitive sounds in nature.
Think of laying on the sands of a tropical beach, where you settle into the rhythm of the ocean's waves coming and going, crashing gently around you. The repetition of the sound of surging waves relaxes our bodies and puts us in a peaceful state of mind.
Think of a baby cuddled in the arms of its mother. The baby hears the mother's reassuring heartbeat, or her in- and outgoing breath, or the background murmur of her speaking in a language the baby doesn't yet understand. The mother may gently rock the baby back and forth, side to side, and these repetitive sounds and motions give the baby an existential sense of comfort, peace, and calm.
Think of sitting in a sun-kissed forest glade, listening to the chirping of the birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees, moved by the gently blowing wind. What effect does this scene have on us as human beings?
Mantras, experienced on a purely mechanical level, are meditation tools that calm the noisy chatter of our minds and allow us to enter a deep state of relaxation, while, at the same time (if we're well rested and wide awake), allowing us to experience a heightened sense of awareness of our immediate surroundings. We're able to
"be here now," as Baba Ram Dass put it in the 60s, focused on the present, experiencing the simple joys of each moment. When we're fully aware of the moment, living in the present, we automatically neglect our mind's other paradigms of hankering for some pleasure in the future, or lamenting over opportunities missed in the past.
Mantras can bring us to a meditative state reducing stress and anxiety. And who doesn't want less stress, less anxiety? Some yogis say that true wealth in this world is
"peace of mind," and mantras are made for that. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of the mantras,
"man" means mind, and
"tra" means to deliver or uplift our mind from everyday, mundane anxieties.
Now add to that the feeling of pleasure we get from being a part of a synergistic effort greater than ourselves: a group of people singing mantras together, dancing together, and having a good time.
Think of the uplifting feeling we may get in a church where a large group of people sing together in unison. Or the feelings we may experience at a rock concert, singing and dancing with thousands of people all tuned into the same song, melody and rhythm. We may feel a heightened sense of belonging, connectedness, happiness, singing and dancing together.
That sounds pretty good so far, doesn't it? Reduce stress and anxiety. Feel happy singing and dancing together. And we're still only talking about the bio-mechanical benefits of chanting mantras.
In a few minutes we'll dive right into the experience of chanting some powerful mantras together.
Let's now come back to the spiritual, metaphysical benefits. What are the more subtle benefits of chanting mantras?
Sacred mantras have been passed on to us from saints and sages who have experimented with and chanted these mantras for generations, spanning thousands of years, and who have achieved various states of enlightenment and spiritual awareness by doing so. These mantras are like fine-tuned precision tools, tweaked to perfection, that help us get from one state of consciousness to another in a short amount of time. Spiritual people, after all, such as yogis, saints and sages, are interested in raising our consciousness from the mundane to the spiritual, from base to sublime, from matter to spirit. And what are the tangible benefits?
When we come together on a spiritual level, it's all about raising consciousness, raising awareness. The more we become aware of the existence of an eternal spirit soul within all of us, and of a Supreme Spirit Soul in nature and the universe all around us, the more we become aware of our part in the grand scheme of a higher power, the more we feel that wonderful sense of comfort and peace a baby feels in its mother's arms. We realize that we are, in fact, always in the arms of that Supreme Spirit, guided and carried by It, a part and parcel of It, and eternally related to all spirit souls around us. We begin to feel a sense of deep unity, harmony and connectedness with our fellow brothers and sisters on this planet, with all of life, humans, animals, plants, and with nature and the universe. Sacred mantras can bring us to that space in a short amount of time–and what a healing, healthy space that can be.
Consider this. Imagine if everyone in the world stopped fighting over trivial differences–be that differences of race, religion, skin color, gender or ethnicity–because we all of a sudden realized that we are inter-related, dependent on each other, sharing this small planet, and charged with a responsibility as fellow human beings to live peacefully side by side, stewards of this earth, brothers and sisters coming from a common origin? Think about it. There would be no more wars. There would be no more violence and fighting if we were able to raise the consciousness of human beings to that level of maturity.
Sacred mantras have the power to raise our consciousness to such a sublime, transcendental reality. When we absorb ourselves in chanting sacred mantras, we can transcend petty differences that divide us as humans. It no longer matters that one of our brothers is white, or black, or red, or yellow, or brown. It no longer matters that some of us come from a Christian faith, or Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, animist, agnostic or atheist. There is no need to change our faith or religion. Anyone can chant these mantras and realize that we are fundamentally inter-connected as a human race. Whether you look at it mechanistically, considering our common DNA heritage as documented by modern science–or you add the spiritual dimension. What matters is that we are all in this together, seven billion people on this planet. No man is an island. As the French philosopher Chardin put it,
"we are spiritual beings having a human experience"–together.
Now, with your permission, let us dive deep into the experiential part of this session. Let's practice mantra meditation together and experience its effects first-hand. Are you ready to try this experiment?
1) Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya (Notes: explain the meaning, briefly, and chant it with the audience.)
2)
Hare Krishna Maha-mantra - leading into
kirtana (Notes: explain primordial sound - Krishna's Flute - Om - Gayatri Mantra, in this age manifest as the
Maha-mantra. Like the cry of a baby for its mother, the longing of the soul for its Supreme Mother and Father. Like baby birds crying for their parent birds to feed them. Like a baby calf mooing, longing for the nurturing milk from the udder of its mother cow. Like the forlorn calls of a lover for her beloved who has gone far away...
"The soul's cry" in existential terms, our constant companion sound vibration. Tuning into the
Maha-mantra is like tuning into the eternal love song of the Divine, the murmur of existence proper, the combined songs and symphony of nature. The Divine Couple, we learn from the great saints and sages, are non-different from Their divine sound vibration form. We connect with the primordial sound of the universe through the
Maha-mantra. Like tuning into a radio message, chanting the Maha-mantra allows us to keep in constant connection with this invigorating, spiritual energy that comes to us directly from the spiritual world.
