Mantras
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Coimbatore · 2011
Chapters
Invocation and introductory chanting
Omnamo Bhagavate Vasudeva, Bhagavat, Omna Bhagavate Vudevaya Oh Namo Bhagavate Sudeva bagavate vasudeva Vajanu
Lambita Vajokana Kavadatu Sankirtanaika Bidaroka Malai Taksivishwambarodvi Java Yuga Dharma Pala, Vandeja Jagat Priyakaroka, jantah pravisya mama vachima mamprasuptam sangivayatakila shakti daraswadam, anjamchahastacharanasha vanatranana te karushaya dudyam Okay.
Good evening. Good evening. So I wanted to have a little continuation of our talk. The other evening I was talking the other day about the The importance of the mind and clarity and purity of the mind.
The mind is playing the central role in our life, and I mentioned briefly six factors out of ten which can in
And I mentioned that there are ten altogether, and among four which I didn't mention was a very essential element and I want to devote this little talk tonight to this particular item that is mantra.
The four remaining items which uh very much affect our consciousness and uh influence our mind in regards to the modes of material nature, sattvaguna, rajaguna and uh tamaguna, uh goodness, passion and ignorance.
One is Janma. Janma means basically your genealogy, your birth, but also means your initiation, mantra, dhyana, your meditation, and samskara, the different rituals which you perform.
But I will not touch the three other items. I will only talk about mantra. And you are all familiar with mantras? Every evening here we chant mantra, every morning there is chanting going on.
Sometimes there is sound of Gāyatrī mantra here on Vaswa, and uh when in the morning there is a chanting and they chant my um mantra for Ganesh, Um Gam Ganapataye Namaha, or they chant mantra, Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra, mantra which is supposed to deliver you from death, mantra which has a great medicinal effect and which can supposedly, if you attain perfection in this mantra, cure all the diseases.
So, what I want to talk tonight is how it works. What is the mechanism behind it? What kind of mantras are there? Why do you need to repeat mantras so many times?
Why it's not enough just to chant it once and be happy. You know, and that's it. What is this you know tedious repetition of the same thing again and again and again?
And ultimately I will we will practice a little bit and we will try to observe the effect of the mantras upon our consciousness.
Meaning and function of mantra
So that's the presentation of my topic for tonight. I will speak about the mechanism of mantra or sound vibration. First of all, the definition the Vedic word mantra means it has two verbal roots, man and tra.
Tra means trayate, it means to protect, to protect, or to deliver. And man means mind. The English word man also comes from the Sanskrit root man. Man man means to think, to contemplate, to meditate.
So the very word mantra in Sanskrit means something which protects your mind. This is the most simple meaning. Mananat trāyate yasmat iti mantraḥ prakīrtitaḥ.
Mantra is something which protects your mind from the tendency to dissipate the energy of the mind in different directions. This tendency is called mananat.
Mananat means that we always think about something and there are hundreds and thousands of subjects upon which we dwell.
When Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira in the Mahābhārata was asked, you know what is there in a big quantity more than the blades of grass? You know, if you look around, you will see there is plenty of blades of grass.
So he was asked: what is there more numerous in this universe than the blades of grass? And he says, thoughts in our mind. The thoughts in our mind constantly crossing mind and affecting mind.
And moreover, as I said, the mind is a very vulnerable element of our nature. It's constantly bombarded by the external influences.
You know, if we go through the city, we will get so much different information without even noticing it. And it will not affect it will all affect our mind. The mind will be affected one way or another.
So, because of this constant uh onslaught, constant attack on our mind from the external sources, especially now, you know, we're living in this world where there is internet and when there is mobile phones and when there is advertisement and TV and whatnot.
You know, here they may, you know, our kind doctors may try to create a healing-conducive environment.
But ultimately, the healing depends on the mind, and if the mind is still bombarded by all this information, which to a greater extent carries very negative energy.
A lot of negative energy is coming in our mind from the external environment. Then all this, you know, all these measures which our kind doctors are trying to have to protect us will not work.
So, what I want to say is that we need the protection of the mind. And as I said, manana traite, something which protects us from this tendency to dissipate the energy of our mind.
When we have different thoughts which are kind of tearing us apart, taking us in different directions that's very detrimental for the functioning of the mind and for the functioning of our whole system.
Sound waves as creation's basis
And mantra is something which helps us to tune up the mind, to make the mind more concentrated, and in this way it protects the mind from all this dissipating agents which attack our mind constantly.
And how it works? It works in a very brilliant way.
Ultimately, we know if we study quantum physics or the modern modern physics, we will know that the basis of everything which we have, which we see, and which we are ultimately is the sound, is the wave.
When I speak about sound, I basically speak about the wave. And in the Vedas, in Sāṅkhya philosophy, upon which by the way Ayurveda is also based, our Veda is based very firmly on this basis of Sāṅkhya philosophy.
In Sāṅkhya philosophy it is said that the first element, the first material element, the element of creation was sound in ether. And it basically means wave. There was nothing, there was just ether, which means space.
Ka, ka means space in Sanskrit. And in this ether, there were waves, and these waves ultimately took shape of everything which we see.
What we see around us is nothing but a solid form of the sound or solid form of the waves. And this is confirmed by the modern physics.
The modern physics when they went deep into the very you know foundation of the matter, they found the same fact that the basis of all creation is the wave function.
In quantum physics, if you want to describe something, ultimately whatever it is, it can be this or this, you ultimately can draw a wave function which would accurately describe this particular object of reality.
So this fact, even though it's a modern discovery, ultimately it was known long ago to the seers of the past, who are creators of the Vedic culture, and therefore, from the very beginning, sound played the most important role in the Vedic culture.
If we compare Western culture, which is more or less stemming from Greek culture and Vedic culture, we will see the striking difference.
In Greek, in ancient Greece, the most important science was geometry, and geometry is the science of the form. How the forms are interrelated with each other. You know, on the Academy of Plato, there was a slogan.
Those who don't know geometry shouldn't enter here. They are ignorant fools. They don't know anything. So, but as much as in the West, the stress, the emphasis was given to the shape, and we see all this Vedic culture.
Our culture is basically very much based on the video, the images. The very culture, in the same way, is firmly based on sound. And sound only. It's a sonic culture.
The culture where the correct sound was the most important element of culture.
Creation through divine sound
And I will explain now what is correct sound. As I said, there are primordial sounds which are very important, and this primordial sounds are the basis of the whole creation. In the Vedas, it's very interesting.
The process of creation is explained in a very beautiful and ingenious way. Of course, in the West we have also in the New Testament the statement that in the beginning there was a word. It basically means the same.
The beginning of creation is the word. Word means sound, the wave. But in the Vedas it is explained how all the objects are created.
It is said that it was God who named this object. And by naming these objects, He created these objects.
First, there was a sound or the word, and the word which is very uh closely interconnected with the meaning created the object so according to Vedic philosophy there is no difference on a deeper level between the sound and the object, between the sound and the meaning.
Ultimately, originally from our past, we know that there was only one language, and this one language correctly describes the reality. Interestingly, enough, that quite recently there was an interesting article published by NASA. And this article was about Sanskrit.
And in this article, it was said that the Sanskrit is the only one natural language exist existing in this planet, in this culture, in this universe, which correctly and very scientifically
reflects the reality with all its interconnections with all its different interrelationship and therefore they say that the Sanskrit will be there are artificial languages which are used for computers to you know to make the model of reality in the computer and the computer logic.
But then NASA says that Sanskrit will be the language for the computers of the fourth and fifth generation.
Now we have third generation of computers which is toys. So they say that for the more advanced computers, Sanskrit will be used. Why?
Because Sanskrit is the language which again correctly reflects in a sonic form and a sonic presentation, the reality which is there.
And it is said in the Vedas. I started explaining this process of creation where God would be going and saying, This is this, this is the word and the word the object would like like it is said in in the Bible in the New Testament, uh you know, the God said, in the Old Testament. He said the God set light, and there was light.
So basically, the same mechanism, the same creation, the same process is described in Vedas it said in Sanskrit. Ahaṁ śabda ayam artha bodhāt. And we know what
is expressed in this Vedic statement is that when God created something, He called it, and we know that to use something, to make use of any object of this world, we have to call it.
If we wouldn't call, this is the first thing which we do. If we create something new, we call it.
And let's say, just imagine that you know all the new inventions which are there, computer, this recorder, this video camera, would not be called in specific names. We would not be able to use them.
You know we would say just you know this this you know it would lose its uh usage its practicality to a greater extent. So the same kind of things is expressed in in this understanding.
And basically what is what I'm trying to explain is that, and this is the foundation of Vedic culture.
If you will be able to pronounce correct sounds, sounds which are coming from this original sound created by God, you will be able to influence reality in a very profound way. The very culture was about this: how to pronounce the sound of the mantra in such a way that it will have a very deep effect. Effect on you and effect on external reality.
We know there are so many stories when you know somebody gives a curse. And this curse works. How it works? Because that was a powerful sound.
In other translation of the word mantra, mantra is a powerful sound or sound which has potency. And I will explain how it works so that we can practice it.
So, you know, if, for example, you know, of course we know that if somebody curses us it may have some effect, but it may or may not have some effect.
You may curse the whole world, but probably will not have much effect on the world. Or somebody can bless—the blessings also.
You know, we know from the past somebody blesses you and the blessings is being realized, it's actualized, it's becoming reality. How it works again?
Sages chakras and sound energy
Because of the purity of the sound. So basically how mantras work, mantras are based it is said that rishes, the seers of the past, they're called rishis, and rishi literally means seer, somebody who can see.
Rishi and the very word Rishi is coming from the verbal root somebody who can see. Rishi means the seer who can see. So the rishis of the past, the sages of the past, they have seen mantras. Mantras or the sound have shape.
And rishis, the seers, they are called rishis because they were able to see these mantras or they were able to see how, you know, the sound and the shape are interrelated with each other.
Ultimately, these mantras are coming from our chakras. You probably know that there are seven chakras, and these chakras have a graphic representation. The chakras are vortex of energy.
And these vortexes of energy, they are, you know, they have a certain kind of, you know rotation and they have a certain shape, it's a certain energy, subtle energy, which again the yogis can see.
So the subtle energy has a certain shape, and each shape has a certain sound. They have petals. If you will take any book on yoga or on these chakras,
you will see the shapes: the Muladhara chakra, the first chakra, has four petals. And in each petal you will have a Sanskrit sound.
Each petal will have a certain potent sound which, if pronounced properly will take you into the resonance with this particular chakra. And if you pronounce this, you will be able to strengthen this center of energy.
That's basically how mantra works on a subtle level.
All these sounds, when they're pronounced correctly, they enter into your system, and they start interacting with the system which is there on a subtle level, and they start purifying the system.
Not only the mind is being purified, but the whole system of your energy is being purified.
We have you know so many uh so-called nadis. This nadis uh uh it's a channels, subtle channels within our body upon which you know the energy flows.
In Chinese culture they are very much into this nadis, into these channels through which the prana is flowing.
So each sound in Sanskrit, if pronounced correctly, purifies certain nari, certain channel in your body, and helps the energy to flow.
Purifies the energy, helps the energy to flow, raises the level of your energy, and so many different effects are there. So that's how basically mantras work, but they only work if you pronounce the sound correctly.
And therefore, mantras have to be practiced again and again and And by repeating these mantras and by going deeper and deeper and deeper into the sound. deeper into the sound.
Four subtle levels of sound
Ultimately, this repetition of the mantras or changing of the mantras means that you uh going with your mind on a deeper levels of the sound. There is an external or very kind of gross level of the sound.
When I speak, it's a very gross level of the sound. But even this gross level of the sound has an effect. But Vedder said that there are four levels of the sound.
The gross level is only one level, very external and very gross. And it has an effect, but this effect is Is somewhat primitive, so to speak. But there is more subtle sound, the sound of our thoughts.
You know what are our thoughts? Thoughts are just sound. You know, just something is constantly speaking something. And this is sound on a more subtle level.
There is sound on the level of intellect which is called Pashyanti Vak. Pashyanti means something which is seen, which can be seen. So on a deeper level, the sound has the form or shape or it has some certain image.
And there is the most profound level of the sound which is called paravak, which is transcendental level of the sound. So by repeating the mantras, we are going deeper and deeper and deeper in the level of the sound so that ultimately on a deeper level we will meet the object of the sound.
When you repeat in the morning, I've seen it in a very you know it's a very touching scene when you repeat Om Gam Ganapataye Maha...
Ultimately, if you achieve the perfection of this mantra, you will see Ganapati face to face in this sound because this sound is not different from him.
And the repetition of this mantra is meant to reach certain level of reality which is not accessible to us now. We are living in a very superficial world, and a very superficial kind of reality.
So, mantra is the means by which you tune up your consciousness. And by tuning up your consciousness, tuning up your mind, you will be able to penetrate into a deeper level of real levels of reality.
And discover the amazing things which are there in the deeper levels of reality.
So that's how mantras work, and there is a very beautiful Beautiful comparison metaphor which explains what happens when you repeat mantras again and again and again. Like every evening we chant Mahā-mantra.
And I will So the comparison of changing the mantra this comparison is comparing chanting the mantra with an Ayurvedic process. Somehow rather the presence of our doctors inspired me into this you know Ayurvedic analogies.
There is an Ayurvedic process which is called Kajali Karan. This is the process by which you take mercury, and mercury is very poisonous, and turn mercury into a medicine.
By this Kajlikaran process, you take Mercury and turn Mercury into makar dwaja or in some very powerful Ayurvedic medicine which can have a very profound effect on your body.
So it starts with taking sulfur together with mercury and trying to uh how you call it? Huh? Marna. Yeah, whatever. You just take the pestle and you mix it?
Yeah, you try to mix it up again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, chanting certain mantras and doing some certain things. So basically, what is happening in this process?
Two separate objects. Mercury, which is not mixing with anything. You have seen this mercury. And sulfur, which is also quite a passiv object.
Steering or by mixing by kind of again and again and again doing this, they become one. So, what is happening when you chant a mantra? The same thing is happening with your mind.
Now our mind is material, and this material mind has certain vibrations, and it's basically all based on these vibrations, on the waves, and you know, so many thoughts, vibrations in the mind are coming.
But we take a mantra, which is a powerful vibration seen by the seals of the past and transmitted to us, and it's very important, it should be transmitted to us by the Guru through his pure consciousness.
You have to receive the mantra from the mind or from the mouth of your guru.
And then you repeat it again and again and again, and it's as if you're trying to, you know, trying to mix mercury with sulfur and uh you will see when you do this process your mind which is like mercury will try to you know run away.
If you try to do something with the mercury, can you do something with the mercury now? Mercury will be just flying. You know, you cannot catch mercury. In the same way you cannot catch mind.
Mind is very difficult to catch. It's so it's so you know blah blah blah blah. But if you do it again and again and again, and if you have certain
passions in this process, by repeating it again and again and again and again, and again and again. Ultimately the sound, very powerful sound of mantra becomes one with the mind.
The mind becomes tuned up with this vibration, and only at this moment you will be able to penetrate the deeper levels of reality.
You're more or less connecting yourself through this process with this you know vibrational dimension of our reality and you know, so many different things you will be able to get through this particular process.
So that's why we repeat mantras, and repeating mantras uh also requires certain purification process. It's purification in itself.
But it helps if you at the same time, you know, purify your living and everything else, you know to help this process. What I want to say is that it's a very profound yoga.
We know that yoga, the very word yoga, means connection.
Receiving mantra from a guru
And by chanting this mantra, you're connecting
yourself in a very powerful way, but for this process to be successful, you need to fulfill certain uh certain conditions. And one of the conditions is I already mentioned, very important condition, is that you have to get the mantra from your guru.
The mantra will be effective only if you get it from the pure consciousness. As I said, this purity of the sound is most important. If the sound is not pure, the effect is less. Sound is a very funny thing. You know.
The other day this lady came to me and she said that uh I I f I I feel a little shy to repeat what she said, but uh to illustrate my point I wanted to repeat.
She said, You said something which I heard many times before, but I didn't believe it. But when you said it, somehow it made sense. So what I want to say by giving this example is that sound
you may hear the same sound many times before, and it may not have any effect on your consciousness whatsoever.
And then all of a sudden, somebody says to you something which you have heard so many times, and the whole world changes to you.
You somehow or other in this particular sound you find the new reality which was not uh you know known or accessible to you before. Why?
Uh it's because uh the sound carries the influence of the consciousness by which it's pronounced. You know it's it's you know the same sound, and therefore it is said that it's absolutely useless to write down Vedas.
It just doesn't work. You know, you may people in the West they study Vedas for 200 years and they're very proud. There was Max Müller who studied Vedas, you know, and he knew Vedas. You know, it doesn't work.
It just does not work. Because the knowledge which is there in the Vedas is much more subtle, and you have to receive it in the form of the sound from your guru who has realized it.
And by receiving it, and you can receive it in the form of very short sentence, just one sentence mantra. And in this mantra, the whole universe will be contained.
The whole most profound knowledge will be contained and you by repeating this mantra you will ultimately come to the same level of realization.
If you just read it in the book, it will have zero effect, like this Gāyatrī mantra. Now Gāyatrī mantra is very cheap. Gāyatrī mantra, any pop singer is singing Gāyatrī mantra. Umburbu Aswatatsari.
And people think that uh just by hearing this Gāyatrī mantra from some pop singer you will get some effect. Forget it. There will be no effect.
You know, if you want to achieve the effect, and Gāyatrī mantra is one of the most powerful mantras in the whole of the Vedas. Gāyatrī mantra is called Veda Mata.
Veda mata means the whole Vedas, everything is coming from the Gāyatrī. And Gāyatrī is explaining the ultimate reality. Gāyatrī is the explanation of sound vibration, the chord of the ultimate reality which is there.
But if you get it from the pop singer you may I don't know what you will get from this. You will be probably you'll probably get some contamination with the sound. You know, you will not get any knowledge or anything else.
So what I want to say is that it's extremely important. The purity of the sound is extremely important and therefore the mantras may or may not have effect upon our consciousness.
You know, so many mantras now we we're living in the age of information where everything is available on the internet, you look in the internet, all the secret mantras of the Vedas are there on the first front page of some site.
You know, no problem. No secrets are there. But still, secrets are there. All these secret mantras will not work if you receive it through improper channel. There is some certain code which is there.
Why because there will be no certain level required level of purity. And this is especially true in case of Vedic mantras. In case of Vedic mantras, there is such a high requirements for the correct pronunciation.
For the first, you know, ten years the child in a gurukula and traditional educational system was taught taught how to pronounce the sounds properly.
You know, the Shiksha is the first the phonetics, the science of phonetics. You know, where you pronounce the proper sound, the correct sound, so that it would be effective. So in our in our world it doesn't work.
Of course, we know there is this beautiful drama play of Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, you know about the very gross lady who was very you know very crude gross lady who was selling some flowers and how she became transformed why because of the sound.
He started this English teacher started to teach her the Queen's English. And she started, you know, she started speaking with the Queen's English and she became a Queen.
So this play explains or describes the same kind of process. If you correctly pronounce certain things, it will have a very profound effect on your consciousness.
And, uh, in the Vedas, of course, you know, this was, uh, the emphasis. But as I said it doesn't work in our case, big relief. Just doesn't work. Don't even try. It's it's not it's practically not possible.
You have to start it from the very early age, you have to maintain certain purity of your consciousness, you have to fulfill so many conditions for this to work.
So uh the Vedic mantras as such uh we may get some effect but we uh have to understand or we have to agree or have to admit from the very beginning, from the outset, that the effect will be limited.
It's very difficult to attain what is called in Sanskrit mantra siddhi.
Vedic mantras and moksha mantras
Mantra Siddhi means the perfection of mantra, which basically means meeting of the object of the mantra face to face. But that was the bad news. The good news is coming.
The good news is that even though Vedic mantras, which have a particular structure, are very difficult to achieve perfection in our uh case.
Still there are some other mantras which are called moksha mantras, which are much more powerful and which have much uh lower conditions for the success.
So I will speak very briefly about these two kinds of mantras, then we'll give a few practical advice if somebody wants to practice this, and then we will have little practice.
So the Vedic mantras they have a particular structure. They, they start with bīja-mantra, oṁ, gaṁ, klīṁ, śrīṁ. And it's this bīja mantra which is the most essential. Bīja mantra.
If you achieve perfection in bīja mantra, you will have tremendous power.
Bīja mantra, it's one sound which is corresponding to certain chakras which we have, and it really contains in itself tremendous amount of energy if you pronounce it correctly.
So all the Vedic mantras, they start with this bīja: one syllable which contains certain energies, certain uh subtle energy, and it's more or less the code of this reality with which you want to connect.
It's a code like city code or country code. If you call, you first have to know the code. And if you know the code correctly, you will you may connect uh with a particular man in this country.
But you first have to know the code. So and then there is a word in dative in the fourth case in Sanskrit: Ganapataya, Ramaya Krishnaya, Vasudevaya or Vishnave Gurave.
And this is the fourth case in Sanskrit dative. And namaha svaha at the end. Omgam Ganapataya Namaha. Namaha means I am coming out from my own consciousness, from my ego, and I'm surrendering to this particular deity.
Namaha means I'm denying it's a self-denial at the end. It's basically the word which means that I offer my respect, but offering respect means that I'm denying myself and I'm surrendering to this deity.
You know we know that this is the this is the mudra or the how we show this respect, how we bow down. It basically we're more or less coming out from our ego and connecting with this deity.
And this is how the you know Vedic all the Vedic mantras they have the same structure, the bijja, the word, the name of the particular deity and svaha or namaha means relationship. I'm coming from myself for him to him,
and it's somewhat formal. What I want to say, please. This is a very important part of what I want to say. Uh, the very structure of Vedic mantras implies certain level of formality.
It's a very formal relationship and therefore it requires very high conditions to be fulfilled.
Very proper consciousness in which you pronounce this, very correct pronunciation, very kind of, you know, formal relationship and a formal relationship you have to know many things.
You know if you go to some formal gathering you really have to know how to move, you know, how to move your eyebrows or you know how to what intonations you have to use what will be offensive, what will be not offensive, you know, it's not informal gathering how we have now.
And you have to, you know, pronounce certain your certain words you cannot say there, it will be very offensive.
Nature of moksha mantras
So in the same way, uh mantras uh you know Vedic mantras they are about this, about some very formal, highly structured relationship, and therefore it's difficult, it's really difficult to use them or to achieve success in them.
But as I said, there are powerful mantras which are more suitable to our situation, our condition, which we have. And this mantras are much less formal. And these mantras are more or less simply the names.
You know, in a case of some formal relationship you may have to know some things, and you have to know how to approach certain person, and you have to follow certain etiquette.
But if you are in a desperate condition and you're really desperate, you just, you know, if you see somebody, you just call him and you don't care about the etiquette. You know, you're drowning in the river.
You know, you're not conscious about the etiquette, you're just calling. And this A may not be so polite, but it works. You know?
It definitely has an effect because you know you're calling in less formal ways somebody whom you know will come to you to help.
The moksha mantras or powerful mantras which are most suitable for our condition are contained from the names of God, in vocative case. As I said, formal Vedic mantras they also contain names of God.
But the names of God are contained in a dative case. But the moksha mantras, powerful mantras, contain names of God in vocative case when you just want to get his attention by all means.
If you're just calling somebody, you know, you're trying to get his attention. And when we chant Hare Krishna we're basically calling God, hey, come to me. Save me.
Therefore, they are called Moksha mantras, mantras which give you liberation. This particular mantra which we chant, which is prominent in our tradition, is called Mahā-mantra, which is called Great Mantra.
Great chanting for the liberation of the mind. And it is of course there in the Vedas, in Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, in one of the Upanishads it's quoted there.
And it is said, in this Upanishad it is said, uh Narada is approaching Brahmā, and Brahmā is saying, you know, this dark age of Kali is coming. It's very dark. The consciousness of people are very dark.
It's ridden by all kinds of you know bad energy. The negative energy is so much prevalent in this world.
Potency of the mahamantra
How can people be saved from this abyss of negative energy?
This age in which we are living is just it's it's a it's a it's a very it's a very difficult time because there is so much impurity and this impurity is more or less the norm of the present-day society. So how do we help? And Nārada is asking Brahmā, the creator of this world, how do we help? How people can be saved from this condition, from this pollution of this age.
The pollution of this age is not only in plastic. Dr.
Amkumar the other day said that there are so many chemicals which have produced millions and millions of chemicals which create the cancer in our body, have cancer genetic effects in our body.
But uh this is just a little part of the whole, this just the top of the iceberg of the pollution which is there.
You know all these chemicals, they're polluting everything, they're already polluted, you know, all these vibrations which are there, they also pollute everything. In a much more subtle and in much more profound way.
So much pollution is there everywhere.
So, therefore, this question was asked in the Upaniṣads: how can people be saved? What is the mantra? What is the protection for the mind? Which vibration can protect your mind in this desperate condition.
And it is uh explained there that if you uh chant this mantra, this
Mahā-mantra, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare... Wait, no: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. This particular mantra will give protection to your mind. Why?
Because as I said, it's a totally completely informal. It's a desperate cry. It's all invocative. Hari is the name of God. Krishna is the name of God.
Hari means the one who liberates you for everything unwanted, for all the undesirable, all the pollution which is there, which is accumulated in your mind, you just say once Hare and it's gone. He will take it.
We're more or less desperately crying to him, please take away all this dirt which is there, all this pollution which is there, all the contamination which is there. And this is what the name Hari means.
Hari means God who is liberating us from this contamination. And Krishna means the most attractive, the most beautiful.
The very word Krishna means somebody who attracts everyone. And that's the non-sectarian definition of God.
God, by the very definition, is the source of everything. And whatever we need is in him, therefore he is the most attractive. And Ram means the one who gives the supreme pleasure, supreme bliss, supreme joy in
Posture and rules for meditation
our heart, Rāma. So this mantra consists of these three powerful names of God in a certain pattern, and therefore it is so liberating, therefore it's called Moksha Mantra, Mantra for Liberation.
And as I promised, we're finishing now. I'm really sorry for being so long in the presentation. But I hope it was helpful. I wanted to give some practical advice, but I don't know if I can now.
But as I said, all this practical advice is not that important if you chant the moksha mantras, the powerful mantras. For the mantras of Vedic mantras, which are more or less
mantras for meditation, you need to fulfill many, many, many uh conditions. Like for example, your posture has to be perfect. You know, your spine has to be completely erect in a very correct way you have to have your spine because there is no meditation without the correct posture.
All the meditation without correct posture is just a not even a joke, it's just it's just uh absurd. It's it's a nonsense. First of all, you have to have proper complete alignment of your body.
Then only meditation can take place.
So as I said, all these formalities, and then you know you have to have proper place, place has to be pure, you know, the proper time, it's very important to chant it in the proper time. The time before dawn, before sunrise is very important. This is all conditions for the success of mantra in every case.
But as I said, for mokṣa mantras it's not that important.
Posture: you may be laying down after taking half a liter of ghee and chanting this mantra and it will still work, you know, even though your spine may not be correct.
Because again there is a certain condition which is already or certain kind of situation which is already built in the mantra itself. So it's for desperate condition. And you can chant it in any condition whatever you like.
But anyway, let's try certain mantras. more minutes. Okay? You are still awake? Yeah.
So first we will start with OṀ, of course. OṀ at this It is said that this is the primordial sound, the sound of creation. That the very first sound of creation is there in Ohm and it is still there.
They say, like, for example: if you start Puja, people usually they blow conch. And the sound of conch is the sound of Om. It's a correct sound of Om. But let's try to do it properly.
As I said, this bija mantra, it's a bija, it's the most powerful bija which is there. The most powerful syllable which is there. As I said, and purity is very important, the purity of pronunciation is very important.
So let's try to do it as properly as possible. It's contained of three words or three sounds: A, U, And R, U together, they give you O, so no need to do A, U, and M. You can just say O.
But the sound O has to be twice as long as nasal sound at the end, which is explained as M. But it's actually nasal sound, somehow you call it, some vibration, some nasal vibration.
So the very sound Om contains of four parts: A, U, M, and bindu. If you saw the diagram of Ohm, there is a dot over it. This dot is called bindu, and it basically means silence at the end, which is most important.
If you pronounce Om properly, there has to be one-fourth of the time of silence. And this silence is the continuation of the sound by which you go to the higher realms of reality. So let's try it together with me.
First we will try in a proper way. Let's try to relax first. You see it as properly as possible because, as I said, it's important for this kind of mantras to have a proper posture. Make your spine erect.
It's also important that the neck on the same straight line as the spine. And first just simply observe your breathing. When we take the position of the absorber, the relaxation takes place on its own.
If we start absorbing our breathing, we will feel how the body and especially the face becomes relaxed.
There are many little muscles on our face, and if we absorb our breathing or make deep breathing while absorbing it, we will feel the relaxation coming to the body and coming to the mind.
The main thing is that to create a very relaxed atmosphere in the mind. We will have a few deep breaths. Inhale. Exhale and just observe on your own. And
now try to concentrate your mind on the external sounds, on all these sounds of nature which are there. It will also help you to relax. Now you make a will start changing, you make a deep breath. Again.
Louder. Okay, you can open your eyes. Did you feel an effect on your consciousness? It has a very profound effect. And it's a very natural thing. It's a completely natural sound. So the most natural sound which is there.
But at the same time if you as they say if
you go deeper the comparison which is given in Upanishads, it is said that the om, the sound om will become like an arrow. You take your mind, and from your mind you, you, you taut the string and you release the arrow and this arrow will reach the supreme reality through the sound only.
That's how it works.
Guided chanting of Vasudeva mantra
This metaphor is there to help you understand where your consciousness is taken by this sound, if you pronounce it properly. Ah okay, so what else? Shall we?
We can we can try, uh, do this mantra which we chanted in the beginning, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. As I said it is it is the mantra which is also describing the all-pervading presence of God.
This mantra is a particular invocation to the presence of God, which is who is there in our heart, in our consciousness, everywhere. He is right there.
He is not somewhere far away, not in a cloud, He has not forgotten about us. He's there and we are invoking him and his presence in our consciousness by pronouncing this oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Let's try it. Okay.
Again little relaxation. It always helps. And then first I will pronounce this mantra and then you will do it as we did by this repetition by this chanting.
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Namo, bhagavate vāsudeva, bhagavate vāsudeva. As I said, the particular reason for chanting this mantra is often specific.
Guided chanting of the mahamantra
You know, like you chant a mantra of a particular planet to get relief of this planet's influence or to get some blessings, like you chant, you know, Om Chandraya Namaha, by chanting the mantra of the moon. And chandra is there. Moon is there in the sound chandra. And if you pronounce it properly, ultimately you will get the connection with this.
But as I said, you know, the most powerful mantra is this Hare Krishna and at the end we will practice this mantra and we'll be also chanting afterwards and you can practice this harmonium.
But uh what we will try to do now we will try together in unison to chant this mantra. You all know this mantra, right? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare.
So what, we will we will try, few times we will chant together this mantra in unison, but try to completely concentrate on the sound of this mantra. Again, by uh, for concentration, the relaxation is very important.
To concentrate the mind, the body and the mind have to be relaxed.
And uh try to do it also in a very loud voice because loud voice will help us to uh nullify or to erase at least for the time being some other thoughts which will distract our attention from the sound of the mantra. So that's what we will do together.
Uh, five times we will repeat this mantra in a very loud voice. Uh, and as I said, uh, pronunciation doesn't matter.
Just try to call to invoke the presence of God through this mantra because He is there in the name. We can take a deep breath.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma Hare Hare.
Okay, yeah, and uh Śrīla Prabhupāda said that kīrtana, when we chant together, the effect of this chanting is much more powerful because through the melody of the kīrtana you can
connect or concentrate on the sound of this mantra in a much deeper way and deeper level. And also the melody contains certain emotions on its own accord, and it's easier to chant this mantra in a pure way and therefore
uh you can feel the effect of kīrtana uh easier than just by chanting mantras on your own.
Therefore kīrtana is a very powerful practice of yoga which helps to purify the mind and to somehow rather connect the mind with the higher reality. Anyway, thank you very much. Thank you so much.