What is a mantra, after all? It is a set of syllables that have a certain meaning. What is it meant to do? Mananaat traayate iti mantrah. That which liberates you, that which takes you across by chanting it, is a mantra. Contemplating on it, you become liberated. That is a mantra. A simple mantra is 'Aham brahmasmi,' which means ‘I am God’. Constantly contemplate on it. It involves manana (contemplation), not shravana (listening), nor vachana (saying). Manana is deeper than just listening or chanting. Therefore, a mantra is not for vocalising – that is unnecessary. Do so, if chanting or saying it helps you, like some children who read their textbooks out loud as it helps them concentrate better. However, a mantra is actually supposed to involve mananat – something whose meaning you have to constantly contemplate upon. That is the purpose of a mantra. When you do that, the mind slowly becomes focused on the meaning of the mantra, and that meaning starts revealing itself to you. Petal by petal, layer by layer, it opens up to you and the mantra manifests before you.
Now, cast your mind back in time and think about how these mantras were received in the first place, by the great rishis (sages). They were called mantra drashtas – those who had seen the mantra, not who had heard the mantras. How can you see a mantra? It means that there is more to a mantra than just listening, talking or thinking. It is said that a mantra manifests itself from within: both the sound and the meaning. 'Sarvam brahma mayam' – everything is divine – became a mantra. Somebody chanted, “Sarvam brahma mayam,” and experienced the oneness of everything, the divinity of everything.
So a mantra is like two-way traffic: one can chant a mantra and realise the truth, or one can realise the truth and chant the mantra. The rishis made a nice highway for you to reach God. They experienced something and uttered it as mantras. Their experience transformed into certain words. When you see something beautiful, you say, “A-ha!” ‘A-ha’ is not a mantra, not really a word; it is just an expression of the emotion that you experienced at that moment. Similarly, the rishis experienced something and it was expressed verbally as mantras.
It was not language in those early times. It was just an expression of their experience. So a guru gives you a mantra, knowing that that particular experience alone can help you because he or she has seen your past and your future and diagnoses you, rather like an Ayurvedic doctor who will decide that a person is inclined to vata, pitta or kapha and based on that, will give you the right kind of medication.
A mantra is similar; a guru gives you a mantra, telling you that it will help you, in the knowledge of the composition of your mind. They have seen how vacillating, how deep, how difficult your mind is, and having guru drishti, they know, like a doctor, and ‘prescribe’ accordingly.
Your problem is that you cannot chant it in a certain place at a certain time. It was given to you because you were known for your indiscipline in spiritual life. A guru knows when a person is indisciplined. A doctor tells you to take the medicine or tablet first thing in the morning and another dose at a particular time in the evening. They also tell you that in between, you should eat this and avoid eating that. They do so to enable your body to assimilate the medicine properly and have the desired effect. The rituals and so on are similar – they are to prepare the mind to receive the power of the mantra.
First, keep yourself clean within and without; how can you sit and concentrate on a mantra if you are dirty and your skin itches? You have to be clean. You should wear shuddha vastram (fresh, clean clothes), not clothes that you have been wearing all week. You cannot sit in peace and feel the effect of a mantra if you are physically uncomfortable.
The sthana – the place where you sit – should also be pure; you cannot focus your mind if there is too much traffic noise or too much going on around you. All the rites have been created to best prepare your mind to receive the effect of the mantra, without which it may just go waste.
Now, if you have already practised and reached a state where, whilst you are talking, walking, moving, cooking, singing and listening and the contemplation of the mantra can continue to repeat of its own accord in your mind, you do not need the peripherals. The preparatory practices are only required in the beginning. If you want to learn to drive a car, you go to an open area and learn with the help of an experienced driver. Once you have become adept at driving, you proceed on your journey without consciously having to think about controlling the car. You may be talking, on the way to meet somebody or thinking of something else, but the car goes on.
How? Because it has become a part of you. Similarly, by constant contemplation on the mantra, your mind will become ready to experience it at any moment, any place. You can chant the mantra whilst you are having a bath, whilst you are cooking or whilst you are walking. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, in any spare moment, you can chant the mantra.
There are some people who want to show that they are spiritually very advanced, so they chant their mantra loudly – even the people next door can hear them! I tell you, that is true in the cities. At 11:30 a.m., everybody knows that the man in the next apartment is going to start ringing a pooja bell and then start chanting; it is very common, but that is not the purpose of all the rites and mantras. Do it silently! You see, God is very close to you, not somebody in the next room that you have to shout to make yourself heard. God is within you! You do not even have to whisper. That is how close God is to you – so why should you need to chant loudly to make God hear what you are saying?
God hears whatever you say. God hears everything, so you have no need to make a show of spiritual austerities. Keep it as your own very personal experience, very personal effort. Keep it within yourself. As I said, it is fine to chant wherever you are: walking, talking, moving or doing anything, but shraddha (sincerity) is essential.
Some people say that chanting it two or three hundred times is the only way to make you disciplined. However, once you are disciplined about it, chanting it even once, with complete shraddha, can liberate you.
Therefore, give up the external aspects of it – that is not so important. It is important in the period until chanting the mantra becomes automatic. I used the simile of learning to drive a car and how it is better to restrict yourself to open space where there is no traffic. But once you have learnt it, you may feel free to go out on the road; you can apply for a licence and drive wherever you want. In the same way, in the early stages of learning a mantra, it is better to follow certain disciplines. That will prepare your mind to be able to contemplate properly, but once you have mastered keeping your mind calm, then you can chant anywhere and the inner meaning of the mantra will reveal itself. In the end, it is not the quantity; it is the quality of your chanting that will really help you. So do not feel guilty, it is not really a problem.
[Madhusudhan Sai](https://www.facebook.com/public/Madhusudhan-Sai)
Now, cast your mind back in time and think about how these mantras were received in the first place, by the great rishis (sages). They were called mantra drashtas – those who had seen the mantra, not who had heard the mantras. How can you see a mantra? It means that there is more to a mantra than just listening, talking or thinking. It is said that a mantra manifests itself from within: both the sound and the meaning. 'Sarvam brahma mayam' – everything is divine – became a mantra. Somebody chanted, “Sarvam brahma mayam,” and experienced the oneness of everything, the divinity of everything.
So a mantra is like two-way traffic: one can chant a mantra and realise the truth, or one can realise the truth and chant the mantra. The rishis made a nice highway for you to reach God. They experienced something and uttered it as mantras. Their experience transformed into certain words. When you see something beautiful, you say, “A-ha!” ‘A-ha’ is not a mantra, not really a word; it is just an expression of the emotion that you experienced at that moment. Similarly, the rishis experienced something and it was expressed verbally as mantras.
It was not language in those early times. It was just an expression of their experience. So a guru gives you a mantra, knowing that that particular experience alone can help you because he or she has seen your past and your future and diagnoses you, rather like an Ayurvedic doctor who will decide that a person is inclined to vata, pitta or kapha and based on that, will give you the right kind of medication.
A mantra is similar; a guru gives you a mantra, telling you that it will help you, in the knowledge of the composition of your mind. They have seen how vacillating, how deep, how difficult your mind is, and having guru drishti, they know, like a doctor, and ‘prescribe’ accordingly.
Your problem is that you cannot chant it in a certain place at a certain time. It was given to you because you were known for your indiscipline in spiritual life. A guru knows when a person is indisciplined. A doctor tells you to take the medicine or tablet first thing in the morning and another dose at a particular time in the evening. They also tell you that in between, you should eat this and avoid eating that. They do so to enable your body to assimilate the medicine properly and have the desired effect. The rituals and so on are similar – they are to prepare the mind to receive the power of the mantra.
First, keep yourself clean within and without; how can you sit and concentrate on a mantra if you are dirty and your skin itches? You have to be clean. You should wear shuddha vastram (fresh, clean clothes), not clothes that you have been wearing all week. You cannot sit in peace and feel the effect of a mantra if you are physically uncomfortable.
The sthana – the place where you sit – should also be pure; you cannot focus your mind if there is too much traffic noise or too much going on around you. All the rites have been created to best prepare your mind to receive the effect of the mantra, without which it may just go waste.
Now, if you have already practised and reached a state where, whilst you are talking, walking, moving, cooking, singing and listening and the contemplation of the mantra can continue to repeat of its own accord in your mind, you do not need the peripherals. The preparatory practices are only required in the beginning. If you want to learn to drive a car, you go to an open area and learn with the help of an experienced driver. Once you have become adept at driving, you proceed on your journey without consciously having to think about controlling the car. You may be talking, on the way to meet somebody or thinking of something else, but the car goes on.
How? Because it has become a part of you. Similarly, by constant contemplation on the mantra, your mind will become ready to experience it at any moment, any place. You can chant the mantra whilst you are having a bath, whilst you are cooking or whilst you are walking. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, in any spare moment, you can chant the mantra.
There are some people who want to show that they are spiritually very advanced, so they chant their mantra loudly – even the people next door can hear them! I tell you, that is true in the cities. At 11:30 a.m., everybody knows that the man in the next apartment is going to start ringing a pooja bell and then start chanting; it is very common, but that is not the purpose of all the rites and mantras. Do it silently! You see, God is very close to you, not somebody in the next room that you have to shout to make yourself heard. God is within you! You do not even have to whisper. That is how close God is to you – so why should you need to chant loudly to make God hear what you are saying?
God hears whatever you say. God hears everything, so you have no need to make a show of spiritual austerities. Keep it as your own very personal experience, very personal effort. Keep it within yourself. As I said, it is fine to chant wherever you are: walking, talking, moving or doing anything, but shraddha (sincerity) is essential.
Some people say that chanting it two or three hundred times is the only way to make you disciplined. However, once you are disciplined about it, chanting it even once, with complete shraddha, can liberate you.
Therefore, give up the external aspects of it – that is not so important. It is important in the period until chanting the mantra becomes automatic. I used the simile of learning to drive a car and how it is better to restrict yourself to open space where there is no traffic. But once you have learnt it, you may feel free to go out on the road; you can apply for a licence and drive wherever you want. In the same way, in the early stages of learning a mantra, it is better to follow certain disciplines. That will prepare your mind to be able to contemplate properly, but once you have mastered keeping your mind calm, then you can chant anywhere and the inner meaning of the mantra will reveal itself. In the end, it is not the quantity; it is the quality of your chanting that will really help you. So do not feel guilty, it is not really a problem.
[Madhusudhan Sai](https://www.facebook.com/public/Madhusudhan-Sai)
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