Making Sounds – Rediscovering Yourself through Mantra
“Love is the door…
Chanting is the key.” Bhagavan Das
Mantra literally means to vibrate the mind – when we chant, we are creating space in the mind for meditation... for transformation. We give ourselves a little space, shutting up the mental chatter for a moment. Naturally there is the intention, the meaning of what we are chanting, but sometimes we chant in a foreign tongue and the beauty of the words still fills us, the mantra still has an effect on our emotional and spiritual wellbeing, whether we understand the meaning or not. When chanting, we hit 84 pressure points in the mouth, a little like reflexology for the brain, creating patterns and new waves of information running through us – mantra can literally change our vibrations and the way we live our lives.
We live in a sea of vibrational energy – when we chant we tune into different levels of consciousness. With mantra we can chant for inner peace or for world peace, for healing or abundance - the power of mantra can clear obstacles from our path.
Mantra is the language of consciousness – it is a whispered conversation between us and God. It is sacred speech. On many levels it can wipe out the negative affects from the other conversations we have in our day-to-day lives. We often have a conversational soundtrack going on in our heads, planning future dialogues or confrontations, reviewing old ones, things we wish we had said… and we are constantly bombarding ourselves with our own internal chat. Then there are all those dialogues we do have with others.
"We have so many thoughts going on all the time. We call it the monkey mind, because it's always jumping around," says Sada Sat Kaur, who was drawn to chanting and made it her practice. "When we chant, you're giving your mind something to focus on that's going to transform you and uplift you."
Beyond that there is the constant impact of media, subliminal advertising… there are a lot of voices in our heads. When we chant, we can create space in our heads for a moment, free of these other dialogues and the beauty of what we chant can combat negative images. Mantras can purify the mind and our consciousness.
David Frawley who has written extensively on yoga, the Vedas and ayurveda… “Control of speech means avoiding aimless talking and gossiping and also avoiding critical and abusive speech. Mantra is a higher form of control of speech that develops the inner fire. The Goddess Kundalini is said to wear the garland of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet around her neck. She is made up of mantra.”
We can chant in every language of the globe, however, we often chant in Sanskrit or if you follow the practice of Kundalini Yoga in Gurmukhi. They are primal languages, they are not used everyday for speaking, they are only used for speaking to God. If we were to chant in English, although it is possible, the language is often loaded, we have different cultural perceptions and boundaries to certain words, like God for example. Sanskrit and Gurmukhi go beyond the mind, beyond intellect.
“Sanskrit is a language that has been constructed at the deep levels of consciousness,” says Russill Paul, mantric musician and author of The Yoga of Sound. “The sounds are specially constructed to penetrate the analytical mind and affect our nervous system very directly. In this sense, they are a short cut, and are like spiritual pharmaceuticals that enter into our soul with palpable physiological effects. It is this capability that gives mantras the very specific therapeutic and spiritual properties that are missing in our everyday language.”
He explains that the original mantric root sounds are encoded with universal spiritual qualities. “Mantras retain this power and have been preserved for thousands of years in an uninterrupted tradition of sacred sound.”
Even if we don’t understand the meaning of the mantra, it tunes into our subconscious mind. Often we do not need to translate the meanings of the mantra, they work their magic on a subtle level not an intellectual level.
When we chant, we can change the chemistry of the brain and s our whole vibrational being through stimulating 84 meridian points in the mouth. The phonetics of Sanskrit and Gurmukhi also create the most effective mouth reflexology, but it is important to get the pronunciation right. When chanting it is OK for a while to make the sounds as they sound to you, but then do a little study, visualize them written down or check with a teacher to get the correct pronunciation for maximum effect.
So as we chant, we stimulate energy in the meridian centres of the mouth which then awaken dormant parts of the brain and circulate energy through the body. Both Deepak Chopra and Dr Dharma Singh Khalsa are starting to investigate the full power of the physical and mental effects of chanting.
“The tongue stimulates those meridian points, and they in turn stimulate the hypothalamus which makes the pineal gland radiate. When the pineal gland radiates, it creates an impulse, the entire glandular system secretes and a human being attains bliss. This is the science!” says Yogi Bhajan, the master of Kundalini Yoga.
Often we see the positive effects of chanting in calming the mind and the emotions, but it also has a direct effect on the body. The beat of the mantra and the repetition can calm and slow the heart, it works directly on the nervous system. Through mantra we can create a direct healing experience, as we can speak to the limbs and organs of the body. Mantra tunes us into universal life force energy – prana - and we can direct the healing flow of prana to wherever it is needed in the body.
Avtar Kaur is a Kundalini Yoga teacher and has just brought out a beautiful album of mantras called Aquarian Sadhana, chanting has brought her deep healing. “Chanting was a big part of what attracted me to Kundalini Yoga. I had experienced strong blockages in my throat in my early twenties, leading to surgery that removed half my thyroid gland. Kundalini Yoga helped heal the energetic imbalances in my throat and took me on a deep journey to discovering and creating my voice as a singer, as a teacher and as a human being. By healing the throat chakra we are given the opportunity to vibrate Truth in this lifetime by opening up the passage that allows the kundalini to move from the heart up into the higher centres of ajna (third-eye) and sahasrara (crown).”
“For me, chanting is like a homecoming,” says Avtar. “I feel welcomed in by the sound current, and remember that it's always there, within everything. It resets me vibrationally, connecting me to the universal sound current and therefore the Source. The effect of chanting in a group multiplies that vibrational experience and helps us understand in practice that we are all one. Kundalini Yoga is a technology of chanting the true name - we become what we speak, and so when we chant the name of God we become God, we become Truth. God has many names, and different mantras vibrate at different frequencies, but they are all part of the same sound current.”
As mantra is vibrational, it works on the subtle bodies as well as the physical body. Energy naturally follows intention, so through the process of chanting we can create a physical manifestation of the mantra. It takes you from the polarity of the positive-negative mind and takes you to Universal, neutral mind. It cleanses the mind and clears our divine path. We can use mantra to focus ourselves and create space so that we can see and feel our potential and take steps to realizing that potential.
We can change our make-up, the energetic vibrations of the subtle body through mantra.
David Frawley believes that the human being is a creation of sound. “Mantra repeated mentally cleanses the causal body or samskaric field – so it alters subconscious habits.”
When we chant we tap into universal consciousness, this fuels us to go beyond conditioning, beyond addictions, beyond illusions. “Chanting is a sort of ‘Divine therapy,’ a means of cleansing the soul of unwanted psychic residue, and a process that has corresponding physiological effects,” says Russill Paul.
We can retune ourselves – mantra resounds in every atom of our being – every single nerve resonates with sound – we can tune into an inner sound current of ‘anahat’ meaning the ‘unstruck melody’. It is the song of the soul.
“Chanting for me is both tuning into my heart and also, by constant practice... being more in a place of observer,” says Shiuli Subaya who teaches nada yoga and is a classically-trained Indian singer. “Because of the nature of repetition, I find myself always in a state which is moved by emotion… and at the same time, distant from it... like an acceptance of all that is in the moment... accepting the mind moving out and coming back in, over and over again...experiencing constant change as waves of attachment and non attachment... yearning and letting go. It keeps me both present and offers me an experience of timelessness. Japa (repetition of mantra) is the way I pray... the way I talk with my ever-changing mind… the way I discipline my mind and soothe it at the same time, like my only child. My practice of japa is my anchor and my best friend.”
To create change within ourselves, we have to go beyond the mind and detoxify ourselves on all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Mantras offer the key. When we chant we offer ourselves up for healing, for awakening. Mantra is as much about listening as it is about chanting – you start to listen to your body, your soul, your own inner acoustics and you start listening to the sonic vibrations all around you through the natural world. Mantra is primal power, it returns us to the source. We can see ourselves as we truly are.
So try these mantras to radically change yourself!
Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Namo Namo
Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Namo Namo
Prithum Bhagwati, Prithum Bhagwati, Prithum Bhagwati, Namo Namo
Kundalini Mata Shakti, Mata Shakti, Namo Namo
This mantra chanted in Gurmukhi tunes us into the frequency of the Divine mother and primal protective, life force energy. Chanting it eliminates fears and fulfils desires.
Check out The Yoga of Sound and CDs Bhavan Yoga from Russill Paul, Aquarian Sadhana and Dubiquity by Aurora (Avtar Kaur) and CDs by Bhagavan Das.
