Mantras***What Is a Mantra and How Does It Work

[El*]

What Is a Mantra and How Does It Work

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A saying from the Vedas claims that "Speech is the essence of humanity." All of what humanity thinks and ultimately becomes is determined by the expression of ideas and actions through speech and its derivative, writing. Everything, the Vedas maintain, comes into being through speech. Ideas remain unactualized until they are created through the power of speech. Similarly, The New Testament, Gospel of John, starts "In the beginning was The Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God..."

In mainstream Vedic practices, most Buddhist techniques and classical Hinduism, mantra is viewed as a necessity for spiritual advancement and high attainment. In The Kalachakra Tantra, by the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins, the Dalai Lama states, "Therefore, without depending upon mantra...Buddhahood cannot be attained."

Clearly, there is a reason why such widely divergent sources of religious wisdom as the Vedas, the New Testament and the Dalai Lama speak in common ideas. Here are some important ideas about mantra which will enable you to begin a practical understanding of what mantra is and what it can do.

Definition # 1: Mantras are energy-based sounds.
Saying any word produces an actual physical vibration. Over time, if we know what the effect of that vibration is, then the word may come to have meaning associated with the effect of saying that vibration or word. This is one level of energy basis for words.

Another level is intent. If the actual physical vibration is coupled with a mental intention, the vibration then contains an additional mental component which influences the result of saying it. The sound is the carrier wave and the intent is overlaid upon the wave form, just as a colored gel influences the appearance and effect of a white light.

In either instance, the word is based upon energy. Nowhere is this idea more true than for Sanskrit mantra. For although there is a general meaning which comes to be associated with mantras, the only lasting definition is the result or effect of saying the mantra.

Definition #2: Mantras create thought-energy waves.
The human consciousness is really a collection of states of consciousness which distributively exist throughout the physical and subtle bodies. Each organ has a primitive consciousness of its own. That primitive consciousness allows it to perform functions specific to it. Then come the various systems. The cardio-vascular system, the reproductive system and other systems have various organs or body parts working at slightly different stages of a single process. Like the organs, there is a primitive consciousness also associated with each system. And these are just within the physical body. Similar functions and states of consciousness exist within the subtle body as well. So individual organ consciousness is overlaid by system consciousness, overlaid again by subtle body counterparts and consciousness, and so ad infinitum.

The ego with its self-defined "I" ness assumes a pre-eminent state among the subtle din of random, semi-conscious thoughts which pulse through our organism. And of course, our organism can "pick up" the vibration of other organisms nearby. The result is that there are myriad vibrations riding in and through the subconscious mind at any given time.

Mantras start a powerful vibration which corresponds to both a specific spiritual energy frequency and a state of consciousness in seed form. Over time, the mantra process begins to override all of the other smaller vibrations, which eventually become absorbed by the mantra. After a length of time which varies from individual to individual, the great wave of the mantra stills all other vibrations. Ultimately, the mantra produces a state where the organism vibrates at the rate completely in tune with the energy and spiritual state represented by and contained within the mantra.

At this point, a change of state occurs in the organism. The organism becomes subtly different. Just as a laser is light which is coherent in a new way, the person who becomes one with the state produced by the mantra is also coherent in a way which did not exist prior to the conscious undertaking of repetition of the mantra.

Definition #3: Mantras are tools of power and tools for power.
They are formidable. They are ancient. They work. The word "mantra" is derived from two Sanskrit words. The first is "manas" or "mind," which provides the "man" syllable. The second syllable is drawn from the Sanskrit word "trai" meaning to "protect" or to "free from." Therefore, the word mantra in its most literal sense means "to free from the mind." Mantra is, at its core, a tool used by the mind which eventually frees one from the vagaries of the mind.

But the journey from mantra to freedom is a wondrous one. The mind expands, deepens and widens and eventually dips into the essence of cosmic existence. On its journey, the mind comes to understand much about the essence of the vibration of things. And knowledge, as we all know, is power. In the case of mantra, this power is tangible and wieldable.

[tina love]

Om Krishna Surnam Mama is one that I use daily ,along with my Mudras ;) My God father taught me this when I was 11 years old and I have been using Mantras ever since ;) Thank you El this is ana awesome post;)You put so much of your Heart & Art into every thing you do,it is most appreciated ;) <3 T <3

[laughlight]

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of singing mantras with the most Divine Deva Premal and Miten in concert, in an intimate stone chapel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA. I had heard just 2 days ahead that she would be in the States. I drove 2 hours to be present. Never before have I sung & chanted along with the performer. Deva asked us all to join them, dividing up the harmonies by male--sung by Miten who I've come to adore & females, then asking us to sing our parts in unison...so that we might raise the vibrational frequencies of the planet....Together. It was nothing less than godly for me. I took the male's part most of the time as my voice, and my Balance lol is divinely masculine. I loved the harmonies. I closed my eyes and became ONE with all. My voice was as beautiful as my soul, my harmonies as pure as ever I've uttered. She spoke of the importance of the sounds, not the Sanskrit, which I actually know from listening with such devotion daily to her. She begins my every day, and she is who I play whenever I pray or go to my altar in need of answers. Namaste...I loved this post and truly my life has been so positively altered by chanting, singing mantras many times each day, weeks in and weeks out. It is so funny I missed seeing this wonderful post til just Now. Bless this post dear El*. Beautiful so beautiful and so welcome in my heart.
ellen

[Acyutananda Das]

Dear El*, I've been a Hare Krishna monk for 5 years now and chant over 2 hours a day, everyday.
I must say, the description in your article is quite succinct. Well done :)

This is what my Great God Grandfather says about the maha-mantra: