Podcast Ep. 9 ~ What is Ajapa Japa

You can view this podcast episode on Big Shakti’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@BigShakti

If you only ever study one yoga meditation technique over your lifetime, you would be wise to choose Ajapa Japa. Ajapa Japa combines many forms of meditation into one powerful practice that heals and transforms your mind.

Ajapa Japa is a potent guided yoga and meditation technique that you can use to improve every part of your life: physical, mental, and spiritual. The practice circulates the light of awareness through the body and mind. The result is that you become more Alive, Aligned, and Enlightened.

Yoga Tantra

Ajapa Japa is the foundation meditation upon which all Yoga-Tantra practice rests. Ajapa Japa is a complete system for healing, self-development, and spiritual awareness.

Of all the techniques in the yoga tantra system, Ajapa Japa, the movement of your breath, prāna, a mantra in a psychic passage, is one of the most powerful. The word japa can be defined as the continuous repetition of a mantra. When the suffix ‘a’ is added, it implies that the process of mantra repetition becomes spontaneous.

While japa requires continuous, conscious effort to repeat the mantra verbally or mentally and to turn the beads, ajapa requires no effort. It is said that japa comes from the mouth, whereas ajapa comes from the breath and from the heart. Japa is the preliminary practice of mantra repetition, and ajapa is the perfection of this practice.

The Ajapa Gayatri Mantra

The theory behind Ajapa Japa is that there is a mantra called the Ajapa Gāyatrī Mantra, vibrating in you all the time. This is the breath mantra SO HM, which is also called the Ham-Sa mantra. Ajapa japa is a technique in which you repeat the mantra of the breath, SO HM, while you tune into the mantra that is always present in you. As such, you do not need any initiation from a guru to give you a mantra, as it is already and always within you.

This core Yoga-Tantra teaching reveals the mantra hidden at the core of your being that is vibrating you into existence. In both human beings and the cosmos, there is a universal sound vibration, a powerful mantra that can be heard in the subtle breath that arises from the spiritual dimensions of your being. In the ancient yogic texts, this mantra is the song of the soul singing you into existence. Ajapa Japa meditation enables you to tune into this most powerful mantra resonating at the very heart of your being. As you tune into the sound, you cognize the intrinsic connection between your individual self, your universal self, and the cosmos as a whole.

Kriya Yoga

Ajapa Japa is a form of kriya yoga and kundalinī yoga. The word kriya means active, and kriya yoga is an active form of yoga, which activates kundalinī, the primal cosmic power that lies dormant in the base chakra, mūlādhāra. The word kriya comes from the same root as the word karma, which also means action. So Ajapa Japa is a powerful technique that, once learned, is used in many more powerful forms of meditation to activate the latent powers and abilities that lie hidden in you.

By aligning yourself with this great and powerful mystery, you synchronize your deepest self with the expansive cosmos. Your inner and outer worlds become one, and you experience the bliss of living an authentic, meaningful, and harmonious life.

Learn More About Ajapa Japa

Of course, it is one thing to learn the technique, but it is another to understand how to apply it to achieve your desired results.

To learn more about how to apply Ajapa Japa meditation for healing and for your spiritual evolution, Big Shakti teaches guided yoga and meditation techniques that systematically take systematically guide you into the practice of Ajapa Japa. This guided training program is called Ajapa Japa, Breath, and Mantra.

If you wish to really understand how to use Ajapa Japa to support the healing of mental illness and to cultivate a strong mind, then we highly recommend that you enroll in the online course Healing the Mind Meditation Course – Ajapa Japa Stage 1.

Big Shakti Podcast Links

Podcast Transcript ~ Episode 9

If you only ever study one yoga meditation technique over your lifetime, you would be wise to choose Ajapa Japa. Ajapa Japa combines many forms of meditation into one powerful practice that heals and transforms your mind.

Ajapa Japa is a potent guided yoga and meditation technique that you can use to improve every part of your life: physical, mental, and spiritual. The practice circulates the light of awareness through the body and mind. The result is that you become more Alive, Aligned, and Enlightened.

Yoga Tantra

Ajapa Japa is the foundation meditation upon which all Yoga-Tantra practice rests. Ajapa Japa is a complete system for healing, self-development, and spiritual awareness.

Of all the techniques in the yoga tantra system, Ajapa Japa, the movement of your breath, prāna, a mantra in a psychic passage, is one of the most powerful. The word japa can be defined as the continuous repetition of a mantra. When the suffix ‘a’ is added, it implies that the process of mantra repetition becomes spontaneous.

While japa requires continuous, conscious effort to repeat the mantra verbally or mentally and to turn the beads, ajapa requires no effort. It is said that japa comes from the mouth, whereas ajapa comes from the breath and from the heart. Japa is the preliminary practice of mantra repetition, and ajapa is the perfection of this practice.

The Ajapa Gāyatrī Mantra

The theory behind Ajapa Japa is that there is a mantra called the Ajapa Gayatri Mantra that vibrates in you all the time. This is the breath mantra SO HM, which is also called the Ham-Sa mantra. Ajapa japa is a technique in which you repeat the mantra of the breath, SO HM, while you tune into the mantra that is always present in you. As such, you do not need any initiation from a guru to give you a mantra, as it is already and always within you.

This core Yoga-Tantra teaching reveals the mantra hidden at the core of your being that is vibrating you into existence. In both human beings and the cosmos, there is a universal sound vibration, a powerful mantra that can be heard in the subtle breath that arises from the spiritual dimensions of your being. In the ancient yogic texts, this mantra is the song of the soul singing you into existence. Ajapa Japa meditation enables you to tune into this most powerful mantra resonating at the very heart of your being. As you tune into the sound, you cognize the intrinsic connection between your individual self, your universal self, and the cosmos as a whole.

Kriya yoga

Ajapa Japa is a form of kriya yoga and kundalinī yoga. The word kriya means active, and kriya yoga is an active form of yoga, which activates kundalinī, the primal cosmic power that lies dormant in the base chakra, mūlādhāra. The word kriya comes from the same root as the word karma, which also means action. So Ajapa Japa is a powerful technique that, once learned, is used in many more powerful forms of meditation to activate the latent powers and abilities that lie hidden in you.

By aligning yourself with this great and powerful mystery, you synchronize your deepest self with the expansive cosmos. Your inner and outer worlds become one, and you experience the bliss of living an authentic, meaningful, and harmonious life.

By practicing the Ajapa mantra, you achieve freedom from mental distress, achieve great mental strength, liberate the wonderful powers that lie within you, and, ultimately, experience exalted states of consciousness. It is a complete practice in itself, and through it, one can enter the spiritual realms even without the help of a guru. You simply need to learn and practice this most wonderful and powerful meditation.

Healing the Mind

Before this exalted spiritual realization, Ajapa Japa heals the mind and liberates the energy trapped in destructive and neurotic mental and emotional patterns – increasing well-being and inner peace.

Ajapa Japa is highly supportive in the treatment of stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and many other forms of mental illness. It’s effective because it reduces negative mental and emotional patterns and lays down new healthy patterns.

The course teaches you how to use Ajapa Japa for healing:

• Reduce excessive worry and anxiety
• Stabilize the nervous system
• Develop greater mental strength
• Increase intuition and creativity
• Enlighten the mind and spirit

Guided Meditations and Courses

To learn more about how to apply Ajapa Japa meditation for healing and your spiritual evolution, Big Shakti teaches guided yoga and meditation techniques that systematically guide you into the practice of Ajapa Japa. This guided training program is called Ajapa Japa, Breath, and Mantra.

If you wish to really understand how to use Ajapa Japa to support the healing of mental illness and to cultivate a strong mind, we highly recommend that you enroll in the online course, Healing the Mind Meditation Course – Ajapa Japa Stage 1.

The guided yoga and meditation techniques in this course enable you to relax, heal your body and mind, and illuminate your consciousness. Every step is guided, and by the end of this course, you will be well on the path to becoming an enlightened practitioner of Ajapa Japa.

You will now hear the first track from the guided training program, which is a talk on Ajapa Japa.

Ajapa japa – Track 1 of the guided meditation series

The practice of Ajapa Japa is one of the most important and powerful of all the meditation practices from the Yoga-Tantra tradition. This one technique is a complete system for individual self-development and transcendental experience. If studied, practiced, and understood properly, Ajapa Japa promotes physical health, mental strength, and spiritual enlightenment.

Ajapa japa is the practice of uniting the breath and mantra. A mantra is a primal sound vibration that awakens consciousness. The breath and the mantra gently stimulate the subtle parts of you so that they are awakened and experienced. Stimulating and awakening your subtle body deepens your connection to your spiritual source.

The life force in you constantly pulsates. For example, the pulsation of your breath and heartbeat keeps you alive by distributing blood and oxygen.

The practice of ajapa japa brings your focus to your pulsating life force. You become aware of the vast reserves of energy that lie within you and your potential to unlock and utilize this energy. It is as though you shine a light on your inner universe and your inner capabilities, and this reveals a profound sense and recognition of the Self.

A mantra liberates energy. The energy liberated by mantras expands and strengthens the mind, and therefore it is said that mantras are protective.

The Sanskrit word Japa means repetition of a mantra, either aloud or mentally.

The Sanskrit word Ajapa is a Sanskrit word that means without repetition. It is a mantra that spontaneously repeats in the mind without requiring any conscious effort. This occurs after extensive practice of Japa, the mantra erupts in your heart and mind and continues to vibrate in your consciousness. This stimulates bliss, self-knowledge, and self-awareness.

Ajapa japa is the practice you use to reach the state of ajapa. Ajapa japa is the practice of consciously repeating a mantra with awareness of the breath until the mantra becomes spontaneous. Each breath vibrates the subtle body with a mantra.

Within each breath, there are two types of sound. There is an obvious sound the breath makes each time it flows in the lungs, which is the sound a doctor listens to using a stethoscope. This is called the gross breath.

There is another sound in the breath that can only be heard when you are in a state of deep meditation. This is the mantra at the core of your own existence. Just as a revving engine roars with its own power, so too does your existence. Your life force or Shakti roars with primordial power – the mantra.

The power of the mantra is called mantra Shakti, and this Shakti conveys a force that has its own characteristics according to each mantra.

The aim of ajapa japa is to experience the mantra hidden deep within the breath and to experience the mantra shakti, which confers knowledge, power, and ability. In doing so, you tune into your life force, the sound that maintains your existence, and you experience mantra shakti.

The main mantra t used in this practice is called the ajapa gayatri mantra SO HM, though many other mantras can be used. SO HM is the vibrational power of the breath, the mantra at the heart of all living things and at the heart of existence. So is the mantra of inhalation. HM is the mantra of exhalation. These mantras initiate and motivate the breath and all the functions of the body and mind.

Listen carefully to your own breath while I demonstrate the subtle sound that exists in the breath. On inhalation, SOOOOO … On exhalation, HMMMMM.

When you use the mantra SO HM in ajapa meditation, the mantra SO is chanted mentally on inhalation, and the mantra HM is chanted mentally on exhalation in order to tune into the mantra that is inherent in each and every breath. The breath is lengthened and made as long, smooth, and relaxed as possible. Then the mantra is chanted mentally and the breath and mantra are synchronized so that they are the same length. The mantra SO is lengthened … SOOOOOOOOOO. The mantra HM is lengthened like this … HMMMMMMMMMM. You practice this mentally, not aloud.

One of the greatest aims in yoga-tantra is to attune oneself to the subtle sounds within in order to stimulate subtle awareness. Subtle awareness travels into and touches your essence and your heart.  This creates the experience of bliss, knowledge, power, and compassion.

Ajapa japa is a complete spiritual practice (sadhana) that can take an aspirant to the highest stages of meditation and to the realization of the highest self.

Self-development through Ajapa meditation occurs in three stages.

1. In stage one, the practice of ajapa japa metabolizes old mental patterns called samskaras. Ajapa japa supports the digestion and elimination of old, undigested emotions, painful memories, and psychological obstructions and complexes that perpetuate misery and hold you back. When practiced with care and awareness, ajapa japa gradually brings your hidden desires, fears, and the hidden workings of the mind to the surface. Here, you can observe and deal with these darker elements by either letting them go or by re-integrating them so that you can benefit from them and gain wisdom.
2. Once you become familiar with the dynamic nature of the mind, you learn how to connect to your hidden strengths, talents, and abilities and to awaken your deeper psychic personality. You can engage in a process of strengthening your strengths and dealing with your weaknesses. You learn to accept and use your negatives for psychological growth.
3. In the third stage, you link your deeper psychic personality to the universal dimension to experience communion with a higher purpose that gives you meaning and fulfillment.

In all these stages, the most important elements of ajapa japa are slow, conscious breathing, heightened imagination, total mindfulness of what you are doing, and complete relaxation. You aim to be aware of each and every breath.

There are five keys to success in ajapa japa.

The five keys open the deep psychic part of your mind and unfold the inner dimensions of your personality. When applied correctly, these keys support physical health, psychological growth, and spiritual awareness.

1. The first key is the mantra, the psychic sound used to vibrate and awaken the subtle psychic dimension. The vibrations of the mantra penetrate deep into your body, mind, and spirit to cleanse, revitalize and awaken. The ajapa mantra has two main forms based on its starting point. It can be SO HM or HM SO.
2. The second key is the psychic breath, called ujjayi, which is the throat breath. Ujjayi allows you to remain awake and aware when you are in the subtle realms of your being. Normally, your habit is to fall asleep when you reach these subtle planes. However, the practice of ujjayi gives you the energy to stay awake and explore and feel these parts of you. You can add the practice of khechari mudra by folding the tongue back so that the tip of the tongue is pressing against the soft part of the upper palate. Khechari mudra is a wonderfully effective method of controlling pranic energy and remaining internally alert. 
3. The third key is to channel the breath within a psychic passage, called a nadi. The nadis run along the frontal or the spinal axis. When they are purified and aligned by the breath, and the mantra, awareness, currents of pranic energy, and mantra Shakti flow easily.
4. The fourth key is to connect and align the chakras, the psychic centers in the spine, or their trigger points that lie along the front of the body. The chakras or their trigger points are visualized along a psychic passage. They are then purified, recharged, and awakened.
5. The fifth key is to add a psychic symbol called an Ishta Devata. This is a symbol of the highest consciousness that is personal to you and inspires you. It is used to keep your awareness focused on higher goals. Examples of psychic symbols include images of a flame, the sun, the moon, a star, a flower, or other significant images.

Ajapa practice has two main forms:

1. The simple form of ajapa japa uses three of the five keys: the psychic breath and the psychic sound moving in a psychic passage. These practices are taught in tracks 3 and 4.
2. The more complex and powerful form of ajapa japa uses all five keys, the psychic breath and the mantra moving in the psychic passage, and at the same time, awareness of the chakras and visualizations of symbols and images. This is only undertaken when the student feels ready and wishes to progress. In the spinal passage, you will be taught this in track 5, ajapa japa. Once this more complex form of ajapa japa is practiced and mastered, it can be used as the basis of even more complex and powerful yoga-tantra meditations.

The most important thing to remember is to remain completely relaxed and mindful, to lengthen and direct the breath in the body, and to add a mantra. This is very easy and enjoyable. The practices bring quick results, and one feels a sense of inner ease and comfort, strength and resilience. You develop a dynamic, peaceful state. This results because as the breath and mantra move through the psychic passages and the psychic centers, they purify balance and activate their associated functions, powers, and abilities. You receive the results and benefits of this practice even if you cannot directly sense the subtle events that are occurring.

There are a number of psychic passages and psychic centers involved in ajapa japa.

In track 3, ajapa japa – in the nasal passage, you observe the breath moving between a point at the tip of the nose and a point at the eyebrow center. These are trigger points for two important chakras. The tip of the nose has a subtle relationship to the mooladhara chakra in the pelvic floor, which is responsible for the raw, primal energy that keeps you alive and embodied. The eyebrow center is a trigger point for ajna chakra, the third eye of intuition, which communes with higher consciousness. In this practice, you take the breath between these two trigger points and, at the same time, stimulate all the chakras in the spinal cord. In all meditation practices, the ajna chakra, the third eye, is always stimulated automatically if you are mindful and focused.

In track 4, ajapa japa – in the frontal passage, you focus your attention on the front of the body and imagine a psychic passage stretching between the navel and the throat. The navel is the trigger point for the manipura chakra, the chakra of health, power, and vitality in the spine behind the navel. The throat is the trigger point for the vishuddhi chakra, the chakra of purification and communication in the spine behind the throat pit. As the breath and mantra move upward through the frontal passage, they travel through the trigger point for anahata chakra, the chakra of love and compassion behind the breastbone. The front of the body is energized, and your heart is protected and strengthened in the process. The breath and mantra move energy from the power center at the navel up through the heart to the center for purification and expression. Power becomes infused with compassion, is purified, and can be used for both worldly success and higher purpose. This has many wonderful repercussions for your health, relationships, and spiritual development.

In track 5, ajapa japa in the spinal passage, the breath and mantra are conducted through the central psychic passage in the spine called the sushumna nadi. Sushumna conducts spiritual force, atma shakti, to the highest consciousness at the crown of the head, at the sahasrara chakra. You take the breath and mantra from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine through the chakras to end at the eyebrow center. This practice is the most powerful and has the deepest effect of all the methods taught on this CD.

You can practice ajapa japa for physical health, mental strength, emotional calm, self-awareness, and spiritual awakening. If your aim is self-awareness, then health and mental strength will automatically occur as side effects.

If your aim is to improve your physical health you focus your attention of the movement of the breath and pranic energy through the body. You focus on and integrate the different parts of you and infuse pranic energy into all your cells and organs.

If your aim is to improve your mental and emotional health, you focus your attention on the combined power of the breath and the mantra to positively influence your thoughts, emotions, and feelings. If you practice this technique when you are mentally or emotionally disturbed, you can quickly modify your psychological state and change your feelings. You can pacify turbulent emotions, clarify your thoughts, and regain objectivity relatively quickly.

For spiritual development, you imagine that you are offering each and every breath of your life force to a higher purpose, a higher ideal, and a higher power, according to your own personal sense of what this means. This practice is an internal sacred fire ceremony in which every breath is the inner fuel that is poured onto the fire of consciousness.

Dedicate each and every breath to uniting consciousness and matter, to merging energy and awareness. Aim to use the energy and awareness generated to achieve something great in this life.

May you achieve the state of ajapa and all the knowledge, wisdom, power, compassion, and all the wonderful and auspicious things that go with that state.

Big Shakti Podcast Links

Big Shakti Podcast Links