What are Mantras?

What are mantras? Mantras are both sound vibrations and extremely powerful universal forces within the psyche available and accessible to all who desire to study and practice them. 

Even though most people think of mantras as simply words used to relax the mind, mantras are much more than this. Mantras have the power to calm, energize, and inspire our minds, heal our bodies, and awaken consciousness.

They act in the same way that music does—as energy and sound vibrations that profoundly affect us, our thoughts, and our emotions and, as a result, can alter our state of being. 

What is the role of Mantras in yoga and spiritual growth?

Mantras need to be experienced through mantra meditations. Only then can one intuitively understand the role of mantras in spiritual growth.

Mantras are sound vibrations that, when learned and applied appropriately, have a potent healing and liberating effect on our body, mind, and entire personality. Mantras liberate energy stuck in old mental and emotional patterns, directing the liberated energy to elevate consciousness and foster spiritual evolution.

They can also activate psychic powers when we have purified our minds and can dive deep into the psyche. This is a rare accomplishment, however.

Mantras are more than mere words.

• Mantras consist of letters and syllables combined in various ways.
• They can be chanted in many different ways to produce varying effects.
• The sounds are linked so that, when chanted, they induce elevated states of consciousness.

In fact, the way they are combined is based on complex esoteric mathematical systems handed down from guru to disciple over millennia. Even if we grasp this aspect of the science of mantras, their effect cannot be understood intellectually or via standard scientific methods. Instead, we should experience their impact experientially and intuitively by trying the technique ourselves and observing the results.

So mantras are both words and sounds we chant to enter deep meditative states, as well as powerful psychic energies that vibrate and pulsate with enormous power.

Once we connect to the mantra in the psyche by chanting the mantra audibly or mentally, we can access the energy, power, and wisdom within the mantra to expand our sense of who we are. This elevates our consciousness, allowing us to gain spiritual insights.

What is Mantra (definition)

The word mantra is derived from the Sanskrit root man, which means mind, and tra, which implies liberation and protection.

We use mantras to liberate energy, expand the mind, and heal and enlighten our minds. They help us access the power of the mind.

Tantra, Mantra, Yantra

Yoga tantra is based on the science of mantra and yantra, name and form. 

Name - Mantra

The ”name” aspect of tantra relates to using a word, the name of the mantra, that is chanted to vibrate the mind and liberate energy trapped in limiting and even destructive mental and emotional patterns. The energy liberated can then be directed to access our inner powers and abilities and to awaken higher consciousness. For example, OM, also written as AUM, is the name of this mantra.

When we chant the mantra AUM, we are tuning our awareness to the vibration of AUM within the psyche.

Eventually, the mantra is heard even when we stop actively chanting it.

Form - Yantra

The form of the mantra is the image or symbol that accompanies that sound. Every sound we hear and every thought and sound in our mind has a corresponding image. When we repeat a mantra, we reinforce a specific mental image or thought form that is associated with that mantra. 

The images associated with mantras differ from those generated in the superficial layers of the mind. The images in the superficial layers of the mind are usually related to our immediate experiences and daily life, such as visualizing a task or recalling a recent event. In contrast, the images in the deep mind, the psyche, are usually abstract, symbolic, and archetypal. These deeper images carry rich, multi-layered meaning. 

When the mantra OM is written down, it looks like a 3 with a tail and a crescent moon above it. This is its external form. There are other symbolic representations of this mantra. This applies to all mantras. They all have symbolic forms that represent their nature and power.

By chanting the mantra and gazing at the symbol, we can focus our awareness on the symbol, which concentrates our energy and awakens psychic power.

Mantra Yoga

The path of yoga, as a complete system of health, psychological growth, and spiritual liberation, has four main components, each of which is a stage on that path.

These four steps are:

1. Hatha yoga - focuses on mastering the body through postures (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), energy locks (bandha), and techniques to direct prana in the body (mudras).
2. Mantra yoga - the use of sound vibration to amplify energy and awaken consciousness.
3. Laya yoga - a form of kundalini yoga, it focuses on the chakras and moving kundalini up the spine.
4. Raja yoga - aims to block the mind and achieve samadhi, absorption in the highest Self.

Mantra yoga is an intermediary stage.

It is employed once we have practiced hatha yoga to condition the physical body and simple relaxation meditation practices to calm the mind and emotions. 

Once we have worked on our body and nervous system using hatha yoga, we can go deeper into the mind using the introductory stages of mantra yoga.

The next step is to use more powerful mantras to dive into the mysteries of the psyche and higher consciousness. This happens when we combine mantras with advanced techniques from the laya and raja yoga traditions. 

The Four Personality Types 

These systems of yoga, hatha, mantra, laya, and raja yogas, are combined with four other major systems of yoga philosophy, which are prescribed and practiced according to one personality type:

1. Karma yoga – for active people
2. Bhakti yoga – for devotional worship (different forms)
3. Jnana Yoga – for intellectual inquiry
4. Raja yoga – for mystics. This highly advanced yogic system is common to both groups.

Different personality styles will use mantras in various ways. For example, devotional people may use mantras as part of a faith-based religious practice.

In contrast, someone who is primarily intellectual or scientific in outlook may be an atheist who uses mantras purely as energetic tools to relax and strengthen the body and mind. 

Classes of Mantras

Mantras can be classified in many ways. They can be classified according to how many syllables they have, their effect, or the system they are part of.

There are literally an endless number of mantras, some short, others very long. 

Examples include:

• Peace (shanti) mantras and spiritual mantras are used to soothe the mind and to open us up to the more profound harmony within
• Healing mantras use sound vibrations to heal the body and mind, for example, to decrease blood pressure and anxiety
• Mantras to calm anger
• Vedic mantras and tantric mantras, which come from various texts, and so on.
• Seed or bija mantras are examples of single-syllable mantras. These are the most fundamental sound units of a mantra, e.g., Aim, Hreem Kleem. They have no semantic meaning in ordinary language.

In India, mantras, and especially seed mantra, have taken on cultural overlay and great cultural significance and are linked with gods and goddesses; for example, the syllable AIM is said to be the seed syllable of the goddess Saraswati. 

In this regard, we can classify mantra practitioners into two main groups – those with a religious or faith-based practice and those who practice mantra as a psychological tool.

For most Westerners, it is better to think of mantras as pure sound vibrations free from their cultural baggage and religious associations. Use them as psychological tools to probe our psyche's inner realms and discover our own inner truth.

AUM

The most powerful of all the mantras is the mantra AUM (also written as OM). This mantra is found in the Upanishads, ancient philosophical texts (not part of Hindu religion). 

Some of the mantras are based on numbers. The number of syllables forms the meter or rhythm of the mantra:

• 5-syllable mantra of Shiva – Namah Shivaya (Na Ma Shi Va Ya)
• 8-syllable mantra of Vishnu – Om Namo Narayanaya (Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na Ya)
• 24-syllables gayatri mantras – there are many gayatri mantras, all of which have 24 syllables formed into a specific meter or rhythm called the gayatri meter. 

HAMSA

Another extremely powerful mantra is the HAMSA mantra, also pronounced SO HAM. 

HAMSA is called the Ajapa gayatri mantra. Even though gayatri mantras usually have 24 syllables, this mantra is the exception. It is the mantra of the breath. SO is the sound of inhalation, and HAM is the sound of exhalation. It is used in the practice of Ajapa Japa. Practicing this mantra for a period of time unlocks the secrets of the breath and the life force.

Mantras Purify, Heal and Illuminate

Three forces act on the body and mind and all of nature. These are the three great attributes of nature, called the maha gunas. They are tamas, rajas, and sattwa. Everything is polarised between tamas (darkness) and sattwa (light). Rajas is the desire at the center of human existence that moves us either toward darkness and materialism or toward light, knowledge, and enlightenment.

1. Tamas is darkness, ignorance, hiddenness, disease, and degeneration. It conceals and creates form, structure, and materialism. If it becomes too strong, tamas causes rigidity, decay, pain, suffering, and death.
2. Rajas is desire, momentum, restlessness, and the dissipation that comes from excessive indulgence in our desires.
3. Sattwa is light, luminosity, revelation, knowledge, understanding, acceptance and healing, and deep abiding joy. It is the enlightening force that reveals the truth to us. However, sattwa is still a form of matter and bondage. Only consciousness and the transcendent Self are free from the bondage of nature.

Mantras are said to be mainly sattwic by nature, as they stimulate the mind so that we can see our mind working. The vibrations of the mantra stimulate the mind in the same way that a massage stimulates the body and reveals hidden tensions.

Mantras expand the sattwic elements of our nature to bring about positive energy, balance, and a deep sense of inner joy. This is why mantra yoga, by awakening the sattwic elements in the body and mind, helps us to attain health, mental strength, and spiritual illumination. 

Mantras are Not Indian

It is essential to understand that mantras are not Indian or Sanskrit. Mantras are primal forces that exist at very deep levels of the psyche, the unconscious mind. They exist both in the universe, the macrocosm, and in our bodies and minds, the microcosm. Sanskrit is the language used to bring these powerful forces into the conscious mind. Sanskrit enables us to chant a mantra to tune into the actual mantra, the powerful energies of the psyche that vibrate in our depths.

Mantras are proto-thoughts, primal energy that vibrates and pulsates in the deepest parts of human beings' unconscious, our psyche. In Sanskrit, mantras are constantly resonating in the causal bodies, called the vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas.

These sound vibrations are in all of us, but we are unconscious of them. Great sages, saints, seers, and rishis perceived them during very deep meditation, revealing them to us and making them available as tools to go inward and discover the great mystery of who we truly are. 

Once perceived, the vibrations and sounds were embodied in the form of letters and language so that the great seers and rishis could record them and make them visible. Sanskrit, one of the great ancient languages of the world, is dedicated to preserving this profound and sacred science. India has been one of the great repositories of this sacred knowledge and has encouraged the science of mantra yoga to grow and flourish. 

However, no country or culture can claim to own a mantra. Mantras are universal forces available and accessible to all who desire to study and practice them. This is why we will find sacred words of power in all countries, cultures, and religions. They will reveal themselves to anyone who is prepared to handle the enormous power and knowledge mantras can unleash in our psyche.

Religion or Science

Mantras are forces with incredible power. Their corresponding sound vibrations have the power to penetrate deep into us.

When we are depressed or sad, for example, music can find its way through the cracks in our psyche and be an excellent balm for our souls. Sound has power, and mantras are the most pure archetypal forms of sound. 

Mantras are the building blocks of the universe, our minds, and our individuality.

Realizing a mantra, awakening its full force and knowledge into our consciousness, is a great event in our lives. It is a life-changing, inspiring, and humbling experience, and depending on our personality type, we can interpret this event from a religious or scientific point of view.

It is important to realize that mantras are not religious tools in themselves. They are simply sound vibrations that resonate at a very deep level within us.

Mantra can be seen as part of an esoteric language used in many contexts: yogic, religious, psychological, medical, etc. To understand this, think of how water and fire are sacred substances used in both religious/spiritual and secular environments in many if not all, parts of our lives. 

Mantras are not prayers but have been incorporated into Hindu religious worship and prayer.

A prayer can be composed of any language and sung or recited in any meter or rhythm. Its meaning is clear.

A mantra is not a string of words expressing what one has to say to a deity. It is a sound vibration with profound neurological and psychological effects on the initiated. Mantras open us to higher realms of consciousness, and what we do when we get there is an individual choice.

Mantras have psychological significance. They can help us influence and modify our feelings, calm an anxious mind, energize a depressed mind, or access various strengths and abilities. They help us understand the power of the mind. Mantras can influence the entire human personality and our destiny.

In yogic texts, the mantra is part of a system designed to awaken consciousness.

The Effects of Mantras on the Mind

From the perspective of mantra yoga, a mantra is a sound vibration that awakens consciousness and liberates awareness and energy trapped within the mind's constant thinking. If we are trapped in our thoughts, we tend to identify with what our thoughts tell us. Many people think continuously and expend vast amounts of energy worrying and trying to control life in their heads. 

The sound vibration of a mantra can be used to break our normal thinking patterns by stimulating subtle parts of us outside of the thinking process. Mantras are like gentle massages that stimulate the totality of the mind. Acting in the same way, a stone thrown into a pond will send ripples out in concentric circles from its origin to the outer edges of the pond.

By spreading sound vibration in the mind, mantras enable us to become aware of and experience more profound and more subtle parts of ourselves, many of which are powerful and joyful. They break our focus on limiting thought patterns. The energy going into these destructive patterns is released and can be used to fuel more creative and joyful mental processes. Awareness trapped within thought patterns is freed and can move with energy into deeper parts of the mind. 

Ultimately, with a great deal of practice of mantra yoga, our awareness can transcend our mundane level of functioning to experience higher consciousness. This is a highly liberating and joyful experience.

Awakening Sattwic Energy

Mantra yoga uses sound vibration to awaken sattwic luminous force into the body, mind, and personality.

In mantra yoga, we intone rhythmic universal patterns that invoke and, over time, unlock the mysteries of life and reveal them to our consciousness – this gives us true knowledge and a profoundly intuitive and experiential level.

1. At a personal level, a mantra liberates energy trapped in mental patterns and frees this energy for other uses, such as healing, creativity, and higher use. We gain knowledge, insight, and intuition about our world. This mundane knowledge allows us to live better lives.
2. At a transcendent level – a mantra liberates all the energy trapped in all the mental patterns and frees that energy for awakening consciousness and transcendent experience. We gain knowledge of Self and true spiritual knowledge that transcends time and space. 

Mantra Meditation 

There are two primary forms of mantra meditation: japa, which involves repeating a mantra, and ajapa japa, which involves linking a mantra to the breath.

1. Japa - The Sanskrit word Japa means the practice of meditation in which a mantra is vocalized, whispered, or chanted mentally. The mantra can also be written repeatedly on a page in the practice of japa. The practitioner repeats the mantra given to him or her for a set period of time or a predetermined number, for example, 108, 1008, or more. A rosary, called a mala, is used to count. Malas usually contain 108 beads. In japa, the meditator focuses on the mantra; any thoughts that come into the mind are simply allowed to pass by and are not attended to. The attention is solely on the mantra itself.
2. Ajapa japa - The Sanskrit word ajapa japa means repeating a mantra (japa) without repetition (ajapa). This means that the mantra begins to repeat itself spontaneously, called the state of ajapa. The practice of ajapa japa aims to achieve the state of ajapa by linking the mantra with the rhythm of the breath. After extensive practice of japa or ajapa japa, the mantra erupts in our hearts and minds and continues to vibrate in our consciousness. This stimulates bliss, self-knowledge, and self-awareness.

Ajapa Japa

The practice of Ajapa Japa is one of the most important and influential of all the meditation practices from the Yoga-Tantra tradition. Ajapa japa meditation unites the mantra with the breath, prana, mind, attention, and consciousness. It is a complete spiritual practice (sadhana) that can take an aspirant to the highest stages of meditation, to the realization of the highest Self. This one technique is a complete system for individual self-development and transcendental experience. If studied, practiced, and understood correctly, Ajapa Japa promotes physical health, mental strength, and spiritual enlightenment.

With time and practice, we become aware of the vast reserves of energy that lie within us and can unlock and utilize this energy to develop our potential. It is as though we shine a light on our inner universe and capabilities, which reveals a profound sense and recognition of Self.

Big Shakti has developed a guided meditation series that distills the essence of ajapa japa for beginners and advanced practitioners. The techniques in this meditation series are part of a course on how to apply Ajapa Japa for Healing the Mind.