Mantra as a tool to overcome identities

Jan 14, 2010, 12.00am IST
MANISH PANDIT.

Mantra is a Sanskrit word derived from two roots: Manasa or mind and tarana or save. Mantra is something that saves, which uplifts.


Who we are today is based on what we identify with. If I identify with the body or the mind then I am a finite person limited by my own finite identification. What is needed is a tool which chips away at this finite identification and helps us become infinite in our awareness and capabilities. Mantra is one such tool.


A mantra contains a string of syllables, set to a meter. The mantra is chanted in a certain set way to get results. Mantras and their sound conceal an image of the deity they represent. When chanted, they produce a specific form of that deity, so a Rama mantra will produce a specific image of Rama, within the consciousness of the one who chants. But initially, this image will form only for the duration of time that the person repeats the mantra. Later on, as the mantra becomes more potent within our consciousness in terms of its ability to produce an actual form of the deity, this image remains with us for longer periods.


We are eventually led to the point where the deity actually becomes present within the sadhaka. This may sound somewhat fantastic, but Ramakrishna Paramhansa, it is said, could see the divine Mother Kali whenever he wanted and eventually his identification with his body had been destroyed that only God was present there. His ability to go into super conscious states is well known.


Mantra sadhana is ideally done in private, where the practitioner feels safe, in a clean and dry place after the sadhaka has bathed and completed ablutions. No food should be eaten at least two hours before the practise is undertaken. The body must remain as still as possible. If you are trying to achieve a goal, then don’t publicise your sadhana.
Most Vedic mantras require specific intonation of specific syllables, which may be impossible for you to master correctly. A Vedic mantra incorrectly recited is unlikely to yield result.


Mantras can be repeated in three major ways, the most common with your oral speech or vaikhari. This may destroy tamas in the practitioner, but still relies on oral speech and if your Sanskrit is not good then there is a danger that you may not get any result. Furthermore the problem is that you are unlikely to remain still during recitation.

Upamsu or using your lips is another method, but produces no sound. Finally comes the manasika method that is recitation of the mantra in the mind. This method is best for achieving concentration and mental peace and it should eventually lead to the start of severing the identification of the practitioner with the self. Identification with the deity follows eventually.


Counting of mantra numbers may be useful in the beginning for the first few years and can be done on a rosary of 108 beads. Later on as mantra recitation becomes a daily practise and the need for a rosary diminishes quite significantly. Eventually the identification of the self with the body may so diminish that the practitioner may enter a state of divine bliss in which one may forget to chant the mantra itself, so overpowering is the silence of divine bliss.

The writer is a consultant nuclear medicine physician in the UK, an astrologer, author and a filmmaker. www.saraswatifilms.org