Swami Mantra Book
Toney Talbot
Swami Satchidananda: First, you have to constantly and consciously repeat the mantra. Later, the inner consciousness takes over. We do many things like that. For example, when you first begin to play the piano, there is so much to think about. You must have the right fingers on the right keys, and when the mind thinks of the fingers, the legs forget their job. You have to slowly cultivate the habit. Eventually, you no longer need to see the keys or the fingers or even think about the feet. You just notice the people who are appreciating the music. Learning to ride a bicycle involves the same thing. When you think of the pedals you forget the handle bar, and when you think of the handle bar, you forget the brake. But, after some time, you barely touch the handle bar. As you ride, you look around here and there and you fly!
For 40 years this person had never missed his routine of Mantra chanting. Every day, he chanted 16 rounds of the Gayatri mantra and two rounds of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, followed by reading one chapter from the Bhagavad Gita. He was a householder and worked a full-time job until he was 60 years old. This is the level of self-discipline and faith that is required if you really want to succeed on the path of mantra sadhana.
In any event, when we chant a mantra such as the Gayatri Mantra, we are not asking any supernatural being to help us. Instead, we are invoking our own latent energy; we are invoking the power within us. Associating it with a deity of some kind is a matter of meditation; of better focus, visualization and manifestation.
Video Timelines
0:09 What is the Importance of Yantra in Gayatri Sadhana?
3:56 Do we need a picture of Goddess Gayatri for Gayatri Sadhana?
5:11 If God is one, how does this relate to different deities and different energies?
6:09 What is more beneficial a guru mantra or any other mantra?
Video Timelines:
0:12 Power of devotional sentiment in chanting
1:47 Why do we pray to Mother Earth ( Prithvi Puja) in Gayatri Sadhana?
2:59 How to do Prithvi Puja ?
4:10 Types of energies and their representation in yantra in Gayatri Sadhana
5:46 Who will never benefit from Gayatri Mantra?
The Swaminarayan mantra, "Swaminarayan," is a mantra used by the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. It is a compound of two words: Swami ("master, lord") and Narayan, that is, Vishnu c.q. Purushottam. According to the Swaminarayan-tradition, the Swaminarayan Mantra was introduced and explained by Swaminarayan, also known as Sahajanand Swami, spiritual head of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, shortly after the death of his predecessor, Ramanand Swami. Devotees chant the Swaminarayan mantra to offer worship, to allay distress, to pray for the welfare of others, and at the end-of-life. Several scriptures of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, such as the Swamini Vato, Harililamrut, and Bhaktachintamani, describe the power and efficacy of the Swaminarayan mantra for one who chants it.
Beyond its function as a mantra, the word Swaminarayan also came to be used in social discourse in a variety of ways.[5] As the Swaminarayan mantra began to be widely chanted by Sahajanand Swami's adherents, Sahajanand Swami became popularly known in society as Swaminarayan, and the sampradaya (or religious group) he led became popularly known as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.[5]
It took about another half a year before Gurudev was giving initiation. In the meantime, I was repeating the mantra Hari Om. I developed a heartfelt connection to Hari OM. I started to have a doubt: Was I betraying my loyalty to Hari Om? Do I really need another mantra?
So, having a Guru or a mantra will not remove the challenges we have to face in life. But they will give us a strength that is beyond ego strength. It is strength with a capital S and love with a capital L. It is not the love that comes and goes and causes pain.
So I find that quote to be very true. For me, Master Sivanandaji is pointing me to the end goal of mantra japa. There comes a time when the external part of the mantra falls away like the husk of a seed. You get impregnated by the internal seed of the mantra and the true glory of the name of God is born in you.
Prabhupada arrived at the ideal time in history to promulgate his teachings. The counterculture movement was just beginning and the Hare Krishna movement quickly caught on with the young hippie crowd, especially at its Haight-Ashbury epicenter in San Francisco. The swami proved himself a tireless promoter until his death in 1977, traveling all over the world to spread his message.
Mantra, Yantra and Tantra are timeless techniques that harness and direct the subtle psychological forces we encounter in meditation and utilize their energies to ascend toward the ultimate goal of its practice.
This 4-week workshop will introduce the experienced meditation practitioner to the function and purpose of mantra, yantra, and tantra, offer methods that will deepen their practice, and assist them to take their practice to the next level.
On this day number 2 of a walk with Bhakti Academy we landed ourselves at a picnic table to attempt a concentrated session with the maha mantra. At this hour, 6.45am, we could find no disturbances externally, perhaps internally. Everyone could speak for themself on this, but chronically that agitating does get in the way. As it was put by one of the callers later on in the afternoon on the Gita zoom, "I'm lucky to have just one minute of internalization."
Such is the nature of the monkey mind. I must admit that I had a blessing of a day in the time between the mantra at the picnic table and mid-afternoon. E-mails and texting messages got answered. Some counselling was accomplished. I also gave a class on the significance of being a part of a spiritual movement. "After God makes his move, then it's your move." In the teachings of the Gita we understand that Krishna makes the efforts to bring us around. We must reciprocate.
By the way, it was a great move by Nityananda, my assistant, to switch cars from his own broken AC vehicle to the temple car. These days, it is hot and humid enough. Our destination was to see a god-brother, Ksauri, who's 83. We arrived at his home in Mississauga, to interview him for our up-coming book, "Krishna In the Maple Leaf" and the subject is about the early pioneers of the Hare Krishna movement. Each interviewee will have a two page spread about their life at a time when we were starting the engine of a unique transplant from India.
Source: -at-the-picnic-table
This mantra is addressed to the Divine Mother as Saumyā, Divine Mother as soothing, gentle, moonlike peacefulness. It is used as a special mantra for the cultivation of these aspects of personality. The mantra occurs in Caṇḍī, or Devī-mahātmya, (I.62 or 71, depending on the edition) an important text in the tantric part of our tradition.
If you are presently doing some special practice, (purashcharana), then for this period of three years, continue with that purashcharana and you may do only one mala of the Saumya mantra, or as many as you are capable of doing.
Although the mantras are done for their sound vibration, they may carry a translation. Then there may be translations within translations going down to thousands of depths. I will give you here the shallowest level of translation.
The ultimate goals of Indian psychology are purely spiritual ones. The highest is to leave the mind behind in the no-mind meditation state (amanaska yoga or asamprajnata). The immediately preceding step to that is the discrimination between buddhi and the spiritual self (viveka khyati). The latter is still a goal too high, too distant for most. Before we can begin to have even glimpses of these levels of reality, we need to learn to cultivate a sattvic mind.
A sattvic mind and its operations are described and listed in the Bhagavad Gita chapters 14,17 and18. The brief descriptions of the processes leading to a sattvic mind are delineated as bhava samshuddhi, purification of emotions, and chitta prasadana, making the mind a clear and pleasant place. The Bhagavad Gita calls these processes inculcating mental asceticism or manasa tapas. Silence, self-control, and purification of emotions are the attributes of mental asceticism as mentioned in chapter 17.16. Saumya is the quality whereby anyone looking at you receives moonlike soothing, cooling sentiment.
The tasks of making the mind clear and pleasant and of purifying the emotions are closely linked. A sattvic mind does not suffer from the adhis or mental ailments and afflictions such as anger, vengefulness or malice. One does not repress these traits but simply recognizes the natural sattvic urges of peace, contentment and acceptance and thereby makes the mind a stronger energy field. One who accomplishes this suffers less anguish and pain in daily life. One simply replaces the rajasic and tamasic with the sattvic.
In this, what is the role of tamas? Tamas is much maligned as dark, heavy, inert and altogether undesirable. In fact, a balance of sattva, rajas and tamas is what is required. In the food we eat, sattva is the pranic energy we derive, rajas is the cooking and spicing, and tamas is the bulk. The word tamas is to be translated as stasis. When stasis serves the purpose of sattva, it imparts stability. When sattva is subdued by tamas it becomes stagnation. This is a universal principle applicable to all sciences including the Indian system of psychology.
The task of purification of the emotions and making the mind pleasant thus primarily consists of creating a balance of sattva, rajas and tamas, in such a manner that sattva alone dominates and the other two serve their purpose.
Failure to achieve this balance of power among the three gunas subjects is due to the adhis, our six enemies: kama or unbridled desire and passion, krodha or anger, lobha or greed, moha or attachment and confusion, mada or uncontrolled excitation and matsarya or hatred and hostility.
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