Modern life offers many comforts and technological advances, but often overlooks the most essential dimension—the human being. True joy doesn’t come from wealth or achievements but is naturally present in one who possesses clarity, peace of mind, and a healthy body. To acquire these qualities, uttering certain sacred sounds is a simple yet powerful method—the science of mantra yoga. In this article, revered Gurudev Anandmurti Gurumaa sheds light on the mind, mantra meditation, and the mystical aspects that arise from devoted practice.
Symptoms of A Foggy Mind
Picture a wintry scene during a thick fog—can you drive or cycle? You would rather wait until the fog disappears to commence your journey.
Unfortunately, due to overthinking, many people’s minds have become like that thick fog.
A foggy mind often gets stuck in confusion—“Should I do this or not?”
Even for shopping, you take someone along to ask, “Should I buy this?” I have seen people spend so much time selecting just one dress! After an hour, they buy it, go home, and think, "Oh, it's not nice. I should return it.”
A wife asked her husband, “Do I look fat in this?” The poor guy was at a loss. “If I say yes, I’m doomed.” But if he says “No,” she says, “Ah, you’re lying.” She knows it in her heart, yet still asks.
Your mind can separate itself into many segments. One segment wants to act one way, but another part says, “You can’t.” Another thought says, “Everyone will know how stupid you are.” The initial positive thought is quickly subdued in a dark fog of negativity.
From Confusion to Clarity Through Mantra
We need the mind everywhere—to think and decide, to love and experience life. A thinking mind is not a problem, but a foggy and confused mind is. People waste their lives confused about everything, whereas a sorted-out mind becomes an asset. So, clear up this mind. For this, mantra sadhana can help you in a big way.
The Power of Sound
Sound affects you deeply. Sound, mind, and the subconscious are connected; this is the basis of mantra sadhana. Physics tells us that vibration produces friction which creates energy in the form of heat, light or motion. Each mantra is a set of vibrations that positively affect your system.
For example, an American neurosurgeon once performed a brain surgery using nothing but sound. With great precision, they removed brain cysts without cutting the skull. Similarly, a technology called lithotripsy uses sound to cut even stones. This demonstrates the power of sound.
Our intuitive and intelligent sages employed sound vibrations, in the form of mantras, for transforming the mind and body.
Mantra Is Your Charging Station
One electric car company set up charging stations across America. If you charge your vehicle for half an hour, it’s fit to drive another 250 miles.
Similarly, mantra is your charging station. When you sit for mantra japa with the right technique, you charge up your body and mind, as illustrated by this remarkable story.
An Indian schoolgirl once visited Kedarnath, situated at 14,600 ft. above sea level. She observed some priests who would walk uphill from a place 65 kilometres away carrying a pitcher, stopping only after reaching the Kedarnath temple to offer the water to the Shivalingam. It’s a difficult terrain, and the oxygen levels are low. The girl wondered how they could walk carrying these heavy water pitchers.
Then she heard that they chant certain energising mantras.
The girl couldn’t find out that mantra, but she got curious. With the help of her science teachers, they performed a test involving daily Om-chanting, taking blood samples before and after the session. They found that 30 minutes of Om increased blood oxygen and neurotransmitter activity.
Scientific research on various mantras has been done by many institutions today.
Modern medical science talks about bioelectricity. Thinking occurs through billions of neurons in your brain firing like electrical circuits. The whole body runs on this energy, called prana.
An accomplished acupuncturist who has mastered his chi (synonymous with prana) can give you an electric shock without even touching your body.
Now, using mantra, you can generate energy in your body, which heals and vitalises you.
You can try this: create a separate room at home without any furniture or carpet—naked walls and floor. If possible, construct a dome to increase the resonance of your voice. Sit on your asana in the centre. Take a deep breath, chant Om and let its vibrations fill the room. This will produce an electrical charge in your body. Half an hour of daily practice will improve your health and strengthen your mind.
If you practise for two to two and a half hours, within six to nine months, you may even attain supernatural powers. Provided it’s done with purity, humility, sincerity, and great devotion. Whatsoever you say will become a reality. When you do sadhana, you awaken the mind’s latent powers, called siddhis—amazing things are possible.
As the verse goes: “Sadhu bole sehaj subhaye, sadhu ka bola birtha na jaye”—"Whatever a Saint says is bound to happen; their words never go in vain”. How does a saint gain such power? Through one-pointed concentration (ekagrata). What a saint thinks or says comes to pass.
Colouring the Mind With Divine Shakti
The mind’s nature is such that it becomes like whatever it contemplates. The character of the object or person you dwell on colours your mind. If you keep on thinking about all the bad people present in your life, their attributes will enter you. If you harbour worry or anger, your mind takes on that very colour. That is why a devotee says, “Prabhu, let me always remember You, for who remembers You verily becomes You.”
When you perform mantra anushthana, you choose to chant a set number of mantras for a certain period. Once, in my youth, I was eager to have a vision of Mahadeva. I was instructed to repeat the Shiva mantra for five and a half hours daily. When you do japa for this long, it becomes so intoxicating that after a while, the mind goes into stillness. To continue chanting, you have to pull the mind out from this stillness!
See, there are two different scenarios: for most, the mind gets lost in thinking, but for an advanced practitioner, the mind enters silence.
As we have established, the vibrations of the mantra can induce an experience of light, a surge of energy or emotion. Your mind takes the colour of whatever you think about. So, when you contemplate “Shiva, Shiva Shiva…”, the mind takes that very colour.
Unleashing the Mind’s Potential
This very mind is maya (macrocosmic mind of Ishwara), and from maya has sprung forth the whole universe. Thus, the mind is capable of creating whatever it wants. Today, quantum physicists acknowledge that whatever you see is a projection of your consciousness—there is nothing solid outside.
That’s how Meerabai could see Krishna within herself, although Krishna lived a good 35,000 years ago. Similarly, there was a Punjabi saint called Baba Nand Singh. He loved Guru Nanak so much that he would see him in lifelike visions. What they saw was real for them. The whole world is your projection, a mere imposition of your mind.
The sages who propounded Ayurvedic medicine didn’t gather knowledge about herbs by studying them under a microscope. They had such heightened consciousness and sensitivity that, with a still, quiet mind, they would sit by the herb and intuitively know how this herb could be used. Today, Ayurvedic knowledge has been investigated and verified in modern labs.
However, ordinary folk don’t have that capability, as their minds are so dissipated, fragmented and foggy. The mantra can take your mind to those levels where its deity will appear for you.
Kabir says, “Eih man saktee ih man siau“—This mind is Shakti; this mind is Shiva.
But if it’s not rightly channelled, this very mind is a demon. It all depends on how you train your mind.
Making of A Beautiful Mind
As you work on your mind using mantra, the inner world comes alive for you. When this happens, you will always feel peaceful and calm, living your life beautifully.
Then life itself becomes heaven. When the clouds shower rain, it feels as if God has come to you in the form of a cloud, and the rain is His blessing. When the wind blows, it is the Lord caressing you—that’s what a lover does! When the birds are chittering, it is the Lord singing to you.
The beauty comes to you in leaps and bounds! Life becomes so beautiful, no words can do it justice. It is not to be told, this is to be experienced.
If this hasn’t happened to you, then pray that it comes into your life. You get whatever you ask for—until now, you have asked for worldly things. Now, pray to the Lord that your heart may be drenched with love; pray for light of knowledge. Ask for the right things!
Don't see nature as inert objects around you; change your perspective. This world is God’s house, and you have come and sat in it. But your crazy mind neither sees nor understands this, and then you say, “Where is God?” It is God who you see in front of you, who is inside you—there is no one else. God plays His game; He is nature, He is you, and you are He! Everything is you, you are playing with yourself. The problem is only one thing—your “I” comes in between. Remove this “I”, because “I” is a lie! Without this, all is perfect.
Mantra Gives Power to Your Mind
The importance of chanting mantra is now evident to you. You don’t do mantra to please God. God is not a person who is happy or unhappy with you, God is existence. When you practise mantra, you come close to that existence.
Mantra gives you energy, power, and much calmness and stillness. You can experience deep states of meditation with the mantra alone. It is a tool to clear the mental fogginess and rise from confusion to clarity. With such a beautiful mind, life becomes a benediction.
