Embodying the Power of Mantra
By Gurudev

Chanting with mindful meditative awareness becomes enchanting and reinforces the central source from whence it comes. The power of chanting is built into the sound vibration and the particular frequency of the vibration. You cannot enter that frequency if your chanting is infused with the ego-mind. The secret power hidden in the syllables of ancient chants carries profound meaning that is not to be understood intellectually but is revealed energetically and experientially.

In the branch of Mantra Yoga, chanting mantras becomes the medium for the experience of divine union. The mantra itself turns into merging meditation. The chanting of mantra is an example of shifting from an abstract philosophy to a concrete experience. It carries the vibratory frequency of sound and transfers it to the body in the form of sensation. The words and sounds of mantra chanted consciously and impregnated with devotion and love produce a potent resonance. The moment you merge into the vibrations, you embody the energetic frequency imbedded within its protection, guidance and sacred power.

Mantra chanting automatically restores fragmented attention and energy. It takes you into the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga, Pratyahara, in which you withdraw energy spent in subtle disturbances and conflicts of unconscious duality. In this subtle state, you can detect the harmony underlying the crowd of conflicting voices you live with.

When you combine music with mantra it turns into a celestial sound that touches your soul. Then it becomes both relaxing and therapeutic, as well as spiritually awakening. Chanting is not complete until it enters your heart, opens all your centers, vibrates every cell, banishes all boundaries of the body, and dissolves your mind into a flood of energy.

To enter the synergistic frequency of mantra, you must come down from your thinking center into the energetic field of the prana body. The mystical power of chanting is its ability to invoke various energetic states that correspond to each chakra, which in turn activates the neuroglandular system. This creates a non-verbal energetic communion with your whole body. Your mind instantly melts and disappears into the vibrational energy, just as sugar dissolves in water.

Your physical, mental and emotional bodies will tune in to the purity of the mantra frequency. The intonation of sound then spreads to every cell and every level of your being. You will feel energized, revitalized and rejuvenated by the release of the pranic forces held captive as blockages in the chakra system.

Ultimately, the purpose of chanting is to create the shift from the ego-mind to a unified state of consciousness. The moment the chanting becomes prana kriya—a spontaneous effortless flow—it automatically assumes the energetic frequency of the deity that it symbolizes.