Finding your mantra - Making use of the Mystic Chants

Sadhguru:

If you want to have your spiritual process pitched up, if you feel you’re ready for it – there’s no compulsion – one thing we can do is to create an ambience within your body, your mind, and in the atmosphere in which you live. One reason, although it is subject to much criticism, we are creating the ashram or the yoga center in a certain way, is to make people understand that spiritual process does not mean barrenness of life. Spiritual process means grandeur of life. It does not mean obscenity of excess, but grandeur of life. Some aspects of the ashram are very carefully crafted to be minimalistic, and some elaborate and exuberant.
You need to understand, India or Bharath is a culture without morality; there are no morals carved in stone to tell you, “This is what you do and this is what you do not do.” We never depended on morality, because we created human beings who were capable of stirring up humanity in such a big way, the need for morality or a moral code never arose. If there is a simple process of stirring up the humanity within you, if your humanity is on full-time, if your humanity is full-blown, you will not need any morality. Morality is an imitation of humanity. Morality may fix a few things in society, but will cause a complete havoc within the inner nature of the human being.

With morality you will develop a conscience, not consciousness. Conscience is that which hurts when everything else is feeling great. Do you understand what I’m saying? When everything else is feeling great, something within you hurts – that is conscience. It has been injected into you by social norms. What you feel guilty about, what you feel is right or wrong, is essentially a social phenomenon. But if your humanity is full-blown, you wouldn’t need that morality, you would be fine the way you are. So to stir up this humanity, we set up three fundamentals. One is absolute passion towards the source of Creation – this is manifest in this culture in a million different ways. When we wanted to build a town or a city, the first thing we built was a grand temple. The people who built this temple, they themselves lived in huts, but they built phenomenally grand temples.

So, the three fundamentals are – absolute passion towards the Creator, compassion for all life around you, and dispassion towards yourself. If you maintain these three things, your humanity will be always on; otherwise your humanity will get switched off and then you will have to pretend like a fake human being with a set of morals. Then you will develop a conscience. This conscience hurts whenever life feels great.

So if you want to create an ambience within the body, in your psychological structure, your emotional structure, your energy structure, and in the atmosphere around you, a tool that you can make use of is certain kinds of sound. Many of you at some point might have shifted from popular music to classical music. And after you shifted, if you kept this music on in your home or in your car, gently in the background, in many ways the quality of your life could have changed – the way you behave, the way you emote, the way you think, the way you act.

Music is an arrangement of sounds to generate certain sweetness. Music is a fine arrangement, but still it is like the water flowing. A mantra is not that beautiful aesthetically but it is much more effective; it is like a key to open up something. I want you to try it out. They have released a CD called Vairagya. This was released with a specific purpose. I want you to listen to the CD over and over a few times. Listen to each one of the mantras. Each one runs for ten minutes. Don’t choose.  Figure out what really draws you, and then you say, “This is my mantra.” We are following up the CD with a one hour version of each mantra. So keep it going, and keep it going, and keep it going all the time. In your car, in your home, on your iPad, iPod, phone, everywhere. Simply on and on and on for some time.

After some time it will become so much a part of your system and it will set a certain ambience for you. But don’t say, “Oh, I like this mantra. What have you chosen? Okay, let me also choose that.” It’s not done like that. Just listen and listen. When you feel that one of them is really grabbing you, you just go by that. If you say, “This is my mantra,” we will make one hour recordings of it and give it to you and you just set that ambience. Mantra is not consciousness but mantra sets the right kind of ambience. Sound will set the right kind of ambience within this physiological, psychological framework and also in the atmosphere. One can make use of this.

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/isha-living/making-use-of-the-mystic-chants/

"Shambo" mantra from Vairagya

In the final installment of Mystic Chants, we bring to you Shambho, the chant that symbolizes the most auspicious thing that can happen to a person – to realize the highest within yourself.

Sadhguru:

An important aspect of Shiva is called as Shambho. Normally, Shambho, or this aspect of the root energy is worshipped by only people who are in the spiritual path, because the word Shambho means “the auspicious one”. The most auspicious thing that can happen to you is to realize yourself, is to reach the highest within yourself.

We think, unfortunately, that getting married is auspicious, getting a promotion is auspicious, building a new house is auspicious.  The most auspicious thing that can happen to you in your life is that you reach the peak within yourself. Shambho is the form in which we are able to call him down to us here very easily, in that form he seems to respond to us much better than any other form. Shambho has been a very dominant aspect in the Isha Yoga Center.  To begin the Isha Yoga Center, to nurture it and to take it to the ultimate state also, this Shambho is going to play a very important role.

In certain systems of yoga, people master the creation of powerful forms. You have heard these kinds of things – Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to feed Kali with his own hands and she used to eat food. This is 100% reality. For a logical, thinking mind this looks like absolute nonsense, isn’t it? He must have been hallucinating. He was not hallucinating; it is just that his consciousness was so crystallized, whatever form he revered was just created right there. So you want Kali, Kali is right there. Anything that you want can be created right there simply because all these forms were established long ago for sadhana. Different yogis, different systems created various forms. There are various beautiful forms and very hideous forms; all kinds of forms people created.

Shambho is one of the more auspicious ones. The word Shambho literally means the “auspicious one”. So Shambho is an auspicious and very gentle form of Shiva, which is rare. Shiva is usually wild; a crazy man he is, but this is a very gentle form of Shiva, a beautiful form of Shiva. These forms were established by people, so that others could make use of it. They are made into such eternal forms, they are always; if you are willing you can bring them down into your experience.

The sound Shambho is very, very significant. In many ways this space (referring to the Isha Yoga Center) is engineered around that sound. The power of this sound and the capability of this sound to liberate a being from one dimension of entanglement and move him to a different state of freedom is something phenomenal, especially because everything that we have done here is engineered around this particular reverberation.

For downloading 1 hr duration mantra : CLICK HERE

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/isha-living/mystic-chants-shambho/

Aum Namah Shivaya - Sadhguru on Chants from Vairagya

The fourth in the series of Mystic Chants is “Aum Namah Shivaya”. Sadhguru tells us that it is the basic mantra that purifies our system and helps bring meditativeness into those who are otherwise unable to hold it. 

 

Sadhguru: The sound AUM is not to be uttered as Om. The way it is to be uttered is, open your mouth – “AAHH,” and as you slowly close your mouth it becomes “OOH,” and “MAA.” It is a natural happening. It is not something that you do. If you just exhale open your mouth and exhale, it will become “AAHH.” As you close your mouth, it slowly becomes “OOH”, and when you close it, it becomes “MMM.” “AAHH,” “OOH,” and “MAA” are known as the fundamental sounds of existence. If you utter these 3 sounds together, what do you get? “AUM.” So we say “AUM” is the most fundamental mantra. So the mantra is not to be uttered as “Om Namah Shivaya,” it is to be uttered as “Aum Namah Shivaya.” 

Repeating a mantra with the right kind of awareness has always been the basic type of sadhana in most of the spiritual paths in the world.  Most people are incapable of rising to the right levels of energy within themselves without the use of a mantra. I find more than ninety percent of the people always need a mantra to activate themselves. Without it, they are not able to sustain.

So the basic mantra, which is held as the Mahamantra in certain cultures, is Aum Namah Shivaya.  ‘Aum Namah Shivaya’ can be practiced in different dimensions.  These are known as panchaksharas; there are five mantras in this. These panchaksharas represent the five elements in nature or they also represent the five main centers in the system – they are ways of activating these five centers.  They are also a very powerful purifying system.

There are many different dimensions in which we can look at this mantra. Right now, we want to use this mantra as a purificatory process, and at the same time as a foundation, as a base for all meditativeness that we may attain to. Aum Namah Shivaya is not a bad word. You can utter it. The question is just, ‘Are you ready for it?’  It is not about somebody. You’re not calling somebody. You want to dissolve yourself, because Shiva is a destroyer. If you call a destroyer and then you’re hoping that he will save you, it’s a mistake, isn’t it?

 Read on how to use mantras :  CLICK HERE

For free download link of the mantra : CLICK HERE
 
As a part of the Mystic Chants series, we will be releasing the rest of the Vairagya chants, one every week, for free. To support our efforts, you could also purchase the entire album online here.

To read about the significance of mantras, visit Sadhguru Spot on Becoming A Mantra.

Sadhguru on how to use Mantras from Vairagya Album

Mantra means a pure sound. Today, modern science is proving that the whole existence is reverberations of energy, different levels of vibrations. Where there is a vibration there is bound to be a sound.

As there are different types of forms, every form has a sound attached to it or, every sound has a form attached to it. When you utter a sound, a form is being created. There is a whole science of using sounds in a particular way so that it creates the right kind of form. We can create powerful forms by uttering sounds in certain arrangement. This is known as the Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound. If you have mastery over the sound you also have mastery over the form that is attached to it.

Sounds of Isha has made a presentation of chants for the first time which is called Vairagya. They’ve put together five chants, ten- minutes each. You listen to these chants for some time and see which one you identify with best. Then you can get a longer version and just be with that. Right now you just listen to these chants. Don’t try to like or dislike them in terms of their musical quality or whatever, just listen to them. These sounds should become like your breath. After some time, without even listening you will be reverberating with the chant. It’ll do wonderful things to you.

Mantra is not something that you utter; it is something that you strive to become because the whole existence is a complex amalgamation of sounds. In that we identified certain sounds, which are like keys that open up every realm in the universe. Unless you become the key it will not open up for you. Becoming the mantra means you’re becoming the key; only if you are the key can you open the lock, otherwise somebody else has to open it for you and you have to listen to him. See you have to endure me because you did not open it.

Love & Grace,
Sadhguru.

Brahmananda Swarupa Chant from Vairagya Album

we bring you the third of the Vairagya Chants. “Brahmananda Swarupa” is said to invoke stillness in all those who make it a part of their lives…

 

Brahmananda Swarupa Isha Jagadisha

Akhilananda Swarupa Isha Mahesha

Sadhguru:

Brahmananda Swarupa sweetens your life.
Brahma refers to the creator. The creator has been described as emptiness, as boundlessness, as light, and as darkness. Whatever is the basis of creation, that’s Brahma. And Brahma is Akhila, which means he’s all-pervading.

Ananda refers to the blissfulness or ecstasy of the creator. Swarupa is ‘an image’. So, we are talking about an image of the ecstasy of the creator. Isha means that which rules. Jagadisha means the same thing, said in a different way. Jaga means existence. Jagadisha is the ruler of the existence. The creator is referred to in so many ways, so we’re saying this whole existence is an image of the ecstasy of the creator. That’s what the chant fundamentally means.

The ecstasy of the creator is manifest in so many ways; it comes in the form of a tsunami, it comes in the form of a tornado, it comes in the form of sunshine, snow, and most of all, absolute stillness. A major part of the creator’s ecstasy is expressed as absolute stillness. Here and there, one planet, one galaxy, little tsunami, little tornado, but a major part of it is stillness.

When we invoke a chant like this, this is not just a chant,a certain amount of work has been done on it. It has been kind of consecrated, you can say. The very sound has been consecrated. When we consecrate a sound like this, it has been done with the intention that a large part of you will become stillness but you will retain the liveliness of life around you.

A chant can either be used as a key, or it can be used as raiment that you wear. It is clothing that you wear all the time. So this is more like your clothing, this is not a seed. If you keep on chanting, it will be around you. If sufficient involvement goes into it, if it becomes your life’s breath, then you will see, people can feel this. There have been many instances like this.

It happened with Ram Das was at the time an unrecognized sadhak. He was wandering and one night, he slept in somebody’s home.  In the middle of the night, the owner of the house realized that somebody’s doing, “Ram, Ram, Ram”. The owner was annoyed as he wanted to sleep. So he went to check on Ram Das, but he found that the saint was fast asleep. But he could still hear the sound of “Ram, Ram”. Then he slowly went towards Ram Das and the sound was coming out of his body. Ram Das’ whole life had been into this so much, even when he slept, the body was just reverberating “Ram, Ram, Ram”.

You can make this chant like that, but it takes a lot. Such people, they don’t speak anything else. They won’t utter any other word. If they want to call you, they’ll say, “Ram, Ram.” If they want to give you something, “Ram, Ram.”  They won’t say anything else. They do not want to disturb their system with any other sound other than that one chant. Slowly, this sound becomes like a coating, like a shield around them, a cocoon of certain energy, that it reverberates only that. It is a beautiful way of doing things, but how could you do it?  How could you reply, “Brahmananda Swarupa,” to everyone? But you could do it for short periods of time. And on certain days, you could take a break from everything, go into silence and just chant through the day. It will make a big difference.

Read on how to use mantras :  CLICK HERE

For Free 1 hour mantra available for download : CLICK HERE

For the free download of the Brahmananda Swarupa chant, please visit the Sounds of Isha website, here. As a part of the Mystic Chants series, we will be releasing the rest of the Vairagya chants, one every week, for free. To support our efforts, you could also purchase the entire album online here. Stay tuned to this space for more.

What is a mantra? Sadhguru

In today’s post, Sadhguru speaks about the science of mantras and how they can be used to benefit your system:

Sadhguru:

Mantra means a sound. Today, modern science sees the whole existence as a vibration. Where there is a vibration, there is bound to be a sound. So that means, the whole existence is a kind of sound, or a complex amalgamation of sounds – the whole existence is an amalgamation of multiple mantras. Of these, a few mantras or a few sounds have been identified, which could be like keys. If you use them in a certain way, they become a key to open up a different dimension of life and experience within you.

There are different types of mantras. Every mantra activates a particular kind of energy in a different part of the body. Without that necessary awareness, just repeating the sound only brings dullness to the mind. Any repetition of the sound always makes your mind dull. Only when it is done with proper awareness, with exact understanding of what it is, a mantra could be a very powerful means. As a science it is a very powerful dimension, but the way it is being imparted without any necessary basis or without creating the necessary situations, it can cause lots of damage.


Mantras always come from a Sanskrit basis, and the basic aspects of Sanskrit language are so sound sensitive. But when different people speak, each one says it in their own way. If the Bengalis say a mantra, they will say it in their own way. If the Tamil people say it, they say it in another way. If the Americans say it, they will say it in a completely different way. Like this, different people who speak different languages, according to what language they have been used to, tend to distort the mantra, unless real training is imparted. Such training is too exhaustive and people do not have that kind of patience or dedication nowadays because it needs an enormous amount of time and involvement.

Mantras could be an extremely good preparatory step. Just one mantra can do such tremendous things to people. They can be an effective force in creating something but only if they come from that kind of a source where there is a complete understanding of all that is sound. When we say “all that is sound,” we are talking about the creation itself. If a mantra comes from that kind of source, with that level of understanding and when the transmission is pure, then mantras can be an effective force.

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/consecrated-spaces/science-of-temples/what-is-a-mantra/

Guru Paduka Stotram from Vairagya Album

This week on Mystic Chants, we bring to you the next chant in the Vairagya series – the Guru Paduka Stotram. This is a very powerful rendition of a well-known chant that glorifies the ‘sandals of the Guru’, which are symbolically represented as ‘the boat to help cross the endless ocean of life.’ This chant will enable those who listen to become receptive to the Guru’s Grace.

Anantha Samsaara Samudra Taara
Naukaayitaabhyaam GuruBhaktitaabhyaam
Vairaagya Saamraajyada Poojanaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Kavitva Vaaraashi Nishaakaraabhyaam
Daurbhaagya Daavaambudha Maalikaabhyaam
Durikrita Namra Vipattitaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Nataa Yayo Shripatitaam Samiyuh
Kadachidapyaashu Daridravaryah
Mookaascha Vaachaspatitaahritaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Naalik Nikaash Padaahritaabhyaam
Naanaa Vimohadi Nivaarikaabhyaam
Namajjanaabhist Tatipradaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Nrupaali Mauli Vraja Ratna Kaanti
Sarid Viraaja Jhasha Kanyakaabhyaam
Nrupatvadaabhyaam Natlok Panktehe
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Paapaandhakaaraka Paramparaabhyaam
Traapa Trayaaheendra Khageshwaraabhyaam
Jaadyaadhi Samshoshana Vaadawaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Shamaadi Shatka Pradavaibhavaabhyaam
Shamaadi Daana Vrata Dikshitaabhyaam
Ramaadhavaangri Sthira Bhaktitaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Swaarchaparaanaam Akhileshtataabhyaam
Swaaha Sahaayaksha Dhurandaraabhyaam
Swaantachabhaava Prada Poojanaabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

Kaamaadisarpa Vraj Gaarudaabhyaam
Viveka Vairaagyanidhi Pradaabhyaam
Bodha Pradaabhyaam Drut Mokshataabhyaam
Namo Namah Shri Guru Paadukaabhyaam

If grace is not available to you or you are not available to grace, it does not matter how much money you have, how much wealth you have, whatever nonsense you have, you will not live a beautiful life. A Guru’s grace is not some airy thing that you imagine. It is a very physical presence. It’s as physical as the breeze that you feel. It’s as physical as the sunlight.

What you refer to as the Guru is just a certain energy, a certain possibility. It is not the person. A certain person has only become a representative of that energy and that space. If you have to see, it is light that you need, not the light bulb. But right now that particular light bulb happens to be the source of light. So you tend to think “I cannot exist without the light bulb.” On one level it is true. But the nature of the Guru is not limited to time and space. So it is not because you sit next to the light bulb you get the maximum light. You could be a thousand miles away and you may receive more grace than the person who is right now sitting next to that person.

Success will not come to you without grace. Somehow, one way or the other you have to learn to be receptive to grace. Just your mental state may make you receptive, the way you keep your body may make you receptive, the way you keep your emotions may make you receptive or you have more complex methods, you understand the mechanics of how it works and you become receptive. But without grace there will be no success. You maybe brilliant but still you will be a failure. You may be immensely capable still you will be a failure.

But a moment of grace, and suddenly you will see everything will be successful. For you to be peaceful, for you to be happy, you can do it from within. If you know how to keep your body and your mind, you can do these things. But being successful in what you’re doing will not happen without grace. Without the lubricant of grace your machine will not go too far. Everything will be an uphill task in your life. Most human beings do this to themselves because they are so full of themselves. They will not become available to grace. Everything in their life is hard work – education is hard work, going to work is hard work, marriage is one big hard work. But if you become very receptive to grace, you find everything is effortless because you are now a well-lubricated being.

Read on how to use mantras : CLICK HERE

Free 1 hour mantra available for download : Click Here

 For the free download of the Guru Paduka Stotram, please visit the Sounds of Isha website, here. As a part of the Mystic Chants series, we will be releasing the rest of the Vairagya chants, one every week for free. To support our efforts, you could also purchase the entire album online here. Stay tuned to this space for more.

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/isha-living/mystic-chants-guru-paduka-stotram/

Nirvana Shatakam from Vairagya Album

Sadhguru:

Nirvana means ‘formless’.
The Nirvana Shatakam is towards this – you don’t want to be either this or that. If you don’t want to be this nor that, then what do you want to be? Your mind cannot understand this because your mind always wants to be something. If I say, “I don’t want to be this; I don’t want to be that,” you would think, “Oh something super!” Not super. “Oh, so emptiness?” Not emptiness. “Nothingness?” Not nothingness.
That’s what is being conveyed through this chant.






mano buddhi ahankara chittani naaham
na cha shrotravjihve na cha ghraana netre
na cha vyoma bhumir na tejo na vaayuhu
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

I am not the mind, the intellect, the ego or the memory,
I am not the ears, the skin, the nose or the eyes,
I am not space, not earth, not fire, water or wind, 
I am the form of consciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


na cha prana sangyo na vai pancha vayuhu
na va sapta dhatur na va pancha koshah
na vak pani-padam na chopastha payu
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

I am not the breath, nor the five elements,
I am not matter, nor the 5 sheaths of conciousness
Nor am I the speech, the hands, or the feet,
I am the form of consciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


na me dvesha ragau na me lobha mohau
na me vai mado naiva matsarya bhavaha
na dharmo na chartho na kamo na mokshaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

There is no like or dislike in me, no greed or delusion,
I know not pride or jealousy,
I have no duty, no desire for wealth, lust or liberation, 
I am the form of consciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


na punyam na papam na saukhyam na duhkham
na mantro na tirtham na veda na yajnah
aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhokta
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

No virtue or vice, no pleasure or pain,
I need no mantras, no pilgrimage, no scriptures or rituals,
I am not the experienced, nor the experience itself, 
I am the form of consciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


na me mrtyu shanka na mejati bhedaha
pita naiva me naiva mataa na janmaha
na bandhur na mitram gurur naiva shishyaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

I have no fear of death, no caste or creed,
I have no father, no mother, for I was never born,
I am not a relative, nor a friend, nor a teacher nor a student,
I am the form of consciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


aham nirvikalpo nirakara rupo
vibhut vatcha sarvatra sarvendriyanam
na cha sangatham naiva muktir na meyaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

I am devoid of duality, my form is formlessness,
I exist everywhere, pervading all senses,
I am neither attached, neither free nor captive,
I am the form of conciousness and bliss,
I am the eternal Shiva…


Sadhguru has mentioned that listening to the Vairagya chants for extended periods of time has certain benefits. Along with 10 minute version, we have made available a 1-hour version of the Nirvana Shatakam at the Sounds of Isha website, here.

As a part of the Mystic Chants series, we will be releasing the rest of the Vairagya chants, one every week for free. To support our efforts, you could also purchase the entire album online here. Stay tuned to this space for more.

Read on how to use mantras :  CLICK HERE

Free 1 hour mantra available for download : CLICK HERE

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/isha-living/mystic-chants-nirvana-shatakam/