... the Upanishads speak of jyotir brahma, the Light that is Brahman. Very often the sadhak feels a flow of Light upon him or around him or a flow of Light invading his centres or even his whole being and body, penetrating and illumining every cell and in that Light there grows the spiritual consciousness and one becomes open to all or many of its workings and realisations. Appositely I have a review of a book of Ramdas (of the Vision) before me in which is described such an experience got by the repetition of the Rama mantra, but, if I understand rightly, after a long and rigorous self-discipline. "The mantra having stopped automatically, he beheld a small circular light before his mental vision. This yielded him thrills of delight. This experience having continued for some days, he felt a dazzling light like lightning, flashing before his eyes, which ultimately permeated and absorbed him. Now an inexpressible transport of bliss filled every pore of his physical frame." It does not always come like that—very often it comes by stages or at long intervals, at first, working on the consciousness till it is ready. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/bhakti-yoga-and-vaishnavism#p48</ref>
=Mantra A Psycho Spiritual Means=
The knowledge of our inner subliminal and psychic nature, of the powers and presences and influences there and the capacity of communication with other planes and their powers and beings can also be used for a higher than any mental or mundane object, for the possession and mastering of our whole nature and the overpassing of the intermediate planes on the way to the supreme spiritual heights of being. But the most direct spiritual use of the psychic consciousness is to make it an instrument of contact, communication and union with the Divine. A world of psycho-spiritual symbols is readily opened up, illuminating and potent and living forms and instruments, which can be made a revelation of spiritual significances, a support for our spiritual growth and the evolution of spiritual capacity and experience, a means towards spiritual power, knowledge or Ananda. The mantra is one of these psycho-spiritual means, at once a symbol, an instrument and a sound body for the divine manifestation, and of the same kind are the images of the Godhead and of its personalities or powers used in meditation or for adoration in Yoga. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-supramental-sense#p23</ref>
==Aspiration and Fusion==
All the time—constantly, all the time—there is the warmth, the sweetness and happiness of a complete self-giving, with an aspiration: "To BE, to be You, not to exist anymore." But there's still a sense of... it's the joy of giving oneself. It's like that, constant. And when the consciousness isn't active, that is, when I don't speak or don't listen or... automatically the body repeats the mantra like that, constantly like that; that's the constant state, day and night, continually. But now and then—now and then—there's a sort of fusion (''I don't know what happens''), and even that whole joyful aspiration, that whole fervor is transformed into a state... which is, or seems, perfectly still, because... I don't know what it is: it's not stillness, not eternity... I don't know, it's something, a "something" that is... Power, Light, and really a Love which doesn't "give" itself and does not "receive"; a Love which... something (I use this word for lack of others), something like that, but it's That, it's a vibration which is That, a vibration of Power, Light and Love (those are the three words I must use to translate), which is IN this, in the body, everywhere. Everywhere. To such a point that when you leave that state, you wonder (''laughing'') if you still have the same shape! That's how it is, you understand.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/10/april-23-1969#p16</ref>
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….it is this, that what we affirm strongly gets power to persist in the consciousness and experience and calls circumstances to its support, what we deny and reject and refuse to support by the power of the Word, tends, after a time and some resistance, to lose force in the consciousness and the circumstances and movements that support it tend also to recur less often and finally disappear. It is fundamentally the principle of the mantra. A constant affirmation from within on the other side—of that which is to be realised—brings always in the end a response from above. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/illness-and-health#p47</ref>
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…But to say it's these particular Words exclusively would be ridiculous. What counts is the sincerity of the aspiration, the exactness of the expression and the power; that is, the power that comes from the mantra being accepted. This is something very interesting: the mantra has been ACCEPTED by the supreme Power as an effective tool, and so it automatically contains a certain force and power. But it is a purely personal phenomenon (the expression is the same, but the vibrations are personal). A mantra leading one person straight to divine realization will leave another person cold and flat. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/03/may-31-1962#p64</ref>
=Mantra in Conjunction with Pranayama=