Mantra Summary

Read more about Mantra from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

What is a Mantra?

Principle Of The Mantra

The word is a sound expressive of the idea. In the supra-physical plane when an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of it, produce vibrations which prepare the mind for the realisation of the idea. That is the principle of the Mantra and of japa. One repeats the name of the Divine and the vibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation of the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible, "God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light." It is creation by the Word.

All vibration of sound on that higher plane is, then, instinct with and expressive of this supreme discernment of a truth in things and is at the same time creative, instinct with a supreme power which casts into forms the truth discerned and eventually, descending from plane to plane, reproduces it in the physical form or object created in Matter by etheric sound.

Mantra In Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga

As a rule the only mantra used in this sadhana is that of the Mother or of my name and the Mother. The concentration in the heart and the concentration in the head can both be used—each has its own result. The first opens up the psychic being and brings bhakti, love and union with the Mother, her presence within the heart and the action of her Force in the nature. The other opens the mind to self-realisation, to the consciousness of what is above mind, to the ascent of the consciousness out of the body and the descent of the higher consciousness into the body.

Your Mantra Comes When You Feel The Need

This one, this mantra, OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, came to me after some time, for I felt ... well, I saw that I needed to have a mantra of my own, that is, a mantra consonant with what this body has to do in the world. And it was just then that it came. It was truly an answer to a need that had made itself felt. So if you feel the need—not there, not in your head, but here (Mother points to the center of her heart), it will come. One day, either you will hear the words, or they will spring forth from your heart ... And when that happens, you must hold onto it. When one repeats a mantra regularly, very often it begins to repeat itself within, which means that it is taken up by the inner being. In that way it is more effective

Why Japa?

Effect On The Physical Mind

Japa, like meditation, is a procedure—apparently the most active and effective procedure—for joining, as much as possible, the Divine Presence to the bodily substance. When one repeats a mantra regularly, very often it begins to repeat itself within, which means that it is taken up by the inner being. In that way it is more effective.

What it does, if it is effective, is to open the consciousness and to bring into it the power of that which the mantra represents. The japa is made precisely to control the physical mind.

Japa and Healing

If something in the body's working gets disturbed (a pain or disorder, the onset of some illness) and repeating the mantra in a certain way… said with a certain purpose and above all in a movement of surrender, surrender of the pain, the disorder, and a call, like an opening—it has a marvelous effect. And after a while everything is put back in order. And simultaneously, of course, the precise knowledge of what lies behind the disorder and what must be done to set it right comes to me.

Japa Brings Precision, Solidity

With those who have no mantra, even if they have a strong habit of meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and vague. Whereas the japa imparts to those who practice it a kind of precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. They become galvanized, as it were.

How Of Japa?

Japa means a mome nt when all physical life is EXCLUSIVELY for the Divine. A moment when nothing but the Divine exists—every single cell of the body, each second, is EXCLUSIVELY for the Divine, there is nothing but the Divine.

Need For Quietness Of Mind, Bhakti

The japa is usually successful only on one of two conditions,—if it is repeated with a sense of its significance, a dwelling of something in the mind on the nature, power, beauty, attraction of the Godhead it signifies and is to bring into the consciousness, that is the mental way,—or if it comes up from the heart or rings in it with a certain sense or feeling of bhakti making it alive, that is the emotional way. Either the mind or the vital has to give it support or sustenance. But if it makes the mind dry and the vital restless, it must be missing that support and sustenance. There is of course a third way, the reliance on the power of the mantra or name in itself, but then one has to go on till that power has sufficiently impressed its vibrations on the inner being to make it at a given moment suddenly open to the Presence or the Touch. But if there is a struggling or insistence for the result, then this effect which needs a quiet receptivity in the mind is impeded. That is why I insisted so much on mental quietude and on not too much straining or effort—to give time to allow the psychic and the mind to develop the necessary condition of receptivity…

Surrender

Perfect surrender, that is, spontaneous surrender, which requires neither effort nor anything—a surrender that must be perfectly spontaneous… This, too, is something that is attained little by little; that's why I said that the mantra is progressive, in the sense that it grows more and more perfect.

Dealing With Obstacles In Japa

The fear, anger, depression etc….. These resistances rise and then, if one takes the right attitude, slowly or quickly clear away. One has to observe them and separate oneself from them, persisting in the concentration and sadhana till the vital becomes quiet and clear.Lack of repetition impairs the effect of mantras.

Read more about Mantra from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.