Excerpts Chapter 11
THE MEDITATION BOOK:
MANTRA AND JAPA
When to use a mantra?
Question: Do you recommend the use of any special mantra?
Sri Chinmoy: I prefer to advise my disciples to meditate, but I have given mantras to a few of them. Each mantra offers a particular result. While using a mantra, we invoke a certain aspect of God or a certain cosmic god to give us Peace, Light, Bliss or something else that we want or need. But if we can meditate well for ten or fifteen minutes, this serves the same purpose because we enter into the infinite expanse of Peace, Light and Bliss, where our soul can drink whatever it needs or wants.
When aspirants cannot enter into their deepest meditation because the mind is restless, this is their opportunity to utilise a mantra. “Supreme”, “AUM” or “God” can be repeated by anyone for a few minutes before he actually starts his meditation. The mantra should be repeated slowly and aloud.
If you want quick results in your inner spiritual life, you should repeat a mantra every day without fail, for at least half an hour: fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening. There can be no mantra more powerful than the mother of all mantras, AUM.
How can mantra chanting and meditation be combined?
Meditation and mantras
In meditation it is always advisable to follow one specific pattern or method. Mantra and japa are good, but if they have been taught to you by different teachers or if you have developed a mantra of your own for meditation, these things will cause conflict rather than help you when you try to practise them together. If you got a mantra from one Master, japa from a second Master and meditation from a third Master, it will only ruin all your aspiration and capacity because each Master has his own way of teaching his disciples. You may think it is like making a choice of different dishes and you are choosing the most delicious ones. But spiritual life is not like that. You have to take only one particular food, your inner aspiration, and from this you will get the most delight.
Even if you got your mantra, japa and meditation all from the same Master, you should practise them at three different times because the forces of these practices don’t go together. In the morning, if you want to, you can chant a specific mantra; in the evening you can do japa and at some other time you can do meditation. Otherwise, while you are meditating, if you suddenly get the inspiration to do japa or to chant some specific mantra, you will only ruin your aspiration. Japa and mantras have their own significant power but in the highest type of meditation, when your inner being is communing with God, at that time there is no thought, no idea; your mind is calm and quiet, so there should be no mantra or japa there.
In my own case, I do not emphasise the importance of mantras for those following my path. But if a disciple does want to practise a mantra, I tell him that he can repeat the name of God — “Supreme” — or he can chant “Aum”. Again, if he doesn’t care to repeat these divine words, he can chant his own soul’s name. To some disciples I have given spiritual names, souls’ names. If you can repeat your own soul’s name, I assure you that you will be able to bring to the fore all your divine qualities and to become energised with divine power. But just by repeating the name given you by your parents you will not achieve anything. Suppose your American name is Warren. If you go on repeating “Warren, Warren, Warren”, I don’t think that anything divine will happen from that. But if you repeat even ten times very slowly the spiritual name I have given you, then a new and fruitful consciousness will dawn in you.
The meaning of the mantra AUM
Question: What is the meaning of AUM?
Sri Chinmoy: AUM is a Sanskrit word, a syllable. A Sanskrit word or a syllable has a special significance and a creative power. AUM is the Mother of all sounds. When we chant AUM, what actually happens is that we bring down Peace and Light from Above and create a universal harmony within and without us. When we repeat AUM, both our inner and outer beings become inspired and surcharged with a divine feeling and aspiration. AUM has no equal. AUM has infinite power. Just by repeating AUM, we can realise God.
When you chant AUM, try to feel that it is God who is climbing up and down within you. Hundreds of seekers in India have realised God simply by repeating AUM. AUM is the symbol of God, the Creator.
One can speak and write for hours about AUM. The main thing, my personal feeling, is that when you repeat AUM, please try to observe what actually happens. If you repeat the name of a cat, a dog or a monkey, or even of an ordinary person, you get no inspiration. But when you utter AUM which is the symbol of the Creator, the life-breath of the Creator, you immediately get an inner feeling, the feeling that inspires your inner and outer movements to enlarge your vision and fulfil your life here on earth. This is the secret of AUM. If you want to cherish a secret all your life, then here is the secret. Please chant AUM and everything is yours.