Mantra Meditation ~ Or How I Overcame My “Monkey Mind”

Yogas chitta vrutti nirodhaha
~ Patanjali Sutras

Yoga is the absolute mastery over all the thought-waves arising in the mind

When I first entered the spiritual path, I was not interested primarily in meditation. Oh, meditation was nice as an idea, a kind of delightful fantasy of yogis and yoginis meditating peacefully in the forest. But my main interest was in things like devotion, chanting, or selfless service — things that involved a healthy dose of mental or physical activity. Because I had read about the importance of meditation, I did try half-heartedly to meditate, but I never was able to achieve any kind of concentration, peace or bliss.

I tried some different styles of meditation, but nothing seemed to stick. I ended up deciding that meditation simply wasn’t for me, and that I would reach the ultimate state in some other way, like devotion or service.

Then I met Amma.

Even the first few times I attended Amma’s programs, I started to glimpse the real possibility of actually meditating. It wasn’t because of any of Amma’s teachings, although the teachings were beautiful, profound, and inspiring. It was rather the state of consciousness I found myself in, and what I experienced from Amma’s process of meditation. I can remember now, how incredibly peaceful and calm I felt, just from listening to Amma’s discourse, even though much of the time she was speaking in Telugu. Instead of feeling bored from not understanding a single word of Telugu, I found myself entering into a state of blissful serenity just from listening to the sound of her voice.

Periodically, Amma would pause in her discourse to lead the audience in a bhajan, usually one she had composed herself that illustrated her topic. Her sweet voice sounded like that of a nightingale; listening to her sing was like being showered with blissful nectar. When Amma asked everyone to meditate for ten minutes for world peace, I settled in for the usual battle of trying to quiet my mind. To my surprise, I found that for once my mind was peaceful and quiet. To help everyone meditate, a meditation CD was being played. The recorded sound of Amma chanting the Saraswati Mantra led me effortlessly into a deeper state of meditation than I was accustomed to.

By the end of the ten minutes, I could feel a powerful concentration of energy in the area of the sacred ajna chakra, a subtle energy center situated between the eyebrows. I had always had trouble meditating, so I was surprised that simply sitting in Amma’s presence had allowed me to glide so easily into a relatively thought-free state. I immediately saw the potential in this type of meditation, which is known as “mantra meditation,” or mantra dhyanam in Sanskrit.

Normally, my mind is actually capable of intense focus and deep concentration. But I only achieve this concentration through focused activity, like reading a book or working on a craft or artistic creation (or writing!). When I was a girl, I used to lose myself in reading for hours a day. Once, I gave my parents a huge scare. They took me to a large department store, and I brought a book with me. Slipping away, I crawled underneath a circular clothing rack and proceeded to read my book in peace. When my parents noticed my absence, they had me paged. Repeatedly. Even though my name was being called loudly over the loudspeaker, I didn’t hear a thing, as I was so absorbed in the book. When I finally emerged 45 minutes later, I had no idea what the “fuss” was all about. In my mind, hardly any time had passed, and I could declare in all innocence that I hadn’t heard a thing!

But when I sit down for meditation, my mind, which is accustomed to lots of intense activity, keeps moving from thought to thought. It turns out that the best way for me to keep my mind focused and relatively thought-free is to practice mantra meditation. This is a very useful compromise between sitting down and hoping my thoughts will eventually peter out, and completely giving up on meditation!

What I Mean by Mantra Meditation

So what exactly IS mantra meditation? Well, let me explain my terms a little first. A mantra is usually a short statement in Sanskrit, like “Om namah sivaya,” or the famous Gayatri Mantra. These mantras have grammatical structure, and can be translated. Of course, the true significance of a mantra is not its literal or grammatical meaning. Rather, the true significance is its profoundly purifying and energizing effect. Amma explains that a true mantra is a collection of sacred sounds that results in universal peace, happiness, and liberation.

There are other mantras that don’t have grammatical meaning, and are rather a collection of divine names or powerful sounds. An example of this would be “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare….” And when I say meditation, I’m referring to a sitting practice that aims to reduce thoughts in order to reveal the divine consciousness that exists within us all.

So in mantra meditation, one sits still with closed eyes, and silently repeats a Sanskrit mantra in order to focus the mind and reduce mental chatter. Keep in mind, one does not repeat the mantra constantly. Some may be familiar with the practice of mantra japa, in which a mantra is repeated out loud or mentally for a set number of times, usually while keeping count with prayer beads.

In mantra meditation, the goal is not to complete a set number of repetitions or recite constantly. The goal is to recite the mantra a few times, and then glide naturally into a relatively thought-free state. If thoughts return, one recites the mantra several more times. If the mind is silent, though, there’s no need to keep reciting the mantra.

Mantra is the Key to Deeper States of Meditation

So that’s the key: the mantra is used in meditation only to help focus and still the mind, resulting in the goal of pure and deep meditation blissfully free from those annoyingly intrusive thoughts. Amma explains that the mantra contains powerful and divine sounds, which have the power to magnetically attract the mind and hold its attention. I can personally vouch that mantras are extremely effective in attracting, soothing, and calming the mind. All of my most powerful meditations have happened either while practicing mantra meditation or while listening to others chanting in Sanskrit.

In future posts, I’ll talk more about how exactly to go through the meditation process in a way that ensures best results, as well as the significance of different mantras used in meditation. For now, I just want to introduce the concept of mantra meditation as a practice and how it helped me in my goal of achieving true meditation. For those who would like to try it out, Amma has recorded some wonderful meditation CDs that really help beginners to enter into this powerful practice. Even though I’m thoroughly familiar with this technique, I still like to listen to the CDs during meditation, simply because the sound of Amma’s voice is just so incredibly soothing. For more information about the CDs, please see below.

I’ve tried to discuss a little of how mantra meditation affects me, and what it means to me, but really, I can’t describe in words how much peace and inner purification I’ve experienced through this practice. I believe that absolute purity and perfection dwells within all of us, but we must do a little cleansing before we can experience it and merge in the supreme divine consciousness of God. Meditation, especially mantra meditation, is an incredibly powerful way of cleansing the mind and subtle energy chakras, such that the inner divinity shines through clearly.

Some Powerful Meditation Tools from Amma Karunamayi

Durjanah sajjano bhuyat sajjanah shantim apnuyat
Shanto muchyeta bandhebhyo muktash chanyan vimochayet
~ Vedic Prayer

May any cruel and vicious beings become gentle and kind. May the kind and good people attain true peace. May the peaceful beings attain the highest liberation, and may the liberated ones lead all others to perfect enlightenment