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Thread: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

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    How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Namaste,
    I am new to Sanatana Dharma (as you probably know) one of the things about me is that I am a perfectionist and my own critic. I feel like I am doing the Mantras wrong. If you guys would please give some guidance on how to pray the mantras.

    Thank You Very Much

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Namaste Shakti,

    Welcoem to the forum !

    Your signature has become laughable due to wrong translation. In "I bow to you" "bow" is used for doing "PranAm" and not "Dhanush" which is used with an arrow.

    OM
    "Om Namo Bhagvate Vaasudevaye"

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Namaste Shakti,

    Do you mean to chant the mantras?

    If that's what you mean, then the first step would be silencing your mind. Once it's calm and clear, close your eyes and focus your thoughts on the God or mantra or whatever you're chanting for. You should feel that Divine Energy in you.

    Just my two cents worth. Perhaps a more knowledgeable member can explain it further.

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Quote Originally Posted by 4Shakti View Post
    Namaste,
    I am new to Sanatana Dharma (as you probably know) one of the things about me is that I am a perfectionist and my own critic. I feel like I am doing the Mantras wrong. If you guys would please give some guidance on how to pray the mantras.

    Thank You Very Much
    Namaste,

    In whatever way is most comfortable to you. It should always be done with great devotion and love and with deep concentration, though.

    OM

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Vannakkam 4Shakti: Within Hinduism, there are many viewpoints and schools of thought, ranging from Orthodox traditional to syncretic liberal. There are also many many sects, sampradayas (schools) within sects, and individual teacher interpretations, along with varied combinations of all of the above. Individuals are free to listen to one or two or twenty ideas.

    As to tolerance of other points of view, we have the same range. Some people tolerate all views, recognising it is really 'to each his own' and others are strictly adamant their way, whether it be orthodox, or incredibly liberal, is still the 'right' way.

    This idea of 'mantra recitation' is no different than many other concepts in this regard. So you will get many answers to all questions, and I believe this place called HDF more or less reflects that.

    Its like you going shopping at the mall for clothes. (I thought you might relate to that analogy) Do you purchase the first item you try on, or do browse until you find something you like, and makes sense?

    My personal point of view is twofold.. The first is the traditional one ... a mantra will be 1000 times more effective if it is given to you by a qualified Guru/teacher in the right place at the right time, (you're ready) in an initiation ceremony before Gods in a Hindu temple, hence getting the blessings of Gods and Guru. This is the traditional way.

    Secondly, unless you stumble upon and accidentally recite some powerful mantra meant for some other purpose (highly unlikely given correct pronuncition is involved, and such mantras are kept secret) you can do yourself no harm, yet not all that much good either, given the first view above. In this sense, I would suggest sticking to a safe mantra like 'Aum' in and by itself. It can be very calming.

    Of course, its a free country, and you can do whatever the heck you want really. I think it depends on what you want from Hinduism ... a fun and interesting time for awhile, or great benefit from following a traditional path, .... or ... something in between.

    Aum Namasivaya
    Last edited by Eastern Mind; 20 May 2012 at 10:52 AM.

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    Namaste

    There are talked about 4 levels of speech.

    Vaikhari - gross.
    Madhyama - middling (mental, perhaps from the range of subvocalizations to internal dialogues/monologues)
    Pashyanti - conceptual (cognitions, or the reflections of cognitions
    Para - Transcendental

    Beyond this there is sometimes mentioned a 5th level corresponding to Mula Prakriti, said to reside in the heart (where Para is also sometimes said to reside, though most sources say the Muladhara)

    The distinction between Para Vak and Mula Prakriti is not a clear one (at least, for me.)

    In any case, this levels of speech are important, because in order for mantra to be efficacious, several requirements must be satisfied.

    1. Empowerment of the mantra by guru. It is possible to have an empowered mantra without a physical guru. One may have sufficient devotion to ishvar(a/i) to receive mantra directly. One's self as one's own guru may give initiation to oneself, and mantra, in exceptional cases.

    2. Enunciation of the mantra on as many levels of speech as possible, and beyond the physical gross mouth/tongue. There is a wonderful story (I cannot remember where, if anyone else does, please post the reference!) about Narada journeying in his celestial fashion to the time and place of Kurukshetra to complain to Vishnu/Krishna about spending so much time and effort with the mere impious mortal Arjuna rather than him, the perfect devotee who is always inwardly and outwardly reciting the Lord's name. When he gets there he is further irked to see Krishna, in his role as charioteer, rubbing down the horses and attending to them in preparation for the next day's battle.

    He complains to Krishna "Why are you spending so much time with this impious man who, while engaging in the sin of killing all day, has not even taken your name once?"

    Krishna eventually coaxes Narada over to the sleeping Arjuna, where he is astonished to hear the subtle voices of Arjuna's pores reciting Krishna's name.

    The point of this story is to go beyond mere mouth, sub-vocal or mental recital, and to use the 'mouths' and 'tongues' of the subtle bodies and all their parts.

    Indeed, it may be preferable to avoid use of the actual mouth/tongue at all so that one can maintain khecari mudra.


    3. Dhyan yoga. Mantra is accompanied with deity visualization yoga.


    4. Philosophical understanding, and integration into practice. What I mean by this is that, most mantras are constructed of bijas (seed syllables), which beyond their assembled word meaning also are imbued with raw, or more subtle, energy.

    Each bija is correlated to, or is, a deity. The deity themselves is possessed of many attributes, infinite in variety and scope, though with each distinct deity, distinct attributes are emphasized for the benefit of the sadhaka into whose temple-mind raw divinity clothes itself in human form and concepts in order to destroy conceptuality itself, and ultimately the sense of individuality.


    Bijas themselves are constructed of varnas (letters) themselves correlated with deities and/or cosmological principles.

    Because these bijas/varnas involve precise phonetics (otherwise, one bija or varna will be indistinguishable from another in practice, when in fact they are very distinct), pronunciation is important. Views differ on whether it is essential.

    An understanding of more esoteric concepts such as the varnamala, or the a-ka-tha trikona (please reference these here or elsewhere for more) can also be of aid if, and really only if, they can be integrated into practice and/or spontaneous experience (which often becomes a template for praxis). This involves contemplation on the bijas as non-different from their devata, the nature of Vak, Shabda, and their non-differentiation from brahman/ishvara, which causes the contemplation to, with sufficient reverence, transform into absorption (samadhi).

    Laya yoga, an esoteric subtle body system present - in varying forms - in many of the sanatana dharma's traditions, as well as the nastika derivatives (ie, vajrayana buddhism), causes the deity to be visualized as components of the subtle bodies, correlated to planes of existence present, or with spheres of influence, in the physical body.


    Ultimately, mantra is god - shabdabrahman (sound-being-that-is-all.) Sound, as the etheric medium from which the tangible elements emerge and are subsumed into, is the gross form of god (Ishwara, Shabdabrahman, the object of our dhyan yoga until the stages of samadhi). But this gross ether is correlated only to gross sound, with many higher levels of shabda being explicated.

    John Woodroffe, and others, have written on this topic such as in his book "The Garland of Letters" of particular importance, with the opening chapters discussing the finer points of the theory of Shabda.

    May this be helpful to you and others.

    Namaste

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    Re: How to Pray Mantras Correctly

    I would like to add to the above a point I missed regarding the Heart. Enough cannot be said about the importance of the Heart as the sacramental chamber. Though the subtle, they ultimately posit that the supreme resides not at the crown, or even above as in the case of some, but in the heart of hearts.

    This in mind, practitioners are exhorted to pray from the heart, in addition to centering all other activities and perceptions (and their corresponding organs jnanendriyas, the organs of perception, and karmendriyas, the organs of action) such that when one listens, it is with the heart moreso than the ear.

    For a good explanation of the heart's central importance in one tradition, this link may suffice:
    http://books.google.com.np/books?id=...page&q&f=false


    Although other sampradayas will differ in their understanding of the heart, the essential points remain: God and Goddess in their highest form (or/and thereof) dwell at the core of the koshas and kayas.

    This core is not necessarily correlated to the actual heart, nor the more usual heart chakra; the anahata (unstruck, meaning unstruck sound, the eternal sound, the self-manifesting sound, which in its gross manifestation is 'embodied' or 'ensounded' in the pranava, Aum).

    It, being far beyond the spatial (a place of no location), nonetheless takes manifestation at the heart of all objects and subjects.



    Namaste

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