Wow its been a month (almost) from the last time I posted...!
I humbly apologize for my inconsistency in posting articles.
The basics, to my knowledge, is that one chooses a mantra/affirmation/prayer/verse that they believe strongly in (or are trying to believe in) and meditate on that by simply focusing all their energy in the process of chanting.
Jumping into today's article, I'm here to share my experience with Mantra Meditation, which is so much more simpler than it sounds.
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| for representational purposes only |
The basics, to my knowledge, is that one chooses a mantra/affirmation/prayer/verse that they believe strongly in (or are trying to believe in) and meditate on that by simply focusing all their energy in the process of chanting.
The beauty is, this method is so simple and easy, requiring very little effort and can even be done purely by listening to the chanting (though actually chanting it gives a much better feel).
Now this chanting can be done by oneself or in a sangha (a community) and I highly recommend community chanting because:
1) It gives you motivation to repeat the process and make it an integral part of your routine
2) It gives you a sense of accountability because you feel obligated to show up for the chanting session even on those days where you feel sluggish, hence eliminating procrastination
3) It gives you a sense of belonging, brotherhood and acceptance, since all your fellow chanters who have turned up for the session would all have come with the one motto of chanting.
4) It's just so much more enjoyable that way.
So, how did I get into Mantra Chanting with a Sangha?
The process was made extremely easy for me by my cousin, who was already part of said community and casually mentioned it to me one day, as one of his evening activities and it struck me as a very productive way of spending my usually laid back evenings.
(Also, the lockdown had gotten to me and I was desperate to do something out of the ordinary, mundane routine I was accustomed to)
So I enthusiastically enquired if I could take part and chip in my voice to this chanting session and the deal was sealed.
Come evening, I excitedly got ready with the verse book, a fresh face smeared with the holy ash of vibhuthi, and my phone connecting me to the virtual sangha.
The session started and, to be honest, my initial excitement kind of weened off and left me feeling slightly demotivated since I was a complete beginner to this prayer and had to have my eyes glued to the verse book to correctly chant it, even then chanting at snail's pace, while the rest of the group was reeling off their well practiced verses, in total sync.
30 minutes later, I gratefully exited the session and ran to my refuge of dinner, to distract myself from this perceived disaster.
"You were a failure...you were stupid...you were dumb...you knew nothing", were some of the not-so-nice things my mind was screaming at me.
Having a heavy heart and not wanting to dampen the spirits of my overjoyed cousin, I told him very diplomatically that I liked the chanting and would have loved it a lot more if the speed had been slower, to which he very sweetly apologized and regretted that my experience hadn't been enjoyable.
I wanted to back out. I wanted to say "Okay I had fun and sorry I don't think I'll be joining after this.." and countless other excuses my monkey mind could think of, to avoid this situation in future.
And I went to sleep with these highly optimistic thoughts swimming in my subconscious, planning to inform him the next day.
The next morning though, my cousin casually asked me to let him know if I would be joining that evening so that he could reduce the speed of chanting to help me catch up.
This gesture touched me on so many levels.
Here I was, trying to back out of a situation just because it felt highly uncomfortable and there he was, trying everything at his disposal to genuinely help me enjoy the session better.
The offer of reducing the chanting pace also nudged me in the right direction and I gave my word that I would be present in that evening's session, which turned out to be so much more enjoyable especially because of the reduced pace in chanting, not to mention the high hit of dopamine I got at the end when I realized I had achieved something not within my comfort zone!
So, long story short, I continued with those daily evening 30 minute sessions (some times lip syncing to the verses to catch up) and gave it my all. A few tries later, I got decently adept at chanting the verses (which is bound to happen when you chant the same 100 lines every day) and felt good about myself.
Apart from these self esteem boosting benefits, I became aware of the overall increase in my general mental and emotional health as a result of mantra chanting.
I preface this by saying that during my mantra chanting time, I would request everyone in the home not to disturb the chanting (for which they were only too happy to oblige, enthusiastic to do anything if it helped push me become more ostensibly attuned with God)
And hence those 30 minutes of my otherwise mundane day sort of became my way of recharging myself by giving me a peaceful, predictable space where I could completely let my guard down mentally and just be present in that moment, leaving aside any stress or worries I may have harbored.
I also had a childlike fascination with mantras and would imagine them to act as a sort of protective armor, shielding me from any unwanted influences.
So, the combination of having a physically calm space + an emotionally peaceful & safe space during the chanting , over time, trained my brain to associate chanting with calm, peace and safety, to the point where I would automatically start murmuring random verses from the mantras whenever I felt stressed or overwhelmed.
Might be my belief in meditation, might be the power of these mantras, might be the power of sangha chanting, might be a combination of all these three, but my take away is pure and utter gratitude for having this as a regular practice.
Cheers to many more meditations to come!
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Here are the links to the mantras we chant (sourced from internet):
(The 1000 names of Lord Vishnu)
(Prayer to end the chanter's suffering)
(Calls on Lord Hanuman for protection)
(Prayer to remove any illness of chanter)
Here is the audio of each chant (sourced from YouTube):
And as a bonus, this is a lovely explanation (3 hours discourse) of the Vishnu Sahasranamam (sourced from YouTube):
I own none of these links and do not claim to be their creator either... these are the links I found to be useful during my mantra chanting and I am thankful to their respective creators for having created their respective content.
All pictures have been linked to their original sources.