How to Do Long Mantras Faster

How to Do Long Mantras Faster by Swami Veda Bharati Often there are questions about the minds ability to do japa of the long mantras with effectiveness when they have only a limited time available. Many people take something like half an hour to complete one round of the mala of the Mrityunjaya mantra, for example. Similarly, with the Gayatri mantra. At that speed, if they undertake a purash-charana, a long observance of completing the japa of 125,000 repetitions plus twenty percent of that number, it will take years. So how can these long mantras be done with some saving in time? There is a principle called ardha-matra, half a mora. A mora is the time we take to pronounce a short vowel. One learns to pronounce it in half that time. Here we are not speaking of articulation, uttering it with the mouth, nor even silently while still engaging the speech organs. Many people doing silent japa still permit it to come into the speech organs, throat, larynx or a moving tongue, even with sealed lips. Doing the mantra fast with the mouth will only increase tension and will not serve the purpose of deepening the meditation. There is the principle of ardha-matra: Half a mora -- again and again. The principle of ardha-matra can be understood only if we know the nature of mind as explained above, the idea that mind is not just made up of one layer. It has many, many layers vibrating at different frequencies and this force field called the mind becomes subtler and subtler and subtler at deeper and deeper layers. At these deeper layers the frequency of the minds vibration incrementally becomes higher and higher. It is taught in the Tantras that the mantra may thus be refined nine times, thus 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16 1/32 1/64 1/128 1/256 1/512 Even in the subtle point of life force and consciousness in the sahasrara chakra, in the highest center of the thousand rays, even within that bindu there are nine levels. All of that is part of the ardha-matra system. One starts with the time it takes to mentally remember a short vowel, the mora, and then reduces it by half, and then half of that and then half of that, leading to higher and higher frequency vibrations. When you sit for your meditation, let there arise a sankalpa in your mind, a quiet resolve, not a loud determination but a very, very quiet resolve. A resolve like the sure and quiet

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one a person feels when s/he wants to commit oneself in love. Just simply realize this something within, that way. At each stage, each state, each phase of mediation, renew that resolve. Dont make that resolve for the next half hour, but for the next minute. Dont say, I shall not permit, but rather, gently, for the next minute, there shall not arise any intruding thoughts; I shall experience only the even flow of my breath. Just as we learned to resolve to close the gaps in our breathing process through a one minute practice, try this quiet resolve to have no intruding thoughts for one minute starting right now. How was that minute? Now resolve in your mind that for the next one minute there will be no intruding thoughts except the presence of your shorter personal mantra, coming like a thought-wave repeating itself, a wave into which there will be no intruding thoughts for the next minute. Now resolve once again in your mind that for the next one minute there will be no intruding thought; you will only feel the flow of your breath in your nostrils with the presence of your mantra. Now keeping that state of mind, resolve to do two repetitions of the Gayatri mantra: Om bhur buvah svah tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. Keep the same state of mind you were in during the one-minute following the resolve; go there and resolve that during these two repetitions of the thought wave called the Gayatri there will be no intruding, interrupting thought. Now begin. Tha t was one minute. In that one minute a yogi can do the Gayatri twenty-one times or many more because s/he goes into a higher frequency deep in the mind. Now attempt to do the long mantra keeping the words even with the breath, dividing the mantra over several breaths. Take the fragment Om bhur buvah svah. Do that and see how long it takes. For the initial practice, do just that fragment in one exhalation however many times it fits in that exhalation. Similarly, you will try on your own with the second fragment, tat savitur varenyam, and the third segment, bhargo devasya dhimahi, and the fourth segment, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. Try segment-by-segment with the same kind of resolve that we made earlier with the shorter mantra, permitting no intruding thoughts. It is the intruding thoughts that not only bring you to the lower frequency, the shallower level of the mind, but by intruding between mantra and mantra, they slow down your japa. So eliminating intruding thoughts by these short periods of resolve will help. Recall again and again the state you experienced when you went to the slightly higher frequency level for one minute, and keep going back to that. Gradually you may increase

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the period of the resolve to two minutes and so on. Let the Entire Mantra Flash as a Single Unit Now relax completely. Let your breath settle down. Let your personal mantra come in your mind. Do not let the mantra come word for word, syllable by syllable. Let the entire mantra flash as a single unit as though your mind is a clear sky with one single star flashing, flashing, flashing. Now let the first segment of Gayatri flash the same way. Let the second segment of Gayatri flash and then the third segment. And the fourth segment. T he entire segment as a single unit. Now the first and the second segment together. The third and the fourth segments flashing as a thought-wave. Remain there. And now let the entire mantra be done. Gradually your practice will improve as the mind learns to enter its own higher and higher frequency levels.

Let the Mind Observe the Mind There is one more secret for deepening meditation and at the same time learning to do the long mantra. Observe the mind. Let the mind observe the mind. Observe the presence of the mantra. The part of the mind that is being employed to experience the thought-wave at present is a small fragment of the mind. The rest of the mind wanders off. That remainder of the mind should be employed in observing, and gradually, the doer and the observer will merge. Those who have been initiated into a chakra will find a certain vibration in that chakra and will learn to merge their consciousness. Sit in grace and surrender. Not by your effort alone will you reach total pacification, enlightenment. Your effort only purifies the vessel. Surrender your body, prana and mind so that the Guru spirit may enter and the Guru mind may touch your mind, making your mind one of its meditation seats that it may meditate therein. However, you may not succeed in the practice simply by reading about the technique described above. Seek out a qualified preceptor who will do the transmission of the

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vibration and will help open some of the interior doorways in a personal or small group session.

What we have tried with the Gayatri mantra also works the same way with the Mrityunjaya mantra or any other long mantras whenever they are given to you. May you dive into the deepest layer of mind and beyond. God bless you, Om.

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