In the West, we have come to understand mantra as a pithy phrase or a one word that you repeat to change patterns in your brain.
That is mantra.
Also, mantra throughout the history of yoga was a way to put teachings in your mind. One mantra could be thousands of lines, one mantra could be a few lines, or a mantra could be one sound. You may have been in a yoga class where a teacher 'chanted' or used a mantra at the beginning or end of class to set an intention; possibly they were even using the yoga origin language of Sanskrit.
Listening to mantra in a yoga class is one way to start understanding how it feels. Listening to a chant with the intent to just feel is often how many modern yogin begin their fascination with mantra. In the ancient tradition of yoga, the mantra tradition, sound is vibration. Vibration is experience. So if we want to be in our experiential form, we're going to go through vibration. We're going to go through sound. So often when we’re in a more Western mindset, we're going through a physical form with yoga classes or even a jog outside to get to our energetic and experiential form. These are all methods of learning, they are all good. And it can be super helpful to remember that practices such as mantra can allow us access a type of yoga practice regardless of our physical prowess. It is not as easy to use Warrior 1 pose to calm and center ourselves when stuck in traffic or during a long work meeting, but you can use a silent repetition of mantra to quickly ground yourself in your inner experience and show up as the warrior you choose in those moments.
My primary Sanskrit teacher says the act of chanting is the act of courage. Which may mean that teachers and practitioners alike may expose themselves at various times as non-native Sanskrit speakers. We might not hit the Cambridge standard right on, yet the act of vocalizing, singing, or chanting mantras effects the vishuddha chakra - a vortex of energy in the region of the throat that connects the power of the intellect and compassion. This is why we practice mantras: to connect to our power, intellect, and compassion all at once abandoning ego and just letting it go out with the breath. It's a courageous act.
There are 2 reasons why I find Sanskrit particularly useful in yoga as both a practitioner and a teacher:
1- When we intentionally and carefully speak Sanskrit in yoga practice and classes we honor the roots of yoga as being connected to ancient practices and languages that pre-date our assumed understanding of yoga as it is taught to us now through various different formats including YouTube and TikTok. Now many of the deeper and divine intentions of a yoga practice can get lost, quite literally, in translation.
2- Most modern western yogin were raised speaking English as our primary language. As we have learned English and it has been part of our lived daily experience, we have added connotations to each word that we use - meanings connected to our family of origin, specific life experiences, or cultural exposure. Those connotations could be inspirational, or they could be triggering. When we use Sanskrit new sounds and new words are being entered into your adult brain through a specific form of energy, spirit, and intention for the purpose of greater awareness and enlightenment.
Ametuer or not, mantra is accessible even in it's original language. This is not to say that there is no technique in mantra at all, we can use a few simple tips to get better at chanting outside of having a private Sanskrit teacher. A lot of very old wisdom was kept accurate through using simple, yet catchy, tunes. What to do if you want to be a student of ancient wisdom but you are not a singer? No worries! You just need to keep track of 3 notes in Vedic chants. No matter your singing voice, you start in the register that works for you with your “om,” after that you only have to keep track of the tone higher of start, and a tone lower than start (in musical notes it could be a whole step note or a half step, or something wildly different, I suppose it depended upon your original teacher and how tone-deaf or operatic they were 🙂 ). For best results, the specific ‘tune’ your teacher gave you was paired with a lot of repetition. Repetition with intonation. Hence, the tremendous various in "tunes" even though we are sharing the same very old Sanskrit words.
The variations in teachers has opened up a very fun modern adaptation of mantra chanting. Because they've been around for thousands of years, you can go to Spotify or to Apple Music or wherever else you listen to music and type in the first line of a given mantra or chant to find multitudes of variations and songs. Literal songs. (Mantra translated one way also means song. Hymn would also be another translation). This is a way you can learn chants without a sanskrit teacher and appreciate vibration and energy of ancient wisdom in a contemporary context. You can chant on your meditation pillow or you can sing along in your car and you will be developing the same energetic benefit of a thousand years old tradition.
If you are a visual learner, find as many different poetic translations as you can. Read up on the more common mantras and see what people are saying about them. Start to connect new meaning to sounds that you are embodying in class, in your car, or during your meditation. And if you find a teacher you connect with who chants, see if they lead any trainings or workshops where they break it down.
Here is a sample of one mantra used during Complete Yoga Training's "Yoga Wellness and Discipline" where you can learn through call and response in weekend trainings from a well practiced teacher of Sanskrit:
Join Complete Yoga Training throughout the year in beautiful O'ahu Hawai'i to develop your own chanting practice along with deeper knowledge of yoga practice and philosophy.
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