——————————THE POWER OF MANTRA————————

                                                                      Part-1

Introduction

Who can chant a mantra

Some important rules(8)

Why 108

Some basic rules(6)

When to start a mantra (6)

 

Vedic mantra is the ancient science originated from Vedas.

The subject of “power of mantras” is completely scientific.The mantra power is a science based on chanting of mantras in a rhythm,on time bound ,Sequence bound basis and disciplined based on certain laws which has the power to influence nature ,matter ,circumstances, 

environment and the universe.

 

First we will discuss who can chant a mantra.Anyone can chant a mantra,no restriction on the basis of gender.But  for a female during her menstrual days ,she should not chant the mantra by using a rosary or a mala.she can chant a mantra without chanting “aum”.Suppose  a female is chanting “aum gang ganapataye namah”,then during her special days she should chant only “gang Ganpataye namah”.On the fourth day of the cycle ,she can chant the  entire mantra and again can start doing puja as before.

 

Some important rules that have  to be followed to get the desired results are—-(1)time,(2)Place,(3)Direction,(4)Seat or asan,(5)Rosary or Mala,(6)Pronunciation,(7)Chanting,(8)Body Posture,(9) Eye position,(10) Concentration.

 

1.TIME-you should chant the mantra at a particular time.Some mantras need to be chanted in early morning,some within two hours of sunrise,some in the evening or after sunset and some mantras have to be chanted at night.You should not chant the mantra when you get time ,so you have to be punctual and particular time.It is advised in our scriptures that the worshipping time should be brahma muhurta,or early morning or evening however some mantras give benefit when chanted at night only.

2.PLACE–The place where you sit and chant the mantra ,it should be a fixed place,Whether it is your temple which you  have installed inside your house or a place which is clean and private.Chanting mantras should not be done where there is disturbance or movement of people is there..

3.SEAT–There are many types of seats or ASANs,a seat knitted with dry grass(kusha asana) a seat made by a piece of blanket.Such Asanas are available in different colors.

4.DIRECTION–when you sit to chant any mantra,your face should be towards north direction or east direction for puja in general,it means if you sit  facing towards north direction your back will be in south direction and when you will sit facing towards east your back will be facing west direction.This is for the general puja or mantra jaap.For any special puja ,i mean shabar mantra or tantrik mantra jaap or dus mahavidya ,the direction ,seat or rosary will be different.

5.ROSARY OR MALA–there are different types of mala of 108 beads.They are made up of Rudraksh,Crystal(sphatik), sandalwood(chandan),red sandalwood(rakta chandan),turmeric(haldi) , lotus seeds(kamal gatta) , besil(tulsi) , pearl(moti) or Coral(Munga).Among all these Rudraksha is used for all purposes .Still followers of lord vishnu or vaishnavites use Basil rosary or Tulsi mala and followers of Lord shiva or shaivites  use Rudraksha(rosary made of aksha nuts) mala for chanting.

For chanting mantra of Goddess Saraswati we should use crystal beads rosary.

For Chanting mantra of Lord Ganesha we should use red sandalwood  or coral beads rosary.

For chanting mantra of Lord Krishna  we should use basil rosary or tulsi mala.

For chanting mantras of Hanuman ji we can use  red coral beads rosary or red sandalwood rosary .

For chanting mantras of Goddess Durga we should use Red sandalwood or Rudraksha beads rosary.

For chanting mantras of Goddess Mahalaxmi we should use  lotus seeds rosary.

If you do not have these special rosary ,then you can chant mantra using Rudraksha beads rosary.

These are known as Mani Mala.(1)

If you do not have any of these beads rosary with you ,then also you can chant any mantra by using a method of counting,that is  Varna mala(2),by writing down the numbers on paper ,but it slows down the speed or pace of chanting.

Another method is Karmala(3),by using your  palm.For lefty people  they can use left hand palm and for others they should use right hand palm for counting 108 times.

You have to chant the mantra for 108 times.so use your palm’s portions,there are three portions in one finger.We have five fingers in one palm.

Little finger,Ring Finger,Middle finger,Index finger and thumb.

Now we will count number 10 using these portions.we will repeat the same procedure for 10 times,so we will count 100 and next 8 we will count l in a little different manner using these portions.

So lets start counting.(start counting from ring finger’s middle portion,go down  .then from lower to upper portion of little finger, keep on counting upper portion of  ring finger,middle finger and index finger and other two portions index finger)

.In this manner we count 10 numbers,now we have to repeat the same cycle of counting to count 100.after completing 100 we have to count 8 ,to complete the cycle of 108.

The next 8 ,we have to start counting 

Start counting from lower portion of ring finger and then move three portions of little finger,then upper portion of ring finger, middle finger and index finger and end up no.8 on middle portion of index finger.

In this way we can count 108 times of a mantra.