I’m working with bija mantras but the trouble is it leaves me open and unable to defend myself. Mainly they are the lam vam ram yam ham om aum. my teacher advised that I practice before meditation. are there good bija mantras for protection? Durga maybe?
[QUOTE=Tadvanam;52383]I’m working with bija mantras but the trouble is it leaves me open and unable to defend myself. Mainly they are the lam vam ram yam ham om aum. my teacher advised that I practice before meditation. are there good bija mantras for protection? Durga maybe?[/QUOTE]
From my notes it is said the Durga mantra protects from ‘negative influences.’
[B]Om Dum Durgayei Namaha[/B]
I haven’t tried it. I’m curious to know what you find in your adventures. I haven’t explored much using sound so I’m a total noob on this.
Perhaps the Gayatri could be tried as well.
What do you see? In what manner is the manifestation?
actually it’s not what I see but more what I feel and know. working with the bija mantras I have experienced shri krishna come as love. But mainly they leave me very open. I’m not sure how to explain it. also it is interesting to note that after practice of all the mantras I feel very nurished and do not require much food. thanks for the input. I’ll see about getting initiation into the durga mantra
[QUOTE=Tadvanam;52410]actually it’s not what I see but more what I feel and know. working with the bija mantras I have experienced shri krishna come as love. But mainly they leave me very open. I’m not sure how to explain it. also it is interesting to note that after practice of all the mantras I feel very nurished and do not require much food. thanks for the input. I’ll see about getting initiation into the durga mantra[/QUOTE]
Sounds to me like your stirring up ’ stuff’ or ‘junk’ associated with the subtle centers due to your work focusing on them and working with sound. It’s like stirring the pot. Tough telling what may come bubbling up.
You say “left open and unable to defend myself”
This brings to mind, as a response, the words of Patanjali. "the modifications of the mind can be controlled by practice and detachment.
Detachment. Dispassion. Non-Attachment. Non - Clinging.
Not giving a flip.
These kinds of mantras, which are not of a single syllable, have absolutely no quality in themselves. They will mean whatsoever one wants them to mean. And their effectiveness has far less to do with the mantra itself, it is one’s own mind which is capable of using them as a skillful means towards one’s transformation. Because what the symbols are, are irrelevant. It is because of your own attitude towards it, that it can become a potent instrument. A Christian bowing down before the cross with devotion - the cross has no meaning in itself, but because one has linked the cross with an idea of devotion, now that symbol invokes that same idea into the mind. And this is how one’s unconscious works, once a link is created between a symbol and an idea, now that symbol acquires a certain force of it’s own which can be used towards one’s expansion. But it is largely because of your own doing. You can even invent your own mantra, in your own language, and if one has created a strong enough association, one will find them to be just as effective.
It is not something special about Sanskrit language that somehow the mantras have some particular effect. Sanskrit language is human invention, as is any language. But there are fanatic Hindus who are clinging to the idea that Sanskrit is some divine language which is handed down from the devas. The same is the case with the Jews, they also believe that Hebrew is a divine language which has been transmitted to man through angels. And yet whether in Hebrew, or in Sanskrit, Prakrit, in Pali, or in English, with the right inner atmosphere, all the mantras work just as well.
It is one’s own consciousness which impregnates the mantra with a certain energy. Be careful to cling to this idea that by simply concentrating upon a mantra mechanically, without the proper spirit flowing through one’s concentration, that it is going to be capable of triggering any change within oneself.