If you are searching for God, any name of God is a mantra. If you know the significance of the mantra, you will feel more comfortable.
When you know the meaning, you know what you are doing ... but without knowing, it can also become clear. Mantra means "that which can take one out of the flow of life's miseries". It's a very beautiful thing; it has that power. Mantra is for the awakening of the Self.
If something is good for you it doesn't have to be a secret. Every tradition, every sect has something good. Sometimes we are so complicated that to become a good person we have to follow a sect or a tradition and give our life to that. After 15, 30, 50 years, your seed will grow. If the method is to repeat five mantras, give your life to that and be patient; maybe your seed can grow.
Now nothing is secret, everything is written in the scriptures. Look up the Internet and you will find everything, but there is one thing more beautiful and that is the touch of a person. In these days there is no need of teachers, of schools because the Internet is there, but the touch of a teacher is needed because there are many things that we cannot learn from machines. The master's purpose is to give you a special touch, a touch that the Internet cannot give you. The touch of the master is important to give you the mantra because it has some vibration, some energy, some force. It is not a visible thing.
Reciting mantras, sometimes aloud and other times silently, could impact our psychology positively. Our psychology is always changing: we feel good, we feel bad. When something inside us starts speaking, we can repeat mantras and all our problems finish. Suppose we are very fearful and it's dark. We are alone and we have fear; our mind tells us, "Chant a mantra" and we start chanting and our fear goes away.
Psychologically, we need is some support, some help. The whole process is therapy.
When we respond negatively to people and situations, we set in motion a negative trend in our entire body system.
All our emotions are electro-chemically charged and intrinsically connected to the endocrine, nervous and immune systems through our thoughts and feelings. If the systems are negatively charged, they set in motion a chain of negative reactions. Hence we need to respond carefully to situations in life.
When American journalist Norman Cousins, became very ill his doctors, finding the prognosis poor, had to give up on him. In a few days, he would be gone. In his state of illness, Norman Cousins was convinced that negative emotions have negative physical consequences just positive emotions will impact the body in a positive way. So he rented really humorous movies and began watching them regularly
He noticed that he was able to sleep more without the aid of sleeping pills. The pain that was excruciating was reducing. He was now less dependent on painkillers. Once he became well, he wrote of his experience in the British Medical Journal.
Art Mathias was allergic to hundreds of food items including fibre. He could wear only cotton clothing, and these were expensive. The prognosis being bad, doctors reluctantly gave up on him.
One day, he listened to a teaching on forgiveness and simply decided to forgive those who hurt him. He suddenly realised from that day he could eat many foods, to which he was allergic. Even his skin allergies stopped. Behind this phenomenal healing was the major shift he made in his thinking, that is, to move from harbouring bitterness to forgive and bless those who hurt him.
For both Norman and Art, the turning point was their attitude towards health and hurts. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2002 that one out of every three persons, who went to consult doctors for a common symptom got diagnosed with some form of mental illness arising from anger and depression. To a large extent, many of us suffer a degree of anger and depression. A great many of our physical sicknesses could be avoided if we could only change our attitudes.
In our reactions to failures and disappointments, which are bound to occur, it is good to make an effort to avoid bitterness, anger and resentment. Neurologists tell us that the neuron, which is the basic unit of the brain, was created by God for love. When you and I experience God's love and find others to express our love, every organ in our body will function to its optimum level. Hope and confidence itself will produce positive energy in the body.
