So you would like to get into mantra chanting. You’re in luck—you can’t get it wrong. Mantra chanting isn’t the same thing as singing. You don’t have to be perfect, you simply have to want to open your heart in meditative peace and let your spirit spill out.
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There are a few matters to know about chanting as you start. There are 2 languages for chants sung in the Indian tradition: Sanskrit and Gurmukhi. Sanskrit is the language of Hindu chanting and is utilized by most yogic traditions except Kundalini Yoga, which is taken from the Sikh tradition and has chanting sung in the Gurmukhi language.
Chanting commonly involves repeating a mantra or a prayer. “Man” means mind and “tra” means across, so a mantra is something that's repeatedly crossing your brain to control your thoughts for meditation.
You're giving your hyperactive brain something holy to play with so that it calms. You are able to likewise interpret the word to mean a phrase which helps you to cross over your mind to get to your heart.
The words of a mantra are a vessel that takes you across the sea of your mind to arrive at the lands of the divine.
Repeating these words aloud has a particular effect on the body. As you state the mantra, your tongue is hitting meridian points on the top of the upper palate of the mouth, which impacts the energies going to other glands like the hypothalamus, the pineal, and the pituitary.
By arousing these meridian points, you're physically producing the effect of relaxation and a modified state of consciousness.
When you first begin, don’t worry about your pronunciation and don’t fret about hitting the correct notes. All of this will come with time. Chanting involves so much repeating, that you pick things up sooner or later.
It may be useful to look up the words of the mantra, because some of the times the sounds are so foreign to the average westerner that your brain gets a bit confused.
However do not become caught up in perfection as you're starting out…all sounds made to the divine are great sounds.
The most crucial thing in chanting is your heart. Open it up wide. Ride the sound current like a wave. Feel the infinite divine right here, right now, within of you.
