Om Bhur Bhuvah Swah… say what?

A short story about my experience with chanting mantras

Chanting can be challenging for most of us, unless you’re a singer or used to sing among other people. It can be specially embarrassing if you have no idea of what you’re singing, right?

Probably you already saw yourself on a yoga class, where everyone seems to know what they’re saying while singing mantras in Sanskrit.

Well, I’m here to tell you about my experience with mantras and maybe my story can help you to have a different impression about chanting.

I was first introduced to mantras by my dearest teacher in Brazil, José Luiz (also known as Zé). Actually, he was the guy who brought me to the path of yoga, but this is another story - I love my teachers here in the Netherlands, BUT for sure, I miss Zé!

So, back to mantras. When I first started singing the Gayatri Mantra with Zé, I didn’t know its meaning, but while I was singing it, I experienced an amazing feeling of peace and a joyful vibration on my chest. That’s what mantras were for me by that time, a way to create a certain vibration on my body that would made me feel good.

With time, I found out mantras can be a powerful tool to calm down my mind. And here are the good news: if you’re not interested on weird Sanskrit words and what they mean, you can use them as a tool for concentration and meditation. With the repetition of the mantra, we give our mind something to work on and when our mind has something to concentrate on, it gets calm and settled. This way, we are able to step aside and take some rest from our “monkey mind”.

After a while, I started to search for the meanings of the mantras I learned and a few of them resonated with me, and others not that much. And, if you also get interested in the meanings of mantras, you’ll probably be pleased to know that they are part of a Bhakti practice. Bhakti can be translated as devotion, which means that chanting mantras are also a form of devotion. Many mantras are dedicated to Hindu Gods and Goddesses, like Brahma, Vishnu, Krisna, Shiva, Ganesha, Kali, Saraswati and many others.

Ok, now you’re probably asking me if they are some sort of prayer or what kind of devotion I am talking about. If you are not a religious person, don’t worry, it’s not necessary religion related, unless you want it to be and that’s totally fine!

For me, at first it was kind of difficult to disconnect the mantras from the religious aspect where they come from. But once, one of my teachers told something in class that made clear for me what I was trying to understand for a while: all of the Gods and Goddesses and most of the mantras represent characteristics that are actually intrinsic qualities of all of us. For example, when we chant to Brahma, we chant to what Brahma represents, which is creation. So, chanting a mantra to Brahma would be a devotional moment to the creational potential that exists in each one of us. Chanting a mantra to Ganesh would be an inspiration to our inner strength to overcome difficulties. And the list goes on.

Today, I have mantras as part of my practice and I keep in mind this three aspects of chanting: I enjoy the sounds and vibration it causes in my body, I give my mind something to concentrate on, and lastly, I search inside myself the qualities described by the meanings of the mantra.

I hope you can find your own way to incorporate mantras in your practice and enjoy the chanting experience!

In case you wonder, the first mantra I learned is still my favorite one, here it is in Sanskrit, a simple translation and a beautiful chanting version:

Om Bhur Bhuvah Swah
Tat-savitur Vareñyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat

May the divine light of the Supreme Being illuminate our intellect, to lead us along a path of righteousness.