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“A mantra is not just something to chant. It is not chanting. A mantra is something to let sink deep in your being, just as roots go deep into the earth. The deeper the roots go into the earth, the higher the tree will go into the sky.”

–Osho

The mantras that we chant are in Sanskrit – a sacred language of ancient India that is no longer spoken.  The mantras were created by the rishis (wise ones) as paths to awareness, using the power of particular sounds to create specific energy responses.

In Sanskrit, ‘man’ means mind and ‘tra’ means ‘to free from’, so ‘mantra’ is literally a tool to free the mind.

Mantras are energetic sound formulas. Sanskrit carries the essence of the object or quality it describes. It is not descriptive, as is our language – it is the actual sound equivalent of the manifestation. Hence, ananda, chanted repeatedly, will bring one into a state of bliss, because ananda is the essential sound of bliss.

Traditionally, mantras are chanted in cycles of 108 repetitions. Why the number 108? According to the Vedic scriptures, our physical and subtle bodies contain 108 major nadis, or energy channels. When we chant a mantra 108 times, that sound vibration can fill all of the energy lines in our bodies and balance them. The more we chant one particular sound vibration, the more we tune ourselves to that vibration.

As we move deeper into the power of these ancient sound formulas, we also invite you to spend some time each day bathing in the silence that so naturally follows the chanting.  These moments of silence lead us towards the most precious gift of inner peace.