As you come here to find meaning to the words, trust that you have an innate ability to directly receive an interpretation beyond the words. There is deep symbolism held within the vibrations of these mantras. You can receive your own personal understanding just by reflecting on the symbolism.
For many years and to this day, I continue to listen to the universal significance and power expressed by these mantras. I tune in and let the mantras show me their meaning. This is a beautiful experience, to be in divine receptivity with these timeless phrases that reveal many facets of Truth, of the Oneness, the diversity, the Infinite aspects of Great Creator and its divine creation.
Mantras and Chants are like personal wayshowers, shepherding us back into the ever-presence of Love and an awareness that all is well!
OM MATA, OM KALI
DURGA DEVI, NAMO NAMAHA
Om Mata – I turn toward Great Mother
Om Kali – I revere you, Kali, great remover of doubt and ignorance
Durga Devi – Mother of creative energy, I feel you rise within me
Namo Namaha – I bow into the depth of knowing your presence and power
GATE GATE
PARA GATE
PARASAM GATE
BODHI SWAHA
Gate gate – gone gone
Para gate – gone beyond
Parasam Gate – gone way beyond (what? the illusion of being separate, small, suffering)
Bodhi swaha – pure awareness is what I am
THERE IS A LIGHT INSIDE
There is a Light inside
I am Thy Light
Oh the womb…oh the womb
Allelu…jah
These words and melody came to me in one of my early morning practices. I had finished some deep pranayama practices, had been studying sacred geometry and was quietly reflecting on the process of cell division after conception. I asked Love to show me what really happens as we come into being, in form. What I saw, what I felt is that we come from Light, Light is our true nature and that Light exists within that all-encompassing infinite space of the dark void. I could feel a penetrating Light within this dark warmth where everything exists before it has taken form.
SHEMA YSRAEL
SHEMA EHAD
ADONOI ELOHEINU
ADONOI EHAD
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!
I include a beautifully rich translation and spiritual interpretation from a Mystic Kabbalah scholar, Rabbi David A. Cooper:
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One”. The emphasis of this statement is oneness. This is the essential culmination of non-duality. It is not referring to the number one, for that would suggest that there are other numbers or that there are no numbers (the idea of zero). This oneness is inclusive, transcending numbers. Embracing all ideas, it holds within it nothingness as well as infinity. It is without limit.
Hear – not with your ears but from the innermost place of truth, that place within that is attuned to the still, small voice
O Israel – the part of each being that yearns to go straight to its Source
(El) The Lord – the transcendent Source beyond infinity
Our God – those divine sparks that compose every particle of the universe, the God-force in everything that is manifest
The Lord – that aspect of the Divine that is unknown and unknowable, that both includes and transcends the entire universe, a force beyond conception
Is One – the transcendent and unknowable force is one and identical with everything that we see and hear and know as reality; nothing and all things are the same!
LOKAH SAMASTAH
SUKINOH BHAVANTU
May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may my thoughts, words and actions contribute to the happiness and freedom for all.
Lokah – location, the realm of all universes existing now
Samastah – all beings sharing the same location
Sukhino – being centered in happiness and joy, free from suffering, our natural state
Bhav – the divine state of unified existence
Antu – may it be so, it is so (antu used as an ending here transforms this mantra into a powerful truth)
OM NAMA SHIVAYA
HARI OM
I come from the All, I have form but I am more than my form. Pure consciousness is what I am. Pure Awareness is not thought, nor thinking and does not involve any working out or reconciling of anything. I am that Pure Awareness. This is the Truth!
ASATOMA SADGAMAYA
TAMASOMA JYOTIRGAMAYA
MYRITYORMA AMRITAMGAMAYA
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI
Lead me from the unreal to the Real
Lead me from darkness into Light
Lead from the poison of ignorance into the nectar of Truth
All is peace, peace…peace
KI KADOSH ANI
…therefore, Holy Am I…
Ki – therefore, because
Kadosh – Holy, the Light of the photons of our Body, the presence of the Shekinah, acknowledging the presence of the Holy Comforter
Ani – I Am, the Great I Am is within me
This chant is wonderfully transcendent of time and thought. It has the power to take me into the realm of the Sacred Feminine aspect of God…the field of spiritual substance from which everything emerges…like a child emerging from the womb of Mother Love, emerging in the pillar of Light.
Within the essence of these words I am drawn into a depth of knowing that I live and move and have my being in and with God, the one power and presence that is simultaneously Light and Love…and the all-encompassing spacious allowing of the void.
It will speak to you through its symbolism. Listening with headphones during meditation or lying in savasana is a great way to receive directly your own interpretation of this mantra!
VAKRATUNDA MAHAKAYA
KOTISURYA SAMAPRABHA
NIRVIGNAM KURUMEDEVA
SARVAKARYESHU SARVADAH
“O Lord Ganesha with curved trunk and massive body, the one whose splendor is equal to a billion Suns, guide me on a path free of obstacles.”
Now, again, I receive insights by opening myself to the symbolism within the words and phrases and their over-arcing significance. Ganesha in Hindu tradition is an aspect of the Creator that is manifest as human in his lower half and as a giant elephant in the upper half of his body. He is revered as the one who is able to remove obstacles – obstacles that come in many ways that distract us and conceal us from the Truth of who we are.
Ganesha has such a jovial spirit to me and with the imagery of his being illuminated beyond the light of millions of Suns…that kind of brightness can eradicate doubt, confusion, fear and deliver us into the presence of Love.
When we feel the presence of Love, our defenses can fall away and what remains is the clear path that we are here to be on!
Vakratunda – curved trunk
Mahakaya – huge form
Surya – sun
Koti – billion
Sama – equal
Prabha – splendor
Nirvighnam – no obstacles
Kurume – give me
Deva – god
Sarva – all
Kaaryeshu – endeavours
Sarvada – always
OM MANI PADME HUM
“Behold the jewel in the lotus blossom”
This is the ultimate Tibetan Buddhist mantra of Compassion, representing the great Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteshwara or otherwise known as Quan Yin in Chinese Buddhism.
The meaning of this 6 syllable mantra is great and vast. I do not intend to expound from any place of authority on this mantra. I am still learning from it, pondering it and letting it reveal itself to me.
There is a beautifully rich explanation of this mantra in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying which can be read online here.
You will benefit greatly from listening to this melody on my CD and take time to read and absorb the sweet depth of this chant!
I leave you with a gentle quote about this mantra as written in the Surangama Sutra:
“How sweetly mysterious is the transcendental sound of Avalokiteshvara, It is the primordial sound of the universe… It is the subdued murmur of
the sea-tide setting inward. Its mysterious sound brings liberation and peace to all sentient beings who in their pain are calling out for help, and it brings a sense of serene stability to all those who are seeking Nirvana’s boundless peace.”