Stages of Transformational Mantra Use

 

By George A. Boyd © 2002

 

Each meditation student who takes the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation is introduced to the use of transformational (bija) mantra. This initial instruction is called diksha.

 

They are further encouraged in this class to begin the regular practice of their bija mantra by counting repetitions of the mantra. This habituation of practice, making it a daily routine, is called sadhana. For many, getting this habit of meditation is difficult, because of the many distractions and demands of their busy lives.

 

For those that persevere, however, bija mantra practice becomes more and more and more delightful as the meditator progresses to deeper stages of the practice. These more advanced stages of bija mantra practice are described below.

 

Stage

Transformational Mantra

Use

One

Diksha

Learning to identify intentional activation of mantras, learning to correctly pronounce your transformational mantra, discerning the Alayic octave of bija mantras (see Octaves of Mantra Yoga Practice, below), and activating that mantra intentionally.

Two

Sadhana

Obtaining a mala, rosary or other means to count 108 repetitions of the mantra. Performing 108 repetitions (one cycle) daily, doing more than one cycle daily when possible.

Three

Kirtana

With regular practice, you will feel the blissful movement of energy, with sensations of heat and release of tension and stress. Kirtana is the blissful inner dance of energy. This is the kinesthetic experience of spiritual unfoldment.

Four

Anahad Shabda

With continued practice, you will begin to sense deep inner silence within your vehicles. As your meditation continues, you will hear the vibrations of your inner vehicles. When spiritual unfoldment ensues, you will hear this as a new frequency or tone arising from your ensouling entity and its vehicles. This is the auditory experience of spiritual unfoldment. At times, you will hear strains of haunting celestial music that seems to hang in the air. This is called Anahad Shabda.

Five

Jyoti

When this stage dawns, spiritual unfoldment will bring in its stead a flood of glorious colored lights, visions of archetypes and images, and glimpses of inner dimensional realms. Like Kabir, you will realize "with the downpour of the Holy Name, the Divine Colors began to rain." You will behold that rain of colors as your ensouling entity unfolds. This is the beginning of the visual experience of spiritual unfoldment.

Six

Marga Tattwam

In this stage of transformational mantra use, you will discern nodal points upon the path. Here you will no longer count repetitions but you will do your meditations with the intention to unfold to a discrete nodal point. Sometimes your inner guide will give you a marker for this nodal point, telling you, for example, to "continue your bija mantra until you behold the blue flame within the diamond." At this stage, your bija mantra practice becomes goal-oriented and purposeful. You clearly behold the unfolding of the ensouling entity and expansion of consciousness at each level, as vividly as watching a movie.

Seven

Alaya Akshar

At this stage, you reach a universal nexus on the path, which bestows great wisdom, compassion and ministerial powers upon you. From this exalted station you are able to attune with countless other ensouling entities on the path, to identify their transformational mantra and to intend this mantra on their behalf. This ability grants the power to initiate others and to actually unfold their ensouling entities upon this path.

 

As each of your subtle senses begins to awaken, you meditation experience will become greatly enhanced. What began with boring repetition of a "word with no apparent meaning" becomes a compelling, deeply absorbing, multi-sensory experience in which you can taste, smell, touch, see and hear the unfolding of your living Soul upon the spiritual path. When this stage dawns, you will not hope that you are making spiritual progress, you will not surmise it is happening, you will not merely believe that it is so, but you will know it for a fact.

 

We therefore encourage our meditation students to persist in their bija mantra practice. It truly does get better from here.

Octaves of Mantra Yoga Practice

Aspirants may not be familiar with the different octaves on which bija mantras operate. We reproduce this chart here to familiarize the reader with the different types of bija mantra as originally described by Swami Charan Das. Using a bija mantra that operates on an octave that is not your spiritual cutting edge can introduce imbalances. We discuss below the types of imbalances that can be created.

 

Vehicular Bija

This unfolds the seed atom of a single vehicle. This is not recommended for use as it immediately creates imbalance in your vehicles. This mantra is used by Initiates to correct imbalances in their disciples’ vehicles, which is usually the result of the disciples playing around with spiritual practices that they don’t understand or do wrongly.

Planetary Divine Name

Unfolds the Soul spark, the Soul and the Monad. Does not affect higher octaves of spiritual development in the Cosmic, Supracosmic or Transcendental Spheres. Since this is the cutting edge for many individuals, it rarely creates significant imbalances. The downside is that it tends to develop the ensouling entities of the Subtle, Planetary and Transplanetary Realms out of synchrony with their counterparts in the Cosmic, Supracosmic and Transcendental octaves of being. Adept Masters use this.

Cosmic Divine Name

This unfolds the Astral Soul in the Cosmic Sphere, and corresponding vehicles in the Planetary Realm. If done before the Astral Soul is the cutting edge of development; it can create moderate to severe imbalances marked by dissociation, unbroken trance states and compromised or periodic inability to function normally. Masters of the Cosmic Hierarchy use it.

Supracosmic Divine Name

There are 73 of these, one for each path in the Supracosmic Realm. These are, unfortunately, given out like candy to all and sundry, by well-meaning Initiates in the Supracosmic Sphere, without regard for whether the individual’s Supracosmic Soul is even attuned to their path or not, and with no consideration for the individual’s spiritual cutting edge. This has given rise to widespread imbalances among millions of people, marked in the worst cases by intense, irrational devotion, fanaticism, severe dissociation, unbroken trance states, and compromised or outright inability to function normally. Many seekers have generated these imbalances [not to mention mental confusion and conflict] in themselves by getting initiated by the "Gurus, Rinpoches, Murshids, Avatars, Siddhas," etc., of Supracosmic traditions–sometimes getting initiated into more than one tradition. Because this mantra is so much more powerful, its effects can be even more disruptive than the Cosmic Divine Name. However, if their dance with these teachers is not sustained, typically these imbalances are not sufficient to turn them into permanent, glassy-eyed zombies. The sad part of this is that these mantras are very powerful and very quickly generate subtle sensory phenomena that make meditation on these paths almost addicting. These mantras may be given out implicitly or they may be hidden. For example, you may be surprised to learn that the Muslim prayer, repeated five times daily, secretly contains their transformational mantra. Gurus [our generic name for the variegated assortment of Masters in the Supracosmic Sphere] use this mantra.

Transcendental Divine Name

Typically, Nadamic practice—the spirit opening the channels of the Nada—is the key transformational method in the Transcendental Sphere. However, mantras do exists in these realms that specifically unfold the ensouling entity on these Transcendental paths, but they are rarely used. An exception is that teachers of the 5th Transcendental Path do utilize them. Paradoxically, these mantras tend to be less disruptive to functioning than those of the Cosmic and Supracosmic Spheres, perhaps because these mantras do not activate the kundalini shakti like the Cosmic Divine Name and Supracosmic Divine Name. The shutting down of personality functioning, sustained trance states, dissociation from the personality, etc., arise when the kundalini shakti is activated and does not return to its grounded state. These mantras are given out by Sat Gurusof the Transcendental Paths.

Alayic Divine Name

The teachers of the Mudrashram® Lineage reveal this. The Alaya is the living force of ensoulment that animates the ensouling entity. It identifies your cutting edge of spiritual development. The Alayic Divine Name is keyed to this cutting edge, so it does not produce the imbalances associated with other mantras. It is co-resonant, which means that the use of this mantra will automatically and simultaneously activate the appropriate mantras of the sphere in which your ensouling entity dwells. For example, if you are working in the Planetary Realm, repetition of the Alayic Divine Name will also appropriately activate the Planetary Divine Name. If you are working in the Cosmic Sphere, it will activate the Cosmic Divine Name. In the Supracosmic Sphere, it will activate the correct Supracosmic Divine Name that is aligned with your Supracosmic Soul. In the Transcendental Sphere, it will activate the Transcendental Divine Name attuned to your appropriate Transcendental Path.

Eternal Name

Called Satchitananda, this highest state of consciousness is the nucleus around which spiritual development circumambulates. There is no word in the human language that can possibly express this name—it is rather a state of consciousness that is remembered. Satchitananda unfolds solely by Nadamic practice. Both the 6th and 7th Transcendental Paths exist beyond the range of the effects of transformational mantra.

 

Integral meditation is founded upon the fundamental principle that spirituality should be developed in a balanced way. Before revealing the Alayic Divine Name to anyone, teachers of the Mudrashram® Lineage studied the effects of every type of transformational mantra. Having made this study, they have concluded that the Alayic Divine Name is the best means to affect inner transformation in a balanced way, in that it does not disrupt personality functioning and unfolds the ensouling entity in harmony with your cutting edge of spirituality.

 

If you are interested in getting this Master Key, then you may get it from us in the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the Accelerated Meditation Program. If you have gotten this Master Key by taking this course, then please appreciate what you have been given. Would you dust it off and use it?

 

 

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