the third Mantra

(Questions and Answers are from Bhavani’s workshop “A Simple How-To and Who's Who Introduction to Sanskrit Mantra” part of the Feb 2012 Annual Yoga Hub Virtual Conference.)

Question: I personally like the third Mantra the best of the three. Thank you for sharing. My question is, is there any difference in the speed at which you chant these? If you become fluent in the pronunciation does speeding it up make any difference rhythmically?

Answer: Yes, the Om namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya is a great one, especially with that tune! Good question about the speed. You can do the mantras at any speed, depending on how you feel and how much time you have. Sometimes you will be very much in your heart space and want to do the mantras slowly and reflectively. Sometimes you may need to hurry your practice to get to work on time, so you speed up.

Also you can put any emotion you're feeling into mantra repetition. If you're feeling lots of devotion, you might linger on every syllable, but you can also put irritation, anger, or any kind of upset into the mantra as well. In fact, one way to transmute those negative emotions is to put them into loud repetition of your mantra. You may find that they move into very different emotions through the recitation. Try it! And enjoy.

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