Bija Mantras (Hrim)

     

     After Om and Aim, Hrim (pronounced 'hreem') is probably the most commonly used bija mantra. It is composed of the sound-Ha, which indicates prana, space and light, with the sound-Ra, which indicates fire, light and dharma, and the sound-I, which indicates energy, focus and motivation.

     Hrim is the prime mantra of the Goddess in all of her three main powers of creation, preservation and destruction, and so is the main Shakti mantra, with a more specific application than Aim. It is said to be the Shakti bija and to be equivalent to Om for the Goddess. More specifically, it relates to Parvati or Shakti, the consort of Shiva, who is the destroyer/transformer among the trinity of deities.

     Hrim is a mantra of magical force, captivation and empowerment. It can be used relative to any deity or object whose presence we wish to access at the level of the heart. It brings about joy, ecstasy and bliss. Hrim both purifies and exalts us in our inner quest, humbling us before the Divine power so that it can enter into our hearts.

     Hrim is a specific mantra for the heart (hridaya in Sanskrit) on all levels, whether the spiritual heart, the heart chakra, the emotional heart or the heart as a physical organ. It energizes the heart, provides warmth, and allows for both deep feeling and deep thought.

     In terms of Ayurveda, Hrim can be used to counter heart disease of all types, aiding in longevity and rejuvenation. More specifically, it helps promote the pranic and functional aspects of the heart with it the power of circulation of the blood, the lungs and the nervous system. It has generally Pitta (fiery) energy but some Vata (air) energy as well, stimulating the higher pranas and emotions. In terms of Vedic astrology, Hrim relates to the Sun, the planet of the heart, and helps promote solar energy, expression and charisma.

     Hrim is usually a soft mantra but can also be harsh. As a soft mantra, it increases the finer energies of the heart. As a harsh mantra, it can be used to hypnotize or captivate, to dissolve or carry away.



~Dr. David Frawley
Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound
(Secrets of Seed Bija Mantras)

Alphabet Mantra

Alphabet Mantra

Like the all in the oneness,

Like the branch and the vine

Like the call and the answer

Like the drink and the wine

Like the earth and the heavens

Like the forest and trees

Like the gate and the pathway

Like the hawk and the breeze

Like the iris and petals

Like the jewel and the mine

Like the known and the knowing

Like the laugh and the line

Like moonlight and darkness

Like nowhere and near

Like the oak and the acorn

Like pain and the tear

Like the quest and the seeker

Like rain and the flower

Like the sea and the islands

Like time and the hour

Like union and yearning

Like the vision and view

Like waves and the water

So I am to you.

So I am to you, Love

And you are to me

We dwell in each other

Like salt in the sea.

O alleluia, o alleluia

O alleluia, o alleluia.

©2001 Jan Phillips

An old friend made this video a while back and I listen to it now and again...It is a beautiful song and the imagery just adds to the beauty. We are all interconnected. Isn't that amazing to ponder?....Enjoy!

Jai Ma!

Nirvani

Meditation

I came to you today

sat in lotus, listening

for the gentle whisper

of your presence.

I'd come here to this place

so many times before,

fought the chaos

of an unruly mind, hoping

just once, for the faintest

glimmer, the tiniest spark

of recognition.

I'd chant my Om 

so reverently, a sacred prayer

to you, willing it out

into the ether, then silent

I would await your reply.

And though you'd never answer,

or so it would seem,

I'd feel you watching, 

the observer, making sure

that in the silence, I would

know somehow, that I was in

a holy communion 

with my Self.

Jennifer Adams Teasley

Learn Ganesha Mantra....

     I came across this fantastic video that actually teaches the correct way to chant the Ganesha mantra and what prasada may be given to Lord Ganapati as an offering. I think the most apparent mistake many people, especially Westerners, make in  mantra yoga is incorrect pronunciation. It has been incredibly helpful to me to listen to mantras repeatedly to learn to pronounce every Sanskrit syllable correctly. The mantra cannot be spiritually energized if chanted incorrectly and some mantras I hear can actually have adverse effects upon one's person, so please take sufficient time and care in learning not just the mantra itself, but also the meaning. There is much more to be gained when we treat every Sanskrit mantra with the deepest reverence.


Om Gam!
Nirvani

The Womb of the Universe

My Mother,

Immeasurable,

Auspicious doorway,

Clothed in space,

Dressed in emptiness

Adorned only by vastness

The naked moment,

Birthing in every second renewed and continual

You create our worlds, for pleasure, play, and our learning

You measure all worlds, you measure us into existence

You birth all worlds, you birth us

You nurse all worlds, you nurse us

You grow all worlds, you grow us

You dissolve all worlds, you are the end of us as we know ourselves

You mature all worlds, you are our maturing

You are our supporter, mother of the universe

Cause of bliss,

Golden

Destroyer of misery and poverty,

Bestower of eloquence, the power of speech

The virtuous bestower of magnificent desires

The rider of time, the dissolver of time, the creator of time

Slayer, mother, and nurse

Servant and sovereign 

Authority and student

Worshipped and the worshipper

 You live in the act in between

The play, player, played, and the playing

The magic of nothing within the loving field of everything

The power of Women

Supreme and subservient

Dancing life into being

Serving and being served

The power that is unstoppable

Drunk on bliss

Wielding the cleaver that separates false from true

Untouched, unattached, by passion, yet the heart of passion itself

The red flow, death of the ego

Creator of fear, laughing loudly at its play

The luminous beauty of the eyes that see so clearly

Rolling with love piercing with gratitude

Flashing

Yet demure, deep, and enticing

In the softness of the lotus heart 

Adorned with rubies glowing

Your form is the night of time

Eternal night, eternal rest

A bed where all identities come to dissipate

You are the authentic sound of Being

Creation resounding resonating

Rumbling through awareness

The hum in the back of our thoughts

The hum in the background of our feelings

The hum as our bodies unite

Dominate in bed

Tiger footed in movement

Sure and agile

Graceful and serene

Hair wild and free flowing in all directions

You ride creation into being

As the power of time

You devour us, your children

As the power of time

You stand astride, resplendent upon the corpse of this universe

When we are born you are there

When we die you are there also

Eternally the same in the intensity of being

All our acts, all our fruits, come back to you Mother

Everything returns back to you

It is only our arrogance that stops us seeing the truth as it is

All that is limited fears that beyond its limits

You as the creator of time, stand beyond time, beyond limits

One who is beyond all fear can protect us all from fear

As long as we identify with anything there is fear

This is why you are clothed in space

The dissolving of all fear into freedom

Based on the 108 Names of Kali

(Womb Wisdom: Padma and Anaiya Aon Prakasha)

I'm back:)

From the beginning of my life

I have been looking for your face

but today I have seen it

Today I have seen

the charm, the beauty,

the unfathomable grace

of the face

that I was looking for

Today I have found you

and those who laughed

and scorned me yesterday

are sorry that they were not looking

as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence

of your beauty

and wish to see you

with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion

and has searched forever

for this wondrous beauty

that I now behold

I am ashamed

to call this love human

and afraid of God

to call it divine

Your fragrant breath

like the morning breeze

has come to the stillness of the garden

You have breathed new life into me

I have become your sunshine

and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstasy

Every fiber of my being

is in love with you

Your effulgence

has lit a fire in my heart

for me

the earth and sky

My arrow of love

has arrived at the target

I am in the house of mercy

and my heart

is a place of prayer

~Rumi

     Hello my dear friends! I have been off the internet for nearly a month and a half and I am finally coming back. It has been marvelous! I quite literally walked away from almost everything in the technical world. I even quit watching television for a good deal of the time I was on my Solitude Sabbatical. My sadhana up to this point has been very deep and revealing for me. I cannot say that I am even close to where I want to be on a spiritual level, but I am at least a few steps closer:) I fight a great deal with myself. I was telling my husband just today that I am my own worst enemy. It is a fierce inner battle for me to reconcile my outer life with my inner most regions. Yes, at the age of 43 I am still trying to find myself. I can attest to all of you young people out there, the older you get the harder it is to create positive change in your life and rid yourself of old habits. They can plague you and just when you think you have finally won the war they rear their ugly little heads once again. This is reminiscent of Sri Krishna's words to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:

When you let your mind heed the Siren call of

the senses, they will carry away your better judgment

as storms drive a boat off its safe-charted course to

certain doom.

Use all your power to set the senses free from

attachment and aversion alike, and live in the full

wisdom of the Self.

    It is a curious thing to find one's self continuing on in some bad habit and finding no will to resist. I have come to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to resist the senses without the help of some higher power, and I don't mean up there somewhere in the sky. I refer to that 'inner power' of the higher Self. So how to draw it out and draw upon it? For me it is quite literally turning heart and soul in devotion to my ishta devata...she being the Divine Mother of the Universe...Maa.

      It is an interesting thing to see mysticism working in one's life. I use the word mysticism because, well to be frank, there just is no other way to explain the many little events that happen in a single day, week, or month that are unexplainable miracles. Each day I implore the Mother to manifest in my daily life. That I may see her work evident in me and all around me, and every time I witness some little synchronicity I just smile and say to myself, 'Maa is teaching me again'. It is only through the Divine Feminine that we are able to achieve anything. We cannot succeed in life without the Goddess's grand play of shakti. Even if we do not acknowledge it, it still exists. 

       I know that there are many types of sadhana for many different personalities, for me japa mantra is the most powerful. I sometimes think I could chant all day:) There are times when I have been chanting for a while and I close my eyes and I can feel the sacred sanskrit words penetrating my very being....vibrating through me. At those times I feel so alive and at one with everything around me. I have been working with a mantra over the last two weeks that is quite powerful. It is called the Maha Ganapathi Step Mantra. I chose this mantra because I just adore Lord Ganesha and know he is the great remover of obstacles...and with the obstacles I am trying to overcome I knew I needed a real doozy of a mantra...hehehe.

Om Swaha

Om Shreem Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Glaum Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Glaum Gam Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Glaum Gam Ganapatayei Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Glaum Gam Ganapatayei Vara Varada Swaha

Om Shreem Hreem Kleem Glaum Gam Ganapatayei Vara Varada 

      Sarva Janam Me Vasham Swaha

(Each line is repeated from 3 to 108 repetitions counted out on the mala beads...when repeating each line 108 times it takes roughly 90 minutes) 

      Japa mantra is an incredible mystical form of worship that can bring about amazing results in one's life. I can attest to its great power. It is always wise to seek counsel when engaging in sanskrit mantra. There are many mantras that are quite popular and are considered tried and true such as the Gayatri Mantra, which is my favorite of all mantras. I chant it daily during devotions and through out the day. You can find many great books about mantra. Two of my favorite authors, who happen to be adepts in the field of mantra are Swami Vamadeva Shastri (Dr. David Frawley) and Namadeva (Thomas Ashley-Farrand). They are both very respected voices throughout the mystic community. It is my dream to attend a retreat sponsered by Vamadeva Shastri and his wife Shambhavi Lorain Chopra, who happens to be a mystic yogini herself.

        I will continue my mantra practice for at least 40 days if not more and feel quite confident that it will reap great results in my life. I am truly grateful to my beloved Maa for guiding me on my life's journey. I would implore anyone to find your own personal mantra and repeat it daily, for strength to overcome and as a reminder that you are a Divine Being having a human experience, that you are not your body or your mind. Do not let your outer self convince you that it is what you truly are, you are your 'inner Self, the Soul and it is the soul's purpose to find its way back to the Source. 

Tat Tvam Asi and Jai Mata Di!

Nirvani

     

Mantra Monday...

This week I am focusing on the Saraswati Bija Mantra...I have been feeling rather stagnant creatively speaking lately and thought this would be a time for me to ask for the blessings of the beautiful Goddess Mother Saraswati who is the bestower of all things beautiful and creative and knowledgeable...Om Aim Saraswatyai Namah!

Here is  a Bija Matra for Saraswati which is quite lovely, although it is not the one I generally use...
Aim is the universal mantra used for Saraswati, but is not chanted in this matra, it is quite effective nonetheless.
Om Shreem Hreem Saraswatyai Namah!

Om Shanti,
Nirvani

Mantra Monday...

Gayatri Mantra

Om Bhur Bhuvaha Svaha

Tat Savitur Varenyam

Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi

Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat

One Translation:

Praise to the source of all things.

It is due to you that we attain

true happiness on the planes 

of earth, astral, and casual.

It is due to your transcendent 

nature that you are worthy of

being worshiped and adored.

Ignite us with your all pervading light.

  The Gayatri Mantra has been considered the Mother of all Mantras and is regarded by many as highly powerful in protection from all sorts of harms to mind, body, and spirit.....Its merits are mentioned in several ancient Indian texts including The Upanishads, The Vedas, and The Bhagavad Gita.

  There are many ways that the Gayatri Mantra can be used...It can be recited a few times as a short prayer, as a blessing before meals, or for mental purification while showering or bathing. It can also be used as Japa Mantra and recited 108 times, which is most effective.... Personally I like to chant it in Japa when I feel low of spirit....I come away feeling happy and blissful...This is truly a beautiful and sacred mantra.... I would encourage anyone who is new to mantra to give it a try...it can be dedicated to which ever God/Goddess that you pay homage to or just the Universe at large...

OM Shanti,

Jennifer Renee