Chanting as Therapy

If you are searching for God, any name of God is a mantra. If you know the significance of the mantra, you will feel more comfortable. When you know the meaning you know what you are doing... but without knowing, it can also become clear. Mantra means "that which can take one out of the flow of life's miseries". It's a very beautiful thing; it has that power. Mantra is for the awakening of the self.

Some people keep mantras a secret. It's the traditional way; it is perhaps to ensure its sanctity and purity. Here's story. One day a saint went to a village. A young man there welcomed him and offered him food with great respect. Happy with the young man, the saint thought he would make a good disciple.

He said to the boy: "I find that you are a very good soul, a very good person. I want to give you a mantra." The young man asked "What for?" The saint continued all your problems. All your miseries: Prosperity and happiness will come to you". The young man said. "Ok, give it to me". The saint gave it to him and the boy was very happy with the secret mantra.

In the village there was a lot of poverty, problems and unhappiness. The boy went up on his roof and called everybody saying, "Look, this is the mantra, repeat it". The saint was there and he said to the boy, "what is this foolishness, what are you doing? I told you to keep it a secret! But the young man replied, "Why can't I share it? If it is such good thing that it can solve all my problems, it could also solve the problems of the whole village".

If something is good for you it doesn't have to be a secret. Every tradition, every sect has something good. Sometimes we are so complicated that to become a good person we have to follow a sect or tradition and give our life to that. After 15, 30, 50 years. Your seed will grow.

If the method is to repeat five mantras, give your life to that and be patient, maybe your seed can grow. Normally we have no patience. Now nothing is secret, everything is written in the scriptures. Look up the internet and you will find everything, but there is one thing more beautiful and that is the touch of a person.

In these days there is no need of teachers, of schools because the internet is there, but the touch of a teacher is needed because there are many things that we cannot learn from machines. The master's purpose is to give you a special touch, a touch that the internet cannot give you. The touch of the master is important to give you the mantra because it has some vibration. Some energy, some force. It is not a visible thing.

Reciting mantras, sometimes aloud and other times silently, could impact our psychology positively. Our psychology is always changing; we feel good, we feel bad. When something inside us starts speaking, we can repeat mantras and all our problems finish. Suppose we are alone and we have fear; our mind tells us, "Chant a mantra" and we start chanting and our fear goes away.

Psychologically, what we need is some support, some help. The whole process is therapy.